“Getting to play with Steven is a big deal,” says Todd Kerns, speaking exclusively to BraveWords scribe Aaron Small about the two shows he did with original Guns N’ Roses drummer Steven Adler last month.

On July 9th at Tag’s Summer Stage in Big Flats, New York, and on July 10th at Susquehanna Valley Event Center in Selinsgrove, Pennsylvania, Todd filled in for Adler’s usual bassist Tanya O Callaghan. “The Big Flats show was Great White headlining, Slaughter, us, and Vixen first – a super throwback show! It was great to catch up with the Slaughter guys; Will Hunt is playing drums, he plays in Evanescence, but plays in Slaughter when he’s not doing that. And Mark (Slaughter, vocalist) and Dana (Strum, bassist) are just the best. Mark is just amazing, and Dana will hold court telling you Vince Neil and Ozzy stories all day long, which are brilliant. That thing just kind of came out of the blue. It’s sort of in the same conversation with Minefield, and everything else where a call comes in like, ‘Hey, here’s a thing… we’re having trouble locking anybody up for these shows.’ Now I’m signed on for a few more. It’s one of those things where – fly out on the weekend, play some rock and roll – that was the best part about it. I hadn’t played live music in front of people in a long time.”

Prior to these shows with Steven Adler, Todd “played a very sort of socially distanced party during COVID with Zach Throne from Corey Taylor’s band and The Bruce Kulick Band, and Satchel and Stix from Steel Panther. The four of us got up and cobbled together a batch of songs that we know; and we all know a lot of songs. It was just kind of show up and jam, and play. But that was very sort of loose. It’s a show, but it was very controlled and easy. Prior to that, I hadn’t been on stage since March 13, 2020 – I played with Raiding The Rock Vault (in Las Vegas) the night before they shut everything down (due to the pandemic). But the idea of getting on stage and playing music is so normal to me that it didn’t strike me as odd. The weird thing about playing with Steven’s band is, I’m standing in exactly the same position that I am with the Slash guys, playing a lot of the same songs, and every once in a while I’ll look up and – where’s Frank (Sidoris, guitarist), or where’s Myles (Kennedy, vocalist)? That kind of thing was happening. But it was a lot of fun! Those guys are really good guys, and I think that’s a big part of it. AJ, the guitar player is Canadian; he’s a friend of mine from way back. Steven, I’ve always loved. The guy he’s got singing, Ari, has this amazing Axl-type voice; he’s from South America. And Michael Thomas on guitar, I’ve known from a bunch of different projects in the past, he’s a really great dude. They’re really good at what they do. And they’ve got some of their own songs that I had to learn.”

Steven Adler’s setlist is predominantly GN’R, but there’s two songs from his 2012 solo album, Back From The Dead: “The One That You Hated” and “Good To Be Bad”. “It was actually fun learning those songs,” admits Todd. “This is kind of a weird thing to say, but I enjoy the punishment of having to sit down and learn – the punishment – the idea of having to sit down and learn new songs. I was familiar with those songs, because I remember having that record when it came out, but I hadn’t heard them in a minute. Whenever I’m doing any sort of fill-in position, I want it to be as close as possible, that the guys on stage could just close their eyes and there’s very little difference between their own player and the guy who’s filling in. When you’re essentially a hired gun on a gig like that, the intention is to show up and be as seamless as possible. I know all these songs, except for a couple of the originals. Things like ‘Anything Goes’ we (Slash Featuring Myles Kennedy And The Conspirators) don’t normally play, but 85 to 90% of the set I’ve played before. I have played Appetite For Destruction in its entirety many times in different shows. Even the Sinners did an Appetite night. It’s all part of the DNA.”

Looking at the fan-filmed YouTube footage of the Pennsylvania concert, which can be seen below, Steven Adler seems to be happy and healthy. “He is doing great,” confirms Kerns. “He’s got the right team surrounding him. I’ve played those songs so many times in my life, with so many different drummers… Fitz and I in the Slash band are very religious about getting the songs as correct as possible. But even that, playing with Steven – that’s the guy! That’s the feel, that’s the vibe. It’s no joke. His groove is so integral. Like anybody else, I’m a fan. I would love to have seen those original five (Axl Rose, Slash, Duff McKagan, Izzy Stradlin, and Steven Adler) get back together. Until that happens, I have the pleasure of getting to say I stood on stage with the original drummer.”

Also in July, Todd teamed up with KISS alumni Eric Singer, Bruce Kulick & The Vegas M.O.B.B. – which stands for Members Of Bruce’s Band – being Brent Fitz and Zach Throne, to cover the Bryan Adams classic ‘Heaven”, with all proceeds from the song going to the David Z Foundation, which offers education and financial need to young aspiring musicians. 

At the risk of sounding cheesy, it seems a very appropriate song choice as David Z is in heaven. “Yes, exactly. I think what was so heavy about it really is the fact that David is gone. When Eric initially approached us about… I think Bruce and Eric initially intended on just doing a quick acoustic thing from someone’s living room. But then it sort of grew into a full version. The fact that Brent Fitz played drums on it is even funnier because Eric (who is the drummer for KISS) was like, ‘Nah, you play drums.’ But it was fun. There’s parts where I’m singing some sections and a lot of harmonies; it was very inclusive. He is a ball of energy! No one has as much energy as Eric Singer. He never would do this half-assed. So, we went down to The Hideout, Kevin Churko’s studio, and put it down in one day. Everybody dug in and made it happen. For us, that song’s always been a part of our soundtrack for our whole lives as Canadians; it’s hard to get away from Bryan, really. It went really well. We did enough of our own spin on it; but at the same time it’s very much the same song.”

For those who aren’t aware, “David Z was in Adrenaline Mob and Trans-Siberian Orchestra. He died in a bus accident (in 2017) on the road – which is one of those shocking things that none of us ever think about until you hear a story like that. (Metallica bassist) Cliff Burton, or any number of people – this could happen! You travel in these buses night in night out, and anything could happen. You kind of forget that you’re just a breath away from this kind of stuff. So, David passed and his brother, Paulie Z, has been able to build something positive out of losing such an amazing person. When people ask you to do something like this, you go, ‘Absolutely, yes! Sign me up’.”

Did Singer, Kulick & The Vegas M.O.B.B. have a chance to record or write anything else? “No, that was it. We just did that. I always tell Eric, ‘I think it’s time for an Eric Singer solo album.’ And he says, ‘No one wants to hear that.’ You’d be surprised! Everybody loves Eric’s voice, he’s got a very natural, great tone, and great pitch. I think it would be something people would really enjoy. But I understand. Eric’s not in a position that he needs to do anything. He does things like this for a good cause and the right reasons. I don’t think there’s any sort of future for Singer, Kulick & The M.O.B.B.”

Seeing as half of Toque (Todd Kerns and Brent Fitz) played on “Heaven”, and it’s originally done by a Canadian, it could certainly become a Toque cover. “Yeah, we could easily add it to our list. That was a song that Eric chose. There was a couple of others knocking around, but he landed on ‘Heaven’. Although the song is more about a boy/girl relationship, when you think of it from the angle of somebody being gone, it adds a whole new take to it. It was a good call.”

On August 14th, Toque is playing the Edmonton Rock Fest with Tom Cochrane, Glass Tiger and Prism. “That’s half our setlist,” jokes Todd. “Not really, but we do a Prism song – ‘Armageddon’. We did ‘Lunatic Fringe’, and we have played ‘Life Is A Highway’ on stage, but there’s plenty of things we can choose from. On top of that, we have a new Toque single coming out August 10th called ‘Up To You’. We wrote and recorded a new song, and made a video for it already out in the California desert. So that’ll be part of that set. Toque actually has a pretty good backlog of new material – to be honest, 100% original at this point, with no real plan in mind. We’re sort of entertaining the idea of just putting out singles, and maybe landing on the idea of eventually putting out a CD compiled of those singles, I’m not sure. It’s such an interesting time when it comes to releasing music and what that means.”

Delving further into “Up To You”, Todd reveals that the new Toque song “is upbeat. There’s actually an epic guitar solo in it by Cory Churko. It has Bryan Adams elements about it, which is strange to me, but the funniest thing about Toque is, when we do the songs, we kind of do go, ‘It should sound like the music we’ve been covering.’ It should sound almost seamless, like when someone listens to a collection of Toque songs… that’s an Aldo Nova song, that’s a Honeymoon Suite song, ‘Never Enough For You’ – who is that by? It’s one of theirs. That’s sort of the intention, to draw from those particular parts and time period. Stuff like ‘Up To You’, the new single, we draw from that part of our DNA really. It’s fun, it’s definitely a rocker.”