Q&A WITH JACK DOUGLAS - CONTINUED - PAGE 3
TR: Seems, even many of the 13/15-year old young girl fans don’t like ‘Girls
of Summer’.
JD: Yeah I know (laughs), the guys at VH1 also said to me “What is that!?”.
TR: DVD technology has been out there quite a while now. Aerosmith has an
incredible history and tons of concert footage that most bands would kill for.
Why on earth would they shelve that project and release another greatest hits
audio CD instead? Just don’t think it makes good business sense but hey
that’s just my opinion.
JD: Your opinion is worth a lot. You’re a fan.
TR: Even the die-hard fans may not buy yet another greatest hits package
necessarily.
JD: Well they would if there were three really good songs that I produced on
it (laughs). I would produce three really cool songs that would be totally
Aerosmith. If Steven wanted G.O.S. on there too, Marti’s name would be on
that one, not mine (laughs).
TR: Remember when the article came out in the Florida paper about you and
Vesica Pisces recording in the kitchen? A lot of fans thought (me included)
that might be pretty cool if you could do that with Aerosmith.
JD: You know what happens when you work in the kitchen? You put the fire on!
Turn up the burners! (TR: Translation - A real Aerosmith album!).
TR: How come Joe doesn’t stand up to the label and/or Steven?
JD: You know, it’s all business. It’s not fun anymore, it’s just business.
TR: But music is an art, you’re supposed to love your art.
JD: Right now it’s not. If they worked with me, I would convince them of
that again.
TR: Have you ever talked to anyone at SONY about that?
JD: I don’t talk to the people at SONY, they don’t like me. They’re mad at
me all of the time (laughs).
JD: Well, (knocks on table), it will be out very soon.
TR: Does it still have Steven and Joe on it?
JD: Uh….no. Well you know what? Let’s put it this way, you listen to it and
you tell me if they’re still on there. Their names are not on there.
TR: I saw a program on MTV very soon after the first internet release of Mob
Hip Hopera that sure seemed to be a copycat of the project turned into a short
series.
JD: It was a rip-off. They totally ripped me off. But that’s OK because
our thing is the coolest and it’s coming out very soon. It will only be
available on television.
TR: Do you think you can make that into some sort of HBO movie?
JD: After it comes out and it’s successful and I prove to people that it’s
viable and really cool, then I want to do an animated version of it for HBO.
Yeah, it will be an animated musical, really edgy, very cool. The Hip Hopera
will come out the same time as the Sopranos in the fall – a little bit before
actually.
TR: You hang out with the cast of the Sopranos a lot, huh?
JD: Yeah, I was with them the other night at the film festival. They are a
very fun bunch. You know the Aerosmith/Sopranos party right? Steve Van Zandt
(Silvio) just had a really cool party because of his new radio show.
Everybody was there – the whole cast and myself. Get a copy of my Christmas
card from Rick and scan it – me and “the family” (laughs)
(TR: See bottom of this page).
TR: How about the album you just did for
Vesica Pisces?
Is it done?
JD: Yeah, it’s a killer album…a great album. It’s on Big Three Beyond
Universal. Universal is distributing it. It will come out in September.
TR: What’s the name of the album?
JD: Halfway To Naked.
TR: What genre would you put them in?
JD: Kinda like Sheryl Crow. Girl singer.
TR: What was the recording process like with them?
JD: Very cool. We did it in an old club. The whole band was there. Brought
a truck in. Kinda like doing Rocks ya know. Very atmospheric.
TR: What do you think about Pro-Tools, computers and all of that in
recording? I know it made it easier to record the Hip Hopera project for
example.
JD: Yeah, sometimes you use it and sometimes you don’t. But I’d rather go to
tape. You still have to use a little bit of new technology but very little
really. The original track comes from tape only. Computers have their place
for convenience but not necessarily for creation.
TR: Jack, it’s been great talking to you. Thanks so much for taking the time
to answer these questions and sharing some of your valuable insight.
JD: I enjoyed it!
