Joe Escalante comes from a talented family that include a famous musician, a radio host, a prolific scriptwriter, an accomplished attorney, a successful businessman, a tour manager, a record company owner, and a television producer, among others.
Though Escalante has other talented siblings, all of the above career titles belong to him alone, and for his many accomplishments, he was honored Sunday with induction into the Los Alamitos Museum Hall of Fame.
“The Los Alamitos Museum has always honored individuals from the city who have achieved excellence in a variety of fields, from Olympic champions in sports to film, television, movie, radio, the arts, and other accomplishments of merit,” said Adrianne Chavez in introducing Escalante.
“The museum celebrates these special people by inducting them into our Hall of Fame,” she said. “The recipients were either born here, worked here, or went to school here. Our city is also so fortunate to have hosted so many amazing inductees. Our Hall of Fame also displays and honors some of the pioneers of our city and their history,” said Chavez.
“The recipients were either born here, worked here, or went to school here. Our city is also so fortunate to have hosted so many amazing inductees. Our Hall of Fame also displays and honors some of the pioneers of our city and their history,” she said.
A standing-room-only crowd gathered to witness Escalante’s induction as Museum President Debbie Kent welcomed them to the newly refurbished museum.
“We’re all volunteers,” she said before giving a shout-out to the museum’s board members, whom she thanked for all their hard work during its recent renovation (see related story).
Marilyn Poe, the museum’s former President and board member referred to by Kent as the institution’s Grand Dame, welcomed visitors and gave them a short history of the area.
“This is a very short version of the history because we want you to come back and take your time going through the museum,” said Poe.
A funny thing happened to Joe Escalante on the way to his induction ceremony in Los Alamitos and he couldn’t wait to talk about it.
He was first formally introduced by Sharon Williams, who said Escalante was born in 1963, raised in a devout Roman Catholic household, received his Sacraments at St. Hedwig went on to earn a bachelor’s degree in Old Norse at UCLA before doing graduate work at the University of Reykjavik Iceland, and eventually graduated from Loyola law school in 1992.
Williams said Escalante took an internship at CBS Television and transformed it into a massive career, first by working on shows like Rescue 911, Everybody Loves Raymond and eventually became a CBS talent negotiator.
“He actually convinced Chuck Norris to sing his own theme song for the hit series “Walker, Texas Ranger,” she said.
Joe and his wife Sandra then established Kung Fu Records, which became home to the early works of Blink 182 and others, and Escalante himself was, and remains, a member of the famous Vandals, a band that remarkably still occasionally tours today.
In addition, Joe was the morning drive-time host on FM 103.1 and still has a Sunday radio show on AM radio. He has also worked with the writing team of “Ancient Aliens” on The History Channel, eventually writing and producing his own TV series, she said.
His work in music eventually landed him as a tour manager for the famous group Sublime, using his vast entertainment Rolodex to land them on stage at the Coachella Music Festival.
Williams went through a brief litany of Escalante’s amazing projects and accomplishments.
Escalante’s list of entertainment projects, she said, are as diverse as they are brilliant, saying it was exciting to see “what the future holds” for Joe Escalante. “The sky’s the limit,” she said, noting that despite his crazy busy schedule, he and his wife still teach CCD classes every Sunday night.
Escalante’s life has been so touched by an angel that the famous singer-songwriter Paul Williams (no relation to Sharon), showed up to give him an additional introduction.
“I’m Joe’s brother-in-law,” began Paul Williams, “and I’m looking to be on the receiving side of nepotism at this point in my life,” the longtime entertainer said. “I met Joe’s sister in 2005 and was smart enough to marry her, and lucky enough to get the Escalante family as my in-laws,” he added.
Although Joe is his brother-in-law, Williams said “sometimes I feel like he’s, my brother.”
“Joe really needs no introduction,” said Williams, suggesting in so many words that Escalante’s amazing career speaks for itself.
“You know, you look around this museum and you find that there has been greatness through the ages and all. And it’s perfect to add Joe to this,” said Wiliams.
Escalante thanked them both for their introductions, saying when Sharon first called him, he thought at first that his friends were pranking him.
“Sharon called me up one day and said, ‘Do you want to…we would like to honor you,’” he said.
“And I’m like, for what, which weird thing, you know? And then I thought it was probably one of my friends doing a prank, so I was just going along with it,” Escalante said to the standing-room-only crowd that filled the museum.
“Then, Sharon was very nice, and she brought me here (Museum) to take a look at it,” he said before agreeing to be inducted into the Museum’s Hall of Fame.
“I’m not the kind of guy that’s in the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame,” he continued. “I’m not getting an Oscar, yet,” he said, “but it just feels like my hometown hasn’t forgotten about me so I’m very grateful,” the Rossmoor kid who made good said on Sunday.
Escalante and his wife Sandra now make old-town Seal Beach their home.
“I think the best thing for me to do is explain like, now that you heard that bio, most people just want to know is this guy crazy? How did he do all these things?”
“It’s all about where you end up,” said Escalante, admitting he doesn’t always get a chance to finish when trying to explain the crazy twists and turns in a journey that has delivered so many opportunities to his doorstep.
“You never know what fate is going to do with you,” said Escalante. “My parents chose Rossmoor, and here we are.”
Escalante said his parents moved to Rossmoor in 1958 so he grew up there, attended Rush Elementary, then Oak Middle, and Los Al High School. He was inducted into the Griffin’s Alumni Hall of Fame back in the 1980s for his punk rock work in the Vandals and success with Kung Fu Records.
Deep down, he said, “I was always struck with a serious creative streak.” Escalante said he learned the violin and trumpet in the Oak Middle School band, then switched to drums in the marching band so he could “save my lip for the community orchestra.”
Already in middle school, Escalante was dancing to the beat of a different drummer. He charted his own path and was unafraid to follow it.
Then, Escalante said he learned to play a set of drums by playing along with Ramones records, then started a local punk rock band and eventually went off to UCLA.
Escalante said he started a band called “The Vandals,” noting “it was just a hobby.”
Wanting to be a lawyer, he majored in “Old Norse.” “My dad never could quite understand it, but I was drawn to it,” said Escalante. “If you’re going to be a lawyer, does it really matter what you major in?”
After graduating UCLA, Escalante accepted a graduate position in Iceland where he learned to speak the language while living in Reykjavik. “I learned to speak Old Norse and modern Icelandic,” he said.
“And today, I think one of the most bizarre things about me, is I’m listed as one of the notable alumni of the University of Reykjavik in Iceland.”
Back in the U.S., Escalante said the Vandals put out a record that did well on the local charts. “Then I wrote a song called “Ladykiller,” he said, which became another Number One record in local markets.
Though music looked promising, Escalante said in those days, “there was no machine that could turn you into a star with just a couple of hits.”
Right then and there, “I had a vision of the future and this wasn’t going anywhere,” at least not as high as the Los Al grad wanted to go, so in the early ’90s, it was off to Law School.
Escalante said he reached out to Loyola Law School, was accepted, and became an attorney. He said his sister was a prosecutor, and that he learned quickly that was not what he wanted to do.
As he looked around, Escalante said he thought about what to do next. Although the Vandals were still a thing, he wanted something more solid upon which to build a career.
“What did I love more than anything,” he rhetorically asked himself. “Television,” he said.
“I loved watching television, I loved everything about it, and I wanted to work in TV, but I didn’t know how to do it.”
Although he didn’t know how to get a foot in the door, he figured out where to start.
“I knew there was a guy named Frank Wells. He was president of Warner Studios, and he was a lawyer. I thought if I went to law school, I could be like him and work my way up, or whatever. So I got an internship at CBS Television and that’s how it began,” Escalante told the overflow crowd.
“I ended up with a job offer there, and I worked on Walker, Texas Ranger and Rescue 911, and Everybody Loves Raymond, and it was super fun,” he said.
Escalante said he was promoted to a “boring job” as a talent guy, noting that “I kind of peaked too early in the television world.” He wanted to produce television.
“I took the advice of some of my friends, and I started a record label, Kung Fu Records, and I quit that job, as Sandra and I started that (Kung Fu) label.
“It did quite well, and that’s how I went from a TV network to a record producer.” Even as a record producer, Escalante said he produced” videos, a couple of movies, then sold the label to go back into TV.”
Escalante said he began reading movie scripts and “they were so badly written that I asked my partner if I could write one.” Well, he did, and was soon hired at the Discovery ID network.
Four years there and later moved over to the History Channel, writing for Ancient Aliens until he sold his own TV series to Fox Nation and started a production company.
“I never stopped producing videos,” he said.
All the while, though members came in and out, the Vandals remained a thing. “We were always playing, but never too serious,” said Escalante, noting the Vandals were always there, releasing records but ever a passion project.
“And then a crazy thing happened,” he said.
“This guy, Eric Wilson (bass player) from sSublime, called me for some legal help. Now, I don’t like to do legal work, and I try to avoid it, but every once in a while, someone will call me and I’ll do it. And this time I was I was really rewarded,” said Escalante.
As it turned out, when Bradley Nowell, lead singer for Sublime, who passed away nearly three decades ago, had died during the band’s height of popularity. At the time, Nowell’s son Jakob, was 11 months old.
Wilson apparently told Escalante that Nowell’s son, Jakob, now an adult, had auditioned for Sublime as lead singer for a new iteration of Sublime.
Escalante was asked to call the young singer’s Grandpa, apparently to handle some legal work for the band. “When I heard him (Jakob) sing, I got chills,” said Escalante.
Immediately, “I called my friend who owns Coachella Music Festival and played it for him. He said ‘I’m going to put them on stage at Coachella and its going to be big,’” his friend told him.
There was one small condition, said Escalate slowly. “And, by the way, you have to be the manager of the tour,” his friend concluded.
“And that’s how I became a tour manager for Sublime,” he said, recalling how he got the band together. “I got a partner named Kevin Zinger, who was already managing the kid. And we ended up taking over all their assets, all their their publishing, their movie rights, everything. I talked to members of the band, and they liked it,” said Escalante.
Of all his music experiences, Escalante said he’ll never forget the tour for U.S. troops performed by The Vandals during Operation Iraqi Freedom. He said the band’s drummer was afraid. “He refused to go,” said Escalante.
Here is a man who had succeeded at every aspect of entertainment at that point, yet he jumped at the chance to perform for the USO tour in front of U.S. troops with The Vandals. “They (troops) were singing our songs,” he vividly remembers, having switched from drums to playing bass by then.
The big question on everyone’s mind, it seemed, was what on earth could be next for this accomplished Renaissance Man. Already, it’s an act hard to follow, but surely the angels of opportunity will soon visit him anew.
Though he’s a local Hollywood mogul, of sorts, he’s made of a different ilk. Despite his fame and success, Escalante says he still attends monthly meetings of his Oak Middle School Fishing Club and that his Roman Catholic Faith remains strong.
In fact, he and his wife Sandra teach Catechism classes at St. Peter Chanel every Sunday, he goes to St. Hedwig every Saturday with his sisters and the one-time altar boy remains an altar boy for most funerals at St. Peter Chanel.
“I go to Mass anyway, so why not sit there as the altar boy.”
Always thinking is Escalante, the most recent inductee in the Los Alamitos Museum Hall of Fame.
Editor’s Note: Escalante provided the museum with his bass guitar from The Vandals and other memorabilia that will remain on display in the Museum’s Hall of Fame.
