Tag: Interviews Around the Web

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Ritchie Blackmore on Jeff Beck & Jimi Hendrix: “I always thought of Jimi Hendrix as ‘the wild man of Borneo,’ and there he is, fixing his hair in the mirror”

full in bloom: In April, guitarist Ritchie Blackmore was a guest DJ on SiriusXM’s Guitar Greats.

Ritchie Blackmore on Jimi Hendrix via SiriuxXM’s Guitar Greats:

Ritchie Blackmore:

When Jimi Hendrix came to England, Jeff Beck came up to me and said, ‘Ritchie, we’ve got to do something about this guy,’ and I said, ‘Who are you talking about?’ He said: ‘Jimi Hendrix. He’s killing everybody over here. He’s upsetting everybody.’ I’m like, ‘Well Jeff, if you can’t do it, nobody else is going to do it’ because I always thought of Jeff as being the best rock player.

I followed Hendrix because I thought the way he used riffs in a riff, it had magical moments. Brilliant guitar player and he also looked like he was from the moon. Really, in a way, he didn’t have to play the guitar because he looked so strange and different to the typical English musician, and it worked. Unfortunately, it only worked for three years, but he certainly set the world alight.

I only met him once. It was in the Whisky A Go Go in Hollywood, and I was going into the toilet and he was playing with his hair or something. I always thought of Jimi Hendrix as ‘the wild man of Borneo,’ and there he is, fixing his hair in the mirror. That was the only time I met him and we kind of nodded to each other and that was it. So I never really got to know him, yet he certainly set the world on fire.

Jeff Beck on Jimi Hendrix via Classic Rock:

Jeff Beck:

When I saw Jimi we knew he was going to be trouble. And by ‘we’ I mean me and Eric [Clapton], because Jimmy [Page] wasn’t in the frame at that point. I saw him at one of his earliest performances in Britain, and it was quite devastating. He did all the dirty tricks – setting fire to his guitar, doing swoops up and down his neck, all the great showmanship to put the final nail in our coffin. I had the same temperament as Hendrix in terms of ‘I’ll kill you’, but he did in such a good package with beautiful songs.

Reporters got the number of my flat the day he died. I was suicidal at the time, because my girlfriend had dumped me. And to have to the deal with a call saying “Jimi Hendrix is dead. How do you feel about that?” At first I thought it was a bloody hoax, but as the day wore on I realized it was tragically true.

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Korn’s Jonathan Davis on Getting Bullied in High School: “It got to the point where I thought that maybe I was gay” – 2022

Metal Hammer: Before he joined Korn, Jonathan Davis was a Depeche Mode-loving New Romantic – and early synth pop demo What Have I Done proves it. Read the entire article @ this location.

“Growing up, I was a New Romantic. My favorite band was Duran Duran, so I’d wear make-up and long shirts, and in Bakersfield – an oil and farming town – there were a lot of macho jocks who took offense to that. I got my ass kicked and got called a ‘faggot’ all the time. I wasn’t gay, but it got to the point where I thought that maybe I was gay, and just didn’t know it. It really fucked with my head.”

Read the entire article @ this location.


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Ozzy on Starting Ozzfest: “Sharon tried to get me on Lollapalooza, and they told her they didn’t think I was relevant” 2022

Classic Rock Magazine: Ozzy Osbourne, “I don’t plan on going anywhere, but my time’s going to come…” Read the entire interview @ this location.

HIGHLIGHT:

Ozzfest really took off in the late ’90s. You must be proud of that.

Ozzy Osbourne:

Oh yeah. I mean, that was a Sharon department, not me. Sharon tried to get me on Lollapalooza, and they told her they didn’t think I was relevant anymore, that I was a dinosaur. So she said fuck them, we’ll do our own thing. Ozzfest gave new bands a stage. There’s no platform now for new bands to play.

Your most recent album, Ordinary Man, scored eight out of ten in Classic Rock. You must have bee pleased with it?

Yeah, it was alright. I’ve just finished another one. I’ve got Jeff Beck on it, Tony Iommi, Zakk Wylde, Eric Clapton, the guitar player from Pearl Jam. It’s coming out as soon as it’s been mixed.

Do you think streaming has been good or bad for rock music?

Spotify is a fucking joke. The royalty aspect of making music has gone right down the toilet.

Do you think about mortality?

At fucking seventy-three I’ve done pretty well. I don’t plan on going anywhere, but my time’s going to come.

Read the entire interview @ this location.

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Joe Satriani on Jason Newsted’s Van Halen Tribute Tour Leak: “It has only caused grief in the family” – 2022

VWMusic: Guitar lovers rejoice! We recently dug in with Joe Satriani regarding his latest comings and goings. Dig it. Read the entire interview @ this location.

INTERVIEW EXCERPT:

Many fans were surprised to hear that you may or may not be in conversations to play with the remaining members of Van Halen. Can you give us the rundown as to what’s happening there?

Joe Satriani:

Yeah, it is true. I was contacted by Alex Van Halen, and Dave [Lee Roth] and had some conversations a little less than a year ago about putting together a full tour to celebrate Eddie and the Van Halen legacy. And yeah, it’s terrifying. I mean, I literally heard myself saying, “Yes,” and then the other part of my brain said, “Did you just say yes? Are you nuts?” I think I remember telling them that any sane guitar player would just turn around and start running away as fast as possible because you can’t measure up to Eddie. It’s like one of those jobs where you just try because you know it’s important to you, and a labor of love, but still, people are always going say, “It doesn’t sound like Eddie,” no matter what you do. I took on the challenge that way, and I did say, “Okay, I’ll agree to keep talking about this to see what happens.”

But I’m not in the family, and I’ve never worked with Dave before. I’m just a guy that they called and started the ball rolling. We were not supposed to talk about it, because it may never happen, and obviously, you know, Sammy [Hagar] and Mike [Anthony] were contacted, but I don’t really know what’s going on behind the scenes there. I can’t say I know exactly what’s going on. I do know that Jason [Newsted] was called at one point, and he was told – like I was – to not talk about it, because it may never happen. And so, we were all shocked when he went public because he certainly wasn’t supposed to. And it has only caused grief in the family, which is not nice, you know? So, yeah, that’s all I can really say about it. I don’t know much more today to tell you the truth. I do know that for the next year and a half I’m probably on tour starting in September, just doing The Elephants of Mars/Shapeshifting combo tour. So, whatever comes with this, it’s sometime in the future. I mean, in a way, now that the cats out of the bag, at least I don’t have to feel like I’m keeping something from people, you know?”

In a hypothetical world, if it was to happen, would you play Eddie’s licks straight, or put your own spin on them?

Joe Satriani:

I had a similar experience when I was touring with Deep Purple back in ’93 and ’94, and I was confronted with the same thing. I’d been comfortably doing my own stuff for years, and all of a sudden, I had to think about that very question, “Do I put my own spin on Ritchie Blackmore? Or do I pay my respects by just trying to nail what he did?” I had to pick and choose because there’s always something idiomatic about a player that will hit you like a brick wall. It’ll be one goofy little technique that only they can do, and even they don’t know why. It’s just something that they developed, and they leaned on it a lot, and it might be the one thing that you’re weak at. It’s one of those funny things, like, if you had to replace Ian Gillan, how would you do those screams? How would you sing “Child In Time?” You might be a great singer, but you may not have that high scream. It’s the same thing with Sammy Hagar, those high vocals, and there are plenty of amazing singers out there, but very few can do what Sammy was really great at. How do you work around that? With Eddie, there are a couple of things that came naturally to him that doesn’t come naturally to other players.

So, I just looked at the whole catalog at the time where we had started these conversations, and I knew right away, “Okay, I can nail 90% of this stuff because it’s almost the way I play.” But then there are these other things that he did that I thought, “That is so awkward. How do I even approach it?” And when you started looking at it, you realize that there’s a community of guitar players out there who work on this very issue. Which is like, for some reason, Eddie held his right hand over here, and he held his pick like that, and with most people, it hurts their hand, but with Eddie, it didn’t. It comes down to me thinking, “How am I going to do that really funny stuff?” I mean, it’s just nitpicking, nerdy guitar stuff, but once you get in the room with a bunch of guitar players, they can talk about it for hours about how they do the workaround to try to get the same sounds. In the end, I think that the spirit is the most important part.

I will say this in regards to Eddie, I think that the other biggest thing that people sometimes miss when they bring up Eddie Van Halen is that his writing was really the biggest expression of his talent. When you start to learn the songs, you start to see the genius of the compositions and the arrangements. Of course, there’s the solo or the intro that blows your mind, but it wouldn’t be there unless he had written the song. Whether it’s “Hot For Teacher, “Jump, or something, it’s the actual song that then forced him to whip out some crazy solo. The average person is gonna love those songs, whether it was Dave or Sammy singing. It’s all in the writing, you know? That’s what makes it so much fun and attractive. I guess that’s what attracted me to the gig, just the thought that I could go from playing “Atomic Punk,” to “Unchained” in one show. It’s just so much fun. The songs are just fun to play.

Read the entire interview @ this location.

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Matt Sorum on Scott Weiland’s Personal Demons, “It made for great artistry” – 2022 – Interview – Book – Autobiography – Velvet Revolver – Guns N’ Roses – The Cult

SPIN: Matt Sorum looks back at a career drumming for the monsters of rock. You can read the entire interview @ this location.

HIGHLIGHT:

Did you find any mental challenges revisiting all of these wild times?

Somehow writing the stories down wasn’t the hard part. It was editing in them. That was harder because I probably got three books worth of stories. However, it’s picking out which stories you’re going to tell so it doesn’t turn into this wild escapade of rock and roll debauchery. As you see in the book in the Velvet Revolver years, everyone got married up, except for me, and I was still kind of trying to wave the flag for rock and roll, if you will. It was interesting because it became a cathartic process. You start to look at things differently. Like, man, boy, I kind of acted a certain way, but at the same time, here you are a guy who wants to be in a band, and you get the opportunity. I’ve always said, you know, take advantage of it, enjoy it. You’ve been given this great opportunity that you’ve dreamt about your whole life. It’s your job to go ahead and partake, because what are you supposed to do? Go back to your hotel room, go to sleep? I always lived every moment. I never wanted to miss out on all of the adventures.

You definitely give that notion early on.

It’s interesting because times have changed quite a bit with the way people represent how they talk about things. In those days, it just seemed apropos. In the ’80s and ’90s, there was no question of the interconnection between people backstage. The antics that went on weren’t frowned upon. Nobody got hurt, everyone was entertained, and the people that were there had just as much fun as the band. That was the beauty of it. I said this before, but when music got a little bit too serious, especially rock and roll when the grunge era showed up and rap metal. I remember going backstage at some rap metal band’s show and it’s 99 99.9% dudes hanging around back there. I was like, “Whoa, this is weird.” I never understood that.

You’ve dealt with some interesting singers during your career.

When you’re dealing with guys like Scott Weiland, Ian, and Axl, these guys are interesting characters. But, that’s what makes them great because they are maybe a little bit more difficult, maybe hard to understand at times. But once they get on stage, they’re the guys that are leading the band to the next level. You have to appreciate everything in the way they come from the demons and otherwise, it pours into that performance they give. When Scott Weiland passed away, I said as difficult as he was, I don’t think he would have been able to have that sort of persona or that lyrical and artistic astuteness to be able to come up with stuff if he wasn’t from an interesting and sometimes dramatic background and had all of these demons around him all the time. He couldn’t keep them at bay, but at the same time, it made for great artistry. But for him, it was always something he had to battle all the time obviously until the very end. It’s difficult to be at that level and to be a normal person, and to be able to bring that sort of artistry.

You, Slash, and Duff had a long run where you all were as thick as thieves.

We ran like a gang. There wasn’t one thing we didn’t do together and I was obligated to drink with them. In those days, I was a bigger guy than I am now so I could put away a lot of alcohol. Even if they got drunker than I did, I could carry them out of a club. It happened a few times. We were these three guys that were just loving the experience, three pirates on a pirate ship purveying the land.

You can read the entire interview @ this location.

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Sting on The Police’s 2007 Reunion: “It was hard because the power struggles were still very apparent” – 2022

Mojo Magazine: On sale now! The new MOJO, with a Liam Gallagher exclusive, a super-collectible Grateful Dead CD, Sex Pistols, Liz Fraser, Sharon Van Etten, Sting, Magazine. Mighty Baby, Labelle, Neil Young, Nick Cave, and more. Order @ this location.

STING INTERVIEW HIGHLIGHT:

Sting:

I don’t think any grown man can be in a band actually.

“A band is a teenage gang. Who wants to be in a teenage gang when you’re knocking 70? It doesn’t allow you to evolve.

“You have to obey the rules and the gestalt of the band. As much as I love the Stones and AC/DC, it’s hard to see growth in their music.

“For me, the band was merely a vehicle for the songs and not the other way round.”

On his 1985 solo debut album, The Dream of the Blue Turtles:

Both Andy and Stewart had made albums without me so it was my right too.

“I recruited a band from the jazz world and I was lucky it was a hit.

“I have no idea what would have happened if it hadn’t been a hit.

“Would I have gone back to the band and eaten humble pie? I hope not.”

On The Police’s 2007 Reunion Tour:

It was hugely successful but I wouldn’t do it again. That would be a bridge too far.

“It was hard because the power struggles were still very apparent but we got through it and people loved it, they really did…

“We always communicate on birthdays. We have separate lives but it’s very cordial. I’m very grateful for those guys and their immense talent, and their patience with me. I love them.”

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Joe Satriani on the G3 Tour w/ Steve Vai & Eric Johnson: “I wanted to stand shoulder to shoulder with my friends and peers” – 2022 Interview

Guitar Player: “Virtuosity on the Guitar Comes in Many Forms”: We Go Behind the Scenes of the Inaugural G3 Tour with Dream Team Joe Satriani, Steve Vai and Eric Johnson. Read the entire feature @ this location.

Joe Satriani:

I thought there would be more camaraderie among other players than what I was experiencing. As a teenager, I had this idea of what things would be like if I ever hit it big. There would be parties, and I’d get to hang out with my guitar friends. We’d jam and talk about music all night long – that kind of thing.

“Instead, the opposite was true: I was isolated. I would go on tour and play the same set, and then I’d go back to my hotel room and be on my own. I’d have 100 shows in front of me, and then I’d have to make another record and do it all over again.”

Satriani wanted to shake things up, but he didn’t quite know-how. And then it hit him: He would create a new kind of show, one that celebrated the communal spirit of electric guitar playing that he craved.

Nobody was really doing anything of the kind. You had blues and reggae festivals. You’d see disco revivals and things like that. Lollapalooza had just started up. But there was nothing really that spoke to guitarists.

“I wanted to stand shoulder to shoulder with my friends and peers, and so I thought, ‘Well, nobody else is doing it, so I’ll do it.’” -READ MORE

Read the entire feature @ this location.

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Zakk Wylde, “My Wife Still Calls Me Paper Asshole” – 2022 – Interview

Metal Hammer: Zakk Wylde: “My doctor said I’d need a liver transplant.” Read the entire interview @ this location.


When did Jeffrey Phillip Wielandt become Zakk Wylde?

Well, originally my name was Farrah Fawcett but apparently that one was taken. Ozzy said, ‘We’re gonna have to change your name’ and I figured we could go with ‘Paper Asshole’ or ‘Shitbag McGee’, but Ozzy didn’t like that either. He was like, ‘We’ll call you Zakk Wylde’ and I was like, ‘Hey, it works!’”

So it was thanks to Ozzy that you changed your name?

Yeah, but my wife still calls me Paper Asshole!”

In 1992 you were in Ozzy’s band for the No More Tours run, supported by Ugly Kid Joe and Motörhead. What are your memories of Lemmy?

I didn’t know anybody who didn’t like Lemmy because he was great with everybody he met. And when he and Ozzy got together? Forget about it, they were both hilarious. When Motörhead opened for Oz, every night was Friday night, man. We went out drinking a ton. I remember right before Lemmy passed we had a big birthday celebration at The Whisky [A Go Go] where we played for him. I hugged him and it was like hugging your grandmother – he was just skin and bones at that point.”

We asked Ozzy about you when we last spoke. He said: “Zakk isn’t just a great player, he’s a great guy. He’s worked with me longer than just about any other musician in any other band I’ve been in. He doesn’t fuck about and he doesn’t fuck people about – he’s very loyal and always tells you the truth.”

Ozzy’s the same way as well. Likeminded people attract each other and when I’m with Oz he knows we’re there to do our thing and just go home. He’s the best man, and fucking hilarious. It’s a miracle we ever get anything done.”

Read the entire interview @ this location.

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Slash on Being in Guns N’ Roses: “The Tension is Palpable” – 2022

Guitar.com: We sit down with the legend himself. Read the entire interview @ this location.

HIGHLIGHT:

Given that you’ve put out four records in 10 years, do you consider this band your main focus? Is Guns the side project?

No, I’ve been thinking about this. I think one of the great things about [GNR] and why there’s such longevity, and I don’t wanna jinx it, but it’s because we don’t take it too seriously. Guns N’ Roses was obviously my entire life and that’s where I come from. I’ll always be part of it and I don’t mind being recognized as ‘that guy from that band’. At this point I’ll probably do it till I’m pushing daisies.

It’s always been a lot of fun but it became a really big band, so the tension is palpable. Like with Velvet Revolver, everybody around that band had all these delusions of grandeur. Not the band itself, the people around it. It was very difficult, so it didn’t stand a chance long-term. With this band, it just sort of does what it does for the fun of it. I don’t think we’ve had any real expectations and we’re not trying to be huge or do anything apart from have a good time. That’s why it’s been so easy and gone by as quickly as it has. We spend a lot of time on the road and we just have a good time. Nobody really thinks about all the other bullshit.

And having signed with Gibson Records, it looks like there’s plenty more to come from SMKC. You’ve played their guitars for decades, so was this partnership a no-brainer?

When Gibson came and said they wanted us to do the debut release, I was taken aback for a second. I had no idea they were starting a label to begin with! But this is a magic pairing. As an instrument company, they’re all about music. Gibson is obviously big, but not corporate in the sense that it’s some fucking giant product behemoth. Most of the labels now are conglomerates and they have major companies that support and fund them. It can be very materialistic and about money, at the end of the day.

With Gibson, it was more about doing something that’s a little more down-to-earth. It seemed like a great idea and I’m actually working with a lot of the same people. But the best thing about it is that their hearts are really into it. They wanna do a great job and I’m excited for any artist that they pick up going forward. 

Read the entire interview @ this location.

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Rush’s Geddy Lee & Alex Lifeson on House of Strombo – 2022 – VIDEO – ‘Moving Pictures’ – 40th Anniversary

George StroumbouloPHÒulos: This one’s real special.

Rush’s Geddy Lee and Alex Lifeson join me at my house for an exclusive in-person sit-down conversation on the eve of the release of their 40th anniversary edition of Moving Pictures.

Friday 10am ET / 7am PT

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DELUXE 3 CD

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SUPER DELUXE BOX SET

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Def Leppard’s Joe Elliott and Phil Collen Talk ‘DIAMOND STAR HALOS’ – NEW ALBUM – INTERVIEW – 2022 – VIDEO

Def Leppard: Check out Joe and Phil chatting about the new album DIAMOND STAR HALOS and the upcoming Stadium Tour on Consequence 🤘

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Bob Rock Talks Metallica: “I didn’t understand the sonics of …And Justice For All” – Interview

Metal Hammer: “Metallica are not for wimps”: Bob Rock reveals the secrets of the Black Album and Load. You can read more from this interview @ this location.

Having graduated from engineering and mixing hugely successful albums (Bon Jovi’s Slippery When Wet, Aerosmith’s Permanent Vacation) to producing hugely successful albums (The Cult’s Sonic Temple, Mötley Crüe’s Dr. Feelgood) your career was on a roll before Metallica entered your life: did that make it fairly easy to reject their offer to have you mix their fifth album?

I didn’t really think of it in that way, necessarily. At the time, I was just looking out for the next best job opportunity that might come my way. I knew of Metallica, obviously, but they weren’t a band I was in awe of. I didn’t understand the sonics of …And Justice For All, because when I saw them live they were a heavy, weighty band and that record just doesn’t sound that way. That’s not a criticism, I know that to some people …Justice is the standard of what Metallica should sound like, but that was my observation from an outside perspective at that time, when the idea of working with Metallica wasn’t ever a thought in my head.”

St. Anger marked the end of the creative collaboration between you and Metallica. The turmoil and tensions behind the making of the album were captured with brutal clarity in the Some Kind Of Monster documentary, but how do you view that time now?

It’s hard to even put into words. Ultimately, I was there as a friend, trying to be there to help them stay together. That album needed to be made for Metallica to have a future. I feel like England and Europe embraced that record more than America, but that’s kinda a side story. No one knew what was going to happen, we just stuck at it until it was done, until the band were OK. My friends were struggling, and I was just there to help, to make sure Metallica didn’t end there. I am very proud of all the work we did together, but in some ways, maybe this was the most important work, because without it, there’s no Metallica today.”

Published in Metal Hammer 355

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Creed/Alter Bridge Guitarist Mark Tremonti on His NEW Frank Sinatra Album, “I didn’t know if my fans would appreciate it or not”- 2022 – Interview

Ultimate Classic Rock: Why Mark Tremonti Recorded A Frank Sinatra Album For Charity – You can read the entire interview @ this location.

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How did you decide to take a shot at recording a full album of Frank Sinatra songs?
The funny thing is, my manager Tim Tournier, when I told him I wanted to do something with this project – I think I was talking about it for a year or two before this project happened. There was really no place for it. I didn’t know if my fans would appreciate it or not, but I wanted to do it so bad because I was just so into it. I just didn’t know how I was going to do it. Tim told me his guitar teacher was Dan McIntyre, one of Frank Sinatra’s touring guitar players. What a strange coincidence it was for him to be able to get in touch with all of the guys. So he was the one who connected us with Mike Smith. But this was after, you know, I’d been talking to Tim for a while about the Sinatra thing. Like I said, we didn’t know if there was a place for it anywhere but you know, some things happen for a reason. You might believe that or not, but when me and my wife went to the doctor’s office and got the diagnosis that our daughter had Down Syndrome, it almost immediately told me, “That’s why I’ve been chasing this down. I’m going to do this Sinatra record, I’m going to do it for charity and raise money for Down Syndrome awareness and help these folks out that are in the same situation.” From there, you know, he just got the wheels turning. I was like, “You know what, I want to start an organization called Take a Chance for Charity. This Sinatra thing is something that nobody’s going to see coming. I’m going to take that and use it as a platform to ask other people to do the same thing. Let’s do something that nobody would see coming.” –READ MORE

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Def Leppard’s Rick Allen on Losing His Arm, “After my accident, it was really difficult to be around people…” – 2022

full in bloom: In a recent conversation with Appetite for Distortion, Def Leppard drummer Rick Allen talked about how he dealt with losing his arm after a car accident in 1984.

HIGHLIGHT:

At first, I really didn’t want to do this. I wanted to disappear. After my accident, it was really difficult to be around people. I felt very self-conscious. I think my parents, and then family, just people, letters from all over the world, really carried me. And I think the best thing that the guys did in the band was give me time to really decide if I wanted to continue doing this. And once I discovered the power of the human spirit, I think that just kind of catapulted me into a different realm. It was like, “Oh, I can do this.” And then it was really a conscious decision to want to continue in my physical state and expose myself to judgment and ridicule. Like, the guy up on stage that’s different. But I think once you can get over that, then you’re really on the path. I think one of the things that was important for me was, I stopped comparing myself to how I used to be. And I stopped comparing myself to others and tried to really embrace how unique it was to play like this. And then it gave me a whole new sort of outlook on how people would receive this. And really, just any of the noise or anybody that wanted to be negative, it was like, you know… Just noise. And I didn’t pay attention to that.

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Judas Priest Guitarist Glenn Tipton on Iron Maiden: “They took what we had done and made it their own” – 2022

Ultimate Classic Rock: When you think of bands that pioneered the twin-guitar attack, Judas Priest and Iron Maiden are two that likely come to mind – READ THE ENTIRE INTERVIEW

HIGHLIGHT

Kerry King of Slayer recently called your turn in “Beyond the Realms of Death” his favorite Tipton solo of all time.
That’s very good of him. I know he’s always been a big fan of the band. It’s great when a guy like that can open up and say what he enjoyed about tracks [like that]. It is a favorite solo of mine. It’s nice to hear somebody like Kerry come out and say that. With all of the hard work you put in, it’s nice to know that it’s appreciated.

What do you remember about the song and coming up with that solo?
Only the fact that it was a great solo to play onstage, and it gave a reprieve in the show. You can take a breather and then what follows on from that seems to be even more powerful.

Iron Maiden also had the twin-guitar thing, but they had a specific approach. As a guitar player, what was interesting to you about them?
I think it was a natural progression, that’s the phrase I would use. They took what we had done and made it their own. It’s important to be very easily recognizable when you’re writing songs. You know that you’re successful, I think, when you hear yourself on the radio and it’s easily recognizable. I think that Maiden did that. They’re very influenced by Priest, but they did it in their own way and all credit to them for that.

Read the entire interview @ this location.

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Jonathan Davis on Seeing PANTERA Live Before Korn Signed Their Record Deal: “Goosebumps all over my body” – 2022

Revolver: “For fuck’s sake, our band name is Korn. Don’t tell us what to do.”

Jonathan Davis talks Pantera, copycats, the inevitability of darkness, and his band’s new album, ‘Requiem.’ Read our cover story.

HIGHLIGHT

I KNOW IT WAS PANTERA’S VULGAR DISPLAY OF POWER — WHICH TURNED 30 THIS YEAR — THAT REALLY GOT YOU INTO METAL AND PUT YOU ON THAT PATH. WAS THERE A SONG ON THAT RECORD THAT REALLY POINTED THE WAY FOR YOU?
I’m trying to think of a favorite one on there: “Walk,” “This Love,” “A New Level.” They had the pretty stuff and then the heavy shit. It was so heavy and grooving. The only other band before that got me going like that was Helmet, but that was more of a New York hardcore kind of thing. This was different.

WHAT WOULD YOU SAY MADE PANTERA’S SOUND SO DIFFERENT?
I think it was their guitar tone and the crazy clicky kick drums of Vinnie [Paul]. Phil [Anselmo]’s vocals were just so brutal … just fucking emotional, screaming. And he was just this badass. I remember I saw them live before we were signed. Fieldy took me to Irvine Meadows and the first song, Pantera came out and I looked over and he was fucking crying. [Laughs] He was just like, “That is the baddest shit I ever saw!” And I had just goosebumps all over my body.

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