WHERE THE DOWN BOYS GO
Jeanne's Interview With Jerry Dixon

Despite a bad cold and a busy schedule, on October 21, Warrant's bassist Jerry Dixon took some time out from work in his studio, Dream State, to talk about the band's new album, Belly To Belly, Vol. 1, MTV, his son Grady, the Vince Neil/Warrant/Slaughter tour, and all the latest happenings of one of rocks all-time best groups, Warrant.

Jean: How are you? How's everything, in general?
Jerry Dixon: Everything's wonderful! We're getting ready to go on the road, in about a couple weeks here. Let's see, what have I been doing? We just did Jani's solo demo, in the studio...which came out really good.
J: Oh, really!?!
JD: Yeah, we just did that here. We've been really working on that for the last couple weeks, and other than that just getting ready to go on the road.
J: Do you have the starting dates and that?
JD: We start November 10, I think, in New Orleans.
J: How are Susan and Grady?
JD: Everyone's doing great, they're doing good. He's a little terror. [Laughs] He just turned three in September.
J: What does Grady say on "In The End"?
JD: He says, 'Don't take my dream', 'In the end'...He says a bunch of stuff. What else does he say? What I did with him was recorded him talking, I kind of had a script for him. Then I sampled it all, and just kind of made it loop around.
J: Any thoughts or reflections about the Vince/Warrant/Slaughter tour?
JD: It was a lot of fun! [Laughs] From what I can remember . . . It was cool, it was great. It was good to be out there with rock bands, seeing people smile again. It was like the old days! J: Do you have a favorite show from the tour, or a favorite memory?
JD: The New York shows were pretty good. [Nice brown-nosing, Jerr.-Jean] We did some, I can't remember where they were, but we got to play in front of like six, seven thousand people a night, so that was good.
J: I know one of ‘em in Michigan was huge.
JD: Yeah, it was cool. It's good to get in front of a lot of people again.
J: Any funny road stories?
JD: There was a lot of stuff going on. A couple of shows the drives were so long that none of the bands...We almost all missed the show! [Laughs] It was like, 'Good routing!'. We got there about seven o'clock when the doors were opening. The promoter was losing his hair...That happened a couple of times. There were things, you know, you can't talk about.
J: Will Danny Wagner be touring with the band?
JD: Yeah, Danny's gonna be going out with us for hopefully this whole year. Yeah, he's really good. He's gonna be doing keyboards now, and stuff...singing, and all that kind of stuff.
J: He's a real sweet guy.
JD: Yeah, he's cool. Danny-boy!!!
J: Did you see MTV's "It Came From The '80s: Metal Goes Pop"?
JD: No, I haven't seen it yet.
J: I was going to ask you about it...
JD: Nope I haven't...I really don't watch MTV shit anymore. But I'll catch it, because they keep replaying it, so.
J: All of the bands were poking fun at each other...It was bad! I was going to ask you, Joe Elliott said something and I just wanted to kill him.
JD: I heard about that. What did he say, that we ripped their sound off or something?
J: He said something to the tune of Warrant, Winger, and Slaughter all ripped off Def Leppard.
JD: I don't know where he got that from. [Laughs]
J: And Bret Michaels said that "Heaven" was an "Every Rose Has Its Thorn" rip-off.
JD: Yeah, that's pretty funny. "Heaven" happened to be written about five years before that song was ever jiggling his balls, so I don't know where he got...It should be the other way around, I guess. I don't know how he figured that one out.
J: Well, you'll have to see it.
JD: Yeah!
J: It was definitely worth seeing.
J: I've heard that MTV has expressed some interest in the band?
JD: Yeah, we got in the building. ‘Got to go down and kind of play the record and let everybody know what's going on with the band. I think they're becoming a little more receptive to rock n' roll again, especially after that "It Came From The '80s".-That was like the highest rated show they've had on for a long time. I think that finally got their attention, and they said, 'Oh, maybe we should play rock n' roll again'. Hopefully that will open up the doors a little bit.
J: Do you guys plan on making a video?
JD: Yeah! We're actually looking at reels and stuff right now, so. Probably in the next month or two we'll probably do a video.
J: Do you have any clue what song it'll be?
JD: Umm, either "Feels Good" or "Letter To A Friend".
J: Yeah, they're both great...I don't know if you've even seen it, but there's a commercial for the album out.
JD: On MTV?
J: Yeah, they played it on MTV.
JD: That's cool!
J: I was so shocked, I was like, 'Warrant are on MTV'!!!
JD: Yeah, we had to buy our way and pay for a commercial. [Laughs]
J: What bands are you listening to lately?
JD: Oh boy, I like that Dishwalla CD. I like that...That's about all I've really bought lately. [Laughs] I really don't get a chance to listen to too much, or I just listen to what's on the radio. 'Cause I'm always in the studio doing something, so. Last thing I want to do is go home and listen to more music! Plus, I think that keeps your ideas fresh, you don't get influenced by too much other stuff.
J: As far as what you've heard on the radio, are there any bands that you've heard that you think you might like?
JD: Let's see, gosh, I like the new Soundgarden. I think that's pretty good. I really haven't listened to anything, to tell you the truth. [Laughs] I won't lie to you! I wish I could say I was more in tune.
J: So how are things with the studio? [Jerry co-owns a recording and rehearsal studio in L.A., called ‘Dream State'.]
JD: The studio's going great! We've had, Bob Kulick's been coming in here, and Gary Hoey is producing a project here. We just had another producer, Chris Furman, did Almighty Ultrasound and Cracker, he's been working out of here. So, it's going...it's starting to catch on.
J: What have you produced lately?
JD: I just did Jani's thing. That was the latest thing I've done, and I did a band called "Sick" from Denver in the last couple of months. I'm getting ready to bring them back in the studio, so. That' s about really it. I've been engineering a lot of stuff, but not producing anything, lately. J: As far as the future of the studio, where do you see it going?
JD: I just hope it gets busy, hope it stays busy, actually. It's a cool place, you know, people seem really relaxed here. It's reasonably priced as far as studios go; people really get their money's worth. Hopefully we'll just keep making good records out of here, and it'll catch on...and get some more bands down here to work!
J: The new album, Belly To Belly, Vol. 1 was recorded at the studio....
JD: Ah-huh.
J: ...And you produced, engineered, and mixed the record....
JD: Yep, did it all. [Laughs]
J: So, it's your record.
JD: I know, I know. It was cool. It's kind of something I always wanted to do. It was funny, because we just got the gear in here to make that record, probably two days before we started. I was freakin' out going, Oh my god, this is going to be a nightmare. We didn't know if everything worked or not, it was totally under pressure. But once everything got going, it was great.
J: It's a totally great CD.
JD: You like it?
J: Yeah, I love it!
JD: Cool, thanks!
J: But, so far, the opinions are very mixed from what I'm hearing. You have people that totally love it, people that don't really like it, and then the people that it's taking a while to sink in.
JD: Yeah, I think it takes a couple listens, I think, basically.
J: What did doing so much on the record, your being involved so much, add to the record for you? JD: I just think it added a lot from everybody. It was everybody's idea of what we should sound like. It was raw, it wasn't over-produced. It was pretty much everybody just came in and we all got the sounds that we liked. Sometimes it's hard to explain it to somebody else; to go, ‘okay, I want this song to sound like that'. So, we really didn't have to explain it, we just all did it together. I think it sounds very raw, there's really nothing to hide behind on it. It's cool! We didn't do that on purpose, but we got to the point...we're like, okay this song doesn't need anything else, and we'd move on. So, it was cool. It was a good learning experience, and thank god it came out good. [Laughs] There's nobody to blame this time!
J: Do you think you guys will continue producing your own records?
JD: Yeah, I think so.
J: How come everybody got credit (for producing) except for Bobby?
JD: Well, Bobby...We really didn't...This kind of started out as me producing it with my partner, and as time went on everybody went, hey, I want producing on it. So he was the only one that didn't really step in and say, 'okay, I want to do this'. 'Cause it's a big commitment, you kind of have to be here everyday even when you're done with your parts, beginning to end. But he had a lot to do with it, he'll definitely, he'll get credit on the next record. He had a lot to do with...gotta give him credit!
J: I'm glad he's in the band.
JD: Yeah, Bobby's cool!
J: Since Bobby and Rick are the "newest" guys in the band, what do you think they've brought to the band in the new music?
JD: I think they brought a lot. You know, Bobby has a certain style of playing that is a lot different than James [Kottak] or Steve [Sweet]. He's a really technical type of player, which adds a new dimension. He's a really good song-writer, and Rick is also a real good song-writer. I think it kind of opened up the doors to kind of let the band do a lot more writing, ‘cause there was two more people to influence everything that was going on. So, I think we finally found all the right people that were going to mesh with this band. I don't know, you can probably tell the difference in the sound. [Laughs] Also, it just enhanced what we were doing before, I think.
J: Is there anything special that you want to say about Rick, 'cause I run his team?
JD: He's an asshole! [Laughs] JASPER!!! No, Rick's good. He's fuckin'...Call him 'Jasper' in there, that's his nickname.
J: Why?
JD: Just put it down there, he'll get it! [Laughs]
J: What happened with Dave White, the band's keyboard-ist?
JD: Umm, Dave just wanted to be a part of the band, like a band member. Which is really understandable, but we kind of felt that our new stuff didn't really lend itself to a lot of keyboards and really didn't need that aspect in the band. If we had a lot of stuff that had a lot of keyboards on it and piano, we would've totally made him a member of the band. Musically, we're going a different way, and there really wasn't any work for him, you know? If we would've had that in our music, a lot of keyboards, he would be in the band. But, it just kind of eliminated a keyboard from what our new stuff is. So, there wasn't anything for him to play.
J: Are you guys still on good terms?
JD: Oh yeah, he totally understands. And it wouldn't be fair for him either to put him in a band, and say, okay, there's really nothing to play on this record but you're in the band. And we didn't want him to be in the band to just play "I Saw Red", you know? It just wasn't fair, because he's a really good musician and he needs to be in a band that's gonna use that a lot more than we could.
J: He had a great voice!
JD: Yeah, that's the thing we definitely miss!
J: I'm sure you talk about all the songs everyday lately, so which ones would you like to talk about?
JD: Which ones are my favorites? Let's see, I like "Letter To A Friend," Falling Down," Indian Giver," "Feels Good," I like, "In The End's" a good song. I think the two that I'm most proud of writing-wise and production-wise are "Letter To A Friend" and "Falling Down". Those are the two kind of trippy songs that we've never touched.
J: Which songs would you say you contributed to the most?
JD: The two songs that I did the most on would be "Indian Giver" and "Feels Good".
J: Did you write lyrics or just music?
JD: Nah, just the main music for 'em.
J: Did everybody write on all the songs?
JD: Just about! There was a lot of stuff that...Everybody, yeah, we just kind of gave everybody credit because a lot of the stuff was unfinished. Some people did a lot on one song and a little bit on another song, but made it up on the third song...It was a real kind of even songwriting situation. Which we've never really done. We just all got in the same room and went, ‘let's go for it'! Kind of let everybody's guard down, and just went for it. Just gave everybody credit.
J: It was really cool; I'm glad that everybody wrote!
JD: Yeah!
J: Lyrically, as well as musically, the songs are all magnificent, and your bass playing absolutely shines.
JD: Thank you!
J: You already said some of your favorites, but are there some that have special meaning, or mean a bit more than the rest to you?
JD: To me, the whole record's kind of like a baby to me. There was a lot of new things going on, it was the first time I ever recorded and produced a record; it was a first time for Warrant that we'd all written together. So there was a lot of really personal things that was all up to the band. We didn't work with a producer and go over our songs, we didn't demo the songs like we normally do...It's hard to just pick out a couple of things, I cherish the whole thing. J: Do you have any clue what songs you'll be playing live?
JD: Live, we'll probably do "Feels Good". Which, we already play "Indian Giver". "Letter To A Friend" we're probably going to work in there, we mig>

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