| BW&BK: | Let's talk about the Whitesnake tour... |
| Doug: | Well, basically David decided that he wanted
to test the waters. He was getting
itchy.
He wanted to put a band together that
would
kick ass. He wanted to make sure that
there
were no weak links. He did a lot of
research
on who might work well together and
who might
be good to represent the Whitesnake
sound
and vision. He contacted us all individually
and we got together in January, started
rehearsing
and it's gotten better and better from
there. |
| BW&BK: | Is it hard coming into a situation like that? |
| Reb: | I think it is when there are some weak links.
But when you've got guys that are road
dogs
like us that have been there and done
that
before. You know everyone just knows
the
part and everyone is great to work
with.
All we do is just laugh and laugh and
laugh,
crack jokes and play our music that
we love.
So, it's just been great. |
| Doug: | The longer you do it, Mitch, the faster you
start jamming with somebody; see where
they're
going and are able to play well off
them.
Like Reb was saying, if you didn't
have the
experience of playing with a lot of
different
people; then it might take you a while
to
read what was going on. But we got
together
and rehearsed for a week and we were
ready
to go. We had a whole other week where
we
had to look for things to do. |
| Reb: | We just drank beer for the second week. |
| Doug: | We'd play one song and take a three-hour
lunch break. Then come back and play
another
song. |
| BW&BK: | What's the difference between the Dokken/Scorpions
tour and the tour (ed.: Rock Never
Stops)
that you are on now? |
| Reb: | It's a much different crowd. It's a younger
crowd. There are so many more chicks
that
I can't believe it. |
| Doug: | And it's warmer too, so they take their tops
off. |
| BW&BK: | Is this line-up going to record something?
A live DVD? |
| Doug: | Definitely! We've been recording all these
shows. We've got maybe 70 or 80 shows
recorded
so far with another 30 to go. |
| BW&BK: | This would be for a live CD? |
| Doug: | Yeah, that's what we're going to do next.
And as long as Dave is having a good
time,
which both Reb and I feel that he is,
he's
going to want to get into the studio
and
do something. The only thing that would
slow
that down is that with Whitesnake a
lot of
record company people start to make
things
confusing with lawyers and... But as
far
as it goes musically, we're READY TO
ROCK! |
| BW&BK: | So Reb, before Whitesnake you were out there
promoting Masquerade, your solo album.
Are
you going to continue doing solo albums? |
| Reb: | I'm DOING another solo album. I've already
started. |
| BW&BK: | On the last tour you were the ex-Dokken member
and on this tour you're the ex-Winger
member...
Tell me about that. |
| Reb: | There's no animosity. We're just friends
and Kip is one of my best friends.
I talk
to him at least once a week. We've
been best
friends forever. You could think there
could
be some weirdness, but not at all.
We all
get other gigs. That's the nature of
the
business. |
| BW&BK: | Will you be joining Kip onstage? |
| Reb: | I certainly feel the urge too. We'll see... |
| Doug: | It's going to happen. I'm placing my bets
on it. You get to the end of the tour
and
people start to loosen up... I'm going
to
get Reb's acoustic guitar all tuned-up,
put
strings on it and stuff, and start
putting
it closer towards the stage. |
| Reb: | Kip's out there all alone. I feel bad for
the guy. We've got a whole band and
he's
just out there as a one-man band. You
have
to have a little bit of courage to
go out
and do that. He really sounds amazing. |
| Doug: | He sounds great! Mitch, on the first day
I said 'Man, it takes a lot of balls
to get
out there with just a guitar. You sound
kick-ass.'
And he goes 'Well, check them out'
and shows
me his balls! |
| BW&BK: | Thanks for the visual... |
| Reb: | Kip is kinda that way. |
| BW&BK: | Speaking of Winger, what happened on the
Poison tour last summer? You were there
in
the beginning, but not the end. Was
there
a disagreement? |
| Reb: | We kicked ourselves for not doing the second
half of the tour. We got along great.
I've
known those guys forever, but we had
made
other plans to go to Japan or something
and
it fell through. By the time it fell
through,
they had somebody else booked. (ed.:
they
actually didn't and finished the rest
of
the tour with only three bands) |
| BW&BK: | Now Reb, let me ask you a little bit about
your history. You've had studio credits
with
Chaka Kahn, Bee Gees, Twisted Sister,
Roger
Daltrey, Howard Jones, Bob Dylan...
Any interesting
memories? |
| Reb: | Well, the Bee Gees was one of the best experiences
I've ever had. The entire studio was
covered
in marijuana and we were at their amazing
studio in Miami and Arif Mardin was
producing.
He's the famous producer that discovered
Aretha Franklin. The vocal track was
not
on the music yet and they wanted me
to hear
what the vocals were going to sound
like,
so they all got around me and started
to
do their (sings) 'ah ah ah ah' thing.
It
was so amazing to hear those voices
that
I had heard from my childhood, from
the movie
Staying Alive... right there in front
of
me singing a capella. It was an amazing
experience,
that. I'll probably never have something
like that ever happen again. |
| BW&BK: | This was 1987, right? So, you were still
in your childhood... |
| Reb: | I was a pup! |
| BW&BK: | How did you get in contact with a band like
that? |
| Reb: | I got my foot in the door thanks to Beau
Hill. I was playing with an artist
called
Fiona on Atlantic Records. Beau was
producing
all kinds of acts and he turned me
on to
all kinds of other producers that were
looking
for a good rock guitarist. That's how
I got
those gigs. |
| BW&BK: | What about Chaka Khan? |
| Reb: | Chaka Khan was the sexiest large woman I've
ever seen. |
| BW&BK: | And Doug you worked with Dio... |
| Doug: | I love Ronnie. He's a great guy and we had
a lot in common besides from music
that was
a lot of fun for me. He's a huge sports
fan
like me and we'd talk teams trades
or what
was going on with the offensive line
of the
Eagles or whatever... He was just a
lot of
fun apart from just being on stage
with him. |
| BW&BK: | Will you work with him again? |
| Doug: | Well, we've got plans with Whitesnake. We've
got a game plan for three to five years.
As far as working with Ronnie, I would
love
to. We had actually written a couple
of things
for his next record and things were
going
well. Unfortunately, he booked a tour
and
I was already committed to Whitesnake. |
| BW&BK: | Do you know what happened between Dio and
Ratt's guitarist, Warren DeMartini? |
| Doug: | Yeah, I do. |
| Reb: | (laughs) No comment! |
| BW&BK: | Can you tell us anything? |
| Doug: | All I can really say is that I know the whole
thing because I still talk to Jimmy
and Simon,
but what I can tell you is that they
just
had different work ethics. Obviously,
Warren
is a great guitar player, but when
you get
into a situation like Dio, you've got
to
be prepared to work the way that they
work.
For whatever reason, they had a different
way of going about it. It sounded like
it
really wasn't gelling so well. Warren's
guitar
playing obviously speaks for itself,
but
maybe it was just a situation where
stylistically
they were going... they both expected
it
to be a little different. I think what
happened
is the best thing that could have happened
for Ronnie, which was to get Craig
Goldy
back. |
| BW&BK: | Absolutely! Tell me a little bit more about
the "three to five year Whitesnake
plan." |
| Doug: | It's still evolving, but basically - touring.
We've recorded about 80 shows; we're
going
to put out a live record and everybody
in
the band writes. David is getting excited
about creating something new. I think
he's
going to need some time off after the
tour.
He's got a family that hasn't seen
him in
the last six months. So, he's going
to want
to get home and chill out for six/seven
months.
That'll leave some time for the rest
of us
to do some other stuff we want to do
like
solo records or sessions or whatever. |
| BW&BK: | Are you going to be doing a solo record? |
| Doug: | I've done a couple that were not released
in the States, but I'm not really looking
to do one just yet. |
| BW&BK: | So, you can go play on Reb's solo record... |
| Reb: | That would be killer! (both laugh). |
| BW&BK: | You've got a great sound together. I was
amazed the three times I saw you with
Whitesnake... |
| Doug: | That's cool. We really respect each other
a lot and get along really well. |
| BW&BK: | This is how good you are - my wife HATED
Whitesnake in the past, but after she
saw
you live. She ran out and bought the
Best
Of... |
| Doug: | I hope David finds out about that, but we
need you to tell him... |
| BW&BK: | I'll be more than happy to... By the way,
how is it working with David? |
| Doug: | Every night it's amazing. He's just got such
a cool vibe. |
| Reb: | His rap is so killer. I've been with some
lead singers who, when the band is
not playing
say some stupid things, but David says
the
coolest stuff. |
| Doug: | And he's really on a spiritual path right
now. It puts a great vibe on everything
for
us. |
| BW&BK: | I guess we'll wrap it up here. It's been a pleasure. |
Thanks, Metal Tim and Mitch Lafon!
Brave Words & Bloody Knuckles
July, 2003