Sal Vulcano and the Cancer Werewolves

RON BENNINGTON: It's really great to see you. I know this is an environment that you find comfortable, right?

SAL VULCANO: Yeah, I've been and out of these places and no one really does, but only because you just... It's heavy. It's heavy. But being here with you is amazing and laughing with you.

 RON BENNINGTON: It is funny to laugh like this, right?

 SAL VULCANO: I love you so much, man.

 RON BENNINGTON: I love you too, buddy. I really do.  And always have since I met you.

 SAL VULCANO: You're a special person.

 INTRO PLAYS:

 DISCLAIMER PLAYS: Portcast is recorded during Ron Bennington's cancer treatment. Abrupt cuts or visual changes may be necessary to protect the privacy of patients and staff. And now, portcast with Ron Bennington.

 SAL VULCANO: I though we were rolling. You think I'm spinning gold in life?

 RON BENNINGTON: You're spinning gold. We are rolling. Yeah.

 SAL VULCANO: Am I the first one to get my own pass?

 RON BENNINGTON: You're the first one.

 SAL VULCANO: Wow. Yeah. What happened though?

 RON BENNINGTON: With the subway take? Yeah. Nothing. We just put it up there as a joke at first. Is everybody going to think this is funny? Because first week we used full microphones, so you couldn't move in this little room. They already hate Chris as it is. There's people suffering here. And then we were like, oh, well, Kareem uses that thing. Wouldn't it be funny if we did that? And people were like, you're not even on a subway. Nobody got it.

SAL VULCANO: This is more unique.

 RON BENNINGTON: Yeah.

 SAL VULCANO: Subway.

 RON BENNINGTON: The subway thing was so perfect and I love that guy and I love that show. But yeah, so now we're just doing our own little cards.

 SAL VULCANO: Well, let me ask you this because I've been wondering this though. Is this sanctioned? No. This isn't sanctioned.

 RON BENNINGTON: No, not at all.

 SAL VULCANO: They don't Know what's going on.

 RON BENNINGTON: You’re visiting. You’re visiting.

 SAL VULCANO: They don't know this is going on.

 RON BENNINGTON: No, they don't really know this is going

 SAL VULCANO: On. It's a thin curtain.

 RON BENNINGTON: It's a thin curtain.

 SAL VULCANO: They just thinks you have great conversation every week?

 RON BENNINGTON: One woman said to me, she was one of the nurses and a couple of the comics had come in and she's a Dominican, just really great New York personality. She goes, "Your friends talk like women." She's like, "They never shut up when they come in here." And I go, "Well, they're comedians." And she goes, "Someone's got to be." I'm like, "Yes, that's right."

 SAL VULCANO: So they haven't seen the clip, anything posted? No. So they have no clue what we're doing right

 RON BENNINGTON: Now. No, but here's the thing, you're a visitor. You're a visitor and we're taping it and putting it out.

 SAL VULCANO: Yeah. What about when you start talking about Magic Spoon?

 RON BENNINGTON: Oh yeah, that's a good point.

 SAL VULCANO: Do they wonder what's going on back here? Yeah. When you start talking about HelloFresh every day?

 RON BENNINGTON: That's so funny.

 SAL VULCANO: I thought I was going to have to give an ID downstairs.

 RON BENNINGTON: No.

 SAL VULCANO: We're trying to do a pod. What are we doing here? Yeah. What are we doing here? Yeti, but come on.

RON BENNINGTON: They're running their own show over there.

 SAL VULCANO: Yeah. What's going on over there?

 RON BENNINGTON: It's like being at the cellar where you're doing, like if you're in the -

 SAL VULCANO: I'll be right back. I got to do a five In this one. Yeah.

 RON BENNINGTON: Okay. But if you're at the Black Cat and then suddenly some huge comedian walks in, you hear people going crazy, 15 - Yeah,

 SAL VULCANO: You see through the curtain.

 RON BENNINGTON: People are like, "What the fuck? I wish I was over there."

 SAL VULCANO: I didn't give any ID or anything downstairs. I though I was having to go through a rigorous entry thing. I just said, "I'm going up to five." And he goes, "Go." Like that. I couldn't be up here switching charts on people. He doesn't know. I could have came up here and just started full on high jinx up here.

 RON BENNINGTON: Oh yeah. Are you talking to two guys in your ears right now? Switch the charts.

 SAL VULCANO: I'm like, you're going to let me come in here without ID?

 RON BENNINGTON: That's true. That's true. I should have been worried.

 SAL VULCANO: But it wasn't even like for what? He was like, "Get out of here, you son of a bitch. Do the treatment. We'll be right back."

 RON BENNINGTON: You have a little fear about that end of life stuff?

 SAL VULCANO: Oh yeah.

 RON BENNINGTON: Yeah. You have a little fears about that? End of life stuff? It's one of my favorite things that you've done is just explain your fears, especially when you're a kid. I was dying one night watching you talk about your fear of ghosts or whatever when you were sleeping

 SAL VULCANO: When I come out here.

 RON BENNINGTON: You worry about death, but then you believe in ghosts. You believe in the afterlife.

 SAL VULCANO: Yeah. Look, it doesn't make any sense.

 RON BENNINGTON: Right.

 SAL VULCANO: But I worry about... Yeah. So you're saying that I shouldn't worry about death if I believe in ghosts?

 RON BENNINGTON: Yeah. I feel like you're like at the least you'll be a ghost. Yeah. You'll be haunting somebody.

 SAL VULCANO: Yeah. I mean, I don't think I'm going to haunt. I don't think I'm going to hunt.

 RON BENNINGTON: CanI tell you something? I will haunt.

 SAL VULCANO: You will haunt. It does sound like fun.

 RON BENNINGTON: It does.

 SAL VULCANO: Because it's like when people get invisibility powers, what kind of power do you want? If people get invisibility, you got to put invisibility in the right hands.

 RON BENNINGTON: True.

 SAL VULCANO: Invisibility in the wrong hands is nefarious.

 RON BENNINGTON: You don't want a pervert to get it.

 SAL VULCANO: No, no. But haunting, I mean, a jump scare is funny.

 RON BENNINGTON: Sure.

 SAL VULCANO: Your jump scare is funny.

RON BENNINGTON: I'll be a ghost for most people, but I'll tell you this, for you, I'll give you three wishes.

 SAL VULCANO: [laughing] You don't know that you can do that.

 RON BENNINGTON: I think you can.

 SAL VULCANO: You have no idea if you could do that.

 RON BENNINGTON: Yeah.

 SAL VULCANO: Listen.

 RON BENNINGTON: I think the Catholics believe that you'll get to a point where you give out three wishes.

 SAL VULCANO: Speaking of the Catholics I saw today. I saw today the archdiocese in San Francisco is going to pay out about $540 million for sexual abuse allegations over the last 50 years.

 RON BENNINGTON: Yeah.

 SAL VULCANO: What am I saying? That's a current event. I'm just dropping you a current event.

RON BENNINGTON: Yeah, current event. Here's what I like about the Catholics. At least they pay. I don't see gym teachers coming up with any cash.

 SAL VULCANO: Can I just say, because you're hiding your laugh so much, I'm a laugher. So am I supposed to keep it down?

RON BENNINGTON: No.

SAL VULCANO: But if they….I can't be guffawing in here, I don't want to blow the whole operation.

RON BENNINGTON: No, no, no. They say it's the best medicine.

SAL VULCANO: Okay.

RON BENNINGTON: But chemo is probably the best or worst. I don't know. I get notes from people that say you're doing the wrong thing.

SAL VULCANO: Really?

RON BENNINGTON: Yeah. A lot of people will say –

SAL VULCANO: Everybody's a critic.

RON BENNINGTON: Everybody's got the other alternative thing, blah, blah, blah. And I'm like, yeah. I mean, you got to pick something though.

SAL VULCANO: So your numbers are better?

RON BENNINGTON: Yes.

SAL VULCANO: Is that the R word?

RON BENNINGTON: What's the R word? Is it

SAL VULCANO: Retard? Oh

RON BENNINGTON: No. I feel like one now

SAL VULCANO: Because - Depends who you're talking to.

RON BENNINGTON: Yeah.

SAL VULCANO: Remission?

RON BENNINGTON: No, I don't know if anything is remission at this point. I mean, this is basically when I came in, I first found out it's not curable. So the idea is to keep pushing until more things come along. So we got into this trial. They're happy, but I feel like I don't want to be up because the numbers are up or down because I just want to live each day. I want to live this day like I'm Italian in Staten Island, you know what I mean? Just enjoying life.

SAL VULCANO: You want to get into a fight in the parking lot?

RON BENNINGTON: Yeah. I want to carry a baseball bat wherever I go, even though I haven't played a game in 25 years.

SAL VULCANO: You just described my dad.

RON BENNINGTON: Yeah.

SAL VULCANO: Growing up, he always had a bat in the car. Always. I always thought a softball game was going to break out or something. Yeah. It wasn't until I got a little older and he was just like, "I have this for protection." I was like, "Oh." And what about the other one? There was two. There was two bats. One was a bat and one was like a night stick, and then there was always another weapon in his sock. But he never used them, but I guess he was ready.

RON BENNINGTON: Right. He's prepared. Yeah. But that's why I love Staten Island because it's still the 1970s. No matter what happens, people are still ready to throw down.

SAL VULCANO: Right now he has a bat in his car right now. Once you are a person who puts a bat in the car in case you need it -

RON BENNINGTON: You're a lifer.

SAL VULCANO: You're a lifer. Yeah. Yeah. And I never carried a weapon in my life, but since I had my kids, I started carrying a weapon.

RON BENNINGTON: What do you carry?

SAL VULCANO: I either carry a Katana blade. No, I'm kidding. I got pepper spray or a stun gun or something. I always have one of those two on me.

RON BENNINGTON: Well, here's a good thing for me. If I bit you, you would get cancer.

SAL VULCANO: My daughter just said to me literally last night, I was put in the bed and she was like, "Dad, are there werewolves in here?" I was like, "Where did you discover werewolves? Everything you watch is rated G." Yes. Where did you catch wind of a werewolf? She's like, "Are they in here?" I was like, "No, it's your room. Your room is safe and everything. You're not going to bit by a werewolf, but don't let Rnnie bite you

RON BENNINGTON: Yeah. Have a silver bullet just in case. It's the only way to stop me.

SAL VULCANO: She keeps a bat in a crib.

RON BENNINGTON: Yeah. So adorable. How old is she?

SAL VULCANO: She'll be four in August.

RON BENNINGTON: Yeah. She shouldn't know about werewolves. She

SAL VULCANO: Shouldn't know about, right?

RON BENNINGTON: That's too early.

SAL VULCANO: I know. I was like, "No." She didn't even say wolf. She said werewolf.

RON BENNINGTON: Werewolf, right.

SAL VULCANO: The horror, the horror wolf.

RON BENNINGTON: That's the thing about all those myths too. A lot of them are Italian based. That's why we have garlic that you got to stop them with. The cross was a big thing. 

SAL VULCANO: It does feel Italian.

RON BENNINGTON: Yeah. Everything good feels Italian to me. Here's the thing. I feel like you, Staten Island Italian, Brooklyn Italian, they're the real Italians. I don't believe the Italy Italians are real Italians.

SAL VULCANO: You think the European... Yeah, right.

RON BENNINGTON: They kind of slow everything down. They're too thin.

SAL VULCANO: They're nothing alike, by the way. The United States Italian and the European Italian, They couldn't be more different.

RON BENNINGTON: When you meet the actual Italians, they're 135, 140 pounds, beautiful sunglasses. And then they got on a boat, got off in Brooklyn, 300 pounds.

SAL VULCANO: A full evolution changed.

RON BENNINGTON: Full evolution. And suddenly they're going to kill but their own cousin because they got a phone call. They get a phone call in the middle of the night and they're like, "I got to kill my cousin."

SAL VULCANO: Yeah, That's tough. It is tough. It must be tough being in a mafia, not knowing if you're going to have to kill someone that you're very close to. Because if movies are any indicator or the history, you're always going to kill someone close to you.

RON BENNINGTON: A Hundred percent of the time. At

SAL VULCANO: Some time or another, something's going to come up where you have to double cross somebody and it could be your own family. And they got to live with that all the time.

RON BENNINGTON: Here's the thing though.

SAL VULCANO: I'm getting bugged.

RON BENNINGTON: These guys do podcasts now talking about it. They call it mobcast or mob doc and it's on TikTok. Yeah. And you get a lot of guys that were hit men and they'll sit around and explain this.

SAL VULCANO: They passed the statutes?

RON BENNINGTON: I don't know if you ever passed the statue. I think they just don't care. Wow. You know what I mean?

SAL VULCANO: Podcasts are powerful.

RON BENNINGTON: Yeah. Powerful thing like, "Hey, I got a lot of hits today. My lawyer's screaming at me though." All right, let me ask you this. Do you feel like Chicago Italians are real Italians? And we're talking about Sebastian Maniscalco. He's not the same as the kind of Italian you are.

SAL VULCANO: They're cut from possibly the same cloth, but I do understand that there are differences.

RON BENNINGTON: Yeah. The accent alone.

SAL VULCANO: Yeah. The accent, if you're going to... I've tried over the years to wean off of my accent because I do think, and this is no offense to every single person I know, grew up with and still live amongst, but I do think that sometimes it could make you sound a little bit ignorant. It just sounds like a little bit very barbaric.

RON BENNINGTON: Sure. I agree with everything you said, but a little bit. I feel like it's quite a bit.

SAL VULCANO: So I've tried, if I'm thinking about it or I'm really not thinking about it, maybe it'll come out, but I've tried to wean off of it a little bit.

RON BENNINGTON: But we also just lose it naturally because you've got outside of your neighborhood. Yeah. You know what I mean? So I've lived at different places. I used to have that real Delaware County Philly accent growing up.

SAL VULCANO: Yeah, I love that though. I always thought -  See, that's exotic to me.

RON BENNINGTON: Yes.

SAL VULCANO: That's the thing. People either think you sound like you have rocks in your mouth or when you go sometimes overseas, they're like, they think you're a New Yorker is exotic. So maybe I'll turn it up overseas.

RON BENNINGTON: Yeah. Overseas, get their big, talk about hits that you've made.

SAL VULCANO: Yeah. Not the hits, just the actual accent.

RON BENNINGTON: You killed two cousins and a brother-in-law.

SAL VULCANO: I think it's ingrained in... I mean, I'm only half Italian, but I think it's ingrained in you because I have a recurring nightmare that I killed somebody. I don't know who, and I know the circumstances, but what I feel in the nightmare is that I did that and that I'm hiding it.

RON BENNINGTON: Right.

SAL VULCANO: But this is turning into a mobcast. No, but I've never killed anybody.

RON BENNINGTON: That you know of.

SAL VULCANO: That I know of, yeah. Yeah. But I don't know why. I don't know what that is, that I'm always just like, people are going to find out I killed somebody.

RON BENNINGTON: You guys have kind of made Staten Island famous.

SAL VULCANO: There's a handful of people. It's probably there's not more, but there's a good handful of people now that have really...

RON BENNINGTON: Blown it up?

SAL VULCANO: I think so.

RON BENNINGTON: Yeah, me too.

SAL VULCANO: Yeah. But I'm really happy to be that.

RON BENNINGTON: Sure, of course.

SAL VULCANO: Because you could get lost in other cities and boroughs. There's so many people from Brooklyn, from Ne York City.

RON BENNINGTON: The Bronx in the old days, the Bronx was the most famous at one point.

SAL VULCANO: Yeah. But Staten, I think we only got like 500,000 maybe population. I don't know.

RON BENNINGTON: Yeah.

SAL VULCANO: But it feels nice to have some hometown pride.

RON BENNINGTON: Oh, of course you should because you're the only borough that votes for Trump 100% of the time. That's the funny thing is Italians are very conservative people.

SAL VULCANO: Yeah.

RON BENNINGTON: I also

SAL VULCANO: Like - Italians, the Irish... But Staten Island is pretty diverse. Well, there's neighborhoods that are pretty diverse.

RON BENNINGTON: There's Italians and there's a Wu-Tang clan. That's the only things I know of.

SAL VULCANO: Yeah. They always vote conservative.

RON BENNINGTON: Yeah.

SAL VULCANO: I didn't realize that growing up because you don't realize, you just grow up. And then when you get older, you're like, "Oh, I didn't even understand my parents were never political, so it didn't even register with me until really this year.

RON BENNINGTON: It's funny. We were able to stay out of politics a long time. I did radio for 20 years before I heard anyone care who was president.

SAL VULCANO: Yeah.

RON BENNINGTON: What the fuck? I was living in Florida and was like, I'm not involved in anything down here. Just trying to find out whether this is going to be a three-way.  I mean, you really do live kind of decadent down there.

SAL VULCANO: How did you come by a three-way back in the day? Because there's no message boards.

RON BENNINGTON: No. Well, here's the thing.

SAL VULCANO: You had to do it the real way,

RON BENNINGTON: You had to do it the real way.

SAL VULCANO: Take me through one of them.

RON BENNINGTON: Well, the thing is in Florida, you can pick up a woman that's in the three-ways at a PTA meeting.

SAL VULCANO: No way.

RON BENNINGTON: Yeah. The women, most of the time, are on the lookout there. Really? Yeah.

SAL VULCANO: Oh, they're the ones brokering the deals?

RON BENNINGTON: Yeah, they have all the power.

SAL VULCANO: Right. Oh, so then that... But a woman, would she approach another woman?

RON BENNINGTON: A lot of times she would approach the woman. Yeah. And maybe that was 90% of what they want, but why would we care? You know what I mean? 10% is plenty. You know what I mean? If you had 10% of the Facebook, you never have another... So that's how I feel about that.

SAL VULCANO: So then you had a foot soldier that would go out and try to get you through the three-ways.

RON BENNINGTON: They're all foot soldiers. Okay? And then a lot of times they get a little disappointed when you're like, "Your husband's not coming. Let's tell him the good news." But just tell him that the radio show that he listens to, he'll have that story. But you're too conservative for that, right?

SAL VULCANO: Oh no, not at all. Oh wait, no, wait. I am committed in a relationship, so I'm not going to do it any three ways, but no, I'm not really conservative.

RON BENNINGTON: But you can be committed in a relationship and still do three ways.

SAL VULCANO: You can be, yeah. I haven't really found that avenue, nor am I looking. But if one day it presents itself to me, that'd have to be a conversation I have in the moment.

RON BENNINGTON: Like a gift. It fell from heaven.

SAL VULCANO: I can't be thinking about that just in my daily. Right. If it falls in my lap, one day I'll have to deal with all the circumstances and then make an educated decision on that.

RON BENNINGTON: Right.

SAL VULCANO: But for right now, I'm really... I

RON BENNINGTON: Do feel like you probably killed somebody

SAL VULCANO:  I’m conservative in love.

RON BENNINGTON: Yeah. Sure. You a family guy

SAL VULCANO: I'm liberal with my love.

RON BENNINGTON: Right. It could be for men.

SAL VULCANO: I'm No. So I have a lot of love to give, but as far as my partner, I'm conservative with that love with just her.That's My wife.

RON BENNINGTON: God bless her. You do have a lot of love to give. Matter of fact, when my news came out, you were one of the first people that contacted me and then kept checking in on me. Of course. That's why I didn't mind sharing the news with you because you like numbers. You want some hard facts down 

SAL VULCANO: I wouldn't do the Portcast without a report. Right. A Reportcast. I just want a report cast. Yeah. Just want some analytics on my desk before I come up.

RON BENNINGTON: That's good.

SAL VULCANO: It's great to see you.

RON BENNINGTON: It's great to see you, buddy.

SAL VULCANO: Yeah, I missed you.

RON BENNINGTON:  But yeah, it's really great to see you. I know this isnt an environment that you find comfortable, right?

SAL VULCANO: Yeah. I've been in out of these places and no one really does, but only because you just... It's heavy. But being here with you is amazing and laughing with you.

RON BENNINGTON: It is funny to laugh like this, right?

SAL VULCANO: I love you so much, man.

RON BENNINGTON: I love you too, buddy. I really do. And always have since I met you.

SAL VULCANO: You're a special person.

RON BENNINGTON: Thank you, man. I appreciate that.

SAL VULCANO: Anytime I've ever hung out with you and laughed... I'm sorry, Ron.

RON BENNINGTON: It's okay.

SAL VULCANO: Anytime I've hung out with you and laughed, it's always special when I hang out with you. I always have the most genuinely greatest time, and you've always been so generous to me and to comics and to everybody, putting so many people over and everything. And I remember when I did my unmasked, it was like a bucket list thing to do. And I'm really honored that you took the time to do that with me.

RON BENNINGTON: Yeah, it was an amazing time. It was really fun for me too, because obviously you're one of the good guys. I mean, I was always amazed that when your show took off, you're still out grinding in the clubs, doing The Stand or The Cellar or whatever. You never slowed down and I never saw you let it get to your head. You know what I mean? That's a very difficult thing to happen because success, not easy on people.

SAL VULCANO: It's true. Yeah. If you're not built for it, it could do harm.

RON BENNINGTON: Yes, sure. Yeah. If you start to enjoy it too quickly.

SAL VULCANO: Yeah. I'll never to be that. Who am I? I'm just a regular dude.

RON BENNINGTON: And I think that's why you've gotten the successful way you are because people realize that. Thanks. But it's a tough thing to maintain. It's a tough thing to not start living like Axel Rose.

SAL VULCANO: Don't think I haven’t a thought about it.

RON BENNINGTON: Yeah, of course. It's there for you. If it drops into your lap –

SAL VULCANO: Get some foot soldiers out there, get me a three or a four, maybe a four.

RON BENNINGTON: Get a four. A four way. That's too much. Then you've got a foot going. You know what I mean? It's too much.

 SAL VULCANO: Or just one of those maybe I get invited to a diddy party. I don't know. Something.

RON BENNINGTON: Yeah, diddy party might be the way to go. Yeah. But I love that you've done that for yourself. I love the life that you're living. And like I said, it meant a lot that you kept checking in, not just once, but a lot. It meant a lot to me because a couple of those times you're not in the best places.

SAL VULCANO: I understand.

RON BENNINGTON: But just doing stuff like this helps me. And then I hear from a lot of other people, especially people who are with people who have this, and that's the hardest one. When I think about what I worry about, it's my kids, it's my chick, it's my grandkids. So the fact that people are saying they get a lot out of this and they know they can joke around a little more. I'm sure they do. Yeah. It's very nice.

SAL VULCANO: I'm sure they do. It's such a cool thing that you're doing this. It's so you. It's so you,

RON BENNINGTON: Dude. Yeah. Well, weirdly, up to this point, I've been a survivor in this business. We'll see if I can keep that going, but it's a new concept. I'm on a race to see how it goes. But I love you, buddy, and thanks for stopping in.

SAL VULCANO: I love you so much, man.

RON BENNINGTON: I know. Me too,man.

SAL VULCANO: I really love you from the bottom of my heart. Yeah. You're one of my favorite people, and I promise you I'm not just saying that.

RON BENNINGTON: I know that. I know that. I love you, Bill. Best of luck with everything.

SAL VULCANO: We do plugs now or no?

RON BENNINGTON: I Yeah. Yeah. Where are you going to be appearing? I'm kidding. I'm kidding. Come on. Norton did it. Yeah, he snuck one in.

Again, pop, pop.