INTERVIEW: Night Ranger continue their ‘Dawn Patrol’
Rock legends Night Ranger are celebrating the 35th anniversary of their debut album, Dawn Patrol, which engaged listeners in the 1980s and caught attention during the early days of MTV. In many ways, the band epitomizes the rock ‘n’ roll that emanated from that influential decade, and yet the group’s members have not sat back on their laurels. They continue to tour and record new music, much to the delight of Night Ranger fans around the world.
“Well, a Night Ranger show is always a fun event,” said Jack Blades, bassist, co-songwriter and co-vocalist for the band in a recent phone interview. “We’re celebrating 35 years of releasing our first album, the Dawn Patrol album. With Night Ranger, we come, and we play songs. We’ll pull out songs from our old stuff. We’ll pull out some new stuff. … We’ll even pull out some songs of stuff that we grew up listening to. We’ll start playing those, and, you know, a Night Ranger show is pretty much like an interactive show anyway. Everybody is singing along and jumping in and stuff like that. We just have a ball.”
The band members — including Blades, Kelly Keagy on drums and vocals, Brad Gillis on guitar, Eric Levy on keyboards and Keri Kelli on guitar — have a string of hit tunes, including “Sister Christian,” “Don’t Tell Me You Love Me,” “When You Close Your Eyes” and “Sing Me Away, ” among many others. Their recording efforts have resulted in more than 17 million albums sold and more than 3,000 live performances. They’ll add another live performance when they stop by the State Theatre in Easton, Pennsylvania, Saturday, Nov. 25.
Night Ranger’s latest album is Don’t Let Up, featuring the single “Somehow Someway.” Other tunes include “Running out of Time,” “Won’t Be Your Fool Again” and “Nothing Left of Yesterday.”
“We’re in this thing to give the audience what they want, but in the same respect, at this stage of the game, we don’t have to prove anything to anyone anymore,” Blades said. “We just get out there and just thrown down, have fun, just goof off. … It’s whatever we want to do, and I think in a lot of respects, because of the years we’ve been doing it, it’s given us a lot more freedom.”
The name Night Ranger only came after the members of the band realized another group had already beat them to the one-word name Ranger. Thankfully, there was a backup plan thanks to Blades’ song on Dawn Patrol. It was simply titled “Night Ranger,” and that additional word set them apart 35 years ago.
“Well, originally we were called Ranger, and, in fact, our record company printed up 10,000 album covers that said Ranger,” Blades said. “Two weeks before we were going to release our record, in Billboard magazine, which is a music magazine, there was this full-page ad for this band called the Rangers. It was like, I don’t know, some country band from Kentucky or something or somewhere, and they had the name for years. … We said, oh boy, we’re screwed.”
He added: “I called up all the guys, and I said, ‘Look, man, let’s just add ‘Night’ above the ‘Ranger,’ exactly the way ‘Ranger’ was written. … And we’ll just call ourselves Night Ranger.’ Kelly was like, ‘That’s horrible. What are we going to do?’ Brad was like, ‘Do you think so? No, it’ll be fine. It’ll be fine.’ So I’m kind of like, ‘It’ll be great. It’ll be great.’ Then I’d hang up the phone, going this is the worst. This is the worst thing, and so we went with that. And the rest is history.”
Blades believes that, as the decades have rolled by, he has become a better songwriter. The successful touring and recording have given him the chance to become freer with his lyrics and playing.
“You can speak from your soul,” he said. “I think the band evolved in songwriting, and I personally evolved as a songwriter. … I think it still holds true to the tradition of what Night Ranger was then and is right now. I think that holds true.”
When making a Night Ranger album, each of the bandmates joins in on the creative process. It’s more of a democracy than a dictatorship. Blades called the recording sessions “lyrical adventures” that find everyone putting their best work into a large pot. They stir up the contents and spit out the best that they have to offer.
“We’ve always sort of been two lead guitar players, two lead singers,” he said. “We’ve always held true to that, and with singing, it’s been easy. Certain songs work really well for Kelly, and certain songs work really well for me. I’ll write a song and go, ‘Kelly, you should sing this one.’ He’ll come up with an idea and go, ‘Jack, this is straight up your alley.’ It’s the same way with the solos and everything.”
By John Soltes / Publisher / John@HollywoodSoapbox.com
Night Ranger will play Saturday, Nov. 25 at the State Theatre in Easton, Pennsylvania. Other tour dates include stops in Indiana, Michigan, Iowa, Maryland, New Jersey and Ohio, among others. Click here for more information and tickets.
