The Truth About Being a Professional Guitarist

Jakob Wredstrøm

Good at sort of leaning conversations into that also when we get going. Just a few like last things maybe of technicalities. Did send over like a, in the invite, there was like a note with some agenda, but again, it was just very loose. Was just basically talking through your career and certain perspectives. And I'll just walk you through that as we record. But what I love to do in the podcast format is try to have this very like Nordic noir, Scandinavian darkness associated to the conversations. And for me, it's also strategic sort of counterweight to where I believe most industry podcasts go, which is like very newsworthy or very optimistic or very like, know, this happened.

Ryan Roxie

You to be more on the pessimistic side.

Jakob Wredstrøm

Yeah, and you know, think rarely it actually goes to be pessimist, but that's always my sort of like my go-to. Like I would love to, as many times as possible, really understand the intricacies of the troubles, the issues, because very naturally, you know, the good things also comes up. So for me, I always try to pursue that if possible and really understand sort of like that, because for me, that's where that's the untold story most of the times. And even though it's something you might talk with, you know, colleagues about, less so as an audience is what you get exposed to. And I think especially in the case with having the honor of interviewing you, it's really about, how do we understand the industry from a musician angle? Someone as established as yourself, seen so many things as yourself, talk about it from a business entrepreneurship angle, and also sort of the dark sides of that. So again, to the amount that you're comfortable, but for me, that's sort of where...

Ryan Roxie

You can get dark about it, I must tell you at the end of the day, I've been able to sort of be in the game as long as I have because I'm optimistic and cup half full. Trust me, if you listen to the lyrics of my songs, there's definitely a dark side and there's definitely dark sides to this entire business. You see how the game, once you see how the game is played,

Jakob Wredstrøm

Yeah.

Ryan Roxie

You see how much the odds are stacked against you, but for whatever reason, you know, I'm still being able to file my taxes as a musician and, you know, live another year as a touring musician. So I'm thankful for that.

Jakob Wredstrøm

This is a great segue into a natural start. So we'll just keep this as the beginning, Ryan. We agreed to start recording and we'll just pull into it. One question I often ask to whoever of is on sort of on behalf of the audience is, Ryan, who are you and what do you do? Let's just start there. So we just set the scene for everyone listening.

Ryan Roxie

Cool. Sounds good.

Ryan Roxie

Sounds good. My name is Ryan Roxy and I think most people would possibly associate my name with the guitars for Alice Cooper. I've been playing guitar for Alice Cooper on and off since 1996. There was a break when I did move to Scandinavia and I moved to Sweden that I didn't tour with Alice for about six years but pretty much since 96, it's been one hell of a ride and he's opened a lot of doors for me. A lot of the things I've done have been in part because of Alice Cooper, people I've met, bands I've played with. I always tell people I've played in about 100 bands, 98 you probably never heard of. You know, basically guitarist, performer, entertainer, because I do look at the whole performance as a whole and put out a bunch of solo records myself as well as recording with people like Alice Cooper and Slash and I just put out a new single just recently called Better Than You and it's basically a new way of releasing music that I'm putting into my career the way I'm doing it in 2025. So this is the first single to come out and I'm excited about it.

Jakob Wredstrøm

And we're going to talk about a lot of exciting things today. And really the reason why we started connecting is I got to, connected on LinkedIn. And if I remember correctly, you reached out to me because you had seen AI Jake, which is sort of an AI avatar. And you were just very curious to like, how did that happen? And I was like, my dad-in-law, he's a huge music fan and like, Do you know this guy? Like, yeah, okay, great. Okay. He's legit because sometimes it just like feels weird. Sometimes people like that are so prestigious as yourself reaching out for that question. And we ended up talking a lot about like, how do you create an AI avatar? And you did it yourself and your sort of your podcast and your, your YouTube channel, which has also been running for a long time, very successful. And so that really intrigued me to have a conversation about entrepreneurship and innovation as a musician. And that's sort of where we're going to censor the conversation today.

Ryan Roxie

Well, the whole thing started by me thinking, how am I going to promote this new single better than you? And I thought about, you know, if I did a bunch of, if I called out the usual suspects that where you would get a press agent and you'd call as many. Publications as possible to look for an interview and do an interview. Of course, that's a traditional way of promotion that you should do. And if you get the opportunity to do interviews, you should do as many as possible, especially when you have new music coming out. But I was thinking, well, what can I make? How can I make the promotion a bit different? And that's where I owe you a big debt of gratitude, you and the producer of my podcast, Vic Chalfant, because you were able to show us what you had done with AI Jake, and we sort of. Pivoted and made Roxy 7.7, that's what we call him, or Roxy 7, it's an avatar. And basically that AI avatar interviewed, we call it Younger Roxy, Roxy 7.7, interviewed me about my career and the new single. And it ended up being a really interesting interview because AI came up with all the questions. And I was able to really use it as a cool promotional tool because no one has, that I had seen yet, had done something like that in the rock genre. So again, thank you very much.

Jakob Wredstrøm

Yeah, obviously, and that's just a starting point to understand, you know, or satisfy my curiosity to understand your career and musicians in general. As we sort of prefaced a bit before we started recording, one of the things about the podcast is we talk a lot about the industry, the infrastructure, and like a lot of research. And I rarely, and that's going to happen more, touch about the actual music. And that's more like a, let's call it a counterweight to what I know exists out there. But what was really interesting is following a career like yourself as a, as a musician that has been through so much success, but I could also imagine so many different roller coaster rides. Yeah. And understand the innovation journey, the sustaining yourself as a business, all these kind of things and lay that out. So I'm very thankful you want to do that. But Ryan, maybe we can start sort of somewhat from the beginning. Like, how did you get into music and when did you start sort of seeing yourself as a professional musician?

Ryan Roxie

Yeah, there's definitely been dips.

Ryan Roxie

What was lucky enough growing up in the Bay Area of California, San Francisco, East Bay, and the music scene there back in the 70s was such a wide spectrum. And I was basically raised on AM radio. Know, people that know the difference between AM radio and FM radio. It's like AM nowadays is mostly just sports talk or interviews or just news. But back then, there was a station in the Bay Area called KFRC that would play Earth, Wind, and Fire. Next to Aerosmith, next to the Bee Gees, next to Cheap Trick. So it would be a great spectrum of rock, disco, funk, and basically that was my upbringing. And it always circled around pop music. In bands that I've put together, I've always tried to have that melodic sense with putting out pop music. So I guess I was very lucky. From an early age to be exposed to like super heavy bands and then super pop bands all coming out of the same area. Know people don't realize that Metallica came out of the Bay Area but so did you know Huey Lewis in the news. You know it's the same the same area and I loved that about growing up and being exposed to all that different types of music. So I started playing guitar at a very early age I think at around age 11 I said

Ryan Roxie

No this is what I want to do. Screw the backup plan and just go for it. And I moved down to Los Angeles right after I graduated high school at 17. I graduated a little bit earlier and just started being in the scene. At that point it was before the internet so you kind of had to go to where the scene was. Now, when the internet exploded, could basically, everything's much smaller in that sense where you can, you know, for example, on this new song that I have out, the drummer lives in New Mexico. The producer that mixed the song, Robbie Miller, he lives in Canada. I recorded my tracks in South Africa. You could never do something like that.

Jakob Wredstrøm

Hmm.

Ryan Roxie

When I was, you know, trying to be in the trenches and make my way as a working musician. So I went down to Los Angeles and immersed myself in the scene. And that's when I just started playing with as many people and as many bands as I could.

Jakob Wredstrøm

And you know, when we talk about music a lot in this podcast, we also talk about the struggle and not necessarily from this sort of cliche angle that, know, music needs to be a struggle, but the financial realities have, you know, always been and still is that it's very, very few people that can actually end up sustaining themselves from music. How did you, how did you find, and when did you find that balance where that was actually something you know, live from?

Ryan Roxie

Yes.

Ryan Roxie

Well, it took a long time to be honest with you. Took, I mean, there was definitely a bunch of years where I would live off of a cup of rice. A day. That, mean, it sounds crazy, but it was actually a good meal. At the end of the day, I would make one cup of rice, two cups of water, a little bit of butter, soy sauce, and that was a really great dinner for me. It was, that went on for a while. You just learn, I had roommates always when I lived in Los Angeles and in New York. The band that I was in Los Angeles, it was during the 80s,

Jakob Wredstrøm

Thank

Ryan Roxie

When the whole hair metal scene was happening and every band was getting signed except ours. Had opened, we had been passed on by every single label and we had opened up for some really great bands. So a lot of British bands that were popular at the time, a lot of the local bands, know, the guns, this is the time of when Guns N' Roses was just breaking out, Jane's Addiction was just breaking out. Know, even red hot chili peppers were on the up and up. So when this happened, it was disheartening, no doubt, to have labels come down to see your show to ultimately pass. So instead of being in LA, we moved to New York. And that's where we actually got our first record deal. So that was my first taste after all those years of being, you know, living in like one room apartments. I'm not talking like one bedroom. I'm talking a studio apartment with a roommate, two beds pushed next together. You know, after years and years of that, we got a record deal and finally had a little bit of money. But... six months after that, or about maybe a year after that, it was back to like, this money's not gonna last, especially in New York City. So I was back to living in a single apartment with one my best friends in one room with the two beds, which back next to each other. And that was just the lifestyle. I didn't ever really feel like... my god, these are such hard, bad times because I was enjoying it the entire time. Was definitely enjoying the ride, but when I look back on it now, I was like, wow, it was pretty low income and pretty grim, no doubt.

Jakob Wredstrøm

Yeah.

Jakob Wredstrøm

Hmm. Like one of the things that I, you know, my story is nothing like yours, but I will tell it anyways, just for a tiny bit of like entrepreneurship versus musician comparison, which I believe overlap a lot in mentality of what you must think like in order to survive. You know, I've been an entrepreneur for 14 years and I have probably for the first 13 years of that. Prioritized not paying myself out of salary or anything like just minimum. Like even I've been running a company for four and a half years where I've had like, you know, between 20 and 80 employees, you know, I was not even paying myself minimum wage. And I think at one point that was just a mentality for me. Like, you know, this is what I do. And I know I could pay myself more, but I will choose to make sure that the long-term goal can live more than the short-term satisfaction. And For me, even though I live in a rich country and I have what I need, so it's not the same thing, but I do have three kids. Now I'm buying some new shoes for the first time, but I've had the same shoes for six years. And it's not because boohoo me, I'm just like, it is a mentality though. Even though I come from a purely situation of living in Norway and came from Denmark, I think the mentality still counts. Are you so obsessed about the long-term goal or even just the journey? That you're willing to go through what others might perceive as a sacrifice, but in the moment, it's just like, it's a part of it. It's okay, it's rough, it's tough, sure, but it's a part of it. What kind of mentality do you reflect upon you having at that point?

Ryan Roxie

I call the mentality hamster mentality. As a musician, there has been a hamster. And you know, because a hamster will pack a bunch of food in its jowls to last until it actually is hungry again. Because you never know when the next time it's going to eat is. And as a musician, to this day, I still have this hamster mentality because we don't tour all year round. Even currently, there's not a consistent.

Jakob Wredstrøm

And.

Ryan Roxie

And, you know, obviously when COVID happened, the dark times, we didn't tour for 18 months. So the hamster mentality came into, it really helped us during that time because we had zero income. There is no, you know, I understand that a job, a steady job is security and that, but as a musician, Nothing's ever steady. There's always been a financial crisis as a guitar player and as a working musician because you never really know what that next year of touring is going to be or how consistent it's going to be. So luckily, you make what you make when you're touring. You try to save as much as you can. When you are out on the road, you're not spending. Money's not going out because the tour is covering most of that stuff. So then when you're off tour, that's when all the money goes out and you're paying your bills. And you just have to sort of budget yourself. I think we've always been, a lot of us, especially in the Alice Cooper band, have always been good at that because It is a band, it is the Alice Cooper band, but we are higher guns. So to have that mentality is, you know, we all know whose name is on the marquee. Know, the funny thing is the perception of like what people think sometimes, because they go, wow, you play guitar with Alice Cooper. So they just assume I'm on that same economic level. It's no, no. Alice Cooper is on the marquee and he's an iconic figure because he has 30 albums out. I don't have 30 albums out. I didn't write Poison. I was lucky enough to write a lot of songs with Alice, which are cool and I'm really proud of. But not those big, big hits are. Most of the reason why we're still able to tour, I'd say 98 % of the reason why we're able to tour to this day is because of that amazing

Ryan Roxie

Original band, that amazing original Alice Cooper band, but you know they wrote schools out, know her Mr. Nice Guy, I'm 18, so you know I give them all the credit in the world, but it's not like we make any money off those songs.

Jakob Wredstrøm

No. Yeah, and that's sort of like the hard reality of being a musician is that I guess from two sides that you get to some degree to live that life, but it is very different and especially in sort of in the down times and quiet times. But I do have a question. So for that time period where you were just going till you got signed, even though that wasn't necessarily the solution to the long term journey, like What kept you going? What was it in particular that kept you motivated? Was it the craft or the expression or what was it?

Ryan Roxie

The thing that kept us going, I think, individually and as a band, a collective, was that it was us against the world mentality. We had already been passed on by every single label, so we had a chip on our shoulder. We had a bit of an attitude. Hopefully, is the video coming through clear and everything? Because you're, OK.

Jakob Wredstrøm

Okay.

Jakob Wredstrøm

Hmm.

Jakob Wredstrøm

Yeah, if get, by the way, if it lags, if it lags, it downloads locally then it uploads. So I'll get full quality at the other side. Yep.

Ryan Roxie

I just want to make sure. Because it's important stuff you're saying and it's bringing me back to that mentality of us driving around in a van. The whole van would sit in a van and being based out of New York when we moved there, the reason why we did made that decision I think was an entrepreneurial thing because again, you have to understand the times. Every band was moving to Los Angeles because bands like Guns N' Roses and James Addiction, like I said, were blowing up. So everyone was getting a record deal. We decided... Well, wait, if we move to the East Coast, we can be a bigger fish in a smaller pond, know, less bands. Plus, we have the whole East Coast to tour. We can drive two hours to Philadelphia. We can drive, you know, three or four hours north to get to Boston. For instance, or we can just go an hour to get to Jersey. So we can play all these gigs, you know, up, down, east, whereas in California we didn't have that sort of opportunity. So that's one thing, is that we had a bit of a chip on our shoulder, us against the world mentality, and when we were driving to these gigs, the bass player and myself would have, we'd sit in the front seats a lot of the times and we'd have this thing called front seat theories. So while we're sitting there driving to the gig, we're philosophizing, we're theorizing what we could do to make the band better, what we could do to...

Ryan Roxie

To get bigger than what we currently were. And it's a funny thing because that bass player, Jonathan Daniel, went on to start his own management company long after the band had disbanded and he got into, he stayed in New York. I went back to Los Angeles and that's where I eventually joined with Alice Cooper. But Jonathan stayed in New York, started a management company and today he's managing Green Day. Lordy, he's managing Weezer, he manages Fall Out Boy, so he's got a ton of bands with his music management series, or management company, and the funny thing is, I can guarantee there's a lot of the same theories that he's putting into place with these bands that we would talk about on those van rides up and down the East Coast.

Jakob Wredstrøm

Amazing. Yeah, and it's really interesting to sort of see these careers develop over time. Question I have, which for me has always been something I've been fighting with myself, is how much did the motivation and drive come from the group or you guys having that together versus just you alone? How do you place some sort of proportion of inspiration, motivation between those two things? You guys as a band versus you individually, would you have the same drive if you weren't with the band to pursue the Korean music? Does that question make sense?

Ryan Roxie

It made, please rephrase it because it could get choppy a little bit before, right, when you were saying it, but please rephrase, reiterate it again.

Jakob Wredstrøm

Yeah, okay. And we'll edit that out. Although it, and just as a comment again, so the way that it works is that I'll get full quality on the other side. So, I know it might be the way that Riverside works is a bit disturbing sometimes, but it really gives the optimal video and audio at the other side. So I'll just rephrase again.

Ryan Roxie

Okay.

Jakob Wredstrøm

One of the things I thought about a lot hearing your story is where do you place the motivation, your motivation when it comes to you individually versus you as a group? You know, there might be something about standing in it together versus you just having this individual drive. Where do you place your motivation at that point?

Ryan Roxie

I think it's two different situations when you're in a band situation and then when you're sort of in the situation that I am now, this higher gun situation with Alice. I think with a band, in the band situation, you have to kind of sacrifice a bit more of what your total motivation is in... in respect for the rest of the other guys to make it. And sum is greater than its parts, right? And that's the band mentality that you have to have. So a lot of times, that's why bands end up breaking up a lot of times is because the egos get involved and they start thinking a little bit more about themselves or their own place in... in the band than they do about the whole of the band. And that's where individual personalities and individual goals screw bands and that's how they end up breaking up. Whereas in a situation like this where I'm in a higher gun position, all, again, we all know whose name is on the marquee. So our whole job is to support that and make the entire foundation. Sounding the best, recreating the songs the best we can, coming across as, you know, as supportive as we can to the artist. I don't know. I feel that there's good parts of both of them. I never thought I had, in any band, in either situation, I never really thought I had to sacrifice that much because... I have a great boss in Alice Cooper that allows me to be myself and do my performance. In fact, he actually pushes us to the front of the stage to shine on solos. When it's our turn to shine, he wants us front and center. There's a lot of solo artists, there's a lot of...

Jakob Wredstrøm

Hmm.

Ryan Roxie

Hired gun sort of acts that won't allow you to do that. In fact, I've heard rumors of certain artists putting a piece of tape down. I've actually seen it where they put a piece of tape past a certain part of stage and you can't pass that part of the stage. I've seen like things like that happen. I'm like, have a backup band stay in the shadows? You're not, why did you hire them in the first place? Whereas as a band, you're kind of all working together as a unit or you're supposed to.

Jakob Wredstrøm

Mm-hmm.

Ryan Roxie

Until your freaking ego's getting in the way and then all of sudden that's where all the problems start. They usually call it creative differences, but it's just your fucking ego, that's what it is.

Jakob Wredstrøm

Mm.

Jakob Wredstrøm

I have this saying that I use it with myself and I sort of have a point to sort of comment on this. And that is I'm relatively fast learner and I usually say that I understand really fast and I'll learn slow. And one of the sort of analogies is just want to point here is that I've been doing sports my whole life. Not so much since I got kids, but I've always been like a runner or something to the effect of that. And I've never really done team sports. And my oldest kid, he's turning six now and he's playing football. And I've never really understood football. I've never really cared either. I've caught myself watching a football match once in a while. This is not my actual opinion now, but this is what I've thought in the past. How depressing it must be being a defensive player in football. And the thought was that... the other guys get the shine, you basically just protect them the goal and all that kind of stuff. And like also I've never really understood of like, why do need to pass the ball and all these kinds of things. And then I've seen sort of like my kid, a football training passing the ball and how they train. There's almost no applause for you scoring the goal, but there's a lot of applause for passing the ball. And I never really understood that. Was like, is this something you need to learn, how to play with each other? And then I actually watched a football match with some grown up people a month ago for the first time in 10 years. And I noticed the football match and everyone was passing the ball to each other. And I just figured out, and again, it sounds stupid, that's a part of the winning strategy. Is that you play as a team, that the individual ambition, the individual need for scoring the goal is of course important and there are certain players that are supposed to do that. But it is the passing of the ball, it is the whole team, there's as much pride in defenders as the attacker. And even though it sounds naive, for me that was just a revelation a month ago, I got the whole thing wrong. It is not.

Jakob Wredstrøm

An individual play. It is a team play. And most people might know this when they're hearing the podcast. But the reason why I'm saying it is when you talk about musicianship, when you talk about also entrepreneurship, like there is an illusion of the individual. And yes, it's also true once in a while. But most of the time, this creative journey is Team thing and you need to pair your individual goals with the collective of what you're doing it with. Does that make sense?

Ryan Roxie

Makes a lot of sense. It really does because I'm myself realizing how important the collective is much more in these later years of my career. And I wish I would have understood it more in the earlier years. Like you, I like sports and I'm not talking about football in the sense of the way the rest of the world thinks of football, but I follow American football. Just recently, discovered probably the most important group of individuals to win a championship for...

Jakob Wredstrøm

Yeah.

Ryan Roxie

American football is your offensive line. Everybody focuses on the quarterback and the receivers or the running back or some of the defensive players that rush the quarterback, but your offensive line, if they protect the quarterback and they block for the runners and they do their job as a unit, it's usually five guys around that one line. You have such a better chance of winning a Super Bowl because what does it do? It gives you one extra second for the quarterback to make a decision to make one of those star plays. And I never really realized that until just recently and how important it is. And now you're starting to see it actually in the sport where... the offensive line guys and even the defensive line guys that battle in the trenches so to speak that really where the team, the nucleus of the team exists, they're starting to get rewarded for it and they're starting to get paid more. Quarterback will always get paid the most I believe because it is a position, it's a star position, it is more of a individual but. Yeah, I realize now too that not just in sports, but in life, having a good team around you is super important. I couldn't do my In the Trenches podcast if it wasn't for the producer Vic that I have is great. Then we have a great publicist in Federica that puts out stuff on the social media and really helps that. Plus I myself. It's much better for me as the face of the podcast or the face of the band or whatever I'm doing in life to be able to delegate instead of having to do all, try and do all the jobs myself. So I really understood, know, I think maybe not too late. It's never too late to realize that, but I wish I would have realized it even earlier on the importance of a team.

Jakob Wredstrøm

I have one question that might be left of center, but it's of piggybacking on what we just talked and I'm going to refer to sort of my dad-in-law again, just because really he is probably the biggest music fan I know. And I've learned a lot about music from him, which is kind of weird because he's an engineer. Yeah, my dad-in-law, so my wife's father. For example, he is, know, super fan of Mutt the Hoobble. He's helped write most of the books about him.

Ryan Roxie

You're dad.

Ryan Roxie

Is it called a morfar? What do we call it? Mother's father?

Jakob Wredstrøm

It's called, no, well, that would be my children's Mofa. Yeah, that's true. Yes. Yeah. So, but he's a huge music fan. And I think a week ago I was visiting them with the kids and my dad and Mochi stopped me and said, hey, Jacob, I need to show you something. And he has like, you know, been collecting LPs his whole life. And they showed me sort of the back of the LP. And he said, what we did when you were young is we looked at these LPs.

Ryan Roxie

Oh, okay, yes sir.

Jakob Wredstrøm

And we saw all the credits of the musicians and like, okay, this musician I know, I remember he played on that record and that record. That day, basically what he was saying is musicians at that day was equally as interesting as it is to us, at least for the music lovers. And then his comment was that he said afterwards, which is very striking. It's just like, now they're invisible. And that really struck me because... Maybe not for the same generation that might have come into music that time, but there has been a fundamental shift where maybe even more so than the past, the focus has become on the icons and the sort of supporting players have been maybe diluted in public knowledge. And I might be wrong about this, but this was his commentary. And the reason why I'm saying this is there is these moments of... personal ambition and be able to shine, which you say you can do on stage. But then there's also like the general movement of maybe less so, less appreciation of the contributors as to sort of technology progresses. Is that something you have noticed or thought about when it comes to the role of musicians and the recognition they get? Or is it just maybe like the young generation that experiences this?

Ryan Roxie

I think that the only thing that I've noticed where you might get that delusion, it seems like they're not as, where musicians aren't as in focus and in the forefront is because there's just so many more musicians now. There's so many more great players out there because...

Jakob Wredstrøm

Dilution.

Ryan Roxie

One, the technology is much easier to learn an instrument now. You still have to put in the hard work, but the tools that younger musicians have these days are so much more advanced than what I had growing up. And I'm not saying that it's at all an excuse for, I actually think the musicianship. Of a 70s musician and you listen to those old albums is actually higher. It's more creative, it's more innovative because they were trying to push the most out of the could of an instrument. But that being said, today you can, if you, and if you find your genre, if you find your niche as a musician, you can really exploit it. Because there's that many more people interested in that type of music. That's why, so it's like, we might not have guitar heroes in the same sense where you go, okay, well there's Jimi Hendrix and there's Jimi Page and Eric Clapton, all these guitar heroes. Back in the day. But I guarantee you in every certain genre of music there's a shredder guitar god, there's a fusion jazz blues guitar god, it breaks down into a lot of different genres. So just think there's more of the musicians, which is a good thing. I think it's important to have as many musicians as possible. The one gripe that I really have is the distractions that we have in today's world. Like when I was growing up, it's like you either were outside playing sports, running around outside doing stuff, or you were practicing your guitar, or listening to music with your big old silly 70s headphones. Now...

Ryan Roxie

You have so many options of what to do. You can go online for a little bit. You can do this. You can go browse YouTube for a little bit. Can go, it has a lot to do with the online experience, there's so many, video games, you can do so much, there's so much more distractions, I feel, in this day to actually hone in on your craft of being a guitar player. But you have good enough technology within the music's world that you can learn something a lot faster. If you want to learn a particular riff, you don't just sit there and put the needle on the record and try and pick it out by your own ear, which I think is still so important. But instead, you can go onto YouTube and see someone else that's done it and put it on YouTube already, and you can actually learn from them.

Jakob Wredstrøm

Hmm.

Jakob Wredstrøm

Mm.

Ryan Roxie

And I'll be honest, sometimes when we have a new song that's coming out in the Alice Cooper set, if I can't nail a part that I don't know, because I've listened to the original, I'll go online and I'll see some 13 year old kid that's already done it and probably done it better than me.

Jakob Wredstrøm

That would be interesting to fill that experience that person found out. Amazing. I have a question though, and this is just.

Ryan Roxie

You

Ryan Roxie

Guitar Slasher 78, thank you very much.

Jakob Wredstrøm

I have a question and this is just a reflection I had while you were talking so it might not be fully thought out but I thought it was an interesting question and that is one of the reasons why you know say that the guitar heroes exist less and less you know obviously a combination of what you just said but also that music maybe 40 years ago used to have a lot more blank space. So there was room for inventors, there was room for innovators to sort of take and conquer spaces that hadn't been explored before. But now when time has gone on and so many more people are at it, it's a more crowded space. Is that an element of it?

Ryan Roxie

There shouldn't be any excuses given for lack of innovation. I really don't think so. I think that there's always room to innovate. What I feel that's missing from, if you want to call it a guitar hero, for me, a guitar hero has it all. He's got the chops. He's got...

Jakob Wredstrøm

Okay.

Ryan Roxie

The tone that's not coming out of a bunch of plugins or a bunch of pedals or amps. It's coming from his fingers, his heart and his head telling his hands what to do. That's where the true tone comes from. He's got that. He's got songwriting abilities. He's in a band that writes great songs. That's another thing about Guitar Heroes is that there's a lot of great guitar players out there. But when a guitar, for me, a guitar hero, comes from a band that writes great songs as well. So the songs have to be good. And then he's got a look. He's got some sort of look, and it doesn't mean that you have to have what you would stereotypically think of a rock star look, but he's got to have something interesting and innovative about him as well. And I think that whole package, for me growing up, my ultimate guitar hero and still to this day pound for pound is Brian May from Queen. Cause he, you know, he did have all that. He had that amazing cool hair and had the tone that no one else had. And he wrote the songs and came from a band that wrote songs that can never be replaced. You can never, you know, you will always remember a Queen song. So for me, putting all those things together, is harder now. Plus you have to have a little bit of an attitude. And I hate to say it, social media kind of, you know, squashes your attitude a little bit because if you're too out of line, if you're too rebellious, It stays in the social media web forever, right? You're either canceled or you're an asshole or you're this or that or somebody has something that you did 20 years ago that they'll bring up to mess with you now. Back in the days for me when I was watching My Guitar Heroes, it was more folklore. It was more like, heard, urban legend. It was like, oh, I heard he had done this at a show.

Ryan Roxie

It wasn't filmed by a hundred cell phones of exactly what he did. It was just talked about, you know? Did Ozzy Osbourne, you know, or did Alice Cooper throw a chicken into the audience? You know, did Ozzy Osbourne bite the head off a dove? It was folklore. It was, you know, and I know there's gonna be people that send in a picture of it happening, but.

Jakob Wredstrøm

Mm.

Jakob Wredstrøm

Hmm.

Ryan Roxie

Maybe, but it'll be grainy and it'll be black and white and it'll be, you know, I liked. And roll mythology is a little bit missing today because everything is documented. And I'm not saying that it's a horrible thing for everything as much social media because social media has expanded my audience by tenfold because people are able to find out more about me, find out that I'm a regular guy and even though you know I always say be

Jakob Wredstrøm

Mm.

Ryan Roxie

Be unapproachable on stage. Be approachable off stage. So if you can be a real person off stage, but then when you get up there.

Jakob Wredstrøm

Hmm.

Ryan Roxie

Don't let anybody else mess with you. That to me is a true rock and roller. And I take that directly from Alice Cooper, because no one wants to come up to Alice Cooper on stage and mess with him, because he'll stab you. When he's in character, he will stab you with a sword if he thinks you're threatening him. But off stage, he's the sweetest guy in the world. So there you have it.

Jakob Wredstrøm

I think the ring is so true to entrepreneurship. And I was just thinking while you were talking, you know, there's something about trying to become the best, either the best version of yourself or the best at something. That singular focus. And what comes with singular focus is a lot of mistakes. And that's sort of the nature of it, you know, things you would have done differently, but, that's also part of the journey. You know, me as an entrepreneur, I've had a singular focus for many times and I've made plenty of mistakes that I also regret to this day that I'm, that I'm sad about. But when I think back about it, like, if I really want to be the ultimate version of what I want to be, it requires a singular focus and there is going to have downsides from that. And the problem with being held accountable for everything, always, for eternity, is that gets much harder. And I've done mistakes in my local environment where I've had the best intentions done myself, but I can still feel repercussions two or three years after people bad mouthing me about stuff. Like, let it go, people. It was just an honest mistake. But if you multiply that by social media or online presence,

Ryan Roxie

You

Jakob Wredstrøm

I can see that can be really, really difficult of having that signal of focus that ultimately would get you to that guitarist status. Or in my pursuit, the best entrepreneur, the most innovative entrepreneur in venture that I can be. But maybe that's also a thing that really hinders people of going down this path. Can you comment on that? Am I somewhat right about it?

Ryan Roxie

Yeah, I think that you have to shift your mentality to that being, if you have messed up and you have made mistakes, constantly look at that as a learning point. And maybe because it's online or it's documented or whatever, it can always be a reminder.

Jakob Wredstrøm

Mm.

Ryan Roxie

For you to actually turn it around and remind you of how you messed up, but how you're correcting it. Because a lot of times, when it wasn't documented forever, it kind of just shifted and faded into this sort of dark memory, and then you didn't really know what happened. But now it's crystal clear. It's in a photo. It's in this or that. Maybe there's a way to...

Jakob Wredstrøm

Okay.

Ryan Roxie

You know, turn it into a net positive in a sense where, you know, you can use it as your fuckups and your mistakes as inspiration for where you want to be going. And it could remind you of that. I mean, that's, guess that's the way I would look at it. But again, I told you, you know, the only reason why I've survived in this business for as long as I have is because I have had you know, a cup half full mentality. Know, I've always had my mantra has always been enjoy the ride. So, you know, I know it sounds like a bunch of cliche refrigerator magnets, but, you know, enjoy the ride just kind of simplifies it for me because, you know, when I look back about all the crazy, dark, depressing situations I've been in, there was always a point, you know, in the back, and there was always a voice in the back of my head said, it's going to get better. Things are going to shift. You're putting in the work. You're doing something every day to get to where you want to be. And then eventually, you know, and enjoy this moment, even if it's dark, enjoy it for what it is, whether it's a learning experience or whether it's just like something you look back on and you go, shit, I never want to do that again. But keep doing that in the moment, but keep your eye on the prize and things will work out. Again, that's the only reason I've been able to survive in this business for as long as I have.

Jakob Wredstrøm

If you were to, I'm going to throw out three words, and if you were to sort of prioritize them or give a percentage to them throughout your career of how you've done this, please allow me to ask it, is resilience, acceptance, and coping, which oftentimes these kind of things can be sort of a part of the journey collectively. Resilient because you can stand against it, acceptance because you accept the mistakes, but also coping like... basically momentarily control of it. Like how have you managed those things throughout this optimism and where does that stem from of those three words?

Ryan Roxie

Your three words are very similar to my three words that I use all the time, I use a different one. A very cool woman told me this like in Nashville, Tennessee years and years ago, right after I joined Alice Cooper. We had gone to lunch and she worked in the record business and she said, know Ryan, three things you just have to remember.

Jakob Wredstrøm

Okay?

Ryan Roxie

The three P's, practice, persistence, and patience. And that's what I tell people. And it goes along the lines of what your three words are, because the practice is, if you want to make it in this business, you want to make it in any business, you've got to be good at what you do. There is knowledge and there is strength in repetition. You know, know your craft because everybody else does. Practice persistence is kicking that door down every single time the door goes up, just kick it down again, open it, ask the questions, be professional, show up on fucking time. It's not so hard. It's really not hard to show up on time people. Rock stars get the worst sort of reputation for being late. That's just ego. You know what? My boss, Alice Cooper, says five minutes early is five minutes late. It's a good rule of thumb. So practice persistence, and the last is patience. And the patience is having the security in yourself to know that your shot is going to come. You're prepared for it, you've already practiced, you already know that you have persistence because you've been doing it for so long. You just have to have the patience because your shot is going to come. And when it does come, do the best you can do at it and your goals will be achieved. So I think my three words and your three words are very similar. And that's how I deal with them every single day. I tell myself the three P's all the time.

Jakob Wredstrøm

Is that something you see repeating in other decisions that's been successful in your circle?

Ryan Roxie

Absolutely, absolutely. And like I said earlier, I joked about it showing up on time. And being a real person offstage, but very approachable offstage, but unapproachable onstage. When I've met some of the... my heroes, some of the biggest names of people that I wanted to meet, they had those characteristics. They were on time. They weren't disrespectful of other people's time. They made you feel like, even though you're sitting with an iconic person, just talking with them, they make you feel like you're the most important person in the room. That's a very cool attribute to have. And they have that mentality of just like, know what? That's why they are where they're at. They have this mentality of like, I know what I'm good at. This is what I do. You know, I've done it for years and I'm confident in, you know, that it's going to continue. And that's that patience thing that a lot of people don't have patience. That's why so many people don't see things through. You know, when you have an idea, you have to understand a lot, and I'm guilty of it myself too, trust me, Jacob. I set a lot of goals up sometimes, and sometimes I just get, this is too much, it's not gonna ever happen. But the majority of my ideas I do see through. When I wanted to start the podcast, I said, you know what? I'm going to have to do at least 100 episodes. Because that's what, I think that the statistics are, they're in the low 30s. So when most people start a podcast, if you get past 30 episodes, that's actually considered like, OK, you're doing something. I set a goal of 100 podcasts. We're now at about 150. And I still want to continue doing it.

Jakob Wredstrøm

Hmm.

Ryan Roxie

That, just setting those goals are really important for me to see things through. When I put this single out, I said, I wanna get 50,000 views on this video. And it's so weird that it's, to get new music played on YouTube, it seems like... yeah, 50,000 views, that could be anything, but it's much easier to get a little small little gossip part of what some rock star said to another rock star and make it a little controversial on the podcast. It's easier to get that many views than it is for someone to see your art. Set the goal anyway at 50,000 and we just we just surpassed 50,000 this last weekend. So that's good. Now I'm gonna set a new goal. To get it, you know, maybe 60, 70. We'll see. We'll go from there. But you know, set goals for yourself and see things through. That's the reward. Because when you do set those mini goals for yourself, it's amazing that, know, it's another thing that I say, celebrate the win. Because a lot of times we don't give ourselves the opportunity to... to celebrate when you have achieved one of those goals. If you set enough minor little goals, it helps with your confidence, it helps with your, you know, it helps with your self-esteem and your whole attitude because it makes you want to do even more after that. I tell my son all the time, I say, look, he's just finished school and graduating. He was stressed out about his thesis. I said, well, look, you've done everything you can, celebrate the win right now.

Jakob Wredstrøm

Hmm.

Ryan Roxie

You've done everything you can, you've turned it in, it's either going to be a pass or fail, but right now don't stress about it, just celebrate the fact that you finished it, and if it comes back and you need to do a revision of it, that'll be something else that you set up for yourself. But for now, take the time, you know, when you do achieve something important and a goal that you have, to actually acknowledge it to yourself.

Jakob Wredstrøm

I think that's very important. No, it's good. Again, as I disclaimed before our talk is like, I try to steer the dark direction because oftentimes it ends up in the positive thing. And ultimately that's really also where we want to take it. Like what I hear you say is really also that it is like a way of being also as a musician, a way of thinking that really is the continuity in all of this. Because from the outside,

Ryan Roxie

I know that's not as dark as you wanted to get. Think it's...

Jakob Wredstrøm

It might not seem that attractive, to be honest. Like just to look at the opportunity cost and sort of what that might go into pursuing something that might express itself success in a different way than what people used to. It might not be that sort of financial stability for many, many years. And it might not be that sort of comfortable lifestyle that's about just, you know, relaxing and, you know, maybe not working too hard and reaping the benefits of all that. Like it might look very different from that, but it is really a way of being, if that makes sense. I myself have had a small revelation recently that is, you know, I've been doing this for a long time and I wouldn't say I haven't been successful. Maybe I'm starting to become successful now after 14 years. And a few years ago, I just needed to have a change where I said, well, entrepreneurship, not something I do, it is something I am. And for that moment, that really gave me a lot of like, calmness. Okay, you know, I'm just gonna go through it. But now I'm actually also at a point now where I'm saying, well, entrepreneurship is something I might be. But right now what I'm doing is also medium of what I am, but not necessarily who I am. Basically what I do now is no longer who I am, but there's an underlying entrepreneurship. This is me, which you probably also experienced as a musician and playing guitar is actually back to what I do. Building company is actually back to what I do. And now I can start separating from what I do, from what I am. And then having this sort of balance in like, I have a new way of... perceiving resilience in my life because it is a mixture and maybe that's also what you're sort of hinting to is that sort of acceptance of this is my life. This is who I am but what happens is just journeys its rollercoasters and you need to stay optimistic about it. And so do I

Ryan Roxie

Well, I agree. I think the entrepreneurship of me and what I am these days is hopefully what I want to be is through guitar playing and through people looking at my sort of story and what I've been able to achieve with being a touring musician as many years as I have is basically just some sort of inspiration that if you stick to your plan, it will pay off eventually. It's not going to happen overnight. It might. And if it does, great. But for the most part, you're going to have a lot of struggle. And if you can handle that sort of mystery and sort of not knowing exactly where the next paycheck is coming next year's income is coming from, then by all means, jump into this game. But it doesn't matter what game you jump to. Of course, a regular nine to five job is gonna give you a little bit more consistency, but as we've seen in today's world, there's so many more people that are jumping, having career jumps. They go from one job to another career to another career in the course of their life. Hopefully, for me, luckily, I found what it is at a very young age that I wanted to do. Now, if you find something that you really are passionate about and really like, then I honestly say throw yourself into it and just go for it. Because it might change over the years, but if you put the work and passion into it, and you practice those things like your three words or my three words, you're going to get that shot at it. And like I said, now is my role as all the things that I've been blessed with as far as being a musician, a touring musician over the years, I'd like to sort of give back in the form of inspiration and get more people to play guitar. That's why a lot of my sort of...

Ryan Roxie

Drive and goals are focused towards getting more people to learn how to play guitar. Have a guitar system called the System 12 that I put out. I think it's a really good foundational way of learning the fundamentals of guitar in a very fun and cool way. You learn it through learning guitar riffs and learning, you're learning theory without even knowing it. And I feel I have a

Jakob Wredstrøm

Hmm.

Ryan Roxie

Good knack at teaching, I feel. I have a lot of students that have gone from here to really accomplished. They can be in bands now. They can start their own guitar journeys and their own world of eating a cup of rice a day for their diet. That's fine too. But look. At the end of the day, enjoy whatever it is you're doing, even when it's a struggle. That's my advice.

Jakob Wredstrøm

You sort of touched upon it already now, but I imagine the last question I wanted to ask you in this interview is, if you were a young version of yourself today, would you still choose to become a guitarist?

Ryan Roxie

Absolutely, without a question. It's opened so many doors and allowed me to see the world through a certain lens that you can't any other way. Know, whatever country I go to, whatever town we play, doesn't matter what day of week is, it's always Saturday night and everybody's excited to see the show. And that... you can't ask for as an entertainer and as a person that loves to perform in front of people, you can't ask for a better setting or situation than that. So yeah, I would definitely recommend guitar for me. Now for somebody else that maybe doesn't like to travel all that much or be away from home,

Jakob Wredstrøm

Amazing.

Ryan Roxie

Find what it is that keeps you closer to home, but that you're still passionate and love doing. Again, it will happen for you. Just ride it out. Ride out the ebbs and flows of it, you know, because I'm still experiencing it, you know? Do I know for sure what's happening on the tour schedule in 2026? No, I don't. But I do know that 2025 looks... pretty well booked up until the end of the year. So let's keep rolling. After that, I'll try and pepper in my podcast episodes and maybe set some new goals. And obviously, the whole time, I'll be putting out new Ryan Roxy music. So if anyone wants to check it out, just Google my name. Google me.

Jakob Wredstrøm

Amazing, Ryan. Thank you so much for your time. It's a privilege to talk with you and hear about your story. And thank you for sharing so much wisdom on this podcast.

Ryan Roxie

Thank you, Jacob. Really, again, appreciate what you're doing with your podcast. Again, I'm glad that in a strange way we have AI to thank us, bringing us together. We have an avatar of you and an avatar of me. Maybe that should show a quick screenshot of that.

Jakob Wredstrøm

You

Ryan Roxie

You know, again, thank you for your inspiration for that view of the interview. And if any of your listeners haven't seen that interview, maybe you can put that link in the description or something like that. Cool, buddy. Thanks for talking, man.

Jakob Wredstrøm

You know. Thank you, Ryan. We'll talk soon.