When you were growing up was music an integral part of your upbringing and can you remember what your first music related memory is?
My mother says that I was singing Beatles songs in the womb. My Dad played a little piano but my parents weren't especially musical. However, they did listen to a lot of the popular songs of the day and my father, in particular, was a fan of boogie blues like Fats Domino. By the time I came along they were both Beatles fans and I was right there from the start.

Looking through your many and varied musical influences listed on your website, most of the singers named come from outside of hard rock arena (Elton John, Stevie Wonder etc). What drew you particularly to the rock genre rather than into another, perhaps more mainstream direction?
For the longest time I had resisted hard rock. As I was growing up my parents also listened to a lot of folk music like Joan Baez and Simon & Garfunkel, so when I first started hearing about bands like Led Zeppelin, I wasn't interested. "Too noisy", I thought. One day, I had a friend that wouldn't take no for an answer. He got me good and stoned and made me sit through all of his Zep collection. I was totally hooked.
As far as influences go, I remain in awe of Robert Plant to this day but I don't list him as an influence because I don't sing anything like him (does anybody?). I still listen to Stevie Wonder and marvel at his range of technique in both song writing and singing. It's unparalleled. He is a born musician. Most of us are simply "made".

Your first real worldwide exposure was with Waysted, recording the Save Your Prayers album and touring the world with the likes of Iron Maiden & Status Quo. What would you say was the biggest lesson you learnt from this period that you have carried with you throughout your career?
Get your own lawyer! Isn't that sad? But it's true. They did teach me how badly you can get screwed in the music industry. That being said, the most important thing that I learned from Pete Way was how to appreciate your audience. He used to tell me never to turn away from anybody. That the kid who wanted to take his picture with you today was the feature photo journalist for Kerrang! tomorrow. He was always kind to his fans.

Next up for Danny Vaughn came Tyketto, the band with which you are synonymous. Many in melodic rock circles consider the debut album ‘Don't Come Easy' a classic. Looking back in hindsight do you feel that with more of a record company push the album could have been far more successful than it actually was or was it simply a case of no matter what, right product, wrong time?
The latter, I think. I could never accuse Geffen of not pushing us. They made some errors, yes, but they did put a lot of weight behind us. I simply think that we came onto the scene a couple of years too late. The funny thing is, Tyketto is named in the same list of our contemporaries like Winger, Danger, Danger, Cinderella, etc. But we never sold anywhere near as many records as those guys did. We had a massive reputation. Particularly for our live show.

It is well documented that after recording ‘Strength In Numbers' Tyketto left Geffen, only for the album to be released by Music For Nations in the UK and CMC in the States. What was the biggest step change you noticed in moving from a major label to smaller independent labels and was the move felt as a de-motivating force within the band?
Actually, I can remember just how happy we were to be on Music For Nations. CMC was a complete waste of time and they might as well not even have released the album for all the effort they didn't put into it, but MFN was a hands on company. They did what they said they would do. They told us right up front what they couldn't or wouldn't do. And we were much more involved in every step of the process. I only wish that more people in the music industry were more like Martin Hooker.

Between 1995 & 2000 we only really heard Danny Vaughn via the Blues For Daze album from Flesh & Blood. Did you find that stepping into a project where all the music was written and you simply had to turn up and sing a relaxing change, rather than being responsible for everything yourself?
Boy, you know me don't you? Yes, absolutely. I love the blues so dearly and have always wanted to apply myself to a blues project. But my background isn't in blues music so, back then, there's no way that I could have written an entire album of good blues songs. Walking into something that was so well crafted and already completed was so easy and relaxing. It took my singing to another place entirely and was some of the most fun I've ever had in the studio. We did 13 songs in 9 days and I can remember showing up on around the 5th or 6th day extremely hoarse. I growled to Mark, "I think I need to take today off" in my huskiest tone and he got all excited saying, "No, that's amazing, we have to record you like that". So it was always fun.

From 2000 to the present time Vaughn, the band, and yourself in particular have been fairly prolific in terms of output, two studio albums, a live album, a solo acoustic CD and now the ‘From The Inside' project, not to mention all of the UK tours during that time. Do you believe that your time away from the business in the late 1990's re-ignited your passion for music and was, in a way, beneficial to what you are doing now?
Yes, yes, and yes, again! I think what I found again was my appreciation for what I have accomplished and my relationship with my audience. So many of us make the mistake of believing that because we were given a talent, that we should absolutely be financially successful. I don't know when we started believing that the one equaled the other, but it's totally false. Success does not equal talent. Is Brittany Spears talented? Not really. So a lot of us get lost in this pining for lost success and not being recognized for our gift. It's the performers ego. I remember turning my back on "Forever Young" and thinking that it was "old, dated, crap", mostly because my ego was bruised for not being recognized for my later work, which is just as good. But I've learned to relax and simply be grateful that the song means as much as it does to a lot of people and now I play it every night quite happily. I don't yearn for the big hit anymore. Or the monster arena tour. I turn up to gigs fired up and ready to go simply because there are still people that would pay hard earned money to hear me sing. That's reward for my gift enough.

The 2004 Vaughn tour alongside Firehouse and Pride, from the outside, seemed to be a totally relaxed and enjoyable experience for everyone involved (possibly with the exception of Kieran!) What was the perception like, if you excuse the pun, from the inside?
There was a little time getting settled in. I knew the Firehouse guys from years ago and they are all very nice fellas, so the tour was going to work because there were no massive egos involved. But there is always a little competition that goes on. Those guys have never stopped playing and performing since the beginning, so they are like a machine on stage. Their show is well oiled and they just roll over the audience. My guys were a fresh, new, British band who were nervous and hungry and we translated that into enormous energy on stage. I felt that the two worked well together. The most important thing that happened between the two bands is that I felt that we got them to relax a little more than they usually do and enjoy themselves. I know that we got them drunk more than they had planned. By the end of it we parted like old friends.

The attendances for the Vaughn/Firehouse tour were, for the most part, extremely encouraging. Do you think in the future that strong ‘package tours' are the way forward for the melodic rock scene in the UK to help encourage more punters to get out and attend live shows?
Definitely. I have been encouraging a lot of different people in the melodic rock industry to take a step back and not be so competitive with each other. Working together we can still make a lot of great things happen. With the Tyketto reunion tour we are doing two shows with Jeff Scott Soto and we are joining Bonfire in Greece for one show. I think that there is a way to put 2 or 3 melodic rock bands on tour together at minimal expense where each band can make some money to go home with (not a lot, but some) and the audience gets a lot for their money. This is what will bring more people out to the shows. We proved that with Vaughn/Firehouse, and we'll prove it again on the Tyketto tour. The audience is out there.

Having had the good fortune to see the shows you have played in Madrid, I was blown away by the enthusiasm and warmth of the Spanish fans, particularly at the Caracol show in March, where the sweat was literally dripping from the walls. Did the receptions you have received there come as a surprise to you?
I had gotten the opportunity to play there on my own last year and I was really amazed. They are such a wonderful, responsive audience. And such a warm and friendly people. I had been hearing for years that Tyketto was huge in Spain so I am really looking forward to seeing how they react to us with the original line up.

When the idea of ‘From The Inside' was first raised were you immediately attracted to the idea or was it a project that you had to give considerable consideration to before undertaking?
I must admit that I was sceptical. I had never thought much about recording so many songs by other writers. However, the proposal came to me at a time that I had not been very prolific with my own songs and I was searching for what to do next. Initially it just felt like it would be a nice way to keep me occupied, but it turned into so much more as the process went on.

‘From The Inside' was recorded in what could be considered an unconventional way, with the vocals and music being recorded in separate studios on different continents. When making the album did you miss the spontaneity that comes from a collection of musicians being in a studio together and therefore being able to throw ideas back and forth on the spot?
I did miss that. I'm pretty old fashioned in my beliefs about how the best albums are made. In a perfect world, a bunch of players go into a studio with only a framework for their ideas and they flesh them out together while the tape is rolling just in case magic happens. But, unless you have unlimited funds, those days are long gone. In order for us to survive in the melodic rock music world, we have to find the most cost efficient ways of doing things. It certainly isn't perfect, but at least we have the possibilities of working at all. The best place to still get all of that spontaneity is in pre production rehearsals. I still intend to do that for the next Vaughn album.

During the recording of ‘From The Inside' did you consciously avoid listening to the original versions of the songs you were covering so as not to be unduly influenced by the performances, or did you find the original versions a source of inspiration?
It was different for each song. Some of the originals were so very different from the versions that we ended up recording that I wasn't much influenced by the original vocals. Stuff like the Leann Rimes tracks, however, were vocals that I paid very close attention to.

They say that the past comes back to haunt you, so here is a quote from an old interview with regard to Tyketto "Definitely no on the reunion thing. As I've said, I think in a lot of ways it cheats the audience and says that you have little that's new to offer" Simple question, What Changed?
Ooohh, playing dirty are we? :-) Well, I suppose one should learn never to say never. Back when I said that, we were not all the best of friends and I felt that the rift was simply too wide to repair. I was wrong. The only way Tyketto could do anything for an audience would be if we were together as a group of friends. And we are that again. It's made the rehearsals really relaxed and fun.
Also, I think that might be more of that ego thing I was talking about in my earlier response. It sounds like I was saying "don't pay any attention to the past, I'm doing good work now." Again, I'm a little older and a little wiser now.

Having just undertaken first rehearsals for the upcoming Tyketto tour, what is the feeling like within the band with the first date only a month away, nerves or excitement?
Lots of both. I've just been over to England recently and gotten a feel for how well this tour is being anticipated. Tickets are selling extremely well considering that fact that there are a lot of other bands touring the UK at the same time. So the rest of the guys aren't quite ready for the response that I feel we will be getting. But we are mostly just concerned with playing our parts right at the moment!

Finally, 2004 has obviously been a busy year what with Vaughn, From The Inside and the upcoming Tyketto tour, do you have a ‘masterplan' for what comes next or is it a much more unplanned evolution?
I'm trying to have something of a "masterplan" for the first time in my life. It's giving me a headache, though. I am looking ahead to a new Vaughn album next summer, followed, I hope by a tour, and some other, special projects that I am working on right now. I feel that my hooking up with Frontiers has been very fortuitous and I need to make the most of the position that they are putting me in. They are working very hard to get my name out there further than it has been in recent years and I'm going to do my best to take advantage of that.

And of course the obligatory "Is there anything else you would like to add?" Part…
I'm afraid I usually give the same answer at this point. However often it is repeated, it is still heartfelt. Thanks to everybody that continues to support what we do. Each album sold, or ticket purchased is felt by the players that you support. More than ever, the audience is an integral part of the band. Thank you!

Many thanks to Danny for taking the time to speak with HardRockHouse.com.  The review of the From The Inside album, shown below, can be found by clicking here. You can also find out more about Danny, Tyketto & Vaughn via his official website at www.vaughn.de