Classic Rock Revisited: We are getting closer to the album release date. This is some hard rocking stuff. This is your comeback. Are you getting apprehensive?

Jake: About seventeen years ago, or so, I was in line in the middle of the night at Jack in the Box—this has nothing to do with anything, but I will tell you anyway. I got robbed at gunpoint and then as I was leaving I got shot at. I am only saying this…he shot like six or seven shots and I was in an SUV…he never hit anything but I could see the flash in the rear view mirror and I could hear the sounds. I wasn't apprehensive then, that is my point. I am one of those guys who doesn't get apprehensive or nervous. That is a longwinded answer to 'if I am apprehensive'…no, I am not.

CRR: Do you realize how f**king lucky you are? Not talking about not being shot, as that is obvious. I am talking about having nerves of steel. I would have sh*t myself.

Jake: Well, yeah, but it doesn't make me more disciplined or anything. It has nothing to do with that. It just doesn't happen. It is not something I have worked on to be that way. You are either born with that or you are not. It doesn't make me better than you, Jeb.

CRR: It does come in handy during gunfights and comebacks. And, I have to say, it comes in handy when the first gig goes down badly!

Jake: I wasn't nervous at the first gig at all and I'm glad I wasn't, because I would have been even more nervous after that one.

CRR: Your singer, Darren Smith was nervous.

Jake: [laughter] Yeah, he was, he was. He was brutalized on the Internet. Nobody is beating him up more than he is himself.

CRR: You remained calm. You had to deal with this issue. Did he look to you for advice after the gig?

Jake: I handled it, I think, as a good band leader would. I told him, "Hey, it is what it is. Everybody f**ks up. I've had some bad shows. The good news is that we will never have a first show that was as under the magnifying glass so much as that one was. There is no way we are going to have a worse show, so it's only going to get better from here on out."

CRR: I heard the second show he performed well. I am usually not the nerd who cruises YouTube and looks for videos, but after that first show, I did. And I did look at clips from the second show.

Jake: There is no way we are not going to get better. We got the bands worse show out of the way. Now we don't have to worry about having a worse show anymore because he already had it with the first one [laughter].

CRR: What did you say after the second show?