The one and only Enuff Z’Nuff played a gig in Fresno, CA at Fulton 55 and bassist/lead singer Chip Z’Nuff was kind enough to answer my questions about the band. We started talking about the current state of Enuff Z’Nuff as well as some fascinating stories about their past. Thank you Chip Z’Nuff for the chat and also to Status Global MGMT for setting it up.
First of all I want to thank you for taking time to talk, I really appreciate it.
Absolutely no problem, bro.
Right off the bat I want to ask about Diamond Boy, what was the recording process like on the new album?
The making of Diamond Boy was a rock record where we said “let’s go back to the ‘70’s” and how bands used to make records then which was 2” analog tape, playing performances. Not just squeezing and truncating and tweaking everything like a lot of bands do now-a-days, which is fine to make a record like that if that’s how you want to do it. I’m looking at my idols of the past from Pink Floyd to Zeppelin and Queen and Mott The Hoople, T Rex and all the great bands from Europe. That’s my inspiration absolutely. So it was straight-in, everybody playing together a culmination of pop, rock and metal mixed together, I think. And I feel like we pretty much accomplished what we were going for at the beginning which is a rock-solid ‘70’s record.
That’s cool. So, those bands you listed, would you say those are the main influences of the band?
No, they’re just some of the influences. You show me a band without influences and I’ll show you a guy who hasn’t written one fucking note. Those are bands that my father turned me onto when I was a kid and they’ve stuck with me but if you listen to the record, if someone asks me “can you tell me what the record is and give me some of your thoughts of what you’re trying to do on this record?” I’d say, well picture David Bowie and the Beatles fighting in the alley and Cheap Trick comes and breaks it up. That’ the new Enuff Z’Nuff album. I’ll stick to those guns right there.
A lot of the English stuff has always been a big influence, and for us in the beginning too when we put the band together we always looked across the pond for inspiration. The American bands we loved too. Who doesn’t love Cheap Trick and Aerosmith and the Foo Fighters? They’re great bands. There are plenty more out there too. The punk bands out there too. We’ve never really chosen one style of music. We’ve always listened to everything out there and some stuff is going to be your favorite and other stuff is going to be ok and you appreciate it and that’s basically what it is for us. We’re fans before anything else and I think this record speaks if you listen to it, you’ll hear a lot of different influences in there and I think that’s a good thing.
Right now you’re on Frontiers Records and they’ve signed a lot of other bands from that era like L.A. Guns and Warrant, so how’s the record label treating you?
First of all, I don’t think we’re anything like L.A. Guns or Warrant. They’re guys that play their instruments and sing, but I think if you put all those records out and listen to them, they all sound different. And they’re terrific bands, by the way. I think we’ve got our own timbre as a group and to be signed to any label at my age is a miracle. We’ve got 20 albums out right now and I thank God that Frontiers heard something in Enuff Z’Nuff and took a chance on us. Serafino (Perugino), the guy who runs the label, and Mario have been good to me.
When we first got signed it was by a guy named Derek Shulman who was at Frontiers and Nick Tieder, those two guys were responsible for bringing Enuff Z’Nuff to Frontiers. Derek used to run a label called Polygram and he signed Cinderella and Bon Jovi. Atco Atlantic heard them, both groups and saw how well they did and said “we’re going to give you your own imprint.” And he started running a label called Atco Records and his first signings over at Atco Records were AC/DC, Bad Company, Pantera and Enuff Z’Nuff. They had other bands too, like Electric Angels and Tangier. There are other groups that he was affiliated with but those are the first four that he actually put his balls on the chopping block for and I thank him, because he helped give us a career.
Frontiers, so far, this will be the second album we’ve given them. The first one was called Clown’s Lounge, now we have Diamond Boy and I think we have one more record with them and so far I’m sure they’re happy with us. Our record charted. It came out of the box #152 on the Billboard chart, #34 in the UK. I think we’ve done real well. We’ve toured our asses off. We toured with Ace Frehley and Jack Russell’s Great White with Live Nation. We went all around the country working the record and over in Europe as well, so I think that as far as a label goes relationship-wise with our band they’re certainly very happy with what we’ve done for them. And we’re happy with what they’ve done for us too, which is put us back in the game again.
In 2016 on Clown’s Lounge, that featured a song with Jani Lane on vocals and James Young from Styx on another track. How did that all come about?
I’m a good bamboozler (laughs). I live in Chicago and JY’s a great friend of mine. Styx is a great band, obviously you know that. And I thought it would be great to have JY come down and play on a song. He played on an Enuff Z’Nuff record with Rick Neilsen of Cheap Trick and Billy Corgan of Smashing Pumpkins on an album called Paraphernalia. We laid the groundwork, basically, there and, uh…..in Sesame Street terms we were making a record and we wanted to do some kind of record that would help elevate our perception.
And as far as Jani Lane goes, I go back with Jani a long ways, God rest his soul, he was a wonderful singer/songwriter. A real rock star and we talked to him when I was doing a book with this guy, a friend of mine was writing a book called The Devil Of Shakespeare. His name was Billy McCarthy and he used to be a drummer in a band called D’Molls. He called and said “I’d really like you to write a song with me, I’ve got this title for a tune and I’ve got some lyrics. If you could put the music and the song together for me I’d really appreciate it.” We did a day or two in this recording studio on the south side of Chicago and from there he said “let’s get somebody to sing, let’s get a really big name on here to sing on the track to help me with my book.” And we approached Robin Zander of Cheap Trick, we went to a gig they were playing, a 25th anniversary party or something and we handed him some money and his manager saw us and came over and said “what are you doing?” We said “we’re giving Robin and advance to sing on the chorus of a song that I wrote.” He said “Robin, give me the money” and he took the money out of Robin’s hand which, that story doesn’t make any sense. Why would a manager do that to his artist? He basically said “when we hear the song and we like it, we’ll get back to you.” A week later, two weeks later, we waited and that jagoff manager finally got a hold of me. He says “yeah, we weren’t excited about the song and Robin’s going to go in a different direction.”
I said, ok, and our next tour was with Jani Lane. Jani Lane took a red-eye to Chicago and came in there and said “hey, do me a favor, Chip. I know you produced the track, would you be so kind as to let me sing it the way I do? I want to be somebody different than Jani Lane on this song.” I said “what do you want to do?” He said “I want to take like a David Bowie approach to it.” I said, “that’s great!”
A producer’s job is to bring the best performance out of an individual, make them comfortable and happy. So I let Jani do his own thing. He did a couple of takes and, voila, a great track. But then I had to wait a while to get permission to put it out there. We didn’t know what record we were going to put it out on and eventually, through the management company, we were able to put the track out. There’s a lot of bureaucratic crap that goes on when it comes to rock music. Sad to say. In the old days you used to be able to sing and play and give each other credit and that was it. Nowadays there’s a little more red tape there. But we’re grateful to have the track out there, one of Jani Lane’s last tracks that he put out, so very grateful for his contribution on the song and I love his family. They’re all good people. I wish him nothing but rest up in Heaven right now while we all move forward. We’re all going to see each other again.
How was the experience working with Jake E. Lee when he was in the band briefly?
He didn’t really join the band. What he did was, we were in Las Vegas recording our Dissonance record and the producer on the record, a guy named Vinnie Castaldo, wonderful man, great drummer, it was his suggestion. He said, “Hey, I can get Jake E. Lee to play on some tracks on the record.” And we thought that would be great. We toured with Jake back in the late ‘80’s when we were signed to Atco Atlantic and Jake was in a band called Badlands with the drummer from KISS and Greg Chaisson and the great Ray Gillen, what a wonderful singer. So I said, “Yeah, I haven’t seen him in 20 years. If you can get him to come down and play on something that would be great.”
He came down and played on one track and he said, “You know, I could listen to you fucking guys play and sing all day.” So I said, “Can you play on a couple of more tracks? We’d really appreciate it. We don’t have any money to pay you and we’ll give you a play on the record” Lo and behold, he came down there and brought a little bottle of booze with him, some Jim Beam or whatever it was and his SG guitar and fucking killed it every single day. He played on the whole record in maybe less than a week and he was really terrific. We didn’t say one word to him, we just let him play. And then after we finished that record we reached out to him and said, “You know, you did such a wonderful job on the record, we really love your style. We’re going to Japan. Would you like to join us?” And we offered him quite a bit of money to come out there and play two songs a night with us in Japan. At the time I think Jake was trying to put together another new project and he kindly declined and wished us well. And it was sad, it was sad for the band, it would have been nice to go out there, especially in Japan. And he never even went out there after that, it was so silly. He coulda had a great time, come up for a couple of songs and look like a huge superstar like he is, in my eyes. But sometimes you just can’t put those deals together and it is what it is. I am grateful, though, of the relationship we have and everytime we see each other it’s hugs.
That’s great, and that’s a good record. It’s good that you have that in your discography forever. So what would your advice be to all of the younger bands out there starting new in the industry?
Listen to as much music as you can in as many styles as possible and find what really trips your trigger and go with that. Stay away from the drugs. Be careful with the alcohol. That’s so important. My grandpa used to say when I was a young kid, “Son, a little discipline never hurt anybody.” He was absolutely right and that’s why I’m still going after all of these years because I am not a partier, I’m not out of control. Sure I have a good time, everybody does. I love people that do party, I enjoy being around that. Just the intake, I really watch myself. I gotta sing these fucking songs everyday, it’s not an easy job playing every night. You gotta be up for it, ready to go. That’s my advice to all musicians out there. Luck is the residue of design. Go out there and be focused, play the best you can play to your ability. And be nice because kindness costs nothing but with it you give so much.
Purchase Diamond Boy here!
Purchase The Devil Of Shakespeare here!
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