Joey’s Song founder Michael Gomoll on music legends and epilepsy research

You found Wisconsin's local music authority. This is MagSync Radio. We are local music.

Joey Song has been bringing legendary musicians and epilepsy research together.

For many years now and this year the annual charity event is set to be bigger and better than

and longer than ever before. A freezing man festival created by Joey Song founder Michael Gummel

happens at the Sylvie Theatre on January 9th and in the new year and tons of legendary

musicians are coming out to the Mad City to perform and raise money for epilepsy research.

Here to tell us about the upcoming freezing man festival is founder Michael Gummel Mike.

Welcome to MagSync Radio. Yeah, a little rocker, how are you?

It's good to see you back here, man. Another Joey Song coming up, huh?

You can count the seasons by the Joey Song benefit, right?

How many years is it now? Well, technically we started Joey Song in 2010, but this is about

the 10th year of this format. So with the butch and all the musicians and all that other stuff,

10 years with the concert as we try to few other things and this is what stuck.

The Barrymore Theatre. Yeah, Barrymore, right?

Our very first one was actually on the volleyball courts at Pooley's.

Yeah, we had Freedy, we had Robbie Fulkes, and Sam Yanis from the Bodines came and we set up a

stage and we've kind of worked our way up for the Majestic, the High Noon, and then the Majestic,

and then the Barrymore, and now a couple nights at the Sylvester. That is crazy growth.

That is really impressive. Congratulations. Thanks, man.

You know, start by telling us a little bit about how you found the Joey Song and now the freezing

man festival. Yeah, so Joey Song is in honor of my son Joe, who passed away in 2010.

Just shy of his fifth birthday after battling a rare form of epilepsy.

And even when Joe was still with us, he was severely disabled and it was going to take a lot of

care. But we really wanted to do something to help the next family. But Joey had special needs

and at that point his brother and sister were four and seven, right? So we were just trying to make

it to bedtime, let alone start a charity. But then after he passed, then it was time to get

serious about this. And so we decided, take advantage of my, let's show we say misspent youth

here in Madison, kicking around headliners and some of the clubs and reconnected with Neil

Pell Butchvig. And it's kind of grown into this festival now where we bring in all these, you know,

Rock and Roll Hall, Famers, Grammy winners, top 40 artists, all come to Madison, Wisconsin,

from their warm homes in LA, January 9 and 10 and play music. And the great thing, Rockers,

they don't necessarily always play their music. They play covers and they play together.

They form these super grips and they do it because it's important to fund this research. And

and I before we go any further, everybody that we're going to talk about tonight comes in place

for free. None of them take a penny to play. They come for several days, they rehearse,

they get themselves thrown into situations that they don't normally do. There's not a single

person that we're going to talk about tonight that makes a penny. They get two beers in a ham

sandwich from me as their payment for doing Joey songs. Now what I want to know is how many of them

don't bring winter heads? Well, a lot of them don't because we stay at a hotel right by the

right by the Sylvia and they quickly run over in their jammies, you know, kind of stuff. But yeah,

we there's been more than a few people as I've been recruiting them. They go, I'd really like to

do it, but Madison Wisconsin and January. Yeah. And then I have butch column and he plays down

the law and then we're fine. So does anybody get a discount for wearing shorts? I mean, we are

Wisconsin. Well, you know, the last couple of years, it's been really cold that time. But maybe

this will be maybe this will be the year when it's not quite so winter blasty. Tell us about

some of the artists coming this year and who you are most excited to bring to Madison for the first

time. And Joey's saying, I know you were just telling me you even got some news today.

Got it. Got an artist today. It's a it's a year-round process really recruiting artists because

the thing is most of them want to. But it's got to they've got to be available this specific

weekend, you know, and it doesn't always work out that way. We have people that say no and then say

yes at the last minute because their schedule change and vice versa. So first we're bringing back

a lot of the folks that everybody knows. So we got Vicki Peterson from the Bengals and we got

John Gorley from Portugal, the man in Butch and Duke from Garbage and you know the crew that

everybody just knows and loves Gil Greenwood from Belly and Kay Hanley from Letters to Clio.

And coming back this year, one of those folks that originally had said no and is coming back

is John Resnick from the Google dolls. The lady seemed to like the John Resnick. So it's good that

and John and seriously Johnny had originally said no and then about two months ago I got a call

from him saying I'm coming because it's it's fun and John's just a good cat too. And then we

got a bunch of new people coming. So besides all those folks that I mentioned, we've got two gogos,

Jane Weedlin and Gina Shock are coming. Jane is a Wisconsinite by birth.

But here in Madison back in the end of the 2007-2008 time. Right. Yep. So we got Jane

Cumman and then Hugo Burnham from Gang of Four for you people that were into your alt,

alt punk dance rock. Hugo's coming Tracy Bonham, who was a Grammy award nominee.

What's that? She's a violinist. Yes, absolutely. That's exactly who she is.

And then you mentioned the news, well first the other person that's coming back that's always

one of our big draws even though I've heard him sing and he does okay is Charlie Barons.

So Charlie Charlie's coming back and he's going to he's going to kind of emcee things and keep

stuff sort of moving along. Oh, fun. But you're moving. Yeah, it's the fellow. Yeah, that's exactly

right and watch out for deer. But the news I got today is Kurt Smith from Tears for Fears.

Wow. So they just got done last year doing a huge stadium tour in the US and Europe I think

was the 40th anniversary of songs from the big chair. And Kurt just sent me an email today after

a couple months of cajoling him saying, yep, I can do it. So I'll be there. So that's that's a big

one that we weren't planning on. And of course, I'm so the thing is so butch is my musical director

for all this. He's the one that makes his work. Well, Tears for Fears music has lots of

complexity to it. You've got to get synthesizers and programming everything. Well butch is down in

Australia right now garbage is touring down under. So we're communicating at the strangest times.

I said, oh yeah. And he's like, well, we got to get a sequencer and then we got to do that.

It's stuff that's well beyond me. I'm really glad I have a multi Grammy winning producer keeping

this going because I went, but anyway, Kurt Smith was the big news to Tears for Fears. That's incredible.

I wish I wasn't a good enough place to get casual emails from Kurt Smith.

I'm, I'm Jane. I'm very fortunate. Very fortunate. Yeah, I for sure. So those are all the folks,

the one person that the one group that's not able to come back this year that plays every

year is all the cheap trick guys. So Rick and DAX can't they've just finished up a eight-month

tour with heart. Yeah, they were just here, right? They were coming. They were supposed to come in

December. They canceled that because they just needed some time down. So they're going to be at

the Sylvie in January. But usually Rick and DAX and Miles and all those guys are here and

they've always supported me from day one. So when I got the call, it said, you know, we really just

need a break. And I said, all right, we'll let you, we'll let the Rock and Roll Hall of Famer take a

break. So he's got some whiskey to some vodka. Yeah, he sure does. How much money have you raised

for epilepsy research? And what, what do your proceeds actually do? Yeah. So as of last year,

we've raised $1.75 million in our fight against epilepsy. And we work mostly, although we do

small grants with things like the epilepsy foundation and other charities that do support

services, we focus most of it on research. And there's an organization out of Chicago called

Cure, Citizens United for Research and Epilepsy. It's run by Susan and David Axelrod. Axe was

President Obama's chief strategist. Axe Capital. That's different. That's different. Although

I wouldn't be surprised if he's got something to do with it. So, so Cure, as you can tell by their

name, is focused on research. And that's what's important to us. Other things, patient services and

awareness are all great for our family research is what you got to find a cure. We got to put a

dent in some of the carnage. Like you said, you're trying to help the next the next family. Somebody,

somebody is was in a neurologist office today, getting a diagnosis that scary and unknown. And

they don't, they need to know that somebody's out there fighting for that, right? We're gonna,

that we're gonna try to do it. So Cure helps me because I couldn't read one of those medical RFPs

and know what's a good one or a bad one. But they help me. So they, we figure out the money

every year. And then they point me to the right folks to make sure that it's going into the right

pockets so that the right people can keep mixing the test tubes and do the stuff that they need to do.

Are you planning 2027 yet? Sadly, sadly, yes. Sadly, so I got to tell you, rocker, I work harder now

and I do this for free. This is my retirement, you know, payback. I work harder now than I ever did

in 30 plus years with IBM and doing all the stuff that I did. But it's great. You know what I mean.

I mean, as Jane was saying, today I was over at my folks house and I got an email from Kurt Smith.

So, you know, it's kind of cool. You'll love it. It's gonna be, gonna be honest with you. It's

kind of cool. How did he find out more about Joey's song, Freezing Man and Epilepsy Research?

So, JoeySong.org is the hub for everything. You can find out how to get tickets. We've got

some auction items that end actually before the show. So, we've got some meet and greet. So,

if you want to meet Charlie Barons, if you want to meet John Resnick, if you want to meet ButchVig,

there's some auctions that are live now that end the week of the show. January 5th or 6th, I don't

have it. You think I'd have it memorized by now. So, that auction, there's an auction button on

the website. There's a donate button. There's a ticket. But all the stuff you would need to do,

the other place that I would suggest people is find us on all the socials. We're at Joey's

song on everything, except Twitter because I stopped supporting Fashers in a while ago.

Yeah, good. That website's a sinking ship. I'm still there, but I'm probably gonna jump pretty

soon. Good on you. Good on you. So, I'm willing to sacrifice that. But that's where we make other

than when I'm on your radio. She'll make all the announcements. So, it won't be until tomorrow

that everybody else will find out about Kurt Smith. But we know. But the socials are the place

where we make all the announcements and really keep everybody up to date on all the stuff that's

going on. So, Joey's song.org on the website and Joey's song on all the socials. Wow, how cool

is that? We get the news first. You did? Yeah, if you want to know everything first, like this

in the maxing radio. That's right. You won't regret it. We're on the cutting edge. Yeah. The

leading edge. Right here. I almost got to clean myself off. It's going to be leading edge here.

Michael, go on with Joey's song. Thank you so much for coming in the chat with us tonight.

We really appreciate it. Good to see you back in the chair, Rocker. Oh, man. And, you know,

we have a song from the Gogo's coming up here. Jean Wheatland, former Madison. Yeah. Right?

She was in the Gogo's. No way. I'm Jane from Madison too. That's crazy. That is insane.

Rock and roll. Maybe someday. Never know. Oh, Joey's song for easy man festival.

Coming up January 9th and 10th at the Sylvie Theater in Madison and go to Joey's song.org

for more information right now. Let's hear from the Gogo's. They are partially a Madison band.

Yep. We got the beat. Close enough. Maxing radio. We are local music.

You found Wisconsin's local music authority. This is Maxing radio. We are local music.