0:01

Hello everyone, and welcome to another

0:03

episode of Inside the Studio on iHeart

0:06

Radio. My name is Jordan runt Dog,

0:08

But enough about me. My guest

0:10

today is many things. A Grammy winning

0:13

singer, an actor and Emmy Award

0:15

winning TV personality, and perhaps

0:17

most famously, a piano virtuoso,

0:20

though if you call on that to his face, he'll charmingly

0:22

try to deny it. For over thirty

0:24

five years, his chart topping musical

0:26

explorations of helped popularize jazz

0:29

titans many from his beloved hometown

0:31

of New Orleans, and introduced the

0:33

Great American Songbook to a whole new generation.

0:36

After decades of dazzling millions with

0:39

his skills on the keys, he's here to

0:41

let fans in on the fun of playing piano,

0:43

play being the operative word. On

0:46

March twenty nine, he's launching Piano Party,

0:49

an online course designed to teach the basics

0:51

of piano through lessons he's learned over

0:53

the course of his legendary career. Consisting

0:56

of nine on demand videos plus

0:58

two interactive live session the

1:00

Piano Party courses are meant for all ages

1:02

and skill levels, so please don't

1:04

be intimidated by all the Grammys, all are

1:07

welcome. The only requirement is

1:09

that you want to learn and you want to have a good

1:11

time. So if you've been thinking about taking

1:13

up the piano, now as your chance to learn

1:15

from one of the best. It's never too late. Give

1:17

it a shot. The Piano Party

1:19

project is part of his new metaverse platform

1:22

he calls the Neutral Ground. It's

1:24

an online community designed to connect

1:26

his fans and sharing his passion for music,

1:29

food, and family. We talked

1:31

about that, a little bit of New Orleans

1:33

jazz, his songwriting techniques,

1:35

and his latest album, Alone with My Faith,

1:38

recorded completely solo during the Pandemic

1:40

Lockdown. I'm so happy to welcome

1:43

Mr Harry Connick Jr. I hope

1:45

you enjoy our conversation. When

1:51

I was first getting into music, I really wanted to

1:53

play jazz piano so badly. I mean the Coal

1:56

Porters stuff, Rogerson Heart, the Gershwins,

1:58

and I can play chords, mess around a little

2:00

bit, but but nothing flashy. And I'm so happy

2:02

to talk to you today because I feel like there's this conception

2:05

out there, a misconception. I should say that

2:08

if you don't start training for this when you're four

2:10

or five years old, like you and Mozart, it's

2:12

too late for you. You're never gonna wait a hold on

2:14

a second, there's a profound flaw

2:17

in your conversation with me that

2:19

we need to address. You can't just lump

2:21

me in with Mozart right

2:23

off the bat. I mean seriously, man, it's

2:25

like talk about high expectations.

2:28

Well, you both started as what like age four age

2:30

five only similarity. But I really

2:33

appreciate that. Well,

2:35

I mean it's something I feel like a lot of people think

2:38

that they don't start really really early. It's too late

2:40

for them. They're never gonna get it, so why bother. And that's

2:42

what I think is so cool about this Piano Party project

2:44

because it really it's so inclusive

2:47

and it's so for everybody. So you're

2:49

here to tell me that is a that misconception.

2:52

Really, uh, we should all put that

2:54

aside. Yeah, it's really true. Um.

2:57

I think that we all have some type

3:00

of an eight musical talent,

3:03

and I think it's different for everyone. I mean,

3:05

some people say I can never play because I'm toned

3:07

up, or I can never play because I

3:09

can't you know, make my hands work

3:11

together at the same time, or whatever the reasons

3:14

that they think they can't play. Yet

3:16

at the same time, I think we're all moved

3:19

to um to

3:22

music in some way. It's almost like I would

3:24

love to be a football player, and I don't have the natural

3:26

ability to ever be a football

3:28

player, and I'm too old to ever have those

3:31

dreams come true. But I like throwing

3:33

a ball around and that's really fun.

3:35

So you know, the whole idea behind Piano

3:37

Party was, let's just

3:40

find some some easier

3:42

ways to get this information to people

3:44

that's not quite as um

3:46

intimidating, and and maybe

3:49

try to try to convey some things

3:51

that like I never

3:54

thought about this, like when I look when I look at

3:56

a piano keyboard, I don't I don't

3:58

see a D eight key. I

4:00

see these twelve keys that repeat,

4:02

and that's so basic and I don't

4:05

think about it anymore. But a lot of people say, oh, there's

4:07

so many keys. So the very first episode

4:09

is there's really only twelve and

4:11

they repeat, and if you can just kind

4:14

of learn those twelve, which takes about thirty

4:17

seconds, then you can,

4:19

oh, that's how the piano works. And it just

4:21

I think it makes it more accessible. Oh

4:24

absolutely, I mean it's for for

4:26

listeners it's a series of nine videos that

4:28

bring the basics of piano to life. And

4:31

I just think it's such a cool way to get back to fans

4:33

and empower them because after years of listening

4:35

to you and getting all this joy from you and your music,

4:38

it's kind of returning the favor and saying,

4:40

you know what, you can do this too. I think it's such a cool

4:42

way to put the power and listen those hands. It's

4:44

such a great I think it's neat man, and I appreciate

4:47

that. And you know that I've spent time

4:49

talking to people, like, for example, when I talked to my

4:52

kids and I explained to them just the most

4:54

basic stuff. It changes the way

4:56

they listen to music and it opens up

4:58

a whole different world. And I

5:00

think, you know, scientifically, we know that

5:02

you know music and exposure to music and

5:05

understanding music can it's good

5:07

for you. It's just good for your brains. So you know, if

5:09

I can help um, you know, expose

5:11

people to that that that's really what this is all about.

5:13

It's not about you know, people

5:15

need to know. This isn't me like playing some real

5:18

complicated New Orleans piano and showing

5:20

you how to do it maybe at some point this is

5:22

about you know, what are these

5:24

black and white keys? And how did

5:26

they function? And it's a it's a very

5:28

basic course that also includes

5:31

stuff about my personal history, and I

5:33

show off a bunch of my keyboards that I have. So

5:35

it's it's really fun. Yeah, I mean

5:37

that's I feel like fun is the operative word here. I mean,

5:39

it's sharing the joy of music. I mean, I feel

5:42

like there's such a prevalent

5:44

thought of weal if you can't, you know, get

5:46

paid to go do it up on stage, and why bother?

5:49

And well, it's fun, it's fun. It's it's

5:51

it is and you know what else Jordan's

5:53

is um this this is the

5:56

first thing I've ever seen that really exists in the metaverse.

5:58

And a lot of people get peaked out by the

6:00

term metaverse because they're thinking univirtual

6:03

reality goggles or augmented reality,

6:05

but really the metaverse is just about being

6:08

immersive on a different level. So every

6:10

tenth episode of Piano Party

6:13

is people who buy the premium

6:15

package can get together and we hang out

6:17

and and it's like it's

6:20

like I have a bunch of students and we're all getting together

6:22

and talking about what we learned, and it's

6:24

it's it's just a way of connecting in

6:26

a different way that I haven't seen before.

6:29

Oh, I was gonna say that is one of the coolest parts

6:31

to me because I feel like, you

6:33

know, you can sit in your room and you can learn the notes and

6:35

you can you can get the song down, but actually playing

6:37

with other people is a whole other

6:40

ball game. And you know, I played in bands

6:42

and things. I practice alone in my room and then as soon as you

6:44

get into a room with the other people, it

6:46

can be tough to jel And I feel like in

6:48

in lessons and tutorials, that's

6:50

a part that's really absent in the

6:52

teaching process of learning how to listen to

6:54

other people and engage with the musically. So I

6:56

love that there's this engaging part of it

6:59

right there too. I'm glad

7:01

I'm because that's that's really fun

7:03

for me. And again, it's you know, this isn't some

7:06

uh, you know, really high level you

7:08

know, competitive pianistic uh

7:12

series. It's it's it's really about

7:15

having a good time. And you

7:17

know, just a I had to think, like,

7:20

like if I want to study painting, like

7:23

I don't even know, like

7:25

the bit like what what way? What do you mean there's

7:27

a difference between acrylics and or like

7:30

you know, like I mean, I go way back to

7:32

the beginning. And it's actually good for me

7:34

too, because I'm talking about things I haven't thought about

7:36

in a while, and I just want to help, you

7:38

know, maybe bring people together through

7:40

music, which is I think ultimately going

7:42

to be a good thing. Oh. Absolutely,

7:44

I think it's an incredible project

7:47

now. I it made me think about my early days

7:49

learning music too, and I just think everybody when they're

7:51

starting out on an instrument, has that first song

7:53

that they learned where they impressed themselves

7:56

in a way. It goes from doing scales and exercises

7:58

to oh my god, this is fun. I can

8:01

express myself. Do you remember that

8:03

moment? Do you remember the first piece of music that you learned

8:05

that you were really proud of that got you going When

8:07

the Saints go marching in That was a big one for

8:09

me. I was a kid. But you said something that's

8:11

really interesting. When people learn how to play their first

8:13

song. Everybody learns

8:15

how to play a song. And what I want

8:17

to try to do is if you understand

8:20

a few of the basic fundamentals,

8:23

you'll be able to play whatever you want. Going

8:25

back to the painting analogy, if somebody teaches

8:27

you how to draw a face, you'll

8:30

draw that face a hundred times. You

8:32

just keep drawing faces. But if somebody teaches you

8:34

how to draw, you can draw whatever you

8:36

want. And I want to teach people the basic fundamentals

8:39

of music so they can pick songs out on

8:41

their own. And because not everybody

8:43

wants to play the same thing. I mean, you might want to play

8:46

an Adele song, somebody might want to play a

8:48

Cold Porter song, whatever it is. If

8:50

you learn just some really basic fundamentals,

8:54

literally, anyone can in time

8:56

start to figure out things on their own. And

8:59

that's that's what I think is good for your brain,

9:01

is you know, the eye hand coordination,

9:03

the stimulation from these sounds, and

9:06

learning how to play chords. So yeah, I'll show

9:08

you how to play some songs, but it's it's a lot more

9:10

than that. And you're you're passing

9:12

on all this knowledge to all these people who were

9:15

some of your teachers. You've had some incredible

9:17

names, I mean James Booker among

9:20

them, I mean just so many. Who are some of the people

9:22

that either personally or either just even just listening

9:24

to their music made you want

9:26

to pursue music. Well, a guy

9:28

like James Booker, I mean he was a teacher in

9:30

a in an extremely unorthodox way. I

9:32

mean, he wasn't James Booker

9:35

for your for your listeners and viewers who may not

9:37

know, was probably the greatest piano player

9:39

to ever come out of New Orleans. But he he was a

9:41

unique player, like nobody ever played

9:44

like him. So if you wanted to play like

9:46

him, you had to ask him. And I don't

9:48

know how many people asked him. I you

9:50

know, maybe I don't know anyone who

9:52

asked him, but I did when I was younger,

9:54

and he showed me how to play some things. But he

9:57

wasn't a teacher in the way that say Ellis

9:59

marsa Alice was, who was another teacher of mine,

10:02

who was, you know, a real intellectual

10:04

or real academic and and was great

10:06

at sort of breaking things down. But these

10:08

are like super high level

10:10

teachers. So the things that I'm doing in Piano

10:13

Party are not those things

10:15

yet they're they're they're very very

10:17

basic things. But like if you listen to

10:19

Errol Garner play the piano, if

10:22

you don't want to go sit at the piano and you

10:24

know, or tap your feet after hearing that. I mean,

10:27

it's just incredible. But then

10:29

I listened to Freddie Mercury played the Introduction

10:32

to Death on two Legs, and I

10:34

just I love I love that.

10:36

You know, it's not that's not hard.

10:39

You listen to Billy Joel or

10:41

Elton John and those people, or or Stevie

10:45

or Ray Charles, and it's just these

10:47

are all people that you know, make me smile

10:49

when I hear different ways of playing the piano,

10:52

different keyboards, your

11:05

career from New Orleans. There are so many incredible

11:07

people when you mentioned them, and you've got Jelly Roal Martin,

11:09

Professor long Hair, I mean, such an incredible

11:11

convergence of influences. I'm

11:13

always fascinated by what

11:16

makes someone go from being a performer

11:18

who plays other people's music to making

11:20

the jump into being a writer. I mean me

11:24

as an example, but I'm sure a lot of people that are gonna

11:26

be learning on your on your piano

11:28

party courses. Um, they'll learn the

11:30

basics and at some point some of them will want

11:32

to make the jump into writing their own music.

11:35

Um, I've never done that yet I've never

11:37

felt able to use music to communicate.

11:40

But I want to ask you how did you make the jump

11:42

from performer to writer? But

11:44

that's you. Listen, by the

11:46

time we finished talking, you're gonna be inspired

11:49

to go start writing, because it's

11:52

man, I've tried, no, no, no, dig

11:54

this. A lot of people think of writing as

11:57

I want to go write a song, or I

11:59

want to write a novel, or I want to go, you

12:01

know, write a screenplay, And I always tell them,

12:04

don't, don't think about any

12:07

of that. Just start putting ideas

12:10

down and eventually the form

12:12

of whatever you're trying to write is gonna sort of start

12:14

to assemble itself. You have to give yourself something

12:16

to edit. But a lot a lot of people

12:19

get sort of daunted by

12:22

the notion of writing a song because when

12:24

you think of a song, whatever that song form is.

12:26

If you're if you're co porter, you're probably

12:28

writing a A B A song. If you're a

12:30

pop writer, you might write in you know,

12:32

verse, verse, pre chorus, chorus or

12:34

whatever the that that

12:37

can that can really turn people off. But

12:39

if if you and I are talking

12:41

and you think I want to write a song about conversation,

12:44

okay, conversation, hanging

12:47

out talking. You know,

12:50

before you know it, something will start

12:52

to emerge to which you can then

12:54

edit. So I don't know specifically when that

12:56

process happened for me. I guess I was pretty young,

12:58

like nine or two when I

13:00

did kind of putting ideas down.

13:02

But whether it's lyrics or melodies or

13:05

a painting, just start, just start.

13:09

Good buddy of mine for fifteen

13:11

years that I want to write a mystery novel, and he's

13:13

never done it because he's trying to write

13:15

a novel as opposed to

13:17

express himself, you know, with a sentence

13:20

here or a word there, an idea there. And

13:22

I'm telling you, if you're passionate enough to want

13:24

to do it, it's just a matter of giving

13:27

yourself something to edit. That

13:30

is a great message. I mean, that was I mean a lot

13:32

of people are intimidated to start the piano. As

13:34

you mentioned earlier, eight keys.

13:36

That's a lot of keys. But you're approaching

13:38

it in this really accessible, logical

13:41

way to break it down and demystify it and make

13:43

it something it's more accessible. And then the next step

13:46

from learning to play is learning to express

13:48

yourself with your own ideas. And I think that's

13:50

such a cool And and also if

13:53

yeah, you're right, and I'm going on Instagram

13:55

and and search for piano. The

13:58

level of virtuosity that exists up there

14:00

right now, you talk about intimidating to somebody

14:02

who's just starting out. There's there's

14:05

kids, like literally children

14:08

that are playing so much, so fast.

14:10

You know, there are one video I saw this, this

14:12

young woman sitting in the closet playing John

14:15

Coltrane solos and octaves like

14:17

upside down like insane

14:20

amounts of virtuosity. That's

14:22

not what this is. This, This isn't a competition,

14:24

This isn't about you know, I

14:27

look how much I know this is. Hey,

14:29

hold my hand. Let's start

14:31

at step one and let's look

14:34

at what's going on in the world right now. This is

14:37

a crazy, very

14:39

sad and turbulent, confusing time. This

14:42

is designed to

14:44

give us some peace, to bring us together.

14:47

Um, when we have

14:49

some control over that. We we don't have control

14:51

over everything, but we do have control over

14:54

how we're gonna spend our time. And you know, ten

14:56

fifteen minutes, you know, watching this,

14:58

learning a little bit, sharing story, reason and then at

15:00

the end, seeing a bunch of

15:02

people I did a on this platform, I have neutral

15:04

ground on which the Piano Party exists.

15:07

We did our first UM discord

15:10

meeting and the person that was running

15:12

it did a a

15:14

zoom link and all of a sudden, I'm talking to you

15:16

know, fifty people and it just

15:19

you know, it brings us together. And I think

15:21

that's what we need right now. Oh absolutely

15:24

could say that again. I mean I noticed that

15:26

that play seems to be the operative word. I

15:28

know your your most recent tour was Time to Play,

15:30

and this is Piano Party. It's

15:33

it seems to be focusing on. You

15:36

know, what we need right now is something joyful.

15:39

I mean, it's it's to me, it's that basic.

15:41

I mean again, it is such a confusing

15:43

time and we're going to our third year of COVID.

15:46

I mean, I think everybody could agree we're you

15:48

know, hopefully nearing the end and it's definitely not

15:50

as as acute as it was. But

15:52

you know, it seems like just as we're going through that,

15:55

we're hearing all of this nightmares news

15:57

come out of Ukraine, and you

15:59

know, it's just a sad

16:02

time, you know, And and I would

16:04

like to try to create something where

16:07

we could get a respite from that we could

16:09

we can enjoy one another, learn

16:11

from one another. UM, celebrate

16:13

our common humanity, but UM

16:17

also celebrate our diversity at the

16:19

same time, UM, and realize

16:21

that we're human beings. We

16:23

all love each other, and

16:26

you know, let's let's try to you

16:29

know, get get through this crazy life

16:31

together. And as well said

16:34

I, the last two years

16:36

has been transformative for all of us

16:38

for in so many ways. Uh,

16:40

maybe some good, mostly bad. But UM,

16:43

has it changed your relationship to music

16:46

in any way? It has?

16:48

Um? In uh

16:51

in the sense that like the way I record

16:54

has changed because you know, especially

16:56

right at the very beginning of

16:58

the pandemic, you know, you couldn't go out of

17:01

your house at least, you know, I was one of the fortunate

17:03

ones who was able to stay

17:05

at home. When I think about all of the men and women who

17:07

were out there on the front lines, you know, providing

17:10

as much semblance of normalcy

17:12

for the rest of us as they could, I feel very fortunate

17:15

to have been one of the ones who was able

17:17

to kind of stay home. UM. And

17:19

you know I was, there

17:21

was nobody here. You know, it's not you have a

17:24

recording engineer or another musician.

17:26

So you know, I started doing a lot

17:28

more recording by myself,

17:30

which I've always done, but this was like a

17:33

lot and you know

17:35

it's and like you were saying

17:37

before, like you know, playing by yourself is a lot

17:39

differ than playing with other people. And when you're

17:42

when you're by yourself, you you

17:45

you have no distractions, so it

17:47

sort of forces you too if

17:49

you feel like it, you know, work on the things

17:51

that you need to work on. So yeah, if it affected

17:53

me musically, I think, I mean

17:55

the songs and the sessions you're talking about along

17:57

with my faith or into a Grammy nomination our

18:00

Best Roots Gospel Album. Uh.

18:02

And you quite literally played everything

18:05

on your own engineer to yourself, producing

18:07

yourself. Were you did you intentionally

18:09

set out to make a record when you were doing that or

18:11

was that purely he like healing

18:14

for you? Yeah, it was healing for me because

18:17

this this may be hard to understand,

18:19

but music, I

18:23

just it's just what I do. It's all, it's all

18:25

I do. It's like breathing, So I

18:27

never really think about it. Like if

18:30

I go fishing, I go fishing because it's fun

18:33

to relax. Like I never like really sit around

18:35

at home and like play for my own enjoyment.

18:37

It's just it's just so much a part

18:39

of me that I don't ever

18:42

think of it like that. But I found myself

18:44

thinking about my faith a lot, and

18:48

to be quite honest, sometimes my faith was

18:50

really, really, really strong during especially

18:52

the first few months of the pandemic, and sometimes

18:54

I questioned things, and I found

18:57

myself thinking about gospel

18:59

mut music, and you know, I would

19:02

sit down and play Amazing Grace because it made me

19:04

feel good. I've never done that before.

19:06

I would play Amazing Grace to make other people

19:08

feel good, and I felt good as a result of

19:10

it. But I was actually functionally playing

19:12

this music to help me cope

19:15

with things over which I had

19:17

no control. And then I would

19:19

play another song. Before I knew it, I'm like, well, let me write

19:21

a song about how I'm feeling. And

19:23

then I had I'm like, let me just press record,

19:26

and you know, I recorded the

19:28

whole album. I played, you know, all

19:30

these keyboards and trumpets and trombones

19:33

and basses and everything else, and it

19:35

took about eight months, but it was highly

19:37

therapeutic. It was really a fun

19:39

process. I don't

19:42

know the answer to this question, but I. I am

19:44

so fascinated by by

19:47

the healing properties of music. I mean, it's

19:49

something that's able to bring comfort and solace

19:51

to so many, including ourselves when we make

19:53

it, and I can't for the life and they figure out

19:55

why, what is it about music that makes it such

19:57

an effective conduit of of

20:00

emotion and healing. I'd love to

20:02

hear your thoughts and insights on what is it

20:04

about music that that makes it

20:06

just makes it filled with such a motion

20:08

that can really just touch us in so many deep

20:11

ways. Yeah, yeah, it's it's it really

20:13

is incredible. And and

20:15

my sister is a psychiatrist, and I asked

20:17

her once, I said, do you find yourself like in

20:19

social contexts,

20:21

like analyzing people without even realizing?

20:24

And she goes, no, not, not really, And

20:26

she goes, do you find yourself analyzing music,

20:29

you know, and at a restaurant?

20:31

And and I don't. And

20:34

and for somebody like me, you know,

20:36

who's so deeply immersed in the

20:38

technical part of music, it's equally

20:41

as thereft

20:44

of technique and complete emotion

20:46

as it is super technical. So

20:49

I can start crying when I hear a piece of music.

20:52

Doesn't matter if it's good or bad, whatever

20:54

it's like. And your question is why,

20:57

why, why does that affect you? And I

21:00

don't know, man, It's just it's like, you

21:02

know, art takes over where

21:04

any kind of rational articulation

21:08

stops, and I think

21:10

it's a gift from God. And

21:13

um, I don't know. There's

21:15

a there's a guy named Dr David Eagleman

21:17

who has this series called Brain.

21:20

I think it's it's like a

21:22

six part documentary on Apple TV or

21:24

something, and I watched that and he

21:26

and he deals with that a little bit about

21:28

you know, what is it like, what is

21:31

actually happening in our brains? And in

21:33

a way I want to know, In a way I kind of don't want to know,

21:36

because you know, it's

21:38

like I talked about that piano introduction

21:40

to Death on Two Legs when Freddie

21:43

Mercury starts playing and it just

21:46

overwhelms me. It just gives me a

21:49

certain kind of feeling. And I wish I knew why.

21:51

I just I feel so lucky to be able

21:53

to be a person who can

21:56

potentially make someone

21:58

feels something with music. That that

22:00

is like something I'm

22:03

so grateful for. I

22:06

mean, it's like seeing an amazing magic

22:08

trick you almost don't want to hear how the trick is

22:10

done. You don't want to learn how that parts played,

22:12

because you just wanted to exist as this thing that

22:14

it's It's amazing you said that because, um,

22:16

I had a daytime talk show for a couple

22:19

of years, and every once in a while we would have like a mentalist

22:21

or a magician come on, and they

22:23

always they meaning to producers wanted

22:25

me to know, you know, what was

22:28

happening. So I said, I don't want to know that.

22:30

I believe in that stuff like the

22:32

time leor Suchard the incredible

22:35

mentalist guess my pin number on

22:37

a mat on the James Gordon Show

22:39

and I had to change my bad Like,

22:42

I don't know how the hell he did that, and I don't

22:44

want to know. Um, but

22:47

I you know, I

22:49

love magic. I love mystery and wonder

22:51

and you know why do we feel this way?

22:53

You know, it's just that's what makes

22:55

life, you know, more exciting. I

23:08

think there's a fundamental mystery and music. I mean,

23:10

we we find in traces of

23:12

ancient civilizations, when when human

23:15

beings were just struggling to eat and survive,

23:17

we found traces of primitive instruments

23:19

so clearly this was a priority from the earliest

23:22

days when we were just trying to live. And

23:24

it's amazing cool, it's so important,

23:26

it's so so important.

23:29

So that's that's why this whole piano party

23:31

things important to me, you know, just

23:33

because it's it's

23:35

just hanging out in a different way. It's it's using

23:38

music too, just

23:40

to bring us together. That's all it is.

23:43

Right on. I the last couple of years, I

23:45

feel like, you know, in times of stress, I've

23:47

been I've been listening to music that I haven't

23:49

listened to in decades. I call it musical

23:51

comfort food. Have you been doing that too,

23:54

stuff that just like returns me to

23:56

a different time, different place in my life. Have

23:58

you been doing that? You know? Yes?

24:01

And no. I've been working so hard on my own music

24:03

that you know, it's rare that I actually

24:05

sit down and listen to stuff. But

24:08

but sometimes I'll go down that rabbit hole and

24:10

yeah, man, like you just started listening to stuff.

24:13

I was talking to my sister about a song that

24:15

um Gordon Lifefoot song if you could read

24:17

my mind, and you know, I

24:19

hadn't heard that like

24:21

the last time I heard it was out of a car stereo

24:23

in the nine on

24:26

an eight track. Yeah, so you know, you put headphones

24:29

on and you look, it's like, oh my god. First of all,

24:31

you hear things you didn't know we're there because

24:34

the quality is better now at

24:36

least you know, yeah, with headphones and stuff. But it's

24:38

like whoa, Like immediately

24:41

it's like a time capsule. You

24:43

know, you go down that that rabbit hole

24:45

and start listening to stuff. It's just amazing.

24:48

Oh man, that is a that is a great track. I

24:50

mean, that's I hope that's something that comes with

24:52

some of your your hangout sessions

24:55

on the Piano Party two. I mean just swapping

24:57

you know, music to check out and stuff, like a

25:00

lot of people probably don't don't know that song. Well.

25:02

The cool thing about the metaverse because

25:04

this notion of decentralization

25:06

and everybody kind of being

25:08

a part of it, This is

25:11

going to evolve. This is this series

25:13

over time is going the

25:15

breadth of it is going to increase. There's

25:18

gonna be all different kinds of offshoots

25:20

that I wouldn't even be able to predict because a lot

25:22

of it's going to be driven by the members

25:24

of the community. So although I'm starting

25:26

in a very basic way at some point. I

25:28

mean, I have specific ideas about where it's gonna

25:31

go, but there's you know, this community

25:33

will organically grow and and

25:35

provide um, you know, whatever

25:37

the community itself wants. So that's what

25:39

I'm excited about to see, like in

25:42

the first what I call land

25:44

yapp session, which land yap means bonus

25:46

in where I come from in the world, and

25:48

to see what folks are saying, like we

25:50

really like this, but would you show us this or

25:53

there's no way to know that because if if I'm a

25:55

teacher and I'm teaching one person, immediately

25:58

I can see with the relations and ship

26:00

is. But on piano party, I don't know who's

26:02

gonna be watching. You could be five years old, you could be

26:05

ninety five years old. You could play a little

26:07

bit, you could have never played. So I have

26:09

to learn you know who

26:11

this is for. So I'm excited to see it involved.

26:15

I meant to mention this earlier. The name neutral

26:17

ground, um, I

26:19

mean, has a wonderful double meaning,

26:21

but it means something personal to you and where

26:23

you're from. Can you tell me a little about how you landed

26:26

on that title? Yeah? Sure, so I

26:28

was trying to come up with some

26:31

type of platform

26:33

where a whole bunch of people

26:35

could just get together and love each other and celebrate

26:38

all the things that we love. Some of the things

26:40

I love are music and

26:43

food, like I love to smoke barbecue,

26:45

Um, I love traveling, you know, whatever it

26:47

is, you know, recipes or family

26:50

or whatever it is. And so I created the Neutral

26:52

Ground, which is this online free,

26:55

you know, brand new immersive social

26:58

experience. And on the

27:00

Neutral Ground will be lots of different things.

27:02

Among those things will be piano

27:04

party and things that I can't talk about

27:06

yet, but a lot of different content,

27:09

shows and music and hangouts and all this. So

27:11

I was trying to think of a name for it, and I wanted

27:13

to name it something that meant something

27:16

to me. In New Orleans, a median,

27:18

that grassy strip between two streets

27:20

is called a neutral ground, and that comes

27:23

from the eighteen hundreds. UM.

27:26

One of the earliest meanings of that

27:28

was Canal Street, where

27:30

on one side of Canal Street you had

27:33

one type of people, as they

27:36

were referred to in that they and on

27:38

the other side of Canal Street you had another

27:40

type of people. There were the French creoles on one side

27:42

and the Anglo Americans

27:45

on the other side, and they had

27:47

this area where once in a while they would come together

27:49

in trade, and that was called a neutral ground because

27:51

they didn't particularly get along well.

27:53

That stuck in any grassy

27:55

media in New Orleans is called a neutral

27:58

ground. And my wife always

28:01

thought she could never understand it because I say neutral

28:03

ground, so she thought it was like neutra like

28:06

almost like a neutrient rat And a

28:08

lot of people say neutral ground. They

28:10

put the emphasis on ground. But if you

28:12

go to New Orleans and say, hey, I'll meet you on the neutral

28:14

ground, that's where you watch

28:16

a martycra parade, or that's you

28:18

know where pignicke

28:21

or whatever. Depending on the neutral ground, you can do lots

28:23

of different things. But essentially it's a median.

28:26

But I thought, well, that name means something

28:28

to me, and it's also a place where we are all the same.

28:30

This this zoom call I had the other day with all of

28:32

these members of this discord

28:35

community on neutral ground. One

28:37

woman was driving to

28:40

her daughter's fourth

28:42

surgery. That was a tiny little girl,

28:44

like two years old. You'd see this

28:46

woman walking on the street, you know,

28:49

nice lady, wouldn't think anything.

28:53

Little would you know that she's got

28:55

this child that's suffering so immensely, and

28:57

consequently she's suffering, and the little

28:59

girl's brothers suffering, and like she

29:01

came on a neutral ground too, to

29:04

just be together, you

29:06

know. And that really knocked me back,

29:09

because all of us have

29:12

stuff, and on

29:15

the neutral ground, anything that's

29:17

waiting you down doesn't. It's

29:20

a place to love, to come and be loved,

29:23

you know what I'm saying. I mean, things that might be burdening

29:25

you in one part of your

29:27

life. We want to celebrate

29:29

you and that and that's what I want. And I'm

29:31

neutral with everybody else. I got my own problems.

29:34

We all have our own problems. But the neutral grounds

29:36

to come to the place you come to forget all of that in

29:38

order to share it and and be loved for

29:41

it. And the stories I've been reading

29:43

on discorded by people and

29:45

the personal struggles are going

29:47

through, it's like, come come with

29:49

us, Come come be with us. We're gonna love. We're

29:51

gonna love you. We're not gonna accept

29:54

you, We're gonna love you. You know

29:56

what I mean. It's not like, Okay,

29:58

we understand the things about you are different

30:00

than me, So we're gonna accept

30:02

no, no, no, we love you wholeheartedly.

30:06

Come be with us. Let's talk about

30:08

the things that we love and the things that bring us together.

30:10

So that's that's what the Neutral Ground is all about.

30:13

That is absolutely beautiful. That is

30:15

an incredible project. I

30:18

am so glad you're putting this out

30:20

into this world. I think that is an absolutely

30:22

amazing thing because the one thing

30:24

I'll say, we live in a very

30:27

divisive time. I mean, nobody

30:30

really wants to talk about politics anymore because you

30:32

know it's there's gonna invariably be

30:34

some kind of argument or whatever. I mean, that's

30:36

great that we think different things, but in

30:38

our totality, we're so much more than

30:41

that. And and for something

30:43

like that too keep

30:45

us from loving each other, talking to

30:47

each other. I don't ever remember a time in my life

30:49

where things were so on edge,

30:52

like you know, you know, every

30:55

everybody kind of wants to shy away

30:57

from from dialogue about this

30:59

stuff. That Neutral Ground is not a place for

31:01

that. There are places for that, and there should be

31:03

places for that, But this is not a place where you

31:05

come to argue politics or religion.

31:08

This is a place you come with

31:11

your set of beliefs and they

31:13

are to be respected. And

31:15

and it's amazing what happens when

31:17

you actually listen, really

31:20

listen to someone. You

31:22

might actually learn a little

31:24

something. You may not agree with it, but you might say,

31:26

oh, okay, I never really understood it like that,

31:29

and that's what makes it great.

31:31

It's not like in New Orleans. We weren't

31:33

raised to be color blind. We were

31:36

raised to see the beauty and our

31:38

differences. We're not all the same.

31:40

We're we're a melting pot. This

31:42

country is a melting pot. New Orleans is a melting

31:44

pot. So there's different cultures

31:46

that come together and we celebrate that. That's

31:49

that's what the neutral ground is. Well

31:52

said, I don't want to take up too

31:54

much more of your time. My last question,

31:57

uh, touch on us a little bit earlier.

31:59

That's been and incredibly challenging

32:01

last two years, incredibly difficult. Has

32:04

it taught you anything new about yourself? Have

32:06

you learned anything new about yourself in the last two

32:08

years? Um

32:11

that I need to work harder to be a

32:13

better person. Um

32:15

that I'm driven to be a

32:17

better husband, a better dad.

32:20

Um if I want to live

32:22

on the highest level of existence. That I can

32:24

live. I need to love more.

32:27

I need to have more humility in

32:29

my life. Um. I need

32:31

to listen more.

32:34

Um, because everything's quiet,

32:36

you know, during the pandemic, you know, it's it's

32:38

craziness in the world. But when you're alone by yourself,

32:40

you know, you really have a chance to think. You

32:43

know, how how can I

32:46

use this opportunity, opportunity

32:49

to make myself better? You know,

32:51

there's no distractions, you know, at least there weren't

32:53

for for a long time. How can I become

32:55

a better musician? You know? How can I What

32:58

can I do? And and uh along

33:01

the way, you know, I learned that I can. I

33:03

can definitely work on all of that stuff. And

33:06

I'm glad I had a chance to reflect and think about

33:08

it. We're all works in progress.

33:11

You got that, right, Oh,

33:13

Harry. Thank you so much for

33:15

your time today, and most importantly your music

33:18

is such an honor to speak to you. Thank you so very

33:20

much. Thank you, Jordan, And you need to

33:22

write that song. Man, Let's go, I'll

33:24

try all right, here we go. We

33:30

hope you enjoyed this episode of Inside the Studio,

33:32

a production of I Heart Radio. For

33:35

more episodes of Inside the Studio or other

33:37

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33:41

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