Speak of the Devil BRAD GILLIS ! Interview-Night Ranger Best of & Why Not Part of Ozzy Final Show

Feel [music] the power, feel the feel. Turn it up on the metal voice. The metal voice. [music] Yeah. The metal voice. 3 2 1. Welcome back to the Metal Voice. Brad Gillis, Night Ranger. >> That's it. No time to lose. We got no time to lose with you. >> Yeah. >> Hey, Jimmy. Hey. Hey, Alan. All good, man. Good to be here. Glad to be here. >> August 28th on Frontiers Records. We're getting the best of Night Ranger. Look at that. >> Wow. >> The new The new best of >> the new best. >> Yeah. [laughter] >> Well, you know what? We wanted to put a new record out. We do a record every couple years with Frontiers and uh we've been touring a lot. We do 85 shows a yearish and uh we just, you know, what can we do to, you know, throw something in the pot. So, we kind of did a remasters, remix, did some stuff and upped our game with a lot of these uh original hits and decided to put that out plus uh some other songs from the other records that that uh that these later records were actually pretty good. I thought we thought and you know throw the best of those records on there and and this is the compilation we get. >> Yeah. Yeah. So I mean okay define but Allan let me ask you something. Define remastered. So you have a song like don't tell me you love me, right? A big hit. >> What did you do? Did you remix it? Did you remaster it or what did how did what was the technology used there? Well, remixing is taking every track and if you have the multitrack and mixing it to where you everything uh your vocals, your guitars, you mix it how you want it. Once you're done with that, you make a wave form mix of it, high quality mix. Then you throw that into mastering. Mastering is a whole another ball game where they come in with the latest technology of uh of equipment that makes everything from the low end to the mid-range to the top end. They go to each frequency and they push and pull and compress and and uh you know do everything to make it sound huge. Now when we did these records back in the day back in the 1880s um we uh technology was great. I mean you know Pat Glasser and and you know did a great job on these records but nowadays everything is louder and bigger and and because of the latest technology. So we just wanted to up our game on that. So when you're listening to these new songs, uh they'll stand up with everything else that's new on the radio. You know, when I listen back to some of the Night Ranger stuff, um I'll be at home and and playing, you know, the uh uh whatever I have on uh blasting through my system. >> [snorts] >> um you know whether it's a serious radio whatever whatever I'm listening to all of a sudden you know maybe a night range song will come on from the past and that volume is just not as high as some of the latest crazy stuff I listen to like Cather and [snorts] and uh you know I like good classic big sounding rock you know and uh um you'll just notice it's not as huge as some of the latest greatest so we try to up our game uh with the uh remixing mastery >> is Is that because a lot of compression was used in the early 80s? >> Does it sound as big as maybe today? >> The quality of the songs were good because of all the uh the equipment that we use in the studio which was all the real analog gear that you know the real deal stuff. And now everything's plugins. They try to emulate those sounds from back then and uh which which are good, but um it's all about the mastering and the uh the the way that technology has it. Uh you can bring stuff up to 11, one louder. [laughter] >> I mean, don't tell me you love me. It's still one of the greatest songs from the early 80s. the moment I heard that song. They used to play it on the radio when it first came out and uh I had to I had to head downtown and buy at the local record store. I mean, it was it had that much of an effect on me and and of course it makes makes the cut here. >> Yeah. Well, you know, I got to tell you about that first release because uh I just finished up with Azie and did that tour and towards the end of 1982, early 83 finishing up over in the States with Rudy Sarzo. Rudy Sarzo, the bass player, left to go back with Quiet Riot, you know, and and it was pretty heavy in that whole camp after that tragic death of Randy Rhodess. And uh and here I got my guys, my buddies back at home finishing this uh this first Ranger record. We were called Ranger from the get-go. And I rolled the dice, man. I thought, you know what? I I just feel more comfortable going back to my guys because, you know, these are Bay Area guys that I had already spent like two years with and of course Jack Blades from years before with a band called Rubicon in the late '7s. So, I felt more comfortable coming back to my bros and uh I I rolled the dice, but I got to tell you, we Right when MTV came out, we had Don't Tell Me You Love Me. they they didn't have enough content for their uh 24/7 uh music video format that they they played Don't Tell Me Love Me literally 20 times a day and uh which which was very cool because it got the uh put a face to the music and you know and and our first tour you know we hooked up with KISS opening for Kiss. So I went right from from Aussie to opening for Kiss. Now, a lot of people don't know this, but when we were releasing that record towards the end of ' 82, um we were called Ranger, and uh I was looking through a Billboard magazine, the trade magazine, you know, that everybody looked to see was on the charts, and there was a two-page spread of this this country band called The Rangers. >> And we're like, "Oh, like, are you kidding me? Really?" So, uh, you know, Jack had written a song called Night Ranger, and then we thought, well, that's pretty cool. So, we >> we went with Night Ranger, and and the record company had to throw away, I think it was 10,000 album jackets. >> R said Ranger on it [snorts] >> to pop the night in into that logo and uh come out as Night Ranger. >> You know what's interesting? And I'm not I'm not going to talk too much about the Aussie years because we've talked about it before many times, but I was I I don't know if it was an interview we did or it was an interview you did with someone else. You mentioned when you went to meet Aussie for the first time at the I guess it was at his hotel right in New York. There was a show he was performing >> and the room was full of uh media and I think the room was also full of guitarists who were expecting to audition for Azie. Am I wrong about this? >> Well, let me tell you the story. Do you guys got time? >> Yeah. >> Yeah. We got a whole four hours because I'm I'm a good storyteller and then and I'll tell you and then I'll tell you what I know about that time. But go ahead. Okay. So, [snorts] basically, uh, you know, when when Ranger was trying to get a record deal and our putting our music together, we'd go in the studio, we were cutting our demos and stuff and which were masters, not just demos, but they were masters. And, uh, I put together this band called the I'm from Alama, California by Oakland, San Francisco Bay Area. Uh, I put together this band called the Alama Allstars. And uh the year before 1981 [snorts] uh or the right in that time period uh Aussie was playing at the Oakland stadium and [snorts] uh of course everybody heard Randy Roach coming out with the Aussie material. Everybody loved it. It's like man I got to go see this guy. So me and my musician buddies went to the saw the show and it was awesome, you know, like wow. So I started putting some of these Aussie songs in the Night Ranger set because I just loved it, right? We were doing the Crazy Train and uh and uh what we were doing two or three songs. Um and I remember driving up to one of the shows during the day and on the radio says, you know, bulletin Randy Rose has just died in a plane crash, you know, which would have been uh March 19th, 1982. Uh and I pulled over my little Dawson pickup with all my equipment in the back and I went, "Wow, you're kidding me." Right? And it re and it hit me a little differently because my father was a pilot uh for 40 years. 20 years in the Navy and 20 years commercial, ended up on 747s. But he had a private pilot's license and my dad and I used to fly up in a single engine Cessna around the Bay Area, you know. So it kind of hit home. It's like, oh my gosh. You know, then we found out all the details which are just unbelievably horrid. And um so I went up to my gig and we did a tribute to to Randy and and you know uh uh playing all the you know playing these songs and >> [snorts] >> um you know Flying High Again and like said Crazy Train and stuff and there was a guy there his name was Preston Thr. And he goes man you played these songs pretty good. Uh and this is probably a week week later playing back to that [clears throat] same gig. and Preston said, "Uh, hey man, I might be able to get you a gig with Aussie." And unless you >> Sure. Okay. Now, at that, >> you Well, at that point, that probably would have probably been would have been the biggest gig that anybody could ever have, you know. Um, and I said, "Yeah, yeah, put my name in the hat." Right. So, find out, well, his brother was Pat Thr. So Preston Thr told this brother Pat who told Tommy Aldridge who they played together in the Pat Travers band and Tommy Aldridge told Sharon. So you know little did I know that that was the channel uh of getting to Sharon and and I think it was like the next night on a Saturday night I was playing another show and I and I was up pretty late. You know, people stayed up late back then. And uh [laughter] and I and I had a new friend with me. Uh she was laying in bed and [snorts] and uh what am I what am I saying here? >> We're deviating. [laughter] >> So, so I get a call. It's like 7 in the morning and the phone rings. I'm like, "Oh my god, who's calling me?" And I I go, "Hello." And I hear this voice going, "Hello, Bradley. This is Sharon Arden Hospital's manager. we'd like to fly you to New York for an audition. And I thought, someone's screwing with me, man. [laughter] >> And I said, "Come on, who is this?" And she's like, "No, this is Sharon. Let me put Aussie on the phone." I said, "Yeah, put Aussie on the phone." In that kind of voice, right? [snorts] And sure enough, I hear this, you know, Bradley like, "Holy crap." Whichever sconing with me, they're doing a good job. But they were in New York. I was in the Bay Area. My father being a pilot, when he'd be on the East Coast and he'd call home, there was a little delay on the phone back in the 80s. >> I heard that delay. >> Uhhuh. >> And and and I got chills right now just thinking about it. And I went, "Oh my god." I'm like, I look at this girl. I go, "Yes, I uh" he goes, "Randy, you want to fly to New York and audition with the band? Grab a pen and paper and write down these songs." I wish I had that paper because I was so nerv writing it down. I wish I had that paper. Uh and uh and so I wrote down these 18 or 19 songs and I said said Aussie I you know I knew some of the Black Sabbath stuff, The Paranoise and Iron Man and stuff like that, but I only know knew three of the Aussie songs. And I said, "Aussie, I probably only know know five or six of these these 18 songs." And he said, "Well, you'll learn them, won't you?" And I said, "Of course I will." >> Yeah. >> My advantage was I learned to play guitar by ear. I just did a I just did a post on it a month ago or so about [snorts] how when I was eight years old, got my first guitar. Um uh I started taking lessons. My dad my parents wanted me to take lessons. I'm learning Mary had a little lamb, you know, reading charts. was like, you know, like the twisted sister video. I want to rock, you know, the kid, you know, like his dad, you know, and uh so my brother being seven years older than me had a buddy of his come over and if I was around 10, the guy was about 17 and said, "Brad, you're doing pretty good with the chores and stuff." He goes, "Start listening to the radio. Listen to all try to learn everything by ear. If you learn by ear, you it's a whole new ball game. you'll be able to uh learn stuff on the radio and stuff, play a record, kind of learn it instead of reading charts. Right. >> Right. >> Best advice I ever had in my life because I wouldn't have been able to do the Aussie gig if I didn't hadn't learned by ear. So, sure enough, I said, "Okay." And this is Sunday, and I think uh Monday or on Tuesday, they flew me to New York. Uh one-way ticket. I had well I figured if it was a one-way ticket maybe they want me to stay. It was it was a round trip round trip leaving come back home the next day you know. >> So so I flew to New York uh all nervous. Oh let me back up. So I went and I started learning uh from the Aussie records. Started learning all this material but of course [snorts] I couldn't learn everything. And and Sharon and Aussie Aussie knew this. Uh, and when I flew to New York, I got in around 11:00 at night. By the time I got to the Helmsley Palace in Manhattan, a big huge five-star hotel. Um, I I uh had a limo driver picking me up and I'm grilling this limo driver. Oh, where's all the What am I doing at the limo driver, you know, with a little hat and a suit on the Mr. Gillis, I'm only your driver. I I don't know anything. It's like, you know. So, he takes me to the Helmsley Palace and I walk in to the reservation desk and I and I I said, "Uh, uh, room for Brad Gillis." And the lady's like, "Uh, I'm sorry. Nothing." Uh, what about, uh, Aussie Osborne, you know, uh, camp, you know, under the No, I don't have you. Uh, Larry Mcini, the road manager. Sorry, Mr. Gill, we don't have a room with your with your name on it. Okay. This is a good start, right? I said, "How much is the room?" And this is 1980 uh2. So, uh, she said, "$135," which is probably $400, $500 now, whatever. Whatever. Um, so I gave her $135, had $15 in my name, no credit card, got in my room, and just sat there. I was like, "All right, what do I do now?" Right? And they were playing Madison Square Gardens that night with Bernie Tormet, the interim guitar player that was a friend of Aussies from England. Came out just to push the tour along until they could find someone to take over. So I get a I get a call from Larry around midnight saying, "Oh, you made it." I said, "Yeah, yeah, I'm here." He goes, "Come come on up to the presidential suite on the top floor and come meet everybody." And I, you know, if that was on the 30th floor and I was staying on the 20th floor, I didn't take the elevator. I ran up the stairs cuz I was just too excited. Right. Okay. [snorts] And I come up to these big huge double doors. I hear this music in the background, people talking, right? Bang on the door. And Larry McNeely answers the door. He goes, "Hey, Brad, you made it. Cool, man. Everything good?" I said said, "Dude, I I I you didn't have a reservation for a room." And I and and I had to pay for the room and I got $15 through my name. And he goes [snorts] pulls out his wallet and go pumps up five $100 bills and says, "Will this work?" And I go, "Yeah, that'll work." All right. [laughter] He goes, "Come on in. Come on and eat and and meet Sharon and Aussie." And I'm looking around. There's literally 50 people in this presidential suite. And I go, "Larry, how many of these guys are auditioning? I mean, there's, you know, a lot of long-haired guys in their 20s or whatever, uh, and just media. And he goes, "No, these are these are media people, um, uh, people this, uh, people that work for the band, yada this, yada that." >> I got to pause you right there. I got to pause you right there. So, Luke, who played for Riot, he was there and they told him, "You can audition for Azie, >> you know, and he died." Now, he I'm just giving a little piece of information. He goes he was asked to audition, but he never auditioned because I guess they found you when they liked you before. >> He was actually there. And that's that's what I wanted to tell you. >> Oh, maybe there was a few guitarist. >> So, there were other again, we're we're assuming there was other ones with the exception of him, right? >> We know there was at least one. >> Well, yeah. Well, as far as Larry was concerned, it was just me, which made the pressure a little more on me [laughter] thinking, "Oh, I I guess it's just me, right?" So, [snorts] so, uh, Larry takes me to Sharon. Sharon, this is Brad Gillis, uh, from the Bay Area, uh, to audition. And Sharon, oh, Brad, nice to meet you. Okay, come on over and meet Aussie. And [snorts] I walk over to the couch and Aussiey's there and he's like, uh, he's he's not in good shape. Not in good shape. And she goes, uh, she goes, Aussies Bradley. and uh and he's he's here to audition. He goes, "Go get your guitar." And I said, "Uh, pardon me, go get your guitar." And I said, "I I don't have an amplifier." And he looked at me like, "Did you hear what I just said?" Right. I said, "Okay, I'll go get my guitar." [laughter] So, I ran back down the stairs, didn't even take the elevator, and ran back up with my guitar, with my my 62 red stair. [snorts] And uh this this this suite at it, a big huge room, big windows overlooking Manhattan, and there was this stairwell that went up to the master bedroom. And Aussie goes, "Come on, come with me." And we start walking up the stairs, me and my guitar and Aussie. And all of a sudden, the room fell quiet, you know. I look behind me and there's 50 people looking at me like this is this is the big audition, right? And no pressure there, right? Uh so we go into the room and Aussie shuts the door and I sit at the end of the bed and he goes, "What you want to play?" [clears throat] I said, I said, "Flying high again." Because it's got that big huge solo in it with the tapping and everything. And I had that down very well. And he sits on the floor with his legs crossed looking up at me. And I'm sitting at the end of the bed looking down. I like, how freaking surreal is this? Oh my god. And I Oh no. Oh no. Here we go now. And he's singing to me, right? How unreal is this? I got a craney land feeling. All right. So I'm going, okay, no amp. I'm just playing my guitar. And it got to the solo. And I did that that big Randy Road solo, you know, and at the end goes through all these chord changes and I finish the solo and Aussie jumps up and I jump up and he gives me a big hug with our guitar in between us, right? [laughter] And goes, "Bradley, I love you. Bradley, I love you. Pull me through." I said, "Aussie, I'll do whatever I can, man. I I'll do whatever I can." And he he he opens up the door and I got a new guitar player, right? Right. >> And I walked downstairs and everybody was like, "Well, who are you?" And no, no, no. Wanted to know everything about me, which I I was really a nobody. I was in Rubicon and that had minimal success. And uh but you know, I just told him who I was. Uh and basically I went back to Larry. He goes, Larry said, "Come on, you got to be joining us the next few days on the bus and um we'll get you a little boom box and I'll get you a couple board cassettes uh that you could really hear hear everything uh easily with the whole set changes, everything that went on the set. There was, you know, all these uh segways into one song and the other yada this yada that." And so I would sit in my room with a little amp uh a little boom box uh with a cassette player and play these board tapes with Randy on it that was recorded I think in February month before he passed and would sit in my room all day and learn by ear going through everything. [snorts] And at night I wouldn't even go to soundcheck. At night I would go to the show and stand at the soundboard and watch the show. And I'm watching the sold out every night watching the show with the with the big huge castle and the the bombs going off, you know, and and the killer lights and everything and I'm I'm I'm freaking out. I'm literally I'm freaking out. >> Brad, I just want to ask you something. I just want to pause you for a second. >> Were you asked to go to the final Aussie show? I just It just came to me now. It's just like >> I couldn't go. I was on tour with my band. I couldn't put everybody out of work, you know, >> and everybody wanted you to pay your own way, whatever. But here, I'm paying my own way. I'm on tour. What do I do? Do I cancel the tour and put 15 people out of work, you know? >> So, I couldn't do it. I >> But but did they they must have asked you, right? I'm assuming. >> I I I I got an email inquiring if I was interested in coming and I thought about it. >> I would have loved >> and I thought I I can't I can't do this. I I I had wanted to um we're on tour, you know, uh you know, and the place we were playing the night of the actual show was a big festival. We had 8,000 people there. Um it's what it was. Um and I would have loved to make make it and and been part of that, but uh it's what it was. But uh so anyway, so I sat in my room for 4 days learning everything I could. Of course, when I had any problems, issues with, uh, uh, harmonies with, uh, you know, uh, with with with the keyboards, uh, you know, and harmonies together and stuff, uh, I would call Don Ary and he would give me exactly what I should be doing, he's doing. Uh, any problems with other stuff, I call Rudy. Rudy was awesome. He'd come over and, uh, he would, uh, help me out with any, any questions I had. And, uh, then on that fifth day, I thought I was ready to go. And you know, I went to soundcheck [snorts] and I, okay, I've never played with a band before. I only played seven out of the 18 songs at soundcheck because of time >> with the opening act having to set up and opening the doors >> and Azie wasn't even there >> for the sound check. That's how things are a little crazy, right? >> So, I played my first night. I didn't know what to wear. I didn't know how to stand. I didn't know what was required of me. And and Rudy came up to me one hour before the show and said, "Oh man, the first song, man, you got to go back and forth over the mountain. You got to go back and forth with your neck." I go, "Are you kidding me?" So, I stood in front of the mirror for 20 minutes and learned to play by doing that, too. And it wasn't as hard as I thought. When I first thought of it, I thought there's no way. But that's what Rudy did. That's what we did together to start the show. Okay. show playing the first show and it's like a big New York and uh sold out 8,000 what it was 6 to8,000 people and I was I was just I was scared nervous and uh I screwed up on uh Revelation Mother Earth which is a ballad that kicks in halfway through >> and I kicked in a a verse and a chorus too early and um I'm going that fast part and Aussie looks over with me with this look of death like like a and I stopped playing and everybody's still going and I hear it going, you know, playing that fast for part. Anyway, I got myself back in the uh in the right right groove of the song and then went to the fast forward and then finish it out. The funny thing, the joke is uh Sharon everyone at the end I felt so bad. Everyone said, "Brad, no, you're doing fine. You know what you've been through and you know, never even played with the band or even rehearsing. Uh you're doing fine. And Sharon comes up to me and goes, "Bradley, you're doing a great job, but tomorrow night, don't [ __ ] up." >> No pressure. No, no pressure. No pressure there. So anyway, uh there you go. >> That's a crazy story. >> I read I read recently, and you can maybe shed some more light. We know Bernie Tada was temporary. He had a record contract he was going to go over fulfilled. But I read recently that Rudy's brother was lining up to replace Bernie and he was actually told he had the job and then you showed up and he's like, "Well, what's going on here? I don't know if >> Well, you know, there Yeah, I know a lot. There's a lot of backstory about who was who they contacted, George Lynch, and all the every there's a lot of stories. Uh, but the thing was I didn't know if I was going to have to audition with five or 10 other players and they just gave me the gig. It might have been after that, you know, sit in the end of the bed of an Aussie suite. He just said, "I pick you." You know, maybe it was my long blonde hair. >> Uh, I I I I don't know. But they they gave me the gig and they assured me that I had the gig. And [snorts] you know, then there's stories after the first first leg that they were down in LA and they try to audition other people. And [snorts] I mean, who knows? But I had the gig and I did the whole tour. Um and you know it it was a wonderful part of my life and I learned so much uh my career you know just uh how to tour with a a major band and the whole movements and and uh what is required from you to be in a top level A-list band. And I learned so much that really reflected on when I left and came back to Night Ranger. Uh you know tell them you know this is how you got to do it. Um, and of course, you know, they we hopped right on with Kiss and Paul and Jean were awesome. Awesome. They took us under their wing and and they were as nice as they could be to us. They just >> Oh, yeah. >> loved uh loved us. And we did that tour. But then we went on and toured with of course anybody and everybody until the second record and we released uh You can still rock in America huge off of Midnight Mattis and then of course Sister Christian and that uh >> uh took us to the new level and then all of a sudden we were able to headline and we designed our own staging and everything and and uh you know [snorts] it was great because we pulled into Lacrosse Wisconsin uh when Sister Christian was huge tonight our first headline show tonight Ranger sold out. It was awesome. >> All right. >> Yeah. You know, you got a song in the album called Growing Up in California. Can you get us, you know, you said you grew up around Oakland, Almea? What was the scene like back then? And and what do you miss the most and what is the stuff you say, "Oh, I'm glad I I'm glad we're not doing that anymore." >> Well, the scene was great. Uh, just to back up, like I said, my brother being seven years older than me in the late 60s when everybody [snorts] from Hendricks and Led Zeppelin and and and uh, you know, the Almond Brothers and all those great records that came out in the late 60s. My brother had every record and learning by ear and still learning by ear. My brother being 17, 18 years old, he would go out every night. I would sit in his room, put on these headphones on. My brother was in electronics and he built me this little box. And he took me out of the turntable and went [snorts] into this box. Uh, and in the box had a little mic preamp and a little distortion box that he built me that [snorts] had a knob on it, a balance knob that went from the record player to my guitar sound with a headphone out. So I'd put on all these great records and I'd sit in his room and put on let's put one all you know you know blue cheer that double record you know that they had and jam along to it every night every every day after school if my brother wasn't in his room doing something and and every night uh after dinner I would sit in there as long as I and on weekends all weekends uh learning whatever I could and it really progressed me to the point where when I was a fresh uh a freshman in high school, I got hired by a band of all seniors uh to be their guitar player. Uh so I was lucky enough to learn early and uh make a career out of it. That sounds like [laughter] >> um uh you know I we were interviewing Ingry Mount and we were talking about hearing aid and he goes and this is a negative not negative or positive just it's just an observation. He goes I was waiting Brad Gillis was working on his solo and working on a solo. He goes he took two hours to perfect his solo on the herinade. Is that true? Is there any truth to that? >> I don't believe that two hours. [laughter] There's no >> that's what he said. That's what he said. He goes too. And I get it's not a negative or a positive. It's just an observation. That's all it is. And that's you. You didn't mean it in bad. >> No, cuz we did we did all that in the day. There's so many guitar players. I was probably in there a half hour. I mean, and he was after me. So that's why he you know, >> who knows? Yeah. >> But right, >> but you know that that was a great time. It was awesome. And I it's just great to get a mention by Ingve. Thank you. But [laughter] >> but it wasn't negative. It just wasn't a negative. That's all I'm trying to say. It was just an observation. >> Oh, no. We I ended up doing it doing a couple takes and then they chopped it together how they felt, you know. Um >> but uh you know, there were so many guitar players doing these solos. There's no way I could have done two hours. But >> [laughter] >> uh you know, yeah, I don't think he is the most patient man in the world, you know. [laughter] >> That's it. It seemed like two hours to him. Yeah. Is there anything else you want to talk about in regards to the best of Night Ranger? >> Tell everybody. >> Well, you know, I I think it's great to put something new out that, you know, we did these remixes, mastering of all these songs and put some of the best from the last four or five records, which I think are great records that we've done the last 10, 15 years. Um because the sound uh we were able to uh capture the the big sound with everybody's doing now like I told him, you know, the the latest equipment and stuff and and I [snorts] thought uh you know, Jack and our main songwriter came up with some great ideas that we all you know uh worked off of and you know, we're putting the what we picked as the best of these later records uh in this best of night ranger. So there's a lot going on with the record from the old and new that pretty much is a uh you know showcase of our career. >> So I don't think you answer my question. Did you take did you actually remix the old songs or you remix the new songs? >> No the old song the new songs are already there. Those are all up to par. Those are recorded in the last 10 12 15 years whatever and everything. But 40 years ago they >> Yeah. No. [clears throat] No. But I mean it wasn't a remaster. It was a remix and a remaster. That's what I was getting at. The levels were rebalanced >> of of the old of the old >> songs of the older songs. The older songs. Yes. >> They sound great, by the way. They sound great. They sound amazing. They They really do. >> Good. Thank you. Thank you. Out Yeah. >> Yeah. >> Before this came out, I mean, I I was listening to your 40th 40th anniversary with the Contemporary Youth Orchestra album. I mean, how how did you guys manage to stay together for so long? Um, well, okay. Okay, there's a couple of reasons. Uh, first of all, we like playing weekends. We don't tour for a month. That at our age, that kills us. Everybody gets all grumpy, missing home, yada this. Um, we like to do weekends. We uh just like this weekend, I fly out Thursday, play Friday, Saturday, I'm home on Sunday. That's what we like to do to with our 80 to 90 shows a year. That's our peace level. keeps the peace, right? And uh and uh you know, then we're all able to do our own projects, whatever during the week when we're home. Um [snorts] as far as, you know, just getting along, everybody jokes and has fun. Anybody that any egos that pop in that gets cut off uh knowing everybody somebody will call somebody out if they start to throw their ego and stuff out of. So, a lot of that and you know, and Carrie Kelly, the other guitar player, funny man, hilarious, great guitar player. Great guitar player. And and Eric Levy, our keyboard player, he's like, "Hey, wow, man." Okay. Yeah. Yeah. He's just the simplest guy in the world. Yeah. Come on. And he's he's just just funny and and everybody has their humor and stuff and we tell jokes and and [snorts] uh you know, we have a great A-list crew. I mean, I got Darren Hurst right now. Darren did Frampton for five or six years and did Joe Perry for eight or nine years, whatever it is, and now I have him. He came in and rewired my whole rig now. And my tone, he upped my game with some of this crap I had and put in some of the state-of-the-art gear. And I I'll never forget after he rewired everything, we were doing a sound check and we got done and our sound man Dave Radley's [snorts] comes up after he goes, "What in the hell? What happened to your sound and and I go I pointed to it was him." He goes, "Man, dude, you sound twice as big now. It's huge. I love it." I thought, "Okay." You know, [laughter] so so that really helped out a lot, you know, we having guys like that. our lighting guy, Steve Coker. What he's doing on stage now is unbelievable, man. Uh whenever we have the big LED screen behind us, it the content he puts on that screen is overwhelming. You're like, "Oh my gosh." You know, um uh we then we ended up putting screens on the front front line of the amps. Uh Carrie and I turn our speakers, point them the other way. Of course, we all have in ears so we could hear what we want to hear, but we tune turn the speakers and point them the other way. We could crank the amps louder to get speaker crunch [snorts] and it doesn't reflect on stage to blow everybody out because they're pointed the other way. So, uh, and and with that, Steve put this video line that's 4t tall all across our front line [snorts] uh, and puts content on there, you know, and, uh, you know, everybody else in the crew, everybody, they're just, uh, a-listers at their game. And right now this machine is running fluid, man. It's awesome. >> Yeah. The tour started on the 7th and you're working your way through uh for quite a quite a while all the way up to March March 2nd of 2027. >> No, the tour started in 1983. [laughter] >> But there's also, and I just want to add this before we let you go, there's Feliz Navidid as a bonus. I think at least I didn't hear that. And there's also Hole in the Sun, which is a bonus track for Japan. They didn't give us those promos, but they did mention them on the list. So, remastered, right? >> The classics, >> some great uh, you know, contemporary or not contemporary, but in the late later years, these years, I guess. >> Yeah. The the best of each of those records, you know. >> Yeah. The best of what we thought were the best. Yeah. >> And it's a great It's a really enjoyable to listen to, and everything sounds great. It's a big album, man. It really sounds good, man. Congratulations. >> Well, I'm I'm glad you're the you guys are the first ones uh with interviews I've been doing that actually reflected on listening to it. What I'm what I'm getting at is is uh we're excited to release this record. We've [snorts] we were signing 2500 >> uh CD covers uh and we only got through a thousand of them. Uh and we then we had a show to do. We're going to be signing the rest this weekend that people could get uh individually signed uh uh jackets to come on the CD. Uh which is cool. We're just trying to pump it however we can. But you know, it's exciting to have that out. Yes, we're touring heavily. We're all over the map. But our big show is coming up. We actually we got a couple. Um we're doing that show uh what's that? Gatlinburg. Uh Monsters on the Mountain. [snorts] That's a big one. That's coming up in like two weeks, I think. >> Uh that's huge. A three-day festival. And I think we're uh Brett Michaels and us are doing the Saturday night which is great. Brett's Brett's awesome. We've been doing a lot of shows with him. Just wonderful man. Wonderful man. And then we're opening for Journey in Japan at the end of the month. >> Nice. >> So we're flying out for that. And you know we grew up with Journey. They took us under their wing when we first came out. And of course we did that huge huge tour with Journey and Foreigner in 2011. We did 40 45 shows with them all [snorts] over the world. and we went off to Japan on our own that came back and joined them in Europe. Uh journey that Neil and everybody have always been great and supported us and took has taken us under their wing for different tours and such. So, you know, everything's great, man. You know, uh but doing this weekend warrior thing has been awesome because it gives us time to go do our thing, come home. I'm trying to put out this solo record. been trying to put it out forever and I'm really uh coming down to the finishing stuff off and I did some uh I did some remakes of some classic songs uh hurt by 9in nails. I redid that. >> Great song. Oh, >> the song called Alone by the Cure, which is very ethereal song, and I'm singing and doing everything. And of course, some this old classic stuff that I did with Gary Moon, who we did the the uh Feeding Off the Mojo record when Jack was doing the Damn Yankees. Kelly and I did this record called Feeding Off the Mojo. And and Gary Moon was the lead singer uh bass player. Awesome voice. Got a bunch of stuff with him and just trying to get everything together to start uh throwing stuff out. Maybe want one per month or whatever. I'm trying to that's another thing. >> When's the album coming out? >> I don't know what to do. I don't know whether to release an album or do singles one at a time. Trying to figure that out. But when I I'm I'm I'm mastering my my [snorts] big songs right now. Uh and it's it's Are are you singing on all the songs? >> Yes, I'm singing on these remakes I'm telling you about. And Gary Moon's singing on half the new material and I'm singing on the other half. >> Hey, thanks. It was a real pleasure. Great meeting you. >> Best best August. >> All right. Thank you. >> August 28th on Frontiers. Pick it up. >> All right. Thank you guys. Appreciate you.