{"id":19770,"date":"2012-04-24T06:26:52","date_gmt":"2012-04-24T11:26:52","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/hardrockhaven.net\/online\/?p=19770"},"modified":"2013-02-05T17:59:00","modified_gmt":"2013-02-05T22:59:00","slug":"jack-blades-of-night-ranger-damn-yankees-fame","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/hardrockhaven.net\/online\/2012\/jack-blades-of-night-ranger-damn-yankees-fame\/","title":{"rendered":"Jack Blades of Night Ranger & Damn Yankees Fame"},"content":{"rendered":"

by Scott Alisoglu<\/span>
\nGuest Writer —<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Jack Blades has been a name associated with numerous melodically potent, spirited rock albums over the past three decades, the best known being Night Ranger, Shaw\/Blades, and Damn Yankees. Blades took a look back over his storied career and summarized the ups, downs, ins and outs of it on his second solo album, the aptly titled Rock N\u2019 Roll Ride (Frontiers). While the album offers a fair share of Blades\u2019 distinctive brand of upbeat melodic hard rock, he also shows another side of his immense talent in songwriting informed by the 60s\/70s influences he holds so dear; everyone from Rod Stewart to The Beatles to The Eagles to Humble Pie. The result is a thoroughly enjoyable and appealingly varied collection of material that any fan of American rock music will want in his or her collection. Blades squeezed out a half hour in his insanely busy schedule to break it all down for us.<\/p>\n

\"\"Hardrock Haven: Rock \u2018N Roll Ride is a very American-looking album. The American flag on the inside is anything but subtle too.<\/p>\n

Jack Blades: [Laughs] Pretty much. I\u2019m pretty much an American guy and my bands have always been pretty much American bands, starting with Rubicon and Night Ranger and Damn Yankees and all that kind of stuff.<\/p>\n

Hardrock Haven: No wonder you got along so well with Ted.<\/p>\n

Jack Blades: [Laughs] yeah, right, exactly.<\/p>\n

Hardrock Haven: This is solo album number two and most of what you do has such a positive vibe about it. On this one there is quite a lot of material that seems to be focusing on just being who you are. You\u2019ve got that great line in \u201cChange it\u2019s where I go when I want to be free\u201d on \u201cBack in the Game.\u201d<\/p>\n

Jack Blades: You\u2019re actually picking up some good stuff there, Scott. That\u2019s very astute of you; I like that instead of an interview that\u2019s all [in goofy voice] \u201cSo what was it like with Ted?\u201d But at a certain point in my life I\u2019ve reached a point where I want to say something and I don\u2019t just want to write lyrics down about whatever. I\u2019m cool with the guy and the girl thing and I\u2019ve written a lot of those and lord knows I\u2019ve had huge hits that way, but at this stage of the game I want to be able to say something. Otherwise, it\u2019ll be like Robert Plant said, that I might as well just sit around and write down the words from the room service menu at the Holiday Inn and call that my lyrics. The lyrics like \u201cdon\u2019t give up\u201d and \u201cI was born for this\u201d and \u201cchange is where I want to go when I want to be free,\u201d that\u2019s kind of the way I am, man. The lyrics on this record are probably about as close of a glimpse into my soul as I\u2019ve ever dared let out [laughs]. It\u2019s kind of a credo of the way I am.<\/p>\n

Hardrock Haven: Over the years you\u2019ve developed, intentionally or otherwise, a sort of signature way of writing melodies; it\u2019s recognizable for the most part as Jack Blades. This album has some of those too, but there just as many or more that are a bit of a departure.<\/p>\n

Jack Blades: What\u2019s nice about a solo record is that you can introduce things that you wouldn\u2019t normally do with your band. I\u2019m thankful that I have Night Ranger and it\u2019s just a kick ass American rock band. I\u2019m thankful that after all these years people still come and see us [laughs]. I wanted to make a record where what the title says is exactly what it is. I want everybody to go on a rock \u2018n roll ride with me. There are ups and downs, you slow into a turn and all of a sudden there is just this frickin\u2019 175 mile per hour thing and you\u2019re jamming it, and then you slow down… Almost like a roller coast ride. The title is exactly what this is. This is sort of like my 30 years of my rock \u2018n roll ride. The influences that I\u2019ve had have always been\u2026 Well, I\u2019m from Southern California so there is the Beach Boys and Eagles and that Southern California sound in my heart and soul. And then I was also a big Beatles fan and then in the late 60s and early 70s I was deep into British metal like Deep Purple and Led Zeppelin and Cream and Blind Faith and Humble Pie. And then I moved to San Francisco and I got deep into like Sly and the Family Stone. A lot of times when I sit back and want to groove I put on Sly and the Family Stone\u2019s Fresh album and just listen to like \u201cIn Time\u201d or \u201cIf you want me to stay\u201d and things like that. So this album is this ride of my life and that\u2019s why it\u2019s not all pedal to the metal, straight ahead Night Ranger and Damn Yankee type songs. So I can have a song like \u201cSay You Will\u201d or a song like \u201cHey Now,\u201d a real bluesy track at the end. That\u2019s why I enjoyed making this record.<\/p>\n

Hardrock Haven: In fact, \u201cHey Now\u201d is kind of folksy and acoustic and it has that bluesy organ in there. When you break it down it almost sounds like something Rod Stewart would have done in the early days.<\/p>\n

\"\"Jack Blades: Oh, you\u2019re so spot-on with that track! You\u2019re frickin\u2019 exactly feeling what I was feeling there. Of course I was into the Stones and \u201cWild Horses\u201d and shit like that and when I did that song I played the acoustic guitar part and I thought why don\u2019t I just put a scratch vocal on it, just so we know where the song is going. So I got up to the microphone and it was like 1:00 a.m. and we were in studio getting ready to finish out and all the lights were down, the candles and incense were burning, and I just sat there and sang those lyrics out, man. It was almost like stream of consciousness shit. I changed a few words and it was all finished. After it was all finished [engineer] Will [Evankovich] just looked at me and said \u201cWhere the hell did that come from?\u201d I was like dude, fuck I don\u2019t know [laughs]. And we left that vocal; that\u2019s the vocal that is on the record. I listen to the vocal and would try to sing it like two weeks later and I was like \u201cDude, I can\u2019t beat this.\u201d Getting back to what you said, I think that\u2019s the way a lot those Every Picture Tells a Story kinds of albums came about. I\u2019m sure it was just a bunch of guys sitting their drunk asses in a room laughing and joking; he and Ronnie Wood or whatever. Just a bunch of guys going \u201cFuck, do that!\u201d [Laughs]<\/p>\n

Hardrock Haven: There are a couple of other moments too and this may not have been intentional but on \u201cWest Hollywood\u201d and another song that\u2019s escaping me at the moment you can even hear a Tom Petty vibe.<\/p>\n

Jack Blades: Like \u201cDon\u2019t Give Up,\u201d yeah. \u201cWest Hollywood\u201d and \u201cDon\u2019t Give Up,\u201d that\u2019s the California vibe thing that\u2019s in me. I know Petty is from Florida, but he was out in L.A. for so long and that\u2019s kind of ingrained in me too. It\u2019s kind of like the Shaw\/Blades stuff that Tommy and I do too. We did an album back in \u201995 called Hallucination and then we did Influence, which was covers of our favorite songs from the 60s and 70s that we put out a few years ago that sold really, really well and we were on the Howard Stern show and did all these shows. Actually, we\u2019re halfway through an Influence II record. Tommy was here a week and a half ago working on some tracks and I was down at his place working on it last month.<\/p>\n

Hardrock Haven: Even on the last Night Ranger album, Somewhere in California, that is also so full of that same vibe. You can\u2019t think of anything but sun and driving with the top down and just cruising when you listen to \u201cGrowing up in California.\u201d You can\u2019t find a damn cloud in that song [laughs].<\/p>\n

Jack Blades: Dude, check this out! That song, I had written for my solo record. I finished my solo record before the Night Ranger record came out and so we were going to release that one first. The song \u201cGrowing up in California\u201d I had recorded for my solo record and Kelly [Keagy] and Brad [Gillis] heard it and said that\u2019s a Night Ranger song and I\u2019m like \u201cyeah, you\u2019re probably right\u201d [laughs]. So I pulled it off my solo record and got all the Night Ranger guys to play on it and we put it out and became the first song on the record.<\/p>\n

Hardrock Haven: And your son Colin co-wrote \u201cWest Hollywood?\u201d<\/p>\n

Jack Blades: Yeah, he lives in Hollywood and about a year and a half ago he came up to visit here for a weekend with his girlfriend. He walked into the kitchen one morning and had his guitar and just started singing \u201cWest Hollywood.\u201d And I went \u201cFuck, that\u2019s great, dude!\u201d I always remembered that so when I decided to do the solo record I said I\u2019m going to do that song. I called him up and we finished the song. He\u2019s a real good songwriter and he\u2019s doing his own stuff down in L.A.<\/p>\n

Hardrock Haven: Then of course, \u201cAnything for You,\u201d before I even read that it was Robin Zander [Cheap Trick] performing on that it was so obvious it was him.<\/p>\n

Jack Blades: It\u2019s quite a difference, isn\u2019t it?<\/p>\n

Hardrock Haven: It\u2019s interesting to hear how The Beatles\u2019 influence comes through, like how Cheap Trick channels The Beatles. <\/p>\n

Jack Blades: I gotta tell you, man, I\u2019d love to do a whole album with Robin. I called him and told him I was doing a solo record and he was out on the West Coast doing a show or something like that and he shows up at my places in this big stretch limo. He gets out wearing this all white suit and I\u2019m like \u201cdamn.\u201d I have the music for \u201cAnything for You\u201d and he just starts singing that [imitates a grand Zander vocal line] and I was like \u201cWhoa!\u201d So we recorded it real quick and wrote two other songs and then he gets in this big ole long stretch, black limousine and drives away four hours later and Will and I are looking at each going \u201cWhat the hell just happened?\u201d That was just the most creative four hours I\u2019ve spent in years. I\u2019m so proud of that song it\u2019s crazy.<\/p>\n

Hardrock Haven: Even with the range of influences and styles the album flows very well. It\u2019s never stuck in one mode for too long and it\u2019s got a good mix of straight rock and deeper material. <\/p>\n

Jack Blades: Trying to figure out which song should go where is always a constant struggle with me. I thought the record flowed real well and starting with \u201cBack in the Game\u201d I really wanted to sock everybody right in the chin with a rockin\u2019 track. So I made this video and if you want to see it just go to You Tube and type in \u201cJack Blades, Back in the Game\u201d [http:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=KpOPMYadzrE<\/a>] and it\u2019s like this mini movie. Actually, that\u2019s my son Colin starring in the movie. You\u2019ve got to check it out. It\u2019s really cool. There is a Western Union telegram that\u2019s in the video and some Army medals that were always in my family. In fact, the Western Union telegram is up in my studio and had it there for years; it was something my mom received like the day after Christmas in 1944, saying that her husband was killed in the war. So I\u2019ve always had that and used it in there. At the end of the video I dedicate it to all the troops that have given their last full measure to ensure freedom for the world. I\u2019m pretty proud of that video. <\/p>\n

Hardrock Haven: The CD layout is great too. The memorabilia pictured on the cover is all yours?<\/p>\n

\"\"Jack Blades: Those are all the laminates from the bottom drawer in my closet. I saved all my laminates going back to the days when I was in Rubicon at California Jam II in 1978. It\u2019s pretty wild. Those are all the real deals!<\/p>\n

Hardrock Haven: The post-it notes on the inside of the booklet, such as \u201cWhen Rubicon broke up I thought the world had ended,\u201d pinpoint significant moments in your career.<\/p>\n

Jack Blades: Yeah, those are moments in my rock \u2018n roll ride. When Rubicon ended I thought my world had ended. That\u2019s the whole thing, man; you never know. The next thing you know I\u2019m in Night Ranger and that\u2019s where I was meant to be and here I am. It\u2019s all these moments that mean something in the grand scheme of things. <\/p>\n

Hardrock Haven: There is the one note about Night Ranger and Japan calling in \u201896 after the Shaw\/Blades album came out. Were you wondering about whether Night Ranger was still relevant at the time? You seemed shocked by the response from the Japanese fans.<\/p>\n

Jack Blades: Well, it was at a time when we were doing Shaw\/Blades and Tommy had gone back to Styx and I was sort of like hanging out there going \u201cWell, that\u2019s interesting and I guess we\u2019re not going to do a new Damn Yankees record\u201d and I don\u2019t know what\u2019s going on. Then the next thing you know the guys in the Night Ranger found out about the Japan thing and said why don\u2019t we play some shows there. Then all of a sudden the first show sells out, then the second, then third, and it\u2019s like \u201cOk, we\u2019re back\u201d [Laughs]. We did something right over there I think.<\/p>\n

Hardrock Haven: Some of the Night Ranger guys play on this album, as well as some others.<\/p>\n

Jack Blades: Brian Tichy, my buddy that plays drums in Whitesnake and played with Foreigner and Ozzy and everybody else, played on some of the tracks and Kelly [Keagy] played on some. Alan Hertz, a great drummer from up here in Northern California, played on a few of the less rockin\u2019 tracks. Joel Hoekstra from Night Ranger did most of the guitars, Will Evankovich, my buddy from Shaw\/Blades, did most all the acoustic guitars and some electric and sang background with my son Colin. Those are my buddies, man and we made a record [laughs].
\nHardrock Haven: No Ted Nugent on this one though.<\/p>\n

Jack Blades: No, but we had Ted on our Night Ranger album last year [laughs]. We did an extra track, a version of [Damn Yankees\u2019] \u201cComing of Age\u201d and we broke it down halftime in the middle and Ted recreated the \u201cStranglehold\u201d solo [laughs]. It\u2019s a bonus track.<\/p>\n

Hardrock Haven: Are you going to do any shows in support of Rock N\u2019 Roll Ride?<\/p>\n

Jack Blades: I\u2019d like to do some shows. I\u2019m trying to figure it out because I\u2019ve been so busy doing everything else. So many of these songs are just screaming to be played live.
\nHardrock Haven: Frontiers is treating you well it seems.<\/p>\n

Jack Blades: Oh yeah, I love the guys from Frontiers. What\u2019s neat about Frontiers is that sine the beginning they\u2019ve given me a green light and just say do what you want to do and we\u2019ll back you up, we believe in you. The owner and I are really good friends; I trust him and he trusts me that I\u2019ll give it everything I\u2019ve got. And I know he\u2019s going to give it everything he\u2019s got. We have sort of this mutual admiration for each other and it works out really well.<\/p>\n

Hardrock Haven: I think that about covers it. <\/p>\n

Jack Blades: Thanks Scott! Make sure you check out that video! <\/p>\n

Visit Jack Blades on the web @ www.frontiers.it<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

by Scott Alisoglu Guest Writer — Jack Blades has been a name associated with numerous melodically potent, spirited rock albums over the past three decades, the best known being Night Ranger, Shaw\/Blades, and Damn Yankees. […]<\/a><\/div>\n","protected":false},"author":10,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6817],"tags":[5158,203,2693,1464],"class_list":{"0":"post-19770","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-arcint2012","7":"tag-damn-yankees","8":"tag-interview","9":"tag-jack-blades","10":"tag-night-ranger"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/hardrockhaven.net\/online\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19770","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/hardrockhaven.net\/online\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/hardrockhaven.net\/online\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hardrockhaven.net\/online\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/10"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hardrockhaven.net\/online\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=19770"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/hardrockhaven.net\/online\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19770\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/hardrockhaven.net\/online\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=19770"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hardrockhaven.net\/online\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=19770"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hardrockhaven.net\/online\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=19770"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}