AUGUST 3rd 2021
ALCATRAZZ EXCLUSIVE

Interview By: Ruben Mosqueda

“If you liked that one [‘Born Innocent’] then you’ll like this one! We really worked hard on the new album and we had a lot of songs to choose from. We took our time making this record, because we could! We weren’t going anywhere. We made sure we spent the right amount of time on the songs. I’m proud of the songs and the performances on this record,” say Alcatrazz keyboardist and founding member Jimmy Waldo. Metal Titans caught up with Waldo on June 10th, 2021 to discuss the new era of Alcatrazz which features new vocalist Doogie White [Michael Schenker, Rainbow, Yngwie Malmsteen], who replaced frontman Graham Bonnet. There’s new music coming; currently they’ve released a video for “Turn Of The Wheel” and a ‘preview’ clip of the album. The new record is due in October and at the time we posted this interview it was still untitled. What we do know is a fall release date and will be issued once again on Silver Lining Music. Enjoy the interview.



Metal Titans: I had a direction of where I wanted to start this conversation but I woke up this morning and you released a ‘preview’ of the new Alcatrazz album.

Jimmy Waldo: Yeah we did! I’m glad you caught that!

Metal Titans: I think anyone that follows Alcatrazz is aware by this point that you and Gary [Shea] have moved forward with the band. There isn't going to be another Alcatrazz out there, right?

Jimmy Waldo: That’s correct Gary and I own the name and we will be using the name Alcatrazz.

Metal Titans: So what led to the ‘separation’ from Graham [Bonnet]?

Jimmy Waldo: [long pause] Well, during the last record, ‘Born Innocent’...there was a disagreement in musical direction or in the direction that we should take the band. It comes down to this, Graham doesn’t like this kind of music. He doesn’t prefer to do heavier music, he said that he would prefer to work on music for The Graham Bonnet Band with people that he had played with before. We tried to work things out and we were just not able to do it. Graham really wanted to do his own thing. He told people as much, in fact he was telling people that he wanted to do his own thing, even before we found out. It’s just a difference of opinion in musical direction. Graham doesn’t like heavy music, we love it and we wanted things to go in a heavier direction. It was obvious that it just wasn’t going to work. That is the long and short of it right there.

Metal Titans: I have listened to the clip for “Turn Of The Wheel” several times and as I said earlier I listened to the album preview. Would I be out of line if I said that it’s classic Alcatrazz with a power metal influence? It’s catchy, it’s heavy and memorable.

Jimmy Waldo: I really appreciate that, I think so and you are exactly right. It’s influenced by the classic stuff which I wrote with Yngwie [Malmsteen]. I wrote “Island In The Sun,” which isn’t quite the direction that we went on the stuff here, but I do see it as a continuation of that. Hypothetically, if the band would have stayed together with Ynwgie, we would have gotten heavier. Times change and I think that would have been the natural progression. I like heavy music! I also love ABBA and I also love The Carpenters, but what I like to play and write is heavy music. I was into heavy music back to when I was playing in bands in high school. Then I was into The Who, they aren’t ‘heavy’ in the metal sense, but at that time they were a heavy band. I remember doing cover songs and we’d try to play them heavier, like The Who would play them. This record will be heavier, it has a power metal influence as you say, because I’m a fan of that. I also like ‘fast’ stuff, we all do. It was just a natural direction for us to do this. Giles [Lavery] [Alcatrazz manager] and I write that way and [guitarist] Joe [Stump] write that way, so it’s just the natural thing for us to do. Graham wouldn’t have liked the direction, that’s fine, it wouldn’t have worked. You nailed it! It’s a continuation of the classic stuff with an injection of power metal.

Metal Titans: Jumping back a little for a minute, I loved ‘Born Innocent’ . It was a solid album. You received a lot of critical acclaim. It had been 35 years since the last Alcatrazz recording...did things dissolving with Graham sour this at all for you? Are you still proud of that album?

Jimmy Waldo: Oh, no. Not at all. I think Graham did a good job on it. You’re right, I’m very proud of that record. I liked the songs. It was a really solid record. No regrets there. It didn’t sour anything for me. There’s nothing really ‘unusual’ in this business about a singer leaving or being dismissed. This isn’t that big of a deal, you roll with the punches. You don’t just stop. I don’t just stop making music because Graham left the band. This is what I do and this is what I like to do. I can’t ‘just stop.’ So we find someone to replace the person that has left and away we go!

Metal Titans: Did you know Doogie [White] before you got him on board to sing?

Jimmy Waldo: Oh yeah! I met him a longtime ago.

Metal Titans: I assumed that was the case since Graham had been doing The Schenker Fest projects and the tours over the course of the past few years. I assume you were a fan of Doogie’s work with Yngwie too? Doogie slots in pretty well in this band based on the preview that I heard this morning.

Jimmy Waldo: Doogie….he’s done a lot of records! [laughs] A lot of them in the ‘heavy metal’ genre, as you said he had a stint with Yngiwe, I love that record, I thought he was a great fit. I also liked the Rainbow record that he was a part of. That was just great. I love the songs on that. That was well before I had even met Doogie. Like you said, Graham did the tour with Schenker, which Doogie was a part of and that was just magnificent. Graham, Robin and everybody was just great on that show. We had played at gigs in Edenborough [Scotland] and Doogie would come out to the show. Doogie is friends with Graham, so that was how I got introduced to him. We got to hangout backstage at Alcatrazz shows and then I got to hangout with him when he came to L.A. on The Schenker Fest Tour. What a great guy. He’s ‘normal’ and very ‘down to earth’ and ‘real person.’

Metal Titans: Did Doogie get a chance to put his two cents in the songwriting or were these songs ready to roll when he stepped in?

Jimmy Waldo: Oh, no, no no. He got a chance to contribute lyrics to songs and he also contributed melodies. Giles had written some lyrics to a couple songs but Doogie contributed to other songs. Joe wrote the bulk of the music to the songs, then I wrote a thing or two and I contributed a bridge or two for a couple of Joe’s contributions. Giles and I wrote a song together called “Night Watch.” It was a collaborative effort, but Doogie was involved from the beginning. Doogie is a hands-on guy, he has a studio in his home, so he has the ability to do vocals there. He was very involved, he was commenting on tempos, keys and other parts of the songs. We started recording this album on the road. I remember Joe had written five or six things and then I had gone to Boston after that tour and we recorded more stuff. We threw those around and we selected the strongest ones, by that point Doogie was on board. We sent him what we had and said “You pick.” My recollection was that he liked everything we sent him. It was just so very smooth.

Metal Titans: At this point in time, what is the timeframe to release the music, the album? With things opening up in the United States, it appears that you will be able to promote this album properly.

Jimmy Waldo: Yes and we are looking forward to being able to do that. The album will be out in October [2021]. We have shows in November in the U.K. I think the timing will work just right, the album will come out and we will be able to do some shows in the U.K.

Metal Titans: As far as North America, I assume you’ll test the waters once you get back from Europe? You’ll hit select markets or perhaps do a package tour?

Jimmy Waldo: For us, a package would be way better. We did some shows about a year and a year and half ago, we did some dates. It was in the upper midwest as I like to call it. Minnesota, South Dakota, North Dakota and other places in that area. It didn’t go well at all. We were headlining! We were playing all of these clubs. It just didn’t go well at all, being totally honest with you. The draw wasn’t very good. We always do well in Texas, we did some shows with Dokken and Ace Frehley and those shows went well. Outside of Texas, we played in Florida, we played in Phoenix, Arizona, and some shows in southern California. We gave it a try and we decided it was a waste of time and money. It was just so expensive to tour. It’s expensive to tour anywhere, but to tour in the United States, it’s not cheap! So we went back to...we had been playing in the U.K. and Scandinavia. We have done well in those areas. Those gigs always went well. Had had this “don’t fix it, if it works” mentality and went back to tour there. I think the plan and you’re exactly right, the plan for The States would be to hook up with another tour. The headlining thing isn’t that important to us, we just want to get out there and play in front of people...a number of people, not 50 people. We need to get out there and play some bigger shows. If we need to get on a tour with somebody else, so be it, we’ll do it. America is tough, man. There’s a lot of people here that love rock and metal, but if you go to the clubs it’s a lot of tribute bands, cover bands and top 40 bands, there’s not really not many places for a band like us to play. We had a great agent and he was having a hard time, so in the end we decided to cut our losses.

Metal Titans: I assume at some point in the near future you will make a formal music video for the album?

Jimmy Waldo: We will. When we did “Turn Of The Wheel '' we shot our part separately of course. I did mine here at home and the rest of the guys shot their parts at their homes. We have another video for the song “Sword Of Deliverance” which will be coming out very soon. The new video was also shot at home, we do have plans to do a group video and do a group photo session. It’s still a little tricky putting something like that together. It’s definitely in the works!

Metal Titans: You were in New England which has a KISS connection in that you had ties to Bill Aucoin. A band that was a little under the radar was Blackthorne which also included Graham on vocals, the late Frankie Banali and the late Bob Kulick. What are some memories of that band and ‘Afterlife?’

Jimmy Waldo: That was a really good Bob Kulick and I met many, many years ago when I lived in New York and he lived in New York. You just mentioned the connection with New England and KISS, we met at a KISS show ironically enough. We hit it off and he immediately said, “Hey Jimmy we should do something together!” We remained in touch and then Bob moved to L.A., I had already relocated to L.A. by that point. We reconnected in L.A. and I went over to see him and we decided to work on something together. Graham had been living in Australia and he had been wanting to come back to The United States. We got Graham back to America, Bob and I had been writing at that point. We had been working with some other writers like Paul Taylor, Steve Plunkett and his Bob’s brother Bruce [Kulick] and some others. When Graham got here we had a fair amount of material started. We demoed everything at my little studio, then we went into another studio and cut the album. Like you said we had Frankie Banali on drums and Chuck Wright on bass and it doesn’t get any better than those guys. God bless Frankie. I love Frankie’s drumming. I played with him in Quiet Riot and I just love his drumming. He and I were really close, we toured and there were a lot of great memories. Thank you for asking about that. I love that record! We had another deal with Polydor Records for a second record, Graham left then we got David Glen Eisley on vocals. We did the record for Japan and we got a deal in North America, released the record and did some shows. Not many, we might have done five or six shows. We finished the second Blackthorne record with David, but it didn’t do much. Bob and I continued to work together writing songs and making music, but there was no point in continuing with the band anymore. There was no interest. Ironically not when we’re on tour we have some Blackthorne albums for sale and they always sell pretty well and people ask Graham and I about that band. Funny how that works, at that time it was no big deal and now people seem to like it!

Metal Titans: Did you ever think of Blackthorne as a ‘supergroup?’

Jimmy Waldo: I didn’t. I just thought man, I’d love to work with Frankie and Chuck too. We all had our history making records and being a part of other bands. I just looked at it as a good time and it was. When I think of  ‘super groups’ I think of Jimmy Page and Jeff Beck in The Yard Birds or Cream or something like that.

Metal Titans: Chris Impellitteri made a guest appearance on ‘Born Innocent’ and he worked with Graham on a couple records, the first album being ‘Stand In Line.’ Were you ever in the mix to be a part of that line-up of the band at all?

Jimmy Waldo: I was not. Chris and I have been friends for a while and I had run into Chris around town, while he and Graham had been doing those records. I was never involved at all. I have always loved Chris’ playing. He's one of the coolest guys I have ever met.

Metal Titans: Last thing you reconnected with Banali for the ‘Quiet Riot’ record. You played keys on that and layed down some vocals too.

Jimmy Waldo: I did! I also co-wrote a lot of that record! Paul Shortino and I would get together at my house and work on some songs. Paul and I were working together anyway, so we did a lot of the writing for that record. Frankie and Carlos [Cavazo] would come to my house and we would work ‘fine tuning’ the songs together. Carlos had some great ideas so it was great to have that guitarist input. We auditioned some bass players and we got Sean McNabb in the band. When Sean came in and played, ten seconds in, I knew he was ‘the guy’ for the band. We toured South America, we went to Japan and we went to Guam. That was a trip! People went crazy in Guam! I don’t think they get many rock shows there. [laughs] Not too many tours going through Guam, I don’t believe!  

Metal Titans: You know Yngwie. You wrote songs with him, you’ve performed with and toured with him. What’s one of the biggest misconceptions of the guy?

Jimmy Waldo: Ynwgie and I had some ‘bumps’ in the road. Generally speaking, he and I got along very well. He lived with me for a brief period of time during the making of ‘No Parole For Rock ‘N’ Roll.’ So we lived together and we ‘partied’ together! [laughs] We had a great time. I think he was just young. He never toured so he was used to what we were about to get into or what we did. It wasn’t easy for him. I don’t think didn’t handled things very well and I’m sure he would agree. The guy played his ass off! There’s no guy to this day that I have ever heard that can do what he does. He’d come into rehearsal with two Marshall stacks turned to 10! [laughs] He’d just start playing! It would be a problem when we’d be talking about a song arrangement. I remember a couple times saying, “Hey Yngwie can you please turn it down? We’re trying to have a conversation over here!” [laughs] God love him.