Enuff Z’Nuff might not have played in the Hampton Roads area in many
years, but guitarist Chip Z’Nuff (yes, his last name really is Z’Nuff) still
remembers their last visit quite fondly…what of it he remembers, that is.
“I like it out there. I remember going to the college one time.”
Which one? O.D.U.?
“Uhhhhh…”
Maybe?
“Is that the big one?”
It’s one of the bigger ones.
“Yeah,” he decides, likely realizing that, for purposes of this
anecdote, if it isn’t O.D.U., it doesn’t really matter, anyway. “We played
a concert out there. We were on tour with Mr. Big, and, like, eight girls
kidnapped me. Seriously. They took me for a ride around in this huge, big pink
Cadillac, and we drove all through town. It was pretty fun. I don’t know if
was theirs or they rented it, but me and eight girls…it was a hell of an
experience, I gotta be honest with ya. I’ll never forget it. It’s the only
thing I remember about the town; I don’t even remember the gig or anything.”
Well, if you’re gonna remember something, that seems like a pretty good
thing to remember.
“Absolutely.” After a moment’s thought, Chip suddenly recollects,
“It was a great town, I remember. A really good rock ‘n’ roll town.”
Enuff Z’Nuff’s grand return to the area comes courtesy of the Grand
Slam Metal Jam 2001, along with Poison, Warrant, and Quiet Riot…but don’t
make the same mistake Ninevolt did and ask Chip how they got hooked up with the
tour.
“Uhhhhh…I don’t know. I gotta be honest with you; I don’t have a
real honest answer, except that I called C.C. (Deville, guitarist for Poison)
and I left a message on his machine, saying, ‘We’d love to support your band
on this tour, and maybe we could write songs on the road, too. If there’s any
way you can pull anything out for us, we’d appreciate it.’ That’s it. And
I didn’t hear from anybody for about a week. There were a couple of tours that
we were on the short list of, (but) all the promoters I called said ‘no,’
and it just looked like we weren’t gonna get anything. (So) I guess C.C. and
(the rest of Poison) had something to do with it.
“We
toured with Poison in ’94 over in Europe. That was when they had Richie Kotzen
in the band for a couple of days; C.C. took a break. But we’re good friends
with C.C., Donnie (Vie, Enuff Z’Nuff’s vocalist) and I. We used to hang out
at his house all the time, with Steve Lukather, Eddie Van Halen…everybody. All
the heavyweights you can think of who lived in L.A. would go over to C.C.’s
house, and we’d all jam in the basement; he had a bunch of equipment down
there. We’d have a great time over there; even when we were burning the candle
at both ends, it was always fun. Maybe we left an indelible mark unwittingly,
because here we are seven years later, on our first major tour in several
years.”
One
thing of which Chip is rightfully proud is the fact that, of the four bands
participating in the Grand Slam Metal Jam, Enuff Z’Nuff is the only one with a
new album to support: 10, its title
cleverly inspired by the fact that it’s the band’s tenth album.
“Not
only that,” he adds, “but, work-wise, we have 10 albums out where everyone
else has about 4 or 5, so we’ve done double the work.”
Also
to the band’s credit is that Enuff Z’Nuff’s sound has evolved over the
course of their career, from their hair-metal beginnings into a full-on power
pop explosion that Cheap Trick would be proud of. (Make that, IS proud of; Rick
Nielsen guested on Enuff Z’Nuff’s last album, Paraphernalia.)
Chip
shrugs off such compliments. “On (10),
we just made a record like we do any other time; Donnie and I write new songs,
and we pick the best stuff out of the bunch of songs we write, and, if it turns
us on, well, we try to put it out there as-is. We have a lot more songs, lemme
tell ya; we’ve got quite a discography right now.”
And
as far as claims of any sort of evolution? Frankly, he isn’t willing to accept
a tag of any sort, neither hair metal NOR power pop.
“Who
cares? We’re just grateful that people know who we are. It’s always a nice
feeling when the big rock stars…your idols, your contemporaries…acknowledge
your work; it’s a wonderful feeling. But you have to please yourself first.
“We’re
a rock band, whether we have pop overtones or not. So does Limp Bizkit; they
have ‘em in their songs and music, too. Good bands mix up all the stuff well,
and I would hope that people would listen to our music and, if they like it, I
hope it would be because of all the elements we’ve applied to these albums: a
heavy metal side, a rock side, a pop side, an R & B side, a blues side.
Hopefully, we’re mixing it up; I’d certainly hate to think that everything
we do sounds the same.
“It’s
been very hard for us to make these records on a budget, and with the personal
problems that we’ve all endured in the last 17, 18 years that we’ve been
together. This hasn’t been a walk in the park or a picnic; it’s been pretty
tough. You have to go through some of the things we went through to come up with
some of these kinds of songs, that’s for sure. Donnie’s been tortured for
years; he came from a background with no real father figure. We’ve had torrid
relationships, marriages that have fallen apart, we’ve lost friends…it’s a
very sacrificing career that we chose here. It’s a tough line of work, it
really is…but the good moments are when we get a chance to play these songs
and perform live. That’s what gets me excited.
“And,
now, we get to get on the bus again and…well, we get on buses on all the time,
but not for an extended period of time…and actually be a real rock band and go
out and play every single night. I was hanging out with Rick Nielsen, and he
said, ‘Look, if you’re not playing gigs, you’re not a band.’”
Enuff
Z’Nuff will be in town, demonstrating proof of their band-ness, on June 7th,
when the Glam Slam Metal Jam 2001 hits the Verizon Virginia Beach Amphitheater.