Most regular listeners of Weird Medicine know that PA John and the rest of the WM team are not able to make it to NYC this year for the live show. It’s rough…everyone has obligations and it’s very expensive to make this trip. Sirius has consistently declined to help out with expenses and I can’t ask 4 other guys to spend their hard-earned $$$ on a Quixotic adventure that is basically my dream, not theirs. So Tacie and I are going up by ourselves.
This leaves a huge void for me. John obviously can field medical questions while I’m looking stuff up and looking for the next call to take. Todd and Rob play the part of the audience, asking questions that they think someone listening might ask. Jefferson gives great legal advice and is a truly funny person. I couldn’t conceive of doing this alone, so I asked the only person I could think of that could take the place of 4 men…the great and inimitable Ron Bennington.
Ron has had a long history with Weird Medicine behind the scenes. When we were first practicing for the Oct 2007 live show, he listened to demos that we made and critiqued them for us. The positive feedback we got was the only thing that gave us the confidence to go to NYC and “put on a show” in the O&A XM studios. We’re huge fans of Mr Bennington, and I’ve wanted to try to do a project with him for years. I was very happy and honored that he accepted my invitation to co-host Weird Medicine this year.
I wasn’t nervous about this show until the great Bobby Kelly admitted he was intimidated by Ronnie’s presence. I talked to him the other night on Brian Smith’s “Radio Freaks” show and he said “If I was hosting a show and Ron Bennington was my co-host, I JUST WOULDN’T SHOW UP.” Thanks, Bob, now I’m crapping my pants.
Anyway, tune in; if I s#!& the bed, it should be epic. If I don’t, it should be a great show. Either way it will be entertaining. Erock is working on getting us a “very special” guest for the second hour, too, so “stay tuned” (yeccch).
We’ll be back to regular Weird Medicine shows in November (we’ll run a “Most Mediocre of…” the week after the live show so I can recuperate). Our contract is up for negotiations, so I’m hoping we can work in some Nashville live shows, too.
your pal,
Steve
