Interview: Jetboy
Jetboy is one of the most interesting bands of the 80s hard rock scene. While the Sunset Strip was teeming with hopefuls from Iowa hoping to be the next Poison or Mötley Crüe, Jetboy came roaring out of San Francisco. Their music was much heavier, closer to punk rock and the sleaze of Hanoi Rocks than the theatrics of Van Halen. Although the band was talented, they were derailed by the death of original bassist Todd Crew and record company mismanagement. They were ahead of their time, and fans didn’t know how to react. Two decades after their major label debut, Jetboy has completely reformed, and is ready to reclaim their place in the pantheon of hard rock. The core of Jetboy remains, frontman Mickey Finn and guitarists Billy Rowe and Fernie Rod. They are joined by a new rythym section, bassist Michael Butler and drummer Doug Hovan. I sat down with Jetboy prior to their set at the M3 Rock Fest to discuss their songwriting process, the heavier sound of Bay Area bands and touring with Stryper. Check them out on Myspace: myspace.com/jetboyrocks
How are you guys doing? What are you up to?
Mickey Finn: We’re working on a new record. We’ve got about 11 new songs and we’re going to play about three new ones today.
Michael Butler: Four new ones.
Fernie Rod: Are we doing “Dying Inside?”
MB: Yeah.
FR: So we’re going to do four new ones for ya. How’s that?
Cool. So this will be your first new record in how long?
MF: Since ’90. Damned Nation came out in 1990. There have been a few compilations since then, but this is the first new record in a while.
What’s your songwriting process like?
MF: We usually start out with acoustics, write a few licks and then I’ll write some vocals. Then we’ll work in Garage Band a bit, get some basic ideas down. We hadn’t written together in about 17 years.
Billy Rowe: Usually Fern and I will sit down and write the music together and then he’ll come up with the lyrics, but this time Mickey had lyrics written. So we basically just traded riffs with each other like “What about this riff? What about this riff? What about this riff?”
Who are your influences?
FR: That’s a big question. A key band was Hanoi Rocks. They were really influential, and then (bassist) Sami (Yaffa) ended up in the band. That made it much more special. We all listen to so many different types of music. Mick is a huge punk rock fan, so he brought that to the band. But it all comes down to the classic rock bands. AC/DC was a huge inspiration. Aerosmith was a huge inspiration as well.
What inspired you guys to get back together after all these years?
MF: The scene. The scene started to come up again and we started working with Cleopatra Records, who wanted to release some of our stuff. We started hearing a buzz about this style of music coming back, this ‘80s, ‘90s rock. We thought “If people want to hear it, then we’re going to play because we never wanted it to go away in the first place.”
This is the ten year anniversary of the first really big ‘80s rock nostalgia tour, which featured Poison, RATT, L.A. Guns and Great White. Ten years later there are festivals like the M3 Rock Fest all over the country. Did you ever think the scene would blow up again like it has?
MF: Never. In retrospect it kind of makes sense though, because everyone involved in the scene is older now. They aren’t interested in the new bands coming out. They want bands like AC/DC and Aerosmith and stuff like that. So it makes sense if they can’t find new bands doing this type of music, the old bands start popping out of the woodwork. This band’s reuniting, that band’s reuniting. Everyone’s reuniting.
You guys are from the Bay Area, but most of the glam bands are from L.A. I’ve noticed that the glam bands from San Francisco have a heavier sound. Why do you think that is?
MF: I think the bands from the Bay Area have a more underground vibe. When we hit L.A., we were all listening to the New York Dolls and Guns n’ Roses when everyone in L.A. was still trying to be Van Halen. So we came from two different schools and merged into this whole glam rock/hair metal thing. San Francisco has deep roots in blues and punk rock too, so that could be why bands from the Bay Area are heavier.
There is a major punk rock influence in your music. It must have been hard to break through, especially in 1989.
MF: Yeah, I don’t think people were as ready for what we were doing back then, which is why I think we have a better shot today. I think most people have heard of us, but might not have heard a lot of our music. I think they will be more receptive to our new music because of that. Anything goes in rock n’ roll today. I was flipping through the channels the other day and saw a new country band. The bass player had a Mohawk and was wearing a kilt. I was like “That’s it! I’ve seen it all now (laughs).”
Let’s go back a little bit. Right before you guys were about to break, your original bassist, Todd Crew, passed away. Did his death hinder your success?
MF: It definitely buckled us. At that time we had a lot of record company people, managers and A&R people pulling and tugging at us. They were telling us “You guys are going to be this, you guys are going to be that, going to be huge.” We were really young and we really felt the weight of it.
You guys were really into drugs though right?
MF: We were, but we kept our feet on the ground. He was one of those people that was reckless and some people don’t do well with that kind of stuff. He had an addictive personality and we knew that was going to happen to him.
BR: It was one of those things where there was nothing that we could do, you know? We tried to send him to rehab, we tried to get his parents involved, we tried to get everyone involved, but he was going to do what he was going to do.
How did you guys get involved with Sami Yaffa from Hanoi Rocks?
BR: We pretty much just contacted him. Todd was still in the band when we asked Sami to join the band. That was a really difficult time for us because we knew he was holding us back. We tried to help him, but we had to let him go. That was the hardest thing for all of us, the way it went down. We had to do what was best for the band, and that’s what we did.
It’s kind of ironic because now Jetboy and Hanoi are considered the missing links of the entire genre.
FR: Yeah, I guess we’re missing links. I mean you found us. But we’re still a little bit under the radar.
Back in the day, you guys toured with Stryper. What was that like and how did you get on that tour?
BR: (laughs) I don’t know how we got on that tour, but it was funny. It was an available tour and they had a big album out at the time. It was cool though, because we were playing for 3,000 people a night and it got us out there.
MF: They were total hypocrites dude.
So the stories are true?
MF: Oh yeah. They’d be walking around with six packs, always with some girl. Then the next week they’d have their wife on tour with them and would be pushing a baby stroller.
What would be your ideal tour?
MF: AC/DC!
BR: Aerosmith. Either of those bands would be wonderful.
FR: If the Stones ever tour again, I wouldn’t complain about that either.
Are you guys planning to tour?
MF: Oh yeah. We decided not to book a bunch of shows this summer because we wanted to concentrate on writing. The band is back together though. We’re not necessarily riding the nostalgia train or the 80s rock train. We came out of that period, but the band is current. The idea is to move forward with the roots that we have in that great period.
So you’re still going to play “Feel the Shake,” but you have new stuff.
MF: Definitely.
BR: That song is timeless. Rock n’ roll is timeless.
