My hometown is Cortland, New York. That's where Ronnie James Dio and his band Elf were from. My friends and I all grew up idolizing these guys, and when we got a little older they became our friends and mentors.

I was living in Los Angeles in '82 - '83. The whole hair metal genre was starting to materialize, but it wasn't my thing. I imagined a roots oriented band along the lines of Lynyrd Skynyrd, but I had to move back home to make it happen.

I'd say it was my first band worth mentioning. Before that I'd been in garage bands when I was in high school just leaning my craft.

Skynyrd, Allman Brothers, ZZ Top, Outlaws. All the Southern rock bands really, although we also loved Willie Nelson, Neil Young, the Eagles, and a host of other country rock artists.

Absolutely! If you go back and listen to the three Elf albums, they were almost a Southern rock band in their approach. On a personal note, I was profoundly influenced by bassist Craig Gruber and drummer Gary Driscoll, who were wonderful friends and mentors to me.

"Straight Up" was produced by Dave Porter, who used to be in a band called 805. Bill Scranton was the engineer. As for the band, we were very young and were partying like there was no tomorrow. We were drinking Jack Daniel's like water. Consequently, Straight Up is a very drunken, reckless, rock 'n' roll party album that remains a favorite for a lot of people to this day.

Of course I do! It's a great document of where we were at the time... face down in the gutter! I might add that some of my favorite bands (Neil Young and Crazy Horse, the Rolling Stones, Creedence Clearwater Revival, etc.) were more concerned with the overall vibe than technical proficiency.

Nick Nicholas sang and played keyboards, Paul Mendillo played drums, Dan Austin played lead guitar, Mark Young played bass, and I sand and played lead guitar also.

Yes, they were. These were small town, blue collar guys as opposed to the show biz types I encountered in L.A. I wanted Mad Jack to be the antithesis of the glam metal thing.

What I can tell you is when you travel as much and work as hard as we did, people naturally burn out. I think if we'd secured a major record deal and the money was there, the original lineup might have stayed intact. I'm happy to report that we all stayed friends through the years. Sadly, we lost Nick a few years back. Dan has a successful tool and dye business and recorded a great CD with Rick Schell from Pure Prairie League, and Mark became a lawyer and plays in Philadelphia area bar bands.

Economics. All of the Mad Jack records were self-funded, as we didn't fit the sound or image record labels were looking for in the 1980s.

Well, it was an honor to share the stage with our musical heroes. An added bonus was the fact that they were, to a man, great people who were very friendly towards and supportive of an up and coming band like us!

Yes, we'd been playing with Rick since '87.

I got an audition through my friend Andrew "Duck" MacDonald, who was a member of Blue Cheer and who had played in the Kim Simmonds Band a few years earlier.

No. I left out of frustration. I was a songwriter in a band where my songs weren't needed. This is in no way a criticism of Kim. He needs my help like a stag needs a hat rack!

I was originally a bass player. I had to play guitar to get Mad Jack off the ground because it was a roots band in an era when every guitar player was trying to play in the Eddie Van Halen "tapping" style.

I loved playing all those classic Savoy Brown songs, and I especially loved being in a band with Dave Walker, who is probably the funniest and most talented person I know. We traveled a lot and played with countless classic rock and blues legends, and I'm grateful for the experience. I only left so I could be free to contribute more on a creative level.

I've only had limited contact with Kim, but I do speak with Dave on a fairly regular basis.

"On the Run" is probably my favorite Mad Jack record. Great vibe. It was originally a demo, but a fan gave us the money to press CDs so we went ahead. I must also tell you that my years working with Kim Simmonds dramatically improved my songwriting by this time.

We met Mike back in '84. He used to come to Mad Jack shows and tell me "You need me in your band." I thought he was being rude until I actually heard him play and realized he was right! A sweet guy and a musician's musician.

To be honest, this was a difficult time. Some of the band members has quit or moderated their bad habits, while others were still hell bent on self-destruction. We limped along like that for years before deciding to call it a day.

Never say never! If the stars align and everybody is on the same page musically, anything's possible!

Mike Shaw is an old friend and a brilliant musician. We got together with Al Macomber on drums and formed Kaplan-Shaw. It was an acoustic blues band that was more or less inspired by the Eric Clapton "Unplugged" record. We put two CDs out; "No Stranger to the Blues" and "Mojo Café".

Last Train Out was me on bass and vocals, Bob Bachta on guitar, and Al Macomber on drums. We thought the band was great, but despite putting out a strong CD we were struggling to find a market. We gave it about 3 years before mutually deciding to take a hiatus.

"The Best of Mad Jack" (1985-2005) and "Last Train Out" are available on CD Baby, iTunes, Amazon, etc. I'm considering making my tracks from the two Kaplan-Shaw CDs available also.

Rick Jewett started Lonesome Crow. They had a great singer named Keith Ford who decided to leave right around the time Last Train Out was falling apart. Rick asked me to come in and sing, write, and play rhythm so I did.

You'd have to ask Rick! I think he wanted multiple singers who could also sing harmony.

Lonesome Crow already had a great bass player in George Lamb.

Rick is amazing. He just burns up the keys every night. Plus, he's a Harley ridin' bad ass. We've been through so much together for almost 30 years that we're more like brothers than bandmates.

George's claim to fame is that he played with the Mac Brothers, which was a regional outlaw country / Southern rock band. Barry has previously played with J.P. Shaggy, and Slaus has played with Fully Loaded. Three more Harley ricin' bad asses!

The Mac Brother put a few records out but I don't think they're commercially available anymore. J.P. Shaggy has a great new CD out under his real name Jason Krueger. I don't think Fully Loaded has recorded an album yet, although they may in the future.

As I said, Lonesome Crow was going before I joined, and had more or less established their direction. My country leanings tend to be more of the outlaw variety... Willie, Waylon, Haggard, etc. I'm also very influenced by the '70s country rock thing... Eagles, Poco, Jackson Brown, Neil Young, etc. And of course, the Southern rock roots are always present!

Actually, Rick wrote the music and I contributed the lyrics. If there is a similarity to "Curtis Loew", I don't think it was intentional. It's probably just a good example of our influences bubbling up to the surface!

I didn't care for the original production on these songs, and they fit with the new stuff we're writing.

We recorded at Conan Fioramonti's studio the Ghetto in Syracuse, N.Y. I felt that Conan understood the spirit of the project, and having someone simpatico behind the board was a big plus.

Credit where credit's due. Conan Fioramonti engineered, Bill Aldrich, Rick Jewett, and Slaus Brown Paul mixed, and Scott Patnode mastered. Nice job fellas!

Very well. It's getting some regional airplay and great press. Many thanks to Dave Frisina at 105.9 the Rebel out of Syracuse, N.Y., Greg Jackson of NYS Music, Kathy Patterson of Kat Pat Radio and Luc Brunot of Bands of Dixie!

We hawk 'em off the stage at shows and they're available at CD Baby. The digital downloads are also available at Amazon, iTunes, etc.

My future plans are to keep writing songs and to improve at my craft.

I remember the band but no, I don't know them personally.

No. We typically headlined our own shows unless we were opening for bands like the Outlaws, Marshall Tucker, Blackfoot, and Molly Hatchet.

Now you're going to get me into trouble! In my opinion, the best rock 'n' roll with very few exceptions happened in the '60s and '70s. I think the bands were allowed to be idiosyncratic, and I think their music and lyrics were sincere, as opposed to trying to formalize a marketing scheme. For better or for worse, I've spent my whole career bucking the trends, trying to keep the heart and soul of music alive. If that's limited my business opportunities, so be it. I'd rather be an outlaw than a sellout!

Thank you Luc!

Mad Jack - Straight Up (1985)
Mad Jack - Down the Road (1986)
Savoy Brown -Live and Kickin' (1990)
Savoy Brown - the Savoy Brown Collection (1993)
Mad Jack - On the Run (1994)
Mad Jack - Mad Jack (2005)
Kaplan/Shaw - No Stranger to the Blues (2007)
Kaplan/Shaw - Mojo Cafe (2008)
Last Train Out - Last Train Out (2012)
Mad Jack - The Best of Mad Jack (2013)
Lonesome Crow - Lonesome Crow (2015).