Rock Candy 38

June –
July
2023
DESMOND THE
CHILD BLACK
ROCK’S ’80S CROWES
HITMAKER IT WASN’T
ALL LAUGHS!
SCORPIONS
‘BLACKOUT’ Y&T
REVISITED DAVE MENIKETTI
ON THE MAKING OF
‘EARTHSHAKER’
STEVE
LUKATHER PAT THRALL
“THERE WILL RAPID FIRE
NEVER BE ANOTHER RECALL
TOTO ALBUM”
KENNEY JONES
“THE FACES
WAS THE MOST
FUN EVER”
14-PAGE SPECIAL
THE EARLY DAYS UNCOVERED
PLUS! THE ALBUMS THAT CHANGED NIKKI SIXX’S LIFE
38 £7.99
Rock Candy 37
“WE’RE CARRYING THE TORCH!”

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WEL COME
THE FIRST TIME I heard of Mötley Crüe was at the start of the ’80s via a pen friend on the West Coast of America who’d
recently discovered the band. A short while later, Geoff Barton at the UK’s Sounds music paper reviewed the band’s
independently released debut album ‘Too Fast For Love’, giving it an ultra-positive critique that set the UK on fire with
anticipation. Suddenly it seemed that everybody wanted to get hold of a copy. My pen friend provided a name and address
– the band’s manager Allan Coffman – so I wrote by snail mail asking for a copy of the record so that I could review it in
a fanzine. Coffman was good enough to send one of the first pressings, featuring the black and white logo (later set in
red when the album was reissued by major label Elektra) and the band’s ludicrously backcombed bouffants. Barton was
right. Despite its lo-fi sound, ‘Too Fast For Love’ was both a revelation and a game changer for US rock, kick-starting the
movement that would soon be dubbed glam metal.
The Crüe were in exactly the right place at the right time to capitalise on a reawakening of interest in rough and tumble
– yet stylised – hard rock. This issue’s personal recollections of former Sounds and Kerrang! journalist Sylvie Simmons on
the band’s early days and subsequent development give an amazing insight into their evolution. Some 15 years later, I was
appointed the band’s A&R man at Elektra Records. It felt surreal, especially because the band was in total turmoil at the
time, with vocalist Vince Neil having been replaced by John Corabi. In the end Neil was, for better or worse, reinstated and
against all odds Mötley Crüe are still riding high today.
To offer some contrast to the Crüe’s multi-platinum success story, you should read our feature on the criminally underrated
Y&T, originally called Yesterday And Today and based in San Francisco. The band’s debut album was released in 1976 and
stood head and shoulders above the competition at the time. The band’s style was uncompromising, full-on heavy rock, and
vocalist Dave Meniketti is blessed with a one-in-a-million voice. Sadly, Y&T never became rock superstars, despite having a
minor hit with the 1985 single ‘Summertime Girls’. Elsewhere, in this issue there’s a fascinating Extreme feature for you to
enjoy, and don’t miss our no-holds-barred chat with former Black Crowes drummer Steve Gorman.
But that’s not all we have on offer. Toto guitarist Steve Lukather has just served up a stunning solo album, jam packed with
material that would fit nicely onto any Toto record. Find out why he believes Toto is finished as a recording unit in our
wide-ranging interview. And make sure you check out the Introducing… feature on Elegant Weapons, a new band featuring
Judas Priest guitarist Richie Faulkner and former Rainbow vocalist Ronnie Romero. Their debut album proudly flies the flag
for traditional hard rock in a world saturated with artists trying to reinvent the wheel.
Derek Oliver – Master Of Mayhem

[email protected]
THIS ISSUE’S BIG QUESTION – THE ’80S SUNSET STRIP SCENE OR THE NWOBHM?
THE TEAM CONTRIBUTORS

Owner and Publisher: Derek Oliver Jason Arnopp
The Sunset Strip Scene The NWOBHM
Editor: Howard Johnson Andrew Daly
E-mail: [email protected] The Sunset Strip Scene The Sunset Strip Scene
Website: www.rockcandymag.com Editor At Large: Malcolm Dome Rob Evans
Art Director: Andy Hunns The Sunset Strip Scene
Rock Candy Mag subscriptions The NWOBHM Giles Hamilton
Go to www.rockcandymag.com/ Production Editor: Louise Johnson The Sunset Strip Scene
subscriptions The Sunset Strip Scene Neil Jeffries
Creative Direction: Julia Melanie Goode The NWOBHM
www.rockcandymag.com created and The NWOBHM Dave Ling
maintained by Ross Sampson Solutions Web Guy: Ross Sampson The NWOBHM
The NWOBHM Dave Reynolds
Printed by Sterling Press Limited, Kettering Facebook Captain: John Nicholson The NWOBHM
Venture Park, Kettering, Northamptonshire The Sunset Strip Scene Xavier Russell
NN15 6SU, England. Social Media Guru: Michael Brandvold The NWOBHM
Distributed by Distributed by Marketforce (UK) The Sunset Strip Scene Sylvie Simmons
Limited, 121-141 Westbourne Terrace, London, The Sunset Strip Scene
W2 6JR, England
Copyright: Rock Candy Magazine Ltd, 2023 PHOTOGRAPHY
No part of this magazine may be reproduced Don Adkins Bill O’Leary/Timeless Concert images
without the express consent of the owner. IconicPix Mark ‘Weissguy’ Weiss
ROCK CANDY MAG ISSUE 38 CONTENTS
50 MÖTLEY CRÜE
UPFRONT Exclusive interview
6 FROZEN IN TIME – MÖTLEY CRÜE Albums available on

They’re this issue’s cover stars, but this magnificent, rarely seen, and superb early Rock Candy Records
shot absolutely demanded the full, double page ‘Frozen In Time’ treatment! Want to comment on anything
in Rock Candy Mag?
8 STEP BACK IN TIME – FEBRUARY-MARCH 1985 Email us:
[email protected]
It wasn’t all hair metal in 1985. None of Meat Loaf, Uli Roth, or Def Leppard could
ever be accused of selling out to the Sunset Strip. How were their stories of the day reported by the rock press back
then? Here’s where you find out.
14 MY FIRST GIG – CARLOS CAVAZO

The King Kobra and erstwhile Quiet Riot guitarist on witnessing hippy heroes Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young in LA right
after Woodstock in ’69!
16 PERSON OF INTEREST – ROSS THE BOSS

He was right at the epicentre of the New York ’70s punk scene with The Dictators before going on to form the
heaviest of heavy metal bands Manowar. But don’t you dare suggest the guitarist ever wore a loincloth!
18 INTRODUCING – ELEGANT WEAPONS

Judas Priest guitarist Richie Faulkner has got a new band together with top classic rock vocalist Ronnie Romero.
But it’s definitely not a side project!.
FEATURES
20 DARK DAYS – ZEBRA
Their last hit record was over 40 years ago and yet Zebra are still rocking out today. If ever there was a heart-
warming story about never giving up, this is surely it!
26 EYEWITNESS – THE MAKING OF Y&T’S ‘EARTHSHAKER’

The last surviving original member of the San Francisco band, vocalist and guitarist Dave Meniketti, tells us exactly
how they created their classic 1981 album ‘Earthshaker’.
34 OVERLOOKED – KING KOBRA

Carmine Appice has been a key member of many an influential rock band, but King Kobra has always been his
passion project. Dave Reynolds talks to the top drummer to find out why.
40 THE ROCK CANDY Q&A – KENNEY JONES

The legendary English drummer on falling out with Steve Marriott, being almost permanently drunk with the Faces,
and why he wasn’t sure about replacing Keith Moon in The Who.
4
42 EXTREME
They’re back and doing their level best to break the Internet! Guitarist
Nuno Bettencourt and vocalist Gary Cherone go deep on their mission
to bring old-school rock back.
50 MÖTLEY CRÜE – THE EARLY DAZE

Writer and super-early Crüe adopter Sylvie Simmons has written a
brilliantly detailed 6000-word essay about what it was really like
being close to Mötley in their formative era.
60 MÖTLEY CRÜE – ‘TOO FAST FOR LOVE’

Recording engineer Avi Kipper on working with the band on their
legendary indie debut album.
61 MÖTLEY CRÜE – THE BRITISH BUZZ 42 EXTREME

Or how a Mötley-mad maths teacher brought the band to people’s
attention in the UK back in 1981.
62 THE ALBUMS THAT SHAPED NIKKI SIXX

The Mötley bassist told Rock Candy Mag writer Dave Reynolds about
the records that changed his life.
64 STEVE GORMAN OF THE BLACK CROWES

The band’s erstwhile drummer doesn’t hold back on what it was really
like during his time with one of the world’s most dysfunctional bands.
68 STEVE LUKATHER
The guitarist who’s helped make Toto a longstanding legendary name
in rock is back with a new album – and he has much to say about his
incredible life.
Cover page photos: Mark ‘Weissguy’ Weiss; Jesse Lirola. Contents page photos: Don Adkins; Kyle Bertrand; Alex Solca; IconicPix/Ebet Roberts
74 RAPID FIRE RECALL – PAT THRALL

He’s played with Pat Travers, Glenn Hughes, Meat Loaf, and Asia.
But the hot guitarist reckons his early adoption of Pro Tools is the
defining moment of his career.
78 UNCOVERED – DESMOND CHILD

If you wanted a mega rock hit in the ’80s, then Desmond was your 68 STEVE LUKATHER
go-to songwriting guy. Editor HoJo talks to him about his wild life
and what it really takes to put a rock track on the map.
PRODUCT
86 CLASSIC ALBUMS REVISITED – ‘BLACKOUT’

BY SCORPIONS
Forks at the ready! We’re going back to 1982 to take another look at
the German band’s breakthrough album.
88 STRIKTLY FOR KONNOISSEURS – TRAPEZE AND

SOUTHERN SONS
There’s always some great obscure rock from the vaults just waiting
for you to discover it! Here are two more top finds to check out.
90 ROCK CANDY REISSUE – RAM JAM 86 SCORPIONS

The seminal New York band’s second album ‘Portrait Of The Artist As A
Young Ram’ gets the classic Rock Candy Records reissue treatment.
91 REVIEWS
Our top team of rock-rabid writers give you their considered opinions on all the latest releases including albums from
Motörhead, Black Sabbath, Raven, and Extreme.
98 CROSSWORD
Keep those metal brains of yours active with the Rock Candy Mag crossword!
99 SUBSCRIBE TO ROCK CANDY MAGAZINE

Make sure you never miss an issue of the best rock mag on the planet!
55
UPFRONT FROZEN IN TIME
DATELINE: APRIL 1981
6
The birth of the Crüe!
WE KNOW THAT OUR cover stars this issue are Mötley
Crüe, but even so we couldn’t resist bringing you this extra
classic shot in ‘Frozen In Time’. When local photographer
Don Adkins became close with drummer Laurie Bell of LA
all-girl group The Orchids in the late 1970s, he had no idea
that his friendship would end up with him being in the right
place at the right time with Mötley.
“Laurie told me I had to come check out her bassist
boyfriend’s band, London,” Don remembers. “So I went to a
show that The Orchids were playing with London, and met
Laurie’s boyfriend, a guy called Nikki Sixx. We clicked and
got along really well, and so when Nikki split from London
he told me about his vision for his next band, a really heavy
group but with an image that would out-shock Alice Cooper.”
The band was originally called Xmas, but soon opted
for Mötley Crüe. According to Don the umlauts were there
because Sixx thought they looked cool, “and because the
guys in the band wanted a certain clean hard rock sound
that they heard in German acts like Accept and Scorpions.”
WHEN THE new group – finally settled with a line-up of Sixx,

drummer Tommy Lee, vocalist Vince Neil, and guitarist Mick
Mars – needed press shots they contacted Don, who shot
the band’s first ever colour session at his parents’ house.
“The guys had a manager, Allan Coffman, and he paid
for the session,” says Don. “Nikki told me that he wanted a
crazy party vibe with balloons and streamers. I went to a
local department store and bought a blue tarpaulin kind of
affair for 11 bucks, the thing people used to cover their cars
in their driveways. I hung it in my parents’ living room and
used it as a backdrop, then decorated the set. The band
thought it looked really cool.”
The session lasted around two hours.
“Tommy raided my mom’s fridge. He loved eating, so he
was just working his way through what was there. Tommy
was all about food and women. It was an innocent time,
and the guys in the band were all very nice. Excess wasn’t
even on the radar at that point.”
Except in the clothes the band wore…
“I guess they did look pretty outrageous,” laughs Don.
“Nikki had those patent red leather thigh high boots made
specially for him, I seem to remember. And Tommy was
always one for shorts. I think that was to impress the ladies!”
In Don’s amazing photo it’s really fun to see the DIY
glam metal look the band were rocking when they clearly
didn’t have any money, presumably because they’d spent
everything they had on hairspray!
DON HUNG with the guys and stayed friendly with them
but didn’t get to shoot the band’s independent album ‘Too
Fast For Love’.
“I was busy as hell in my final year of engineering school.
Plus, I was shooting everything on 35mm and at the time
you really needed a different format to shoot album sleeves.”
Despite having photographed many of the early metal
bands of the emerging Sunset Strip scene, Don Adkins
opted for a career in engineering. He has no regrets about
making that choice.
“None at all. I took photos of bands for fun, and I’m lucky
to have captured something important at that time. I lost
touch with Mötley Crüe, but reconnected with Nikki a few
years ago when I helped him out with a book project. He
Photo: Don Adkins
invited me to a stadium show and treated my wife and I

really well. It was nice to see how far he’d come since that
photo shoot in my parents’ living room all those years ago!”
HOWARD JOHNSON
7
UPFRONT STEP BACK IN TIME
FEBRUARY-MARCH 1985 RO U G H T H E B ACK PAGES OF

THE
N DY ’S DA V E LING LEAFS TH T H E DAY BACK TO

R O C K CA S IT E M S O F
R IN G THE BIG NEW
UK ROCK PRE
S S T O B
S R E A L LY P L AYED OUT…
ORIE
A N A LY S E H OW THOSE ST
LIFE AND
THIS IS YOUR LOAF

DATELINE: 21 FEBRUARY-6 MARCH 1985
MAGAZINE: KERRANG!
IN A TWO-PART interview to commemorate the release attendant, and forming the duo Stoney And Meat Loaf.
of the singer’s fourth album, ‘Bad Attitude’, writer Dave
Dickson revisited the astonishing life and career of IN 1973, Meat finally met the man who would change
Marvin Lee ‘Meat Loaf’ Aday, “from The Rocky Horror his life, writer and producer Jim Steinman. To cut a very
Show to ‘Bat Out Of Hell’ and beyond.” long story short, together they began the improbable
Texas-born Meat revealed that his mother had told saga of the album ‘Bat Out Of Hell’ that would eventually
him he would never become a professional singer (“You become one of the most successful records of all time.
better find something else to do, boy!”), and followed But back then, nobody cared. Meat and Jim were turned
that up with the extraordinary tale of his father trying down “at least four times” by every record label in the
to kill him with a butcher’s knife. “I roll off the bed and United States.
he plants the knife dead-centre,” Meat related, wide- The making of the album, which Meat insists saw
eyed. “I get up, I break three of his ribs and decide I’d producer Todd Rundgren bail during the mixing stages,
better leave!” could fill an entire issue of Rock Candy Mag. Meat related
Photo: IconicPix/Pete Cronin
Filling six pages, the feature that resulted from two that an early version of the album’s epic title track
interviews conducted in Birmingham and London ended after the second chorus. “I said: ‘It’s not done,’” he
contained a rollercoaster ride of top notch, Grade-A confided. “I made Jim go ahead and finish the story.”
anecdotes. Starting at the beginning, Meat discussed In the studio, the pair fought like cat and dog. One
moving to California in 1966, assembling the band Meat notable bust-up saw the singer throw a baby grand
Loaf Soul, joining the cast of stage musical The Rocky piano at his working partner.
Horror Show where he’d been working as a parking lot “Then we panicked because we had to put it back
8
together, which we did with Meat raged. “It’s like the old
chewing gum and string so saying of kicking someone while
nobody would know it was they’re down. I was down and
broken,” Meat smirked. they were trying to throw in as
many kicks as they could.”
AFTER ‘BAT…’ took its slow-
burning path up the charts HAVING SIGNED to Arista
in 1977, Meat felt “left out” of Records in 1984, Meat pieced
its intended follow-up, 1981’s together the ‘Bad Attitude’
‘Bad For Good’, which ended album that included a handful of
up as a Steinman solo album. songs by Steinman. As usual, the
The pair’s partnership slipped process had been a protracted
into rancour, lawsuits, and one. Meat had asked Jim to write
countersuits. After a second the entire album, but Steinman
album, ‘Dead Ringer’, that took so long that Meat was forced
also emerged in ’81, Meat’s to bring in other writers. However,
subsequent bankruptcy led no matter how badly the pair had
to a half-hearted suicide fallen out in the past, Meat insisted
attempt. He described his they remained friends.
third album, the Steinman- “People think that Jimmy and I
less ‘Midnight At The Lost don’t like each other, but I really
And Found’ from 1983, as “a love him,” he told Dickson. “Jimmy
joke”. Long time label Epic is really talented, and I have
Records agreed. “Epic were absolutely nothing bad to say about
trying to control my life,” him at all… and never will.”
ROCK CANDY SAYS…

January 2022, reportedly following
complications from Covid-19,
though no official cause was ever
released.
Meat and Jim loved one another
for sure, but at times they hated
each other too. Both were loners
at heart, but the only child prone
to temper tantrums needed the
flamboyant, eccentric songwriter,
who also wrote hits for Bonnie
Tyler, Air Supply,
and Boyzone.
IN THE years that followed this

Kerrang! interview, Meat and Jim
continually broke up and reunited,
notably in the early 1990s for ‘Bat
Out Of Hell II: Back Into Hell’ and
its memorable hit single ‘I’d Do
Anything For Love (But I Won’t Do
That)’, which topped the charts of
28 different countries, selling 14
million copies.
In the wake of Steinman’s
passing, an emotional Meat gave
two separate interviews to Rolling
Stone magazine, one of which saw
him break down and sob: “Jim and
I belonged heart and soul to each
other. We didn’t know each other.
We were each other.”
SUCH IS THE ENDURING legacy of their music that it’s DESPITE THE initial resistance of the music industry, the
hard to believe that both Meat Loaf and Jim Steinman ‘Bat Out Of Hell’ album has now sold 43 million copies
are no longer with us. The mercurial pair passed away worldwide. There has never been a partnership like Meat
within nine months of one another, Jim due to kidney Loaf and Jim Steinman, and there most likely never will
failure in April 2021 aged 73, and Meat aged 74 in be again.
9
UPFRONT
STEP BACK IN TIME
ULI JON ROTH: “IT’S NOT A PARTY ALBUM”

DATELINE: 21 FEBRUARY-6 MARCH 1985
MAGAZINE: KERRANG!
THERE ARE FEW MORE enigmatic rock stars than explained that Electric Sun, viewed as an overarching
German guitarist Uli Jon Roth. So Kerrang! chose wisely concept, was about opening up people’s minds to their
in dispatching the equally enigmatic Dave Dickson to maximum potential.
the Sussex coast in search of words of wisdom from the “Sounds a bit screwball, eh?” pondered Dickson, who
elusive, moustachioed maestro. elsewhere wondered whether his subject belonged “in a
Eight years into a post-Scorpions career, Düsseldorf- padded cell for his own benefit.”
born Roth was unveiling a third album from his group
Electric Sun; a bold, neo-classical distillation of his New IN A slightly unconventional story that failed to even
Age principles entitled ‘Beyond The Astral Skies’. Having mention the Scorpions except for referencing them in
Photo: IconicPix/George Chin
dismissed the promo film for its lead single, ‘The Night a live review of Electric Sun, Dickson sought to paint
The Master Comes’, as “among the most embarrassing the bigger picture, touching upon mind expansion,
videos I think I’ve ever seen,” Dickson was left “more subversion of the population via mass media, and…
than a little perplexed” by its depths. He was also ahem… whether Roth was prophet, warlock or a
dumbfounded that a statement of such seemingly limited “deranged hippy.”
commercial scope was being released by major label EMI. Somewhat unexpectedly, Uli confessed: “I don’t like
“Who knows, it may even be the work of a genius?” he opera [music],” which led to a debate over whether the
observed with a metaphorical scratch of the head. Roth album sounded Wagnerian. “I don’t get too many kicks
10
from Wagner,” insisted the guitarist. “I’m more into Beethoven
or even baroque.”
Stylistically divided between rock on side one of the old
vinyl format and the neo-classical/opera of its reverse, Roth
hoped to create a new musical language.
“This record is meant to be a bridge between the past and
the future, and it’s the centre of the bridge of my own musical
development,” he claimed.
“All the songs are key-related and also theme-related,
although they sound totally different,” he continued. “We
were trying to balance the two sides, too, and in the end
there’s ‘Eleison’, this big, multi-dimensional overkill thing that
tries to cover eight centuries of music in eight minutes, the
story of a fight between good and evil. So then the last song
[‘Son Of Sky’] tries to incorporate everything that’s gone
before and put it on a higher plane.
“This may be where some people say: ‘Bye bye, this is too
much’,” Uli admitted. “I don’t think it’s too [challenging] at
the beginning, more at the end of the record.”
ROTH WAS sufficiently self-aware to state: “It’s not music

you can listen to while chatting away to someone. It’s not
a party album. We’re totally aware of that, though there
are certain songs like ‘Return’ that you could play at any
party when the lights are low and everybody’s getting a
bit moody. [As an album] it’s supposed to entertain by
grasping your full attention. It will entertain you if you’re on
the same wavelength and if you’re prepared to take the time to listen.”
Whether or not the label understood

or even cared about the album’s
contents, EMI nevertheless put its
money where its mouth was. A
13-date tour of Britain and Ireland
theatres in February and March of
1985 included an appearance at
London’s prestigious Hammersmith
Odeon, with Uli assembling a strong
live line-up that included Jethro Tull’s
Clive Bunker on drums, sometime
Asia keyboardist John Young, and
former Samson man Nicky Moore as a
backing vocalist.
Witnessing its Birmingham stop,
Malcolm Dome wrote: “Whatever
your taste in rock, from Venom to
Foreigner or from Voivod to Airrace,
you have to see this man because…
well, anyone who can close their set
with Beethoven’s ‘Symphony No 9’
and have the audience greet it as
a long-lost friend is, I’m sure you’d
agree, very special.”
The same writer had called ‘…Astral
Skies’ “a remarkable album set to give
joy to many thousands.”
IN THE end, though, Roth’s songs

were maybe just a bit too mystical
and obtuse. They couldn’t be placed
into some convenient category. And
ROCK CANDY SAYS…

that ‘singing’ voice of his is something
of an acquired taste.
In 2023, having finally re-embraced his past as a
HOWEVER YOU FELT ABOUT ‘Beyond The Astral Skies’ Scorpion, Roth remains true to his craft, continuing to tour
it was impossible to ignore the bravery of Uli Jon Roth, and record. And ‘Beyond The Astral Skies’ is well worth
or for that matter EMI Records, in releasing such music. dusting down as a reminder of what might have been.
11
UPFRONT STEP BACK IN TIME
The Def Leppard line-up that was deep into recording the band’s fourth album in 1985. L-R: Phil
Collen (guitar), Steve Clark (guitar), Rick Allen (drums), Joe Elliott (vocals), Rick Savage (bass)
LEPPARD BREAK SILENCE AFTER RICK ALLEN’S CAR ACCIDENT

DATELINE: 21 MARCH-3 APRIL 1985
MAGAZINE: KERRANG!
AS WORLD EXCLUSIVES GO, this one was a whopper. MEANWHILE, THE Allen-less Leppard continued to chip
Kerrang! man Dante Bonutto was the first music journo to away at the album that would eventually be known as
talk to Def Leppard after the car crash in which drummer ‘Hysteria’. Producer extraordinaire ‘Mutt’ Lange had begun
Rick Allen lost his left arm. The incident, which took place the project only to withdraw, exhausted after his work
the previous New Year’s Eve, made international headlines. with The Cars. Various replacements were considered and/
Speaking as one, the music community wondered: How or approached, including Ted Templeman, Trevor Horn,
was it possible for a drummer to play with one arm? And Mike Stone, Alex Sadkin (who had handled Foreigner’s
what had been the mental toll on the 21-year-old at the ‘Agent Provocateur’), and even Phil Collins, who was too
centre of all the attention. Now, three busy with Eric Clapton, before an ill-fated,
months later, we had some answers. short-lived, and now notorious dalliance
“Every time you speak to Rick on the with Meat Loaf collaborator Jim Steinman
phone, you come away with a big grin convinced the group they were better off
on your face because he’s in such good making the album themselves along with
spirits,” Leps singer Joe Elliott told engineer Nigel Green.
Bonutto. “He’s handling it better than Elliott was almost too angry to talk
I thought he would. He’s matured 10 about the Steinman debacle.
years overnight. He’s totally accepted “We did about eight backing tracks and
the fact that he’s got one arm and he’s scrapped them. Almost everything’s been
being realistic about coming back into done again,” seethed the singer. “It annoys
Def Leppard. He’s mad to go through it, me when a producer walks into a control
though, and we’re mad to let him try.” room and says: ‘This carpet has got to go!’
Sod the desk, that’s not important. He even
AS BONUTTO and Elliott spoke at had the carpet changed in his hotel room.
Wisseloord Studios in Holland, Allen We were doing a better job than Steinman,
Photos: IconicPix/George Chin; IconicPix/Annamaria DiSanto
remained hospitalised in England, his fate who sat there reading Country Life, so
as a drummer in the balance, though drum we thought, what’s the point in getting in
manufacturers Ludwig had begun building another producer? We send Mutt the odd
an adapted, partially electronic kit. tape now and then and he sends it back saying: ‘It sounds
“If Rick physically can’t do it, then obviously there are brilliant to me’, which shows we can do it. So we are.”
going to be problems. But with the technology available
today I don’t see why he can’t play snare drum with his ACCORDING TO the singer, the as-yet-untitled album,
left foot, say. And if he can do that, maybe he could have which would be mixed by Lange, had a tentative release
tom tom fills pre-recorded on a trigger.” date of August 1985. Plans were already being made
Elliott was keen to stress that this was no exercise in for eight or nine warm-up shows in Ireland – a stand-in
sympathy-seeking. They really were sticking by their drummer taking the place of Allen – and a UK tour of
friend and bandmate. around 20 appearances. By December, Leppard hoped to
“Def Leppard is simply five lads – we could have been be back in the heartland of America.
a football team, we could have been international bank “I’m 25 years old, I’m supposed to be at the peak of my
robbers,” he insisted. “Just because Rick’s had an accident fitness, I should be Glenn Hoddle,” Elliott told Bonutto. “I
doesn’t mean he can’t still be in the band.” don’t want to waste away and vegetate.”
12
ROCK CANDY Rick Allen successfully came back
SAYS… after losing his arm in a car accident
LITTLE DID JOE ELLIOTT know that the

conclusion of Def Leppard’s time locked
away in the studio bunker was still almost
two years away. By the time they had
dotted the i’s and crossed the t’s on a
fourth album in January of 1987, Allen and
producer Lange were both back on board.
Incredibly, a “spiritually transformed” Allen
had taught himself to play the drums all
over again. In August of 1986, following
a series of performances with drumming
back-up from Status Quo’s Jeff Rich,
Allen made a triumphant return to the
stage at the Monsters Of Rock Festival at
Castle Donington.
“Thirty years on, that day remains in the
top five moments of my life,” Allen told me
in 2016. “When Joe introduced me to the
crowd so beautifully, and their roar was so
loud, I burst into tears.”
MEANWHILE, RESTORED to the production hot- perfection and the album went on to sell over 20 million
seat, Mutt Lange demanded that the music should be copies worldwide.
scrapped for a second time, and this was followed by “Mutt said: ‘Let’s make a rock version of Michael
several more months spent on a laborious mix. The end Jackson’s ‘Thriller’ – an album you can take seven singles
results were worth the seemingly interminable days, from,’” guitarist Phil Collen famously commented. “That’s
months, and years of hard graft, though. Released on what we did. And it was amazing.”
3 August 1987, ‘Hysteria’ represented gleaming audio Thirty-six years later it remains so.
SNIPPETS – SHORT, SHARP SHOCKS FROM FEB-MAR 1985

BIZARRE MÖTLEY RUMOURS
DATELINE: 24 JANUARY-6 FEBRUARY 1985
MAGAZINE: KERRANG!
Mayhem, the Kerrang! news pages, went into overdrive following the car crash that killed drummer Razzle from
Hanoi Rocks. With driver and Mötley Crüe vocalist Vince Neil’s trial set to begin on 28 February, the mag reported
on four pieces of ridiculous speculation: the band were splitting up; guitarist Mick Mars had been sacked, with Jake
E Lee his replacement; bassist Nikki Sixx and drummer Tommy Lee were forming a new group with Hanoi vocalist
Michael Monroe and guitarist Nasty Suicide; and Rocky Shades from Wrathchild was replacing Neil in the Crüe.
OZZY CUTS RIO DOWN TO SIZE

DATELINE: 7-20 MARCH 1985
MAGAZINE: KERRANG!
Spread over three issues, Kerrang!’s coverage of the famous Rock In Rio Festival was all you’d expect for a stellar
bill that included Queen, Whitesnake, Yes, AC/DC, and Iron Maiden. But you can always trust Ozzy Osbourne for an
alternative view. “Rio’s a fu*king toilet, ain’t it?” he told writer Mick Wall. “Horrible grub, you can’t drink the water.
I can’t leave the hotel because I’ll get mobbed. I feel sorry for [train robber] Ronnie Biggs trapped here. I’d rather
have done my time [in prison].”
WHITE SISTER: “THE HEAVY ROCK OF TODAY IS PURE GARBAGE”

DATELINE: 7-20 MARCH 1985
MAGAZINE: KERRANG!
With an eponymous debut produced by Gregg Giuffria of Angel fame, White Sister felt like outsiders in Los Angeles.
“We grew up with some of the best American music of all time, but the heavy rock stuff that’s coming out today
is pure garbage,” guitarist Rick Chadock told writer Derek Oliver. “Our music is commercial, but we can still be
inventive, and we can still turn up the volume. Right now, we’re one of the few groups from LA that isn’t cloning
Quiet Riot and Ratt.”
13
UPFRONT
MY FIRST GIG DATELINE: AUGUST 1969,
LOS ANGELES, CALIFORNIA
“THOSE
HARMONIES!
THOSE
SONGS!”
QUIET RIOT GUITARIST CARLOS CAVAZO REMEMBERS
Interview by Andrew Daly. Photos: IconicPix/Jeff Allen/Cache Agency/Dalle; IconicPix/Rich Galbraith

WITNESSING CROSBY, STILLS, NASH & YOUNG IN LA RIGHT
AFTER WOODSTOCK…
“THE FIRST CONCERT I ever saw was Crosby, Stills, band performing, for much of the time I was watching
Nash & Young at the Greek Theatre in Los Angeles just the crowd doing all kinds of bizarre sh*t. It was a pretty
after Woodstock in August 1969. I was 12 years old, but I formative experience, I have to say!
remember it like it was yesterday.
“To be honest I wasn’t a fan of the band going in. Not “IT’S HARD to say how seeing Crosby, Stills, Nash &
because I didn’t like their music, but because I really Young that night shaped me as a musician. People tend
hadn’t dug into what they were doing at that time. I to associate me with heavy metal music, but I’ve always
did know about Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young, though, listened to other stuff; classical, jazz, pop… everything.
because my brother and sister had some of their records All music inspires me and seeing Crosby, Stills, Nash
and I was intrigued by the hippy subculture. So seeing & Young that night definitely gave me a taste for live
them live brought everything into perspective. performance and being a part of what music represents.
I’ve always been drawn to metal music, so I guess that
“THE FUNNY thing about going to the gig was that it first show influenced me more because of the overall
was a family outing for me! For some reason my dad had experience, rather than having a direct impact on my
decided to get us all tickets for the show. Given that I guitar playing style. Having said that, though, the gig
was only 12, the idea of going into this concert venue full definitely made an impression on me. Those harmonies!
of wild people to see the gig kind of tripped me out. The Those songs!
times were what they were, of course, but looking back “That night I learned that if I wanted to be a musician,
now it’s weird to think that I was standing there with then I needed to write great songs that would stand the
my family while all these crazy folk were smoking test of time. The guys’ guitar playing was exceptional,
marijuana and dancing around the theatre without a care and while the style I would go on to develop is very
in the world. different, the sheer quality Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young
“I did some serious people-watching, so much so displayed at The Greek Theatre has stayed with me right
that even though I can certainly remember seeing the until today.”
14
ANDY CURRAN
WHISKEY & THE DEVIL 30TH
(CONEY HATCH)
UPFRONT PERSON OF INTEREST
ROCK CANDY SALUTES THE MOVERS AND SHAKERS WHO DO THINGS DIFFERENTLY…
ROSS
16
THE BOSS
ROSS ‘THE BOSS’ FRIEDMAN is one of a rare breed of FRIEDMAN PLAYED in Manowar from 1980 to 1989 and
guitarist who’s been able to cross musical boundaries recorded six metal albums – including 1983’s ‘Into Glory
without tripping over the rope and falling flat on his face. Ride’ and the following year’s ‘Hail To England’ – that
The man from The Bronx formed The Dictators in New many consider among the finest examples of the genre.
York way back in 1973, and helped define the city’s late- He was also part of Manowar’s undeniably powerful – and
’70s punk scene. Seven years later, though, Friedman put maybe a little silly – oiled-up, loincloth-wearing image.
Manowar together alongside bassist Joey DeMaio, and in “That just happened,” Ross laughs. “When we started
doing so created what many people consider to be the we didn’t have a lot of money for stage clothes, so that’s
ultimate pure and unadulterated heavy metal band. what we came up with. But Ross The Boss never wore a
“I’ve been lucky in my career,” he tells me in his loincloth. Make a note of that!
endearingly unreconstructed Noo Yawk accent. “I’ve “I honestly thought Manowar would become really
been a professional musician since 1974 and I’ve never popular because of the imagery, because of the music,
given up. I’ve never stopped playing as hard as I can.” and because of the way we presented ourselves live.”
As he recalls those heady 1970s days when the NY punk So why did he leave in 1989?
scene coalesced around the famous CBGBs club, Ross is “Greed and jealousy. Though Joey and I had invented
clearly proud of the role The Dictators played in that era. the band together, he wanted to control all the money
“Music was truly flourishing in the city back in 1977,” he and didn’t want a 50/50 partner like I was. Typical story!”
tells me. “So many great bands from all over the country
found a home in New York. Every night you could go AFTER ROSS’S departure from Manowar, the guitarist
somewhere to see amazing bands like Talking Heads, had stints with a number of bands including Manitoba’s
Ramones, Blondie… We were pretty pivotal to things. Wild Kingdom alongside former Dictators bandmates
The fact that we played CBGBs bassist Andy Shernoff and
36 times says it all. Well, maybe vocalist Handsome Dick Manitoba,
the fact that AC/DC opened for a revived version of The Dictators,
us says something too! It was and even a band called Brain
an amazing movement and an Surgeons with Blue Öyster Cult
amazing time. I don’t think we’ll drummer Albert Bouchard. But it
ever see anything like it again.” wasn’t until 2008 that he debuted
his current project Ross The Boss.
THE DICTATORS’ debut album, “I’d met this German Manowar
1975’s ‘The Dictators Go Girl tribute band called Men Of War,”
Crazy!’, has been hailed as one he explains. “And they were very
of the first examples of a true good, so I asked them if they
punk rock album. Renowned wanted to form a band. Things
NY magazine The Village Voice worked out well, we recorded a
called it “a blueprint for bad taste, demo, and we ended up signing
humour, and defiance, which with the AFM label in Germany.
surely is no bad thing.” The first fruits of the
When, however, The Dictators collaboration was 2008’s ‘New
decided to take what Ross calls Metal Leader’ album, but Ross
“a timeout” in 1979, opportunity The Boss has gone on to release a
immediately came knocking with a French band called further three albums on the same label; 2010’s ‘Hailstorm’,
Shakin’ Street. 2018’s ‘By Blood Sworn’, and 2020’s ‘Born Of Fire’. As
“My manager Sandy Pearlman [who also looked after you might guess by the album titles and sleeves, as
Blue Öyster Cult and Black Sabbath] had gone to Paris well as individual song titles such as ‘Glory To The Slain’
where he’d been completely seduced by Shakin’ Street’s and ‘Great Gods Glorious’, the project is unashamedly
singer Fabienne Shine,” he explains. operating in Manowar’s trad heavy metal territory.
Shine had been romantically involved with Led Zeppelin “That’s because I still have a ton of energy,” Ross laughs.
guitarist Jimmy Page for a while, and in 1975 had started Even at the age of 69?
a band originally called Speedball. By 1979, though, the “Even at the age of 69! I don’t think age has anything
group had changed its name to Shakin’ Street, had signed to do with it. I still love playing guitar, I still love playing
a deal with CBS France, and had already released one live, and my Ross The Boss band is amazing. What keeps
album of punky hard rock, 1978’s ‘Vampire Rock’. me going is the music. It’s all about writing great songs.”
Words: Howard Johnson. Photo: IconicPix/George Chin
“Fabienne told Sandy that the band needed a guitarist

because the previous guy had sold his guitar to buy ROSS HAS just released ‘Legacy Of Blood, Fire & Steel’,
heroin, believe it or not,” says Ross. “I flew to Paris, a Ross The Boss compilation featuring three songs from
auditioned for about three minutes and got the job.” each of the four albums.
Ross appeared on the band’s excellent sophomore “I picked the songs myself,” says Ross. “And I think I did
album ‘Shakin’ Street’ in 1980, and the group opened for a good job.”
Black Sabbath that same year. Joey DeMaio was working The band has also just finished a tour of Germany to
on the tour as Sabbath’s bass tech, and he and Ross mark the 35th anniversary of Manowar’s ‘Kings Of Metal’
soon hatched a plan to join forces and create a band that album. But there’s also a new Dictators album in the
Ross claims was specifically designed to be “the loudest, works with a deal already signed and dates pencilled in.
heaviest, slowest, and fastest band of all time. I think we “I’m in great health,” says Ross. “Why wouldn’t I be
came close to it, actually. The original Manowar [featuring doing all this stuff?”
Ross, Joey, drummer Donnie Hamzik, and singer Eric
Adams] was an unbelievably powerful band and it stayed For further information on Ross and The Dictators, read
an unbelievably powerful band – at least while I was in it.” the feature published in Rock Candy Mag Issue 19.
17
00
UPFRONT INTRODUCING…
GREAT ACTS YOU MIGHT NOT HAVE HEARD
IT’S A FAIR new Priest

BET that record had
you’ll need no already been
introduction pretty much
to Judas Priest written, so I
guitarist Richie didn’t have to
Faulkner, but put up any riffs
it might be a or melodies
different story or song ideas
when it comes for that. It was
to his new the perfect
band Elegant opportunity to
Weapons. One dedicate my
thing you must creative juices
know first to something
and foremost, different.”
though, is that
this isn’t just a RICHIE WAS
one-off project adamant about
designed to kill just one thing
time between with regards
Faulkner’s work to the new
with Priest. venture.
“It was “It was
an absolute essential for
priority for me to have
me that this something
wasn’t just a that stood on
case of getting its own two
together with feet sonically.
friends and I didn’t want
recording a something that
one-off album,” sounded like
he says. “I want Judas Priest.
to record many, What would
Elegant Weapons L-R: Christopher Williams (drums), Dave Rimmer
many records (bass), Ronnie Romero (vocals), Richie Faulkner (guitar)
be the point?
with Elegant I’ve always
Weapons and been given the
go on a creative journey as a band opportunity to contribute to Priest
and as friends that lasts the rest of creatively, but I wanted another
our lives, really. Hopefully we’ll get outlet to show another side of my
fans who want to go on that journey musical personality.”
with us.” Faulkner had a very clear idea of
Elegant Weapons is anything but a what he wanted Elegant Weapons to
new idea… sound like.
“When I first joined Judas Priest “I wanted the group to be a
back in 2011,” explains Richie, “I had modern heavy metal band with
a conversation with [Priest guitarist] strong ’70s and ’80s influences,
Glenn Tipton about the fact that and maybe just a touch of the ’60s
Judas Priest wasn’t going to be and ’90s in there too. I think there’s
around for 20 or 25 more years. I Hendrix, Sabbath, Priest, Alice In
actually joined the band on what Chains, Thin Lizzy, and Metallica in
was supposed to be a farewell tour, the sound, though hopefully when it
but fortunately things changed, and all comes together it creates its own
Priest is still alive and kicking, making unique vibe. Elegant Weapons is a
new music and playing show almost 13 years later – and band that’s influenced by the past, but has a firm footing
the world is a better place for that. But it was always a in 2023.”
conscious thing for me to think about what I was going
to be doing after Priest. HELPING RICHIE create the Elegant Weapons sound on
Words: Howard Johnson
“What I didn’t want to do, though, was immediately the debut ‘Horns For A Halo’ album are Chilean vocalist
use the fact that I’d suddenly got a big gig to start Ronnie Romero, who’s worked with Michael Schenker
developing a side project. The timing needed to be right, and Rainbow among others, Pantera bassist Rex Brown,
and it just so happened that around about 10 years after and Priest drummer Scott Travis.
I joined, I finally got a bit of time during the pandemic “All of those guys have established their own
to develop something. There was no touring, and the reputations, but I didn’t particularly choose them over
18
The Debut Album From ELEGANT WEAPONS
featuring Richie Faulkner (JUDAS
(JUDAS PRIEST)
PRIEST )
unknown musicians,” Richie explains. “It’s just that those and Ronnie Romero (RAINBOW
(RAINBOW))
are the circles I roll in, these are the people I know. All
the guys are great players, and Rex and Scott are both
legends of the metal scene. But first and foremost
they’re friends. It was paramount to me to get people I
knew and trusted, but the people I know and trust just
happen to be great musicians.”
Richie’s relationship with Nuclear Blast top boy Monte
Connor helped Elegant Weapons score a deal without
any fuss.
“Monte was interested in what was going on from the
earliest days,” says Richie. “He heard some very early
demos I was working on even before the band had been
put together, and he was very excited about what I was
doing. He loved the stuff from the get-go, and when
you have someone who’s enthusiastic and supportive
right from the start, someone who believes in the
music you’re creating, well it’s perfect. Monte was
pretty much there from Day One and that was very
important for me.”
UNSURPRISINGLY, PRODUCTION duties on ‘Horns For

A Halo’ were fulfilled by Richie’s Judas Priest guitar
mate Andy Sneap.
“Andy was a no brainer,” laughs Richie. “He and I
communicate almost on a daily basis, about Priest
or Elegant Weapons, about bands we like, or guitars,
or stuff we’ve found on eBay. We’re friends. Andy’s a
metal producer who grew up on ’80s metal, but his
head’s very much in 2023. I wanted an album where you
could hear influences from the past, but I also wanted a
record that could stand up in 2023. I could trust Andy
to produce exactly what I wanted for this project.”
That’s a more than fair assessment of ‘Horns For A
Halo’. The music you hear on songs such as ‘Bitter Pill’,
‘Dead Man Walking’, and ‘White Horse’ is undeniably
classic heavy metal, but Sneap’s production is both up
close and personal, and sonically contemporary.
“Classic rock is in the DNA of all the musicians who
contributed to the album,” says Richie. “Ronnie is a
classic rock singer, and everyone plays with that old
school swagger. We’ve all been part of legacy bands,
but we’re also writing, recording, and performing in
2023. We’re representing heavy music in the here
and now, so we wanted to cover both parts of that
particular equation.”
OTHER COMMITMENTS meant that neither Scott Travis

nor Rex Brown was able to commit to Elegant Weapons
after the recording of the album, but Richie claims
he’s more than happy with their replacements, Accept
drummer Christopher Williams, and Uriah Heep bassist CD | DIGITAL
Dave Rimmer. LIMITED EDITION BLACK OR
“I’ve known both of those guys for a long time,” says
Richie. “Christopher actually helped me out with drums UK EXCLUSIVE GOLD VINYL
on some of the early demos for the project. Both of
them are great people and great players. Hopefully IN STORES NOW
Christopher, Davey, and Ronnie will all bring their
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personalities to the next Elegant Weapons record and
will help make that album unique in its own way.
“I think it’s our duty as a band to take the torch from
10 TRACKS OF PURE RAW POWER
all of the classic metal bands we grew up with and INCLUDING THE SINGLES
carry it into the future, put on shows that people enjoy, ‘BLIND LEADING THE BLIND’ & ‘DO OR DIE’
record more albums, evolve musically, let everybody’s
individual characters shine through, and watch Elegant
Weapons become something that’s truly greater than LIVE: STEELHOUSE FESTIVAL JULY 30TH
the sum of its parts. My dream is for this to be a long,
long affair.”
@NUCLEARBLASTRECORDS
WWW.NUCLEARBLAST.DE
FEATURE DARK DAYS
The Zebra line-up that has stuck together through thick and thin. L-R: Randy Jackson
(guitar and vocals), Felix Hanemann (bass and keyboards), Guy Gelso (drums)
E A R NI N G
Not every hard rock group would still want to be performing fully 40 years after
their last successful album and after enduring so many hard times. But Zebra’s
resilience in the face of adversity really is remarkable. Andrew Daly asks guitarist
and vocalist Randy Jackson what keeps him at it…
20
T H E I R
S T R I P E S
21
FEATURE DARK DAYS
Felix Hanemann (left) and Randy Jackson performing

at Hammerheads on Long Island in the late ’70s
YOU COULD EASILY BE forgiven for believing that three- Orleans around 1973,” explains Jackson. “He worked in
piece hard rock outfit Zebra hail from Long Island in New a clothing store, and I worked at a nearby bar called
York State, because that’s where vocalist and guitarist The Library. We ended up in a band together called
Randy Jackson, bassist and keyboardist Felix Hanemann, Shepherd’s Bush and wrote and gigged for about a year,
and drummer Guy Gelso first started to catch a wave but we kind of got bogged down after a while because
in the early ’80s. But in truth the band’s roots lie way we weren’t coming up with enough new material and we
further south… didn’t have a solid direction.”
“The Long Island thing is funny,” says Jackson. “The Jackson had started writing his own songs by this time,
radio station there, WBAB, but when he realised that he
featured original songs by had no intention of giving
local bands on a show called them to Shepherd’s Bush,
Homegrown on Monday the band broke up.
afternoons. Bob Buchmann,
the program director at THE GUITARIST’S next
WBAB, came to one of our project started to take shape
gigs and asked if we had a after a chance meeting with
demo he could play on the drummer Guy Gelso.
show. I think we gave him “Guy was introduced to
a tape of everything we’d me by Keith Revels, who
done up to that point, but was the manager of The
‘Who’s Behind The Door?’ Library,” Jackson recalls.
was the first song he played. “We got together with a
The tune got great feedback keyboardist friend called
and Bob decided to put it Tim Thorson and jammed
into regular rotation. Before on some progressive music.
long, five of our songs were For some reason we were
being played regularly at using Felix’s apartment
WBAB and they became the top five requested songs at for rehearsals, so in the end it was pretty natural
the station.” that he should join us on bass. We played a few gigs
‘Who’s Behind The Door?’ would eventually be together under the name of Maelstrom, but Tim wasn’t
included on WBAB’s 1981 ‘WBAB Homegrown Album’ particularly fond of learning what he called ‘dance
compilation LP, but Zebra weren’t homegrown at all. songs’. The kids wanted to dance, and I was down with
“Felix and I actually met in our home city of New that, but we as a group wanted to play progressive rock.
22
We had to balance the want and the need. If we wanted rubbed shoulders both personally and professionally
gigs we needed to play the dance stuff. Tim got tired of with Fleetwood Mac’s Christine McVie and Kenny
that, though, and decided to leave. We stopped playing Loggins. Jackson and Recor had originally connected
for a while, but then regrouped as a three-piece of me, back in New Orleans, but desperate for help, Jackson
Felix, and Guy. We looked for a lead singer for a while, contacted Recor again.
but in the end we decided that I’d sing, and I’m glad “Jim got us out to California to record some new
things worked out that way. We called ourselves Zebra demos in 1981,” says Jackson. “He set us up with a
after seeing a picture of a woman riding a Zebra on the guy called Randy Ezratty and we cut some tracks at
cover of Vogue magazine. his mobile studio. Bob Buchmann over at WBAB was
“New Orleans was pretty happening back in ’75,” says already playing the tracks we’d sent him, so finally we
Jackson. “There were a lot of local bands had a little bit of traction. It seemed like
doing covers and making good money, the right time for Jim to shop the new
but we wanted more than that. Early on, songs, but once again nobody bit. We
we started throwing in original material were really frustrated.”
and that stuff started to get good What the band didn’t know, though,
feedback, so we knew we were on the was that Bob Buchmann had bumped
right track.” into Atlantic Records A&R man Jason
By 1976 – and with a fistful or originals Flom. “And Bob told Jason about
to their name including ‘Last Time’, ‘The how our demos had become the most
La La Song’, and ‘Take Your Fingers From requested songs by WBAB listeners. We
My Hair’ – Zebra were doing pretty well in signed with Atlantic within a week. We
New Orleans. “But we figured that record hadn’t done anything different. It was just
companies weren’t going to come there that Atlantic saw evidence that we were
to sign a rock band. We knew we needed commercially viable.”
to get ourselves to where the record Having finally secured a major label
companies were.” deal a full eight years into the band’s
In the end the band opted for New York existence, Randy Jackson felt confident
over LA. enough to aim high when looking for a
“We’d met [Long Island band] The producer for Zebra’s debut album.
Good Rats when they were touring down “We asked for [Cheap Trick and
South in ’75, and we got to be friends,” Aerosmith producer] Jack Douglas
says Randy. “They told us that the local and to my delight Atlantic liked the
rock scene in New York, New Jersey, and idea and Jack wanted to work with us.
Connecticut was happening and that While he was recording the album, Jack
we needed to be there. We knew a guy really became the fourth band member.
called Lee Feldman, who owned a club We’d been playing the songs live for
on Long Island. He used to come down to years, so Jack saw how good we were
New Orleans now and again and saw us and respected that. He only ended
live quite a few times. He up changing the odd
liked us and said, ‘If you arrangement, but really
“WE NEVER TOOK ANY BUMPS IN THE ROAD TOO
guys come up I’ll book nothing major.”
you at my club and get SERIOUSLY. I THINK WE ALL HAD CONFIDENCE
you into other places too.’ IN EACH OTHER AND THAT MEANT WE COULD ON THE back of massive
Fortunately he was as national airplay that both
good as his word.
LAUGH AT OUR MISFORTUNE – AND BELIEVE ‘Who’s Behind The Door?’
“There were so many ME, THERE WAS A LOT OF MISFORTUNE and ‘Tell Me What You
great bands on the Long ALONG THE WAY!” Want’ picked up, Zebra’s
Island scene at that time eponymous 1983 album
like Twisted Sister, Rat became one of Atlantic’s
Race Choir, The Good Rats, Samantha, and Essence,” fastest-selling debuts ever, peaked at number 29 on the
Jackson recalls. “We made friends with a lot of those Billboard US album charts, and earned Zebra a gold disc.
guys. We had regular gigs at the Mad Hatter in Stony After such a long gestation period, success had suddenly
Brook and Speaks in Island Park, all the other bands were arrived at the speed of a bullet.
welcoming and friendly, and I’m still friends with a lot of “My mindset at the time was that I was always going to
them to this day. At one point we had all our equipment write music that was inspired by what I grew up listening
stolen and the guys in The Good Rats, Southern Cross, to,” Jackson says. “No level of success or a carrot being
and Twisted Sister put on a fundraiser and raised the dangled in front of me would change that. The last thing
money for us to replace our gear. I’ll never forget that.” I wanted to do was write music I’d regret 20 years later. I
never felt like we were trying to catch a wave.”
AFTER TWO years gigging around Long Island and the A second album, ‘No Tellin’ Lies’, appeared in 1984 but
rest of the Tri-State Area, Zebra had become “pretty didn’t come close to matching the commercial success
sharp and super tight.” But there was still no record deal of the debut. It stalled at number 84 on the Billboard
in sight and frustration was beginning to seep in. album chart, with only one of its singles, ‘Bears’, getting
“Our manager at the time shopped our demos to the any radio attention. By 1986, Jackson found himself
major labels. Everyone told us that if we’d come along 10 “frustrated and at an impasse.” Atlantic Records weren’t
years earlier they would have signed us.” happy with the band and, at a time when hair metal was
The band and their manager soon parted ways. commercial king, Randy knew that he’d have to allow
Jim Recor was something of a man about town, having a good few wafts of hair spray and perhaps a smear
23
FEATURE DARK DAYS
“THE LAST THING I WANTED

TO DO WAS WRITE MUSIC I’D
REGRET 20 YEARS LATER. I NEVER
FELT LIKE WE WERE TRYING TO
CATCH A WAVE.”
24
or two of lipstick into the equation if Zebra were to stay explains Jackson. “I think we all had confidence in each
on the label. other and that meant we could laugh at our misfortune
“With the second album we stayed more or less true to – and believe me, there was a lot of misfortune along the
ourselves, but things didn’t go well,” he remembers. “But way! We toughed it out for many years. But because we
by ’85 or ’86 technology was changing, and music was didn’t have interest from labels we didn’t make another
progressing. So we decided to glam up, add some more Zebra album for a long, long time.
keyboards, and do things to try to give us more exposure “Even when I was doing that other stuff, though, Zebra
to a broader audience. There’s no doubt listening back was never over,” he insists. “We kept performing and I
now that a hair metal influence did creep in.” really hoped we’d make new music again.”
With its pop metal touches and hyper- In the late ’90s, Felix Hanemann started
commercialised sound, 1986’s ‘3.V’ didn’t playing in a Led Zep tribute act called
feel like Zebra at all. The song ‘Can’t Live Hindenberg alongside his work with Zebra,
Without’ got a few airings on MTV, but and it would be 17 long years after ‘3.V’
the album received no radio airplay and before another Zebra album would appear.
didn’t cough up any hit singles. “There was a bunch of songs I’d written
“‘3.V’ was a big mistake,” Jackson during the late ’80s and throughout
now concedes. “I guess we were just the ’90s, and it turned out that these
tired. We’d toured with Sammy Hagar songs fit Zebra well,” explains Jackson.
in support of the second record, and “Because we had the luxury of recording
saw what he could do commercially. We the album at a studio in a friend’s
wanted some of that too.” apartment, we decided to give it a go.
Sadly for Zebra, though, ‘3.V’ didn’t ‘Zebra IV’ [released in 2003] features
bring that much-craved commercial some of my favourite Zebra songs such
success. Rather it led to the end of the as ‘Why’ and ‘Waiting To Die.’ I mixed and
band’s relationship with Atlantic Records. mastered the record myself, but I think
“I’d wanted to do a video for a song there’s too much high-end, so I reckon
called ‘Time’, says Randy. “But Atlantic ‘Zebra IV’ could use some remastering. I
refused to fund it. It was obvious they’d may do that someday.”
lost interest, and in 1987 they dropped
us. It hurt, but we saw it coming.” ANOTHER 20 years have now gone by
In just four short years, Zebra’s glory since ‘Zebra IV’, and in that time there’s
ride was over – and the story could easily been no new music. But the band remains
have ended there. active on the Long Island music scene,
“The band didn’t split up, though. We playing to adoring fans who still love
kept playing as we always had, just not them to death.
as often,” says Jackson. “But there were “New music’s worthwhile if it’s good,’
no more opening slots says Jackson. “I still love
on bigger tours available the songwriting process,
to us. I was planning “THE LITTLE KID IN ALL OF US ALWAYS KEPT US but making unique and
on writing new songs FOLLOWING THE DREAM OF MAKING A CAREER IN exciting songs has gotten
for Zebra and getting
MUSIC. THE FIRE NEVER WENT OUT BECAUSE OUR tougher and tougher. I
us another record deal, do have a lot of material,
and had enough money FANS KEPT IT LIT.” though, and we’re always
saved to stay afloat talking about a new
myself. But Guy and Felix both needed other sources of record. But the stars need to align – or maybe I just need
income. Felix went into real estate. Guy went back down to get off my butt! We worked on two new songs in
to New Orleans and started a flight case manufacturing 2022, and we’re adding them to the live set for 2023. I do
company with his drum tech.” still think that a new album will happen… eventually.”
Much to his surprise, Atlantic offered Randy Jackson a Yet despite the long fallow periods in Zebra’s life,
solo deal in 1988. While continuing to work with Zebra, Randy Jackson isn’t in the least bit bitter.
Jackson hooked up with musicians including guitarist “The little kid in all of us always kept us following the
Mark Hitt from Rat Race Choir, and Mark Slaughter in dream of making a career in music,” he says. “The fire
a project that went by the name of China Rain. Eddie never went out because our fans kept it lit. I’m proud of
Kramer worked on a demo, and according to Randy the fact that to some degree our music is still relevant
the band made “a cool album. But grunge came in and today. We’ve gained some younger fans, and our older
ruined everything. Atlantic didn’t release it.” fans have kept the flag flying. We were inducted into the
The album, ‘Bed Of Nails’, eventually appeared in 1991 Long Island Music and Entertainment Hall of Fame some
on Beyond Records under the name Randy Jackson’s years ago – and that meant a lot.
China Rain. “It’s hard for me to imagine that there will be another
time like the early days again,” he continues. “But the
ZEBRA WENT through super hard times, but the group fans and our love of performing keeps us going. The fact
never officially disbanded. They had all their gear stolen that all three of us are still alive has something to do
from their truck after a gig in the South in the early ’90s, with it, too! Zebra wouldn’t be Zebra without any one
and Guy Gelso was diagnosed with breast cancer in 1997. of us. We’ve managed to get along for nearly 50 years,
Former Rainbow man Bobby Rondinelli filled in on some whereas most bands can’t even stand each other for five.
gigs while Gelso recovered. But through all of their many Plus we’ve got a loyal fan base that still wants to see
troubles Jackson, Hanemann, and Gelso stuck together. Zebra, so why stop now?”
“We never took any bumps in the road too seriously,” Why indeed?
25
FEATURE EYEWITNESS DATELINE: 1981
THE MAKING OF
‘EARTHSHAKER’
26
00
After two unsuccessful albums on London Records,
Bay Area rockers Yesterday And Today found
themselves without a deal and out in the wilderness.
But a new contract with A&M and a rebranding as
Y&T re-energised the group, leading to the recording
of their finest long player, 1981’s ‘Earthshaker’.
Frontman and guitarist Dave Meniketti tells Howard
Johnson how it all happened…
Photo: IconicPix/George Bodnar Archive
The Y&T line-up that recorded 1981’s seminal ‘Earthshaker’ album. L-R: Dave Meniketti (lead
vocals and guitar), Phil Kennemore (bass), Leonard Haze (drums), Joey Alves (guitar)
27
ORIGINALLY cover tunes.’ We

KNOWN AS even did a couple
YESTERDAY demos with those
And Today, the kind of leanings,
band formed but to be honest
in Oakland, I just hated it. It
California in 1972. wasn’t where my
But it wasn’t until heart lay. I was
January of ’74 just going along
that the line-up with it because I
settled down with was so frustrated
Dave Meniketti at not getting a
on vocals and deal. Bizarrely,
guitar, Leonard Gene Simmons
Haze on drums, of Kiss got in
Phil Kennemore touch with us at
on bass, and Joey that time, told us
Alves on guitar. that he’d heard
After signing one of our demos
with London and wanted to
Records, the produce us. But
band recorded he also said, ‘I
two albums for think you guys
the label – 1976’s shouldn’t be
‘Yesterday And called Yesterday
Today’ and 1978’s And Today, and
‘Struck Down’ you should be
– but neither doing more new
release gained wave music.’ I
any commercial immediately said,
traction. ‘Thanks for the
“We were in the Dave Meniketti: “We felt we were getting better at our craft.”
offer, but we’re
middle of mixing going to have to
‘Struck Down’ pass.’ I’m sorry,
when our manager said to us, ‘Look. London Records is but that wasn’t what I wanted to do.”
going to go in a different direction. They’re not focusing
on rock bands anymore’,” says Meniketti. “We thought, SO HOW DID YOU EVENTUALLY BAG YOUR DEAL
‘Oh, great. Our album isn’t even finished and already it’s WITH A&M?
dead in the water.’ “The great thing about having a good following in
Having been dumped by London, and finding Southern California was that the places we played and
themselves without a record deal, Yesterday And Today did well in were the places where record company people
were forced to rely on their strong local following and would go to check out what was going on. Anybody who
live gigs to keep the band solvent. was hanging at the Starwood saw that we were selling
“Between 1978 and 1980 we were constantly playing out two shows a night, three nights running, without a
shows, constantly writing new tunes,” says Meniketti. “We record deal. We really thought that would be enough to
were down at our rehearsal room seven days a week, convince a major label A&R person, but we played gig
12 hours a day, constantly jamming and writing new after gig and still nothing happened. There would always
material. We felt we were coming up with great stuff, be talk that someone from Atlantic was coming down,
but we remained unsigned, which was very frustrating. or someone from Epic, but half the time they didn’t even
Even so, we could still go down to Los Angeles and sell show up. And then when they actually did see us, they
out shows at clubs like the Starwood. And that gave us still decided to pass. That went on for months going into
the financial means to keep the band going, as well as years, and it was very, very frustrating. In the end we
the belief that there were enough people out there who got our lucky break from a really unlikely source. A lot
liked what we were doing to get another major deal. And of local musicians appreciated what we were doing, and
above all, we felt we were getting better at our craft…” there was one guy who was a drummer who became
friendly with our drummer Leonard [Haze]. Now this guy
DAVE, WHAT WAS THE STATE OF MIND OF THE BAND was also frustrated by the fact that the band he loved
IN 1980 JUST PRIOR TO SIGNING WITH A&M? couldn’t get a deal, and it just so happened that his
“Most of the time we felt confident that we were going brother was employed as a songwriter at A&M Records.
to get where we wanted to go with the music we wanted This guy started badgering his brother about us and
to make, but I can’t deny that it wasn’t always easy to eventually he came out to see us at our rehearsal place.
stick to our principles. There were times when someone His name was David Sieff and he thought we had some
in the band would say, ‘New wave music is all the rage. good stuff, so he started working with us a little bit. He
Maybe we should incorporate a little bit of that into our also said that he wanted to get his buddy who worked in
music to help us get a deal. Maybe we should do some A&R at A&M to come down, which eventually happened.”
28
AND HOW DID THAT WORK OUT? then again some of it we rejected outright. At the end of
“Well that guy turned out to be Bob Shulman, but we the day, though, we were OK with the whole thing. We
had quite a bit of work to do to convince him that we were friendly enough with the guys, but it’s fair to say
were worthwhile, because although Bob was a nice that sometimes after they’d left the studio we’d kind
guy with the best of of look at each other a
intentions, he was pretty little nonplussed.”
square. We got there in
the end, though…” DID YOU WORRY THAT
HAVING TWO PEOPLE
WAS IT A QUESTION FROM THE RECORD
OF THERE BEING NO COMPANY INVOLVED IN
OTHER TAKERS, SO THE CREATIVE PROCESS
SIGNING WITH A&M MIGHT BE A CONFLICT
WAS AN EASY DECISION OF INTERESTS, OR DID
FOR YOU? YOU THINK IT WOULD
“It’s true that we were MAKE THE LABEL
having a hell of a MORE COMMITTED TO
time getting anybody THE PROJECT?
interested, so that “Oh, I’d say we thought
naturally focused our it would help. We were
attention on A&M. But writing what we wanted
even so, we were a little to write, and they were
apprehensive. There helping us to fine tune
weren’t exactly a lot of things, rather than
hard rock acts on the saying, ‘Hey, you ought
label and that was a to do something like
concern, for sure. But this.’ They never came
we also reasoned that up with suggestions for
if there was really only songs or anything like
us at the label playing that, or even had much
that type of music, to do with melody. It was
then maybe they’d more about lyrics and
concentrate on us a bit helping us arrange the
more. In the end we songs, tightening up the
decided to take what was playing, tightening up the
on offer from A&M and bass and drums and our
run with it, hoping that working together. It was
everything would work Phil Kennemore (left) and Dave Meniketti: “Phil was fine tuning really.”
out fine.” my best friend. We stuck to each other like glue.”
WAS THE BASIC
ONCE YOU’D SIGNED MATERIAL ALL
TO THE LABEL YOU
“BY THIS TIME WE CERTAINLY KNEW WHAT WE WRITTEN BEFORE YOU
STARTED WORKING WERE, A HARD ROCK BAND THAT DID BALLADS. STARTED WORKING
CLOSELY WITH DAVID LEONARD AND JOEY WEREN’T REALLY BALLAD WITH BOB SHULMAN
SIEFF AND BOB AND DAVID SIEFF?
SHULMAN, DIDN’T YOU? GUYS. THEY WERE MORE STRAIGHT-AHEAD “Because it took us two
“Yes, we definitely ROCKERS. BUT PHIL AND I BROUGHT THAT OTHER years to get another
became their pet project. SENSIBILITY TO THE BAND, THAT MELODIC THING.” deal after we lost the
Bob Shulman really contract with London, we
wanted to make it work were constantly writing,
because his ass was on the line, quite frankly. Each year so we thought we had more than enough material. But
the record companies reviewed their A&R guys and all the same, we continued to write until literally two
looked at the acts they’d signed and how well those days before we went into the recording studio. I can
Photos: IconicPix/George Chin; IconicPix/David Plastik
artists had done and so on and so forth. And of course remember being in pre-production one day and Bob
that made a difference as to whether or not the A&R and David were sitting on the couch. One of them said,
guys kept their job. Bob and David sat in the rehearsal ‘Do you guys have any other ideas, anything at all that
studio with us on and off over a couple of months. They you haven’t shown us?’ Well I thought for a second and
got involved with the songs, changing a few lyrics here said ‘Yes. There’s a song we used to have that I think was
and there, and helped out with arrangements. But Bob called ‘Backward Step’. I kind of rewrote it and we tried
wasn’t a songwriter per se or a musician, so he was it one day in the rehearsal studio, but everybody kind
coming at things from a slightly different angle.” of looked at each other. Nobody gave any indication
that they liked it, so we didn’t take it any further, even
WAS THERE ANY RESISTANCE WITHIN THE BAND though I always thought it was good.’ I said to the guys
TO THIS INTRODUCTION OF OUTSIDERS INTO THE in the band that we should play it for Bob and David. I
CREATIVE PROCESS? sang some bullsh*t words and about two thirds of the
“There was no question that we felt like our camp had way through the song I think all of us had the exact
been invaded. But at the same time we also appreciated same feeling. We looked at each other and were all
some of the guys’ input. Some of it was very good, but thinking, ‘This is really good.’ We ended the song and
29
both David and Bob literally jumped off the couch and about to do, both in terms of performance and in terms
said, ‘Oh my God, why didn’t you show us this before? of recording.”
Let’s sit down right now and finish it off.’ And that song
was ‘Rescue Me’.” WERE YOU AWARE THAT YOU WERE GOING AGAINST
THE GRAIN A LITTLE BIT AS YOUR BAND’S SOUND
BESIDES DOING PRE-PRODUCTION, DID YOU RECORD WAS MUCH HARDER THAN THE MAJORITY OF ROCK
ANY DEMOS FOR THE ALBUM? ACTS THAT YOU WERE HEARING ON US RADIO AT THE
“I don’t remember exactly how many demos we did, but TIME, THE JOURNEYS AND REOS OF THIS WORLD?
I know that we did at least one, if not two. I know that “Our view was that A&M knew exactly what kind of
Bob Shulman was going back to the other staff at A&M band we were when they decided to sign us. They knew
with demos, playing the songs for people and trying what the songs were long before we got to the point
to convince them that this was a worthy project that of recording an album. What I do think was perhaps
everybody at the label should get behind.” different was the fact that we went into The Automatt
with the specific intention of being very professional
WAS THERE EVER ANY TALK ABOUT BRINGING A in the studio. We knew that we didn’t simply want to
RECOGNISED PRODUCER IN TO RECORD THE ALBUM replicate our live performances where everything was
RATHER THAN THE TWO GUYS FROM A&M, WHO kicked up 25 per cent in tempo and delivered at a million
CERTAINLY WEREN’T BIG PRODUCTION NAMES? miles an hour. We wanted to be more considered, and
“You’re not kidding! We certainly talked about bringing Bob and David certainly wanted better performances out
somebody in, but as far as I recall Bob and Dave really of us that would de facto be that bit more radio friendly.”
wanted to do it. Did they try to get us some bigger name
producers and fail? Or was it always their intention to DID THE RECORDING PROCESS RUN SMOOTHLY?
produce us themselves? I’m not sure. It may have been “In the main it did, but there were certainly times when
part of the deal of us signing with A&M that Bob and we didn’t see eye to eye with Bob and David. There
Dave would produce the first album. That sounds familiar would be moments when, for example, we couldn’t agree
to me, actually, so that’s probably how it went down.” on what the right guitar sound should be for a song.
Sometimes they would
AND DID THAT PROSPECT “‘RESCUE ME’ HAS BEEN A HUGE SONG FOR suggest ideas that we
MAKE YOU NERVOUS? felt were kind of outside
“Absolutely, yes. I knew US ALL OVER THE WORLD. IT STILL GETS the bounds of where we
that David Sieff was a PLAYED ON LOCAL RADIO ALMOST EVERY wanted the band to be
musician and was very situated. But it wasn’t as
DAY IN THE BAY AREA.”
creative, so I believed that simple as more or less
side of things would be commercial. It was more
covered. But I was worried about the actual recording, nuanced than that. So there were some fights along the
and what kind of engineer they were going to bring way, and interestingly enough what happened was that
in. We hadn’t had good producers on our two London the engineer on the album, a guy called Gary Lubow,
albums, so that made me nervous. But we’d done a lot tended to side with the band on a lot of issues. We were
of demos when we were trying to get a new deal, not happy about that, of course, but I can understand that
to mention the demos we did with David and Bob, so it was a no-no from a producer’s point of view. Bob and
I thought that as long as we had a top engineer we’d Dave felt that they were losing a little bit of control over
probably be OK.” the situation, and they were p*ssed off about that, so
they fired the engineer about a month into the project.
YOU DECIDED TO RECORD AT THE AUTOMATT STUDIO They brought in another guy, Gary Ladinsky, who
IN SAN FRANCISCO? WAS IT SOMEWHERE YOU WERE fortunately was a total pro, and he finished the record.”
FAMILIAR WITH?
“The Automatt was actually the old CBS studios in San DO YOU HAVE ANY RECOLLECTIONS OF ANY SONGS
Francisco; they just changed the name. We’d done quite THAT WERE PARTICULARLY DIFFICULT TO NAIL AT
a few demos there over the years, so yes, we were very THE AUTOMATT?
familiar with the place. It was a well-known studio. All “Not really. We’d been playing the songs live for quite
kinds of huge acts would make records there; jazz guys, a while, so we were pretty well drilled. I do remember
R&B artists…” that we paid a lot of attention to ‘Rescue Me’, because
everyone thought it was a standout song. But no,
BY THE TIME YOU STARTED THE RECORDING everything went pretty smoothly.”
PROCESS DID YOU KNOW EXACTLY WHAT KIND OF
ALBUM YOU WERE GOING TO MAKE? THE SONG ‘SQUEEZE’ IS AN INTERESTING ONE
“Yes. By this time we certainly knew what we were, BECAUSE IT’S SO HARD AND FAST. IN MANY WAYS
Photo: IconicPix/David Plastik
a hard rock band that did ballads. Leonard and Joey IT SOUNDS LIKE A SONG THAT SURELY MUST HAVE
weren’t really ballad guys. They were more straight- INFLUENCED THE THRASH SCENE THAT EMERGED ON
ahead rockers. But Phil and I brought that other THE US WEST COAST AROUND THE TIME YOU WERE
sensibility to the band, that melodic thing. So we knew RECORDING ‘EARTHSHAKER’…
the sound of the band. What we were really focusing “That song certainly showed off our crazy side, and
on was trying to make sure that the fact that we were that was a side that we loved. We really did enjoy both
better musicians than we’d been when we recorded sides of the band, the hard and fast stuff, and the
the previous albums was reflected in the work we were big emotional ballads. There was a lot of passion in
30
31
both of those elements of our music. But I never heard weren’t there to make ourselves great. We were there to
that ‘Squeeze’ specifically influenced the thrash bands. make the band and the songs great.”
A lot of those thrash guys have told me that we as a
band were an influence on them in their early days, but WERE THERE ANY PARTICULAR ISSUES DURING THE
not that song specifically. What I do remember, though, MIXING PROCESS?
is that [famous jazz fusion drummer] Narada Michael “I do remember that the mixing engineer, Harvey
Walden was recording at The Automatt at the same time Goldberg, was a little perplexed by some of the drum
as us. We’d talked to him a few times when we were sounds we had. He felt they needed to have more life
having lunch. One day the doors to Studio A, where we about them. Now the main room at the New York studio
were recording, were open and they were playing back was really large; I think it might have been a church
‘Squeeze’ because we were still working on the track. at one time. So Harvey put the drums tracks through
Narada heard the song and asked if it was us. When we two big speakers in the big room and then mic-ed the
told him that it was, he said, ‘Oh my God. I love that. speakers both close and far away, and he used the sound
There’s so much passion and energy!’ He was really he got there as almost like a slap-back reverb or echo
freaking out about Leonard’s drumming, and I didn’t thing. We trusted Harvey to know what he was talking
expect that from him. But I was genuinely pleased when about, and it really did make the drums sound big. You
he said that!” can definitely hear it on ‘Dirty Girl’.”
HOW LONG WERE YOU WORKING AT THE AUTOMATT ‘EARTHSHAKER’ WAS RELEASED IN JUNE OF 1981
ON ‘EARTHSHAKER’? AND WAS CRITICALLY LAUDED, CERTAINLY IN THE
“I’d say six weeks, maybe two months. And at the end of UK. BUT IT DIDN’T PROVE TO BE A BREAKTHROUGH
the process we were really jazzed about the whole thing. RECORD FOR Y&T IN THE US…
I think all of us felt that we’d done something we were “That’s true. We didn’t really have mainstream success
going to be proud of.” in America until the ‘In Rock We Trust’ album in 1984.
But ‘Earthshaker’ did have ‘Rescue Me’, which has

YOU MIXED IN NEW YORK ON THE EAST COAST… been a huge song for us all over the world. It still gets
“We did. Phil and I flew East for that, and I think Joey and played on local radio almost every day in the Bay Area.
Leonard were a little p*ssed that they didn’t get to be What ‘Earthshaker’ did was get the Y&T name known
part of that process. But mixing gets messy when there outside of the US. In those days it was really hard to get
are too many people involved, and Phil and I were really information, of course, but when we flew to Europe to
working for the good of the band. We weren’t there to play some shows in support of ‘Earthshaker’, there were
say, ‘Turn me up louder and turn the other guy down.’ We people turning up to the gigs with Y&T patches on their
32
denim jackets. We had no idea! The excitement shown by with me, but because from the very beginning we stuck
journalists who were interviewing us over there was very to each other like glue. We both loved the same type of
noticeable too. You could tell that people were genuinely music, and we would talk about music all the time. We
impressed by what we’d done, which felt very different to really lived it 24/7. But more than that, as the years went
on, we realised how important our friendship was when
the reaction in the States. So to us it was obvious that it
wasn’t necessarily that US rock fans didn’t like our stylewe were working in such a crazy business, what with
of music. It was just that they didn’t really know who we egos, drug problems, and all these kinds of things that
were, and in our view that was down to A&M, who didn’t we would experience later. Leonard passed in 2016, and
Joey was the last to go in 2017. That was when it really
really get behind ‘Earthshaker’ all that much in the States.”
hit me. Even though neither Joey nor Leonard had been
HOW DO YOU LOOK BACK ON ‘EARTHSHAKER’ NOW in Y&T for decades, it was still a very, very strange feeling.
OVER 40 YEARS LATER AND WITH THE BENEFIT OF They were guys I grew up with, we had interactions and
HINDSIGHT? experiences with
“I was proud of the each other that
album at the time, “THERE ARE TIMES WHEN I’M PLAYING SONGS FROM only we would ever
and I’m still proud ‘EARTHSHAKER’ LIVE, AND RIGHT WHEN I’M THERE IN THE understand. Now
of it now. I have to MOMENT ON STAGE I’LL THINK BACK TO THE TIMES WHEN I that there’s just me
admit, though, that I I don’t have another
hate my vocals on it. WAS PERFORMING THOSE SONGS WITH LEONARD AND PHIL person to whom I
My voice today is a AND JOEY – AND IT GIVES ME A REALLY GOOD FEELING.” can say, ‘Remember
million times better the time when this
than it was back happened?’ There’s
then, so the vocals do make me cringe. I don’t think I not one other person I could relate that to. Starting
sucked, but I do fantasise about transporting myself back out from scratch, and becoming professional musicians
to 1981 and blowing everyone away. But it’s OK, it’s not together, and finally making an impact in the industry
a big deal. I think we could have had better production, are important times in a person’s life. You share all that
but all the same ‘Earthshaker’ does bring back lots of and then all of a sudden those people simply aren’t there
great memories whenever I hear it.” anymore. It’s a very strange feeling.”
ISN’T IT A LITTLE BITTERSWEET LOOKING BACK ON THAT MUST BE DIFFICULT…

THE ALBUM, THOUGH, GIVEN THAT ALL THREE OF “It is. But what I cherish are the wonderful memories
YOUR BANDMATES FROM THAT TIME ARE SADLY NO that I’ll keep forever, of course. Even now there are times
LONGER WITH US? when I’m playing songs from ‘Earthshaker’ live, and right
“Oh, absolutely. It’s actually quite difficult to talk about when I’m there in the moment on stage I’ll think back
losing a friend and a band member, and what that feeling to the times when I was performing those songs with
is really like. The first person to pass was Phil [in 2011] and Leonard and Phil and Joey – and it gives me a good
Phil was my best friend. Not because he was in a band feeling, a really good feeling.”
Y&T – ‘EARTHSHAKER’ Released: 30 June 1981
LINE UP:
Dave Meniketti – electric guitar, lead vocals (except
on ‘Squeeze’)
Joey Alves – electric and acoustic guitars, backing
vocals
Phil Kennemore – bass guitar, backing vocals and lead
vocals on ‘Squeeze’
Leonard Haze – drums, backing vocals
Produced by Bob Shulman and David Sieff

Recorded at The Automatt, San Francisco
Mixed by Harvey Goldberg and Gregg Mann
at Mediasound, New York
TRACK LISTING
Hungry For Rock (Joey Alves, Dave Meniketti, Phil
Kennemore, Leonard Haze, David Sieff, Bob Shulman)
Dirty Girl (Dave Meniketti, Phil Kennemore, Joey Alves,
Leonard Haze, David Sieff, Bob Shulman)
Shake It Loose (Dave Meniketti, Joey Alves, Phil
Kennemore, Leonard Haze, David Sieff, Bob Shulman)
Squeeze (Dave Meniketti, Phil Kennemore, Leonard
Haze)
Rescue Me (Phil Kennemore, Joey Alves, Dave
Meniketti, Leonard Haze, David Sieff, Bob Shulman)
Young And Tough (Dave Meniketti, Phil Kennemore,
Joey Alves, Leonard Haze, David Sieff, Bob Shulman)
Hurricane (Joey Alves, Dave Meniketti)
Let Me Go (Dave Meniketti, Joey Alves, Phil Ken-
nemore, David Sieff, Bob Shulman)
Knock You Out (Dave Meniketti, Phil Kennemore, Joey
Alves, Leonard Haze)
I Believe In You (Dave Meniketti)
33
FEATURE OVERLOOKED
The King Kobra line-up that recorded the first two albums. L-R: Carmine Appice (drums),
Mark Free (vocals), Johnny Rod (bass), David Michael-Phillips (guitar), Mick Sweda (guitar)
34
SNAKES
ALIVE!
Carmine Appice
has had bigger
commercial successes
during his long career,
but hard rock band
King Kobra has
Photo: IconicPix/Ray Palmer Archive
always remained his

pet project. Dave
Reynolds talks to the
legendary drummer
about his lifelong
passion for the group…
35
FEATURE OVERLOOKED
“THE LOVE OF MY life – my ultimate hobby – is playing Stanley on the Kiss guitarist and vocalist’s 1978 solo
drums and creating music.” album. So Miller knew all about the commercial power of
Carmine Appice sounds like a man who has nothing hard rock attached to a powerful image. He and Appice
to prove. But if you had a CV like his, then doubtless came up with the concept of King Kobra.
you’d sound the same way. The 76-year-old New Yorker “I’d met a singer from Indiana called Mark Free even
can justifiably lay claim to being to being not only one before I’d joined Ozzy, and I had half an idea to do a solo
of rock’s greatest drummers, but also one of its most record as a side project while I was still with Ozzy. Mark
colourful characters. His 2016 autobiography Stick It!: was going to be the singer.”
My Life of Sex, Emerging LA hair
Drums, And Rock metal band Mötley
’N’ Roll doesn’t pull Crüe had been
any punches and opening shows
leaves nothing to on the Ozzy tour,
the imagination and Carmine took
regarding the more inspiration for his
carnal side of the group from this
rocker lifestyle in new, highly image-
the genre’s wildest conscious act.
era. But his musical “Mötley had three
contribution is what guys with black hair
really matters. and a lead singer
Appice’s first with blond hair,”
serious band, the Carmine explains.
Long Island act “By this point the
Vanilla Fudge “CAPITOL DIDN’T GET US THE AIRPLAY WE NEEDED ON ’80s had become a
that he joined in lot about image, so
THE FIRST ALBUM. YOU REALLY NEEDED TO BE ON THE
December of 1966, I decided I’d be the
can rightly lay claim RADIO BACK THEN TO ANY KIND OF VIBE GOING. ‘READY black-haired guy
to being one of the TO STRIKE’ SOLD AROUND 150,000, WHICH IN THOSE and the other band
founding fathers members would
DAYS WAS NOTHING.”
of heavy metal be blond.”
music thanks to Guitarist Ron
their innovative slow and grinding style. His subsequent Mancuso, who would eventually gain some recognition
work in hard rock act Cactus and supergroup power trio with the band Beggars & Thieves, had worked with
Beck, Bogert & Appice helped define the genre while Carmine in the early ’80s on a Vanilla Fudge album,
also establishing Carmine’s reputation in the ’70s as a ‘Mystery’, that would eventually appear on the Atco label
drummer of real poise and power. in 1984. He’d introduced Appice to Free.
In what might be considered a musical left turn, “In 1984, Mark and I started looking for guitarists,”
Carmine signed up with Rod Stewart’s band in 1976, says Carmine. “We found a guy called Mike Wolfe
but commercially it was a masterstroke. His first album and started messing around on songs with a four-
with Rod, 1977’s ‘Foot Loose & Fancy Free’ went triple track tape machine I had at my place in [Los Angeles
platinum on the back of the US Top Five hit ‘You’re In My neighbourhood] Sherman Oaks. I put an ad in a local
Heart’. Then, on 1978 follow-up release ‘Blondes Have music paper looking for blond guitar players and found
More Fun’, Carmine bagged a co-write on the US number David Michael-Philips.”
one single ‘Da Ya Think I’m Sexy?’ before getting another Michael-Philips, whose real name was David
credit on the Top Five hit ‘Young Turks’ from Rod’s 1981 Henzerling, was a former member of a Phoenix-based
album ‘Tonight I’m Yours’. Such huge successes surely act called The Schoolboys that would later become Icon.
put Carmine on the most comfortable of footings, After moving to Los Angeles, he had a brief stint in Keel.
leaving him free to follow his passion for playing drums Bassist Johnny Rod (John Tumminello) was found via
wherever it took him. another ad, and when Mike Wolfe didn’t work out – “I
forget exactly why now” – Mick Sweda (Mick Swedasky)
AFTER LEAVING Rod to his commercial soft rock in from LA metal band Stormtrooper came on board.
1982, the following year Carmine took up an offer from “Mick was working in [famous record store] Tower
manager Sharon Osbourne to return to his harder roots Records,” Carmine remembers. “He came in for an
and join her partner and client Ozzy Osbourne’s touring audition, but he had brown hair. We told him that he’d
band just prior to the release of the Double O’s third have to dye his hair blond, and he was down with that.”
studio album ‘Bark At The Moon’. That didn’t last long,
however. In late February of 1984, Sharon fired Carmine IMMEDIATELY THE vibe in what was now named King
mid-tour. Kobra felt good.
“She told me she’d decided my name was too big for “Mark, David, and Mick were all easy-going guys,” says
me to be in Ozzy’s band, and that I needed to start my Carmine. “And Mark had an amazing voice. Johnny was
own full-time group. It wasn’t something I was thinking the wild guy, a real high-energy maniac. But we all liked
about at the time. I just wanted to play with Ozzy.” that because every band needs a wild card.”
Carmine’s manager, Alan Miller, had previously worked Everybody understood what the purpose of the band
with Kiss and had facilitated Carmine working with Paul was, “to be a modern heavy metal band that played
36
great. There were a lot of ’80s heavy metal bands that company really didn’t do anything with the record.
couldn’t play, and that sucked. We had really great “I love Spencer Proffer,” Carmine continues. “But he
musicians in King Kobra!” did a lot strange sh*t with that first album. He brought
By the time the band started coming together, Carmine in a couple of songs [‘Hunger’ and ‘Piece Of The Rock’]
had already been working with producer Spencer Proffer that he’d written with a Canadian band he’d worked
at his Pasha studio in Hollywood, initially helping Proffer with and had under contract called Kick Axe. We didn’t
to create a place that was perfect for recording drums. need to do ‘Hunger’, and it certainly didn’t need to be
Proffer would end up recording Quiet Riot’s hugely the first single either. What was wrong with ‘Ready To
successful 1983 album ‘Metal Health’ there. Appice Strike’ or ‘Shadow Rider’? But we filmed a video for that
had recorded a song on an amazing

solo album, 1981’s “KING KOBRA HAD GREAT MUSICIANSHIP, A GREAT LOOK, stage set that cost
‘Carmine Appice’, AND GREAT SONGS. WE HAD A FOLLOWING, us $20,000 and
at Pasha and signed we didn’t even get
BUT WE NEVER GOT THAT ARENA THING GOING
a production deal to use the set live
with Proffer for ON AS HEADLINERS.” because ‘Hunger’
King Kobra. Both didn’t get enough
Proffer and Carmine’s manager Alan Miller had strong airplay to make the song a smash. We went out on tour
links with Capitol Records, and Proffer had some credit with Autograph, who’d only had one hit [‘Turn Up The
in the bank with them after his success with Quiet Riot. A Radio’]. We didn’t get to tour with a really big act, so we
deal was struck with A&R man Ray Tusken, who up until couldn’t use our stage set.
recently had been successfully working in Capitol’s radio “Capitol just didn’t get us the airplay that we needed,”
promotions department. sighs Appice. “You really needed to be on the radio back
The debut King Kobra album, ‘Ready To Strike’, then to get any kind of vibe going. ‘Hunger’ didn’t do
produced by Spencer Proffer at Pasha, was released in anything at radio and only got onto medium rotation
early 1985. It was packaged in an eye-catching snakeskin- on MTV. The album sold around 150,000, which in those
design sleeve, coloured in the band’s distinctive red, days was nothing.”
black, and gold livery. The quintet’s outfits matched the
album cover, and each member added streaks to their UNDETERRED, KING Kobra began preparing a second
hair. King Kobra hit the road in support of the album. album, ‘Thrill Of A Lifetime’.
“I had learnt from touring with Ted Nugent that it was “And I got my buddy Duane Hitchings [who’d worked
more cost effective to have your own transportation than with Carmine in both Cactus and in Rod Stewart’s
to have to hire it,” explains Carmine. “So we went out and band] involved. Duane had written a bunch of hits with
bought a motor home, a van, and a truck to tour with. Rod including ‘Young Turks’, and had already got a
The whole thing was very well planned, but the record song called ‘Iron Eagle (Never Say Die)’ placed in a
37
FEATURE OVERLOOKED
movie of the and great
same name. He songs,” claims
needed a band Carmine. “We
to record it, so had successes
King Kobra did here and there,
it. I think we as and we were
a band wrote the first band to
some really cool merge rock with
songs for the rap on ‘Home
second album, Street Home’.
especially the I’m pretty sure
title track. The it was before
idea was that the Aerosmith
first side of the and Run DMC
vinyl would be collaborated
full of potential on ‘Walk This
singles, while the Way’. We had a
flip side had all following, but
the rockers like we never got
‘Party Animal’ that arena thing
and ‘Raise Your going on as
Hands To Rock’.” headliners. We
Released in did open up for
1986, ‘Thrill Of Kiss [on their
A Lifetime’, was ‘Asylum’ tour in
a very different ’86] and Paul
beast to ‘Ready and Gene did
To Strike’, and me a favour
the proto rap there. That was a
metal song great tour.
‘Home Street “We gave the
Home’ certainly label an album
raised eyebrows. full of singles
“We had songs on ‘Thrill Of A
on that album Lifetime’, but
that were more again, they didn’t
like King Kobra, do anything with
but the label the record. And
insisted on us once it was over
providing them with Capitol,
with singles,” Mark Free
admits Carmine. decided that
“Capitol were he wanted to
beginning to leave the band.
have massive He didn’t want
success with to play heavy
Heart and Tina metal anymore,
Turner, so it was and was more
a case of give interested in
them what they doing softer
wanted or get hard rock.”
another deal. In At the same
retrospect, maybe we should’ve done the latter.” time, Johnny Rod also left King Kobra to join W.A.S.P.
Despite the publicity that surrounded the band’s Free would go on to record classics of the AOR/
association with the Iron Eagle movie, ‘Thrill Of A melodic rock genre with both Signal and Unruly Child.
Photo: IconicPix/Ray Palmer Archive
Lifetime’ ultimately bombed. Now going by the name of Marcie Free, she chose to
“Ray Tusken went from A&R back to radio promotion identify as a woman in 1993 and underwent gender
at Capitol, but it didn’t help us because by then we were reassignment treatment, returning to the music business
no longer on the label,” explains Carmine. “And Ray in 2009 and recording with Unruly Child ever since.
ended up being instrumental in breaking Poison. That “I was blown away when Mark changed gender,”
really bummed me out, I can tell you!” Carmine says. “I couldn’t believe it because it wasn’t
It doesn’t seem too much of a stretch to suggest that something we noticed when he was in King Kobra. After
King Kobra could, and maybe should, have been as big the band broke up and Mark went on to do other things,
as Poison… I ran into a friend of mine who told me that Mark was
“King Kobra had great musicianship, a great look, now a woman. Later on I spoke with Mark, who was now
38
Marcie. I was fine with it, and we remained friends. But Page bassist Tony Franklin in Blue Murder in 1987, and it
somewhere along the way, Marcie got p*ssed off with would be well over a decade before he again opted to
me. I don’t know why, though I think it was because I revive the King Kobra brand in 2001 with the ‘Hollywood
wanted to release a great live recording of the original Trash’ album. The band now included former Baton
King Kobra. It sounded amazing and we were kicking Rouge, MSG, and John Norum vocalist Kelly Keeling.
ass, but Marcie told me she’d sue me if I released it. So I “Kelly is a multi-instrumentalist and played most of the
didn’t release it, but my intention was only ever to add to stuff on ‘Hollywood Trash’,” recalls Carmine. “But I think
the band’s legacy.” the album didn’t sound much like King Kobra and there
wasn’t much promotion behind it.”
BY LATE 1986, Carmine had put a new King Kobra line-
up together, with one-time Ratt guitarist Marq Torien TEN YEARS later, King Kobra returned once more. This
replacing Free on vocals, and Loni Black (aka Lonnie time the band featured former Rough Cutt and Quiet
Vencent) coming in on bass. Despite recording some Riot vocalist Paul Shortino alongside Appice, David
album-quality demos, this version of the band was short- Michael-Philips, Mick Sweda, and Johnny Rod on an
lived. Torien and Black soon jumped ship, taking Mick eponymous album released through the Frontiers label.
Sweda with them to form BulletBoys. They also took “Frontiers called me about doing another King Kobra
some of this revised record,” explains
line-up’s best songs Carmine. “The
with them, including idea was to get
‘Kissin’ Kitty’ that the original line-
would feature up involved, so I
on BulletBoys’ called Marcie, but
eponymous debut she didn’t want to
album that was do it. Everyone else
issued by Warner was interested, but
Bros. in 1988. because Mick’s so
For his part, busy with other
Carmine Appice things he didn’t do
went back to the much recording
drawing board. with us. I gave Paul
Working with David Shortino a call and
Michael-Phillips, he said he’d love
he put a new band to do it, and we
together to record ended up recording
‘King Kobra III’, at Paul’s studio in
recruiting former Las Vegas. We put
Buster Brown and a really killer album
Montrose frontman together simply
Johnny Edwards, called ‘King Kobra’.
erstwhile Billy We did another
Thorpe guitarist great record for
Jeff Northrup, and Frontiers in 2013
bassist Larry Hart. called ‘II’ and then
This trio of musicians in 2016 we were
had been playing in asked to play [the
Northern California prestigious] Sweden
as Northrup. Rock festival. Mick
“WHAT WE’RE DOING IS KEEPING THE KING KOBRA
‘King Kobra III’ didn’t want to do
appeared in 1988 LEGACY ALIVE, AND THAT TO ME IS IMPORTANT.” it, so we picked up
on Carmine’s own Jordan Ziff [who was
Rocker imprint via Hellion vocalist Ann Boleyn’s New previously with Arizona-based thrash outfit Age Of Evil
Renaissance label, though it had originally been intended and is now in Ratt] and played some warm-up shows.
for release through Kiss bassist Gene Simmons’s own By the time we got to Sweden we were really kicking
boutique label. ass. We recorded the show, mixed it, and released it as
“I’ve been friends with the Kiss guys from way back in ‘Sweden Rock Live’ in 2018.”
1975 when I was playing with [Mountain guitarist] Leslie Despite having had more commercial success with
West and we opened for them on an arena tour,” says other acts, King Kobra has always been Carmine Appice’s
Carmine. “But for some reason the deal with Gene’s label pet project, and he’s still excited about the band today.
didn’t happen. We got a little airplay for ‘King Kobra “I have a studio in my house now, and can engineer my
III’, the video for ‘Take It Off’ got on MTV, and we sold own stuff,” he says. “When Mick and David didn’t want to
20,000 copies, which wasn’t too bad for an independent make a new King Kobra record I asked Paul and Johnny if
release. But New Renaissance had no real oomph as a they were up for it, and they were very keen. So we went
label, so the band fell apart. I still maintain that ‘King out and got [former Quiet Riot man] Carlos Cavazo on
Kobra III’ was a great album, and Johnny Edwards is a guitar and have recorded a great new album together
top singer. I wasn’t at all surprised when he went on to that will come out in August. I really do think it sounds
join Foreigner.” amazing. I know we’re not going to make any money,
Carmine hooked up with former Thin Lizzy and but that’s not the point. What we’re doing is keeping the
Whitesnake guitarist John Sykes and one-time Jimmy King Kobra legacy alive, and that to me is important.”
39
FEATURE THE ROCK CANDY Q&A
KENNEY JONES
THE LEGENDARY SMALL FACES, FACES, AND WHO DRUMMER ON RECORDING DRUNK OR
HUNGOVER, NOT SEEING EYE TO EYE WITH ROGER DALTREY, AND FINALLY SLOWING DOWN…
40
WHAT FIRST SPARKED YOUR INTEREST IN working. Ronnie heard us jamming and said, ‘I’m looking
to do something different. Would you be interested in
THE DRUMS? me playing guitar with you?’ Eventually the idea of Rod
“There would be these Catholic processions going up joining as well was floated, but we had concerns about
and down the road where I grew up in London’s East another singer coming along and f*cking up the band. I
End, and I’d pretend I was playing drums in the band. I’d knew, though, that Rod could be the difference between
bop around the house banging on things, which annoyed going nowhere and going somewhere. I knew we had to
my mother no end. But my dad was a great carpenter, so get together, so that’s what we did.”
he connected some bits of this and that and made me
my first drum set.”
WHAT MEMORIES DO YOU HAVE OF THE
FACES?
CAN YOU TELL US ABOUT THE FORMATION OF “That’s a tricky question because we were all pretty much
THE SMALL FACES? blind drunk the whole time! The early days of the Faces
“It only took me a few months to get good at the drums was the most fun I’ve ever had. We’d go in the studio, try
and start playing in pubs. When I came off stage one to learn some songs, and then before you knew it we’d
night, the pub landlord said, ‘Kenney, there’s a guy here be in the pub! I think the records are great, considering
wants to talk to you.’ It was [bassist] Ronnie Lane, who we recorded either drunk or hungover, even though they
told me that he’d formed a band and was looking for a sound a bit off. We weren’t trying to innovate. We were
drummer. I joined the group and eventually we called just making music people could enjoy.”
ourselves the Small Faces.”
SO HOW DID YOU END UP JOINING THE WHO?
“The Faces had ended, and I was trying to figure out
DID YOU THINK THE SMALL FACES WAS A what to do. I started
MOD BAND? putting a band together
“The whole Mod thing “THE EARLY DAYS OF THE FACES WAS THE MOST with an American guitarist
was about fashion and FUN I’VE EVER HAD. WE’D GO IN THE STUDIO, called Glenn Jones when I
pretending to be posh. got a call from The Who’s
We’d grown up in the TRY TO LEARN SOME SONGS, AND THEN manager, Bill Curbishley.
shadow of World War II. BEFORE YOU KNEW IT WE’D BE IN THE PUB!” He told me that even
The world was black and though Keith Moon had
white and sort of sad. That died, they were carrying
inspired us to add some colour to our lives. We’d go into on and wanted me to play drums. At first I said no, but
London and see bright red outfits and sleek suits, and Bill wasn’t having it. He asked me to come and meet
we aspired to that. We had no money to start with, so we with [Who guitarist] Pete Townshend, which I did.
had to invent our own fashion, and then our style took Pete persuaded me that I’d be a fool to pass up the
off. We had no way of knowing that we’d help create opportunity, and in the end I decided he was right.”
the Mod thing, but there’s no question that we played a
massive role in all of it.”
WERE YOU WORRIED THAT YOUR DRUMMING
STYLE WAS SO DIFFERENT TO KEITH’S?
WHAT’S THE BEST WORK YOU DID WITH THE “I was. I’m a very straight-ahead player and Keith was
SMALL FACES? all over the place. There was no way I could replicate
“The ‘Ogdens’ Nut Gone Flake’ album is my favourite. In his style. I said that to Roger and Pete from the start,
fact, it’s one of my favourite albums I’ve ever been a part that I had to play how I play, or it would never work. In
of. That record was never meant to be commercial, but some ways Pete felt that Keith had been holding the
it ended up having a big influence. I can still enjoy it as a band back. I’m not sure that Roger and [bassist] John
fan today.” [Entwistle] agreed, but Pete wanted to take the music in
a different direction that he didn’t feel would have been
possible with Keith. That’s not to say that Pete would
WHY DID THE SMALL FACES END? have got rid of Keith, but I do think he felt restricted.”
Interview by Andrew Daly. Photo: IconicPix/MMMedia Archive
“[Vocalist] Steve [Marriott] had become a prima donna

and the idea that we were seen as a pop band didn’t sit
well with him. Because we were all so young, nobody
WOULD YOU SAY YOU WERE CLOSER TO PETE
handled that situation properly, but Steve didn’t tell us THAN THE REST OF THE BAND?
everything that was happening at the time. He’d already “I’d say that’s true. Roger and I didn’t always see eye to
been working on getting a new band together – Humble eye, and of course, Pete and Roger had their things. Pete
Pie – even before he quit the Small Faces.” and I got along, wrote songs together, and had great
chemistry, both musically and personally. Roger and
John were great guys, but I was definitely closer to Pete.”
SO HOW DID THAT SITUATION LEAD TO THE
FORMATION OF THE FACES? WHAT’S NEXT FOR YOU?
“Ronnie, [Small Faces keyboardist] Ian [McLagan], and “I still play here and there with my band, The Jones
I knew that we wanted to keep making music, but we Gang, but my days of large-scale touring are probably
also knew we didn’t want a situation where a frontman over. I’m working on getting the Faces back catalogue
could control our destiny the way Steve had. We were out there and I’d like to do some shows to celebrate that.
rehearsing at a place where [guitarist] Ronnie Wood and There will be more bits and pieces that will come out, but
[vocalist] Rod Stewart from Jeff Beck’s band were also I think I’m finally slowing down.”
41
FEATURE EXTREME
Extreme L-R: Kevin Figueiredo (drums), Nuno Bettencourt
(guitar), Gary Cherone (vocals), Pat Badger (bass)
RISE
Extreme have only released six albums in their
AND
38-year career, so new album ‘Six’ (what else?) is
an event worth marking. Howard Johnson talks at
length with guitarist Nuno Bettencourt – whose
solo on the song ‘Rise’ apparently broke the
Internet – and vocalist Gary Cherone about the
secrets of their success…
42
Photo: Jesse Lirola
SHINE!
43
FEATURE EXTREME
IT’S IMPOSSIBLE NOT TO compare and contrast given Extreme a cat in hell’s chance of making it out of
Extreme’s two key players, vocalist Gary Cherone and the hair metal decade, given that they were such willing
guitarist Nuno Bettencourt, when I sit down for the participants in the ill-fated funk metal movement. When
obligatory Zoom calls, one within an hour of the other. the Red Hot Chili Peppers started wanging out over-
First up it’s Gary, sitting at a kitchen table in what looks testosteroned funked-up rock and dungarees, plenty of
a very happy-go-normal set-up. The only thing that other people decided it would be a great idea to jump
gives him away as a member of a rock band is the rather on that particular bandwagon, Extreme included. The
Extreme photographed in 1989 during their more funk-o-metal days. L-R: Paul Geary
(drums), Nuno Bettencourt (guitar), Gary Cherone (vocals), Pat Badger (bass)
extravagant headband that his short hair clearly doesn’t Boston band’s second album, 1990’s ‘Pornograffitti’,
require. Nuno, on the other hand, is perched in some included ‘Get The Funk Out’, an unabashed call-out to
chromey-looking minimalist room of another house, this musical mash-up. I seem to remember Gary wearing
endless gold and platinum discs lining the walls. “Oh, the dungarees too. I have to say, I thought the copycat
those? Got ’em off eBay,” he laughs. Nuno doesn’t have a funk metal movement was appalling and ‘Get The Funk
headband, but he’s still sporting the ‘long straight locks Out’ was weak. So I was both surprised and delighted
framing the pretty face’ look that wowed a million women when Extreme revealed that they had enough diverse
back in the band’s ’80s pomp. He looks like a rock star. currency to write the undeniably lovely ‘More Than
These are clearly two very different people, and that Words’ at the same time. Nevertheless, Gary puts up a
fact only becomes more obvious over the course of two spirited defence for the funk metal genre.
hour-long chats. Gary is considered, taking his time to “We didn’t mind the label,” he says. “We wrote a song
think about his answers, and responding in measured that fell by the wayside called ‘Funky Metal Holiday’, which
tones. Nuno is much more animated and instinctive with I guess shows where we were at at that time. We definitely
his responses, all delivered in a deeper voice than you didn’t consider ourselves heavy metal, but our idea of funk
might expect from such a waif, and with a serious potty certainly wasn’t influenced by Parliament. What we were
mouth that would really shock all those mums who thinking about was bands we thought had The Funk, a
bought ‘More Than Words’ because it sounded like The groove like Aerosmith or Led Zeppelin. You hear a song
Everly Brothers back in 1991. like ‘The Crunge’ and you say, ‘that’s funky.’ People called
It’s hard to imagine two characters less likely to be us groove rock. We liked that because we thought the
sitting talking to me about another album from the label showed that girls could dance to our music.”
band they formed together fully 38 years ago. And let’s “Extreme has always meant expect the unexpected,”
be fair, there are plenty of people who wouldn’t have says Nuno, expanding on the breadth of the band’s
44
influences and adopted styles. “What’s the one thing of greatness the very first time he witnessed Nuno
that’s the same about each Extreme album? It’s that each perform as a raw 19-year-old.
one is different – and that’s not something we do on “I saw him at a club in Boston in ’85 with my drummer
purpose. People always say we’re changing styles, but I at the time, Paul Geary,” he tells me. “We were looking
say we’re not really. What changes is time. We change as for a guitarist and Nuno was playing in a band called
people, but what’s consistent is that we do whatever the Sinful in front of 150 people. He was always something of
f*ck we want to do at any particular moment. At the end a phenomenon on the local scene, but his band was more
of the day it’s kind of detrimental to a career, because metal, more influenced by what was happening in LA. I
often it’s not what the label wants you to do, and was more passionate about Aerosmith and The J. Geils
sometimes it’s not what the fans want you to do either. Band to be honest. Nuno wasn’t as dramatic a performer
But fortunately, there are back then as he is now. He
lots of Extreme fans who kind of hid away with his
love the fact that it’s always hair down like Joe Perry.
changing. I think we sound But there’s no denying
nothing like Queen, but we that even early on he was
are like Queen in that we’re special, like the bastard son
very eclectic. They ranged of Randy Rhoads and Eddie
from pure hard rock with Van Halen.”
‘Tie Your Mother Down’ According to Gary, he
to camp 1920s pastiche went backstage after the
on ‘Lazing On A Sunday gig simply to congratulate
Afternoon’, and I loved Nuno on his performance,
that. So we are who we are, figuring that he already
and while I love punching had a band.
out the riffs and playing Nuno, though,
heavy, there’s always going remembers a much more
to be a time when I sit cosmic meeting of minds.
down at the piano or pick “Gary and I were already
up my acoustic guitar. It’s in a band together. We just
just who I am.” didn’t know it,” he says.
“We’d actually already met
EXTREME’S NEW album, before that gig and just
their first in 15 years, is had a simple conversation
called ‘Six’ and it’s the about our mutual love
heavier side of their for the ‘Queen II’ album.
repertoire that the band Gary was looking for a
has chosen to highlight first “WE DEFINITELY DIDN’T CONSIDER OURSELVES guitarist and asked me,
and foremost, especially but I said no. My band
upfront single ‘Rise’ and HEAVY METAL, BUT OUR IDEA OF FUNK was recording an album,
Nuno’s blazing guitar solo CERTAINLY WASN’T INFLUENCED BY we had a manager, we
which, he tells me – quite were on the verge of
PARLIAMENT. WHAT WE WERE THINKING
rightly, it would seem – getting a record contract,
broke the Internet when ABOUT WAS BANDS WE THOUGHT HAD we had a following and
the song was first released. THE FUNK, A GROOVE LIKE AEROSMITH OR all this stuff. But I invited
No less a critic than The Gary down to a show the
LED ZEPPELIN.”
Darkness frontman Justin following week at this club
Hawkins says, “Nuno’s GARY CHERONE called Narcissus. He came
ability’s amazing. It’s never backstage afterwards and
not startling. And that’s a congratulated me. He said,
ridiculous solo. Amazing.” ‘I wish I’d never seen you play, because you were even
“When ‘Rise’ dropped I was getting texts, phone calls, better than I thought you’d be.’ And then he left.”
emails,” Nuno tells me. “From peers, from fans, from But now this is where things get cosmic…
f*cking family thanking me. But they weren’t just saying, “So I was gathering my sh*t together in the dressing
‘Oh, the track is great, and the solo is great.’ Steve room with my band, and suddenly I had this vision of
Lukather hits me up and says, ‘Dude, I think you just what I was going to say 10 seconds before I even said it.
saved rock’n’roll. I’m not f*cking kidding.’ Steve Vai said, And then these words came out of my mouth. ‘Hey guys.
‘When was the last time people got knocked off their I quit.’ The band members were dumbfounded. ‘You
seat like that?’ And to a certain extent I understand. How quit?’ I started panicking and said, ‘Yes, I gotta go.’ Well,
long has it been since you heard a guitar player doing they started yelling at me and we almost had a fight. I
it the old school way? Playing a solo within a song with tried to leave with my guitar, and they ripped the guitar
melodies and harmonies and arrangement? It’s been a case it was in out of my hands because the band had
Photo: IconicPix/Joe Giron
f*cking minute. At first I was like, ‘Why’s everyone getting bought it. And then, right as I was leaving, I was at the
so excited? Yeah, it’s a good solo. Yeah, it’s a good bottom of the stairs leading up to the ground level exit. I
rock track…’ But what I didn’t realise was how starved looked up and Gary was at the top. I literally looked up at
everybody had been of that.” him like it was the end of some movie or something and
For more than three decades Nuno Bettencourt has said to him, ‘So what time’s rehearsal tomorrow?’”
been acknowledged as one of the technical masters of “I don’t think I’ve ever said this to anybody,” laughs
rock guitar. Gary Cherone knew he was in the presence Gary. “But I was always looking for a two-guitar band.
45
FEATURE EXTREME
Nuno and Gary photographed in San Jose, 10 August 1991.
My vision was Aerosmith, “‘More Than Words’ flipped our world upside down.” different levels of our world
y’know? But we had one flipping upside down at
rehearsal with both Nuno that time. The song went
and the guitar player to number one and that
we’d been working with changed things in a big
previously. We had a break way. But it wasn’t like I was
and the old guitar player playing in a garage and
said he couldn’t play with then suddenly ‘More Than
Nuno. Of course the rest of Words’ happened. There
us knew why immediately. had been a lot of great,
So during another break, I beautiful, life-changing
said to the others, ‘Do you things already. Getting a
want to stick with the guy record deal. Going in to
we have history with? Or record a proper album
do you want to go with with a proper producer in
the new kid?’ Everybody a real studio. Going out on
said Nuno. Nuno was the a proper tour. Hearing a
missing link in my writing song of ours on the radio
and vice versa, so after for the first time ever.
he joined we just had an It was milestone after
explosion of writing. Some milestone after milestone
of the songs on the first building up to ‘More Than
record were from that first Words’. When I was making
month working together.” ‘Pornograffitti’, I felt like I’d
gotten the lay of the land,
THE EXTREME line-up had understood what it
of Cherone, Bettencourt, was like to be a recording
Geary, and bassist Pat and a touring artist. And so
Badger (who joined a year the vibe was ‘Let’s get to
after Nuno in 1986) signed f*cking work!’ I went into
to A&M in 1987. recording ‘Pornograffitti’
“I guess we signed and ‘More Than Words’
with A&M because they believing they were going
showed the most interest to be hits, and that they
and offered us a three- were going to connect. You
album deal,” says Gary. believe in what you do and
“A&M didn’t have a great you’re passionate about
reputation for rock music, but hard rock was so huge it. That’s what gets you up in the morning to go do it
at that time, and all these bands were making so much in the first place. But then once it really does become
money, that I suspect they knew they needed to get into successful, you’re like, ‘What the f*ck just happened?
the game.” Wow, there are people sleeping on my f*cking drive.
Extreme’s first album, 1989’s ‘Extreme’, wasn’t a great What is going on?’
artistic success. Nuno’s playing caught the attention of “Here’s a funny story. The first thing I did with the first
shred fans, but the songs and lyrics were pretty average. proper money I made from music was buy my mom
“The record company was always supportive, though,” a house. I’m the youngest of 10 kids and we were on
says Gary. “The first album sold around 300,000, which welfare. We grew up… not poor, but you know… So my
wasn’t bad, so we always knew we’d get to make another goal had always been to give her her own house. And
record. But even after we released [second album] once I did that, I’d been out on tour, had come back, and
‘Pornograffitti’ in 1990, it took a long time for things to was sleeping in my bed upstairs there for the first time.
really take off. To be honest we thought we’d maybe hit a My mom woke me up by shouting that I should come
ceiling… and then there was ‘More Than Words’.” down to eat some pancakes. She’s the biggest cook! So
‘More Than Words’ was an unashamed ballad, but I came down to the kitchen and there were six strangers
actually it wasn’t anything like the typical ’80s rock all sitting at the kitchen table with plates of pancakes
power ballad. You know the kind of thing. Plaintive vocal in front of them. And I didn’t know who the f*ck they
over big, spacious drums, huge guitar solo, revved up were. So I spoke to my mum in Portuguese – because
ending, widescreen video. ‘More Than Words’ was a we’re of Portuguese extraction – and said, ‘Hey Mum,
soft and tender song that relied on a perfect melody, a what’s happening here?’ She said, ‘Well Nuno, these are
heartfelt message, and a lovely, understated delivery for your fans and they’d been outside for a long time. You’re
its effect. Given that this was funk-o-metallers Extreme, nothing without your fans, so you’re going to go in there
‘More Than Words’ was a bold and original move for and you’re going to sit down and you’re going to have
the time. The move paid off handsomely, though, and breakfast with them.’ And so I ended up having breakfast
‘More Than Words’ made it to number one in the US and with the fans! That’s how things changed.”
brought Extreme massive exposure all over the world. “Some guys handle it better than others,” says Gary
“It’s true that ‘More Than Words’ flipped our world when asked about the seismic shift he experienced in his
upside down,” says Nuno. “But there were a lot of life after ‘More Then Words’ hit so mega. “I’m more of an
46
introvert, so I tried to shelter myself from all that stuff than releasing a song that’s not you, you have success
a little bit. I mean, the band was always grateful for the with it, and then you’re almost embarrassed about it. And
attention that we got, but I don’t think anyone got too then what’s even worse is this. Imagine doing what you
big-headed. It was a thrill to be able to walk around my don’t love – and then that fails! So my attitude has always
neighbourhood and be recognised and to have people been, ‘Do what you love, do it for the right reasons, and
know the song. But I think the biggest thing that ‘More then whatever happens is what happens.’ I believe that
Than Words’ did was give us confidence. And then we authenticity is what connects with an audience, whether
followed it up with ‘Hole Hearted’, which went Top 5 in it’s 10,000 people or 100,000 people, or a million. People
the States. So then we were scratching our heads going, used to say, ‘What do you mean, you don’t care if what
‘Wow. Two big hits! Surely that means the label’s going you’ve done sells?’ Well of course I care. I would love to
to give us the money for the next record!’ Little did we connect. But I’ve always been of the mind that if I lose my
know how difficult it would be to have hits after that!” house, and my studio – and I have lost them a few times
– I can always get that back. I can always buy another car
AS WE’VE all heard or another guitar. But
many times, the grunge Hair metal!
what you’re not getting
explosion of 1991 brought back is time. We all
with it a scorched earth know that now, given
policy for traditional rock the ages we are. So if
bands. Extreme were you’re going to spend
clearly in the crosshairs time doing something
when Year Zero arrived, – picking up a guitar,
and so the release of ‘III writing an album,
Sides To Every Story’ in doing an interview with
1992 was always going to somebody who actually
be an uphill struggle. gives a f*ck about what
“The indulgence of you’re doing – then at
those ’80s MTV years was least make sure that
insane,” says Gary when time is well spent,
he looks back. “It got to because we’re not
a point where the music getting it back.”
became a parody of itself, The more pragmatic
and that’s why it needed Gary is quick to point
a cleaning out. We were out, though, that
in an interesting position Extreme were smart
because we were seen as enough to take care of
one of those hair metal business when things
rock bands, but on the had gone well.
other hand we’d also had “I remember our
‘More Than Words’. So manager putting us
the record company were in a room with our
looking for that again, business manager
and we would always when we were enjoying
say, ‘Well you weren’t the big success, and
originally looking for that our business manager
on ‘Pornograffitti’. So said, ‘All these cheques
we’re asking you to look you’re getting now…
at this next record with Enjoy the ride but
that same objectivity put some money
and let us be free and away because it’s not
creative.’ But it was a case going to last forever.’
of ‘More Than Words’, X We were a bunch
amount of dollars, what’s “WHEN ‘RISE’ DROPPED I WAS GETTING TEXTS, of kids who didn’t
the new ‘More Than go to college, never
Words’?’ And we really PHONE CALLS, EMAILS THANKING ME. STEVE really had a buck in
IconicPix/George Chin
didn’t have that on the LUKATHER HITS ME UP AND SAYS, ‘DUDE, I our pockets. All of a
third record.” THINK YOU JUST SAVED ROCK’N’ROLL.” sudden it was, ‘What
“I’ve never written an do you mean I can buy
Extreme song or made an NUNO BETTENCOURT a house?’ It scared
Extreme album or done some of us, but it didn’t
anything else musical scare me. And to be
Chin
for that matter other than for the love of the creative fair, some of the band were buying Ferraris…”
IconicPix/Joe Giron;
process,” says Nuno. “That doesn’t make me a better

Photos:IconicPix/George
person, but it’s a fact that I’ve never done anything for EVENTUALLY THE age-old principle that what goes up
money. I always believed that if you did things for the right must come down started to bite with Extreme. After a
creative reasons, then the money would come. And at the fourth album, 1995’s ‘Waiting For The Punchline’, and with
very least, if the money and the success didn’t come, then Mike Mangini – later to Join Dream Theater – replacing
I’d be able to put my head on my pillow at night knowing Paul Geary on drums, it was clear that the joyride
Photo:
I was doing what I loved to do. There’s nothing worse was over. In 1996 the band went their separate ways.
47
FEATURE EXTREME
“The public perception is that the band broke up Punchline’. And there have been fully 15 years between
because I left to join Van Halen,” says Gary. “That’s not that release and new album ‘Six’, which is the primary
true. By the time of ‘…Punchline’ we were burned out after reason why we’re doing this interview, of course.
doing record, tour, record, tour, record, tour for years. “I have no excuses,” laughs Gary. “I promised myself
Nuno came to me and said he wanted to do some solo that I’d apologise if people asked why it’s taken so long. I
stuff and I said, ‘Yeah, do a solo record. I’ll go off and do guess you can sum it up by saying our desire to not do a
[stage musical] Jesus Christ Superstar [that ran for three record was greater than our desire to do one. Nuno and I
weeks in Boston in April of 1996].’ But Nuno’s argument always wrote together, and we had a catalogue of demos.
was that if he did a solo record that way, no one would But there were a few stops and starts along the way.”
pay attention to it because they’d all be waiting for the Of course many rock musicians – and Kiss man Gene
next Extreme album. So he wanted to split the band Simmons most vocally – have suggested that in these
and that was it. It wasn’t a fight, even though I did try to days of streaming it’s not even worth making new music.
convince him not to. I said, ‘Let’s be Kiss, put solo albums “Well we’re certainly not at the Gene Simmons stage,”
out and keep the band together.’ But that’s not what says Gary. “Nuno and I have always had a desire to put
happened. And then I got the call from Van Halen.” out new music, either with Extreme or with our other
Cherone recorded 1998’s ‘Van Halen III’ album, and projects. I hate being called a heritage act. If you’re
while it did reasonably well, selling over half a million around long enough you’re a heritage act, whether you
copies, being the third singer in such an iconic band, and put out new music or not. But it was frustrating for me
following in the footsteps of David Lee Roth and Sammy to play those cruise-type gigs where all you could play
Hagar, proved a poisoned was the ‘classic’ stuff. And
chalice. As the ’90s drew to while we’ve never punched
a close, Cherone amicably it in, I think going out now
left the band. with new material gives
“When Nuno and I were us something to prove. I
apart, we grew as artists suspect the casual Extreme
working on projects with fan who knows ‘Get The
different people,” claims Funk Out’ and ‘Decadence
Cherone. “I think Nuno Dance’ might take a trip to
would say the same. And the bathroom when we’re
since then, it’s always a playing new songs, but that
thing for both of us to go won’t bother us.”
and do other projects. “Whatever I do, I’m all
For example, I still play in in,” says Nuno. “I’ve been
a band with my brother “GOING OUT WITH NEW MATERIAL GIVES US all in from the start and
Mark, and I love it. It SOMETHING TO PROVE. THE CASUAL EXTREME that’s never changed. One
reminds me of being kids thing I can humbly say is
jamming out Stones and
FAN MIGHT TAKE A TRIP TO THE BATHROOM that nothing has changed
Aerosmith songs. I cherish WHEN WE’RE PLAYING NEW SONGS, BUT in Extreme in terms of our
all of these experiences, THAT WON’T BOTHER US.” passion for the band. I’ve
but it always feels like never not been full of fire
bringing things back full GARY CHERONE and p*ss and vinegar, and
circle when Extreme comes that’s just because I love
back together.” what I do. Imagine that. I come from a big family and
“Extreme is the house we built and it’s fully ours,” the majority of my brothers and sisters have sat in traffic
explains Nuno. “It’s part of my DNA, part of my most of their lives going to work at a place they hate
personality. Extreme is like the mothership and when and then coming home miserable. Playing live music is
the mothership lands on another planet you go off and really hard at times, and it can be really lonely. But as
explore a little bit. And those explorations are cool. long as you love what you’re doing, then you’ve cheated
When I play with [pop superstar] Rihanna [as he has the system and you’ve cheated life itself! If you’re going
since 2009], I learn so much. Some rock fans may have to go through life, which is hard enough as it is, can you
dismissed it as a pop gig, but I learned from playing imagine not loving what you do? And that’s the majority
with some of the greatest musicians in the world. We’d of the human f*cking race!”
set up our gear in the dressing rooms and have the
most incredible jams every night. Those guys can play CERTAINLY, EXTREME’S new album has been hailed as
anything; jazz, fusion, rock, you name it. When I’m a seismic return, and it’s an album that will delight the
onstage with Rihanna, I go from a reggae track into a band’s fans. It’s a classic rock album alright, featuring
trap song, then go a club track and then go into a pop teak-tough rockers like ‘Banshee’, ballads such as ‘Small
song. It’s challenging. It kept me f*cking busy. But for Time Beautiful’, pop rock including ‘Other Side Of The
me going back to the mothership of Extreme is coming Rainbow’, and even a kind of calypso reggae tune,
home and expressing myself fully.” ‘Beautiful Girls’. The band chose to launch the album with
an out-and-out rocker, ‘Rise’, that features a rip-roaring
COMING BACK to the mothership isn’t something Gary Nuno solo that really did blow up the Internet.
Cherone and Nuno Bettencourt have done an awful lot of “There are people online breaking the solo down and
in recent times. The fifth Extreme album, ‘Saudades De saying it’s the greatest thing since Eddie Van Halen,”
Rock’, appeared in 2008, 13 years after ‘Waiting For The laughs Nuno. “That I’m the heir to Eddie’s throne right
48
now. Now I’m not saying it, and I’m not sure I even believe I ASK Gary what people will get out of the new Extreme
it. I say hold on a second. There is no heir to the throne. album that the rest of the Extreme catalogue doesn’t
Eddie has his own throne, as does Jimmy Page, as does give them. He thinks, then laughs.
Brian May. I come from that Eddie Van Halen school, but “Good question. I guess the only thing I can say is
I’m just carrying the torch. Not in a million years did we that we feel like we’ve been resurrected with ‘Six’. The
expect comments like that.” reaction so far has been
I ask Nuno what keeps “THERE ARE PEOPLE ONLINE SAYING I’M THE way beyond what we
him excited about playing HEIR TO EDDIE’S THRONE. I’M NOT SAYING IT. expected, but I believe
guitar after all these years. some of the material on this
“You know, sometimes I COME FROM THAT EDDIE VAN HALEN SCHOOL, album – ‘Other Side Of The
it’s not exciting,” he says, BUT I’M JUST CARRYING THE TORCH.” Rainbow’ and ‘Here’s To
perhaps surprisingly. “To be The Losers’ in particular – is
NUNO BETTENCOURT
honest, there was quite a the best stuff Nuno and I
long period where I kind of have ever written.”
lost touch with the guitar. A guitar’s a relationship, right? “Despite all the attention it got, my favourite solo on
People look at it as an instrument, a block of wood. But the album isn’t the one in ‘Rise’,” says Nuno. “It’s my solo
it’s so much more than that. It’s your best friend that in ‘Other Side Of The Rainbow’. Playing a ripping solo in
gets you through tough times. When you’re down, when a song that’s ripping is fun, but a bit easier for me than
people die, you pick up a guitar, you write a song, and writing something beautiful and melodic for a beautiful
it heals you. A guitar’s a companion, something that’s song that still has fire. That’s much more difficult.”
always with you, something that doesn’t really talk back “I think we’ll still be playing some of these songs
to you – unless you want it to! If you’re alone in a hotel in 10 years’ time,” says Gary. “Which isn’t always the
room anywhere in the world, the guitar is with you, and case. I think we’re more mature now, and because we
you look at it like a human being, a partner, and a friend. spend a lot of time apart, we really do appreciate the
“And so it’s the way it is with your best friend. time we spend together. I think that being back on tour
Sometimes you go away for a minute. You go away, but will inspire new music, so I’m really looking forward to
you know that friend’s always there. We all must have soundchecks becoming writing sessions.”
one or two friends we don’t talk to for two years, three “The reason we’re putting this album out,” says Nuno in
years. And then we get back and have lunch with them conclusion, “is because these songs gave me that feeling
and it’s like we never left, there’s no drama. You could be you had when you were a kid and heard a song that just
Chin
somewhere in the biggest trouble of your life, and you knocked you out. That feeling that made you call your
call that one person. They don’t go, ‘Well, what the f*ck buddy up straight away shouting ‘Have you heard it?’
Photo: IconicPix/George
did you get into?’ They’re like, ‘Where are you? I’ll be down the phone. When ‘Six’ was finished, I emailed Brian
Jesse Lirola
right there.’ That’s what a guitar is like. It’s always there May to ask him what he thought because I was giddy with
for you. But sometimes you stray and sometimes you excitement about what we’d done. He hit me back saying
don’t get inspired. Sometimes you don’t want to hang it was super cool, and at that point I knew I had the stamp
out. Sometimes you hang out doing something else – and of approval that I needed to share these songs with the
that’s just the way it is.” world. Like I say, I feel like we’re carrying the torch.”
49
FEATURE MÖTLEY CRÜE
Mötley Crüe photographed early doors in Los Angeles, 1982. L-R: Nikki Sixx
(bass), Tommy Lee (drums), Vince Neil (vocals), Mick Mars (guitar)
50
Rock journalist Sylvie Simmons (left) was in the right place
at the right time. Living in Los Angeles just as the ’80s
Sunset Strip scene exploded, Simmons got to witness the
rise of Mötley Crüe first hand. This is her detailed account
of how she bonded with the Mötley members and what it
was really like to witness events from the inside…
Photo: Mark ‘Weissguy’ Weiss
51
One of the band’s earliest photo sessions
from 1981. L-R: Mick, Nikki, Vince, Tommy
IT WAS THE SPRING of 1981, another hot night in Los Marquee. At that time there weren’t many rock bands
Angeles, and I was heading home on Santa Monica that paid a lot of attention to the visuals; you tended only
Boulevard. Five minutes up the road from the notorious to see that with some of the punk and new wave bands.
Tropicana Motel where I’d just been interviewing a visiting As it turned out, before too much longer and after MTV
punk band by the side of the black- came along, the visual aspect would
painted pool was a cool club called be a big component in this particular
the Starwood, a small rock venue band’s huge success. But for now,
where a bunch of bands had played in here they were, strutting onstage
their early days, including Van Halen. in black Spandex, high heels, and
Now the club mainly booked punk enormous hair, three of them dyed
bands and indie or unsigned acts. I black and the fourth bleached blond.
was the LA correspondent for British All but one, the guitar player, looked
music paper Sounds and Kerrang! like they were in their late teens or
magazine, so the Starwood was early 20s. Their music sounded like
one of my regular haunts – or it was someone had chopped up Sweet,
until the authorities closed it down Kiss, Alice Cooper, and the Godz and
later that same year after too many put them all in a blender. The songs
complaints about under-age drinkers were catchy, and the guitar solos
and noise. I had no plans to go to were extravagant. They came across
the Starwood that night, mind. But I as deadly serious but at the same
was intrigued by a cluster of people time trashy and a lot of fun.
I saw standing outside. They were This was Mötley Crüe – with
pale – something that took serious umlauts, like Motörhead. They were a
commitment in sunny California – and brand-new band. They didn’t have a
androgynously dressed, with black record deal. Are you kidding? No new
Spandex pants and big shaggy hair. band playing proper heavy metal in
The way they looked made me think LA in early 1981 had a record deal. If
of a monochrome version of the New you turned on an FM radio station in
York Dolls, the raw rock and proto- the States back then, what you got
glam punk band that had formed 10 was ’70s arena rockers like Styx or
years earlier on the other side of America. Toto or REO Speedwagon whingeing about the singer’s
Inside the club, the stage was decorated with stacks wife’s marital infidelities. Great bands, no question, but
of what looked like giant cardboard Cornflakes boxes kind of old. There were some young metal bands playing
painted black and white. The drum platform was on LA’s small club circuit, but there was no equivalent of
impressive for a small band, and so was the row of lights the New Wave Of British Heavy Metal movement that had
– quite a big set-up for a venue smaller than London’s sprung up in the UK at the end of the ’70s. In America,
52
indie labels were signing punk bands and the major record with odd jobs here and there – at one point Nikki was
companies were signing nice power pop and new wave the Starwood’s janitor – and with the help more often
acts. Mötley Crüe weren’t new wave, and Mötley Crüe than not of generous girlfriends. But only two years later
weren’t nice. Mötley Crüe were delinquent and proud of it. the band would immortalise Coffman in a song called
But I could see that this band had something. The ‘Bastard’ on their second album, ‘Shout At The Devil’,
next time I saw them – at the Whisky A Go Go on Sunset more of which later. Nikki’s lyrics: “Out go the lights/ In
Boulevard – it was an even better show with even more goes my knife/ Pull out his life/… Consider that bastard
kids outside. I went backstage after the gig and asked to dead/ Won’t get screwed again.”
do an interview. Nikki Sixx was the man in charge. It’s not
often that the bass player is the band leader, but Nikki BUT BACK on that fancy sofa in 1981 everyone was
was the one who arranged for us all to get together. It getting along. Nikki was doing most of the talking, but
was the first rock mag interview the band had ever done, that would almost always be the case. Mick, the oldest
and would be the first of so many interviews I did with and by far the most taciturn member of the band, would
Mötley over the years that I’ve lost count. make the occasional comment. Vince and Tommy, the
youngest, listened intently to what Nikki was saying and
FORTY-TWO YEARS later, said almost nothing unless
digging the yellowed I asked them something
transcript of our first directly. They all seemed to
interview out of the filing genuinely like each other,
cabinet, the first thing that though it would be strange
jumped off the page was if they didn’t, given how
something Nikki told me. recently they’d formed.
“In five years,” he said, Nikki and Tommy gave the
“maybe every band will impression of being the
look like us.” He couldn’t closest friends. That made
have imagined how sense. Frank Ferrana and
accurate that was. Or that Thomas Bass, to use their
his group – which a local original names, had known
weekly newspaper would each other for some time
dub the worst band in LA – on the LA scene, playing
would spearhead an entire in various short-lived
musical movement: glam bands. The two formed a
metal, aka hair metal, the group they called Xmas.
over-the-top, tarty, party While leafing through The
scene that dominated a Recycler – a local classified-
decade of US rock. ads magazine where you
The apartment where could find everything from
I met Mötley Crüe for second-hand mattresses
that first interview was to musicians – they saw a
surprisingly swanky. The small ad that simply said.
local indie bands I’d been “Loud, rude, and aggressive
interviewing tended to guitarist available.” They
live in varying degrees of called the phone number
squalor. Nikki opened the and the man who answered
door and led me to a room was Bob Deal, who’d played
where the others were in a number of LA blues
“WE LOOKED AT EACH OTHER AND IT WAS LIKE
sitting on a long, expensive and covers bands. The pair
sofa. There was drummer ‘HEY! WHAT KIND OF HAIR DYE DO YOU USE?’ asked him over. “We opened
Tommy Lee, guitarist Mick YOU RARELY SAW PEOPLE WITH BLUE-BLACK the door,” recounted Nikki.
Mars, vocalist Vince Neil, “We looked at each other
and… There was an older
HAIR AND THAT PARTICULARLY OUTRAGEOUS and it was like ‘Hey! What
man sitting next to Mick IMAGE ANY MORE. IT WAS GREAT!” kind of hair dye do you
who didn’t look like a NIKKI SIXX use?’ You rarely saw people
musician. He looked like with blue-black hair and
a businessman, and this that particularly outrageous
looked like a businessman’s apartment. He only spoke image any more. It was great!”
Photos: Don Adkins; Mark ‘Weissguy’ Weiss
once or twice during the interview, saying business-like Deal clearly looked older, but he looked cool, and he
things like, “A permanent organisation structure has been had the chops. On the spot Nikki and Tommy invited him
our concept from the very beginning.” This was Allan to join their new band. Deal gave the group a new name.
Coffman, Mötley’s manager. I think this was the first time “One of my bass player friends from the band I was in
I’d interviewed an unsigned band that had an official back in 1977… we were all sitting around, and he goes,
manager. Mick would tell me later that Coffman was the ‘This is a motley looking crew.’” Mick recounted. “I said,
brother-in-law of one of Mick’s friends. He had nothing ‘I’m having that for a band name.’” Deal gave himself a
to do with heavy metal. He worked in the construction new name too, Mick Mars.
business but had decided to invest in a rock band.
In the beginning Coffman was a big help, providing SO MÖTLEY Crüe – Nikki, Tommy, Mick, and O’Dean –
funds when the band needed them. That was most of were ready to rock. O’Dean? O’Dean Peterson, to give
the time, since most of the members were scraping by him his full name, was Mötley’s original singer and
53
front man. He’s largely been “I’ve had this kind of hair
written out of the story. for years and years,” said
O’Dean lost his job the night Nikki. “And so has Mick. It
Nikki, Tommy, and Mick saw wasn’t something where we
a band called Rock Candy sat down and said, ‘Let’s
playing at the Starwood. create something so we can
Tommy knew Rock Candy, make a flash in the pan’. We
a pop-rock band that take it seriously.”
covered songs by Cheap Vince: “We all do the
Trick and the like and had colours ourselves, but Nikki
a fairly big following in the cuts our hair.”
San Fernando Valley, the Sylvie: “Who cuts Nikki’s
LA suburb where Tommy hair then?”
grew up. The singer was Vince: “He does it himself,
Vince Neil Wharton, a slim, which is kind of hard to do.
young, good-looking, good- Tommy cut his once but
time blond who was a big that was the last time.”
hit with the girls. Tommy Nikki: “First you got to
knew Vince. They were at cut it real jaggedy. And you
the same high school in the need this stuff [Flex Net
Valley and had been in rival pump hairspray.] Then you
school bands. The Mötley got to dry your hair upside
guys weren’t there looking down and pull it out while
for a singer. They’d been you do it.”
thinking about adding a Sylvie: “How do you get it
second guitarist. “Tommy,” to stay up like that?”
Nikki recalled, “was going, Nikki: “You’ve got to sleep
‘This guitarist’s great!’ and upside-down. You sleep on
not saying anything about your forehead. When you
Vince. But Mick took a liking wake up in the morning
“THE MAJOR RECORD COMPANIES WERE
to Vince. Well, we all did.” your hair is all messed up,
“I was looking for another SIGNING NICE POWER POP AND NEW WAVE and you look in the mirror
singer,” Mick butted in. It ACTS. MÖTLEY CRÜE WEREN’T NEW WAVE, and you say, ‘I look fine.’”
was the first time he’d said Vince: “There’s this
a word in the interview.
AND MÖTLEY CRÜE WEREN’T NICE. MÖTLEY new stuff now, Pantene
“I didn’t dig that guy CRÜE WERE DELINQUENT AND PROUD OF IT.” [hairspray].”
[O’Dean].” Nikki: “Your hair’s like a
Tommy had been O’Dean’s biggest supporter. Nikki tumbleweed after that. I bought a gallon of it.”
thought he was a good singer but did consider him a bit Vince: “I thought I was wearing a hat after I sprayed
of a hippie, which wasn’t the image they were going for. with that!”
There was no arguing that Vince would do a better job
of increasing the number of girls in their audience, and IT DIDN’T take long for Mötley to become a big fish in a
Mötley liked girls. So on 1 April 1981 Vince joined Mötley relatively small pond. But to get to a bigger pond meant
as their vocalist. “I joined the band on April Fool’s Day!” touring out of town, and touring took money, which
Vince grinned. “The joke,” deadpanned Nikki, “was on us.” the band didn’t have. All of them were living hand to
There would come a time when Nikki would genuinely mouth in low-rent apartments they shared with other
feel that way about the band’s front man, but right now impecunious musicians and the occasional girlfriend to
they were thick as thieves. The new line-up debuted at the help them out. I remember what an incestuous scene
Starwood. Their show opening for Y&T was packed – the it was. At one time Nikki’s roommate was guitarist Lita
heavy rock band from Northern California had quite a big Ford of The Runaways, and at another he shared a place
LA following – and not a lot of people in the room knew with Robbin Crosby, his close friend, who played guitar
who Mötley were. But the support band went over really in Ratt. Ratt was another up-and-coming LA glam metal
well. After that, said Vince, it wasn’t long before they’d see band that, like Mötley, was ignored by the big record
people in the audience who were clearly there for them. companies. Like Mötley, Ratt would also go on to great
“People who dressed like us with hair like us,” said Nikki. success. I remember hanging with Nikki and Robbin one
“We have the best-looking female draw,” he added. night outside a rock club in the Valley where W.A.S.P.
was playing. W.A.S.P. was a metal band that was also
A BRIEF digression on hair. It wasn’t for nothing that interested in black outfits and theatrical visuals. The
the LA metal scene was dubbed hair metal. I had band’s leader, Blackie Lawless, and Nikki knew each
some interesting conversations with Mötley about hair, other well. As I was talking to Robbin, Nikki took off
particularly Nikki, whom I found used the same brand and to the nearby 7-Eleven – a small 24-hour convenience
colour of hair dye as me, though he had far more skill than store – and helped himself to a meat pie from the freezer
I did in getting that exploding Siouxsie Sioux look. Nikki compartment. Nikki stuffed it down the front of his
wasn’t just the band leader but its official hairdresser, and Spandex pants and casually walked out. Handing the
he was deadly serious about the subject. pie to Robbin, he then went back in for another. I had to
54
laugh. Nikki was so thin, and those pants were so tight, into the big time. On 1 August 1981, cable TV subscribers
that in profile the pie must have looked like a cartoon in the States woke up to a new TV channel, MTV, which
picture of a snake eating a small dog. Nikki had history played music videos seven days a week, 24 hours a
in the light-fingered department. He told me he stole his day, and changed the face of the music business. MTV
first guitar at 14 and sold it to run away to LA. He was would make stars of young, style-conscious, colourful
fired from his job in an LA record store after putting the videogenic bands. And of course at the start they needed
money in his pocket instead of the till. He even stole videos, which meant artists needed a big record company
the name Nikki Sixx from to fund the films. The young,
one of his girlfriend’s exes, attractive, new wave bands
a musician who went by the with their coloured hair and
name of Niki Syxx. You might fancy outfits were perfect
also say he stole Ratt’s idea for MTV, but not so much
of releasing a single to hand America’s older arena rock
out to fans and any record bands. The first video by a
company people who came to metal band that appeared
their shows. Ratt’s single ‘Dr on the network was actually
Rock’ was released in 1980. British NWOBHM heroes
Mötley’s ‘Stick To Your Guns’ Iron Maiden. But what all this
was released in 1981, funded meant was that there was a
by Allan Coffman. A thousand reason for a major label to sign
copies of the 45 were pressed a young metal band.
up to take on a tour that
Coffman also paid for so that MAYBE THAT was one of
the band could test the waters the things that helped sway
outside of LA. Elektra Records to take Mötley
on. How it came to pass can
BY THE end of ’81 Mötley had be traced back to Greenworld,
a significant following. the company that distributed
“We just kept picking up Mötley’s indie debut. Alan
other people’s audiences until Niven, who signed the band
we got one of our own,” Nikki to Greenworld and who
said. But there was still no would go on to be famous as
record company interest. “All the manager of Great White
the labels were still signing and Guns N’ Roses, took a
bands like [LA powerpop close interest in the band,
band] The Knack,” said Mick. asking his staff to go all-out
“But we knew that we could on promoting the album and
sell records.” helping to get it in the stores.
So in October of 1981, six months after I’m looking at a fax Niven sent me
their debut show and thanks once again decades back in which he describes
to the Bank of Allan Coffman, Mötley driving down the 405 freeway, Nikki
went into Hit City West Studio and over in the passenger seat, taking him to
three days recorded their first album, a radio interview. As they passed Los
‘Too Fast For Love’. Taking the same Angeles Airport, Niven wrote, they saw
route as the punk bands, they released a Japanese Airlines 747 fly over them.
the album independently on their own “One day, Nikki,” Niven said. Nikki replied
label, which they called Leathür Records with a quiet intensity. “God I hope so.”
– with an umlaut of course – and signed Niven’s take on Mötley was that Nikki
with a company called Greenworld to was “focused and thoughtful,” Tommy
distribute the record. and Vince were “excitable puppies! It
Initially they pressed up just 900 was all a lark.” And Mick “had a sense of
copies of the album, so it’s a real quiet desperation. It was obviously held
collector’s item now, recognisable by together and driven by Nikki.”
the white lettering on the cover and the I met Niven for dinner soon after that
photo of Vince on the back in which moment in one of those cheap Thai
his hair looked like that tumbleweed restaurants popular with impoverished
he mentioned, with enough hairspray musicians where you got to bring your
to dissolve the ozone layer. The front own wine. Niven brought two gigantic
cover photo was a close-up shot of a well-used part of bottles of Jack Daniels and Chivas Regal. What attracted
Vince’s anatomy in black, laced-crotched leather pants. him to Mötley, he told me, wasn’t their musical skills, but
Photos: Mark ‘Weissguy’ Weiss
The album was a quick sell-out. Nikki went into Licorice their attitude. It was something that couldn’t be faked or
Pizza, the popular LA record shop, and the girl behind manufactured, he said. It was either there or it wasn’t,
the counter told him they were flying off the shelves. So and with Mötley it was definitely there. Niven brought
there was a second pressing, 15,000 copies in all. Kerrang! Mötley to the attention of a young A&R man he knew
reviewed it and gave it the full five Ks. But still the major called Tom Zutaut. Zutaut worked for Elektra Records.
record labels shrugged. “Everyone laughed at me when I brought Mötley Crüe
Yet at the same time there were things going on behind in,” Zutaut told me. “Elektra Records was the home
the scenes that would come together to launch Mötley of the Eagles and Jackson Browne. I said, ‘You know
55
what? This f*cking record company needs some f*cking went out and got drunk again.” They were, said Vince,
rock’n’roll!’” and always had been “serious f*ck-ups.”
It took hard work, but eventually Zutaut persuaded the
label to take a chance. In early ’82, a year after the band MÖTLEY BECAME the poster boys for decadence. It
formed, Mötley Crüe had a major record deal with Elektra. was nuts back then, the drugs and the drinks and the
girls, men behaving badly. Looking back, what I find
ELEKTRA’S FIRST move was to send the Leathür Records interesting is that after the initial license to go crazy, it
indie album ‘Too Fast For Love’ to Roy Thomas Baker, wasn’t all about doing all the drugs they wanted and
Queen’s record producer, to clean up the raggedy doing whatever they wanted with or to whoever they
sound and give it a major label re-release that summer. wanted to do it with. OK, maybe it was for Vince, who
Collectors can recognise the Elektra version by its smaller always struck me as a 100 per cent party animal. The
band photos, bigger print, and word ‘responsible’ wasn’t part
the absence of the track ‘Stick of Vince’s vocabulary, and we
To Your Guns’. The following found out as much in 1984
year Mötley released their after Razzle, the drummer
major label debut, ‘Shout with Hanoi Rocks, was killed in
At The Devil’, a big-budget an accident in a car Vince was
recording with big-time driving. But with Nikki, the
producer Tom Werman. The one I came to know best, at
album was an enormous hit. least part of all the drink and
Yet when I dropped by to talk drugs seemed to be a way
to Nikki and Vince at the time, of numbing himself from the
they didn’t exactly look happy. darkness and depression that
“It was really a depressing had always been there. Over
year,” Vince said, cracking the years he would talk about
open a beer. “It couldn’t get his messed-up childhood.
any worse. Me and Nikki would The most thorough account
go buy cheap wine and vodka can be found in Nikki’s 2007
and sit in the alley underneath memoir The Heroin Diaries.
University Stereo [a big Plus, as the band leader, Nikki
electronics chain store] with had to take on a great deal
the other bums, drinking. We’d of responsibility. He’d never
drink and go, ‘We’re fairly had a life where anyone took
good-looking guys and the responsibility for him and
band’s all right, so how come there were times when the
we’re sitting down here?’” cracks began to show.
Why were they sitting down “We were so screwed up we
there when they had a record were going to break up at one
deal and an album starting to point,” Nikki told me in 1983.
climb into the charts? Well, “It was ridiculous. It looked
they’d been banned by the inevitable. We kind of had
Rainbow, the rock’n’roll bar to stop and get everything
on the Sunset Strip, and the organised around us because
Whisky A Go Go, the rock club down the street wouldn’t everything was falling apart.”
let them in either. The problem wasn’t that they were way The first thing they did was find a new manager. When I
too wasted. It was that they didn’t have the money to pay talked to them a few months later, as ‘Shout At The Devil’
the tab. “It’s been a bad year, Sylvie,” Nikki concurred. entered the US Top 20, their biggest problems seemed
“Our manager went to the record company and got the to be battling America’s religious right over the ‘Satanic’
cheque and we never saw him again,” said Nikki. “We pentangle on the album cover, or coming up with enough
didn’t have anything left to pawn even. There was no insults to hurl at all the UK mags that gave them bad
money at all.” reviews. They dismissed the reviewer from Sounds, who’d
“We were making $20 a week,” Vince said. Nikki given the album a kicking, as “old and boring with a little
revealed that he’d been forced to resume his old f*cking muscle of love. Listening to Mötley Crüe makes
shoplifting habits, stealing “four turkey pies to have a you a man.” Over the entire life of the band, almost all the
Christmas dinner.” Drowning their sorrows, they started to rock press would hate Mötley – with the exception of the
drink at five in the afternoon and would just keep going. metal magazines. Mötley hated those reviews. Not to the
“One day we had this big bottle of Jack Daniels, and point of, say, Axl Rose of Guns N’ Roses, who famously
we finished that off and got another one and as soon as marched into the office of a UK magazine that gave them
the Whisky opened at eight o’clock we stumbled in,” said a bad review and p*ssed on the critic’s desk. But Nikki
Nikki. “And I can’t find Vince. There’s only two people in wasn’t being entirely honest when someone posted a bad
the club and I can’t find the guy! I found him underneath review in an old magazine on Twitter in February of this
a car outside. He was passed out, sleeping. I had to carry year and Nikki tweeted the reply: “We actually sat around
him home. Can you imagine? Me? Carrying this guy?” and laughed out loud reading reviews over the last 42
“With his high heels on, up this steep hill?” said Vince. years. We love them. We hope bad reviews never go
“I woke up a couple of hours later, about 11 o’clock, and away. It just proves again that we’re right on target.”
56
BRIEF DIGRESSION No. 2: Mötley’s first summer festival 100. This success gave the band both licence to go over
in the UK was Castle Donington’s Monsters Of Rock, the the top and the money to pay for it. Nikki bought another
annual metal fest. It was 1984, AC/DC topped the bill, Corvette and managed to crash that one too. I remember
and first timers Mötley were at the bottom. Fans were him walking into the upstairs office of a night club where
still arriving when they played at noon. When Mötley got I was interviewing the Japanese heavy metal band,
offstage I ran into Tommy and asked him what he thought. Loudness. The members of Loudness and their manager
“I was so f*cking excited,” he said. “I’d heard and read sat quietly around the big executive table when Nikki
so much about the Donington festival that I was sh*tting stumbled in – followed close behind by Robbin Crosby,
myself with excitement waiting to go over and play. And who looked a fair bit more sober – and pulled up a chair
at the same time I was real scared because I heard about at the table so he could show me the scar he got from
how the English fans, if they don’t like you, pelt the f*ck dislocating his shoulder in the accident. He’d walked away
out of you with whatever they can get their hands on, relatively undented. The same went for Tommy when he
bottles of p*ss, whatever. But you know what they threw rolled over his car on the freeway driving at 90 miles per
at us? An eyeball! I swear to God. Someone threw it hour. The speed limit at the time was still 55 if I remember
onstage, and it got wedged in my drum riser. My drum rightly. Tommy had barely a scratch on him. Vince had
tech comes back to crashed a yacht during
me after the show and a short sailing trip from
goes, ‘Tommy, you’ve LA to Catalina island
got to f*cking see this.’ and made it sound like
I went out to my drums fun. But then all of a
as they’re loading sudden, things stopped
them away and there’s being fun and became
this f*cking eyeball. It deadly serious.
looks like it could have In December 1984,
come from a cow or a the band were back
horse or something. It home on a short break
was a lot larger than a before making their
human eyeball. It was so third album. Vince was
f*cking hideous! Where partying with friends at
did that come from?” his house on Redondo
I asked a question. Beach. Among those
There’s a story going friends were most of
around that Mötley the members of the
negotiated with the Finnish glam metal
festival’s promoters band Hanoi Rocks.
over the number of When the alcohol
times you were allowed supplies started getting
to say ‘f*ck’ from the low Vince decided to
Donington stage. Was drive his sports car to
it true that the band the liquor store and
agreed on 21 times?” “EVERYONE LAUGHED AT ME WHEN I BROUGHT Nick ‘Razzle’ Dingley,
Tommy: “We always MÖTLEY CRÜE IN. ELEKTRA RECORDS WAS THE Hanoi’s drummer,
get these f*cking went with him. On the
promoters who say,
HOME OF THE EAGLES AND JACKSON BROWNE. way back, hitting the
‘Well you’re in this city I SAID, ‘YOU KNOW WHAT? THIS F*CKING RECORD accelerator hard and
tonight and it’s a big COMPANY NEEDS SOME F*CKING ROCK’N’ROLL!’” apparently hitting some
no-no to say f*ck,’ so moss, Vince lost control
obviously the first thing MÖTLEY A&R MAN TOM ZUTAUT and collided with an
Vince does is say f*ck in oncoming car. Both of
the first song like four hundred f*cking times, just to p*ss the people in that car were very seriously injured. Vince
everybody off. That’s probably where that story stems was fine. But Razzle was dead.
from. It happens all the time. We never negotiate.” When Vince and Razzle didn’t return, Tommy Lee and
Mötley ended their Donington set with Nikki smashing Hanoi’s Andy McCoy went to look for them. As they
his bass and tossing it into the crowd. And smashing drove past the scene of the accident they saw Vince
things reminds me of the story when Nikki smashed his being handcuffed by the police. Mötley went ahead with
first Corvette. The Corvette, an iconic American sports recording the ‘Theatre Of Pain’ album, dedicating it to
car, was the rock’n’roll car of the ’80s, a faster, sexier- Razzle as a way of expressing regret. According to Andy
looking US equivalent of an E-type Jag. If you were a rock McCoy of Hanoi Rocks, it was a lot more than they ever
Photos: Bill O’Leary/Timeless Images
star, or wanted people to think you were a rock star, that got from Vince. Said McCoy, “I never got as much as an
was what you drove. Nikki bought a Corvette when the apology from that mother*cker.”
first royalty cheques came in. To celebrate, he invited me In June of 1985 when I went to interview Mötley about
to go for a drive with him, so I was in the front passenger their new album, Vince – who usually paired up with Nikki
seat. Let’s just say it didn’t surprise me when I heard not to do interviews – was conspicuous by his absence. Nikki
too long after that he’d driven it into a lamppost! understandably just wanted to talk about the music,
but I had to ask about the accident and what might
NEVERTHELESS, THINGS were finally going well for have happened to Mötley as a result. I was surprised to
Mötley. The enormous success of ‘Shout At The Devil’ had hear Nikki seemingly making excuses for Vince. Nikki
propelled ‘Too Fast For Love’ back into the Billboard Top wasn’t like that. He went into great detail about the
57
car accidents asked me if
he and Tommy I wouldn’t
had been mind bringing
in where Nikki’s stage
no one had costume back
got hurt but to London
themselves. He with me. It was
talked about going to be the
the “irony” prize in an MTV
that Vince was competition.
“barely drunk” I think they
when the had a similar
fatal car crash competition
happened. I where Ozzy
guess Nikki cut his hair
was trying to off, put in a
paint Vince as bag and sent
a good guy it to the ‘lucky’
who just got winner. When
unlucky. Vince I went through
had been Customs at
going around Heathrow
schools “giving Airport I got
lectures to The Crüe shot in 1985 around the time of ‘Theatre Of Pain’ stopped. The
students customs officer
about drunk opened my
driving,” he said. When I asked how genuine that was, bag and pulled out Nikki’s costume. As he unrolled it I
Nikki snapped. “He didn’t have to do that. He actually could see white powder sprinkling off it, evidence of what
volunteered for that.” Vince, who was arrested and Nikki had been up to the night before. “Baby powder,”
charged with vehicular manslaughter and driving over the I said as innocently as I could. Fortunately the customs
alcohol limit, didn’t know his sentence man just rolled the costume up again
yet. I sensed the reason that Nikki and put it back in my bag.
got mad at the question was partly ‘Theatre Of Pain’ was released in
to do with having to act as a spin 1985 and gave Mötley Crüe another
doctor for Vince. Maybe there was big hit. The album went four-times
fear in there too, with the band about platinum and made the Top 10 on
to promote their important third the US Billboard charts. They also
album while having no idea if and had a big hit single with a cover of
for how long their singer might be Brownsville Station’s ‘Smokin’ In
behind bars. The weight of anything The Boys’ Room’ when hit singles
to do with the band had always been were pretty rare for metal bands.
on Nikki’s shoulders and being on a They probably had MTV to thank
major label definitely wasn’t going to for that, and for the success of the
make that weight any lighter. power ballad ‘Home Sweet Home’,
In the court case, Vince was found whose video was an MTV favourite.
guilty on both counts. Judges aren’t After playing their last show on the
known for leniency when it comes to European leg of the tour in March
heavy metal musicians, but Vince was of 1986, the band flew home. The
given a surprisingly short sentence: four got together in Santa Barbara,
just 30 days in prison, with 200 hours California for Tommy Lee’s wedding.
of community service. He was put The drummer was marrying blonde
on five years’ probation and ordered TV actress Heather Locklear, a star
to pay $2.6 million in restitution. The of the TV series Dynasty. I’d met
court also allowed a deferment on Heather with Tommy and Mötley
the sentence to allow him to tour several times and they seemed a
with Mötley. Vince went back to work with the band. great fit. Nikki was Tommy’s best man, and Mick and
Vince were guests. It was a rare moment of togetherness
THE PROBLEM was, you could feel things had changed. for the band. Since Vince’s car accident they’d tended to
There were times when Nikki and Tommy seemed barely go their own ways when they weren’t on tour.
able tolerate their singer. How the stress of all this On 16 June that same year, Vince turned himself in
manifested itself in Nikki once again was drugs. When I at the police station and was taken to jail to serve his
flew to Germany to interview the band on their European custodial sentence. In fact he only served half of it before
tour in support of ‘Theatre Of Pain’ Vince was stone-cold being paroled for “good behaviour.”
sober drinking Coca-Cola. Nikki, meanwhile, was doing Nikki’s drugs problem wasn’t getting any better,
coke. Or heroin. Or both. Mötley’s UK record label had though. Things got so bad during the making of the
58
band’s next album “Next thing I know,
‘Girls Girls Girls’ I woke up at home
that he agreed to after a blackout,”
go into rehab. Nikki Nikki told me when
stayed there for 10 I phoned him to see
days, then checked what was going on.
himself out. When I “A couple of guys
spoke to him about from Guns N’ Roses
it he said, “I packed [Slash and Steven
my things and Adler] came over and
hitch-hiked home. found me, stuck me
I escaped! There under a cold shower
were nurses running and walked me
down the street after around.” Adler called
me!” He looked me for an ambulance.
in the eye and in a When the paramedics
quieter tone of voice arrived “I’d gone
said, “Really stupid. blue,” Nikki said.
I threw a typical “They pronounced
temper tantrum. ‘I me dead. They even
don’t need this shit. called up Vince and
I’ve been clean for the other guys. They
10 days. I can do took me to hospital
it on my own!’ It with a sheet over my
was pretty difficult, face, when one of
because I’m a private the paramedics tried
person and I’m shy, sticking a couple of
and I just don’t want adrenaline needles
to open up to people into my heart. They
I don’t know, so I followed it with
was really stubborn. electrodes, and it
I remember this. kicked me back. I was
Everyone’s sitting dead for two minutes!
in a circle, they’re But do you know
saying this about what the f*cked-up
this and this about thing was, Sylvie? I
that. ‘And now we’re checked myself out
going to talk about of the hospital, went
God, God will do this back home. The maid
for you, God will do saw me and fainted.
that for you.’ And She thought she’d
I’m p*ssed off, man. “IN THE SPRING OF 1987 MÖTLEY RELEASED ‘GIRLS GIRLS seen a ghost because
P*ssed off! And I GIRLS’. THEIR FOURTH ALBUM SOARED UP TO NUMBER everyone thought
go, ‘F*ck God! I’m I’d died – and I did it
f*cking out of here!’”
TWO IN THE U.S. CHARTS. ALTHOUGH NIKKI GAVE THE again! I shot up. Next
Tommy, Nikki’s IMPRESSION IN INTERVIEWS THAT THE BAND WERE ONE morning I woke up
closest friend in the BIG HAPPY FAMILY, SOMETIMES IT LOOKED LIKE IT WAS and there was blood
band, wasn’t there to all over the bedroom
hang with now that HARD FOR THEM TO BE IN THE SAME ROOM TOGETHER.” walls. And I said,
he was with Heather, ‘That’s it.’”
and no one seemed interested in hanging with Vince. Mick It was getting close to the end of 1987. On New Year’s
was… well no one ever seemed to know what Mick was up Eve, Nikki took every drug he could get his hands on. On
to when Mötley Crüe weren’t in the studio or onstage. New Year’s Day 1988, when he finally crawled out of bed,
Nikki Sixx decided he was going to stop using.
IN SPRING 1987 Mötley released ‘Girls Girls Girls’. Their
fourth album soared to number two in the Billboard US I LEFT LA and moved back to London. I still loved the
charts. Although Nikki gave the impression in interviews music and the shows, but was finding it hard to like the
that the band were one big happy family, sometimes it coke and bimbos-in-jacuzzis thing that had grown around
looked like it was hard for them to be in the same room. I the scene. I no longer bumped into or hung out with
got the impression that Tom Werman, their producer, was Mötley, being 6000 miles away, but I still interviewed
Photos: Mark ‘Weissguy’ Weiss
holding the band together as much as Nikki. In interviews, them when new albums or tours or scandals came
Nikki told the press he’d finally kicked his drug habit. He along. The last time I spent any significant time with
hadn’t. When part of the US tour was postponed, the them was on their 2005 reunion tour. Nikki puffed on a
official reason given was “exhaustion”, a music business cigarette as we talked about the old days. He said they
euphemism for substance abuse. Towards the end of 1987, were all traveling in separate buses now, which made
Nikki took a vacation to Hong Kong. “It was a wild time,” he things easier. Running into Vince on his way to his bus
told me, laughing. “Whorehouses in skyscrapers.” As soon I asked how he felt about the reunion. He grinned and
as he got back to LA he went straight to see his dealer. said, “We’re Mötley Crüe, mother*ckers! We’re back!”
59
‘LOVE’ACTION
Engineer Avi K
m
ip
‘T
p er re ca ll
oo Fast For Lov
s working on the
e’…
1981 d ebut independ
ent
M ö tl ey al b u
BY OCTOBER 1981, WHEN the four members of Mötley he admits. “But I could record heavy metal. As chief
Crüe entered Hit City West Studio to begin recording engineer I’d pull out the tapes, line up the machines,
their independent debut album and set up the console for Glenn
‘Too Fast For Love’, Avi Kipper and the assistant engineer
was already working as the chief Robert Battaglia. But when [up
engineer at the facility. and coming German producer]
“A lot of people get into the Michael Wagener came in to mix
music business because they the album, he’d never seen the
want to be around celebrity,” he console before. I babysat the
says. “When I first moved to LA session and set things up for him,
I was on a path for an electrical soothed the egos, and kept the
engineering degree, but that session running. To be honest I
didn’t work out and I wound didn’t have much interaction with
up sweeping floors in studios. the band members.”
Someone then let me sit behind a Avi was incorrectly credited
console, they found I knew what I as Azi Kipper on the original
was doing, and I just kept at it.” Leathür Records album and the
subsequent Elektra reissue. He was
HIT CITY West, a medium-sized also called assistant rather than
recording and production facility chief engineer. Glenn Feit suffered
located at 6146 W. Pico Blvd. in the same fate, being identified
LA was founded by the now well- as ‘Gleen Feit’. After working as
known Grammy-winning producer a recording engineer with Wall
Andy Wallace back in 1974. But Of Voodoo and Bobby Womack
by the time Crüe came to record, among others, Avi eventually
Wallace had already left. Kipper moved into TV and film work.
was the studio’s chief engineer, “It paid better,” he laughs. “And
but he’d never worked with a full- it was better than pulling teeth
on heavy metal band like Mötley trying to get an up-and-coming
Crüe before. band to pay you!”
“It definitely wasn’t a world But did he believe Mötley Crüe
class place, which is why Mötley would go on to be so successful?
Crüe were there,” he says. “We “Well, they had the look, they
were the 50-bucks-an-hour studio had a following even back then,
that bands could afford to use to and they had the balls to be doing
make their demos. But we had a what they were doing on their
pretty good reputation and pretty own. But would they have been
good equipment. the juggernaut they became if
“The primary engineer on ‘Too Michael Wagener hadn’t mixed the
Fast For Love’ was Glenn Feit. He album? Well, who really knows?
was the kind of guy who would To be honest at the time I wasn’t
go to all the clubs where new really thinking about that. I was
bands would be honing their skills, touting for work. If a thinking about other things because I was a gear head.”
Interviews by Dave Reynolds
young band wanted to record at Cherokee or Ocean Way

they would’ve had to pay lots for studio time. We were THE LEATHÜR version of the first Mötley album is still
well positioned to provide a professional service without regarded as better than the Elektra reissue a year later
the super-high overheads. We didn’t have a Neve or an that featured a Roy Thomas Baker remix, and that says a
SSL desk, but we did have a Soundcraft console.” great deal for the vibe that was captured at Hit City West.
“Mötley fans universally tell me that they like the mixes
AVI HAD no idea who Mötley Crüe were at the time. and mastering on the Leathür version better than the
“Hard rock wasn’t in my particular wheelhouse,” Elektra album,” says Avi. “And that’s a nice compliment.”
60
HOW MATHS
HELPED MÖTLEY!
Teacher, tape trader, and rock superfan John Watson explains
how he brought The Crüe to people’s attention in the UK…
AS A DEVOTED FAN and champion of North American that was printed in the paper with a ‘Thanks John!’
hard rock and heavy metal, Englishman John Watson in brackets. Now whether that was a tape of the demos,
became an extremely familiar name in UK tape trading or a tape of the album, or a copy of the actual album I
circles in the early ’80s as he began to network with can’t remember. But the LP came out not long after the
other like-minded fans around the globe. John’s early demos – and I did get some complimentary copies.
enthusiasm for Mötley Crüe, and especially the band’s “Allan Coffman was so pleased with my amateur
independent ‘Too Fast For Love’ publicist work that one of his
album, convinced him that every letters – I wish I could find it
other hard rock fan needed to be – asked if I was interested in
aware of the group too. becoming the band’s European
“I was teaching up in the Manager! I was humbled by the
north of England back in 1981,” offer but was also realistic. I
says Watson. “Future Metal knew no one was less suitable
Blade Records boss Brian for that role than me! I wouldn’t
Slagel and John Kornarens, who have had a clue! I graciously
were the duo behind The New declined, but said I’d still do
Heavy Metal Revue fanzine at what I could to support Mötley
the time, came from LA to stay Crüe while remaining a maths
with me. They were really into teacher. Much as I loved the band,
the NWOBHM and wanted to I wasn’t sure they would catch on
visit places like Neat Records in the UK! More fool me, but my
in Newcastle. I, meanwhile, was favourites such as Legs Diamond
totally into the LA scene and and Snow [Quiet Riot guitarist
had been tape trading with Brian Carlos Cavazo’s first recording
for a while. I remember Brian band] weren’t setting the world
saying the hottest act in LA at alight, so why would Crüe? And
that time was Xciter, the band a little bit of me was suspicious
future Dokken guitarist George of Allan’s spin doctor tactics.
Lynch and drummer Mick Brown He sent me something, maybe a
were playing in that had once flyer, advertising a Dokken show.
featured Legs Diamond vocalist It described Dokken as ‘one of
Rick Sanford’s brother Gregg as Europe’s biggest bands’ – before
a singer. But Brian also said that the ‘Breaking The Chains’ album
there was another band called was even out! I knew Dokken had
Mötley Crüe that was getting played a TV show in Bremen at
really popular. Brian had a Crüe that time, but I hadn’t seen any
demo tape, and he’d made a copy evidence that the band really was
for me. I was instantly knocked popular in Europe!
out and played it continuously. I
thought to myself, ‘Why are none “STILL, I’M pleased that I played
of the NWOBHM bands making a small part in Crüe’s beginnings.
music like this?’ Once I had the physical copies
of the debut album, I sent one
“I SOON found myself in touch to [radio DJ] Tommy Vance to
by snail mail with Mötley’s first manager, Allan Coffman. see if he would play it on the [highly influential] Friday
Letters were exchanged and Coffman sent me the first Rock Show programme on BBC Radio 1. Tommy played
Mötley single [‘Stick To Your Guns’/‘Toast Of The Town’] ‘Live Wire’ and at the end of the song he said it was
when it came out, followed by the ‘Too Fast For Love’ from a really good album, thanked me for sending it,
album. I’d made copies of the demo tape for all my and gave out my name and address for people to write
trading pals, and I also sent it to Geoff Barton at Sounds to me if they wanted to know more. I still have a tape
music newspaper. Geoff put it on his weekly playlist recording of that show!”
61
Back in 1994, Mötley Crüe’s bassist and leader Nikki Sixx sat down with Rock Candy
Mag writer Dave Reynolds to discuss both the bands and the albums that inspired him
to start a band and changed his life forever.
NIKKI SIXX She was the
IS HAPPY first girl I ever
to think of saw in cut-off
himself as a shorts, and
music fan as she insisted
much as a that I buy the
world-famous Nilsson album.
musician. And I caved in!
like all music
fans, he clearly “FROM THAT
remembers point on, I
his first album listened to
purchase. It music non-
was Harry stop. I had
Nilsson’s an uncle
soft rock who worked

opus ‘Nilsson for Capitol
Schmilsson’, Records, and
and Nikki bought it when he was just 12 or 13 years old! he’d send me stuff by The Beatles, Status Quo, and The
“I actually wanted to buy a Deep Purple album,” he Sweet. Then I started to discover The Rolling Stones, and
said. “I’d heard the band on a local radio station where Purple records I never even knew existed. But it wasn’t
I lived in Idaho, and I really wanted a Purple album. But until I moved to Seattle that I saw my first concert.”
I was with a girl who was the older sister of a friend. “A friend of mine there, who was a guitar player, had
62
the first Kiss because it
album that crosses so
had only just many musical
come out. I boundaries –
thought it was and yet there’s
an incredible this thread
record. My that keeps
friend also everything
turned me on together. I
to Black Oak have an
Arkansas and awful lot of
Black Sabbath. respect for
In return I got Cheap Trick.”
him into The
Sweet. I loved DESPITE HIS
the second uncle who
Kiss album, worked at
‘Hotter Than Capitol giving
Hell’, too. That had an almost grungey, dark feel to it, him their entire back catalogue, it took a while for Nikki
especially on ‘Parasite’. If you listen to the middle part of to truly appreciate The Beatles.
‘Uncle Jack’ [from 1994’s ‘Mötley Crüe’ album] “I had the records, but I didn’t really start getting into
there’s a bit there where I get as close as possible to them until about seven years ago. There was always
ripping off ‘Parasite’ without getting a phone call from this thing that you weren’t supposed to like The Beatles
Gene Simmons! if you were into the Rolling Stones. As a kid I liked
“We were actually approached about doing a cover stuff like ‘Helter Skelter’ [a song Crüe covered on their
song for a Kiss tribute album [1994’s ‘Kiss My Ass’], second album, ‘Shout At The Devil’], ‘Back In The USSR’,
but the timing wasn’t right, so we had to pass up the and ‘I Want You (She’s So Heavy)’ – the darker side of
opportunity. It was a shame.” the band. But now I can go back and appreciate the
“I saw Kiss at the Paramount Theatre in Seattle opening simplicity of their songwriting in other areas. And they
for Savoy Brown [on 25 May 1974]. They had this line of were prolific writers! I really don’t know how they did
amps with lights on top for a stage set. Looking back, it, because I have a hard time coming out with a record
it was pretty primitive, but at the time it blew my mind. every four years!”
Savoy Brown just couldn’t compare.
WHEN IT comes to guitar players, Nikki cited former
“I THINK the next gig I saw was Queen, Kansas, and James Gang, Deep Purple, and solo star Tommy Bolin
Rush on the as his all-time
same bill at the favourite. Nikki
same venue. insisted Mötley
The first three Crüe cover the
Queen albums title track of
– ‘Queen’, Bolin’s 1975
‘Queen II’, and ‘Teaser’ solo
‘Sheer Heart album for the
Attack’ – were December
awesome. 1989 ‘Stairway
‘Night At The To Heaven
Opera’ [in – Highway
1975] was To Hell’
when the rest compilation
of the world album that
accepted featured
them, but I was covers by
kind of snobby. Bon Jovi,
It just didn’t seem cool to be into them after that. But Scorpions, Ozzy Osbourne, Skid Row, Cinderella,
those first three albums had a huge impact on my life, and others.
as did Led Zeppelin’s ‘Physical Graffiti’. For me that was “Anything by Tommy Bolin is amazing,” he said. “When
their landmark album because it was so diverse. It marks he died it was one of the saddest moments in musical
Zeppelin’s pinnacle of creativity.” history. Tommy really never got to do what he was
Nikki was also keen to acknowledge the influence of supposed to do. Same with Phil Lynott. The break-up
both AC/DC and Cheap Trick… of Thin Lizzy destroyed him. I really loved their ‘Bad
“AC/DC have influenced everybody. ‘Come On And Reputation’ album! Lynott was a brilliant lyricist, and he
Dance’ from our ‘Too Fast For Love’ album has a verse lived his life honestly. People like him and John Lennon
that is so AC/DC. I really can’t understand all these said what was on their minds. People can say they were
bands that won’t admit to being influenced by AC/DC as*holes, but if you give someone a soapbox then you
when they sound exactly like them! have to expect to hear something you don’t want to…
“Cheap Trick is another band that has a lot of imitators. What I do know, though, is if it wasn’t for good fortune
We were heavily influenced by them, especially on and my band pulling me back then I really could have
‘Too Fast For Love’. I think ‘In Color’ is their best album joined those guys.”
63
FEATURE THE BLACK CROWES
THE BLACK CROWES SEEMINGLY CAME OUT OF NOWHERE IN 1990 AND HIT BIG WITH ‘SHAKE
YOUR MONEY MAKER’. BUT ACCORDING TO ORIGINAL DRUMMER STEVE GORMAN, THE SUCCESS
AND THE FUN VIBE OF THEIR STONESY ROCK’N’ROLL HID A HUGELY DYSFUNCTIONAL BAND. HE
TELLS ANDREW DALY WHAT THINGS WERE REALLY LIKE IN CROWES-WORLD!
THE BLACK CROWES WEREN’T original, but they were The Black Crowes showed that great rock didn’t
original for their time. Of course they owed everything always have to be overamplified to be exhilarating.
to the Faces and The Stones and their blues roots, both ‘Shake Your Money Maker’ featured the singles ‘Twice
musically and stylistically. But when they first emerged As Hard’ and ‘Jealous Again’ that were so well written,
blinking into the spotlight in 1990 with their debut album so well delivered, and so different for the time that
‘Shake Your Money Maker’, rock music was all about the American record-buying public forgave the lack of
commercial heavy metal that sounded shiny and flash on originality and focused on the quality. Quite right too.
the radio. Grunge was just around the corner and would ‘Shake Your Money Maker’ was a real barnstormer of a
take rock from a world of shaggy perms and bright white debut and it eventually went five-times platinum in the
teeth to lumberjack shirts and self-loathing lyrics. The US alone. The Black Crowes had caught a wave alright,
five-piece band from Atlanta, Georgia – vocalist Chris but never again would the band scale such commercial
Robinson, his guitar-playing brother Rich, bassist Johnny heights. A pig-headed determination to plough their own
Colt, guitarist Jeff Cease, and drummer Steve Gorman musical furrow, with or without the help of US radio, not
– had nothing to do with either camp. Yet somehow to mention an often-febrile atmosphere within the ranks
they managed to carve out a commercial niche for their of the band, meant that The Black Crowes would never
perfectly executed homages to their two favourite bands. again be such a hot ticket.
64
DRUMMER STEVE Gorman witnessed first-hand how very good, but there’s something here.’ We respected his
dysfunctional the band could be, and how difficult the no-bullsh*t approach.”
relationship between the Robinson brothers often was.
Gorman was there from the start, and his groovy beats AND GEORGE EVENTUALLY SIGNED YOU TO RICK RUBIN’S
added some real swing to the band’s sound. But after DEF AMERICAN LABEL…
more than one break-up and reformation by 2015, the “It took a full year after meeting George before we got
endless issues within The Black Crowes meant that he started on our first album, ‘Shake Your Money Maker’.
vacated the drum stool for good – and he’s never gone In all that time George never told us what to do, but he
back. Gorman’s 2019 book, Hard To Handle: The Life And did tell us what not to do. He saw that we had a lot of
Death Of The Black Crowes – A Memoir, didn’t pull any strengths, but we had a lot of weaknesses too, and didn’t
punches in laying bare the difficulties at the heart of the know the difference between the two. George wouldn’t
band and would appear to have ruled out any chance say, ‘Don’t do this and don’t do that.’ He’d just let us
of a reconciliation between the Robinson brothers and figure things out on our own. He’d come to Atlanta to
their original drummer. Not that Gorman cares. He’s busy check on us, and over the year leading up to the record
indulging his other lifelong passion working in sports we had a lot of long conversations. We felt like he was
broadcasting. The Robinson Brothers reunited The Black another member of the band.”
Crowes in 2019, and celebrated ‘Shake Your Money
Maker’ by playing shows that featured only the brothers WHAT WERE SOME OF THE BIGGEST THINGS GEORGE
from the original line-up. “Personally I don’t think it’s aPOINTED OUT TO HELP SHAPE THE CROWES’ EARLY SOUND?
celebration of anything other than the fact that Chris and “The big thing was that we trusted him. We didn’t
Rich can still go out and make a living playing music,” think of George as an A&R guy or a producer. He was
laughs Gorman when he sits down to chat about his someone we felt had our best interests at heart. George
experiences in one of rock’s most volatile bands… was the first guy who looked at Rich and said, ‘You need
to play to your natural strengths. The way you use your
HOW DID YOU FIRST COME right hand, you play a lot like
UPON THE TWO “WHEN WE FINALLY HEARD ‘SHAKE YOUR Keith Richards.’ I remember
ROBINSON BROTHERS? Rich being very surprised
“I moved to Atlanta in MONEY MAKER’ MIXED AND MASTERED WE by that. George said to me,
February of 1987 to start a ALL THOUGHT, ‘HOLY SH*T, WE’RE NOT AS ‘When you get behind the
band with a friend of mine beat and groove and pull the
GOOD AS THIS RECORD SOUNDS.’”
from high school in Kentucky song along, that’s where you
who’d already moved to shine. But when you try to
Georgia. My friend’s roommate was Chris Robinson. Chris push the song instead of pulling it, things fall apart.’ That
picked me up from the bus station and I moved into the was eye-opening to me as a young drummer. Within a
same house.” few months of meeting George we started writing the
songs that ended up on ‘Shake Your Money Maker’. He
SO HOW DID THE BLACK CROWES FORM? subtly pointed us towards something he recognised we’d
“Chris and I hit it off immediately. The band I moved to be good at without us even knowing it. George saw what
Atlanta to start didn’t work out, and after a few months I we could be and, to our credit, that’s what we became.”
ended up in a group with Chris and his brother Rich. We
called it Mr. Crowe’s Garden and within a few months we WERE YOU SURPRISED BY THE SUCCESS OF ‘SHAKE YOUR
were playing gigs.” MONEY MAKER’ AFTER IT WAS RELEASED IN 1990?
“When we were recording ‘Shake Your Money Maker’ we
THE BLACK CROWES WERE AN OUTLIER AMONGST A SCENE were totally green. We’d never spent much time in the
MOSTLY AWASH WITH RADIO METAL BANDS. WHAT LED TO studio before. We felt intimidated and were still trying
THE BAND GOING IN A DIFFERENT DIRECTION? to find ourselves as a band. George pulled us through
“The music that was popular at the time didn’t really the hoops to get that record made and when we finally
appeal to us. Right from the start we were very much a heard it mixed and mastered we all thought, ‘Holy sh*t,
Southern indie rock band. The bands we were taking our we’re not as good as this record sounds.’ We knew we
cues from were indie and alternative groups like R.E.M., had an excellent album, but we were nervous because
The Replacements, and The Dream Syndicate. We were we weren’t sure we could measure up to it. We had
never influenced by acts like Poison and Mötley Crüe.” imposter syndrome.
“Going out and playing the first record live was a
WHAT SORT OF INTEREST DID THE BLACK CROWES challenge because we had to meet the high standard
GENERATE EARLY ON? we’d set. I remember thinking, ‘Man, I don’t know if we’re
“In 1988 we played a support gig in New York City good enough,’ but 350 shows later we’d proved that
opening for a band whose name I can’t recall, and at we were actually better. That made all the difference,
the show we met an A&R guy called George Drakoulias. and when in 1991 we went in to start recording the
We’d met a few A&R people by then, but none of them second record, ‘The Southern Harmony And Musical
really clicked with us. Not everyone liked what we were Companion’ we knocked all those tracks out in maybe a
doing, and some of them probably thought we sucked. week. I remember doing all the drum tracks over a long
But George liked the fact that we did an Aerosmith song weekend. The overdubs took a few more days. We were
and a Stooges song. He said, ‘You’re playing some cool in an entirely different place. We’d truly become a band
covers, but your originals suck. You’ve got to work on rather than a group of young guys shooting in the dark.”
those, but I’d love to stay in touch. If you’ve got demos
I’d like you to send something to me. I might be able to WHAT APPROACH DID YOU TAKE TO YOUR DRUMMING AT
work with you.’ We were pretty excited. We liked George THAT TIME?
right away because he was honest with us. ‘You’re not “For the first album I remember listening to a ton of
65
FEATURE THE BLACK CROWES
Phil Rudd [from AC/DC]. I would have been fine if there music – and we did – but without a powerful label behind
were absolutely no fills on ‘Shake Your Moneymaker’. All you, you’re dead in the water. The fact that we weren’t
I wanted to do was lay down a solid groove. Getting the trying to write hits, and weren’t concerned with getting
rest of the guys on board was a bit tough, but it ended on MTV and radio, made things tough too.”
up being the right approach. By the time we made our
second record there was way more interplay within the DIFFICULT INTERPERSONAL RELATIONSHIPS WITHIN THE
band, and the rhythm section was very cohesive. Johnny BAND CAN’T HAVE HELPED EITHER…
Colt, Rich Robinson, and I were in such lockstep after “The internal issues were an even bigger deal than the
playing all those gigs that it gave us a different vibe. label issues. When a band is constantly at each other’s
Without saying anything we all knew where the groove throats, that’s a recipe for disaster. The way The Black
was. You can have someone else back there, but you Crowes functioned from its earliest days was toxic. At
can’t make the band sound like it did with me in it. A the start, maybe it was a strength because that swagger
drummer’s personality is impossible to copy. You can helped us. But it didn’t take long for those same things
sound like something, but you can’t feel like something.” to become weaknesses. Early on I used to think that we
had a certain chemistry and a vibe, intangibles that a lot
YOU EMERGED RIGHT AT THE TIME WHEN GRUNGE STARTED of other bands didn’t have. Chris was a great frontman
TO MAKE BIG WAVES. HOW DID THAT AFFECT THE who hadn’t figured out how to be a great frontman. I was
BLACK CROWES? a good drummer
“Someone once who didn’t know
told me that The how to be a good
Black Crowes drummer. And
was the bridge Rich was a great
between glam songwriter who
metal from LA wasn’t yet writing
and grunge rock great songs.
in Seattle. But we But we were
were nothing like arrogant enough
the Sunset Strip to believe in
bands, and we ourselves, and it
were nothing like worked. And then
the bands coming that arrogance
out of Seattle. went from being
Nirvana blew up, great for us to
and they were undermining the
way different to band. We never
Guns N’ Roses, took the time to
and that shook step back and
things up like work through
crazy. Everything our differences.
The Black Crowes line-up that recorded 1990’s ‘Shake Your Money
became very Maker’. L-R: Johnny Colt (bass), Chris Robinson (vocals), Steve
We went from
competitive, Gorman (drums), Jeff Cease (guitar), Rich Robinson (guitar) traveling in
but being a part the Robinson
of a scene and brothers’ van
competing was never in our mindset. We were nothing to headlining festivals in Europe and selling five million
like bands such as Skid Row, Lynch Mob, and Slaughter records, but we were still the same kids with the same
that were around when we first appeared. We got some attitude. We never thought to ourselves, ‘We’re not
play on rock radio which helped, but we never wanted upstarts any more. We need to act differently.’”
to be associated with any scene. We knew the guys from
Alice In Chains, Pearl Jam, and Soundgarden and they IS IT FAIR TO SAY THAT CHRIS ROBINSON WAS HARDEST
didn’t care to be known as ‘Team Grunge’ either. From TO HANDLE?
day one we were on our own island and were perfectly “Absolutely. Chris didn’t understand that when you’re
fine with that.” on a national stage, the things you say will be looked
at differently. If you’re bitching about the state of the
WHAT CONTRIBUTED MOST TO THE BLACK CROWES’ world and saving rock’n’roll, at first people rally around
EVENTUAL DOWNFALL? that energy. But once you’ve gone out and sold five
“For starters, we had a terrible deal with Def American. million records, a punk rock, pot-smoking, p*ssed-off,
At the time we didn’t know it, but now it’s obvious that contrarian-for-contrarian’s-sake attitude is not nearly
being on Rick Rubin’s tiny label that Geffen distributed as charming. Things went wrong very fast. When radio
wasn’t good for us. It worked OK on the first record started shifting towards other bands, we were like, ‘Well
when Rick made sure there was international distribution. screw them. If they don’t want to play our records,
But by the time the second record came out, Geffen had whatever.’ And that’s cool if you really believe that, but
dropped Rick because David Geffen didn’t like hip-hop the truth is we wanted to be successful. Every member
artists. At the time we didn’t care. We said, ‘We’re a great of The Black Crowes wanted to be in one of the world’s
band. We’re making the records we want to make. It’ll all biggest bands, but we were unwilling to accept that the
take care of itself.’ But looking back… You can have great industry was constantly evolving and that bands had to
66
do the same. Instead of adjusting, we did nothing. But that made it an easy decision for Rich and me. That was
our lack of communication was a problem because we the end of the band. My book doesn’t paint a flattering
never admitted it or discussed it. We just continued to picture of either Chris or Rich, but I was writing a book
turn on each other. Back then we took everything so about my experiences, and they were the players in that
seriously, too seriously. story. I never expected them to own up to any of it, but I
“When you have fame and fortune fall into your lap and can promise you that nothing in the book isn’t true. They
you’ve got issues to begin with, if you don’t immediately won’t admit to being so horrible to the people they were
fix those issues they’re only going to get worse. I think supposed to be partners with. I knew there’d be blowback
we saw fame and fortune as an affirmation that we were from them, and so they bad-mouthed me. It’s par for the
great. We didn’t need to change because the world course. I wouldn’t have expected anything else.”
rewarded us for being who we were. We thought, ‘Why
should we grow up? Why should we change? Why WERE YOU WORRIED ABOUT HOW YOU’D SURVIVE
should we evolve?’ And like a lot of young men in their FINANCIALLY AFTER LEAVING THE BAND?
20s we weren’t willing to have any conversations about “I got into sports radio and have done various other
that stuff. Somebody was always mad at somebody, and things over the years, so I have other means of income.
we had zero perspective. The members of The Black I’ll always have a roof over my head, and I don’t need
Crowes weren’t effective communicators with each other to accomplish anything more musically. At the time, I
on any level.” thought it was sad and I thought it was a waste, but I
never looked back. Neither Chris nor Rich could start a
THE BAND WENT ON HIATUS IN 2002, BUT BY 2005 YOU solo career worth anything, so in the back of my mind I
WERE BACK. WHY? always assumed they’d get
“When the Crowes ended back together and be The
in 2002, I’d been in that Black Crowes again. And
band for 14 years of my in the end they did that in
life. It was the only thing 2019 simply because they
I’d put my energies into, needed to play music to
and I didn’t know anything make money. But I don’t
else. Getting away from the need to do that, so I don’t.”
band for a few years made
me realise that the space WAS YOUR WHOLE BLACK
The Crowes occupied was CROWES EXPERIENCE
totally messed up. Being WORTH IT?
away changed me for the “Yes, it was all worth it.
better. When I got away A lot of the things that
from the band I had a son, “CHRIS AND RICH ROBINSON WENT OUT AND happened were dark, but
which made me realise ‘CELEBRATED’ ‘SHAKE YOUR MONEY MAKER’, we made a lot of great
that all that drama was music, too. When I was
pointless. I couldn’t be BUT THEY DIDN’T ASK ANY OF THE ORIGINAL young, being a member
that person anymore. We BAND TO PARTICIPATE. THAT’S ALL YOU of the Crowes was the
always had chemistry, but culmination of everything
NEED TO KNOW.”
how we worked together I’d ever wanted. If you’d
wasn’t normal. When I went handed me my book when
back in 2005, of course, there were still problems within I was 21 years old, none of the bad stuff would have
The Black Crowes. But the big thing was that they didn’t stopped me. I asked for all of it and I got everything
bother me anymore, they didn’t keep me up at night. I no I asked for. I also got a few things I didn’t ask for, but
longer threw myself into the middle of Chris and Rich’s what’s the point of regretting anything? I wouldn’t be
issues. If the two brothers were choking each other I’d where I am had I not taken the ride, and I’m thrilled with
just let them do it. I’d say, ‘OK, see you later,’ and leave how it all shook out.”
the room. In the ’90s I would have sat there listening to
Chris and Rich for hours trying to fix things. I thought I DO YOU FEEL THE BLACK CROWES ARE TARNISHING THEIR
was helping to save the band, but it was taking a huge LEGACY BY CARRYING ON AS THEY ARE WITH ONLY CHRIS
toll on me. Between 2002 and 2005 I learned to do AND RICH OF THE ORIGINAL MEMBERS?
what’s best for me. “I haven’t seen them, and I haven’t heard any music. But
going out and celebrating our debut album without all
YOUR 2019 BOOK, HARD TO HANDLE: THE LIFE AND DEATH the guys in the band, even though they’re all still alive,
OF THE BLACK CROWES DIDN’T PULL ANY PUNCHES. DO YOU says it all. They went out and ‘celebrated’ ‘Shake Your
REGRET WRITING IT? Money Maker’, but they didn’t ask any of the original
“I don’t regret it at all. We made a plan together to do band to participate. That’s all you need to know. Chris
a 25th-anniversary tour in 2015 and use it as an honest and Rich can still go out and make a living, which is fine.
farewell tour for The Black Crowes. We said, ‘Look, we If you can make a living in your 50s playing music, do it.
don’t get along. Chris and Rich aren’t writing songs But it has nothing to do with me, and nothing to do with
anymore. What are we even doing here?’ So we all any version of The Black Crowes I was ever a part of.”
agreed to do it right and end the band so it wouldn’t be
this lifelong antagonistic hell on earth. None of us were WOULD YOU EVER CONTEMPLATE BEING A PART OF THE
happy doing it. But when our 2013 tour ended, Chris sent BLACK CROWES AGAIN?
an email to Rich and me saying, ‘In order to do the 2015 “I can’t imagine that would be interesting to me at all. I
tour I’m going to need the lion’s share of the money.’ It have a pretty active imagination, but I can’t imagine what
wasn’t out of character at all for Chris, and in some ways would ever make me interested in doing that.”
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FEATURE STEVE LUKATHER
Photo: Alex Solca
68
Steve Lukather is Toto’s only original member who’s
still fully active in the band. The good news is that his
new solo album, ‘Bridges’, unashamedly harks back to
the band’s ’80s heyday. Howard Johnson talks to the
guitar maestro about his incredible career. “Man, what
happened?” says Luke…
“I’M ABOUT SIX MONTHS into this whole white hair “My dad was a behind-the-scenes guy in the
thing,” Steve Lukather laughs. “I’ve been dyeing my hair Hollywood film industry,” he tells me. “When I was nine
since I was 30, but I stopped on my last birthday. I’d years old I was already playing in my first bands with
always said to my kids, ‘When I get old and start looking older kids. I was kind of freakish. My dad asked me what
stupid with jet black hair let me know.’ My oldest son, I was going to do for a living. I said I wanted to be a
Trev, said, ‘Pop, it’s time. Come on. Look at Brian May. musician like The Beatles. Dad told me I had like a billion-
Look at Jimmy Page. Let it go!’ But I was afraid. I didn’t to-one chance, but I said I’d be that one guy. Well, he
know what was underneath it, you know? And then when patted me on the head and told me that I’d better make
I finally did it I was in the car driving. I look in the rear- sure I had a back-up plan. I never did get one…”
view mirror and see this white hair. I’m like, ‘Who is this
guy?’ And then I realise it’s me! But I’m lucky I’ve got LUKE HAS hardly needed a Plan B though. Having
f*cking hair. I’ll take it, especially because my old man befriended muso brothers Jeff, Steve, and Mike Porcaro
was convinced I was going to be bald by the time I was at his local high school, before he was even out of his
21. I’m going to be teens Lukather’s
66 in October! Do “IF GOD TOOK ME OUT TODAY, I COULDN’T BE MAD. prodigious talent
you think I’m worried had seen him break
about my looks? Is I’VE HAD AN EXTRAORDINARY LIFE. THERE HAVE BEEN into the Los Angeles
that what my whole 15 VERSIONS OF TOTO AND I’M THE ONLY GUY session scene. Jeff
career is about? I Porcaro had been
WHO’S BEEN IN ALL OF THEM, PLUS I DID ALL THAT
don’t think so. I don’t drumming with top
care about the way I AMAZING SESSION WORK.” drawer jazz rock
look at all in the sense musicians Steely Dan
of, ‘Do I look like a rock star today?’ Now I roll out of bed, since 1973 and acted as something of a mentor to Steve.
and this is what it’s like – and it’s so much easier.” “Back then they taught music in schools,” he tells
So his hair may be white, but Steve Lukather is fairly me. “I was studying harmony theory, sight reading,
bouncing with energy this morning when he checks and orchestration while also studying guitar privately.
in for his Zoom call with me. It’s only eight o’clock in Between the ages of 15 and 18 I crammed about 10 years
the morning in Hollywood but that hasn’t slowed the of schooling into three. Then I started doing demos
California native down any. “Coffee is a powerful drug,” for people, then minor league sessions, and soon I got
he laughs. “Three cups of coffee and I’ll paint your brought up to the majors.”
house!” Lukather exudes bonhomie in a way that I hadn’t Playing in the hyper-pressurised world of sessions was
counted on. I’d heard tell that the Toto guitarist could be no place for the faint-hearted, especially when you’re still
a prickly so and so in an interview situation. That much a teenager.
seemed to be confirmed when word came through from “Oh, I was doing 25 sessions a week,” Lukather laughs.
his PR before our hook-up that he “wants to focus as “That’s like maybe 40 songs where you’d have to come
much as possible on the new album.” Well don’t they all? up with your own parts. I wasn’t sitting there reading
But here at Rock Candy Mag we’re all about the history, dots like a robot. That’s for television and film. What I
the deep dive, the context. If it was only going to be was doing was blank paper. No rehearsal, no demos –
about ‘Bridges’, Lukather’s ninth studio album, then we’d and you’d better come up with something. That’s not an
simply pass. In the end I needn’t have worried. The only easy job and we did that every week. But I loved those
problem I had with the guitarist was how to get a word days. They were the greatest days of my life.”
in edgeways as he discussed his long and extraordinary When fellow session player, keyboardist, and singer
musical life with both candour and humour. David Paich started chewing over the idea of maybe
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Toto photographed in 1982. L-R: Bobby Kimball (vocals), Steve

Porcaro (keyboards), Jeff Porcaro (drums), David Paich (keyboards
and vocals), Steve Lukather (guitar and vocals), Mike Porcaro (bass)
forming his own band, one of the guys he approached with our first album, but even after that those kinds of
was Lukather. mean-spirited punches somehow got inside of me. I tried
“We started demos for what would become Toto on to deal with it over the years, and then in the early 2000s
7 January 1977,” says Steve. “Those were the first things when that criticism was combined with things not going
David, Jeff and I put together, and Toto has been my the way I wanted them to in my personal life, I tried to
whole life since then. I always believed in the band even drink it all away, which didn’t go well for me. I’m ashamed
when other people didn’t – including people who were in of myself for that, but I was just so miserable that I was
the band!” trying not to feel anything. I kind of went off the rails
Lukather’s confidence in Toto wasn’t misplaced. Right there, and it wasn’t a great period for me. But once I paid
from the get-go and 1978’s debut album, ‘Toto’, the all those dues, I came to realise that I’m actually one of
band of session guys – Paich, Lukather, Jeff Porcaro, the luckiest f*ckers in the world. Why should I let people
keyboardist Steve Porcaro, vocalist Bobby Kimball, and who want to get under my skin get to me like that? And
bassist David Hungate – achieved enormous success with anyway, eventually all those guys retired… or retired for
such memorable songs as ‘Hold The Line’. That success real, like ‘see you in the next world’.”
continues – perhaps surprisingly – to this day. Toto’s Nowadays Steve Lukather is an entirely different
biggest hit, 1982’s ‘Africa’, has recently enjoyed a huge person to the guy who was drinking way too much. He’s
revival after its inclusion on hip TV show Stranger Things. 14 years sober, for one, and he doesn’t smoke either.
“That’s hysterical to me,” says Lukather, incredulously. “I don’t do anything,” he laughs. “I’m not motivated
“Honest to God, that song is such a great gift, especially by decadence. I live a very simple life. I stay at home
because I never believed it was going to be a hit at all. with my little pug dog, and I see my kids every day. I
We buried it on our fourth album [‘Toto IV’] because I go to bed early and I go to the doctor a lot. Nothing
remember at the time thinking, ‘OK, cool track. But we serious, though. Nothing tragic like cancer. I got my knee
really need to talk about those lyrics.’ We were from replaced last September and my hearing’s not what it
Hollywood. What the f*ck did we know about Africa? was. But I’m 65 now. This is the decade of replacement!”
Now that song’s got over a billion listens on Spotify and
all of a sudden people are looking at us differently.” WELL, SAYING he doesn’t do anything isn’t exactly true.
Photos: Jim Hagopian; IconicPix/George Chin
What Steve Lukather still does is music, as evidenced by

DESPITE TOTO’S unbelievable commercial success over the arrival of ‘Bridges’, eight tracks of prime Lukather
a staggering 45-year period, it’s fair to say that they’ve rock that follows relatively hot on the heels of 2021’s ‘I
never been critical darlings. Perhaps surprisingly this Found The Sun Again’.
seems to be something that still irks Lukather. Maybe less “I still play the guitar because I love playing the f*cking
than it used to, but all the same… guitar,” he grins. “I’ve been that way since I was a kid.
“It always used to be, ‘Oh, Toto is those studio And ‘Bridges’ is a shamelessly ’80s record in terms of the
guys…’, as if being a studio musician was something style of the music and in the way we recorded it, over-
to be ashamed of. They should try 25 sessions a week produced it you might say. It definitely doesn’t sound
sometimes. But I’ve always carried this weight of trying like anything else that’s coming out right now, because
to get people to take us seriously. There was always some nobody’s making music like that anymore.
smarmy old guy saying Toto sucks. We had major success “My last album, ‘I Found The Sun Again’, was done
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right before the pandemic, literally a month before though. In this issue’s review of the album, Rock Candy
lockdown happened – and that record was for me. We Mag’s Xavier Russell says this is Lukather’s finest solo
played everything live, and it was a bit self-indulgent. record since 2010’s ‘All’s Well That Ends Well’. Well I was
Well actually it was a lot self-indulgent. There was a lot a big fan of ‘I Found The Sun Again’ so might not agree
of jamming, real guys in a room, all the solos live without with that. But what I do know is that ‘Bridges’ is another
fixing anything so I could great contribution from
prove I still had it in me. Lukather to his own
We had a blast with our lexicon, featuring top
20-minute jam songs, tunes including ‘I’ll Never
and the record did good. Know’ and ‘When I See
I mean, it didn’t blow the You Again’.
walls off or anything, but “I played to my
what does these days? strengths and gave
But I had to scratch everybody what I
the itch. And then the thought they wanted,”
pandemic hit and for two the guitarist confirms.
years I walked around “And I’d say ‘Bridges’
the house going crazy, is about as close to a
bumping into the walls.” Toto thing as you’re ever
Once the fear of COVID going to get right now.”
eased, Luke “had a Now that’s a very
couple of months free interesting comment,
before I was due to go so much so that it’s the
out on the road playing one we’ll pick out for a
with Ringo Starr’s All- cover line for this issue.
Starr Band, so I called Although there’s been
my Toto partners David talk since the release
Paich and [vocalist] of the last Toto studio
Joseph Williams and said album proper, 2015’s
I wanted to make another ‘XIV’, that there would
solo record. I’m lucky be no more recordings
because I have this really under the Toto name,
supportive label, Mascot, nevertheless there has
who let me do whatever since been 2018’s ‘Old
I want to do. And luckily Is New’, a mix of new
for everybody, I sell songs and completed
enough to be able to older ideas, and a 2021
keep doing it. I can pay live album, ‘With A Little
everybody’s wages and “I PURPOSELY HELD BACK ON THE SOLOS, PLAYED Help From My Friends’.
make some money on the SOME REAL MELODIC STUFF. I WASN’T TRYING This time, though, Luke
publishing. So I had this TO BE JOE FLASHY BECAUSE THERE ARE says it really is the end of
creative itch I wanted to Toto’s recording career,
scratch and that was the SEVEN-YEAR-OLD KIDS IN JAPAN THESE DAYS WHO the indirect result of a
only motivation I needed. ARE THE FASTEST GUITAR PLAYERS YOU CAN EVER lawsuit brought by the
“I said, ‘Let’s just do it, widow of Jeff Porcaro.
IMAGINE. SO WHAT’S THE POINT?”
not really think about it The drummer was still in
too much, and see what the band when he died of
comes out. But let’s absolutely not try to be hip to what’s a heart attack in 1992 at the age of just 38. Of course the
happening right now.’ I purposely held back on the solos, lawsuit was about money, and it ended up acrimoniously
played some real melodic stuff. I wasn’t trying to be Joe with Toto losing the case. The Toto name can clearly be
Flashy because there are seven-year-old kids in Japan used live, given that a new iteration of the band has been
these days who are the fastest guitar players you can out playing those dates with Journey. But new recordings
ever imagine. So what’s the point? under the Toto name are a different matter.
“We did the whole thing in three weeks,” Lukather “We were getting sued and there was internal strife in
continues. “And then I sat on it for a year before I mixed the band,” says Steve of those tricky times. “Some people
it because I was on the road. First there were Toto dates I now haven’t spoken to in a good few years. It’s sad, but
in February and March of 2022, then shows with Ringo sometimes relationships are like that. When you marry
Starr’s All-Starr Band. And both [fellow All-Starr Band someone you think you’re never going to get divorced.
member] Edgar Winter and I got COVID! Edgar had When you join a band you never expect you might be at
stayed in his house for two years, didn’t see anybody. odds with somebody you were once best friends with. And
Then he got it in the first week! Luckily I wasn’t affected that hurts. But that’s also life. So solo albums where David,
too bad. I have this weird blood type that means I’m not Joseph, and I perform together is as close to a Toto thing
really prone to infections. Rhesus negative saved my ass!” as we can do due to… well I don’t want to get into the legal
sh*t, but doing solo records where we all get to play with
HALFWAY THROUGH the tour things ground to a halt, but each other makes the most sense.
at the start of 2023 Luke was back out on the road again “Jeff passed away so tragically that it still hits me
playing arenas on a double bill with Journey, so ‘Bridges’ every day. His brother Mike [who played bass in Toto
had to wait until now. It’s been well worth that wait, between 1982 and 2007] too. There’s always a point
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in the day when something shakes a memory and the To that end, Lukather made it his business on ‘Bridges’ to
realisation that Jeff’s been gone over 30 years now is work not only with Paich and Williams, but also with many
just staggering. You learn to live with it, but you can’t of the musical friends he’s made over his long, long career.
really get over it, and I miss him. But business and money “David Paich is still the Grand Poohbah,” he laughs. “We
changes things and so sometimes people’s families aren’t talk every day. He can’t tour anymore because he’s not
quite as… soulful. I’m still talking about Jeff, dedicating physically capable. He’s got a myriad of medical things
songs to him. I’m not trying to say he never existed. But and his doctors told him he couldn’t do it anymore. And
Joseph Williams and I want to keep working. We paid for I’d rather have him around and not force him to be on
the Toto name with blood, sweat, and money, and after the road. He still shows up and plays live with us once in
the litigation lots of people now get paid. They get paid a while, and he’s very much a part of the team and the
every night when Toto performs. It’s not like I’m taking all business. He helped write four songs on ‘Bridges’.”
“I live a very simple life. I stay at home with my little pug dog.”
the money and going ‘f*ck you’. I’m paying people who Other former Toto collaborators lending a hand on
don’t even like me! So we’ll do the solo records, and we’ll ‘Bridges’ include Randy Goodrum, Stan Lynch, Simon
all get to play on them. I really don’t see Toto records in Phillips, and Leland Sklar.
the future, and while never’s a long time, the question “People think that I don’t speak to these guys because
is why should we do it? I don’t think that commercially they’re not playing in the band anymore,” says Steve.
we’d do any better putting stuff out as Toto than under “But these people are my friends for life, and I wanted to
our own individual names, because the same people buy hear them play again. I got to hang with my old pals and
this stuff. And that’s fine. We’re a niche market. We have of course the fans loved the fact that we were working
our audience and I’m not suddenly going to convince together again.”
somebody who doesn’t like us to dig it.” Perhaps the greatest reward of all in making ‘Bridges’,
though, was that Steve got to work with his son Trevor
ALL THOSE legal shenanigans have clearly drained on opening track ‘Far From Over’.
Lukather, but it’s also focused him on what really matters “Trev is my first child, and I was in the room when
to him, and that’s playing music. He’s realised that at he popped out,” he tells me. “I got to cut the cord – as
the age of 65 time is short, and talking to original Toto fathers do. So there I am looking at this beautiful boy,
vocalist Bobby Kimball has really brought that notion and I do remember wondering if he was going to follow
front and centre. in my footsteps. As it turned out, Trevor was always
“Poor Bobby now has dementia so bad,” he tells me. interested in music, though he’s the only one of my four
“And that’s really sad. When he checks in with me now, kids who is. I took him on the road in Europe for the
it’s hard for him to talk, and that’s been hard to deal with. summer when he was 12, and not only did he take to
Bobby’s a lovely guy and we’ve been friends since we the lifestyle, he took to the music too! He wasn’t going
started. People like to make a big deal out of the fact to be a doctor after that! I started bringing him to the
Photo: Alex Solca
that we had words in the ’90s when Bobby was using the studio when he was 13 years old. He was playing drums
Toto name without asking. But that was people trying to and to be fair he had a good groove. Every kid starts
churn the waters of hate. That was a hundred years ago. out beating on sh*t, right? Jeff Porcaro gave him a little
His illness really makes you think.” mini drum set, and it turned out Trev was ambidextrous. I
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thought that was interesting. But then he decided to take “I never stopped,” he confirms. “And with ‘Bridges’
up the guitar. I’ve learned to come at it without putting any pressure
“The first thing I told him was ‘You’re not allowed to go on myself. Now when I practise, all I’m trying to be is
like this.’” Steve makes a tapping gesture with his finger the best me I can be. There are a million guys who are
up the dusty end of an imaginary fretboard. “‘Because better than me, but that’s not the point. I’m just looking
we don’t need any more people playing like Eddie [Van to connect with people who like my music and enjoy the
Halen].’ I said, ‘Be a great rhythm player, write great riffs, fact that there’s still a lot of forward motion.
come up with great parts.’ After a short while I saw that “I figure I’m going to give myself four more years to
Trev was developing something a little different and he’s go at it hard until I’m 70, but I’ll never stop completely.
been at it ever since, working as a session musician. He’s I’ll never leave the circus. Yeah, the money’s great and all
not super-famous or anything, but he plays real tasty. that sh*t, but I still need to make new music for whoever
There’s a little bit of the old wants to listen to it, and I still
man in there, but he does it play the guitar because I love
in a fresh way. He and I laid to play the f*cking guitar. And
down guitars, bass parts, not only do I get to do all this
and vocals for ‘Far From stuff, I also get to be in Ringo
Over’ and I let him produce Starr’s band. People can say
my vocal, which was a trip ‘F*ck you, you suck.’ Well OK,
– especially when he kept you can think that, but you’d
saying, ‘No, do it again.’ I trade with me in a heartbeat,
just laid back and let him wouldn’t you?
get on with it. Simon Phillips “If God took me out
was cracking up watching today I couldn’t be mad,”
because he’s known Trev he continues. “I’ve had an
since he was a little kid!” extraordinary life. There have
Watching his son develop a been 15 versions of Toto and
musical career has doubtless I’m the only guy who’s been in
saved Steve from falling into all of them, plus I did all that
the trap that many musicians amazing session work. And
do, which is to decide that no nobody else is ever going to
music from outside of their live this life again because
own era has value. they don’t build people like us
“I’m not an old, bitter anymore, and there’s no place
b*stard,” he grins. “‘Oh, it’s all for us studio musicians. Now
computers and I hate rap.’ I’m everybody has a studio set up
not that guy. I can listen to at home, they’re on Zoom
lots of different music in “‘BRIDGES’ IS A SHAMELESSLY ’80S RECORD calls like this one, they
the same day, from Marvin IN TERMS OF THE STYLE OF THE MUSIC AND IN send their stuff across to
Gaye to Slipknot and The whoever and they get paid
THE WAY WE RECORDED IT, OVER-PRODUCED
Carpenters to f*cking accordingly. But there’s
whatever. I poke around IT YOU MIGHT SAY. IT DEFINITELY DOESN’T none of the excitement of
on YouTube too, and then SOUND LIKE ANYTHING ELSE THAT’S COMING walking down the hallway
the algorithm throws you of Capitol Studios in
a bunch of things. I listen
OUT RIGHT NOW, BECAUSE NOBODY’S MAKING Hollywood going ‘Who am I
to all kinds of stuff that MUSIC LIKE THAT ANYMORE.” playing with today?’ It was
isn’t about the technical like going to summer camp
playing, but I have to admit that I do love great players.” every day. ‘What are we going to do? Arts and crafts. OK,
let’s do arts and crafts!’ We had the best time ever, even
SO WE’RE back to that again. Steve Lukather just can’t with the pressure of the red light going on. ‘This had
shake off his guitar addiction, his love of playing with and better be great. Time is money. Come on, man.’ My solo
listening to other great musicians. That has to be why he on Lionel Richie’s [1983 Top 10 hit] ‘Running With The
keeps doing it into his 66th year, because surely he can’t Night’ was my first run through. I was just warming up,
need the money. Not after Toto have racked up over 40 played way too much and filled every f*cking hole. But
million physical sales and three billion plus streams on Lionel said, ‘You’re done. Now get outta here.’ In eight
Spotify alone. minutes I was done!
“Well, first of all I’ve been divorced twice,” he laughs. “I know every old dude says they had the best of it, but
“But no, the money is only there to make sure that when I really think we did. Nobody wrote out my guitar parts.
I die my four kids are taken care of. And in the meantime I had [legendary producer] Quincy Jones telling me to
I get to live a simple life. I’m doing exactly what I want make something funky for [Michael Jackson’s 1983 mega
to be doing. I don’t want a ‘Hey, look at me!’ life. I have a hit] ‘Human Nature’ and I came up with the solo on the
humble pad up in the Hollywood Hills, I’ve got one nice spot. That’s me 100 per cent. And the funny thing is that
car, I wear the same chains around my neck that I’ve been [the song’s writer] Steve Porcaro hated it!
wearing for 20 years. They were gifts from my children, “I just always kept playing guitar. I never had to grow
and one was from Ringo, so they mean something to me. up and become an old man. I just sort of became an old
It’s not like I’m trying for a look. I’m a simple dude.” man, but I’ve always retained my youthful love for what
A simple dude who found out early doors that the I do – and I never looked back. But then one day I
most fun he could possibly have was playing a guitar – blinked, and it was 47 years ago! And all I can think is,
and Lukather’s never found anything to replace it. ‘F*ck, what happened?!’”
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FEATURE RAPID FIRE RECALL
PAT THRALL
THE HIGHLY RESPECTED GUITARIST EXPLAINS HOW HE INADVERTENTLY CAME
UP WITH THAT BIZARRE PAT TRAVERS SONG TITLE ‘SNORTIN’ WHISKEY’,
WHY THE HUGHES/THRALL PROJECT WAS DYSFUNCTIONAL, AND THE WAY IN
WHICH PRO TOOLS COMPLETELY CHANGED HIS LIFE…
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LEARNING THE GUITAR for them and invited me along to the gig. I was hanging
“I actually started out as a drummer in San Francisco out backstage with Journey when Neal grabbed me by
when I was really young, playing with various other the shoulder and said, ‘We’re in trouble here. Listen to
people and rehearsing at my parents’ house in a good- this guy.’ And of course Neal was talking about Eddie
sized basement where the guitarists would leave their Van Halen, who was on stage playing ‘Eruption’. All I
equipment. I struggled to get better at the drums, but could think was, ‘What the f*ck is he doing? Is that a
after we’d rehearsed I’d pick up the guitars on my own, synthesizer on his guitar? What is that?’ My head was
plug into the amps, and have at it. Pretty quickly I found still full of Eddie Van Halen when Neal said to me, ‘Oh,
that the guitar was pretty easy for me, but even then I by the way, I forgot to mention… I know this guy called
didn’t really take the instrument very seriously. Then, one Pat Travers and he’s looking for another guitar player for
day, I was noodling around on the guitar in front of the his band. You should call him up.’ Journey’s management
other band members and one of them came up to me looked after Pat, so they put me in touch with him. We
and said, ‘Hey, you’re better than our guitar player. Why talked, then hung out, and in the end Pat asked me to
don’t you play guitar?’ I didn’t become the guitar player, go out on the road for a week to see if things might
but I did quit the band – and the drums! Then I locked work with the two of us. Everything went well, the
myself in my basement for a good year with an electric audience kept asking for encores, and so I joined the
guitar and really worked at it.” band full time.”
COOKIN’ MAMA ‘BOOM BOOM (OUT GO THE LIGHTS)’

“I’d been playing guitar seriously for a while, so I started “Pat had been doing that song in his set for years, but
looking around for a local band to join when I was about we added this super-long intro where Pat talked to the
15. Cookin’ Mama had been playing around the Bay audience and got them involved. At that point in time
Area and were looking to add a guitarist. The leader of I was very into creating textures using my Echoplex
the band was a guy called Tommy Thompson. He was and Flanger effects units, so while Travers would be
playing with my talking, he and I
brother, Preston, “WORKING WITH GLENN HUGHES MADE A LOT OF SENSE would add some
who must have interesting riffs
– ON PAPER AT LEAST – BECAUSE HIS MUSICAL SENSIBILITY
told him about me I and sounds that
guess. Tommy came WAS SO SIMILAR TO MINE. BOTH OF US WERE INTO A sort of musically
over to jam, liked LOT OF FUNK AND SOUL MUSIC. BUT DRUGS WERE echoed what he
what he heard, and was saying. Over
asked if I wanted to DEFINITELY AN ISSUE.” time I developed
join the band. I did, all these swells,
and pretty soon we were off and running.” arpeggios, and textures, which made the song super-
unique. I did the solos on the first half of the song, and
FIRST RECORDING EXPERIENCE then Travers would come in on the back half. I guess my
“Cookin’ Mama got involved with a Christian ministry solo on that song acted as my big introduction to the
that said they would help us put a record out. The world as a member of the Pat Travers band. It was a real
problem was that this ministry was trying to censor our crowd-pleaser.”
lyrics, and we had our suspicions that they were trying
to steal our money too. Eventually, we decided we were ‘SNORTIN’ WHISKEY’
done with it, but thought we’d record an album to at “Pat has a lot of different stories about how that song
least document what we’d done over our three or four title came about, but my story is a little bit different to
years together as a band. The album, ‘New Day’, was his. Pat was kicking the idea for that riff around for a
recorded over a few days in The Church recording studio, while. I thought it sounded a lot like a Lynyrd Skynyrd
and was mixed in just a few hours. By that time we had riff, actually. Then one day I showed up late to rehearsal
a saxophone player in the band, so there are a ton of after partying pretty hard for a couple of days. When
horns on the album, which sounds kind of dated now. I came in, Travers was working on that riff and when
But we were all teenagers finding our way. We had no I went over to him he asked me what I’d been up to.
industry experience or connections. It’s fun to look back Because I was pretty out of it I said, ‘Ah, well, I’ve been
on the album now, but some of it is cringeworthy, for snortin’ whiskey and drinkin’ cocaine.’ Of course I’d got
Interview by Andrew Daly. Photo: Timeless Images/Bill O’Leary
sure. There’s some immature stuff there, and then some my words mixed up, but straightaway Pat looked at me
Jesus things thrown in for good measure. The fun thing, and said, ‘Sh*t… that’s it. That’s the title of this song.’ So
though, is that we’re all getting together to remaster the that’s how that infamous title came about. You might say
album now and it’s going to be called ‘New Day: Warts it was a group effort.”
And All’.
HUGHES/THRALL
PAT TRAVERS “I became aware of Glenn Hughes when he was in Deep
“I played in a band called Automatic Man, which I guess Purple. I thought of him as the guy with great hair
put me on the map as a guitar player. We put out two and the huge voice. I remember hanging out with him
albums on Island [‘Automatic Man’ in 1976, and 1977’s when I was with Travers, and over the years we became
‘Visitors’] and while they didn’t sell very many copies, friendly. So after I left the Pat Travers Band in 1981,
they did get the attention of people within the industry. working with Glenn made a lot of sense – on paper at
We were touring a lot, and I was living in New York least – because his musical sensibility was so similar to
around 1978. I knew Neal Schon from Journey, because mine. Both of us were into a lot of funk and soul music.
they were from the Bay Area like me, and Neal called I got a call from John Kalodner, who back then was a
me up out of the blue because he was in town. He told big A&R guy who worked with all the major bands.
me that Journey had a band called Van Halen opening John said, ‘We’re working with Glenn Hughes, but the
75
FEATURE RAPID FIRE RECALL
guys involved are Cream songs.
constantly loaded Pat playing in his first serous band, Cookin’ Mama It was tough
on drugs. We need because I had
someone new. to learn all of
Glenn mentioned Clapton’s parts,
you. Are you but it was also
interested?’ I told a lot of fun,
Kalodner that I was because Clapton
very interested, was a real idol
and when I hooked of mine. While
up with Glenn the we were touring
chemistry was in 1988, Clapton
instant. We wrote was on the road
some amazing too, and it just so
songs with happened that
great melodies. he had a gig in
But drugs were New York City
definitely an issue the same evening
because I also had that we did.
problems. Glenn’s Someone floated
problems were the idea that we
particularly bad, should maybe ask
though. When we Eric if he wanted
opened up for to come down
Santana, there and jam with us.
were a couple of So Jack’s people
days where Glenn got in touch with
barely made it to Eric’s people,
the gig. He showed they reached an
up totally out agreement, and
of it maybe five Eric ended up
minutes before we coming down
were due on stage. for our first set
The promoters at The Bottom
were freaking out, Line. I was really
everybody was shocked to
freaking out, and discover that it
before very long was the first time
it completely fell Jack and Eric had
apart. We were been on stage
done before we together since the
even finished a final Cream gig
second album. To way back in 1968.
be honest it was I remember that
really dysfunctional when Eric came
and horrible.” back out for an
encore, I handed
JACK BRUCE him my main
“Larry Mazer was a guitar. Watching
big rock manager in the ’80s and he contacted me about him play my guitar on stage was absolute ecstasy for
getting involved with Jack. Larry called and said, ‘Jack me. And to have been a part of rock history like that is
wants to put a band together with Cozy Powell and he’d just amazing.”
like you to join as well.’ Of course I agreed, so they flew
me out to England where Jack and Cozy were rehearsing ASIA
and writing. I jumped right in and did a demo with “That was an interesting gig for me, because I loved
them. We presented it to the label, but they said, ‘Not Asia’s combination of hard rock mixed with pop
interested. You’re all too old.’ I was in my 30s and they sensibility. I got involved when [bassist and vocalist]
thought I was too old! I thought that was it and so I went John Wetton called me in 1990 to tell me the band was
back to the States. Then a few months later Jack called working again. They’d done a greatest hits thing with
me up and said, ‘I’m putting a record out anyway, and I’d some new material and needed to promote it. I heard
like you to play on it and then come out and tour.” So we that initially they wanted Gary Moore to play with them
started rehearsing again in New York and off we went. and had hit him up, but at that point Gary was having
some success on his own and so wasn’t available.
PLAYING WITH ERIC CLAPTON Apparently Gary recommended me. I accepted John’s
“Out on the road with Jack we played a lot of classic offer, flew to England, learned the songs, and it felt good.
76
I got the gig and hung in there for a bit, but to be honest wanted to change my career to focus on production and
things weren’t going particularly well. We went to Russia engineering. And that’s what I did.”
and did an arena thing, but we were generally doing
smaller venues. Things got slower and slower, I got other JOE SATRIANI
offers and eventually chose to move on. There was no “The Satriani thing was a fluke. In 1999, I was working at
bad blood, but there wasn’t enough work for me to stay Avatar Studios in New York with my wife, who was the
on at that point.” studio manager. I had a production room there, which
was one of the first Pro Tools suites in New York City.
MEAT LOAF A good friend of ours, the producer Kevin Shirley, was
“I’m not sure how instrumental I was in his 1993 using the studio and he called to tell me that he was
comeback, but I working on a Joe
can say that I was Satriani record and
part of a really that I should come
strong band he put down. The record
together at that was interesting
point. I’d actually because it was very
started touring with electronic, but Kevin
Meat Loaf around is a rock instrument
1989 but detoured purist. He’s never
to Asia. Meat Loaf been a huge fan of
had fallen on hard synthesizers or drum
times commercially, machines, and that’s
playing dive bars what this whole
and clubs and Satriani record was
traveling on a sh*tty turning into. There
tour bus. Even so, was a song that had
Meat would go a synth bass thing on
out there every it and Kevin wasn’t
night and give it happy with it. He
everything he had. asked me if I would
He’d do these insane play bass on the
three or four hour track, so I went up
shows and lost over to my production
100 pounds. None room, grabbed my
of the business stuff Performing with the Pat Travers Band at the five-string bass,
Palladium Theatre, New York, 19 April 1980
mattered to him, came down and
but when he finally played. I ended up
locked in a record playing bass on
“AT THE START, OLD-TIME ENGINEERS FELT PRO TOOLS
deal with MCA, he all of ‘Engines Of
asked me if I’d come WOULD BE GONE IN A YEAR AND EVERYTHING WOULD GO Creation’, but it was
back, make the BACK TO TAPE. I SAID, ‘YOU GUYS CAN THINK WHAT YOU one of those random
record, and tour with spur-of-the-moment
him. I was done with
WANT. THIS IS HERE TO STAY.’” things that tends to
Asia by then, so I happen to me.”
decided that I would give it a go.”
PRODUCTION WORK
‘BAT OUT OF HELL II: BACK INTO HELL’ “One of the main reasons I stopped touring was because
“I don’t think anyone expected that album to do what I’d developed a passion for production. Pro Tools was
it did, especially given that it came out right as grunge just starting to come into its own and it truly was
was changing the rock landscape. Most people thought revolutionary. When I first heard about it, I thought it
Meat Loaf would fail. No one could understand why might be a fad, but I soon realised that it was the future.
anyone would even sign him. The grunge snobbery thing I saw that I’d never have to make a demo again. With Pro
Photos: courtesy of Pat Thrall; Timeless Images/Bill O’Leary
was real, so the idea that an old theatrical rocker could Tools there was no more crummy cassette stuff. Now I
have a hit record was a joke. But we worked hard, and could do everything digitally. Plus it was a lot cheaper. In
the band was very tight when we got into the studio. the old days, a weekend of recording could cost $25,000
The label had us go to Australia to do our first gigs, with all the different moving parts. Pro Tools saved a
because they figured that if the album died in the States lot of people’s budgets from blowing up. I had to take
– as they assumed it would – then at least we wouldn’t abuse from some old-time engineers at the start. They
be in the States playing to empty halls. So we were in felt it would be gone in a year and everything would
Australia, the album came out, and a few days later the go back to tape. I said, ‘You guys can think what you
word came down that it had hit number one in the US want. This is here to stay.’ What you could do in terms of
and that the video for ‘I’d Do Anything for Love (But I editing music was ground-breaking and I was instantly
Won’t Do That)’ was all over MTV. It was insane. I was in attracted to it. I believed in it early on, and the path I’ve
shock. I definitely wasn’t prepared for that. So what was gone down since has been defined by Pro Tools. I’ve had
going to be a small tour suddenly turned into a massive, a ton of success with it and now I work with a lot of pop
sold-out arena tour. Everything exploded, and I stayed stars. It’s very different from my rock days, but I’m still
with Meat Loaf until 1997 when I got tired of touring and very passionate about what I do, and for me that’s what
got married. I’d been on the road for over 25 years and matters most.”
77
FEATURE UNCOVERED
78
Desmond Child was the ultimate ’80s rock hitmaker, having had a hand in writing huge singles
for artists including Bon Jovi, Aerosmith, Alice Cooper, and Joan Jett. Howard Johnson talks to
him about his journey to success and the art of writing rock bangers!
“I REMEMBER THAT GENE Simmons started calling me the ghetto in Miami in the ’60s, which was heavy with
a song doctor, but I was never a song doctor because I R&B music. I bring all of that into the rock material I’ve
was writing songs from scratch. I wasn’t fixing songs. I worked on. It’s not square, you know? It has swing. And
was kind of fixing careers.” I think that helped those songs and those artists reach
When hard rock took over US radio in the mid-’80s broader audiences.”
by marrying driving rhythms and riffs with catchy,
often poppy, melody lines, one man above all others JOHN CHARLES Barrett was born in Gainesville, Florida
was recognised as the songwriter who could add on 28 October 1953, but soon ended up in Miami’s
the necessary commercial fairy dust. That man was Liberty City area with his mother.
Desmond Child. ‘I Was Made For Lovin’ You’ by Kiss. “My mum was Cuban,” Desmond tells me, “and I was
‘Livin’ On A Prayer’ by Bon Jovi. ‘Dude (Looks like A brought up by her in the Cuban exile community. She
Lady)’ by Aerosmith. ‘Poison’ by Alice Cooper. Desmond was a songwriter and a poet, and we were very poor.
Child had a hand in writing all of these commercial rock She was very colourful, very beautiful, and very funny,
juggernauts and many more besides. He may modestly but she was also very self-absorbed. And she had
tell me, “I’ve written almost 2000 songs and just 20 of stage fright, so was more interested in writing songs
them were hits.” But what hits they were, delivered at a for other people. I grew up in a very bohemian, artistic
time when sales of hard rock music were going through environment. There would always be big jam sessions in
Photo: Garrett Mills
the roof. Just one major US success back in those our little apartment at the weekend, and I was the little
halcyon days would have netted the writer a fortune. kid at the top of the stairs listening to all this wonderful
So Desmond Child’s 20 hits make him one of the most Latin music.”
commercially successful writers of all time. But why him? In such an environment it would seem natural that
“In many ways I think it’s down to growing up in Desmond’s mother would be excited by the idea of
79
FEATURE UNCOVERED
introducing her son to both writing and making music. YOUNG JOHN Barrett was looking for someone who
“But that’s not really true,” he says. “Because my would pay more attention to his desire to make music
mum was so self-absorbed, it was all about her. I would than his self-absorbed mother, and he found that person
describe her as Blanche DuBois from A Streetcar Named on the lawn of Miami Beach High School where he was
Desire meets going to school in
Anjelica Houston the mid-’60s.
in The Grifters. “I saw this girl
She had a trunk with long, dark,
full of different curly hair playing
things she was guitar, and what
selling, from was different
wigs to organic about her was
honey, and she that she was
had maybe 20 singing her own
different business songs instead of
cards with aliases. the regular
She had a real covers like ‘Nights
estate licence, In White Satin’
too, but never and ‘House Of
sold anything. The Rising Sun’.
So I think her I was drawn
songs and her to her, and we
songwriting were became friends.”
just another part The girl’s name
of her grifting was Deborah
thing. She Wallstein, but
thought she was she was better
going to have known as Debbie
a hit that was Wall. She lived in
going to make a one-bedroom
us millionaires apartment with
so we could her mum that had
move to Miami posters of John
Beach where all & Yoko and The
the rich people Rolling Stones
lived. When I up on the wall,
was a little kid I and she read
would sit at the philosophers like
piano and start Nietzsche and
composing these Freud and Jung.
long strings of “She was a bit
melodies, and androgynous and
she’d make me so was I,” admits
perform them for Desmond. “I
her party guests. thought she was
But I don’t think so exotic.”
she realised that The pair
I was developing Desmond (right) alongside Virgil Night in early act Night decided to try
my skills as a Child. “She was a bit androgynous and so was I.” singing harmony
songwriter. I don’t and writing
think that she songs together,
understood or even thought much of the music I liked. “and we called ourselves Night Child. Debbie became
“But I was never a musician at all,” Desmond admits Virgil Night, and I became Desmond Child.” The pair
much to my surprise. “My mum played guitar and piano, were obsessed with singer-songwriters such as Laura
but I never learned to play a single note on guitar. From Nyro, Joni Mitchell, and Elton John, and in search of the
the earliest days, I just wanted to write songs. I didn’t muse decided to head out on a number of road trips
want to learn to play guitar and that was a big mistake. – to Montreal and Boston and Woodstock. Hitchhiking
I should have learned. Early on, I could plunk out a few through Connecticut in 1971, they met Myriam Valle
chords on a piano, but I certainly wasn’t a great pianist – “she had long black hair like [another famous singer-
Photo: Idaz Greenberg
either. I learned how to play some different things, songwriter] Buffy Sainte-Marie and she was holding an
seconds and sevenths, suspended chords, because I acoustic guitar” – who would become part of Desmond’s
found that way I could give my music some kind of story later on. But Virgil and Desmond eventually landed
colour, something mystical. But I was never really a in Woodstock, where the pair made friends with Van
musician at all, because my whole world was all about Morrison’s drummer David Shaw.
concepts and melodies, the top lines.” “David had a kind of mobile home in Woodstock that
80
Desmond Child And Rouge. L-R: Maria Vidal,
Desmond Child, Myriam Valle, Diana Grasselli
doubled as a studio and he decided he was going to hardly had any heat and was really, really cold. There
produce us. We made our first demo there, three songs were goats at the farm that would break into our room
of what I’d call Brill Building folk pop with R&B touches. and eat our notebooks full of lyrics!”
It wasn’t rock in any way.” Just after Desmond
turned 18 he got a call from
DESMOND MANAGED to “THE ROCK MUSIC I’VE WORKED ON, IT’S NOT a man he knew as Uncle
land himself an unpaid gig SQUARE, YOU KNOW? IT HAS SWING. AND I Joe, who wanted to meet
as the coffee boy at the THINK THAT HELPED THOSE SONGS AND THOSE up with him in New York.
famous Bearsville Studios “Uncle Joe was a friend
just outside Woodstock, ARTISTS REACH BROADER AUDIENCES.” of my mother who’d kept
where Todd Rundgren was turning up periodically
making his 1972 album ‘Something/Anything?’. throughout my life with his wife. They spoke Hungarian
“And he was not nice to me, but I couldn’t deny that together, which was kind of weird. So Virgil and I went to
he was making really celestial music, with key changes New York to meet him, and Bernard Stollman let us stay
that came out of nowhere. He was inventing a pop music at his apartment on Riverside Drive in Manhattan. Uncle
that people like Hall & Oates and many others would Joe told me that he was my father, but that he’d wanted
later emulate.” to wait until I turned 18 until he told me. He gave me
Virgil and Desmond earned a crust picking apples $250 and told me drive back down to Miami and go back
alongside migrant workers – “it was so strenuous” – while to studying.”
playing at local cafés in return for a cup of coffee and a
piece of pie. The pair eventually met a guy called Bernard BACK ON familiar turf, Desmond enrolled at a night
Stollman, a New Jersey lawyer who founded the ESP-Disk school and was able to graduate in 1972 before going to
label that became well known for its free jazz releases. college at Miami Dade South. But not before Night Child
“Bernard had a barn full of records at a farm up there, had split. Virgil started an all-girl band called The Dairy
and we ended up packing them to go to the record Queens and Desmond headed to college, which is
stores. He let us stay in the adjoining farmhouse, but it where he came across Maria Vidal.
81
FEATURE UNCOVERED
“We met at the drama and music department. Maria had didn’t have any money, so we’d shoplift the ingredients
such an incredible personality and we started dating. At for some quiche and salad and a big jug of white wine.
the time I fancied myself as an androgynous figure like We thought we were being very sophisticated. Diana
David Bowie, Mick Jagger, or Alice Cooper. I was attracted was always very good at going into a store with a big
to both boys and girls. I didn’t know what I was.” coat on and tucking a can of ham inside it. Now, of
Desmond eventually applied to move to New York course, if you try to walk out of a store with something
to study music at NYU’s School Of Education and was the alarms go off! I really miss those times. We had no
accepted on a scholarship, with his dad, ‘Uncle Joe’, money, but everyone was so beautiful and vivacious and
giving him $250 per month to help with the rent. funny. Anything could make us laugh hysterically, and our
“Maria and another friend of ours, Diana Grasselli, also stomachs would be aching from laughing. I don’t laugh
came up from Miami, and then we all hooked up with like that anymore.”
Myriam Valle, the girl I’d met in Connecticut. We started Life was running at a super-fast pace, and when
a group called Desmond Child And Rouge.” Desmond Child And Rouge signed a deal with Capitol
Desmond learned a little musical notation at NYU Records in 1978 they thought they were on their way
“because I was made to take music theory. I don’t know to superstardom.
how I did it, but I passed with pretty good grades,” “I really think we could have been huge stars, but the
he laughs. “But the theory wouldn’t stick. Whatever I truth is that we weren’t guided right,” says Desmond.
learned I pretty “Capitol didn’t
much forgot right understand
after the test. what we were
I attribute that doing. They
to some kind of had their own
attention deficit version of Bruce
disorder. But Springsteen,
anyway, when who was Bob
we wrote songs, Seger, and they
we’d write lyrics also had a disco
out meticulously, group called
pluck a few Taste Of Honey,
chords out, and and we were
then write the sort of in the
chord symbols middle of that.
in the corner of We thought we
the page so we were something
wouldn’t forget “‘I WAS MADE FOR LOVIN’ YOU’ HAD MORE OF A DISCO AND special, but
the tune.” R&B FEEL TO IT, AND THAT WAS DIFFERENT TO THE KIND OF not even our
Desmond insists producer seemed
that the electric
HEAVY POP THAT PAUL WAS MAKING WITH KISS.” to understand.
vibe of New York And yet, if you
City nightlife that he found there in the late ’70s was listen to our first album [‘Desmond Child And Rouge’,
essential in forming the band’s sound. which was released in 1979], you’ll see the beginnings
“We immediately found a home in the gay clubs and of the songwriting work I would end up doing with Bon
cabarets of New York City, especially in Greenwich Jovi, and you’ll hear the beginnings of my songs with
Village,” he remembers. “I was living uptown with Maria Ricky Martin, because we were combining Latin and
in a little rented apartment on East 81st Street, but R&B music with rock chords and telling stories about
we’d be roving all over New York. Those were crazy, characters who were living an idealised version of our
wonderful, pre-AIDS times and I quickly found that I was own lives.”
being pulled into the gay culture. But at the same time
I loved Maria, and I didn’t want to disappoint my newly WHEN ‘DESMOND Child And Rouge’ turned up in the
found father, who was very straight. That created a lot of disco racks “we were really insulted.” When a producer
tension within me, and the way I chose to deal with that called John Luongo produced a disco mix of a song
at first was simply to keep my nose to the grindstone called ‘Our Love Is Insane’, that they had no input on, “it
and work really hard at songwriting and trying to make a felt like death to us. They took the guitar solo out and
success of it.” replaced it with a sax solo.”
While Desmond was all in on the New York nightlife
IT WASN’T all work, though… scene, he knew that his band wasn’t just another identikit
“Oh, we were living a fantastic life,” laughs Desmond. disco act, especially because the timing of being
“We were rubbing shoulders with Andy Warhol and categorised as such couldn’t have been worse.
a lot of his entourage at [celebrated cabaret club] “In 1979 there was this huge anti-disco backlash,” he
Reno Sweeney. [Transgender American actress] Holly says. “The Bee Gees had been so much at the forefront
Woodlawn became my friend. Maria and I would always of that scene with Saturday Night Fever, and the
organise a Sunday brunch at our apartment and all the backlash pretty much killed their career stone dead.
kids we would meet at the cabaret, all the comedians There was a DJ who started this weird thing where
and singers, would come and sing a song or do a routine. they asked people to bring disco albums to a baseball
We’d fit maybe 20 people into this one little room. We stadium and burn big piles of them. It was very Nazi-ish,
82
From left: Jon Bon Jovi, Cher, Desmond Child,
and Steven Tyler photographed in the ’80s
actually, and a real suppression of black and gay culture.” songs, even though its obvious influences continue to
In such a febrile atmosphere there was at least one divide the band’s hard rock fan base. Nevertheless, it
person, however, who was prepared to back Desmond’s provided the group with a Top 20 US hit and Desmond
vision of an open-minded, multi-cultural melting pot of with his first co-writing success. Convinced that he was
musical styles… onto something big with this mix of danceable rhythms
“By chance Paul Stanley saw some Desmond Child And and tough guitars, Desmond’s second album with Rouge,
Rouge posters on the street and he came down to see us 1979’s ‘Runners In The Night’, saw the band homing in on
at a club called Tracks. It was right around the time when this musical mash-up. But while the first album had been
we were getting signed, and Paul liked what he heard relentlessly colourful and upbeat, ‘Runners In the Night’
and asked if I wanted to write a song with him.” was an altogether darker affair. The reason for this was
New Yorker Stanley had by this point already achieved highly personal.
huge success with his hard rock act Kiss. On the surface “Maria and I had to break up because I fell in love
it didn’t exactly look like a marriage made in heaven. with a boy across the street,” explains Desmond. “It was
“And in many ways I think I brought my style to Kiss,” something I simply could not not do. It was obviously
Child Archives
says Desmond. “To be fair, though, Paul has always been really difficult having to go through that with Maria,
a lover of Motown and you can certainly hear shades of because I really was in love with her. But I had to be true
[The Four Tops’s] ‘Standing In The Shadow Of Love’ in ‘I to myself. The first song on ‘Runners In The Night’ is
Was Made For Lovin’ You’. I think Paul’s love of Motown called ‘The Truth Comes Out’ and it’s a song that’s totally
Chin
was why he was attracted to Desmond Child And about coming out as gay, though at the time I wasn’t
courtesy of Desmond
Rouge’s music in the first place. It had more of a disco brave enough to admit it. When we talked to the press
Photo: IconicPix/George
and R&B feel to it, and that was different to the kind of at the time, we weren’t telling the truth. We were saying
heavy pop that Paul was making with Kiss. He had his job, that we were in a bit of a Fleetwood Mac situation. You
and then he had his personal taste. And somehow with ‘I know? ‘Maria and I broke up, but we’re still a group.’ I
Was Made For Lovin’ You’ we kind of merged both.” wasn’t giving the real reason why, and I didn’t have cool
Of course ‘I Was Made For Lovin’ You’ has gone on to enough people in my life at that time who could guide
Photo:
become one of Kiss’s most recognisable and important me to my true self.”
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FEATURE UNCOVERED
Creating with Richie Sambora and Jon Bon Jovi. “It was magic.”
MUSICALLY THINGS were changing in the group too. By & Oates, and the chorus should be anthemic like Bruce
his own admission, Desmond became too obsessed with Springsteen. But there was one other condition, and that
Bruce Springsteen, and the arrival of a new guitarist, G.E. was that the song had to be about androgyny.”
Smith, led to Desmond Child And Rouge having more Desmond got to work and came up with a number
punk leanings in called ‘If You Were
their songs. A Woman (And I
“It was like “I DO SEE PEOPLE STARTING TO TURN BACK TO CLASSIC ROCK Was A Man)’.
putting punk SONGS, WHAT I CALL ‘FOREVER SONGS’. MY AIRPLAY “It became a bit
guitars over Brill ROYALTIES HAVE DOUBLED OVER THE LAST FEW YEARS.” of a hit in France,
Building songs,” but it wasn’t a
says Desmond. global hit. What it
“And nobody got it, nobody understood it at all.” was though, was the seed of my sound, because if you
Desmond and Maria were still living in their one- listen to that song you can hear the bubbling bass line
bedroomed apartment “and it was very, very that became a signature of the songs I wrote with Bon
claustrophobic. I was only 26 years old; Maria was even Jovi, and you can also hear how the song starts with
younger. You can just imagine…” the chorus in exactly the same way that ‘You Give Love
Despite landing what some might have seen as a A Bad Name’ does. So ‘If You Were A Woman…’ never
career-altering break by getting booked to perform went anywhere, but when not long afterwards I went to
on the hugely influential TV show Saturday Night Live, write with Jon, I told him that I knew the chorus melody
by 1980 Desmond Child And Rouge was no more. was a smash. If you listen to ‘If You Were A Woman…’
Disillusioned with the idea of being a rock star himself, the chorus is exactly the same as the chorus in ‘You Give
Desmond was looking to use the calling card of his ‘I Love A Bad Name’. I was able to put the idea forward
Was Made For Lovin’ You’ writing credit to get a foothold to Jon because I was the sole writer on the Bonnie Tyler
as a songwriter. song, so I was only stealing the melody from myself. And
“I took any job that came my way,” he says without any as soon as I started working on the idea with Jon, it was
hint of shame. “But the most pivotal moment that started just magic.
me on my way as a songwriter was a request from Jim “‘If You Were A Woman (And I Was A Man)’ has
Steinman, who was producing an album for Bonnie spawned so many songs. If you listen to ‘Bed Of Nails’
Photo: Ciro Barbaro
Tyler at the time. In 1983 Bonnie had one of the biggest by Alice Cooper from his ‘Trash’ album [1989], it’s pretty
hits ever with the song ‘Total Eclipse Of The Heart’ that much the same melody in the chorus of that song as the
had been written by Steinman. Steinman asked Child to melody in the Bonnie Tyler song as well. Funnily enough,
write him a song for Bonnie “where the verses are like [another famous ’80s rock songwriter] Diane Warren
Tina Turner, the bridges are like The Police meets Hall worked with me on ‘Bed Of Nails’. She called me and
84
said, ‘If you write those same chords again in another “I saw the authoritarianism over there in Russia and
song I’m going to kill you!’ I told her that nothing had realised that that was how the leader of the cult I was
stopped her from writing the same song over and over in was behaving, and how he was controlling me. You
again! We have good banter because we’re both great couldn’t say one word out of place, and here I could see
friends and great rivals.” an entire country that was operating like that. That kind
of broke the spell. I came back home, met my husband
DESMOND’S SONGWRITING star really went supernova Curtis, and that really provided the answer to what I was
after he wrote four songs on Bon Jovi’s 1986 mega-hit searching for. I went through a tortuous, difficult time.
album ‘Slippery When Wet’, including ‘You Give Love But if I hadn’t done that, then I wouldn’t be the person I
A Bad Name’ and ‘Livin’ On A Prayer’, both of which am today.”
went to number one on the US Billboard singles chart.
Desmond was suddenly on a roll, and his next major AND DESMOND Child today is a happily married man
success came from working with Aerosmith on the with two sons who’s still full of fire and passion for
band’s 1987 comeback album ‘Permanent Vacation’ The writing songs.
album yielded another couple of huge singles, ‘Angel’ “I’m turning 70 this year and there’s this feeling of
and ‘Dude (Looks Like A Lady)’. impending doom,” he laughs. “Time is short, so whatever
“And had I not experienced my own journey, I would I’m going to do in my life I’d better do it now – write the
never have been last songs I’m
able to turn that going to write,
second song have another
around,” confirms hit, make sure
Desmond. that my legacy
“Aerosmith had is remembered.
this track called I’ve written my
‘Cruisin’ For The autobiography
Ladies’, but one Livin’ On A
day [vocalist] Prayer: Big Songs
Steven [Tyler] Big Life that
told me that it will be out in
had originally September and
been titled I’m working on
‘Dude Looks some Broadway
Like A Lady’. shows too.”
Immediately I He’s still
said, ‘That’s a hit writing with
title.’ [Guitarist] “THE LYRICS OF ‘DUDE (LOOKS LIKE A LADY)’ ARE VERY rockers too, as
Joe [Perry] was FORWARD. ‘NEVER JUDGE A BOOK BY ITS COVER, OR WHO YOU’RE the song ‘Proud
very sceptical Desperado’ that
GONNA LOVE BY YOUR LOVER.’ I WANTED THE SENTIMENT TO
at first, very he co-penned
resistant, but BE THAT PEOPLE SHOULDN’T JUDGE; THAT with Kip Winger
the song quickly WE SHOULD LET PEOPLE BE WHO THEY WANT TO BE.” not too long
took on a life ago proves.
of its own. The “It’s pretty
lyrics are very forward. ‘Never judge a book by its cover, much a chronicle of what’s going on today,” he tells me.
or who you’re gonna love by your lover.’ I wanted the “People being misled with promises of an ideal world
sentiment to be that people shouldn’t judge; that we that leads them to violence. I love the song and Kip is
should let people be who they want to be. And that just so talented.”
applies today more than ever.” Writing hits is complicated these days, he says.
Child’s success in the ’80s was beyond his wildest “If you can’t create something charming on TikTok it’s
dreams, but what many people don’t know is that going to be tough. And now that radio stations have all
despite the riches and the accolades, he wasn’t in a good become consolidated, everything’s by the book. One
place personally. person decides what 2000 stations will play, and if that
“I was having so much success,” he remembers. “But one person is conservative, then what gets played is
at the same time I was seeking my spiritual self. I went conservative. People say it was the bad old days when
on this long journey where first I was looking for gurus, you could pay programme directors in cash, coke, and
and then a little later on I joined a small cult that was hookers to play your song multiple times until it stuck
in Upstate New York. I started giving all my money to with an audience, but I liked the bad old days! At least
them and thinking that the more success I had, the more it was great for me writing those singles. But I do see
I could give to the cult, and the more it would help me people starting to turn back to classic rock songs, what
on my spiritual journey. I was living this weird double life, I call ‘forever songs’. My airplay royalties have doubled
working on songwriting in Manhattan four days a week, over the last few years because people have returned
and then spending three days a week in Upstate New to wanting to hear songs that take them somewhere
York – and later in Virginia – where I’d be pruning trees harmonically. So I’m going to keep writing just as long
and painting rooms.” as I can. Look at [American A&R legend and music
It wasn’t until he attended a writing symposium in executive] Clive Davis. He’s just celebrated his 91st
Moscow called Music Speaks Louder Than Words in 1990 birthday and he’s still involved; he’s still listening to
that Desmond was finally able to break free of the hold music all the time. I want to be like Clive. I want to die
the cult had over him. with my boots on… my Kiss platform boots!”
85
PRODUCT CLASSIC ALBUMS REVISITED
SCORPIONS
‘BLACKOUT’
DATELINE: 29 MARCH 1982
THE GERMAN ROCKERS MADE THEIR BIG COMMERCIAL BREAKTHROUGH OVER
40 YEARS AGO WITH THIS HEAVY YET MELODIC NINE-TRACK COLLECTION.
DOES IT STILL ROCK HARD TODAY?
SCORPIONS TRACK LISTING

‘BLACKOUT’ Blackout (Rudolf Schenker,
(Harvest/EMI) Klaus Meine, Herman Rarebell,
Released: 29 March 1982 Sonja Kittelsen)
Can’t Live Without You (Rudolf
LINE UP Schenker, Klaus Meine)
KLAUS MEINE – vocals No One Like You (Rudolf Schenker,
RUDOLF SCHENKER – rhythm Klaus Meine)
and lead guitar You Give Me All I Need (Rudolf
MATTHIAS JABS – lead and Schenker, Herman Rarebell)
rhythm guitar Now! (Rudolf Schenker, Klaus Meine,
FRANCIS BUCHHOLZ – bass guitar Herman Rarebell)
HERMAN RAREBELL – drums Dynamite (Rudolf Schenker, Klaus
Meine, Herman Rarebell)
PRODUCED BY Arizona (Rudolf Schenker,
Dieter Dierks Herman Rarebell)
China White (Rudolf Schenker,
RECORDED AT Klaus Meine)
Villa San Pecaïre, St Jacques-Grasse, When The Smoke Is Going Down
France, and Dierks Studios, (Rudolf Schenker, Klaus Meine)
Stommeln, Germany
RUDOLPH SCHENKER ON ‘BLACKOUT’: “The title applies to a lot of things. My ‘blackouts’ when partying, Klaus with his voice, and the
fact that the band had been away for a while. But the break was good for us. It made us more creative.”
86
GERMAN BAND SCORPIONS HIT their commercial peak when the album was first released, it was opening number
with 1984’s ‘Love At First Sting’, the group’s ninth studio ‘Blackout’ that first got the juices flowing. This song
album that sold over three million copies in the US alone sets the blueprint for much of the album as Rudolf
and yielded a Billboard Top 30 hit with the fist-in-the-air Schenker rocks up with what was a pretty pacey riff in
anthem ‘Rock You Like A Hurricane’. Most connoisseurs those pre-thrash days, Matthias Jabs peels off the kind
of the band’s music, of solo that feels like
however, agree that it’s just about to spiral
the five-piece hit out of control but
its creative zenith somehow never does,
between 1979 and 1982 and Meine comes up
when the group from with melodies that
Hanover produced are rock, but with
three albums that a very definite pop
helped define the very sensibility. In this
sound of hard rock at particular case Meine
the turn of the decade. delivers a breathless
After Hendrix- tale of some sort of fun
obsessed guitarist rock’n’roll behaviour
Uli Jon Roth left involving women and
in 1978, Scorpions alcohol gone wrong
rebooted their sound, – or possibly right.
streamlining their hard ‘Dynamite’, ‘Can’t Live
rock and updating Without You’, and
their songwriting style ‘Now!’ all tread the
to make their tunes same path musically.
punchier, and more ‘No One Like You’
straightforward. With Scorps guitarist Matthias Jabs. Is his
and ‘You Give Me All
guitarist Matthias Jabs solo about to spiral out of control? I Need’, meanwhile,
on board, the band slow the pace down,
powered ahead, first allowing the Scorps to
with 1979’s ‘Lovedrive’ ‘BLACKOUT’ WAS A CLEAR GAME-CHANGER FOR THE show their sensitive
and then with ‘Animal radio-rocker side.
Magnetism’ that SCORPIONS, AN ALBUM WHERE THEY MANAGED TO The plot worked to
arrived a year later. GENETICALLY MODIFY THEIR DNA TO GIVE THEM perfection as the
Both were great, former song was all
WIDER APPEAL WITHOUT LOSING THEIR IDENTITY
cohesive pieces of over US radio, though
work, but it was AT THE ALTAR OF COMMERCIALITY. it has to be said that
with the last of the ‘Arizona’ tries for the
triumvirate, 1982’s ‘Blackout’, that the Scorpions finally same effect and only succeeds in making you cringe with
made serious sales progress, shifting over a million its terrible lyrics and plodding riff. Which only leaves us
albums in the States for the very first time. with album closer ‘When The Smoke Is Going Down’,
Listening to the album now, it’s not hard to see why. another obligatory Scorps big ballad in the tradition
All of the components that the band had honed over the of ‘Holiday’ from ‘Lovedrive’ and ‘Lady Starlight’ from
previous two releases – catchy-yet-rocking riffs, sing-along ‘Animal Magnetism’. This lighter-waving, ‘rockers can
choruses, one big ballad, one major guitar ‘workout’ song – be sensitive too’ stuff proved to be a huge weapon in
were distilled to their most immediate essences. ‘Blackout’ this band’s armoury and Scorpions could deliver these
was surely the most earwormy Scorpions LP to date. undeniably great moments at will.
WHAT’S PARTICULARLY noteworthy about this album OVERALL, ‘BLACKOUT’ was a clear game-changer for
is that it almost didn’t get made – at least not the way the band, an album where they managed to genetically
we know it. Early on in the process, vocalist Klaus modify their DNA to give them wider appeal without
Meine developed nodes and a polyp on his vocal cords losing their identity at the altar of commerciality. It has
that were so bad he couldn’t sing a note. Meine had to be said that Herman Rarebell’s drumming and Dieter
to undergo an operation from which it took him six Dierks’s production weren’t great and haven’t aged well,
months to recover. Not wanting to lose momentum, the and there are times where Meine’s nasally vocals get
Photos: Timeless Concert Images/Bill O’Leary
band seconded vocalist Don Dokken to help out with wearing. But the overall effect of ‘Blackout’ is as exciting
‘Blackout’. The singer recorded demos with the band to today as it was when I first heard it over 40 years ago.
allow them to hone the material while Meine recovered. HOWARD JOHNSON
Despite the singer believing his career could be
over, Meine in fact came back stronger than before. If
you listen to his performance on the album’s heaviest, ORIGINAL REVIEW
wildest, and least commercial number, the almost-seven- “Since acquiring a copy of the brand-new offering from
minute-long ‘China White’, you’ll hear a singer who’s the Deutsch masters of metallic mayhem I’ve found it
both delighted to be back in the game and is intent on practically impossible to stop playing the damn thing…
showing he can eat at the top table with the greats. ‘Blackout’ is undeniably the best hard rock album I’ve
Clearly the most atypical song on ‘Blackout’, ‘China heard in ages.”
White’ has become one of my personal faves, though Steve Gett, Kerrang!, 25 March-7 April 1982
‘BLACKOUT’ FACT: The video for ‘No One Like You’, the hit single from ‘Blackout’, was shot at the famous former prison Alcatraz on an
island in San Francisco Bay. “It was a little spooky,” said Klaus Meine.
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PRODUCT STRIKTLY FOR KONNOISSEURS
MONSTER ROCK ALBUMS FOR THOSE WHO NEED TO GO DEEPER
TRAPEZE – ‘Medusa’
THRESHOLD RECORDS
ORIGINAL RELEASE DATE – 1970

LINE UP
MEL GALLEY – GUITAR AND VOCALS
GLENN HUGHES – BASS, PIANO, AND VOCALS
DAVE HOLLAND – DRUMS
IT’S GENERALLY ACCEPTED THAT 1970 is the moment formed, immediately offering up all the hallmarks of
when God created metal. The late ’60s had provided the classic heavy metal; tough riffs, long guitar solos, and
building blocks courtesy of Cream, Jimi Hendrix, and Led demented drums. Opening number ‘Black Cloud’ is an
Zeppelin. But 1970 was the year when the debut Black unacknowledged classic with a hook that stays with
Sabbath album ‘Black Sabbath’, Deep Purple’s ‘In Rock’, you for days. It’s very reminiscent of Bad Company’s
and Uriah Heep’s ‘Very ’Eavy Very ’Umble’ were born. blues rock or the material Hughes would record with
These were the records that captured the imagination later period Deep Purple. Hughes’s voice is especially
of the record-buying public. Yet out on the fringes other impressive, combining the soulful howl of Steve Marriott
heavy bands were also hammering out the riffs, including and the blues rasp of Paul Rodgers. Elsewhere ‘Jury’ is
Budgie, Atomic Rooster, and Trapeze. heavier still yet is also shaded with softer moments in
Trapeze came from Cannock in Staffordshire and amongst the serious minor key riffage from Galley that’s
had formed at the start of 1969 out of the ashes of enough to give Tony Iommi a run for his money.
two local outfits, The Montanas and Finders Keepers. This contrast between light and dark is a feature of
The band quickly caused enough of a stir to win a much of the record. ‘Seafull’ is a slow blues dirge that
recording contract with the Moody Blues’s Threshold allows Hughes to fully flex his impassioned voice. ‘Makes
label. Their first album, 1970’s ‘Trapeze’, was a pretty You Wanna Cry’, meanwhile, injects a little bit of funk
limp and pastoral psychedelic effort dominated by into the mix. Hughes is known for his love of soul and
former Montanas members Terry Rowley’s flute and takes his cues from many of the great black singers. No
John Jones’s trumpet. It failed to sell, so Finders Keepers wonder Stevie Wonder rated Glenn as his favourite rock
men Glenn Hughes, Mel Galley, and Dave Holland struck singer. The full pelt riff monster ‘Medusa’, meanwhile,
out on their own and quickly went in a wholly different shows Hughes in his best light and closes out the
direction. The resulting album ‘Medusa’, also from 1970, seven-track album.
would be the very epitome of a ‘proto metal’ album.
Why it isn’t universally hailed as such is something of TRAPEZE WOULD go on to become a popular live
a mystery, given that each member of the band would draw in the States, but they never managed to top this
go on to forge a good career in heavy rock; Galley with masterful set of songs in the recording studio. ‘Medusa’
Whitesnake, Holland with Judas Priest, and Hughes with remains an obscure but delightful gem just waiting for
Deep Purple and Black Sabbath in particular. you to discover it.
‘MEDUSA’ EXPLODES out of the starting blocks fully Giles Hamilton
88
SOUTHERN SONS – ‘Southern Sons’
(WHEATLEY RECORDS)
ORIGINAL RELEASE DATE – 1990

LINE UP VIRGIL DONATI – DRUMS, KEYBOARDS
JACK JONES – GUITARS, LEAD VOCALS GEOFF CAIN – BASS
PHIL BUCKLE – GUITARS, BACKING PETER BOWMAN – GUITARS,
VOCALS BACKING VOCALS
THE ORIGINS OF AUSTRALIAN AOR act Southern Sons’ to a different level. His soulful voice sounded like
Sons can be traced back to The Cutters, an outfit that John Farnham, which some people chose to criticise,
morphed into The State in 1987. This band featured Phil but his performance on the anthemic ‘Heart In Danger’
Buckle, Geoff Cain, Virgil Donati, and Peter Bowman is superb and helps turn the tune into one of Australia’s
and they released their debut album ‘Elementary’ in finest AOR songs.
early 1989. The State got a bit of a live break supporting ‘Southern Sons’ is underpinned by precision
Eurythmics on an Australian tour, but it was clear from musicianship that benefits numbers like ‘Which Way’ and
that tour that they lacked a real frontman and that ‘Waiting For That Train’. ‘Hold Me In Your Arms’ is the
Buckle’s vocals were somewhat below par. So Buckle band’s answer to Extreme’s ‘More Than Words’, and with
invited Jack Jones – a guitarist and vocalist who’d the jaunty ‘Always And Forever’ also making its mark,
previously auditioned for The State but had originally there isn’t a dull moment on an album that really should
been considered too young – to form a new group, to have broken the band worldwide.
be called Southern Sons, with Buckle’s other bandmates
in 1989. BOTH JONES and Buckle worked with John Farnham
on his ‘Chain Reaction’ album and tour in 1990, and
SIGNING TO Wheatley Records, the home of Australian Southern Sons toured with Farnham several times
superstar singer John Farnham, Southern Sons entered throughout ’90 and ’91. Although the group would
Metropolis Audio studio in Melbourne to start work release a further two albums, they never matched the
on their eponymous debut album with producer Ross heights of their debut.
Fraser, whose previous credits included John Farnham Deciding to call it a day in 1996, the band members
and Pseudo Echo. The resulting long player was released have since worked with an array of talent that includes
in June 1990 and reached number five on the Australian Farnham and Tina Arena. Drummer Virgil Donati has
charts. Two singles, ‘Heart In Danger’ and ‘Hold Me In also worked with Steve Vai, Allan Holdsworth, Planet
Your Arms’, reached the Australian Top 10. X, and Soul Sirkus, and at one time was even touted
as a replacement for Mike Portnoy in Dream Theater.
SOUTHERN SONS dealt in sophistication and pop-rock Southern Sons reunited without Phil Buckle in 2019
nuances and this eponymous debut offers what I can and live shows were promised. So far, though, nothing
only describe as sonic perfection. Buckle wrote or has materialised.
co-wrote the whole album and his songs were good, but
it was Jack Jones’s vocals that really lifted ‘Southern Rob Evans
89
PRODUCT ROCK CANDY REISSUES
THE VERY LATEST HOT RE-RELEASE FROM THE LABEL
RAM JAM
‘Portrait Of The Artist As A Young Ram’ ORIGINAL RELEASE DATE – 1978
LINE UP Imagine a boiling cauldron of riffs and TRACKS TO CHECK OUT

MYKE SCAVONE – lead vocals energy that mixed all the great ’70s ‘Portrait Of The Artist As A Young Ram’
and percussion American bands such as Aerosmith, Starz, contains a selection of tracks that all
JIMMY SANTORO – lead guitar and Ted Nugent, but in a way that was conjure up those ’70s hard rock glory
BILL BARTLETT – rhythm guitar entirely fresh and new. years. As one of 1978’s most exciting
and vocals releases it took few prisoners, preferring
HOWIE BLAUVELT – bass guitar WHAT VOCALIST MYKE SCAVONE SAYS to slash and burn its way through 10 of
PETER CHARLES – drums ABOUT RAM JAM the hardest hitting compositions recorded
“It’s true that we were a studio project that year. Tracks such as ‘Gone Wild’, ‘Just
BACKGROUND put together by Kasenetz and Katz, Like Me’ and ‘Hurricane Ride’ erupt out of
Ram Jam scored a 1977 worldwide hit the speakers with the destructive force of
single prior to this album with ‘Black a volcano in full flow.
Betty’, a song recorded earlier and made
famous by seminal 1930s black folk and MORE BANG FOR YOUR BUCK
blues guitarist and singer Huddie ‘Lead The Rock Candy CD is fully remastered
Belly’ Ledbetter. The New York rockers and includes a 16-page full-colour
produced a foot-stomping version of booklet, band interviews, enhanced
the track – possibly originally written artwork, and detailed liner notes written
about a bottle of whiskey, a prison by RC supremo Derek Oliver.
whip, or a prison transport wagon –
that was bizarrely out of place on their THE WORD FROM RC BOSS
debut album ‘Ram Jam’. Produced by DEREK OLIVER
bubblegum pop experts Jerry Kasenetz “Guitarist Jimmy Santoro wasn’t a man to
and Jeffry Katz, that first record was filled hide his talent under a bushel, preferring
with inconsequential, bland rock that to come out all-guns-blazing and nodding
gave no indication of where the band to hard rock guitar heroes such as Ted
would eventually head stylistically. who needed a band to fulfil contractual Nugent and Joe Perry. The songs on
Expectations for a 1978 sophomore effort obligations with Epic. We were sitting ‘Portrait…’ evoke comparisons with
weren’t high, and the bizarrely named around wondering what to do next, Aerosmith, and the Kasenetz and Katz
‘Portrait Of The Artist As A Young Ram’ – and to their credit Kasenetz and Katz production is electrifying, pushing guitar
a tongue-in-cheek take on the feted 1916 suggested we get into the hard rock thing work to the fore. Vocalist Myke Scavone’s
James Joyce novel Portrait Of The Artist in a bigger and more aggressive way. glass-cutting fusion of Aerosmith’s Steven
As A Young Man – gave no indication Jerry Kasenetz, in particular, had a thing Tyler and Starz’s Michael Lee Smith reaps
that such a monumental record lay within for Aerosmith, and he really gave the big rewards, especially on ‘The Kid Next
the packaging. Yet Ram Jam defied all second album a direction. Consequently, Door’, ‘Pretty Poison’, and the epic and
expectations and delivered one of the they went out looking for a new hot classy ‘Turnpike’. This latter number feels
greatest hard rock albums of the period. shot guitar slinger and secured Jimmy like a UFO classic as an ethereal keyboard
Fronted by vocalist Myke Scavone, the Santoro, who had that whole thing down. intro leads us into a tale of love gone
band went straight for the jugular on this Plus he was from Long Island and had bad, and features one of the best song
album, ripping and tearing through the already joined us as a second guitarist on arrangements this side of Aerosmith’s
mid-to-late ’70s hard rock landscape and our first tour. To give him credit, Jimmy epic 1977 track ‘Kings And Queens’ from
completely trouncing the competition. really re-invigorated the project.” the ‘Draw The Line’ album.”
Buy this album and tons of other great releases at www.rockcandyrecords.com
90
ROCK CANDY PICKS
THE STUFF THAT’S GRABBED OUR ATTENTION
STEVE AUGERI
‘Seven Ways ’Til Sunday’ (OWN LABEL)
WHAT’S THE Journey frontman in 1998, and lasted for while ‘Desert Moon’ was penned with that
STORY? two albums and an EP until frustrating band’s guitarist Neal Schon.
After releasing vocal problems forced him to leave the
a number of group in 2006. BEST BITS
digital-only ‘Seven Ways ’Til Sunday’ was recorded The ballad ‘Bated Breath’ brings Tall
singles since with Adam Holland on guitar and Craig Stories to mind, but rocking number
2010, the New Pullman on keyboards. Both musicians are ‘Drive’ and the ethereal ‘Beautiful’ are the
York-based members of acclaimed New York-based outstanding numbers here.
vocalist has AOR outfit Valentine.
finally issued THE VERDICT
his debut solo album. Augeri first came to WHAT DOES IT SOUND LIKE There always was more to Steve Augeri
global attention fronting the impressive Steve’s voice issues are far behind him, than impersonating Steve Perry. His work
Tall Stories, an amazing band that was on and this feels like a very positive record. away from Journey proves that, so it’s
a hiding to nothing after releasing their Four of the 11 songs – including opener great to have him back on the scene and
eponymous debut in 1991 just before the ‘Magic’ – were written by Augeri with releasing music again. ‘Seven Ways ’Til
grunge explosion. Steve then replaced Holland, while three of those numbers also Sunday’ has been a long time coming, but
Danny Vaughn in Tyketto, recording ‘Shine’ credit Pullman. Journey devotees should it’s well worth the wait. Buy it direct from
in 1995 and also appearing on ‘Take Out take note that the Nashville pop-ish ‘Never www.steveaugeri.com.
And Served Up Live’ the following year. Far From Home’ is a co-write with Journey
He stepped into Steve Perry’s shoes as keyboardist and guitarist Jonathan Cain, Dave Reynolds
BLACK SABBATH
‘Live Evil (Super Deluxe 40th Anniversary)’ (RHINO)
WHAT’S THE and Butler accused Dio of visiting the copies including a hardback book with
STORY? studio at night to tamper with the sound detailed sleeve notes, plus a poster and
It was trying levels. RJD and Appice quit Sabbath to replica of the ‘Mob Rules’ tour programme.
times for the form the band Dio before this double-
members of concert set even hit the racks. THE VERDICT
Black Sabbath The quality of the music here renders the
during the WHAT GUITARIST TONY IOMMI SAYS inter-band tensions all the more tragic.
closing stages “We heard from the engineer that Ronnie Though there were minor doubts about
of the tour had come in and changed some things. Dio’s ability to interpret old Sabbath
in support of Ronnie said he didn’t. It was one of those numbers such as ‘Black Sabbath’, ‘NIB’,
1981 album ‘Mob Rules’. With the band things that grew out of all proportion.” and ‘Paranoid’ that make up around half of
split into two camps – singer Ronnie Dio this record, Ronnie sounds incredible on
and drummer Vinny Appice on one side, ANY EXTRAS? ‘Neon Knights’ and ‘Children Of The Sea’.
guitarist Tony Iommi and bassist Geezer The album’s original 14 tracks (including Newer song ‘The Sign Of The Southern
Photo: Giovanni Cionci
Butler on the other – nobody was able to intro and outro tapes) are all newly Cross’ indicated that this rebooted
air grievances and a sullen mood halted remastered and things are elevated to version of the band was setting off down
the musical headway the four-piece had another level via a separate super-clear fascinating new pathways. What a shame
made with ‘Mob Rules’ and its stellar mix created from the original analogue it didn’t last.
predecessor, ‘Heaven And Hell’. During the multi-tracks. It’s available as a four-CD
mixing of the ‘Live Evil’ concert set, Iommi or four-LP set and digitally, with physical Dave Ling
91
PRODUCT ROCK CANDY PICKS
BUCKCHERRY ‘VOL. 10’

(EARACHE)
WHAT’S THE after the band’s eponymous debut record. ominous riff reminiscent of the Scorpions’
STORY? Stevie D and Billy Rowe’s guitars are mixed ‘The Zoo’ – every track is tighter than tight.
Buckcherry’s satisfyingly up front, but Frederiksen’s The two stand-out tracks are the instantly
10th studio production always allows Josh Todd’s memorable ‘Feels Like Love’ and the
album is an vocals to shine and Kelly LeMieux’s bass powerfully emotive, piano-led ‘Pain’, which
11-song affair and Francis Ruiz’s drums to underpin really highlights just what a good vocalist
featuring 10 everything with precision and clarity. Todd is.
new tunes and
a surprising BEST BITS THE VERDICT
cover of the In Josh’s own words: “The formula for us Melodic, varied, and accomplished,
1985 Bryan Adams classic ‘Summer Of is to have no fillers – having a great record ‘VOL 10.’ is a fully rounded hard rock
’69’. Like its 2021 predecessor ‘Hellbound’, from beginning to end. That’s what we album that once again sees Buckcherry
‘VOL. 10’ was recorded in Nashville and want – we want to be able to have these delivering the goods. Occasionally
was produced by Marti Frederiksen, who’s unforgettable songs and melodies. And Southern-tinged, sometimes reflective,
also worked with Ace Frehley, Aerosmith, if they don’t sound great, we just don’t sometimes wild, these are songs you won’t
Mötley Crüe, and Ozzy Osbourne. put them on records.” This philosophy want to miss. Todd said he wanted this
has stood the band in good stead and album to “give the listener a profound
WHAT DOES IT SOUND LIKE here every song leaves its mark. From the rock’n’roll experience and make this record
Like the band’s last album. This is a feel-good vibe of first single ‘Good Time’ unforgettable.” Job done Josh!
lively, in-your-face effort that keeps the to driving rockers like ‘Shine Your Light’
Buckcherry party going fully 24 years and ‘With You’ – featuring a wonderfully Ross Sampson
ANDY CURRAN ‘Whiskey And The Devil 30th’

(SING)
WHAT’S THE it rocks hardest it also echoes Australia’s including a spoof Cap’n Curran breakfast
STORY? The Angels. That’s not a surprise. Coney cereal carton and a tattoo kit. The digital
Andy Curran Hatch covered that band’s song ‘Marseille’ download offering, meanwhile, gives you
played bass when they reformed in 2013. all 19 songs that are offered on the vinyl,
and sang plus demos, videos, and two additional
in Canada’s WHAT ANDY CURRAN SAYS studio outtakes.
Coney Hatch, “This is a trip down memory lane… I
a band that completely forgot about two songs we THE VERDICT
fractured in recorded during those sessions! This was Opener ‘No Tattoos’ really stands out,
the mid-’80s also the first time I produced a record, but the songwriting sparkles throughout.
after three albums of hard-edged melodic which was a white-knuckle ride! Winning Your second favourite could be any one
rock. He later put together a quartet a [prestigious Canadian] Juno Award that from ‘Nickels And Dimes’, ‘Teenage Heart
called Soho 69 featuring two guitarists, year was the icing on the cake, but the Throb’, or ‘Right Where You Want Me’. The
Michael Borkosky, and Simon Brierley. album was only ever released in Canada.” out-takes ‘Walk The Other Way’ and ‘One
They signed to Canadian label Alert, Woman Man’ are as good as many of the
but Alert opted to treat a subsequent ANY EXTRAS? songs that did make the cut. But the live
album as a solo work and released it as Several. A double cherry-red vinyl material that ends with a rocked-up romp
‘Andy Curran’ in 1990. This is that album package includes previously unreleased through War’s ‘Low Rider’ is predictably
remixed. It mostly sounds like Coney studio tracks, plus seven ‘Live in less polished than the studio work.
Hatch – an earthier version of Cheap Trick Vancouver’ performances from Soho 69.
crossed with Bryan Adams – and when It also includes reproduction ephemera Neil Jeffries
92
THE DEFIANTS ‘Drive’
(FRONTIERS)
WHAT’S THE rock and pop rock with plenty of light voice on ‘Drive’ is as spectacular as ever.
STORY? and shade. It’ll surely please melodic rock
Forming fans, especially those who enjoy Danger BEST BITS
The Defiants Danger and Laine’s solo work. The terrific sound of the album is one of
was a stroke ‘Drive’ has an old school feel, but its its highlights, but Rob Marcello’s dynamic
of genius feet are firmly planted in the here and guitar playing certainly stands out and
because now, and the music is every bit as good sets ‘Drive’ way above similar melodic
it allowed as the band’s 2016 eponymous debut and rock efforts. But if we’re in the business of
Danger its 2019 follow-up ‘Zokusho’, which saw highlighting songs, then ‘19 Summertime’
Danger bassist Danger Danger’s Steve West guesting is a prime-time piece of ear candy!
Bruno Ravel and guitarist Rob Marcello on drums. This really is an impressive
to re-establish a creative partnership set of songs, with opener ‘Hey Life’, the THE VERDICT
with vocalist Paul Laine. Laine departed anthemic ‘Go Big Or Go Home’, and There’s a lot of excitement from those
Danger Danger when previous frontman ‘19 Summertime’ good enough to have in the know surrounding The Defiants,
Ted Poley returned to the fold in 2004. featured on either of Danger Danger’s and this album offers audio proof of
‘Drive’ is the band’s third album, with the first two albums. Special mention must why. ‘Drive’ is a joy from start to finish
line-up being completed by Van Romaine also be made of ‘Against The Grain’ and and feels like the work of a bunch of
on drums. ‘Nothing’s Gonna Stop Me Now’, as well musicians who are really, really enjoying
as of vocalist Laine, who cut four studio themselves. You need to hear it now!
WHAT DOES IT SOUND LIKE? albums during his tenure with Danger
This is an album that offers a mix of hard Danger between 1993 and 2004. His Dave Reynolds
ELEGANT WEAPONS ‘Horns For A Halo’

(NUCLEAR BLAST)
WHAT’S THE of that crushing compression producers reaches deep to pull out an aching, bluesy
STORY? now like to use, which makes a lot of performance that’s reminiscent of David
Elegant modern rock albums sound too similar. Coverdale. Put it on repeat.
Weapons is Everything is down-tuned a whole step
a new band here, which gives the guitar a late-’80s THE VERDICT
formed by Sabbath, early-’90s Soundgarden vibe with This is a fantastic album. Musically, it’s
Judas Priest some Viv Campbell Dio-era shapes thrown sophisticated and textured and gives
guitarist Richie in for good measure. the listener lots to chew on. Romero is
Faulkner a remarkable, can-sound-like-anyone
with vocalist BEST BITS singer, and Faulkner’s guitar is restless and
Ronnie Romero, who’s previously The title track reaches for Dio-esque driving. Back in 2021, Faulkner suffered an
performed with Rainbow and MSG among majesty, ‘Bitter Pill’ has a ‘Superunknown’ onstage aortic aneurysm during a Judas
others. While ‘Horns For A Halo’ was feel, and ‘Dead Man Walking’ opens with Priest encore in Louisville, Kentucky. He
recorded with Pantera bassist Rex Brown some deft guitar before slapping you knows he’s lucky to be alive and maybe
and Priest drummer Scott Travis, the around the face with a dirt road of a riff. that’s why there’s such a sense of joy
regular group now features Uriah Heep ‘Do Or Die’ features Schenker-like riff- and energy about ‘Horns For A Halo’. It’s
bassist Dave Rimmer and Accept drummer a-rama, which perhaps isn’t surprising an album Faulkner almost didn’t get the
Christopher Williams. given that there’s also a faithful cover of chance to record. We should all be very,
UFO’s ‘Lights Out’ included on this album. very glad he did.
WHAT DOES IT SOUND LIKE? The stand-out song, however, is ‘Ghost
Like a band playing in a room. There’s none Of You’, a slow number where Romero John Nicholson
93
EXTREME ‘Six’
(EARMUSIC)
WHAT’S THE Bettencourt’s production feels a bit largely acoustic numbers and provide the
STORY? claustrophobic because the music fills album’s most interesting moments. But we
Formed in every space. This may be deliberate to must also mention ‘X Out’, an ambitious
1985, Extreme give the sound some power, but it doesn’t track that sounds very different to the
are most let things breathe and means the bass and rest of the record. Distant, melancholic,
famous for the drums lack character. Pat Badger is a great powerful, and plaintive, it’s genuinely
1990 double- player, but here it could be anyone. When stirring stuff.
platinum they turn things down a bit, ‘Six’ develops
album a more sophisticated and satisfying sound. THE VERDICT
‘Pornograffitti’ This is a game of two halves. There’s no
and the hit singles ‘More Than Words’ BEST BITS doubt that the guitar solos are superb
and ‘Hole Hearted’. ‘Six’ is the Boston’s Opener ‘Rise’ has already caused a storm on every number. But outside of that, the
group’s sixth studio album, their first thanks to Nuno’s jaw-dropping, high- songs and their melodies are a bit hit and
since 2008’s ‘Saudades De Rock’, and speed guitar solo. Anyone with passion miss. Sometimes there’s too much leaden,
it retains the same line-up from the last for the shred art form will love it. It’s the mid-tempo heavy riffing and not enough
album of vocalist Gary Cherone, guitarist best, most spine-tingling moment on the space for subtlety. The best moments
Nuno Bettencourt, bassist Pat Badger, and entire record. ‘Other Side Of The Rainbow’, come when Extreme take their collective
drummer Kevin Figueiredo. meanwhile, highlights a sweet melody foot off the gas and give themselves some
that allows Gary Cherone to sing with real space to operate in.
WHAT DOES IT SOUND LIKE? emotion. ‘Save Me’, ‘Small Town Beautiful’,
On the harder, heavier tracks Nuno ‘Hurricane’, and ‘Here’s To The Losers’ are John Nicholson
FIFTH ANGEL ‘When Angels Kill’

(NUCLEAR BLAST)
WHAT’S THE then this is for you. Even when the slower, more reflective number with
STORY? songs pound hard, every aspect of the strong, plaintive vocals from Carlson. I
Fifth Angel band’s playing can be heard. The album must also mention the stunning cover
formed in is produced by drummer Ken Mary and artwork of a burning angel.
the suburbs there’s a lot going on. Lead breaks from
of Seattle guitarists Jim Dofka and Steve Conley THE VERDICT
in 1984 and are prominent, but the lighter and often The songs do tell a story and it’s clever
released two delicate rhythm guitar work from co- how the band have used lyrics from
albums before founder Ed Archer is still given space to tracks on previous albums and integrated
splitting in breathe. Everything is driven along by a them into new work. If you listen to the
1990. After a live rebirth in 2009, they tight rhythm section of Mary and bassist album from start to finish you can clearly
released ‘The Third Secret’ in 2018. Five John Macko, while vocalist Steve Carlson follow the dramatic story. Yet if you
years later they’re back again with ‘When provides the melodic toplines. fancy picking out one or two songs and
Angels Kill’. It’s a double concept album, listening to them out of sequence, they’re
features 70 minutes of music across 14 BEST BITS still strong enough to stand alone. That’s
tracks, and weaves everything into a This is an album of highlights. Title track not always the case with concept albums
cohesive and complex whole. and first single ‘When Angels Kill’ is one and is another reason why this classy and
of many belters, my favourite being the exciting double is worthy of your time.
WHAT DOES IT SOUND LIKE? punchy and anthemic ‘Resist The Tyrant’.
Epic! If you like melodic power metal, ‘Ashes To Ashes’ is another cracker; a Ross Sampson
94
HOLLYWOOD VAMPIRES ‘Live In Rio’
(EARMUSIC)
WHAT’S THE of songs by bands where at least one THE VERDICT

STORY? member had died. So what you get here is This tribute to fallen heroes feels cynical
In September a constant stream of classics, like a series coming almost eight years after the event
2015 the Alice of encores that any other band would save and following just two studio records.
Cooper/Joe for an end-of-gig jam! Worse, though, is hearing musicians this
Perry/Johnny good opting to take it easy playing in
Depp-fronted BEST BITS a covers band. Depp brings little to the
supergroup The Guns N’ Roses rhythm section of Matt party except screams from the girls in the
performed Sorum and Duff McKagan – introduced to audience. Perry is good but not great –
live with a the crowd as “the balls of the vampire” by even on his staple ‘Train Kept A-Rollin’’.
host of guests at Brazil’s legendary Rock MC Cooper – bring heavyweight muscle Cooper’s wit is still sharp, but his singing
In Rio open air festival in front of over to drive the show in some style. Alice is is much reduced. His voice sounds tired
100,000 people. The set was filmed for TV great when performing John Lennon’s on his own hits ‘School’s Out’ (featuring
broadcast and is now released as a ‘Cold Turkey’ and the Doors mash-up Sepultura’s Andreas Kisser) and ‘Billion
14-song, 53-minute live album. of ‘Five To One’/‘Break On Through (To Dollar Babies’. And while it’s good to
The Other Side)’. Lzzy Hale of Halestorm hear Zak Starkey add a different feel
WHAT DOES IT SOUND LIKE? fame sings Led Zeppelin’s ‘Whole Lotta when he takes over the drum kit for
Familiar! The album features just one Love’ powerfully enough, though it’s a The Who’s ‘I’m A Boy’, not one of these
original number, opener ‘Raise The Dead’, real shame that the band shies away versions tops the original.
while the rest of the set reflects a first from reinventing the song beyond a slow,
album policy of delivering cover versions swinging intro. Neil Jeffries
STEVE LUKATHER ‘Bridges’

(THE PLAYER’S CLUB/MASCOT)
WHAT’S THE WHAT DOES IT SOUND LIKE? reminiscent of Toto’s classic ‘Hold The
STORY? It sounds like Toto – but with a bit of Line’. ‘Someone’ shows Steve’s softer side
The Toto a twist. “I see it as a bridge between and perhaps surprisingly has something
guitarist my solo music and Toto music,” says of a Sting vibe to it. ‘I’ll Never Know’
returns with Lukather. It’s no surprise that Toto band is the album’s standout track, though.
his ninth solo members vocalist Joseph Williams and Steve’s fret tapping here feels like a
album, which vocalist/keyboardist David Paich had homage to Eddie Van Halen, while the
is no surprise. a big hand in writing the material on main chorus of the song veers off into
‘Luke’ can ‘Bridges’. But there’s also room for former Dave Gilmour and Pink Floyd territory.
normally be Tom Petty & The Heartbreakers drummer
found holed up in a studio working on Stan Lynch and ace songwriter Randy THE VERDICT
some album or other. A recent count Goodrum, both of whom have worked If you’re a fan of Toto, chances are you’re
Photos: Jesse Lirola; Ross Halfin
suggests that he’s played on over 1500 with Steve in the past. Lukather’s eldest going to love ‘Bridges’. This is Lukather’s
records, and at one point was recording son Trevor co-wrote and performs on ‘Far finest solo outing since 2010’s ‘All’s Well
a staggering 25 sessions a week. You can From Over’. Just like his dad, he certainly That Ends Well’, and given that Toto are
check out Steve’s playing on the likes knows how to wring the neck of a guitar! currently touring the States with Journey,
of Fee Waybill’s ‘Read My Lips’, ‘Ronnie is it too much to hope for a Steve
Montrose’s ‘10x10’, or his collaboration BEST BITS Lukather solo tour later this year?
with the legendary Jeff Beck on ‘Japan It’s all good. ‘Not My Kind Of People’
Live Sessions 1986’. sets the tone with monster power cords Xavier Russell
95
MOTÖRHEAD ‘We Play Rock ’N’ Roll: Live At Montreux

Jazz Festival ’07’ (BMG)
WHAT’S THE they always were – loud, unapologetic, along the way, though, and they get an
STORY? and surprisingly groovier than they were airing here. ‘I Got Mine’ is infectious to the
The Montreux perhaps given credit for. Lemmy’s bass point of being almost danceable, while
Jazz festival throbs like a hangover, Phil’s guitar cuts ‘Killed By Death’ has a grand old groove.
received a like a razor blade, and Mikkey’s drums The band’s cover of Thin Lizzy’s take on
real kick in sound… well, no more than passable if ‘Rosalie’ is worth a listen, even though
the pants truth be told. Motörhead were always Lemmy’s gravelly gargle doesn’t really do
when bassist going to do what Motörhead did. justice to Phil Lynott’s lilting delivery.
and vocalist Sometimes they did it better than at other
Lemmy, times, so here the songs veer from stone THE VERDICT
guitarist Phil Campbell, and drummer cold classics to frankly forgettable. This is a perfectly enjoyable audio
Mikkey Dee – collectively known as reminder of where Motörhead were at
Motörhead – entertained the audience at BEST BITS creatively in 2007. But is there a burning
the Auditorium Stravinski on 7 July 2007. There’s a reason why Motörhead enjoyed need for any Motörhead live album
This double album commemorates the a commercial heyday. The likes of ‘Stay besides the acknowledged classic that
moment with 19 songs of what Lemmy Clean’, ‘Metropolis’, and end-of-show is 1981’s ‘No Sleep ’Til Hammersmith’? If
succinctly categorised as “rock’n’roll.” one-two ‘Ace Of Spades’ and ‘Overkill’ you’re a completist, then yes. But if you’re
from the late ’70s/early ’80s were the best not, then a casual listen will be enough.
WHAT DOES IT SOUND LIKE? songs the band ever wrote. That’s not to
What’s captured here is Motörhead as say there weren’t other great numbers Howard Johnson
RAVEN ‘All Hell’s Breaking Loose’

(SILVER LINING MUSIC)
WHAT’S THE transported back to the 1980s. Brilliant! like crashing waves! “Surf the Tsunami,
STORY? ride the whirlwind, hang on for your life,”
‘All Hell’s WHAT DOES IT SOUND LIKE? screams Mark, and you’d be advised to do
Breaking Noisy! Raven were the pioneers of early just that. Simply joyous. For a trip down
Loose’ finds speed and thrash metal, so there are memory lane, meanwhile, lend an ear to
New Wave no long-drawn-out workouts in their ‘Edge Of A Nightmare’ and enjoy some
Of British repertoire. “If you’ve got an initial great pure, no-holds-barred ’80s thrash.
Heavy Metal riff, you just build from it. You try not to
thrashers milk it to death,” explains bassist and THE VERDICT
Raven vocalist John Gallagher. “It had to be If you’re a fan of old-school speed and
returning with their 15th studio album. all killer, not filler,” adds John’s guitarist thrash metal you’ll absolutely love ‘All
Formed in England in 1974, Raven first brother Mark of this new work. “It’s a case Hell’s Breaking Loose’. Be warned,
made a name for themselves when they of iron sharpens iron!” Raven are short, though. It’s quite draining on the ears
signed to Neat Records and released their sharp, and not so sweet! listening to an entire Raven album,
debut ‘Rock Until You Drop’ album in 1981. because for a three piece they still make
But it was the band’s legendary 1983 ‘Kill BEST BITS one hell of a racket. But if you’ve had
Photo: Lionel Flusin
’Em All For One’ US tour with Megaforce This band has always been renowned a crap day at work, I’d recommend a
Records labelmates Metallica that finally for having a warped sense of humour, good dose of this album. Your mood will
put the band on the map. Raven are still and there’s plenty of that on ‘Surf The immediately improve.
going strong today. I saw them recently Tsunami’, a song that features manic
in London and it was just like being drum rolls and titanic riffs that sound Xavier Russell
96
NEAL SCHON ‘Journey Through Time’
(FRONTIERS)
WHAT’S THE up), together with keyboardist and singer bluesier than the hits, but they’re by no
STORY? John Varn. means unlistenable. There are moments
‘Journey when the noodling goes a little too far,
Through Time’ WHAT DOES IT SOUND LIKE? but Schon satisfies fans of all generations
is the Journey How refreshing to hear a healthy dose of with ‘Lights’, ‘Anyway You Want It’, ‘Lovin’,
guitarist’s early Journey obscurities performed by Touchin’, Squeezin’, ‘Separate Ways’, and
long-awaited a tight band in a sold-out 500-capacity the perennial ‘Don’t Stop Believin’’. He
live album and club. This is the total antithesis of the even nods to his Santana days with ‘Black
DVD of the slick, meticulously planned arena shows Magic Woman’ and ‘Oye Como Va’.
2018 benefit we’ve come to expect from Journey.
show in San Francisco that raised funds Schon later likened this performance to THE VERDICT
for victims of the city’s wildfires. It saw that of “a nuclear jam band.” Journey didn’t start with Perry and 1978’s
Schon reunite with Journey’s co-founding ‘Infinity’, and this deep dive through the
keyboardist and singer Gregg Rolie for a BEST BITS hidden nooks and crannies of their legacy
catalogue-spanning romp that included Conventional wisdom says that the first presents something for fans of all ages.
rarely performed tracks from Journey’s three Journey albums are poor relations Good for Schon for taking the selfish path
first three albums. The pair was joined to their mega-selling, Steve Perry-fronted and doing something to please himself.
by bassist Marco Mendoza, then-former counterparts. It’s not entirely true. Songs ‘Journey Through Time’ is a real treat.
Journey drummer and singer Deen such as ‘Look Into The Future’ and the
Castronovo (since returned to the line- freewheeling ‘Mystery Mountain’ are Dave Ling
VARIOUS ARTISTS ‘We’re An American Band – A Journey

Through The USA Hard Rock Scene 1967-1973’ (CHERRY RED)
WHAT’S THE mainstream mid-’70s popularity. ‘Hot Smoke And Sasafrass’ by The Bubble
STORY? Puppy and ‘Babylon’ by Conception
Acts like WHAT DOES IT SOUND LIKE? is really satisfying, and there’s a good
Vanilla Fudge, Arranged chronologically, the album balance between cuts by bands few
Steppenwolf, opens in 1967 with Vanilla Fudge’s will have heard of and big hits such
Blue Cheer, ‘fudged-up’ version of The Beatles’ ‘Ticket as ‘Mississippi Queen’ by Mountain,
and Iron To Ride’ that straddles heavy rock and ‘Summertime Blues’ by Blue Cheer, and
Butterfly psychedelia. You can hear the sound Grand Funk’s ‘We’re An American Band.’
spearheaded of acid rock in the work of bands like
a new wave Quicksilver Messenger Service, while THE VERDICT
of bands whose sound would later be touches of R&B emerge in the sound of This collection is a real education in the
codified as heavy metal. ‘We’re An The MC5 and SRC. Steppenwolf and Iron evolution of US rock music. It isn’t afraid
American Band’ charts hard rock’s Butterfly certainly move the dial closer to take the back roads along the way,
evolution during the late ’60s and early towards what might be termed heavy and it’s those excursions that really shine
’70s period, culminating in Grand Funk’s metal, which is then manifested by Sir a light on an extraordinary period where
game-changing, chart-topping 1973 Lord Baltimore, Cactus, and Stray Dog. new bands and sounds developed every
single that gives this compilation its After four hours we arrive in 1973 in a very few months. There’s plenty of wonderful
title. The three-CD, 62-track set offers different place to where we started. music in this set, and even the tracks that
a truly fascinating insight into US rock’s aren’t fantastic are at least fascinating.
epic journey from the bowels of the BEST BITS
late-’60s underground counterculture to Some of the obscure music here such as John Nicholson
97
ENDGAME CROSSWORD
Start your engines!
2 DOWN: STEVE VAI
For answers go to our website

www.rockcandymag.com
ACROSS DOWN
1 1989 saw Bang Tango opening a crazy sounding 1 Classic Dream Theater track that opens 1992’s
drinks emporium. (6,4) ‘Images And Words’ album. (4,2,5)
5 UFO song ‘Let It ----’ that appears on 1975’s ‘Force It’ 2 ‘For The Love -- ---’, a beautiful instrumental on
album. (4) Steve Vai’s 1990 ‘Passion And Warfare’ record. (2,3)
7 American AOR men Axe recorded the ‘------ On The 3 ‘Can’t You See I’m - ----’, demanded a confident
Edge’ album back in 1980. (6) Moxy in 1975. (1,4)
9 San Francisco rockers Dirty Looks gave us some 4 Multinational melodic metallers ----- Curse
DIY (or possibly torture) advice with ‘Turn Of --- -----’ orchestrated a ‘Symphony Of Sin’ in 2013. (5)
back in 1989. (3,5) 5 Interestingly spelled first word in the title of 1974’s
10 Live Magnum album from 1980. (8) debut Judas Priest album. (5)
12 Big Four thrashers who were known to show no 6 ‘--- Down Dirty Mean’, a song from The Allman
mercy. (6) Brothers’ 1990 record ‘Seven Turns’. (3)
17 Abbreviated company men Metallica on their 8 Major British record label that released albums by
‘Master Of Puppets’ album. (3) Black Sabbath, Thin Lizzy, and Status Quo. (7)
18 Rhino Bucket suggested we all do this back in 11 Dokken’s ‘fresh start’ 1999 album, ‘----- The Slate’. (5)
1992. (3,4,2,2) 13 Real surname of the Sex Pistols singer. (5)
19 A very short name for a giant classic heavy metal 14 Skid Row’s bassist. (6,5)
band. (3) 15 Shy tried to ‘Brave The -----’ in 1985. (5)
20 Christian rockers Stryper once went under the 16 First name of the frosty blues muso who’s played
name of Roxx ------. (6) with Meat Loaf, Ronnie Montrose, and DLR. (5)
23 ‘---- The ----’ ordered LA rockers London on 1986’s 17 Twisted Sister classic track, ‘Tear -- -----’. (2,5)
‘Don’t Cry Wolf’ album. (4,4) 21 The Darkness song ‘Stuck -- A ---’. (2,3)
25 Animalistic Paul Gilbert track on his 2008 22 Swedish female AOR singer once married to Yngwie
instrumental album ‘Silence Followed By A Deafening Malmsteen who found herself ‘In The Arms Of A
Roar’. (3,5) Stranger’ in 1991. (5)
26 Devilish rockers Grim Reaper offered to ‘Rock You 23 The first single from Europe’s 1983 debut album,
-- ----’ back in 1987. (2,4) ‘Seven ----- Hotel’. (5)
27 ‘This Is Not A ----’, insisted Styx guitarist Tommy 24 ‘----- Marker Inbound’, a track from Ronnie
Shaw on his 1985 solo album ‘What If’. (4) Montrose’s 1988 album ‘The Speed Of Sound’. (5)
28 Nationality of thrash metallers and mayhemic 25 This explosive Norwegian mob pledged to ‘Tell No
destroyers Mortal Sin. (10) Tales’ in 1987. (1,1,1)
The Rock Candy Mag crossword is compiled by former Kerrang! writer Jason Arnopp, who recently launched Possessed By Metal,
a brand new YouTube channel dedicated to the loud stuff, with a strong 1980s skew. Set to feature interviews, rankings, reviews, and
lots of vinyl, the channel recently presented a Top 20 list of The Best Dio Songs Ever. Check it out here: bit.ly/arnopptube
98
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Rock Candy 38

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June –

“WE’RE CARRYING THE TORCH!”

Our Services Include:

Derek Oliver – Master Of Mayhem

THE TEAM CONTRIBUTORS

6 FROZEN IN TIME – MÖTLEY CRÜE Albums available on

14 MY FIRST GIG – CARLOS CAVAZO

16 PERSON OF INTEREST – ROSS THE BOSS

18 INTRODUCING – ELEGANT WEAPONS

26 EYEWITNESS – THE MAKING OF Y&T’S ‘EARTHSHAKER’

34 OVERLOOKED – KING KOBRA

40 THE ROCK CANDY Q&A – KENNEY JONES

50 MÖTLEY CRÜE – THE EARLY DAZE

60 MÖTLEY CRÜE – ‘TOO FAST FOR LOVE’

61 MÖTLEY CRÜE – THE BRITISH BUZZ 42 EXTREME

62 THE ALBUMS THAT SHAPED NIKKI SIXX

64 STEVE GORMAN OF THE BLACK CROWES

74 RAPID FIRE RECALL – PAT THRALL

78 UNCOVERED – DESMOND CHILD

86 CLASSIC ALBUMS REVISITED – ‘BLACKOUT’

88 STRIKTLY FOR KONNOISSEURS – TRAPEZE AND

90 ROCK CANDY REISSUE – RAM JAM 86 SCORPIONS

99 SUBSCRIBE TO ROCK CANDY MAGAZINE

WHEN THE new group – finally settled with a line-up of Sixx,

invited me to a stadium show and treated my wife and I

FEBRUARY-MARCH 1985 RO U G H T H E B ACK PAGES OF

N DY ’S DA V E LING LEAFS TH T H E DAY BACK TO

THIS IS YOUR LOAF

ROCK CANDY SAYS…

IN THE years that followed this

ULI JON ROTH: “IT’S NOT A PARTY ALBUM”

ROTH WAS sufficiently self-aware to state: “It’s not music

Whether or not the label understood

IN THE end, though, Roth’s songs

ROCK CANDY SAYS…

LEPPARD BREAK SILENCE AFTER RICK ALLEN’S CAR ACCIDENT

SAYS… after losing his arm in a car accident

LITTLE DID JOE ELLIOTT know that the

SNIPPETS – SHORT, SHARP SHOCKS FROM FEB-MAR 1985

OZZY CUTS RIO DOWN TO SIZE

WHITE SISTER: “THE HEAVY ROCK OF TODAY IS PURE GARBAGE”

Interview by Andrew Daly. Photos: IconicPix/Jeff Allen/Cache Agency/Dalle; IconicPix/Rich Galbraith

“Fabienne told Sandy that the band needed a guitarist

IT’S A FAIR new Priest

UNSURPRISINGLY, PRODUCTION duties on ‘Horns For

OTHER COMMITMENTS meant that neither Scott Travis

Felix Hanemann (left) and Randy Jackson performing

“THE LAST THING I WANTED

ORIGINALLY cover tunes.’ We

But ‘Earthshaker’ did have ‘Rescue Me’, which has

ISN’T IT A LITTLE BITTERSWEET LOOKING BACK ON THAT MUST BE DIFFICULT…

Y&T – ‘EARTHSHAKER’ Released: 30 June 1981

Produced by Bob Shulman and David Sieff

always remained his

had recorded a song on an amazing

“[Vocalist] Steve [Marriott] had become a prima donna

process,” says Nuno. “That doesn’t make me a better

young band wanted to record at Cherokee or Ocean Way

soft rock who worked

Photo: Alex Solca