Anyone that knows me well will know that one of my very favourite bands ever – Tyketto is heading over to Australia for Glam Fest Australia in a few short weeks. In fact 15 years ago Danny Vaughn was my very first interview when we started The Rockpit. It will be great to catch up again for the first time since Danny visited Perth a few years back with the Illegal Eagles when we head over to Brisbane. If there’s one band on the bill guaranteed to blow you away it’s Tyketto. So grab your tickets now: there are so many reasons to go to Glam Fest Australia this year but if you know Tyketto’s music and have heard what I consider to be one of the best voice’s from the 80’s Rock scene then you might only need one! So let’s find up what Tyketto has in store from fans Down Under and check in on Danny’s other projects too.

Mark: Great to see you Danny! It’s been a while!

Danny: We have had some gaps!

Mark: It’s actually the 15^th Anniversary of the Rockpit this year, and you my friend were my very, very first interview.

Danny: I saw that, that’s remarkable!

Mark: It’s made even more great by the fact that you are finally coming over with Tyketto! I know we got to catch up last time you were over in Perth for the Illegal Eagles a while ago, but finally my favourite band of my teenage years is here!

Danny: Either that would have been the last time or on one of the Cruises the last time we saw each other.

Mark: I know we’ve talked about it a few times, but Tyketto is finally coming to Australia! How does it feel now that you’ll be here in a few short weeks?

Danny: Well obviously we’re very excited and I had such a great time the last time. It’s funny because the most asked question I get is “Ooh is your wife coming with you?”

Mark: (laughs)

Danny: Well not this time: we’re in, we hit the ground running, we play a show, we fly to the next city, another show, repeat and we’re out! (laughs)

Mark: That’s right, play the show, get a few minutes for yourself and then at the airport at six a.m. for the next one!

Danny: Yeah exactly! I shudder to think about it! The only good thing about it is that as we’re not the headliners we’ll get to grab some rest early! (laughs)

Mark: That will be good. I shall catch you at the Brisbane date this year.

Danny: That will be great.

Mark: We have so much to talk about. Your last solo album ‘Myths Legends and Lies’ and the last Tyketto album ‘Reach’ now that I’ve had a few years to grow with them, just might be my favourites of your very rich career.

Danny: Well you gave ‘Myths Legends and Lies’ quite a healthy review that I was always grateful for, thank you for that,

Mark: And it’s only grown in my opinion since that review. I guess we’ll get the obvious question out of the way first! Any more on the way?

Danny: (laughs) It’s in the works, but let’s say, it’s not imminent! I probably, at this point, have enough songs for another solo album ready to go, well I say ready to go, but I mean written, but not demoed up yet. It’s similar in scope to ‘Myths Legends and Lies’ I think, at the moment, it has a bit more rock and roll on it, but again it’s a collection of ideas from all over the place.

Mark: That was the best thing about the whole experience for me: the fact that it was so diverse, and that it all worked. Brilliant!

Danny: Nobody knew it would work until it was done! (laughs) That was the pleasant surprise of it. But when it comes to a solo album, I have to also put together the time to get it right. So much effort goes into the funding of it. If it’s fan-funded which I’m sure it would be you have to have the time to spend on the various aspects of how that comes together. That’s probably the hardest work of it, so you have to prepare for that. As for Tyketto, we are certainly contractually obliged to put out another album, so it’s being discussed but I wouldn’t say it would be this year. It’s a rarity but this is the first time we’re close to prepping for a Tyketto album and I do not have one single song set aside for that! We really have to start from zero. I have a new guitarist and a new drummer so we’re starting to work together, and I’m gonna be working with a few different people this time. I put some feelers out and said “Hey! Do you want to start sending me some riff ideas, and some song ideas?” from various guitar players I’ve worked with over the years. So we’ll have to see but it could be much more of a conglomerate effort than it has been in the past when it was myself, Michael and either Chris (Green) or Brooke (St. James), you know.

Mark: As you say there have been some changes, a new guitarist in for Chris and a new drummer in for Michael, a fellow founder member of the band. That must have been a hard decision especially for Michael. I’ve always been very much in the camp of, “if the music lives on that’s fine for me” but I know people don’t always feel that way when a band changes members.

Danny: Very much so, I mean people don’t like change, just by nature, I think. It would be one thing if we were touring six to eight months out of the year and this was our life, but it’s not. People have other things that they need to do and want to do, to earn their livings, to be with their family and all that sort of thing. So for Mike in particular it was really hard. All my musical endeavours, almost exclusively, Michael has been involved in, fairly intimately. When we did talk about it, he said he was gonna need a month or two to ponder the decision, which he did. And I don’t think he regrets it at all, but there is a longing for sure, and he’s still very much intimately involved. The thing I’m proudest about the whole line-up change is that there’s just no drama at all.

Mark: Yeah.

Danny: It was a family decision, and funnily enough when he and Chris came back and said “You know I think I want to hang up my touring shoes” I said “You know what? Probably it’s best then that I fold up Tyketto’s tent?” I mean no one likes a band with one original member, that’s always the complaint about stuff like that, I thought – let’s end this on a high note. And they were both “Why would you do that?” So it was really kinda getting push from them. Michael said: “My feeling is, if it’s your voice singing those songs, it’ll be alright”.

Mark: My thoughts exactly.

Danny: And so far that has proven true.

Mark: I think he’s right, but I do think it entirely depends on the band. The first time I saw you guys was that legendary tour when you opened for White Lion back in 1991.

Danny: Right.

Mark: That was a momentous show for me, and I know that you’ve talked about it in the past. You’re there as a support band, first time in the U.K. and the entire crowd is singing your songs from the off. That must have been incredible. And the feedback I’ve had from friends who have seen the last two winter tours you’ve done has been incredible.

Danny: So do you think anyone will be singing along in Australia, that’s my next question? (laughs)

Mark: (laughs) Well it’s interesting, the buzz seems to be about Tyketto. I think you will be pleasantly surprised! I was on the Tyketto forum the other day talking to fans and asking them if they had any questions for you and I mentioned that you were touring here, and this one guy, I’ll not mention his name, cropped up and said. “Yeah I wish! It’s not close to April yet!” We sold half a dozen tickets there in a few seconds! So I can guarantee he and his mates will have you covered in Melbourne, as well as at least two of the local bands, and I’ll have a choir of about 50 that I personally know in Brisbane and plenty more will be over from Perth too!

Danny: (laughs) that’s what we like to hear! I do need to keep pushing that and do a video to let everyone know that it’s definitely happening.

Mark: We will happily push out something too. You have some big thigs lined up. Not only of course the Australian debut for Glam Fest, but also Wild Fest in Belgium, Sweden Rocks and Call of the Wild, which is close to where I lived as a kid.

Danny: And there’s actually some other things that just haven’t been announced yet. And we’re definitely going to tour the UK again in September with another big co-headliner kinda like we did with FM and Dare. That was very successful, I think it made a lot of sense, it was a lot of bang for the buck.

Mark: A lot of friends that I used to see shows with in the 80’s and 90’s who are still going to shows in the 20’s (laughs) said it was one of the best triple bills they’ve ever seen.

Danny: It was a lot of fun, there was a lot of friendly competition! (laughs) Everybody ushed everyone else’s game up on that one.

Mark: (picks up a drink) It’s pine-lime, it’s so hot here at the minute!

Danny: I was gonna ask, what can we expect for weather? You’re in the eight of the Summer right?

Mark: We are, it’s so hot but we are in the West which is kinda like California Summer but at the minute it’s more like Las Vegas it’s 110! Melbourne’s been cold but by the time you get here it will be between 80 and 90 with varying degrees of humidity!

Danny: That’s warm! (laughs)

Mark: So it’s colder over East but it changes so much just travelling north to south over there.

Danny: I tell people a lot that Australia’s a place everybody knows about but until I’d been there you don’t realise that you can’t tour Australia in a bus, it’s like 9 hour drives between gigs, nowt in the middle and it’s all around the coastlines.

Mark: (laughs) yes and Perth is like doing a U.K. Tour with a date in Moscow!

Danny: (laughs)

Mark: Your voice is sounding great at the moment, I always marvel about how some voices just stand the test of time and others not so much. Others look after themselves by laying off the dairy before tours and a host of other tricks. I know that you’ve been on a vegan diet for a few years now. I remember asking John Waite how he kept his voice in shape, and he does nothing! Red wine, cigarettes, but has still the most wonderful voice.

Danny: And you get guys like Robin Zander who chain-smokes cigarettes on stage (laughs) but no my body never adapted to that sort of thing, I couldn’t do it! (laughs)

Mark: Whatever you’re doing it’s working for you. You sounded great on ‘Reach’ from back in 2016, and I think you might sound even better on the next record in, let’s say 2025?

Danny: That would make it nine years in between. Good lord!

Mark: (laughs) I have taken some questions from fans and I’m not quite sure how to ask this one. The pandemic changed a lot of things for a lot of people and you emerged from it looking a little different. I’ll just say ‘The hair?’

Danny: (laughs) Well, you know, as what happens with a lot of things during the pandemic, we all just started to go “Oh what the hell!” (laughs)

Mark: (laughs)

Danny: So I’m saving about 150 quid a year on hair dye products!

Mark: (laughs)

Danny: (laughs) There’s been grey going on u there since my late 30’s so…

Mark: I remember asking Melissa what products you used back on the Cruise as I’d just had mine straightened. It’s a brave move, but Rock and Roll audiences are all getting older.

Danny: Exactly, and look at some of our heroes. Jagger just released a new album, and he sounds incredible on it!

Mark: Doesn’t he just, he sounds great for an 80-year-old!

Danny: (laughs) For an anything year old he sounds great! (laughs) and when he gets out on stage he moves better and more than any of us ever did! We’ve entered into an age where some of us are surviving and in my particular case, I don’t judge others, and I started to look at myself and think ‘it just starts to look wrong’ so this is the truth. I don’t know when we decided it was evil and illegal for people in the public eye to get old?

Mark: (laughs)

Danny: Maybe it’s because we don’t like to get reminded of the process, but it’s happening! Like it or not! (laughs)

Mark: When I spoke to Scott Gorham (Thin Lizzy) when he’d just had his hair cut, I asked him why, I think I said that you and he had h very best hair in Rock and Roll and he just said, “Things change, we all get older”.

Danny: I think I’d throw Tony Harnell into that pot too! His hair was ridiculous! SO exactly, there are those of us who just who don’t really want to show what’s happening as far as the aging process whether its Botox or just using soft lenses. You don’t want to get to the point where you’re using hair dye, and it just looks like shoe polish! That’s not good! But that’s just a personal choice and I find that it actually takes a little bit of a burden off you, to just go “Look here it is!” I have no illusions that something’s going to happen and I’m going to be doing World Tours and accepting Grammys and all that. My career is at this level, and that’s where it will stay, and I think everybody can handle me gray! (laughs)

Mark: That’s a good answer. You did a wonderful thing with Dan Reed a few years ago ‘Snake Oil and Harmony’. I know a tour was cancelled due to Covid. Is anything more happening in that space?

Danny: I don’t think so. I don’t think Dan is doing much musically. He may be at home, but during covid he kind of got back into painting which was something he’d done years and years ago and it’s really taken off for him. And I know that he’s involved in an independent film that he’s written and is possibly starring in, I donlt know the details. We haven’t spoken in a long time. So between that and having a young son, he’s got a lot on his plate. I haven’t heard anything about the Network doing anything so I’m not sure he’s really focussed on music right now.

Mark: Things have gone a bit quiet.

Danny: One of the things that was really nice about doing the Snake Oil thing was that it wasn’t a case of one guy plays for an hour then another guy plays for an hour, or even that we sat idle when the other guy was playing. That started with Dan really at rehearsal, we’d decided that we were going to play a few songs together so he learnt a couple of mine, I learnt a couple of his. But very early on he said to me “If you get familiar with any more of my stuff, while I’m playing and you wanna throw something in just do it, there’s no ego here” and I said the same. So we ended up with this dynamic and in the end there were very few songs just played by the one person which was kinda nice.

Mark: Very cool.

Danny: I’m gonna do a show in Switzerland very similar with Paul Laine.

Mark: Very cool.

Danny: I’m really looking forward to that because Paul and I have become very good friends over the last couple of years.

Mark: Well Paul is very good friends with one of our friends who will be on the bill with you at Glam Fest.

Danny: Yeah, with Cassidy?

Mark: Yeah Cassidy, and her Dad Steve the guitarist for Wicked Smile who play with you in Melbourne. I’ve only ever met Paul the once at The Melodic Rock Fest in Melbourne some years back, he was a lovely guy we spent a couple of hours chatting about music in the pub and at the hotel. I’d never met him before, but it felt like talking to someone you’d know for years. Lovely guy.

Danny: Yeah, he is.

Mark: And a great songwriter.

Danny: Oh yes. And hopefully it will lead to more things. He and I established a friendship over covid, it was one of those remarkable things that happened during that whole lockdown period. Quite a few people I know, myself included had a few things that we thought ‘I’d like to do this someday if I get the time’ and suddenly it was like “Here’s the time!” (laughs)

Mark: (laughs)

Danny: So I really wanted to get into musical composition for television because you can write anything! It allowed me the whole palate, the whole spectrum of what I wanted to create. It could be traditional Irish, it could be SKA, it could be orchestral, it could be whatever. And Paul’s been doing that for years so he’s really been the helping hand, whenever I need help, he’s right there. So he kind of got me hooked on the whole process, and he’s still part of my education in the whole thing. I’m still new, still starting out but because of him and my friend Lee Revill I’ve come leaps and bounds very quickly. It’s kind of exciting because we’ve never met personally.

Mark: Well I have that on you then. He’s a lovely guy and so generous, as are you always so generous with your time talking to us here at The Rockpit. Let’s talk about the new guys in Tyketto now, tell us about your new guitarist and how he came on board. Some of our readers may be familiar with the name ‘Harry Scott Elliott’, but some may not.

Danny: Well happily there were no cattle calls, it’s been very family-oriented. Originally, he’d been with the band Kane’d with the Kane sisters and then eventually in Cheryl’s band (Chez Kane) because he and Cheryl have been together for years and years. And when we did that DVD production of ‘We’ve Got Tomorrow, We’ve Got Tonight’ Kane’d not only opened up for us but the three ladies were our backing vocalists. For people that donlt know we did this DVD recording where it was a sit-down show and we really reimagined a lot of Tyketto’s songs and on some of them there were strings, there were horns, there were backing vocals. It was probably the hardest work I’ve ever done to be honest – putting together all of that! So, Harry was just part of the mix and we immediately liked him: he’s a very likeable guy and you watch him play and you can see how skilful he is. And what was nice was that after he’d done with his set he told all of us if we needed any help or just needed someone to guitar tech he was there. So Chris and Harry bonded quite quickly. So when it got to the time when I was thinking “OK maybe we will take Tyketto forward” I actually went to Chris and said “What do you think of Harry Scott Elliott as a replacement?” and he said “I think he’d be perfect.” What I really didn’t cotton onto at the beginning until later was that Harry’s basically been a Tyketto fan since he was six years old! (Laughs)

Mark: (Laughs)

Danny: So it was quite a big thing for him which really touched me.

Mark: That’s great and he certainly has that style. And now the other new man on drums – Johnny Dee who was of course with you when you were in Waysted? And we now have Chris back too on bass, we had Greg in for a while but Chris is back now?

Danny: Well of course everyone who is involved in the band are working musicians and are working in other fields so it’s not always possible for us to have everybody. So for instance unfortunately Chris Childs won’t be coming to Australia with us so we’ll be bringing over Wayne White from ‘This House We Built’ who is an absolute beast of a bass-player.

Mark: OK. The band who supported you on that last tour?

Danny: Yeah, he’s a beast and I love him. And fortunately, a long time Tyketto song so it won’t be hard for him to learn the songs. It’s just that Chris had other commitments so couldn’t make it this year.

Mark: (Joking) Are you sure it’s not that we upset Chris when he came over with Thunder as I seem to remember him missing the Illegal Eagles tour too!

Danny: (Laughs) That’s true! I’ll ask him (Laughs)

Mark: I’m looking forward to Danny making a full recovery.

Danny: We’re always checking in a wishing him our best. He’s come a long way in a lot of ways and he’s doing his radio show again, but it’s all down to him. He needs to feel physically confident that he can get up on stage and do it for an hour and a half, and man I get that! I definitely get that! I used to just walk out the door and go and now you gotta spend several weeks if not months getting your body ready for a long tour.

Mark: The set that you’re playing at Glam Fest – I hope that you’re getting about an hour?

Danny: Somewhere between 45 and an hour, I think we’re planning on an hour.

Mark: Any surprises?

Danny: Well I think first time in it’s very wise to play as many songs as our fans know and want to hear. So it’s going to be a ‘Don’t Come Easy’ heavy set without a doubt. There’ll be some ‘strength in Numbers in there’ and we may be doing a song off of ‘Reach’ – I’ll have to look at my set list. The problem with us is that our show is also about me (Danny mimes ‘talking’) doing that with the audience, so we always have to factor in an extra 7 – 10 minutes of just blather! (Laughs)

Mark: (Laughs)

Danny: So I’m going to try and keep that to a minimum and give people as much music as possible. (Laughs)

Mark: That sounds great maybe I’ll get to hear ‘Burning Down Inside’ this time, I think it was one of my favourites when I saw you in 1991 and you didn’t play it at Rock City.

Danny: Oh oh! That must have been a very rare occasion that we didn’t play it because we always play it now.

Mark: I think you played ‘Train, Train’ by Blackfoot instead.

Danny: OK a few decades late to make up for that I’ll tell you a bit about that one.

Mark: (Laughs)

Danny: That song was on a demo that I’d done before Tyketto existed. It goes back to the days of 4-track cassette recording. (Laughs)

Mark: Was this Allied Forces or after that?

Danny: No this was post-Waysted. I was writing some songs and a friend of mine had one of those little four track recorders so I’d go over and just lay down some vocals and guitar. By that time we had written quite a bit of the ‘Don’t Come Easy’ album but we didn’t have ten solid songs yet, we had like six or seven and Michael had come to me and said “Is there anything in your backlog?” And I said well I have these kinda soapy ballads but we don’t wanna do that we’re a Rock band!” And the first song I played for him was ‘Standing Alone’…

Mark: Which you know was my other favourite back in the day.

Danny: (Laughs) And when I played that he just looked at me and said “Are you kidding me?” you know, why are we not doing that song? And the second one was ‘Burning Down Inside’ which I think has always been your and Michael’s all time Tyketto song. It rates highly with all of us.

Mark: And of course I assume you will close with ‘the’ song for me one of the two best Rock songs of the late 80’s early 90’s. Do you ever get tired or a song like that, can you get tired of a song like that. I know I can’t, I’ve worn out a few cassettes along the way trying!

Danny: (Laughs) For sure. I have had a love/hate relationship with that song over the years…

Mark: It’s such a powerful song isn’t it, I imagine at the end of a set you’re tired and thinking I’ve got to do that now, it must be sapping?

Danny: That’s the unfortunate side of it, you can’t open with it, you gotta finish with it: I’ve gotta make sure I’ve saved a little bit for the end. I think a lot of us go through that though. I’m quite sure when Bon Jovi was recording ‘Livin’ on a Prayer’ he wasn’t thinking “Oh my God, I have to sing this every night for the next thirty years!” because he might have thought twice! (Laughs)

Mark: (Laughs)

Danny: But you know it’s funny, I guess you go through a period of what I call arrogance, and I know The Eagles did that too with ‘Hotel California’, where you go “Let’s play it first” and you think “Oh you arrogant pricks!” (Laughs) Because for you, it’s ancient history, that’s part of it. But it was my wife Melissa who many years ago put this thought in my head – and she said: “You know that song doesn’t belong to you anymore” You know you don’t think or your own stuff being important to other people’s lives. And that comes out as very egocentric, but it is the truth and something that I am endlessly flattered by, but I had forgotten. And she reminded me that people have taken this song and used it in their lives to get them by, or to make them feel better, or get them pumped up. Whatever it is, it’s important. So once you take that onboard it’s no longer a chore to perform it because you remember “I don’t do this for me. That’s not what it’s all about.”

Mark: That’s so true.

Danny: Another thing that set me straight was I saw an interview with Sting years ago and he was asked a similar question about ‘Roxanne.’ It doesn’t matter if he’s in a Jazz Trio or in front of an orchestra, or with an acoustic guitar alone, or with his Rock Band – he has to play ‘Roxanne’. And the interviewer said: “Surely you must be a little resentful of that?” And he just said: “You know that lady has been very good to me.” (Laughs)

Mark: Well thank you so much for your time Danny, it’s been wonderful as always. I shall catch you in Brisbane.

Danny: And hopefully we will get a bit of time to ourselves to have a good chat. See you in a month!

Mark: Take care and safe trip over.

Danny: Bye, bye.