How everything started...

[Music] The Frank McKay Show here on 1039-LI News Radio. I'd like to welcome everyone to the Frank McKay Show, Frank McKay here so much more importantly Adrian Vandenberg speaking to him from France legendary guitarist and he just gets better and better and better as the years go by. Our latest is we're going to be seeing him coming up in the name of the tour. My white snake ears, very excited about this. The date I'll be at is August 7th and I'm urging everyone to go to Sony Hall in Manhattan and for tickets and VIP packages. They got great VIP packages. Visit vandenbergband.com. Without further ado, Adrian Vandenberg, how are you? I'm good. Great for having me on the show. I'm really, really excited to play New York because I mean people who live in New York have no idea. I was hiding this for a Dutch guy to play in New York and to play in Manhattan. Man, I can't get over it. We played there on the last tour and I remember Sony Musical being a wonderful, beautiful venue. The things you have to go through for the crew to get the equipment in the place. Movie material, you know, I remember how difficult it was to get the equipment in and to for the bus to stop in the tree for a period to get the stuff out. And then to enter the beautiful venue, you know, it's going to be great. I'm really excited about it. I'm always thrilled every time I get to see you live. I've been watching you from the beginning and I remember when you broke on the scene and you're just a sensation. And I thought about it and Holland, the Netherlands, they have a lot of great bands from there. But when you came out, it wasn't a lot. And what we knew about Dutch people were the Van Halen's, right? I mean, they're California guys, but they, you know, have to touch the scent and maybe they were from there originally from the Netherlands. But before you broke out, who were you looking at? Who were you looking at as far as them succeeding worldwide? Because to me, I can't really think of anybody that comes right off the top of my head. Now, you know, first of all, when you play rock music, I mean, Eddie and Alex moved to the United States. I think Eddie was well for something and Alex was 14 or something like that. And when they moved to the States for wanting to play rock music, that was the right move, you know, because in Holland, it's really, really hard to get out of Holland. This rock band, so at the time, I didn't have the illusion that I was ever going to be able to do that until Burning Art became a big hit in the States. I was really shocked, you know, I thought, man, I'm going to tour the States and we toured with Ozzy Osborne for months playing the huge arena again for a Dutch guy that's extremely exciting. And I'm still just as excited as back then because maybe you could hear him in my tone of voice, but man playing New York, like a dream, you know, with the width and the force you play the big venues, the big arena and stuff. But I've always preferred to play smaller venues, you know, like clubs and the small theaters because the sound is better and you're closer to the crowd, so you can feel the electricity between the crowd and the band. And you can see smiles and the faces and people singing with us and it's just great, you know, it's wonderful, I feel like the luckiest masters of ours, being able to do this, you know. Also, skillful and hardworking. I'm so impressed and I've always been impressed with your career, what you've put together. This particular tour, what's your lineup and you give a shout out to your lineup? Yeah, of course, and I've got an amazing singer in the person of Martel Ezen. People may know him from his time with Inge Moms. Yeah. And a fantastic singer who really does justice to the white thing material and a killer drummer, bass player and keeper player that are, you know, like world class. So that's why I'm paying all this money to bring the band over because it's really expensive, you know, for work, permit and the flight and everything. But the crew and the band at Top Notch, we always have the best sound and I think, fuck it, you know, I only want to do it when I can do it right. So I'm bringing this band over, you know. It's really great to have Vinnie, Mark and my Dosa do their set with stuff from the years with Journey and UFO and Lizzy and all that stuff, you know. So I think we have a killer package which is like one big classic rock celebration for everybody. You're talking about a great group of folks that are going to be on that stage together, Vinnie and Marko as well and we've talked to them recently and I can't wait for this particular show. We're going to be talking about it as we let you go. Let me just ask you a little bit about what goes on before and after this tour. Is everything kind of like based around the tour? Are you recording in between? Are you writing constantly? What do you do? What's a day-to-day like for Adrian Van der Berg? Right now I'm writing for a celebratory album that comes out next year. Next year I'm going to celebrate being a professional rock musician for 50 years. Wow. I was 19. I was 19 when I started my first rock band named teaser. We got signed right away by record company put out an album and I started doing Europe. One of us was still a student at the art college. Fortunately my dad pushed me to finish the art college. He said, you know, whatever you're going to do after that I want you to be able to make a living with a solid job. So I got a, I actually worked in the art teacher at an high school for about a year when I was 20. But that gave me the confidence to keep playing the rock music that I want to play. I just didn't have the illusion that I would be able to make a living for the long and still doing it. But off of this I'm going to focus on next year which is going to be a celebration of my 50 years of rock music with a new album and a tour and a special show in Holland where I'm bringing special guests from all the years, from all the past years, you know, the past 50 years to play songs from my years in White Snake and Vanneberg and Manic Eden, the band that I've told me over it's Rudy Sarzo, Ron Young, formerly of Little Caesar and I put together in 1994 and we released a killer album at the time that didn't get the attention of course because we were in the middle of the grand period. You know, the songs that already be played from all those periods and even from the teaser period in the big show in Holland and hopefully we can bring the show to United States also, you know, but first of all, I'm going to focus on the album, I'm writing as we speak and there's going to be some very special guests on the album that people are going to love, all the phrases of my career so yeah, they're going to be quite something. Adrian, congratulations on everything. 50 years is just an amazing accomplishment. Thank you so much for being here. I'm going to see you on the seventh and we're going to be talking about the date as we let you go. Adrian Vanneberg, thanks so much for being here. Thanks for having me, man. I hope to see you in New York. We will see you there. Adrian Vanneberg, everyone, amazing guitarist and I remember when he came out, it was an immediate attention getter because Adrian Vanneberg, you know Van, you know Vanne and that guitarist, he was a guitar hero type and he was, yeah, he was 19 years old when that album first hit, Burning Love, right? And there's that what he said, that was the big hit that came out. But I remember we had, you know, newspaper and magazine, one of the other at the time, my brother and I, and we were the same age. We were the same age as him roughly. They were coming out of Holland. Of course that's where the Vanneerians were born and yeah, I mean they didn't launch from Holland at all. They moved, you know, when they were 10 and 12 years old, or 12 and 14 whatever it was and Adrian Vanneberg was, you know, he benefited greatly greatly from Vanneerian and that kind of paving that way. Even though Vanneerians and California Vanne, they was well known that these guys are from Holland. They were born in Holland and that gave them this, you know, this extra exotic notion that they were, you know, an international flavor so to speak. Even though, basically a California band. But when Vanneerberg came out, Vanneerian paved the way for Vanneerberg and he went on to have a great career with White Snake and his solo work and 50 years. 50 years as a professional musician, he's made a lot of money and made a lot of good music and a very talented guy. And he seems like a, seems like a bright guy and a down to earth guy. Every time I speak to him, he stays on message and the message this time, he's got the US tour being very blunt and being very frank, candid, you know, it's expensive to bring these guys over. Apparently it's worth it to bring it to Sony Hall in Manhattan, August 7th and they've got, you know, other dates based around it and trust me, they're not doing it unless it's making money. The same with Vinnie Moore, Marco Mendoza, you know, we'll speak to both of those guys quite often. It's going to be a good lineup, you know, package. A lot of people are going to see that style of music, that genre, that time period and, you know, you're going to hear some journey fans there and white snake fans there, of course, and UFO, good night out. August 7th, Sony Hall in Manhattan, Frank McKay signing off for tickets and VIP packages go to vandemburgband.com, Frank McKay signing off. We'll see you next time on the Frank McKay Joe.