Gearing up for his upcoming show this Saturday, January 13 at The Boardwalk in Orangevale, California, world-renowned bassist Marco Mendoza called in to chat with 98 Rock's Myki Angeline.
LISTEN NOW: Marco Mendoza with Myki Angeline
You might know him from playing with bands like The Dead Daises, Thin Lizzy, Whitesnake, and most recently touring with Journey. Marco has over 30 years of playing with big names in Rock.
Getting a bit into his work history and how he began to solo tour, Marco explained, “2018 I got extremely busy with The Dead Daises and that was a beautiful experience, great music, great bunch of guys… and we toured incessantly, we just didn’t stop, we traveled the world actually. So we were really busy and it didn’t allow me to do a lot of other things.”
Noting he didn’t have a lot of time and energy during that time to do any solo stuff, like he usually does when taking on other projects, he did somehow manage to release his solo album, Viva La Rock, to great reception.
“I started getting a lot of calls, a lot of invitations to come here, come there, come play here, tour here, play a festival here. Then the year after, 2019, The Daises went into a hiatus of sorts," and decided that when they returned, they’d do so with Glenn Hughes as their bassist.
A fan and friend of Glenn’s, Marco was more than okay with that decision, especially because now he’d have “the time to get behind my latest release Viva La Rock." Touring for over 100 shows all over, Marco got busy, and “discovered what it is to write your own music, to get behind your own songs, deliver the message you want to deliver.” Admitting, that while it has its challenges, it's also really exciting. “The spark that was there, ignited into a flame," Marco expressed.
"We did so many shows in ’19, that ’20 was gonna be the year of fruition if you will," Mendoza went on to say. Excited to finally bring his shows to the US, Marco had about 20 shows planned, before going overseas again. But as we all know, “the pandemic happened,” and Marco “had to pull everything down,” noting it “killed the momentum, especially for me breaking in new music, a new artist if you will, a solo artist."
Against advice from his peers, Marco went back out on the road towards the end of 2021. Things were obviously different, with social distancing, masks, and more. Marco recalled “it was tough… but for the first time people got to appreciate it in a different way… So it worked in my favor, I got on the radar in a bigger way… and it’s been like that, it’s been amazing.”
Now, with his latest album, Take It To The Limit, released in 2022, Mendoza is solo touring once more. Brining his talents to Orangevale, California for a show at The Boardwalk on Saturday, January 13.
To hear all that and more of Myki and Marco's conversation, listen to the entire interview above.