Solid Rock has issued a new interview with JEFF SCOTT SOTO (ex-TALISMAN, JOURNEY, YNGWIE MALMSTEEN). The following is an excerpt:

Q: Tell me bout your musical background from your early years.

A: "Well, I started mainly on r&b; and soul and pop music. I didn’t get into hard rock/heavy metal till much later. All my friends were into it way before me. I thought it was a bunch of noise and crap. And I’m glad that I had that upbringing of music before I got into hard rock ‘cause there are so many artists, without putting anyone down, that are missing another element of music, that they could be applying to what they are doing and that’s one of the things that I was able to bring into the hard rock stuff. Kind of like what STEVE PERRY brought to JOURNEY. He came from a very heavy Motown/R’n’B black music influence and Journey was primarily a rock band and he made them sound more like an R’n’B... a black rock band, so to speak. They had this singer who was crooning this R’n’B thing and they wouldn’t have had the success they did if they didn’t have that style blended in and kind of morphed into their sound. It’s kinda what I’ve been saying, my early years, I’ve brought into what I’m doing now it’s a little different if I were just a rock singer and all I listened to was ROBERT PLANT and KISS and all that stuff like all my friends did. I think I added a different element to things than if I hadn’t had that stuff."

Q: Favorite artists that you listened to growing up?

A: "Growing up there was a lot of JACKSON 5. I mean a lot of that Motown stuff that I was saying. SAM COOKE who is still one of my favorite singers of all time. And then as I got older, TERENCE TRENT D'ARBY was a great influence and then he was basically my peer and in the same age group and coming in at the same time. He was just someone like, 'Oh my God, listen to this guy sing'! He brought all that stuff into his own vibe as well. So yeah, I guess I listen to more r&b;/soul base things to than hard rock, especially these days I try to blend it all. If I have too much r&b; I need to get my rock on. If I listen to too much rock/metal I need to get my jazz and my soul and my classical…"

Read the complete interview at this location.