Every barbershop has a guy who wrecks shop every time he comes in. He has the whole barbershop laughing. That doesn't mean he's a comedian.
My family was very encouraging, and both of my grandparents were both beautiful singers. My grandmother was a coloratura soprano, and my grandfather was an Irish tenor in a barbershop quartet.
When you think about choir music, that's a cappella. You have church choir that you would sing without any instrument. I think the popular form that we have now is barbershop in the 20th century, and the collegiate movement.
My grandfather was in a barbershop quartet and my grandmother was in a gospel quartet with her sisters.
I'll tell you what I would do in a shot if I could. I would sing in the barbershop quartet in The Music Man.
If people are sitting in the barbershop talking about my butt, it's conversational. That's what people are gonna do.
When I was a kid, there were these great comic books called 'Tales From The Crypt' and 'The Vault of Horror.' They were gruesome. I discovered them in the barbershop and thought they were fabulous.
We once played Strathclyde University's student union where they had a crash barrier in front of the stage. I thought that was a little over the top until the gig started and there was this crush at the front. They were even throwing beer bottles - it was wild. You'd have thought we were a rock group instead of a barbershop quartet.
I like ones that pertain to the music they make. Talking Heads does that somehow. More often than not band names are just a quirky joke that doesn't really stay funny for very long. It's like Homer Simpson's barbershop quartet, the Be Sharps. At first you're like, 'That's funny!' Then you're like, 'It's not that funny.'
My mom was a folk singer and Celtic harpist. My dad was in a barbershop quartet and my great grandma was an opera singer. As I grew up, I discovered pop music and Top 40 radio, but it was in the '90s, so music was very different then - it was really lyrical.
