Have you ever sat there and thought about what the color ratio of different flavors of skittles or starbursts are? I grew up with two younger siblings so the numbers were always off. There’s 5 flavors of original skittles, 4 flavors of original starbursts, so trying to separate them equally usually resulted in unequal ratios or weird bite marks out of three random starbursts. Ultimately mom or dad would enact the parent tax and the problem would solve itself. That being said, one thing they couldn’t take away from us and usually gave us themselves, was nicknames.
So when I saw that today was Name Yourself Day, it brought back AAAALLLL of the miscellaneous and “you had to be there” to know nicknames I’ve gotten and given over the years.
Nowadays it’s settled down to Lala for my friend’s and family’s kids but in high school, I was on the wrestling team and I’m not a dainty delicate little lady. Sooooo, besides an expletive I won’t use in this, My coaches gave me the nickname Crusher and yes I had gear with that name on it and everything. Ultimately… I used it as an affirmation of what I was meant to do when it came to the sport I was in and it worked. Kinda like the story Bobby talked about today with Motley Crue.

Every band has to start somewhere, and sometimes the most iconic names in rock history begin with a simple observation.

When the members of Mötley Crüe were first getting together in the early days of the Los Angeles rock scene, someone described the group as a “motley looking crew.”

Instead of taking it as an insult, they embraced it. The phrase captured exactly what they were: a chaotic mix of personalities, styles, and influences that somehow worked together.

They tweaked the spelling, turning it into Mötley Crüe, and added the now-famous umlauts over the letters to give the name a European metal flair. The band reportedly borrowed the visual idea from the beer logo of Löwenbräu, simply because it looked rebellious and different.

What started as a casual comment turned into one of the most recognizable band names in rock history — a name that perfectly matched the wild reputation, loud guitars, and unapologetic attitude that followed.

Sometimes the best identity is the one you lean into completely.

Before he became one of the most respected guitarists in blues-rock history, Stevie Ray Vaughan was mostly known around Texas club circuits. His reputation as a phenomenal guitarist was growing, but the wider music world hadn’t caught up yet.

That changed in 1982.

While attending the legendary Montreux Jazz Festival, David Bowie saw Vaughan perform and was immediately impressed by the power and style of his playing. Bowie was preparing to record a new album and invited Vaughan to play lead guitar on the project.

The album became Let's Dance, one of Bowie’s biggest commercial successes. Vaughan’s blues-driven guitar tone added a distinctive edge to the record, introducing millions of listeners to his sound even if they didn’t yet know his name.

Bowie later invited Vaughan to join the tour supporting the album. However, there was a catch: Bowie wanted Vaughan to tour as a solo guitarist backed by studio musicians, rather than bringing along his own band.

Vaughan declined.

Instead of taking the high-profile touring opportunity, he returned to Texas and stayed committed to the musicians he had been working with. Together they recorded Texas Flood, the debut album by Stevie Ray Vaughan and Double Trouble.

Released in 1983, the record quickly established Vaughan as a major force in blues-rock. Within just a few years he would become one of the most celebrated guitarists of his generation.

There’s an interesting irony in the story: Bowie’s album helped introduce Vaughan’s playing to a massive audience, but Vaughan’s refusal to compromise his band and musical direction is what ultimately cemented his legacy.

Sometimes the defining moment in a career isn’t the opportunity you accept — it’s the one you’re willing to walk away from.

One of the stories we were told today felt like it belonged in a movie rather than real life.

Recently in Thailand, an approximately eight-foot-tall ostrich escaped from an animal café and made a break for freedom in spectacular fashion — by running down a busy highway.

For context, ostriches are the largest birds on Earth. They can weigh more than 200 pounds and run at speeds approaching 45 miles per hour. They can’t fly, but when they decide to move, they move quickly.

This particular bird reportedly covered nearly ten miles along active roadway before local authorities were able to safely corral it. Despite the chaos of a giant flightless bird sprinting alongside traffic, nobody was injured, and the ostrich was eventually returned to the café.

Which raises an amusing thought: somewhere along that stretch of highway, drivers looked over and realized they were pacing traffic with a feathered animal the size of a small dinosaur.

Freedom takes many forms.

For this ostrich, it apparently involved a ten-mile sprint down the open road.

At one point today I mentioned that playing something by Steel Panther might give the producer an aneurysm.

Now… to be clear… I wasn’t trying to cause a medical event.

I was just curious about the results.

But instead of going full chaos, I decided to be a little more… strategic.

See, our producer is a millennial. Which means there are certain songs burned permanently into the brain from childhood. Songs that live there rent free whether you want them to or not.

So naturally I played the Steel Panther cover of I Want It That Way by Backstreet Boys.

Not the original.

No no… the Steel Panther version.

Because sometimes the goal isn’t to break the rules. Sometimes the goal is just to watch the producer slowly realize what’s happening while it’s already too late to stop it.

Did she survive?

Yes.

Did she enjoy the experience?

The jury’s still out.

-Bobby D