Coming out of the college rock scene in the late 1980s, The Smithereens stayed true to a fiercely independent sound, standing out because of their darker take on the classics of Rock & Roll.  32 years later, The Smithereens have proved themselves still relevant, releasing their first album of original material in over ten years.

Timessquare.com music intern, Peggy Hogan, had the chance to speak to The Smithereens front man, Pat DiNizio from his Riviera Hotel and Casino room on his day off from his one-man show, Confessions of a Rock Star.

Times Square (TS): After having fairly consistently put out albums with The Smithereens for the last three decades, what would you say has changed about the music industry, and have those changes been for better or for worse?

Pat DiNizio (PD): Well, it goes both ways, really.  The major record companies don’t have the same dictatorial control over the artists that they once did. When Napster came around it really shifted the power, and now that power is being shifted to iTunes. It’s made things really accessible: I use iTunes, and I’ll go onto Amazon to download albums that have gone out of print – that’s a tremendous amount of fun. As Ben Franklin said, “Don’t waste time, that’s the stuff life’s made of” (sic) so the ease of accessibility is something I really enjoy, but I also enjoy the visceral experience of going to an old school record store. You know, that’s an important part of my weekly ritual on my day off, is going to the local record store. It keeps my feet firmly clamped on the ground; it reminds me of my roots and why I’m doing what I’m doing. That being said, we have one – and I shy away from saying dictatorship – but, corporate entity record labels are seemingly being replaced by another: iTunes, who seem to control the game and have very strict rules in terms of who plays the game and who they will promote. I’m sure they have their reasons why, and I’m sure it has everything to do with money.

TS: That’s an insightful, and somewhat controversial point of view. I appreciate your honesty here.

PD: Well you know, life is too short to not be candid. At this point, 32 years down the line, regarding whatever I tell you about The Smithereens or my point of view, candor is the best policy. What have we got to lose at this point?

TS: Right. Tell me more about this show you’re doing in Las Vegas.

PD: It’s called Confessions of a Rock Star, and the title is a bit misleading because there’s nothing offensive in the show, nothing I wouldn’t want my daughter or my family to hear. There’s nothing in the show that would embarrass anyone I care about, or anyone in general. But it’s a – I have my own show at the Riviera Casino, working six nights a week. A lot of it is storytelling and anecdotal, and I’m doing a lot of Smithereens hits that we are fortunate enough to have. I do a Beatles song, a Buddy Holly song. There’s certainly a comedic factor to it – I tell stories that are amusing or funny, to the audience about my 32 years as a member of The Smithereens and my encounters with a lot of the people who have inspired me throughout my life: Paul McCartney, Buddy Holly’s widow Maria Elena Holly, Mick Jagger, Rod Stewart, Ozzy Osbourne, people like that. I talk about the process of songwriting, and it’s a trip through my life in rock & roll, but it’s also a revisiting of what it was like to hear Elvis when he was brand new, and to hear The Beatles on the radio the very fist time “I Want to Hold Your Hand” was played. It takes people back to what may or may not be, for a lot of them, a better time. I always say before the show “I hope when you’re leaving this event today you feel better than when you came in.” It’s nice to be reminded of what things were like, because it can put you into that sort-of happy place. Maybe it will enable you to also spread the joy.

TS: On top of this show you’re doing in Las Vegas, you also perform with The Smithereens, and you guys will be playing BB King’s in Times Square on January 21^st. As Jersey Boys, what’s the best part of playing in New York City?

PD: Well, it’s our backyard, it’s our home. I spent most of my formative years in New York City in the early 80’s. I still have an apartment on the Lower East Side – it’s my home, New York, New Jersey – that’s where we’re from. No matter where we go, no matter where we play, we can look at the New York audience and it’s a lot like we’re looking into a mirror. The fans look like us, they dress like us, they’ve been through the same experience as us collectively. So for us to come home any year and play B.B. King’s, it’s a very important event for us. We’ve been around for 32 years and we’ve got to be twice as good as kids half our age, so if we put on a bad show – which we don’t, we’re fairly consistent – the audience will feel let down, you know, they’ll take it personally. So we work, no matter where we play, ten times hard than anyone else, and especially in New York.

TS: And what do you fans have in store for them at B.B. King’s?

PD: Well, of course, there will be faithful reproductions of radio hits that we were lucky enough to have in the first place – songs like, “The Girl Like You”, “Blood and Roses”, “Behind the Wall of Sleep”, “Only a Memory” – songs that were Top40 and number one on rock radio charts. We’ve added a keyboard player and it’s worked out fantastically well in the three shows that we’ve done so far, because it enables us to do material that we’ve never been able to reproduce faithfully on stage, songs like, “Too Much Passion”, which was another Top40 hit, and songs like “Blue Period”, which features harpsichord and strings on the record. When we’ve done it live we’ve never really been able to reproduce it as faithfully as we would have liked. The keyboards have enhanced the show and enable us to go much deeper into the catalog and play a lot material for this bunch of shows that we’ve never been able to do live. It’s going to be a totally different show this time out. I think the audience will be getting a real treat.

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