Ron Poisson - The Tempest Project - Cult of Individuality

Brian:
Hey, guys, welcome to another episode of Concerts That Made Us. I'm your host, Brian. And before we get into the show, the answer to last this week's trivia question was, of course, Kurt Cabin. Now for this week's trivia question, who featured on the cover story on the very first issue of Rolling Stone. And we've got another five star review. Five stars. Truly inspiring. This podcast is truly one in a million. It takes you deep into the music and provide such thoughtful, insight and fun along the way. It's the perfect podcast to sit back, relax and enjoy the ride. This review was left by Kartik 6457 on itunes. And don't forget, if you leave a five star review, it will be read out on the show. Now the reason you're all here. Let's get into this week's episode. My guest is Ron Poisson. Ron is known as the CEO and founder of Cult of Individuality Clothing, the number one clothing brand in the music industry. He's also the lead singer of The Tempest Project. This episode is epic and I can't wait for you to hear it. So without further Ado, let's get on with the show.

Brian:
Ron, you're very welcome to Concerts That Made Us. 

Ron:
Thank you very much. Appreciate you having me on. 

Brian:
I'm delighted to have you on. It's a first here for the podcast to have a fashion guru, so we might as well start off. Do you want to tell us about the cult of individuality? 

Ron:
Sure. In 2009, I started a clothing brand that has now really evolved to be one of the Premier performance brands in the music world. Actually, who's in Tempest, the drummer of Tempest from Also, Evanescence actually had said to me, it's a unique clothing line because it cross pollinates every genre and every ethnicity of music that's out there with zero stereotypes, which is a rarity. We started off as a denim brand. We are a complete lifestyle brand. And I'm blessed to have music icons and Legends of past and old and new adorning the brand from the likes of Tommy Lee with Motley Crue, Doff and Slash from Guns and Roses. You can go on to guys from Three Days Grace, Papa Roach, Bad Wolves, nothing more. Trayu. I mean, it's a slew of artists that have been part of the cult of Individuality community. And that's really how I became friends with Will Hunts and Doc Chris and Kyle of the band Bad Wolves, who are also on The Tempest Project. Yeah. When you start, did you set out from the start to become a clothing brand for musicians and is that the way you wanted it to go? Well, for me, we all in the back of our minds wish we could do something. I wish I could have had an opportunity. I've always been a music fiend, but earlier in my career, I was actually working in the surf industry. I worked for brands like Mossimo and Ocean Pacific. And what that taught me working for these brands is that you need to build something that has a living, breathing soul that really resonates with the end consumer, and it really applies to music. I mean, to me, music and clothing really go hand in hand. And in that surf industry, when I was there with Opina Masimo, it was that California lifestyle. So it didn't matter if people lived in Montana, Tennessee, where there was no ocean, if they wanted to be a part of that Cali vibe. They bought the clothing because it spoke volumes of who they were. Initially, when I started the brand, I started doing a lot of gift lounges. I did the rock and roll hall of fame. I did a lot of different things. And that's really where the introduction to the musicians came and meeting them, giving them some clothing. And then the word just really started to spread around, and I'm constantly hit up, hey, I'm on tour. So and so saw me wearing the brand. Sees the whole band wearing the brand. They love it. Can I hook you up? And I mean it's every week, especially with the music world reopening and people going back on tour. I see it now. I'm being hit all the time. Hey, I'm with Hollywood undead Danny. He loves stuff. You want to hook them up or going on tour? Like, yeah, let's go. And it's really a blessing. But like I said, it's not relegated to just rock and metal and grunge. It's legendary country musicians, hip hop musicians, the Latin worlds, and reggae Tong all wearing the brand. So it really is a unique brand, and I'm proud and I'm proud of the people that I now can call friends, that I've become friends with the clothing line. That's actually something I noticed myself. I was looking through your website as the products, and there's literally something there for everybody. It's not something that you're looking at, and you're like, oh, I can see a rock star. You know, I can see Tommy Lee wearing this. There's literally you could see a country star, as you said. You could see a hip hop, a rapper, even a pop star. Warning, there's literally something there for everyone. I'm constantly being introduced to new people that are coming in young generations. I made a mistake back early in the brand, which I started in 2009. I was invited to style Justin Bieber for a party. And I thought back, I'm like Justin Bieber. I don't know. It's kind of pop. It's not really my thing. Shame on me for not being a part of that. And same thing. Miley Cyrus back in the day when she was Hannah Montana. They were doing a 16th birthday party and they wanted to do things to closing the whole thing. I was doing women's closing back then as well and that was an opportunity that I passed on because I didn't think it really fit the demographic of who we are as a brand. So shame on me for those things. I don't really pass up on opportunities now because you never know. And I have some younger generation people that are coming through that are influences and style makers and they're 2 million followers, 5 million followers. And you know what? They all come into the brand. And like you said, there's something for everyone in this clothing line. A lot of my rock stars come in and they want to go a little more street where I have my hip hop guys that come in. They're like Ron, trust me, like a rock star. And it's unique. I mean my father is 75 years old and he wears the Polo shirts and the shorts and the jeans. There's something literally in there for everybody and unique. I'm doing beer collaborations. So I have a craft brew out with a Venezuelan brewing company out of Miami. I just did a cannabis collaboration with a cannabis company out of California called Lemonade and Cookies doing hot sauces. So I'm trying to penetrate everybody's household some way somehow. If it's not the clothing that you're buying or you can afford, but maybe there's other. Maybe it's a hat or maybe you want to drink the beer or whatever it is, I just want to be able to infiltrate the home in some way. 

Brian:
A good business plan anyway. So at this stage we'll jump back to get a sense of your early musical influences. Can you remember your very first musical memory? 

Ron:
Yeah. You know what I was in, I would say probably between first grade or third grade and we were having a talent show in school and I remember getting up in front of everybody and singing a Capella Beth by Kiss. Oh man, yeah, I remember that like it was yesterday and that was probably then joining an elementary school, joining the choir and singing in the choir. But I mean that singing death in front of everybody. I just got goosebumps thinking about it actually. That was my very first memory. But I grew up, I grew up in Rhode Island, in the northeast in the US. And my parents back then, they were listening to the BGS and Elton John and Helen Ready and Donna Summer and there was a lot of disco and a lot of that vein. And I started kind of sliding into Led Zeppelin myself. I started going toward the rock scene and then I was influenced by a lot of hair bands back then. It was the White Snake and Deaf Leopard and Tesla and that, man, I really sat into it. But for me I didn't really find my sweet spot in my Lane of music until the 90s until really that Seattle sound. I was into Motley Crue and I was into Poison and a lot of that stuff. But it was that 90s. And when I moved to New York City in 1991, there was a music store called H and M Music. It was right on the corner of my block. And I would come home from work working at Ocean Pacific, and I pop in there once a week or twice a week. And that was back then. They had these we recommend sections. You go in and you see the CDs. Back then when people were buying CDs and the headphones are there and you put the headphones on, you listen, I remember first being exposed to Pearl Jam ten that in here. And now I'm like, Holy shit, this is really good. I've never heard that. I'm going to buy that. And then it was Stone Temple Pilots and Candle Box and Nirvana. That genre, that sound was really the most impactful for me. I found where I'm happy, my comfort zone. Yeah. What was about the 90s sound that spoke to you? Well, I could sing along with a lot of it because a lot of those singers, whether it was Eddie Better or they all had baritone, it was the energy, the angst, the rebellious nature about it. It was a nonconformity, so to speak. Right. And then there was that whole fashion trend that was coming. It was the loose fitting jeans, the Plaid shirts, the grunge. I just slid right into that whole Seattle vibe. Living in New York City, I'm like, yeah, I can relate to this. I like this whole thing and mother love bone and sound guard and so forth. Yeah. It was definitely more than just music. It was an entire scene and an entire lifestyle, wasn't it? Absolutely. To me, when it was one of the most influential. I mean, decades for me, music wise, the sound changes this day and age and what's coming up. Yeah. When you were younger, did you have any aspirations to be in a band or be a singer? No. Actually, what I wanted to be was a marine biologist really is what I wanted to be. Yeah. But I was very artistic, and my parents pushed me towards the art field because I was good. I was an excellent drawer, and I was accepting to an art school, but I declined it. And I went to a school that had a great marine biology. But the music wasn't the thing that I was going after. I wasn't in a band. It wasn't really until I moved to New York. I had a roommate that was playing guitar, and he played in the band, and there was an open mic night at CBGB's in the city, and I could sing. So I got up there and sang a song at CBG. I'm like, oh, wow, this is pretty cool. And then I started to have some delusions of grandeur. I'm like, I think I could do this, but nothing ever really happened. And you fast forward really 20 years later. Here we are now. And again, it's due to the clothing connection to all these musicians. And truth be told, even when I was meeting all of these musicians and I became friends and were hanging out and drinking, I actually kept my personal life separate. I never mentioned that I was in a band because I was hanging out with professional musicians. What am I? I'm a clothing guy. I don't want to be that. I didn't want to be that guy. Like, hey, yeah, I'm in a band, too. Hey, you want to listen to this? Check this out. Because I'm in a cover band here in Long Island in New York, and we do. We played most of that 90s, Metallica, Pearl, GM, STP, Nirvana, that type of stuff. But I never mentioned to anyone. Then my marketing team said to me, like, Ron, you need to get a social media going. You need to get an Instagram going, because people want to know who's behind the brand. And I'm like, really? I don't want to do that. So I ended up doing that. And then slowly, I started posting some music videos of my cover band playing out in Long Island. And that's when people are like, I didn't know you were in a band. I didn't know you could sing to you, dude, you got some pipes. I'm like, yeah, it's just a hobby. It's just something on the side that later led to during Covet when everything was shut down, I was sitting back with my marketing team, and I was actually going into the office in New York City when it was completely locked down. And I was going in twice a week and doing podcasts, and I was getting all musicians. Like I said, everybody on the podcast an hour. I'd have three different musicians on. And that was when we were like, man, maybe we should do something while everyone's got some downtime. I'm like, what do you want to do? I don't know. Pull out a cover or two. Let's have some fun while we're down. I'm like, all right, who else is going to do it with us? He goes, I can get a bunch of guys if you want. I'm like, well, let me reach out to my guys on Bad Wolves and see what they're doing. And that's what Doc, Chris and Kyle, the bass player and two guitars like, yeah, we're down. What do you want to do? And we cover a tool in my cover band so I'm like, I could sing sober. You want to do that? Let's do that. And then we started tossing around other songs, and we had mentioned some Slipknot songs and didn't really make a decision on that. We recorded it individually. Each of us went to a studio because Will lives in Orlando. The Drama from Evanescence lives in Orlando. And Three Bad Wolves, Chris, Kyle and Dock are all in California. So we all recorded individually, sent it to Will. He had a guy who does work for Evanescence who produced it, mixed it all, and we were like, all right, what else do we want to do? And shortly after, Joe from Slipknot had passed away. So, like, Ron, you mentioned Slipknot. I had never seen Slipknot in my life. I just love the band. So we decided to do Debt Memories as a tribute to Joey. So we recorded that, finished that up, and I sent it over to Jose Megan at Sirius XM, who does liquid metal and octane and Lithium and whatnot. He's like, Ron, this is really good. What are you calling it? What are you doing? I'm like calling it nothing. It was a little fun project on the side. He's like, well, you got to give it a name. And I need music videos. I'm like, what do you need music videos for? Jose? You are on the radio. He's like, Because when we put this on the radio and we're going to put it on three stations, a cover channel, liquid Metal and Octane, people are going to want to listen, then go search and check out the music videos and whatnot. All right, so I reach out to him. Jose wants us to do some music videos. They hit up the guys like, all right, we'll go in and just record. So we all just kind of recorded individually. And then I had my marketing team mix it and did really two kick ass music videos on it. Then we'll send it over to Pavement Records. That's how we're talking now. Pavement Records. Like, wow, this is great. What are you going to do with it? Will says to Tim Pavement, who's also in Soil, he's like, what are you going to do with it? What do you want to do? I want to run with it and promote it. So we're like, all right, man, let's do it. Here we are now we're getting traction on some Billboard charts in the US and in the UK and whatnot. And we're all kind of sitting back scratching our heads and like, wow, never really thought this was going to happen. Will's been on Wills. I wish he was here now talking with us. But like I said, he's flying back from Minneapolis. He's on the road also with Slaughter. He does some stuff in Slaughter right now, so he's flying back. He's stuck, actually, because they have snowstorms out in the Midwest. I lost my train of thought. But yeah, they're out on tour. Evanescence has a killer record right now called The Bitter Truth, which is phenomenal on the chart, is getting a lot of airplay, and Bad Wolves is gearing up now to go on tour with their new singer DL, because Tommy Vex is no longer in abandoned they have the record Deer Monsters Out Now, which is also Kill. Everyone needs to check that out. 

Brian:
Yeah, it's an epic song. I'm personally a fan of Bad Wolves and I was a little worried about what way we're going to go with the whole Tommy Vext situation. Oh, man. When I heard their new music, any worries I had were put to bed very quickly. 

Ron:
I was sad to see them split up with bands or difficult dynamics. And Tommy is going to make his way on his solo career. And these guys picked up a phenomenal singer in DL. And like I said, they're such amazing human beings and even just phenomenal musicians. I feel that they didn't really miss a beat, but it's tough. It's tough to change the front, man. It is. It can be the end of a band. A lot of times it's a really tight band to kind of forced away. True that and continue on. Exactly. But yeah, listening to your guy's songs, the first thing that struck me was, oh my God, the vocals on this. How has this guy made a true life without becoming the biggest rock star out there? You can really sing. Thank you. My wife, we're sitting here right now. She said, don't say that, don't say how. It's big enough as it is. It has a hard time fitting through the door. But again, for me it's great to have a creative outlet that is not something that's required to put food on the table. And that's what the band is about for me, with the cover band and of course, with this project. For me, it was a feather in the cap to say, wow, I was listening to Evanescence back in the day and with Bad Wolves, relatively new, they struck it when they did the cover of Zombie by the Cranberries, which went multi platinum. And again, for me, I'm proud to be having friends again, calling friends that are professional musicians. Wearing my clothing was great to be able to do something with them. Just as fun, just as funny, really. And it's now leading to some other things. Some people have been like, what are you guys going to do next? Are you going to tour? Are you going to do something original? Well, touring is probably not going to happen, though. If Bad Wolves and Evanescence ever ended up in the same build, then we could slide something in, but kind of two different styles of music. So I don't see that. I know Evanescence is on tour with Hailstorm Now and Plush Man, which is a bunch of young girls, very talented. It's nice to see a younger generation coming in kind of classic rock sound. So they're on tour there. But Chris Cain, one of the guitars some Bad Wolves keeps throwing out, hey man, let's do a couple of originals. Let's do something original. So I know those fellas and Will are kind of exchanging riffs and things right now on the side while they're out and about on tour. So there will be something, at least one original song to come, which we're excited about. And the thing about the Tempest Band or Tempest Project, as a lot of people are calling it, is that because it's a collaborative effort, it could fluctuate. It might be different musicians kind of come in, maybe a different bass players slide in or different guitars kind of slide in to predicate it on the band schedules. So there might be different people come in and slide in and do a little bit. So we'll see. It's fun. We'll see what happens. No pressure actually, right? No pressure. 

Brian:
Yeah. It's crazy to think that it's just a few friends having some fun and it just took legs and ran away. You didn't set out for it to be the next big thing. It's almost like something you'd see in a movie. 

Ron:
Yeah. It is a little surreal. And quite honestly, it never would have happened. There's a lot of negative with COVID, but there are silver linings with COVID. There were a lot of musicians. There's a lot of great music that's coming out right now that people took the opportunity with the downtime to really get creative and do some things. And maybe they wouldn't have had that opportunity if it weren't covered with the concerts and the festivals and that was going on. So for sure, Tempest never would have happened if everybody's schedules were normal and they were doing their thing. So that is a silver lining. Yeah. It must be kind of you feel like you're the guy saying, come on, guys, pull your act together and let's focus on this band. It must be hard with the guys having their own bands and touring and different schedules to kind of get together and work on something. Of course. Yes and no. Because when you're hitting a six week or an eight week hitting multi cities on the road, these guys get exhausted and they're in and out. So having time to ride or whatever gets a little difficult. But again, the way we're approaching this, there's no pressure. You know what? There's no pressure. You guys get a little creative thing going, bounce it off, send it around. And that's the brave new world we're in. The fact that all this was recorded separately, we were never in a room together. The fact of the matter is we did a music video release event that was virtual about two weeks ago for the two videos that are on YouTube with Dead Memories and Sober and Will Doc, Chris and Cal never even saw each other face to face. This is the first time, virtually that we've talked via text we've exchanged, but they've never been on the phone saying, hey, what's up? And they said that, of course they knew each other and respected, but they never actually sat in a room or actually even talked to each other. So it's kind of crazy how this really came to pass. 

Brian:
Yeah, a lot of people give up with technology these days, but when it comes to the music world, it's great that people from different sides of the planet even can actually collaborate, make a song. It's something that you could only dream of years ago. It is crazy. And so many people used to have to go to recording Studios and people have these guys in their houses or in their basements or in their garage.

Ron:
It's a brave new world. How music is being made, how music is being distributed. It's crazy. It's exciting and scary sometimes. I like the old school. I missed going in the music store and buying the vinyl or buying the cassette and looking at the lyrics and opening it up. And again, I remember buying the Kiss albums and open those things and look at what's going on. It was an experience. You don't have that experience now. And it's downloaded stream, itunes, Spotify, YouTube. It's crazy, but it's creating opportunities for people as well. Yeah. The flip side of it though is that you tend to notice not very often though, but you do tend to notice there's people getting access to release music that maybe shouldn't be. You know, I suppose that's the other side of the coin. The other thing that's happening. I have some friends that are in the music industry and this whole NFT world, right. This whole Metaverse world that's happening right now. So I have some friends that are not releasing music on Spotify and itunes and YouTube, but what they're doing is they're selling an NFT. And with the NFT comes three singles that are unreleased. So artists are now they actually can go out and sell that X amount for X amount. And I have an opportunity to make a stream of income coming that way and not relying solely on the spins on itunes and Spotify. So everything's evolving and changing so fast, really. It's and interesting to kind of learn and listen. I like to be a student of the industry and just absorb as much as I can. It was bound to happen though because that's one of the worst things about the music industry nowadays is Spotify, itunes, how much they actually pay the artists like a couple of cents for a play. So it was bound to happen that they'd come up with some way of being able to be paid and be paid rightly for their work. 100% artists rely on the touring is a big thing, right? So when these artists weren't able to tour and selling the tickets and selling the merch, it was very, very difficult. Then you take you can dive into the artist can still make a little bit of money from the songs being played and YouTube and whatever. But think about all the Rhodey's and all the Hecks. They're not getting anything. So they miss for two years, all this road and travel and work and they're sitting home and squid on the thumbs like, what am I going to do? So for sure. Yeah. Challenge. Yeah, that's actually something. Over here in Ireland, a lot of the royalties and the pick kind of left the industry because they couldn't hang on. We were actually, I think one of the first countries to close off live music was gone for almost two years. It was just allowed back, I think, before Christmas. But a lot of those guys left the industry. And now there's actually they're calling for new guys to enter the industry. Yeah. It's going to be interesting now to get back to normal and have concerts the way they used to be. Exactly. I'm living in New York City, and New York City still is an area right now that's been avoided for live music because of covet and the strict guidelines of what's going on here. Most of the bands who have been coming have been detouring. They're hitting New Jersey, they're hitting Connecticut, they're hitting Pennsylvania. But they've been staying away from New York City, which has bumped me out a little bit, though. Tomorrow night I'm going to go see Tool over here in Long Island. So I'm excited to see them play, which has been tougher in New York. And the way you say, a lot of bands are avoidance, where the restrictions tougher than everywhere else in the country? I think New York and La, we're two areas that were a little challenging. It's all the politics, right. It's what the rules and the guidelines they're setting. And I've been going to a lot of shows and every venue is different. Every tour is different because with these tours, whether the manager is saying, listen, a big part of touring with these artists is a lot of this what they call the VIP access for fans to be able to come back and do meet and greets and hang out. And it's a big part of the experience. And a lot of either some managers have been like, that's not going to happen because we can't afford for anybody to get sick. Some venues were doing their own rapid tests backstage. So you went backstage, you did a rapid test. If that cleared, then you could go backstage and hang out with the band but still wear a mask. Some venues will just show your vaccine card, show you a vaccinated, then you can go. So it's different everywhere. There's no one set rules, no one set guideline. Each band or each venue is kind of setting their own rules and dictating how they proceed. Yeah. Well, hopefully it'll be back to normal very soon. But what would it take then for the music to become your main day job, so to speak? Wow. Yeah. Boy, I don't know. I guess if it keeps going, if it keeps growing. Listen, my marketing team just called me just yesterday and they said to me, hey, are you available to travel to Atlanta? I'm like, for what? And there's actually a big hip hop producer. His name is Drummer, and he's working on you see a lot of music with rock and hip hop kind of crossing paths. And he's working with a pretty reputable hip hop artist, I can't say right now. And he wants some vocals on the hooks and some of the chorus for his track. I'm like, okay, I'll come down. So didn't really expect that. Again, we'll see. It's just no expectations. It's just whatever. So I'm going to fly down to Atlanta and do that. I guess if everything happens naturally, we'll see time hotel, because I still run my multi million dollar business, designing and sales and marketing and all that. If music starts to pick up and I start traveling more, then I'll have to funnel somebody in to kind of run that business a little bit, but stay by date. Again, blessed to have this have a problem of having to choose and spread time. It's a blessing. Yeah. I've seen even my local rock band that's starting because local radio stations have been doing stuff here and they're hyping up the cover band now. And I'm getting to a venue to go play. Like, Holy shit, the place is packed. We get a good crowd, but not the size crowds that we're getting now because couple of the local radio stations, it's exciting. My wife's like, you are one lucky individual. I definitely am lucky. 

Brian:
Yeah, definitely. Maybe you should start a new band and call it the Luckiest Man on Earth. 

Ron:
Right. 

Brian:
Or maybe that could be your first song with that you guys write. 

Ron:
Yeah, the first original. Yeah. 

Brian:
One thing you mentioned your cover band Fools for Kings, one thing that's always intrigued me with cover bands. I haven't had any cover bands on the podcast, but I've been dying to ask, is there a need are you satisfied singing other people's songs or is there a creative need to do your own sort of music? 

Ron:
You know, again, there was a lot of people that kept saying to me, what are you guys going to do before Tempest? When are you going to do something original? Yeah, there's only so much time in a day, I get a lot of gratification. Again, I wasn't doing the cover band for money. That wasn't why I was doing it. I love to sing. I love to perform. I love to see people sit back and, oh, my God, I never hear the song out live. Oh, my God. It brings me back to those days because again, we're playing 90s. So when you start, when you start pulling out Nirvana or Smashing Pumpkins or whatnot the average people like, it's nostalgic for them. And I see them singing along and I see them smiling. It's very gratifying. It's very gratifying. Does it give you the itch to do something? Yeah, sometimes that itch just disappears. And I'm like, I'm happy with making my clothing line, traveling around and coming out and jamming and making people happy while they're drinking a beer. It's gratifying enough for me. And my wife will always say, don't let the band take priority over the brand. She's like, the brand is the first. That's the first thing. That's what pays our bills. That's what puts a roof over the head that's put the kids through College. Don't let that. But then she kind of sits back. She's like, Holy, Holy. People really like you. She's like, I'm tired of people coming at the gigs, tired of people coming up to me. Oh, my God, he's so good. He's such a good thing. Oh, my gosh, I get so tired of hearing it. All right, whatever, buddy. Yeah. It creates an edge, to answer your question, but so much going on. And I guess I just keep liking back to the fact that maybe that's why things are going smoothly, because there are no expectations. Yeah, it's just whatever. And it's kind of foot loose and fancy free and kind of taking it like that. And maybe sometimes in life, some things we try to force, we try to force and listen. I don't mind saying my age, I'm 52 years old. I started singing six years ago. Six years ago in a band. I mean, never mind the school stuff, but in a band. So at 46 years old, some people scratching their head, they're like, wow, you're really a late bloomer. It's just whatever. We're as old or as young as we think we are, and then we just kind of live. So my advice to anybody out there that listens to the show or whatnot is just whatever, if you love it, you can do it. Just follow the passion and just go. Just do whatever. 
Just try. 

Brian:
Keep pushing forward. 

Ron:
Exactly. Yeah. 

Brian:
So what are the future plans then, for both the Clothing brand and The Tempest Project? If you can share any, 

Ron:
I'll start with the clothing brand, but the clothing brand, we're focusing on really global distribution, expanding. So we want to start opening our own brick and mortar stores. So independent because mostly what we sell are independent specialty stores and Department stores, but we want to start opening up our own stores. So we're actually looking at a few locations in Paris and London and Tokyo in the USA and then continuing to grow again. The lifestyle. I want to do Cologne, we do everything. Sunglasses, slides, bathing suits, towels, bathrobes. Like I said, candles, beer, cannabis. Everything is continuing to build the lifestyle, the brand, around the culture, really focusing around the music industry. And then the band Tempest. Like I said, it's the next logical thing for us is to start working on original content, and we're not sitting back and we're saying two songs, three songs, four songs, five songs. Let's get one song down. Yeah, let's see how that goes. There was a saying that was said to me the other day, and this old man is riding a horse, and he's on the horse. He was like, I don't know where to go. I don't know which way to go. I don't know what to do. And the horse is like, can you see in front of you? The old man is like, yeah, just take that first step. Just take that first step and keep moving. And I think that's it with the band. The first step was putting something out there for fun, and it seems to have resonated a little bit with us. So now the next thing is let's see if an original has the same impact. Maybe it does, maybe it doesn't. But let's start there one step at a time. 

Brian:
I have a funny feeling that it will definitely work out anyway. 

Ron:
Well, thank you. I hope so. 

Brian:
And I'll move on to the last couple of questions. So everybody gets these questions. I'm afraid so you can't get off the podcast to the answer. 

Ron:
Okay. 

Brian:
If you could see any performer or artist from history in concert for one night only, who would it be? 

Ron:
One night only? It's a loaded question, right. Because you can look at it from a personal music taste or you can look at it from just icons that were just bigger than life, right? Yeah, I guess I'll answer a couple of ways. So I would have loved to have again. I go back, way back. Zeppelin was one of my most influential. When I looked at Jimmy Paige and Robert Plant and how they transcended and their lyrics and their sound, to me, I would love to have seen Led Zeppelin at one point. But then from a pure entertainer, icon, Michael Jackson would have been pretty impressive. Pretty impressive to see live. Yes. I mean, just as a showman, as a legend, as an icon, what do you accomplish? Probably, I'd have to say. Those two. 

Brian:
Yeah. I think you couldn't get much better than the two. You've picked the best of both worlds, really. The pop world, the rock world. 

Ron:
Yes. 

Brian:
The next one. So it's another tough one. If you had to be locked in a room for 24 hours with any performer for history, who would it be? 

Ron:
24 hours for any performer in history. That is a tough one. Hold on. You know what I have to say, Paul McCartney. Really? I wasn't expecting this. No. And I'll tell you what, until recently, I probably wouldn't have said that. And I'll confess this out loud. I mean, I've never actually been a huge Beatles fan. And for no reason, for whatever reason, I just didn't want to listen. But I just recently watched their documentary that was done by JJ Abrams or Peter Jackson. Peter Jackson. And I got to tell you, impressive. I mean, as an artist, as a songwriter, the passion to sit and watch how they created that documentary was just phenomenal. And I think I could learn so much to be able to sit 24 hours with Paul McCartney. 

Brian:
Yeah. He's probably the one rock star where 24 hours probably isn't enough. You know, you'd probably go back for a second or third time, but what about John Lennon then? Does he not get a look in? 

Ron:
Well you said one. I mean, if I could have the both in a room together for sure, I would take both together. But if it was only one, it would be Paul McCartney. 

Brian:
Yeah. So if there was a song that could appear on the soundtrack to your life, what would it be? 

Ron:
Wow. You've got some deep and interesting questions, A song that could be the soundtrack of my life. I'm stumped right now. I'm stumped. It's a good question. It's going to make me think about it. But I don't know if I have an answer right now. As long as they can be the soundtrack of my life. I don't know why I just sit back here and my wedding song is your song by Elton John. And that just comes to my head. But it's not the song. I don't know, man. I don't know if I can answer that one. I'm sorry. It's a deep thought provoking, really. It's a thought provoking because you're really digging in lyrically. I feel for that. And what hits home. And I'm sure when we're done this, I'm going to get off like, oh, wait, I found it. I know what it is, and I can't right now. I can't think of it right now. I'm sorry. 

Brian:
No problem. It's kind of unfair to spring it on you as well at the same time. 

Ron
Yeah. If you had emailed me that, I would have been ready. I would have thought about it a little bit and been ready. But I'm sorry. 

Brian:
No problem. No problem. And finally, what do you do to relax when you're not doing the clothes or the music? What do you like to do? 

Ron:
I play video games. I'm really a kid, man. I jump on Call of Duty and I'm playing War Zone. Call of Duty. Honestly, if I'm not able to do things with my family, whether it's boating in the summertime, we're out boating. We'll anchor the boat and swim and chill and enjoy with friends, getting drunk and whatnot. But if it's not bad, if I'm in my house and I'll jump on Call of Duty and run around, actually, I can't even say it's a stress release because I do get pissed of people killing me all the time. They're probably ten years old, but it is one of the only times that I could actually put the headset on. It's not music. It's not clothing. It's not just where I just decompress and just immerse myself in that world and play. So that would be it. 

Brian:
Well, that was actually another unexpected answer I would never in a millionaire's expected to say you played video games. 

Ron:
Yeah, it's changed. It used to be. It never was. First person shooter or third person shoot was always sports. Used to be John Madden, NBA 2K and playing with. I used to play with dudes from the TV show Entourage playing because I talk a lot of trash because of John Madden. I was pretty damn good at John Madden. So I talk trash to everybody, and I'd be getting these actors and musicians online and kicking their Ass. But now it's moved over toward the Call of Duty. 

Brian:
And the very last one, is there something I should have asked you about but didn't.

Ron:
No. I mean, you were thorough. You linked in the clothing, and I'm a talker man. So sometimes I don't give people an opportunity to ask a lot of questions, but then at the end, they're like, all right, well, you kind of set it all. You asked everything, you got the inspiration, the influences, what we're going to do next, how I got into it, I mean, really, actually how I got into my cover band. People say, how did you get into your cover band? We're sitting at the house one day, and I have two kids and mutual parents that we're friends with, and we're sitting here, and one of my son's friends parents called up and said, hey, what are you guys doing once you come over to the house, the husbands are in the garage jamming, and people brought their coolers, and they're drinking. We're sitting in the backyard the summer day hanging out, and my wife's like, oh, I should tell Ron. Ron thinks she can sing. She's really just coming to terms with that because in all fairness, I would always say to her, we'd be in the car, because the only time I ever seen was in the car. And I'm like, I missed my calling. I missed my call. And she was like, you didn't miss your call on your calling is clothing? She was not that I don't think you could do it. She didn't think you have the mental make up for rejection with the music industry. I'm not sure you have that. Not as you said. But now she's changed her tune a little bit. So we go over to the house, and these guys are jamming in the garage and whatnot, and you want to jump in? I'm like, I don't play any instrument. All I can do is sing. Okay. I pulled out the lyrics on the phone, and we started jamming some stuff. I mean, it was a Zeppelin. It was probably a Pearl Jam and something they're like, Dude, you can sing. I'm all right. About a week later, one of the guys hits me up. He's like, we're thinking about putting a band together. Would you want to come down? I'm like, yeah, why not? And that was six years ago, and that's what led to the cover band. Now yeah with the music. Now has your wife uttered the words, yes, I didn't marry a rock star. My wife utters the words this guy is not who I married all the time. If you look back when we first started dating, I had long hair. Then I cut the hair Because she didn't like it so I went really short again. I was a little more surfer kind of a guy. So with the board shorts all the time and the flip flops and whatnot and my attire has changed with the advent of my own clothing brand and really immersing more into the music scene and looking the way I do and the hair has become a little signature. You walk into a place like I saw you coming from a mile away around there's the hair so all the time says that all the time. And like I said, she hates when the band's playing and people are coming up to her. She's like, oh, they're so good. Your husband's so good. He hates it. Please. His head is big enough as it is.

Brian:
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Hey, what are you guys still doing here? The show is over. It's over. You can go home. Go on. We'll see you next time. We'll be here. Bye.