to a lot of new stuff, and I’m going to say the two top bands in the last
15 years, right off the top of my head that I loved, were like The Black
Crowes and Jet and you can hear all those influences in their music.
You know what I mean, it’s so obvious why I like them. I love that kind
of music. Unlike my last single, “Something You Do”, which the best on
the charts commercially for me. The minute I wrote it I said, “I hate this
song!” and Val said, “This is a smash, we need to go record it right now.” I
didn’t want to do the song until we were on our way to Bonnie Haze’s
house. She wrote huge hits for Bonnie Ray including “Love Letter” and
In the “Nick of Time”. So here, I’d written part of this song in the hotel
room, then later in the car with Val and I said, “Give me a pen, I’ve got the
rest of it.” I had the first couple verses, the chorus and the melody. We
were at Bonnie Haze’s and she helped me finish the lyrics. We timed it
up, I did a demo at her house. I have like three or four other songs that
are very adult contemporary, really mellow, and produced in a very AC
kinda way. At the time, I said this not what I’m doing at all, and Val said,
“That’s what everybody says and it ends up being their biggest hit”. He
was right, it did really well. Funny how that happened but I hardly
ever do it live.
Is it like one of those things where you felt at the
time, but then put it in the closet and never want
to see it again?
I do it all the time. I have lots of songs like that. Yeah. I
mean I love it, lyrically I’m really proud of it, I like the way it
sounds but to do it live kinda bores me. I am a rock ‘n’ roller.
You are a rock ‘n’ roller, I’ve seen you you on stage and
I’ve heard one CD. You have a real rock ‘n’ roll attitude, I
love that, where’d you get that from?
I don’t know, like the stage presence is probably just me being so
into what I’m doing I don’t care and the funny thing is the older I get,
the more my neck does not forgive me. What’s hysterical, is the older
I’ve gotten the more head thrashing I do. Then I see videos and realize
I need to stop doing that. The next morning I wake up going, “ahh”, like
my trapezius muscles are so sore but I’m having so much fun! I don’t
know, I’m so into what I’m doing, to me it’s joy, pure joy. When all the
harmonies are like spot on and everybody’s just super good at what
they’re doing, there’s nothing like it.
Do you have a set band right now?
I do now, again. The guys that I went to England with did a great job but
they’re kind of the pick-up band that I had to put together because the
band I’d been working with this last seven months backed out at the last
minute. The band I work with now is Temple of the Dad, not Temple of
the Dead. They’re from Point Loma too, so we have that in common.
Why do they call it Temple of the Dad? Are they all dads?
Yes. When they started playing together, they all had other bands. Sun
Tower, Kevin and Pete’s band, started raising money for their kids’ schools
music programs and bought instruments, like ukuleles, for the whole
school. They did it over and over again and I saw an ad. They were
looking for a singer when I met Pete and I liked what they were doing
so much I wanted to merge and do some stuff together for charity. We
ended up getting together and I mean, the musicianship, I’m stoked, they
learned a lot of my stuff and we do a conglomeration of killer classic rock
from the 60’s and 70’s. Honestly they’re so fucking good, I enjoy them.
What are the names of the band members?
Kevin Whelan, lead guitar player. Pete Mechalas, guitar. Vince Escaleria,
base. Austin Bunn, drums Rodger First, vocalist/guitar. Quite often if I
book stuff as Lacy Younger, they are my band, and it’s Lacy Younger Band,
then if we do stuff together that’s like a joint effort it’s Temple of the Dad
with Lacy Younger. If we do corporate gigs, it’s just Template of the Dad.
I’ve been enjoying them immensely and I think they’re probably going to
come with me to Germany. I think half of them are anyway, in May.
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