Jimmy Kay from Canada’s The Metal Voice sat down and spoke with Night Ranger’s  guitarist  Brad Gillis at this year’s M3 Rock Festival on May 5, 2024.

Brad spoke about the legacy of the band’s album Dawn Patrol and smash hit ballad Sister Christian as well as his time with Ozzy Performing and recording the live album ‘Speak of the Devil’.

When asked about the legacy of their debut album Dawn Patrol
“It got us out of the gate. We were lucky enough to get a record deal back then but because we were more of a kind of a hard rock band, we released ‘Don’t tell me love me’ which was a hard rocking song and the radio picked it up on it. It had double guitar solos and the big long outro and we were lucky to be right in that Gap where hard rock with Melody uh was viable for radio. So Dawn Patrol (album) was huge for us. We came out right when MTV came out so they didn’t have enough content for their 24/7 format so they played the video from ‘Don’t tell me you love me’ 20 times a day. It was great, it put a face to the music and we went out with Kiss for our first tour and it was awesome. To be able to still be doing it 42 years later is freaking awesome.”

When asked why Ozzy’s Live album ‘Speak of the Devil’ (1982)  has stood the test of time despite being put together so quickly 
“We kind of took it to the next level and maybe overplayed. The timing was right. The sound was good. I ended up having this stereo set up with slight delay on my guitar. I cranked my amp to freaking 10 man, the speakers were singing.  I still sign these records all the time  and love that people still enjoy that record, it was a time in my life that I’ll never forget. We had to get it together (rehearse) because it was live. You realize when you do a live show with a band you’re rehearsing  before you record that live show for release.  So these songs were new for us to play live and we got it together. Ozzy never even showed up (rehearsal); he was never even there.  So we got it together. We just kind of overplayed it cuz there were no rules back then.”

When asked if he mapped out his solos on Speak of the Devil
“No. I’m off the cuff with that stuff. Tony Iommi was a great player and the stuff he came out with was so Innovative back then. He started heavy metal pretty much. But  I would definitely stick to some of the classic things he did but like I said then I go nuts and Rudy (Sarzo) would go nuts. And  we kind of turned into a kind of a live jam band at a few points on the ‘Speak of the devil’ record . Max Norman did pick the best out of the sound checks and the two live shows for the record but the mix was huge and my guitar tone was huge. It was the time in our life that everything was you just do want and just do it well.” 

When asked about the legacy of smash hit power ballad Sister Christian 
“Wow, I got to tell you man  it’s been in so many movies and so many like cartoons, American Dad, all kinds of movies and stuff. So that’s been quite a legacy for that song. We play it live and everybody sings along. We played shows with big country bands or Kid Rock and there’s these kids, they are 18 years old or younger and they’re all singing the ‘Motorin’ (Chorus) and it’s like wow. It’s definitely a Timeless classic song for us.”