okay in the newest episode of Danny mad podcast we have a drummer and also an
actor uh a guy who is very known to me because I follow some of his career uh
Joy casara from zo2 the band also Broadway actor and a drummer also a
colleague drummer I'm a drummer also so thank you for accepting my invitation man how are you brother thanks so much
for having me I'm great man uh we're like we're just 5 hours now not six but
5 hours because the time changed this this weekend in Europe you know awesome
yeah it's uh 3:00 here so what are you 8:00 there it's 8 yeah yeah killer okay
man uh wanted to ask you before uh before the book and before everything else I wanted to ask you about your uh
quick early musical life how did you start in the music and the first bands you were in sure so you know my love of
music I grew up in New York I went to see kiss in Madison Square Garden I was
5 years old uh it was the dynasty tour so I got to see the original lineup in
that first run of makeup and changed my life I didn't even know why I was going my brother was a kiss fan and went to
Madison Square Garden saw kiss the explosions the sound the makeup the superheroes changed my life that
Christmas uh I asked for drums for a present and the rest is uh history
that's 79 1979 correct yeah yeah Dynasty yeah I'm I'm also a huge kiss fan so we can talk
about it uh uh you you got Drums very early so in the 80s you had some band in
the ' 80s maybe yeah so you know I grew up in the 80s obviously I'm still young in the 80s you know tried to form some
bands got some stuff going towards the late 80s uh had some close shots at
record deals and stuff but you got to understand so you know we're talking 8990 99192 the music scene is all changing
now so you know I'm in bands like skidrow like skido type bands and you
know that melodic heavy metal type stuff that was out at that time with the power ballads and so on and so forth if you
want to call it hair metal it was hair metal and grunge was just starting to take over so you know my bands were
always getting turned down by record labels saying you know we're a little dated we're a little past the past the
prime so you know it took a long while to get that record deal I missed that 80s you know illustrious 80s record deal
with all my bands and then you know I I weathered the storm through the 90s went through some changes in and out of bands
in and out of bands until you know I found uh zo2 which was my original band
uh we formed in in early 2001 2002 and
then you know we we formed we had our own record we did it independently of of record labels we just said you know what
we're going to put put our own record out long story short uh first album came out we got the Tour opening up for Kiss
The Rock The Nation Tour 2004 I think first unsigned band really
ever to get one of those National tours especially opening with a band like from to a band like Kiss it was us zo2 poison
and kiss so that kind of launched our musical career well that that that's is awesome that's uh early 2000s right yeah
2004 yep they were still uh on on their uh no they were not on the run of the re
the reunion no no it was the first tour with Tommy and Eric yeah yeah okay yeah
their reunion ended early 2000s I think yeah right yeah uh so it was uh
incredible for you you were like 25 at the time maybe right yeah a little older
you know again because I missed that 8 SC I was a little older you know it was still but we you know we were still the
kids we were the newcomers you know poison was a little older yeah kiss was older than that at the time so you know
we were like this this hot shot new band coming in injected uh some fun blood
into that tour and uh you know we just had a blast it was our first major tour you know we we had all been playing
independently everywhere but that was our first real major tour you know and from there you know it sparked you know
we did some runs with Sammy Hagar and the Scorpions and Twisted Sister and you know all these other bands were were
both rocking the Twisted Sister shirts today love it yeah uh so after that you
know wasn't long after so all through those years where we were you know supporting ourselves in the 90s early
2000s before we you know we we got this tour zo2 was really a kids Entertainer
van too we would play kids birthday parties to make ends meet that's how we paid for the record that's how we paid
to be on tour we would you know our day jobs were kids entertainers yeah and you
know from there got our TV show called zrock I'm not sure if you're familiar with it but zrock was a big big hit TV
show D was d himself was on a couple episodes remember something yeah yep it
was about our band it was it was a scripted comedy but it was based on our real lives yeah yeah I remember I
remember some of it yeah it was like a kids kids show right no I mean it was
based it was it was us like like a like a teenage show right yeah it was a I mean it was a it was a TV show but it
wasn't a kid show was it was an it was an R-rated show there was nudity there was bad language there was a lot of
chaos going on you know we had guest stars Galore it was the three band members then we had D on a lot Dave
Navaro John popper Joan Rivers was one of the Stars Gilbert gotfried we had a
plethora of guest stars come on and it was a it was a scripted comedy much like kir your
enthusiasm oh okay how did you get to uh to to sell that script and to do that uh
thing you know so it happened very organically like I said we were a kids band like I said and
one night we were playing it or one afternoon I should say we were playing a kids birthday party and there was a
gentleman there that was like hey you guys don't look like The Wiggles you guys don't look like kids entertainers what are you doing playing
this party because you know we look like rockers you know we look like arol Smith and we were like well we're actually a
real band as well you should come and check us out we're playing in Time Square in New York City tonight long
story short the guy comes down loves the band can't believe that he just saw us play for these little you know
three-year-olds at a birthday party and now he's seeing us in Time Square selling out BB Kings and he couldn't
believe like the Clark Kent Superman Dynamic that we had which was you know this rock band at night and this kids
band during the day so we were kind of naive we would just hey we knew this guy was from William Mars which was a big
big agency in New York City and we were hoping that he would get us like another tour or something like that and he
mentioned in passing that he was in the TV division so we you know kind of jokingly said well why don't we do a TV
show and he's like you know what write me a little treatment and we'll see what we can do and sure enough you know we
long story short but we wrote we wrote a little treatment and you know we got picked up all the networks were bidding
on this crazy alternate life that we had incredible awesome uh so you got into
acting because of that or no yeah we would never Act before again we were
musicians my our whole lives and then you know once we got this TV show you
know I don't we couldn't have played scientists we couldn't have played uh you know astronauts but we could play
musicians we could play ourselves we're all from New York we're all from Brooklyn so we kind of just played our
own personalities on the show so it was a very easy sell yeah uh and
uh afterwards You released the how many albums do you have with zo2
so zo2 has four records uh and the TV show zrock had two seasons on IFC you
can you can either still buy the DVDs online somewhere they're streaming on Amazon Prime you could also stream them
on my YouTube channel Joey Casada uh at uh on YouTube yeah I I will put down The
Links at the end of the episode of Joy kasara awesome uh when did you join uh
Trans Siberian Orchestra that was very fun for me because I am a drummer and you're a drummer and uh to know that you
played with Legends like I don't know Al P TR or who did you play with sure I mean
yeah yeah yeah I love these so I was so the band zo2 they were two brothers they
were David and Paulie Z and then I was the drummer Joey cassada and David Z was
the touring base player for the Trans Siberian Orchestra for about 15 years um
he had P he passed away in uh 2017 he had a there was was a car accident and he passed away unfortunately but David
got me hooked up with the Trans Siberian Orchestra and you know I I was playing with them you know I was the backup
drummer for uh Jeff plate and John O'Reilly for almost 15 years from about
2005 till about God almost 2020 was only been a
couple years since I haven't been doing it again wait was was David in Adrenaline Bob mob that that was the
that was the accident yeah D David was the Bas in Adrenaline Mob and they had the accident and he unfortunately passed
away was I remember I remember that thing rest in peace sadly um uh so
tryban for 13 years for you right yeah I was just a backup drummer you know they
have they have the east coast and the West Coast yeah and you know they also have a backup band that always is on
standby ready to kind of fill in where's needed so I was in that back backup band
I rehearsed with you know Petrelli and and Caffrey and Joel hulster and all these guys for many many years it was a
it was a fascinating time oh man I had Joel hulster on the show he he he told
me about uh Trans Siberian a lot of great great stuff also I had the our
colleague drummer Joe Franco just before you know Jo you know Joe of course I mean I know obviously the album is right
behind you too that lovers for suckers is one of my favorite records yeah yeah it's a great album well he he
he was telling me about uh about the programming thing when he programmed the album because it's a you know it's not
the real drums there yes that's crazy right yeah yeah and he like uh told me
that that he he pram programmed the demos for them and B heill the the producer said hey it's finished uh it's
a great drums you know uh it's not a demo it's sounds great so we go with that you know wow I didn't I actually
didn't know that that's incredible yeah wow so uh because you're you're a huge
Twisted fan uh and you told me you jamed with d and Mark and when did when did
that happen when did you got to know them and play with them so they've been friends of ours for years like I said
zo2 did many shows with Twisted back in the day D was a guest star on zrock many
many times JJ was a guest star on the on the show a couple times but D had a really prominent role if you go back and
watch zrock if you're a twisted sistera fan the few episodes with d in it are classic so we just became really really
good friends over the years D would come up and jam with us all the time when we did big shows in New York and then when
David Z passed away our BAS player um what we were planning on doing zo2 were
you know we were planning on stopping all together we weren't going to continue as a band and then you know we then we had this idea we were going to
get guest base players to play a show with us and just do a song here and a
song song there and we reached out to Mark Mendoza to do a song with us and
Mark actually volunteered um and asked if he could do the whole show with us so
you know Mark became a member of zo2 for a little while it didn't you know we couldn't do it full-time just because um
his schedule and our schedule and Paulie is out in La now but Mark did a couple big shows with us uh fulltime zo2 member
he was incredible what an honor that was for us I had on the show I also had Russ
Russell pizo you know Russ of course sure I had Russ on the show and he told me about filling in for Mark you know
and stuff like that yeah it's a small world yeah everyone's connected yeah man
especially because you're all from New York and you know each other there you know right right yeah I'm I'm just a fan
from Europe and uh I I met uh D and and all of Twisted for a few times when they
were here you know close to to to this this to this neighborhood countries and
uh and uh but you're a huge kiss fan and I wanted to ask you uh about that you're
you're a kiss fan from 5 years old so how did you get the idea on writing a book as I saw you write a book with the
with the podcast guys uh Zeus and Tom I think uh correct I I I listened to some
of their podcast before I follow that podcast but uh how did you get the idea
you and them to write book this is the book right here here this is It's called uh raise your glasses it's um a
celebration of 50 years of Kiss songs by celebrities musicians and fans so you know we had this idea that we're all big
obviously big kiss fans they have the kiss podcast I'm a big kiss fan and you know between us we know so many
musicians actors celebrities comedians that are so influenced by kiss
and sometimes they don't have the outlet to talk about it like I always talk about it on all my podcasts Tom and Zeus
will talk about it on their podcast shouted out loud cast but a lot of these celebrities who are not I don't want to
call them closet kiss fans but they don't have the outlet to really engage
and talk about their favorite band Kiss and I'm talking about like we have a lot of guys from the trans cian Orchestra
Chris is in here Jeff plate is in here Joel is in here um we have a lot we what
we basically did was we we went and talked to all celebrities who influenced by kiss and we made them review
literally every song in the kiss catalog so you know you have every
single song in the kiss catalog in chronological order reviewed by you know Eddie Trunk and Desmond child and Chris
Jericho and you know uh Jesus who else is in this book P probably Mike porno is
in this book and uh Carmine appy and Zack throne and and Todd Kars and got
anyone who's a old school kiss fan wow is in this book reviewing all of the
Kiss songs you can get it on it's available on Amazon right now check it out it was the number one book in the
country for a couple weeks it's it's a just a fun read I'm going to I'm going to buy it for sure but it's it it came
out recently right yeah it only came out about a month and a half ago uh like I said it's been doing incredibly well
especially with all the names we got involved and it it's it's fun you know we try to we call it it's almost like a
companion piece to the record so we've been hearing a lot of stories like people buy the book and they're starting
to read it like it's not a story book it's a book with reviews of every song so they'll start to read and they'll be
up to a song that they don't remember that well and they're like oh you know what I can't believe what Charlie bante
says about got to choose on hotter than hell I got to go listen to that song again so it's a great book to have your
kiss songs handy and kind of reference the Kiss songs as you're reading the book yeah it's like a it's like a
chronological time like a time machine that takes you takes you back yeah
what's your what's your favorite uh song and album from Kiss I mean it always
varies so I'm a big 80s kiss fan growing up primarily in the 80s I don't get me wrong I love 70s Kiss they're in you
know they're the were the biggest in the world yeah but 80s kiss is was my kiss' 80s kiss was you know Eric Carr the UN
the unmasked years the years where they didn't have the makeup is when I was most influenced by them so you know I
love albums like Asylum and crazy nights and those pop metal albums I really
really gravitated towards yeah that's uh yeah car had a he had a very different
technique in in in drumming very you know uh like a like weird technique but
very very good with the with the double based and very effective way of yeah just so different than Peter Chris you
know that was the you know the Bruce culick years as well and you know over the years I got to jam with Bruce a lot
Bruce and I and Todd Kars and Joe mcginness we just recreated all of a
live three last year in a concert and it was just you know such an honor to play with Bruce and try to recreate some of
those classic Kiss songs with him you did that on the Monsters of Rock you were with them there or not not on
Monsters of Rock we did it at kiss cancered goodbye last year Bruce Todd Kern's I and uh Joe mcginness we we did
the full alive three album covered to cover man Todd sings incredible the PO
song the PO sty songs oh my God off the charts yeah again all the videos on my
YouTube channel we I have the whole concert uh you know we're doing a live three so you got all the all those
classic Kiss songs but you also have songs like I still love you which Todd belts out and you got songs like lick it
up and Heaven's on Fire and you know uh Jesus what else is on there I just W to
Unholy stuff like that that you don't get to hear that much yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah what what about the 70s Kiss
which album do you like the most so the second three in the set like I'm I'm alive 2 is probably my favorite
record of all time um I like those second three so love gun is probably my
go-to record yeah love gun how about you my uh I I'm tell you this it's not
the best but it's the most listened to dress to kill is the the one that I I
always put on first I don't know why it's not that the songs are better but it's uh the one that it's the most
listened for my ears you know I don't know why uh I I think I think drastic kill is a very underrated record people
don't talk about it as much as they should there's some great songs on there that don't get a lot of love yeah yeah
yeah I think the whole record is is good you know when you you know song by song
but uh the the first one is uh the debut album is uh probably that one and and uh
dress to kill to me now in this phase are the best but it can vary as you said
also I in for example in my car now I have love gun and I listen to that one uh all the time you know it's uh it's
it's incredible album uh there is a there is some uh I see conversations
about the production of the albums you know the sound of the albums uh if if That was supposed to be like this or
like that like uh shoutcast Now put on a poll if uh on a story AO if uh it's a
good production and hotter than hell album or no you know it's uh what do you
what do you think about that for example yeah I mean I I'm not a fan of the hotter than hell production that's for
sure um the I think the first two records especially the production really suffers dress to kill the production I
think is really crisp I really like that production especially Peter's drum sound started to come together at that point
but if you listen to Peter's drums on hotter than hell God you can almost not even hear them it it it bothers me a lot
yeah it's it's it's kind of weird but maybe they were trying to to do something good different I think maybe I
don't know yeah I don't I mean that's wishful thinking I think unfortunately I think uh wise and kerer who were the
producers back then didn't know how to capture kiss's sound and it you know
wasn't until dress the kill and then obviously kiss alive where you know they said okay no this is what kiss is
supposed to sound like yeah but Kiss Alive yeah but Kiss Alive is also a little bit re recorded in that we know
afterwards you know right yeah I don't know which songs and how much of it you know but we all know that it was a
little bit you know something yeah I think it's just fixes you know obviously live recordings you know you don't want
to just put out mistakes you know I think Peter's mostly Peter's drums alive and then you know you're going to have
Paul do doing some overdubs if he's flat a little here and there you'll probably have Ace doing some solos over here and
there just to fix it to make it the last thing you want to do is buy a live record and have to hear the same mistake
for 40 years you know what I mean yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah probably p p is is
is very underrated by the way I think because a lot of people like put him down like he's like a simple but he's
not he has the groove he has the the he has that hit that nerve in the hand that
that not a lot of of them have same as Ringo same as Ringo Star I couldn't
agree more I think Peter has a certain rock and roll style he has that shuffle that he uses all the time Peter's style
you know I I just had this kind of argument with with friends of mine recently that a great drummer to me is
not always the most technical the person who has the most chops who can do the most to me something that shows a great
drummer and it kind of ties back to the Joe frankco thing that he said yeah if you can recreate drums or drumers parts
via a drum machine to me it doesn't have the soul that a real drummer needs yeah
to me you can't recreate Peter's drum Parts via a drum machine you cannot recreate recreate Ringo's Parts you
can't recreate John Bonham's Parts but you know what I think you could recreate Neil P's Parts I think you could
recreate Mike poro Parts not that they're better or worse as drummers it's
a different style of drumming my opinion those feel oriented drummers that are
have this Swagger that you can't really kind of decipher or recreate that's an
amazing drummer to me guys who are so Precision oriented that's a style that I never got into yeah uh the progressive
style yeah yeah uh yeah yeah yeah I'm on on your side also because uh because you
have time and everything is according to the time and they can recreate it with the hits and with samples and with uh
triggers and everything but but uh if you if you play even if you go faster
and slower some somewhere that is the soul of the song yeah couldn't agree more everything doesn't you know there's
a thing now I'm a session drummer too you can quantize everything and all that
means is on you know on Pro Tools or logic whatever you're using in in today's recording World a drummer's
drums what happens is most producers will just go like this they'll click a button and it'll hit quantize and all
that will do is line up the drums perfectly to a grid yeah now yes they
sound perfect but sometimes music is not supposed to be perfect if you listen to
the old Zeppelin records and you listen to the stones or the old kiss records or Aros Smith there's a Swagger that the
band has that's going in and out of the time that creates that band sound yeah
yeah that that was also what I loved about AJ pero he was like that you know know he what what an underrated drummer
yeah yeah yeah yeah man he he was a thunder yeah he uh he had he had a lot
of uh if if you could uh see live he he he could fasten up the songs but it was
natural you know absolutely and even you know listen to any of those records Listen to Can't Stop rock and roll or or
stay hungry try to recreate AJ's Parts perfectly you can't you can not because
they're so Tech Tech Ally hard because but it's because AJ plays them in a way that only AJ plays yeah yeah that's true
that's very true that's uh even on come out and play he overplays somewhere you
know yeah yeah listen AJ overplayed a lot but he overplayed in a way that AJ
could overplay it it fit Twisted Sister sound yeah that's true uh I love both I
I also love Mike Port when he played when he played in Twisted after AJ sure
uh he he played he played it very perfect you know uh you you could feel
that it's not AJ listen I don't get me wrong I love por he's a good friend of mine he is one of the most talented
drummers in the world I could never do most of the stuff never could do most of the stuff that he could do it's just you
know it's it's a feel thing and Mike does that stuff too because I've seen him in his Zeppelin band I've seen him in his Who band he has that Swagger too
but Mike is just more of a a progressive drummer he likes that Precision you know
Progressive style and that's that's that's incredible to be able to do that of course man yeah it was very weird
because he was in Adrenaline B and and that and then AJ came into it you know
that's uh yeah it's again like I said it's all T we're all tied together in that you know this once you know it's so
funny like everyone always asks you know how did you break into this how did you get that gig how did you get that gig
like I had I just recorded Ace fr's new record too I did drums on most of that record and you know so many people are
like well how did you get that gig how did you get that it's you you know you don't go for gigs gigs once you're in a
circle and you prove your worth and you prove your reliability and and your and
your um dedication and your you know how you can play Work comes to you so you
know I've been playing with Steve Brown for many years good friend of mine we play with Eric Martin um in our in solo
projects and we you know we've become really good friends over the years he knows I'm super reliable he knows I'm going to give him stuff that he needs
quickly and he just called me one day and it it just you know F falls into your lap after a while when you become a
reliable musician in a certain circuit yeah yeah that's what uh the Geeks come
to you that's what you want to say uh that's what I wanted to ask you you as a huge kiss fan as a kid how was playing
with Ace fre you know on album I mean again it's you know it's one of those life pinching moments it's like I
remember tracking the songs and then Ace came in and he was like oh this sounds great I'm you know I'm pinching myself I'm like I I couldn't tell the
5-year-old Joey who saw kiss at Madison Square Garden that one day you know you're going to be playing on Asus solar
record it just wouldn't sound real and you know you know like I said people say
well how did you get there you get there through years and years and Decades of hard work and struggle and you know just
Trucking forward not giving up you know you don't give up on your dream you don't give up on what you want to do you
just keep pushing forward and like I said prove how good you are prove that you're reliable and you know you you
become peers with your Idols yes that's uh that's amazing that that's uh the the
most I got uh into into my career was opening for Judas Priest and wh snake
you know that that was like with my band that was dude don't say just anything
those are great accomplishments are you kidding yeah yeah yeah but but okay music for me is a hobby because I work
something else I have a band for almost 25 years also but but uh we don't play
that regularly we release right sure sure yeah yeah no listen sometimes listen life gets in the way too don't
get me wrong I know but just for me you know early as an as an early kid as an
early drummer at an early age I knew this is what I do I don't can't do
anything else I don't you know obviously I do other side projects I write books and I act and all that stuff but I can't
do a regular job it's just not in me it's it's I'm a musician I'm creative I have to keep trucking forward uh for
good or bad yeah yeah yeah I I see the I see the freely uh record uh behind you
yeah right yeah 10,000 volts I love the record uh from from beginning to the end
and uh maybe micart is my favorite favorite song there yeah I I I I did the
drums for Cosmic har what a what a fantastic song so funny story behind that so again I was tracking a lot of
the demos with a I didn't know if I was going to make the record I didn't know if I was I had no idea I was just Steve
called me hey I got we got a new idea can you lay some tracks down for me of course I can of course I can so one of
the times I was heading up to the studio with them to track on the way there Steve kind of texted me and said hey you
know I kind of have this other idea take a quick listen to this on the way up and let me know you know we want to track
something to this as well today so I think I was going up to track Life as a
life life as a stranger and back into my arms again I was going to track those two and he sent me this riff which
turned out to be Cosmic heart and I remember listening to it in the car and
I just kind of heard this she feel like with the toms like in the middle of she and that's kind of where that Cosmic
heart Tom part came came about and I just I kind of wrote it in my head on the way to the studio sat down tried it
and it worked it uh it's incredible that that's it I mean you you you track the
demos right but afterwards you you were on most of the songs yeah so the demos you know it it's funny like in today's
world there are no demos like I was tracking these songs and it turned out to be those those were the keepers those
were the tracks so there were no demos it was and hey we're recording this for the record or this is a demo hey this is
an idea can you lay tracks down for me I didn't know if they were demos or they were just workarounds or they were real
tracks we're just laying down tracks and it turned out that you know everything I laid down pretty much everything made
the record I had recorded drums for um God what's the name of the song again
Jesus Anton's song on the record I did tracks I did drum tracks for that as well oh
play on one right Anton played on two songs oh two songs okay he play Anton
played on 10,000 volts and let me just see quick and fighting
for life okay and I did the original track for fighting for life but once Ace got Anton of course listen Anton is one
of the most incredible drummers ever he he had Anton Anton it up a little bit and it became you know one of my
favorite tracks on the record awesome awesome you can you can uh uh when we go
back to Kiss Dynasty you you can tell it's another drummer than Peter Chris I
mean it's it's very straight it's very uh you know like all the time precision
and and all uh different hit you can tell oh I mean even as a kid when I was
a kid I knew that wasn't Peter you know I could tell the difference the drum tones the way they're
played I could you know a drummer a good drummer anyway and they're both incedible drummers Peter and Anton yes
yes good drummers you should be able to tell a drummer from a from A Different Drummer just like I could tell if Eddie Ben Halen's playing or Randy Rose is
playing or Jimmy Hendricks is playing or Jimmy Paige you don't have to know the song you can hear the guitar player yeah
same thing with a good drummer Alex Van Halen two seconds into a drum beat I know it's Alex Van Halen yeah yeah also
also the sounds of the drums is uh Alex Van has a very different sound
from everyone else you know very distinct snare sound which is you know one of my favorite snare sounds of all
time especially Diver Down I think is where he really that was my favorite Van
Halen drum sound and maybe one of my favorite drum sounds ever yeah yeah listen to like little guitars on there
or you know anything any any of those songs incredible it is it is also also
also we you can u in the'80s Kiss uh you have very different production from
maybe from album to album you know creatures of of the night production of the drums is very different from the
later from uh crazy kns or from Asylum you know uh drum wise you know sure you
know again that the 80s you know creatures was right before that hair metal wave right so the big production
that you know mut Lang Bob Rock production hadn't really took taken over yet and creatures of the night was this
kind of experimental album for kiss they came off the Elder which was a flop and they wanted to get heavier
and you know Michael James Jackson was the producer for creatures of the night and they they experimented with this
wild drum sound and it's really never been duplicated since on any record out
there whether it was kiss or any band it's one of the heaviest drum sound you'll ever hear yeah I love it I it's
my favorite 8s kiss uh record maybe but it's different from the no makeup era
yeah uh yeah totally different especially production wise like I said you know later everything's more
polished yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah uh also I I can hear a little bit of John
Bonham and Le zeppel in there you know and I think you know I'm not saying they went for that sound but it's a very open
Airy sound you know like you know when the Levy Breaks it has that giant bom
big Tom sound and you know with Eric car's massive kit it's just you know it
it fits so well for that record well you know I still love you is pretty Zeppelin
esque song You Know absolutely keep me coming all the you know the riffs on that record it's Zeppelin with you know
a heavy heavy Vibe heavier Vibe yeah yeah yeah that's right that's right uh
after this uh talks about music how did you get into Broadway acting and
Broadway production how yeah so you know obviously you know I did zrock we were I
did zo2 you know once zrock left the air um I just started a family this is you
know mid 2010s you know 2017 15 16 17 I had just started a
family two kids um didn't really want a tour anymore at least for a little while
you know I wanted to take a break I wanted to be home with my family take care of them see them grow up you know try to help raise my family and you know
I didn't want to miss a minute of my kids childhood so I said you know I can't be
a touring musician anymore but I am a musician so what can I do so you know I
I obviously Broadway was my next step I wanted to be you know a Broadway player that way I could travel into Manhattan
every night play a show have my drum set up for me no setup nothing involved come
right back home sleep in my bed and do it all over again you know it's the best of both worlds you're a working musician
you get to play soldout shows every night but then you get to come home and sleep in your own bed and and kind of
you know be dad as well so it was it was the perfect cross pollination for me where you know Broadway again didn't
fall into my lap what happened was one of the the other backup members of Trans Siberian Orchestra uh gave me a call one
day that he was working on this new Broadway show called The Great Comet of 1812 starring Josh
grovin and oh legendary singer yeah Legend you know big- time Grammy
award-winning singer uh he was the star of the show and th this keyboard player
of mine uh pianist asked me hey any interest in doing this I said I'm your
man so I went down kind of read the charts on the spot got the gig and uh
did that show for over five years on Broadway it was incredible yeah I read that you had like uh 500 shows there
yeah we did almost 600 performances of that before it closed um Joshua was probably part of 300 of those you know
so playing with you know guys like Josh groin every night for 300 straight shows it was just you know it was a dream come
true it was an honor wow man it's incredible maybe maybe it was the time
when when the had the Broadway show or no I think it was right it was a little after that when was Bri D and Sebastian
when were they all on Broadway yeah yeah yeah D Sebastian and maybe Paul Stanley Broadway show right well Paul was up in
Toronto which I went to see that was in the late 90s like 9998 99 right after
Psycho Circus maybe even 2000 um Paul did Phantom Phantom of the Opera yeah
yeah ofor and um and uh Sebastian was uh jacel and Hy or was uh Jesus Christ
Superstar something no I think yeah I think Jackel and Hyde I think he did for a while yep and uh yeah D you know all
those so again you know that Broadway life it's it's a great alternative to like I
said you're getting older family or your body's breaking down whatever it is you don't you don't have that that that
wherewithal to be on the road 247 anymore it it's just a great alternative
to you know you still get that Rush every night cuz you're playing this big big show it's different don't get me
wrong it's a completely different vibe I'm on book every night there's no improv there's no rock and roll but it's
it's still you know you're still playing live music every night it's a thrill yeah it's a it's it's a rush and it's
different different kind of Rush yeah and the good thing you know about my Broadway show you know a lot of Broadway musicians are in a pit which means under
the stage yeah which so the great Comet the band was in the audience like I had
my own box uh one of you know if in ever seen old school theater there's like
those box seats like towards the balcony yeah yeah one of those boxes was completely closed off for the drummer so
I lived in that spot and it was my it was my home you know for like I said for five years I just lived in that spot I
had you know audience members literally sitting 3T from me that's that's amazing
uh that's great uh about about uh you're
coming to an end of the of the interview uh tell me your short and maybe long terms future terms future plans what are
you planning yeah so again always a lot of stuff in the works um I still am an actor I love doing acting I love writing
my own shows I'm a big wrestling fan so I've been working on a show called wrestling with Joey Licious for quite a
few years now it involves me and all the 80s wrestlers you know we got Mick Foley
and before he passed Rody Piper and the iron Chic and uh Jake the Snake Roberts
and Hulk Hogan and all these guys involved with the show and it's it's basically about me as a wannabe wrestler
that never made it into wrestling and how these guys help me along to to maybe
become a wrestler one day so you know I'm always doing stuff like that I write like I said I write books still tour
still do a lot of playing um I'm doing another big kiss of event coming up another kiss cancer goodbye at the end
uh in the middle of uh December actually December 6th through the 8th playing again with Todd Karns and Zack thron and
those guys we're recreating the full Elder album and the full creatures of the Night album so
that'll be it's an undertaking you want to play them full full the whole record we'll be doing the full Elder and the
full creatures of the night record yeah wow love that man that you you have to
record record the professionally made yeah I think they're I think they're going to pro- shoot everything um like I said it takes place
in Sarasota Florida uh December 6 through the 8th tickets are on sale now
check out creatures.com or check out my any of my social media Pages Joey Casada
you can see all the info it's going to be one hell of event uh Bruce is going to be there doing uh a lot of a live two
stuff Chris Jericho is going to be with there with his his uh kiss tribute band quarantine so great it's going to be a
lot of fun oh man uh I'm going to put all the links down there and uh thank
you thank you very much it was a huge honor to have you because uh of drumming
and of Twisted and of kiss and everything you know uh good luck with the book and with everything you do man
dude thanks so much for having me pleasure I can't believe we got the Twisted rocking today what a great time
sister SMF for Life man absolutely see you man thank you later
brother [Music] ah [Applause]
[Music] [Applause] [Music]