We Will Rock You

  This podcast episode is Part Three of my in-depth interview with drummer Todd Sucherman and keyboardist/vocalist Lawrence Gowan of Styx.

     In this segment we discuss the opinions of Internet fans; Glen Burtnik leaving Styx and Ricky Phillips coming in; Glen Burtnik moving on to play with Dennis DeYoung; perception of competition between Styx and Dennis DeYoung; the possibility of a new Styx album; changes in the music business and how that affects Styx; and Todd’s instructional DVD and recent wins in the Modern Drummer polls.

     Stay tuned for Part Four of this series, which I will publish Thursday.

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     In a recent interview with AOL, Kiss bassist/vocalist Gene Simmons says he believes it is a mistake for American Idol runnner-up Adam Lambert to come out and publicly admit that he is gay so early in his career.

     “He’s enormously talented, best talent American Idol has had,” Simmons said,  ”but I think he killed his career because now the conversation is not about his talent but about his sexual preference. He’s done. You’re forcing people to deal with issues they may not be interested in. Life is unfair, and the masses don’t all live in L.A. They live in Wisconsin and Nebraska, and you’re on crack if you think the same rules apply there,” the Kiss star  continues.

     “My advice is still the same,” Simmons observed. “Shut the fuck up, just sing and let people say whatever they want. But I do wish him the best because he’s got all the talent in the world. If only the world was not homophobic, but it is. I would be the first one to vote for equal rights for gay women and men, and get the church and the state to stop telling everybody how to lead their lives, but do I think he’s killed his career? Oh, in an instant. I hope I’m completely wrong. I hope he becomes the next Beatles and proves me wrong.”

     I am in two minds about this. On one hand I think it absolutely should not matter what (or whom) a given performer does in his or her private life. On the other, I know it does matter for a large segment of the mainstream audience. For me it is no shocking revelation that Adam Lambert is gay. (Gee, really!?) But  there are certainly some people who were trying to support him while struggling with the notion that maybe they shouldn’t support him if he was gay. Those people may very well not suport him now. Sad, but a hard reality of the way the world works.

     The music business is not particularly about a given performer and his talent. As a friend of mine in the business once observed, “The music business is ten percent music, ninety percent business.” That’s another hard reality, but it’s true. Adam Lambert undoubtedly has the talent to have a giant career, but the question is, as it has always been with Lambert, “Does Middle America have the ability to embrace an openly gay entertainer unless he’s already scored with a number of hits?” Elton John and David Bowie didn’t come out until they were many years into their careers. Freddie Mercury released a statement just one day before his death confirming that he was  gay and HIV-positive. I know the world is more accepting now, but not that much.

     I agree with Gene Simmons; I, too, hope that ordinary, average working people will be able to look past Adam Lambert’s sexual preference and judge him solely on his talent. But I’m not sure that’s possible. People have such deep-seated phobias, and they have been programmed for so long, it’s awfully hard to get anyone to see the error of his ways. As I said, it shouldn’t matter one way or the other whether Adam Lambert is gay. But in the end, for a lot of people I bet it does.

     This podcast episode is Part Two of my recent interview with drummer Todd Sucherman and keyboardist/vocalist Lawrence Gowan of Styx. In this segment we discuss Styx re-recording “Renegade”, “Blue Collar Man” and “Too Much Time On My Hands” for Rock Band; JY’s wife’s illness and recovery; Styx playing some shows without JY when his wife fell ill; the possibility of Styx returning to Europe in the future; and perception of the “classic” lineup vs. the “new” lineup of Styx.

     Stay tuned for Part Three, which I will post on Monday.

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     TMZ.com has reported that Michael Jackson has died of cardiac arrest at the age of 50. 

    Jackson collapsed at his home earlier this afternoon. He had no pulse when paramedics arrived, and could not be revived once at the hospital, the site reports. 

     The singer, often referred to as “The King of Pop”, was the biggest musical celebrity of his generation. He shot to fame as a singer in the Jackson  Five before breaking away to pursue a solo career. His 1979 album Off The Wall launched him as a superstar with hit songs like “Rock With You” and “Don’t Stop ‘Til You Get Enough”, but it was 1982’s Thriller  -  with its cutting-edge videos for “Billie Jean” and “Beat It”  -  that made the singer into a cultural icon, selling 35 million copies, more than any other album in the history of recorded music.

     Subsequent albums like Bad, Dangerous and HISstory were also hits, but the last decade-plus of Jackson’s life was dominated by personal and professional turmoil. His brief marriage to Lisa Marie Presley,  two public accusations of child sexual abuse, a trial, and tremendously negative media coverage all but destroyed his recording career, and in recent years the entertainer suffered financial woes as well.

     Michael Jackson is survived by his parents, brothers and sisters, and three children from his second marriage.

     Eagle Rock Entertainment will release The Black Crowes’ new concert DVD Warpaint Live on June 30th, but you can get your copy free from We Will Rock You.

     Just email me at sterlingwit@aol.com before next Friday to enter to win.  I will choose one entry at random and I will announce that winner next Friday. It’s as easy as that!

    My second feature interview for We Will Rock You is a conversation with drummer Todd Sucherman and keyboardist/vocalist Lawrence Gowan of Styx. 

     A veteran of the Chicago recording and performing scene, Sucherman has played with the band since 1995, when he filled in for ailing Styx drummer John Panozzo on a re-recording of Styx’ first hit single “Lady”for a greatest hits package. He became the permanent drummer in Styx in 1996 upon Panozzo’s untimely passing. Gowan set aside a multi-platinum solo career in Canada to join Styx in 1999, replacing Dennis DeYoung.

     Since then the band has kept up a relentless touring pace of 100-plus shows every year, also releasing several live albums, a full-length studio album called Cyclorama, and a  covers record entitled Big Bang Theory. This summer Styx is on tour with fellow classic rockers REO Speedwagon and 38 Special. Styx and REO have recently released a single entitled “Can’t Stop Rockin’”, and Styx has three newly re-recorded tracks on Rock Band.  

    I spoke with Todd and Lawrence from a hotel room in Washington, DC where the band was slated to perform. I have interviewed Todd twice before; once for a book I wrote about Styx entitled The Grand Delusion, and once for Classic Rock Revisited in support of his wife Taylor Mills‘ solo album Lullagoodbye. Todd was exactly as he has always been, funny and sharp.

     Lawrence Gowan I have never interviewed before, although I very nearly landed him for the book as well. I had even gotten a  confirmed date and time, and when that date and time arrived the call never came. It turned out he had changed his mind, perhaps because the principals of Styx, Tommy Shaw and James “JY” Young were not participating in interviews for the book. So I always looked upon Gowan as one that got away, and I’ve always thought to myself, ‘One day, Gowan  .  .  .  one day we’ll meet again.’  It so happened that when I was promoting my Styx book I got booked on a radio talk show in Canada called Rock Talk, on which the other guests were Lawrence Gowan and James Young. That went very well  -  Gowan turned out to be a blast  -  and when I decided to ask Todd for an interview in support of the Styx summer tour I thought it couldn’t hurt to see if Gowan would be inclined to participate. He was, and again, he was very funny throughout. This is a pretty light-hearted interview; in fact the only hard part about interviewing these guys is keeping them focused on answering the questions instead of joking around with one another.

     Part One covers the band’s recent private tour of the White House, lack of an overt public political stance, the summer tour with REO and 38 Special, the recording of “Can’t Stop Rockin’” and the three new tracks for Rock Band.

     Thanks to Todd Sucherman and Lawrence Gowan for granting this interview. Stay tuned for Part Two, which I will post on Friday.

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     Blabbermouth.net reports that former WARRANT singer Jani Lane was arrested last Wednesday, June 17th in Los Angeles for a misdemeanor DUI traffic accident.

     Lane was involved in a small fender bender in the Woodland Hills area at around 9:30 PM, according to the site. Lane allegedly hit a parked car and when cops arrived at the scene, he showed signs of intoxication.

     The 45-year-old singer was arrested and taken to LAPD’s Van Nuys division where he was booked for a misdemeanor and is being held on $30,000 bail.

     When asked in a May 18, 2009 interview with “The Johnny Dare Morning Show” how he managed to “get straight,” Jani replied, “It’s just a matter of deciding you’re done, in my opinion. I mean, that probably oversimplifies it, but really, really and truly you have to go, ‘You know what? I’m done with this. I don’t like feeling like this, I don’t like living like this.’ And it’s also nice to get the creativity back, which is impossible to flow when you’re unconscious.”

     Lane originally left WARRANT in 2002 to pursue a solo career. He released a solo album, “Back Down to One”, in 2003, but shortly after was admitted to a rehab center for alcohol and drug-related exhaustion. He also appeared on VH1’s reality series “Celebrity Fit Club”.
    

    WARRANT announced in September 2008 that it was splitting with Jani Lane six months after the band first reunited with the troubled vocalist. “From the beginning of our reunion talks to the last note of our last show together in Houston [on August 31 at the Rock The Bayou festival], we have had nothing but good intentions of bringing a quality original WARRANT show to our fans and friends,” the group explained in a statement. He has since been replaced by Robert Mason.

     To be honest, I’m really not a fan, but this is still sad. I saw Jani Lane a while back in an interview on VH1 talking about Warrant’s biggest hit, “Cherry Pie”, and he looked like a tired, beaten down old man as he complained about how the success of that one novelty record has turned him, in his own view, into “that Cherry Pie guy”. He just looked sad and beaten, and I have heard the rumblings about his drunken performances at some of the Warrant reunion shows that ultimately resulted in him being replaced. Here’s a brutally honest review of one of those shows http://www.sleazeroxx.com/concert/0705war.shtml.

     Like I said, I’m not particularly a fan, but I respect that this is a guy who was focused enough, once upon a time, to build a  huge career for himself and earn a fan base, and he was a talented singer of a certain style, even if that style isn’t my particular taste. I hate to see people do this to themselves. We can only hope that this incident might provide the catalyst for Jani Lane to decide to truly turn his life around before it really is too late.

FROM ACEFREHLEY.COM
Earth People!!!
How are you?……I’m happy to say that my new album “Anomaly” is finished!
Mixed, mastered…Done!!………It clocks in as one full hour of new music………I’m waiting for my distribution company to get me solid release dates that we can decide on. I want “Anomaly” to be available to you in every store around the world that sells cds these days (and that number is shrinking). Digitally, “Anomaly” will be available on iTunes (with an exclusive bonus, album only track!!). Believe me, as soon as we decide on the release date…..you’ll be the first to know. But for now, here’s the “official” track listing for “Anomaly”……..Talk to you soon…….

1. Foxy & Free
2. Outer Space
3. Pain In The Neck
4. Fox On The Run
5. Genghis Khan
6. Too Many Faces
7. Change The World
8. Space Bear
9. A Little Below The Angels
10. Sister
11. It’s A Great Life
12. Fractured Quantum
13. The Return of Space Bear (Dedicated to Tom Snyder) <iTunes Exclusive album only track>

Bob Bogle, the lead guitarist and co-founder of instrumental rock band the Ventures, died Sunday at age 75. Bogle suffered from Non-Hodgkin Lymphoma but survived long enough to see the group get inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame last year.

The Tacoma-based band started in the late ’50s when Bogle met Don Wilson and the two became co-workers in the construction business. After realizing they both dabbled in guitar, the pair decided to form a group in their spare time in 1958. Two years later, the band recorded an upbeat version of ‘Walk Don’t Run’ — based on Chet Atkins’ 1957 take on the Johnny Smith jazz instrumental from two years earlier — which hit No. 2 on the Billboard Hot 100 chart only months later.

The band’s distinctive style, particularly Bogle’s guitar leads, is credited as the inspiration for the unique “surf rock” sound. Speaking of ‘Walk Don’t Run’ at last year’s Rock Hall induction ceremony, Creedence Clearwater Revival’s John Fogerty said, “That song started a whole new movement in rock ‘n’ roll. The sound of it became ’surf music’ and the audacity of it empowered guitarists everywhere.” The group later went on to have hits with ‘Perfidia’ and ‘Hawaii Five-O.’ Due to his failing health, Bogle stopped performing with the group in recent years and was unable to attend the Rock Hall induction ceremony in March 2008.

“Boy, I tell you, he’s the brother I never had,” Wilson told the Seattle Times. “And he is much more than any brother could be. He and I were partners for, like, 52 years. And to tell you the honest truth, we had never, ever had an argument in all that time — never.”