ION INDIE MAGAZINE March 2016, Volume 22 | Page 69

JP: SCOTT WEILAND--tremendous talent. Do you think the industry is kind of willing to look past the kind of
issues Scott had? Do you think the industry is willing to push someone forward as long as they’re making
money off of them?
RD: Well, here’s my take on Scott. I think that as a performer and a star, he was such an attractive figure and
voice...I think he did the wrong things with those things. I looked up to Scott Weiland…his songwriting ability,
his performing ability, his singing ability, but to hear that he wasn’t a great father to his kids…to hear these
things after his death really disappoints me that he took the power that he had from the earth and from his
hard work and from everything he did and just about threw it away. When you have that amount of success,
your job shouldn’t be to squander it away with addiction or lose focus on what’s important.
JP: You’ve had quite a bit of success throughout your career. If a blazing teenage guitarist came to you and
asked you for advice about the business, about trying to make it their livelihood, what would you tell them?
RD: You gotta be ready to have small victories is the first thing I would them. The music industry isn’t what it
once was and everyone will jump so quickly and tell you to get another job. Look, if you have success on a
smaller scale, you can make a living. If you can put 300 people in small clubs all over the United States,
which is very difficult in today’s climate, you can have a career. There are bands like FIVE FINGER DEATH
PUNCH out there in a time when people will tell you not to be a musician making a great living being
musicians. The first thing I’d tell these guys is you have to have a star. There has to be a star singer, a star
songwriter, a star guitarist something…because hit songs make careers happen. The next thing I would tell
them is to make sure you invest in yourself. You can’t just record in a garage and just have a crappy recording
representing your band and think you’re going to go and have the world handed to you, ya know? If you
believe in yourself, and you believe in your songs and you believe in your band, take $5000 and go find a
great producer or engineer. Make a 3 to 4 song demo of your best songs, write ten, and use the 3 or 4 you
think could change your life, record them properly. Once you have that demo, don’t be afraid to cold call and
send it to managers and labels and Indie labels, because people are out there looking for great music all
the time. You have to play shows, and jump on local shows with national acts. Try to be an opener for and
Adelitas Way tour coming through town. Try being an opener for a TRAPT tour coming through town. Hustle
CDs. Sling ‘em. Put your music up on TuneCore, but it all starts with the songs. Be tight. Don’t practice 2
nights and show up to open for Adelitas Way and not be ready, ya know?
JP: On touring, I know you’re on the four week run right now, are you planning on festivals this year?
RD: You know what, man, disappointingly, we’ve been left off the festivals this year. Maybe they were looking
for some fresh bodies. I know everyone is on this alternative movement and they’re also on this “Hot Topic
Rock”, like BRING ME THE HORIZON, OF MICE AND MEN. They obviously have fans. Their people wanna see
them, and I dig those bands and that’s cool. I also think they (festival organizers) wanna see us on the radio.
They wanna see us being Adelitas Way. They wanna see us having hit songs, making great music. It’s our job
to go out there and get that job done. I’m very disappointed that we are being left off of the festivals and
maybe we just have to prove ourselves again to these guys. I know they love us. We have a great relationship.
I’m chalking it up to they went a different direction.
JP: Getting back to the music, your newer stuff, how does it differ from what you’ve done in the past?