Episode 3 - PT. 1 - Thelma and the Sleaze - On running an all female queer southern rock and roll band with over 35 members

This week I am chatting with LG from Thelma and the Sleaze about crusty crash spots, having street smarts when it comes to picking out and protecting your van, why she dove into music and if she's going to keep playing forever. We also cover a lot more including finances and setting boundaries and this is only PART 1! Part 2 is coming out next Tuesday. Enjoy! 

You can also watch this episode on Youtube on my channel - 
https://www.youtube.com/@WhatItTakesToBeARockstar

Chapters

• 0:00 Intro / Trailer
• 4:06 How to pick the best crash spots
• 6:52 Why did you decide to do this?
• 9:30 **Mechanic phone call**
• 12:38 What kinda van do you have?
• 18:15 Have you ever had anything stolen?
• 22:25 What's it all really like for you?
• 31:36 SORRY Cables
• 32:13 Are you gunna play music forever?
• 40:29 On wanting to see growth every album cycle
• 44:25 "Just cause you know you can screw somebody doesn't mean you should."
• 47:08 Outro

Transcript

Hello, hello.

Hey everyone, welcome back to another week of What It Takes To Be A Rockstar.

I am your host, Mel.

And this week, I have a very special guest, LG from Thelma in the Sleeves.

And you'll notice if you're watching the video, it changes, times change.

I did this in the morning, I did this in the night.

I've done this all different days.

And because of that, this week is part one.

I'm changing the it down.

I'm boiling it down to two parts because people said that they, they've been listening to it in pieces.

So I might as well put it out in pieces with you.

Anyway, this week's going to be really, really fun and exciting.

So here's my little trailer.

This week on What It Takes To Be a Rockstar.

We got drama.

Why don't we clean it?

Why don't we clean it?

We have inventions.

You hear that, Amazon?

You hear that?

We talk about drama for 20 minutes.

You know what?

You need to talk more like this.

This is the podcast I want to hear.

Or that might be part two.

Anyway, hope you enjoy the conversation.

Stay tuned.

It gets good.

LG is a DIY queen who has run the only, maybe only, female, female, queer, southern rock band since 2010, and has brought over 35 female musicians on tour, all on her own, pretty much.

So without further ado, here is our conversation.

Get into your question.

You got questions right now, Francie?

I got general, general curiosities, because this whole podcast, the whole idea is I'm talking to musicians from all different levels.

So there's, you know, my friends in Brooklyn who are just playing like DIY spots, and then I'm talking to people who are getting on the bigger shows that everybody wants to get on.

And I'm trying to just figure out and find out from everybody how they're making it all work.

And I've dug in to your story a bit because you've been open about it.

Like you have, like I said, you have your podcast Queen of Shit Mountain, right?

And I listened to your tour one where you were chatting about flying people in from all over the place, making it work.

You've had what, like 35 members in your band now?

Has that gone up?

Yeah, it's gone up even more, it's still rising.

Yeah.

So like you are a great example of just persistence and making it work.

And I know you've been vocal about how annoying that is.

And you know, you're, you're getting a little tired of it.

And I just want people to hear like the real side of music like that stuff.

And yeah, because, you know, as musicians, we're always posting about all the amazing things that are happening.

Or you part of marketing as a musician is being like, that was the greatest show of my life.

That was the best tour ever.

We had so much fun.

And like, meanwhile, you like slept in a puke pile the night before.

And you're like, yeah, it's just, it's pretty nasty.

Sometimes it's still so much fun.

Like, it's not like you're lying.

Shout out Pig Ped in LA.

Cat had diarrhea in her boots on, well, not in her boots, on her boots.

I went on this tour, we didn't march.

You just wouldn't think that kind of show would still happen, but it did.

Exactly.

And you know, the thing about, the thing about staying in places too that I think is hilarious.

And I thought about this like after the worst place we've stayed at recently, I thought we are five grown ass women.

And this space is what, like 200 square feet.

Like if we got a scrub brush and some bleach, we can have this place looking like nice in like probably 25 minutes.

But something inside of us just says, well, this is where we are and it ain't my house.

No, next time I thought about it, next time I roll into a crib like that, I'm fucking being like, bitch, get the Swiffer, you grab the pine saw, you go and get that Katie Litterbox, I'll buy you a breakfast sandwich.

Like, let's get this shit nice.

We don't just have to sit here and take this.

We're grown.

Yeah, that's amazing.

I always want to clean people's litter boxes.

That's like the worst thing ever.

When they're like, yeah, here, you could sleep right here.

And it's literally next to like the most full litter box you've ever seen in your entire life.

Why don't we clean it?

Why don't we clean it?

It would take, we would rather sleep there for six hours and smell it, than just be like, you know what?

And I will tell people, I'm so grateful when people open their homes to us, and it's so lovely, and you get to meet so many wonderful people.

But I will tell people like, all right, you've passed the initial exam, but once we get there, don't get your feelings hurt.

If I'm like, this isn't going to work out, okay?

If I go in and do my initial inspection, and I get vibes, and I don't enjoy it, it's not you, this is your home, you're very gracious, but I will leave.

And they're usually like, that's fine, that's fine.

But you know, it's always the people who, with the soft cell that are the good spots to stay.

Like the people who are like, I don't know, yeah, I got beds, whatever.

I got like, whatever, yeah, I don't know, it's a house, I guess.

Those are the best fucking spot.

It's the people who are like, I got beds, I got toilets, I got couches, I got beds to sleep on.

Like those people, those are the ones I'm like, and if it's between, because a lot of times I'll have them recon all over the club, we'll get multiple offers sometimes, and I'm always going to pick a chick over it, dude.

I'm sorry.

It's like, which could honestly be bad, because sometimes dudes are really fucking weird, like American Psycho, like really clean, you know?

But it's just, in a pinch, I'm always going to take a lady.

Yeah, no, it is true.

I haven't really thought of that, but you're really right.

Sorry, Ben's bathrooms are gross, usually.

They pee on shit.

They just dribble their urines everywhere.

They put their hairs everywhere.

It's nasty.

Yeah.

But anyway, what was your question?

I guess where I want to begin is where you started with this whole musical journey of your life.

What the heck grew inside of you to do this?

How old were you when you were like, I want to be a musician and I'll do anything that it takes to do it.

Do you remember a specific moment or was it just over much time?

I think there was a point when just obviously, my only experience with that has been Thelma and the Sleaze.

And that's been my only really band that I really pushed hard and toured with.

And it just got to the point where, you know, you know, Chase from Come Curl.

You know, it was really her.

And we were just really motivated.

And we were just like, let's just go.

I had a taco stand in my mid 20s.

I owned a small taco restaurant.

And it was fine.

And I was paying my bills, but I just was really depressed because I wasn't able to play shows or do music.

And I thought to myself, I'm only going to look really good in a bikini.

I'm only going to be strong enough to pick up PVMs.

I'm only going to be young enough to handle this kind of shit for so long.

Like, I can have a taco restaurant really any point in my life, you know?

But this is something that I said I wanted to do.

I said when I was a little girl, I wanted to own a restaurant and I wanted to be a rockstar, you know?

So those were the two things I wanted to do.

So I just was like, I'll go around the country two times and I'll put out two seven inches.

And if I still can't pay my bills, then I'll just go back to restaurant work, which is really what my other strength is.

I'm very good at working in restaurants.

You know, aside from taking a lot of smoke breaks.

But if the dishes are done, I don't see what the problem is.

You know?

But anyways, yeah.

So me and Chase just kind of went for it.

And a lot of bands nowadays, they ask me, they say, oh, well, how do you get out here?

And how do you do this?

And I'm like, honestly, I have no fucking idea how you would do that now.

Oh, here we go.

Let's see.

All right.

You got this.

Side note here, before we started our conversation, LG told me that she was trying to get a van repair done, and the van was at the shop.

I think she brought it in for an oil change.

And then they found out that there was something else going on.

I think it needed brake pads, something else.

So anyway, this is the mechanic calling to tell her the news, to break the news of how much it's going to be.

I think it ended up being around $1,700 or $1,800.

Hello?

Hi, it's Lily.

Hi, Lily.

How's it going?

I have done the best I can for you.

So the owner has agreed to take the combustion test off.

If you wanted to do that one axle fill and brake pad, that would drop it down to $1,781.53.

Damn, that's real solid, Lily.

Thank you.

Yeah, let's go for it.

I can make that work.

Thank you.

That way, you're not waiting on anything.

Thank you.

You guys are the best.

Thank you so much.

I really appreciate you doing that for me.

That leaves me enough gas money to get to the first show.

That's all I need.

Lily, I will call you as soon as it's finished.

You're the best.

Thank you.

Bye-bye.

Maybe you have it.

You haggled.

Yeah.

So yeah, it was just really like, I don't know how bands do it.

I don't know how you would do it now.

Back then, we would get in the church van.

It was $1,500 church van.

It went forward.

It went backwards.

And you just went at it.

We played in places.

We just showed up in San Francisco.

We just showed up.

We'd have one good show, an entire tour.

And then the rest of it was just how shows, the basement shows, showing up at places, asking if we could play, that kind of shit.

I mean, it isn't that much better, honestly, now, but at least there are some guarantees.

But yeah, that's how we did it.

And I don't know how you would do that now, because there aren't that many, those smaller clubs aren't really like that anymore.

You can't just really, everything is so saturated and the water is so murky with so much, I mean, talent, you know, that.

I don't know how you'd get in.

Yeah.

Oh, I totally feel that too.

And like a van, they're hard to come by too.

I feel like like SUVs kind of replaced the old vans, you know, that used to be able to get for like 1500 bucks.

And now they're like crazy SUVs.

Yeah.

That's a good idea.

I never thought about that angle.

Yeah, you could do pretty, pretty little trap kit, little couple of combos.

You could get it done in a Yukon or a Tahoe.

Yeah.

What kind of van do you have?

Well, in February, I did a fake Kickstarter called the KickFarter.

I tricked people into buying music instead of just giving me money.

You would not believe how apprehensive people were to just buying music.

They really did just want to give me money.

I'm like, no, I'm a musician.

I make music.

I'm not out here asking for charity.

Okay.

I've worked very hard to make this music, to get it mastered, to get it out here to you.

You go buy it.

People were so upset.

And even then, I think we sold 120 albums, which was enough for me to get the van that I have now.

But only like 10 people actually downloaded the album once they paid.

It's so weird.

I swear, people like, even if they love the music, they don't want to download the music.

They're like, I don't want this.

I don't want this music.

Well, can I just give you the money, LG?

No, buy the music.

But I did end up getting this van.

It took me two years to find a van I could afford.

I mean, here's the bottom line is, I don't want a nice new van.

You know what I mean?

I don't need a nice new van.

I need a van that I'm not going to really give a shit if it gets knocked up or bitches, you know, burn cigarette holes in the seats or, you know, spill a whole jar in Nutella on the floor.

Like I don't, I'm going to back into shit.

I have a lazy eye and it's a big van.

Like, let's be real, I back into shit.

So, you know, I wanted a van that we could run in and we could get shit done.

So we found one finally and it's a 04 Econoline.

Had high mileage, but it had really good maintenance.

And honestly, I've made my money on it because I was paying, you know, an extra two grand probably in a tour to rent vans.

So it is already paid for itself because I've done three tours.

So I've put about 25,000 miles on it since I got it in February.

So I've already been to all four corners of the US.

And that's kind of what I expect to get out of a van.

I did just go in for an oil change yesterday and was quite frightened to hear that I may have a blown head gasket.

But Tanya saw fit, my lord and savior, that that was not the case.

And it is still a very expensive repair.

I still have to pay good money to get her road ready.

But she will be road ready and she will be safe.

And yeah, it's they got to poking around.

And sure enough, they're like, you better put new brake pads on this.

You put now is like, okay.

So I'm trying to get that done.

And also, when I get back from tour, I don't really want to deal with shit.

I want to have like two days.

So I just did a month on the West Coast.

And I had nine days off before I go out for another three weeks.

So I really wanted to have like a couple of days.

But I really got to get into the habit of taking my van in immediately because then I'm on a super time crunch and I kind of have to take what I can get.

So you live and you learn, but she's sturdy.

I love her.

She's probably my favorite van I've ever had.

She's not a full 15 passenger extended cab.

She's good size.

She's really sturdy.

She's got cruise.

All the windows roll down.

All the doors open.

The windshield wipers work.

It's got a cigarette lighter and a charger port.

It's got a tape player.

I mean, she's special.

I really like her a lot.

So I really hope I can get her.

My goal is to get her to 350,000.

I think if I treat her real tender and gingerly, I mean, brake pads, come on.

I don't think I've ever put any brake pads on a car before.

So I hope she appreciates that.

Usually someone's like, needs to do brake pads.

I'm like, well, send her to the junkyard.

You know?

Yeah, no, I love that.

I love that you got a good one and hope she lasts forever.

And I totally relate.

My mom literally smashed into my van yesterday and I was like, cool.

Like, I don't care because it's like so dented.

There's like so many spots that I'm like, it literally doesn't matter.

It just looks the same.

Exactly.

Yeah, that's better, obviously.

Make.

Why would you want a nice fucking van?

You drive around a nice van now, a bunch of people jumping it out.

They are in every major city casing you motherfucker.

Like they are casing you.

Yeah.

They see that shit.

They know that what you got in there.

They're going to jack your fucking shit.

So like when I had a Sprinter for a couple of months, it was real nice.

Someone let me borrow it.

Actually, Julie from Earthquaker Devices.

The best pedals in America.

I love Earthquaker.

But yeah, they let us use their van for a couple of months, and it was great.

It was so cushy, so lovely.

But boy, if I didn't drive an hour outside of every city we played in, or see people pacing, circling the block once we parked.

I mean, people know what...

You got a Sprinter with logo on the side.

You got something in there.

You know what I mean?

Yeah.

You got a search bus, you know?

Yeah.

Have you ever had an issue?

Has anyone ever stolen your stuff?

Well, believe it or not, I'm pretty street smart.

You know, a lot of people are too trusting.

I have the opposite problem.

I'm not trusting enough.

So I will say that I'm generally pretty discerning about where I park my van, how I park my van, who I stay with.

It has happened once.

You're not going to believe it.

It was at South By.

No.

But luckily we were in front of an apartment complex and someone heard the glass shatter and came out in time for these people to get spooked and run off.

And also we were junking the van the next day because it was, that was a whole nother mess.

But so it ended up being fine.

But that was the one time I do not fucking play.

Like I really don't.

In Portland, I need a driveway, I need to back her in, you know what I mean?

Like there are some cities, like if I play in St.

Louis, we are not staying in St.

Louis.

Cincinnati, good day, Cincinnati.

Thank you for your service, good day.

Like you just, there are just some places you should not leave your van, you know?

For sure.

It's sketchy as fuck.

Yeah, yeah.

You know, honestly, I've never had any trouble in New York.

I think New York is kind of actually pretty safe.

I hope that doesn't bite me in the ass later.

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

Knock on some.

Yeah.

I've had good time in New York too.

Like sometimes I stay over and I have to leave like an amp in the van and I'm all like sketched out and it's all covered with things.

And I've never had, only one time.

I want to make an invention.

And I've always wanted to make this invention for touring bands called a garbage tarp, okay?

Now it's a tarp that you, that's covered in like old newspapers, dirty diapers, looking old two liter bottles, empty packs of peanuts and cigarette packs.

And you just throw it over your shit, right?

And then people look in the back of your shit, they're like, oh, it's nasty back there.

You know what I mean?

That's so good.

It's called a garbage chart.

That's genius.

You hear that, Amazon?

You hear that?

They're listening.

They're listening.

That's amazing.

I love that idea.

Because that's basically what I do in my van, is when I get to New York, I throw my literal garbage.

Like I throw, I have like a rain poncho thing.

I throw it on there.

I throw like an old sleeping bag and then like some cans and it looks like terrible.

Go to the beauty supply.

Go walk in, be like, you got any of them heads with hair left in the back?

They'll be like, yeah, bitch, I got a couple.

They'll be like, all right, I'll give you 30 bucks for one of those heads with hair.

And then you tuck a couple of sleeping bags and put that bitch's head up.

You know, put her some headphones on.

The people will be like, oh shit, bitch sleeping in there.

Go to the fucking Costco, get you a giant stuffed husky, animal dog looking thing.

You know, put that in the back.

Some motherfuckers looking at it.

Oh, I got a big ass dog in there.

You know, shit like that.

Yeah.

You know, that's it.

Think about it.

But really above all else.

Don't stay nowhere.

It's always going to be in your best interest to drive an hour to a little podunk town with the motel six and park your shit there.

It's always going to be a better option.

And let's be real.

Always take your guitars out if you second guess it, if you're not even a little bit unsure.

Always take anything people can grab.

People want to run off with my fucking PV, my fucking 100 pound PV that you're going to get $10 for at the pawn shop by all means, friend.

Like, you know, like, let's be real, you know.

So your tours, you tour a lot, which is awesome.

I hope you still think it's awesome.

I know it's a lot.

It takes a toll financially, mentally, all the ways.

But I want to ask you, like, I know you fly people in now and you mentioned you get some guarantees and stuff.

But in the level you're at right now, like people look at you on the Internet and be like, dang, she's successful, you know, I said.

Really?

You think so?

I think so.

Yeah.

I mean, you're you're popping off.

You look legit and you're playing.

There's always people at your shows.

At least you get the right angle.

So it looks like there's people at the shows.

Oh, maybe so.

Maybe so.

I guess.

Yeah.

Yeah.

I want I just want people to get like a feel like I get trouble.

See, I've gotten in trouble for talking shit about shows.

Really?

Oh, yeah.

Not only do I not post it to make first of all, I would never post anything to make people jealous or envious of me or that was disingenuine to my experience.

You know what I mean?

Like, I think that is disgusting.

But I have gotten in trouble for being like, I drove six hours, paid, you know, X amount of dollars, kept my van fixed, showed up.

This promoter stiffed me.

Fuck this place.

I'll never come back.

I have gotten in trouble for doing it.

From the venue or from?

From my booking agent being like, you can't do that.

And I'm like, it's fucking honest.

These people-

No, you should.

My friends are going to show up to this club and think, this is a cool place to play and it's fucking not, you know?

Yeah.

So, yeah, I mean, I really, I don't know that.

I mean, people do tell me they think I'm successful and that's very nice.

But, you know, there's no.

What is that thing called?

Like a Goldberg machine or what is it where the there's all these little contraptions that trigger other contraptions that make things do things or whatever.

That's what it's like for me, because I really there's absolutely no way that I could do what I do.

At all, if I gave a shit about money, which I absolutely don't, if I wasn't already so do this, do that, don't do this, do this, it's all ingrained in me at this point.

And if I didn't already have that momentum, if I didn't already have this built in, you believe it or not, I do have a good reputation in a lot of places.

And that does help.

Because people know that we are going to give them a great show.

And that does help.

So even if there's not a huge turnout, the club likes us and I make sure all the women I hire know that.

Like you don't disrespect the clubs, you don't disrespect my fans, and we'll have a great time.

But that's really paramount to me.

If you can't be disrespectful, and if you are disrespectful, I will not take you out again.

I don't have a huge following.

So everything that I've built, I've built shaking hands and looking people in the eyes.

And I don't take that lightly.

If I do get pissed off, because I do have bad days, and that's the thing that's really been one of the reasons I wanted to stop is because I don't think people think I can have bad days.

And I'm not allowed to have bad days or boundaries or expectations at this point.

And considering how long I've done this and what I've accomplished, I really feel like I should be able to have expectations and boundaries and bad days.

This was never a space that was given to us.

Nobody wants us to do what we do, but we do it, and we do it very well.

And it was fought for.

And actually the bitches who really put in the work did it for $30 a show.

You know what I mean?

So I really, I really, you know, I don't, I've gotten, it's gotten harder for me to put up with any kind of bullshit.

Yeah, yeah, no, and this boy, you know, this shit with bands being like, we're going to play for an hour and a half when we're the third of four bands on a Wednesday.

And you've only drawn your fucking girlfriends, the shit where you're like, hey, we'd like to have the green room to ourselves because we're on tour.

And, you know, we, there are many, many reasons why that's important when you're on tour to have the green room space to yourselves.

I get balked out at that.

We still don't get anything to eat most places we go, like no food, and there's no where to get food.

And then you have to door dash and, you know, now a pizza costs $70, just shit like that.

Like, you know, it's, it's just, it's, it's really, it's really, it pisses me out because I can make it work and I do make it work.

And I work very hard to make it work.

And then the level of disrespect, even from people who I hire, you know, to play and I don't, I don't pay great money, but I certainly don't pay shitty money.

And most shows I don't make any money unless I sell merch, which I sell and make most of it.

So as soon as I get off stage, giving people this rock show and sweating and playing guitar and running all over the place and jumping on and off the stage, I run right the fuck back.

The girls I play with know they have to play for...

I leave the stage, they play for the exact length of one American Spirit cigarette.

Now, I had to make them start doing this last year because I was really just like, I could not just go directly to the merch table.

So they smoke and then I go right back there and I do the merch.

And it's like, if I don't sell that fucking merch, I'm not getting anything out of this.

I'm just driving six hours and it sucks too because we do have diehard fans.

We have 13 of them, real fans, maybe 14 now, real fans who care.

And there's always one of them at a show where there's like four people, and I don't want to give them a show.

But they've been waiting all year and they drove two hours and they're so sweet.

And it's like, well, give them no show, you know, give them a fucking show.

Because I do still think it's pretty cool that people pay $20 to hear songs I wrote.

Like that's pretty cool.

Yeah.

Because really above all else, I've just always loved to write songs.

So I like to think that those 13 or 14 people, they show up for the songs.

Because it doesn't, I think that's the thing that's always been weird to me, is like, how do y'all not get yet that, like it doesn't matter who I play with, what they're playing, where we're playing, any of this, like we're always great.

And the reason that is, is because one, there's no end to talented female musicians.

They're everywhere, they're all the time.

It's not exceptional, it's just the norm.

Stop being surprised, it's not a novelty.

It's not a novelty.

And there's been a lot more of them than the fucking runaways.

And number three, or number two, my songs are fucking great.

So it doesn't matter who I'm playing with, how long they've been playing with me.

They, the bar has been set, they know where that bar is.

They aspire to hit that fucking bar out of respect for the other women who have played with me.

And the songs are fucking great.

So it doesn't matter who the fuck's playing them.

They're gonna be fucking great, because I hire great girls and I write great fucking songs.

And I'm a great performer.

So even if I always tell bitches, is this a, well, what if I fuck up LGI, you know, blah, blah, blah.

My first show, I'm like, look, I can assure you, you're not gonna be the reason I have a bad show.

Nothing you do is gonna make me have a bad show.

Do you understand that?

The only person who can make me have a bad show is me.

These people are here to have a good time.

If they wanna listen to the record, they can sit at home and listen to the record.

They came here for a rock show.

I'm gonna give them a fucking rock show.

If my amp blows up, if my strings pop, if my titty falls out.

If you play a G sharp when you're supposed to play a G, it does not fucking matter.

I'm gonna give these people a goddamn rock show.

That's it.

If you wanna give a goddamn rock show, I suggest you check out Sorry Cables.

I love these cables.

I use these cables to make this podcast when I'm playing guitar, when I'm singing.

These are rad sounding cables made by rad people with rad materials in LA.

And yeah, thank you Sorry Cable for sponsoring this episode.

Do you, when you close your eyes and imagine the future, do you see yourself as an older person playing music?

Like, do you think you're gonna do this forever?

Or do you think there's gonna be a moment when you're like, fuck this?

Well, the bar has been set for Thelma this lease, and I don't really have any intention of lowering that bar, you know?

And the way that we do things is very physical and very sexual and intense, you know?

So for me, and you know, these bitches that I play with, they just keep getting younger, you know?

The Jumper I have right now, she had a cheese, double cheeseburger, quarter pound of cheeseburger for lunch.

And she had pizza for dinner.

Then she had, no, she had another cheeseburger for dinner.

Then she had pizza for breakfast.

And then she had pizza for lunch.

So she had double cheese and then double za the next day.

And I swear to you, I toured with that bitch for an entire month.

I didn't see her eat one vegetable.

Wow.

You know?

If I eat a cheeseburger, I don't poop for like a week.

You know what I mean?

Like I was just like, how in the fuck?

It's special.

But yeah, no, I mean, I'm always going to play music.

I'm always going to write.

Like I can't not write songs.

I can't.

That's impossible for me.

I write too many songs and I love performing.

So I do, I feel like I do look kind of sexy, sexier than I've ever kind of looked as I get older.

I feel like I kind of do look sexier.

I don't know if that sounds shallow, but I do feel like I'm in a good sexy place right now where, you know, because I just tour all the time and I, when I'm not touring, I just do yard work and, you know, rearrange my furniture.

So I'm in pretty good shape.

But, you know, it's a thing where that's what I'm going to start doing now.

So Thelma and Melissa isn't going to tour 120 shows a year anymore.

I mean, I thought that if we were going to blow up, I think it would have happened by now.

And also, I don't think it has anything to do with me.

The reasons why we haven't blown up.

You know what I mean?

It's not because I can't sing.

It's not because my songs aren't great.

It's not because, you know, it's just I don't play the best fucking shows those people see all year.

That's not why.

I think it has really a lot more to do with what is acceptable in rock and roll, what's not acceptable in rock and roll.

And that's okay.

I've built a pretty good fan base and I've managed to keep my lights on and my dogs fed and keep gas in the tank.

So I'm okay with that.

And I think what we've done is important.

And it's going to be something that over time, people realize how important it was.

But, you know, I do intend to continue to play Thelma and the Sleaze shows and I do intend to still tour just more quality versus quantity.

So I'm going to ask for what I think I deserve.

I'm going to not have to play X and X shows to get to X point.

I want to just do more concise, more intentional shows with Thelma and the Sleaze.

And then I have several other things that I've wanted to do for the last few years, but I haven't been able to get off the ground.

I want to do a surf rock band that I've kind of done a couple shows with, where we just cover venture songs and it's fun.

And surf rock is just like so fun to play and it's really, I don't actually just get to play guitar a lot.

So it's just fun for me because I just get to play guitar and wear a mask and it's fun.

And then, so I want to do some more of that.

And then also, I want to, and I think you'll see a lot more people who are in bands do this.

I'm usually the first one that does everything, honestly.

But I'm just going to start doing more acoustic, solo shows, I'm going to do more one-woman shows where it's just stand up kind of storytelling and songs and projections, and just kind of like an all encompassing, because I am a performer, and that's not a surprise to anybody.

I can just, so that's something me and my podcast producer, we have been working on because she's just really my producer in live, getting that kind of idea off the ground.

And then me and Coochie, my keyboard player, are gonna be doing some unplugged acoustic shows at the end of this tour as kind of a, I've kind of been teasing it with my Instagram, posting a lot of acoustic-y songs, and just funny songs and things like that.

And then this tour with Coochie, hopefully we'll get some content that we can use to promote both of our solo interests, and then that'll be something I try to do more in the fall.

So that's something I just, I don't want, I would rather do four shows here or there.

You know, this, I mean, I've pretty much played consistently, like 120 shows a year for the last 10 years, non-stop and except for COVID and, you know, it's just going to be, like I said, I don't want to lower the bar for Thelma and this lease, but this Thelma and this lease is a solo project.

You and no one's gonna think that, you know, but it really has been a solo project.

But there has been a bar that's been set, and there has been a songwriting tone that I like to keep with them in this lease, but I've done so many other things that no one's even paid attention to, but that I don't want to, like I said, focus more energy on.

And I think, honestly, I'll make more money.

I'll make more money.

It'll be easier to manage.

I'm not doing a great job managing people anymore.

A lot of the people I hire aren't really here for the right reasons.

And that's okay.

Your reasons are your reasons, and that's fine.

But it really wears on me.

I didn't want to start a band that I just hired people, and that was it.

It just is what I had to do in order to do this band, and offer the opportunity to a lot of women to get to tour and play shows.

You would think that would warrant some level of respect, but it's not funny.

There's no camaraderie, and yeah, people are really weird now.

They're not that fun to be around.

So yeah, it does require a lot of effort on my behalf, just to be a good leader.

It's really hard, and I do have bad days.

And, you know, not every day is a bad day, but sometimes they do happen in people who aren't your friends or don't necessarily have your best interest in mind.

They don't give a shit if you have a bad day.

So it's been really hard to manage people and also feeling like a failure, you know?

So all of those things combined, it just has been a thing where it's like, I would have hoped that by now, I was able to make my situation easier, and it hasn't gotten any easier.

It's just gotten harder, honestly, and more expensive.

So it is, I am at the point where, I used to say I was gonna quit a lot, and people would say, Oh, LG, you can't quit, you can't quit.

And now they're kind of like, Yeah, but that would take a step back, LG.

It really, I mean, this last record really broke me.

I really thought it was good, and I had to do so much to get it done, in terms of dealing with shenanigans and money and things of that nature.

And it wasn't even exactly what I wanted, but I didn't want to not put it out.

And then I did, and it just has not done very well at all.

And you want to see a little improvement on everything.

I don't ever think I want to blow up, and this is going to take off, and whatever.

But you want to see that exponential growth, that little extra push.

And it did, in my opinion, and just based on what I saw in the numbers and everything, it did worse than our last release that I did.

So it just wasn't something that, you know, that really, that was a real head trip.

And people who don't have that much invested in the situation don't care that you're, you know, going through that.

It's not their problem.

So you tell people like, hey, you got to take it easy on me.

This has been a real head trip.

And they don't give a fuck, you know?

So it's been a rough, rough six months for all intents and purposes.

I should have not done the tour I just did because it was like kind of felt like the universe was telling me not to.

But that's the thing.

And that's what I tell people when they ask me, oh, how do I go on tour?

How do I do this?

Blah, blah, blah.

I don't have a vent.

No, blah, blah, blah.

It's like, no excuses.

No fucking excuses.

That's it.

You go at it.

You get it the fuck done.

And that's what you do.

So I, you know, I'm not good.

I've never wanted to, I have a reputation for showing up and doing a good job.

And I would like to keep that reputation.

And I made it work.

And I'm going to finish out these three weeks of shows.

I wanted to give everyone an opportunity to see what I think is, you know, a pretty special way of doing things than Thelma and the Sleaze before it does kind of, it is kind of going to change to being about the money.

You know, it's going to be about the money moving forward.

And I hate to say that because it feels, I don't really like money.

I hate it.

I usually try to get it away from me as quickly as possible because I really don't like it.

But yeah, like, you know, that's what's going to happen.

That is in order for Thelma and the Sleaze to move forward and to still play shows, let's just write the check, you know.

Yeah, yeah.

That was a necessary thing.

And I didn't want to admit it to in my life, but making music is really expensive.

And I always thought like, I could just record myself and like, I got this like $100 guitar and, you know, it's all good.

But like, you have to keep stepping up the bar, stepping up the bar and you want your own improvements too.

And then all of a sudden you're like, you're hiring a studio or like you.

And I don't know, it feels like the older you get, the less you want to like ask your friends for favors who are also trying to make a living, you know, like your friend who is an engineer, he'll do it for half off and you're like, I'm sorry, but like thank you at the same time because like how else are you going to be able to step it up?

You know, and, you know, everyone's getting older or like having kids or like, you know, the expensive readers, the expenses, I don't know, everything just feels so expensive.

So you don't want to dip anybody of their worth, you know?

And yeah, it's like, there's no, it's hard to hustle now because it used to be you still from the rich give to the poor.

But now you got motherfuckers, you know, it's like, you know, like it's essentially with these vans, right?

It's like, bands should be helping other bands out.

If a band wants to buy your van, like, don't be a dick, you know what I mean?

But people can't even do that anymore.

You know what I mean?

It's like people, the people at the very top are trying to get shit for free.

Like, you don't know how many friends of mine I have, like, that are doing things at a level that you would think, oh, it must be copious amounts of caviar and, and Pellegrino flowing from the stream.

You know what I mean?

And it's like, no, this motherfucker has not paid me or isn't paying me or wants me to do this for free.

And their label is, you know, not paying me for this shit.

And it's like, yeah, so now they're not even, you're not even able to steal from the rich because the rich is stingy as hell.

They're stealing from you too.

And not paying people shit, so they can't help the scrappies like us get shit done on the sly.

So it's, yeah, it's hard to hustle now.

It's real, real hard, real hard to hustle.

Because if I have a van and I said, for whatever reason, I have an extra van, you know what I mean?

I'm like, I sold this dude, my church van, I sold to get this van.

I sold it to him for $1,400.

I paid $15, you know what I mean?

I drove for two years as my daily driver.

I got my money out of it.

I know I could have sold that van for $35, probably $4,000 now because people want to live in them.

They want to make it a little, okay, TikTok channel, you know what I mean?

But I'm not that bitch.

If I see a man's go take it out, use it for mud and fuck it up, do whatever he wants to, I don't give a fuck.

It's none of my business.

Just because you know you can screw somebody, doesn't mean you should.

And that's the problem.

We're letting capitalism control our lives.

We're letting capitalism inform our humanity.

And that's fucked up.

It's not every man for himself.

It's not only the strong survive, but we kind of got into that mentality during COVID.

And meanwhile, even if we did fuck each other over, we're still not gonna win.

So we might as well be nice.

We might as well hook each other up because you're never gonna be where you think it's gonna get you.

And once you get there, you ain't gonna have nobody to fucking share it with.

So it's like, why do you wanna fuck people?

Especially people that are doing what the fuck you're doing.

All right, friends.

Here is about the halfway point of our conversation.

So I'm gonna stop it here so that this can all be digested right now.

And next week, I'll have part two coming up for you all.

And I hope you really enjoyed this conversation.

I enjoyed it a lot.

And there's way more coming up.

There's lots of fun things coming up.

We're, you know, we nerd out about drums.

And we talk a little bit more about the finances, making it work, other things that we're pretty fun to chat about with LG.

So tune in next week for part two.

All right.