Have you ever had one of those moments where you see someone new perform and you think, damn, he just kicked ass – and then you have that gnawing feeling that you’ve heard him before? I had one of those moments recently. I’m watching the Kings Of Chaos concert out in LA and Franky Perez takes the stage and just goes hell bent on some Led Zeppelin and Queen. I make a notation to find out more about this guy but I have this nagging feeling that he is more familiar to me than I realize. And of course when I Youtube him, it hits me. I do know who he is. When I told Perez about this a few weeks after the concert, he laughed. “Well, I appreciate you taking ANY kind of interest.”
If you are reading this and also having a scratch-your-head moment, let me refresh you on who Franky Perez actually is and why you too may already know who he is. He has had songs featured on Sons Of Anarchy for five straight seasons and actually sings with SOA star Katey Sagal in the Forest Rangers. He is in two, what could be called, supergroups: Kings Of Chaos with former Guns N Roses members Slash, Duff McKagan and Matt Sorum, as well as Steve Stevens and Glenn Hughes; and Camp Freddy with an amalgam of players hopping in and out as schedules allow, but mainstays including Sorum and Jane’s Addiction’s Dave Navarro and Chris Chaney. Both of these bands are done out of fun and the love for jamming with their peers and perform songs from all along the rock & rock spectrum. Perez had a big hit off his first solo album with a song called “Something Crazy,” which caught an unbelievable fire in the country genre – and this coming AFTER Perez had been in a hardcore band.
With all this being said, you quickly pick up that Perez is not of one mold and his versatility has become his calling card. From belting out “Immigrant Song” with a cocksure firecracker popping electricity to his passionate ballad “Return To Me,” from being chosen to join Velvet Revolver before Slash’s band with Myles Kennedy skyrocketed to performing with the legendary Doors at the Sunset Strip Music Festival to a forthcoming revelatory album titled Addict, you can’t say Perez is a one trick pony.
Last month I had the pleasure of talking with Perez on one of his rare times of doing, well, nothing. When he is not traveling with various projects, he performs in Las Vegas weekly at the Station casinos and monthly at the Palms with his band The Truth, and he is a doting father to three children. Perez laughs easily and has made a vow to live life post-addiction with as much enthusiasm and happiness and passion as he possibly can. So whether you’ve followed him from day one or just discovering this very talented performer, you will enjoy our trip through his past to his exciting present.
Now that we’re about to jump into 2014, tell us what were some big highlights for you in 2013.
One was, I sing in a band called Forest Rangers with Katey Sagal and Bob Thiele, the music supervisor/composer of Sons Of Anarchy, and we have this really cool band where we do a lot of Katey’s material but then I cover a lot of the songs from the actual show. We played the 110th anniversary of Harley-Davidson in Milwaukee, of all places, and there were thousands of people out there and I got to just play these amazing songs, one of them being “This Life,” which is the theme to the show. And just watching that crowd react and being up there with my friends Katey and Bob, it was one of my highlights. And at the end of that show, I brought my two and a half year old up and he played guitar (laughs). It’s actually on YouTube, and it’s on my page as well, and it was just amazing to watch my kid Xavier play, just fearless up there.
Then, obviously, the Kings Of Chaos show was great. When Matt called me for that, knowing what that was benefiting, it was a no-brainer. There was no way I was going to turn that down. I love performing for a great cause [Ric O’Barry’s Dolphin Project] and I do a lot of charity shows and charity work and those are always the most rewarding for me personally.
Katey released a new album. Did you play or sing on that?
No, no, I didn’t. That’s a Katey Sagal record and she had been planning that thing for a while. It’s a very personal record and that was a solo effort with her and Bob helping out. People forget what an incredible singer she is. I mean, she was a singer before she was an actress. And, yeah, it’s amazing. Like the songs, the originals that she wrote, are unbelievable, and the covers she chose, it’s a great record. I would recommend any fan of music, no matter what genre you’re into, to check out that album. It’s pretty brilliant.
What do you have planned for 2014?
This last year has been a big year for me. 2012 was difficult in my personal life and I spent all of 2013 kind of regrouping, getting my health back and getting my priorities straight and getting my music and my band where I wanted it to be. So in 2014, my band, myself and the Truth, we’re going to release a record called Addict. I wrote a song with Crystal Method for their new record, a song called “The Difference,” and it’s on the new album and we’re doing some shows in mid-January in LA and I think we’re doing a Kimmel date, and those guys are really kind and we have a great working relationship. So I hope there’s some of that kind of work coming up. Camp Freddy is always there and doing shows during the year and I think we have some Kings Of Chaos shows as well. And me and Steve Stevens have some tricks up our sleeves for 2014 (laughs).
But my goal this year is to really concentrate on myself as an artist. I’m very fortunate that I get to do all these projects; there’s also a lot of Forest Rangers stuff. Although I love doing all that and I want to continue doing that stuff as much as I can, I want to really, really concentrate on my own music and my own career. I have some ongoing residencies in Las Vegas. I play at the Station casinos weekly and I do the Palms Casino once a month and I really love the idea of playing Vegas regularly because it’s basically touring without having to tour (laughs). It’s a different national audience every week, and I get to reach people I wouldn’t regularly reach. So to answer your question, I’m really going to go all at it with my own projects and my own music this year.
Addict seems to me like it’s going to be, at least lyrically, very, very personal and very deep, almost soul searching. Is that right?
Yeah, 100%; you’re spot on. You know the title to me is such a powerful word. People instantly attribute that word to drugs but although drugs were a big part in the story of my life, that’s not exactly the only thing I’m talking about when it comes to that word. I’m the kind of guy, I don’t have a medium. It’s either, if I hate you, I hate you with all I got or I don’t. If I love you, I love you very big or I don’t. So my life has been a constant struggle for the search for just a medium. So the record is about love lost and other vices (laughs) and I’m really proud of the music. I’ll tell you, it’s crazy, I would have put this out before but I kept writing this material, and the album’s been evolving, and it’s finally at this place where I’m really proud of it. It’s been a cathartic process making it. We’re looking for the right partner and I’ll be honest with you, if they don’t come along, I’m going to put it out myself.
How deep did you really go into yourself to write these songs?
Well, I wrote this record in two parts. It’s no secret, all you got to do is a little research to find out that I’ve struggled with drugs and alcohol for a long time. And after a long period of sobriety, about six years, life just got the best of me and I wasn’t strong enough and I relapsed. So part of the record was written in sobriety and part of it was written after the drug abuse, after the relapse. And I’m curious to see if people can tell which songs were written which. That’s going to be pretty interesting.
But the majority of my work, I would say 90% of my original music, comes from a personal place. Either some things have affected me directly or someone else. So my entire MO on this record, my mantra, was be honest; say things some people may not have the courage to say or can’t say. Be a voice, kind of, for that person’s suffering, you know. And hopefully the undercurrent of the entire thing is that no matter what it is, you can get help. No matter what, be it relationships or drugs, whatever – you CAN get help. All you have to do is ask for it and if the first person you ask doesn’t help, ask the next and ask the next after that. There is someone out there that will. Know that you’re not alone and that other people suffer from those same afflictions. So again, to answer your question, it all comes from an honest place inside of me.
You’re already pretty honest in a lot of your songs. Did you ever go too far with a song and then said, no, let’s not go that far?
You know, I’ve wrote some lyrics in the past that, literally, I’ve seen people gasp and that means I’m doing my job. Like I’ll tell you a big moment in my life as an artist, which this is really crazy, but there was the Howard Stern movie that he made, the one about his life. I wasn’t the biggest Howard Stern fan, I’m not the biggest Howard Stern fan. I’m not an active listener but I definitely appreciate what he did for entertainment and media and journalism. I’ll tell you, the guy is great at broadcasting. But there is a line in that movie, a part in that movie when he basically realizes that when he’s on and is completely unfiltered, that really hit me hard and I was like, oh man, that is so true. He says things that you’re embarrassed to say, the things that you don’t want to say out loud, but he says it so freely and honestly. So that guy in a completely different aspect of entertainment inspired me to what I do. Every time I write a song, I would say 99 and a half percent, it’s visually graphic.
Some people can’t be that honest though.
A lot of people are really hung up on their image, like what people think of them and this and that, and I realize that in a world where perception is reality, I’m making sure that the stuff I’m putting out is my honesty, is me. I’m not hung up on image. I let my music speak for itself.
When did you actually start writing songs?
My mother is a poet. I’m a Cuban-American. I was born in the United States but my heritage is Cuban. There’s a kind of music called Punto Guajiro, which is basically the Cuban equivalent to American blues but it’s all based on poetry. I remember watching my mother read these poems or sing them and watch grown, proud men tear up and cry. And I realized early on the power of words. I realized how important words are and how the wrong words or the right words can be used to your advantage. So really early on, I’m talking five or six, I realized how powerful words are. So I always wrote as a kid. My first song was actually a rap song (laughs). I was in fifth grade and Beastie Boys and Run DMC were just blowing up and that’s what all the kids were into. So I started writing rap songs and going, yeah, I can do that (laughs). Then in middle school or junior high, or middle school/high school I started writing an actual song. A melody stuck in my head and I was looking for the right guy; not even the right guy but the wrong guy, any guy that could play guitar, play an instrument. I needed to find him cause I needed to get this music out and I was off and running ever since.
What was the most unique thing that inspired you to write a song?
Hmm, let me think. Oh, I got a good one. Yeah, I got the perfect one. As a kid in Vegas, Vegas for the most part is still a new city in comparison to other cities in the country. It’s a newer city. I’m thirty-eight years old and I was born in this town so I saw this town grow from nothing. My street in Las Vegas, the street I lived off of was the last road for a hundred miles. So it was a big thing when they paved these sidewalks and you’d kind of wait for the construction workers to leave – I’ve always been a troublemaker, by the way – so you’d wait for the construction workers to leave and then you’d run and you’d write your name in the concrete. And if you were fortunate enough to have some girl that liked you or that decided to do the same and write your name next to it, that was a big deal. And the fact that your parents are going to walk by and see your name, you’re going to get in trouble (laughs). So I started this song I have on the new record, a song called “Stay,” and I literally was walking and I saw a kid had done the same thing and all these memories flooded back. The first line of the song is, “I wrote your name in wet cement right there next to mine/I should have left a big handprint waving goodbye cause you’re always on the move.” And that came from that memory. So that’s one of the more unique things.
So you were a troublemaker?
Was I? Are you kidding me? (laughs) I was as bad as it gets. I was a bad kid. I had a manager one time that coined it, “the bad boy with the good heart.” That was the way he would describe me, but oh man, I was a troublemaker. I was kicked out of school all the time. I never hurt anybody on purpose but I’ve always questioned authority. To this day, that’s been a detriment, actually in my professional career, I question everything and I’ve done that all my life – teachers, the law. I’ve done it with label presidents, I’ve done it with managers. So was I a troublemaker? One hundred percent (laughs)
What would you say was the most mischievous thing you ever did?
The most mischievous thing I ever did was not even mischievous, but I’ll tell you one that stands out. When I was in high school, many years ago, I got in a fist fight with this kid, and the kid was getting the best of me, and before I could like get my bearings back, before I could make some kind of difference in the fight, it got broken up and I got held back. This guy held me back and the guy that was holding me was actually a friend of mine and I go, “Dude, I can’t go out like this. You’ve got to let me go. I’ve got to get one more shot in on this guy.” (laughs) And he lets me go and the other guy lets the other guy go and we go for each other and I send this haymaker towards this kid and this kid ducks and I smack a teacher dead in the nose. I hit my teacher in the nose, accidentally, trying to hit some other guy and he ducked and I smacked this teacher dead in the face. I got kicked out of school. It was a mess. I went to like school court and I didn’t even know that existed (laughs). Like, I had to stand in front of the school judge. I remember going, wait, this is bullshit. So that’s the one that stands out in my past.
Did you knock the teacher out?
No, I bloodied up his nose a bit though (laughs). It was not a good scene. My parents were not happy but they weren’t surprised, which is scary.
So while you were this trouble making kid who loved music, what would you say was the song or the album that literally changed your life?
I remember the exact moment. I was in my 1985 Toyota 4×4 pickup that I bought for five hundred dollars and I was in the parking lot waiting outside to play a gig because I was underage and they would only let me in to go on. And I had Sgt Pepper on cassette and I had listened to this record, I owned it at that point for a month or two, but I’d never really dove in to it, never appreciated it. And “A Day In The Life” comes on and there’s that middle change, and I had found out that there were two songs, one that Paul had written and one that John had written and George Martin put together. And the picture that that song painted in my head and the arrangement and how beautiful and how powerful and how well thought out that was, and thinking how they had to make that – the technology wasn’t even nowhere near where it was at that year, where the world was, and they made this beautiful piece of music in spite of it all. And it all hit me at once. And the possibilities just opened up. And that was the exact moment that I realized that I wanted to be a recording artist, that I wanted to make records, I wanted to make music as profound as that. And if not, I’d die trying.
There is so much diversity in your music but after you had what I guess was your first little taste of fame with “Something Crazy,” did you think you might be pigeon-holed?
You know what’s crazy about that is before I got a record deal, ok, we have to take a little step back. The reason I have so many influences and there is so much diversity in the way I write and what you hear and what you see on YouTube, is that my father wasn’t a musician. My father was the biggest fan of music I’ve ever met in my life. He just loved everything about music and his record collection was everything from Latin Jazz to Traditional Cuban music to blues to pop music to classical. He just loved music. Couldn’t play a lick, but loved it. Every day, whether you liked it or not, especially summers, you’d wake up to something full blast, you know; him playing his LPs. So my influences were being molded early on, like who I was going to be.
Before I signed to Atlantic and made Poor Man’s Son, the album which “Something Crazy” is on, I was in a hardcore band [Malfunction] in Orange County. I had a record deal on a label called Conversion, a little independent, and I was writing songs as heavy as you could get and we were playing with bands like the Deftones and System Of A Down and Korn, before they even broke. And those were the bands that were our peers. For example, System Of A Down would open for us in Orange County and we’d open up for them in LA. So then I moved away from LA and I was just writing songs, and I wasn’t writing for a genre, I just wrote songs. Then I just really got into this place where, you know what, I don’t want to scream for the rest of my life; that’s a pigeon-hole, that’s something you can’t get out of. I don’t want to be that guy. I want to be able to go anywhere I want.
In the process of writing songs, I put a band together to play those out and I got the attention of the industry and the next thing you know, I got a record deal and I’m a singer-songwriter. And it’s one of those things where it’s pretty funny because I signed to Lava Atlantic in like 2000/2001 and there was nothing like it, no John Mayers, nothing like that; they weren’t pushing that. That was like the year of Limp Biscuit. They weren’t signing singer-songwriters. So they signed me because Jason Flom of Lava Records, and this is something he has always said: they didn’t know what to do with me but he knew he wanted me, so he kept me on the roster. I was there for years and I was making this record and then all of a sudden John Mayer blows up and they go, “Wait a minute, we have one of those guys. We have a John Mayer and his name is Franky Perez.” So next thing you know I’m in that world and putting out that kind of music and they’re capitalizing on that entire little movement happening at the time. And I got caught up in it. I’m proud of that, proud of that time in my life and proud of that first album. I was given free rein to produce it myself and I got to learn a lot about myself as an artist, as a producer and writer and it was great.
But now go forward to that song you mentioned, “Something Crazy.” That song, actually in itself, is kind of a trip cause first of all my name is Perez. I have tattoos, I was born and raised in Las Vegas. I’m not the poster boy for country music. I mean, I’m the last person you’d think of as a country music star. BUT someone saw me from CMT, saw me play in Nashville, and they loved what I did and next thing you know they became a champion of me. They heard that song “Something Crazy” and they put it into heavy rotation at CMT. So then all of a sudden, now I’m on the country charts and I’m on heavy rotation at CMT and I’m getting those kinds of gigs and now I’m a friggin’ country artist. So that was an interesting run. That album was an interesting run. So I just think given the right circumstance and the right time, I think people will appreciate what I do. I’ll tell you this, you’re not going to get a boring album (laughs). I’d give you that much. But I am proud of that time in my life, proud of the diversity in my life.
What was the biggest lesson you learned from being on a big label like Atlantic?
Well, I tell you, I know now why the industry, like the Roman Empire, crumbled the way it did – the excess of everything. There was excess in spending, spending money where they shouldn’t, and they were filling their catalogs with as much content as possible but not with quality. The biggest thing I learned was making it count. If it ain’t good to start with, all the money in the world isn’t going to make it good. So I’ve really learned how to be efficient in this business, getting the most out of my time and money. I don’t go in the studio unless it’s ready. From the first time you punch record, you got to fight for it and make sure it sounds good. If it’s not singing to you from the first time you punch record, you shouldn’t even be recording it. Also, one of the biggest lessons is who you surround yourself with. In my life, I’ve been difficult and a difficult artist to work with, but also there’s a fine line, people mistake passion for being difficult and that’s a shame. But I’ve let the wrong people in my life, had some bad business dealings, but only because I was young and naive and I hired and trusted the wrong people. I know now to really feel people out, to really take my time in terms of that, cause I’ve gotten it good from some of those sons of bitches. But again, also my personal struggles; if I would have been on the ball a lot of the time, I wouldn’t have let those guys in to begin with.
With all this that you have learned, is that what is now keeping you sane in the music business?
Yeah, absolutely, absolutely. For anyone trying to get in this business, you got to learn how to deal with rejection. About 80% of this business is rejection and knowing that it’s not personal a lot of the time. I’ve ran into people where it is personal, but the majority of the time it’s not personal. It’s just business so when you learn not to take those things personal and you’re able to trudge on through, that’s when you’ll find peace in this business. Knowing that it’s not all me, that it’s not my time, it happened for a reason, those are the things that keep me sane in this business.
Who was the first real rock star you ever met?
First real rock star I ever met wasn’t even a rock star. It was Steve Wynn (laughs). You know why? I’ll tell you why Steve Wynn was such a rock star when I met him. Steve Wynn was walking through, not even his own casino, it was Caesar’s Palace and I was with my father. I was a child of maybe like twelve and he came through and he had this massive entourage with him, including security and his beautiful wife and he was just rolling through and that guy, it was like parting the Red Sea. So that was the first rock star I ever met. And he stopped and he shook my hand and looked me dead in the eye and introduced himself, “I’m Steve Wynn,” and he was like such a rock star (laughs).
Then an actual musician was Shannon Hoon. It was 1993. I believe the first record had come out and they were just on the rise at that point. “No Rain” was out and I was in Los Angeles backstage and he was just the sweetest guy. He took the time and a perfect rock star. He took the time and looked me right in the eye and said, “Thanks for coming out” and it was great. That was a great moment. You don’t have to be a dick just because you sold some records. That doesn’t give you a license to be a dick.
And that, no doubt, helped you for when you meet fans today.
Oh yeah, I try to meet everyone. In Vegas I play three hours all the time and I’m just spent but if I’m not tired, I’ll meet every person I can. I’ll shake every hand.
The Kings Of Chaos concert in LA was fantastic. You absolutely killed, in a good way, the Led Zeppelin song.
Aw thank you. You have to step it up, you know what I mean. You have to when you’re in that kind of company.
How did you get involved?
Well, like I said, we were doing the show for an amazing charity so when Matt called; actually it wasn’t even a call, it was an email. I didn’t even get done reading it and I was already saying yes. It’s an amazing cause. So you have that going in, that you’re there to do something good, it’s something good for the world. So there was that feeling over the whole event. Matt and I have had a really interesting but great relationship. The way I got introduced to all those guys was I auditioned for Velvet Revolver a few years ago and actually got the gig; like Slash called me and told me to stick around, that we’re going to do this. But then the process of us writing music and rehearsing, I don’t if it was something he planned to do all along or just really got inspired to do, decided he was going to do the Slash and friends thing and it just didn’t happen.
But it was really good for me, although at the time it sucked, like ah man, this is it, I get to work with these guys and we’re going to make this great music and it went away and I was so sad. But it’s actually been one of the best things that’s ever happened. I now have good relationships with all those guys and I’ve worked with each one individually: me and Dave Kushner write songs and we’ve done a lot of stuff together; I’ve done stuff with Duff in Camp Freddy; Slash and I did a few shows together where I sang with the Slash & Friends project prior to Myles Kennedy getting the gig full time. And me and Matt work constantly, from Kings Of Chaos to Magnificent Seven to Camp Freddy to our own stuff. I have produced a record out of his studio and he’s been like a big brother in a sense and has always taken care of me.
So playing those gigs and playing with that caliber of musicians, like that one you saw, it’s such a breath of fresh air. There’s no egos, we’re there for a good cause and we’re there to make great music, and everyone on that stage respects each other as musicians and their ability as an artist. So I think that that translated to the audience.
And people came from all over the world for this show.
Yeah, they came from all walks of life from all around the country, all around the world. It was insane.
What is the best advice anyone ever gave you when you first decided that you wanted to make this your career?
It’s funny, any musician that I talked to when I was coming up told me to go to school (laughs) Just because it’s a tough life. You’ve got to be committed to this. This is it. You just don’t do it for a while and then go get a day job. This is do or die for me. This is what I want to do for the rest of my life. But one piece of advice that I got, and I was already in a record deal, was actually from Steve Gorman from the Black Crowes. He said to me, and he probably definitely doesn’t remember and he probably definitely doesn’t know it’s something that stuck with me, but he said to me, “The guy that works the hardest is the guy that succeeds.” A very simple kind of cliché but it’s actually the truth. If you never give up, if you work hard, if you’re the first guy to show up and the last to leave, if you work at your craft, you practice, you sing and you’re never satisfied with your writing, you make sure that everything is better, that each song is better than the last, and you at least strive for it, you’ll be alright. If you know you’re in it for the long run and you know it’s not an easy road, then you’re just fine.
Is it hard to maintain that balance being a dedicated father and being a dedicated working musician?
I have three children. I have a two and a half year old, I have an eleven and a twelve year old. I wasn’t there when they [the two older children] learned to walk. I wasn’t there when they learned to talk. I missed their first words. So that’s kind of tough and that’s something that I really want to do with, and I wanted to be there for all three of them but I missed it because I was on the road because of my career, but I certainly don’t want to miss it this time around with my two and a half year old. I like to think I’m a good father and I make sure that I’m present as much as I possibly can and I think my kids would agree that I’m a pretty good dad, pretty fun to be with, I’m cool (laughs) To find a balance, to make time, I figure it out. And that’s one thing I don’t compromise is my kids. If it came to my kids or a gig it will always be my kids. Or you know what, I’m bringing my kids to the gig (laughs)
Franky Perez & The Truth will be playing at a Pre-NAMM show January 17 with Jared James Nichols, whom MY ROOTS interviewed last August
Live photographs by Leslie Michele Derrough. Brandon McKinley and Jo Anna Jackson
2 Responses