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Feature image credit: Joe Schaeffer/All images courtesy of Patrick Young

From humble beginnings to near superstardom, Black ‘N Blue, as a band, has settled in as elder statesmen of Hard Rock, and Heavy Metal, and the band’s longtime bassist, Patrick Young, is an integral part of that equation.

While many groups from the long gone, but not forgotten 80s Rock era have ceased to exist, Black ‘N Blue remains, steadfastly representing hard work, determination, and damn good songs. Despite trials and tribulations that would have folded lesser acts or those with lesser intestinal fortitude, Black ‘N Blue forges on, a shining example of the glory that was the 80s Rock and Heavy Metal era, and in doing so, they rep the era as well, if not better, than anyone else still standing.

Patrick Young’s thunderous basslines are a huge part of what makes Black ‘N Blues ever-iconic stage show what it is to this day. Patrick, like the band he plays for, is underrated, but still, he too forges on.

These days, in addition to his duties in Black ‘N Blue, Patrick is also a member of The Loyal Order with fellow Black ‘N Blue bandmate, Brandon Cook.

If you would like to learn more about Black ‘N Blue or The Loyal Order, you head here, and here. Once you’ve done that, dig into this interview with Patrick. Cheers.

Andrew:
Patrick, thank you for taking the time. How have you been holding up?

​Patrick:
Hello! I’m holding up surprisingly well, all things considered.

Andrew:
Before we dive into your professional career, I wanted to go back a bit. What first got you hooked on music?

Patrick:
I’d have to say a little bit from my dad, and a lot o bit, from my older brother, Steve, who was always super into music, and still is.

Andrew:
As a young musician, what first gravitated you to the bass? Who were some of your earliest influences?

​Patrick:
Actually, when I was in fifth grade, they introduced the string orchestra to our school, and I saw the bass violin and thought, “I wanna play that big ass instrument.” [Laughs]. So, I learned bass through the school orchestra. I played the bass violin all the way through high school. 

As for early influences, I loved KISS back in the day and thought Gene [Simmons] was the coolest. Then, I saw Cheap Trick open for KISS on the Love Gun Tour, and I absolutely fell in love with Cheap Trick, and Tom Peterson. I still love them. Tom would have to be my biggest influence, even to this day.

Andrew:
Before joining Black ‘N Blue, what were some of your early gigs where you first cut your teeth?

Patrick:
I had a couple of bands in school with Jeff “Woop” Warner, and we even opened up for the band that Jaime and Tommy played in back then.

Andrew:
How did you first meet Jaime St. James, and Tommy Thayer, and subsequently, what led to you officially joining Black ‘N Blue?

​Patrick:
My brother, Steve, got to know, and then work for the guys in the band when Jaime was on drums, with Tommy on guitar, and a friend, Julian Raymond, on bass, and lead vocals. I got to know them pretty well through him [Julian]. I first became good friends with Julian. He had moved to just lead vocals, and our friend and current Journey bass player, Todd Jensen, was on bass. When Todd left, Julian asked if I wanted to audition, but that didn’t work out at that time, so I moved to LA to join up with my buddy Woop, and try and get something going. I was only there for a month or so when Julian called and said their current bass player wasn’t working out, and they wanted me to come back, and join the band, so I did. That band eventually morphed into Black ‘N Blue.

Andrew:
Black ‘N Blue hit LA in the early 80s and was a hot draw on the club scene on The Sunset Strip. If you can, paint a picture of those early days. Where those years as wild as they’re made out to be?

​Patrick:
Man, I was just a kid then. I was eighteen or nineteen years old. It was a blast. We had a band house that we all lived in, just off Sunset, down in Hollywood, and we all just wanted to take LA by storm. At first, it was frustrating playing some very low totem pole opening gigs here and there, a couple of sad headliners here and there, and then it just clicked, and we got very popular, very fast. We even surpassed a lot of already semi-established bands. As far as wild…yeah…it was pretty much the epitome of the 80s Rock scene. I know that’s probably a half-assed painting, but it pretty much sums it up.

Andrew:
It wasn’t long before Black ‘N Blue garnered major label attention, and signed with Geffen Records. While Geffen did its best to get Black ‘N Blue out there, they also seemed to toy with the band’s hard-edged sound a bit. Would you agree? Looking back, was signing with Geffen the right move?

Patrick:
Looking back, no, I don’t think it was the right move. At the time, we thought it was the best move possible, because Geffen was getting huge, and didn’t have a band like us. And that’s where the problem was — they really didn’t know what to do with a new LA Metal band. They had much different acts than us, and the only Rock bands on their roster were already established bands. So, they always seemed to be guessing, and influencing us youngsters who had no clue, and trusted that they did.

Andrew:
What do you recall about the recording of the band’s self-titled debut? Looking back, do you feel it holds up?

​Patrick:
A few things, I was a nineteen-year-old kid that had barely been anywhere, and I was gonna fly to Germany, and record an album for Geffen records!!

The first mistake was right off the bat — our producer, Dieter Dirks, wanted to fly to LA to do pre-production, and our green, but gung-ho manager, said, “No. Dieter just wants a free trip to LA.” Well, being newbies, we didn’t know any better and thought, “Yeah…we’re going there anyways, why does he need to come here?!” Well, the album was produced on the fly, with things being changed as we went along. For the most part, it worked out OK, although the album may be a little stiff for that reason, and some songs just plain old didn’t come out as good as they do live. But what an adventure it was.

But yeah…I do think it holds up. 

Andrew:
Black ‘N Blue missed an opportunity to jump on tour with Ozzy, and instead, rival band, Ratt, ended up on that tour. How detrimental do you feel missing out on that supporting slot was for Black ‘N Blue’s fortunes?

Patrick:
Well, first things first — Ratt wasn’t a rival, more colleagues and friends, and still are. They helped get Black ‘N Blue going when we first got to LA.

That was a tough call, it would have postponed the album even further, and we thought we were on a roll and didn’t wanna push things back even more. But man…that coulda been crucial for us to go out with Ozzy. Who knows? Hindsight, as they say, is 20/20.

Andrew:
Black ‘N Blue did end up hopping on tour with Aerosmith in the mid-80s. What memories do you have of that experience? 

​Patrick:
Oh, I believe you might know the story, of our first gig on a major tour where our afterparty was just a little too huge at the Motel 6, and we were kindly escorted out of town. [Laughs].

That and the fact that we were out touring across the southwest/southeast, playing arenas, with Aerosmith!!! It was awesome.

Andrew:
The band’s second album, Without Love, was an important album for the genre, and it’s said to have been highly influential on the likes of Bon Jovi, and Poison. This said, there was a significant softening of the band’s sound due to label interference. What do you recall about the sessions?

Patrick:
I don’t really know if it was that much label interference. Maybe a heavy influence instead.

I believe we actually talked to Dieter about doing the second album, and his response was, kind of a … “Yeah…maybe. Let me hear some songs.” It kinda seemed like we were auditioning for the second album. We decided to look for a different producer and took a few meetings with a few different producers. We then listened to an album my brother had that was produced by Bruce Fairbairn, and engineered by Bob Rock, and thought, “This is great! Let’s ask our guy at Geffen [John Kalodner] about them,” and he said, “That was someone I was gonna suggest.” So, we talked with Bruce, and it seemed like a good fit. I can say, at the time, I was unsure about the album while recording it. It felt like too much of a departure from the first album. But looking back, I’d say 3/4 of that album is absolutely great.

Andrew:
Black ‘N Blue was the supporting act for KISS on its Asylum World Tour, which led to Gene Simmons producing the band’s next two records. What was it like on the road with KISS? I imagine it was a much different atmosphere than with Aerosmith.

Patrick:
The KISS tour was really fun. It took me a while to even meet KISS I was completely intimidated. These were my idols through school. Then one day, Tommy asked if I had met Gene, and I was like, “Uuuuuh, no…too scared. He’ll probably just be even more intimidating than what’s in my head.” So, Tommy took me out into the commons area backstage, and there was Gene just talking, and goofing around with a couple of people, balancing an umbrella on his nose, and I thought, “No way is this Gene!!!” But he was really cool and very nice. All the guys in KISS were. Paul [Stanley] was a little more stand-off-ish. He was just kind of a quiet guy, but very nice.

The tour was great until we got close to the end when we were gonna jump on the Aerosmith tour, and we suddenly got replaced by The Divinyls….let that sink in. We got bumped over a power struggle between Aerosmith and Geffen records. Yay! More good luck our way!

Andrew:
As I mentioned, Gene Simmons produced Black ‘N Blue’s next two records, Nasty Nasty, and In Heat. Gene really seemed to really hone in on the band’s harder edge. Would you agree? How did Gene affect those sessions?

Patrick:
I completely agree. He was a huge influence on us, and what we felt we needed to do next. He worked very closely with us on songs, and arrangements, and did everything a producer should do. Nasty Nasty was almost a great record. There were great songs for the most part, except one that wasn’t supposed to be on the album. A song called “Promise The Moon” got pulled and replaced by “I’ll Be There For You,” a song, that wasn’t even ours. We recorded it for a soundtrack. Not that it’s a bad song, it’s a good song, but it wasn’t us, and it didn’t fit that record. I knew that the record company was gonna push it first because they would think it was more commercially viable — and they did. It wasn’t representative of the album whatsoever. The other thing was that it was engineered by two different guys, and mixed by yet another — a guy who probably shouldn’t have been mixing rock records.

In Heat, was another almost great record. It’s the best sounding of the first four, in my opinion. It was another one where Geffen pulled a really cool song written with Ted Nugent and made us add in what they wanted as “radio songs,” which were two more songs that didn’t even sound like us, let alone, the rest of the record. Then they turned around and released “Live It Up,” which was already on the album!! It was dumb. 

Andrew:
In 1989, Black ‘N Blue came to an end with the departure of Tommy Thayer. Take me through the decision to end the band at that time. What led to that choice?

Patrick:
Well, funny enough, I was gonna call Tommy the same day, and tell him I was quitting to join my friend Don Dokken’s solo project, which I did join, and was part of for the next year. But Tommy beat me to the punch and called me first. So, we both quit the same day. What led to the end, was a lack of cohesion in the band. We were let go from Geffen Records. We had let Jeff Warner go after the last tour, and had gotten a new guy in the band, who was a friend, and a very good guitarist, but a terrible fit for the band. Things just weren’t going the way they needed to for us to be able to get back on our feet and continue on.

Andrew:
In between the band’s end, and subsequent reunion, how did you ride out the tumultuous time for rockers known as the 90s?

Patrick:
After my stint in the Don Dokken project, I moved back to Portland and played in a band here in Portland called Or, with my friends Jeff Labansky, and Xavier Muriel of Buckcherry fame. We gigged for about a year, but it eventually fell apart. Xavier moved back to Texas, sadly, so I joined a band with a few dudes from around the scene. It morphed into a really cool 90s band called Ten Pound Rain. I thought it was a great 90’s band that could have possibly had some great success. Unfortunately, it didn’t. But if you wanna check it out, hit the link here. You can skip the first song, move right over to track two, and go on from there.

Andrew;
After a few stops and starts in the early 2000s, Black ‘N Blue finally resumed activities full-time in 2008. Take me through the reunion, and the subsequent recording and release of Hell Yeah!

Patrick:
Well, it all started with a reunion benefit show for my brother, Jeff Young, who was/is living with ALS. Between that, and Jaime had a solo record deal, which he ended up wanting to be a Black ‘N Blue album. He approached us about doing it, and we were all in, except Tommy, of course. He had got kinda busy with some small side project…what was it called???? Oh yeah — KISS. [Laughs].

Well, Hell Yeah! took forever to do, but for the most part, it’s a great record. And for the record, I think it’s infinitely better than some of the other stuff that Frontiers Records has thrown out there.

Andrew:
Jaime is on record stating that he doesn’t want to do another studio album without Tommy Thayer. Do you feel that will hold true, or is there potentially another record in Black ‘N Blue’s bones?

​Patrick:
Unfortunately, that’s probably true. 

Andrew:
Over the years, Tommy has taken the stage with Black ‘N Blue several times, and it always seems to have a certain magic when he does. You all seem to have undeniable chemistry. With Tommy’s time in KISS seemingly winding down, do you feel there’s a chance Tommy will hit the road with Black ‘N Blue in the future for more gigs? 

Patrick:
Well, that’s a question for Tommy. I think Tommy, and all of us, genuinely have a great time whenever we get a chance to play together, and/or hang out together. We were always friends that played together in a band. Now, whether Tommy would wanna do that for an extended period of time, if he could, I don’t know.

Andrew:
How about Jeff “Woop” Warner?

Patrick:
Not sure about Woop, sadly. Nobody has really communicated with Jeff in a long while. He went through some tough health issues, and it seemed to have taken a toll on him, and he just kinda withdrew from us all. I love him and hope he’s doing well. I heard he is playing guitar again, in some fashion, and that makes me happy.

Andrew:
Looking back, the 1980s was a crazy time for Rock and Metal, and while Black ‘N Blue is an important piece of that history, you as a band are all still very underrated. Ultimately, why do you feel Black ‘N Blue never exploded in the way some of your contemporaries did? You clearly had the talent, the stage presence, and the songs.

Patrick:
It came down to terrible timing, and choices, with a lot of it, left in other people’s hands that did a piss poor job of it. I guess that ultimately comes back on us, and it’s our fault for letting them.

Andrew:
Last one, Patrick. What’s next on both your docket and Black ‘N Blue’s docket?

Patrick:
Next for Black ‘N Blue is the Monsters of Rock Cruise (hopefully), and then we’ll see, since everything is so up in the air.

For me, I also am in another band called The Loyal Order, with fellow Black ‘N Blue bandmate, Brandon Cook. We have an album out, a few videos, and are in the middle of shooting a new one. If you wanna check that out, hit the link here. 

Interested in learning more about Black ‘N Blue? Check out the links below:

Dig this interview? Check out the full catalog of VWMusic Interviews, by Andrew Daly, here: www.vinylwritermusic.com/interviews