Slim Man | Culinary and Musical Fusion: A Delicious Big Conversation
The chatter in this episode of Big Conversations, Little Bar revolves around the multifaceted career of renowned local jazz musician Slim Man, who shares his journey from struggling in Nashville to finding success in the Coachella Valley music scene. With hosts Patrick Evans and Randy Florence guiding the dialogue, Slim Man recounts the trials he faced a decade ago, including personal hardships and the challenges of establishing himself as an artist. The interview highlights his significant performances at esteemed venues such as Vicky's of Santa Fe and Larkspur Grill, showcasing his talent and the community's warm reception. Throughout the episode, Slim Man also discusses his culinary endeavors, including his innovative cookbooks that integrate QR codes linking to cooking videos, thus blending his passions for music and cooking. This engaging dialogue not only celebrates Slim Man’s achievements but also delves into the stories behind his music and the impact of his artistry on the local cultural landscape.
Takeaways:
- In this episode of Big Conversations, Little Bar, we engaged in an enlightening discussion with local Jazz musician Slim Man, who shared his journey from Nashville to Palm Desert, where he has found success and acceptance in his musical career.
- Slim Man recounted his struggles in Nashville, revealing the challenges he faced as a musician in a highly competitive environment, which ultimately led him to seek opportunities in the Coachella Valley.
- We explored Slim Man's unique musical style that blends jazz with pop, highlighting his ability to engage audiences at popular venues such as Vicky's of Santa Fe and Larkspur Grill, where he performs regularly.
- During our conversation, Slim Man discussed his cookbook, which features a creative integration of cooking videos through QR codes, showcasing his culinary talents alongside his musical endeavors.
- The episode also touched upon Slim Man's recent experience of singing for the Pope, illustrating the serendipitous moments that have defined his artistic journey and contributed to his growth as a musician.
- Lastly, we examined the importance of storytelling in music, as Slim Man shared anecdotes about the origins of classic songs, enriching the audience's understanding and appreciation of the music he performs.
Chapters:
- 00:31 - The Magic of Storytelling
- 06:47 - The Journey Through Struggles and Triumphs
- 07:29 - A New Beginning in Palm Springs
- 14:35 - The Journey to Music
- 20:47 - The Journey to Becoming Slim Man
- 29:32 - The Journey to Singing for the Pope
- 35:19 - The Journey to Motown: An Unexpected Meeting
- 43:11 - Transitioning from Music to Cooking
- 49:24 - The Journey of a Screenwriter
- 56:06 - The Stories Behind the Songs
Companies mentioned in this episode:
- McCallum Theatre
- Vicky's of Santa Fe
- Larkspur
- Sony Records
- Garrett Jackson
- RCA
- Motown
- Angela Bofill
#BigConversationsLittleBarPodcast #PatrickEvans #RandyFlorence #MutualBroadcastingSystem #SkipsLittleBar #CoachellaValley #SlimMan #liveMusic #PalmDesert #storytelling #McCallumTheatre #musicians #cookingShow #celebrityInterviews #RatPack #originalMusic #cookingRecipes #QRCodeCookbook #livePerformance #jazzMusic #musicIndustry #songwriting #LasVegasEntertainment
Transcript
In the desert oasis where stories ignite skips little bar A beacon of light from the coachella valley stars to cool everyday joes. Join Patrick and Randy. Let the stories flow that big conversations little bar. The magic spreads near and far. Backed by the McCallum theater's grace.
Celebrate the voices that shape this place.
Howard Hoffman, Announcer:From the coveted corner booth in a little bar at the center of the Coachella valley universe. Welcome to another big conversation with Patrick Evans and Randy Florence. Presented by the McCallum Theatre.
-: Patrick Evans:Howard, thank you very much. Yes. We are back at the corner booth at skip page's little bar in palm desert with another edition of big conversations Little bar.
And I'm joined by the right reverend Randy Florence performing marriages at non stop paces across the Coachella valley to a.
Randy Florence:Lot of people that didn't even ask for it.
Patrick Evans:Sorry, it's not legally binding, but. Yeah, but you can consummate anytime you like.
Randy Florence:That's right. I can do just about anything that needs to be done.
Patrick Evans:There you go. How are you, Randy?
Randy Florence:I'm doing good. And I want to thank you. I've been out of town a little while.
Patrick Evans:Yeah.
Randy Florence:I come back into town and the weather is really nice. It's a little too warm.
Patrick Evans:Oh, come on.
Patrick Evans:I will. For the sake of people listening, Randy has taken up a brief residence. He's the mayor of Oceanside.
And so he's over by the beach and he sends me these pictures of the coal gray beach. It looked like Normandy. I thought, are you gonna storm the beach? Like, where are the bunkers? What's going on? It just looks cold and terrible.
Yesterday was windy, but it's beautiful today. So you picked a good time to come back.
Randy Florence:Oh, good, good. Well, I'm. I'm. I'm going to be Back for good May 1st.
Patrick Evans:Did we vote on that?
Randy Florence:Is that nobody clear? I didn't even ask anybody. I didn't want to hear any conflicting answers.
Patrick Evans:Probably, probably wise on your behalf.
Randy Florence:Hey, by the way, I've missed Howard.
Patrick Evans:Well, Howard misses you.
Randy Florence:Does he?
Patrick Evans:Yes, terribly. Howard, our announcer. Of course. Hey, I'm excited about our guest today. This gentleman has been on with me on eye on the desert many, many a time.
He's multi talented. He's got a great cookbook out. He does these great cooking videos in the cookbook. But he's an incredible musician.
You can see him weekly at Vicky's of Santa Fe, every Tuesday and then Wednesdays At Larkspur, at the Hotel Paseo. Slim man is here.
Randy Florence:Slim Man.
Patrick Evans:Mr. Man. Also Slim first name Slim, last name Man. Thank you for joining us.
Slim Man:My pleasure, you guys. Great to be here.
Randy Florence:It's good to have you here.
Patrick Evans:You. You know, I want to start here because it was funny, we were talking before the show and I said, you know, how are things?
He said, things are just as good as they could be.
Slim Man:Yeah.
Patrick Evans:He said 10 years ago, if you'd asked me that question, that was not the case. And you were living in Nashville.
Slim Man:Yeah.
Patrick Evans:And you were not loving it.
Slim Man:No, I loved Nashville. It was just. It was a very difficult time for me.
I was, you know, I was really trying to make something happen in terms of going into the recording studio and writing these songs. And I thought I'd be able to write some songs, get some placements, and, you know, get a publishing deal, do those kinds of things.
And I wasn't just going into small studios. I was going to the Studio B, rca, where Elvis recorded. You know, I was going, you know, and I was hiring the best musicians.
And I was just spending so much money and then trying to make money in Nashville. It was just almost impossible because everybody's doing it. Well, I try to explain it to people. If you go to. If you go.
If you're a dentist and you go to a town where there's 5 million dentists, you could be the best dentist in the world, and you're still gonna have a little bit of a struggle. And it was. I mean, you know, I was doing these demos at really cool studios, really expensive studios, spending a lot of money.
And for instance, I go to a publisher and, you know, I would talk to them and they'd say, well, let me play you something. We just signed and it was a guy from Sony Records. This guy had an amazing V.
I'm like, well, how much would it cost to get him to sing one of my demos? He's like 100 bucks. And it just struck me like, wow, it's. And the guy said, yeah, it's a hundred dollar town.
You can get just about anybody to do a session for $100. It was really difficult to make money, very easy to spend money. So I was.
I was not only doing demos for other artists trying to get a publishing deal, I was also still doing Slim Man CDs and funding them myself and going over to Madrid to record at my friend Marc Antoine's studio. So I was. There was a lot going out and nothing coming in. And it was just. I mean, it Was a real struggle, and it was so strange.
Patrick Evans:Well, so compare and contrast. So here you are now, 10 years later, you established yourself here in the Coachella Valley. I mean, you can't get into Vicky's on a Tuesday night.
Like, I know the owner, and I can't get in.
Slim Man:I know. I know the owner.
Patrick Evans:Like, I want to come in and see Slim. And he's like, well, okay, maybe in. In May. Yeah, right.
Randy Florence:Oh, good. I'll be back in May.
Slim Man:Oh, good.
Patrick Evans:You can't get in at all. Yeah, I mean, like, it's like you've really built that. Tuesday is. Is a huge night at Vicky's, and I know they love having you there.
And then Winston's at Larkspur, and you're often with Chase, who know who's a terrific. I mean, he's an incredible talent. He's out touring the country with Al.
Slim Man:Stewart the year I. The year I got fat. The year of the Cat.
Randy Florence:The year of the Cat.
Slim Man:Yeah, he's out there. He just came off a cruise. He's back tomorrow, I think, and we'll be playing Larkspur. But he was doing a cruise with.
Patrick Evans:You guys have, you know, obviously a great artistic partnership, but you seem to be very close.
Slim Man:He's one of my best friends, you know, out here and anywhere.
We just developed this friendship over the last eight, nine years we've been playing music together and, you know, can't say enough about just how talented he is. And, you know, he comes from such a strong family, and he's got this work ethic, and he's.
And, you know, the most important thing in the music business is, you know, he's got great hair, so.
Patrick Evans:He has incredible hair. You have incredible hair.
Slim Man:You. This is a way.
Patrick Evans:I mean, you got the Dean Martin look down. Like, it's just. Dino. Dino right there. So talk about, you know, what. What's the difference? What made it click here?
Slim Man:Well, I think that. Well, it was strange, you know, 10 years ago. I mean, you know, my dad passed away, and then, like, two weeks later, my nephew passed away.
Then my girlfriend. I was really terribly distraught, and the girl I was living with was like, I can't take your depression. You have to move out.
So I'm living on an air bed, and my friend, your father, and your.
Patrick Evans:Nephew pass away, and your girlfriend kicks you out.
Slim Man:Yeah.
Patrick Evans:All because you're sad about these things.
Slim Man:Yeah, because I'm sad about these.
Randy Florence:Way to bring her down, Slim.
Slim Man:Can't you cheer up a little bit? And then I was, you know, and Then, good gracious. I know it was. It was a really tough time.
And then somebody said, you know, I've got a couple of gigs out in Palm Springs. Do you want to come out here and just check it out for a couple of months? So I came.
I drove across from Nashville, drove across the country, landed here in Palm Springs. Like it was the first week of January. It was just beautiful, you know, the snow on the mountains, 770 degrees.
Randy Florence:Because that's not what you left when you left Nashville in January.
Slim Man:Cold and dreary and depressing and, you know. So anyway, I got out here and I started doing a couple of gigs. And then the promoter that I was working with, like, everything kind of fell apart.
And I was, like, left with, like, no gigs. And I was staying at a friend's house in March of 10 years ago.
In March, he's like, well, you have to leave because it's season starting and, you know, Coachella Festival and stagecoaches, and I gotta rent the place out. I can make, you know, $5 million a day. And I'm like, what do you mean, season? Right. So I'm stuck there with my dog, trying to find a place to stay.
Most of the gigs had dried up. And then I figured, well, I'll just do, like.
I'll do the Slim man thing, because I can satellite around the country and do that, and then I'll put together a little Rad Pack show. And that's what I. That's what I started doing. So I started on the Rat Pack thing, I started doing the Slim man thing, and things started to pop.
It took a. It took a while. It took a little bit longer than I had anticipated, but. But it.
You know, and then after, you know, like, we went to Vicky's and people.
We were trying to do with the full band, we were trying to do original material, which, you know, I kind of got the sense that out here there's a lot of COVID stuff, you know, a lot of COVID Oh, yeah. So. So I would get these. My CDs, I do a Best of Slim Man CD, and I would give them out to everyone to get them familiar with this stuff.
And it took a while, but then people started becoming familiar with the. With the original stuff. And then the band started coming together and just. It was just. It took a while, but it. It's really strong now.
Patrick Evans:It's clicking. The Vicky's thing is. Is just a great phenomenon, but you also, once again, you've picked some really tremendous musicians.
Slim Man:Yeah, yeah. Craig Chessel on the drums. He's amazing. And Tatang Katindig, the thriller from Manila, he's. He's just this amazing piano player. And then.
I can't say enough great things about Chase. He's a great sax player. And, you know, like I said, it took a while for people to kind of get used to not hearing Mustang Sally.
But it was, you know, it was really nice after a while that people were like, wow. And then people started like. Like, it was like a jazz club. People, like, started clapping after solos and stuff. You know, it was nice. It was really.
Randy Florence:But the girlfriend didn't come back.
Slim Man:Just with the success. I'll never talk to her again. But with.
Patrick Evans:With, you know, I love coming to your show and you infuse a lot of humor and you like to play with lyrics and do that stuff. But it's funny because, like, you'll be like, you'll do a couple of covers and you're like, we're going to do a.
We're going to do an original, if you'll pardon us.
Slim Man:Yeah. Ladies and gentlemen, if you have to go to the bathroom now, because we're going to do one of our songs.
Randy Florence:It's 13 minutes long.
Slim Man:If you want to check your text messages, be a good time. We're doing a Slim man original song.
I was like, about maybe like:Like, you know, let's just try and capture this and see if it can, you know, make something. So the. It was the second to last Tuesday of the season, and I hired a recording studio. They came out here, recorded the whole night.
It was one of our best performances. I was like, thank you, thank you, thank you. Prayers answered. We go into the studio the next day and we hear the oh, no. Throughout everything.
His hard drive had malfunctioned and there was like a click throughout every song, every track. So we had one Wednesday left before the season closed and Vicky's closed. So I'm like, all right, fellas, we gotta do it one more time.
Then we went back and recorded it again, and it turned out really well. And it got album of the year at the Coachella. Musical wars that year, which was really a. I mean, it was. It was kind of scary, though.
You know, we have one more shot. No pressure, fellas.
Patrick Evans:No pressure. Don't feel bad. We can't do this again. Ever. But.
Slim Man:Right.
Randy Florence:So had you been out here before, before you moved out?
Slim Man: t the Annenberg. But that was: Randy Florence:It's a pretty good venue.
Slim Man:Yeah. And he had a band. What was Chris Gore's band called? Oh.
Patrick Evans:Cause he didn't go by Chris Gore. He went by Barrett. Garrett Jackson.
Slim Man:Yeah, I was about to say Barrett.
Patrick Evans:No, Jackson.
Slim Man:Garrett Jackson. Garrett, like the Barrett Jackson.
Randy Florence:He was doing an auto auction.
Patrick Evans:Chris Gore was Garrett Jackson. He had the Garrett Jackson band. I've Sun, Summer Wind with that band. They were a good group.
Slim Man:They were good. They had a Steve Medeo on trumpet and had a really good band. So that was the.
I think that was one of the first times I came out here was with Chris Gore.
Randy Florence:So I'm always fascinated about how we ended up sitting here across the table from each other. Let's go back. You're born in Baltimore?
Slim Man:Yeah, I was born in Baltimore.
Randy Florence:You weren't conceived in Baltimore?
Slim Man:No, no, My. My.
Patrick Evans:My mom is very personal.
Randy Florence:It's a great story, though.
Patrick Evans:Go ahead.
Slim Man:My mom and dad. My mom and dad were in Italy. He was helping with the reconstruction of Europe after World War II, and they were in Italy.
And so they went to the Isle of Capri before they went to Baltimore. And my mom always said, you were conceived on the Isle of Capri. Of Capri. Then they got back to Baltimore. That's where I was born, in Baltimore.
Patrick Evans:You said Cyprus. It was Capri.
Randy Florence:Did I did say Cyprus.
Slim Man:It was Capri.
Randy Florence:Start over.
Patrick Evans:It's Capri.
Slim Man:Yeah.
Patrick Evans:Now we'll start. No, that's okay. They're really close. I mean, you can almost.
Randy Florence:They start with the sea.
Slim Man:You can. If you stand on one mountain, you can see the other island. No, it was cup free.
Randy Florence:So. So what did your dad do?
Slim Man:My dad. He had a. He had a varied career. He was a professor, philosopher. Professor of philosophy and literature at State University in New York.
But he had done other things, like he wrote speeches for Vice President Hubert Humphrey.
Randy Florence:Really.
Slim Man:He worked on the. The Civil Rights Commission, the Equal Opportunity Employment Commission. And so he had done all a varied.
He helped start the Peace Corps way back when.
He had one of the first camps, Peace Corps camps down in Puerto Rico, where they would train people to go to Central America, and they wanted to get acclimated to the language and the culture and the weather and everything. So they trained him in this jungle on top of these mountains in Puerto Rico. Trained all these trainees to go to Central America.
And so he did that for a while, but he. And then he ended up being a professor of philosophy and literature at the State University in New York up there in Long Island.
Randy Florence:Parents, were they involved in music in any way?
Slim Man:No. None of my. None of my brother. My brother, my sister, my mom, my dad. Nobody in my family involved in any way.
Patrick Evans:How did you, like, when was the first time you picked up an instrument or sang a song? Said, this is. This is really cool. I want to do this.
Slim Man:Oh, my dad. My dad played me to see a movie with Louis Armstrong. It was called the Five Pennies. It had Louis Armstrong and Danny Kaye.
And I told my dad, I'm like, that's what I wanted to do. And I'm like, five years old. He's like, what do you mean? I said, I want to play trumpet.
So for Christmas, which is a little while later, he got me, like, this plastic toy trumpet, you know, and I took it and I gave it back to him. I said, I don't want a toy. I want a real one.
And I guess, you know, I never thought of us as being, like, poor or anything, but he actually rented a trumpet. He didn't actually buy me one. It was like $5 a month or whatever it was. So I. He rented a trumpet, and I started taking lessons and started singing.
So trumpet was my first instrument. And I. I loved Louis Armstrong and Miles Davis and Chet Baker, all the trumpet players. And then when Herb Alpert came along, I was like, that's.
That's pretty nice, too. So I started off on trumpet, but that's how I got in. To this day, Louis Armstrong is still one of my top three favorite artists of all time.
Love, Lewis.
Randy Florence:Yeah.
Patrick Evans:Do you still play trumpet? On occasion.
Slim Man:I. You know, my mom got me one, like, I don't know, 20 years ago because I had dropped it when I, you know, started playing, because I, like, I. I was.
I wanted to accompany myself. So I was playing bass and playing piano and playing guitar, and it was just trump tough to play trumpet. You know what I mean?
Patrick Evans:Yeah. It's hard to accompany yourself on trumpet, but it's really hard to.
Slim Man:But you have to have a backup.
Randy Florence:Sweating all the time.
Patrick Evans:That's right.
Slim Man:So, you know, she got me a trumpet, like, 20 years ago, and I put it up to my lips and I played, and it was just like the ugliest, most brutal sound. I set the trumpet down. I'm like, you know, this takes a long time to get your lips and Your embouchure.
Patrick Evans:The embouchure is really. I played trumpet in high school and college, and I still have it. And I broke it out once and it scared the dog so badly. The.
Slim Man:Me too.
Patrick Evans:I've just hit it. I had to hide.
Slim Man:I knew. Me, too. And I was talking to another musician, his bass player, Danny Flahive.
Patrick Evans:I love playing.
Slim Man:He's.
Patrick Evans:He's one of the best bass players.
Slim Man:Yeah. So he started. He. He was playing trumpet, and he did the same thing.
He gave it up, started playing bass, and he said, like, years later, like I did, he picked it up and, you know, played. It was like just this brutal song.
Patrick Evans:You know, there's a lot of musculature that goes into a good ambush. And if you don't play every day, forget about it, you're not going to be able to play the instrument.
Slim Man:Yeah, that's true. I mean, you can. I mean, you can. You should sit down and practice piano all the time, but you can get down on the piano and just like, start playing.
And you don't. You know, it's not. You need muscles in your fingers to do that. Right. But with your. With your lips. I mean, it's just like that whole thing. It takes.
Patrick Evans:It's tough.
Slim Man:I know it is. I was just watching a video of Louis Armstrong saying what a wonderful world, and you can see the calluses on his lips.
Patrick Evans:Yeah.
Slim Man:You know, it does take a lot of time and a lot of. To build that back up.
Randy Florence:How many instruments do you play?
Slim Man:I play. I play piano and I play guitar. When I play live, I usually sing and play the bass, but I play guitar kind of like Bob Dylan and Elvis play guitars.
I'm just kind of strumming along, you know, I'm not like, you know, like.
Randy Florence:Letting the Wrecking Crew take care of everything.
Slim Man:I'm not like Pat Matheny or, you know, Glenn Campbell or anything.
Patrick Evans:Oftentimes like, when you're. When you're leading a band and you're doing what you're doing, usually you are. In guitar, it's a little different doing bass because now you're.
You're the heartbeat of the whole band. I mean, you and the. And the drummer. So is it different for you when you're doing that and you're doing your gig and you're playing bass? I mean, it's.
Slim Man:It's a real struggle to. I mean, it was when I first started out, a real struggle to play bass and sing at the same time.
Because you can't sing on time if you're singing on time all the time. It just sounds so rigid. So you have to, like, be able to do, like, drag triplets and.
Patrick Evans:But you got to play the bass on that.
Slim Man:I know, exactly. So what I would do is I would practice the, you know, for a song.
Learn a song, Practice a bass 100 times, practice singing it a hundred times, put it together, and do it 100 times. But it took a long time to be able to sing and play at the same time, especially the bass.
I mean, it's a little bit different with the guitar because, you know, sometimes.
Patrick Evans:You'Re leading the beat, sometimes you're lagging just a little bit behind to give it that swing that feels.
Slim Man:Yeah. So, I mean, it's. You know, but it's fun. I can't even, like, when I play and sing, when I'm playing bass and singing at the same time, I can't think.
I can't think about what the next lyric is or what the next note is, because if I do, I'm like. Then I'm lost. Like, where are we?
Randy Florence:So Louis was the trumpet player that you love? Any bass players that you paid attention to?
Slim Man:You know, I loved, like, the really incredible, like Jacob Pastorius from Weather Report. I really loved him. He was one of my favorites, you know, but, you know, I was. I always thought of bases, you know, because I.
I tune it in a different way. So I kind of had my own, like, distinct style, and I played a distinct bass as well as the Steinberger.
So it was, you know, a unique, unique instrument.
But, yeah, I mean, you know, I always thought, like, people like Paul McCartney, those kinds of bass players that just played the right part for the right song. I always thought that was kind of a genius, in other words, not to be so dominant, where you were taking over the landscape.
So, yeah, but I liked, you know, I liked all the, you know, a lot of the bass players from that era.
Randy Florence:How long were you in Baltimore?
Slim Man:I was in Baltimore for most of, you know, most of my adult life. I think I was in my, you know, 30s. I mean, I was. But I was always traveling out, so, you know, I was in a rock band, and so we were going all around.
So I was in Baltimore, based in Baltimore, but I was going up to New York and all around the country, but I've been based in Baltimore and, you know, pretty much until I moved out here, what, 10 years, 12 years ago.
Randy Florence:So pretty early. You knew this was it. This is what you were going to.
Slim Man:Do with your life. This is all I've Ever done?
Randy Florence:Yeah.
Slim Man:Yeah. And I was, you know, no, plan B. Didn't know there was no plan B. There you go. There was.
Patrick Evans:You don't even have to ask the question. I don't have to ask no plan B.
Slim Man:No, there was no plan B. And I just, you know, I just didn't. I didn't want to be. I didn't want to, like. They asked when I was playing trumpet, they, they asked me.
I was like, I don't know, third grade. They asked me to play in the high school band. Wow. And I was, I was pretty good. And so I.
Then they, I went in and they showed me the music, and I'm like, I don't want to play that stuff. They're like, what do you mean? I was like, listening to Miles Davis, Louis Armstrong, and they're doing like marching bands. Yeah.
Patrick Evans:You didn't want to be the marching band?
Slim Man:No, I was like, no. I'm like. And they were like. And my mom's like, what are you doing? I'm like, I don't want to play that stuff.
Patrick Evans:I got to be the middle part of the A. On the marching band. On the football field. No, not doing it.
Slim Man:I don't look good in one of those, like, Martian band pope hats. You know, I don't know.
Patrick Evans:You can't come up that head.
Slim Man:Right.
Randy Florence:And so parents were pretty supportive of what you were doing?
Slim Man:No, no, no. I mean, they, you know, they broke up when I was a kid, you know, young teenager, 12 years old.
And, you know, I was kind of left on my own, so I just taught myself everything I needed to know. My grandmother was a huge help. Angela. She was a huge help. She was, you know, you know, would kind of guide me in the right direction.
You might want to go over to this school and study music for a little while. But I pretty much taught myself everything I needed to know. And. And it was funny. My dad was. After the Slim man thing broke, he wrote me a letter.
He goes, you know, I'm really proud of the way you turned out without a lot of help from me.
Randy Florence:Wow.
Patrick Evans:Well, just very self aware. All right, I want to talk about this because you. You keep referring to, like, I've always known you as Slim Man.
Slim Man:Yeah.
Patrick Evans:Well, you say the Slim man thing kind of broke, so obviously it was. It's. It's a style of music. It's a Persona that you created. Tell me what was behind that.
Slim Man:Well, you know, I was, it was strange because I was, I'd. I had always done this kind of, kind of Jazzy pop, you know, soul music. I mean, that's when I got signed as a songwriter at Motown.
That's what I was doing. I was doing that kind of a style of music. And I was going by my real name, but it was just kind of. Which is Timothy Component, actually.
Timotheo Campaneshi. Wow. So Slim Man. Yeah, right. So. So like. And then, you know, and then when, you know, I was.
I was still doing that stuff, you know, doing that kind of music, and I didn't get the Slim man name until. It's a crazy story. For one year, I did some. Something that was non musical. I was organizing country music talent contest sponsored by Marlboro.
So Marlboro sponsored huge shows with Randy Travis in Alabama and, you know, Reba and everybody. And before the big show would come into these teeny towns, Lexington, Kentucky, you know, Birmingham, Alabama.
We would go in before and we would have talent contests. 30 bands, 10 bands a night, three nights in a row.
And if you won, you got to open up for the big show and you got a chance to go to the Nashville finals. And you would. You're up for a $50,000 recording contract with Barry Beckett, who had produced Hank Williams Jr. Bob Dylan. So it was a pretty big deal.
And I would. We would go out to these honky tonks. And when I say honky tonks, I don't. They weren't these kind of romantic, kind of little honky tonks.
They're kind of cool places. These were rough and tumble places.
Patrick Evans:The kind of places you could get beat up pretty soon.
Slim Man:Yeah, yeah. I mean, it was like if your.
Randy Florence:Name was Slim, man.
Patrick Evans:No, no, I think if you're slim, you're okay. But if you're. If you're Tim Mateo.
Randy Florence:Yeah, that's true.
Patrick Evans:Italian kid from Baltimore is not gonna fly.
Slim Man:It's me and my friend, and he's. He's black, and I look like. I like Italian guy. We're going to these, like, honky tonks.
And I remember the first show I did, I come up and say, hey, folks, how you doing? I'm looking out the crowd. It's all like, you know, you know, cowboy had some. I mean, God, I was.
I wasn't looking down on her condescending or anything, but it was just like they looked like that and I looked like this. And I said, hello, folks. Welcome to the Marvel Music country music talent roundup. My name is Timothyo Combines and I.
You could just feel like this chill was like, oh, my God. What? So I went back.
Patrick Evans:That's the part of the country where they still call us Italians.
Slim Man:So I just. I could just feel this chill. And we went back to the hotel that night, and my friend looks at me, goes, because you need a nickname.
I'm like, yeah, I do. So I came up with the nickname Slim Chance, right? So my name is Slim. Slim Chance. And that's what you have. Going to the finals. So phenomenal and that.
And so our big discovery was in Tulsa, Oklahoma, at this honky tonk called Tulsa City Limits. We heard this band, come on. This guy sang, and it was like the place went quiet. He was that good.
And I looked at my friend and I said, this guy's gonna win the finals. Not only is he going to the finals, he's gonna win. Well, he went and he won the finals. He had the recording or contract with Barry Beckett.
He recorded a bunch of songs. And they could not get him a record deal. Marlboro was intent on finding the next big country music star.
And they could not get this guy a deal until the engineer for all the recording sessions was in a meeting with Arista Records. And the guy says, I've got this guy. I want to form a duo. I don't have the other piece. And the engineer says, well, I got the other piece right here.
Take a listen to this cassette. So he put in the cassette. Well, it was Ronnie Dunn with the guy we discovered. And they put him together with Kicks Brooks.
And then after I get a little chills thinking about it, after that, it was like, Brooks and Dunn. I'm like, I know that guy. And it was like. Like years later, I'm in Fresno. I'm playing a place called, like the Ice House.
It's just this jazz club, holds like 80 people, right? And I'm taking my jog. I'm staying at the Holiday Inn, taking my jog.
Randy Florence:The nicest hotel in Fresno by.
Slim Man:Well, you know, I spent a lot.
Patrick Evans:Of time in Fresno, so.
Slim Man:So I'm walking by and I see all these trucks with the Brooks, Brooks and Dunn logo on the side, like 18 wheelers. I'm like, they must have some kind of production. So I walk into the hotel and Dunn is. Ronnie Dunn's walking out and he's like, hey, Slim.
I saw him like 10 years later. Like, he's playing like 20,000 seaters. I'm playing the 85 seat jazz club. But that's kind of how I got my name. And.
But that was our big discovery during the Marlboro tour. And they would also sponsor, you know, like, like up and coming acts. So they would. They would have, you know, Marty Stewart and Joe Ealy.
And they had Joey love him. Yeah, they had. They had songwriting seminars with Guy Clark, John Prine, John Hyatt.
Patrick Evans:Good gracious.
Slim Man:You know, Marlboro was intent on the kind of cultivating the whole country music thing, Finding new stars and cultivating that whole presence.
Patrick Evans:We're going to jump back into more with slim man in just a moment, but we want to hear from our presenting sponsor. And I was remiss in the opening show not recognizing the McCallum Theater.
They sponsor big conversations, little bar, and they are the theater record in the Coachella valley. We're in the midst of an incredible season. They are adding shows, really by the dozens. So if you have not checked the website, do so immediately.
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Patrick Evans:And we are back with slim man, who you can see every Tuesday at Vicky's and every Wednesday at the Larkspur grill. It's a hotel paseo. And you know, it's. What a fascinating past. Like, I didn't.
I knew some of your backstory, but I didn't know the like, wow, cool stuff.
Slim Man:It's been a roller coaster.
Randy Florence:How did you end up singing for the pope?
Slim Man:Oh, that was. That was a. A wonderful story. A German. A German record company had heard my music and they put my. A couple of songs on compilations.
They would these do these compilation discs and there was a one.
Patrick Evans:It's like a mixtape, Randy.
Slim Man:Oh, yeah, yeah, right. A mixtape. Right. You don't call a compilation.
Randy Florence:Some of those.
Slim Man:It's a mixtape for the kids these days, they were called mixtape. So. And then they were pretty popular over there.
for the pope on Christmas Day:I really am not. So, you know, I learned most of the stuff by ear. And so I said, yeah, without kind of knowing what I was getting into.
Well, one of the pieces of music was written by Beppe Cantarelli, who was an Italian composer who had written songs for Mariah Carey and a lot of other people. And he wrote this beautiful, beautiful piece of music, still one of my favorite pieces of music called Magnificat.
And we sang that for the Pope on Christmas Day. Like, a lot of people say, how did you get the single for the Pope? It wasn't like I was strumming guitar by his bedside or anything like that.
Patrick Evans:You know, But John Paul ii, which.
Slim Man:Was pjp is what we called him. Pope John Paul ii. Yeah.
And so, you know, I was in a choir, and they had the symphony, and then they had, you know, the Pope came in and we sang this piece of music. It was just Christmas day in Rome.
Patrick Evans:Wow.
Slim Man:Singing for the Pope.
Randy Florence:It was crazy.
Slim Man:I know. Oh, it was so wonderful. I was just on cloud nine. It was just one of the most memorable experiences.
Randy Florence:What did you think of the Vatican?
Slim Man:It was absolutely. It was my first time in Rome. I had no idea.
I was going to the Coliseum, and I was getting up in the middle of the night and putting on my jogging shoes and just running around, seeing the Coliseum and seeing all the sights and everything. It was just amazing. And then I was. I was. I was at the Excelsior Hotel, and they. There was. I was singing like, Blue Christmas in the bar.
And the guy comes over and says, you sound pretty good. I said, yes, thank you. He said, well, what's your last name? He said, campaneski. He goes, have you been to Ristorante Camponeski? I'm like, no.
So it turns out my cousin has a restaurant over there called Ristorante Camponeschi in Rome. And I went there, and we're still friends and, wow, in contact with each other. Yeah. But that was that experience, singing for the Pope with.
And the piece of music is still out there. It's Magnificat by Bepe Cantarelli. It's just.
Randy Florence:Was that the last time you did any choir music?
Slim Man:The first and the last. First and last tenor.
Randy Florence:Baritone.
Slim Man:Baritone. Yeah. But I mean, how I learned the part was I got a copy. I. I asked them if they could make a recording of the song. So I would.
I would learn it by ear, and they'd put the music in front of me, and I'm like, I have no idea what I'm looking at, but I know what the part is. So I would just memorize it and then look at the notes like I was paying attention, but I had no.
Randy Florence:Idea I couldn't read. I was in a choir in high school, and every. Every year, we had to do the hallelujah chorus. Doing that without being able to read music was not fun.
Slim Man:Yeah, I know. Even, like.
Even when I was, like, you know, for a brief time, I was studying classical piano, and they'd have, like, you know, Beethoven's Moonlight Sonata. And they give me the music, and I. I go, okay. I would go home, play the record, and I'd, like, play along with it.
And then I'm looking at the notes, I'm going, oh, okay. That's what it is. Yeah. So that's like a high note. That's where that is. That's way up there. Bing.
Patrick Evans:Well, Randy's being modest. He hasn't talked about his band, but he was in a band called Captain Slick and the Stick Shifts. And he was. Captain Slick.
Slim Man:Captain Slick in the stick shifts. That's a good name.
Randy Florence:It was for about a year.
Slim Man:That's all you were. You were together for.
Randy Florence:That's all we were together.
Patrick Evans:Waiting for the reunion album. I mean, I think I might be.
Randy Florence:The only one alive. I don't know that some of those. All of them were older than me.
Slim Man:Were they a California band?
Randy Florence:Yeah, just a high school band.
Slim Man:Are you from California?
Randy Florence:I wasn't born in California, but been here since a very early age.
Patrick Evans:Wait, where were you born?
Randy Florence:Reno, Nevada.
Slim Man:Well, that's kind of California.
Randy Florence:So.
Slim Man:Yeah.
Randy Florence:And got into music pretty early and started. They were all cover bands, though, right? We didn't have the nerve to say to anybody, I've got an original number I'd like you to listen to.
Slim Man:Yeah, we. You know, I always.
You know, I always wanted to write my own songs After I kind of got to a certain point, you know, and I'm listening to stuff, I'm like, I think that's what I need to do is to learn songwriting. So I would. I would go to my. You know, I get a teacher, and I'd say, teach me theory. Teach me harmony. What is this song doing?
I'd take them everything from, like, Born to run to Norwegian Wood. And I go, what is making this? You know, classical stuff. And so I taught myself kind of how to write songs.
Randy Florence:Wow.
Slim Man:And then I. You know, a friend of mine was like, well, you should go record these songs.
So I went into the recording studio, had no idea what I was doing, but he taught me how to do the recording. Studio thing so that I.
Randy Florence:So.
Patrick Evans:But you were writing songs for Motown.
Slim Man:Yeah, so I put together.
Patrick Evans:Tell us about that gig.
Slim Man:That's another story. So, thank God.
Randy Florence:We love stories.
Patrick Evans:This is what a podcast is all about, by the way. Good stories.
Slim Man:I went. I went into the studio and I recorded some songs and I thought they were really good. And I said, you know, I recorded a whole bunch.
So I took three and I'm like, okay, it's time to go into New York City. So a friend of a friend got me an appointment with, With a big publisher in New York.
So I'm, you know, I got my white suit on, white, three piece suit. Got the John Travolta hairdo. Got enough, enough hairspray on you could bounce rocks off of my head.
And so I got my little demo and I go into this guy's office and it was clear from the very first meeting that he was not interested in the music. He was interested in something else. And it was really uncomfortable, you know, it was like he was. I don't know, he's kind of like Pepe Le Pew.
And I was like, man, I gotta get out of here. It was really like, help me, please, somebody. So I, like, ran out of there, you know, heartbroken.
So I got on the street and I'm like, I'm not going back to Baltimore without some kind of.
Patrick Evans:How old were you at this time?
Slim Man:21.
Patrick Evans:Okay.
Slim Man:Yeah, just a kid. So I'm. I'm early 21, whatever, around that. And I'm. I'm not going back to Baltimore. I'm not getting on that Amtrak train without doing something.
So I figured, well, I'll call up some other publishers. So it was. And then it started to rain. I don't know if you've been in the man in Manhattan when it starts to rain, like, trying to catch a cab, right?
Patrick Evans:Oh, yeah, forget it.
Slim Man:So, and then, so I call up, I call up Motown and I'm like, hi, it's me. I've got some songs. Can I. Can I play them for you? She goes, sure, why don't you make an appointment? I'm like, well, I'm here now.
They're like, you want to come over right now? I'm like, yeah. And this woman, she's like, yeah, sure, come on over. So it turns out.
So I'm walking over there in the rain, right, in my white suit, like, and I'm getting splattered by taxis. I've got like mud stains on my pants, you know, And I'm walking in there, I'M soaking wet my hair. And I walk in her office.
It was Roxanne and Gordy, who was Barry Gordon's niece. She ran the New York office. So I go in there and I play my three songs. And she's listening, she's really grooving.
And her office door was cracked open. And the head of the company, Carl Griffin, was in the other. He peeks his head out, he goes, who's that? She's like, that's Mr.
Poop in his pants over here. I have my white suit on.
Randy Florence:I just found him on the sidewalk, right?
Slim Man:That's this guy over here and it's looking at me. So he invited me into his office and I played in the songs.
And like a couple weeks later, I got an offer for a recording of songwriting contract with Motown. So I started writing songs. And then, true story. So he calls me up, like weeks later and says, we need a song for a new Latin jazz vocalist.
We need a ballad. I'm like, when do you need. It says, tomorrow. I'm like, tomorrow? I don't. You know, back in the day, you didn't have your own recording studio.
You had them. So. So I had a cassette recorder with two microphones left and right. So I put one on a microphone on a mic stand.
I put the other inside my upright piano and I recorded a song. I wrote a song, recorded the piano on the right side, the vocal on the left. I took the cassette tape and I mailed it to the.
Off to the office in New York. And I didn't even call them to see if they got it. That's how embarrassed I was about the recording, about the quality of it. So I go.
And I'm like, there is no way. So a couple weeks later, vice president of Motown Publishing, New York comes down. He says, I got some. Something for you.
He played me this recording of my song that was absolutely stunning. They had every. It was Dave Gruson who produced it, Dave Grusen, who's done movies, Tootsie. And he brought.
He had every major session guy in New York play on this record. And they took my little demo and they made it.
Randy Florence:So they thought enough of the demo that we want to hear this recorded the right way.
Slim Man:So they recorded it and they put it out on. On a brand new label called grp, which is Dave Gruson's label, and Larry Rosen. And they put it out in grp. The girl's name was Angela Bofill.
Her first album was Angie. And it came out and made a huge splash on like, great reviews in the New York Times and the LA Times. And I'm like, damn.
I just thought it was so funny.
Patrick Evans:Because you wrote it in a day.
Slim Man:Yeah, yeah, I wrote it. And then I sent it off. Like, I was just like. I didn't even.
Randy Florence:No return address on the envelope.
Patrick Evans:Go with God, but go.
Slim Man:True story. I didn't even call them up to see if they got it. That's how embarrassed I was.
Patrick Evans:So how long did you do that gig?
Slim Man:Years. I mean, a couple years. You know, I had. I had some minor. This was the era of Motown.
It wasn't like, people feeling, oh, Motown, Smokey Robinson four times. I'm like, nah, this is a little later. This was the Rick James era. Yeah, Rick James and Tina Marie. So it was like, you know. And then.
So I had us, you know, like, they would call me up and say, you know, we're doing a. A cartoon. An animated cartoons. TV made for TV movie. We need a song for Garfield the cat about he's proud of being fat.
Can you write me a song like that, Slim man?
Randy Florence:Can you write me a song about.
Slim Man:So I'm like, yeah, okay. So I. I wrote this song called Fat is Where It's At. And I send it off to him thinking, this is.
Patrick Evans:Yeah, this is crap. But that's what they want.
Slim Man:Yeah. And. Yeah. Got recorded by the Temptations. And then they're like, well, we need. We need another one. Can you give us another one? It goes in this movie.
He does a dance routine. Can you do, like, a cat dance thing? So I wrote this song called Shake youe Paw, Paw. Shake your paw. It was on the album. And then the.
It got nominated for a Grammy. And it's not a big deal. It was nominated. It was like some obscure category, like.
Patrick Evans:Song sung by animated cats. Exactly.
Randy Florence:Like best.
Slim Man:Like best. Best album with an animated special about cats who were overweight.
Randy Florence:And you did win?
Slim Man:No.
Patrick Evans:Was there. A lot of.
Randy Florence:It was a heavy category that year.
Patrick Evans:There were eight songs because Morris was still around. Morris was a fat guy, too.
Randy Florence:When did you. When did you hear one of your songs played on the radio or anything like that?
Slim Man:I was in. I was in San Francisco. There was a station called kksf and I'm. We had a dig at the. The Great American Music Hall. It was our second gig.
The first gig was in Cleveland. There was nobody there. Drove across the country. A second gig, Great American Music hall in San Francisco.
And I'm listening to the radio station and I heard a song called Faith in Us. Was the first single. And I was like, I can't believe it. But, you know, it's like, what do you do? Like, you know, it was before cell phones.
I think it was before electricity. I'm like, my song. I'm like, you know, hey, buddy, listen to this. So then we. It was the first time I heard.
Randy Florence:That had to be pretty amazing.
Slim Man:It was. It was really nice.
And then the next day we did the gig, and I had no idea because the night before we played in Cleveland, there was 25 people there. No exaggeration. They had no idea who we were. So I'm walking in the Great American Music Hall. There's a line around the block.
Who are you guys waiting for? There's a guy named Slim, man. Of course, nobody knew who I was or what I looked like. I'm like, slim, man. He goes, yeah, we're here to see that guy.
Yeah.
Randy Florence:What?
Slim Man:Yeah, so that. And that was our. That was one of our second gig. Yeah. But I mean, the tour after that was just up and down. Like, the next night we played in San Jose.
There were six people because I, you know, it didn't take long to count them. But yeah, so it was like. That was. But that was the first time I heard it was a kksf. That's very cool.
Patrick Evans:I want to change gears for a minute, get out of music and get to cooking. You put together a phenomenal cookbook.
Slim Man:Well, there's two of them. That's right.
Randy Florence:One of them was phenomenal.
Patrick Evans:Mediocre.
Slim Man:That's right.
Patrick Evans:You know, you put two together. But what I loved about it, the concept was so brilliant.
So if you get Slim either one of his cookbooks and you scan the QR code, a video comes up and Slim shows you how to make the rest.
Slim Man:No way. Yeah.
Patrick Evans:And it was a great concept. I love it.
Slim Man: was. I mean, this was back in: Patrick Evans:Yeah. Now they're all over the place, so you can't escape.
Slim Man:So what I. So what I did was I made a two minute video for every recipe, and I put the QR code there.
And I'm like, hey, you can scan it with your phone and it takes you to a video and, you know, and so every recipe has a QR code, so you can actually scan it with your phone and it takes you to a recipe so you can make.
Patrick Evans:Slim manicotti, which is nice.
Slim Man:That's one of my slough. That's one of my dishes. So, yeah, every. Every Every recipe has a video.
So in case you have any questions, you know, you can just take, take a look and see me cooking everything.
Randy Florence:And when did you get into cooking?
Slim Man:It was not a necessity.
Randy Florence:I mean, because you wanted to eat.
Slim Man:Yeah, well, I mean, back, you know.
Patrick Evans:Italians have to cook.
Slim Man:Yeah.
Patrick Evans:It's a requirement.
Slim Man:It is. I mean, but. But you know, I was always in the kitchen with my grandmother, my. My dad, my mom. I. My Uncle Oscar was a huge influence. He all Italian.
And so, you know, I was always in the cooking, you know, great and you know, shop and helping out. But I'd never really cooked anything until like you're in a band house, right? You've got like $5 between you and you're like, we're starving.
So let's go get some garlic and some olive oil, some vegetables and some pasta and let's. Let's cook.
The first thing I ever cooked for the band, I remember we were in Rehoboth Beach, Delaware, and I was like, okay, I'm gonna make fettuccine Alfredo. I had no idea what I was doing. I used Swiss cheese.
Randy Florence:Oh.
Slim Man:And it, it, like I made it and it was like it all stuck together. I stuck a fork into the bowl and the whole thing came out. Looked like a soccer ball with spaghetti hanging off of it.
Randy Florence:And nobody was buying it.
Slim Man:I remember the keyboard said, this is not fettuccine Alfredo. This is a fetish. El cemento. Fettuccine El cemento.
Patrick Evans:You would think a kid named Timotheo would know how to make a fettuccine Alfredo.
Slim Man:It's okay.
Patrick Evans:My mother in law thinks that fettuccine Alfredo is called it because they put feta cheese in there. Like, no, that's not it.
Randy Florence:That's.
Patrick Evans:That's not it. Not it. But no, you make these great classic Italian recipes. You can call up the video. Both cookbooks. Yeah, it was a great concept and it was a.
You point this out, but I think really probably three or four years ahead of its time.
Slim Man:Well, thank you.
Patrick Evans:I mean, like this QR codes now we do. You're like, we do TV shows now. And it likes. You scan the code on your screen.
Randy Florence:I can't even log into anything unless they use the QR code.
Slim Man:10, 11 years ago, when I, yeah, I came up with this concept and even the publisher was like, what are you doing? I'm like, well, you just scan it.
Randy Florence:With your whatever and you still doing it?
Slim Man:Yeah, yeah, I just. Yeah, I'm working on the volume three now, but I'm still Doing the cooking thing still, the.
I mean, my recipes are a combination of my take on Italian stuff, you know, like, in other words, my manicotti is. Instead of being stuffed with ricotta cheese, I cook the manicotti, cut them in half, stand them up like a stove. Stove pipe. Right.
And then stuff them with shrimp and scallops. So it's a little bit different.
Patrick Evans:Also Swiss cheese.
Slim Man:Almost all this recipe.
Patrick Evans:A little Swiss.
Randy Florence:Cheese, except the ones that call for it.
Slim Man:So I do a lot. My take on Italian stuff and then there's. I do my take on Baltimore, Maryland cuisine.
So crab soup, crab cakes, you know, steamed shrimp through Baltimore style. A lot of Old Bay rock fish and stuff. And then I. And then I create my own recipes, things that I love. Explosions. It's like a boy pyromaniac.
So like anything that explodes. So I have like a lemon cello and lemon shrimp. It's really good, but it's explosive.
Like, you gotta, you know, you light it with a match, flame shoots up. I do a cognac sauce for Cornish game hens with orange marmalade. So the.
Randy Florence:If you had to cook one thing, what would it be?
Slim Man:You know, I. A simple tomato sauce is the best thing in the world. I mean, because, I mean, my favorite thing is like clam sauce. But you can't eat that every day.
Patrick Evans:No, no, no. You like white or red?
Slim Man:I like the white. I like the white. Yeah, but, you know.
Randy Florence:But you can eat a good tomato sauce every day.
Slim Man:Yeah, you can, you know.
Patrick Evans:Absolutely.
Slim Man:Yeah, that's what I like. My meal before. Before I. I'm going home after this. I'm going to cook, you know, shrimp marinada.
Randy Florence:So we're all going with Slim tonight.
Slim Man:I cook tomato sauce just about. Just about before every show. At least three hours before this show, I'll cook a tomato sauce and have a salad. And that's.
That's probably my favorite thing to cook.
Randy Florence:Was your grandmother one of those that. There was always a pot on the. On the stove?
Slim Man:No, she. She was not. She was. She. She was a. A organizer. She helped start the International Ladies Garment Workers Union.
So she worked and she worked her way up from. I mean, when I say nothing, I mean absolute poverty.
And she went to become organized the union, became vice president, helped start the International Ladies Garment Workers Union. She didn't have time to cook, but on Sundays she would like, just throw like everything into a tomato sauce, pork butt, sausage, meatballs.
It was everything in the sauce. It was just this big thing. But it was just. That was like kind of all she cooked. She wasn't really, you know, sound like.
Randy Florence:She was pretty busy.
Slim Man:Yeah, she was. But every Sunday, she would make this big vat of. Of tomato sauce with meat in it. And sometimes, you know, she'd make cutlets and things like that.
Patrick Evans:Nice. Nice. Now you're making me, huh?
Slim Man:I know. You're making me hungry.
Randy Florence:You wrote a screenplay?
Slim Man:Yeah.
Randy Florence:What's the status of that?
Slim Man:I just signed a contract with the producer yesterday.
Randy Florence:What's the name of it?
Slim Man:It's called I Got yout, Babe.
It's the story of a struggling musician in Baltimore and his best friend, who's his best friend and cousin, who's gay, who has a drag club in Palm Springs. The struggling musician in Baltimore. His mom is in a nursing home, and he can't pay the bills.
Cousin's got the drag club in Palm Springs, and he's just this big, huge bear of a wonderful gay man. And so he says, why don't you come out here and be a DJ? So he goes out there and he DJs for this drag review, which is Cher, Madonna, Tina Turner.
Well, Cher is the big draw. She has an accident and she can't do the show. It's two weeks till opening. So he asks his straight cousin, would you mind dressing up like Cher?
You're the same size. Wouldn't have to change any costumes. So he's like, well, you want to come out? You know, go on stage? And he's like, I can't do it.
So anyway, it all evolves where he comes out and he actually does the. Becomes a Cher impersonator.
Patrick Evans:So you've signed a contract with him, so.
Slim Man:Yeah, yesterday.
Patrick Evans:That's. Well, congratulations.
Slim Man:Thank you.
Patrick Evans:Breaking news.
Randy Florence:That's really a big deal.
Patrick Evans:That's cool.
Slim Man:Yeah. So. And it's. It's. It's.
It's one, like, six awards, like a couple of semi finalists in the Nashville Film Festival, you know, the Los Angeles Screenplay Awards and things like that. It's won a couple of quarter finalists and semi finalists and stuff.
Randy Florence:That's pretty cool.
Patrick Evans:So what's. When can we see a.
Slim Man:When might we see a movie?
Patrick Evans:Yeah.
Slim Man:You know, from my experience in the movie business, it could take, you know, a long time, and sometimes it could take, like, immediately, you know, the. The woman that just signed it, she. She just. She's starting a film in June, and it was. It just. It happened like that.
They signed Jessica Chastain to be the lead, and then she was. Oh, yeah, it was, like, just two weeks ago. We had nothing.
Patrick Evans:Once you get A star attached with a name. Bingo. That, you know, rises right to the top. So.
Slim Man:Yes. Very cool.
Patrick Evans:Congratulations. That's phenomenal.
Slim Man:Yeah. So we have a lot to talk.
Patrick Evans:You need to come back on Eye on the Desert. You haven't been on in a while.
Slim Man:Yeah, we got a lot of stuff to talk about. Yes, we do.
Patrick Evans:When's the third edition of the cookbook coming out?
Slim Man:You know, it's. It's. It's just a. It. The first two, because there's so extensive.
You know, I have to do videos for every one, and I have to cook every recipe at least three, four, or five times, because you got to tweak and make sure everything's good. And then, you know, there's a protocol in cookbooks. You have to order the list of ingredients always has to be in the order in which they're used.
Right. So it's complicated. And then the layout, design, I mean, it takes a lot of time.
And plus, in my cookbook, there's always a recipe and then there's a story. So I'll tell the story about how I got signed to Motown. I'll tell the story about Ronnie Dunn and Brooks and Dunn.
I'll tell the story about my grandmother Angela. So there's a story, then there's a recipe, then there's a QR code. It takes. It takes an extraordinary amount of effort.
Not that I'm afraid to do it, but it just takes a lot of time. It took me years to do the first one. Years, two, three years to do the second.
Randy Florence:Do you have any downtime?
Slim Man:You know, I don't. I can't think about the last time I've taken a vacation. I really haven't. I. You know, I mean, people say, God, it must be fun to be you.
I'm like, I don't think anybody would, like, look at me and go, wow, I'd love to work 12 hours a day, seven days a week. Except. Except that three hours on stage, you know, that's magic.
Patrick Evans:Yeah.
Slim Man:The other 21, but the three hours.
Patrick Evans:On stage shows, and people love it, and you love it, and they can tell how much you love, love it.
Slim Man:Yeah, I do. I love it. And to this day, I still love it. I can't wait. You know, it's just.
It's just magic for me to go on stage and sing and sing my own songs and even do, like, the rad pack stuff. I just love doing it. I love.
Patrick Evans:Well, you infuse every show with a lot of humor. You know, you're kind of this Low key guy who just injects some real fun into it. You make it fun for the audience, and you made it fun for audience.
Thank you very much.
Randy Florence:This has been a blast having you here today.
Slim Man:My pleasure. My pleasure. I don't know. I don't, I don't get out much. I don't get to talk. I don't get to talk to people that much.
Randy Florence:Can you tell which, which voice on the Rat Pack do you sing?
Slim Man:Oh, you know, I, I use my own voice. I sing these songs in my own voice.
Randy Florence:Okay.
Slim Man:And, you know, and so I just, I, I, for the Rat Pack show, I accumulate songs that resonate with me. And not only that, I love finding out the stories behind the songs.
Patrick Evans:So, you know, I did a show at the Annenberg with the big band.
Slim Man:Yeah, tell us.
Patrick Evans:Yeah, and I love that show because, of course, the songs were phenomenal. But the stories, because you do, you do the research, you know, the songs and every, every song had a story.
Slim Man:Yeah. Well, like, for instance, like what a Wonderful World. People go, oh, what a great. You know, what a great song.
It's like, no, it wasn't, you know, the, the, the record company wanted Lewis harmony song to follow up with hello, Dolly. Right. Hello, Dolly. Big, huge hit, Grammy Award winner, number one writing another hello, Dolly. Right. He comes up with what a Wonderful World.
The head of the record company was so angry, he refused to promote it in the United States, across the world. Number one, Australia, Europe, everywhere. Number one in the United States didn't sell a thousand copies.
It wasn't until later on in:So I'll tell a story like that before I, before I sing the song. So it's. Tell the story, sing a song. And that's, you know, that's. The Rat Pack show is kind of like that. But I sing them in my own voice.
Randy Florence:That's really cool. Do you have a particular story that really stands out that you would like to tell with the music?
Slim Man:Well, I mean, a. As far as, like, stories behind the.
Randy Florence:Song, behind the songs. One that really fast. I mean, the Louis Armstrong one, that's pretty amazing.
Slim Man:Yeah, but there's, you know, there, there are a million of them. Call me irresponsible. Always loved that song. It won an Oscar. Yeah, right. For best song in a movie. What's the movie?
It's with Jackie Gleason called Papa's Delicate Condition.
Patrick Evans:And Jackie Gleason wasn't the original person cast.
Slim Man:No, it was. Who was it? Like Fred Astaire or something? Yes. Yeah. So anyway, in the.
Randy Florence:Wait a minute. It went from Fred Astaire to Jackie Gleason.
Patrick Evans:Correct.
Randy Florence:That's a pretty big jump.
Slim Man:So in.
Patrick Evans:Well, it's about £300.
Slim Man:So the. So. So everybody knows the song, Call Me Irresponsible. Nobody knows the story behind the song. What an Oscar. Papa's Delicate Condition.
The reason why nobody knows the movie. Yeah, but the reason why he sings. Jackie Gleason sings this song. You can look it up on YouTube.
The reason why he sings this song is because he takes the family fortune and he buys a circus, Right? And his wife is really angry with him, like incredibly angry with him. And so he goes to her and he says. And he's drunk. Imagine that. He's drunk.
Call me irresponsible. Right. And then, you know, Frank Sinatra gets a hold of the tune, makes it into. Into something.
But, like, a lot of people don't know the, you know, the story behind the song. But, you know, there's a million stories like that, actually.
Randy Florence:That's cool.
Patrick Evans:It was originally written for Judy Garland.
Slim Man:Was it?
Patrick Evans:Call Me Irresponsible. And she was going to do it on a television special, but she was not well enough to do the TV special.
Randy Florence:A little cold or something. She had.
Patrick Evans:She had a little. Yeah, she had a thing.
Randy Florence:She had a thing.
Patrick Evans:But that.
Slim Man:And. And it ended up.
Patrick Evans:But it was. It. And so she was supposed to record it first, but then it was. It appeared in the movie and. And the rest is history. Slim, thank you so much, man.
Slim Man:It's been great. Thank you.
Patrick Evans:I want everybody to turn out. I mean, if you can get a. If you can get a seat, go to Vicky's on a Tuesday night and see Slim and his band. They're fantastic.
Randy Florence:I thought this was going to be our end, but it sounds like that maybe there still won't be seats if I show up.
Patrick Evans:I think I can get in.
Randy Florence:Can you?
Slim Man:Yeah.
Randy Florence:Okay.
Patrick Evans:You know.
Randy Florence:Will you take me?
Patrick Evans:FaceTime? You. You're gonna love it. You're gonna love it.
Randy Florence:Blocking your number right away, Slim.
Patrick Evans:You can see him at Vicky's of Santa Fe every Tuesday and at Larkspur Grill every Wednesday and often with your buddy Chase.
Slim Man:Yeah.
Patrick Evans:Who is also a fantastic musician.
Slim Man:Yeah, he is.
Patrick Evans:Slim, thank you so much. Best words, man. You're the epitome of cool, and we love having you on the show.
Slim Man:Thank you very much. Appreciate it. You thank you.
Patrick Evans:All right, my thanks to Our producer, John McMullen, Mr. Randy Florence, My great friend and a tremendous co host and sidekick really doesn't do you justice.
Randy Florence:I think it does.
Patrick Evans:They need a bigger word like big sidekick. A bigger sidekick. This is Big Conversations Little Bar. You can subscribe. Never miss an episode.
You can find us on all of your favorite podcast platforms. Thank you so much to our friends Skip Page and his team at Little Bar.
And we'll be back next time with with another edition of Big Conversations Little Bar.
Howard Hoffman, Announcer:Thanks for joining us on this episode of Big Conversations Little Bar recorded on location at Skip Page's Little Bar in Palm Desert, California and presented by the McCallum Theater online at mccallumtheater.org this program is a production of the Mutual Broadcasting System. All episodes are available from bigconversationslittlebar.com and most major podcast portals.
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