There haven’t been many times in my career as a music journalist where I found myself in awe during an interview – and I have to be honest I certainly wasn’t expecting it when I sat down to interview the lead singer of glam metal outfit Enuff Z’Nuff – Chip Z’Nuff.
Sure I liked the band – I embraced the whole Sunset Strip scene at a very early age and if I’m putting together a playlist of music to listen to from that scene they will feature on it. But nothing prepared for me the stories that came from Chip as I sat down to talk to him about he band’s upcoming Australian tour – this is a man who knows how to tell a story, not only that but he is also brutally honest.
So soon everything was on table – stories about being around the likes of Sebastian Bach and the rest of Skid Row, Poison, Twisted Sister etc – and what also became apparent was just how much Chip loves music in general and of course Australia.
“Of course I love Australia,” he says with a very, very loud laugh when we begin to talk about the band heading here with Pretty Boy Floyd. “It’s one of my favorite countries to go to. It’s surrounded by great rock and roll fans. The trim is outstanding out there. I love your food. I love your wine. I love your women. Everything about your country is fantastic except for the spiders.”
I think it’s going to be a wonderful celebration of hard rock and heavy metal,” he continues. “It’s a big glam slam metal jam tour. Everybody gets to come out dressed up. There’ll be tons of trim there and wearing mini skirts and dressed up in rock and roll regalia. And it’s going to be a real celebration of the MTV years, playing those songs that all those networks supported us throughout our careers. Pretty Boy Floyd, they got quite a history as well. They’ve been playing for quite a long time. They got a lot of records. And I think there’s a few Australian bands that are going to be supporting the tour. So, it’s going to be a great celebration.”
Of course one of the unique things about Enff Z’Nuff as a band is they aren’t like a lot of the legacy bands from the 80s and 90s – this is a band that is still recording new music today – even since 2020 the band have released four new albums. So, I had to ask what do they have in store for us when it comes to their Australian set list.
“I don’t think it’s that difficult,” he says. “There’s a lot of songs to choose from the challenge is, do we want people that would be taking breaks and going to the bathroom?”
“When I go to see concerts I want to hear the songs I recognize, he continues. “And most fans are going to say the same thing I’m saying. Of course we want to get the deep cuts. That’s very important. But a lot of the bands from the earliest days, from the Beatles playing out to all the way to Zeppelin, Queen, Aerosmith, Mott The Hoople, Cheap Trick, and all the way through Bowie, all the way into the new generation of stuff that’s been out there, you know, with the Slaughters and the Warrants and the Tricksters and the Firehouses and Queensrite, and there’s so many bands, I can keep going, Poison, all of the cats, we were all swimming in the same pond, okay, MTV was playing that stuff, and we were all colorful and flamboyant. And they’ve all had to pick songs for every one of their shows that basically was the catalyst to why they were successful.”
“And the fans want to hear those songs,” he says after stopping for a second. “It’s important. You can’t get away with not playing the hits because it’d be a shortcut. I remember going to see the Black Crows and Oasis. They were on tour years ago and they came through Chicago and Oasis hit a blistering set. It was just incendiary. Every song we recognized and the radio was playing them and they were good. And they played a couple of B-sides too, but the B-sides were hits too because the A-sides were so compactful. And then Black Crows came on and they played nothing but cover songs and B-Sides, stuff that a lot of people didn’t know. And the fans were pissed. And they were all coming up to me and asking how’s that the sound? I went in the front of the house to talk to the fans because that’s how I am. I’m always transparent. I like being with the people. And they were all coming, Chip, why? Why are they not playing the hits? And I said I don’t know. I love the band. That’s why I came here to check them out. I want to hear the hits too. So it ruffled a lot of people’s feathers and hundreds of people would come up to me at the gig that recognized me, were asking me why they weren’t doing that. So, it’d be a shortcut to thinking for me not to come out there to your wonderful country that embraces hard rock and heavy metal and not play the most recognizable songs we have in our catalog.”
When I told him that I was happy to hear that he gave me a cheeky grin.
“That being said, though, I’ll mix it up and I’ll put some of those Beatles songs in there from our album Hard Rock Night,” he said still smiling. “So, the whole set will be chock full of hits. And I think people will be pleasantly surprised when they come out and see the rock band that’s out there. No four or five guys underneath the stage playing. It’s just four of us up there kicking ass, playing.”
Enuff Z’Nuff hits Australia with Pretty Boy Floyd in Novermber this year.
