Jeremy Wagner on Brutal Honesty, Chef Curtis Duffy, Memoirs, Peter North & Making Life Count // #059

heartdea13r Podcast w/ chr1stoph3r g0nda // Episode 59 // Jeremy Wagner (Author, Musician, Publisher, Film/Screenwriter)

Episode Summary:

Jeremy Wagner discusses the significance of brutal honesty in storytelling, particularly in memoir writing. He shares his personal journey, influences, and the cathartic nature of being honest about one’s experiences. The discussion also touches on the balance between honesty and respect for others in storytelling, the vibrant music scene in Chicago, and the evolution of his writing and music career. Wagner emphasizes the importance of passion and motivation in creative endeavours and shares insights about his personal museum dedicated to his interests in horror, music, and film.

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Full Episode Transcript:

Chr1stoph3r G0nda (00:10.274)
So why don’t we start there, man? Brutal honesty. Why is honesty so important to you? I mean, I know why it is now. Publisher, books, et cetera. But like, how did you fall into the honesty thing? Because not everyone’s like that.

Jeremy Wagner (00:26.763)
Because I’ve read enough memoirs for one, and writing a memoir for Chef Curtis Duffy, his memoir, Fighter Proof, when he asked me to write that, I’d been friends with him for a while and I asked him a couple things. When he approached me to write his memoir, he’s younger than me, so I’m like, why the hell do you want to write a memoir?

Right now you’re a young guy. Tell me something I don’t know. I’ve known you for years. And he started telling me about his origins and how brutal it was. I was like, Holy cow. I I’m like, I’m in, you know, and, uh, with what he told me is really in line with like one of the best blurbs we got from the for fireproof from, uh, author named Peter Blonard, New York times bestselling.

author who I really love his work. He gave us a blurb that said something like, fireproof is like Anthony Bredain’s kitchen confidential meets sons of anarchy or vice versa. Sons of anarchy means Anthony Bredain’s kitchen confidential. So that’s true because the way Curtis was brought up was so, so brutal.

And the way he persevered and what he’s achieved in life was incredible. to that end, Christopher, my angle was circling back to what I said about, I’ve read a lot of memoirs, a lot of memoirs that bored me to tears. People don’t want to give any dirt or admit anything that maybe they’re not proud of or.

Chr1stoph3r G0nda (02:08.589)
Mm.

Jeremy Wagner (02:19.18)
Maybe it’s traumatic for him and whatnot. And to that end, and with other people I’ve actually spoken to do memoirs, they’re like, I’d have to wait for a bunch of people to be dead. Because if I was brutally honest and they’re alive, I’m afraid I’d throw them under a bus. Or I don’t want to be that guy to put that out there. So I respect that. But for me,

As a reader, who’s read memoirs and just was like, a lot of stuff that was a waste of time and paper, you know, I’m like, if I’m going to do a memoir for Chef Curtis Stuffy, I want to do something that really packs a punch and leaves no stone unturned. And he was on, Curtis Stuffy was on board with that. In that honesty, brutal honesty,

is something that, as a reader, you’re getting the full story. You’re not candy-coating anything. And your takeaway is like, wow, that person really went safe through hell and back or whatever. And they floored me because they said this happened or that. And that’s stuff I can appreciate. And interesting thing about being brutally honest from

The other side, the person that who’s being brutally honest, Christopher, is like in Curtis Belfee’s case, he found it very cathartic to do 60 hours of interviews with me to get that out, you know? So that was a bonus. And then with the film, Peter, they just did a premiere in Vegas. It was a huge success. Doing a documentary,

Chr1stoph3r G0nda (03:58.294)
Mm.

Jeremy Wagner (04:18.028)
This is my second one. The other one is gonna be coming out. It’s also about Curtis Guffey. I told Peter, whose real name is Alvin Brown for those who don’t know, I told him, I said, hey Al, if we’re gonna do this Peter North Dock, there are some things either you’ve denied for decades.

like starting out in gay porn before doing straight porn. Because the mob owned the studios back in the day and he owed them money actually. And it’s a hell of a story. And then, you know, he found out he could be doing straight porn. And, you know, at the time between AIDS and that business, people wouldn’t work with

male stars who did that kind of thing. And that’s why he denied it for years. That and, you know, he didn’t want to be blacklisted or, you know, I think he felt at the time some shame about it. So, I sat him down with my partner, Corey Soria, the director, and said, you gotta tell that story and anything else.

Chr1stoph3r G0nda (05:31.693)
Mm-hmm.

Jeremy Wagner (05:44.587)
that has come up in the news over the years. You have a platform, come clean, because there’s so many docs out there about this business, if you will, the adult entertainment business that are kind of like, my takeaway has been kind of like memoirs. There’s like sugar-coated fluff pieces. They’re not really giving layers, right, to.

to make somebody three-dimensional and humanize them. And I want that extracted from anybody I’m doing something on. Again, whether it’s a memoir or a documentary, brutal honesty, I think, goes a long way. And I don’t think there’s that. And that’s the way I roll in life as well. So I just really think honesty is paramount.

not only in a life story, just in general, you know? So that’s where I come from with that angle.

Chr1stoph3r G0nda (06:51.95)
Yeah, I appreciate that.

I think that there’s so much importance in being honest to me. You said so many key things, right? Like when you have those conversations, it is cathartic because it’s almost like therapy. It’s therapeutic when you relieve yourself of some of these things that maybe are bothering you. I’m going back to my initial question. Obviously you’ve been inspired by these people that you’re working with to be even maybe more candid than you normally would be. But you yourself, were you raised that way or is it something you learned along the way?

Jeremy Wagner (07:22.464)
Yeah, I would say I was raised that way. Right now in a nanosecond when you ask that question, immediately first thought was my maternal grandmother came right into my brain. My grandma, my grandma research, she really was always about, know, the honesty is the best policy, know, you could

Chr1stoph3r G0nda (07:47.139)
Yeah.

Jeremy Wagner (07:49.43)
good person and be honest, you know. And frankly, throughout my life going on 56 this August, I mean, there’s been between girlfriends, relationships and other things, I haven’t been quite honest with some people over the years when I was younger, despite what grandma instilled in me. you know, I grew up.

Christopher and I guess I’m like, you know what? Just be a straight shooter, you know? Not like you’re gonna be flayed alive if you tell the truth, even if it hurts, you know what I mean?

Chr1stoph3r G0nda (08:22.798)
So,

Chr1stoph3r G0nda (08:31.01)
Yeah, I mean, I think it’s a natural human instinct to want to control the narrative, but that’s also because we’re scared of what other people might think or scared of other people’s judgment. And you have to, I guess, leave it up to God. Have faith in terms of, if I’m a good person, I’m a good character, and I’ve made mistakes and I atone for those mistakes, then hopefully I’m not going to have everyone piss off on me, you know?

Jeremy Wagner (08:56.785)
Right, yeah, exactly. And going back to the Peter Premier, that section where for the first time ever and on camera, he tells a story of how he got in the business and it happened to be a gay porn. He wasn’t Peter North at the time, he was Matt Ramsey. And he came clean on camera, told the whole story.

of why it was a means to an end. no one wants the mafia on them and potentially get your legs broke or dead or something. That’s all in the film. that was on screen at the premiere, I know for a fact he was still hung up about it. It’s something that was always.

being denied for decades and he had that inside him and he was like coming clean but you could tell like he was like on the set like okay, wiping his brow and getting ready to say the truth and come clean and which he did and that was the stocks been in the works for a while. So when that premiere came and that part came up,

He ended it with the Matt Ramsey era and whatnot. And it says something to the effect, I’m paraphrasing, but it was something like, it feels really good to come clean and I’m not ashamed of it at all. There was a round of applause for that part. And that made me feel good for him because that was a hangup. He came from a different era.

And he did that. And we were able to get that out of him, Corey and me. And to see that support of all his peers and all these people packed in at the premiere made me feel really good for him, because I’m sure that felt good, because there is nothing to be ashamed of. And that honesty went a long way, you know? Yeah.

Chr1stoph3r G0nda (11:16.566)
Yeah. It’s like the pimple effect, know? Everything is always subjectively worse than it is objectively. My business partner is a writer. He loves horror. He’s his own worst critique. He’s like, oh, this is shit. It’s the worst thing I’ve ever written. I’m like, no, dude, this is phenomenal. When you get a pimple, you feel like it’s the biggest thing in the world, but no one else even cares. You know, we have to feed over ourselves.

Jeremy Wagner (11:23.615)
Mm. Mm.

Jeremy Wagner (11:36.224)
Yeah. That’s a great analogy. You’re so right about that. You know, we get up on things that we think is, you know, this glaring Himalayan mountain of an issue, whether it’s a temple or something else, and the rest of the world doesn’t see it that way, you know? And sometimes it takes you asking someone like, am I?

wrong here, I have an unnecessary point of view of myself, and getting some kind of reassurance. You’re right about that. I just know that for myself.

Chr1stoph3r G0nda (12:19.566)
Once you get on the, I mean, once you drop something and you’re on the other side of it looking back, you realize like, what was I embarrassed about? What was I ashamed about? Like my good friends are still here and I can still keep going. Let me ask you just cause when I was putting together notes for this chat and I saw the Peter North stuff, I was like, is this real? Is it serious? I’m 46.

Jeremy Wagner (12:40.555)
Mm-hmm.

Chr1stoph3r G0nda (12:42.144)
I grew up in that era of the Peter Norths and the Jenna Jamiesons, you know, and the North Pole series. Like, I remember that stuff. How did you even link up with Peter in the first place?

Jeremy Wagner (12:46.495)
Yeah. Yeah.

Jeremy Wagner (12:57.087)
Best one of my best friends Corey Soria and he he’s a long time adult film director who has gone by the name name of Craven Morehead and he had a company or so as coming called Black Wings Media and then he went he’s still in that business, but he’s also done a number of music videos.

think a couple independent horror films and whatnot. that said, going back to Cory being in the adult entertainment business as a director for adult films, he got his break in the business from Peter North. Peter, again, real name, Alden Brown, used to go into a store Cory worked at when he was a young man. I think it was Costco.

or something, and then, uh, Al would go in there all the time, Al and Brown, him and Corey hit it off. So every time he’d go into the Costco or whatever, he’d seek out Corey, Corey would help him. And then I think, uh, Corey joined the gym that he worked, that Al and Brown worked out and stuff and they hit it off. And that’s when Peter was still.

doing films for others, but transitioning into that North Pole production company you mentioned, North Pole Production Company. So Corey was a part of that. And the two of them, they’ve been together. They were working together. Peter North, for all the Brown, is retired. He’s 68, oh, not 69, I believe. Corey got his foot in the door thanks to

Chr1stoph3r G0nda (14:28.835)
Mm-hmm.

Chr1stoph3r G0nda (14:45.165)
Yeah.

Jeremy Wagner (14:50.794)
Peter slash Al. And then with that relationship, some years back when my other partner at my production company, Photic Media, my partner Frankie Nasso, he’s like a veteran filmmaker. He did a great doc on Harry Belafonte, for example, called Senior Song. And he won a Cannes Film Festival Award for it.

Really proud of Frankie. He’s a phenomenal veteran filmmaker. him and I were doing our own films. then one day I was talking to Corey and he’s like, Hey, I think I could get Al to actually do a Peter North doc. Cause if you think about it, Christopher, anyone that knows the name Peter North, this guy’s iconic.

Chr1stoph3r G0nda (15:43.906)
Mm-hmm.

Jeremy Wagner (15:46.539)
uh, a legend. mean, like he, he was like the real life dirt diggler out of boogie nights, you know, and, and, um, and I’m like, uh, I was, I was already familiar with the story much like Kurt Svelte, know, fighter proof. I was fascinated by that, that human experience, you know, uh, you got a kid from Halifax, Nova Scotia named Alden Brown, who upon graduating high school, his dream was

Chr1stoph3r G0nda (15:51.746)
Yeah, yeah.

Jeremy Wagner (16:15.05)
It sounds cliche like Guns N’ Roses, Welcome to the Jungle. I’m to go to Hollywood and become a model or maybe I’ll be a movie star, some kind of celebrity. And then when he got there, like other young people have in history, his life took a totally different trajectory. And Alden Brown became Peter North. And when you see the beginning of the doc, whenever it comes out,

Chr1stoph3r G0nda (16:35.714)
Yeah.

Jeremy Wagner (16:43.562)
That’s kind of how it starts. It’s like, hi, I’m Alden Brown and I’m here to tell you how I became the infamous Peter North. And boom, that’s where the film starts and goes. So I’m fascinated by incredible human journeys and stories, true life stories. And even with my fiction, some of the things that I base my ideas on are based on like real things.

that happened, that f***ed me, if you will, you know what I mean? but all credit to Corey Soria for getting Peter in and then from there connecting me with him and Peter slash Al and saying, look, I’m going to write this and produce it and make it. Corey’s going to direct it. I, before I…

Chr1stoph3r G0nda (17:13.485)
Yeah.

Hmm.

Jeremy Wagner (17:40.156)
sink a penny into this thing in time and energy, please, I need you to be brutally honest. And just your opportunity to say whatever you want as well that people might not know. And he was in. And he came through. He came through, and it was really, really wonderful. But that’s basically how it happened. Yeah.

Chr1stoph3r G0nda (17:47.213)
Yeah.

Chr1stoph3r G0nda (18:03.0)
That’s cool. I mean, so for you, for you, the story is really important. Authenticity is important. I value the same things. I am a dad, so I always have stupid daddisms going on in my head. And you mentioned AIDS and then like, you know, not wanting to be covered in that. Sorry, covered in that, it sounds horrible. Not wanting to be associated with that. He obviously didn’t have any issues, but he was trying to hide from that.

Jeremy Wagner (18:14.004)
Mm-hmm.

Jeremy Wagner (18:27.529)
Right.

Chr1stoph3r G0nda (18:28.332)
When you do his biography, the written version, maybe you should title it Coming Clean.

Jeremy Wagner (18:34.014)
Yeah, like that. I like that. No pun intended, right?

Chr1stoph3r G0nda (18:37.23)
You

Chr1stoph3r G0nda (18:42.028)
Yeah, Let me…

Jeremy Wagner (18:44.574)
God damn, that’s a great title. If that happens, now it’s on record. I gotta give you credit in the book.

Chr1stoph3r G0nda (18:51.904)
Okay, I don’t want the credit. want you to be successful and for you to be happy.

Jeremy Wagner (18:54.346)
It’s kind of like, if I’m not mistaken, and if I remember this wrong, whoever’s listening and watching this, forgive me, but I believe a guy, Ron Quintana, who is a Bay Area DJ, I think it was KUSF Radio, had this show where he had played Metallica a lot.

you know, mid 80s or early 80s to mid 80s and whatnot. And him and Lars, all Richard friends for, for, for a long time. And it was Ron Quintana who had, he out before the radio stuff and everything way back, he had a heavy metal underground fanzine and he didn’t know.

Chr1stoph3r G0nda (19:25.581)
Yeah.

Jeremy Wagner (19:42.93)
He had two names, I believe. One was Metallica and one was Metalmania. anyone could Google this, it was like, Lars was like, you should call the fanzine Metalmania. And then Lars took the name Metallica for the band. And like, that’s out there. So I mentioned that with you. Coming clean is a title, a bio I do.

on Peter North, you gotta be in the acknowledgments or something. mean, credit goes where credit’s due. So that’s why I told you the Rampana story, because it’s like, interesting. Someone came up with that title, would have never known, you know?

Chr1stoph3r G0nda (20:17.537)
I’ll see.

Chr1stoph3r G0nda (20:25.806)
I appreciate that. It’s important to pay respect, I agree. You said something earlier that I want to come back to. V13 Media Group is expanding. We started as the website. We’ve been online for 21 years. We started with rock, metal, punk, hardcore, and then eventually diversified into all music and from there, culture, entertainment, and literature. And then…

About three, four years ago, we developed a music promotion company, which is now just a full artist development agency. And we now have V13 Press, our own publishing arm. And we are working on our first half a dozen books now that will hopefully all come out this year. Somehow, horror and short fiction has been like the big topic. And then the other one is artist stories. We’ve got a couple, you know,

autobiographies and biographies that are coming that are really fascinating. You said that you had someone that was like waiting until other people died to tell the truth. What’s the balance? What do you think the balance is of being brutally honest but being respectful of people that you might have worked with but that you still have like truths to say about?

Jeremy Wagner (21:37.863)
You know, there’s one thing, I guess it would depend how, say that person was telling this story. It depends who they’re talking about. You could either push that person, nudge them, like, look.

Chr1stoph3r G0nda (21:48.62)
Hmm.

Jeremy Wagner (22:00.05)
You want to wait till someone’s dead. if you don’t work with them and haven’t seen them in years, I get it. You’re being respectful. know, there’s always names have been changed to protect the innocent, right? You could do that. I did that in fireproof with a couple of people that I knew who would be, you know, iterate about.

stuff Curtis said, you know, that came out as well. People that Curtis knew very well would come out and be irate. Name was mentioned or whatever. So changed a couple of names. And I also, for the readers, was very transparent saying to change the name to this, you know, blah, blah. And it worked out great, you know.

Chr1stoph3r G0nda (22:35.715)
Hmm.

Jeremy Wagner (22:54.345)
And he told the story. So other people, it’s like, say that same situation. It’s like, look, you want to have a memoir, a bio that tells the truth and nothing about the truth. You don’t want to offend anyone. You have respect. That’s a great thing. You can be brutally honest and change your name or whatever. And when I said it depends on the person,

There are certain people who you could change the name, but you’re going to know who they are just because they’re like celebrity level or super rock star level. Right. I get that being a little bit tricky to get out. So the only the only thing I could suggest to those people is again, could change the names.

Chr1stoph3r G0nda (23:36.867)
Yeah.

Chr1stoph3r G0nda (23:41.005)
Mm-hmm.

Jeremy Wagner (23:55.304)
you know, do it the right way. you know, it’s like, don’t make it a story that you’re sharing that you want or that you could share that you’re going to take to the grave because that’s a big component missing. Even if people, readers aren’t aware that it happened, you know, we know, they know. It’s like that could really have impact on a reader.

Chr1stoph3r G0nda (24:09.39)
Mmm.

Chr1stoph3r G0nda (24:24.675)
you

Jeremy Wagner (24:25.417)
in one way or another, hopefully positive, in a positive way. Or just like, wow, holy cow. Depending on what the situation is, someone can be like, well, I feel better about myself. You know what I mean? So that would be my approach to someone who has other heels. And I’ve had people.

Chr1stoph3r G0nda (24:43.746)
Yeah.

Jeremy Wagner (24:54.387)
that I mentioned that I’ve approached like, you hey, you should do a memoir and this and that. And that’s the answer I got. Like I’d love to, but I have to wait for certain people to be dead or you know what, I don’t want to tell everything because I don’t want to hurt anyone and whatnot and you know, whatever. I get that. I have a memoir that

We, we, my, my publishing company, this guy publishing, signed Mitch Harrison, they pumped death to do his memoir. And same thing. said, you gotta be brutally honest. And, there were a couple of things where he said, I’m not going to name a name. just going to say, this is a promoter or this was.

Chr1stoph3r G0nda (25:31.843)
Mm.

Jeremy Wagner (25:52.507)
someone on this instrument, but I don’t want to hurt anyone. So that worked out great because that’s how we handled it. He came clean, but he also, with respect to his nature, we didn’t call that person out, so to speak. With Curtis Duff, his memoir, he was like, no, I’m cool. I’m going to just fucking say.

Chr1stoph3r G0nda (26:13.058)
Yeah, yeah. Yeah, I mean.

Jeremy Wagner (26:21.254)
This person did that or that. And then there are only two people I changed the names on just because I know they’re, you know, bad shit crazy from them. And they go nuts. But we told the story and I explained why, you know, but yeah, there’s, with me again, I don’t know about you, how many, you know, memoirs you’ve read, whether they’re rock.

Chr1stoph3r G0nda (26:31.011)
Mm-hmm.

Chr1stoph3r G0nda (26:38.915)
Yeah.

Jeremy Wagner (26:50.064)
star memoirs to chef memoirs or whatever, but the sheer ivory.

kind of left me bored. Like, they get much on that. Some of it’s interesting, but you didn’t go here and you didn’t go there. That’s what I’ve

Chr1stoph3r G0nda (27:11.054)
Yeah, I mean, I agree with you. It goes back to that first point about just being authentic and telling it how it is. But there’s that like that there’s a balance. You know, it’s funny you answered my question and as you were answering, I was thinking about it. Maybe I asked from the wrong angle because I’m less concerned with someone not sharing enough. I’m too concerned with someone sharing too much. And then as the publisher, you know, what kind of liability is there when someone gets pissed off? So is that

Jeremy Wagner (27:38.557)
Right.

Chr1stoph3r G0nda (27:40.416)
Is the simple answer just to change names based on who you think may or may not get offended?

Jeremy Wagner (27:48.305)
Yeah, with the fireproof memoir, for example, again, the one name I changed was because a former partner of Curtis Goffey’s had been hell bent on this, unfortunately, ruining his career years ago. And he was also like a Sioux.

Sue Happy maniac, a businessman, that type of guy that would literally declare, you know, come after me. I have F you money, you know, like that kind of thing. knowing that, was like, you know, well, I don’t want to mention his name. People that know your story or Google you in your old restaurants, New York Times or Chicago Trib.

They’ll know who we’re talking about. And in the story, that you could, you could Google that, but like the guy’s name, I, I, what I decided on was this is a really bad guy. And I was like, how can I get creative with working this out? So Curtis can tell exactly what his experience was without.

you know, having the, some dude come out of the woodwork just to sue for fun, you know, cause he hates Curtis. So I’m like, wait, there, there’s this, this Greek God, Man, Delos who was the Greek God of like lying deceit, selfishness, you know, he’s really shady.

Chr1stoph3r G0nda (29:19.789)
Yeah.

Chr1stoph3r G0nda (29:39.181)
Mm-hmm.

Jeremy Wagner (29:42.171)
nasty things. It was like the perfect name for this guy. If you looked up who this Greek god was, it’s like, okay, that’s it. And that’s how we played it out. Because you’re right, as a publisher and a filmmaker, you want to really cover your butt, you know, like making a documentary. I was on a huge learning curve because I had to get a bunch of archival.

Chr1stoph3r G0nda (29:50.872)
Yeah.

Jeremy Wagner (30:11.177)
footage cleared and some other photos and assets and stuff for content. And there were people who either gave us stuff for a fee. Some people gave us stuff for nothing, which was great. But then there were some others who were like, no, we don’t want you using that or mentioning.

Chr1stoph3r G0nda (30:12.782)
Mm-hmm.

Jeremy Wagner (30:41.788)
you know, in one of which in the Peter film, I would, as brutally honest as I am, I won’t mention his name, but I’ll just say there’s a drummer from a big eighties rock band who worshiped Peter North, dedicated three pages to him in his own memoir. And then when we asked him to be interviewed and wanted to use some content.

of his house from the old days from like MTV cribs and stuff, him and his manager were like, no, you can’t, you can’t do that. We won’t allow it. We’re like, well, what about the adoration for Peter that he has? I mean, he dedicated pages to this guy and his memoir. And they, was like, no, we don’t want to be associated with it. like, we.

Chr1stoph3r G0nda (31:38.35)
Thank

Jeremy Wagner (31:40.336)
I’ve got a legal team for films and books, but at the publishing company, just for those reasons to cover our book. But my legal team, when I told them the story, they were like, you’re telling me that guy is like, his manager are that hardcore about not wanting to be in the film despite all the stuff. yeah. And he’s like, did.

Chr1stoph3r G0nda (32:04.578)
Yeah.

Jeremy Wagner (32:07.866)
He suddenly find Jesus, because this was a guy who bragged about, you know, banging groupies and hookers and worshiping Peter, you know, and all this stuff. it’s like, I don’t know what to say, but they got a real problem. So we have to go a different route and, you know, license things that were owned by other companies to tell that story specifically. But that’s important for her to make sure, you know, you’re

Chr1stoph3r G0nda (32:18.285)
Mm-hmm.

Chr1stoph3r G0nda (32:32.024)
Yeah.

Jeremy Wagner (32:37.512)
you’re covered, you know, and look, even if you’re covered, people could still come after you, you know, unfortunately, but it depends on who your legal team is. And in my case, not just the legal team, like for films, we have to get insurance and you have to have a legal review, approve it, say, okay, the stuff.

Chr1stoph3r G0nda (32:39.427)
Yeah.

Jeremy Wagner (33:06.532)
is cold to use, don’t see like, say the subject of defamation. This is free and clear. This is good. Or you have archival footage where you can’t find the ownership of, does that fall under fair use? And lawyers review that. And once they review and approve, if you tweak stuff, then the insurance company gets that legal report and everything. And once you get that insurance, then if anyone were to come out, it would work.

You’ll never hear about it. The insurance company takes care of it. A perfect example is way back in the day, Howard Stern had that memoir he wrote. His first one, Private Parts. And I believe he, the publisher, hired Boids of London, if anyone’s remember that, big, 200-year-old or something firm that can insure anything, you know, like I heard of.

Chr1stoph3r G0nda (33:41.197)
Right.

Chr1stoph3r G0nda (33:49.826)
Mm-hmm.

Jeremy Wagner (34:06.108)
famous rock guitarists who’ve insured their fingers for millions of dollars through the voice of London. So they, I believe they actually insured the private parts book because it was Howard Stern and talk about being brutally honest, he said stuff in that thing where people could go, hey, you defamed me, Stern, I’m gonna sue you, you know.

Chr1stoph3r G0nda (34:11.852)
Yeah.

Jeremy Wagner (34:35.931)
That’s why you got lawyers and insurance and then you do your due diligence best you can to make sure that everything’s correct, you know. But, you know, at the end of the day, like I said, someone, some people will come out of the woodwork for any reason, you know. And hopefully that goes to anybody, but you know.

Chr1stoph3r G0nda (34:44.621)
Yeah.

Chr1stoph3r G0nda (34:54.39)
Yeah, I mean, we said.

Yeah. We said at the beginning of the chat, right? Like that, you’re.

You’re embarrassed about things or things will appear to you a certain way. You’ll get triggered by different things. It’s impossible to say how someone’s going to respond. We’ve done a couple interviews with you and you have this one line that I loved and basically you said, if a book offends you, that’s your problem. But like from a company and business perspective, it’s not that easy because you can’t just say like, well, this is you getting triggered, not me. Let’s…

Let’s go back a bit because as much as I’m fascinated about books, I want to talk about like horror and Jaws and music. You’re from Chicago, born in Chicago. And one of the things that like kind of tripped me up because I’ve never been to Chicago is this awesome little band that I’m a huge fan of that reached out to me like when I was just starting up websites.

Jeremy Wagner (35:39.941)
Mm-hmm.

Chr1stoph3r G0nda (35:57.832)
Soil and Mr. Sean Glass was so nice and he’s like, hey man, can I send you some music? And then I find out that you and him have worked together and played together. I’m like, how small is the scene? how, tell me a bit about the music scene there and how you fell into it.

Jeremy Wagner (36:02.087)
Mm-hmm.

Jeremy Wagner (36:13.778)
Yeah, it’s funny you mentioned Sean. I usually get a text from him every day about something. That guy has his finger on the pulse of metal news at all times, even before it comes out. So I’ve known Sean a long time, but the music scene, when I was growing up, I’m from the Northern Berbs of Chicago.

was born in a town called Libertyville, Illinois, which coincidentally, Tom Morello from Rage Against the Machine is from Libertyville. His mother was a teacher there. it’s a cool, area just north of Libertyville is Gurnee, Illinois, where I went to high school and we’re broken hope. My death metal band formed.

Chr1stoph3r G0nda (37:09.57)
Yeah.

Jeremy Wagner (37:11.099)
did all of our stuff. when I was younger, the Chicago music scene was fantastic. The metal scene has always been really strong, but just the bands that have come out of Chicago, whether it’s Smashing Pumpkins to Ministry to death metal bands and iconic ones. There’s Macabre and

Chr1stoph3r G0nda (37:32.759)
Hmm.

Jeremy Wagner (37:39.827)
and others, and, it’s always been a great scene and when I, but when I was younger, like in high school, when I said I went to school in gurney, Illinois, which is known for two big things, six flags, great America and the gurney mills mall, which is like at the time was like one of the biggest malls in Illinois when it was built. And, like.

There would be guys in bands and they were always cover bands. And I was always in the metal and thrash and writing original music. And I just remember they’d always be like, what the hell is that crap? You know, can’t understand the vocals, you know, and they’re playing like rat covers to, know, whatever and stuff. And I’m just like, whatever. was just cut the noise out, trading demo tapes to Broken Hope and trying to get our.

Chr1stoph3r G0nda (38:16.695)
Yeah.

Jeremy Wagner (38:37.179)
name on the map and going to tons of shows. the, the, the metal scene back then, I’m talking like eighties to now has always been strong to so many bands come out, have come out of Chicago. And I think Chicago’s got probably one of the most vibrant music scenes period. If you want to exclude metal, just in general, know, blue.

Chr1stoph3r G0nda (39:05.73)
Mm-hmm.

Jeremy Wagner (39:06.789)
You know, got Buddy Guy’s legends, know, Chicago’s a blues town and just phenomenal, phenomenal music’s come out of the city of Chicago. So, but for me, the scene has always been great, always been really strong. And there’s always tours and shows back to back. It seems like even more now, it’s like.

Chr1stoph3r G0nda (39:19.65)
Yeah.

Jeremy Wagner (39:34.371)
Sometimes it’s like there’s three shows in one night. Which one are you going to go to? You know, metal wise, you know, it’s a beautiful thing. Whether it’s a club or an amphitheater or whatever, you know, so it’s been strong and it’s super strong now, you know, I hope that kind of answered your question, you know, as an observer from Chicago and in a band, you know,

Chr1stoph3r G0nda (39:39.022)
Chr1stoph3r G0nda (39:51.18)
It’s a good.

Definitely, I mean, it’s a good problem to have.

Yeah, it’s a good problem to have. mean, like, common, even Kanye, he wasn’t born there, but he grew up there. There’s just so much music that comes from that scene. How did you kind of fall into death metal? Was music first, then horror, then writing? Did it all happen at the same time? Like, what was the arc for you?

Jeremy Wagner (40:28.166)
I always say that writing in books came first, I loved music, but I didn’t play music as a kid. I would play my parents’ vinyl constantly, the stuff I grew up on, just constant.

Chr1stoph3r G0nda (40:30.155)
nice

Chr1stoph3r G0nda (40:34.126)
Mm.

Jeremy Wagner (40:52.166)
music in the house, which was a great thing. And with my mom, she to this day is a voracious reader. I really got into what she was reading. I went from reading like kids books, Maurice Sendak, Where the Wild Things Are to, you know, my second, third grade, I was reading my mom’s paperback, like adult novels. And my mom had a

has always had a taste for darker stuff, mysteries, horror, whatnot. When Stephen King first came out, she had Carrie and Peter Straub ghost story and on and on. And I just sort of got hooked on it. And I was always into creepy, scary monster stuff too. I’m like a monster kid. So with that, I had.

an overactive imagination. And, I just started writing my own, you know, short stories, if you will, you know, so that I would say that the writing in books came first. then when I mentioned that, you know, I was always in the music playing my parents vinyl. had an aunt who was a, like a folk singer guitar player. And I was always fascinated with her acoustic guitar, like.

Chr1stoph3r G0nda (41:55.671)
Mm-hmm.

Jeremy Wagner (42:16.964)
Wow. Like, you know, I, it wasn’t like I was a kid going to concerts, you know, I see my aunt play and some of her friends and I was like, holy cow, this is amazing. How’s that? How are you doing that? You know, and I, the, guitar was this thing in my head like that is like an amazing instrument. And then when I got turned 12, I was begging my mom for a guitar and I, and I was starting to get into to level at the

So, you know, like it would have been around 82. I had all these albums by like Crocus. I remember Judas Priest Screaming for Vengeance had come out on and on. like, really want a guitar. Mom, can you get me, please give me a guitar. And she was dating a guy who was in a country band.

Chr1stoph3r G0nda (43:01.771)
Okay.

Jeremy Wagner (43:16.074)
And at the time I hated country. have a new, I have a different appreciation for it now. The older I get, the more eclectic my taste get. So this boyfriend said, well, if you’re going to get him a guitar, get him this, you know, Epiphone acoustic guitar. I, so I got that as a gift. And, not that I was ungrateful. I was super happy to get guitar, but also I was like, God damn it. I wanted an electric guitar. You know?

Chr1stoph3r G0nda (43:24.451)
Yeah.

Jeremy Wagner (43:45.946)
but she was like, I got you this guitar, enjoy it, and you’ll learn how to play on this. And I ended up dicking around on it. I didn’t take any music lessons or anything. I tried to learn some stuff from my aunt. And I ended up not taking it seriously. It took a few years, early teens. Then I’m like, okay.

Chr1stoph3r G0nda (44:11.265)
Mm-hmm.

Jeremy Wagner (44:15.355)
getting an electric guitar, I’m going to get serious about this. And that’s what I did. I traded in that acoustic guitar for an electric guitar. Went to a guitar teacher who was phenomenal because he was not only like, I was seeking methods, if you will, of metal methods playing.

power chords and riffs and stuff. But I also wanted to learn some music theory. And my teacher had a degree in music. He was classically trained, just like Randy Rhodes was almost. Classically trained. I even went to his recital when he got his degree. That’s how early on I was with this teacher. he could do…

all this classical stuff, and then he’s in this thrash band. They actually put out one album, the band was called Numb Skull, and they put out an album called Richly Abused, which they were a thrash band. And so I got the best of both worlds, music theory and riffing, and I was always about writing my own music. I didn’t want to play covers. So right then, my friend, was like, then it was neck and neck. I was always writing.

Chr1stoph3r G0nda (45:25.399)
Yeah.

Jeremy Wagner (45:32.314)
but then I’ll play guitar constantly, right? And then when I formed the band, it was almost like the natural thing. Even though I don’t sing, I wrote all the lyrics, you know, because I love writing so much. And our singer Joe, Rest In Peace, he was like, I dig your lyrics and, you know, keep writing that shit. It’s brutal. And I looked at it as like, hey, this is like,

Chr1stoph3r G0nda (45:44.416)
Mm-hmm.

Jeremy Wagner (46:02.116)
My lyrics are like micro fiction, know, was trying to, little horror stories, you know. So both were going full time, and writing stories, writing music. And then probably it was in the nineties, that’s when I’m like, went from, you know, short stories and lyrics to I got an idea for a novel. And I always use this analogy, Christopher, it’s like,

Chr1stoph3r G0nda (46:27.671)
Hmm.

Jeremy Wagner (46:31.723)
a band’s first demo. And I know from being in a band to have my first demo, at least for me, I thought it was the greatest thing ever made. Listen to our demo. This is bad ass. But in reality, it’s like, not that great. And you got more work to do. Keep working at your evolving your sound. And that’s how it was with my first demo. I did one draft and I thought.

Chr1stoph3r G0nda (46:48.055)
I’m

Jeremy Wagner (46:59.351)
I did, I wrote a novel, this is awesome. And then I soon learned, thankfully, working with pro editors, I learned that you really got to learn the craft and have these skills and do this, whether it’s talking in first person point of view to editing and language and tightening things up. You know, it’s all a learning curve and

working on that craft. So I really started taking that seriously and I just kept going until I started getting published. then I pretty much write full time, whether it’s novels, novellas, short stories, scripts, know, for film stuff, not just documentaries that I’ve written, but I’ve created TV series and things like that.

Chr1stoph3r G0nda (47:38.076)
and

Chr1stoph3r G0nda (47:58.221)
Yeah.

Jeremy Wagner (47:58.96)
Great about that is it kind of broadened my skills as a writer because writing a script and writing a novel are two different animals, but I just love writing. I love even the stuff some people would think is boring and mundane, like the editing. I love the editing and doing a new draft and then going on to something else and then coming back to it. It’s all fresh again. New eyes, doing it till it’s like, okay, this baby’s ready.

I love it, you know, it’s just all been that that’s my my writing and music evolution basically.

Chr1stoph3r G0nda (48:30.882)
Yeah.

Chr1stoph3r G0nda (48:39.106)
Cool. I appreciate it. And you inadvertently answered one of my other questions, which was like, you know, go to format and it sounds like it doesn’t matter if it’s a poem or a short story or a script or a novel, just like write, write, write, get it out. So you’ve talked a bit about.

your authenticity and how you feel like even more now than before that you want to be true to yourself and be honest with things. You talked a bit about how your evolution to where you are wasn’t necessarily I fell in love with horror and then it was this. It was writing and creation all the way through. What motivates you? What’s your drive? Why are you so ambitious? Why do you wake up and you’re like, I must do this?

Jeremy Wagner (49:21.519)
Well, I can tell you where I went with my motivation and where I’m at now. Where I start with my motivation is obviously a no-brainer. We all know now I love writing and I love writing music. Love writing books, love writing riffs, super heavy music. I always…

Tell people it’s sort of like a yin and yang symbol for me. Writing is one part of the yin and yang and music is the other. But I had all these other interests, you know, art wise, one art being film. I wanted to make original films. And I also have a publishing company too, but the publishing company happened kind of by accident.

I didn’t want to be a publisher. Sort of like I always say, I wouldn’t want to run a record label. I just want to make the art and put on albums. I just want to publish books and not be a… But everything that this guy worked out, cause I got a great team now, but that runs pretty much everything. And time, time is a thing with…

all these endeavors, OK? I don’t have enough time in the day for all. So that said, the motivation at the get-go is like, I want to dip my toe in this. I’m going to try that. And sometimes things just come to me. And I never do anything half-assed. I always try to make sure whatever I create and I’m involved with is of high quality.

and it’s really done the right way.

Jeremy Wagner (51:23.141)
And what I found out is having nine irons in the fire is a bit too much. And when I’m in a place now in my world where I’m like, with like the music bands touring and whatnot, I pick and choose my own battles. And the other guys in the band are kind of the same way too. You know, we’re at a point where it’s like,

All right, we’ve been there, done that, and we don’t want to be on the road eight weeks out of the year. And frankly, it’s not a career by any means, you know, for Broken Hope or Earthburner. It’s not something like that sustains your livelihood, your life, you know. It’s great, it’s great stuff, and I enjoy it, but just not doing the touring thing. And then with films, I’ve had a lot of success with that.

But the time to make that documentary appear, and ever after the Curse Stuffing Act that’ll be coming out, the time involved is so enormous between filming, getting archival footage, putting a story together on film. mean, these things take years. And at the same time,

I have works in progress. I’m talking my own books, right? And it’s holy shit. you, for me personally, it became overwhelming because everything starts either coming out at once or, know, you’re pulling all these different directions. And the thing about doing movies and bands and having a publishing company is there’s other people that I have to work with.

Chr1stoph3r G0nda (52:56.398)
and

Jeremy Wagner (53:21.718)
at all the time. with a band, you you got four or five guys with the production company and making films. There’s a dozen different people and the publishing company, again, I got a great team. They run it awesomely, thank God. So I’m not in the trenches. But these, you know, just imagine like the publishing company too, that’s at least six.

Five or six people that are working on that all the time at DevSky. So with that, I’ve got collectively, everything seems to happen at once with all these projects. I, you know, go merely skipping into with, you know, all motivated and like, yeah, I’m going to knock this out of the park. When all of a sudden you got 30 people hitting you up with texts, phone calls, emails, and got to do this, do that, blah, blah, blah. It’s like.

You know, I need to clone myself. I need like four of me to handle all this stuff. So in the last year, I’ve been working on getting more things off my plate basically, just so I can get to a point where I’m just focusing on writing. And then the other interests I have don’t have to happen at once. You know, what stuff happened, I’m still interested in it.

Chr1stoph3r G0nda (54:25.346)
Mm-hmm.

Jeremy Wagner (54:48.896)
still motivated depending on the subject, film-wise, or whenever I do another album again. It’s like there’s no push or pressure to do it. But I’ve always, just to take, sometimes take the long way around and answer a question. I give good interview, so no yes or no answers with me.

Chr1stoph3r G0nda (54:57.101)
Yeah.

Chr1stoph3r G0nda (55:08.311)
I’m

Jeremy Wagner (55:18.02)
I like, my attitude was, it’s always been like, yo, yo, life is short, make it count, you know? And why not try this or that, you know? And remember when I told you back when I was a teenager and I’d have other guys that were in cover band saying, oh, you’re that death metal and thrash, you know, blah, blah. Same thing with writing, you know, people would be like, oh, no one’s gonna wanna read that or this, you know?

back in the day. And I just, I always cut that noise out. And I had the wherewithal at a young age to know like, all right, there’s a reason we have, there’s a Stephen King or a Martin Scorsese or Michael Jordan, you know, these are people who worked super hard at, what they do because they’re passionate about it. When you’re passionate about something, the way I see it, you’re going to do it, whether you’re successful or not.

Maybe you like making wood sculptures in your shop, because it gives you joy. And then, who knows, next thing you know, you got a shop and you’re selling yourself. But that may or may not happen, but you still go in and do it because you like wood carving or writing or music. If you’re passionate about it, it’s not like you go in thinking, I’m going to be a success.

and be super rich and blah, blah. You know what I mean? Like, I’m doing it because I love it. So everything I’ve done creatively, I’ve done it with pure passion from the heart and see what happens after that. the whole point is I tried in life. I gave it a go. I made my time count, you know?

Chr1stoph3r G0nda (56:49.112)
Mm-hmm.

Chr1stoph3r G0nda (57:09.645)
Yeah.

Jeremy Wagner (57:16.302)
doing something I was interested in or involved, you know? And that motivates me, if you will. When I get up in the morning and have my cocoa pebbles and I’m thinking about what I’m gonna do that day, you know, it’s like, okay, I’m gonna get this done. I’m gonna try that onward, you know?

Chr1stoph3r G0nda (57:20.738)
Mm-hmm.

Chr1stoph3r G0nda (57:39.35)
Yeah, so you’re super passionate and it’s probably something that you grew up with and only got stronger as time went on. I don’t know, I wrote this down a few months ago and I can’t remember if I saw it somewhere or if came up with it, but I simply wrote, the soul’s purpose is your soul purpose and vice versa, you know? And I’m like you, if I feel passionate about something, if I feel like something is what I’m supposed to be doing,

I’m all in and I can’t be detracted from it until it’s done. I just recently chatted with Ryan Roxy, amazing guy, amazing musician, lead guitarist for Alice Cooper for like the last 30 years. And he simply said, enjoy the ride. know, just be present, be happy, enjoy the ride. And I think it sounds like you’re doing the same thing.

Jeremy Wagner (58:24.503)
Yeah.

Jeremy Wagner (58:31.233)
Yeah, yeah, I like that mindset. Enjoy the ride, you know? It’s like, it goes back in as cliche as it might sound to some people, life is short. It really is. Just this last week, two people unfortunately passed away. Either someone I knew or…

Chr1stoph3r G0nda (58:42.199)
Yeah.

Jeremy Wagner (58:59.427)
someone that was close to someone that I’m close to, you know, and like I’m sudden unexpected death, like the kind of thing you don’t see coming, right? So none of us know when we’re gonna go and with life, that passion of making everything count.

Chr1stoph3r G0nda (59:11.64)
Yeah.

Jeremy Wagner (59:23.331)
It’s not a cliche. It’s like a real thing for me, you know? And, uh, I mean, look at you. said what V 13 is going on 21 years. You’ve been around, you know, like I gotta applaud that because that’s like, that’s a long time and you’re doing what you like and, and, and that, and, and your scope is widened too. You know, it’s not just metal stuff and books and whatnot. have, you know, culture and entertainment and.

Chr1stoph3r G0nda (59:33.528)
Yep.

Jeremy Wagner (59:53.059)
all these different things. It’s really amazing. you’re a perfect example of making it count, you know? And I think, like the short amount of time we have on earth, and I say this and I’ll tell you, I don’t want to be a hypocrite. I’m going to say that no one wants to be miserable and be hating life and whatnot.

Chr1stoph3r G0nda (01:00:02.296)
Yeah.

Jeremy Wagner (01:00:22.212)
Unfortunately, a lot of people are like that. And I’m guilty of that too. There’s times where I’m just like, you know, is cheerful and bright and, you know, encouraging others to be positive and inspire. That’s all from my heart. But for me personally, I’ve had my moments and times where I’m like, you know, life sucks. I hate life, Dale.

Chr1stoph3r G0nda (01:00:37.998)
Mm-hmm.

Chr1stoph3r G0nda (01:00:48.686)
Yeah.

Jeremy Wagner (01:00:49.771)
I, you know, it’s a moment and taking a, when I felt like that, I’ve been able to take a step back and be like, you know, it could be worse. You know, some people have it worse and whatnot. it’s like, you know, some things you gotta just, as hard as they are, you gotta roll with it life, but just make it count.

Chr1stoph3r G0nda (01:01:08.014)
Mm-hmm.

Jeremy Wagner (01:01:19.361)
you know, and just accentuate the positive best you can, you know.

Chr1stoph3r G0nda (01:01:26.254)
It’s so funny that you said it could be worse because that’s what my mom says and When I went to university I befriended this this guy was a few years older than me. I was 17 I came to the US on scholarship. This guy was almost 21 He had done the Navy SEAL training and he was the first person to kind of start instilling into me this like mindset of strength and then my mom comes along as like it could always be worse I said, what do you mean? You know, like what if I’m missing an arm?

Well, you could be missing two. What if I’m missing two arms? Well, you could be missing a leg. What if I’m missing an arm and my leg? You could be dead. It could always be worse. And that’s how I start to shape my reality with like, always be positive, because it could be worse. Let me ask you one last question, because I mean, we could pick apart the million things. We haven’t talked about metal blade or music or like, you know,

Jeremy Wagner (01:02:10.275)
Right, yeah, exactly.

Chr1stoph3r G0nda (01:02:23.182)
All this stuff, and I’m sure there’s like a part two down the road, but like one of the things that I found fascinating that literally tied everything together, the horror, the writing, the publishing, the fun, the collecting, the music, Chicago, was this interview we did via email in 2023, and you started kind like a museum with Charlie Benante, and it was like Jaws and the Thing.

And I just, I thought it was so cool how you kind of like took everything that you loved, everything that you were involved in and mixed it into like one project.

Jeremy Wagner (01:03:00.257)
Yeah, I, when you talk, this is a different type of passion. There’s movies and things that I am very passionate about that. so passionate about that. I collect things related to it. And, and, and I have like, basically like, I know what you’re talking about. That’s the daily jaws. the fan site in the world.

Chr1stoph3r G0nda (01:03:11.704)
No.

Chr1stoph3r G0nda (01:03:26.808)
Yeah.

Jeremy Wagner (01:03:29.621)
I did an unveiling of a life-size quint that this great artist, Nick Morrow made. He made one for the effects god and director, Greg Nicotero from The Walking Dead. Greg Nicotero, just like Charlie Benate,

Ross from the Daily Jaws. mean, Jaws is like our favorite movie of all time. so that video is me unveiling this, this quint in my Jaws museum, which has a bunch of Jaws memorabilia. Some is production used stuff. Some couple items of screen use. It’s hard to get.

memorabilia from certain old movies, because back in the day they threw a lot of stuff out. Now memorabilia is a huge market. You get like prop store or heritage auctions and they’ll give you a catalog for the next thing coming up. And it’s like that thick and it’s all movie props and stuff, so the Jaws, John Carpenter’s the thing, 70s, Harold Leonard, Skinner is my favorite band.

So a museum with like, you know, old original vintage skinner concert posters from the seventies to Ronnie Van Zandt’s hat and 76 tour jacket and everything in between. I got a Jeff Hanneman museum and those things, when I say museum, you know, they’re like these separate.

dedicated tribute rooms to these things I really like. Whether it’s Jeff Hanneman, 70s era Skinner, John Carpenter’s thing on Jaws. I’m really into that stuff. And the other thing I like, like an art collector too, is I want to show this stuff to people that come and visit. Like some people collect

Chr1stoph3r G0nda (01:05:39.022)
Mm.

Jeremy Wagner (01:05:44.523)
whether it’s memorabilia or art and they hoard it, they’ll put it in storage and not do anything with it. Maybe flip it years later. Me, it’s like, I’m so glad and grateful that I am able to acquire this. And you know what? I want to be able to display it and share it with anyone that comes over. So I use the term museum. You go to a museum to see, you know,

stuff on display and people enjoy it, you know? So that’s just how I wrote. those are like four things I’m passionate about. And it’s one part insane level of passion collecting shit, know, fanboys, these movies and bands and stuff to preservation and again, sharing it.

Chr1stoph3r G0nda (01:06:34.84)
Yeah.

Jeremy Wagner (01:06:43.308)
You know, I put a lot into making sure stuff is displayed nicely, protected. Say it’s a poster, museum quality glass, and just, and you could tie that in Christopher, right at the end with the frigging bow tie that that’s part of making life count and doing things that you’re into and enjoying. So I just like to surround myself with.

things that I’m really into like that, you know?

Chr1stoph3r G0nda (01:07:14.348)
Yeah, I think it’s so cool and also fascinating that you’re kind of like at the crossroads of horror, metal, writing, know, artwork, film, like they’re all there. Who else does that? think what’s his name? Alan Roberts from Life of Agony. He’s kind of in that same area where he’s writing, he’s doing books and comics and coloring and drawing and also playing.

music. So kudos to you for like merging them all together. It’s such a sick journey that you’re on so far. I really appreciate your time. I don’t want to keep you. I want to pass the mic over to you for what I call the last word, the final word, you know, give me and the listeners, the readers, like a piece of sage advice, even if it’s from maternal grandma. Leave us with something important.

Jeremy Wagner (01:08:08.514)
Well, first off, I just want to thank you for having me as a guest, Christopher, for me as a world to be, having me on V13. Thank you for your time and having me on. And to anyone watching this, listening to it, everything you’ve heard so far, just like to hammer home that you can do anything in life. I really believe that, but you gotta work at it, be passionate about it.

But I urge everybody to do what you want in life. Whatever you’re into and passionate about. Don’t listen to anyone that says that sucks or you’ll never do this or that. Just cut out the noise, make life count, and enjoy your time while you’re here. And the last thing I’ll leave you with, if I may, is talk about writing this month, Ratch, my new novel.

Chris, this one’s a bit different than my previous works. I’d say this is more on brand Wagner. And it’s almost a, what I would call mashup of genres. got, it’s like one part splatter punk horror and dark crime fiction mixed together. So that’s coming out February 24th. people are like,

Do you ever sleep? How do you get anything done? Like I said, all this shit between the documentaries and the new novel and whatever else has come out on the road. These are things that have in the works for a while and they’re all just starting to kind of at the same time, not getting that come out, you know. But I’m doing what I love. You’re doing what you love, Chris. So may everyone watching this go out and what you love too.