Interview with Drummer Kenney Dale Johnson

For the past 22 years Kenney Dale Johnson has been the drummer for Chris Isaak, providing a steady beat, great background vocals, and comic relief night after night. Currently on tour opening up for Stevie Nicks, Isaak will soon be headlining shows at venues all over the country. I recently spoke with Johnson about the Chris Isaak concert experience and his longtime association with Isaak. Below are excerpts from that interview.

How's the tour going so far?

We're doing about a month with [Nicks]. We've known her a long time. She was on our TV show, and she also sang on our Christmas record three years ago. So she's been a friend of the band's for a while, and we thought, "We're gonna do our own tour later in the summer, and we thought this might be fun to do in June." But we're gonna come back and do the rest of the country in July and August and hit all the usual spots.

I've seen you eight or nine times now, and I've never seen a bad show. It's always been really entertaining. There's a real professional approach, but it never feels like you're on autopilot.

Thanks for the compliment. We work really hard on our show and take a lot of pride in it because we thought if people are going to pay that high ticket price, get a babysitter and drive – you know, people drive four or five hours to see us, and I don't take that for granted. That just blows my mind and makes me grateful. So we go, "You know, we're not gonna just stand up here and gaze at our shoes."

We want to have a show that would be something that I would want to see, like good playing, good songs, good singing, some horsing around. It keeps it fresh for us, too. I love it every night, and we've been doing it for 22 years, and I don't know if we could have done it if we hadn't have done it this way.

How much of the show is improvised and how often do you go off the set list?

We go off the set list pretty much every night. We have a list ready to go to help the pacing. We know that these three songs go bang-bang-bang, and there are spots in the show where Chris can use his discretion. But we make sure that a lot of the show is tight.

Article Author: Dave Lifton

Dave Lifton is a writer whose take on pop culture can be found at Wings For Wheels. He also blogs about soccer at Booked For Dissent.

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