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00:00image was everything back then at the time we were like we wish we would get more magazine
00:04covers and stuff but now we're glad that we weren't lumped in with that glam scene and we
00:09survived through grunge and all that stuff until we self-destructed ourselves you know
00:14that's a whole nother chapter another story yeah
00:18rock metal frog and everything in between welcome to this episode of talk and rock with meltdown
00:25don't forget to follow the audio only talking rock podcast on all podcast platforms and now
00:30it's time for today's conversation here's meltdown i had to let you hear that because i was talking
00:37to ted nugent last week and he's like you're now recording this meltdown and of course he was
00:42spitting out all sorts of wisdom how you doing frank i'm doing fantastic man it's great to be on
00:47your show and uh great to be uh we were just talking about surviving right and it's been 40 years
00:54for
00:55tesla and i remember coming to to riff when we were first starting out back in the 80s and uh
01:00so
01:00here we are 40 years later yeah it's unbelievable i think if i'm not mistaken doesn't the uh the debut
01:06record that's that turns 40 in december that's right yeah mechanical resonance was released in
01:12december of 86 and uh i remember in december of 86 uh going to see the david lee roth show
01:21uh eat him
01:22and smile at the cow palace and cinderella was opening and i had no idea at that time that we
01:28were going to end up being the next support act for david lee roth he picked modern day cowboy off
01:33the headbangers ball uh video on mtv and picked us to be his next support act which was huge at
01:40the
01:40time yeah i didn't realize that you know i used to sneak into the radio station as a kid and
01:45i'd always
01:46play that song on like my demo tapes and stuff oh what modern day cowboy yeah yeah because it hits
01:52so hard and i'm like you know i'd make up radio stations and you know record myself and this is
01:57back when i was just uh just a young kid you know but oh right you were making demos too
02:01yeah that's
02:01cool yeah that's how you know that's awesome man uh well i'm really glad we're both here still alive
02:07to talk about it because i was just a kid when i wrote modern day cowboy i was about 17
02:11years old
02:12making demo tapes and uh by the time we ended up getting into the studio to record it uh
02:18and at bearsville in new york it did pack a punch yeah you know um by the time we got
02:24done with that
02:25and so uh anyway well it's great to be with you melting down yeah what else you got for me
02:30man let's
02:30chat so uh so that studio that's in mid-state new york correct yeah it's upstate uh where uh bearsville
02:38studio uh is where we recorded our first album and they had a barn there and we lived in that
02:44barn
02:44for about a month practicing these songs like modern day cowboy and changes and coming at you live
02:51that we had already played in the clubs for a couple years already so it just really was a
02:57developmental process like a boot camp and uh it was up in the woods there uh near where woodstock
03:03uh new york yeah yeah so and uh how does a band from from from the west coast end up
03:09in new york
03:10to record that why didn't you guys do somewhere somewhere in california or whatever well we had
03:14done a lot of demos uh over the years uh in our hometown sacramento ronnie montrose used to come up
03:21from the bay area and then we had a manager who would take us down to la and we started
03:25shopping for
03:26a record contract down there and we actually made some demos at cherokee studios and uh
03:32i don't know sunset sound we had done some demos down in la but back then uh it was the
03:40age of
03:41producers you know mutt lang was huge producer uh bob clear mountain all these big name producers and
03:50we had gotten signed to the label but no producers would agree to us because we were still pretty
03:56young like i said i had just turned 18 and uh uh we were a young band and uh the
04:03we kept getting
04:04rejected and in the process writing and recording demos in california but how we ended up in new york
04:10was steve thompson and michael barbiero and cliff bernstein and peter minch they were from the east
04:17coast and from new york and they took an interest in us and they agreed to produce the record as
04:24long
04:24as we went to new york and got away and went up in the woods to be reclusive and secluded
04:30up there
04:30which worked out great because we were able to focus on that first album which is my favorite tesla
04:36album by the way why is that your favorite i mean you just mentioned all that stuff but is it
04:41just
04:42because all those years kind of culminated at one or what what makes it your yeah well there's a lot
04:47of things um number one i personally was the youngest guy in the band but i was very driven
04:53and writing them songs with the guys and and so to be a young person and having all of that
05:00stuff
05:00happen uh there's a a naive innocence at that that that you look back on and go wow i can't
05:08believe that
05:08actually was a part of that thing um the other thing is is this is before pro tools and before
05:17even 48 track recording that whole record was done very stripped down live in the studio uh the band was
05:25in the room together playing live and you can feel that energy on that first album and it's 24 track
05:32it's not a lot of overdubs it's just really pure and why did you guys decide to cover little suzy
05:37well little suzy was a song that uh stuck around with us forever uh when ronnie montrose uh produced
05:47our first ever demo tape i was 16 years old and uh ronnie montrose was very instrumental in coaching us
05:58and being a mentor and giving us lessons and teaching us what we could do and what we shouldn't do
06:05and uh he brought that song to us because he liked the storyline about a young gal who's trying to
06:12make it in uh you know a little and and it tells a story the song does and uh he
06:18thought that jeff
06:19keith would tell that story well and so uh plus the the the day uh that era a lot of
06:27bands were doing
06:27covers that were unknown songs that became hits like when quiet riot did come on feel the noise
06:34you know that was an unknown song pretty much until they had a hit with it so it was kind
06:40of a a trendy
06:41thing to do to to find an obscure song and cover it your own way so ronnie wanted to do
06:48that with us
06:49and he brought little suzy to our attention and uh the the secret sauce to that was is playing acoustic
06:55guitar and acoustic guitar has always kind of been the secret sauce in tesla as far as separating us
07:02uh from the glam sound we had that organic acoustic vibe in our music you know yeah that is something
07:09that i never really thought about it before yeah you guys really you know yeah there's not much that
07:14glam sound and there's not much the hairband thing with tesla you're just a straight ahead rock blues
07:20banding you guys never really got lumped in with that did you well no um we didn't and at the
07:26time
07:27it was a little frustrating because it you know image was everything back then and uh we all have
07:32long hair we still do thankfully uh you know we all had long hair back then but uh at the
07:38time we were
07:38like wow man you know we wish we would get more magazine covers and stuff but now looking back again
07:44hindsight being 2020 we're glad that we weren't lumped in with that glam scene and you know i think
07:49really it's the 80s that whole era that decade like motley crew says the decade of decadence right
07:57the 80s were uh the whole uh era was lumped together and you know we came out in the late
08:0480s
08:04but we survived through uh grunge and all that stuff until we self-destructed ourselves you know
08:12yeah that's a whole nother chapter another story that's right yeah so uh yeah just mentioned motley
08:19you're going to be here in detroit uh next actually a week from today as we record this
08:22and uh pine knob it's going to be extreme then you guys and then uh motley so going on your
08:27sandwich right in between uh two killer bands no kidding and you you mentioned it perfect i've been
08:32talking about this we are sandwiched right in the middle between these two legendary powerhouse bands
08:38so uh we're uh stepping up our game we practiced for it we got our production down tight our set
08:44list
08:45we're doing you know hang tough modern day cowboy heaven's trail bam bam bam and uh we got one hour
08:52of power uh of tesla uh classics that we're going to play and we're really excited about it and we're
08:59really excited because nikki six personally invited us to do this tour with them i mean you know and he
09:07could have picked anybody there's so many great rocking bands and he picked tesla and you know i think
09:13probably it's sort of a reunion so to speak because we toured with motley crew and their heyday on the
09:18dr feelgood tour back in 1991 or something so you know this is like a reunion with them and then
09:26the
09:26flip side is is this will be really the first time we've spent any time touring with extreme we've never
09:32hardly done any shows with them so it'll be great to get to know those guys and it'll be great
09:37to get
09:37reunited with motley crew and be smack dab in the in the pressure zone yeah yeah right right in the
09:45middle of it there yeah so um so you mentioned you know tesla songs will be playing but you got
09:50this
09:50homage record coming out this coming friday and uh you're planning what do you what do you mean
09:54playing off of that well you know um because we're only doing one hour we know that people are
10:01going to want to hear tesla original classics so i'm not sure that we're going to play anything off
10:07homage um but we do have an original song called never alone and we are releasing a video for that
10:14and we are oh we did already release the video for that we are we we just did a new
10:19video for a song
10:21called i wish it would rain and that video will be coming out but uh unless the set time can
10:29be
10:29lengthened i'm not sure if we're going to play any of those songs live but i would sure love to
10:33play spread your wings by queen because i think that's a really cool song and the set list on homage
10:38the the the song choices is so dynamic the range of vocals on that record and the songs i mean
10:45we're
10:46covering elvis presley on there we're covering james brown hank williams senior bob seger hey one of
10:52your local guys yeah did you i don't know if you've heard it but we did night moves on there
10:57which
10:57that's like a holy grail song and we we uh we rose to the challenge on that one yeah for
11:03sure yeah
11:03yeah she used me no what do you say she used me i used her neither one cared i know
11:08that i think i
11:08totally botched that but anyways no that's that's a great song so i keep seeing that you guys pick
11:14these songs uh as as kind of like uh to for for jeff keith was there any songs that you
11:19guys picked
11:20you're like oh man this is just great guitar and it's just shredding or is it all around the vocals
11:23well no this album is all around the vocals we wanted to pay homage to singers but also to our
11:30own singer jeff keith and he's 68 years old and he can still sing such a variety of soulful songs
11:37uh naturally and effortlessly and so we wanted to focus this one around the vocals now what you're
11:44talking about is what we did on reel to reel uh which is a covers album we did years ago
11:49and we did
11:50rock bottom by ufo yeah you know and we we did the shredding guitar stuff on that album but this
11:58one is centered more about vocals and paying homage to to singers gotcha was there was there anything
12:03on this record that you found uh difficult or challenging to play yourself um not really
12:10challenging as far as like on a skill level but what was challenging and it was very important to us
12:18is paying homage to the original versions and studying the arrangements and there's a couple
12:27songs like night moves and the ballad of curtis lowe by leonard skinner to me is like a holy grail
12:33kind
12:34of song and the original version is so packed with feeling and natural i mean greatness you know
12:42to to pay respect to that and and not butcher it and keep it tesla but sounding close to the
12:50original
12:50it took effort to to really study it and listen and listen when the headphones over and over again
12:56and go wow and try to imagine where was bob seeger when he said woke last night to the sound
13:03of thunder
13:05how far off i sat and wondered that particular section of the song right there oh i'm getting
13:11goosebumps right now thinking about it i'm like how in the world are we going to capture that you know
13:16but we did i was really happy it came out pretty good well he he probably did that right here
13:21in the
13:21the home of the the motor city i know you're a mopar guy aren't you yes sir i love dodge
13:26uh dodge
13:28cars i just picked up a challenger i got a used one here uh great deal on it and uh
13:33yeah yeah i love
13:35mopars i love gmc too i just uh we just got a gmc denali pickup truck um i don't know
13:41if those are
13:41made there or not in detroit but uh we have to haul a horse trailer around and we needed something
13:47powerful so i got a good deal on a 2020 uh gmc denali how many private personal information there for
13:56people how many horses you have um we have an old guy he's an old frisian he's a black frisian
14:03he's
14:03he's uh been in a lot of tesla videos i wrote him in the i want to live video i
14:08also did a song called
14:09sunrise in texas uh myself on my uh on my on my frank hannon tribute oh yeah album this is
14:18a covers
14:19album here that i did and there's a song called sunrise in texas and i rode uh my frisian horse
14:24in that
14:25uh my wife does cow cowboy sports um uh and i do that with her it's called cutting and it's
14:32a cowboy
14:33sport where you uh you work with cattle and uh we have one uh champion cutting horse at my wife
14:40shows and uh we just sold one of her babies and uh yeah we love horses it's been a great
14:47hobby and a
14:48great way for me to give back uh i've done a lot of charity events uh for breast cancer uh
14:55in fort
14:55worth texas at the charity foundation um i've competed against uh the cast of yellowstone before
15:02uh riding a cutting horse and i've worked with bill riddle and some and some people in the horse world
15:09and uh you know it's been a great outlet you truly are a modern day cowboy yeah i guess so
15:17i guess so
15:18i'm gonna write a song called cosmic cowboy here pretty soon because i'm working on a new album
15:22that's going to be my next instrumental album my last album i did was a album called reflections it's a
15:29guitar instrumental album and uh and my new one uh is going to have some uh cosmic cowboy stuff on
15:37it
15:37like space out what what what guitarist what was the guitarist that that you saw or what made you
15:46decide to pick up a guitar well in the 70s man you know 1976 uh i was 10 years old
15:54and guitar music
15:56was just the ultimate uh you know frampton comes alive rick derringer rock and roll hoochie who
16:03you know uh leonard skinner free bird was on the radio all the time uh my first memory though of
16:12really hearing the guitar would have been carlos santana and black magic woman uh i remember being
16:18a little kid and hearing that black magic woman and that guitar going oh that's scary sounding you know
16:23uh and then i saw jimmy hendrix in a movie when i was 10 years old uh burning his guitar
16:29setting it
16:29on fire playing wild thing and that really blew my mind uh seeing how jimmy hendrix just really just
16:37played the guitar with such physical emotion um so you know back when i was a kid it would have
16:43been
16:43jimmy hendrix and then you know i i'm not going to exclude ted nugent of course man stranglehold
16:49uh was was definitely one of the first songs i ever learned how to play and uh you know so
16:55that
16:56was ted nugent rick derringer leonard skinner peter frampton jimmy hendrix carlos santana
17:03that's about a big list of it you know it's so funny you know like i said i saw ted
17:09last week the
17:10dude's 77 years old played for two hours and 10 minutes yeah we got to open for him at the
17:17bike
17:17week festival there in ocean city maryland last year and he's just still rocking it man oh he's
17:23awesome yeah you saw him recently i mean do you know anyone you know anyone that's in his in their
17:27late 70s has so much energy no no he's a an enigma yeah and you know and uh naturally high
17:35right and i
17:36love that he's in it he's a he's a warrior man a soldier six-string soldier man no doubt you
17:42have
17:42a chance to talk to him oh yeah i've ran into him we had kind of a silly riff for
17:48lack of a better
17:49pun there with him years ago and our lead singer was a vegetarian for a minute and they had a
17:56little
17:56beef there so anytime i would run into ted he would razz me you know because he thought i was
18:01a part of the hippie coalition or something and i had to i had to let him know bro um
18:06i i uh i am
18:08i'm a rock and roller just like you are hey tell me something unusual that the fans i mean you
18:13just
18:14mentioned horses and stuff like that but something unusual that that the fans would find uh kind of
18:18kind of different about about you frank about me yeah give me something unusual you've been arrested
18:23you ever been uh i don't know anything you've been to space i don't know what's going on with you
18:27man i've been very very blessed i hate to use the word lucky uh fortunate that i have not been
18:35arrested i've done some very foolish and stupid things like we all have uh based around alcohol
18:42and drugs in the past and thankfully i have been able to avoid the long arm of the law yeah
18:51and stay
18:52out of jail and my stepdad used to tell me there's one thing for sure you're all guys always you're
18:56going to end up in jail at one point in his life well luckily that hasn't happened to me but
19:01uh
19:01no i would think that the most obscure thing would be the horse activity uh stepping on the back of
19:08a
19:08horse uh and and connecting with that animal in a situation where you're you're with a herd of 50 cows
19:18and you're walking in really slow and you got to be calm and you just walk in there and okay
19:23there's
19:24that black cow over there you want to go over there and separate him and get him away separate
19:29really calm without making all the other ones go crazy that right there i mean my heart's starting
19:35to beat just thinking about it but it's the opposite you have to it's uh anti-intuitive you have to
19:42bellow out because the horse can feel your energy so you know and i'm also a dog lover um i've
19:50been
19:50babysitting a little miniature pin a little mini pin lately and there's a little little
19:56cutie pie she's just licking me everywhere and so i'm an animal lover i was by by the way i
20:02just
20:02thought about this as i was talking i was with one of your friends last week in green bay wisconsin
20:06your friend ryan oh i love ryan yeah yeah yeah he's great i told him i was talking to you
20:13and i'm like
20:13hey man you know i went and saw that venue because i'd never seen it and i know i know
20:17mark scogan and i and
20:19never saw the venue before and that venue is incredible that is it called epic or something
20:23yeah yeah yeah i got the epic sweatshirt yeah yeah it's incredible yeah great guy man he's always
20:29helped me even when i was in some down times and i needed a gig he booked me in appleton
20:34wisconsin
20:34you know and and uh has brought my solo uh my solo act me as a solo artist uh to
20:40the to that area many
20:42times great friend yeah he's a good guy well final thing here for you uh frank so looking back you
20:47you said 40 years so what was what was the pinnacle of tesla for you in your opinion
20:53gosh there's been many pinnacles and there's been many low points uh the late 90s was a very
21:00tough low point when we had broken up for a couple years we should have just taken a break but
21:05we were
21:05really burnt out because we had uh toured non-stop um couple pinnacles um supporting deaf leopard
21:13in the round for the on the hysteria tour um performing at texas jam with boston and aerosmith
21:24and white snake and poison uh on uh june uh i got the poster over here june 22nd 1987 in
21:32front of
21:3290 000 people wow uh and the night before we were playing in lubbock texas for 100 people in a
21:39club
21:39and we were taking the rental car to get to texas jam you know that was kind of a whoo
21:45um i would say uh the tokyo dome opening for metallica in 1990 new year's eve was a big one
21:54wow um and one other high moment for me was when i was playing my guitar solo for um love
22:02song the intro
22:03in barcelona spain and the whole stadium was singing it the melody like a soccer chant you know
22:12you know how they go oh well they were singing love song oh
22:17oh my acoustic melody while i was playing it and it was just breathtaking so that was a pinnacle when
22:26you get 10 000 spaniards chanting your guitar solo wow that that was a rush yeah from a kid in
22:35california going halfway around the world and people know your songs that's crazy yeah that that was
22:40very rewarding you are from california right northern california yes born and bred yep up in the
22:46foothills up in the country uh outside of sacramento where the old west took place there you know hang
22:52town california where they discovered gold in the gold rush yeah and you mentioned the hysteria tour
22:59was that tour as crazy as as rumor and and and lore has it yes definitely definitely the whole stage
23:07rose up and it was a whole little city under the stage and a lot of backstage parties and uh
23:14craziness
23:15back then yeah it was it was pretty insane and i was just barely 20 years old at the time
23:21so i was
23:21like the shy kid thankfully because i watched all them older guys go crazy and do some crazy stuff
23:28i can imagine what what did your parents think about your your choice of careers were they always behind
23:33you yeah yeah yeah my my mom was a hippie uh you know and is and still doing very well
23:39i just saw her
23:40about an hour ago um and uh my grandma my grandpa they were very supportive of of me being uh
23:47because it
23:47was obvious to them when i was 10 11 12 years old that guitar was my calling and i was
23:53natural at it
23:54and i started playing gigs and and leaving town when i was 14 i left high school when i was
23:5915
24:00took a test so they were always very supportive of uh my direction because i knew early on what i
24:06wanted
24:07to do yeah and then you leave high school it's so crazy i think about it sometimes you leave high
24:12school like that and you know the next thing you know you're you're playing with deaf leopard and
24:15there's all this stuff going on underneath the stage so yeah yeah yeah it's uh and we have opened
24:21for a lot of great artists metallica deaf leopard great white poison you know we're still friends
24:28with brett michaels we do shows with him we've opened for the for the nuge a bunch of times we're
24:33doing shows with leonard skyndard it's been a really great ride man it really has and in 2027 will
24:40we see you on a big stage with uh with uh the aforementioned brett michaels perhaps possibly
24:46if they poison can get it together i heard that we are first on their list and that'll be a
24:51reunion
24:51too because we uh we toured with them i watched brett michaels write every rose has a thorn at sound
24:57check one day when we were touring with them before that song came out he was writing it and i
25:01would
25:01watch you know wow where was that at uh he was working on that song every day at sound check
25:08yeah um
25:10what was the name of that tour um look what the cat dragged in or it was it was one
25:15of those tours
25:16that we did with poison in 1987 and uh he was working on the song and he would practice it
25:23at
25:23sound check and he did that every day for a long time he really worked hard on that song and
25:28that's
25:28why it's still such a great song 40 years later now too yeah i think uh every rose has a
25:33thorn
25:34i think something to believe in personally is i think that one is as far as those mellow songs i
25:38think i
25:39like that one better but every rose has a thorn is obviously great yeah yeah man yeah they got great
25:44songs and that's really what it's all about when you're an artist you know uh is the songs and
25:50thankfully we were told early on by ronnie montrose and people that worked with us write songs a whole
25:56album of songs don't have an album that just has one good song on it make sure if you're going
26:01to put
26:0112 songs on an album that every song is strong and so that's what's important is the songs
26:08well i'll tell you what man you're coming to town like i said uh at pine knob uh next monday
26:12the 20th
26:13and of course homage comes out uh this coming friday and uh as far as new poison stuff no full
26:20-length
26:20albums in the future right now just kind of playing it by ear oh oh i don't know oh you're
26:25talking about
26:25poison you mean i'm sorry tesla sorry got poisoned well no we were talking about poison so i i would
26:30i was thinking that too um i don't have a crystal ball i really don't know um you know it
26:37depends
26:38you know we might get a burst of creativity while we're on tour and one thing we have learned is
26:43that
26:43we can write and record on tour so we might have a burst but i can't guarantee it you know
26:51um things
26:52have slowed down in that area a little bit you know because we're a lot older and the truth is
26:56is uh we've got only an hour set to play right now you know so uh we we play we
27:03write singles and it's
27:04been a lot more fun to write singles you know because we can write a song and put it out
27:08all right
27:09instead of waiting and trying to write 12 of them and then you know waiting and stuff so but we'll
27:15see
27:15i'm not gonna say yay or nay on that i don't know that's cool yeah it's great that uh 40
27:20years later
27:20tesla is still around and still making racket that's yeah exactly well frank thanks so much
27:25for your time man it's looking forward to seeing you next week here in a detroit rock city the home
27:29of mopar that's right all right detroit rock city we'll see you soon check out talking rock with
27:36meltdown on all podcast platforms and wrif.com
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