A lot of people would consider this music and these songs cheesy and ridiculous — but you're up there, singing them full on, night after night. Does it give you an appreciation for the songs of this era as, you know, serious?
Oh definitely. I mean, I've always seen beyond that. I feel like, yeah, they're selling a fantasy, and that's what it is. That's what MTV was selling at the time, that's what the directors of the videos were selling at the time. You know, "Heaven isn't too far away/Closer to it every day." But that's a great fucking song, man, it's dramatic and theatrical and all that stuff. And yeah, there is a tongue-in-cheek sort of appreciation for that stuff, but at the end of the day, when you're alone in your car, you're singing your face off to these songs, and you feel it, you can put yourself there. The girl, the first date, the high-school prom, it's true Americana, and it's the good stuff in life, these simple things, the excitement of boy-meets-girl. Say what you will about these songs, they've lasted 20-plus years for a reason, and, uh, they're making a lot of money off these songs! You know what I mean? [Laughs] I mean, will you hear songs of today in 20 years like this?
Topics:
Theater
, Boston Conservatory, American Idol, Twisted Sister, More 
, Boston Conservatory, American Idol, Twisted Sister, Def Leppard, Whitesnake, Bon Jovi, MTV, Colonial Theatre, Colonial Theatre, Broadway, Less 
