The Winery Dogs’ Richie Kotzen says he had no fears about taking to the Sonisphere stage despite being outnumbered by metal acts on the line-up.
The supergroup played on the Saturn Stage at Knebworth today and frontman Kotzen says he felt like the crowd fully embraced them, even though they were on the same stage as the much heavier Carcass and Slayer.
He tells TeamRock Radio: “People like music. They like what they like and that means variety. I think there are people here we connected with – I felt really connected today.
“It’s important for people to experience a lot of different styles within a certain genre. In the end it’s all rock, so we felt really comfortable and the audience and band felt really connected.”
Featuring current and former members of Poison, Dream Theater and Mr Big, The Winery Dogs have real rock pedigree. Kotzen says they came together with the intention of making the music they wanted to make, with no pressure on them. The result was last year’s self-titled debut album.
He reports: “This band started based on a desire to create music together. Even when we made the record we didn’t discuss any direction or objectives other than seeing what happened. The attitude was, ‘If we can write some songs we like, then we’ll pursue it – and if not, no problem.’
“In one or two days we ended up with a bunch of ideas, which turned into songs, which ended up on the record. It was all very natural, very easy and enjoyable. That’s been our attitude the entire time.”
The Winery Dogs speak to Sonisphere Radio, powered by TeamRock
