Is Keri Kelli the busiest man in hard rock? One could easily argue so. Over the past 25 years, Kelli has performed with *deep breath* Alice Cooper, Slash’s Snakepit, Adler’s Appetite, Ratt, L.A. Guns, Tuff, BulletBoys, Skid Row, Warrant, Pretty Boy Floyd, Love/Hate, and Vengeance. And those are just the bands we can remember off the top of our heads. He’s currently playing alongside shred master extraordinaire Brad Gillis in Night Ranger, who are on the verge of releasing a brand new studio album, ATBPO (And the Band Played On). We had the chance to sit down with Kelli to gain insight on his illustrious career and get the inside scoop on the latest from Night Ranger.
Greetings Keri and welcome to Defenders of the Faith!
Keri Kelli: Hey man! Thanks for having me Joe!
Thank you for coming on. I feel it would be easier to list the bands that you haven’t been in.
KK: *laughs* Yeah it could be. I’ve had a storied little career here the last 25 years, but I’m loving it. I’ve been able to play with so many great people and meet so many great friends and play great music with all of them. I’ve been jamming with Night Ranger for 7 or 8 years and love those guys. Like you said, the new record is coming. It’s all happening man!
Before we get to talking about the new Night Ranger album, I have to address the current tragic news in the metal world. That is the passing of Metal Church’s Mike Howe and Slipknot’s Joey Jordison. Did you ever cross paths or work with these musicians?
KK: Well, Joey yeah. We were friends. We toured together in Alice Cooper. He wasn’t in Alice. He was playing with Rob Zombie at the time. We hung out a lot and talked about a bunch of stuff. After that, we talked about doing some other projects together. Nothing ever came to fruition on that, but yeah. It was weird. I was talking to some people yesterday when the news came down about Joey. I had sent him a message about a month or so ago because we were in his town and I never heard back from him. I don’t know why and I don’t know really what happened, but it’s a tragedy. He was a great guy and great to me. I’m totally bummed.
I’m really sorry for your loss.
KK: Thank you.
On to a lighter note, we are now a week away from the release of the new Night Ranger album. Was this an album that was being worked on and would’ve been released earlier had it not been for the pandemic?
KK: Yeah, for sure I think it would’ve been done before. We actually started working on the record right when the good old COVID grabbed a hold of us. We started at the end of February and end of March. We started getting our ideas together. Everybody has a home studio these days, so we sent the song ideas around to each other. It was literally a couple weeks before everybody started shutting down. We kept working though. The first couple of months, say April and May, we didn’t really know what was going on. Nobody knew what was really going on those first couple of months. It’s like, “Is the world ending?” We didn’t do much those first few months when it was really getting a hold of us, but after that we just started trudging on and we did it. I do think the record would’ve been out earlier because we would’ve been more diligent and we’d work together instead of working separately. It took a little bit more time, but we’re all proud of the record. I think it came out incredible. Personally, I like it even better than the last record that we did about 5 years ago.
It’s funny you bring that up because in the past year and a half, a lot of bands have adapted to recording remotely and putting everything together in their home studios. Having seen you guys live as many times as I have, I get the sense that the band is a very collaborative effort and that you need to be in a room together.
KK: That’s typically how it’s done *laughs*. Like you said, for this band, absolutely collaboration is where it all comes together. Of course, because what happened the last year and a half, we had to do what we had to do. Only Jack (Blades) and I got together on the record. I went up to Jack’s house and studio in November around the time of the election, that first week in November. He and I really got all the ideas together in song form. He guides the ship, so it was how he wanted them so the other guys could cut their master tracks to it. He and I got that together and then sent it out to the guys. Everybody started just going nuts adding their own parts. It did take more time in the mixing stage to put the jigsaw puzzle together, because everybody was just playing parts all over the place, whatever they thought was cool, which I thought was neat idea. You don’t have somebody going, “Oh, hey dude. Don’t play that. That ain’t cool.” People were really doing their own thing which was interesting, but at the end, you had parts fucking everywhere. Like I said, the mixing was a bit of a jigsaw puzzle, but the outcome was awesome.
The band has dropped three singles ahead of this album’s release. I’d like to touch on all three, the first being “Breakout”. This cut is an all out old school metal assault which features jaw dropping guitar work from yourself and Brad Gillis. Could you give us some background on how this absolute banger came to be?
KK: Brad came in with the idea initially. After that, Jack worked on the arrangement and we all just added to it. Brad and I did the dual harmonies all over the place, which is a Night Ranger tradition. Then we did our duel guitar solos: He plays, I play, he plays. Jack did an incredible job. The vocal that Jack did on that rivals anything he did back on those 80s albums. He’s just slamming on the vocals. I think it’s an incredible leadoff track that really kicks you in the ass. We’re playing it live now too, which is rad.
Now you guys have to come out to the Chicago area so I can hear it!
KK: We’ll be coming man! We’ve got a lot of shows this year. When we hit your area, we’d love to hook up with you.
Awesome. The second single is the upbeat “Bring It Home to Me” which is accompanied by a lighthearted video of the band playing among old wrecked cars. Who’s idea was this?
KK: *laughs* It was actually our photographer’s idea. We were doing our photo shoots out here at the Salton Sea in California. It was like an old resort which back in the 50s and 60s. The Rat Pack tried to make into a retreat because it’s only about 45 minutes south of Palm Springs, but they changed the route of the Colorado River and the sea got all dried up. Now it’s an abandoned town, as you can see in the video. We were doing the photo shoot out there because there’s interesting places to shoot and I guess they said, “Hell, we’re already out here. Let’s do the videos too.” I think they came out awesome. They’re kind of weird and cool. The area’s really eclectic and kooky.
Our photographer is a buddy of mine that I’ve known since we were kids. He actually plays in this band called Lit. They’re from Orange County and I’m from Orange County. I’ve known all those guys since we were teenagers, but their bass player, Kevin Baldes, does incredible photos. When we were getting ready to do the photo shoot, I told Jack and the guys, “Dude, Kevin my boy is awesome! He’s done Eddie Van Halen and all these great guys.” They go, “Send us over some pictures that he’s done.” So Kevin sent me some and I sent some to the guys. “These photos look awesome! This guy is great!” “Alright, cool.” That was how Kevin came about and he suggested that area, which lead to doing the videos there.
The latest single is entitled “Can’t Afford a Hero”. Just as “Breakout” carries on the twin guitar tradition, this song carries on the ballad tradition. What are some of your favorite Night Ranger ballads?
KK: Oh man. The catalog is so deep. There’s a couple that we play live. “Let Him Run”, we play that occasionally. I think it’s a great song. The other one is “Goodbye”. It’s incredibly great, perfectly written song by Jack. It was about his brother. Another one, it’s not Night Ranger, but we play it live, is “High Enough” by Damn Yankees. Jack knows how to do it. He’s a great songwriter. “Hero” stays in that tradition. It is Night Ranger. The lyric is there. The message is there, but then you’ve got all the cool musical elements as well. I love the cut. I want to play that one live. I hope the guys want to, so we’ll see.
That’s a great segue into the next question. Can we expect the band to incorporate songs from this album into the setlist upon its release?
KK: What we’ve done in the past, with the last record and even the previous album when I just started playing with them, usually there’s two or three songs that we get in there and rotate around because we want to play them. We want to play them for the people and for ourselves to have some fun. That’s the thing that I think this band does so great is that we like to play together. We all are friends. You’ve heard the stories with other bands that “This guy doesn’t like that guy.” and all that bullshit. We like to play together. We want to play. We have fun when we’re playing live and making records. Instead of just resting on “Oh, the people only want to hear our first and second record.” like a lot of these heritage or legacy bands do these days, these guys still want to create and make new music, make new art, which I think is rad. Incorporating new songs into the set is essential and we’ll do it for sure.
You make a great point about some of these 70s and 80s bands, and understandably so in some cases. They want to play the hits and sometimes the fans just want to hear the hits. With Night Ranger, you’re able to do that new material and the fans can’t even tell the difference because it’s that strong.
KK: I’m totally with you. Back to the note of old school bands still creating music, you could even hearken back to The Rolling Stones. They don’t make records every 2 or 3 years necessarily, but 60 years later, these dudes are still putting fucking records out! It’s amazing! That’s the blueprint, in my opinion. I tell Jack, we could just follow The Stones.
It’s a great model to follow.
KK: Absolutely and shit, they’re going on tour at the end of the year. That’s amazing. We listen to a lot of Rolling Stones before the show. I’m always putting on their stuff. We love those goes.
Isn’t next year going to be their 60th anniversary?
KK: Yeah it’s incredible. And they’re still out there hitting it. Of course, the way that they travel is incredible *laughs* which is great. But to still keep doing it 60 years later, putting out records and hitting the road, it’s a testament.
Are there any Night Ranger songs that you personally find challenging to play live?
KK: The guitar work is excellent, as we know. That is one of the foundations that they were built on, as we touched on. The twin guitars, the killer solos. When I was first learning the stuff 8 years ago, some of it was hard. Obviously songs like “Eddie’s Comin’ Out Tonight” and “Don’t Tell Me You Love Me”, but now after playing it for so many years, it’s ingrained in my brain. Brad and Jeff (Watson) back in the day, those guys were incredible players. It’s awesome to be able to play that stuff with Brad. Sometimes guitars are simple or blues type stuff. It’s neat to be able to play this really rad guitar stuff. I love it.
While on the topic of live shows, I have to bring up one that I feel is one of the greatest I ever saw. That would be the first night you guys did both Dawn Patrol and Midnight Madness in their entirety, at the Genesee Theatre in Waukegan, Illinois. How did that show come about and what was the buildup like?
KK: *laughs* I can’t remember exactly when we did that show, but it was an anniversary thing and we started talking about the idea that a lot of these bands do the first album or this album in their entirety and things like that. I don’t know who came up with the grand idea to do the two albums, but somebody did. Some of those songs the guys had never even played! The month before, everybody was woodshedding this stuff. We really didn’t have much time to rehearse to be honest. We would do a song or two at soundchecks the previous weeks before. So we’d go, “Hey, let’s work on these two songs today and then tomorrow let’s work on these two song.” Then the next week we’d work on this one and that one. We were under the gun, but we did it. We pulled it off. It’s awesome to be able to do those double album shows. I think we’ve probably done about 20 of them. That’s what we did last time we went to Japan. We did 6 shows over there and they were all double record shows. But like I said, some of those songs those guys never played live, so it was cool and fun for them as well.
As a fan, it was such a trip to hear those songs live and the stories behind it, and for the first time ever no less.
KK: That’s rad man. I’m glad you were there!
Going back to this record, which gear did you use to record?
KK: To be honest with you, I just used my Les Paul that I have here in my studio. It’s a ’78 Tobacco. Then I played through my Blackstar heads into Pro Tools and that was about it. It’s as simple as it can be. That’s the one thing about Night Ranger as well. I like bands that use a lot of effects or different vibes or things like that, but Night Ranger is pretty straight ahead. It’s basically plug in, turn it up to 10, and start recording. Pretty simple.
Have you ever considered doing a solo album? If so, would it be instrumental or a band effort?
KK: People have asked me that over the years many times. I’ve never really thought about it because I have fun playing with a bunch of different guys in bands and the projects I’ve been involved in. I don’t know. I have a lot of material. I have many, many, many a song sitting around from different co-writes I’ve done. I was always the guy in the old days that had the studio. One guy in the band back 30 or 35 years ago would have the four track recorder, and then you got an eight track recorder, and now everybody has Pro Tools, but I was the one with the studio. I just have tons and tons of songs laying around. I could probably put a solo record together pretty easily with all these things sitting around. Now that you’ve brought that up, maybe I’ll brush off some of those old songs and make it happen.
About a decade ago, you spent quite a few years in Alice Cooper’s band. What are some of your favorite memories of working with Alice?
KK: Alice is awesome, as everybody knows. It’s like a broken record when people talk about him. He’s one of the greatest guys and obviously a living legend for rock n’ roll music. His catalog is incredible. The first time we…it wasn’t even a rehearsal. We did a jam at a studio and Alice didn’t even sing. He was just hanging out. It was at this studio called Mates in LA. A lot of people rehearse there. Then I rehearsed with the band only. Alice left and went back home. We rehearsed for only a day and a half and Alice is a 2 hour show. There really wasn’t much rehearsal. Then we flew to Canada to start the tour. I had known Alice before. There was a time in 2000 or 2001 when they flew me out because something was happening on the tour where somebody might have to fly home, so I was waiting in the wings. So I had known Alice and a lot of those guys from 20 years ago, but I had never played the Alice Cooper show in its entirety with Alice or even the guys in the band. We never really ran it down. It was only a day and a half rehearsal where we played some songs and messed around. It was just the weirdest experience. We’re playing in front of 3,000 people, doing the whole show, and I had never even played with Alice personally. There we were and we did it. It was awesome. That was a fun experience.
The other cool thing about Alice is that he’s a global act. It’s like when I played with Slash as well. He’s known all over the globe, so every year we’d get a chance to go to Europe or South America or Japan. That’s always fun to do. It’s great to play in the States and Canada and places like that, but it’s a treat to be able to go all across the planet every year. It was a treat with both those guys, Alice and Slash.
You also co-wrote a handful of tracks with Alice on the Along Came a Spider album. What’s it like writing with Alice?
KK: It’s kind of the same as Night Ranger in a way. They said, “Hey, we’re gonna do a record.”, so everybody started putting their musical ideas together. Then we’d give them to Alice and he’d say, “I like that one. Let’s work on that.” When we were doing those songs, we did them with Chuck (Garric) the bass player. He has a voice-over studio in LA. Once Alice picked out the musical ideas that he liked, we went over to Chuck’s place and started dialing them in tighter and tighter. Alice would sit there and right lyrics. He’d go, “Hey, let me go in there. I’ve got a part.” I was engineering the whole thing. Then he’d cut his vocal ideas. “Hey man, let’s put a little harmony on that part or let’s do this.” It was an awesome experience and it was so organic. It was very easy and very fast. We cut the demo for “Killed by Love” in maybe an hour or so. It was basically done. So yeah, very quick, very organic, and very easy.
Finally, what are your plans moving forward, whether it be with Night Ranger, A New Revenge, or any other projects?
KK: Man, I just keep rolling *laughs*. I just keep going. We got the Night Ranger record coming out next week and a lot of shows this year. A New Revenge is myself, James (Kottak) who was in Scorpions for 22 years, Tim “Ripper” Owens from Judas Priest, and Rudy Sarzo. Lately we’ve been playing with Phil Soussan who played with Ozzy as well. We actually worked on a few demos during the COVID pandemic. We have about 5 or 6 demos for that, so maybe next year there might be a new record with A New Revenge. Not only am I busy with Night Ranger and A New Revenge, but I have a couple craft beer restaurants in Las Vegas as well. It’s called Aces and Ales. We’ve got 2 of those. I’ve been doing that for 12 years and we’re building a third location that’s gonna have a brewery in it as well. That’s a pretty big project, so everyday there’s something happening on that. I’m always busy.
Never a dull moment.
KK: Yeah it’s like a shark. You gotta keep moving or else that’s the end of it.
The new Night Ranger album, ATBPO, comes out Friday, August 6 on Frontiers Records. For more information on Night Ranger, visit www.nightranger.com. For more information on Keri Kelli, visit www.kerikelli.com.