Y&T; frontman/founder Dave Meniketti is featured in a new interview with My Global Mind discussing the band's 40 year career and their upcoming European tour. An excerpt is available below:

Q: The winds of change have blown through the band over the years most notably with the premature death of Phil Kennemore. Obviously that had a major impact on you personally. Did that make you consider quitting the music business and end the band.

Dave: "There was a thought of that, for a short period of time while Phil was going through hell basically, in the hospital  trying to get put back together. Before he passed when we knew he was going there was a conversation with myself and him. He told me in no uncertain terms 'You cant stop, you know you got to keep going.' There is too much to this band that we put into it and at that point we had just released the Facemelter record. He was very proud of that, as well as I was. We both were on the same page when it came to that." 

"For a short period of time I was thinking 'I wonder if I should even keep doing this or not.' There is no question that in my mind the band means everything to me still. I know that we are out there without Phil and kicking butts still. The fans are loving it and so it wouldn’t make any sense to me to stop. At the same time if the fans said 'Nah, that’s it we are done with you guys' that would have been another thing to consider. It has been anything but that. We have been having a fantastic support from the fans, ever since Phil has passed away. They are loving the band the way that it is as well as I am. I don’t see any reason to not keep going forward.”

Go to this location for the complete interview.

Meniketti spoke to Rock Radio NI recently to discuss the band’s 40th anniversary and the upcoming European tour.

Without wanting to go into too much detail he said that the band hoped to have a retrospective released by the end of 2014 as part of the band’s celebration of its 40th anniversary. This would be followed hopefully by a new studio album during 2015.

“We’re also working on another thing that hopefully might get released before the end of the year. I can’t really say much more about it, but it’s kind of going to be a celebration of our 40th year in business as well. A retrospective sort of thing. We’re working on that currently.”

Meniketti also told Rock Radio NI that the band would be trying to include one song from every album during the 40th Anniversary tour and that they were looking at the possibilities of including “This Time” in the setlist for the European tour that commences in October. Despite being a fan favorite, “This Time” has only been played live a handful of times.

When asked about his solo material Meniketti confirmed that he hoped to get back into the studio to record another album and suggested that a European tour with the Meniketti band was a real possibility even before the release of a new album.

To read the whole interview visit this location.