Y&T were one of the bands who played in the classic 1984 line-up at Donington. They've brought out numerous albums, had dancefloor success over the years with songs such as 'Mean Streak', 'Rescue Me' and 'Summertime Girls', but what are they up to now? I had a totally out of the blue chance to interview frontman Dave Meniketti and catch up on all the that's been going on for him in the last few years.

Firstly I'd like to ask you about 'On the Blue Side'. After playing rock for so many years, what made you decide to do a blues album?

"Actually, it was suggested to me that I should be playing something bluesy because that was my style of guitar playing. This was a long time ago. It was right after Y&T had sort of broken off in '91. I was looking for something to do solo-wise but I hadn't gotten to it yet because I'd spent most of my time since the break up just building a recording studio at my house. Then, once I'd finished that I was going to start up a solo thing and my manager had suggested that a friend of mine who had seen us, who owned a record company, and had said 'Boy, they should be playing the blues.' I said you know, that sounds about right because that's something I really have a lot of background in listening to and I do have that bluesier sort of style of guitar playing but I still wasn't 100% sure. I started just playing with ideas. It started coming out very naturally so it felt like a great thing to do. I started doing that in '93 and just started putting tracks down and I had some really great stuff going on and then I got distracted. Basically Y&T, a couple of years later, decided to do some independent records and so on and so forth. So, I really put it off for like 4 years and I finally got back to it in '97 and finished it, and you know it was a natural extension of my background in the things that I've listened to and my approach to playing. It made sense for me. For the most part it was still pretty rockin'. It was kind of a cross of rock and blues."

Being the focal point of Y&T, were you never asked to do a solo album in the '80's?

"You know what? It really never crossed my mind. It may have been suggested and I certainly got asked to do OTHER things, but it was just never something I really wanted to do. I just felt that Y&T was my bag and I wanted to work at that until that was where we wanted it to be."

I have to say 'Man's World' is one of my favourite old style blues songs and I think your voice fits it perfectly. You did a really good job on that song and I just wanted to know what made you choose that as the lead track on that album?

"Thank you! You know what, that was the first track that I actually got around to recording and that's what started the whole thing off. It was a track that I've always loved. It was weird. I was listening to the TV and they used that song on a commercial. You know it freaked me out. I just thought, oh man, I love that song so much because it was the first time I'd heard it in a long time. I remember my wife saying "God! You should do that song and do a more bluesy version of it." And I said "You think so? Well, that might be a good idea." So I just went out in the studio and started banging down some ideas of how I might do it differently, but as soon as I put it down on tape, I was like, yeah, this is the stuff. So, it really became the focal point for me from that point on as to how the rest of the record was going to be. I felt it was a signature song."

You have a new solo album coming out. Can you tell me a bit about that?

"I'm real excited about that. It's taken me forever to get around to finishing it and I'm still not 100% finished, but I will be soon. It's kind of back to the basics I guess for me and fairly straight ahead rock 'n roll kind of stuff. It's along the lines of what it would be like if we made a new Y&T record. Still with the same energy of what I've done before but maybe a bit of the bluesier kind of thing creeping in there because it's hard for me to get rid of that. I just kind of play it how I feel it. That's just going to come out in everything that I write. It's great stuff. I'm really happy with the material. The writing has gone really well and I think that the fans are going to like this one because I like it. I think that in general it kind of bridges what a lot of people have wanted to hear in some ways out of me, besides the fact that they love the blues things that I've done. I guess the best way to say it is that for me it feels more sort of a mature version of what Y & T was years ago. I've grown in writing and I've grown in playing and so on. I think that's just a regular extension when a writer or a musician grows through the years. Their chops start to move on and the songs reflect that."

Who are the musicians you're using on the album?

"The musicians I'm using are the people who I've had in my live band for the last year and a half. That's Myron Dove on bass guitar, the drummer is Chris Miller. I've been using a keyboard player, I guess for about a year now, and his name is Tony Stead. So those are the guys that I've been primarily using. It's still not completed yet, so there may be an occasional guest artist that might come in, but at this point it looks like it's going to be pretty much solid, that band."

Do you think there's any chance of a new Y&T album or are you just concentrating on the solo thing?

"At this point, I'm concentrating on the solo thing, but it's going to end up being so much like a Y&T record in some ways, from the way that the material is. I really hope that I'll have the opportunity to go out and play some live shows outside of my area for once. It's been difficult because, as you probably know, just with the way the music business is, it's tough to play rock 'n roll quite frankly and still get jobs!"

I was actually going to ask you what you think about the state of the scene these days, because I had read somewhere a few years ago that you just felt like rock music was very much an underground, alternative thing. I just wondered if you felt like it's maybe having a bit of a resurgence?

"Everybody tells me from year to year how the style of music that I've been playing is now having a resurgence! I've been hearing that for 15 years now since my style of music started to go down the tubes as far as the attention of the press. Quite frankly, the fans never lost interest, it was really just the press and that's what needs to be pushed right now. In the United States- I don't know if it's the same any more in Europe, but it certainly wasn't when we used to go to there- but I've noticed that now the European markets have their own sort of MTV type of thing. It's like they're pushing for the market that buys the most records, which is young kids. Young kids are not into necessarily the same things that we were playing back then. It's a similar kind of music maybe, with some of the newer, harder edged bands, but it's still got a different twist to it. Young kids don't want to see older guys play anyway. They want to see people their age."

There's been such a discussion going on for the last couple of months since the last issue of Classic Rock magazine came out and the article they did about more specifically AOR music but, this is exactly what everyone has been saying. You have to try and preach to the younger kids. With a band like Sum 41, they're putting rock with the punk element in it, so we'll just have to hope that it does come back a bit.

"To me, it's not something that I really want to do. I guess I'm just too stubborn. I'm not into the music business to try to stylise my music to the latest trend. It's not something that I want to do. If I were into punk or if I were into rap or something like that, then maybe I would put some of that into my music."

Rap with a silent C?

"Yeah, exactly! It really does nothing for me. So, why would I want to stick some of that into my music? I wouldn't. Success is great, but success at what price? I want to be able to get on stage and look at my music as something that I really wanted to create. I know that the fans really see that when somebody is on stage and is playing their heart out at something that they love rather than trying to capture a new audience. All of a sudden in a dramatic switch around on the kind of music style that they normally would be playing. I know some '80's bands did that when alternative rock became so popular in the '90's. All of a sudden they started sounding like the newer, younger bands and that's fine if that's what they were into and if they were inspired by the newer music. But if you're doing it on purpose to make a profit or to try to get on tour with a newer, younger band, then to me, I'd rather be selling shoes or something! It's not what I got into music for in the first place."

I have to say, in the last year and within the next few months, we've actually been able to see a lot of the bands that we loved from the '80's. They're all doing the same style of music, they're still playing a lot of the old songs, but they're actually writing new songs which still sound as good as the old stuff. I know you would never get the chance to play another Donnington again, but if you were offered the chance to come over and play shows in the UK, would you take it?

"In a heartbeat! Absolutely, I was hoping I would be able to on the previous record but I realised that it was just tough at that time. I mean things change all the time so I'm looking forward to actually going over on this record. I hope that it works out. I've told everybody out there- management, record company people, everyone, that I fully intend get off my ass and get out there and play because I am dying to play again outside of my area, especially in the UK, it's been so long since I've been there. Y&T, the last time we played there probably was 1984 and that's a long time. Now that I think about it, that was it. You saw the last show we did in England! There you go!"

Do you know what Leonard and Joey are doing these days? What happened to Black Tiger?

"The band Black Tiger probably lasted all of about 8 months. That's been and gone a way, way long time ago! (Laughs). I've seen Leonard because Y&T has done some reunion dates in the Bay area just a few months ago and Leonard and myself and Phil got together and did these dates with Stef Burns. The reason we didn't use Joey was because, physically, he's not able to do shows. He's been ill. He's getting better as far as I understand. He's probably fine. He can walk around, but I don't think he's in shape enough to play with Y&T at this point. He's had some problems with tumours being removed and all kinds of problems. It's funny though, it's hard to find out what he's up to and how he's doing and everything because his sister won't let us talk to him and it's really strange. Nobody that I know of has actually talked to this guy in years. We even tried doing a benefit for him, to help him out. Then I got an e-mail message from a friend of his saying that they were talking FOR Joey To me, saying "Thanks for everything, but I don't need any help, I'm doing okay, everything's fine" and so on, and so forth, so I don't know. I really don't know what's going on with him. I wish I could tell you something more specific. But Y&T have been doing these reunion shows. We just started in November and we did 2 weeks worth of shows just in California. It went well, and we've decided that we would be interested in doing some more. So our manager is looking into booking some shows wherever he can find something that sounds reasonable."

I bet it would go down really well if you toured the UK.

"That's right! I've not put that down as a no-no for me. I don't care if it's Y&T, or if it's my own thing. I just want to come back and play again. I'd be there in a second. Even if my guys couldn't make it, I'd find somebody to go out there with me."

There were mixed responses to the last few Y&T albums. Were you just experimenting to see where it would take you?

"You know, I think every time we wrote, it was an experiment, hahaha! Between myself and Phil, we would pretty much write all the songs, we have so many styles of music that we love in our heads. You never can tell what the songs are going to turn out like until you start writing for a project and you get into some sort of a pattern where certain styles of songs keep coming out of your head. We weren't really trying to be experimental, just put it that way. We just wrote like we always wrote for Y&T but there had been a 4 year break in between. We hadn't played together very much other than a few occasional shows we'd do for fun. I think it was just however we felt at that moment. When I go back and listen to those two records, there are some brilliant moments on them and some stuff where I could hear where people would go "Huh? That's weird." But that was how we felt at the time and if anything I can tell you that we are truly musicians that don't care about anything as far as what people want, what people expect, what record companies want."

You don't write to a formula, basically.

"No, we don't. You know, in the old days, before there was a hard rock, or there was a heavy metal or any category like that, that's how people were. The typical example that I would use would be the Beatles. The Beatles started off with these 2 ½ minute little poppy songs and then 2 years later they were doing this experimental sort of trip music, but people loved it all the way down the line. They loved the way the band grew and changed as things went on. Nowadays, you get stuck in one category and damn it, if you don't do exactly what your first record was like for the rest of your career, then people will hate you. That's really limiting. I've seen as we've gone along how bands have changed with us and they like the new things, some don't and that's fine, but I don't want to hold myself to something that I had done in 1980- 81, because I don't feel the same as I did in 1980-81. I know you probably don't feel the same, or think the same way you did when you were 19 as you do when you're in your 30's or 40's or whatever. Things change. Really, from my standpoint, I think that the good side of that is that the things that I did in the past are always with me. There's still a part of me that always is going to have a certain part of that sort of style of writing. Sometimes it comes out sounding pretty close to what I used to do in the early '80's. Sometimes it sounds closer to what I was doing in the late '80's, or the '70's, or something that I haven't come up with ever before and it sounds inspirational and new and it's got a different twist to it and I like it. I have found myself in the last couple of months since I started working on this record, sort of editing myself. Only because I have come up with 3 or 4 fairly different styles of things that I wondered if it was going to fit on a record where 80% of it was all sounding very similar. Then I come up with 2 or 3 other songs that sound just a little bit outside of that and you wonder whether or not it makes sense to put it on the record or just leave it off. I hate having to do that, but I do understand that I don't want to confuse the hell out of anybody, hahaha....including myself! I want to be able to know that when I get on stage, and most of my material is geared to that, I'm not going to feel funny pulling this particular song up now that is so totally different that it doesn't make sense. It's cool. It's all good, it's music and I'm able to do that. That's all I can say! It's really scary for somebody who's been a musician for so many years and has had reasonably good success at it that when things changed in the 90's, I saw so many of my fellow musicians out there having to go into the regular job market. They had to find a regular job because they couldn't make money any more being a musician and that's scary. I'm just happy that I didn't have to do that."

A lot of the songs that you've written have been really tongue-in-cheek, which I love. Some of your songs have really funny lyrics and subject matter. One of my favourite albums - and I don't know how well it sold - was Contagious. I absolutely loved it. Did you intentionally go out in that instance to write songs that sounded like Def Leppard, Van Halen, Gary Moore? Because as soon as I played it the first time I was going "Oh my god, this sounds like…"?

"Hahahaha....you know, we didn't actually, but it's funny that I think that there's always a side of us that has all of those different artists in it and when we write a tune, it ends up just kind of making itself one of those style of songs. And then we do it and go "Well, I don't know. This might sound a little too much like…" and then someone else goes "Nah, as soon as we do it and you put your voice on it, it never sounds like those people!" Hahahaha....."

But it just made me laugh how you had the balls to do it!

"I guess we're going to be influenced by things around us that we like, and when we toured with AC/DC that was a very strong thing and we were out with them for 2 tours. We loved their music so much anyway, so you know, you can't help but have something rub off on you. I've been a big Gary Moore fan for years and so I guess that all of that kind of stuff is in me one way or the other. It all ends up coming out in the wash!"

'Mean Streak' has been one of my favourite songs since it came out. I have the picture disc single, still with the price sticker of 99p from Woolworths on it!

"I bet it's not that cheap anymore, hahaha."

Oh no! About £40 the last I heard! The lyrics of that song are fantastic. Did you know somebody who was married to a bloodsucking leech who inspired that song?

"Absolutely! Of course! As a matter of fact, I don't even want to tell you who it is, but it wasn't me! Yes, somebody within our organisation, let's put it that way!"

I always think of the lyrics whenever I have to ask my husband to do any overtime at work, so I hope you know you've brought guilt into my marriage!

That's right! He can look back at you and say (sings) "You've got a mean streak!"

He does! He quotes lyrics to me all the time! On the same subject, you always had a big following in Japan, but one thing that really cracks me up is, and I'm not having a go at Japanese people, God knows I couldn't translate anything into Japanese, but have you seen…. (I don't even get to finish my sentence because he knows what I'm going to say!)

"Yes, I have. You know what? When we first went over there, it wasn't until then that we started seeing some of the Japanese records with the translations in them. I'll never forget, one time that we were there, they always give you a translator to go with you and she was a really nice woman. This one particular time we were on the road there and somebody came up with a record and gave it to us and we were backstage and we were just looking through the lyrics and we were going "Oh my God, check this out!". We're sitting there laughing right? And we're going "Oh, boy, whoever translated this…." and we said that, and the Japanese record company person said…"

It was her!

"It was her! The translator that we had on the road with us!"

Oh no!

"Oh god! She was just, you know, one of these really, really soft spoken, sweet little girls and I felt….God! Talk about taking your foot out of your mouth! So, we learned our lesson and from then on we made sure to supply the Japanese label with English words for everything! But you know what? Still sometimes I think when they translate it they still don't get the meaning of it, so they just change it accordingly. At least the English words are right!"

Which one was it that you were laughing at? Was it 'Down for the Count', because there are some absolute classics in there.

"Oh really? I didn't even see that one."

'Don't Tell Me What to Wear' is just hilarious.

"Oh God! I can imagine! I don't have that one!"

You don't? The line that really cracks me up is "Don't tell me how to look, think or act" translates to "Don't tell me how to look- dig your ass"!

"Dig your ass! (Laughs hysterically) Hey, that's a better lyric! Don't tell me how to look - and by the way, dig your ass! Oh shit! Man, I got to get that record! No, you know the ones that I remembered were earlier ones. It was like 'Earthshaker' and 'Black Tiger' and stuff like that. Just stuff that was like 'Whoah! Where the hell did that come from? I mean, that doesn't even make sense!' Like "She's got a big bubble and…" I don't remember but there was all kinds of weird shit coming out of there! Hey, you know it's just the way it was back then. We didn't know any better. We didn't know that they were going to do it! That's cool. Man, now I'm going to have to get the Japanese import of that record, absolutely. The last time we played Japan was '96 and I remember saying to one of the guys at the record company "You know, I don't even have part of my back catalogue on CD."

They were really difficult to get hold of for a while.

"Absolutely! So, I figured that if I said that loud enough that maybe, this guy might come to the next gig with some, and sure enough, he did! He came in with 'Earthshaker', 'Black Tiger', 'Mean Streak'... all these different albums that I hadn't had on CD. It's weird, that's something that fans have been asking for since 1983 or 84. Everybody's been asking for the re-release of those old records on CD and A&M just didn't want to do it. I guess they just figured there were too many acts in their back catalogue that they could have re-released records back into CD's and they just had to pick the ones that they figured would sell the most records with or something."

Why do you think it was decided to release the BBC Friday Rock Show sessions?

"You know what? I have no idea! That's a good question because a lot of times, these re-releases that they come out with, the band don't even know about until the last minute or maybe somebody just calls management and says 'Oh, by the way, we're releasing this record- what do you think?' That was one of those kinds of things. I remember my manager called me and said "Hey, by the way, they've got these old tapes and they're releasing them". I don't know if the BBC was doing a lot of releases?"

I think they did yours and Pat Travers at the same time.

"Oh, okay. Well, you know, I just say yes to all of that stuff just because anything new that can get out there that speaks for the band is all good for me."

So, I'll let you get back to work now. Have you got an actual release date for your new album then?

"I don't have a release date, but I know that the companies that are waiting for my record are very mad at me! They keep putting the release date off because I still haven't finished it! I'm just non-stop in there. In fact, as soon as I finish here, I'm going back into the studio to do some more work! The guys are coming over this week and we're tracking the last tunes that need to be tracked. So I'm hoping to be done maybe by the second week of April, so I'll be handing the masters to the company and however long it takes them to turn it around, so I'm expecting June or July, somewhere in that range."

Well, good luck with that. I hope it all goes very well for you.

"Thanks, and if you know any good promoters who want to bring me over there, I'm willing to come!"

Good news for all Y&T fans out there then. I for one can't wait to see Dave if he manages to come over here to tour.