What’s Love? A Tribute to Tina Turner
 Interview by Keavin Wiggins

A few months ago Jake Brown joined us a columnist, in case you didn’t know Jake is also the President of Versailles Records and the author of several books. Versailles just released a new CD “What’s Love? A Tribute to Tina Turner”. Naturally, since Jake writes for us we couldn’t very well review the disc, because of conflict of interest. But we have something even better than a review, we’re going to talk to Jake about the CD, how it was put together, the players involved etc. So let’s jump right into it. 

antiMUSIC: Jake, I’d like to start out with getting a little background information on Versailles, it’s not your typical record company and I think people would like to know a little bit more about it. So what inspired you to start the label? 

Jake: I worked in LA at a couple, Cleopatra and Geffen (very briefly), and decided that I could do what they were doing.  Running a record label involves 3 key ingredients: a strong opinion about what music other people will like, access to backing money, and a fantastic distributor.  The networking part happens by default, and we started in 2000 when the tributes were really popping, so I was lucky in that respect.  I became friends with a lot of the artists who appeared in our records, which allowed me to build relationships that led to repeat appearances, etc.  But the three main keys are a good ear for talent, money and a distributor.  You can have two of the three, for instance a good record and money, but if you have a s***ty distributor, your dead out of the starting gate.  I also don’t believe in the myth that a label is credible if they “release records online”, that is horses***, you need retail presence to be credible, and I will qualify that for you: let’s say you’re going after a bigger name artist for a tribute, the first question they and/or their management will ask you is: “Who is your distributor?”  That is the first question I always get.  Its the same every time.  I learned that lesson from Brian Perrera at Cleopatra, he had Caroline distributing him, which is a fantastic company.  He has moved over to Navarre now, which is also great, we almost signed with them in 2001, but went with Big Daddy Music Distribution instead, and it was the best move I ever made.  That company is run by Burt Goldstein and Doug Bail, who used to tops at Profile Records, who had Run DMC, so they have platinum records under their belt.  But they also have a truly indie approach that is perfect for labels like mine who only do like 3 records a year, instead of the 12 that my contract with Navarre would have required.  Big Daddy won NARRM’s Independent Distributor of the Year award 2 years in a row, and they have a fantastic staff, from Larry Germack, their national sales manager, who was with WEA for 20 years, and Mike Dungerly, who is like a jack of all trades over there.  Also, my buddy Rich Masio, who left recently, but was there for my first 3 years with BD, is a tops Indie man.  That company is just growing and quietly growing, and its great to be a part of it.  They put out Prince’s last record, the 3-disc live one, and have handled bands like Mushroom Head and Spyro Gyro, but also Otis Taylor, and some really cool oddball artists.  We are sort of their in-house Tribute label, and I would recommend them to any new labels reading this, or for established labels shopping around for a new distributor, I would recommend them any day.  They have shipped about 10,000,000 units in their 9 years in business, and continue growing every year.  What’s lastly very cool about them is I can come to them with a Van Halen Tribute or Tina Turner Tribute, which is a much bigger and larger money making affair, or with Richard Kendrick’s album, and they give the same energy to every release.  As far as Versailles, they were a perfect fit too because we are not a typical label, as you put it.  We run the complete gamut from The Cult and Van Halen Tributes to Marc Bolan and an Alien Sex Fiend singles collection.  Being generic or cookie cutter doesn’t work anymore, and its a great time for indies because of all the discombobulation and disorganization going on with majors, they are dropping some fantastic bands who don’t sell platinum anymore but have extremely loyal fan bases who would make any album Gold in exchange for s***ty new 15-minute rock bands (who I won’t name) who will have one big single and be dropped by their second album.  Its disgusting the lack of loyalty and focus on money that drives majors today, they’re pussies by and large.  I dig Interscope and Capitol, but they’re about the only two labels doing anything ballsy anymore.  Anyway, so we, in our little neck of the woods, just try to stay competitive by being different and diverse with our releases so we don’t get pigeon-holed.  There’s no ego in that statement, small or large, it happens to everyone.  We’re also just really grateful to the hard rock press (especially people like Cheryl Hoahing at Metal Edge and Andrew at Melodic Rock, and yourself) for supporting us over the years with news snippets, reviews, etc.  Its important that we all stick together, especially now, and so while we are doing this Tina Turner Tribute, we really are staying format-wise to hard rock.  Indie labels, be they us, or Cleopatra, or Sanctuary and Spitfire, are the only thing keeping that genre alive right now.  By the way, any bands who want to send demos, we accept unsolicited stuff.  Send anything you like to 168 2nd Ave, Ste 372, NY NY 10003, or check us out online at www.versaillesrecords.com.  You can also check out our distributor at www.bigdaddymusic.com.

antiMUSIC: What was the biggest difficulty you had that you didn’t anticipate? 

Jake: Ironically, it has NEVER been getting the established artists on my records that I wanted to work with, which I thought would be our biggest challenge when we started out.  And we have had some guys on our records that have not played on any other tributes, so I know its karma working in our favor on that front.  So where our challenge hasn’t been recruiting the talent, it has ALWAYS been paying for that talent.  I spend alot of money on my records because I am a true patriot of the 1980s big budget rock productions, from Def Leppard to Bon Jovi and on down the line, and we try to capture that era in our work.  Sometimes we do better than others, but being that we work with many of the stars from that time, it also helps to authenticate the performances, etc.   Also, my head of production, Richard Kendrick, is an equal if not bigger 80s fan than I am, so he knows that sound really well from both a performance and production standpoint.  But it would have to be the money that is the most challenging part, I underwrite at least $30,000 for each record between production costs, artists fees, and then all the requisite spending that the distributor does to get the records to retail, and so I live a very frugal life personally as a result, sort of like a corporate starving artist.  That makes it kind of fun though because it means I’m right there in the trenches with alot of my childhood heroes, who are back playing clubs again and living in aparments, rather than mansions, and they are ALL the most down-to-earth and humble crowd of musicians I have ever known or had the pleasure to befriend, every one of them.  Eye to eye with their fan base, which is the level we try to stay at constantly with our tributes as well.  Its all in the spirit and celebration of hard rock though, in its purest form and era, which was between 1983 and 1991.  The Turner Record was a departure because we went pop with the artist roster, but the record still has a very rock rooted feel, just like Tina’s sound did, so I don’t think it was that much of a leap.  The bottom line, as I see it in answer to your question, is that the hard rock demographic is the most loyal and die hard in music, outside of perhaps hip hop, and you have to, as a label, be as passionate with your releases as the fans are.  That means spending whatever money is necessary to get the best players to deliver the best product.  There’s, proudly, nothing cookie-cutter about what we do, which I cannot say for all tribute-oriented labels.

antiMUSIC: Versailles is known for not only the original releases like Marc Bolan’s “You Scare Me To Death” and Richard Kendrick’s debut but also for your tribute CDs. Why did you decide to focus on tribute discs?  

Jake: This will be sort of an elaboration on the last question, so I will try to be brief in answering it.  In short, Tributes pay the bills.  What has been different for Versailles is this: we choose people to tribute that NO ONE else does, for whatever reason.  That has been our niche, also getting oddball choices by conventional standards in the way of artists for our records, for example, Thrill Kill Kult and Jim Martin for the Cult Tribute, or our formula for pairing up established artists on lead vocals/guitars with up and coming rock bands backing them up.  I don’t believe any one else, be they Cleopatra or Vitamen, or whoever, does that.  Its really the freshest way to stay in touch with what is going on in today’s underground rock scene, and giving those bands a real chance at some national or international (via licensing) exposure at retail within the hard rock genre, which is largely relegated to Tributes, outside of major label supergroups like Velvet Revolver and Audioslave, or mainstays like Bon Jovi and Metallica.  Tributes are filed under the artist’s name in their bin, so we don’t have to fight for shelf space, or pay some exorbitant amount of money to create a name card, and then hope fans go out and buy the record.  Hard rock fans tend to buy catalog, not new releases, period.  This is supported by soundscan, and by the lack of many new genuine hard rock bands in modern day.  You have some, like Darkness and Buckcherry, but unless major labels rediscover this amazingly loyal demographic out there that consistently buy hard rock catalog by everyone from Motley Crue to bands like Warrant and Quiet Riot, and every summer, pack amphitheaters and summer sheds to see package tours with bands like Poison headlining.  These bands continue to make a nice living playing live and selling records to this fan base, and major labels have just written them off.  Its stupid of them financially given how badly the new s*** they throw at the wall now adays sells, and its a goldmine for indie labels like myself and Cleopatra, who cater to that fan base.  I personally am part of that fan base, and believe in the bands from that era, they made great music, were hard working, and wrote an entire soundtrack for a generation, so what’s not to love?  So what if they wore alot of hairspray and tights, dude, MTV hasn’t played those bands for years, and they still tour and sell well on catalog sales, as I mentioned above.  Anyway, that’s my spin on it, and we just try to be true to the era, with both the established and new bands we work with.  Another thing we do that is unique to Versailles, I think we invented it in fact, is doing tributes that pay homage to two artists at once- for instance, Satriani/Vai, or Sammy Hagar/David Lee Roth.  No one else has done that, and I came up with the idea by going through my old tape collection from the 80s, and checking out those cassettes labels used to put out with two different bands on the same cassette, one band/album to each side.  Our distributor was very creative with the marketing, especially to mass merchants (Walmart/KMart), and so we have sold very well with those.  Its cool to try and have little niches where you can.  The Bolan record was a license from Anagram in Europe, and Richard’s record was too cool not to release.  “Murder & The F Word” was more of our example to the rest of the industry of what rock releases are lacking today in substance and sound.  That record is brilliant, it didn’t get one bad review, and still sells cool for us considering its an indie artist release that had no tour support, it still ended up in all the chains.  I would hope more labels would try to be ballsy with releasing independent rock artists where they can, its really rewarding to see any presence for those records at retail.  John Kivel does this, which is cool, and Brian at Cleopatra started the whole tribute thing, so he gets a pass, :-)  He’s a veteran of the whole hard rock movement and is almost single-handedly responsible for its revival back in the late 1990s, I used to work for him, so he always gets props because I learned a lot from his company, but a lot of indie “hard rock” labels who have good distribution don’t take the chances they should be.  With all the restructuring going on, it’s a great time to go out on a limb.  Straitjacket Smile will be our continuation of that celebration.  

antiMUSIC: This new disc takes Versailles in a different direction, up til now you’ve featured tribute discs to hard rock artists. What made you decide to go with a tribute to Tina Tuner?  

Jake: I was watching cable on rainy afternoon in NY in the spring of 2003, and caught the movie about Tina Turner’s life, “What’s Love Got to Do With It”, and though I am not at all religious, had the closest thing I have ever had to what I’d term a religious experience.  I had a similar feeling about the Cult tribute, so I started looking for the right signs- namely that no other labels had tributed her, which they hadn’t, then started putting my wish list together for the record’s artist roster, and it just all started to bloom from there.  This record was pure karma, from A - Z.  Rik (Kendrick, my production partner) was really into it, I think more as a challenge than anything else, and I have been building his name as a producer the past 3 years while Ross, his singer, was locked up, so I thought this would be a great expansion on that role.  I think he thought so too, cause he just put his heart and soul into this f***er.  That guy is an endless well of talent, and we’re attached at the hip in our love for the 80s music scene, period, so everything else just took course naturally.  I also moved the company to Nashville last summer, so I wanted to do a record that would allow me to work with more female singers than we’d previously been able given the male-dominated hard rock market vocally.  My distributor, Big Daddy Music, was really into the idea, and really stepped up to the plate with helping me where I needed it to get this record produced, and then in getting it into stores.  We did a lot of retail marketing for this record that we don’t normally have to do with the rock stuff, which pretty much sells itself it the record is quality.  We did, for instance, an 1890 piece listening booth program with Barnes & Noble, a 1000 piece one with Tower, who just reorganized corporately, and are now centralized rather than being run individually by store, so that made it easier to get a broad program going with them.  The orders with all the chains in the states were really healthy.  Anyway, we also are in final negotiations on our European and Asian licenses for this record, and the companies are really excited about the record, so I think this record will perform well internationally, by our standards anyway, so I’m really excited that a lot of people will be able to hear this record, probably in line with Turner’s fan base worldwide.  That’s sometimes hard to judge, like with the Pacific Rim, or Scandanavia, but she sells well there, so the newer artists on the Turner record will get some great exposure too, which makes me happy personally.  The last thing we did for this project that was a first for us was filming the entire recording for a DVD on the making of the album, which we ended up opting not to release separately here as a product, but will be doing so for both Europe and Japan as a bonus.  I think that was a first for a tribute album, and its got some really cool, funny, behind-the-scenes moments I think fans will like.  I just hope Tina Turner fans feel we did her justice on the album.

antiMUSIC: You’ve had a really good track record of attracting some big names to participate in your tribute projects, were there any artists that you really wanted to be on this disc but couldn’t secure?   Who was the easiest and hardest to secure? 

Jake: Yes, four- and you’re going to laugh at the first one- but I REALLY wanted Ray Parker Jr., and we just couldn’t come to terms.  He did the Ghost Busters theme, and played with Ike and Tina Turner in the 1970s, so I thought he would be a cool novelty for the record in that sense, but probably also do a killer job with whatever song he chose.  The second was Cindi Lauper, who I saw open for Tina, and really am a huge fan of.  Her managers wanted WAY TOO MUCH money (if I may just say), so that was purely financial.  The third was Samantha Fox, who I thought would be cool, but she goes by ‘Sam Fox’ now, and I couldn’t really have her on and not use her original professional recording name, it just wasn’t commercially feasible, but her management wouldn’t budge on that one, which I don’t blame them for in terms of her modern day career.  That was cool though, everybody walked away with a good taste over it.  Lastly, Jason McMaster was scheduled to to “Nutbush City Limits”, and scheduling just didn’t work out for that one, but he’s a friend of both my and Rik’s, so that was personally disappointing.  He’s singing on the Bon Jovi Tribute, and has sung on every tribute we’ve done other than Turner, so I feel like he’s part of the family.  Anyway, that was a little disappointing, but life goes on.  We got 99% of the roster we wanted for this record.  As far as the roster, the easiest to secure, by far, was Alannah Myles, because she was so gung-ho about the project from day one.  The most difficult was probably Tiffany because her manager is a dickhead, but Tiffany herself is awesome.  She was TOTALLY pro about the song, and I had a great time hanging with her while she recorded, and shot the DVD.  

antiMUSIC: The one thing that struck me about the disc is how diverse it is. I mean the album includes Nancy Kerrigan and Kip Winger among others but in the end it seems to work. What was the biggest surprise for you when you heard the final playback?  Which song turned out totally different then you expected? 

Jake: As far as surprise, probably ‘Proud Mary’, which Rik and Ross did, because it gave me a hard on!  It was f***ing amazing, in every aspect and expectation I had in mind for that song.  Songs like that I give to Rik to do because he’s the only one I have confidence in to do justice to the instrumentals.  He is a true master of his craft, and this song really required that kind of ability to come out as phenomenal as it did.  You just don’t f*** around with that.  In terms of different, Nancy Kerrigan put all her heart into ‘The Best’, and it shows in the song.  She will be the first to tell you that she’s not a professional singer, but her spirit is just felt throughout that track, I am proud of what we did with that song.  Kip’s song just rocked, it was vintage Winger with respect to the balladry of it, but he also brought something really emotionally fresh to it.  My biggest thrill on this album was Jane Child’s song though, I am such a HUGE f***ING FAN of hers, and she’s been out of the limelight (by choice) for so long that it was a real honor to have her on this record.  A true honor.  I still have to pinch myself over that one, because she also gave us an AMAZING song that is a ready radio single.  We will go to radio with that later this summer.  Her engineer, Cat Gray, used to work with Prince, who is my favorite artist in pop music, so that was a thrill in its own right.   

antiMUSIC: Speaking of who was on the album, I’d like to do an Inside Track with you. Can you take us through each song and tell us a little bit about it. Why you selected this song, how the person covering it got the gig etc?  Or just anything you think would be of extra interest to the readers. 

1. What's Love Got to Do With It?- Tiffany- With all this Teen Idol/Diva s*** going on the last few years, I just thought I would go to the source of it all, the one who started it all, Tiffany.  I am talking in context of the last 25 years when I say started it, but she was the first true female teen idol phenomenon, from touring shopping malls to having a number one record at 15, and underneath all the gloss, she could REALLY SING.  There was very little manufactured about Tiffany then in the talent department, and not much has changed, other than that she has matured and evolved into an amazing vocal talent as an adult.  She is also really cool, and has a fantastic head on her shoulders and perspective about the whole enterprise of making a living with what some would term the ‘stigma’ of being an 80s pop idol.  She is proud of it, and has really grown as a songwriter on a whole separate level, check out 2000’s ‘The Color of Silence.’  She has a huge fan base around the world, and sold 14 million records, so there’s nothing really negative to say about her, which I point out because some have tried.  I picked ‘What’s Love Have to Do With It’ for her because she sang it as perfectly on record as I first heard it in my head.  She was first on my list when I put this roster together, and she is a really cool person as well, really cool.  Her performance on the song speaks for itself, as does the fact that it started off the album.  

2. Better Be Good to Me- Richard Kendrick- This was the last song we had picked for the album with no one assigned to do it, mainly because we kept thinking another name would want it, but no one asked, and we couldn’t in good conscience put out a Tina Turner Tribute without it.  Rik coincidentally hadn’t picked  a song either yet, and so it just kind of came together like that.  He did a terrific job on it.

3. Beyond Thunderdome (We Don't Need Another Hero)- Jane Child - Dude, this was a gift.  Radio is just starved for songs like this.  Jane Child is one of my absolute all time favorite pop singers, and one of the industry’s most talented, period.  She went away for a few years, so I was thankfully able to look her up, and she was into the project, and specific song I had in mind for her, which was ‘Beyond Thunderdome.’  I had NO IDEA however she would do what she did with it. Any major label would be lucky to have this song, its brilliant pop, this chick is like the female Prince of the record industry.  She plays everything, and is just really ahead of her time.  She was back in the early 1990s, and remains so through present day.  Her inclusion on this record is a true career highlight for me.  

4. I Don't Wanna Fight- Rose Reiter/Kyle McMahon - I got this amazing instrumental from a new artist named Kyle McMahon who was signed to a development deal with Warner Bros. in his teens, and then to a development deal with a label called One Eleven Records, who is owned by a friend of mine named Brad F     , who also happens to be a member of LFO.  Anyway, I got Brad hooked up with my distributor, Big Daddy, and in turn, he got the song together with Kyle.  Anyway, we thought it was a finished deal when we first heard it, but then felt, as strong as Kyle’s vocals were, that we really needed a female co-lead on the song.  Its very different, they did a really folky-instrumental, which I felt needed in turn a really folkly or blues rock-rooted female pop artist, and felt it would be a perfect opportunity to feature an up and coming artist.  As a result, after digging around through like 30 female artist pages on IUMA, I came up with Rosie, who has this amazing voice that really fit the song like no one else could have.  She has an amazing pop range, but also a beautiful organic quality to her voice that captured the emotion in the song that we needed for it.  We ended up using her as the primary lead, but kept Kyle on the choruses and as a back-up on the vox, to really round the song out as something original.  What was interesting is that, when we were mixing the record, the night before we were going to mix her song, we discovered the vocal she had sent was a  corrupted file in Protools, which happened during the conversion from DP.  Anyway, she went in that night, at like 10, and recut the vocals and nailed it in like 2 takes.  Those are what you hear on the record, she’s just so talented its sick.  Its a little intimidating to be around talent like that, kind of like Rik and Jasy, because you know you’re really lucky as a label, but also feel a responsibility not only to do Tina justice, but also the artists I just mentioned based on their own individual talents... I’ve been very fortunate as a label to be surrounded by really good people over the years, musically, in the studio, and most importantly in its own way, with my distributor, Big Daddy Music.  That’s maybe a lesson for newer indie labels reading this, you can have the greatest sounding records in the world, but without good distribution, it doesn’t matter for s***.  The two really go hand in hand.  

5. River Deep, Mountain High- Darlene Love- This one was a breeze from the vocal aspect, although Rik nearly killed himself on the production, because he really wanted to do justice to the song.  Darlene Love, for those of you who aren’t familiar, is a Phil Spector protégé from the 1960s, who either sang lead or back-ups on all of the doo-wop classics from that era, from “Be My Little Baby” to “Today I Met the Boy I’m Gonna Marry”, to “River Deep”, which Phil Spector originally intended for Darlene to sing lead on.  She showed up at the studio on the day of recording only to discover that Tina Turner was there to do the song, a decision Spector apparently made at the last minute.  Anyway, as a result, Darlene did backups on the song, but has sung it in her own catalog for years live, so we were really honored to have someone as talented and legendary from that era on the record.  Darlene is a member of the Rock N’ Roll Hall of Fame, and incidentally, also played Danny Glover’s wife in the Lethal Weapon movie series, so she’s been around.  I spent some time with her in NY at the session and then filming her DVD interview, and she is really sweet, and seemed really genuinely excited and honored to be on this album, so it was for us one of those special moments you tell your grandkids about someday...  Her performance is equally as classic.

6. Rock Me Baby- Michel’le Featuring Tony Janflone Jr. - This was a really funny one.  Michel’le, for those of you who happen to be hip hop heads out there, was a major West Coast R&B diva in the late 1980s and early 1990s, she had a multi-platinum solo album, and also sang on Dr. Dre’s “Chronic” album, Snoop Doggy Dogg’s “Doggy Syle” album, and alot of the Tupac material.  She also happens to be Suge Knight’s wife, who I wrote a book about a few years ago, which made me a bit nervous approaching her, because they are weird about all that s***, very private and protective of the Death Row legacy.  Anyway, I have been a fan of hers’ for years, through all the Ruthless Records and Death Row stuff, but she hasn’t done anything new since 1998’s “Hung Jury” album, until she showed up on a soundtrack Death Row put out for an Eddie Griffin movie “Dysfunktional Family”.  I loved it, and it reminded me that she had been gone a long time, so I made sure Suge was locked up on a parole violation so he wouldn’t interfere, because she hasn’t recorded for any other labels besides Death Row other than for us on this project, got in touch with her through Death Row, and she called me.  The funny thing is we became fast friends, and she taught me an amazing amount of things in that context that informed the production of the album.  For instance, she taught me the whole nine on astrology as it relates to music, including Tina’s different vocal styles and musical attitudes, be they expressed in dance or song, as it relates to her astrology chart.  It was fascinating, and from there, we chose “Rock Me Baby”, I wanted her to sing it, but its a blues standard, and at first, Michel’le wasn’t totally sold on it.  So I got a friend of mine named Tony Janflone Jr., who is an amazing guitar player, to do this stunning blues instrumental of the track, which she heard and loved, so that arrangement gave her a blueprint of sorts for the song.  She recorded it 2 weeks before Suge’s release in this great little surf punk studio called     in Hollywood, it was really indie. I mention that because she’s used to Can Am and endless studio hours because Death Row owns their own studio.  She knocked this out in 4 hours, and really was in the moment with the performance, it is almost live in its delivery, and would be naturally, but she brought this great urban feel to the delta native influences of that song.  It was originally done by BB King, and then Ike and Tina Turner, and now by Michel’le and Tony, and it really holds up on its own as an authentic blues number.

7. I Can't Stand the Rain- Alannah Myles/Jeff Healey - I was a huge fan of Alannah Myles from “Black Velvet” obviously, but also her later material.  I emailed her about the record, and she called me back and we became fast friends as well.  I wanted her to do “Rain”, and she wanted to do it, so that was pretty much it.  My only stipulation was that it be acoustic, and she wanted to produce it herself, so we came to terms, and she knocked it out.  She suggested Jeff Healey play slide on the song, and that was just a gift, because he’s such a treasure.  A lot of people don’t realize, at least from what Jeff and others have told me, that he is an incredibly gifted blues guitar player, outside of the rock stuff he’s known mainly for.  The chemistry between the two of them was just incredible, and as Alannah put it, we got a “sweet little country single” in the end.  That’s really what it is, my favorite part of this song is the chorus, its just really gorgeous in a purely pop sense of the word, and quite original.

8. Private Dancer- Jasy Andrews- Aside from my 5 year collaboration with Richard, this is the most gifted artist I have ever heard as a music fan and label head, and the most dedicated I have ever been to seeing an unsigned artist make it.  I heard Jasy at an open mic one night last summer in Nashville, and thought ‘Private Dancer’ would be perfect for her.  All I asked her to give me was a piano/vox rendition, and she came up with the most beautiful and haunting song I have ever heard.  We have her signed to a 2-album deal, and Big Daddy is extremely excited about her potential, so that is really reassuring, to have my distributor as behind her as I am.   She is arguably the brightest young talent God has given to this earth in the last 20 years, and I would put her up against any of what will someday soon be her commercial contemporaries tomorrow, or even at 3 in the morning if I woke her up out of a deep sleep!  She dreams music, she lives it, she breathes it, and its a sound all her own, and a little piece of that beauty is captured in ‘Private Dancer’.  I really feel blessed to have this artist, and her songs in our catalog.   As a vocalist, she is a classically-trained opera singer and pianist, but as a songwriter, she is... amazing is the only word that comes to mind.  

9. The Best- Nancy Kerrigan -Honestly, I got SO MUCH SHIT from everyone when I first told those close to me I was talking to Nancy Kerrigan about appearing on this record.  This record in many ways, as is Tina Turner’s music, a celebration of girl power, female independence, the spirit of the 1970s liberation movement, and so forth thematically.  Nancy Kerrigan embodies all those qualities when you really think about it- endurance, spirit, competitiveness, resilience.  I saw a VH1 thing about athletes who sing, and Nancy was featured briefly, and I thought it would be something cool and kind of different to have her on.  Everyone gave me s*** about it, from my Mom to other singers on the record, etc.  BUT- when it came time to do the vox, Nancy came in and knocked it out, also knocking everyone in the studio on their asses in the process.  She put her heart into it, and you can hear that in the record.  Also, I thought it would be interesting for media coverage, and we got written up on CNN.com, MSNBC.com, in Sports Illustrated, the Boston Globe, the Boston Herald, just a bunch of cool, oddball places we never otherwise would have been, so in the vein of ‘Any press is good press’, her inclusion also worked in the record’s favor.  That was honestly an aside though, I thought she would hold up on the merits of her artistry, and she did.

10. Proud Mary- Ross Stephens-  This song was special because it was our first collaboration with Ross Stephens since the label’s first release.  Ross got locked up in 2000 over some bulls*** charges he was never even tried for, he just didn’t have the money to post bond so he sat in prison for 3 years waiting to be tried.  He never was, and eventually was released in 2003.  He kept his vocal chops up in jail singing for other inmates, which is how he got by too in there, cause he was in maximum security.  He’s a cool f***er.  Anyway, when he got out, it was just in time to record for the Turner Tribute, so I wanted him to do ‘Proud Mary’ and Rik agreed, and there it was.  He is also lead vocalist for Straitjacket Smile with Rik, so they are working on the debut LP right now, we will likely release that in the summer of 2005, if all goes well.  I want to get them on a really good tour bill to support it.  Welcome home Ross!!!

11. What You Get Is What You See- Deniece Williams- ‘Let’s Hear It For the Boy’ is one of the most classic pop songs from the 1980s, just pure pop.  And Deniece Williams is a true gospel/soul legend.  She has won 2 Grammy Awards, had a ton of # 1 singles, and honestly, is one of the most musically accomplished, dead on vocal performances on an album full of them.  I love that song though, ‘What You Get’, its my favorite Tina Turner tune, and I thought Deniece was perfect for it.  She wanted to do something else, as she later told me, but she knocked the whole vocal take out in 12 minutes, 2 takes.  Her heart was in the perfect place for that song, and it shows up in her performance.

12. So Fine- Kip Winger - Kip is a friend of mine who also happens to live here in Nashville, where I relocated Versailles in the Spring of 2003.  He is a phenomenal talent as a musician, something that the Beavis and Butthead coal-raking his band got via that geek Stewart wearing a Winger T-shirt caused to be overlooked in the historical overview of hard rock.  I was never really a fan of Winger as a band, but Richard Kendrick turned me onto Kip’s solo material a few years ago, and it literally is a different world of sound, style, substance, etc.  Its amazing, especially “Songs From the Ocean Floor”, which is about Kip’s wife passing away.  Anyway, if his last name was anything other than Winger, people might be willing to give that new material a chance on a broad commercial level, because on its musical merits, he’s more than deserving.  As far as Turner, since we were aiming for that very pop market I just referred to, I thought it would be cool and sort of a slap in the face to the stigma he has to deal with over the Beavis and Butthead s*** to have him cover this gorgeous Ike and Tina Turner blues ballad called “A Love Like Yours”, which he handled like a true bluesman.  I hope people who buy this record are willing to give him a chance outside of that 80s’ hairband label, because musically he’s always been years beyond it.  Never judge a book by its cover, so to speak... 

13. Silent Wings- Wendy Jans- I heard Wendy at an open mic here in Nashville, and really honestly saw her as the next Shania Twain as soon as I laid eyes on her, she’s naturally gorgeous, but also has a voice that just soars, so I thought, why not have her on board.  I have always tried to have 4 or 5 up and coming artists on board for the metal tributes (Richard Kendrick- who is signed to Versailles, Tony Janflone Jr., Corey Craven, Tattoo Frank, Ross Stevens, Shane Volk, Jasy Andrews- also signed to Versailles, to name a few), and they have always competed equally if not, in some cases, overshadowed the name stars they were playing beside.  I think one of my few great strengths or talents, if we want to be really ego-oriented, is my ear for new talent, my challenge has ALWAYS been having the funds available to properly devote to promoting their music.  We have a fantastic distributor, but as an indie label, we have to keep the bills paid, so the tributes are a much better vehicle toward that end, which sometimes compromises what would be my personal preference in giving artists like Wendy, who is SURE to be a huge star in the future, a deal myself.  By doing the tributes, be they metal or pop, we then get a chance to actually work with a broader base of up and coming talent, and hence Wendy Jans on ‘Silent Wings’.  She chose this song (which is odd because I usually pick everyone’s songs), I believe it suits her vocal range and style, and highlights a legitimate star to come in country music!  

14. River Deep, Mountain High- Darlene Love/Richard Kendrick-Rik played me the vocals for this song absent the backing music and it just stood up on its own, and in some ways highlighted parts of Darlene’s performance I thought were buried in the version of the song with backing music, also Rik’s back-ups were incredible so I thought it would be a cool way to close the album.  You almost don’t know its the same song, just without backing music.  Its that good.

antiMUSIC: Any personal favorites? 

Jake: Well, its hard for me to be objective here, because I spent a year and a very large amount of money producing this record with Richard, but I have to say there are three, yes- in no particular order, they are Jane Child’s rendition of “Beyond Thunderdome”, Jasy Andrew’s “Private Dancer” for its being truely inspired and a little peak into something musically great to come, and Ross Steven’s version of “Proud Mary”, which Richard Kendrick actually deserves a co-lead credit on, but Ross just got out, and we wanted to give him some long-overdue star-billing.  He really gave this song the sexiness it deserved in context of Tina’s version, but was still ballsy and rocked out enough to embody what Fogerty originally intended for it.  Also, Ross is from New Orleans, so he brings a natural southern feel to the lyrics.  Overall, what Richard did with the production on this album is f***ing magic!  Joe Viers and I were there for all of the main production tweaking and complete mixing alongside Rick, but what he did at his own studio with the pre-production, and individual vocal sessions was just incredible.  He’s competitive with any producer working in the business today (and he doesn’t really even want to be labeled as a producer, rather a guitar player!!!)  That’s just another testament to what a true gift he is as a talent!  This record really reflected the true boundless borders of his artistry and talent. 

antiMUSIC: Any songs that didn’t make it on the disc for whatever reason? 

Jake: No songs, only individual parts that had to be replaced, or artists who we spoke with about appearing, but couldn’t make it for scheduling reasons, or whose management we couldn’t come to financial terms with.  That aside, we really had everyone on this record that I had on my wishlist after seeing the movie.

antiMUSIC: This will sound strange to anyone that hasn’t heard the disc but another thing that struck me is that the songs are really diverse and cover some different musical ground, not necessarily areas where Tina ventured, but and that’s a big BUT all the songs seem to stay true to the spirit of Tina’s originals.  Like I said unless you hear it, it will difficult to see that but that was the impression I was left with.  When you do tribute disc how do you handle that balancing act? Trying to do something different with the songs so they aren’t just note for note copies but they also stay true to the original?  

Jake: It’s interesting you say that, because some dickhead who obviously didn’t listen to the album said on Amazon.com in a review that we stayed TOO CLOSE to the originals.  I think its just the opposite when you listen to the performances and variety in arrangements on the covers of this record.  We cover the majority of Tina’s hits, and really do span her entire career.  Anyway, I appreciate you for picking up on that and citing it.  To answer your question directly, when you do a tribute to an artist as big as Tina, not to mention the FIRST and ONLY tribute to Tina, I think there aren’t more out there to her because its such a difficult balancing act.   The core of that challenge I suppose is in delivering renditions of her classics that fans will feel do her catalog justice, but not too much justice, i.e. being too much of a copy.  That then leaves artists a bit more room to experiment within the spirit of the original, and deliver what they feel and hear in their own heads accordingly on record.  A lot of it honestly, in terms of performance rendition, is within the artist’s discretion.  Rik and I attended every major vocal recording session, from Tiffany to Nancy Kerrigan, to coach on general (in my case) and specific (in Rik’s) production pointers we wanted from the artist.  For my part, this was based on how I heard them singing each song in my own head when I picked them for the album, and for Rik’s part, what he heard when he prepared the backing tracks subsequently.  The rest I suppose is just the natural beauty of the recording process, the artistry.  The performers on this record are on the record because we felt they could do the best justice to each song, not because of how big they were commercially.  I could have had bigger names in terms of record sales, but we had some truly unique performers on this album who made these songs their own in a way no one else could have.  So I suppose, to finalize on that question, I put my trust in my own instinct, Rik’s musical/production abilities, the talent of the individual artists, and the overall spirit of the record that guided us through its completion, and it all worked out!

Now to go a little bit behind the scenes, I’d like to go into a bit on how tribute discs are done, at least at Versailles.  What is the process like?  Do you secure the artist and they select a song and go and record it? I’m sure it’s much more detailed then that. So if you give us an overview of how it’s done from start to finish. 

antiMUSIC: With someone with a catalog like Tina Turner’s it must have been difficult to decide what not to use. How do you select the songs to feature?

Jake: I have been a Tina Turner fan since I was a young child.  I saw her twice between 1986 and 1990, and I am only 28, which means my parents dug her too.  They also let me go see Motley Crue live on the Girls tour when I was 11, so who knows, but I grew up on Tina’s solo material.  As a result, I had a handful of songs that were musts for the record.  Then I asked Rik what he thought would be cool or required, and he came back to me with ‘Better Be Good to Me’ and ‘The Best’.  I thought Nancy Kerrigan would be a different but ideal choice for the latter, and Rik wanted to do the former song, but I picked everything else that shows up on the album with the exception of ‘River Deep, Mountain High’, which Darlene Love wanted to do, so that was a no-brainer. What was really cool about this record was that every artist I contacted, from Tiffany to Alannah Myles to Michel’le to Jane Child and so on, wanted to do the exact song I threw by them!  There really was an amazing karma around this record throughout the whole thing.  And I think you hear that in the music.  

antiMUSIC: Was Tina involved in any way?  

Jake: Not directly no, artists rarely are in tribute albums.  Her management was aware of the project, and we hope she likes the results.

antiMUSIC: Now that you’ve covered the legendary Tina Turner, what project is next? 

Jake: Well, that’s a good question- the Turner record took a year to do not just because we took the attitude that we would take as long as was needed, but also because, fortunately for me, I have been working alot as a biographer, which also helps to finance these projects- I had books on Biggie Smalls and R. Kelly come out this past June, 2004, and have been working on a co-authored autobiography with John Corabi of his life story, which has been incredible.  I begin in the fall with Hanoi Rocks on their authorized biography, which I still can’t believe and is an incredible honor, and have books on Izzy Stradlin and 50 Cent, both unauthorized, coming out from Black Market Publishing and Amber Books respectively.  Then there’s my rock producer’s anthology, “Behind the Boards”, which exclusively interviews each of the biggest and most influential/successful rock and metal producers of the past 30 years, for the first time in one anthology.  That will be released in 3 volumes, the first of which comes out in November, and features interviews with Scott Humphrey (Motley Crue, Methods of Mayhem, Powerman 5000, Rob Zombie) & Tommy Lee, Dave Jerden (Jane’s Addiction, Sonic Youth, Alice in Chains, the Red Hot Chilli Peppers), Bob Ezrin (Pink Floyd, Alice Cooper, Kiss, Jane’s Addiction), James Michael (Meatloaf, Sammy Hagar, Motley Crue, Saliva), Andy Johns (the Rolling Stones, Led Zepplin, Jethro Tull, Ozzy Osbourne, Joe Satriani, Van Halen, Kiss ), and Tom Werman, my hero (Motley Crue, Cheap Trick, Twisted Sister, Poison, Ted Nugent).  The second and third volumes will be out in 2005.  Anyway, not to do a shameless plug there, but that amout of writing has limited me to one project for Versailles in the second half of 2003/first half of 2004, which was the Turner Tribute.  I am really proud of how it came out, and now we are playing catch up.  Toward that end (and to really answer your question), we have three high-priority projects coming up for us: 

1.) Richard Kendrick’s band, Straitjacket Smile’s long-awaited (by fans) debut LP, which will be a double album, half originals and half covers.  These guys are f***ing amazing, and the best new thing to come along in AOR rock period in the last 10 years.  Ross Stevens, the singer, who did Proud Mary on the Turner Tribute, was incarcerated for 3 years (falsely I might add), and was just released last year, so that delayed the album substantially.  It is pure privledge to be involved with a band of this calibre, and I think their sound and songs will really give true rock fans what they are missing in the millennium in the way of great rock pop melodies, infectious hooks (all hits), geniune musical ability instrumentally, and the best live performance around.  Anyway, Rick is working on production for that record now, and it will be out likely in the summer of 2005.   Check them out at www.richardkendrick.com, or www.straitjacketsmile.com.

2.) We are doing a tribute to Bon Jovi, which will feature current/former members of some very big hard rock/metal bands from the 80s and early 1990s, as with all our tributes.  What I feel is different about this record will also be the presence of up and coming talent, which will compose about half the record.  We have done this on the Cult Tribute, Satriani/Vai Tribute, and Halen Tribute, and it hasn’t hurt sales in any of the aforementioned cases, so we are really pumped about the exposure for the new artists, in addition to the amazing renditions of the classic Bon Jovi tunes they are covering.  Fans will also be really jazzed by the known artists who are appearing, which range from current/former members of Motley Crue to Whitesnake.  It will rock.  We hope Bon Jovi fans will like it.  That will be out most likely in late 2004, or at the very latest, early Spring 2005. 

3.) Finally, we are beginning work on Jasy Andrews’ debut LP, which I am really excited about.  I discovered this artist at an open mic in Nashville, and I probably listen to her demos more than any other record I own right now.  She is going to be a huge star, and while we may not be Warner Bros., I am privledged to play any role in that inevitable rise.  On her musical merits, she has the most impressive sensibility as a songwriter that I have ever heard, and I listen to a lot of pop music.  Her songs are extremely unusual though too in their substance lyrically and melodically, almost like a blend of Prince, Dar Williams, and perhaps Ani Difranco.  Although as a songwriter, she also reminds me somewhat of Laura Nyro and perhaps a touch of Joni Mitchell.  As a pianist, she is incredible, George Winston meets Nicky Hopkins and Tori Amos.  Also, which is great for us as a label, ALL of her songs are instant hits.  They are accessible to any ear, but still all feel really personal to the listener.  I’m very proud to be involved with her.  I really have no words for her sometimes she’s so beyond them.  Her music will change people.  You can check her out at www.jasyandrews.com or www.versaillesrecords.com.

What’s Love? A Tribute to Tina Turner
Label: Versailles Records
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