Two Dog Knights

CATCHING UP WITH WINERY DOGS RICHIE KOTZEN AND BILLY SHEEHAN

- Joe Bosso

RICHIE KOTZEN GAVE Winery Dogs fans a bit of a scare back in 2017 when he announced that the supergroup trio (which also includes bassist Billy Sheehan and drummer Mike Portnoy) would be “taking a break,” a phrase commonly uttered — along with “we’re going on hiatus,” another good one — when a band is close to kaput.

“I probably overstated the point, and it caused some confusion,” Kotzen now says. “We toured pretty hard on our first two albums, and we just needed to catch our breath. That’s really all there was to it. It was a break — lots of bands take breaks. The last thing you want to do is tour to the point that you’re burned out.”

As it turned out, the band’s hiatus didn’t last long, and by 2019 they were back on the road while making plans to record their third album. “We were feeling fired up again,” Kotzen says. “But then the Covid pandemic hit and everything pretty much stopped. We couldn’t play anywhere. Nobody could play. So we just decided to take our time and work on the album.” He pauses, then adds, “And I think it’s our best one yet.”

He just might be right. The Winery Dogs already aced their way through their sophomore album (2015’s Hot Streak), and on album number three, which just so happens to be titled