Latest / Booked On Rock with Eric Senich / [EP 432] Zebra: Breaking a 23-Year Album Silence with Randy Jackson

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[EP 432] Zebra: Breaking a 23-Year Album Silence with Randy Jackson · Booked On Rock with Eric Senich

• 0:00
  Speaker 1: We never introduced the originals. That was our little secret.
• 0:04
  Speaker 1: Whenever anybody says, you know, this is one of our songs,
• 0:07
  Speaker 1: it's like, oh, here we go. What is this going
• 0:09
  Speaker 1: to be, you know? So we just didn't do it.
• 0:11
  Speaker 1: We just played the songs. Never introduced them as our songs.
• 0:15
  Speaker 1: And we'd get honest opinions about it. You know, people
• 0:17
  Speaker 1: would say, what was that song that you played? Usually
• 0:20
  Speaker 1: they're asking you about it because they liked it. And
• 0:23
  Speaker 1: it had a lot to do with what ended up
• 0:24
  Speaker 1: on the first Zebra record.
• 0:26
  Speaker 2: We're totally booked.
• 0:27
  Speaker 1: Rock and roll! Wow. I think I'll leave you to
• 0:31
  Speaker 1: your reading. Little Hans says it's time to rock and roll.
• 0:33
  Speaker 1: Rock and roll!
• 0:35
  Speaker 2: We are totally booked. Welcome back to Booked on Rock.
• 0:43
  Speaker 2: Conversations with authors, musicians, and insiders revealing the stories behind
• 0:47
  Speaker 2: classic rock's greatest songs, albums, and artists. I'm Eric Senech.
• 0:52
  Speaker 2: Thanks for joining us. After 23 years between studio albums,
• 0:56
  Speaker 2: Zebra returns November 13th. with Zebra 5 featuring all three
• 1:02
  Speaker 2: founding members and the lead single Walk With You, co-written
• 1:06
  Speaker 2: by Randy Jackson and Paul Stanley of KISS. And joining
• 1:09
  Speaker 2: me is guitarist and lead vocalist Randy Jackson to talk
• 1:12
  Speaker 2: about the new record, the stories behind some of Zebra's classics,
• 1:16
  Speaker 2: and what keeps this trio creating after more than 50
• 1:19
  Speaker 2: years together. Randy, thank you for being here.
• 1:22
  Speaker 1: Oh, thanks for having me, Eric.
• 1:23
  Speaker 2: Zebra kept performing throughout the 23 years between studio albums.
• 1:28
  Speaker 2: I was just telling you, a friend of mine goes
• 1:30
  Speaker 2: to see you pretty much every time you come to
• 1:31
  Speaker 2: New York to Daryl's place, right? Daryl Hall's venue there.
• 1:36
  Speaker 2: What finally turned zebra five from something that you wanted
• 1:39
  Speaker 2: to make into a finished record?
• 1:42
  Speaker 1: Well, I think, uh, you know, our, our new manager,
• 1:45
  Speaker 1: Dave Rothstein, who joined us about three or four years ago, uh,
• 1:52
  Speaker 1: he kind of put the fire underneath us and said,
• 1:55
  Speaker 1: you know, you guys, you guys better get going if
• 1:57
  Speaker 1: you ever want to get this record out. And Guy
• 2:00
  Speaker 1: and I started putting some arrangements together, some of the
• 2:04
  Speaker 1: tunes back in 2023. And then I called Jack Douglas
• 2:10
  Speaker 1: to see if he'd be interested in doing, producing some
• 2:14
  Speaker 1: of the songs. We hadn't worked with Jack since the
• 2:17
  Speaker 1: first two records. And Jack said he was really into it.
• 2:20
  Speaker 1: And I think Once he got involved, we were on
• 2:25
  Speaker 1: the way. We were going to be doing this thing
• 2:27
  Speaker 1: for real.
• 2:28
  Speaker 2: You co-wrote Walk With You with Paul Stanley of Kiss,
• 2:30
  Speaker 2: like I mentioned. This goes back to 1991, this song?
• 2:35
  Speaker 1: Yeah. It had been on the shelf for a long time.
• 2:39
  Speaker 1: I'd written it. Originally, it was written for a project
• 2:43
  Speaker 1: I was doing, a solo project, China Rain, it was called.
• 2:48
  Speaker 1: Paul and I wrote it. It's his place, and I
• 2:51
  Speaker 1: did a demo for it and it put it on
• 2:55
  Speaker 1: the shelf. It was going to be on a record
• 2:57
  Speaker 1: maybe later down the road, but it never saw the
• 2:59
  Speaker 1: light of day. And it had been there. And as
• 3:02
  Speaker 1: I was going through material for the new Zebra record,
• 3:05
  Speaker 1: you know, I pulled that down and, you know, showed
• 3:09
  Speaker 1: it to Felix and Guy.
• 3:10
  Speaker 2: They loved it.
• 3:11
  Speaker 1: And, uh, and I contacted Paul. I said, you know,
• 3:14
  Speaker 1: how would you feel about us doing this on the
• 3:16
  Speaker 1: new Zebra record? He didn't remember the song and, And
• 3:20
  Speaker 1: I said, so I sent it to him and it
• 3:23
  Speaker 1: reminded him and he thought it was a good idea.
• 3:26
  Speaker 1: He liked it.
• 3:27
  Speaker 2: It's a killer track. I mean, every song on this album,
• 3:30
  Speaker 2: I got an advanced copy or MP3 of the album.
• 3:35
  Speaker 2: Every single track on here is killer. So that leads
• 3:39
  Speaker 2: to my question. And Conqueror Worm is probably my favorite,
• 3:42
  Speaker 2: maybe of all of these. But this song in particular,
• 3:45
  Speaker 2: why was it the right song to introduce Zebra's Return?
• 3:49
  Speaker 1: You know, I think it's kind of just kind of
• 3:51
  Speaker 1: representative of the way the whole album is. When I
• 3:55
  Speaker 1: listen to the whole thing, it's got a nice hook
• 3:58
  Speaker 1: to it, something you can remember. A lot of people
• 4:00
  Speaker 1: said that they had it ringing in their heads. So
• 4:06
  Speaker 1: we thought it was a good idea to go with
• 4:09
  Speaker 1: this one first. We originally were going to go with
• 4:11
  Speaker 1: another song, which is going to be the second single
• 4:15
  Speaker 1: off of it, All Your Love. Uh, but at the
• 4:19
  Speaker 1: end of the day, you know, everybody that was involved
• 4:21
  Speaker 1: in making the decision decided to be, uh, walk with you.
• 4:26
  Speaker 1: Plus we had a, you know, the, the, uh, Paul
• 4:28
  Speaker 1: Stanley hook was, uh, something to promote it with, you know?
• 4:33
  Speaker 2: Sure.
• 4:33
  Speaker 1: So for people that weren't that familiar with Zebra, at
• 4:36
  Speaker 1: least they'd be familiar with Paul and maybe get a
• 4:39
  Speaker 1: little interested in what was going on. Yeah.
• 4:41
  Speaker 2: And of course, Jack Douglas, that name. People sure know
• 4:44
  Speaker 2: that name. And like you said, you worked with him again.
• 4:47
  Speaker 2: And sadly, Douglas passed this year. What did he bring
• 4:50
  Speaker 2: to these sessions?
• 4:52
  Speaker 1: Well, I mean, for this particular song, for instance, you know,
• 4:57
  Speaker 1: he added stuff I wouldn't have even thought of. I mean,
• 4:59
  Speaker 1: if you listen to the background of what's going on,
• 5:02
  Speaker 1: it sounds like just an all guitar song, but there's
• 5:05
  Speaker 1: piano and there's all these little elements that he put
• 5:09
  Speaker 1: into the mix that made a big difference in the
• 5:12
  Speaker 1: song just made it a lot bigger and built it
• 5:14
  Speaker 1: towards the end um jack didn't do the whole record
• 5:18
  Speaker 1: he did five songs he picked five songs he wanted
• 5:21
  Speaker 1: to do and uh and this was one of them
• 5:24
  Speaker 1: and you know he's just the the great part about
• 5:27
  Speaker 1: jack is that he's an engineer he's also uh a
• 5:31
  Speaker 1: musician um you know and he's he's he's All around,
• 5:38
  Speaker 1: he could do anything. You need him to do something
• 5:40
  Speaker 1: in the studio. He's there. He's not one of these
• 5:42
  Speaker 1: guys that depends on other people. He likes to have
• 5:46
  Speaker 1: people there to help out, but he can do it all.
• 5:49
  Speaker 1: A lot of magic comes from Jack, and he's so creative.
• 5:53
  Speaker 1: I'm going to miss him. He was a lot of fun, too.
• 5:56
  Speaker 1: A lot of comedy with Jack. I can't believe he's gone.
• 6:03
  Speaker 2: Yeah, he will be missed by the fans, too, for sure.
• 6:06
  Speaker 2: how far back to the oldest ideas on this album go?
• 6:09
  Speaker 2: And is there a song that changed the most between
• 6:11
  Speaker 2: its original conception and the finished recording?
• 6:15
  Speaker 1: The oldest song is the last time. And the last
• 6:20
  Speaker 1: time is actually the first song that I wrote for
• 6:23
  Speaker 1: zebra back in 19. So I think I wrote it
• 6:26
  Speaker 1: in 74 and we were playing it when we first
• 6:29
  Speaker 1: started playing, but we never did put it on a
• 6:31
  Speaker 1: studio record. It just, uh, We did a live version
• 6:36
  Speaker 1: of it, but it never got into the studio. But
• 6:41
  Speaker 1: it works. It's amazing. Your first song and then take
• 6:45
  Speaker 1: the rest of the material and they work on the
• 6:48
  Speaker 1: same record. So we've stuck to our guns. That's what
• 6:52
  Speaker 1: that says.
• 6:53
  Speaker 2: But also vocally, you're able to, I don't know what
• 6:56
  Speaker 2: the vocals were at the time when this was originally
• 6:58
  Speaker 2: written and what the difference is there. But man, you
• 7:01
  Speaker 2: sound awesome. The whole band sounds great. And I wonder
• 7:04
  Speaker 2: if you have any secrets to maintaining your voice. And
• 7:08
  Speaker 2: I'm assuming also playing regularly over the last 23 years
• 7:11
  Speaker 2: also helped, too, for all three of you.
• 7:14
  Speaker 1: Oh, yeah. It's a muscle, you know, and just like
• 7:16
  Speaker 1: an athlete, you know, if you don't use it, you're
• 7:19
  Speaker 1: going to lose it. And so I always tell singers,
• 7:22
  Speaker 1: just make sure that you vocalize every day. The more
• 7:26
  Speaker 1: you sing, the better off you're going to be. You know,
• 7:29
  Speaker 1: I mean, overdoing it's going to rat your voice out.
• 7:34
  Speaker 1: But when you don't use it, you lose everything. You know,
• 7:36
  Speaker 1: you lose your ability to be able to sing a
• 7:40
  Speaker 1: whole set.
• 7:41
  Speaker 2: You know, it.
• 7:43
  Speaker 1: Just all goes. So it's like a runner. You know,
• 7:47
  Speaker 1: if you're going to do a whole show and it's
• 7:51
  Speaker 1: like kind of running a marathon, you can't just, it's
• 7:55
  Speaker 1: not a short sprint. And I even take care of
• 7:59
  Speaker 1: your voice. I always warm up before I perform, which,
• 8:04
  Speaker 1: You know, it helps a lot, especially the older you get.
• 8:06
  Speaker 1: I really feel it's absolutely necessary for me to warm up. Otherwise,
• 8:12
  Speaker 1: you know, it might take a while for my voice
• 8:14
  Speaker 1: to warm up on stage. And, you know, lots of water.
• 8:20
  Speaker 2: And scheduling-wise, do you try to make sure you space
• 8:23
  Speaker 2: it out enough to get enough rest between gigs? Doing
• 8:26
  Speaker 2: back-to-back can be tough, right?
• 8:28
  Speaker 1: Well, back-to-back is okay for me. It actually... if we
• 8:33
  Speaker 1: do like three shows in a row, usually my third
• 8:35
  Speaker 1: show is the best show vocally.
• 8:37
  Speaker 2: Wow.
• 8:38
  Speaker 1: Yeah. Um, which is, might sound surprising, but, uh, that's
• 8:43
  Speaker 1: just the way it worked for me. And, um, yeah.
• 8:46
  Speaker 1: And like I said, you got to sing every day,
• 8:48
  Speaker 1: you know, we've got a couple of shows coming up and, uh,
• 8:51
  Speaker 1: you know, I'm doing at least half the set every day. Uh,
• 8:56
  Speaker 1: I'll be singing and, uh, and going over stuff, you know?
• 9:00
  Speaker 1: Just to make sure I don't, you know, it doesn't
• 9:04
  Speaker 1: relax too much in between gigs.
• 9:08
  Speaker 2: You really belted out in those tracks going back to
• 9:11
  Speaker 2: the beginning. And you never think about that in the
• 9:13
  Speaker 2: early days, like, you know, 50 years from now, am
• 9:16
  Speaker 2: I going to be able to sing this stuff?
• 9:19
  Speaker 1: Well, you know, back then, are you even thinking you're
• 9:22
  Speaker 1: going to be singing this stuff when you're 70 years old?
• 9:24
  Speaker 2: I mean.
• 9:26
  Speaker 1: As far from my consciousness as I could imagine, you know,
• 9:30
  Speaker 1: back then.
• 9:31
  Speaker 2: Yeah. Well, Jack Douglas produced all those Aerosmith albums. And
• 9:34
  Speaker 2: it's interesting. Steven Tyler just made his return with Aerosmith.
• 9:38
  Speaker 2: And he had said that they had to call it
• 9:40
  Speaker 2: quits because his voice, he said his voice wasn't up
• 9:43
  Speaker 2: to it anymore. But he sounded good to me. And
• 9:46
  Speaker 2: I don't know if you know anything more than we
• 9:49
  Speaker 2: do about what happened with his voice or what he
• 9:51
  Speaker 2: had to do to get back.
• 9:52
  Speaker 1: I really don't know, but I'm so glad he's back,
• 9:54
  Speaker 1: you know, because he's such a great singer. And, you know,
• 9:58
  Speaker 1: so whatever, he knew it was time to take some
• 10:00
  Speaker 1: time off, obviously, and did the right thing.
• 10:03
  Speaker 2: Who are some of the vocalists that you're a fan of,
• 10:06
  Speaker 2: you were a fan of growing up?
• 10:08
  Speaker 1: Robert Plant, of course. I was a big fan of
• 10:12
  Speaker 1: the Beatles. Huge. And just their harmonies and the way
• 10:18
  Speaker 1: they were able to perform live. They were such great
• 10:21
  Speaker 1: performers and pulling that stuff off live every night. They
• 10:24
  Speaker 1: were just, it was kind of magic, you know, with
• 10:26
  Speaker 1: the harmonies they had. Freddie Mercury, of course, you know,
• 10:31
  Speaker 1: Zebra used to do Queen early on and, you know,
• 10:35
  Speaker 1: I definitely have a, a high respect for him. You know, there's,
• 10:42
  Speaker 1: there's a lot of other, but I'd say those three,
• 10:46
  Speaker 1: you know, are my favorites.
• 10:48
  Speaker 2: Yeah, you built your reputation early on playing covers before
• 10:52
  Speaker 2: breaking through with the originals. Do you remember introducing an
• 10:56
  Speaker 2: original to a crowd and realize that, oh my God,
• 10:59
  Speaker 2: I've won them over? We got them now.
• 11:02
  Speaker 1: Well, yeah. We never introduced the originals. That was our
• 11:08
  Speaker 1: little secret. We just played them. In other words, okay,
• 11:13
  Speaker 1: ladies and gentlemen, it's time to go to the bathroom
• 11:15
  Speaker 1: because we're going to play an original song.
• 11:18
  Speaker 3: Yeah.
• 11:18
  Speaker 1: We just, yeah, we, we, we, we were in, you know,
• 11:21
  Speaker 1: we've been in the audience, you know, whenever anybody says,
• 11:25
  Speaker 1: you know, this is one of our songs, it's like, oh,
• 11:28
  Speaker 1: here we go. What is this going to be? You know?
• 11:30
  Speaker 1: So we just didn't do it. We just played the songs,
• 11:34
  Speaker 1: never introduced them as our songs. And until, until we'd
• 11:38
  Speaker 1: been playing for a while and, And we'd get honest
• 11:41
  Speaker 1: opinions about it. You know, people would say, what was
• 11:44
  Speaker 1: that song that you played, you know, right here? And
• 11:47
  Speaker 1: it kind of went like, they'll let you send the
• 11:49
  Speaker 1: last time. And they'd give you their honest opinion about it,
• 11:53
  Speaker 1: you know. Usually they're asking you about it because they
• 11:56
  Speaker 1: liked it. And it helped us to figure out what
• 12:00
  Speaker 1: songs we were going to keep. And it had a
• 12:04
  Speaker 1: lot to do with what we, what ended up on
• 12:07
  Speaker 1: the first Zebra record. You know, a lot of those
• 12:09
  Speaker 1: songs were Just songs that we had tested live and
• 12:11
  Speaker 1: it worked.
• 12:12
  Speaker 2: Yeah. Did Tell Me What You Want and Who's Beyond
• 12:15
  Speaker 2: the Door get responses from the crowds more than the others?
• 12:20
  Speaker 1: Yeah. The audience loved those songs.
• 12:22
  Speaker 2: Yeah.
• 12:23
  Speaker 1: They loved those songs. And there were a lot of
• 12:26
  Speaker 1: songs that went by the wayside, too. Well, for instance,
• 12:30
  Speaker 1: the last time wasn't a song we were getting as
• 12:34
  Speaker 1: many requests for, although people would request it. back then,
• 12:38
  Speaker 1: but we were playing the last time in that time
• 12:40
  Speaker 1: period before the first record. But over the years, people
• 12:45
  Speaker 1: still were asking for it. It wasn't like the most
• 12:47
  Speaker 1: requested song, but it was consistent. And I said, you
• 12:52
  Speaker 1: know what, let's put it for this album. This is appropriate.
• 12:56
  Speaker 1: Let's put the last time on there. So I did
• 12:59
  Speaker 1: a little bit of different stuff with the arrangement of it.
• 13:03
  Speaker 1: There's a guitar riff I do in the beginning of
• 13:06
  Speaker 1: the song. that I added some harmonies to. And I
• 13:11
  Speaker 1: also did a little vocal arrangement at the end on
• 13:15
  Speaker 1: the outro of the song. That's a little different what
• 13:18
  Speaker 1: people are used to. But basically the song is the
• 13:22
  Speaker 1: way we've done it since the very beginning. I could
• 13:26
  Speaker 1: have shortened the arrangement, you know, done what we did
• 13:29
  Speaker 1: with so many other songs and just made them a
• 13:31
  Speaker 1: little more tidy. But I said, nah, let's leave this
• 13:34
  Speaker 1: one exactly like it was. So it may sound a
• 13:37
  Speaker 1: little long, you know, when I listened to it, I
• 13:39
  Speaker 1: gotta cut this, cut that, but you know, this is
• 13:42
  Speaker 1: for the old fans, for me. And I wanted them
• 13:45
  Speaker 1: to hear it like they remember it.
• 13:48
  Speaker 2: And the vocal range, as far as the keys, everything
• 13:50
  Speaker 2: is pretty much the same for you?
• 13:51
  Speaker 1: Oh yeah, yeah, yeah.
• 13:52
  Speaker 2: Wow, man, that's awesome.
• 13:54
  Speaker 1: Yeah, I've been fortunate. That's all I can say. You know,
• 13:57
  Speaker 1: just luck.
• 14:01
  Speaker 2: You, Felix Hanneman, and Guy Gelso formed Zebra in New
• 14:03
  Speaker 2: Orleans in 75. What do you remember about the first
• 14:06
  Speaker 2: time you guys played together? Was there a specific moment
• 14:10
  Speaker 2: that you knew this partnership could be something special? There
• 14:13
  Speaker 2: was four members originally, wasn't it?
• 14:16
  Speaker 1: Yeah. When I met Guy, well, I met Felix first.
• 14:20
  Speaker 1: And Felix had a band called Shepard's Bush. And I
• 14:24
  Speaker 1: played guitar, that band. Felix, it was an original band.
• 14:28
  Speaker 1: And Felix wrote all the songs with his partner Eldridge.
• 14:32
  Speaker 1: And we played for about a year. And then the
• 14:34
  Speaker 1: band For one reason or another, we split up. And
• 14:40
  Speaker 1: a friend of mine who I was working for at
• 14:44
  Speaker 1: the time at a place called the library in New Orleans,
• 14:49
  Speaker 1: he was a manager there and he introduced me to Guy.
• 14:55
  Speaker 1: Guy had moved from California to New Orleans back in
• 14:59
  Speaker 1: 1971 for a Mardi Gras. And he decided not to
• 15:04
  Speaker 1: go back to California. He loved New Orleans, so he
• 15:07
  Speaker 1: stuck around. And Guy and I got together, and we
• 15:12
  Speaker 1: actually went to Felix's place, and we were playing together.
• 15:16
  Speaker 1: He and I, and just me and him on the drums.
• 15:19
  Speaker 1: And when I heard him play the drums the first time,
• 15:21
  Speaker 1: I was like, this guy's off the charts. I'd never
• 15:24
  Speaker 1: seen anybody play like this. He was really, really, really good.
• 15:28
  Speaker 1: I had a friend of mine from California. high school,
• 15:32
  Speaker 1: Tim Thorson, who played keyboards and brought Tim in. And
• 15:37
  Speaker 1: our whole idea was to kind of be a more
• 15:41
  Speaker 1: progressive band. We weren't looking to be like a hard
• 15:44
  Speaker 1: rock band or anything. And so we were doing, learning
• 15:48
  Speaker 1: some covers, but they were like King Crimson or Yes.
• 15:53
  Speaker 1: We were doing, you know, progressive stuff. Felix was just
• 15:58
  Speaker 1: depressed that his band, that the whole thing didn't work out.
• 16:02
  Speaker 1: you know, I went to him and I remembered him
• 16:04
  Speaker 1: telling me at one point that he was, he played
• 16:07
  Speaker 1: bass before he sang and played rhythm guitar. And I
• 16:11
  Speaker 1: asked him, you know, if he would be interested in
• 16:13
  Speaker 1: playing bass with us. So, you know, he came in
• 16:15
  Speaker 1: and gave it a shot and we went out and,
• 16:19
  Speaker 1: you know, as we called the band maelstrom, a name
• 16:23
  Speaker 1: nobody could remember. Uh, and, um, You know, we went
• 16:29
  Speaker 1: out and played some gigs and a lot of people
• 16:33
  Speaker 1: wanted to hear dance tunes because we were playing at
• 16:37
  Speaker 1: dances mainly. And so we had to learn some danceable
• 16:44
  Speaker 1: rock music. David Bowie, even ZZ Top, you know, was danceable,
• 16:49
  Speaker 1: some Rolling Stones. And our keyboard player, Tim, he wasn't
• 16:54
  Speaker 1: really into it.
• 16:55
  Speaker 2: He.
• 16:56
  Speaker 1: He didn't, this is not why he joined this band.
• 16:59
  Speaker 1: He wanted to do, he wanted to be doing Jethro
• 17:01
  Speaker 1: Tull and some other things. And I remember one night
• 17:06
  Speaker 1: that was so funny. He's, we're playing, I think we
• 17:10
  Speaker 1: were playing, we were playing David Bowie. It was Suffragette City,
• 17:14
  Speaker 1: I think. Playing Suffragette City and I'm singing and playing
• 17:18
  Speaker 1: and there's something just not sounding right. You know, we
• 17:22
  Speaker 1: didn't have a lot of equipment back then, but you
• 17:24
  Speaker 1: could certainly hear enough so you could hear what everybody,
• 17:26
  Speaker 1: you know, that everybody was playing. And something's weird. And
• 17:30
  Speaker 1: I turn around like during the solo and I'm seeing,
• 17:35
  Speaker 1: I'm hearing the keyboards just really just not even close.
• 17:39
  Speaker 1: You know, it's not like he's playing, playing the wrong
• 17:43
  Speaker 1: part or he's, you know, missing something. I mean, he's
• 17:45
  Speaker 1: just playing something completely different. And I walk over to him, Tim,
• 17:51
  Speaker 1: and he was really, really funny. This was great. He
• 17:54
  Speaker 1: had a, He had a tooth that he had, I
• 17:57
  Speaker 1: guess he had gotten knocked out in a fight and
• 17:58
  Speaker 1: he had a cap on his tooth. And I walk
• 18:02
  Speaker 1: over and I'm going, Suffragette City, Suffragette City. I could
• 18:06
  Speaker 1: hear him play something else.
• 18:07
  Speaker 2: He goes, he's about tall, tall.
• 18:11
  Speaker 1: And he's got, he pulled the cap off his tooth
• 18:13
  Speaker 1: and he's got that big gap.
• 18:15
  Speaker 2: In his teeth.
• 18:16
  Speaker 1: I mean, I almost had to stop playing. It was
• 18:20
  Speaker 1: just so funny, but, uh.
• 18:23
  Speaker 2: But anyway, was that his last show? His last gig?
• 18:26
  Speaker 1: Yeah. Yeah. He, you know, it was funny though. I mean,
• 18:29
  Speaker 1: I mean, really unbelievable. And, uh, but he, uh, yeah, he, he,
• 18:35
  Speaker 1: he left the band and then, uh, and then, so
• 18:37
  Speaker 1: we kind of regrouped as a three piece. And at
• 18:42
  Speaker 1: first we were looking for a lead singer. So we be,
• 18:45
  Speaker 1: you know, have a lead singer or a fourth member. And, uh,
• 18:50
  Speaker 1: it wasn't working out, you know, we just weren't finding who,
• 18:53
  Speaker 1: what we were looking for. And, and all three of
• 18:56
  Speaker 1: us sang guy and Felix and I, so we decided
• 18:59
  Speaker 1: to go out as a three piece and we shared
• 19:02
  Speaker 1: the singing responsibilities. And that just, um, uh, you know, it,
• 19:08
  Speaker 1: it led to what was going to be zebra. I mean,
• 19:11
  Speaker 1: I think, uh, a lot of the, uh, the fact
• 19:14
  Speaker 1: that Felix was able to play the keyboards, you know,
• 19:17
  Speaker 1: we did, we did some, uh, Moody Blues, and we
• 19:20
  Speaker 1: were doing some Stones that had some keyboard songs, and
• 19:25
  Speaker 1: Felix was able to cover that pretty well. Led to,
• 19:30
  Speaker 1: you know, what Zebra became, being able to do bass, guitar,
• 19:33
  Speaker 1: and drums and stretch it out a little bit. I mean,
• 19:35
  Speaker 1: I was always a big fan of the Moody Blues,
• 19:38
  Speaker 1: and a big influence on me in adding the keyboards
• 19:42
  Speaker 1: to the band led to being able to do a
• 19:46
  Speaker 1: lot more with the music.
• 19:49
  Speaker 2: Guy, by the way, is it on Direction? There's one track.
• 19:51
  Speaker 2: He's killing it. He kicks off the track. Is that
• 19:55
  Speaker 2: the one, right?
• 19:56
  Speaker 3: Yeah.
• 19:56
  Speaker 1: He leads off with the drum thing.
• 20:00
  Speaker 2: Oh, man. Yeah. That is one of the songs off
• 20:05
  Speaker 2: the brand new album, Zebra 5, which comes out November 13th. Maelstrom,
• 20:09
  Speaker 2: where did that name come from? And then I read
• 20:11
  Speaker 2: it today, but I'm forgetting already the name Zebra. How
• 20:14
  Speaker 2: did you come up with that?
• 20:15
  Speaker 1: Yeah, down into the Maelstrom, I guess. You know, I'm
• 20:18
  Speaker 1: thinking maybe it was an Edgar Allen Poe song, you know,
• 20:21
  Speaker 1: a poem.
• 20:22
  Speaker 2: A poem, okay.
• 20:23
  Speaker 1: A poem, yeah. I'm pretty sure it was.
• 20:26
  Speaker 2: I have one of his books here. I'll look for
• 20:28
  Speaker 2: it in there.
• 20:30
  Speaker 1: Just ask Siri, she'll tell us. But yeah, that's where...
• 20:36
  Speaker 1: it came from, I don't really remember why we picked
• 20:41
  Speaker 1: that name or who, but, but yeah, it was, you know,
• 20:45
  Speaker 1: that was our, kind of our logo was a whirlpool,
• 20:48
  Speaker 1: you know, which is what a maelstrom is in the
• 20:51
  Speaker 1: middle of the ocean. It's like a little tornado in
• 20:54
  Speaker 1: the water. And, uh, so we named it maelstrom and no,
• 20:58
  Speaker 1: you know, we're young, we're not thinking, oh, this is cool.
• 21:01
  Speaker 1: This is different. You know, well, I think it was
• 21:03
  Speaker 1: a little too different. Uh, and, That was when we
• 21:07
  Speaker 1: were the four-piece. That was with Tim. And people couldn't
• 21:11
  Speaker 1: remember it. What's the name of your band again? Maelstrom.
• 21:15
  Speaker 1: What does that mean exactly?
• 21:17
  Speaker 2: Maelstorm? Maelstrom?
• 21:19
  Speaker 1: Maelstrom, yeah. So then we changed the name when we
• 21:27
  Speaker 1: became three-piece. We actually just met at a bar in
• 21:33
  Speaker 1: New Orleans called The Boot. It was up near Tulane
• 21:38
  Speaker 1: University campus. And we had, each of us had a
• 21:44
  Speaker 1: list of names. And between Felix and Guy and I,
• 21:47
  Speaker 1: we couldn't agree on anything. And we were about to
• 21:49
  Speaker 1: give up. And there was a picture of a woman
• 21:52
  Speaker 1: riding a zebra right up above where we were. And
• 21:56
  Speaker 1: it was like a decoupage, if anybody knows what that is. And,
• 22:01
  Speaker 1: you know... I saw it as, man, look, zebra. Let's
• 22:05
  Speaker 1: just call it zebra. That sounds cool. And we were
• 22:09
  Speaker 1: all drunk enough to all agree at that point. I
• 22:12
  Speaker 1: love you, man.
• 22:15
  Speaker 2: Yeah. And what's interesting is you built this following in
• 22:19
  Speaker 2: New Orleans, but you went to Long Island, took a
• 22:21
  Speaker 2: chance on the club scene there. What was the hardest
• 22:24
  Speaker 2: part of starting over? What convinced you that that move
• 22:27
  Speaker 2: could pay off?
• 22:28
  Speaker 1: I didn't think we were going to get any record
• 22:30
  Speaker 1: company attention by staying in New Orleans. I mean, the
• 22:33
  Speaker 1: record companies were physically in New York and Los Angeles,
• 22:38
  Speaker 1: and I didn't know any bands that really had gotten
• 22:42
  Speaker 1: record deals in New Orleans. Not rock bands, anyway. You know,
• 22:46
  Speaker 1: they were all looking for jazz bands or rhythm and
• 22:49
  Speaker 1: blues down there. A lot of recording was going on
• 22:52
  Speaker 1: down there, but it wasn't in the rock genre, so
• 22:58
  Speaker 1: we figured we needed to make a move. And we
• 23:00
  Speaker 1: needed to get out of New Orleans anyway. New Orleans
• 23:04
  Speaker 1: isn't really that big. There's only half a million people
• 23:07
  Speaker 1: in New Orleans, and you can only play the same
• 23:11
  Speaker 1: places so many times. So we needed to really kind
• 23:15
  Speaker 1: of make ourselves scarce. And we knew some people in
• 23:20
  Speaker 1: New York. We had friends of ours in New Orleans
• 23:23
  Speaker 1: that had relatives up in New York who knew some
• 23:25
  Speaker 1: club owners. And we'll make a long story short. We
• 23:30
  Speaker 1: got to, uh, got a gig up in New York
• 23:32
  Speaker 1: on new year's Eve going from 1976 to 1977. And, uh,
• 23:39
  Speaker 1: two days we play and we played with a band
• 23:42
  Speaker 1: called rat race choir.
• 23:44
  Speaker 2: Oh yeah. Yeah. I remember that name.
• 23:47
  Speaker 1: Oh, well, what a, what an awesome band. I mean,
• 23:49
  Speaker 1: we were just blown away. I was like, welcome to
• 23:52
  Speaker 1: New York. You know, they were just so, so great. Um,
• 23:56
  Speaker 1: And as a matter of fact, one of the songs
• 23:57
  Speaker 1: on the new record features the guitarist from Rat Race Choir.
• 24:01
  Speaker 1: His name is Mark Hitt. And unfortunately, Mark passed away
• 24:07
  Speaker 1: about four years ago now. But this was a demo
• 24:11
  Speaker 1: that he and I had done. And so he's playing
• 24:15
  Speaker 1: on it. And I just pulled his guitar part off
• 24:17
  Speaker 1: the demo. And we used it in the song. It's
• 24:20
  Speaker 1: called Love Sex is the name of the song. Oh, yeah. Yeah,
• 24:23
  Speaker 1: you know the guitar solo in the beginning of the song?
• 24:27
  Speaker 2: Yeah.
• 24:28
  Speaker 1: That's Mark.
• 24:28
  Speaker 2: Oh, that's him. Yeah. Okay.
• 24:31
  Speaker 1: He's ferocious. He's like one of my favorite guitarists. I'm
• 24:35
  Speaker 1: glad we were able to do that.
• 24:37
  Speaker 2: Was Atlantic Records the first label to sign you? Were
• 24:40
  Speaker 2: there others interested?
• 24:42
  Speaker 1: We were turned down by everybody. We were even turned
• 24:45
  Speaker 1: down by Atlantic. We had a manager here on Long Island,
• 24:50
  Speaker 1: Phil Basile, who had managed the vanilla fudge and, you know,
• 24:54
  Speaker 1: we made demos and Phil was, you know, we were
• 24:57
  Speaker 1: playing all over the place and doing really well. And, uh,
• 25:00
  Speaker 1: you know, Phil had shopped the, uh, demos to so
• 25:05
  Speaker 1: many labels. It was crazy, but he just didn't have
• 25:07
  Speaker 1: any luck. And, uh, I remember him telling us one
• 25:11
  Speaker 1: of the comments was that, you know, if, if, uh,
• 25:14
  Speaker 1: he had brought us to them, earlier, 10 years ago. Oh,
• 25:19
  Speaker 1: we would have signed him right away, but this isn't
• 25:21
  Speaker 1: going to work right now. You know, this was like
• 25:23
  Speaker 1: around 1978, 79. And so, uh, Phil got involved in
• 25:28
  Speaker 1: a whole bunch of other things. He was a huge
• 25:30
  Speaker 1: club owner on Long Island. And, uh, and so, uh,
• 25:35
  Speaker 1: we kind of parted ways at that point because, you know,
• 25:38
  Speaker 1: he had tried and didn't work. And meantime, we went
• 25:43
  Speaker 1: out to California and, uh, trying our luck out there.
• 25:47
  Speaker 1: We had a different guy who was managing us out there.
• 25:51
  Speaker 1: And in the meantime, a DJ here on Long Island,
• 25:55
  Speaker 1: one of the guys who... Well, he was actually a
• 25:58
  Speaker 1: program director at a radio station called WBAB. And his
• 26:03
  Speaker 1: name is Bob Buckman. And Bob started playing our demos.
• 26:07
  Speaker 1: He was getting requests to play the Zebra music. He
• 26:10
  Speaker 1: had it. It was the same demos that had been shopped. And...
• 26:15
  Speaker 1: started getting tons of requests for it. And so here
• 26:18
  Speaker 1: we were getting airplay on our demos. And, uh, you know, he, he,
• 26:24
  Speaker 1: in his conversations with different people, he talked to Jason
• 26:27
  Speaker 1: Flom at Atlantic records and told him, you know, these
• 26:31
  Speaker 1: guys are really, you know, happening here on long Island. They're,
• 26:34
  Speaker 1: they're getting their most requested band at the station. And, uh,
• 26:38
  Speaker 1: Jason was pretty impressed and took the, uh, demo, uh,
• 26:43
  Speaker 1: back to atlantic now at this point atlantic records had
• 26:47
  Speaker 1: had some changes doug morris had just become president of
• 26:50
  Speaker 1: atlantic so whoever had heard us before wasn't there and
• 26:54
  Speaker 1: this was so we were kind of fresh to them
• 26:56
  Speaker 1: at this point and uh you know doug heard the
• 27:01
  Speaker 1: the music and uh signed us right away it was
• 27:05
  Speaker 1: uh you know the story was he was going back
• 27:09
  Speaker 1: home in a you know a He was being driven
• 27:14
  Speaker 1: home and he put the tape. It was a tape
• 27:20
  Speaker 1: cassette into the cassette deck in the back of the car.
• 27:24
  Speaker 1: And he's listening to the intro to who's behind the door.
• 27:27
  Speaker 1: And it's going on and on and on and on.
• 27:29
  Speaker 1: And he, and he ejects it. He says, yeah, this is, there's,
• 27:32
  Speaker 1: there's no single here, you know? And when he ejects
• 27:36
  Speaker 1: the tape though, the, the radio is tuned into WBAB
• 27:40
  Speaker 1: and they're playing the song. Ah, that's awesome.
• 27:44
  Speaker 3: Yeah.
• 27:44
  Speaker 1: He's, he's like going, putting it back in, you know,
• 27:49
  Speaker 1: checking this out. And sure enough, he's sure it's the
• 27:53
  Speaker 1: same song. So he, He listens to it on the radio.
• 27:55
  Speaker 1: And at the end, you know, the DJ says, that's
• 27:58
  Speaker 1: the number one requested song here at BAB for the
• 28:00
  Speaker 1: last two months. And who was behind the door? Zebra. And,
• 28:04
  Speaker 1: you know, we were signed.
• 28:05
  Speaker 2: What a story.
• 28:06
  Speaker 1: Yeah, it's crazy.
• 28:08
  Speaker 2: Because they're always looking for the first three to five seconds.
• 28:11
  Speaker 2: Is it going to catch people's attention? But that, you know,
• 28:14
  Speaker 2: rock radio was very different. The people that listen to
• 28:18
  Speaker 2: FM rock radio, I mean, you know, they.
• 28:22
  Speaker 1: Yeah. I mean, you know, and we were coming from
• 28:24
  Speaker 1: that era of album oriented rock, you know, and it
• 28:29
  Speaker 1: was just, you know, so for us, the demo was great,
• 28:33
  Speaker 1: but at the time, you know, there were a lot
• 28:35
  Speaker 1: of bands coming, uh, like the cars and, and other
• 28:39
  Speaker 1: bands that were, you know, doing the pop music that
• 28:41
  Speaker 1: got right to the point, you know, you had a,
• 28:44
  Speaker 1: a verse and, and a chorus and, uh, this, this
• 28:47
  Speaker 1: was not what was going on with who's behind the door.
• 28:51
  Speaker 1: But we did have some songs that had great choruses
• 28:54
  Speaker 1: in them too. So he must have listened to more
• 28:56
  Speaker 1: of the tape and heard like One More Chance and
• 28:59
  Speaker 1: Tell Me What You Want and decided, okay, we can
• 29:01
  Speaker 1: do something with this.
• 29:05
  Speaker 2: To this day, I hear Tell Me What You Want
• 29:07
  Speaker 2: and Who's Behind the Door on FM radio, satellite radio.
• 29:11
  Speaker 2: Take me back to writing Tell Me What You Want.
• 29:13
  Speaker 2: Start with that one. What came first, the guitar riff,
• 29:16
  Speaker 2: the vocal melody, the words? I mean, how did, How
• 29:19
  Speaker 2: did the three of you shape that into a finished song?
• 29:22
  Speaker 1: It all came fast. I was mentioning earlier that our
• 29:29
  Speaker 1: first manager, Phil Basile, he had nightclubs, and one of
• 29:36
  Speaker 1: them we played all the time. It was called Speaks.
• 29:39
  Speaker 1: And after a night at speaks i think i'd gone
• 29:42
  Speaker 1: back to my apartment in long beach new york and
• 29:45
  Speaker 1: had a bunch of friends over it was about seven
• 29:47
  Speaker 1: eight o'clock in the morning and you know we were
• 29:51
  Speaker 1: we were partying and i picked up the guitar and
• 29:55
  Speaker 1: literally i'm playing a couple of chords and then I
• 29:58
  Speaker 1: really just started playing it and singing it, you know,
• 30:01
  Speaker 1: not the words, but just like the melody with the chords.
• 30:06
  Speaker 1: And I said, this sounds pretty good, you know? And
• 30:09
  Speaker 1: the chorus came, you know, it's like I, like I,
• 30:12
  Speaker 1: the whole song was already done, you know? Cause as
• 30:14
  Speaker 1: soon as I was like, it was all just going
• 30:17
  Speaker 1: on in my head. It was like one of the
• 30:19
  Speaker 1: fastest songs I ever wrote. And, uh, man, you know,
• 30:24
  Speaker 1: that's how it happened. You know, that, that, Yeah, usually
• 30:28
  Speaker 1: things don't happen that quickly, but this one did.
• 30:31
  Speaker 2: Yeah, and the vocals are such a huge part of
• 30:34
  Speaker 2: its identity. What do you remember about capturing that in
• 30:36
  Speaker 2: the studio with Jack Douglas?
• 30:39
  Speaker 1: Well, we did a lot of different things. I remember Jack,
• 30:43
  Speaker 1: you know, when I would think, oh, this is great.
• 30:46
  Speaker 1: You know, it sounds good. He'd say, you can do
• 30:49
  Speaker 1: it better. You can do it better, especially on that song.
• 30:52
  Speaker 1: And he would push me. And, uh, you know, I've
• 30:55
  Speaker 1: got a great performance out of me, you know, at
• 30:57
  Speaker 1: the end of the day, you know, that's, that's what
• 31:00
  Speaker 1: a great, great producer does. You know, they, they, they
• 31:03
  Speaker 1: want it to be great. And that's what Jack could get,
• 31:07
  Speaker 1: you know, could get going. I'm sure he did that
• 31:09
  Speaker 1: with all the bands he produced.
• 31:10
  Speaker 2: We're talking with Randy Jackson of Zebra, the brand new album,
• 31:13
  Speaker 2: Zebra 5 out November 13th. It's the first Zebra studio
• 31:17
  Speaker 2: album in 23 years. Who's Behind the Door, such a
• 31:21
  Speaker 2: distinctive acoustic opening. You just talked about it. How did
• 31:25
  Speaker 2: you find that guitar part and what inspired the lyrics?
• 31:28
  Speaker 1: Well, the lyrics were inspired, I think, by 2001. I mean,
• 31:34
  Speaker 1: it's kind of a spiritual kind of lyric, but it
• 31:38
  Speaker 1: deals with history and just the question of why are
• 31:42
  Speaker 1: we here, you know, and how did we get here
• 31:46
  Speaker 1: from a kind of an agnostic point of view. but
• 31:49
  Speaker 1: I was really influenced by 2001, a space odyssey. I
• 31:53
  Speaker 1: saw it when I was a kid, uh, Stanley Kubrick.
• 31:56
  Speaker 1: Oh yeah. Yeah. And I walked out of the theater just,
• 32:00
  Speaker 1: you know, mesmerized, you know, it really, really took me
• 32:03
  Speaker 1: in a, a different, uh, took my head in a
• 32:06
  Speaker 1: different direction. And I think that had a lot to
• 32:09
  Speaker 1: do with the lyrics to the song when I, when
• 32:11
  Speaker 1: I look back at it. Um, I wrote the song
• 32:16
  Speaker 1: in Texas. My grandparents had a farm out there and
• 32:18
  Speaker 1: I used to go there every summer and it was
• 32:22
  Speaker 1: really calm and secluded and a great place to just
• 32:29
  Speaker 1: get outside and write where you're not being disturbed and
• 32:35
  Speaker 1: it helped me put the stuff together. Now, the song is,
• 32:40
  Speaker 1: I wrote it in an open G tuning and I
• 32:44
  Speaker 1: got the tuning from having to learn by ear how
• 32:48
  Speaker 1: to play the rain song from Led Zeppelin. A lot
• 32:53
  Speaker 1: of bands use the same tuning. The Rolling Stones used
• 32:57
  Speaker 1: it a lot, which I didn't know until afterwards, but
• 33:00
  Speaker 1: it was very apparent on the rain song that you
• 33:03
  Speaker 1: could not play that song in a regular tuning. And
• 33:08
  Speaker 1: so I just kind of by ear figured out what
• 33:11
  Speaker 1: would it take to do this song and I could
• 33:13
  Speaker 1: hear that there's certain notes that are ringing out that
• 33:16
  Speaker 1: just don't sound like, you know, they're being played in
• 33:19
  Speaker 1: a regular tuning. And I fumbled my way into figuring
• 33:23
  Speaker 1: out that tuning. And, and then I started writing songs
• 33:27
  Speaker 1: with it, you know, with the tuning, it was, uh,
• 33:31
  Speaker 1: it's a lot to do when you, uh, when you
• 33:34
  Speaker 1: have a whole different tuning of the guitar, it brings
• 33:37
  Speaker 1: out a lot of different elements of, uh, creativity. that
• 33:42
  Speaker 1: you just may not have with a regular tuning. I
• 33:47
  Speaker 1: had a lot of pieces that I had worked on
• 33:50
  Speaker 1: with the song and, you know, little pieces, little vocal pieces,
• 33:56
  Speaker 1: all with that open G tuning and was just trying to,
• 34:00
  Speaker 1: I knew what the song was going to be about,
• 34:02
  Speaker 1: but I just didn't know which parts I wanted to use.
• 34:06
  Speaker 1: And it was, uh, And it was when I got to,
• 34:09
  Speaker 1: because I had a lot of the parts already before
• 34:11
  Speaker 1: I went to Texas that summer, but it was there
• 34:15
  Speaker 1: that I was able to really focus on everything that
• 34:18
  Speaker 1: I had and then put it together into one song
• 34:21
  Speaker 1: that made sense. And the lyrics, you know, once I
• 34:28
  Speaker 1: was in the flow, they came pretty easy. You know,
• 34:34
  Speaker 1: once I had a, you know, a structure for the
• 34:37
  Speaker 1: song and I understood where it was going to go.
• 34:41
  Speaker 2: Do Felix and Guy help when you get it into
• 34:43
  Speaker 2: the studio to help take it to the finish line
• 34:46
  Speaker 2: for you? Do they add ideas?
• 34:49
  Speaker 1: Well, yeah, they always added ideas. I know that... And
• 34:56
  Speaker 1: Who's Behind the Door specifically wanted keyboards in it, you know? And,
• 35:03
  Speaker 1: you know, and they will... Felix and Guy will always
• 35:06
  Speaker 1: make a suggestion. suggestions on songs you know and and
• 35:10
  Speaker 1: sometimes they're great you know but that's why this thing
• 35:14
  Speaker 1: works you know we're all open to working with each
• 35:17
  Speaker 1: other no matter what and you know especially be uh
• 35:22
  Speaker 1: on the creative.
• 35:23
  Speaker 2: Side song conquer worm has a similar vibe to it
• 35:27
  Speaker 2: this conquer worm is off the new album right that's
• 35:30
  Speaker 2: were you conscious of that as it no.
• 35:34
  Speaker 1: Uh the conquer warm is an open tuning It's not
• 35:38
  Speaker 1: open G, but it does have that open tuning. So
• 35:41
  Speaker 1: that's where this, I think that's the similarity that you're hearing.
• 35:45
  Speaker 1: The open C is a tuning the Moody Blues used
• 35:50
  Speaker 1: to use. They used it on Question of Balance.
• 35:53
  Speaker 2: Oh, yeah.
• 35:53
  Speaker 1: And, you know, Zeppelin used to use it. Open C,
• 35:57
  Speaker 1: it's got a big, a low C in the low note.
• 36:02
  Speaker 1: But you hear that open tuning, you know, even though
• 36:05
  Speaker 1: it's a different key. you can hear what the open
• 36:08
  Speaker 1: tuning can do. And yes, it's, it's similar. So, uh,
• 36:12
  Speaker 1: you're right about that. I mean, a lot of, a
• 36:14
  Speaker 1: lot of the songs that I did on the, uh,
• 36:16
  Speaker 1: fourth zebra record had the open G tuning, uh, song
• 36:22
  Speaker 1: on the third zebra record time was an open G tuning. And, uh,
• 36:26
  Speaker 1: the song on zero four Y was in an open tuning.
• 36:30
  Speaker 1: So I, I, you know, once we did that with
• 36:33
  Speaker 1: who's behind the door, I, I, I loved using them.
• 36:40
  Speaker 2: That debut from 83, one of Atlantic's fastest-selling debut albums
• 36:45
  Speaker 2: reached 29 on Billboard. What do you remember about that breakthrough?
• 36:49
  Speaker 2: That had to have been such a thrill to see
• 36:51
  Speaker 2: it take.
• 36:51
  Speaker 1: Off like that. I think it was a little different
• 36:55
  Speaker 1: for us because we sold so many records right in
• 36:58
  Speaker 1: the get-go, like in the first two weeks. And then
• 37:01
  Speaker 1: there was a lull. And you know, we weren't shocked
• 37:05
  Speaker 1: that we sold so many records because we had a
• 37:07
  Speaker 1: lot of fans, you know, we really big local band
• 37:11
  Speaker 1: in New York, New York and New Orleans. And then
• 37:14
  Speaker 1: there was a low and then a radio station in St. Louis, uh,
• 37:20
  Speaker 1: Casey started playing who's behind the door and people, they
• 37:26
  Speaker 1: started seeing record sales in St. Louis. And, it wouldn't
• 37:31
  Speaker 1: what didn't have to be a lot of record sales
• 37:33
  Speaker 1: they saw like you know maybe 10 20 records were
• 37:37
  Speaker 1: sold but for a record company back then that was
• 37:40
  Speaker 1: huge i mean it's one thing to get your record
• 37:42
  Speaker 1: played on the radio but for it to equate to
• 37:46
  Speaker 1: actually selling records is a whole other thing people might
• 37:50
  Speaker 1: like the song and they might listen to it on
• 37:52
  Speaker 1: the radio but they might not be interested in buying
• 37:54
  Speaker 1: it you know and so the fact that we just
• 37:57
  Speaker 1: sold a few copies maybe uh you know, a hundred
• 38:01
  Speaker 1: copies here in St. Louis, Atlantic said, okay, this isn't
• 38:05
  Speaker 1: just a thing where the local fans bought this record.
• 38:09
  Speaker 1: This is, you know, this could be real. So they
• 38:12
  Speaker 1: brought us right in and we did a couple of
• 38:14
  Speaker 1: videos for the songs on the first record. And, you know,
• 38:19
  Speaker 1: they started really promoting the band and we went out
• 38:21
  Speaker 1: on tour with Loverboy and started getting airplay all over
• 38:24
  Speaker 1: the country. And, and yeah, it was great to kind
• 38:26
  Speaker 1: of make a breakthrough. You know, it was a, It
• 38:29
  Speaker 1: was a really fun time.
• 38:32
  Speaker 2: Did you embrace MTV? How were you with that, making
• 38:34
  Speaker 2: those videos?
• 38:36
  Speaker 1: Well, MTV was pretty new. And the videos, if you,
• 38:41
  Speaker 1: when I look at them today, I mean, they're like,
• 38:43
  Speaker 1: I would have done them differently, you know, but yeah,
• 38:46
  Speaker 1: but they were, you know, they were done so fast.
• 38:49
  Speaker 1: You know, we had a different director.
• 38:51
  Speaker 2: What a vehicle to promote though. I mean, a huge vehicle.
• 38:54
  Speaker 1: Oh yeah. Yeah. And MTV was just starting out at
• 38:57
  Speaker 1: that time. Right. And that was the whole thing. It
• 39:00
  Speaker 1: was like unexplored territory. And one of the guys that
• 39:05
  Speaker 1: we had, the guy that did the Tell Me What
• 39:07
  Speaker 1: You Want video, I think his name is Julie Anna Waldman.
• 39:16
  Speaker 1: He worked with Federico Fellini. So if you're familiar with Fellini,
• 39:20
  Speaker 1: Fellini was known for being crazy or pretty avant-garde, let's say.
• 39:26
  Speaker 1: And he brought a little bit of that to the uh,
• 39:29
  Speaker 1: tell me what you want video. So when you see
• 39:32
  Speaker 1: some of the images in there with a, you know,
• 39:35
  Speaker 1: girl with the, in the saran wrap and the, and
• 39:38
  Speaker 1: the head upside down with the sunglasses, and there's just
• 39:42
  Speaker 1: a whole lot of crazy imagery, you know, that was
• 39:45
  Speaker 1: what he brought to that. And, uh, that was all fun. We,
• 39:49
  Speaker 1: a lot of our friends were in who's behind the door.
• 39:51
  Speaker 1: We had a whole crew of people that, you know,
• 39:54
  Speaker 1: worked with us one way or the other. And, uh,
• 39:58
  Speaker 1: so I, I got a lot of fond memories about
• 40:00
  Speaker 1: that one.
• 40:01
  Speaker 2: Another favorite of zebra fans would be bears from that
• 40:04
  Speaker 2: second album. No telling lies. What inspired that song? It's title.
• 40:08
  Speaker 2: What do you remember about recording?
• 40:10
  Speaker 1: Well, the song is an kind of an anti hunting song.
• 40:14
  Speaker 1: Cause I'm not into hunting. Um, you know, I, uh,
• 40:18
  Speaker 1: I think it's kind of cruel and it's not, not
• 40:22
  Speaker 1: very well thought out, you know? I mean, I would
• 40:25
  Speaker 1: think at this point we should be beyond, you know,
• 40:27
  Speaker 1: going out and just, you know, shooting animals for fun. Uh,
• 40:31
  Speaker 1: but that's what it is, but it was, that's what
• 40:33
  Speaker 1: the song was about. And, um, and I, you know,
• 40:38
  Speaker 1: and I remember one thing in particular was when I
• 40:41
  Speaker 1: was a kid back on that farm. my uncle had
• 40:46
  Speaker 1: taken me out to shoot skeet. You know, I had
• 40:49
  Speaker 1: a little skeet machine. And he was, I'd never shot
• 40:55
  Speaker 1: it before, but, you know, I was doing pretty good. He's,
• 41:00
  Speaker 1: you know, pulling the thing and they're going in the
• 41:03
  Speaker 1: air and I'm shooting them and I'm doing pretty good
• 41:06
  Speaker 1: and it's getting pretty quick. And then all of a sudden,
• 41:09
  Speaker 1: it's almost like it's a machine.
• 41:11
  Speaker 2: I'm going, ksss.
• 41:16
  Speaker 1: And I came back down and shot the gun, you know,
• 41:19
  Speaker 1: when it was down and went right by his head,
• 41:22
  Speaker 1: he could hear it. And I went, Oh Jesus, you know,
• 41:25
  Speaker 1: it was just, you know, I could have killed him.
• 41:28
  Speaker 1: You know, it was right there. And I put the
• 41:29
  Speaker 1: gun down, never picked up another gun after that scared
• 41:32
  Speaker 1: the shit out of me.
• 41:33
  Speaker 2: And taking that song into the studio. Yeah.
• 41:37
  Speaker 1: There were a lot of, I mean, that was a
• 41:38
  Speaker 1: song that Jack Douglas really added a lot to. Uh,
• 41:42
  Speaker 1: if you listen, there's a lot of keyboards in it. Uh,
• 41:46
  Speaker 1: a lot of rhythmic stuff that's going on there that
• 41:49
  Speaker 1: wasn't in the original song. I mean, when we used
• 41:51
  Speaker 1: to play it live before the record, when we were,
• 41:57
  Speaker 1: you know, it was a song we played from like
• 41:59
  Speaker 1: 1976 onward. It was really just Felix playing keyboard pads
• 42:04
  Speaker 1: with the, and playing the bass. And I was playing guitar,
• 42:09
  Speaker 1: but Jack had to put a lot of little texture into,
• 42:13
  Speaker 1: into the song that was, very different and i remember
• 42:17
  Speaker 1: us putting that stuff in uh it was a song
• 42:20
  Speaker 1: he he really liked he loved the song and he
• 42:22
  Speaker 1: he uh he put a lot of effort into it
• 42:25
  Speaker 1: to make it make it special and if you really
• 42:27
  Speaker 1: listen to it and and listen to the background and
• 42:31
  Speaker 1: what the whole musical what's going on there's a lot
• 42:35
  Speaker 1: there there's a there's.
• 42:36
  Speaker 2: A whole lot there it's a beautiful track.
• 42:38
  Speaker 3: I remember the most about recording it yeah one of
• 42:40
  Speaker 3: the most streamed on spotify i saw that as well
• 42:44
  Speaker 3: what about songs that they could be hits or not
• 42:47
  Speaker 3: necessarily hit songs that you're most proud of? Well, who's
• 42:51
  Speaker 3: behind the door is one of them, you know, I mean,
• 42:54
  Speaker 3: from the very beginning, I always hoped that that would
• 42:56
  Speaker 3: be a song people would get to hear. Uh, and
• 43:00
  Speaker 3: you know, it was just, I was just happy that
• 43:02
  Speaker 3: Atlantic wanted to make that one of the singles that was, uh,
• 43:06
  Speaker 3: put out for.
• 43:06
  Speaker 1: The first record. Um, I really love, uh, why from the,
• 43:13
  Speaker 1: fourth Zebra record. That's one of my favorites. But No
• 43:18
  Speaker 1: More from the second Zebra record is one that I
• 43:23
  Speaker 1: always thought was cool and didn't get the attention it
• 43:27
  Speaker 1: could have. I would say those three in particular I like.
• 43:38
  Speaker 1: There's a lot of other songs that have different flavors
• 43:41
  Speaker 1: to them. No Telling Lies, is one that's got, uh,
• 43:46
  Speaker 1: it's different, you know, it's got a different kind of
• 43:48
  Speaker 1: riff to it. Yeah. But, um, um, when I look
• 43:52
  Speaker 1: back on everything, I'm happy with everything we did. There's
• 43:54
  Speaker 1: nothing I go back and look back on and cringe,
• 43:57
  Speaker 1: you know, which I'm happy about.
• 43:59
  Speaker 2: Great body of work. Hey, 50 years. I mean, you've had,
• 44:03
  Speaker 2: it's the same lineup for 50 plus years now. And
• 44:06
  Speaker 2: you've been through all these changes in the music business.
• 44:08
  Speaker 2: And I mean, it's just, It's amazing. What's been the
• 44:11
  Speaker 2: key to you, Felix and Guy, keeping that partnership working?
• 44:15
  Speaker 1: That we're family and that each of us are able
• 44:18
  Speaker 1: to contribute so much to the sound of the band.
• 44:22
  Speaker 1: You know, the fact that, like I was saying earlier,
• 44:24
  Speaker 1: we all sing and we could add harmonies to the
• 44:29
  Speaker 1: songs and the fact that Felix can play the keyboards
• 44:32
  Speaker 1: and the bass and, you know, we use bass pedals and,
• 44:38
  Speaker 1: you know, I was I play keyboards also, and we
• 44:41
  Speaker 1: had a song called Lullaby on the second record that,
• 44:45
  Speaker 1: you know, where I played piano and Felix was playing
• 44:47
  Speaker 1: the keys. And, you know, we just did a lot
• 44:51
  Speaker 1: as a three-piece band, which was kind of always our
• 44:54
  Speaker 1: quote-unquote gimmick since we started out. And, you know, but
• 45:00
  Speaker 1: I think, you know, all in all, we all got
• 45:05
  Speaker 1: along and we all had a good sense of humor
• 45:07
  Speaker 1: about it i don't think anybody took it so so
• 45:10
  Speaker 1: seriously that there was ever going to be a problem
• 45:13
  Speaker 1: of uh you know us breaking up over any one
• 45:16
  Speaker 1: thing and at this point i mean you know marriages
• 45:20
  Speaker 1: don't last 50 years and you know we've been together
• 45:24
  Speaker 1: a long long time and uh you know we love
• 45:27
  Speaker 1: each other it's it's uh it's it's a good thing.
• 45:32
  Speaker 2: And the new album zebra 5 Like I said, November 13th.
• 45:36
  Speaker 2: You have some gigs posted on your website. I saw there.
• 45:38
  Speaker 2: Are there plans for more touring in support of the
• 45:40
  Speaker 2: album in 2027?
• 45:42
  Speaker 1: Absolutely. Yeah. Our manager, Dave, he's putting together shows right now.
• 45:51
  Speaker 1: We're looking at the release date, when he's going to
• 45:55
  Speaker 1: really start pushing for dates. The album seems to be
• 45:59
  Speaker 1: doing really well right now. Really well received. By different people.
• 46:05
  Speaker 1: And I think he's looking to book us a lot
• 46:10
  Speaker 1: more in 2027. So we have some dates laid out
• 46:13
  Speaker 1: right now, but we're looking to tour a lot to
• 46:16
  Speaker 1: promote the record in 2027.
• 46:18
  Speaker 2: Any chance of Connecticut shows?
• 46:21
  Speaker 1: Absolutely. We'll be in Connecticut.
• 46:22
  Speaker 2: Oh, amazing. I want to see you guys, whether it's
• 46:25
  Speaker 2: Connecticut or New York. I will absolutely go to, to
• 46:29
  Speaker 2: check you guys out and see you live. And you got,
• 46:31
  Speaker 2: you got, do you plan on playing a lot of
• 46:33
  Speaker 2: this material from the new album?
• 46:35
  Speaker 1: Yeah, we've, we've been playing the material, you know, for,
• 46:39
  Speaker 1: for the last couple of months, we've been playing a
• 46:41
  Speaker 1: lot of the new material and, matter of fact, we
• 46:45
  Speaker 1: might've been playing too much of it, you know, but,
• 46:49
  Speaker 1: but we've been, we, I think there were like six
• 46:52
  Speaker 1: songs we've been playing and not, not all of them at,
• 46:56
  Speaker 1: at one show, but, You know, we got a variety
• 47:00
  Speaker 1: to choose from the new record and it goes over great.
• 47:03
  Speaker 1: The new material has been going over good and, you know,
• 47:06
  Speaker 1: it feels good in the sets.
• 47:08
  Speaker 2: They slide right in perfectly with all the classics. They
• 47:11
  Speaker 2: really do. I mean, if for those who are longtime
• 47:14
  Speaker 2: Zebra fans, I don't know how they could be disappointed
• 47:17
  Speaker 2: listening to that. And I've listened to it two times
• 47:21
  Speaker 2: from start to finish. I'm on my third try third
• 47:24
  Speaker 2: round here as we jumped on zoom i was listening
• 47:27
  Speaker 2: to it again and uh yeah really just solid every
• 47:30
  Speaker 2: track there isn't a track on there that you'd skip
• 47:32
  Speaker 2: over so i i can't imagine the fans being disappointed
• 47:37
  Speaker 2: now that the album streaming and in stores i don't
• 47:41
  Speaker 2: know are there music stores anymore i mean you can
• 47:43
  Speaker 2: get it online i what but it's out there november
• 47:46
  Speaker 2: 13th yeah there's.
• 47:47
  Speaker 1: Record stores we're out there store you know appearances to
• 47:50
  Speaker 1: promote the record and And I know we're going to
• 47:52
  Speaker 1: be doing some appearances. You can go to the Zebra
• 47:55
  Speaker 1: website to see where we're going to be doing that.
• 47:59
  Speaker 1: The website is zebraband.com. So find out what's going on
• 48:06
  Speaker 1: with Zebra. But it's been going good with the sales.
• 48:10
  Speaker 1: I think Amazon sold out of their pre-orders and just
• 48:13
  Speaker 1: reordered a bunch of records. And the record doesn't even
• 48:17
  Speaker 1: come out until November 13th.
• 48:19
  Speaker 2: I just did an episode on vinyl. Somebody wrote this
• 48:22
  Speaker 2: fantastic book on vinyl records. Do you still press a
• 48:24
  Speaker 2: few copies on vinyl or. Yeah.
• 48:27
  Speaker 3: Yeah.
• 48:28
  Speaker 1: Yeah. We're releasing vinyl and I think there's two additions.
• 48:34
  Speaker 1: One with the, that's a gold record, you know, celebrating
• 48:38
  Speaker 1: our 50 years together. And then there's a, uh, a
• 48:42
  Speaker 1: zebra stripe. I think there's a zebra stripe version of
• 48:45
  Speaker 1: the vinyl also. Uh, But it's, yeah, people are loving vinyl.
• 48:50
  Speaker 1: They still have turntables, and some people love that a
• 48:54
  Speaker 1: lot more than listening to a CD or streaming.
• 48:58
  Speaker 2: Yeah, beautiful thing. Yeah, definitely.
• 49:00
  Speaker 1: And cassettes.
• 49:01
  Speaker 2: Yeah, I've heard that. Cassettes, too. Yeah.
• 49:03
  Speaker 1: I couldn't believe that. They told us, yeah, we're going
• 49:07
  Speaker 1: to press some cassettes. I said, cassettes? Yeah, people are
• 49:10
  Speaker 1: listening to cassettes again.
• 49:12
  Speaker 2: I've read that. I have a friend, Tim derling who
• 49:14
  Speaker 2: wrote a book all about eight tracks yeah did you
• 49:19
  Speaker 2: yeah were you a fan of eight tracks that was.
• 49:21
  Speaker 1: A that was pre pre cassette i loved the cassettes
• 49:25
  Speaker 1: a lot more because they were easier to understand.
• 49:28
  Speaker 2: Right you couldn't rewind if you missed a track you
• 49:30
  Speaker 2: got to go all the way back around to the.
• 49:32
  Speaker 1: Start yeah the uh But the eight tracks were interesting.
• 49:36
  Speaker 2: Were all of Zebra's albums on eight track, available on
• 49:39
  Speaker 2: eight track?
• 49:40
  Speaker 1: I don't even know if we had one.
• 49:41
  Speaker 2: Right, because you got into the 80s thing.
• 49:43
  Speaker 1: Yeah, it was like early 80s. And I don't think
• 49:45
  Speaker 1: there was ever an eight track of Zebra. But we
• 49:48
  Speaker 1: were right at the end of the eight track era.
• 49:51
  Speaker 2: Yeah.
• 49:52
  Speaker 1: But I certainly had a lot of eight tracks when
• 49:54
  Speaker 1: I was a kid.
• 49:55
  Speaker 2: Randy Jackson, thanks so much. This was outstanding. Thank you
• 49:58
  Speaker 2: for coming on the show. Thank you for a great album.
• 50:00
  Speaker 2: And boy, I look forward to seeing you live. So
• 50:02
  Speaker 2: I'm looking forward to find out what dates you have
• 50:04
  Speaker 2: coming around here.
• 50:05
  Speaker 1: Thanks, Eric. Thanks for having me. I had a good time.
• 50:10
  Speaker 1: That's it.
• 50:13
  Speaker 2: It's in the books.