Interviewing Doc McGhee
 

Howdy all!
I'm going to be interviewing Doc McGhee next week for my radio show. I'm pretty excited and am going to focus on Jovi a lot!
Let me know if there is anything you want asked and I'll see what I can do. If you are on facebook, go and give "Rock Hard with Phil and Tish" a like as the interview will be posted up there once completed and after we have played it on our show.
Cheers legends

Cool!!

1) Who made the decision to use Hugh McDonald on the early records? Jon, Bruce or collective? and was there ever a talk about firing Alec in the 80s?

2) How was it to magage Riche and Ori? What are your thoughts why they never really got anywhere as a musical duo?

3) Do you think Richie will come back on day?



Thanx for letting us participate! :)

This sounds awesome. really looking forward to hearing it.

Q: How late in the day was the idea for a NJ double album scrapped?

Q: What happened to the live album that was supposed to have been released from the NJ tour? Why was it binned.

Considering the band parted ways with you after the NJ tour due to the stress levels, do you - looking back - feel more breaks would have been preferrable, or was it 100% the right move business wise to tour as heavily as they did?

Does he have a soundboard or/and full video recording of Hammersmith in his own vaults and how much to release it? :D

Aloha !

You were blamed for nearly breaking up the band by planning too many shows. When looking at the dates for the New Jersey tour it's clear some breaks were supposed to take place. However, these were taken up by extra shows. Were these shows added without Jon/the band knowing or did Jon/the band have the final say before the shows actually went on sale?

Salaam Aleikum,
Sebastiaan

A very clever question. I would like to know this story as Jon blames Richie for leaving the tour, arguing that he and the guys voted and got engaged despite not being happy about it.

It would be great, then add one more question depending on what you answer: Do you think Jon imitated your business model in the last decade with respect to cycles Album + extensive tours with more of 100 shows for year?
If one day McGhee was responsible for nearly killing the band, Jon definitely killed them for the same cause - the excess of Album cycles + long tours + Album without stopping.

You’ve read my mind!


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Q: Richie has stated that management came to them and asked if they'do be willing to do another 70 shows at the start of 1990. Is it true that the tour would've gone on to roughly 300 concerts, had the band agreed to this? And what was the reason for the string of Japanese dates roughly a year after the New Jersey tour had been over?

Q: David stated that the success and the pressure of late 80's lead to Jon "becoming introverted all of a sudden" (WWWB book). Did you notice his or other band member's personalities changing and was there a shift of dynamics in the band at that point already?

I’m interested in anything Alec related. There is so much unclearness regarding his role in Jovi and it rarely gets touched upon. I would imagine Doc has some inside information about what was actually going on behind the scenes with Alecs absence from albums and his relation to the rest of the band.

Looking forward to hearing this ! I wonder how much he will actually spill the beans though , I wouldn't be surprised if Jon has made him sign a contract and cant talk about certain things .

Sticking with the Jersey theme: He was running a management company with some big names in the late 80s, so how directly involved was he with the individual bands, how much was left to his 'underlings' - and does he think he'd have avoided the post Jersey train crash if he had been more directly involved.

Also, if you can get away with it - it's been 30 years noone's going to prosecute... the truth behind the Moscow Peace Festival. I mean, it was a momentous achievement and a notch in his belt ANYWAY, so WAS he beating a drug rap by doing it? And how bad was the drug use behind the stage, cos the accounts all suggest this anti-drug show was pretty wired.

I'm not a 100% sure what drug rap exactly means, but if you're asking if he had to this ordered by the court, then pretty much yes.
He was originally sentenced to 5 years in prison, but was sent on probation.
He had to pay 250,000$ and part of his fine was that he had to support the Make A Difference Foundation. Hard to tell what the demands exactly were, but both the album Stairyway To Heaven - Highway To Hell and the Moscow Music Festival were essentially also projects he had offered in court to avoid going into prison.

Who was his favourite band to manage and why.
He’s managed crue, Jovi, skid row, kiss, GNR and scorpions so the biggest rock bands in world at one point.


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Has this been done yet ?

Has this happened yet and where can we here it?

It was postponed unfortunately, should be happening Wednesday next week now. I’ll post it on our Facebook “Rock Hard with Phil and Tish” once it’s done 🤘

Any update on this interview ?

Talk about a delay…

There was alot of back and forth trying to work out dates and then it never happened.

Until today!

I was way too much of a fanboy on the chat and had a million more questions to ask but not enough time.
Talked to Doc about Alec, some stuff about the Moscow Peace Festival (some interesting news about that and a few other things. He was super accomodating. Going to have the link up on our Facebook page “Rock Hard with Phil and Tish” in the next day or two 🤘

Looking forward to it!!!

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Being aired on ausie radio next Wednesday and should be on the face book page within the next few hours ....this will be so interesting.. Doc should write a book , warts n all !

It’s up!

I’d love it if you headed over to the “Rock Hard with Phil and Tish Facebook page: https://www.facebook.com/rockhardwithphilandtish/
and give us a like and have a listen from there…but if you can’t be bothered it’s all good and you can catch it here:

https://open.spotify.com/episode/2Du...ScmsgesVBpqxbA

There’s a bit on KISS given that he is in Australia with them (and we love KISS) but we tried to get a fair amount of Jovi stuff in. Honestly feel like we barely touched the surface but I didn’t want to keep him too long. Let me know what you think, and excuse my fanboying during the interview…but man…it’s Doc!

nice listen!! well done for the interview!! i think Doc could reveal many interesting things about Bj, even if it was from his point of view...
I wonder if jon has made them all sign stuff for confidentiality or they just dont want to cause any bad publicity for him...
it was obvious though he has stories and stories to tell and that he apreciates Richie and Tico even more than Jon..

Cracking interview really enjoyed … couple of jovi moments

1, Doc had been interviewed for a Four part documentary , Not sure if it was just a Jove documentary or was about the Moscow Peace Festival ( audio wasn't the best )

2, Him & Jon still message maybe a couple of times a month , same with Richie


3,When asked about Alec he stated he was the coolest member of the band and the Rockstar of the band ( iv always said that )


4, Quizzed about who were the real party animals , out of jovi , crue , skid row etc- Doc replied it was on another level for all the bands, but it was Jovi who always took it to to the NEXT level , quite the bad boys it seems in in the 80s , good on em !

He definetely indicated that Alec wasn't the best bass player but said he was the coolest of the band.

Really curious about the documentary, if it's maybe for the 40 year or the Moscow festival or they're unrelated?

[QUOTE=eddie73;1282439]Cracking interview really enjoyed … couple of jovi moments

1, Doc had been interviewed for a Four part documentary , Not sure if it was just a Jove documentary or was about the Moscow Peace Festival ( audio wasn't the best )

Apologies for the audio quality at times, Tish and I were both stuck at home with COVID during the interview so we couldn’t go to the radio station and had to record it at home. I definitely took it as separate documentaries though, Jovi and Moscow Peace Festival.

Was such a fun chat, I was so conscious of the time though, would have loved to have kept chatting! Hopefully I’ll speak to him again at the KISS gig next week. And then he and I will be besties. Yep.

I was holding out for something around this...

Q: What happened to the live album that was supposed to have been released from the NJ tour? Why was it binned.

Maybe next time.

Thank you very much for the interview.

I can answer that - the record company gave Jon a choice between the live album OR the Blaze of Glory soundtrack and Jon chose the latter. Wisely IMO.

Thank you! I don't know why I never thought of it that way. I always tied the proposed live album to the release of Access All Areas and that it would have come right along with it - even down to the cover I thought, but I guess albums (and too many of them) were a different thing.

I remember an interview with Jon putting it that he decided against it at the last minute. I was always convinced that Lay Your Hands (Giants Stadium 1989), Tokyo Road (Rio 1990), I'll Be There and Living In Sin (Florida 1989) were for/off that album and always wanted to know what else...if we've ever even heard them.

Jon's always had a tick with compilation type albums like Grestest Hits and Live Albums even though every band in history has them. That's why we got TLFR and Lost Highway.

I'm not sure if it's an artistry thing or he just sees it as a quick cash grab for the Record Company but he's always been a stickler for those type of releases.

Blaze is my favorite album so I'll take that any day over a live compilation from the NJ Tour.



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It always amazes me that a band with a solid live track record (4,000 shows to 35 million people, or whatever it is) has such a poor output of live albums and DVDs.

Greatest Hits are another thing. There have been two, and the TLFR (good in concept, not in execution). That is ok as both Cross Road and Greatest Hits do cover the band's career for the most part. Some bands have no greatest hits. I don't think Metallica or Iron Maiden have one, for example.

The current market on Greatest Hits are not good right now given entire catalouges are available by the song. Plus who's buying a new greatest hits album from a band with two greatest hits and no new hits since the last one?

In the hypothetical case that they released another greatest hits... what would they name it? the last ultimate hits? They haven't even released a hit song in the last decade. I hope there are no more Greatest Hits.

But if this documentary project is something that is being taken separately from the Box Set, then they could release a double album mixing the top hits with some different takes, and some live material that can be seen in the documentary series. Something like Twenty by Pearl Jam, you know, movie and soundtrack.

It's exactly what I've always thought. And just one sole blu-ray is it?! I mean, how do you even buy Inside Out?? (cd and dvd!!) :)

I agree - there's no place for a greatest hits now I don't think. Crossroad and the Greatest Hits both did it well.

A documentary, boxset and what you suggest could all regenerate some excitement.

Iron Maiden does

Iron Maiden have several, and some of them of questionable quality.

AC/DC I think only have "soundtrack compilation" albums which basically serve as greatest hits records but still aren't 100% the same.

One blu-ray only (MGS 2008) but there are DVD for Wembley 95 and Zurich 2000. There may have been a DVD for the japanese show back in 2008 but I'm not quite sure about that.

But anyway you guys are right, that's weird there's such a poor output of live material for a band who've toured so much.

That Tokyo 2008 show was just a TV broadcast that several semi-official used to sell on DVD (like Atlantic City 2004). Not an official release.

I found the version that I have on the newsgroups in Feb. 2008. My version is gorgeous.