Night Ranger is still very active in the hard rock scene, and the band is routinely commended for their excellent live show some 40-plus years after their formation. The group recently released a new live album, “40 Years And A Night With Contemporary Youth Orchestra”, last October.
Guitarist Brad Gillis, who also did a stint with Ozzy Osbourne back in the ’80s, was recently interviewed by Total Rock, and he explained why he’s not a fan of grunge. It’s understandable, as for a time in the ’90s, the genre set back Night Ranger and many of their contemporaries. Although, that’s not the reason Gillis cited for how he feels.
“Probably 15 years ago or more, we were seeing a lot more younger kids come to our shows, and we’d have the meet-and-greets, and the kids would come back,” Gillis said. “And I ended up asking 17-, 18-year-olds, or whatever, I said, ‘Hey, how’d you get into Night Ranger?’ And there was a few different reasons, and I thought it was interesting.”
“One of them was… Some of the kids would say, ‘I’m not into the ’90s grunge thing. It’s depressing.’ Other kids would say, ‘Hey, man, my parents have been playing your music and Def Leppard and Journey around the house since I was growing up. And I got into it and dig it.’ And other kids would just say, ‘Hey, man, it’s fun, positive music.’ And when you’ve got, like I said, bands like Journey and Def Leppard and crazy, more wilder stuff like Motley Crue, I mean, these kids kind of get into that stuff. And it’s not some of the downer music that came out in that grunge era. A lot of the stuff in that era I liked myself, but a lot of it I didn’t care for much; it was just too much of a downer. And I think music should be more of a positive feel.”
He continued: “You’ve got these parents that raised their kids. They’re off to college or away. They’re married and with kids. Now they’re home alone. They wanna relive that decade of decadence, the ’80s. So they’re coming to the shows, ’cause they have no kids to worry about and they wanna relive those old memories from the ’80s.”
Watch Gillis’ full interview below.
