Bloomington High School North, Nikean, 1983, Page 46

Description:	iflmm wwm gobeI started playing the drums in the fourth grade. In fifth grade I gota snare drum and cymbol, and then I got into a band.—KennyRock & Roll is to be taken lightly. Its for light fun—toenjoy.—Mike46 John Cougar BandThe following are selected excerpts from interviews with Kenny Aronoff and Mike Wanchic, whoare respectively, the drummer and guitar playerfor the John Cougar Band. The interviews wereconducted at their homes in Monroe County.How do you define success?Kenny: We were successful in 1982 because we got ourfirst gold record, platinum record, and our first doubleplatinum record. We finally had an album which wasnumber one for nine weeks. That makes you feel successful. But it goes beyond the actual awards — it gets intohow you feel as an individual about your own personalpart. I am successful in that Ive been playing drums for along time and I set out to be in a successful group and Ivefulfilled that goal. But goals change and you just keep setting new goals.Mike: Success could mean riches. Were in it for themoney. Its popular music —its a commercial venture. Tosell records, a million concerts are a necessity. We played101 dates in 120 days. Thats no fun —no sleep, no relaxation, interviews all day. At one time it was real exciting tostand in front of 25,000 people and play a show. But now Igotta drink a cup of coffee to get up. You get burned out.Success would be for all of us to be independentlywealthy and satisfied with our musical direction and continually to make good and successful records.What about the basic concept that Rock & Rollmusic and drugs go hand in hand?Thats wrong. This band is very, very conservative. Wedrink beer occasionally. John doesnt do anything —he justsmokes cigarettes and drinks soda pop. A lot of bands arechanging. You cant do business while youre stoned. Youcant be that way and play.What is the band doing right now?Mike: On vacation. We just finished five months of touring to promote our record. Theres a cycle — writing music,recording a record, album is released, and then yourehearse a line show, and then after that you do your linetours. You watch your chart positions and see how it does.And at the end of the season you come home. It was oneand a half years for this record.How do you create a song?Kenny: Basically the way it works, John will come in withthe basic skeleton for a song — the lyrics, verse and chorus.And then the band joins in and helps arrange the song, adding our own ideas. John basically directs things, but we allcontribute so there is a little bit of everyone in every song.How is the John Cougar Band set up?Mike: John is the boss. He makes a lot of the decisionsand is under a lot of pressure. He does his work very well.
Source:	http://cdm17129.contentdm.oclc.org/cdm/ref/collection/hs-bloomnorth/id/1541
Collection:	Bloomington High School North

Further information on this record can be found at its source.