With a heavy sound that is hard to pigeonhole but easy to enjoy, Zebra has been pleasing its fans for 51 years as the longest-running US rock band still touring with all original members. Now, the same trio that formed in New Orleans before relocating to the band’s longtime home base on Long Island — Randy Jackson (guitar and vocals), Felix Hanemann (bass, keyboards and vocals) and Guy Gelso (drums and vocals) — are back with “Zebra V,” their first album since 2003.
The new album marks the somber return of producer Jack Douglas, who helmed the hard rock group’s debut gold-selling album in 1983 and is known for his work with Aerosmith, Cheap Trick and John Lennon. Douglas worked on several of the “Zebra V” tracks before he passed away in May at 80 years old.
The album includes “Direction,” a song the band has been playing live for years but never got around to recording and releasing. Notably, it also features the driving, anthemic rocker “Walk With You,” which Jackson co-wrote with Paul Stanley of Kiss more than 35 years ago, intended for a Jackson solo album, and the power ballad “I’ll Be There Beside You,” which Zebra co-wrote with Skid Row’s Dave “Snake” Sabo and Rachel Bolan.
With Zebra’s fifth album hitting the shelves and the streaming platforms, and ahead of Friday and Saturday’s shows at the Patchogue Theatre on Long Island, Jackson chatted with us about how the long-awaited record came together, cowriting with Stanley, auditioning for Kiss and why he credits the band’s fans for keeping Zebra together.
Why has it taken so long to make a new album, and why was now the right time?
I had been threatening to do a new record for a long time. I’m kind of the boy who cried wolf so many times. But due to one thing or another, a lot of laziness, just knowing how much time it was going to actually take and I’d have to take away from the performing and everything else that was going on kind of prevented me from getting into it. But our new manager, Dave Rothstein, pushed to get us started, which we did in 2023, and then I did some arrangements of the songs. We laid down some drum tracks. In the process of doing all this, Dave suggested that I call Jack Douglas and see if he’d be interested, and Jack was on board right away, and I think that really lit the fire and got the thing to completion.
Did Jack live long enough to hear the finished album?
He heard what he finished. The idea was he wanted to just start off with five songs, and we finished those songs, and then we were going to do more with Jack. He wanted to do more, but all of a sudden I just couldn’t get in touch with him. I figured maybe he got too involved with some of his other projects. Turns out he was sick, and I had no idea. So we were just finishing up the record like we had originally planned to do, and then, right at the end we heard that he had passed and it was just a shock. Just a shock and so sad.
When you pulled “Walk With You” out, how close was it to the finished version we hear on “Zebra V?”
Well, if you heard the demo you would know what song it was. It just needed to be reproduced, it needed to be updated, and that’s something Paul said. When I sent him the demo, he said, “You know, it just needs to be updated, it needs to sound bigger.” And of course, it was a demo, that’s all it was. So we changed the arrangement slightly and Jack added keyboards. That was one of the songs that Jack produced, and you wouldn’t know there was keyboards on it. You really gotta listen, you know? But things build up in the song, so if you listen really carefully, you can hear them, especially towards the end of the song, some pianos and layered pads and stuff.
Were you able to remember which parts of the song you came up with and what parts came from Paul?
I mean, we were together. It took two hours and we did it together. The answer is I don’t remember. I can tell you one thing. I think the riff, the opening riff, “da da da da da da da,” I think that had to be Paul. It sounds like Kiss, you know? We knocked it out quick. I mean, two hours, lyrics and everything, you know. He’s just a great writer, great musician. We took it from scratch and finished it in two hours, and we just like flowed. It was really easy.
While we’re talking about Paul, I have to ask what it was like to audition for Kiss in the early ‘80s after Ace Frehley left them?
Well, I was flattered, first of all, that they contacted me, and they flew me out to California from New Orleans, and I walked in and it was kind of surreal. I didn’t know what to expect when I went in, but it was a little rehearsal studio they had out there, it might have been even at Sir, but I don’t remember where they were doing it. It was just Paul and Gene sitting in chairs in the middle of the room with a little bitty amplifier near them. I was told to brush up on a couple of Kiss songs, which I had done, but we didn’t do any of those songs. They just wanted to hear me play the guitar. So I did my thing, they thanked me and that was that. Of course, I didn’t get the gig, but it was a great experience, and like I said, I was flattered that they asked at all.
How has the reaction to the new songs been from the longtime Zebra fans?
It’s been great. We’ve been playing a lot of them live for months. You’re always a little nervous when you play a new song live for the first time, you know? They enjoy it and are mentioning it after the shows, too. That’s when you can really tell. There’ll always be polite applause, but they’ve been into it. You can see it in their eyes when you’re playing it too.
Why has Zebra been able to stay together for more than 50 years?
For one thing, we’re three parts, so it’s easier not to break up because of that. And our fans have kept us together. The fact that they still come out and see us every year — we’ve played every year for 50 years and they’ve been loyal and haven’t lost interest. So, knock on wood, the music survived. And it seems like they really want to hear those songs from way back when. And we get along so well. I don’t think we ever took ourselves so seriously that we’d break up, and I think all of us knew that a really important part of being a band is being the original band. A lot of people just don’t like to see change with the people they grew up listening to, so that’s helped us out a lot. And we’re family now. We love each other, there’s no doubt about that part of it. We get along, we have a good time, everybody’s always joking around and keeps the thing going.
You mentioned there might be enough material for another Zebra album. Are you already thinking about a new one?
We’vetalked about it. We’re not doing it right now. We have some tracks that are left over from the fifth album that were never completed, and a lot of them have the overdubs already done. So we’re in a position where, yeah, we could go back and start doing it again, I gotta go back in and get back into that head again to get these things done. It’s not like I can just come off the road and then come back in and start working on it, because it’s not working like that these days for me. I wish I could, but it’s not happening. I gotta be focused.
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