The Dictators Celebrate 50th Anniversary With Their First New Studio Album In 23 Years

The Dictators are back! Celebrating their 50th anniversary this year, the legendary band has a new lineup (founding members Andy Shernoff and Ross The Boss are now joined by original BÖC drummer Albert Bouchard and new lead singer/rhythm guitarist Keith Roth), and their first new studio album in 23 years, shockingly titled The Dictators, will be released September 6th. And it almost didn’t happen.

“I’d always stayed in touch with Scott (Kempner, original rhythm guitarist),” Shernoff recalls, “but I hadn’t been in touch with Ross for some time. Once we started talking again, this is late 2019, Ross goes, ‘hey, let’s form the old band.’ That was the last thing I wanted to do, but Scott really wanted to do it. He was going through a lot at the time and he really needed something to do. So, I did it for Scott. So, we decided to get together after the holidays and start working on it. We needed a drummer, and I said let’s get Albert (Bouchard). I said ‘Albert, I’ve got a question for you and the answer is yes!’ I just wanted him to play on some recordings. So, we started to play with Albert. Scott’s health was already beginning to fail, but we kept at it. Scott was on the first two songs but, to our dismay, he wasn’t well enough to continue. We worked on a bunch of songs, me, Ross and Albert, and recorded four of them in June 2020.”

“It’s a whole new ballgame,” Ross adds. “Andy and I have known Albert since we started — maybe before! And Keith brings a new energy to the band (at Albert’s suggestion, singer/guitarist Keith Roth was brought in as the newest member of the tribe). Keith came in after we recorded those first four songs, and the songs kept coming. At a certain point we realized things were starting to take shape as an album. We’re taking this record very seriously. It’s rock and roll, it’s The Dictators, but it’s all about the songs, that’s how it has to be. Ten songs that are all great. It’s an exciting record, I’m so proud of it”

Even though the riffs and melodies are brand new, they’re unmistakably Dictators down to the bone. Faster, louder and better than ever before, The Dictators is the newest, brightest jewel in the crown of the living, fire-breathing, quintessential American Rock and Roll band. DFFD indeed.