Episode 8

Reby Hardy on Broken Hardys Bound For Glory Entrance, Bray Wyatt Piano Version, Music In Her Life

Published on: 20th January, 2025

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Reby Hardy and John Kiernan talk about Reby's unique journey through music and wrestling, discussing her classical piano upbringing, her pivotal role in the Broken and Woken Universes, and the creative processes behind her performances. Reby discusses her Bound For Glory live entrance performance for Jeff Hardy and Matt Hardy with the Broken Universe, her aspirations for future music projects, and the influence of her eclectic musical tastes.

Reby and John also talk about what went into creating her heart wrenching piano version of Bray Wyatt's theme, Live In Fear, and how she was able to create an awesome version of theme under crunch time conditions! Reby's passion for music and storytelling shines through as she connects her artistic endeavors with her personal life and experiences in the wrestling world. Enjoy the conversation!


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About The Show:

Do you like wrestling? Do you like music and stories from the road? Join John Kiernan, wrestling entrance theme song composer, and professional musician of over 10 years for stories and interviews with your favorite wrestlers, rock stars, and personalities!

About the Host:

John Kiernan is a wrestling entrance theme song composer with over 150 themes written for wrestlers in various promotions such as NJPW, WWE, ROH, MLW, and many more. As a professional musician, a veteran in the podcasting space, an avid pro wrestling fan and wrestling personality by way of creating the soundtracks for your favorite wrestlers, John Kiernan forges his latest podcasting venture into diving into stories of music, stories from the road, and wrestling from all walks of life from your (and his) favorites of all time.

Transcript
Speaker:

Welcome everybody to the ropes and riffs podcast.

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I'm your host, John Kiernan, wrestling entrance theme song composer.

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Today's guest is none other than Reby Hardy.

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You may know Reby Hardy from lots of different places from WWE, from her time in TNA and

impact wrestling as part of house Hardy with her husband, Matt Hardy.

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You may know her from Gothic baby as well.

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but you may forget sometimes that she

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had done music and played Matt and Jeff Hardy to the ring during their Broken Universe

series, as well as had done a rendition of Live in Fear for Bray Wyatt during the Broken

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Universe or the Woken Universe happening in WWE.

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So we're gonna talk all about those different things.

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We're gonna talk about some of the stuff that she's done in music and all that much more.

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Thank you for checking out this episode of the Ropes and Rifts podcast.

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If this is your first time listening, then check us out on any podcasting directory, Apple

Podcasts, Spotify, even YouTube nowadays.

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Go ahead and hit that subscribe button.

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different happy things, and some different things that you want to see from the show.

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Really helps out the show and again, I love hearing from you guys.

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Also for $10 or more if you go to PayPal and look up Ropes and Riffs, that's R-O-P-E-S,

the letter N-R-I-F-F-S, $10 or more, I'll get you a shout out on the next podcast.

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So without any further ado, thank you so much for listening to this episode and now we're

gonna jump into our interview with Reby Hardy.

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Reby Hardy with us today.

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How's it going?

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Hi.

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This is such a cool interview for me because as everybody listening knows, we talk about

music, we talk about wrestling, we talk about entrance themes, and you're somebody that on

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screen, behind the camera, behind the keyboard, you've done like so many different things

in just, not even just wrestling, but just in you, in Reby Hardy's universe, as we say.

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I'm excited to talk to you all about music and some of the contributions that you've made

to that within the wrestling ecosystem So let's just get started right off the bat So many

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people have seen the piano playing that you've done for a couple of these different

introductions You had the ability to play within the broken universe You've had the

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ability to play which will get into both of these for the woken universe within

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the Bray Wyatt Ecosystem and Matt Hardy Ecosystem, but let's just start right off the bat.

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Tell us a little bit about your musical upbringing.

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Wow.

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So I grew up in a 17 floor apartment building where you could find one of every slice of

life on every different floor.

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And my dad was a superintendent of said building.

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So on the seventh floor was a piano teacher that my dad and my mom had become friendly

with.

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And every time we would see her in the elevator, this is what they tell me from the time I

was born.

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They would say, can she start lessons yet?

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And I'd be like,

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like one and she'd be like, not yet.

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Like she's got to know her ABCs.

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Like for some reason, my parents like had it in their head, like she needs to do piano

lessons.

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I don't know.

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It's like a prophecy.

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I don't know why.

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So they would keep seeing this, this little Bolivian woman in the elevator, like, she's

three.

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Can she do lessons yet?

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Can she her ABCs?

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And you know, no, not yet.

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So then finally I could do my ABCs and they sent me off to the seventh floor where I went

once a week.

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pretty much for the rest of my life until I became a teenager.

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And she was so strictly classical only, which part of me at the time, I was like so upset

because I wanted to play like pop music.

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wanted to do like Britney Spears covers.

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You know, I wanted to do the Titanic theme song.

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And she was so old school and so just like, no, only the classics, only the masters.

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So I grew up with just like this classical piano.

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only like music education.

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And that's that's where it all started for me.

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And then I ended up transferring schools in my second year of high school to LaGuardia in

New York, which is a lot of people know it as the Fame School from the movie Fame.

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And my big flex in music is that they only accept two second year students.

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to the music program per year and I was one of the two auditions that got in that year.

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I don't know how because- Because you classical music, that's how.

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You gotta thank the person.

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I don't know, I feel like everybody did, bro.

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The competition was so insane.

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I've never been more intimidated in my whole life, bro.

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But yeah, somehow made it in and that was great.

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I learned violin as my mandatory secondary instrument.

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And unfortunately, I did not graduate because I ended up getting married.

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was like a child bride at 16.

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It's a long story.

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So I did not graduate from there.

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But that's sort of my musical training in a nutshell.

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But you know what's funny too, and I talk about this a lot of the times with, you know,

students that I have, as many of you know, my wife and I also run a music school.

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And one of the things that we've really tried to inspire in students and really try to

tell families when they come in is my wife has her master's in piano performance.

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Mine is in commercial music, so technology, things like that, but like in composition.

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And you know, one of the things is for me, it's always been like, you should always have a

strong fundamental foundation in something, but like an A minor chord is an A minor chord,

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whether you find it in Beethoven or Alicia Keys.

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And it's like, so long as you're doing something where you're able to deliver like the

theory and the knowledge from that side, for me, I've always been like, let's rock on

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whatever you want to rock on.

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And I know for a fact,

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That's more of a modern philosophy of it because yeah, even when I started when I was like

nine, 10, that wasn't a thing.

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Even with like electric guitar, was like, you'd find somebody who's like in the back of a

shop or something like that.

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And they're like, cool.

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I learned by ear.

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So let's learn kryptonite.

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That's a story, ladies and gentlemen.

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But, you know, it's just like, as you go into the world of music, you can be a proficient

musician.

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But I think we're starting to see that as many classical musicians as there are.

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You know, as good as it is to have the fundamentals, I think we're in a much better

mentality shift to say, there's all this music out there.

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There's amazing pop.

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There's amazing rock.

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There's amazing classical.

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You know what?

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So long as you've got your basics down, play whatever you want, man.

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Resonate with what works with you.

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Yeah, I agree, man.

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I fought that tooth and nail, but she stuck to her word.

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She held her ground.

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So it was just classical for me.

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But you know what?

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In a way, I...

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influenced me not only musically, but it's so funny because it influenced like my

aesthetic, me as a person.

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Like, you know, we've kind of got, I've got the whole Gothic baby book that I do and the

whole aesthetic that we have in our home.

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And a lot of that came from just like the music that I was playing.

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And I associated that with like old literature and like classic movies.

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And it all kind of had this film noir vibe to it.

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So in a way that really inspired like,

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my Phantom of the Opera phase that like stuck with me for a lifetime.

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So I guess it ended up working out.

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Of course.

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Yeah.

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There's these little influences that just over time you're just like, you know what?

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Yeah.

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And by the way, too, the fact that you have that classical background too, it probably

makes it super easy for you in a lot of scenarios.

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Now you're able to hear something or even be able to read it a little bit and just be

like, hey, that's actually not super crazy.

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Like one thing that I find with a lot of musicians is

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The self-training stuff is totally cool, but the more of a basis you have, the less scary

music becomes to learn or to write.

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You're just like, it's this.

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Okay, great.

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Let's figure out what makes it really cool, but you can sit down in a scenario and be

like, great.

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Here we go.

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It's basically this, this, this, and this.

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So for you, it probably makes it easier to by ear pick a lot of these things up too.

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Yeah.

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Yeah.

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You're totally right.

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I agree.

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So in talking about all of that,

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One of the things from a bit of that classical background is the theme that we'll start

here because we'll try to go chronologically.

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And by the way, if there's anything that I missed out that you want people to know, just

be like, hey, I also did this thing remember more than me, honestly, this point.

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Stuff happens and it's it's behind me.

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don't even remember.

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A lot of times people come up to me at like conventions and stuff like, I love when you

did this.

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And I'm like, I forgot that even happened.

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So I'm going go with you.

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So for me, one of the first times that

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i think we saw a lot of classical music involved in wrestling was with matt hardy in the

broken universe right and you know there is the third movement going on with his lot of

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fast piano playing he's telling jeff he's just like i'm gonna beat you up final deletion

that whole thing week we all know about that as the wrestling fans do check it out ladies

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and gentlemen if you haven't already but then as time has gone on you were able to play

matt hardy to the ring and i forgot to mention this part but it all ties together

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You ended up doing the third movement and then you ended up doing a rendition of Jeff

Hardy's obsolete two.

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So walk us through a little bit of what it was like the process of you going, you know

what?

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I want to go ahead and play this, not just a digital keyboard, ladies and gentlemen, an

acoustic piano.

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They rolled that out on TNA impact.

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They did.

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And that was on stage.

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That was super cool.

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I can't believe that was able to happen to where the baby on my back on top of it.

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I was like, oh my God.

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Well, from the beginning, it's funny because years before the whole Broken Universe had

even happened, I had gotten into a phase where I wanted to do wrestling covers on piano.

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And I kind of wish I had been documenting this because I feel like it really would have

popped off.

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But it was really before I was doing like my social media stuff.

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But I had done a whole compilation of every one of Matt's themes.

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And he's got a billion because he's had a million gimmicks even before the Broken Thing.

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And I did a compilation of his themes on piano.

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And it's funny, I have it uploaded to my Facebook.

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It looks so ridiculous.

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It's like me on my little electric piano, like in my bedroom, like everything looks crazy.

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But it ended up pretty much being that that's what that was.

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Even the beginning, the very opening notes of when I first played Matt and Jeff out, when

we first started doing the piano entrances, especially the Bound for Glory one was the big

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compilation one of all of their themes and the obsolete.

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The beginning, and Matt was really adamant on this, this was like his one input.

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He's like, I want the Hardy Boys theme in there.

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I'm like, Matt, you realize this is like a single guitar riff that the Hardy Boys, how the

fuck am I going to play that on the piano?

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Like this is so sense.

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So I tried to do it like really slow and dramatic.

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And honestly, no one realized that's even what it was.

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wonder, I did you did anybody?

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don't know.

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Like literally maybe two people out of like hundreds that I've spoken to.

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I can't live was actually the notes for the opening.

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my gosh.

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I can't live for the moment and I caught some of the other ones, but like, yeah, no, but

the thing is too, and this is where we're gonna get a little bit theoretically heavy,

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ladies and gentlemen, the key that it's in, like the Hardy Boys theme, I'm pretty sure is

in, it's in like D or something like that, right?

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Like D minor or something like that.

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And all of a sudden you have this music that's in, not that key.

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Four octaves higher and mega legato.

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So if people don't, mean, I know it's there and it is literally, mean, once I say it,

you'll probably be able to hear it, but like it is, that is what it is.

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But see also the way that you tied in obsolete into that whole performance too, it's

everything is kind of just like a step up.

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So you going right into E minor with obsolete, it fits so well that one.

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So I can imagine you're sitting there, you're like, that was great.

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But I don't know, man.

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first one.

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knew what Obsolete had to be in because I knew that Jeff needed it to be in a certain key

because Jeff was singing it.

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So from that, I had to kind of build the song backwards in changing every key to be able

to lead up to the key that Jeff was able to sing in.

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So that's how that happened.

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A lot of people don't know this either.

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Originally, and this whole thing was Billy Corgan's idea.

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He was kind of running the TNA behind the scenes at that point.

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and he wanted me to sing it.

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And I was like, my guy, what?

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Like I can sing it.

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I would be happy to sing it.

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I would love to sing it.

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I should like, what an amazing opportunity, right?

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Like sing and play the piano on TV, stunt, like what a flex, right?

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But I'm like, I feel like the wrestling fans would rather hear Jeff sing it.

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And it was almost like a little back and forth because he really wanted me to sing it for

some reason.

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And I'm like, I get it, I get it.

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But trust me on this, let me, not that I'm like calling the shots or like making the calls

or whatever, but I was like, I really think

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that people would rather hear Jeff sing it.

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And then it could be like the three of us and it would make sense.

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And he could be like, you know, on the piano singing it and Matt's there being crazy

because he can't do anything else.

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Then I'm playing the piano.

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So, and I'm so glad that we ended up doing it like that because that ended up being so

iconic and just such a moment.

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Yeah, it fits so much.

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And like you're talking about it also, not just from the musical side, but from what the

people are expecting from the visuals, from all of that.

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And like,

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You know, it would be really cool to have Reby Hardy basically being the show.

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But in that moment, you had the capability to be like, you know what?

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It's about the Hardy family.

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It's about we're doing the whole universe here.

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So, yeah, that was a great call.

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That's awesome.

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Yeah, I'm so glad.

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And it's funny because I'm a huge like Twilight Zone fan.

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I've always have been.

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And my favorite episode, you know, people say, Twilight Zone fans, that you could tell a

lot about a person from what their favorite Twilight Zone episode is.

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So my favorite Twilight Zone episode has always been, and I have myself on record saying

this like 10 years ago, over 10 years ago, the obsolete man, it just speaks to me.

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It's so, you know, so another thing was at that time, I think Game of Thrones was really

popping off and the season had just aired where they were like shaming the queen through

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the town and they were going, what were they saying?

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I don't even know.

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I don't even remember what they were saying.

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What were they saying?

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I forgot.

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They were shaming the girl through the town and they were like, whore, whatever the hell

they were saying to her.

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And that idea was kind of like shaming Jeb, saying obsolete, obsolete, like running him

through the crowd, saying obsolete.

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And he had an original song that he had done, I guess, with his band.

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I don't know if it's called obsolete or if there was just obsolete in the chorus or what,

but that's totally how that ended up integrating all together and becoming a song and

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becoming part of the entrance.

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was like...

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Twilight Zone, Game of Thrones, Jeff's random thing, my favorite episode, and all like,

magically came together.

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So I'm so glad.

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Yeah, and even talking about that, the first time that I had heard Obsolete, I was just

like, yeah, this is something they came up with because in story, they ripped away

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everything that Jeff was and they did the Brother Nero.

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You you all know that.

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But like, you started playing it and I'm like, my God, this is like, how do you even come

up with something for that?

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Probably just off the melody.

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And then I look up

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the album that Jeff put out and I'm like, wait, so she took that and put that here.

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to have a song.

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mean, but like, what are the odds, right?

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Because it just, it really was like cosmic.

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It just fit together.

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And I didn't even know that song existed.

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I didn't even know he had, I've never listened to any of his stuff.

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So it was just meant to be, I guess.

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So when you go to do the Bound for Glory series or the Bound for Glory performance, and

there's this conversation of, okay, they're going to do this entrance at what

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Do we come to okay?

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Rebby's gonna play us to the ring.

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Is this something going into that that it's like hey, it's a big match So we're gonna do

it bound for glory being one of the bigger TNA impact things or is this something where

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Matt's like no We should we should bring in my wife to do this awesome rendition for us

Like what is the connection between that between it Billy?

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It was Billy Corgan who made that call?

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Yeah, and I'll always be so grateful to him because again so iconic but I found out a week

before and I was like

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Oh my God, oh shit, oh shit.

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Like have to write an arrangement, like make it make sense, you know, put it together with

everybody that's going on.

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And then also I had to time it.

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And that morning, Bond for Glory specifically was so crazy because number one, that

morning I found out I was pregnant with my second baby.

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Oh wow.

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week before that, I found out it was happening period.

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So I had to like make gear and, I originally was going to be wrestling.

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I was going to be a huge part.

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It was going to be like this.

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tag team match, like I was going to be physical with Rosemary, it's gonna be a whole

thing.

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I had to make wrestling gear.

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I had to make, I had this like vision for like a big sweeping train coming out of the

piano and stuff.

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So I had to make that ridiculous thing.

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That morning I find out I'm pregnant.

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I'm like, my God, my God.

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But it was funny having to time it cause it's obviously live and I don't know how fast or

slow the boys are gonna go.

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They don't even know they're, you know, it's different every time.

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They'll tell you one thing, it'll be something different.

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So I'm over here like.

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trying to keep my tempo, right?

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Trying to like make it make sense, trying to add on measures if I need to, like looking

over my shoulder, like are they at the ring yet?

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Are they gonna delete?

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Are they gonna touch the crowd?

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I'm like freaking out every time I have to play this song live because every time it was

different, I'm like, can we just like figure out what we're gonna do in a set time?

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But it was different every time it was the most stressful thing in the fucking world,

especially Bound for Glory, because on top of that, I had to take off my big dramatic gown

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that I had made.

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and I had to make it myself into the ring.

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I had to finish the song, let them do their thing, come into the ring.

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And then I had to get taken out because I couldn't even participate in the match like we

had planned because I was pregnant and finding out that morning.

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that whole day was just so many moving parts and so many things happening, somehow we

pulled it together.

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Somehow we made it work.

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It's funny though that you mentioned, like you had to figure out the timing and little

things because if people remember the ending when you went or when the boys were in the

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ring, right?

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You're doing these arpeggios in E minor.

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You're doing all this stuff.

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And pardon me when I was watching.

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Going on and on, because they won't fucking stop moving.

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You're just like, I'm doing these things.

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I'm crossing the hands.

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You guys good?

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You guys good?

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Yeah.

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stop this.

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Guys, come on.

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Let's go.

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Can you please And then we're here.

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No, because that's the worst.

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Imagine I hate dead air, right?

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And especially when you're live, that's like everyone's worst nightmare.

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So imagine being in the ring and no music, silence, nothing.

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So I was like, fuck, it's really on me.

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Like I can't tell the vibe.

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It's That's awesome.

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And so now we go from doing that and Matt makes his way back to WWE with Jeff and

everybody there.

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And as the broken universe turns into the woken universe and everything is brought into

there, there's this feud that starts up with Bray Wyatt because why wouldn't it?

309

:

Right?

310

:

Bray is amazing.

311

:

Matt and them had such an awesome feud and everything going on.

312

:

And yet again, you get the ability to be able to play another entrance theme, Live in

Fear, which in terms of just themes in general, nerding out for a second, that's one of my

313

:

favorite themes of all time.

314

:

And apparently it was either a library track.

315

:

I'm pretty sure it was a library track from Mark Crocer.

316

:

And I just think I'm like, man, there's so many iconic themes over time.

317

:

But the fact that that one was like a library track that they're like, here, this is just

perfect.

318

:

It's just, it was such an awesome theme.

319

:

And then for you to be able to transition it into a piano rendition, how does that come

into play?

320

:

I couldn't believe it.

321

:

Honestly, I thought, you know, my little

322

:

moment at TNA was gonna happen and that was my 15 minutes in music wrestling and that was

it for me.

323

:

mean honestly produced by Billy Corrigan, I'm like I'm good I could die happy tomorrow.

324

:

But when WWE decided they wanted to kind of bring the whole broken universe characters and

all, senior Benjamin, you know my dad, the kids, me with the piano, I thought wow this I

325

:

cannot believe this and that was so stressful because that's the first time I've ever

326

:

had to record my music in a studio.

327

:

had to find a studio.

328

:

Of course, everything is last minute, right?

329

:

So within, I had two days that I had to write this again, write this composition, like do

my rendition of Brace thing, find a studio in the middle.

330

:

We live in the middle of, but fuck nowhere, North Carolina.

331

:

It's not like I'm in New York and I can just, book a studio.

332

:

I called five different places.

333

:

The place I even ended up, it was the craziest spot.

334

:

Anyway.

335

:

So get to the studio and I had to like record it on my own.

336

:

I was so nervous.

337

:

I didn't know what the hell I was doing.

338

:

The producer there is so confused.

339

:

Like he's like, it's too much pedal.

340

:

It's too much.

341

:

You know, I'm like, I don't care.

342

:

This is how I do it.

343

:

Like, shut up.

344

:

Like I don't want your feedback.

345

:

Hit the button, friend.

346

:

Oh, yeah.

347

:

My guy, you know, put the thing makes it.

348

:

But yeah, that that was so cool.

349

:

Get it over to them last minute.

350

:

And we ended up shooting like in the forest in the middle of

351

:

the Hardy Compound on an electric piano.

352

:

The track had already been done by them.

353

:

So I think they had it kind of playing on a Bluetooth speaker in the background while we

were filming it.

354

:

But that was so cool.

355

:

And it was really great to...

356

:

I love that song.

357

:

I loved his song.

358

:

So was cool that it was a song that I actually like.

359

:

I love minor keys.

360

:

I love slow and dramatic and emo and melodic.

361

:

So it was really perfect for me.

362

:

And looking back, it's like even...

363

:

I can't even listen to that song.

364

:

honestly now.

365

:

Like, Bray, what happened to him really fucked me up at Mattoop for a while.

366

:

I think I'm still fucked up over it, honestly.

367

:

But it's just so crazy that I have that connection there.

368

:

And he loved it.

369

:

And it was so cool that he loved it.

370

:

And it meant so much.

371

:

I was going to say, I feel like Bray would probably have heard that song and was just over

the moon with it because he was so about his character.

372

:

While I've never gotten the opportunity to meet him, unfortunately, you know, so many

people that are in my life have, and everybody, including yourself, have nothing but

373

:

amazing things to say about him and being able to work with him.

374

:

And it was just, you know, even for me, when I go and perform on stage, many people may

see that the pants that I have are totally the black version of his pants that had the

375

:

birds coming up it.

376

:

So for me, Bray was such a big part for me too.

377

:

And I remember hearing that piano thing and just being like, man.

378

:

you couldn't get a more perfect, like if you told somebody create a piano album of just

wrestling themes, I think that was probably the most honest and the most real that you

379

:

could have gotten and the closest you could have gotten to the most perfect one.

380

:

I think it was fantastic.

381

:

Thank you.

382

:

my God.

383

:

That was actually my first time working with like an arrangement too, because I added

synthetic violin, which I've never done.

384

:

I'm always just like straight piano or from doing something, I'm just dicking around and

no one's ever going to hear it.

385

:

But that was cool, like adding that, was like, I need like a little bit more like depth,

like richness, like drama.

386

:

And I added the synthetic violin there and that was really cool.

387

:

So thanks.

388

:

When you did that, and correct me if I'm wrong, I may have heard this incorrectly, you

went into the studio to record that.

389

:

Did you have something already written out for it or you were in the studio listening to

it going, okay, cool, here's what I'm going to do with it?

390

:

That morning.

391

:

Literally, I just kind of had it in my head what I was gonna do and I had it in my head

I'm gonna kind of have a backing track to add like a little bit of harmony and a little

392

:

bit more depth with those violins that I like added in myself mind you like I added that

in post like in iMovie or some shit like mixed it myself Yeah, so so ladies and gentlemen

393

:

understand that that piano rendition of live in fear was basically done that day.

394

:

That's crazy

395

:

Yeah, it really was very, very, very stressful because I also just as a musician, as a

musician, not that I'm a career musician, but I'm thinking like, this is my moment.

396

:

Like this could be probably the biggest stage that my original music's ever going to be

on.

397

:

if I mess this, like it could go really great.

398

:

And this could be the first thing on a resume of a

399

:

great lucrative career, maybe if I want to go down that path a little more seriously in

the future, or this can be my biggest flop and then I'm a joke and everyone, you know,

400

:

there's so many people to this day who are like, she wasn't really playing the piano.

401

:

She was just pretending.

402

:

And I'm like, like literally what you can hear me fuck up.

403

:

Like, what do you mean?

404

:

what do you mean?

405

:

So it's like, I, you know, as something that had been part of my life for pretty much my

whole life before I was even consenting to wanting to be in music, you know,

406

:

It meant a lot to me personally, not just as a, this is a cool moment and cool wrestling

and TV.

407

:

was kind of like, it's sort of like everything in your life has led up to this.

408

:

Like this is, this is your moment here.

409

:

Like don't fuck this up.

410

:

So yes, a very stressful day.

411

:

man.

412

:

I'm just envisioning you in the car and like, I don't know if you were there with matter,

you were there with other people, but you're just in the back or you're in the front and

413

:

you're driving.

414

:

Like this happens to me.

415

:

There are some times where I have.

416

:

X amount of time to write a theme for somebody or to write a piece for film or whatever.

417

:

Or there are some times when someone goes, hey, we need it like 10 minutes ago.

418

:

And I'm like, all right, great.

419

:

So you're sitting there like making dinner or doing whatever or driving somewhere.

420

:

And this seems like it's kind of the same way for you.

421

:

For me, when I'm doing that and I don't have anything in front of me, I still kind of have

the guitar in my head because my primary is guitar.

422

:

And I'm just like, OK, cool.

423

:

Here's what this would look like.

424

:

This key, this, this, and this.

425

:

And so by the time you sit down at the instrument,

426

:

You kind of have a general idea of what you're going to do and then your hands are going

to kind of do the thing and you hope that they do the thing the way that you need them to

427

:

do the thing.

428

:

But yeah.

429

:

Oh my God.

430

:

Literally.

431

:

Yeah.

432

:

I don't think I have like the the technical like music theory to be able to like Beethoven

style, like sit and write on a keyboard.

433

:

You know, that sounds a little crazy to me.

434

:

So it's kind of a lot of like hearing things in my head and then playing in my head by

ear.

435

:

just dicking around till it hopefully works out.

436

:

Luckily I had a really great piece to go off of in the first place.

437

:

Of course.

438

:

And now I know that you said at the beginning of our conversation here, you had said, hey,

I want to go ahead and do a record of just piano renditions of just wrestler entrance

439

:

themes over time.

440

:

I still need to look up the one that you've done already.

441

:

But if you were to go back or go forward, because

442

:

time moves this way and say, you know what, I'm going to go ahead and put together a small

record full of those.

443

:

Are there any that just off the top of your head, you're like, oh, I'd love to do this

one.

444

:

We have some obvious ones that, you know, you may include or you would have included like

the two that you've done already, but are there any that you're just like, I haven't done

445

:

that one.

446

:

That would be sick.

447

:

really like the song.

448

:

it's like from the 90s.

449

:

It's like from the 2000s.

450

:

I don't know anything about wrestling.

451

:

I'm so sorry.

452

:

no.

453

:

You know who's I would see that would be really cool for you to do.

454

:

You'd probably knock out Nakamura's like easily cause he has that whole like, it's really

cool.

455

:

Yeah.

456

:

It's I'll send it to you afterwards, but yeah, he's done too.

457

:

the one they do in WWE is really cool.

458

:

It's, it's an a minor.

459

:

You see me do that every now and again, I have perfect pitch, but I have to kind of sing

the note to be able to see the and things like that.

460

:

So I'm just like, so

461

:

It's an A minor.

462

:

It's really cool.

463

:

It's got like this Japanese flair to it.

464

:

But he had one he used in New Japan called Subconscious.

465

:

That one's really cool, too.

466

:

It's really upbeat, very Japanese sounding, obviously, because their composer does that.

467

:

But it's a really cool one.

468

:

I think you'd crush that.

469

:

my gosh.

470

:

cool.

471

:

Thank you.

472

:

Yeah, I would love I would love to try it.

473

:

It's just I've got so many things on my plate.

474

:

It's I don't know how I get.

475

:

through the day, honestly.

476

:

It's one of the things that I really wanna do.

477

:

And I bet someone's gonna end up beating me to it because I've been saying this for years

and haven't done it.

478

:

But I need to just do it before somebody else does it, honestly.

479

:

But you know what?

480

:

Someone else could do it.

481

:

No one's gonna do it like you and you're not gonna do it like them.

482

:

So that's super cool.

483

:

It'll be all original to that.

484

:

But the cool thing also is even with the piano stuff that you've done, you have...

485

:

in what I would say a very eclectic taste in music too.

486

:

Like you do your live streams over on socials and all that you're putting together, as I

was saying over on TikTok, this crazy costume for your kid where it's literally just like,

487

:

I don't even know.

488

:

You're just like, oh yeah, I'm piecing this together.

489

:

It's this.

490

:

I'm like, I don't even know where you would start.

491

:

And you've got this crazy, awesome, like electronic music, almost MSI style, let's say,

and very like all over the place.

492

:

So.

493

:

You have such a wide variety of music that you seem to love.

494

:

What are some of the musicians that for you, you're like, I love this.

495

:

man.

496

:

You know, I guess I'll reference my like Spotify raps or my Apple music or whatever.

497

:

I am going to go ahead and ask you something Spotify.

498

:

Number one is bad bunny.

499

:

My number one influence is always going to be Latino music.

500

:

I'm Puerto Rican.

501

:

that, that ties in a lot to.

502

:

everything that I do, really.

503

:

And then it's a lot of, I don't know, it's a lot of like slow and melodic and my favorite

band is Muse, for example, right?

504

:

They have the alternative, The Rock, but they have a ton of classical influences in there.

505

:

So kind of that's like my vibe, I would say.

506

:

then I can get with that.

507

:

Yeah, that's awesome.

508

:

Anything dramatic, I feel like, is kind of my thing, for sure.

509

:

And Muse goes from like, Absolution, where it's just this ridiculously grand piano to

like, supermassive black hole to all these things, like, feel like when- choir, like,

510

:

yeah, just all- When you turn around and you were just like, what should a band be when

they group people together, instead of just like, they have to be this style.

511

:

Muse is like, all of it.

512

:

When I write something, let's try it.

513

:

That is literally like, I don't think you could get any better musically than Muse.

514

:

In my opinion, that's like the epitome.

515

:

If I had the talent, if I could do that, that would be what I would do for sure.

516

:

That's so.

517

:

That's awesome.

518

:

Now, in terms of any other places that you've had your music placed, because like you

said, you're doing a lot of other things.

519

:

You've done the Bray Wyatt theme, you've done the Broken Universe theme.

520

:

What else in music would Reby Hardy

521

:

like to do in their life?

522

:

Not even just tomorrow, but what other things in music where would you like to see it take

you if it could?

523

:

You know, I see things happening for other people and people.

524

:

know that comparison is the thief of joy, but you can't help but see sometimes other

people doing stuff and you're like, why are you doing that?

525

:

Like, why not me?

526

:

You're not even like I do that a lot.

527

:

And I'm on TikTok a lot.

528

:

So that happens a lot on TikTok.

529

:

I see people with like, you know, one viral video and the next thing they're a musician

with like a crazy pre-perses beat or something, you know?

530

:

So I would love to do something like that, but really do everything myself.

531

:

Maybe like a, my dream is to do like a Halloween track, sort of like akin to Mariah Carey

has like her Christmas theme, you know?

532

:

Christmas.

533

:

I would love to do a Halloween track in the same vein, just to kind of go with my home

decor and the goth aesthetic and the music and everything.

534

:

I feel like that would be really perfect one day.

535

:

now you see that she has the accompaniment now to, all I want to Christmas is you now in

:

536

:

She broke out of the gothic thing and she's like, it's time for So there was a little bit.

537

:

I'm like, that's amazing.

538

:

Yeah.

539

:

Cool.

540

:

Well, I would love to hear a Halloween written inspired by and composed by Reby Hardy.

541

:

I've got it.

542

:

I've got it in my notes.

543

:

I need to find a producer.

544

:

Is it you?

545

:

Do you want to do the song?

546

:

I am so down.

547

:

I'm always down for that.

548

:

Let's do the song.

549

:

Let's do it.

550

:

That'd be great.

551

:

Now, before I let you go today, one other question that I ask everybody who's ever come on

the show is if you had to make a Spotify playlist and you had to choose three songs that

552

:

represent you,

553

:

What would those three songs be?

554

:

Gosh.

555

:

Um, it's always the hardest question I ask everybody.

556

:

Everyone's like wrestling.

557

:

Let's talk music.

558

:

Yeah.

559

:

I won this title.

560

:

Yeah.

561

:

This guy, whatever you're asking me about the music that represents me.

562

:

What are you doing?

563

:

know what?

564

:

I might be the only person who actually has answers ready to go because I have a playlist

that I want played at my funeral.

565

:

Oh, all right.

566

:

So I have a set list of songs that I want played at my funeral.

567

:

And I guess that would be as close to representing a person as anything else, right?

568

:

So the songs are Flight by Sutton Foster.

569

:

It's a duet between two girls.

570

:

It's like just nearly acoustic, but it's very like kind of what you want your spirit to

end up being like what you want to be.

571

:

And then I would say New York State of Mind, Billy Joel.

572

:

Great one.

573

:

And the third one, I don't know.

574

:

I'm still getting there.

575

:

But maybe something from Phantom of the Opera.

576

:

Maybe wishing you were somehow here again, something like that.

577

:

Or think of me, I don't know.

578

:

Something like that.

579

:

See, that'd be a great one.

580

:

We've always joked about for my funeral, what would you do?

581

:

It'd be like Frank Sinatra's My Way, probably.

582

:

I don't know.

583

:

Yeah, that's a great one.

584

:

I love that.

585

:

Yeah awesome and you know what to that that playlist of what songs would I have at my

funeral is just that also fits the aesthetic You know, I'm psychotic though.

586

:

I'm I'm I'm to the point where and I'm and I'm thinking god, you know I live life like

this all the time.

587

:

I could die tomorrow I feel like that's why I have my my hands in so many different pools

of water at all times because I'm like Well, if I don't do it now, what am I gonna do?

588

:

I'm gonna die tomorrow.

589

:

I need to just go ahead and do it just like my fucking piano wrestling album.

590

:

I want to

591

:

Horde the songs myself.

592

:

Yeah.

593

:

So drama, right?

594

:

The drama.

595

:

Imagine like you're singing your own curated playlist, set list of songs at your own

funeral with your own voice, your own track.

596

:

I think that would be great.

597

:

I think, you know what?

598

:

It's my it's right.

599

:

Your final party might as well just go out with a bass.

600

:

It'd be crazy.

601

:

It's so funny, too, when you're a musician, because you think of things like that, too,

both from an artistic side, like, man,

602

:

What would what music would I have at my funeral?

603

:

Huh?

604

:

Maybe I can play the music you're going to hear.

605

:

Man, literally do do do every do every part do every yeah, every instrument, do every

melody, right?

606

:

Harmonize with yourself and then see if anybody notices.

607

:

And I you know what it would notice, but unless like someone's leaving and they just hear

they're like, wait, this was such a beautiful thing that wait, is that Reby?

608

:

What are we doing?

609

:

And then they're like.

610

:

at the wake for like another 20 minutes like, my God, the water well start again.

611

:

Oh, God.

612

:

And you have a piano at you have your piano in your home, I'm assuming.

613

:

have four.

614

:

Yeah, you have four.

615

:

I'm insane.

616

:

I have an antique upright piano from 1864 in my dining room.

617

:

Then the next room over, which I can't wait until my kids get a little bit better at music

because then we could do dueling panels.

618

:

The next room over, I've got my baby grand.

619

:

And then in our room where the wrestling ring is, we've got a white baby grand.

620

:

And then I've also gotten electric piano, which is where I've recorded the majority of the

tracks, which is so insane.

621

:

Aside from the studio track that you hear for the Bray Wyatt theme, I recorded everything

on my little rinky dink.

622

:

Electric piano from Sam Ash in Raleigh, North Carolina.

623

:

It's like a $400 piece of shit.

624

:

And literally that is what I've recorded on.

625

:

I tell people that they're like, this is what you use.

626

:

I'm like the ghetto, know, but.

627

:

don't feel bad about that at all.

628

:

I've talked to the boys from Downstate and Cody Rhodes theme kingdom that was written and

recorded on a hundred dollar guitar.

629

:

Like don't feel bad at all.

630

:

right.

631

:

Yeah.

632

:

You know what?

633

:

It's not the instrument.

634

:

Like, yes, it's cool to get expensive instruments if you can, if you can ever afford it.

635

:

But at the same time, it's about the creativity, what you do with it.

636

:

And you know what?

637

:

People can make a $2,000 instrument or a $20,000 acoustic piano sound terrible.

638

:

And people can make a $100 guitar or something even like that.

639

:

Sound awesome.

640

:

All I need is a damper pedal, really.

641

:

I'm good.

642

:

That's a shirt.

643

:

All I need is a damper pedal.

644

:

Well, Reby, it has been absolutely awesome chatting with you today.

645

:

Thank you so much for your time.

646

:

I know there's a little bit of a different conversation than a lot of people may have in

the wrestling industry.

647

:

But again, with someone with such your background, such musicality and such an interesting

road within the world of artistry, I'm so thankful that we had this conversation today.

648

:

Thanks.

649

:

my God.

650

:

Thank you so much.

651

:

This was cool.

652

:

I wouldn't have done any other wrestling thing.

653

:

So this worked out.

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About the Podcast

Ropes N Riffs
Join John Kiernan, wrestling entrance theme song composer, and professional musician of over 10 years for stories and interviews with your favorite wrestlers, rock stars, and personalities!
About The Host:
John Kiernan is a wrestling entrance theme song composer with over 150 themes written for wrestlers in various promotions such as NJPW, WWE, ROH, MLW, and many more. As a professional musician, a veteran in the podcasting space, an avid pro wrestling fan and wrestling personality by way of creating the soundtracks for your favorite wrestlers, John Kiernan forges his latest podcasting venture into diving into stories of music, stories from the road, and wrestling from all walks of life from your (and his) favorites of all time.
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