By Martin Popoff
"It was actually very natural, notes Bill about hitting the road with Warrant, Ratt, L.A. Guns and Dokken. "We've tour with all these bands; actually I should say, we've played gigs with every one of them. We toured with Warrant for seven months back in 1991 and we've done countless shows with L.A. Guns and Rats, and a few with Dokken, so doing a long tour with them seemed like a natural thing. There's been some jam sessions and things in bars after-hours that people have participated in, but I don't think there will be any writing collaborations. There hasn't been much time really. We've just been spending our time getting in there and getting everything to work. We've been plagued with bus problems this whole tour, so a lot of days off when we wanted to write, we've been on the side of the highway with a mechanic back there twisting wrenches."
There have been some surprisingly righteous crowds on this jaunt, as C. J. explains. "Grand Rapids, Michigan I would say was the absolute best, 22,000 people. We kicked off the tour in Fargo, North Dakota with over 16,000 people and we've gone from that sort of crowd down to around 2000 people. I think tonight is going to be one of those types of shows, maybe 3000 or 4000. We did a couple shows with Judas Priest, and I think the last night was about 8000 people. It depends on the venue and that market for the area. There are places that are still strongholds for the melodic hard rock area, people that are still loyal to that music, and then there are more trendy places which go along with what MTV and Clear Channel tell you to listen to."
"And then there are a lot of people where there just aren't that many people our age in the population that know about this type of thing," adds Bill. "I think this music that was popular ten to 15 years ago, a lot of people who were 25 years old then, now they're 35 to 40 and it's hard to get out when you've got kids; you've got to get the babysitter, you got to get off from work... it becomes a little difficult. But this is a tour that has five bands and it really is a good value. And besides, this is the only place people can get this music."
FIREHOUSE - Rock Fest 2002's Sweet Spot Page 3