FOGHAT
We’re super-excited and honored to have with us today as special guests the legendary Bryan Bassett of FOGHAT; greetings and salutations, gang! Before we meander down the Q&A musical pathway, could you all say ‘hi’ and introduce yourselves to our ever-inquisitive readers? BB: Greetings and salutations readers. My name is Bryan Bassett. I’m a professional musician hailing from Pittsburgh, PA and have been in the game since the early ‘70s. For several years I played in the lively club scene in the Pittsburgh, PA and tri-state area. I joined the band Wild Cherry lead by our singer and guitarist Rob Parissi around 1974-75. Together with my band mates, Allen Wentz and Ron Beitle, within the year we recorded the number one hit record “Play That Funky Music.” For several years we toured with some of the most renowned R&B artists of the day, The Average White Band, The Commodores, Earth, Wind & Fire, The Jackson 5, and many more. I then returned to Pittsburgh to form the band Airborne, later known as T-Dice, and had several more successful years on the Pittsburgh club circuit. In the mid-‘80s I relocated to Florida and became an engineer and producer for King Snake records, an independent blues and roots label based in central Florida. We released dozens of albums for many now quite
well-known blues artists. While in Florida, I met Lonesome Dave Peverett of Foghat and we became friends and eventually bandmates, and I toured with him for five years. Upon Foghat’s reformation with all its original members in 1993, I then joined the southern rock band Molly Hatchet. I toured extensively around the world for seven years and recorded three albums on the SPV label with Molly Hatchet. In 1999, I was asked to re-join Foghat as their guitarist and in-house producer and engineer, and I have been in the band ever since. That my dear readers is the short version of the last 50 years of my musical life..haha. Time flies when you’re having fun. Major kudos and accolades for your forthcoming studio album SONIC MOJO which is set to be released this November 10! Bryan, can you give us the VH1-Behind the Music origin story on what inspired one of the best albums of 2023? BB: Thank you, every year at the end of our touring season we gather at our studio in Central Florida (we call it “Boogie Motel South”) for rehearsals to prepare songs and the setlist
