DOUG PINNICK Says 'Lack Of Fame' Has Kept KING'S X Together

In a new interview with the Manchester Ink Link, KING'S X frontman Doug Pinnick was asked how he and his bandmates — guitarist Ty Tabor and drummer Jerry Gaskill — have managed to remain together for over 40 years. He responded: "It's the lack of fame. [Laughs] If we were rich rock stars, we would have broken up a long time ago. We're not broke rock stars because we can still make a living at what we do, so we just keep going. It's sort of like a marriage, this is what we decided to do for the rest of our lives. There's never been any thought on anything other than making another record for the people who love to hear us, it's always been that way."

Pinnick previously KING'S X's longevity in a 2022 interview with Meltdown of Detroit's WRIF radio station. At the time, Doug stated about what has kept the band together: "We're idiots. I always say that. We're dumbasses stuck together. For all the reasons to quit, and we stayed together. And it was not a conscious effort to say, 'Oh, we're not selling records,' or, 'Oh, this bad happened and that's happened' or 'Somebody's sick. Maybe we should give it up.' It's never even in the conversation. I don't know. We're just married to it. We've been doing it blindly. And I always say we stay together for the kids. Not one of us in the band is gonna break the band up 'cause we're not gonna take the credit for it. So this band will stay together till somebody dies. I believe that."

He added:  "When we started doing this, we naturally wanted to be super-big rock stars like everybody else, but we had no clue how to do it, who to find to help us do it or what it was like to be there. We were just dumb. We were just making music like everybody else, and we kind of still do. We've played for lots of people and then very few people all within the same time scope, so for us it's like we've just got to experience it all in some way or another. And I think that's what keeps us going."

KING'S X released its 13th studio album, "Three Sides Of One", in September 2022. The LP was recorded during 2019 at Black Sound Studio in Pasadena, California with Emmy Award-winning producer Michael Parnin.

The new KING'S X LP was mastered in June 2021 at the Bernie Grundman Mastering facility in Hollywood, California,

KING'S X was sidelined by several health scares in recent years, including Pinnick's two hernia operations and two near-fatal heart attacks suffered by Gaskill.

In October 2019, KING'S X canceled all of its previously announced tour dates for the year so that Gaskill could undergo undisclosed heart "procedures."

2008's "XV" was KING'S X's highest-charting album since 1996's "Ear Candy".

In 2005, VH1 included KING'S X in its list of "100 Greatest Artists In Hard Rock.

Photo credit: Derek Soto