| Diana: | I'm Diana DeVille, your rock goddess, hanging
out with you here on the 'net, and
along
with us we've got Doug Aldrich, who
rose
to fame in the 80's with Lion and Hurricane,
worked with Dio on his last record
and tour,
and now has joined up with Whitesnake
for
the U.S. tour, and getting ready to
start
the European tour, coming up next Saturday
for a month. So we have Doug on the
phone.
Hi Doug! |
| Doug Aldrich: | Hi Diana, how are you? |
| Diana: | I'm doing great, how about yourself? |
| Doug Aldrich: | I'm great! |
| Diana: | Great! Well thanks for taking some time out
to talk to us. |
| Doug Aldrich: | I'm glad to be here, thanks for having me. |
| Diana: | Well, my pleasure. Now first of all, congratulations
on an excellent U.S. tour, I saw you
guys
in L.A., and it was just really incredible
seeing you guys playing. |
| Doug Aldrich: | Yeah, we had a good time, thanks so much. |
| Diana: | Well, my pleasure. I thought Whitesnake put
on the hottest show that night, out
of the
3 bands. I think a lot of people thought
the same thing. |
| Doug Aldrich: | Well, for me, personally, I love the Scorpions,
too. They're like a well-oiled machine,
they
kick butt. |
| Diana: | Yeah, now looking back, what were your thoughts
on how the U.S. tour went? |
| Doug Aldrich: | I have no complaints. It went really well,
and the reception was great, and David
sounded
great. The band is made up of a couple
of
older guys, older meaning original
members.
Or original-ish members. And a couple
of
us new guys, and it's a really strong
lineup,
seems like. |
| Diana: | Great. Did it meet your expectations as to
what you thought it was going to be
like? |
| Doug Aldrich: | It pretty much exceeded them. I didn't go
into it expecting anything, really.
I knew
it would be good, because I knew the
band
was good. But the responses we got
were really
amazing, and everybody was really supportive
of the new members, which was great. |
| Diana: | Excellent. Were there any shows that really
stood out? |
| Doug Aldrich: | There was a bunch. One in particular......there
was a couple of Canadian shows that
were
just really just like magic. Montreal
was
one of them, and.....let's see......they
were all good. There was a couple in
Florida,
West Palm Beach was really good cool,
Phoenix
was great. I think that overall it
was pretty
consistent. |
| Diana: | Great. Well how is it working with David
Coverdale? |
| Doug Aldrich: | It's cool. I'm totally blessed by working
with 2 of the best singers in rock.
And David
never lets you down. He's on stage
kicking
ass every night, and sounds better
than ever. |
| Diana: | Now how did you hook up with him? |
| Doug Aldrich: | I think he was talking to John Sykes about
putting together a reunion tour of
Whitesnake.
It's the 25th anniversary of Whitesnake.
And for whatever reason that didn't
work
out, or maybe I got involved in the
picture.
And maybe that's part of the reason,
I don't
know. But I got a call from some of
the Whitesnake
people, and said that David was interested
in talking to me. So we talked, and
at that
point in time I was free for the year
anyway,
because I had just gotten off the road
with
Dio. And we started rehearsing, and
it's
gone from there. |
| Diana: | Great. Now you head to Europe next week to
start your European tour. And do you
have
any expectations for that leg of it? |
| Doug Aldrich: | That it's going to be pretty cool. Whitesnake
is massive over there, as they are
over here.
But in Europe it runs a little deeper,
because
they've got a few other records that
never
really came out in the States, that
were
really big hits there. And David, from
his
roots of Deep Purple and the earlier
Whitesnake,
has a bunch of really hardcore dedicated
fans there that are expecting us to
kick
their ass. |
| Diana: | Excellent. Now what do you think the biggest
difference between the U.S. and the
European
tours will be? |
| Doug Aldrich: | The money, probably. (laughs) Well, now they
have the euro over there, so a lot
of places
it's just one currency. But if you
go to
England, it's pounds. If you go to
Sweden,
it's something else. And then they've
got
the euro for a lot of the other places.
But
it's probably similar to the U.S.,
I think.
The U.S. was really loud, and I hear
that
Europeans are loud, too. |
| Diana: | Great. How long of a set are you going to
be doing? |
| Doug Aldrich: | About an hour and a half, I think. |
| Diana: | And is your set list going to be pretty much
the same as it was here in the U.S.,
or will
it be different? |
| Doug Aldrich: | Yeah, it's going to be different. We're adding
some extra songs, some older songs.
And we're
extending a couple of things that we
were
doing in the States. We played about
an hour
and 5 minutes. We'd go on about 5 minutes
early in the States, and we played
about
an hour and 5. So we're going to be
able
to add 3 or 4, maybe 5 songs, depending
on
how it goes. |
| Diana: | Great. Now who's touring with you? Are you going to be doing it alone this time? |
| Doug Aldrich: | No no no. That's one of the coolest things
for me is Gary Moore is going to be
one of
the bands that's supporting us, and
it's
going to be amazing. Y & T is the
other
band, at least on the English dates.
So seeing
2 of my favorite guitar players play
every
night is going to be amazing. |
| Diana: | Great. Well, that will be really cool. Well,
let me take a moment to play a song
from
the set that I'm sure you'll be doing,
"Slide
It In". I know that this is one
that
you did during the U.S. tour, so a
quite
popular tune here. Let's check it out.
Doug
Aldrich from Whitesnake here, and "Slide
It In". It's KNAC.com and it is
the
Wild Side. Whitesnake-"Slide It
In" |
| "Slide It In" / Whitesnake is playing
.... |
|
| Diana: | So now, just before you joined up with Whitesnake,
you were finishing up the touring with
Dio,
for "Killing The Dragon",
which
you also recorded on the record as
well.
Are you going to be returning to working
with him after the tour is over? |
| Doug Aldrich: | I don't know really know what's happening
with that. I know that Ronnie's got
dates
that are booked with Iron Maiden and
Motorhead
that's going to be cool. But he got
Warren
DeMartini in the band. |
| Diana: | Oh, so that is confirmed? |
| Doug Aldrich: | Well, I think it is. I don't know. But I'm
definitely concentrating on Whitesnake
right
now, and I look forward to the future
with
writing and recording with Whitesnake
as
well. I'd love to work with Ronnie
again,
although he's got a great guitar player
now. |
| Diana: | Oh, O.K.... terrific. And then I know that
you also do a little producing on the
side,
and also you have your own band. Tell
me
a little bit about that? |
| Doug Aldrich: | Because I'm a guitar player, I like to experiment
with sound and tweak things. It's like
a
fun thing when you get a band to come
in,
and you don't have to play. You can
just
concentrate on getting the soundthat
they
are on tape. Which is something that,
a lot
of times in the studio, you just get
frustrated
as a musician because you feel like
the producer
or engineer didn't capture what you're
really
about. So I enjoy having people come
in,
all kinds of different stuff, from
blues
bands to some hip-hop people. And it's
fun
for me. And then sometimes friends
will want
to do demos or something. And it gives
me
an opportunity to twist the knobs.
And with
my own band, it's an opportunity for
me to
kind of call the shots and experiment
with
my music without having somebody else
that
I'm working for, or working with, I
can pretty
much do whatever I want. And that band
is
called Burning Rain. We haven't done
anything
for a while because I've been busy.
Once
I got in Dio, we were full time recording.
And then we toured for 8 months. And
then
immediately I started working with
Whitesnake,
and David's kept us really busy. We're
going
to be busy the rest of the year, it
looks
like. |
| Diana: | Is there going to be a new Whitesnake record,
do you think? |
| Doug Aldrich: | Well I'd like to, I hope so. I've been working
on song ideas and just kind of stockpiling
stuff. But we've been kind of in touring
mode. We've recorded all the shows
that we've
done so far in the U.S. and Canada.
And we're
going to continue recording in Europe.
So
there's definitely material for a live
record.
There's talk about DVDs, so we'll see
what
happens. But I hope to be in the studio
at
the end of the year. |
| Diana: | Well, I think it's interesting because Whitesnake's
been away from the scene for so long,
and
I think everybody’s really wanting
to hear
what they're sounding like. You know
the
reviews have come in from the U.S.
tour,
and they're sounding great. So I think
the
rest of the world wants to hear you
as well. |
| Doug Aldrich: | Yeah, I want to hear it too. I'd love to
play on it. So let's get it rockin'! |
| Diana: | Yeah, absolutely. Great. Well, I want to
take a little break here. I want to
do some
of your work from the "Killing
The Dragon"
CD, just kind of get some of that in
there
as well. One of my favorite tracks
from the
CD was "Better In The Dark",
just
because it had just such a shredding
solo
on it. |
| Doug Aldrich: | Thanks. |
| Diana: | Let's check it out. This is from the "Killing
The Dragon" CD, it's Dio, Doug
Aldrich
playing on this. KNAC.com, it's the
Wild
Side. Dio-"Better In The Dark" |
| "Better In The Dark" / Dio is playing
.... |
|
| Diana: | Pure rock, KNAC.com, we are back here on
the Wild Side with Doug Aldrich, who
is in
Whitesnake, getting ready to go out
on the
road again in Europe. So it’s going
to be
a lot of fun, I'll bet you're really
excited
about that? |
| Doug Aldrich: | It's gonna be great. We're getting ready
to leave Tuesday, and I'm just actually
working
on (begins playing his guitar)....just
working.... |
| Diana: | Very nice! Had a little demonstration there. |
| Doug Aldrich: | Yeah, so we're just getting ready to go.
We're leaving Tuesday. |
| Diana: | Great. So then the tour actually starts Saturday.
And that is.....let's see, I think
that's
what my tour dates said. I’m here
looking
at them....yeah, in the U.K. at Ipswich
this
Saturday. And so that will be running
about
a month? |
| Doug Aldrich: | Yeah, it's about 6 weeks, actually. We put
a couple of extra dates on the end.
There's
an extra show in Greece, and a show
in Sofia,
Bulgaria. |
| Diana: | Wow, that's going to be fun. So you guys
are going pretty much all over
the country,
or the continent, rather, I guess? |
| Doug Aldrich: | Yeah, there's a few places we're missing.
But hopefully we'll be back. |
| Diana: | It looks like there are a lot of U.K.
dates, and Ireland, Germany, Austria,
Czechoslovakia, Netherlands, Sweden,
Italy and
Greece, that I'm looking at. And there's
probably some more that I'm not having.
That's
pretty cool. Are there any particular
places
that you're looking forward to playing? |
| Doug Aldrich: | Well, Ireland I've never been to, that's
gonna be really cool. I've never been
to
Greece. We're playing in Athens at
this really
old.....I guess it's an old theater
or something,
outdoor arena venue thing. And that's
gonna
be cool. I'm looking forward to all
of it.
I love being in Europe. |
| Diana: | Well, it looks like a great little tour there.
It looks like you get to go to a lot
of places that
they don't really normally get bands.
Because
usually you see people in the U.K.
and maybe
Germany, maybe a few places here and
there.
But generally a lot of these places
are a
little too exotic. But you're
gonna
get to ht 'em. |
| Doug Aldrich: | Well, it's gonna be a lot of fun, and everyone's
ready to go. So we're just waiting
for the
plane. |
| Diana: | Excellent, excellent. And that's going to
be you said, with Y & T and Gary
Moore? |
| Doug Aldrich: | The U.K. dates are with Gary Moore and Y
& T, yeah. And then the rest of
Europe
I'm not sure who's playing with us
on those
dates. But I'm sure it will be a good
band. |
| Diana: | Excellent, o.k. Now let's talk about your
website, for a moment, dougaldrich.com.
Pretty
much anything that people want to know
about
you? |
| Doug Aldrich: | Yeah, you know, websites are funny.
You go there and check it out, and
if you
go a couple of time and there
aren't
any updates, then you get like 'well
o.k.
there's nothing new'. So it's difficult
for
me when I'm traveling so much to get
it updated.
But I've got a couple people that are
helping
me look after it. Hopefully we're
gonna
be able to keep it really fresh, so
when
people come back there will be something
new. |
| Diana: | Do you normally keep it up yourself? |
| Doug Aldrich: | No, I've got a webmaster that takes care
of it. And I've just recently got a
friend
that's helped me organize things with
him,
with the webmaster. So between the
3 of us,
we should be able to get it going. |
| Diana: | Great, o.k. Well, it was a very exciting
site when I looked at it. Because it
had
not only your biography and stuff like
that,
but also your discographies and pictures,
very cool flash stuff on there. So
that was
pretty cool. And also for Whitesnake
information,
there's also whitesnake.com, which
is the
actual Whitesnake site there. |
| Doug Aldrich: | Great site, yeah. |
| Diana: | Yeah, very cool. Alright, well, best of luck
on the tour, Doug. And thank you for
checking
in with us. Hope you have a great time
over
in Europe and the U.K. |
| Doug Aldrich: | Yeah, absolutely. We're really looking forward
to it. And thanks for everybody that
came out and supported us on the last
U.S.
run. And we're actually putting together
a new summer run that would start mid-July. |
| Diana: | And that's here in the States, right? |
| Doug Aldrich: | Yeah. |
| Diana: | O.K., great. Do you know who's that's gonna
be with yet? |
| Doug Aldrich: | I know who they're talking about, but I don't
want to say yet. But it's gonna be
great, and
to be able to play a little bit longer
show,
and get back to it. We actually didn't
go
through a lot of the cities, you know
there's
a lot of great rock markets that we
didn't
go to on the Scorpions part of it.
So we're
going to hit those spots this summer. |
| Diana: | Great. Well, best of luck to you. Can't wait
to see you out on the road again, and
we're
gonna leave with a little bit of Whitesnake
just to get people in the mood for
the show
and everything. But first of all, I
want
to give them a slice of your early
days with
Lion, a little tune called "Power
Love"
here. It's KNAC.com and it is the Wild
Side.
Thanks, Doug. |
| "Power Love " / Lion is playing .... |
|
| "Here I Go Again" / Whitesnake is playing .... |
Thanks, Diana Deville
Special thanks to my friend, Gary!!
"The Wilde Side" with Diana Deville on KNAC Radio
May 3, 2003 - 5:30 PM (Pacific Daylight
time)