Brian Young Interview

**SoCalChelle** · 04-17-2004, 09:50 PM

TMR · 04-17-2004, 09:52 PM

You're the BEST!!!!!!!!!!!

Thanks!!

**SoCalChelle** · 04-17-2004, 10:06 PM

Oh man, you are gonna get SO flamed for that, LOL. But thanks.

TMR · 04-17-2004, 10:27 PM

FAVORITE PART OF THE INTERVIEW, THIS IS WHAT MAKES DLR SO GREAT!

I mean, if
someone started recording something and he wasn’t there, he
wouldn’t even wanna listen to it. He was like, “let’s start again guys.”
He’s gotta be there, it’s almost like he’s gotta have
his vibe be part of the thing, which is cool. In fact, one time we played through a song and we’re
doing these sessions at 9 in the morning to like 10 at night and
– this was kinda funny – we were playing a song and Dave stopped us halfway through and
he was in the control room listening to us play the rhythm tracks
and he just stops and says, “Ok, guys, imagine that you’re
playing in a bar and it’s after hours and they’ve kicked most
of the people out and there’s just a party in there with a few
people. And now play
the song again.” And
we did it, and he’s like, “THAT’S the vibe I want.” He’s really good at drawing pictures of what he wants,
he’ll say like imagine this and imagine you’re here. Sometimes he’ll say “Imagine you’re playing at an
outdoor party and there’s a bunch of girls dancing. Get that kinda vibe.”
Or he’ll put on a song and say, “Hear that song? Think like this.”
Even
if it’s a completely different kind of song, he’ll go,
“THINK like this. Think
about how that guy’s thinking right there and think like that
and play the song.” It’s
really cool. He’s a
fun guy as a producer.

TMR · 04-17-2004, 10:29 PM

Originally posted by SoCalChelle
Oh man, you are gonna get SO flamed for that, LOL. But thanks.

NO WAY....THESE VAN HAGAR fans can go to HELL! NICE TO HEAR NEWS FROM BAND MEMBERS OF DAVE!

I don't care for Ed, Alex, or SPAM....they can go to Mars and never come back!

**GAR** · 04-17-2004, 10:37 PM

why not just post the beiouyatch here, Chelle insteada making me go read it there?

You know "Cut?"
You know "Paste?" (not "pasta", mmkay..)

Thanks, hon.

TMR · 04-17-2004, 10:47 PM

<img border="0" src="http://tormentedvhfans.com/Brian_Age_15.JPG" alt="Brian Young, Age 15" align="left" width="300" height="400">Chelle: Where did
you grow up?         
Brian: I grew up
in Camarillo, CA which is in Ventura County
Chelle: When did
you move to LA?
Brian: I graduated
high school in 1982. In
1983, I moved to Hollywood. A
friend of mine wanted to go to GIT, so he talked me into going
with him. So I went to GIT during ’83 and ’84, so I lived in
Hollywood. I stayed
there until almost the end of ’85, then I moved back to Ventura
County for about 2 years. And
then somewhere around ’88 I moved to North Hollywood and then I
lived there for 5 years. And
then I moved back to Ventura in like ’92 or ’93. And then I moved to where I live now, Woodland Hills, in
’95. And I’ve
been here ever since.
Chelle: Ah, so
you’ve always lived in the Southern California area. Do you have any brothers/sisters?
Brian: I have 4
younger brothers and they all play music.
Chelle: That was
my next question – if any of them are musically inclined.
Brian: Yeah,
everybody in my family plays music. My dad played classical guitar. My mom played piano her whole life and was the organist in
the church and all that stuff. And she played accordion on the radio when she was 7 years
old. So it’s a very
musical family. But
here’s the weird thing...if you wanna know how much music is in
our blood...like I said, my 4 younger brothers all play music, but
when I was 30, my mother told our family that she had a kid before
she was with my dad and put him up for adoption up in Northern
California. And she
was asking our permission to search for him. We were like ‘Wow, we have a brother we don’t know
about!’ So she went
through an agency and tracked him down and contacted him. He was kinda interested in finding out who
his real mother
was anyway...it turns out that he’s the only guitar player in an
entirely non-musical family. He’d always wondered where his music came from, and he
thought, well it must have come from my adoptive family and sure
enough he meets a family of FIVE musician brothers. And he works for Mobile Fidelity Sound Labs, the place that
makes the gold ultradisc CDs. So he worked
for a CD company and played guitar and had NO music in his family
out there at all. So that was really crazy.
Chelle: Wow,
that’s cool. How
long have you been playing guitar?
Brian: Uh, let’s
see...I started when I was about 12, so I guess about 28 years...cuz
I hate to say it but I’m FORTY..
Chelle: No way...
Brian: Yeah,
really. I guess you
can put that in the interview (laughs). I don’t try to pretend I’m not 40, but at the same
time, since I don’t look 40 I don’t usually go around
advertising it.
Chelle: Have you
ever played any other instruments?
Brian: What’s
weird is my mom played piano and gave piano lessons and I just
never got into piano at all. I kinda feel bummed that I didn’t learn it, I just
wasn’t into it. I
played trumpet in 4th and 5th grade school
band and I quit that, which I also wish I could still play that.
And then in the past 10 years I’ve kinda messed around on
violin. I’ve got a violin, I play it for fun once in a while. I taught myself out of some books.
And then I goof around on...I have a ukelele. I actually jammed in a band where I played ukelele about 10
years ago. It was a
kind of a side shoot from my rock band, we did this little ukelele
band. It was pretty
fun.
Chelle: Cool, you
should talk Dave into letting you do that...
Brian: (laughs)
Yeah, it’s funny cuz there’s a lot of stuff Dave doesn’t
know about me...like I didn’t really tell him I play ukelele. But he does like playing old bluesy stuff, so ya never
know.
Chelle: At what
age did you decide you were going to play music for a living?
<img border="0" src="http://tormentedvhfans.com/My_Hendrix_painting_80.JPG" width="400" height="300" align="left" alt=""Some classmates and I painted the Jimi Hendrix picture as a class project, my Sophomore year in High School." -- Brian Young">Brian: Well, I
mean, I guess when I was 12 I semi-decided it, because at that
point I was serious and that’s what I really, really wanted to
do. Even in school, I

TMR · 04-17-2004, 10:48 PM

remember in 10th or 11th grade I had to have
a meeting with my career guidance counselor. And the meeting was, “Brian, what do you want to do with
your life?” And I said “I want to be a professional
musician.”  I was
probably 16 at the time and he goes “Well, that’s very nice. That sounds like a nice profession.  
But what would you want to do in case that didn’t work
out?” And I said,
“Uh, nothing. There’s
nothing else I wanna do.” And
he said, “Well, Brian, you know, being a musician is really
tough and it’s really hard to get into and you really need to
have something to fall back on.” And I said, “Well you know what...I definitely don’t
want to plan on failing...so it’s either I’m going to be a
musician or I’m just going to work at Taco Bell. Because I don’t want to do anything else and I don’t want
to waste any of my time to study something I don’t wanna do
which would take away from valuable guitar practicing time.” Cuz if being a musician is THAT hard, you really gotta put
it ALL into it. And
it’s a gamble, but my thing was, I’m gonna do it or die
trying.
Chelle: Do you
still feel that way? I
mean if you couldn’t be a musician, your hands fell off or
something, what would you be instead?
Brian: I think
now, I don’t know what I’d be, but I think because I’ve been
making a living playing music since ’85. Since ’85 if you add
up all the jobs I’ve had it might add up to like 6 months...of day jobs.
So I
feel pretty lucky. But
I’ve done every kind of gig. I played $50 a night Top Forty gigs, 5 nights a week for
YEARS – five 45 minute sets for $50. And I did that because I was playing music, I was making a
living - a meager living - but it was enough for me to survive on
and I was enjoying it and basically learning the ropes. I learned all different styles of music cuz I was playing
Top Forty, so I had to learn all kinds of music that I didn’t
really like at the time. I was this rocker/heavy metal guy when I
was younger and playing all this Top Forty stuff that I thought
was lame and I hated. But
after doing it for a couple years, as hits started growing on me,
I started to like them. And
I started noticing that songs that I hated, like...you remember
that song Relax by Frankie Goes To Hollywood? That was a song I just HATED when it came out I thought
“Oh, this is goofy new wave shit.” And the bass player was saying, “Well, it’s in the
charts, so we gotta learn it.” And I’m like, “aaaah, whatever.”
But you know what, we’d go out there and the dance floor
would be packed and I’d go “Well I DO like that.” (laughs)  
I
like a song that packs the floor with chicks...like, OK there’s
something good about
this song.. So I started liking more stuff, got more well-rounded,
which you really need if you’re gonna be a musician and you want
to be professional you gotta learn how to play even stuff you
don’t like. And
then you’ll learn to like it too.
Chelle: Who are
your biggest musical influences?
Brian: That would
go back to, I guess, back to my beginnings. Really, why I play guitar – KISS.
I had the poster of Ace Frehley with a smoking Les Paul. And I was like, “WOW, that’s the coolest thing in the
world and I wanna play guitar!” I was 12 years old. Then,
really soon after getting into guitar, I started liking Ted Nugent
– he was really big at the time – and Foghat, and then I
started digging Hendrix, and Zeppelin, and then I just loved
guitar players. When
I was 16 I got into Al Dimeola, he’s more of a jazz fusion kinda
guy.   And I just liked
everybody that came out, in general. Eddie Van Halen, Steve Vai, Joe
Satriani, Yngwie... all
those guitar players I liked...just anybody who shredded, because
I liked guitar that just ripped my head off.   Nowadays, I don’t care about that stuff as much as I used
to. In the ‘80s I
was just into practicing my ass off and playing really fast and
all that kinda shit, ya know?
Chelle: Are you
married/dating anyone? Do
you have kids?
Brian: I’m
married and I have no kids.
Chelle: How long
have you been married?
Brian: Well,
let’s see, I’ve been with my girl for 13 years, I count it
like that, but we’ve been married since January 1, 1996...8
years.
Chelle: What would
folks be most surprised to know about Brian Young?
Brian: Uh, let me
think now...My favorite sport is chess. (big laugh).
Chelle: Oh really?
<img border="0" src="http://tormentedvhfans.com/Brian-Surf.JPG" align="left" width="500" height="280">Brian: I’m really not into any sports...like football,
baseball, basketball, I’ll watch the big game at the end, like
I’ll watch the Super Bowl, I’ll watch the playoffs for the
Lakers...but I love chess more than anything as far as that kinda
stuff goes. Even
though it’s not a physical sport, it’s a mental sport. Once in a while I see shows like Conan O’Brien and
they’ll make fun of chess players, they’ll show like a chess
match and they’ll show two guys staring at the chess board and
they’ll talk about (in serious voice) “The excitement of the
chess match” and I’m all, “Hey man, it IS exciting! (laughing) You just don’t understand!”
I mean I could stare at a board for a half hour making a
move and it’s thrilling (laugh). Also I love surfing, that’s my other favorite pastime.<img border="0" src="http://www.tormentedvhfans.com/smile/surf.gif">
Chelle: I know

TMR · 04-17-2004, 10:49 PM

someone that used to take guitar lessons from you. Do you still give lessons?
Brian: I have a
few students right now, I don’t really...I’ve been kinda busy,
so I don’t really give lessons, but there’s like two students
that just because of close ties, I teach. I might start up again if things slow down.  
Chelle: What’s
in your CD player right now?
Brian: Uh, let me
think now...honestly, there’s NOTHING in it right now...but I
can tell you the song I’ve been playing the most is Hey Ya by
Outkast (laughing). I
put it on my computer one day when I was cleaning the house and I
just cranked it and let it run over and over. I was just running around and it made cleaning really
fun. (fyi I downloaded it legally from iTunes.)
Chelle: (still
laughing and recovering from the mental image of Brian Young
dancing around and vacuuming) So, you do your own house cleaning, that might be more
surprising than...
Brian: HAHA, what
might be the MOST surprising thing - that my favorite song’s Hey
Ya (laugh)
 <img border="0" src="http://tormentedvhfans.com/Joe_and_Brian_-_7-6-02_-_Whiskey_-_Photo_by_Christy_W.jpg" align="right" alt="Brian Young, sitting in with the Atomic Punks at the Whiskey. Joe Lester on Bass. - 7/02" width="480" height="387">Chelle: How did
you meet and start working with Ralph Saenz?
Brian: We were
playing disco together, we both did the Boogie Nights thing. This
was before Metal Shop, I think I started playing gigs with him
around ’96. And
then I heard that he was in this Van Halen tribute band. And I went to see them play and I was like “WOW!”
Ralph was just awesome when I first saw him, I couldn’t
believe it.
Chelle: What are
some of your other side projects and bands you’ve been in? Like, I know you taught Piper Perabo to play guitar for
Coyote Ugly. Any
other projects like that we might not know about?
Brian: Yeah,
actually I got offered to do that guitar teaching gig again for
that movie, Freaky Friday, but I was on the road with Dave, so I
couldn’t do it. Bummer. But lately, when I come home, I try to drum up gigs, so
usually it’s working gigs. Like, I’m doing the Full Metal Jacket thing in Vegas with
Ray. And a lot of
times I have to learn a big pile of songs to do some gigs and make
money when I’m home. And
then I teach some lessons. So
I haven’t really done any original projects lately. I just haven’t found anything that my heart is in.
I have to meet the right singer that has the same or some
vision that I’m totally into, or else a band that I really like
that’s looking for a guitarist. I’ve done a few original projects over the last 5 years,
but nothing where I was just completely going, “I love this.” And I have to completely love it if I’m gonna do original
music. Also I might do some gigs with Mike Tramp from White Lion
this summer. He was
trying to get White Lion together, but I think to call it White
Lion he needed...since Vito Bratta wasn’t gonna do it...he
needed James LoMenzo and the original drummer but James is gonna
be going out with Zakk Wylde and Black Label Society, so he
couldn’t do it. So
he might just have to call it Mike Tramp, not White Lion. I talked to our manager and he’s talking about Dave doing
gigs in July and this Mike Tramp thing is in June, so it’s
possible I could actually do it.
Chelle: Is that
Full Metal Jacket thing going to be just in Vegas, or will you be
bringing that out here?
Brian: Actually,
we might be playing some L.A. shows soon. So keep your eye out for
Full Metal Jacket.  
Chelle: Have you
ever recorded any original music? If so, where can we hear it?
Brian: As far as
stuff that was ever released, I was in a band called Beau Nasty in
1989. It was on CBS
Records. We were on
Headbanger’s Ball and stuff like that, we toured with Loverboy
’89-’90. We
toured with Love/Hate also. Never
really hit it, but the album’s out there but you’ll never be
able to find it. Might
be able to find it in the fifty cent bins, ya know. Before that I was in a band with Jeff Scott
Soto. After he sang for Yngwie, he started a band called Lamour and I played guitar in that band and we never got a deal, but
we recorded tons of songs, but nothing every really got
released...so I dunno if there’s any way of hearing that. Then after Beau Nasty I was in a band called Sykotik
Sinfoney, which was a really wild, crazy band we played around in
Hollywood from 1990 to ’93. We ended up in a movie called Bad Channels, a
sci-fi/horror/comedy kinda thing, B movie. They needed some bands and they saw and we were really
bizarre so they put us in the movie. We’re on the soundtrack, we did a couple songs for the
soundtrack. And we played a polka...they needed a polka for the movie and
I played accordion on a polka song...
Chelle: (laughing)
Brian: Yeah, yeah,
it was funny. (laughing) We did the polka song as a different band, we were Sykotik
Sinfoney but we called our polka band the Ukelaliens. We actually wrote and recorded an original polka song for
the movie. So that
was a lot of fun. Then
after that, I went to New York with this singer for a while and
wrote some songs, but it just wasn’t happening so I came back.
During this time period I was doing a lot of demo work with Curt
Cuomo He’s a producer/songwriter. He produced KISS Psycho Circus
and wrote a lot of stuff with them. I used to do a lot of studio work for Curt and I got to
work with John Wetton, Paul Stanley, and Eddie Money and, in fact, I ended up recording a song with
Sammy Hagar.
Chelle: REALLY?
Brian: Yeah, do
you know Rick Phillips from Bad English? It kinda started through him.
I met him and he started hiring me for recordings in the
’88-’89 era and that turned into the Curt Cuomo thing. Through
him, I ended up recording with Jesse Harms, Sammy’s keyboard
player. And then
Jesse Harms started hiring me and he ended up hiring me to play on
a song that Sammy was singing on called Dangerous Curves.
Chelle: Was the
song released?
Brian: No, it was
just a demo. It was
called Dangerous Curves, it sounds a LOT like I Can’t Drive 55
(laugh) so it’s pretty cool. I’ve got a tape of the song, so it’s kinda neat that I
have a tape of me playing with Sammy Hagar.
Chelle: I’d love
to get a copy of that, if possible, to put up on the site...
Brian: Oooh, I’d
have to ask...cuz I had to ask Jesse Harms if I could get a copy,
and then he had to ask Sammy to give me one. And this was like 1990...I finally burnt a CD off this tape
I’ve had all these years, but I’d probably have to get
permission, I don’t know what the copyright situation is, so...
Chelle: Well,
it’d be really cool if you could...
Brian: Yeah, I
would like people to hear it. And then I did some recording with Eddie Money and I ended
up playing on one of his records. Just on one song. Love
And Money was the name of the record. I ended up almost being in his band, but then what happened
was, I was rehearsing with him and then he went back east to do
some promo and around that time Jeff Soto called me up and told me
about this Boogie Knights thing. The deal was that Boogie Knights was steady work and Eddie
Money was not. It was
like a couple gigs here and couple gigs there and it wasn’t
gonna be enough for me to make a living. At the time, I needed steady work, so I did the disco thing
instead of the Eddie Money thing.
Chelle: Any
regrets?            
<img border="0" src="http://tormentedvhfans.com/RalphandBrian.jpg" width="400" height="265" align="middle" alt="Brian and Ralph - Atomic Punks">
Brian: No,
absolutely not. 'Cuz
that disco thing is what led to me making a living playing music
again from ’95 to ’04 and then meeting Ralph and playing with
the Punks and then getting with David Lee Roth. All of the things that have happened since then have been
because of that day I chose to do disco. It was definitely the right thing to do back then.
Chelle: How did
you get the word that Dave wanted you in his band? Did he call you personally?
Were you expecting it, or was it a total surprise?
 <img border="0" src="http://tormentedvhfans.com/Ralph_Brian_Ray_-_Whiskey_-_7-6-02-_AlbertR.jpg" align="left" alt="Brian and Ray Luzier on stage with "David Lee Ralph" - the Atomic Punks at the Whiskey, July 2002" width="480" height="284">Brian: Well, I was
kinda expecting it...here’s what happened. When I got in the Punks, I was replacing Bart Walsh, who
had joined Dave. Within 6 months of me playing with the Punks,
Ralph and Scott were saying, “Oh, it’s only a matter of time,
man, before Dave hears about you. He’s gonna steal you.   You’re gonna get the call.”
(laugh) That’s what THEY were saying. But at the time, I was like, “Hey, I’m happy, I’m
making a living playing gigs, it’s fun, so like whatever.” And I didn’t really think anything would happen.  
But I was friends with Ray through the disco stuff too. Ray
and I were playing a funk gig, a steady gig, in Ventura every
Saturday and I remember when he first recorded the demo for Dave. One day he calls after his gig and he said, “Brian, man,
you’re not gonna believe this!   I played on a David Lee Roth demo!”
And I was like “COOL, man, that’s awesome! What’s that guy doing nowadays?”
I didn’t even know, ya know? Next thing ya know, like two months later, he’s like,
“Dude! I’m
playing on his record with him now!” and I’m like, “Fuck!
Awesome!” The thing is, I wasn’t even saying, like, “Get me in”
or anything cuz at the time I didn’t really know...if I’d
known at the time he was gonna be coming out playing Van Halen
tunes I woulda been totally into it. I wasn’t really up on what he was doing, and I wasn’t
really interested, it was just a cool gig for Ray. And then I heard that Bart was playing with Dave and they
were going on tour playing ALL Van Halen shit and I was like
TOTALLY bummed! I was
like “NOOO!” If I
had known that, I would been “get me an audition!” So, I missed that boat.
But it came back around a couple years later. (laugh) After
3 years of playing with the Punks, what happened was, Dave’s
manager saw me play a gig with them. I didn’t know he was in the audience, but a couple days
later, I saw Ray and he was like, “Brian, our manager saw you
and said you were good.” So
I said, “Hey cool, well if you ever need a guitar player..”
(laugh) That was the end of 2001, and then early 2002, February, my phone rings and this guy says, “Brian, this
is Matt Sencio with David Lee Roth..” And I was thought “oooh, this is that call that Ralph and
Scott were telling me about (laugh) They said it was only a matter of time before this guy
called.” So then I
got the audition, and got in the band...
Chelle: What’s
it like working with Dave? Is
it what you expected?
Brian: Uh, no I
don’t think so. I
think nothing I’ve ever done has been what I expected. It’s always been different.
It’s usually been cooler in some ways and less cool in
other ways. Like
travelling, going to Japan...I always pictured what it was gonna
be like and it was totally different, but it was totally cool.  
Working with Dave, I didn’t know that he was so schooled
on old blues music. That
was one of the most surprising things was hanging out with him and
he was playing a bunch of CDs and just kicking back and going
through his CD collection, bringing out a bunch of old songs and
playing them for us. I
was pretty surprised at the amount of musical knowledge he had. And also, I was a little surprised – now it makes total
sense – but at the time I was surprised that he listens to
everything except hard rock/metal kinda stuff. And I’m kinda the same way though, like I love Hey Ya and
I love Coldplay...it’s because I PLAY metal and like the last
thing I wanna do, man, after blowing my brains out all night, is
put on heavy metal and blow ‘em out again the next day. I mean, from 1980 to 1990, I was blowing my brains out
playing heavy metal and pretty much disintegrated all those brain
cells. So now I’m
working on some different brain cells. I’ll still put on old stuff that I liked, but usually
I’m like listening to mellower stuff. I guess it DOES happen – you get older, you get mellow.
(laugh)
 <img border="0" src="http://tormentedvhfans.com/Dinner_in_Tokyo.JPG" align="right" alt="Dinner after the Tokyo show" width="400" height="300">Chelle: How does
working with Dave compare to working with Ralph?
Brian: Oh,
there’s absolutely no comparison. It’s two completely different species of humans.
I love working with both of them, I mean, I miss working
with Ralph. It was a
total blast. He’s
great. One difference
is, with Ralph, we played all the obscure songs of Van Halen. And with Dave, we don’t.
So that’s one thing. Like, we’ll never play Loss of Control or Sinner’s
Swing with Dave. It
just ain’t gonna happen. But
with Ralph, we played stuff even Van Halen hardly ever did live. So that was kinda cool.  
And Ralph, musically, he listens to all that ‘80s metal. He still does, man.
We’re
driving in the car, he pops it in. He’s got the hair bands going all the time.
So with Dave there’s none of that stuff. He likes all this James Brown and all this old soul stuff and
then some current dance stuff. And then also, hanging out with Dave is like a history

TMR · 04-17-2004, 10:50 PM

lesson sometimes. As
far as like, we’ll be driving by some place and he’ll point at
some old building and say, “That place...” and he’ll know
all this stuff about it. And
we’re like, “How do you know all this stuff?” He can read a book and start telling you about it and
he’ll remember 80% of what he read. And if I read that same book, I’ll remember maybe 10%.
Chelle: Ray said
something like that too. In
his interview, he said he learns something from Dave every time he
talks to him.
Brian: Yeah, and
he’s so quick-witted too. His
answers, the things he says, man... it’s almost like a comedian
would have to write for an hour to come up with that one joke and
Dave will just spurt it out, off the cuff, just like that. This guy’s as quick as Robin Williams.
Chelle: I’ve got
a couple questions here, contributed by readers of my site...First
one: What strange
rituals, quirks, routines, etc do the other band members do while
you’re cooped up together on the road?
 <img border="0" src="http://tormentedvhfans.com/Charlies_BBQ.JPG" align="left" alt="Charlie's BBQ in Portland, Oregon" width="400" height="300">Brian: (laugh) Ok,
let’s see here. Well,
before we go on stage, Ray is always tapping and hitting his
drumsticks and doing all this stuff, always spinning them around
and he ALWAYS drops one. And
my joke’ll always be, “I know it’s gonna be a good show if
Ray drops a stick while he’s warming up.” And let me see....strange stuff...hmm..I guess we’re
pretty boring guys (laugh) let me think...we pretty much do the
same old shit every time...if we have a day off, we’ll go out
and find a bar or club, go out and party, have fun, meet people.
And if we know people in the town, we’ll always try to ask them,
“Hey, where’s somewhere cool here?”   Like in London, we became friends with a guy, Paul, in the
Choirboys, they were the opening band. And everywhere we went, Paul knew people.
And like in Japan, with Toshi, he’d know where to go. It’s cool to know people, so that when you get to a new
town, they can take you to all the cool places instead of
wandering around aimlessly trying to find out what’s cool to do
in this town. But as
far as habits or....I can’t think of anything. I wish we were weirder (laugh)
Chelle: What’s
the one thing you’ve learned about Dave that you never would
have imagined?
Brian: (after much
thought) I guess just
all of that current dance music that he cranks in his dressing
room when he’s warming up. He’ll be doing his exercises and his stretches and it
sounds like a nightclub in there. But that really isn’t that surprising cuz when I listen
to all the covers that Van Halen’s done, like Dancing In The
Streets, now I know – that’s a Dave idea, like hey man let’s
rock this tune out. (laugh) cuz he likes all that Motown and all
that kind of stuff. I
didn’t know that, but it wasn’t that surprising really –
he’s a musician, he’s into music. He’s a singer, he’s an
entertainer and frontman, so he’s into all kinds of stuff. And then, I guess, how smart he was...it didn’t surprise
me, but it stoked me. I
was like wow. The
first two months, I was like totally blown away and I’d come
back and tell my wife, “God, Dave is so fucking smart!” He knows so much shit, I didn’t have any idea.
One of Dave’s assistants saw me playing chess, and he
said “Oh man, Dave takes chess lessons from a Russian chess
master.” And I was
like, “REALLY! Whoa,
I wanna play him!” and we’ve never played a game of chess
(laugh).
Chelle: Here’s
another one from my readers – What’s the most interesting
thing you’ve seen in DLR’s refrigerator?
Brian: Uh,
wow....let me think now...man, these are tough questions....it
seems like it’d be so easy, but...so, the most interesting
thing....in his REFRIGERATOR?....(laugh)   I don’t know that I’ve ever looked in his house
refrigerator, I don’t think I have...I’ve been there, but
usually when we go to his house it’s to do something and it’s
always like almost catered. We
go over there to rehearse and someone will run out and buy us all
El Pollo Loco or something, or if it’s a photo shoot, they’ll
have actual catering there. So
I don’t think I looked in his fridge, but I’d imagine it’d
be empty for some reason (big laugh). In his dressing room fridge he’ll just have beers and
water and Gatorade and like Jack Daniels on the counter....in the
food department, I guess I could tell you one thing that’s
interesting about Dave. After
a show, we usually have a big meal and when we were on the Sammy
tour we always had filet mignon and vegetables and potatoes and
pasta and sauce...I’ve been one to go up and get a little bit of
everything - the vegetables, the meat, maybe a little pasta, the
whole deal. But
Dave’ll just grab a steak and start chomping it down, sometimes
he’ll just hold it in his hand...he doesn’t do all the other
stuff, he’s just a straight up steak/protein guy. I think it’s because all those starches and
carbohydrates, I think he stays away from that, I think that’s
what keeps him in shape.
Chelle: Well, it
appears to be working for him. He looks great.
Brian: Yep, he
even says, it’s torture, he LOVES all this food but he just
won’t do it. He’s
pretty disciplined.
Chelle: What’s
the most humorous thing that’s occurred since you’ve been on
tour with Dave?
Brian: Oh wow, the
funniest thing is always Dave’s jokes, but as far as things
that’ve happened...I can tell you one of the weirdest moments
that I had, it made me laugh to myself and just go “HOW did I
end up HERE?” We were in Detroit and Kid Rock was at our show. After the show, I was walking
around the hallway of the
venue and our manager told me “Go in there” and pushed me into
this room. I ended up
kicking back – it’s me, Dave and Kid Rock – sitting there
drinking shots of tequila. And
I’m sitting there, and all of a sudden I’m thinking, “I’m
in a room right now with David Lee Roth and Kid Rock. How the heck did THIS happen?”
And then Dave went to the bathroom and I’m just hanging
out with Kid Rock and he’s calling Pamela Anderson and I’m
thinking “this is a cool dream.” Another cool thing was when Robin Zander from Cheap Trick
was at a show and he came up and – Cheap Trick was the first
concert I ever saw, like in ’79, Dream Police, ya know? – so
he comes up to me after the show and was just telling me how great
I was for like 10 minutes. And
I was just sitting there thinking “Wow this is awesome.” When
I was a kid, watching Cheap Trick in front of 50.000 people at the
Rose Bowl or the Coliseum, I would have never, ever dreamed that
there would come a day when that singer was gonna be watching me
play and telling me I’m great. That, to me – those are the biggest payoffs – like Ted
Nugent complimented me once...those are the things, I go
“Fuck!” I grew up listening to Ted Nugent and Van Halen and
Cheap Trick and all those bands and these guys are actually
telling me good things about my guitar playing. If you could go back in time and tell me that was gonna
happen, I would just die. Those moments mean more to me...when I’m an old man,
those are the moments I’m gonna remember. Those moments of my idols telling me that they liked my
playing. It doesn’t
get any better than that.
Chelle: Does Dave
ever lose the Diamond Dave persona when the cameras aren’t
around?
<img border="0" src="http://tormentedvhfans.com/Brian_Manzanillo_Up_Close.jpg" align="right" width="480" height="272">Brian: Uh, not
really (laugh). The
time that I’d say I have the coolest conversations with him,
when he’s really mellow and absolutely not Diamond Dave, have
been when it’s just me and him alone late at night on the bus
when maybe everyone else is crashed out and we’re kicking back
in the front lounge. We’ll
start talking about stuff and it’s like, he doesn’t do the
routine, and we talk about totally cool, different stuff....like,
I went on a surf trip to Nicaragua about 3 years ago. And I know Dave likes all that outdoor stuff - going to the
Amazon and paddling around in a canoe, climbing Mt Everest and all
that stuff – so I was telling him about my surf trip and he was
just completely listening and I was like...cuz usually you’re
listening to Dave, so there’s not much I can say to get his
attention, he’s been everywhere, done everything, heard it
all...but he was interested in my Nicaragua story. That was when Dave was not like Diamond Dave, but just a
dude that was just totally a nature guy, going like “Wow,
that’s cool, man.”
Chelle: He’s
probably thinking, “Hey, wait a minute...I’VE never surfed in
Nicaragua...”
Brian: In fact,
he’s interested in surfing. He’s been talking to me about surf
lessons, so I gave him a number of a buddy of mine. I don’t know if he’s done it yet, but I’m hoping he
does it because I think he’d enjoy it. That’s the stuff – when Dave’s talking about
adventures he’s been on – that’s when he’s not Diamond. He’s like the Explorer Dave.
And he really is, he’s really done all that crazy stuff
in all these exotic places...those kind of trips where people
could almost die...climbing a mountain people getting
frostbite...he’s been there. Wow, that’s gnarly stuff.
Chelle: Does he
ever talk about Eddie and the boys? If so, what does he say?
Brian: He
doesn’t talk about them too much. It’s surprising. I
was expecting to hear a little more. I asked him a few things here and there, never really any
personal stuff about any of those guys. Once in a while I’ve asked him things about when they
recorded a song or something. And sometimes, he’ll just be talking about like when he
was in the studio singing Jaime’s Cryin’ and he’ll tell me
little stories and stuff. But
he doesn’t really talk about ‘em.
Chelle: Have you
heard any of the material he worked on with them in 2002?
Brian: No, I wish
I had, but nope. It’s
possible our manager has a copy of it. I would think he might, cuz he was definitely involved in
that. I’ve never really asked.
Chelle: What are
your thoughts on the Van Halen reunion?
Brian: Ya know, I
was one of the only guys that didn’t CARE if they got back
together. I kinda
didn’t want them to get back together cuz I was thinking, what
if they’re not as good as they were? What if you go out and see them and...I mean they better go
out and kick complete ASS or I’ll be bummed. I have heard from a
guy who was at Eddie’s house a couple months ago, that he heard
Eddie practicing and he was just jamming and sounding KILLER. I
was questioning that for the past year, cuz I’d heard a lot of
stories about what’s been going on with him. I think maybe a
year ago, he wasn’t playing too good. I don’t think he was playing too much anyways, but he has
a reason to practice now so I think he’s excited and...Like I
say, you get TIRED of something after years and years and you
wanna take a break and he’s out golfing and stuff and playing
cello.   He’s
probably like going, “Man, I’ve been a Guitar God for 25
years. I need a
break.” And now,
after a few years of not playing, I think he’s ready maybe to
get a second wind and go out there and kick total ass. And hopefully I’ll catch a show.
Chelle: Do you
know how to play any Sammy era Van Halen?
Brian: We’d mess
around in the Punks, but I don’t even know if I could play a
Sammy era Van Halen tune all the way through. I like some of those songs a lot, but I’ve never sat
around and learned them. By
the time Sammy was in Van Halen, like ’85, I was more interested
in trying to write my own music and stuff. Between ’78 and ’82 is when I learned the most songs of
rock stuff I liked. Once
I was 21 and playing bar gigs, I would just learn whatever song I
had to play with the band on stage...Oh yeah!...I used to play Why
Can’t This Be Love in a cover band I used to be in. Maybe a couple more songs, I can’t remember now.
Chelle: Do you and
the guys, including Dave, ever read any of the DLR/VH related
sites on the internet?
Brian: I don’t
know if Dave does, but I do.   I usually go to <a href="http://www.diamonddavidleeroth.com">diamonddavidleeroth.c om</a>.
Usually when we’re on the road, I like
to read reviews of shows, just to see what people say about the
show, stuff like that. They’re
usually pretty good reviews, so I’ve never got too bummed out
about anything. But
I’ve seen a few things...where people are assuming things. Things happen and they were like totally wrong.
It’s kinda funny when I read stuff and I know what’s
really going on...it’s kinda weird that people guess what’s
happening....”why did they do this?”....”why did Dave do
that?”...and then they all start guessing and guessing and they
don’t have any idea, it’s so funny. And the real reason is usually nothing, there’s usually no
reason at all, but people try to find a reason for everything. I’ve gotten a lot of humor out of those stories.
There’s been a few times I was just DYING to type in,
type in the real story, but thought, “Nope, nope, I’m not
gonna get involved in this” (laugh)
Chelle: What was
the first gig you played with Dave?
 <img border="0" src="http://tormentedvhfans.com/_Whos_That_.JPG" align="left" alt="Brian and Diamond Dave, doin' what they do best." width="400" height="300">Brian: Atlanta
Midtown Music Festival.
Chelle: How’d
that go?
Brian: It went
good! It was
good....30,000 people, so one of the biggest shows I’ve ever
played was that first show. And
it was raining that day, but it stopped raining before we went on
so that was cool cuz it was a big outdoor thing.
Chelle: What was
it like playing in front of that many people for the first time?
Brian: It was a
blast! It was fine, I felt totally comfortable. It was just all fun.   
Chelle: Did Dave
give you any advice or words of wisdom before that first show?
Brian: Uh, I
don’t remember for the FIRST show, but he did have a big pep
talk with us before the second show, which was Cleveland with
Sammy Hagar, that Sammy tour. We did a lot of live radio stuff before we did Sammy, we
did 10 radio morning shows on acoustic guitar. So before the Sammy tour he took us aside and gave us a big
talk to set the tone of the tour. And he just said things like, “Look tough on stage.”
It was funny because, like in the Punks, I’m usually a
smiler and he’s saying like, “Look at Jimmy Page on stage. He’s not smiling, man, he’s looking cool.
And Keith Richards, he’s looking tough.” So he’s saying basically go up there and look like you’re
bad ass.   He wanted us
to look bad ass and fucking play our asses off. Cuz basically Sammy’s show was a big party with all kinds
of balloons and streamer tape and confetti and bright colors and a
fiesta and party drinks. And
he goes, “I wanna be the opposite of that. I wanna go out there with a wall of amps and fucking roll
over them like a tank. Just pummel them with music.” And that’s what we were playing, just the
heavy stuff...Atomic
Punk, DOA...and I don’t know if you noticed, we were just
playing song, song, song.. we have maybe 5 seconds between every song, there’s no
talking between the songs.
<img border="0" src="http://tormentedvhfans.com/Brian_Chelle_BYoung.jpg" align="left" alt="Brian (Parrothead), Michelle (SoCalChelle) and Brian Young, Before the Roth/Hagar show, Universal Amphitheatre - June, 2003" width="342" height="480">Chelle:
Yeah, we saw that show at the Universal Amphitheater from
like the 7th row. Great show.
Brian: You saw the
year we played with Sammy, or the other one?
Chelle: Yeah,
well, both..
Brian: Yeah, so
you see how it was just night and day. Some people thought Dave was gonna throw a party. But Dave’s thing was, “Let’s not do the same thing
Sammy’s doing. He’s
gonna be the party band, let’s just fucking ROCK.” And it was cool.
I
mean, some people liked Sammy’s approach better than ours and
some people go, “Man, Sammy’s was FUN and Dave’s....where
were all the chicks and the things like Sammy had?” And then other people were like, “Well Dave’s was heavy
and Sammy’s was just goofy.” I could see their points, I mean the Sammy show looks fun
to me...drinking tequila on stage, girls in bikinis serving you
drinks, confetti flying all over the place, Sammy’s bullshitting
between the songs so you kinda stand around and have a beer. Hey, looks like a fun party, actually like you’re playing
at a big ol’ fiesta and that’s cool too. But with Dave (laugh) one time about two weeks into the
tour I took a drink of beer between songs and after the show, Dave
goes “Brian, you don’t need to be drinking between the songs. It’s a 90 minute show.
We’re gonna go out there and pummel and you can wait
until after the show to have your drink.”
Chelle: So he can
drink Jack Daniels, but you can’t have your beer (laugh)
Brian: Well, Jack
Daniels, that’s his thing, but he was of the approach like I’m
a wuss if I can’t make it through a show without a beer. So I was like, OK that’s it, he’s kinda like making me
step it up, (laugh) like it was a challenge. I remember this one time Michael Anthony was trying to get
me to do a shot of tequila before the show. He was like, “C’mon Brian, let’s do a shot.” and
I’m like, “Aw, dude, I can’t drink before the show.” That was just my personal thing.
I wanted to just go up there and kick total ass and I
didn’t wanna be sloppy and buzzed. But he did talk me into it and I did a shot and pretty much
didn’t ALLOW myself to catch a buzz (laugh). This last year, it’s a different kind of show, more
mellow and little more jamming and I drink some whiskey during the
show, so it’s all fun. But
that year basically I had something to prove, cuz I knew that
everywhere I went all these guitar players were gonna say, “ooh,
let’s see if this fucker can play the shit.” So I wasn’t gonna go up there buzzed, and suck.
Chelle: Is it
difficult going up on stage wanting to be your own person, and
people see you as wanting to take Eddie’s place?
Brian: Ya know
what...In the beginning of the Sammy tour – I felt it most in
the beginning. When I
joined, I knew there was gonna be a lot of people saying, “Hey,
who’s this new guy?” and we were going on the road with Sammy
Hagar, so I knew there was going to be a lot of publicity and a
lot of “Oh, they’re gonna play Van Halen, let’s see who this
guy is. My style is nothing
like Eddie’s at all, to tell you the truth, not a bit, I just
happen to be able to play that stuff and I love it – it’s
really fun to play. But
after a little while, after I went on the internet and read a few
lame reviews, well not really lame reviews, but people were like
not getting it...Here’s an example again of something Dave told

TMR · 04-17-2004, 10:51 PM

me to do and then I read a bunch of shit on the internet and
it’s like completely off base. When we played that very first show in Atlanta, we’d done
all our rehearsals and it was a couple days before the gig and
Dave says, “Do you do a guitar solo?” and I was like, “Yeah,
what do you want? I’ll jam for a few minutes...” And he goes, “Why don’t you do just the beginning of
Eruption and then go into something of your own. About a minute and a half.”
So I’m like, OK, right on, whatever. So we go to Atlanta, play the show, I do the first part of
Eruption and then I busted into my little over-the-neck thing that
I do and then what do I read in the reviews? A bunch of people write, “Oh, that guy couldn’t play
the end of Eruption.” (both laughing) “He started off right,
but he fucked up at the end.” And then a bunch of other people said, “What right does
that guy have to play Eruption? It’s not even a David Lee Roth song!”
So immediately, I just said, ya know what I’m not gonna
play Eruption cuz that IS an Eddie Van Halen song, not a Dave
song. So ever since
then, I’ve just been doing this thing where the band hits an A
chord, like the beginning of Eruption, then I just jam in A and do
my own thing and guess what...people STILL think I’m playing
Eruption, but now they think I’m playing it COMPLETELY wrong.
(laugh)
Chelle: I’ve
been in the first few rows of a few shows now, and there’s
always that ONE guy that’s grumbling, “Oh, he thinks he’s
Eddie Van Halen.” I just wanna slap that guy.
Brian: It’s like
hey, hello, I don’t think I’m Eddie, I don’t wanna be Eddie.
You know what, I just wanna tell those people, Dave PAYS me
and he tells me what to do and I do it. If Dave wants me to play Eruption, I’ll play Eruption.
Luckily, after I told him I didn’t wanna do it, he said
“Fine, do your own thing.” He was really cool cuz he understood.
But the bummer is, when people write the setlist down, they
still write Eruption. Sometimes
people write Guitar Solo which that is what I’d like it to be
called. Really, I
don’t give a crap if I do a guitar solo at all, but what’s
kinda neat is I invented that double-hand-over-the-neck thing,
like a piano...I did that when I was jamming with Jeff Soto in
1985 or ’86 and every band I’ve been in, that’s been my one
little trick, my one invention, and it took me 17 years to finally
bust it out on a big tour. And
then all they do is say I play Eruption wrong (laugh).
Chelle: Have you
ever met Eddie Van Halen?
Brian: Nope
Chelle: If you
could interview him what would you want to ask him?
Brian: Oh wow,
that’d be tough. I’d
have to spend about a night thinking about the questions. It’s funny, I’m kinda weird when it comes to the music
thing. I’m not
really big on having to meet people and I’m not really
interested in stuff...I’d be like, “Wanna play chess?”
(laugh) I mean seriously, I’m more into like, if he surfed, I’d wanna go surfing with him. I don’t talk shop too much.
Unless someone asks what I do, I don’t even mention
guitar. It’s just
one of those things, I don’t really say “Hey, I’m in a band,
I play guitar. What
kind of guitars, what kind of picks do you use?” I never really
ask anybody. There’s
plenty of things I’d like to know, but I’d never ask him cuz
most of it would be stuff he doesn’t care about anymore. Like, what guitar did you play on that song?
Or, what fingering did you use on that one riff? But I would rather say...like I know that he drinks wine,
so I’d rather talk wine with him. (laughs) Cuz I’m a wino.
Chelle: Well, ya
never know, I just might get an interview with him someday...so if
there’s any questions you’d like to contribute...
Brian: Tell him
Brian Young wants to know what his favorite red wine is. (laugh)
Chelle: I’ll put
that on the list. The techies among my readers would like to know
what guitar/pickups/amp/etc you’re using on tour.
Brian: I have two
main guitars. Mike
Charvel, Wayne Charvel’s son, did most of the work on my
guitars. I’m using Seymour Duncan pickups. One’s called a Custom Custom that I’m using.
Floyd Rose tremolo, and it’s pretty basic. Got the D-Tuna thing on it.
And then the amps I’m using are two Peavey 5150 II’s
into two 100 watt Marshalls and into some power amps...there’s a
Marshall 100 watt power amp and an H&H power amp to drive speakers on the other side of the stage.
So it’s a lot of power going on. And then, I’m just using an MXR Phase 90, MXR flanger and
a Boss digital delay and a Bad Horsey wah-wah pedal. And a
Bradshaw switching system to switch all my effects.
Chelle: We’ve
all heard the infamous “No Brown M&M’s” story. Does Dave still do anything like that?
 <img border="0" src="http://tormentedvhfans.com/Almost_Ready.JPG" align="right" alt="Gettin' ready for the show - Milwaukee, WI." width="400" height="300">Brian: Not THAT one.
We
do have a rider, we have stuff we ask for, but it’s always
THERE, so I’ve never seen what happens if it doesn’t show up. His main thing is no garlic in the spaghetti sauce.
He’s not into people with garlic breath breathing on him. One thing he really has to have, when he walks in his
dressing room, he wants the music already on. So the venue guys gotta go in there and get the tunes
happening and cranked up, so when he goes in there....that’s one
thing, Dave’s always got the music on. He plays it LOUD too. Before shows, I usually like to be in a quiet room by
myself, I’m just the opposite, I like to get all mellow and zone
out, maybe practice my guitar a little bit and have like maybe one
beer before I go on stage.
Chelle: What’s
the one thing you can’t live without on the road?
Brian: The only
thing I thought I wasn’t going to be able to live without was
surfing. When I went
out on that Sammy tour, I was like “Wow, a whole summer of waves
I’m not gonna get.” But
I’m getting better at that, I can live without it. Slowly adjusting to life without surfing.
(laugh) But
what do I need on the road? I
guess a good meal and some wine once in a while, ya know? There’s not a lot of shit I do.
I bring a bunch of books with me, my chess set...my
routines are pretty boring...
Chelle: So it’s
not the wild rock and roll lifestyle we all hear about, huh?
Brian: Not as wild
as I was hoping (laugh) Like everything in life, it’s not all
what you expected it to be. Sometimes the travel is pretty rough. I mean, like the bus, late at night, 3 or 4 in the morning,
you’re trying to sleep, you’re on some bumpy road and all of a
sudden you hit bumps, BUMP BUMP BUMP BUMP and you feel like
you’re gonna fall off a cliff and die (laugh) and you’re just
like, “Oh, this is great. I’m
gonna die on a fucking tour bus.” Of course, it’s still the greatest thing in the world.
No matter how shitty the travel is, or how early I have to
get up, ya know what...this is what I’ve waited my whole life
for, so I’m not gonna complain. One thing about being with Dave that’s a bummer is I’m
spoiled now, cuz we’re always staying in these nice hotels, the
tour bus is always really nice cuz Dave gets the best and we’re
in the bus with him, so we get stuck with the best too (laugh). So that’s always nice.
He always takes good care of us. 
Chelle: Dave’s
done a number of cover tunes...is there any song that you’d like
to see him cover?
Brian: Let me
think, I thought of this once...aww, I can’t think of it. It was some song that I heard and I thought it had a cool
riff, I could picture Dave singing it. It was a Johnny Winter song, but I can’t think of it
right now...at the time, I even bought the CD and gave it to Dave
and said “Hey man, check out this song. I think it’d be
cool.”
Chelle: What’d
he say?
Brian: He took it
and listened to it, but it just didn’t end up happening, I
don’t remember the specifics. But there was a lot of different songs we were talking
about, this was just one of the ones that didn’t happen.
Chelle: Tell us
about the recording sessions for Diamond Dave. Did you work in the studio together most of the time?
<img border="0" src="http://tormentedvhfans.com/DLR_Band-Joint.JPG" alt="The David Lee Roth Band during sound check - "The Joint"; Hard Rock Hotel & Casino, Las Vegas, Nevada" align="right" width="400" height="300">Brian:
Yeah, ALWAYS. He
was there ALL the time for everybody. Even when we weren’t always there...like I was there for
when we did all the basic tracks, we did the drums, bass and
guitar together. Then
I would be there for all my guitar tracks and for some of Dave’s
vocals. But Dave was
there for everything. I mean, if
someone started recording something and he wasn’t there, he
wouldn’t even wanna listen to it. He was like, “let’s start again guys.”
He’s gotta be there, it’s almost like he’s gotta have
his vibe be part of the thing, which is cool. In fact, one time we played through a song and we’re
doing these sessions at 9 in the morning to like 10 at night and
– this was kinda funny – we were playing a song and Dave stopped us halfway through and
he was in the control room listening to us play the rhythm tracks
and he just stops and says, “Ok, guys, imagine that you’re
playing in a bar and it’s after hours and they’ve kicked most
of the people out and there’s just a party in there with a few
people. And now play
the song again.” And
we did it, and he’s like, “THAT’S the vibe I want.” He’s really good at drawing pictures of what he wants,
he’ll say like imagine this and imagine you’re here. Sometimes he’ll say “Imagine you’re playing at an
outdoor party and there’s a bunch of girls dancing. Get that kinda vibe.”
Or he’ll put on a song and say, “Hear that song? Think like this.”
Even
if it’s a completely different kind of song, he’ll go,
“THINK like this. Think
about how that guy’s thinking right there and think like that
and play the song.” It’s
really cool. He’s a
fun guy as a producer. For
me, some of the coolest things that have happened in the studio
have happened with him. I
always tell my chick about the stuff that happens, like the Story
Of The Day...OH! Here’s
another one (laughing his ass off) this is a great one! This is one of my favorite Ray stories...Ray’s playing
the drums and he’s out there by himself, we’re all in the
control room, and Dave says, “Hey, put some more fills in there.
Spice it up a little bit.” So Ray starts doing all this really rad drummer shit and
Dave’s like, “Stop! Stop! Those things you’re doing are really great and a lot of
drummers will think it’s really difficult to play. But those guys don’t buy tickets and they don’t give
you blowjobs after the show. Play for the people that matter. Don’t play for the drummers, play for the chicks!”
(BIG LAUGH) And
I just thought that was the coolest thing ever. I ran that one through my head 10 times so I wouldn’t
forget it.   Even with
Eddie, I’m sure he probably did stuff like that. Judging by the stuff I’ve seen Dave do, I can picture
that he’s the guy that took Eddie’s raw talent and made it
sellable. Cuz here’s one thing he told me about Eddie - he said when
he met Eddie, the band was a 3 piece and Eddie would sing. He said they were playing all these really long solos and
long drum solos and they were all shredding. I totally believe that if Dave and Eddie didn’t meet, I
don’t think Eddie would be the superstar guitar god that he is. He was so into instrumental and shredding and all this
hard-to-play music stuff, that it’s quite possible he would have
formed a band that would have been too...you know like jazz
musicians that are great but nobody cares about because they
don’t have music that people wanna listen to? So it’s quite possible that Eddie would have been like
that. Cuz Dave even
told us, when Eddie’d start jamming, Dave would say “We’ve
gotta make this stuff danceable so we can play clubs. People don’t wanna hear a 15 minute drum solo.”
He basically directed them in a way to sell it to the
public. Cuz I guess
Eddie was basically playing for the musicians. And I’m just guessing this, but I can totally picture
that it took a guy like Dave - the Diamond Dave/Vegas/Car
Salesman/Fast Talking Showman that had all the moves and all the
talk - and he took that and added it to Eddie’s phenomenal
guitar playing and bam! The rest is history.
Chelle: How much
influence did you have on the sound of the new album?
Brian: Oh, wow, I
don’t really know how much...I mean, cuz everything we played
Dave did mold and shape it, but he let us do our thing and let us
experiment with our sound. I’d
say that Dave was at least 50% and the other 50% was split up
among the rest of us, maybe even Dave was 60%. (laugh) Bottom
line is, it was Dave’s final say about everything. It was his record and if he didn’t like something, he
would just tell you, “I don’t like it. Try something else.” And
there were a few times when I liked something and he didn’t and
he made me try something else. But most of the time, he was right.
Every time he made me do something different, in the end
result I liked what he had me do better. This one time, I was doing this solo and he was like,
“Dude, do a burning solo on this song.” So I started doing all
this fast stuff and he was like, “No, not burn like Steve Vai,
burn like Joe Perry.” He
said “burning solo” and I thought, “yeah I can do that.” But he meant burn like Billy Gibbons (mouths the sound of
ZZTop guitar solo) burn on ONE note. He even said, “Get outta the ‘80s.”  
Chelle: He told
you that?
Brian: Yeah
(laugh). What he
meant was that solo was very ‘80s guitar gymnastics and he goes,
“Dude, get outta the 80s.”
Chelle: Out of all
the people you’ve met and musicians you’ve played with, is
there one that still makes you go, “Wow! I can’t believe I met_______!”
Brian: Darn,
that’s a tricky question...I’ve met so many people over the
years...I’ve gone swimming with Yngwie Malmsteen...
Chelle: (big
laugh) I bet not too many people can say THAT!
Brian: Yeah, well,
I was hanging out with Jeff Scott Soto and he lives in the Valley.
Yngwie only lived a couple miles away, so he’d come over
and go swimming. That was way back in ’86 or ’87. When I was younger, that kind of stuff was more mind
blowing to me. Right now, I think, just because of my life, the
person I’d be most stoked to meet would be Jimmy Page. Just because there’s a ton of legends out there that I
dig, but Led Zeppelin’s always been special to me. Their vibe is
so bitchin’ and I think about all the stuff those guys did back
in the day and I think it’d be cool to meet Jimmy Page. But then again, I’d probably just be like, “Hey, nice
to meet ya.” That’s
the thing, I think a lot of people that wanna meet Dave – I’ve
seen so many people every night that wanna talk to Dave – it’s
weird cuz when you see a person that’s waited their whole life
to talk to Dave and then what do you say? You only got 2 minutes. (laugh) 
 
<img border="0" src="http://tormentedvhfans.com/Brian_and_Moby.JPG" align="right" alt="Brian and Moby, his guitar tech.- Osaka, Japan" width="300" height="400">Chelle:
Yeah, I was in that position New Year’s Eve. I saw you guys New Year’s Eve in Hollywood.
Me and my boyfriend waited around after the show, cuz I
just wanted to meet him – I’d been in love with him since I
was 14 – so I just wanted to shake his hand, ya know? Finally, after they were shooing us all out of there, we
ended up walking down the stairs right behind Dave and Animal. So I was like, “I gotta say something.
If I just let him walk away without saying anything, I’ll
be kicking myself for the rest of my life.” So I asked him for an interview for the site, it was the
only thing that would come out of my mouth (laugh). But I was just happy that I did end up getting to meet him
and actually talk to him and didn’t even pass out or anything!
(laugh)
Brian: (laughing)
Yeah, that’s exactly what I mean. You can’t possibly say
anything important in two minutes. “Hi, I love your work, nice meeting ya” and that’s
about it. I get a lot
of people asking me, “Can I meet him?” and I’m just like,
“It’s not my department.” I mean Dave sometimes comes out and talks, sometimes not,
that’s all his business.
Chelle: He did end
up turning me down for the interview, through his people, but
maybe once he sees all his band members up here on the site...
Brian: Then
he’ll REALLY turn you down (both laughing)
Chelle: Many would
say you’re living the dream at this point, playing and touring
with DLR. What’s
the next dream/goal in your musical career?
Brian: Wow, my
only dream is just to be able to keep doing it, really. What I found out in my career is that everything I’ve ever
ended up doing was something I didn’t ever expect I would do. Like, I never expected I’d play disco.
Never expected I was going to play in a Van Halen tribute. And then I never expected I was gonna play with David Lee
Roth. Of course
it’s always been different than what I’ve been expecting it to
be, like I was expecting it to be my band, my records, but it
didn’t happen that way – and I still have hope it could happen
– but in the meantime, as long as I can make a living playing
music, I’m happy doing any kind of music.  
Chelle: Where do
you see yourself 5 to 10 years from now?
Brian: I
absolutely have no idea. All
I want is to be happy and I hope I’m still playing guitar for a
living. And if I’m not playing guitar for a living, I hope it’s
because I’m doing something better. I don’t know what that could possibly be, but
(laugh)....I mean if somebody woulda said 10 years ago, “Where
do you picture yourself 10 years from now?” there’s no way on
Earth I woulda pictured this. So I don’t even try to guess. I just go with the flow and hope and I can usually feel
when it’s flowing right...ya know how sometimes you take wrong
turns in life and you know you’re fucking up and going the wrong
direction and then you gotta get back on track? So I feel like I’m pretty on track right now, so I hope I
stay on track and hopefully 10 years from now you’ll still wanna
interview me...what’s it 2004 right now?...2014 hopefully I’ll
be doing something and...
Chelle: I’ll
give you a call! (laugh)
 <img border="0" src="http://tormentedvhfans.com/Hows_My_Hair_.JPG" align="left" alt="On the Roth/Hagar tour - 2002 " width="300" height="400">Brian: Here’s
what I would LIKE to be doing...I’d like to be in an original
band, still playing cool music that I like and hopefully traveling,
I’d
really like to see the whole world. And I’d want to do it playing guitar.
The best thing about guitar playing is all the traveling I’ve gotten to do.
When
I’m in England and I’m thinking, “Man, my GUITAR got me
here! This is the
coolest thing ever!”
 
Interview Date: March, 2004 |
Transcribed by: M. Williams, B. Young & B. Eller 
(C) 2002-2004 Tormented VHFans.COM -- All Rights
Reserved 
Interviews
may not be published, reproduced or redistributed 
 in any form without written permission. 

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**GAR** · 04-17-2004, 11:20 PM

MWAAHAHAHA~! Badass, TMR!!! Thank you

".. cuz i knew that all these guitar players were gonna say "ooh, lets see if this fucker can play the shit."

oh MAN!

Let me just say: That Fucker could play the shit! Big TYME BOYEEEE>

TMR · 04-18-2004, 12:21 AM

There are some COOL PHOTOS at her website where is this interview came from! Check it out!

CLICK ON CHELLE's link !!

www.tormentedvhfans.com

**Panamark** · 04-18-2004, 06:02 AM

Great Interview Chelle !

**DavidLeeNatra** · 04-18-2004, 06:58 AM

noone should ever bash this guy again...coolest read!!!

**PHOENIX** · 04-18-2004, 09:37 AM

Cool read.

I'm gonna sticky this.

**SoCalChelle** · 04-18-2004, 10:55 AM

Thanks! I'm really glad everybody likes it. It was a great interview to do. He's just the coolest, funniest guy you'd ever want to talk to. We were on the phone for like 2 hours. LOL

**GAR** · 04-18-2004, 12:32 PM

.. two hours and you still didn't get TheDAVID's©™ phone number outta him?

**The Knockz** · 04-18-2004, 12:50 PM

i dunno... i know Chelle goes to great lengths for these interviews but in the end... its a interview with an atomic punk.
this has more fluff than a cotton candy stick.

Chelle missed her calling when TigerBeat were looking for investigative reporters.

Did we learn what his favorite color is?

Can someone post that interview when she interview Michael Anthony's dog?

Dickface McSlapnuts · 04-18-2004, 02:07 PM

Chelle: Where did you grow up?

Brian: I grew up in Camarillo, CA which is in Ventura County

Chelle: When did you move to LA?

Brian: I graduated high school in 1982. In 1983, I moved to Hollywood. A friend of mine wanted to go to GIT, so he talked me into going with him. So I went to GIT during ’83 and ’84, so I lived in Hollywood. I stayed there until almost the end of ’85, then I moved back to Ventura County for about 2 years. And then somewhere around ’88 I moved to North Hollywood and then I lived there for 5 years. And then I moved back to Ventura in like ’92 or ’93. And then I moved to where I live now, Woodland Hills, in ’95. And I’ve been here ever since.

Chelle: Ah, so you’ve always lived in the Southern California area. Do you have any brothers/sisters?

Brian: I have 4 younger brothers and they all play music.

Chelle: That was my next question – if any of them are musically inclined.

Brian: Yeah, everybody in my family plays music. My dad played classical guitar. My mom played piano her whole life and was the organist in the church and all that stuff. And she played accordion on the radio when she was 7 years old. So it’s a very musical family. But here’s the weird thing...if you wanna know how much music is in our blood...like I said, my 4 younger brothers all play music, but when I was 30, my mother told our family that she had a kid before she was with my dad and put him up for adoption up in Northern California. And she was asking our permission to search for him. We were like ‘Wow, we have a brother we don’t know about!’ So she went through an agency and tracked him down and contacted him. He was kinda interested in finding out who his real mother was anyway...it turns out that he’s the only guitar player in an entirely non-musical family. He’d always wondered where his music came from, and he thought, well it must have come from my adoptive family and sure enough he meets a family of FIVE musician brothers. And he works for Mobile Fidelity Sound Labs, the place that makes the gold ultradisc CDs. So he worked for a CD company and played guitar and had NO music in his family out there at all. So that was really crazy.

Chelle: Wow, that’s cool. How long have you been playing guitar?

Brian: Uh, let’s see...I started when I was about 12, so I guess about 28 years...cuz I hate to say it but I’m FORTY..

Chelle: No way...

Brian: Yeah, really. I guess you can put that in the interview (laughs). I don’t try to pretend I’m not 40, but at the same time, since I don’t look 40 I don’t usually go around advertising it.

Chelle: Have you ever played any other instruments?

Brian: What’s weird is my mom played piano and gave piano lessons and I just never got into piano at all. I kinda feel bummed that I didn’t learn it, I just wasn’t into it. I played trumpet in 4th and 5th grade school band and I quit that, which I also wish I could still play that. And then in the past 10 years I’ve kinda messed around on violin. I’ve got a violin, I play it for fun once in a while. I taught myself out of some books. And then I goof around on...I have a ukelele. I actually jammed in a band where I played ukelele about 10 years ago. It was a kind of a side shoot from my rock band, we did this little ukelele band. It was pretty fun.

Chelle: Cool, you should talk Dave into letting you do that...

Brian: (laughs) Yeah, it’s funny cuz there’s a lot of stuff Dave doesn’t know about me...like I didn’t really tell him I play ukelele. But he does like playing old bluesy stuff, so ya never know.

Chelle: At what age did you decide you were going to play music for a living?

Brian: Well, I mean, I guess when I was 12 I semi-decided it, because at that point I was serious and that’s what I really, really wanted to do. Even in school, I remember in 10th or 11th grade I had to have a meeting with my career guidance counselor. And the meeting was, “Brian, what do you want to do with your life?” And I said “I want to be a professional musician.” I was probably 16 at the time and he goes “Well, that’s very nice. That sounds like a nice profession. But what would you want to do in case that didn’t work out?” And I said, “Uh, nothing. There’s nothing else I wanna do.” And he said, “Well, Brian, you know, being a musician is really tough and it’s really hard to get into and you really need to have something to fall back on.” And I said, “Well you know what...I definitely don’t want to plan on failing...so it’s either I’m going to be a musician or I’m just going to work at Taco Bell. Because I don’t want to do anything else and I don’t want to waste any of my time to study something I don’t wanna do which would take away from valuable guitar practicing time.” Cuz if being a musician is THAT hard, you really gotta put it ALL into it. And it’s a gamble, but my thing was, I’m gonna do it or die trying.

Chelle: Do you still feel that way? I mean if you couldn’t be a musician, your hands fell off or something, what would you be instead?

Brian: I think now, I don’t know what I’d be, but I think because I’ve been making a living playing music since ’85. Since ’85 if you add up all the jobs I’ve had it might add up to like 6 months...of day jobs. So I feel pretty lucky. But I’ve done every kind of gig. I played $50 a night Top Forty gigs, 5 nights a week for YEARS – five 45 minute sets for $50. And I did that because I was playing music, I was making a living - a meager living - but it was enough for me to survive on and I was enjoying it and basically learning the ropes. I learned all different styles of music cuz I was playing Top Forty, so I had to learn all kinds of music that I didn’t really like at the time. I was this rocker/heavy metal guy when I was younger and playing all this Top Forty stuff that I thought was lame and I hated. But after doing it for a couple years, as hits started growing on me, I started to like them. And I started noticing that songs that I hated, like...you remember that song Relax by Frankie Goes To Hollywood? That was a song I just HATED when it came out I thought “Oh, this is goofy new wave shit.” And the bass player was saying, “Well, it’s in the charts, so we gotta learn it.” And I’m like, “aaaah, whatever.” But you know what, we’d go out there and the dance floor would be packed and I’d go “Well I DO like that.” (laughs) I like a song that packs the floor with chicks...like, OK there’s something good about this song.. So I started liking more stuff, got more well-rounded, which you really need if you’re gonna be a musician and you want to be professional you gotta learn how to play even stuff you don’t like. And then you’ll learn to like it too.

Chelle: Who are your biggest musical influences?

Brian: That would go back to, I guess, back to my beginnings. Really, why I play guitar – KISS. I had the poster of Ace Frehley with a smoking Les Paul. And I was like, “WOW, that’s the coolest thing in the world and I wanna play guitar!” I was 12 years old. Then, really soon after getting into guitar, I started liking Ted Nugent – he was really big at the time – and Foghat, and then I started digging Hendrix, and Zeppelin, and then I just loved guitar players. When I was 16 I got into Al Dimeola, he’s more of a jazz fusion kinda guy. And I just liked everybody that came out, in general. Eddie Van Halen, Steve Vai, Joe Satriani, Yngwie... all those guitar players I liked...just anybody who shredded, because I liked guitar that just ripped my head off. Nowadays, I don’t care about that stuff as much as I used to. In the ‘80s I was just into practicing my ass off and playing really fast and all that kinda shit, ya know?

Chelle: Are you married/dating anyone? Do you have kids?

Brian: I’m married and I have no kids.

Chelle: How long have you been married?

Brian: Well, let’s see, I’ve been with my girl for 13 years, I count it like that, but we’ve been married since January 1, 1996...8 years.

Chelle: What would folks be most surprised to know about Brian Young?

Brian: Uh, let me think now...My favorite sport is chess. (big laugh).

Chelle: Oh really?

Brian: I’m really not into any sports...like football, baseball, basketball, I’ll watch the big game at the end, like I’ll watch the Super Bowl, I’ll watch the playoffs for the Lakers...but I love chess more than anything as far as that kinda stuff goes. Even though it’s not a physical sport, it’s a mental sport. Once in a while I see shows like Conan O’Brien and they’ll make fun of chess players, they’ll show like a chess match and they’ll show two guys staring at the chess board and they’ll talk about (in serious voice) “The excitement of the chess match” and I’m all, “Hey man, it IS exciting! (laughing) You just don’t understand!” I mean I could stare at a board for a half hour making a move and it’s thrilling (laugh). Also I love surfing, that’s my other favorite pastime.

Chelle: I know someone that used to take guitar lessons from you. Do you still give lessons?

Brian: I have a few students right now, I don’t really...I’ve been kinda busy, so I don’t really give lessons, but there’s like two students that just because of close ties, I teach. I might start up again if things slow down.

Chelle: What’s in your CD player right now?

Brian: Uh, let me think now...honestly, there’s NOTHING in it right now...but I can tell you the song I’ve been playing the most is Hey Ya by Outkast (laughing). I put it on my computer one day when I was cleaning the house and I just cranked it and let it run over and over. I was just running around and it made cleaning really fun. (fyi I downloaded it legally from iTunes.)

Chelle: (still laughing and recovering from the mental image of Brian Young dancing around and vacuuming) So, you do your own house cleaning, that might be more surprising than...

Brian: HAHA, what might be the MOST surprising thing - that my favorite song’s Hey Ya (laugh)

Chelle: How did you meet and start working with Ralph Saenz?

Brian: We were playing disco together, we both did the Boogie Nights thing. This was before Metal Shop, I think I started playing gigs with him around ’96. And then I heard that he was in this Van Halen tribute band. And I went to see them play and I was like “WOW!” Ralph was just awesome when I first saw him, I couldn’t believe it.

Chelle: What are some of your other side projects and bands you’ve been in? Like, I know you taught Piper Perabo to play guitar for Coyote Ugly. Any other projects like that we might not know about?

Brian: Yeah, actually I got offered to do that guitar teaching gig again for that movie, Freaky Friday, but I was on the road with Dave, so I couldn’t do it. Bummer. But lately, when I come home, I try to drum up gigs, so usually it’s working gigs. Like, I’m doing the Full Metal Jacket thing in Vegas with Ray. And a lot of times I have to learn a big pile of songs to do some gigs and make money when I’m home. And then I teach some lessons. So I haven’t really done any original projects lately. I just haven’t found anything that my heart is in. I have to meet the right singer that has the same or some vision that I’m totally into, or else a band that I really like that’s looking for a guitarist. I’ve done a few original projects over the last 5 years, but nothing where I was just completely going, “I love this.” And I have to completely love it if I’m gonna do original music. Also I might do some gigs with Mike Tramp from White Lion this summer. He was trying to get White Lion together, but I think to call it White Lion he needed...since Vito Bratta wasn’t gonna do it...he needed James LoMenzo and the original drummer but James is gonna be going out with Zakk Wylde and Black Label Society, so he couldn’t do it. So he might just have to call it Mike Tramp, not White Lion. I talked to our manager and he’s talking about Dave doing gigs in July and this Mike Tramp thing is in June, so it’s possible I could actually do it.

Chelle: Is that Full Metal Jacket thing going to be just in Vegas, or will you be bringing that out here?

Brian: Actually, we might be playing some L.A. shows soon. So keep your eye out for Full Metal Jacket.

Chelle: Have you ever recorded any original music? If so, where can we hear it?

Brian: As far as stuff that was ever released, I was in a band called Beau Nasty in 1989. It was on CBS Records. We were on Headbanger’s Ball and stuff like that, we toured with Loverboy ’89-’90. We toured with Love/Hate also. Never really hit it, but the album’s out there but you’ll never be able to find it. Might be able to find it in the fifty cent bins, ya know. Before that I was in a band with Jeff Scott Soto. After he sang for Yngwie, he started a band called Lamour and I played guitar in that band and we never got a deal, but we recorded tons of songs, but nothing every really got released...so I dunno if there’s any way of hearing that. Then after Beau Nasty I was in a band called Sykotik Sinfoney, which was a really wild, crazy band we played around in Hollywood from 1990 to ’93. We ended up in a movie called Bad Channels, a sci-fi/horror/comedy kinda thing, B movie. They needed some bands and they saw us and we were really bizarre so they put us in the movie. We’re on the soundtrack, we did a couple songs for the soundtrack. And we played a polka...they needed a polka for the movie and I played accordion on a polka song...

Chelle: (laughing)

Brian: Yeah, yeah, it was funny. (laughing) We did the polka song as a different band, we were Sykotik Sinfoney but we called our polka band the Ukelaliens. We actually wrote and recorded an original polka song for the movie. So that was a lot of fun. Then after that, I went to New York with this singer for a while and wrote some songs, but it just wasn’t happening so I came back. During this time period I was doing a lot of demo work with Curt Cuomo He’s a producer/songwriter. He produced KISS Psycho Circus and wrote a lot of stuff with them. I used to do a lot of studio work for Curt and I got to work with John Wetton, Paul Stanley, and Eddie Money and, in fact, I ended up recording a song with Sammy Hagar.

Chelle: REALLY?

Brian: Yeah, do you know Rick Phillips from Bad English? It kinda started through him. I met him and he started hiring me for recordings in the ’88-’89 era and that turned into the Curt Cuomo thing. Through him, I ended up recording with Jesse Harms, Sammy’s keyboard player. And then Jesse Harms started hiring me and he ended up hiring me to play on a song that Sammy was singing on called Dangerous Curves.

Chelle: Was the song released?

Brian: No, it was just a demo. It was called Dangerous Curves, it sounds a LOT like I Can’t Drive 55 (laugh) so it’s pretty cool. I’ve got a tape of the song, so it’s kinda neat that I have a tape of me playing with Sammy Hagar.

Chelle: I’d love to get a copy of that, if possible, to put up on the site...

Brian: Oooh, I’d have to ask...cuz I had to ask Jesse Harms if I could get a copy, and then he had to ask Sammy to give me one. And this was like 1990...I finally burnt a CD off this tape I’ve had all these years, but I’d probably have to get permission, I don’t know what the copyright situation is, so...

Chelle: Well, it’d be really cool if you could...

Brian: Yeah, I would like people to hear it. And then I did some recording with Eddie Money and I ended up playing on one of his records. Just on one song. Love And Money was the name of the record. I ended up almost being in his band, but then what happened was, I was rehearsing with him and then he went back east to do some promo and around that time Jeff Soto called me up and told me about this Boogie Knights thing. The deal was that Boogie Knights was steady work and Eddie Money was not. It was like a couple gigs here and couple gigs there and it wasn’t gonna be enough for me to make a living. At the time, I needed steady work, so I did the disco thing instead of the Eddie Money thing.

Chelle: Any regrets?

Brian: No, absolutely not. 'Cuz that disco thing is what led to me making a living playing music again from ’95 to ’04 and then meeting Ralph and playing with the Punks and then getting with David Lee Roth. All of the things that have happened since then have been because of that day I chose to do disco. It was definitely the right thing to do back then.

Chelle: How did you get the word that Dave wanted you in his band? Did he call you personally? Were you expecting it, or was it a total surprise?

Brian: Well, I was kinda expecting it...here’s what happened. When I got in the Punks, I was replacing Bart Walsh, who had joined Dave. Within 6 months of me playing with the Punks, Ralph and Scott were saying, “Oh, it’s only a matter of time, man, before Dave hears about you. He’s gonna steal you. You’re gonna get the call.” (laugh) That’s what THEY were saying. But at the time, I was like, “Hey, I’m happy, I’m making a living playing gigs, it’s fun, so like whatever.” And I didn’t really think anything would happen. But I was friends with Ray through the disco stuff too. Ray and I were playing a funk gig, a steady gig, in Ventura every Saturday and I remember when he first recorded the demo for Dave. One day he calls after his gig and he said, “Brian, man, you’re not gonna believe this! I played on a David Lee Roth demo!” And I was like “COOL, man, that’s awesome! What’s that guy doing nowadays?” I didn’t even know, ya know? Next thing ya know, like two months later, he’s like, “Dude! I’m playing on his record with him now!” and I’m like, “Fuck! Awesome!” The thing is, I wasn’t even saying, like, “Get me in” or anything cuz at the time I didn’t really know...if I’d known at the time he was gonna be coming out playing Van Halen tunes I woulda been totally into it. I wasn’t really up on what he was doing, and I wasn’t really interested, it was just a cool gig for Ray. And then I heard that Bart was playing with Dave and they were going on tour playing ALL Van Halen shit and I was like TOTALLY bummed! I was like “NOOO!” If I had known that, I would been “get me an audition!” So, I missed that boat. But it came back around a couple years later. (laugh) After 3 years of playing with the Punks, what happened was, Dave’s manager saw me play a gig with them. I didn’t know he was in the audience, but a couple days later, I saw Ray and he was like, “Brian, our manager saw you and said you were good.” So I said, “Hey cool, well if you ever need a guitar player..” (laugh) That was the end of 2001, and then early 2002, February, my phone rings and this guy says, “Brian, this is Matt Sencio with David Lee Roth..” And I was thought “oooh, this is that call that Ralph and Scott were telling me about (laugh) They said it was only a matter of time before this guy called.” So then I got the audition, and got in the band...

Chelle: What’s it like working with Dave? Is it what you expected?

Brian: Uh, no I don’t think so. I think nothing I’ve ever done has been what I expected. It’s always been different. It’s usually been cooler in some ways and less cool in other ways. Like travelling, going to Japan...I always pictured what it was gonna be like and it was totally different, but it was totally cool. Working with Dave, I didn’t know that he was so schooled on old blues music. That was one of the most surprising things was hanging out with him and he was playing a bunch of CDs and just kicking back and going through his CD collection, bringing out a bunch of old songs and playing them for us. I was pretty surprised at the amount of musical knowledge he had. And also, I was a little surprised – now it makes total sense – but at the time I was surprised that he listens to everything except hard rock/metal kinda stuff. And I’m kinda the same way though, like I love Hey Ya and I love Coldplay...it’s because I PLAY metal and like the last thing I wanna do, man, after blowing my brains out all night, is put on heavy metal and blow ‘em out again the next day. I mean, from 1980 to 1990, I was blowing my brains out playing heavy metal and pretty much disintegrated all those brain cells. So now I’m working on some different brain cells. I’ll still put on old stuff that I liked, but usually I’m like listening to mellower stuff. I guess it DOES happen – you get older, you get mellow. (laugh)

Chelle: How does working with Dave compare to working with Ralph?

Brian: Oh, there’s absolutely no comparison. It’s two completely different species of humans. I love working with both of them, I mean, I miss working with Ralph. It was a total blast. He’s great. One difference is, with Ralph, we played all the obscure songs of Van Halen. And with Dave, we don’t. So that’s one thing. Like, we’ll never play Loss of Control or Sinner’s Swing with Dave. It just ain’t gonna happen. But with Ralph, we played stuff even Van Halen hardly ever did live. So that was kinda cool. And Ralph, musically, he listens to all that ‘80s metal. He still does, man. We’re driving in the car, he pops it in. He’s got the hair bands going all the time. So with Dave there’s none of that stuff. He likes all this James Brown and all this old soul stuff and then some current dance stuff. And then also, hanging out with Dave is like a history lesson sometimes. As far as like, we’ll be driving by some place and he’ll point at some old building and say, “That place...” and he’ll know all this stuff about it. And we’re like, “How do you know all this stuff?” He can read a book and start telling you about it and he’ll remember 80% of what he read. And if I read that same book, I’ll remember maybe 10%.

Chelle: Ray said something like that too. In his interview, he said he learns something from Dave every time he talks to him.

Brian: Yeah, and he’s so quick-witted too. His answers, the things he says, man... it’s almost like a comedian would have to write for an hour to come up with that one joke and Dave will just spurt it out, off the cuff, just like that. This guy’s as quick as Robin Williams.

Chelle: I’ve got a couple questions here, contributed by readers of my site...First one: What strange rituals, quirks, routines, etc do the other band members do while you’re cooped up together on the road?

Brian: (laugh) Ok, let’s see here. Well, before we go on stage, Ray is always tapping and hitting his drumsticks and doing all this stuff, always spinning them around and he ALWAYS drops one. And my joke’ll always be, “I know it’s gonna be a good show if Ray drops a stick while he’s warming up.” And let me see....strange stuff...hmm..I guess we’re pretty boring guys (laugh) let me think...we pretty much do the same old shit every time...if we have a day off, we’ll go out and find a bar or club, go out and party, have fun, meet people. And if we know people in the town, we’ll always try to ask them, “Hey, where’s somewhere cool here?” Like in London, we became friends with a guy, Paul, in the Choirboys, they were the opening band. And everywhere we went, Paul knew people. And like in Japan, with Toshi, he’d know where to go. It’s cool to know people, so that when you get to a new town, they can take you to all the cool places instead of wandering around aimlessly trying to find out what’s cool to do in this town. But as far as habits or....I can’t think of anything. I wish we were weirder (laugh)

Chelle: What’s the one thing you’ve learned about Dave that you never would have imagined?

Brian: (after much thought) I guess just all of that current dance music that he cranks in his dressing room when he’s warming up. He’ll be doing his exercises and his stretches and it sounds like a nightclub in there. But that really isn’t that surprising cuz when I listen to all the covers that Van Halen’s done, like Dancing In The Streets, now I know – that’s a Dave idea, like hey man let’s rock this tune out. (laugh) cuz he likes all that Motown and all that kind of stuff. I didn’t know that, but it wasn’t that surprising really – he’s a musician, he’s into music. He’s a singer, he’s an entertainer and frontman, so he’s into all kinds of stuff. And then, I guess, how smart he was...it didn’t surprise me, but it stoked me. I was like wow. The first two months, I was like totally blown away and I’d come back and tell my wife, “God, Dave is so fucking smart!” He knows so much shit, I didn’t have any idea. One of Dave’s assistants saw me playing chess, and he said “Oh man, Dave takes chess lessons from a Russian chess master.” And I was like, “REALLY! Whoa, I wanna play him!” and we’ve never played a game of chess (laugh).

Chelle: Here’s another one from my readers – What’s the most interesting thing you’ve seen in DLR’s refrigerator?

Brian: Uh, wow....let me think now...man, these are tough questions....it seems like it’d be so easy, but...so, the most interesting thing....in his REFRIGERATOR?....(laugh) I don’t know that I’ve ever looked in his house refrigerator, I don’t think I have...I’ve been there, but usually when we go to his house it’s to do something and it’s always like almost catered. We go over there to rehearse and someone will run out and buy us all El Pollo Loco or something, or if it’s a photo shoot, they’ll have actual catering there. So I don’t think I looked in his fridge, but I’d imagine it’d be empty for some reason (big laugh). In his dressing room fridge he’ll just have beers and water and Gatorade and like Jack Daniels on the counter....in the food department, I guess I could tell you one thing that’s interesting about Dave. After a show, we usually have a big meal and when we were on the Sammy tour we always had filet mignon and vegetables and potatoes and pasta and sauce...I’ve been one to go up and get a little bit of everything - the vegetables, the meat, maybe a little pasta, the whole deal. But Dave’ll just grab a steak and start chomping it down, sometimes he’ll just hold it in his hand...he doesn’t do all the other stuff, he’s just a straight up steak/protein guy. I think it’s because all those starches and carbohydrates, I think he stays away from that, I think that’s what keeps him in shape.

Chelle: Well, it appears to be working for him. He looks great.

Brian: Yep, he even says, it’s torture, he LOVES all this food but he just won’t do it. He’s pretty disciplined.

Chelle: What’s the most humorous thing that’s occurred since you’ve been on tour with Dave?

Brian: Oh wow, the funniest thing is always Dave’s jokes, but as far as things that’ve happened...I can tell you one of the weirdest moments that I had, it made me laugh to myself and just go “HOW did I end up HERE?” We were in Detroit and Kid Rock was at our show. After the show, I was walking around the hallway of the venue and our manager told me “Go in there” and pushed me into this room. I ended up kicking back – it’s me, Dave and Kid Rock – sitting there drinking shots of tequila. And I’m sitting there, and all of a sudden I’m thinking, “I’m in a room right now with David Lee Roth and Kid Rock. How the heck did THIS happen?” And then Dave went to the bathroom and I’m just hanging out with Kid Rock and he’s calling Pamela Anderson and I’m thinking “this is a cool dream.” Another cool thing was when Robin Zander from Cheap Trick was at a show and he came up and – Cheap Trick was the first concert I ever saw, like in ’79, Dream Police, ya know? – so he comes up to me after the show and was just telling me how great I was for like 10 minutes. And I was just sitting there thinking “Wow this is awesome.” When I was a kid, watching Cheap Trick in front of 50.000 people at the Rose Bowl or the Coliseum, I would have never, ever dreamed that there would come a day when that singer was gonna be watching me play and telling me I’m great. That, to me – those are the biggest payoffs – like Ted Nugent complimented me once...those are the things, I go “Fuck!” I grew up listening to Ted Nugent and Van Halen and Cheap Trick and all those bands and these guys are actually telling me good things about my guitar playing. If you could go back in time and tell me that was gonna happen, I would just die. Those moments mean more to me...when I’m an old man, those are the moments I’m gonna remember. Those moments of my idols telling me that they liked my playing. It doesn’t get any better than that.

Chelle: Does Dave ever lose the Diamond Dave persona when the cameras aren’t around?

Brian: Uh, not really (laugh). The time that I’d say I have the coolest conversations with him, when he’s really mellow and absolutely not Diamond Dave, have been when it’s just me and him alone late at night on the bus when maybe everyone else is crashed out and we’re kicking back in the front lounge. We’ll start talking about stuff and it’s like, he doesn’t do the routine, and we talk about totally cool, different stuff....like, I went on a surf trip to Nicaragua about 3 years ago. And I know Dave likes all that outdoor stuff - going to the Amazon and paddling around in a canoe, climbing Mt Everest and all that stuff – so I was telling him about my surf trip and he was just completely listening and I was like...cuz usually you’re listening to Dave, so there’s not much I can say to get his attention, he’s been everywhere, done everything, heard it all...but he was interested in my Nicaragua story. That was when Dave was not like Diamond Dave, but just a dude that was just totally a nature guy, going like “Wow, that’s cool, man.”

Chelle: He’s probably thinking, “Hey, wait a minute...I’VE never surfed in Nicaragua...”

Brian: In fact, he’s interested in surfing. He’s been talking to me about surf lessons, so I gave him a number of a buddy of mine. I don’t know if he’s done it yet, but I’m hoping he does it because I think he’d enjoy it. That’s the stuff – when Dave’s talking about adventures he’s been on – that’s when he’s not Diamond. He’s like the Explorer Dave. And he really is, he’s really done all that crazy stuff in all these exotic places...those kind of trips where people could almost die...climbing a mountain people getting frostbite...he’s been there. Wow, that’s gnarly stuff.

Chelle: Does he ever talk about Eddie and the boys? If so, what does he say?

Brian: He doesn’t talk about them too much. It’s surprising. I was expecting to hear a little more. I asked him a few things here and there, never really any personal stuff about any of those guys. Once in a while I’ve asked him things about when they recorded a song or something. And sometimes, he’ll just be talking about like when he was in the studio singing Jaime’s Cryin’ and he’ll tell me little stories and stuff. But he doesn’t really talk about ‘em.

Chelle: Have you heard any of the material he worked on with them in 2002?

Brian: No, I wish I had, but nope. It’s possible our manager has a copy of it. I would think he might, cuz he was definitely involved in that. I’ve never really asked.

Chelle: What are your thoughts on the Van Halen reunion?

Brian: Ya know, I was one of the only guys that didn’t CARE if they got back together. I kinda didn’t want them to get back together cuz I was thinking, what if they’re not as good as they were? What if you go out and see them and...I mean they better go out and kick complete ASS or I’ll be bummed. I have heard from a guy who was at Eddie’s house a couple months ago, that he heard Eddie practicing and he was just jamming and sounding KILLER. I was questioning that for the past year, cuz I’d heard a lot of stories about what’s been going on with him. I think maybe a year ago, he wasn’t playing too good. I don’t think he was playing too much anyways, but he has a reason to practice now so I think he’s excited and...Like I say, you get TIRED of something after years and years and you wanna take a break and he’s out golfing and stuff and playing cello. He’s probably like going, “Man, I’ve been a Guitar God for 25 years. I need a break.” And now, after a few years of not playing, I think he’s ready maybe to get a second wind and go out there and kick total ass. And hopefully I’ll catch a show.

Chelle: Do you know how to play any Sammy era Van Halen?

Brian: We’d mess around in the Punks, but I don’t even know if I could play a Sammy era Van Halen tune all the way through. I like some of those songs a lot, but I’ve never sat around and learned them. By the time Sammy was in Van Halen, like ’85, I was more interested in trying to write my own music and stuff. Between ’78 and ’82 is when I learned the most songs of rock stuff I liked. Once I was 21 and playing bar gigs, I would just learn whatever song I had to play with the band on stage...Oh yeah!...I used to play Why Can’t This Be Love in a cover band I used to be in. Maybe a couple more songs, I can’t remember now.

Chelle: Do you and the guys, including Dave, ever read any of the DLR/VH related sites on the internet?

Brian: I don’t know if Dave does, but I do. I usually go to diamonddavidleeroth.com. Usually when we’re on the road, I like to read reviews of shows, just to see what people say about the show, stuff like that. They’re usually pretty good reviews, so I’ve never got too bummed out about anything. But I’ve seen a few things...where people are assuming things. Things happen and they were like totally wrong. It’s kinda funny when I read stuff and I know what’s really going on...it’s kinda weird that people guess what’s happening....”why did they do this?”....”why did Dave do that?”...and then they all start guessing and guessing and they don’t have any idea, it’s so funny. And the real reason is usually nothing, there’s usually no reason at all, but people try to find a reason for everything. I’ve gotten a lot of humor out of those stories. There’s been a few times I was just DYING to type in, type in the real story, but thought, “Nope, nope, I’m not gonna get involved in this” (laugh)

Chelle: What was the first gig you played with Dave?

Brian: Atlanta Midtown Music Festival.

Chelle: How’d that go?

Brian: It went good! It was good....30,000 people, so one of the biggest shows I’ve ever played was that first show. And it was raining that day, but it stopped raining before we went on so that was cool cuz it was a big outdoor thing.

Chelle: What was it like playing in front of that many people for the first time?

Brian: It was a blast! It was fine, I felt totally comfortable. It was just all fun.

Chelle: Did Dave give you any advice or words of wisdom before that first show?

Brian: Uh, I don’t remember for the FIRST show, but he did have a big pep talk with us before the second show, which was Cleveland with Sammy Hagar, that Sammy tour. We did a lot of live radio stuff before we did Sammy, we did 10 radio morning shows on acoustic guitar. So before the Sammy tour he took us aside and gave us a big talk to set the tone of the tour. And he just said things like, “Look tough on stage.” It was funny because, like in the Punks, I’m usually a smiler and he’s saying like, “Look at Jimmy Page on stage. He’s not smiling, man, he’s looking cool. And Keith Richards, he’s looking tough.” So he’s saying basically go up there and look like you’re bad ass. He wanted us to look bad ass and fucking play our asses off. Cuz basically Sammy’s show was a big party with all kinds of balloons and streamer tape and confetti and bright colors and a fiesta and party drinks. And he goes, “I wanna be the opposite of that. I wanna go out there with a wall of amps and fucking roll over them like a tank. Just pummel them with music.” And that’s what we were playing, just the heavy stuff...Atomic Punk, DOA...and I don’t know if you noticed, we were just playing song, song, song.. we have maybe 5 seconds between every song, there’s no talking between the songs.

Chelle: Yeah, we saw that show at the Universal Amphitheater from like the 7th row. Great show.

Brian: You saw the year we played with Sammy, or the other one?

Chelle: Yeah, well, both..

Brian: Yeah, so you see how it was just night and day. Some people thought Dave was gonna throw a party. But Dave’s thing was, “Let’s not do the same thing Sammy’s doing. He’s gonna be the party band, let’s just fucking ROCK.” And it was cool. I mean, some people liked Sammy’s approach better than ours and some people go, “Man, Sammy’s was FUN and Dave’s....where were all the chicks and the things like Sammy had?” And then other people were like, “Well Dave’s was heavy and Sammy’s was just goofy.” I could see their points, I mean the Sammy show looks fun to me...drinking tequila on stage, girls in bikinis serving you drinks, confetti flying all over the place, Sammy’s bullshitting between the songs so you kinda stand around and have a beer. Hey, looks like a fun party, actually like you’re playing at a big ol’ fiesta and that’s cool too. But with Dave (laugh) one time about two weeks into the tour I took a drink of beer between songs and after the show, Dave goes “Brian, you don’t need to be drinking between the songs. It’s a 90 minute show. We’re gonna go out there and pummel and you can wait until after the show to have your drink.”

Chelle: So he can drink Jack Daniels, but you can’t have your beer (laugh)

Brian: Well, Jack Daniels, that’s his thing, but he was of the approach like I’m a wuss if I can’t make it through a show without a beer. So I was like, OK that’s it, he’s kinda like making me step it up, (laugh) like it was a challenge. I remember this one time Michael Anthony was trying to get me to do a shot of tequila before the show. He was like, “C’mon Brian, let’s do a shot.” and I’m like, “Aw, dude, I can’t drink before the show.” That was just my personal thing. I wanted to just go up there and kick total ass and I didn’t wanna be sloppy and buzzed. But he did talk me into it and I did a shot and pretty much didn’t ALLOW myself to catch a buzz (laugh). This last year, it’s a different kind of show, more mellow and little more jamming and I drink some whiskey during the show, so it’s all fun. But that year basically I had something to prove, cuz I knew that everywhere I went all these guitar players were gonna say, “ooh, let’s see if this fucker can play the shit.” So I wasn’t gonna go up there buzzed, and suck.

Chelle: Is it difficult going up on stage wanting to be your own person, and people see you as wanting to take Eddie’s place?

Brian: Ya know what...In the beginning of the Sammy tour – I felt it most in the beginning. When I joined, I knew there was gonna be a lot of people saying, “Hey, who’s this new guy?” and we were going on the road with Sammy Hagar, so I knew there was going to be a lot of publicity and a lot of “Oh, they’re gonna play Van Halen, let’s see who this guy is. My style is nothing like Eddie’s at all, to tell you the truth, not a bit, I just happen to be able to play that stuff and I love it – it’s really fun to play. But after a little while, after I went on the internet and read a few lame reviews, well not really lame reviews, but people were like not getting it...Here’s an example again of something Dave told me to do and then I read a bunch of shit on the internet and it’s like completely off base. When we played that very first show in Atlanta, we’d done all our rehearsals and it was a couple days before the gig and Dave says, “Do you do a guitar solo?” and I was like, “Yeah, what do you want? I’ll jam for a few minutes...” And he goes, “Why don’t you do just the beginning of Eruption and then go into something of your own. About a minute and a half.” So I’m like, OK, right on, whatever. So we go to Atlanta, play the show, I do the first part of Eruption and then I busted into my little over-the-neck thing that I do and then what do I read in the reviews? A bunch of people write, “Oh, that guy couldn’t play the end of Eruption.” (both laughing) “He started off right, but he fucked up at the end.” And then a bunch of other people said, “What right does that guy have to play Eruption? It’s not even a David Lee Roth song!” So immediately, I just said, ya know what I’m not gonna play Eruption cuz that IS an Eddie Van Halen song, not a Dave song. So ever since then, I’ve just been doing this thing where the band hits an A chord, like the beginning of Eruption, then I just jam in A and do my own thing and guess what...people STILL think I’m playing Eruption, but now they think I’m playing it COMPLETELY wrong. (laugh)

Chelle: I’ve been in the first few rows of a few shows now, and there’s always that ONE guy that’s grumbling, “Oh, he thinks he’s Eddie Van Halen.” I just wanna slap that guy.

Brian: It’s like hey, hello, I don’t think I’m Eddie, I don’t wanna be Eddie. You know what, I just wanna tell those people, Dave PAYS me and he tells me what to do and I do it. If Dave wants me to play Eruption, I’ll play Eruption. Luckily, after I told him I didn’t wanna do it, he said “Fine, do your own thing.” He was really cool cuz he understood. But the bummer is, when people write the setlist down, they still write Eruption. Sometimes people write Guitar Solo which that is what I’d like it to be called. Really, I don’t give a crap if I do a guitar solo at all, but what’s kinda neat is I invented that double-hand-over-the-neck thing, like a piano...I did that when I was jamming with Jeff Soto in 1985 or ’86 and every band I’ve been in, that’s been my one little trick, my one invention, and it took me 17 years to finally bust it out on a big tour. And then all they do is say I play Eruption wrong (laugh).

Chelle: Have you ever met Eddie Van Halen?

Brian: Nope

Chelle: If you could interview him what would you want to ask him?

Brian: Oh wow, that’d be tough. I’d have to spend about a night thinking about the questions. It’s funny, I’m kinda weird when it comes to the music thing. I’m not really big on having to meet people and I’m not really interested in stuff...I’d be like, “Wanna play chess?” (laugh) I mean seriously, I’m more into like, if he surfed, I’d wanna go surfing with him. I don’t talk shop too much. Unless someone asks what I do, I don’t even mention guitar. It’s just one of those things, I don’t really say “Hey, I’m in a band, I play guitar. What kind of guitars, what kind of picks do you use?” I never really ask anybody. There’s plenty of things I’d like to know, but I’d never ask him cuz most of it would be stuff he doesn’t care about anymore. Like, what guitar did you play on that song? Or, what fingering did you use on that one riff? But I would rather say...like I know that he drinks wine, so I’d rather talk wine with him. (laughs) Cuz I’m a wino.

Chelle: Well, ya never know, I just might get an interview with him someday...so if there’s any questions you’d like to contribute...

Brian: Tell him Brian Young wants to know what his favorite red wine is. (laugh)

Chelle: I’ll put that on the list. The techies among my readers would like to know what guitar/pickups/amp/etc you’re using on tour.

Brian: I have two main guitars. Mike Charvel, Wayne Charvel’s son, did most of the work on my guitars. I’m using Seymour Duncan pickups. One’s called a Custom Custom that I’m using. Floyd Rose tremolo, and it’s pretty basic. Got the D-Tuna thing on it. And then the amps I’m using are two Peavey 5150 II’s into two 100 watt Marshalls and into some power amps...there’s a Marshall 100 watt power amp and an H&H power amp to drive speakers on the other side of the stage. So it’s a lot of power going on. And then, I’m just using an MXR Phase 90, MXR flanger and a Boss digital delay and a Bad Horsey wah-wah pedal. And a Bradshaw switching system to switch all my effects.

Chelle: We’ve all heard the infamous “No Brown M&M’s” story. Does Dave still do anything like that?

Brian: Not THAT one. We do have a rider, we have stuff we ask for, but it’s always THERE, so I’ve never seen what happens if it doesn’t show up. His main thing is no garlic in the spaghetti sauce. He’s not into people with garlic breath breathing on him. One thing he really has to have, when he walks in his dressing room, he wants the music already on. So the venue guys gotta go in there and get the tunes happening and cranked up, so when he goes in there....that’s one thing, Dave’s always got the music on. He plays it LOUD too. Before shows, I usually like to be in a quiet room by myself, I’m just the opposite, I like to get all mellow and zone out, maybe practice my guitar a little bit and have like maybe one beer before I go on stage.

Chelle: What’s the one thing you can’t live without on the road?

Brian: The only thing I thought I wasn’t going to be able to live without was surfing. When I went out on that Sammy tour, I was like “Wow, a whole summer of waves I’m not gonna get.” But I’m getting better at that, I can live without it. Slowly adjusting to life without surfing. (laugh) But what do I need on the road? I guess a good meal and some wine once in a while, ya know? There’s not a lot of shit I do. I bring a bunch of books with me, my chess set...my routines are pretty boring...

Chelle: So it’s not the wild rock and roll lifestyle we all hear about, huh?

Brian: Not as wild as I was hoping (laugh) Like everything in life, it’s not all what you expected it to be. Sometimes the travel is pretty rough. I mean, like the bus, late at night, 3 or 4 in the morning, you’re trying to sleep, you’re on some bumpy road and all of a sudden you hit bumps, BUMP BUMP BUMP BUMP and you feel like you’re gonna fall off a cliff and die (laugh) and you’re just like, “Oh, this is great. I’m gonna die on a fucking tour bus.” Of course, it’s still the greatest thing in the world. No matter how shitty the travel is, or how early I have to get up, ya know what...this is what I’ve waited my whole life for, so I’m not gonna complain. One thing about being with Dave that’s a bummer is I’m spoiled now, cuz we’re always staying in these nice hotels, the tour bus is always really nice cuz Dave gets the best and we’re in the bus with him, so we get stuck with the best too (laugh). So that’s always nice. He always takes good care of us.

Chelle: Dave’s done a number of cover tunes...is there any song that you’d like to see him cover?

Brian: Let me think, I thought of this once...aww, I can’t think of it. It was some song that I heard and I thought it had a cool riff, I could picture Dave singing it. It was a Johnny Winter song, but I can’t think of it right now...at the time, I even bought the CD and gave it to Dave and said “Hey man, check out this song. I think it’d be cool.”

Chelle: What’d he say?

Brian: He took it and listened to it, but it just didn’t end up happening, I don’t remember the specifics. But there was a lot of different songs we were talking about, this was just one of the ones that didn’t happen.

Chelle: Tell us about the recording sessions for Diamond Dave. Did you work in the studio together most of the time?

Brian: Yeah, ALWAYS. He was there ALL the time for everybody. Even when we weren’t always there...like I was there for when we did all the basic tracks, we did the drums, bass and guitar together. Then I would be there for all my guitar tracks and for some of Dave’s vocals. But Dave was there for everything. I mean, if someone started recording something and he wasn’t there, he wouldn’t even wanna listen to it. He was like, “let’s start again guys.” He’s gotta be there, it’s almost like he’s gotta have his vibe be part of the thing, which is cool. In fact, one time we played through a song and we’re doing these sessions at 9 in the morning to like 10 at night and – this was kinda funny – we were playing a song and Dave stopped us halfway through and he was in the control room listening to us play the rhythm tracks and he just stops and says, “Ok, guys, imagine that you’re playing in a bar and it’s after hours and they’ve kicked most of the people out and there’s just a party in there with a few people. And now play the song again.” And we did it, and he’s like, “THAT’S the vibe I want.” He’s really good at drawing pictures of what he wants, he’ll say like imagine this and imagine you’re here. Sometimes he’ll say “Imagine you’re playing at an outdoor party and there’s a bunch of girls dancing. Get that kinda vibe.” Or he’ll put on a song and say, “Hear that song? Think like this.” Even if it’s a completely different kind of song, he’ll go, “THINK like this. Think about how that guy’s thinking right there and think like that and play the song.” It’s really cool. He’s a fun guy as a producer. For me, some of the coolest things that have happened in the studio have happened with him. I always tell my chick about the stuff that happens, like the Story Of The Day...OH! Here’s another one (laughing his ass off) this is a great one! This is one of my favorite Ray stories...Ray’s playing the drums and he’s out there by himself, we’re all in the control room, and Dave says, “Hey, put some more fills in there. Spice it up a little bit.” So Ray starts doing all this really rad drummer shit and Dave’s like, “Stop! Stop! Those things you’re doing are really great and a lot of drummers will think it’s really difficult to play. But those guys don’t buy tickets and they don’t give you blowjobs after the show. Play for the people that matter. Don’t play for the drummers, play for the chicks!” (BIG LAUGH) And I just thought that was the coolest thing ever. I ran that one through my head 10 times so I wouldn’t forget it. Even with Eddie, I’m sure he probably did stuff like that. Judging by the stuff I’ve seen Dave do, I can picture that he’s the guy that took Eddie’s raw talent and made it sellable. Cuz here’s one thing he told me about Eddie - he said when he met Eddie, the band was a 3 piece and Eddie would sing. He said they were playing all these really long solos and long drum solos and they were all shredding. I totally believe that if Dave and Eddie didn’t meet, I don’t think Eddie would be the superstar guitar god that he is. He was so into instrumental and shredding and all this hard-to-play music stuff, that it’s quite possible he would have formed a band that would have been too...you know like jazz musicians that are great but nobody cares about because they don’t have music that people wanna listen to? So it’s quite possible that Eddie would have been like that. Cuz Dave even told us, when Eddie’d start jamming, Dave would say “We’ve gotta make this stuff danceable so we can play clubs. People don’t wanna hear a 15 minute drum solo.” He basically directed them in a way to sell it to the public. Cuz I guess Eddie was basically playing for the musicians. And I’m just guessing this, but I can totally picture that it took a guy like Dave - the Diamond Dave/Vegas/Car Salesman/Fast Talking Showman that had all the moves and all the talk - and he took that and added it to Eddie’s phenomenal guitar playing and bam! The rest is history.

Chelle: How much influence did you have on the sound of the new album?

Brian: Oh, wow, I don’t really know how much...I mean, cuz everything we played Dave did mold and shape it, but he let us do our thing and let us experiment with our sound. I’d say that Dave was at least 50% and the other 50% was split up among the rest of us, maybe even Dave was 60%. (laugh) Bottom line is, it was Dave’s final say about everything. It was his record and if he didn’t like something, he would just tell you, “I don’t like it. Try something else.” And there were a few times when I liked something and he didn’t and he made me try something else. But most of the time, he was right. Every time he made me do something different, in the end result I liked what he had me do better. This one time, I was doing this solo and he was like, “Dude, do a burning solo on this song.” So I started doing all this fast stuff and he was like, “No, not burn like Steve Vai, burn like Joe Perry.” He said “burning solo” and I thought, “yeah I can do that.” But he meant burn like Billy Gibbons (mouths the sound of ZZTop guitar solo) burn on ONE note. He even said, “Get outta the ‘80s.”

Chelle: He told you that?

Brian: Yeah (laugh). What he meant was that solo was very ‘80s guitar gymnastics and he goes, “Dude, get outta the 80s.”

Chelle: Out of all the people you’ve met and musicians you’ve played with, is there one that still makes you go, “Wow! I can’t believe I met_______!”

Brian: Darn, that’s a tricky question...I’ve met so many people over the years...I’ve gone swimming with Yngwie Malmsteen...

Chelle: (big laugh) I bet not too many people can say THAT!

Brian: Yeah, well, I was hanging out with Jeff Scott Soto and he lives in the Valley. Yngwie only lived a couple miles away, so he’d come over and go swimming. That was way back in ’86 or ’87. When I was younger, that kind of stuff was more mind blowing to me. Right now, I think, just because of my life, the person I’d be most stoked to meet would be Jimmy Page. Just because there’s a ton of legends out there that I dig, but Led Zeppelin’s always been special to me. Their vibe is so bitchin’ and I think about all the stuff those guys did back in the day and I think it’d be cool to meet Jimmy Page. But then again, I’d probably just be like, “Hey, nice to meet ya.” That’s the thing, I think a lot of people that wanna meet Dave – I’ve seen so many people every night that wanna talk to Dave – it’s weird cuz when you see a person that’s waited their whole life to talk to Dave and then what do you say? You only got 2 minutes. (laugh)

Chelle: Yeah, I was in that position New Year’s Eve. I saw you guys New Year’s Eve in Hollywood. Me and my boyfriend waited around after the show, cuz I just wanted to meet him – I’d been in love with him since I was 14 – so I just wanted to shake his hand, ya know? Finally, after they were shooing us all out of there, we ended up walking down the stairs right behind Dave and Animal. So I was like, “I gotta say something. If I just let him walk away without saying anything, I’ll be kicking myself for the rest of my life.” So I asked him for an interview for the site, it was the only thing that would come out of my mouth (laugh). But I was just happy that I did end up getting to meet him and actually talk to him and didn’t even pass out or anything! (laugh)

Brian: (laughing) Yeah, that’s exactly what I mean. You can’t possibly say anything important in two minutes. “Hi, I love your work, nice meeting ya” and that’s about it. I get a lot of people asking me, “Can I meet him?” and I’m just like, “It’s not my department.” I mean Dave sometimes comes out and talks, sometimes not, that’s all his business.

Chelle: He did end up turning me down for the interview, through his people, but maybe once he sees all his band members up here on the site...

Brian: Then he’ll REALLY turn you down (both laughing)

Chelle: Many would say you’re living the dream at this point, playing and touring with DLR. What’s the next dream/goal in your musical career?

Brian: Wow, my only dream is just to be able to keep doing it, really. What I found out in my career is that everything I’ve ever ended up doing was something I didn’t ever expect I would do. Like, I never expected I’d play disco. Never expected I was going to play in a Van Halen tribute. And then I never expected I was gonna play with David Lee Roth. Of course it’s always been different than what I’ve been expecting it to be, like I was expecting it to be my band, my records, but it didn’t happen that way – and I still have hope it could happen – but in the meantime, as long as I can make a living playing music, I’m happy doing any kind of music.

Chelle: Where do you see yourself 5 to 10 years from now?

Brian: I absolutely have no idea. All I want is to be happy and I hope I’m still playing guitar for a living. And if I’m not playing guitar for a living, I hope it’s because I’m doing something better. I don’t know what that could possibly be, but (laugh)....I mean if somebody woulda said 10 years ago, “Where do you picture yourself 10 years from now?” there’s no way on Earth I woulda pictured this. So I don’t even try to guess. I just go with the flow and hope and I can usually feel when it’s flowing right...ya know how sometimes you take wrong turns in life and you know you’re fucking up and going the wrong direction and then you gotta get back on track? So I feel like I’m pretty on track right now, so I hope I stay on track and hopefully 10 years from now you’ll still wanna interview me...what’s it 2004 right now?...2014 hopefully I’ll be doing something and...

Chelle: I’ll give you a call! (laugh)

Brian: Here’s what I would LIKE to be doing...I’d like to be in an original band, still playing cool music that I like and hopefully traveling, I’d really like to see the whole world. And I’d want to do it playing guitar. The best thing about guitar playing is all the traveling I’ve gotten to do. When I’m in England and I’m thinking, “Man, my GUITAR got me here! This is the coolest thing ever!”

Pretty cool interview

**SoCalChelle** · 04-18-2004, 02:39 PM

Originally posted by The Knockz
i dunno... i know Chelle goes to great lengths for these interviews but in the end... its a interview with an atomic punk.
this has more fluff than a cotton candy stick.

Chelle missed her calling when TigerBeat were looking for investigative reporters.

Did we learn what his favorite color is?

Can someone post that interview when she interview Michael Anthony's dog?

Well, I've got interviews with James Lomenzo, Toshi Hikeda and (hopefully) Animal coming up. What less fluffy questions would you suggest I ask THEM?

And btw, it was Mikey's wife I interviewed, not his dog. The dog wouldn't talk to me. :p

**Dr. Love** · 04-18-2004, 04:16 PM

Originally posted by The Knockz
i dunno... i know Chelle goes to great lengths for these interviews but in the end... its a interview with an atomic punk.
this has more fluff than a cotton candy stick.

Chelle missed her calling when TigerBeat were looking for investigative reporters.

Did we learn what his favorite color is?

Can someone post that interview when she interview Michael Anthony's dog?

Gimme a break. Chelle does this in her free time so we'll have something interesting to read.

Thanks, Chelle. I enjoyed it.

**DavidLeeNatra** · 04-18-2004, 06:16 PM

Originally posted by The Knockz
i dunno... i know Chelle goes to great lengths for these interviews but in the end... its a interview with an atomic punk.
this has more fluff than a cotton candy stick.

Chelle missed her calling when TigerBeat were looking for investigative reporters.

Did we learn what his favorite color is?

Can someone post that interview when she interview Michael Anthony's dog?

I appreciate your vids...but that was bullshit...

**madraoul** · 04-18-2004, 09:07 PM

Originally posted by Dickface McSlapnuts
...cuz I hate to say it but I’m FORTY..

Great interview. Makes me feel a whole lot better about turning 40.

**miyabi** · 04-19-2004, 08:29 AM

Very wonderful interview!
The photograph in Japan tour is also in a report,
and I was able to enjoy myself very much.
Thank you, Mr.SoCalChelle!!

**The Knockz** · 04-19-2004, 07:07 PM

to be fair to Chelle.. i Know a interview that gets read in a aprox 5 min takes days from start to finish.
It's a lot of work, though enjoyable.
Also I reread the interview and I may have been harsh..
there is actually more to this than what would be considered a 'fluff" piece.
Great Job Chelle...

pm me privately

Roth On Ya VH Tormented Little Minx

The Knockz

**SoCalChelle** · 04-19-2004, 09:17 PM

Originally posted by miyabi
Very wonderful interview!
The photograph in Japan tour is also in a report,
and I was able to enjoy myself very much.
Thank you, Mr.SoCalChelle!!

You're welcome

**ashstralia** · 04-19-2004, 09:56 PM

good on ya, knockz!
i thought it was a very interesting and insightful interview.
thanx chelle!

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