The Heats Are Back: Steve Pearson on New Music, Old Memories, and What’s Next

This week on the Exploring Washington State Podcast, we sit down with Steve Pearson—Seattle’s rock and roll legend.

From his iconic days with The Heats to the raucous adventures of the Rangehoods, Steve takes us on a nostalgic journey through the highs, lows, and everything in between of his musical career.

The Heats From Garage Gigs to Stadium Crowds

Steve’s story starts like many legends: with a young kid strumming Beatles tunes and dreaming of a bigger stage. But what happens when those dreams become reality? Steve recounts the serendipitous moments that took The Heats from an obscure garage band to headlining packed clubs and sharing stages with rock royalty. And then there’s that unforgettable gig at the Oregon Jam in front of 79,000 people. How did The Heats handle a live mic malfunction in the middle of their opening song? Let’s say Steve and Don didn’t miss a beat.

The Record That Changed Everything

With tales of late-night rehearsals, fiery live shows, and the iconic Seattle Times article that skyrocketed their fame, Steve shares how The Heats became the band everyone had to see. But what happens when fame fades? Enter the Rangehoods—a band born of grit, rebellion, and a desire to shake things up again.

New Music, Old Friends

Decades later, The Heats are back. With a new album on the way and reunion shows electrifying fans, Steve reflects on how the band’s music has stood the test of time. Hear firsthand how they recorded 10 songs in just four days, why Steve is still chasing the perfect guitar tone, and why he refuses to become a nostalgia act.

Plus, Pie or Cake?

Of course, no Exploring Washington State Podcast episode is complete without a bit of fun. Steve’s answer to our signature dessert debate may surprise you—and his reasoning is as rock and roll as it gets.

Steve Pearson Episode Transcript

Scott Cowan [00:00:04]:

Hello, friends, and welcome to the Exploring Washington State podcast. My name is Scott Cowan, and I’m the host of the show. Each episode, I have a conversation with an interesting guest who is living in or from Washington State. These are casual conversations with real and interesting people. I think you’re gonna like the show. So let’s jump right in with today’s guest. Alright. I’m sitting here.

Scott Cowan [00:00:26]:

I’ve been planning this for, like, God, was it been 4 years when I’ve been trying to get you to do this? I am sitting down today with Steve Pearson of the heat. This is all for me. You guys can just tag along and listen in Steve. Welcome.

Steve Pearson [00:00:39]:

Thanks. Nice to be here.

Scott Cowan [00:00:41]:

Oh, you say that. I remember the first time I saw you play. I think it was September of 1980 and Barto lawn on the campus of Central Washington University. What brought you guys over there? Let’s start with that question. What that specific day, why were you at Central?

Steve Pearson [00:01:03]:

I have no idea. We we just went where we were booked, and that was one of the, that was fairly early on, I would say, as we were just sort of starting to emerge. And the two groups of people that seem to like us best were the musicians first

Scott Cowan [00:01:30]:

Mhmm.

Steve Pearson [00:01:30]:

And then the college kids.

Scott Cowan [00:01:33]:

K.

Steve Pearson [00:01:35]:

Whether it was just because it was something different and college kids like to be aware of a new trend, early on or whether it’s that we, resonated with them somehow, I I don’t know that.

Scott Cowan [00:01:51]:

So my other vague recollection, because that was 44 years ago. Mhmm. God. The other vague recollection I have was that you guys seemed physically larger than normal. I mean, you’re you’re about what? 61?

Steve Pearson [00:02:08]:

61. Yeah.

Scott Cowan [00:02:09]:

You and and Don, because you were standing up front. Mhmm. You guys seem taller than that. I don’t think the stage was all that high, but you guys I just remember, like, going, these guys seem like they’re really physically, like, giants. That’s those are my two memories of seeing you

Steve Pearson [00:02:27]:

guys shorter than you.

Scott Cowan [00:02:28]:

I know you are. I I but but I still it’s like I just remember this. You guys the presence that you had on the stage was very, powerful.

Steve Pearson [00:02:40]:

Yeah. There there was something about that band. Part of it was that we were an alternative to what was going on. Both Don and I in particular and and everybody in the band, we looked out at, oh, all your sticks in Boston and Foreigner and all those bands, and we said we don’t wanna be like that.

Scott Cowan [00:03:07]:

Mhmm.

Steve Pearson [00:03:07]:

We don’t wanna be glorious rock stars with massive hairdos and spend an hour and a half getting ready with our make up and stuff. We’re just gonna play rock and roll like we remember it Mhmm. From when we were young.

Scott Cowan [00:03:24]:

K.

Steve Pearson [00:03:25]:

And so we had this very, I won’t say arrogant, I will say confident us against the world. It seemed as though we were the only 4 people that wanted to do this. And in order to do that, we steeled ourselves against everything else that was going on.

Scott Cowan [00:03:52]:

K.

Steve Pearson [00:03:52]:

So we had a great deal of confidence.

Scott Cowan [00:03:55]:

Okay.

Steve Pearson [00:03:55]:

We We we thought, yeah, we’re something unique, we’re something that you haven’t seen before, just watch.

Scott Cowan [00:04:05]:

Yeah. That sums it up better than I did. I okay. So we’re gonna come back to the heat. So let’s I wanna talk about you, young Steve.

Steve Pearson [00:04:13]:

Okay.

Scott Cowan [00:04:13]:

Little Steve, what are we gonna call you? When did you first get interested in music?

Steve Pearson [00:04:21]:

I think I was always. K. Though I never thought that I would be one of those people.

Scott Cowan [00:04:29]:

I thought

Steve Pearson [00:04:30]:

that I was someone who would listen to those songs, and I’d sing Beatles songs to myself at, you know, 8 years old, 10 years old, however old I was. And that was really the first thing that intrigued me. I I remember thinking that musicians were all very uncool because you’d watch Lawrence Welk, and you would you would see whatever the musicians of the day. And I thought they weren’t nearly as entertaining as Mickey Mantle or or, you know, somebody like that.

Scott Cowan [00:05:08]:

K.

Steve Pearson [00:05:10]:

And then the Beatles came along, and I saw and I thought, oh, I see musicians are cool. That would be the greatest thing one could possibly be, but I couldn’t do that. I I would never be part of that.

Scott Cowan [00:05:25]:

Okay. Obviously, that wasn’t a true statement. So

Steve Pearson [00:05:31]:

At the time, it was it became something different.

Scott Cowan [00:05:35]:

When what was the first instrument you ever got your hands on?

Steve Pearson [00:05:39]:

I played drums when I was in grade school.

Scott Cowan [00:05:41]:

You played drums in grade

Steve Pearson [00:05:42]:

school? Yeah. And I wasn’t very good. And I didn’t really care much about it. It was just you were supposed to I don’t know, you had a couple of different options. You could join band or you could join choir or something, and so I chose that.

Scott Cowan [00:05:59]:

Okay. So you played drums

Steve Pearson [00:06:01]:

Yeah. For a couple of years.

Scott Cowan [00:06:02]:

Couple of years?

Steve Pearson [00:06:03]:

Like, 5th 6th grade, I think.

Scott Cowan [00:06:05]:

When did you what was next?

Steve Pearson [00:06:09]:

Nothing. I just stopped and kept playing sports.

Scott Cowan [00:06:13]:

And kept playing sports. And what what sport were you?

Steve Pearson [00:06:15]:

Well, I played baseball for a while, and then I got to be a teenager and I couldn’t hit a curve ball, so that ended that. And then I I played basketball in junior high and high school a little bit. I was pretty good at that.

Scott Cowan [00:06:34]:

Okay.

Steve Pearson [00:06:34]:

And then I hurt my knee, and so that ended. Okay. And while I was recuperating from a knee operation, a friend of mine brought by his guitar and showed me a few things, and, that was part of my recuperation, I guess, is learning how to play guitar a little bit. But I didn’t have any particular talent for it other than I liked it.

Scott Cowan [00:07:01]:

Mhmm. K. And about how old would you been 16, 17?

Steve Pearson [00:07:06]:

17. 17. 17. 17.

Scott Cowan [00:07:08]:

What were you gonna do after high school?

Steve Pearson [00:07:11]:

I didn’t know. Okay. I I went to community college for a year, and then I got a job in a band. A friend of mine, Mark Munson, was in this band, and he said we’re looking for another guy. You could join. You can play rhythm guitar and sing the high harmonies.

Scott Cowan [00:07:32]:

Okay.

Steve Pearson [00:07:32]:

That’s all you get to do.

Scott Cowan [00:07:34]:

Okay.

Steve Pearson [00:07:34]:

And I said, okay. And then gradually, I got to play a couple of Chuck Berry solos because that’s all I could do, and then they would let me sing a song once in a while. And, that was sort of the beginning of of all that. I might go back and say that being from Canmore, I had all my friends were musicians.

Scott Cowan [00:08:01]:

Oh, really?

Steve Pearson [00:08:02]:

There were literally can 12 bands at my high school. Oh. Oh. Brilliant players. We got guys that ended up in Hart. The the band Hart

Scott Cowan [00:08:15]:

Mhmm.

Steve Pearson [00:08:15]:

Came from Inglemoor High School. Pat Tennis, Don Wilhelm, Dan Abernathy, all these guys, Rusty Smith, they were Mark Willett. I could go on and on. These guys were sort of, I won’t say heroes, but way up there in my world. I looked up to them and said, wow, look at the these guys can actually play and and not just actually play. They were great. K. As teenagers, they were great.

Steve Pearson [00:08:51]:

And once again, I didn’t really feel as though I could be part of that, but it just sorta happened, I guess.

Scott Cowan [00:09:00]:

Alright. How old were you when the heats got together?

Steve Pearson [00:09:07]:

I guess 23 or 4.

Scott Cowan [00:09:09]:

Okay. So a couple years through 4 to 5 years out of high school. Yeah. Okay.

Steve Pearson [00:09:14]:

Yeah. And

Scott Cowan [00:09:15]:

how did the guys how’d you guys meet?

Steve Pearson [00:09:20]:

Well, okay. The Don and Steve story.

Scott Cowan [00:09:25]:

Okay.

Steve Pearson [00:09:26]:

I was riding around one night with some friends in their car and we went through the Jack in a Box drive in window. While we were in line, this guy and his girlfriend hopped in the car with us. It was Don Short and his girlfriend. They were out walking.

They said we we need to be in the car and order order, so they just jumped in the car with us. And, the guy was sitting in the back seat, they hopped in, and the guys in the front turned around and looked at Don, and they said, Steve, he looks just like you. So we started talking. It turns out we had many similarities.

Steve Pearson [00:10:16]:

We were both guitar players in rock and roll bands, and we both thought the Rolling Stones were the greatest thing that ever existed. And we started this, rapport for lack of a better word. I thought Don was a really cool guy. I I have no idea what he thought of me, but we started calling each other. And, I would go play with Don’s friends, and he would go play with my friends, and nothing ever really worked. It sorta it felt uncomfortable.

Scott Cowan [00:10:54]:

Okay.

Steve Pearson [00:10:55]:

Like, he was he felt not comfortable with my gang of guys. I felt uncomfortable with his gang of guys. And then Keith and Ken called me

Scott Cowan [00:11:11]:

up. K.

Steve Pearson [00:11:12]:

Said we’re thinking about putting together a band to go to Alaska.

Scott Cowan [00:11:17]:

How did you know Keith

Steve Pearson [00:11:18]:

We went to school together.

Scott Cowan [00:11:19]:

Went to okay. You the 3 of you went to high school together.

Steve Pearson [00:11:22]:

We all went to the same high school. And Keith and Ken had this grandiose plan. We would go to Alaska and hire a girl singer, and we play Fleetwood Mac songs and stuff. And I said, on my list of things I wish to do, that’s about 12,695 away from what I would like to do. I said, however, I have these original songs that I recorded. I would I would like to be in an original band. K. I I hate everything musically that’s going on right now.

Steve Pearson [00:12:01]:

Let’s do something fun. Let’s do something original. I have this buddy named Don Short. He came over. We all sat down in the practice room. I don’t remember where the practice room was.

Scott Cowan [00:12:20]:

Okay.

Steve Pearson [00:12:21]:

We started playing my songs, then Don had some songs. It was great. From the first moment, the 4 of us played together. We sounded just like we sounded the whole time. Don and I sang together. Keith and Ken were really solid rhythm section. And it just went from there almost effortlessly.

Scott Cowan [00:12:50]:

Okay.

Steve Pearson [00:12:51]:

Without even trying, really.

Scott Cowan [00:12:56]:

How long from that first night before you guys played in front of an audience?

Steve Pearson [00:13:03]:

I I don’t know exactly. We went to the we went to see some friends of ours at a club called the Town Crier in Redmond, and they asked if we’d like to get up and do a couple of songs. And I remember doing that. And the crowd sort of wondering what on earth is this. Mhmm. Because we were very, very different. And I think they couldn’t understand why we were so confident and full of ourselves, and yet so out of step with everything that was going on. And they just sort of were silent after we were done playing.

Steve Pearson [00:13:52]:

And then we that was it. We played a couple of songs, and we struggled. We, we went and played high schools, and then we went to Boise, Idaho to play for 2 weeks and got fired after the 1st week and came home, sort of wondering if we were on the the right track or the wrong track.

And then we were offered this this show out at the Edmonds Rock and Roll Theatre, which was a deal where they would play a rock and roll movie like, Girl Can’t Help It, Rock and Roll High School, Hard Days Night. Right. And in between the movie, the band would play for a half an hour.

Scott Cowan [00:14:37]:

Okay.

Steve Pearson [00:14:39]:

Well, the guy that one of the guys that ran that, his he had friends with the Seattle Times. He was friends with Eric Lacitis and Pat McDonald and all those guys, and he called them up. Said, I have this really interesting band. You should come check them out. So Eric Lacitis came out with his photographer, and he liked us.

Scott Cowan [00:15:07]:

Did you know he was there?

Steve Pearson [00:15:09]:

No. I don’t think so. Okay. I can’t remember.

Scott Cowan [00:15:12]:

Okay.

Steve Pearson [00:15:15]:

And he, his photographer, took this this photo of us, Don and I singing on the same microphone, and, that was the beginning of all of it. Without him, it never woulda happened.

Scott Cowan [00:15:34]:

I seem to remember reading somewhere, and I’m not gonna get it all correct. But, Ken and Keith were in a car over in West Seattle. You guys are gonna be playing, I think, in West Seattle. Yeah. And that newspaper article came out

Steve Pearson [00:15:50]:

Mhmm.

Scott Cowan [00:15:51]:

And they were shocked about how where it was put where the placement was, and then the line around the building. That that one that one article.

Steve Pearson [00:16:03]:

Yeah. Changed everything. Just overnight? Yes.

Scott Cowan [00:16:06]:

Okay.

Steve Pearson [00:16:08]:

I wasn’t there in the car. I mean, I’ve never heard that story before.

Scott Cowan [00:16:12]:

It was written somewhere. I read it online somewhere.

Steve Pearson [00:16:15]:

My experience was I came, I came walking in the the back door of the club and people started clapping, and I turned around to see who they were clapping for because it couldn’t have possibly been me. And I realized that there was no one there. They they were actually and I guess that shows the whole idea of fame. The people that were clapping had never seen us before.

Scott Cowan [00:16:48]:

Right.

Steve Pearson [00:16:48]:

They had read in the newspaper that we were something something.

Scott Cowan [00:16:56]:

Right.

Steve Pearson [00:16:56]:

And so they responded in that way, not ever seeing the band before. So that that whole experience for me was very bizarre. Just like I’m sure it was for all the guys in the band.

Scott Cowan [00:17:11]:

Do you remember that night playing?

Steve Pearson [00:17:14]:

Oh, sure.

Scott Cowan [00:17:15]:

Okay. How how did the audience react to you?

Steve Pearson [00:17:20]:

They loved us before we started because they had been told. Wow. And I’m not saying there’s anything wrong with that. I’m saying that that’s human nature.

Scott Cowan [00:17:31]:

Right.

Steve Pearson [00:17:31]:

You hear that there’s a happening and you wanna be part of it, and so you respond to the way that you think you should respond.

Scott Cowan [00:17:43]:

I just I’ve it’s very interesting because what was that? 45, 46 ish years ago. Right? Mhmm. The power of the newspaper to take you guys from not obscurity, but it Yeah. Obscurity. Okay. Obscurity to overnight being an overnight sensation and how long that lasted too, though, in in the sense that you guys whenever I saw you play in the Seattle market,

Steve Pearson [00:18:12]:

clubs are always packed. Mhmm. No.

Scott Cowan [00:18:14]:

It didn’t matter what night of the week you guys were playing. Clubs are packed. You guys had the best crowd. And by that, I mean, you had the best girls.

Steve Pearson [00:18:24]:

Well, it was a combination, I think, of many things. For one thing, once you’re told that an event is to be a certain way, you believe that that will be it. I think that we resonated with people. It’s a word that I used a few moments ago.

Scott Cowan [00:18:51]:

Mhmm.

Steve Pearson [00:18:54]:

Because we are so different and we were, I will say, unaffected.

Scott Cowan [00:19:01]:

Mhmm.

Steve Pearson [00:19:02]:

You know, back then, if you would go out and see a band, they looked fabulous. They had a a fabulous stage set up, you know, $500 haircuts, and mountains of amplifiers, and a drum set that you know, 50 pieces in the drum set. I’m exaggerating here a little bit, but you know what I’m saying. Right. We had little amps. We wore blue jeans and and tennis shoes or whatever.

Scott Cowan [00:19:32]:

Mhmm.

Steve Pearson [00:19:33]:

We weren’t a punk band, I don’t think, but people thought of us in that way. And they identified we could be their buddies from high school.

Scott Cowan [00:19:45]:

Mhmm.

Steve Pearson [00:19:46]:

They could walk up to us and say hi, and we wouldn’t act like rock stars. You didn’t have to be a a gorgeous girl with, you know, free free booze handing to be our friend. We were just and we played a very simple style of rock and roll, which was completely different from the glorious, you know, carry on my wayward son

Scott Cowan [00:20:14]:

days. The stadium rock of the late seventies, early eighties.

Steve Pearson [00:20:17]:

We were not that, and I think that many people were tired of that and couldn’t identify with it.

Scott Cowan [00:20:25]:

K. Earlier on you said something, I wanna go back. You you said that you and Don thought that The Rolling Stones were the the greatest band ever. Besides The Rolling Stones, where did you draw your influence from?

Steve Pearson [00:20:42]:

Well, obviously, The Beatles and The Kinks and The Yardbirds and all that early The Birds, the that switch from whatever was before. I don’t know. Frankie Avalon Right. Neil Sedaka, all that stuff to sort of a simple but melodic, and especially the 2 part harmonies that that really we gravitated towards that and did that naturally. K. Don and I both were very much into harmonizing. Mhmm.

Scott Cowan [00:21:29]:

Where do you think the other guys in the band, where did they have any different influences in that?

Steve Pearson [00:21:35]:

Oh, I’m sure they did.

Scott Cowan [00:21:36]:

Okay.

Steve Pearson [00:21:38]:

Ken had played a lot of different things. He was probably the most musically sophisticated of all of us. And Keith, too, he was listening to all sorts of stuff. I suppose I had the the least sophistication. You know, I I was still playing my Beatles and Yardbirds records and

Scott Cowan [00:22:04]:

call it.

Steve Pearson [00:22:05]:

How did they do that? Right. How did how did they write a song? So, yeah, we all had slightly different

Scott Cowan [00:22:15]:

But it kind of ideas. Call it it all kind

Steve Pearson [00:22:21]:

of And it came together. It amalgamated, if you will. That

Scott Cowan [00:22:25]:

was yeah. That’s the word I was actually struggling for. So thank you. The amalgamation became what kind of gets, I think you hear the genre, you guys get lumped into the power pop.

Steve Pearson [00:22:36]:

It’s good as any.

Scott Cowan [00:22:37]:

Yeah. And there was a lot of, not a lot, but there was a certain amount of bands in that era that had similar stylization, if you will. But the thing, and I’ve told you this before, I still think your music, I listened to your music regularly now still, and it still sounds fresh. It doesn’t.

I mean, there’s a lot of stuff that came out in any era, you know, any the sixties, seventies, eighties, nineties, whatever. And it you go, oh yeah, that was kind of, that was then. Your guys’ stuff and your your solo stuff and all that has this to me, and I don’t think I’m alone, more of a timeless nature to it.

Steve Pearson [00:23:20]:

As the guy that did it, I have no concept of that.

Scott Cowan [00:23:26]:

Do you still enjoy playing your early Heat songs?

Steve Pearson [00:23:32]:

Yeah.

Scott Cowan [00:23:33]:

Okay.

Steve Pearson [00:23:33]:

Surprisingly. Okay. So. Alright. You would think after all these years I’d get tired of it, but I I don’t.

Scott Cowan [00:23:41]:

Okay.

Steve Pearson [00:23:45]:

There are exceptions. I would just assume never play I Don’t Like Your Face Again.

Scott Cowan [00:23:51]:

I’m surprised you’re playing it, frankly.

Steve Pearson [00:23:54]:

Well, it’s part of the deal. I signed up for this. You signed up for it. And I knew last summer that that was part of the deal.

Scott Cowan [00:24:07]:

Because all the times I’ve ever seen you

Steve Pearson [00:24:09]:

I’ve just stayed away from that.

Scott Cowan [00:24:10]:

I don’t think I can ever recall you playing that song. Yeah. And that was the, the song that got the most, Mhmm.

Steve Pearson [00:24:20]:

The most notoriety.

Scott Cowan [00:24:21]:

Most notoriety. Yeah. And it’s funny because you, you have said, you know, that’s Yeah. Kind of, like, you know.

Steve Pearson [00:24:30]:

Well, that’s that’s the problem with making statements like that is that quite often you’re forced to I won’t say force. That’s the wrong word. You choose to Yeah. Go back on what you said. Right. And and I I cop to that.

Scott Cowan [00:24:48]:

It’s a catchy song. It it’s it’s super catchy. It is. You can you can you know? Alright. Let’s talk about the album that you guys did.

Steve Pearson [00:24:58]:

Alright.

Scott Cowan [00:25:00]:

How did that project come about? Who decided that we need an album? Not an not an EP, you know, but who who said we need an album?

Steve Pearson [00:25:09]:

I did. You did. Okay. After we played last summer,

Scott Cowan [00:25:16]:

Oh, I’m talking about the original album.

Steve Pearson [00:25:18]:

Oh, the original?

Scott Cowan [00:25:19]:

The original. We’re gonna come we’re gonna

Steve Pearson [00:25:20]:

come back. Okay. Alright.

Scott Cowan [00:25:21]:

So you already tipped the.

Steve Pearson [00:25:22]:

Alright. Okay.

Scott Cowan [00:25:23]:

But the original album, have an idea. How did that

Steve Pearson [00:25:28]:

There was an event that happened. We were opening for Heart Mhmm. Mainly on the East Coast in the South. We played in West Virginia. And the morning after we played, I Don’t Like Your Face was the most requested song on the radio. In West Virginia? In West Virginia, in a town that had never seen us, never heard of us. We were a complete non entity, and yet that song was the most requested song. Only problem is we didn’t have a recording of it.

Scott Cowan [00:26:10]:

Okay.

Steve Pearson [00:26:11]:

We had no record. And I said, we are fools to waste this opportunity to be out playing in front of thousands of people and have no product. What are we doing? Right. And so we got together and said we we need to put out a record.

Scott Cowan [00:26:35]:

K.

Steve Pearson [00:26:36]:

And, we were with Ken Kinnear. He was our our main manager. John Kurtzer was also part of the the team, and Ken couldn’t get us a record deal. Nobody could get us a record deal. At that time, virtually every city in the country had a band like us.

Scott Cowan [00:26:59]:

Mhmm.

Steve Pearson [00:27:00]:

And nobody, you know, a few guys get deals, we didn’t.

Scott Cowan [00:27:07]:

Mhmm.

Steve Pearson [00:27:07]:

So we put out our own our own record. Howard Leese produced it. Ken Kinnear and Albatross paid for it. And we went into Kay Smith Studios and did our did our songs, recorded a record.

Scott Cowan [00:27:23]:

So you recorded a full album.

Steve Pearson [00:27:24]:

Mhmm.

Scott Cowan [00:27:25]:

That was the first thing. Okay. So you didn’t release I Don’t Like Your Face as a 45 by itself.

Steve Pearson [00:27:30]:

No. It it that was before that. Okay.

Scott Cowan [00:27:37]:

But, I

Steve Pearson [00:27:37]:

guess that was phase 1 Mhmm. Was was putting out that single.

Scott Cowan [00:27:41]:

What was on the, flip side of?

Steve Pearson [00:27:43]:

Ordinary Girls.

Scott Cowan [00:27:44]:

Yeah. Okay.

Steve Pearson [00:27:45]:

And we recorded that with Buck Ormsbee, but that didn’t really go anywhere, as I recall. Some of my answers, you’ll have to take with a grain of salt because it’s been a long time, and my memory is not always perfect. No. It’s okay. Happened.

Scott Cowan [00:28:07]:

Well, let’s go to let’s let me ask you about about the have an idea. How long I know I’m asking very specific questions and general answers are great, but how long did it take you guys to record that?

Steve Pearson [00:28:21]:

Probably 3 weeks, but not every day.

Scott Cowan [00:28:24]:

Right.

Steve Pearson [00:28:24]:

You know, we we’d go in and and we were total fools. We had no idea what we were doing. I I didn’t even realize that, your guitar had to be tuned absolutely perfect or or else Howard would go, your g string is out of tune, and I’d say, I don’t hear it. You go tune it up. The song dragged a little bit in that in that section. Do it again.

Scott Cowan [00:28:54]:

Okay.

Steve Pearson [00:28:54]:

All those things I had never experienced. You go into sing and, it doesn’t sound very good. You know, you It’s just crazy. Right. We had no idea. Dawn was a a pretty efficient player.

Scott Cowan [00:29:15]:

Mhmm.

Steve Pearson [00:29:16]:

Just naturally so. The rest of us, that’s my phone ringing.

Scott Cowan [00:29:21]:

It’s

Steve Pearson [00:29:22]:

The rest of us had a bit to learn.

Scott Cowan [00:29:24]:

Okay.

Steve Pearson [00:29:25]:

I will say that I had more to learn than anyone else. And that’s not false humility. That’s just objectively looking at it. Ken and Keith played pretty steady.

Scott Cowan [00:29:41]:

Mhmm.

Steve Pearson [00:29:41]:

Don played really steady. I was always, Steve, you’re going too fast. Steve, come on here. You can do better than that.

Scott Cowan [00:29:50]:

Okay. But still in the grand scheme of things, 3 weeks doesn’t sound like all that long. And to me and I’m not a musician.

Steve Pearson [00:29:59]:

Mhmm.

Scott Cowan [00:30:00]:

You know, but, you know, we’ve heard stories of bands of, you know, 2 years and they can’t seem, you know, blah blah blah. So 3 weeks to me seems like a pretty reasonable amount of time. So when when that album was released, what did the what did the band do to promote the album release?

Steve Pearson [00:30:23]:

I can’t remember.

Scott Cowan [00:30:23]:

Did you go out? Did you guys tour behind it? Did you go on a West Coast tour or anything like that or

Steve Pearson [00:30:29]:

We just played our regular schedule. Okay.

Scott Cowan [00:30:32]:

Alright.

Steve Pearson [00:30:32]:

As far as I know, I don’t there must have been some sort of a record release party, but I don’t remember it.

Scott Cowan [00:30:41]:

Okay.

Steve Pearson [00:30:44]:

But we had shows booked forever. We just went out and started playing our shows. And then once in a while, we do one of those in store things.

Scott Cowan [00:30:54]:

Mhmm.

Steve Pearson [00:30:56]:

Some of them were like Spinal Tap, and then others were great.

Scott Cowan [00:31:02]:

Mhmm.

Steve Pearson [00:31:05]:

I have to dig back in my memory. I I can remember sitting down at a table and people coming up and sign the record and, telling us stories about how how that that music got through to them.

I can remember feeling a little bit uncomfortable with the nice things that people would say. And and in my mind, I was thinking, you know, we’re just 4 clowns trying to have some fun here. It’s not it’s not any big deal. That’s what I was thinking at the time. And in a way, I still think that. I I still think that people make a a bigger deal out of out of rock and roll and celebrity and all those things than it really deserves.

Scott Cowan [00:32:10]:

That’s hard to disagree with, but I I do think you’re being too humble in the sense that for a window of time in in the Seattle area, You guys, along with a couple of other bands in my memory

Steve Pearson [00:32:29]:

Mhmm.

Scott Cowan [00:32:32]:

You guys owned Seattle. If you’re, if you’re, if the heats were on the, the reader board, that venue was crowded. Okay. And people were having fun. You, you guys, your music, your presentation was fun for people for 2 or 3, 4 hours a night that you played. People are having a good time. Mhmm. I don’t think you can discount that.

Scott Cowan [00:33:02]:

You brought your your your art, your music brought people happiness.

Steve Pearson [00:33:11]:

Yeah. I I think that’s true. I’m glad that that’s true. Yeah. I guess what I’m saying is we didn’t see it. I didn’t see it. I I I can’t speak for the other members of the band. I didn’t see it as anything more than just some guys playing rock and roll.

Steve Pearson [00:33:37]:

Of course, I knew that we were popular. I knew that people liked us. I thought it would pass like anything else.

Scott Cowan [00:33:45]:

Mhmm.

Steve Pearson [00:33:50]:

And as I tell people, it’s impossible to be a fan of yourself.

Scott Cowan [00:33:54]:

Okay.

Steve Pearson [00:33:54]:

You know? You can’t get up and look in the mirror and go, jeez, what a great guy you are. I think that’s stupid. K. So though I know that things are going on, I choose not to take it too terribly personally and and think that I think I was in a great band. Yeah. Really happy. Really proud of that. I I will never be ashamed of what the Heat’s did or think it was not good.

Steve Pearson [00:34:38]:

Mhmm. I’m just sort of anti celebrity in general. I think that everyone takes themselves way too seriously when it comes to that.

Scott Cowan [00:34:47]:

I think another reason that the heats were as popular was back then there was live music 7 nights a week. So you had a lot of opportunities to perform. I’ve talked to some of your contemporaries in that era and that, you know, they bought homes. Playing playing music locally, they were able to make enough money to buy a home. Mhmm. I don’t think that’s the case anymore. I don’t think

Steve Pearson [00:35:18]:

I imagine it depends on the band.

Scott Cowan [00:35:21]:

Well, I don’t think a lot of venues have music that often.

Steve Pearson [00:35:24]:

Yeah.

Scott Cowan [00:35:25]:

I think Seattle, you know, and that’s where I was at so I can only speak to my experience. It was always live music 7 nights a week. There was some place that had live music.

Steve Pearson [00:35:35]:

Oh, yeah. We were, like, swinging London there for a while. Yeah.

Scott Cowan [00:35:40]:

I claim that I saw you guys perform 7 nights in a row, And I’m not I can’t I cannot verify that,

Steve Pearson [00:35:49]:

but it seems highly possible. You didn’t see us 7 nights at the same place?

Scott Cowan [00:35:55]:

No. No. It wasn’t. Yeah.

Steve Pearson [00:35:56]:

We we would

Scott Cowan [00:35:58]:

Yeah. I wanna say that run was I think I probably saw you 3 nights at the hall of fame, and I wanna say what was the name of the club by the airport?

Steve Pearson [00:36:11]:

Was it the place?

Scott Cowan [00:36:13]:

Yeah. I don’t yeah.

Steve Pearson [00:36:15]:

I can’t recall.

Scott Cowan [00:36:16]:

Yeah. Anyway. So anyway, I so there was a period of time where I saw you guys perform a lot.

Steve Pearson [00:36:22]:

It’s possible. Man, I don’t know if we could have done 7 nights in a row. Yeah. I don’t know. We were I don’t know if my voice would have lasted 7 nights in a row.

Scott Cowan [00:36:37]:

Okay. So I like to ask musicians some questions. I’m gonna ask you these questions and honestly no answer is fine. Okay?

Steve Pearson [00:36:45]:

K.

Scott Cowan [00:36:46]:

I want you to think back when you’re playing in the heats.

Steve Pearson [00:36:48]:

K.

Scott Cowan [00:36:49]:

Where was your favorite venue to play as a musician?

Steve Pearson [00:37:01]:

That’s hard to answer. Okay. I would say if I had to choose one place. K, you get to go back and play 1 night

Scott Cowan [00:37:10]:

Right.

Steve Pearson [00:37:10]:

I would say Astor Park.

Scott Cowan [00:37:12]:

Astor Park.

Steve Pearson [00:37:12]:

They had a great stage and there was a sort of a horseshoe thing around, and I have good memories of that. I also have good memories of the hall of fame, couple of other places. K.

Scott Cowan [00:37:31]:

The flip side to that is, did you go out and see music being performed? Were you in the audience for shows in that era?

Steve Pearson [00:37:39]:

Sometimes. Sure.

Scott Cowan [00:37:39]:

So where was a great place for you to see bands being doing their thing?

Steve Pearson [00:37:46]:

Just off the top of my head, I remember going to see the cowboys at Gatsby’s out on the east side in in Bellevue there

Scott Cowan [00:37:57]:

Mhmm.

Steve Pearson [00:37:57]:

And having a great time. Okay. I loved the cowboys. They were not only my friends, I thought they were a great band. I remember that. I suppose I used to go down to to Pioneer Square and see guys k. Almost without knowing or caring who I was gonna see. Just roaming around.

Scott Cowan [00:38:23]:

Mhmm.

Steve Pearson [00:38:25]:

Obviously, I saw the pins because I ended up playing with those guys basically.

Scott Cowan [00:38:30]:

Right.

Steve Pearson [00:38:32]:

Good fun. All everything was fun in those days.

Scott Cowan [00:38:36]:

Right. Going back once again, was there any place in the Northwest that you wish you guys would have played? Was there a venue that you’re like, ah, I wish we would have played here. So you got to play,

Steve Pearson [00:38:50]:

we got to do everything we wanted to do.

Scott Cowan [00:38:52]:

Okay.

Steve Pearson [00:38:53]:

And then some,

Scott Cowan [00:38:54]:

and then some You told me a story, and I can’t remember what the was it the the Yes Festival? The the you guys the PA went out. Was

Steve Pearson [00:39:05]:

it Oh.

Scott Cowan [00:39:07]:

Was it the Yes

Steve Pearson [00:39:08]:

Festival? No. It was called the Oregon Jam. The Oregon Jam. Okay. That was in Eugene. At Austin Stadium then.

Scott Cowan [00:39:16]:

Yeah. Yeah. Okay.

Steve Pearson [00:39:17]:

And the show was heart and lover boy and blue oyster cult may have been one other band. And because we were with Albatross, with Hearts Management Company Right. We were allowed to open the show. Okay. Probably had no business being on that show. But, 79,000 people are some ridiculous number like that. Enormous a sea of people.

Scott Cowan [00:39:51]:

So what was that like going from, say, Astor Park to Austin Stadium?

Steve Pearson [00:39:57]:

Well, we were a little bit used to it because we’d done that. We had toured with Hart before and played in front of really large groups of people. What you would do, what I did, you just look out and focus on the first, you know, 20 rows of people and play to them. You couldn’t possibly project yourself out. Right.

Scott Cowan [00:40:23]:

And this was before we had AV screens that you’d be 27 feet tall and the people in the back in the cheap seats could see you like you were sitting across the table from me.

Steve Pearson [00:40:34]:

But what happened at that show was we started out our first song, and the guy on the side of the stage yelled out, vocal mics aren’t working. And so Don and I walked out to the edge of the stage and just played the intro bit over and over and over, daring people

Scott Cowan [00:41:01]:

Mhmm.

Steve Pearson [00:41:02]:

Not to like us.

Scott Cowan [00:41:03]:

Uh-huh.

Steve Pearson [00:41:04]:

And then the guy on the edge of the stage, thumbs up, we walked back and started singing. K. I think that was the greatest moment in the entire history of the band. Okay. We could have folded. We could have said, wait a minute, everybody. We didn’t. And Don and I didn’t talk about it.

Steve Pearson [00:41:28]:

We didn’t plan it out. We just both knew that this was a moment that we could either take advantage of or fold. Okay. And we didn’t.

Scott Cowan [00:41:43]:

Alright. So to kind of summarize my thoughts of what I think you think is that you had a hell of a good time in the heats. Sure.

Steve Pearson [00:41:54]:

Yeah. Of course.

Scott Cowan [00:41:56]:

And then as lots of bands do, just it went it’s it went away. Mhmm. K. I saw you a lot in the range hoods, and I have some I have to blame you for a couple of things in my life. Actually, that’s I’m kidding when I say well, no. You’ll you’ll laugh in a minute. I hope.

Steve Pearson [00:42:15]:

I’m laughing all the way.

Scott Cowan [00:42:16]:

But I wanna know the first question. I have 2 2 questions I don’t know the answers to. How’d you come up with the name? And what was the inspiration for those guitars? Because I

Steve Pearson [00:42:28]:

they’re they’re Gibson Super 4 100.

Scott Cowan [00:42:31]:

Super 4 100.

Steve Pearson [00:42:33]:

I can answer both those questions. The name came from the heats were playing in LA. K. Wayne Clack and I went out to see some band. We drove to the address and out on the reader board it said Range Hoods. And we thought that’s a pretty clever name for a band. We we got the joke. Mhmm.

Steve Pearson [00:43:01]:

And, it turned out that the venue was across the street and that was an appliance store k. They’re selling range hoods. So Wayne and I decided that we would have, what do you call it, an alternate project. We were gonna do a country western band and and sing Hank Williams and Merle Haggard songs as a sort of a sideline Okay. Project to the heats. That never happened.

Scott Cowan [00:43:32]:

Okay.

Steve Pearson [00:43:33]:

And then Pat Hewitt and I got together to form this band, and I suggested that name. Pat Hewitt asked 10 of his friends if they liked that name, and they all said they hated it. Okay. So we chose it.

Scott Cowan [00:43:50]:

So you chose it. Uh-huh.

Steve Pearson [00:43:52]:

So you did some Basically the entire story.

Scott Cowan [00:43:56]:

So you did some research and Yeah. And and went with what you wanted.

Steve Pearson [00:44:00]:

Well, I said if they unanimously hate it, there must be something there that’s memorable

Scott Cowan [00:44:07]:

Yeah.

Steve Pearson [00:44:07]:

About it. Well, I mean So I

Scott Cowan [00:44:10]:

didn’t know the answer. I didn’t know that story and, you know, and I, you know

Steve Pearson [00:44:15]:

Well, the whole idea of, cowboy outlaw. Okay. Range hoods.

Scott Cowan [00:44:20]:

Mhmm. That

Steve Pearson [00:44:21]:

Right. That kinda makes sense in a bizarre sort of a way.

Scott Cowan [00:44:25]:

It does. And I’m gonna sit here and admit to you that I didn’t ever put range and hoods together like you just nonverbally did. And now I now I now I get it. I always thought it was this the

Steve Pearson [00:44:38]:

Well, that’s what it is. But but It’s a joke.

Scott Cowan [00:44:41]:

But but the way you just described it, range, hoods. Mhmm. Now now it went the light bulb kinda flickered.

Steve Pearson [00:44:48]:

Okay. And, see, I immediately got that joke.

Scott Cowan [00:44:51]:

See, and I took me 40 years to I’m a little slow on the uptake. Okay. What was the did you have a super 400?

Steve Pearson [00:44:59]:

No. I was working with Pat, and he had this guitar. We had 2 of them, but one in particular that I absolutely loved. Every time I played it, it was as though that guitar spoke to me.

Scott Cowan [00:45:17]:

Mhmm.

Steve Pearson [00:45:18]:

And so I decided to get one, and then it became part of our shtick. And, it was a good visual image.

Scott Cowan [00:45:27]:

Mhmm.

Steve Pearson [00:45:30]:

Though I don’t think it really changed our sound, what we would have sounded like.

Scott Cowan [00:45:36]:

Oh, they were they were iconic looking, though. They were

Steve Pearson [00:45:39]:

It was a it was a visual image that no one had ever taken advantage of. And it sort of hearkened back to the rockabilly days

Scott Cowan [00:45:48]:

Mhmm.

Steve Pearson [00:45:48]:

To the Elvis days, all that stuff. And at that point in time, the movement was glam rock.

Scott Cowan [00:46:00]:

Mhmm.

Steve Pearson [00:46:00]:

Right? Middle eighties, the the new glam metal bands were ruling the earth.

Scott Cowan [00:46:08]:

Mhmm.

Steve Pearson [00:46:09]:

What could be more what could be further from that

Scott Cowan [00:46:12]:

Right.

Steve Pearson [00:46:13]:

Than guys going back playing rockabilly guitars? And, of course, as far as we could get from what was happening at the time Right. Seemed like the right, Much like the heat’s work. Right. These were almost a reaction to a movement

Scott Cowan [00:46:30]:

Mhmm.

Steve Pearson [00:46:30]:

Rather than a movement. Same with the range hoods. We were a reaction to okay. You’re all doing this. We’ll do that.

Scott Cowan [00:46:40]:

Right. I remember pat always looked like he was that the guitar was too big for him because he’s not a very big guy and you know, and you’re, you’re taller, much taller than pat. And, I was, I just, the way pat would kind of the way he’d kind of like throw it up a little bit. Like he was like readjusting it. Cause it was heavy and, you know, it just, the perception looked like he was always that he had to work that guitar a lot, to, but that band was a lot of fun. The reason I’m going to blame you is I don’t know if I’ve ever told you all of the story, but you guys were playing at Waldo’s 1 night,

Steve Pearson [00:47:22]:

Kirkland. Mhmm.

Scott Cowan [00:47:23]:

My roommate, Ken Cadieux, and I were got there early, and we were you remember how Waldo’s had that one area? It was like a step up.

Steve Pearson [00:47:30]:

Yeah.

Scott Cowan [00:47:30]:

We were up there drinking beer, and, Mike Wansley’s band, Boys Will Be Boys, was gonna open for you. And Joe Kingston walks in with a blonde on his arm. And my statement was, if she has a sister, I’m gonna marry her.

Steve Pearson [00:47:47]:

How that can be our fault is unimaginable.

Scott Cowan [00:47:50]:

No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No.

Scott Cowan [00:47:51]:

I I can tie you to it. First off, careful what you say. But then a few weeks later, you guys were playing somewhere in Ballard, the owl what was the it was a room I had not gone to before, but you guys were playing it. And I walked in, and you said, hi, And you were talking to this woman and this guy, and you introduced me to them, and then you went off. Well, that woman became my first wife, who was the blonde sister. Mhmm. And they don’t look anything alike at all. But you so you you I’m blaming no.

Scott Cowan [00:48:34]:

But the there’s this there’s this connection. Right? Okay. So anyway, and and my first wife loved the Range Hoods. She absolutely would go see you guys all the time. And that was before she and I met and then I’d never run into her before ever. It was so funny how, just the way the world works, But I always liked that kind of alternate you had it had a harder edge than the heats. It it had more of a country

Steve Pearson [00:49:10]:

well, a

Scott Cowan [00:49:10]:

lot more, but kind of a alt country for the lack of a better way.

Steve Pearson [00:49:17]:

Yeah. What I guess people now call roots rock, I guess.

Scott Cowan [00:49:22]:

Yeah. And and that band was that band was a lot of fun. And did you enjoy that that band?

Steve Pearson [00:49:30]:

Of course, I did. But did you

Scott Cowan [00:49:34]:

so the same

Steve Pearson [00:49:34]:

question applies. I know the question you’re going to ask, and it’s like saying which of your children you like best. Yeah. I like them both.

Scott Cowan [00:49:43]:

Yeah. Yeah. That’s a lie. Because ask me about my kids on 2nd. I’m scared.

Steve Pearson [00:49:48]:

There were aspects about one of the things that I didn’t like about the heats was that it became kind of big business. Okay. And we would have to have meetings to decide when we were gonna have our next meeting.

Scott Cowan [00:50:04]:

Okay.

Steve Pearson [00:50:05]:

I didn’t like that.

Scott Cowan [00:50:07]:

Okay.

Steve Pearson [00:50:08]:

The Range Hoods would play. We’d get paid and we sit down, like, at a card table. This and when you’d run out of money, the last guy would get a little bit less than the the other guys. It was very a term I hate. It was very organic.

Scott Cowan [00:50:27]:

Okay.

Steve Pearson [00:50:28]:

The heats were more of a big business thing

Scott Cowan [00:50:33]:

Okay.

Steve Pearson [00:50:35]:

Which I didn’t care for that.

Scott Cowan [00:50:37]:

Okay.

Steve Pearson [00:50:38]:

And I don’t think I offend anyone by saying that. And if I do, you’re probably one of the people I didn’t like. So too bad.

Scott Cowan [00:50:47]:

Yeah. Because the the range hoods had yeah, I, more of a I don’t wanna say organic, but more of a unstructured Mhmm. Feel to it. You go to a show and

Steve Pearson [00:51:03]:

Yeah. You didn’t know what would happen.

Scott Cowan [00:51:05]:

Right. And and it was fun, but

Steve Pearson [00:51:08]:

Yeah. Different. And I like both those things. Mhmm. I would never deny that I think the Heat was the greatest thing I ever did.

Scott Cowan [00:51:25]:

Okay.

Steve Pearson [00:51:26]:

Okay? That my first love. My first my first, introduction to what original music could be.

Scott Cowan [00:51:37]:

Mhmm.

Steve Pearson [00:51:38]:

On the other hand, the Range Hoods was growing up and doing it in an even more wild, unstructured way, and I loved that too. K. Only thing that I didn’t like about the Range Hood is I didn’t like being the main guy. I much prefer sharing that job.

Scott Cowan [00:52:04]:

Okay.

Steve Pearson [00:52:05]:

I get tired of listening to myself sometimes.

Scott Cowan [00:52:10]:

K.

Steve Pearson [00:52:10]:

And so, the Range Hoods was mainly me, mainly my presentation, and the heats was so great because there’s Dawn over there. Dawn’s great. And I’m not saying Pat wasn’t great, but Pat wasn’t sharing the, Pat was the lead guitar player. With Don, I had a, a dual projection thing, which I very much like.

Scott Cowan [00:52:46]:

Right. Right. Okay. How did you we we know how the heats got started, but how did the how did you get the original lineup for the Range Hoods? How’d that come about?

Steve Pearson [00:52:59]:

Pat and I had been writing songs together for a while, even during the heats.

Scott Cowan [00:53:05]:

Mhmm.

Steve Pearson [00:53:09]:

And when the heats broke up, I I didn’t know what to do. I was for a little while there, I was completely lost.

Scott Cowan [00:53:19]:

Mhmm.

Steve Pearson [00:53:20]:

And then Pat’s there. Pat’s there to help give me some moral support. Let’s write some songs. Let’s let’s see what you and I can do. And it became obvious very quickly that we wrote songs together and we were pushing something. We had something to say, I guess. And then we started searching around for guys to play with.

Scott Cowan [00:53:53]:

Mhmm.

Steve Pearson [00:53:54]:

And, went through a few different guys, Everyone who did a good job, some guys got tired of doing it. The Range Hoods was really an oddball band with you had to either be on the team or you could it didn’t work.

Scott Cowan [00:54:18]:

Mhmm. Mhmm.

Steve Pearson [00:54:20]:

And then it it just sort of moved along and it took a while. My, my I won’t say leverage. I didn’t have a whole lot of pull after the heats. I I thought that I would have more

Scott Cowan [00:54:42]:

Mhmm.

Steve Pearson [00:54:42]:

But I didn’t.

Scott Cowan [00:54:43]:

K.

Steve Pearson [00:54:44]:

And so we had to go out and beat the bushes just like the heats did. And then, I guess we filled a void. There’s there’s always a void somewhere. There there’s someone who wants something they’re not getting.

Scott Cowan [00:55:05]:

Mhmm.

Steve Pearson [00:55:09]:

And and I think the range would supply that much like the East did. Same thing. Here here’s a void. Here’s a vacuum. Bunch of guys wanna be, wanna be outlaws. Go see the range hoods.

Scott Cowan [00:55:27]:

Right.

Steve Pearson [00:55:29]:

Bunch of girls are are are tired of their scene. Let’s go out and see their angels or that’s a weird one. Let’s go do that. Right. That’s something different.

Scott Cowan [00:55:41]:

Right.

Steve Pearson [00:55:44]:

And I I I guess it’s a lot of friendship. People that liked us before, liked me before, whatever, they would come out. Well, what what’s he doing now?

Scott Cowan [00:55:53]:

Right. Right. You guys were a Miller beer band with the Heats, not with

Steve Pearson [00:55:59]:

Yeah. The Rangers.

Scott Cowan [00:56:01]:

How’d that come about? Because I remember you guys and the Bodeans. Was it the Bodeans?

Steve Pearson [00:56:07]:

I think they were a different time.

Scott Cowan [00:56:09]:

Okay. Well, somehow I remember

Steve Pearson [00:56:10]:

at the same time, but they may have been one of those fans.

Scott Cowan [00:56:13]:

How’d you get the Miller?

Steve Pearson [00:56:16]:

Well, we were working with, a guy named Robert Bennett

Scott Cowan [00:56:23]:

Mhmm.

Steve Pearson [00:56:24]:

Who is a Seattle force of nature, who has since passed away much to the detriment of the world. Robert financed our, our record. He helped to do that, and he was sort of our manager. I won’t say he was just because that would blame him for a bunch of things that he didn’t didn’t do.

Miller Beer was reaching out to different places, and they came to Seattle and said we’re looking for sort of a, well, a band that we can we can pull in that would be rootsy, iconic, whatever. And everyone told them, well, there’s really only one band that you would want. So they approached Robert Bennett, and he he said to us, do you wanna do this? No. We don’t wanna do this.

Steve Pearson [00:57:37]:

This is stupid. Come on, you guys. This is gonna be good for you. We’ll sell more records. You’ll have more opportunities to play, and we reluctantly went along with that. And it turned out to be a fairly nice thing, a fairly stupid thing to do to try and convince the world that a beer company has anything to do with a rock and roll band. Right?

That the 2 have nothing to do with each other. It was basically a marketing thing for Miller Beer to say, we’re so into this culture that we’re sponsoring these bands.

Scott Cowan [00:58:30]:

Right.

Steve Pearson [00:58:34]:

I don’t even drink beer. I I couldn’t care less about that. I will say that they did what they said they were gonna do and were nice to us, and I have no complaints k. About them. I don’t know what they were trying to accomplish or if they did accomplish that. They helped us a little bit. They got us into some places that we would not have been. They had a a drawing, a contest to, go to spring break in Florida.

Steve Pearson [00:59:12]:

And unfortunately for them, we won. We were probably their least favorite band. Lots of funny things happened. You know?

Scott Cowan [00:59:24]:

Oh my gosh. Alright.

Steve Pearson [00:59:28]:

There are stories and stories and stories about crazy things that happened to us. Everything from Pat Hewitt breaking the neck on his guitar in New York to the Range Woods flying bleary eyed down to Florida, playing a show down there, having an absolute ball. It just went on and on and on.

Scott Cowan [00:59:54]:

Okay.

Steve Pearson [00:59:56]:

And every part of it was good.

Scott Cowan [00:59:58]:

Alright. So as a as a musician in the Range Hoods, where did you like to play? Because you guys played slight I don’t ever remember seeing the heats like at Waldo’s. So I think

Steve Pearson [01:00:08]:

Oh, no. We played at Waldo’s. Did you? We played at everybody played everywhere.

Scott Cowan [01:00:13]:

Okay. Did you like playing the ranch in Ellensburg? Yeah. So what was it about the ranch that as a as a musician you liked?

Steve Pearson [01:00:23]:

That’s a hard question. I guess I liked the fact that it seemed so rustic. Okay. And so, you could imagine it being 40 years ago. You could imagine it being the 19 forties and and you playing at the ranch. And the experience would have been pretty similar.

Scott Cowan [01:00:45]:

Pretty similar.

Steve Pearson [01:00:48]:

I liked that I’m sort of, romantic about a past that I wasn’t part of. Sure.

Scott Cowan [01:00:56]:

Mhmm.

Steve Pearson [01:00:56]:

Sure.

Scott Cowan [01:00:57]:

Yeah. No. The Ranch was, I mean, being being a central student, you know, having that off campus was always a there was a that was a very fun place.

Steve Pearson [01:01:09]:

Mhmm. It

Scott Cowan [01:01:09]:

was a very, very fun place. But you guys were you guys did the heats and and the Range Hoods did pretty well in Yakima too. Right?

Steve Pearson [01:01:16]:

Mhmm. I don’t

Scott Cowan [01:01:17]:

think I ever saw either band in Yakima. Where were you guys playing in Yakima? Do you remember?

Steve Pearson [01:01:25]:

We it was a Chinese restaurant. Okay. Great big place. And then we we played a couple of other places too, but the main place as I recall, the Golden Palace or whatever. Right, right. You know, one of those type places. That’s the main thing I remember. And I was always surprised at how we were popular in more rural areas.

Scott Cowan [01:01:58]:

Mhmm.

Steve Pearson [01:02:00]:

I thought that they would wanna hear country bands. And yet the the Heat would go there and people liked us and they would come out. It was we always played there on a Sunday night.

Scott Cowan [01:02:18]:

Mhmm.

Steve Pearson [01:02:18]:

It was an event.

Scott Cowan [01:02:20]:

Right.

Steve Pearson [01:02:22]:

And the the people pretty much everywhere we went, people were enthusiastic and kind to us. And, I don’t know I don’t know what more you could ask for.

Scott Cowan [01:02:40]:

Did the Heats do Sun Valley much or was that just the Range Hoods?

Steve Pearson [01:02:44]:

Heats never did.

Scott Cowan [01:02:45]:

Okay. So it’s

Steve Pearson [01:02:46]:

just the Range Hoods.

Scott Cowan [01:02:47]:

And were were you a skier? Yeah. So you kind of a great place

Steve Pearson [01:02:52]:

to go. A very good skier.

Scott Cowan [01:02:53]:

Well, no. It doesn’t matter. But

Steve Pearson [01:02:55]:

what we would do in Sun Valley, and this was great, you’d get there, set up your stuff, play till 1:30 in the morning, go back and crash, get up at 7 o’clock in the morning, ski all day, crash, go play, crash. It was wonderful.

Scott Cowan [01:03:18]:

Yeah. Like a vacation. A working vacation if you will. Yeah. Yeah.

Steve Pearson [01:03:21]:

Okay. And even in the summertime, it was wonderful. Sun Valley was just a great place to play.

Scott Cowan [01:03:29]:

Did you guys have much success in Spokane? Like, or Coeur d’Alene?

Steve Pearson [01:03:33]:

Did you guys Off and on.

Scott Cowan [01:03:35]:

Off and on? Okay.

Steve Pearson [01:03:36]:

Off and on. I don’t think we had as much success in Spokane as we did in Ellensburg, Yakima, Jack sort of thing.

Scott Cowan [01:03:51]:

Did you guys ever play did you do much in Tri Cities?

Steve Pearson [01:03:55]:

No. Hardly ever played Tri Cities, if ever.

Scott Cowan [01:03:58]:

Yeah. Okay.

Steve Pearson [01:04:00]:

I don’t know why. Just that’s how it worked out.

Scott Cowan [01:04:03]:

Well, yeah. I don’t know. So then if we kind of fast forward to say the last, let’s say, 10 years, you had Steve Pearson’s British racing green. You’ve done. How many solo albums have you released? 33.

Steve Pearson [01:04:22]:

Yeah.

Scott Cowan [01:04:22]:

Okay. And you did British racing green and that was, you brought loose set in your wife to sing and, John Newton played drums for you. And

Steve Pearson [01:04:33]:

Well, there were 2 versions of that band.

Scott Cowan [01:04:35]:

Okay. So I know I only know

Steve Pearson [01:04:37]:

The first version was with Tim Moore playing bass and Tony Contrado playing drums.

Scott Cowan [01:04:44]:

Okay.

Steve Pearson [01:04:45]:

And then that sort of dissipated, and then there was a second version with John Newton and Frank.

Scott Cowan [01:04:55]:

And Frank. Yeah. K. And that was my granddaughter still wears her British racing green t shirt that John gave her in the show, to sleep in at night. So that’s, you know, it’s you’re still being repped in Austria, just so you know.

Steve Pearson [01:05:11]:

I’m happy for that.

Scott Cowan [01:05:13]:

And and then Edie and I went over and we saw you play at Suncadia.

Steve Pearson [01:05:24]:

K.

Scott Cowan [01:05:24]:

So you get, you get credit or blame here for this too. And we we had at that time, we were kind of we, me, mostly being me, tired of the west side. I wanted to I wanted to change things up. I was tired of the commute. I was tired of what I thought was the gray all the time. Sorry, folks, but that’s how I feel. And we’ve gone and we’ve been thinking about where to go. And Chelan had popped up because, Edie’s sister had a home up there in the past.

Scott Cowan [01:05:57]:

And so they had fond memories of that. Well, anyway, we go see you, a play at Suncadia and Edie started talking to some people there and they said, oh no, no, you need to go to Wenatchee, you know? And I, I somehow I think we might have asked you in Lisette and, you know, cause you guys were in the Cashmere, the Peshastin area and we came over.

And my first recollection of Wenatchee is I think I was here once when I was in college for apple blossom, like, okay. And then I’m driving down Wenatchee Avenue and I see a place called Wally’s House of Booze and I go, that’s a cool name. I like this place. I mean, it was just that sign just cracked me up. And I’ve been in Wally’s House of Booze twice in 7 years. And we ended up buying a house here.

Scott Cowan [01:06:40]:

We ended up moving over here, moving my mom and dad with us. It’s been a lovely place to live. And you and Lucette, we would get together once once a month or so and go have Chinese food with some of your friends and all this.

Steve Pearson [01:06:49]:

That was a great tradition

Scott Cowan [01:06:50]:

that

Steve Pearson [01:06:51]:

we used to have.

Scott Cowan [01:06:51]:

And so we had, you know, we’ve had this fun, and then you guys moved away. And anyway. But that’s the reason for really the the credit for us being here was that somebody, whether it be you, Lisette, or one of your friends at Suncadia, put the bug in our ear to go look at Wenatchee. I don’t know that we would’ve I was probably leaning towards I wanted Ellensburg.

Steve Pearson [01:07:14]:

Mhmm.

Scott Cowan [01:07:15]:

But we ended and and Edie didn’t want Ellensburg because it was too windy, and you guys lied to her and said it’s not windy here. Because, man, I think it’s windy here. It boy. It would come through this canyon. Oh, anyway, I’m kidding. But we moved here, and, you know, we would see your band play around. Mhmm. And then you you and Lucette, Moved away.

Scott Cowan [01:07:39]:

Moved away. And seemingly out of nowhere, you the heats decided to do a a reunion last summer in in 23. And we crashed a 50th High School reunion party that you the Heat’s playing at. It looks like you were having a a really good time, and we don’t know what’s gonna happen. You know? You guys played you guys played this high school reunion party, and then you played at the Central Tavern, which I did not go to. By all accounts, much fun was had by all in attendance.

Steve Pearson [01:08:28]:

Yeah. That that’s what started off this whole thing. Yeah. Ken called me last spring, spring of 2023. He and Keith graduated in 70 3.

Scott Cowan [01:08:48]:

I

Steve Pearson [01:08:48]:

was the year before.

Scott Cowan [01:08:49]:

Okay.

Steve Pearson [01:08:52]:

He said, Will you come up and play for this? And I said, Sure, you’re my pal, I do crazy stuff all the time. I’ll go up and play a class reunion for a class that I wasn’t in just because my buddy asked me to. Right. And so as soon as my friends heard that I was doing that, well, then here’s another opportunity. Will you sit in with this band and play this high school reunion over here? Will you do this thing over here? Another friend said, will you play a a solo songwriter night up in Mukilteo.

Scott Cowan [01:09:42]:

Okay.

Steve Pearson [01:09:43]:

Sure. Why not? An adventure.

Scott Cowan [01:09:46]:

Right.

Steve Pearson [01:09:48]:

And then I said, well, since we’re we’re in town, we have to practice and play this show. Why don’t we do something in Seattle? And that’s how the central came about. The high school reunion was pretty lackluster as far as people responding to the band. They didn’t really care. They never really did. We were we were their boys which means they don’t Right. How can how can you be fans of kids that you went to grade school with? Sure.

Scott Cowan [01:10:20]:

Okay.

Steve Pearson [01:10:21]:

So the central was so great and so heartwarming for lack of a better word. I don’t know why I always use words and terms that I don’t like but

Scott Cowan [01:10:36]:

That’s okay.

Steve Pearson [01:10:36]:

There you go. Heartwarming. Heartwarming. And Ken, Keith, well, shall we do this again? And my response was, Yeah, okay. 2 things. 1, we do a new record.

Scott Cowan [01:10:56]:

Okay.

Steve Pearson [01:10:57]:

I don’t want to be a nostalgia act. Alright. I don’t want to go, oh, look, we’re trying to relive 45 years ago all the time. I want I have new songs. And the other thing I said, I don’t want to play for gas money next time.

Scott Cowan [01:11:18]:

Okay.

Steve Pearson [01:11:18]:

I want to actually get paid. Okay. Okay, let’s do that. And then Keith said, I want to go back to playing bass.

Scott Cowan [01:11:28]:

Right, because he was playing guitar and

Steve Pearson [01:11:29]:

this was just guitar. And do you know a guitar player?

Scott Cowan [01:11:35]:

Mhmm.

Steve Pearson [01:11:35]:

Oh, it just so happens I do know a guitar player, John Memolo, who I’ve been writing songs with for 15 years. Okay. Who I think is one of the the most fabulous musicians I’ve ever known. Alright. As far apart from being a really cool guy and a very positive force. And so, we hired John. Ken and Keith had never even met him.

Scott Cowan [01:12:03]:

Okay.

Steve Pearson [01:12:03]:

And they just said okay.

Scott Cowan [01:12:05]:

Okay.

Steve Pearson [01:12:06]:

And then we played a a party out at Mark Nafisi’s house. We told John learn these 5 songs. He was great. Of course, he’s great. He’s always great. And that was the band. And then this last spring, in April, we recorded 10 songs. 5 of John’s, 5 of mine, which turns into Memolo Pearson because we just fling our songs together.

Steve Pearson [01:12:38]:

And we, with the exception of the old Heat songs, we helped each other bring those songs to life. So they you know, one guy did most of it, but he and I brought them to life.

Scott Cowan [01:12:53]:

Okay.

Steve Pearson [01:12:55]:

And the record still isn’t out.

Scott Cowan [01:12:58]:

Do you know does the record have a title? Yeah. The Heats. The Heats.

Steve Pearson [01:13:03]:

Oh, we we kicked around a dozen different names and every single one, whoever suggested it got laughed at by the other 3.

Scott Cowan [01:13:12]:

Give me some examples.

Steve Pearson [01:13:18]:

I can only think of one. My idea was new tricks. New tricks. From that old expression, you can’t teach an old dog new tricks.

Scott Cowan [01:13:26]:

Right.

Steve Pearson [01:13:27]:

Other guys thumbs down all the way around.

Scott Cowan [01:13:29]:

Okay.

Steve Pearson [01:13:30]:

I think John Memolo came up with HEATs 3. HEETS

Scott Cowan [01:13:36]:

3. Okay.

Steve Pearson [01:13:37]:

Which nobody liked.

Scott Cowan [01:13:41]:

Okay.

Steve Pearson [01:13:42]:

I I was ambivalent. I’m ambivalent about most Okay. Most of those sort of things. And so we just said, let’s call it the heats and, put our pictures on the back, and we came up with a cover design, and, it’s fine with me. Okay. I’m I’m not a graphic artist. I’m not really an artist of any shape or form. So, yeah, it’s fine with me.

Scott Cowan [01:14:11]:

Alright. And so as the time we’re sitting down recording this, the album is in production somewhere

Steve Pearson [01:14:17]:

and it’s at the pressing plant. It’s been mastered. It’s been gone through.

Scott Cowan [01:14:24]:

So it’ll be available.

Steve Pearson [01:14:25]:

Hopefully within the next few weeks soon.

Scott Cowan [01:14:28]:

We’re making air quotes around soon. Okay. And is is it now that’s on vinyl. You’re actually doing

Steve Pearson [01:14:34]:

We’re doing vinyl and CDs and downloads.

Scott Cowan [01:14:37]:

Vinyl CD and downloads. Okay. Great.

Steve Pearson [01:14:40]:

I don’t know what download means, but I’m quite sure that it’s a viable way of

Scott Cowan [01:14:46]:

It’s a viable thing. See, here’s the thing. I like CDs, but nobody has CD players anymore. So it’s like most cars don’t include them anymore.

Steve Pearson [01:14:53]:

I love CDs. Yeah. They’re great. You can toss them in your glove box and you pull it out. Yep. There. Listen to my favorite Are

Scott Cowan [01:15:00]:

you still driving a Honda Pilot? Mhmm. See, I that’s I that’s where I listen

Steve Pearson [01:15:03]:

to my CDs. From you.

Scott Cowan [01:15:04]:

Yeah. I listen to my CDs and my Honda Pilot. Okay. Alright. So we got a new album coming out. We’re recording this on a Tuesday. You guys are doing 4 shows up here

Steve Pearson [01:15:17]:

with one of them already.

Scott Cowan [01:15:18]:

Yeah. And this will come out after that, but so there’ll be 4 shows. So as we’re recording this, you’ve you’ve done your first show.

Steve Pearson [01:15:24]:

Mhmm.

Scott Cowan [01:15:25]:

And I asked you before I hit record, I’ll just ask you again. It went to your you’re happy.

Steve Pearson [01:15:31]:

Yeah. Yeah. It was it was everything I hoped for in that it was as fun as it could be, warts and all.

Scott Cowan [01:15:44]:

Okay.

Steve Pearson [01:15:45]:

Personally, I like the warts.

Scott Cowan [01:15:48]:

Okay.

Steve Pearson [01:15:48]:

I like those moments where you go, aren’t we supposed to end this song now? Yeah. Okay. Okay. I enjoy the lack of perfection. I I know that’s an odd thing to say because you pursue perfection as best you can and then when it doesn’t happen I smile about that and enjoy it.

Scott Cowan [01:16:14]:

Well, there’s something to be said about, you know, things that are so polished and slick that they’re lacking feeling. Yeah. And I so when you have, in my my opinion, when you have a little bit of, you know, roughness, a little that we can file off if you will, but that it’s it’s more authentic sounding. Alright.

Steve Pearson [01:16:34]:

Oh, we’re as authentic as can be.

Scott Cowan [01:16:39]:

So when you’re done after Remlingers, you’re heading back to Arizona.

Steve Pearson [01:16:46]:

Yeah.

Scott Cowan [01:16:49]:

Does it seem likely to you that this will be just a chapter in an ongoing saga?

Steve Pearson [01:16:57]:

I don’t know. I think a lot of it has to do with how our new record is received.

Scott Cowan [01:17:03]:

K.

Steve Pearson [01:17:06]:

If people like it and they say this is this is music that that we enjoy, this fills a place for

Scott Cowan [01:17:15]:

us. K.

Steve Pearson [01:17:17]:

Then there will be more. Pretty sure.

Scott Cowan [01:17:20]:

K.

Steve Pearson [01:17:21]:

If people say, just rehashing the old heat stuff, I’ve heard it. This isn’t as good as the first record. It goes to the back of the pile, then, I wouldn’t see any reason to do it again. Okay. Does that make sense?

Scott Cowan [01:17:39]:

It does make sense. Now what you’ve told me though before is when you and I talked on the phone, you said you’re very happy with the way the songs came together. You’re you’re very proud of the work that you guys have done. Yeah.

Steve Pearson [01:17:52]:

I like it a lot.

Scott Cowan [01:17:53]:

Okay.

Steve Pearson [01:17:56]:

Partially because I think the songs are good. But we were forced to do it very quickly

Scott Cowan [01:18:05]:

Okay.

Steve Pearson [01:18:06]:

Which fit right in with what I wanted to do. I wanted a rough, no no frills, no nothing. This is what the band sounds like. You caught us on a good day.

Scott Cowan [01:18:22]:

Okay.

Steve Pearson [01:18:23]:

And that’s I mean, we did everything very quickly. K. 4 days. Wow.

Scott Cowan [01:18:30]:

Okay. That is very quick.

Steve Pearson [01:18:31]:

2, 10 songs that we had never played as a group together before except 2 days of rehearsals.

Scott Cowan [01:18:39]:

Okay. That is very quick.

Steve Pearson [01:18:41]:

Yeah. Alright.

Scott Cowan [01:18:43]:

So you’ve been up you’ve been up here for about a week or so ish. You guys been practicing? Yeah. Is that been fun?

Steve Pearson [01:18:53]:

It’s not particularly. Okay.

Scott Cowan [01:18:55]:

So, so now

Steve Pearson [01:18:59]:

let me rephrase that. I love hanging out with my friends

Scott Cowan [01:19:04]:

Uh-huh.

Steve Pearson [01:19:05]:

And playing rock and roll with my friends. It’s not fun to say, alright. Let’s do the intro like this. Oh, no. Come in a little bit differently. Do that one little thing. That’s kinda tedious.

Scott Cowan [01:19:22]:

K.

Steve Pearson [01:19:23]:

But in order to be able to play and go out and perform, you have to do that.

Scott Cowan [01:19:29]:

So where have you guys been practicing at?

Steve Pearson [01:19:31]:

At Keith’s Basement.

Scott Cowan [01:19:32]:

Keith’s Basement. Mhmm. K. Sounds like a really acoustically

Steve Pearson [01:19:40]:

It’s, it’s pretty loud in there. I bet. It’s a small enclosed place, and you’re 6 feet from the drums.

Scott Cowan [01:19:48]:

Oh, okay.

Steve Pearson [01:19:48]:

Which is the only instrument that you can’t turn down. Right.

Scott Cowan [01:19:52]:

Right. Okay. Alright. Well, as we’re going to wrap this up first off again, thank you for taking the time to sit down with me.

Steve Pearson [01:20:01]:

So,

Scott Cowan [01:20:02]:

so part of the shtick on the show is I always ask my guests some questions, so I got to subject you to the same rule, Steve.

Steve Pearson [01:20:07]:

Sure.

Scott Cowan [01:20:08]:

Question number 1, I’m a coffee drinker. You are too. You said you knew the absolute best place to get coffee on the west side of Washington state. So in Steve Pearson’s opinion, what is where is that place?

Steve Pearson [01:20:23]:

Well, it’s several, but the place that I go is the Diva in Kenmore.

Scott Cowan [01:20:28]:

You like the Diva in Kenmore? Yeah. Okay.

Steve Pearson [01:20:31]:

There’s one on 85th. There’s another one down in Yep. Whatever.

Scott Cowan [01:20:36]:

Super solid. What do you what’s your what’s your go to coffee drink?

Steve Pearson [01:20:41]:

Double tall latte with whole milk.

Scott Cowan [01:20:43]:

Double tall with whole milk? Mhmm. I wouldn’t have guessed that.

Steve Pearson [01:20:47]:

You wouldn’t? No. I wasn’t. What do you think?

Scott Cowan [01:20:50]:

I would have thought you were you’re an oat milk guy. Just kidding. Alright. No, Diva’s awesome. Okay. So also you I’m gonna ask him to put you on the spot. Well, actually, I’m gonna explain why I’m not asking you the second question. Second question is where’s a great place to get lunch? And you, you said you don’t eat lunch out all that often.

Scott Cowan [01:21:08]:

Ever. Okay. So two things to go. Right? Number 1 is what didn’t we talk about that we should have talked about? Is there anything that we missed?

Steve Pearson [01:21:17]:

No. I don’t think so. I think I said everything I would care to say.

Scott Cowan [01:21:25]:

Okay.

Steve Pearson [01:21:28]:

Other than I’m thankful for the opportunities that I’ve gotten as a result of all this. I, if not for that lucky time at the Edmunds Theatre with Eric Lacitis, I wouldn’t be sitting across from you. I wouldn’t be married to my wife. Virtually every good thing that’s ever happened to me in my life has been a result of that night at the Edmonds Theatre Okay. And the newspaper article that came out later that week.

Scott Cowan [01:22:01]:

Okay. Actually I lied. I just thought of a question I want to ask you. So through the years, I’ve seen you play the super 400. I’ve seen you play, I think a black telecaster with a white pickup guard. You had kind of a bluish Stratocaster. Mhmm. You played a, it’s not a Telecaster.

Scott Cowan [01:22:23]:

It was the it’s John Newton had that guitar.

Steve Pearson [01:22:27]:

It’s an Esquire or

Scott Cowan [01:22:29]:

Shazoo. Those are the those are the guitars and and various acoustics, and those are the guitars I think of when I think of Steve Pearson playing guitar.

Steve Pearson [01:22:36]:

Do you

Scott Cowan [01:22:36]:

have a favorite guitar? Because you mentioned that that Pat’s kind of just

Steve Pearson [01:22:43]:

super 400.

Scott Cowan [01:22:44]:

Yeah. That Pat’s

Steve Pearson [01:22:44]:

specific Which I still own.

Scott Cowan [01:22:46]:

You still own.

Steve Pearson [01:22:47]:

Yeah. Well, I’ll tell you a funny story.

Scott Cowan [01:22:52]:

Okay.

Steve Pearson [01:22:54]:

Year and a half ago, maybe 2 years ago, John knows that I loved his 52 Esquire. Yeah. Right? It just it spoke to me. Yeah. But it was a multi $1,000 guitar. I wasn’t gonna own it. Mhmm. There’s no way that I could explain to my wife that I’m spending mucho $1,000 to

Scott Cowan [01:23:19]:

buy it, and

Steve Pearson [01:23:21]:

I already have several. Right. So John Newton called me, said, I want you to go up to Chico to look at this guitar. I’m I’m thinking about buying it. Would you put your amp in your car and drive up? It’s 750 miles from where I am.

Scott Cowan [01:23:44]:

Yeah. I was gonna say that’s a big ask of him. And

Steve Pearson [01:23:50]:

for whatever reason because I’m such a goofy guy, I said sure. I got my my car and I drove up to Chico, spent the night, got up the next morning and hauled my amp into this little shop and plugged in the guitar and I played through it a little while. It was great.

Scott Cowan [01:24:11]:

Mhmm.

Steve Pearson [01:24:12]:

I called John on the phone and said, John, buy this guitar. It does everything you’d ever want it to do. He said, I just did. It’s yours. So the whole thing was an elaborate scheme for John Newton to do something really, really generous and wonderful for

Scott Cowan [01:24:36]:

me. Mhmm.

Steve Pearson [01:24:37]:

I’ve loved that guitar. If I could have no others

Scott Cowan [01:24:42]:

Mhmm.

Steve Pearson [01:24:42]:

It would be that guitar.

Scott Cowan [01:24:44]:

Alright.

Steve Pearson [01:24:45]:

That he bought me, which it’s a, it’s not a it’s a 2,006 repro of a 52 Telecaster.

Scott Cowan [01:24:55]:

Right.

Steve Pearson [01:24:56]:

And it’s actually better than a real 52 Telecaster. Why?

Scott Cowan [01:25:01]:

Why is it better? More modern electronics?

Steve Pearson [01:25:04]:

No. No. All that stuff is original. But they were able to set the necks and somehow it plays a little bit smoother. Okay. The original guitars have a little idiosyncrasies that make them a little bit harder to play. This guitar plays like your favorite pair of Levi’s. Just Just is, okay.

Steve Pearson [01:25:31]:

Just is. And it it rings out even when it’s not plugged in. It’s just a wonderful, wonderful, you know, drive it every day guitar.

Scott Cowan [01:25:44]:

One guitar I’ve never seen you play is a Les Paul.

Steve Pearson [01:25:49]:

Oh, no. I’ve played Les Pauls.

Scott Cowan [01:25:51]:

I’ve I don’t ever It’s

Steve Pearson [01:25:52]:

on the first record because I’m playing a

Scott Cowan [01:25:55]:

Is it?

Steve Pearson [01:25:56]:

Uh-huh. A 54 Les Paul that I found with a broken neck in a pawnshop.

Scott Cowan [01:26:01]:

Really?

Steve Pearson [01:26:02]:

Uh-huh. Okay.

Scott Cowan [01:26:04]:

Alright.

Steve Pearson [01:26:05]:

Yeah. I like Les Pauls. I like everything, you know. Yeah. And I’m a bit fickle. I suppose like most guitar players, I’ll I’ll play something for a while and then I’ll try something else and say, why don’t I have one of these? But I try and keep it at a very minimum. I’m not a collector. I own 4 electric guitars.

Scott Cowan [01:26:37]:

Okay.

Steve Pearson [01:26:37]:

4. And one acoustic guitar.

Scott Cowan [01:26:42]:

Wow. That is pretty That’s plenty. Yeah. But that’s but compared to a lot of guitar players or musicians in general, that’s not a lot of

Steve Pearson [01:26:50]:

And they’re all things either I use them or they’re gone.

Scott Cowan [01:26:52]:

Mhmm.

Steve Pearson [01:26:53]:

Either I, take great pleasure in going out and playing them live or else out of my life.

Scott Cowan [01:27:00]:

So what did you bring up here for this?

Steve Pearson [01:27:02]:

I brought the Telecaster that John Newton bought me.

Scott Cowan [01:27:05]:

Okay. And that’s it.

Steve Pearson [01:27:07]:

That’s it.

Scott Cowan [01:27:07]:

That’s the only thing he brought. Okay.

Steve Pearson [01:27:10]:

John has so many guitars. I don’t think he even knows how many he has. So he’s supplying the backup stuff.

Scott Cowan [01:27:18]:

Okay. Alright. Alright. Alright. So here’s the last question. Remember, I told you, you have to answer it, and you have to give me your reason why. Sure. Cake or pie? Pie.

Scott Cowan [01:27:30]:

And why?

Steve Pearson [01:27:32]:

Well, the obvious answer is because I like it better.

Scott Cowan [01:27:39]:

No one is giving me that response. I love it. I I could count on you.

Steve Pearson [01:27:47]:

Cake this is ridiculous and I’m going into this. Cake can be dry or mediocre or the frosting’s not very good or there’s too much frosting or not enough. It’s so varied. K. Pie is pretty much always good.

Scott Cowan [01:28:09]:

And do you have a favorite?

Steve Pearson [01:28:10]:

Great with coffee.

Scott Cowan [01:28:11]:

Do you have a do you have a do you have a a pie? Are you an apple pie guy, cherry pie?

Steve Pearson [01:28:20]:

Like them all, but probably my favorite is apricot.

Scott Cowan [01:28:25]:

Really? Yeah. You are the first person to say that one. It’s so interesting. This is such a silly it’s such a silly question. Right? And some people are like you and they’re just like, pie, cake. You know, they’re just Yeah. They’re they that’s a stupid question, Scott. That was you know? And then then there’s other people who are like, I have 2 children.

Scott Cowan [01:28:47]:

I have to give one up. Which one’s it gonna be? You know? And and then they they him and haw. But nobody has said apricot. That’s interesting to me. And there’s no wrong answer. That’s the beautiful thing.

Steve Pearson [01:29:00]:

Yeah. As a kid, we had we had a connection in Wenatchee. Okay. My my family, my father’s side of the family, and my mom too all came from Squilchuck.

Scott Cowan [01:29:15]:

Okay.

Steve Pearson [01:29:15]:

Up in Wenatchee here.

Scott Cowan [01:29:17]:

Right.

Steve Pearson [01:29:17]:

So we would come over every year during harvest season. Come home with a box of apples and some pears, and the apricots were kind of a

Scott Cowan [01:29:33]:

treat. Mhmm. Mhmm. Okay.

Steve Pearson [01:29:36]:

Very few people grew apricots. There wasn’t a lot of money to be made. So No. We noticed, I noticed that that was kind of a special thing. And I I love the the sweet and sourness.

Scott Cowan [01:29:49]:

Okay.

Steve Pearson [01:29:49]:

It was a completely unique fruit.

Scott Cowan [01:29:51]:

Yeah.

Steve Pearson [01:29:53]:

And so I guess that’s why. I don’t I don’t know. You wanna know why? I guess that’s why.

Scott Cowan [01:29:57]:

That’s a great answer. I mean, there’s no wrong answers here. It’s just kind of fun how people, you know and almost everybody’s answer, though, is kind of comes back to, as a kid, this is what my family

Steve Pearson [01:30:08]:

Yeah.

Scott Cowan [01:30:08]:

Did. So if you would have grown up in a house where cake was prevalent, you probably would have, you know, we’d be talking about German chocolate cake or something like that.

Steve Pearson [01:30:17]:

Right.

Scott Cowan [01:30:17]:

That you grew up with the the fruit connection here in the Wenatchee area, and you just gravitate towards it. Yeah. It’s awesome. And

Steve Pearson [01:30:27]:

filled with good memories of coming to Wenatchee. That was something we always look forward to. K. Well And I I still love this area. I don’t wanna live here anymore, though.

Scott Cowan [01:30:40]:

That’s okay.

Steve Pearson [01:30:40]:

It’s too cold.

Scott Cowan [01:30:42]:

It does it does get the thing I like about this area is that by the time the season is ready to be over, I’m ready for this. I’m ready. I am I’m welcoming cold weather right now. Call me in February, and I’ll be welcoming warmer weather. It’s it where in the west side to me, it just seems like it’s just, you know, it’s 40 to 75 degrees.

Steve Pearson [01:31:06]:

Yeah. There are basically 2 seasons

Scott Cowan [01:31:08]:

there. And I genuinely like the the the seasons that we have here. And, like, right now, it’s wonderful weather. It’s just wonderful. It’s a great time of year to be here. So, Steve, thank you.

Steve Pearson [01:31:22]:

Oh, my pleasure. We explored some some things that I haven’t explored for a long time or ever. I don’t think anyone has ever asked me in my life which dessert I prefer.

Scott Cowan [01:31:36]:

Well, then I’ve accomplished my job.

Steve Pearson [01:31:38]:

I guess you did.