I didnt have that under my belt. Interview by Howie Klein, BAM, 16 February 1979 SAN FRANCISCO - Within the world of rock and roll there are certain performers whose distinctive virtuosity transcend their individual works recorded with a particular . Almost exactly like the panic I felt before I got into the band, Journey. But they didnt have any quote hit records, and werent on the radio much. **. I had that group The Aynsley Dunbar Retaliation] for about three years, and we built a following around the country. But I don't think there are too many people in San Francisco that I want teaching me. If I had started two years earlier, I would have gone out and taken lessons, but by this time, I was too shy and I didn't feel confident. Theyre all great. About Bad Boys 87 Evolutions Version Song. Now, I'm using two 20" bass drums, 10", 12" and 14" power toms on top of the kit, 16" and 18" floor toms, and an 8 x 14 wood-shell snare drum, which is really a good,.sounding drum. Wikipedia estates the following in part about Dunbar (with slight edits): Aynsley Thomas Dunbar (born 10 January 1946) is an English drummer. I didnt do that. Fine. AD: No, I haven't. Lou had called a day off, so I was going to go, but when Lou found out about it, he called a recording session for that night. Everything has to go through lawyers and management. It was a real great experience. The next show is sold out. **. They don't understand it. AD: I picked up a feel for it by watching drummers, looking in books and practicing it. For about six months, I worked with just a snare drum. There was several medical, non-surgical choices, and I tried all of those. So you were always opposed to that stuff? . Use of this site constitutes acceptance of our User Agreement and Privacy Policy and Cookie Statement and Your California Privacy Rights. But most of the time I had a free hand. I like to do it when I'm not on the road. Everybody at the airport, man, walkin by, givin me the thumbs-up, like, Yo! I had complete confidence in the whole process. AD: Completely ad-Iib. I had that group The Aynsley Dunbar Retaliation] for about three years, and we built a following around the country. My first solo thing, I think, was maybe six, seven years later. See, if you price yourself as an average session man," you get every Tom, Dick and Harry calling you up for sessions, and I'm not into doing just anybody's session. The idea is not to go in there and try to be Mr. America; the idea is to help yourself. AD: Yeah. So I went out with Flo and Eddie, working as the opening act for Alice Cooper. Aynsley Dunbar, had quit when he and I stopped getting wages about 9 months before the album was finished, though I was still a member (unpaid) - I re-recorded some bass parts in London when John Sykes was doing some guitars, just a month or two before he left. I stood up and screamed. It was a pretty heavy situation. And Id sleep, and Id wake up, go do the gig, and the same thing would happen all over again. That doesnt feel too great to me. You became one of the biggest bands in the world. Pete is a good guy to jam with because he's a good bass player and he is capable of hearing things and moving right into them from what he was doing. To cut out the over-ring on the bass drums, I have them lined with half- inch thick foam rubber . RM: How did you decide on your particular style? So I went to Toronto and looked at the charts, and then went to London to work on Lou Reed's Berlin album. Have you considered doing any teaching? Most of the drum parts on that were written down. It was what I just said on tape. The substitute would not know the charts, would not be able to solo or ad-lib or anything else. Every time I told somebody I was writing a story about the new lead singer of Journey, Id get the same incredulous response: Steve Perrys not the lead singer of Journey anymore? Even though the piece I was writing was mostly going to be about Arnel Pineda (whose pre-Journey work can be seen here) and the present-day incarnation of the band, I knew I couldnt write anything about Journey without getting in touch with Steve Perry. But I needed to go home. And he will not allow me to have his number. Schon was like fifteen years old when he joined Santana. By that time I was actually playing rudiments better than my teacher, so all he could do was help me read music and understand it. He plays rhythm guitar and sings it for a while and we just add our parts to it. If you want to make a song a hit record, it's got to be clean, crisp, and to the point. He's on the "A Hard Road" album, along with Peter Green. Jeff Simmons was our bass player, but when he read the script of the movie, he told Frank he wouldn't do it and left. I didnt jump into that. And I just love to see them love it so much. Call it the J-Boys. Aynsley had played with Frank Zappa, Jeff Beck, David Bowie and John Mayall. Yeah, I ran right out there. But they went on to make a lot of money. I gotta get out for a while. And they said, Well, what do you mean? And I said, Thats exactly what I mean, is what Im saying. And theres been some others, that I think have just been wonderful. He started playing violin, but he later changed to drums. Thats interesting. I guess its because maybe Id found a life. I never had much chance to practice them at home. This is what I wanna do. If you're playing nice and relaxed in front of 20,000 people, they're not going to pick up any energy from that. Solo career. Remember, it took two solo albums from Neal before I did my first. The bigger the drum, the more damping you put inside it, and so you're playing less area anyway. I was using alcohol for many, many years, to numb myself. And I had always been a big fan of Jan Hammer, the keyboard player that was playing with John McLaughlin and Mahavishnu Orchestra, and was doing all the Miami Vice themes at that time, the music for the show. Dash Dunbar, 5-year-old son of legendary journeyman drummer Aynsley Dunbar, who has kept the beat for Frank Zappa, Journey, Jefferson Starship and the infamous Whitesnake, has been . I started Blue Whale, which was an 8-piece band. Yeah., He knows he wasnt the only drummer considered for the role but he was surprised when Bruce Kulick later told him that one of his heroes, Aynsley Dunbar, had been auditioned and then ruled out. The video is a one-camera move. Ask me the question again? ), blues, rock, and hard rock. RM: How much musical freedom does Zappa give his band? I think in the end we all took Herbies advice, and it ended up being great advice. The only thing is, it doesn't look like a drum kit. Yeah. Cause Id called Jon to try to put it back together. So, yeah. He could have picked Tony Bennettthe greatest voice! Now, I'm not playing with the idea filling in a lot, but If I were to go back and play with Zappa, I'd play as much now as I did then because Frank's music creates more freedom. Im _not _whining. It sounds like me, theyve said. While all of that was going on, Zappa came to town and left a message for me to talk to him. They wanted me to play note for note behind them, and I wouldn't do it. For instance, a recording studio is one of the best places to teach somebody what they should be doing and what they shouldn't. Those songs, and those tracks. Next night. Your activity looks suspicious to us. Journey made three records for Columbia with that line up. Im sure they werent sure about Robert, either, you know what I mean? They finally gave up and got me one, but by that time it was too late. I could hardly walk. Im looking at it very simply. Other times, I might just powerhouse it right through, depending on the time I have, what the audience is like, and what's going on. But when I went through Liverpool on a tour with Zappa in 1971, out of all the people I knew in Liverpool, he was the only one who actually turned up backstage to shake my hand and say how well I was playing. April 2, 2021 3:52PM EDT. Aynsley Dunbar Net Worth 2022. And their friend was kind of hovering over them with a camera. Because Id never met the singer, Id never met their drummer. Vinyl edition - The debut album by the legendary blues rock band led by ace drummer Aynsley Dunbar. All these years, its funnyI never really felt part of it. What they took out, edit-wise, was that[long pause] I gotta think about how to say this. And lo and behold, all of a sudden you started hearin Lights on the radio. Well, there was no proving to us that he could sing. And theyve really liked it. I had no desire to. They werent sure about any of it. With their 1978 breakthrough album, Infinity, some rock writers even today attempt to reduce the remarkable transformation by the San Francisco band Journey as "talented, veteran, but commercially struggling group hires world-class singer, which anybody would recognize; shortens song arrangements; and instantly becomes the biggest band in America". Otherwise we dont think that we can ever get anything on the radio. They wanted us to get on the radio. So youre not enjoined from discussing him in public? I look at people like BB King and I go, man, God bless em. And Im grateful for all of it, I wouldnt trade it for the worldbut it didnt squelch much, yknow? I was the one who really wanted to do it. But I personally thought it was dumb. The iconic singer appeared onstage with his former bandmates as they each gave speeches, but did not perform with the group later in the event. Would you saythat your style has changed over the years or is it just the difference in the music you are playing? AD: It was sort of progressive rock. Issues: Laws: Cases: Pro: Have you followed whats gone on since then, at all? That only lasted for six months, because Mayall wanted me to stop playing as much as I was, and become more of a blues drummer. I think the last show, was at the end of January, 87. So I thought about It, you know, and I went back home. After not having played on stage for several months, that was a lot of stran, but after wards I felt like I could have gone on and played some more. But I recently heard another famous jazz drummer, and I got very bored. So I decided to try drums. I wanted to play violin when I was seven, but my parents wouldn't buy me one because they thought I would just waste the time and money. Did you have to go to London? Once you've made your name, you can go into a band, say the Jefferson Starship, and people will say, "There's Aynsley Dunbar. But at the same time, the difference between a voice and fingers, or hands, is neurotic at best. "I led his band in the end, that's what happened. **. But you gotta know that Herbie built that band around Neal, and Gregg Rolie too, and then brought in Aynsley and Ross. So he and I interact the most on stage. I went down there and sat in with him, and boy, it was horrible! AD: When he's soloing, I tend to try and watch him because it's not only hearing it's also eye contact. It was a wonderful experience. I think it was in Denver, Coloradothey were opening for Emerson, Lake and Palmer at the time. "There is a place in hell reserved for women who don't support other women," she said in a new interview. We dont get along, but I love his playing. The name wasnt settled yet. Call it anything. At thec morrient, I have Ludwig Rockers underneath, Canasonics on top, and Duralines on the bass drums. And he picks Journey. I stayed with them for about six months, just to help them out because there wasn't really any band around that I could join that could take over from Zappa. RM: Do you structure your solos any particular way? He was in another band, at that point, and apparently they were getting ready to get signed, and his bass player was in an awful car crash and died. I just wanna quit. Aynsley Dunbar, Court Case No. I met him when Journey was opening up for Jeff Beck, before Steve was in the band. They wanted to get on the road, and I said Well, lets just get the video done. So we got the When You Love A Woman video doneI was packing my whole left side in ice between takes. I was kind of surprised. Sykes, is one of the co-writers of nine track's from the albums, but was later on, along with drummer Aynsley Dunbar and bassist Neil Murray, kicked out of the band. The band is getting better and better, and with everyone writing, I have more opportunities to play different feelings on songs. I drank a lot. So they put up with it for about 4 1/2 years before they told me to get out. What happened? AD: The only times we would actually play together was maybe when she would be playing vibes. He was Ringo's chauffeur and funny enough, he played bass. Would you ever be interested in doing regular studio work, such as commercials? I called Jonathan. The rock drumming GIANT turned down both Jimmy Page's offer to form Led Zeppelin and Robert Fripp's to start King Crimson from out of the ashes of Giles, Giles & Fripp; quit the original Jeff Beck. There was a time that the press, and especially Rolling Stone, decided to call usand by us I mean Foreigner, Journey, Styxthey called us faceless bands. So I decided it was time to get rid of that band arid start another one. What did you mean when you said, on that VH1 special, that youd never really felt like part of the band? Right on! So that was like a nod to Journey from my solo side. And Jon saidor Neal, I cant remember, it was so long agoOkay, well take some time off. And I said, You dont understand. Did that tension persist throughout your tenure with the band? Oh no! Oh, most certainly, I was the new kid on the block with them. And they are like paintings, cause they were painted in a different time and they sound like it, and that gives em their quality.