DOUG Talks To ULI JON ROTH ABOUT THE UPCOMING MASSIVE TOUR & ROCKIN THE EARLY DAYS WITH THE SCORPIONS

Episode Transcript

(00:00):
Are there Detroit's Wheels dog, Yes, Hi, this is all right,
Yuli. Well, thank you somuch for checking in here. With Detroit's
Wheels. We've got Julie John Roth, guitar player extraordinaire of course, a
guitar player in the very early daysof the Scorpions, and boy, you've
got quite the tour coming into theMotor City. You'll be at the Token

(00:22):
Lounge on Sunday, April twenty first. It's going to be an early start
too, I guess six pm,because you've got a three hour extravaganza.
Yulie, tell me about this show. Yeah, I've got quite an extravaganza.
It's actually not one show, it'stwo. We're doing two shows in
the evening and that's completely different.It's a little, yeah, unusual,

(00:49):
but there's a story behind it becausethe first half of the show, which
is an intermission, the first onehalf hours, is me so with a
big screen and it's called in theEvening with Julie John Ross and I've got
the screen and I've got the orchestraon the screens. I'm playing some of

(01:11):
my more classical bits and I'm playingalso several pieces which I wrote, especially
for this for my solo tour,which was originally supposed to happen just before
COVID, So we had seventy showsbooked for North America and then thanks to

(01:34):
COVID, it got canceled. SoI'm doing so I'm bringing this show now,
but in the second half of theevening, I'm bringing my whole band
also, so then we have aone half hour full on rock show with
my early material with the Scorpions andthe Electric Sun and Jimmy and Rax,

(02:00):
you know. So that's why it'sa three hour extravaganza, and it's going
to be quite unusual, quite spreadfrom Vivaldi's Four Seasons to all on the
Watch talent in sure. Yeah,just like the way I am. I
was going to say, you know, we we would expect nothing less than

(02:24):
from and and it gets worse becausebefore that, in the late afternoon,
I'm actually holding a guitars seminoor inthe same also in the token the same
venue, you know. So bythe end of it, people will be
completely sick of my circus. Butthat's it, you know, That's what

(02:49):
I'm bringing. Well, I guessyou're going to talk a little bit about
the new book as well, rightin Search of the Alphage in the in
the first half in the evening whenJohn I'm doing a little ted talk about
the book that I wrote, whichis going to be published around the time
of the tour. It's called InSearch of the Alpha Law, and it's

(03:14):
quite a big che six hundred pluspages, a large coffee table format with
over a thousand pictures and illustrations.So I'm going to present that book on
the screen and going to introduce itto the audience and actually the story of

(03:38):
this book, and then it allties in beautifully with my music and it's
all like one big package, youknow. I love it. It really
sounds like like an excellent tour andI think people are, you know,
especially going to be very different,that's for sure. Yeah, your fans

(03:59):
are going to app lutely love this. Julie. During the guitar seminar,
I would take it that you're goingto talk about the sky guitar. Can
you tell, of course, Ihave the sky guitar with me. I've
got several different ones, you know. Can you talk to the audience here
today about your sky guitar and howyou invented this? Well, the sky

(04:25):
guitar is an instrument which I inventedmany years ago, forty years ago in
nineteen eighty two. The first onewas boke in eighty three. It's the
It's basically quite an extension from Imean from a traditional electric guitar in the

(04:54):
sense that has a much wider rangetonal range. I can on the sky
guitar, I can play as highas on the violin and as low as
on a cello, which you cannotdo on the standard electric. So it's
got much more musical register. It'sgot like six and a half octaves on

(05:17):
my seven string, whereas a standardelectric as like three and a half octaves.
So the range is one thing,but it also over the years brought
several other improvements, like it's gota very sophisticated pickup system on board which

(05:38):
is very powerful, and all singing, all dancing, it's got built in
effects and all sorts of things,you know. So Sky guitars are very
advanced guitars and very versatile guitars,and they enable me to play play violin

(06:00):
like all these four seasons and inthe same register as of violin, where
you couldn't do that. Understand thatguitar. Wanted to be able to do
that. That's why I came upwith the idea initially, Well, it
is not only a versatile for yourselfobviously, but it is a beautiful guitar,

(06:21):
and you know, I think peoplewill be excited to not only see
it, but here you demonstrate itduring your seminar. Thank you, Julie.
I went back and listened to someof the early albums from the Scorpions,
like the Tokyo tapes and especially Takenby Force, which is now like

(06:42):
one of my favorite albums. Idon't know if it was overlooked or just
you know, just not given thedo that it really deserves. But some
of the songs on there, likeburn the Sky and stuff like that that
you were a part of with theearly Scorpions. Yeah, we're playing that
one live. Oh wow, thereyou go. Thank several from that album

(07:05):
on the show. We're doing SazaSharum, We're doing Yeah, We've Burned
the Sky definitely, you know thosetwo definitely, you know, the songs
from the early days of the Scorpionsto let's just say the Black Eyed album
or the Rocky Like a Hurricane.You know, they're they're pretty similar.

(07:28):
I mean, what you were doingwith the Scorpions back then was as good
as anything they're doing today. Sowhat what made you decide to leave the
band just as everything started to cometogether. Yeah, it was just an
autistic decision. And it was actuallya pretty easy decision because I began to

(07:54):
write music, songs that came tome, music came to me that I
knew would not be suitable for theScorpions. I started writing big instrumental pieces
like Earthquake, you know, songswith more intricate structures, Electric Sun,

(08:15):
you know, sundown, and thesetracks were they were not commercial in the
sense that Scorpions was potentially commercial,you know, or downright commercial in its
own way. I knew that stuffwouldn't fit in, so I didn't even
bring it to the band, andI made the decision. I said,

(08:39):
Okay, I gotta leave if Iwant to pursue this musical path, and
that's why I did. So everybodywas pretty much on board with that.
Have you had a chance to,you know, reunite with these guys at
any time on stage or anything.Over the years, in the early two

(09:00):
thousands, there were several years wherewe played a lot of shows where I
was guesting, you know, sometimesI would support the Scorpions with my band
opening up for them and then guesting. So that was a period from two
thousand and five to twenty eleven wherethat happened. Since then, it's been

(09:22):
like more rare occasion. Well yeah, they you know, since COVID too,
and they haven't even really toured often. Yeah yeah, so Yulie,
So you're going from the Scorpions,but now your influences, or at least
your musical taste, is starting tolean more classical. Where where did that
come from? Was that something thatyou grew up with? We grew up

(09:46):
with it, And that happened whenI was around fifteen years old. I'm
a friend of mine introduced me toall these beautiful classical pieces violin concertos,
Brahms Concerto, Wendilson being Open concerto, and I started listening and I saw
another world. I started listening toChupa, I started playing the piano bah.

(10:13):
I also studied the classical guitar,and in those days, you know,
I started to really see, yeah, a different world there which I
didn't see in rock music, andit kind of attracted me enormously. And
it drew me in. And althoughI was in a successful rock band,

(10:37):
I felt, I, uh,that a calling from that, you know,
from that music, from that world, the classical world, and I
started bringing in some of these thingsinto into the rock you know. Well,
yeah, the music that you're thatyou were putting out there, your

(11:01):
classical side, is just simply stunning. I mean, you just don't expect
it. And then you know,the sky guitar, I would imagine that's
what you're using, right, thesky guitar. It's just a beautiful tone,
a beautiful sound. So yeah,you really hit on something that is
so extraordinarily different than anything else.I really got to give a tip of

(11:26):
ca you know, tip my capto you. You leave on that one,
Well, thank you so much.You know, not everybody gets it.
You know. There are some peoplewho prefer when I play this strat
like in the scooping days, butyou know, I don't want to do
that anymore. I can still playthese old songs, but I want to

(11:46):
play them slightly differently. Now.You know, I'm not the same person
that I was when I was twentyone, and and that's that, you
know. Yeah, I think that'sgreat. I think that, you know,
as you evolved, you changed alittle bit. A lot of people
don't. And I saw a quote. I saw a quote when I first
went to the internet to look upa few things to talk to you about

(12:07):
today. One of the things Isaw and I and I just, you
know, flat out loved it wasyour quote that said, too many players
play without meaning? And you know, can you expound on that just a
little bit, because boy, Imean, you're really hearing it. In
today's rock, there's just no feelto it. There's no passion in there,

(12:31):
which is why I think that,you know, the new music in
rock today is suffering. Yeah,I think so too. That's true.
Too many players play without meaning.And what that what that means in my
mind is that when you are playinga melody, there is a certain kind

(12:56):
of logic behind it which makes totheir melody, and it's a universal language
which touches people. So the bestmelodies are getting through to everybody. You
know, listen to anything like likean early Beatles melody, you know,
don't get much better than that,you know, eleanor Rigby yesterday, but

(13:22):
also some classical melodies like Nsson Dormaor certain chap pieces, and they lead,
they are so beautiful, they hitthe centerline, and virtually almost every
person can relate to that, evenif they don't like the style or whatever.
You know. But the melody now, and there's a reason for that,

(13:43):
because there are certain laws that makea great melody or make them not
a great melody. And I thinkit's an art form that has been a
little bit neglected in recent times.You know, there are a lot of
players who play some interesting legs andruns, and they have a lot of

(14:09):
dexterity. And but what I'm missingwith many as the grand line. You
know, that which for instance,a David Gilmo brings with just a few
notes, or or a Brian May, you know, the pure melody with

(14:33):
the expression. And so I findthat a lot of players suffer from the
too many notes syndrome. You know, they just play too many little intricate
notes. But the substance and thecenter line, as I call it,

(14:54):
is suffering. You know, toomany words not enough. Okay, you
can have you can write a speechand you can blah bh on having all
these clauses and grandiose sounding sentences,but when you candense it down to what
is the person actually saying. Somepeople are saying very little and they're using

(15:18):
great constructs, you know. Andthen there are some people who only use
a few words, but they reallyhave deep meaning and essence. That's That's
really what all I'm trying to say. Well, it sounds like in our
conversation here it sounded like you werepretty enamored with the sound of the Beatles

(15:43):
back in the very early days.Yes, songs were great. Yeah,
absolutely, Yeah. I grew upwith that, you know, it is
amazing and it gave me a verystrong sense of melody, harmony, and
yeah, learnt an awful lot fromthem. Tell me about the band that
you've got with you coming into townhere for this thirty date tour. I

(16:04):
mean, you're you're doing thirty dates, Hughley, that's a lot now,
you don't see tour? Is thatbig anymore? Growing? Now? It's
more and it's growing. Oh okay, Yeah, it's one and a half
months. That'll be quite a bitmore than okay, all right, But
yeah, my band, I've gotNicholas Touman on vocals and bass. He's

(16:29):
been with me since two thousand andeight, a stalwart figure in my band.
Jamie Lettle on drums, who wasrecording my who was on my Tokyo
Chaps revisited DVD. Then Corvin bonnOn on keyboards, and last but not

(16:55):
least, David Klazynski on be Chongwith me, who shares a lot of
harmony, leads and shops And that'sthat's the bad. It's my piece and
all. Well, once again,you'll be here for that three hour show
coming up at the Token Lounge inWestland on Sunday, April twenty. First,

(17:18):
I guess they're going to open upthe doors early and things are going
to get started out there around sixo'clock with some opening bands, so it'll
give you plenty of time to doyour extravaganza out there, Yulie. But
you know, it sounds like it'sgoing to be just a fantastic show with
the early stuff and your solo material, your Scorpions material, and then all

(17:38):
of the classical things that are goingto be happening along with the seminar.
My goodness, they're going to bewar out by the end of the night.
Yeah, that's a show, allright. So when people come to
my restaurant, I don't want themto complain that they're so angry afterwards.
You know, I don't like itwhen I go to the fancy restaurant and

(18:03):
they have a huge plate and thenthe microscopic something in the middle, you
know, which the chef is awfullyproud of, but which I gobble down
in a second, and then Isay, where's the rest, where's the
food? You know? And withmy concepts, people are I mean not

(18:23):
going to have that complaint. Youknow. Well, you know, you've
got a huge fan base here inDetroit, Rock City, so they are
going to be exciting. Yeah,which It's always nice at the choke and
I'm looking forward to you Do theystill have the big fish the electric Oh?
Yes, I know he died onedied. Well it's still in there.

(18:45):
Yeah, it's greener than green,but he's still Yeah. I guess
they do. Okay. Well,the Interstellar Sky Guitar World Tour twenty twenty
four rolling into the Motor City Ulat John Roth, thank you so much
for your time. I really appreciateit. Thanks for checking into Detroit's wheels.
Looking forward to it all right,Bye bye,