ZRock is proud to bring you exclusive interviews as Eric Clapton hosts the spectacular three-day Crossroads Guitar Festival June 4-6, 2004, at Fair Park and Cotton Bowl Stadium in Dallas. The event, an SBC presentation, will include continual concerts and once-in-a-lifetime guitar clinics by the world’s leading artists.
The weekend will feature the Guitar Center Village including the Hard Rock Caf ’s 50 years of American Rock and Roll display, interactive booths from leading guitar manufacturers, the buy-sell-trade Vintage Showcase and a display of guitars donated from Eric Clapton and friends personal collections for the forthcoming June 24 Christie’s auction with proceeds benefiting the Crossroads Centre. Concerts begin Friday evening and continue into Saturday afternoon on multiple indoor and outdoor stages. The event will culminate with an 11-hour concert at the Cotton Bowl on Sunday. Tax deductible donations to Crossroads Centre Antigua may be made by calling toll free 1-888-725-2420.
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click the links below to read ZRock exclusive Crossroads Guitar Festival interviews. More interviews will be added as the festival approaches, including on-site interviews at the event.
Zrock exclusive! Peter Jackson Interview
by Jarrod Vrazel : zrock.com
May 27, 2004 – This afternoon I had the opportunity to discuss the Crossroads Guitar Festival with Eric Clapton’s tour manager, Peter Jackson. Mr. Jackson and the Festival staff are in the midst of final preparations for the event and are in the process of setting up in Dallas.
ZRock: Good afternoon Mr. Jackson. How is all the pre-planning going for the festival?
Peter: It’s going well. We’re really busy. It’s going great. We’re moving in now, getting the offices all set up, people are beginning to come in all the production staff. We start building the stages Monday.
ZRock: Is this in essence the launch of the new tour as well?
Peter: We start the American tour on the 9th of June in Oklahoma City.
ZRock: So you ll have a few days to recover from the Festival and then off to the road?
Peter: And off we go for the rest of June and all of July, and end up on August 2nd in beautiful Los Angeles at the Hollywood Bowl.
ZRock: It should be one very nice entertaining tour. We’re very excited about the Festival, especially the Blues Jam on Saturday night. It should be a very special event.
Peter: Yes, it should be great. Actually what happened was, a number of years ago we did a show down in Austin we did Austin City Limits it was a memorial show to Stevie Ray Vaughan, and all these guitarists came and they all played and they recorded it. But the following night, we did Eric, Buddy Guy, Jimmie Vaughan, Jimmie Vaughan’s Band, and Robert Cray.
ZRock: That was at the Austin Music Hall.
Peter: Yes, there were about three thousand people.
ZRock: Actually, I graduated from Graduate School that same evening and went straight from the ceremony to the show.
Peter: You were there?
ZRock: Yes sir.
Peter: It was stunning, wasn’t it? And it was not recorded. We made sure there were no recording machines around anywhere. It was a stunning evening. So basically we’re recreating that.
ZRock: It should be a very special night, especially in Stevie’s hometown. How is the rest of the event shaping up, with the clinics and performances?
Peter: Everything is going well. Some people were committed then all of a sudden their schedule gets changed, as this business does, but the schedule now is pretty tight. We start off on Friday night with several clinics, including a blues clinic.
ZRock: I noticed the blues clinic with Duke Robillard and Robert Lockwood, Jr. and some of the other guys on Friday, plus a full slate of events on Saturday. I spoke with Tommy Shaw a little earlier today about the event. He’s really excited.
Peter: It’s fantastic what the Styx guys are doing.
ZRock: Tommy said he ll be on site with guitar looking to assist for a good cause.
Peter: There’s also going to be workshops they’re building guitars, making guitars, selling guitars, playing guitars it’s a celebration of the lead guitar.
ZRock: What a celebration and tremendous moment in music history. How is Sunday shaping up? I noticed Eric is scheduled for a set of his own, and then a few guest spots with Jeff Beck and other artists?
Peter: Eric will do his own set, then Jeff’s going to join him for a couple of numbers. Then there will be a break, and then ZZ will come on. Then Jeff will join ZZ, and at the end Jeff and Eric will join ZZ. There could be others.
ZRock: Wow! What a way to end the show.
Peter: We just thought ZZ Top Texas band – they should close it out.
ZRock: It should be a very entertaining weekend on all fronts, especially for the fans, but for the musicians as well.
Peter: Oh yes. It’s taken us a long time to put it together.
ZRock: I’m sure it’s a lot of work.
Peter: We’ve been working on it for two and a half years.
ZRock: Will rehearsals begin in the next day or so?
Peter: No, a lot of the players are not bringing their bands, so there’s not really a ton of rehearsals, just a few people rehearsing. A lot of them have all played together on various things, so they know they can go out there and play. They know one another’s style.
ZRock: You definitely have a wide variety of entertainment. Congratulations on putting together such a well-rounded bill.
Peter: Thank you.
ZRock: I think you have something for all the fans, even the die-hard rock fans, as well as the blues fans, country fans, bluegrass fans, traditional fans…
Peter: Yes, there’s everything. We’re even bringing this Indian musician in Vishwa Bhatt. We’re flying him in from India. He’s somebody not to be missed. He was the center on the George Harrison memorial concert. He sits and he plays the guitar almost in his lap. It’s different.
ZRock: I was looking over all these first class musicians on the bill. Joe Satriani has had the G-3 tour for a couple of years, but I would imagine you have a G-100 or so here. You definitely have the cream of the crop.
Peter: Thank you. It’s going to be fun.
ZRock: I appreciate your time this afternoon.
Peter: My pleasure.
ZRock: I’m looking forward to an excellent event. Best wishes on the Festival as well as the tour throughout the year.
Peter: Thanks for your help.
Zrock exclusive! Styx : Tommy Shaw Interview
by Jarrod Vrazel : zrock.com
May 27, 2004 – Styx with special guests will be performing on the Guitar Center Village Main Stage Saturday June 5 at 11am. Tommy Shaw, Styx guitarist (and former member of Damn Yankees) called this afternoon to discuss the band’s participation in the Crossroads Guitar Festival:
ZRock: Hello Tommy, how’s your afternoon so far?
Tommy: It’s beautiful. We just arrived in Salt Lake City this morning. It was raining, and now it’s cleared up, so we’ve got a little humidity. If you’re a singer, that’s the first thing you look for.
ZRock: When you make it to Texas, will you be looking for the heat as well?
Tommy: Well, we just past through Texas. We were in Dallas, Houston, and San Antonio. It was actually beautiful singing weather down there.
ZRock: Hopefully you ll get the same type weather next weekend in Dallas.
Tommy: Yeah, I hope we do. We’re kinda counting on it. Because I have a feeling we’re going to be doing a lot of it. Is everybody getting pretty fired up around there for the show?
ZRock: Oh yeah. Everybody’s getting really fired up, especially with all the clinics and three days of unbeatable music. It should be an unbelievable experience for the fans and a lot of the musicians as well.
Tommy: Well, you know what’s great about it you’ve got the best people in the industry putting it together. And so you know it’s gonna be … these things in the wrong hands can be a series of train wrecks. But when you have the right people doing it, it looks seamless, it looks easy and it really is. It’s like the smooth pond, when if you look down two inches below, you see the little duck feet just going like crazy. That’s what you’re hoping for. With the people running this, I think that’s what you’re going to get.
ZRock: I think you are right. What can we expect from your participation?
Tommy: We’re going to do whatever anything and everything. Right now, the thing that we’re scheduled to do is to open Saturday, the second day, out on the Esplanade we go on about 11. We’re mostly going to do just jams and songs from other people, a kind of blues thing. Not really a Styx set we may play a couple of things that fit in there. We’ve been messing around, like a Hendrix song, Slim Harpo song, BB King song. We’re actually having a great time. We’re looking at something by the Yard Birds. But, we’ve also let it be known that we’re available for whatever they need us to do down there. You know, with charity events we’ve put on a few of them ourselves it’s always nice to have somebody who’s like a spare set of hands: We could use somebody right here. Who could we get to do it? We’ve sorta thrown our hat into the ring that we ll do whatever we need to down there.
ZRock: Perfect. A lot of times with those opportunities you never know what they’re going to present. But when they do present themselves, it’s always nice when you get the chemistry and the musicianship to come together for a good cause.
Tommy: It started out being just JY and me we were going to come down there, just kind of bring out guitars and see what happens, and then one thing led to another. Then we said, why don’t we just bring everybody down there then, no matter what, we ll have that to start with. Anything that we add to that will be that much better. Then it was like, ’should we just bring a couple amps? Nah, screw it; we ll bring the whole truck. So we’re backing the semi down in there and we ll have everything we need. We ll have one less thing to thing about.
ZRock: It sounds like it should be a very wonderful experience for you.
Tommy: It’s already been a wonderful experience. The thought of the possibilities that can happen there. People are sniffing around about maybe coming in and sitting in with us. Where pretty excited about it, being able to throw our Styx energy into such a great cause. We’re more than happy to do it.
ZRock: Any of the other acts that you’re really looking forward to seeing?
Tommy: It’s really just being there, being around all of those guitars. I’m interested in going to the Texas guitar trade show thing that’s there as well. I’m interested in going to see that and seeing a bunch of people that I know and being prepared for anything. You never know what’s going to happen at those things. I’ve been involved with teen drug rehabilitation for quite a few years now. We even have a program that’s called Crossroads in St. Louis, so this kinda hits home for me, in a nice way.
ZRock: It’s definitely a great cause and it’s really nice when you can get all the musicians to come together to provide such good entertainment for the fans as well as a positive experience overall.
Tommy: Well, this is where someone like Eric Clapton uses his fame and the success he’s had in the industry. He really picked a great time to call on his friends to do stuff. Everybody’s showing up for him. To me, this is what fame and success is all about to be able to do something and give something back like this.
Zrock exclusive! Tony Franklin Interview
by Jarrod Vrazel : zrock.com
May 28, 2004 – Tony Franklin will be featured at the Shredders Clinic with Nuno Bettencourt and George Lynch on the Guitar Center Village Main Stage Saturday June 5 at noon. Tony is best known for his bass work with The Firm (with Jimmy Page and Paul Rodgers) and Blue Murder (with John Sykes and Carmine Appice.) He has appeared on more than one hundred albums, including numerous multi-platinum sellers.
I spoke with Tony this afternoon regarding his current projects and his involvement at the Crossroads Guitar Festival:
ZRock: Hello Tony, how are you doing today?
Tony: Doing fine, doing fine. How about yourself?
ZRock: Doing great. Getting ready for the big show next weekend in Dallas.
Tony: Yeah, that’s an exciting event. Lots of cool people down there. Where are you and what do you have going?
ZRock: I’m actually in Houston. I run ZRock.com and we’re helping Maria Brunner and Peter Jackson and the people involved in running the festival – we’re helping to try to bring the message to the fans, as well as exposure for the artists, Crossroads Center, Antigua, and all the events that are going on.
Tony: Absolutely. There’s a lot of good things inter-connecting here – good causes and good people. It’s all good.
ZRock: Definitely. The information that we share with the fans has historically been more hard rock based, but for this event, we’re helping to spread the word and try to get some exposure for all the artists involved, including the blues guys and the country guys. They’ve got a gentleman coming in from India that Peter Jackson told me about yesterday. For this type of event, it’s all about the music, regardless of the genre.
Tony: Absolutely. You know, a lot of the traditional festivals of years gone by, they were all about that – it was diversity, but still all joining together for a wonderful occasion and just enjoying good music together.
ZRock: Yes, indeed. Especially with the proceeds going to such a great cause. It should be very entertaining and a very good end result.
Tony: Yeah, exactly. People can feel good about feeling good at this thing, knowing that its going to something very positive and good at the end of it, so all the more reason to just feel good about it.
ZRock: They’ve got you scheduled for the Shredders Clinic with Nuno and George Lynch.
Tony: Yeah, that’s right. That’s gonna be interesting, and we have Todd Sucherman – he’s going to be playing drums for us at the Shredders Clinic. You know who I’m sitting here with is a friend of Todd Sucherman’s? My rhythm pal from about twenty years in a band I was with before called The Firm. I have Chris Slade sitting here with me.
ZRock: You guys are playing tonight in Connecticut?
Tony: Yeah, we have a couple of shows over here. It’s funny, the first The Firm album was recorded twenty years ago, and essentially Chris and I have played together for almost eighteen years. We got together to see how it felt and have a bit of fun. We’re actually doing an AC/DC tribute thing. Of course, Chris was in AC/DC for a couple of years. It’s been amazing. It’s been such alot of fun, and it’s great that he and I are still playing together. The magic is right there. It’s like it never went away. It’s good. We’ve got a couple of other guys here. Joe LeSte, who was with Bang Tango and Beautiful Creatures.
ZRock: Joe’s in the AC/DC Tribute as well?
Tony: Yes, and we’ve got Anthony Focx from Beautiful Creatures, and Alex Grossi with the lead guitar role. Hey, do you think there’d be any interest down Texas way?
ZRock: Definitely. I’m sure Joe can tell you some good stories – the first Bang Tango album, Psycho Caf , was recorded at Firestation studios in San Marcos, just south of Austin. Back in the day, I used to see Bang Tango all the time at the Back Room in Austin. I also saw you play there with Blue Murder. There’s definitely an interest in Texas.
Tony: Texas has always been a rocking state. You know, with Chris’s days in AC/DC, and he and I having played together, it adds a real extra incredible groove to it all. We’re looking to have some more fun and get in the car and come down to Texas.
ZRock: Houston, Austin, Dallas, and San Antonio are all great markets for your music.
Tony: In fact, I think the very first gig we did with Blue Murder was in San Antonio at Sneakers. Isn’t that funny – you know the first The Firm gig we did was in Texas – in Dallas, of course, and the first Blue Murder gig we did was in Texas, too. So, that says a lot about Texas for me – it’s a rocking state.
ZRock: For the AC/DC tribute, is there a band name, or is it more of just a get together?
Tony: Yes, it’s called Thunderstruck. Now, I know there is a Thunderstruck in Canada as well, we just found out, but that’s not this one. They don’t have any ex- AC/DC members.
ZRock: Have you guys been touring the country as Thunderstruck?
Tony: We’ve been doing a few gigs here and there. I think we’re like seven shows deep at this point. Just literally seeing how it felt, and it’s been going so good. You can’t go wrong with AC/DC.
ZRock: Are you doing the full spectrum of AC/DC or just certain time periods?
Tony: Oh, we’re doing it all. We’re doing Bon stuff and Brian stuff, any songs that we like. Obviously there are certain songs that you can’t not do – people are going to want to hear You Shook Me All Night Long and Back in Black, and all that. We do a lot of the early Bon stuff, right up to the newer stuff. Joe’s on vocals and he’s smokin’.
ZRock: Very nice.
Tony: I’ve got so much going on. I’ve got that going on, and I actually work doing artist relations with Fender and SWR. So that has kept me pretty busy as well.
ZRock: Sounds like you’ve got a very busy schedule. It’s nice to hear the true musicians hard at it in the year 2004. A lot of things have changed since the days when The Firm album or the Blue Murder first album came out. A lot of music has come and gone since that period.
Tony: It is different from those days. Those days were a lot of fun and a lot of hair spray as well. Not for Chris (laughs) – the shaved head man. But it definitely was different. As music progresses and evolves, and we evolve as human beings, too, you do get priority shifts and you have to weight the situation as it is. At the end of it all, even though I was just twenty-two when The Firm came together, I had been playing on stage for fifteen years at that point. Music is so deep with energy, love, and passion. That love and passion is still there. That’s what this is really all about – the love of the music.
ZRock: What can the fans expect at the Shredders clinic on Saturday?
Tony: (laughs) I’m laughing because we definitely need the guys to talk. I keep saying, “we’ve got to talk before we get there.” I don’t know what to expect at this point. At the end of they day, they’re great players. We’ll come up with something special that will be fun and exciting. I think we’re having some sort of rehearsal the night before, or there may be phone rehearsals of sorts. Because of the nature of this thing, with it being a benefit, and people coming down, and people always having different schedules, the lineup has been changing. I think Yngwie was going to come down, then he had something that came up. Zakk Wylde was going to come down, but then he had something come up with Ozzy.
ZRock: I believe when they added Black Sabbath to OZZfest it shifted a few things around for Zakk.
Tony: Yeah, exactly. So it seems now that the lineup has been solid for at least a week, so I guess we’re good. We’ll probably getting together on the phone first, then getting together something on Friday night, then we will be rockin’.
ZRock: That sounds excellent. I can’t wait til the show. It should be an awesome event all the way around. You guys are scheduled for noon on Saturday, and then, at 9 o’clock, same night, same stage, they’ve got an All-Star Blues Jam with Eric, Buddy Guy, Robert Cray, Robert Randolph, and Jimmie Vaughan, which should be amazing. Plus they’ve got a full slate of great entertainment in between.
Tony: Absolutely. I’ll see if they want me to do the All-Star Blues Jam. That would be cool. It’s going to be a great event. I’m looking forward to being there. I can already feel the energy. And then, what a lineup for the final day as well! Vince Gill and Buddy Guy and BB King and Eric and Jeff Beck. Then to top if off with ZZ Top with Jeff Beck and Eric Clapton.
ZRock: You can’t beat that any day of the week. I don’t know anywhere you can go to see that much entertainment on the same stage.
Tony: There are going to be people there all day – it’s a long day of music.
ZRock: But I think a lot of people are geared up for getting there early. In Texas, the motto is “get there early, stay late, and be loud.” It’s going to be a marathon of sorts. If you want to see Neil Schon and you want to Steve Vai, you need to get there early. But you if you don’t want to miss the finale, you are going to be there for another eleven or twelve hours. But, with the other activities going on at the Guitar Village, it is at heart a festival. There may be people coming and going through out the day, switching between the Cotton Bowl and the indoor activities to cool off. The entertainment will be back- to- back- to- back.
Tony: Yes. Buddy Guy. BB King. Carlos Santana. Jeff Beck. ZZ Top. It’s truly a phenomenon to the end.
ZRock: I appreciate you taking the time to discuss the event and your other activities. I know you’ve been busy. Between the music you play, and your studio work, and your artist relations work, you definitely have a full plate.
Tony: And throw in an eleven month old daughter into that as well. There are definitely no dull moments in my life, that’s for sure. I wouldn’t have it any other way.
ZRock: I’m looking forward to seeing you next week in Dallas and checking out one of your Thunderstruck sets down the road.
Tony: Great. Well, thanks for your time, Jarrod. I’m looking forward to it, too.
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