 Welcome to the metal voice Again a recurring guest you won the only and we'll all use that the one the only Frank Hannon from Tesla I want an only guitarist or well, I wouldn't say one only guitars, but a great guitarist Hey, well, thank you very much for having me on your show You know, yeah, we're definitely a twin guitar band Dave rude is our other guitarist and But I am one of the og original founding member guys Getting old man. We've got we're celebrating 40 years together me and the bass player Brian wheat and We're on a roll right now man. Tesla is on tour. We got some new songs that we're out with It's going great. I should have a preface it with Tesla has returned with a new single time to rock And I believe you co-wrote this song there's a tour coming up and It seems to be the theme that bands today, you know every time they go on a tour They're about to start a tour they release a song. Is that the strategy now versus releasing an album? What's the take? What's Tesla's take on that? Well, our take on it is that you know, we've made a lot of albums like I said, we're pushing a lot of years We've done a lot all of that And now at the phase that we're at this chapter of our career It's much more rewarding to Get together and focus just on one song without the pressure of trying to fabricate Ten songs to create an album now if you rewind back to our first album and the first, you know six albums that we made You know, that was a different time Yeah, I mean we spent years writing that first album in the clubs and had a lot of time these days, man, you know, it's just more Productive for us just to kind of focus on one song without any pressure and we're really enjoying that So is it just kind of like inspiration hits like last year? There's things going on in the world. Boom We get a cold blue steel now finally the world's opening out up and we're getting out there again Hey, it's time to rock and is it as simple as that? I'm inspired I write a song and let's put it out there and not wait for a record You're really you're you're describing it to a T. You're hitting the nail on the head there, man That's exactly how it is We're living more in the moment, you know of what's going on The process of making a full-length album would cause us like we've done before to lock ourselves in a room and Try to force them out. Whereas right now with the way we're doing it It's more in the moment and we get to enjoy the songs as they're relevant in the moment when we write them Going on with what's going on in the world or what we're being inspired by so yeah, you you really described that perfectly He's good at that. He's really good at that Frank. He's good at defining things. He's aware The where yeah, yeah Frank the stadium tour I mean one act that I thought would be there that wasn't it was Tesla I just I go how could Tesla not be part of part of the stadium tour that's going around right now We're was there any sort of conversations for that was was Tesla invited or maybe you guys were just busy Wanted to do your own thing Well, as you know the stadium tour got off to a rocky start just like everything did with the COVID You know when COVID hit that stadium tour was booked years ago 20s able to get going Well, it's been going all summer now, but you know, I don't know what happened there You know, yes, the answer is yes originally, you know, we've been friends with Def Leppard forever We've we've done shows with Motley crew and poison and and Tesla would have definitely been a great choice and and I think rounded off that package nicely we're we were You know, obviously would want to play in that arena or stadium so to speak But for some reason it didn't work out. I really don't know those are reasons that are beyond my control You know, I'm more of the music guy. I'm not really the business guy So there was some other business politics may be taking place that I have no idea about Would you do that though Frank so Frank? I mean so I saw the tour last week and and Joan jet goes on at like four o'clock in the afternoon for 45 minutes How do you feel about you know, I know you're out headlining now so you can play a new song You can play deeper cuts. You can play the hits. You're out there I'm assuming an hour and a half an hour 45 two hours Would you want to kind of do 45 minutes at four o'clock in the afternoon or I? Tell you man. You are a smart guy You tell my wife tell my wife that would jet It's true. Yeah, you know And again, we're really happy for Joan jet. We're huge fans of Joan jet We toured with Joan jet and sticks a couple years ago together and man. She is an awesome iconic I Love rock-and-roll punk You know founder of metal with the runaways and the female movement. So we're real happy for Joan jet and You know, she deserves that spot. If not as much as Tesla so there's that and Yes, what you said is we you know, we're at a point now with our career where we're writing our new songs we want to have the ability to play a full show and we're realizing that We are pretty much Independent and the only people we can count on is the five of us in our band, you know Brian wheat Jeff Keith myself Dave rude You know and Steve Brown is playing drums with us now for us You know Troy's on a hiatus It's but You know the original members Brian wheat and myself and Jeff Keith we realize that we're independent we're producing our music ourselves now we're running our own ship and We're happy to be out headlining and and having that time slot to play our catalog of music How about Troy? Have you heard anything from him? Has he given any you know any sort of Idea when he's gonna be returning back to the band or he's just taking his time Yeah, we're just allowing the time for things to work themselves out you know He's got things that he's dealing with and You know during is not an easy life, man It's a very difficult thing being out there on a bus with everybody crammed in that tight situation And when you got stuff going on at home those things need to be taken care of so You know, but hey, man He's a long-standing member of the band and we're you know, we'll work it out time will work things out You know, he's a brother and Like I said time will work things out The founding members of the band are together and Steve Brown is playing drums for us at the moment and really doing a great job And we're just happy to be able to keep on working Yeah, good Steve is Wildmix brother. Is he not like? Yeah, Steve is not only Wildmix little brother But he is also a member of our local community here in Sacramento We've known him since he was a little guy. He used to come watch us play when he was a teenager and He has done other shows for us In the past filling in for Troy, so he's a member of our family as well Let me ask you this. I guess you had a good time in Montreal. I know that you tell us about your experience with Frank Marino Wow Frank Marino here That's Frank Frank's a friend of the show Frank's a friend of the show So and we know that when you were in Montreal not everyone gets access to Frank, but you got to spend some time with Frank Yes, and that was a dream come true, man Frank has always been like one of my biggest guitar heroes from the 70s and as a kid growing up and I met his nephew Mike and what a nice guy what a great family He found out that I was a huge fan of Frank Marino and Frank invited me over for pizza and coca-cola And I got to spend two wonderful evenings hanging out with Frank in his studio and listening to him talk and tell stories and we just laughed and had a great time and You know, it's really awesome when you meet one of your musical heroes and they turned out to be such a Great guy with a lot of heart and especially a guy who's been through so many ups and downs like Frank has It was very rewarding and very refreshing to meet one of my heroes and have them be so down to earth and cool Like he he is not only down to earth, but also otherworldly in his Musicianship and his creativity of the electronics and the things that he does and has done His guitar playing and his shows. I mean that DVD he did recently his most recent release the four-hour show That he worked on so meticulously It's just mind-blowing So to meet a guy who's got that much talent But also be so cool and inviting into his home was very Rewarding and refreshing experience for me Jimmy K here metal voice look at this The metal voice shirts are now on sale. Just go to a video description to find out on how you can purchase one So so speaking of any other kind of heroes of yours as you're out on tour that you're hoping to drop in on and have pizza with Like as so you scratched Frank off the bucket list. So Who else you know is influencing you whether it's your whole life or new that you're listening to now That makes you kind of say. Yeah, if I could have pizza with them, that'd be pretty cool Most recently I met a more current band called fuel and Those guys were really cool and as it turns out they were high school fans of Tesla and my guitar playing and Carl and Mark Kevin those guys in fuel man. They've been through a lot of ups and downs as well in the music business I mean, they've been around for about 20 years now so they were really cool and They're a great band great songs On my bucket list though I made an album a few years ago a Frank Hannon solo album called six string soldiers that I wrote with Mike Arisa and Jeff Sandoval some very talented musicians out of Albuquerque, New Mexico and On that album. I have some very special guest guitarist including my One of my biggest influences is Rick Derringer Rick Derringer Rockwell Huchiku Still alive and well Edgar winner. He produced Frankenstein the most legendary instrumental of all time So that was amazing and I didn't have pizza with Rick, but I did order some Vietnamese soup for him And also spent the evening at my house and I grilled up some vegetables for any of Vegetarians so we made a vegetarian stir-fry and Rick Derringer played on a song on my six string soldiers album Another guitar that came over and played on the album was Pat Travers You know now these are guys from the 70s that really influenced me Frank Marino mahogany rush Rick Derringer Pat Travers and then my one of my biggest Musical influences as a songwriter and a guitarist is my father-in-law Mr. Dickey Betts from now I was gonna be one of my question. See I'm a huge southern rock fan. I know this is the metal voice But Jimmy knows I'm a you you're awful and I mean can't love skinned without the almond brothers So I don't know a lot of people know that Dickey Betts is your father-in-law so Dickey Betts man and his daughter has been a Saving grace in my life. We've been married for over 20 years She's a sweetheart and she understands me because I'm a guitar player her daddy's guitar player and a long time ago An old wise man told me If you're gonna date a girl make sure she loves her daddy And my wife loves her daddy. She has no daddy issues there. It's great And Dickey as a songwriter. I mean blue sky rambling man Jessica southbound Just some great classic stuff that actually influenced all the metal that you hear. I mean, I would bet you Finn Lizzie and Iron Maiden and all those guys are influenced by the almond brothers and Leonard Skinner I would bet a hundred bucks on that Yeah And as Dickey doing okay because please send them our best because we you know We know Dickey's getting up there and he's had his struggles here and there But everyone's always rooting for him. That's for sure He is a little fighter man. He's a tiger. He's a spry little guy When I say little it's just because he's he's on the shorter side, but man He has got a bundle of energy and Yeah, he's doing okay What about I remember seeing a video of you going to a muesonia and visiting Dolores Rhodes You know, have you gone back there? Have you met up with the family? Wow, okay, his brother was very hospitable and Dolores was an angel She has since passed away recipes You know, I have not had any time to be in LA Very much with COVID and with everything and now with Tesla being on the road so I have not had a chance to visit the school again, but they were very gracious to me and obviously Randy Rhodes is You know the founding father of neoclassical killer guitar playing I mean those first two Aussie albums really influenced me 1982. I was 16 years old in high school and Just unbelievable influence, you know, so That was a moment that I'll treasure and if you people want to see it They can find it on YouTube Frank Hannon visits Randy Rhodes his mother There's a documentary video that I made of that Yeah, what about on the last note, I guess Will you be are you working on an album? Is there ideas? Are they floating around? Are you jamming out ideas storing those ideas? Getting ready for an album or is it just we're just gonna or even a timeline or is there a timeline? Uh Myself personally, I have a lot of ideas and stuff for solo albums that are you know filled on my hard drives I did some music with Brian Tishi the amazing drummer that plays, you know with Dead daisies and white snake and he's a Frickin phenomena. You guys know Brian Tishi. Of course. Yeah, I know Billy idle Aussie Yeah, Brian foreigner. Yeah, Brian's played of everybody in everywhere. Yeah, Anzo bash Randy Rhodes tribute Brian Tishi is an amazing guitar player. He does the tribute to Randy Rhodes as well He and I recorded Three songs last year that have never been released I've got some instrumentals that are out of this world crazy Experimental stuff as a solo artist. I may put that stuff out, but I'm not in a hurry to do it I'm just archived it right now because I'm focusing all my energy on Tesla and Jeff Keith and I Being you know, the fundamental writers for the band We have another ballad that we're working on. It's called all about love and it's it's really like a segue From love song and that side of our band We did put out cold blue still time to rock when we got that ballad and We're just gonna keep cranking them out in the moment and then the album will come at the end of that Creative run and I can't give you a timeline, but we will put them all together on a collection Okay, that's fair enough. So what about the tour dates now? When does that start? Or it started already. You're already on tour. Well, I'm home right now for three days. This is my porch I'm enjoying my is I fly to Salt Lake City tomorrow and Do a couple more dates and then we do a whole Texas run all of September and Phil X amazing guitar player is in a band called dimer and they're gonna be opening the tour for us and Phil X is a Frickin, you know, you guys know Phil X. Of course, of course Canada He played in triumph. Yeah, he was in triumph. So, you know, I knew for Bon Jovi He was in Bon Jovi as well Yeah, he his band that he's playing with now is gonna be opening for Tesla all of September in in the state of Texas And then we're gonna be doing monsters of rock cruise. Oh, yes. Yes It's putting on a great 2023 festival on the sea and we're gonna be doing that We're also doing a huge festival in Key West, Florida in January along with some more Florida dates in January of 2023 so we're very busy and it's gonna be because you know why it's time to rock All right time to rock go get it now right you can download it I guess legally and buy it right I would think right on Amazon all the other you can even buy it Yes, and camp there's iTunes, you know, wherever you buy music if you want to help the band or you can stream it on You know Spotify or YouTube or anywhere else? Frank, it's been a pleasure. Yes. Go ahead brand new video. We just read video for Recorded in our hometown Brandon Goli and is the editor and the director of that. He's an up-and-coming videographer Thanks major ass and we're really happy with that. It just came out All right, go support Tesla Tick tock time to rock you got the modern lyric in there tick tock is connecting with all the kids You know tick tock time in Iraq time of Iraq. Look at that. Yeah I'm doing any Any closing comments? Man metal rock Jamming all the music Everything man. I love it all. That's why they call me the heavy metal hippie because I love Judas Priest the grateful dead Their music echoes in my head tie-dye and leather. I'll wear them together You know why because I'm the heavy metal hippie On that note. Thank you very much very lively my friend very lively. We hope to see you soon out on the road Hey, thanks for having me on your show