GUITAR GREAT JEFF PILSON TAKES TIME OUT OF HIS BUSY SCHEDULE TO TALK WITH ROCKBANDREVIEWS.COM ABOUT THE PANDEMIC, HITTING THE ROAD, AND NEW MUSIC FROM FOREIGNER & BLACK SWAN
Today I am talking with Jeff Pilson. An extraordinary guitar player in the band Foreigner, as well as playing in the bands Dokken, Dio, and appearing in the movie Rock Star as a member of Steel Dragon. Foreigner is back on the road with four tour dates in Florida starting this May. Foreigner will be in Orlando, Florida on 5/19-20 and IN Clearwater, Florida on 5/22-23. Tickets can be purchased through Ticketmaster.com
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RBR: How's it going, buddy?
Jeff: It's going great! I am anxious to get out there.
BRB: Everyone is. I know that since the lockdows began, musicians, tech guys, backline crew, roadies, etc. have been out of work and are looking or all of this to end and get back to work. What have you been doing during the dow-tiime to keep from going insane?
Jeff: Fortunately, I have a wonderful recording studio attached to my house, so I did a lot of recording, did a project called Heavy Hitters which came out in December with my good, musical soulmate George Lynch from Dokken and he and I have another project called The End Machine that came out in April, the second record for that, so I stayed busy recording in my studio a lot and then the rest of the time I spent with my family. For me, it wasn't actually that bad. I know for most people it was, but for me, it wasn't too bad.
RBR: For musicians, I think it was a blessing in disquise in the way it gave time for musicians that are touring three hundred days a year to finally have time to spend with their family and to write and record without the pressure of a time constraint.
Jeff: That is exactly right. I tried to look on the brightside and take advantage of that time.
RBR: Do you have any new material coming out, and what is happening with Black Swan?
Jeff: Black Swan, which features guitar player Reb Beach, who is the guitar player with Winger and Whitesnake, he was just out a couple of weeks ago and we wrote the first six songs for the next Black Swan record. Black Swan probably won't hit the streets until 2022. We got the first half of the record written and wea re very excited about it.
RBR: We are all very excited to finally go out and to see and hear live music again. Some of the smaller venues now are starting to do test runs with social distanced seating and such and it seerms to be working really well and I tjhink it will start to open up more owards the end of summer into 2022. What do you think?
Jeff: I think so, too. Keeping my fingers crossed and seeing all of these people being vaccinated. That's the thing, we need to get vaccinated. As long as that happens, I think that we are well on our way.
RBR: What is the latest news on Foreigner?
Jeff: Foreigner is working on new material but there is no release date for that as of yet. Just the fact that we are heading out on the road soon is gret, we'll pick up some staem from there and by the end of the year, we will be going full-tilt. It feels like we are coming back, and that is a great thing!
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ROCKBANDREVIEWS.COM 2021
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