Interview: DANKO JONES

Hello Danko, thank you very much for joining me. Where are you at the moment?

Toronto.

Okay, preparing for the tour, I guess, which will start in October?

No, we don't start on October 12. But yeah, I'm preparing for the tour. It starts a lot earlier than that.

Okay. After doing this for thirty years, do you still actually get excited before a new tour starts? Or does touring feel so natural by now that you’re basically always ready to go?

Well, both. I mean, I'm always ready to go. I've been doing it for a long time, so it's not something that hardly ever happens. But I am excited about it, so both can happen at the same time.

I see. Yeah, touring can be challenging sometimes, and you’ve spent most of your adult life on the road. What’s one completely ordinary thing you miss after a few weeks on tour?

Being home, being with family, being in my bed — that's pretty much what you miss. Everyone misses that, I think.

This part of the tour takes you through several places in Eastern Europe where you haven't played nearly as often as Germany, Scandinavia or the UK. After so many years on the road, is discovering a new audience still one of the things that keeps touring interesting?

The chance to get on stage in front of an audience has always been the impetus to start this band, to continue this band. That's the reason why we do it.

I mean, really, the way I see it is, I do the show for free. I don't charge for the show. What I charge for — this is me personally — is everything outside of the show, so that's where we make our money. The show's free. I'll do that for free. I love doing that.

But it's all the touring, getting up at four in the morning, living in a bus or sleeping in a van, being away, eating crap food, not knowing where your next meal is going to be — all that crazy stuff on tour that people don't even know about because those are the details. That's the hard part. The fun and the easy part is the show. That's what keeps us doing it.

Okay, but is it exciting meeting different audiences and visiting new places?

Yes.

I think this is your first visit to Bulgaria?

Yes.

Have you been here before or not?

No, I don't think we have. No.

So you're probably looking forward to it. What do you actually know about Bulgaria?

That we're gonna play there!

Okay, so I guess you'll be excited if you get to do some sightseeing and everything?

No, I don't. I don't do any sightseeing on tour.

Really? Okay, that's interesting.

Well, if you... I don't know what you do for a living, but if you go to the office, do you go swimming? Do you go sunbathing? You know? I'm at work. Touring is work for me. I'm at work.

I don't understand this whole thing where people think that being in a band and going on tour is a vacation, when in fact it's my living. That's how I pay the rent, pay the bills. So I've got to take it seriously. I'm not going to spend energy playing tourist when I have a job to do and I have work to do.

Yeah, you’ve often spoken very openly about treating Danko Jones as a job and a career. In Bulgaria we have a saying that roughly translates as “a musician can’t feed a household,” which reflects this idea that music is something you do out of passion, but not necessarily something you should rely on for a living. Do you think there comes...

I have so many problems with this question you're asking me! I have so many problems. The way you're framing it is so wayward to me.

I know, but...

Why are you asking it then?

...do you think there comes a point where, if you really want to take music seriously, it has to stop being just a hobby and start being treated like a job — with discipline, responsibility and everything that comes with that?

Well, I think you see things very black and white. There are things that can happen simultaneously. For example, quoting you, doing this as your passion can also be your job and your career and your occupation, and still be your passion. I don't see how the two can't coexist.

I agree.

The problem with your question is it's projection. People who think that you can't call this a job because it's your passion — that's a projection of them because they don't like their job. So they can't even imagine having a job that's your passion at the same time. That's on them. That's not me. That has nothing to do with me.

If I don't call this a job, then what have I been doing for 30 years? Have I been unemployed? I'm just a bum?

Also, I think the arts are very important in people's lives, whether people realize it or not. When we were all sequestered at home during the pandemic, where did everybody turn to? They turned to the arts. They listened to music. They watched movies. They turned to the arts for solace and refuge.

It's an important thing in people's lives, and to just say, “Well, you can't make money out of it. It's not worth it,” or that it has no merit past someone's personal passion, is unjust. So it's not on me. I don't know if you're quoting someone or if this is from your thoughts, but that is so wrong.

Yeah, that's why I told you that we have this saying in Bulgaria that's been passed through generations. And to be honest, we are underestimating the power of music and how people should treat it. But I just wanted to...

You don't have to tell me the saying in Bulgaria if you know the correct answer yourself. You should write an article about how that quote is so incorrect — or actually, I should amend that and say how it's so incorrectly interpreted.

I think this will be the main point of the interview, because people must realize that there are a lot of bands that have been touring for 30 years and make a living out of it.

Well, I mean, it's your article. You can write however you want and slant it any way you want. But I'm not here to defend whether what I do is a job or is a passion, or whether I should be grateful or I shouldn't. I'm a musician.

When I fill out an application, whether it's for my passport or a visa or for a doctor, and it says “occupation,” I write “musician.” But the way you're framing your questions, it doesn't even apply. Being a musician isn't even an occupation.

No, it is. It definitely is...

But why are you asking me these questions then?

I just wanted to hear your side and your point of view.

Well, you know the answer.

Yeah, I do. Okay, thank you very much for clearing that up. But let's return to the different audiences and crowds. Do you think there really is something like a German crowd, a British crowd, and so on, or is that mostly a cliché once the lights go down and the show starts?

Well, yeah. I mean, an audience is going to listen to the music, watch the show. I think what we do is pretty universally expected and accepted. People know what a rock show is. They're not watching something from Jupiter. It's not something they've never seen before, whether they're in Bulgaria, America, Australia or Japan. It's a rock show. People know what it is.

In terms of the reception, sometimes it can rely on a language barrier if the crowd doesn't understand English, which is what I speak on stage. So sometimes things get lost in translation, or they just don't get understood. Whereas when I play, let's say, at home in Canada or in the UK, whatever I'm trying to put across or whatever I'm trying to say — if I'm trying to crack a joke or relay some thought — it gets understood quicker and easier.

It's not to say that one audience is smarter than another audience. Sometimes it's simply a language barrier. But, you know, we play rock and roll, we play music, and not to be a cliché, but music is pretty universal. All over the world, people love Bob Marley. All over the world, people love Kraftwerk. All over the world, people love The Beatles. So, you know, music is universal.

I see. Okay, so when you started, you built the band largely by playing constantly and letting word of mouth spread. If three unknown musicians tried exactly the same approach in 2026, could it still work, or have algorithms and social media fundamentally changed how a rock band has to build an audience?

Yeah, I don't know. That's my honest answer. I don't know, because so much has changed in terms of the music industry now, and bands rely so much on social media to build an audience.

To do it in an old-time, organic way, from the grassroots, without using or utilizing any social media — I'm not saying it's impossible for a band, because really, at the end of the day, you can just get in a van and go on tour, and you can build your name that way. But it'll take a longer time, I think.

Because even when you did that back in the day, there were outlets that people consumed that helped push a band's name forward and quicker. Whether that was a music channel like MTV, whether it was print — music magazines were all over the place. There were so many music magazines. And now there's not even music blogs anymore. People don't even read blogs as much anymore.

It's more about what they can consume in 30 seconds on TikTok that goes viral. For example, like Kate Bush or King Kong. So I don't really know. I don't have a definitive answer, but I do know that at the end of the day, you can still get into a van and go on tour and build your name that way. It's just gonna, I think, take ten times longer than it used to, even though back in the day doing it that way also took a long time.

You have been doing this long enough to watch the entire music industry transform around you, as you said. The way people discover bands and music nowadays is totally different than back in the day. But did you have to adapt in some way to this new industry, or do you just keep doing things your own way?

Oh, I mean, come on. We have a Facebook page, we have an Instagram page. You can just go on and see it yourself. I post quite regularly on our Instagram page. Not so much on Facebook, but we still post there. Not so much on TikTok, but we do, you know...

And I'm not on X or Twitter or anything because I think that's a dumpster fire. I think that's a terrible medium that attracts just terrible people — or allows people to act terribly, I should say. So I keep it to Instagram and Facebook for now.

But yeah, we utilize all that stuff. And then when we put out an album, we utilize social media to promote it, whether it's taking out an Instagram ad or, you know, taking out an ad on a website, like a banner or something, if we have the marketing money for that — which we often don't.

So yeah, that's kind of it. I don't know how to do it anymore because even weeklies, you know, I would do interviews for weekly magazines that would showcase that city's week of entertainment. So by the time we got to the city we were supposed to play, that city's weekly, or their version of the Village Voice, had promoted the show either through an interview, or the club would have weekly listings that they would take out.

These days that's not around anymore. And because that was a medium I relied on, I've missed shows even while I'm home. There was a show that happened just last week where I was like, “I would have gone to that if I had known it was happening.”

Because there isn't that weekly magazine that you can pick up for free at, you know, the cool record store or cool shop or whatever. You'd just pick it up, or it would be in a newspaper box on the corner of a major intersection in your city. It just isn't there anymore.

So yeah, I don't know. I live outside of Toronto, outside of the city. So it's not as if I go to the grocery store to buy bread and then, you know, pick up the weekly magazine on my way home. So yeah, there's that. There is a little disconnect. I guess I should plug myself into following Instagram accounts that have listings, but I don't.

I think that's the problem nowadays. People are getting so much information from so many places, and actually they're not informed at all.

Yeah, yeah, that's another thing. You're right. One of the reasons why I don't follow those accounts is because it's just one more account that I'm going to get inundated with on my feed. I don't care about, you know, 85% of the shows that will happen at that venue — or even 95% of the shows I don't care about — and yet it'll bung up my feed, you know.

People sometimes forget that musicians are also huge music fans themselves. Max Cavalera once told me that he and Igor skipped school to see Queen, and members of Amorphis have talked about hitchhiking to another city just to see Iron Maiden when they were kids. You’ve never exactly hidden how much of a KISS fan you are, so what’s the most ridiculous thing you’ve ever done just because of KISS?

(Laughs) I don't think I've done anything crazy... Like, I don't think I've done anything crazy. I've only seen KISS once.

Really?

Yeah, I saw them on the Psycho Circus tour.

In '98 or something?

'98. Yeah, I was working at a record store. I was broke, right? In '98 our band was doing nothing, and we were all working day jobs, trying to save up enough money to either buy equipment or go on tour.

So I was working at a record store, and these kids — literally, just teens. I don't know if they were teenagers or whatever. Anyway, they were from out of town, and they came into the record store. I was working cash, and they were just talking amongst themselves and said, “What are we going to do with this extra ticket?” So I heard that and I go, “I'll buy it off you.”

I went that night to their hotel room. That's how I knew they were from out of town — they had a hotel. I didn't know these people at all. They could have jumped me and taken all my money or whatever. I don't know.

I don't remember how much the ticket was. I went to the bank machine after work and then went to their hotel room, which was just down the street because the record store was downtown. So it wasn't too much of a trip to meet up.

And then later that night, maybe one or two hours later, I was standing beside them in our seats in the dark, watching KISS. I remember the first song they opened with was “Psycho Circus,” because I was trying to find my seat by myself while they played it. So I didn't see the opening and the big whatever, but I didn't care because “Psycho Circus” was the new song they were plugging. When they finished that song and I was finally in my seat, they started “Deuce.” And “Deuce” is the first song on KISS Alive! KISS Alive! is the first album I bought, or that I got as a kid.

So when they kicked into “Deuce,” it just triggered me and I started crying. Luckily, I was by myself. Nobody cared about me. I was with strangers, and I just started bawling in the dark, watching them play “Deuce.” And for me, that was the first song I really saw from my seat.

So that's all the KISS story I have. I don't have anything else. I mean, I've met Gene, and that was interesting, but nothing that I did was crazy. I've never done anything crazy. I think the craziest part of that story is me going to these people's hotel room when I didn't know them.

Yeah, that could have ended badly, but luckily for you it turned into a great memory. So speaking about KISS, looking back, bands like KISS, Queen or Black Sabbath became genuinely massive cultural institutions. We still have successful rock bands today, but it feels much harder for a new band to reach that almost mythological level. What changed — the music industry, the way people consume music, the loss of monoculture, or simply the way audiences connect with artists now?

No, no one lost anything. The culture just changed its taste. Rap music and dance music — I shouldn't say pop music, because that's always been there — but rap music and dance music took hold of pop culture, and it was everywhere.

I mean, not was. It is everywhere — in movies, in commercials, on television shows, on radio talk shows. Rap music and dance music and dance-influenced pop music are all pervasive in every corner of our lives, whether we're in the grocery store or the dentist's office. And so that is what popular music is.

Rock music is now an old kind of music, the way we looked at jazz when we were growing up. Like, “Whoa, that's another generation's music.” Or Benny Goodman or polka music or Frank Sinatra — that's another generation's music.

Well, that's what rock music is now. And I think a lot of people who grew up with rock music can't wrap their heads around that because they would have to admit that they're old now.

But there are more distractions too. You can love the new rock band, but are you going to go out and see them when you can always watch a Netflix movie at home? So there are those distractions or temptations, and there are a lot of things nipping at people's disposable income and free time.

Back in the day, when Queen and Black Sabbath and all these kinds of bands were around, what did people have to do? They had 13 channels on TV. Well, at least here in Canada there were 13 channels.

We got two or three back in the day.

Yeah, yeah. In Europe it was even less. We got 13, and one of them here was like the Weather Channel. Then two of them were in French, and then there was one that didn't work. So really it got whittled down to like seven or eight.

And then, okay, you don't want to watch TV — what else can you do? There's no internet. You could skateboard, or you could play a board game. Really, those were your options.

So I think people have a lot more things they can do when work is done, you've made dinner and it's all said and done at the end of the day. People aren't even reading books anymore.

Yeah, unfortunately. Do you think part of the problem is that artists nowadays are constantly visible? With KISS and Queen back in the day, there was some mystery and mythology around them, and there was a distance between the artist and the fan. Social media has basically removed that. Do you think rock lost something when the mystery disappeared?

Yeah, that is it exactly. I think there's also that as well. Not only are there more distractions, but in an effort to lure more of an audience, I think what they did was kind of pull off the mask — drop the mask.

And I think in entertainment, you want to suspend disbelief and believe in whatever someone is telling you. So if Paul Stanley says that he's from space, you want to believe that. Or George Clinton — if George Clinton tells you he's from space and he's brought all his friends, you want to buy into that for the 60 or 75 minutes that you watch them.

And now, yeah, you see Paul Stanley at home making pizza, and it's kind of like, “Well, yeah, that's cool, but...”

That's why I think bands like Ghost and Angine de Poitrine, that two-piece band, are doing so well, because they don't reveal themselves.

There's still a mystery around them.

Yeah. Angine de Poitrine, they're kind of like King Gizzard and Lightning Bolt meet, you know, the Bassholes or something. So it's great. Not only are they an incredible band, but they keep the mystery about who they are. They don't speak. They don't do interviews. They don't reveal their faces. They wear these ridiculous outfits. It's really interesting.

I'll check them out. It's really good that you mentioned them. But you mentioned Paul Stanley making pizza — what is the least rock and roll thing about Danko Jones?

Least rock and roll thing? I think it's all of it and none of it at the same time. I mean, I dress how I want to dress. I do what I want to do, and I think that in and of itself is the essence of rock and roll.

I think a lot of people think the essence of rock and roll is in how much they consume, how much alcohol they consume, and how much they tell all their friends and everybody in the world how much alcohol they consume, how they wear their clothes. They have to wear a certain uniform or act a certain way.

I see that in a lot of bands, and I find it to be very cliché and actually quite amusing in a wrong way.

The essence of rock and roll is just to be who you are. The music is really what will speak for you. I always like to make sure that, you know, I don't put up a front that I can't live up to. That's what I'm trying to say.

So, you know, if I'm boasting, I'm doing it tongue in cheek, so the audience knows that, okay, there's a certain amount of performance involved in this. And again, everybody has bought into suspending disbelief. The band and the audience kind of have this unspoken pact that we're going to suspend disbelief, we're going to buy into this for that period of time, and we're going to enjoy ourselves.

Yeah, really well said. Okay, so we're getting close to the end of the interview because you don't have too much time, and I've already taken enough of your personal time. So let me just finish with one question. You're playing here in Bulgaria on October 17. If you had to describe your band and the show to someone who has never seen you live before, using only three words, what would those three words be?

Good rock show.

Exactly. Okay, thank you very much again for taking the time to do this interview with me. I hope I didn't offend you in some way.

Not at all. You didn't offend me. I just find it... I get asked this question quite a bit, and I don't know why.

And I'm going to guess that it has to do with the fact that you're not allowed to call it a job. You're not allowed to do that because people need to relegate you to this thing that's fun and frivolous, because they don't take it seriously. And I do. I take this very seriously, and it takes a lot of work to do it.

And if you're going to just relegate it to something that's like, “Oh, your passion, and this is an achievement, and this is a hobby, and that's something you do in your spare time when the real work's done,” then you're not giving what I do any weight.

I see. Well said. Really well said. Okay, thank you again very much for your time, and I'm looking forward to seeing you in Sofia.

All right. See you then. Have a great time.

Take care, and see you soon.

Okay. See you soon. Bye.

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More about DANKO JONES

Website: https://www.dankojones.com/
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/dankojones
Instagram:  https://www.instagram.com/danko_jones

Tickets for the show in Sofia - Buy Here

Author: Nikola Petras
October 2026