Danny Kortchmar, 2010.

The saga of "Blaze OF Glory" by Danny Kortchmar

So...it's been 20 years since the making of Jon Bon Jovi's first solo album,Blaze of Glory. Who cares,right? well,it's a good story because of the people involved and because it was made "old style"..great musicians all playing together in the studio,2 or 3 tracks a day.

I had gotten a call from my manager to see if I was interested in producing Jon's first solo album,under the guise of songs inspired by the movie "Young Guns 2"....not the most inspiring of films,but Jon felt he needed this as way of doing a solo record without fully committing to a full-on solo with tunes that might conflict with what he was doing with Bon Jovi,the band. Jon is a careful guy who makes his moves with a lot of thought as to how they might be interpreted by his band and his fans.

He had already enlisted the services of of a lead guitar player named Jeff Beck...you've heard of him,maybe?- He was thrilled to death to be working with his hero and wanted Jeff to be as comfortable as possible,so he had asked Jeff who he wanted to play with. At the time his band had Terry Bozzio and other chop-monsters,but after hearing demos of the songs I felt we would be better off getting the best song players to do the basic tracks,then overdub Jeff's solos.

Jon agreed and spoke to Jeff,who was open to doing it like that. See,if we had cut the tracks with Jeff' and his band,the songs would have been overwhelmed....Jon (and all of us) were totally in awe of Jeff,and I felt the focus would then be on Jeff and not so much Jon....I know,.."That"s a BAD thing??" Not what was called for. Jon and I started talking about cats for the tracking sessions and the first name that came up was,of course, Kenny Aronov (2r's,2n's,2 v's???)!

Now,I had never met Kenny but I knew he was the right guy for this and that I would love the guy....right both times! But now,if you're gonna have Kenny,then you need some other madmen in there for the full seance...like say,Waddy....gotta have Wad for this,'cause of his big sound and great ability at PLAYING SONGS! Remember cats playing great parts that helped songs?* Any way,I had to have Randy Jackson in there as well...I had done a bunch of dates with Randy...great ****in player...big badass sound,great groove and always found great parts...point him in the right direction...he's gone!*

Now,how am i gonna convince Ben Tench to join up....Ben is very careful about what projects to get involved in...he probably was not a huge Bon Jovi fan...but once he heard who the other cats were,and once he met Jon,who was a huge T.P. & The Heartbreakers fan,and loved ben's playing,he came onboard..NOW IT'S A PARTY!.....that's Part 1,youse.

So….now we have the band …engineer is Robbie Jacobs-one of the very best…trained by the great Shelley* Yakus. All the cats that came out of A&M
when Shelly and J Iovinne were in charge ,were first class…but that's another story…

Jon had ideas about guest stars doing appearances and we had awesome luck with our "guest stars"…Little Richard came and played live with us…Benmont was on keys as well so we were bullet proof….then,here comes Elton…what a great piano player,along with his other manifold skills…he insisted we turn off the click track…once we did everything flowed beautifully and we* again were make aware of what a ****in great musician (and gentleman) Elton is…

Then …..here comes Jeff Beck. His guitars arrived first and everyone gathered around as JD opened the guitar cases and we all stared at Jeff's main guitars…the old Tele…the main Strat…..awe!!

But wait…there's so much more,'cause this album was cut live,and only our stars were overdubbed…We're in studio D at A & M doing tracks and Jon is next door doing vocals….so it's me and Jeff and Robbie for a week of guitar solos….tough,huh?

There were many guitar players and friends of friends coming by to say hello to Jeff….who was polite but indifferent…he was there to play. Only 2 events got his attention…one was a hot rod show in Pomona and the other was the appearance of Nigel Tufnel! that's right…..huge Spinal Tap fan!

So someone…maybe it was me…called Chris Guess,who came down to A&M and hung out with Jeff….made his week! But when it was time to do his guitar od's there was no fooling around. Jeff asked me if we could just have Robbie, Jeff and me in the room when he was playing. Jon was down the hall, doing vocals.This album was done very quickly, by 80's standards, 'cause Jon had a full schedule. Jeff would listen to the tune, ask what key and then start blasting. Everything he played was brilliant of course so we got takes quickly …solos were over in 5 days. Тhis was such a fun album to make because of everybody involved. Тhere's more and as И remember it I'll pass it on.* Enough for now!