Winery Dogs eye summer release

Winery Dogs will enter the studio to start recording the follow-up to their 2013 self-titled debut in May, mainman Richie Kotzen has confirmed.

The vocalist and guitarist, along with drummer Mike Portnoy and bassist Billy Sheehan, have been working together on fresh material – and Kotzen says the ideas they have so far are “crazy” and “cool.”

He tells Vintage Rock: “We actually started writing music a couple of weeks ago at my house and got a bunch of ideas. I think it’s going to be a cool record. We’ve got a couple of songs that we did at the piano, some acoustic things, crazy stuff and it’s going to be a fun record.

“We’ll probably start recording it in May and, realistically, it will be out at the end of summer.”

Last month, Portnoy said they were planning a world tour to coincide with the release, while Kotzen admitted the trio had been surprised by the success of the band.

Scott Munro
Louder e-commerce editor

Scott has spent 36 years in newspapers, magazines and online as an editor, production editor, sub-editor, designer, writer and reviewer. Scott joined our news desk in 2014 before moving into e-commerce in 2020. Scott maintains Louder’s buyer’s guides, highlights deals, and reviews headphones, speakers, earplugs and more. Over the last 11 years, Scott has written more than 11,000 articles across Louder, Classic Rock, Metal Hammer and Prog. He's previously written for publications including IGN, Sunday Mirror, Daily Record and The Herald, covering everything from news and features, to tech reviews, video games, travel and whisky. Scott's favourite bands are Fields Of The Nephilim, The Cure, New Model Army, All About Eve, The Mission, Cocteau Twins, Drab Majesty, Marillion and Rush.