He had just come from a stint of completely sober. With the passing of Eddie, I just wanted to ask you what your remembrances were of him during that run with Van Halen.Įddie was amazing. You guys have done some big tours in the past, including opening for Van Halen. And we don’t see each other that often, so it’s fun for us to get on the road and play some shows together and have that camaraderie. I live in California and our guys live in Atlanta. It’s nice that we live in different places, like some of the guys in Ezra are in New Orleans and some are in Nashville. Good buddies with all of them, to be honest with you. Have you been friends with those bands for a long time too? That was always a highlight for us to have him up there doing thatĬollective Soul is going back out on the road in about nine days, on August 20, with Tonic and Better Than Ezra. We’d ask him if he’d be willing to come up and jam with us on one of the songs, and every night he got up there and played and played. It was a treat to have him here and do his thing.Īnd Tommy did “December” with you guys during that two-week run. We were all not laughing about it but when somebody comes in as a guest to your place or theirs, the choices you make and his choice of the notes that he sang were so cool and were absolutely not what we would’ve done on our own. It was rare to hear that on a Collective Soul record. Tommy took an already great song to the next level with the dobro and when his background vocals come in. “Porch Swing” is actually one of my favorite songs on Blood. And it was just great to be able to share the stage with him. Then Tommy returned the favor on this one. My brother Ed worked with him … in the late ‘90s on Tommy’s solo record. Yeah, we did a two-week run with those guys, which was great.Ĭollective Soul has been fans of Styx for a long time, so it must have been to finally get on the road with them, especially with Tommy Shaw on Blood.Īlways have been big fans of the band like you said, especially Tommy. You recently got off the road with Styx, didn’t you? How are you doing? Are you all rested and ready to go out for another tour? Hope you enjoy reading this interview as much I loved doing it. But longtime fans may appreciate Dean’s very honest and heartfelt thoughts about everything and everyone from Tommy Shaw (Styx) and Eddie Van Halen to unreleased Collective Soul albums and songs both new and old. It ran about half an hour, so it’s edited down a bit. On Wednesday, August 11, I had the honor of speaking by phone with Collective Soul rhythm guitarist and co-founder Dean Roland, younger brother of singer/main songwriter Ed Roland, about his career with CS and their upcoming late summer/fall tour with Better Than Ezra and Tonic. The 2019 Blood LP and 2020 Half & Half EP are their latest releases, and as you will read below, Collective Soul is not even close to slowing down. Mainstream fame would naturally decrease over time in an always-changing musical landscape, but CS still churned out some popular albums like 1997’s Disciplined Breakdown, 1999’s Dosage ( “Run” and “Heavy”) and 2000 LP Blender (“Why, Pt. Their 3x platinum self-titled LP followed in 1995, featuring hits “December,” “The World I Know,” and “Gel.” By then, CS had opened for Aerosmith and Van Halen, and appeared at Woodstock 1994 (and later on, Woodstock ’99). Formed in 1992, the band rocketed to stardom with hard rock hit “Shine” and its accompanying 1994 major label debut, Hints, Allegations & Things Left Unsaid. For nearly 30 years, Atlanta, Georgia rock quintet Collective Soul has built up a rich discography that as of 2019 includes 10 studio albums, which is no small feat.
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