Arts Entrepreneurship Podcast: Making Art Work
Arts Entrepreneurship Podcast: Making Art Work
#263: Eddie Tuduri (Drummer) (pt. 2 of 2)
This week on the podcast is part two of our interview with Eddie Tuduri. You may not recognize his name, but we guarantee you’ve heard him perform! Eddie’s career spans 50 years and he’s played drums with many well known bands including The Beach Boys, Dr. John, Ike Turner, Martha Reeves, Steve Perry, Dwight Yoakam and Michael McDonald to name a few. In addition to his performing career, Eddie’s devoted his life to charitable causes and has been given many awards for his contributions to those with disabilities and impoverished children around the world. In 1997, after a life-changing surfing accident, he founded The Rhythmic Arts Project, a nonprofit 501c3 that educates individuals with intellectual and developmental differences by embracing a curriculum that uses rhythm to address life and learning skills as well as reading, writing and arithmetic. We hope you'll join us for our interview with this selfless and inspiring musician.
Eddie shares his inspiring journey of musical mastery and profound humanitarianism that began with a late-night revelation and led to his dedicated support of causes such as Save the Children and UNICEF. It's a narrative that not only spotlights his remarkable benefit concerts but also showcases the true power of selfless acts.
Our conversation takes an emotional turn through the corridors of a hospital ward, where Eddie's impromptu music sessions sparked the birth of The Rhythm Arts Project (TRAP). This initiative blossomed into a therapeutic haven, aiding patients with disabilities through the healing power of rhythm.
Hi everyone, nick Petrella here. This episode is sponsored by Steve Weiss Music, percussion specialist since 1961. If you're looking for a rare piece of sheet music, a specialty gong or anything percussion, steve Weiss Music will have it. Please visit SteveWeissMusic. com or click their link in the show notes. That's S-T-E-V-E-W-E-I-S-S Music. com. Our percussion series sponsor.
Announcer:Welcome to the Arts Entrepreneurship Podcast. Making art work. We highlight how entrepreneurs align their artistry, passion and vision to create and pursue opportunities to capture value in the arts. The views expressed by guests on the Arts Entrepreneurship Podcast are solely their own and do not necessarily represent the views of the podcast or its hosts. The appearance of a guest on the podcast, the venture they represent or reference to any product or service does not imply an endorsement or recommendation by the podcast or its hosts. The content provided is for entertainment and informational purposes only and does not constitute business advice. Here are your hosts Andy Heise and Nick Petrella.
Andy Heise:Hi Arts Entrepreneurship Podcast listeners. My name is Andy Heiss and I'm Nick Petrella.
Nick Petrella:Today we have a legendary musician joining us. You may not know the name, Eddie Tuduri, but I guarantee you've heard him perform. Eddie's career spans 50 years and he's played drums with many well-known bands in multiple styles of music, including the Beach Boys, dr John Ike Turner, martha Reeves, steve Perry, dwight Yochum and Michael McDonald, to name a few. In addition to his performing career, eddie's devoted his life to charitable causes and has been given many awards for his contributions to those with disabilities and impoverished children around the world.
Nick Petrella:In 1997, after a life-changing surfing accident, he founded the Rhythmic Arts Project, a nonprofit 501c3 that educates individuals with intellectual and developmental differences by embracing a curriculum that uses rhythm to address life and learning skills, as well as reading, writing and arithmetic. We'll have your sights in the show notes so you can learn more about Eddie and the Trap Program. Before we begin, I want to give a shout-out to our friends Steve Armstrong and Sean LaFrenze for helping to arrange this interview. Eddie, it's an honor to have you on the podcast and we're looking forward to your comments on the for-profit and nonprofit spaces in the arts.
Eddie Tuduri:Thank you very much for having me. I really appreciate it.
Nick Petrella:So, eddie, let's change gears a little bit and talk a little bit about your charitable causes. What prompts you to give so much time to charitable causes, and how did you balance that with such a busy career?
Eddie Tuduri:I'll tell you. I was playing with Dolby Gray and we were at the Fairmont Hotel in San Francisco. Because we were going into the venue, sally Struthers was coming out and I saw her in the hallway. I was a big fan and I was kind and polite. But I asked if I just want to say hello and tell you how much I appreciate you and she was so kind. She just stopped in the hallway and talked to me. It was a great experience.
Eddie Tuduri:And later, after that tour, I remember sitting up at three or four o'clock in the morning and I used to drink a little and snort a little and all that. It's common knowledge. But she came on the TV talking about her charity, save the Children, and she said you know, for only $20 a month you can support this person. I had like a Coke mirror, maybe that big, and I had a bottle of Scotch. I was alone, it was four in the morning and I called the number and I became a sponsor of the child. So they keep sending you this information about the child and his village and how he's doing. And you know, it's really really a wonderful organization. They do a lot of good. So I started getting involved and reading more about it and finding out more about it and thinking, god, I must, I can do more than this $20.
Eddie Tuduri:I remember moving to Canada right after that and I called I think it was Joan Somers who was the head of that charity and I said look, I'd like to put together a big show for you guys, save the Children Canada. And at that point I was already working in Toronto for a while and some popular bands, everybody knew me and everybody showed up. So we did the first benefit concert, save the Children. I remember Joan telling us that when she was thanking us how wonderful it was that this money that we made, which was really just over, made it $2,200, we were a little club. She said we were able to dig a well for water in the Sudan. This is what you guys did. I was beside myself. I thought, oh man, you know. The true art of giving, then, is actually giving and not expecting anything in return. But beyond that, it's like these people will never know.
Eddie Tuduri:When I moved back to Los Angeles, I started musicians for UNICEF. Unicef is a wonderful organization. We did seven benefit concerts, or 15 benefit concerts over seven years with over 300 musicians involved, and I was arranging all of this with help from some friends, obviously, but basically spearheading these musicians for UNICEF concerts we made a lot of money. More so, we brought a lot of awareness to UNICEF. After 40,000 children are dying every single day, we could save them with a 25% dehydration package every day, at one in a day. So everybody involved got really crazy about it. They loved it. They kept coming back. We kept thinking of new things to do and people to help and you begin to realize that the rewards in this business of benevolence are so incredibly profound. I wanted to be that person for the rest of my life, never stop doing benefit, concert after concert after function, doing fallen musicians, helping, teachers, helping. We had the infrastructure to do that and continue to do it for years and loved every minute of it and felt really good about it.
Nick Petrella:Most of the time I was an income poop, so this was something to be so enormously proud of to this day, and one of the things we talk about it keeps coming up in this podcast is it just takes one person to change their trajectory, and normally in this sort of entrepreneurial podcast we talk about gigs and meeting people.
Eddie Tuduri:But had you not had that chance meeting right, who knows, this might have not changed my life and, if I think about it and I try not to it changed the lives of thousands of people. Oh my God. And you know this Rhythmic Arts project I start, I have to fast forward while I'm broke my neck. Shall I get into that for a minute?
Eddie Tuduri:Yeah, Well in 1997, I moved back here to California from Nashville where I was working with Jimmy. Jimmy wanted to come back here. I came back, stayed with him for a little while. I found a little beach apartment in Carvin, tarea, california, really great. I'm a swimmer, a body surfer every day and anyway I was here about a year ago. We were starting to get on a roll, working, still working with Jimmy now recording. Now back in the LA, not the LA scene, but the Central Coast scene. Very happy.
Eddie Tuduri:One day I was body surfing and I hit a very seemingly angry wave which just pounded me into the bottom and I heard a big crack and nothing. I was three feet underwater, 20 yards out, all along, totally paralyzed. Long story short, I was lifted from the bottom, placed at the shore with a lifeguard with the most seniority on the Central Coast. Happened to be done duty. Then the paramedics with the most seniority on the Central Coast showed up. They pushed me under, going into the hospital with the number one neurosurgery, and happened to be standing in the lobby on a Saturday and he said I'll take this guy Right to the MRI. They showed me where my neck was broken badly, why I was motionless from the neck down nothing. He was very jovial, I was making jokes. I had this near death experience that put me in a really happy place. It didn't bother me what was happening, I thought I'd be all right. So I mean, we were telling jokes all the way until the I remember the anesthesiologist and the operating rooms came at me with us. Wait, he said well, I said you know, I know a bass player looks just like you. I said he's really good. I hope you're at least as good as he is. And he went to count backwards. So it was like a joke to me and I woke up the ICU six and a half seven hours later and there were angels everywhere. I was like wow, I was totally paralyzed from the neck down, but I was so elated to wake up in this room full of angels and, long story short, after two weeks in the ICU and no movement whatsoever, they sent me to the rehab at Santa Barbara beautiful structure, beautiful people carrying excellent physicians and therapists and, long story short, I actually started an ensemble.
Eddie Tuduri:In my spinal cord ward. We had people that were really totally incapacitated. Myself, the guy next to me had been in an accident. He had cancer. He broke every bone in his body. He was like he was very close to death A little old lady from the other side of the ward who had spinal cord injury and myself.
Eddie Tuduri:And the first thing that came back after a couple of weeks, my hand began moving and we went wow. So I asked, I asked the aid. I said can you bring me, like my friend brought some drumsticks and percussion items, and I had the drumstick and I was playing on the side of the bed. I said yeah, I still got it. I'm only a hand. I've got to start somewhere and I'm still just still joking. So I asked the aid if he could just do it. And he said I think so. He did it. And then he did this little old lady roll them from the other side of the ward. And so then he I want to play. I said okay, we give her a cowbell. Don't ever bring a cowbell to the hospital. But she did the cowbell. I said just play the hands one, two, three, four that have gotten me doing. So she couldn't get it. She just couldn't get it. She was very upset about it.
Eddie Tuduri:And the guy, ted, next to me, who was totally incapacitated, he said I can do it, I can do it. So I told Oscar the aid. I said we'll put the cowbell on his chest. Anyway, I don't think I should. I said, just put it on his chest. He also has a hand, one hand. Put the cowbell on his chest. He played it perfectly, played the part, perfect.
Eddie Tuduri:So now we've had three totally incapacitated people happen, but any movement whatsoever. We have this group and then the nurses and the doctors everybody started coming in. I said, oh man, they're going to throw us out. Everybody loved it. Long story short, I told all the companies that I worked with and endorsed. People sent everything that you could possibly imagine, from drama sets to bongos and kongras and shakers, and you name it. We had a cabasso. So I finally got into a wheelchair after a couple of weeks. I couldn't walk yet but I had, like, this arm working and I could almost stand up my legs. I couldn't feel my leg. We went to this mat room in the hospital and passed out all these instruments and started not a drum circle, because I don't really know what that is Most professional guys, don't? I mean, we know what it is, but that's not. Anyway, I have nothing against drum circle, but what we were doing was ensemble. It's very different. You know, when you're playing you're playing a drum circle, it's basically.
Nick Petrella:So, and just for the listeners, eddie's playing, but I think the compression from the recording might not pick it up.
Eddie Tuduri:Okay, it's boom, boom, boom, boom, boom, boom, boom, boom, boom, boom boom. Or the other very intricate beat is boom, boom, boom, boom boom. What time is it, you know? I mean, actually that could go on for hours, the same beat. So what the Rhythm of the Arts project is is a peer-studied methodology published in the journals of Special Ed. It's not boolean, it's a real curriculum.
Eddie Tuduri:So this all started from the hospital. You know, when I left the hospital we started using it to try and help people with memory, focus, attention, balance, that sort of thing for rehab goals. But at the same time I was asked to work in this place, in that, in another, and I was at a conference talking about what we called at the time Rhythm Therapy, because I was working with therapists and I met a woman who worked with developmental disability. She asked me if I'd ever been familiar with friends or did I know anybody who would down syndrome. So we would pause. I said no, I really don't. She said would you come down to Pasadena and work with our children? I said yeah, of course. I took a few drums and I went down there. They had 26 kids from ages possibly like eight or nine or 10 years old to 26 or seven years old. So we started working with the children.
Eddie Tuduri:The first thing she, the therapist, did is we had them all in a circle I'm probably working at this for over six or seven months now out of the hospital and she shook. She put a shaker, a little egg shaker, on the ground in front of them. Some of them are in wheelchairs, some of them weren't. She said now, pick the egg up, shake it over your head, put it back on the ground, put your hands in your lap Some kids didn't know what the lap was or over, under, around and through. These prepositional concepts were born. So the learning curve began right away, right away.
Eddie Tuduri:So I stayed there for six years and learned. I joined another group in Ojai with wonderful therapists and people who worked in this profession and I was hook, line and sinker that very day working at this. For a few months after I got out of the hospital, this little kid, joey, was in a wheelchair next to me and I was watching this happen and helping as best I could. And I remember I kind of bumped into Joey's. I wasn't stable. I bumped into Joey's wheelchair and he looked up at me from the wheelchair. He might have been six, seven years old, and he smiled and the light went on. Okay, god, I get it. Thank you, I got it and I never looked back. That was 26 years and we're all over the world.
Eddie Tuduri:Yeah, that's fantastic Now that I'm getting older. We have just hired a brand new CEO, Michael Thomas, an incredible young man, brilliant young man who's in Texas. And after all we've done I mean, I've taken it as far as we can this is the headquarters in trap, worldwide, right, and it's only been me. You know people who call up and say can I speak to the marketing department? Yeah, wait a minute. Hello, you know so, but I had wonderful volunteers and surrounded myself with brilliant, kind, loving people, so I've always been okay.
Eddie Tuduri:Michael will take this to an incredibly new level. We're moving the main office to Texas where he lives. He was in, I know he put together an organization called my Possibility. He went from a room of 14 of 20 people to serving 700 people a day. He's one of the most beautiful institutions I've seen from learning for our population and called the program my Possibilities and he's in Plano, Texas Now. He's moving out from that into more of a consultation position for a lot of people, but he is the new CEO for trap, so we're really excited about that. That's great.
Nick Petrella:That's great.
Andy Heise:Yeah, we look forward to look forward to keeping keeping track of of where it goes.
Eddie Tuduri:Oh, please do, yeah me too. Yeah, yeah, he's, he's. He's got so much energy. I was talking to my board member, dick, the president of the board, dick Jensen, and we were talking about how incredible and all the energy is. He said, hey, he's half our age. What were you like? I'm 76 years old. Dick is 82. We should, man. When I was 40, I was a fireball and I had also quit drinking at 40 years old, so that helped.
Andy Heise:Yeah Well, so now that you're stepping, you're not stepping away, I guess is the wrong way to say that you're stepping down from the CEO and running the organization. What?
Eddie Tuduri:are some other projects. I'll be the elder statesman. There you go, yeah, yeah yeah, that's good, that's good, actually, I have a good.
Andy Heise:Which is highly necessary.
Eddie Tuduri:Yeah, michael wouldn't let me leave. He says I'll take over, but you're hooked, you need to do this. Well, that's good. Yeah, he's right. I have another project here with the University of California, santa Barbara. My friends, sam Rae, thompson and Nettie are two therapists who oversee 30 preschool in the Othala program at our university and they are working. We are working on early childhood trauma in children from zero to five and how my curriculum, with some modification, could help those children, and they are making a research project out of it as well, so we'll have that stamp.
Andy Heise:Yeah, right, right from the beginning.
Eddie Tuduri:Are these music therapists? No, no.
Nick Petrella:Okay.
Eddie Tuduri:No, they're teachers. Music therapy is not what trap is. I respect the music therapy but we don't do that. We teach people how to read and write and how to spell and how to think creatively, and we teach by very abstract concepts. We use shapes and numbers and colors. If you look at the website, you can see I know you're going to list that If you look at the website, you'll see what the curriculum looks like. It's really comprehensive.
Andy Heise:And recently released a book right.
Eddie Tuduri:I have. I had a book. I don't think I told you about the previous book, which is our Tindall, which is about it's about the Rilmergaard's project. It was released in 2015. I wrote about the origin of the program, what the program does, who's at the time, who was using it, and I had people write in from all over the world with little stories about how trap affected them in their lives with their children and their students. So it's a very sweet book. It's called hey, take a Look at my Life.
Eddie Tuduri:It has a picture of a little girl, yeah.
Nick Petrella:Oh right, yeah, I've seen that.
Eddie Tuduri:And it's very sweet and it's about the origin of the program. It's got some great photo. But my second book the second book is about my life prior to all this and, including this, it's my life up till now, but a lot of people don't. I don't talk about my career much or my playing. It's just part of who I am. Some people get so hung up on that. I'm a musician, okay.
Nick Petrella:I just have to ask, take the garbage out. That's right. So I just have to ask what did you know about starting a non-profit prior to starting it, and did you find it easy to launch?
Eddie Tuduri:Zero. I knew nothing. I got out of the hospital and really couldn't afford to live in an apartment at the time and you have to wait six months for your SSI to kick in. So I had a lot of good friends who made sure that I could. I bought a motor home, my sister and I. My sister helped me buy it.
Eddie Tuduri:I lived in a motor home for the better part of almost four years and I lived on a ranch illegally in Carpentaria and I got my first computer. The hospital helped me buy it and then I had these ideas because we had been doing rhythm therapy and showing it to various people and I was starting. They were paying. Some people were paying me, you know, 50 bucks. It was like a bluesy game. And when the SSI came in I had enough money to pay the rent, which was like 300 a month on this ranch, and put money in for gas and get between San Luis Obispo and Pasadena and I went up and down the coast and I make $50 here, $40 there and I lived on a ranch with primarily Mexicanos, the salt of the earth. I love Mexican people and they helped me.
Eddie Tuduri:They never let me carry anything. They made sure I was all right. They invited me to everything they did and it was a safe haven for someone like me and I use that as a place where I could learn I can write. I had to learn how to type. I still can't type everyone.
Eddie Tuduri:My hands are clear but I was working with a group in Pasadena and they took my now rhythmic arts project under wing and became an umbrella for my first nonprofit. But I had to have my own. I had to have my own, so I started researching it on the internet. I didn't know anything and I said, okay, I need to go, and I called Washington. I did this, I did that. I read articles. I did what I needed to do. It wasn't easy and I did it myself. A lot of people I know. You just call a lawyer and in three months you have your status. If everything is right. It took me the better part of the year Just because I didn't have the money, I didn't have the know-how and I didn't really have anybody helping me in that respect. I asked a lot of questions, I took notes and I did it myself, so I learned a lot more, you probably learned a lot more right.
Nick Petrella:You probably learned a lot more. Yeah, Then you would have.
Eddie Tuduri:Yeah, and I found out that most of these people you start in Washington and they assign you to someone else, who assigned you to somebody else. So, along those lines, over the period of almost a year these people are very kind. You have to prove what you're doing. Is the truth Pretty easy for me, being the people I was with not as in the hospital? I had all these accolades and you know testimonies, so I was okay with that, and then I think I had to come up with something like six hundred dollars and that that also fell in my lap, it seems. When you're doing these kind of things and it isn't about you, you know, it's about how important this is in everyone else's life. The money shows up, the people show up, the knowledge presents itself, all of that. So it's not easy to answer your question. It's not easy, but it's so worth it. Yeah, yeah. How much are you willing to devote? How much time I'm telling you? How much of yourself Are you willing to give? I was all in, still am sure. Yeah, yeah.
Andy Heise:Well, eddie, we've reached the part of the interview where we ask all of our interviewees the same three questions, and this is this is we've. We've probably covered most of these topics by now, by now, but this is sort of the wrap-up, quick fire, a version of that. So the last three questions, the first of which is what advice would you give to someone wanting to become an entrepreneur in the arts?
Eddie Tuduri:Study, study everything you possibly can. Find someone who's doing, or a group who is doing, what you're doing, learn from everybody you know. Stick the cotton out of your ears and stick it in your mouth and Go learn and then ask a lot of questions. And these people, these people you're asking if you're kind and you're generous of heart and you ask them and see early, they're gonna help, they're gonna want to help you, because these are the kind of people you want to become and I really think that's that's the crux of it. If you're gonna be in recession, take lessons, learn how to read, play every genre.
Eddie Tuduri:You could possibly encompass the other thing I didn't mention when you, when you're in LA and you finally learn okay, I'm here, I'm gonna make a living. We talked about this earlier. I'm gonna make a living. I better learn how to play country music, how to play Beach Boys music, kind of surf music, how to play rhythm and blues, how to play I mean, I've done polka when I couldn't pay the rent sure, oh God, you wanna go? Paul, are you kidding? You can have her. I don't want her, she's too fat for me. Well, give me the money. Study, listen to everybody, get involved in everything you possibly can, even from going pickets right for you? Sure, probably is.
Nick Petrella:What can we do to ensure the arts are more accessible and reaching the widest possible audience?
Eddie Tuduri:What you're doing, more of what you're doing. It's a matter of awareness, visibility. You know the schools could be better at this. Years ago there was a course at UCLA, this business of music, the best course I ever taught they had. They had typical people come in, songwriters and artists, and talk about what it was like in real time, what, what it felt like, what they had to do, what they had to accomplish. There's not enough of it. So what you're doing is I commend you. What you're doing is wonderful. It's adding to the Thank you. Yeah, it really is you. We're making a big difference. We are together.
Andy Heise:Yeah, absolutely. And the last question is what's the best advice musical or business or entrepreneurial advice you've ever received?
Eddie Tuduri:Again to listen, to keep my opinions and Whatever it was I was thinking. I keep that to myself and listen to others and appreciate everything possible, care about what they have to give. Whether you like it or not, you know, sometimes our attitudes get in the way. Oh yeah, thanks, man, but that's not for me. Well, how do you, how do you know that?
Nick Petrella:Yeah.
Eddie Tuduri:I listened to. Well, when I woke up I finally woke up I started listening and learning from everybody I could and Every aspect of the business I was trying to be in, whether it be In the music merchant business, which I did often on during my life, or in the charity business, or in the business of drumming. There are people that have excelled in those areas and Get on the good foot.
Nick Petrella:My advice yeah Well, thanks so much, eddie, for being on. It was great to hear you're just your gratitude and humility and just your positive outlook on life. This, this has been a lot of fun.
Eddie Tuduri:Thanks. Thank you so much as it hasn't been hard talking to you guys, so I Complement you on the questions were great and your attitude. This is pretty good. We should do this like next year.
Andy Heise:Absolutely, there you go.
Nick Petrella:We'll do it again. Yeah, yeah.
Andy Heise:My backyard perfect, sounds great. Thanks so much, eddie.
Eddie Tuduri:Thank you. Thank you very much.
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