How did the collaboration with Billy Sheehan on one of the tracks come about?
Billy is a good friend of mine. Los Angeles, although it's a huge city, is really a small town as far as musicians. Billy and I have known each other for twenty years and I wrote this song which I thought his bass style would be perfect for. He's great.
The timetable of the album release was May of 2003 in Japan, June in Europe, and then USA in October. Was that how it was originally planned?
It wasn't supposed to be staggered that way. I was very disappointed. The album should have come out within three months in worldwide release. That's what will happen next time. There was a bit of miscommunication. Of course you're going to lose sales because the American fans start buying imports for 40 bucks. It really upset me. That will be the last time that happens.
You're also getting ready to record a DVD. What will it contain?
We've been talking about doing a DVD for two or three years and doing it in the right way. Originally it was going to be filmed on the road, but I wanted to be in a situation where I could have it done in L.A. where I could control it more, have it done with a crew of people that I know or am familiar with. I've been researching it for a couple of years and we finally got it sorted out. We have a studio in the valley with an audience of fans who have won a competition to come out and see it. I have Chad Smith playing on drums, my longtime guitarist J.J. Marsh plays guitar and Ed Roth plays keys.
It's going to be a lot of new songs and a couple of older songs from Trapeze and Deep Purple. Most of it is solo material. It should be released in late April or early May.
You are very hands-on in your recording process, doing the producing, arranging, writing ,etc. Is that a matter of necessity, or something you enjoy doing?
Most artists these days from my generation are on independent labels. There's not a lot of money for budgets. If I was signed to a big label I would have a huge budget and the record company would insist on bringing in a huge producer. That would be really cool, but I'm not going to blow my whole budget doing that. Where I want to go musically, I write my music and sing my songs in a way that I don't really need a producer. I know what I'm doing. Don't get me wrong, I do like working with co-producers or bigger time producers, but I'm 50 years old and have been around the block a few times. I know what to do in the studio.
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