Steel Notes Magazine
www.steelnotesmagazine.com
Show. The thing was massive! So we’re like why are they saying
that? Every interview was like; well we had to be replaced. I went
into a dark tail spin and I got disillusioned with my friends Shep
and Alice and with the fans who didn’t seem to really question
anything to find out what really happened, and I decided I’m just
going to build a studio in my basement and I’m going to write
songs and I’m not going to go out and play. If I went out to a club
to hear a band I would find the darkest corner and hide out and
wouldn’t want to be called up to sit in. I decided ok, the record
business has not been my friend lately and so why should I be
bitter about something that I love
which is music, so I’m going to get
back to loving music and I’m going
to make that and all the rest of the
stuff can go to hell or whatever [
Laughter ] and I’m going to go in
my basement and write songs and I
wrote like 200 songs.
would be famous if Alice had come together like we all agreed.
Not that the ‘Welcome To My Nightmare’ tour wasn’t a good one,
I thought that was the best one Alice has done solo even though
I do think that it’s obvious that Alice is a master performer and
nobody ever pays to see Alice solo and walks out not getting their
money’s worth you know? I’m a fan of Alice as a solo artist and
all of that.
Alexxis: Right
Alexxis: Wow, well at least you were
able to channel it.
Dennis: Glen Buxton would come
over and we would jam and I would
get together with Neal and so there
was a lot of that. We were having fun
again you know but—
Alexxis: So is that how the Billion
Dollar Babies the band came about?
Dennis: Well that’s because we had
so much of our own money invested
into this giant stage and everything
and we had written songs that we
thought were good, so at that point
it was really just us laundering to re-
coup that investment. How could we
go out with this giant stage? When
we would try to get bookings people would say “Well how can I
advertise that The Billion Dollar Babies are playing when every-
body thinks you are on tour?” The ‘Welcome to My Nightmare’
tour didn't advertise that it was new guys in the band you know?
The advertisements had our music and you know people bought
their tickets expecting to see the original band but that’s not what
they saw when they got there. So you know people say “How can
I hire you when people think you’re already out on tour and also
how can you headline if Alice isn’t there and people expect that?
Nobody in the world is going to want to have you as an opening
band with this gigantic stage.” [ Laughter ]
Alexxis: I see that was a major problem.
Dennis: We were between a rock and a hard place and it’s too bad
because we did 4 shows of The Battle Axe show and it was great
and it was so much fun and it would've been really good, and it
Dennis: The Battle Axe show would have been a really good
vehicle for the band with the concept of the original group, in
my opinion, we got popular by always having unexpected things
happen. Each show that we did, we tried to have something new
you know? It seemed like once we got to this point of success and
bookings, so many bookings that we didn’t have time to build a
new stage or come up with a new investment in a new concept,
and all of a sudden with the attitude we were told we have to give
people what they expect. That went against everything that we
believed. So ‘The Battle Axe Show’ would have been unexpected.
‘Welcome to My Nightmare’ was pretty unexpected but then after
that all of a sudden look at how many things the original group
came up with that nobody had ever done before. You know, the
executions and the snake and the balloons and throwing things
in the audience and all of that. I still see bands doing those ideas.
Alexxis: Oh yes they still do that.
Steel Notes Magazine
www.steelnotesmagazine.com
17