Brad Gillis exclusive interview














Rockgig today (18-02-15) had the great honour of talking to legendary guitarist Brad Gillis of Night Ranger.

What follows is a look back at his early days playing guitar, through Rubicon and the early days of Night Ranger with a detour via a certain Ozzy Osbourne, through the success with MTV to the fore and then bang up to date with the soon to be Islington show on 12-03-15.

Brad was at home after being off the road for a little while with another week or two at home before setting off for the show at London O2 Islington Academy on Thursday March 12th.

Rockgig: When did you start to play the guitar?

Brad: I started playing guitar when I was 8 years old.The Beatles came out in the mid 60's and I wanted to play drums and my parents bought me a drum set but they didn't like all the loud banging so I wanted a guitar so they bought me an electric guitar on my 8th birthday.

Rockgig: Self taught or lessons?

Brad: My dad would only buy me a guitar if I took lessons so I took lessons for 5 or 6 months but I really didn't want to play " Mary Had A Little Lamb!!" or real hokey songs with my very old guitar teacher. A friend of my brothers came over when I was about 9 years old and taught me how to play rock n'roll. He taught me the basic chords and the different strumming techniques and told me to listen to the radio. He told me Brad if you listen to every song on the radio and pick it up by your ear you can learn how to play anything. I would sit in my bedroom at home every day and listen to the radio and pick up on all these songs that whatever came on I tried to learn how to play. In the late 60's my brother had all the latest coolest records Jimi Hendrix, Santana, Led Zeppelin, Cheap Thrills & The Holding Company with Janis Joplin so he hooked me up inside his room with a little distortion box and headphones that went to his record player and he would go out at night and I would sit in this bedroom and play all the records and jam along to all these great late 60's rock bands. I was able to pick up a lot of things by ear and after a while it came easier and easier for me to listen to any song and pick it up.

Rockgig: Your classic whammy dive bar sound did you hear it one day and think wow or was it something you had heard before?

Brad: When Eddie Van Halen came out and started to do the harmonic dive bombs on the whammy bar I thought wow this is pretty exciting and I need to get one. I traded a Les Paul Custom at this big music store called Ron Lears Music in San Francisco and I traded that Les Paul for only the third made ever Floyd Rose guitar made by Floyd in his garage and a fret job for my stratocaster. When I got that Floyd Rose and started playing with it I thought well I am going to make it floating. You float it by loosening the tension on the strings and the back of the guitar and retune it so when you pull up and push down on the bar, you can go over or under a note so I fiddled with that idea and started fiddling with different harmonics pulling them up instead of pushing them down and that is where I came up with that signature note that worked on "Don't Tell Me You Love Me". Big heavy strumming tremelo wang by taking my wang bar and hitting it real hard. One day I was also fiddling around and I banged my guitar I heard this flutter warble cricket type sound and I couldn't figure out where it was coming from. I banged it again and I heard it again and I found out that it was coming from the bar shaking real fast from the impact of the tousing on it of my fist. So I flicked the end of the bar and was able to figure out where that sound was coming from. I took that idea and started to find different notes by flicking the end of my tremelo bar and finding that really fast warble sound. I incorporated that into my guitar style also.

Rockgig: My 12 year old son is taking lessons any advice you could give him?

Brad: The most important thing about learning the guitar is learning the basics. Learn how to walk before you learn how to run. Some guitar players want to learn fast licks as fast as they can but where is the soul, where is the feel that people like Jeff Beck are known for. My biggest idol was listening to Jimi Hendrix, Jeff Beck and Jimmy Page the biggest thing I learnt was all these different styles and I hear from all these great players and from Jimi Hendrix I learnt to play wild and extravagant from Jeff Beck I learnt how to play with feel and soul and Jimmy Page I learnt how to play all these different rhythmic ideas and keynote ideas and different fingering and inversions on the guitar. My advice to young players is to learn how to play with soul feel and to learn how to incorporate faster techniques but whenever you do a solo try to tell a story with it start out with some feel and then get to a climax burning point and then settle it down by bringing it down at the end or peaking with super high notes.
















Night Ranger (left to right): Keri Kelli, Kelly Keagy, Jack Blades, Brad Gillis and Eric LevyPhoto courtesy of Night Ranger

Rockgig: You and Jack Blades have been together now for 40 years from when you joined Rubicon can you put that time of your career and friendship into words?

Brad: When I joined Rubicon it was very exciting because I was fresh out of High School and had played in a couple of club bands 5 nights a week doing 5 sets a night. So when the boys in Rubicon came in to see me play in my club band and I went and did my audition that is when Jack Blades and I really hit it off during the audition. He was jumping around playing his funky bass and I was jumping around playing my black Les Paul. From me playing in club bands for over a year all these different styles of music I was able to play funky type rhythmic chops plus lead guitar power and rock riffs because I grew up in High School I was in bands doing a lot of Led Zeppelin and Blue Oyster Cult and Deep Purple and all this different great music from the early to mid 70's and playing in the clubs learn all my funky 9 chord chops and rhythmic clean playing I was able to incorporate that into Rubicon which was a funk rock band.

Rockgig: In the beginnings of Night Ranger you recorded your early demos with Gary Pihl of Boston how was he to work with?

Brad: Gary Pihl is the nicest guy in the world. He took us in up to his house in his own recording studio and we did our original demos and in fact we found that tape a while back and somebody had a couple of those songs on cassette that we listened to.That was the original formation of Night Ranger and a lot of those songs from that original demo found its way onto our first record. Now "Sister Christian " didn't come along until the second record but Kelly Keagy had written that song earlier and the record company decided not to put it on the first record because they knew it would be a hit.They believed in longevity with Night Ranger and said they would hold off with this song to the second cd.

Rockgig: I would love to hear the demos any chance of releasing them?

Brad: The original demos? I don't think so I'll offer it up to Kelly and Jack and see what they say?

Rockgig: Did you have an idea what you wanted to sound like back then with the twin lead guitars and is that something Gary helped you with?

Brad: He really just helped us out with the production as we already had the songs ready when we went in to see Gary. Basically we needed to put down our ideas and we knew we wanted to be a melodic rock band that had 2 lead vocals and 2 lead guitar players which we felt was different at the time and fairly marketable. We were so lucky to come out with "Don't Tell Me You Love Me" being our first single because that is when MTV had just started and they didn't have much contest on TV as far as other bands video so we got played 10 to 20 times a day which really helped out Night Ranger's initial career start.

Rockgig:  As Dawn Patrol was released in the same week the live album you did with Ozzy Osbourne "Speak Of the Devil" came out how difficult a decision was it to say no to Ozzy and start a career with Night Ranger?

Brad: I had spent a couple of years with Night Ranger getting the band together, recording demos and trying to get a record deal. When I stepped into the Ozzy situation and it was so unfortunate that Randy Rhoads died in that plane crash. I remember hearing about it and pulling over in my truck and thinking oh my gosh life can be so short and I was playing in a club band called the Alameda All Stars at the time and playing a couple of Ozzy songs in that band. This was when Night Ranger were trying to get a record deal and we weren't doing any live shows and I just wanted to play so I formed a band and played all the best rock material at that time. When I got offered the gig to play with Ozzy I flew out and I did my 7 or 8 months on the road all over the world and then Rudy Sarzo quit for Quiet Riot and Night Ranger got offered the record deal I just felt it was the better move and more stability to go with Night Ranger. Here I am 35 years later in the same band so I feel I made the right choice.



Brad Gillis

Rockgig: You replaced Bernie Torme who is one of my friends idols and were you told to be yourself or was it a little more rigid than that and play nearer to Randy's style?

Brad: I had gone to see Bernie play for the first 4 or 5 shows at nights but I would rehearse during the day in my hotel room with a Randy Rhoads live cassette. Sharon had set up me up with a little amplifier and a cassette player and I sat in my room all day learning all the material for 4 days and every night I would go and see Bernie play and see the big castle stage and stand at the side or soundboard watching the show thinking to myself oh my god I will be up their soon. For me it was a scary and exciting period of my life I knew if I couldn't cut it they would send me home and I needed to step up. Any problems I would talk to Rudy Sarzo or Don Airey who helped me out on a couple of things but with me learning how to play by ear as a kid I was able to listen to the cassette over and over and pick all the notes out. It was a different style for me to play and I actually learnt more in 4 days than I ever did in any period of my life. Learning the Randy Rhoads material I was able to tell the band on the 5th night and Ozzy that I was ready to perform. I went up on stage and played my first show and it was kind of crazy because I had never played with the band before. I only did a soundcheck of 7 of the 18 songs and Ozzy wasn't even there and I am due to be playing that night a sold out show which was crazy for me and very scary for the first night. It was so loud on stage that my ears rang so bad after the first night that I wore ear plugs for the rest of the tour. I screwed up that first show on Revelation Mother Earth which is a slow ballad that kicks in real fast. I kicked in to the fast part too early Ozzy looked over to me and I realised I had screwed up. I stopped got my place back in the song and finished out the rest of the night and I was ok as I didn't screw up any other song. I'll never forget going to my second show and right before going on stage Sharon came up to me and said Brad you did a good job last night but tonight don't fuck up.

Rockgig: When Midnight Madness came out and "Sister Christian" blew the doors off for you with the advent of MTV and life changed forever how do you look back on these days now?

Brad: When "Sister Christian" went sky rocketing up the American charts and I will never forget pulling up in La Crosse Wisconsin in 1983 and looking at the billboard at the Coliseum and it said Night Ranger Sold Out. That was our first sold out concert with Night Ranger being a headliner and from 1983 on we did about 250 shows a year and toured all over the world in Japan and came to Europe and that was the start of everything.

Rockgig: I was lucky enough to be at Wembley Arena when you supported Foreigner in 1985 on the Seven Wishes tour and I can still remember you stepping forward for your solo in Sentimental Street and thinking wow. After that show you returned to the US and didn't return for 26 years. Were the crowd that night so bad, you did get 2 encores?

Brad: We wanted to get back to Europe and play but it never seemed to happen but I am glad we are coming back now because we are finally stepping up. If we had gone back every year or two we would have definitely had more of a following and been doing larger shows in Europe but it is what it is and we make the best of every show we do.

Rockgig: So the Islington show is next month what can we expect at the show?

Brad: We are going to play all the Night Ranger hits, a bit of the Damn Yankees, throw in some songs from Somewhere In California and High Road. We have dug in about 4 cuts deep on High Road and who knows we have a lot of material to choose from and we are definitely going to do some new stuff for the fans plus all the old hits.

Rockgig: What does the rest of 2015 hold for Night Ranger?

Brad: We have a bunch of shows coming up including the Monsters Of Rock Cruise and Europe with of course England and we have shows with Sammy Hagar and Brett Michaels in Puerto Rico and shows all over the country which we are looking forward to. We have just got back from Japan so we won't expect to go back this year but we will play about 100 shows so another busy year for Night Ranger.

Rockgig:  Any chance of a live dvd blu ray as your live shows are legendary?

Brad: I don't know about that, it isn't in the making as of yet but who knows as we are always coming up with new stuff so hopefully so.

Rockgig: Thanks a lot for taking the time for speaking to Rockgig and I look forward to seeing you at Islington.

Brad: Thank you Mark see you then.

And with that Brad was onto more interviews and preparing for the upcoming shows in Islington and also at HRH AOR in Wales.

The 2 previous shows at Islington in 2011 and 2012 were simply amazing and you need to be there.

We will !!



Thanks to Asher Alexander and Peter Noble at Peter Noble PR for the help in setting up the interview.



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