MIKE GRYCIUK
Francis Valentino, left, and Ryan Wheeler, formerly of Outside the Box and now of The David Lee Roth Band.
Longtime Stone Pony regulars will surely remember Outside the Box, the group that played there often before breaking up in 2012, and also served as the Asbury Park nightclub’s official house band for two years. The band bassist, Ryan Wheeler, and drummer, Francis Valentino, now live in Los Angeles and Nashville, respectively. But they will be back in New Jersey, Aug. 8, as the rhythm section of the David Lee Roth Band, when Roth performs at The Hard Rock Live at Etess Arena in Atlantic City, Aug. 8.
Wheeler has been with the former Van Halen singer and irrepressible rock ‘n’ showman since 2019. Valentino, since 2020.
I talked to Wheeler and Valentino by phone in late July, as their current month-and-a-half tour with Roth was getting underway in Florida.
Q: So tell me first, about Outside the Box … how long, exactly, did that last?
Valentino: That band had been around for a few years, prior to 2007. But in 2007, it became the band that it was, and that lasted until 2012, with Ryan and I being involved.
Q: Were you called something else before?
Valentino: No, it was always Outside the Box, but that was the year that we got connected with the scene locally and began to work.
Q: And then what happened after 2012? Did you go on to other projects?
Valentino: Yes. Both of us sort of broke off into different worlds on our own. I went on tour with a country band and we toured with Kid Rock for a couple of years. That was called Hellbound Glory.
Wheeler: I did similar stuff. It was hired-gun stuff, too. I played for this Florida pop band Before You Exit, who are still really dear friends of mine. We did a lot of, like, iHeartRadio stuff and toured with Fifth Harmony. More in the pop world. It was, like, a couple of years of that stuff. Then I moved to Los Angeles in 2018. Pretty soon after that was when the Roth stuff started. It was a pretty quick timeline once I got out to Los Angeles.
GEORGIA HANDY
Ryan Wheeler, in 2011.
Q: How did that come about? How did you meet him?
Wheeler: It was just one of those good-timing things. He needed a guitar player for a session, and my friend Chris Greatti, who was in the Roth band with me for a minute, got called … so he went and did a session with David, and it turned out (Roth) was looking to put a band together. I was in a band with Chris called Blame Candy. It was like a glam-rock band; it was very fun. And we got this drummer, Kane (Ritchotte), who was just an L.A. buddy, and that was kind of the original lineup for David. I guess it was kind of a tryout, but we had a first rehearsal and he was pleased, and then we just started working. And then … I mean, a million personnel changes happened from then until now.
When we went to do the Kiss tour (in 2020), we changed drummers, like, a show in, and I had been having Francis ready for the gig for a minute. It kept not happening. And then it seemed like we were going to make a change. So I hit Francis up and I was like, “Where in the world are you?” Because he was (living) in Nashville at the time. And he just happened to be in Jersey. And we were in Pennsylvania for a couple of off days. I was like, “Can you get here really fast?” I think that night, or the night after, he came up. It was Super Bowl Sunday, right?
Valentino: Yeah.
Wheeler: It was like Super Bowl Sunday in Allentown. And he just came in, and he and I stayed up till like 3 a.m. in the hotel room, going through all the songs. Then the next day, we played in front of 20,000 people. It went really well.
Q: So what is the (Roth) band’s current lineup now?
Wheeler: It’s us and then Al Estrada on guitar. He’s a really killer player. He’s a Cali-born and -raised guy. And then our friend Danny Wagner is playing keys. He’s played with Warrant and a bunch of other bands, too. He’s really great. And then there are some backup singers, too.
Q: What is it like, doing these songs with Roth? Do you have to really try to duplicate the original parts, or is there any freedom to put your own spin on them?
Wheeler: I would say less putting our own spin and more making sure we know the actual DNA of stuff and that it’s true to it. And then as we progress through the shows and the rehearsals, it’s really like, if David wants to make some changes … it’s really whatever he wants to do, as far as changing stuff from the original. Things don’t stray too far because all that early VH stuff is immaculate, so it wouldn’t really make sense to mess with it.
MICHAEL ZORN
Francis Valentino at The Stone Pony, in 2011.
Q: Was Van Halen a big influence on you, even before you started working with Roth?
Wheeler: For me, personally, I didn’t find it until … that era of ’80s stuff was kind of late for me, actually. It was probably, like, three or four years before we played it with him. But tangentially, it’s always been around, and I was aware, and knew the big songs. But I don’t think I really delved into the discography until then. And funny enough, the first time me and Francis … when I was going to try out for Outside the Box, actually, he drove me down to rehearsal. It was in Ortley Beach. And we were listening to the radio, or was it a tape?
Valentino: I had made a tape with a bunch of Van Halen songs on it, for my car, at the time. And yeah, we listened to several Van Halen songs that day. I’ve been a fan forever. That’s in my DNA, musically, for sure, from day one. So this all kind of lined up nicely for me.
Q: I guess you’ve gotten to know him pretty well. Is he kind of the way you expected him to be, or is he different?
Wheeler: Going in, I didn’t really know what to expect because there is such a mythical being, historically, of who he is. But he’s pretty similar, man. He’s super, super intelligent. He really knows what he wants. He’s very aware of all the parts and everything that’s going on and likes to work really hard. I mean, we rehearsed for like six months before this. And he just has a great musical knowledge, too. Or just, like, pop culture in general: It’s really deep, with everything that he is aware of and knows.
I think that era of music … it’s a weird perception that they only listen to rock, and they only like the music that they make. And he knows so much more than that. He loves dance music, and a lot of other stuff.
Valentino: It was cool, throughout this process, to find out where some of these Van Halen songs came from, inspirationally. And it’s from places you wouldn’t imagine. Just a lot of interesting footnotes to discover with them.
DAVID LEE ROTH
Q: Can you give me an example of a song like that, and where it came from?
Valentino: The song called “I’m the One” (from Van Halen’s 1978 self-titled debut album), we found it came from some sort of early 1920s stomp music from the Caribbean. I have a hard time finding the exact band or artist, but it made total sense once we took a look into it with him.
Wheeler: Yeah, it’s just like a 30 bpm faster version of stomp, pretty much.
Q: On tour, are you doing just Van Halen stuff, or are you doing other stuff as well? Are you sticking pretty much to the hits?
Wheeler: It’s really the “big boys”: It’s kind of just, like, nonstop, hit after hit. We did a couple of solo things in 2020, like “Paradise” and “Gigolo,” but we’re doing just like straight Van Halen stuff now.
Q: Cool. Besides the shows that are scheduled now, do you think there are going to be more? Do you have any idea?
Wheeler: I would imagine so. There’s nothing concrete that we’ve heard. But he seems pretty thrilled to keep it going.
Q: Do you have any projects of your own, besides this?
Wheeler: Yeah, I do a lot of writing and production stuff on the side, too, especially when I’m back in Los Angeles. I don’t know if I can touch on the songs I have coming out, but I have some exciting songs coming out this year, with some bigger artists.
Valentino: For me, beyond this, I have really just two other things that I stick with, that are kind of like separate homes for me: a guy I’ve worked with for a long time — Matthew Curry, who’s been to Jersey plenty of times — and more recently, a Dutch artist named Joanne Bird who I have kind of built a small career with, between the U.S. and Europe. Those the two constants, but there’s all kinds of other things that may pop up, and I like doing a little bit of writing or producing, as well.
MICHAEL ZORN
Outside the Box in 2011 (from left, Ryan Wheeler, Mark Masefield, Jeff Cafone and FrancisValentino).
Q: Since 2012, has Outside the Box ever gotten back together, or would you ever think about getting back together?
Wheeler: Actually, we’ve done a couple of one-off shows, just randomly popping up with friends when we’re back in Jersey. We haven’t done like an official, official show in, probably, 10 years — something like that.
Valentino: The last one we ever did that was sort of announced and prepared for, was in 2014. I don’t know if you’re familiar with the former Stone Pony icon “Pockets” — David Gresham — but when he passed away, we were part of his memorial show at The Pony. That meant a lot to us.
Q: What did being the house band for the Pony entail?
Valentino: We did two summers. It was 2011 and 2012. We played every Wednesday, and built it up from there.
Q: What was that experience like for you?
Wheeler: Pretty thrilling. That venue is so iconic. And just, like, getting close with Southside Johnny and all those guys and playing with them, too … that was like Jersey royalty.
Valentino: Southside and their whole team — including (tour manager) Joe Prinzo — it’s a mentorship, sort of. But also, through osmosis — just by being near them — you learn a lot of things, and they’ve helped us immeasurably with all kinds of little things. That’s been a real, like, big brother of the scene, for us. We probably wouldn’t be doing this without that help.
MICHAEL ZORN
Ryan Wheeler, right, and Jeff Cafone of Outside the Box in 2011.
Q: So you got to open shows for Southside Johnny?
Wheeler: Yeah, a bunch of times.
Valentino: Wellmont Theater (in Montclair).
Wheeler. Wellmont. Count Basie (in Red Bank).
Valentino: We went down to Virginia — did The Birchmere in Virginia, and the Rams Head in Annapolis. All over the place.
Wheeler: Outside the Box actually doesn’t exist without Southside.
Valentino: Outside the Box did a party for the Monmouth Arts Council in 2007. It was actually Sept. 19, 2007, on Gooseneck Point Road in Oceanport. It was the Arts Gala. We just got the gig through word of mouth. We were, at that point, doing very little musically. We just had a band, and were playing gigs when we could. But that gala introduced us to Southside Johnny and Joe Prinzo and (Bobby) Bandiera and (Jeff) Kazee and all those guys. That was the night where we kind of linked up with the Jukes and we opened for them a few months later, at Count Basie, on New Year’s.
That one day … if that didn’t exist, I probably wouldn’t know Ryan, and we would have never played music together. OTB probably wouldn’t have done anything it did. This history and future was written because of that day, without a doubt. It’s kind of interesting. One moment like that.
Wheeler: Pretty wild.
Q: Are the other guys in Outside the Box still involved in other musical projects?
Valentino: Yeah. (Keyboardist) Mark Masefield is our best friend. (Singer-guitarist) Jeff Cafone is our best friend. That’s the great thing about the band: Every other band that goes up to a certain point and then stops, for whatever reason, there was usually some sort of bad blood or something like that. But we still talk almost every single day. The four of us.
Mark is currently on tour with Dave Haus and Will Hoge. He’s super active, and I’ll actually call him in a few minutes. And Jeff Cafone is living in San Diego. He’s had a number of very cool careers. He opened a leather jacket company for a period of time and did great. Now he’s in the tech world in San Diego. So everybody’s doing their own thing, to the best of our ability.
The David Lee Roth Band will perform at The Hard Rock Live at Etess Arena at The Hard Rock Hotel and Casino in Atlantic City, Aug. 8 at 8 p.m. Visit ticketmaster.com.
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