Michele Bettencourt Talks 'Vampire Time' | Interview with Lyndsey Parker (LPTV)

Hi, I'm Adonna. Just kidding. But I play her on LPTV. I'm Lindsay Parker for LPTV with Michelle Bettton. It's vampire time. It's Halloween. It is.

You are dressed as a rock star. I'm dressed as a pop star. Congratulations. This is the action. It's not just Halloween. The other reason to celebrate is vampire time.

It's the album release.

Fittingly out today.

Yeah. With the upside down white house.

Well, I mean, you took the words right out of my mouth. Oh, I was I holding it right?

Yeah. It's It goes both ways. There it is right there.

Well, upside down.

My first question was to ask about the artwork and what it symbolizes. So, please take the floor.

It symbolizes a very upside down white house right now.

You don't say.

Oh, yeah. So, there's

times [laughter] and the first single that we put out is called Everybody Loves the Circus and that is a that just talks about politics and it is a bit opaque in lyrics.

So, let's show the audience.

Let's take a look. Maybe this way is better. Uh, and we put that as a single and it it in the first nine weeks it on the it's we're on five charts. Um, we're number 62 on media base right now

uh on national radio hits. It's number four in the country for top 40

and number five for the adult contemporary top 40.

Amazing. Congratulations. It's been a long time coming to have this happen.

It has been. Yeah. Yeah, it really has been. And we've been working on this for since November of last year.

I mean, I don't know really where to start. But I mean, I was telling you before the interview, sorry, that your life should be a movie. Should be a biopic. It might that might actually still happen. I don't know if you're at liberty to say that that was in discussion at one time. Should be a rock musical actually.

It's certainly a drama. It certainly is a drama. Dramad.

Yeah. With me. Yeah. Exactly.

So I like I said, it should be a musical. But why don't we just sort of talk? Do you mind me doing the show? This is your life. because you've had quite a journey that's led up to this uh celebration we're having at Lush Pizza tonight on Halloween, which is, you know, why I'm dressed this way. I feel like

you make a great Madonna, though. I like it.

You make a great Michelle Bart.

There's only one. So, let's just like get into it. Like, it you've been doing music or loving music your whole life. You grew up in music your whole life.

You were playing drums at age 13, but you're a relatively late bloomer when it comes to like having a band and doing rock for a living or doing it as a more full-time passion.

Super late. Yeah. Um, we did a record in 20 a CD in 2018, never released. We we printed, but we didn't I gave it away. Very personal. I was transitioning.

Mhm.

And then I stopped. So I It was very exhausting process to write eight songs and five months and record New York and they're all very personal.

So when you were Yes. So that was when you So you transitioned into

I transitioned in 2017 to 2019.

Okay. Wow. So yeah, I guess a late bloob and not late that too. That too. Yeah. It was 57 at the time.

Wow. Okay. Well, I mean, like I said, there's a lot to How much time we got? Uh, like I said, you need to have a musical. You need to have the the the Broadway musical, the rock musical, the biopic, but I I guess a lot of this album Vampire Time is also personal and sort of telling those stories. But let's just go back to the beginning. Like I said, you were into music as a child. Your childhood was a bit rough, but and you were, I imagine, going through some gender dysphoria.

I was confused. It was 19 It was so in 1968 there wasn't a discussion about trans people at all and you know when you're caught in your mother's stuff and it becomes a very sad night and screaming and yelling it's never discussed again for 50 more years.

Oh no.

Um then you hide it.

So is music something you turn to? And also it's kind of interesting even though they were these people weren't necessarily at all trans or whatever but in that era of the early 70s there was so much gend they called it gender bending I guess but there was all the glam rock and there was Alice Cooper there was the New York dolls and it was men who identified as cis usually straight men David Bowie whatever but they were dressing in makeup and so were you into like the glamrock thing did that connect you know

I wasn't in fact in the 80s I was married at age 21 um I had triple daughters at age when I was 27 and I was hiding. So I would go to work and I and and then I would you know I would I would not think about it and then I would lose some weight and then I would go out and I would go out again and then I would think about it and it was a struggle.

But the sort of stuff that was going on in rock and roll was that something that sort of like did you connect to?

I did not for whatever reason I did not connect. I was ra we were raising kids.

Wow.

And so my life was very suburban. um worked for a tech company, was a VP of sales at age 24. Um VP of sales at a public company at age 35 and the CEO of a public company at age 42.

Crazy. I mean, you know, lots of people reinvent themselves, but probably not to the degree that you did, both personally and professionally, but everyone might have a sliding doors moment in their life. So, at one time, you could have gone into transitioning much earlier, coming out as trans. If I'm using if I'm using any wrong language at any time, correct me, please. You're doing great.

Don't worry about that.

Cuz sometimes I might not get the language right. But if I use the wrong pronouns or the wrong I I sometimes don't know what to say either about this, so it's okay.

Okay. But so at one point you could have made, if I'm using the right words, the decision to transition earlier and also you could have gone into a rock career, a music career, but instead you went in this kind of more white picket fence world and then you became this Silicon Valley, you know, hot shot. So like was there a moment where you're like, I'm gonna choose my own adventure and you did that one. And why? I never considered transitioning when I was younger.

Was it something that you even thought was an option?

I never thought I would do it. I never thought it would happen. Um

they called it a sex change operation then.

Back back exactly

that was that's what they called it then. Like

that's what they did. Yeah. And and Yeah. I never ever

many celebrities that you could think of that were doing that.

No. I And I never imagined I we had we had triplet daughters that were that were babies and then then they were growing up and I thought I can't no can't. And then then with so I just put my head down and worked and was really good at that and then built a you know a bifrocated life. There'd be Anthony at the day in the day and then in New York there would be Michelle at night.

Well tell me what you mean by that. Did you go out to clubs?

I I I would I would go out. I would literally I'd fly into a town. I would I would do my calls, have meetings, and then I would change put on hair and makeup and go down to the bar and work. and a and I met a lot of interesting people who were curious and some were kind of angry about but it it was it was really a cool social experiment for me and I had a lot in lot of cities I had friends who knew Michelle but not Anthony.

Wow. This is this is a movie.

It is um

a double life.

Oh my god.

I'm not sure how interesting it would be to a lot of people but it um and then [clears throat] with music

this would be interesting to any everyone. Are you kidding me?

Um

everyone.

Yeah. I mean, I've lived it, so it seems kind of routine to me. It It doesn't seem that special. It just seems

Well, it's an amazing story, especially we're not even getting to the best part where now you you're a rock star, but I guess tell me, walk me through when you were living that life or this double life, it's kind of a dumb sort of uh simple question. Were you happy? Were you were you tormented inside? I was pretty tormented because you feel guilty

cuz you're going out at night. You're not telling your your family and you're putting two days on a trip so you could stay longer to go out. You don't tell anybody. Um but I was working. I'm going to go out but I was actually I wasn't I was screwing around.

Um and then what happened later in life is with music I got involved. Um, jeez. I was in I was in a really crappy blues band and in 200 six my daughters were on MTV's My Super Sweet 16.

No way. Were you on the show?

I was a 235 pound penguin on that show at 5'8. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Like a tuxedo.

I used to love that show. That was like classic like Y2K as

season two the triplets. Yeah. It was And they were 18 at the time.

So like what was their I'm going off on a tangent. What was their sweet 16 like?

But this will come around to your story, I imagine.

Oh, yeah. It's all good. So, they it was a simple uh we I we got I got a band Sugar Cult to play.

Oh my god. I'm friends with Marco DeSantis. Hey, Marco. Marco Dant. They let me play. I mean, we

Marco played at your daughter.

Oh, yeah. Marco, Tim, Kenny Livingston.

This is hilarious. I got to talk to him after this. This is so crazy.

Marco, it was wonderful. We had we had a a place near my home in a winery. [snorts] And I remember we um had a dinner. I tried to get them hired as as a band. So they brought their manager. I brought a friend of mine who helped helped me get the deal done. And I was trying to explain to them that I've got my three daughters. They're lovely kids.

They're 18. They're not brats. And they and Marco and they all told me afterward they didn't like me coming in because it was like, "Okay, here's some here's some [ __ ] rich dad um who we don't want to deal with." And I spent a lot of time just saying, "My kids are really sweet. You'll love them." And they love the Atari. So I knew the different bands everybody was in. And um and I and I said, "And my daughters think my band's going to play and they they think that's pretty cool, so I want you to play instead."

And

you could have been on MTV.

I was

with your crappy blues band.

Well, I mean, but but Tim But did Tim Mcdana said, "Well, why don't you learn a song and play with us?" And I said, "I I can't. I'm not that good." They they just opened for Green Day, did the big tour. And then Kenny Livingston, who became a really he's one of my best friends now, a drummer, um said, "Dude, you're not going to take over my day gig. just learn a freaking song and if you suck in the sound check, you can't play. And so I I didn't suck in the sound check. I mean, I looked like I was about to have a heart attack when I played, but but we um I think it was Destination Anywhere, the song we did. I nailed it. And then the next day I I thought I'm going to be in a band. So I I formed a band. I I found people on Craigslist. [laughter] Um I got into my home and because the lead singer was a member of the Grammy Academy and and I said, "Okay, um when's the Grammys?" And they it was like four four or five months away. I said, 'Cool. So, we're going to do a CD and we're going to have a CD release party. And the singer said, "No, it doesn't work this way." I said, "Oh, no. I I work in tech." "You work backward." Of course it does. And um we rented out Jim Phantom's club, the cat club,

Slim Jim Phantom, Licorice Pizza Zone.

And that's how I met Carrie through Jim.

No way.

So, so we rented the club out and we played our set and it was we recorded um an EP at the at the plant in Salelo. Pretty good. I mean, it stuck in the 80s, but good. And

as you can see, I'm not against being stuck in the

80s. But but when you're doing music and you're stuck in 80 and you end up we open for Journey, De Leopard, Foreigner, UFO, bunch of bands.

UFO.

Yeah. UFO. [clears throat] Super cool.

Yeah. And And Andy the drummer and I Yeah. He was He's fabulous. He got us on their bus one night. Yeah. And and the lead singer was not happy that we're on the bus.

So now it's like you're sort of leading maybe a triple life. You're this, you know, uh CEO, big Silicon Valley hot shot. You have this life as Michelle that not a lot of people know. That was the hidden one.

And then you're also like doing this Hannah Montana like Rockstar by Night thing at the same time.

Yeah. I mean, I remember I was CEO of a company and I had to leave early so we could open up the Mountain Winery for um for Foreigner.

Nice.

And it but it was kind of cool. But we were we were never going to make We did a record, but we didn't sell anything really.

What was this group called?

You know, Zen Vendetta. The name was great.

I've heard I've heard of Zen Vendetta. Really? Yeah. I know that name.

Okay. We were And we were pretty good. It was but it was I was a drummer.

Mhm. And I took one drum lesson at age 13. So I had my limitations. Um but what in in the midst of that I met Jim and then I met Glenn Matlock. A lot of time with Glenn and then I met Earl Slick and I'm I'm on a record with with um Glenn Melik's um album that he did in Ryan Beck with Phantom and Slick and Jim Low.

Let me play Tambourine.

Amazing.

Um and then I would eventually have all of them come to my my meetings at work. We have 500 people in in Texas for a sales meeting. They'd come and play. Um, and I'd buy Earl's guitars and I'd make it like American Idol and they'd vote and then they'd play a 45minute set and then come sit and have dinner with us all.

That's a reality show I would have as well along with your rock musical biopic as well. So you were living a pretty already quite interesting life and then as you mentioned 2017 did you say?

Yeah I was CEO in Sher Bay company um worth a billion six it was a thousand employees.

Wow. um 300 million of revenue. It was a cyber security company, very public. I I opened the New York Stock Exchange for them. I then moved us to the NASDAQ, opened that for them.

And then an activist investor realized that I was being sloppy with my social media. And

did you have separate social media for your different names?

Yeah, I had an Anthony Michelle one and and um and he put 140 million of his firm's money in my company and he was pissed. He was worried that I wasn't paying attention to work. I had I left my wife. I moved to New York. I bought an apartment. Um we were separated and I was a bit messy, but I was not unfocused. I just probably wasn't the best version of me for work.

Was this guy um transphobic? Was it,

you know? No. And the thing was he went to he went to my board. There was a there was a meeting he went to and met one of my board members and dumped on him. You know, your CEO's something's going on. It's gender and they're not focused enough. And you know that it caused a lot of problem for me with with the company. But not that they wanted me out. It was just didn't know how to explain it. They did not know how to explain it. And one of my board members said, "Why didn't you tell us?" What am I going to tell you? I wear dresses and go out. What am I going to tell? I don't know what it is. Um and I decided that I

would they said, "Can you just hire a president, put them into California, be the CEO and chair in New York, run the company, and sell it at some point? And I was pissed at at their response. So I

cleverly hired a CEO. I I hired someone who could be CEO and then I went to the board and said, "Make him CEO. I'm out. I'll be chair of the board still and and I'll leave when I can." And I left. I I

left in Feb of 18. Then I kind of got more serious about transition. And then I came home in 2019. My wife and I struggled at first to date. Um, and then we fell in love again.

Yeah, that's another amazing uh chapter of the story that I uh definitely think makes your you you're like, "Oh, this is a typical." No, it's not a typical life. Your life is anything but typical. And it's all worked out for you so well cuz you've like basically followed your heart and and you know what you want to do.

But during this time, I'm quoting the bio that this time was emotionally jarring and publicly your transition.

You described it in your bio was emotionally jarring and publicly visible. So, I'll let you elaborate more, but like there was this one guy you talked about who sort of basically outed you. Um, but in general when you're when you're still in that tech silicon world,

it's a very it's a boy network and all of a sudden

how were you accepted or not accepted? [clears throat]

It was well I left and went to New York because I want to be around. Um, I was a joke for about a year. I was a meme. It was it was a comedic thing for people to bring up. Oh, your CEO is now a chick, right? What did they say? Whatever it was said. Um, and it was upsetting and I thought I'll never work again. I will never get hired in the valley again because it I know I know how it worked.

I was a board member on a great company um a great company board and the company was 350 million and eventually sold for 12 billion and the CEO was gay

and he was terrified of people finding out. And I remember and I was in and then I was CEO of another company and I remember I wore black t-shirts, skinny jeans and I had earrings on at that point. I was starting Telegraph I guess and one of my board members said, "Anthony, you're not turning gay on us now, are you?"

Oh god.

I thought crap if that elicited that response. There's no way I get hired again. So when I came back to California, I wanted to go back and work in the valley because it's what I did. And I thought I wouldn't be able to. And I got very very fortunate. I instead of becoming a CEO, I took board seats. Um I landed on three boards. One we went public in one opened again the NASDAQ.

Um I became chair of the board and we sold it last year for a billion six.

Well, congratulations.

Oh, then it just But I got I guess it all worked out.

Yeah, I got I got to come back and do what I wanted and and it was good.

It seems so. But um as I said, you were sort of already leading this kind of interesting triple life with, you know, having, you know, your hands in all these different worlds. very different worlds. What made you not want to just be with the status quo and be like, you know, I'll be I'll be uh Michelle on my off hours. I'll be a rock person from time to time, but like, you know, I'll just basically still be I don't want a dead name, but um

I was tired of hiding cuz you you live a life and all of a sudden you can you're not truthful 50% of the time. Can't tell your family. How would you explain it?

Can't tell your kids. Can't tell anybody at work. people find out but you're wor you think it's going to wreck everything and when the activist investor came out

came went to the board it kind of played it played my hand

and it was okay I mean I sat down his name is Jesse Cohen I'll tell him that Jesse's a wonderful guy um he called me about 6 months after it all got messy to me we we'd be at the peninsula for drinks you know when things were normal and I thought I could handle him as Anthony and man manage him as an activist and Jesse apologized You see, you got see I did not mean I wasn't trying to attack you or anything. He said I was worried about the investment and I was and I [clears throat] was I wasn't kind to him. I was I was probably cool and a bit dismissive. Then I called him back three months later, met with him and I said, "Look, you didn't get the best version of me. I get it." Um, we talk we we still talk. I mean, he he bought the record.

He bought the album.

Most important thing is Well, I'm just saying he bought the album, right? So, it's um

Why he bought the record?

No, life life has turned out to be brilliant. Um, I'm grateful for everything. I I feel bad sometimes because my life is a bubble.

Um, look what I do now. My life is a bubble. I I'm trans. May maybe not as trans as people want someone to be, but I am. I mean, I'm in my mind. Um,

you identify the Well, you your your pronouns you have pronouns, but then you all but you still consider yourself a husband and father, which I find is interesting. I'm I'm probably as confused sometimes because I got you I can't go backward and say um you know I'm I'm not a wife. I'm I'm

not a mom.

I'm not. So I'm I've got really lovely wife and I've got a wonderful ex-wife. Um we all spend holidays together with all the kids.

Um and I'm just just lucky and I I don't have to I don't have to be in that really bad pool where things are difficult.

Right. you when you say bubble it's like even though you have obviously gone through your hardships and and your face prejudices and transphobia and etc. Not the way the average woman has

I there and when I lived in New York my apartment was on 62nd and 3rd five blocks away but there was a club called Evolve and I didn't know where to go when I lived in New York so I got on Evolve and they had they had transgender night and it was really these really cute sweet kids who were forced to be prostitutes. I remember sitting at the bar the first time I was there and a guy comes up to me and he touches my wig. I had wig at that time. I looked like I looked like everyone's grandmother when I was in the room. Um, and I looked at him and I said, "If you touch my hair again, I'm going to break your [ __ ] neck." And the bouncer came over cuz the guy looked me and said, "What?" And the bouncer came over and walked him out and I thought I was going to get kicked out and they said, "No, no, we want to share." Okay. I had all these Ir dresses that I bought and that that fit at one point in time 20 and I gave them all to the girls.

Um, so I I saw how bad it was. Do you do any activism or anything to sort of uh I mean, [clears throat] you know, help people like that. It's a I have a follow-up question that, but I want you to answer that one. I

I'm on the um the board of the Sam and D'vorah Foundation for Trans Youth, and so we we provide safe spaces for meeting spaces and mentoring. Um we give actively that we give to Pride and and again, I'm I'm a dad. I'm a husband, I'm there. I'm so many things and it isn't always consistent with how with with how trans a lot of trans individuals see life. M.

So, I only fit and and it's okay. I like I grew up in a white life that was closeted. Um, and it's okay, but I like Candace Kane and I are very different

because of the TV thing that that that almost happened. I've got about 20 trans friends who I adore. Some are married still um to the original spouse, some aren't.

Um, I'm involved right now in a documentary um called As You Are, David Seagull's producing. Um, I'm co-producing with Janet Zucker and and Jerry Zucker. Um, and it's about u the 15,000 plus trans individuals in in the military who are being fired by Trump for being trans. And so, um, we're going to perform a song tonight. Um, how Close Will You Stand by Me that Siri and Hendrickk and I wrote that Siri does beautifully. Um, and that that's we wrote that for the documentary. The question I was going to ask was about if it is easier for people to be openly trans now than obviously it was when you were coming up because now we actually have that language and we see famous people who uh are you know are live like Candace Kane has been around for a while but now we have like the lead singer of Rainbow Kitten Surprise or whatever but then you mentioned that military thing I feel like things are regressing which sort of ties into the album cover and I mean what are your thoughts about what's going on for trans rights right now? I Well, they're being rolled back.

Yeah.

Um and according to the to JD Vance, I'm a domestic terrorist. I've got a BB gun from 1946 that belong to my father that doesn't work. I have no weapons. I'm not a terrorist.

I'm not.

Yeah. Yeah. You know, but you but but you know what I mean. It's just one of those things where it um it is it is upside down and backward right now. And it and it's full of hatred.

And the the the trans community is about one and a half% of this country. One and a half percent. It's the weakest it's the weakest cohort. So the lyrics for for the single we put out circus is you know find a wedge and use it wisely distract them with the parlor trick you and it's all about taking down take down group by group by group and that's what they're doing.

I mean I feel I'm trying to word this in a way that will make sense and not seem like an unpopular opinion. You mentioned it's a a small percentage of the population obviously as valid and deserving of rights as any part of the population but I feel like there's a lot of scape going on that there scapegoating going on that so much of the right uh vitriol is focused on you

know a part of the population it's actually quite small

we've caused a lot of bad [ __ ] to happen apparently it's crazy right

it seems very disproportionate you know

government shutdown trans people um my cars my car's out of gas transfers yeah it's It's we're guilty for everything. Uh it's just [ __ ]

It's absolute [ __ ] Are there any Would you say that Vampire Time is um is it a political record? Is it a protest record?

It is. Um it is when we wrote it, we kept thinking if Joanie Mitchell and Neil Young and

and Crosby Ser if if it were 1969 but now what would they write? And so we started writing a song called 10,000 Flowers which is about apathy. what happens, you know, $10,000 become one because no one does anything. Um, we have a song called Freak Show, which which is about the administration. We have a song called Taking Out the Trash, which is um more deliberate and and it's about both sides, both sides screwing everyone. It's, you know, but and

both sides want to make it red against blue or blue against red. It's really we should be up against the oligarchs and the politicians and the bankers. Um, you mentioned Joanie and and Neil and stuff and that era. That was an I, you know, I I wasn't around, but it from what I understand it was a very idealistic era. People really did think that rock and roll could change the world and the youth culture that came up with the Woodstock generation and this the summer of love and all that. Do you feel that there's there's the other faction of people who are like, just shut up and sing. We don't want to hear about politics. We don't want to hear what celebrities think about politics.

You know, we don't want you to sing about politics. Do you think that music could still like make a difference or do you think it's an obligation of musicians to speak up or sing about these things?

I think yes to both. I think it can make a difference. We we we sit around as a band and talk about the songs we're writing and and the messages we're we're trying to uh impart and how evocative we want to be and we don't want to be polarizing. You know, we don't want to we don't want to create music that that that forces one side of the country to hate us. Even though they may they may because of me or something else, but we don't want to do that. We want to we want to try to unify and get rid of the division. So I that's our intent. I I think we should be doing that, but I also think we believe it's going to make a difference. And maybe we're a bit naive and but we think it could make a difference.

Awesome. Are there any other songs on the record that we haven't talked about? You also have a lot of really cool guests on this record, some of which will be playing tonight at the store with you like our friend Carmine.

Carmine and Russ. Yeah. Um Steve's on on the album,

Tom and the Heartbreakers. Carmine Rojos and Russ McKinnon who are members of Licorice Pizza also.

They they they're with they sitting with us right now as as band members. Um we just got to get them on a tour so that we can keep them forever and they're amazing. They're um they've been um guiding hands for us. I mean I we're all adults in a room of the band but but they are they are caring guiding adults and they want us to be successful.

They're very lovely.

Feel like you should open for Madonna.

Do you want me to put in a word?

Please you'll follow you around. audience would love you actually be great. Yeah, we'd love that. Or Gaga or Ed Sheeran. I mean, we think there are a lot of But

the Gaga thing actually would make a lot of sense to be honest.

Or um I don't know, just what about some of the rock bands you've already toured for? Do you think like a de leopard audience would

I I don't think that would I mean

I mean Joe Elliot's like Joe Bri is like his favorite artist. Like he's a he's a cool dude, but you know, I don't know.

It's like that's I guess sort of dubling into a question that it seems to me that like a lot of classic rock fans are actually quite conservative even though they may not have been conservative if they were young.

What's an Ellis Cooper talk, right? I mean things come out. Yeah.

Paul Stanley has said a couple things that are kind of weird.

It's it's it's

Why do you think that is? I mean these are people who I mean they were always sis and straight but they dressed in women's clothing as you know or in makeup or definitely in androgynous clothing and then they start say it's a kind of weird stuff and it's like

I think people fear what they don't understand

often times and when you really ask the rank and file how many people have met a trans person not many there's not a lot of us

they may have and not

and not even known not even known um when I when I look my life was very different at one point I'd be all the time And my I would think my job is to be an ambassador. If someone asks a question, I'm going to answer it. I'm not going to be upset. I'm going to give them a real answer. I'm going to talk to them. I wanted to walk away and make sure that whatever if if a trans person walked into the room after me, I wanted to be treated better. And I was always treated well. Always.

That's a great attitude. So tour with maybe Madonna.

We'd love that.

Maybe that rock musical biopic. We do have a documentary coming out. When is that going to be?

Well, the the documentary is I'm producing. It's a co-producer where it's not about me.

Okay. But when will

but I did I did one that came out um

you did do it was called beautiful

a beautiful eye. It won at one at two festivals.

Very cool. So what else? Before I let you obviously in the very very near future we're going to celebrate Halloween with you and celebrate the release of Vampire Time on vinyl pressed here at Licorice Pizza. I don't know what color vinyl is. Awesome for Halloween. But in the slightly more distant future, what's next on the horizon for you?

We are writing more music and we want to get out and perform and tour. Um, this album's done. We have three three new songs done or pretty, you know, really strong demos that are pretty close to them. We're going to start another song next week and we want to get the next record written. Um, and so we get ahead of the curve.

Do you feel like you're making up for lost time?

I am. I am. And I feel like look, we have um we have Siri and Hendrickk and Edward and and and Russ and Carmine and a whole team and they're loving and they're sweet and they're inspiring. Awesome. I was going to make some really dumb comment like papa do preach. [laughter]

Oh, I just did. So, I guess that at that point

that was okay. It was a bit dumb.

It was okay. We could always edit it out, but I feel it's going to end up staying in. But, thank you so much for this wonderful conversation, for everything you do. You have such you're such a fascinating person. It's been so cool to talk to you. It's a pleasure. You definitely have not had the average person's life, but that's what makes for a great interview.

Thank you so much for your time.

Thank you. And I'll rock out with you next door in just a moment. Thanks for watching, everybody.