Richie Kotzen gave Winery Dogs fans a bit of a scare back in 2017 when he announced that the supergroup trio (which also includes bassist Billy Sheehan and drummer Mike Portnoy) would be “taking a break,” a phrase commonly uttered – along with “we’re going on hiatus,” another good one – when a band is close to kaput.

“I probably overstated the point, and it caused some confusion,” Kotzen now says. “We toured pretty hard on our first two albums, and we just needed to catch our breath. That’s really all there was to it. It was a break – lots of bands take breaks. The last thing you want to do is tour to the point that you’re burned out.”

As it turned out, the band’s hiatus didn’t last long, and by 2019 they were back on the road while making plans to record their third album. 

“We were feeling fired up again,” Kotzen says. “But then the Covid pandemic hit and everything pretty much stopped. We couldn’t play anywhere. Nobody could play. So we just decided to take our time and work on the album.” He pauses, then adds, “And I think it’s our best one yet.”

He just might be right. The Winery Dogs already aced their way through their sophomore album (2015’s Hot Streak), and on album number three – which just so happens to be titled III – they prove they’ve got plenty of gas in the tank. 

Right from the get-go, the band lets us know they’re not messing about. Xanadu, a walloping hard rock chest-beater, busts out of the gate with an outrageous, almost absurd guitar and bass unison riff – and the energy stays pinned throughout the 10-song set. 

But while the highly pedigreed chopsmiths toss out ferocious licks as easily as they breathe – the time-shifting barn burner Pharaoh and the righteous blues-rock album closer The Red Wine feature colossal moments of warp-speed musical mojo – they wrap all the fancy-pants stuff around widescreen hooks and solid arrangements that go down easy.

“Everybody in the band has achieved notoriety in musicians’ circles, but when we get together, we really try to concentrate on writing songs,” Sheehan says. “Each one of us has a love of classic rock bands, soul and R&B, and they all have one thing in common: great songs.” 

He notes that the spunky, slinky groover Mad World exemplifies his affection for Sixties and Seventies Motown. “It’s got that feel, so I was thinking of the Temptations and one of my bass heroes, James Jamerson, when we cut that track. I think it’s one of the best songs on the record.”

Interestingly, when the three bandmates convened at Kotzen’s home studio in Los Angeles to start work on the album, they had no songs at all – as in none. “It sounds scary, but it’s my favorite way to work,” Sheehan says. “There’s a certain amount of tension when you plug in and look at the other guys; it kicks your ass on an improvisational level and forces you to make something happen.”

Kotzen agrees, saying, “Too many musicians freak out about writer’s block. I’ve never really had that problem, because my general attitude is, if something wants to be written, it’ll get written. If you have to beat yourself up on a song, it’s best to move on to something else.”

Detailing the writing process for III, Kotzen explains that Sheehan and Portnoy would start jamming, which inevitably sparked the guitarist to respond with riffs and scat-singing. “Before you knew it, we had skeletons of songs,” he says. “I didn’t try to write actual lyrics for a while, though. I like to live with the music, so over a period of a few months I tried a bunch of things out and thought about what I wanted to sing. Then I did my thing and sent the songs off to the boys for their input.” 

The manner in which Kotzen composed lyrics and sang vocals differed dramatically from how he cut guitar solos. “My general attitude toward solos is always the same: ‘Let’s go for it and see what we get,’” he says. “I like the fire and adrenaline rush of being on the spot. You start with nothing and suddenly it’s like, ‘OK, something’s there.’ Sometimes I’ll get a solo that’s an immediate keeper; most of the time I’ll keep the front and back, and I’ll say, ‘The middle is garbage. Let me fix that.’”

For all three members, aligning their schedules hasn’t always been easy. Kotzen maintains a thriving solo career and has also enjoyed success with his ongoing collaboration with Iron Maiden guitarist Adrian Smith, while Sheehan and Portnoy busy themselves with a host of musical activities that include yet another supergroup, the prog-flavored Sons of Apollo. 

Having not toured in four years, Kotzen, Sheehan, and Portnoy cleared the deck for 2023, and are concentrating exclusively on the Winery Dogs. 

“Whenever you have a band in which the members do other things, it can get a little crazy,” Sheehan says. “Fortunately, this band is a three-piece, so that makes things a bit easier. We’ve got the first round of dates right ahead of us, and we can’t wait to take this record on the road. Thankfully, there’s a lot of excitement from the fans, so here we go!”

• III is out now via Three Dog Music.

Billy Sheehan, quite possibly the most technically gifted rock bass player on the planet, has played with dozens of amazing musicians and travelled the world for decades, which means that he has tonnes of useful advice to pass on.

In a recent backstage interview with Scott's Bass Lessons founder Scott Devine, before getting into the details of his insanely evolved tapping and three-finger technique, Sheehan was asked if he’d ever been tempted by the most reviled totem of 1980s musicianship ever, slap bass. 

“With slap I could never figure out where those notes were coming from,” said Sheehan. “So I sat down and just came up with a slap riff. When I got done it kind of sounded like slap, but then I’d go see Victor Wooten and just give up!”

So what exactly does he practice? “Sometimes the mechanics,” said Billy. “I need my hands to function as machines, and I need to not be hindered by the physical aspect of bass playing, so that I can focus on the music. Like the three-fingered technique. I still work on it everyday.”

Asked about his tapping technique, Sheehan told BP: “You can string your bass guitar light, put the action low and get it to play as easy as a ukulele, but if you push it too hard with your technique you overwhelm the strings and just crash against the frets. You’ve got to find the right balance.”

“It’s natural for some bassists to play a lot of notes,” he adds. “There are some guys who can play 50 times faster than I can, but they can’t play a groove. If it’s natural for you to play fast and if it sounds OK, cool. If you’re doing it just for the sake of playing fast, you’re chasing the wrong thing. At least 90% of my bass playing is locking up with a drummer, but sometimes you get tagged with a certain thing and it’s hard to shake."

Talking of his ferocious technique, Sheehan once came to wield a cordless power drill on his bass with Mr Big. It all started when guitarist Paul Gilbert taped a plectrum to an electric hand drill, which he then applied to his guitar strings. “In the end we got an endorsement from the Makita power drill company," says Sheehan, who did likewise with his bass. “Our manager called them up, they asked how much we wanted as a fee, and when he replied ‘One million dollars’ they actually agreed. True story.”

Ticket and VIP package info for Sheehan's world tour with The Winery Dogs can be found on the band's official website. The trio's aptly named third album III is out now.

Justin Hawkins has long been channeling his thoughts on anything music-related via his Justin Hawkins Rides Again YouTube channel. In his latest post, Hawkins watches the new video from The Winery Dogs, and reacts to Billy Sheehan’s dazzling bass chops, at one point commenting: “What?! Split harmonics on the bass? First of all, how? And second of all, why?”

After watching the video for Xanadu, Hawkins goes on to provide further musical analysis on Kotzen’s guitar sound. “That sort of guitar playing you only really hear on Strats. It’s not as abrasive as a Les Paul. I’m dying to know which pickup setting he’s using there.”

Elsewhere, he delves deeper into his own rock tutorial. “What I love about the guitar solo is that the rhythm guitar stops,” he says. “It’s just  him with the drums and the bass, which reminds me of Van Halen records where the bass is enough of a harmonic accompaniment for the guitar solo to really hit you in the face.”

Having played literally thousands of gigs with Talas, his band from Buffalo, New York – not to mention his high profile work with David Lee Roth, Mr Big, Niacin and more recently Sons of Apollo – Billy Sheehan’s no-holds-barred bass lines have ensured his status as a rock bass icon. 

This month though, Sheehan’s announced that he'll be hitting the road with The Winery Dogs once again. In addition to the tour, fans will be excited to hear that following a seven-year hiatus from the studio, the trio has released the opening track and lead single from their aptly named third album III. Directed by Vicente Cordero, the video for Xanadu can be found on the band’s YouTube channel.

The new single is typical Winery Dogs – with Sheehan enhancing Kotzen’s big riff energy with his own signature licks and screaming harmonics. Sheehan has always had a very guitaristic approach. The pinch harmonic that you hear at 00:20 is a case in point.

Pinch harmonics (or split harmonics as Justin refers to them in his analysis) have long been popular among guitarists, but they’re much less common in the bass world. “When a guitar player plays a pinch harmonic he slips off the pick and the soft part of his thumb hits the string,” said Billy in a 2014 interview for The Flo Guitar Enthusiasts.

“Since I don’t have a pick, I use my fingernail up against my thumb. I actually got it from Billy Gibbons who I saw opening for Alice Cooper. I just had to figure out a way to get that sound. Since I didn’t have a pick, I found a way to do it with my fingernail.”

For a full list of tour dates, and to preorder III, head over to The Winery Dogs' website. Xanadu is available on digital formats here. 

The Winery Dogs – the supergroup headed up by Richie Kotzen, Mike Portnoy and Billy Sheehan – have announced they will be releasing their first studio album in eight years in just over two months’ time.

Titled III, the long-awaited follow-up to 2015’s Hot Streak will arrive February 3, 2023, and has been previewed by Xanadu – the record’s high-octane lead single, which is headed up by some superb electric guitar and bass guitar interplay from Kotzen and Sheehan.

Though listeners may be tempted to think of a more prog-leaning track of the same name from the late ‘70s, The Winery Dogs’ Xanadu is a classic rock beast in its own right, featuring bounding guitar-and-bass hooks, infectious riffs and some world-class soloing from the former Mr. Big guitarist.

At the 2:22 mark, Kotzen continues his red hot form with a knock-out guitar solo – one that, had it arrived a few months before, would’ve almost certainly been included in our best guitar solo of 2022 poll.

And, in case you were wondering, yes – that is the sound of Portnoy throwing his drumsticks at the end of the song. However, the Dream Theater co-founder explains it was done “not in frustration, but very much in satisfaction of what we had just done.”

Furthermore, according to Portnoy – who calls the single “a barnburner” – Xanadu is “one of the fiercest tracks on the album."

Check out the track below.

As well as announcing their new album, The Winery Dogs have also dropped a host of tour dates for next year, with the supergroup set to embark on a sprawling tour of America, South America and Europe next year.

The US leg of the tour will kick off on February 15 at the Palace Theatre in Greensburg, Pennsylvania, and conclude on April 6 at Nashville’s Brooklyn Bowl.

Three shows in Brazil, meanwhile, will take place on the 27, 28 and 30 of April, with the band set to conclude their tour with 11 European dates across the month of June.

For a full list of tour dates, and to preorder III, head over to The Winery Dogs' website.

The Winery Dogs – the power trio supergroup comprised of Richie Kotzen, bassist Billy Sheehan and drummer Mike Portnoy – are writing material for a new studio album.

Sheehan confirmed the new activity in a Facebook post that reads: "It’s a beautiful day here in Los Angeles. And what a great reason to visit – with The Winery Dogs writing new songs! I am very happy and excited about this."

The trio's last activity came in May 2019, when they set out on the Who Let the Dogs Out tour of the United States. 

"It was a nice time," Kotzen said of the tour to Eonmusic in an interview this past March. "We had a good time on the road, and we were talking about the idea of doing something again in the studio, the third record.

"The pandemic hit, so now I just don't know," he said at the time.

"I mean, everybody asks, and I'm very positive about the idea of doing it, but I just don't know what's going to happen now. You know, we have the situation where we still don't really know when we can tour, and The Winery Dogs are an interesting situation; we're not going to just phone it in."

Thankfully, the music industry's gradual re-opening seems to have also extended to this talented trio.

Of course though, individually, the band members have kept themselves quite busy over the last year and a half. 

Kotzen released a triple album to mark his 50th birthday and formed a duo with Iron Maiden's Adrian Smith, Portnoy re-teamed with former Dream Theater bandmate John Petrucci for the latter's solo album and for a Liquid Tension Experiment reunion, and Sheehan worked with Sons of Apollo (which, for good measure, also features Portnoy) on that band's second album.

Winery Dogs guitarist Richie Kotzen recently stopped by Fender to try out the company’s new Tone Master Twin Reverb electric guitar amplifier, which boasts a 200-watt digital power amp and two Jensen N-12K neodymium speakers.

“It looks like a normal Fender Twin but really what it is, is an all-digital replication,” Kotzen says in the above video. “It’s emulating to perfection an all-tube Fender Twin like I’ve never heard a digital amp do before.”

Beyond the sound of the Tone Master, Kotzen admits there's another thing he loves about the new amp.

“For someone that’s into the sound of the Fender Twin, if I were to do local gigs this is the ultimate amp to throw in the back of my car,” he says. “I could lift this up and swing it over my head if I wanted to – it’s super light.”

But, he adds, “I’m not going to do it now because I don’t want to wreck the place.”

You can check out the video, which also features plenty of Kotzen-style Tele shredding, above.

For more information on the Tone Master Twin Reverb, head to Fender.

The Winery Dogs, featuring singer and guitarist Richie Kotzen (Poison, Mr. Big), bassist Billy Sheehan (Mr. Big, David Lee Roth) and drummer Mike Portnoy (Sons of Apollo, Dream Theater), recently kicked off their Who Let the Dogs Out 2019 U.S. outing, their first tour in close to three years.

Above, check out the band ripping through “Oblivion,” the lead off track from their 2015 sophomore album, Hot Streak, at Denver’s Oriental Theatre on May 23.

Talking to Guitar World about "Oblivion," Sheehan said, “We wrote that while we were getting ready for another leg of our last tour and popped it together while we were rehearsing at Mike’s house. It went through a few variations until we went in the studio and fine-tuned the lyrics and arrangements.”

For more information head over to TheWineryDogs.com.

The Winery Dogs, featuring singer and guitarist Richie Kotzen (Poison, Mr. Big), bassist Billy Sheehan (Mr. Big, David Lee Roth) and drummer Mike Portnoy (Sons of Apollo, Dream Theater), have announced new U.S. tour dates for May 2019.

The outing, dubbed the Who Let the Dogs Out 2019 tour, will begin in Derry, New Hampshire and wrap in Los Angeles. It will be the band’s first tour in close to three years.

See below for the full itinerary, and for more information head over to TheWineryDogs.com.

The Winery Dogs tour dates: 

May 01 - Derry, NH - Tupelo Music Hall
May 02 - Jim Thorpe, PA – Penn's Peak
May 03 - New York, NY - Sony Hall
May 05 - Ridgefield, CT - Ridgefield Playhouse
May 07 - Hopewell, VA - Beacon Theater
May 08 - Nashville, TN - Basement East
May 09 - New Orleans, LA - House Of Blues
May 11 - Dallas, TX - Gas Monkey
May 12 - Houston, TX - Warehouse Live
May 15 - Ft Wayne, IN - Pierre's
May 16 - Milwaukee, WI - Potowatami Casino
May 17 - Milwaukee, WI - Potowatami Casino
May 18 - St Charles, IL - Arcada Theater
May 20 - Minneapolis, MN - First Avenue
May 23 - Denver, CO - Oriental Theater
May 24 - Grand Junction, CO - Mesa Theater
May 25 - Las Vegas, NV - Vamp'd
May 28 - Sacramento, CA - Crest Theater
May 29 - Santa Cruz, CA - Rio Theater
May 30 - Anaheim, CA - The Grove
May 31 - Los Angeles, CA - Saban Theater

In this exclusive video, the Winery Dogs' Richie Kotzen, Billy Sheehan and Mike Portnoy discuss "Empire," a track off their new album, Hot Streak.

As it turns out, "Empire" almost didn't make it onto the album. Find out the full story in the video below!

"We all had some down time this past January and decided to get together at my place to throw some ideas around," Kotzen told GuitarWorld.com. "Before we knew it, we had about 15 musical 'skeletons,' as I like to call them. I sat with them for a few months and out of nowhere started hearing melodies and lyrics.

"Then I sent them to the guys and said, 'Hey, I think we have a record here!' Everything was fresh from the very beginning. It’s a true representation of what we do together."

Hot Streak will be released October 2 via Loud And Proud Records. It's available now for pre-order at Amazon.com.

In conjunction with the release of Hot Streak, the Winery Dogs will embark on a world tour that kicks off October 3 in the U.S. Stay tuned for those dates!

For more about the Winery Dogs, visit thewinerydogs.com.

Two years after taking the world by storm with their infectious self-titled 2013 debut, the Winery Dogs are back with a blistering new album dubbed Hot Streak.

On the new album, which is set for an October 2 release, we find the power trio of guitarist Richie Kotzen, bassist Billy Sheehan and drummer Mike Portnoy once again firing on all cylinders, not to mention expanding their horizons while staying true to their roots.

Whether it’s the blistering guitar attack of “Oblivion,” the Eighties-rock feel of “Captain Love” or the hauntingly beautiful “Fire," Hot Streak shows the evolution of the Winery Dogs as artists and songwriters.

In conjunction with the release of Hot Streak, the Winery Dogs will embark on a world tour that kicks off October 3 in the U.S. Stay tuned for those dates.

In the meantime, see what Kotzen and Sheehan have to say about Hot Streak, their gear and more.

GUITAR WORLD: What was the writing process like for Hot Streak?

SHEEHAN: We approached this album a lot like the first one, without any planning or discussion. We all just got in a room together and started playing to write. The only thing we brought in differently was the experience of having done 100-plus shows on stage together.

KOTZEN: We all had some down time this past January and decided to get together at my place to throw some ideas around. Before we knew it, we had about 15 musical “skeletons,” as I like to call them. I sat with them for a few months and out of nowhere started hearing melodies and lyrics. Then I sent them to the guys and said, “Hey, I think we have a record here!” Everything was fresh from the very beginning. It’s a true representation of what we do together.

Did you take any chances musically on this record?

SHEEHAN: “Ghost Town” is a track that people find appealing. It has spooky, distant lyrics and an unusual breakdown in the middle. “Spiral” is a real wild one that came from an arpeggiated bass line that’s going to be an arm buster to play live.

Let’s discuss a few more tracks from the new album, starting with "Oblivion."

SHEEHAN: We wrote that while we were getting ready for another leg of our last tour and popped it together while we were rehearsing at Mike’s house. It went through a few variations until we went in the studio and fine-tuned the lyrics and arrangements.

How about the title track, "Hot Streak"?

SHEEHAN: The main riff was a bass line I had that was an adaptation of a Stanley Clarke lick. “How Long” and a few others were also built on a bass line where the other guys would jump in and play along.

KOTZEN: I remember walking into the studio and hearing Billy playing that lick. I said, “That’s cool! That could be a song!” So Billy started playing it over and over and then Mike started playing the drum beat and I started singing the melody. We started calling chords out and wound up recording a few minutes us jamming on that riff. Then I went back and spliced it up on my computer and came up with an arrangement.

When we got in the studio to record I said, “OK. Play it down the way the demo is and I’ll make it work when I do my overdubs.” Later that night, I took it back to my studio, recorded the guitars and lead vocal and then moved all kinds of things around. I didn’t touch the drums and there was no bass on it at the time. I showed it to the guys the next day and they loved it. Then Billy put his bass on, I came back in and did the backgrounds and added a few tweaks and that was it. It was essentially a song born out of an exercise Billy had, and with some clever vision and editing, it became one of the coolest songs on the record.

"Captain Love"

KOTZEN: That’s a very interesting song. I remember when I came up with the idea. I started playing the chords and asked Mike to play a straight beat and then Billy chimed in too. Musically, it sounds huge and the reason it does is because there’s a lot of space. Lyrically, the cadence of the melody came to me but I wasn’t really sure what to sing. Then one day I wrote lyrics that were a bit silly but for some reason worked perfectly for the track. It could easily be a tongue-in-cheek throwback Eighties rock song. It’s a fun song and I’m looking forward to playing it live.

"Fire."

KOTZEN: That’s one of my favorite songs. It’s a melody and chord progression I had in my head for a long time.

SHEEHAN: That’s a beautiful piece. I remember pulling pieces together and Richie just started stinging melodies without any real words to it yet. The melody was haunting but instantly memorable. When he got the lyrics it really brought the whole thing home.

What can you tell me about the upcoming Winery Dogs tour?

SHEEHAN: We’ll be starting in the U.S. and we'll go through November. Then we’ll pick up the beginning of next year overseas and go extensively and come back to do some festivals in the U.S. and Europe. We want to hit a lot of shows everywhere.

KOTZEN: This is going to be a world tour, and we plan on staying out and playing as many places as we can.

What’s your setup going to be like for the tour?

SHEEHAN: Pretty much the same except that I’ll be using Hartke HyDrive cabinets. I did a show a few years ago in Indonesia with PSMS (Portnoy, Sheehan, MacAlpine, Sherinian) where we went out with no crew and used local guys. They had HyDrive instead of my usual AK cabinets. I wasn’t really sure if I’d be able to get used to the sound, but the bass tone was spectacular and it was one of the best nights I’ve had at a festival. It really impressed me. I’m going to try those for this one.

KOTZEN: I’m going to bring back my Signature Model Cornford RK 100 guitar head. I plugged that in one day and had forgotten how good it sounds. I wound up using that amp on 90 percent of the new record. So I decided to take it out on the road again. It’s not available for people to buy, but it sure is a cool amp.

Richie, in addition to the new Winery Dogs album you’ll be releasing a live DVD. What can you tell me about it?

KOTZEN: It’s going to be released the same day as the Winery Dogs record, and I’m super excited about it. I’ve never really had a DVD done with great audio and camera. Not only is it recorded well but it’s also a great representation of what I do. I’m really proud of it.

Billy, are there any other projects you’re working on?

SHEEHAN: I just produced a record for a young lady named Madame Mayhem that will be out in mid-October. It’s a cool record that has me on guitar and bass, plus Bumblefoot, Russ Parish from Steel Panther and Ray Luzier playing drums on it.

What excites you the most about Hot Streak and this next chapter in the Winery Dogs career?

KOTZEN: We really outdid ourselves on this record. It’s a step above the first one and I’m excited to get out there and find out how people respond to it.

SHEEHAN: Now that everyone has had more than a year to dig deep and listen long to the first album, it will be interesting to see how people react to this new record and respond to it live. I’m looking forward to playing the new songs and putting them together with a great mix of the old stuff along with a few surprises and then carrying it around the world.

For more about the Winery Dogs, visit thewinerydogs.com.

James Wood is a writer, musician and self-proclaimed metalhead who maintains his own website, GoJimmyGo.net. His articles and interviews are written on a variety of topics with passion and humor. You can follow him on Twitter @JimEWood.

Check out the premiere of the new Winery Dogs song “Oblivion” below. The track is from the band’s forthcoming album,Hot Streak.

This will be the second album from the group, which features guitarist Richie Kotzen, bassist Billy Sheehan and drummer Mike Portnoy.

“I feel we’ve taken the band to another level,” Kotzen says of Hot Streak. “The compositions are stronger on this album. I feel more connected lyrically and musically to what I did on this record than on the last one. We’ve widened the musical scope of the band on this record and moved it forward.”

Hot Streak arrives on October 2 and can be preordered here. The Winery Dogs will tour on behalf of the album.

BackStory, a series of curated live, feature-length interviews with iconic artists and musicians, announces metal heavyweights David Ellefson (Megadeth), Mike Portnoy (The Winery Dogs), Alex Skolnick (Testament) and Mark Menghi of Metal Allegiance as upcoming guests for an exclusive live interview focusing on the band’s self-titled debut album, and much more.

The interview will take place on the album’s launch date, September 18 at AOL studios in New York City. Tickets are now available for purchase.

Metal Allegiance’s upcoming self-titled album is as pulverizing, energetic, atmospheric, and awe-inspiring as fans of the jaw-dropping list of associated bands should expect. Metal Allegiance contains appearances by Philip H. Anselmo, Charlie Benante, Chuck Billy, D. Randall Blythe, Rex Brown, Ron “Bumblefoot” Thal, Phil Demmel, David Ellefson, Alissa White-Gluz, Matthew K. Heafy, Gary Holt, Jamey Jasta, Chris Jericho, Andreas Kisser, Misha Mansoor, Mark Osegueda, Tim “Ripper” Owens, dUg Pinnick, Mike Portnoy, Troy Sanders, Cristina Scabbia, Alex Skolnick, Steve “Zetro” Souza and Ben Weinman.

Founder Mark Menghi describes his relationship with Ellefson, Portnoy and Skolnick in terms of brotherhood – and it was those four who buckled down to write the first batch of original, all-new material for the Metal Allegiance album. More about Metal Allegiance at metalallegiance.com.

Hosted by legendary music journalist Brad Tolinski, the BackStory event on September 18 will allow guests to enjoy a seat at an exclusive, career-spanning live interview. Each ticket includes a seat in the studio audience, the new Metal Allegiance CD, a meet-and-greet with the four core members, and complementary beverages.

BackStory kicked off in mid-June with guitar and production mastermind Nile Rodgers, who discussed his two-day, all-star event, FreakOut! Let’s Dance Festival, and continued with guitar icon Joe Satriani in July, who talked about his latest release, Shockwave Supernova. Upcoming events include launches with The Zombies, Timbaland and more.

The BackStory live interview series is produced by Tolinski and Laura B. Whitmore. Best known as the editor-in-chief of Guitar World Magazine for 25 years, Tolinski is a respected journalist and the author of Light and Shade: Conversations with Jimmy Page. Throughout his career, Tolinski has skillfully interviewed hundreds of musicians and plays guitar, violin and mandolin himself. Whitmore is a respected music industry marketer, the founder of the Women’s International Music Network, a journalist and editor and a singer/songwriter.

To find out more or purchase tickets to BackStory events, go to backstoryevents.com.

As we've reported, the Winery Dogs—Richie Kotzen, Billy Sheehan and Mike Portnoy—will kick off their Dog Camp 2015 this summer at Full Moon Resort in Big Indian, New York, from July 27 to 31.

Dog Camp is an unforgettable program for musicians and fans of all levels, interests and ages.

It's an opportunity for campers to get up close and personal with three legends as they attend instrument-specific clinics, learn songwriting mechanics and enjoy intimate performances from the group.

As part of a special promotion, if someone (you, perhaps!) signs up during the next two weeks, the Winery Dogs will offer 10 percent off any room, plus a free pair of tickets to any Winery Dogs show on their upcoming North American tour this fall.

The promotion lasts through midnight May 24—so sign up now!

For more about the Winery Dogs, visit thewinerydogs.com. For more about this summer's Dog Camp, check out the two new videos below and visit winerydogcamp.com.

We always love talking to Richie Kotzen. This time, we decided to talk tone.

Kotzen played a huge part in developing the Tech 21 Signature RK5 Fly Rig, which happens to play a major role in how he gets his signature sound.

While Kotzen primarily uses his RK5 live in conjunction with his standard amp rig, this compact unit embodies an entire rig on its own. At its heart is the all-analog SansAmp, which makes it possible to go direct to a PA or mixer. For effects, you have the essentials: a reverb, a delay with tap tempo, a powerful boost and Kotzen’s Signature OMG overdrive.

Below, we discuss the RK5, the Winery Dogs his new solo album and more.

GUITAR WORLD: How did your relationship with Tech 21 begin?

They had sent me a few of their delays and other pedals to try out. I took a liking to the delay and started using it as my primary one. During tours with my band, I found myself doing these fly gigs where I would fly in, do a show or two and then fly out. I really wanted something compact and easy to deal with.

What I wound up doing was combining their delay pedal with the overdrive I was using at the time and then added a foot-switch mechanism for my amp and put it all into one little box. It was crude and wasn’t always super reliable, but I showed it to Andrew Barta at Tech 21 when he was in LA and he agreed it was a great idea. It took a good six months in developing until it was exactly right.

Was there a lot of trial and error involved in the process?

The delay was simple because I already knew what I wanted. The overdrive was a little trickier. I learned a lot about circuits by comparing things but relied a lot on my ears. It went through several variations until Andrew came up with a design that’s just right. I can put that pedal in front of any amp and still get a good sound.

What do you like most about the RK5 Fly Rig?

The fact that it's my personal overdrive design and that it's so small and convenient. It really is about convenience. I've never been a big pedal board guy. I've always liked to keep things simple so I can focus on the music and not have to worry about being on stage doing a tap dance when I'm trying to connect emotionally to the song. The Fly Rig gives me the essentials I need. There's reverb, delay and a two-stage overdrive. It's small and compact. It's perfect.

Since I've got you, let’s discuss a track from your new solo album, Cannibals. What can you tell me about “The Enemy”?

That was a song I wrote last summer. I knew the chorus and melody was special, but after I had demoed the song I realized the verse wasn’t working the way I wanted it to. So I went into my archives and found this old song that had an introduction that really grabbed me. I took that and used it as the intro for “The Enemy” as well as the verse. What’s interesting is that you have the original drums from the demo but then other parts of the song have a completely different drum set that was recorded 10 years ago in a different studio. I was able to meld them together to be effective.

There are all kinds of ways to create music. Sometimes things happen at one time and then over the course of a few years you find that things you thought may not have worked now suddenly make perfect sense!

Has your songwriting style changed much over the years?

Not really. As time goes on I feel more connected to myself and that helps me continue to grow. What works for me is that I try to avoid a situation where I write under pressure. For me, my best work is material that just happens naturally. And it comes in cycles. There might be a period of time where I won’t have any ideas, and then all of a sudden I’ll have a bunch of them. The main thing that happens over time is your awareness of how it all works. The more familiar you are with yourself, the easier it is.

What can you tell me about the Winery Dogs' 2015 Dog Camp?

It’s a great time and the surroundings are really inspiring. It will be exciting for us to once again connect, more personally, with people who are listening to our music. Last year, we had people who were new to music who just wanted to know how to get their band going and other people who were hobbyists who just enjoyed the vibe. The whole experience was genuinely rewarding. I walked away feeling like we really participated in something special. That’s why we’re doing it again.

For more about Kotzen, visit richiekotzen.com. For more about the Tech 21 Signature RK5 Fly Rig, visit its page on tech21nyc.com.

James Wood is a writer, musician and self-proclaimed metalhead who maintains his own website, GoJimmyGo.net. His articles and interviews are written on a variety of topics with passion and humor. You can follow him on Twitter @JimEWood.

Mike Portnoy, Billy Sheehan and Richie Kotzen of the Winery Dogs have announced Dog Camp 2015, their second-annual immersive program for aspiring musicians of all ages and levels. It's set for July 27 to 31 at Full Moon Resort in Big Indian, New York.

This year's Dog Camp also will feature bassist Dave Ellefson (Megadeth) and guitarist Alex Skolnick (Testament, Rodrigo Y Gabriela).

Here are comments from the Winery Dogs and their Dog Camp guests:

Alex Skolnick: "I'm greatly looking forward to appearing as a guest instructor for my friends the Winery Dogs, guys who prove that serious players of their instruments can rock as hard as anyone. Having co-hosted a camp at Full Moon in the past, I know firsthand that it's a perfect location for combining the focus of a learning intensive with the fun of a vacation.”

Mike Portnoy: "We’ve all done clinics over the years, but it’s always been something that’s primarily centered around one instrument that each of us has typically done on an individual basis. Dog Camp is the first time any of us have hosted or participated in a true band camp. As a result of that, we’ve got some incredible surprises in store for everybody attending.”

Richie Kotzen: “What's interesting is to talk about music, concepts, objectives, reasons why you're playing the instrument, what you want to achieve, and how to get to that point, rather than talking about major versus minor scales. I love that feeling of sharing concepts with people. In The Winery Dogs, we all have various experiences that a lot of other people don't have. It's an opportunity to share that and grow; the feeling of moving forward and learning and experiencing something new. That's what excites me about Dog Camp. It's the creative process and creativity that make me want to do music, and I want to share that."

Billy Sheehan: "I want to emphasize that players should keep an eye on what we're doing and why during the performances. In between songs or mid-song, I want to stop to make a point about what's going on and why. The expertise of being able to play ensemble is a bit of a lost art with kids today. They don't do what we did when we were growing up. Right away, we just got in a band whether we could play or not. Now, kids want to get up to a level of expertise and then join a band."

You can check out Dave Ellefson's comments in the top video below.

Produced by Dreamcatcher Events, this vacation experience offers the opportunity to get up close and personal with music legends as campers attend instrument-specific clinics, learn songwriting mechanics and enjoy intimate performances and jam sessions.

Look for the daily itinerary for Dog Camp to be announced in the coming weeks. Registrations for Dog Camp are on sale now at winerydogcamp.com.

Every year, Full Moon Resort, a cozy plot of land in Big Indian, New York, hosts a series of Music Masters Camps.

Music Masters Camps offer attendees the chance to get hands-on learning experience from a host of musical greats, including Paul Gilbert and Dweezil Zappa — and to meet and play with like-minded musicians from around the globe.

Last week, the Winery Dogs — guitarist Richie Kotzen, bassist Billy Sheehan and drummer Mike Portnoy — hosted their first-ever Dog Camp, and I was fortunate enough to attend.

Monday, July 21, also known as arrival day, featured an open bar (which ceased to be an open bar sooner than my bassist, James, and I would have preferred). There was an opportunity to chat with some of the other campers, plus a Q&A/meet-and-greet with the band and counselors.

Counselors (beyond members of the Winery Dogs) included John Moyer of Disturbed/Adrenaline Mob fame, Dylan Wilson and Mike Bennett (bass and drums for Richie Kotzen’s solo band, respectively) and Dave Wood, an accomplished jazz guitarist. Afterwards, we ate an excellent dinner and headed to a building called the Roadhouse to watch an intimate performance by the Winery Dogs.

Day 2 began with Richie’s clinic. He discussed everything from his fingerstyle technique to his vocals and songwriting approach. This was followed by Dave Wood’s clinic, “Jazz Funk Guitar 101," during which he spoke about improv, interesting scale tones, mixing records and one of my favorite moments of the Camp: networking and being kind to your fellow musician. We had lunch, followed by visits to what were called “Discovery Rooms,” select classes with various counselors that took place in different locations all over the campgrounds. Since they took place simultaneously, they provided a much more one-on-one atmosphere.

The first day of Discovery Rooms, James and I made our way to Billy Sheehan’s tent. He answered questions tirelessly, let campers play his bass, gave James some great exercises for his right hand and jammed with everyone and anyone for about two and a half hours. I can only imagine he was exhausted, but that didn’t stop him from talking to whoever approached him, even after the event was over. Afterwards, we made our way to dinner and then the Roadhouse, this time for a powerhouse performance by Richie’s solo band.

Day 3 kicked off with Mike Bennett’s class, “Demystifying Drumming." After giving a wonderful description of his own back story and development, he gave useful advice on odd time signatures, playing styles, dynamics and his approach to playing musically.

Billy’s class followed shortly. Again, he answered questions and discussed his rig, signal chain and playing. We had lunch, and then it was time once again for Discovery Rooms. This time, James went to Dylan Wilson and Dave Wood’s room, and I went to Richie’s.

Richie answered a variety of questions and then pulled players up individually to work on whatever they felt was weakest in their playing. He gave me some killer exercises for utilizing odd passing tones and a few licks to put them in a musical context. Meanwhile, in Dylan and Dave’s room, Dave Wood took the time to write out a chart and explain its practical application to help James in his quest to utilize more “outside” tones. After dinner, Bennett, Wilson and Wood performed as a jazz trio, one of the highlights of the week.

Day 4, the last full day, opened with John Moyer’s clinic, “Live Performance Do’s and Don’ts.” He discussed everything from being on time to connecting with your audience to utilizing a proper power stance. This was followed by Dylan Wilson’s clinic, “Bass for Hire,” where he discussed pocket playing, learning material, choosing proper attire/sound for a gig and networking.

Later that night, the Winery Dogs played a killer set at the Roadhouse. Afterwards, everyone grabbed drinks together and Billy DJ’d a set of old bootlegs, deep cuts and rare recordings, all while telling amazing stories about the material, his early years and everything else you could imagine.

Overall, it was a tremendously unique experience. If they choose to do it again next year, I’ll see you there, campers!

If you've ever wanted to get up close and personal with three of rocks' most talented musicians, here’s your opportunity.

Richie Kotzen, Billy Sheehan and Mike Portnoy — better known as the Winery Dogs — have announced Dog Camp, their first-ever immersive program for aspiring musicians of all ages and levels.

The event is set for July 21 to 25, 2014, at Full Moon Resort in Big Indian, New York.

Attendees will be able to take part in instrument specific clinics and will learn about songwriting mechanics and the music industry. They'll even get to enjoy intimate performances by the Winery Dogs.

If you’re a guitarist, bassist or drummer, there’s a course path for you to follow. But Dog Camp promises to be a deeper experience; the campers will be living, hanging out and jamming together. You’ll also be able to ask the hosts as many questions as as you want — and Kotzen, Sheehan and Portnoy will initiate one-on-one and group sessions to help you realize your goals as a player.

I recently spoke to Kotzen and Portnoy about Dog Camp and what’s next for the band.

GUITAR WORLD: What was the reason behind the inaugural Dog Camp?

Kotzen: It was something that was brought to our attention by our manager. Billy and I have done our fair share of clinics and have also participated in Rock and Roll Fantasy Camp. The idea of being in a position where you can actually sit and talk and play with people who are buying your records or are listening to what you do is inspiring.

What will a typical day be like?

Kotzen: There will be a lot of one-on-one time and in groups. We’ll also have opportunities to play together, but not just cover songs. I really want to address improvisation and being able to unlock yourself and play with other people.

I also like getting involved in what I call “concepts." Asking yourself, “Why am I learning the instrument and what are my goals and objectives?” Then we can start talking about how you can get there. For me, I use the guitar as a creative outlet to express myself; my biggest ongoing goal is to make the connection between me the person and the music that you hear.

Portnoy: We plan to do a lot of things individually and collectively. The "collectively" being the Winery Dogs doing special intimate shows and situations where the three of us will be open to question-and-answer sessions and playing unique things people won’t normally get at a traditional concert.

Individually, we’ll be doing classes where we talk about our instruments, the business and industry and jamming with fellow musicians and campers. It’s going to be a very unique experience.

What would you like campers to take away from this experience?

Kotzen: The feeling of growth and knowing that you’ve learned something. This camp is an opportunity to share ideas and music and to grow as a musician and as a person. We may be the ones being asked the questions, but sometimes during the reveal I’ll gain a new found perspective on myself. I’m really looking forward to that.

Portnoy: I think it’s important for campers to remember that making music is not just about playing a drum solo in your bedroom or concentrating solely on technique. It’s about communicating with other musicians. For me, the interest is getting into it with other musicians and talking about it in a band scenario.

What can you tell me about the new Special Edition Winery Dogs compilation?

Portnoy: The Winery Dogs Special Edition is a two-disc CD set that has a re-issue of the album on the first disc. The second disc contains 10 live tracks from Japan, including several covers and unreleased songs. It also has an expanded booklet with live shots.

We also have the Dog Treats box set, which, in addition to the Special Edition set, includes a bonus disc of all of the demos we did in 2012 (before the album), a DVD with the music videos and interviews, a big booklet with my studio diary from the making of the record and little “treats” like a dog patch and dog tag.

Mike, why did you decide to include a studio diary?

Portnoy: I’ve always been a stickler for detail and documenting things and organizing facts. When I was doing the studio diary, I wanted to get very specific about how a song came together. It’s interesting to read it and see the history behind every song. Like which ones came from Richie or which ones we came with on the spot or which songs morphed from other songs and demos. It’s a cool insight into not only the making of the record, but also the very beginning of the relationship of the guys in the band.

Can you give us an update on your tour plans and new Winery Dogs music?

Portnoy: We’ll be out on the road April to August and plan on getting the follow-up album out in 2015. We’ve already written one new song that’s going to be in the live set.

You’ve all been involved in other bands and projects over the years. What do you enjoy most about being in the Winery Dogs?

Kotzen: I really enjoy the notion of being in a band where everyone is able to share the load. It’s kind of like being on a really strong basketball team in the sense that you have three guys who are all capable of putting up points instead of just relying on one guy. That’s my favorite aspect of all.

Portnoy: For me, it’s about working with Billy and Richie. They’re musicians I have the utmost respect for and am a huge fan of. Stylistically, I enjoy being able to play something that is straight-up classic rock. I love prog and am the ambassador to prog music for this generation, but my musical taste is very broad. Every once in a while, it’s nice to get into Zeppelin, Who and Beatles mode, and I get to do that with the Winery Dogs.

For more information on Dog Camp, visit winerydogcamp.com. For more about the Winery Dogs, visit thewinerydogs.com.

James Wood is a writer, musician and self-proclaimed metalhead who maintains his own website, GoJimmyGo.net. His articles and interviews are written on a variety of topics with passion and humor. You can follow him on Twitter @JimEWood.

As you can see in the video below, the latest edition of VH1 Classic's That Metal Show featured none other than Yngwie Malmsteen.

Malmsteen, who performed the role of the show's house band, launched into his patented riffs as the program went in and out of commercial breaks.

He also paused to discuss his signature Fender Strat and new line of Fender accessories (including strings, which the audience took home for free) and provided a full three-minute performance near the end of the broadcast (Jump to 41:10 in the video).

The episode also featured the Winery Dogs — Richie Kotzen, Mike Portnoy and Billy Sheehan — and Hellyeah’s Vinnie Paul, none of whom performed.

Thanks to the wonders of the internet, you can watch the complete episode below!

Get More:
That Metal Show

As the Winery Dogs, Richie Kotzen, Billy Sheehan and Mike Portnoy team up for some roof-raising improvisation on their self-titled debut.

“I’ve been playing in a trio format almost since I started playing guitar,” Richie Kotzen says.

“The key is listening, responding to what’s going on around you, and not being afraid of space. If you’re talking with someone, and you stop and take a breath, they might want to respond, and then you respond. And when you’re in a three-piece band doing that improvisational thing, it’s the same. It’s language, it’s talking. It’s conversation.”

There’s good conversation aplenty on The Winery Dogs, the self-titled debut from the new power trio featuring Kotzen, bassist Billy Sheehan and drummer Mike Portnoy.

After all, each of these guys has some remarkable credentials. Kotzen has handled guitar duties for Poison and Mr. Big, collaborated with everyone from Gene Simmons to Stanley Clarke, and pursued a prolific solo career.

Sheehan counts Mr. Big, David Lee Roth, Talas and jazz-rock-fusion trio Niacin among the many musical feathers in his cap, while Portnoy has co-founded prog-metal legends Dream Theater as well as progressive supergroups Transatlantic and Liquid Tension Experiment.

While their impressive résumés and even more impressive chops might lead you to expect a total shred-fest, The Winery Dogs is actually filled to the brim with sturdily constructed, hard-driving rock and roll. Tracks like “Elevate,” “The Other Side” and “Time Machine” contain their share of stunning interplay and jaw-dropping licks, but the emphasis throughout is placed firmly on groove and melody.

With Kotzen’s soulfully smoky pipes leading the charge, the overall effect is something like a proggier Grand Funk Railroad crossed with Soundgarden at their most accessible.

“Grand Funk is a good band to bring up,” Sheehan says. “I’m a huge Grand Funk fan, and I see some parallels. Like those guys, we got together in a room, with little amps and little drum kit, and made songs. Organic is definitely a word that applies here, in the sense that it grew on its own and we let nature take its course. There was no plan of, ‘We’ll get together and do this thing where it’s kind of soulful.’ We never did that. We just got together, and this is what happened.”

Sheehan and Portnoy had originally planned to form a power trio with former Whitesnake/Thin Lizzy guitarist John Sykes. After the attempt failed, the two men hooked up with Kotzen in early 2012. Their music already sounds as if they've been playing together for years—and, in a way, they have.

Kotzen first collaborated with Sheehan and Mr. Big drummer Pat Torpey on “Locked Out,” a song from his 1998 solo album What Is…, then joined Mr. Big for 2000’s Get Over It and 2001’s Actual Size LPs. “Billy and I have a pretty long history together,” Kotzen says. “A band can be a very fragile relationship, but we already know each other well and know how to deal with each other, and that’s important.”

Sheehan and Portnoy first played together on the 1996 album Working Man: A Tribute to Rush, then joined forces again a decade later for a Who tribute tour with Mr. Big guitarist Paul Gilbert and Extreme frontman Gary Cherone. The Winery Dogs marks the first time the bassist and drummer have really collaborated on original material, but the songs came quickly once Kotzen joined the party. “The first day we jammed together,” Sheehan says, “we came up with about four or five pieces of music that later ended up on the record.”

“One of us would start playing something, be it a drum beat or a bass line or a guitar riff,” Kotzen explains. “And then we’d jam together and make templates of instrumental pieces—verse, chorus, bridge, whatever—then later we worked out the melodies and vocals. And because the songs were written from the standpoint of focusing on the vocal, the shredding elements came into play wherever there was room for them to naturally evolve.

He points to the song “Not Hopeless” as an example. The song was begun from a riff that Sheehan started playing at one of the group’s jam sessions. “It’s pretty much a standard rock song,” Kotzen says.

“It’s not that elaborate. But in the middle of the song, there’s a long instrumental thing where the bass and drums are kind of dueling and moving together, and suddenly the guitar comes in and plays the unison.

"What happened was, Billy started going off, and Mike started responding to what Billy was doing. I was listening to it and decided that, in the second half of that break, I was going to double what Billy did there. It sounds like we went in and charted it out, but that’s really not how it worked at all.”

For the recording, Kotzen used his signature Fender Telecaster (which features a sanded neck, a Schaller D-Tuner on the low E, a DiMarzio Chopper T mini humbucker in the bridge position and a DiMarzio Twang King pickup in the neck position) strung with D’Addario EXL115s (.011–.049) and run through a variety of amplifiers.

“I used a Fender Custom Vibrolux and a Fender Vibro-King—I often had them linked—and I also sometimes had a Fender Bassman linked in with the Vibro-King,” he says. “Also, I have a 20-watt Marshall head that just has two knobs, tone and volume, and I used that with a 2x12 cabinet. And then, for some of the really heavy stuff—it’s stuff you don’t really hear, mostly for texture—I have a 100-watt Plexi, and I doubled certain things with it in the bigger choruses where I’m playing open, whole-note power chords.”

As befits the album’s live-in-the-studio vibe, Kotzen’s guitar tone is fat and natural sounding. All of the reverb and tremolo you hear comes from the Vibro-King. His bare-bones pedal board contains only a Sobot Drivebreaker 4 overdrive, a Tech 21 digital delay and a Dunlop Jerry Cantrell wah. “I also have a rotating speaker, a Mesa/Boogie Revolver cabinet,” he says. “It has a cool chorus sound, which I used in the song ‘One More Time.’ ” Sheehan played his signature Yamaha Attitude bass through his live rig: a Pearce pre-amp, an Ashly audio compressor, and Hartke LH 1000 and HA5500 heads.

According to Kotzen, the stripped-down, organic nature of the Winery Dogs’ sound—both in the studio and onstage—was one of the things that inspired the band’s name. “A winery dog is actually something real,” he explains. “They were used to guard the vineyards and chase the pests away that would spoil the vines and the grapes. So if the winery dogs were guarding the vineyards, you could say that we’re kind of guarding the old-school approach to making records and making music.

“There’s a lot of great modern music,” he continues, “but so much of it is made by people who aren’t really musicians. Technology has allowed them the creative freedom to make music, which is a beautiful thing. But the kind of music we play requires some degree of time alone with the instrument.

"I’m still learning to play, and I’ve been playing since I was seven, so let’s say you need a good five to 10 years with the guitar to really figure out how it works. You spend years learning the instrument, you play with other guys, and when you make the record, you’re in the room playing together. You’re not using a machine to create the art. I’m not dissing that technology; it’s just that this is what we do in the Winery Dogs.”

Photo: Larry Di Marzio

In the brand-new video below, guitarist Richie Kotzen of the Winery Dogs demos and discusses his DiMarzio Twang King and Chopper T pickups.

“It’s the ultimate combination to have the Chopper T and the Twang King in one guitar," Kotzen says. "I’ve got all the tonal options I need.”

He also mentions his signature edition Fender Telecaster and the Winery Dogs' self-titled new album and tour.

For more information about DiMarzio's Twang Kit Tele set, head here.

For more about the Chopper T bridge pickup, head here.

In this new video posted by DiMarzio, Winery Dogs guitarist Richie Kotzen and bassist Billy Sheehan discuss — and jam on — several songs from the band's debut self-titled album.

The album was released this past summer by Loud & Proud Records.

Although there's a lot to enjoy in the video, you can find out more about the Winery Dogs in the Holiday 2013 issue of Guitar World.

And for even more info, check out our interview with all three members of the band (including drummer Mike Portnoy) right here.

Below, watch Mr. Big, Niacin and Talas bassist Billy Sheehan demo and discuss DiMarzio's Will Power bass pickups. These are the exact pickups Sheehan uses in his signature Yamaha basses.

Sheehan also discusses his overall setup and his new band with Richie Kotzen and Mike Portnoy, the Winery Dogs.

For more about DiMarzio's Will Power pickups, visit dimarzio.com.

For more about Sheehan, visit billysheehan.com. For more about the Winery Dogs, who are on tour now, visit thewinerydogs.com.

The Winery Dogs — Richie Kotzen, Billy Sheehan and Mike Portnoy — released their self-titled debut album earlier this week through Loud & Proud Records.

On the heels of the release, the band are touring heavily. Below, check out some fan-filmed clips of the band performing three tracks from the new album — "Elevate," "Criminal" and "Desire" — at Teatro Rival Petrobrás in Rio De Janeiro, Brazil, July 24.

"The three of us got together at my studio and started throwing around some ideas," Kotzen told Guitar World. "Then we ended up demoing a few of those arrangements, and after Mike and Billy left, I sat down with what we had recorded and came up with some lyrics and melodies and sent it back to them. The guys really liked them, so we decided to try a few more. We did that a few times and ended up developing those ideas into finished songs."

Check out the rest of that interview here.

The Winery Dogs will be featured on the Rockline radio show 8:30 p.m. PT/11:30 p.m. ET August 14. Fans are encouraged to speak with the band by calling 1-800-344-ROCK (7625). The show will be streamed on Rockline's website for two weeks beginning the afternoon after the live broadcast.

The Winery Dogs also will take part in a performance and signing session August 6 at Vintage Vinyl in Fords, New Jersey, where I bought the Magical Mystery Tour DVD last month. I dig it.

The Winery Dogs, a new power trio featuring Richie Kotzen (Mr. Big, Poison), bassist Billy Sheehan (Mr. Big, Niacin) and drummer Mike Portnoy (Dream Theater, Adrenaline Mob), released their debut self-titled album Tuesday, July 23, via Loud & Proud Records.

Below, you can check out two new exclusive pieces of Winery Dogs content, including our stream of "Time Machine," a track off the new album, and a new "track by track" video featuring Portnoy, who discusses "Damaged," "Six Feet Deeper," "Time Machine" and other tracks from the album.

“It’s very exciting for me to be in a solid rock trio,” Portnoy says. “Stylistically, the bulk of my career has been spent playing progressive music, so this was an opportunity for me to do something that wasn’t prog or metal. It’s more classic rock and, at the end of the day that’s what I grew up with and that’s the biggest influence in my life.”

While you're at it, be sure to check out:

• GuitarWorld.com's new interview with Kotzen, Sheehan and Portnoy, including all three Winery Dogs music videos

• A new video of Kotzen demonstrating Roland's CUBE Lite guitar amplifier

• GuitarWorld.com's exclusive premiere of the band's "I'm No Angel" music video.

The Winery Dogs Track Listing:

01. Elevate / 02. Desire / 03. We Are One / 04. I’m No Angel / 05. The Other Side / 06. You Saved Me / 07. Not Hopeless / 08. One More Time / 09. Damaged / 10. Six Feet Deeper / 11. Criminal / 12. The Dying / 13. Regret

For more information on the Winery Dogs, follow them on Facebook, Twitter and YouTube.

Photo: Travis Shinn

Are the Winery Dogs a supergroup? Well, yes.

With guitarist Richie Kotzen (Mr. Big, Poison), bassist Billy Sheehan (Mr. Big, Niacin) and drummer Mike Portnoy (Dream Theater, Adrenaline Mob) in the mix, how could they be considered anything else?

Just don't use that moniker around the guys in the band.

"Most supergroups are short-lived and usually have internal problems," Sheehan said during my recent conversation with all three Winery Dogs. "We didn't get together to try to capitalize on what we've done before. We wanted to do something that was straight out of the box."

The guys prefer to be considered a classic power trio, and they've already released a powerful trio of music videos in advance of their debut self-titled album, which will be released July 23 via Loud & Proud Records. The disc was produced by the band and mixed by Jay Ruston (Anthrax, Stone Sour, Steel Panther).

I recently sat down with Kotzen, Sheehan and Portnoy to talk band origins, gear, the new album and the secrets behind Kotzen’s sound and hybrid picking style.

GUITAR WORLD: How did the Winery Dogs come together?

Portnoy: Billy and I had been working on a separate project with John Sykes, but it was hard to get that project moving along. We both decided we didn’t want to wait, but we also wanted to continue working together and create a classic rock power trio.

Sheehan: Mike and I were ready to go and wanted to move quickly, whereas John [Sykes] wanted to take a more methodical approach to things. There are merits to doing things both ways, but in the end we decided to move on and try something else.

Portnoy: I should clarify that everything we were doing with Sykes was completely different from this project. Everything that's part of the Winery Dogs' album is strictly the three of us, and that's where it began. Once we got together with Richie, it was a complete collaboration. All of this music poured out of us naturally.

How and when did Kotzen enter the picture?

Portnoy: Billy and I began thinking about a guitar player/singer combination we could work with, and that’s when my good friend Eddie Trunk [That Metal Show] mentioned Richie, and it was the perfect suggestion.

Sheehan: I've worked with Richie a lot over the years. Not only in Mr. Big, but afterwards. I'm still not sure why I didn't think of him. I guess he was just such the obvious choice that it escaped me [laughs].

What do you like most about Kotzen?

Sheehan: There's a thing with Richie's playing that makes you sit up and take notice. I remember he once did a short stint with two great jazz cats [Stanley Clark and Lenny White] and started adding a little bit of jazziness into his playing. In the solo on "Not Hopeless" [from the new album], you can almost hear the pads closing on a tenor sax in his playing. Listen to that song and think "sax" and it’s almost like you can see a guy with a tenor [sax] sweating away in some little club.

Portnoy: Richie’s the true triple threat. Not only is he an incredible guitar player, but he’s also an amazing singer and songwriter. He’s one of the most well-rounded guitar players I’ve ever worked with.

Some people have called this project a supergroup. Would you say that’s an accurate assessment?

Sheehan: I don't think so. Most super groups are short-lived and usually have internal problems. We're pretty easy going whenever we're together. The supergroup title is also a high-pressure name to live up to. We didn't get together to try to capitalize on what we've done before. We wanted to do something that was straight out of the box.

[Kotzen joins the conversation]

Where did the name Winery Dogs come from?

Kotzen: What’s funny is that in the collaboration of making this record, everything was easy and just happened so naturally. The hardest thing was actually coming up with a band name [laughs].

I had suggested the name the Winery Dogs. They were dogs that were used many years ago to guard vineyards and keep stray animals from screwing up the vines. I thought that was cool because in a weird way, it parallels what we're doing musically. Many artists these days have gotten more into programming and using samples.

Even though some of those new records are cool and creative, they're not necessarily made by musicians in the sense of what we know a musician is capable of doing on an instrument. So, where winery dogs are protecting the vineyard, we're protecting (or promoting) the old-school thought of making a record by playing an instrument and not sampling or tuning your vocals.

Portnoy: I think for Richie, the name also conjures up “old school” feeling; like "the Rolling Stones" or "the Black Crowes." It had that kind of a feel to him.

Sheehan: We're the ones waving the flag for people who want to really play and sing as opposed to faking it. Holding down the fort against the onslaught of the artificial.

How did the songs on the new album come together?

Portnoy: Generally speaking, 12 of the 14 songs we wrote and recorded were completely collaborative; it was literally just the three of us in a room playing in a circle 10 feet from each other. It was all done very live and very old school.

Kotzen: The three of us got together at my studio and started throwing around some ideas. Then we ended up demoing a few of those arrangements, and after Mike and Billy left, I sat down with what we had recorded and came up with some lyrics and melodies and sent it back to them. The guys really liked them, so we decided to try a few more. We did that a few times and ended up developing those ideas into finished songs.

Sheehan: Sometimes we'd begin by just coming up with a cool groove or chord change. Then we'd go back and revisit and reconfigure it. The good thing about writing in a group situation is that even if you don't have an idea, someone else might have one and that will spark something within you. Brick by brick we put it all together. We went in with nothing, and came out with an album.

Maybe you can discuss a few of the individual tracks on the album. Let's start with "Elevate."

Kotzen: "Elevate" was an interesting scenario. I originally only had the crazy guitar riff and verse completed. It had lyrics in there too, but the song went to an incomplete chorus that had no words. I remember playing the song for the guys, and they both really liked the riff and verse, but weren't too keen on the chorus part.

Then I played them "I'm No Angel," which at the time had two different versions. The first version is the one you hear on the album, but I also had an older version that had a completely different kind of chorus that I didn’t feel worked right with the song. When I first loaded the file to play for Billy and Mike, I brought up the old version of the song by mistake.

Mike heard the old chorus and agreed that it didn't work for “I'm No Angel,” but he knew we had to use it for something. That’s when he suggested combining it with the riff and verse from the song that had the incomplete chorus. That's how "Elevate" was written. It was a Frankenstein of two separate songs we glued together.

I was just going to mention that one — "I'm No Angel"

Kotzen: “I’m No Angel” is one of those relationship songs where clearly one person is bad news, but the other person just wants to continually stay in the bad situation. Finally, the bad person says, "Look, why are you allowing me to beat you up mentally? Wise up, and get out!" [laughs].

Let's discuss "Damaged."

Portnoy: "Damaged" has a great '70s AOR feel to it. That song and “Regret” were two Richie brought in that we didn't want to mess with. They were perfect, and we basically recorded them as is.

Speaking of which, how about "Regret"?

Sheehan: Mike's groove on that song just kills, and it’s one of my favorite pieces on the record. Mike's known for his bombastic, amazing playing on the drum kit, but to hear him pull back and dig into that groove under the piano and that soulful lead vocal just kills. It was a chance for him to do something he might never had done before.

Richie, was there any added pressure on you having to sing as well as play?

Kotzen: The idea of singing with Billy and Mike is completely consistent with what I've been doing for the last 20 years. My whole focus on music really shifted after my first record. In 1989, I released an instrumental record and immediately realized my heart really wasn't into just being an instrumentalist.

I'm a rock guy and as a teenager was always playing in bands with singers. That's what I wanted to do. So for my second record, my intent was to make an album that also had vocals and remember sending off demos to my record label with various singers on them. The label loved the songs, but didn't respond well to the singers.

That’s when they suggested that I sing. I started thinking about it and began listening to some of the singers I liked (Paul Rodgers, old Rod Stewart) and wound up singing lead vocals on it. On every record I've done since [with the exception of a few project ones], I've been playing and singing.

Richie, what’s your current gear setup like?

Kotzen: I've a signature model Fender Telecaster since 1996. It’s the guitar I play and have been using for the majority of my career. As of the beginning of this year, the guitar is available and people can go into their local music store and buy one or order it.

For amps, I use Fender as well. I've been going back and forth between the Vibro-King and the Vibrolux. The main reason I started using the Vibrolux has to do with the way the footswitch works. The Lux allows you to turn the reverb and tremolo on and off, whereas the Vibro-King doesn’t give you that ability from the footswitch. I really like that feature. On the record it's those two amps, along with a Bassman I used for “The Dying." When the heavy guitars come in, it's the Vibro-King and the Bassman linked together. It created a cool sound that blended nicely.

Tell me a little about how you developed your hybrid fingerpicking style.

Kotzen: As far as my technique goes, I've always used a pick, but I’ve also incorporated two of my fingers as well. The way it really came about started six years ago when I was on tour in Brazil. I was playing with the same guitar pick I always used, but it just didn't feel right. I didn't like what I was doing and decided I had to change something. I only had one night until the next show and knew I couldn't just sit in a hotel and practice to try and change something in just a few hours.

So I decided that if I put the pick down, it would force me to change my approach. And it did. That next night was great, and I played the entire set without a pick. After the show, I remember my tour manager [at the time] saying how great it sounded and wondered what I had done. I wound up doing the rest of the tour without a guitar pick, and it’s evolved from there.

Mike, what satisfies you the most about this project?

Portnoy: The fact that nothing was pre-meditated. We all just started playing together and this is what fell out. Everything we did was natural. The thing I’m most proud of, though, is the company that I'm in. Richie and Billy are unbelievably good at what they do, and it's a tremendous honor to get to share the stage with them.

What’s next for the Winery Dogs?

Sheehan: Our intention is to stick around for a while. This is a brand-new band and it's exciting launching a new band during these times. It brings back a lot of memories of how it used to be way back when. There are colors and aspects in this band that we couldn't have gotten with any other combination of people. It’s a big world out there with a lot of people, and we're going to let them know we're here.

For more information on the Winery Dogs, follow them on Facebook, Twitter and YouTube. And don't forget their official website, which lists their current tour dates and more.

Photo: Travis Shinn

James Wood is a writer, musician and self-proclaimed metalhead who maintains his own website, GoJimmyGo.net. His articles and interviews are written on a variety of topics with passion and humor. You can follow him on Twitter @JimEWood.

Today, GuitarWorld.com presents the exclusive premiere of "I'm No Angel," the latest music video by the Winery Dogs, a new power trio featuring guitarist Richie Kotzen (Mr. Big, Poison), bassist Billy Sheehan (Mr. Big) and drummer Mike Portnoy (Dream Theater, Avenged Sevenfold).

The song is from the band's self-titled debut album, which will be released in North America July 23 via Loud & Proud Records. You can see the album's complete track listing below.

The Winery Dogs was self-produced and mixed by Jay Ruston (Anthrax, Stone Sour, Steel Panther).

"I'm No Angel" is the third music video to be released by the new band. You also can find the clips for "Desire" and "Elevate" under RELATED CONTENT to the left.

“I am so excited about the Winery Dogs and am proud and honored to be working with two of the greatest musicians on the planet," Portnoy said.

"Richie Kotzen is such an unbelievable talent, as a vocalist, guitarist and songwriter. I think the Winery Dogs will finally get him the attention and recognition that he so richly deserves. What can be said of Billy Sheehan that hasn't been said already? He is one the true pioneers of the instrument and a legend.”

Stay tuned for US tour news, which will be announced soon. For more information on the Winery Dogs, follow them on Facebook, Twitter and YouTube.

The Winery Dogs Track Listing:

01. Elevate / 02. Desire / 03. We Are One / 04. I’m No Angel / 05. The Other Side / 06. You Saved Me / 07. Not Hopeless / 08. One More Time / 09. Damaged / 10. Six Feet Deeper / 11. Criminal / 12. The Dying / 13. Regret

Photo: Travis Shinn

The Winery Dogs, a new power trio featuring guitarist Richie Kotzen (Mr. Big, Poison), bassist Billy Sheehan (Mr. Big) and drummer Mike Portnoy (Dream Theater, Avenged Sevenfold), will release their self-titled debut album July 23 via Loud & Proud Records.

The album was self-produced and mixed by Jay Ruston (Anthrax, Stone Sour, Steel Panther).

“I am so excited about the Winery Dogs and am proud and honored to be working with two of the greatest musicians on the planet," Portnoy said. "Richie Kotzen is such an unbelievable talent, as a vocalist, guitarist and songwriter. I think the Winery Dogs will finally get him the attention and recognition that he so richly deserves.

"What can be said of Billy Sheehan that hasn't been said already? He is one the true pioneers of the instrument and a legend. I am looking forward to working with the great staff of Loud & Proud Records, some of whom I worked very closely with during their time at Roadrunner and my time with Dream Theater. I look forward to continuing that relationship with the Winery Dogs!”

Stay tuned for U.S. tour news, which will be announced in the coming weeks.

For more information on the band, visit facebook.com/TheWineryDogs, twitter.com/TheWineryDogs and youtube.com/user/thewinerydogs.

The Winery Dogs — a band featuring guitarist Richie Kotzen, bassist Billy Sheehan and drummer Mike Portnoy — recently released a music video for a track off their new self-titled album.

Check out "Desire" below, and be sure to tell us what you think in the comments.

Last month, the band released a music video for "Elevate," the first single from the new album. You can watch "Elevate" right here.

For more about the Winery Dogs and the new album — which will be released in North America on July 23 — visit the band's Facebook page and official website.

While you're at it, check out our interview with Sheehan from last month, right here.

The Winery Dogs Track Listing:

01. Elevate / 02. Desire / 03. We Are One / 04. I’m No Angel / 05. The Other Side / 06. You Saved Me / 07. Not Hopeless / 08. One More Time / 09. Damaged / 10. Six Feet Deeper / 11. Criminal / 12. The Dying / 13. Regret

The Winery Dogs — a new band featuring guitarist Richie Kotzen, bassist Billy Sheehan and drummer Mike Portnoy — have released a new music video for the guitar- and bass-heavy "Elevate," a track off the band's upcoming debut album, The Winery Dogs.

This is the first single from the band, which is planning a tour of Japan this summer.

For more about the band and the new album — which should be released May 15 in Japan via Victor Entertainment — visit the band's Facebook page.

While you're at it, check out our interview with Sheehan from earlier this month, right here.

The Winery Dogs Track Listing:

01. Elevate / 02. Desire / 03. We Are One / 04. I’m No Angel / 05. The Other Side / 06. You Saved Me / 07. Not Hopeless / 08. One More Time / 09. Damaged / 10. Six Feet Deeper / 11. Criminal / 12. The Dying / 13. Regret