Chuck Shute Podcast

Richie Kotzen (Smith/Kotzen, Winery Dogs, ex Poison, ex Mr. Big)

August 12, 2022 Richie Kotzen Season 4 Episode 269
Chuck Shute Podcast
Richie Kotzen (Smith/Kotzen, Winery Dogs, ex Poison, ex Mr. Big)
Show Notes Transcript

Richie Kotzen is a guitarist, singer and songwriter. He has over 20 solo albums as well as records with Poison & Mr. Big.  He has a new record coming out with Adrian Smith (Iron Maiden), called “Better Days… And Nights” which will be the second for Smith/Kotzen. He also has new record with the Winery Dogs coming out in 2023. Currently he’s on tour with his solo band. We discuss all this plus his tryout with Ozzy Osbourne, opening for The Rolling Stones, playing with Roger Daltrey of The Who and more!

00:00 - Intro
00:51- Smith/Kotzen
03:30 - Recording In Studio Vs Home
05:55 - New Winery Dogs Album
07:02 - New Music & Shows
10:30 - VIP Meet & Greet Experience
13:45 - John Corabi & Covers
17:35 - Poison & Chapters of Career
19:07 - Almost Gig with Ozzy Osbourne
22:40 - Latest With Solo Music
24:30 - Recording & Equipment
29:05 - Bass Guitars & Gene Simmons
31:31 - Mr. Big & Eric Martin
37:00 - Billy Sheehan & Pat Torpey
40:40 - Opening for The Rolling Stones
43:26 - The Who & Roger Daltrey
48:02 - The Power of No 
49:30 - Final Promoting & Charity
51:10 - Outro

Richie Kotzen website:
https://richiekotzen.com

Smith/Kotzen website:
https://www.smithkotzen.com

Winery Dogs website:
http://www.thewinerydogs.com/

ALS charity website:
https://www.als.org/get-involved/ways-give

Chuck Shute website:
http://chuckshute.com

Support the show

Thanks for Listening & Shute for the Moon!

Chuck Shute:

All right, well, this finally happened. Richie Kotzen been trying to get this one for a while when I asked my audience at the end of the year, who they wanted to see on my show in 2022, Richie was the number one guest, so I'm very, very glad that it finally happened. I'm a big fan of all his work his solo stuff, poison, Mr. Big winery dogs. And of course his latest project Smith Kotzen with Adrian Smith of Iron Maiden, and they have a new album coming out. And also Richie has some solo tour dates we're going to talk about, plus how he we're going to talk about how he almost became the guitarist for Ozzy Osbourne working with Roger Daltrey, from the who, and so much more. This is a great interview, stay right there. Welcome to my show here, we have a lot to talk about. So the first thing is the Smith Kotzen. You guys are doing another album, I guess it's half studio and half live tracks. Right?

Richie Kotzen:

It is. So we did a bunch of earlier in the year. And when we got to England, we've recorded two of the shows, and we were able to pull some cool tracks together. And we've got this live thing coming out. It's five tracks that are live. And then five studio recordings that were not on the original album, but they were released earlier on a one an EP that I believe was only available in vinyl. I think that's what it was.

Chuck Shute:

Yeah, that's the better days EP because that's that one's on Spotify now.

Richie Kotzen:

Yeah, so the songs, I think it's five songs from that. And they are they are up there.

Chuck Shute:

So those are the same ones that were recorded with the first album. Correct. Okay, so that was that one, though? Because I heard you say that it was recorded at the, the Turks and Caicos tell me about the recording process, because that sounds I looked at place up online, it looks amazing.

Richie Kotzen:

Yeah, it's really something, it's, it's really great down there. And we were able to bring in some of our gear and set it up, we rented a wonderful house that had a great situation on the water. And, you know, we'd get up and kind of do our thing, you know, and then I think Adrian did a lot of fishing. He'd go off and do a bit of fishing, and back then I was doing for my solo album 5050. So I would we would do that sort of thing in the morning, and then later in the afternoon, get together and do our work and then go out for dinner afterwards. And it was a great process. And then anything that we weren't able to get done there. I got a studio in Los Angeles that we were able to utilize that and get things done.

Chuck Shute:

Does that make a difference where you record, I don't know if you wrote the songs there too. But does that bring a different creative vibe to that, like when it's this beautiful paradise, I mean, it's harder to write darker songs are being a bad

Richie Kotzen:

thing, it's harder to do anything other than just lay on the beach. It's kind of funny, I will say this, because I've always had some sort of facility and ability to record without having to rent someone studio. And for a period of time, for most of my life. You know, the studio would be where I live. But for a period of time, I owned a small commercial building in North Hollywood. And I turned that into a recording studio. It was really more of the idea of a real estate venture to be honest, but it worked out quite well. Because my selling studio time I paid the holding cost of the building, and it appreciated and I got out. But the point I'm trying to make is that when I had that studio for the three or four years that I had it, it was probably my least productive period creatively, because what would happen is, in the old days, meaning before I had the studio, I'd have an idea. I'd stumble into my home studio at three in the morning, and I and I'd work and by the time the sun came up, I'd have you know something going. And when I had it off site, I would have to get in the car, drive down there, open the gate, turn off the alarm, fire up the system. And by the time I went through everything I had forgotten what it was that I went there to do. So that long winded answer to your question. Ultimately, there's no place like home. So I think I do my best work when I can Just kind of get up at any hour, and just get to it.

Chuck Shute:

So you have a studio in your house now.

Richie Kotzen:

Yeah, I do I have it. You know, it's not what you would think. I mean, it doesn't look really like a studio. But there's two rooms that are wired together. And obviously, one room was a tracking room where I rehearse Adrian and I rehearsed the bands there before we did the California dates. And then we went into a larger facility. But initially, we rehearsed here to work out all the details. And then, you know, the winery dogs, we just finished our third record, it's being mastered. And we recorded that here at my studio. But yeah, you know, I've got all the gear that I've had, you know, the needs stuff and the API stuff. I still have all that good stuff. So that's cool. A lot of damage. Yeah,

Chuck Shute:

I don't even know about the third winery dogs. I was gonna ask you if they if there was something in the work, so it's already recorded and ready to go then?

Richie Kotzen:

Well, yeah, I'm, I'm super, I don't want to take focus off of what's around the corner here, which is obviously the Wisconsin live bid, which, you know, super excited about that. But yeah, the winery dogs, the third album, the music exists, it's been mixed. It's been approved. And it has been mastered. So the what we're looking at now is when are we going to put it out. But the consensus seems to be that next year 2023 will be the winery dog year. And I think the three of us really are excited about getting back at it. Because it's been way too long. You know,

Chuck Shute:

ya know, for sure. I love those first two records that you guys made, and I never got a chance to see you live. So you will tour in conjunction for that record. Yeah. Okay.

Richie Kotzen:

Yeah, there's gonna be a bunch of touring. I know they're putting dates together. So we're all very excited about that.

Chuck Shute:

Okay, so So right now you got the better days and nights Smith Kotzen. That's out on CD and digital September 16. And then if people want the vinyl, it comes out in No, wait, is it coming out in November?

Richie Kotzen:

Yeah, you're asking the wrong guy about the release date? I don't I don't really know. I sound like a fool but I'm not sure. I know. I saw something come up that our song charted in a nice position there. And so I know the song is up the first single but I don't know sometime in September. Okay, yeah, September 16. Talking to people I better get the details. Yeah, I

Chuck Shute:

think September 16. I was just reading it looks like the The EP was that was already released. That was that was on November because that's the one like I said it's on Spotify now. But sometimes the vinyl takes longer. So I don't know if it was a different day, but it looks like you can the CD and digital Yeah, coming out September 16. So that and then you've got some shows, Smith cotton and then some shows that are just solo Richie.

Richie Kotzen:

Well, there's no Smith cotton shows out there right now. We've we've done those. Okay, back. Yeah, that was the beginning of the year right now. I believe I've got about 39 shows up. We just did five shows. Last week. We did our la show which was at the canyon club in Agoura Hills, we did a we went down to San Juan Capistrano, there were five shows that we did. And then we had a couple of days off and now tomorrow we're picking it up again at Morro Bay, and I'm gonna stay out until September 25, I believe is the last show in New Orleans. But we're really we're really going, you know, going all over the place. We're going up to New Hampshire, we've got three nights in New York. And you know, Omaha, Nebraska. Omaha, Nebraska is in there. I'm trying to think off the top of my head. Some Midwest place.

Chuck Shute:

Yeah. Yeah, for me, it's yeah. It's funny, though. Because like, yeah, you're, you're going in Nevada and California and in Colorado, but not I'm in Arizona. And so you're skipping Arizona, so but if you wanted to add that date, it looks like there's between Vegas and Colorado, there's a day off. So if you wanted to add that I would love to come see you.

Richie Kotzen:

Yeah, I know. It's so I don't want to say it's frustrating because it's not that it's frustrating. Because anytime you can get some get routing and get a tour. That makes sense. And you know, that doesn't, you know, that isn't at risk. It's a great thing. But, you know, it's just strange how you look at it when it says that, oh, well, we could offer there here or there. But the reality is, is you get the offers that are available at the time that they're available. So It's just such a trick I wouldn't want to be a booking agent because you got to take all these things into account. You know, the bus now there's new things in play where certain drives have to be broken up, you know, time in between. So it's just getting trickier and trickier but you know, it is what it is at this point. I'm just happy to get in back out.

Chuck Shute:

Yeah, and do the shows and then you have the tell my audience about the VIP thing because I was just looking that up and I was like, that sounds really cool. You let them come to soundcheck which is kind of rare these days for musicians that allow fans into the center.

Richie Kotzen:

Yeah, you know, I don't have much to hide when it comes to to that sort of thing. And I thought you know, I know a lot of people do the packages and I thought well, you know, I should do them too. And I think the real value there's kind of like a peek behind the curtain they can come in to watch the soundcheck so it's not like it's not like we soundcheck and then come out and do a performance. They're literally seeing, you know, me getting frustrated with the fact that I can't hear my voice or, you know, a ring and a fourth time seeing the whole soundcheck. And so then, you know, go through that. And we play you know a bit to make sure everything is working the way it should. And then I come off the stage, I'll come down to hello and have a chat, take a photograph, there's some things that they get as part of the package, you know, poster, photograph, and pass. And then you know, what's happening is a lot of people are bringing things for me to sign I know a lot of folks have bought my signature model Fender guitar, as well as the pedal that I have out there with tech 21 Fly rage. So I've seen a lot of those I autograph grep those, sometimes folks have questions about the fly rig, like how do you set it for this? Or that? And why do we use two of them and all that sort of stuff. So it's a cool opportunity to just, you know, have a chat and have a look behind the curtain.

Chuck Shute:

And you don't have any limits on the one sign this or that or you only sign two items or no rules like

Richie Kotzen:

that? Well, yeah, I mean, they management, you know, the front office basically says, hey, you know, we got to keep this thing running smooth. So, you know, no more than to personalize and decide. But, you know, it depends really, like, if there's only a handful of folks there, assign whatever you have, that's fine. If it's a if it's a large group of people, then it's not really fair to make everybody stand around and sign 15 things to one person. So it's kind of a place by year kind of kind of thing. But I think everybody seems to be happy with the way it goes.

Chuck Shute:

That's a That's so great. I love that you that musicians can do that. Because I know you guys don't get as many album sales, obviously. But the meet and greet is such a great moneymaker. And it's not that much extra work for you. I think it's a great thing. And I think the fans love it. I know that.

Richie Kotzen:

Yeah, it's a different god. It's just such a different time. I mean, imagine, I can't imagine like when I was a kid, if there was some kind of way that I could meet Eddie after the show, after a Van Halen show, you know what I mean? Like, yeah, it's just a different time. You know, the musicians back then had this kind of mysterious, larger than life persona, because you didn't have all this social media and i Who's to say what's better or worse, but I think, you know, I like meeting people, you know, and the whole thing revolve what we're doing here revolves around people. So I think it all adds up. It all make sense?

Chuck Shute:

No, that's, that's really cool. Now you have some shows. With John karate. I think I just I just had him on the show. He's great. Are you guys? Would you guys do any songs together like just jam or something or like one or two songs

Richie Kotzen:

that wasn't discussed? You know, I know that our show is pretty much runs away it runs. And I don't really embarrassed to say that, despite the fact that I played in a full time cover band from the age of 15. Until I graduated high school. I don't know a lot of companies. And so I wouldn't know. You know, I wouldn't even know what to do. But that's not to say one night we don't do something you know, you never know. But it's kind of funny. Reminds me of, you know, years back, you know, I was working with the winery dogs and they wanted to do a cover.

Chuck Shute:

Like, I know I'm losing you. What, you're breaking up. Oh, you're back. Okay. Oh, can you hear me? Yeah, you're so sorry. You were saying now you're trying to do a song with the winery dogs and you know it

Richie Kotzen:

now. years ago, you know, the board and the guys want wanted to. There was chatter of doing a covers album, and I just couldn't get myself motivated to do it. It wasn't that I was wanting to be difficult one way or another. But when it came literally came time to like, learn the cover song, and then try to figure out how to play it and then getting in my head of like, well, the song already exists and the performance amazing, why am I even doing it? You know, I just could never, I could never get excited enough to do it. Now. I have done cover songs live, if they're usually songs that have influenced me in some way or another like, for years, I would do a version of Sarah smile from haulin oats and Daryl Hall, literally grew up eight miles down the road from where my house was. And so, you know, he was an influence. So, you know, I played Daryl Hall saw, but I don't know, we'll see what happens, you know, as far as the John and I jump up and do it together, sure. Love the guy. So it definitely would be, it'd be fun to share a moment with me for you

Chuck Shute:

know, you guys could write a song together and perform it. That would be fun. I got to

Richie Kotzen:

know that would be something that, you know, it's kind of an interesting connection between us. I mean, we're both the Philadelphia area guys. So there's that. And around the same time when I replaced CC Deville for a brief moment in poison. He jumped in Motley Crue and Vince left. So, you know, there's definitely, you know, some interesting connections between the two of us so he knows. Yeah,

Chuck Shute:

it's interesting, because you both replace those guys in the quote unquote hair bands or whatever, but neither one of you really has that sound on your own. Like your solo stuff doesn't sound like that kind of stuff. I love at all. I love poison. I love Motley Crue. I love karate solo. I love you your solo stuff.

Richie Kotzen:

Yeah, well, I think we come from a different era. I mean, yes, I understand. I grew up listening to a lot of r&b music. My first concert was Stevie Wonder in the round at the Valley Forge venue, outside of Philly. And then literally a month later, I saw George Benson who completely changed everything for me, you know, singing and playing guitar. And so you know, and then with the rock thing, I kind of I kind of leaned a little heavier like, you know, I grew up listening to Black Sabbath and Iron Maiden. So, you know, just that's just my my influences are a bit different. But not to say that I didn't enjoy my time in the band. I sure enjoyed making that record.

Chuck Shute:

The poison one Yeah, yeah, I love that. That's how I kind of really became a fan of yours I mean, I think I had heard like your song on Bill and Ted's but then I really became a fan of you through poison so I don't know if that's a good thing or a bad thing, but I love that I think it's underrated I think and you still perform stand live sometimes. Right?

Richie Kotzen:

Yeah, from time to time, it finds its way into the set. And I love that song. I love playing it. There's a couple other ones in that record until you suffer some I've done that acoustically already in the past

Chuck Shute:

Yeah, yeah, that's that's good. So

Richie Kotzen:

yeah, I mean, you know, I It's interesting you go through all this stuff in your career for me like back in the cover band days back in, in the in the tri state area, which for me would have been Philadelphia, New Jersey and Delaware playing all those rooms and then all of a sudden the whole shrapnel thing and then getting signed to a major label from that and then the poison era and all these like and then Mr. Big there's all these little chapters you know like It's just strange when you look back at it it's like it's literally chapters it's so different like I didn't I didn't do the same thing over and over and over and over again my whole life like it's kind of colorful if I look back at it, you know?

Chuck Shute:

Yeah, so I this was another thing I didn't know about so I don't know my audience probably doesn't know about this either. But the after poison before Mr. Big there was a brief time where you were considered for Aussies band after Zakk Wylde left.

Richie Kotzen:

Yeah, that is true. And I that's interesting that you know, though, I must have mentioned that somewhere in the past, but in 1995. I was. I just put up my record on Geffen and my manager had it all set up. The deal was negotiated, everything was in play. I went to New York and I remember, I watched a movie in Ozzy's hotel room with him. And he was telling me stories. And the next morning I had a meeting at breakfast with Sharon and she was you know, saying how great it was gonna be and so I was sending riffs to them, from him to write to, but somehow I mean, this is how Aha, I see it. And I'm sure it could be seen in different lights from different sides. But the way I saw it was, I had mentioned to somebody in the business to keep it quiet. That, you know, I was in New York, and we played together and they told me I had to gig and it was, this was after Steve Vai actually had left you he had done some work in LA. And I told, I told a friend in the business, and the friend in the business went into a chat room. Back then it was AOL. And he leaked that the ex poisoned guitarist Richie Kotzen was going to be the new guitar player in Ozzy Osbourne and I swear to God, the minute that came up, a lot of people were kind of getting pissed off, because they thought they didn't know who I was, they saw the word poison. And back then, poising, didn't have the didn't command this kind of respect, musically, that it did. And so the way I saw it is that that camp just totally turned on the situation. And I never heard from them again. Although I did see him years later in the Beverly Hills Hotel at lunch. And it was sitting there and I would have ever said, Hello. And it was very nice. So Sharon, but I'm convinced that that I know, that's what happened. Because all through the 90s. One of the things that was interesting with poison, as great as that record was, as well as it did all things considered. When I left the band, that being associated with any of those bands from that era of music, was just, I mean, MTV just crushed all of them. That wouldn't play there. You know, now they're playing stadiums that who has the last lap, but that back then it was like the kiss of death, having had been associated with an 80s Metal band, through the 90s was a real problem was a real problem for me, trying to kind of shake the stigma for many years. And then once the internet opened up, and I didn't have to depend on the record label, I could basically do whatever I wanted. And then the people could hear the music and decide for themselves. But there was a lot of turbulence in the mid 90s coming out of that. But you know, it has character, and I wouldn't change anything. I think it really probably would have never written a song like you can't say me, for example, had I not go through all this other things?

Chuck Shute:

No, that's really cool. And now do you have a because I know we talked about the Smith cots in the winery dogs but then also you have a new solo album coming out as well.

Richie Kotzen:

No at all. I don't have a new solo album, but I don't have after having done 24 of them. I think people could take a break from that. But the last record I did was an album called 50 for 50. Yeah, I released that's probably what you're talking about. I released that on February 3 2020. And we literally had like everybody else, we had tons of shows for four continents worth of dates, and there's going to be this big, big tour. And then you know, came down and somehow when it all came down I kind of realized that well I certainly didn't did not want to see any kind of situation like what happened. But you know, sometimes taking a break and kind of retooling the shed is a good thing.

Chuck Shute:

Okay, so no new album in the works or that's that's gonna be on the back burner, because the winery dogs is the next thing after Smith Kotzen Yes, yeah,

Richie Kotzen:

I mean, it, I gotta say I really got to do a little bit of living now because I've done it was 5350s and it was me and Adrian and now I just did the winery dogs like okay, I don't want to keep writing the same 12 songs over and over again. So I think the move is you know, enjoy this tour that we've got for my solo stuff and hopefully you know people checking out this interview will come check out the show go to Richie kotzen.com You'll see all the dates you can buy the VIP packages, whatever it is you're looking for. But we're gonna do that then we've got the release of the new Smith costume thing and then somewhere at the end of the year beginning of next we're gonna go full winery dogs and and a lot of a lot of life towards that as well.

Chuck Shute:

Is recording new music for you. Is it more just for your own creative outlet? Or does it is it somewhat lucrative do you make some sort of money or do you lose money on it because I know you're making I saw some of the videos are very high quality professional videos. I mean, I see millions of streams on Spotify, but I know that doesn't really add up does it Can you place the music because I also heard like winery dogs and like Monday Night Football before and stuff. Does that help?

Richie Kotzen:

Yeah, I mean, you know, it's a situation you know? I look to answer your question. I've never done anything other than make a living on my music. And so, I was fortunate that when I was very young, you know, I started writing songs. And for me, it's always been about the song. That's, that's literally how I, you know, live, the lifestyle that I live, it's not because of my guitar playing the guitar playing is a part of it. But the real, the real thing is having made so many albums and owning the Masters, I don't have to do, you know, a lot of business in order to see revenue. You know, when I say a lot of business, I mean, like mainstream, like a massive hit. So, to answer your question, of course, there's, there's revenue there. And then you've got your touring. And, you know, I've never been like, you know, I went through phases where I spent money in kind of a reckless way, probably mostly on clothing. And you'd never guess it. Might one of my friends years ago said, man, you're the only person that can walk into a room wearing $3,000 in wardrobe and still look homeless. Thank you, I'm gonna take that as a compliment. But, you know, I, I don't know I am going through the space to where I like, I have so much stuff. And I'm thinking, the less stuff I have, I think the more freer I feel, in my mind, I just did inventory on my guitars, I took photographs of them. And I counted 87, stringed instruments in the house, and I'm starting to think you know, I just don't need I don't care to have all this stuff. You know,

Chuck Shute:

you typically play one guitar when you go live, or you need like five or 10. Or

Richie Kotzen:

I've done many, many, many a tour, especially overseas, right? Just take my Telecaster, and that is it. One guitar. Now, on this tour, I'm playing the Stratocaster quite a bit, I have a signature strap. With fender, there's a red one, and a white one. And they had just sent me this red guitar. And although the wood is the same spec, as it always is, this one in particular is really light. And it's so comfortable. So I've been using it and breaking it in. And so you'll see me you look at the any footage from this tour. To see me with a red strap, I still play the the white strat and of course, I'm playing my Telecaster quite a bit. So there's three guitars that I'm traveling with this time, but I've done tours with just one guitar.

Chuck Shute:

And what about what are the other gear? I'm not a gearhead, but I know there's some people that love that stuff. So is there other like pedals and things that you bring with you? Or

Richie Kotzen:

yeah, yeah, I have my own pedal that I designed in connection, together with the tech 21 called the fly rig that it's been for sale for almost 10 years now, I think. And it's a multi effect panel. It's small. It's got everything that I need in it. And I used to have them I don't want to bore you with the details why I used to but hesitant serves a purpose, a certain function, so those two are connected. And then I've got an old school, Cry Baby Wah, Dunlop Wah. And the one trick that's kind of interesting is a lot is modified to see phantom power out of the input jack of the fly rig. So if you use a stereo cable, quarter inch, it will send on that one that middle rung, it'll send voltage into the modified Wah. And so literally, you just plug in one thing, and the washers power through it. It's pretty, it's pretty clever. And, and that was the guys at Tech 21 did that for me. So maybe the move would be at some point to do a signature wire that's designed to live with that fly, Rick, it's something talked about, we just haven't done it yet. Now that's

Chuck Shute:

cool. And you play bass too, right? Because I know I was. I was listening to one of the Smith Kotzen songs and the bass line was so cool. And I was like, Oh, who's the bass player? Then I realize it's you and Adrian playing all the bass.

Richie Kotzen:

I love bass guitar. I mean, you got to think about, you know, I've had the luxury of having bands and some of the greatest bass players. I mean, Jeff Berlin, played on one of my albums when I was very young stew him. I was in a band with Tim Stevens, Stanley Clarke and I had a band together. Billy Sheehan and I have been in two separate bands together. So I'm huge. I love Yeah. Glen. I love Larry Graham. And you know, you know, Byron Miller, I mean, I just love bass guitar. And I really did something in my soul music that I don't really let anybody near it, because I just have the vision for what I want to hear the bass doing and has nothing to do with Being a guitar player, you know, when I pick up that bass, I'm a bass player. I'm thinking about, you know, the guys like Larry Graham and Stanley Clarke that I grew up listening to Nate watts. I mean, love the bass guitar.

Chuck Shute:

Did you do a song with Gene Simmons too?

Richie Kotzen:

You know, I did Jean did a solo album. When I had my recording studio. He came in there, I don't know how, how it ended up having someone connected us and can never forget, showed up with this tape cassette. And it was a format that I hadn't seen anyone use in a long time. And it's Oh, I'm like, What am I going to do? Here, so we got to do some we don't have this machine. So you know, my engineer handled and went and rented the machine that some that Jean did a solo album there. And he was a wonderful client and a great guy. And I had I had met him many years prior to that. Because he as a guy that was managing me was consulting for kiss. So I had met him through him. But he's a great guy, and also been very supportive of, of my endeavors publicly when the winery dog album came out him and Paul both said some very nice things. So that's very cool.

Chuck Shute:

That is really cool. You mentioned one of the chapters of your career, Mr. Big, that's another. I'm a fan of them. I had Eric on the show I've had I had Paul, I haven't had Billy yet but talk about that era, because you did two albums with them. And two of those songs are like really big in Japan, and they're great songs. I know. Shine. You co wrote that one with Eric super fantastic. You didn't write them.

Richie Kotzen:

Right. I didn't. Eric did not write sign. That was me. That was i i wrote shine. Oh, I'll tell you how that happened. We were making that record. And our producer was Richie Zito who was a friend of mine from way back when I met him on the voicemail, he produced that too. And he, you know, this is someone that's had multiple top 10 six singles, and work with you know, countless, you know, a list, popstar. So he kept saying you guys don't have a first single, you don't have a first single and so I played him shine. And when I played him shine, it was done. It was a demo with the exception that I didn't have the lyrics for the verse. But I had the course recorded. And I had all the melodies there was guitars. And we were trying to write the lyrics to the song. And he said, just think you need an opening line. He said, How do you feel right now? And I just said, I said, I never really feel quite right. And I don't know why I just know that something's wrong. And he goes, fuck, write that down. That's the opening line of the song. That's it. I'm like, really? Yeah, write that down. That's your opening line. So he literally lit the fire under my ass to finish it. And I credited him as a co write, to the tune of a small percentage, because if it wasn't for him, lighten that fire that saw would still be on the hard drive. So that tune was mine. The one that Eric wrote that was a single was on the previous record, called super fantastic. This was a really, really great. So I mean, Eric is such a great songwriter, as well. So he and I had a lot of fun in that era, just kind of throwing ideas back and forth. We did a song that it was like a beside called you don't have to be strong. And he and I wrote that together. I haven't heard it and many years, but I remember that. I remember it recording that second. That's a pretty special to remember something cool about that. So I really enjoyed writing Sam. And then the whole catch for me was I wanted to play with Billy Sheehan. So, you know, it was like a win win. And Eric, also, nobody probably knows. Eric is one of the first people I met when I came to California to record my second outmatch. But he was one of the earlier friends that I made. That was in a big band. And I remember we drove together to the band ease and and we shared a limo with me and a couple people. And then the following year. This was pretty cool. Eric and I performed at the very end Music Awards with Neil Sean is basically journey with Neil Jonathan Ross valory who's Narada Michael Walden on drum and then Mike Varney was playing guitar as well from shrapnel records. So we Did this really cool show? I think we did two or three songs. And that was all this stuff was happening. It's like, all these crazy like, Holy fuck, I'm playing with Neil Sean. Like all that kind of shit.

Chuck Shute:

That is That is amazing. Isn't he? Eric? He did. My show is so funny. I don't I heard you say that when you guys recorded actual size. You made it his house and you guys just ended up getting drunk a lot. Like, I don't know if he was drunk when he was my interview. But he I can't imagine drinking with him seems like a lot of fun.

Richie Kotzen:

Yeah, I mean, his personality is a little different than mine. I remember one night, we were we were talking. We were hanging out at the Sunset Marquis, which is where I used to go. When I wasn't on tour, I would be in there. And we were sitting outside. And I was talking to a young lady. And he he got a lot of energy. And he was kind of shuffling around with his hands. And I'm just trying to get my attention. I could see him out of the corner. My ID. He was getting frustrated, because I know he wanted to say something. But in my mind, I'm like, listen, I can't break this conversation with this lady. Because you know, you're gonna fuck up my whole night here. I'm ignoring him. And in his like, you know, shuffling around, he knocks a drink off the table. And a drink spills all over my leg shit. But I don't even acknowledge it. Because I don't want to break this conversation. And the girl doesn't realize that it happens is I don't react to it as flipping Goddamnit I just threw a drink and you know this and that. all in good fun. I mean, the guy is super talented. And we had a lot of fun up on those tours, you know, great guy.

Chuck Shute:

Yeah. So obviously, that's how you is that where you met Billy originally?

Richie Kotzen:

No, I met Billy. I'm connected to my relationship with the, with it with Eric. I dated a girl that he used to date. And she took me over to his house. And that's when I remember meeting him like officially for the first time and, and we just hang out hung out and you know, nice guy. And and then what happened there? Here's here's something that nobody knows if this is something that you'll find interesting is that there was a point where Mr. Big was inactive. And Billy and Pat Torpey wanted to do something together. And they called me in. And it was a power trio. It was like, really like, you know what I'm doing now with Billy and Mike back then. You know, it was Pat. And so Pat Torpey. Me and Billy, we're going down to Mitch. And we were writing songs together. And nothing ever came of it. I don't know why maybe Mr. Big went back to it. I don't know what happened. But one of those songs ended up on one of my solo records. I have a record called what is. And there's a song on there called locked out. And that was a song that came out of those writing sessions. We wrote the music together. And then I took it home and and wrote the words and finished it up. And they came in and recorded it. But I don't think anybody knows that that ever happened. And that that was before I joined Mr. Big. So that must that was my 1997 1998. Somewhere around there.

Chuck Shute:

Wow. Yeah. I didn't know that. Maybe. Maybe blabbermouth. Wants to pick that story up? I don't know. I think Well, I'm

Richie Kotzen:

sure they'll pick up a lot of stuff because you're asking me all kinds of questions that I've never been asked before. So. Okay, well, yeah, I mean, yeah, that's good. You're digging deep.

Chuck Shute:

I'm trying to Yeah, I mean, I just they told me today. They're like, Hey, you can you interview him today? I was like, I want usually one more time to dig deep, but I guess they did enough. Good enough job.

Richie Kotzen:

Is this an audio? I mean, people gonna hear me speaking are you transcribing this?

Chuck Shute:

No, no, it's just a podcast. So yeah, that's all typically. Yeah, typically, I'd have video but your manager said that you're in like a bad area. And so you just want to do audio. So it'll be video of me and audio of you. And I'll put a nice picture of you next to it. So people.

Richie Kotzen:

Yeah, yeah. Oh, yeah, please, please put something flattering. This is not a print interview. This is actually they're gonna Yeah,

Chuck Shute:

so they can't but you know, sometimes Blabbermouth will take a podcast, and they'll take a piece of it and then that will become a headline and then I've seen a couple of of yours on there. Oh, As research,

Richie Kotzen:

I mean, it's fine. Whatever, this as long as someone doesn't say something that I didn't say, right, and that would be a problem, but the reality is I'm saying that you're recording it. So I mean, you know,

Chuck Shute:

yeah, it is what it is now and I don't edit much, you know, from like, you know, I don't want it out the ohms and ahhs and all that. So it's pretty much unedited, so people can hear it and make their own decision, but I don't think you've said anything. Love was super controversial or anything like that. So,

Richie Kotzen:

no, yeah, no, no, I'm not a controversial guy.

Chuck Shute:

Now, ya know, you've just had such an amazing career. So yeah, we talked about the highlights was, was one of the highlights has to be the Rolling Stones, The opening for them in Japan was that like one of your biggest highlights of your career?

Richie Kotzen:

That was a real crazy moment. I remember. At the end of the last show. Before I went on the stones, we'll take a photograph with the opening act, professional photograph, although the one that they gave me the file and it's pixelated shit, I printed it out. The quality's not so good. Anyway, but I remember Ron wood came up to me, and put his hand on my throat, said, My God, your voice. You remind me a Rod Stewart. He said, You're a cross between Rod Stewart and Bernard Fowler. And Bernard is someone that I know he's the background singer for many, many years. And he looked at mix and go, did you hear this kid thing? And mix it? No, you're wrong. Right? Didn't hear sorry. And, but that was kind of a surreal moment. So actually having his hand on my touch with my throat was sort of crazy. But it was cool. It was beyond cool. But I'll tell you something. I didn't tell anyone that I was doing it until after the first show played out. Because in my mind, I thought there's a huge chance that I'm going to get over there. And someone in the organization said opening act, Richie who what? memoranda. We're not doing that. You know what I mean?

Chuck Shute:

Or somebody goes on the AOL chat room and spoils.

Richie Kotzen:

Yeah. Exactly. Exactly. Yeah, yeah. No, no, that's it was great, man. I mean, it was I'll tell you, it was the easiest. Get the easiest groups I ever did, because I didn't take any crew because I knew a lot of the guys on crew. They knew me. And they took care of us. I mean, the monitors were killer. I could hear everything. I mean, it was it was really great. It was really cool.

Chuck Shute:

That's cool. Is there anyone else that's that's left? Is there any on your bucket list? Because I feel like Rolling Stones that's got to be number one for a lot of people or is there somebody else that you haven't had a chance to work with?

Richie Kotzen:

I don't know. Maybe Bruce Springsteen or Bob Dylan, you know,

Chuck Shute:

yeah, Songwriting with Bob Dylan, I would be to write a song with him and see that process. That would be cool. Paul McCartney.

Richie Kotzen:

Paul McCartney. Yeah.

Chuck Shute:

Yeah, that would. That would be Are You Led Zeppelin guy would like Robert Plant Jimmy Page.

Richie Kotzen:

Sure. I mean, yeah, yeah. I mean, we grew up on on it, I guess. You know, the who I really I love. I love the who I love their songs, and the writing and the lyrics. You know, I actually played with Roger Daltrey, too. I have a funny story real quick. But many, many years ago, I participated in this thing called Rock and Roll fantasy camp. And what this is, is that people will pay a certain amount of money, and they get put into a group, a band, if you will. And then a well known musician, of a certain category will coach them and then write a song with them. Teach them some cover songs, ultimately, they perform. And then there's always a top a list, Rockstar that will come around, meet everybody, maybe play a song with them as well. And on this camp, it was Roger Daltrey from the who. And I was one of the guitar players that was going to perform in his band because he had agreed to do five or six songs as the grand finale. And this was taking place at BB kings in New York, which is a it's a funny sounding room. If you don't know what you're doing and have the right sound man, it's a very dry and it's one of the stages it doesn't forgive anything, you know what I mean? And so he was going to play in a soundstage starts and immediately he starts you know, getting kind It aggressive about the fact that he can't hear His voice and, and I had just played there two months earlier. So I'm like, Yeah, I'm thinking to myself, I know exactly what's going on. And I know how to fix it. But it's about to go through who I'm looking at, say thanks. So this starts getting like kind of out of control a little bit where he's like, you know, threatening to not play with the band and just get up with an acoustic guitar and play a song. So I said, here's an innocent dog. So I know you don't know who I am. But I'm a singer. I just played this room. A couple of months ago, I had the same problem. You're having that. And I have a workaround. And it got me through my show. Do you want to try it? And it's like, right, right. No problem. So what you've got. So I basically do this, work around whatever you want to call, I'm not going to bother explaining what it was. But I got his vocal where it needs to be in the room. And the band was not stepping on it. And we had a great show. It was really cool.

Chuck Shute:

That's awesome. That's that's I'm glad that story when a good way and he didn't get pissed off he or something.

Richie Kotzen:

Yeah, he was pretty pissed off. But he wasn't pissed at me. But then once once, we got it fixed, and he was coming over to Boston, yeah, place one. So I got you know, no one really knows it. Can I show it to you? And he starts, you know, showing me this kind of, you know, thing, and I'm like, Oh, my God, I can't not get this because, you know, now he thinks I know what I'm doing. But it was some really strange timing thing that like, I have no problem playing in odd meters, you know, but this thing was like, I'm like, What is going on? It's like that Johnny Cashton. It's kind of tricky. The kind of moves in a weird way. I can't think of the name off the top of my head. But nonetheless, it turned out to be a great show.

Chuck Shute:

Yeah. Oh, that sounds super fun. Yeah, you've worked with so many amazing people. It was Todd Rundgren was one of them too. I think like, how was he to work? Did you never work with him?

Richie Kotzen:

Never met him. Oh,

Chuck Shute:

why don't I thought I saw like multiple things with your name. And his name must be confused.

Richie Kotzen:

I think there's a tribute record floating around that I would admire. Play a few chords. There was a probably a tribute record to talk longer.

Chuck Shute:

Okay, the answer was, yeah, you did a bunch of those tribute record. That was kind of a big phase in the I feel like in the 90s, early 2000s. Everyone was doing the tributes. That was,

Richie Kotzen:

yeah, it was a thing. And it was a way for how to work musicians to get a couple bucks. You know, it was cool. What was different things that people come up with? For us to do, but we are now luckily, I've worked myself into a pretty good spot over the last 10 years I have a I have a joke, but not a joke. And it's called, you know, you've heard of the power of Yes, but my thing is the power of No. And there is nothing more liberating and freeing than saying No thanks. And not giving an explanation. Because most of the grief and misery I've experienced in my life, because I've agreed to do something that in my gut, I know is the wrong thing for me to be doing. So it's all about the power of No.

Chuck Shute:

Like what are examples like working with certain musicians or shows or

Richie Kotzen:

I'm not going to go down that road? I'm just saying in general, I asked you to do so. Pretend to fly through yourself. Like if someone asks you to do something, and you just don't want to do it, you end up doing it turns into a fucking mess, right? You know, like to be anything like letting us strange relative, you know, borrow your car. Or whatever, you know, right? Like, you know, I think over the years, I've just kind of realized, well, you know, money isn't everything. Especially if you have a couple dollars laying around. And even beyond that if you don't, sometimes your peace of mind is much better than the aggravation of doing something and compromising yourself to do something that in your heart you really don't want

Chuck Shute:

to do. Now that's that's the power of No, I love it. That's great advice back to your music here. We we gotta wrap this up. You have the Smith Kotzen is coming out you're going to be doing solo shows. And then winery dogs album coming out next year and shows for that as well. So lots of great stuff for you. People can like I said the VIP we talked about that so people can get those. That's really awesome. Great stuff. I always end with a charity too. Is there a charity that you want to promote here at the end? If people have a few extra bucks leftover after they buy your album,

Richie Kotzen:

wonderful if they donate to a cause? ALS. Okay, yes, disease. Oh, that'd be a really lovely thing. Okay,

Chuck Shute:

perfect. I'll put that in the notes along with your website and the Smith Kotzen website. And I think there's winery dogs. They got a website too, right? I think there should be. Put that in there too. We do. Yeah, they can follow you on social media follow winery dogs for all this stuff. You're making great music.

Richie Kotzen:

If you want to follow me, I'm on Instagram, Ritchie, underscore costume. I got the blue checkmark and a lot of we all have we all have these guys. Or who knows who they are. They're running around pretending to be us.

Chuck Shute:

Right? If they ask you for money, that's usually a tell that.

Richie Kotzen:

Yeah, I got the blue checkmark. And so you know, that's me. Awesome. Well,

Chuck Shute:

hopefully I'll get a blue tech one of these days to them. I'm working towards that. So thank you so much for doing this. Lots of great stories. I appreciate you being so open as well. So hopefully I can catch a show. I'd love to see you. I've never seen you live. It looks like an amazing experience from the tracks that I've heard off this new record that are live. It sounds amazing. So

Richie Kotzen:

alright, man, well, thank you. Fuck me another time.

Chuck Shute:

Okay, thanks, Richie. Okay, thank you again to Richie Kotzen makes sure to check out the new singles out now from Smith Kotzen and the upcoming full album will be out soon as well. Richie is on tour with his solo band so check his website for tour dates, and there will be a new winery dogs out in 2023. The best way to keep up with all this stuff of course is to follow Richie on social media and his other projects Smith cots in the winery dogs. That way you'll get the quickest updates on what he's doing. If you want to support my show your likes, shares and comments on YouTube and social media helped me out immensely. I'm eternally grateful for those. appreciate all your support. Have a great day and shoot for the moon.