DOUG TALKS TO GRAHAM BONNET about SINGING WITH RAINBOW , MSG, NEW MUSIC AND PLAYING THE TOKEN LOUNGE

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
Hither Detroit Wheels. Hello, Hey, is that Graham Bonney. Indeed, Yeah, Graham,
it's great to talk to you.

Speaker 2 (00:06):
It's Doug Codell from w l Z. Yeah good, I'm
glad we connected.

Speaker 3 (00:10):
Yeah.

Speaker 4 (00:11):
Yeah, I'm sorry about the phone thing. It's we're bewitched
by our telephones that we just, for some reason can't
get through to people.

Speaker 2 (00:19):
You know.

Speaker 4 (00:19):
It's like when we go into an elevator we pressed four,
three and nothing happens or whatever. Yeah, it's pressing buttons
that seems to mess us up. I don't know what
it is. I think we're I don't know, we have
some kind of electrical aura about it. The machine did
not work.

Speaker 1 (00:36):
Well, It's it's modern technology.

Speaker 2 (00:38):
It's supposed to always fail, you know, that's what it does.

Speaker 4 (00:41):
I don't know why that is. Oh strange, you know,
especially me. You know, I can go into an elevator
with bet for me, we're going off to the Yeah,
I'm just saying the third four and I pressed the
down button. Nothing, She'll go well out the way. Let
me do this, She'll press three, it goes. I don't
know what is with me.

Speaker 2 (01:01):
I'm going to tell you I have the same issues.
So yeah, I'm I'm right there with you.

Speaker 1 (01:07):
Graham.

Speaker 2 (01:07):
So got you coming into town here on Sunday, May
the fourth at the Token Lounge. One of the most
powerful voices in rock and roll still to this day,
Graham Bonnett.

Speaker 4 (01:20):
Thank you.

Speaker 3 (01:20):
What.

Speaker 4 (01:22):
I once went to a speech therapist, you know, when
I sometimes want to go out on the road, I
you know, check my throat out, make sure it's all okay.
And one day a speech therapist was there in my
doctor's office and she said to me, just just taught
me a minute. And she said, you know something, you
talk way too loud. And I said, well, no, this

(01:43):
is the way I always sound, and that's where my
loud boys comes from. You know, I guess.

Speaker 1 (01:48):
I'm looking at this sheet of paper here.

Speaker 2 (01:50):
It's hard to believe, but you've been doing this kind
of professionally. I'm thinking maybe it was the church choir,
but you've been singing since nineteen sixty seven. That's it's
like fifty eight going on fifty nine years. I mean,
that's a lot of that's a lot of strain on
those vocal cords. I know, I've been doing radio for
fifty years now, so you know, we're kind of in

(02:12):
the same same category here of you know, been around
and done that.

Speaker 4 (02:18):
So I say, it's the voice is something you already
have to look after else you're you're screwed, you know,
being a singer and being somebody who's on the range
or whatever, you know, and it's it happens. But you know,
I've been very lucky so far this past a few years.
I've been okay, I haven't had any problem with my throat,

(02:39):
and I've been really looking after you know, what I
put into my body as well as as well as
what comes out of my mouth. But that sounds kind
of pruved, doesn't it. But you know what I mean.
So you know, you don't drink alcohol, you don't smoke cigarettes,
and you don't drink too much coffee, which I don't
do now. I take two obviously in the morning and

(03:00):
that's it the rest of the day. I'm freaking pro
co right now, tea, you know. But it's just I've
been just very lucky with you know, my voice and
having the air feeling my body to use, you know,
the power I used. Thank you my granddad. My granddad
had lungs like a freaking you know, like me. I've
got my granddad's lungs. They're huge, so it looks his

(03:23):
body shape it was really skinny. But his body shape
was really you know, big around the chest and really
narrow around the you know, the hips, all the ways
I should say. So it was like a greyhound's body,
if you know what a greyhound's body looks like. It
was like that. In fact, one one of my friends said,
we've got to call you greyhound, you know, because I
took my shirt off.

Speaker 1 (03:43):
A oh, that's pretty good.

Speaker 4 (03:45):
I don't know where that fucking voice comes from. But
your body of the weirdest shape.

Speaker 2 (03:51):
I do want to bring up the uh you know,
your your history is incredible. I mean you've played with
some of the you know, biggest guitar players in the world,
like Richie Blackmore and Michael Schenker and Ingvay and Stevie Vai.
You know, did you did you get along with any
of those guys at all? It seems like you're in

(04:13):
the band and then out of the band, so.

Speaker 5 (04:17):
I hate them more. No, No, it's you, boss, I
did it. Yeah, I got along with them all because
it hues with the guitar player and the singer to
write the songs. You know, so absolutely. If it wasn't
for Richie, I don't think i'd be I would be
in the soholed hard rock genre. But you know, because
before that I was doing just like pop and rid
of the booze kind of things. But I knew that

(04:39):
if I won the competition for the Rainbow audition, I
would be okay because I can't change my voice.

Speaker 6 (04:47):
This is the way it is.

Speaker 5 (04:48):
And they actually found me from an old recording I
did years ago in nineteen sixty eight. And then Richie
was looking for a singer and they were playing with
tape on closing powers machine when you said DAP tapes
a consette machine, and she said, who's this? And there
was a record I made back in nineteen sixty years

(05:10):
in England. So that's how I got the job, was
through you know, a song, and I was wondering when
I got the audition. I sort of set to my manager,
I've got to listen to who Rainbow is. So I
went out and bought some albums, you know, vinyl stuff
with Ronney saying, and I just said, well, this doesn't

(05:31):
sound like me. I don't sing like this.

Speaker 4 (05:33):
You know.

Speaker 5 (05:33):
I didn't think I was right, but you know, he said,
we'll go over to It was kind of on the
border France and Switzerland. It go over there and just
do the auditions. Okay, So I went overhere my past
the audition, I guess, which was magical because I thank
the guys for getting me into the bad especially Richie.

(05:55):
And it was at the beginning of a new set
of career for me.

Speaker 1 (06:01):
So you hadn't been doing andy rock.

Speaker 2 (06:02):
You didn't even know who Rainbow was really is, is
that what you're saying, because I.

Speaker 5 (06:08):
Mean, I have no idea, no idea it was because
it sounds like, you know, the acoustic guitars and bongos
or something, right, they are Rainbow. I didn't know. But
then somebody told me that he was basically Deep Purple
and sort of ish, So I knew who Deep Purple was,

(06:29):
but I never heard of Rainbow.

Speaker 2 (06:31):
Well yeah, well Rainbow only had the one album I
think at the time with with Rannie James.

Speaker 1 (06:37):
Did you did you ever meet Ronnie James.

Speaker 5 (06:40):
Or no of them or of course yeah, Alen, Ronnie
and other friends. Oh yeah, and in fact his wife
at one point was our manager of the band's manager, Wendy.
But Ronnie obviously I talked to him a lot. We
didn't introdews together and all that kind of thing. You know,
the two singers from Rainbow who are so different but

(07:01):
kind of interesting because they were so different. And one
it was the last interview I did. It was a
long time ago that I remembers in Hollywood, were sitting
by the pool and this goal came on Interview vocal Us.
But yeah, I saw them all the time. And in fact,
we rehearsed at Ronnie and Wednesday Wednesday and Wendy's studio.

(07:25):
Yeah facility. It was an old Charlie Chaplin studio, so
you know there it was a nice big room, huge,
and so that's why I used to rehearse and when
it would come in sometimes and watch me and my
band rehearse, you know. So I saw him all the time.
Oh it's not like my you know, I should we
go out tonight, run over. Once in a while we
run out, but very rarely.

Speaker 4 (07:45):
Right.

Speaker 2 (07:46):
Well, the Down to Earth album to me, I mean
when I'm listening to it and uh and over the uh,
you know, over the years of the Rainbow music, it
doesn't sound dated still to this day. I mean, we
play more of know since you've been gone and all
night long than we do of any of the other
Rainbow tracks, because it seems like the early stuff is

(08:08):
a little dated, and the eighties stuff, you know, has
that eighties you know, sappy, you know, syrupy.

Speaker 1 (08:14):
Sound, and and and.

Speaker 2 (08:16):
Down to Earth is like down to Earth rock. So
you know, that's the one that radio is gravitated to
for so long. Now you got to be so proud
of that record in those songs, Now, don't.

Speaker 5 (08:30):
Mutch there, because I remember lonely saying to somebody when
he'd an injury, well, great as well of a pulp singer.
I don't think it really, that's quite right. I'm a singer,
not necessarily of any genre. But that record for me,
as I said, it break new ground for me. I
was like it was a new life, you know, because
I've never done that kind of music before, which was

(08:53):
basically the same vocals sound i've any Jews, but has
some classical intermos and these, you know. And I sometimes
used to say to Roger Glover, what do I do here?
He says, well, I'll give you an idea. Then you
go and go down, you know, go down to the
microphone and seeing saying something in their la or whatever,
and then we'll get some words and put some words together.

(09:15):
In fact, what's what happened was we used to do
four versions of every song on that album. So we
do it like a quick, you know whatever, cond melody
with some words that Roger written down, and then do
another one with a completely different melody and completely different
words and with out of the four, Whichie would come
in and pick, he say one and two or one

(09:36):
two or just one, you know, and he picked the
ones he fought the best. So it was a one
process because Roger will give me a vague idea of
a melody and I go in and do whatever, because
he wrote the words. So I thank him for that.
He really was a good teacher. He's a great boss payter.

Speaker 2 (09:55):
Yeah, Roger Glover of course, and also played in Deep
Purple and back and forth with with Richie blackmore Man.

Speaker 1 (10:01):
That's a great story. Well, what what's.

Speaker 2 (10:04):
Going on with with you and your band these days?

Speaker 1 (10:07):
I mean, you know, everything I've read about you, Graham.

Speaker 2 (10:11):
Says that you're always moving forward, You're always looking forward
to something new.

Speaker 1 (10:17):
So have you been working on new material? What? What?

Speaker 4 (10:22):
What?

Speaker 2 (10:22):
What do you bring to the table when you when
you when you perform.

Speaker 5 (10:27):
Yeah, well we've made three albums. We're now writing the
Grand Bonnet. Man, we have to have three albums. Have
you heard any of them?

Speaker 2 (10:35):
I have not heard any of the new stuff. No,
I have to say, I'm sorry.

Speaker 5 (10:39):
Okay, Well you've got to listen because turning about moving forward, uh,
the you know, because that the albums. The last album
we did is called a Day outum Nowhere, and you're
kind to listen to that because it's very mud astounding,
but with certain twists and turns that will remind you
of other music, all the kinds of music, you know.

(11:02):
So it's some. It was a it's a great album.
I'm really proud of it myself, like I'm proud of
down to Earth. You know, we're developing a new album
right now as I'm speaking. I've gotten two songs done
lyrically and melodically with Conrad Personae, a guitar player. But

(11:22):
it's you know, I don't I make a point of
not listening to what's trendy and what's out there on
the radio or anywhere right now and just do what
I think might be interesting. And the reviews we've had
on all our albums, all the Grand Bonnet Band albums.
I've been fucking amazing, you know. And I've talked to
people who have listened to the albums, you know, a

(11:43):
couple of years ago, and they're just freaking out. How
do you do this? How do you where those ideas
come from? Where do those words come from? You know,
and all that kind of thing. And I'm very proud
of the way I've been working. I really passed, you
know how so many years that this band's been together
about town I think. Yeah, so we're starting now on
the fourth album of the Grand Bonnie Band. But you've

(12:05):
got to listen to a Day out nowhere. That's the
last thing we did a couple of years ago.

Speaker 2 (12:11):
I will definitely do that, Graham, no question, Yeah, yeah,
thank you for the tip on that. So who is
all in your band you've had now for ten years?
Are these guys from England that you've known over the
years or somewhere.

Speaker 5 (12:26):
Over the down place? That's the problem? Where are you?

Speaker 3 (12:30):
Yeah?

Speaker 5 (12:31):
Well, Karlat is from Brazil, but he lives here. In
La Finances our drama, he's he lives here and goes
back to Wittaly sometimes it's all over the place, and
it's obviously be for me lives here than I do,
and you know, it's it's kind of sometimes difficult waiting
for combat to combat. Well, we're going on tour tomorrow

(12:54):
that we have to catch up with him in somewhere.
Our apartment we're replying to, but we have to pick
him up there on tour here. We're doing a few
days here in America, which is a big change because
the reason for me, you know, what we're doing is
because we don't play you very much. And I wish
it's a shame, because we've got a good one. We
do play here an audience that likes the stuff we do.

(13:17):
And I was saying to somebody up the other day,
our of the three albums we've made was the band
grand Body Band. People are down there singing the lyric
and I'm like, hey, how do you know that? So
people are listening to this in this country, but we're
just not playing enough. I'm can't get arrested sometimes, you know, Well.

Speaker 2 (13:35):
No, you've definitely got fans here, there's no question about that.
And if I'm not mistaken, didn't you play the Token
Lounge just prior to maybe all of the COVID. Just
before COVID happened, I thought that you had played a
pretty big sold out show at the Token Lounge there.

Speaker 1 (13:54):
Yeah, so you're back.

Speaker 2 (13:55):
And and you've got your band with you, and know
what's the set list?

Speaker 1 (14:01):
Like, I mean, how much of the old and new
do you?

Speaker 2 (14:04):
Is it hard to you know, like you say, sit
down and put that setlist together for yourself?

Speaker 5 (14:10):
Yeah, yeah, some more. I mean this this tour we're
doing right now is only very's very short's about ten
I think it's that ten shows us something, so it's
not too long. And I think this time we're gonna
change the program for the next thing we're doing, which
is like we're going to England and Spain and a
bit a bit all over the place here. So what

(14:32):
we're doing now is like some Rainbow and some Michael
Schenker and also what else do we do Alcatraz? Yes,
and of course the Ryan Bonnett bound We do a
few of the new songs, which is great. I love
doing the new songs because when I were saying to you,
is that when you see the audience thing that you go, oh,

(14:53):
somebody has heard this bloody album, you know, And that's
always happy. So it's a bit of everything. Some of
my studio stuff as all from back in the sort
of semilentis that I made that I recorded with Big
Rock Cozy and John Lord and oh god, everybody, Mickey Moody.
We made an album called why Up on some of

(15:16):
that with some you know, I had a lot of
records on my own that said did well in England especially.

Speaker 1 (15:25):
Yeah.

Speaker 2 (15:25):
No, You've worked with a lot of great people. Another
guitar player, who I see, Bob Culick, Bruce's brother or
the older brother. I guess Bob, but uh, you know,
I just I just glanced down the sheet here and
it's just like John Lord, everybody who's anybody has uh
has been a part of the musical world with you.

(15:47):
So Graham, people are excited to see you once again,
and I know they love the early stuff. But it's
always great when bands come into town and they've got
a little something new in their band pocket that they
can share with us. So yeah, and also I see
that on the bill with you is Marco Mendoza. Now

(16:09):
he's from California, but we consider him a detroitor because
he played with Ted Dugent for so many years. And
we saw him here like every single summer for like
five six years, so uh, you know, he'll get a
great reception as well as.

Speaker 5 (16:26):
Yeah, he's a great you know, he's a great person
to be you know, the double bill with because he's
stilling as in a great bass player and what happens
with his show guitar player now trying to play with him.
So it's kind of like a little bit of a family,
you know, So it's quite I love him. He's a
pretty great guy. You know, he's one of my best

(16:47):
finals knowledgists. We just have so much laptop between us
because we call Taythan seriously. You know, he's nice to
meet someone who has no ego. There's an amazing musician,
you know. Yeah, well these are those kind of people
that write spound offers and you don't you know who
I am, you know what I mean.

Speaker 2 (17:07):
Yes, So he's never been that kind of a guy,
and you know he's he's just you know, like a
hard working, hard rocking guy that gets out there and
just you know, he knows his stuff.

Speaker 1 (17:21):
There's no doubt about that. He's learned from all of
the best over the years. And I'm sure playing with
you has been just a joy to be around.

Speaker 2 (17:31):
So how long does this tour last for you? I mean,
are you going to be out there all summer? What's
the story?

Speaker 3 (17:38):
Yeah, well, we're kind of when we've done this short
tour we're doing now, I'm going to come back home.
Then I think we have a month off to do
some writing for the new album. Okay, and then we
go all over the place like.

Speaker 5 (17:53):
England and parts of Europe blah blah blah, you know,
like we do Spain and Finland, Sweden, you know, all
that is coming up. And then at the end of
the year, I think we're doing. What better me, I'll
definitely just watching through them. Just put me off. Now
we're doing some gigs in Australia. We could be oh wow, yeah,

(18:17):
so we've been. It's organizing. We're organizing that right now
as we speak.

Speaker 2 (18:21):
I've read you had success in the early days there
in Australia, so that that's great. Yeah, so that right then,
I said, I was reading that in the early in
the early seventies, you you had success in Australia.

Speaker 6 (18:36):
Yeah, I was.

Speaker 5 (18:38):
That was something that surprised me.

Speaker 6 (18:39):
You know. My manager said for me one day, we're
going to go to Australia. I said why, He said,
what you'll see, You'll see. And when we got to Australia,
we got to I'm ready be flyed to for oh Sydney,
and there was a TV show he.

Speaker 5 (18:53):
Said, he said, well, I'm bringing it here for one reason,
and I'm on this TV show.

Speaker 6 (18:58):
I had to host it.

Speaker 3 (18:59):
Believe it or not.

Speaker 5 (19:00):
It was an hour music show and I was shit scared.
I can tell you what the hell do I do here?
And so I had a crace of beer and went
on stage. I'm sitting there going, I don't know. I
heard the newstand by right to do it and it
was I don't know what he does now, but I said,
good one for you, Roddy, you know, because I know

(19:22):
him a little. He's not a friend close friender, but
I know him, and you know, I said great, Great,
And then suddenly there's a girl, a girl singer, who
came onto the stage where I was sitting and she
gave me this package. I owned it and there was
a gold album and that's the reason I went to Australia. Yeah,

(19:47):
my first first song of album and a gold single, Yeah,
which was like I couldn't believe it. I just couldn't
believe it.

Speaker 2 (19:55):
Yeah, cover version of It's all Over Now, Baby Blue
Bad Wow. Graham, it's great talking to you, and we're
all excited about having you back in the Motor City
Detroit Rock City. We love it and the most powerful
voice will be here at the Token Lounge on May
the fourth, along with Marco Mandoz, a good buddy. So uh,

(20:19):
we're excited to have you here in the Motor City.
And you know, thank you so much. I was excited
to talk to you. I haven't ever had a chance,
so uh. It's great catching up and hearing some of
these great stories about your past, but also about the
new music for the future.

Speaker 1 (20:35):
So when do you think that record will be out?
Sometime later this summer or.

Speaker 5 (20:42):
To some of the old the recent Grand Bonnet Baton stuff.
I'm set you the last time we did before this one,
I play out in nowhere and.

Speaker 2 (20:53):
It's if you like music, Yeah, I'm gonna do that,
and I'm gonna hopefully everybody listening to this we'll do
the same thing. But we appreciate the time, Graham, and
we'll see you here on Sunday, May the fourth. By
the way, we're expecting some nice weather finally in Detroit.

Speaker 1 (21:11):
So should be Sonny and seventy on on.

Speaker 2 (21:14):
On May the fourth, So all right, so may the
fourth be with you and we'll see you here in
the Motor City, all right, buddy.

Speaker 5 (21:24):
Anytime.

Speaker 2 (21:25):
Thank you Graham Bonnett from the Graham Bonnet Band, and
go to Graham bonnettofficial dot com to get all the
information and check out the new music.

Speaker 1 (21:33):
Thank you, Graham bab You're welcome.

Speaker 5 (21:36):
Thank you,