J - First off we gotta go wayy back to the gold
ol days.. How did you find the players for the "After the Rain" c.d.?
G - We'd first tried to take out ads in the local musician
mags. It didn't really work all that well. We had a bunch of meetings with
respondents that were much more concerned with their look than their playing
chops. The first official member to join was Bobby Rock, who Matt and I had
met at the American Music Awards. He was sitting behind us with the Vinnie
Vincent Invasion. Vinnie had been a friend/cowriter for a while. I knew that
VVI had been winding down, so I called Vin, who told me how great Bobby was.
After meeting up with Bobby and playing him the demos, Bobby was in, and
present from that point on with every band candidate we met with. Second on
the hit list was Brett Garsed. Our manager at the time was an Aussie, and had
just come back from down under with a video tape of national hero John Farnham.
He was all excited about the unknown guitarist John had found and was using in
his show. He played us that tape, and there was Brett- a complete freak in the
sense that he was a true virtuoso that had taught himself how to play all by
himself on a sheep farm out in the sticks. We went through all of the bs one
has to to settle up immigration proceedings with the US, and sponsored him to
come over here. It was a great decision. Paul Mirkovich came next. He was an
awesome studio keyboardist who had played on our demos for Geffen... but he
was not a 'road' guy at the time. His look was super poindexter... and we
hadn't seen him in about six months. But as fate would have it, Paul had spent
those six months touring with Geoffrey Osbourne and Cher. He was ready to
tour, and had gotten completely cool. What a player. Another great decision.
We made our record with that group of fellas. We were totally spoiled. They
were truly an all star band...guys who were born to play their instruments. I
haven't found anyone close to as competent as those guys ever since. Bottom
line, in putting the band together, we'd tried to advertise for them, and it
didn't work. It was all the personal recommendations of friends that found us
these players.
J - Was this a real "group" effort? or were they hired guns?
G - It was always a group effort. The music
business isn't unicef- we're all hired guns. But if you're asking if they
truly had input in the overall sound and the way we approached the music...
absolutely. We produced the overall boundaries... but everything within those
boundaries we left up to them.
J - Who wrote the songs?
G - Matthew, myself, and Marc
Tanner.
J - How long did it take you guys to get
signed?
G - 19 years. Actually, we'd started playing
when we were six, and had our first recording at 12, with our first pro club
gigs beginning at 13. We'd been trying to get signed all those years until
Geffen hooked us up when we were 19.
J -
How important was the look back then, and do you ever look back and think
"What was I thinking"?
G - The look was and is very important... still
to this day. I think it's a shame that a lot of acts now a days don't put any
thought into their visual presentation. Everyone wants to look like the
freakin' roadie or their Momma's plumber. What a waste. I believe that stars
should look like stars, period. It wasn't to cover up for a lack of substance
or creed, we all had that too... it was just that we felt that as a new band,
it was our job to stand out from the tired old 'black leather and levis'
thing. It worked. Love us or hate us, you knew who we were!
J - What was your favorite tour back in the
90's?any good road stories?
It was the headlining tour we did of theatres
all across America. They are gorgeous venues, with great acoustics. So much
better than concrete arenas, and not too big that you completely lose the
intimacy with your audience.
J - What's the craziest thing a fan has ever
done to meet you?
G - Brought her hot mother
with her to my hotel room. Whoa.
J - What was the biggest crowd you ever
played for?
G - 62,000 people who came to
see us in Erie, PA.
J - What led to the break up of the
Nelson band?
G - Lack of touring, to be
precise. The music world had changed with the whole 'Seattle' paradigm shift,
Geffen had changed their priorities, and Matt and I were the last to know.
Geffen kept us on a string for a long time before we'd figured things out...
and our guys needed to make a living, you know?
J - Do you still talk to any of the guys or
know where they are?
G - Of course! We're always going to be
family... we've been through the wars together. We speak about every month.