Speaker 1: 0:01

You're listening to the Staffa Corner Podcast, a Staffatarian look at entertainment and life with your host, Greg Staffa.

Speaker 2: 0:28

My guest today is talented pianist Lori Line, who anyone from Minnesota knows is a household name and is performing right now on her Christmas tour. Lori, thanks for joining us today. Thank you for having me, greg. I'm really excited to talk to you today. So you're on tour currently, and one of the things that I found interesting is that your tour requires Black Beauty to go with you, which is your piano. Is that correct?

Speaker 1: 0:52

Yes, that is correct. He's being pulled. In fact, I'm talking to you from the back of the tour of my tour bus right now. He's being pulled in a trailer right behind. He goes everywhere with us. He's been on over 2,000 stages in my career and there's no piano quite like my piano, so it's a luxury that I'm so happy that I have.

Speaker 2: 1:10

Is that a requirement of the tour that goes first, because if you can't get Block Beauty in, then there's pointless to do a concert there.

Speaker 1: 1:19

Well, we have to be able to get it to the stage. Yeah, so if there are stairs involved in a in a venue, we we can't go there. It has to be able to be able to. You have to pull up a dock and be able to put it in or or ramp it up. We ramp it up sometimes if there it's a really old opera house and we run right down the middle of the aisle and up a ramp to the to the stage and there's all kinds of creative ways to get your piano to the stage. I've even forklifted my piano through a back entryway a few times, but the easier it is, the more we are encouraged to go, because it's 1,450 pounds and it's dangerous if you're doing something. That's not easy. So we try to consider that when we book a venue.

Speaker 2: 2:05

Now, you grew up in Reno, Nevada, and it wasn't until you married your husband, Tim, that you moved to Minneapolis, where you started playing for Dayton's department stores. What was that like? I mean, Nevada coming to Minnesota must have been quite the change, and you really didn't know what you were getting yourself into. Is there any part of you that misses the Reno life?

Speaker 1: 2:26

Well, I was just there and I just did a concert there. So you know, that's so long ago now it's been 38 years. Tim had a job transfer and he worked for Jostens, a class ring company, and so he asked me to marry him and he asked me if I would move to Minneapolis because he had a job transfer. So it's kind of a two-fold question will you marry me and will you move to Minneapolis? And I said yes to both because he, he was an amazing person and so perfect for me. So we moved.

Speaker 1: 2:55

When I, when I got to Minneapolis, it was overwhelming actually, and because it was so big compared to a small town of Reno, nevada. But I loved it because at that time downtown was vibrant. I played for the downtown Dayton's, I played for Southdale and Rosedale. There were restaurants, and he told me that it was such a beautiful cosmopolitan city and that I would love it. And I did. It was intimidating at first because I grew up with one freeway that ran right through the town and that was it. But I grew to love it very quickly and found my way by playing at a department store. So I made some friends and I started getting invited to play in private homes for parties and birthdays and weddings and started networking and my circle of friends grew to be quite large. You know, that's where my story began and it was a really, really wonderful beginning.

Speaker 2: 3:48

One of the things I think is associated with you is intimacy. I mean, a lot of your performances aren't on front of a big, huge stage with thousands and thousands of people. It's often quite an intimate environment. Is that something that you appreciate? An intimate environment? Is that something that you appreciate? Or is that something that translates better for the piano to be kind of more intimate with the audience versus in like a big, large auditorium where the piano kind of gets drowned out?

Speaker 1: 4:14

I have played. My largest venue that I've played is the fargo dome and that's for 5 000 people and that's the probably the largest uh place that I've ever played years ago. My favorite place to play is in my own living room for 40 people and I have a series called the Living Room Series, where people come to my home and I play a dozen times a year in front of a very, very, very small crowd and I think playing in front of smaller, well, last night it was 500 people and tonight will be maybe 300 people and then this weekend it will be a thousand people. So you know, it's all different sizes of crowds and I think my challenge is to create a show that speaks to a, you know, a small, small group to translating very well on a big stage, because I'm going to be at the washington pavilion this weekend, which is, uh, downtown sioux falls, which is a huge theater.

Speaker 1: 5:04

So you, when you say small and intimate, yeah, but I also get out there still and do some of these bigger shows, like Burnsville I was there last weekend and it was sold out and it's over a thousand people. So I have to have a pretty versatile show that speaks intimately to a small crowd but also can carry its own weight to a very large crowd. So it's all about the message and connecting it and coming up with the music that people want to listen to and the stories that people want to listen to. Yeah, but that intimacy thing is very important to me and I give it all I've got.

Speaker 2: 5:51

Now you've recorded over 65 CDs.

Speaker 1: 5:52

You have 60 books of music, but I don't see many collaborations with other. You know, like a Lindsey Stirling. I think you and Lindsey Stirling would make like a beautiful combination. You don't do many of that. Do you all our marketing dollars and put it towards our own product? Because I find that nobody really wants to work as hard as I want to work, and then I like to make.

Speaker 1: 6:05

I'm a good decision maker, I like having the control of the decisions, and I think the secret of my business is the fact that we never allowed anybody to put their fingers into it, never allowed anybody to put their fingers into it. We kept total control of it and managed it from day one. And where we had opportunity to have a you know, even a management company come in that was a big record label we said no. And so to this very day I say, okay, I'm going to go to osage iowa for the very first time and I sell that out, where, if you're working with other people who have opinion, they'd say, oh, that's a small town door, you don't want to go there, that's never going to work, and they try to steer you and influence you, and I'm an old dog that knows a lot of good tricks. So you know we're pretty selfish on taking all that we've invested in putting it towards. You know our music books, our tours and you know costumes and the things that I think give us plenty of payback.

Speaker 2: 7:02

I think that keeping it all on the inside with you and Tim helps create that intimacy, also as far as kind of you're doing your own thing. You're not subject to any label telling you what to do or not to do or where to perform. And I think it's amazing some of these performances that you're doing. I mean, you're doing one here in Sauk Rapids, just up the street it's a place I never thought would be a lorry line performance, and then here you are, so it's great to see, yeah, and I'll tell you what.

Speaker 1: 7:27

It's been a really, really hot ticket lately. It's selling really well. The Paramount is where we usually go in St Claude, but they only have me every other year. They every other year. They won't have me every year. I rent the venue, of course, because it competes with their series and they want to do other things and I totally understand that and get it. So it forces us to think differently. So we said let's go to Sauk Rapids, let's try it over there. It's a whole, you know it's across, it's across the river. Here we go. So we said it's interesting that if you just move your show a little bit, you'd find a whole new audience, and so we're really excited to find people that have never been to my show before. That will go and we'll have lifelong fans now that have found me for the very first time by just moving that show just a little bit.

Speaker 2: 8:11

Well, now we have the ledge here in Wake Park, so that's another opportunity for you. Yeah, you announced in 2023 that you were going to launch the Tim and Lori Lyon Foundation. Can you tell us a little bit about that?

Speaker 1: 8:25

Yep, it's in place. We have the mission statement and we have formed it. We're looking still for one more board member to come on board and I would say that you know it's going to be, uh, totally starting to be funded next year. It's been our lifelong dream because I, I have royalties now it's called intellectual properties. It's going to be a life well, it's going to be a permanent thing that when, when I, you know, leave this earth, there's going to be something that, a legacy that we get to leave financially, because I have published so much music over the years that we need to do something smart and have that go towards something that we really love and have that managed forever. It'll go on forever and ever and ever.

Speaker 1: 9:11

So I'm really proud of all the work that I've done. I think it's going to be the only way that I can, with my own peace of mind, say, oh yeah, that's good. I know what's going to happen with that. It's for us to put that in place and to have all those funds that will continue on with royalties and all the streaming and all the licenses and all the arrangements. I've got over 800 songs that I've done arrangements to and now pandora, all the spotify and amazon and all that. You have to figure out what, what to do with that when you're in a position like I'm in, working 30, 35 years in the business. So, uh, that that's an exciting place that we're in, that we're we're really trying to think very clearly on what to do with with, you know, our future.

Speaker 2: 9:59

And to wrap things up, because I know you're short on time, because you're on tour right now, what's it been?

Speaker 2: 10:04

like. I mean, coming from Reno, you've pretty much been adapted by Minnesota. I mean you've been in the Minnesota hall of fame for, for artists and stuff like that. I mean you've been in the Minnesota Hall of Fame for artists and stuff like that. What has that been like to you and what does it mean to be such? I mean you're almost a household name in Minnesota, I would argue for many people especially. You know, growing up I remember going to Dayton's and seeing their holiday displays and stuff like that. What has that been like to you? What message do you have to the people of Minnesota, to you, and what message you have to the people of Minnesota that have? I mean, I know you're popular in other states too, but Minnesota has really taken you on and embraced you as one of their own and celebrated your work.

Speaker 1: 10:41

Yes, I'm from Minnesota, that's for sure. I live in Minnesota, you know I think this is the best way to describe it when people walk up to me and they say, oh, I'm sure you don't want to be bothered, but you're Lori Lyon, aren't you? And I say, oh, I'm sure you don't want to be bothered, but you're Lori Lyon, aren't you? And I say, yes, and you can bother me anytime. I've worked for 35 years to be recognized and bothered and thank you so much for saying hi to me and recognizing me and playing my music and giving me such a lovely and wonderful career. So I really appreciate it.

Speaker 1: 11:08

I love Minnesota, I love being from Minnesota. I have so many adoring fans here that, uh, and they're all my friends and you know I couldn't have done it anywhere else. It's such a fun story to tell and I, I, I, um, I'm really proud of of what I've been able to accomplish over the years and have such a beautiful career and have people that feel that they've been a part of it, because I, I, have been a part of their lives and they've been a part of mine. It's been equal. I play music for them and they attend and it's a really wonderful connection that I've had with Minnesotans and it's a good chapter in my life, that's for sure.

Speaker 2: 11:46

And before we wrap things up, I just want to give a little sample from your 2024 Christmas with Lori Lyon. Thank you for coming on during a busy part of your time, especially during the holidays. For the remainder of your tour, I'll link to the locations you're coming here in Minnesota and then for everyone else out of state I'll link to your work and whatnot. But, lori, I just want to thank you for coming on and, like I said, you've been a name I've known for years and so it's a pleasure talking to you, and just the other day I saw you were coming to Stock Rapids.

Speaker 1: 12:51

I'm like there's with your, your podcast I. I really appreciate you being interested in my story and giving me a little bit of time today.

Speaker 2: 12:58

Perfect, thank you. That does it for this episode. Thank you.