LIVE FROM JACKSONVILLE! with Amadeus
99.9 Gator Country morning show host Amadeus shares stories that did not make it on the air, and he takes a deeper dive into those that did make the cut. Fans of Your Hometown Morning Show will enjoy a more behind the scenes look at what goes into the making of a country radio morning show. Listen daily for this PG-13 version of the top stories making pop culture headlines, artist interviews, and much , much more.
LIVE FROM JACKSONVILLE! with Amadeus
PULLING BACKT THE CURTAIN ON THE TSO TOUR
Prepare to be whisked away on a rock and roll journey like no other, as we chat with Al, the spectacular talent from the Trans-Siberian Orchestra. Having shared the stage with music legends like Alice Cooper and Megadeath, Al treats us to an insider's look at the world of TSO. We explore the unmatched spectacle of their concerts, their impressive tour schedule visiting 60 cities in only 100 days, and the charitable soul that beats at the heart of the Orchestra.
We also pull back the curtain on a TSO show, revealing the moving story-driven narratives, the powerhouse singers, and the spectacular chorus that take the audience on an emotional rollercoaster ride. Get an exclusive glimpse into how TSO performances become the heartbeat of a captivating story, turning their concerts into cinematic experiences. You won't want to miss out on their upcoming show in Jacksonville on December 21st, or Caleb Johnson's performance on their West Coast tour. Grab your tickets, tune in, and immerse yourself in the magic that is TSO.
the show I'm going to go over to you. Welcome to Eden and Amadeus. The show after the show podcast my name is Amadeus.
Speaker 2:although I always want to go, I'm Eden for some crazy reason, you want to be me and I can't blame you.
Speaker 1:I love a pretty charmed life.
Speaker 2:Oh my gosh. One thing that we talk about every single year and you can't get over is the fact that I have never been to a performance by T s O, and yet I've been to a performance by T s O and I've been to a performance by T s O and is one of the founding members and is like the guitar is musical director. Yeah, I mean, how kind of is T s O?
Speaker 1:Give us a little bit about his background and then tell us a little bit about T s O before we talk to him again this year. He started out in the rock and roll world. I think his first big performance or gig was with Alice Cooper. Then he played with the mega death and a couple of other. You play with D Snyder Actually. I think he's been a part of that for like 30 years. So what is Trans Iberian Orchestra? It is an experience.
Speaker 1:It is a concert with a story and some of the most amazing musicians and singers ever, ever. It's mind boggling that they can put these people together and there's one on the west coast and one on the east coast and they visit like 66 years ago. And then he got with the T s O organization as he got a tour of the city and he got a tour of the city and he got a tour of the city and he got a tour of the east coast and they visit like 60 something cities in 100 days and do all these performances, and then they raise money for charity.
Speaker 1:It's just an amazing, amazing event.
Speaker 3:We no further ado. Here's Al Good morning, al Good morning. How are you today? I'm doing well. How are you? I'm doing good, all things considered.
Speaker 1:You know what happened with my jets last night, but they pulled it off and your Jaguar Jag was like oh, I'm going to play a game I was about to post on. Facebook Is this the most boring game ever, and then all of a sudden things started changing.
Speaker 3:It's like, oh, this is a pretty good game, actually. You know what it was good? It just reminded me way too much of 99, when test of Erty. On the first snap I popped as a Kelly seal and I'm like, Okay, there goes the season. And then, you know, same thing with Aaron Rogers, and we've been waiting all year to see what this guy's going to do, and so, anyway, it is what it is the kid that stepped in that, wilson, I thought it was a good game.
Speaker 3:It was a good game. It was a good game. It was ridiculous. When I was a kid, they looked so old football players.
Speaker 2:And then, when I became older, than the players like wow, the coaches look old. Now the coaches look like kids that might play.
Speaker 3:You're not wrong. We're all that age where everybody's just so much younger than us. I know it's, I got kids older than these players.
Speaker 1:I'm like, oh God, whatever Time of year again, TSO is coming to Jacksonville on, uh, the first season of the season. I mean, I mean, I mean I'm not going to say much last year, but Thursday, december 21st, and we're super excited.
Speaker 3:Oh, I can't wait to get back. I mean, first of all, I can't believe we're having this conversation. Seemed like five minutes ago. We were just playing down there, you know, I know right. And all of a sudden, you know my kids are back at school. You know football season started and here we are talking about what's going to be an incredible, incredible show this year.
Speaker 2:I can't wait to bring it to you all how far out after the last show of the tour in a different way? And what's the next thing you're going to do with?
Speaker 3:the next season. What's going to be your next drawing board for the next year's show? Well, we finish up historically the day before New Year's Eve and then come home and celebrate New Year's Eve, new Year's Day, and then, you know, that week we take off. In the following week we're back at the drawing board it really never stops.
Speaker 1:Wow, that's amazing. I gotta say something funny that happened last year. So American Idol season 13 winner Caleb Johnson was in Jacksonville around Thanksgiving last year and I went to that bat show, you know he does that every day.
Speaker 1:He does that every day. He does that every day. So you know he's a great singer. Tso was here a few weeks later and there was a guy singing and I thought, wow, Caleb would be amazing in this role. And then, about two days later because I followed Caleb on Facebook, two days later, he's posting him performing that song with TSO on the West Coast tour. Exactly, yeah, Wow.
Speaker 3:You guys must have been like thrilled to get him, oh my God, on a different level. I mean, you know he's just first, but he's such a great singer, he's just a great singer, and every time he steps on that stage he opens his mouth and it's just like wow, he's awesome.
Speaker 1:Can't say enough great about him on the bat tour Like I sat there and was like almost in tears at the respect he gives meatloaf songs and the way he does those songs and we need as paradise by the dashboard light with that girl and they get all into it and they're making out and everything.
Speaker 3:It's so much fun. He's like he's perfect for TSO. You know technically almost impossible to do. And then you know to really like capture and connect with the song and the lyric and, like you said, that whole you know like my favorite when I was a kid was, like, you know, two out of three ain't bad and it was just. We always try to do it in our little like cover bands.
Speaker 1:It never really worked out well and he just crushes it, and same with us when he brings those songs to life.
Speaker 3:You know the audience and on the West Coast.
Speaker 1:Well, it definitely wasn't Caleb over here. So who was the guy doing that? Those songs.
Speaker 3:Jeff Scott Soto, another one like he. Like he opens his mouth and you go, oh my God.
Speaker 1:Yeah, we were like this guy should be doing opera, like he was amazing.
Speaker 3:Amazing. Well, listen, I'm very blessed to have so many incredible singers. You know to bring Paul Neil stories to life and the characters to life, you know, and you know they become some of the most famous singers in the world and I think that's a good thing. I mean, I think that it's just like dude, go out there and crush it, because you know, you have been at shows where people you know it's kind of yeah, you know it was good, but it didn't kill me.
Speaker 3:You know these guys, you know their job is not only to sing the songs but if they do a really really good job, the audience believes that they're the character they're actually playing. But I think that's really what I would say. I would say, if you're a little bit late to the story, because what I notice is the father in the ghost of Christmas Eve is the story that we're going to be bringing to life this year. The father is pleading to the heavens for the safe return of his teenage daughter, who ran away from home right when I recorded these songs my older boys were babies, you know.
Speaker 3:now they're grown men and two of them are going to be somebody around Christmas time.
Speaker 1:Yeah, sure, absolutely. That's a really good point, I mean, and I think that's why these shows connect so much with their audience. When you go, it's not just like I mean, I'm sure when you were playing with like Alice Cooper or Megadeth, it was like just one great song after another, but to tell an entire story it's like going to a.
Speaker 3:Yeah, we become like the score for a really good film. And listen, I got my first taste of this when I was working for Cooper years ago, because when we would get into the whole theatrical portion of the show and he got dressed up as Dwight Frye, I looked down, I was like, ooh, this is creepy. He's no longer Alice, he's a guy with a great jacket. And he brought that character to life. We went through Stephen and I loved the dead and all these songs and it was very theatrical, so it wasn't foreign to me. When Paul wanted to bring this to life, I was like I get it, I know what you're going for, let's do this. It's been so much fun for decades now.
Speaker 1:Well, it's going to be a great show. I'm sure we're looking forward to it. It's Thursday, december 21st, and can you talk about the $39 special, because I think this is the first time you guys have done this?
Speaker 3:We try to do it each year, but I know that the O'Neill family is very adamant about keeping the ticket prices extremely low this year because look, what's going on in the economy is just crazy. Everything's so expensive. And when I was a kid going back to the football story when I was a kid, my dad used to take me and a bunch of my friends in the neighborhood in the family station we're going to Shea Stadium to watch the Jets play. My dad was a school teacher. He didn't have a whole heck of a lot of money, but it was no big deal going to a football game. Now it's a mortgage payment.
Speaker 3:No doubts, not, not. And like the prices. My wife wanted to try to get my daughter's Taylor Swift tickets and she looked at the price. She's like no, I can't do that this year.
Speaker 1:You know what I'm fortunate that I'm single with no kids, and I was able to go to that show. I heard it was great man it was. It was something else next level, like you were saying about Kayla. It's totally next level. Well, we'll have the information for those $39 tickets on our Facebook page. We'll keep people posted for that entire week and, as always, at least a dollar of every ticket is going to a charity organization, and here in Jacksonville it's the Jaguars Foundation.
Speaker 3:Yep, that's again Paul O'Neill and his family, his wife and his daughter, the most generous people I've ever had the privilege of knowing. You know, and ever since 99, he was adamant about giving back to the community and helping out. Again at Christmas time, you know a lot of people need some extra help, you know, especially around the holidays, you know so. You know a dollar doesn't seem like a whole heck of a lot of money, but we've sold 18 million tickets in the last 20-something years, you know. So those dollars do add up and Paul was always very altruistic and approachable. He didn't want credit, he didn't want to the pat on the back, he just wanted to know that the money was going back into the town and helping people. So the folks in your community can know that every time they buy a ticket, one dollar will go back and do something good.
Speaker 1:For several years someone from the station has been on stage to help, you know, give that money to the Jaguars. And last year, for the first time, I got to be involved and it was really, really exciting.
Speaker 3:Okay, it's fun being up there, right.
Speaker 1:It is yeah.
Speaker 3:Yeah, it's fun being up there. It's become like a traditional celebration for so many people. Everybody's in a good mood, Everybody's dressed in those like reindeer crocheted reindeer sweaters. It's awesome.
Speaker 1:And flip flops here in Florida.
Speaker 3:And flip flops. Yeah, exactly, it's crazy. But listen, when the White House lids go down, you know, and those fog machines start kicking in and start snowing inside that arena, and the lasers and the pyro and all that stuff is going on. It's Christmas Eve with us every time we play.
Speaker 2:Well, we wish you safe travels. We can't wait to see TSO when it comes to town, and we will, of course, have tickets for people to win and all the information for people to purchase tickets and make a family tradition out of it, if they have not yet already. So, al, thanks again for joining us.
Speaker 3:You're so welcome. Thank you so much for having me. I'll see you in the next recipe week and I'll talk to you guys soon. Thanks, al. All right guys, bye-bye now, thank you.
Speaker 2:You know, I still. I know it's embarrassing, but I didn't want to say I've just still never been to one.
Speaker 1:We have got to get you at a show this year. I'll have to go this year. I'll have to go this year. It's hard to describe, because when he's talking, about characters and everything.
Speaker 2:I'm just like. This sounds so unique and so different.
Speaker 1:It is, and, like last year, the show opened with like a book opening and so it's a video monitor and you're seeing this story being laid out, and then the whole show is just a story. It's not just like going to a concert where you're seeing one song after another, it is an entire tale and there's all these amazing singers and there's a chorus and it's just it's hard to describe but it's definitely, definitely worth going to if you've never been.
Speaker 2:Well, the TSO performance will be here in town before you know it. Get your tickets now so you can make sure you get your whole family all together. And thanks again for joining us for the show. Do all the things, please subscribe to the Stars everything you name it. Bye och.