Enuff Z’Nuff seemed to explode out of nowhere and onto our MTV screens in 1989 with their glammy videos for “New Thing” and “Fly High Michelle.” Wow, that seems like such a long time ago. Since then, the band has experienced a lot in their career that’s spanned almost 40 years. The band’s had hits, misses, personnel changes, the death of a band member and praise from numerous bands. They’ve seen fads come and go, music movements come and go and such things as selfies, social media and downloads become prominent elements inserted into their career. Throughout all of those years, the band has continued to record and tour all over. Fast forward to 2020 and the band just released a brand new album entitled Brainwashed Generation via Frontiers Music SRL. We sat down with frontman/bassist Chip Z’Nuff right before the album’s release for another one of our talks. Pull up a chair see what he has to say about the new album, the pandemic and recording again with original Enuff Z’Nuff frontman Donnie Vie.

Chip Z’Nuff/Enuff Z’Nuff: Hi Johnny; thanks for taking time out to want to talk to me.

This is becoming a habit that I like! We’ve sat down to talk before the release of the last three Enuff Z’Nuff albums!

It’s shocking to me that I get to make these records and talk to cool cats like you.

I appreciate that and I appreciate you for making these great records. It’s stuff like this that keeps me going in life.

It keeps me going too. What a day and age to be able to put a record out. How lucky am I?

Was there any hesitation given that everything the world is going through right now?

I started working on the record in November of last year. I had the songs written and I started recording, but didn’t have much of a budget. Frontiers told me that they needed the record by January and I told them I could do that. Then, we got a major tour and we were out of the country. So, in January and February we were busy with the Monsters of Rock Cruise and 40-some dates. As we were finishing up everything in February, I got a call to do Australia with Kip Winger. Ah shit, but we had to get back out there again. We hadn’t been to Australia so let’s get out there and do that. We did seven dates in Australia and then everything shut down. We got home the day before they shut down all of the airports. I’m a month behind for Frontiers and the good guys over there said no problem, we’ll give you another month. So, it was perfect timing for us since I was already home. The tracks were already recorded so we had to mix them up and do the artwork and we knocked it out of the park. I was also able to pull some great musicians out of the woodwork to play with us most importantly to mention would be Daxx Nielsen from Cheap Trick who was kind enough to come down and play drums on about half the record. That really set the tone for us and then I called my wife’s cousin Mike Portnoy to play on it as well. I put everything together quite quickly, shot a video, sent it to Frontiers and they said they would put it out in July. We asked them if they thought that would be the right time or should we wait until things open up a little bit. Then, we can go out and support the record. They said they thought July would be the right time to release it and when Mick Peters over at Frontiers speaks, it’s like EF Hutton; people listen. He’s been around a long time brother and I have nothing but love and respect for him. I think they’re pretty excited about it; we were looking on Spotify and there are over 10,000 streams on it in the first few weeks.

You do have a lot of really cool people making guest appearances on the album. What’s the story behind Mike (Portnoy) and the recreated Ringo Beatles drum kit?

I told Mike that I’d love for him to play on the record. He told me that he’s pretty expensive, but seeing that we’re family, because I’m married to his cousin, he’d just come out and play. I sent him what I thought was one of the better tracks on the record called ”It’s All in Vain” which really touches on what’s going on in our country right now. He came down and just layed it down. He sounds just like Ringo Starr but on a double bass kit. It also helps elevate the perception of the record because he has quite a few followers being the former drummer of The Dream Theater as well as drumming for The Winery Dogs and Sons of Apollo. The guy’s in like ten bands; he should be in the Guinness World Book of Records! Then I went and got Steve Ramone to play on a couple of tracks. 

You have reunited with Donnie Vie on one of my favorite tracks on the album called “Strangers in My Head.” Tell me a little bit about that one.

It’s nice to have his beautiful pipes on a song. I mean, obviously he has his solo career that he’s focusing on. He reached out to me and said that he’d love to give me a song for the record and you and I could reunite to do something. The fans would really love that and I said I think so too. He sent me a few ideas and that was one of them and I loved it. I went in the studio and sang on it and played bass. We put together a real nice song and his pipes sound terrific on it. Let’s just say that maybe in the future we could do that again. He certainly seemed to be very happy with that and we did a few deals where we licensed a few records out as well that keep them going.

It’s great to see the two of you together doing anything, but making music together makes all of us happy.

Yeah, you might see him do his acoustic shows out here every now and then but on the other hand, I need a tour. He came over to the house and I got to sit down and speak with him for an hour or two and I don’t think he’s hungry to get in a tour bus, or I should say a van, and tour around the country in an Oscar Meyer Weiner wagon. Me on the other hand, that’s what I’m meant to do and as long as I am healthy and I have the strength to do it, I’m going to go out and tour around the country. I think the fans appreciate and respect that and I appreciate the opportunities that the fans have created for us.

You also have The Space Ace, a founding member of KISS and their original guitarist Ace Frehley on the album.

Yeah, I also asked Ace Frehley to come down and play on the record and he said he’d love to. He said he’d give me three or four solos and I thought that would be great!

How long have you known Ace?

I go back to the 80s with Ace. He was dating this chick in New York and I was seeing her girlfriend. So, we got to spend some quality time together and sip some bathwater. I sent him the track and his management company sent me the track back, but you can’t hear his guitar. I couldn’t hear his part because it was too low, so that’s why I put him on the record as Ace Frehley inaudible guitar track seven (laughs).

I wondered what the hell that meant when I first read it! Were you two on the KISS Kruise at the same time?

No, but I did see him right after that because we ended up going out on tour together and did 28 dates or so together. Those shows were really jam-packed too! Ace really got Enuff Z’Nuff back together in the right way too. He really gave us an audience because every single show that we played jam-packed sold-out. We played some wonderful rooms all around the country. Ace could have got any band that he wanted to do those shows, but he chose us and I was honored to play with him. To this day, we’re still great friends.

It’s great that you kept that connection for over 40 years.

Yeah, we were much younger boys back then, in 87 I think it was, and here we are all these years later touring around together. I’m grateful to a guy like him who takes time out of his busy schedule to get us on these tours with him. That tour lead to a Live Nation tour for us. We went out and started playing with Jack Russell’s Great White. With that whole Live Nation thing, they put you in the really great rooms and theaters with great crowds. We’ve opened for some of the biggest bands in the biggest arenas around the world, but if God came down right now and told me that from now on we’d only be playing theaters and large clubs, then I’d tell him that I was fine with that too. I just want an audience every night and whether it’s 500 or 500, I’m fine with that and grateful for it. I think when they open things back up in this country that you’re going to see live shows really flourish because fans are really jonesin’ to see a rock and roll show. We all want to get out; I’m a fan too bro!

I see that you guys have some dates ready to go with Faster Pussycat.

Until something stops it, this choo-choo train’s moving forward! I think we have some outdoor stuff in August first with Dokken, so there will be a few preliminary shows before the major tour. It’s called The Quarantine 2020 Tour with Faster Pussycat and that starts on September 6.

We can’t wait for you to get back out there as bad as you can’t wait to get back out there, but is there any hesitation? Do you have any concerns?

Speaking for all of us in Enuff Z’Nuff, we’re concerned for everyone’s safety and health. That’s first and foremost the most important thing here. I believe some of this has been blown out of proportion. The coronavirus only affects about 1% of the population and we’re sympathetic to that. I’m out there talking to people all the time and I’ve had friends that contracted the virus and they got through it. It doesn’t affect everybody the same way and I think it’s going to take some time before we find a complete cure for it. Will we ever find it? We don’t know. This may be something that we to live with for a while before they find a vaccine for it. We may have to find alternative ways to get through it and work out our ways to live in this country. One thing’s for certain, people want to hear live music and live rock and roll, all types of music. Live streaming is ok for now, but speaking for all of the bands, we all want to get out there and play live. I think they’re going to work it out to where we can put these shows on and have people relatively safe. We’re in a country that nots perfect; the flu gets you every year too so you have to remember that too. Why don’t we call the concerts protests? It seems to be that you can go to those and it’s not a problem, but you can’t have a concert. I do believe that in time we will find a way to get through all of these hiccups that we keep finding in our country. We’re a very resilient country and if we all stick together as one, we can overcome anything.

I see our time is about up Chip, so I want to thank you again for sitting down with me. Is there anything you’d like to close with?

I appreciate you taking time out of your busy schedule to talk to me and it means a lot to me. Our 20th album Brainwashed Generation comes out July 10 on all the different places that you can usually find music. The tour starts September 6 with Faster Pussycat and you can get tickets at Fasterpussycat.com or Enuff Z’Nuff.com. You can check us out on Instagram and Twitter and all of those wonderful sites. God bless everybody out there and stay safe. We hope to see you all out there on tour and I wish you all well.

By I’m Music Magazine Owner/Editor Johnny Price