Originally published in Rock Hard Greece YT channel · June 2022
Desmond Child interview (excerpt)
Interview2 min read
Sakis Fragos: Tell me about Dream Theater.
Desmond Child: Well that was just a songwriting session.
SF: Yeah. It raised a lot of questions. You co-wrote the song ‘You Not Me.’ You have said that you didn't like the fact that you shared the songwriting credits with all the members of Dream Theater.
DC: I didn't know they had their arrangements that way and all I was told is, “You're writing with one person,” and I wrote with him, then never saw him again till I saw the song, and then suddenly everybody's on the song.
SF: The guys from Dream Theater say that after this experience of working with you, they wouldn't let anyone else interfere with the music because they said that it was purely their label's decision to work with an outsider writer, which is something that they didn't want, and would you work again—
DC: Well let me ask you something: do they work with outside engineers? Do they work with outside guys that do the lighting? Do they work with guys that drive the truck with their equipment? What's the difference? It's movie magic. I’m there to help and nobody's asked for their money back.
SF: What made you change the title of the song from ‘You or Me’ to ‘You Not Me’? You just didn't like it?
DC: I don't know if I changed that. I don't remember it being changed. I think ‘You're Not Me’ is a good title.
SF: Yeah, but the demo title was ‘You or Me’ and I think you changed many things on the chorus.
DC: No, wait a second. I changed nothing. We wrote the song from scratch together. I don't care how they rewrite history. I had a writing session with a great guy and we started a song from scratch. Then, what happened to the song and the way they retell the story, to make themselves look whatever, that's... All I can say is that's that, because I did nothing but want to help them. And if they didn't write ever again – with anybody on the outside – well that's their decision and they are totally capable of writing their own music. But it's fun to share, it's fun to exchange ideas to go in different directions.