Episode 27, the Talking South Carolina Podcast Interview with Musical Artist Greg Bickley of Tokyo Joe

Episode transcript:

Angela Barrett – “Hey guys, today I have with me Greg Vickery, who is Tokyo Duo, our, local band, who is not so local anymore. Thanks, Greg, for being here.”

Greg Bickley – “Thanks for having me on, I appreciate it.”

Angela Barrett – Yeah. So Tokyo Jack the man or the band?

Greg Bickley – “The name is the band, right? It’s, Because I’m not Joe. Really? No one named Joe. It’s a term my guitar player used to play in Japan a lot. I started this band in 1990. 200. Different name is called Three Rings at the time. Like a three ring circus. Because I originally had this grand idea for a three part show with different things we were going to do, and it never developed into that.”

Greg Bickley – “So the name didn’t make any sense. And I’m terrible at thinking of band names, so I was trying to come to something new. Meanwhile, my current guitar player had come off the road playing in another band with my dad actually, and they would spend half the year in Japan, South Korea doing a lot of military stuff over there.”

Greg Bickley – “And so he’s like, he’s like, man, all I can think of was Tokyo Joke because I apparently was a name for an American servicemen stationed over there after World War two. So it’s just a term. And I was like, it makes no more sense than three rings. Did I know I liked it?”

Angela Barrett – “Well, that was one of my questions. Is where you came up with the name because I know there is a film back 1940 something, right?”

Greg Bickley – 47 I think Humphrey Bogart.

Angela Barrett – Right? Yeah. And there are two pro wrestlers that use the name Tokyo.

Greg Bickley – “I forgot about that. Yeah. Yes. There were yeah, I was actually just in Tokyo, so I.”

Angela Barrett – “I saw that, I saw that.”

Greg Bickley – “And I’ve tried to find the, the background of like, okay, what the term came from and it’s hard to find, but that’s what I’ve always heard as they would refer to somebody who was stationed over there as a Tokyo Joe.”

Angela Barrett – “Yeah. See, I didn’t come across that one.”

Greg Bickley – “Yeah, yeah, it’s it would be wiser to just tell people it was from the movie.”

Angela Barrett – “Yeah. That’s right. Or the wrestlers. Yeah. Or, there was even a song called Tall Tokyo. Yeah.”

Greg Bickley – “Bryan Ferry, I believe.”

Angela Barrett – “Yes, yes. Right, right, right.”

Greg Bickley – “Oh, we I’ve run across that quite a few times now.”

Angela Barrett – So you guys have been your band? Tokyo Joe has been playing together since you said 1990.

Greg Bickley – 96 under that name.

Angela Barrett – “Oh, okay.”

Greg Bickley – “I mean, not all the same guys like me and the guitar player have been together that whole time, and we’ve had various different drummers and bass players over the years.”

Angela Barrett – “I gotcha. And speaking of them, so your guitarist, who you’ve been with the whole time is Dale.”

Greg Bickley – “Correct, namely Burgess.”

Angela Barrett – “Burgess. And then, Carl Donald, who’s your bass player? Yep.”

Greg Bickley – “He’s he’s been with us for almost 11 years, I think.”

Angela Barrett – Wow.

Greg Bickley – “Yeah, it’s been a long time.”

Angela Barrett – “And then Jason Moore is your drummer, right. And then I guess what Anthony.”

Greg Bickley – “Yeah, we we’ve kind of have. Yeah. Anthony sight was the last name. Yeah. We’re kind of use him. Yeah too. Yeah. He’s we go back and forth between one of them being the main guy and the other one being the go to fill in guys. Sure. Yeah. License basically full time at this point.”

Angela Barrett – “Right? Right. So now you guys play, I mean, from like Virginia to Florida. Have you even expanded even more than that now?”

Greg Bickley – “Not really. We don’t even do that as much as we used to because it just it’s really not cost effective to go that far. So we’ve usually unless we do something like the the Elton John tribute or something, I mean, we’ll take that to Florida. If we can go down there and do 4 or 5, six, seven shows.”

Greg Bickley – “Right. But as far as just going to Daytona for a one off show, we typically don’t.”

Angela Barrett – “Write, you know, because you guys, I mean, I know you play around here a lot. And but I mean, all in all, y’all still averaging somewhere around the 200 a year or a little bit less now or.”

Greg Bickley – “No, it’s less. We backed it down because number one, I just decided a few years ago that I don’t need to sing four days a week, and it’s just you can’t sing, but so much, you know, it’s starting to take a toll. So I tried to average it out to around three and a half, you know, due for one week and three the next week kind of thing.”

Greg Bickley – “But then during Covid, I really just kind of realized how much stuff I’ve missed over the years, being the guy who’s always working Friday and Saturday and likely Wednesday and Thursday too. And I was like, you know what? I’m gonna dial it back. I’m gonna quit playing Saturdays, except for occasional private events and things like that, or the big shows or whatever, and just do Wednesday or Thursday, Friday.”

Greg Bickley – So we probably do more like I think we did about 130 or 140 last year.

Angela Barrett – “Yeah. I mean, that’s still a lot. I mean, I guess, what do you do when you’re not playing music?”

Greg Bickley – “Other stuff related to the band. It’s literally almost all I do if I’m not on a vacation or some type of trip. I mean, because I do everything from make sure the oil in the truck is changed, to book the dates, to put them on the website, to put together the contracts. I mean, I do all of that stuff, so it’s it’s a 24 over seven thing.”

Angela Barrett – “And so, you guys now have, like you said, a truck or a van or whatever that hauls your equipment. And now do you have guys that help you set it up or.”

Greg Bickley – “Oh, no, unfortunately not. That’s that falls on us.”

Angela Barrett – “Yeah, I.”

Greg Bickley – “Know, as I always say, that support you get paid for.”

Angela Barrett – Yeah.

Greg Bickley – You do the music part for free.

Angela Barrett – “That’s the fun part. Yeah. Now you guys got some awards, that y’all received over the years?”

Greg Bickley – “Yeah, we won best local band. There were two different things you did. The state did it, and I don’t think they have that category anymore. But we won that one a few times. We wanted a lot of times of free times, which they still do. And we back. We play like Buford a lot. We want it down there one time to, one of the CDs won Best Local CD.”

Greg Bickley – “I think, when CDs were a thing a I idea how long ago that’s been. Which CD was that?”

Greg Bickley – “In this lifetime, what was the name of it? Yeah. And, so that won best Local CD. I think I won, like, the female vocalist or something. One time again. It’s been a minute.”

Angela Barrett – Yeah. Now what? And y’all do have some released albums?

Greg Bickley – “Seven technically, that we have hard copies of. Like, we just released the new song because now there’s almost no point even doing an album.”

Angela Barrett – You just do the sounds anymore where they call.

Greg Bickley – “Oh, no, because it’s really just sort of a collection of songs, you know, that everybody just releases individual songs anymore, which is what we just did with one that we have no hard copies of. But it’s I wrote a song up because I grew up in KC on a street called Sunnyside Drive, and I wrote a song about it called Days on Sunnyside that has been surprisingly well received.”

Greg Bickley – “I didn’t think anybody was going to care except me and the people who grew up in that area and realized it. I’m surprised how many people either relate to the area. They’re like, oh, my aunt lived on Sunnyside, or I lived on Northland, two streets over or whatever. And I guess because there’s a lot of detail in it and people typically don’t relate to details like my best friend Chris, you know, their best friend is not Chris, so they don’t relate.”

Greg Bickley – “But people who have their own Sunnyside, even though there might be days on Elmwood or whatever to them, you know. So it’s it’s really I’ve been surprised I get requests for every single night and it’s finally out. So last ten days on Sunnyside, you can find it anywhere.”

Angela Barrett – “Yeah. As in say, Spotify for sure.”

Greg Bickley – “Spotify, Pandora, YouTube, Apple Music. It’s pretty much anywhere you can find music. You can just Google it and find it. Yeah, you can even tell Alexa and she’ll find it for you.”

Angela Barrett – “Yeah, I don’t think I don’t have Alexa. We did for a little while and then, I don’t know, I just decided that might be too much. Yeah, yeah. Now you’re being the biggest hit song that you guys have had. It’s been what.”

Greg Bickley – Of the original stuff? Obviously. It’s all about me because everybody relates to that one.

Angela Barrett – “Right. And then. And that, what in yours personally, I guess.”

Greg Bickley – My personal favorite.

Angela Barrett – “Or biggest hit, whichever one falls into.”

Greg Bickley – “Oh, well, that would be the most part. Well, I say that it’s, we’ve got a ballad two called It Hurts. It’s probably our. All right, honestly. Here are three most requested original songs ever. It’s All about Me. The ballad It Hurts, which I always say is our most requested song ever. We’ve actually got a song called Albert that is actually our most requested song ever, but we rarely play it.”

Greg Bickley – “It’s about a ghost that our drummer, our drummer at the time, many years ago, swore that he had in his house. And I had the music and no lyrics to go with it. We were getting ready to go in the studio and I was like, you know what? I’m gonna write a song about Jason’s ghost because he swears there was a short, fat, bald headed ghost living in his house.”

Greg Bickley – “And the way he described it, it just sounded like he should be named Albert to me. And I don’t. I’m. So. I just wrote a song about his ghost. Seriously, that’s probably been our most requested song ever. It’s been around longer and some of the others, mind you.”

Angela Barrett – Right. And so now what about your favorite song?

Greg Bickley – “Man, that’s a tough call of ours stuff you’re talking about, right? Sure. Man, that’s a tough one. All in all, maybe we got a song called. All in all, we’ve actually got a couple versions of that because we did it on our second CD. In fact, that’s the title of the CD was All In All. And then we did it with a producer on I think in this lifetime, I think it’s on that record.”

Greg Bickley – I’m trying remember what record songs are on.

Angela Barrett – “Now, right? Right. Bad problem to have when you got so many. So now, do you guys write all of your music and songs, or do you have songwriters that help you or.”

Greg Bickley – “No, we do. I write it all. You do, and then everybody else just adds their part. I write the the song, the lyrics, the chord progression and all that stuff, and then everybody else does their own thing to it. You know, I gotcha.”

Angela Barrett – “And so when did you, get into music or start music?”

Greg Bickley – “Forever. I mean, I’ve seriously played drums since I was like three years old. My dad has audio on me on the old, real, real things where he’d play piano and I would play drums along with him at three. I started playing guitar when I was about ten. Somebody taught me my first chords and I quit for a long period of time because, I don’t know, I just.”

Angela Barrett – It wasn’t cool.

Greg Bickley – “Yeah, well, no, it just, I think I decided I was just never going to be a great guitar player. I never took lessons, you know, so I never sat home and practiced anything. And I didn’t even start playing piano until I was about 16. My dad was a piano player, but he very much plays by ear and has his own way of going about it.”

Greg Bickley – “It didn’t really make sense to me until I was in a chorus class in high school, and a guy that I wound up being in a band with would come in and play piano. We started watching him do it. I was like, oh, I get it now. This is your bass note, and you know, I did take one music class.”

Greg Bickley – “Carolina other than three years, of course, in high school, less the only formal musical knowledge that I have.”

Angela Barrett – “So never learned. Like, I mean, obviously on your own, but, like, you write music now, so I mean, you had to learn the.”

Greg Bickley – “Yeah, but you is still done by ear a lot, you know. And you I mean, it’s music’s math, really. It’s all proportions. It, I did learn a lot in that one class at Carolina, let’s put it like that. Like before that, even though I played by ear, there was a lot more figuring things out. And now I can just hear a song and know what’s going on.”

Greg Bickley – “I may not necessarily know what key it’s in, but I know proportionately what they’re doing. Just from taking that one class kind of makes me wish I’d taken more classes.”

Angela Barrett – “I think we all say that, though. Now again, you y’all play not only in some of our local clubs and in local areas here, but you do play private events as well.”

Greg Bickley – “Oh yeah, we do. Like said, that’s pretty much all we do on Saturdays anymore is private stuff. And of course we do when we do the big tribute shows like the Elton John tribute and Tom petty tribute, we do those in theaters and sure, sure, things like that. Newberry Opera House for. But we’re getting our new Rocket Man Charleston musical in August, and we’re doing one at the Plaza Arts Center in Eatonton, Georgia in August.”

Greg Bickley – “And then, of course, we got the big one in September at Icehouse Amphitheater.”

Angela Barrett – “Yes, I’m looking forward to that. Yeah. One of my most favorite times that I saw you was at a private event. We were at a, someone’s house on the lake, and it was. It was nice not to be trampled over by all the young girls trying to get to you or from. I was like, oh, this is nice.”

Greg Bickley – “That’s it is it’s fun to do the private stuff because usually when you’re doing private stuff like that, you’re you’re playing for people who specifically want you to be there. Sure. You know, and I mean, that’s generally the case in a bar. I mean, when we play a bar, it’s people who came to see us. But sometimes you’re playing people who just happened to be there, you know?”

Greg Bickley – “And you got to figure out, okay, what are these people like? Are they going to like what we do or whatever, you know?”

Angela Barrett – “Right. Right. Right, right. Yeah. But that was that was a good time. Because I have been trampled for these young girls trying to get to you. Okay?”

Greg Bickley – Please. I don’t remember any of those.

Angela Barrett – “Well, this is, like liberty at the lake, and you’d have these big crowds and just huge crowds.”

Greg Bickley – “Oh, yeah.”

Angela Barrett – “And I haven’t been out there in years, so I, don’t know, these days, but, now you’ve got a big fundraiser coming up. The cancer research center.”

Greg Bickley – “Breast cancer research foundation. Yeah. We, this will be our third year doing the fundraiser. It’s also at Icehouse Amphitheater, like I said, and we always we’re trying to stick with it. Friday before Halloween. This will be our third year doing that. So it’s October 27th. It actually hasn’t even been announced yet. I think we’re announcing it like second week of August and I’ll put it on sale.”

Greg Bickley – “Yeah. And that’s now well, it was going to be eventually anyway. Right. And it really started out because three the one two years ago was our 25th anniversary, and I totally overlooked our 20th anniversary, which is pretty cool. A lot of bands don’t hang around for 20 years. And I was like, we got to do something big for our 25th anniversary.”

Greg Bickley – “And we decided to. I was like, let’s do something, an amphitheater. And I started thinking, how can we make it special as well? We can make it a fundraiser. And then I just called some of our friends to see if they wanted to play with us, like our buddies, the root doctors who were, you know, our. Yeah, those guys are prettier in the matter.”

Greg Bickley – “Our best friends, you know, local music scene. And, they were off because their keyboard player was going to play with us. I was like, would you guys be cool with coming and doing a set? And I was like, and then we could maybe all jam at the end or like, yeah, we’re in like all prettier. Matt. They’re like, yeah, we’ll do it.”

Greg Bickley – “So they that’s how we did it. We each do a set and then we all get together at the end and just have a big old jam session with all, I mean, both drummers, the whole thing. Everybody on stage at one time.”

Angela Barrett – Nice.

Greg Bickley – “It’s. And everybody it’s sold out every year. The first year we raised right at $48,000. Last year we did 59,000. I’m pretty sure we’ll do over 70 this year.”

Angela Barrett – “Yeah. And again, so tell me a little bit more about this organization that you’re doing the fundraiser for.”

Greg Bickley – “It’s well, I specifically wanted the money to go to research because everybody’s aware. You hear about raising awareness. Well, everybody’s aware of breast cancer. It’s not or they haven’t heard of it. But I wasn’t aware how common it is. Honestly. It’s one of those things until somebody, you know, gets it and you become very aware of it, like 1 in 8 women in their lifetime will be diagnosed breast cancer.”

Greg Bickley – “And I was like, there’s been so much progress made over the years. It’s like, let’s make more progress research, you know? So I specifically wanted the money to go to research. I did my own research about what the best charities were, because you want the money to be used properly and not for administrative stuff. And I found the Breast Cancer Research Foundation, which is a think, if not the top, one of the top research foundations in the world, because like a high percentage of their money, everything they take in actually goes to research something like $0.87 on every dollar.”

Greg Bickley – “So it’s only a tiny little bit of it. They just used up, you know, doing business.”

Angela Barrett – “So that’s phenomenal. And yeah, I had a mother and a mother in law with breast cancer. Really appreciate it much appreciate it.”

Greg Bickley – You’re welcome.

Angela Barrett – “Now you have, a sponsor that sponsors you guys kind of all year long, right?”

Greg Bickley – Maker’s mark.

Angela Barrett – Maker’s mark. But then you have a lot of sponsors who sponsored for different events.

Greg Bickley – “Correct? We do, like you say, maker’s Mark is our overall sponsor, and they take care of us and we promote which is actually good. We work that out because I actually like the product, you know. Yeah, it wasn’t just something arbitrary. And, you know, we do stuff with them, like specifically Maker’s 46 because even bourbon snobs like maker’s 46, Jim Beam orange, which is my on stage little thing is, maker’s Mark is a Jim Beam product.”

Angela Barrett – “All right. So let’s talk about, one of your biggest shows, if not your biggest show of the year, because I have lots of questions about this rocket man. Right. And it is a tribute to Elton John. So now, how did you come up with that? I have lots of questions. How did you come up with it?”

Angela Barrett – What was your inspiration and why? And all that good stuff?

Greg Bickley – “I always wanted to do it. All right. So going back to the three rings thing, I was talking about, where you had this grand idea for a three part show that was going to be one of the three parts doing all the way back to 1992. It took a lot of time to put it together because I did not want to do it halfway, you know, if I was going to do it, I want to do it right.”

Greg Bickley – “I do not look anything like Elton John. So I didn’t even know that it was doable, really, until I went to see some guys do it. And I was like, some guy was doing Elton John, Billy Joel face to face. I was like, these guys, especially Billy Joel. Dude doesn’t look anything like Billy Joel. I was like, if I get the exact same costumes, I mean duplicates of things that he wore, nobody’s going to care.”

Greg Bickley – “You’re so covered up. It doesn’t matter, okay? You’re two tall, big deal, you know? So that’s, That’s how we just decided to do it. We finally just committed to going for it, you know, which was fairly big investment because I had to buy a great big old grand piano shell. Oh, geez. So I was like, if we’re if we’re doing this, we’re doing this.”

Greg Bickley – “I mean, now and, I don’t know, I just like the music. It’s weird because I did not even grow up an Elton John fan. I found out I was an Elton John fan, completely on accident. I, I never was somebody to buy records of artists, like, forever. Many times I heard it on the radio. That was good enough for me.”

Greg Bickley – “Once I learned to play it myself, to make sure the thing and all these individual songs I loved, I didn’t realize they were all Elton John because they all sound different. And one day I bought his greatest hits because I knew one song and it started playing. I was like, I know all these songs, these are all those songs I love and didn’t know who did them.”

Greg Bickley – “So it all came about kind of totally on accident, but and then for years I’d have people go, man, you sing Elton John songs. You sound just like in my bar. And I was like.”

Greg Bickley “To let him see my fans all the way to the border to hear him say, I want a rock and I want, I want to build it for you. My alarm was all about bells. I them all this your care system makes you feel really horrible. The Greta here.”

Greg Bickley “Oh, no no, I was when I was on there somewhere of my song, like, oh my, you spell out your name. Yeah, I know about this. All right. Comes up. Stop. Like sign my son. I like sign. Nice. All right, all right, all right.”

Greg Bickley Sunday Sunday Sunday Sunday Sunday Sunday Sunday. To live inside of a Sunday.

Greg Bickley – “Maybe I can do this, you know. And then, for the people who don’t know, for, gosh, 15, 12, 13 years, his old drummer, Charlie Morgan’s been the guy playing drums with us on that show, which also came about completely by accident. He was my favorite drummer on the planet in the mid 90s when he was playing with Elton.”

Greg Bickley – “And, just so happens he lives in Nashville and we wound up having a bit of a connection, and I got in touch with him and sent him some videos. And yes, and now we’re just old buddies and he plays with us all the time.”

Angela Barrett – “Oh that’s good. Now, does he still play with you all with those shows?”

Greg Bickley – “Oh, yeah. Oh, yeah. Yeah, he’ll be at this house in September. He’ll be at Charleston Music Hall. August 18th. Eight in a Georgia on August 19th. Whatever those dates are, I think that’s right.”

Angela Barrett – “Yeah. September 8th, I know, here at the Icehouse. But, and then. Sorry, guys, that sold out. So if you don’t have your tickets, I apologize. But, you know,”

Greg Bickley – There’s always next year.

Angela Barrett – That’s always that.

Greg Bickley – “Well, there’s always, always Charleston two there. Tickets available. Charleston Music hall.com. That’s on Ticketmaster. But I don’t know exactly how to tell you to get there.”

Angela Barrett – Right. And the best way to make sure you don’t miss it again is follow the Facebook or Instagram where he’s that you got your web page too.

Greg Bickley – “Yeah. What I always tell people do search for Tokyo Joe Band because I do occasionally get a message for the Tokyo Joe restaurant. I’m sure someone will message me, like complaining of their teriyaki chicken with hung up or something like that. And it’s not frequent, but it happens anyway.”

Angela Barrett – “Yes, if.”

Greg Bickley – “You search, you know, Instagram, Twitter, Facebook for Tokyo Jug Band, you’ll find us on the regular website is Tokyo Jeanette. And there’s always a calendar on there, usually like I think it’s up through October right now.”

Angela Barrett – “Yeah. It was several months in advance as of this morning. Anyway, now. So have you ever met Elton John?”

Greg Bickley – “I have not, which is weird, because seems like everybody else I know has. I’ve had people run it. I’ve seen him like five times in Vegas, and I’ve had people run into him on an elevator and stuff like that. Yeah, I’m the only one who hasn’t for some reason or other.”

Angela Barrett – “Yeah, well, you have to make sure the drummer that you know, is he sent him any of the stuff.”

Greg Bickley – “So we actually sent him a, the happy birthday thing. We were playing a a Rocket Man show in Florida. I think it was last year on his birthday. And we had the whole crowd sing Happy Birthday to him and Charlie, a video. I think I just I don’t think he sent it to him directly. Senator David Johnson, his guitar player, because I still talk a lot.”

Angela Barrett – Right? Right now. What about the costumes? Where did you find all of that?

Greg Bickley – “I had a couple of them made at a place in Charleston, and ever since it’s been a place up in Greenville called Costume Curio. That makes them, because I was just looking for somewhere that did custom costumes, and at the time, I couldn’t find anybody around here. There may be somebody now, there was a place in Charleston that did a couple the very first couple and then the the people up in Greenville just do really good work.”

Greg Bickley – And they’re easy to deal with. So.

Angela Barrett – “Yeah, well they’re fantastic. It’s all is a lot of fun. And I’m really, really excited.”

Greg Bickley – Good deal.

Angela Barrett – “Now the, Rocket Man is not the only show done. I don’t know if he still do it, but there was used to be a different show.”

Greg Bickley – We do a Tom petty tribute.

Angela Barrett – “Also, Tom petty was.”

Greg Bickley – “Called The Best of Everything, which is a great Tom petty song, by the way. I did not know that we were looking for titles. We ran across that song name. I was like one of the songs. Any good listeners? So we do it in every shows. Like, man, it’s a great song.”

Angela Barrett – Yeah.

Greg Bickley – “So and that one’s way easier because I look a lot more like Tom petty. Oh, I got his wig and I’m golden, right?”

Angela Barrett – “Right. And now you’ve already had the Tom petty tribute this year, at least at the Icehouse.”

Greg Bickley – “We did it back in May. We usually do it in the spring, and Rocket Man in the fall is kind of in the pattern so far.”

Angela Barrett – “I gotcha, I got.”

Greg Bickley – “The Tom petty is relatively new because we we debuted at the fair the first time, right before Covid. And of course, we didn’t get to do it for two years or something.”

Angela Barrett – “Yeah, sure. So I guess the next big thing you have is, your shows here would be Rocket Man, the Big Things. And then you’ve got your local stuff that you still do, but, and then you’ll have, the breast cancer.”

Greg Bickley – “Right. And we got another thing coming up in October, but I can’t talk about it. Yeah. Keep an eye on the website, keep an eye on the social media and you’ll know what’s going on.”

Angela Barrett – Okay?

Greg Bickley – And hold open October 12th. It’s a Thursday.

Angela Barrett – Then October 12th. All right.

Greg Bickley – I’ve got to wait on them to announce that I can. And. Sure.

Angela Barrett – “Sure. Yeah. Well, I certainly appreciate you taking time out of your very, very busy week.”

Greg Bickley – “Thank you very much for having me, I appreciate it. Yeah. This is great. Thank you. Thank you guys for watching.”