“I bought a 24-track machine and got really serious. I started to record Passion And Warfare, but I had a lot of distractions – I joined Alcatrazz, and then I joined Dave’s band. I kept thinking, I better take this, I better take that… By the time I was in Dave’s band, Passion And Warfare was almost done, but it didn’t seem appropriate to release it while I was on tour with him.

“I waited a while. After I left Dave’s band, I thought, All right, all that rock-star stuff is done. I won’t make any more money, but I was OK with that. But it was with the same frame of mind that I recorded Flex-Able that I made Passion And Warfare, except the musical ideas were very different.

“I had so much fun working on the record, because again, I thought, Nobody’s ever going to hear it. I can do whatever I want. That’s all there was to it. I locked myself in the studio and made the record.

“I had a deal with Capitol, but when I brought them the record they said, ‘We don’t know what to do with this.’ They were going to put it out, but they weren’t going to give me the money they originally told me. So I stood my ground, same as before, and it was all because I was tutored by Frank. He was my mentor. He told me that most musicians get desperate, and that’s when they compromise. I wouldn’t do that. I wouldn’t compromise.

“Lo and behold, I got off of Capitol and I signed with Relativity, and I got a dream deal. The record went gold in a week. Another extraordinary story.”