Canadian rock trio Danko Jones are led by Danko Jones himself (it’s the name of the band and the singer, like Alice Cooper or Marilyn Manson), and the band have been putting on a riotous rock & roll show since forming in 1996. Jones himself is a stunning frontman, part Reverend Horton Heat and part Little Richard. He holds a crowd in the palm of his hand like a TV preacher, albeit one with a hell-raising side. He's on tour with like-minded wild rockers Nashville Pussy, so we chatted.

L.A. WEEKLY: How do you think the band has changed/grown, if at all, between last album Wild Cat and new album A Rock Supreme?
DANKO JONES: Honestly, nothing much has changed musically within the band. The biggest thing that changed was from a production standpoint. This time, for A Rock Supreme, Garth Richardson produced. It was a blast working with Garth. We did it at his studios outside of Vancouver. Getting to record outside of our native Toronto is something we haven’t done in almost 12 years. Maybe that played into the sound of the album.

What has been influencing your songwriting?
We follow a tradition set by bands like AC/DC, The Ramones, Slayer and Motörhead. We have a sound and we don’t really tinker with it too much. If you liked the last album, chances are you’ll like this one, too. Same bands influencing us album to album. Having said that, there are a ton of bands that we pull from for every album, everyone from The Stooges to Kool Keith, The Jam to The Gories, Thin Lizzy to The Birthday Party.

The bill with Nashville Pussy is exciting — are you a fan?
We’ve known Nashville Pussy since 1998, when we first played with them in Peterborough, Ontario. Since then, we’ve always kept in touch. We’ve played shows here and there with them in Vancouver, in Denver. We’ve played together at festivals in Europe, too, but never gone out together on a full-on tour. This tour is definitely exciting. Yes, I’m most definitely a fan. I’ve been a fan since they burst onto the scene with their Let Them Eat Pussy LP.

What can we expect from your L.A. set?
I am actually on Nashville Pussy’s 2009 album, From Hell to Texas. I duet with Blaine [Cartwright] on a track called “I’m So High.” Chances are we’ll be doing that one a lot on the tour. I’ve sang it with the band a few times already in Europe (Belgium and Holland). It’s definitely a great song. Don’t take my word for it, take your word for it. I do believe the song made your Top 10 Best Heavy Metal Weed Anthems last year.

For our own set, we’ll be playing tracks from all our albums but most definitely from our new album, A Rock Supreme. We’re excited to get out there and start ripping these new songs in front of an audience. I’m not too smooth trying to convince people to come to our show, since I’ve never seen us live before. However, I have been told it’s the greatest rock show on the planet.

After this tour, what else do you have planned for 2019?
We just released our new single called “Dance Dance Dance.” That song has an upcoming accompanying video we’ll be releasing soon. There will be more singles to come, too. Things are gonna get really busy when the full album, A Rock Supreme, gets released on April 26, too. After that it’ll be touring, touring and more touring.

During this tour I’ll be doing a few book talks, since I released a book last year on Feral House called I’ve Got Something to Say. It’s a collection of essays I wrote on rock, culled from various rock magazines. I’ll be doing a book talk at Barnes & Noble on Feb. 12 in Orange. The book itself was very collaborative: Duff McKagan wrote the foreword and Damian Abraham, Gary Dumm, Gary Taxali, Mary Fleener, Eerie Von, Away, Brian Walsby, Valient Himself, Fiona Smyth and Juan Montoya all have illustrations in it.

Danko Jones play with Nashville Pussy Prima Donna and Rogue Agent at 8 p.m. on Friday, Feb. 8, at the Whisky a Go Go; at 9 p.m. on Saturday, Feb. 9, at Marty's on Newport; and at 8 p.m. on Wednesday, Feb. 13, at Alex's Bar.

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