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An Interview with John Fred Young by Mike Newdeck
It’s
difficult to be unimpressed with Black Stone Cherry, their venomous
brand of modern rock meets classic and Southern rock is an intoxicating
brew. With a debut album re-released by Roadrunner after the label saw
their huge potential and a coveted support slot on the Whitesnake/Def
Leppard tour the future is looking decidedly rosy. Now with the band
taking it to a new level with the release of ‘Folklore and Superstition’
it just seems a matter of time before everyone catches on. “How you doin’” Young hollers in the deepest southern accent known to man “I’m doing great myself, we’re just about to do two home shows here in Kentucky and we’re also doing a cd release party right now, it’s been kinda hectic. We’re also doing a fundraiser show for deprived children, five dollars goes to Toys for Tots…it’s a lot of work!” Usually the band is hard at work, whether it be gigging or recording and it was no different with the debut album. Originally released independently the band’s profile was only raised after it was re-released by Roadrunner. “I’ll tell you what” he explains, “Roadrunner are the biggest independent label in the world and many bands have had success from independents without going down the major label route. I admire the label; they’re on the scale of a major. The album was recorded in our hometown and prior to getting signed with Roadrunner we hadn’t been out of it! My father, Richard, who played guitar for the Kentucky Headhunters actually produced the album along with a local engineer. The albums been around for a while now, but without Roadrunner we would never have got out of our hometown and come to the UK or Canada. In the fall we’re even back again to do a headlining tour in the UK, so it’s been amazing!” The debut album itself was a great introduction to Black Stone Cherry. With their self-penned hard-hitting modern take on southern rock Black stone Cherry made a lot of new friends after they signed with Roadrunner. With a wealth of songs, it was slightly strange that they chose to record ‘Shape of Things’ previously recorded by The Yardbirds. “Man we just love that song, it’s great” the drummer enthuses “some songs just do it for you and this one was good enough but obscure enough for us to be able to include it on our album. We were fans of the band, and it wasn’t a song that had been played to death so it felt comfortable. There’s a funny story attached to that song though” he continues “we were at the Classic Rock magazine awards and Jeff beck was there after we were presented with an award and he went up to Chris and told him that he really loved our version of Shape of Things……Chris was blown away!” John Fred Young’s father Richard who obviously has had a huge influence on him musically and spiritually, produced the debut album itself. Young explains. “His influence was major” he offers “he turned us on to a lot of the music that we wouldn’t necessarily have heard being where we were. In our practice house on the farm here they used to put up posters of all the rock icons such as Skynrd, Cream and The Beatles. The posters insulated the building and kept the heat in. We practiced there; my dad and my uncle used to let us. It had no address, so if it caught fire the fire brigade would never be able to get there. That house, the Headhunters and that house have had a massive influence on us. As a result of my father we respected the blues, Motown and bluegrass roots that now come out of our music”. Black Stone Cherry recently opened on the Def Leppard, Whitesnake tour. This took their music to a whole new audience by all accounts the tour was a success, was there any difficulties caused my the members of the other bands? Young fills in the gaps. “They treated us just horrible” he jokes “man, it was awesome, they were just great to us, every one of those guys, they were just so nice to us man! One word would describe that tour…classy! It was so cool getting a hand for those guys. They just had no egos at all, I suppose because they’ve been doing it so long. Both bands were amazing on stage. But it was so cool just hanging out with them, talking about everyday stuff.” Hanging out was a highlight but clearly the playing was also incredible. “Yeah! It was absolutely amazing I can tell you” he recalls “the bottom of the arena floor was totally full for us every night, and we played quite soon after the doors opened. In the States when you play sometimes the opening band gets ignored, but the British audiences received us really well. The meet and greets that we did wre amazing; we love meeting the fans, in the bar, arena or anywhere. A few strings would have been pulled to get Black Stone Cherry on that tour. “Yeah certainly, but it all worked out” he recounts excitedly “ I met Joe Elliot at the Classic Rock awards and that started the thing rolling, obviously we had some help from our management Helter Skelter and it all came together. Everyone thought that we would bring something to the table on that tour. Talking of tours we’re back in the fall for another UK tour with Sevendust and The Answer, they’re a great band. The attention given to Black Stone Cherry by the media has increased significantly as a result of the band gaining a higher profile and that can be difficult to handle. Fred says that the band have taken it all in their stride. “ We love it, all the attention” he barks “we’re down to earth and don’t have big heads, we’ll do any interview going and do anything to get the bands name out there in a really positive way, we want our music heard. Things are going well for us so we just keep it going.” Getting the music out there to the non-believers is essential in order for the band to increase its popularity. The music itself has garnered praise as a result of its originality and the need for a new niche in the hard rock genre. Other bands and producers have quickly cottoned on to this. Black Stone Cherry has natural sound that is far from contrived. “Well when we first started out,” he explains, “we never wanted to sound like anybody, we were hugely influenced by Led Zeppelin, Aerosmith, Black Sabbath and Skynrd. I mean obviously you’ve got band like Wolfmother and Jet who recreated a scene for people to latch onto, they brought back a bit of the 60’s and 70’s. We appreciated what they did, but we came at it from a different angle and it allowed other bands from the past to become listened to again. From AC/DC through to blues and soul which influenced us…. suddenly it was ok to be a bit retro! Our sound was never a conscious effort, it just happened; perhaps we wanted to be different. We’ll always be compared to Skynrd because that’s where we come from…southern rock is the norm.” ‘Folklore and Superstition’ has recently hit the record stores and any accusation that the band have turned tail and moved away from the style of the debut can be put to bed immediately, although the overall sound has more of a classic rock feel to it. Fred agrees. “ Yeah, we had Bob Marlette involved on this one” he explains “when he came down to check us out, we told him that we wanted to retain our identity and that he wasn’t going to change us. He went along with it, saying that he just wanted to make things better. His theory was that we were going to dig up more bones from the back yard than you thought you had. As a result we looked deeper into the things that were around us. There’s some amazing stuff around to see, whether it’s a landmark in London or something more local like Mammoth caves near us, which is the biggest underground cave system in the world. So we started writing songs about stuff around us, like ‘The Ghost of Floyd Collins’, he was a cave explorer back in the nineteen hundreds and got trapped after he tried to dig and join two sets of caves together. He died and his ghost is said to remain in the caves. By writing about things like that we preserve the local history as well as engraving our own identity on the songs.” The whole process has brought a glut of these type of songs to the table, from ‘Blind Man’ through to ‘Reverend Wrinkle’ and ‘Rain Wizard’ from the debut. Ironically ‘Blind man’ bucks the trend. Fred explains “‘Blind Man is actually a song about not overlooking those less fortunate than ourselves” he confesses “it’s positive, the video was actually shot in an old Sanatorium at a tuberculosis hospital in Kentucky, it was a really tragic place, sixty thousand people died there. We wanted to page homage to those people when we shot the video…they were treated like lepers and herded out of town” As well as the tragedy, Young reveals that the song is also about someone that he knew. Something he consequently was not prepared to talk about. For poignancy ‘The Things My Father Said’ wins hands down in the emotion stakes, another personal experience from a member of the band? “These people we met had just lost their father” the drummer remembers “ and we thought that we write a song about fathers, as mothers or grandmothers seemed to have the monopoly on song content, everyone has a father figure and the importance cannot be underestimated. Everyone in the band still has their dad around….it’s really important.” Bob Marlette produces the album with Young’s father Richard as Executive producer. Kevin Shirley mixed the first Marlette the new one. “It’s great, because we get ideas and input from lots of different directions” he continues “we all play each others instruments as well, which adds to the mix, so if Chris is struggling with an idea on the guitar, then I’ll grab it and do my interpretation.” So this forms the basis for the songs? “Well yeah basically” he agrees, “all four of us contribute and write the songs and the music. We get in the practice house, shut the door and start writing. For this album we wrote for four months, hell some nights we were there until the sun came up. The songs come out unique because everyone puts their bit into it, all their emotion and everything.” The pre production and writing of an album usually means that some songs are discarded. “ Hell yeah! It’s really difficult” he confesses “we had about forty songs written, we whittled them down to the ones that made the album and even then we still love the songs we left out, we have a massive back catalogue of unused songs. They’ll probably appear on itunes or b-sides and e.p’s.” John Fred Young clearly enjoys his trade as a drummer, something evident from the band’s stage show, but wasn’t he tempted to play guitar or sing? “My Uncle taught me to play the drums” he reminisces, “He drummed for the Kentucky Head-hunters, he’s a bad-ass man I’m telling you, check him out on You tube. But I mean, I play drums but we all do backing vocals I can play the guitar but man I suck! So I leave it to someone else.” “My Uncle really influenced my playing style along with Mitch Mitchell and of course John Bonham and Ginger Baker. Then there’s also the stack of blues drummers that I love. Man there’s so many. I tell ya something though, I make a lot of noise when I drumming, shouting screaming…and of course the stick noises that you hear on the album” ------------------------------------------------------------------------ John Fred Young is the backbeat to one of rock music’s most enthusiastic young rock bands. Southern rock with a twist if you will and coming to a town near you soon. Check them out live, you won’t be disappointed! |
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