It's about time this interview finally happened..
I've now reviewed all 3 c.d.'s for these guys.. and just love there no frills, raw rock n roll sound.
I was a fan of Salty Dog back in the day.. they also had a fun rock n roll sound..
but the bass player Michael went a notch up with his new band American Dog..
He is not only the bass player now, but also the singer.. and main songwriter..
SO I finally caught up with Mr. Hannon before his road trip to Canada..
and took a trip down memory lane..

J-ok... Michael first off we are going to go backwards and talk about the Salty Dog days..
if that is ok..

M-Sure.. anything you want to talk about.. I'm wide open..

J-ok.. so how did you hook up with the guys back then?

M-Salty Dog?.. that was when I went out to L.A.. 84, 85.. cause everybody was going out there..  ya know.. we were just all people that met out there, none of us were from L.A..... we just met from the same old places, I was working at a hardware store.. through a temp service, and there was the guitar player.. and he was such a quiet little bastard, I thought he was a country western fan...being Mr.mellow, and he's like "no I'm not..and I know this drummer.." and that was it.. and I ended up being lucky , finding the right guy.. so then Salty Dog was instrumental for a yr. we didn't have a singer, till a buddy of mine, Mark Chapfield, from the Godz.. with a Z...he knew about a singer back here in Ohio.. so he calls me, I have the perfect singer for you, but you cant talk to him..cause he's too drunk.. so I'm like greeeaatt.. just what we need.. so about a month later, this guy comes knocking on my door, and it was Jimmy Bletcher, and that was pretty much it.

J-How long were you together, before getting signed?

M-oh geez.. well we were instrumental for a year,then probably another 2 or 3 years sluggin it out on the strip. and Orange County, we started out better in Orange County.. that's were I was living at the time, and it was good cause the people would travel up from Orange County to L.A.. for ya.. cause L.A. was a little more snooty... then Orange County.. Orange County was more like the real world, so we would always have this crowd that would come up and see us. so we started picking up the L.A.. people too..
 

J-Who was the main song writer?

M-That was Jimmy.. he wrote all the lyrics in Salty Dog.... and it was more of a group effort, although when Pete joined the band he brought allot to the band musically.. cause it was funny.. we had the other guitar player, the one I met in the hardware store, way up till we got signed.. then we fired him, cause he had a drug problem..then the first show we did with our new guitar player, Pete, is when we got signed..so he did alll the leg work.. but he fucked it up himself.. last I knew he was living out of his car, and selling crystal meth on the street..

J-ohhh.. great..so you pretty much came out at the end of the "hair band" era.. but how important was your look back then?

M-It was real important.. it was weird.. cause we were kinda in no-mans land, ya know that evil glam.. like Guns n Roses look.. that heroin Hanoi Rocks kinda thing.. then there was the pretty flashy.. bands like Poison.. and we were in the middle, kind of like a Tesla band... kinda a blue jean thing..

J-And how did everyone in the band get along?

M-Well at first.. good, then we turned into real assholes, and started fighting everybody.. and each other.. we were douche bags..

J-Do you still talk or know where any of them are?

M-Ya I know were all of them are as a matter of fact, we've all grow up now.. back then you go there, and your young and dumb, you get a record deal handed to you and a 25,000 check.. we turned into little arrogant assholes.. ill admit it now.. and you start doing heroin on top of that.. and your going to be a real asshole, and that's what happened to us..

J-What was your favorite tour back then? any good road stories?

M-oh geez.. we toured w/Robin Trower for 3 months and we were doing a photo shoot out by a pool in San Diego.. and we were sitting there and right next too us was the pool.. with a Jacuzzi type thing.. and next too it was Robin Trower in a pair of Speedos.. my god!!!! he got out of the pool.. we didn't even see him, he had his back to us.. he got out, in his Speedos.."how ya doing?"...hahaha.. he's smokin a joint.. Robin Trower in a pair of Speedos.. is not a good site.. and we just looked at him in this gasp of horror.. and that was the best picture we got out of the photo shoot..

J-What's the craziest thing a fan has done to meet you?

M-Well ya know..the usual, give the roadie a blow job.. but nothing really unusual.. that I can think of.. well ya, one chick did climb up on the balcony.. to meet Jimmy once, fell off and broke her leg.. that was in Hollywood... and she already knew him, I guess she was just addicted to him..

J-What's the biggest crowd you have played for..

M-There was 110,000 people in San Antonio TX. there is this thing they have called Happy Week... we were lucky to get on first.. we were at the peak of our carrier.. everybody was playing us on San Antonio radio.. San Antonio had  taken over Cleveland a long time ago, as the capital of rock n roll.. and it was us.. we were the opener, then Eric Johnson, which is Texas.. then the Fabulous Thunderbirds.. which they were at there peak, and had there big hit at the time.. it was just packed.. and the other end of the place was Aerosmith and Ted Nugent.. and I think Dangerous Toys..it was that big.. there was  110,000 people all together.. it was just like Jesus Christ.. it was huge!

J-And what led to the break up of the band?

M-Heroin.. absolute heroin.. one of the guys got hooked on it bad.. and we went through 3 rehab units.. and as soon as he would get out.. he would get right back on the junk... and ill be quit honest.. I don't care what drugs you do.. cause I'm not the one to judge on that kind of shit... but when you do it, and you cant show up on time.. and you cant do your job anymore.. and that's when its done.. and the label wanted us to keep the original guy.. and we were broke, we couldn't tour.. we couldn't do anything.. so we got another singer.. then the magic was gone.. even though the new guy was a better singer.. but that has nothing to do with it, in a rock n roll band..ya know..  Dio is a better singer then Ozzy.. but  you want Ozzy.. cause he is the original thing.. and has that madness.. and it just didn't work... we broke up within a year..cause it just didn't work.. So I had gotten a call from Dangerous Toys.. and they said they have a tour coming up..and wanted to know if I would play bass for them.. and I said ya!

J-So that's what you did after salty dog? did you do any other side projects.. or record anything?

M-I didn't record.. but I did a couple demos, with some local bands. I was mad at the world, ya know.. cause I had just put 10 years into Salty Dog.. so you get pretty angry when you flush all that time down the toilet.. I was in a band called Snake Rocks for a while, which was a boogie woogy band out of Cleveland, oh. and that fell apart.. so I played with a kinda metal punk band.. called Bogus Toms, for about 3 or 4 months.. that just didn't work either.. so I was just disgruntled with the world..

J-So if you were with Dangerous Toys.. how many tours did you do with them?

M-I just did one.. it was 3 legs..and probably did about 200 shows with them.. it was the "Pissed" tour.. whish was there 3rd album, that was a great album! it was one of those things where there bass player quit 12 days before the tour.. I had been real good friends w/the Dangerous Toys..cause Salty Dog had played w/them.. and we just kept in touch.. and I'm an Alice Cooper freak.. and so is Jason, and remember that song "Scared"..? with al that Alice Cooper stuff in it..

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