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| Richie Kotzen |
Making his first appearance on the front page of Guitar Player magazing at the age of 19, Richie has seen it all.
Releasing over 17 albums including platnium releases with bands like Poison and Mr Big, he doesn’t seem to be slowing down anytime soon. I caught up with Richie and talked about growing up with music, Mr Big and thatold ‘incident’ with Rikki Rokket. He talked open and honestly about it all. I was actually a little surprised at how friendly and down to earth he was, Richie’s welcome at Saviours Of Rock anytime.
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September 2006
FIRST OFF – HOW ARE YOU AND WHATS IN THE WORKS FOR YOU AT THE MOMENT?
First off... Im doing great. This year has been very productive forme. Opening up for the rolling stones came very unexpected to me. I spent 3 weeks in japan to do 5 shows. 4 of them were domes and one arena. As for many people the stones were a huge inspiration to me as a musician and i am very grateful for the chance to be a part of theirtour. I also competed a new solo cd titled into the black which is number 16 not including the stuff ive done with previous bands i was amember of. It is hard to believe that i made my first cd in 1989.
YOU STARTED PLAYING GUITAR WHEN YOU WERE SEVEN RIGHT? WHAT ORIGINALY INSPIRED YOU TO PICK IT UP?
I was alway into music as a kid. I would try and imitate what I heard on the radio. When i was 5 someone suggested piano lessons tomy parents. Truth be told i was not terribly into the piano but i tried it for about a year. One summer we were at a yard sale and
there was a guitar there... I begged my dad to buy it for me and he said id buy it but i needed to take piano lessons more seriously. I said ok....However i ended up spending hours with the guitar and ignoring the piano... My mom started taking me to guitar lessons instead of piano lessons. I formed my first band when i was 12 and we performed locally at various community events. We played mostly covers but we did have a few originals... Not very good .... But original. By the time i was 15 i was in a full time bar band playing 4 nights a week...The other guys were in there early 20's. My father would go to the shows with me and eventually started booking gigs for us all over the north east. New jersey, pa and delaware... The only way i would be allowed to play was if i had one of my parents in the bar with me....
YOU WERE ALREADY MAKING MAGAZINE COVERS BY 18. THAT MUST HAVE BEEN
PRETTY AMAZING FOR YOU.
I was signed to shrapnel my senior year in high school.... My record was released when i was 19. Some of my friends were going to college or working jobs... I was fortunate enough to be noticed as a guitarist by mike varney who wrote for guitar player magazine. He featured me in the magazine when i was 17 based on a demo tape i sent him.... A year later he signed me and i went to san francisco to record my first
cd. Somehow that cd put me on the cover of guitar world magazine and wonme a slot in the readers poll under best new talent. I always wanted to be in a band and i sang as well but it was myguitar playing that was noticed first.
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Guitar teen prodigy
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I STILL REMEMBER THOSE EARLY ALBUMS. YOUR SOUND HAS REALLY GROWN AND CHANGED SINCE THEN.
Well i think that is a normal progression.... When you start making your own records when your a teenager you end up with literal snap shots of your musical development as years go by. Its kind of interesting and painful at the same time to go back and listen to some of my earlier cds... Im much better now.... I think i really figured out who i was around 1994 when i was signed to geffen. By then i had done the instrumental thing and was also much more confident as a singer. In some ways i look at that cd as my first real solo record.
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YEAH, AND YOU'RE A GREAT SINGER NOW AS WELL. I REALLY DIG YOUR
SOULFUL VOCALS DUDE.
Thanks.... Again mike varney from shrapnel records really encouraged me more than anyone to trust my vocal instincts. I was listening to everything from Paul Rodgers to Terrence Trent Darby back then.... Those are still to this day my favorite 2 singers of all
time.
YOUR SOUND REALLY MADE A MARK ON THE POSION ALBUM NATIVE TONGUE.
Well i owe a lot to them... They believed in me and my abilities not only as a guitar player but as a singer and a song writer. My song stand was really what got me the gig. I remember the audition and it was pretty much a disaster until bret said well... Do you have any originals?.... I played stand by myself and he smiled and said we will call you.... A week later the called me in and played a little joke on me. Bret was going on about how the band works and what is right for them and how would i fit in... Basically it sounded like he was gonna say we like you but your not right for our band.... Then at the end he said " i just wanna know how do you feel about selling millions of records and headlining arenas all over the world" I started to laugh and bobby said your in.... You got the gig.....
THAT WAS ONE THE MOST UNDERATED AND FORGOTTEN ALBUMS.
Well i hate to think it was forgotten.... We did sell over a million copies.... It is funny because back then rock bands would sell 3 to 6 million a cd if they had a hit..... Now if a band goes platinum its almost a miracle....I do agree that poison was an underrated
band....People liked to make fun of them because of their image and because compared to some of the other groups at the time they were not stand out musicians but truth be told they have sold over 20- million cds by now.... Somebody likes it.... |
Native Tongue |
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I WONDER IF YOU AND BRET HAD FORMED A COMPLETELY NEW BAND INSTEAD, THINGS MAY HAVE TURNED OUT DIFFERENT. AFTER ALL IT IS A VERY DIFFERENT ALBUM FOR POISON.
I sometimes wonder what would have happened if i stayed in the band....I think we were on to something... Stand was the only video by and 80's metal band in 1993 that was in the mtv most wanted... Grunge really killed any type of rock and roll.... Its sad in a way because i dontthink rock ever recovered.... Not to diss rap but grunge really set the stage for hip hop and rap to take over..... In the 80's the guys with guitars were living in mansions and driving ferrari's and all that fun stuff... Not anymore.... Watch cribs... You'll see....
I LOVE SO MANY OF THOSE SONGS. YOU KINDA FORGET ABOUT IT BUT WHEN YOU PUT IT ON, ITS LIKE…MAN ALL OF THESE SONGS ARE GREAT! STAND, FIRE AND ICE, 7 DAYS OVER YOU…
Thats funny you would mention those 3 songs..... The way poison wrote was that no matter who brought in a song it was split evenly 4 ways....If bobby brought it a song it didnt matter if i didnt write any of it we still split it evenly.... That formula really worked well because no body fought over songs.... It was more about is it a good song or not.... does it fit on the cd or not.... The funny thing is that i brought in 4 songs....Stand, fire and ice, seven days over you , and embarrassingly enough body talk......those were my 4.... We co wrote most of the rest and bret brought in a few of his own including theatre of my soul which i loved back then.... |
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Richie with Poison
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7 DAYS LIVE HAS BEEN RELEASED ON DVD RESENTLY AS WELL.
I remember that show like it was yesterday.... Bret and i got in a huge argument before the show.... I was wearing those red pants and the black vest with this white jack sparrow pirate shirt.... He was going nuts about the shirt... He hated it.... I thought i looked like hendrix and he thought i looked ridiculous.... Obviously i gave in because in the video im wearing the vest with no shirt.... Thats the kind of stuff we would fight about... Real silly shit.... Also while we were on tour in the uk i developed a serious sinus infection.... When we did that show i was pretty much deaf.... I couldnt hear anything clearly outside of my own voice in my head..... I went to a doctor in london and he told me not to fly because the air pressure could rupture my ear drum. I had no choice because we were to fly to los angeles to perform on the tonight show. I did that gig partially deaf as well.... Then I went to a specialist in la.... At one point they thought they would need to slice a cut in my ear drum to drain the fluid.... After 3 weeks of antibiotics and some kind of crazy thing where they shot air through my nose i could finally hear properly. That was a scary month....
SO JUST FOR THE RECORD. DO YOU CARE TO GIVE US YOUR VERSION OF THE
BREAK-UP STORY?
This is so old news but so am i... Ha ha ha.... Ill tell it.....
Basically as a 22 year old kid who didnt know any better i started having an affair with the drummers ex fiance..... They were separated for about 4 months.... We met randomly on a tour break in los angeles.... There was an attraction....I was the one who told him what was going on..... It was no where near as crazy as what was told in the press..... They both had moved on..... When i broke the news needless to say it did not go over favorably within the organization..... I went back to being a solo artist....In retrospect the only thing i would have done differently was broke the news at the end of the tour... Not 3/4 of the way through...Obviously in my mind i wasnt doing anything that would be deemed unacceptable.... If i thought i was i would have either kept quiet ornot gotten involved at all.....
THEN YOU WERE OF COARSE IN MR BIG FOR A LOT OF YEARS
4 years in mr big..... I remember when the first mr big cd came out.... I was a fan.... That cd was everything a rock and roll cd should be....Kick ass songs.... Great vocals great guitar playing and obviously billy sheehan....i was sent an advance promo copy from atlantic.... At the time atlantic was looking to buy my contract from shrapnel... I ended up going with interscope.... years later i never thought i would have been in mr big....
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Singing his soul
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At the time i was in vertu which was a band on sony that featured stanley clarke and lenny white from return to forever.It was a jazz fusion band.... We were making our cd at the site in san francisco. I went out to see eric martin the singer of mr big
perform at a bay area jam night.... I dressed up like a homeless guy with fake teeth and everything.... I kept trying to steal his
microphone during his set.... After he was done he escorted me outsideand asked me if i was ok... If i remember correctly he even offered me money.....Once i took out my fake teeth he realized who it was.... We got to talking and he asked me if i would consider replacing paul gilbert. We made a cd called get over it.... I knew the band was very famous in japan.... I did not realize how famous.... Our first show was in the the osaka dome in front of 50,000 people..... I ended up in the band for 4 years... We did 2 studio cds, 2 live cds and a dvd along with a fewcompilation records.... Ive always admired eric as a singer and i am still friends with billy sheehan even though the band has now been broken up for about 3 years...
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SHINE WAS PRETTY BIG. THAT WAS ONE OF YOURS RIGHT?
yes thats true.... i remember our producer richie zito was hounding us saying that we did not have a single.... i played him shine and we recorded the song the next day....
SO FORTY DEUCE WAS LOOKING REALLY GOOD, WHATS THE DEAL WITH THAT
NOW?
Unfortunately there is no deal.... Funny thing is now that the band doesnt exist the cd is finally being released in the united states....I saw it in best buy the other day.... Its a little late in my
opinion...
YEAH, I'VE HEARD A FEW TUNES FROM INTO THE BLACK, SOUNDING EXCELLENT RICHIE
Thanks.... That is my latest cd.... Its the first time i made a record just for myself. I spent a few years writing these songs and suddenly i felt like i had a record.....At this point ive been
selling it on i tunes and at richiekotzen.com. Ive gotten a real nice response from people... |
Richie with Mr Big |
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I LOVE THAT FIRST TRACK. YOU REALLY SOUND LIKE CHRIS CORNELL ON PARTS. YOUR SINGING HAS COME A LONG WAY
Thanks.... I like that song too... Its funny before soundgarden id get compared to david coverdale now its cornell... As long is i continue to be compared to great singers i wont complain...
YOU ALREADY HAVE LIKE A PHENOMINAL 17 ALBUMS UNDER YOUR BELT. SO
WHATS NEXT FOR RICHIE KOTZEN?
I never know whats next.... I really dont.... I love playing my guitar, singing, performing, and writing songs... I think its safe to say the
next thing i do will involve at leat one of those things if not all of them....
IM ACTUALLY IN MELBOURNE, AUSTRALIA. RUMOUR HAS IT YOUR COMING
DOWNUNDER?
That has been a rumour for many years.... Id love to do it....Ive never been there....im going to spain next week to do an acoustic
tour....Usually it comes down to economics.If someone send me the paper, ill play...
WELL IT'S BEEN A PLEASURE RICHIE. ALL THE BEST FOR THE FUTURE, HOPEFULLY WE CAN CATCH UP WHEN YOUR IN MELBOURNE?
For sure...
AND FINALLY, ANYTHING ELSE YOU WOULD LIKE TO ADD -
The new cd is called.... Into the black.... It is available at i tunes
usa and at http://www.richiekotzen.com
J.L.
check out our review of Richie's Into The Black album.
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