Blowin’ Wind w/ Randy Jackson of Zebra: “I haven’t heard anything that just knocked my socks off like the first time I heard the Beatles.”

For over 35 years, Zebra has been one of rock n’ roll’s best kept secrets.  Since I was a kid growing up in New Orleans, Zebra has been a favorite of mine creating such timeless classics as “Who’s Behind The Door?”, “Tell Me What You Want” and “Wait Until The Summer’s Gone.”  I recently had the chance to speak with Randy from his Long Island home on the day that Hurricane Irene was about to touch ground.  He was so kind to take the time to talk to me about what it was like to make videos for MTV, the secret behind Zebra’s 36 year career and what it’s like to be one of three known Randy Jacksons.  Enjoy it y’all!

Randy, thanks so much for taking the time to do this.  I know the hurricane is coming your way.  Does it look bad where you’re at?

Well, we’ll get hit pretty good.  I was just in the yard tying things down so we’ll see [laughs].

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Well hopefully all will be well.  I’m sending good thoughts your way!

Thanks.  I appreciate that.

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So I’ll start out by asking what’s going on with Zebra these days?

We’re hoping to have another record out next year.  I’ve had the material written and I was sorting through it in February.  The summer’s been really busy with solo gigs so I haven’t had a lot of time to focus on it.  Once the summer’s over I’ll get back into it and I hope to have it finished by next year.

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This is great news.  I love “IV” and it felt like you guys picked up right where you left off with “3.V”.  Why did you wait 17 years to release a follow up to 3.V?

Thanks!  Everybody was involved with so many different projects and it really wasn’t the focus for any of us until we got it finished.  We had started doing some drum tracks in 1997 and then Guy (Gelso; drums) got breast cancer and that put a damper on the whole thing.  Once he had recovered we got back into it again.  There was no record company pounding us to get it done.  I think when I was actually working on it, it actually took me about two years to get it finished.  I wasn’t rushing to get it out.  Right up the very end I was changing stuff.  Even some lyrics had changed right after it had been mixed so I went back in and re-did it.

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It must have felt really good though to get back into the studio and get that chemistry flowing after all those years.

Oh yeah.  The music is always exciting and it’s good therapy for everybody.  We enjoy it.  I think that’s why any musician gets into the business is to get the feeling of the creative juices flowing.  It’s good on the mind.

Music is great therapy for all parties involved and even more so for the fans.  Did you find that the fans were really receptive?

Oh yeah.  They liked the record and it was well received by them.  In our live show now since the record came out, other than the first record, we play more material from “IV” than we do from the other ones.  We get a lot of requests to play songs from “IV” so that’s cool.

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Zebra’s songs have always fascinated me and the older I get the more connected I find myself getting with the lyrics of these songs.  What inspires you as a writer?

I think it’s a spirituality search that I’m all about.  I’m always looking for a reason for the higher moral ground in a lot of my lyrics and questioning anything and everything.  At the same time I don’t want to be preachy to people.  I don’t have an answer.  I just have a lot of questions.  I think the unanswerable questions are the key for me and just any little insight that I can get or give to help somebody else is where I”m most creative.

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I grew up in New Orleans as a kid and a fan of Zebra, I had no idea that you guys had relocated to New York and did so before you were even signed.  When and why did you guys relocate?

We played the club scene in New Orleans for about two years but we felt like we needed to leave New Orleans in order to have a better chance at getting a record deal.  We were thinking either Los Angeles or New York.  We knew some people in New York and we came up here and started playing and made this our second base.

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At least in New York, your New Orleans accent goes over well!

[laughs] Yeah right.  That’s true.

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Obviously this was a great move for you guys but with two home bases, do you consider Zebra a New Orleans band or a New York band?

Well, Guy (Gelso; drums) was back in New Orleans by 1988 and he’s lived there ever since.  Felix (Hanneman; bass/keyboards) and I stayed in Long Island.  When people ask me where I’m from I always tell them New Orleans.  I live in Long Island but New Orleans is always going to be home.  I’ve been back there eight times this years so I go back a lot and perform down there.  I think we were always a New Orleans band although a lot of people labeled us a Long Island band simply because they didn’t  know the history of the band.

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One of things I’ve always loved about Zebra is that the overall sound is so unique.  There are so many influences in there and aside from the obvious Led Zeppelin influence, how did the sound of Zebra actually come to be what it is?

I think when we started adding keyboards early on.  That really kind of lead to what I consider to be the Zebra sound.  I was a big Moody Blues fan and we used to try and cover their stuff and mixed in with the Beatles influence, I think we were just trying to do a lot of things with just three people and adding the keyboards made that easier.  Obviously the Led Zeppelin influence is there but I don’t really consider us as heavy at times as Led Zeppelin was.

This is true but I felt Zebra could totally hold their own when it came to getting heavy.  I knew people who were just into radio rock that loved you guys yet at the same time I knew metal kids who listened to stuff like Iron Maiden and KISS who loved Zebra.  Did you ever feel that Zebra had a happy home in the hard rock/metal community?

Yeah, I mean, we always seemed to be welcomed by people who were die hard metal heads.  There is that element in Zebra that’s there although that’s not our whole thing by any stretch.  There’s a lot of different genres of music out there and there’s something that can be said about all of them.  If you’re really open minded, you can find something you like in all the different genres.  The neat thing about Zebra is that we were able to cross those borders and entice these people from the heavier genres to just enjoy our music.

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This is definitely true because even the metal band Dream Theater did a cover of “Take Your Fingers From My Hair” on their 2009 album “Black Clouds and Silver Linings.”  How did you feel about their version and have you seen a new horde of young fans because of it?

Certainly.  A lot of people who were unaware of Zebra were definitely made aware of us by Dream Theater doing that cover.  We were really flattered that they did it.  They stuck to the original version but added their own touch to it so I thought they did a great job with the song.  I really liked it.

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It was really cool to see you guys getting a nod from popular band.  Zebra never really seemed to achieve the commercial success that many of your peers did but you did manage to pick up a loyal cult following.  Do you sometimes wish you would’ve had more notoriety?

I’ve watched a lot of bands who had limited success and then exploded.  I’ve also seen some of the comments being made about how they all inevitably sold out [laughs].  If any of our records all of the sudden took off they’d be saying the same thing about us.  The bigger you are, the harder they want you to fall.  I think one of the good things about being in our position is that we know that the fans we have are loyal fans.  They’re not just people who are along for the short ride because we’d become so popular.  That’s why we’re still able to perform.  I’m making a living playing music so after 36 years I think that’s the biggest testament to Zebra right there.

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36 years is amazing but 36 years with the same line up is just as amazing in itself.  Zebra has managed to keep the same three guys since it’s inception.  It’s nearly impossible to find a band that has pulled this off.  What’s your secret?

One advantage that we had was that we didn’t get our record deal for eight years.  We already knew each other really well and we weren’t hit with going on the road or any success too early on.  I think that once you get to the five year point you pretty much know what you can expect from the other members of the band.  It’s like a marriage.  Once you can accept that the people you are involved with are a certain way and learn to deal with that, then you’re headed towards longevity.  All of us have our little personality traits, issues and things that we do or don’t want to do.  We have differences.  I think that over all that our philosophies were similar enough to keep us together.  We’re like a family.

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Zebra has a catalog of songs that you’ve been playing for 36 years and “Who’s Behind The Door” has been “the song” for you guys since it was first played.  Do you ever tire of playing that song after all these years?

No, I still enjoy it.  One thing I can say is when I look back at most of the Zebra songs, I’m proud of what we did.  For me, it was all about doing the best work we could at the time whenever it was.  Looking back on it, I have no regrets about the music.  I enjoy it.  People ask me if I get tired of playing this but I really don’t.  You can be creative and you can enhance it in each of your performances and change it up a little bit if you’re getting tired of the way it is but you’re playing for the audience so it’s kind of like an old friend.  That’s why people like the old music they grew up with.  They want to hear those songs over and over.

That’s so true because for me, a great song connects people with great memories.  I still remember being a kid and calling into WRNO (New Orleans radio station) to request “Who’s Behind The Door” on a Friday night until I was blue in the face.  There was no YouTube or anything then so if you wanted to hear a song, you had to call the DJ!

[laughs]  Man, you had to work hard to get that one.  I appreciate that.

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Speaking of YouTube and the Internet, you always seem to have stayed current with the technology as far as advancing Zebra into the future.  Do you feel that technology has done more good than bad for bands these days?

I don’t know how anyone could argue against it.  It’s the reality.  When you think about what MTV did to the music business as far as how people were getting their music, I think MTV was bigger game changer than the Internet.  Well, except for the ability to download music.  I don’t think a musician can argue that the Internet is a bad thing.  It levels the playing field.  All the bands that always complained that nobody would listen to their music, now they can get their music listened to.  All the record companies that are still signing artists are using the Internet to look for new bands.  Demos are a thing of the past.  As technology changes you have to keep up with it.  I’ve always been a tech head so it’s always been very interesting to me.

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Speaking of MTV, Zebra made some videos.

Oh yeah.  We made videos [laughs].  We made videos.

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Looking back on it now, how do you view those old Zebra videos now compared to how you looked at them back then?

I view them pretty much the same way.  I loved the videos we did for “The Bears” and “Wait Until The Summer’s Gone” from the 2nd record (No Tellin’ Lies).  “The Bears” was supposed to be a different video and we couldn’t stick to the script because of a screw up in obtaining some of the backdrops and props we needed on the day of the shoot.  Those videos I thought came out good.  “Who’s Behind The Door” and “Tell Me What You Want”, I look back on those they’re just funny [laughs].  They’re gropingly trying to portray what the song is about but not doing a great job.  There’s a lot of funny stuff in there [laughs].  At the time, who knew what we were doing?  We were just trying to make these videos.  All we really had to go by was what we had seen in the 60’s by the Beatles and stuff like that.  There wasn’t a whole lot to base what you were going to do on.  I think a lot of it’s funny but they served their purpose.  They weren’t what the band was about.  We were thrown into a position where we needed to do them in order to be in the game so we did.  They got their airplay and whatever they did or didn’t do for us [laughs].

They really are so much fun to watch because back then video was such a new medium for music.  It’s almost like they were trying to be literal with the song and artistic at the same time.

Yeah, there was definitely attempts to do that but it was always rushed.  I remember doing “Who’s Behind The Door” and I was in touch with the director and we had the script done in like 48 hours and we were shooting right after that.  There wasn’t really enough time to figure out what it was we were doing.  You can see that there was an attempt made but it wasn’t quite what it should have been [laughs].  It was funny.

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Zebra has always been known as a hard working touring band for many years.  You guys played with everyone from ZZ Top to Aerosmith.  Are there any tours or shows that stick out as particularly memorable for you?

Yeah, we toured with a lot of bands.  Especially the first three years after our first record came out.  There’s not really one band or tour that stands out but certain shows are memorable.  All the bands treated us really well.  There wasn’t a band that I remembered disliking.  They all went out of their way to help us along the way and we kept good relationships with them over the years.  I do remember a couple of shows in particular.  We weren’t on tour with them but we did open up for KISS in New Orleans and they had all the religious protesters outside protesting the show and it was a real scene [laughs].  We opened up for Journey once along with Foghat and Bryan Adams and that was in front of about 40,000 people so that was a big gig for us in New Orleans.  As far as tours go, we toured with Sammy Hagar and that was a lot fun.

Randy, I’m going to ask you a few light hearted fun questions so are ya ready?

[laughs] Sure.  Go for it!

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Does it bum you that these days the first thing people think of when they hear “Randy Jackson” is American Idol?

[laughs] No, it doesn’t bum me out.  It’s odd because most people think that this has just been going on for a couple of years but it’s been going on since 1989.  It’s just gotten ridiculous at this point [laughs].  Back in ‘88/’89 people would contact me about stuff they wanted him to do because he was playing bass for Journey at the time.  There was a lot of confusion.  There was so much confusion back then that Journey’s page on the William Morris (Journey’s agents) website listed him as “Randy Jackson – ex Zebra” [laughs].  And it wasn’t always just him.  It was also Randy Jackson from the Jackson Five [laughs].  One time my attorney got a letter from Janet Jackson’s attorney asking for permission to do his song called “One More Chance” (same title as the Zebra song but different song) on one of her records.  I mean, how fucked up is that?  Your own sister’s attorney doesn’t even know who to call and ends up calling another “Randy Jackson” about a song [laughs].

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[laughs] Man, imagine my surprise when in 1988 I was like, “Holy shit!  The lead singer from Zebra is playing in Journey?”

[laughs] Right.  It was really funny.  I remember when I was doing the China Rain record back in 1990 and I was over in Europe.  The Scorpions were recording a record there and as I’m walking through the studio their producer comes running out, looks and me and goes, “Oh, that’s Zebra.  That’s not Randy Jackson!” and I looked around and said, “Yeah I am” and he goes, “Aw, they told me Randy Jackson was here.  Oh you know!” [laughs].  I just said, “Oh I get it.  It’s one of these things” [laughs].  It’s just funny [laughs].

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Speaking of being someone else, if you could form a band with any musicians alive and/or dead, who would be in it?  You have to be in it as well.

[laughs] Hm, that’s a good one.  I’d like to be the drummer for The Beatles [laughs].  You know, Ringo had it great.  I’d love to just take his slot and just watch the other three from the back of the stage [laughs].  I’d love that gig.

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What current bands have you heard lately that has hooked you in?

You know, I should listen more but I don’t.  I remember hearing The Mars Volta and I thought that was pretty cool.  It seems like there’s not too much different going on today than what had already been done.  There’s been a lot of homogenization of different styles.  I haven’t heard anything that just knocked my socks off like the first time I heard the Beatles, the first time I heard Jimi Hendrix or the first time I heard Led Zeppelin.  The stuff that I love was the stuff that was musically intelligent.  It doesn’t necessarily have to be complicated, it just has to turn you inside emotionally.  Those kinds of things just aren’t around anymore.  There’s people screaming and people trying to be loud and just be like, “Look at me!”  That just doesn’t do it for me.  Music itself has kind of gotten watered down.

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I totally agree in that I too haven’t heard a band that has wowed me like the first time I heard KISS, Judas Priest or Iron Maiden.  I hear bands that are great and that sound like those bands but nothing has really made me feel like I did the first time I heard those classic bands.

Yeah, that’s the whole thing.  When people argue with me about that point I always just say, “Put yourself back in 1967 and Jimi Hendrix is on stage.  You’re watching this guy and then just think back 10 years from that point and pick anything that resembles this in any shape or form.  They may say that Elvis had a guitar player or mention Bill Haley so if that’s as close as you can get, that’s fine.  Then go back 20 years in 1947.  What do you have there?  Then they get it.  They understand just how big of a change was going on in music there.

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Randy, I have really enjoyed talking to you today.  As a long time fan this has been a real treat.  Thank you so much for taking the time to talk to me and good luck making it through the storm.

I’m glad we were able to do this Don!  Thank you so much.  I appreciate it.

For more on Zebra, look them up on Facebook and also at http://www.thedoor.com

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