"Poison", "I was Made for Loving you", "Living on a Prayer", "Dude Looks Like a Lady", all these hits have one thing in common... Desmond Child. He's one of the most successful songwriters of the latest 30 years; he has worked and co-wrote hits with several of the giants of rock - Alice Cooper, Aerosmith, Bon Jovi, KISS. He has written forty Top 40 chart hits and recently he co-wrote 5 songs on Paul Stanley's new solo album "Live to Win", written and produced Meat Loaf's "Bat out of Hell III: The Monster is Loose". From Los Angeles, on the other end of the line... Desmond Child. Interview: George Anasontzis

Desmond Child IDRockpages.gr: Desmond, do you come often to Greece? I think you have a house in Crete?

Desmond Child: My home in Crete is Porto Elounda Ηotel... The last time I was there was during September 11th (2001), because I was in Paris and I was going to go home, and I couldn't go home, so Sakis (ed.: Rouvas, Greek pop singer) and his good friend Elias, who's one of the owners of Porto Elounda hotel, said to me: "Come and stay with us, we'll take care of you". So, I was there about ten days, I loved it, it was fantastic.

Rockpages.gr: You should come more often here...

Desmond Child: I think we have a plan, this summer, to go... I'm not sure where we gonna go, but I think we will rent a boat and go from island to island and all that stuff.

Rockpages.gr: You've been working with Scorpions for their next album. How did this collaboration come up, given the fact that Scorpions are one of the few European bands that you have worked with?

Desmond Child: Well, I was busy producing Bat out of Hell III for Meat Loaf during the last nine months and then somehow their manager started calling and saying: "Do you want to work with the Scorpions?" and I, you know, I always loved the Scorpions, but my problem was that I'd been working with Meat Loaf and what I thought it was going to take four months turned out to six months turned out to nine months. It's finally got finished and Bat out of Hell III will be released October 31st on Halloween. And I think the Scorpions wanted to have their record so that they could tour in the fall, but they were willing to wait. So, we are working now.

Rockpages.gr: Bat Out of Hell III is about to be released, as you just said. What are your expectations for it?

Desmond Child: I think it's getting a lot of orders from all over the world. They've made a printing already of two million records... that's the initial printing. I think it's gonna be one of the biggest records all over the world. It's very elaborate. It's over 77 minutes, while only 80 minutes fit on a cd, 18 songs and they are all incredibly arranged, orchestras, choirs, it's a huge undertaking.

Rockpages.gr: We're looking forward to it.

Desmond Child: Yeah... I think you can download some of the songs on MeatLoaf.net.

Rockpages.gr: Also, recently you did an album with Paul Stanley, entitled "Live to Win". Actually you co-wrote about... eight songs? How was to collaborate with Paul after all those years?

Desmond Child: Actually it was five. It was fun. It was really great. After all these years, it was like time hadn't passed...

Rockpages.gr: We were talking with Alice Cooper a few months ago and he was telling us that you are responsible for the revival of his career with the Trash record. How does this make you feel... do you expect to do the same thing with Meat Loaf and Scorpions?

Desmond Child: I do. I believe in these artists... You know, I made a career helping people make clear about who they are. I worked with Kiss in the beginning, in 1978, for the first time, then I worked with Bon Jovi who already had made a couple of albums and we wrote the album "Slippery When Wet" and then I worked with Aerosmith who had been popular before but then had some trouble, you know. And then we wrote "Permanent Vacation". I think it's easier when someone already has an image, when it's clear and they know who they are. It's much harder when you are trying to break an unknown band that they don't really have an identity.

Rockpages.gr: So, what are your criteria to accept a proposed deal?

Desmond Child: Whether there's time to do it properly, because if a band says, "Yeah, I wanna do a record, I wanna write the songs in two weeks, so I can have this record done in seven weeks", I wouldn't be able to say yes, because it takes some more time to do something that's really great.

Rockpages.gr: And I guess that the band should be already well known...

Desmond Child: Think of that. I had more success with bands that already have a defined image.

Rockpages.gr: We were talking with Diana Grasselli a year ago and she was saying how great was the chemistry in Desmond Child & the Rouge. Do you feel a little bit bitter about not being able to achieve the same success with the Rouge as you had as producer and songwriter?

Desmond Child: Well, I was very young when I was doing it. People in the record company didn't understand what we were doing. I think we were ahead of our time. They didn't even know how to classify our music. So, it was difficult and then we were just so... I think we were together for five years or so, we had met in 1973 to 79... that's six years... and we worked so hard and after making two records and having been a little bit disappointed, people were saying to us "Well, maybe you'd be better off as a solo artist". There's always somebody who's gonna say that and when you are frustrated, you listen to that. That's why we broke up. And I'm kind of sorry we did... because we had a great sound, and I think we could have made it work eventually.

Rockpages.gr: As a producer and songwriter, does it make a difference to you when you work on a rock, pop or dance project?

Desmond Child: The most important thing is to understand who you're working with and what the concept is. What they're trying to say. I haven't really done much dance music, I did the Ricky Martin music... I guess that's mostly like that. We used a very strong concept there. When you know what you wanna say, then every people's word comes into your mind. You know what to say... what to make the artist say.

Rockpages.gr: Is there an artist that you haven't worked yet and you would like to work with in the future?

Desmond Child: I really admire Nordic bands and I love a band called the Rasmus. Recently I got a call from their manager saying that they wanna fly you to see them perform in Santo Domingo, November 3rd, and they wanna meet you, they wanna work with you, so... I'm going.

Rockpages.gr: Definitely you should do that, because in their last couple of records their songs have the structure of the Desmond Child songs.

Desmond Child: That's right! (laughs) I also heard a band the other day, it's called Apocalyptica, and they are cellos and they play really heavy, kind of new rock, and I love their sound. I would like to work with them as well.

Rockpages.gr: Are you taking a turn towards the European market, Desmond? All these bands are European...

Desmond Child: I think so (tittering)... I guess it's more inviting to me because the sounds are more strange and it's very mysterious how they come up with their melodies.

Rockpages.gr: Do you think that you could ever manage a band with not so much of a pop attitude? That is make a move to less popular areas, like in heavy metal or even country music?

Desmond Child: I've been going to Nashville... Actually Nashville is my permanent residence. I've been going to Nashville for thirteen years, it's a great place and I love country music... because country music tells stories and I like telling stories in my music. As far as pop is concerned, I haven't just done pop, I have done everything. But the thing is that the songs I've done with rock performers get chosen as the singles. But I've done many more songs with the same artists that are not pop singles, they are just popular. It's sad to say, but without a hit, nobody can do anything. You know, when people go to a live show... (another phone ringing) Hold on just one second.

(on hold for a while)

I'm sorry... So, what we were saying... Without the hits, the bands have nothing to sell. So, I'm good in helping to create something that it's very cool in the artist's statement and people then respond to it and they want it. I don't think it's a bad thing. Otherwise, you wouldn't be talking to me right now...

Rockpages.gr: Most likely... Would you ever attempt another solo record or would you ever think of a third Rouge record?

Desmond Child: Yeah, I always think about that and maybe this is a good time to do stuff like that, when you can put out a record on your own in myspace and after that just offer it to the world... I'd love to do that. But I don't have the time to do it, because it will take a lot of work. And the group is busy... everybody has lives... we live in separate cities. Though, I would love to do it. I think that would be much more fun than doing a solo record, but that would be good too. I'm also working on two Broadway shows that are in development. One of them is called JazzAge and it's about Paris in the twenties and the other one is called Cuba Libre and it's about my family story in the Cuban revolution.

Rockpages.gr: Do you ever have fear that a song of yours or an album you produced will not become a success, or are you always confident about it?

Desmond Child: You know, I can't control the market. Well, if I had much fear, I wouldn't do anything, because, you know, right now the record companies are frozen. It's unbelievable, they can't catch a break. I just do my best and then move to the next thing and hope that what I did becomes successful. I can't control it and that's why writing the song is the best part because that's more fun and after that hell starts, getting the record made and then make people hear it. It's hard for people to know what they want, because internet doesn't take music everywhere. Also people are not into the habit of collecting somebody's entire album, they just want the one song and then they move on. So, that's a problem too, because all of the effort to make all the other songs go down in vain.

Rockpages.gr: Thank you very much for your time.