Ep 873 : Brad Gillis guitarist of Night Ranger

It's Brad Gillis here today. Wow. I've been been trying to get you on for I don't know 13 years. >> Well, you know what? I'm fashionably late, Dean. >> How old are you, man? You look great. >> I'm I'm old. I'm 69 years old. >> [ __ ] You look fantastic. >> I'm well preserved from the 80s. >> Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Speaking >> I'm pick I'm tickled. Speaking of the 80s, I was uh performing in uh Vegas on Saturday and I did uh the Aliente Casino. I'm a comedian now. And Mike Vanney came, dude. >> Wow. Wow. >> I haven't heard that. I haven't heard that name for a while. >> Well, uh I've talked to Kelly and I've had um I've had uh you know, some other guys on the podcast. Um, and Jack was on and the first time I saw you guys was Guitar Wars at the Phoenix Theater. >> Geez. Yeah. Wow. Um, I remember that cuz we won. >> Yeah. And his band Cinema was up against you guys. >> That's right. Yeah. Boy, that was 1981, I think. Dean, >> isn't that [ __ ] crazy? >> Yeah. I'm 60. So, I don't know how old I was, but man, I knew from that day you guys were called Ranger. I knew I knew you guys were going to win because you had, you know, Don't Tell Me You Love Me. And that was the big [ __ ] hammer tune >> each time you were going up against a band. You know, you had some hits, although they weren't on radio or anything, but you could just tell back then if you go see a club band, you'd be like, "Oh, this is a goddamn hit." You know? Yeah. Well, thanks. I appreciate it. You know, we uh we came out with a bang, you know, with the twin guitars and uh you know, Jack was our prolific songwriter and had some great ideas that we uh you know, we we worked out. And Don't Tell Me Love Me was one of those songs that had that repeating chorus. It kind of drives it in your brain. And then the uh the dual guitar guitar solos and the harmonies at the end, it it was kind of like complete package. Uh we thought and the thing was when we came out with that as our first single off the Dawn Patrol record uh early 1983 uh MTV had a you know 27 24/7 format. They didn't have enough videos to even fill it. So they they played us literally 20 times a day. uh you'd hear it every hour and a half or whatever. Uh which was great for us cuz it put a face to the music and uh you know then radio picked up on it and it was a pretty heavy for radio back then and it's like six minute song and the thing is they played it uh and it did well all around the country being a hard rock song. You know, that is such an interesting time back then of something like Guitar Wars and I was talking to Kelly and Jack about it and I didn't know that you guys didn't play live a lot, but back then like Ynt and Eddie Money, you just play all over the Bay Area. You play the Katy Cabaret, you play the Phoenix, then you play at the Stone, all three of those. Then you play down at Fremont at Niles and and the Boardwalk in Sacramento. You literally could tour. I mean, Eric Martin 415 made a living doing it. It was wild back then. >> Well, um, there's a couple reasons for that. First of all, nobody knew who we were. We were trying to get out there. Uh I think you know the very few shows that we did not much of a turnout and actually cost us money to play with uh getting everybody there and you know and we decided just to spend our time doing the record you know so instead of touring and playing in the Bay Area we went in and just start recording and which were the masters that were on the first record basically. So, we were recording masters and we we knew what we had to do to get it done. Uh, and because we didn't play out live, I ended up starting a band called the Alamita Allstars, right? >> You know, and cuz I wanted to play and it's so funny cuz we would we be playing four nights a week. We do the Lucky Lion in the Oakland Hills Park Saloon, uh, Ducalow Palace and, uh, another one. But uh you know it worked out for me because I was able to get my chops on playing all these songs uh that whatever was on the radio at that time uh you know the Bad Company stuff and Letter Skinner and everything that was groovy back then we were playing live and we had a good little audience you know and we had people like Danny Chanty sitting in who did 30 years with 38 special and and uh you know a bunch of you know Kelly our drummer would sit in and uh just a lot of fun back then And you know, in 1981, I went and saw Aussie play with Randy at the Oakland Stadium, Dana Green, >> and I was blown away. And I ended up putting uh a couple Aussie songs into the All-Star set, you know, uh I was doing Flying High Again, Crazy Train, and you know, uh Over the Mountain, you know, a couple couple songs, probably those three. And uh you know after that tragic death of Randy uh March 19th, 1982, I got that call to uh to to fly out to New York and do audition for Aussie. And uh what helped me out a lot in my career is I learned to play by ear. Um when I was 10 years old, I got my first guitar when I was eight. When I was 10, I was, you know, they had me, my parents had me take a lessons I was learning like Mary had a little lamb. I went, I want to rock. I want to rock. >> Yeah. And a friend of my brothers came over and said, "Brad, just listen to the radio, man. You got the chords down. Uh, you know, if you want to start playing lead, just, you know, start listening to the radio." And it's a whole another ball game learning to play music if you learn by ear. And that helped me out on me getting the gig and uh learning the material with Aussie by learning by by ear. Right. They gave me two board cassette tapes with Randy on it from February 1982, a month or so before he passed. Got killed, I should say. Um, and I would sit in my room all day and play those cassettes and learn everything by ear. >> You know, we were both lucky to grow up in the uh Bay Area. Um, you mentioned Day on the Green. It's really uh really molded my life uh as far as Bill Graham the way he put together those bills early days in the filmore and then later these massive Dan the Greens. I saw that Aussie one he was uh on with Hart. Hart was the headliner. Did you get to see the Zeppelin or Skard ones? >> Yeah. Oh, I I'd go there all the time cuz I play guitar. or I wanted to go to the big stadium shows, you know, and uh you know, Bill Graham, he took us under our wing when we were still a ranger and we had us opening for Judas Priest in the Oakland Auditorium, the Oakland uh >> Henry J. Kaiser. >> Yeah. Thank you, Kaiser. >> I was there, dude. >> And Yeah. Yeah. And uh so he took us under his his wing. And this is a funny story because when we did that show, we had our writer. A writer is the stuffed food and drink that you want backstage in your dressing room uh when you perform and the promoter pays for that, takes care of it. We never were crazy on a rider, but we'd have beer and and food and and this and that, right? Well, we uh we got to the gig and all of our food and everything, drink was there and we went to do our sound check. When we got back to our room, all of our stuff was gone and Bill Graham had walked by and and we said, "Hey, our food, someone stole our food." He's like, "What?" He looked around. He goes, "Give me a second." And he walked into Judas Priest's dressing room and they took all of our stuff. And Bill Graham is yelling at the top of his lungs at those kind, don't you ever mess with my boys. And of course, we got all her stuff back. So, there's an interesting story for you. You got the scoop on that one. >> I don't know if you went to um the Zeppelin one, but Priest opened and it's amazing to see what type of priest band uh band Priest was opening for Zeppelin. They're kind of semi- metal but kind of more hippie like early scorpions and stuff. And then by the time you guys play with them, which is the point of entry tour, they're full-blown metal. And you guys were still able to balance that line by playing stuff like you want to play rough tonight and just kind of rocking it up a little more. It was it was amazing because one of the reasons I went to that show was because you guys were on the bill. That's interesting because uh you know we didn't really have that much material back then but uh in fact we probably just played the first record as I recall a long time ago but uh you know then after we released the second and third record we were able to whatever show we did we would pick and choose the set list to if we're opening for somebody else to kind of match that headline or whatever. But then again uh after Mr. Christian was released, we jumped to a headline status anyway and we were able to do whatever we wanted, you know, which is very cool for us because I remember designing our first set and everything and and uh getting our couple buses for the band and one for the crew and our equipment into big semi and pulling into uh late ' 83, early 84, right around that time pulling into Lacrosse, Wisconsin, playing the Coliseum there and on the marquee tonight, Night Ranger sold out. It was our first headline show >> and that was a pinnacle of our career right there. >> How much does the Cow Palace mean to you? Because to me it was the alltime mecca. I'm still dying to do it as a comedian. They are still open and they're actually had this great resurgence with DJs and stuff, but what does that room mean to you? >> Well, not only did I go to a lot of shows growing up there. >> Yeah. Um, we ended up playing there a few times and I guess the the highlight was New Year's Eve. Uh, I'm pretty sure it was Y and NT and us and we were the headliner >> and um yeah, but I just remember it never sounded good there. It was so big, so boommy, everything would reverberate even with a full house. It just wasn't a good sound. Um, but it was the place to play, you know, in the Bay Area. But then again, since then, you know, we've done Day in the We did a bunch of Day in the Greens. Yeah. Oakland Colise, Oak Oakland Coliseum, >> of course, Cow Palace, Conquer Pavilion, and the uh and the one down in what's the one? What's it called now? Down Mountain View. >> Shoreline. >> Shoreline Amphitheater. Shoreline Amphitheater playing that. So, you know, we've uh we've been busy in the Bay Area our career. I'll tell you something really uh magical. There's two things. You were going to Day on the Greens, then you end up playing with Journey. That's got to be [ __ ] mind-boggling. You're on the stage at where the Oakland A's play. But one of the shows that really um blew me away that had to be crazy for you being Alamita was I saw the uh Aussie show at Oakland when you played with them. That had to be crazy. That was the most uh nerve-wracking show besides my first night with Aussie. Uh that was the most nerve-wracking one because it was hometown. God, I had the Night Ranger guys there that went to the show. Uh my family, my dad, uh you know, brother and sister, everybody came and all my friends, you know. U so that was nerve-wracking. But I'll never forget Sharon. I mean, every every show we did with every show I did with Aussie was sold out. Um, which was wild and crazy. Everything from 5,000 theaters to 15 18,000 seaters around the country, they were all sold out. And we were pulling into my hometown, the Oakland Coliseum, right? And that morning, we pull into town and Sharon comes up. She goes, "Brother, Bradley, I got some bad news." It's like, "What?" She goes, "Tonight's show is cancelled." Oh, >> what? >> What do you mean canled? >> Yeah. >> Sorry, lack of ticket sales. We had to cancel the show. And she walked away. And I'm like, "Are you freaking My hometown cancelled?" She took about 10 steps and turned around said, "Just kidding. Sold out in three hours." Oh, now yeah, I saw Randy. The last time I saw Randy was at the Cow Palace and they had that Iron Man hand that came out and broke. It got stuck and so they couldn't do any of the encores and stuff. I can't remember. Did you guys carry that stage um with the Iron Man hand on the run that you did? I I know the stage looked the same with the throne and everything, but I can't remember if the hand was there. No, I don't I don't remember the hand. I know what you're talking about, but um um we had the the you know the castle and it was just amazing that they could take that down and set it up within the next day. Yeah, I couldn't believe that. Um but I was just blown away of everything I saw. So, so when I got the call to uh to join Aussie, um they flew me to New York and uh Bernie Tormet was with them and I just sat in my room every day with uh the two board cassette tapes with Randy on it and they gave me a boom box and a cassette player and my of course my 62 Red Strat and I'd sit in my room all day learning by ear uh to his cassettes uh stopping it, replaying it, whatever, trying trying to figure out any issues I have with with the keyboard harmonies. I get a hold of Don Ary and he come and tell me, "Oh, we do this, you do this, right?" And talking to Rudy Sarzo and those guys just were open arms to help me out. Of course, everybody was trying to uh make the tour happen and and and and finish the tour. Um so, you know, we uh on that fifth day uh I did my first show and that was Bingington, New York. sold out about 8,000 people and and like I said, one of the scariest gigs of my life. Um I never rehearsed with the band. I only did seven out of 18 songs. >> Wow. >> And here I got, you know, thrown on stage in Binghamington, New York for my first show. I didn't even know what to wear. And they gave me this white jumpsuit and I just didn't fit in with heavy metals. So they gave me a black jumpsuit, a Ferrari jumpsuit. Very cool. And so I just wore that until I figured out what to wear and whatever. But it it was trial and error for me just trying to get through everything and the segways and and uh I screwed up on the on the middle of the set Revelation Mother Earth. Um which is a slow battle that kicks in halfway through to a big chunky metal section. I came in a verse chorus too early and I just remember Aussie, you know, looking at me with this look of death like what are you doing? And I stopped and I'm going hitting that fast part and I stop and there was still going, "Oh god, I screwed up." Right. >> And the next night, uh, getting ready to go on and Sharon comes up, puts her arm around me, and she goes, "Bradley, you're doing a great job, but tonight, don't [ __ ] up. No, no, no pressure there, right?" >> Yeah. >> But, you know, uh, after a while, you know, I started smoothing into the whole set. It became more comfortable and everything. After two weeks, we did the uh King Biscuit Flower Hour in Memphis, Tennessee, a live broadcast throughout the country. And um I remember playing pretty well that night. I mean, no big screw-ups. And that was everywhere. And I remember uh you know, the Night Ranger boys listening. It's like he'll never come back. Ah, just you know, he's he's melding into this Aussie thing too well. And uh but I tell you, there was it was tough in that whole camp after the tragic, you know, loss of of Randy. and they were just trying to get through the tour and Aussie wasn't doing great. Uh, you know, he had a lot of issues going on and towards the end of the year, Rudy just, you know, he had he had an offer with a record deal with Quiet Riot. So, he ended up quitting the band, you know, and and towards the end too and I went, you know, I got these guys and Ranger they were called at the time, uh, with their record finished ready to go with the record company ready to sign us, right? So instead of being a side man with Aussie, which I probably would have gone in and done records with them and but you know, just things were so uneasy at that time, I felt more comfortable staying with my Night Ranger guys and and and uh releasing I rolled the dice, man. >> Yeah. >> And rolled the dice and and sure enough uh I quit Aussie and what happened? We start 1983 out with opening for Kiss, you know. So that was pretty good, too. And uh you know Paul and Jean took us under their wing and they were the nicest guys ever and just made us feel great. And uh we did a nice tour with them. Then we went out with everybody you know everybody. Then of course you know uh second record Madam Madness comes out. We do still rocking America first single does great. And then of course that little ballad called Sister Christian and that brought us to headline status. >> How do you approach the at the time were you playing Boogie when you were doing the Aussie run? Um, how do you approach the tone? Because it's really a unique tone that Randy had. >> Yeah. Well, I had boogies through Marshall Bottoms and uh I actually had his pedal board I was playing through for a while. But my uh my tech who I brought along with me, Mark Newman, who's a rockstar guitar tech who's been with everybody, just finished Kiss. Now he's out with Cheap Trick. Anyway, him and me um wanted to up our game. I mean, with the Aussie shows, Randy had his own tone, but what you heard on the record was kind of some creative micing techniques that he had on the record, but live, you know, he had his own tone. Of course, he was a less Paul mainly and and and I was playing my Strat. So, I had a humbucking pickup on the Strat, which gave me a little more output, but they still don't sound like a big fat L ball. Uh, so we just, you know, decided to crank the amps on 11 basically and get those speakers pumping to get that tone with Aussie. Now, when we went in and did the Speak of the Devil record, we needed to be a little more creative because uh I know I know I wanted a sound that was huge. So, Mark Newman and I came up with this stereo sound where it's a little bit delay between one and the other amp. And we had this this flange going real slow flange going through it and you know miked up stereo pan hard right and left and that's the tone of course cranked uh that's the tone I got with the speaker of the devil record and that you know I still get a lot of compliments on my tone from then there and uh I'm I'm I want to release a a pedal that could emulate that sound so I got something in the works. How much of that record is overdubbed in the studio? The vocal sounds pretty uh studioes to me. Uh how much work was done after it? >> Nothing by us. Tommy Rudy and I we were straight up. There's no overdubs. >> Wow. >> Uh Aussie came in and doubled a bunch of his stuff, >> right? >> Uh which is kind of it's kind of noticeable, but it's what you did back then, you know? >> Of course. >> Uh but being a live live record with all the ambience coming in, we never I never did. There was no overdubs. Uh but we did record two nights and a sound check. Uh all three of those were recorded and uh uh the best of each best version of each song which was which was what Aussie sang over and uh mixed and mastered and released. >> That's an incredible record and it's it's not available now on streaming, right? >> Uh yeah. You know what about those raiders? you know, I I can't I don't know what to tell you, man. >> Right. >> Uh, you know, it's such a great record, but it got it got bashed by Aussie and Sharon and uh uh it's sad because it's a great record. It came out when it came out, but then you can't even really get it anymore. If they were to, you know, even remaster it or just re-release it, it might do well. But it's what it is, Dean. And I can't explain it. >> I love it, man. A lot of people love it. And it was uh super cool to hear those Sabbath time uh songs, you know, uh with you on it in a different a different band. It's wild. >> Yeah. Yeah. It was a crazy time. And uh I was able to do that. I was grateful to be able to do that one at record. Uh it's so funny cuz that song was released in like, you know, November of 1982, whereas we released when I decided to come back and we finished the record deal. my my job was I'm going to finish touring with Aussie to the end of the year and then come back to Night Ranger. We got the deal. So, uh both records were released the same week uh in late um late ' 82. And in fact, there's a uh a trade magazine called Album Network that went to all the radio stations of all the songs that everybody in the country is playing. And I still have the magazine um that the at the very bottom of the first page are the uh the best two new releases of the week. Every week this album network magazine came out and Speak of the Devil and Dawn Patrol were the picks of the week. I was the first one to ever have two records out at the same time that they picked as the picks of the week. So I'm I'm tooting my horn on that one. But that was an awesome time for awesome time for me. You're out with him eight months. Was there any at any time kicking around some kind of maybe possible songwriting? >> There was no time. Uh, no, there was no time. We, you know, we toured heavily and these long bus rides overnight. Um, you know, then no one sleeps good on a bus. Let me tell you, Dean, sleeping on a bus sucks. I know, >> right? And so the next day, you know, we would all just try to sleep in, get real sleep in a hotel, and then go to soundcheck, gig, do it all over again, bus overnight. So there was real no time to do anything new. Um, but you know, we went all over the world. Um, which was great. Uh, went to Japan, you know, to Europe, all over the states. Uh, one thing we never went to and which Night Ranger never went to was South America. Never got down there, >> but we get, you know, Puerto Rico a lot. Of course, I've been to Japan with Night Ranger probably 18 times. And in fact, uh, we're heading to Japan again at the end of this month to open for Journey. >> Yeah, I know. What uh here's something I wanted to ask you. Um, pre62 Strat. What were you playing before that? >> Um, well I, you know, I played I was playing my 1971 Black Lust Fall Custom and that's the guitar I played with Rubicon. Played on the two records with Rubicon in the mid late 70s, 778, something like that. I was playing that Black L. Um, that was the guitar I got in 1975. That was I traded up. In fact, I traded a 1957 Stratacaster. Whoa. >> For that uh uh uh 1957 Strat for the Les Paul because the Strat wouldn't stay in tune. And I, you know, trying to fit around with a whammy bar, it wouldn't stay in tune. Now, that guitar, a 57 Strat these days, worth $40 to $50,000. >> Yeah. Um, but I did the trade in 1975 to some guy that had that Le Paul and I loved it and uh ended up um playing that on the two uh Rubicon records uh and played the Cal Jam 2 March 18th, 1978. Biggest musical day of my life. Errol Smith, Hearth, Date Mason, Stantana, Ted Nent, everybody was on that bill. And we were the only unknown band. Um, and but I played my uh my Blacklist Paul on that. There's there's recordings out there that we did a live they did a live video for that and a double live record with all those bands from Cal Jam 2. >> That is an insane uh festival that Cal Jam 2. I met the guy that put that on. He owns the Village Record Studio in uh Santa Monica. He was the guy that put that [ __ ] thing on. He had all this memorabilia and [ __ ] when I was there. I couldn't believe it. Is he still around? >> He is, man. He's still around. >> Wow. >> How How did you land? >> Santa Monica. Yeah. >> Yeah. The studio. You know, the village. >> Yes. Yeah. I I forgot what city was in. I knew it was in LA area. >> Um, basically, we got that gig whereas he decided to grab the biggest rock band from each label to be on that uh gig and on those records. So, you know, the biggest rock bands were from the different labels for are the ones that were on that show. And we were with were with 20th Century Fox Records. And we were the only band that was rock on that label. And we were a we were a funk rock band. We had a three-piece horn section. I was the rock of the band playing rock and roll guitar, but it was a funky band, which really helped me out a lot because I learned my funk chops doing the ninth. Look, I learned all that stuff, you know, not only playing with the Alam Allstars coming out of, you know, high school playing in club bands because there was a lot of uh funky stuff on the radio and of course disco was out. I was playing all that stuff with the Alam Allstars, but when I got with Rubicon really got me into the funky chicken picking uh stuff that uh you could hear on the Rubicon records. >> After Rubicon, uh Kelly told me he was going to roie for Eddie Money. What did you do after Rubicon? >> I um well what Rubicon actually we we kept playing and we started a band called Stereo with Jack and Kelly and me and and Jerry Martini who was the leader of Rubicon. Jerry played saxophone for Sly and the Family Stone. He was the only white guy in the band. Uh and and he the guy that holds out that note in I want to take you higher that lasts over a minute long and he holds it out through the whole end of the song. Anyway, he left uh Sly and started Rubicon, >> right? and had, you know, and that's where that evolved. And I remember auditioning for Rubicon and uh they auditioned like 30 guys and they picked Danny Chanty to be in to to to be in the band. And I came in at the very last minute. Someone recommended me and they gave Danny Chanty the cassette, the final cassette of all the Rubicon material to learn cuz the guitar player at that time had left, got married and was having a baby. His wife was having a baby and he bowed out. Uh, but I'll never forget going into uh SIR rehearsal in San Francisco and and uh just jamming with Jack Blades and uh those guys on stage and uh Jack and I just hit it off. He was doing this bouncing thing with speed. He would bounce around and I started going with him and going around with him right and they're all like and then when they got done uh Jerry goes all right band meeting in the back you stay here on stage. So, they're all huddled in a corner and they're talking and talking and I'm all right, here's this is my fate, you know, and I knew it was great because I knew they were with 20th Century Fox Records. It would have my first record, you know, all excited, right? And Cherry turns around and goes and says the All right, who's going to get the cassette back from Danny and I I knew I got the gig and they went and got it back from Danny. Danny was pissed, man. He left like he thought he had the gig. And he's an Alama. He was an alama guy too, you know, and we grew up in rival bands in high school. Uh, and uh, you know, but he went on to Anyway, we ended up being friends again. We were roommates uh, you know, and we did a lot of music together in the uh, what was what year was it? Yeah, you know, early 80s and stuff. Um, and mid 80s. And Danny went on to play with uh 38 Special for 30 years. He just left them about a year or two ago. >> So um everything worked out. >> At any time did you get a chance to check out Ronnie Montress's Strat? Because his Strat and your Strat are very similar. He had that Bill Lawrence pickup that slid up and down, but it was red and it had an early Floyd like yours and uh very similar guitar. Well, you know what? I know what your guitar you're talking about, but I never I was friends with Ronnie. In fact, we did quite a few shows with Ronnie. >> And uh here's a here's a unknown fact. Uh my brother being an electronics wiz. Uh he ended up making me wireless switching. This is these transmitters that he built into my Red Strat that would transmit a signal back to the receiver that's on your amp. and the the outs of the receiver plugged into my effects, my delay, my reverb, chorus, whatever I had, and one would go into the amp for switching. So, I was able to hit these buttons on my guitar and not be tied to a pedal board in front of me. I could walk around the end of the stage and push a button and go to my lead channel or go to my delay or my chorus. So my brother designed this whole thing and uh and Ronnie Machos caught wind of it and we found out that you know it didn't really work that well in my guitar cuz if you weren't playing and you hit the button it would go and the my pickups would pick it up broadcast it but if I was hold chords or whatever I could switch it go do this and do that. Anyway, long story short, we took the transmitter out, put it in a little box, and we mounted it to my strap so I going finally just me doing that. I gave it to Mark Newman, my guitar tech, and he did it. He had it on the side pack and he push the buttons when he wanted or he just do it at the amp and switch it. Anyway, long story short, Ronnie Montro got wind of it. My brother built him a six channel one that he put on a strap to switch his effects, too. So that's kind of crazy, >> man. I mean, it's it's that band Gamma was insane. Those first two records, man. >> Oh, yeah. And I played some of those in in the Allstars. I played some of that stuff. >> You know, that was great stuff. In fact, >> Voyager. >> I play that all the time, man. I do Voyager whenever we come down in LA, do the Nam show and do those Ronnie Montros remembered shows. Y Voyager. That's that's my uh number one pick. Let me ask you a little bit about early days of playing guitar. Um, you've got, of course, you're known for that incredible I I I guess I would call it the butterfly that >> Yeah. >> Who were your guys in the early days, you know? >> Who are who are my guys that I listen to? >> Yep. >> Well, my brother being seven years older than me and having every record on the planet in the late 60s, I would have been about 12 or 13. He had everybody from, you know, the Hendricks to Jeff Beck to Led Zeppelin. All this great music. So it's Jimmy Hendricks, Jimmy Paige, and Jeff Beck are my three. Um, and but, you know, learning by ear and stuff. My brother go out for the night and I just sit in his room and play these records and learn whatever I could. And I I'll never forget um playing a Dave Mason song, trying to learn lean guitar, lead guitar. And this song, he did this this this trill thing. Da and I figured it out by ear and I went I was like, you know, oh my gosh, I learned something new. And then, you know, just learning little by little and I I always played with the Allstars four nights a week because Night Ranger wasn't playing out between 1980 and 1983. Uh, so I'd be doing three, four nights a week with the Allstar. I was playing, you know, three, four nights a week, uh, five sets a night. And that really just honed in my my you know my skills uh playing in this club band and then got out got into Rubicon after that and that was a whole new ball game and that was great. We didn't tour that much but we did that Cal Jam too which was the pinnacle. >> How much did Eddie mean to you as far as stylewise? Oh, I I'll never forget driving down to a Rubicon show and on the radio comes uh uh uh Running with the Devil, their first single. And and everybody in in the van were go, "Oh my god, who is this?" It's this new band called Van Halen. So, everybody was blown away. Of course, you know, I got the record and and I was into it. And then this is interesting because he started doing those harmonic die bombs with this Floyd Rose locking tremolo system. I had to have one, man. I thought, you know, I I'd play these Strats. It would always go out of tune. I didn't know how to make them not go out of tune, which I know now. The different factors. I won't go into it, but um I thought I got to I got to get me a Floyd. And I had, you know, a friend of my brothers came over right right around 1978 and knocked on the door. I opened it and and he says, "Hey Brad, I got the 62 Strat. I sanded it down, took it apart, never finished it. I know you play guitar. You wanted to build up?" I said, "Yeah, this is awesome." So I took that guitar and I had uh a gallon of leftover paint from my Dawson 240Z custom paint, orange red paint. Um, so I had uh went down to a body shop, a friend of my brothers, and he sprayed gray primer, auto primer on it and then the orange red paint that was done. The neck was sanded down. I took it to a Mr. Camoto in Oakland who was a luier guitar builder. He painted it all black and got the original 62 uh uh Fender logo uh uh stick on um to put on the neck. And I just started building it up little by little, you know, routered out for a humbucking, put a humbucking in there. Back then I think it was Seymour Duncan GHF Beck model and um I wanted this this this tremolo system, this Floyd Rose system. So the story goes Eddie got the first one, Neil Shawn got the second one and the third one was available in San Francisco at Don Weir's Music. >> Oh, remember that price? >> Yep. So I went down there and they said, "Yeah, this is the third one ever made." It was like $500. $500 is $2,500 now. Whatever. >> Um, and I had a white 1975 Lesfall custom that was 12 lbs. I think it was a boat anchor. >> Yeah. >> So, I went home and I grabbed that and went down and they said, "All right." So they took my 75 white lefth custom, traded that in for the original Floyd Rose, the clamping nut, and a and a fret job for my Strat to give me new frets. And then I had a a 22nd fret because strats back then are only 21 frets. I don't know why uh Leo Fender did that, but 22 frets are what less falls have. So you can go to that highest note and bring it up to an E. Anyway, that's tech talk, whatever. But, uh, so I had, you know, new fret job, 22nd Fred added, uh, painted black neck, uh, orange red body, put it all together and and traded for that that third Floyd Rose ever made. Popped that on there, learned how to float it so it' go up and down. And then Eddie started doing his dive bombs. And I thought I always just wanted to be different, man. Just want to be different. So, I started hitting harmonics with the bar down. I'm going >> and and then I'm doing I'm throwing shapes in my mirror, you know, get my moves down, right? >> Yeah. >> And uh >> Yeah. >> And uh and I banged on the guitar and I went, "What is that?" Hit a note or cord and I figured out it was coming off the the Floyd Rose tremolo bar. the whole unit was shaking because I think I only had three springs on there instead of the five that normal strats have. >> You make it so it's looser looser and easier to bend. >> And I found out of that. So I incorporated the uh don't tell me let me harmonic at the end. Uh so that was just breaking ground for me of uh innovative ideas that I wanted to throw into our first release. I had an early Charavell, the Star Body, and it had that same early uh Floyd Rose, no fine tuners on it. And the thing I found uh annoying about it was if your guitar was out of tune, you'd have to loosen the nut, then you would tune it, but you'd have to tune it a hair under because when you did the nut, it would go sharp. And after a while, it was just like, "God, this is too much." And then eventually the finetuner model came out. I was always wondering why you didn't switch to the finetuner model. >> All right, Dean. Let's see. If you want to get into that tech talk, I'll tell you. >> Yep. >> First of all, the original Floyds that came out were cast iron steel built like a tank. >> Yeah. >> When you clamp it down, what I do, I stretch all the strings out, clamp it, play it, stretch it, it's out of tune. Undo the the three uh little Allens. Uh tune it back up. Clamp it. Play it. and out of tune a little bit. Un loosen it. Clamp it back up. Now, the little bar that's behind the nut, if that's too high, it's going to go sharp every time you clamp it. The bar has got to go perfectly angled with the slope of the string. There's your issue. That's why you went sharp because it was too high. >> And there's no YouTube to learn that. You know what I mean? >> Well, I just told you. No, >> I know. But I'm saying back in [ __ ] 82 or whatever. >> No, you know, nobody No, nobody nobody. But I I made it my thing. Um, you know, uh, all the I collect the original Floyd Rose that he made in his garage. He probably made 25 or 30. Floyd doesn't even know. Out of the 25 or 30, I have a dozen of them. These are all the exact stain, the cast iron steel ones that don't break. They they're solid. you know, a lot of, you know, the newer ones, they make out of pop metal. I don't know what to call it. You know, they're not even they're not even, you know, the right material and they they flux, they bend, they move. You know, I go for the all the ones I have my guitars on the road uh are all original uh Floyd Roses that he built in his garage and I know how to tune them. My techs know how to tune them. And because of that, I have new issues. >> Did you ever try Kaylor out at the time? >> I tried it. It wasn't my thing. didn't they didn't acclimate the way I wanted to do. They didn't do what I wanted. >> And uh, you know, I tried a bunch of, you know, and I got guitars at home here that, you know, I do I click finish guitars and I and I I have, you know, the the old Fender the old regular Fender uh, tremolo systems. I got those down. I know how to work those to keep those in tune, even with no clamp on it. You know, you got to got to file down each each nut slot, each string to make sure that doesn't bind in there. First of all, I use this stuff called uh Big Ben's nut sauce inside it. That that that No, it's not graphite. It's more like a an oil. Oh, wow. >> That makes the string slide. You got to make sure your windings are tight. This this tech talk stuff, though. But so, so these strats that I have from the 50s and 60s, all my every strat I have is floating. Um I'm able to uh set them up so they stay in tune for me. Of course, there's nothing that sounds better than original Strat from the 50s. The tone, the way the wood dries out, the way the pickups just, you know, meld into the guitar. Um, there's nothing that sounds like it. You could put a vintage copy that's a new release of a vintage Strat and play a vintage Strat, you'll notice the tone difference. Um, it's just amazing. But, uh, you know, that's what I do. I I I collect vintage guitars. I've been on the cover of Vintage Guitar Magazine a few few times. Um, my whole collection's in in there. Uh, I take I love buying a guitar, bringing it home, taking it apart, getting all the gunk off the body and everything. Uh, you know, just dialing it in, intonating it every, you know, every every string intonating it where you bring it back so it stays in when you play up top and the bottom intonation and, uh, falling down the little nuts on it. uh the the slots uh and putting the big bins nut sauce on there, winding it tight with a brand new set of strings, you know, stretching it out, doing my whole thing. Boom. Put it in my closet. I'm ready to grab it and and play it on any thing I'm doing. >> What's uh You got any 59 Pauls or crazy super old Strats? >> Yeah, I got, you know, 57 89 60 62 Strats. Um I'm looking to get it be a 54 first year. Uh, I have a 1959 Lust Black Lus custom triple pickup. Gold gold pickups on it. The holy grail of customs. >> Yeah. >> Uh, which is mint. >> Wonderful guitar. Those PAF pickups, man. >> Amazing. And a 1960 black le with three gold huckers uh with a factory Bsby on it. But I do not have a 59 57 through 19 uh 60 uh less Paul standard which is the holy grail. Right. >> Never owned one of those but uh man they're up to half a million dollars now. It's just crazy. Crazy. >> Yeah. And they're trading all over that black magic guy in Vegas. He's had like 10 in the last two months, man. Crazy. Bonamasa's got a bunch. >> Um I mean they they are the holy grail. Well, to me, man, I think the 52 Black Guard telly is the alltime uh greatest for me, you know. >> Wow. You know, that's so funny. I uh I was looking in to get me some of those, but right now I just have the 68 pink paisley telly and the 69 blue floral telly. Uh but I don't have any of those uh early 50 ones, 50s ones. Um but uh what I do have is uh I have uh three 1952 LPL gold tops. >> Oh yeah. Yeah. Yeah. >> Which are the first year no serial number and one of them is absolutely mint. The other one's very good condition. And I have one that's all gold. Back then they did the all gold version. >> Oh yeah. >> Uh which is the back the neck the back of the neck and everything front. Everything's everything's gold. Uh then I have Yeah. I I got a bunch of stuff. Where where are you living these days? >> I'm in the Bay Area. Always been in the uh San Francisco East Bay. >> Excellent. Never left. That's cool. >> Yep. >> What were your feelings when Metallica and Exodus and Testament the Thrash Metal scene started hitting? Uh did you embrace it or were you kind of like, "Wow, what is this?" >> No, I you know, I play with Aussie. I was into metal, man. I was into those guys. Um, not as much as maybe I should have because I was into more of the the, you know, the Hendricks, you know, the and the Led Zeppelin and and and Boston and and, you know, bands like that, you know, more of the melodic rock or something because that's what I was trying to emulate my style with and night rangers because we wanted, you know, hit songs on the radio. Not saying that those metal bands don't have hit songs, so they do, but that's a that's a whole different genre. It's metal, you know, and uh I was into more of the hard rock scene myself. Um but you know, I mean, I've known those Metallica guys forever and they they're always kicking butt. It's so funny, you know, I'm a big Raiders fan and back when they were back in Oakland, um standing in line to uh go to a Raider game and there's James Hetfield in line and we hanging out together. We knew knew each other and uh hung out to go into a Raider game, you know. Um, but you know, the whole metal scene, the whole music scene in the Bay Area was huge. You know, everything from, you know, you know, from from the Grateful Dead to of course the metal bands from the Bay Area and then the Journeys and uh, you know, Eddie Money and, you know, Huie Lewis and, you know, great Ken, all these Bay Area guys that were huge back then. Um, but it was it was a great scene for to grow up and then actually be part of doing these Day in the Greens, which are a lot of local bands that did this stuff, you know. Um, you know, your Eddie Monies and your Journeys and Night Rangers and stuff. But, uh, it was a great scene growing up. And luckily I had my brother seven years older than me with every record, you know, you know, everything, you know, uh, big brother in the holding company with Janice Joplain to uh, uh, you know, uh, Blue Cheer. Oh yeah, heavy band. Wow. Uh he had all these records, you know, of course Led all all those great records, but uh >> I would sit in his room and learn mainly probably the most would have been Led Zeppelin. >> Jimmy Paige had this uh style with his rhythmic uh guitar playing and just everything he did was just mindblowing, mind-blowing back then. And of course, uh, Hrix with his flamboyancy and then, uh, you know, Jeff Beck with his less is more and taste is everything. >> Well, any, um, communication with Jeff Watson? >> What about those Raiders? >> They're they're they're in Vegas. They're in Vegas and I plan on going seeing him in Vegas. No, you know, Jeff is I I you know, I hate to even bring it up because we were best friends. It just didn't work out with the rest of the guys, >> of course, >> and there was issues that happened back then and we just had to move on and and I I can't go back, but I just wish him well. And I know he's doing gigs around here, uh couple local gigs, because there's friends of mine that throw stuff off on and I see his name in the hat as sitting in and doing stuff. So, good for him. I was at the Raider stadium last Saturday to see AC/DC. Have you been to the new stadium >> twice? Yeah. Yeah. I saw two Raider games. Yeah. Yeah. >> It's really sad. >> How was How was AC/D How was AC/DC? Was it good? >> Let me tell you something, dude. [ __ ] 120 dB just coming out. You know, they got Chris Cheney on bass now and they got a new drummer Matt and so the younger guys can really lay down that [ __ ] two and a half hours of just fierce rock. It's amazing, you know, like bands like Night Ranger and and AC/DC, all these bands are still out playing. It's just amazing, you know, and you guys are playing in a high level. You guys are playing packed houses, doing flyins. Uh you got a live record out now, right? Yeah, we ended up going back and taking some of the best songs from the first couple albums and uh doing some remixing and remastering up to up the game because every all the music that comes out now with everything, the latest equipment and plugins and such, everything's able to go to 11, you know, on the radio and, you know, I'd be sitting here playing, you know, uh, rock and roll music on my home system, uh, through serious radio, whatever I'm listening to at the time, and a night ranger song will come up and you could hear the volume's lower than some of newer rock stuff that's out. And we knew that and we decided to up our game with the mixes and mastering of these these older songs and to re-release it. So when people it'll be a fresh energy with these older songs. And then we went in and took like the best songs from these later records, the four or five records we've been doing the last 10 or 15 years. taking the best from those and throw it in as a compilation with the original uh songs, our big hits from the big three records and releasing this one big record. So, we're happy about that. Something new. We haven't had a chance to go in and record anything new. We just so much going on right now. But, you know, going to Japan here at the end of the month, opening for Journey, that's going to be the pinnacle highlight of the year. And that Gatlinburgg Monsters on the Rock Festival we're doing in two weeks in uh Gatlinburgg Tennessee. That's another highlight of the year. And you know, we always, you know, end up doing these great shows with Brett Michaels. Great guy, man. I just love playing with him. He's such a positive guy. Always has to come up and do, you know, jam with him, you know, do Sweet Home Alabama. But we had to cancel a show with him last week and Friday night because he had a issue spell with his uh he's a diabetic and he had an issue and we had to cancel. But now he's better and and uh we're doing this like I said this uh uh Monsters on the Mountain uh uh Saturday night with him coming up. So we're excited about that. >> Couple questions and we'll get out of here. Uh, one of them. Were you aware of what the scene was for Boogie Nights when the song was going to be placed in there or was that done later? >> We had no idea what was going on with that song. It was basically go on and watch the movie and you'll see where your song's at. Sure enough, it was like the most intense scene. >> The big old drug >> exchange scene with the other guy, kid in the background throwing the firecrackers >> and the guy is like his his robe. >> It was just we're watching this going, "Oh my god." Sister Christian like, "Oh, are you kidding me?" But it was huge. It was huge. And and uh it's so funny that the comment was uh >> weren't we in that guy's house in the 80s. >> Anyway, >> yeah, >> it's insane. Also, the closeup on the auto reverse cassette player, they really let you know it's 80s, you know, he's all I I'd like to make my own playlist and then it goes and auto reverse. They really nailed it on that, man. It was so great. Yeah, that's what they had back then, you know. And boy, there's been a couple cartoons that uh all about the Boogie Knight scene. Uh what was that one cartoon? Oh, I can't I can't think of it so far. They did >> South Park or something. >> No, in South Park did one. >> Oh, yeah. >> And the other one with the little uh Stewie. What's it called? >> Oh, yeah. Yeah. Family Guy. >> Family Guy. They do the whole thing. You got to find Sister Christian on Family Guy. >> I'm on it. It's It's those guys walking into the drug dealers's house and they did their own take on It's hilarious. You You got to You got to see it. >> Last question. Uh, are you a Are you a comedy guy? Standup comedy? >> Sure. I love a good joke. >> Do you go see standup at all or watch it on Netflix? >> I I Oh, Netflix. Yeah. Yeah. I like to do that, but I I'm I've got so much going on with touring and stuff and try to do stuff at home that I can't make comedy shows in the Bay Area. I got too much going on and driving to San Francisco to do a comedy show. It's just a little much. But uh uh yeah, I like to watch it at home. >> That's cool. That's cool. Well, thank you for doing the show. Congrats on all these years of just killing it on the guitar. And thank you for doing the show, man. I've been a a longtime fan since the Phoenix Theater. Saw you open for Judas Priest. I've seen you everywhere. Uh, you know, Conquer Pavilion, Cow Palace, uh, and then of course with Azie, so it was great to have you on. >> I appreciate it. Are you in Vegas? Is that where you live? >> No, no, I live in Los Angeles. I was just in Vegas doing a a theater on Saturday. And Barney lives in Vegas now. >> Okay. Yeah, cuz we're doing this thing. We're opening for Kiss here in a couple months. >> Oh, yeah. >> Uh, in Vegas. We're doing this Kiss thing. We're doing a uh a couple days. We're doing a this tribute thing to Ace Freely and then we're doing a show with them on Sunday night. I forget the exact dates, but look it up. It's on on our site. So, we'll be back hanging with those guys again here real soon. >> What age song are you guys doing? >> We're trying to figure that out right now. There's a couple to choose from. We're trying to figure out who's doing what because there's a lot of a lot of musicians involved, but uh they're throwing it together now. But, it's a it should be a fun little gig. I think Saturday night we're doing the Ace thing and Sunday we're uh opening for kids for a regular regular show. So that that's in Vegas. >> Yeah, that's called Kiss Land Cruise. >> Yeah, one of the big casinos. I forget which one. >> I forget. I have to look it up. >> Thank you. And uh you guys should play Snow Blind. That'd be [ __ ] great. That's That's the Ace song. >> That's crazy. All right, I'll kick that one around. Thanks, Dean. Thank you. Brad Gillis right there from Night Ranger. Catch him in Japan. Fly out there and see him or see him with Kiss or any of the festivals or catch them out on the road. Thank you so much for doing the show. >> You got it, buddy. Take care. >> See you later.