UGLY KID JOE Announces First U.S. Tour In 27 Years

UGLY KID JOE has announced its first U.S. tour in 27 years. Support on select dates will come from FOZZY, with PISTOLS AT DAWN opening all concerts. Tickets for all shows will go on sale this Friday, January 20.

Tour dates:

May 03 - Brick by Brick, San Diego, CA
May 04 - The Regent, Los Angeles, CA
May 05 - Majestic Theater, Ventura, CA
May 07 - Hard Rock Cafe, Las Vegas, NV
May 08 - Sunshine Theater, Albuquerque, NM
May 11 - Rise, Houston, TX
May 12 - Echo, Dallas, TX
May 13 - Diamond Ballroom, Oklahoma City, OK
May 15 - The Truman, Kansas City, MO
May 16 - Bourbon Theater, Lincoln, NE *
May 18 - Arcada Theater, St. Charles, IL
May 19 - Epics Events Center, Green Bay, WI
May 20 - St Croix Casino, Turtle Lake, WI
May 21 - Hi Fi Annex, Indianapolis, IN
May 22 - Rust Belt, Moline, IL
May 24 - Machine Shop, Flint, MI *
May 25 - Agora Theater, Cleveland, OH *
May 26 - Lovedrafts, Mechanicsburg, PA *
May 27 - Jergels, Pittsburgh, PA *
May 28 - Tally Ho Theater, Leesburg, VA *
May 30 - The Ramkat, Winston-Salem, NC *
Jun 01 - Centerstage, Atlanta, GA
Jun 02 - Yellow Rose Theater, Cottonwood, AL
Jun 03 - The Ranch, Fort Myers, FL
Jun 04 - Jannus Live, Tampa, FL
Jun 05 - Club LA, Destin, FL
Jun 07 - House of Blues, New Orleans, LA *
Jun 09 - Come and Take It Live, Austin, TX *
Jun 10 - Rockbox, San Antonio, TX *

* UGLY KID JOE and PISTOLS AT DAWN only

UGLY KID JOE is touring in support of its latest studio album, "Rad Wings Of Destiny", which came out last October.

"Rad Wings Of Destiny" saw UGLY KID JOE re-teaming producer Mark Dodson who was behind the desk for the band's debut album, "America's Least Wanted", which celebrated its 30th anniversary last year.

Speaking to France's Loud TV about the "Rad Wings Of Destiny" album title, UGLY KID JOE frontman Whitfield Crane said: "I love JUDAS PRIEST. UGLY KID JOE has a penchant for poking a little humor into the universe — the universe needs a little humor — and also giving respect to things that we love. So we love JUDAS PRIEST. We're from California. We say 'rad' all day long. So 'Rad Wings Of Destiny'."

Regarding how first single "That Ain't Livin'" came together, Crane said: "I wrote the riff in Greece. We worked on the song as a band in Mallorca, Spain. We tracked the song in El Paso, Texas. And then we couldn't finish all the vocals in El Paso. So then I found myself living in Lisbon, Portugal. And I flew to London to meet the producer and I tracked the vocals in London."

Asked if the rest of "Rad Wings Of Destiny" is musically similar to "That Ain't Livin'", Whitfield said: "Well, it's hard for me to describe it, 'cause I'm so close to it; I'm really close to it. But yeah, the first track, 'That Ain't Livin''… Also we love old-school AC/DC; I mean, I love for AC/DC. I wrote the riff for 'That Ain't Livin'' on an island in Greece and I had the riff. And so we wrote that song. And it's really an homage to 'Powerage'[-era] AC/DC. So that's that song. But there's nine other songs, and there's a lot of different frequencies that we're embracing."

As for the lyrical themes covered on "Rad Wings Of Destiny", Crane said: "'That Ain't Livin'' is just — if you feel stuck in a nine-to-five rut, stop. Embrace life… We cover a version of THE KINKS' 'Lola', which is really cool; we did great on it. But I'll let the thematic structure of the album, I'll let that remain a mystery for someone to figure out themselves. I think if I project what I think it is, sometimes that takes away from somebody feeling what it is for them."

After a 15-year hiatus, UGLY KID JOE reformed in 2012 and has toured extensively throughout Europe and the rest of the world.

The band released the EP "Stairway To Hell" in 2012 and the full-length "Uglier Than They Used Ta Be" in 2015.

Three years ago, Crane told Eonmusic about UGLY KID JOE's huge success on the back of single "Everything About You" in 1991: "'Eye of the storm' is a good way to put it, because it just was all happening at a deadly fast gait. And it was a lot — it was beautiful and also very challenging, because there's a lot of people that surround the business of music that are full of shit. But when you're 23 [or] 24, you don't know how to negotiate that, so on one hand, it was super fun and we did all the things you should do at that age, and on the other hand, it was too much for me. But we survived it, and I can deal with it all now."