"It’s great to be able to play guitar every day and then come home and sleep in the same house with my boy and wake up and do breakfast and all that stuff."

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As a fan it is on rare occasion that you get to converse with a bona fid “Guitar God” but labeling Doug Aldrich as anything less is left for those who have never had the privilege of hearing Doug shred or seen him steal the spotlight from even some of the most iconic front men in Rock history. In 2002, when David Coverdale reformed whitesnake, he followed his standard format of surrounding himself with amazing guitarists by luring Aldrich away from dio. While giving fans a true chord for chord performance of the whitesnake classics, Aldrich left his own mark on the band, co-writing and recording the albums Good To Be Bad and Forevermore with Coverdale as well as recording numerous live albums and DVDs. Aldrich has stayed busy with his own band BURNING RAIN and by most recently playing in the Las Vegas rock show Raiding The Rock Vault. With his latest project, Aldrich has joined NIGHT RANGER lead vocalist and bassist Jack Blades and JOURNEY drummer Deen Castronovo to form the “Supergroup” REVOLUTION SAINTS. I caught up with Doug to get his take on the band and new album which is out on Frontiers Music srl February 24, 2015.

KNAC.COM: I tell you Doug I’ve been a fan of yours for a long time and I last saw you on the WHITESNAKE tour I think in 2013 down in Florida and man it seemed like just a few months later I hear that Doug Aldrich is leaving WHITESNAKE and I was like NOOOO! But you’ve been a busy guy with your band BURNING RAIN and the Raiding The Rock Vault show in Las Vegas and now REVOLUTION SAINTS, and I guess what I’d like to know is how did this whole thing come together and how did you get involved with it?

ALDRICH: Well originally I was contacted by the record company, they were putting together a project for Deen (Castronovo), a solo record and they asked if I wanted to be involved and I said “absolutely” because I had met Deen over the years when WHITESNAKE and JOURNEY would tour together and then in 2013 we did a co-headline I guess it was in the UK and then we did a couple of other shows together and it was a really great tour and Deen and I just hit it off. And I love to watch him; he’s such a phenomenal player and every night I’d go out and sit and watch him throw down, him and Neal (Schon). He just brings it every day, and that’s how his personality is, he’s just full on all the time and I love it. So I was flattered and I said “yeah of course I’d love to play on it, whatever you need me to do” and then I found out that Jack (Blades) was already involved. When Deen was asked who he wanted to play with, he said “well I definitely want to work with my friend Jack if possible” and Jack signed on and then they got me in it and that’s how I got involved, it was initially his solo project, and eventually it somehow turned into a band (Laughs).

KNAC.COM: Well ya know, I did a review of the album and basically what I said is that it’s one of those albums that’s gonna stay in your player forever, you’re just gonna want to wear it out because there’s so many great songs and to be honest, when I first heard that Deen was going to be singing on it I didn’t know what to expect but you know what? He nails it, the cat can sing.

ALDRICH: Yeah he really does.

KNAC.COM: Is that something that everybody’s always kind of known and we’re just now finding out about it because he’s got an incredible voice?

ALDRICH: He really does, I would buy the record just for the drumming alone but his voice is definitely the cherry on top. Everybody that knows him knows that he can sing, and a lot of people that have seen JOURNEY have seen where he’d sing a couple of songs during the set and I think that they were blown away when they’d see him and hear him sing during the show and so Serafino (Frontiers Music President, Serafino Perugino) said “what do you think?” And they all agreed that it would be a good idea. I knew he could sing JOURNEY stuff, but I didn’t know what it would be like with him singing his own stuff, I just know he’s a great singer and he really did, he shined man. So we knew he could sing but he did just as you say, he nailed it.

KNAC.COM: Well you’ve obviously worked with some of the most iconic front men in rock in Ronnie James Dio and David Coverdale and I’d imagine that those guys have their vision or formula if you will that they stick to in the writing and recording process. So how did this album come together with you guys in the writing and recording process because you’re one of those guys that we always talk about that when you hear them play we know it’s you, it’s like” Yep that’s Doug Aldrich”, you definitely have your stamp on this album.

ALDRICH: That’s cool, that’s exactly what I wanted to do. The songs were put together and primarily written by a guy named Alessandro Del Vechhio and he basically submitted these songs and we kind of went thru them and picked the ones that we thought were appropriate for it and he said to me to do exactly what you just said, put your stamp on it and make it your own and he allowed me to kind of change some spots here and there where I thought were really good starting points but some of the riffs and a couple of songs where with the arrangement I’d ask him ”hey, what do you think about this, I think this could potentially be improved”. But that’s how the songs came together, he wrote them and we were able to put our stamp on it. I took this whole thing as a challenge because it’s definitely a little more melodic and I hadn’t really played on anything like this and it would be really a good opportunity for me to put my stamp on something different. And I tried to maybe heavy it up a little bit with a little bit of a blues flavor on some stuff and that was it, it turned out really good.

KNAC.COM: Well I tell you man, you guys have knocked it out of the park. I’ve been a big NIGHT RANGER fan which is a little bit of an understatement for 30 plus years now and I’ve always said there’s not a better song writer out there than Jack Blades, and it seems that every project that he’s involved with is a massive success, the guy is so creative, so I have to ask how was it to work with Jack on this album?

ALDRICH: It’s great to work with him. Most of the recordings we all did in various studios because of schedules. But when we did get together and we got guitars on and we were playing thru stuff for the video and working on parts I could just see that there was a real chemistry with him and you see pictures of us together ya know, the more casual stuff, and you can tell that we were having a good time. And then when we were doing some background vocals and doing photos and videos, and all three of us have very different personalities but Jack definitely took the leadership role and it was cool because Deen and I kept screwing around, not wasting time but we were just messin’ around and Jack was really good about keeping us balanced. Let me tell you, Deen is like the Tasmanian Devil, he’s got that much energy. He’s like a cross between Steven Tyler and Tommy Lee (Laughs) ya know, he’s somebody that’s on fire and just kickin’ ass all the time. Tommy Lee, Steven Tyler...those types of people, he’s like that, he should definitely be a front man. And I just want to play guitar, just tell me where to plug in, tell me what time to be there and that’s what I want to do and I love the creative process but when I’m around people, I feel most comfortable with the guitar. And so Jack as I said just kind of organized everything so he’s definitely the General. And he’s great because he’s straight up; he knows what he’s doing, like you said he’s done a million projects. And one thing that sticks out about working with Jack, because I had just met Jack last year, I’m sorry the year before in 2013, is that his bass playing is so melodic and I’ve never really played on tracks like that before. Usually you’ve got people that are influenced by maybe John Paul Jones or maybe even some of the older blues guys but the way Jack plays reminds me of a little more of a pop sense and he circles the chords with his bass and he really made it fun and easy for me to put guitars on this stuff.

KNAC.COM: When I first listened to the album I said well it’s got kind of a JOURNEY vibe to it but that’s given no surprise because Deen's in JOURNEY and you’ve got Arnel (JOURNEY lead vocalist Arnel Pineda) and Neal (Schon) playing on it as well but if you dig a little deeper into the album with songs like “Locked Out Of Paradise” and “To Mend A Broken Heart”, I’ve been playing the hell out of that one.

ALDRICH: Yeah I love that song, but I agree with you, I think “Locked out Of Paradise” is kind of one of my favorite tracks. And “Way To The Sun” it’s really cool, and Neal Schon, he’s one of the greats man and he threw down a solo on that, it was spectacular. He was gonna play on the record and then he got busy and it was difficult ya know to find out when he was gonna do it so I just put a solo on “Way To The Sun” myself and I did one that I really, really liked and I fell in love with it and I said that’s cool, I put a solo on it and then all of the sudden the record company called and said “Hey Neal’s gonna play on the song” and I was like “Ahh Shit, I love that solo” (Laughs). So we ended up keeping mine as like a bonus track or something but you know when you have Neal it’s a real honor. We were happy to have him and Arnel like you said on “You’re Not Alone”, I mean he’s such a great guy and it’s a perfect track for him, he can sing anything. I tell you what, the two hardest vocal jobs I think on the planet are JOURNEY, because that stuff is not easy to sing, and FOREIGNER is one too.

KNAC.COM: Oh yeah absolutely, and Kelly Hansen for FOREIGNER just kills it.

ALDRICH: Yep, he really does. And it’s great to have Arnel and like you said, the record does have a little bit of a JOURNEY flair to it for a couple reasons, mainly because that’s the way the song writing was. Alessandro was trying to do something that was going to appeal to Deen and to Deen’s fans of JOURNEY. And then I tried to put a little heavier stamp on it from my end and just add maybe a little more of a blusier side to it than what the original demos were like. So that’s how we went about it and hopefully we got right where we were trying to get, I think it sounds pretty cool.

KNAC.COM: Man I tell you, I think it’s straight forward in your face melodic rock and it’s you doing what you do best, I think you guys have done a perfect job of putting something out there that not only the JOURNEY fans are going to like but the NIGHT RANGER fans, WHITESNAKE fans and rock fans in general I think are really going to enjoy the album for a long time and I’m assuming that’s what you were aiming for and well, mission accomplished.

ALDRICH: Well thank you man, we had a good time doing it and it was a different process for me. Normally with WHITESNAKE I would write everything with David or present it to David and then we’d work on it together, and sometimes he’d present me with songs. For example, if David presented me with a song I would take it apart and live with it like it was my own song and try and rewrite whatever parts he asked me to work on or if I got an idea I’d present it to him, but what my point is, is that you take these songs to bed with you and you take them with you everywhere you go because you’re mentally invested in them. And then you do demos and the demo has a really cool vibe and then you do the record and then you mix it and then you’re working on the sequencing of the record, but with REVOLUTION SAINTS I really didn’t have to do any of that stuff, it was Alessandro who was in charge of all that. And I might say “I think we should do this” and he’d say “yeah, that’s cool”, pretty much everything he said was like “Doug that’s awesome just keep going”. But the point is I didn’t have to toil over the songs, I just hit them fresh and recorded them and tried some different spins on the parts and then I turned it in and it got mixed, and it’s got some really fresh vibe about it, that’s one of the things I noticed. It’s really a good idea for bands to have a producer that’s not involved maybe all the time who can hear things fresh, ya know what I’m saying? With me and David, David and I would always produce the stuff and David was the executive producer but he was hearing every note too so it’s hard for anyone around there to have a really fresh perspective. That said, I’m very proud of what we did together, it’s just interesting that working on REVOLUTION SAINTS it’s something that I think people will hear when they hear the record, that it’s really not a session that you just go in and you forget about because I did try to develop certain things, you know what I mean?

KNAC.COM: Well yeah and you know, I kind of commented in my review of the album that it’s amazing that you guys haven’t played together before, this is the first collaboration between the three of you and it’s like you guys have been a band together forever with this record, I mean it’s just solid all the way through and through.

ALDRICH: Oh thanks man, I really appreciate it.

KNAC.COM: That brings me to my next question that I know you’ve been getting a lot. I mean you’re three busy guys, you’ve got Deen in JOURNEY and Jack in NIGHT RANGER and you’ve got the Rock Vault show and BURNING RAIN, so what’s the possibility of getting’ out on the road with this stuff, I think these songs need to be heard live.

ALDRICH: I do too and I would love that, and I think there’s a good possibility when JOURNEY takes a break from touring and if NIGHT RANGER is off as well, I can make it happen. One of the main things about me leaving WHITESNAKE was that I just needed more time with my family, especially with my son, so that’s why I took the gig with Rock Vault last year and at first I only had committed to a couple months and then just like when I joined WHITESNAKE I said “I’m gonna make this my own, I’m gonna make this gig as bad ass as I can” and I take it as a challenge. But the cool thing about it is it’s like a superstar cover band with Howard Leese and Hugh McDonald from BON JOVI playing bass, Jay Schellen from HURRICANE on drums and Robin McAuley, Andrew Freeman and a bunch of different great singers like Paul Shortino and it’s really fun and it’s great to be able to play guitar every day and then come home and sleep in the same house with my boy and wake up and do breakfast and all that stuff and my schedule is pretty free. I don’t really want to go on the road for months and months at a time like what the other guys are doing (laughs), but I will eventually maybe and if the stars align ya know we’ll see.

We’ve had some really significant offers to come tour already and so those are on the table, we just don’t know schedule wise what’s going to happen but I would make it work. We’ve talked about it, we want to, we talked about it would be great to have Deen come out from behind the drums in a way like Phil Collins used to do, you know what I mean? And just get him out in front man he’s so bad ass, he’s a very contemporary kind of a person, I mean if I was gonna be a lead singer without a guitar I’d be more like I was in MOTLEY CRUE or something (Laughs). But he’s really bad ass. And we talked about certain songs that would be really cool but would probably be hard for him to play like he does and sing. But the other thing that would be really cool is we could also take a couple of songs that I wrote with David like for example on the Good To Be Bad record there’s a song called “Call On Me” that’s just super bad ass and I would love to play that live in a trio situation where it’s no frills, just simple riffs but we would do it the REVOLUTION SAINTS way, which would be a stripped down rock three piece sound. Then maybe we’d do a NIGHT RANGER song or a DAMN YANKEES song, it would be a killer show I guarantee it. Also, we didn’t talk about it but I know you know better than I do that Jack is equally an awesome front man, so he could take over certain things too like for example if a song was recorded with Deen singing lead vocals, if Deen wanted to just play drums and just hammer it, Jack could sing it, the song would still translate. But we’ll see what happens man, fingers crossed on that one.

KNAC.COM: Yeah because I mean between the three of you, you’ve got enough material to play all night, I’m really hoping it happens. I’m kind of old school, I still like to buy albums and have them in my collection and read the liner notes and get them signed, but now with the day and age of iTunes and downloading music, everything’s on the internet and you guys have done a hell of a job of getting the word out about the album on social media, you’ve put out a few songs before the album drops and you’ve recorded I think what, three videos?

ALDRICH: Yeah that’s right.

KNAC.COM: Do you still think music videos are a valuable tool to sell records? You know I wish we’d go back to the old cheesy videos where they still had plots and stuff. What are your thoughts on that?

ALDRICH: I do too, think of all the hours people spent watching MTV waiting for a certain video to come on and all the videos were on and they were cool. I agree with you and I do think videos are important to get the record out there but the budgets are pretty low so you can’t hire actors to do all the stuff that they normally would do on those bigger budget videos but that said, it could be done and I think that would be pretty cool and I’m sure somebody will bring back some of those kinds of fun videos, they almost had comedy in them ya know, like the TWISTED SISTER stuff or JUDAS PRIEST, I remember the “Headed out To The Highway” video with the JUDAS PRIEST guys jamming out in the back of a convertible and it was just some cool stuff. But I think it’s important that people see the band and see that they’re playing together and that’s why the record company does that because the songs are cool when you hear them but there’s nothing like seeing it.

KNAC.COM: So how about BURNING RAIN? “Epic Obsession” was a killer album man, do you guys have any plans to do a follow up to that in the future?

ALDRICH: Thank You, yeah we’re gonna do a couple of one offs in Europe in April but yes, we do have a few songs that are pretty much together, once we get in for rehearsal for these one offs in Europe I think we’re gonna start finishing off a couple more songs, I would reckon that we will do a fourth record and that it’ll be out either at the end of this year or early next year. It doesn’t take a whole year or two years or four years to do a record for me, it just takes sitting down and knocking it out. This time with BURNING RAIN I think it might be nice to like I said have some fresh ears, but I agree with you, I think BURNING RAIN is a cool project for me, the band are really great guys and Keith (St. John) is a phenomenal singer and he and I have been friends a long time and I want to pursue it so we’ll get it together this year.

KNAC.COM: Well I tell you Doug, I’ve seen you many times and have been a fan of yours for a long time. I pulled up the old LION “Power Love” video the other night, and it was like Friday night videos all over again.

ALDRICH: (Laughing) Oh man, that’s awesome.

KNAC.COM: Well everything you’ve done or been involved in, whether it was DIO and of course WHITESNAKE, you’ve always left your mark on it, you’ve always been one of my favorite guitarists to watch. There’s a lot of great guitarists that just stand up there and play man, but you’ve got that presence, you’re all over the place and I mean you make the show. And I really appreciate you calling in today and I think what people are going to find out about REVOLUTION SAINTS is that this is one of the finest albums to come out in a long time.

ALDRICH: Well that’s very cool, all kind words from you Duane, I really appreciate it, you know how I feel is that you’re only as good as the people you work with and I’ve been really blessed to have worked with some of the greats of all time with Ronnie and David and now Deen and Jack and up and coming greats like Keith, and I just really enjoy what I do and I feel very lucky for the support from fans and I just want to say that once in a while you’ll be in a situation that might be uncomfortable and your fans stick up for you and they say “hey man I really love this” and it really is a blessing that we have fans that love this kind of music and there’s people like yourself that are promoting the music and it’s really a great thing. I appreciate all of your kind words. I basically just love to play and I try to improve all the time.

KNAC.COM: Well absolutely, you know I’m going to be out in Vegas I guess in May to catch NIGHT RANGER and I’m hoping to catch the Rock Vault show. What’s the chances of you and Jack maybe getting together for a little impromptu jam while he’s out there?

ALDRICH: That’s definitely possible. I’m not sure when they’re coming but if I’m off I’m gonna go see them. I’d love it if you’d come to the Rock Vault, I think it would be great, it’s not like your typical Vegas show, it’s loud and live, there’s no background tapes, there’s no jive, it’s just jammin’ with a really cool band playing covers. It’s interesting because I never worked in cover bands even when I was a kid, I just jumped straight into working in original bands and trying to get record deals and joining bands that were established and helping with keeping the band name out there. This is me going back full circle now with being in a cover band and if you come see a couple shows in Vegas and then see Raiding The Rock Vault you’ll understand why people really love it and why I’m sticking around for a while. It’s really fun. That said, I might take the night off and go see Jack if I’m working.

KNAC.COM: Yeah they’re going to be at the Golden Nugget.

ALDRICH: I’ll go to the Nugget.

KNAC.COM: Man I hope it happens; I’d love to see that. Well I tell you what, I’ve been telling a lot of people about the REVOLUTION SAINTS album and I can’t wait for people to get their hands on it and I think it’s going to be something that a lot of people are going to be talking about for a while and you guys have done a hell of a job with it and just can’t wait to hear it take off. I really appreciate your time today Doug, I know that you guys are doing a lot of press for this and I can’t wait to start hearing some more reviews and hopefully seeing this stuff live.

ALDRICH: You got it brother, Duane thank you so much, I really appreciate your support and it was a great interview.

KNAC.COM: You take care Doug and best of luck with the album.

ALDRICH: Thanks man, hope to see you in Vegas.

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