Hot on the heels of last year’s ‘Light ‘Em Up,’ which saw the return of John Corabi to the band, The Dead Daisies are back on May 30th with a new album of Blues covers entitled ‘Lookin’ For Trouble’.
I’m sure all fans of The Dead Daisies will be aware that whilst recording ‘Light ‘Em Up,’ producer Marti Frederiksen heard the band jamming an old Blues standard and had an idea – why not jam and record a few more? What started out as a bit of fun ended up as The Dead Daisies next record.
As long term readers will know we always love a chat with John and ironically when I first spoke to John for The Rockpit 15 years ago I mentioned that I thought he’d have a great voice for the Blues and here we are 15 years later and I can finally confirm that he certainly does. The Daisies new record, coming so soon after the wonderful ‘Light ‘Em Up’ is a real reminder that Rock and Roll owes its all to the Blues but like every art form, love and reverence is just as important as innovation and change.
We caught up with John to fill in the gaps and talk all about the new record of covers that certainly isn’t one for the Blues purists out there, but definitely one for the Rock and Rollers who grew up listening to the bands that first covered these standards. ‘What would Led Zeppelin do?’ John asked when we spoke, not that this record takes the Zeppelin approach of course.
The Dead Daisies have always done an inspired cover – from The Rolling Stones’ ‘Bitch’ to The Sensational Alex Harvey band’s ‘Midnight Moses’ or even that very first cover, a Blues number at that, ‘Evil’ from ‘Revolución’. The spirit here is to make them their own rather than do the obvious, and it works so well.
Of course talking with John we do tend to shoot the breeze in the most unscripted of ways. We talk about everything from recording at Fame Studios in Muscle Shoals to covering the greats and side stepping the already well-worn past interpretations of the songs on ‘Lookin’ For Trouble.’ We also talk about Reb Beach, the song that made it from the Blues album to ‘Light ‘Em Up’, Ratt’s ‘Infestation’ and (you heard it here first) a new John Corabi solo album!
Thanks as always to John and The Dead Daisies Management Team.
