INTERVIEW: Jack Blades is ready to rock New Jersey with Night Ranger
Photo: Night Ranger will head to New Jersey’s State Theatre on April 3. Photo courtesy of Kevin Baldes / Provided by band with permission.
When one thinks of quintessential rock ‘n’ roll bands, a few groups come to mind. One of them is definitely Night Ranger, who has been rocking in America for more than four decades. Their live act is unparalleled in the business, bringing high energy and singable songs to thousands of adoring fans. The guys in Night Ranger — Jack Blades, Kelly Keagy, Brad Gillis, Eric Levy and Keri Kelli — are ready to descend on New Jersey this week, with a special concert Thursday, April 3, at the State Theatre in New Brunswick.
Fans should expect all the classic tunes, including “Sister Christian,” “(You Can Still) Rock in America,” “Sing Me Away,” “Don’t Tell Me You Love Me” and “Night Ranger.” Heck, with Blades behind the microphone, there’s a good chance some Damn Yankees songs may even make the set list.
“We’re going to tear the roof off this joint,” said Blades, bassist and vocalist for Night Ranger. “We’re going to tear the roof off the State Theatre in New Brunswick, man. We’re going to kick some serious ass here. We love New Jersey. Come on, I mean, who doesn’t love New Jersey? Who doesn’t love the fans in New Jersey, who are like maniacs and crazy friggin’ rock ‘n’ rollers, you know what I mean? I mean we’re coming to the right place this Thursday.”
The longevity of Night Ranger is because the band members all still like one another, Blades said. That’s rare in the rock ‘n’ roll space, but it’s true for this cohesive group. Backstage, it’s like a nonstop party. AC/DC music is blasting, and the lyrics to “Highway to Hell” are being sung in the hallways. There may be a few shots of tequila as well.
“I mean, it’s just a fun time, and I think that translates on stage,” Blades said. “We’re in the mold of the Van Halen party world. … We’re like the Faces were back in the ‘70s, with Ronnie Wood and Rod Stewart. It was just one big party. That’s kind of what Night Ranger is all about. We keep that thing going. Backstage it’s like that, and we keep that thing going when we hit the stage, when the lights go down and the crowd roars, and we get out there, and we just keep that party going, man.”
Blades, who has been in a few bands over the years, said the group feels blessed that they’ve had such an illustrious career for 43 years. He sometimes cannot believe they’re still out there rock ‘n’ rolling and kicking ass. They show no signs of slowing down either, with dates set up throughout the rest of the year, including a couple gigs in Japan, a country that has been quite good to Night Ranger over the years. For Blades, their success comes down to the songs.
“A good song is a good song,” he said. “In the beginning, it was always about the songs for us. When someone would bring in a song, and if we couldn’t strum it on an acoustic guitar and sing the chorus and that didn’t come across, then we didn’t even go after the song. … If it’s not a good chorus, if it’s not a good verse, if it’s not a good melody, then it’s not there. I think that’s what we’ve always focused on from the very beginning of the band. Consequently there have been songs like ‘Don’t Tell Me You Love Me’ and ‘Sing Me Away’ and ‘4 in the Morning’ and ‘Sister Christian’ and ‘Rock in America’ and ‘Goodbye’ and just on and on and on. I think a good song is always a good song, and that’s what’s sustained a lot of bands right now.”
Night Ranger is also known for playing a few Damn Yankees songs, such as “Coming of Age” and “High Enough.” This is because Blades was a key member of that band, and right now, it’s tough to hear those tunes in a live setting. For Blades, it’s important to keep that history alive.
“Damn Yankees is a great band,” the bassist said. “We had a blast. We’re still on permanent hiatus, I guess. We never really broke up. We just took a hiatus. I guess we’re still on that, the 30-year hiatus. The band was such a fun band. We had such a blast, and look I sing those songs. I sang them on the record. I co-wrote those songs with Tommy [Shaw] and Ted [Nugent]. Nobody’s playing them. The Damn Yankees aren’t working. We’re the only ones out there doing it, so what the hell, man. A good song is a good song, so we’re going to keep doing it. We have a blast. I think the fans love it, too. They appreciate that.”
Growing up, Blades first gravitated to the rhtyhm guitar, not a bass guitar. He remembers being 8 year old, and his parents gave him a plastic ukulele worth approximately $1. That set him on the guitar path, but it began to change in junior high school when he realized guitarists were all around him, but no one was venturing into the world of bass.
“There were a gazillion rhythm guitar players and no bass players,” Blades said. “I talked my parents into like, ‘Can you buy me a bass amp and a bass because nobody else is playing bass?’ They’re like, ‘Yeah, OK.’ Just by default I became a bass player, kind of like what [Paul] McCartney did in the Beatles. … But my first instrument is guitar, and that’s what I write songs on. … I’ve written some songs on piano, like ‘When You Close Your Eyes,’ and stuff like that, but most of the stuff I write is on guitar.”
Blades’ first band was called Rubicon. They were a funk rock group based in San Francisco, and they created music in the late-1970s. Gillis, guitarist for Night Ranger, was there at the beginning, and Keagy, drummer for Night Ranger, was a touring member of that early group as well.
“Rubicon was formed by Jerry Martini, the sax player for Sly and the Family Stone, so it was like this seven-piece horn band, a funky band,” Blades said. “And I played slap-style bass, but I just started writing some songs. A couple of them appeared on the records. We had two albums on 20th Century Fox Records, and I just started writing songs. When that band broke up in ‘79, Brad and Kelly and I decided to stay together, and we formed a little club band called Stereo. And we had to write some songs, so I just started writing a bunch of songs. And that’s how it’s been since then.”
Blades added: “I just write, write, write. Writing is definitely a function of the more you do it, the better you get, so I was just writing and writing and writing. And believe me, a lot of it was like crap. … But that’s how you learn. That’s how you grow, and that’s what we did. Songwriting is a part of me.”
By John Soltes / Publisher / John@HollywoodSoapbox.com
Night Ranger will play Thursday, April 3, at the State Theatre in New Brunswick, New Jersey. Click here for more information and tickets.
