After leaving school, Danny played in several local cover bands, many of them playing classic covers in rock-joints around Rockland County.

“One day I got a message that the Welsh rock guitarist Paul Chapman (Skid Row, UFO) was looking for me. I brushed it aside, but my curiosity got the better of me and I called the number. I was invited to do an audition down in Florida, for Paul's new project: DOA, and recorded a demo with him that he took to the UK to shop with the record companies there. But that went by the wayside when Pete Way invited Paul to join Waysted instead. Of course they'd already found themselves a talented vocalist in Fin Muir. So that was that!” 

 

“But in 1985, they had a falling out with Fin and I was invited to learn a bunch of Waysted and UFO songs just days before a huge show at Ramat Gan football stadium, in Tel Aviv. I endured. It was my trial-by fire-audition for a band I continued to play with till 1987.” 

 

Some of the material on Myths, Legends & Lies album goes way back into his early musical life. “The first song that I ever wrote for myself — it's on Myths, Legends & Lies,” he explains, “is the Missouri Kid. I wrote the song as an eighteen-year-old kid, so it's fair to say it's gone through a lot of changes. I've always been attracted to the Southern rock style (especially Blackfoot), so that sort of sound influences some of my writing, although it does not dominate.” 

 

The road that’s led to Danny’s project becoming a reality hasn’t been straightforward. Events have often altered the route, as Danny explains: “I was going to do Myths, Legends & Lies at Rockfield Studios, but serendipity ended up leading me elsewhere - to Tim Hamill, whom I'd met while working on an Ultimate Eagles recording. I always kinda gravitate back to Wales. I don't know why. It's uncanny.” 

 

So, building on the undoubted achievement of Tyketto’s We've Got Tomorrow We've Got Tonight — the 14-piece band extravaganza that was made in Pontypridd, Wales, which consisted of re-booted and re-structured Tyketto classics, turned into miniature rock concertos — with Danny providing sacred voice — Vaughn entered Sonic One in Llangennech, Carmarthenshire, with Chris Childs (bass), Rhys Morgan (drums), Nigel Hopkins (piano) and a host of other distinguished guest musicians, to record his “orphan songs.” 

 

“Like many things in my life, finding my way to Sonic One was such a happy accident that it seems like fate. For example, we were able to get hold of Andrew Griffiths. He plays the kind of hot horn you didn't think could be found outside New Orleans. Bringing the sounds together was really easy too. At Sonic One, I worked with very accomplished musicians. And, although I'm the song originator, I prefer collaboration over inflexibility. I didn't need to yank the reins on those guys: the songs were the primary centre of their attention, and they knew it.” 

 

“Lyrically, my songs have been shaped and re-shaped over time. My influences have included John Hiatt, Don Henley, Bruce Hornsby, Tom Waits and Bernie Taupin, among others. 

 

“Storytelling has also been a strong influence on me,” Danny adds, “especially the oral tradition. I was lucky enough to have been brought up amongst a strong culture of that: both my parents read to me as a child and that included the entire Lord of the Rings books, as well as the Zen myth Monkey and Conan Doyle’s Sherlock Holmes stories.” 

Not all stories run smoothly or have happy endings, and thanks to one particular obstacle, Myths, Legends & Lies almost didn't get made.