Pop Evil’s Davey Grahs Discusses “Nothin’ But A Good Time” Tour With Poison and Cheap Trick.
Pop Evil released their self titled album last February, which is their 5th album. They just had their 5th #1 single with “Waking Lions”. They just started the “Nothin’ But A Good Time” tour with rock legends Poison and Cheap Trick. I first saw Pop Evil in 2011 at the world famous Machine Shop. When i saw them, I said to myself. “I can kick my own ass for not seeing them sooner”. They are a Michigan based band too, hailing from Grand Rapids. A couple weeks ago, I had a chance to have a quick chat with Pop Evil guitarist, Davey Grahs. Enjoy!
LRI: Hey Davey. How’s it going? Thanks for taking the time to chat today. So let’s get right into in it. Pop Evil is having “Nothin’ But A Good Time” with Poison and Cheap Trick!!
Davey Grahs: Hey!! Yeah man! It’s absolutely amazing. I am loving it. It’s a dream come true for me.
LRI: Right on. That is very cool. Now I am sure you and the guys are big Cheap Trick fans. What about Poison? Where you a big fan of theirs?
Davey: Oh yes, 100%. I had their first record. I was always the guy that stood in line to get the records when they first came out. I had the “Open Up and Say Ahh” with the original album cover on it.
LRI: Niiice! The one with the tongue sticking out that was banned and later changed.
Davey: Yeah yeah! That’s it, then it got changed to just the eyes. Dude, I wish I still had that. Not sure what happened to it. You are from Michigan, right?
LRI: Yes. I am down in the Detroit area.
Davey: Ok, cool. Did you guys have a “Believe in Music” store?
LRI: Not that I recall. We had a “Harmony House”, where I used to get all my records.
Davey: Ahh ok. We had a “Harmony House” too. In Grand Rapids, we had a store called “Believe in Music” which was really close to my house. Me and my friends would all ride our bikes there all of the time to go stand in line when new stuff came out.
LRI: Right on. That is cool. So moving on… Congrats on having your 5th #1 hit with “Waking lions”
Davey: Yeah, Man! Thanks. It’s been a lot of hard work.
LRI: So what are Pop Evil’s plans after this run with Poison and Cheap Trick? I know you are returning to Michigan again later in the summer out in Jackson.
Davey: Yeah, we are always out on the road. We got some stuff coming up, but I really can’t say just yet. The record came out earlier in the year, so we’ll be at it through the rest of this year going into next year. There are talks of maybe going to Europe and other places.
LRI: How long of a set are you guys getting during this current tour?
Davey: They have been great to us. They have been giving us 40-45 minutes. It’s pretty decent,
LRI: With your latest self titled album being your 5th album, and the success you have been having, are you finding yourselves having to cut some deeper tracks from your set?
Davey: Yeah. That’s a pretty cool problem to have though.
LRI: Yes. Absolutely man!
LRI: When I first saw you guys at the Machine Shop 6-7yrs ago, those were some really fun shows. with the added bonus of you guys coming to hang out with fans after the show. Are you still doing that often?
Davey: Yes. We try to. Ya know, everyone is living a cleaner life and trying to be healthier..But we’ll still come hang out as much as possible. You can’t do it every night, that just wears on you after a while. But we still do it a lot. Especially at The Machine Shop, Kevin and everyone over there are great. We kind of make it a point at The Shop, to hang out
LRI: That is awesome. I love that place. One of my fav clubs, ever!
Davey: Oh they are amazing. Kevin and everyone there is just awesome.
LRI: How have the fans been reacting to the new album
Davey: It’s been great! You can feel the growth of it every single night we come out. Even the people that don’t even know us. It’s night and day being on this tour as supposed to being on the Judas Priest/Whitesnake tour, like 7 or 8 yrs ago.. however long ago it was. You can really feel and see the growth of the band, every night, every show. Just gets bigger and bigger. There’s people here who have never even heard of us before. We’ve been lucky enough that Bret (Michaels) and the guys decided to take us out. They’ve been so great to us. You can see it in the crowd reactions. I’m still getting stuff on my Instagram. I just got a cool message the other day.. Let me see if i can find it real quick. “I saw you guys in Vegas Saturday night with Cheap Trick and Poison, Loved what I heard. Went out and bought 2 of your albums today”
LRI: Dude, that is awesome!
Davey: That’s what it’s about right?
LRI: That’s exactly what it’s about. That kind of goes back to what we were talking about before. I met people who were talking about you guys and they were saying stuff like “Oh yeah, I got to meet them, or they hung out with us after the show, it was soo badass”. That stuff there, as a fan… you don’t forget that! I can remember meeting bands like Great White, RATT or Badlands as a teen and being so stoked.
Davey: Badlands!! Oh wow.
LRI: yeaaah, you remember them?
Davey: Oh yeahhh. Badlands, Helloween, Suicidal Tendencies. I can go on all day. (Laughs). The whole buzz about everything back then was just amazing. I grew up during the 90’s grunge era but i grew up listening to 80’s hair metal. My sister was 10 years older than me, so in order for them to go the shows, they had to bring me with them. I was in elementary school. My first concert was actually Cinderella, Winger and Bulletboys.
LRI: How awesome is that?? Very cool! See, ya don’t forget those things.
LRI: What about touring overseas? I have seen some bands that go over there and kick all sorts of ass and I see some bands that don’t bother going over there. Fans over there love the music sooo much, but sometimes don’t get to see their favorite band perform.
Davey: Yes! They love it so much. We love going overseas. They are great. It’s hard getting over there, but once you get over there and stay relevant over there and you keep going back. It pays off in the long run. It seems they appreciate whatever is there. Just live music in general. The whole live scene. It doesn’t matter what type of music. Black Stone Cherry is a great example. They crush it over there.
LRI: Oh, they are great. I just saw them last year for the first time. Really enjoyed their show
LRI: Ok man, I am gonna let you get going. I know you got a show to go get ready for. Thanks for taking the time to call me today. Looking forward to seeing you guys again soon.
Dave: You’re welcome. I appreciate it. See ya.
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Click here for Pop Evil Tour Dates.
Visit Pop Evil on the web:
http://www.popevil.com – Official Website
https://www.facebook.com/popevil – Official Facebook
https://twitter.com/popevil – Official Twitter
https://www.instagram.com/popevil – Officail Instagram
Category: Interviews
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