Jeb Wright - Classic Rock Revisited
 
Jeb Wright, as I call the guru of Classic Rock Interviewers, and the owner of the best Classic Rock E-zine on the web. Jeb started out of frustration with the way mainstream rock was getting treated as a whole, and sought out a way to ensure that people can still keep in touch with the bands that we have loved for years.
His straight forward demeanor, honesty, and knowledge of many things Classic Rock, make him a force on the internet, as well as an inspiration for me.

I caught up with Jeb on a rainy Sunday night on September 4th, and graciously he granted me a great interview. Read Below.
DB: Jeb Wright. The guru of Classic Rock Interviews. Thank you for your time to talk to me, and share some of the history of www.classicrockrevisited.com

Jeb: There is not a lot to tell. I am an old rock guitar player who loves and is addicted to the music. As the magazines of the day kept moving the classic era out I felt helpless and thought perhaps the music I loved may be getting a death sentence from mainstream media. My wife, Patty, came up with the idea to start a website. We didn’t even own a computer that was hooked up to the internet at the time and we knew nothing about what we were trying to do. She pretty much found someone to design our site and we learned the software and I learned how to write and interview people literally on the spot. I had no experience and had never even attempted anything like this. At first, it was slow. We would get 20 people a day on the site. Now we get over 300,000 different people a month that translates into literally millions of hits per month. It is a lot of hard work but it is a dream come true.

DB: When did you start up the site? What was the vision when you created it?

Jeb: We went live back in August of 1999. We learned the ropes for about the first 18 months. The vision was really to just do anything. We tried all kinds of things from writing biographies to reviewing classic albums of the past to trying to charge people to get on the site. We kept adapting for 18 months until we hit on something that worked. The initial vision as a whole is pretty much what you see right now. We didn’t want a site where people would be listening to music or downloading videos. We wanted a back to basics rock magazine like they had in the old days. It looks to me like we are starting to finally accomplish what I dreamed of many years ago. It is thrilling and a lot of fun.

DB: How many people help in keeping your site current, getting interviews etc?

Jeb: I am not sure what you mean by helping me get interviews? All interviews for the site come through me. I set them all up and I direct who will do them. I am the main contact. I have some wonderful people who do help – including a guy from the Great White North named Ryan Sparks. He does wonderful interviews. Dan Wall in an awesome reviewer of concerts and resides in California and Wendy Rae is our news desk and lives in Texas. She is also starting to do some interviews and is developing nicely for a newbie. I live in Kansas so I am centrally located. Occasionally you will see interviews from Clyde Bradley who lives back East but he is a busy guy so he is not as regular as the rest of us. We get occasional interviews sent it. We have featured interviews from Shelly Harris, rock guru Martin Popoff and Guitar World’s Joe Lalaina. But they are not part of our staff although they are all awesome people. You should look up Martin as he is Canadian and very respected in the rock community. He has several books under his belt and is a rock n’ roll walking encyclopedia. Oh, I almost forgot our newest member of Team Classic Rock Revisited, IOANNIS. This man is amazing. He writes stories on famous album covers for us and provides us with great advice all the time. He has created album covers for Blue Oyster Cult, Bon Jovi, the Allman Brothers and about a hundred others. He is not a full time member but his friendship and guidance is very much appreciated. All in all, it is basically Patty and I with some specialized help from our friends listed above. We run the business out of Kansas, deal with all industry contacts and we oversee giveaways, do administration work, run the office and everything else! Our friends like Dan, Ryan and Wendy are so valuable I can’t express how much they do for me.

DB: You have interviewed a TON of interesting people. How long did it take, to start getting these artists to take you seriously, and get back to you to do interviews?

Jeb: I drive forward 100%. Some times I piss people off. There are a few management people who don’t like me. I think we are as important to classic rock as Rolling Stone is to pop music. If a band’s management does not agree with me after all the proving of myself I have done then they can go to hell. I will win in the end because of my dedication, professionalism, honesty and vision that I keep intact at all times. So, it did not take long for me to be taken seriously by some but I am still not taken that way by others. Being an internet business is difficult because there are a ton of nuts on the web. I am not an internet person. Other than the site I basically only check out eBay, Pollstar tour dates and a couple of band sites. I don’t go for chats, message boards or making buddies on the web. I keep it to business. I think that may help me. By the way, we don’t go hunting interviews very often. 99% of what you read are management companies coming to us or publicity people wanting us to promote their artists new releases or tours. We do go out and get a few for fun that we have always wanted to talk to but by and large they come to us.

DB: If there was one interview out there that you wanted to really get, who would it be? Who is the elusive artist?

Jeb: It changes daily but the ones that are always on the list are Roger Waters, Malcolm Young or Brian Johnson of AC/DC and Robert Plant of Led Zep. Other dream interviews that are not musicians but involved in the music industry would be Sharon Osbourne, Rod Smallwood (CEO of Sanctuary Records) and Clive Davis.

DB: Who was the most stand offish/difficult person you have interviewed? I see you have had a few with Yngwie. I hear he can be rather stand-offish. Is that true?

Jeb: Yngwie gets a bad rap. He is funny as hell and he is an easy interview. If he is standoffish then he does not respect what you are doing or he thinks you don’t know your stuff. I have not had a hard time interviewing anyone. I know that sounds egotistical but it is true. Once, however, I interviewed Don Dokken and I am not even sure it was really him. He may have been hung-over, I don’t know. I stopped ten minutes into it and hung up. Fuck that shit.

DB: Who is your favorite band of all time?

Jeb: Too many to list. I love AC/DC, Blue Oyster Cult, early Aerosmith, Pink Floyd, early Rush, Triumph, Ted Nugent, Cheap Trick, Ozzy, Sabbath, early Queen, Thin Lizzy, April Wine, Def Leppard, Led Zeppelin, Van Halen with David Lee Roth, Sammy Hagar solo and Kansas. There are about a hundred others as well.

DB: Favorite Classic Canadian Rock band(s)?

Jeb: Rush from the debut through Moving Pictures. Triumph, April Wine and the Guess Who are all awesome as well. I am not a big rock nerd when it comes to a lot of others like Trooper. It is good stuff but I stick to your most famous exports.

DB: I see you have an iTunes album out. The New Road Ahead. That is a great concept. I also see, that close to my heart, you have Rik Emmett’s Blown Fuse on there. How has the reaction been to this new media release?

Jeb: The album is doing pretty good. It is not going platinum but then again we don’t have the best name recognition on there. We are hoping it will be a promotional tool for bands to promote their music. Look for more down the road. I think we are hurt by people our reader’s age not realizing how to use iTunes or not understanding how to download or burn CDs but I think as time goes on we will see this change. It would be nice if all the bands involved would send out press releases, mention it in concert and give it a bit of a push. I love the album and it actually rocks really hard. If you have not bought it then I would rather you experience it yourself and then ask me questions about it. Every song is really good and it really proves these guys are still very valid songwriters.

DB: I have noticed a new “resurgence” in rock music. The 3 chord grunge, nu metal, rap, boy band thing is ebbing away, and bands like Def Leppard, Scorpions, Priest, Maiden, and new comers like Nickelback and The Killers, The White Stripes are leaning back to the roots. I am not sure if I am right in this, but I like it.

Jeb: I don’t see it. I mean distorted guitars have remained through all of it but no one plays solos. The best classic rock music that is new can be found on labels like Sanctuary Records and smaller labels like Spitfire, Magna Carta, Big 3 and New West Records. I am sure I am forgetting some so I apologize. Bands like Lynyrd Skynyrd, Cheap Trick, Kansas, Judas Priest, Scorpions, Def Leppard and Paul Rodgers are all still making great music. You won’t see any of it on the radio. I have not jumped on the ship of Velvet Revolver and other things like that. I think the problem is the music industry. Until we get back to promoting music for art first and business second then it is all going to be fad oriented and popular music will be controlled by marketing men instead of music fans. So, I disagree. I think if rock shows a tendency to sell records this month then they will release it but if rap makes a comeback then we will see rap. I think the business of music is embarrassing on the national level. I think the joy of what we experienced in the 70’s and early 80’s is over and it will never be the same.

DB: Your interviewing style is great. Not too aggressive, but you will ask what is on your mind. How much research goes into a band before you talk to them?

Jeb: Why would I be aggressive? I don’t want to dog these people. However, if I think something sucks then I will tell them why I think so. I don’t want to be a Larry King style interviewer either where I kiss their ass. I want to promote what is new and then talk about their past triumphs and tragedies. The research I do comes mostly from a lifetime as a music lover. I know this stuff well and I either go off the cuff or write down a few basic questions – kind of like an outline. Then I go from there. I have been told my interview style is very relaxed. In fact, Gary Cherone once told me that we better start the interview soon after we chatted for fifteen minutes and I told him we were doing the interview! He laughed and told me that my style was very cool and he better watch what he said as it was too easy for him just to be having a conversation with him. So, I hear what you are saying. I am not going to say to Kevin Dubrow, “You are an asshole because you dogged those bands back in that interview in 1981.” That is not the way to do it in my book. You may get some hype and you may get some publicity but I find I can say, “How did you react when the press came after you after you did that fateful interview back in 1981?” I like to hear how people think and more importantly how they feel. Does that make sense? I guess what I am trying to say is that I think the music and the artists feelings are the most important aspects of an interview. I love music history and I like knowing what makes these people tick.

DB: Are you getting out to many shows these days? What have you seen lately?

Jeb: The best show I have been to in twenty years was the Moondance Jam in Walker, MN. www.moondancejam.com is the web site. It was totally cool. Four days in the summer with tons of bands like Whitesnake, REO Speedwagon, Journey, Tesla, Lynyrd Skynyrd, Blackfoot, Cheap Trick and even Wishbone Ash. It was awesome. I get to most of the good shows in the area. I love going backstage and saying hi to the people I interviewed and I love the VIP treatment!! I ain’t gonna lie to ya. If they didn’t provide tickets and passes then I probably would not bother going. I am becoming a snob. I am joking but I feel we have built up our business and that there is now no difference between Classic Rock Revisited www.classicrockrevisited.com and great print magazines like Classic Rock. I mean they have more resources and writers so they can do more in a month but if you look at what we do with news and interviews it is pretty impressive. I feel bad because the guys and gals who write for me have a much more difficult time. But it makes sense, people know my name and they know where I am located so getting people hooked up all across the country is just not going to happen. So please, no more emails people! I can’t get tickets for you!! I wish I could but I can’t! Again, I am just joking and I love rock fans like me so I can’t blame them for trying but I really can’t just get people backstage.

I don’t go to a ton of shows anymore myself. I probably go to 10-15 a years. I am getting to the age that fighting the crowds is tough for me. I don’t like pushing and shoving and I quit drinking years ago so being around drunks is tough. I much prefer a quite place to watch the show. But I will probably always go to awesome concerts like the Moondance Jam. It is totally a wonderful experience. I also like club dates and smaller venues where you can feel the energy of the crowd. Big arenas and sheds can be fun but I am not into the big party scene like I used to be.

DB: Lastly, any inside news/true gossip etc that we may not have heard about up here yet in the Classic Rock realms?

Jeb: Keep watching the news section as you will know about it the minute I know about it!

DB: Jeb, thank you so much for taking your time to do this. We will be getting your site linked up with ours very soon. I think it is important information you are getting out there for music fans!! Keep up the great work.

Jeb: Thank you for the compliment. I dedicate so many hours of my life to this music that it is nice when someone notices. As long as it pays the bills and people want us to be there then I plan to stick around. Classic Rock Revisited has been a dream come true. I get to be a little kid all the time. Everyday is like Christmas as review copies of cds and dvds come in the mail and to be able to talk to heroes like Joe Perry of Aerosmith or Sammy Hagar is cool and becoming friends with Frankie Banali of Quiet Riot or Van McClain of Shooting Star is just awesome. If you had told me ten years ago that I would be able to accomplish what I have accomplished I would have told you that you were insane. I am totally thankful to you and to the people who write for me and most importantly the people who read Classic Rock Revisited on a regular basis. I love them all – really I do. It sounds nuts but I really do have a special place in my heart for people who read our interviews and email in. Without them we would not exist. They are awesome. I don’t often reply back but rest assured that if you send in an email from the site I will read it and even if you bash me I will smile. I love hearing from people. To think that this site has led to me meeting my heroes and has helped me to be published in print magazines in England (Classic Rock), Spain (In Rock) and the United States (22nd Century Rock) is very rewarding. Rest assured you will hear more from us and things are only going to get bigger and better. In 2005 we featured interviews with key members of Van Halen, Black Sabbath, Aerosmith, The Rolling Stones, Def Leppard, Journey and Styx so that proves things are only getting better. Good luck to you and I hope things work out well.