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Welcome to a psycho delicious conversation on mental health issues and trends from two local mental health professionals in the greater Lansing area. I'm Michael Stratton, lmsw.

And I'm Morgan Bowen, dnp, pmhnp. And we're here to provide you with a deep dive into the human experience of consciousness and beyond. Our aim is to be educational and entertaining. So just kick back and open your ears and your minds.

Hey, I'm Michael Stratton.

And I'm Morgan Bowen.

And we are here talking about schizophrenia. And I was just brought up to current date. I made a statement in the first section of this where I called patients schizophrenics. And Morgan pointed out to me that it's not schizophrenics. That's not the term to be used anymore. It's people with schizophrenia, which makes sense. They do the same thing with alcoholism these days where they've removed that from the dsm. They don't call people alcoholics anymore. They don't even use the term alcoholism. They use substance use disorder, alcohol use disorder, mild, moderate, you know, whatever.

And why is it done that way?

Well, it's kind of a pejorative term. It's kind of a judgmental term, and it's a strong identification. Like, glad to meet you. I'm schizophrenic. Glad to meet you, I'm alcoholic versus, like, this is who I am, and I have this condition.

Yeah. It doesn't define the person.

Yeah. Yeah. So that's what we're talking about in part, in this hour as well. Or this half hour, or this 27 minutes.

Well, we wanted to talk first about a creature in your life.

Well, this is gonna get. Now this is how we're finally gonna get mail.

Yeah.

Is that I have a feral cat that lives on our porch.

You live in Lansing. You live in the city.

We have a nice. And we have cats that come up on our porch occasionally. But this one, enclosed porch or open. It's an open porch. And so this one, she's got this big fur coat. We call her Thundercat. She's beautiful. And she would just be hanging around a lot. And as the weather changed, I bought one of these kind of tent houses for her and set it up. She didn't go into it for the longest time, but finally she did. And it's got a heated pad. We just plugged it in and it would be a heated pad. And when it gets to these really, really super cold nights, I feel good that she had a heated pad. And we just Found out that the heated pad isn't working. So she's been out there in the cold. At least she has some shelter.

She's got some shelter.

She's got some shelter.

But I feel bad about or something. Is there anything in there to use?

There's no straw right now. No. But I'm looking for feedback from the listeners so they should look up psycho delicious conversation and send us suggestions. By the time it gets to us, it'll be springtime though.

By the time they finish writing out a psycho delicious conversation. Which is the email, by the way. A psychodelicious conversationmail.com.

That'S it. That's the one. And we're waiting for.

That's why you guys hire me.

Yeah, I have to hire a shorter email address, but. Well, my. Well, how do you know that it wasn't working? Like has it not been working the whole time or finally went out?

Well, we don't know if it has not been working the whole time or not. The thing is when we step out because we bring out food and water for her every morning. I do.

Do you know it's a hero?

We're pretty sure.

Yeah.

That's our fantasy. Anyway. That's what. Why the faces?

I don't know.

I'm not sure.

I feel more.

You want like a cat.

It was an odd way to describe it.

That's why. It just was odd.

Well, I was wondering if she had been pregnant or you'd see.

No, no, she's fixed because she's got a clip.

Oh, she does. She has clipped.

So that's a. That's a sign that a feral cat has been fixed and declawed. So she's helpless out in the world.

Oh, that's an important piece. Yeah, yeah, yeah. That's always good. I don.

We feel more protective over because of that. Anyway, we call her. We tried to call her they. Them for a while, but it just didn't. Anyway, what was the question? Oh, how did we know that the heating pad didn't work? The heating pad. My wife went out and she said, I'm going to put my hand inside the house just to feel it, see how warm it is. And realized it was cold in there.

Freezing cold.

Like that's. That's not working at all well.

But the warmth of the cat, like when they're in the enclosed space. Right. They can kind of curl up and then their body heat heats up the space.

I would.

Much more than we could.

Yes.

Yeah, yeah.

I would. Yeah, yeah. She does have that big fur coat which Is the.

I, I think now. Would you ever think about letting this cat into your house?

I've tried. I've left the door open. I've said, come on in, come on in.

So you have no pets?

She has. We have no pets currently. And that's the other thing that people, if they want to.

Well, it kind of, you know, may segue a little bit into our conversation of treatment with schizophrenia.

Oh, right, we got that going on.

Because people and cats have a right to, you know, self determination. They can decide if they would like to come in. Yeah, I mean, you're thinking, hey, come into my really warm house. It's great in here. We're going to take care of you. The fantasy is real. And that cat says, no way. I don't want anything to do with that.

That's right.

And it's hard for you to understand why that cat is not coming into your house. But see, people, they decide anyway.

People can refuse treatment and, and someone who has schizophrenia can also.

Well, and. And it's very frustrating sometimes for us as clinicians as well as family and, you know, kind of maybe the community at large. Why would somebody not engage with treatment? If there is a treatment, why are they not participating in it? Wouldn't things overall just be better if they did?

I'm curious. We probably should have talked about it in the first part, but generally, in your experience, do you find that folks with schizophrenia are aware that they have it?

Yes. Well, maybe not in an acceptance sort of way, because there are times at which they think people are lying to them and it's a conspiracy.

That's why I was wondering.

But there are people that do a lot of times the goal of the trajectory of treatment because. Because it's going to be lifelong if somebody has schizophrenia. So the goal is to really establish really good treatment relationships, really good relationships with their doctor or their nurse practitioner or their therapist, so that you can continue a relationship throughout all the phases. So if somebody is able to engage with treatment, has a good experience, recognizes that the treatment is helpful for them, then there's a better chance that they are going to accept the, you know, that they, that they do have an illness. So I've seen it both ways. I've seen people who come into the hospital, this is when I was working in the hospital, who know that they're moving into a. Because it's not that they're com. You know, it's not that the person is completely psychotic all the time. There's ebbs and flows to times in which it's more serious than other times. So if somebody's moving into a more acute episode, meaning like they're. They're feeling like their illness is getting worse, There are some people who will present and they'll come to the hospital, they'll come to the doctor and say, I think I need to be in the hospital. I think my meds aren't working, or something's happening.

Okay.

And a lot of the homeless population, a lot of the unhoused population, there's a significant amount of mental illness among the unhoused population. And so there is a lot of schizophrenia. And so people who would rather live in. In that situation without treatment because they just don't feel like they need it or that they. Yeah. That they're sick or that there's really anything wrong with them.

Yeah, yeah. It's a difficult thing. And when I was working more directly with mentally ill folks, there was a lot more services available. There was a lot more housing available. There was kind of wraparound services for people in mental health. You know, I was thinking too, of the progression. You know, when someone gets in the door for treatment, you know, and you can start to use some medication that helps lessen the hallucinations, helps them relax a little bit, helps them to think more clearly. All of those things kind of help a person get stabilized. And then if they can establish relationships with someone in the helping profession and they can do some family therapy and some other things in terms of linking them with community services of some kind, their life can improve. They can get to the point where maybe they will be able to hold a job or, you know, function at the job that maybe they have already, you know, all of those kinds of things. There's a number of different kinds of treatment modalities that actually do work in therapy with people who have schizophrenia. So cbt, in terms of helping a person do problem solving, helping a person with relaxation techniques, help a person improve in terms of their self esteem, you know, some of that negative self talk that a person does, they can start identifying that. And the other one is act acceptance and commitment therapy, which, when it started, they used populations of people that had a pretty severe mental illness profile, Often people who had schizophrenia. And it was interesting because part of where they came from was the idea of, like, we don't know how well, we can work with your symptoms, but we can help you accept your symptoms.

And.

And given that you have that, what are your values and what do you want to spend your life on? What are you doing when you're doing Something and you're really having a great time doing it and you're enjoying it. What is that? And when I went through the training for act, that's what they would focus on. They showed examples of that, of people who said, you know, it's not that my symptoms are that much better, but I'm spending a lot more time enjoying my life because I'm spending it with these people or I'm doing my artwork or I'm building things. And I love to build things. And, you know, they're just doing more things that they're committed to doing. And that, that can help too, because I think there was probably a period of time when people didn't think of therapy and schizophrenia as things that they didn't see it as very treatable. But it's very treatable. As it turns out.

It is. It is treatable. And there's a number of different programs and approaches and it, you know, kind of depends on what's available in the person's area. Some, you know, some places that have really great mental health systems, may be connected to a university or, or a hospital has a lot of innovative programs to really both work with the person. In terms of medications, the medication treatment is fairly, I don't want to say routine, but we have a group of medications that are usually effective to some extent.

What's being used these days? What are they?

Second generation antipsychotics, and those include things like Abilify, Zyprexa.

Do they still use Thorazine and that?

Vega and Risperdal? No, not so much. Thorazine is a first generation and so used like a lot. And then in Haldol as well. You do see it, I mean, you still see it used, particularly in treatment resistant cases. But they have a lot of side effects. The first generations do. All of, all of the medications have side effects, but the first generations tend to be more significant.

Tardive Dyskinesia. Yeah, you used to see people that would have kind of a twitchiness or, or, or a strange, you know, kind of facial.

It's like an involuntary kind of facial movement that is persistent, rhythmic and, and, and what's the word? It doesn't go away, it stays around.

Yeah, yeah, yeah. Chronic.

Yeah. So there's ways to administer the medication with an injection where the person just needs the, the medication injection once a month or sometimes once every two months or three months. So that is also a big component of treatment and a lot of that is, you know, through community mental health as opposed to like what we do in the outpatient world, it's usually more coordinated through cma. It's more easily coordinated through cma.

Is it always chronic, though? I mean, if you're schizophrenic or if you have schizophrenia, you have those symptoms. Is it always chronic if it's true?

I'm doing air quotes here. Like, you know, a true schizophrenia develops at the age 17 to 24, has both the hallucinations and, or the delusions as well as what is called the negative symptoms, which are poor grooming. You know, oftentimes like the cognitive. Cognition can vary. Like the thinking can be a little bit more rigid or less, you know, the learning abilities and things are just. Are not as high. So in cases that have the combination of all of those things, it tends to be chronic and, and lifelong.

So another question I have is what would a person rule out? I mean, what, what other symptoms might be similar? And I'm wondering about people, for instance, who might experience dissociative states, then might come to the conclusion like, oh my gosh, I must have schizophrenia because I'm having this dissociative state where I feel like I'm just practically out of body or I found myself walking for several blocks, I had no idea where I was.

Yes, well, the first thing we always look at, I mean, if you're, if somebody's coming in to do, you know, like an evaluation, they would do some type of CT of the head or a brain scan to see if there's any type of brain tumor or brain mass that could be. So if you have a mass in the head in your brain, it can mimic the symptoms. So that is one of the big rule outs. If somebody out there is thinking that maybe they have schizophrenia, a dissociative state is, you know, that feeling of out of body, that feeling of experience is not really in line with like a psychotic. Like the psychosis is really seeing things, hearing things that are persistent, that are happening on a regular basis. Sometimes people will describe somebody who does not necessarily have a classic psychotic illness will, you know, describe like seeing a shadowy figure at the end of their bed. Sometimes people who experience sleep paralysis where they kind of wake up and they're half awake and they're kind of paralyzed and they have a really scary experience. Some people would describe that as a psychotic thing, but it's really not in the same realm as, you know, something that's happening daily or frequently and is more consistent and impactful on the person's day to day.

A couple of different times I've worked with people who had really pretty severe ocd, obsessive compulsive disorder. And one of the individuals I was working with, part of their obsession was, I have this condition. I have this condition. I have this condition. They were really pretty sure there was something really wrong with them. And one of the things they would latch onto is, I have schizophrenia. I know I'm going crazy. That's what this feels like. But it asks, do you hear things that other people don't hear? Do you have this kind of thought? This kind of thought? And they didn't, but they just had the fear of that.

Yeah, yeah. It's a component, I would say, of, like, illness, anxiety disorder, which is, you know, very related to kind of an obsessional thought that I have, you know, a hypochondria. You know, it is hypochondria when a person thinks that they may have X, Y, or Z. And then I think it speaks to just the cultural awareness of this really severe illness called schizophrenia that is, you know, the person is, you know, kind of. There's this idea that the person is totally crazy and they're going to get locked up in, you know, the hospital forever and ever. And so for somebody that has, like, a anxiety disorder related to health, like, that is very much a. You know, could be a huge fear of theirs.

The movie Psycho, you know, where, you know, Norman Bates. Norman Bates dresses up as. I'm giving. Give the money. Movie away.

Spoiler alert.

70 years, 40 years later or whatever. Whatever, dude.

I was gonna watch that. 60, 70. Yeah. Norman Bates dresses up as his dead mother and then kills women in the shower. Or one particular woman.

You might.

There's some.

There's somebody out there going, I'm not gonna watch that movie now.

It's such a good movie.

But it's so. It is a great movie.

It's classic American.

It's terrifying. But, you know, that's that idea of someone being psycho is that they're a killer or psycho killer. You know, with David Byrne and the Talking Heads doing that. You know, people that are psychotic rarely are murderous kinds of people.

No, no, they're not. And there are times in which, you know, somebody is, you know, potentially a danger to others, but that is pretty rare. And it's much more often, like we talked about in the previous episode, that a person is a danger to themselves because they just are so plagued and tortured by the experiences that they have that they just don't want to. Or there are times where the voices are telling them to hurt themselves. So it's much more common that there's self directed violence. I think it's good that you guys.

State that because I think the movies.

Really do portray it the other way around.

And, and most anybody, you know, like I said, most of my experience is.

Going to be from movies.

I have run into that. Now that I think about it. I felt uncomfortable, but I didn't feel threatened.

Yeah, right, right, right, right.

Yeah. There is something unsettling, I mean deeply unsettling to see somebody who just appear. You know, they're gesticulating and talking to themselves and disheveled and. Yeah, I think it's unsettling for most of us to see that. And so I don't, you know, I think that that's, I think that that's a common thing, but the sense that somebody is a danger to them I think is very much a story that's told to us. I mean that's a cultural projection. It's a, it's an othering. I mean, you know, there's, there's lots of examples of cultural scapegoats that we have that, you know, we kind of target our fears on.

They say it's like 1% of the general population has schizophrenia, which is, it's.

A very low percentage.

Low percentage, but a high number at the same time. Yeah, there used to be like types of schizophrenia. Do they still have that like they used to call hebrophrenics and.

Yeah.

Chronic.

Yes, there is, but, but less so than there used to be. There's catatonic. There's a schizophrenia catatonic type. In the world of psychiatry there is the ability to specify, but we don't focus in current diagnosis as much on the types as they used to. But the two big ones I guess that come to mind are when there's an element of catatonia. So that's a completely still stage. The person is often in a rigid or a position that they don't move from for long periods of time. Days, sometimes lots longer than that. So that does happen. Then there's paranoid schizophrenia and now it's called schizophrenia, I think paranoia type or in the diagnosis. So that's where there's a fear of, you know, that somebody's after them or that people are out to get them.

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

My big thing, I loved working as a nurse with, with people with serious mental illness because there's a lot of, a lot of joy. There's, I mean there, there's, there's a very unique perspective that people with mental illness bring. And it's It's a shade of the human experience. I mean, it's definitely a part of the human experience. And if you are able to move beyond the kind of fear that you or I or whoever may have or that just that otherness that they're, you know, they're so bizarre, I don't want to be around them. I don't want, you know, I want them to stay over here and me to be over here. If you can bridge that, then you can really connect with just a very interesting way of thinking, a different experience that has a vibrancy. Very often very artistic, very thoughtful. And I just really enjoyed that. I really, really enjoyed that.

That matches my experience too. When I was working with people with schizophrenia, they were by and large, like over. Well over 90% enjoyable people to work with and were very creative, sometimes very, very funny. Very interesting senses of humor, often coming in, really, really scared. But as time went on and you got to know them better and they relaxed, you would see that they were a lot of fun. And often.

Yeah, yeah. And one other thing, very endearing. So there is a book by a woman with schizophrenia. It's called the Sinner Cannot hold, which is the quote of a very famous poet that I cannot remember. Maybe Dallian can look up this book because I also can't remember her name. She is a professor of law. She's a lawyer and a professor of law. I know she was at UCLA for a long time.

Did she do a. A TED Talk?

I think she does do a TED talk, yeah. I can picture her. Yep. Ellen Sachs. She has a wonderful book that is a memoir of her experience, her journey with schizophrenia. Very smart woman. She grew up in Florida. She went to one of the Ivies, I can't remember which, Princeton, something like that. Very smart. She went to law school. All of which her illness developed as she was doing this, became a lawyer and is a huge advocate for the rights of persons with mental illness, especially as it relates to restraint, use of restraint.

You also mentioned NAMI in the first section of this. And NAMI is the national association for Mental Illness Family Oriented Support System for people, family members, and also incorporating folks that have the mental illness themselves. And it's a great source for that. They hired me a number of years ago to do a motivational interviewing training. And what I found out by doing that is that, you know, just empathy is something that works really, really well. And the ability to sidestep conflict, to roll with resistance, to do that kind of thing really worked well with folks that have schizophrenia.

And it's really they have a family program for especially for families with people with serious mental illness. There's a lot of education and kind of trying to understand their experience as well as logistics of what if the person is not in treatment and not taking their medication and how do we manage that? Maybe set up some boundaries, things like that, like practical and there's a support element of families in groups where they meet, they mentor other families. The illness impacts a huge amount of people in the network of the person, so the family needs support too.

Yeah, A Psycho Delicious conversation is meant for educational and entertainment purposes only. It is no substitute for therapy and should not be treated as such. If you feel a need for real therapy, you should consult your local provider, Google therapy or therapists in your area. Check with community mental Health or a suicide hotline if you are feeling suicidal.

Mike and Morgan welcome your questions, feedback or dilemmas. Feel free to send us an email at a psychodelicious conversationmail.com that is a psycho delicious P S Y C H O D E L I C I o u s conversationmail.com the views expressed.

On this podcast are so the opinions of Mike Stratton and Morgan Bowen and do not reflect the views or opinions of any site broadcasting this podcast. Replication of this podcast without written permission is strictly prohibited. Sharing the Voices of Lansing Community College Visit us@lccconnect.org LCC Connect Voices vibes Vision.

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Hi, I'm Melissa Caplan and I host a show called Galaxy Forum on LCC Connect. It's all about the creativity in our classrooms and on campus here at LCC and the connections we have with the community. You can catch Galaxy Forum here on LCC Connect or listen anytime@lccconnect.org.

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This is Time Signatures with Jim Irvin, a podcast and radio program presented by the Capital Area Blues Society in Lansing, Michigan. Most any contemporary musical style can trace its roots back to the blues. Time Signatures explores the blues and its musical connections with captivating interactions, interviews, lively discussions and news from the world of the blues. And now here he is, your host, Jim Irvin.

Well, hi there and welcome to Time Signatures. I'm your host, Jim Irvin. Now I want you to imagine for a moment that you have the coolest gig around. Now I don't care what it is, just know that you're doing something that you love every single day. And let's toss in that you're also working with some legendary musicians while you're at it. Today's guest has such a job. He is stage manager and guitar tech for not only Buddy Guy, that position alone would be cool, but also working with another one of the hottest blues musicians on the planet, Bristone Kingfish Ingram. I'm pleased to introduce you all to Connor Cordyce. Connor, welcome to Time Signatures man. How are you doing?

Good, thank you for having me. I appreciate it. This is really cool.

I'm glad to have you. I I've seen your work a couple of times because I've gone to see Buddy twice now and we're going to talk a little bit about that. But I want to start at the beginning for you. Connor, what influenced you to pursue this line of work to begin with and how long ago did you get into it?

Well, I started guitar teching when I was in my early 20s. I worked at a music store and I was the guitar manager and the in house guitar tech. I worked alongside Fender and Gibson and Martin, Taylor, even Orange and like Rickenbacker. So, you know, being trained by them and having even just the reps come in and learning about the instruments and the woods and how the instruments are put together and all that good stuff, it piqued my interest. And yeah, it kind of started from there, but, you know, Even starting at 4 years old, I started playing guitar. So guitar has always been my go to instrument. You know, out of all the instruments that are around in the world, that's the one thing that stuck with me. So being able to work at a music store and being around all these different guitars, vintage, new. Yeah. You know, people bringing in guitars that were sitting in a closet for over deck, you know, two decades or something like that that need to be cleaned up and worked on, it piqued my interest. And you know, starting out touring, it wasn't specifically guitar teching. It was. It was starting as a stagehand or. And then going into monitors and going into front of house and then, you know, including guitar teching and bands that I toured with. And then, you know, with this position with Buddy and my previous, my last two tours before this, it was, it was starting going into the realm of instrument teching. So guitar, drums, whatever it may be, and I kind of went back full circle and went back to guitars. So that's kind of, you know, where it all started. But touring, you know, I started doing it around, I think I was about 21, 22, something like that now.

Okay.

I'm turning 30, so close to 10 years. And it's, it's been, it's been a ride for sure.

Talk about that first gig, knowing what was on the line, that first show when you started doing your touring, that had to be an absolute pressure cooker and event for you.

Yeah, yeah, absolutely. You know, my first tour was with a major tour. I would, I should say, you know, I've toured in, in vans and traveled with, with guys traveling around and we were just doing eggs here and there in little bars. But my major tour, I was a monitor engineer for a guy named Masego. He's a. I wouldn't say rap, but more he has his own genre. So it's like he calls it trap house jazz. So there's saxophone, there's drums, there's guitar, there's bass, there's two background singers, the whole, you know, the whole nine yards. And I was the monitor engineer for it. And that first gig was very, very scary. So to say, you know, big theater in Boston, starting out in Boston and Full bus, full trailer. You know, stepping into a whole world that I had no idea what I was getting myself into. And yeah, I had. Let's just say I had a drumstick thrown at me. That first show, though, it was. Yeah, it was rough, but, you know, you learn. I mean, that's the whole process. You know, someone gives you a chance and. And you run with it, and wherever it takes you, it takes you.

You.

And yeah, I mean, that first gig, touring professionally was definitely stressful, for sure.

I. I can imagine. Now, look, I get it. You're a professional. You've got a ton of responsibility each day in your job. But be honest with me for a minute. Do you ever have a pinch me moment where you stand off stage watching Buddy and kingfish and whomever you work with playing and, and taking care of their audience each evening?

You know, that moment, I joke around about this with, with a lot of people, that moment still hasn't hit me. I still haven't gotten the chance to sit back and, and, and realize what position I'm in. And it, it's not a selfish thing. It's more. So this is my line of work. And it's like anybody going to work every day, it's your. You know, it's not like I'm sitting at an office job and being like, oh, my God, I'm doing what I love to do. And this is, you know, I want to be an accountant or I want to be an insurance person or whatever. So being in the realm of touring, sure, there's some moments where I kind of sit back and I'm like, wow, this is crazy. But most of the time it's just my head's in the game and I'm watching the artist and I have to be on my toes at all times in case something happens. But, you know, there, for instance, a moment that, that comes to mind is meeting Carlos Santana and having him tickle my ear. Coming on stage to watch, you know, Buddy Guy play at the New Orleans Jazz Festival, which is memorable, you know, and, yeah, you know, surprising me, you know, Greg, Buddy son tickles my ear. And I look over on this side and there's Carlos Santana laughing. And, you know, because I was so focused, I mean, it's just. It's crazy. I mean, my, my, my. The dreams that I've had that I wouldn't even imagine coming true, you know, and, and they do and still haven't gotten the chance to sit back and realize what I do for a living is. It's crazy. Crazy line of Work for sure. Yeah.

Well, I have to imagine that your work with Buddy is bittersweet. Especially knowing that this is the damn right. Farewell tour. Yes.

Yeah. Yep, yep. Absolutely. Go ahead. Farewell. You know, who knows what will happen next year or, or so on in, into the future. But it's bittersweet. Absolutely. With Buddy for sure.

Well, I know that they've been talking that he's still going to do his residency and in Chicago at Legends, which is cool. But when he's not on the road and you don't have another gig, what do you do? Do you, do you work at Legends as well and do some things there?

So initially I started running sound at Legends. That's kind of how I got my, my not foot in the door, but just being around the family and, and, and, and working around Buddy, that's kind of where it all started. But you know, I haven't run sound there since I started being on the road with Buddy. So it's been a while. I, geez, probably like a year and a half ago I got called in to discover somebody. But you know, when I'm not on the road and, and touring, of course I'll go down and see Buddy and hang out with him and, and shoot, shoot, shoot the crap with him. But you know, most of the time I'm either spending time with, you know, my loved one or being in the studio and producing records. That's kind of where I've, where I've piqued my interest the most for sure.

Very cool. Now take us into your daily work if you can. Connor, I've seen you prep the stage for Buddy twice now and it's a non stop. I mean I, I've watched you work, work, but this time around, a couple weeks ago I paid special attention as you did your work and you really have a lot to get done before you take, before he takes a stage.

Yeah, yeah. I mean and there's a lot to do before. I mean even prepping for Buddy is, is a lot. So my day to day routine is, you know, get up, we're on our bus, so we get to the hotel, we drop our luggage off. You know, we usually get to the hotel the, the day of or if you know, we're where we have a day off before, we'll be there the night before. But let's say we're driving in and we have, it's a show day. We drop our luggage off, we probably have about 30 to 45 minutes before we have to get back on the bus and head to the venue. So I drop my stuff off, get back on the bus, head of the venue, get to the venue. We have to, you know, check everything, you know, check the venue, check the layout of the stage. And my main job, you know, as stage manager is making sure we have a clear pathway for Case to run through. What's the. What, how many stage hands we have, you know, what are their qualifications? Are they even qualified? Because most of the time, I mean, it's a hit or miss with some of these stage hands. So, you know, talking to the production manager, talking to the, the gm, even sometimes talking to the local, I mean, the stage manager of the club or the venue and then looking to see, you know, what route for even a walkout for Buddy, you know, making sure a riser is set up in place where it needs to be. And then it's head to the trailer and dump at one o'. Clock. And, you know, I'm there with our lighting guy, who's also the drum tech, Eli. So he, he's in the trailer with me dumping and then Sage, our production manager, monitor engineers on stage, kind of pointing kind of where cases all need to go. Max is either on stage or kind of dealing with. Max, who's our tour manager, is kind of in front of house engineer, dealing with, you know, getting green room set up and getting all that stuff situated. Dump the trailer. As soon as the trailer's closed, I run in to the back to the bus to grab Buddy's guitar. Because we keep his main guitar on the bus with us just for temperature control and for safety. Really.

Sure.

Grab that and then go in the club, put the guitar on stage, right. Go to my guitar amps and get hands and tell them what they need to do and start setting up. And then once everything's set up and ran and, and you know, get my world set up and we do sound check. Band comes in, we do sound check. After sound check. Either we have an opener or it's Tom. And if it's Tom, the drummer and he does the opening set, then I could take down the carpet and, and you know, get everything else ready to go. If it's not Tom, then I gotta. We gotta take the carpet up, we gotta take the monitors up, we gotta take all the cables up. And then, you know, I go into after sound check and whether or not we have to move stuff around, I gotta set up Buddy's guitars. And, you know, the process of Buddy's guitars will take me about 35 to 40 minutes, maybe even longer, depending on what happens. Wow.

Wow.

Yeah. And even with stretching strings, getting it to, to my comfortability and changing batteries and, and you know, getting guitar world just set up in general. And then I gotta get Buddy's mugs, you know, his, his cognac mugs cleaned and get towels. He needs two damp towels. So you know, to, to get his finger, to get whatever's on his fingers off and have a nice grip on the, on the pick. I got to get everyone else stage towels and waters with the labels ripped off of them because, you know, unfortunately with pictures, endorsements and all that other stuff, that's just something I've been trained to do is just take the labels off of the waters and then hopefully. Oh, and then I have a security meeting. So I have a security meeting with all the security and the production manager. So kind of go through the walkthrough and kind of Buddy's routine throughout the show as well as talk about photos and, and you know, unfortunately with the world we live in, active shooter and you know, fire and. Yeah, kind of Buddy's routine of as soon as he gets off stage, he's gone. I mean, he doesn't stick around, make sure he gets in his runner's car and he's got, he's good to go. And making sure I have enough security personnel when I'm out in the audience. And then it's showtime and then, you know, there might be time where I have a, a have enough time to go in my bunk and maybe take a 30 minute cat nap or you know, even just get something to drink or eat or whatever. You know, there's that time period where I can do that and then showtime and, or changeover really. It's. It's either, you know, I gotta throw down the rug, I gotta tape the rug all the way around and make sure he doesn't trip. I gotta tape the cables running from the back of the amps to the front, front the monitors, tape all that stuff up and then spike all of it really with bright neon tape so that he can see where the cables are so he doesn't trip.

Sure.

The way he walks, it's not somebody. He's 88. So the way he walks, not picking up each foot, it's. Sometimes he drags his feet. So you know, just making sure that he's, he's got a clear stage. And if there are cables, they're taped down or and, and spiked. And then turn on the amps and, and turn on our rack and just, you know, tune the guitar, stretch the strings. I'm still stretching. I mean, even at the opener, I'm over there stretching strings because Buddy's a hard player. So. Yeah. Then once all that's done, amps are there, I take it, I fill his coffee mug up with a little bit of cognac, put that out there, make sure he's got tissues, make sure he's got, you know, baby powder ready to go on the side of the stage, turn on the guitar, play a little bit and just make sure I'm getting noise. Go up to the amps, kind of go between each ant to make sure that there's no issues with them. And then turn the guitar all the way off. Volume knob off, tone all the way up, tone all the way up on the neck. Pickup. I got five minutes. And you know, the five minute mark is where I go down and get Buddy and let him know. Knocking the door, hey, you got five minutes. And then he either tell me, I'll be right out, or I'm ready to go and we hit the stage. And as soon as we hit the stage, you know, I. I have my flashlight with me. Depending on if we're at an outdoor venue, I might keep the guitar in the guitar world guitar vault so that temperature changes, don't mess up the strings and they go out a lot of tune and all that other stuff. But if we're in a venue and it's. The temperature is the same throughout the entire building, then I'm no worries. But I'll bring the guitar with me. And then we walk to stage and I take baby powder, put it on Buddy's hands. Is one of his hands he holds out like this. Put a little bit in here. He shakes it and then rubs it on his finger or, you know, in on his fingers. And then I give him a damp paper towel or. No, first I give a pitch and then I give him a damp towel that he takes with his pick hand and rubs on the. On the towel so he gets a better grip on his fingers. And then I either give him a tissue tissue so he can blow his nose or. And then sip a cognac and then it's radio showtime. And then off he goes.

Very cool.

So it's a lot. It is a lot of work. That's my day to day routine.

And just when you think the prep work is done, now the real work begins. Because you are in charge of making sure that the guitars keep going to him as he changes or needs.

Correct?

Absolutely. Yeah. I mean, most of the time he plays one guitar and. And most if not all the time. He plays one guitar. Occasionally I might surprise him with a polka dot, and he'll be like, okay. And I tell him, if you don't like it, then you can give it back and I'll give you back your. A guitar that you're really comfortable with.

Right.

But yeah, keeping an eye on him is. Is really the main thing to make sure that he's safe on stage and. Yep, comfortable and, you know, has no issues. And he's always asking me, you know, how much time he has left. And I have a countdown clock right by me that lets me know, hey, I started as soon as that intro music hits. And I'll let you know. You know, whatever time. If you ask me how much time I got left, I'll let you know.

Know.

So it's really just kind of comfortable.

You know, I. I was backstage momentarily when I arrived at the theater in Kalamazoo a couple weeks ago, and I remember one of your co workers backstage telling me that you're like a stage manager. Manager, Buddy's luthier, a sound tech. He said you literally do it all. And I mean, watching how you work with him. And I've seen, you know, I've seen you interact with him and taking a guitar out to him and, you know, wait, looking for, you know, bad cables, broken strings, whatever. You're the guy.

You're.

You're the guy no matter what. At the end of the day, it's your responsibility to make sure that everything flows perfect, perfectly for him. And so I. All right, so you work with Buddy, you work with Kingfish, Any other notable musicians or bands that you've worked with since you started, and any. Any favorites along the way?

You know, in my career, I've worked with a lot of musicians, but Buddies, Buddy, and Kingfish are like my go to. I mean, they're my favorite so far. Excuse my voice. I'm. I got allergies, so I'm like constantly clearing my throat.

Completely understand, man. Same here.

So, yeah, I mean it. Buddy for sure. I mean, he's taking me places I've never even thought I'd be. But I've worked with, for instance, bands, you know, starting out, doing little bars here and there, opening up for even big musicians, playing in amphitheaters and. And arenas and. And, you know, things like that. And nothing compares to this because even. Even if. If it's just Buddy himself, but it's the camaraderie of crew. I mean, crew and other band members. I mean, we're. We're all a Family. So this for sure is, is, is the top, the tippity top of, of my career of level, I guess of touring. But I've worked with a band called Black Pistol Fire. I've worked with a band called Raha Riot. I was with Masego, I was with the band called Super Organism, Brother Elzy. And then there's other garage bands or, or whatnot. But. Right, Main Body and Kingfish. So it's kind of, it's just moved on down the line, you know.

Well, Connor, with all this excitement in your daily work life, what does a day off look like for you? Because I know you get precious few of them in the touring community. You're, it looks like your calendar is pretty busy, I think you told me you had a five day stretch here. What do you do to decompress from the road, man?

Well, if I am, let's say I have an off day on the, on the road in general. Usually what I'll do is I'll hit, I'll, you know, hit up Dan, our keyboard player who's like one of my best buds on the road, and Sage and Eli and we go out to eat or we go see a movie or we just take the day to ourselves and we just relax. You know, sometimes you just need that, that alone time. But on my days off, you know, off the road and being home, it's more so either, you know, spending time with my girlfriend or flying down to Austin and spend time with my family who currently just moved back down there or, you know, being in the studio and producing musicians and working on albums for younger musicians that, you know, that are coming up in the blues realm and, and you know, creating a record label of my own and, and nice reading. Incredible music. Music for decades to come. So or so it's, it's, it's hit or miss. I mean, my days, I, I kind of plan my days out, but I kind of don't. I kind of just kind of see where, where things go.

Well, I think that, and, and correct me if I'm wrong, because your life is so structured during that touring time, it probably feels nice not to have everything locked in and buttoned up right.

Sometimes I think, I think anybody in the tech realm or even, you know, any position in touring, it's kind of nice to have structure. You know, you have a, you have master tour on your phone and you can look at your schedule and it tells you exactly where you're going to be and what time things are and, and then you get home and it's like, okay, it's already 5 o'.

Clock.

Should I go eat dinner? Should I? You know, there's, it's, it's adjusting so it's just, it's just adjustment, but sure, you know.

Well, Connor, looking back over your incredible career thus far, could you imagine doing anything else?

I always, you know, I went to school for audio engineering at Columbia College here in Chicago. Always wanted to be, you know, on tour. I mean, that's kind of my, my dream was to be on tour. Even when I was younger, you know, going to see people like Peter Frampton or ACDC or anybody of those of those genres, seeing them live and seeing the crew work and being like, man, that's what I want to do. Oh, there's a bus. Oh, they're all, you know, behind stage. And that's just what I wanted to do is be on tour. But guitar teching is something I was, wasn't not just an option, it was another avenue. Because in our line of work you have to have other skills and other.

Sure.

You have to be an asset to other different, different positions. So, you know, wanting to be a front of house engineer, that's kind of like where I wanted to be. But I'm totally, I'm totally happy being a guitar tech. I'd much have, have rather be on stage and not have the pressure of, let's say 50 or 5,000 people and the sound goes out or something happens. I'd rather have one person mad at me than.

Carter. Any special moments that you care to talk about? I mean, I can imagine you've had some really cool things happen along the way already, but I've just, I just gotta ask.

Yeah.

You know, a couple instances taking a private jet to do the Jim Irsay Experience, which was incredible. I mean, I would never even imagine getting on a private jet, let alone twice. You know, I've, I've, I've done it two times and meeting just incredible musicians that, that I've listened to over the, over the years. You know, Billy Gibbons and Carlos Santana and.

Yeah, tell that story, man. We were talking about before we went to air.

Yeah. So.

Yeah, I mean, I didn't mean to interrupt you. I just, I've gotta, you've gotta share that story. It's wonderful.

Yeah. So New Orleans Jazz Fest with Carlos Santana. We were, we were opening up for him this past. The last time we played there, Buddy was on stage. And you know, Carlos Santana and Buddy are very close friends. You know, I, I'd met Carlos in the green room and, and getting Buddy and brought him on stage. Buddy's playing. You know, I'm stretching strings on his yellow and purple polka dot guitar, and I feel a tickle. Was it on. I think on this ear. And that was Buddy's son, Greg. He was tick. He tickled my ear. And I look this way, there's nobody there. So I thought somebody was playing a joke on me, right? I look over this way and there's Carlos Santana smiling at me. And, you know, he rubbed my back and he was like, oh, I'm just kidding. And then we. He walked and he watched Buddy play the entire set, you know, and. And Carlos Santana's people are so nice, you know, Tim Mack, who's. Who's Carlos's guitar tech, was so generous and so kind. His whole camp is super kind. You know, they put a chair out. I was watching Carlos the entire set, you know, and, yeah, it was just an incredible experience, man. I mean, that's. That's something. You know, I have a video of somebody who's sitting kind of behind us in, like, the. The viewing area, and they took a video of it, and I, like, still to this day, it's. Oh, wow. It's crazy. It's crazy.

Well, listen, if there's anyone out there that's looking to hire an incredibly talented stage manager down the way, I know you're busy right now, but where would somebody go to get information about Connor Cordy?

Yeah, so you can go on Instagram, K O R T as in tom E. It's. That's where you can find me there. And then Facebook. Connor Cordy. K O R T E there too, as well. C O N N O R. Not an E. Yeah, you can find me in those two places. And also, if you wanted to watch vlogs of touring for us on. On for Buddy Guy, you can look up Buddy Guy crew vlogs on YouTube. There's tons of videos out there of us on the road that I've filmed over our years of going to Australia or Europe or even in the States, so.

Well, Connor Corty, my sincere thanks for taking some of your free time to chat with me. That's not been lost on me. I want you to know that. But thank you so much for joining me today on Time Signatures. And continued. Good luck to you, sir.

Thank you, sir. I appreciate you.

All right, well, I appreciate you, too. That wraps up this edition of Time Signatures with Jim Irvin. Once again, my deepest appreciation to Connor Cordy for being here with us today. But more importantly, I want to thank. Thank you for being here. Because if it wasn't for you being here and listening and paying attention and watching, none of this would be possible. And please do me a favor and make sure you subscribe to our channel as well. Jim Irvin reminding you that keeping the blues alive is everyone's responsibility, but preserving the history of the blues one story at a time is my mission. Until next time. So long.

This has been Time Signatures with Jim Irvin presented by the Capitol Area Blues society in Lansing, Michigan. For more information on CABS, visit capitalareablues.org you can find this episode and past episodes@lccconnect.org the Time Signature's theme song, Michigan Roads is used by permission and was written by Root Doctor featuring Freddie Cunningham. Until next time, Keep on Keeping the Blues alive.

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