If there’s one thing we could use this year, it’s some motivation. Stan Bush knows this better than anyone. The godfather of “motivational rock” has just released his 14th studio album, Dare to Dream. We had the honor of sitting down with the AOR legend to talk about the new album, songwriting, and how one animated movie changed his life, and millions of others, forever.
I’d like to start by congratulating you on this excellent new album, Dare to Dream.
Stan Bush: Oh thanks! I’m glad you like it.
I love it! It seems every few years we’re lucky enough to get an album from you. When did work begin on Dare to Dream?
SB: Well there were two tracks we did last year. “The 80s” was the first one. That was in the summer of 2019. We did that song and released it as a single with a music video. There was one other song I wrote towards the end of the year. The whole rest of the album was this year, so we’ve been really focusing on that, myself and my producer, writing and recording.
Dare to Dream’s opening track, “Born to Fight”, is currently being used to promote the Netflix anime series Baki and Kengan Ashura. Did Netflix commission this song or had it been written for the album?
SB: No, they actually did commission it. They reached out to me. I guess it was 3 months ago or so, in late September. It was perfect timing because there was one more song we were about to do for the new album and then we wrote that, myself and Lenny Macaluso, who co-wrote “The Touch” with me many years ago. Lenny and I have been writing for many years. Anyway, I brought him in to co-write the song with me and it came out great. My producer worked really hard and made the album sound really good. Of course, Netflix’s people were blown away with it and then we did the music video. The timing was perfect because it came out on the new album.
“Born to Fight”, “Heat of Attack”, and a couple other songs on the album have a real heavy feel to them. Have you ever considered doing a full heavy metal album?
SB: You know, I like the edgier, harder rock stuff. It’s funny. Over the years, I’ve vacillated between that and more pop stuff. But I really do like the hard and heavy stuff. It kind of gives the album rock credibility, to have songs that have more of a heavy sound. As far as straight heavy metal, I can sing that stuff, but it’s not really my cup of tea, especially the total screaming. But there’s some stuff I really like in that genre. It really depends on the song. There’s a lot of great songs that are heavy metal songs, but they have melody and interesting chord changes and things.
Well that’s the thing. I’ve noticed throughout your catalog, there’s always 2 or 3 songs per album that have that real heavy feel, but they’re still you. I’d call it melodic metal.
SB: *laughs* Well that sounds good!
Another song that really caught my attention is “The 80s”, which features the chorus, “Can’t stop this feeling of the 80s. For me the dream still lives on.” And I commend you for that. Was there ever any pressure in the 90s or 2000s, whether it was from your peers or the industry, to “modernize” your sound?
SB: That’s a good question. As you know, in the early 90s, when the grunge thing came in, the kind of 80s rock that I do just totally went away. There was almost nobody doing that kind of stuff. Most of my career was focused more on Europe and Japan because they still had that outlet for melodic rock and AOR. I was able to keep doing that, getting sales, and touring and all those kinds of things over there, so it really worked out well for me. It wasn’t until the early 2000s when there was a resurgence of that kind of music.
I did stick to my style. It’s what I am. I didn’t want to change too much. I think during the 90s I did a couple of experimental things that were more acoustic, along the lines of Don Henley. He’s one of my favorite writers and artists. But it just seemed I came back to my roots and kept doing what I did and what I do.
As the old saying goes, “If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it.”
SB: That’s right.
Unfortunately, we’ve lost many rock legends this year, including Frankie Banali of Quiet Riot. I know you co-wrote “Slave to Love” for QR III. Could you tell us a bit about that song and your memories of working with Quiet Riot?
SB: Yeah, my friend Chuck Wright…actually, we play together still. Chuck and I have an acoustic unplugged band. We play around L.A. doing Zeppelin and other stuff. But he was instrumental in that. When I first met Chuck, he was in Quiet Riot and there was a song I had called “Blinded”. He got that to the Quiet Riot folks and they wanted to do a rewrite, so they took “Blinded” and turned it into “Slave to Love”. It became a co-write with them. Instead of “You blinded me with love. Now I can’t see nothing else.”, it became “We made a slave to love. That’s what I’ll always be.” That was what precipitated that. Later, Chuck was in a band called House of Lords and they covered another one of my songs, “Love Don’t Lie”. That was a single for them as well. But anyway, both situations involved Chuck getting a song to them.
Are there any demos of Quiet Riot playing “Blinded”?
SB: Not that I know of. They probably went off my demo of the song and rewrote the lyrics. I don’t think they did “Blinded” per se, I think they just rewrote it and then recorded it.
Not long after the release of QR III, you put together Stan Bush and Barrage. How did this band come to be and what memories stand out in the making of that 1987 album?
SB: I was on Scotti Brothers/Epic. That was my second solo album. We were trying to put across more of a band image, so we went and took a band photo. That was actually taken in the parking garage of CBS Records *laughs*. We got some guys and said, “Hey, let’s do a band photo.” It was really still a solo project. We did the album at Scott Brothers Studios there in Santa Monica. The producer, Richie Wise, had worked with KISS and a bunch of other people. Richie was great. He hooked me up with writers, Lenny Macaluso for one. Lenny and I wrote “The Touch” and a couple other songs back then. “The Touch” was in the original The Transformers: The Movie. Then there were a couple other writers Richie hooked me up with.
I started growing as a writer because I was working with different people. At that time, I was doing a lot of other stuff. I was singing sessions and singing on other albums, like Alice Cooper and Jefferson Starship. I worked with the big producers and had a lot of success as a singer doing commercials and films and television and all. Back then, I did the first two Jean Claude Van Damme movies, Bloodsport and Kickboxer. That’s what was going on at that time.
Which Alice Cooper album did you sing on?
SB: I was trying to remember the name of it. It has the song “Centipede”. I just remember that song. For some reason it sticks in my head. He was at his peak. It was around the Wayne’s World time. There was some song about rattlesnakes too. He had rattlesnakes in the studio. He was recording them, in a cage of course. But I met him. He’s a nice guy. People say “Oh he’s weird.”, but he’s actually a good, regular guy who plays golf. He’s supposed to be a good golfer. I don’t play golf, so I don’t know personally, but I have heard that.
When you’re writing with other artists, whether it be Lenny Macaluso or other songwriters, do you stick to your usual formula or do you make accommodations depending on who you’re working with?
SB: Probably the latter. It varies though. Sometimes you’ll get together with somebody and either you or the other person will have a germ of an idea. Then they’ll sit down together and expand it. Sometimes you just sit down with two acoustic guitars, just start from scratch and come up with an idea. It really depends. It’s kind of all of the above. You never know what’s gonna come out. For me, it really takes a lot of concentration and time to come up with something that I feel is really good. In other words, I just can’t sit down and crank out a song in 10 minutes *laughs*. It’s one of those things that takes weeks sometimes to get the lyrics going. But a lot of times, the initial idea, maybe the chorus line or the title, will pop out.
If you could collaborate with any artist, who would it be and why?
SB: Like I said before, Don Henley is probably my favorite artist and songwriter. He’s just always been great. I don’t know him. I never really met him or anything, but I’ve met some of the other guys in The Eagles. I met Joe Walsh way back. I was always a huge fan of Joe Walsh. He’s great. I’d love to do something with him.
It’s funny because my favorite kind of stuff is the early Foreigner. I did a production deal one time with Mick Jones. It was set up through his brother. I also worked with Jonathan Cain from Journey. He’s a great songwriter. We did 3 or 4 songs after Journey broke up. Then we were maybe gonna do a band thing, but then they wound up doing Bad English instead. I wrote with Jim Vallance too. He co-wrote all those Bryan Adams hits. If you listen to his ideas melodically, it’s almost like he WAS Bryan Adams in a lot of ways *laughs*. Jim also wrote with Aerosmith. He’s good buddies with Steven Tyler.
Are there any plans to tour once this pandemic clears up?
SB: Yeah definitely. I’m definitely eager to do some shows. The last show I did was a year ago in Germany. There was a festival called H.E.A.T. Festival outside of Stuttgart. That was a cool gig. There’s a band with some guys in England that I work with. I did a couple other shows before in England with these guys and they’re great players. Anyway, I’d love to do some more stuff, and here in L.A. as well. I’m not one of these kind of guys who wants to go on the road for 6 months *laughs*. I never really did that. I kind of feel lucky in that regard. I don’t really relish the idea of going in a van and hitting the road. You come back and the dog bites you *laughs*.
I’m from Chicago and we used to have the Melodic Rock Fest. Correct me if I’m wrong, but didn’t you play that?
SB: Yeah, actually I did. It was a show in the southern Chicago area. I don’t remember what township it was, but I did one of those 6 or 7 years ago.
The only reason I asked, and I’m embarrassed to admit it, is I’ve been a fan of yours and melodic rock in general for most of my life. The problem is I’m only 21 and most of those venues were 21+. I could never get into those fests.
SB: Oh that’s too bad!
So the next time you come around, I’ll be there!
SB: Awesome!
Historically, your lyrics have always been motivational and uplifting. Do you feel some of your songs resonate even better in 2020 than they did upon their initial release?
SB: I don’t know. It’s hard to say. It kind of seems like that’s the case. 2020 has been a crazy year for one thing. Everybody’s gone through a lot of challenges this year to say the least. People say that the songs are uplifting and come at a really good time. I hope that’s the case. The uplifting message of hope goes back to “The Touch”. It started a succession of those kinds of songs. Every album I’d have 2 or 3 that have that kind of message. I believe that we create our own reality and you can really do something with your life. So much of it is your own attitude. It’s the old go for it, believe in yourself. That stuff sounds corny, but it really is true. I also feel it’s important to bring as much positivity into the world as possible. There’s a whole lot of darkness out there.
When you wrote and recorded “The Touch”, did you ever imagine that it would take on the life that it has?
SB: No I didn’t ever imagine that that would happen. Lenny and I wrote the song originally with the movie Cobra in mind. It was a Stallone movie. It ended up in the animated Transformers film instead. We were like, “What? A cartoon movie about robots?” *laughs* Little did we know. At that time, the Ninja Turtles were the big thing. But it really did turn out to be something. The Transformers became a whole thing. I go to the Transformers conventions and perform and appear and so forth. It’s very cool because a lot of these kids or younger adults…those songs in some way maybe changed their life or maybe gave them some sort of hope. I was like, “Wow. This is cool.” It wasn’t my intention to do that. I was just really happy and really humbled that I helped somebody through a tough time. What more could you do?
For more information on Stan Bush, visit www.StanBush.com