Vicki: Hello, this is Vicki.
DJ: Hey Vicki. How are you?
Vicki: I'm good. How are you doing? Good.
John: Dave Fey.
DJ: Am good. How are you, John? Well, Vicki Peterson and John Cowsill, thank you guys so much for taking some time to do this today.
Vicki and John: No problem. Thanks for asking us. Glad to be here.
DJ: John, I wanna start off by telling you a story I think you'll appreciate. Being born in the late fifties and growing up in the sixties, I always felt very fortunate that at an early age I was exposed to a lot of great music in that period, and I would hear it on AM radio. I was also buying 45s and even albums. But I had the 45s of “Hair” and I had “The Rain, the Park and Other Things”, I had “Indian Lake”. But anyway, I grew up on this street that had a lot of kids, a lot of boys and girls roughly the same age, and we all got along for the most part. But I remember us boys getting in this discussion slash argument with the girls who at the time were way in love with the Osmond Brothers, especially Donny. I was, I was like, nah, The Cowsills kick the ass of The Osmonds. So all the guys, my friends on my street, we were in the Cowsills camp.
Vicki: I love that. And the girls were in the Osmond camp. Wow.
DJ: They were, and I didn't hate The Osmonds. I did like “Down by the Lazy River”. I was just, you know, at a young grade school age, I was making a point. I was like, hey, no, just so you know, The Cowsills are the way to go.
John: Oh, that's very funny. That's funny. Yeah. I mean, we were both in the magazines, well, we were in there first, and then they kind of showed up after us. Yeah. You know, a funny story is my brother Bill, we were playing in Disneyland and George and Olive were in the audience, and they came up to my brother Bill and said, asked him, would you produce our kids? You know, so Bill was one of their first producers who got them. They, they covered a song the Cowsills did, “Make the Music Flow”. And you can find that in a video or somewhere. But Bill produced that. And, uh, and it’s just a funny story like yours, you know, it's just, and I'm friends with Jay today and his brother, um, Merrill, and…just funny stuff. Jay's, uh, one year older than me, but we have the same birthday. Oh, March 2nd. Yeah. We’re very good friends.
DJ: So, yeah, I was discovering a lot of music in both the ’60s and the ’70s. It was just me and my brother. I, I just had one sibling who's couple years older than me. He had great albums, all the Neil Young stuff, Dylan, Donovan, and of course we had all the Beatles records. and then in my twenties it was, you know, next thing you know, it was the ’80s and I loved the Bangles. I was way into MTV and 120 Minutes and the whole bit. So I just had the one sibling and of course my friends who were all discovering music. But John, there were six siblings in the house. Your older brothers were into a lot of bands and artists, obviously. Was there like one big room with records, or did you all have your own collection of records in your separate rooms?
John: No, no, no. We had a family HiFi, big mono 15-inch speaker. It's just, I'm still looking for one to have in the house. They're hard to find. My sister found one. uh, and we listened to The Ink Spots, Mills Brothers and, and early stuff that my dad and my mom listened to. but for me, of course it was, The Beach Boys were the first thing I really noticed in, in album form because my brother Richard had those.
And then The Beatles right at, right on the tail of, my Beach Boys. So all my older brothers had the music and we were playing it so early. I was seven, playing drums and playing all those songs. So I, like you, was into music at a very early age as well. You know, learning them all as I was learning who they were,
DJ: Yeah, yeah. Yeah. I had a nice mix. Like I said, my brother had some great stuff, 70s stuff, and my Dad was really into jazz, like really good, you know, even guitar driven jazz, and I loved all that. But yeah, music around the house, it's what it,
John: Yeah. Yeah. My, my own first record I bought was, uh, “El Paso” by Marty Robbins.
DJ: Yeah.
John: it's a good one. My, I like country because my aunt liked it and I listened to that all the time.
DJ: Yeah.
John: Always Little Jimmy Dickens and Hoyt Axton.
DJ: It's great stuff.
John: Yeah. All, all great guys.
DJ: And Vicki, I know your late sister, Pam, who, I'm so sorry. I know she passed away quite a while back. Didn't she have a pretty huge record collection?
Vicki: Yeah, she was the, uh, quintessential older sibling with the good music taste – Yes. Like your brother. Exactly. I think we're very lucky that we had an older sibling to lead us on the way. And, uh, and Pam did have excellent taste in music. she loved pop music, but she also, you know, would, like your neighbors who were Osmond vs. Cowsills. But she would decide that, no, it's all about The Dave Clark Dave Clark Five and The Kinks, because they weren't getting as much love as the Beatles and the Stones. So she decided it was all about The Kinks. And Dave Clark Five. So she was cool in a lot of ways.
DJ: I love that. I'm a huge, huge Kinks fan.
Vicki: Yes.
DJ: And I should know this, but were there just the three sisters? Did you have other siblings?
Vicki: Three sisters and one baby brother who, was a drummer and is still in it because once you're a drummer, you're always a drummer. He's a fantastic rock drummer, but he also has great ears and, uh, is a producer engineer. He's done the mastering on, three of the Action Skulls records that John and I put out with Bill Mumy. He mastered the last two Bangles records in the 21st century. You know, he's a, he's got a great.
John: Uh, and he played drums briefly with Red Kross.
DJ: Oh, really? 

John: Yep.

DJ: So yeah, Vicki, unlike the girls on my childhood street who lean more toward the Osmonds, you were a big fan of The Cowsills.

Vicki: I was. I was Team Cowsill all the way. 

DJ: And of course the Beatles. I was born in 1958, so the Beatles were a huge presence in my childhood years. John Lennon was my hero. Yeah, and I know I’ve been bouncing back and forth between the very early years, uh, but while I’m thinking about it. Speaking to John Lennon, I of course loved all the Beatles, but with a lot of bands, I always seemed to gravitate toward the lead guitarist, even though I’ve always considered myself a rhythm guitarist who can occasionally play a solo if I really work at it or practice and rehearse. But, I mean, I’ve been in a handful of bands over the years and I was actually always quite content to be the rhythm guitarist, but.

Vicki: Mm-hmm.

DJ: So, of course I gravitated toward you when The Bangles came along.

Vicki: Well, yeah, I mean it playing rhythm guitar is, I mean, it’s just. Someone once said, there’s no such thing as, there’s rhythm guitar parts and lead guitar parts, but if you play guitar, you play guitar. So, you know, but yeah, as a young player myself, I was really more focused on learning enough to be able to write songs because that’s where my energy went first. So I didn’t spend a lot of time on the foundations and the, you know, uh, scales and, and getting my technical ability up per se. So to this day, I still play kind of by the sense of smell. You know, I’m still kind of just finding my way around, you know, what serves the song. So, but, but I loved players like George Harrison, who, in my view, serves the song. You know, I mean, obviously he was in a band and there was a lot of input from all the band members and George Martin. But, you know, but George, he just wasn’t, he wasn’t gonna just, you know, riff all over the place through the entire song. He finds the parts that work and, uh, and that’s what, builds the, the record. And I always, I think that was my template.

DJ: Right. And he loved country as well.

Vicki: Absolutely. Absolutely.

DJ: Well, Vicki, you’re an excellent guitarist and singer who also plays, uh, mandolin and I think bass guitar as well.

Vicki: Mm-hmm.

DJ: John, I admire so much people like you who are multi-instrumentalists, who are also great vocalists. I always regret that I didn’t learn anything but guitar. I, I mean, I fiddled around with keyboards, but I never went anywhere with it. But I’ve pretty much just been a, wannabe guitarist all my life. So I really, really respect someone who could play just all kinds of instruments. It’s great.

John: I play them all just bad enough to tell you what I want you to play. I can figure out a lot of things, but, uh, I’ve only been playing guitars seriously for the last few years and, you know, once again, I’m a rhythm guitarist because I sing the lead part. But, um. I’m enjoying that a lot. I play piano. but really those are my two main other things other than, other than drums. But um, yeah, I don’t know. We just do it. Boys just done it, so we just do it.

DJ: Yeah. Well with the drums. I mean, you were listening to the Beach Boys, you know, right out of the gate, like when you’re really young. So you know that stuff really well. So your, your time with The Beach Boys, I mean, you were playing, you were, you knew what to play on those Beach Boys songs.

John: I did. I was their piano player for the first seven years. And, uh, was kind of, that was the first band I ever played piano in ever. And, uh, that was a learning curve. and then they needed a different drummer and so they asked me if I wanted to do that and I told them, well, no, but I got a list of drummers for you if you want, if you want another drummer ’cause I was enjoying playing piano and I could get a sub easily. with drums, it’s not as easy, but they said, actually, no. You can either be the drummer or we relinquish your spot. We’re getting rid of this spot. So I, I said, well, of course I’ll be the drummer then. You know, that’s my first instrument. So, yeah. Scott Totten and I kind of took over the, Scott, took over the musical director’s seat and I took over the drummer’s seat and that kind of. It made the band sound more like the Beach Boys that we listened to on the records instead of the Carl Wilson version of The Beach Boys over the years, how it just kind of got, kind of got away from them, I think. But uh, anyway, that was really fun, getting the drum seat and playing, being able to play the parts, the way the records are played, and I really enjoyed doing that.

DJ: Sure. Speaking of multi-talented multi-instrumentalists, Paul Allen, who not only played quite a few instruments on your album Long After The Fire, he also produced and engineered that album, right?

John: Yeah, that’s correct. Well, he, yeah, he did most of the production and, and Vicki did some of the engineering as well. But, um, but yeah, Paul is, uh, a force to be reckoned with just one of the most talented musicians and producers. He’s got ears that are just amazing. And he knows a lot about the business. And without him, we wouldn’t have gotten this far. We, we wouldn’t have pushed it over the, the finish line. 

Vicki: We would not have finished this. We wouldn’t have started, we wouldn’t gotten, started the credit for it. 

John: We kind of tortured him in this respect that we are, we don’t…

Vicki: We weren’t focused on making a record at the moment when this thing started. It sort of was a. sort of synchronicity, uh, beginning to the entire project, with John and Paul being in the same place and deciding to make a, recording of something, which then became the first song on the album. And then trying to sort of focus our energies on actually committing to finish the record was a lot we were in, John was still touring.

I was living in New York, sort of, what’s the word I’m looking for? Sort of casually in a way ’cause it was not permanent, it was just sort of, I was staying there for a year. So our studio’s in California, so it involved traveling, uh, you know, twice a month or more commuting back to Los Angeles to record. And it took us a minute to sort of say, okay, we are doing this. And, and I think Paul was, was, uh, very patient with us and never let that go. So thankfully, or we wouldn’t have a record. 

John: Thank you. Paul.

DJ: How did you guys first cross paths with Paul Allen?

John: Oh, um, I was a, a finish carpenter and I lived in the town of Ojai up in California, which is Ventura County. And I got a call from, uh, the local lumberyard saying, Hey, there’s a woman called and wants, somebody kind of special to go look at this job she has, and they, I said, well, what’s the specialty? They said, well, you’ll find out when you go talk to her. They knew, so I went to the job site and this beautiful woman comes out and I always say that I was gonna take the job anyway, just based on that, but, um, reassuring. And she told me what the job was, you know? Building some fences, setting some windows for her, she said. But the thing is, is she wanted her son to work with me. So Paul was 11 years old when I met him.

DJ: Oh wow.

John: And uh, and so for probably a week or a week and a half, I’m not sure of how long, and I don’t really remember our conversations, but he was a very interesting kid. And it was funny because, uh. I went to a music store and got a bass, a new bass drum that I really liked. It was a Signia, which is a premier bass drum. Anyway, it doesn’t matter what it was, and I, I forgot to take it out of my truck when I went to his house and he looks in the back of the truck and he says, Hey, what’s that? I said, A bass drum. And he kind of looks at me like, yeah, I know, but what kind? You know, and I, I’m forgetting that I was seven and I played drums, but in my adult brain, ’m forgetting that. And I’m thinking, what does this kid know? You know? And, uh, so. We took it out and he said, well, let me hear it. And so he said, it sounds nice and round. And I, I kind of laughed. I said, yeah, it does. He said, well, can I buy it? And I just, I just went, no, you can’t buy it. It’s mine. I just got it. You know? And so we went into his barn, There was another building on his property and he is got an old beat up drum set in there. I don’t remember what it was. And he had this old Kay guitar that had a dog leash tied around it the wrong way. And so I kind of, he says, I, I don’t remember it exactly. I think I do ’cause I’ve heard the story from him. But, uh, I made the dog leash be like a strap and he had one string on it. We tuned it up so you could play it. And I don’t know. And so then after that job was done, I, before that job was done, I turned him onto a youth group at a church where there were kids his age playing. And, uh, I didn’t see him for another 20 something years. And I’m playing the Ryman in 2017, and I get a text from him. And I don’t know how he got my number and I find out later, it was from friends in Ojai, he did a session with, and I go out there and there’s this six foot five tall, handsome, leggy brunette. And it was Paul Allen and, and we just became, uh. Sentimental friends, I’ll call it. I was, touched that he looked, searched me up. You know, I, you know why? And I still don’t understand why. I don’t know what the connection is other than it was, um, probably something memorable for him as a child. And, uh, anyway, he just, we became friends and he kept asking us, what do we wanna do? And, uh, we’re sitting at my house here in California and I don’t know, he is just an interesting, analytical, kind of a human being, odd, in a good way. And kind of looks at you, and he, he’s got a solution for pretty much everything.

DJ: That’s great.

John: And uh, he said, well, what’s something you want? I said, I’d love to be able to record drums in my studio without doing the Glyn Johns three mic setup. And he made that happen just like that. You know, he knows his way around, the gear. He knows how to get great sound. He’s just an incredibly ridiculously incredible, again, guitar player, keyboard player, drummer, you name it, he can do it. He works with the Wooten brothers. So periodically Joseph Wooten, and if you don’t know who they are, look them up. They are, outside the spectrum of playing music. You couldn’t even count it in. But Paul can play all that stuff and yet Paul can play the most sensitive, simple stuff. Paul plays what’s right for the song. Another guy who’s capable of doing that, just brilliant. And so that’s, that’s the story with Paul.

DJ: Well it’s such a great album and you recorded in your current home studio, you guys have been together for a couple decades and lived in several cities like New Orleans, New York, and now L.A., is it Malibu where you are?

Vicki: Yeah, Malibu Canyon.

DJ: Malibu Canyon. Yeah. My brother, who I talked about, he and his family have lived out there for years, currently in Agoura Hills, Oak Park area, but they had to evacuate when all the fires were getting out of control. Did that affect you guys too?

John: Very much so. 

Vicki: Oh yeah. Yeah. We had just moved back from New York, uh, just a few months prior to that and, uh, and yeah, the hill started catching on fire in December and then there was the, the Palisades fire in, January, which came very close to us. We, um, 

John: We were evacuated for about a month. 

Vicki: Yeah. We were out there at least two weeks. Well sort of. So typically we had a, um, we had been booked to play a, a charity event in Wisconsin that very weekend, as it turns out. So we were already kind of packed. We just added some extra things to the car and drove to the airport, went and played, um, the event for Joey’s song, which is a epilepsy research charity that we do every year in Madison, Wisconsin, in January. So we sped off to Wisconsin and spent a, a weekend doing that, thinking about other things other than our house burning down. And, uh, and were able to come back to our neighborhood about two weeks later. Um, and we’re very, very, very fortunate that we didn’t have any damage because we have many people we know in our lives who did.

DJ: Yeah, it was so terrible. Well, and before my brother and his wife and my niece and nephew before they were, uh, where they are now they lived in the Palisades for quite a while and it’s, uh, sadly that house that I used to love going to and staying with them in is it’s gone. Their old home in the Palisades. Uh, anyway. Well, I’m glad you survived that.

Vicki: Got lucky again. Again.

DJ: Well, during the course of your time together, the concept. Long After The Fire featuring songs with John’s late brothers, Bill and Barry. That was an idea you batted around a while back, like maybe a decade ago, right?

Vicki: Mm-hmm. Almost. I mean, we had been thinking about it for, quite a while actually. Yes, and not quite sure how to begin and, and so things had to line up exactly how they did, which is often the case in life. 

John: Yeah. Vicky and I have a lot of great ideas. We don’t see a lot of them through. But we talk about a lot of fun things, and that’s part of the fun of it. You know, it’s like, someday we’re gonna

Vicki: We do some stuff. 

John: I know we do, but I’m being, I’m being like a real person here and people do this all the time. You know, we should do this, you know, we’re gonna move here. We’re gonna, live here for a while. Let’s do this then, you know. You become 90 years old and you couldn’t do any of them. You’re just looking for that assisted living house. Not where do silence you? 

Vicki: No, we’ve already put that to rest. We’ve already done several fun things. We have more things on our on funny list. 

John: I’m just goofing.

DJ: Well, there are so many wonderful songs on the album. A couple that after hearing ’em for the first time, I just, I couldn’t get ’em outta my head. I love “Is Anybody Here”, which is very Roy Orbison-esque. Uh, just, gorgeous. “Don’t Look Back”. I went back and found, you know, the original, which I hadn’t heard in years. And pretty amazing that Barry wrote that when he was really young.

Vicki: I know, right? 

John: 14 or 15.

DJ: Yeah, just nuts.

John: I was, I was, we shared a room. I was there when he was doing it.

DJ: Wow.

John: Yeah. Yeah. I always, always was there with the guitar and he is writing over on the other side of the bed, and I’m over there either with headphones on, listening to some Elton John music or, or just making faces in the mirror. He was more serious and in tune. I’m just a goofball, you know, I’m an entertainer and I am, I am a, uh, interpreter of songs. You know, I write a little bit with Vicki and Bill Mumy when we did the Action Skulls and I, I’ve dabbled in it, but I wouldn’t call myself a bonafide songwriter. But musically, I can write songs and melodically, I can write songs, but I’m definitely not a lyricist at, at all. And I haven’t practiced that art and never felt the fire to do so. But Bill and Barry, they just, and Bob, you know, but we decided on the Dead Brothers Music and you know, like my brother Bill always, always had a band and he always said, you know, if it’s not original, we only do dead guy’s music.

DJ: Wow.

John: And he would say that at, at, at the beginning of a night when he would play. He says, we’re only doing dead guy music, so don’t ask for anything else. You know, it was very funny.

DJ: Oh, another one that just knocks me out and I was so glad to be able to hear you guys perform it live is “Come to Me”. Yeah. .

John: Where, where did you hear us?

DJ: Yeah, I was very fortunate to see you back in April when you played over at VENUE on Main in Belleville.

Vicki: Yeah.

DJ: I really love that place. Such a great intimate space to hear music. It was my first time going there and I was lucky to get in. I, I saw, I live in St. Louis and, you know, it’s maybe an hour away depending on traffic, but I noticed, you know, on social media, whatever, online, I saw that it was marked as sold out and I freaked out and, you know, I’m like panicking. I contacted VENUE on Main just asking just for a single ticket. And Connie, who’s such a nice person, emailed me right away right back and said, Dave, just show up around 5:30. I’ll get you in.

John: That’s awesome. That’s awesome. We love those people. 

Vicki: Yeah, we love them. We’re actually headed back there in September.

DJ: I know. I was just gonna say, I already have my tickets this time. I’m taking my wife.

John: Yeah, we, we booked two nights because of their, we booked two nights,

DJ: That’s so great.

John: Two days in a row we’re playing there.

DJ: Well, I’m the guy who showed up early during your sound check. I don’t know if you remember that. 

John: Wait, okay, so then we talked then, because I remember somebody getting there early. I remember that.

DJ: Well, I was just not sure, you know, you never know from St. Louis over there, like if Friday afternoon, evening traffic, I just was like, I’m not taking any chances. So I got there like, you know, the streets were bare, nobody was even around. And I think it was more like five o’clock and Connie had said, show up at 5:30. Anyway, so yeah, I went up and I saw you guys in the window. I’m like, oh, this is so cool. So, and then, and then she and her husband were like, waving me in, saying, come on in. So it was very cool.

Vicki: Yeah. Yeah. They’re so nice. 

John: Yeah, that’s a great place. It’s so funny with that wall down the center though, man. We were working both sides of that room. That that was odd.

DJ: I happened to get a really good spot. Well, because I was there so early, 

Vicki: You were early! (laughs)

DJ: But, um, yeah, I was, I wasn’t affected by the wall, but, um, 

Vicki: Hi, this is Vicki Peterson and you are listening to Frets with DJ Fey.

John: Hi, this is John Cowsill and don’t fret – you’re listening to Dave Fey, on Frets!

DJ: Well that was my first time meeting you, John. But Vicki, I met you a couple times years ago, once when the Continental Drifters did an in-store at Vintage Vinyl here and…

Vicki: Oh yeah.

DJ: And then when you and Susan Cowsill played a Wood House concert, I was at that show too.

Vicki: Oh right. Okay. And we talked about that then. Okay, I remember that. Yeah. Yeah. 

DJ: I’ve got a great picture that either Rick Wood or I think maybe Steve Scariano took a picture of me, you and Susan, and I love that photograph. And that was at the Wood House concert.

Vicki: Oh yeah. God, we love the Wood House series. 

DJ: And John, you’ll be in St. Louis very soon with The Smithereens. 

John: Oh yeah, that’s right. I will be!

DJ: It’s coming up. I don’t know if you forgot …

John: I gotta, I gotta keep my, my bands straight.

DJ: Well, another thing I wanted to mention about the album, and I’m not sure a lot of people realize or think about this, is that in addition to albums taking time to arrange and produce, I mean there’s a lot goes into an album as you know, but, and so much goes into it, but, even though Bill and Barry were your brothers, I understand a lot of time and effort went into tracking down like the publishing and some of those albums by like The Blue Shadows and Blue Northern, they were released independently. So I’m guessing that wasn’t an easy task to just, you know, have that to your availability.

Vicki: No, it, it was, it was really, it was an unusual. First of all, because it’s the first album I’ve been involved in for a long time, that will forever. That’s been all covers. Often you have to, if you choose to record someone else’s song, you need to, you know, uh, get the publishing, get a license to, uh, to do that. Um, this song, I mean, this album was complete covers, obviously, and so there was a lot of, uh, footwork involved in tracking out some of these songs. As John pointed out, um, you know, were written decades and decades ago, and even the, the song that was recorded by the Cowsills, weirdly enough, which exists on a vinyl record that I have, that you have, that, you know, that it, was actually produced and put out into the world. That was one of the toughest ones to track down publishing wise, weirdly. Um, but yeah, we, we spent quite a bit of, uh, time on the interwebs and on the phone trying to locate the proper owner of the, um copyrights and the publishing for these. 

John: Yeah, and hunting down things I didn’t know about at the time. And thank you, Paul, again, and Vicki knew about this, but I didn’t know what AWRCS code, whatever, but all the codes make a win to the metadata that gets baked into the product. You know, once school, I had people do that stuff for us, I guess, you know, so, It was a very much a hands on, uh, situation. and you know what, probably if I knew that we had to go through all this stuff we had to go through, I wouldn’t have done it. I’m not kidding. 

Vicki: Well, I’m glad you didn’t know that.

John: I know. I’m glad I didn’t know ’cause I would’ve just thrown my hand up. ’Cause if it’s not fun, I don’t want to do it. And there’s a lot of not fun in putting a record out for me. I’ve learned and. And it needs to not stop. Like, I don’t mind going doing gigs. That’s the fun part, you know? And, uh, anyway, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah.

DJ: But it’s such a beautiful album, so it’s great. Oh, Vicki, I wanted to ask, I’ve seen you play a Les Paul Custom, a Strat, a Daisy Rock. Do you have a favorite, or I guess that depends on whether you’re on the road or in the studio? This is a guitar podcast, so I at least have to ask some guitar questions.

Vicki: Ha ha ha. Absolutely. Well you, yeah, you partially answered the question. It does matter. Uh, you know where I am, there’s some guitars, there are a couple of guitars of mine that I don’t like to put on an airplane, and one of them is my. Stratocaster. Um, and I have a Les Paul custom that has been dubbed The Love Thing, um, which I’ve had since 1970. I think I got it in ’79. Um, but it’s a ’72 and it’s had its neck broken three times, two times my fault, one time, not my fault. Um, and so that guy doesn’t get to leave the house anymore. Because it just plays great. It sounds amazing. So, but I’m, I’m lucky enough to have some other, two other sort of main Les Paul customs that are very similar, had that same kind of a, approach to, uh, the sound and then the Daisy Rock guitar, which is a, a model that we helped design with, with Tish Ciravelo of, of Daisy Rock. And first it was sort of just a lark and then, but we made this guitar that is imminently playable and very versatile and very travelable. So that one often goes on the road with me now these days. 

John: Yeah, it’s a, it’s a badass guitar. It sounds really good. It, but it, it’s got some tone. 

Vicki: Yeah, it’s got little mini hum buckers and so it’s got some nice overdrive, but it has a beautiful little sparkly, uh, clean sound as well, so it, it sort of serves the purpose that, you know, we, we try to stay pretty portable. So if I don’t have to bring more than one guitar, I won’t. 

John: And then she has a series of Gretsch guitars she likes as well. Yeah.

DJ: Oh, Gretsch guitar. My brother has a Country Gentleman. I don’t own a Gretsch, but they’re such beautiful guitars. 

Vicki: Oh, absolutely, yes. I have a Country Classic Junior guitar. So it’s got that sort of lovely sort of semi hollow body tone, but it’s um, it’s smaller body. I had a guitar like that that was actually stolen, um, when The Bangles were at in New Orleans and it was taken from a warehouse. We were transporting gear back California and it was stolen from the warehouse. John was able to weirdly freakishly find me another one that looked. Very similar. I never compared serial numbers. I don’t think it’s the same one. I don’t think it was, he was able to find one in a guitar, a music store. Um, just kind of one of those magical things where, you know.

DJ: that’s great. I.

Vicki: Yeah.

DJ: Well, Vicki Peterson and John Cowsill, this was very cool. Thank you guys so much for taking the time out of your very busy schedules.

Vicki: Thanks so much for having us. 

John: Yes, Dave – Thank you. Thanks a lot. 

DJ: I’m looking forward to that September show at VENUE on Main.

John: Aw,we’ll see you there for sure. 

Vicki: In Belleville.

DJ: Yeah. All right. See you.

John: Yee-haw!

Vicki: Yeah, take care.

DJ: Thanks. See you.