ION INDIE MAGAZINE September 2015, Volume 16 | Page 60
Phil: All kinds of stuff. Me personally--I love THE BEATLES--that’s a huge one. As far as guitar players,
Chicago Blues, Bluegrass--that’s what my Dad was into. Then as I got older, THE BLACK CROWES and LED
ZEPPELIN were a MAJOR influence. All the guys come from different backgrounds. Like Mitch…he grew
up on JOURNEY…you can hear it in his singing. They were a big influence on him. Tyler, I bet would say
THE FOO FIGHTERS are the biggest influence on him—TRAVIS BARKER--he LOVES Travis Barker and his
BLINK 182 days! Dean likes a lot of the same things…Dean, who are some of your influences musically?
Dean: Aw man, BUTCH WALKER--he’s a new one
I’ve really been lovin’. But as far as early
influences, I love everything from FRANK
SINATRA to AEROSMITH—or even BOBBY
DARIN. For Rock n Roll influences, MARSHALL
TUCKER BAND--I was really into them. I learned
about THE BEATLES from Phil before I was even
into playing music, when I was 17 or 18 years
old. COLLECTIVE SOUL--I loved them growing
up, but you don’t hear much about them
anymore…CANDLEBOX and CRACKER…
Phil: You were influenced a lot by what your big
brothers were listening to…
Dean: Oh yeah, lots of 80’s stuff like TESLA and
even when I was a kid, I loved all kinds of music-even movie soundtracks. I know that sounds
kind of crazy, but still.
Phil: It’s neat because you can hear it, especially
that “score” type stuff. I totally hear it coming out
in his bass playing. He always creates that kind
of scene behind certain guitar lines…it’s really
neat.
Dean: I’ve always liked that kind of melodic
sound growing up.
CW: Have you had the chance to meet any of these people that have influenced you? Idols?
Phil: We’ve gotten to meet a lot of them in the last couple years.
CW: How’d it go?
Dean: We got to meet MICHAEL ANTHONY…
Phil: Some were good, some were bad. Depends on how much we had to drink at the time…
CW: With all the troubles you were having with ‘ole 37 (tour bus), what keeps you from calling it
quits and giving it up?
Phil: Quitting isn’t even in our vocabulary. We are not the kind of guys that have a backup plan. I mean,
this is it. We would be doing this if we were homeless under a bridge in Los Angeles or we get to be in this