Doug johnson loverboy biography of michael jackson

But the creative process always comes down to just you sweating it out. You just sit there, you write songs. And so I have this idea, so the technology facilitated a little bit more creativity as we went on, but at the end of the day, we were left to a very much a democratic process to see which songs made the grade. I would get one in there once in a while, maybe two on a record.

You have to kind of be open to other possibilities. Obviously, when looking back now on that whole process, I can say that a lot of us were just tired of being on the road and of not really having a normal life. But our record deal was basically, we need to have another record out, and so I kind of poured myself into starting to learn about soundtrack writing and movie scores and that sort of thing.

We get on quite well. So what we have to offer collectively is an experience for people to really enjoy, and I think the fact that we can still do this and enjoy the experience together, says a lot, and I think that we still got some good miles ahead of us too. They have criteria that I guess they use and all the power to them. At the end of the day, it comes down to, Do you like what you do?

That is absolutely fine. I love going through there Because you get to see all the minutia. Save my name, email, and website in this browser for the next time I comment. Location: San Juan, Puerto Rico. I was a junior in college when that album came out and I remember how well regarded and popular it was. It was both commercial with great hooks and yet heavy enough that the hard rock crowd could get behind it.

They played twice in a span of a year or a little bit more at UF in Gainesville, Florida and they were a very good solid live band, not just a studio creation. The first time I saw them the lead singer had some cringeworthy audience interactions, but the second time he had gotten much better at his stage banter and persona. Much, much more professional the second time in a rather short span of time.

Trivia: One member of the band tried to pick up my then-girlfriend wife-to-be who was sunning herself close to the open bandshell they were going to play that day. That is a great album. Also brings back good memories of a girlfriend from that time who is unfortunately no longer with us. Terrapin Station , Feb 25, Sear and Doggiedogma like this.

Location: Devon. Do I detect an ironic tone, or should I check out this album? Evethingandnothing , Feb 25, Rockin' Robby , Shambolicus , Working Pants and 1 other person like this. Location: Bowman's Hill Wildflower Preserve. Location: Los Angeles, CA. The guitar tone on this record and in particular Turn Me Loose is a tone guitar players are still chasing.

So, so good. Bob Rock as a very young engineer if I remember right, had a lot to do with it. And yes, great record and I'm one of the few around here that thing the follow-up is one of the great pop-rock records ever. Last edited: Feb 25, Location: Austin, TX. Stephen J , Feb 25, Location: Odense Denmark. Never heard that song before though i vaguely recall the band.

Amazing vocalist. Kim Olesen , Feb 25, Location: Atlanta. Loverboy is that most rarest of bands; one that I was really, really into at the time they appeared, but never listen to now. Every other band I was interested in from my teen years I still listen to. A lot. These guys? I'm mildly embarrassed by my one-time enthusiasm. But I still have plenty to say about it.

Loverboy is, in my opinion, one of the weird transitional forms between the 70's and the 80's. It's got the familiar stomping mid-tempo rhythms and guitar heroics of 70's rock, and it's got the preening, posturing, Plant-type frontman, even if he does look more like Bruce Springsteen's nephew. But the sound is way more 80's - polished and keyboard-heavy, maybe some synth-drums in there as well, I can't quite remember.

What strikes me the most about this band in retrospect is how almost bubblegum they are. These songs are so drenched in synth that they're sticky, and it's not the spooky synths of Joy Division or even Soft Cell. This is definitely music for teenage boys, but it's sweetened up so that their girlfriends can dig it at well. That's a really good description of it.

Fiza, a good friend of ours, we have the same manager. And we've done some shows with them in the past. And I can remember when I was younger, that the tubes were kind of this alt band from San Francisco, they did all of these wild crazy things in their show. And then when the backwards completion principle or whatever, I can't wait to get the order that right, let's curl came out that was produced by David Foster, then they really came on strong, sure, with a wider audience, but they remade the theatrical web.

But to your point about our videos, being cheesy or not, I mean, yeah, maybe some people might think that that's kind of what they were. But they were honest, they were just basically us playing. Probably the only kind of one that I cringed out a little bit is we had, I guess it was on get lucky. Or no, sorry, the Keep it up. We had a song called gangs in the streets.

And a record company said to us, you know, we don't really have a lot. I guess they figured this out somehow that we didn't have a lot of male fans, like mostly female fans, or God knows what reason. And so the strategy was to release gangs on the streets was a tougher sounding song. And so the the video for that is us. We did it in Nashville, and we were in a back alley, and we're trying to look tough, rightly, we'd look menacingly into the camera like, hey, you know?

And I can remember after the camera went by, I just broke out into laughter because that's, that's not who I am. I thought, well, you know, one for the team. And let's get this song out there.

Doug johnson loverboy biography of michael jackson

And absolutely. You know, so we'll trust the wisdom of the record company. And, but that was kind of theatrical for us. I think that might have been a theatrical moment in our in our history during that video. And over the years, you guys had a guess? At least nine US Top 40 hits and congrats on that success. But I wanted to ask you who, who serves as the primary lyricist for the band?

Is that a contribution coming from all all five of you guys? Or is it? Is it one person that writes most of the lyrics for the band? Can you talk a little bit about that? Yeah, so the creative songwriting process in our band usually starts with Paul. And Mike, I would say that, if you could sort of distill that whole process down into a couple of steps, it would be that Paul would have an idea, like a riff and a melody, maybe a song title.

And he would go to Mike and say, Hey, I've got this idea, what what do you think, and then the two of them would sit down. And sometimes we would all be in the same room. And we would record our parts, I would say, hey, you know, what, I got a little counter melody that I can play in there. But the lyrics, I would say, a lot of that came from Mike because Mike has to own that stuff, you know, absolutely.

So, so, but I think Paul also was, was, he could tap into what Mike's stream was, and so he knew how to write for Mike. In terms of a vocal delivery, he knew his range very well. He knew the kind of the, the, the area in which the content of the song was comfortable for Mike decision. And so they work together as a really good songwriting duo, I kind of brought in my, my parts, my textures and, and counter melodies and things just to kind of bring some music into, like musical glue, I guess.

I'm kind of the into the, into the pastiche Yep. But I would say, a very long answer to a short question. I'm sorry about that. No, you're good. The the short answer would be that it would be Paul and Mike would be the primary lyricists for their healing. And and I think you answered it, but I was thinking maybe it might be a little bit more than normal based on a lot of the people that I talked to just because of your background.

So I would try to kind of inject a little bit of harmonic sort of interest in the song, I don't know, if you get you want to get technical about it, I would look at a chord that was a basic, you know, , and I go, You know what, let's make this, let's put a flat five in there that kind of resolves on a fifth or, you know, let's put this counter melody line in there, stay out of the way the vocal.

So Paul, and I, basically, we made sure that we kind of stayed out of each other's way. Or if we were in the same territory, that we would be like a mutually reinforcing kind of a chemistry between the two instruments. So I would always try to compliment but not draw too much attention to okay, you know, something that's way off in left center, just for the sake of being, you know, hey, look at me over here, I've got this really cool idea, but then it has no bearing on the song.

That's kind of where I try to fit in as a team member of the of the creative process. I think it's important to point out that you guys released somewhere around eight or nine, studio records and had cells and excess of 20 million copies now that that number may be off, I don't have the exact figures. And it really doesn't even matter. But it's kind of the segue into asking you as a kid growing up and inspiring to be a musician.

Is there ever a time in the beginning, when a kid like yourself says, I'm going to sell millions of records one day? Or does that just happen? In the reason I asked that? I think Steven Tyler had made the comment to his mother at a young age, if I remember correctly, in his memoir, he said, Mom, you're gonna have to put bars on these windows one day, because I'm going to be the biggest rock and roll musician on the planet.

He made that comment. So I guess he had this. Maybe it was an arrogance. Maybe it was a vision. I mean, you can call it whatever you want to call it at the end of the day. But was there ever that for you? Like, did you say one of these days I'm gonna be at the top of the food chain? Or did it just happen kind of organically over time with you?

That's a really great question. Because there has to be some, you know, motive, there has to be some kind of driving force absolutely in your life, that that compels you to want to get to a point where you know, that we that we've achieved that's not that's not the calling for everybody, everybody has your own bright thing. But I would say it was a combination of several moments.

When I was five, the Ed Sullivan show broadcast the first ever Beatles show. And I can remember being changed by that even at five years old. That would have been like or And it was a combination of how cool they looked. And the song, I knew, I recognized early that this was a quality song, this these were these guys are writing some amazing, original music.

And I just thought, Okay, that is something to consider even at five. And so I was just starting to take piano lessons. And I very much was steeped in the traditional classical music genre and the whole catalog of Bach and Beethoven and Chopin, and, and all of those classical composers. So I got my degree in classical music, on piano, and then I didn't really think too much until a friend of mine introduced me to Emerson Lake and Palmer, which was a huge prog rock phenomenon back in the late 70s.

And so I bought all the records. And my father bought me this combination turntable cassette, FM radio player, so what I would do is I put the records on I'd slowed down to 17 because it was sort of 33 they record them at that and I transcribed all Keith Emerson solos, okay, excuse me. And so I go off and I play them for my friends and they were all like, oh my god, man, that's amazing that you can do that because I had the tech technique from being able to play classical music to do some of the key verses, you know, is transcription.

So that was kind of a fun thing to have. And then I actually went into sciences after high school. And I was thinking about taking down going down to becoming a doctor. And I did two years the sciences. And then I played music the whole time, I played casual, little restaurants and things like that, just to make a few done arrows and, and then I moved to Calgary from Vancouver when I was 20, to make some more money to pay for for my school.

And that's where I kind of started to play at night, I got a I saw an ad in a local newspaper asking for a keyboard player and I responded to it and I got to get I got the gig and started playing and Paul Dean saw me in one of the bands and he said, Hey, man, we're I'm putting this new original thing together. And I'd like you to come in and help do some songwriting and, and keyboard parts.

And so that's that's how that happened. But the process of going from a five year old, you know, mesmerized child watching The Ed Sullivan Show with The Beatles on it. That was a turning point. And as I'm sure it was a turning point for a lot of musicians of my era. And then kind of that remaining dormant until I had all my classical training.

And then I discovered prog rock, for me, which was up and yes, Genesis and mature, heavy keyboard bands, those two things sort of propelled me into what I became with Loverboy. I would say it was like, the pop sensibility with, you know, the keyboard prominence. Yes, it will. Yeah, that's,. As a young kid, I was classically trained on the piano as well.

And I think I got to a point where it must have been an age thing where it was no longer cool to play the Bach and Beethoven and Chopin and that type of stuff. You're getting into the teenage years when the girls are not listening to Bach and Beethoven and Chopin, right. So I changed teachers myself and went and learn the entire Paradise Theater album from sticks on the piano, who will talk a little bit about you guys going out on tour with but you know, much like yourself, you know, the piano lessons, the classical stuff, and then you kind of morphed that into, you know, rock and roll, you're a rock and roll guy, right?

Not not that you don't love that, that stuff. But, you know, it was kind of the same progression for both of us how we went from the classical to the, to the rock, and then I think probably the older we get the, the more subtle, or the more docile our, our taste of music is, and we we might gravitate back towards that classical and not as much of the, you know, fist in the air horns in the air, kind of rock and roll and money.

And I still love all that stuff. But the taste is eclectic is my point. It's all over the map. Much like it sounds like yours is. Yeah, that's a good description of what I listened to I have my on my Sirius FM programs saved I've got everything from like lithium, to symphony to CNN, to, you know, real jazz, I just flipped back and forth.

And if I find something that I like that short, I go for it. But yeah, that's kind of the the nice thing about getting older, is that you really do have this incredible span of music that you appreciate. And that's a good thing. If you've lived it. You've I know you and I both having gone through the classical training know, that that lays such an important foundation sure for your subsequent development as a musician, and I can't, you know, I can't sort of reinforce that enough to a lot of young people that asked me, you know, what, what do I do?

How do I start? I said, Well, you know, here's what I did. And it really, really worked for me. There are so many other paths. I mean, Paul McCartney can't read music, and he did. There are lots of incredible musicians who have never been classically trained or have never taken any lessons. They just are incredibly play by ear. And so for people that want some sort of a structured trajectory to get into the sort of music thing, I think you could not do any harm by starting out, at least with some basic classical training.

I agree. And you said it best. Some of the greatest musicians have never taken a day of lessons on anything in their life. It's just Something that they've learned over time and hone that skill. I wanted to say that it's, it's one thing to write songs for over 40 years, but it's another to do it with the same bunch of guys, for the most part, as Loverboy has done it over the years, how have you guys maintained the cohesiveness of the same guys over the years?

I mean, it's rare, you know, you had rush, of course, you have the one offs, but generally, bands don't last for 40 years, what's what's been the nucleus or What's kept you guys go on all of these years? I think it's the complete lack of employability in any other regard in our life. I just, I think there is a magic that we all have the remaining four of us enjoy by getting up on stage and playing for people in the mean, talk about positive reinforcement.

I mean, you can't really talk that you walk out there, and people know your songs, and you deliver them barely faithfully as to how they remember them. And it's just, it's, it's a great experience. So that's great incentive to keep doing what you're doing. We take time off to pace ourselves. We're all getting older. Two years has been a bit much, but certainly looking forward to doing it.

I mean, we're like brothers, we really are, we have our separate lives. And, you know, we endured that where we, we have creative differences, we have, you know, all kinds of nuances that that differentiate us as people, but we know that the whole is greater than the sum of the parts. And so we are happy to to remain together like this. So yeah, when we go out, we tour with some bands that yeah, you're right.

There's like one guy, and in the cousin of the drum tech is the only guy that has a connection to the original group. And I said, Well, you know, is not to judge, it's ultimately up to the fans to decide, is this a viable, you know, setup that I want to spend money on. And every, you know, some people pay for just the experience of the songs.

We did a tour with journey. And we kind of got to experience in the early days with Steve Perry, we did a whole tour with escape came out, we had get lucky. We were like, just rocking it out there. And fast forward to And we got invited to go on tour with them again. Of course, they change their singer arnelle, who's just the sweetest most humblest guy you would ever want to meet.

By the way, he's just a fantastic guy. And but just this uncanny ability to sound like Steve Perry. And so the rest of the guys, I don't know if Steve wanted to go out at that point. And so they saw this guy on YouTube, and they went, Okay, let's do this. And so I don't say that. I don't think there's anything wrong with that. I mean, people love the music.

You know, a critical mass of members in the band that can make it viable, and all the power to them. Well, you mentioned two albums there. And the thought of those two bands, touring together with those two albums escape and get lucky. I mean, I was just I was I was still in high school then. But I can just remember, you know, how popular that stuff was.

I mean, it was the stories of our lives back then. You know, amazing time and music for sure. Now you were inducted into the Canadian Music Hall of Fame sometime around What does that honor mean to you as a musician? And do you feel like for you, is that kind of the pinnacle? I know, there's been a lot of Juno Awards, which is Canada's top honor for for music.

But But would you say that the the Canadian Music Hall of Fame is kind of the pinnacle or do not give much thought to that kind of thing? What are your thoughts there, Doug? Well, thanks for that question. It was an honor. And you know, I didn't never let any of that go to my head, I try to keep it, you know, as real as possible. We, if there was an acknowledgment made, and I guess we have impacted the Canadian music scene in a, in a positive way, which some would argue.

And I think that those kinds of accolades, they're, they're kind of like a, I suppose a grade that you that you get from society as a whole that, yes, we appreciate you, we appreciate what you've done. For our culture, at least a committee of people have decided that it's very flattering, and we were honored. So to put us in with Rush and Gordon Lightfoot, and, you know, Oscar Peterson and all the other people that have been inducted, it really is something that we treasure is humbling,.

I could imagine so and I don't want to Loverboy you to death. Aside from touring with Loverboy, you're also a composer and you've lent your talents to television, radio, in the movies, talk to the listeners about the side of Doug Johnson that they they may not know about, they see you as Loverboy. They see you as the keyboard player for Loverboy.

Talk to us about the other side of the business and what you have going on these days as it relates to those things. Well, thanks for that question, too. So when I'm not touring, or even sometimes when I am touring, I'm writing music for various TV shows up here in Canada, most of the ones that I do are produced in Canada. Lately, I've been doing documentaries, I've done a movie called River blue, which basically is a study of the deleterious effects of the garment industry in the third world.

So you've got companies that go off to places like Bangladesh, or China or Pakistan, and they create the jeans that we buy, say, I don't know, who knows, Costco or whatever. But sadly, what's happening back home where they manufacture these products, is that the environment suffers greatly, because there's no restrictions on what goes into the environment.

So you've got communities that are suffering, you know, respiratory ailments, or cancer or things like that, because these huge corporations are not responsibly disposing of a lot of the chemicals that go into. So that's what that film was about. I was asked I was I was asked to be a part of that, based on some classical music that I've written for another project.

And I also toot my own horn here I have a classical record called notes to self that is very much written in the style of the classic Chopin, Beethoven, Bach, Debussy.