Nikola Tesla: Light It Up – An Original Rock Opera

Arnold00:00:00

What does a rock opera and Nikola Tesla have in common? You're going to find out on St. Louis in tune today.Welcome to St. Louis and tune and thank you for joining us for fresh perspectives on issues and events with experts, community leaders and and everyday people who make a difference in shaping our society and world. I'm Arnold Stricker along with co host Mark Lanks. And Mark, we're going to light it up today.

Mark R00:00:36

Yeah, let's do it. Absolutely. Light it up.

Arnold00:00:40

We are going to do that. We're glad that you joined us today, folks. We want to thank our sponsor Better Rate Mortgage for their support of the show.You can listen to previous shows@stlintune.com where you can follow us and leave a review. Our thought to ponder today. Never give up on a dream just because of the time it will take to accomplish it. The time will pass away.

Mark L00:01:05

Don't talk about that stuff. When I'm at my age, I gotta

Mark R00:01:07

write a song about that.

Arnold00:01:08

Yeah, I pulled that quote from Earl Nightingale because of the persons, the people that we're going to interview. But it's about the person, Nikola Tesla. And there's going to be an original rock opera performed called Light it Up at Del Mar hall on June 20th.And in studio we have Mark Rogers. He's a curator and mastermind of the Da Vinci machines and Michelangelo exhibitions for North America.Beginning his career at CBS television network Television City Hollywood, working in production on the network's number one shows.His career has taken him from national sales director of a Fortune 500 company to an entrepreneurial start of a leading incentive travel company and real estate development corporation.

Mark R00:01:58

I gotta write all that down. Yeah, I have to remember all that.

Arnold00:02:01

I have to read it.

Mark R00:02:07

Sounds pretty good. I gotta meet this guy sometimes.

Arnold00:02:11

He's a writer, producer and headliner of Da Vinci and Michelangelo, the Titans Experience theatrical production which has more than 100 plus off Broadway shows.

Mark R00:02:21

Yeah, we ran off Broadway for over 100 shows.

Arnold00:02:23

Yeah, yeah, very good. And also in studio we have Jason Nelson. And Jason is a noted local musician, Mark.He has performed and headlining headlined with artists such as Sublime, Real Big Fish, Offspring, the Urge, Chuck Berry, oh yeah, Sugar Hill Gang and Bobby Brown to name a few. He leads the Jason Nelson Band which is among the most respected and in demand live performance groups in St. Louis.Celebrated for their commanding stage presence, powerhouse vocals. We're going to hear in a moment. And electrifying musicianship.He's renowned for their top tier tribute productions honoring Queen Sting and Talking Heads. And the band has earned A reputation for musical precision, dynamic energy and unforgettable live entertainment. Gentlemen, welcome to St. Lucie.

Mark R00:03:11

I wish I hadn't said that because I can't afford him now. His feet just went up. The entire promotional budget there. I don't have any more money. Yeah, okay.

Arnold00:03:21

We can settle after the show.

Mark R00:03:22

Now, Jason, just a man. What is going on here? Talk about Tesla.

Arnold00:03:29

Light it up. It's Tesla. Light it up dot com. What's. When did that start?

Mark R00:03:32

I'll tell you this. We have. My brother and I have produced the da Vinci Machines exhibition that started over 10 years ago.Here in the United States is a traveling exhibition from Florence, Italy. And we brought it to every. Most of the major cities in the United States. And during this time we were doing this, we invent.Every time I had to go someplace, I had to bring two tractor trailer loads with me. Wow. So I said this couldn't keep going.So I produced a show, a theatrical show that we actually premiered down in Florida when the exhibition was there.

Arnold00:04:02

Okay.

Mark R00:04:02

We ended up being signed by Columbia Artists. We ran for a hundred shows, 100 plus shows off Broadway last year. We went. We did over 25 performances in 30 days in the UK. We travel all over the UK.

Arnold00:04:14

Wow.

Mark R00:04:14

And the show is about compared da Vinci with Michelangelo. Most people didn't know about them, that they hated each other. They were contemporaries. They couldn't stand to be in the same room with each other.And I wanted to write another show and I was looking for these two historical figures where I could set up this conflict between. And I've always been a huge Tesla fan and I wanted to set that between him and Edison.And to be honest with you, the more I looked into it, I got to be honest with this Edison. He was not a nice guy.

Arnold00:04:46

No, he was not.

Mark R00:04:47

He was not a nice guy. And he treated Tesla absolutely terrible. And the more I devised dissolved into him, into Tesla, I knew I had to bring his story to light.It is the most incredible stories you have ever heard. This man was a genius. He lit up everything. Every time you turn on a light switch. We owe it to him.

Arnold00:05:07

Talk about that AC DC power thing.

Mark R00:05:10

That was his. That's the greatest. That's the greatest story that Edison.He actually worked for a short time over in Europe at the Edison Electric Company before he came over to the United States. And so he. Edison had what they called direct current which was very cumbersome. They could only go so far and you'd have to put all these substations.Tesla's idea was to have this alternating current, which is the current we use today, now, and you have one huge substation way out away, and it could come in and bring it in, which is what we use. He beat out. His big happening was Tesla beat out Edison in for the 191893 World's Fair. And that was a big conflict. And when.When Tesla got that bid, Edison was mad as can be. In fact, he was so mad, he refused to sell Tesla and Westinghouse the light of the. His incandescent bulb that they needed to light up the midway.They called the Court of Honor. So basically overnight, Tesla and Westinghouse had to invent a new light bulb, and it was called the double stopper light bulb.It got him through the exhibition. But as we know, Tesla's incandescent bulb went out in the long run.But the interesting part about that story is Nikola Tesla himself was in Chicago on May 1, 1893, and he personally threw the switch that lit up 200, 000 light bulbs at once.

Arnold00:06:36

Wow.

Mark R00:06:36

They said it was the greatest display of lighting the history of the world had ever seen up until that point. Do you know who was in the crowd that night that went to this on the midway in Chicago? His name was L. Frank Baum. I'm gonna put you on the spot.Who was L. Frank?

Arnold00:06:50

Wizard of Oz.

Mark R00:06:50

Wizard of Oz, Abs. He was the right. Very good. He was.And when he wrote the wizard of Oz, he remembered that night, May 1, 1893, when those 200,000 light bulbs lit up in front of him in the midway, and that became his inspiration for the Emerald City. Oh. So we can. We'll play a song later. We can say without fear of any reprisal, that Nikola Tesla truly is the original wizard of Oz.And that's one of the songs in the rock opera. The original. I am the original. The man behind the curtain, the electrical God. I am the original wizard of Oz. Isn't that cool?

Mark L00:07:30

That is amazing. That is amazing. What a great story.

Arnold00:07:33

That is a wonderful.

Mark L00:07:34

Yeah. Who knew?

Mark R00:07:35

Did you know?

Arnold00:07:36

I didn't know that.

Mark L00:07:36

No, I had no idea. I was a little sketchy on the guy with the wizard of Oz, but now I know.

Mark R00:07:41

Oh, I know.

Mark L00:07:42

Who knew that?

Arnold00:07:43

You knew?

Mark L00:07:43

How did you know that?

Arnold00:07:44

Oh, I.

Mark R00:07:45

Okay.

Arnold00:07:45

I've read the wizard of Oz book, and it's. His author's name's at the bottom.

Mark R00:07:52

Okay.

Mark R00:07:54

And, you know, the best part about that story is the best part of the wizard of Oz with me in the song. It's in the public domain.

Arnold00:08:00

Yeah.

Mark R00:08:01

Oh, there's another.

Mark L00:08:02

Yeah, great.

Mark R00:08:05

But I want to talk about this guy, how we met. Go ahead.

Arnold00:08:09

What's. What's your story, man?

Mark R00:08:11

First of all, tell us a little

Arnold00:08:13

bit about yourself and then how you guys got connected together to do this.

Jason 00:08:18

We first met.

Mark R00:08:19

Tell me. This is Mr. Entertainment. This is Mr. St. Louis.

Arnold00:08:23

Yeah, I was reading.

Mark R00:08:24

He is the most incredible. Both live performances here. Here in St. Louis. He has. Tell them a little bit about your band. Yeah.

Jason 00:08:32

So I've been performing in St. Louis in the music scene, clubs, venues, theaters, for 35 years.

Arnold00:08:40

Wow.

Jason 00:08:42

St. Louis Kid through and through. Born here, grew up here.

Arnold00:08:45

We won't ask you where you went to high school.

Mark R00:08:47

No.

Jason 00:08:48

It's going to come out sometime, though, right? But we. Over the last 20 years, I have been cover band, tribute band, Centric.My performances still have an original music band, Orange Tree, But I focus all of my kind of special event energy to these tribute shows.

Mark R00:09:12

And March is actually how we met. We were. About a year and a half ago, we were. I was looking for something to do with my girlfriend for the night. We were. It took us.Took me four years to write this rock album, basically. Off and on for four years. And we were looking for something to do one night. We just. Obviously, we want to support live music wherever we go.And so we're out there and they said, we heard there's this great band that plays this Queen tribute and it's out here in St. Charles some place. We were out there close by and we said, well, we could go check it out. It was this Queen tribute band at this venue. So we went in just like normal.We bought a ticket and we sat down and the lights went down and the music began to play. And Jason Nelson comes out as Freddie Mercury. And absolutely.

Arnold00:09:56

Did he have the unitard on?

Mark R00:09:58

Oh, no. Oh, my gosh.

Mark R00:10:00

Have it.

Jason 00:10:01

Wear it that night.

Mark R00:10:05

Yellow jacket. He comes out and literally in the first five seconds, the first, he blows the roof off the place. I'm sitting there stunned.My girlfriend's sitting there stunned. And we're looking at each other. And we go through about halfway through the show, and I looked over and I said, do you know who that guy is?And she says, I know exactly who he is. I said, who is he? He goes, he is your Nikola Tesla.

Arnold00:10:33

That's right.

Mark R00:10:34

And I said, yes. So we waited till the show ended and he was walking around and signing autographs and talking to the people and everything. And he walked up to him.I said, I watched him, said, hey, Jason, my name is Mark Rogers. You don't know who I am. I'm this theater guy and we were off Broadway with the show called Da Vinci, Michelangelo and all this kind of little stuff.But I've been working on this rock opera for four years. Oh, yeah. And I said the songs and I want you to be my Nikola Tesla. Nikola Tesla. And without. Even without hearing the music, without hearing anything.What did you say?

Jason 00:11:10

I said, yes, absolutely.

Arnold00:11:12

Wow.

Mark R00:11:14

That's how we got it.

Jason 00:11:15

Has served me well over the years to never say no, because if you do, you're done.

Arnold00:11:25

That opportunity may never happen again.

Jason 00:11:27

Yeah, it's always worked well for me and his band. Let's talk about story just how we met it.

Mark R00:11:38

See, actually the show started out as a musical and I wanted to. But the cost of putting a musical is just astronomical and you can lose millions overnight.And so I sent to a couple of my friends these songs out to the west coast. And my really good friend works at cbs, mother works at Disney and to name drop a little.And I sent it out and my one friends from CBS coming back goes, hey, Marcus, I really like these songs. I said, hey, thanks. And he said, hey, Mark, there's one little problem with this. I said, what's the problem?He says, you're never going to make this into a musical. You know that. And I said, yeah, I know. You need millions to put on a musical. He said, but each one of these songs are standalone.He says, you know what you have here? I said, you have a rock opera,

Arnold00:12:19

kind of like Tommy.

Mark R00:12:20

Yeah. He said, make it into a rock cover. I said, the kids said. I said, the young people, do they know what a rock opera is?I said, you're going to tell them what it is.

Arnold00:12:29

That's right.

Mark R00:12:29

And so that's how this all came through. And he said, every musician in St. Louis. I said, I do. But when I showed up and I went in and Jason, it was like my. My night and shining Armor.I showed Tim. He has the entire band. Tell us a little about your band.

Jason 00:12:43

Alonzo Jameson on drums. Steve Johnston on guitar.

Mark R00:12:48

Is the guitar God in St. Louis.

Mark L00:12:50

Yes, he is. Yeah. Wow.

Arnold00:12:52

Wow.

Jason 00:12:53

Charlie Brown on keys, piano. Stacy Rios on cello and vocal. Mark Hochberg on violin. Lastly, the bass player, Richard Mendoza. The background of each of these players.We all have five or six respective projects, different bands. And bringing them all together and focusing on this material, we're buzzing. We're like, yeah, this is very special.

Mark R00:13:24

You put out a wall of sound. Yeah, it's. It is just immersive.

Arnold00:13:31

How long you guys been playing together?

Jason 00:13:33

The Jason Nelson band has been an ensemble for 15 years.

Mark R00:13:37

Seriously.

Arnold00:13:37

Wow.

Jason 00:13:38

And over that time period, we've all done spin off shows. The project, like the Queen tribute, Somebody to Love, a Peter Gabriel Sting tribute.

Mark L00:13:49

Oh, I love Peter Gabriel.

Mark R00:13:51

Yeah.

Arnold00:13:51

Now you sound like you have more of a baritone voice, but if you're gonna sing Freddie Mercury, you better be a high tenor.

Mark R00:13:59

I.

Jason 00:14:01

There are things that I can do with my voice that are amazing. A 52 year old, it is a challenge, I'll say. But I've been doing it for 35 years.

Arnold00:14:15

See, and the voice gets better as you get older.

Jason 00:14:18

I agree. I sound, I think humbly that I sound better now than I did when I was 20.

Mark R00:14:28

And the neat spot in the Rockhopper we carry. We cover a lot of different engineers of music. Oh, yeah, we have. We've had rock, as you see in a minute. We have Broadway rock.We've got country, we've got jazz. We've got something in there that you want. But the neat part about it also is with our DaVinci Michelangelo show, we through that.It's a two hour show and we go through 146 different pieces of media during that show on a large screen behind us. So we have had that locked in. So we have cinematic videos, storytelling videos that are going to be playing behind him.And on our website, teslided up.com you can see Colorado Cosmic Cowboy. See the quality of what it is.

Arnold00:15:10

Yeah.

Mark R00:15:10

But when I have the music with him, we're going to have this huge cinematic storytelling going on at the same time behind Jason.

Arnold00:15:17

Wow. This Arnold Strick with Mark Langston of St. Louis in Tune. We're talking about Tesla Light it up and Tesla Light it up dot com.You can check that out and get some tickets there. It's going to be at the Del Mar hall on June 20, the world premiere. And Mark Rogers and Jason Nelson are here. Mark, we want to play a cut.Which one do should we play first?

Mark R00:15:38

I try. I'd start out with that. The Wonderful wizard of Oz. If you got that, you got a Wonderful wizard of Oz. I'm the original wizard of Oz. Do that one.

Mark L00:15:44

Is that. Let me see. Is that the one we talked about Hiding inside my mind?

Mark R00:15:49

No, that's the one. Yeah. This one's. Let's see.

Arnold00:15:51

See, I'm looking while Mark's looking at that.

Mark R00:15:53

Hands on those buzzers.

Arnold00:15:55

There you go. Yes, hands on those buzzers. That's right.

Mark R00:15:57

Sorry.

Mark L00:15:57

Okay.

Arnold00:15:58

Mark, you know you've got a degree in poly science. How did you come about becoming this composer? Where does that come from?

Mark R00:16:04

I did this my whole life. I've been playing guitars my whole life. What? We were all transformed the night the Beatles were on that Sullivan Show. And I.And I told my dad, said, dad, I want to learn how to play the guitar. He goes, oh, you don't want to do that. I want you. He shows, it goes out. He goes, I got a musical instrument for you.And he shows up two days later with an accordion. Dad, I don't want to learn. I want to learn how to play the guitar.

Arnold00:16:28

Accordion's not a chick mag.

Mark R00:16:30

I know you played the guitar.

Mark L00:16:32

I did, but I. Yeah. Piano noggin. More chicks with a guitar.

Mark R00:16:37

That's right. You're not going to get Nicole Kidman with an accordion. You know what I'm saying?

Mark L00:16:41

No.

Mark R00:16:41

Not going to work unless. No, you're all. So I know Keith, my brother, and I've been playing the guitar our whole life. We attended Berkeley College. Okay. In Boston. Boston, yeah.And so I played the guitar and piano my whole life.

Arnold00:16:55

That wasn't in your background. All I saw was your degree in Polysa. You're hiding that one.

Mark R00:16:59

Let's show that one day.

Mark L00:17:00

So what is the name of the wizard of Oz?

Mark R00:17:02

I am the original wizard of Oz.

Mark L00:17:04

I am the original.

Arnold00:17:05

Why don't I. I sent you a cut of that. Only a partial cut.

Mark L00:17:08

Okay. Here we go.

Mark R00:17:11

Oh, that's my main thing.

Mark L00:17:13

Should we play that? I have this. I. Two others here. This one here?

Mark R00:17:18

Yeah. I should.

Arnold00:17:19

It should be marked the wizard of Oz.

Mark L00:17:20

I don't see. It says Mark. That's where I'm having. That's why I'm struggling.

Mark R00:17:23

Okay?

Mark L00:17:24

I know I am. We'll figure this out. I know we will.

Mark R00:17:29

Just think about it a minute. We have some thinking music on.

Arnold00:17:32

That's right. We're getting into Final Jeopardy.

Mark L00:17:34

No, that's not it.

Mark R00:17:35

Go to Colorado.

Mark L00:17:35

Do Colorado Cosmic. It's got to be the last one here that I'm trying to go. I want to try this one. One more. No, that's not it.

Mark R00:17:47

But you're going through all the hits, though.

Mark L00:17:49

I know you're gonna catch all those. We're gonna get all those hits.

Mark R00:17:52

Just play one.

Arnold00:17:52

We'll be.

Mark R00:17:53

Just play one.

Mark L00:17:53

Okay, Here we go.

Mark R00:17:56

This is our main thing. See, Nikola Tesla thought that he was actually wired to monolithus, and he thought monolithus was sending him messages.

Arnold00:18:09

Wow.

Mark R00:18:09

That came up to all of his images, inventions, and he was a little kid. He Would have. Yeah, listen to that.When Nicolettes was a young kid, he would have these hallucinations in his head and he thought he was actually sick. He thought it was an affliction. And he would wave his hands and front of his eyes to see what was real or if his mind was adrift.And we figured out what he thought was an affliction actually turned out to be a gift. And he was actually receiving all this information from Mount Olympus to. With all these inventions that he ended up inventing.

Arnold00:18:56

Wow.

Mark R00:18:57

Wow.

Mark L00:18:58

Okay.

Arnold00:18:58

At the Zeus lightning bolt there.

Mark L00:19:00

I like that. Okay. Okay.

Mark R00:19:02

That's crazy.

Mark L00:19:03

Want to hear another one?

Arnold00:19:04

Sure.

Mark L00:19:04

Okay, here we go.

Mark R00:19:06

Waiting for the sun. To.

Mark L00:19:11

Beautiful song.

Arnold00:19:12

Yeah, just beautiful.

Mark R00:19:16

This is it. He's addressing the crowd at the opening of the World's Fair. Listen. Listen to this in a second. He's talking to him. He's got something.He's going to do.

Mark R00:19:35

Set has been dealt the fatal blow. Fountain shooting skyward as cannon sound. The first American automobile. George Ferris new spinning wheel.Electric sun will rise at night illuminating the shadows of Ea. The streets of Rome, Piccadilly this way. The lights on Broadway beckoning Dorothy, Tin man, lion and Scarrow to the end

Mark R00:20:24

of the yellow R.

Mark R00:20:29

The Merlin behind the curtain, the electrical God.

Mark R00:20:35

Wow. The original was wizard of Oz. Wow.

Mark L00:20:40

I could. I was getting chills.

Arnold00:20:42

That's wonderful music. Did you and your brother do the lyrics to the libretto?

Mark R00:20:48

Oh, my God, yes. We did everything. We did everything.

Arnold00:20:50

Did he do music also or.

Mark R00:20:52

Oh, yeah, we were both. When we got out of college, we Both graduated from St. Louis U. We went out to college to get a record deal. To try to get a record deal.We were the Beatles. Did you ever heard of us? No. We were the B E T L E S. We weren't those.

Arnold00:21:07

Oh, I've heard of that.

Mark R00:21:08

Yeah.

Arnold00:21:09

Yeah.

Mark R00:21:10

No, you went out there and we ended up as most. We both ended up getting jobs at CBS Television City and we got as production assistants.

Arnold00:21:17

Okay.

Mark R00:21:17

So we went out there and that's kind of how we got draw. We worked on the Cher show. We worked on Tony Orlando and Dawn, all the family. Good times. Mod Cher. So we had a great, good time out there.And then we had a good time out there.

Mark L00:21:29

Jason doesn't know anything you're talking about.

Jason 00:21:31

Oh, actually, yeah. Tony Orlando and what a story past in career.

Mark L00:21:37

Yeah.

Jason 00:21:37

I learned more and more about Mark. It's intriguing to me.

Arnold00:21:41

What's been the. The draw for you on this?

Jason 00:21:45

I think the vocal challenge for me. I'm going to Be bringing a lot of talent to bear. And the. The vocal range of this show is a marathon. It's not a sprint.You're going to get an estimated hour and a half of just amazing powerhouse music. Yeah.

Arnold00:22:12

And there's no intermission.

Jason 00:22:13

Like you were saying, Mark, you get the feels when you listen to this. And I live for when people hear it for the first time and they're like, wow.

Arnold00:22:26

Yeah, that's when I heard that. That's why I recorded that and sent that to you. I was like, holy smokes, this is something.

Mark R00:22:31

And all the music is on our website. Go to teslalightedup.com we have links to every one of the major. All the streaming services. You can listen to all the songs.We want you familiar with the songs when they. When they get.

Mark L00:22:44

Great idea.

Mark R00:22:45

But the. The coolest thing. I know you wanted to ask me this about what I found out about Tesla during my study. I've read about.

Arnold00:22:52

That's one of my questions.

Mark R00:22:54

The 20. The. I've read about 20 books on them. But the thing that actually drew me into the.That made me even more excited about it was the man behind the curtain was really his mother. His mother was the genius. And he in Tesla credited his mother with everything toward the end of his life. His mother was Georgina Duga Tesla.She was herself an inventor. She invented. She invented farm implements. She invented stuff around the house to make life. To make life easier. She had a memory that she could.Everything that at the time was where you grew up was. None of it was written down. It was all passed down verbally. And her mother could actually read a poem and recite it word for word.Right after she read it. She had it. She could affix it to memory. She was absolutely incredible. The one. The song they wrote that she was truly the hand that rocked the cradle.And he. And that's. And Stacy Rios, who's the. She's going to lead us off. Yeah. And the first one of our songs starts the show. Yeah. Is. Is born Tesla.

Arnold00:24:03

So you go. The opera starts his birth. Okay. And you go all the way to his death.

Mark R00:24:07

Yeah. And then he ended. He was born. Is the crazy part about it is he was born during a lightning storm at midnight. And it was here.It was a very scary situation. And the midwife that delivered him looked over to his mother said, oh, my God. She says, this is a bad omen. He's going to be.He's going to be a child of the storm. His mother cut him off. She said, oh, no. He goes she's going to be a child of light.

Jason 00:24:33

Yeah.

Mark R00:24:34

And that was the beginning of what he did. And she taught him everything that she knew. And she gave him all the inspiration. She gave him all the inventive power.She is truly the hand that rocked the cradle. Wow.

Mark L00:24:48

Is right. Does Elon Musk know about any of this?

Mark R00:24:51

I've been tagging him.

Mark L00:24:52

Have you?

Mark R00:24:52

I've been tagging him on my Twitter account, so I'm told. Because they say he reads it. Yeah. He said he reads this.

Arnold00:24:59

I have to send him the podcast.

Mark R00:25:00

Really?

Mark L00:25:01

No.

Mark R00:25:01

So that'd be great. If we get him to show.

Arnold00:25:03

So does the end of the show like you get to a Tesla car or something?

Mark R00:25:07

Well, actually, that's gonna. Tessa actually has nothing to do with that car. Tesla actually had nothing to do.

Arnold00:25:12

Except his name.

Jason 00:25:14

Yeah.

Mark R00:25:14

Except the name. Because it was electric. They use the. Right. And the end of. The end of the show is. But you got to come and see this. He had one incredible. He hated war.Nicholas. And he had this one huge invention that he. I'll tell you the conspiracy theory about that too. And it was. He called a teleforce ray.And he was going to give away this free technology to every country in the world to end wars that nobody could shoot on any incoming plane bombs again. And he called it the teleforce way. And he was supposed to present this to FDR at the White House the next day. And it was going to end war forever.And he died that night in New

Arnold00:25:57

York City in his apartment. And the FBI came in and cleaned out his apartment of all of his papers.

Mark R00:26:03

Absolutely.

Arnold00:26:05

Absolutely. He even learned something.

Mark R00:26:09

Absolutely. And y' all could believe this. You want to go there. The head. It was called the CIA. It was something else.Or some of the name was like investigation thing was the thing prior to the CIA or whatever. And who confiscated all of his books. Who was the head of. It was. Is John Trump. It was. I'm not joking.

Arnold00:26:27

Interesting.

Mark R00:26:28

It was Donald Trump's great uncle who was head of that. And he actually came up and took all for the CIA at the time. It was a different name, but he actually took all of his writings.

Arnold00:26:39

You need that. Bum, bum, bum, bum.

Mark R00:26:41

Yeah.

Arnold00:26:41

Twilight Zone.

Mark R00:26:43

So that's the conspiracy theory on the night he died. Wow.

Arnold00:26:47

Yeah. I've read some stuff on him that. And he was really a. He went into himself.

Mark R00:26:52

He was.

Arnold00:26:52

So was he the one that.

Mark R00:26:53

Look for that. It's called Presence. I'll tell you the story about Presence.

Arnold00:26:56

Okay.

Mark R00:26:56

When he. He never married and the woman that he was in love with was actually the. His best friend's wife. It was a plutonic thing. Yeah, play this.It was a platonic thing. But she loved him. And she loved him. But her husband loved Tesla, too. They loved him. Anyway, so anyway, this is.This is my favorite song in the whole show. So anyway, the night that she died, a white dove appeared on the balcony of his of room 3327 at the new Yorker.And he believed that was her coming in to check on him. And he said that he had total communication with that dove. I say, right, this is a second. Let's listen to a second.And she would come visit him every night at the New Yorker. Listen for a second. Let's get to the chorus.

Mark R00:28:01

Yet I am frightened to the bone. You spent your life in electric dreams.The secret of invention is be alone Wherever we are together where we reside Home is not a place it's the presence we find when the story is written the greatest gift ever envisioned Is the power to return the love. The love that we've been given.

Mark R00:28:44

You come by the Delmo hall on June 20th and you're gonna hear Jason Nelson. Nelson. And Stacy Rio sing this live, buddy. And we have electric guitars, we've got electric cellos, we got electric violins.And we are gonna blow the roof off of Delmore Hall.

Arnold00:29:01

Okay?

Mark R00:29:02

And get ready for this. And go to our. Once again, go to our website. Go to teslaligned up.com. we have a link. So all the songs. Listen to all the songs.Each one has something different. Each one has something that moves the storyline of this incredible man's life along.

Arnold00:29:18

And you can go there and get tickets. Sign up tickets, folks.

Mark R00:29:20

Right? Oh, also, this is a big deal nowadays.If you go by Delmore hall on Tuesdays and Fridays or hour before each one of their shows, you can save the ticket fee. You go down there, you save the ticket fee and pay with cash. And those ticket fees are kind of a little outrageous nowadays.So you can save a little bit on the. You save almost $10 a ticket on the fee. So if you go by Del Mar hall directly or before one of their shows, you can buy it at. Right. Del Mar. Oh, yeah.

Arnold00:29:48

We're going to take a brief break.

Mark L00:29:50

Okay.

Arnold00:29:52

And we're going to learn more about Nikola Tesla. Light it up. The world premiere of the rock opera teslalightedup.com. this is Arnold Stricker with Mark Langston of St. Louis and tune don't go.As strange as it may sound at better rate mortgage we love talking to people about mortgages. Everyone in St. Louis promises a better mortgage rate. But what you really need to turn that perfect house into your dream home is a better mortgage.At Better Rate Mortgage, we open the door to so much more. So where are you in the home buying process? Researching, maybe wondering how much you can afford? House hunting.Get a pre approval from Better Rate Mortgage Ready to buy. Our team is ready to make your mortgage process fast and easy.Whether you're purchasing your first home or taking cash out to make your dream home even dreamier. Our door is open. Come on in and get started. Today we'll show you how.Call Sean directly at 314-375-3293 or online@betterratemortgage.com Remember, at Better Rate Mortgage, a better rate is just the beginning. Betterratemortgage.com MMLS IBeach 401335 and equal housing lender. Welcome back to St. Louis in Tune. This is Arnold Struck with Mark Langston.We have Mark Rogers here, composer, creator of the new world premiere rock opera on Nikola Tesla, Light it up. And Jason Nelson who is a local aficionado in the music industry and Mr.

Mark R00:31:31

Entertainment St. Louis there.

Arnold00:31:33

There you go, Mr. Entertainment St. Louis. He leads the Jason Nelson Band.And we've been talking about Tesla and Mark, you mentioned that there's a St. Louis connection or St. Louis story there.

Mark R00:31:45

Absolutely. Tesla always needed money. He always needed money. He always got him. He always needed to get him onto the next project.And the neatest thing about Nikola Tesla was he always, he unfortunately he never really locked down his ideas. He let people steal his ideas and they made billion dollar corporations out of it. He didn't get a penny for it, which was really kind of sad.He could have locked down. He died virtually virtually penniless.But Nicholson always needed money and he always needed and he created a roadshow, I'm not joking, where he would actually go around and perform in a roadshow.And he had cork shoes on and he would walk out and he would perform experiments on stage and he have lights going electric going through him and out of him and his lights were coming, I'm not joking and lightning coming out of his eyes and all this kind of stuff. He right around the country and did it.Well anyway, he did his show right here in St. Louis at the St. Louis Exhibition hall which they tore down is now the St. Louis Public Library. And he did it and the crowd was went nuts. They went he at the end of the gun. He was a very Internal man. He's a quiet guy.And he went out in the lobby to greet everybody after the show and everybody just wanted to touch him. And he was just. He was literally mobbed and it freaked him out. And that was the last show I ever did.So the last show, the last roadshow that Tesla ever did was. Was right here in St. Louis.

Arnold00:33:07

Wow.

Mark R00:33:08

And what year roughly, like in the. We won't hold you to 20s.

Arnold00:33:12

Okay.

Mark R00:33:12

Or the beginning of the 30s.

Arnold00:33:13

Okay.

Mark R00:33:14

End of the 20s. The beginning of the 30s.

Arnold00:33:15

Wow.

Mark R00:33:16

But the thing about. Like the one we'll play in a minute. The. One of the shows, because we have a lot of fun songs in the show.And one of us called Dinner, he used to go to every night in New York. He would eat at Del Monica and Mark Twain would meet him there.

Arnold00:33:29

Right.

Mark R00:33:29

He was huge friends with the. With musicians. And then the news. It's just like the history nerd comes out of me and I go, what if I. This Demonicos. They actually.That restaurant invented Lobster Thermidor and they invented Biked Alaska and Chicken Lala King. But the funny story about Chicken La King. Want to hear a funny story about Chicken La King? I got more stories. Chicken La King was.It was actually named after a very wealthy polo player in New York. And his last name was Keem K e e M e. And he was a big. He came to eat at Delmonico's every night.And the owner of Delmonico's made this dish for him just for him. And it was called Chicken a lakeem K e e m. So then. But outside of New York, it became very popular as Chicken a la King. And that's.And that's what they made. But the actual name of it was named after the famous polo player that came to. Because every night. Now is that as nerd as you can get?And so I wrote a song about it. Crazy. So we're talking about Delmonicos.

Arnold00:34:30

Speaking of Delmonicos, I have. This is Mental Floss. On. On Tesla. He ate at the same table at Demonic.

Mark R00:34:38

Absolutely.

Arnold00:34:39

And later at the Waldorf Astoria. He had an all consuming fear of germs and required a stack of 18 napkins.

Mark R00:34:46

Yes.

Arnold00:34:46

Didn't want anybody to touch his hair. And he would develop a fit at the sight of pearls for some reason.

Mark R00:34:52

Yeah. And he had his. He believed the numbers 3, 6 and 9 ruled the universe. That he. And he would. Whenever he walked around, he went into a building.I couldn't do that this morning. But he walked around it three times. I Walked around your building three times before. Three times before you would even go in.And then when Wardenclyffe. Yeah, get Wardenclyffe up. He, Wardenclyffe was, was. He was going to deliver free electric to the world, Free energy to the world.And J.P. morgan at that time was supporting him. And J.P. morgan came out to warn Cliff to see how this practice was coming along. And he had this huge 57 foot tower that was built in Wharncliffe.And JP Morgan walked up to me, said, he says, hey, where, where's the meter on this thing? And yeah, he goes, yeah, there is no meter. It's free electric. And he cut him off immediately. He cut all the, all of his funding.And an impassioned letter, he, Tesla, wrote to J.P. morgan and telling him not to cut him off. And he said, he said a great idea, it comes at the. Is a great idea is one thing, but one that comes at the right time is another.And I thought, what a great idea. So I wrote that into a song. But listen to this a minute. Yeah, turn this up, Eddie.

Mark R00:36:14

Where the next wonder of the world will be found. A wireless system for communication and power. Power. A grand vision. A 187 wooden tower.A 55 ton steel sphere on top, covered with a thin layer of copper. A shaft with 16 iron pipes driven 100ft into the ground.

Mark R00:36:41

I made that into a song, buddy.

Mark R00:36:43

Currents, vibrations will seize hold of thee.

Mark R00:36:46

Those are the cars coming up an endless river.

Mark R00:36:49

Water cliff will deliver. The planet itself will begin to quiver.

Mark R00:36:57

Here it comes.

Mark R00:36:58

No mortal or deity ever imagined our eyes never undertook such a herculean task. A worldwide free distribution of energy connecting all the corners of the globe. Wherever you may be. Whoa.

Mark R00:37:19

Yeah, Buddy. Come by Delmo Hall, June 20th. Buddy. I cannot wait to hear this live.

Arnold00:37:28

Jason, how. When did you get the music and how long did it take for you and the band to get it to the performance level?

Jason 00:37:38

This started matriculating in two months ago.

Mark R00:37:40

Yeah, about two months ago.

Jason 00:37:41

Two months.

Mark R00:37:42

Wow.

Jason 00:37:42

And we are woodshedding right now, each individual member and then as an ensemble. And we will be in rehearsals for the next three months.

Arnold00:37:55

Yeah, I was gonna say, how frequently do you get together to. To practice?

Jason 00:38:00

Every seven days. So how that works out with our

Arnold00:38:05

schedules, do you kind of work on one song at a time or work on a couple songs at a time? Blocks of four. Okay. And how many songs are there total?

Jason 00:38:12

Thirteen.

Arnold00:38:13

Okay. All right. And then you talk about staging and

Jason 00:38:18

that's the wonderful aspect of the rock opera that Mark has afforded the band to focus on just playing the music. I will do some stage blocking and movement but the band's just gonna focus on rockin'.

Arnold00:38:38

Okay. Are you changing outfits too?

Jason 00:38:41

I very well may.

Mark R00:38:42

We're working on after. It's now. We're working. We're working on outfits now.

Jason 00:38:45

It's like the conversation started 1.

Arnold00:38:48

Like a unitary with a lightning bolt on the right.

Jason 00:38:51

It's not inconceivable.

Arnold00:38:58

Holy smokes.

Mark L00:38:59

Love it.

Arnold00:39:00

Now who is singing what?

Mark R00:39:02

We just heard a studio.

Arnold00:39:04

Okay.

Mark R00:39:05

A studio musician that I had.

Arnold00:39:06

I thought that was Jason and the crew or.

Mark R00:39:08

No. We're come up with our own cast album.

Arnold00:39:09

Okay.

Mark R00:39:10

So we're going to get. We're going to get this. We're getting a few of the shows underneath our. Underneath our belt. And then we're going to come up with our own cast out.

Arnold00:39:17

Okay. So the plan is to do this at Del Mar hall on a world premiere.

Mark R00:39:22

Yes.

Arnold00:39:22

And is there going to be multiple shows there or how is this. How's this working?

Mark R00:39:26

I'm thinking big. And we already have shows booked for the fall.

Arnold00:39:30

Okay.

Mark R00:39:30

I. Our one agent already has us booked and in Las Vegas.

Arnold00:39:34

Wow.

Mark R00:39:35

How cool is that going to be?

Arnold00:39:36

Yeah.

Mark R00:39:36

But my thing. I want to get.

Arnold00:39:37

You want to get in the Sphere.

Mark R00:39:39

You hear the words out of my mouth. Can you imagine this show?

Arnold00:39:43

That would be crazy.

Mark R00:39:45

He just. Jason was just out there and he saw the wizard of Oz.

Arnold00:39:49

Really?

Mark L00:39:49

Oh yeah. I bet.

Jason 00:39:51

Have you heard about this production?

Mark L00:39:52

I heard about it being out there at the Sphere. Yeah. How was it is. I'm sure it was remarkable.

Jason 00:39:58

It's like the Grand Canyon. It does not disappoint. You walk in from the lobby area into this massive auditorium. It's 10 stories tall. And the production of the wizard of Oz.How they've manipulated the scenes and created the special lighting. And they drop these paper leaves from the ceiling. They drop apples.

Mark R00:40:27

It's amazing. They spent. I read an article and I thought it was low. The Spear paid for that because nobody could afford to put that on. And the Spirit.To get the Spear up and going. They spent close to a hundred million dollars in that production. A hundred million just to get to the Sphere.And they said they've already made a billion back. So they already made it back. They said they have them lined up. But I cannot wait.My agent out there is already getting in contact with them at the Spear. I cannot imagine. Can you imagine Nikola Tesla and light it up at the Spear? It'd be.

Arnold00:40:58

That'd be crazy.

Mark R00:40:59

It'd be. Oh, there'd be one problem. Is the only problem out there would be we'd open, but we'd never close. That would be the problem.

Arnold00:41:07

Which he loves. Yeah, you need that.

Mark L00:41:10

It's warm all year round.

Jason 00:41:11

I have personal goals. I look forward to doing this show in the Northeast, in New York. I look forward to doing it in Los Angeles, on the coasts.

Mark R00:41:24

It has worldwide appeal. Yeah. And people don't know exactly. When you talk about Nicholas just for a minute, he invented neon lights. He invented X ray, he invented radar.He invented radar control. Yeah. He invented a. We would have had. If it would let him go, we'd have free electric for the entire world. They would let him go.In fact, Finland just announced. Did you see that? They just transmitted electric.

Jason 00:41:47

I saw that.

Arnold00:41:48

Through the air.

Mark R00:41:48

Yeah, through the air.

Arnold00:41:49

Wow.

Mark R00:41:50

They just. So it's. It's an amazing thing. But to bring this man to life and to tell. And to tell his story and there's going to be. Well, I want you. We number.When you leave that show, I want you out there. You're going to be humming every one of the songs.

Jason 00:42:06

Oh, yeah.

Mark R00:42:07

But you're going to say when you look up that when you look at that light bulb and that street lamp, when you leave Del Mar Holiday, you're going to see light in a different way.

Jason 00:42:16

Oh, yeah.

Arnold00:42:17

So, Mark, that's the beauty of listening to this music. Just like he said, you will go out humming or whistling or waking up in the middle of the night when the tunes running through your head.But how many people don't know all the details about Tesla. They just know the car. They maybe know he was some kind of obscure guy that dealt with electricity.But they don't know all of the things that you're going to present in the rock opera.

Mark R00:42:39

Yeah.

Mark R00:42:40

When the history of the world is written, it's going to go down. That Nikola Tesla was the Leonardo da Vinci of the 20th century.

Arnold00:42:46

I. I agree with that.

Mark R00:42:47

Without it. Without a shadow of a doubt.

Arnold00:42:49

Right.

Mark L00:42:49

I think Mark and Jason will have a spot there, too. You guys will be a footnote.

Arnold00:42:56

Don't forget us when you get to the big time.

Mark R00:42:59

Thank you.

Mark L00:43:00

You're on to something here. You really are.

Arnold00:43:03

Oh, my.

Mark R00:43:04

The other one, Alessa, if you got to pull up the real quick, is peace. Have you got peace there?

Mark L00:43:09

Peace.

Mark R00:43:09

Yeah.

Mark L00:43:10

Let me find it.

Mark R00:43:11

I'll just play that one. That's our big one. That's our main number.

Mark L00:43:14

I'm sorry, hold on, I already got piece coming up.

Mark R00:43:16

Oh, this this is his big gift to the world. And I wrote this from the point of him walking out and talking to the audience. So let's listen to this a second.

Mark R00:43:38

Ladies and gentlemen, I welcome you to this moment, the consequence of my birth to reveal my invention of inventions, the reason I was placed here on Earth. Imagine a particle beam, so powerful an instrument capable of projecting a focused stream of energy across the sky.Imaginable until today, not a weapon of aggression, but protection. An invisible shield, A terra force, raw power. A single beam, a spear of light. A sentinel soldier standing guard through the endless night.The thunder of guns will be silenced. The tears of our mothers will cease. We will emerge from the bombs, the shackles, the chains of war. What will become of sleep? I love you all so much.Peace.

Mark R00:45:02

Yeah, I cannot wait to hear that line. And wait till you see the video that goes along with this. Behind you, Jason. Man, it's going to be immersive.

Arnold00:45:14

The more you talk about this, the more questions pop in mind.

Mark R00:45:17

Oh, my gosh.

Arnold00:45:18

So where'd you get the footage? And how did you. Maybe it's all in public domain, but how did you.

Mark R00:45:23

Like.

Arnold00:45:23

But this is part of composing and producing lyrics and, like, putting stuff together like this.

Mark R00:45:28

I hired a media guy to do that for me. He's putting it all together. He's putting all the images together.

Arnold00:45:33

But you had the vision for what you wanted, though, right?

Mark R00:45:36

Yeah. I tell them. I tell them, find something about this. No, do this. And I give him very specific notes. I tell me I want this when he goes out. This is.I tell them the story of the song. I wanted carpet. I want to follow along the storyline of the song, but it gave us to the course.You want a single beam, a spear of light, a sentinel guard standing guard through the endless night. I want all these images to reflect not only the power of the song, but the power of Tesla and the power of his ideas. That's what I want that to be.I want you to get hit across the head with that.

Arnold00:46:08

It's just not the music, it's the lyrics. You're getting educated in a rock opera.

Mark R00:46:13

Thank you so much for saying that. He said. And I didn't bring that up. I didn't say that. I forgot to say that.Like, on the one, he wrote this impassioned letter to JP Morgan not to cut him off. And he said, to have a great idea is one thing, but to have it at the right time is another. And I thought, what a great line that is. And so I put it.It was Three. And I combined it with three, six, nine. I said, three, six, nine. Living life by the numbers. To have a great result is one thing.To have it at the right time is another.

Arnold00:46:45

I think this rock opera Mark is at the right time, just like Tesla said. Yes.

Mark L00:46:51

So it's amazing, the lyrics. You did all these lyrics.

Mark R00:46:54

Of course you would believe it.

Mark L00:46:55

And on the arrangement of everything I

Mark R00:46:57

did, this is crazy. You should see my. You see, my bed had all light on my bed. I had 40 different. I. I kept all the notes to each one of the obvious.I got a little series songs, but I had all laid out on my bed at night. I'd wake up in the middle of the night, oh, this one goes here, this one goes here. Put them all together. And I just. I just had to immerse myself.Jason kept calling me. He goes, hey, Mark, we need the final songs. This was a couple months ago. I said, hey, I'm still writing them. I'm still writing them. So he came in.Wow. Yeah.

Arnold00:47:27

I want to go back to when you were out there doing that show, and he came up to you and said, this is who I am. This is who I am. And you do this and you go, yeah. So what transpired after that where he was. Okay.

Jason 00:47:38

I've approached people, being the dreamer to make something happen. I'll be damned if I wasn't gonna buy in. Be like, yeah, this guy's. He's onto something.I didn't know him like, I know him now, but there was something that immediately lit my brain on fire.

Arnold00:47:59

So right after that, when was the next meeting that he goes, this is. These are some songs I've got. And you were like, did you listen to something? Did he play something for you?

Mark R00:48:07

Or how did I. I sent him over. I sent him over the MP3s and, hey, take a listen at this.

Arnold00:48:12

You were like.

Mark R00:48:13

And I thought, whoa. Yeah. I thought, oh, my God, what is he going to say? I hope he likes it. I hope he likes. Likes it. And he comes back and he said, oh, my God.He goes, this is great.

Jason 00:48:22

And in the world that we move in, if something's not quite right, you tweak it. And I had that wherewithal to know after I listened, I was like, there's not a lot that we're gonna need to do, right?

Arnold00:48:41

We're just gonna channel it. And the band, when they first heard it, oh.

Jason 00:48:46

They're like, oh, again, we're buzzing. Because when we take it to the stage, what you hear is going to be 10 times amped, I know. So much energy. Everybody in the ensembles. Yeah, man.

Arnold00:49:03

Let me ask you a real personal question on this. You hear music throughout your career.I'm not going to ask you who you listen to, but when you hear something and you know something like this is golden. That's what you got.

Jason 00:49:17

Of course, like I said earlier, when I listen to these songs, something goes up your spine. You get the tingle. You get the feels.

Mark L00:49:26

It's there.

Jason 00:49:27

Yeah, it's there.

Mark R00:49:28

Yeah.

Jason 00:49:29

And being a part of that.

Arnold00:49:31

Yeah.

Jason 00:49:31

Being able to perform these songs and have people react like I know they're going to.

Mark R00:49:37

Yeah.

Jason 00:49:38

That's everything.

Arnold00:49:39

Mark, I got to tell you, that's rare these days. It's rare in general, but it's rare these days.And to have somebody of his caliber with his band performing this, it's going to literally blow the roof off the top of the place.

Mark R00:49:53

Yeah. Yeah. I did wrap it up a little. The. Toward the end of Tesla's life, he got embittered. And because everybody sold his idea and he had no money at all.And one of the greatest lines he said, which I thought brought me to tears, and he said, he goes, I don't care that they stole my ideas is I care that they had none of their own. I wrote this song, the one song I know you can pull up real quick.

Mark L00:50:22

Which one?

Mark R00:50:22

The one standing on my grave. So I thought at the end of. At the end of his life that everything they said about him, he had people that hated him, people that.That loved him, people. And I thought, if he had a wish, what would he want?And he goes, at one time he said, I just wish somebody would walk up to me on the street and say, thanks. And Joshua in the Woody went in. So on standing on my grave, I thought, wouldn't that be a cool idea?We would all wish we could come back in the future and to be reincarnated as an old friend of the deceased that nobody knows and just come back and check out and see people saying about you. Yeah. Listen to songs for a second.

Mark R00:51:08

The sunrise a muted red the only difference from yesterday I'll be dead, Pal. Bearers, priests cursed in processions Coffin and candles no more earthly possessions what all this means. Can't figure this funeral thing out.You'd think we'd have it down a little better by now. Praised and criticized by friend and foe Even from people I've never known I don't care that they stole my ideas. I care they had none of their own.Wizard or warlock Knight or name Wonder what They'll say standing on my grave. Wizard or warlock, Knight or name Wonder what they'll say standing on my grave.

Mark R00:52:50

Shall we all wish that well here be reincarnated as a stranger, an old

Mark R00:52:58

friend of the deceased to pay my final respects to myself in hopes I can somehow now rest in peace. The last rites are about to begin. Wonder is there an afterlife or is this really the end? No immediate family, no next of kin. My inventions.My offspring are my children.

Arnold00:53:47

Show up June 20, June 20 at Del Mar Hall. Light it up. Nikolai Tesla. TeslaLight it up.com. mark and Jason, thanks for coming in today.

Mark R00:53:59

Wow.

Arnold00:53:59

Thank you so much for having what a great time. This is marvelous.

Mark R00:54:04

Absolutely. You and Mar have been absolutely fantastic to us.

Mark L00:54:07

Thank you for being here.

Jason 00:54:08

Thank you.

Arnold00:54:09

We appreciate your time.

Mark L00:54:10

Good luck. Jason. Jumping on that train that's going 100 miles an hour exactly.

Mark R00:54:15

Hold on, baby.

Mark L00:54:16

Really, it's gonna. This is great. Mark, congratulations. You've really contributed, I think, to the whole industry, the music industry.

Mark R00:54:23

Oh my God. Thank you so much.

Mark L00:54:25

I mean that sincerely. Congratulations.

Mark R00:54:27

I can't wait for you to come by. I can't.Go to our website, Tesla Lighted Up.com, check out the songs, learn by heart and come out and we'll sing along alive with the chance going to say

Arnold00:54:38

it'll be a sing along time.

Jason 00:54:41

Okay.

Arnold00:54:42

Well, Mark. Oh, that's all for this hour, man. You got to listen to this one again, folks. Thanks for listening.If you've enjoyed this episode, you can listen to additional shows or this one again@stlintune.com where you can follow us and leave a comment.Thanks to Bob Berthasau for our theme music, our sponsor, Better Rate Mortgage, our guest, Mark Rogers and Jason Nelson and our co host, Mark Langston. We thank you for being a part of our community of curious minds. St. Louis in tune is a production of Motif Media Group and the US Radio Network.Remember to keep seeking, keep learning, walk worthy and let your light shine. For St. Louis in tune, I'm Arnold Stricker,

Mark R00:55:26

Sa.