Side Stage Magazine: Congratulations on the new Black Star Riders record. You must be so proud. What stands out to you as you look back on its completion?
Damon Johnson: Yeah. You know, we feel a little bit like children at Christmas time or something, with the album coming out on Friday. It was a solid year of work. Ricky and I got together literally one year ago almost to this week. It was the first time we kind of brought all of our batch of ideas together just to see what we had. The really cool thing is that just over the first three days together we really kind of came up with the bulk of the entire album, we had “ Dancing With the Wrong Girl”, we had “When The Night Comes In”, “Testify Or Say Goodbye”, a lot of the songs that people are really talking about and the radio is playing, so it was productive. The whole process has been a lot of work. I won’t kid you. It hasn’t been easy, but we have such a commitment to writing and to writing a lot. We came in with about 20 songs this time and we just feel like if you’ve got that many to play through and work on that chances are good you’ll have a solid record of tin. You know?
Correct me if I am wrong, but to me it feels as though this album is more consistent compared to the other records you released. The Black Star Riders have forged their own identity and are no longer are in the Shadow of Thin Lizzy. The band can stand on it’s own, and that must feel good?
I agree with you, and yes it does feel good. I think the first album, for sure, was certainly very focused on trying as best we could to try to capture the essence of what Thin Lizzy, the classic Thin Lizzy, sounded like. That’s an impossible task. I don’t think anyone could do that. We did a good job, there are songs on that first album I’m super proud of, but without a doubt Thin Lizzy’s shadow was looming very large over us. Our second album, The Killer Instinct, was much more experimental, a lot of development there. I still feel like songs like “Blindsided” and the title track “The Killer Instinct”, they’re two of the best songs we’ve ever written or recorded. It was definitely a band in transition. I agree with you completely that now with this third album, we just feel like we’re at full stride. We’ve got a real kind of clear open field in front of us and we can run as fast in any direction that we want to. The record definitely has a lot of diversity on it. I don’t think we couldn’t be happier with where we are right now.
I agree, and it has so much to offer. I was taken by the fact that you incorporated choirs, there’s blues hard rock elements, but it has a heavy feel to it too.
Yeah. You know, for me, all of my favorite bands, Thin Lizzy, Led Zeppelin, The Beatles, they covered a lot of diversity over the course of individual records. To me, that’s just part of the fulfillment of experimenting and trying things, and it says a lot about the level of musicianship in our band. I’m so proud of everybody, particularly the rhythm sections. Jimmy and Robbie just play out of their minds on this album. It just gave a great bed for Scott and I to put the guitars on, Ricky is singing better than ever in his whole career, and that’s saying something because that guy’s made a lot of great records in his life. It was a lot of fun, a lot of experimentation, a lot of growth.
How long did Heavy Fire take to write?
I mentioned that first session back in January. Ricky and I tend to write off and on kind of throughout the spring and summer. He may get up one day and go, “Oh, I worked on a lyric to this idea. I got to tie it on now. What do you think about this?” We did have another very focused writing session with Scott at his house in London in the summer, this past June or July. That was really with the purpose of kind of getting everything to a place that we were ready to bring it to a studio, work up all the songs, play them for our producer Nick Raskulinecz. I guess in a way. It took about six months off and on to write everything, but in truthfulness you’re always writing to the very end. We were changing arrangements right to the last-minute. Ricky was adding or changing lyrics to the very last day, just trying our best to make it as good as possible.
Do you have a favorite track on the album?
Yeah. You know, it kind of changes on us, to tell you the truth, on a weekly basis. Today I’m actually really liking our title track, the very first song on the album, “Heavy Fire”. That one did not come easily. That song went through so many transitions and changes. It’s almost unbelievable that it developed into what it has begun. Just last night I actually filmed a YouTube clip of me playing the song, playing my guitar parts from top to bottom. A lot of fans had asked about it, and some of the guys in the band were saying, “Man, that riff is so cool. You should just make a YouTube clip of it,” so that one’s kind of forefront in my mind right now. We just released that song to the public on Monday as well, so a lot of people talking about the title track right now.
Would you say that “Heavy Fire” was the most challenging one out of all the songs you recorded?
Yes. Fascinating, because there was another song called “Heavy Fire” that was a completely different song, a different vibe, a different tempo. Just very different. Ricky had the title, we knew we wanted to call the album that, but there was one song that we kept grinding on, and originally it was called “The Salvation”, and something just wasn’t right. One day we just decided to cut a piece completely out until we knew musically we had it. Then on the next to the last day, I walked into the studio and the name on the board that we have on the wall that we keep all of our work chart on, the title had changed from “The Salvation” to “Heavy Fire”. I was like, “Dude, what the fuck? What’s happening?” He told me, he goes, “Mate, I finally did it. I got it. This is “Heavy Fire”.” As soon as I heard him sing the title within the context of the old song, The Salvation, it was incredible. I knew Ricky really … He delivered on that one, for sure.
You said that there were 20 songs that were written. What happened to the other ten?
Some of the other ones, I think they may wind up on maybe somebody’s solo record. You may not know that Ricky and I play a lot of acoustic stuff together as a duo, we just call it Warwick Johnson, and we have a good time with that. We’re talking about maybe making a little simple recording sometime this year, so maybe the songs will be on that as well.
Was the writing and the recording process different this time around or was it just keeping to what you guys normally do?
We’re lucky, Ricky and I fell into a great tempo as songwriters on the very first album. We have a similar work ethic. We definitely have a similar love of music. We’re always listening to lots of different things. We kind of bring all that diversity to the table, and we’re not precious about our ideas. If I play Ricky something and he goes, “No, this is too slow. Cut this in half, and this should …” You know, I try him, and he extends that same trust to me. What winds up happening is it just makes you very inspired. It makes you very energized. It’s a real pleasure to write with him. It was definitely much of that same process. I guess the one difference is that we just wrote more songs this time. Instead of having 12 or 13 we had 20 or 21 songs. That’s a lot.
You spoke a little bit about what it’s like to work with Ricky, and I have to say that this music connection that you guys share, it really does come through when I listen to the album and also at your live shows. The last time I’ve seen you perform, you opened up for Europe.
Oh yeah. Yeah. Did you see us in New York with that?
Yes and I’ve also seen you play with Brother Cane, but I’ll get to that later in the interview.
Right on. Thank you for that. I have to say, that show we played with Europe in New York, that was at Irving Plaza, right?
Yes it was.
Yeah. We have a physical connection that night because there was no fucking room on that stage. (laughs)
Ha, I remember that.
We didn’t have much room to move around, but without a doubt Ricky and I love to perform. All the guys do. To tell you the truth, I just would’ve never dreamt that I would be, at this point in my career and in my life, and be in such a badass rock and roll band like this. I know Ricky, he and I talk about that a lot. We just feel so fortunate. We can feel the buzz about Black Star Riders, it’s growing. It’s not growing fast because that’s just not the world we live in anymore. We’re not a young pop band, we’re experienced rock and roll guys, but we’re still making great music. We’re inspired by what we do and we can feel the audience growing, the fan base growing, so that really fuels us and that’s certainly a big part of our connection is that excitement.
Are there any touring plans in the works?
Yeah. The big UK tour is first, the first thing on the agenda. Tremendous excitement over there. A lot of the dates are selling out. We’ve got some great support bands going out with us, so that’s going to be most of the month of March. Festival dates are coming in. Just today I was on the phone with management about a possible West Coast run, that looks like it’s coming together here in the states. By all means, we have to come back to the East Coast. So many great rock towns, not just New York, but Philly, Boston, Baltimore. We just love to play everywhere. Hopefully those dates will be coming together soon.
I can’t imagine three albums and picking a setlist, sounds like daunting task.
Funny you should say that. Just last night I was texting with Scott Gorham and I sent him what I felt to be kind of the master list for this tour and he gave me two thumbs up. That was a great feeling. When the Glendale Gun Slinger gives us a thumbs up it’s like, “Alright!” He knows a thing or two about good song lists and great shows. Yeah. It’s a lot of fun. We’ve got three albums to choose from now. There’ll be a lot less Thin Lizzy material in the set, and that is not because we don’t love those songs, because we do, and we’ll play Thin Lizzy material probably for the rest of our lives. The reaction right now from the audience is they’re just ready to hear their favorite songs from the first two records and we’ve got a ton of new stuff that we’re excited to play. It’s going to be a lot of great music. We love having options now. I’d love for us to change the setlist t up a good bit over the course of the year.
I also wanted to ask you a few questions in regards to your own career. You have a vast body of work. You’ve worked with Santana, Stevie Nicks, Alice Cooper. You have Brother Cane and then you had the Echo EP that came out last year. Do you have anything else that you’re working on currently, or Black Star Riders is the main focus?
Black Star Riders is definitely the main focus, but I am as we speak working on a live recording of my solo band that we performed last spring in my hometown of Birmingham, Alabama. I was just listening to some of that today, as a matter of fact. My goal is to get that out maybe this summer. The cool thing about this live recording, it’s almost two hours of music and it covers all that stuff that you just talked about. There’s a lot of Brother Cane, some songs from some of the other bands I was in like Slave to the System, and Red Halo. Some of the new material. I think we pretty much played all five songs that are on my Echo EP that you mentioned, and some surprises. We did a Thin Lizzy tune, we did a couple Alice Cooper songs, so for me it’s kind of celebration of the last two decades of my musical life. To be able to put that out and have it available in all the streaming and on iTunes, I’m excited about that. It blows my mind that I’ve been a part of all these great bands. It’s a lot of fun for me to put that together. I’ve got such a great band here at home in Nashville, and those guys, they play their asses off. I’m excited about that, for sure.
In 2015 , Brother Cane performed in Queens, in New York, at a venue called the Blackthorn 51. My friends opened up for you that night. It was my second time seeing you play. What is the difference between the way that Brother Cane works compared to the Black Star Riders?
Wow, great question. I’ve never been asked that. I think the big difference that pops to my mind immediately is simply confidence. In Brother Cane we were so young. I never really wanted to be a lead singer, Anna. I always said in interviews, “I’m a guitar player that sings, rather than a singer that plays guitar.” It’s a big distinction right there. Over the course of those three albums in the 90’s, we definitely wrote some great songs, recorded great songs. I just never felt like I was as confident as I wanted to be then, certainly as I am now. When you combine my confidence with Ricky’s, with Jimmy’s, with Scott’s and Robbie’s, it’s just a big ball of nuclear energy. When Black Star Riders takes the stage we have a different swagger and a different confidence. That would definitely be a substantial difference between those two bands.
You worked with so many artists in your career, are there anyone in particular you would like to work with in the future?
Oh, I always have a list. It changes, it grows everyday. My wife and I were listening to The Police this morning, and I’m a huge, huge fan of Sting, everything he’s ever done with the band, his solo work. I had an opportunity actually play a song with him in Las Vegas back in 2011, and he’s definitely on my list. It’s not necessarily something rock and roll. I would want it to be something super musical and melodic and just a bad ass lyric. He’s definitely on the list. That would be amazing to write a song with Sting.
Thank you so much for taking the time to speak. Do you have any messages for your fans?
Anna, let me start by saying thank you to you. You asked some great questions. You asked some I’ve never been asked before.
Awe thank you that’s very nice to hear.
You were very thoughtful, and that means a lot. I wouldn’t get to do this if it weren’t for my fans. I say sometimes when I do my solo acoustic songs that I want to thank all 74 of my fans around the world. It’s like, I don’t have as many fans as maybe Jon Bon Jovi but the ones that I’ve got, they are die-hard and passionate and they’ve been so supportive of all of my musical ADD. Through the years I’ve literally covered the gamut, rock, hard rock, country, metal, alternative, you name it. I’m really appreciative to all of them and I hope they’ll keep supporting me because I’m definitely going to keep writing and putting out new music.
Thank you so much. I wish you the best for Heavy Fire and safe travels for when you kick of your tour.
Alright, my dear. Have a good day. Bye-bye.
