An Interview with

Steven Adler, Jacob Bunton & Lonny Paul

of the new aptly titled Rock band,

after their 1st ever show that took place at Dixie Roadhouse, Cape Coral, Florida on 30th October, 2012.

Interviewed by Megan Potts. Questions by Glenn Milligan (*Megan's own Q's)

Megan: So I'm sitting here with Steven Adler, Jacob Bunton.

Steven: Where? Where?

Megan: And Lonny Paul and I'm honoured to be here with you.

Lonny: Thank you.

Megan: You guys are awesome and tremendous show tonight. You blew everybody away. I mean, very impressive.

Steven: Thankyou. Thankyou for coming out. Thankyou to everybody for coming out. We were so surprised that as many people were there, were there.

Lonny: Absolutely.

Megan: Yeah, Yeah.

Steven: And they got totally into it. I'm pretty sure, in fact I know because this is our 1st show, they didn't even know the songs except the two that they put on the radio.

Megan: Right.

Steven: You know, 'Good To Be Bad' and 'The One That You Hated' but they were singing to other songs too.

Megan: So Steven, how did the lineup come to be as it is now and what things about each member made them the natural choice for the band 'Adler'?

Steven: You know what, my own answer to that is God and my Grandmother who is with God brought these guys together. You wanna get a better answer, ask one of them.

Jacob: I'm just blessed that they are in my life. I was real good friends with Jani Lane from Warrant and when he passed away, obviously it was a very sad time because the industry lost a tremendous talent. But his memorial was August of last year at The Key Club and I flew out to go to his memorial and Lonny was there and a mutual Producer friend of ours - a guy named Jay Ruston was talking to Lonny and Lonny said to him that Steven was putting together a new original project, that they were tired of doing 'Adler's Appetite', Steven didn't wanna do the 'Guns 'n' Roses' stuff anymore. He wanted to do a solid project and they were looking for a singer and we met that night and talked and me and Lonny hit it off great. We just started corresponding through e-mail and one of the 1st songs Lonny sent me, like I said tonight was a song called 'Habit' and what you heard tonight was what he wrote.

Megan: Very cool.

Jacob: Yeah, from there we just started going back and forth with e-mail with song ideas. He'd send me music, I'd write words or whatever and then when I flew out there, the 1st song that we wrote together was 'The One That You Hated'. We sat down and wrote it in his office in about five minutes. I had the verses going and I had the music but didn't have a good idea for a chorus and when we got to the chorus he immediately said and started singing, 'I'm the one that you hated' and it just gelled.

The chemistry has been amazing since the very beginning and the project came together really, really fast. Once I flew out there in January this year, right after New Years and we immediately went to the studio. Lonny's kinda been like the guy that's put everything together. Found our Producer, like I said, we already knew our mixer and that's how we all came together.

Megan: Luck & fate and...

Lonny: After the record was recorded because we actually used Jeff Pilson - he played bass on the record and after the record was recorded we needed a live guy because Jeff was doing Foreigner. So I invited my friend Johnny Martin over to my house and Steven was over there and Johnny picked up a bass off my wall and Steven goes, "That's our bass player", and that's how we got Johnny.

Megan: Nice.

Steven: Well after he came over to Lonny's house and he was playing the bass right handed and he said, "I usually play left handed" and I say, "and you're playing Rush and Iron Miden - you're the guy." Plus he looks cool as f*ck. He looks like a sexy Ramone.

Jacob: Lonny - him and Steven came in my hotel a couple of days later and I got to meet Steven. Actually I met Steven a few years prior at Rocklahoma just very briefly, just as a fan and got my picture with him.

Megan: Apart from Steven, because it's so well documented, what are the musical backgrounds of yours?

Jacob: My musical background, I was in a band on Columbia Records called 'Mars Electric' back in 2000 and then after that band I was in a band called 'Lynam' for a few years.

Lonny: As far as influences, what got me into music was some of those early 80's Metal bands - I just really liked the kinds of guitars and they made it look really fun, jumping around like the Poison videos. I wasn't necessarily a big Poison fan although when I saw them I was like, 'I wanna do that!', They turned me on - they were rock stars, they really were and they had great songs and it was bands like that and Motley Crue of course, Ozzy.. - that's what turned me personally onto music.

Megan: Nice.

Lonny: And once you start going as an artist and a songwriter then of course other things come into play like I discovered Prince and even Sinatra - just a wide range of different music.

Jacob: As far as influences, exactly what Lonny said. Growing up in Birmingham, Alabama there wasn't a lot of stuff to do but I'd watch MTV over at friends houses or whatever and back then Rock Stars looked like superheroes - they looked like comic book characters. They gave you something to look up to like, you know, later on music got weird because all of a sudden Rock Stars went away and the people that were on stage looked like the people that you'd hire to mow your grass or something like that. But growing up, exactly as Lonny said, all that larger than life stuff.

My favourite bands were Guns 'N' Roses, Motley Crue, I always loved Poison - you know most people won't cop to that but sh*t, they were one of my biggest influences - I love 'em. Motley Crue, Kiss - all that stuff and Cinderella of course but all that larger than life stuff, I loved it and as he said, as you grow as a musician, you discover Prince, you discover songwriters like Mutt Lange. He's an amazing Producer but he's also one of the greatest songwriters of all time. Same thing with Diane Warren - great songwriter, Desmond Childs who Lonny's friends with actually - great songwriter - all these people.

As far as guitar players, like Steve Vai is my absolute all time favourite guitar players like ever I just.. I love that guy - he is just so amazing.

Megan: You were shredding it tonight - that's for sure.

Jacob: Thank you.

Megan: How did the 'Kiss Cruise' come about?*

Lonny: I believe Jacob, you found out about the 'Kiss Cruise' and then you had our Managers at the time make a call.

Jacob: Yes, I found out about the 'Kiss Cruise' and I had our Managers at the time make... (Lonny laughs) Yeah, my band Lynam had played on five cruises. We did the Motley Cruise and the all the 'Shiprocks' and there just a lot of fun and there's two cruises that I thought would be amazing that we could do (as) 'Adler' and one would be 'Monsters Of Rock'. I'm really, really good friends with the guy that promotes that, that owns that and then the other one was the 'Kiss Cruise'. I just thought those both would be amazing cruises for this band and we told our Managers and they reached out and we didn't hear anything back for a little while and then I think the people of the actual 'Kiss Cruise' actually ended up reaching out to us afterwards but we ended up doing it. We are very, very excited because like I said, all of us grew up with Kiss, Steven grew up with Kiss.

Steven: I went to different schools with them.

Jacob: He went to different schools with them - that's right.

Megan: Have any of you met any of those guys before?*

Jacob: Steven knows 'em.

Steven: Me and Lonny were hanging out with Kiss three months ago...

Lonny: Yeah three or four months ago they were writing that record.

Steven: Yeah.

Lonny: Yeah three or four months ago they were writing that record or part of that record at Nates rehearsal room and it's literally across the road from where we rehearse so Steven and I walked out of the rehearsal room and we said or somebody told us Kiss was over there so we started walking over there and as soon as we got in front of their door Eric Singer walked out and he saw the two of us and he said, "Lonny, Steve", like cos we both knew him and he said, "Come on in, say hi to the boys ", and we walked in there and they seemed more happy to see him than.... it was a shock... they just love Steven.

Megan: Well who doesn't really?

Lonny: Met Paul too.

Jacob: Wow.

Lonny: Yep met all of them, they were all right there, Tommy Thayer... and they were writing that record.

Megan: Awesome. What songs do you like performing most off the new album and why? Are there any that give you that special vibe and you just love it.

Lonny: Well since this is our 1st show, let me see, the most fun... I think, 'Good To Be Bad' went over really well and that was fun.

Jacob: Yeah judging by the crowd response tonight, my favourites were like 'Good To Be Bad'. When we went into 'Blown Away' I was kinda blown away because everybody was really diggin' the riff and 'Another Version Of The Truth'; 'Waterfall'...

Megan: Yes I really liked that one 'Waterfall'. I've never heard it before and thought it was awesome.

Jacob: With me as far as live shows go, my favourite songs to play are always the upbeat ones. The ballads are absolutely necessary because it gives the show dynamics but they're less fun for me to play than like the upbeat stuff - just an energy thing.

Lonny: (To Steven) What's your favourite song tonight?

Steven: Every one of 'em.

Jacob: Every one of 'em.

Megan: Good answer.

Steven: As you want it.

Megan: How long did it take you to put the songs on the new album together?

Lonny: We wrote some of the songs.. we had a studio session. We recorded the record basically in about three weeks time, actually time spent in the studio and that was spanned over a couple of weeks but some of the songs that we went in to record, the morning of that session, Jacob and I would get together push it together and play it for Steven and Jeff and if they like it then we'd start working on it the very next day but if not of course then we moved on...

Jacob: Trust me, there were lots of the songs that we loved that got vetoed.

Steven: Well they didn't get vetoed..

Lonny: Just put aside.

Steven: ...they were recorded. We're are just gonna use them later on.

Jacob: Yeah, yeah..

Steven: You know for other countries, for B-sides and stuff.

Jacob: Yeah, yeah we did record some...

Lonny: Well we wrote and recorded the record...

Jacob: Just super fast.

Megan: That's amazing.

Steven: It was very magical.

Jacob: Yep.

Lonny: And even though we had written a bunch of songs ahead of time, I don't think the magic actually came until literally we got in the room together and started working on them.

Steven: Yeah when we got it together Jeff the whole thing came together and in came Lonny and Jacob in Alabama getting capes and then once Jeff came in the picture everything just fell together. It fell right into place. There was no hard eggs or problems. It was just so simple. I don't think there was a band that made a record where there was so much high-fiving and *ss slappin. Like "this is a f*ck*n' great". We said 'Ho ho ho, it's magic', a thousand times.

Megan: It was meant to be?

Steven: Yep. It was beautiful. Just like with 'Appetite (for Destruction)' - we went in and we just recorded. And just like 'Appetite' you couldn't play a metronome - truth, it's all feel - it's just what we felt.

Megan: Nice. Excellent. So how did you guys come up on having Slash play on the new album?

Steven: I wanted to play with Slash since we recorded 'Civil War'...

Lonny: And he just simply asked him.

Steven: I mean I wanted to, you know, throughout the years when I'd done other things but they just weren't the right thing and then this just came together. Like I say it was magic.

Jacob: Yeah him and Slash have been friends since they were kids so it's something that he wanted to do, Slash wanted to do so he sent the song over and he really liked it and really believed in Steven's new project. It was real sweet because Jeff Pilson said that Slash would call the studio to check on Steven and it's cool. Then we he came in the studio you saw real love there like between those two. It's like the chemistry is insane. Something more than brothers - it's nuts - it's real cool.

Megan: How did you get John5 to play on one of your songs? That's pretty awesome.

Jacob: Steven.. well I think their wives are friends right?

Steven: Wives.. well I've known John5... so he tells me for decades. He also told me (that) me and him and Lars went to a Metallica concert and I was standing behind Lars watching him play and I still don't remember it. God damn drugs! But my wife and his wife, they are animal activists and protect the animals and we're all.. the whole band is into that too. I say, 'Hi Saturn, Mindy, IC, T-Larue, hi Cosmo' - those are my dogs. They are reading this so I want them to know I said 'Hi'.

L to R - Steven, Carolina, John5 & Rita.

Megan: Well that actually leads me into one of the questions I wanted to ask you Steven. I follow Carolina on facebook and I applaude your efforts and hers as far as the humane treatment of animals...

Steven: 'Fur and Feathers'.

Megan: Yes.

Steven: That's what the girls work with 'Fur and Feathers'.

Megan: Well I think that it's great that you guys are involved in that and all three of my animals came from a shelter. I didn't go out and spend $500. So any up and coming events and fundraisers?*

Steven: Well our prayers go out to everybody on the East Coast. We're hoping.. we're supposed to go to Viginia Beach to what's it called... 'Blood On The Beach'. It's a horror convention and we're supposed to go there and meet people and sign stuff and I don't know if we are still gonna be able to do it. That and I want to go to the 'Edgar Cayce Museum'.

Megan: Where is that?

Steven: In Virginia Beach.

Megan: So if you guys had a chance to pair up and tour with another band as a cool rock package who would it be and why?

Jacob: I think a cool rock package would be Slash, Adler and Duff McKagan's Loaded and maybe Izzy and The Juju Hounds.

Megan: Nice.

Jacob: I think that would be f*ck*n' awesome. Personally, what about you Steve?

Steve: I think the Green Day/Aerosmith guys.

Jacob: Green Day/Aerosmith - Yeah - that would be amazing.

Lonny: I'd love for Kiss to like us enough on this cruise enough to take us out. I would love to be on the road with them.

Megan: Oh no doubt, no doubt.

Steven: That will be a dream come true. It's already a favourite because once we get on that boat and we are playing the same stage as Kiss.

Megan: How are the pre-sales been going (for the album) and where has the bulk of that been coming from? Anywhere surprising like Internationally?

Jacob: South America. Yes - South America.

Megan: Really?

Steven: And Italy, Argentina, UK. I think there's everywhere - Japan - we have some Japan stuff.

Jacob: Yep. All over for sure and the pre-orders are going amazin'. As a matter of fact they are going so good that Charvel guitars are doing a promotion for anybody that orders the record from this point forward gets entered to win a Chavel guitar.

Megan: Very nice.

Jacob: Yeah.

Megan: Okay and what made you decide to call the album, 'Back From The Dead'?

Jacob: Cos this motherf*ck*r is back from the dead.

Lonny: We're all back from the dead.

Megan: So what are the plans for the immediate future and beyond? What do you see? What do you want for Adler?

Jacob: We want the world.

Steven: Victory around the world. Victory around the world.

Megan: And anything you would like to talk about that we haven't covered?

Steven: I wonder if my dogs are ready?

Megan: What would you say to all of the fans out there reading this interview?

Steven: Thank You for all your love and support and we look forward to meeting and hugging and rocking everybody's world all round the world.

Megan: Amen.

Lonny: And we're out to prove the rock is not dead.

Jacob: That's right.

Lonny: It's just come back from the dead.

Jacob: There you go - awesome.

Megan: I love it. Thank You gentlemen, it's been a pleasure.

Jacob: Thank you.

Steven: Thank you.

Special thanks go to Megan Potts for conducting the Interview, Doug Weber & Jacob Bunton for setting it up and for the extra photographs, Promoter Mickie Shomidie of 'ESP', the staff and security at Dixie Roadhouse & Gypsy 'Alejandra' Espinoza of 'Live Rock In The Cape' for the use of the Dixie Roadhouse Photos.