Dead Daisies Keep Down and Dirty Hard Rock Alive

Over the past five years The Dead Daisies have been the untouchable flagbearer for down and dirty, high-octane hard rock. The band proves their mettle once again on the hard driving new album “Burn It Down,” which was released in April by Spitfire Music.

The all-star lineup features singer John Corabi (ex-Motley Crue, ex-The Scream) guitarists Doug Aldrich (ex-Whitesnake, ex-Dio) and band founder David Lowy, bassist Marco Mendoza (former Black Star Riders, Thin Lizzy, Whitesnake) and drummer Deen Castronovo (ex-Journey, ex-Ozzy Osbourne).

While each member shines individually, The Dead Daisies also work together with great chemistry. From the opening, crashing power chords of “Resurrected” to the last notes of the driving “Leave Me Alone,” the new album is a collective gut-punch of unadulterated hard rock featuring Corabi’s commanding, gritty vocals, Aldrich and Lowy’s muscular riffs and heavy grooves, and Mendoza and Castronovo’s thunderous rhythms.

The band only slows down for the perfectly crafted, southern influenced ballad, “Set Me Free.” Additional highlights include a raucous, attitude-laden cover of The Rolling Stones’ “Bitch,” the forceful “Dead and Gone,” and the steel-tipped stomp of “Rise Up” and “What Goes Around.” The special digi-pack version of “Burn It Down” features a spirited rendition of The Beatles’ “Revolution” that’s well worth the extra bucks.

The Dead Daisies have enjoyed resounding worldwide success. They recently completed a sold-out UK tour, where the band is especially wildly popular. The album tracks “Rise Up” and “Resurrected” landed on the Planet Rock UK A-List simultaneously. The Dead Daisies will play Japan and the major European festivals over the next two months before returning to America later this summer. They will perform Aug. 28 at the Highline Ballroom in New York City. For more information visit https://thedeaddaisies.com/

We recently spoke to singer John Corabi.

“Burn It Down” has a very live, immediate sound to it. Do you record together even though the band is spread throughout the country?

We do, and we record fast and I think it gives the music that urgency that comes through. Everyone’s in different parts of the world. David is back and forth between Australia and New York, Doug and Marco live in L.A., Deen is in Oregon, and I’m in Nashville. So when we get together to do a record it's really a quick process. We don’t do anything by email or file sharing. We get into a room and start writing and put our nose to the grindstone. It’s a great atmosphere. We just work long days and don’t take any days off until the record is done. We’re doing what works for us.

For the first record we wrote and recorded 17 tunes in 30 days. It was so weird because every record I’d ever done I’d had pretty close to eight months to a year to write and record. Maybe we're going back to a little old school kind of thinking when bands in the Seventies like Queen and Deep Purple would put out records all the time.

What are your thoughts on “Burn It Down”?

The one thing I absolutely love is that it’s got different moods. The last record we did we went for a balls to the wall approach. Every song was a straight-ahead kick in the teeth. I kind of missed the eclectic part of it. I think we kind of achieved that variety on this record. I love acoustic stuff and having different flavors on the record.

That’s especially true on “Set Me Free.” It’s a ballad, but not syrupy. It has a southern rock feel that reminds me a bit of Lynyrd Skynyrd.

It’s funny. Everybody hears things differently. I’ve had some people come up and say the song reminds them of Bon Jovi. I know Jon and Richie and all those guys but I don’t hear that at all. But it’s cool. That’s what music is all about. I think it’s got a little Skynyrd in there but it’s also got an R&B feel. I love that song.

The versions of “Bitch” and “Revolution” have a huge, great sound. What made the band choose to cover those songs?

I started at a young age sitting in my room trying to learn Beatles tunes. Some people may not hear it in my voice but I love The Beatles. I love hearing Paul McCartney sing, especially on “Abbey Road.” There’s a song called “Oh! Darling” and in the verses there’s this bluesy thing going but then I remember getting goose pimples when he kicks it from the verse into the bridge section where he starts getting really aggressive with his voice. When I first heard it as a kid I thought it was insane. He did it again on a song called “Golden Slumbers.” I was also one of those guys that had friends where they were either a Beatles guy or a Stones guy. I didn’t see how you couldn’t look at the greatness of both of these bands and like both. We were going through all of their stuff and seeing what would lend itself to this record. We intentionally put a cover song or two on each record. It’s our tip of the hat to the bands we grew up listening to.

To what do you attribute the band’s chemistry?

David Lowy, who started this, has made it as fun as he can for all of us. We’ve all been around long enough that we’re blessed to still be doing this. I’ve been doing this professionally for almost 40 years and it’s unusual to do it for that long and still be in the game. We’re also all older and wiser and know what to appreciate. We know when to speak up if we don’t like something. If there’s a disagreement we talk it through. We’ve learned as adult men how to talk to each other. With age comes wisdom.

The Dead Daisies have a huge global following. Did it surprise you how quick the band took off internationally?

Being a musician there's this weird thing where you go through life going, ‘I’m going to be the biggest rock star ever.’ Even still today every record we do we think, ‘this thing is going to destroy the world.’ Yet you're still surprised when it happens. We just did a run and we went to England and all through Europe and the shows were insane. America is going well also. We just got a message from management that “Rise Up” has entered the Top 40 on the Active Rock Radio charts. This thing is building and we’re really happy about it.