Chuck Shute Podcast
In depth interviews with musicians, comedians, authors, actors, and more! Guests on the show include David Duchovny, Billy Bob Thornton, Mark Normand, Dee Snider, Ann Wilson, Tony Horton, Don Dokken, Jack Carr and many more.
Chuck Shute Podcast
Warrant Guitarist Joey Allen Opens Up About New Music, Band Business, & More!
Joey Allen, guitarist of Warrant, discussed the band's evolution, business model, and personal growth. He highlighted the band's financial success, averaging 40-60 shows a year, and their lean touring operations. Allen emphasized the importance of responsibility, sobriety, and professionalism, noting the band's maturity and lack of drama. He mentioned the band's recent work with Pearl Drums and their commitment to charity. Allen also touched on the band's past, including demos from the "Dog Eat Dog" era and potential future projects. The conversation also covered the challenges and responsibilities of maintaining a successful band
0:00:00 - Intro
0:00:20 - Locations, Safety & Riots
0:04:15 - Joey's Hiatus & Coming Back
0:06:34 - How the Band Has Matured
0:08:09 - Band as a Business & Operations
0:14:36 - AC DC, Van Halen & David Lee Roth
0:19:18 - Guest Lists, Helping & Entitlement
0:22:55 - Sadness, Loss, Money & Purpose
0:25:15 - Sobriety & Band Sounding Tighter
0:26:40 - Warrant Set List & Albums
0:30:05 - Robbie Crane & Jerry Dixon
0:31:55 - Zero Drama Bands & Shows
0:35:45 - Bands with Issues & Low IQs
0:40:45 - Other Opportunities
0:42:27 - Doing Shows & Staying Busy
0:43:40 - Responsibility, Therapy & Self Work
0:49:23 - Performing Great Shows & Playing Tracks
0:52:07 - Poison & Def Leppard & Singers
0:56:35 - Adapting Lifestyles with Age
0:57;35 - Warrant Unreleased Music & Video
1:00:55 - Reflecting Back on Youth
1:02:45 - Skid Row Live & New Singer
1:03:55 - New Warrant & Solo Record
1:06:55 - Dog Eat Dog & Seattle Grunge
1:08:02 - Self-Indulgence & Changing Things
1:10:45 - Fairness, Money, Credits & Royalties
1:15:01- Happiness & Values
1:17:45 - David Lee Roth, Jani Lane, AC DC & Pantera
1:20:50 - Online Haters
1:21:30 - Promotions
Warrant band website:
Chuck Shute link tree:
Thanks for Listening & Shute for the Moon!
Bending down with the heavy stars rock and rolling through the cool guitars shops got the questions, digging so sharp, peeling back layers, hitting the heart.
Unknown:Hey, man, hello. How are you I'm good. How are you doing, buddy,
Chuck Shute:good. It's just I'm in Arizona where I think you're, you're singer. Robert Mason lives here, right?
Unknown:Robert lives there, Steven lives there. And I have a house. I have a house over on the river there. Oh,
Chuck Shute:wow. Okay, yeah, my air conditioning went out. So you know how hot it gets, and so I'm just like, so if I start sweating, it's not because I'm on cocaine, it's because it's there's no air conditioning, so
Unknown:we're surviving, but cocaine is no fun anymore. It's got fentanyl in it now,
Chuck Shute:yeah, that's true, yeah. Well, you guys were never, you never were like the drug band, right? You were just more like the drink. We
Unknown:were the drinker. Band, yeah, sure. But all good buddy, all good
Chuck Shute:Yeah. Cuz now and you're in California, still, right? Southern
Joey Allen:California, I am, yeah, I'm in Orange County. How
Chuck Shute:is it over there? Because I know there was some stuff going on and there was fires, hopefully that were contained. But I mean, you're pretty you're kind of removed from the the crazy stuff, right? I'm in your
Unknown:bowl. I'm in your Belinda with the crazy stuff, with the protesters
Chuck Shute:downtown. Yes, yeah, there was, yeah,
Unknown:I don't, I don't subscribe to anything of that, like that. I think it's bullshit. I think I, you know what, look if we want to get into politics, I'll say this. I'm a middle of the road guy. I'm a reasonable adult, and I think that taxes, and everything that taxes people pay for taxes should go to the people that pay the taxes. Period.
Chuck Shute:That's a radical idea. What do you so?
Unknown:And yeah, you know, I've got some friends that I know that aren't legal. They're here illegally. They've been here for a long time. They work hard, they speak great English. They're good people, they've got good families. And there needs to be a sensible solution to people like that. But as far as opening our borders to anybody that's insane, you know, that's insane. Anyways, we don't need to get into politics? No,
Chuck Shute:yeah. I just wanted to make sure you were safe. Because, I mean, it looked kind of because I know there was the fires last year, and I know that was really and I saw people on TV lighting the bushes on fire, like the whole immigration thing. I mean, that's a whole nother issue. I'm just saying, like the rioting stuff, or whatever you want to call it the chaos. I don't even know if those people are, if that's why they're there. That's a whole nother rabbit hole. But yeah. I mean, when you see people lighting the bushes on fire in California, it's just really because they're like that can spread like it did last year, and that was really scary. I
Unknown:think pretty much you should take people that do that, you should light them on fire. How's that?
Chuck Shute:Well, yeah, I mean, it's it makes you angry, for sure, yeah, you hate to see that, like
Unknown:people that spend their whole lives working their ass off to buy a home, and if some asshole wants to light it on fire, you should just be able to light that person on fire.
Chuck Shute:I mean, yeah, better yet, you
Unknown:should catch them if they do it, and you should put it on TV and light them on fire and do a pay per view, because I would pay $1,000 to watch that.
Chuck Shute:Yeah, it's like that movie The Running Man, where they used to capture the criminals, and then they, they put they'd have a game for them to survive against the but they, but they weren't criminals. That's the that was the problem with that one. Yeah, that's there's a lot of corruption in the world, unfortunately. But, yeah, that's crazy. I was, I was thinking about that with the riots, though, because it reminded me of the 92 riots. And then Aerosmith wrote that really cool song, living on the edge. I was like, That song is, like, still relevant today. You know, it's like, it's crazy how it's like, we're going running in circles here. It's like those
Unknown:Toys in the Attic and all that fun dream, you know, draw the line. All that stuff still relevant, yeah? Think about it. I mean, everybody's a little crazy. Toys in the Attic, that's what that means, right? You're a little crazy. But, yeah, man, everything's good. How you doing, Chuck?
Chuck Shute:I'm doing, yeah, besides the AC thing I'm I'm doing, we're actually really good. I think my thing is, like, I kind of want to get your advice on this. Advice on this, because, I mean, you, you started with Warren. I mean, you were in other bands, I think, and you got Warren, and then you guys grew this animal into this monster thing, and then there was a point where you just were like, I'm done, right? And then you took a hiatus for 10 years. Now you're back, and I think you're in a everyone's in a good place with the band, right? Like you guys all have your other things, so it's not your main source of income. But that time when you left, like, was it more just kind of circumstantial, like, to survive that you left? It wasn't like you hated being in a band and hated doing music.
Unknown:No. It was exactly the opposite. I mean, I wasn't really in a good place, to be honest with you. And when you're in a band, you rely on the other three or four people in the band to get up in the morning and show up to work, so to speak, right? And I couldn't rely on that. There was one person that I couldn't rely on and and I decided that I would take, take my, you know, take my life into my own hands, and be responsible for myself. So that's what I did. And, you know, it wasn't fun being in school and being in class with a bunch of pocket protectors dudes and, you know, and learning, learning it and data, and all the everything I did Microsoft certification, but in the hind, in hindsight, it was the it was probably one of the best things I ever did, because one Jared, both Jerry and Eric have told me you didn't miss anything while you were gone. It was really dark for the band. And, you know, I got an education and worked in private business for eight years, and it's helped me today with what I do today with pearl drums. I'm hitting my 20 year mark with pearl in August, you know, and it's a great bunch of people I work with at Pearl. They're some of the best in the industry. I've learned tons from guys that have master's degrees in economics and that have run businesses, and it's just it's just a different world, having a day gig and working in business and then being in a band. But this band has matured so much over the last 20 years, just the the we're still friends. We've always been friends Steven and Jerry and Eric and I, you know, Eric and I have known each other the longest of anybody, really, um, way before Warren, you know, a few years before Warren even started. And, you know, now Robert's been in the band longer than Janie ever was, you know. So I've been in a band longer with him, but it's just, it's like five grown ups going on tour, huh? You know, and everybody's got it. Everybody's smart. There's no low IQ guys, there's no there's no passive aggressive. It's just all, if there's a business decision that's got to be made in this band, we sit down and we talk about it like, like adults, and everybody's got an opinion, and nine out of 10 times when we roll out of a meeting, everybody's in a great mood. Every once in you get, you get a situation where you might disagree, but they're not. It's not a negative thing, you know, it's always learning. Everybody always learns. And everybody's Great. Everybody's in a good place. Band's never been in a better place. We've worked hard, man. I mean, I've been back in the band 20 years now, 21 years.
Chuck Shute:Yeah, do you think that that is a better decision to kind of make the band? It's kind of more like, basically, like, what are they called now, the term is, like a side hustle, right? Like, because you've got your main gig at Pearl, and then you've got the band is kind of like, it's not just a hobby because you're making money, but it's a side hustle.
Unknown:Well, Pearl has been around 80 years, next year, so it's, you know, Pearl is a worldwide business, and I'm really blessed that, you know, I take it. I take it for granted. Sometimes my education really helped me out, to be honest with you, knowing data and knowing knowing how to navigate Excel spreadsheets and to, you know, to close to the advanced stage, you know, and just knowing how to communicate with people properly and and not, you know, not blow up and say the wrong thing when you when you, you know, get frustrated. There's frustrations everywhere. The bands taught me a lot of that. But the band, the band is in a great place. The band financially is, is, you know, financially better now than we were in the heyday. So side hustle, to me would be like, is it something where it's just kind of icing on the cake, and the band is, is a viable business, you know? Yeah, no. It's, I mean, it 40 to 5040, to 60 gigs a year. I mean, it's, it's a, it's a very valuable business, so, you
Chuck Shute:know, so for some of the members, is it their only source of income? And they don't have absolutely,
Unknown:absolutely and a great source of income, yeah, you know, well, into six figures for everybody. And I don't want to talk about money, it's not important. But warrant has worked very, very, very, very hard, and we've gotten to the place now to where it's a great business, you know. And we're going to keep on going, and we've got some some things, you know, up our sleeve. We'll see what we do this year, maybe early next year, and it's all good. That's
Chuck Shute:amazing. Amazing to hear. I love that, yeah, because I think you have, you guys have made it a good business plan, because one of the things you do is you don't have the tour bus, right? And you don't have the record company on your back. You're just doing shows and they're flying dates. You don't have all the equipment and all the gear, or the crew and all that, right? I mean, it's very bare bones for a lot
Unknown:of that. We have five band members and four crew members. One crew member handles merchandise, and that's a great business for us on the road that shows. And then we've got a stage left tech, a stage right tech, and then a tour manager that does front of house, our stage left tech, KJ Does, does Robert and I, and then he also does our monitors. And then our stage right tech does Jerry when he's out, which is once every blue moon, pretty much Robbie, crane, Eric. And then he's helped set up the drums. And then he runs. He plays keyboards for like, Down boy, we forever. We played those songs, and it was just missing the down, you know, the stuff you hear behind them, like, there's, there's chink, there's, you know, there's piano, and I saw red, there's, there's the banjo, and Uncle Tom's Cabin was played on an emulator. It's not a banjo on the record, and he plays that stuff live. So that's James, and then Kelly does front of house, and we call him the tour mangler. He's a better Front of House engineer than but we've got a very tight ship. We don't use a tour bus. It's a waste of money. And we fly in and out of every gig, and we drive, I drove almost five hours Saturday from from of Farmington, Pennsylvania, all the way up to Elmira to go play tags. So there's a band van that's got five band guys in it, and then there's two crew bands with gear. We take enough gear to get through a show and back lines on the writer, and that's what we do. Yeah,
Chuck Shute:no, that's perfect. And then I think the other thing that you're doing that a lot of bands are doing is the meet and greet thing. I mean, that's got to be a big chunk of change there, because I think there's like, $100 one that's kind of the bare bones. And then there's the $200 one that where you get this, the custom skateboard. I mean, it's a lot of cool stuff in there. You get, like, a bunch of merch with a two sign glossy and, like, guitar picks, I think. And, yeah,
Unknown:it's cool. I mean, I'd say 9.9 out of 10 people have a good time. You get to come in, you get to say hi to the band. You get a picture. We hang out while we sign something for you, you know. And and then that's it, you know. And we, sometimes there's 20 people, sometimes there's four people. It's, it's an opportunity there for everybody. It's just another, it's just another, you know, opportunity for income for the band. Because basically, you know, we make money touring. That's how the band makes money, you know. I mean, we haven't had a proper record deal since Sony Columbia, from my perspective, and we still have catalog with them, and we're, we're square with them. So there's all kinds of different revenue streams, but as far as business is concerned, I'm really proud to say that this business is viable. The guys that that manage the portion of the business that's the money do a great job and no complaints, you know. And I'm coming from you know, a guy that's worked for Pearl, which is a huge company worldwide, you know, and I'm right under that executive level at senior sales, and I know enough to get in trouble. But seeing how a major corporation like Pearl works, and seeing how warrant works, warrants run pretty well, no drama. There's no drama. There's no infighting, there's no low IQ band members. Do you know what I mean? There's just no people.
Chuck Shute:Was it? Was there ones in the past or in other bands or something, or there's,
Unknown:there's low, a lot of low IQ musicians out there? Yeah, yeah, it's unfortunate. They probably don't think they are. But I'd love to, I'd love to give everybody an IQ test in the industry, they think, they think, you know, they've got the egos because they've sold records, but just because you've sold records and you're successful doesn't mean you're smart. I know a lot of rich people that aren't smart. You know, there's a difference, and it is what it is, you know, is what it is.
Chuck Shute:No, I mean, because you, besides, you know, you're obviously the band, the bands that you've been in, and your band members, you guys have toured with so many. I mean, you've done shows with almost every band, although I was, I think I tried to figure out, had you ever done a show with AC DC, and I don't think you have.
Unknown:No, I would have loved to do that, but no, I mean, I've seen them millions of times, and I never saw him with bond, Eric, someone with bond. Eric saw the highway to hell to her. Wow. The first one I saw was back in black, but yeah, just, you know, one of the all time greats. You know, I've never, we've never. I played with Van Halen.
Chuck Shute:Um, oh, I thought, well, you did what David Lee Roth shows, right? Yeah.
Unknown:But that's neat. You know, it was neat, Edward. I mean, if we played with Van Halen, I would have been sitting on Edward's side, like, you know, like a groupie. I mean, you know, it's one of my favorite guitar players of all time, so a lot of guys from my era, but, yeah, never played with Van Halen, but that shows with Dave. Saw Dave's last show at him three. How was it a plus plus plus plus? Okay, here's the thing. I mean, I don't often go online and read reviews, but I wanted to see what people thought of Dave.
Chuck Shute:Yeah, I saw mixed I saw people either said a plus or was terrible. They walked out of the show so bad, that's what.
Unknown:I don't know, what the people that walked out of the show expected. I swear I saw Van Halen on their second worldwide tour. It was 1979 maybe, or 1980 I don't know which year, but it was the second record. It was at the LA sports arena, and Dave is 70. I know Dave enough to, you know, to say hi and have a conversation tour with Dave. Hung out with Dave and a few on a few occasions, and I thought the band was fantastic. Fantabulous. Is that a word? It is now, Al i Al, the guitar player, killer, killer. Mean, look, have the great tone played? Eddie's licks, great. The backup guys were fantastic. The set list was insane. I don't know what people were expecting. You know, you mean, he's not David. Of of you know, 19 7919 8070, years old. People don't understand how hard it is to keep your instrument as a singer. Well, for that long, you know, guitar players, all we have to worry about is, you know, split calluses, or if you get old, you can get arthritis, you know. So you you just, you know, you try to take care of it. But as a singer, and I sing in our band, you know, but just backgrounds, but I really envy, like the singers that have really kept it together. A Mickey Hart, um, you know, is one of them, he can still nail those notes. You know, it's not an easy thing to do for those guys.
Chuck Shute:Yeah? Steven Tyler's the one that I couldn't believe that he because those are some really hard notes to hit,
Unknown:yeah? I mean, you know, it's, you know. And if you watch, like, stuff of Gene Simmons, he, you know, even though he's got a very unique voice, he's still nailing it, you know, you see people like Jon, Bon Jovi can't do it anymore. You know, I don't know if he had a bad surgery or what. Paul Stanley had some hard time, you know? And it's understandable. I mean, it's not a you're not relying on an instrument. It's right, it's right. Here. Do you know what I mean, those guys know how to sing, but if this isn't in good shape and doesn't show up, you're out of the game, you know, I mean, Robert Mason is, we're all I'm 61 in a few weeks. Man, you just get older, you know. So to see people not like the Dave thing, it really makes me feel sorry for those people, because they just, I don't know what they were expecting, you know, right? Well, I think
Chuck Shute:that was the thing, as a lot of people said, he's never been like a amazing singer. His His thing was all like his shtick and his he was a front man. He's an amazing front man. He's still moving and dancing around and stuff. But, I mean, he struggles a little bit with the notes. Yeah, that's understandable for his age.
Unknown:You know, nobody's, nobody's in their 20s anymore. He did fantastic and and the band was fantastic. And I would go, I would pay to go see it again. And I don't do that that often. I don't go out, but I would pay to go see David again.
Chuck Shute:You typically would get a free ticket to a lot of these shows, right? You have a connection or somebody,
Unknown:I don't, yeah, I don't ask if I want, if I want to go to a show, I'll hit somebody and say, Hey, I'd like to buy tickets to come to your show. I always offer, because it's a business, sure, and, and, you know, I live in Los in basically Southern California, Orange County. I don't want to take some money out of somebody's pocket. It's not That's not who I am, so I'll offer. And if they say, hey, we'll got you covered. Are you sure? You know, I'm not asking for that, you know, but if they want to do that, that's okay. But I don't ever ask that. I need to get on your guest list. I don't do that because I don't appreciate it when people do do it to us and be honest with you. You. Uh, nine out of 10 shows for us, our guest list is empty because we just don't, you know, when I play in Des Moines, Iowa, I don't know a lot of people from Des Moines, Iowa, you know what I mean? Yeah, I mean, no,
Chuck Shute:I feel the same way. I don't. I feel weird asking that, and I've interviewed a lot of musicians, but I'm like, why am I it just it doesn't feel like because then it's awkward. If they say no too, then you're like, oh, sometimes you
Unknown:don't have sometimes you deal with the promoter is that you only get 10 guests, you know? And if people
Chuck Shute:offer, I will take up the offer. I've had some people, very nice. But
Unknown:if somebody calls up and says, Hey, I'm coming to your show, and I look at the guest list, and we've got 20 spots, and there's one on it, I'd say, Hey, do you need a few tickets? And, you know, or if you go, Hey, I bought some tickets, I'll say, Hey, here's, here's some passes. We'll see after the show. And, you know, it's different, but it's a business, you know, and you gotta, you gotta really respect the promoters too, because, you know, it's their money as well, right? Yeah, I was
Chuck Shute:trying to remember who I had on that was telling me so a lot of bands get taken advantage with stuff like that. Like, people kind of remember who it was. I feel like, with somebody in the Motley Crew camp that said people would show up and like, and then they would expect like, not only to get like, backstage or to go to the show, but they expected to get free merch. They're like, Okay, what I want? Like, a t shirt. I want this. And it's like, whoa. Like, you're really taking advantage, bro. I
Unknown:don't know very many people like that. If we have somebody like that, they're only, they only, we only see him at one show, and then we'll never see him again. How's that,
Chuck Shute:right? Yeah, I know that's crazy, but there's probably a lot of bands that are trying to be nice. And I mean, wasn't that the thing like with the MC Hammer behind the music that, you know, he just tried to help too many of his friends, and that's why he went bankrupt. I
Unknown:think that that guy probably had a really good heart. I never met him. He probably had a really good heart and got taken advantage of from a bunch of people that did not and it's unfortunate, you know, right? I work, I work really hard with the band and Pearl, I probably do average 70 hours a week, you know, when we're touring, which is a lot, and sometimes, you know, 2030, days on so, you know. And I've got a family, so I want to take care of my family, you know, I'm, I'm, when there's an opportunity to do something for charity, we step right up all the time, you know. So you gotta, it's part of, it's, it's your responsibility, if you're, if you're doing well. But as far as entitlement goes, and people that are entitled to things, the people are entitled they're gonna be waiting for a long time, because there's, there's not a lot of gifts, you know, get, get over it. You know, nobody, nobody's gonna help you, man, the sooner you realize that you're the only one that's going to help you is yourself, the better off you are.
Chuck Shute:No, that's, that's so spot. I don't know if you're a fan of David Goggins, but I just love that guy and and that's his message. And he had a shit life, he had a shit childhood, and he figured out, lost weight joint, you know, join the Navy Seals and like. And you know, now he's gonna and the answer, he'll tell you. He's like, look, no one's coming to save you. You got to figure it out. So he's like, even I can't save you,
Unknown:yeah, yeah. And another thing, it's like, I've been through enough therapy in my life. There's that. There's the old, the old, you know, NASCAR, the NASCAR circuit of life, you're always taking a left turn. So you're going in circles and circles and circles. And if something's not going good in your life, or you want to change something, you've got to take a right turn and get off that track sometime and just disrupt the norm. You know what? I mean? Yeah. So, uh, was that kind of like
Chuck Shute:when you left the band the first time? That's kind of what it was, because, like, that always just
Unknown:right turn, yeah, it's just like, was there was a part
Chuck Shute:of you though that was sad to give up the glamor and the dream? Like, did you feel like your dream was dying and now you've got to go get a real job and all I mean, was there? There had to been some sadness and some loss.
Unknown:There was definitely loss, because it wasn't hanging out with my buddies like I was, you know. And those relationships to this day are, are treasured, you know, I love, I love my my guys in my band were like brothers, you know. So there was the loss. Was never about what. What happened for me is it became about money. And when you do anything solely for money. It's it's soulless that has no purpose. You know, money's fine. Having money is better than not having money, for sure, but doing something just for money is soulless. You have to have a purpose. You have to that's what drives you. Why do you get up every morning? You get up every morning just because you're dying to get up. Or you get up every morning because you're excited about what the day is going to send you. You know, if it's if it's something from a band, if it's something from Pearl, if it's some challenge at Pearl, that's that I didn't have yesterday. If my vice president tells me who I talk to every day of the week, you know, I want you to do this and this and this and this. And he put. You know, he puts some pressure on me to get something done in a timeline. That's what makes me tick. And if I don't, if I don't have that, I could get in trouble, because I, you know, I'm a little mischievous, you know? I mean, I haven't, I just recently, and I don't talk about it, and I don't want to talk about it, but I haven't drank in almost two years, no alcohol, and I don't I'm not a guy that publicizes it online. Oh, I got a month. I got two months. I tell my band guys, and I tell my wife, and that's it, you know. And I'm proud of it, and I feel great. And it's made a lot of difference in my life, not that I ever had a bad problem, but when I drank, I was really good at it, you know, really sure. Well,
Chuck Shute:yeah. And I think the older and, I mean, I have these conversations with a lot of musicians, and it's a similar path, whether they had a problem or not, but yeah, I mean, just the older you get, you've got to like, yeah. I
Unknown:mean playing the band, because Robert's sober, I'm sober. Nobody really drinks a lot in this band anymore, and the band sounds way better because of it, go figure. And and, you know, we're paying attention. We're jamming before every show. We're backstage, playing half a dozen songs and maybe dialing in on one song vocally, where we work on the harmonies, you know, 30 minutes before we go on, we're back there doing that. So it's just, you know, where we used to just be partying and having fun, right? So now it's, it's, it's, you know, and this has happened in the last three or four years. The band's really just changed course for the better, you know,
Chuck Shute:that's good to hear. So do you think that now that you've been able to do that, and you're more serious. Do you think that you would add different songs to the set list that maybe before you're like, ah, that one's like, a little too complicated. This
Unknown:one we've got riding Heisman in the set this year. I'm the guy. I'm the I'm the Quasimodo music director for Warren. So right bonfires in the set this year. Oh, I love that song. Um, so there's there, you know, we're thinking about putting in quicksand or, you know, so we, we like to mix it up and but there's certain songs everybody wants to hear, you know? I mean, sure, of course, yeah, I can tell you that we've done every song off the first two records in the last five years, except for one in the sticks. We've never played that live, for a long time. Why? I don't know. That's a good question. Maybe we should dig it up. It's always fun, yeah, because it's challenging, because we haven't played it in, you know, decades. So we'll see, you know. And then there's some off, like, off of, louder, harder, faster, you know, Devil dancers, phenomenal or or only broken hurt. We played that live, you know, for a while. So there's stuff, you know. What
Chuck Shute:about the songs off born again? Because, I mean, that's, I know it was a different singer that
Unknown:record. I like that record musically, I think some of the lyric contents a little questionable, just because the stuff we did on the first three records, Janie was such a wordsmith, right? And then, you know? But I like that. I like that record. I really do. There's some great grooves on that record, but I don't think live, you know, it's like one of those records that just nobody, unless you're a hardcore fan, nobody knows
Chuck Shute:I'm a hardcore fan. Yeah, I was also gonna say, like, the ones, the two that you were not there for, uh, ultraphobic and belly to belly. Like, did you have you ever performed any of those songs since you rejoined?
Unknown:No, I haven't. I think I heard, I think Eric sent me one of those records, and I listened to it once, but I haven't. I if I've listened to those records, it hasn't been more than once. So
Chuck Shute:like, when that came out, you had left the band, you didn't, they didn't send you a copy, or you didn't go to the record store, because that's like, kind of like seeing your ex girlfriend with a new boyfriend or something,
Unknown:right? No, it's not really a big deal when you leave something like that. I didn't leave on bad terms. I just left because I couldn't count on it being a viable business at the time. Sure, because what you were
Chuck Shute:curious about, like, what the new record sound of? I mean, I knew you'd heard some of those songs, like stronger now and stuff had been around, but,
Unknown:yeah, but I mean, it's some of those I demoed and then they changed, you know. So I heard, I heard both records at least once, and that was it, you know. So playing any of that live, I don't even sign those records. If somebody brings a record to a venue and wants me to sign it and I'm not on it, I will absolutely not sign it. I think it's, I think it's a kind of a slight at the people who did record, you know. So it's like an our meet and greets. People come with cherry pie, and Robbie crane will not sign any, any of those. And Robert's like, I'll sign it if you want me to, you know. But I did not play on this. Mm. You know, and it just depends on what the people want. If the people want you to sign it, you're saying it so, but Robbie won't, and that's, that's okay, you know, Robbie. Robbie's been playing in this band for food since COVID came back, right? So let's just say we average 50 gigs since 2021 that's 2020 2122 2324 24 that's five years. So Robbie's done 250 shows with us, you know, maybe Jerry's done maybe 10 in there, you know, but Jerry's semi retired, and Robbie's happy, and Robbie's great, you know, I mean, when Jerry comes back and plays, it's Jerry, then you got four, you got the core of the band together, right? Sure, but Robbie is the closest Damn I mean, I don't have to turn around and wonder what's going on. Robbie's there, you know, and he injected some new energy in the band because, you know, he's got a different work ethic when it comes to practicing and things like that, that you get stale of you, you, yeah, you're playing the same songs for 35 years. You're like, I don't need to practice that. I played it forever. But when you do, you get better, just like anything, you know? Yeah, I was always curious,
Chuck Shute:though, because I remember seeing Robbie crane, like, I think it was a picture or video or something. And I was like, Wait, is Jerry still in the band? I was so confused, like, how come you guys didn't put out a press release? Because now I get it, he's, Jerry is technically still the bass player Robbie's. Robbie's kind of more like a substitute, but he's kind of like, pretty much the long term substitute, right?
Unknown:I mean, he's, he's our touring bass player. How's that? Okay? There? Yeah, that's fair. And, and, and I love him like a brother. And we're, we're, we're lucky to have him, and he likes it because there's no, there's zero drama. There's zero drama in my band. There's no, I can't remember when the last you know, bet you know, like anything argument or anything happen in Warren, it doesn't happen. Our crew is fantastic. We when we roll into a venue, be it, you know, a theater or a casino or whatever, we tell everybody, Hi, we're all in great moods. Mean, we're like, Hey, how's it going? We think everybody that works, you know, on the on the road crew, the local crew, we think everybody, and we're, you know, really, that's what makes it happen. And we roll in there, we do our gig, we roll out. There's no drama, there's no bullshit. Nobody breaks anything. Nobody, you know, we used to, you know, we used to have food fights and stupid shit that young guys do. But that's slowly, you know, gone away, you know, and now we're just glad to be there and we're having fun. And, you know, it's important for everybody to have a good time at a show, even the opening bands. We don't restrict opening bands for lights or sound or we're not a band that does a, you know, an hour long sound check. We don't we do two or three songs meetings, and we get out and we give the other bands a shot. You know, we've done some shows this year with Lita Ford, which is fantastic. We've done shows with firehouse, fantastic. Nate's doing a great job. You know, we lost CJ, which is horrible, and we all miss him, and still say a lot of great stories about him when we're in the dressing room, um, bullet boys, or, you know, lonnie's back in the band. So they got two out of four, and they're great right now. You know, they're in a good,
Chuck Shute:oh yeah, I saw them down here in Arizona. They and they sounded really good. And I was like two inches from them, like I could just get right up to it was nice, yeah.
Unknown:So we like doing shows with them. You know, me leave seal hearts. Great. You know, whoever, whoever's from our genre, would love it. You know, yeah,
Chuck Shute:when you do shows with Lita, who's the headliner, because you both have a lot of good hits.
Unknown:So when she came back out, she had lined for a while, and then it flip flopped. So that's a promoters call that is not so you know, to be honest with you, I like to be second on the bill, because you're you play an hour set, and you're out of there, back in your hotel room by 10, chilling, and you get sleep. You know, it's not easy out on the road, you it's a lot of, you know, two or three hours of sleep, and then you have to get up at 5am to go to the airport, to go to the next gig. It's, it's not some glamorous thing, you know, but, yeah, whatever, whatever works. But we could, like the other night in tags, in, uh, big flats, New York. We we Lita played for an hour. The D Snyder came up and played with her band for a half hour, and then we closed the show with an hour and 15 minutes.
Chuck Shute:Yeah, no, D Snyder, you talk about a guy who could still hit the notes? That's another one I've seen. Mean, like, he killed it when I saw and he only does like, two songs, two or three songs a lot of times, but, yeah, kills it
Unknown:every time I see him. I'm like, put a band back together, and everybody wants to see and he just doesn't want to do, do that big thing. And he comes out and he does, he nails it. He's fantastic. And he's a great guy, you know? So, yeah, it's it. It doesn't matter to us. We're not like we're the band that gets on we go on on time. We get off on time period. We don't, we don't take it. We don't take advantage of anybody else's time. We don't take advantage of a venue's time, anything. We just like, come in, do our job and split. That's it.
Chuck Shute:Yeah, you say that. And you say, you You keep saying there's no drama. Like, you're saying that, like there is in other bands. Like, that's a very common thing, and not in war, but in other bands, there's a lot of these problems. I
Unknown:know, I know, personally, a lot of other bands that have massive drama still, and the dudes are like, 50s and 60s. It's like, at some point you just have to go, you know what? I don't subscribe to that bullshit, you know. And it comes along with IQ. Is
Chuck Shute:it IQ, or is it ego, or both? I think
Unknown:it's IQ. I think that people that are smart don't subscribe to that and that they know how to communicate with other adults effectively and reasonably without screaming or throwing a temper tantrum at 60 some odd years old. Okay, and I know that,
Chuck Shute:have you seen this? We witnessed these tantrums. Oh,
Unknown:my God, I I wish I could tell you who? Oh, I want to, but I'm not. I can't I'm not. I'm not that guy. Okay, you know, that's a very classy move on your part. I'm not going to talk shit. I'm going to tell you that I know a lot of bands that subscribe to our way of life, which I know. I know I've been around every time we play around the Tesla guys, they're fantastic. I've never seen a stitch of drama in that band. That's
Chuck Shute:funny, because I had on the bass player and he was saying, like they, I mean, they must have cleaned up now, because they used to have, he said they used to have physical knockdown fights. He said they'd call them discussions, but they would get physical. It was arguing about every band.
Unknown:When you're in your 20s, 30s, 40s and 50s, you grow, but I'm sure those guys by now are just like you get to a point in your career where you're you're playing. You love to play. That's why you do. Yeah, okay, you love the songs you love to play. You want to get better. You want to like right now, what I want to do is I want it to make a sound as much like a record as I can. Okay, every single note, every single note I sing, every single note I play, you know? And playing with people for 30 plus years, you kind of become one unit. You know what I mean? You know you got, you got the five. I've done this so many times. You get the five fingertips, and then you put it together. It makes a fist, right? That's a band. This is the five members. That's a band. And when you play for so long, and the same songs for so long, no matter who you are, if you've had hits, you got to play those hits sooner or later, chuck you get really good at that, sure you know and and sooner or later, you know the drama that comes along with some of it. You just get tired of it. And the guys that that can't get it out of their own head, you see them not in bands anymore. You don't see them invited back to do tours or reunions. You see different guys come in so you can put one on one together and figure out who the dudes are out there that are drama filled and that just can't cohabitate with other band members. You know, the night Ranger guys, another band that's just full of fun. I don't see any when we put it, there's no drama. They're just stoked to be there and they kick ass, you know. And they're happy guys. So that's it's really in it translates to the stage, you know?
Chuck Shute:Yeah. Do you think sometimes with the drama stuff, and you say the low IQ, do you think sometimes it's a person that maybe they never really should have been successful, but they kind of hitch their wagon to somebody who was who was talented, and then so now they're kind of stuck with these people.
Unknown:I think that all of the guys I grew up on all the bands I grew up with, probably a lot of the bands you like to I think that those original incarnations that were successful were successful because of the whole, you know, not one or two guys and, um, and when you start to splinter that and get different guys in there, it's different, and it Doesn't sound the same no matter what you do. So I don't think so. I think that they just, you know, the guys that maybe are low IQ as far as business is concerned, or how to deal with other people, are better musicians than people. How's that?
Chuck Shute:Sure? No, that's that's the same as like act. Actors and athletes and all the a lot of those people that are successful business people that are, I mean, they're just assholes in real life, you know, like it in turn, like you see their social media posts or whatever, but they're very successful in business. Yeah,
Unknown:I like to hang out with successful, positive
Chuck Shute:people. There you go. That's I love that too. Yeah, yeah.
Unknown:And it breeds, it reads that. And I try to do that every day with my family. I just want everybody to wait. You got to wake up happy, you know? I mean, if you wake up breathing, you're stoked, that's all you got, right? And then anything else that comes around, take it. If you get an opportunity. Oh, my God, take it. You know, I've had opportunity, and I've had no opportunity and opportunities way better. Did
Chuck Shute:you ever have opportunities outside of warrant, like when you were on the hiatus? Did you get offered gigs that join other bands? If
Unknown:I kept playing and kept up on my craft, guitar wise, when I left warrant, I probably could have found a gig, you know, because you get good when you play a lot. And you know, there's different for a guitar player, not necessarily flashy, but, you know, rhythms hard to play for a lot of guys, having a good right hand on a guitar. There's some guys that don't, you know, and they're great lead players, but they can't play rhythm real well. There's, there's, you know, so I'm pretty balanced, but I didn't really worry about it, and, and, and to be honest with you, when the when, when it started, when it caught to the to the top, and started to go down, down the roller coaster in the in the mid 90s, and I left, it was just natural for me, progression, to go on and just to worry about myself. I had a young daughter, I had to really kind of reinvent myself. And, you know, it wasn't easy watching my buddies out on the road, you know, and sure I missed them, and sure it sucked being in school, you know, until nine o'clock at night and having a study for a test, but it made me who I am now, and it made me appreciate my band a lot more as well. You know, when it came back around, and we've worked since I came back in in 2004 it's been 21 years, we've worked really hard, collectively to get it to where it is, you know? And it's great, you know, we're having a great tune. We all get along fabulously. Yeah,
Chuck Shute:I love it. And yeah, you are doing a lot of shows. I think there's still, like 16 shows coming up this year. We have
Unknown:22 booked right now, so there's a few that might, you might not see because they haven't gone on sale. But yeah, so between 45 and 55 shows a year. You know, some of us would like to do 75 you know, um, it'd be a lot of work for me. So I might, it. Might, you know, I get a little stretchy, you know, like that Stretch Armstrong, where I get my legs getting pulled out, you know, got family over here, you got Pearl over here, you got the band over here, you know, but, um, but it keeps you out of trouble working. That's another thing too. And more you work, the less money you spend, you know, you don't have time to spend it. So you can do things like let your family live well and enjoy some of that stuff. So it's, you know, it's just, I'm really, really, really blessed to be where I'm at, but it's also been with a lot of really hard work.
Chuck Shute:Yeah, no, for sure, I think that that goes without saying just what you did, and I like what you said about how you appreciate it more having that hiatus, I think that that's something that they write. There's a lot of people that just feel entitled now that they've they deserve this certain level of, you know, success or whatever, they that they're kicked out of their bands because they're assholes.
Unknown:You said it. I mean, that's pretty much it, bro. If you're a cool dude and you're an original member in a band and you're not in the band, check your shit quite honestly. You know, yeah, you at a certain point, you know? And look, I've got a young, a young son, okay? And, and he's 13, so he's like, he's like, every other 13 year old. He's doing shit I did when I was 13 that I thought was fine, but my parents probably didn't appreciate it much, like I don't appreciate some of the stuff he does now, either, but one thing I'm trying to teach him to do is take responsibility. Okay? And if you do something that's not cool, take responsibility. That doesn't mean you're a bad kid or it just means that you have to own up to your own shit, and the quicker you own up to your own shit, the better a person you become. You know, don't blame it on somebody else. Don't say the reason why I'm not in this band right now is because this guy doesn't like me. He doesn't like you for a reason, probably because you're an asshole, you know, and you're not fun to be around. That's probably why it's probably not your playing if you're an original member and. You're not in your band, touring. It's not your playing, because that magic is real. That's part of that glove, you know, that glove that makes that fist. But if you're not there, there's a reason why check your shit, you know, go get some therapy, figure it out, do a deep dive on yourself. It's educational. It's not bad to get an education from somebody that's done a master's degree or a PhD and how your mind works and how you treat other people. It's just education. Responsibility. Be responsible. That's it.
Chuck Shute:Did you? Did you do some of that yourself? Like that? You did your own therapy, yeah? Like, or just work on yourself, like you look reflected back and felt like you maybe made some bad decisions. Or
Unknown:I go to the rapist, as I call her, the therapist. Careful, canceled now, shit. Nobody cancel the therapist. Yeah, the rapist. Okay, they rape your mind. You know, I go right now, but I've been plenty, you know, it's education, man, it's just like going to school. Why do I feel like this? Why? Why am I pissed off every time I get around this person and I just punch him in the face? You know?
Chuck Shute:No, I find all that stuff. I actually, I have a Master's in Counseling, so I love psychology, and I love all that stuff. There
Unknown:you go. There you go, responsibility. There you go. It's, it's, you know, and you get, it's just like going, it's like going to a mechanic and saying, What's wrong with my car? And the mechanic finds the problem and shows you what the problem is. You get an education. You go, Oh, that's cool. Next time that happens, or I hear that sound, maybe I can fix it, you know, it's the same analogy, you know. So whenever I get a feeling that I know I'm going to blow up and start going off, you know, I think first, you know, I've got all kinds of rules, like, if something makes you that agitated, wait an hour, put it away for an hour and see if it bugs you in an hour, it ain't gonna bug you in an hour. You know, don't pop off. Be cool. Be a bro. Be a good friend, be a good listener, be a good business partner. It has to do with all that, so, yeah, man,
Chuck Shute:yeah, no, I think that's a it can be very beneficial. It's funny, because I feel like I've learned more from just watching podcasts and YouTube and so listening to David Goggins and and motivational guys like that, I learned so much that I never learned in school. I was like, Oh, wow, that's such a great perspective to have. From that perspective,
Unknown:is everything, and those, some of those guys out there are very motivational, you know, you got to watch out there's, there's some snake, snake oil salesman out there, you know, you don't want to, you don't want to buy on to that shit. But as far as emotions and how to manage your, you know, your, your emotional being is, is, it's a nerd form, for sure. And some of these guys have really got a hold of it, you know. And it's, it's cool. And I learned, look, I learn and read stuff every day that teaches me something, you know. And I still, 20% of the time, I'm still an asshole, you know, everybody's, everybody's got it, sure. You just try to minimize that as much as you can, you know. And perspective is a very powerful thing, you know. It's like being in a band, you know. I could say I'm not happy with the direction of this band, you know. Or I could say, wow, look at everything we've done and and how, you know, how lucky are we, or Fortunate are we to be where we're at? You know, to playing, to playing these little, you know, these, these little mini theaters and theaters and many arenas and many amphitheaters and casinos and state fairs that we do, and we're still together, and we're still alive, and people still want to come out. There's a few 1000 people here and there. It's like, We're stoked, you know, we never made it to the big, you know, the big, you know, arena band all the time thing, you know, we got a taste of it after cherry pie for a while. And that was, that was great. But really, you know, what's great is that there's still people that want to come out and hear it, and we owe it to them, to be honest, and give them a good show. You know,
Chuck Shute:yeah, I've seen you guys several times, and it's, it's always been great. That's
Unknown:good. Well, then you haven't seen any of the shitty show. There's been some. You know, every band has a man, sure, every band has them, you know, but, yeah, but it's just lace recently, especially in the last four or five years, it's just stepped up, you know, to another level playing wise. I mean, I, you know, we could go into bands that played a tape live, and I could name bands and shred them apart and tell them that they. Should not be on stage anymore playing here. This is I've been thinking about a really good way to say this. Okay, because I have dogs. I don't know if you have dog. You have got any animals?
Chuck Shute:Yeah, I've got cats, and they're struggling with no AC, by the way. I'm
Unknown:sorry, yeah, sorry. Make sure they got plenty of water, right? Yeah. So, so, um, so this is what, you know, I got a, I got a male dog and a female dog. Well, they're both neutered. They're, you know, I take care of my pets. They're chihuahuas, okay, okay.
Chuck Shute:Those are, yeah, those are, they have a certain personality, yeah, I
Unknown:love them. They're great, okay? But sometimes the male who's neutered will, will grab a blanket, you know, and go at it. He'll like dry hump a blanket. Okay? And having a band that is once been so powerful live, 110% live, played a tape, or any help, or a G, you know, a Mac in the back that's got 96 tracks on it, and you don't hear them, because the engineer out front is really good at blending, but it's still there, okay? And they're playing, they're playing, they're they're fucking lip syncing and playing the track. Okay? They might be playing live too on top of it, but it's like watching a neutered dog dry hump a blanket. Okay, okay, that's how I feel about it. It's just like it's fake. It's like there's no there's nothing there and, and I know bands that do it, I could tear them apart right now and just draw in. Maybe somebody picks up on this, you know, on this. But I don't want to be negative, like we've talked about keeping it positive. But I would just say to those bands, and they know who they are, that all you have to do is practice and you'll get good, because there's a re if you've lost, fallen off your horse and you can't sing anymore, then you drink. Stop drinking for a year. Work on your voice. You know, I was at Phil Collin from Def Leppard house with Cecil CC Deville and I went down last two, two Decembers ago, to have a coffee with Phil. We all live kind of close. We're all friends and, you know, and it was, like, it was like three dudes talking about, you know, which is funny, right? But we started talking about our singers, you know. And Phil told me that Joe Elliot, when they're on tour, practices like six to eight hours a day to warm his voice up. Now, wow, I gotta take my hat off to Joe Elliot, because that tells you a guy that cares about what he's doing. Yeah, and we, because I've seen Joe, do I saw Joe in the beginning, a huge Def Leppard fan. Then I worked at Jackson Charville. So I met, I met Phil because he's a Jackson plays Jackson guitars. This is back in the 80s. And I met, you know, I hung out with Phil and Steve back in you know Steve Clark and but Phil and I have known each other 30 plus years, and to hear him tell me that his singer cares enough that he works that hard to sound good for people is so motivating to me, and it makes me want to hug Joe Elliot, because That's That's discipline me and every guy that's out there that does this, that's of age, like me, that's what it takes. You know, especially these singers. It's not like I said earlier. It is not easy. Robert Mason, that guy takes care of his body like no other guy I know. You know the guy looks like he's 20. You know, when he takes his shirt off, he's in such great shape, and he doesn't drink, he doesn't smoke, he doesn't do drugs, he brushes his teeth two minutes before we go on, because it helps his mouth. You know, I'm over there, like burping up onions from, you know, from lunch. It's funny, but to see guys take it seriously like that. That's off to a man, and the guys that played a tape, you know, come on.
Chuck Shute:Well, so what did CC say about Brett? Because I've seen him a few times, and I mean, he sounds great too. And I think when I saw the poison Def Leppard crew tour, everyone was saying that poison stole the show, and I it was hard to disagree with that, because they did sound really good.
Unknown:Here's the deal with poison and Brent, because we've done shows with Brett. Brett's a fantastic front man, and Brett knows how to run a crowd, period. He's learned from the best. I think that that back when they were in Pennsylvania, they probably borrowed a little bit from from kicks, to be honest with you. And Stevie from kicks was what was, you know, I know he's retired now, but one of the best front man I've ever seen in our genre, just like the Mick Jagger, of, of, of, you know what we. Did. That's Stevie and and a lot of dudes borrowed from the guy, you know, Brett did. And then Brett's got his own personality as well, and he's really good at what he does, you know. And then, because they don't tour that much, by the time they get out, I think they're so fucking excited to play the band's great, you know, I know CC works his ass off before. He doesn't have a bad thing to see. The only thing he wishes is that he wished they played, you know, and that they that, that they poison play. Because he tells me that, you know, they're playing the same songs that he helped write, you know, or wrote and and he just like to get out there and do that himself, with his with his band. I think, you know, I don't want to put words in his mouth, because, you know it's not what it's about, but I know that he would love to, love to do a tour with poison. I'm sure they'll work it out sooner or later.
Chuck Shute:Yeah, I know, I think the Brett was going through some stuff, but I think they're planning for 2026 if I'm not mistaken, I believe, I think they even announced it or so. I don't know if I don't know if I have the dates set,
Unknown:but, oh, there's a lot to it. There's four guys in the band that have to get together. They have to agree on the money, and you got to get, you know, you got to get the company behind it, Live Nation, or whoever's going to get behind it and find out who the openers are and how many dates you can handle each other. And she was like, there's a lot to it, man, there's, it's, it's, it's, people think it's all happy and fun, and sometimes it's not, you know, sometimes it's just business, you know. Well,
Chuck Shute:I think it's different too, because when you watch like the dirt, you go, Oh, wow. Like, rock and roll is crazy. And I think there, there was that time. But yeah, a lot, a lot of bands of your era. I mean, you guys are older now. Like, if you were still living the dirt, it'd be kind of scary, and you probably wouldn't live too long.
Unknown:You'd be in the dirt. Yeah, it, um, yeah. Well, that's why a lot of guys don't, you know, don't do that anymore. You know, I know, I know. Like, when I'm around, like, for instance, you know, Mark, and Lonnie and bullet boys, they don't drink, you know. So you just, you know, and you can't, you can't, at some point, you can't do, be successful and do what you do. Well, if you just, if you're just dependent on that shit, because it'll break you down quickly when you get older. Yeah.
Chuck Shute:I mean, we've seen too many. Obviously, Janie lane is, you know, an example of that. Sadly, it's just too much talent wasted there. I mean, you hate to see that, because the guy's such a brilliant songwriter, amazing front man. And just to
Unknown:tell you what we I just heard when we did, when we did the demos for dog eat dog. We did them with an engineer called Joe Breese. His name is Joe breezy. We were going to do the record with him. Okay, we didn't end up doing it with him, but he's moving his studio. He's in Pasadena, and I'm here in SoCal. So I got a hold of him, and he said, I've got all these tapes. I want you to come up and get on and digitizing everything. And there's six songs on those demos. Some of them are out on the internet here and there, in different forms, but there are six songs demoed from the dog eat dog sessions that I'd listened to in the last month, and I'm very intrigued on this. Yeah, Eric's heard him. Steven's heard him, like Steven, and I listened to him sitting in my hotel room a few weeks ago at a gig before, you know, before we went to sound check. And so I don't know what we're going to do with this stuff, but, um, some of it's insane. Some of it's like, wow, if, if we would have put these six songs on Doggy Dog, except for, instead of these six, it could have been the second cherry pie. There's, there's a song called pop music.
Chuck Shute:I love that. So, yeah, we talked about that last time I've heard that one, that one's on the internet. Yeah,
Unknown:it's on the internet, but I don't know in what form. Okay, I don't know if it's if I'm playing on it, or if it's somebody else or whatever. But this, this is right before dog eat dog was actually recorded. And
Chuck Shute:there was a song I heard too, called Get me off. That sounded good.
Unknown:That's old. That's like, pre first record, okay,
Chuck Shute:yeah, because that'd be good. I think pop music is one of the few that I is keeping
Unknown:up with the Joneses out there. That's
Chuck Shute:out, yeah, that's on, uh, greatest and latest, I think in southern comfort. And
Unknown:Southern Comfort was from the cherry pie demos, I think,
Chuck Shute:and thin disguise is out there. Yeah,
Unknown:that's not it. Um, um, trying to think of the other songs, medicine man, you ever heard of that one? I've
Chuck Shute:heard of Yeah, I think that. I think that's on YouTube. Yeah, there's a lot. There's a lot. I was like looking today, there's like, 60 demos on YouTube of war, like, from all like, probably a lot of the stuff, I think is even from plain Jane, his other band. Yeah,
Unknown:I know there's some of that out there, because Stephen found it.
Chuck Shute:Yeah, I'd be curious to hear more stuff from Doggy Dog. I don't think there's a lot of dog eat dog stuff, other than I did hear pop music, but yeah, I'd be, I'd be, I'd have to hear,
Unknown:I'd have to hear. Here to tell you if, if it were us, but I'm looking like right now, and it doesn't show me medicine man, but you never know, but we'll see. I mean, if we, if we, if we dig deep, and we can do anything with some of that, you know? Who knows? You know? Who knows? Yeah,
Chuck Shute:because I think you guys talked about a box set, which I think I would be really interested in. There was some video and stuff that the making of Doggy Dog that's never been seen before.
Unknown:Do this video. There's so many home videos you have no idea, and they're funniest. I mean, it shows you how funny we were. We had a lot of fun. Yeah, most of it's PG and it's funny shit. It's, you know, throwing TVs out the window and launching shit into into water and just idiot rock star stuff that you do when you're young. And there's a lot of videos, yeah. I
Chuck Shute:mean, when you look back on that stuff, you you can look back and laugh, but it'd be silly if you were doing it today, but you could still enjoy, yeah, no, retroactively, yeah.
Unknown:I mean, you do that when you're in your 20s. And I mean, I threw, I threw, but I threw a phone out a window. I didn't throw it. I actually opened the window and just dropped it about a nine story window in Japan, in Tokyo. And then I'm like, because I was hung over, and somebody was calling me early, probably to go to an interview or something. And like, an hour later, half hour later, I'm like, Oh, my God, I'm in Japan. It's going to be like, a billion dollars. So I went down and I founded it in this bush, and it was broken, and I took it back up to my room, and I tried to set it where it was like, and put it back together. But if you would have blown on it, it would have just gone, poof, right? And by the time I just checked out, I had a $900 bill for a phone. Oh shit, yeah, yeah. But stupid stuff like that. It's, you look, you think back, and it's funny, and nobody got hurt, and, you know, but there's stuff like that on, on, on, uh, on video, you know. And it's funny. It's just the fun, the funny things people say and do when you're young and dumb, right? Yeah,
Chuck Shute:I mean the fact that you have video, because you have the stories, and then you can always write a book, but if you have the video and you can make a documentary, that's like money. I think we'll see what happens. Yeah, I always love the Skid Row videos. Those are some of my those first couple videos were so there were so many funny and I think they had, they had hours and hours of footage, and they had to cut it down to, you know, an hour and a half or whatever.
Unknown:Yeah, good friends, good guys.
Chuck Shute:Yeah, I saw you guys. It was Warren, Skid Row and winger here. Last time it was at the casino, outdoor at the pool, that was like such a great show, so fun.
Unknown:Scott still, yeah, and Robbie played, Robbie crane played bass for because, because Rachel was sick or something. Yes, that's right, yes, yeah. Those guys are good friends we've known for so long, and we hope they get up and rolling again soon. You know, yeah,
Chuck Shute:they're still trying to find a singer, I think at this point,
Unknown:yeah, I don't know. I don't know what the deal is.
Chuck Shute:Any suggestions for who they should get. You know,
Unknown:what's funny is we, we, we found a guy in, like, Philippines, believe it or not, that was doing some stuff, and we were gonna forward it to him. But those guys know what they're looking for, and, you know, they're pros, and they'll find somebody, you know, I thought they had it with that Eric guy, because he was great. So good, he was great. And they'll find somebody, you know,
Chuck Shute:did you what'd you think of that last record with Eric? Because I loved how, I mean, it sounded like they went back in time and made a record in between Skid Row debut and slave it was like, from 1990 like, in between the two of them. And I thought that'd be so cool, if you guys did something like that between cherry pie and dog eat dog, kind of a mix of the two. Like, I think
Unknown:that that would be cool. You know, we'll see what we do. You know, we've, we've, we're starting to talk about something I don't know, I don't know what we're gonna there's all kinds of stuff moving and grooving that I can't really talk about right now. Well,
Chuck Shute:you also talked about maybe doing a solo record and having people guest on it, and having, like, some female singers maybe, and just kind of doing, like what slash does, where he has a bunch of guest singers. I would
Unknown:like to get a bunch of difference being working at Pearl, I know a bunch of great drummers, right, sure, and some of the drummers that are in heavy, heavy bands, you would are warrant fans, right? So I would like to do something before I'm done with my career that, you know, maybe 910, songs, maybe eight, seven or eight, you know, originals, maybe a few covers, and have different players on every song you know, and get all my buddies that kick ass on drums, some you know, some you don't know. And then, and then call my favorite singers in the world and just say, please, please sing on this you know. And I've taught, I've approached some of the guys you know, and they're like, let me hear it, you know. And there's stuff I've written, it's just so primal right now. It's just got, I've got to take the time, and probably will do that in the next five years, but it ain't going to happen anytime soon.
Chuck Shute:Yeah, well, I look forward to that because, yeah, I think the one person I had on the show who did that, and it had a lot of success, was Billy, I think is it Billy Morrison? I think that's his name. He's the guitar player for Billy Idol, and he had, like, Ozzy, and like, all these people Billy Idol and all these other people sing on it and guest on his solo record. And it's, yeah, it's amazing. I think the one song he did with Ozzy was like the number one song on the Rock Charts,
Unknown:yeah, yeah. That's great stuff. Yeah. He's, a great player. And, you know, Steve Stevens is great so, yeah, um, something like that. So we'll see. Time will tell when I do it. We'll talk about it.
Chuck Shute:Yeah, come back and promote it anytime. Yeah, I love, uh, here. I'd love to hear some new warrants, or just new music, either your solo warrant or something. Have you guessed on someone else's like, put stuff out there, right?
Unknown:We'll get you something new soon enough. Yeah, I know it's long overdue. We're, like, running up on nine years or eight years since anything new. So, yeah, we're
Chuck Shute:those Doggy Dog demos. I'd be really curious to hear that, because I do love that album. I know it's so so funny, because I feel like everybody says that now, like, I listen to a lot of interviews with you, and people are like, I love Doggy Dog. I'm like, I don't remember any of these people when I when I album came out, and I was living in Seattle in 92 and I was like, now that's the one thing I like about social media, is it brings you together with all these people with similar interests. I think that's really cool.
Unknown:Did you see us in Seattle, no, because you played,
Chuck Shute:I think it was the, what was that Ballard firehouse or something? You had to be 21 so all the bands I
Unknown:love, we played the Coliseum on the cherry pie tour.
Chuck Shute:I think I hadn't got into rock at that point. I just, I got into rocking like 92
Unknown:Yeah, that would have been 91 and then before that, we played the paramount, I love that on we played the paramount, I think, on the dirty, rotten tour, in a band called Allison chains opened up for us. I
Chuck Shute:was gonna ask you about that. Yeah, that is so cool. Like, do you remember that show? Yes,
Unknown:because I thought they were killer. And I was like, Yeah. And, and, of course, I mean, I love, I love a lot of the Seattle, a lot of people feel like a Seattle grunge killed Warren. It's like, No, we all ate ourselves. You know what I mean. But some of the bands that came out of the two bands I really did were Soundgarden and Alice, and changed the heavier bands. Sure, you know, I wasn't a big fan of Pearl Jam, although there were some great tunes. The goatee vocal always kind of turned me off, if you know what I mean. It was just a little trippy, Nirvana, Doug, Nirvana, killer, raw stuff, great. But I didn't really look at it as a that whole situation is that that killed, you know what we were doing? We kind of killed what we were doing all of us. Did you know it was like, self indulgent on on hyper drive and it ate itself?
Chuck Shute:But do you think you would do anything different? Because those first three records, I they're great, like all three of them, even Doggy Dog like, I think it was a natural progression. I don't know if I would say that you should change it. Maybe some of the fashions should have been different. I don't
Unknown:know the fashion. There's some statements in there, right, huh? Right, yeah, it's crazy stuff. But no, I don't think I'd change anything. I mean, you know, again, there's five guys making decisions and throwing a management company and throwing lawyers and throwing all this other bullshit, and, you know, then throw in success. And once you get success, people stop calling each other, and you get off the road, you don't talk to each other. I mean, we lived together before those first three records. We lived together. We lived ate, drank together in the same place. You know, how do
Chuck Shute:you not go crazy at that, like murder each other? Because
Unknown:you're you've got one common goal. You want to you want a record deal, you want to go out on the road and tour, and so you're just living and eating and breathing that. But once you get, once you get the success, and everybody says, Well, I'm gonna buy a house. Well, I'm gonna buy a house. You don't buy houses next to each other. Do you know what I mean? Because, because, you know, you you Oh, I'm gonna get married, oh, I'm gonna have a family. It changes, you know? And then when you get off the road, you don't see each other until you get back together to do something, make a record, go on tour, to where now it's just like when we get on the road and we're driving around, you know, Hey, man, how's the family? How's your son, how's, you know, How's your wife? What's going What's the wife doing this weekend? Well, we got next weekend off. What are you doing? Any plans? So, yeah, we're going to go vacation, take the RV down here. It's the same like. Anybody else. We're the same. We just happen to play music for a living, you know. And we've gotten it to a point in this band where, where the love that each guy has for one another is so strong and killer that it's just, it's a good place, man, it's, there's no negative, like I said, it's so you can't see it enough, and I wish that other bands that I'm friends with and fans of had the same experience, because it's fantastic, you know, knowing that your buddy's good, you know, and that when you see him next weekend, you're going to kick ass and have some fun, and then you're going to go your own separate ways, and everything's great, you know, it's fantastic,
Chuck Shute:yeah, do you think part of it too is that you guys can equally split everything? I mean, I'm assuming that you just split things five ways. Is that just so there's no because I know, like, people were saying Guns and Roses axles getting, like, 50% of the of the take, or something like that. And so, like, maybe there's some animosity with some people with that, but I mean, then he kind of deserves it, because he's Axl Rose, so I don't
Unknown:know this is my take on money. Having money is way better than not having money, right? Right? Yeah, that's kind of a no brainer, right? Sure, the more money you make, the more you can spend, right? Um, if you make the same amount of money every year all your life, then you can get really good at how you manage it, right? That's another take on money. And if you ever do anything just for money, it's soulless, you know what I mean? And, and I don't see any reason why somebody like and it's none of my business, but Guns and Roses has to have so much money and they generate so much income. Why would somebody need that much more than the next guy? There's only so much shit you can buy and shit, shit, you know, cars, houses, all that stuff, which I've got them, but you can burn them tomorrow, as long as my family's healthy, my friends are healthy, and everybody's happy and there's food on the table, I'm golden, you know, it's not about money. And so as far as Warren's concerned, yeah, everybody, you know, I mean not getting too much into our business. There's a great agreement. Everybody agrees. There's no animosity, okay, if there was animosity, you know, we probably wouldn't be having this Sure, quite frankly, you know, then, then and it would make it hard, you know, I think the bands, again, that share equally stay around for a long time, you know, yeah,
Chuck Shute:yeah, especially too with like, Now, how did that work? Did you guys get songwriting credits with Warren? Because I know Janie was pretty much the principal. Saw me, wrote pretty much all the songs, but he didn't give you guys songwriting credits. Did he? He didn't,
Unknown:I think he gave Eric arranging credits on cherry pie. I wrote the riff, the intro riff to Sure, feels good. I didn't get any on that. Danny Stagg laughs at me. Danny from Kingdom come, and JB Frank, all four, those two guys, myself and Janie were in the same room. It was my riff, and then we wrote it and went on with it. And he gave, he gave JB and Danny writing credit. And Danny, to this day, still gets money for that. And he laughs. He goes, I can't believe he didn't get writing credit on me. They don't care about stuff like that. I mean, that's one in many. It was just a boogie riff, a little like Van Halen esque riff and and so in the beginning, it was a different situation, the way Janie handles publishing. But everybody had a taste absolutely,
Chuck Shute:because, you know, don't you also get a performance royalty? Yeah,
Unknown:yeah, that's split five ways. You sure you can't change that? Yeah, and that pays, you know? I mean, there's, there's different revenue streams and music. There's, if you have hits and they're played on the radio and they're played on the internet, there's revenue streams.
Chuck Shute:Yeah, you guys have your songs are in commercials, and, like, I just thought there was, I think you have it on your YouTube. There's, like, an, was it an Arby's commercial or something?
Unknown:It's been a cherry pie has been in like 27 movies.
Chuck Shute:Yeah, that's, that's a nice chunk of change, right? Yeah, there's
Unknown:money. Yeah, there's money that that's generated from the back catalog. That's, that's fantastic. And I know when we do something that's not directly related to James Publishing, because it's owned by a different entity, not his family, but if it's something that his daughters are due, that we take care of his daughters, I mean, they they get his if we do something that generates money that's not in his publishing, they get money, and we're honest about it, and there's A relationship there. And you know, it's good.
Chuck Shute:That's admirable, yeah, because there is, there was always those kind of, like lawsuits and things you see with, I think Soundgarden was going through something, you know, try, they're trying to get Chris Cornell's music or something. And the widow was trying to say, No, you can't, I don't know. I don't know there's some sort of issue there. I
Unknown:like to sleep at night. So. Spinning on a meeting, right?
Chuck Shute:Do you ever, do you ever wonder, like, what if you, what if you didn't join Warren, like, what if you just joined another band and they didn't make it? It sounds like you would be in the same place, like you are. Just this isn't like your whole defining who you are being in warrant, like you, your family and your friends and all that stuff defines your happiness.
Unknown:It definitely does. And I've, you know, going to school, got an engineering degree, you've got Microsoft certification, and just going to school and getting educated, and then working private business for over 30 years of my life, outside of warrant, you know, is what I do for a living, you know? And warrant is what I do for a living. It's co mingled. I'm I'm lucky to be able to do both, but it's a lot of work, and it defines me to the point to where I'm hard worker. Okay, he's a hard worker, but what really defines me is my family and my friends and my relationships and how tight they are and how much loves there, and that's the definition of really couldn't care. I could care less about what anybody says about the span online, good or bad. I would hope that our efforts that people enjoy it. If they don't, I'm sorry. You know you didn't enjoy it if you if you're a hater and you just don't like the band, and it makes you feel good to make that public, enjoy yourself. I feel sorry for you, you know. I like to keep it positive, and I like waking up happy after a good night's sleep, because I didn't fuck somebody out of money, you know, and that's, that's the way I roll. You know, other people are different to each his own. Don't want to judge anybody really, to be honest with you,
Chuck Shute:no, but I think your attitude, to me, it's inspiring to hear that. I like hearing that kind of thing. Yeah, well,
Unknown:there you go. Yeah, I think it's a reasonable adult attitude, yeah,
Chuck Shute:no. I mean, that's what it's like. You're it sounds like you're in a really good place. It's just good
Unknown:to hear. Now, I just got to stay alive for as long as I can,
Chuck Shute:right? I know it's tough. There's just, like, so many things out there that, you know, just, it's sad. It's like, with CJ, I mean, that was just so heartbreaking, because he's so young, you're just like, What? No. Like, he's Yeah. Go, what are you talking about?
Unknown:Yeah, and I'm 61 in three weeks, and he went, he was in his mid 60s. It's just um, yeah. It's a bummer. See guys go like that. So you never know, man, you gotta treat each day like there's no tomorrow. You know Dave Lee Roth say that something probably, yeah, yeah, with the devil, something like that, somewhere in there, like there's no tomorrow, something in there. Yeah,
Chuck Shute:he's an interesting guy, so you've hung out with him, though I
Unknown:hung out. I first met him in 1984 at the rainbow I was with his girlfriend and his pot dealer. Oh, okay. And his pot dealer worked for Columbia or for Capitol Records, but also sold pot and and then I was with his girlfriend, which was at the time. Her name was Kate Simmons. She was Gene Simmons, the actress's daughter, okay? And she was absolutely beautiful and absolutely a sweetheart. I could see why Dave was attracted to her, but I had dinner at the rainbow with him, and got hanging out with Dave for the first time, and then, you know, toured with him, and I've seen him a few other times, and here and there. And you know, he's, he's a smart guy. Um, definitely what I'd call a savant of sorts. Um, and a hell of a wordsmith. If you listen to all those lyrics on Van Halen records that he wrote, absolutely entertaining and his show he did, if you get a chance, then you like the Dave Van Halen go, I grew up on the Dave Van Halen, so that's my shtick, you know, that's why, when people say, ah, Janie, if it's not Janie, it's not warrant. I get it. I get it. When Janie was, when Jean those first three records, when Janie was on live, nobody could touch the guy. I mean, he sang better, he wrote better songs. He was really, really good at what he did, and he is missed sorely, you know. So when somebody comes up and says, I'm not into the Robert thing, I'm like, okay, that's okay, you know, but the band's not going to stop just because one guy is not here anymore, you know, it's really unfortunate. I mean, what would have happened if ACDC, you know, stunk and didn't make back in black? Think about all those great songs we would have never heard. You know? Well, yeah,
Chuck Shute:that's not fair, if, like, if you weren't alive, you know, when Janie Lane was around, then, then what? So then you just can never hear unless you're hearing a cover band play warrant or something
Unknown:like, look at what Pantera guys are doing. I get it. You know, I get that
Chuck Shute:too. Yeah, I and I loved, I went and saw Pantera when I was a kid, and I loved, I haven't seen this new incarnation, but, I mean, I Zach Wilde is like, I mean, it was one of the greatest guitar players ever, so you couldn't get a better replacement. And he
Unknown:was, like, best friends with Darryl. And Darryl was a warrant fan. And I've got, there's a video online somewhere of Daryl coming out. We played monster. Darryl comes out and sings down boys. He used to creep. We played Dallas. He did always creep on stage and come around the bottle of crown. And just a wonderful individual. And I saw cowboys from hell to her. I, you know, I'm a fan, so I think it's really good that that they're doing that, and it's good for them, and it's good for the people that get to enjoy it. So I, you know, embrace music. If you don't like it, don't go. You know, if you don't, if it's not your cup of tea, don't go. And if, if you are online, hating on people, I truly feel sorry for you because something's wrong with you, and you need to check yourself. You know that
Chuck Shute:is so true, because I always, I mean, even I get comments on my youtube and I'm like, What? What is wrong with these people? Why are they attacking my tiny little YouTube channel with like, 7000 subscribers, why do you care enough to write?
Unknown:I got an answer for you, and it kind of brings a close to this interview. You ready? There we go. Low IQ,
Chuck Shute:low IQ. There it is. Okay. Well, thank you so much for doing this. Warren Scott, like I said, I think you got 22 shows coming up. People get the meet and greets, and you've got, you know, of course, they can download the music, and there's merch, and what else can we promote? Maybe upcoming projects.
Unknown:We've got some projects in the works, and we'll be around, and we're touring, and we'll see we get any new stuff out there, new old stuff, or, you know, plus a mix or some video. We'll see what we're doing. We're talking about a lot of stuff. We're having meetings and trying to figure it out. And if we ever come close to you, Chuck, you call me and I will put you on the guest list. Oh, okay, I didn't
Chuck Shute:even have to ask. Well, you are coming. You're coming to Parker, and I'm thinking about making a road trip down there, because I love that area. That's
Unknown:84 miles from my I've got a cab between Havasu and Laughlin, okay, yeah, I love that area. I've got a boat and some sea doos, and I go out there in the summertime with my family, and we have fun in between touring. And I can work for from Pearl, from there. So yeah, so I'm like, 84 miles. If you want to come up to that show, let me know. Yeah,
Chuck Shute:I'm already, I was already planning on, I would buy a ticket. But if you're offering, I will take you up on the offer. Just,
Unknown:you know, just hit me on the you got my email. Just hit me a week before, and I'll take care of
Chuck Shute:you. Okay, thank you so much, Joey, good to see you. My brother. All right, you too. Bye, bye, one
THEME SONG:of a kind, from the rockers to the wise men soon and folks, you'll be learning again you.
