I remember I stepped up the piano and looked at him and we looked at each other and it was like

We kind of knew I think you I think you have something super rare, which is this an earnest quality I believe what you're singing wow I mean, you know some people would say I was fired other people would say that we had create the creative differences Although you tell me you were in the room. I he. The plane was found with no seats full of quailoons, pot and guns. Oh yeah. Oh yeah. I heard them all, but that's a new one. Kevin Cronin, thank you so much. I'm so honored to talk to you today. I've literally been listening to almost my entire life.

So you couldn't stop it. You were from Chicago. Well in Chicago. Yeah. In Chicago, we'll talk about that. But I want to start here, born in Evanston, Illinois. Is that accurate? So I was born in Chicago in the lake. So essentially, we were born about 20 miles apart. And although we're a slightly different generation,

we grew up in the same world, Catholic world of Chicago.

And... Eventually we were born about 20 miles apart. And although we're a slightly different generation, we grew up in the same world, Catholic world of Chicago. And back then, Chicago was heavily Catholic, heavily working class. It's changed a bit. So I feel like there's an understanding there where maybe people outside of the Midwest maybe wouldn't understand what made your band, Aario Speedwagon important, what you guys were talking about important. It's certainly resonated with the world that I grew up in. So let's sort of start there. I talk if you want to talk about sort of your upbringing and kind of, because I found, and I don't know if you found this through the years, you know, American culture is so dominated by New York and Los Angeles, but they oftentimes overlook how valuable artists from other parts of the country are and contributing to the greater conversation of what we experience. I agree. Whether it's artists that came up out of the bayou, singing those types of songs with a little bit of French flavor, and of course the Midwest, we grew up in the shadow of the great blues artists. You can't not grow up in Chicago and not be affected by the blues. So if you kind of start there, please. Yeah. Well, I mean, I grew up in Chicago in the, we, I was born in Evan's gym, but we moved to a all Catholic, all Caucasian suburb. And I grew up thinking that there were Catholics and non-Catholics. And you know where all the non-Catholics go at the end of the road. So but it was weird. And I remember getting to be about, you know, into my teen years and I'm like, I'm not buying this. You know, this doesn't feel right to me. You know, there's other people in the world. And, but I'm not living amongst them. Yeah. So when I graduated high school, man, I high-tailed it up to the north side. And went to Laole University for a couple of years, played in local bands around Chicago. And, you and I share something because I did a little homework and I was looking for when I went to the north side. I was looking for a guitar player and a bass player from my band. So I called the Chicago sometimes and I said I needed to place a wanted for guitar player and bass player wanted for original music band. And she said, she said no you have to get you have to take out two on ads one for each instrument so i'm a goodness i'm like where am i getting at thirty bucks so i long story short i start something called the musician's referral service i'm running it out of my second story walk up just off in ro Park near Loyoli University. I get a call from a guy who says, I'm in a band. We have one record out. We're signed to epic records. And you know the old saying, you have a whole life to write your first album, you have to write your second. So long story short, that was Gary Richrap, who if you know anything about Aario Speedwagon, Gary Richrap is the reason that Aario Speedwagon got under the map. Is it, because I was going to ask you this, but we're here now, is Aario's Gary's bandio's Gary's band and it's like, does it make sense? You know, there's always somebody's like, this is really kind of my band. Well, it was it certainly was. And then and then after the first album, he realized he needed some some he didn't want to do it all himself. Sure. So he saw my one at hanging in the Chicago guitar gallery, a little flyer. And so we started out and of course he was my big brother. I looked up to him because he was just... What was the age difference? Two years. Okay, but when you're young, that seems like a lot. I was 21, he was 23. He'd already been touring nationally. Well, it's kind of regional. But still, scientific.

The scientific.

The scientific.

Exactly. The first album sold about 200,000 or so copies. Yeah. Irving A's off was the manager, which didn't hurt. I fell a little ill-inoian. A fellow little annoying, Danville and I. And so Gary met me. I played a song. The first real song I ever wrote, I played it for him on my Gild acoustic 12 string, and

then I did one song that he used to play in the folk clubs around Chicago that I thought no one knew of. It's the second cut on side two of Mad Men Across the Water. The first cut on side two of Mad Men Across the Water is this long opus that Elton and Bernie wrote about Native Americans

and it's kind of a cool thing, but I think it lost a lot of people. Second cut is a song called Holiday Inn. Okay. I thought sure I was the only one in the world who ever heard it and Gary felt the same way. So I just, all the songs, oh my goodness. All the songs in the world that I could have picked to play. So that it was like boom, it was like it was meant to be.

And so yeah, but it was his, it was, he was the, he's the guy who Irving saw and said, because they were playing fraternity parties and stuff like that. But when Gary came Irving saw it and went boom, that's interesting. Talking about a little about your background, because I think think these things are so valuable as a fellow songwriter. Dad World War II. Yeah. What branch of the service was your dad in? He was in the army. They plucked him out of the LL University, business school, and he ended up in Germany. He was there, read the end of the war. Okay. So did he see combat or... He saw some combat. And then he of course saw the aftermath of the Nazis out of power. Yeah. Did he talk about that stuff at home or? Well, he never did until he got to be about like into his 80s, into his late 80s. And I was taking to the VA because I'm like, Dad, you know, well, first of all, my dad sent me a clipping from the Chicago Tribune that said that basically got me out of going to Vietnam. If I wouldn't have seen this little article in, because the draft numbers had happened. So, and they the like the lottery? Well, like a lottery. And if you got a low number, feel later, I got number like 86. So I'm like, I'm screwed. What am I going to do? Do I go to Canada? Well, I'm not going to go to Vietnam. My dad sends me a clipping from the from the metro section of the Chicago Tribune, this big saying, young men born between October 1st and December 31st of 1951 are exempt from the draft. I would have never seen that. I would have gone to Canada. Was there a reason for that with? You know, my guess is that maybe they had enough guys already through the lottery. Billy, I don't know. That's not right. It doesn't make sense. My dad's theory was there was some Chicago politicians who had kids, you know. That does sound about right. Like let's just make something up, right? It's got to be broad enough that you can't point a minute. That sounds very Chicago. You know, very Chicago. But back to your daddy for a second, sure. When he did talk about his experiences, what did he relay, if you don't mind sharing that? Yeah, no. My dad was always very reserved. And as a result, he was supportive, And he was, he was, he's a good guy, you know, but I never got to know him that well until late in his life. And when he started opening up about World War II, the one story that blew my mind is that he, well, there was two. He said they were, they were rolling through the black forest. And Hitler had surrendered. But there were still, wasn't like Odinati said, we're not going to be Nazis anymore. Yeah, war doesn't tend to end on a single day like it does in the movies. Right. So they were, they had a bunch of troop carriers going to the Black Forest and Russian soldiers were coming out and turning themselves in because they chose to be captured by the Americans rather than be captured by the Germans. But there were still snipers. My dad was sitting on a troop carrier. There was hanging out all of a sudden, you hear, and the guy next to him dropped off the troop carrier. So he was you know one guy away from you know So but the thing was he what he told me is that they were instructed by their superior officers to not speak of what they were seeing in your Because you know back back home everyone was like, USA, let's go, we're patriotic. The women are in a factory making bullets and whatever. But it wasn't a movie, as you say. It was horrifying. It was going on over there. And they didn't want, my dad wasn't allowed to write a letter home that to share his feelings about what was going on over there. So he became, I think, very, very closed off emotionally. Yeah, do you agree with me? I mean, because I grew up, I'm a little bit younger than you, but I grew up with this kind of closed down war generation, a lot of drinking, a lot of kind of like, we don't talk about the war type of stuff. And I think the explosion of a lot of artistic voices in the late 60s was because it was like, I can't live like this. This kind of, does that resonate with your experience? Totally. You're right on the money. I mean, my generation, I mean, I was 12 years old

when the Beatles came on the Ed Sullivan show.

And then the liberation, it was boiling under, as you say,

from all the repressed feelings, but the Beatles

fricking blew the lid off.

Did you see that one at that first time, for you?

It's amazing how many artists they inspired, right?

It's mind-boggling.

It's mind-boggling. It's an artist of every stripe. Right. Not just of rock and roll. I mean, people you would never imagine who went on to very successful. Mom was a social worker? She was a social worker, yes. She was for for cafeteriaities, it was college. She was a case worker. And to her credit, she was an amazing woman.

She graduated from Mundlein University, so to to her credit, she was an amazing woman.

She graduated from Mundle Island University.

So to be her age, female, and have a college degree,

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