Tesla’s Brian Wheat: “I’m more proud of the second half of our career than the first half”

Tesla occupies a unique space in the hard rock world. The Sacramento, California band came up in the ’80s and toured with bands like Def Leppard, Poison, and Mötley Crüe, but they were always more of a traditional rock band than the glam-metal acts they were often lumped in with (it says something about Tesla that their highest-charting album is 1990’s Five Man Acoustical Jam, which is about as far removed from the overblown rock excess of their contemporaries as you can get).

Bassist Brian Wheat formed the band in 1981 with guitarist Frank Hannon, with vocalist Jeff Keith and drummer Troy Luccketta joining soon after. The band hit early with their 1986 platinum-selling debut, Mechanical Resonance, and followed it up with the even more successful The Great Radio Controversy in 1989, which included their crossover ballad hit “Love Song.” Before MTV’s Unplugged became a cultural phenomenon, the band released Five Man Acoustical Jam in 1990, a live acoustic record that included their smash cover of Five Man Electrical Band’s 1970 song “Signs,” a rootsy track about fighting the man that proved just as resonant in the ’90s as it did two decades earlier.

But as the band was riding high in the ’90s, the tide of popular culture was shifting — once Nirvana began storming the charts, radio and MTV quickly dumped former rock mainstays like Tesla for any new down-tuned sounds coming out of Seattle. After Tesla’s 1994 album Bust a Nut failed to match the numbers of their earlier releases, the band was told by their management that their career was over, and various band members fell into a haze of substance abuse as the band decided to call it quits.

Six years later, Telsa reunited for a sold-out show at Sacramento’s ARCO Arena, a one-off reunion that instead launched a whole new chapter for the band as they began to take control of releasing albums on their own terms. It’s why bassist Brian Wheat now admits that he’s “more proud of the second half of our career than the first half.” Speaking on the phone from his home in New York State, Wheat is promoting his new autobiography written with Chris Epting, Son of a Milkman: My Crazy Life with Tesla (Post Hill Press), which details his rollercoaster decades in Tesla along with his struggles with weight issues, bulimia, chronic and painful digestive issues, anxiety, and his prior struggles with drugs and alcohol.

We spoke with Wheat about what inspired him to write the book, what the future holds for Tesla, and much more. Son of a Milkman: My Crazy Life with Tesla is available now.

Bad Feeling Magazine: What was the initial inspiration to start putting this book together?

Brian Wheat: It just seemed like the right time to do a book, if you’re gonna do a book. You know, I was of the age of, you know — I’d lived some lives. And being that Tesla was part of my story…Tesla’s been around for about 35 years. So it just seemed like the time to do it, so I took a shot at it.

What was the process like for you? Are you someone who reflects back on the past often? Or did you really have to lock in and go through some of these years and experiences again?

Hmm, no, I mean, obviously memories come up from time to time. But I think once I started to put the idea of putting the book together, I just said, “Well, let me start back as far as I can go.” You know, a place that actually means something, and go forward until I feel I’m done, or done with this part of it. There’s still more chapters ahead of us, hopefully.

One section of the book I really found fascinating is the Five Man Acoustical Jam section, and you describing how quickly it came about, and then how massively influential the album turned out to be. When you look back on that album now, was there any apprehension about putting that out at the time? It’s such a departure from what you guys were doing up until then.

Well, you know, I remember a couple of guys in the band didn’t want to put it out. Jeff said, “Let’s put it out. It’s raw. It’s cool.” You know what, I think it’s cool. It’s like, you know, Aerosmith’s “Live Bootleg”, but some guys thought it wasn’t polished enough. But me and Jeff, really, really liked it. And I’m glad we put it out. I think it’s the most honest record we ever did.

Another pivotal moment in the book is the Bust a Nut era in the mid-‘90s — the industry was changing, and, your manager was basically telling you the band is over. What was that time like for the band? It must have been a difficult transition.

Well, it was a wild time. We were kind of out there. We were definitely in excess. And, you know, we were falling apart. I don’t think we really realized it. But we were, looking back on it now. I can definitely see how we were unraveling at the time. You know, it’s funny, I said something about it the other day, and our fans got on me saying I didn’t like the album. I didn’t say I didn’t like the album, I just said it was disjointed compared to some of the other ones, which it was. It certainly was disjointed compared to Psychotic Supper. And, you know, being that I wrote a lot of the songs on that album, I think I’m entitled to have my opinion about it. [Laughs] But fans on social media, you know, they’re like, “How dare Brian Wheat say he didn’t like that album!” I didn’t say I didn’t like it. I just said there are parts of it I didn’t like, but you know, sorry, if I pissed you off.

You mention in the book that fans thought you were a bit private or closed off at times, but they didn’t necessarily know what you were going through, which I think is a good lesson for anybody. You don’t know what people are going through when you bump into them or meet them for a few minutes at a show.

Yeah, or 30 seconds or whatever. Yeah, I mean, it’s true. I guess in that sense, I tend to let people know, “Hey, you know, this is what I deal with.” So if you meet me, and I’m not, you know, ready to go hang out with you for the next hour, this is why. And I’m a very private guy. I’m shy. I don’t really enjoy meeting people. I’m not that comfortable with it. Some people are really comfortable. You can meet Jeff and feel like you’ve known him your whole life. It’s uncomfortable for me.

Was that in the back of your mind when you get into some really painful subjects in the book, like your weight struggles, or tumultuous family life, addiction, medical issues — was it difficult to focus on those things for the book?

You know, once I made the conscious decision that I was going to talk about those things, it wasn’t difficult. I just let it go. I just said, “Well, you know, here you go.” I’m not asking for anyone’s sympathy. I’m fine. I do fine. I mean, I was hoping that maybe if I did put some of that out there that people maybe that are going through the same things that I go through can relate, and if it helps them I think that’s a good thing. I talked about being bulimic and my depression and anxiety. I have ulcerative colitis, which is an autoimmune disorder, which can be very, very painful at times and debilitating. And it’s like, if someone else has gone through that they can go “Hey, Brian Wheat from Tesla’s got colitis, so do I. I’m not a freak. You know, I’m not abnormal.” It’s not pleasant to talk about, but if it helps somebody, I’m happy to talk about it.

Did it feel cathartic to get all that out? When you held the final book in your hands, did it feel like a weight had been lifted?

Yeah, absolutely. I think it’s pretty liberating in the sense that, okay, here it is, and, you know, have at it, do with it as you will. You know, there’s no little secrets to hide or anything, this is it. And this is, you know, the life of the band. This is how it went down, when it went down. And we’re still kicking, we’re still here, we’re still moving forward, and we’re still a band. And, you know, we’ve been through some hard knocks, but through it all, we’ve managed to stay together and keep making music. I think that’s a big one to get people to realize is that sure, there’s some crazy times that we went through, but we survived. You know, we’re survivors. And Tesla and the guys in Tesla are survivors.

Did you send the book to the rest of the band before it came out? Did you give them a head’s up about what’s in it?

No, no. No, I talked to Frank about a couple of things and told Jeff, and Jeff said, “Look, write whatever you want. It’s all true, man.” And, you know, I’ve been in touch with everyone in the band since the book’s come out, I’m pretty sure they’ve read it. I gave a copy to Jeff. And, yes, he still loves me, so, you know, I’m still in the band, and they haven’t thrown me out. We’re brothers, man. You know, I think the book illustrates that. We love each other. There’s a bond there. And sure we argue and fight like brothers do. But we get through it, we’re family.

The book really breaks down the business aspect of being in a band, and what a label does and doesn’t do for you, especially in this current era. Was that something you wanted to include for younger bands?

I think I talked about that more for other young bands, or maybe artists, you know? Like, look, this is kind of how it is in this business. You’re on your own. You may have the biggest record company in the world, and as long as you’re kicking out platinum records, you’re cool. And as soon as you stop, you’re threatened to be dropped. That’s what happened with Tesla.

You know, we were lucky enough to keep being successful to where they kept us out there. As soon as we looked like we weren’t going to be successful, you know, when Bust A Nut came out and didn’t do what the three or four had prior to it, then there were rumors that you’re through, and you’re gonna be dropped, and your career was over?

They said my career was over in ’95. We’re here 25 years later. [Laughs] We didn’t feel it was over and we kind of picked up the ball when we got back together. And, you know, we’re still here. So I’m more proud of the second half of our career than the first half. We’ve done it all on our own.

Have you thought at all about any type of recording or new ideas for a future album?

Well, right now we’re not really doing anything, we’re all apart from each other. So, I mean, the first thing I think we’ll do when all this stuff gets lifted is play some concerts because we haven’t played in a year almost. And then after that, then we’ll look to make some new music, I’m sure of it.

Son of a Milkman: My Crazy Life with Tesla is available now.