Despite hailing from Long Beach, California, a haven for punk and alternative bands, Rival Sons went a very different route with their sound after forming in 2009.
Guitarist Scott Holiday cites Jeff Beck and Billy Gibbons as some of his greatest musical influences. Theirs, and the music of their contemporaries, gripped him at an early age.
"I never really chased [a genre]," he tells Q104.3 New York's Out of the Box with Jonathan Clarke. "I think that was just what was in my heart. ... I'm in an area where punk, ska, metal, rap-infused metal and these kinds of music, were rampant and getting [record] deals and everywhere. But I could feel in the community, I could feel with my friends and everywhere that people were hungry for rock and roll, and it just wasn't being made. It wasn't available. I thought it's buried so deep in my heart, and it's so there for me. I know this music; this is the kind of music I need to make. So that's what I did."
Scott recalls hearing Van Halen and Led Zeppelin at family parties as a child.
"I could connect at an early age that the reason it feels good is 'cause that music is good and it's in people's heart and it's making people come together right now and feel great," he adds. "That connected with me that that was the source of happiness for people at these gatherings."
When he started playing guitar, Scott dug deeper into the music from his childhood. And by the time he was playing in bands, his classic rock influences rose to the surface.
Check out the full conversation via the player above!
Rival Sons' eighth studio album, Lightbringer, arrived last fall. The band's co-headlining tour with Clutch launches Thursday, Sept. 5, at the Brooklyn Paramount.
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