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CI: How are Joe and Booty doing? Are there any plans to invest in other show dogs?
BK: Well I understand that Booty just became another Dad or something. They mated him with a female show dog and they apparently have a great litter. I just heard that news last week actually. Unfortunately it is very hard for me. It's really hard to get to hang with him. On paper he's mine and every time I've seen him, outside of the one time he pissed on Joe, it's been very nice. And Joe of course, who is more of a daily affair, is great actually. He's doing really great.
CI: Do you take Joe on tour?
BK: I never take him on tour with me. I took him one time with me when I went on holiday to Palm Springs and he was kinda nervous. He thought maybe I was gonna leave him somewhere, so I tend not to. I would rather leave him. I have some other friends who have a little dog and that's company, especially when they're not home and where I'm not home and I dont mean for a trip. I mean if I'm out doing errands or whatever I have to do and Joes' home alone. Dogs usually like company if they have another dog around. So considering I feel bad about it, the bonus is that wherever I get to leave him, there's other dogs, and I know another neighbor in the neighborhood who is dying to take him whenever I need to because he is just a really well mannered, fun dog. He's very sweet and he's still like a little tough guy and all that stuff, but he is very intuitive too with me and my friends and what I do, but I admit he gets a little nervous about me traveling. He knows. He picks up on my anxieties. They're much more maybe emotionally human like than we give them credit for.
CI: Rob of the Cyberfunkers Web Group asked: How long are you planning on being a part of the Grand Funk Family and do you see this as the band you want to be with or just a stepping stone to something else?
BK: Well I am very happy working with those guys. We don't always talk about "OK. We'll do this until," but in general, I know we have plans to continue on and get into recording. I spent this past week writing with Max [Carl]. There was something that we did a few weeks ago when we were in Peoria that I showed the guys. Don [Brewer] was jamming and he liked it and Max came over to L.A. from Phoenix where he lives and we started writing. So this isn't just a little like, "Oh wow, I'll do this for a while and see what else comes." I am very happy with the guys. They are a lot of fun.
Obviously, not that I was ever hoping or expecting to become Ace Frehley in Kiss, but the fact that that kind of thing is passing me by, I don't have a problem with it. Because that's not the way I saw my future with them, wearing Ace's makeup and being Ace Frehley. And I'm not gonna rag on Tommy or the band for choosing that. I just think that it's weird. I had twelve years as Bruce and I prefer to be Bruce. So that's why actually Grand Funk has been a real excellent opportunity for me. It's not that every KISS fan knows their stuff or necessarily will be into it. I think if they give it a shot, they will, because the band's just a great classic rock band. That we're gonna in the same way that I feel like I know I can contribute to anything I do, I'll contribute it to that band as well.
CI: How would you compare GFR fans to Kiss fans? Do you find many similarities in the two?
BK: Oh, there are lots of similarities obviously. I mean fans that are dedicated and fly places to either a convention or to see Kiss or to see Grand Funk. I see people that fly all across the nation to see Grand Funk, and usually depending on the kind of venue we do because we play a lot of different places, Grand Funk. The merchandise is extremely well. That's similar to Kiss, and they all want to be at the Meet and Greet to get with the band. And some of them I notice are just slightly older because Grand Funk really took off in like '70 and continued through the 70's. They are really popular and they had their reunion in like 1997 or '96 or something like that. But in the sense of similar, they're very similar.
CI: How is your follow-up to Audio Dog coming along? How many songs have you written and do you have a production date set?
BK: Actually, I've only started writing since April and it's not specifically, I remember talking a lot with Max the singer from Grand Funk about this. Every time I tried to sit down and write a song for Grand Funk, it was forcing. It's kinda like you don't want to force your creative thing, so I just decided I'm just gonna write things I like, whatever it is. Fortunately, I have been in a real creative space lately. I don't know why, but I have.
So I actually had three cdr's filled up of ideas to play Max when he came out, and some of those are undeniably my next solo record, and I knew it. I said, "You gotta hear this thing. I don't think really we are gonna do this, but check it out. You know I could do this one for my new record," cause he knows my album and he's like, " That's great Bruce, and that's great for yours." So, you know what I mean, the dog heavy, big riff stuff or maybe more Van Halen-ish guitar vision ideas. Not that the Grand Funk stuff's gonna be all-vocal. There's definitely gonna be, in fact the stuff we wound up working on, a few of them had cool guitar riffs in it, but they were more the guitar riffs that belong with Grand Funk style. Sometimes it's a hard thing to kinda judge, but I have a good instinct with that. And not only occasionally, I write something, I go, "I dont know if that's really for me or Grand Funk, but maybe my friend's working with some female singer who's 20." So I throw a song that way and go, "Hey, you wanna work on this? I got a great idea for a song," and that happens too. So no date though to start Audio Dog [2], but the fact that I probably have the ideas, which means they will be songs. When I say the idea, I know it's a song. I mean, I hear it in my head even if I don't write the lyrics for probably half of the new record. So that's on its way, but I couldn't imagine until the end of the year really settling down and asking Brent of who I'd ask and maybe even Eric, if he isn't out on the road, to do a few songs. And I'd like to work again with Curt probably, you know. I like that. And I'll do some more stuff in my home too, since I have some better equipment there.
CI: Aside from ESP Guitars, what are some of your preferred equipment choices?
BK: I always use the Marshall Amps of course. I have quite a few nice Gibsons, and I have performed live with Gibsons. I also really like BC Rich Guitars. I've been collecting a few of those. My gear doesn't change that much.
CI: Would you consider doing another instructional video similiar to the Hot Licks line?
BK: No. It's just, I wouldn't really know where to begin. I mean, if I had a friend that let's say had a video production place and said, "Come Out. Lets do it," the way, lets say the Union DVD. I didn't have to go running around to find people to do that. The guy that did the Eric Carr one wants to do that you know. I would rather just write songs than teach and I'm not sure, really, even though I brought two of them today, and alright I sold them both, but if I brought ten, I don't think I would have sold much more than two or three. You see what I'm saying? A lot of the fans, not all of them are aspiring guitarists. Other bands attract like the real musos, meaning musicians and they have to study everything. Kiss is more about enjoying the band and the whole bigger thing, the community or the lifestyle, whatever that means.
CI: David of AceAddicts wanted to know: Paul once said that he wanted to be a fly on the wall when you and Ace were talkng during the Unplugged rehearsals. What did the two of you talk about?
BK: Well it was always very polite. Generally, we were both bitching about the acoustic guitars. I also tried to help cause I try to cheat if I can, cause they were very strict with us at MTV. For example, the company that makes these , they are called Sans Amps. They imitate an amp but they are in a box, and they have an acoustic peddle which really just adds some compression and presence. An easier way to say it is, "Make It Louder." So what I did was put that in line and they didn't mind that, so I'd step on that and suddenly my solo could rise a little above the band and of course then went back to rhythm and kick it off. So I made sure Ace got one too. I think I got another one for him. Stuff like that. It wasn't like bitching about Gene and Paul or anything like that. It was always just about technical stuff.
CI: Other than guitar, bass and keyboards, what instruments can you play and what instruments do you wish you could play?
BK: Oh ,I always wanted to play stand-up bass. I play piano a little bit but not great, but enough to bang out some ideas. Outside of guitar and bass and keyboards, I don't play anything else really. I can play a little bit of slide, but Max from Grand Funk blows me away because he plays keyboards amazing and accordion and guitar well, and he plays slide and wang and all that kind of stuff.
CI: If you had never gone into music, where do you think you would be now?
BK: I used to say an architect. I felt like when you're doing your music you're kinda constructing things. You're building things in an organizing manner. So I just thought I'd be an architect and build things. I'm not sure what I'd build.
CI: After watching you interact with children so well, have you considered settling down and having children?
BK: Oh yeah. I've thought about that. I just wanna do it with the right girl. That's always been my biggest problem. I love kids. I do. I mean I get a little frustrated. I feel like I'm getting a little old for it, but then I don't wanna say there's any rules in life. A lot of people certainly don't have kids when they expected to or wanted to. So it's something to look forward to and fortunately the dog obviously fills the void of Daddy or parenting or something.
CI: What is your opinion of sites, such as Metal Sludge, who ask you questions that are really of no significant value?
BK: Well, you know, they're funny of course. Without the humor part of that then you know, they don't want to be serious anyways. This is just a place to poke fun and I think society these days is really sarcastic, like David Letterman and stuff like that, so there's a place for it and I know of course to do it with a sense of humor and not to be serious about it. So I don't have a real problem with it. I mean sometimes they delve into things that are like, "Ooo." I see things about people, but that's what happens.
CI: What is the most definitive album in rock history and why?
BK: I would always pick either a Beatle, Led Zepplin, or Hendrix album. One of my favorties of all is, Are You Experienced?, the first Hendrix album. I would really say the first Beatle album, but what they evolved into was just unbelieveable. Yeah like Sgt. Pepper, Abbey Road, Rubber Soul. Those were all amazing. And with Zepplin, the first album, the fourth album. It almost doesn't matter. They are just like, "WOW."
CI: Do you think the quality of music has decreased over the years?
BK: Well there's still good songs out there, and there's still good bands. Some of the heroes, I would think we would have seen new ones. We're not. I don't consider, I have nothing wrong with Kid Rock, but I don't see him as a hero, Rob Zombie as a hero. Curt Cobain, love him or not, was the last big hero for rock and roll music, even though it's a different kind of rock and roll. But there really aren't any. I like Creed, although so many people hate them, but there really hasn't been a whole lot of stuff going on that's as big as the bands I mentioned earlier.
CI: What advice would you give to budding musicians?
BK: Learn from the people that turn you on and try to do it your way. Don't be a clone of something, but certainly be respectful of your influences because that's a good start. And make sure you have fun doing it because this is a terrible career.
CI: If your home were on fire, what 3 things would you save?
BK: Well probably my old Les Paul. I like that one. I always think of guitars. That's kind of funny. I have some jewelry. That's kind of sentimental, so maybe one of those things. But maybe the yellow ESP I'm hugging on the back of Crazy Nights. That's still one of my favorite guitars that I use, of course, even on the solo album. I just don't take it anywhere. I record with it, But mostly I'll use that and another one with my clinic guitars. And I have some real special instruments at home. I couldn't take the T.V. Otherwise, I would take that. It's a big one. A big 36" inch and I couldn't take that. (Laughs)
CI: That's the last question. Thank You so much.
BK: Thank You.
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