What happens when you mix members of Tesla, Whitesnake, Lynryd Skynyrd, and other major bands with a charismatic new frontman, and sprinkle in a little reggae? You get Rizz & The Blieverz. The band just released its debut Ep and drummer Troy Luccketta, formerly of Tesla, and singer Rizz took some time to talk about it.
Please press the PLAY icon below for the MisplacedStraws Rizz and Troy Luccketta interview –
On how the band came together – TROY – Well, I guess we’ll start at the beginning. It started with my son back, I don’t know, four years ago, before COVID. My son was producing K Rizz at the time. It’s Rizz now, but there’s a story behind that as well. I pull into town, my son’s having surgery. I’m going to go spend time, I’m flying from Nashville to Dublin, California, where he lives. He was producing Rizz, and when I got there, I planned on spending 3 weeks. He was in the middle of some work, I came into his garage. He’s got a tri-level and he’s sleeping on an air mattress, we’ve got to start somewhere. So I just said, “Hi” and we introduced ourselves. The Cliff’s Note version is my son needed some help. He said, “Dad, would you put some drums on it?” Rizz had this recorded music that was really great that he would license these tracks and put his thing to it. He wasn’t even really about drums because I think a lot of the music then that he was listening to was basically probably just beats. So anyway, we kind of went through this process over about three weeks. We got some work done. A body of work done, including “Don’t Stop Trying” that we brought back to Nashville and finished, but that kind of got us started. Covid hit. We shut it down. 2 years ago. I called him.
RIZZ – I was here 4 days later, hopped on a plane and we started getting to work. Being able to work with these guys, obviously with Troy having the pedigree that he has and the connections and from the time that he spent in the industry, it’s definitely falled into our favor. Just started working on this project and it seemed kind of like piece by piece. These people just kind of started to fall into, into this project with us. First, it was John Salaway. John’s got his own music that’s wonderful and has a background, a big reggae fan himself and big Bob Marley fan as well. So me and him had something in common right away. There’s not a lot of reggae out here in Nashville. It’s not where you would typically go to start a reggae band. Not that we are a reggae band. So then we got Troy, he was out with The Guess Who. So then, as he was out there, he started playing some of the music that we had started working on and that’s when Michael Devin came into play. That’s when Michael Staetrow came into play the guitar and the bass player. Then we just tried a bunch of different people out and just kind of fishing for these different sounds and different feels for the music and trying to discover something unique.
I remember we were, we had a jam going on a song called “Give It A Go” that’s really killer. One of my favorites, and it’s got this long outro jam because Troy will just keep playing these drums and it would go on for a couple minutes after. Then naturally, John and Mike, they would look up as they’re recording going, like, “Is this part of the song” or “What am I supposed to do?” We wouldn’t really tell them anything and that’s where the magic would happen in some of these outro jams because they’re not thinking. They’re just kind of noodling, so to speak. That’s when we were like, man, that’s kind of like a Lynyrd Skynyrd, “Free Bird” jam at the end there. He goes, “It’s funny. I just had Peter Keys reach out to me “or they were in communication. (Peter)’s been out with Lynyrd Skynyrd. So we called up Peter and Peter got involved and that was kind of the last piece of the sound, so to speak. So, not a bunch of newbies, that’s for sure. Those guys have definitely been there and done that. So for me, it’s a blessing to have.
TROY – It just kind of happened organically. None of it was premeditated. We didn’t know when we started. I just knew that we needed to record these tracks because he had all this great music and it was so good. There was no way I was going to beat what he already had the stuff that he was licensing was killer. He sounded great. It was great. The problem was it was licensed to music. So other people could license the same track. It was like, well, we’re going to have to rerecord this stuff. As we got here to Nashville, I said, “Look, man, everybody here in Nashville is so fricking good we can get your record done like that, man, hire these cats. But I’m not sure it’s going to be what we want or what I was thinking, something a little more special”. The whole Believerz thing came together on an accident, or meant to be really, truly, as we look at it. It just fell into place. Everything just kind of fell into place. Now we have a whole body of work. There’s a co-producer, a guy named David Brainerd.
There’s a song on the EP that comes out tomorrow the 10th called “I Believe” and that’s a good example of David Brainerd and who he is because when you listen to all the music up until the band kicks in in the bridge, it’s all him and he and he had the music, everything finished. He’s a writer here in Nashville. We got him together over the house and everything, he’s a real strong writer, produced the first Jamie Johnson record. He’s had some number-one records he’s produced. He got involved with us, loved Rizz and we started exploring that other side that we didn’t know was there and it came together and it does work in the body of work. But once you hit the bridge, we kind of brought The Believerz in, and it’s not that it needed it. It’s like a lot of the work we’re doing. I’ve got stuff with him that, I mean, they could, they could just go do their own record. They have a nice special thing too and it is that good. But from where I’m sitting, my job is to take what is there and see if we can make something more or different out of it. It’s not that better than it might be, it’s like, “Hey, on this track, maybe we want to stay where we were, or let’s see where this goes”. So it’s just keeping a real open mind to explore. It’s still new to us. We have 30 songs on a board right behind me that we’ve worked on and we probably got what, 12, 15, in a good place that we’re finishing up. No samples. Yeah. No samples. All original music here in the studio.
That’s what’s really cool, we had our first rehearsal actually. With the two guitar players last night with a real special piece of music. You’re going to hear. You’re going to connect with and but it working last night here in my studio, here we were working and it was the first time John and Michael Staetrow had gotten together where we actually sat in a room and worked on something to see them actually work together as two guitar players. I told them the thing about Tesla, the magic was Tommy Skeoch and Frank Hannon, and take nothing away from David Rude because he was the perfect guy to come in and take over. But the magic was Tom and Frank, and I experienced that last night with these two guys. I was like, “Oh my God”, because they’re completely different. It’s that opposites attract. So any rate, man, this whole thing is we’re learning more as we go. I mean, just learned that last night.
On if they were searching for a specific sound when putting the band together – TROY – I was never searching personally. I went out with The Guess Who after the break from Tesla, and I went out and did that for a while. While I was out there, we had already started our thing. As it was developing, I already know in my mind, Rizz is a superstar. We’re going to pack stadiums. That’s what it is, I believe. So that’s where I come from. I saw that and I believe that. I thought, now we just got to get to work and prove it. God willing, I should say. But that was just what I believed of who he was because I know what the music is and the purpose behind the music is so much greater than the both of us. I’m gonna let Rizz tell you about himself with his Make Em Smile, I’ve got my Wake Up to Love Foundation. We have bridged our worlds together and it’s kind of like, God just took the both of us and said, “You know what? You guys need to do this”. It feels like we’re doing it because we almost have to.
RIZZ – it just kind of fell together naturally because of who we are as people. We’ve kind of fell into each other’s laps. We come from different places, but we’re kind of living the same style of life. We love to give back. I have Make Em Smile, which is a nonprofit foundation I do out in my hometown, Reno, Nevada. So we’re on year 10 of doing a big toy drive and he does Troy Shows Up. He goes into schools and shows a good example and a bad example, 30 years sober. Not only is he a good mentor for me, but we work well together because we can kind of get both different generations, so to speak, and come from different places.
Some of these kids probably don’t even want to hear about who I am because who am I to them, but they know this guy’s a rock star and they see him packing stadiums already. It’s funny how that is. It works pretty cool. But this thing is definitely come together very organically and naturally. As far as searching for a sound, I started out more in the hip-hop realm, then kind of found my way into the reggae genre. Just falling in love with the community and the people, and the music first and foremost. Then, as an artist, I started to experiment with that. I was like, “Oh, you know what? This is totally more my style. And this fits me more of my message and what I’m trying to do with my music, which is just create positivity and inspire people to be the best that they can be.”
So then getting these guys. They’re players, man. They’re good musical players. You could have them play anything and these guys are going to crush it. Peter comes from a cool background, obviously, and Devin, these guys still do have a lot of knowledge within this genre because its roots are kind of widespread . There’s some jazz and there’s some stuff, that’s influenced, we have a song that’s a great song that goes into a jazz swing at the end that you would not expect, but it’s music, right? So that’s the cool part. When you get good players and musicians, like you get out here you can kind of just tailor to whatever you want to do and see what happens.
TROY – I was going to jump in and say, I’ve not been exposed to reggae music. The stuff I heard and I’ve always liked it for what I’ve heard of it, but since I’ve got into it and explored it, now with Rizz, Man, I have learned so much. It’s like going to school. It really is. And it’s cool. We were just blessed with the situation where we played a festival in Florida called Reggae Rise Up. John Salaway, I’ll let Rizz tell the background story to John Salaway, our guitar player how we’ve landed this gig. I didn’t know anything about the Sugar Shack.
RIZZ – Shout out to the Sugar Shack. We love you guys, Eddie and Lisa and the whole crew. You guys are amazing. John actually, you know, has a past with Eddie. He gave him his first pair of cymbols and they reconnected all of a sudden when we got this project, coincidentally, so it was kind of cool. We did the NBC Today in Nashville. Then that night, we got a call from John, he’s like, “Hey, the Sugar Shack guys want to know if you want to perform”. So we got to go out there and open up the Sugar Shack stage at the Reggae Rise Up and got to see the Marley’s and Slightly Stoopid and all the big dogs, man, the people that I’ve been watching forever, looking up to. So it’s cool to take him to these festivals and kind of get him into a new world. It’s really cool.
On if positivity in lyrics is an important part of the band – RIZZ – For me, that’s everything. That’s the purpose behind what I do. I chose music as my medium, that was my way to get on through to people because I’ve always been passionate about the message of inspiring people. That’s been my whole passion since I started music. I just feel like we’re so powerful as human beings. We have so much we can do and we need each other and what community is needed more than ever. It’s always fascinated me just like how one person can dictate so much change in the world through just doing something that’s stand up, and kind of outside of the box or just the right thing to do. The normal. sometimes, it’s kind of crazy how we’ll just kind of fall into that. It’s like, “Oh, that’s just what you do”. Then somebody that comes along that is like, “But why? I think we can do this better or different”. Then all of a sudden you get to start to spark people, kind of bring people back to life or to ignite something in them that creates change. So I just feel like. Inspiring people to be their real self and their authentic self, which is such a hard thing to do in this world to me is such a passionate thing. I still battle this thing myself. I’m not perfect by any means. That’s the cool part about it. We help each other. Right. But that’s been a big, big passion of mine since I was really young, was just like, “How do we, how do we inspire each other?”
On what led Troy to step away from Tesla and take the challenge of starting over – Two great questions. First of all, the COVID thing happened that shut us down. Gave me a time to take some time off and reflect and really think about where I was at in my life, and reevaluate it. I couldn’t be more grateful for the guys in the band all those years. I love all of them, it was a remarkable 30-plus years, 36 years, I think it was. For me, there wasn’t really much left for me to do there quite honestly, other than tour and play and do the same shows, which is great. It’s nice that that legacy has got to go and continue to move, but it gave me an opportunity to step back. After working with Rziz and then I, I didn’t even want to go out with The Guess Who, I just filled in. I got called on a Saturday, the manager called me and then they called me back on Monday. They wanted me to play Friday, There’s no rehearsals, I had to fly home on Sunday. They were calling me back, sending me the material on Monday. I got two days to go over it, fly Thursday and play the show Friday. It was a body of work and there’s always a show, it takes some work and effort to get that right and make them happen.
I did it and it worked out great. I was only planning on just jumping in and out. Then 30-plus shows later, I’m like, “Man, my passion’s here”. I knew that there’s a saying, when we don’t get what we want, we get what we’re committed to. Quite honestly, at that point, I had to reevaluate myself and look at what I was committed to. At that point I made a decision and I talked to Rizz about it and I knew what that decision was. I said, “This is it. I’m done. This is my last stop. I don’t want to do anything else”. It’s new music. I love the energy. I love everything about you. I believe in you. I said, “I’m here. We’re going to, we’re going to work this thing every day. We’re going to figure it out”. We’ve got our own record company, Blessings and Love, LLC, 4 trademarks underway. We’ve got a legal team. We’ve got radio promotional people we’ve hired, our publicist. It’s a real team. You know, It’s getting to be real solid and we’re learning about what it takes just to do that. This is a whole new medium and model that I know nothing about. I said, Rizz, dude, good luck with the fricking social stuff. First of all, I’m not interested. God bless him because he does an amazing job, but it’s just been, I feel like God doesn’t give you more than you can handle. There was a way we could have had it all upfront. I was telling Rizz in the beginning, I said, “Dude, I think we just need to do this on our own, raise our own money, figure it out, be our own company, do our own thing”. If we go to the labels, these are the downfall of what we’re going to be experienced. But it’s hard, record companies have built and made people forever, but there’s new models now. So we had a chance to look at that model and evaluate the model. I think over time, Rizz has been able to see and hear through people, not through me, because I just believe that’s what we should do and for all the right reasons, and I think he’s learned and come around and like, yeah, man, I’m, I’m glad we are going this route. This feels right to me. We have the freedom to put out an Ep right now, a week’s notice.
RIZZ- we had two weeks on that thing. We just flipped that into, we got a great feedback,thanks for everybody streaming “Don’t Stop Trying”. Killer, killer numbers all organically. We’ve been hitting a lot of great major markets right now just like really out the gate. We landed one of the biggest playlists in the genre. It’s like, wow. Okay. We haven’t even really done anything. We just put the song out and now we’re just watching the numbers and the statistics and kind of reading these analytics to kind of feel who’s resonating with these songs.
There’s a lot more involved than what I ever imagined. It’s like, you care for what you wish for. I’m like, “Hey man, I want to get into the music business and I want to learn all aspects”. I’ve always kind of been that way, but I did it at just a much more different level. Now with the record company and everything that we started up, we didn’t just launch a single, we launched a record company and we and now launching this EP. It’s been a lot these last couple months for sure. I’m, just starting to kind of reflect on that even before we hit tomorrow. Just going like, “Wow, it’s been a lot man”. And as Michael Staetrow says, “It’s no longer yours, man, now it’s the world’s. You put that out there and those aren’t your songs anymore”. We’ve all kind of put together, but now they are the world’s music to have and digest. So it’s an exciting emotional time for, I think all of us in different ways.
On upcoming touring – RIZZ – We got some festivals lined up right now. Like he was just saying, we’re just starting to get the band rehearsed, luckily we got some availability happening right now. So we’re going to take an advantage of that. We’ve got some great things ahead and we definitely have been talking and looking at some agents and just kind of looking around to see what makes sense for us. We’re going to be playing music. Absolutely. We’re going to get out there. We’re not in a hurry to do anything that doesn’t make sense. That’s kind of I think where I would leave that.
TROY – We’re not just going to go play everywhere and grab a club. We want to work smarter, not harder, but we don’t mind working the harder part of it for the smarter picture.
RIZZ – So we’re just, we’re navigating right now. First thing was like, again, get this single out with the label. We had a really good opportunity to put out an EP. So now we’re going to do that. Now let’s get the, let’s get rehearsed and let’s get our live sound dialed in. He’s done this his whole life. And for me personally, man, the live shows, the reward. I haven’t got to do that in almost two years. I’ve done little shows here and there. I’m a performer, man. I can’t wait to do that. So to me, that’s the fun part. We’re kind of putting in the work and laying down all that, the ground level stuff right now so we can really. You know, be set up for a more sustainable future and career.
