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Not giving them the time of day to play some Boy George weirdness ? That was kind of a heartbreak. Holy God in heaven, what musical monsters those guys were. Not in every instance, but in enough instances where some killer, killer music.
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And MTV hurt the music industry more than anything, because it was about imagery and style and fashion and the music seemed to be secondary. Radio kind of let down the music industry, more than anything. I don’t know what influences radio or who the man behind the curtain is. Again, I think the Damn Yankees are a musical force. But certainly, Kelly is one of them.ĭo you think that grunge slowed the progression of Damn Yankees after Don’t Tread was released in 1992? Don Brewer, what an incredible drummer, what an incredible voice, are you kidding me? So there’s a lot of examples of that. You’ve played with a lot of drummers, to get a singing drummer like Kelly Keagy, that’s quite a thing. I don’t remember the impetus of any of that, but the more killer musicians in the room, the better for me! Yeah, God, what monster music was that? What a great, great singer-songwriter and guitar monster he is. I know that Damon is incapable of not bringing fire to the party! What was his first band ? However that idea was presented, I said, “Yeah, Damon’s a monster - and Kelly, great guys! Bring ‘em on in! Let’s see if they bring some new fire to the party.” I don’t remember whether they did or not. I don’t know where that came from, but I’m a team player. It’s not like we were short on songwriting or song ideas. I don’t even remember what the inspiration was to bring in anybody else. Again, we surround ourselves with musical forces, believable dynamic animal musical forces.
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But the other interesting thing about the third album was having Damon Johnson and Kelly Keagy in the mix. Ideally, Damn Yankees is the core four with you, Tommy, Jack and Michael Cartellone. It’s really difficult to get the four of us in the same room at the same time, but we’re going to pursue that, I think. But yeah, I’d love to see the Damn Yankees make more music. The way Tommy sang it and Jack harmonized, those guys are like the Everly Brothers with a boner.
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I’d love to see us redo that particular song, because the way these guys played it, it was a sucker punch to the emotional solar plexus. Maybe a few years from now, we’ll all be dead and somebody will resurrect ‘em and produce it properly and salvage some of it. I don’t know where those tapes are and who knows what the future might hold. I just want you to shut the fuck up and push the record button, pal! So it was really a painful experience, but we had some great moments. It’s not like I need guidance on guitar ideas. Because the producer said, “You know, that’s really a great idea, but let’s do it this way.” You don’t go to produce the Damn Yankees and then not let them be Damn Yankees! We had a riot and I’d love to see us redo that song. Now, the way the Damn Yankees did it, Tommy started singing and I did a solo. It was a lick that I came up with for "Don't Stop Dreaming." It was just a beautiful arpeggio that I ended up using on my record. I mean, c’mon! How do you not want to breed to that soundtrack? All guitar players play that instinctive. Plus, the musical authority that we brought to it. It was! I was just going to bring that up! I mean, how do you not have fun with a song that we were all raised on. But were there good moments? It seems like it would have been kind of fun jamming on Cream's “ Sunshine of Your Love.” I know that the attempted third Damn Yankees album was complicated. As for that ill-fated third album? He has thoughts about that too. A few of the songs have filtered out via individual band member projects, with the rest staying under cover.ĭuring a recent conversation with UCR to discuss his upcoming studio album, Detroit Muscle, Nugent remained convinced that Damn Yankees might one day ride again. By all accounts, the sessions were troubled and even with Shaw stepping back into the mix in the midst of the proceedings, the decision was eventually made to put the album on the shelf, where it has remained for nearly two decades.