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Listen Here: Todd Park Mohr Interview

Todd Park Mohr (00:00.142)
Ha ha.

Craig Garber (00:00.874)
Hey everybody, this is Craig Garber. Welcome to Everyone Loves Guitar. And I’ve got an awesome guest with Todd Park Mohr from Big Head Todd and the Monsters. And he doesn’t know this, but I’ve been trying to get him on the show for like five years, but he’s totally off the grid. So I wanna thank the lovely and talented Patty deVries for hooking us up. This is a very pleasant surprise, man. Also, cause I know inquiring minds wanna know he does not have a big head. He’s just a very large Asian man, but his head is totally normal size.

Todd Park Mohr (00:25.367)
Huh.

Craig Garber (00:30.114)
All right, let me give you cliff notes on Todd. Then we’ll get into this. Todd’s been the lead singer, songwriter and guitarist, a big head Todd and the monsters since he co-founded the band in 1986. All these years later, and this is a freaking miracle. The band is still together with the same members, having added a keyboard and utility player in 2003. These guys all went to high school and college together and they began touring regionally while attending university of Colorado, which is where they’re all from.

The band’s released 13 studio and six live albums. And Todd just told me there’s a new release coming out in June. A couple of singles are out. Crush is one and the other one’s called Her Way Out. So please check those out. And the band’s toured consistently since 86. They’ve played over 3,500 shows, 33 of them at their hometown venue of Red Rocks. Todd, thanks so much for your time, man. It’s really a pleasure to hang with you. Oh man, you kidding? Oh yeah.

Todd Park Mohr (01:20.746)
Mm-hmm. Yeah, thanks for having me. Really appreciate it.

Craig Garber (01:26.562)
Was there a particular experience that was critical to you becoming a musician?

Todd Park Mohr (01:32.598)
Um, my folks had musical instruments around the house. My dad had a guitar, uh, like a Gibson LG and, uh, which is a pretty nice guitar for a hairdresser and, uh, we had a piano. My mom was really fond of the piano, but they, neither of them had any really formal musical training or, you know, ongoing serious interest, but I love plunking around on them and.

Craig Garber (01:40.344)
Oh wow.

Craig Garber (01:44.567)
Yeah.

Todd Park Mohr (02:01.102)
When I was about 13, I started to become involved in music in a different way, even though I was in elementary school music and all that, because I discovered a Ray Charles album at a garage sale. It’s called The Genius of Ray Charles. It was a combination, I believe, of live tracks and some of his classics, but it really just

Craig Garber (02:17.882)
Very cool. Yeah, that’s a great record, man.

Todd Park Mohr (02:32.586)
There’s no way that I would ever aspire to be that, but that was what I wanted to be. I knew that at the time. And then it sort of led me into this wormhole of R&B and blues music. Aretha Franklin, Live at the Fillmore West was an album that I found a little bit after that and sort of changed my life and just sort of put me on that course. And Wilson Pickett and then all the blues.

Craig Garber (02:39.12)
Yeah.

Todd Park Mohr (03:01.706)
Albert King and BB King and Freddie King. I just fell in love with all of that and at about the same time started to learn how to play guitar a little bit and met my bandmates in high school. We started to play together a little bit and that was that.

Craig Garber (03:23.814)
That’s really cool. It’s funny how that was, that, you know, the guys like one generation above you and I, their whole, they all got, they watched the Beatles on Ed Sullivan, right? But it’s funny how, you know, you stumbled across this one little thing and that like, I’m always marveled at that changed the course of your whole life. You got a record. That’s pretty, I just find that amazing, man.

Todd Park Mohr (03:34.978)
Mm-hmm.

Todd Park Mohr (03:42.23)
Yeah.

Sure. It is amazing. And that’s why everything’s so important, you know, with as far as culture goes. You never know, you know, an act of kindness or even, you know, a small thing like that, small things change the world.

Craig Garber (04:00.342)
Yeah, oh, I totally man. I agree with you 100%. So early on the band starts getting gigs and getting a following. What were some of those challenges once you guys knew, okay, we’re a band?

Todd Park Mohr (04:14.09)
Well, I didn’t think we looked at them as challenges because when you’re kids and you’re in their first band, you just look at everything like an adventurer and it really was. I mean, keeping a van running and keeping it going up a snowy hill, you know, stuff like that, just the basics of getting from A to B and the bizarre nature of, you know, dealing with clubs that would hire a no-name band on a Tuesday night.

Craig Garber (04:32.43)
Yeah.

Todd Park Mohr (04:44.518)
You know, you’re in shady land already. There’s a lot of funny stories about that.

Craig Garber (04:50.426)
So tell me one of them. Tell me one that comes to mind.

Todd Park Mohr (04:53.962)
Well, one of the most dramatic ones was we went all the way to Evergreen and played like four grueling sets for six people. It was sort of a wedding-ish thing and we got stiffed. They didn’t pay us. And that was another time that was like that. And I don’t think we got stiff that time. But you know.

Craig Garber (05:11.446)
Oh, how far is that from you? No. God.

Todd Park Mohr (05:23.638)
Stuff like that, like where your car accidents.

Craig Garber (05:26.485)
How far was that from you? Oh my god

Todd Park Mohr (05:30.946)
The huge.

But everybody has them, you have those stories too.

Craig Garber (05:37.026)
Yeah, everybody has stories in their life like that. Did you get like a first break? What was like the first break you guys got that really sort of like said, okay, this is really important.

Todd Park Mohr (05:50.582)
Um, well, the first thing that happened as far as a professional event was we were signed to a manager named Chuck Morris and he, uh, and his partner, Mark Bleszner at the time, they managed, uh, Lyle love it. And, um, a couple other people like that, uh, Leo Kotke, uh, Chuck’s managed him his whole life until last year, I think, but anyways, uh,

Craig Garber (06:13.25)
Oh wow.

Todd Park Mohr (06:20.41)
They were big in music in Colorado, and there wasn’t much of original music there at the time. So them signing us meant, a new door was opening for us professionally. And that was a moment where you kinda go, well, maybe I’m not gonna finish my degree and continue my job at the bank or whatever.

Craig Garber (06:35.939)
Yeah.

Craig Garber (06:48.564)
Or did how did you how did you want to get hooked up with a manager?

Todd Park Mohr (06:54.602)
They approached us. We had already some success. People were coming to our shows and we had kind of a name as a Denver band, original band. And so yeah, they came to a show and they said, we want to work with you no matter what. And we haggled over it for about a year. And then finally, we ended up having a great relationship with them that led to our first signing with Irving Azoff.

Craig Garber (07:07.063)
Yeah.

Craig Garber (07:23.878)
That’s awesome, man. So your first show at Red Rocks that you guys did was in 91. And it was a blues festival with B.B. King and Albert Collins were there. I was curious what that experience was like. And did you maybe get any takeaways from working with those guys? I mean, as a blues fan, I couldn’t imagine how like. Yeah.

Todd Park Mohr (07:44.03)
Now that’s like the day I was born. I was made that day. You know Albert Collins invited me to jam with him. In his set and he was I don’t think he was last. I think BB King was last or maybe he was last on that day. It was a two-day fest. I think but so that was my first time I sat in with anybody.

Craig Garber (07:56.108)
Holy f-

Craig Garber (08:12.654)
Really?

Todd Park Mohr (08:13.026)
And I could barely play. I can still barely play, but I could go like this, you know, really fast. And, you know, he was he was surprised by me and it was just an incredible moment. He kind of became friends. I can’t believe, you know, just the warmth and regard that he had for me. It was, you know, I miss him. He was amazing. But anyways, yeah. So that was the staples were on the stage at the same time. All of them.

Craig Garber (08:18.268)
Hahaha

Craig Garber (08:34.414)
Yeah.

Craig Garber (08:41.407)
Oh my god. Wow.

Todd Park Mohr (08:43.506)
And that’s the first time I kind of got on a big stage. So that was amazing.

Craig Garber (08:51.714)
You know, I had, you mentioned Albert, I had Kenny Neil on the show a while back and he told me he ran into Albert at a festival, very same thing. And he was like, you know, awestruck. And he said he was invited him into his bus. He said he was one of the nicest people in the music business he’d ever met. It was just a real sweet guy. Yeah. Very cool.

Todd Park Mohr (09:10.126)
That’s true. True fact. You just wouldn’t believe like you’re just be questioning yourself the whole time. Like why is this guy being nice to me? You know what I mean? Like he doesn’t know me but he was that kind of guy. And I know other people. My friend, I’m friend was with Ronnie Baker Brooks, you know, Lonnie Brooks, his son. And same thing with him. Like Albert made him and he thinks of Albert as his dad. He really does.

Craig Garber (09:22.242)
Yeah, that’s wonderful.

Craig Garber (09:28.75)
Hmm, sure.

Craig Garber (09:39.45)
That’s really nice. You know, some people are just like that. They exude this like kindness in it. You’re just like humbled in their presence. Sort of. It’s pretty cool. You know,

Todd Park Mohr (09:49.279)
It is.

Craig Garber (09:51.446)
Okay, you also don’t open for Robert plant, which is like nuts. How did that gig wind up happening? And same question before, what was that experience like and any takeaways?

Todd Park Mohr (10:03.498)
Well, the neat thing was our career was on the way up. And it was just after Sister Sweetly. We’d had a really big album, Sister Sweetly. So we were a big new band. And they, you know, Robert, that’s during his Fade of Nations solo era of his career. And so they were looking for a young band in America because they felt old. And people were telling us, don’t take that gig.

Cause they’re too old. I’m like, you’re kidding me. This is Robert F and Plant. And so obviously we took it and it was one of the more important things that we’d ever done just psychologically and musically because we were able to be a part of their show for a couple months. I mean, it was their whole American tour at that time. And it was just unbelievable to watch it.

Craig Garber (10:35.142)
Oh my god. Yeah. Right, right.

Todd Park Mohr (11:01.098)
his show go up and down every night because of the just the precision and the depth of knowledge that you know their crew brought and the whole thing was just we’d never imagined something could be that good and it really was that good. Jason Bonham was playing the drums and it was just incredible. And then hanging with Robert Plant.

Craig Garber (11:21.933)
Oh wow.

Craig Garber (11:28.334)
What was that? That had to be surreal, right? Is he?

Todd Park Mohr (11:29.922)
Well, he’s like a 10 year old kid. He’s just like a kid and he wasn’t drinking at the time. And so he was just very, very chummy and really funny all the time. And, you know, it was a really magic couple of months for our band for sure.

Craig Garber (11:47.05)
Yeah. Was it surreal the first time you met him? Like you’re sitting there like, this is Robert fucking Plant.

Todd Park Mohr (11:52.734)
Yeah, you’re just sort of like being under anesthesia because you just don’t believe it.

Craig Garber (11:59.339)
Yeah, I get that man. Really cool. Hey, from a songwriting standpoint, you are like incredibly prolific. You’ve recorded hundreds of your songs, which means you’ve probably written well over a thousand songs along the way. I was curious, how’d you first get into songwriting and how’d you get good at it?

Todd Park Mohr (12:24.887)
Well, I guess my answer to that would start with words because I was an English major and I came from a background of philosophy and theology and English poetry and English poetry and English writers really caught me. I wanted to do that. I was fixing on being an English teacher because there’s no way anybody…

succeeds as a poet or whatever. That’s ridiculous. And so that’s how I think I came to writing songs was sort of with that intention of, well, I have this background in poetry and I memorized a lot of it. And I just saw, well, I started writing songs from poems, like the song Flanders Fields was written by John McCrae. I wrote a chorus to it. And…

Craig Garber (12:56.014)
Ha ha

Todd Park Mohr (13:23.81)
So I started doing that kind of thing where, and people would be like, you know, I’ll tell you a funny story while we’re there, you can edit it out if it’s boring. But one of the very first songs that I wrote, cause I saw your question, so it sort of prodded me to thinking about it. And it was a kind of a song that was heavily influenced by Muddy Waters’ Mojo work. And you know that, and I had the same.

Craig Garber (13:33.816)
Yeah.

Todd Park Mohr (13:52.846)
course, because I love, you know, got my mojo working. But I just heard it one time and I didn’t know where it came from or I couldn’t find it again or something like that. So I decided to write verses to it. And I wrote these killing verses and brought them to the band and they’re like, no, this isn’t it. This is another song, buddy. This isn’t your song. So that’s how you start though, is sort of my point. Nothing is yours.

Craig Garber (14:04.44)
Okay?

Craig Garber (14:19.61)
Yeah.

Right.

Todd Park Mohr (14:23.022)
None of it is yours, just forget about it. It’s music, it’s out, it just is. And so we all borrow, and it’s the way that we borrow and integrate that in, you know, that’s how people create. Nobody creates out of a vacuum, that’s ridiculous. So I’m a big on the side of like creative commons and stuff like that, like as far as copyright goes, I don’t.

I don’t like a lot of them. I’d like to get credit for what I write, but I’m fine with anybody using it however they want. Sort of.

Craig Garber (14:58.93)
Oh, interesting. Okay. Interesting. So basically it was your love of words that got you into writing songs. Yeah. That’s, that’s really cool.

Todd Park Mohr (15:07.063)
Yes, sir.

So my first real songwriter heroes are Bob Dylan and Bruce Springsteen.

Craig Garber (15:17.99)
It’s funny, I never got the, yeah, of course. I never got the appeal of Dylan until I was much older and I started listening to the words, you know? And then I was like, oh, now I get it. You know, the guy’s a genius, you know? Hey, I wanna talk about some of my favorite Big Head Dodd songs, and I’ll start with Broken Hearted Savior from Sister Sweetly, and I’m gonna preface that with an apology because I know you’ve been asked about this song like a thousand times.

Todd Park Mohr (15:21.27)
and the Beatles.

Todd Park Mohr (15:31.586)
Yeah, he is.

Todd Park Mohr (15:37.494)
Okay.

Craig Garber (15:46.938)
But it’s one of those songs for me anyway, as soon as you hear those opening notes, which is like GGD I think or something like that, right? I don’t know what it is, you hear three notes and it’s like, what is it? You immediately gotta stop and just become consumed with that track. And I just find the song so compelling in so many ways. And

I just had two questions on that track. What is the genesis of that track? How did it come about? It’s the first one.

Todd Park Mohr (16:22.678)
Well, musically, I just sort of heard it. You’re talking about the beginning, I heard that and then from there I was on a road trip, I didn’t have access to my instrument or anything like that when I came up with that song. So I sort of had to come back home and learn how to play what I’d already written.

Craig Garber (16:32.709)
Yeah.

Craig Garber (16:50.392)
Yeah.

Todd Park Mohr (16:52.662)
That happened to me a few times.

Craig Garber (16:56.186)
So you just heard, you just heard, it’s amazing. I have heard this so many times where like, someone will say, well, this track was just downloaded to me from, you know, the universe or from their higher power, whoever, whatever they believe, you know? And it’s just amazing to hear that. Did you expect it to be so well received after you guys recorded it? Like, did you know, hey, I think we might have something with this?

Todd Park Mohr (17:22.226)
Yeah, no, I don’t understand it. I still don’t. I mean, it’s, it’s really basic. And there’s, I always am like scratching my head about it because, you know, my mom could play it. It’s so easy. And so I don’t get it. But, you know, there is something else to it, obviously, or else you wouldn’t like it.

Craig Garber (17:29.53)
W-w-w-yes!

Craig Garber (17:39.116)
Right.

Craig Garber (17:42.806)
Yeah. Oh, it’s, it’s like from the first time I heard it, like what 30 years ago or something like that. It was just like, wow. And every time I’ve heard it, and I’m not just like blowing smoke, it’s just I don’t know. It’s a piece of great art, I guess is like what it is. Thanks. Well, it’s great. Off a beautiful world, you have a track called If You Can’t Slow Down. Beautiful, slow blues and B minor and Hazel Miller’s on vocals there. What’s

Todd Park Mohr (17:58.986)
You’re sweet. That’s what it’s about. Thank you.

Craig Garber (18:12.562)
What’s the backstory to that track? And I know you got, you know, you, your heart was music bloat bloomed in your heart through the blues. So I gotta believe that’s a special, when you get to write and play those things is pretty special to you.

Todd Park Mohr (18:27.378)
Yeah, especially with Hazel. I mean, she’s incredible talent and very, just a great soul and soulful voice. So it was nice to have a song that we could do as a duet. I don’t know when I wrote it, if I thought about it that way, but we, right when we were in the studio recording it, it was clear that we wanted to do that. So we’re so happy it worked out that way. I love the song. It’s sort of like a Sam and Dave.

ballad or an old soul-ish ballad. And that’s the stuff that lights up my brain. And it has a lot of fun instrumental. It’s fun to jam to.

Craig Garber (18:58.019)
Yes.

Craig Garber (19:04.613)
Yeah.

Craig Garber (19:11.07)
Oh, it’s great track, man. Healing train from archives volume one. I haven’t seen, I love this track and I haven’t seen you in concert yet, but I. You don’t really.

Todd Park Mohr (19:20.59)
Yeah, I don’t love the track. No, I’ve never performed it ever. And I always just sort of thought of it as like, oh, and we put it out on something because we just, we had all these extra things that were burning a hole and you’re one of like four or five people that’s mentioned that track. So maybe I’ll listen to it and see what I think after all these years.

Craig Garber (19:28.075)
Okay, really?

Craig Garber (19:42.851)
Oh, it’s so cool.

Craig Garber (19:48.159)
To me, it seems like one of those tracks where like, okay, this is the jam part of the show. We’re going to go off on here. It just seems like so perfect for that. Yeah, I love it.

Todd Park Mohr (19:55.118)
Cool. People that I respect musically have told me the same. So, you know, sometimes when you do things when you’re really young, you’re just like, you know what I mean?

Craig Garber (20:01.997)
Oh, dude.

Craig Garber (20:07.215)
Dude, I have enough memories like that myself. Trust me, I get it. I was curious, what’s the story behind this lyric, only a broken heart can drive this train, if you even remember.

Todd Park Mohr (20:18.794)
Well, you know, I’ve, uh…

Todd Park Mohr (20:25.39)
was reading a guy, his name is Miguel Unamuno. He’s a Spanish philosopher. He wrote a book called The Tragic Sense of Life. And he ended up having a weird death by asphyxiation or something like he got too close to the fireplace or something. But he was a brilliant philosopher. And anyways, he sort of has that sort of thing running and that would sort of inspire that chorus. Yeah.

Craig Garber (20:39.385)
Ho.

Craig Garber (20:50.618)
So you’re in, yeah, we were in that mode when you wrote that. Yeah, cool. And then New World Horizon from New World Horizon. To me, like that’s a song I could see people like marching to and rallying in concert. Don’t tell me you haven’t played that one either.

Todd Park Mohr (21:09.822)
No, I love playing that song. Our band loves playing it. And I’ll tell you an interesting story about that song, which is that the blueprint for it comes from a Charlie Patton recording. I don’t know if you know who Charlie Patton is, but he was one of the original, I mean, the very first recorded blues artist on Paramount Records in the 20s and 30s and 40s. He died in the 40s and…

Craig Garber (21:11.422)
Yeah, that’s a great track. Tell me about that.

Craig Garber (21:31.566)
Oh, I did not know that. I’ve heard his name.

Todd Park Mohr (21:37.922)
John Fogarty paid for his gravestone kind of thing. But you gotta check out his music. And Bob Dylan is heavily influenced by Charlie Patton. So anyways, he’s got a song called Jesus is My Dying Bedmaker. Most of the songs from this period are about death. So many of them are. Cause there’s such death and heartache, like real awful things that people were going through that they were writing about.

Craig Garber (21:41.064)
Oh wow.

Todd Park Mohr (22:07.754)
Anyways, so I was kind of like, man, that’s an incredible just melody and song. And I, I just wrote another song to it. You know, I re incorporated a lot of ideas from that song and wrote a serious spiritual song, I think in contemporary language.

Craig Garber (22:30.382)
Well, I got the feeling that the song had two meanings. One is that like a new world arising around us, but also our own world with our own individual actions. I don’t know if I’m close or completely off.

Todd Park Mohr (22:43.878)
Well, sure, they’re all the same. Our individuals, what goes on in one psyche happens to all of us corporately all the time. We all have the same problem. Conflict is that problem, really, being stuck in it. But anyways, yeah, that song is sort of like that. There is a new world arising, but the old world will fight you till you die in day.

Craig Garber (22:46.35)
Yeah.

Craig Garber (22:56.59)
Mm-hmm.

Craig Garber (23:01.174)
Definitely.

Craig Garber (23:11.098)
Yeah.

Todd Park Mohr (23:11.346)
I mean, that’s just how we live. It’s a battlefield. And I just like that idea of being sort of what the song is about to me, sort of being stuck in that battlefield. This is just how it always is. There’s revolution and people are upset and they’re going for something new. And you know.

Craig Garber (23:13.615)
Yeah.

Craig Garber (23:35.619)
Yeah. And that Charlie Patton song is called Jesus Is My Dying Bedmaker. What a title. That’s wild. Do you have a favorite song you’ve written?

Todd Park Mohr (23:40.33)
Yes. Yeah. I know.

Todd Park Mohr (23:48.274)
Um, yeah, I have a really hard time thinking about that. I really love what I’ve written recently, our new release. I love, love. And I will say part of it is because I feel like I’ve gotten better as a writer. I’ve required skills and I’ve learned how to employ them. And I really think that, you know, we’ve taken a lot of time to write it and we’re really proud of it. So I’ll leave that for future discovery.

Craig Garber (24:15.962)
That’s awesome.

Todd Park Mohr (24:18.39)
But past, I like Secret Mission, song of mine called Secret Mission a lot, and a song called Tower, I like from Beautiful World. I have like little bits and pieces that are all over my career that I like a lot. And they’re probably, they’re not the hits, so.

for different reasons, I guess.

Craig Garber (24:41.89)
Yeah. Tell me.

Todd Park Mohr (24:43.394)
But obviously, you know, bittersweet, it’s all right, circle like all the stuff that is, has been strong for the band. I still like, I still enjoy playing it. And I’m really, you know, there’s a joy about it that we still have with that stuff.

Craig Garber (24:54.565)
Right.

Craig Garber (25:00.634)
So when you’re getting ready to play, you know, Broken Hearted Savior, it’s not, holy shit, we gotta do this again. It’s like, yeah, let’s do this again. Yeah, yeah, right, cool. Cause I would imagine that’s hard after, you know, you gotta have some nights, not just you, any musician’s gotta have some night. You know, Leslie West, I’m sure at some point said, oh fuck, not Mississippi Queen again, you know? Ha ha ha.

Todd Park Mohr (25:07.338)
It’s like this, you know?

Todd Park Mohr (25:22.982)
I had my hard years early, psychologically. You know, like when little Stephen had to quit the E Street band, there was a period in the 90s where he just really struggled with it. I had that feeling for years, just a great personal difficulty being on stage and feeling comfortable in my own skin.

Craig Garber (25:26.083)
Yeah.

Todd Park Mohr (25:52.67)
many self-destructive mistakes during that time.

Craig Garber (25:57.946)
I think I certainly have done tons of that to be honest with you. Were you, are you basically an introvert? Is that why it was, it was hard for you to feel comfortable there? Or would you, or is it imposter syndrome or?

Todd Park Mohr (26:09.127)
Um.

Yeah, I would say imposter syndrome, you know, especially when you love blues and soul music. I mean, I came from an Asian, half Asian family in Littleton, Colorado. I had no, you know, claim to blues heritage or anything like that. And not only that, but I don’t, and I still don’t feel like I had the same level of skills that celebrated people had at the time.

Craig Garber (26:14.17)
Yeah.

Craig Garber (26:29.23)
Yeah.

Todd Park Mohr (26:42.25)
like Stevie Ray, like Stevie Ray is just so perfect. And he was so perfect that.

Craig Garber (26:49.37)
you’re comparing yourself to like, like the God at the top. I’m not as good as

Todd Park Mohr (26:53.59)
Well, that’s what I’m saying. But I mean, but we can get to Stevie Ray land now.

Craig Garber (27:01.346)
Right. Yeah.

Todd Park Mohr (27:04.218)
But now there’s guys that are way out there. So much incredibly better. But that’s another discussion. But I love talking about guitars and learning about stuff. YouTube, that’s incredible. Instruction, all the guys, all the cats on YouTube. I watch all of them. They are.

Craig Garber (27:07.567)
Yeah.

Craig Garber (27:17.678)
Oh, it’s pretty phenomenal. Yeah. Yeah, this is pretty amazing. It’s what is your thoughts on like, and I’m not looking for like, gossip, or I’m not asking you to like, say this guy’s good, or that guy’s not good. But what’s your thoughts in general on a lot of the guys that are on YouTube? They’ve never played a gig. And it’s hard for me.

I don’t know. There’s a, and it’s a, but it’s an involved thing like for me, because I’m thinking work ethic. Does it mean they don’t have a good work ethic? No, not necessarily. Cause you look at them and they’ve been shitting, shredding their ass off. So it’s clear it’s not work at, you know, but it always seems weird when you have people are celebrated now, you know, in social media, it becomes a currency to some extent. And, um, it’s just weird to see it. Like, you know, I never, I,

When I Gary Moore or I mean, there are bands out there that never had that opportunity that I’d rather hear to be honest with you.

Todd Park Mohr (28:24.138)
It’s a different skill set. It’s really amazing, because I sit at home a lot playing guitar like you do, and I think I’m pretty good, but then when I get on stage with my band, it’s a different thing. It’s like really is, but you know what I’m saying? It really, so I would say that they’re different. I like these guys. I mean, all of them I’ve seen that are incredible, and I love.

Craig Garber (28:25.784)
Yeah.

Craig Garber (28:38.31)
Well, you are pretty good, Todd, actually. You’re a very good guitar player, man.

Yeah.

Todd Park Mohr (28:52.31)
you know, watching the virtuosity and putting the techniques together and the knowledge of the fretboard and all that demonstrated to me that’s really valuable. And so I’m a fan of those guys, even though they’re not in bands. And I hope they get in bands and have careers, which is hard for these guys that are really, really goddamn good, like Joe Bonamasa or Eric Gales. Eric Gales is…

Craig Garber (29:00.686)
Yeah.

Craig Garber (29:07.226)
Yeah.

I hope they do, yeah, because it’s like, you know, take.

Todd Park Mohr (29:22.034)
One of those phenomenal, everybody knows how goddamn good he is, but it’s hard for him to pay the rent. He’s not getting the kind of money that, but at the same time, what is it that people, you know what I mean? Johnny Cash can’t play one note, but.

Craig Garber (29:30.967)
Yeah.

Craig Garber (29:41.186)
Yeah, right.

Todd Park Mohr (29:49.846)
He just kills, you know what I’m saying? Why?

Craig Garber (29:52.054)
Yeah, well, I don’t know. I know it’s a it’s a big mystery and it’s a big conversation. I have a lot of guys, you know, more off the air more so but yeah, it is it’s a mystery. By the way, I had Eric on here. He’s like one of the funniest. I’m sure you’ve met with him and played with him, right? Yeah, he’s pretty funny that guy. Tell me that. Oh, he’s phenomenal. I mean, just phenomenal player. Top three musical experiences you’ve had.

Todd Park Mohr (30:06.602)
Yeah, a few times.

Todd Park Mohr (30:10.882)
He’s a bad boy.

Todd Park Mohr (30:19.462)
Well, we’ve talked about a few of them. The Robert Plant one for sure. I did two projects that were blues projects and one of them was with Robert, celebrating Robert Johnson and the other one was, excuse me, I’m going to start with the Robert Johnson one for a second, which got me, our band sort of with other blues artists.

BB King was one of them, Charlie Musclewhite.

Todd Park Mohr (30:53.486)
Uh, David honey boy Edwards, who was 95 at the time.

Todd Park Mohr (31:00.91)
the Hubert Sumlin. And I was, again, I was a young kid. We were sort of brought into something because we were pop and we were kids and people would pay to see us in a performing arts center with blues artists in our band. And so, I mean, I got to be on a bus with Hubert Sumlin and David Honeyboy Edwards and Charlie Musselite, for a couple of months.

Craig Garber (31:04.549)
Yeah.

Craig Garber (31:20.119)
Right.

Todd Park Mohr (31:31.11)
Is it an incredible glorious education in blues? And the same happened with our second blues project. And I was with Ronnie Baker Brooks. And it’s going to take me a second. My brain is slowing names at this hour.

Craig Garber (31:51.658)
Oh, don’t get me started, man. Every time that happens to me, I’m like, holy shit, am I getting dementia? It’s terrible.

Todd Park Mohr (31:59.046)
I know it’s when you start checking yourself, then you’re in trouble. So you might need to move on. But the blues, the blues things were huge for us, even though I don’t know how successful they were musically in the bigger picture of our career, but as an education. And one of the things that Luther from Mississippi All Stars told me, Luther Dickinson is like, yeah, blues is the kind of thing that you just, you have to.

Craig Garber (32:04.431)
I am.

Craig Garber (32:13.755)
Mm.

Craig Garber (32:22.117)
Yeah, Luther here.

Todd Park Mohr (32:26.522)
learn it flesh and blood from some, you have to learn it that way. You can’t just listen to it and cop it. And there is some real truth in that. And it, cause it’s not about the scales or there’s just something that is learned from that passing it down. That’s so important. You know, and so anyways, that absolutely. So those two things and then,

The big thing for me that I would say thirdly, and maybe firstly is my band, the guys in my band. And just having them as partners musically and the respect that we have for each other and what we’re able to do happily together, that’s something that’s been really, allowed everything else to take place.

Craig Garber (33:24.09)
Thank you. So you guys still tour and have always toured pretty consistently and from what I read, you’re selling more tickets now than ever before. And I was curious, what do you, if you have anything to attribute it to, what would you attribute it to if you even had an idea?

Todd Park Mohr (33:43.778)
Oh, yeah. I’m we used to say that.

Todd Park Mohr (33:57.23)
still being in the business is the next success. I’m missing the word. You know what I’m saying? You’re really crushing it if you’re still here. So…

Craig Garber (34:02.552)
Yeah.

Craig Garber (34:05.866)
I remember you said achieving I heard your interviews, he said, I’m staying mediocre is something like that mediocrity is like something along those lines.

Todd Park Mohr (34:17.118)
Well, yeah, I was quoting, that’s a quote that I have fun with from George Thurgood. He says this thing, it’s hysterical about his career that you had to scratch and claw your way to the middle. But you know, I think a lot of it has been what I want to hope for is that it’s the quality of the material.

Craig Garber (34:23.816)
Right, right, yeah.

Craig Garber (34:31.298)
Yeah, right. Scratch and claw your way to the middle. That was great. Yeah.

Todd Park Mohr (34:44.374)
that the songs connect with people on a personal level. And we have people say that this is my favorite song or that’s my favorite song. That’s amazing. If somebody is gonna come back for a return listen, I’m impressed. But if you’re gonna tell me that you listen to it a lot or it’s your favorite, you’ve listened to a lot of music. And so that’s a great honor. And so I wanna think that that’s why people are paying.

Craig Garber (35:00.069)
Yeah

Craig Garber (35:06.703)
Yeah.

Todd Park Mohr (35:13.582)
Come see us play.

Craig Garber (35:17.858)
Tell me something that you thought would be difficult to do, but in reality it turned out to be much easier to do.

Todd Park Mohr (35:29.936)
Hmm seems like everything’s difficult. Everything’s hard.

Craig Garber (35:32.905)
Hahaha!

Craig Garber (35:38.214)
Tell me, that’s funny. Tell me what were some low points or dark periods you’ve had to deal with in life and how’d you get through them?

Todd Park Mohr (35:48.842)
Uh, well, I’ve been divorced twice. That that’s the hardest thing that I’ve ever been through. Uh, I’ve lost my parents, both of them to cancer, but divorce is absolutely the hardest thing. Cause, uh, just it’s a matter of the heart and it hurts like hell. Everybody knows. I think everybody’s been through this sort of thing, you know,

Craig Garber (35:50.946)
Yeah, that’s a tough one.

Craig Garber (35:58.264)
Oh man. Yeah.

Craig Garber (36:10.358)
Oh, I was divorced. I got married real young. Yeah. Because there’s no manual. It’s and like, well, like getting together is more of a natural thing. But un, you know, ungetting together is not natural, especially those kids involved. Yeah, it’s really tough.

Todd Park Mohr (36:14.561)
So yeah.

Todd Park Mohr (36:30.538)
Yeah, we’re poorly equipped. There’s other nations that do it better than us, that can deal with this stuff. I mean, we’re just a little bit adolescent. I’m…

Craig Garber (36:32.771)
Yes.

Craig Garber (36:40.982)
Yeah, I would say no it’s when I get I’ll have I Don’t have a lot of younger people on the show just because the nature of the questions But when I get young kids from Europe totally different maturity level like I had Matteo on the show and he’s I can’t think it was last and now I’m gonna brain fart But he was he’s like 22 or something and he’s like it was like talking to a 40 year old here in the States

Todd Park Mohr (36:54.241)
Yeah.

Craig Garber (37:09.61)
Super mature and yeah, so I think in other countries, the maturity levels just shits together a little more.

Todd Park Mohr (37:15.359)
They know how to be friends when it’s over. There are cultures that are that way. And I don’t know how to do it, but I admire it.

Craig Garber (37:18.904)
Yeah, man.

Craig Garber (37:24.206)
Yeah.

Craig Garber (37:27.874)
No. Yeah, that would have been a lot easier for sure. Yeah. Todd, what are some actions you took that as you look back over your career, you would attribute your success to these particular actions, if anything, in specific?

Todd Park Mohr (37:31.41)
I’m curious about it.

Todd Park Mohr (37:48.334)
Hmm.

Well, I guess the action is being in the band every day, you know, working that.

Todd Park Mohr (38:00.19)
You know, there was a critical moment in my career where my biggest song, which was bittersweet at one point, that was the number one song at rock radio at the time and videos were breaking bands and I refused to do a video for that song. Uh, I had fights with everybody from the top of Warner Brothers to the label head of my label and my managers and promoters calling me like.

Craig Garber (38:18.074)
What is that?

Todd Park Mohr (38:30.222)
Uh, and it was because I was on this silly kind of artistic fit kick. Let’s call it that. Which, you know, what, what I told the guy from Warner Brothers who called me to ask me to do the video, I said, there’s a, there’s a writer, uh, wrote a book called a hundred years of solitude and Anthony Quinn offered.

the guy million bucks, Marquez is his name for the rights to make the film. And Marquez told him, no, he said, I want my work to only live in the imaginations of the readers. You know what I mean? And I really felt like videos were ruining everything that just sort of like, I’d be a one hit wonder if I did that video, there’s just something inside of me and I just couldn’t do the right thing. I still regret it.

It was absolutely the wrong thing. But yeah, but if, if we would have had that kind of level of massive success early on, we would have not been around now. I don’t. Yeah. But

Craig Garber (39:30.142)
to not make the video for that song. It’s a beautiful song too.

Craig Garber (39:42.178)
Yeah, well, you don’t know anything. Yeah.

Todd Park Mohr (39:48.13)
That could have been the thing that kept my band alive, ironically, because I don’t know if I could have handled it. Yeah.

Craig Garber (39:51.663)
Right.

Craig Garber (39:56.358)
Sure, being that young.

Yeah. Oh, I totally get it. Yeah. When you look back at your maturity level and the this, your decision making, your coping skills at 30 versus 20 years later, 25 years later, it’s dramatic. Hopefully it’s dramatically different.

Todd Park Mohr (40:15.818)
I feel sorry for these guys, athletes and young celebrities.

that haven’t had the chance to learn how to be happy yet or know who they are. And suddenly have just tons of success, tons of notoriety. But you don’t have it here. You don’t believe it yourself. You’re in trouble, man.

Craig Garber (40:37.606)
Right. Yeah. That makes sense. That’s why I think when people say you have regrets, I think if you’re happy today, just me personally, you really can’t have regrets. Cause you don’t know, you know, you, we all made mistakes. We wish we didn’t do and behave in certain ways, but I think to regret it if you’re happy today, you don’t know, like you may not be here. You know, you may have made the wrong turn on the expressway or something, you know? Yeah.

Todd Park Mohr (41:03.614)
Right. That’s joy. I call that joy. Joy when joy recognizes that everything has to be this way. When your child is born, you see that clearly. There’s no other way this could be. Every accident in my life led to this moment and this moment is it. That’s joy.

Craig Garber (41:13.007)
Yes.

Craig Garber (41:22.218)
Yeah, right. Yeah, I agree. And I’m a big proponent of that. Let’s talk about gear for a few minutes. Your guitar sound as much as you don’t like your guitar sound. I think it’s fantastic. It’s okay, good. It. It’s fantastic. It’s always been very straddy. For lack of a better term, what is your go guitar right?

Todd Park Mohr (41:31.715)
Yeah.

Todd Park Mohr (41:37.214)
I like it now, sir. I like what I’m doing now. Thank you.

Craig Garber (41:50.37)
Go to guitar right now and what others would round out your top three.

Todd Park Mohr (41:54.646)
This is my go-to. It’s called the Troposphere Strat. It’s a 1956 Custom Shop Strat. But that is just an unbelievable instrument.

Craig Garber (41:56.216)
Alright.

Craig Garber (42:13.518)
What? Troposphere. What is that? What do they call that?

Todd Park Mohr (42:16.622)
because that’s the height of the heights is what the marketing of it was, you know? But very meticulously wound 1956 pickups with the form barbed wire and all that kind of stuff. But, you know, Joe Blanomasa gave me a lot of clues about instruments and, you know, the hard tail and this period and maple necks. So I just have that one and then 55 Telecaster.

Craig Garber (42:21.1)
haha

Todd Park Mohr (42:45.686)
You know, same thing. Maple neck, as big as I can get it, like it’s like almost one inch here. It’s super fat. Yeah, but I don’t have big hands, but you’d be surprised sometimes big necks can make you feel more support, can support your playing. Like there are guys that have, you know, bond with a bigger neck. And I’ve sort of gone in and out. I’ve really had a long journey discovering myself with instruments.

Craig Garber (42:53.63)
Oh, you’re tall. You’re a big guy. Aren’t you? I mean, you’re tall. Yeah.

Todd Park Mohr (43:15.806)
I’ve gone through so many instruments. I’ve bought a million of them and I’m broke. I’m penniless because I’m sitting on all these instruments that I just… 60, 60 or so.

Craig Garber (43:19.254)
Yeah. How many how many.

How many guitars do you have in your storage? Yeah, that’s a lot of guitars, dude. Holy shit. Is that like, is that your retirement fund? Cause I know guys that have like, kind of like RAs and they’re like, yeah, right.

Todd Park Mohr (43:33.838)
It’s too much.

Yeah, no, it is absolutely is, you know, I’m not going to be able to get on the stage and I’ll need something to do. So I’ll just pedal around. So this guitar and that one.

Craig Garber (43:48.05)
Yeah, that’s cool. Do you have any cool or interesting stories behind how you acquired any of your guitars?

Todd Park Mohr (43:57.066)
Uh, when we first started, we played a place called JJ McCabe’s in Boulder. We got a gig there every week and there was a guy whose name is Scotty and I don’t even know his last name and he gave me his strat. Yeah. And I was just 21 at the time and I was dumbfounded. I didn’t even, I couldn’t afford a strat and it had a locking tremolo on it.

Craig Garber (44:14.126)
He just gave it to you.

Todd Park Mohr (44:27.754)
Uh, that’s one of the kil- the best story I got really about any guitar.

Craig Garber (44:32.618)
Yeah, that’s pretty cool. Someone gives you a guitar, man. Tell me favorite musicians you’ve enjoyed playing with because I know you’ve played with

Todd Park Mohr (44:42.71)
Yeah, for sure. Hubert Sommelin and, uh, you know, David Honeyboy Edwards. I mean, those guys.

for sure that I love Ronnie Baker Brooks too. Like he’s a kind of a brother of mine. He’s just a little bit older than me. And he’s kind of been my blues mentor, Billy Branch, the great harmonica player, blues harmonica player, Chicago blues. You know, I was gonna mention while I’m here with those guys too, they were a part of our second edition which is Willie Dixon. We were celebrating the music of Willie Dixon and

Billy Branch had actually played harmonica with Willie Dixon, which is really cool. But yeah, I encourage people to check out Billy Branch because he’s one of the very first people to plug in, to use a mic with a harmonica and an amp. So really important guy.

Craig Garber (45:24.378)
That is pretty cool, yeah.

Craig Garber (45:38.586)
You ever, a guy out West, but I think he’s in Arizona. You ever bump into Bob Corritori? Yeah, yeah, he is great. He’s, dude, he’s so, he was all, he pimped out, he was on the show and he was all pimped out there. He looked great. He is. Oh, this has gotta be funny, man. Tell me the craziest experience with a fan you’ve ever had.

Todd Park Mohr (45:43.074)
Sure. Yeah, sure. He’s great. He’s got the hair too. I like it.

Todd Park Mohr (45:54.91)
Yeah, I love him. He’s great.

Todd Park Mohr (46:03.702)
Hmm.

Wow.

Craig Garber (46:07.987)
I’m out.

Todd Park Mohr (46:14.69)
I guess I’ll just really quickly just because there’s been a lot of really fun things that have gone down. I mean, some that I can’t talk about because they were a little bit too fun. But we had these started doing these trips that were Caribbean cruises with just our band hosting on a small tall ship. And we had met a person named John Horan who was at the time the…

Craig Garber (46:25.406)
Good for you.

Todd Park Mohr (46:46.234)
doing research and development for NASA. And he was the one who kind of suggested that I write a song for NASA. And that led to this whole relationship of, we got to play that song as a live wake-up song to the shuttle crew and all kinds of fun things came out of that. So that was like what I would describe as a wild ride from a fan.

Craig Garber (47:11.115)
Yeah, that is cool.

Todd top that top three Desert Island discs, no particular order and just for this moment because obviously that changes.

Todd Park Mohr (47:21.006)
Hmm, gee whiz. Well.

The Beatles in the cube, you know, all the Beatles, to me the Beatles are the top of top. And Led Zeppelin III maybe, I’m a big Led Zeppelin guy. I would have a hard time living without that music.

Craig Garber (47:31.214)
Right?

Craig Garber (47:43.386)
Dude, they are such a fan. I can’t stand when people say, like criticize Jimmy Page’s guitar playing. The guy was like a genius. I mean, he was so experienced by the time he started Zeppelin. He knew exactly what he wanted to do from all those years. The guy was fucking brilliant. And like, how do you criticize this guy’s play? It’s like, I don’t even understand how that gets in your mind, to be honest with you. Just a great.

Todd Park Mohr (48:01.13)
I agree 100%. I ain’t one of those guys.

Todd Park Mohr (48:11.002)
Um, I will say of contemporary ish albums, uh, Jeff Buckley’s grace might be my favorite that of non classic rock staple bands. That album is really amazing to me.

Craig Garber (48:28.151)
It’s a pretty album.

All right, tell me one event, not musical personal, that took place in your life, that if this thing hadn’t happened, you wouldn’t be the person you are today. And of course, there’s probably hundreds of them.

Todd Park Mohr (48:42.834)
Well, the birth of my daughter for sure. I only have a six-year-old daughter now, which means I was 51. I thought I escaped catastrophe.

I did not. I did not. Yeah.

Craig Garber (48:59.692)
Just wait till you’re like 62 to 64. That’s when that’s when this shit’s gonna hit the fan, man.

Todd Park Mohr (49:06.134)
But, but just psychologically, the whole thing, I mean, you’re a parent. I’m sure everybody’s a parent. They know like, man, that’s just chapter three or whatever the chapter is. It’s amazing. So I love that. Thank you. I’m in the thick of it. I got a new, uh, French bulldog puppy as well. I have two dogs and had two kids and my wife. So I’m old, a little on the old side for that kind of activity.

Craig Garber (49:10.692)
Yeah.

Craig Garber (49:15.566)
Yeah, it’s pretty amazing. Yeah, yeah. Well, congratulations on that again.

Craig Garber (49:29.431)
That’s a good man.

Craig Garber (49:36.07)
Hey man, I had Al Di Meola on here. He’s 66. I think he had a, I think his daughter was three or four. Yeah. So, you know, whatever, uh, most important lessons you’ve learned from getting older.

Todd Park Mohr (49:43.752)
Oh wow.

Todd Park Mohr (49:47.181)
Yeah.

Todd Park Mohr (49:53.062)
Um, I’ll tell you, I think this is the most important thing I’ve learned.

Todd Park Mohr (50:02.614)
Cut people’s slack. No, don’t be too quick to judge them. Um, be accepting of people’s shortcomings, I guess, without having to like harp on them, that that’s maybe the biggest thing for me that when, as I, as you get older, you learn how to do that. And then suddenly, uh, I’m succeeding in relationships. You know what I mean? Like.

Craig Garber (50:29.423)
Yeah.

Todd Park Mohr (50:32.638)
It’s a magical thing.

Craig Garber (50:34.842)
Well, I think you have to learn. I think when you get older, it probably becomes easier. I know it has been for me to accept my own shortcomings and less, much less judgmental on me. And that has allowed me to, yeah, right. You know, and that’s allowed me to be like much easier to deal with others, you know, when you’re not as tough on yourself. Yeah, sure.

Todd Park Mohr (50:44.766)
Absolutely, it all starts there, right?

Todd Park Mohr (50:54.186)
Yeah, it’s the same thing. You treat others just like you do yourself. I mean, love is love.

Craig Garber (50:59.486)
Oh, absolutely. Absolutely, man. Best decision you ever made.

Todd Park Mohr (51:07.988)
Um, wow.

Todd Park Mohr (51:14.482)
Yeah, I can’t even process that question. I’m sorry. I can’t. I’ve had a great life and they all go together. I don’t think there’s a fork in the river of my life. It’s been hard and there’s been things I’ve done that have been wrong and stuff like that, but it all kind of goes together and I just don’t see a best in it. I’m grateful for my life.

Craig Garber (51:18.594)
No, it’s cool. It’s a tough question. Yeah.

Craig Garber (51:43.462)
Fair enough, man. This is a tough one. What do you like most about yourself?

Todd Park Mohr (51:49.449)
Uh… hmm…

Todd Park Mohr (51:57.17)
I think if I was to say something that I’d be the most proud of myself, and it’s not always true, it’s being a learner. I think I still love learning and I still am going to find out. I think that’s it for me.

Craig Garber (52:18.702)
That’s important. You know, like, I don’t think I’ll ever like, quote, retire and do nothing. I like, that’s when I think I would die, to be honest with you, like, how can you not do anything? You know, reading is great, whatever your hobbies are, you know, playing instruments. But I can’t I’m kind of believe in that too, man, you got to keep learning. It’s like nourishes you very much, you know, emotionally, spiritually, all that stuff.

Todd Park Mohr (52:29.515)
Yeah.

Todd Park Mohr (52:47.454)
Yeah, sooner or later, there’s going to be a downhill trend in my life. You know what I mean? My brain is going to go downhill and my body’s going to go downhill. So my idea now that you and I, like I’m 58, so I’m thinking about this a lot, is get up there as high as you can before they go down. You know what I’m saying?

Craig Garber (52:52.92)
Hahaha!

Craig Garber (52:57.518)
Ah, don’t say that, man.

Craig Garber (53:04.47)
Right. Oh, yeah.

Craig Garber (53:11.846)
Yeah.

Well, you know, the thing is I never knew, I always thought like you, when you’re, when you’re at the end, you go because you’re sick, but I’ve met, you know, a lot of older people. And I’ve talked to people I know whose parents are passing and their bodies just, you know, this, this husk we’ve been given, it just stops fricking working, man. It’s just like, it’s not a

you know, it’s not like a Ford or something like that. It just keeps, it doesn’t keep going. It’s it’s or a Nissan. It’s like, it just doesn’t, it’s going to slow down then. And that’s a tough thing to, to get your head around. Yeah. It’s who the hell wants to think of that? And or envision or even think of the possibility, you know, it’s weird. Something up. Yeah. Tell me. Yeah, please.

Todd Park Mohr (53:43.489)
Yeah.

Todd Park Mohr (53:51.882)
Yeah, it’s so hard. It is.

Todd Park Mohr (54:00.446)
I’ll tell you a funny story about this just while we’re there, which is that this last year, you know, we’d done a lot of touring and.

Todd Park Mohr (54:14.062)
More so than in the past, maybe for a long time. And I kind of got to a point where psychologically I was just out of brick wall and I was falling apart and saying things I didn’t mean. And so anyways, I just came to a realization that I needed to take care of my body, which I hadn’t done my whole life. You know, I’m always been a, you know, guitar player, girls like me, I didn’t need to hit the gym, you know.

Craig Garber (54:25.36)
Sure.

Craig Garber (54:36.279)
Had not, really.

Craig Garber (54:41.638)
Right. I’m shocked because you’ve always been like slim and fit.

Todd Park Mohr (54:42.87)
doing my cardio, you know? I’ve been slim and lucky, but not healthy.

Craig Garber (54:49.368)
Yeah, I getcha.

Todd Park Mohr (54:51.978)
and not strong. So I decided that I was going to change that. So I just did the daily thing, like half hour, 45 minute cardio, and then weights after that. So it takes me about an hour, five to an hour and 20 minutes or whatever. But I’ve done it every day since June 28th.

Craig Garber (54:53.562)
Right.

Craig Garber (55:12.731)
Good.

Craig Garber (55:20.47)
Wow, so that’s six months. That’s quite a bit. Yeah.

Todd Park Mohr (55:22.246)
except for when I’ve been sick and stuff, but it’s my daily thing. And for the first time, I’ve never been strong. I’m 50% stronger than I’ve ever been. And all kinds of my problems that I’ve had with my back and for being a guitar player have gone away. And I think it’s part of it. And not only that, but psychologically.

The way I feel about my family and myself, my relationships with my family. And I put it like this during the time when you’re working out, you’re loving yourself from the core. You’re starting with your brain and you’re dealing with your brain’s resistance to helping your body. And somehow I feel love.

Craig Garber (55:53.589)
Oh.

Craig Garber (56:06.774)
app. Totally.

Todd Park Mohr (56:22.558)
And I feel less desperate for love. I don’t know if that makes any sense, but all I’m saying is that one thing, that physical thing, ended up making a huge difference in my life. And I’m looking forward to keeping it going if I can. Yeah, it is.

Craig Garber (56:22.566)
That’s awesome.

Craig Garber (56:39.418)
Dude, that’s awesome. That’s a really good thing. Dude, you come here and play Tampa, we’ll have a workout in the morning, dude. That’s great, man. I bet you if you looked at, I don’t know if you’ve looked at your numbers, your basic things like blood pressure and, you know, basic markers, I bet you they’re down quite a bit if you’ve even looked at that stuff.

Todd Park Mohr (56:45.002)
Yeah, yeah, hell yeah, man, I’m on it.

Todd Park Mohr (56:58.282)
I took my blood pressure like a hundred over 80 or something like that. I can’t remember. Yeah. But yeah, I had, you know, I was a borderline diabetes and you know, if you don’t exercise, so much goes wrong so fast. And that’s really, and you don’t get energy unless you give it, you know, you spend energy. That’s how you get energy. That’s just such an ironic thing.

Craig Garber (57:02.118)
It’s nice and low. Yeah. That’s great.

Craig Garber (57:16.298)
Uh, so much, yeah.

Craig Garber (57:25.476)
Yeah.

Todd Park Mohr (57:27.114)
It just took my whole life to figure that out.

Craig Garber (57:29.23)
That’s great, man. That’s fantastic. That’s very inspiring. That’s good. I’m glad you probably feel so much better waking up, but you’re probably sleeping better. I can’t imagine. Yeah, that’s great. That’s good. Congrats. That’s a good. That’s a really good decision. Tell me. Most important thing you learned from your dad. You see dad was a hairdresser, right?

Todd Park Mohr (57:30.762)
Yeah, thank you.

Todd Park Mohr (57:37.395)
I can’t tell you everything’s better.

So it’s unbelievable.

Todd Park Mohr (57:54.134)
Yeah, he also was an upholsterer. The thing that he told me probably that was the most, that always stuck with me is this.

Todd, you’d be a genius if you were organized.

Craig Garber (58:10.644)
Ha ha!

Todd Park Mohr (58:11.846)
If you could just be organized, that’s what he told me. And he was dead right. So I’ve always struggled with order and organization.

Craig Garber (58:17.146)
That’s funny.

Craig Garber (58:24.474)
That’s interesting. How about your mom?

Todd Park Mohr (58:28.598)
You know, she just was the kind of lover, you know, like Jesus loves, you know, she loved everybody the same and fully and, you know, she just gave that to us. So that’s basically what I’d say about her.

Craig Garber (58:45.114)
That’s nice man.

Has your life been different than what you’d imagined?

Todd Park Mohr (58:52.338)
I could never have imagined the life that I have. Never.

Craig Garber (58:56.047)
That’s awesome.

Craig Garber (59:01.402)
Favorite place you’ve traveled. I know you’ve been all over.

Todd Park Mohr (59:04.738)
I like the Amalfi coast off of Italy, Positano, that area. There’s just something about the people and the culture and the food and the environment that I would choose if I had a chance to do it over.

Craig Garber (59:07.883)
in Italy.

Craig Garber (59:25.71)
That’s a very popular destination. Now, in fact, they have, it’s one of like, I saw, I don’t watch, I’m not on social media a lot, but I saw on Instagram, it’s one of the top Instagram places is Positano. Yeah. Toughest decision you had to make or most difficult thing you had to do. Divorce. Yeah.

Todd Park Mohr (59:28.107)
Yeah.

Todd Park Mohr (59:35.731)
Oh, is it really? Cool.

Todd Park Mohr (59:43.53)
Yeah, divorce, divorce. No question about it.

Craig Garber (59:47.79)
You know, I had, uh, I’ve had a few guys on the show. It had Simon Phillips on the show and the drummer. And he said, uh, he goes, I think I asked him that question. He goes, three divorces, nothing more, nothing more needs to be said. Um, last question, man. And thank you so much. This is, I was so stoked to get you on this show because I really enjoyed your music.

Todd Park Mohr (01:00:00.132)
Haha, yeah.

No doubt.

Craig Garber (01:00:16.39)
for so long. So thank you for all you’ve done for me and for everybody else out there musically, you and the rest of the guys. Yeah, man. Biggest change in your personality over the last 10 years and has that change been intentional or more of a natural part of aging?

Todd Park Mohr (01:00:18.807)
Cool.

It’s an honor. Thank you. I appreciate that a lot.

Todd Park Mohr (01:00:33.662)
Yeah, we talked about this earlier. It’s accepting flaws.

Craig Garber (01:00:36.226)
Accepting flaws. Yeah, cool. Was that natural or did you did you work at that?

Todd Park Mohr (01:00:41.17)
Yeah, I just had to really see myself like that part of myself because I can be very judgmental. And when you’re an artist, it’s a problem because the, excuse me, I got to wipe my nose here. Because your life is being judgmental or is evaluating, you know, the artistic value of something.

Craig Garber (01:00:59.31)
No, go ahead. Everybody’s got it.

Todd Park Mohr (01:01:10.41)
So you’re, our brains are too much. We expect too much perfection and don’t see the beauty and what’s really, you know, what’s real. Uh, I became too, I think I’ve been idealism has been a problem for me in relationships and.

Craig Garber (01:01:30.583)
Yeah.

So let me ask you this, that’s a big aha moment. What was the, if you’re comfortable, what was the trigger that made you say I need to like really look into this? Because that’s a pretty huge thing.

Todd Park Mohr (01:01:49.51)
Uh, I think I just got tired of losing my temper. I just got tired of feeling hurt. And, um, I think I realized that, you know, it’s not out there. The problem is, is this way fella. And, you know, that’s an easy thing to say, but, um, like you were saying, like you accept your own flaws, you can even seeing your own flaws is a big achievement.

Craig Garber (01:01:53.26)
Yeah.

Craig Garber (01:01:56.547)
Yeah.

Craig Garber (01:02:03.544)
Yeah.

Todd Park Mohr (01:02:17.538)
Probably none of us fully see our own flaws, but accepting yourself, you know, and the flaws you know about, I mean, you’re halfway to solving all the world’s problems if you could do that.

Craig Garber (01:02:32.134)
here a lot happier. That’s for sure. Hey, man, I want to thank you so much for everything. I really appreciate it. I want to tell people also one more time about what you guys have going on musically. New releases in June album titled TBD to be determined soon. Please go to bigheadtodd.com and check out the band. The new singles called Crush. It’s on Spotify and iTunes. The band’s gonna be dripping out singles leading up to the release of the album.

Todd Park Mohr (01:02:48.366)
That’s it.

Craig Garber (01:03:00.714)
and the upcoming single or one has just come out. I think it’s called Her Way Out. Will you be touring this year? I mean, I’m sure you are touring. Yeah, talk about that. Oh, cool.

Todd Park Mohr (01:03:07.986)
Yeah, I’m glad you mentioned that. We’re going to be at Red Rocks this year with the wall flowers. Uh, I think it’s June 9th. I can’t recall the exact day, but it’s right around there. And then, uh, I think we’re going to be doing, uh, some tours on the East coast and the South of blues traveler later in the summer. We did that. Yeah, we did that last summer for a spell and it’s been, it has been, it’s been fun for all of us, but.

Craig Garber (01:03:28.046)
with blues traveler? Oh, that’s so cool. That’s a really good pairing. That’s a good, yeah.

Todd Park Mohr (01:03:37.01)
audiences really like it because we kind of emerged around the same time. So, uh, and they’re really jamming and we’re less jamming. So I think that’s pretty complimentary.

Craig Garber (01:03:41.462)
Yeah, yeah.

Craig Garber (01:03:48.442)
That is awesome. I had Chan on this show a long time ago, funny guy. Yeah, he really is. Are you coming down here to Florida any chance?

Todd Park Mohr (01:03:51.018)
Yeah, he’s great.

Todd Park Mohr (01:03:56.862)
I hope so. I haven’t seen a Florida date yet. And it’s been a couple of years. People are really upset about it because we love going to Florida. So we got to make that happen. And we…

Craig Garber (01:04:01.538)
It’s a tough place to tour.

Craig Garber (01:04:09.082)
Dude, awesome. Hey, hang on a second. Any final words of wisdom or anything else you wanna promote or say or anything?

Todd Park Mohr (01:04:10.763)
Yeah!

Todd Park Mohr (01:04:15.67)
You’ve given me a great chance to say a lot of stuff. I appreciate you, Craig. Thank you kindly.

Craig Garber (01:04:19.278)
Thank you, man. Thank you. I appreciate it. Everybody thanks so much to listen in. If you enjoyed the show, pass it around on your socials. Thanks very much to Todd Pockmore for everything for being so open and candid and cool on the show and for 30 years of awesome music. Dude, you are so prolific. I mean, awesome. I mean, phenomenal. Oh, it’s phenomenal. And most important, remember that happiness is a choice. So choose wisely. Be nice, go play your guitar.

Todd Park Mohr (01:04:37.454)
That’s really sweet. Thanks. Appreciate it.

Craig Garber (01:04:47.662)
and have fun. Until next time, peace and love everybody. I am out. Thank you so much, brother.