Jon Stevens of The Dead Daisies (INTERVIEW)

It really doesn’t take much to start a band. You just need someone to sing and a couple of people to play instruments. But to maintain a band, it takes heart, soul, talent, luck, stamina, guts and most importantly chemistry. For without that special ingredient, your band will be nothing more than a sorry cover band in polyester on ladies night. Chemistry has always been the main factor in our greatest bands and in today’s music world a band by the name of the Dead Daisies is simmering with a good rock & roll chemistry.

Fresh off the release of their latest EP, the Dead Daisies are percolating right about now. They recently did an opening stint on the Bad Company/Lynyrd Skynyrd tour and are now spending the month of August opening for none other than KISS and Def Leppard. Not too shabby for a new band. Add in that they opened for ZZ Top and Aerosmith in Australia not long after their birth, rode the Uproar Festival last summer, have had Slash play on their debut hit single, “Lock & Load,” and were joined by Rolling Stones bass player Darryl Jones on a European tour when Marco Mendoza had to return to Black Star Riders for some concert dates. It’s no wonder the band has been moving at a lit dynamite wick pace since the very beginning.

Featuring two prime members of Guns N Roses (Richard Fortus and Dizzy Reed), the former lead vocalist of Noiseworks (Jon Stevens), a monster drummer (David Tichy), a legendary bass player (Marco Mendoza) and a coveted rhythm guitarist (David Lowy), the Dead Daisies have set making good music even better live their main priority. Each member has a reputation and together that kineticism contours into catchy rocking anthems. Their new single, “The Face I Love,” is a perfect example of what some hard rock musicians can do with an upbeat pop-flavored diddy of love. But they really shine on “Angel In Your Eyes,” a dark heart with a jagged-edge soul kind of tune that shows off Stevens’ unique vocal intonations and Fortus’ punk roots of grinding a riff till you feel it cutting your skin.

Glide caught up with Stevens a few weeks ago to talk about his career. Did you know he was a member of the insanely popular Australian band Noiseworks, who had four Top Ten albums during their late-eighties/early-nineties tenure down under? That he fronted INXS following the death of Michael Hutchence? That he has appeared on stage in Jesus Christ Superstar? There’s a lot more to Jon Stevens than you may realize. “For me, I’ve always been doing music since I can remember,” Stevens told me when the band was in Phoenix last year on the Uproar Festival tour. “I was twelve years old when I had my first band. Do the work, plug in and enjoy it.”

That philosophy has certainly worked out for Stevens, especially when he stepped into a spot lovingly held by Hutchence in INXS. “In INXS, we were all friends for many years,” he explained. “Michael Hutchence was a good friend of mine so we all knew each other. And Michael had been passed away for four years and the band had been told by all the critics and everyone that basically, you should give up. But they’re musicians, and three brothers in the band, they wanted to keep playing but they were without a leader so they asked me to become a singer and I said, ‘I’ll become a singer, I have no problem with it.’ Michael would be absolutely stoked if I was singing in that band. So three and a half years later, they didn’t do anything, so I left.”

Starting Dead Daisies with Lowy has turned out even better than he expected. “We’re like pirates, modern day pirates,” Stevens said with a laugh. So as he was walking down the street in Los Angeles last month, Stevens told us about growing up in New Zealand, why Noiseworks came to a halt, the new Dead Daisies EP and why Paul Rodgers still amazes him.

Where did you grow up?

I grew up in a small town called Upper Hutt, which is in New Zealand, way down under, and I grew up in the family of eleven children. I’m the youngest of eleven. Half-Polynesian and half-Maori, which is the local indigenous culture. It was quiet, very quiet, you know. And free. It’s a very small community and lots of land, lots of mountains and rivers and ocean. It’s really very much like Lord Of The Rings, really (laughs)

Do you still live there?

No, I live in Sydney, Australia. I’ve been living in Sydney for many years but most of my family is still in New Zealand. It’s only about three hours on a plane. Not very far.

Did all your brothers and sisters play music as well?

Some of them did, yeah, my eldest brother especially. His band used to rehearse in our front lawn so there was always music in the house somewhere along the way. I had a very musical household. We’re a very tight-knit family.

How did you discover rock & roll? Was it through your brother?

Yeah, just from growing up and listening and hearing all The Beatles and the Stones and The Who; just hearing everything, cause that’s what my older brothers and sisters were into, you know. And obviously in the seventies it was Marvin Gaye and Stevie Wonder, the Motown experience. I heard it all so it was just sort of a mish mash of everything. As I grew up I gravitated towards certain songs. But it was always around. I used to pick up on things.

What was the one band that really hooked you in?

Probably The Beatles. I have a very distinct memory of hearing “Penny Lane” when I was like four or five years old. I have a very clear memory of hearing that for the first time and going ape shit.

I heard you won a local talent contest

That was like when I was fifteen and I was with two of my sisters. I guess it was my first gig on stage, you know (laughs)

What was the first concert you went to?

Probably my brother’s band, I would say. They were always rehearsing on the front lawn (laughs). I saw David Bowie in 1997 and that was pretty cool. That was probably my first massive rock gig.

Who was the first real rock star you ever met?

Elton John, probably. I met Elton John in 1980 and ended up jamming with him on stage. Elton was a legend back then and it was great. About 40,000 people there so it was pretty interesting (laughs). Very cool.

When did you first start writing songs?

Probably around that time, not long after that. I’d written a few poems and whatnot but started writing in 1980, definitely 1981.

Did you think they were any good?

You know, when you’re that young, not a whole lot of life experience but I was fortunate enough to work with a couple of great people who taught me more about instinctive writing than sort of ABC writing. I’ve always sort of tried to write songs from the point of view of experience or observations made that might connect with other people as opposed to “I love you baby.” (laughs) It’s always songs that have something in it for me, you know, that is from me, my life experience. Probably the most significant one is the song “Millie” I wrote many years ago when my mom died of cancer and it’s the anniversary today so there you go. But yeah, I wrote it about her and a lot of people in Australia still to this day come up to me and say how much that song helped them through their loss in their lives. We all go through it but that song in particular was straight from the heart and connected to so many people. So yeah, writing songs for me has to have some sort of meaning and about communication and that’s what you’re doing. You’re communicating.

What album is that song on?

That’s off the Noiseworks album Love Versus Money

Why didn’t that band last? You guys were very popular.

Yeah but you know we were young men and your bands come and go. It’s like you’re growing up at that point in your life. I think, obviously, as a musician you become a bit more aware of other people’s idiosyncrasies and are more tolerant, whereas back then you’re young and on the horse and off you go and less tolerant.

When you started getting really popular and the money started coming in, what was your first big splurge?

(laughs) I bought a house. I had children at that time so taking care of my family.

The Dead Daisies have a new EP coming out. I think you were working on it at the time of Uproar, correct?

The “Face I Love” stuff? Yeah, we were working on that stuff then. We had a few days off in New York and we went in the studio and just jammed a bunch of ideas out so that was really allowing everyone to bring in their creative ideas and then working from there. That’s where “The Face I Love” came from, “Your Karma,” all those songs came from that.

Tell us about the song “Angel In Your Eyes.” It’s a little darker than the others.

Yeah, it’s a lot darker (laughs) but it’s kind of cool, you know. That was a riff that Richard had and then we just came up with the melody and I kind of came up with the verses in that song. I was listening to Johnny Cash a lot at the time. There is a song called “Hurt,” which was one of Johnny Cash’s last tracks he did and it’s one of the most deepest, most beautiful songs, and his version of it is just insane cause it was like his last hurrah. So I had been listening to that a lot so the verses of “Angel In Your Eyes,” I was just trying to do a bit of Johnny Cash. Very badly (laughs) but that kind of melodic thing that he did on that song. It’s still nothing like “Hurt” but I was trying to invoke that kind of feeling anyway.

Then on the opposite end you have “Face I Love” which is very upbeat.

It’s very upbeat, yeah. I wrote that song for my wife. She’s got the face I love.

Why are you doing the EP route instead of doing a full on album?

I think it’s just what we decided to do at the time. An album can take years but an EP, we’re not bound by any record label. We’re just doing what we’re doing at the time. We just finished a bunch of recording here in LA. Another four songs and we’ll put that out in the next few months and then we’ll do some more and then we’ll probably compile them all into an album at some point, maybe next year. I think in this day and age you just put it out. We’re doing it ourselves independent and I think it’s just the smarter way of doing things. We can keep moving forward. Everyone also lives all around the world so we’re not together every day of every month, you know.

Frank Ferrer of Guns N Roses actually played drums on the new EP but Brian Tichy has since come into the band. How is he working out?

Oh he’s a monster. I love him. He’s fantastic, he’s great. He just holds it down and he’s a Bonham-type drummer and perfect for the Daisies.

He played a few dates with you guys in Phoenix for Uproar.

Yeah, he came in on that gig and with no rehearsal and just smashed it. He’s a great musician.

Do you prefer collaborating with other songwriters or are you more comfortable being by yourself when you’re creating a song?

No, no, no, I love collaborating. I love working with other people, especially in a band situation because you get the best out of people and you need to include them. You need to be open to their ideas cause that’s what collaborating is about, working with people. You’ve got to be open. What happens is you really got to try everything and what happens is if the right thing presents itself then you just know. You can try things twenty different ways and when you hit on it, you know it. That’s part of the experience and knowing what you like. David and I have a great writing chemistry. We always come up with some stuff. We break out the beers and talk shit and something always happens, you know (laughs). For the Dead Daisies, it’s always David Lowy and myself; and Richard, when Richard’s around.

Is that why you guys are succeeding is because you feel it?

I definitely think that’s a big part of it and I guess because we’re all experienced, you know. We know our way around a studio, we know our way around a stage, we know our way around our instruments and we know how to work in a band because we all come from bands. We’re not new to it so we understand the intricacies of allowing people to be who they want to be and add what they want to add.

Like you said, everyone has been around a long time and you just got off a tour with Bad Company and Lynyrd Skynyrd, you’re going out with KISS and Def Leppard. That’s huge opportunities for a young band.
(laughs) Yeah, a young old band. From day one when we first made the album and the promoter had some of our stuff in Australia, we went out with ZZ Top and Aerosmith and we were offered those gigs right off the bat because, I guess, they love music, per se, but we show up and we deliver. It’s what we do and we’re committed to it. You have to be committed to a live performance. We’re a new band and we’re young and excited – old and excited (laughs) – and it’s good, really good, very cool.

As a vocalist and being around Paul Rodgers, what was that like?

Inspirational. To stand on the side of the stage every night and even the first night was like, I wonder what it’s going to be like, you know. But he sang just amazing. He’s still got the tonsils, he’s still got the range. He hasn’t lost anything. In fact, I’d say he’s gotten better. The guy’s like sixty-eight years old and he gets on stage and he delivers every night and to me, that’s what I try to do. I get up there and it doesn’t matter how I’m feeling, whether I’m sick as a dog, can’t talk, but I’m still going to give it my best shot and that’s really all you can do in a live situation.
The Dead Daisies are very active on social media and that is also helping people know about the band.
Yeah. I think you’ve got to be a part of it. In this day and age, it’s all computers and we’re all computer literate so we’ll keep that rolling on. It’s good to be participating. It’s how it works, it’s how the world runs today.

Are you still going to do your Meet & Greets after your set?

Yeah, absolutely, if we’re allowed to. Obviously, this is a different setup than Uproar and we were limited on the last tour at some of the venues to not being able to Meet & Greet. A few of them we did, a few of them we didn’t.

What do you hear from the fans when they pass by?
They go, “Awesome, thanks, you guys are awesome.” Obviously, 99.9% of the people have never seen us before or never heard of us so it’s good to come away with that sort of positive feedback.

Are you doing some of the new songs in your current set?

Yeah, we’re going to do the EP, a couple off the album, and a couple of brand new songs we just recorded.

How do you keep touring life fun?

I think the Dead Daisies is something that’s new and fresh and it’s fun because it’s your stuff and it’s new and it’s fresh and it’s moving forward. It’s not resting on any laurels or past achievements or past music. It’s new music. Even in Australia where people know me or whatever, I didn’t play anything of mine, my old stuff, and people didn’t give a shit. They were like, “Oh my God, this is awesome.” (laughs) That in itself speaks volumes from my point of view because I think it keeps you interested when you feel like you’re moving forward. And for a musician moving forward it’s writing new songs and creating something that feels really great. That’s really what it’s about.
What is a misconception about touring that would surprise fans?

(laughs) The biggest misconception about touring is it’s not all Hollywood or whatever. It’s not one big party but you can’t survive on a big tour or any tour and party all the time and carry on. You can’t do it.

Speaking of touring, what was it like playing with Darryl Jones?

Amazing. Having a Rolling Stone in the band? Are you kidding? (laughs) He joined the band cause he loved the band and is a friend of Richard’s and a friend of Charley Drayton’s and went, “I fucking love you guys.” Funny enough, it was my suggestion. We were talking about Marco not being able to do it and were talking about bass players and I said, “What about Darryl Jones? He’s in the Rolling Stones and I don’t think he’s doing anything for a while.” (laughs) And Richard was like, “Hell yeah, I’ll give him a call” and I said, “You know Darryl?” And he goes, “Yeah.” So he called him straight up and Darryl was like, “Yeah man, send me some music.” We sent him the stuff and he called back and was like, “I’m in.” He said he’d love to do it and he was free. He’s a great guy and it was certainly wonderful to have him in the band. We had a Rolling Stone in the band and not many bands can say that (laughs)

What is coming up for the Dead Daisies?

Pretty much we’ve got the next month on the road and then back to Australia and then we’re going to put the next EP together and then heading back to Europe in November and December; possibly some stuff in the backend of October.

So if we want to see you guys we need to hit this tour right now

There’re a couple of gigs, big gigs, over here in the US which we’ve been talking about at the moment that I can’t really divulge but we might be a part of.

What still excites you about making music?

Everything. Everything does, everything excites me about making music. I love it.