Poorman's 15 Minutes of Fame

“[I thought this was pretty interesting, you know, that at one point in your career the Mafia was involved somehow] Well, the bottom line was that we signed with Roulette Records and we wrote a book about it, which is going to be a movie called Me, The Mob, and The Music. And the bottom line is that Roulette, in addition to being a functioning record company and a label and a pretty good one, it was also a front for the Genovese crime family in New York. And of course we didn't know that when we signed and we learned that incrementally and we spent a lot of time pretending. We didn't see the things we saw and it's all in the book and soon to be a movie. And so we were very fortunate to make it out of there in one piece. “ — Tommy James, of Tommy James and The Shondells

“[On bumping into Brian Wilson at El Camino College, sneaking into the music room to play folk songs, and then starting a band together] And we bumped into each other on campus. Basically, we hadn’t seen each other since high school and I said, hey Brian, we’ll start a group, and let’s go and let’s do some music together. And then we walked down the pathway into various classes. Afterwards we met up and we found a music room. The music teacher came in and kicked us out. Yeah, so we went, so we found another place to go and then after that, Brian said, you know what? I’m gonna introduce you to my brothers and my cousin and Carl is really great, he plays guitar and Mike has a really great baritone, or something to that effect. And so sure enough, we all met up at his place in Hawthorne.” — Al Jardine, Co-founder of The Beach Boys

[You know, it's Veterans Day, as you know, right? Right. And N.B., World War II veteran, my dad, 102 years young, Yeah, I appreciate you coming on. What are you having for breakfast?] For breakfast, I'm having cream of wheat, prunes, and figs. And a shot of Jack Daniels. No, I think not. I was a scotch drinker. But I also liked cold beer. And I guess you knew I had a wine cellar I made in the wall. And I had One time six hundred bottles of different wines I collected Either I stopped drinking Or Or or I stole them from the wine cellar I got a lot of those bottles. I'm the guy. —N.B. The PoorDad, World War II Veteran on 11/11/2025

“So by the time I was eight or nine, I was listening to Miles and John Coltrane and whatnot. So that was a big influence on me. To the point where when I was a kid, nine or ten years old, I was a drummer playing in one of the top clubs in Montreal, in the relief band for one of these big jazz clubs.” — Gino Vannelli (Rock Singer/Songwriter)

“[You guys have actually gotten naked on the stage when you played, is that right?] Well, see, it’s our feeling that nakedness is an expression of freedom. And we like to promote freedom in the world. And so we feel that by taking off our clothes that we show a representation of naked freedom.”— Anthony and Flea, Red Hot Chili Peppers Interview, 1988

“[You know what else is incredible, you told me the other night when we were sitting in your van before you went on stage and just absolutely blew everybody away, that you’re doing 150 gigs a year. Was I right or did I hear that wrong?] Yeah, it is about that. It sometimes fluctuates a little bit, but it’s around there. We’ve done more than that and sometimes we do a little bit less than that, but um, we alternate between going on 20 or 30 day tours. Which is hard, but by the time you’re exhausted, you’re halfway through and you’ve got adrenaline to bring you home. And then when we’re at home, we play Fridays and Saturdays, it’s weekend warriors. So we do 20 shows one month.”—Dave Wakeling (Singer/Guitarist of The English Beat and General Public)

“We’ve given out over $500,000 in student scholarships to kids that are much like Ben, that are independent and strong and hardworking and love the ocean like him.” — Jake Janz (Brother-In-Law of fallen lifeguard, Ben Carlson)

“I think the The Ben Carlson Foundation represents the best of Newport Beach. It’s all about, like I said, turning a tragedy into a legacy. The money that we’re raising as I look right now on the website, the Ben Did Go 10.0, we’re at $395,000 raised, which I think is a record. This is the 10th anniversary, this is the 10th year.”— Joe Stapleton (Newport Beach Mayor)

“And if you’d asked me when I was 12 years old what I wanted to be, I would have said I wanna be a professional basketball player. But, you know, reality comes crashing down at a certain point in your later teens. You realize, I don’t think anyone’s gonna pay me to play basketball. And then I was, you know, I like music, and I played guitar, I played bass at that point. But I, it just, it didn’t even seem like a plausible thing to me. So, I mean, I went with what I thought I could actually do, and so I ended up getting in the business. But I didn’t make that decision til I was, you know, probably 21 years old. But, yeah, if you’re asking me now, looking back on it, would it have been fun to have been a professional musician that was successful at that? Yeah. That sounds pretty good. [How tall are you, Pete?] I’m six seven. [Dang.]” — Pete Nordstrom, President of Nordstrom, Inc.

“[So, you know, how crazy has it gotten on stage playing with the Descendents?] Well, I mean, we just have people coming up and. you know, diving off the stage all the time, the stage divers. I tend to go down into the moat, what I call the moat, which is that little bit right before the barrier. And I just give the mic to kids and they just scream into it. And I just like to kind of commune with those people and just have a good time.”—Milo Aukerman (Descendents, Lead Vocalist)

“[You wrote a lot of checks to me when I was broke for a long time. You did.] Well, you picked it up. I’m proud of what you what you’re doing and what you’ve accomplished. I mean, when you look back on where you were at certain times and where you are now, you have made spectacular progress, and you’re well known in your industry. [Well, you know, you’re my inspiration. You always have been, always will be. You wanna go to lunch now, you’re probably starving] Yes.” —Norman 'NB" Trenton, The PoorDad, interviewed on his 102nd Birthday

“But, yeah, I’m very proud of the Laguna Wall. If your listeners are listening in, go check out the new one. Get a picture in front of it. Come by the gallery. That gallery is actually, when I’m in Laguna, that’s where I live, above the gallery. Don’t tell anybody, but that’s my studio upstairs. The view up there is staggering.” —Robert Wyland (American Conservationist & Mural Artist of Life-Size Whales and Sea Life)

“[Didn’t your parents or somebody tell you you need to pick one path, either a DJ or a lawyer, and then you while you were DJing, you stumbled into becoming a representative for social influencers, right?] Yeah. So, I feel like everybody kinda would tell me that you can’t do both. You can’t be a lawyer. You can’t be a DJ. You can’t be in the professional world and then also be in, like, the entertainment world. It’s kind of like the, I guess, the forbidden fruit. But, you know, for me, it just never really mattered.” — Farshad Dehbozorgi,Esq. AKA E5QUIRE (Lawyer, DJ, Artist)

“[On his Jack In The Box audition at age three and a half] And when I went in, the last thing my Mom said is Rodney, you know, eat with manners. Don’t talk with food in your mouth. And sure enough, every kid that walked in got their own burger. So I had this burger in front of me, and the guy asked me my name. He told me to take a bite. He says, well, how do you like it? And the last thing I told him, I said, I can’t talk about it. Don’t ask me because I’m not going to tell you because I got food in my mouth. And he died laughing. That’s what clinched a commercial for me.”— Rodney Allen Rippy (Former Child Actor, Television Personality)

“We’ve been going strong the whole time. It’s just that we’ve been in the underground mode. And you know, one thing about the underground, the underground never fails you. The pop culture might, but the underground never fails, you know. Because we know with every tree, the tree may look big on the top, but it’s even wider and sturdier on the bottom, underground where all the roots are.” — Angelo Moore AKA Dr. MaddVibe (Fishbone Frontman, Author, Artist)

“Everybody was starting to become a band. They started getting other people to hang out with them, and eventually it morphed into what became The Germs which was on the single “Forming” that I did which was the first record. It was airable, but at that time nobody would have aired it except for Rodney. He really came into our corner and he played it as soon as we gave it to him. He played it that next Saturday.”— Chris Ashford - What Records (First DIY single by The Germs)

“I mean, it’s great to play with other surf bands, but we’re having success out playing with, you know, tribute bands, cover bands, original bands, blues bands. We played with a yacht rock band over the weekend, and people loved us, you know. I think surf music itself, it’s fun music. People love to dance and have a good time. And I think if you love to dance and have a good time, surf music’s for you, especially the instrumental stuff because it’s great guitar music too.” — Deven Berryhill (The Tourmaliners, Frontman & Guitarist)

“A lot of them are set in the middle of a story. So something happened before. You’re looking at something, and then something’s gonna happen later, which I did to kind of engage people so they’d look at the art longer, you know, and try and figure out what was going on. [Give me one one of your favorites.] Oh, I think one of my favorites is set in Palm Springs, and it’s in one of those classic mid-century modern houses. It’s a cocktail party and there’s a dead bird on the floor and people at the party are looking appalled. And then if you look to the far right of the painting, there’s a woman in an evening gown and she’s hiding a gun behind her back. So, you know, you gotta figure out what the story is, basically.” —Josh Agle AKA Shag (Painter, Designer, Illustrator)

“[On his early roles in Stand By Me and The Lost Boys] It’s just a job. I was a kid. I did what I was told. You know? What matters to me is the work I’m gonna do today because that’s what really matters. You know? It’s where we are today, what we’re living today, what’s our experience today. The past is the past and it’s gone. You can’t change it. You can’t fix it. It is what it is. It’s all about moving forward and having the right attitude and a positive attitude. For all the kicks, for all the hits, for all the shoves that I’ve taken throughout my life, one thing that I can teach you and tell you, or a pearl of wisdom I can give you, is always smile in the face of adversity. And keep a positive attitude, keep the faith, and things will always turn around as long as we have another day to live.” —Corey Feldman (Actor, Producer, Director, Musician)

“[On writing a memoir honoring his wife, Christina] It was very cathartic, and I got it all out. And I was able to tell our story. And, you know, she was a wonderful, wonderful, beautiful human being. So I wanna make sure people know that she was, just, you know, a great lady. And we have a foundation that we set up in her honor. It’s called the Christina Mauser Foundation, and we give scholarships to young women going into playing sports in college, that, you know, aren’t getting scholarships. So we give them scholarships based on their character and what they’re like with their teammates and just, you know, how hard they work and kind of embody what Christina stood for.” —Matt Mauser (Matt Mauser Big Band, Tijuana Dogs)

“I feel like if I go back to the initial audition I did for this film, there’s not that much information given to the actor about the project and the role. But I paid attention to one little detail that told me that he works for a tyrant. And because I grew up in communism - I grew up in the 80’s in Poland and East Germany, both communist countries - so I experienced communism til I was about 11 years old. I kind of had a feeling, you know, like, what it is to work for a tyrant, what it is to work for a dictator, and being a general, being the head of the army. I had to show toughness in front of other people, but absolute and complete obedience in front of him.” — Martin Harris (Actor, Writer, Producer, Plays Boravian General in James Gunn’s Superman)

“The Jimmy Dale Trio is more, so like we tip the hat to my Dad. I'm starting to bleed in a couple of my own songs in the set, which are watered-down Kill Jill songs. I take the lyrics out, and I kinda write a guitar melody over them and make them really surfy, but I still keep it like power surf, like Dad tone, you know, not the thin guitar strings and over the top reverb. I keep it true to my Dad's tone.”—Jimmy Dale (The Jimmy Dale Trio, Son of Dick Dale, King of Surf Guitar)

“So I think my favorite thing is just doing the really large extravagant grazing tables. I think creatively that’s where I have the most fun, and I think that’s where we shine as a company. You can just bring in so many different cheeses and dips and spreads and cured meats, and you just make this, like, spectacular presentation that really elevates any event or gathering that you go to.” —Alyssa Payne (Newport Charcuterie, Founder & Creative Director)

“I mean, first of all, you have people that - the internet has obviously changed things incredibly, Facebook and all of that - and people write stuff that you just know is wrong, right? You say that’s not right. And people become experts on things that they were never a part of, and that tends to bother me. If I do write a book or record something, I’m gonna call it Setting the Record Straight, right? What really happened because I was there every day. In fact, I lived at the radio.”—The Insane Darrell Wayne (Radio Personality and DJ)

“[Did he deliver all of you guys when your Mom got pregnant and, you know, had you?] Yes, he did. He delivered most of us kids. He delivered me, I know that for sure. And then most of my brothers were born in Hawaii, so they have the distinction of being blessed by Duke Kahanamoku, which I’m sure was a great experience and, you know, obviously something I wish I would have gotten. But that’s cool, whatever.” —Joshua Paskowitz (Paskowitz Surfing Family)

“[Speaking of crazy, how crazy did it get in those early days?] You were lucky if the show actually happened because, you know, there’s a lot of halls rented out without permits and people selling alcohol illegally, and the police, even if it was a legitimate show, the police just didn’t really like the way the punks looked. And they really weren’t singing about peace and love like hippies, which obviously the police didn’t like that scene, and these punkers come up and think about destroying the system and changing things in a more aggressive way. They just wanted to come in break up shows and wreak havoc and attack the people, unprovoked most of the time.” —Greg Hetson (Guitarist, Circle Jerks, Bad Religion)

“I was living in Boston. I went to a Nirvana/Breeders show in Fitchburg, Massachusetts, way like, an hour outside of that city. I took a train there and the train had stopped running. I didn’t know how I was gonna get home. I had a backstage pass. I was, you know, just like. Kurt was walking up the stairs with a bunch of kids, and I go, does anyone know how I can get back to Boston? And he turns and looks at me and goes, I do. And I went back home with all the people he was with.” —Jonny Polonsky (Songwriter, Rock Guitarist, Singer, Multi-instrumentalist, and Record Producer)

“[On being typecast as a terrorist] I’m labeled as a distinguished, weathered man, and I’ve been playing terrorists the last twenty five years. I’ve done Iron Man (2008), 12 Strong (2018), American Sniper (2014). I’ve done so many terrorist movies.The reason I’m picking the terrorist character is because I wanna introduce how evil they are.” —Fahim Fazli (Actor, Author, Motivational Speaker)

“I didn’t think that was going to be so strange for people, but I like to dress up. I don’t know, I thought this was show business, so I’m just trying to put on a show.” —Jesika Von Rabbit (Joshua Tree-based Solo Artist & former Gram Rabbit frontwoman)

“This man that you’re listening to, The Poorman, Jim, is the creator and the host of Loveline and I am so honored to be speaking with you. Well, the issue at hand with what you dealt with and what exists is that when you work for a company, it has been decided by somebody that whatever you do and whatever you create belongs to the company while you’re working for them. So Loveline basically is the property of the company that you worked for and you created that. That was yours. You built it. You thought of it. You hosted it, and you made it great. And the court said, well screw you, they own it because you created it while you worked for them.” — Mark Thompson (Radio Personality, DJ, formerly of The Mark & Brian Show)

“It’s fascinating because who knew that twenty five years later comic books were going to be relevant and important, and particularly to our cultural zeitgeist of what’s going on out there.”—Alexander Gray (Producer, Director, Writer)

“Well, I was the lead, or the trombone section leader, and it was pretty tight back there as the game was nearing the end. The band had gone down to field level for our traditional postgame concert, which we thought was gonna be a victory rally, and it was pretty tight in there. And so once once the clock went down to zero, it just sort of loosened up. I backed up into the end zone, and Kevin Moen just ran right through me.” — Gary Tyrrell (Stanford Trombone Player, Cal Football’s The Play, 1982)

“A little bit of fame started to happen. We started to get, you know, popular in different places like, you know, like Seattle and Detroit and Miami and Dallas. And there were cities around, and we were playing and going and, and doing all this stuff. And there was a new sound on the radio. Radio stations didn’t really know what to do with it.”— Jamie James (The Kingbees, Lead Singer, Guitarist, Founding Member)

“Me and my friend Billy golfed at Westlake last week at Westlake Golf Course. And when I took him by the bridge, it’s kinda trippy going by there. Every time I go out to Westlake, I gotta go say hi to the firefighters that rescued me.”— Matthew Thomas (Founder of Positive-Matters.Org)

“[On the NFL embracing the tradition] They like that we celebrate the last player. You know, we try and make him equal to feeling like he’s equal to the first player selected. So, you know, we give him gifts and parties and the Lowsman Trophy. And so we celebrate Kobee, I think, better than the first guy, but definitely better than the next to last guy. But that was my Dad’s idea.” — Melanie Salata-Fitch, Mr. Irrelevant Announcer

“My first film was Halls of Anger (1970), and it was about a racial high school issue. You know, they bus white kids to a black school and stuff like that.” — DeWayne Jessie (Otis Day and The Knights)

“I’m still an altar boy. Actually, I wasn’t an altar boy when I was little. I just kind of evolved into one as an adult.” — Joe Escalante (The Vandals)

“You know, it’s just kind of a well, a dream come true and why I got into doing this in the first place. Growing up in New York, I was just a huge music fan, and this is always what I wanted to be a part of.” — Mark Linett (Grammy Award-winning Record Producer and Audio Engineer)

“[What is the best generation of horror in your opinion?] Well, the eighties and nineties is what I love. You know, whenever I’m watching movies, eighties and nineties. Whenever I wanna study filmmaking and work on my own filmmaking endeavors, they’re all gonna be based on eighties and nineties, not doing anything in present time.” — Kyle Thompson (Special FX Artist, Midnight Studios FX)

“So I started answering the phone, and about a week later they hired me as receptionist. And about two weeks later, Rick Carroll let me go on the air and start doing the News on the air. And then they started paying me, and I became promotions director. It was about, I don’t know, a month later, they hired me as promotions director. [How old were you?] I was 18. [Wow.]” — April Whitney (Former KROQ DJ)

“[On creating the poster for Friday the Thirteenth Part VIII, Jason Takes Manhattan] It’s really cool because that poster got banned in New York, so that’s a cool little thing. [Why was that? What got it banned?] Because I took the ‘I Heart New York’ poster and had him slashing through it, coming from behind so his mask is kinda replacing the heart. And the city goes, “Uh, well this is our iconic image for our city, so this poster is banned.” Which is great. You always wanna be banned.” — Rick Lynch (Visual Artist, Movie Poster Designer)

“What I was doing at first when I came here, I was playing disco music, and then I was playing country music for a while because you had to like in 1980. And then in 1981, I was managing a club in Universal City and one of my DJs said you got to tune into this radio station at 106.7, it’s called KROQ. They got all these crazy guys on there, Dusty Street, Freddie Snakeskin, Jed the Fish. They got the greatest names, there’s even a guy called Poorman. And I started to listen to KROQ.” — Swedish Egil (DJ, The Godfather of Dance Music in L.A.)

“I mean, his son got him a Diet Coke the day before, and he said, “That’s the stuff, I dig that stuff!” Although he didn’t use the word ‘stuff’. And he, you know, he was just regular Brian. And the next morning, he was gone.” — Mark London (Brian Wilson Graphic Designer, Wilson Family Friend/Assistant)

“You know, I’ve been lucky to be around some really great bands over the years, and it’s such a hard thing to do. I’ve always done it for the love of it and just to show up and and do my best. And, everything that I’ve done, man, it’s been fun.”— Nick Zeigler (Drummer, Mary's Danish, The Leonards, Forty Nineteens)

“In my lifetime, I remember like two jazz explosions. One was back in the George Benson, Grover Washington Junior days that I can remember. And then I would say twenty years ago with, The Wave in Los Angeles and smooth jazz, and you could fill in the blanks. You can definitely say that jazz, you know, since its onset has gone through all kinds of different iterations.” — Eric Marienthal (Grammy Award-winning Saxophonist)

“Promoting unfortunately, these days, you know, it’s not like in the sixties when you used to walk into Capitol Records and you used to get a deal, you know, record deal. Those days are gone. You know? The record company is gone. It’s just so much. It’s all Internet work right now, artist by artist. We all have to, you know, write the music and then promote the music, And it’s, like, so crazy to do that, but, it takes it away from working with the music to concentrate on finishing music, and then you have to concentrate on calling or sending the song out to this and that. You know? So it’s really hard these days, but, we have to keep on playing that rock and roll, you know, whatever it takes. [What year did you start in music?] Oh, when I came from Italy, in the sixties.” — Tony Valentino (Lead Guitarist, Founding Member, The Standells)

“Most people that make surfboards, they don’t have any idea about aqua dynamics whatsoever. They just copy everybody’s stuff and say, I know what’s going on. But whereas I’ve done a lot of research in it and I’ve experimented and stuff, and I actually do scientific research on how to make them perform better. [And the way they look, you’re heavily influenced by race cars. Right?] Yes. I used to race cars and boats when I was young before I started making surfboards, and my boat held the world’s champion in the speed record.” — Lance Collins (Founder of Wave Tools Surfboards)

“We have Rock and Roll Fantasy Camp, it’s a really cool thing. You know, these people from all over the U.S. or world come and you know, I’m a counselor and we’re called, you know, the council. Then they have headliners, they call it. Like, the last one was Stewart Copeland and Robbie Krieger and Skunk Baxter, or they’re doing one pretty soon with Rob Halford and Alice Cooper. And what you do is, you know, you get a group of five people and you get them ready to jam, you know, with the rock stars, you know, or the A list, you know. So it’s kinda like, it’s an adventure.”— Tommy Black (General Manager, The Viper Room)

“It’s kinda weird, isn’t it? Like, we thought 50 was over the hill. And then, yeah, here we are still plugging away. And I guess it’s just the music must keep us alive, you know, for the next show.”— Al Jardine (Co-founder, Rhythm Guitarist, Vocalist of The Beach Boys)

“I went over to Brian's house and, talked to his mother about starting a band. So I was persistent. And the last thing Brian said to me a couple of weeks ago was he looked at me and he said, you started the group.”— Al Jardine (Co-founder, Rhythm Guitarist, Vocalist of The Beach Boys)