Train – Pat Monahan By Lori Smerilson Carson July 1, 2024 Train – Pat Monahan By: Lori Smerilson Carson | Photos by Ben Zucker Some people have the ability to be innovative, create and multi-task, basically at the same time. Singer/Songwriter Pat Monahan is definitely one of those people. He has been featured in movies, several television shows such as Magnum, P.I., Hawaii Five-O, American Idol and The Voice, as well as racking up Grammy awards, and Gold and Platinum status records with his band Train. Since the release of their self-titled debut album in 1998, they have sold over thirty million singles and ten million albums globally. In 2002, they received their first two Grammy Awards (Best Rock Song and Best Instrumental Arrangement Accompanying Vocalist(s) for their song “Drops of Jupiter” which has also achieved 7x platinum RIAA status. In 2011, they won their third Grammy Award (Best Pop Performance by a Duo or Group with Vocals) for their world-renown hit “Hey, Soul Sister” which spawned from their 2009 multi-platinum LP Save Me, San Francisco. This past April, Monahan and fellow bandmates Guitarist Taylor Locke, Bassist Hector Maldonado, Keyboardist Jerry Becker and Drummer Matt Musty released their newest single “Long Yellow Dress” and will be rocking the music world this summer with a live album Live at Royal Albert Hall. In addition, they are touring across the country on their Summer Road Trip 2024 Tour, co-headlining with REO Speedwagon and special guest, Yacht Rock Revue. Florida fans can catch this sure to be amazing experience on August 20th at the MIDFLORIDA Credit Union Amphitheatre in Tampa, on August 21st at iTHINK Financial Amphitheatre in West Palm Beach, and on August 22nd at Daily’s Place in Jacksonville. Catching up with Monahan just prior to the tour, he revealed some details about the new show, the new single, and the upcoming live album. He also divulged information about some new projects, and what fans can look forward to. SFL Music Magazine: How did the Summer Road Trip 2024 Tour co-headlining with REO Speedwagon come about? You have worked with Kevin Cronin previously? Pat Monahan: Yeah. So, I met Kevin years ago at a Sammy Hagar charity event, and Kevin and I just got on really well like Sammy and I do, and like Sammy does with everybody. I’ve been such a fan of Kevin’s music since I was a kid growing up in Pennsylvania, that we just thought maybe we should try to work together at some point. So, I think maybe it’s been four years, and we finally found a time to do it and it seemed like the right timing for both of us. So, we put this tour together, and both the bands are named after vehicles, so we called it the Summer Road Trip Tour, and we invited our friends Yacht Rock Revue out from Atlanta which they’re an incredible band that plays all of the greatest yacht rock music available. They are on our cruise every other year as well, as the number one requested band as they should be. SFL Music Magazine: You guys did a couple of show previews on Jimmy Kimmel Live! and Good Morning America which was awesome with the medley. What can fans look forward to with this new show? Monahan: Well, you know, when it comes to as many songs that people will want to hear from both bands, I think it’s going to be hard to do a mashup of anything because it might be disappointing that someone can’t hear all of “Drops of Jupiter” or all of “Roll with the Changes”, or anything that REO has. I know as a fan of theirs, that I’m gonna want to hear all their songs. So, I think that we’re planning on joining each other onstage for a potential amazing cover that will be great, and then the rest, we always try to have a different show for people every year. SFL Music Magazine: I heard the new single “Long Yellow Dress”. I love the funky rock, awesome Train sound, and your vocals are still really strong and amazing! What inspired that song? Is it about a break up? Monahan: It’s kind of a break up song. Thank you for your compliment by the way. SFL Music Magazine: You’re welcome. Monahan: It stems from me having a dream. A couple days later, not having thought about it much, I sent a voice memo to two guys in my band of me just going like (he sang) dundun ch dun ch dun dah dah. So, you can hear that in the beginning of the track. Then referring to the dream, I was trying to follow a woman in a long yellow dress throughout my dream that I couldn’t find, that may have been my wife and because I never found her, it felt like a break up, but I really felt like that long yellow dress was where I was supposed to be. So, that’s basically what the song is about. It felt like obviously, we’re not together anymore, but I want to be, and how do I get to be around you and your long yellow dress. SFL Music Magazine: You all also have a live album coming out this summer which was recorded at and is called Live at Royal Albert Hall in England. How did this come about? What can fans look forward to? Monahan: Well, we are all fans of classic rock bands and every kind of music. I listen to a lot of hip hop, but the Led Zeppelin era was really big for me as a kid. I’ve heard Live from Royal Albert Hall Led Zeppelin tracks for years and we finally had a chance to perform there, and so we thought we should record it. We don’t have to use it, but we should definitely have it and film it. So, we did that and it turned out really great! I think that we, in the next few weeks, will be releasing it. I just heard mixes of it three days ago. They have to make a few changes and then we’ll watch a visual of it. It was an incredibly inspiring evening. The crowd was incredible. The venue is absolutely a bucket list, not just to perform there, but to see anything there is really a magnificent place. If you ever get the chance to see anything there, you should. SFL Music Magazine: I’ve heard wonderful things about it. The last time we spoke was when the AM GOLD album was released in 2022. This Fall will be the Fifteenth anniversary of your album SAVE ME, SAN FRANCISCO, and “Hey, Soul Sister” has now surpassed over one billion (Spotify) streams which is amazing! What would you say inspires your music when you write? Monahan: I think it always changes. When I was a kid, desperation was the inspiration. Then it turned to broken heartedness, and then it turned to me finding my wife and it was all just inspiration and love, and as time goes on, it’s more reflective. I’m writing an album now that is more of an Americana album that is more reflective. It just changes and it should. It should be evolving, not just musically, but as a person. We get this short time here. You might as well learn a little bit. Try to figure some things out and enjoy it. SFL Music Magazine: That’s good advice. Is that what you would recommend to a new band or new musician? Monahan: I don’t have any recommendations. I was talking to some people earlier about, the game is still the same. It’s hard for an artist to be seen, and the only way you’re going to be seen is either if you’re incredibly lovely looking, or you have something that people want to hear. Then there are the people that market it, and the people that can find it and give it to the public. There’s a great team of people that continue to work in the arts, and then there’s TikTok which is incredibly helpful for new artists that is very inexpensive, if you can get people to actually watch and listen. I think there’s always a new avenue, but it’s never easy. SFL Music Magazine: Train has earned Multi-Platinum, Gold and Diamond status records. You’ve sold over ten million albums, have three Grammy Awards, two Billboard Music Awards, just to name a few. What would you say attributes to that success and longevity? Monahan: I think a longing to be relevant and also, I’ve never been mad at the music business. Like when it went from cassettes to CDs, to iTunes, to streaming, I never got mad at any of it. I was never supposed to be a rich guy. I was always supposed to be someone who could sing some songs and have some laughs. So, my dreams have been far surpassed, but I have a twelve-year-old son who, he’s going to have to figure out how to get there because music is what he wants, and he’s really, really talented. He’s got an incredible voice. Maybe I can help him, but as time goes on, this whole game gets younger and I don’t, and so he’s going to understand it more than I am. I can guide him a little, but he’s going to have to make his own inspiration and own path, and make his own fans. I think he’ll do great at it, but every new kid has a new journey that I think you’ve just got to, you got to figure it out. SFL Music Magazine: He has a wonderful role model that’s for sure. We will keep our eyes open for him. You’ve also been in a lot of shows and movies. The last time we spoke, you were in the Hallmark movie named after your Christmas In Tahoe album (released in 2015) with your friend George Lopez. Monahan: Yeah. SFL Music Magazine: You were hoping that they would take the characters and merge them to create a new movie. Did that ever happen? Monahan: It hasn’t happened yet. I think in my career, if I don’t make it happen, it doesn’t happen. So, I think we have to come up with some ideas, and maybe some script ideas and present it. That might be my next step, but I’m so busy trying to figure out how to finish a musical called Begin Again that is getting closer and closer that, it’s really where my time is being spent. SFL Music Magazine: Tell me about that. Is it going to be for Broadway? Monahan: Yes. It’s for Broadway and we’ve been working on it for three and a half years. I think the music is about eighty percent there, and the book itself is maybe fifty percent there. Once we get it a little bit further, I think we can start looking for theaters. SFL Music Magazine: To have different companies perform it? Is that what you’re going for? Monahan: Well, we’ll start with an off Broadway somewhere and run it for several months. Then as that goes on, then you have Broadway theater owners come see it and hopefully want to open their theaters to us. That’s the goal. SFL Music Magazine: Your Save Me, San Francisco Wine Company has won over one hundred medals and the proceeds go to Family House which helps families help their children with cancer and other life-threatening illnesses. Is there anything new on this front? Any new wines? Monahan: We don’t have anything yet, but we have a really good plan together so that by our cruise, we will have three new varietals and it’ll be really great for our cruisers and potentially everyone online, but the wine business you know, it’s tough. It’s like the old-time music business where you’re struggling for shelf space, and it’s hard to get shelf space when Bud Light and Truly, and now all these new THC infused beverages are coming into the market. It’s hard to go with that old school bottle of wine that is always going to be trustworthy, but you have to come up with a new concept every time. SFL Music Magazine: Well, I’m the old school bottle of wine. Monahan: Yeah, I am too. SFL Music Magazine: Speaking of the cruise, is another one planned for next Winter? Monahan: I think we go to Mexico this coming February, but usually we do pre-sales and then a few days later, we put it up for sale and it sells out. This year, we couldn’t even put it up for sale. It just sold out in the previews in like a week. I want to expand and do more of them, but I think not doing more of them is what makes it special. So, we try to just do one every other year. SFL Music Magazine: Are you still playing golf and pickleball? Monahan: I haven’t played pickleball in like six months, but I do play golf and I am not getting any better, and it’s incredibly frustrating. SFL Music Magazine: Well, maybe you could put a small course on the cruise? Monahan: Yeah. That would be fun. SFL Music Magazine: Is there anything else you want people to look forward to with the Summer Road Trip 2024 Tour and new music? Any other singles that will be coming out? Monahan: Just a new album hopefully in the beginning of 2025 that everybody can dig into, but until then, I think the summer tour, the Summer Road Trip is going to be a lot of fun. It’ll be three hours of music that you know. It’s gonna be a pretty cool night. Share It!
