 Oh yeah, look who we got here, Dean Kastronova in the house. Brother Dean, how you doing, bro? Where you at, Montreal? Yes, Montreal got in, guys, yesterday about two in the morning. So yeah, we got three days off, which is good. Need a few days off. How many in a row do you guys usually do? You know, we've been fortunate. We do like maybe two and then a day off or one and a couple of days off. It's pretty light schedule. But we're going all the way through. We're not going home. No breaks. We got three months solid. We're just blazing through. Wow. Tour bus or planes? Plains. Plains trains and automobiles, but this time it's just planes. Oh my God. Is the crew on the plane also? No, it's just that. Crews are in the buses. And then all of us on a plane were cruising around. Is Neil and Jonathan on the plane? No, John's, John's got his own plane. And Neil's got his own plane. And I'm just stuck in the middle, man. I'm Switzerland flying. I got to tell you, man, that is a, that's got to be a wild ride, man, you know. Yeah. Yeah. I love them both. And they got their differences, but they're my brothers, man. You know, brothers fight and they brother have their, their things and you know, I love them both. It's, it's, um, you know, Neil found me, John brought me back in. We have been, you know, Neil and John brought me back in with Arnell. And I'm just grateful to be here. So I just smile, man, kick ass and make sure that, the rhythm section is killing it. Me and Todd are killing it. As long as we're killing it, good to go. That's amazing. I always tell people the band's been around 50 years, multiple members of course and everything, but you got to think most marriages and people, they don't stay at jobs for more than 10 years. So you're going to definitely have some battles. Every band has them. And especially if you go 50 years, I mean, are you kidding me? I know dude. I mean, you know, then that's exactly what it is. It's a brotherhood man. I mean, you know, brothers fight, you know, brothers don't shake hands. Brothers got a hug. Right now I'm not allowed to hug him, but you know what? It'll get worked out. You know, like you said, Dean, we've been around 50 years, man. The band's been around a long time and like you said, you know, light up changes and stuff like that. But you know, the music is bigger than this, you know, the music is much bigger than the squabbles that, that the guys are having and stuff. And we'll, we'll get through it. Like every other thing, you know, people just kind of humble themselves, do what we got to do and realize that the fans love this music and it's worth sticking it out, you know, for the fans and for, for this legacy, man, you know, little stuff. Okay, we got, we got our issues. Let's push them aside. Let's do what we got to do, man, because this music's awesome. Bottom line. I love this stuff. And sort of millions of other people, man. Let's go back to the beginning of Dean Castranova. I mean, your history, I've met you about 88, but your history is incredible. You know, playing with the wild dogs, signed a shrapnel, early 80s, 83 metal, that full metal thing. You're up there in Oregon. What, what gets you into metal? I'm sure it's kiss and all that, but is it like, that's right around the time metallic is hitting also. So what was going on in your head? You get the drums, you're ready to play and you, you know, it's kiss, it's rush is all that. Give me, give me a rundown on that. You know, for me, it was, like I said, kiss was my Beatles. When I saw kiss, that, that was it, you know, seven, eight years old, just that was, I wanted to be in kiss. You know, and I started playing with guys that were like 24, 25 years old. And, and they were bringing me all this, this great stuff, UFO and, and scorpions with Uli playing guitar, man. We, you know, the 70s stuff, you know, not, not the blackout stuff. I'm talking way back sales is wrong and all those great songs. And, you know, then Metallica came out and we, we heard Metallica was like, son of a gun, man. What the hell is this? You know, it was so cool. And I was in a progressive rock band before wild dogs and back up the enemy. And we had our own originals, but we tell it like rush, you know, and it was, it was like rush with our own originals. You know, two great guitars and, you know, guitars bass player myself and, and, you know, we were playing a club in Portland and Matt McCourt lead singer for Wild Dogs came to see me at a little club in Portland called Enios. And I guess he went back, he talked to me, he goes, hey, man, I've got this thing. We're going to be on the, the KZON homegrown album, which is, you know, the big radio station in Portland, KZON. And they wanted, they wanted Wild Dogs, but they didn't have a drummer cause Jamie St. James, who was the drummer was now the lead singer for black and blue. So they're looking for a drummer. And I think it took a little convincing to convince Jeff Horton and Danny Kirk, you know, like the kids only 17, but he's pretty good. You want to check him out. And I went and auditioned. I remember using Jamie's drums and I destroyed it. I felt so bad. It hit hard, you know, I just wrecked the thing. You know, like you need to get him new heads and stuff. And I felt really bad. So got the audition and, and, and got the gig. And we ended up doing the, the first record on shrapnel, Mike Barney, man, you know, Mike Ewell, and he got us in there and, and that was my first thing. I think the first record we did, I was 16 or 17, 16, I think when we recorded it. And that was my first debut was on shrapnel with, with wild dogs. What a great band dogs was, man. And what a great, great outfit that band was really melodic. Not really. It wasn't the, the thrash that, that I was listening to, like Slayer and Metallica and Exodus and stuff. It wasn't that. But it was still Hillary and Jeff's guitar playing was so different. He reminded me a lot of Alex Van, Alex Lifesit. It was like Ross. He played really cool, different chords. And, and it wasn't just the typical thing, you know, like, you know, he had a lot of cool colors display. So that's kind of what it started, man. I went from, from, from wild dogs to Mike Barney going, Hey, you know, would you like to do some records for shrapnel? I was like, yeah, you know, for a hundred bucks, we go in and do a record for a hundred dollars, you know, and you know the days, bro. I mean, Cliff was playing in your band, right? Cliff, where tomorrow was playing? He was Mike's assistant. Yeah. And you were singing until he was down. It was like just that whole community in the San Francisco area, everybody playing and doing stuff. And I just went to the neoclassical way with Tony and Marty Friedman and Jason Becker. Oh, dude, dream come true. You know, dream come true. And here I am. Were you doing all the records at, was wild dogs done at Prairie Sun? I know cacophony and all that, but was that also done there? Yes. Yeah. All of it was done at Prairie Sun. Mookah. Mookahranic, man. Mark Mookahranic and Steve Boone Fontano. And yeah, dude, we did all those records there. I remember one time I did, I actually did three records in one day. I did for 600 bucks, bro. That was a lot of money back then, dude. So I did, I did Tommy Cowpine's premonition, Rush Tribute and Deep Purple Tribute all in one day. In one day. Oh, God, it was great. I knew all the stuff. I just go in and just do it, do it, do it. Next, next, next. No, cool, Dean. So cool. So cool. Now we kind of come into contact and we meet each other and then you get my band on the opening spot at the war field for bad English. And it's so wild to think about. That was our first theater gig. You know, it was like a huge deal. I recently, you know, years back here did comedy in the war field. And I was like, God, it's so small. But when you're a kid, it was the crown jewel of Sam Fran, man. You were playing the war field. I saw Motley Crue here on the Shout at the Devil. Yeah, dude. You know, I remember it was actually Jonathan's wife, Liz's sister. Got to remember her name. Amy, she was a huge ghost down band and I knew Cliff and we heard that the demo was like, so I made sure it was like, we got to get these guys to open up and Liz and Amy were pushing for it. So we got you guys on. It was so awesome. You guys kicked ass that night too. It was awesome to see it. It was like guns and roses, man. Just freaking bad. You had a bad ass. It was killer. And a good combination too, because it wasn't the pop thing that we were doing the pop bluesy thing. You guys were like the Bay Area guns. And it was killer, killer. What a night, man. That, that, that band, bad English. You got to think about it, you know, John weight, Neil, you, Jonathan Kane, you know, it's so wild to think about, you know, like here, you could just see the DNA of these guys. Incredible songwriting. You go from journey and, you know, John from the babies and you put it together and, and usually those don't work. Those quote unquote super groups, but bam, the songwriting was crushing. Yeah, dude. You know, when, when Neil got me into the involved in that, it was, I mean, it was the dream come true. You know, a lot of people don't know the story about that. It's pretty funny. Cause I went down. There was a bunch of guys that already auditioned. They had like 30 guys that are already auditioned. And Neil had found me with Tony and he told the guys, look, I'm, I'm coming down. I'll come down and play with you guys. I was going to do a solo record, but I won't come down unless I can bring this drummer down. And that was me. And as I went down and I rehearsed with them for about, I think it was three days, bro. And they still wouldn't tell me if I had the gig or not. They would not tell me. He's like, well, we're not sure. John wasn't sure. I came from a thrash background, a heavy background, you know, really heavy. And my time was all over the map, man. I didn't want to play a pop song. I mean, I knew, I thought I knew how to play, but there were so many nuances to a pop song and pop drumming that I didn't, I had no clue about. So I think it was the third or fourth day and they hadn't told me, and he was eating my lunch, bro. I was just like nervous every day. And I went to Neil and I went to the guys and I go, you know what, guys, I don't think I'm the guy. And they were, I'm telling you, God is my witness, they all were looking at me like, you're joking, right? You're, you want to go. I said, I just don't think I'm the guy. I mean, I've been here for four days. I don't know. And it's eating my lunch. It's, I mean, my stomach was in a knot. And I said, maybe it's just gone. And Neil kept looking at me going, you're fucking up, you know, fucking up. And I was like, guys, you don't know. And I'm sitting here and I remember Liz, John's wife kept saying, you got the job. You got the gig. Just be patient. And I was like, but why haven't they told me just be patient? I was so new to him. So I fly home. I do. I fly home and Neil's like, you're the dumbest mother on the planet. You're so stupid. I went, I went home and, and Neil called me after a couple of days. He said, yeah, man, it's not happening. We tried a bunch of drummers out. It's not happening. And I said, okay, okay, man, just, just let me know. You know, it happened like that three different times. And finally John called, okay. And he goes, okay, you got the gig on one condition. Go get a doctor beat, you know, the quick check, they go and sleep with that thing. Live with that thing all day long. Play to that thing all day long. That's your best friend now. And it worked. I, I, my God, I would plug it. I'd be playing just straight time, just getting feels. He goes, go pick up right at him. Go pick up, you know, anything Hall of Nose with Mickey Curry, the cult goes, go get those records. Listen to those drummers. Listen to their feel. Listen to their lope. The lope, you know, all these things. I'm like, what the hell is a lope? Antelope? I'm in Oregon. It's an Antelope. I don't know what a lope is. But I got it, bro. I was like a sponge and I just sucked it up. And I went down and, and, and played with the guys who went into a demo studio in alabasis with Richie Zito and Phil Caffle and the band. And we, we demoed up four songs. And that thing I was glued to the click, man. I mean, that became my best friend and still to this day, I love playing to the click because it's, it's a tool now. It's not like it doesn't dictate to me. I know how to play behind it in front of it on separate, the bass drum on it, pull the beat and the snare back. All these things I never knew playing metal because you didn't, it was like, whoever got to the end of the song, first one, metal. You know what I mean? And I always won. Where did, where did you guys, where did you guys do that bad English record? We did it at 101 studios on, on Laker, Schim and Magnolia. You know, right in the, in LA that we went in and did. That was my first big studio dude. What a place. Unbelievable. That's where Metallica did the blackout. You know, it's cool dude. We went in after we had done our record, we went in to do something. I dealt with it, hearing mixes. And in one of the rooms there were tapes, like these are the tape, you know, the big tapes all over the studio. And like, again, new, I go, what is all that? And Mike Tachi, who was the engineer on that record, they were engineered ours with Phil said, well, that's the, those are large is, his drum and it's like, man, they spliced stuff. I had no idea that you can even do that back then. I had no clue. But man, that blackout was being done right there. And I walked in and went, holy crap, large is drum stuff is right here. I'm freaking out. I wanted to touch it. It's like, it's large, man. You know, pretty, pretty cool story, man. Pretty cool. It's amazing the, the, you know, the combination of you and Neil all these years, you know, it's really wild that you've been playing with Neil on and off for what, 30 years or something? 1988 bro, from, from 88 till now. I mean, on and off. I had those, those two naps years with Ozzie. And then I spent a year, made two years in Italy with an artist in Baccarati, who's like the spring scene of Italy. He's major over there. You know, that's stadiums, three nights in a row, 10, zero, you know, sold out every night. But yeah, dude, he went, I went from bad English to hardline. And right in the middle of hardline, after the first hardline record, he took me to replace Richie Hayward in Paul Rogers' band. Then Paul Rogers, after the Paul Rogers thing, I got the Aussie that called the two Oz. And we did Aussie for those two years. And, and, and then Bosco right after that. And then did a bunch of studio stuff with Michael Bynhorn, you know, producer Michael, a genius Michael, amazing producer, you know, Soundgarden. And I did whole with them and, and, and social distortion, a band called Foam. You know, I was really tight with Michael. He kept me working, kept me busy. And then Neal called 90 or yeah, 98 and said, Hey, we're doing journey without Smith. How without Perry? Are you in? And I'm like, well, God yeah, but who's singing? You know, and then they, you know, of course, Steve Agery came in and, and the rest is history. Now at what point, you know, because I had no idea that you sing. And so I go to journey through time, sound check. And I'm sitting on the stage next to the, the legend Craig Raleigh. And you start by, you guys do the infinity stuff. And I'm like, I started looking around like, Hey, what the fuck Dean is singing that? How at what, at what point did you start singing in your career? And did you realize that you could do the Steve Perry stuff? Well, you know, dude, when I was 11, you know, I do this, I say this a lot of interviews. I was 11, I was playing with guys 24 and they brought, they literally brought the infinity, the actual 33 and a third, the vinyl. I didn't have the cover. They said, here's the vinyl. You learn a lot today. So I learned, I thought it was a girl singing. I did. I'm young to 11 years old. I had no idea. And I learned the song and they're like, well, you know, you try and sing it cause I was young. I hadn't hit puberty yet. I'm 11. So I was hitting these notes and that's when I mean, Perry was my vocal guy. I mean, I, from then on, I was like, Steve Perry is the best singer on the planet. It was him, Paul Stanley and Ronnie Dio. Those were my three like favorite singers of all time, man. Definitely Steve Perry. I mean, first it was Paul Stanley, of course. And then Perry and then Ronnie Dio, just what a, what a voice. So that's where I learned to sing the journey stuff was, I love journey. Even though I was in a metal band and while dogs was metal, they would always ask us to interview as well. What do you listen to? What's your guilty pleasure? And me and the guitar, so I think journey and they're like, or in the good thing, I'll get the journey. You know, they turn them literally turn off the table. I'm like, man, if you don't, if you're not a musician, you don't get it. If you, you know, cause journey, the players are perfect in that band. They're not one guy in that band that sucks. Bottom line. You know, so we would always say journey. So journey was always huge for me. A huge influence. Steve Smith, when I heard dude, when I heard the capture, so I heard him on all the records and stuff, departure and, and stuff like that. I heard him on all those records, but when the captured drums fellow came out and I heard that Dean, I mean, it was like, what in the hell? This guy kicks ass. He was amazing. He was amazing. I mean, I'd never heard that kind of play. I bozio, you know, and Neil Peart, but Smith, man, having the groove that he had, but still that when he did a solo man was like, man, I gotta learn that stuff. So I was taking all of his stuff back then, dude, and playing his, trying to do his lick in metal bands and like a warp speed, you know, the drum lick on where, you know, the, the, battery, where were, you know, weeded out. Nobody did that. So I was taking Smith stuff and put it in metal songs. So that, and that's kind of where I got that. That thing, you know, especially was huge, and for me to sing the stuff, it was that came by happenstance, man. That was something, Steve, we have any issues with his voice in 2006. doing it, we were opening for Depp Leppard. And it was like, um, his voice is kind of toasted right now. Can you sing the hit? I'm like, oh, God, oh, God, oh, God, oh, God, you know, okay, yeah, you know, behind the kit, I'll try and they said, we don't have the mic for that yet. I mean, your background might, it's not going to be clear enough. It's going to sound like hell, you're gonna have to come up front. One time, I did it one scene, and that was enough. I remember lifting my hands on open on my arm, like, so now I come like, and it was shaking like, yeah, no, that is not going to happen. First time or last time I ever did that with Journey. I scared the hell out of me, dude. Scared the hell out of me. I will never do that again. But that was it. I got thrown into it. Then it was like, well, do Mother Father. So I started doing songs that that were t-shirt songs or bathroom songs, you know, somebody gonna give Steve a break. And and people go buy t-shirt and stuff. And I would do my little song, you know, one or two. So that was it. And so did you start to take some lessons for longevity and warming up and all that? How did that come about? Or you just go for it? I just go for it. For me, it's like now, especially, I mean, but when I was in the band, you know, with Arnell and Steve by Jerry and everything, the first six or seven songs, I would just be singing background because that was my warmup. I'd be playing and seeing everything warms up up here when you're playing, right? You're singing. So I got all the blood and everything running right in this area here anyway. So by the third or fourth song, my voice is warmed up singing all the high backgrounds. So when it was time to sing the lead part for like Mother Father, I was six, seven songs into the set. It was like, boom, it was wide open. It was effortless. And I was able to do it. Now I could never do it. Never do what Arnell does. Never do what Steve by Jerry did. Never do what Steve Perry did. I'm not tested in that the journey through time thing. It worked because we did a show and then we had like a week off and then we did a show and a week off. So I had time to heal. I've never done like four shows in a row back to back like how Arnell does and how Steve did back in the day. I don't know if I could. I honestly, it's never been tried. And with Journey Through Time, we did, I think we did 24, 25 songs. And I was singing lead on all that stuff and playing drums. So I got through it. But boy, the next day I could tell there's never the three hour show. So I'm like, you know, and I'm smoking too. So that's not even like, hello, maybe it's a good smoke. And you know, I still haven't done that. But I don't know if I could do that. But that's that's kind of how it started was when Stevie lost his voice on the depth laboratory. So you know, it was, that was him. And here I am today. Now you're rocking with Journey for Years. And then you had a little spin out on drugs. Were you on drugs for a long time? Or did you just start partying out of nowhere? You know, dude, I was completely clean. All up until Ozzy. I didn't touch anything, man. I mean, I was a little Christian kid. So I didn't I wasn't drinking. It wasn't partying. And when I got fired from Ozzy, dude, I went into a tailspin. I was so devastated by it. I mean, it really messed with me. And I thought that was it. I mean, I was in Ozzy. I'd reached the pinnacle, right? I got fired from Ozzy. I thought, well, okay, I'm done. And I remember telling my wife that I'm saying, I don't want to do this anymore. I'm done. I'm done what I can do. I've done it. I'm out. You know, she's, oh, no, no, no, no, no. People, you don't see the big picture. But I started smoking weed. And then we went to freaking blow. And then, yeah, it just on and off. It was on and off doing the stuff. And then, you know, clean it up for a year and then doing drugs again and clean it up for six months. And it became a functioning attitude where I would use, I would use until about a month before I'd have to go on the road with journey and then clean up, get myself together, go on the road, nothing on the road, man. I made sure until I got to Europe. There was one time when I drank way too much before a show one night and the next morning I was in the hospital, almost like alcohol poisoning. And so that was my second, first stint into rehab. You know, so I had five stints in rehab. I was, you know, on and off and on and off. And yeah, this last spin out, that scared me straight. I mean, I mean, all hell broke loose. And yeah, it was bad, bro. It was bad. But you know, it probably was the best thing that ever, I mean, I wouldn't be alive had that not happened. I was, I was on the brink, dude. I was on the brink of 160 pounds when I entered rehab. I was a mess, you know, 26 day meth run. And I don't remember 90% of what happened. It was, I was in a cloud, bro. And I got to think, you know, Deidre, you know, my girl that went through all that freaking hell with me and she stays like, you know, this is not him. She knew me, dude. We were young. I've noticed since she was 14, I was 19, our families knew each other. We grew up in the same town together. We knew each other. It's like, this is not him. This is not him. This is him on drugs. This is not who he is. You know, and I spent 15 days in jail. And they got me out, put me into treatment for 90 days. And it was, it was, I didn't want to leave, bro. It was so safe. And so I felt like, God, I'm alive again. But then I got to come out and I've got to deal with the world, you know, and all the stuff that had happened. And I didn't want to, you know, it had been easier for me to go out and numb again and just go, screw it, man. I don't want to know. Check out, maybe all overdose, hopefully. But, you know, God gave me that power and I dusted myself off as hard as it was and I had good people behind me. You know, my ex-wife, Shelly, my other ex-wife, Julia, two ex-wives, Glenn, still very close with them, Dee Dee, her family, my kids, you know, Doug and Jack, you know, they stood by me when nobody else wanted to give me the time of day. They were like, you know what, he screwed up. People screw up, you know, got him some slack. It was horrible. It was heinous. But God, you know, if anybody should have quit and said, screw you, it was D-Dra. But she knew. It's like, God, he said, look, when I'm, you know, they say instant alcohol, instant douche bag, just that drugs. I mean, that's, you know, it's not an excuse, but it was a factor. You know what I mean? No excuse for what I did. I was a nightmare. I was a mess. But I'm glad that I had people that knew who I was and knew that wasn't me, man. I mean, I don't know how other people would react on 26 Days on Methamphetamine. That's how I reacted. Wow, it was horrible. It was horrible. I did seven days and it was absolutely fucking insanity. I can't even imagine because the human mind without sleep, it is so fucking crazy. What happens to your brain? You're just like, I remember I was in the back of a pickup truck going to the Russian River to like go swimming and I, I swore I fell out of the truck. I was like, you know, I was, you know, seven day runner, man, but 26 days. No. Dude, it was like, I maybe slept six. If you put all the days together, there was probably like maybe 24, 36, whatever hours where I slept. I was seeing stuff in the floors. I actually thought that Deidre would be writing in my hard word floors while I'm partying. I know I'd come back in another room and there was, I could see sentences in the floors, bro. I would look at my video cameras and I could see like the trash cans turned into animated creatures. It was, man, it was horrendous. It was freaking bad, bad, bad, bad. And once you get cleaned up, you're just chilling. Steve Smith is back in Journey and they're doing that run and then of course the fallout happens again. And did they audition anybody else or does Neil just call you and say, Hey dude, are you good? Let's do this again. How's it happen? Well, you know what happened was Neil he called me and goes, What are you doing, bro? And this is when I was working with Jason Schiff and Jay DeMarcus, Generation Radio. We were putting a record together like a country rock thing and things were going smooth and there was good. I said, Well, I'm doing this thing with Jay and Jason. He goes, Oh, that's great, man. I could hear you working. And I said, So what's going to happen with you and Smith? And everything goes, Well, we're going to go in a different direction. You know, I talked to John and John just wasn't sure if he wanted to bring you back at that time or not at that point. And I said, Dude, I understand completely. He goes, He just wants to move forward. I said, Dude, I'm all good. God bless you guys, man. And they got Narda. Narda was playing. Who? Narda Michael Walden. He said, God, you know, I was like, Well, you picked a monster. And so they started with Narda and I think they had about a year to get the songs together and they started rehearsing and stuff. And Narda was having issues like remembering everything. I'm not sure exactly what was happening, but he just couldn't like, there's a lot of songs, man. There's a lot of stuff. And I think, I think Narda approached it more like a jazz fusion guy. Like, I'm just going to win him play, you know, not realizing. I think he didn't realize maybe he did. I don't know. I don't know the whole story, but it was, he wasn't doing the songs like they need to be done. You know, there's certain breaks and there's certain things that certain signature licks that Smith did that needed to be there. And I knew what they needed to see. He's not catching it for some reason. And I'm like, well, this basically what happened. My mother had passed away July 19th of 2021, bro. And that next morning, I was up pretty much all night, you know, just heartbroken and crying and couldn't sleep, wake up, seeing mom. And I get a text. I go to the bathroom and I see a text at seven in the morning. That's my time, 7 a.m. He was in Nielsen, Chicago, Dino. What are you doing? He goes, I notice having issues. Can you come out and help him? We got two shows. We got a show at the Agora Ballroom in Chicago, and then we got Lollapalooza. Can you help him come out and just teach him, you know, just kind of show him the songs? And I said, well, you know, obviously, I was like, bro, mom, I died last night, you know. And he said, you know, of course, oh my god, I'm so sorry. And I was in a day and I was just like, you know, did mom have something to do with this? I mean, my god, he just goes home and goes to be with God and I get a call and let's just give me a day, bro. Just give me a day and I'll try and get out there. I'll get out there. I'll help you guys out. So I go down there and there's two drum sets and, of course, I walk in and everybody's crying, man. I'm crying. The town crier. Everyone's just like, oh my god, I never thought a million years I'd even be in the same room with you guys again, let alone doing a couple shows and helping out, you know. Just thank you for allowing me to come back and John came, you know, Neil had to convince John like, you know what, bro, I know he had his past and these stuff, but we don't really have much, many options here, you know. We got to do these shows and Dean knows the stuff. So, you know, John, thank God he and Arnell, you know, with Neil's talking to him, said, yeah, okay, let's see how it goes. And I worked with Narda, like probably eight days, you know, just helping and he was still having some issues, you know, but Neil decided, well, you know what, let's just do two drummers. Let's see what that's like. And I'm like, that would be pretty bad. You got the monster drummer, you know, Narda, who's the huge king. And then you got me and it's just, you know, I'll just keep the groove and let him go. You know, I'll do the songs like the record and let Narda just do his thing. And it worked. The two shows that, thank God, it worked really good and everybody seemed to like it. And it started going good. I mean, it's gonna be cool. We had to figure out, well, Dean's on an electronic drum set, which I hated. You know, I'm not a big electronic drum set fan as it is. So for me, it was like, I want a real drum kit. I want a real drum set. But you know, it was like, well, actually it worked because with my, the way that the beat drums are set up is very tight, very precise. And I would just lock to the click. It was like, you know, Dean playing a loop of the songs, you know, I knew all the lyrics, all the beats and Narda could just kind of freely flow with this stuff. And it worked out good for a while. And I think Neil just decided, well, you know what? They're just decided to go with Make It Five Peace. And I think Narda, you know, since he produced the record with Randy Jackson and Neil and them, that he thought, well, maybe it's, you know, I'm just gonna be with my family, do some stuff with Jeff Beck. He was doing things with Jeff Beck, you know, things to do. And so he decided to back out. And I remember finding out, dude, I didn't even know. But Neil told me, well, Neil didn't tell me. I had been rehearsals three days, three days. And Neil, you know, said, oh, it sounds great. It sounds great, Dean. I was so glad you're here. I wake up one morning. It was on a Wednesday. I got in on a Sunday. So Wednesday I wake up in the morning and I might text or blow it up. I'm like, you know, so I'm looking to congratulations, you know, to get the journey. It's only for a couple of shows, you guys. It's just nobody, you know, I'm just helping out. And no, dude, have you looked at Ultimate Classic Rock and Blabbermouth? No, I just woke up. And there it was. Neil confirms that Dean is back in the band. So I found out after everybody else knew. So I had to call Neil and go, dude, this is for real. He said, yeah, man, this is for real. I said, well, gee, thanks for telling me. Thanks for letting me know. And then here we are. Yeah, they're doing pretty amazing. It was pretty amazing. I said, mama, thank you, Jesus. Thank you. Oh, my God. You know, I've been in a lot of bands. I've done a lot of things, but I've never felt more at home than with these guys. I just, I love the music. And again, I have a real, you know, it's hard for me to separate business and brotherhood. You know, I've never been able to do that. I always, once I'm in, especially 17, 18 years with a band and with Neil and John is like, I couldn't separate that. So for me to come back, it wasn't just being back in journey. It was being back with brothers and the beautiful music that we made and the music I got to share with them. It was, it was heavy. It wasn't just a dig. Let's talk about something that really was special to me to see last week was Greg Raleigh stepping back on stage in Austin, Texas and doing five classic, you know, four classic journeys and the black magic woman and then doing the, you know, the last song, hurrah with the whole band. That to me, you know, I think that I've said this and I've said it over and over. I've seen a couple of thousand shows in my life and in 78 I saw Journey on the Infinity tour and I saw the journey through time and those two gigs still stay deep in my heart journey through time and to see Greg Raleigh and you up there and the fans in an arena getting to hear what it would have been like in 78, you know, 79 of just hearing that stuff, you know, especially it was amazing for me to, you know, I mean, it really was. I mean, Greg is a legend and to work with him and kneel together on that stage. I mean, in Journey through Time, I was in awe. I was fanboy, dude. I'm just like, we got Greg Raleigh. What was it like to do this? I was just picking his brain when Journey through Time happened because I was so excited. It's like, now I've worked with everybody but the voice. I've worked with everybody in Journey except the voice, man. And oh, it's just such a humble man is so talented and dude legendary, legendary. And the cool thing is, the way that Greg is with kneel is the way I am with kneel. You see, Greg was the mentor, snag kneel, you know, from school and took him. And that's kind of what kneel did with me. So I have a kindred thing with kneel big time and also with Greg because it's like now Greg's like the grandpa, you know, grandpa son and little guy, you know, it was just so cool, bro. He's a legend and he's so talented. And I got to sing those songs with him again, which I love for Journey through Time. But dude, I kept looking over like smile like, dude, remember? I'll tell you what was blowing me away was how incredible your feel was. It was like way, it was way laid back when the sun be right there. Just like standing in the light. You're just like just perfect 70s feel, man. You know, it's, you know, pocket. That's, you know, and that's what I learned. And the beautiful thing was on that older stuff. Greg was, he helped me a lot when we did Journey through Time because it was like, well, you know, Aisley had this feel thing that he would, Greg was showing me this stuff. Like, he would pull back here. He would just pull back a little right here. I'm like, oh, can I listen? He goes, listen back to the record, listen. I hear it. I get it. I get it. It was a very English thing. The drummers in England were like that, you know, Mitch Mitchell and guys like that, Ginger Baker, they had that thing where they could, you know, they manipulated the time to make it feel good. Sore when it needed to soar and pull when it needed to pull unbelievable stuff. And Greg taught me that. So when we were doing the songs and were heard, I just kept looking over like, oh, I mean, when the summer's going to be there. I was like, I just knew where the, you know, and it just felt good, dude. I mean, just playing those old songs, it brought back my childhood, obviously, but it's, there's a certain texture and color to those songs. They, they're completely different from obviously John Keynes, brilliant stuff, you know, both are brilliant, brilliant time periods. And that stuff is so, it's a very 70s thing, but it's, and it's just, it felt, I guess the words gooey, you know what I mean? That gooey thing where it's just, you know, you know what I mean? Just want to, you know, you want to dance to it. It had that, that thing to it with Perry's voice. Yeah. Oh, Perry and Greg together on, on Mass, Son of Peril. Nobody touches it. Let's, let's talk a little bit about what you got going on right now. You got journey, but then you've got some music coming out. Let's get into that. Revolution saves, bro. It's a new record coming out called Eagle Flight. Got a couple new members. Joel Hoekstra from White Snake fame and Night Ranger fame. Monster player, Transpairing Orchestra as well. And Jeff Pilsen, you know, our, you know, our Bay Area guy, man, from cinema. Remember cinema? Oh yeah. Yeah. And he plays in Foreigner now. I had him on the show. I had him on the show. Doc guy, dude. Yes. All that good stuff, man. Great, great player. You know, when Jack and Doug decided to, to, you know, part ways or to, to go separate ways, I'd say separate way, but, you know, Seraphina would like, well, what about Joel Hoekstra? I think Doug was the one that, that, that told Seraphina, yeah, Joel would be the guy to do it. You know, so Seraphina got ahold of Joel. Joel was in it, into it. And Jeff Pilsen, another one, another great, great Bay system. I've had history with both those guys, you know, you know, Jeff obviously with cinema and with Foreigner being on the road with Journey and Joel as well, you know, with Night Ranger. It was Night Ranger, White, Night Ranger, White Snake and Journey in Europe. So we all got to know each other. So, you know, you got Joel playing with Night Ranger and Dougie with, with White Snake and me and it, it just, it was like a natural fit. They're great guys. And I think that's the, that's the thing that I wanted the most is like, okay, they can be monster players, great, greatest players in the world. But if there's, you know, they don't have that, that thing. And Jack and Doug had that thing. They're just good, solid, sweet people, good people, you know, no egos, no pretentiousness, just play your freaking instrument, tear it to shreds and have a great time. Joel and Jeff are the same. They cut their cup from the same cloth. So that worked out great. It's like, okay, that's the biggest hurdle. We have, we have, we've jumped that hurdle and the playing, it speaks for itself. I mean, those guys are both exquisite players, man. They're great at what they do. So it worked out really, really well. And I know that Joel started writing stuff with Alessandro Delvecchio, the house producer for Frontiers and was working on stuff and they sent me the demos. I actually did two records in, I think it was like 14 days. Wow. I did two of them because we had two of them in the can. So I was like, okay, let's do the drum track. So I did, let's see, we got 12 songs. I did 23 songs in three and a half days drumming. I just knew the stuff. So I knew what I was going to do. I knew what I was looking for. They knew what they said. We don't even need to produce Dean on the drums. We know what he, you know, he knows what he's doing there. So I had Alessandro and Johnny Gioelli hardline. Johnny was the one that produced my vocals on these last two records. And Alessandro did it always in the past. He was always the guy that did it. But he had other commitments. So Johnny, we were zooming, doing zoom from him. He was in Connecticut. I was in, in Portland and, you know, got the screen up and we'd listened to the tracks and I did the vocals. I did, let's see. One of the vocal takes, I mean, one of the records. So we did two drum track, two records for drum tracks, one vocal in about six days. We're doing about three songs a day, you know, vocally. And thank God my voice held up. I was okay. We got it done. And then I just finished the second one, the second vocal, the second records vocals on the, we did two shows in which journey in Oklahoma. I flew home. I did at these 29th, 30th birth and second, four days to do 12 songs vocally and then fly out the next day and do three shows in a row of journey. So I was like nine days singing. My voice was hammered, bro. I was talking like this. But we got through it. We got through it. So yeah, it was the way that it all worked out. It was just everything fit perfectly. Now we're going to do the, then the next one, the third record with Joel and Jeff in August. Hopefully get that done when journey's done off the road. So I'm trying to keep busy, bro. The more busy I am, the less time I have not to do the don'ts. You know what I mean? If you got, if you're too busy doing the do's, you won't have time to do the don'ts. And that's, that's what I'm doing. What drums you playing now? DW man. I've been, I've been with DW now for, not since, since 97. Actually just before I got the journey, the journey gig, I signed up with DW. I'd been with Sona for many years and I woke up one day and everybody had left. Oliver, the president's son, became a graphic designer. So he moved on. John Dyke, the artist guy, he had left. So I was like, I didn't know anybody there anymore. So I just said, well, I called up DW and they're like, sure. So they signed me up and I've been with DW now since 97. And I'm actually, I'm right in the middle of a symbol company. I've decided, because I've been with Zillian forever. I mean, Zillian have been my dark horse. They're the ones and I've loved them. They're great. But I decided this year, like, you know, I try some different stuff, but I can't try different stuff if I'm endorsed. You know, it's just not right to the company. So I'm just trying out new things. I got some Pisces up. I've got some minor symbols up. I've got some Zillians up. And I'm just trying different stuff. Like back in the old days when we only tried this amp with this guitar and these strings and that's what it feels. And it feels really cool because I'm getting different sounds. Like, man, I love the minor on that. The minor sounds so good on that. You know, and all that crash right there, that signature Pisces sounds so good. Of course, you got the 21 Rock, you know, the 21st crash ride, crash ride that the Ringo symbol. I love that one. So I'm just trying a bunch of different stuff out. But I'm still with DW. I'm still with the Evans drum heads, Vader drumsticks, you know, still doing the same stuff. Check it out. Somebody wants to say hi. Oh my gosh, who's it? Oh, what's his name? What's his name? Gertie. Gertie, I'm home. Dude, I wish I had my pups. That's the one thing, you know, I miss my wife, dude. But I miss my doggies too, man. I miss my boys, man. Bubba and Louie. Those are my boys. I know I saw, I did a, I did a two month tour with Marcus King. I was opening up comedy and rock. And man, did I miss Gertie big time. Look, Gertie. How old is she? She's six and a half. I got her during COVID. My good friends over at Roseflower Frenchies, you know, gave her to me like a adoption. And just a lifesaver for me, you know. Dude, I'll tell you that my guys are the same way. I miss them so much. It's really hard to be away from them. I mean, and I was hoping, see, I was hoping that if the routing was correct, I was going to get on my own bus and bring the family and have my boys with me. But it didn't work out. I was like, no, the jet, we've got to do this. There's a lot of hubbing and there's some long flights and stuff. So we're going to need to keep you around, you know. And I'm like, dang it. But that would have been so great to have my boys out, you know what I mean? So I'm not going to see them, dude, until we hit Eugene. When Journey Plays in Eugene, and God, when is it? April 17th. So I'm going to see my boys. So they're not freaking out. Are you playing now? Are you playing now? We're doing the closest we're getting is Palm, Palm Desert. Oh, yeah. Yeah, we do it. Do you want to come down? You let me know. I got you. I know people. I'll hook you up. Oh, yeah, I want to come. I want to come see you for sure. And I do comedy quite a bit up in Portland. So hopefully we can hook up. I was just up there with Marcus at the Crystal Ballroom. And then I did the arena. I did the Trailblazers Arena with Burr. Dude, the Motor Center. Nice place, dude. Oh, dude, the Crystal Ballroom is a badass venue. I love that place, man. Love that place. Very nice. I know Marty Freeman's playing there in like two weeks. He's got his own touring band. So he's going to be playing Crystal. It's a great venue, dude. Really nice. Yeah, let me know, dude. I'd love to come up. I'm a comedy freak. I'd love to. You watch a lot of comedy? Who do you like? Well, you know, dude, I love Bill Burr. I think he's frickin' awesome. Obviously, you saw the Chris Rock thing. I'm like, yeah. Talk about it. I mean, talk about hitting the home run. And he did it the right way, man. He was smart about it. He didn't play the victim thing. It was just, you know what? Good on you, man. I mean, that's a huge thing. I mean, to go through something like that, that humiliation and come back, the better man, you know, the bigger man about it. I was like, you know what? When it's time, I'll address it. That was awesome. But I love Bill Burr. That effort for family. One of the greatest, I love that show. I got my grandkids watching that, dude. And I know it's kind of, you know, well, it's okay. They're going to hear the word anyway. So he's brilliant. Bill's brilliant. I love you, man. And I can't thank you enough for making that a long time ago, helping make that gig happen for me at a young age. Well, dude, I'll tell you, Dean, you were great. The band was great. I mean, if you guys sucked, it would have been a little harder to do, obviously. But you guys brought it, man. And that was cool. I mean, it was like, it was a no brainer. I was like, you guys are fast, man. Come on. Let's get somebody to get some balls up there. Let's not get a happy band. Let's get somebody to get some nuts. Warm up the crowd. We can use somebody to get in there and punch them in the face a little. Hey, do me a favor. Tell Neil, I said, hi. Where are you? I've been wanting to get a show solo because we did the episode. If anybody's listening, I did an episode with Journey Through Time with Greg Neil and Dean a few years back. So you can find that. I also had Greg Raleigh on last week. And Greg also did the show on the 50th anniversary of Woodstock. So if you want to hear a lot of great old journey stories in Santana, these are some great episodes. And tell Neil, I said, hi. Tell Neil, I want to- Hey, bro, hey. Do you want me to get- Yeah, I'll get him. I'll get you in touch with Miguel. They'll get it hooked up to you right now. I'll just text him when we're done here. 100%. You love to talk to you, bro. You're a Bay Area guy. You love it. I love to talk to him, man. It'd be great. You got it, my brother. Hey, great talking to you. Please stay in touch. And I'll come see you in Palm Desert. And congrats for being back in the drum seat back there with Journey. Fantastic singing. And oh, my God, your playing is just epic, man. Epic. Thank you so much, bro. I appreciate you. You've always been there for me. Even during my worst stuff, dude. You stuck by me. I owe you that. Take time. I love you, Dean Delray. You're the badass. You are the real deal. Candles lit, my man. Oh, brother, I love you much, man. I'll see you later. See you, brother. Take care, man. Keep in touch. Yeah, for sure. Okay, brother. All right.