Discussion with Andrew Verkamp - Author of Kyana Woodstock

A backyard barbecue, a long orange extension cord, and a beat-up VHS of Woodstock. That’s how Andrew Verkamp accidentally started a movement in a tiny Indiana town, one that grew into Kayana Woodstock—a decades-long tradition that packed hundreds into his yard, then graduated to the Lincoln Amphitheater with live bands, giant screens, and a stubborn commitment to peace and love. We sit down with Andrew to unpack the true story behind his book, Kayana Woodstock: One More Day of Peace and Music, and how a private screening ritual became a regional stage for rock history and community.

Andrew takes us back to 1969’s gravity, the reel-to-reel tapes from a brother in Vietnam, and the Beatles album that rewired his life. He explains why the book blends memoir with cultural history, and how he honored song lyrics through clever word scrambles while navigating an eye-opening education in music licensing. From ASCAP and BMI coverage to the hard stop on screening rights, we trace his mad dash through Warner Bros. calls, estates, and the workaround that made a public Woodstock showing possible. Then the story turns electric: a storm show where rain hammered the stage, fans hauled drums and amps inside, and fireworks boomed through thunder while the crowd sang on.

Along the way, we explore what it means to keep a scene alive—passing the hat for local artists, doubling donations to a school music fund, sponsoring a summer stage, and inviting young bands to make their first leap from garage to stage. Andrew reflects on hearing loss at an Aerosmith concert, concert pilgrimages to the places where legends fell and rose, and his belief that everyone carries a version of sex, drugs, and rock and roll—whatever their passions may be. He also hints at a second book that trades the backyard for the world, connecting travel, empathy, and the same relentless question: can we still build spaces where strangers choose trust for a night?

If you love rock history, festival lore, or stories of DIY culture that scale into community, you’ll feel right at home. Listen, share with a friend who needs the spark, and leave a review to help more people find the show. Peace and love—see you at the next show.

Chapters

• 1:32 Opening, Dedication, And Quote
• 2:23 Meet Author Andrew Verkamp
• 3:22 Origins Of Kayana Woodstock
• 6:58 From Backyard To Lincoln Amphitheater
• 11:03 The Book’s Heartbeat: Peace And Love
• 18:33 Copyright Hurdles And Creative Workarounds
• 23:03 Oh Shit Moments And Storm Show
• 27:33 Sex, Drugs, Rock And Deafness
• 31:48 What’s Next: Travels And Book Two
• 35:48 Host Backstory, Closing Quotes, And Links

Transcript

Rob : 1:02

Hi, welcome to Franklin's Garage to Stage podcast. My name is Rob Wardrums Franklin, and my co-host is Dana Thunderbase Franklin. How are you doing, man? Damn good. How are you? I'm doing really well. Unfortunately, we have a brother that's in uh critical care right now, so our thoughts and prayers go out to him. His name is Johnny Franklin, so please uh share your prayers with him or for him. Uh basically, um I start these episodes with a quote that are both uh music related or just uh or just quotes for life in general. And today's quote is by DePak Copra, and it is if you focus on success, you'll have stress, but if you pursue excellence, success will be guaranteed.

Dana: 1:49

Nice, like it. Cool.

Rob : 1:51

Well, Dana, who do we have with us today?

Dana: 1:53

Well, with us today, we have uh Mr. Andrew Verkamp, who's an author of a book called Kayana Woodstock One More Day of Peace and Music. How are you doing, sir?

Andrew: 2:06

Okay, doing all right. Thanks for the opportunity to spend some time with you, gentlemen.

Dana: 2:09

Oh, absolutely. Thank you for joining us. Um, so before we really get into this, it's it it from what I'm read, it it sounds like that this whole thing started from a barbecue, like a mega barbecue that just turned into an annual festival with bands. And so how how did that come to creation?

Andrew: 2:30

All right, so we'll we'll ramble on here a little bit. Of course, uh so I uh I'm I'm a child of the 60s, actually born in 1960s, so kind of caught the wave, maybe the back end of the wave. Uh the book's called Kayna Woodstock because the town I live in, a little bitty town, is Kayana, Indiana. Uh play on uh Kentucky and Indiana. Uh downtown has seven people, and I live way out in the summer.

Rob : 2:59

That is fall.

Andrew: 3:01

Yeah, yeah, small town. Uh so growing up in the 60s, my my brother was in Vietnam, summer of 69. I'm an eight-year-old, soon to be nine. He sends home a reel to reel if you remember the old technology.

Rob : 3:16

Oh, yeah, of course.

Andrew: 3:17

Uh and uh he had recorded some music, and I listened to it as an eight-year-old. It probably didn't really click. I listened to it a lot, though. And uh years later it hit me, though. The one album on there was uh The Beatles Rubber Soul, and I'm I'm a Beatles fan. Uh that's probably why I'm a Beatles fan. Anyways, that that that started rock and roll. Years later, I started figuring out this thing called Woodstock. So Kayana Woodstock, um, my backyard in Kayana Woodstock. The 25th anniversary was back in 1994, ancient history at this point. Uh the technology then was VHS tape, and for the first time they they released the Woodstock movie on VHS. So I bought it and uh ran a 25-foot extension cart or 100-foot cart in the backyard to a TV, and we watched it a dozen of us. Uh, and every year it got a little bigger and a little bigger and a little bigger. Uh ended up with uh live bands, uh fireworks, a giant screen. I I uh rode the wave of technology. Uh so 25 years or 24 in my backyard until my wife said, No more, we're kicking you out. Uh we we literally packed five, six hundred people into my house, this open house, backyard. Um I said, here's the deal, if we're gonna do that. We we moved down to uh uh we we live in southern Indiana. Abraham Lincoln uh grew up in southern Indiana, barned in Kentucky, and then spent his life in Illinois before becoming president. So he spent about a dozen years just a few miles from where we live, and they they got a big big amphitheater down there where they run a summer series to celebrate his life, uh, or did for years, and then it kind of went uh drifted off, and then a new group came in. Anyways, we we are now sponsors of the stage. Uh it's a 2200-foot amp, 2200 people amphitheater, uh beautiful venue, and they do live music during the summer in addition to the Lincoln store, and they do Kyanna Woodstock. Uh we do it every five years, but we sponsor the stage for the whole summer. So 32 years of uh history of rock and roll. Uh we'd watch the Woodstock video, and then we started inviting in uh the local live music. Uh I I thrive on uh the adrenaline uh straight to the vein of uh live music. Uh good, bad, anybody who tries it. But uh so that that's the story of uh the book, or at least part of the book, and um the this this party that became a book.

Rob : 6:19

Cool, very cool. Um, I like one of the lines in the book where it says this is more than a memoir, it's uh heartbeat of a generation. Could you kind of explain that?

Andrew: 6:31

So I I uh during that 25-year history, technology moved on, and somewhere in the middle of it uh started doing little email blasts to to to grow that five, six hundred people away from just immediate family. And people started saying, Man, you ought to write a book because they would love the little uh most of that propaganda was around the theme of uh of Woodstock, peace, love, togetherness, uh uh the numbers all the way from 300 to 500,000 people with another 500,000 trying to get there, and nobody got hurt. It was it was the epitome of peace and love. Uh so I started writing a book and on and off, on and off. So that's um the first part of the book is 69, uh, and uh you're gonna catch a bunch of 69 theme here, 1969. Uh 69 short stories about uh a little bit of memoir here of my life growing up, uh, all tied to rock and roll. Um the that section of the book is called Here I Threw Up. Uh the play on the words of Here I Grew Up, which Abraham Lincoln uh it's one of his favorite famous quotes on Southern Indiana, Here I Grew Up. And then the second half of the book chronicles the what you ask about the the the uh basically a beer blast party in the back back party back uh backyard growing into um an event uh where we sponsor and sponsor local music. So the the theme of uh it's in and out of a memoir, but the overriding theme is is peace and love and the the gray hair of uh one of the people who rode the way with that. I I think we we were living through the very end, and I rock and roll will never die, but we we live through a period of time that uh, and not trying to offend anybody or whatever, but I I think 2,000 years from now they're gonna look back, just like we look back 2,000 years and we're about to celebrate it as we do every year. I think we just live through a period of time where peace and love uh and unfortunately uh I guess the foundation isn't holding. We got all kinds of you know political and everything else going on, but peace and love for sure, back in that weekend in August 15, 16, 17, 18, 1969, and on and off throughout. Uh so in the book and what I'm just preaching throughout, it keeps tying this. Okay, we we we uh I don't know, we we you know we uh we lived in Bethlehem, we lived in Jerusalem. This this was rock and roll, and we we had the disciples, we had John Paul George Ringo, we had uh Mick and Keith, and I can you know go on to uh we had the who we had the uh in fact I'm sitting in my basement here where they're all hanging on the wall. I I I live in Solita. Yeah, yeah. Um I actually ironically, as I was growing up, I would I would meet people and they they they were elvis nuts or um I don't know, some baseball or football. They were obsessive, and I go, ah, it's never gonna happen to me. Uh but what you asked, so the the book uh yeah, it's got a I call it a work of fiction because other than uh few local people, it's it could be fiction.

Speaker 1: 10:20

Okay.

Andrew: 10:20

Uh but interwoven in that is this this uh to me a just a giant awakening of uh we were there at the epicenter of something that that hopefully holds on and finds its way back to the front and and maybe yet becomes them the the mantra that saves the world, if you will. Because for a few short times, uh I I've been to Woodstock the site multiple times. Uh I didn't make it the first time. Uh I was eight years old and mom was worried about the traffic. I think that dad said go, just don't come back. Let's go. Yeah. Anyways, I uh something uh song lyrics, something's happening here, but something was happening there that hopefully continues to happen. So that's where the uh various I tie it to song lyrics. Uh I got a whole education on uh copyright protection. So the song lyrics in the book are actually word scrambles. Uh I the title usually, if you grew up in the generation, it's gonna it's gonna play in your head. Oh yeah. Uh if not, you can look it up on the internet. But I I took the words and scrambled them all. So I uh I'll credit and I don't want to steal the copyright, but the spirits in there. So that's where the spirit of uh the theme of the book is is that whole overriding journey uh a bunch of us live through, and hopefully there's people who read it who can uh read about it. Just and again, bad analogy, but just like you read the Bible to learn what happened back then. Maybe you can read the book here to learn a little bit about what happened in um my generation. I like that. I like that, yeah. Yeah, you hit a good point. My ji-ji-j generation.

Dana: 12:15

You you hit a good point about that, you know, the whole piece of love, obviously, of the 60s and 70s. But you know, you try to get 400,000 people together now, and there's no way it's gonna interact like like it did back then. I wouldn't I wouldn't think it's I think that was a once in a once in a lifetime thing that ever that happened. And you know, I would love to see it happen again, but it's doubtful with the white society's going out. But the one thing that I you know, you threw the number 69 in there a lot with the whole you know, the year of 69. And and you know, I read that you when you printed this book, you did 69 first edition copies for selected individuals. Um, what what's that what's that all about and how did that come to be as far as you know those certain individuals?

Andrew: 13:01

So part of this journey uh uh pushing 10 years now ago when I said, okay, I'm gonna write a book, and it it was in the background, it was uh at best a hobby. I'd uh I traveled professionally, uh consultant, so I I I'd uh I'd end up in hotel rooms or sitting on an airplane or layovers, and I'd write a little bit, write a little bit, kept writing the book. Um and then this this past year when we finally took it over the edge, uh uh I guess a little bit of the tariffs and world we live in, my consulting gigs dried up, so I said, okay, let's let's go into this semi-retirement. I go in and out, and I finish the book. Uh there's a whole world out there. I I mean we're we're not published by some giant publishing house, but you can relatively uh almost stumble through the what's the word, uh just follow the bouncing ball on Amazon and you can write a book. We took we took it in the step in the middle and and got some professional help, learned a lot. Um but I had a couple plateaus. When one plateau was okay, I'm gonna finish a book, just uh bucket list. Um Ultimate Plateau is a it's uh it's a million seller, I'm making a little money that helps fund more kind of Woodstock. We donate a lot to the local music scene.

Speaker 1: 14:31

Oh, that's great.

Andrew: 14:32

Uh and help spread that word we just talked about. Uh the middle plateau, when you asked specifically about the 69 copies, uh and the eye get fixated. The uh first set of books I uh it wasn't actually a book, it was just a manuscript of 400 some pages. I sent to 19 people and said, here, read this and tell me how bad it is, and they helped. But the the 69, and and again I probably played with the numbers a little bit. Uh that's my the my inner core, uh, brothers, sisters, in-laws. Uh in fact, uh my theme throughout this whole Woodstock was uh uh kind of peace and love on the the local stage, my stage. It was family, friends, those we meet along the way, and those who understand. So I there there's 69 books out there that okay, if I if I don't make it to the that ultimate plateau, at least there's 69 people who uh I I guess they're the apostles. They they have the book, they have the story, and it's there for them. So that was the magic of 69. And that that part's done. We uh we officially published on uh September 30th. The goal was the Woodstock weekend, but uh I I learned a lot and missed the goal.

Rob : 15:55

So okay. How how long was that process from your initial thought of writing a book to to getting to the point of being published?

Andrew: 16:05

Yeah, yeah, I'll repeat it. It literally was uh I'll hit and miss momentum on and off nine years. It first started, I just took all those emails and put them together. Okay, and then I started writing, and then I started hitting that kind of global theme of wow, we just were living on the tail end of uh of a generation that at least touch peace and love, probably probably more than any generation, maybe even including the one where uh 2,000 years ago where it had a little foothold. And again, it's it's not there. Um two two years ago is when I published those 19 copies to some people, and then as I said, this year I probably spent all of uh most uh half the year, six months plus uh deep in learning how you publish, how you edit, uh, how you clean it up and and uh make it a book.

Dana: 17:07

So with with all the music that you've encountered along the way, and uh who would be the one band that influenced you the most as far as you know when you first heard them? You know, I know you mentioned the Led Zeppelin, the Who and stuff like that. Is there one particular band that is dear to your heart?

Andrew: 17:26

So I'll I'll give you uh if I heard the question right, I'll give you one sidebar here. Um I I have two adult sons now. The the oldest is named John Hyphen Paul. Okay, okay, you know where that comes from. Uh and uh nothing to do. There was a couple of popes in a row that were John Paul. Uh I I think the second date with my wife, I I said, okay, if this is going anywhere and if we have children, I get the naming rights of the first one, and it's John Paul.

Rob : 17:57

Wow, that's planning ahead.

Andrew: 17:59

Um, and I said, you can have the naming rights of the second one. Um and a sidebar there, uh uh last minute cesarean, nothing serious, but my wife's unconscious. Uh the nurse hands me this little guy, and uh she said, What do you want to name your son? So I had a John Paul, so I said, George Ringo. Uh they started writing it on the birth certificate. I was like, let's wait until my wife wakes up. So uh my second son is Max Max Andrew, but uh for a little bit it was John Paul George Ringo. Uh the the Beatles, I don't have to preach on the Beatles. That's Bullseye. Uh hanging on the wall is four giant uh oh, the same pictures from the White album. If you got the little eight and a half by 11, if you're a Beatles fan, uh they're they're over there, they're uh two foot by four foot giant. I had a engineering prints cut and paste, big ones. Uh the Rolling Stones, uh Led Zeppelin, the Who. Uh then on the other wall over here, I go back to uh by the way, I've been to all their graves, the ones that are gone. Uh I've been to Strawberry Fields dozens of times. Uh I stood at the gate, was the last gate that George Harrison went through. He he passed in uh Paul McCartney's house out in Los Angeles area. Um been out in the mud three, four times now uh in the middle of a cornfield where um where Buddy Holly and the Big Bopper went down. I I got some gravel from Jimi Hendrix's grave. I got some uh I got a couple seeds from a um uh uh pine tree or whatever it is from a bench where you can look up into the window where uh Kurt Cobain left us. Uh uh I've been to the grave. Uh we had to hunt it down. Actually, I've been to the house where uh Jim Morrison did not die. That's what hangs on the window. Uh but I've been to his grave. I took two Heineken's along. You had to hunt for it, it's in Paris. Well, one for him I was gonna pour in a grave and one for me. Uh but you couldn't quite get to the grave. They had it blocked off at the time. So I drank I drank Jim's beer. Uh uh.

Rob : 20:28

He drank it in spiritual, I'm sure.

Andrew: 20:30

So so the when you said genre, it's uh and that's another journey. As I as I grew up in our era, uh I didn't know how many beadles. I didn't you couldn't find out anything. You had to stumble, especially in the middle of nowhere where we live. You had to stumble into discovering the next album, the next whatever. Uh where uh in this day and age I can halfway think a thought and I'm boom, it it's it's popping up on my phone. So so the bullseye was uh the 60s, and it's a little bit of so '69 was about 15 years. 1954 is kind of where rock and roll says, yeah, it started here. Uh Bill Haley, Elvis started, Chuck Berry came there, yeah, and yeah, it's got some roots. So 15 years after that was 1969, and that was the peak. Uh that was the journey. And the peak continued for maybe another 15 years, and now you're into Kurt Coban in the 90s and all that. And then it's uh it's not gone, but it's it's it's drifted. So the the bullseyes, uh there is no other music. And when I travel and talk to my clients and I get to know them, uh and they're all younger now, or a lot of them are, I try to find that common ground of music, and usually we get spotted around Metallica. That that hits even a young kid now. Yeah and yeah, I can understand Metallica, I can I can do that. Um But I I I some of them I I I lose uh the Beatles. Uh the one gentleman, his name was uh uh Carl Wilson. His name literally was Carl Wilson, and I said, You're you're you're you're you're uh you're a beach boy, and he didn't know who the hell the beach boys were.

Speaker 1: 22:27

Oh wow.

Andrew: 22:28

So uh when I left the gig with him, he had uh a full collection of the beach boys, and I said, Here, you you're you're gonna learn what the beach boys are. You're uh I I've been on the podcast journey here a little bit, trying to uh just like you guys, I'm sure, yeah, inch our way into okay, let's let's let's become rich and famous with this stuff. Uh but I I I saw your garage to stage, and okay, I I uh I I I'm damn good at air guitar.

Rob : 23:04

Actually, that was my next question because I saw a picture of you a little long-haired kid with a guitar, and I was gonna ask you if you're still a musician.

Andrew: 23:12

No, I I I I now on the other hand, uh I I'm I'm looking at my uh back window um patio or it goes out onto the backyard. We live on a hillside down in the trees of southern Indiana.

Rob : 23:26

Sounds beautiful.

Andrew: 23:27

Uh for 12 years I I would just play the Woodstock movie and people would come. And then Indiana did a funky thing where we changed our uh the time zone. And we used to never change the time. We just moved from eastern to western. I I live right on the or central to central to eastern, whatever. I live right on the dotted line where the time zone changes. Really? Oh wow. But they they changed it the one year, so it got dark later, and I needed darkness to run my big screen on the backyard. Uh a giant screen, by the way. Um uh drive-in movie scale of a screen. Oh, nice. Uh so I said, okay, we can do live music. So there was uh one local little band called Time Peace, uh, T-I-M-E-P-E-A-C-E. Uh Vietnam veteran agent. I love him rock and roll. And he played, so they they played, and over the years I've sponsored them on different shows. Uh so that was year 13 over the next three or four years. I I still did the big video. Uh in fact, some years I played a video in the back where the bands played, but we went to live bands, uh local live bands. Uh and again, we're we're not New York City or Memphis or anywhere, but there's still a music vibe. So uh actually one in uh relation, it's a nephew. He he's uh he's got 21 years because four years ago he released his first signal uh single. Uh so 25 years he's in the rock and roll hall of fame, but uh he keeps growing, he played uh a little local band called 86, uh which has got a bad connotation because of politics, but uh 86. They called it that because the uh the lead singer got fired from one band. He said, fine, well, or my own band called 86.

Rob : 25:29

I'll tell you there's got to be a backstory there.

Andrew: 25:31

And they would play here. So so literally the last seven, eight years, I I had five live bands interspersed as they would switch with some theme of uh live live on a video. Uh another band was called The High Road. Uh they're incredible vocals, but they're they're all local. Uh some old-aging hippie wannabes, and then some young, definitely garged his stage. Uh one gentleman who played over the years was uh an RIP, wherever he's at, uh was a Vietnam vet. Uh Paul Michael Ash was his name. Just incredible, kind of a folk Americana thing. Uh so when he passed, uh by the way all these bands I I would coerce and I didn't pay him. This was free, this was backyard. But I said I'll I'll we'll pass the hat and whatever we raise. Uh my wife and I will personally double whatever we raise. And it's uh it's called the Paul Michael Ash Foundation. It's a local, it spends the money on the local schools and stuff to encourage music. Uh we sponsor the stage at the AMP. Uh 2,200 people, six, seven, or I guess 10 shows every summer. We sponsor part of a local folk fest at one of the towns. Um the what whatever we can do to help keep that seat of music going. So awesome. That's great.

Dana: 27:12

That's great. Yeah, like you mentioned, it's like you know, our podcast is you know, mostly you know, geared towards the musicians who are starting out the like the name says, garage the stage. And you know, that's what we've been pushing a lot. And it's it's it's nice to basically get the other side of the coin where you know we're hearing from you know people like you that are have appreciated all that music and you know and and are involved with keeping that music going. So my question is with that with the Lincoln Amphitheater that you guys have a part of, do you have any say in any of the musicians that get on stage there? I mean, I've I've seen you know Kenny Wayne Shepard, you've got some great bands that have played there. Um do you have any input on that?

Andrew: 27:55

Uh what is the saying, pay to play? I um I'm sure we would or could, uh, but but but I don't. Well what once every five years when we do, or I guess we've done it twice now, but uh when we when we do the Kayana Woodstock show, uh in fact uh me and the director Bud Heads, because I keep uh I I went local, I went live. Uh but other than that, I I try to stay out of uh oh out of his way. He does a great job of uh multi-country rock all across the board. Uh here, a sidebar story. So the back to copyright. Uh he he told me when we first moved it down there. He said, I want to warn you, Andy, uh, you can't do on a public stage what you do in your backyard. And I said, Don't worry, we're not gonna get naked and spied in the mud or anything. Right. Uh so they they have uh what is it, A S-C-I-B-M-I, they have the the rights to play the music. So we were covered there. But when you start going into the video side of it, I wanted to play snippets of the Woodstock movie. Uh I wanted um I wanted Jimi Hendrix, and by the way, this we did the same screen there. It was a 20-foot-tall, 30-foot wide stage.

Rob : 29:22

Wow, that's huge.

Andrew: 29:24

Uh damn, my brain always does to me. Uh Richie Havens. I wanted a 20-foot-tall Richie Havens. Freedom! Freedom! Right on the ground where uh Abraham Lincoln grew up. Uh but you can't do that. So I started um it's uh Warner Brothers. I got to Warner Brothers, I would write, I would call. I finally got to a vice president of S T I L S stills, where you can, but she said if you want to do that, you gotta contact everybody in the video and get their permission and pay them. Oh that there isn't a uh there isn't an ASCI license for for video. So I uh she finally I I I wouldn't give up. She finally said, I I wish you could find something more constructive to do with your time. And she said, just forget it. So I I I found uh it was in Australia. It was one of the I collect the DVDs, and this was an obscure uh the other side of Woodstock or something. So I got that for uh like a thousand bucks or something. The guy in Australia was gonna let me do whatever I want. So I said, Maybe I better check with Warner Brothers, and they said no.

Speaker 1: 30:41

Yeah.

Andrew: 30:41

So then I contacted the Jimi Hendricks uh uh association, whatever the right word is. Uh and I finally got to a lady there who said, Yeah, we'd love you to use our music. We're excited about what you do. So I sent that to uh, or she said, Well, you got to get Warner Brothers permission. Okay, I got that. So I got the two of them together and gave up. So what we finally did is uh there's uh company out there called Swank, S-W-A-N-K. If you want to run a movie for Halloween in front of the local uh you know, park or whatever, summer movies and all that, you pay them and then they they they can handle the rights. So I bought the rights to play the Woodstock movie uh during this event. And I guess I cheated a little bit. Uh in the old days I had somebody up in the sound stage forward, backward. But I I cut and paste, and everybody got a every I paid for it. Everybody on the stage got to watch the Woodstock movie. They didn't watch all four hours, but I gotta we had a we we had we had a giant uh Richie Havens. We had a um we had the whole crowd singing to uh oh Joni, not Joni Mitchell, uh We Shall Overcome. Help me here. Joan Baez.

Rob : 32:07

Okay, okay. Awesome. That's that's a pretty involved process, isn't it? Well, we have a we have a portion of all of our episodes that's called Oh shit. And it's basically usually we have musicians on, but usually it's uh during the process for you, I guess, of uh you know putting the book together or even you know putting the event together. Did you have one of those moments where something went terribly wrong or something terribly embarrassing?

Dana: 32:37

There's gotta be some story out there.

Andrew: 32:39

So you can uh buy the book and there's a bunch of uh I actually if I go to the 24 years we had it here in our house, it started with a dozen and then ended up literally the peak year, you couldn't move. 600 some people, but nobody uh nobody got hurt. It was Woodstock, it was it was peace and love. Nobody stole anything, our house didn't get trashed. I had to clean up, but it you know, we didn't have uh we had one gentleman kind of a oh shit one night. He was uh a little too much on the enjoying himself side. I did that too, but he was over the edge.

Dana: 33:20

Uh he was grabbing everybody and probably drummer they walked him out.

Andrew: 33:26

That was a little oh shit. Oh, whatever the word is. Uh I actually if I go when we took the leap and started sponsoring it down on the big the real world, if you will. Uh I guess fortunately there wasn't many. We we we uh we made it through that. You know, you you got me on a zinger there. If I I can uh a whole bunch of uh little old shits. Um I I guess maybe not quite on the old shit, but uh the one reason uh uh uh my wife, my ying to my yang or whatever, uh she gave me enough rope over the years to uh uh literally just pack the house with uh but it it started the uh oh shit was you'd be out in the little local town and go, wow, that was a great party, Andy or Cheryl. And I didn't know who the hell they were. That was a little bit of oh shit. Very cool.

Dana: 34:28

Yeah, I gotta say, your your wife's definitely a keeper of she put up with all that. That you know what you started. I mean, that that's amazing. Not not not too many women would back that. So that's pretty amazing.

Andrew: 34:43

We uh actually I'm trying to think. We we had the local police show up one night. That was oh shit, but it was uh they just wanted to unblock the road because you got we'd live out in the middle of nowhere, but you still got to pack 500 cars with 500 people or whatever that was. So we had to unblock the road. Uh there was one night that probably was it's Mother Nature, so a little predictable, but oh shit. So the it was the band I said earlier, the high road had just hit the stage. I don't know, that might have been 400 people. We weren't at the peak yet, four or five hundred. And uh one of our friends who had left said, Andy, the storm's heading your way. I'm in the little town next to it, and it's his poor now. So I walked out to the middle of this, I said one song and get in, and they said, No, we're playing. And then it it just came down in sheets, just uh a proverbial biblical flood. Um, so the hundreds of people that are here that are under the cover of my patio and house, they all go out and grab drum kits and guitars and amplifiers and and they all pull it in uh as the rain's coming down. Everybody's just going nuts. Uh, we we ended up going to three in the morning in the garage. Um my one friend uh who was my firework launcher, and of course, I'm deaf, and I had a few to drink, and he he he grabs me by the head and yells in my face. He goes, Andy, I can launch in the rain. So I I reset everything and literally out in the pouring down rain, he's launching fireworks, uh, Mother Nature's blasting uh lightning and thunder. Uh, and that was probably oh shit. Oh yeah. That sounds like fun. I wish I was her. That sounds like a lot of fun. What was the move? Uh uh Titanic, the movie. If you remember, there's a scene in there where they're they're on the lower levels and they're trying to get to the upper levels, and they're grabbing on the metal framework around the doors, and they can't get in. That that was the front door of my house. The wind pressure had collapsed it and bent it, and people were on the outside trying to get in and they couldn't. And I just stood there laughing my proverbial ass off because I rock and roll.

Rob : 37:22

So I don't want to give away the hope. I don't want to give away the whole book, and I people I encourage people to uh definitely uh get your book. But can you explain a little bit about the romper room? I found that shape chapter extremely entertaining.

Andrew: 37:40

Actually, my uh my my my family, my son read the book and he said, Dad, I didn't I didn't know.

Dana: 37:52

He saw the new side of it.

Andrew: 37:53

Yeah, we were teenagers in the 60s and I guess teenagers in the 70s. And uh we went and uh stripped every little building we could find in the local community of Barnwood. Some they donate, some we just kind of borrowed, and we built this cabin and we'd hang around in the cabin. And uh as we were building it, I uh and this is teenage hormones kicking in. And then uh I said, why don't we put a room in the the ridge up above the it was a small cabin 16 by 24, and we we could line it with foam and old mattresses and we could do what we want up there.

Rob : 38:38

I know where that's going.

Andrew: 38:40

So it became the romper room, and if if you're a child of uh, I think an album back in the 60s, uh it was uh PBS when school was out in the summer, you got your little workbook, and every, I don't know, Tuesday at 10 in the morning or whatever it was, you had to turn on PBS, and it was uh educational program called the Romper Room. So we were teenagers and doing our equivalent of the romper room. You're uh a little sidebar. Uh so the books about music, the books about peace and love and the good feeling and all the vibe of that.

Speaker 1: 39:21

Right.

Andrew: 39:22

And then the book in the middle is about um so I I told you I travel a lot. Uh when I I connect with people, uh uh over the last 10, 12 years as a consultant, I've worked in 89 different businesses. You parachute in, you gotta learn people fast. Uh and I I tend to learn them from the ground up versus just hanging around with the people in the carpet office. Uh, and I usually music's where I zero in on, but what I really like to find my passion is is rock and roll, obviously. I I try to find people's passion, be it fishing, hunting, uh baseball, uh uh knitting, I don't know. But everybody's got a passion. So I I used to preach that. Uh and it it's the by the way, I uh uh sex, drugs, and rock and roll is the correct order. I used to have rock and roll sex and different orders, but it's sex, drugs, and rock and roll. Uh I I used to I I I preach it and I tell it to my wife and other people. Everybody's got a sex, drugs, and rock and roll. Everybody does. Yeah. No, no, no. I said no, the Pope. The Pope, take him in as an extreme. He has a sex, drugs, and rock and roll. And in his case, it's probably not sex. Uh maybe it is. That's that's another story. Sex, drugs, and rock and roll. Everybody's got one. Uh, mine just happens to be sex, drugs, and rock and roll. That's my period.

Dana: 40:49

Love it. So give us a good story about sex, drugs, and rock and roll. There's gotta be one night that well, maybe you don't remember it, but there's gotta be one night that stands out among amongst the rest that you know those three items in particular just it it all came to fruition, and you just had the best night of your life. Do you remember it?

Andrew: 41:14

Uh I I uh by the way, I'm uh I guess a one-hit wonder when it comes to sex, but I I uh sex is still front and center. Um drugs, I've been uh across the board, but uh I'm a I'm an alcoholic part-time. Uh part-time like that. I literally uh I I I go on a purge every year and I I stop on January 1 and I don't drink again until uh I add one day every year. I'm now up to Memorial Day. So and then I catch up. I I catch up pretty quick after that. Uh in fact, uh the there's a statistics in the book, how many sex, how many drugs, and how many rock and roll. I'm I'm a I'm a businessman, so I do the math. I I got a statistic. So I I'll take uh I I told you gentlemen earlier, and I'm still struggling a little bit. I I'm deaf. I I literally am legally deaf. I got some electronic devices, I can read lips. Uh without the electronic devices, I live in a vacuum. I cannot hear. Uh when I go to rock and roll concerts, uh and it's a good excuse, I get to sit as far up as we can, uh, the golden circle seats, because I don't hear it, I feel it. And it's ironic. Uh I'm pretty well sure I don't hear it at all anymore. My my wife will sit next to me and she kind of clues me in. She goes, uh, that's uh you know, that's Led Zeppelin playing or whatever. The minute my brain hears or uh somebody tells me what I'm listening to, the instant I hear that, instead of just I start hearing the song. So I'm pretty well convinced there's a little guy in my brain with a little turntable, and the minute somebody tells him I'm not hearing live, I'm feeling it. That's why we sit close. I can feel it.

Rob : 43:13

Right. Cool.

Andrew: 43:14

So when you talk uh if I go back to specifically, uh here I got the date, November 5th, 1978. Uh they've torn it down since, but it was called the and they took it out of my brain since. There was a theater down in Evansville, Indiana. And not my wife then, but she is now. We went to a concert. It was Aerosmith. Of course. Uh and Aerosmith was new music. Uh uh. So we're at the concert. Um the sweet emotion, I think, is what did it. The their final encore was uh train kept a rolling all night long. But the the security guard is is shaking me and my my my now wife and say, kids, you can't sleep here all night. So I kind of wake up, uh, you can read between the lines uh right in front of the speaker bank. Uh and I remember going home the next day and my my I just got this ringing in the ear. And uh I didn't dare tell mom and dad because they did you ain't going to no concert. Uh but I think November 5th, 1978, pretty sure it was sweet emotion, and then I think five or six songs later they ended with uh train kept a rolling all night. It it took out my hearing. So that was uh there was drugs, there was rock and roll, and I pretty well there was probably sex before and after. So that makes for a good night.

Rob : 44:57

Unfortunately, not the hearing, but the rest of the night was pretty pretty good.

Andrew: 45:02

That the irony of not being able to hear, and I in in the business world, I go in and the first thing I tell people, okay, I'm deaf. I'm gonna ask you, I'm gonna say, huh, huh? Uh so uh Superman, my kryptonite is I can't hear. And on the other hand, it's my super strength.

Rob : 45:20

There you go.

Andrew: 45:22

Forces you to listen. It's painful. Uh you know, the world of business, people don't, I guess in the world in general, people don't listen.

Rob : 45:30

Yeah. So well, Andrew, do you have plans for uh a second book?

Andrew: 45:38

So uh I'm I'm gonna be off on the statistics, but there's somewhere between 20 and I don't know if it matters, 20 million to 30 million books out there you can buy. Uh the Amazon has them all. And Amazon sells half the books in the world in this day and age. Uh they did a great job. Um about 4 million new books a year, average about 250 sales. So uh and we're climbing the ladder. But uh the trick is you gotta I still don't know. Uh I don't know if my uh in fact I I got it in the I don't know my book is the proverbial piece of shit or if it's the next uh Harry Potter. I don't know. Uh I think it's worth there's some moments in there where uh you laugh, you cry, you get that whole vibe. Uh so another book, uh the good news is I've stumbled my way through understanding this. I still haven't figured I guess if you figure out how to sell a million copies, yeah. If we do another book, it it's probably uh I guess same overriding theme, peace, love, and in this case, instead of uh a memoir kind of journey through uh a party in a backyard that became a local anthem. Uh we we love to travel. We we've uh we're dirt tree uh backpack camp. We we've hiked the Grand Canyon. Very cool. Uh followed my dad's World War II journey down through the Philippines, uh over went to Hiroshima, went to Nagasaki. Uh my my dad would have been in the landing crew if we didn't drop the bombs, and I'm peace and love, but uh uh been to Europe, got robbed in Europe, uh through Europe for six uh ironically, in the world of peace and love, we uh we were at a gas station, and when we pulled out back on their interstate, whatever they call them, it was in Spain, we had a flat tire. This guy comes up, hey, we'll help you, and then they disappeared. Uh and I thought I had everything, but they grabbed my wife's purse. Uh they they had stabbed our tire, uh things came, so they just did three cars. They'll stab, they'll slit your tire, the pressure holds until you start driving, and then it goes flat.

Dana: 48:03

They follow you in. What a scam, man.

Andrew: 48:05

How rude. So the other one, peace and love. I I literally I told you I live in uh suburbs of a town of seven people. Um one afternoon we're taking uh a nap. Now you're back to sex and drugs and rock and roll. Um but I wake up and I or my wife, I can't hear my wife says there's somebody in the house. I said no. So I go out and there was somebody in the house. We're in the middle of nowhere, and it's the what is it, fentanyl or whatever the people they he came in to steal whatever drugs we might have in the house prescription. Uh ironically, he came back later to apologize, and the police took him away. Really? My friend's from friend lives in Houston, and he said, No, statistically, your little town of Kayana has a higher crime rate. Well, yeah.

Dana: 48:53

Who goes to a town of seven people to rob?

Andrew: 48:55

I mean, that's like damn. Uh so so back to if we're right another theme, it's uh and again, I haven't uh I'm not a Gulliver world traveler, but we've seen a lot of the world, we've touched a lot of people, and yeah, we got robbed, but uh I that was uh the majority of the people, it's just incredible the the diversity. And at the end of the day, everybody everybody likes drugs, sex, and rock and roll, whatever that might be. Uh their family, the community they live in, whatever. So the if there's a second book, that's it's it's in fact, uh it's not uh what do they call it? Trip of a lifetime. This is a lifetime of trips. Um but it's around the theme of people, peace, love, uh, all the different places in the world. Uh uh little restaurant on a back street in Hiroshima. We sort of got lost, or Hiroshima, I can't pronounce it right. In this little uh middle of the pouring rain, the guy helps us find where we're at. We eat in this little restaurant, uh, language barrier and all. It was still it was incredible.

unknown: 50:06

Yeah.

Andrew: 50:07

And we shared a cold beer. So uh no sex, definitely some drugs, and rock and roll, probably in the background. Sounds like a great thing for the next book.

Dana: 50:16

Sounds great. Well, we want to thank you for having us on the show. Any um, we're we're definitely gonna include any links to for people to be able to buy your book, and we're gonna we're gonna spread the word on it. Any any last words to our to our audience to push your book?

Andrew: 50:33

Well if first of all, gentlemen, give me a real short, tell me your backstory. How did you go from garage to stage? Your Franklin's. I listened to some of your podcast, cool stuff.

Rob : 50:43

Right. Well, basically, we were we were sitting around. Uh I was actually talking to my brother here about what his wife was listening to, and she was listening to a podcast, and I had never listened to a podcast. I said, What's a podcast? So he explained it to me. I said, No, we should start one about our journey, because we basically we've been musicians, like I said, for for 40 you know years and around that number. And we should we should start a podcast to help other musicians about that journey, from like just getting together, forming a band, and to what it takes, the trials and tribulations to actually get on stage. So that's basically the theme of our of why we what we do in our podcast. We try to meet with everything from from musicians but producers, uh, record labels, and just basically get information from all those people to help other musicians. So that's kind of our theme. And and with you, your your book is all about music, which is why well, you know, primarily it's got that music theme and feeling. So that's why we included you in our podcast to you know give something for our listeners to read and in this case listen to you about the book.

Andrew: 51:55

Cool. Well, I appreciate the opportunity. Uh thank you. We've done a couple podcasts. The one was uh that they were zeroed in on Bethel, New York, Woodstock, Keep the Dream Alive. The one I passed on, uh I guess read the book, and I I watched his uh or listened to his podcast, and his opening podcast was uh Yeah, come on, you can be honest, man. We've all been in jail before. So he took my uh I guess my drugs part of the book and my little journey with with alcohol, and I took it to an extreme. So uh so we're we're Christmas season, uh the one Christmas become uh I don't know, one of the movies people watching I call Love Actually. If you've ever seen that, it's got rock and roll and it's got a nice soundtrack. Uh uh and the one writing theme in that is the guy takes the it's uh Trogs, right? Uh Love is all around you and the feeling grows. I can't sing. Uh so they rewrite it to uh Christmas is all around you. Anyways, long story. There's a quote in there. He says uh that he's on a podcast or radio podcast, and uh they uh any closing words, and uh he he he he's not real happy with them butchering his original. So I my last word is uh I'm gonna quote him take this uh festering turd of a book and read it because it's a good book.

Speaker 1: 53:32

Okay.

Andrew: 53:34

I I think there's parts in it. Uh anyways, it's a journey. I I I hope to keep bouncing away at this. I I'll take a few bucks so we can travel the world and write that next book. There you go. But what I really want to do is is get that that vibe out there and keep going. So cool.

Dana: 53:51

Awesome. Well, thank you for being on our show. I appreciate it. You know, and I'm gonna close this with a quote, and this kind of fits the whole theme here. And it's uh this one's by the one of the masters of music of all times, Beethoven. You know, he said, Music can change the world because people okay, I fucked that up. I'm sorry. So I'm gonna start over. Music can change the world because music can change people, right? Not out of Reddit, right? Yeah, because I mean that's cool. Music is just universal, so I'll I'll close with that since I butchered that statement.

Rob : 54:29

Where are you gentlemen physically at? Where's home? We are in uh North Carolina, currently right here in uh Winston-Salem. And my brother here he lives in King, but we're basically in North Carolina. Yeah, our studio here is in uh Winston-Salem.

Andrew: 54:45

I love going out hiking in the woods down in that area. Beautiful. Oh, yeah, it's beautiful.

Rob : 54:49

All right, Andrew, thank you very much for your time. And I hope people will uh go to Amazon or wherever they purchase their books to get a copy of your uh Kayana Woodstock.

Andrew: 55:01

Yeah, yeah. Uh Amazon's got it, and it's also on Kayana Woodstock.com. Kayana Woodstock.com. Uh our little bookstore. So Amazon don't get their money.

Rob : 55:12

All right, Andrew, and our listeners, thank you very much.

Andrew: 55:15

Bye. Hey, take care, gentlemen. Peace and love. Thank you. Bye.

Rob : 55:18

Bye.