Rockpit regular Chip Z’Nuff and his band head down to Australia this week for the very first Glam Fest. It’s already been a very busy post-pandemic for the man who never stops. Enuff Z’Nuff were one of the first bands touring when restrictions lifted and there have been two albums and a solo album in the last two years with another on the way. We caught up with Chip backstage at Rock Island Fest in Florida just a couple of days before he’ll be throwing together the baggage for a trip south…
We had plenty to talk about with it being the 30th Anniversary of the third Enuff Z’Nuff record ‘Animals With Human Intelligence’ and the 20th of the wonderful ‘Welcome to Blue Island’. There’s that and more: like burning the candle at both ends in St Kilda with Kip Winger and making a record with one of Elvis’s favourite actresses! Want more? – how about what Rock Stars love to eat, or what Chip and Steven Adler used to watch on TV? It’s all here, so read on!
Mark: Hey Chip!
Chip: How you going buddy, how you doing?
Mark: Not too bad mate, great to speak to you as always. How’s things?
Chip: Going great. I’m at this huge Festival with my promoter and Honeymoon Suite is getting ready to go on now, it’s Rock Island Fest in Key West Florida with Extreme, Tesla, Adler from Guns ‘n’ Roses and a plethora of other bands, bro’ it’s incredible this Festival you’d love it. I just signed 500 autographs – I’m smothered like a bum on a boloney sandwich out here! But it’s a great time!
Mark: I wish I was there but I’ll take next week instead – which sees you guys back in Australia. I think you were the last band to leave before the pandemic and lockdown!
Chip: That’s correct! I remember February 2020 the virus came in they said ‘We’re shutting down the country’ – we had a hard time getting out of Australia, not that we wanted to leave, we wanted to stay because we certainly love your trim out there, it’s fantastic and the partying that goes on out there is incendiary. So we finally got out of the country, made it back to the United States and we waited! And here we are three years later, and thank God you guys have a great company called Silverback Touring – those guys are incredible they bring all the American bands in and they’re just great. This is going to be a wonderful Festival – it’s great to see everyone getting things back on, opening the world up. No more lockdowns, no more handcuffs! Faster Pussycat, Enuff Z’Nuff, Wednesday 13th, Eclipse, Tuff, Pretty Boy Floyd and the list goes on! It’s a big Festival and from what I’m hearing from the guys at Silverback is that it’s all but sold out which is great! There’s four shows and everyone will be playing all the hits!
Mark: It certainly is selling very well and they’re all coming back to see you! I know what it’s like to be in that interview mode I spoke to Erik from Eclipse last night and an hour ago I was talking to Taime, then Stevie from Tuff and now I have you! We’re on a Glam Fest roll! It’s such a huge line up I’m just wondering how they’re going to get you all on the bus!
Chip: Very carefully! I think we’re gonna be fine. (laughs) Thankfully it’s all flying when we get there. I wish we were going to Perth to see you, I’ve always wanted to play there, maybe next time! But there’s four good shows in Australia – I love going to Sydney, Melbourne is beautiful, Adelaide is great, and Brisbane – there’s wonderful people out there. And beautiful outstanding talent everywhere in your country. I’ve always loved your wine, always loved your women and most importantly I’ve always loved your sense of balance when it comes to Hard Rock and Heavy Metal. You guys love your music and it’s great you get us all together. We don’t tour much together – us and Faster Pussycat do – we’ve had some good runs around North America, but to actually go over to another country and play and spend time with your friends, it’s great.
Mark: I know you guys always have fun, there’s always stories!
Chip: Last time I saw Danny from Faster Pussycat we got accosted by the police. I think we were in Oklahoma where pot is supposed to be legal and we weren’t even smoking pot, we’d already smoked it, but it smelled like grass. So when the Cops asked us what we were doing we said “Listen, we’re just hanging out and having a good time and playing Rock and Roll – he’s in Faster Pussycat and I’m in Enuff Z’Nuff.” So they said “Look you guys are ready to go get outta here!” So they let us off the hook which I thought was kinda interesting because usually out there they like to give you a bit of a hard time when it comes to extracurricular activities! But Australia will be great. we’re coming there clean and we’ll find what we need when we get there (laughs).
Mark: (laughs) You’ve been very busy as always. I know we’ve caught up a few times since you were last here but since you left us there’s been two albums from the band and time for a solo record in just two and a bit years. I also understand there’s more on the way!
Chip: Listen we’ve put three records out, in the last year and a half and that’s quite an achievement. Most bands put a record out every two or three years. Why did we do it? Well the country was shut down and I couldn’t sit on my laurels and wait for things to open up, so I went into the studio. I put out ‘Hard Rock Nite’ which is all Beatles songs from 1967 through ’70: ‘Eleanor Rigby’, ‘Magical Mystery Tour’. ‘Revolution’, ‘Dear Prudence’ it’s just a fabulous record – we also did ‘Jet’ by Paul McCartney, which we’ll play for you in Australia by the way. Then I thought I’d follow that up with my solo record ‘Perfectly Imperfect’ – I got Steven Adler out playing drums on a track, I got Dax Neilsen from Cheap Trick, and Joel Hoekstra from Whitesnake came in and played on three songs. That one did well for us so our label Frontiers said ‘We want another record’ so here we are now, it’s January of 2023 and there’s a brand new Enuff Z’Nuff – it’s called ‘Finer Than Sin’ available everywhere. It’s a great Rock and Roll record and I’m really proud of it. The first single is called ‘Catastrophe’ – (Chip sings) “The crack and the cocaine and the LSD, your lies when you steal all the energy. it’s more than a crime it’s a catastrophe.” We’ll try and play some of those songs when we get over next week.
Mark: Fantastic, that’s one of my favourites on there. This year we’ve got a couple of anniversaries to look back on. 30 years ago you released ‘Animals with Human Intelligence’ tell us some of your memories of recording that one?
Chip: Well we recorded the record in Chicago – Clive Davis was running Arista records at the time, a very famous A&R guy who was responsible for Simon and Garfunkel. Aerosmith, of course he signed Whitney Houston. That guy knew how to sell records, he found Lou Reed and he signed our band. And from there we went into the studio in Chicago and started recording and then he had a dream that the perfect match would be Enuff Z’Nuff and Richie Zito who produced Poison and worked with Heart – he used to play guitar in Elton John’s band. And we’d recorded the whole album before Clive told us this and we got Richie Zito on the phone in Los Angeles and said “Hey man we recorded all those tracks for ‘Animals with Human Intelligence.” and he goes “Chip, I’m supposed to co-produce at least four songs on there.” So I said look, I’ll send you a DAT tape and if you don’t like what we did we’ll start all over again.” So I overnighted the DAT tape, he heard it and called back the next day and he said “Hey it sound great, just bring what you got.” So we went to Los Angeles and Richie ended up getting kidnapped! So he was gone for a couple of days. People broke into his house, they locked him in the trunk of his car, it was a terrible, terrible time, and we missed a couple of days of recording. But he ended up coming back and we ended up finishing that record hanging out with Tom Petty in the studio. And Ozzy Osborne was there too. I remember Ozzy smoking all my cigarettes! I remember him walking funny and so I said hey man are you OK, you got a bad walk? And he says (Chip does an almost passable American version of Ozzy) “You dry doing an ounce of cocaine and drinking Jack Daniels every night and see how you fucking walk!”
Mark: (laughing)
Chip: He smoked like 40 cigarettes in like 20 minutes by the way! I’ll tell you that every 5 minutes he’d ‘borrow’ another Dunhill cigarette off me! So we finished that record and we went on tour and that was the famous story when Donnie, my brother, stuck flowers between Clive Davis’s legs when there was the announcement of our show. And that was the end of it for us at Arista records unfortunately. When that record came out there was a changing of the guard in the music business – and you had Soundgarden. Pearl Jam, Nirvana, Alice in Chains – they all came out and gave everybody an ass-whoopin’. But somehow with the good lord’s blessing we were able to keep it alive, and we’re still moving forward, putting records out every year, and here we are now in 2023 – Glam Fest in Australia. We’ll be playing four shows, and I hope everybody attends those gigs. You want to see Enuff Z’Nuff live? – get out there and see a show. No tapes, no sequencers, no guys back stage, no synthesizers, just a real Rock band plugging in and playing!
Mark: It will be fantastic and I shall be seeing you over in Adelaide.
Chip: We’ll be dragging you backstage so you can see all the action that is going on! I remember last time we came out my guitar player got laid, We had Alex Kane out last time and he picked up a beautiful little goddess out there and we didn’t see him for three days!
Mark: (laughs) That explains why he was asking me for an interview before the Melbourne show then just disappeared!
Chip: (Laughs) The next time we saw him he had two black eyes! She beat him up beyond belief but I guess it was a good time! (laughs)
Mark: It was great last time out having a stroll down on St Kilda beach!
Chip: Yeah we were walking down St Kilda with Kip Wiger! A wonderful Rock Star! What a great guy to hang out with! We were just walking around, hanging out by the ocean looking at the penguins! I think we had some ice cream together which isn’t very Rock and Roll! We were burning the candle at both ends that’s for sure!
Mark: (laughing) We all had a great time down in St Kilda. It is also this year the 20th Anniversary of ‘Welcome to Blue Island.’
Chip: It is and I’m not sure if we can play anything for you off ‘Blue Island’ but we’ll play ‘Love Train’ off ‘Animals with Human Intelligence’ for you.
Mark: That would be cool. I love ‘Saturday’ off of ‘Blue Island’.
Chip: Or ‘Sanibel Island’ – “Sanibel Island waits, we’re gonna have a ball, women of half your age, Swimming in alcohol.” That’s one of my favourite songs! We don’t play it very often but man I love that track!
Mark: Let’s do that one!
Chip: Maybe we will do that! By the way I’ve got a new record coming out bro’ it comes out in two months – it’s out on Cleopatra, it’s by Ann Margaret the famous actress, she’s 80 years old – she’s putting a solo record out and I’m doing a duet with her on ‘Why Do Fools Fall in Love?’ – Joe Perry is playing guitar from Aerosmith and Robben Ford along with Clem Burke from Blondie. A whole bunch of Rock Stars are on the record and I’m so proud to be included on the Ann Margaret record. It comes out in March on Cleopatra Records ‘Why Do Fools Fall in Love’ – Frankie Lymon wrote that song in 1956! I wasn’t even born then!
Mark: Yeah Frankie Lymon and the Teenagers – I have the 78 of that you know, it’s my only 78 record! Fantastic!
Chip: It’s a timeless record.
Mark: I wouldn’t have been able to stop myself asking her about Elvis if I’d been there, she was pretty badass in those days riding those motorbikes!
Chip: And to have those heavyweights playing! Joe Perry! I mean come on! I can’t believe I’m on a record with Joe Perry I’m so proud of it!
Mark: Robben Ford Ain’t no slouch either – always one of my favourite guitarists. You always surprise me with news like that.
Mark: Now before you get back to Honeymoon Suite I’ve dug out some 70’s style Rock Star questions from a vintage magazine to ask you just so that we can get to know you better ready for Glam Fest. Are you ready!
Chip: I think I might be?
Mark: Favorite food?
Chip: I would have to say Shepherd’s Pie over in England, I love it beyond belief. Potatoes, lamb, peas, you can’t go wrong it’s just a great thing, one of those foods that’s real special when it’s done right, it’s almost like that San Franscisco thing, what do you call it, that fills you up really good. It’s just a wonderful meal, but if I couldn’t find that I’d go with Kentucky Fried Chicken just because you can get it in Australia!
Mark: I might not have time to rustle you up a shepherd’s pie this time, but i saw you in KFC in St. Kilda last time in Melbourne.
Chip: I went in with my road manager and we ordered some chicken – he looked at me and said “God damn the colonel got it right here!” (laughs)
Mark: (laughs)
Chip: And by the way he can’t stop eating that stuff, he has it every day! We call him the Spanish Rodent! (laughs)
Mark: (laughs) Favorite TV show?
Chip: That’s a good question right there – they got it nailed in that magazine!
Mark: (laughs) Well to be fair it’s a bit repetitive. I think they just have a list of things and ask you your favourites!
Chip: (laughs) I think I’d have to say South Park or American Dad or something like that. You know when I lived with Steven Adler with Guns ‘n’ Roses that’s all he’d watch every day, he’d say (Doing a pretty good Stephen Adler) “Chip don’t touch the TV!” cause all he wanted to do was watch his cartoons every day! Those are just fun shows they fill you up with laughter. But if we’re doing 70’s back in the day I loved The Love Boat! That was fantastic! The trim on the Love Boat was incendiary! They were so cute you just wanted to grab them and take they to your cabin and let them do dirty things!
Mark: Vacation destination? We’re hoping for a certain answer here!
Chip: Vacation destination – absolutely Australia. In second place would be Japan because they love us there and last but not least – you can’t go wrong over here in Key West Florida. Every January they have the Rock Island Fest and I love to be a part of it.
Mark: Well I will have to get down there next year, they have some great Festivals in that part of the world I used to love covering ‘Earthday Birthday’ up in Orlando but it’s been a while!
Chip: You will. We did it last year with Cheap Trick, it was incredible. And for some reason they only called one of the bands back for 2023 and it was Enuff Z’Nuff. It’s been a pleasure and a total honor to be back here again playing these shows.
Mark: It is a great line up this year. Favorite sports team?
Chip: Favorite sports team, well I’m from Chicago so if its hockey I love The Blackhawks and if it’s football I have to go with the Chicago Bears.
Mark: The Blackhawks have had a few recent Stanley Cups, but the Bears are having a hard trot like my Raiders!
Chip: It’s been a while.
Mark: And finally and these are the words in the magazine, not mine – what is your tipple of choice?
Chip: My what of choice?
Mark: Tipple.
Chip: My tickle of choice?
Mark: No tipple – T-I-P-P-L-E.
Chip: My pickle of choice?
Mark: Chip I think they mean drink.
Chip: Oh I guess that would have to be bald Pikachu on a bed of pillows, whatever that means!
Mark: (laughs) I hope that’s a cocktail?
Chip: (laughs) I’m a fan of everything – it’s a ‘pot pouri’ for me when it comes to tipples.
Mark: (Laughs) And just when I think you can’t get any funnier! And now for the radio show our special Glam Fest question – what does ‘Glam’ mean to you?
Chip: Glam is just great song-writing, colourful, flamboyant. When I think of Glam and I think of Glitter Rock I think of David Bowie, T-Rex, Queen, All those bands in the 70’s. And in North America it came later after Hanoi Rocks, Motley Crue were a little Glam, Guns ‘n’ Roses were Glam when they came out, a lot of bands of our era were, and those songs are timeless.
Mark: Absolutely! And if you could be credited with one song of the era you didn’t write what would it be?
Chip: ‘Innocence’ off Animals with Human Intelligence’ – a beautiful song Donnie Vie wrote with a wonderful vocal on it, probably one of the best songs Enuff Z’Nuff has ever recorded. That would be one of my favourite songs – I think Enuff Z’Nuff has recorded over 20 albums and over 250 songs and that’s got to be a number one song. I played on it, I sang on it and I produced it but my little brother wrote that one – and he wrote a gem right there.
Mark: He certainly did – a wonderful song. I know you’re going to be putting on a great set for us, I’m guessing you’ll have about 45 minutes out there.
Chip: Yeah if I can get ten songs in there, I’ll be really happy. We’ll make sure to play some things off the first album of course – you gotta play the hits, we’ll do a couple off your favourite ‘Strength’ – ‘Baby Loves You’ has to be in the set, and then we’ll mix it up with stuff off The Beatles record – ‘Hard Rock Nite’, we’ll do stuff off ‘Animals with Human Intelligence’ – I’m gonna throw ‘Love Train’ in the set for sure, and we’ll leave the rest as a surprise. It will be a real celebration of Enuff Z’Nuff material, songs that the radio and TV has played and maybe something for the diehard fans as well!
Mark: I shall be there, I will see you in Adelaide, it will be a wonderful time. It’s great to have something like this back in Australia. We’ve had music back for a while now but nothing quite as special as this I don’t think, and all props to Silverback for putting it together.
Chip: It’s gonna be great!
Mark: Always great to catch up Chip. I shall see you soon!
Chip: Always great talking to you too Mark. Can’t wait to see you. Thanks mate!
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