Gettin’ goofy with Tommy Shaw and the posse backstage at a Damn Yankees gig

By Steve Newton

Back in March of 1991 me and a couple members of my posse headed out to Vancouver’s Pacific Coliseum to see a concert by Damn Yankees and a revamped version of Bad Company that didn’t include Paul Rodgers, unfortunately.

Or Mick Ralphs, for that matter.

I think we went there mostly to see Damn Yankees, an American hard-rock supergroup that featured guitarist-vocalist Tommy Shaw from Styx, bassist-vocalist Jack Blades from Night Ranger, guitarist-vocalist Ted Nugent from Ted Nugent, and drummer Michael Cartellone (who’s been the drummer for Lynyrd Skynyrd since 1999).

A year earlier the quartet had released its self-titled debut album, which went double platinum in the States and spawned the singles “Coming of Age”,  “High Enough”, and “Come Again”.

After the show me and my posse members Todd “Tadpole” Salive and Terry “Terr Bear” Cave, who may have been slightly inebriated, posed for a goofy backstage photo with the leather-jacketed Shaw that was taken by esteemed Vancouver concert photographer Kevin Statham.

He’s the guy who, that same night, captured that famous image of me giving Nugent rabbit ears while eating an apple.

To hear the full audio of my 1984 interview with Jack Blades, when he was still in Night Ranger, subscribe to my Patreon page, where you can also eavesdrop on over 400 of my one-on-one conversations with the legends of rock since 1982.