Fans who have closely and ardently followed the incendiary and super-cool rock conglomeration that is The Dead Daisies, understand that change and fluidity is part of the experience. From the outset of the band’s formation in 2013, as the brainchild of veteran Australian musician/songwriter David Lowy, it was always meant to be more of a movement than a rigid band, more of an idea and a concept, more than something bound by a permanent musical style or a well-defined and constant lineup.
All those who choose to congregate under the banner of The Dead Daisies do so without restriction, without signing their life or career away, or without expectation that they will be part of the memberships beyond the current album or two. Which is why there have been so many wonderfully diverse and exceptional permutations and combinations within the Daisies creative family, leading to interesting and fun musical tweaks and rabbit holes by ardent fans to follow.
Still, when beloved members do choose to step away, especially when those members have been within the fold for a long time and are considered to be a huge part of the band’s success, it can be a hard pill to swallow for fans and even the bandmates left behind. What softens the blow and soothes the wound is the knowledge that, as with other changes, they will lead to epic new music, and dynamic, badass concert experiences.
The news trickled out over the summer that vocalist John Corabi [ex-Motley Crue] and bassist Marco Mendoza [ex-Whitesnake etc.] had departed. Corabi had done songwriting and lead vocal chores for the bands last three studio albums – all three of which were massive, even somewhat unexpected, hits. Revolucion came out in 2015, followed by the powerhouse Make Some Noise in 2016 and Burn it Down in 2018. He also appeared on the 2017 Live & Louder CD/DVD. Mendoza had a short stint with them in 2013 and was a full fledged Daisies member from 2014 until late 2018.
So, yeah, it was sad for fans to see them go, but one of the big silver linings is that they are always welcome to return, unconditionally. A second silver lining, one that is of Hall of Fame scale, is that replacing both Corabi and Mendoza will be legendary former Deep Purple bassist/vocalist Glenn Hughes.
“When I joined the band they said, listen we really want you to be part of this band. We are only really working half the year, and then if you’ve got other things you can do, you can do those, and we will try to even cross-promote things. But for the past couple of years, with the success of the Make Some Noise album especially, the Daisies have been really busy. We were touring a lot and from my perspective, John was singing his ass off, but he was doing it so often, even though I think he is absolutely bulletproof; he went through it like a champ. And it was the same with Marco. He would be out touring with us and then head directly off for his solo dates right after, without a break. So he was gone on the road all the time and I wondered how he could keep it up because it was a lot,” said Doug Aldrich, Dead Daisies guitarist since 2015 and a former member of Dio, Whitesnake and Revolution Saints, as well as leader of his own band, Burning Rain.
“I think towards the end of last year, John started to feel that it was a big workload and that he wasn’t able to do his own solo stuff. I think maybe he wanted to focus on that for a time, you know. And what’s cool about the Dead Daisies is that both those guys are busy and wanted to do solo things, but they can always come back, and you never know what can happen down the road. But I fully understand how some of the fans might feel, because I feel the same. Those guys, we had the best time. I never laughed as much as I have being around John Corabi. He’s a great dude and a great singer. So, the Dead Daisies have this fresh approach where they want to make it about the music more so than the lineup. As person in the band, I want to jam with those guys as long as I can, but you never know what happens down the road. Things change, individuals change, the band changes. I understand that some fans are probably really disappointed, some fans are also really excited, and some fans are scratching their heads saying, ‘you guys were doing really, really well, why would you do that?’
“It’s like a sports team getting rid of a favourite player. It comes down to business, its about contracts and making the team better, but fans will still get upset because they have an attachment to certain players. The thing with bands is that their music is so personal, it’s so individual, so you really, as a fan of a band, get super attached to the way things are, and its very difficult when things change. What we’re doing in this band is kind of a new thing. I have tried to have it not be so precious to me, where I feel really upset if someone comes or goes or whatever. But it’s hard. When [drummer] Brian Tichey left [in 2017] I was really bummed out about that. But then Deen Castronovo comes in and he kicked ass. It was great. One wasn’t better than the other, it was just different. Deen brought a vocal aspect that we didn’t use as much initially but I think will be utilized more for lead vocals on some tracks in the future.”
Aldrich said that the band’s management talked to him, Lowy and Castronovo to see if they were still interested in continuing, and all three said they were. Soon thereafter, Aldrich heard that Glenn Hughes was up for consideration, which definitely softened the blows of losing Corabi and Mendoza as Hughes is not only a figure of great repute and renown within the music business, but Aldrich toured with him as part of his solo band and considers him a good friend.
“I am super excited because I am a fan of Glenn’s and a friend, and I have worked with him. He and I toured together four years ago, and it was a blast. It was some of the coolest jams I have ever been a part of, just him, me and his drummer. Management called me and said they were speaking with Glenn about maybe coming in as a Daisy and I told them that was amazing. It didn’t occur to me that he would be doing both bass and singing. I thought he was just coming in to sing. I think when Marco said he was going to do some solo stuff, that’s when they started looking at bass players and singers,” he said, adding that the creative chemistry has already borne fruit, as the Dead Daisies released a link to a new song called Righteous Days which can be heard through their website.
“It’s a great addition to the Daisies family and I am really excited about it. We released this song as a teaser. We got together and went through some ideas for a couple of days and put three or four songs together quickly, and this one was the one we all decided would be our first step forward. It’s a group composition and it’s got a great flavour of Glenn throughout it obviously. He a big part of that sound, both in terms of the voice and bass tracks. It’s eventually going to be taken down from the site, because we’re probably going to include that on the new album we’re working on. At that time, we’re probably going to remix it or do something different so that it’s fresh. I think it’s a cool song, it’s a cool riff. I like the title and the lyrics – it’s classic, classic Glenn Hughes.”
Hughes was a member of popular 1970s soul-infused rock act Trapeze before joining Deep Purple alongside vocalist David Coverdale in 1973, playing on and co-writing three studio albums with the band, Burn, Stormbringer and Come Taste the Band before Purple disbanded in 1976. Hughes then began releasing solo music, as well as collaborating with other artists, most notably Pat Thrall and Black Sabbath’s Tony Iommi. He also co-founded Black Country Communion alongside Derek Sherinian, Jason Bonham and Joe Bonamassa, releasing four critically and commercially acclaimed albums, including 2017’s BCCIV.
“We clicked right away in the studio. We’re going to try to have the new songs wrapped up by the end of the year, and then they will figure out exactly when they’re going to release it. The thing that’s cool is there is no shortage of ideas. Even from the first time we sat down together to bang through a few songs there was chemistry. Glenn is a natural songwriter. And I definitely feel I’ve got a lot to say musically. In the past, I would often turn in songs with vocal ideas, very rough, goofball lyrics to basically get the point across of where I was coming from. But in this case, I don’t want to do that with Glenn because I don’t want to stifle him. He is such a genius at lyrics and melodies anyway,” Aldrich said of the first gathering of this new incarnation of The Dead Daisies.
“And after that, Deen came in and he took all the songs and uplifted them in different ways with his playing. Even if you’re sitting there with an acoustic guitar or you’ve got a demo with a drum machine, there is no comparison to how a song sounds when a great drummer like Deen Castronovo sits down and puts his stamp on it. So, we went into the studio and set up and ran through a few songs, and Righteous Days felt like the best first step.
“We have three other songs that we recorded that are all killer, but we wanted to find the right step going forward, one that was going to show the world that this is going to be a different sound for the band, but also has familiar things that the Daisies are known for. There are obviously things that are going to sound the same, but when you change the lead vocalist, especially with someone like Glenn Hughes, naturally you almost have a new band.”
As a reminder to fans of their ability to not only craft classic sounding, bad to the bone original hard rock and roll music, The Dead Daisies recently released Locked and Loaded, a collection of both studio and live covers of rock classics, given the unique Daisies twist. Cover songs have been included on every Dead Daisies studio album since their inception, as it’s part of their mandate to celebrate the immortality and immutability and important of rock and roll music. The release also gives the band some time to work on new material, with an album expected to be released in 2020.
“I heard they were working on this album and this was prior to the confirmation that anyone was going to be changing. Maybe they pushed the release back a little bit, because I thought it was going to come our sooner, to use it as a carry over type situation to keep the band and the fans happy. Now you can look at Locked and Loaded as kind of closing of that chapter in the history of the band, in a sense. It’s like the Daisies always want it to be about the music first and foremost, and that chapter of our sound with John is over,” said Aldrich who said in recent years the choice of what songs to cover on record or live, ultimately came down to Corabi.
“We would all throw out ideas of covers but it really was down to John Corabi because he’s got to sing it. The singer has to be comfortable with it. I remember there was one time I suggested Heard it Through the Grapevine by Marvin Gaye. I thought we could heavy it up and make it a really cool riff. I actually have a little demo of me and David Coverdale doing it. I asked John what he thought, and he said, ‘I don’t know. It’s not really the vibe I feel like I want to deliver.’ And then he came up with Bitch, and that was a great choice, and he sang the hell out of it. So, it was mostly him that decided, and every choice he made worked great. We also wanted to stay away from doing songs from our previous bands just to that we didn’t have it become so cross-contaminated and have it be unique.”
Interestingly, with Hughes now in the mix, Aldrich opined out loud of perhaps the Dead Daisies would maybe bend the rule of not dipping into band members’ past catalogues, seeing as how Hughes recorded some bona fide classic songs with Deep Purple, earning his way into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame with them in 2016.
“This situation of having a member of one of all of our favourite bands though, might make it pretty cool to do that. I am going to be pushing for it. I had a chance to play that stuff with Glenn and it was so much fun, because he does it all differently. He does it his own way and when we would do Burn there were no keyboards in it, so I would do the keyboard solo on the guitar and it was really fun to get that Jon Lord organ sound with a Wah-Wah and a Chorus pedal. So, we’ll see what happens,” he said.
“I do know that I am looking forward to writing with him. We did a little bit in the studio earlier. When I get the opportunity to sit down again with Glenn, I am just going to play him some things that I think he might enjoy singing on. I really like to work closely with the singer, it’s really important. He is going to put a different stamp on the Dead Daisies for sure. He is super funky, and he’s always got a fat groove. His bass tone is insane. When I toured with him a few years back, we would do soundcheck and he would be checking his bass and would play along with the drums and I would sit there and listen, and he might be doing grooves and then start wailing in between. I was like, he didn’t need anything else; it sounded so huge on its own. And it was just awesome.”
To bring this story back around, it must be noted that the list of former members of The Dead Daisies is significant. As Aldrich stated, and as the band has demonstrated over the past six and a half years, the revolving door is not a sign of weakness or instability, but in strength of concept and stability of the brand and overriding philosophy that has infused the Dead Daisies ethos from day one. Once a Daisy, always a Daisy.
“Of course, there are mixed emotions when guys come and go. But you’ve got to roll with it. If you say, ‘well if this guy is not going to do it, then I am not going to do it,’ well, that doesn’t help anyone. Let’s keep moving forward and see where it ends up. And from the time I walked in the door, these guys have always said that once you’re in the family, you’re in the family. You never know what happens down the road. There may be some dates down the road where Deen is not available, and Brian comes back. Or maybe Glenn has got some solo stuff two years down the road and Corabi comes back and we do a run with him. You never know. That’s what’s so cool about it – keeping it liquid and flowing forward. Right now, Glenn is at the helm of the ship. He is the frontman and we’ll fall in behind him to make the best music and put on the best shows possible,” Aldrich said.
“We’re all focused on the new material and putting together an undeniable record. As a musician, you always want to go in and top what you have done in the past. It’s doesn’t mean you’re going to be more technical, sometimes it means you’re going to do less technique and be more about attitude. You always want to do better, you want to write a better song, or a catchier song, or write a more orchestral piece. So, that’s what we’re going to do. We’re going to go in and write and record the best Dead Daisies record that’s been done to date. And then we’ll tour and put on the best damn shows we’ve ever done.”
For more information on The Dead Daisies, visit https://thedeaddaisies.com, or their various social media channels.
- Jim Barber is a veteran award-winning journalist and author based in Napanee, ON, who has been writing about music and musicians for a quarter of a century. Besides his journalistic endeavours, he now works as a communications and marketing specialist. Contact him at jimbarberwritingservices@gmail.com.
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