JEFF PILSON: REFLECTIONS OF WAR & PEACE
Interview by Mark Tinta
Jeff Pilson is certainly no stranger to fans of classic hard rock and metal. Best known for his days as the bassist in ‘80s metal giants Dokken as well as serving a shorter stint with the legendary Dio in the mid ‘90s, Pilson has had a busy couple of years. He reunited with former Dokken guitarist George Lynch to form Lynch/Pilson, and released the superb Wicked Underground on Spitfire in 2003. He then rejoined Dio to play on the just-released Master of the Moon, though he said from the outset that it was studio-only job (he was replaced by journeyman bassist Rudy Sarzo for the tour), and he found time to record another album by his own band War & Peace, The Walls Have Eyes. Plus, he and his wife Ravinder recently welcomed Olivia, their first child, into the world.
"I would definitely say The Walls Have Eyes has a theme running through it," Pilson said from his home in Los Angeles. "It’s not necessarily a concept album, but there’s a lot on it about things going on in the world. A lot of it is political, some of it is personal. I would definitely say a song like ‘The Line in the Sand’ is political. And ‘City in Flames’ was a song that I’d actually written on keyboards around the time of the LA riots. I went back to it and found that the lyrics were very relevant to things going on today."
Though billed as War & Peace, The Walls Have Eyes is essentially a Pilson solo album. Aside from the drums of Michael Frowein and Bartholomew Toll, and some guitar work by Alex Masi on "Stranger in My Own Land," Pilson does everything. Known for his vocal harmonies with Dokken frontman Don Dokken back in the day, it comes as no surprise that Pilson, as also evidenced on Lynch/Pilson’s Wicked Underground, can more than hold his own at the mic.
"I think this new War & Peace record is certainly more cohesive than War & Peace releases of the past," Pilson explained. "Most of the earlier War & Peace material was just demo stuff and spare songs I had lying around that I couldn’t do anything with in Dokken or wherever, and that’s largely how (2000’s War & Peace release) The Light at the End of the Tunnel came together. With The Walls Have Eyes, I was able to sit down and start writing songs, and when you do that, themes and ideas come together and they take shape and it’s really special when you see and feel that happening. So yes, I definitely think this has more of a ‘whole album’ feel than War & Peace stuff from the past."
Pilson has been playing some War & Peace shows around California, and he’ll be taking the band to England to record a live album that should be released early next year.
"We’ve really got a great band," raved Pilson, who plays guitar live with War & Peace as opposed to his usual bass. "There’s Micheal Frowein on drums. He played on the Lynch/Pilson record and did an amazing job. There’s Mitch Perry on guitar. Mitch is a guy who’s been around for years and years and he’s done a lot of session and touring work, but he’s never really been in a situation that can demonstrate just how good he really is, and he sounds awesome playing the War & Peace stuff. And I’ve got a guy named Brad Lang on bass. Not only is he a tremendous bass player, but he can sing, so we’re able to do all of those classic vocal harmonies when we play the Dokken material."
It’s Pilson’s focus on War & Peace that made him not commit to being a full-time member of Dio, even though he has nothing but respect for Ronnie James Dio, arguably the greatest frontman in metal.
"I’ve never worked with anyone like Ronnie," Pilson said. "I toured with him quite a bit in the ‘90s, and did two albums with him back then (1994’s Strange Highways and 1996’s Angry Machines), and I’ve seen the guy sick with the flu, coughing and vomiting, and he just goes out there and sings like nothing’s wrong. The way he treats his band, the way he treats the fans—the man is a complete class act and it was an honor to play with him. And we tried some pretty daring things with Strange Highways and Angry Machines. Those were very non-Dio albums and they really didn’t go over well with the fans, who expected a ‘classic’ Dio sound. They were very modern and aggressive, and I think they would’ve been completely accepted if the band weren’t called Dio. But the downside of that is, no one would have known about them. I have fond memories of those albums, and working with Ronnie and (former Dio guitarist) Tracy G, and I’m very proud of them."
Pilson initially left Dio a decade ago because of the highly-publicized Dokken reunion. The band initially split in 1989, but 1995 saw Dokken, Pilson, Lynch, and drummer Mick Brown reconvene for Dysfunctional and 1997’s universally-maligned Shadowlife. By that time, Lynch had enough and quit once more. Pilson stuck around for one more album (1999’s Erase the Slate, with Reb Beach on guitar) and decided to leave, or was fired, depending on whether he or Don Dokken is telling the story.
"It was getting to the point where it just wasn’t fun for me anymore," Pilson said. "It was just time to let it go." When asked what he felt about a George Lynch quote saying "Don Dokken is a selfish piece of shit," Pilson laughed and said "I don’t know that I’d quite put it that way. I also can’t say I disagree with it, either."
Pilson released War & Peace’s The Light at the End of the Tunnel in 2000, had a supporting role as a member of the fictional band Steel Dragon in the 2001 film Rock Star ("that was a great experience and a lot of fun," Pilson said, "but filming a movie is a very tedious process") , and hooked up with Lynch in 2003.
"It was great to work with George again," Pilson said. "It’s unfortunate that Wicked Underground didn’t do better, but that’s probably because we didn’t tour for it. He had Lynch Mob going on, and I had my own things, and we just couldn’t really pull a tour together. Both of us definitely want to do another Lynch/Pilson record, though. We just need to find the time not only to record it, but to tour for it as well."
As a veritable elder statesman of hard rock, Pilson has seen trends come and go, and he doesn’t like what he sees in today’s culture.
"Everything now is so pre-packaged and safe," Pilson said. "I was watching the MTV Video Music Awards. What the hell was that? I mean, pop music is fine and it has its place, but where are the revolutionary bands? The next Guns n’ Roses or the next Nirvana have to be out there. There’s no band right now that’s dangerous. It’s all Britney Spears and Ashlee Simpson and all this stuff that you take in and forget about five minutes later. There’s some stuff I like—I really like the Velvet Revolver cd and I’m a big fan of Queens of the Stone Age, but there’s really no danger and no excitement in today’s music. I’m really saddened at how undangerous rock & roll has become. It’s all about Britney’s bellybutton. Things right now are so homogenized and artistically vacant. There’s no content and no substance, and that’s just the nature of the corporate, Clear Channel, George W. Bush world we live in. Just give people their SUVs and their credit cards and they’re happy. It all feeds into this ridiculous machine. You’ve got technology today that can make people who can’t sing, sing. You can make anyone sound good. I’ve seen it happen. Fifteen years ago, we wouldn’t have an Ashlee Simpson or a Britney Spears. The music world is stuck in this mall-celebrity mentality. Rock is begging for another revolution, and I know the bands are out there, waiting. And if Bush is re-elected, and the sad thing is that he probably will be, you can bet that those bands will come out in full force. This is a great country and it’s full of great people, but I just can’t believe we let things get to this point."
Though it could hardly be classified as revolutionary or dangerous, The Walls Have Eyes demonstrates that Pilson still has integrity and his dignity. He refuses to cop to passing trends, concentrating on delivering aggressive yet melodic hard rock, with surprisingly thought-provoking lyrics and ideas. As a aside, the album is currently not available on a US label, but is on Z Records in Europe. For more information, visit Z Records or Jeff Pilson.Com.
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