John: And thank you for bring a presenter for the Banger Music Awards,
and all the guitar players... the winner Kiko Shred was just thrilled
that you helped us out. Thank you again, guys.
Glenn: You listen to the songs and I'm singing about... If you listen to it, you go, surely, surely, he must have known something. But I didn't know anything. Walking through the field and letting go. Finding myself. And all of these things are....
I'm thinking to myself in the summer of '19, wouldn't it be great for fans to sing come alive, and now of course because of the pandemic wouldn't it be even greater to hear that. So it was a coincidence. I'm smiling with love thinking we did a pretty decent job, so..
Support the show that supports indie rock!
DETROIT
SATURDAY (7PM) 2 hours
WEDNESDAY (9AM)
FRIDAY (Noon)
NEW YORK
SUNDAY 4AM ET
MICHIGAN
SATURDAY 1-3PM ET
SAN JOSE
TUESDAY 6PM ET
CONNECTICUT
MONDAY 3AM ET
NEW YORK
TUESDAY 8PM ET
AUSTRALIA
SUNDAY 3AM ET
TAMPA
THURSDAY 1AM ET
GEORGIA
SATURDAY NOON ET
SUNDAY 6PM ET
In The D with The Dead Daises
A conversation with Glenn Hughes & Doug Aldrich of The Dead Daisies
John: On behalf of all of the people who listen to the show and all the radio stations that I'm on, thank you again for coming. So, you guys are doing this big Get Out of the House Tour. it's got to be exciting. after sitting home for a long time.
Glenn: Yeah, it is.
John: Tell us, like, what has been the feel of the early shows here?
Doug: Everyone's excited about it. People wanted to... A lot of these gigs are the first gig of the club. I don't know about this club, but some of the places, the theaters.. some of the places we're playing, they haven't had live music for that whole time, so we're the first one. So people are coming in, just having a blast.
Glenn: It's been fresh for everyone. Everyone has been waiting for this. Of course we've been doing the same. We're excited to be back ourselves.
The Token lounge was rocking like no other when The Dead Daisies rolled into the motor city. In support of their latest Album 'Holy Ground', they brought an electrifying energy that kicked open the never ending lockdown doors. The Voice Of Rock was in top form, the band was burning up the stage classics such as 'Burn' & 'Mistreated.' It was one of the kiss ass nights you'll never forgot. But that's just the half of it. Earlier we were honored to sit down with Hall Of Fame rock vocalist Glenn Hughes (Deep Purple/Black Sabbath) and guitar hero Doug Aldrich (Whitesnake/Dio) for a short conversation..
Glenn: It's like my first tour with the band, Tommy's coming back, and we've been preparing this for quite some time. We're pretty excited. The new album is great, we love it. We thank you, all of you.
Doug: Absolutely.
John: With Holy Ground coming out, it's been doing really well on the charts, do you guys have a song that you really like, like Like No Other? I have to tell you, Glenn, I've followed your career since I was a young boy. And your vocals on that song, I literally went back to Burn and back to Seventh Star to hear some of the vocals, and your vocals are as strong as ever! What do you do, what kind of elixir, what kind of magic spell have you done with your voice?
Glenn: I'm so grateful that I am still able to do what I've been doing all my life. I just think, um, I never smoked cigarettes. I haven't had any booze in 30 years. I'm a healthy guy, mentally and emotionally and spiritually. I think it's a matter of having no fear. And enjoying yourself.
John: That's the way it is right now. You guys are really enjoying yourselves.
Glenn: Thank you kindly for your words.
John: I think the song Like No Other is maybe the best song, rock song, hard rock song that I've heard in like 10-15 years.
Glenn: Oh, wow.
John: I mean, I'm singing the song. I am a big AC/DC fan, and they have a new album out, and I'm not singing any of their songs like I'm singing Like No Other.
Glenn: Thank you so much.
John: I'm sitting there singing, "Like no other" and then the song, "Can you feel my bass line?" that harkens back to one of the characters that I have on my show, Shady. He's like,
"I'll tell you what, ladies and gentleman, I love it when
they come feel my bass line."
How did that song get put together?
Glenn: It came about as a group, we got together and we put the song together. I came up with the title Like No Other, and I started singing it, and we're playing live and recording it, I've got a microphone, and I sent... the line "Can you feel my bass line" came out of nowhere.
John: It's brilliant!
Glenn: And it worked.
Doug: It's got like a double entendre too. And it's not just "Can you feel my bass line" but can you feel the bass line of my existence.
Glenn: Yeah, it's really cool. To go deep. To go deep my brother, it's a deep emotional message.
John: You actually have a little bass solo in there as well, which is awesome. You don't hear that with rock bands these days.
Glenn: Again, I was just jamming on the solo section, and we figured Doug's doing a section, and all of a sudden I found myself playing a solo, again, out of nowhere, first take. So, what you hear on that song is the very take, the first run through.
John: That's crazy. And were you guys in the same room writing? I know with covid and everything...
Glenn: Yeah...
Doug: This was all done prior to covid. We got finished recording right before. We were done recording in December of '19, and we did a few little tweaks and stuff into January. but we were done, so thank God for that, because we've got the record. It's got a great vibe. The lyrics are incredible on the album. Sometimes those lyrics foreshadow some of the shit that we went through.
John: You guys did a great job of it. And it must have been hard just sitting on the album for so long
Doug: It was. There were some other things going on that had my mind occupied. It was a nervous time, spring of last year, or even in the summer. But Glenn and I got together as soon as we could ..and started playing around with the songs already. And then, you know, he was the only person I saw the whole time, until the lockdown was over.
John: Really? So with the other guys, you were just sending them tracks, and say, "hey, work on this."
Glenn: We got together in France and Doug and I pretty much got the music together, got the lyrics together... put it together to make it the Dead Daises. So yeah, it was a group effort.
Doug: Everyone puts their... whether you write the song or not, you have to put your best foot forward on the song. and try to bring something to the party. So everybody did that. It was really good. And our producer Ben Gross laid out a really good vibe for us, We were locked down. We were not locked down on purpose, but it was kind of like that because we were all living together at the studio, eating, sleeping in the same building. We didn't go anywhere. We just created music. It was great.
John: Writing songs, you guys have been doing this a long time, you never run out of stuff. And Like No Other, it's like, did you know that song was going to be so good when you first started putting it together?
Glenn: It started out simply as a groove, and as we started to record it, and the content started coming out, the groove was very, very important... the song is all groove. And felt very fortunate to come up with a good melody, and a catch line.
John: It's totally awesome
Glenn: Thank you.
John: This tour, it's expanded from just this early stuff now. I've seen in the website that you guys are planning a huge tour come, well, it's all part of the same tour, but September. I saw you're going to Russia pretty soon, so you're making a big deal of this stuff.
Glenn: It's going to be 18 months of hard touring
Doug: We were actually planning after this, these are warm up gigs for us, we're still blowing out the cobwebs too. We rehearsed one time last year in August. It was safe. We got together in Los Angeles. So then we started going to New York in the spring. Until you get on stage it's not really the same.
John: Right. Were you a little rusty?
Glenn: Of course we were. I can't lie to you. When you haven't been playing. You can play at home, of course, in our studios, which we have. Unless you are actually working with your brothers in the. Again, rehearsals, you can rehearse all you like, until you hit the stage, until the fans who follow your music, it changes everything. And the first show in Florida a week ago was that moment.
Doug: I'm not going to say there was a lot of rust. Just a little here and there. You get your stage legs back. But I mean we put in a good amount of time so our first show we were prepared and it went off great. We recorded it. We rerecorded it every night just to check it out, and it sounded really good.
John: You guys have played in front of thousands of people, coming into these more intimate settings that you are here, how does that play off different for you guys?
Glenn: Ok, the arena to the stadium to the club, they're all different in size, but the feeling comes from the fans. It comes from the audience, it comes from the people who have been following you forever, or new.. We've got a lot of new fans. To have that feeling that they're there to see you, it enables us to become better people and better musicians.
Doug: Of course it's nice to have a bigger stage sometimes, but this is cool, man .. You know, I don't think I've ever been here before. It looks like a fun place.
John: Being closer doesn't change anything? Because it's going to be really tight compared with something bigger, a bigger arena.
Glenn: it will be really wonderful.
Glenn: If I may, the one thing that got me started was, Doug's got a son and he plays soccer and I said to Doug after one year or two years, is he still enjoying it. My thing is, if you've been given this gift, a young soccer player, or a young anything, you have to let it soak in, you have to sleep in his football shorts, and i slept with my guitar, and slept with ... and when that happens when you are young, preteen or early teen, if you can live with the fact that this is what you really love, there's a good chance if you follow through and listen to your heart, then you will work really hard to become that person.
Doug: I would say, for me, was...I've been having fun since the first time I picked up a guitar. I feel really blessed to play guitar.
Glenn: Still learning. Education.
Doug: Yeah, and the main thing is just having fun. That's why we got into this in the first place, to have fun jamming with your friends. It gives you a feeling that you can't get anywhere else. So keep with it.. the new younger guys... Try to come up with some songs that are different.
Glenn: Walk through the fear. "There is no fear but fear itself." Don't think about it, kids. Just do it and live it.
John: Coming from the voice of rock and roll right there
Doug: There it is.
John: So, one more thing before I let you guys go, because I know you're busy. Do you guys have any good Detroit stories in your repertoire there?
Glenn: Yeah, my first show with Deep Purple, two shows at Cobo Hall in '74, showing my age here. Two sold out shows in February of 1974 in Detroit. It was my first time playing with Deep Purple, Then, I had played with Trapeeze here before .. But Detroit for me.. as I said the whole time, I was born in England but my soul was born in Detroit, because my influences are black America, motown music. ... I am very fortunate to have met and know some great Motown artists. Detroit lives in my heart and soul. It's a big part of me.
Doug: When we first came here we played at.. they changed the name of DTE.
John: Yeah, it was Pine Knob
Doug: Pine Knob. One of the first times I played with Whitesnake was at the Fox Theater, I think it was.
John: Yeah, that's a great place to play at.
Doug: The Scorpions, and then Ted Nugent came in, and Ted wanted to jam with the Scorpions. He didn't have a guitar, so I gave him this sunburst Les Paul I've got and he got onstage .. I don't think the Scorpions are ready for Ted, man... Ted fucking cut loose! He's running back and forth like Matthias Jabs on steroids. And they played.. something like that.. back and forth and I think it was so cool he had my guitar.
Glenn: Detroit rockers are one of a kind.
John: Yeah, we love it here. Thank you so much guys for coming in, and opening up rock and roll back in Michigan. We love it I wish you much success, with the upcoming tour and the album..
Glenn: Thank you.
Doug: Thank you for everything you do
John: Anything we can do for you on our little tiny show. We're here, we're here to support you guys.
Glenn: Thank you. Thank you so much.
John: Have a great night.
Rock on!
Rock on!
John: Glenn Hughes, Doug Aldrich of the Dead Daises!
John: This is one of the longest standing Detroit clubs in the area. I played here years ago when I was doing the rock band thing. It is where you want to go when you are coming to the D. And John, the owner, is a great guy, and anything you guys ever need I know you're going to get. And I know you guys are in a rush here and you got to go, so a couple things before you go. Do you have any advice for up and coming bands that want to be where you guys are at?
Editors Note:
I geeked out a little during the interview. Please forgive me. I really looked up to Glenn when I was a young boy. It was hard to keep the 14 year old John in the closet.
John: And the atmosphere's probably been great. I know, we just opened back up ourselves, so I'm kind of considering you guys like the kick open the doors to the hard rock scene back again. And with the new tour and the new album Holy Ground, and with the new song Like No Other, it's really awesome. So, how are you guys feeling early on?
