Hear our full chat on my podcast “Beyond the Fame with Jason Fraley.”
It’s become an almost annual tradition for WTOP to chat with Michael and Kevin Bacon when they play in the area.
The Bacon Brothers return to Rams Head in Annapolis, Maryland, for four shows this Friday and Saturday.
“We love that venue,” Kevin told WTOP. “There just seems to be certain pockets of the world where we do well, people enjoy it and we can come back to play that place and people will actually know some of the tunes, which is great when you’re a band who’s never had a hit single. Also, Annapolis is a beautiful place. My brother is a very big fan of boats and all things nautical, so to be there and be able to go out on the water sometimes, we like that spot.”
Annapolis is also home to the U.S. Navy, which factored into Kevin’s iconic courtroom drama “A Few Good Men” (1992). He never actually filmed in Annapolis, but Jack Nicholson’s Col. Jessup sounds a lot like Jessup, Maryland.
“There you go!” Kevin said with a laugh. “I did go to Quantico to do some research. I was never actually on location down there; in fact, I think almost all of my stuff was on stage in the courtroom. There were a couple of scenes that were outside the courtroom, but most of that was on a soundstage.”
Raised in Philadelphia, the Bacon Brothers released their single “Philly Thing” on Nov. 18, 2022.
“I wrote the song and it was really a response to when I’d talk to people about something that was very specific to Philadelphia, either they’d say, ‘That’s weird’ or ‘I’ve never heard of that,’ and a lot of times the response would be, ‘Oh, it’s a Philly thing,'” Kevin said. “So I went and tried to think about a whole bunch of references: music, food, local characters, history, things that are native to Philadelphia … and I crammed them all into a funky fun song.”
“Rock to the Future is giving these kids a safe and fun opportunity to make music, not just in the classical space, they really are more focused on pop, rock, rap and soul music,” Kevin said. “We were able to put some kids from Rock to the Future on the actual song, so that was super cool. Then we also did a behind-the-scenes video of what the experience was like for the kids to come in the studio and learn their parts. One young man did a little rap.”
The Bacon Brothers also recently released a five-song EP called “The Erato.” Its opening track, “In Memory (Of When I Cared),” was written by Desmond Child, the prolific songwriter of smash hits like “Livin’ La Vida Loca.”
“Desmond Child is a one-of-a-kind songwriter over the years and has written many enormous pop hits for Bon Jovi, Ricky Martin, Kiss, Aerosmith,” Michael said. “Our drummer boldly said, ‘Why don’t you do a writing session with Michael and Kevin?’ He amazingly agreed. … He booked us for two days in his apartment in New York … drinking coffee, talking about the music business and listening to records. The second day, we got to work.”
There’s a chance that you’ll hear some songs from “The Erato” at Rams Head, but Kevin says they’re “not definite” picks for the set list. You might instead hear some new songs that the Bacon Brothers are still hashing out.
“We’re working on a few things,” Kevin said. “We have six new songs and I don’t think they’ll all be ready or necessarily fit into the set, but we’re going to start working on them and see. Although these things are already pretty much recorded, we’ll probably have a six-song EP out sometime this summer or maybe even the fall. It’s always good to take them and put them in front of people. You never really know what’s going to work live.”
Hear our full chat on my podcast “Beyond the Fame with Jason Fraley.”
