On July 17th, The Darkness frontman Justin Hawkins shared another episode of his Justin Hawkins Rides Again podcast along with the following message:

"Today I am speaking to the legendary guitarist and vocalist, Richie Kotzen! You may know  Richie from his time in Poison and Mr Big, or currently as the frontman of the power trio that is The Winery Dogs. If not, this is your introduction to an incredibly talented human being and musician. He is a fantastic guitarist and as well as being a part of those bands I mentioned before, he is also a prolific solo artist."

On working with Poison from 1991 - 1993

Kotzen: "I met with Bret (Michaels / vocals) and we had a lot in common. He's talking about The Allman Brother and Lynyrd Skynyrd and all these soul acts, he was from Pennsylvania where I'm from. And then he says to me, 'We're not looking for a guy to kinda replace CC (Deville) and do what we've already done. We want someone that writes songs and can be a part of the band.' We got together and I played him two songs I was working on. One was called 'Stand', which became the first single for the album (Native Tongue), and another one was called 'Fire & Ice', which was a ballad-type thing. We made what I thought was a great record. Initially, it was very well received; the first video did very well on MTV. And then, all of a sudden, in the time it took to release the second single ('Until You Suffer Some') , everything shifted."

The Winery Dogs - also featuring bassist Billy Sheehan and drummer Mike Portnoy - released their aptly named third album, III, back in February via the band’s Three Dog Music label (via Burnside Distribution/The Orchard). Order here.

III tracklisting:

"Xanadu"
"Mad World"
"Breakthrough"
"Rise"
"Stars"
"The Vengeance"
"Pharaoh"
"Gaslight"
"Lorelei"
"The Red Wine"

"Stars" video:

"Breakthrough" video:

"Xanadu" video:

"Mad World" video:

The Winery Dogs’ tour itinerary, as well as ticket and VIP package info, can be found on the band’s official website, here.