'The Pillars' aka Sleepy John Sandidge & Richard Stockton, hiking the Coast from Santa Cruz to San Francisco _interview 2026-07-31 on KZSC's "Bushwhacker's Breakfast Club"
Release Date: 07/31/2026
KZSC Santa Cruz
Q; Can Richard "hear a song & know whether the guitar is a Santa Cruz Guitar?" A: "You can pick your own kid out of a choir!" Succession planning? Richard is fiercly loyal to the team, with Brenda, and David Osdoll calling shots...working on some kind of employee ownership (Taylor Guitars did this) and "focusing on transitioning to a low resolution form of management" ;) Ahead of the upcoming 50th Anniversary Concert - "A Night of Legacy & Music", there will be a free block party. Q: "When & how do you take a guitar that you've made for an artist, & turn it into a signature...
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California's Prop. 54, passed in 2016, requires any legislative bill to be published online for 72 hours before it can be voted upon - this resulted in the last bill in the legislature being voted on a 3:46 AM last Tuesday morning, Sept. 1st, even though the constitution requires all bills to be out of the legislature by midnight, Aug. 31st - bills that pass a 2/3 vote for urgency can also go past midnight; one of those last bills was the Dolly Parton bill; normally, the governor has 12 days to sign or veto a bill, but with the sprint to the finish line, those bills have 30 days - if it's not...
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Kim grew up in Monterey County, Salinas Valley, & went to Humboldt State, then on to St. Louis for grad school; she went to Washington DC to work in Health & Human Services' Dept. of Aging; after she got married, she wanted to be closer to her mom, & moved to Aptos in Santa Cruz County, where she's lived for 30 years; worked as a Clinical Social Worker in many areas hospitals (Dominican, Sutter, Salinas Valley); "What lead her to be interested in being a County Supervisor?" Her mom worked for Barbara Shipnuck, the 1st woman elected to the Monterey County Board of Supervisors, &...
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Bill hitchiked from Ann Arbor, Michigan to the Newport Folk Festival in 1964, where Bob Dylan debuted "Mr. Tambourine Man" (he was lured their by Bob Dylan & Mississippi John Hurt playing); he returned in 1965 when Dylan played electric; Bill was playing in his high school talent show, & wanted to play "Subterranean Homesick Blues", but the organizer insisted on a Jug Band "The Who Knows Pickers" - one of the other bands at that talent show was Jim Osterberg's - who became Iggy Pop - band; came to California in 1966, then hopped freight trains back to Ann Arbor to form a folk-rock band...
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calling in from The Madonna Inn, where he's staying in The Misty Room (it's the only union hotel in San Luis Obispo) - he's delaying his keynote presentation at an organized labor meeting to call in; Progressive Democrats have been elected in New York City Congressional races, and now the Michigan Senate primary..."what the hell is going on in the country in general?" = people are thinking that government is not responsive, not listening; the polls are way off in terms of what actually happens; now the Michigan Senate seat election will be nationalized, with all Dems supportive, with the...
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The Downtown Association of Santa Cruz is owned by the Downtown Business Owners, made up of 300 public-facing business, mostly ground floor (retail, restaurant, services) but also upper floor business; with all of the development going on in downtown Santa Cruz, does the Downtown Association have a seat at the table? No, but they're invited to public input sessions - there is an open solicitation by the city for input on design guidelines that anyone can chime in upon; Jorian came to Santa Cruz as a kid, first to surf, but later lured by her mom....her husband grew up in New Hampshire, &...
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Greg has been in Santa Cruz based jug bands for 10 years, playing the 1st Thursday of every month at Pono, and monthly wiht the Trolly Brass band at Abbott Square; there are Jug Bands, & Jug Band-adjacent bands; this weekend is the 2nd Annual Santa Cruz Jug Band Festival. What's a jug band? A: around the turn of the 1900s, musicians would use a jug for the bass line (it was portable), & the style got picked up by well-known musicians (Jimmy Rogers, Sarah Martin)...in the 20s & 30s musicians in Louisville, KY & Memphis, TN, laid the foundation, later picked up in the 1960s by...
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with a long & celebrated career as a folk guitarist Nina is "going over to the dark side" to play dueling telecasters wtih Bill Kirchen, the "Titan of the Telecaster" as part of his quartet; what she we refer to Nina as? Accompanist? Is "sideman" gender neutral? Let's change that to "Side Person"; Nina never wanted to be in the spotlight! She barely wanted to be noticed at all! She fell in love with Kate Wolf & her music, & wanted to be Kate's side person...wanted to be in Kate's band; she took mandolin lessons with Kate's husband, Don Coffin, learning his parts - when they got...
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played Folsom (hotel) last night, calling in from Willits; they played a Johnny Cash song last night; the 1st time they played Folsom Dallas' guitar player went to the prison to take a photo, only to learn that it's still a working prison & photos aren't allowed; touring as a 4-piece band, with a driver who sometime sits in; learned music as a kid from his grandmother, then his dad taught him "House of the Rising Son" on guitar...Dallas started writing songs when he was 12...he won his Junior High School talent show with "Sweet Home Alabama"; he grew up in New Braunfels, Texas, where Brian...
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With Anita re-joining, they are back to the original trio after a 2 year hiatus; they first hatched the idea for The Musers in 2017; Anita (Sandwina) & Megan (McLaughlin) are the 2 songwriters (Tom (Kuhn) 'just ;) plays bass); The Money Question (have you been able to make a living playing music, & if so, how) - Megan was a kindergarten & 1st grade teacher for 28 years, and is now retired - Anita taught art for 29 years, and is now retired; - Tom worked for Luther Burbank Housing, and is now retired; they have a new CD, & are sorting it out - deep dive into what that means,...
info_outlineSleepy John & Richard were 2 of 4 (the others being Ben Rice & Laurence Bedford) hiking the northern California coast when they came upon a big building with part of the underlying earth washed out, allowing them to stand underneath it, and pose as pillars holding it up - the the name "The Pillars"; they are hiking the northern California coast from Santa Cruz to San Francisco for the 4th time, hiking 4-5 mile increments weekly...more "lollygagging" than hiking, with easy walks you could do in flip flops, along the bluffs; John came to Santa Cruz in 1977, running from the law, and yes, he did sell those ubiquitous yellow smiley face buttons that may have said, "Have a Nice Day!"; Richard came in 1968 to attend UCSC in its 3rd year (1st year for Merrill College) - he remembers Dr. Timothy Leary sitting on the college steps, saying that "If you don't make your life an experiment, it'll be a life wasted!" - the one thing he learned at college; Richard became a full time comedian in 1986, touring as a headliner; his answer to "The Money Question": "Great question! Yes! It was "the" time in Comedy, where every venue hosted comedy nights, and the "A-Clubs paid big bucks!"; more recently writing for the Good Times (which does not pay Big Bucks); Sleepy John's answer: "Sort of. 33 years at KPIG, starting at $6/hr in the 1980s increasing to $15/hr in 2023"; Sleepy John has been fired by KPIG (twice), KZSC (3 times), & quit KSCO (he's also DJ on KAZU & KKUP) - he was also voted Best DJ in the Good Times Santa Cruz Best Of poll...14 times!!! What it's like to hike with Sleepy John, where everyone recognizes...his voice! On the current hike they are at Waddell Creek, hiking generally 3-5 miles each week, but not always a straight line (they hike every Tuesday, meeting at 8:30 at Alta Coffee); on their hike they have one rule: walk as close to the beach as you can!
An interview on "The Bushwhacker's Breakfast Club" with "Dangerous Dan" Orange, "DJ Spark Plug" (Dylan Estevez) & "Momento Maury" (Maury Burnett-Cavoto) airing Friday mornings on KZSC Santa Cruz, California. 2026 is Bushwhacker's 37th year on the air! Thanks for listening!
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