LATEST INTERVIEWS

Great White Vocalist Jack Russell Part II FIB Music: Here's something I never understood. In an era when record labels usually gave you three albums to succeed, why did Great white lose their record deal, with EMI, after the first self-titled album (1984)? Jack: Gary Gersh was the one that signed us. Now Gary Gersh had eyes on the presidency. He had signed the hottest new band....then the label dumped and he used it as an opportunity to say, hey look, this president is no good, we just signed the hottest band and he couldn't even get a single to hit. Consequently, he got his job. We were just cannon fodder. We were just a tool for his vision of greatness.....and Gary, if you read this, screw you.    Read More

Interview w/ Exodus, Hatriot Vocalist Steve 'Zetro' Souza FIBMUSIC:   It must have been amazing to see all those bands from San Francisco, including your own, go from local acts to national acts. Steve:  Oh man, Metallica. I remember when Cliff (Burton) used to drive this little old, green Volkswagen, beat up Bug....that was Cliff's car....and even then we looked at those guys like they were gods....and they didn't have any money. I remember going to the Metallica house in San Pablo, where Lars (Ulrich) and James (Hetfield) lived and they would just have these outrageous, killer parties after gigs. They were just guys in the scene. They were at every show. You'd see all the Exodus guys, all the Legacy and Testament guys, all the Death Angel guys, all the Possessed guys, the Forbidden guys, the Vio-lence guys......uh, Mordred, you can just keep going and going. At one point you would think that there were more of those guys in the crowd, than there was actually crowd. Read More

D'Priest, SIN, Jag Wire, The Cult Keyboardist Vince Gilbert FIB Music: What stands out when you reflect on that (D'Priest) tour? Vince: Topeka Kansas. The entire band, and I mean the entire band, got in a fight with an entire club. And I mean the ENTIRE club. You know those scenes in the western movie, where something triggers a fight, and all of a sudden everyone in the bar is fighting? Just like that. It was so bad, that I and our security guy fought our way to the front door, we found cops standing there, and the security guy yelled "why don't you get in there". The cop answered, "what are you kidding, I have a wife and kids"...    Read More

Interview w/ Great White Vocalist Jack Russell FIBMUSIC:   Are you pursuing the rights to use the name 'Great White'? Jack:  Oh yeah. I do want the name now. If they would have called me up before all this happened and said 'hey Jack, you know what man, we're just sick of you, we can't stand you, we hate your guts but we know where we've been, so let's try to figure out an amicable way so that we can both use the name'. We probably could have figured something out. But the fact that they went behind my back and filed for the trademark, that's just totally deceptive, that ain't right. Read More

Wet Cherri Vocalist Billy Ezell FIB Music: In the movie, The Decline of Western Civilization Part II, your guitarist Kim Kelly was featured and later became known as the 'Wet Cherri Guy' because of some of the hysterical things he said. What happened to him? Billy: We lost touch for awhile but reconnected very briefly a couple of years back. He burned Lance, now Lance wants to crack his skull! He started a furniture business. Not sure to what extent, involvement, or ownership or if he still does it. He is married I believe or was. I am pretty sure the guy still plays guitar I am just not sure if it's band related. He did say some pretty firnny stuff didnt he? I was kind of embarrassed to tell you the truth. One of my regrets for not going to the taping. I should have been there to keep 'em in check.    Read More

The Metal Sludge Interview Part II Stevie Rachelle FIBMUSIC:   What's the most disgusting thing you ever did to a groupie besides bang her? Stevie:  Ummmmmmmm. I would say......as I man up here......I am ashamed to say that I once had a groupie give me her phone card and I said that I needed to make a phone call. Then I wrote down all the numbers. When I left on tour, I used the phone card and ran her phone bill up. I look back on that....of course that's what you do when you're a dumb, young rock guy on the road......But I look back at that and think ok, that's pretty disgusting. I'm ashamed of that. Read More

Tuff Vocalist / Metal Sludge CEO Stevie Rachelle Part I FIB Music: Do you remember the day you signed your first record contract? Stevie: Yes. I was actually working for Load, Lock and Roll Moving & Storage. I was on a moving truck in Hollywood and Michael somehow got in touch with me. I think he called the office and they called the ladies house and said that I had some important documents to sign that needed to be FedEx'd back. So Michael showed up with a video camera and had an Atlantic Records recording contract that I had to sign. I took a ten minute break, from lifting furniture, in the back of a truck. I signed the contract, he filmed it and then I went back to work.   Read More

Grim Reaper Vocalist Steve Grimmett FIBMUSIC:   Do you remember what the budget was for the Grim Reaper album, "See You in Hell"? Steve:  I don't, because from the day we signed our deal, we were being ripped off. I have no idea what the album cost. The whole thing was recorded in four days. We were well rehearsed. It was pretty much recorded live with a few overdubs, then the vocals were redone and that was it. It was a pretty easy thing to do, but there was no real budget. Really, we didn't have a real budget until we did the third and final album with RCA, "Rock You to Hell". We had originally recorded that one with Ebony Records but the recording was so bad that RCA refused to release it. Then we got into the legal battle with Ebony Records and eventually signed over to RCA. That was when we recorded with Max Norman and that album cost well over $50,000, which wasn't really a huge amount in the 80's, but it was more than we had ever spent. Read More

Zebra Vocalist / Guitarist Randy Jackson FIB Music: Before Zebra even signed a deal, the band had toured with such heavyweights as Aerosmith, KISS, and Molly Hatchet. Anything stand out from that period? RJ: Before our 1st record, we opened for ZZ Top in Florida and we actually got an encore. When we went back on stage I started the encore song with a guitar solo and someone threw an M-80 on stage and blew me sideways. As stunned as I was, I somehow kept playing and went into the song (Wait Until The Summer's Gone). During the song I saw something coming at me from my left and I dodged it. Turned out it was just a Frisbee!    Read More

Accept Guitarist Wolf Hoffmann DT:   Do you have Udo Dirkschneider's (original Accept vocalist) blessing? Wolf:  (Laughs) No, I'm sure we won't get a blessing from Udo. But I wish him all the luck. He's had a solo career for a long time now. It's too bad that he didn't want to be a part of this, but it was his decision. We finally had to move on and we are very happy we found Mark. DT:   Andy Sneap (Megadeth, Soulfly, Cradle of Filth & guitarist in Sabbat) is quite the accomplished producer these days. What was it like working with him? Wolf:  Oh man, it was a dream come true. It's funny because we have met all these people lately, by pure luck and it's just another example of that.... Read More

Malice Vocalist James Neal FIB MUSIC:   How about the European tour with death metal legends Slayer? Any cool stories from your first tour across the pond? James:  Yeah, Amsterdam was a blast! They had these chocolate balls called "Space Balls" that you could munch on while drinking. Two nights later we played a show and I must have been still feeling them, because doing the show was like being on the moon. Scotland and Germany were great too, because I remember the fans really being excited to see us. London was a good show as well. There is a pretty wild story about when we played in West Berlin. We took the autobahn to Berlin overnight. At some point in the early morning I woke up because there was a major discussion going on. Turns out that whoever was driving at the time missed the exit to West Berlin. So, we had to take the exit to East Berlin to the Wall, which was still up at that time. It was like a scene out of Hogan's Heroes. When we got to the gate, I could see the American flag on the other side. On our side the guards were wearing those long coats and sporting machine guns. They went through our stuff and then laughed at us and finally let us through. We could have ended up in interrogation or something worse. We were fortunate, I guess. I was chanting under my breath the whole time. The gig in West Berlin was great, though. So I guess that sort of made up for the fiasco. Once we got out of Berlin, I made them pull the car over, got out and promptly kissed the ground.    Read More

LAAZ ROCKIT Vocalist Michael Coons FIB MUSIC:   In '84 the band's debut, "City's Gonna Burn" was released. What do you remember about your time in the studio? Michael:  We came to L.A. to do the record, so that was our first experience on "The Strip". Only Willy was legal drinking age, so we wore him out always getting booze for us. Funny thing, we were in the same studio as REO Speedwagon and Marvin Gaye at the time. I remember meeting Marvin Gaye shortly before his father killed him. It was so tragic. Everything was new and exciting, and our introduction to the er,.."ladies" of L.A. was more than a little enlightening. This was the original "Cougarville", lemme tell you. We even went to a party at Burt Bacharach's mansion where our manager jumped off the roof into the pool in full leathers. Good times! Read More

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