Playing professionally in bands since the age of 16, Jerry honed his guitar skills to the likes of Will Lee, bassist of Paul Shaffer's CBS Orchestra from The Late Show with David Letterman and had the drive and commitment that made him one of the most sought after bassists in the biz. If you’re still scratching your head wondering where you might have seen or heard Jerry Scott, then let me help you out by naming a few bands he was in, bands like Arson, Kody Lee, Little Tramp, Bad Company with Brian Howe, Molly Hatchet, XYZ with Terry Ilous, Healer (featuring members of White Zombie), Ratt with Stephen Pearcy and Laidlaw. He has toured all over the world alongside more than a few incredible artists and bands, including Journey, Kansas, Pat Benatar, Steppenwolf, Ted Nugent, Slaughter, .38 Special, Deep Purple and many others. He’s played everywhere from arenas to the largest festivals in the world and was part of the Vans Warped Tour with Healer in the summer of 2006. More recently, Jerry was personally asked to join the band Evanscapps, led by bad-ass bassist Ean Evans from Lynyrd Skynyrd fame and Ean’s good friend, the super-talented Bobby Capps from .38 Special, a side-project the two men started in their spare time.

I talked to Jerry over the phone recently from his home in Houston Texas, where the sun was shining brightly on a beautiful hot day and he couldn’t resist teasing me about the six foot snow-banks and frigid temperatures that I was dealing with up here in the great white north. With a sexy southern drawl and a fun and genuine disposition, Jerry and I chatted about his youth, his idols, Evanscapps and Ean Evans’ recent diagnosis of cancer and everything else in between, including his mom, whom he credits as his guiding light into his foray with the rock world.

TINA PEEK: Hi, Jerry. Thanks for taking the time to do this interview with me today! I’ve been doing my research and you’ve been with quite a few big name bands and artists in your career. I wanted to talk a little bit about your past ventures, because you’ve played bass with the likes of XYZ with Terry Ilous, Bad Company with Brian Howe, Molly Hatchet, and for Ratt with Stephen Pearcy. You’re a busy bassist. Could you tell me a bit about those gigs and how you got involved with them?

JERRY SCOTT: Well you know, I started playing pretty much in high school with a really good band called Arson and we played the A circuit in Florida, and everybody in the band was always older than me, I was like 15 or 16 years old, so I was doing gigs with guys who were 21 and 22, which is a lot older than when you’re 15 or 16. And I played with them, probably from 16 years old till I was 19, and we played everywhere in Florida. It was a great cover band. We did covers and originals. And after that, I signed with a band called The Syndicate.

And at that time, The Syndicate was the second highest paid band in Florida. We played everywhere. We did a record and we sold thousands of copies of that. So the band got really popular, really fast in Florida. So when Brian Howe was putting together his version of Bad Company, my agent from the band I was in that I’d worked with for a while, got me an audition with about three or four other guys, I can’t remember, but it wasn’t too many guys, but he got me an audition and I ended up getting the gig. I was only like, 24 when I joined up with Bad Company with Brian Howe and I stayed with him for six years, ya know, and I went right from playing clubs to playing arenas every night. We played every festival in the United States. I think the biggest crowd we had was sixty thousand people in Chicago. It was huge. And we toured with Eddie Money, Little River Band, Santana, Loverboy, Heart—everybody, anybody you could think of. We toured with Nazareth—pretty much anybody you could think of back then, in the mid-‘90s.

And so when that all came to an end, I mean, six years is a pretty long time to be with a band, so anyway, I ended up leaving Florida and I moved to Hawaii from there, and I started a band out in Hawaii. It was a band called Snake and we played around. I had great musicians. We were pretty much the loudest band on the rock at the time. And then in 2000 I got a call from the drummer from Molly Hatchet, Shawn Beamer, that I grew up with, we played in a couple of bands together when we were younger and they needed a bass player. And I was pretty much ready to get off the island. You know, you go into that so far, then you have to turn around and go back home.

So I was pretty much ready to go off, so that was an opportunity for me to move back to Florida. So I moved back to Florida from Hawaii and joined Molly Hatchet and we toured with Deep Purple, we played in Europe a lot, Germany, Switzerland, Russia, Paris, and lots of festivals. We did a whole lot in Europe and I got to see a lot of Europe and that was a blast. Then we came back and I think we did quite a few dates with Nazareth. It was like, 2002 I believe, that we played with Nazareth, but we played with everybody in that band, too. [referring to Molly Hatchet] I mean, we were on the road with Ted Nugent. Oh gawd. [thinks for a moment] Just basically everybody—REO Speedwagon, Survivor, Journey, Jackyl—you name it, we pretty much played with everybody. So I got to meet all my favorites, you know.

And so after Molly Hatchet, I took a break for a while and I moved to L.A., because I was pretty much sick of Florida. I felt like I did all I could do there and when I moved to L.A., that’s when I joined up with Terry Ilous from XYZ. He’s a super nice guy. He’s a killer singer. And I was an XYZ fan when I was a kid and all these guys are a few years older than me, so I got to play with all the people I grew up listening to, which was just really cool, and became friends with them. Do you want me to keep going Tina?

TP: Yeah, why? I’m kind of mesmerized, you’re a great speaker and great to interview. I’m enjoying it. I’m just listening.

JS: Aww, thank you! So I moved to L.A. and I was searching for a gig. And I knew a few people, you know, just from being around and stuff, but most of my contacts were from the east coast. So when I moved to L.A., I was kind of like a fish out of water for a little while. And anyway, I had an agent in Minnesota, he did all my graphics for my posters, my MySpace, my website and all this kind of stuff, and he was booking a tour for XYZ and Every Mother’s Nightmare, and he let them know that I was out there. Terry ended up calling me and he lived six blocks from where I lived in Studio City. So basically, I just met him at his house and he gave me some CDs and I went home and learned the songs. We rehearsed for a week and then we were out on the road.

But that was short-lived. You know Terry’s doin’ his own thing. He’s into acting and some things like that. He was on a soap opera and some stuff. Anyway, after that I was just looking for another gig and through MySpace, a friend of mine emailed me and told me Stephen Pearcy was looking for a bass player and gave me his phone number, or they gave him my phone number. But Stephen called me, “Hey! It’s Stephen Pearcy. Call me back.” So I called him back and I met Stephen at a restaurant in Studio City. He only lived about a mile from my house, and I met Stephen at this Mexican restaurant and he kind of looked me up and down. We’d never met before, [laughs] and he kinda looked at me and goes, “Okay, you look cool, can you fight?” [we laugh] And I go, “Yeah.” And he goes, “Okay, you got the gig.” [I laugh]

So he gave me a song list and some CDs and we rehearsed at sound check at our first gig. Well actually, we rehearsed in a hotel room for a couple of hours and then we played the next day. It was pretty simple, but it was great playing all those Ratt songs you know, with Stephen, I remember when I was like 14 years old, “Round And Round”, “Lay It Down” and all those songs were, you know, I just loved them. It was really fun playing those songs. Same with XYZ and Molly Hatchet… God, I was—I think I was in like 5th grade or 4th grade when they came out with “Flirtin’ With Disaster”, ya know? So that was cool. And Bad Company, they’re from the ‘70s, and I was a little kid when these bands were famous, so I grew up listening to them, and then for me to join them was really a dream come true. I guess all of my dreams really have really come true and I can’t complain at all. [laughs] So that’s pretty much my story up to now.

TP: Well not quite, because after that, you joined Laidlaw and that’s how you met Ean Evans, right?

JS: Oh yeah. [laughs] Oh yeah, you’re right. [we both laugh] Well Laidlaw, I moved to Houston to be close to my family and so Laidlaw—Bobby Blotzer from Ratt had a studio here and I called him up at the studio or emailed him or something and he told me he was doing a record with Ripper Owens [Tim “Ripper” Owens] from Judas Priest, a tribute record, with Vince Neil and Firehouse and there was a bunch of other bands doing it and so I went up to the studio and Ripper Owens flew in. And I was a huge Priest fan when I was a kid, when I was just a little kid you know? So I got to do a record with Ripper Owens. We re-recorded the song “Exciter”, which is a really great double-bass song.

We did that, and me and Bobby played on another record together with a band called The White Trash Cowboys, and then original Ratt re-formed and Bobby moved back to L.A. The owner of the studio was Gregg Gill, and I had a contract with Indigi Music up in New York to write music for film and television, and I’ve been pursuing that for about the last year. I’m building up my library of songs for film and TV and all that good stuff. I’ve got a complete studio at my house, ProTools, the whole shebang, and so Laidlaw was from here. Bobby knew the guys in Laidlaw and Neil Zlozower, which was my photographer out in L.A., and he was the personal photographer for Eddie Van Halen, David Lee Roth, and he knew everybody under the sun, and he happened to be really good friends with Craig DeFalco from Laidlaw. When Laidlaw was looking for a bass player, Neil and Bobby told Craig that I lived in Houston, so they called me up and I met Craig at Starbucks, and then we were rehearsing to go on tour with Lynyrd Skynyrd.

So we rehearsed and we went on tour, and I hit it off with those guys. It was a killer band. We sounded really good together, good harmonies, the whole deal, really super-pro. We toured with Lynyrd Skynyrd, did the whole west coast, from San Francisco down to Arizona and New Mexico. We played in L.A. at the Greek Theatre and I used to go to shows… I went to a couple of shows when I lived out in L.A. at the Greek Theatre and pretty much, you made it if you played at the Greek Theatre and I got to play at the Greek Theatre, opening up for Lynyrd Skynyrd with Laidlaw. It was awesome. Kid Rock showed up and sang with Skynyrd and Rob Zombie and that whole crew of people. It was just really cool and you kind of feel like you’re sittin on top of the world.

But through that process of touring with Laidlaw and Lynyrd Skynyrd, me and Ean Evans, the bass player for Skynyrd, he had a side-project called Evanscapps, with Bobby Capps from .38 Special and he and Bobby have this incredible record that they had just did, just for shits and giggles type thing, just to show everybody they were more than just a keyboard player and a bass player for these bands, and Bobby is an amazing singer. So Ean and I, we became buddies on the road and we talked a lot and he asked me if I’d play bass in the project with them and he wants to take it out and tour one of these days when Skynyrd is on break and when .38 is on break, so I said, “Of course I would do that,” because I was a huge Skynyrd fan ya know.

When I was a little kid, Skynyrd had a midnight movie, it was playing in my hometown of Florida and I begged my mom and dad to let me go. It was a school night, and finally they just got so mad at me they let me go. So since I was a little kid I was a huge Skynyrd fan. Then when I got the opportunity to play with members of Lynyrd Skynyrd and .38 Special, of course, I said yes that I would do that. So that’s where I’m at now. And I’m in the process of getting ready to go to Nashville and record the bass for the new record.

TP: It must have been an incredible feeling, being such a huge fan of Lynyrd Skynyrd, to be asked by Ean Evans, himself a bassist, and have him choose you to be the bassist for his new project.

JS: You know, when I started thinking about it, my favorite band as a kid was Lynyrd Skynyrd. I found a high school picture, no actually I think it was a middle school picture the other day, in a yearbook and I was wearing a Lynyrd Skynyrd t-shirt. [laughs] So the bass player for Lynryd Skynyrd—I learnt all that stuff and it was always a big influence on my bass playing—so being picked to play bass, in a band with the bass player from Lynyrd Skynyrd, was about the highest compliment I could get in the world, to me. Because Ean is a killer bass player. I mean, there’s no doubt about it, he’s one of the best bass players in the world. And um, he just loves me. [bursts out laughing] I would say he loves me, yeah. [we’re both laughing] So we’ve just become really, really close over the last 14 months, and we’re doing this record. We’re working on a label deal.

TP: Who’s the label Jerry?

JS: [laughing] I don’t know. [more laughter] I still haven’t looked on the list. [I’m laughing] We’re in negotiations with Rock Ridge Records as we speak. What happened was, Skynyrd was playing Madison Square Garden with Kid Rock and so Ean met with Tom Derr there and established a great relationship, both with Tom and Rock Ridge. And that was about six months ago. So it’s pretty exciting.

TP: Ean is a dear friend of yours and was recently diagnosed with cancer—obviously all our prayers go out to him. How’s he doing?

JS: Yeah, when Skynyrd was playing Times Square on New Years Eve 2009, he found out he had cancer the first day of 2009. He called me and told me and it was a big blow to everybody, but Skynyrd took a break, of course, to allow him—he’s in Nashville undergoing radiation and he seems to be doing really, really good. They’re gonna extend the radiation and he’s going to take a break for that, so I think he’s gonna come out okay on this ya know?

TP: So he’s doing well and they caught it in time you think?

JS: Yeah. I mean, they’ve obviously caught it in time because he sounds great. I talked to him this morning and he sounds great, and so I’m gonna go up to Nashville. Bobby Capps, the singer in the project, he has a studio with the guitar player from Three Doors Down, Chris [Henderson] and they own a studio together so that’s why I’m gonna go to do the bass tracks up in Nashville. And you know, they’re just really good buddies, just like family with the Three Doors Down guys, so I’m sure we’ll be doing some gigs with them. We’re just kind of waiting on Ean to see where his health is taking him, and the soonest we can tour, we’ll be touring, let’s put it that way.

TP: Did you always play bass Jerry, did you start off with that as your choice of instrument?

JS: Well I played drums when I first started and I was ten or 11. I think I was ten. And I played drums for like a year, and I think it was pretty much driving my parents crazy, and so I switched to guitar. I always sang and wrote songs, cute little songs and all this crap you know, and I’d record my songs on a little cassette player from Radio Shack. I played guitar for a while and I sang in my first band, played guitar and sang. I was a freshman in high school and everybody else in the band were seniors, but the bass player in the band, quit the band because his grades were going down and his parents made him quit the band. So my dad took me to the pawn shop and bought me a bass. So I started playing bass. Right about that time is when David Letterman came on the air and I watched David Letterman every night. I always had my bass in my hands. I was practicing eight to ten hours a day, every day, just constantly. I’d always have it and I would play along with everything that Will Lee played on the David Letterman show. So I owe a lot of my style to Will Lee, cause he’s such a great bass player, you know? I learned the theme of the David Letterman show and every song they played, and I just tuned my bass perfectly with that show, [we’re laughing] and played along. I did that for a couple of years.

TP: I love that story.

JS: Yeah it’s a good story.

TP: It is. It’s a cute story. How old were you when you were doing that, like 16 or 17?

JS: Sixteen, yeah. I’ve got an even funnier story… People asked me when I first knew I wanted to be in the music business, and when I was in kindergarten, my mom and dad had an Elvis record, The “Hound Dog” 45[rpm], or “Jailhouse Rock” on 45[rpm] and, remember those little record players? Those little plastic record players, they kinda opened up and they were for little kids?

TP: Yeah, they had a big square lid that would open up…

JS: Yeah right. Well I had one of those in my room and my mom and dad gave me this Elvis record and I was in kindergarten. I remember, and I put that record on, [laughs] and I had this little plastic pool table in my bedroom, too, that they got me for Christmas or something like that. And I remember after that song started playing, it felt like I got struck by lightning. I got underneath that pool table and I lifted it up over my head. It only weighed about five pounds, [we laugh] and I lifted it over my head like, [shouts] “YES!, This is what I wanna do for the rest of my life! I love Elvis!!!” So I was an Elvis fan in my—I’ve always been a huge Elvis fan. You know, he was the King and I used to imitate Elvis at my grade school talent shows. My aunt made me a little Elvis suit and everything. [I’m laughing] So, [Jerry breaks out laughing] oh my God. [much laughter]

TP: Did you wear the wig too?

JS: Oh yeah. I wore a wig. [we’re both laughing again] And I used…me and my friend Gwena Polly, she was really artistic and she was a few years older than me, we used to put on concerts in my basement when I was in the second and third grade and I would charge—my mom and dad would have dinner parties and I would charge the people that would come over. I would charge them like ten dollars a couple, to come see me in concert in the basement. They would all come down and I would play along with an Elvis record. [laughs]

TP: Get out! [laughing]

JS: Yeah. And my friend Gwena would hold the flashlight on me. And I had a strobe light and I’d stand on… We had a little stage about two inches tall and it was pretty fun.

TP: Aww, that is just the most adorable thing ever. [Jerry bursts out laughing]

JS: Yeah I’m still a big Elvis fan. I’ve got a lot of Elvis memorabilia.

TP: Jerry, it sounds like your parents were incredibly supportive of you and your dreams, to let you set up a stage in their basement, buying you your first bass, your first record player… How supportive were your parents with your dreams of becoming a rock star?

JS: I have the best mom in the world. She’s always supported me in everything I’ve ever done and she loves to come to my shows and tell everyone, “That’s my son up there!” I just love her to death. I just love her so much. Because I think, with the support of your parents, your goals are so much easier to achieve. When my dad was alive, he came to as many shows as possible, too. I miss him dearly. And with that being said, CALL YOUR MOM! [we laugh]

TP: I was also going to ask you who some of your idols were when you were growing up? Obviously Lynyrd Skynyrd played a big role and Elvis, but who were some of the other people you tried to emulate when you were younger?

JS: Elvis was always a big influence and then when I started playing bass. That’s when I really started listening to metal. It was like Ozzy and Motley Crue, Dio, Iron Maiden of course, ‘cause of the bass playing, and Quiet Riot. I was always a huge Rudy Sarzo fan and now I’m friends with Rudy. It was just really weird…when I played with Brian [Howe], we did a show up in Pittsburgh and Quiet Riot opened up for us and I remember just kind of freakin’ out because Rudy Sarzo was playing bass. I never thought when I was a little kid, like 14 years old riding my ten speed around town that I would ever be in a band, where my idol would be in the opening act. Most all of my dreams have really come true, so I’m just kinda running with it.

TP: That’s so cool. Okay, if someone were to ask you to describe Evanscapps, what would you tell them?

JS: I would tell them it’s a great songwriter's band. If you like good song writing, it’s a great band. It’s a cross between Three Doors Down and Kid Rock. It’s very straight-up hard rock, but with just enough poppiness to get radio play. It’s not over the top, it’s just really good stuff. I mean, it’s really good—everybody that hears the record, loves it.

TP: Any idea when the album might be released?

JS: The album will probably be released, to be safe I’m gonna say April because of Ean’s illness right now.

TP: And how many tracks will be on the new album?

JS: We’re gonna shoot for 14, but…probably 14. [laughs] That’s what I’ll say.

TP: And so any talk of future touring is obviously going to be put on hold until Ean’s health has improved enough.

JS: Right. Ean’s a very strong-willed, spiritual person, so there’s no doubt that he’s gonna be well enough to tour. Yeah, we’re kinda just waiting on him. I’m going to stay loyal to him and see him through this, ya know?

TP: Well you’ve decided that Evanscapps is the band that you want to put all your energies into anyway, correct?

JS: Absolutely, absolutely! You never know in the music business. Bands—I’ve always said that bands are made out of a piece of glass, you could break a band with a pebble, they break up so easy, and it’s so hard to put a good band together.

TP: Where you all get along and everything…

JS: Yeah and you know, Bobby Capps, I’ve known him for 20 years, 'cause he’s from Florida, too.

TP: Is that where you’re initially from Jerry, is Florida?

JS: Yes. Well, I was born in Indiana. I’m from that same small town John Cougar’s from. [laughs] And I grew up, actually I moved back to Indiana in my middle school years, back to Bedford, Indiana, and that’s where Mellencamp was from, is from Bloomington. I started playing all those clubs in Bloomington like Jakes and The Bluebird. Mellencamp had a bar in Seymour, Indiana and we used to play his bar. I was like, 15 and that was fun. Then I moved back to Florida when I was in 11th grade and that’s when I joined Arson, and that refers back to the first of my story. [we laugh]

TP: I wanted to touch base with you on your endorsements, because you do have a lot of endorsements Jerry, from SWR Amps and Gibson basses [specifically Les Paul] to Dean Markley Strings and Sick Boy Motorcycle clothing to Spector Basses. Tell me about your endorsements, how you got involved with them and what it means to be chosen for these endorsements?

JS: Well you don’t really get chosen. It’s a lot of hard work to get endorsements.

TP: So if you’re not chosen, how does one get endorsements? Do you approach them or how does that work?

JS: Yeah, I approach them, the stuff that I like—Tony Franklin, the bass player from The Firm, you remember Tony?

TP: Yup.

JS: Well Tony Franklin, he did a record with Terry Ilous in XYZ and he’s now the head guy of A&R relations at SWR at Fender. So when I joined XYZ, Terry told me…well Tony was one of my favorite bass players too…and Terry gave me Tony’s phone number and I called Tony and he was like, “Hey yeah, if you wanna play our stuff, great!” And so that’s how I got hooked up with the SWR Fender thing, was through Tony. He’s a sweetheart, ya know, and Fender treats me really, really good. And Dean Markley Strings, I started using them when I was in Molly Hatchet and Molly Hatchet had a Dean Markley endorsement. This was like in the ‘70s, and so I always got my strings for free when I was in Hatchet. And when I left Hatchet, I called David Lienhard and so I continued on with my string endorsement with Dean Markley and they’ve been really great to me. Since I’m a studio owner and I play guitar, I get my guitar strings and bass strings through Dean Markley. I just love their strings and they’ve always treated me really good, same as Fender. And when I played with Healer out in L.A. with the original drummer from White Zombie, Ivan de Prume, I really wanted a metal bass, like a bass that sounded really metal-y and so that’s when I called Spector. By then I had already played with Brian and Molly Hatchet and I loved Spector basses at the time, and I still continue to record with their basses and I take one out on the road with me. Spector has great basses and they’re super, super nice people.

And with Sick Boy Clothing, the owner, Doug, of that company is a really super nice guy. I’m a big Robbie Knievel fan and they endorse Robbie Knievel. I’ve got a friend in Florida that used to live next door to Evel Knievel. So I just struck up a conversation with him one time and they sent me some clothes for that Skynyrd Tour, and so I proudly endorse Sick Boy Motorcycles ya know? They’re a great company, great people.

And what other endorsement…the Gibson endorsement, I really like the style of the Les Paul basses and I talked to those guys several times. I said I want to record this Evanscapps record with a Les Paul bass and I’ll probably use a couple of different basses, too. I’ll probably use my B.C. Rich. I’ve got a B.C. Rich my brother bought for me when I was 14 years old, an MJ series that I still play to this day. That B.C. Rich has been my favorite bass my whole life and I’ve had it and I’ve painted it every different color. That bass must’ve been made out of the best piece of wood in the world, because the thing is, it’s just a great bass. And I think I’ll always love and play that B.C. Rich on the road. And as far as recording, I use the B.C. Rich, too. I use the Les Paul’s, the Spector, Fender, just whatever sounds best for that particular song, whether I play with my fingers or pick, I just pick accordingly, ya know? So I think that’s it with my endorsements.

TP: Well that’s quite a few. I also wanted to touch base with you on an instructional video that you’re in the process of doing or going to be doing. Can you tell me a bit about that?

JS: Yeah, I’m in the process—once this Evanscapps record comes out, I wanna do an instructional video with two songs on there and I’m pretty much going to tell my story and show some old pictures of my journey through my whole music career and show the fans how to play a couple of songs and just to look into my world a little bit, like a half hour video of what I’m all about. And on the video I’ll be showing my endorsements. They don’t pay me anything, I don’t have to, but I love the gear and so I’m gonna be showing my endorsements and just a little inside look into my personal life and tell my story a little bit.

TP: That sounds pretty cool.

JS: Yeah it’s gonna be cool.

TP: You also mentioned that you have ProTools, have you mastered them yet?

JS: Yeah I’ve pretty much—I’ve got it down now. [laughs] I use all Sony software for my drums, that took me a little while to get down. And I play piano, too. So I have a keyboard, my guitars, my basses, I sing—so I can pretty much do everything I need to do with Sony software and my brain. And ProTools has really helped me out a lot. Like I can do bass tracks for people across the world. They just send me a file and I can play bass to it and send it back to them. They call it ProTools for a reason: because it’s the industry standard. It’s what all the big guys use, so I had to get the best there is. And ProTools, I believe, is the best. There is a learning curve with anything, but once I got through that, it’s all good now.

TP: You mentioned you sing. Do you think you have a good voice?

JS: I think I have a pretty good voice, I kind of sound like Bon Jovi, that’s what everybody’s always told me.

TP: Really? So let me ask you then, have you ever thought of writing your own music and recording a CD with your own voice, like a solo CD and releasing it?

JS: [soft laugh] Yeah, I probably will. I’m kind of in the process of doing that now. But it’s the type of thing where I don’t want to—I’ve written and recorded and sang my whole life and I have a really good catalogue. I’m just kind of going through every good thing I’ve ever written right now and putting songs together and I will ultimately do that sometime, probably in the next two years. I’ve talked to Kenny Aronoff, he’s the drummer that I want to play on it, he’s the drummer from Mellencamp, he played with John for like, I dunno, twenty years and he’s played with the Rolling Stones, he played with anybody you could think of and I’m gonna have Kenny play drums on my record. He’s a sweetheart, ya know, and we’re from the same part of this world. [Bloomington Indiana] So that’s really cool.

TP: I’ll look forward to hearing that.

JS: It’s just an ongoing project, but I’ll get it finished one of these days.

TP: I think it’s something you should do. You’ve been in all these bands, you’ve got a great voice and you’ve got all kinds of connections, so there’s really no stopping you from doing whatever you want to do, Jerry.

JS: That’s true, the world is wide open, ya know, and I believe that anybody can do anything they really want, as long as that’s what they really want.

TP: I agree.

JS: Like if you want to be a captain of a yacht, you buy a boat and that’s what you are. Everybody can pick their journey, you just gotta pursue it.

TP: Exactly, exactly. So I just want to touch base again on Indigi Music who are based out of New York. You recently signed a contract with them to write music for film, commercials and video games and I wanted to know how you got involved with that and what is it exactly you’re doing. Are you writing jingles?

JS: It’s kind of like jingles. When you watch a show on VH1 or MTV, with the intro to the show, they call that a 15 second “sting”. So what I do is write a song and then I split it up into five second, ten second, 15, 30 second and 60 second parts, so when a show comes back from a commercial break, they usually have a little five second thing leading back into the show.

TP: Right, I know exactly what you’re talking about.

JS: So I take a song and split it up into five different parts so the whole theme can be used for the whole show. So that’s what I’ve been doing pretty much, is just writing pieces like that.

TP: And has any of that made it onto television that you can share?

JS: Yeah, they picked it up—a buddy of mine, Chad Nell [pseudonym Max Deale], he wrote a book called Sold Out So What and I did the music for his commercial that’s being aired. I know out in L.A. it’s being aired and there’s quite a few things out there. I can’t really say for sure what it is, because I just kinda got the deal last year, so it takes a while to get things going and get things heard, but you’ll be hearing more of it and I can elaborate more in the future.

TP: Understood. Well you just signed that deal recently, so…

JS: Yeah it was just last year and I’m really just now getting into it.

TP: Wow, you’ve got your hands into everything huh?

JS: I’m trying! [laughs] I’m trying!

TP: Well it sounds like a good, full life. So Jerry, is there anything else you’d like to talk about that I didn’t ask, or anything you’d like to add?

JS: No, I think that’s pretty much it, I guess, for now, just waiting for the Evanscapps record to come out, and then hopefully I’ll have a whole other story to tell. [laughs]

TP: Yeah, that would be great. Do you think you guys might make it out to Canada at all?

JS: If the record hits, I’m sure that we’ll play as many places as we can in this world. I certainly do. I love to travel and I have fun playing everywhere. I like to go everywhere. I’ll play anywhere.

TP: Have you ever played Toronto before?

JS: I played there with Nazareth when I played with Molly Hatchet, and we played Toronto.

TP: Did you?

JS: Yeah, I’m sure that we did. Being in Molly Hatchet was kind of a blur for me. It was back in “those” days, [we laugh] but we played quite a few dates in Canada with Nazareth.

TP: I interviewed Dan McCafferty last year, actually.

JS: Yeah, he’s a sweetheart.

TP: He’s an absolute doll. He’s hilarious. He had me in stitches through half that interview, just the sweetest, most down-to-earth guy.

JS: They were really, really nice people and they sounded killer, too.

TP: Yeah, you know he still has the voice. He really does.

JS: Yeah, he does. They’re really awesome.

TP: They are. So, any messages for your fans?

JS: Well you can hit me up on my MySpace and just thanks for all the support through the years, ya know? I’m living the dream and I’m gonna continue to do it, just continue on.

TP: I’ll definitely include the link, we always do. Thanks so much Jerry for taking the time today.

JS: Okay cool. Thanks Tina, and let’s keep in touch.

TP: Yeah, lets. I think we’ve been MySpace friends for a while now.

JS: Yeah I think we have, too.

TP: It’s hard to keep up with you though. [Jerry breaks out laughing]

JS: Well not anymore. [we laugh]

TP: Maybe not. Maybe not. But you have a lot of stuff going on, which is cool. Well, take care Jerry and best of luck with the new album.

JS: It was good talking to ya Tina, and thanks for the interview. Stay warm! [we laugh]