Chris:
“Take your dreams seriously,” words spoken by our guest Matthew Starr on another episode of the Get Overit podcast today. Now, dream is defined as a cherished admiration or ambition, and ambition is a strong desire to achieve something. Nothing in those definitions suggests dreams are unattainable. So why has our dreams gotten so entangled with this idea that they are inherently not reachable and so far out of our reach? Our guest today had a passion from day one and a dream to leverage that passion. And sure enough, he realized that dream after a long journey. Your dreams are not impossible. Your dreams are in fact attainable, but only if you take them seriously. So what do you say? Enough talk, let’s Get Overit.
Chris:
All right. So our guest today on the podcast is Matt Starr. Matt Starr is a drummer, singer, producer, career coach, and public speaker. So Matt is an excellent guest to be on the Get Overit podcast with a really cool story that he’s going to talk to us about in just a second. As a drummer, Matt has built a reputation for working with some of rock’s most influential musicians, including Ace Frehley of Kiss, which is just incredible, Paul Gilbert and Mr. Big. I mean the list … he’s worked with members of Guns and Roses, Bon Jovi, Whitesnake. So it’s really cool for me to talk to him about not only that and hear a little bit about what that life’s like, but then how Matt sort of pivoted a little bit. He took this into creating a workshop, turning passion into a career that has taken him around the world, speaking to musicians and non-musicians in academic and corporate settings, becoming a real motivational speaker, a coach, if you will.
Chris:
And we’re going to talk to Matt about where that came out of this career of being a musician. And we’re going to do that right now on the Get Overit podcast. So Matt, welcome to the show.
Matt Starr:
Thanks for having me.
Chris:
I always say, before I tend to interview new people for the show, I don’t know them at all. I know of them, what I read. Or I know of them what I hear. And the first thing when I talked to Dan Dinsmore, the owner of Overit, that sort of led me your way, see you as a musician and I’m reading about that. But then I also see this as a coach, as a motivational speaker. And a lot of times, the two don’t go together. Can we start, just introduce yourself, and then I want to start with the musician part and talk about where that started in you when you were young.
Matt Starr:
Yeah, sure. Currently drummer with Ace Frehley from Kiss. Worked with a lot of other talented folks. Played with a band called Mr. Big, Joe Lynn Turner from Rainbow. And like you said, you got all the bio stuff there, but yeah, having it merged into a career coaching thing was … that’s an interesting story and something that I certainly was confused by as well. And I said, “Can I be the rock and roll guy and then be the coach?” Because I don’t I don’t picture Keith Moon doing coaching. Come to the bar and I’ll tell you how I got started, but that’s about it. So yeah, it was a challenge for me just in my mind to really understand how can I do both things.
Chris:
A lot of kids dream of being a rockstar. It’s one of those things. People like music. They’re young and they have this feeling like they want to be in music. They want to be a rockstar. Did you have that when you were young? Was it always something that you saw yourself at or was aspiring to be?
Matt Starr:
Yeah. I got clear on that when I was about eight years old. I didn’t realize what had happened in that moment, but I’m actually on the street that I grew up at, outside my folks’ place here.
Chris:
That’s awesome.
Matt Starr:
Yeah. So this is right where it happened. And a friend up the street, Scott Kabbalah had records and turned me on to Cheap Trick and a bunch of other bands. But at the very beginning, he had a Kiss album called Kiss Alive Two. It came out in ’77. You open it up, it’s their stage show with the smoke and the flames and the sparks. And these dudes looking really cool and up on risers. And I just was like, I just saw that, and I got a feeling from that, that I had never gotten from anything else before. And I’ve never gotten from anything else since. It was just a knowing and an absolute, just like from my heart, just, yes. And so-
Chris:
Well, first of all, that’s so interesting that you mentioned kiss as one of these founding moments in your life and you’ve come full circle now being able to play with someone from that same sort of experience. That’s pretty awesome.
Matt Starr:
Yeah. Three out of the four guys that were in that photo I’ve played with.
Chris:
That’s awesome. That’s incredible.
Matt Starr:
And I will somehow figure out how to play with Peter Criss, who is the drummer, but we’ll work it out. So yeah, that was it. I had just had that absolute knowing. And again, at the time I didn’t realize, oh, I found my life’s calling. I found out why I’m here on earth. I found out what I’m here to do, but that was the clarity. And nothing else gave me that feeling. So going through high school looking at options and talking about colleges or jobs and seeing what other people did for work, I just thought, God, that looks awful. It’s so not interesting to me at all in any way, shape, or form. I just never lost that feeling. And I just stayed true to it. I said, “Oh, I guess this is who I am. I’m just going to do this,” which it’s just an acceptance.
Chris:
What was your first step in that? You accept it, what do you do? You don’t just get to play with Ace from Kiss. There’s a progression.
Matt Starr:
Right.
Chris:
Right. What’s your first step and how do you navigate that?
Matt Starr:
Again, I didn’t have clarity as to the magnitude of what that moment meant. But for me, I was just obsessed with … at the time it was Kiss, but ultimately it became music and rock and roll and playing music. So wanted to get a guitar, found one in the JC Penny catalog. Depending on how old you are-
Chris:
Yeah, I know. Yup.
Matt Starr:
… you may or may not know what that was.
Chris:
Yup.
Matt Starr:
That was like a telephone book.
Chris:
Know that.
Matt Starr:
That was the analog Amazon. You know what I mean? Like old school.
Chris:
That’s exactly what it was.
Matt Starr:
Right. And way ahead of their time.
Chris:
So true.
Matt Starr:
You’ve got everything from tires to guitars to blow dryers to a bed.
Chris:
Hell yeah.
Matt Starr:
And I found a guitar in there and I asked for it for Christmas. And I thought I was getting it and I didn’t get it. And my mom, like a week later was sick of watching me mope around the house. And she said, “Why don’t you take up drumming? You could play drums in the sixth-grade school band.” And I didn’t want to because I wanted to play guitar, but eventually, I came around to it. So then I got an instrument. I started playing drums. And just, I lasted about three weeks in school band because I realized they weren’t going to play any Kiss songs, but the passion for the music was there. And I just, I was obsessed. I would come home from school, go up in my room. And when I was younger, it meant laying on the floor and drawing pictures of Kiss and listening to records, Cheap Trick, Aerosmith, Iron Maiden, Kiss, all that. Eventually, once I started playing, it was coming home, running upstairs as fast as I could, playing drums until dinner, have dinner, run out of the kitchen back upstairs. Play until-
Chris:
And you would throw on the tracks and you would play to them. Were you just like freestyling?
Matt Starr:
Yeah.
Chris:
Yeah, that’s … Okay. Cool.
Matt Starr:
Yeah. I mean, sometimes I’d mess around and try and do a drum solo thing, but usually, I was playing along the records and it just-
Chris:
Yup.
Matt Starr:
And again, not realizing this, but I was visualizing, I was imagining I was on stage with Kiss. I was in Kiss. I was in Cheap Trick. I was on stage with Aerosmith and I would be playing and imagine Joe Perry is over there. And he looks at me and I’m like, “hey.” Like, I’m just a kid. So the way kids would pretend that they’re GI Joe or Superman, I was pretending that I was on stage with these rock stars. You know?
Chris:
So when did you get that, the proverbial sort of break? When did you get that, where you were like, “Okay, I might have a shot here. This is really happening”? When was that?
Matt Starr:
Well, I think just around 14, just playing out and actually doing it. We would go to the Hartford Civic Center and we’d see Iron Maiden, Twisted Sister, Dokken, Ratt, Kiss, Queensryche, all these are hard rock bands. And we were there as fans, but we were also, our band was watching these guys. How did they pace the set? Oh, they did two songs before the singer said, hi, they didn’t do one in stop. They kept the momentum. So we were watching it like a professional.
Chris:
So you were like a student. You were like a student of it, really.
Matt Starr:
Totally.
Chris:
Just tracking it, watching it.
Matt Starr:
Yeah, again, not aware of what we were doing, but that’s what we were doing. And so we did that and then we’d go play and we’d pace our set accordingly. And so I just realized like, well, this makes sense. I can do this. And not in a cocky way. It was just like, I can do this. I know. I think that knowing was the first real step. As far as an actual break, that came … if say I’m 16, that came like over 20 years later to where I had actually played with somebody even met somebody that I had listened to growing up.
Chris:
And what was that like, the first time were you playing with somebody that you used to listen to? That must be a pretty awesome feeling.
Matt Starr:
Yeah. Going to it on your way to the gig or the thing, it feels like, oh my God. Wow. That’s amazing. But then when you get there, it’s about the actual human being you’re dealing with. And so all that stuff falls away. I think if you can’t let it fall away, you’ll never be able to work with people that are famous.
Chris:
Right. Sure.
Matt Starr:
Because you’ll be tripping out that they’re famous.
Chris:
Right. You can’t be like, “Oh my God.”
Matt Starr:
Yeah, now you’re dealing … It’s not Ace Frehley. When you meet him, it’s like, “Hi, Ace.” So it’s me and this guy, Ace and we’re talking about whatever. It was a band called Bang Tango, which was an eighties, late eighties band. And I used to see them play, was a fan. And then early 2000s, whatever, I got an opportunity to play with them, to play with Joe. And Joe was the only remaining guy, the singer. And we did some touring and made a record. And it was like, wow, this is really amazing. And then also, well, yeah, of course. Again, not in an arrogant way, but just like yeah, because, you know what-
Chris:
Because to you, it’s what you do. It was an inevitability almost, right? Like that’s the way your mindset was.
Matt Starr:
Absolutely. And it was also like the reverse of that, which is, I’m the perfect guy for this situation because the guitar player and bass player, they weren’t fans of Bang Tango growing up. So they were trying to learn the songs and they’re not technically complicated, but they just had some quirky things. And they were like, “This music is so weird.” And I’m like, “It makes perfect sense to me.” And I’m like, oh, you know what? This is my dream. But I’m also perfect for this guy because I know this singer and I know what he’s going to do. And I know how he sings and I know how his drummer used to play. And I’m going to be a great contributor to this situation.
Chris:
Right. It’s so interesting Matt, because the arrogance gets sometimes really, really caught up in a certain sort of feeling of security and what you’re good at. It’s one thing to be arrogant and being just an asshole, just be completely like whatever. There’s another thing to just know that this is for you. And you could question, wow. And be star struck and ask you, “Why did I end up here? I can’t believe …” But on the other side, like you said, it’s, I know why I’m here, I’m here because every single day when I was done with school, I came up and I … This was always my thing. So why not end up here? And I think it’s okay to feel like that. I don’t think it’s a wrong approach to how you feel about a passion that is a real passion.
Matt Starr:
Yeah. I think it’s essential. And there’s a big difference between watching somebody play and go, “Oh man, why is he up there? I could do that.” And going, “I could do that. I could do that.”
Chris:
Right.
Matt Starr:
You know, “That could be me.”
Chris:
And using that to fuel it, like, “I can do that. I’m going to do that.” Yeah.
Matt Starr:
Yeah.
Chris:
A couple more things about this, and then I want to get into the coaching is, tell me first … I need to understand two things. One is, I want to know how you met Ace and how that whole thing came out. Because like you said, putting him in the context of Kiss for you when you were young, was that just … did it just happen? Did you seek that out? How did that relationship, where did that come from?
Matt Starr:
This is how I met Ace, but this is also where the coaching thing was born. I’m coming up to 38, coming up on 40, looking back on my life. I always told myself, “Oh, I’m going to make it. I’m going to be a success.” And realizing that it didn’t happen. And I was probably … hopefully I’ll live to be 100, but you’re coming to like the half point of your life and all the stuff I promised myself I was going to do, or I said would happen next week, next month, next year, it’s like, well, when? When? It hasn’t happened. And I realized in that moment, although I had the passion and I had the talent, I had no fucking clue how to do it. I had no clue how to make it happen. And I saw guys who I knew I could tell were less talented than I was, but they were living my dream. And I didn’t resent them for that. I thought, what did they have, or know? What are they doing that I’m not doing?
Chris:
Right. You were Overit, man. This was your Overit moment. You were Overit.
Matt Starr:
That’s it. So I literally, for the first time in my life said, “I don’t know. I don’t know the answer.” I don’t think prior to that, I had ever really admitted that, or even thought that. So that was the moment. And I made a list of everyone whose career I had admired. I was in LA so thankfully some of those guys lived out there. I sought them out like a stalker. I Googled, I figured out where they were, where they hung out. And I would find them. And I’d connect with them. And I’d persistently, but just very respectfully introduced myself. And can I get some of your time? I’d love to talk about your career. And they were generous with their time. And I realized that the whole problem was my thinking.
Matt Starr:
So then I started going out to clubs and had a friend tell me, “Just get out there and play. That’s all. People see you play, you’ll get work.” And I thought, well, what does that mean? I mean, how do I … I got to get work before I can.
Chris:
Right.
Matt Starr:
It’s like when a record label says, “We don’t accept unsolicited material,” then you look for an attorney to represent you. And they go, “We don’t represent bands that don’t have deals.” You go, “Okay. Did you guys get together on this?”
Chris:
Which one comes first?
Matt Starr:
Right. So I said, “Where can I do that?” And I realized that in every answer if you genuinely ask the question, you’re going to genuinely get the answer. And the answer was, go out and let people see you play. Okay. Where can I do that? I go, “Well, open jams. I go to open mics.” And I went to this open mic. Wasn’t much happening at all. But there were a few guys that I met. It was-
Chris:
This was in LA?
Matt Starr:
This was in LA, but it was north of LA by 45 minutes. So it was a long drive. I was getting home late at night. It was so dead there, they let me sing, which I also sing. Then I hear like nine months into this process, “Hey, Ace Frehley’s drummer just quit.” And I’m like, okay. So I called every single one of those guys that I had met. And I said, “Do you know Ace? Do you know anyone in his band?” And there was a guy, Brent Woods who plays guitar with Sebastian Bach now. And he goes, “Yeah, I know Anthony, the bass player. We’re good buddies.” And I go, “Well, would you call him? Because I want to audition.” And he goes, “You’d be great.” And I go, “And I looked online and their drummer sings all the Paul Stanley songs.” He goes, “Oh, I heard you sing. You’re great.” So, because that club was so dead, because they just said, “Are there any singers here?” And I go, “Well, I sing.” And they let me get up and sing, Brent saw me. So all these things came together right here-
Chris:
So it started to connect together. Right.
Matt Starr:
Yeah. And so then he called Anthony. Anthony called me, we talked. Two weeks later, I flew to New York. I auditioned. A couple of weeks later, I got the call. I got the gig. A lot of little details in between, but that’s basically the gist. And that was the start. That was like, okay, I could probably sign this guy’s name better than he can. I used to trace his signature. I used to draw his face. And now-
Chris:
Does he know that now? I mean, does he know what that band, what he, what they meant to you? Does he know that now? Like once it wasn’t as creepy and you weren’t like … now you kind of know him, did you ever tell him the extent of that at all or no?
Matt Starr:
No. Not to him. To Paul Stanley, I’d shared more of that with, but I think the fact that Ace could play like two notes of any Kiss song and I’m right on top of it. Like if we’re at rehearsal and he’s just goofing around, I’m right there. So he’s got to realize that, okay, this guy knows my stuff.
Chris:
That’s an awesome story. I’m just trying to think where I want to go. I have so many questions. All right. Let’s do this. Let’s talk a little bit about the coaching, because here, now that seems like a pretty sweet gig. Like you finally got … you’re doing what you do. You knew you’d get somewhere there. The pieces came together for you. And so you then what? You think, “I want to try to help other people get to the same place”? Is that the transition? What brings the coaching into your mind?
Matt Starr:
It was two things. One, I appeared on the scene out of nowhere and was like, “Hi, I’m Matt Starr the drummer.” now, prior to this, I was singing. And that’s another piece of it. But I had been singing for years. So anyone who knew me knew me as a singer. So I had to really go out and reintroduce myself. I connected with all these drummers. And then after that, I got the Ace gig. And then I started getting gigs with different guys like Doug Aldridge who was with Whitesnake at the time and played with Phil X who plays with Bon Jovi. So I started getting quote-unquote, all the gigs in town. And so then all these guys that I had reached out to originally, I was getting more work than them.
Matt Starr:
So they started coming to me and going, “I had never heard of you nine months ago. And now like-“
Chris:
What are you doing, man?
Matt Starr:
Like, “You’re taking all these fucking gigs. What’s going on? And what are you doing?” And rather than kind of just go, “Well, I’m just lucky,” I stopped and thought like, what am I doing? Because for 38 years I had all the passion, all the talent, but it wasn’t working. What did change? And I was able to articulate that. And then as a drummer, we end up usually doing drum clinics where you’ll be on tour and at a local music store you’ll do like an hour and a half, you’ll play. And then drummers will ask questions. And the ones that I was mostly interested in were the business questions, “How did you get the gig?” But they weren’t asking for a rock and roll story. They were actually asking me, “How can I get a gig like that?”
Chris:
Right. That’s what I want to ask you. So when you’re coaching, is it specifically geared to the industry, and/or is it more just a coaching in getting yourself to follow what that passion is and getting to the next level? Is it a combination or is it only within the area?
Matt Starr:
No. I realized it’s kind of like a one, two, three, like, okay, this isn’t just for drummers. This isn’t just for musicians. This is just for anyone who is here. They’re at point A, they want to get to point B. The next level is usually a phrase that gets used a lot. So whether that’s in a personal part of their lives or their career, it’s the reason that they can’t get to that next level, there’s a block. Right. So I see you feel like you’re coming up against the glass wall. And all the stuff you want is on the other side of that wall and all the people that have achieved it are on the other side of the wall, and you just can’t get through the wall. Well, if something is actually in front of you, you can see it. But if it’s inside you, you can’t see it, and that’s what the block is.
Matt Starr:
Then we have situations where people feel like they’re procrastinators or they’re bad with time or they’re disorganized, or they’re not motivated. And they get on themselves for all those things. But those are just symptoms of the block. So focusing on any of that, that’s not the truth about people. It’s that they’ve got a block and the symptoms come up and they start focusing on the symptoms. But that’s like, oh, there’s a burning piece of wood in my front yard. I got to put the wood out. Okay. Actually, your whole house is on fire. That’s really the problem, but you’re going to focus on all these little tiny pieces of wood in your yard. Once I just kept stepping back, back, back, back, at what’s the bigger picture. What’s the big? That is the crux of what I came down to.
Matt Starr:
Part of my job is holding people accountable. Part of it is walking through a process with them that I’ve been through a ton of times myself and done with other people. And then the other part is just being a witness to just acknowledge, yeah, you’re going through this and you’re frustrated. You should be frustrated. You have a dream and you’re not able to live it. That’s frustrating. You’re normal.
Chris:
Right. If you’re not frustrated, you don’t want it that much clearly. Right?
Matt Starr:
Right, yeah.
Chris:
Because it wouldn’t bother you.
Matt Starr:
Yeah.
Chris:
What is the format that you … because I know a lot of coaching and these things are different. Do you have, is it like, one-on-ones? Do you do group settings? How does it look? Is it both?
Matt Starr:
Yeah, it is both. When I’m traveling, I’m doing workshops and that’s either at a school or a business will hire me to come in and do it with their employees. That’s one of the formats. And also, and especially lately in the last year, it’s been one-on-one. So I have either straight-up coaching packages or I also have a couple of different eight-week programs. And then there’s coaching that goes with that. And I find that that’s the greatest amount of progress where someone is self-motivated to do the work, but then we have those weekly sessions to keep things moving forward.
Chris:
We’re talking with Matt Starr, two Rs, Matt Starrcoaching.com, a musician, coach, motivational speaker. So Matt, you still … maybe it’s different in this time, but you found this and you enjoy it and you do it. You still play. I mean, right?
Matt Starr:
Totally.
Chris:
You’re still a musician. How do you balance this? And do you find that that becomes a new challenge for you?
Matt Starr:
For the most part no, unless I’m in Europe or overseas and I’m trying to coordinate coaching sessions. So, no, I’ve found that it’s been great because-
Chris:
Just like logistical things really is what you’re saying.
Matt Starr:
Logistics.
Chris:
Yeah.
Matt Starr:
Yeah, logistics. But no, I think me being a musician and being out there as is, I’m just a walking advertisement for, this is what I do. And here’s the results of what I’m willing to share with you. So that hasn’t been an issue. And no, and then also to be able to go and speak to people in person. So once I get a tour, I’ll go, okay, I’m going to be in Oklahoma on the 15th, we got the 14th off. Let’s book an event. Right.
Chris:
Right. That’s cool. You’re inherently on the road so you can expand your business to where you’re going. Right? It’s not-
Matt Starr:
Yeah.
Chris:
That’s an interesting concept. I didn’t even think about that. Because you can just look at your schedule and predetermined and know, okay, I’m going to be here. I’m going to be here. Let’s run that. From a marketing perspective, I could run ads in those places and you can do a really cool segmented situation there. The touring, this is something that I think a lot of people who, they’re not musicians. Maybe they had this fantasy about being a rock store rock, a star musician is the touring, getting to go out and see the world playing onstage for people. Tell me a little bit about that life. I’m curious, man. When you’re on a tour, you’re going around. I’m sure you’ve gone some that are small. And you said you’ve been to Europe, you go on some bigger things. Does it get annoying? Do you love it all of the time? It like it’s tiring, right? Tell me a little about the grind of a tour.
Matt Starr:
Yeah. I think we play for free-
Chris:
Because it looks all fun if you’re not in it. And you’re like, “I want to be on tour.” But I imagine it’s fun, but it’s a lot of work. It’s a grind.
Matt Starr:
Yeah. You see the 90 to 120 minutes of rock and roll, but you don’t see the other 22 hours of the day. I would never complain about this because I have a really nice life and it’s great. But yeah, it’s a grind, man. And I turn 50 in October. So yeah, it’s like traveling is challenging. And the better the gig then the easier it gets. Everybody usually starts out in a van. You’re driving around in a van for hours and hours-
Chris:
Right. There’s always a van. There’s a van or a garage involved at the beginning of everything.
Matt Starr:
Yeah, exactly. Yeah, exactly. And you’re taking turns driving and not getting enough sleep and the routing makes no sense so there’s not enough time to get from point A to point B.
Chris:
Right. They got you in one place and then somewhere completely random.
Matt Starr:
Yeah. But then it progresses and then you’re on planes or on a bus and then you’re flying first-class or the band has rented or has their own plane. So it gets better, but it’s still a challenge. Yeah. For sure. And do I love it? Yeah. I absolutely love it. Do I love being away from my family? No.
Chris:
No, right.
Matt Starr:
I have a five and a seven-year-old, a five-year-old daughter, seven-year-old son. I’ve got a wife who I love very much, so that’s not great. Thank God for technology.
Chris:
Right.
Matt Starr:
Right.
Chris:
You could be more connected. Yep. But tell me, the day of … Let’s say you got a big show. You’re on a tour, you got a big show. And what’s that day like? Because like ballplayers, sports athletes, they’re very ritualized. They have rituals before they go out. They do the same thing. They wear the same clothes. Are musicians like that? Do you have these rituals that you do that you have before you go on? Or is it just sort of whatever you take that day? Whatever it is that day?
Matt Starr:
Yeah, I do. And I see the guys around me doing similar things. But for me, I’ve learned to just do what I do. Some guys will go out drink all night and sleep till noon. I don’t do that when I’m home, so I don’t do that when I’m on the road. If I do that, it gets sloppy and gets weird. So get up whatever reasonable hour, 9:00, whatever, do my morning routine, which is my meditation and my prayer and all my stuff that gets my brain focused and settled in. Check-in with the family. And then usually have a soundcheck around 2:00. Hopefully, there’s a good coffee place around, I can get a nice espresso. And then do soundcheck. Then after soundcheck, you have lunch. And then maybe you go back to the venue.
Matt Starr:
I might have a coaching session in between soundcheck and the gig or a couple, something in town. But the main thing is doing my warmup and then get into the gig about usually an hour and a half ahead of time. Start warming up my hands. About a half-hour before, I get changed because I don’t want to be in my stage clothes for too long, but I don’t want to be changing right before we go on. And then like with Ace, it’s interesting because it’s never more than by 15 minutes, one way or the other, but it’s, “Okay, we’re playing at 9:00.” Okay, that’s in air quotes. And so it’s not going to be before 9:00, but it might be 9:00, but it might be 9:15. But the day-
Chris:
Yeah. What’s that about, man? I always wondered that with musicians, what’s going on there? Is that on purpose? It’s just you got your own shit to do? What’s going on there? Make them wait?
Matt Starr:
Some musicians are more punctual than others, but I think just being on their own schedule and that’s how they do their thing. You know what I mean? For some people structure works and for some people the structure, it feels confining. So that’s kind of the deal. For me, structure works even though I would think that I would not like the structure.
Chris:
Yeah, me too.
Matt Starr:
So anyway, but I got my thing because I have my Swedish Snus that I pop under my lip here, but if it’s like 15 minutes before that, that little buzz will happen too soon. So it’s like five minutes before. So I just got to time it because the way it goes is, we’re in the dressing room, Ace doesn’t show up. And then he has an intro piece of music that starts with a church bell. So we’re talking, talking, talking, all of a sudden, dong. We’re like boom, it’s on.
Chris:
And you’re like, “Oh, let’s go.”
Matt Starr:
That means he pulled up and they go, “Okay. He’s here.” The intro starts before he’s walked into the building. So he walks in-
Chris:
But is the soundcheck with him or is it just with the staff? In other words-
Matt Starr:
It’s just with the band.
Chris:
It’s just with the band. Okay. So you’re coming together at the time of the show really, right?
Matt Starr:
Yeah. Occasionally he’ll come to soundcheck if we’re doing some new songs or something, but usually no. So then he walks, then it’s like, “Hey, what’s up? Hey,” hugs, “How are you doing?” “Good.” He’s funny because obviously he’s been doing this for about as long as I’ve been alive, but he’ll just talk and you think the intro is going to run out. And then it’s like, “Ladies and gentlemen, please welcome from the Bronx, New York it’s Ace Frehley.” And just like the last second, he’s like, boom, he’s got his guitar on and hey, he’s out there and everything’s good.
Chris:
Yeah. That’s great. It’s ingrained in him. A couple more things quick. As a drummer, and I’ve never actually even asked Dan about this, but have you calculated or monitored how many calories you burn in a show? I got to imagine, man, it’s a lot.
Matt Starr:
I’ve never done that. And some guys have done the steps thing. So they’ll put the little thing on their ankle or the watch thing. But what I do know is when I go on tour … and I don’t drink, so that certainly helps. But when I go on tour, I lose weight. I think I’m one of the only people who, when they go on the road, they lose weight.
Chris:
Comes back skinnier.
Matt Starr:
Yeah. Usually, people eat fried food and all this stuff. And then they’re drinking beer every night on the bus. I’m not doing those two things. So I know from moving my arms and I’m not that physical of a guy, I’m not an athletic dude, so I’m definitely burning some calories.
Chris:
Yeah. And I think a lot of people know this, but when you see a drummer and you see them and you’re looking at their arms, there’s a whole bunch of footwork and foot strength going on there that not a lot of people are seeing. That drum on the bottom, man, that’s banging out and that’s a lot of movement constant. So I got to imagine it puts a toll. Are you sore the next day? Do you feel it in your arms?
Matt Starr:
Yeah, for sure. I have warmups that I do before, and then also warm-downs. So after the gig, I warm down-
Chris:
Just like a workout. It’s just like a workout, you’d have a cool-down or like a warmup too before and after.
Matt Starr:
Yeah. And Advil helps. A lot of water. And I don’t know if cigar help or not, but I try to have one after a show each night.
Chris:
Sure, of course.
Matt Starr:
That’s not medically proven, but-
Chris:
It’s ritualistic maybe and it’s calming, that’s what it is.
Matt Starr:
Yeah.
Chris:
Last thing I want to ask you is, Dan Dinsmore is the founder of Overit. Where did you guys cross paths? Just more of my own personal question. Did you just know him because he’s another drummer? Where did you guys cross?
Matt Starr:
Yeah. We met through a bass player named Chris Wise. And Chris played with the Cult for many years. And then he played with Ace Frehley. And now he plays in the Hollywood Vampires with Johnny Depp and Alice Cooper. Chris and I had met in LA and then I had actually brought Chris in on the Ace record. And then Chris has this band called Owl and he was playing. And I went to see, and the band was great. And the drummer, I didn’t know at the time, Dan was great. And so we just started talking and he’s an East Coast, New York guy. So we just hit it off and then we just kept in touch.
Chris:
Okay. Cool. Yeah, Dan is a great dude and a pretty bad-ass drummer too, I might say when I-
Matt Starr:
Great drummer.
Chris:
Yeah. Matt, people are going to listen to this. I do this with most people when I interview them, they’re going to listen to an interview. You know this. They’re going to take away a couple things, one or two things. So if there’s somebody listening, a bunch of people and they’re feeling like you were saying. They’re looking back, they’re at that point in their life, their Get Overit moment. And they’re looking for something to just get them to that next place. What are you telling them? What should they do right after they hear this? What’s the first thing that’s got to happen?
Matt Starr:
I think you need to take yourself seriously and take your dream seriously.
Chris:
Take your dream seriously. That’s cool. I love that. Take your dream seriously.
Matt Starr:
Yeah, because they’re unique to you and they’re never, ever going to go away. And you don’t want it to go from a dream to being a haunting experience. But if you don’t listen and don’t truly honor that thing that was planted inside of you, that’s unique to you, you’re going to be haunted by it eventually. You don’t want to get there.
Chris:
All right. He is Matt Starr. I am Chris Fasano. This is the Get Overit podcast where people from all walks of life come together to discuss the various ways we stop just getting through it and start getting Overit. Thanks a lot, man. I appreciate it, man.
Matt Starr:
Thank you. Appreciate it.