Out Of The Cellar: Jordan interviews Foreigner/ex-Dokken bassist Jeff Pilson
It seems like such a long time since my last interview I actually had to check myself who it was! This month's interviewee is not one I'll forget anytime soon however. Probably our biggest star to date; Mr. Jeff Pilson! Surely anyone reading a column that focuses mainly on '80s Metal music will have heard of him. He's worked with some amazing bands including Dokken and Dio and is now playing bass with one of the biggest bands of the '80s; Foreigner. Jeff also has an ongoing solo project called War And Peace which has already released two albums. I caught up with Jeff on life with Foreigner, his memories of the past and what's happening with War And Peace. I'm very happy to be able to say I've interviewed Jeff and I know The Anarchist is still getting over the fact he's featured on the site!
- Jordan
Jordan: Let’s start things off with what you are currently up to. How did you end up joining Foreigner? Was former Foreigner vocalist Johnny Edwards involved at all in setting that up?
Jeff Pilson: No, the fact that I had played on an almost Johnny Edwards record was a complete coincidence. I did s movie in 2000 with Jason Bonham. We were both in a movie called Rock Star. We worked together then and had a good chemistry. When Jason and Mick (Jones, Foreigner guitarist) started working together in 2004 they called me and asked me if I would be interested. They decided that they were going to make it a revamped Foreigner and they asked me if I’d like to be involved. Of course I said “yes” and joined up.
Jordan: You and the band are currently on tour with Def Leppard and Styx. That sounds like a pretty big deal. How’s it going so far?
Jeff: We’ve only done four shows so far, but so far it’s been fabulous. Really good response. It’s a great package. The fans I’ve talked to are so excited because of what you get for several hours. It’s a lot of music, a lot of hits. It’s great quality. All three bands kick butt. It’s a great package. I think it’s one of the better classics packages that has ever gone out, actually, in my so humble opinion.
Jordan: Is it strictly Foreigner stuff or are you throwing in a Dokken song or two?
Jeff: No, it’s just Foreigner, yeah.
Jordan: I love some of the older Foreigner stuff, especially 4. A lot of fans, even the die-hards from back in the day think this is the best line-up the band has ever had...
Jeff: I think that’s been a lot of the response. Number one, a lot of people don’t realize how many great songs Foreigner had, and when they see this version of the band, it kicks butt! We’re out there really pumping. I think people also forget how heavy Foreigner can be, so it’s a great live act.
Jordan: The crowds have been accepting of the fact that there’s a new singer with Kelly Hansen and such?
Jeff: Well, sure. Especially considering what shoes he had to fill. Lou Gramm was great. Honestly, and I hate to talk like this, but the last couple of tours that Lou had done, he was having a harder time hitting some of the notes, so I think people were a little disappointed. Kelly goes out there and hits every note, every night. It kind of puts a lot of new life into the stuff and I think people have been incredibly accepting and in fact very warm and embracing of Kelly. It’s been a great, great reception.
Jordan: Obviously you’ve had a great career yourself. You’ve had so much success with Dokken and worked with some music legends. But still, coming in to a band like Foreigner, is it still a “holy shit, I’m in Foreigner” moment or are you past that?
Jeff: Well, It’s hard to say. I have great respect for Foreigner and I was always a huge Foreigner fan. I really came from that school. I loved Lou Gramm’s voice. I loved the songs. It was an important part of my development as a musician. So, there’s that part of me that’s really excited that I’m in Foreigner because I really love the music. It’s not a “holy shit” type situation really, but it’s as excited as you can be to be in a band where you weren’t a principal force. I wasn’t there in the beginning. To walk into a band that already has a history, this is as good as it gets.
Jordan: As I said, you’ve played with so many different legends, everybody from Dio to Michael Schenker. Can you give us a good and a bad story about some of those side projects?
Jeff: Honestly, I seem to have a lot of luck. I’ve worked with a lot of people and many of the people I’ve worked with have a reputation for being difficult, yet everybody that I’ve worked with has been great. Michael Schenker, for example, is someone who has a reputation of being difficult. I had a great time working with Michael. We had a wonderful chemistry together. I have the typical bad stories that anybody would have from being on the road for years, but nothing like a case of someone being extraordinarily difficult. I seem to be lucking out and getting them on the good times.
Jordan: It seemed that for years you played the mediator in the arguing Dokken camps. Did you finally just give up?
Jeff: I think my patience just ran out for what had gone on. It had been too many years and I didn’t have the energy to try to deal with it in quite the same way anymore. I especially didn’t have the patience for it anymore. If people at this point in the game are going to be still carrying the same attitudes, there’s nothing I can do to change it. We gave Dokken another shot in the 90’s. We reformed and did some great stuff. For me, it just wasn’t worth plowing through it and fighting the same battle over and over again. First George left and then I left. I’m in a much happier place now. I’m really, really pleased with what I’m doing and I’m at a great point in life. You can only do that kind of stuff for so long and you’ve got to move on.
Jordan: Obviously things change between people over the years. In July of 2007, what is your opinion of Don Dokken, George Lynch and Mick Brown?
Jeff: For one thing, George is a great friend of mine. I talked to George this morning on the phone. We’re real great friends, we don’t live far from each other, our wives get along real well. We’re pretty much like family and I talk to him frequently. George, I have nothing but the highest love and respect for. I have a great deal of love for Don and Mick too, I just haven’t seen them in years so it’s not the friendship the way it is with George. George and I have turned into really great old friends, which is a wonderful thing. I wish I was that way with Don and Mick because we have so many great memories together. When things were good, we had a great time together. But I haven’t seen them. There was a law suit, that tends to make things kind of get ugly. My opinion is that I haven’t seen them in enough years to give you an opinion. I wish them well. I’m glad that Dokken is continuing. I wish them the best success and luck.
Jordan: Earlier you mentioned Kelly being a great singer and Lou being a great singer. I know a guy named Jeff that’s a pretty damn good singer too! Is there any chance of you signing for another War & Peace album at some point? I always thought that you were the best singer in Dokken anyway!
Jeff: Well, thank you. Right now I’ve just been crammed time-wise. I was hoping to have a War & peace record written by the end of the year and then put it out early next year. I kind of don’t think that that’s going to happen as fast as I would’ve liked. I do have plans sometime next year to do a War & Peace record. I have a live War & Peace record sitting in the can. Basically, I had some labels that were interested in me doing another studio record, but weren’t too interested in a live record. However, when I finally do write another studio record, I would like to put out another studio record and the live record. It’s a pretty cool package because I’m doing some old Dokken songs in it that Dokken hadn’t done in a while. That makes it a lot fun. There’s plans of doing another War & Peace record at some point. George and I always talk about doing another L/P record. I’m not done singing. I’m very, very happy where I am at with Foreigner right now and Kelly is doing an amazing job so that makes it a lot more fun. But yeah, I’ll do some more singing somewhere down the line.
Jordan: Since Foreigner has such a great line-up right now and the tour is doing so well, it only stands to reason that there will be a new Foreigner album at some point, right?
Jeff: Well, that’s one of the reasons why it’s hard for me to plan a War & Peace record because we are trying to work on a new Foreigner record. It’s been really difficult because of all the time we’ve spent on the road. There’s not enough time at home to just sit there and work and write. I even take a studio with me on the road to try to get stuff done but it’s been very, very difficult. We plan on doing some writing and recording the first half of next year and we’ll see how far we get. Hopefully we will have a new record next year. That would be a fabulous thing. By Fall of 08 if we could have a record I would be very happy. We will see. Again, that is my priority so that’s kind of in the way of me doing some stuff on my own or with George.
Jordan: I know it’s really early in the process, but you mentioned that Foreigner can be a heavier band than what people remember. Is that the direction we’re going in?
Jeff: That is almost impossible to say because I think we’re too early in the writing process to really give an indication where we’re going to go. Right now we’re just still just feeling the waters. We’ve talked about a lot of ideas, some of them are real heavy. Some of them are very kind of old school 70’s rock-ish. It’s realy, really hard for me to say where we’re going to go. Somehow I think that what we’re going to end up with some stuff that heavy groove rides but has somewhat of a modern pop touch to it, I’m not really sure where. You have a legacy of great songs that is your precedent, so you really don’t want to go under that. It’s very difficult to fit new things into that, but it has to be relevant. It has to make sense. It has to fit on the radio today. That is where it’s going to take a while, but I have all of the confidence in the world in Mick Jones’ taste. He’s been an amazing band leader. I have all the faith in the world that whatever we come up with is going to be very, very cool, whatever it is. Hopefully there will be some of the heavy elements in it. My God, you’ve got Jason Bonham on drums so you definitely want to have that in there. But it’s too early to give you all that great of an indication.
Jordan: Man, this is going to be tough because even I can’t pick, but do you have one thing that you’ve done in your career that stands out as being your best or favorite work?
Jeff: I think there’s a few things. Obviously the Dokken heyday. The Tooth And Nail period of Dokken is one thing that I think will always stand out as being an incredibly inspired record. I still here it and think it’s really cool. It may not sound as good sonically as some other things, but man there’s a great energy on that ‘Tooth And Nail’ record. Under Lock And Key was a great record, but it sounds a little too glossy to me when I hear it now. I would have to say ‘Tooth And Nail’ of the Dokken period. I still think that ‘Erase The Slate was a great record, the one we did with Reb Beach. Then I’d say the last War & Peace record that I did, which was ‘The Walls Have Eyes’. I;m very, very proud of that record. That’s the first record that I’ve ever done where I recorded and mixed everything, with the exception of a couple of guitar solos and some of the drums. I’m not a mixing engineer, but there was a lot of fun mixing that. I’m very, very proud of that record. I think the songs still stand up and I think that I had a perspective sonically that I’m very excited about. And the Lynch/Pilson record. I think there’s some songs on there that I think are some of the best writing that George and I ever did. The fact that we got to do it and put out a record was an honor and a lot of fun. Then, I would have to conclude with the Foreigner live cd that we have out, ‘Live in 05’. I think it came out absolutely amazing.
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Jordan was right. As an oldschool Dokken fan, I am stoked to have Jeff on the site! For more info on what he's up to, visit JeffPilson.com. And don't forget to see Foreigner on tour with Def Lep and Styx! As far as I'm concerned this line-up of Foreigner is rock solid and better than ever!