My Roots

You may not know his name but I can bet that you have heard the man play drums. Remember that drum beat in John Mellencamp’s “Jack & Diane”? That’s Kenny Aronoff. In fact, he played with the Indiana rocker for over fifteen years. He has played behind Bonnie Raitt, Lyle Lovett, Bob Dylan, Melissa Etheridge, Stevie Nicks, Elton John, Santana, Ray Charles, Jon Bon Jovi; the list is endless. How in the world does one man accomplish so much?

He is on his way to Pittsburgh to play a show. He is smoking cigarettes and telling me exactly how he feels about the music business. He does not hold back. If you haven’t heard of Livan yet, you need to check him out. He spent some time recently opening for Alice Cooper yet he is not metal nor alternative nor straight-ahead punk.

As children, we all rode bicycles and climbed trees and had a jolly good time just being a kid. Seether’s frontman Shaun Morgan wasn’t that different from you and me … except he grew up in a turbulent South Africa. Calling in before a show in northern Mississippi, Morgan talked at length about his childhood, his influences, his band’s latest CD Holding Onto Strings Better Left To Fray, and how it was actually a song in a movie that showed him the power of music.

JD DeServio is a fun guy. He loves to talk and he loves to laugh and when he gets a big ole nasty looking blister on his finger from playing his bass, he just has to show it to you. Black Label Society had just played a sweaty kick ass show in New Orleans when DeServio comes up to me outside the venue to show me his war wound with a mischievous twinkle in his eye.

Formed in 2001 by Connolly and his neighborhood buddies in British Columbia, Canada, Theory Of A Deadman is one of those bands that can rock & sock you one moment and then touch a raw nerve the next. Where does all this mixture of Tabasco rock come from? Try the early days of Connolly, an admitted bad boy from day one.

Ewan Currie is a very down-to-earth young man. Even though his band made the cover of Rolling Stone as winners of a recent contest, he appears to be unfazed by all of the hullabaloo. He is soft-spoken, witty and devoted to the band he has called home since 2005: The Sheepdogs, a Canadian rock and roll band with deep 70’s southern roots.

Back around 1987, ZakkWylde was a baby-faced, long-legged skinny guitar player in New Jersey when Ozzy Osbourne was sniffing around for a new axeman for his solo band.

On a hot Los Angeles afternoon a few months ago, Poison drummer Rikki Rockett called in to talk about his early days in rock & roll. Although Poison has been given much flak over the years for their pop-metal type of music, it cannot be denied they are good at what they do. Beloved by thousands of fans world-wide, their records sales are in the millions and they sell out concerts wherever they play.

There are some musicians who wear their rock star status like a golden crown twenty-four/seven. And then there are musicians who walk down the street and you’d never know they were in a superstar band. They chat with you while in line at the supermarket and wear the same old ripped-up jeans they’ve had for years. Being a rock star just never crossed their minds. Frank Bello of Anthrax is that kind of rock star.

Mark Tremonti needs no introduction. His reputation as one of the most respected guitar players of the current century has been solidified by his unique talent, something that he says has taken years to accomplish. He is humble, he is smart, he is genuine. And on a hot and humid Florida morning last month, he called to talk about his past, his present and his future.

If you thought last week’s musician Myles Kennedy was a busy man, then you haven’t heard everything guitar player Joel Hoekstra has on his plate. Not only has he been touring with Night Ranger on a major outing with Journey and Foreigner, but in between those dates he performs in Rock Of Ages and travels with the Trans Siberian Orchestra in the fall and winter.

Myles Kennedy is certainly a man in demand. When he's not on the road or recording with his band Alter Bridge, then he's typically on the road or recording with Slash.

It’s been over thirty years and Great White is still going strong. Known for such hits as “Rock Me”, “House Of Broken Love”, “Once Bitten Twice Shy” and “Mista Bone”, this band with the blues soul and rock & roll heart is still playing to sold out venues from coast to coast. And on a sunny California afternoon, guitar player Mark Kendall is happily sharing with me memories of his youth, tales from his early days with Great White and whether or not he will finally have time to record another solo record.

If you want to hang out with any rock star then Todd Kerns is the rocker for you. Slash’s bass player loves to talk about music, especially KISS or the Ramones or his own band, the Sin City Sinners. He also loves to talk about Star Trek and Star Wars. In fact, when I called him to do our interview just prior to his trek to Los Angeles to start working on the new Slash record, he was watching an episode of the classic TV series and looking forward to some Jedi adventures with a friend.

Hailing from the Dallas area, Northern Lights is beginning to really catch fire via their latest CD Pardon Me, which actually came out in 2010. But it is a young band’s rite of passage to keep humping the clubs and festivals 24/7 to get their music heard and Jonathan Tyler is no different. With a spirit and excitement to their music, it shouldn’t be much longer before they are raising hell high on the music charts.

Welcome to the world of Art Of Dying, a band out of Canada, that has been killing it on the recent Rockstar Energy Drink Uproar Festival Tour and gaining new fans by the thousands. With their Vices & Virtues CD a strong success and a new single, “Get Thru This”, just hitting the charts, the band is on a meteoric rise.

Bobby Schneck has been playing guitar alongside Slash, helping the man do what he does best. George Potsos is the bass player in Devon Allman’s Honeytribe, a great up & coming band with the strong potential to break big any day now. Both men have been musicians since their teens and know what it’s like to be famous and not-so-famous.

Lajon Witherspoon has the raging supersonic vocals that power the amazing heavy duty band Sevendust, yet when you sit down and talk with him, he has an easy, fun sense of humor. He laughs often and when their former light tech Scott jumps on the bus to sneak into a bunk with bass player Vince Hornsby, Witherspoon is almost on the floor in tears laughing so hard. “He’s a muskrat”, Witherspoon jokes. “He sniffed the bunk down top to bottom. It’s so funny.”