Rhino: Thank you very much. My last album was called Last Dance and in the middle of that I was told I was going to die and then my singer got cancer. I did all the tracks and was thinking the whole time that my ticket was going to be called in. I had to finish the album because I thought this was going to be it. Without a singer I became the singer and it totally ruined the record because I don’t have a voice for singing. After that I just decided to pack it in. I didn’t die though as everything cleared up and went into remission.

Everyone kept telling me that I should cut another album. I kept thinking about what I wanted to do. I wanted to get back to my roots and I thought of the title Back in the Day when everything was simpler. It also fit musically. I wanted to make music like we made back in the day. I decided to write new songs in relationship to all of the old bands I had been in like Iron Butterfly and Captain Beyond.

Rhino: When I was starting the project I began listening to a lot of classic rock radio and I kept hearing the same songs; it was really boring. The same time, every day, on everyone’s show, they would play the same songs. It was classic alright but it was nothing new. I decided that I was going to write new classic rock in association to how I was feeling in 2010. I like to say that you will think that you’ve heard it but you haven’t. I just put a new slant on it.

Rhino: That is exactly what I was trying to do. There are a lot of tribute bands around and that doesn’t do it for me. I didn’t want to be a tribute to myself. I mean I do a little Captain Beyond when I play live but that is not a tribute.

Rhino: Pretty much except for Don Bonzi. He is a friend of mine and we were going to do a tour of Canada. When I started this project I wanted another guitar player so I called Don. I cut everything in my little home studio so they all had my demos. From the minute we started playing it was obvious that we had struck a chord. We were onto something good and we knew we were clicking.

Rhino: I’ve known Dickie since 1960. He was just leaving high school and I was just coming into school. There was a cafeteria that we always used to jam in. I learned a lot of lessons doing that, as I was just getting going.

I played in a couple of country bands where I played bass. I also put together a Top 40 band that was playing clubs. I was playing guitar in that band. In Florida, you couldn’t play in clubs if you were underage unless you had a note from your parents. I had the note so I was okay. I would play this one club from nine or ten at night until three in the morning. I would then have to get up and go to school. It was all I could do to hold on but my mother was after me to graduate because she didn’t. She grew up in the depression era and had to quit school and go to work. I got through it.

I actually was making pretty good money for being in high school. I was making $150 a week back in those days. I was rolling in dough compared to my friends who had to hit up their parents for money. My parents didn’t have to give me anything so I was kind of helping them out because they didn’t have any money while I was growing up.

Rhino: My dad was a country musician, or he tried to be. He played most of his life on the weekends. He was a watchmaker by profession. I used to take his watches apart when I was a kid and then I couldn’t get them back together and he would get pissed off because they belonged to a customer. I would have pieces all over his bench trying to see how they worked [laughter].

Rhino: I knew these guys from bands I played with clear back in the ‘60’s like Second Coming. This time around I went to Mike Koch, who I have known forever, about playing on this album and he said, “What about Pedro [Arevalo] and Frankie [Lombardi]?” I said, “Sure.” It just clicked and got better and better and the songs started really taking on a life of their own.

Rhino: I think we were called The Blues Messengers at first. We were playing in Tampa, Florida at a place called Dino’s. Dickie called me up and asked me if I wanted to play bass. I told him I could but the truth was I didn’t have a bass. I took my guitar and put bass strings on it. It made a pretty interesting sound. I played it for a month or so but I wanted to play guitar. I called my friend Berry [Oakely] up and got him to come up and play bass.

This fellow in Jacksonville came and heard us play and he owned a club there called The Scene. He wanted to book us because there was nothing in Jacksonville like us. He told us that he wanted us to change the name of the band. He said that because of our long hair we looked like a bunch of prophets and he wanted us to call ourselves Second Coming. We changed our name. That lasted for a while but I moved and put out a power trio. Second Coming put out a little EP but then they turned into the Allman Brothers. I finally had enough of where I was at and went to Macon, Georgia and was getting ready to start doing some recording when a job opportunity came my way to play with Iron Butterfly.

Rhino: I didn’t know them from shit. I didn’t like that kind of music anyway. I was into blues and hard rock. They were…I don’t know what they were. Phil [Walden] told me that I needed to do it because I would be making a lot of money. I said, “Where’s my ticket?” It all worked out.

The Allman Brothers did their first album at the same time and then they did the Fillmore album and the rest is history. I remember one time they came out and played at the Whiskey A Go-Go and I went in and jammed with them. I recorded a demo that was the beginning of Captain Beyond. We played our demo for Duane [Allman] and he just loved it. He said we should play it for Phil Walden, the President of Capricorn Records. He heard it and made us an offer and we took it. We played some shows with the Allman Brothers back then.

Rhino: There was a place called Pacific Eye & Ear and they did covers for a lot of people like the Rolling Stones. Captain Beyond’s second album, Sufficiently Breathless, was an album cover made for Alice Cooper that he rejected. We were shown the cover and we made a few changes on it, like the Captain Beyond guy, and we accepted that for the cover.

Rhino: When Iron Butterfly broke up my manager called me up. Lee [Dorman] was the bass player in Iron Butterfly and he wanted to keep playing and I wanted to keep going on. Our manager said he had a guy named Rod Evans from Deep Purple who wanted to start a new band. Rod came over to the house for a couple of weeks and we jammed. I called Lee and said, “You ought to come and check this out.” In the meantime I was talking to Bobby [Caldwell], who was with Johnny Winter, but he was unhappy in that situation. He came to LA and he had all these strange tongs and stuff. It was just the sort of thing that I was looking for.

Rhino: “Dancing Madly Backwards” is basically a blues song if you play it in 4/4. I switched it around to 5/4. It is a twelve bar but it has an odd meter to it. I had this riff and Bobby came up with that beat and when we played it together, the song was born.

Rhino: We had a big problem with the record company. We put out the first album and they were calling us a ‘Super Group.’ It was just a term being thrown around. We were like “What Super Group? What are they talking about?” After the Allman’s came out with the Fillmore Phil came to us and said, “I want you guys to start playing that kind of music.” A year before he thought we were the best thing since sliced bread and we were one of the best things that he had ever heard. I said, “That is not what Captain Beyond is all about. We can’t change from our first album to a second album where we sound just like the Allman Brothers. You’ve already got one of those.” But that is what happened; southern rock was taking over. We had a running battle with Capricorn. We have heard from people who worked at Capricorn over the years that Phil was under reporting how many albums we were actually selling so he could make it look like we were not doing anything, thus, he wouldn’t have to spend any money to pay us. We never even got the gold album that we should have. A lot of things went wrong. After the second album, it was over.

Rhino: We got with Derek Sutton, who manages Robin Trower. He took us on and we did another album. There were a lot of personal problems going on. Rod was gone and he was replaced by a guy called Willy D. Just as we were starting to turn the corner, Willy left and went to do some stuff with Gary Moore, so, that took care of that. We put it back together in 1999 when Bobby and I went to Sweden and played some festivals over there. We came back and played a few shows in Florida and it just didn’t fly. I decided to bury Captain Beyond.

Rhino: Iron Butterfly was on the road with Yes. One day I was walking off the bus and Yes bass player Chris Squire saw me. It has been a really grueling tour. Between that and some other stuff going on, he said my eyes were wild looking [laughing]. He said, “I am calling you Captain Beyond.” The name stuck with me and when we had our group I said, “Let’s call this thing Captain Beyond.”

Rhino: It’s too bad it didn’t. This album was really easy to write. There was a time where I was going to leave music behind but then something spurred me and songs just came pouring out. There are a few songs I really like on the record. “State of Mind” is a basic rock song but I really like it. “Back in the Day” is a good one. “Don’t Know” is kind of off kilter but I like it a lot. I wrote that song back when I thought I was going to check out. I didn’t know what to do, as I had no career and I was going to die. I was just barely existing.

Rhino: We are trying to negotiate with an agent and a manager. I don’t know if it will fly with the economy the way it is. I would love to go out and play live and sell records. This is like starting all over, in a way. I think if the promotion was right then we could draw people to shows just because of who is in the band. We would start slow and try to build it up. We are taking it one day at a time. I also own the record company so everything is in my hands.

Rhino: I think about that. Just by circumstance I ended up with a greasy end of stick. For all of the great things that people say about me, it didn’t turn out that way. I have made it this long and this far. I have had some good times and I have had a lot of kicks in the face too. Then the health thing was a big scare. If this thing works then I will be really happy but if it doesn’t I will at least know that is should have worked and be proud of it. I don’t think I will do another one if this one doesn’t go. I will just live out the rest of my days.

Rhino: It’s not in me to give up. It’s in me to back up, retreat and regroup and then come back. When you go through a time where there is no room in music for you then you really have become a dinosaur. A lot of places are now giving the music a second shot. I think music back in the day was very special and that is why I made this album. I want to make music special again.

I am doing everything that can be done to get it out there. I have a website where people can order the album. I am working on getting the album on the download sites. The one thing that is going to count is getting the people to know that I am back out there. Things like what we are doing right now will get the world out. Nobody is searching me out so I need to find ways to get the word out that I am out there. I think people will be curious enough when they hear I am back with something that they may go looking for it. I need to figure out how to get people to just try it because they will like it.

Rhino: It really is. I would like to be able to share it with people though and play live. I get my biggest thrill when people are appreciating what I have done. You may start out doing it for yourself but then you want to share it. I want to share this record with people because I am proud of it.