Though it may be a little early in the year, it’s probably a safe bet to go ahead and check off WARRANT’s Rockaholic album as ‘comeback of the year’. The band has had their moments of doubts and discord over the last few years, but singer Robert Mason (ex-LYNCH MOB) has brought a stability and unity to a band that for years couldn’t seem to get out from under the shadow cast by the Cherry Pie guy. Rockaholic, a tour de force hard rock opus, is the band’s best work since the early ’90s. BraveWords.com recently sat down with guitarist Erik Turner (here) and this week we caught up with original bassist, Jerry Dixon.

BraveWords.com: You’ve been touring with Robert (Mason) for three years. What made you decide, that now, was a good time to release new material?

Jerry Dixon: “Well, we decided that about twenty-seven years ago. That’s what we do. The problem is that the long road to making a record is sometimes… hits some walls here and there. Things have to be stopped and re-started. We knew right away when we got Robert and we started writing the ‘same day’. It was definitely the first thing that we were excited about.”

BraveWords.com: The band has been through numerous line-up changes. You’ve had more drummers than I’ve had shoes in my life. Why did you, Jerry Dixon, stick it out? Why didn’t you walk away at some point?

Dixon: “To clarify that a little bit, the people that were in the band were hired to be in the band. With that came the possibilities that they get other gigs or they get other things going on. So, I don’t think as those guys as ‘ok, you’re in Warrant the rest of your life’. Singer-wise, yes it was and Robert is lucky #3. Honestly, it has not been fun most of the time. It’s been very difficult to go through what this band has gone through. I’m really proud of all these guys for really sticking with it through the down sides and the long periods of hell we’ve had to endure. At the end of the day, this is what I do and it’s a part of me.”

BraveWords.com: At any point, did you think ‘enough is enough. I need to join another band,’ or go find work as a computer programmer or something?

Dixon: “I’ve dabbled in a few things that were not really band related, but I’ve got no passion for that. I can’t sell things or just go do something. It’s not in my blood. I’ve tried it and it sucks on the wallet that I don’t have the passion to do something else, but at the end of a shitty day you just look at your guitar and go ‘well, I still love you man.’ You do a little writing and the next day you wake up feeling better. It’s about the passion and the drive. Erik and I with Joey and Steven started this band. It was always our band and it did not belong to anyone else contrary to beliefs. We’re at the point that it’s the last straw – we’re just sick of it and we’re standing up to say this is our fucking band. We started it and we will finish it. We’re tired of being the quiet guys and being the victims. We’re in a good spot now and it takes being a Rockaholic I guess…”

BraveWords.com: You tried making an album with Jaime St. James and it didn’t work out so well. What does Robert Mason bring to the band? The new album sounds like a fresh new band that has something to prove.

Dixon: “Robert brings a lot of things. When people have been in an abusive relationship all they want is stability. You can count on Robert and I don’t have to worry about Robert. Is Robert going to be there? Is Robert going to get on the plane? Is Robert full of shit or does Robert have an ego? It’s just no, no, no and on the show parts it’s yes, yes, yes. On top of all that, he’s just one of the best singers in rock n’ roll. It fits well and I think Robert has been underestimated. He’s never really gotten his day in the sun. Warrant had a couple of summers in the sun a long time ago, but we’ve also never gotten the credit that we were due for still being here. That passion between the both of us (the band and him) – it’s the perfect fit.”

BraveWords.com: When you wrote the songs for the album was your mindset that ‘I need to write the new great Warrant song’ or did you write more for what Robert can do?

Dixon: “Honestly, neither. The way I write is that I get ‘possessed’. Something takes a hold of me and I have to drop everything. If I’m out at dinner or at rehearsal… everything I’m doing is gone. I can no longer function. I need to go home. It takes hold and it has to get out. It’s just a natural thing and I’m sure many songwriters say the same thing. It just goes through you. You have to let it go and not try to change it. You get Robert singing 'Life’s A Song' and you put Steven, Joey, Erik and I playing and singing on it – it’s Warrant and that’s great.”

BraveWords.com: When Joey and Steven returned to the band in 2004, what did that mean to you personally and what did it mean for Warrant?

Dixon: “They came back because we had decided to get Jaime St. James in the band.”

BraveWords.com: Right, you got rid of the one singer they couldn’t stand…

Dixon: “They were like, ‘shit – this could be fun again’. I was so happy that they came back. At first, it was ‘whatever’, because we had all these other cats that were really good musicians, but God dangit when you get in a room with those guys it’s Warrant. The five of us aren’t the musician’s musician, but somehow together… You simply can’t replace that. I was happy and pleasantly surprised. When we get in a room together, you just know that nobody is going to play it like these guys, so that was cool. We went out with Jaime and we had fun. Born Again was our first baby. We were free and we took the responsibility of writing a record by ourselves, which everybody said we couldn’t do because ‘somebody’ was gone. It was a good thing and I’m really thankful that it happened.”

BraveWords.com: And that’s carried over to Rockaholic. It’s a great fun time summer time rock album. It’s not pretentious or contrived. It’s simply a good solid melodic hard rock record.

Dixon: “Thank you.”

BraveWords.com: When Steven left the first time, it wasn’t under the best of circumstances. Was it strange to bring him back? Is he enjoying the band again?

Dixon: “Totally! The decision to not have Steven in the band was not anybody in the current Warrant’s line-up decision. That was a dark time when he got let go. It was stupid. It was ridiculous for the reasons why and I can’t even tell you because you’d laugh. Most people would think it’s just fucked up. It was so stupid and (back when that stuff went down) we call those the ‘black years’. It was just a beating and there were lawsuits. The worst thing is that our manager (Tom Hulet) died right then (1992)… Timing wise everything we had was gone. Every friend we had was suing us. I didn’t blame Steven. In fact, I wanted to go with him…”

BraveWords.com: So, you’re telling me this story of very desperate times and things going wrong. Here we are in 2011 and you’re still around. Why is Warrant still around? Through the years rock critics have slammed the band. They said you weren’t talented and your songs were meaningless… yet the fans (like myself) love you. So, what has kept you going?

Dixon: “The one thing that keeps most of us in check – is shedding the ego. Ego will ruin you and destroy you. It’ll destroy your band. It’ll destroy everything and what I mean by that is being willing to play in clubs again. Most people aren’t going to go from an arena to Pop’s in St.Louis. They’re going to be like, ‘no, thank you’, but we were willing to shed our egos and go play music the way we started out. We went back to the bottom of the food chain, but we kept playing. In those years where we weren’t so visible, we still played forty shows a year. They just weren’t highly publicized because they were in shit holes. So, the willingness to shed the ego and receive an offer for a club and go ‘ok, I want to play my bass. I want to play music’, so what we did by doing that is maintain… well, first of all it kept the lights on at home and it humbled us. If lightning strikes again, it’s going to be so rewarding.”

BraveWords.com: Well, it sort of did. Not long after, you got the POISON tour with QUIET RIOT and you were back in front of 15,000 people.

Dixon: “We’re playing shows with Poison and WHITESNAKE this summer. We have our every five to seven year tour where we get back to playing with Poison…”

BraveWords.com: What I was trying to get to before is that given the circumstances of the death of your manager, the lawsuits, and the internal conflicts… Why stick it out? I know that I would have said ‘fuck it. I’m out’. Yours is a very positive story in the end. You should have given up, but you persisted and that’s a positive message.

Dixon: “I mentally did (give up) many times, but just not physically. I was there, but not really there.”

BraveWords.com: The band is going to tour on Rockaholic for a year or two. Any major plans – package tour or anything?

Dixon: “No, it’s so weird the way things roll now. We’re more like independent contractors now… We hop on this and we hop on that, which is cool because it allows us to get to a lot of different places. For example, we’re going to Europe in October.”

BraveWords.com: I did want to ask you about that – Warrant hasn’t really played outside of the US in many years. You’ve kind of ignored the rest of the world. Any plans to get back to Japan or add more European shows?

Dixon: “Just to explain to the world why we haven’t played there – it was damage control. We would have never made it. We had a hard enough time playing Las Vegas than going over to Australia, Japan or wherever. I wish I had a better reason, but it was simply difficult to commit to that and say ‘yes, we will be there for three weeks and do Europe’. Now that we have Robert in this band (a person that is responsible and reliable), it’s a whole different ball game. We never didn’t go to those places because we wanted to stay home or ignore them. Now, we’re planning on going everywhere. We’re going to Europe starting in the UK in October. We’re going to Canada. We’re re-working out dates in Australia. We have Japan dates coming in. That’s our big game plan. We want to try and get to these markets every couple of years. You have to spend your time there to build your following up.”

BraveWords.com: That’s great. I think fans will be happy to hear that because it’s been over twenty years since you’ve played in some of those markets.

Dixon: “I know. Time flies when you’re in hell, doesn’t it?”

BraveWords.com: That’s the good thing about having Robert. You can commit to shows knowing you won’t have to cancel. Nothing says bad PR like a canceled tour.

Dixon: “We’re the kings of that.”

BraveWords.com: At least, you made it out to the Heavy Mtl (Montreal) show in 2008.

Dixon: “The next night (after that show), you wouldn’t have wanted to see us. That was the beginning of the end. A lot of skeletons flew out of the closet up there in Canada.”

BraveWords.com: Now, that the album is out. Is that it? Do you go back to being a touring heritage rock act or is this the start of something new and you want to start making new albums on a more regular basis?

Dixon: “That’s what we want to do (make more albums). That’s always been our goal. We’ve always wanted to make product and get to the next level of ‘rock n roll-ism’. I’m already thinking ahead. The other night, I had a song in my head and it was like ‘uh-o here we go again’. So, we’re going to continue and putting out a record every year and a half or two years should definitely be pretty easy for us to do now.”

BraveWords.com: I can tell – there’s an excitement to your voice that wasn’t there in the last few interviews and the fans are also excited…

Dixon: “Yeah man. My life is pretty much Warrant and this has been a long time coming.”

For more info visit Warrantrocks.com.