Richie Kotzen (Mr. Big, Poison, The Winery Dogs) is promoting the debut album from his collaborative project with Iron Maiden's Adrian Smith. Smith/Kotzen, will release their self-titled debut album today (March 26th) via BMG. He is featured in a new interview with eonmusic discussing the collaboration, and he also opens up about the future of the Winery Dogs

Speaking about the Winery Dogs' last activity, which was a run of US live dates titled Who Let The Dogs Out, Kotzen said; “We did a tour in 2019, and it was a nice time. We had a good time on the road, and we were talking about the idea of doing something again in the studio, the third record. The pandemic hit, so now I just don’t know."

"I mean, everybody asks, and I’m very positive about the idea of doing it, but I just don’t know what’s going to happen now. You know, we have the situation where we still don’t really know when we can tour, and the Winery Dogs are an interesting situation; we’re not going to just phone it in. We have to be in a room together and write together, and now with Mike in Pennsylvania, and I live in California and Billy’s in Tennessee, it’s not the easiest thing, logistically to bring it all together. We don’t want to send files back and forth, because that doesn’t really work for a band like us, you know? We need to be in the room."

"The only thing I can say is when we get into a position where the three of us can get in a room together and throw ideas around, that there will be a path at that point to a third album. Right now I’m focused on Smith / Kotzen, and this record didn’t even come out yet,  so you know, one thing at a time. We'll see!"

Read the complete interview here.

Recorded on the Turks & Caicos Islands in February 2020, produced by Richie and Adrian and mixed by Kevin “Caveman” Shirley, this nine track opus is a consummate collaboration between these two highly respected musicians who co-wrote all the songs and also share lead vocals and trade off on guitar and bass duties throughout the record.

Exploding with powerful melodies & harmonies, the album embodies the spirited attitude of 70’s classic rock with a melting-pot of influences ranging from blues, hard rock, traditional R&B and more, blending the pair’s backgrounds and life experiences to result in a thoroughly contemporary sound.

The record features special guest performances by Adrian’s fellow Iron Maiden bandmate Nicko McBrain on drums for the track “Solar Fire”, and Richie’s longstanding friend and touring partner Tal Bergman on drums for “You Don’t Know Me”, “I Wanna Stay” and “‘Til Tomorrow”, with Richie picking up the sticks on the other five songs.

Adrian comments: “Richie and I started working together a couple of years ago. We’d been jamming as we’d been friends for a few years before that. We both share a love for classic rock and bluesy rock so we decided to get together and start writing some songs and it went from there. Pretty much everything on the album is handled between Richie and myself including the production. We had developed a really strong idea of how we wanted it to sound and I’m very pleased with how it turned out. There’s a lot of cool songs on there that we are really happy with.”

Richie adds: “We had a very fluid process in writing. Sometimes Adrian would send me a riff and I would immediately hear some kind of melody or a vocal idea. And sometimes it was the other way round so it was a kind of circular motion. We’d get together whenever we could and throw some ideas around and it just evolved, which was great because there was no pressure and nothing other than just a natural course and I think the record really speaks for that.”

The album will be available in these formats:

- Digipack CD
- 12” black vinyl with embossed sleeve
- Digital (streaming and download)
- Limited edition 12” red & black smoke effect colored vinyl

Tracklisting:

"Taking My Chances"
"Running"
"Scars"
"Some People"
"Glory Road"
"Solar Fire"
"You Don’t Know Me"
"I Wanna Stay"
"‘Til Tomorrow"

"Scars" video:

“Taking My Chances” video: