The Farmer's End

Freddy Villano
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  • Music Interviews
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The Farmer's End - Where Bass Players Groove and Hang - is a podcast hosted by Freddy Villano, a music aficionado whose writing credits include Premier Guitar, Bass Player, Shindig!, and other internationally acclaimed magazines. As a bass player, Villano has held down the low end for Widowmaker (featuring Dee Snider), Quiet Riot, Earl Slick, and The Rods, to name a few. The Farmer's End will launch with a series of archived interviews that have never been published elsewhere. New interviews are forthcoming, as is a blog on Substack that will house written articles/interviews. Stay tuned!

Episodes

  1. Jul 15

    Patrick Klein - The Lizard King

    This is a deep cut interview that has never been published before. I dug deep into the archives ( i.e., a box of cassettes) for this one. Though not a household name, Patrick Klein is well know in the New York music scene, having first cut his teeth with French Lick, an incumbent band to Bon Jovi at Tony Bongiovi's legendary Power Station studio in the '80s. He went on to become an in-house engineer at the Power Station under the tutelage of Bongiovi, before subsequently joining The Lizards on guitar. With The Lizards, Klein was more like the band's Swiss Army Knife, handling an array of duties besides guitar, including songwriting, recording, mixing, and backing vocals. Ever since, he's continued engineering at Electric Randyland on Long Island and composing music for High 5 Games, an online gaming company. This interview was originally conducted in a Starbucks cafe and recorded on cassette, so there was a lot of background noise to clean up (it was originally intended for print publication). There are some dropouts as a result of cleaning up the audio, so I will also publish the written transcript on Subtack in case you want to follow along there. It was also conducted a while ago, and platforms such as Spotify didn't exist just yet, so there is a lot of commentary on the state of the music industry, which is interesting to hear in retrospect. To be clear, Patrick is not a bass player by trade (Although I did see him gig on bass one night in NYC). He's a primarily a guitarist and lead vocalist, but the nature of the interview transcends a guitar-centric perspective, and delves into the many facets of being a team player in a band, making it completely suitable for The Farmer's End. Enjoy!

  2. Mar 31

    Ronnie James Dio - "Bass Has Always Been an Invaluable Instrument For Me"

    I dug deep into my archives and came across an interview I did with Ronnie James Dio back in 2006/2007. Long before I joined The Rods, and well before I moved to Ithaca and started working in Cortland, I was assigned an interview with Geezer Butler regarding Black Sabbath's recently released Dio Years Box Set and subsequent tour, under the then-newly rebranded Heaven & Hell moniker. The run of dates culminated with a now-legendary performance at New York City's Radio City Music Hall, which is part of the recently released Breaking Into Heaven Box Set under the Heaven & Hell name. Because Dio was originally a bass player, and performed on Elf's eponymous debut, I finagled an interview with him as well, which was intended to be a side bar addendum to the Geezer Butler interview. Unfortunately, due to print restrictions, I was only ever able to incorporate few sentences of Dio's interview, so after digging through some boxes and cassette tapes, and working with lalal.ai to clean up the background noise and tape hiss, The Farmer's End is able to finally present this interview in its entirety. Listening back to this I'm reminded about how much I miss hearing his voice, which is one of the biggest reasons to publish it. I'm sure others miss hearing him too. It also illuminates how essential bass playing was for him as a songwriter, how much respect he had for his musical peers and colleagues, and how gracious he could be as a person. I hope you enjoy it!

  3. Jan 9

    Kip Winger - Scene of the Crime

    Sometime in 2023, The Farmer's End caught up with Kip Winger to discuss the release of Winger's boxed set, Chapter One - The Atlantic Years, among other things, including chops versus song craft, singing and playing, and plugins versus going direct. Dig in!

    Kip Winger - Scene of the Crime

  4. 11/03/2025

    Juan Croucier - Nobody Rides for Free

    In 2023, The Farmer's End caught up with Juan Croucier hot on the heels of RATT's The Atlantic Years boxed set release. As one of the truly unsung heroes of '80s bass playing, Croucier shares his thoughts on playing, songwriting, singing, recording, and more... Check it out!

  5. 09/15/2025

    Glenn Hughes - Last Man Standing

    The Farmer's End caught up with inimitable bassist/vocalist Glenn Hughes in late summer of 2023 just as he was embarking upon the US leg of his 50th Anniversary Burn tour, celebrating his iconic debut album with the legendary Deep Purple.

  • 5 Episodes

About

The Farmer's End - Where Bass Players Groove and Hang - is a podcast hosted by Freddy Villano, a music aficionado whose writing credits include Premier Guitar, Bass Player, Shindig!, and other internationally acclaimed magazines. As a bass player, Villano has held down the low end for Widowmaker (featuring Dee Snider), Quiet Riot, Earl Slick, and The Rods, to name a few. The Farmer's End will launch with a series of archived interviews that have never been published elsewhere. New interviews are forthcoming, as is a blog on Substack that will house written articles/interviews. Stay tuned!

Information

  • Creator
    Freddy Villano
  • Years Active
    2026
  • Episodes
    5
  • Rating
    Clean
  • Copyright
    © Freddy Villano
  • Show Website
    The Farmer's End