band - DRIvIN' RAIN interview with - Timexx Nasty

BP: Hola my good friend Timexx! How are you?

TN: I'm great Randy, thanks for asking. 2006 has been a good year for me, and I feel

even better about 2007.

 

BP: So, you guys recently played with Skid Row (WOW)...... how was it playing with one

of the greatest rock bands in history?

TN: It was a dream come true for us. And to date I'd say Skid Row is the biggest band

we have played with. As a kid I was always a huge Skid Row fan, and I always wanted

to open for them. So for the whole show I just kept thinking, I can't believe I'm here, I

can't believe those drums really say Skid Row. I saw them the first time in St. Louis on

the Sub-human Race Tour. I had front row tickets and Sebastian spit water all over

me. That was just one of my many baptisms of rock.

 

BP: Did you guys get to hang out after the show with the guys in Skid Row?

TN: I wouldn't say we hung out with them, but we did meet them at sound checks

before the show. The new drummer Dave was the first one we met. Scotti came in

later, then Rachel. Snake was not there that night as he was home sick, they had

Keri Kelli (from Alice Cooper's Dirty Diamonds Band) filling in for him. Never did

get to talk to singer Johnny Solinger. I have to say first that I love Skid Row's music,

and their live show was great. BUT! I was not real thrilled with them personally

that night. They did the whole rock star bit and hide out on the bus all day, then

left right away without meeting the crowd. I hate it when bands do that. Steppenwolf

was like that. As if they are to good to meet the people who paid to see them. It just seems to me, that they would have been happy that anyone was there to see them. Be grateful to the fans who still care, and at least meet with them while your back line is getting loaded up. Then make a grand exit, and pull off in the bus. But what would it have hurt them to sign a few autographs? I just felt bad for all the fans that was waiting around to meet them. You know tickets were $25.00 for a Wednesday night show. And its not like people were not buying merch. I saw lots of Skid Row shirts and Cd's. We are still very proud to have had the chance to open for Skid Row, and I'll always be a fan of the band and the music they make. I just think they could have been more gracious. Shit, now they will read this and never want to play with us again. However, on the plus side, Sebastian Bach will think we're cool.....

BP: DRIvIN' RAIN has played with legendary rock acts over the years - Nazareth, John Kay & Steppenwolf, Pat Travers, Saxon, Head East, Naked Beggars (Jeff Labar & Eric Brittingham of Cinderella), and now, Skid Row (to name a few). How in the hell do you guys get in with these great bands?

TN: Most of the time its luck, sometimes it is just because the bands know who we are. It all started with Black Oak Arkansas letting us play some dates with them. Then we got to open for Eddie Money out on the river at the City Of Roses Festival. From there we were able to get other gigs with bands like Nazareth, Pat Travers, Saxon, Revis, and then it just snowballs from there. We do a lot of cool Biker Rallies in the summer, and they always have headliners at those shows. So we get to play with lots of different bands at them. The other factor is good promo, and, that we have been around since 1994. That helps to let the promoters (or clubs) know, that we are at least a semi-pro band. We are also friends with a lot of these bands, so we can help book them show by calling them at home, and in a way cutting out the middle man. This will sometimes cut down the overall show price. And help us to book them ourselves, and then we open of course.

 

BP: Tell us your favorite story about playing with a national act.....

TN: Every show has a different story. Each band has its own memory. One funny story was when we played this show with The Kentucky Headhunters. They were in the rooms next to ours in the hotel. And we had been drinking and stuff for sometime, so then we decided to have a demo derby with the luggage carts in the hallway. We come flying down from both ends of the hall and smash them into each other in the middle. At the moment just before impact, the Headhunters wives come walking out of their room, and jump against the wall just as the carts smash together. Lucky for us they were not mad and just laughed at us.

But for me the best part of playing with nationals is hanging with the bands, and hearing the old storys. Like how Vinny Appice went from playing with John Lennon to playing in Black Sabbath. Or sitting in the hostel talking to Ron Keel about what it was like to be in band with Yngwie Malmsteen. I enjoyed talking to Jimmy Bain about how Rainbow started, or Jeff LaBar and why he thinks the hard rock sound died. Jim Dandy and Rickie Lee have the wildest stories. Like when they smoked a joint with Jimi Hendrix. Or when they had rooms next to David Bowie and he crashed their party. This is the stuff you don't hear about. And it's great to get it right from the source.

 

BP: The new DRIvIN' RAIN CD Delightfully Evil is out (which, we hope to get a review of the album up soon).Tell us a little about the album, and where someone can buy it....

TN: We are really proud of Delightfully Evil. Unlike the other albums this one was written by all of us. Each band member has a song or two that they wrote on it. And a few that we all wrote together as a band. But like the last one we have different style and feels. We have a blues tune called "Drink My Wine" that has Adam West and Bert Ward at the end. Its a old song from Tommy DeWolf that he wrote back in the 90s. We have a couple of punk songs on this one. I like "Anti-Everything" and "Like A Train" a lot. We of course have the token power ballad called "Silhouette". We also have some straight out metal rockers hat Skully Shemwell wrote. Lord Kirby Ray of Emaciation does some guest vocals on "Unmarked Grave" and a few others. The CD opens with a new one called "The Rain Is Coming Down", but we have been opening our shows with "When I Hit The Stage". We've already been getting radio play on "Get Lucky". "Toss Of The Dice" and "Delightfully Evil" have been big hits at the live shows. Geep Clark wrote a song called "Need Your Lovin" about a one night stand. And the whole thing closes with "Buried Alive" However we have two bonus live tracks hidden at the end. SO it's 15 songs total on this disc. We feel like this CD really represents Drivin Rain better then the others did. Both Cd's are on sale from www.perrisrecords.com. But we have all of our albums on sale at our website www.drivinrain.net/merch.html

 

BP: DRIvIN' RAIN recently inked a deal with Perris Records. In what ways has the deal helped the band?

TN: It has helped us to make friends like The Hollywood Allstarz, Enuff Z'Nuff, and L.A. Guns. Being a part of Perris helps us get our foot in the door with radio and magazines. It gives us the credibility to say we are on a label. This helps us get more opening spots and into clubs we could not play other wise. Places like The Stage Stop in Memphis, or The Static Bar in Topeka for the most part only book signed bands.

 

BP: You guys pump out Cd's left & right......and though we're all still getting our fix of Delightfully Evil, when might we expect the next DRIvIN' RAIN CD?

TN: We are in the early stages of working on the next album now. We have several new songs and still a few older ones left over. We plan to record this in Memphis at The Power Station (where Black Oak Arkansas has done their last two albums) our good friend Andy Tanas (of Krokus) will be producing it, and he plans to bring out the best of who we are. By not cutting us any slack. He pushes us really hard and will get great results in the end. And we feel he will help us break into that next stage of the bands existence. We hope to have the new one all done by winter 2007.

 

BP: I've got to say, the artwork and promo shots for the new album are fantastic. Do you guys do your own artwork & photos, or do you hire someone outside the band?

TN: The ideas were all ours, but we hired the legendary Brant Hutchcraft to get the look we wanted. He did a great job at presenting what we were asking for. The cover model is a friend of his and she had the exact look we wanted for this cover. One thing we wanted was to have someone new do this art work and layout, so it would look different from the last album. Steve Faris did all the work on the Drivin Rain cd. And he did a great job on that one. So we had to have someone that really knew what was going on. And we felt that Brant understood what being Delightfully Evil really is. He has done so many great metal albums with Enchanter and on his own. He was really the only choice for this CD. Brant really understands what evil is.

 

BP: I know you guys get shit from a lot of people about playing "80's rock", but if anything, I think you guys deserve credit for sticking to it for so long. If anything, I'd call it punk because it seems DRIvIN' RAIN could give a shit about what people think.........and in turn, I think the fans love you for that. Does it irritate or motivate you when people but labels on your band?

TN: We came from a different time. From the tail end of the 80s. When I was young it was your duty to discover who influenced your favorite bands. So I'd learn about bands like Aerosmith, Black Sabbath, or The Rolling Stones. I learned about lots of great 70s music. And I saw where it all came from. Back then it was cool to know your music, to understand the bands you liked, you had to know where it all came from. Today's kids don't want to know about anything before Nirvana. And that is sad for them, because they miss out on some of the best music of the modern age. It's no wonder the music business is sinking. They have all forgot their past. And you can't know where music is going unless you know where it's been. Kids today will never really understand what the 80s were all about. Back then I didn't have cable TV, or PlayStation's, or X Boxes. It was all about the music, people would line up a round the block to see bands. Every guy wanted to be in a band, and every girl wanted to sleep with a musician, any musician. I use to love going to concert hours early and hanging out in the parking lot getting high and drunk before the concert. I'd always look for the older guys with the vintage concert shirts and go hear story's about classic KISS Concerts and Ozzy Osbourne. You would go and camp out for tickets days early, just to party. And it was all so cool. You just can't do that stuff no more. This was all before the "D.A.R.E. and No Child Left Behind Programs" . If you were a metal-head back then you got left behind. I can't think of how many times I had to sit in the hall at school for wearing a Motley Crue shirt, or God forbid I show up in a DIO, or Iron Maiden shirt. I remember being sent home once for wearing a Krokus shirt. Metal-heads back then were truly The Last In Line. I would not say DRIvIN' RAIN is punk, but maybe our attitude is. Bands like Guns N Roses, Skid Row, Bang Tango, and Faster Pussycat all have punk feels to them. That, I don't give a fuck what you think mentality. Metal has always been a big middle finger in the face of the world. And when people talk trash about us it make us keep moving on just to piss them off.

BP: The group has been together more than 12 years, longer than any local band I can think of. How have you guys stuck together so long? What's the secret to your longevity?

TN: Me and Tommy started this band in 1994, and its been a long road to hold since then. When we started Drivin Rain the hard rock sound was already out. Everyone was changing into grunge bands. We decided right then to stick to our guns, and play what we want, no matter what the new "in thing" was. If hard rock comes back then we'll be ready, if not, then we'll ride this ship down.

 

BP: For those who don't know, Timexx is, I believe, cousins with Jim Dandy from Black Oak Arkansas. Is that right?

TN: Yes, I am kin to The Dandy from my mothers side. My grandfather was from the town of Black Oak and is buried in a cotton field just outside of town today. I remember going to family reunions down there as a kid, and I'd see Jim and Rickie, hanging around the cooked pig and the keg in the barn. They were so cool with long hair and wild big titted women on their arms. But it was years latter before I knew they were rock stars.

 

BP: Are you guys planning any more shows with BOA in the future?

TN: We are always planning new show with Black Oak Arkansas, we play with a lot of nationals but they are always my favorite. I think we have played with them like 10 times already. It's always crazy to try and hang with Jim Dandy.

BP: You guys play the Tommy Bolin Fest annually........tell us a little more about the festival.

TN: Tommy Bolin was the from Sioux City, and he went for being a loud mouth local kid, to being the replacement for Ritchie Blackmore in Deep Purple. He was also the hand picked replacement for Joe Walsh in The James Gang. Tommy scored a few hits on his own before he died of a drug overdose on December 4, 1976. His little brother Johnnie Bolin is the drummer for Black Oak Arkansas now, and he does this music festival every year in his honor. Bands like Deep Purple, Black Oak, Tesla, Vanilla Fudge, Derek St. Holmes (of Ted Nugent's Band), and Deep Purple's Glenn Hughes, have all done The Bolin Fest in the past. Last year I was lucky enough to stay at the Bolin Family estate and sleep in Tommy Bolin's room. Right under his gold albums on the wall. His room was just as he left it, and I was thrilled to sit in the middle of the room and flip threw his personal record collection.

BP: Timexx, you've always done a lot for younger bands and the local music scene. Kudos for that, it seems everyone cares too much about their own band to even go see another band perform. Tell us about the venue "Enchanted Forest".....what were your goals for that, and how do you think it has improved the Cape music scene?

TN: I feel I have to help out the younger bands when they want it. Back in the late 80s (when I was a teen) we could not play anywhere. SO, I would invent shows, like Peace Fest or Cape's Masters Of Rock. Or play at Danny's Pizza or Anna Teen Town. I always said then hat when I was older I would help out the younger bands. And I have been true to my word. I can't take credit for The Enchanted Forest. That is really my families business. My parents own the building, and let us do these shows. But the idea was really Daniel and Chase's from Fists of Phoenix. We all talked it over and started doing them mostly to help FoP have a place to play. Since then it has grown into it's own, and become a great place for kids to see younger bands without having to go to a bar.

 

BP: I wanted to ask you one more question... about your Cherokee background. Tell me a little about that.

TN: My mother is almost full blood Cherokee. She was the Deputy Chief of The Northern Cherokee Nation in the late 90s. Her great grandparents were on the Trail Of Tears. I think that is where some of my soul comes from. Yes I'm a Rock 'N Roll Indian, which really is not that uncommon. Steven Tyler, Cher, and Jimi Hendrix are all Cherokee. I think that is where the melodies come from. No matter what a Cherokee will always survive and rebuild him self over and over again. You just can't hold us down, because our spirits are always free.

 

BP: Well, that's about it bro. Any shows coming up that you want to plug?

TN: We will be back at The Tommy Bolin fest on August 4 with Black Oak. June 26 we will be in Oglala South Dakota, for the 7th Annual Oglala Commemoration for the release of Leonard Peltier. What ever other shows we have are always posted at our myspace or at www.drivinrain.net. We always have something new in the works and some shows spring up quite quickly, so just keep checking there or www.myspace.com/drivinrain.

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