CARVIN JONES - World Famous Guitarist/ Entertainer

In the early 90's I met Carvin Jones in a small bar in Tempe, AZ  where he was performing.  Carvin has a very charismatic personality who plays his guitar all over the world.  Because of his gregarious nature he has always been a self promoter - meeting his fans, selling his CD's and T-shirts without an entourage.

A self-taught guitarist, Carvin spends many hours a day practicing his skills.  I once asked him if he just spends time playing scales.  His answer was, "What are scales?"  Eric Clapton and Peter Townsend have both called Carvin - one of the best living guitarists. In 1993 Carvin received the Arizona Entertainment Award for Best Blues Guitarist of the Year.

Carvin can still be found playing in many venues in Phoenix, but he is probably better know throughout Europe where  he enjoys touring many times a year.  One of the hardest working entertainers around, you can always be guaranteed he will give 100 per cent to  his performance.

These are just a few of the performances of Carvin Jones that I have on my YouTube channels. Click here to access a complete Carvin Jones Playlist.

 

The Real Unknown Comic- Murray Langston

Murray Langston owned a popular comedy club that all the stars would appear at and the club went bankrupt.  So someone suggested that Murray go on the Gong Show to make a quick amount of money.  But he didn't really have an act.  So he decided to put a bag over his head so that people wouldn't know it was him, and got onstage and started insulting Chuck Barris with some one liners and people loved him.
He became an overnight success.  He was hired in LasVegas for 15K a week and still didn't have an act.  So he hired a band and called them the Brown Baggers and had some girls that danced called the Baggettes.  They would play for a half hour, then Murray would come out an do a few minutes of one liners and just kept building his repertoire of jokes. Eventually he had enough material to finally take his show on the road.

Murray was headlining at Seekers Comedy Club in Scottsdale when I first shot him for my TV show.  The second time he appeared he was headlining at Knuckleheads in Phoenix, AZ.  He has always been one of my favorite comedians.

Interview with the Unknown Comic
Murray Langston - the Unknown Comic - Unbagged
My Interview with the Unknown Comic On BS Cactus

Rob Halford on Backstage Pass in Arizona

Rob Halford 1985 Interview 

The first time Rob Halford(lead singer of Judas Priest) came to be interviewed for Backstage Pass, he was hanging out with the band Surgical Steel.  They were trying to get a record deal and had just finished a movie, Thunder Alley.  When I found out that he was in the studio I asked if we could get an interview. Since my co-host, Cindi Garrett, knew all there was to know about Judas Priest, she was the logical choice to do the interview.

Years later Jim Keeler and Rob Halford were in publishing business together-a weekly entertainment magazine called Where It's Hot.  They came down to the studio to do a commercial and interview to promote their project and this was the next time Rob was on Backstage Pass in Arizona.  This was shortly after he had appeared in congress to refute the claims that heavy metal was a bad influence on the youth because of their lyrics.  

Classic Rob Halford Interview With Surgical Steel 

   Classic Rob Halford- Interview In Depth

If you like heavy metal music, Sugical Steel, and Judas Priest, I think you will enjoy the videos that I have of posted on YouTube.  Please check out the links below.
Arizona Heavy Metal Gods 1980's
Surgical Steel-Two Songs-Classic Arizona Metal
Surgical Steel-Heavy Metal Music
Surgical Steel - The Basement Tapes
Surgical Steel
Rob Halford (Judas Priest) Commercials

and many more Heavy Metal bands & music not listed here.  Please come to my YouTube channels and Subscribe.

Roseanne Barr: First TV Interview 1984

Roaseanne Barr: First TV Interview 1984

Long before Roseanne appeared on The Tonight Show - she appeared as a headliner at Seekers Comedy Club in Scottsdale, AZ.  I shot an interview with her at United Cable Television and was going to insert excerpts from her performance into the interview.  But unfortunately the machine ate the tape, so I only had a very short emergency backup tape.  As fate would have it the best part of her act was destroyed.  However the interview has survived as well as a short tape of her performance, and it is probably one of the first known tapes of Roseanne.

Male Dancer Documentary 1992

One day while I was getting ready to shoot my show, there was a Bachelorette party going on at the club.  My show was starting at 9pm when the party was to be finished.  The ladies in my crew wanted to shoot the Girl's Night Out.  I wasn't interested, but told them they could go ahead and shoot it while I went upstairs and waited for the party to finish up.  Afterwards I edited the show and aired it on Backstage Pass in Arizona and it ended up being very popular.

After meeting the guys in the Men of US Male, they asked if we could shoot a documentary.  I was getting ready to go on a trip to Europe and thought this might be a good show to take there and market.  Unfortunately it didn't sell in the European market, although they produced their own show copying the same concept.

Now on YouTube the videos that I produced from the original show as well as the documentary are still very popular even 20 years later. 

Other related video links:

A US Male                   

Christian Chase - Male Stripper      

Vince Knight - 1993 Male Stripper

Booty Call               

Hollywood Bruce- Male Stripper     

A Search for the Sexiest Male

Travis Steele

Exotic Male Stripper

Comedian: Charlie Hill

Charlie Hill was known as the only Native American Indian comic at the time he appeared on Evening of Laughs and later on Backstage Pass and Backstage in Arizona.  He was very popular in Los Angeles and played the part of the spiritual friend, Tommie Lighthorse on the series, The Bionic Woman.

When I first met Charlie I was doing promotions at Chuckles Comedy Club.  He came to town with a large entourage of family and he was feeling under the weather.  I gave him some herbs that cured him, and after that we became friends.

                                                  Charlie and me live on TV

Vic Dunlop, me, Charlie Hill, Joe Corcoran 

Jason Newsted with Flotsam and Jetsam- Live 1985

                  

This was the opening song for this thrash metal band circa 1985. Still performing with famous bass player from Metallica, Jason Newsted, the band played several songs.  This performance is one of my most requested videos from the loyal Flotsam and Jetsam and Jason Newsted fans-  I hope you enjoy the show, and come watch all the other Flotsam and Jetsam videos on my YouTube channels.  Joel

                                   

GERMAN UNDERGROUND BUNKERS

German Underground Bunkers on the Siegfried Line

Always interested in German history because of my Grandparents - I visited the museum for the German Underground.  The story that I have been told is that my Grandfather was commander of the 1st Bavarian Infantry at the battle of Verdun during WWI and was credited for holding off the allied advance for several weeks while the German's withdrew to safety to the Siegfried Line.  He received the Iron Cross first class and other honors from the Kaiser, and under his command was a lance corporal, Adolph Hitler.

This video of the Siegfried Line Monument in Germany on the French border is extremely popular on YouTube.  I shot this at the museum -which uses the motto "The value of the unpleasant as a memorial", to help stop the spread of radical fascist propaganda.

Most of the video is in German, but it gives the viewer an idea of what the Nazi bunkers were like during WWII.