Keith Roth’s voice is heard daily by millions of listeners on SiriusXM’s Hair Nation & Ozzy’s Boneyard channels. Beyond radio, Keith has a long musical history in bands like Frankenstein 3000 and The Dictators. He is releasing his first solo record, The Law of Diminished Returns, and took some time to talk about it and much more!
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On if his radio career prepared him for doing interviews – I guess so. It’s fun because people when they walk into your chamber doing radio, even though you’re friends and sometimes you’ve known people 20 years, but I could put that hat on and ask questions that I couldn’t ask at the bar or in a group. I’ve become that different guy. So yeah, it is it’s got its perks for sure. It’s fun, man. It’s a great gig.
On why he decided to record his first solo record – Our label was asking about a new Frankenstein record. I started putting together some ideas and recording some ideas and also being in the Dictators, writing with those guys for the record that came out a few months ago. All of a sudden, I started realizing that this really isn’t Frankenstein songs and they’re really not Dictator songs. They’re kind of personal. So that was the idea. Also, I actually My buddy Danny (Farrow) from the band Angel said, “Keith, not everybody knows Frankenstein 3000. You got your thing with the Dictators, but people know Keith Roth”. I’m like, “No, they don’t”. He goes, “Yeah, they do. They know you’re from radio. So, it’d be kind of cool to put your name on it”. It kind of got the wheels turning and which was great too, is that Deko wanted to put it out. It became a work in progress for a couple of years, chipping away at it. It is a concept record, but you kind of got to get in my head to figure out what the concept is. So that’s how it became a solo record. The title is something that I always said for years that if I ever made a solo record, that’s what it’s going to be called, The Law of Diminished Returns. Like when you have that first beer, it’s always the best one, and second one’s not as good, and then it just keeps dwindling afterwards.
On who joined him on the record – Being a solo record, if it was a Frankenstein record, it’d be uniform for the album. But for each song I had an idea in my head of who would be the right drummer to play on it, or the right guitar player to come in and do some solo bits. Most of the drums are done by Bob Pantella from Monster Magnet, Tiny from T.S.O.L and the BulletBoys, my bandmate, Albert Bouchard, the richest guy in the Dictators for all the big hits that he had, Rob Liano, who I played with a few things. A lot of times I had bass players in mind or I played bass on a lot of the record, but really my partner in crime was Mike Jaffe because he’s another guy, as I was mentioning, Danny, he said, “I’d like to work with you on this record and we could use my studio for overdubs, there’s no clock being punched”. He really took the journey with me, and it was great having him co-producing it with me and telling me when things sucked, and things were good. You need a good ear to kind of bounce off of. Then there’s Derek Hawkins from Stabbing Westward. Derek’s a great guy, great guitar player. I’ve played with him throughout the years. There were certain bits that I knew he’d be perfect for and Punky Meadows. That one song “Down in the Room”, I needed a classic Punky Meadows solo, which he delivered.
Ross, the Boss is on there. The weird thing is the cycle of the record was done. It really was. When you write an album, you know when it starts and you know when it finishes, but I wanted so badly to have Ross on the record, but I wanted him to play in a way that people aren’t used to him playing because he’s a big BB King guy and his favorite record is Live at the Regal. I’m like, “What?” I started digging through stuff. Nothing made sense. We both love Lou Reed. So, we covered “Strawman”. Basically, it was just an outlet for Ross to play in a style that most people are not accustomed to. That’s what kind of wraps up the record, but it’s still part of the concept in my head. So those are the, most of the players on there. I’m sure I forgot a few, Mark Dubay played bass on some stuff. I think I said I played bass on a lot of stuff. So, it’s a whole big dysfunctional family on there.
On if he put a lot of thought into the sequence of the record – Big time, big time. The only thing that I knew was the opening song was “Thinking Today” because I knew that was a good opener, good rock song. The sequencing was brutal actually because, I kept making orders of it and then old school making CDs and bringing it in the car with me. Then it took a minute and I’m like, “Certain records are destroyed by a bad sequencing. Imagine if Pink Floyd, Dark Side of the Moon was sequenced differently or Sex Pistols, Never Mind the Bollocks/ The sequencing took a minute for sure and I was driving everybody crazy. The label, Mike, those guys, they don’t put as much thought into it like guys like me and you. Yeah, the songs are cool, it’s got to be the journey. We grew up in that era of records. I’ve heard a lot of great records when they’re resequenced, they become great records. So absolutely, yes, sequencing definitely took a minute for sure.
On showing his influences through the record – That’s who I am, really. It was probably around, I was just talking about this yesterday in an interview, but it was probably around 87 or 88 where I kind of just was thinking that music was so homogenized, a lot of the same stuff. It just seemed like it was coming off a factory assembly line and all the stuff that I grew up with, I have older brothers who were into the MC5 and Cream and Zeppelin and the Blue Magoos, and the New York Dolls and Curtis Mayfield and Sly. It was around that era when I went back to everything that I grew up on and it never left since then. The Rolling Stones, Johnny Thunders, all that stuff. Don’t get me wrong, there’s a lot of great bands. I think Elliot Smith is probably one of the greatest songwriters. that came out. I don’t put him too far behind Lennon and McCartney and Jagger. People think I’m insane, but I’m such a huge Elliott Smith fan. There’s a few guys that get through the cracks, but overall, those are my influences. That’s just what comes out. That’s all I know, to be honest with you, especially when it comes to playing music.
On if he plans on solo dates – Yeah, offers are starting to come up now and interestingly enough the first two shows we’re doing to support is with Foghat. Which is a real 70s band. I’ve known Roger (Earl) for years and his lovely wife, Linda, they’re awesome. So, when they asked, “Would you want to play with Foghat?” I’m like, “Yeah”, and these will be the first two shows. I think I’m going to probably have different bands for both gigs. That’s another thing too, under my moniker, I could kind of have a revolving door of characters, but there’s other stuff that’s starting to pop up, which is getting interesting. So, I would love nothing more to go on tour because everybody who will be involved, people I love, so it’ll be one big party, and hopefully go out there and kick some booty.
On if the Dictators will stay active – Absolutely. That was the first dictator’s record in, I think, 23 years. Andy (Shernoff), it’s interesting how he got the band back together, initially it was Andy, Albert. and the late great Scott Kempner and of course, Ross the Boss. When they started cutting the first two singles, which they didn’t think was going to really be an album at that point, just getting some singles out there, they kind of realized that Scott really couldn’t stay focused enough, as he was dealing with dementia. After they had those two singles, they wanted to start playing out again. I’ve known Ross for a million years and Albert, I’ve done a lot of musical stuff with Albert, and he was the one that recommended me and Ross was like, “That’s not a bad idea”. Then Andy’s like, “the DJ guy?” But yes, we do a plan on continuing. We’ve done like four or five tours already.
We got out there, we, did Spain, and we did a couple of runs with The Damned and we did a Canadian run, and we get along really well and it’s a band. One of my favorite bands that I grew up with. I had that record since it came out in 1975. I was a little kid. I love pro wrestling. I knew Manitoba from the neighborhood, and Scott, they both went to kindergarten with my brother. How ironic is that? Right. You I bought that album at Alexander’s on Fordham Road.
We got the Little Steven Cruise coming up in May. We’re going to be on that. We’re excited with the Helicopters and X and Social Distortion and Lenny K. It’s gonna be Steve Conte. A lot of good friends on there. We’re actually in the midst of working on a record right now, which is more like The Who Odds and Sods. Like we actually rerecorded a couple of Dictator’s classics that we’re putting the finishing touches on. There was like some singles that came out like “Crazy Horses”. So that’ll be a part of it. We actually written some new songs, so it’s going to be cool. Imagine that the Dictators will have two releases, that’ll probably come out probably really towards the end of this year, or maybe it. 26. So right now, it’s Little Steven doing that, and I think other stuff is pending right now. We have a good time. We have fun and the band is really solid and the audiences really like us, you know, and that’s why we’re going to keep doing it.
On if he approaches writing for the Dictators differently than his solo work – I know it has to have humor. That’s for sure. I know it has to be a smart. Andy started the band, and he also realizes that I’m a songwriter and Albert’s a songwriter and Ross. He was very cool about everybody bringing ideas to the table. As far as the question goes, I write what I write, but I could kind of tweak it. To be honest, when I hear Frankenstein 3000 songs or stuff, it, it doesn’t sound too different from the dictators. I think we all kind of come from the same school. It’s very clever, Andy and he’s a very he’s very great songwriter. That’s the reason why they call him the “Christopher Columbus of Punk Rock”, but yeah, I don’t really put on a different hat. On this album, The Law, there was things that were pushing me up. I don’t know how or why a little bit out of that normal element. There’s a song called “Moonglade”. which is very like, people said Grant Hart, Husker Du and people said Brian Jonestown Massacre, which I love all those bands. I get it. Somebody said the other night that they heard “Cosmic Scene” and it reminded them of the band Luna, who I like, and I’m like, “Oh, that’s cool”. I know the band, maybe they crept in there a little bit. But no, as far as with the Dictators, no different hat. If I have some lyrics, they gotta be witty and funny.
On how he got involved in radio – It’s a really weird story. I’ve been playing music for a long time. So back in the nineties, I was in a band and this woman, Amy Christie came out to do some stories on us. She was working, believe it or not, with Charlie Watts and Ronnie Wood at the time as their publicist through Continuum Records, but we hit it off really well. Then she wound up moving down to Jersey. I was living in Jersey in Long Branch at that time, and she said she met somebody who’s opening, or just started a new radio station called The Rat 95.9, which is still there, and a lot of the same original crew from the 90s are there, and if I was interested in maybe doing a radio show with her as a cohost. My initial thought was like, “I’m not that Hey, nine in a row Memorial Day weekend. We got Korn and Van Halen coming up”, but she’s like, “No, it’s our own show. We could play the Dolls, and we could play the Ramones. We know these guys, we can get them come down there”. Then it perked my interest, but I still thought it would never happen. So they had this big meeting and my daughter was really young and I showed up at this meeting, my hair sticking up like Young Einstein, because it was like, “All right, I’ll get out of the house. I’ll take her for a ride”. She was really little. I walk in, there’s this big table with all these guys sitting there like that. I just put her on the table. and I really could care less. I’ll be honest with you. I think that’s why I wound up getting it.
We came in with a playlist and Dan Finn, the great Dan Finn said, “You know what? I think I’m crazy enough to take a chance on you guys”. Sadly, I don’t think that could happen anymore, which really upsets me because there’s a lot of people I talked to that would be perfect for radio, a lot of people would just be great. I hope that opportunity comes back, but we started doing the show and within a few months we had Joey Ramone come down and Joey and Alice Cooper, we got to interview them and John Paul Jones and David Johansson, all these people started dropping by. The show really took off. So, we’re doing that for a couple of years. Then I got a call that if I wanted to do a punk show on Sirius radio, and I never heard a Sirius radio. I never heard a satellite radio. I thought it was Wayne’s World. I thought it was somewhat of a joke. But they said, “Hey, you could come in and maybe do a weekend on Left of Center or First Wave, and you could do your punk show, and the money was worth coming into New York and I’m always in the city. So, all right, we scheduled the interview. Afterwards, when I got off that elevator and I went up into that office at SiriusXM, I felt like I landed on the Starship Enterprise. Going through those glass doors like, “Wow, this is definitely not Wayne’s World”. I mean, there’s Meg Griffin and there’s Pat St. John and Carol Miller. I’m like, “Man, I better educate myself quickly”. I did a punk show, I think I got hired in 02, and I started in 03, and did that for a while, and then I was on as First Wave, and I kind of flipped around, I was on Octane, and then when they merged, I wound up on HairNation, which, believe it or not, was a whole new world for me.
I’m sad to admit that a lot of that stuff I used to make fun of. I mean, don’t get me wrong. I liked a lot of those bands. I like Guns and Roses. I used to like LA Guns, Faster Pussycat, but I wasn’t hip to it. Then, you hear the music and you meet these people and they’re just wonderful. So, I really enjoyed doing that show, but, and that came later. Ozzy’s Boneyard was Buzzsaw at that point. Of course, that’s all the stuff I grew up with, Led Zeppelin, Aerosmith, Rush, Black Sabbath. I’ve been doing it now for over 20 years. So that’s how I got into radio. I didn’t plan on being, people always said you have a voice for radio, but I’m like, and I might’ve said it probably a week before this happened, “I’m never going to be able to do radio, but thank you”. That’s how I got into it.
On the late David Johansen – Such a huge impact. My younger brother, my older brother, my father, I mean Just a lovely guy. I’m blessed to know that that he had a heart of gold. He’s done things for me that people in my family wouldn’t have done for me. He’s a special, special guy, a multi-talented guy. Always the smartest guy in the room. He comes off like he’s not an incredible musician. He’s an incredible musician. He plays all the instruments. He knows what’s going on and working with him for all these years. Of course, playing some music with him and getting to do some dates with the David Johansen group, but he was the best. We had the best time. There was a period there that we used to work once a week, sometimes for 12, 15 hours a day. And meeting him before the Dolls got back together. I thank Meg Griffin because she knew that we’d be perfect together to work with each other. He really is a super guy.
A couple of sad things is, I know it came out that he was sick and they did the Sweet Relief thing for him, but the last time I saw him, it was probably a couple of weeks before he passed. I did go there with the expectation that he was, and it would probably be the last time I saw him. When I left there, that was not my expectation, but it really was the last time I saw him. He had been sick for a while and he kind of had it in check. But I think when he took that fall and he messed up his back They kind of put him in hospice home care, but then he healed, his back healed. When I saw him, he got out of bed, and he sat next to me and he looked great. His hair is everything was great. We were talking about some future stuff and apparently, we made plans to see each other. I think that following Saturday. I love his wife so much, Mara, you know, and their daughter, Leah. They’re just great people. I expected to go back Saturday, but I think, right after that, whatever came back, came back in full force. I think he talked to everybody he wanted to talk to. It was really sad. The more ironic thing was, is that we were doing dates with the Dictators the weekend that he passed and Steve Conte, who was in the New York Dolls for a long time, was doing direct support. The connection with him and I, the first, the first show was at the Colony in Woodstock. There was so many people wearing those sweet relief, L U V David Jo shirts. So after the gig, I ran out and I grabbed people and I took a photo of them wearing the shirts and I had texted over to Mara and she responded back that he had passed and it was like, I was frozen. I was frozen and I was with actually I was at Andy Schernoff’s house, and I told him and, you know I came out a few hours later, but really, even though I knew I wasn’t expecting it, but and then having Steve, that was really kind of comforting because we’re able to talk about David. Next night was really like a funeral. I don’t even remember the gig, but the night, the night after in Long Island was like a celebration of David. Steve came out and we paid tribute to David, and I miss him, man. I miss him. I did that special last night with Meg Griffin, shared stories and talked about them. He was a major impact in my life. I learned a lot from him. And all I could say is he was probably one of the greatest, if not the greatest person I ever worked with. So. If you get to know David, there’s no better. Really. I was blessed to really get to know David.
On if he thinks he’ll stay solo – I kind of like this. Listen, I have no ego, even though people will argue about that. I’m very serious when it comes to music and especially my music, but I do like the fact of being able to write out of the box. I don’t follow any kind of trends, you know there was a word for me that perfectly described it. I don’t know what’s going to go on with Frankenstein. To be honest, we released A 25-year compilation that came out a few months ago called Lost in Space Volume One. I put a lot of love and effort into that. We, and sadly one of my bestest friends as well and the guitar player, Tommy Tafaro had passed away a few months before David, who also played with me with David. I know David was very upset about Tommy. So, you know, when I put that, the final touches that record, 25 years of the band and tweaked it. Really the quintessential versions of those songs, unreleased stuff, and I kind of felt like the band is definitely on hold for a while. I really don’t know. I’m always up to join Guns N Roses, though, to be honest with you, or the Rolling Stones. I’m gonna see how this one shakes. I don’t really have any plans, I’m just kind of going to see what the next step is. I haven’t really thought about it, but the record drops on tomorrow.
I’m psyched to see people’s reaction. The first two singles have gotten a good reaction, “Thinking Today” and “Super fly”. It was interesting to release that as a second song, but that was another thing, when Bob Pantella laid the groove down on that. If you’re going to cover Curtis Mayfield, you’re really making a statement. But I felt like we got it, and it was an homage to him and fit the theme of this record. So, now that the whole thing’s out there, it’s a little like, “Hmm, now people are going to hear the whole thing. I hope they like, I hope they like that as they like these two songs”.
