RichRock
Oregon Music News: Currently you can use the name ‘Queensrÿche’ as can Scott, Michael and Eddie. You put together an all-star line-up that will tour under the name Queensrÿche. How confusing do you think this will be to the casual fans and will this hurt the brand?
Geoff Tate: “Oh, yeah it will be. That’s why I tried to file an injunction to stop everyone from using the name until we settled our differences. They didn’t want that they wanted to keep touring. They couldn’t sell their other project without the name ‘Queensrÿche.’ I think that is what caused them to fire me and go through such extreme measures. They’re operating in ‘survival mode’ which is really too bad. This isn’t the way I envisioned the ending of the band. I do think this will be confusing for the ‘casual fan’ but I think most Queensrÿche fans are very intelligent people can go to queensryche.com or geofftate.com and get a clearer picture of what’s happening. I think this will allow them to make an informed decision on what they’d like to do.”
Oregon Music News: So Geoff how much of the break-up has to do with money?
Geoff Tate: “Oh, it’s all about money! It’s all about money. It’s unfortunate that some people are able to see the picture of where they are at. They have this misinformed of idea of what ‘reality’ is. So these people make these bad decisions on this ‘misinformation’ and then they have to justify their actions. I really believe that is what is happening here.”
Oregon Music News: Out curiosity, have you heard or viewed any of the clips of Todd La Torre performing ‘classic’ Queensryche material? If so what did you think?
Geoff Tate: “Oh, no. I’m not even interested in that.”
Oregon Music News: It must be very hurtful to cut ties with the guys because you guys basically grew up together.
Geoff Tate: “Oh, yeah. Absolutely, it was a horrible experience to go through and a complete betrayal on so many different levels. It’s been a painful few months—definitely. I’m on the ‘upswing’ I think. I’ve gone through the pain, the feelings of despair and the feelings of betrayal. I’m on to the next thing now and moving on with my life. I feel really good about it, I’m positive it about and very excited.”
Original Iron Maiden singer Paul Di’Anno and Bruce Dickinson replacement for a time, Blaze Bayley banded together for a tour of Australia and New Zealand this fall. The final show was December 8th in Auckland… check out some fan-shot video below.
About Di’Anno, Bayley told Metal-Rules.com, “he’s a very funny guy with a dry sense of humor and we gave each other plenty of space, as we are both experienced with different opinions of IRON MAIDEN. It worked well.”
Legendary Rock Interviews: (Producer) Michael (Wagener) told us that the tension between you and George was very real but he also felt some of it contributed to the great performances. Do you think that some of the strife had anything at all to do with the fact that you had a friendship with Michael dating way back to before George or Jeff even joined the band?
Don Dokken: I don’t know. Every album I fought for Michael to do the record and the band definitely thought that we were in cahoots. George was always worried that Michael would make my vocals too loud, childish things like that. I said “The vocals shouldn’t be too loud or too low, they should be right where they’re supposed to be”, him saying that didn’t make any sense to me. The problem was, as Michael well knew, George and I never got along from the very beginning. Even in Germany when Micheal was working with us on “Breaking The Chains” every day was a struggle just trying to get something on tape with George. I liked using Michael because he was just about the only person I knew that could deal with all the madness and pretension. Having said that, I think a lot of it had to do with drugs and alcohol and stuff like that you know….I never got into that whole 80s cocaine thing, it just wasn’t my thing but as we got popular they all really developed pretty bad drug problems and Jeff and George were really writing a lot of songs for the Dokken albums at their drug dealer’s houses and I was kind of the odd man out writing my songs at my house alone. I never wrote a song with George, not one. People always thought it was like a Motley or Van Halen situation where I was the frontman like Vince or Dave but they forget that I was the guitar player in Dokken. I play guitar and I played guitar on the first tour. I would go home alone with my guitar and write songs like “In My Dreams” or “Alone Again” or “Into The Fire” or songs like that and they would go off together and write their songs. A lot of times they couldn’t come up with lyrics for their songs so I would help with that or help with re-writing lyrics to make them better. It was all just about the best songs making it, it always has been, but George and I never wrote a song together.
Dec. 8, 2004: Pantera and Damageplan guitarist Darrell Lance Abbott (aka Dimebag Darrell) died at age 38 on stage in Columbus, Ohio after an audience member opened fire during the concert. Three others in attendance were also killed before the shooter was shot and killed by a police officer.
Dec. 8, 1984: While driving drunk, Mötley Crüe’s Vince Neil crashed his sports car. Passenger Razzle (Nicholas Dingley) of Hanoi Rocks was killed in the accident.
This Day In History (Dec. 6, 2003): METAL SHOP signed on 9 years ago today and HAIR BAND RADIO 5 years ago today! We’re just excited we’re still here.
Thanks to everyone who makes this go, including Ralph in L.A. bringing us the front row view at all the big shows. Most important though are the METAL SHOP Listeners… Thanks to everyone for listening and supporting the stations. We love bringin’ the Kick Ass 80’s Metal and Hair Band Hits to you everyday.
We’re off to stuff our face with birthday cake and brews. Rock on!
Just in time for the holidays, Metallica will release a new double DVD & Blu-ray called “Quebec Magnetic” through the band’s newly launched Blackened Recordings label (12/10/12). The video was shot by renowned director Wayne Isham during a two-night stand in October of 2009 in Quebec City, Canada. Check out performance clips of ‘Master of Puppets’, ‘The Four Horseman’ and ‘Damage, Inc’ below.
“Quebec Magnetic” features over 3 hours of concert footage and a bonus disc that includes exciting behind the scenes interviews with the band and their fans. “We just played two really phenomenal shows. They were outrageously great and the audience was great and we had a bunch of people filming it,” METALLICA guitarist Kirk Hammett told Billboard.com. “We felt like we’re really doing a disservice just sitting on this great live footage, so we decided to put it out.”
“Quebec Magnetic” track listing:
- That Was Just Your Life
- The End Of The Line
- The Four Horsemen
- The Shortest Straw
- One
- Broken, Beat & Scarred
- My Apocalypse
- Sad But True
- Welcome Home (Sanitarium)
- The Judas Kiss
- The Day That Never Comes
- Master Of Puppets
- Battery
- Nothing Else Matters
- Enter Sandman
- Killing Time
- Whiplash
- Seek & Destroy
- For Whom The Bell Tolls (Bonus)
- Holier Than Thou (Bonus)
- Cyanide (Bonus)
- Turn The Page (Bonus)
- All Nightmare Long (Bonus)
- Damage, Inc. (Bonus)
Guitarhoo.com: What led to the formation of Judas Priest?
KK Downing: As I have said many times, Judas Priest were a very fine blues band led mainly by Al Atkins, but after tragically losing their guitarist, they disbanded. I auditioned for the job, but I wasn’t a blues player. Later, Al was at the rehearsal rooms and saw what me, Ian Hill and drummer John Ellis were doing. Al consented to joining so, Judas Priest #2 was born. Al was excellent as he never tried to push us in the blues direction but instead got right on board with us, going forward to the new direction we were pursuing.
Guitarhoo.com: Who came up with the name for the band and why?
KK Downing: I think the original Judas Priest took the name from a Bob Dylan song.
Guitarhoo.com: Was Judas Priest referred to as a heavy metal band since the beginning, if not what genre title was the band associated with?
KK Downing: To start with I think we were known as progressive blues, then progressive, then rock, then hard rock, then heavy rock, then heavy metal. All in a space of about five years.
Guitarhoo.com: On a lot of Priest songs you either traded off solo’s with Glenn Tipton, but occasionally one of you would handle the entire solo. How did the two of you work out who does what and where?
KK Downing: I think usually Glenn would indicate some of the solos he had a fancy for, and I would then do the remainder. It was all very amicable.
Guitarhoo.com: After being one of the founding members of Priest and having a long successful career with the band, you retired in 2011. What brought about your decision?
Downing: There had been an ongoing breakdown in working relationships between myself, elements of the band and management for some time.
Guitarhoo.com: Looking back at your career so far, what are some of your fondest memories?
Downing: I can’t really list the highs or lows as there have been too many to mention. Except for getting to where I am, and it is all thanks to the loyal fans.
German power metal band Helloween has released the first single from their new album “Straight Out Of Hell” (Release date Europe/Jan. 18, North America/Jan. 22, 2013).
Listen to “Nabataea” with the SoundCloud player below. The song talks about the fabled high culture whose secret city, Petra, was only discovered at the beginning of the 20th century, and is the origin of many legends and myths. Helloween singer Andi Deris was inspired to write the song during a holiday.
Rolling Stone: For the past 20 years, a large Guns N’ Roses poster advertising the band’s first tour of England has been hanging in Steven Adler’s living room. “Every time I have to go to the bathroom I have to walk past it,” says the former Guns N’ Roses drummer. “I’d always see it and say to myself, ‘One day we’re gonna reunite! We’re gonna do it! We’re too good of a team not to do this again.'”
“Now I walk past it and I say to myself, ‘I’m so glad I was a part of that. That was a great and exciting time of my life.’ It’s nice to appreciate it, but I’m no longer angry and pining for a reunion. I’m not angry about it anymore. It’s flushed out of my system.”
Despite slamming Rose in the press as an “asshole” for failing to appear at the Rock Hall induction ceremony, Adler now says, “I’m not angry with Axl anymore. I love him and I feel blessed that I got to work with him and achieve what I achieved with him. I guess time does heal all wounds.”
Adler also says that he regrets having calling the current lineup of GUNS N’ ROSES “hacks” and “scabs.’ “I shouldn’t have said that,” he says. “I’ve grown up and matured. Holy crap! I’ve matured in the six months since we last spoke!”
Noisecreep: Among the many mighty metal milestones of 2012, the 30th birthday of Metal Blade Records stands as an amazing testament to the strength of metal devotion. Label founder Brian Slagel became a businessman almost by accident. He was a die-hard fan first, and editor of the fanzine New Heavy Metal Revue. Scraping together funding from money he saved while working at Sears, and a loan from his aunt, Slagel in 1982 created Metal Massacre, a Southern California-centered compilation to answer the countless label showcase collections of Britain’s NWOBHM.
From that first release, which introduced the world to Metallica and Ratt, Metal Blade Records was born. Over most of the next decade, the next installments of the Metal Massacre compilation series unveiled some of the greatest names in metal, including Slayer, Trouble, Voivod, Fates Warning, and Hellhammer.
METALLICA: The band that had the least going for it at the time of this record’s release has gone onto become the biggest rock band in the world. When Mötley Crüe bailed on Slagel’s compilation project, he offered his tape trader pal Lars Ulrich the slot if he could scrape together a band in time. Ulrich persuaded James Hetfield to join him, and for the initial release, Jamaican guitarist Lloyd Grant appeared as a guest soloist patched into the mix to play the leads. Future pressings included a different recording of the song with Dave Mustaine handling the trademark over-the-top trills.
RATT: A much more typical Southern California metal act than Metallica, Ratt were San Diego transplants to the Sunset Strip. Awestruck by Van Halen but chained down with a lean and relentlessly melodic double-guitar sound, Ratt cruised through a string of multi-platinum, platinum, and gold records and remain a musical and commercial highlight of the glam metal era.
ARMORED SAINT: Like many bands on the L.A. club circuit, Armored Saint relied heavily on image, but their studded leather armor was a far cry from the spandex and mascara of Mötley Crüe. Singer John Bush was openly courted by young Metallica, but he refused to leave his boyhood pals in this band. After Armored Saint’s early record deal with Chrysalis Records went South, Bush joined Anthrax for over a decade, and has since returned to his original armored homies.
This is a fascinating read. Check out more reviews of those auspicious debuts, in honor of three decades of Metal Blade, plus hear audio from these early recordings at Noisecreep.com.