Mailboat RecordsAerosmith‘s Brad Whitford and ex-Ted Nugent singer Derek St. Holmes have reunited to record their first Whitford/St. Holmes album since their 1981 self-titled effort. The aptly titled Reunion gets its release today, and the duo also kicks off a run of tour dates opening for Whitesnake this evening in Dallas.
“I’m very, very pleased with the album,” Whitford tells ABC Radio, “probably more so than I’ve ever been with any record I’ve ever done.”
That’s high praise from a guy who’s played on every Aerosmith album, but Brad points out that working on Reunion with Derek gave both musicians the rare chance to make a record on their own terms.
“With Aerosmith [and] Ted Nugent, you got to make a lot of compromises,” he maintains. “I never get to do exactly what I want to do because I’m working with four other guys who are all strongly opinionated.”
He adds, “This is our baby, these are our songs, this is our production and we did it exactly the way we’ve always wanted to make records.”
Reunion is packed with melodic, hard-rocking songs that share most of the same influences as Whitford’s and St. Holmes’ other bands. Among the tunes is lead track “Shapes,” which Brad says is a partly a tribute to The Yardbirds‘ “Shapes of Things.”
“All the guys in this band, we’re all just sort of old-school rockers,” Whitford points out. “I don’t know what else we would do other than rock.”
As for Whitford/St. Holmes getting to tour with Whitesnake, Brad tells ABC Radio that it’s “a wonderful opportunity…which will get us in front of some like-minded fans.”
As previously reported, the band’s itinerary also includes a bunch of headlining shows. Check out the group’s full schedule at WhitfordStHolmes.com.
Copyright © 2016, ABC Radio. All rights reserved.
