Danko Jones is on the way to Australia for for the first time since 2013’s Soundwave Festival thanks to Silverback Touring. The band totally blew the crowds away at those dates and at the sideshows that followed earning rave reviews form fans and critics alike (we called them “a force to be reckoned with” and “Canada’s finest Hard Rock band” at the time).
We caught up with main-man Danko Jones to talk new album ‘A Rock Supreme’ and the Australian Tour. Below you’ll find a snippet of the chat – the extended interview can be found in the ‘Heaven’ section of The Rockpit’s forthcoming May ‘Heaven and Hell’ Podcast.
Danko: Hello Mark, Hi! How are you?
Mark: Not too bad, it’s been a while since we talked. Hope you’ve been keeping well, it’s great to see you heading back, it’s been a while.
Danko: Yeah the last time must have been 2013 and Soundwave.
Mark: It was a great set, I was one of those right at the front right in the middle there. The interesting thing for me though as a listener is that I think since then you’ve probably released some of your best music.
Danko: Yeah you know, so the next album we released was ‘Fire Music’ and I think with ‘Fire Music’ we turned a corner with releasing albums. Since that album and then ‘Wild Cat’ and now this new album ‘A Rock Supreme’ I think it’s like a new era, I just see them ‘together’ and I’m very proud of them.
Mark: One of the things I always loved about Danko Jones the band was that you always knew what you were going to get – some great Hard Rock and Roll, and that’s not changed over the years. But unlike some bands I do feel that your best music is probably still ahead of you.
Danko: Oh thanks a lot, we really do feel that too. We’ve started this new way of doing things and making records with Garth Richardson.
Mark: I think that’s the common thread there with those three albums. It seems to be working beautifully. You’re over to see us at the end of May which will be great, packing a lot in – four gigs in four days!
Danko: (laughs) It’s crazy but we’ll do it.
Mark: The new album ‘A Rock Supreme’ is great, I’ve only had it a day so only been able to give it half a dozen spins, but after ‘Fire Music’ and ‘Wild Cat’ which I loved, I think this one even tops those. It starts off with a great song ‘I’m in a Band’ where I think you say “All I Want to Do Is Play My Guitar and Rock and Roll” now that to me is what it’s always seemed like it’s all about for you?
Danko: Yeah. I’m mean pretty much (laughs) I don’t know what else to do (laughs). It’s kinda sad when you think of it one way, but yeah! That song in particular when it was all said and done and it was recorded and I listened back, I was like “This is my personal theme song!” (laughs) and I love my guitar on that song in particular, that’s one of my favorite solos I’ve put down on tape.
Mark: It works so well, that would be the perfect song to actually come out to!
Danko: Yeah that’s what we’re hoping for.
Mark: As always with a Danko Jones record it’s all killer no filler, I’m still not sure what my favourite track is, the single ‘Dance, Dance, Dance’ is cool but there’s so much more. I bet it’s always hard to choose what to play when you’ve got a new album out, so what will you be playing for us live? I guess it’s even harder when you bear in mind we haven’t heard ‘Wild Cat’ or ‘Fire Music’ live here yet either?
Danko: Yeah. So on the last European Tour in November, December we started playing some of these new songs – we played ‘we’re Crazy’; ‘Lipstick City’ and ‘Burn in Hell’ and then on this Nashville Pussy Tour we finished in February we added a fourth song ‘Dance, Dance, Dance’ so we’re up to four songs right now in the live set and I’m sure we’ll either play ‘I’m In a Band’ or I don’t know what else when we come down. But there’s definitely gonna be one or two more added to that list.
Mark: You’re a pretty busy man, you still do your Podcasts, you’ve done radio, you keep the albums coming but one of the things I didn’t know was that in 2012 you took things a step further and you actually lectured on Kiss!
Danko: Yeah I did that at the Wacken Open Air Festival, and I proved that in 1978 Peter Criss died. I guess I could have called it a spoken word show, but it was more of a lecture. So I spent the hour proving how and why and where the evidence was in one hour. It was a three camera shoot because at Wacken open Air they are always very prepared. So we got the footage, we edited the footage together and put it out as a bonus feature on our ‘Live at Wacken’ DVD that we put out in 2016. But that Company that pt out the DVD went out of business so nobody can really get any copies of this DVD anymore, so we’re thinking of maybe taking just the lecture and posting it online for free maybe after the dust has settled on the release of the new album. Hopefully then that will again see the light of day.
Mark: I’d certainly love to see it. How important were Kiss to you? They were the first Rock band I guess I ever really got into in a big way.
Danko: Oh yeah that was the first Rock band I was ever really into and the first Rock album I ever owned. When I was six years old I joined the Kiss Army,my Mom bought me ‘Kiss Alive’ she didn’t want to but I kept bugging the hell out of her. Then she finally said “OK – just choose one album” so I chose Kiss Alive as it was a double album – I knew I only had one shot so I got a two for one. There was a booklet in there and there was an address on the back that you can still see if you get an old copy. I wrote to that address, as my Mom said if you write to that address I will send the letter, I was a kid so she was encouraging me to write really, but I wrote,I can’t remember what exactly, and she sent it to Kiss. And I can’t remember if it was a few weeks or a few months later but I got a package in the mail from Kiss. And back in the day to get mail as a kid was a big deal, but this was from Kiss! And I got five ‘5 by 10’ glossies, and I got two school folders – one folder had the Kiss solo album covers on it and the other album was like a Double Platinum school folder. I wish I still had them. I did find the five photos on e-bay and I bought them, but when I gt them in the mail it was easy to see that they were just a colour photocopy. I might have got ripped off, but I got the images so I got a little bit of something I had as a child. I still have them it’s not the real deal but I have a facsimile of it. That’s good enough.
Mark: I think I sent off for the same package, and I think we got something similar but I remember if you introduced a friend you got a ‘Super Trooper’ badge that I still have today!
Danko: Oh wow that’s so cool! (laughs) That’s amazing and the one thing I didn’t realise is that there was no money exchanged. There was no way my Mom would have sent money, all she did was send a letter and I got stuff! It made me a fan for life.
Mark: Gene has of course since then told us all that “Rock is dead” but when I listen to an album like ‘A Rock Supreme’ it’s clear he’s crazy. There seems to be a renewal of interest especially with movies like Bohemian Rhapsody and more recently ‘The Dirt’. Have you seen it?
Danko: Oh yeah, I loved it. (laughs)
Mark: Who would be the band you’d love to see the story of?
Danko: Well Motley Crue of course was filtered through so many people that it isn’t even a real story based on reality, and we all now that. But what I loved was that, it’s so absurd, they made a movie out of a Circus Magazine band from the 80’s! It exists! (laughs) So I would say that, it was great. Or maybe Slayer or Metallica that would be interesting. I think that would appeal to people. I loved, I think it was ‘Hysteria,’ that dramatized movie of Def Leppard.
Mark: That was awful.
Danko: Yeah, but I loved it, sometimes awful is the best! (laughs) I did a Motley Crue movie when I was eleven, it was an animated movie on Super 8 camera…
…And there we break. Find out all about Danko’s Motley Crue movie and so much more on our May ‘Heaven and Hell’ Podcast out next week which features part two of our Danko Jones interview!
DANKO JONES Tour Dates:
Thursday 5th September MELBOURNE, Stay Gold
Friday 6th September BRISBANE, The Zoo
Saturday 7th September SYDNEY, Crowbar
Tickets From: http://silverbacktouring.com.au/danko-jones-2019
