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Kool and the Gang are opening for Kid Rock...the tour hits Blossom next week. Local alt rag Cleveland Scene interviewed Robert "Kool" Bell and asked a couple VH questions:
And then a little about the Kid Rock tour:
Not a lot that we didn't know, but any press is good press, right?
Full article here http://www.clevescene.com/cleveland/...nt?oid=3591332
You toured with Van Halen in 2012?
We did 48 shows with Van Halen.
Any good David Lee Roth stories?
David was in and out. He would come and do the gig and get on his bus and keep moving. He had to turn all the air conditioning off in the venues because he didn't want to catch a cold and everyone at the venue would be sweating their behinds off. I think it even made CNN. People were having a sweating good time.
How'd you end up on that tour?
Van Halen used to play our music in the clubs. I didn't know that. David Lee Roth told me, "You guys came up with the song 'Ladies Night' and we had 'Jump.' We were the party band of the '80s and you were the funk-pop band of the '80s." Plus, 60 percent of my audience is ladies. He wanted us to go out and have a party.
We did 48 shows with Van Halen.
Any good David Lee Roth stories?
David was in and out. He would come and do the gig and get on his bus and keep moving. He had to turn all the air conditioning off in the venues because he didn't want to catch a cold and everyone at the venue would be sweating their behinds off. I think it even made CNN. People were having a sweating good time.
How'd you end up on that tour?
Van Halen used to play our music in the clubs. I didn't know that. David Lee Roth told me, "You guys came up with the song 'Ladies Night' and we had 'Jump.' We were the party band of the '80s and you were the funk-pop band of the '80s." Plus, 60 percent of my audience is ladies. He wanted us to go out and have a party.
What's your connection to Kid Rock?
What happened was that Sammy Hagar was supposed to do the tour and there was a conflict with a sponsor. Sammy couldn't do it. Kid Rock had wanted us to do it in the beginning but we were able to work it out. We are able to do 10 of the 15 shows. I met him about five or six years ago at a club in L.A. and he was telling about how he used to listen to Kool & the Gang and the Ohio Players when growing up in Detroit. He was into the group. And when he found out that we had done those shows with Van Halen, he thought it would work.
It must be fulfilling that the group is still going strong.
It's a blessing. It seems like every decade, there's a new challenge. It's like, 'What are Kool & the Gang going to do?' We came back and went out with Van Halen and Kid Rock. That's what we're going to do. We're also doing a Christmas album. Next year will be our 50th anniversary, dating back to the Jazziacs. We're looking to put some artists together and I've been talking to Bootsy Collins and the lead singer of Chicago. We'll put something together for next year.
What happened was that Sammy Hagar was supposed to do the tour and there was a conflict with a sponsor. Sammy couldn't do it. Kid Rock had wanted us to do it in the beginning but we were able to work it out. We are able to do 10 of the 15 shows. I met him about five or six years ago at a club in L.A. and he was telling about how he used to listen to Kool & the Gang and the Ohio Players when growing up in Detroit. He was into the group. And when he found out that we had done those shows with Van Halen, he thought it would work.
It must be fulfilling that the group is still going strong.
It's a blessing. It seems like every decade, there's a new challenge. It's like, 'What are Kool & the Gang going to do?' We came back and went out with Van Halen and Kid Rock. That's what we're going to do. We're also doing a Christmas album. Next year will be our 50th anniversary, dating back to the Jazziacs. We're looking to put some artists together and I've been talking to Bootsy Collins and the lead singer of Chicago. We'll put something together for next year.
Full article here http://www.clevescene.com/cleveland/...nt?oid=3591332
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