Loverboy saved Bob Rock from Michael Buble

Great escape: Loverboy

Loverboy presented Bob Rock with a perfect opportunity to escape from working with pop star Michael Buble.

The Canadian AOR outfit’s history with the producer goes back to their roots. As a member of the Payolas Rock started out in the same province as Loverboy, and manned the desk for their 1980 self-titled debut and four later outings.

These days Rock is known for his work with Metallica, Motley Crue and the Cult among many others – but earlier this year he found time in his schedule to reunite with Loverboy.

Singer Mike Reno tells Noisecreep: “We’ve always been in touch on and off. We’ve talked to him about different projects and he’s been so busy.

“We were always saying to each other, ‘Let’s do something.’ It ended up he called us and said, ‘I’m going to be in Vancouver during Christmas – let’s get together and go into the studio.’

“He was in the middle of doing a Michael Buble record. He wanted to take a week off or something. He says, ‘Let’s get together on my week off.’

“So we pounded out a couple of new songs that he helped us with. It was cool that he instigated the whole thing.”

Reno says the sessions were great: “We did it all really fast, the way Loverboy always recorded. We just set up and played.”

The results will appear on upcoming album Rock’n'Roll Revival, which features new material combined with live recordings made in recent years.

“They were mostly recorded outside Toronto,” Reno explains. “It was one of those nights when Matthew, our drummer, was spot-on, full of energy. He looked like he was 19 years old again. It happens once in awhile that everybody just sparks. This was one of those nights. I went, ‘These are some of the best recordings we’ve got in a long time.’”

Loverboy are set to tour as support for Journey – just as they did three decades ago. “People still talk to me about the time they saw us together,” Reno says. “Everybody was totally into both bands. I remember like it was yesterday. This is going to be the same, except 30 years later. It’s kind of like a time warp.”