Between his time in Quiet Riot, Ozzy Osbourne, Whitesnake, Dio, Blue Oyster Cult, and so many other iconic bands and projects, Rudy Sarzo is unquestionably a legend of the rock world – not too long ago, this legend made an appearance at the Long Island Kiss Expo, in support of his book Off The Rails. During his time at the Expo, Rudy took part in a Q&A session, giving the audience the opportunity to ask him questions about his remarkable career. Though I did get an extended opportunity to ask plenty of questions during our interview later on, I still hopped up and chimed in during the Q&A simply to ask about how Rudy got involved with The Guess Who. He mentioned his time in Geoff Tate’s Queenrÿche, and said that while he was touring with the band, Sass Jordan came in for the part of Sister Mary – her husband is the lead singer of The Guess Who – and when the band needed someone on bass a few years later, she suggested they call Rudy. Here’s what he had to say about it: “I grew up listening to The Guess Who, and playing their music in teen dances I used to play back in the 60’s and early 70’s, so I was very familiar with them, and I got the call and I’ve been having a blast. At the time I got the call, it was not official that the original bassist was retiring yet, so he would just go on and off the road. Then after about six months doing occasional dates with them, they asked me if I wanted to be a permanent member, and I said “yeah, of course” and I’ve been there ever since having a blast. We have a new record coming out in September, we’re touring, hopefully we get to tour in this area here, Northern East Coast. Meanwhile, we’ve been touring the Caribbean, we were in Nassau, the Bahamas, and it’s great. Then back down to Orlando, we’re going to be at Orlando Epcot Center doing four days coming up in a couple of weeks”. 

A nice update on The Guess Who’s activities, with an album on the horizon later this year. Now, I’ll fast forward to our interview shortly after the Expo, where we discussed everything from Rudy’s book, his love of animals and stance as an animal rights advocate, stories from the studio with Quiet Riot and Rudy’s background in audio engineering and recording right down to bass techniques, and even his appearance on a television show intrinsically connected with Long Island. Rudy Sarzo is a delight to speak with, and he seems to enjoy conversing and getting to know one as a person just as much as sharing his vast musical knowledge and stories of his incredible career. I’m happy to share my interview with him right here:

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I want to pick up where we left off, I asked you a question during the Q&A about the Guess Who, how you got involved with them and all, discussed the Guess Who and how you got involved with them and during your answer, you also brought up Geoff Tate’s Queensrÿche, also known as Operation: Mindcrime, so I just wanted to know a little more about that. 

When I was playing with him, it was just known as Geoff Tate’s Queensrÿche, to differentiate it from the other Queensrÿche. And while we were on tour, both sides came to an agreement which I was not privy to because it was none of my business, but one side retained the name, the brand, Queenrÿche, and Geoff Tate, I don’t know what kind of arrangement he had with them, but he decided to call his band Operation: Mindcrime, which I was not a part of. I was part of it prior to that turning point. 

Right, that clears things up. The first real thing I really want to talk with you about is not necessarily about music, but anyone who glances at your social media can tell you’re definitely an animal lover, but you seem to be quite the activist for animal rights. Is that something that you’ve always been involved with throughout your life? What got you on the path for that?

“Always”…that is a really good question, because once you bring the “always” into something, “always” has a beginning. Right? And “always” to me means like from the very beginning, and from the very beginning was not so, because it wasn’t until…I’ve had four Yorkshire Terriers, we have our fourth, who happens to be a puppy, she’s not even two years old yet, and I’ve learned so much from having a furry baby in our family. You know, unconditional love, and then I became aware of the cruelties of animal shelters, kill shelters, especially, and the problem that we have in the U.S. that there are so many kill shelters. To me, if I can accomplish one thing in my lifetime, the epitome would be to be involved in abolishing kill shelters in the United States. It’s just so terribly cruel and unnecessary, especially when so much money is going from our taxes into things that are not necessarily for the better of mankind, and I mean humankind, man and womankind. *laughs*

*laughs* I got you.

It’s for the better of humanity in general. So if we could devote some more money into helping the problems, you know, we have overpopulation of non-rescue animals – by non-rescue, I mean strays, there’s a lot of strays. Neutering and fixing them, that would be a major solution. It’s really expensive to have them neutered and spayed, really, so it would be more organizations that devote their time and money to be able to do that on a massive scale, I think that would really prevent a lot of the overpopulation that we have. And also, education. Educating people about how to prevent cruelty. And it never ends.

Unfortunately, yeah.

And all I can do is just create awareness that if you’re looking to rescue a furry friend, that these certain ones happen to be available, and hopefully it’s in your area. 

I think it’s a great cause, and I notice a lot of the social media boosting and spreading the word. Have you had people come back and get in touch with you and say, “Hey, yeah, I went and adopted that one you posted”? 

Yes, I have, a lot. It’s an incredibly rewarding feeling that you get, especially when people get back to you and say, “Hey, thank you for making us aware of this certain furry friend. We were looking for one and just happened to see your page and it’s really changing our lives”, you know, because once you…Do you have pets?

Not currently, no. I did while growing up, but I travel a lot, and it’s kind of difficult in that type of situation.

It is a commitment, it really is. It definitely is a commitment, to actually give the proper love and attention to your pet, it is quite a commitment. I can see somebody young like you, I mean when I was your age, I was just devoted to my career and I wasn’t getting married or anything, it was just about me, but basically I didn’t want to drag somebody that I would love through all of the sacrifices that I had to do, I don’t want them to suffer for it, to be part of the sacrifice. So I was on my own until I felt that I could take care of my significant other. 

And now you’ve also been taking care of a couple Yorkies!

We’ve been having Yorkies since my wife and I knew each other, even before we were married, we had a Yorkie. We’ve been together since 1981, so Willow, Baby Willow, is our fourth one. 

And she’s cute! This is great talking about animals, but I do want to get at least a little music talk in here as well. You were at the Hall of Heavy Metal History last year, I actually had the opportunity to cover that event, so I’d like to touch base on that a little, get some of your thoughts on the whole induction ceremony? 

It was truly an honor to be inducted into, actually, the first year of the Heavy Metal Hall of Fame. I think because what I do brings me so much happiness and satisfaction, and the last thing that I think about is to go beyond that, to get some kind of award for it, and I’ll go like “Wow! Great, that’s fantastic”, because it means recognition. But I’m already getting so much out of it that it sometimes doesn’t even seem like it’s fair because it goes beyond my goal. My goals are very simple, to be as happy as I can be making music with people that make me happy, and to be able to have a career doing it. Very simple goals, you know? I don’t do things for any critical acclaim, I just do things that make me happy. I am my own worst critic, and when I’m alone and I’m making music for myself, then my target is my own personal critical acclaim, which I never achieve anyways. *laughs* I’ll always find something wrong. 

Honestly, I get that. Especially when practicing bass, or any kind of music really, I’ll be the first to say “this sounds awful!” when it actually might be okay, but you’re your own worst critic, it’s true. But what’s great is you can definitely tell that you’re achieving your goals in that sense of being happy doing the things you want to be doing, because not only are you known for such a multitude of bands and such an excellent history, but it seems like you’re always involved in one project or another, sometimes even one-off collaborations, especially around NAMM time. Things like BashFest, Ultimate Jam Night, you’re always active with those.

Yeah, well, specifically around NAMM is the Randy Rhoads Remembered, that of course, if anything in the name of Randy is going to happen, and I get asked to participate, of course I’m going to be there for all the obvious reasons. But as far as my contribution to any celebration of Randy Rhoads, is the fact that I was there, I’m the only guy who actually was blessed to have played with Randy in both Quiet Riot and Ozzy Osbourne. And I experienced so many things that people might not even have any ideas about Randy, I experienced his growth from being the local guitar hero to becoming the legend that he was once he joined Ozzy. And every time I go on stage and I perform those songs that Randy wrote, I’m transported. And what I bring to it is…legitimacy as far as my contribution. My being there, I’m going to play it the way that it was played. I’m not going to reinvent the wheel, it’s going to be authentic. Authenticity, I think that’s the word I was really going for, not legitimacy, but more authenticity. So at least that will be covered. And Brian Tichy, who is the creator of Randy Rhoads Remembered, he’s such a stickler for detail, and he brings that too, so you know that the rhythm section is going to be authentic, the way that it was played and it should be played. And then, all the guitar players that participate, they bring their own style and slant and expression of how Randy’s music really touched them. But it’s always really fascinating to hear their own version, which I think Randy would really appreciate that rather than to hear clones, Randy clones, that he really would want to hear like, “Okay, this person has been influenced by me, but look at what this person has blossomed into as a musician”. So what happens is, Brian and I, we keep an authentic foundation to it, and we let the guitar players express themselves. 

I saw the Randy Rhoads Remembered event last year, actually, right after the Hall of Heavy Metal History induction, and that was the first time I had gone to that event. It was quite profound, I did some interviews on the red carpet with some of the guitarists, and it was just such an interesting experience because all of them had their own stories about in what way Randy had influenced them. Whether it was specific details like “Oh, this one thing he did on this record made me think this way”, or just broad concepts of Randy as a person, as a musician, as a whole. So that was quite the experience, that event, it’s great. And, speaking of the NAMM time, I did want to touch a bit on gear, you are involved with NAMM most of the time, you have a few signature basses, between Peavey, Spector, things like that, so do you have any particular favorite bass guitar brand or is it more so different features from different ones? 

That’s a really good question. I grew up with one single instrument. I had a jazz bass that basically, I bought in 1967 and I played it all the way through Ozzy, then I don’t know what happened to it. *laughs* I literally have no idea where it went, I know it went somewhere, but it was not stolen, I can tell you that. But I don’t know what happened to it, but anyways. What I’m trying to say is, sometimes, especially back in the day, musicians were just known to play one instrument. Because, basically, there was really very few available. Gibson had an EB, which is what I played before I had the Fender Jazz, and then after a little while I played a Rickenbacker, a very rare model, and then I stuck with the Jazz because I found the Jazz was very functional for the music that I was playing at the time. I was doing a lot of R&B, bar music, this was around…late 60’s, early 70’s. And it was like a multipurpose, if you owned a Jazz bass, you could play Funk, you could play R&B, you could play Rock ’n’ Roll…what is now known as Classic Rock, which before…it was FM Radio. FM cuts, you know, not necessarily the hits, but it got played on FM. And prior to Disco, I was playing a lot of FM type of music, which is now known as Classic Rock. Bands that, later on, I got to play with. Blue Oyster Cult, The Guess Who, which I am now a member of, and also when I was playing with Dio, I was playing a lot of Rainbow, which again was a lot of FM, and even Black Sabbath with Ozzy and Ronnie. But nowadays, there’s so many different brands and so many different styles to play, that people have more than one brand and more than one bass in their tool box. For example, now, even though I have my own signature model of the Spector, the reason I take a different model of Spector on the road, is because I’m playing with The Guess Who and I need more of that classic rock sound, which I get with the Coda, which is more like a Jazz Bass, sort of. 

Like your first bass!

Yes, like my first bass, exactly! But it happens to be a Spector, and so just because you have a signature model, doesn’t mean that you have to sacrifice the sound that you must supply when you perform live. In the studio, when I track, I usually audition all my basses against what the sonic direction of the band or project is, and I send a few different sounds, or different tracks of different songs to whoever’s producing it, and the ones that I get the most comments on, that’s what I stick with for the rest of the record. So it’s like “Oh, they’re really liking what the bass sounds like on these tracks, okay, I know what I played, so I’m going to give them more of that”. Because, the better your instrument sounds, the more up in the mix it’s going to be, the more it becomes a focal point. If you have kind of like a middle lukewarm tone, and sometimes – I’ve done this in the past until I’ve learned my lesson – that I’ll give the engineer, the mixer, a lot of room to play with my sound, so they can be flexible with it and massage it to sound like the way they envision it…it doesn’t work. *laughs*

It doesn’t work?! *laughs*

Yeah, it doesn’t work, because giving them too much leeway…

…So much that they don’t know what to do with it?

Yeah, exactly! So much that they don’t know what to do with it. Because I know what it should sound like in my head, and I give them like one effected track, which means that it has like an amp, or sometimes a plugin that sounds like an amp, you know, with a lot of grind to it and a lot of growl and stuff, cut, and then I give them the direct track, which is just the bass right into my recording device. And what happens is, they either only listen to that and that’s what they put up in the mix, and since it might be the type of tone that sits well with clean guitars, but not necessarily…Marshall-driven…you know…

Yes! I know exactly what you mean.

It gets blown out! All the punch, everything is gone, because there’s no overdrive to it. So I’ve stopped doing that, all I do now is say “Okay, I’m going to send you what I think you should make it sound like, but I’m going to give it to you now”. You know what I mean?

Make it easy for them. 

Yeah, “I’m going to do your work for you”. And it’s fine, because I know that that tone is going to sit really well in the mix. 

I’m going to say by now you probably know what you’re doing. *laughs*

No, it’s not that I know what I’m doing, but sometimes when you’re not in the room with the producer or the engineer, you’re second guessing a lot. And what I used to do was like, okay, I’m trying to not guess as much and not give you as much possibility to play with the tone, and it’s not working out. So now, I’m very specific about the tone, and I’m fine, because I know it’s going to work. It’s the best of the alternatives. 

I like this kind of talk because I’ve done a lot of audio engineering and mixing myself —

Mixing music?

Yes, I’ve taken courses in that, did a lot of that in college in addition to playing bass —

In what style of music?

Just about everything. In the course I took, we just did all sorts of things, bringing in random tracks, or the professor would come in with a couple of instruments like, “All right! Sit down, you’re going to record something now”, and I’d be like, “Okay! Let’s do it”, and he’d just guide us through…I would think it’d be pretty hard to teach audio engineering, because a lot of it depends on your own ear that you’re training as you learn it. So he’d just either sit there and say, “I would do it this way because…”, or just say, “Do it, now what do YOU think it should sound like?”. But anyway, what I’m leading into asking you is about you originally learning the engineering side – have you done engineering and mixing yourself, or is it more so that you just do, well, what you were just describing?

When I record, I do the engineering myself. The first recording studios I ever entered, and I’m talking about the real deal, I learned a lot from the engineers, who were actually people that would make our demos, let’s say with Quiet Riot with Randy, demos on Spec time. Spec time is when, say somebody blocks out a session and they finish at 10, they’ll call you up and say “Listen, if you can be here by 11, we can get you like four or five hours”. And usually it’s the second engineer, not the main guy, but the engineer that’s part of the studio. The guy who knows how to calibrate the machines, the assistant engineer, basically, that comes along with the studio. But this guy is an engineer in training, but already knows, let’s say the board is already set up for an actual recording artist, so you’re using the EQs and the tracks the way that they’re set up and everything. 

You’re just kind of bouncing off what just happened, that type of thing?

Yeah! Exactly. So, I used to just bring in that ’67 bass, plug it directly into the board through some Pultecs, some limiters, LA7s, and there was the sound. The engineer had to do very little, it was there. And Randy would bring in like a little Champ, 1×10” or 12” speaker, I believe, plug that in and mic it, and there it was. And whatever drums we’d bring in, you know, it was very simple but very fast to get it done. 

Just a get in, get it done type of thing because it’s already set up. 

Yeah, because you really didn’t have enough time. But, half the work was already done before you got there, because you were tracking on somebody else’s pre-EQ’d system, or board. So that saved a lot of time, and since we were not even paying for the session, we really couldn’t complain much. But I would say it pretty much, it sounded like a real record. The only real difference was that it was not mastered, so you would not get the dynamic range of a master recording, but at least the tones were good. And so I learned all that. The sound should begin with your hands. Proper technique of playing, if you’re not playing properly, no EQ, no engineer’s going to save it for you. And then also, the difference of working with British engineers and American engineers, a total different education. I never really got to work a record with Roy Thomas Baker, but Roy was like, he was like the big guy that you really wanted to work with back in the 70’s because he was doing Queen, he was doing Journey, he was doing Foreigner…hits, hits. And he was an engineer originally, a lot of these guys that became producers were actually engineers, so they were hands on. Eddie Kramer would come in, and whereas other engineer/producers would close mic every single piece of drum, Eddie would just throw three microphones up, and it sounded huge. It sounded beautiful.

Yeah, of course, the Kramer technique is practically a known practice.

Because you know, you have to…minimum EQ is what I learned, and the microphone placement, and also placement of the kit within the room to get the room sound. And as far as bass, it’s technique, the sound is in your hands, a lot of times when I record, if I’m doing like…Thrash/Death metal tracks, I use a pick, and I put foam in the back to mute the strings, because I want to hear attack. Attack. And it’s got to be really fast, really crunchy, really growly, but not overtones. You want to eliminate overtones, one note carrying over into the next note because of harmonics. You want to deaden the harmonics. 

Right. Because it’s Thrash, it’s Death, it’s heavy.

Punch, punch, punch. Each note has a very short lifespan. You don’t want a lot of ringing or anything like that. And then, a couple of days later, I might be tracking a whole different style of music, and then I treat it completely different. I might be playing with my fingers, I might just be playing slap. Sometimes I play slap just to get tone rather than because I’m playing a slap style. I’m getting a slap tone. I was slapping with Ozzy, like “Suicide Solution”, it was all slap. But not slap funk, it wasn’t that, I was doing it for the attack. The cut that you get when you slap. 

I feel like I’m getting a music lesson sitting here with you, this is cool! 

*laughs* We’re talking about music, you’re talking to a guy who’s been doing this for a long time, so…

*laughs* Yes, but I mean these specific things, I can apply to my playing too. So, coming back to the present day, being at the Long Island Kiss Expo, and of course, you’re promoting your book “Off The Rails”, and I’m not going to ask the typical questions about Randy and what it was like to work with him, because I happen to know your go-to answer is: “It’s in the book”. 

It’s in the book.

“It’s in the book”, yes, because it is! But what I do want to ask about the book, is there any specific thing, whether it’s a specific part or aspect of it, you really hope people connect with?

Oh, that’s a really good question, what to connect with…I sat down to write the book because the number one question I get asked when I travel around the world is, “What was it like to play with Randy Rhoads”. I get it less now because, what I do get is “I read your book”, where it used to be “What was it like to play with Randy Rhoads”.

Before the book existed.

Right, now it’s “I read your book”, and it’s more a commentary of, thank you for writing the book, and things like that. But your original question…you know, that’s really good! I get very little questions because I made sure that I did not leave anything out. Another reason why I wrote it is because there were so many conspiracy theories surrounding Randy’s death that they were just getting out of control. Just the most ludicrous stuff, and I wanted to put that to a rest and say, “No. It did not happen like that”. So that was another motivation, you have to have a lot of motivation to start something and finish it. 

Especially a book, that’s a big undertaking.

It took me a year and a half, I had a few bands I was playing in. I started with Quiet Riot, then I did a short tour with Yngwie Malmsteen, then I joined Dio. Those three bands. Three bands, two laptops. And I’m talking about when everybody is busy, or having fun doing something like sightseeing or shopping in the mall, I’m in my room working. I have some writer friends of mine who gave me really good advice, which was, “If you can get one page a day, you’re moving forward”. So that was my goal, one printable page – not a draft, an actual like…

…Finished.

Yeah, finished page. And yeah, every time I finished a chapter, not only did I send it off to my publisher, but I asked myself, “Would Randy be proud of this?”, to read this. And that was my measuring, my yardstick, my standard, to be something that Randy was proud of. Yeah, but, that’s a really good question, I think that a lot of the people who were really interested in what happened got to read it, and got a really good sense of the truth, the facts, surrounding everything. 

Good, that is a really good purpose in doing that as well.

Well, my motivation, my purpose, yes. 

So another thing about being here at the Long Island Kiss Expo, another connection with Long Island in general that you have is, not too long ago, you appeared on the show, Long Island Medium. 

*laughs* Yeah, yeah.

Just wanted to ask about that a little bit…

Yeah, I’m really good friends with Teresa and Larry, and I’ve known them for like seven years now, and we have a mutual best friend, and that’s how we met. And we were hanging out, doing stuff, going places and spending time together, and I had never really had a desire to be read, because, you know…they are our friends, it’s not the reason why I hung out with them. They’re a lot of fun, great wonderful people, but not because I wanted a reading, I never asked for a reading, and then one day we were having dinner at their place in Los Angeles, the Caputos, and we’re having dessert, kind of like wrapping it up, and she starts giving me a reading!

*laughs* Just out of nowhere.

Out of nowhere! Out of nowhere. And then she also gave my wife a reading, and I was like “Wow”, it was very…I mean, things that not even my wife knew about, details came up, about certain people. And it was really lingering, it lingered with me, the words that she said. It gave me a bit of closure, about certain things that she talked about. About relationships that I had with certain people that we didn’t get closure on, they passed on, and then the reading came out and it was like “…wow”. So that was really a gift and a blessing that she did that. But it was unexpected. And then a couple of occasions, we would be out, and she would be talking about it, about the people that were there from my life. And again, it was not expected. And then I get a call from her producer, and he goes, “Hey listen, we’re doing this segment where Theresa’s going to go to a music store, and she’s going to get some accessory for Larry”, because every time I would get together with Larry and Theresa and our mutual friend, we would jam. Make music, stuff like that. So, that was basically the premise, she was going to get Larry some accessory, guitar straps or whatever, so I said, “Oh yeah, sure, I’d love to”. So the cameras start rolling and the producer added, “Oh, and Theresa’s going to do the usual, she’s going to find somebody at the store and read them”. I said, “Okay, cool”.

You didn’t expect it to be you.

No, that was the last thing! So cameras were rolling and I’d been wanting to get Larry a guitar for his birthday, I thought he was going to be there because there was no prep, I didn’t talk to Theresa, they just said, be here at a certain time and day, okay, I’m there. Cameras are rolling, “Hey, Theresa, where’s Larry?”, “Oh, he’s not here”, “Okay, let’s go in the store and get him some accessories”. So we’re talking and doing this thing and all of a sudden I go, “Where’d she go?”, because see, no matter what you’re doing the cameras are following you. I’ve done reality shows before, so I just let the camera crew do whatever they’re doing, and I do my thing. So I start looking for Theresa and I find her in an area in the back of the store where they keep the Latin percussion. Like the maracas, and tambourines, and stuff like that. And then she picks up a guiro, this percussion instrument, and I go “Oh, you’re holding a guiro”, and then she makes…a comment about guidos, you know. *laughs* So we’re talking about that, and that’s when my Dad comes through! And everything that she talked about, and it just happened, but certain things that she talked about, no one knew about. And it was just incredible because suddenly I realized that I was the one! *laughs* That she was reading.

*laughs* Turned the tables on you there. 

Completely unexpected, and I was just blown away. I’ve seen her perform so many times, and it is incredibly moving and her command of the place is just amazing. And I know how hard it is, as a performer myself, to hold people’s attention for two hours, and all eyes are on Theresa. I’m in the audience watching this and I’m just going “I can’t believe this”. Just one person with one microphone, and a whole arena. Huge personality. An arena’s attention, which is almost impossible to do. 

Definitely. That sounds like it was quite the experience for you! Cool though. I know you do have to get going pretty soon, so I just want to start to wrap things up here by getting back to the Long Island Kiss Expo here. How about a little wrap-up of your day here today, how the whole event went, and a little outlook on what’s in the near future for you?

Well, it’s always special for me to come to the Long Island, New York area because I know how tough it is, again, they’re the most sincere audiences I’ve ever played for, and the most soulful, and if they love you, they mean it, and if they don’t like you, they’ll let you know immediately. They’ll really let you know! *laughs* And so, I really appreciate it when I come to New York and people come to me and say, I was there for a certain show and it meant so much to me, because at the end of the day, what do we have? We have our memories, and it’s not just our memories, it’s our being able to connect. I’ve been a fan longer than I’ve been a professional musician, so I know what it means to me when I look back at certain bands that really inspire me, certain musicians. And to have people basically echo their feelings towards me the same way that I felt about other musicians, it means a whole lot to me. It really does. Just like when I see new, up and coming musicians. When I see a lot of potential, or that magical chemistry, those ingredients that it takes to separate you from everybody else. Especially nowadays as it’s evolving. But it’s all the obvious reasons, in a nutshell, right now, we don’t have the industry system, the big machine that used to take diamonds in the rough and get them ready to be global artists. And I’m not just talking about being successful in the United States, I’m talking about success as a global artist. Being able to release their music in Japan and Europe and South America, and all the corners of the world, and have an impact. That system does not exist anymore…for rock bands. It might exist for pop and urban, and so on, or even country, but as far as what we know as a rock band, it’s not really there. 

It’s very different. A lot of “do it yourself” kind of things these days too. 

Exactly, as a matter of fact, The Guess Who, this new record’s pretty much a “do it yourself”. Except! What we have going for us is that our guitar player, Will Evankovich, he’s a world-class producer. He is our guitar player but he also co-wrote and co-produced along with Tommy Shaw, the new Styx record. 

Very cool!

So it’s not really “do it yourself” because you have the producer *laughs*, but it’s pretty much so. 

But at the same time, he’s part of the band, so he’s invested in the project.

So what happens is, you work on a record, and then you reach out to labels, rather than to be working with the label or an artist relation person from the label on the material, and getting their input about what songs to have, or the direction, the mixes, or the production – no, you don’t get that. So you finish something and then you go out and say, “Okay, how do you like this?” 

Right, it’s like, “Here it is! Now someone take it”.

Right, exactly, rather than to be working with a label from day one, and have them say “No, we need more of this”, or “less of that”, in the musical content of the record. 

It’s been really great getting a lot of your insight on these types of things, because you’ve had so much experience, so many wonderful experiences, and you’re truly a wonderful musician and person.

I’m still learning, I’m still growing, and yeah, that’s all I do all day long, I try to expand my musical vocabulary. I don’t try, I do it, and then it gets to a point that sometimes you just don’t have an outlet. Like right now, as a pet project, I would love to have a jam band. You know, one of those jam bands, like Phish, My Morning Jacket, bands like that, which I love…to be able to express myself with everything that I’ve been learning. 

So go for it!

Well, it’s easier to talk about it than actually do it, because I have to find the right musicians, or people that have time open to dedicate to it. 

I volunteer. *laughs*

*laughs*

But that is a cool idea. So just to sum it up here, you have The Guess Who on the horizon, you mentioned earlier in that Q&A that you’ve got some dates coming up —

And the record’s coming out in September. It’s called “The Future Is What It Used To Be”, and it’s a really, really good record. It’s not really a departure from what The Guess Who fanbase expects, but it also adds a contemporary sound, not only musicianship, but also songwriting. 

That’s really good, something to look forward to, and I know fans of yours are definitely excited about the new Guess Who stuff! Thank you so much for sitting down and talking with me, it’s been wonderful. 

Chelsea, thank you, and thank you for coming out to the Expo. 

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