DOTFEST 2017

and joining me today on the show is my special guest Matt van fossen how are you today Matt I'm doing good how are you doing good it's always good catching up with you I need to talk to you more than just every once in a while I that's an interesting guy I'm sure a lot of people that follow you and are close friends with you know and I you know aside from your musical talents I think you should be a comedian I'm working on it was a trying to incorporate it into my act and I got a new name for fans and I love to share that what I came for Matt van awesome I see I one day I was saying something Matt and then it's awesome and I put it together and I've heard that before no but I appreciate it well say so you can start a fan club and the van awesome there you go and and Matt's here today I know you got a lot of things going on including the 17th annual dot fest just around the corner back to its roots this year yeah it's gonna be a really cool time we brought in a DJ that has been part of dot fest since the very beginning and we are gonna have him playing from six to eight I'm gonna do meet and greet that whole time so I get to hang out with everybody and then my band and I are gonna go on eight o'clock okay and play till midnight we're gonna take a break in the middle because we have a Chinese auctions we do 5050 raffle and we're raffling off 240 passes to Jamboreen Hill so we'll give this way midpoint when we take a break but so a lot of fun things going on it's coming up March 18th at River City in Wheeling yes this is our sixth year to be a river city Matt when you perform what are we gonna hear from you well we have a new album that's coming out exciting the end of April it's called Wheeling West Virginia 1984 and that's based off of my the city state in Europe's born and this album much like office is all about authentic going back to my roots music and it's so I'm so proud of this album and I'm so proud to say that I'm from here I was so glad to be able to to name the album after Wheeling and to take all the pictures and so we're gonna do the whole entire album on top of all of our pictures look great by the way thank you on top of all our great fun covers that we do and then of course I have all my original music that I've done before so we're gonna hopefully have a little bit of an album launch with this and it'll be coming out April 28th of this year which is the day after my birthday I wanted to come out of my birthday but they only do releases on Tuesdays and Fridays so the day after is Friday so we're gonna do April 28th 2017 is when Wheeling West Virginia 1980 well I get an autograph copy sure I mean I'll pay for it but I want an autograph copy oh that's fine as long as you pay for my meter five blocks down before I come up here that's always fun trek through Wheeling isn't it trying to you know find a place apart it is good but there's so much energy and life coming to the city with the health plan here working and you know hopefully soon working playing staying all that fun stuff and Dot Fest is an honor and a memory of your mom talked a little bit about that I know last year we talked about this but your mom I never had the chance to meet her but I can tell through pictures and by knowing you a wonderful woman and you know just and I know she's right there with you every step of the way encouraging you got best angel you could have on your side with you oh absolutely she's been she was a fantastic person she had gone to work on St. Patrick's day 2010 she went to West Liberty and unfortunately she had high blood pressure and she wasn't able to afford her medicine at the time and she had a stroke while she was at work at the age of 50 and passed away and you know part of the thing about Dot Fest is not only trying to you know we donated portion of the press dates to the NSA but to provide awareness of the fact that there are signs of a stroke number one number two that I remember a conversation I have with her the week before she died about her medicine and how she had heard about Wheeling Health right and that they would be able to help her get her medicine that she needed and she was gonna go see them and the thing with that is with her death brought so many people that went and got their self checked out got put on medication that they should have been on so they weren't a ticking time bomb and to show people that there is assistance out there for people that are struggling to be able to afford their medicine so there's always options you just have to make sure that you know what they are and how to take care of it because nobody wants to pass away or have to lose somebody due to something that they could have avoided absolutely and you know 17th year man it's still going strong continues to expand I know a lot of people are excited about Dot Fest brings people in from all over. Dot Fest has been such a cool thing we've every year it's gotten bigger there's normally a couple hundred people that come and this year we're excited about it even more so because we get to partner with the PBR being at West Bank Arena and so River City will be having a bull downstairs and we got to do this a couple years ago the same weekend and it was so fun a lot of the radio people came over and hung out so if anybody's going to the PBR we'll be going strong after that so come over and check out the music and you know help a great cause because it's inspiring to see the valley rally around someone and it's not just people that that knew her there's so many people that come that didn't know her I have there's kids that literally came for the first time in onesies that had my name written on them and they're now going to be you know seven eight years old and it is so cool it's nice to have and that's one of the things to that's cool about not fast because a lot of people have kids they have families and they can't bring them to bars and with this event being on a third floor at River City we can control everything up there and it is a family friendly event you can bring your kids and your grandma your grandpa your uncle whoever absolutely have a great night of music and socialization and share some memories and it's a great time for sure and just ten bucks to get in and enjoy the entertainment right yeah just ten bucks and like I said we've got Chinese auction we got all these cool things that they're auctioning off including a set of Matt Van Voss and varsity's everybody wants to have some for their house and then we'd be fun I think they're fun yeah they're pretty cool looking and 50-50 raffle of course and then the two 40 passes Jim Green Hill so there's always a lot of people that are excited about it just because we've been able to thankfully because of Jim Green Hill's and their generosity we've been able to give away passes for the last four years and I'm thankful for their support again this year one of these days we're gonna have a drawing a spend a day with Matt Van Voss and to see how much money that can well actually that's funny that you mentioned that we did kickstarter for my album killing yesterday in 1984 and thankfully everything is getting finished up and we're gonna be getting those albums out to everybody and part of the kickstarter on the things that people could choose were dinner with me a big boy so there's several people in the next couple months that we're gonna go to the closest big boy we in Newark Ohio that's because Matt's a you're you love big boy you have quite a setup yeah yeah I'll be this my is my jam it's funny because once I put that out there a little bit people started bringing me stuff to shows banks and yo-yo's and little cars and I just have the coolest fans they really pay attention to what I like because I don't post everything I don't you have the booths and everyone don't you several with a booth yeah make like you your own help these I'll be yeah and I love the the coleslaw the hot fudge cake yeah I'm gonna replicate the hot fudge cake at some point but you know what in the interim you should open up your own well yeah that might happen that's an all-time at vampossum theme kind of got a little you know have a stage in there or you can kind of well that would be cool but I have thought about that immensely about franchising a big boy and bringing one back to the alley so hopefully that's what we hire me to work for you sure what would you like to do I know what tables I have no problem I have no problem with that I don't need a top high prestigious job I just that would be fun to be part of that yeah you know what's the thing about LBS is that okay LBR person you can do it with marketing or something this year in October it will it will literally be 17 years since I'll be close to an area and the thing about is is that when I post something that has to do with Elby's I have number one hundreds of likes I could post that I want to Grammy and I'll get 40 likes but I personally my Elby's are hills it's awesome everybody's on it and people remember their meals that they got what they ordered what they were named and they may not have been to one since they closed in 2000 and I think that's such an incredible thing about it is about that company that has lived with with Wheeling in the area so much and I would be honored to be a part of being able to bring that back and continuing that because it was such a part of my family which is exactly why it means so much to me and to be able to bring that to future generations of kids that I feel like in a time where everybody's kind of like walking around with their friends in their face and just oblivious we don't have socialize anymore in person you know so at a time like that and a big boy you know we could make something up kind of like what they do a Chick-fil-A where if you leave your phone in the chicken coop on the table the whole time you get free ice cream because they want you to talk I'd be there all the time to my free ice cream right so I would incorporate something like that like take 10 minutes leave the phone on the table we'll get you our quality super big boy with onion rings and tartar sauce and then once you're done eating you pick it back up and we'll give you a hotbed cake there you go do you have one of the great big statues I don't you need to get one of them I go visit them in Amish country there's Amish country there are several stores that have them but they're like thousands of dollars and thousands of dollars and I've decided that that's something I want to the future not right the second that's a what it's a one it's not a necessity it's something you know you do have little like a four foot ones okay then I think the one was like 800 bucks so maybe Santa Claus bring that to me someday there you go listening we'll go together so so a lot going on with you Matt but sounds like a lot of obviously great things I'm can't wait to see what you continue to do so got the new album coming out that you said that'll hit win April 28th of come out which we're gonna run to now of course played here on WK has been fantastic getting great reception so that's the lead single off of it so thank you Ohio Valley for supporting the song absolutely in the meantime 17th annual dot fest coming up on March 18th doors open at 6 p.m. River City just ten bucks in Chinese auction as you mentioned a raffle of two jamboree in Hills 2017 passes even we have what stomping Hill Billy Larry Kenny is the DJ from six days so yeah if you stop down early from six to eight I'll be doing that the meet and greet with everybody so we can get pictures and talk you know I'll praise your LB's memorabilia and there probably will be an LB's basket that'll be up for a raffle because I always like to do that well that's some of the things I have duplicates still tough in the way it's still tough but I love that they're last year I that basket actually was the highest grossing really basket so I think it's cool that people want to be a part of that too well and again a portion of the proceeds as you mentioned goes a national stroke association and just want people to be aware keep their eye on someone if you notice something try to get them some help I'm you know I'm recently within a past year since I talked to you I'm on high blood pressure medicine I went in the doctor for checkup and having headaches and they found it I actually went to a new health care provider and it was they started me on high blood pressure medicine immediately see and I noticed a big difference once I was on the medicine but had was having really really bad headaches not feeling well and was letting that going for quite a while unaware of what it was okay and that and that's exactly what it's about I mean dog shepherd was such a giving person till the last day on this earth and it's so inspiring to see the people that come out that didn't even know her and talk about just how coming from to this event has affected their lives and how they've taken better care of themselves and they've offered assistance to other people and that exactly my family and I are so proud of the help that we've been able to give three moms still after you know this will be the seventh year that since she's passed away and it's incredible to see how much people love and support her even if they didn't know her and we're so thankful to be able to do this for the community absolutely well Matt we're thankful that you do this and yeah she's proud of you a lot of us I'm proud of you we're all proud of you and keep up the great work thank you I appreciate it we'll stop back we'll have to do this again for another year yes let's please do that definitely thanks Matt thank you