The 80s-iconic band, Night Ranger has more than 17 million albums sold worldwide, 3000 live shows performed and over 1 billion radio audiences. It’s been three years since Night Ranger released a new album. Now, the wait is over. Fans of the classic 80s rock band have a new album, “Don’t Let Up.” There’s also a summer tour being planned and fans can relive the hard-core rocking’ 80s all over again.

Night Ranger touring this summer

The current band line-up is Jack Blades, (bass-vocals), Kelly Keagy, (drums-vocals) Brad Gillis, (lead and rhythm guitars) Eric Levy, (keyboards) and Keri Kelli (lead and rhythm guitars).

Some of their greatest hits include, “Sister Christian,” “Don’t Tell Me You Love Me,” "Four in the Morning," “When You Close Your Eyes,” etc.

The band’s music was also featured in the hit musical, “Rock of Ages” with one their songs, “You Can Still Rock in America.”

Lead Singer Jack Blades talks about the new album and upcoming tour.

“When we started working on the new album thinking we should write some songs in February 2016, we all got together the ‘old school’ way like we’ve done the last two albums.

We started jamming on a bunch of songs and then we lock on an idea and lay it down, record and expand on it, write some lyrics and then move on to the next song," Blades admits in a telephone interview. “We flew down to Nashville to Kelly’s place and wrote and recorded a bunch of songs for that album. Then, we came up to my place and brought in Kerry and finished up the rest of the songs so it was a good process.”

Jack Blades says fans will enjoy new album "Don't Let Up"

The album, “Don’t Let Up” is more live sounding compared to the band’s previous albums. The first song, “Somehow, Someway” really rocks and has that classic, ‘Night Ranger’ vibe. Jack likes the songs, “Truth” “Nothing Left of Yesterday” the title track, “Don’t Let Up, “Comfort Me” and “Won’t Be Your Fool Again.” This year, marks the 35th Anniversary or their album, “Dawn Patrol.”

“Don’t Let Up” is a good record to play all the way through and not have to skip around a lot.” “Night Ranger is a live band.

We wanted to make a record that captured the spirit of our live shows,” Jack said. “I think we accomplished that with the, “Don’t Let Up” album.” “We are who we are and we don’t try to be somebody else.”

Jack has worked on some individual projects, including forming the super group, ‘Damn Yankees’ with Tommy Shaw and Ted Nugent. They produced the hit, “High Enough.” Another album from his super group, ‘Revolutionary Saints’ is in the works. The first record was a self-titled album released in February 2015. The group features Doug Aldrich of ‘Whitesnake’ and Deen Castronovo, the drummer from ‘Journey.’ The album will be recorded in Italy.

Jack recalls the time that the band once left him by mistake all alone on the New Jersey Turnpike in the 80s.

“I hopped off the bus and the band left me there. This was pre-cell phones in 1985! I was standing there at the New Jersey Turnpike at a Rest Station and the bus had left because the tour manager thought I was still laying on the couch and Brad had jumped on the couch and pulled up the blanket just like I was and said, “Yup we got them all!” and I’m standing there with flip-flops and a tank top and shorts with a quarter in my pocket at 2 A.M.!”

Since the 80s, the music has evolved. There’s usually a good song that comes along. And ‘Night Ranger’ is known for their timeless great songs.

“I think everyone is going to be pleasantly pleased with “Don’t Let Up.” It shows what Night Ranger is all about which is American straight ass-kicking rock ‘n’ roll!” Jack emphasized.

The tour will kick off on April 15 and end on November 16.