The Cast Catches A Blowfish - Ep. 55

The cast sits down with Grammy Award winning drummer for Hootie & The Blowfish, Jim "Soni" Sonefeld!

Transcript

SPEAKER_03 0:04

Live from the Holiday Foods in Spark Studios.

SPEAKER_00 0:08

Presented by Pete Tonight Altuna.

SPEAKER_03 0:11

Jojo on the go. You think so? Look at that.

SPEAKER_06 0:16

There he is. Hello. There's our special guest. The big reveal, ladies and gentlemen. Hootie and the Blowfish, and many other endeavors. It's our friend Tony, because we're good friends. We've known each other five seconds now.

SPEAKER_02 0:31

Oh my gosh. I'm just excited to hear what you mean by and many other endeavors. That sounds so exciting.

SPEAKER_06 0:39

Well, with my luck, if I just introduced you, not just, but from Hootie and the Blowfish, drummer, uh songwriter, you would have been like, Yeah, but I had a movie that came out last week, and that would have been something I missed in uh preparing for the interview. So I just wanted to have the bass come in.

SPEAKER_05 0:52

I do get what you're saying, though, because I don't like to be identified by any one thing either, you know? Like for I mean, mine are obviously very basic.

SPEAKER_01 1:00

You're not a Grammy Award winner, Jana.

SPEAKER_05 1:02

Wife, I am not a Grammy Award winner.

SPEAKER_06 1:06

Maybe we should have introduced ourselves to you. Hi, I'm Jojo.

SPEAKER_05 1:09

Hey, I'm Jana.

SPEAKER_06 1:11

And I'm Jagger.

SPEAKER_02 1:13

What's happening? And I'm I'm the kind of guy who wants a business card, the obnoxious guy that says uh uh Jim Sonnefeld, uh musician, author, entrepreneur, philanthropist, psychic. What love why do you have ten titles on your card?

SPEAKER_05 1:30

Well, you have uh many interesting. Good morning, anyway.

SPEAKER_06 1:33

So good morning. Good morning. First of all, thank you for getting up this early. I'm sure you could be doing uh way more important things like getting some rest or uh writing another hit song. So we really appreciate you joining us. Um our friend Jagger with the Beanie, I've known for many years, and for every single one of those years, he has been uh one of your biggest fans. Um I know he's been to your shows. Um and I usually would lead interviews, but I feel as much as I love you guys, I've got questions, obviously, but I know that I'd be taking time away from uh uh fangirl number one Jagger there, who is just ready ready to hit it, hit it and hit it hard. So, first of all, and first and foremost, thank you, thank you, thank you for joining us. It's an honor. Thank you for giving us some of my favorite songs of all time. Um I've got stories about uh attending your concerts. Well, maybe we'll get to that. It depends on how long until you disconnect on us, but we have a lot to get through. You have until noon, right?

SPEAKER_02 2:37

Yeah. I appreciate y'all having me. How's how's my mic quality? I did not bring my professional grade podcaster mic like y'all have, and so I want to make sure it's a good thing. No, you sound lovely.

SPEAKER_01 2:49

Listen better than my early.

SPEAKER_06 2:51

We your biggest fan also has the worst internet, so there's a good chance six times during this interview he's gonna disappear. Just don't let that phase you because I know you're a professional. Um things happen when you're on stage.

SPEAKER_05 3:03

That's one thing you should know. He is not a professional.

SPEAKER_06 3:06

So, Jagger, I'm gonna let you uh start having your conversation before your internet or your DSL, whatever it is, kicks off.

SPEAKER_01 3:15

Yeah. So um, yeah, I mean, Hootie has been really the soundtrack of my life. Uh been a big fan since uh 94 when you guys broke big on uh Letterman, I believe was the first television appearance for you guys when you got out of the the college scene a little bit and got to the national stage. Um and and I've I've just been a fan ever since. So it is a real thrill for me on a personal level to have you join us. I appreciate that very much. Um and you guys are just coming off of a big appearance. You you did the AMAs in Vegas a couple of weeks ago. Uh tell us a little bit about that. How'd that come about? Um, how'd the invite come? What got you?

SPEAKER_06 3:50

Bag Volved to go.

SPEAKER_02 3:54

Well, uh yeah, the AMAs was pretty cool. I mean, if you stick around long enough in this business, if you can, you know, get onto TV, if you can sell, you know, a certain amount of records um and then stick around, it it does sometimes come back. And I feel like this is one of those moments where uh you know we had received an award from them 30 years ago and it's an anniversary show and trying to bring back some old acts. So we fit right in there. We've been kind of active lately, so I think they saw us on the radar, and uh, we've been playing a couple festivals and we had uh a number one song on the country charts. Don't ex- I mean how does that happen last year? So I think the timing was right, and they're always looking for something that's timed right. And I'm just thankful that Billy Idol was there, so I don't feel like I'm the oldest dude there. Thanks, Billy. Not calling you old, by the way.

SPEAKER_06 4:44

Yeah, he is though. So you guys have never uh not been uh a thing. I mean, ever since you came on the scene, you've had fans, galore, but have you noticed uh in the past couple of years, maybe like a huge resurgence as we all seem to want to time travel back to the nineties? Like everybody seems to just want to relive that again.

SPEAKER_02 5:06

I mean, it's I think fairly normal. When times are good or times are uh easy, maybe we're all more content in that uh present, you know, and and when times are tough or when we're feeling I don't know, we're struggling against something, or maybe getting up to a new age. I think it's easy and normal to look back and want to feel that old feeling. Uh I do it from time to time in my life and get all nostalgic and like, oh, my old home, or an old song that just makes me feel a certain way. And I mean the weird thing is that I'd I hadn't been paying attention to time going forward so much, especially with music. I'm happy to be able to make it and get with my band and and feel like we're uh relevant sometimes and or seasonally at least. And and then you go, wow, 30 years ago we were on an award show? What the hell is that? Yeah. It really it really marks that um it doesn't mark a bad thing for me. I'll say this. It's not like a negative, like, oh my god, I'm so old, I can joke about that. But the real truth is that I've been able to be in the music business for 40 years, roughly. Um uh before we've got famous or found a bunch of fans. Uh we were all playing in other bands and getting paid a little bit. So to be able to do that to me feels the best thing is that I've been able to have a career in music and uh it's always our old friend Edwin McCain that says, Can you believe I get paid to do this when he walks off stage? Music. It's a cool thing because there we all remember uh uh people that are in long-lasting bands, those moments where you didn't know if you would. You had a day job and you had a uh this music dream. There's no there was not a good chance or a high chance that you were gonna be doing this in 10 years or 20, let alone uh, you know, two weeks. So I've always uh gravitated towards that appreciation like Edwin has.

SPEAKER_05 6:56

Well, definitely feels like a full circle moment for you, you know, talking AMAs, talking about, you know, the hits coming back, even the nostalgia. And I think like for many, many people, whether they're in the music industry or simply a fan, the beauty of music is that it is eternal, right? It allows you to go into the past, it can help you live in the present, and it really can propel you to live in the future. Now, obviously, the the height uh of the pinnacle really of Hootie and the Blowfish was in the 90s. Um, I did have uh a 90s edition question for you. If you had to say one gotta go, CD players, MTV unplugged, tower records, or flannel shirts, what would you say?

SPEAKER_01 7:43

Jen with the hard-hitting journalism. You mean which one?

SPEAKER_05 7:46

This is what my degree is worth. Yeah, yeah. Let let one go.

SPEAKER_02 7:51

Let's make our guests brain freeze. I I can never answer questions directly. I always have a backstory. So I'll just have to say I grew up wearing flannel shirts in the 70s because that was the uniform of like uh you know, pre-grunge. I grew up in the Midwest, but in cornfields. So the flannel shirt, jeans, and boots uh were just what you freaking wore all the time because it's winter eight months a year anyway. So I I don't know. Yet I live in South Carolina. Do I need a flannel shirt? Not really. Not really at all. It's gotta be the flannel shirt because no, I'm keeping the flannel shirt. Last. Keeping the flannel. I appreciate it. It's the MTV thing. It's the MTV. MTV unplugged. Get it out of here. Slower versions of songs than you like. Yeah. That's a whole nother story, right? Unplugged. No, you can't lose that. Yeah, I don't think it's a little bit more. No, no, no. That's like had some special moments. Okay, it can't be flannel, can't be MTV unplugged. What's my other two options?

SPEAKER_05 8:54

CD players or tower records.

SPEAKER_01 8:56

Oh. Or Janice's question. CD players, tower records, or Janus.

SPEAKER_05 9:02

Okay, I got I got another 90s question for you that that would be uh probably more hard-hitting.

SPEAKER_06 9:07

Oh boy. That was again harder than the last one.

SPEAKER_02 9:11

Final answer. Final answer. Uh is uh Tower Records. I really no feeling, yeah, I don't have that warmth thing. I went to record stores as a kid, it was a cool place to hang out. But I I could let go. That's a good question.

SPEAKER_05 9:28

I appreciate it. Absolutely. Well, oh, you know, one more, and I think this will be more of like the sentiment because I really I get that from you, and I I love like we're talking nostalgia, but like I truly feel that as as you're speaking. So like we're in 2026. If you had to talk to Jim in 1994, what would you say to him? Like, is there something that maybe you would appreciate now that you took for granted during the peak years? Is it any sort of advice? Is it something exciting? Is it something just chill, be like, Jim, relax? Like, what what would come to your mind?

SPEAKER_06 10:03

He had a hard time with the flannel question. You threw that one at him afterwards.

SPEAKER_02 10:09

Uh I need to pause to call my therapist real quick.

SPEAKER_05 10:14

Oh, did I mention I have a degree in psychology as well?

SPEAKER_02 10:17

Okay, so um this this yeah, this is always a good question, a fair question, at least. Um I I think I'd be hard-hitting. I think I would have I could have used something in my life that was that I respected and would listen to and was very deeply honest that I could move towards. So the first thing would be the uh old me saying, Listen, you little moron, uh you don't know shit. You think you're all that. Amen. I don't be so scared. I guess my my thought would be don't be so scared and and and maybe take a minute to look inside you to see what your your hang-ups or your fears are, really. Because I didn't I was un mostly just uh guilty of being unaware of how I really worked, how I really thought. I was in a good place. I worked, I had a good work ethic. I'd found some great bandmates, we traveled around, but I was I wasn't always responsible. Um and I uh wasn't always great with relationships and uh communicating uh for me to the opposite sex, and so I could never keep a good, healthy, long relationship. So I think it would be about hey, you don't really know who you are yet. You're almost I would have been 30 that year, and uh uh it's just you know, think a little harder, dive a little deeper would have been my advice to to that little guy. And uh but I would have said, but your hair is really cool. Yeah, it was the hair is keep it as long as you can.

SPEAKER_05 11:47

That's you did, you did.

SPEAKER_01 11:49

Hey Jim, your music with Hootie um definitely has been woven into the fabric of my life. I believe I'm probably one of hundreds of thousands, if not millions, of people who who feel that way. Uh, I'm curious.

SPEAKER_05 12:00

Wasn't it playing when your son was born? Just saying.

SPEAKER_01 12:03

Uh probably. It's probably playing when he was conceived. What do you mean?

SPEAKER_05 12:08

But um perfect conception music. That's right.

SPEAKER_01 12:13

Cracked cracked review. Um, obviously one of the best albums of all time. That's not my opinion, that's a fact, uh, based on just the how well it did. Uh, did you guys know at any point early on that was gonna explode or did it catch you off guard?

SPEAKER_02 12:28

Uh we almost lost that album. Honestly, I I early on we didn't have a we didn't have a big self-confidence, I think. Uh we knew going into recording it, we'd uh uh wrote uh a lot of songs, we'd played songs live in front of audiences for uh some of those songs for one one or two or five years. We'd been playing a couple of the big hits. They'd been tested. We kind of knew if we ever do get a chance to make an album with a big label, uh, that there's a few songs that have to be on there because the bar audiences have told us in our grand survey uh since the late 80s that these songs work for them. So we kind of knew that songs like Time and uh Let Her Cry and Hold My Hand and Only Wanna Be With You not only had to be on our first record if we ever got a chance, but would probably lead off that first record if we were smart. And so we felt like this is the best record we can make. We loved the production of it. It was uh Don Gaiman produced it. He had had all the big hits with John Mellencamp in the 80s, so he had done you know Pink Houses and Jack and Diane. This guy was iconic, and he was very also uh a good leader for us. So we felt like we were gonna make the best album we could. It was a low budget. We were in LA, like just thrilled to be in Los Angeles. We thought, pinch me, we get to come to LA on an airplane and stay in a little two-bedroom condo for a month or two, and so but there was a a pretty good-sized moment in there where uh the album was about to come out, and people at the record company were fighting about whether it would even come out. We found out this later. There was a moment where uh when we put it out, the single wasn't moving, and they were about to dump it. We were about to become off the priority list. And then, like you said, uh luck happened with Letterman driving home from his show one night, and one of the few stations that were playing Hold My Hand up in the New York, Connecticut area spun it and he heard it, and he said, you know, let's get this band on our show. And that's that was the difference, and that luck, you know, what I call uh preparation, meeting opportunity uh is what is necessary. And that's the difference between sometimes a big career and uh a short career. It it's not how hard you work, it's not your skills or if you can shred uh on a guitar, it's are you in the right place at the right time? And uh Letterman was that for us. Um and then that allowed the record company uh uh getting in front of his five million fans for three minutes and twenty seconds. That allows a big record company like Atlantic to do what they do. They're meant to be influential and get that thing running. And once it got out of the starting blocks, it went crazy. To answer your first question, did we expect it? No. Even when those engines started pumping, no one thinks they're gonna start selling tens of thousands a week and then twenty thousands and then hundreds of thousands a week, and then basically the math in about a twelve-month period in I don't know, spring of ninety-five to spring of ninety-six was almost a million records CD format in a record store. Tower of records, uh a million records a month. So that that's the math that still blows me away.

unknown 15:47

Oh, yeah.

SPEAKER_06 15:48

But get rid of Tower of Records is what you said. That's right.

SPEAKER_05 15:50

Yeah, of course. Okay. And of course, uh I will say, oh, go ahead, sorry.

SPEAKER_01 15:54

No, I was gonna say you you guys followed uh that album up with uh several other hit albums, Fairweather Johnson, Musical Chairs, Scattered, Smothered, Covered, and Perfect Circle. Um, of all the body of work of of Hootie and the Blowfish, um, and and and Hootie's catalog specifically, uh, do you have a favorite lyric that that just kind of resonates with you personally?

SPEAKER_02 16:15

Um dang. I thought sight questions were tough. This is what you're asking me a lot. Uh a particular lyric, you know what's funny? I I'm gonna this is not selling out or being lazy, but I recently was uh forced to learn all the lyrics to uh only want to be with you. You would think after hearing it 6,000 times, I would have memorized it, but I you kind of get a little blind to what's being done, and Darius doesn't always enunciate perfectly, and I don't listen to that song on the studio version, but I had I had to learn it because I was wanting to play it to some of my uh solo audiences. Yeah. I thought Darius had some cool ass lines in that song. I mean it's a relational song, and just the idea of um uh I think it's the second verse he says, uh uh you look at me, you got nothing left to say. I'm gonna pout at you until I get my way. I won't dance, you won't sing. I just want to love you, but you want to wear my ring. That to me struck me as so beautiful and profound. Um I don't think I don't think lyrics are good or bad. I don't think art is good or bad necessarily. It is just either effective or meaningful to some people or not. It can be it can be a shallow lyric, maybe, or a deep lyric, but I still don't think that makes it good or bad inherently. I just think, hey, if it emotionally affects you, then it's doing its job. And that for the first time when I learned that, I'm like, that is a cool frickin' verse. Like just talking about two people, one likes to sing, one likes to dance, one the ring, or just dating. I thought that was such a cool idea. And he was a young guy when he wrote that. He was, you know, in his um uh maybe mid-twenties, 24, 23 years old, something like that. And yeah, that's what's that's my own.

SPEAKER_01 18:10

I love how you you played that song you play that song thousands of times and just recently like really captured the lyric. I think that's powerful and that's funny.

SPEAKER_02 18:18

It's sad. I mean you're a drummer back there. Yeah. You got you know, you got your 1992 and something different in 2002 and onward. Um so uh to me that's a a meaningful one for me today. We may have written some deeper stuff. If I look at my own lyrics that I've written for the band, I would if you gave me time, I could go find one that I think is just so beautiful and perfect and but nah.

SPEAKER_05 18:50

So make sure that Oh, I I will need that at some point. I I love the deeper, I love the fact that music is subjective. Like you said, different points in your life, but also to different people in the exact moment. And isn't that the beauty of like a concert, right? It's that all these people are coming together with the same mutual goals like, hey, we love this band, we love this music, but every single person is feeling in a different way. What I love, I've seen Hootie several times, and every single time has been in an outside venue. So um I live on Long Island in New York, and uh, you know, we've got a beach arena, or not I can't I can't even call it an arena, but a venue on Jones Beach, and like for me, that when I was in high school, that screamed Hootie and the Blowfish. So, like that that to me was just the ultimate of bringing people together, and everybody was there for the same thing, but we're all feeling different things at the same time. So uh I yeah, I I would love to hear one of those lyrics at some point.

SPEAKER_06 19:47

So, hold my hand, as we touched on, launches you guys into the stratosphere. You wrote that, and now you're there drumming as Darius is singing this. What do you think as as you you're drumming and he's singing it? Do you get a great sense of pride? Are you like, this is awesome, my song has become so legendary that I wrote, or do you think like you should be singing it?

SPEAKER_02 20:15

I mean the essence I think of a a band that's just organic and you know, garage band, uh uh musical entreprene entrepreneurs who are trying to make it f from no money, no skill, just uh their instruments trying to make it up and get some fans. Uh when you no matter who writes the lyrics or who sings it, if if if you're doing it right, you're just looking at yourself as like a team, you're you know, five guys on a basketball court trying to get that little ball in a hoop. And so when we were writing in the early days and I came up with ideas or or Mark did or Darius did, you just you're just pitching it to the team. Hey, could this be a a winning thing? Uh and so you always just pitch it out there. I didn't start thinking about hold my hand or any of the lyrics I'd written until we became big, and then it was kind of cool to suddenly have twenty thousand fans out in front of you singing the lyric you wrote, and that was pretty dang special. And then you know, you kind of there's periods where I got jaded later on where I was burnt out and uh my life was falling apart personally, and I'd you know, I've probably had less of an emotional connection to that thought, even I was just out there staring, like, oh my god, can I get off the stage for a minute? This is true and I'm old, my hair is falling out, I'm a drunk, blah blah. But I think the coolest moment I had was uh we had taken a dormancy in 2008. We had decided because a lot was changing in our band and and a lot more was about to change. I was burnt out. I had gotten sober and I'd been sober on the road for a couple years, and it wasn't as as much fun as the mayhem days. And uh Darius had produced this country record. He was about to put out as well. I was divorced with two little kids. Everything was in flux. And so we decided at the end of this little summer we're gonna just uh pull up the carpets and and chill uh for an unknown time. We'll do our charity gigs for our foundation in South Carolina, but we're not making an album and we're not touring until we decide we want to. And a couple crazy things happened. One of them was Darius blowing up, so he had a hit single in the I guess it was the uh by the fall of 2008, he had a number one single in country, which none of us, including him, expected. And by that next spring he was opening up for like Rascal Flats playing 20,000 seat you know arenas, and we were like, we can't even we can't even play 20,000 seat arenas. It's but I I from the beginning I thought it was something very cool and special about it, and I wanted to be supportive. And the one thing I really wanted to do was go sit out front in an uh an amphitheater and sit on the lawn and watch him sing Hold My Hand. Yeah. And so Laura, my wife and I, and our five kids went to this place up in Charlotte, and I did just that, and it was the coolest moment, almost surreal to see Darius up there and hear his voice, and basically the same arrangement of the song with different musicians, uh, his country guys, and see what happens out in the audience. And it was so beautiful to experience what you guys get to do as fans. Like, this is freaking amaz this is like maybe way more fun out here than it is up there. I've got to concentrate up there. You all just are out here, woo! And I just saw it. I'm done.

SPEAKER_06 23:34

It just gets going when you're in the crowd. It's crazy. Yeah, it was such an indescribable feeling. Uh one of the greatest moments of my life was when I got suspended for a day from the radio station I worked at because I did a prank call the day before and I did it live. And the company that I prank called actually had my show on while I was prank calling them. So they called uh management and demanded that action be taken. And management, I was bringing in revenue for the station, so they they had my back, but they wanted to make them happy, so they told them I was suspended uh for the evening, so my show wouldn't be on that night. My program director called me and he said, Hey, I got two tickets left to to Hootie, they weren't picked up. Do you want to go? I was like, Hell yeah, this is the best suspension I've ever had. And I'm getting paid. I'm going to see Hootie with my my girlfriend. It was Hershey, Pennsylvania, uh outside, and it was one of the greatest concert experiences of my life. This was in the uh mid-ish 90s, I think it was. You probably recognize me from the audience, I'm sure. And you had that gray shirt on?

SPEAKER_02 24:41

Did you have that gray shirt on?

SPEAKER_06 24:42

Yeah, yeah, that was it. That was it. I was the guy. Um, but your your songs are I just I love to sing along to them, you know, and unlike you, I know the lyrics, so that's good. Um so uh thank you for uh some great memories and continuing uh to be there for me when I'm going through emotions and your songs hit me just where I need to be hit. And uh, you know, music is timeless if it's if it's done well. So uh thank you, is what I want to say.

SPEAKER_02 25:15

You're welcome. Uh yay for Hershey Park, right? Always some uh they always leave Hershey candy bars hanging around backstage. We played there in 2019 and 24 again. Yes. Took a great bike ride up that hill, that mountain across the street, and uh tooled around up there. Such a great area. What was it?

SPEAKER_05 25:34

I released a lot of what you said, Jim. Sorry, uh, in regards to, you know, uh I I know you mentioned you've been in recovery for a long time and and you've been divorced, and and I've you know recently gone through a lot of that as well. And I think uh seeing the world from suffer such a different place of being restored to clarity, I think is such uh a beautiful thing, and I think that it allows you to experience the world. It doesn't mean that you have to look back on the past and say, hey, those weren't really good times, and obviously they're learning lessons. Um, but I think it really does help create this new world for you. So um I'm all about it.

SPEAKER_06 26:11

Now please let Jagger have like three questions now. He's he's over here just chomping at the bit.

SPEAKER_01 26:17

Yes, I feel and you can see me fangirling, my cheeks are hurting from smiling. Barely because you've got my I've got my uh Sony, Dean, Mark, and Darius shirt on. It's a one-off, it's a one of one. Um this only exists because I created it for myself. I don't know if you can see it. Not really. Yeah, no, I'm glad you're supporting the bootleg industry.

SPEAKER_02 26:36

But great, Jagger.

SPEAKER_01 26:39

So I will send you royalties. You can split it with the band. You just let me know how much I owe you. Uh I only made one. I'm not selling them. It's just personal for me.

SPEAKER_06 26:48

So downloaded all your songs off Napster and then pay a cent.

SPEAKER_01 26:52

And I will get you one too if you want to have two or two. We can be twinsies. That'll be fine. And then I do have to show you this.

SPEAKER_06 26:58

Unplug your bootleg shirt.

SPEAKER_01 26:59

Oh boy.

SPEAKER_06 27:00

Oh.

SPEAKER_01 27:01

What are we doing here?

SPEAKER_06 27:03

Oh, look at this.

SPEAKER_01 27:04

Get the Bluefish tattoo on the elbow. Okay, good.

SPEAKER_02 27:07

I was afraid it was a third nipple.

SPEAKER_01 27:09

I was I can show you that too.

SPEAKER_05 27:11

That's somewhere else.

SPEAKER_01 27:13

So no, I know we're keeping you a long time, Jim, and I've got so many hootie questions. I know I'm never gonna get through them all, but I do also want to um uh have you talk about your your single, um, I mean your solo projects too. You're doing some things on your own. Um tell us about that. What are you doing right now?

unknown 27:30

What are you doing right now?

SPEAKER_01 27:31

What's going on?

SPEAKER_02 27:32

I'm about to jump in to start a new music project. I've like put out uh uh albums, CDs, whatever you want to call 'em. I put out a full-length one in 2008, I guess. Uh didn't do much promotion. It was sort of in between C D and I don't know what era of downloading, maybe. I don't know where it was, but uh didn't do much work to support that. Then started putting out I put out uh some contemporary Christian stuff in like the 2012, 14, and 15, and then uh 2022 put out another EP. So I'm trying to find a good middle ground. I don't want to be all uh necessarily just known as a preachy contemporary Christian singer. I just like talking about life anymore and uh the the values that we find and and the things we get to do that make life so beautiful. So I just um scheduled a studio time up in Nashville. I'll be going up there at the end of the month to start recording tracks for a new record. It'll be fun. I'm gonna do some newer stuff, uh uh maybe a couple songs that uh didn't make the Hootie albums or or did that I want to do my own versions of. So I really like the process of writing. I have done that at home since uh Laura and I have been married 17 years, so we have a piano at home. That's my main studio. No no gear, just pencil and iPhone recording and a and a notebook pad. That's the way I still prefer to to do things and just get inspired by things around me. I love you know, watching people and seeing how life takes its twists and turns and try and put some, you know, stanzas together that rhyme properly and aren't too corny and square and white. And um you know, try and have a little bit of soul and groove. It's not my nature exactly, but try and make it palatable. And I'm excited just to start that project. I do a lot of uh a lot of writing and doesn't always make it onto an album, so I do have a big catalog to draw from of uh songs. I think I'm getting to be a better singer. I had a vocal scare last year and it put me in my place to uh learn what it's supposed to be like to sing properly. I'd never been taught. I was winging it and uh kind of ruined some of my vocal cords through the years just doing it improperly, so I've got a better appreciation now. So I'll probably sound a lot like Pavarotti or Michael Buplay. I'll be sure I'll have using an orchestra.

SPEAKER_01 30:04

We just want you to sound like Sony. Uh how can how can the fans support you um in those uh efforts? Yeah, how do you end up with where do you like to be able to do it? Send me cash and envelope. Venmo.

SPEAKER_05 30:14

That's it. That's it.

SPEAKER_02 30:15

Fun to have cash. I'll tuck one into the future.

SPEAKER_06 30:20

Hey, umerground is um the next time you happen to talk to Darius, can you just tell him I'm sorry and he'll know what that means? Um I actually, what did you do now? So I you know, I'm on Twitter and I see there's Darius. So I tweet him, I was like, hey, you remember that time you did that Burger King commercial and the police? No. And he tweeted me back, yeah? What about it, Jojo? And I was like, also apologized. One time he walked into a bar in North Carolina and I said, Hey, what's up, Hootie? That did not go well either. So please tell him Jojo's sorry for everything. How dare you? Listen. I'm that's why sorry. That's why I was trying to let you leave.

SPEAKER_02 31:11

You just set the bar lower bootleg t-shirts is now up here. That's okay. Oh no, no, calling one t-shirt. Calling Darius Hootie, that's way down there.

SPEAKER_06 31:23

And then having you shouldn't do that, right?

SPEAKER_01 31:25

To be fair, I I have actual I have literally six actual uh Hootie merchandise shirts in my closet right now.

SPEAKER_05 31:33

So I I didn't create the golden child here. I've done no wrong. So except for your stupidest questions. And now let me tell you about my singing career.

SPEAKER_06 31:47

Thank you. So much for joining us this morning.

SPEAKER_02 31:50

Yeah, I want to I want to say something too about t-shirts real quick because uh you reminded me, and I don't care about t t-shirts or bootleg t-shirts, honestly. It's uh it's it's a joke. But we there was a time when we were so poor, and this was right before going in to record Cracker Review, that um, and I'm gonna show you little pictures that the fans can't see, but it's it's Darius and I, and it's um let's see if I can get this picture up there somewhere. And I've got a I'm wearing a hootie in the blowfish t-shirt.

SPEAKER_05 32:18

Yeah, you are. I love it.

SPEAKER_02 32:21

Oh, how sad is that? Did you buy it?

SPEAKER_06 32:24

Love it.

SPEAKER_05 32:25

I mean, that's the best type of advertisement, right?

SPEAKER_06 32:29

Gotta have the gold.

SPEAKER_05 32:34

Yeah. No, I was like, and the hair looked great.

SPEAKER_06 32:37

Oh wow. So you have social media, or you do you do you stay away from social media, or is there ways for fans to keep up with you there?

SPEAKER_02 32:46

No, I mean I do uh I do Instagram. I'm uh so uh my nickname is Sony, so S-O-N-I. It's uh Sony time 64, the year I was born. And and uh yeah, I like uh I spend a bunch of time on Instagram. I try and answer people's questions or uh responses on there. I like posting about some hootie stuff, some personal stuff, some solo stuff. I spend an inordinate amount of time staring at Instagram, unfortunately, because my algorithm supports my need to feel like I'm always right. So thank you, algorithm makers.

SPEAKER_06 33:20

Yep uh thank you for catering my needs algorithm. Yeah. Jagger's actually messaged you six times already since uh the interview started on Instagram, so you're gonna want to catch up on your inbox.

SPEAKER_01 33:32

Check your DMs. I'm in there.

SPEAKER_02 33:34

Oh my god.

SPEAKER_01 33:35

I like Facebook.

SPEAKER_02 33:37

I like Yeah. Hit me on Facebook. Hit me on Facebook, man. That's you want to age yourself, start talking about Facebook.

SPEAKER_01 33:44

On the Facebook. We're talking about aging ourselves. You were you were on my top song on my MySpace page for several years. Oh wow.

SPEAKER_05 33:52

Oh, yeah. That'll do it. That'll do it.

SPEAKER_02 33:56

Let's just call this podcast True Confessions from now on. Everybody got some more? Come on, JoJo. What do you what are you holding back?

SPEAKER_06 34:04

I you know, anything else, and I'm gonna get sued, so I better hold up and let the lawsuit clear with Jagger's bootleg shirt company. Yes.

SPEAKER_02 34:13

I want to hear I want to hear about other 90s bands that you all appreciate. Anything out there that like is on your uh playlist that you you're digging?

SPEAKER_06 34:23

Two years ago, I was second row at Limp Biscuit and uh in uh in Woodstock. Uh at actual where Woodstock happened. They were doing the Loserville tour, and the world famous musician Corey Feldman opened up for them. Uh and then Fred came out.

SPEAKER_05 34:41

He can't resist a name drop of Corey Feldman for some reason.

SPEAKER_06 34:44

Yeah, he's gonna be on. Listen, he canceled. That's why we have you on, Jim. I'm just kidding. I'm just kidding.

SPEAKER_05 34:52

That's not even accurate.

SPEAKER_06 34:54

Oh my god. You're one of you're our biggest guest so far on the podcast, but uh the invite is still out for Mr. Feldman. But yeah, being second row, Limp Biscuit, who when they first came out, I wanted nothing to do with their music. I thought it was too loud. And then when I was that's when I was young. Um I was more not into that, but I'll tell you what, I was loving every second of that. So uh them, Bush, uh Smashing Pumpkins, uh you know, uh the list goes on for me. I I tend to, if you were to ask, say that 90s music is probably my favorite of all the decades. Yeah, and I see it getting better in the future.

SPEAKER_01 35:33

Same with me, and a lot of my favorites are are are people that opened up for you guys. I mean, I I saw them with you. So um Edwin McCain, Sister Hazel, Toad the Wet Sprocket, those types of bands. I mean, to me, it's it's the whole the whole 90s experience wrapped up into one.

SPEAKER_02 35:49

Speaking of Emily McBanana, Miss Banana, what about you?

SPEAKER_05 35:52

Well, uh I she wasn't born in the 90s. I'm shamelessly a 90s baby. I was born in '92. So uh I found Hootie and the Blowfish in the early 2000s, not late 2000s. Um but again, talking timeless, talking about eternal. No, you I said I went to three different concerts. Sorry, Jim. Uh he really knows how to trigger me. Yeah, talking about truth. I mean, that's my middle name. But no, um, I uh I think for me it was like 90s boy bands, and then it was like the real music of the 90s came to me in the 2000s, you know. But again, that that's that's the beauty of it, is that you don't need to find it in the that moment, you know. The timing has to be right, not just for the the band's breakthrough, but also for the fans.

SPEAKER_02 36:44

It's so funny to hear even the reference of 90s music because it's it uh it doesn't even do the era justice because there are I mean, just there are so many eclectic styles. I mean, we stood next to uh at the AMA's, we stood next to um New Kids on the Block, right? And so I guess I think they were 90s, right? Uh late 80s, high 90s. But then there's that now. There's hard rock, there's alt. I mean, we've you guys represent a great cross-section, uh, Jojo with his uh angsty need to get mad, maybe music, and Jagger with his more emotional and uh Miss Banana did, you know, I'm sorry you were born so late. You could have you could have been there at the beginning, but you still feel what we were making. That's beautiful.

SPEAKER_05 37:30

Yeah, totally.

SPEAKER_02 37:31

I find I love that there's such a big cross section because I like I grew up listening to uh 60s and 70s music primarily at when rock and roll was hitting a certain stride, and it was anything from people say, What influenced you? I'm like, Do you have an hour? Because like I we love listening to A C D C and Kiss, but I loved Mary Barry Manilo. I loved Barry Manilo. I loved the Bee Gees. Uh no uh openly about that. I love like the 70s, what they call Y A C H T Rock, which I refuse to acknowledge as a name for genre. Sorry. I I didn't say it.

SPEAKER_06 38:07

I stopped.

SPEAKER_02 38:08

I love all that stuff too. So like to say 90s or 80s or 70s, like doesn't even touch the diversity of a whole era. It's it's insane. Um I just love I love I don't I love being an open, you know, sort of listener. Frank Zappa, just bizarre stuff. I don't, you know, the weirder and better sometimes. Tiny Tim, Dr. Demento show. I mean, I listened to uh somebody getting interviewed uh on a show the other night, uh Weird Al. Oh yeah. Just to hear Weird Al. Like, oh my God. I've got a history dive.

SPEAKER_06 38:45

I um that's about a week after I got suspended and saw you guys, I went on the air and and I was in Lancaster, Pennsylvania on the air, and I played Amish Paradise for five hours straight. And in the last five minutes of those five hours, Weird Al actually called me and he said, What are you doing? And then he's like, Was it as good the 5,000th time as it was the first? And I'm like, Yeah. That launched me into super stardom, but only in Lancaster, Pennsylvania. But still, he came to town two weeks later. That's how big it was. He comes to town, his limo pulls up at the radio station, I interview him. We walk out, I'm standing next to him in front of his limo, and some kid looks at his mom and goes, That guy looks weirder than weird Al. Just acting as busy. I think he was filling out the crossword on our way to the mall where I thought we were gonna sign autographs, but nobody asked for mine. It was just me sitting next to the celebrity. So, Weird Al, if you're watching.

SPEAKER_02 40:00

Weird Al's a good guy. He's a good guy. Ooh, the bandana with Hootie the Bofish.

SPEAKER_05 40:05

I just now that that's 90, is if I've ever seen it.

SPEAKER_01 40:08

I just wanted to let you know I did buy a $35 bandana.

SPEAKER_05 40:12

So nowadays we should really sit. Yeah, it would be $80 today, I'm sure.

SPEAKER_01 40:18

Yeah. Actually, I I got this. This is recent, actually, so it looks retro. I got this uh when you guys did the thing at um the arena for the canes opening night um about a year and a half ago, two years ago in Raleigh.

SPEAKER_02 40:32

Yeah, it was yeah, the uh yeah, the outdoor uh NHL match.

SPEAKER_01 40:37

Uh well we were inside, we were in we were inside a um the arena. I can't remember the name of the arena, but um it was it's it was for the hurricanes. It was like a one-off you guys did, and my girlfriend surprised me with hootie tickets, and uh I was very moved by that because I told her um I don't know when or if I'll get to see them live again, you know. It it just all depends on if they tour again, if they have these one-offs. Um Sony's getting really old.

SPEAKER_02 41:01

I mean, who knows? It could be his last Christmas.

SPEAKER_05 41:04

Oh no.

SPEAKER_06 41:04

Yeah, it's about time to do like seven farewell tours, like all the other legends, you know. This is it last time. Then the next year not doing that.

SPEAKER_02 41:15

We had uh we've had some good advice from management to say don't name anything a possible farewell or last time around. It's a sign of I don't know what it is, a sign of money.

SPEAKER_01 41:28

I think it's incredible. You guys have been a band from day one. You've never broken up, you've always been together, and and folks don't really know that sometimes. Um it's just that, like you said, you took breaks, you've had solo projects, but you've always stayed hoolie in the blowfish. And I think again, uh Jojo's thank you. I thank you. I know Jana feels the same way. The music that you guys have brought to so many people's lives through so many trials and tribulations, through weddings, through divorces, through children, you really have just made a difference in the world with your music. So thank you. Yes, thank you.

SPEAKER_02 41:58

Wow, I appreciate that. It feels feels good to be part of something big and and beautiful for the most part. Uh, you know, getting people uh uh energized by music. I'm still a huge fan and everybody in the band is. I think that's what's part of what's kept our longevity going, is that if you stay a fan and you remember that why you did it, why you first picked up an instrument or a drumstick, I think it keeps you dialed into what fans are experience uh uh experiencing out there, and that's the connective tissue you need. I think when you separate yourselves from them, which is easy to do when you have notoriety, I think. Uh it it it's not a positive thing. It's a it's something that could uh be uh bad for your music career and your songwriting. So I always like to stay connected to the fans and uh I especially like guys that buy $35 bandanas. I mean that's I like you too.

SPEAKER_06 42:50

Thank you. Thank you so much for joining us this morning, Jim. And by the way, I don't know if you got the the memo, but Jim will be joining us every week uh at least one podcast a week. It's uh been such a great time. We feel like he adds to the dimension, and uh Janna gets to tell less of her stories when Jim's on with us. So wonderful. Thank you so much, Jim. Permanent part of JoJo on the go. Open invite though, anytime you want to.

SPEAKER_05 43:11

Well, we we always just invite another Jay on, so we love a good Jay.

SPEAKER_06 43:15

We only interview Jays.

SPEAKER_05 43:16

Yep.

SPEAKER_06 43:17

Thank you, Jim.

SPEAKER_02 43:19

I yes, uh y'all have a great uh great rest of your day. Appreciate the time. Good to chat with some people who are lively and awake at 7:30.

SPEAKER_06 43:28

Yeah, we're all we're morning radio folks, so it's just kind of in us.

SPEAKER_05 43:32

Ingrained, yep.

SPEAKER_06 43:34

Ingrained, yeah. Take care.

SPEAKER_05 43:36

Bye, Jim. Thanks.

SPEAKER_02 43:37

Uh see you talk to you soon. Bye. Got it.

SPEAKER_00 43:41

Jojo on the go is presented by Pizza Night Altuna.

SPEAKER_04 43:45

Get the stove and the dishes and make tonight a pizza night.

SPEAKER_00 43:48

Complete your order. Call 814-943-7000. Pizza Night. Thank you to our sponsors, Holiday Pools and Spa, Dry Luna Royal Cleaner, and Arlor Donut.

SPEAKER_03 44:03

A fresh new episode of JoJo on the go is coming soon from the Holiday Pools and Spa studios. In the meantime, head to JojoWorldwide.com for merchandise, mobile DJ services, bonus content, social media links, and even more ways to listen.