{"id":27136,"date":"2024-05-15T05:30:06","date_gmt":"2024-05-15T09:30:06","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/?p=27136"},"modified":"2024-05-17T07:51:59","modified_gmt":"2024-05-17T11:51:59","slug":"after-forty-years-and-counting-for-tesla-its-still-time-to-rock-part-1-of-3","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/2024\/05\/15\/after-forty-years-and-counting-for-tesla-its-still-time-to-rock-part-1-of-3\/","title":{"rendered":"After Forty Years and Counting, for Tesla it\u2019s Still \u2018Time to Rock!\u2019 (Part 1 of 3)"},"content":{"rendered":"

Hard-rocking band Tesla came on the scene in the mid \u201880s, with their own brand of blues-based, straight-ahead rock. The Sacramento-based group was successful nearly right out of the gate, and the band\u2019s third album was a runaway success that influenced the direction of popular music. Tesla went inactive for a few years in the late \u201890s, but roared back for the 21st<\/sup> century. Having sold more than 14 million records in the U.S. alone, They\u2019re still going strong today, releasing singles and playing to enthusiastic audiences. With dozens of dates across the country between March and August, the group stays busy. Lead singer Jeff Keith spoke with me about the band\u2019s early successes, the game-changing acoustic album, and Tesla\u2019s deft survival in the ever-changing landscape of popular music. — bk<\/span><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

1989\u2019s The Great Radio Controversy<\/em> went Double Platinum. How did that success change things for Tesla? <\/b><\/p>\n

Jeff Keith:<\/b> Well, it\u2019s funny. Because we did the first record, Mechanical Resonance<\/i>, and then when we had success with that, it was time for a second record. And then sometimes in the music business, they start saying, \u201cHey, what about the \u2018sophomore jinx?\u201d when you\u2019re trying to follow the first record. But you know what we said? \u201cHey, we\u2019re not in high school anymore. We\u2019re writing songs. We\u2019re not worried about it.\u201d And we just wrote and came up with The Great Radio Controversy<\/i>, which featured \u201cLove Song,\u201d a Top Ten single. \u201cSigns\u201d went Top Ten too, but that was written by Les Emerson from the Five Man Electrical Band.<\/p>\n

Mechanical Resonance<\/b><\/i> went platinum. Did it achieve that level of sales before the second album came out, or was it sort of pulled along by the success of The Great Radio Controversy?<\/strong><\/p>\n

I think it went Platinum after the second record came out. \u201cLove Song\u201d became this Top Ten single, which reached a lot of people. Then they\u2019d go, \u201cWell, who\u2019s this band? Let me check out their first record.\u201d So they went back and bought Mechanical Resonance<\/i>. It went Gold, then it went Platinum.<\/p>\n

In \u201890, Tesla did the acoustic album Five Man Acoustical Jam<\/em>. Sometimes that record is credited with inspiring the whole MTV Unplugged<\/em> movement. Do or don\u2019t you claim credit for that?<\/b><\/p>\n

We were on tour with M\u00f6tley Cr\u00fce, on their Dr. Feelgood<\/i> tour. They had two nights off in \u2013 what was it? Detroit, Boston, Philadelphia, New York City \u2013 wherever it was. We had two nights off in a row. So we said, \u201cHey, instead of sitting in a hotel room for two nights in a row, why don\u2019t we find a club that\u2019ll let us play our songs acoustically?\u201d And somebody says, \u201cWe should bring down a 24-track mobile truck with two-inch recording tape, and five cameras.\u201d Because that was back when MTV was playing music videos. So we recorded that, and put it on the shelf. Me and Tommy [Skeoch] and Frank [Hannon] went up to a radio station in Boston, and played some of it on the air. Phones were ringing off the hook, back when phones were on a hook. And we said, \u201cWe\u2019ve got a whole night of this!\u201d<\/p>\n

So now MTV Unplugged<\/i> was coming out, and from what I understand, they wanted Tesla to do the first Unplugged<\/i> show. But we couldn\u2019t, because we already had some commitments on the day they wanted to do it. But we did end up doing it eventually; I think we played with the Black Crowes.<\/p>\n

A lot of things that Tesla\u2019s done, like the Five Man Acoustical Jam<\/i>, were just us having fun, and it wasn\u2019t an intention to make an album. So it was sort of an accident that just happened. And it\u2019s the biggest selling record we\u2019ve got to date.<\/p>\n

And when somebody said, \u201cDid you start this whole Unplugged<\/i>? I said, \u201cHey, you know what? Led Zeppelin was doing acoustic songs all the time!\u201d [Tesla bassist] Brian Wheat hangs out with Jimmy Page all the time. And he said he asked Jimmy Page about all that, and Jimmy said, \u201cWe did do acoustic parts in our set, but you guys are sort of the first group that did a whole night of it.\u201d So, hey, who better to have than Jimmy Page\u2019s blessing?<\/p>\n

But did we start something? We\u2019re not trying to take that kind of credit. We were just having fun.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

Something really successful came from something so spontaneous<\/b>\u2026<\/p>\n

That\u2019s what was the beauty of it: that it was spontaneous and that weren\u2019t trying<\/i> to do anything. And we left it completely live. And I think people really appreciate about the Acoustical Jam<\/i> was that it was completely live, no [backing] tapes rolling. We played \u201cModern Day Cowboy\u201d with a totally different feel, because the original feel was rocking guitars and amplifiers; we did it in a whole different version. So that was the fun of it, to take a very amplified, driven song, and do it with a soft feel. It was fun to do.<\/p>\n

If we\u2019re honest, for most live albums there\u2019s post production that goes on: fixes, sweetening. Did you do any of that at all for Five Man Acoustical Jam<\/em>? <\/b><\/p>\n

Nothing, as a matter of fact. Geffen Records approached us and said, \u201cJeff, you need to re-sing this. Frank, you replay that. And so on. We said, \u201cHang on a second. It\u2019s live. We\u2019re not going to do it! It\u2019s like Frampton Comes Alive<\/i>. And they told us, \u201cHey, he<\/i> went in and re-did some parts. And I remember asking, how about one of my favorite records, Aerosmith\u2019s Live Bootleg<\/i>? They said, \u201cWell, they kind of went in there and fixed up a few things, too.\u201d<\/p>\n

Click here to continue<\/a>\u2026<\/i><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Hard-rocking band Tesla came on the scene in the mid \u201880s, with their own brand of blues-based, straight-ahead rock. The Sacramento-based group was successful nearly right out of the gate, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":27149,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_exactmetrics_skip_tracking":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[41,62],"tags":[5372,5371],"class_list":["post-27136","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-interview","category-rawk","tag-jeff-keith","tag-tesla","cat-41-id","cat-62-id","has_thumb"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/27136","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=27136"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/27136\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":27556,"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/27136\/revisions\/27556"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/27149"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=27136"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=27136"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=27136"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}