Season Seven kicks off with legendary Bluesman, Kim Wilson of the Fabulous Thunderbirds. Kim talks about his early years in the music business, his early experiences with “the Originators” of the Blues, and the move that would forever change his life and lead to the foundation of The Fabulous Thunderbirds. Kim and Erv also discuss the young newcomers to the genre, and the music business in general. What a fantastic start to this new season!

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This is Time Signatures with Jim Ervin, a podcast presented by the Capital Area Blues Society in Lansing, Michigan. Now, most any modern musical style can trace its roots back to the blues. Time Signatures explores the blues and its musical connections with captivating interviews, lively discussions and news from the world of blues. And now, here he is, your host, Jim Ervin! Who you got today, Jim?

Who you got today, Jim?

Well, hi there, everybody, and welcome. I'm Jim Ervin and this is Time Signatures. For only the second time since Time Signatures with Jim Ervin launched, you are about to hear these words.

Today's guest is a man that needs no introduction, period.

Ladies and gentlemen, it is my great pleasure to welcome the fabulous Thunderbirds, founder of a true product of Detroit, Michigan, Kim Wilson to Time Signatures. Honored to have you, sir. How are you?

I'm happy to be here. I'm great. Well, I'm kind of great. I got a bad back. My back is terrible. But other than that, I'm good now,.

Since it's my job to preserve the history of the blues one story at a time. Kim, I'd like to begin with your earliest memories of music. How did this incredible journey begin for you?

But when I'm 8 or 9 years old, then we were in Detroit in grade school and we had mandatory music a couple times a week. So the music teacher came in one day. He had a baritone horn and a trombone. He picked me out of the class.

And another kid, he handed me the baritone horn and said, play it. So I played it and I immediately was in the band. I went to trombone after that. Okay, but I was immediately in the band.

And that's kind of how I was kind of a fine artist at that age as well. You know, I. I did things like dinosaur murals all the way around the classroom and stuff like that.

You know, they kind of commissioned me to do those kind of things. So it was a. You know, I was always interested in the arts. And then I was also interested in athletics, hence the bad background.

And he was with GM and so they stuck me in a class. We had private lessons also, me and my brother.

I'll never forget because my brother did not like the private lessons and the instructor was very mean to him. But I just decided I wanted to be an athlete. And so I quit playing music at that time after about a year or so in the school band.

And I started playing football and track and whatever else I could. You know, I thought I had an aptitude for. I didn't really pick up and get an interest in music till my senior year in high school.

And I had a bunch of buddies who loved blues and they would take me from Goleta down to LA to the places like the Ash Grove and the Golden Bear and see all these incredible musicians.

And I, I just decided I wanted to pick up a harmonica and I started doing it, you know, And a month later I was in a band because I could kind of sing. And a year later, you know, a year after I started, I was playing with people like Eddie Taylor. It was pretty incredible.

Yeah. And the, the, the fact that you picked up that harmonica, it seemed like you were a quick study on it, from what I read.

And you guys ended up opening your, your band that you joined were opening for Three Dog Night and Savoy Brown. Is that correct?

That was. And that was because.

And that, that, that's weird because I had a broken collarbone from being in the football All Star practice and I got my collarbone broken. So I'm up there with the big strap. It was a crazy kind of transition, you know. And. Yeah, yeah, we were playing around town.

Galita, Santa Barbara area, pretty much. That's it. There was a jazz club downtown called the Spigot where actually Roland Kirk had played and Cal Jader and people like that.

It was a jazz club, and so they started letting people play blues in there and it became kind of a speakeasy joint, you know.

Okay.

That's kind of where I got it started in that place.

Now, Kim, I'd love to hear the story about how you met George Harmonica Smith via your friend John Phillips.

Wow, you've been doing your homework. But, yeah, my buddy, I drive. John Phillips was a very dear friend of mine, God rest him. He was a wonderful person. And he was an ab diver. He was a.

He died for abalone and collected rare shells that he would sell. But he was also a harmonica player and he also had a lot of music that I had never heard before.

And when I first met John, he told me he thought I was from South Africa, no idea why. And he would get me on many, many, many stages, right?

He'd be playing frat parties out in ucsb and he'd get me up on the bandstand he'd see me in the audience and you know, so there was this place out in Goleta called the Headband and all the blues guys played there. I mean, I saw so many people. I saw Big Joe Turner, I saw, you know, Albert Collins, Jimmy Reed, so many different people.

And so he's up there, he's opening for George Harmonica Smith. Now George was, it was just George Smith at that time. It wasn't George Harmonica Smith, it was just George Smith. So he sees me in the audience.

Now it's rare that I don't have a band even back then, but I didn't have, there was one piece missed. And I said, I'm going to go see my hero. So I'm, I'm sitting there and he does three songs and then George would get up and he would get down.

Well on the break, he sees me in the audience, he comes up to me and says, hey, listen man, I want you to play my three songs on the next set. Very generous. And I said, I don't know, man, I was kind of chickening out. And he said, no, you're doing it.

So I got up there and we're playing along, we play the first two songs. Crowd's going pretty crazy. I'll never forget that. It was a big crowd, you know, for a club.

And we go into the third song, get about halfway through it and George jumps up on stage with me now that I'm bow legged and my knees were knocking because that guy was a huge influence on me. So I, I, you know, so we finished the song, I go to get off the stage and he grabs me, says, you're staying here.

So we did like a whole rest of the set. And you know, George was a very vaudevillian kind of guy. He would lay on his back, kick up his legs and his a very, he was a great showman.

And he would make me do everything that he was doing right. It was kind of a mirror image thing. So we get done with the set and I'm in La La land. I'm just. What's happened?

You know, I, I'd probably play with a couple other people. I played with Eddie Taylor before him and maybe one other. And so club owner says, you know, well, by the way, we would do you don't love me.

And so it was just on the one and the band would get down one at a time until it was just George and I. Song ends, set ends. Kyle's going crazy and club owner comes up and says, how about it for George Smith? And I don't know who this guy is.

And he handed me a C note, which was a huge amount of money at that time. Wow. And so I'm like, wow. And so. And then George comes up to me and says, you know, I want you to finish off the week with me because that's.

That's the way the gigs were at that time. He played, sure, for three or four days at least. So it was like, wow. I go, really? And he said, yeah, I'm for real, as they told me.

I'll never forget it. And so that's what we did. We became very good friends with him, actually. And, you know, I went to see him later at the Headband.

He was opening for Jimmy Reed, okay? And he did not like Jimmy Reed, but he called himself Jimmy Reed in some false advertising at times, but he did not like Jimmy Reed.

And so that was interesting. That was interesting to see. I mean, he didn't say anything to Jimmy Reed. He was just in the.

Kind of stewing in the dressing room, having to open for him. So, you know, he was a character. He was a real character. I mean, that's the beautiful thing.

Not to change the subject, but, I mean, people like George, Eddie Taylor, all the great Chicago, Texas blues musicians, you know, the beautiful thing about blues music at that time was everybody had their own style. Everybody had their own personality. Everybody had their own way of doing things. Everybody had their own way of singing, telling a joke.

That has kind of gone away, and it's become a lot more generic now. So I'm so happy that I was able to be around at that time and learn from these guys, because I learned from all of them. I learned, really.

I learned from watching them more. I didn't ever get a lesson, but I'd learned something. I'd go up and play it on the stage. Let's say with George, I go, hey, you hear that?

When I played right there, that was third position, huh? How did I do? He goes, you did fine. That's great. And that's it. You know, that was like. That was like the lesson. So, you know, it was.

It was incredible to be around at that time. I mean, I remember we had a band in Goleta, and it was a pretty good little band. And I mean, I was just a kid. I mean, I wasn't much, but.

But we played this place called Fergie's, and he had just opened this joint, right?

Yes, sir.

It was on Dawson street in downtown Goleta. It was barely a town at that time. So I Walked in, I said, you need a band. He said, okay. So brought the band in there. We worked for very little money.

About three months later, I said, you know what, Bring Pee Wee Creighton up here. We'll back him up. Bring up Little Folsom. Bring Albert Collins. That's where I met all these guys. Bring Luther Tucker. Bring High Tide Harris.

Now, you probably never heard of him, but, you know, so I met all these people. Margie Evans, I mean, it was a lot of the people that had. That were living in LA at that time. Of course, George and Lowell were both Texans.

And it was just. It wasn't. And so was Albert. So it wasn't really harmonica music. But they liked me anyway. And that was very gratifying as well.

And I met so many people in my first three years of playing that, you know, for some reason they loved me. And I was, I think they loved me because they knew I would take a bullet for them.

You know, I knew they loved me because I love the music so much and I'm just, you know, chomping at the bit just to get myself going in it, you know, it's like I realized early on that. And I know I'm doing all the talking here, but I realized earlier, you're fiat. I wasn't going to be able to live by playing solos off records.

I had to improvise myself. So I remember walking down the street one day kind of scat. Singing and whistling and thinking to myself, that's pretty good.

I wish I could do that on the harmonica. So what I did was I bought a boombox. I sang and hummed and whistled into the boombox. Then I would copy that on Monica.

And that's how I learned how to basically how to improvise. Wow.

You know, you were, you were talking about being fortunate to come up in that era. And I have to agree with you because I think if there was any time that I would consider perfect to come up, that would have been it.

But one of the things that caught my attention when I was reading about your, your progress and learning from the. The masters is the, the deep, never ending respect that you have always expressed for these older artists. And that's never wavered with you, has it?

No. And they're not just older artists, they're the originators.

Yes, sir.

And that's the whole thing. They're the originators of this music. And to be treated like one of them at an early age, I mean, it was, it was a mind blower.

I mean, you, you just couldn't even believe that these guys were even talking to you. You know, I was a pretty aggressive guy. I mean, I, I was kind of a pest.

But then people kept asking for me and that became less of a pest and hot commodity.

Well, it's, it's amazing to me, as I, as I've heard several times, this is so reminiscent of stories that I've heard about the younger white blues students in Chicago.

Butterfield, Bloomfield, Corky Siegel, and then of course, William Clark from out west, who also shared a relationship with Harmonica Smith and so many others. But I think the common thrill between all of you guys is your deep seated respect and appreciation for those musicians, and they recognize that.

And I think that's why you were accepted into that family. You agree?

Yes.

Okay.

All the way.

You ended up. Oh, go ahead. I'm sorry.

You go ahead.

I was just, I was just going to move to another area because you, you relocated from Santa Barbara to Minnesota for a little bit. And I was just wondering what caused that.

Trying to find my way, you know, I, I, I just, things weren't popping in California and. Okay, I said, okay, I'm leaving. I'm gonna go find where I can work play, you know. So I did that.

And that was an interesting time, you know, met a whole new set of people. Met people like Boogie Woogie Red, Eddie Burns. I actually played with, with Fenton Robinson at that time. Who else?

A couple other people and people that I'd already known were coming through town and playing and seeing me there going, what the hell are you doing here? You know, Albert Collins was one of those. Albert Collins was a really wonderful person. And, you know, he was, you know, all of them.

I never been a bad one. I never met a bad originator ever.

How cool is that?

They were always, yeah, they all welcomed me with open arms. A wonderful, and still is a wonderful ride.

Kim, your connection to Jimmy Vaughn was a real page turner for me because that really is where all of this fun began for you both, slow as it was at first. But I would love to have you share the story of your, your transportation down to Texas, if you will.

Well, I had called him and what happened was Lo Folsom had a guy named Mark Pollock playing second guitar with him.

Okay.

In Goleta. In Goleta. And Mark Pollack started talking to me about Austin. So, you know, I'm going like, well, I didn't really want to leave.

I don't want to take a chance, blah, blah, blah. And finally he had this girlfriend named Shirley, Shirley Dimmock.

And she offered me a position in her new business, which was a publishing company, a club, you know, it was. And I was going to be an advisor.

Now in the meantime, before that happened actually in the chain of events was I had met these guys, see when I was in Minnesota, Willie Dixon came into town with his All Stars. Now Charlie can't remember his last name now he was the proprietor over there at the, the Caboose Bar in Minnesota, okay.

And he was playing, he wanted to play this demo tape that I had of doing some Sonny Boy Williamson stuff and things like that for Dixon. Dixon blew his mind. And Dixon immediately wanted to be my manager. And he was, he. It was crazy. And Dixon really didn't have time for me.

So that was short lived. But he threw me on to Jimmy Reed's manager, Bill Dyson, who hooked me up with these guys named Phil and Leonard in Seattle.

And so we. They got me $50 in a new suit and they got me. So I'm okay. We did this single, ADA Records, that was the name of it.

And they set up this big showcase at Six Stadium in Seattle. And. Now I had already been down to Austin by this time.

And I admit, Jimmy, but I didn't really feel like going back down there, you know, that's where I am right now actually. So. I said, okay, well, you know, so I get, I get a call from Vaughn, I'm coming up there, okay, you can sit in with them.

I don't even know the guy, you know, can sit in with the band. I'm playing for three nights in one place. You can sit in with the band.

So he comes, sits in, we get stinking drunk and he starts talking about, you know, how cool it is down in Austin and everything. So I said, okay, I'll come down one more time and check it out.

So I went to Seattle to play this big show which was Howlin Wolf, John Lee Hooker, man. Albert Collins was on the show, Margie Evans was on the show.

And then I told the band I was going down to see my girlfriend in San Francisco and I went to Austin and so I went down there, checked it out. I love the weather, especially compared to Minnesota at that time.

So, you know, I went down, I, I said okay, came back out to Minnesota, gave Him a month's notice. And I was. I left with a lot with two or three of those guys in a car with all my records, my clothes in one amp. And that's all I had.

And I went down to Texas and didn't do anything for about a year. Was very discouraging. So. But, you know, the beginnings of that, if it wasn't for Antones, I mean, we would have had nothing.

And I think that unbeknownst to a lot of people, beginnings of this band. And they were pretty influential. You know, the first four records we did, we didn't even have a record deal until 78 or 9.

Wow.

We've been together about four or five years by that time.

Sure.

And. And Denny Bruce came down, wanted to manage us, and he was producing. Leo Kotke was Leo Kotke's manager.

So we signed a deal with him, you know, blindfolded. And we. We just started recording. I mean, I know the first record we did, we probably recorded 40 songs in two and a half days.

We just recorded anything we knew.

Sure.

And that was. Ended up being the Girls Go Wild record. Then we used some of the other. Some of the stuff that we hadn't used, we used on the next record.

And.

And we had gone to. We had made Jake. We had made. Met Jake Riviera from the manager of rockpile. And in 81 or 80, we went down to.

Over to England and we met him and he signed us up for a tour with that band for about 30 shows. I didn't even know there were that many shows. And it was just. So we. That's where I met those guys.

So Nick Lowe says he wants to produce our next record. And that's where T Bird Rhythm came in. And we did that with an official producer. And it was. That's a good record. It's a very good record.

Yes.

So we. That's how I met all those guys. It's kind of a whirlwind, you know, it all happened kind of all at once.

And we had moved from Tacoma, then to Chrysalis. Right. Which is where I believe T Bird Rhythm went.

Okay.

And then there was another one after that, or the. That might have been the last one. Then they dropped us. So we were labelless. And wondering once again, here I am wondering, what am I going to do?

You know, what am I going to do with my life? I want to play music, but it's not looking very good. So we. We call up Edmonds, Dave Edmonds. I don't know.

I can't remember exactly how that happened, but he was in another Rock Pile connection. And so Edmonds was pretty hot at that time because he had donned the Stray Cats and they had a pretty big record with him.

Sure.

So he said, okay, let's do it. So we all fly over there to Great Britain, London, get a flat for a month, two flats, and we. We start recording.

And that ended up being the tough enough record. Now, there was a label that we were doing that for that immediately went. Immediately went bankrupt. Okay?

Now here we are, we're sitting with these masters in our hands and nobody to put them out. And we. We probably shop that for a year, maybe longer. And finally, this fellow named Tony Martell, I don't know if you know who that is.

He's got the Martell Foundation. He's probably not alive anymore, but he's a part of the Colombia, CBS Epic family.

He calls us into his office in New York and he said, boys, I think I can sell this. Okay, Sign on the dotted line. So another, you know, another album you don't get paid for. But what he did was create his own label.

And he says, this is what I'm going to do. I'm going to create this label and you're going to be able to use everybody in cbs, Epic, Columbia, you can use all the PR people, which we did.

And there was no Nashville at that time. It was just LA and New York. And that was the difference between those two was incredible.

Sure.

But we went. We. We were in business, you know, and it was interesting to watch that. That album climb the way it did. I mean, this was. In the meantime. Yeah.

And it just. It seems like your life just was one serendipitous step after another. And.

Yeah, so I need to turn the page here because it seems like through the years you've made some really big name friends, and they've always seem to steer you on the right path along the way. Among those Muddy Waters. How did that relationship come together? And I would love to hear about the call to have you come out East.

Well, we met right, at Muddy Waters at Antones. And like, I met a lot of people. He was playing for, like, five nights, Right. So we go walking in the club to do our little. Whatever it was.

Sound check, whatever it was.

We walk by the band, they're just going like, yeah, all right, you know, so we get there that night for the show, and Antones had a dressing room where there was a curtain and like a balcony and just a curtain separating it. Separating it from the Stage below. So we would always start out with a harmonic instrumental. As soon as we did that, those curtains just.

And there's Muddy with his head going, you know, wow. Kind of wide eyed. And then all I can tell. Play with this without getting into too much detail.

That was the beginning of a beautiful friendship between myself and Muddy Waters. And, you know, we had some incredible moments, just me and him, that were, you know, like I say, you live every time you meet somebody like that.

You're walking on cloud nine. Yes, every time. Every single time. You know, and.

And so I mean, Muddy Waters was the guy that I wanted to impress because all the great harmonica players had been through his band. So it was a very special thing to me when he said all those wonderful things about me.

And I was, you know, all I wanted to do since then was live up to it, you know.

Well, and a lot like Bob Margolin, for example. You guys seem like you're cut from the same cloth. You just down to earth people.

And, and like you said, the originators, you never, you never met a bad one. Another big connection in the genre for you was none other than Jimmy Rogers.

Now, last evening, as I was finalizing my prep for this interview, I was looking for some of your music and I stumbled upon Jimmy Reed's Ludella album. You guys are just flat out having a blast, weren't you?

Yeah, yeah. I mean we had been. That's a funny story with that record because we had been in the studio and we recorded a few, not enough.

And I played many, many shows with Jimmie Rogers in that club. And so I was driving in California, I'll never forget, it was raining, which is rare there.

That's pretty good. Wow. I kept listening like, man. So we ended up using, filling in with the live stuff to the studio stuff and that became Ludella.

That was Jimmy Rogers. He was really proud of that record too. He's very proud of it. Very album. That's a way that you pay back, okay.

Producing a record like that and playing on it. That's one way to pay back.

Well, and.

And then there was one of my all time favorites, an album that you recorded live at the Rhythm Room in Phoenix, venue owned by a good friend of mine, Bob Court. Or what do you remember about that evening as you were recording those tracks? Because again it sounded like you were just having a good time.

That was it. I mean we, there was actually two or three days of that in a row and so we, yeah, that's what we were doing.

I'm just calling them off, we were playing them. There's a whole bunch of that stuff still there, you know, I mean there's a bunch of stuff.

If we wanted to release it we could but it's, you know, have Richard and Lara Birdie, God bless them and because they were monsters and they, they were real blues guys, they were real blues people.

And then I had Billy Flynn who I played with last night here at Antones and Rusty's in and that was the band and myself and it was, that was, it was a great time. And my, my, my wife was in the audience with her dad. You can hear her screaming now. I had no idea I was going to marry this woman for about 20 years.

So.

But you know it was every time I listen to that record now and some of the outtakes, I was listening to an outtake of a Sonny Boy Williamson song yesterday. Oh wow. And it was like, wow, that's pretty good. And then my, there's my in the back. She, she was great. Now she is great.

That's wonderful.

Now one other item that I happened upon as I was preparing for this chat was your ties to a mutual friend in the person of Detroit's queen of the blues, Thornetta Davis. Now I don't mind telling you I'm, I'm always learning, okay, I'm always learning. I don't know everything.

It seems like every time I turn a corner I'm learning something new. And I learned that you played harp on her Honest Woman album. The song was I Sang the Blues.

And by the way, I wanted to tell you Thornetta sends her best and wanted me to let you know that she said hello. But how did, how did this collaboration come together? Man, she just called me.

Oh I, I used to go see when I was, I lived in Detroit for. I was born in Detroit. Yes, I'm back and live there in, in Oxford actually. So I remember going to see her and it's a mind blowing voice.

Oh man, that's a voice that you know, that's a voice. So you know we kind of got, became friends.

Next thing I know it was a while since I met her but she called me up to play on her CD and was happy to do it. And I love Thornetta. I wish her only the best.

Yes, Indeed. Kim, for 52 years you have remained as one of the constant, the only constant member of the Fabulous Thunderbirds, last man standing, so to speak.

And you've been quoted as saying that you love what you do and you plan to keep on playing for the rest of your life. Now, that quote was from two years ago. You still got that fire.

Of course. I love it more than I ever have. I've got a bad back right now, so I had to sit down on stage a couple times.

But, you know, that's going to go away and I'll be back to my usual trotting around self on the bandstand. But, yeah, I love playing. It's. I mean, how can you. It's something you never retire from, especially blues.

You see these big rock people, you know, okay, I'm gonna go on tour every two years. You know, we'll rehearse for a month. I'm going, no, that's not me. I'm on the road all the time because I like doing it.

And the band that I have is incredible, Absolutely incredible. And it's getting better all the time because there's all kinds of tweaks. And even though it's old people, we can learn. We can learn.

We can learn from our experience. And I think that, you know, I've got a guy named Rudy. The Pet Shower called him Rudy Albin. He played with brother Jack McDuff for six years.

And last night we had Billy Flynn across me, how great he is, all Bill. Bob Welch, the keyboards. Yeah, Billy's unbelievable. And Bob Welsh on the keyboards and a guitar. And. And, you know, then Johnny Moeller comes in, so.

And then I got a kid named Steve Kirsty, he's the young one, he's like in his 30s. Great, great bass player. And he plays upright as well. So it's, It's. I think, you know, we're really just starting to latch on to what we are.

I think that we. The whole contemporary thing, that's just fleeting, you know what I mean? Now we become a real blues band. And we always were.

We were just attempting to play contemporary music because we had luck with it before, you know.

Yes, sir.

Which was really a challenge. Saying, oh, you're never going to go anywhere with that. Blah, blah, blah. Oh, really? Okay.

So we had tough night and that was, you know, we had another record or two after that. Power all the way to powerful stuff. Powerful stuff was a Pretty big record. But now we're very much in control of our own destiny.

And I think that you're able to move people like you want to move them. You're able to use dynamics, you're able to use everything that is musical and that just makes me feel nothing but great. So I'm really, really happy.

I mean, I'm way at the top of my game. I mean, I'm a better singer than I ever was, you know, depending on the night.

But of course, I'm a better moniker player than I ever was because you're always learning that.

Yeah.

So I think that, you know, I got quite a few years left in me.

From your lips to God's ears. I certainly hope so. As you look forward to the next generation of the blues that's coming up.

Kim, are you encouraged by those that you are seeing come to the fore, musically speaking?

A couple.

Okay.

Jontavius Willis.

Yeah.

This kid, Mac McDonald.

Yes. Oh, man. Just got to see him play with John Naval a couple weeks ago.

Yeah, Young Rel. Yes, another one. You know him, he's just a kid.

They're all kids and, you know, I think they have potential and we'll see how they do in the end, but, you know, have potential. I think John Tavies has really got his finger on what he wants to do, and I think he's really good at it. I think that Mac is.

You know, we were just talking about this today. Well, it's, it's really all about trying to bring more young African American people into the music.

Yes, sir.

It's not going to be easy. Okay. They don't want to hear it. So, you know, I think that there's ways to trick everybody in humanity by just moving them.

Doesn't matter if you're black, white, Polka dot, wherever you are, you move everybody, you move them. And you, you, you make sure that they want to come back and hear you again.

And no matter what you're doing, if you're playing blues, you're playing rock and roll. You know, if you're playing hip hop, you know, the blues. Blues is. And real blues.

It's, it's, it's a challenge because people want to hear wailing ass guitar that you can get about as far away from the blues as it's all blues. Right? But they can make it pretty far away from blues, you know, and so there's a lot of screeching going on out there. Hey, that's okay.

Listen, you have to have brass balls to get up on a bandstand and play in front of people. I don't care what you do, you know, God bless them. God bless them. You know, I can't.

It's hard to say bad about anybody, to be honest with you, because they're making a stab at it however they want to do it, you know, well, okay, might not be my cup of tea, but there's ways to do it myself.

I have a little recognition so I can kind of do it like I want to, you know, and these kids say they've watched me and people like me and okay, they can do that, I can do it and good. If that's how I'm influencing them, good. I think that they're. They need to just have a good time. You know what I mean? Like we're doing right now.

Yes, just have fun. Just have fun with it, you know, when you start making it a living, that's when you put the pressure on yourself. I know all about that.

And you know, I think if you do it for fun first and foremost and you don't get stuck in a place where you're doing it the same way every time because you made a lot of money that way, that's a mistake. It's not a mistake, maybe for the audience because they don't know, but it's a mistake for you because, you know, and like there's some songs.

I was just trying to figure out a way to play a rock and roll song as a shuffle. One of the one that we recorded a long time ago, it actually is pretty good. The lyrics are really good in this song.

And so I'm gonna tell you what it is. But I think it could be a great blues shuffle. So yeah, you know, just have a good time. Have a good time.

If you're having fun, you're gonna learn because you want to learn. You don't want to put the thing down because you're just disgusted with the business. And then business is a disgusting thing.

You know, people don't even realize what you go through when you're with a major label. It's insane, okay? And it's a lot of power wielding and you just fall into it and say, oh, yes, sir. Okay, I'm gonna.

You know, I'll never forget when Tony Martel, we were leaving, we had had a big hit with Tough Enough. And we're getting into the car and Tony opens the door, whispers in my ear, okay, now give me another one. Just like the last one.

And I went.

And I. Until I didn't. I just went. I don't Know what I said? But I said to myself, I don't do that. That's not what I do.

And so, you know, it's just, have a good time. Now more than ever, you and you are in control of your own destiny. Okay?

I'm not saying there's a huge amount of money to be made out there for a lot of people, probably not. But you know what? You're in control of your own destiny. You can do what you want to do.

If, you know, you want a day job, okay, do a day job, plan the weekends.

You know, however it works for you, as long as you can have a good time doing it and not put pressure on yourself to feed the family playing music, because that's difficult. That's very difficult.

Yes, sir.

Kim, where can we send people to learn more about you, the band, your music, maybe to buy some music from you or get you booked for a gig in their area?

Well, you can go to fabulousthunderbirds.com and you can find out what we're doing getting booked. I got a guy named Todd in la. The hell's the name of that company anyway? Oops, I turned it off. I'll have to tell you about it later.

You can find everything, actually, on the website. Okay.

Okay.

And I got a great manager. This guy's an incredible guy. He's like somebody I went to school with. First time I've ever had a manager like that. His name is Glenn Parrish.

Used to manage Stevie Nicks, and he's still dear friends with her. And this guy's a very, very empathetic and caring individual.

He's not a blues guy, but he has such an ear that he knows when you're moving him and that you can't ask for more than that, you know? And he's a wonderful person.

So it's really great that I've had him for, like, 15 years now, believe it or not, seemed like just yesterday, but he's been really great for me and he's a very connected guy. So he. We're able to get on a couple things that might not be able to get onto usually without someone like him. So, yeah, he's.

He's a wonderful person.

Well, Kim Wilson, I. I have to tell you, I'm overwhelmed. I appreciate you taking time for me today on Time Signatures.

I wish you all the best, and I truly hope to get an opportunity to come and see you play sometimes. If you do, I'll be happy to bring my camera.

I'm also a professional photographer and I wouldn't charge anything for the photos, but I'd love to shoot for you sometime if I get a chance. How's that sound?

That's great. If you see. All right, look at the website. There's quite a few shows. You're going to see a lot of shows on there. So look at the website.

I'll be happy to see you.

And that wraps up this edition of Time Signatures. Once again, my thanks to our guest, Kim Wilson. Well, but also to you. I'm sorry. Thank you, sir.

Anyway, as I said, Jim Ervin reminding you, keeping the blues alive is everyone's responsibility, but preserving the history of the blues, one story at a time is my mission. Hey, that's. That's live broadcasting there for you. All right, until next time. So long, my friends.

You've been listening to Time Signatures with Jim Ervin presented by the Capital Area Blues Society in Lansing, Michigan. Now, for more information about CABS, visit capitalareablues.org. The Time Signature's theme song, “Michigan Roads”, is used by permission and was written by Root Doctor, featuring Freddie Cunningham Hand. You can find this episode and past episodes of time [email protected] or wherever you get your podcasts. Until next time, keep on keeping the blues alive. Ooh, Shucky Ducky!