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Tag: Nigel Benjamin
The excerpt was taken from a full in bloom interview with Quiet Riot vocalist Kevin Dubrow. The interview was conducted just prior to Kevin’s death. This excerpt is also available via YouTube clip, which can be viewed below.
full in bloom: What was the (L.A.) music scene like back then, like before you made it?
Kevin Dubrow: Terrible. Van Halen got signed a couple of years prior and we thought we’d be the next ones, but we weren’t. We were the only hard rock band, pretty much, in town at that time. Motley (Crue) had just got started, so they were pretty much coming up in the clubs. We had been out there as Quiet Riot for a number of years. A lot of bands like The Knack.
full in bloom: Do you remember London at all?
Kevin: I remember that they were just awful. Oh, God. I mean, nice guy, Lizzie Grey, but the worst guitar sound of all time. I remember he could peel wallpaper; it was so treble-y and bad. He’s a really nice guy, and he’s still hanging out there. God bless him. I don’t know how he earns a living after all these years. The drummer Dana (Rage), I ran into him about two years ago.
I knew all the guys. I mean, they had Nigel Benjamin from Mott, and I was a big fan of Mott. They were never very good. Nikki (Sixx) stumbled onto a real good thing with Motley Crue image-wise because Motley Crue started in the image of London, which was very pop, REALLY pop, & then Nikki realized that wasn’t going to be the thing that was going to crack it for them.
full in bloom: Well, I think he even took stuff from….
Kevin: Blackie.
full in bloom: Yeah, Blackie Lawless.
Kevin: Absolutely, but he took a darker, evil, hard rock direction as opposed to the real light pop thing of London because it was real pop. It was trying to be a mixture between the Raspberries and the New York Dolls and, musically, really light.
full in bloom: They were, other than you guys, the other hard rock band on the scene?
Kevin: Well, Quiet Riot predated London by years. London was around the same time as Dubrow. But remember that Nikki auditioned for Quiet Riot when Kelly (Garni) left in ’77.
full in bloom: You’re kidding?
Kevin: No. We predated these bands by at least four or five years; long years, let me tell you.
full in bloom: Was Nikki any good at that time?
Kevin: No.
full in bloom: He was terrible?
Kevin: He didn’t know the names of the notes. Yeah, so Randy (Rhoads) couldn’t sit there and teach him how to play bass. We really liked him as a person, but he just didn’t know how to play the instrument. That’s not an insult; it’s just a fact. I mean, in 1977, he did not know the instrument.
full in bloom: But he actually sat down and jammed with you guys?
Kevin: No. Not really. We said, “The song is in the key of F,” and he said, “Where’s F?” So we couldn’t get as far as jamming to be honest with you.
You can listen to the original audio from the interview via the YouTube clip below.
This excerpt was taken from the full in bloom interview with guitarist Lizzie Grey. You can read the entire interview @ this location.
LISTEN TO THE INTERVIEW VIA THE EMBEDDED YOUTUBE CLIP / SOUNDCLOUD WIDGET BELOW.
You can also listen to this episode on APPLE PODCASTS and SPOTIFY.
INTERVIEW EXCERPT DESCRIPTION:
LIZZIE GREY PART II
Lizzie talks about writing the Mötley Crüe / London song
“Public Enemy #1,” Spiders & Snakes, and the formation of London.
Lizzie Grey Interview Excerpt via YouTube
Lizzie Grey Interview Excerpt via Soundcloud
Related Interviews:
Lizzie Grey: How London Formed w/ Nikki Sixx – Public Enemy #1, Nigel Benjamin, Blackie Lawless
Lizzie Grey Talks Blackie Lawless+Nikki Sixx+Sister Connection – full in bloom Interview Excerpt
This excerpt was taken from the full in bloom interview with guitarist Lizzie Grey. You can read the entire interview @ this location.
LISTEN TO THE INTERVIEW VIA THE EMBEDDED YOUTUBE CLIP / SOUNDCLOUD WIDGET BELOW.
You can also listen to this episode on APPLE PODCASTS and SPOTIFY.
INTERVIEW EXCERPT DESCRIPTION:
Lizzie Grey talks about his former band London, Mötley Crüe,
Public Enemy #1, reconnecting with ex-bandmate Nikki Sixx,
Blackie Lawless, Nigel Benjamin, & more.
Lizzie Grey Interview Excerpt via YouTube
Lizzie Grey Interview Excerpt via Soundcloud
Related Interviews:
Lizzie Grey: How London Formed w/ Nikki Sixx – Public Enemy #1, Nigel Benjamin, Blackie Lawless
Lizzie Grey Talks Blackie Lawless+Nikki Sixx+Sister Connection – full in bloom Interview Excerpt
full in bloom: What year did London form, and how long was the original version of the band together?
Lizzie Grey: Nikki (Sixx) and I started London in early 1978. The band was the center of the universe in Hollywood for a little over a year before it crashed and burned in late 1979 with the loss of vocalist Nigel Benjamin, who had joined London after the demise of the post-Ian Hunter Mott the Hoople band.
full in bloom: It was in London that the song, “Public Enemy #1” was written. Was the song written by you and Nikki or just you, and how much did it change by the time it was released on Too Fast For Love?
Lizzie: I wrote the song, brought it into the band to work it up, and it became the centerpiece of the London live shows. The version that appears on the Too Fast For Love album is not very different from the original, except for the “Oh yeah” chorus parts. To be perfectly honest, I was a bit upset when I first saw the Leathur Records album giving me half-credit for my own song. I really didn’t think much would become of the band or the record, though, so I didn’t do anything about it. When I found out that Elektra was re-releasing Too Fast For Love, I immediately contacted the label and threatened a copyright infringement suit on the song. Shortly thereafter, I got a call from Nikki, who told me I could accept things the way they were, or he could pull the song off the album. I decided that my ego needed to take a back seat to monetary considerations. The rest is history.
full in bloom: Do you have any points on the “Too Fast for Love” release, or is it just based on publishing?
Lizzie: Do you really want to bore your readers with the mechanics of entertainment law?
full in bloom: How much have you made, rough estimate, over the years from that one song?
Lizzie: Enough to make me feel better about getting half-credit for my own song.
full in bloom: What were your initial thoughts of early Motley Crue? Was there a defining moment when you thought that Nikki was really going to make it with that band?
Lizzie: When I first saw them in their fledgling stages, I thought they were basically carrying on the London glitter/glam hustle as a four-piece with a better drummer. When they started being taken seriously as heavy metal heroes, I was more than a little surprised by their mass appeal with that audience. Go figure.
full in bloom: Please share one good drug story with you & Nikki.
Lizzie: Throughout the Starwood years, we drank tons of rum and cokes, and every time we performed there, it was a “snow flurry” of white powder backstage. It was the 70’s, and that was the drug of choice. Perhaps my best memory of an incident involving Nikki was his fairly regular throwing up behind his amplifiers while we were onstage.
full in bloom: Did the original version of London ever record anything? If so, will it ever be released?
Lizzie: While Nigel Benjamin was in the band, we recorded a 16-track demo in Burbank. Three of the songs from that demo “Nobody Loves You Like I Do,” “Straight from the Heart” and “Dream Girl” appear on the Spiders & Snakes London Daze album released on Deadline/Cleopatra Records.
full in bloom: What are 3 fond memories from your days in the first version of London.
Lizzie:
1. Drinking
2. Partying
3. Having sex
full in bloom: What was it like working with Nikki Sixx?
Lizzie:
1. Drinking
2. Partying
full in bloom: How did Nikki’s life begin to change when he was in London, or rather what was the progression of public perception towards him? Did it begin to change while he was in London?
Lizzie: In London, Nikki and I were like real-life cartoons, Heckel and Jeckel, having a lot more in common with the punks than with the heavy metal rock heroes of the time. We played off one another well, and the chemistry on stage was electric, but neither Nikki nor I were perceived by the public as bass or guitar heroes. Even with the phenomenal success of Motley Crue, I think that the questioning of his abilities as a bassist in comparison with the “virtuosos” has plagued him. I’ve never much given a damn what the elitists thought of my playing. If it works for the fans, then it works, and you’re no less a rock hero.
full in bloom: Why did Nikki leave the band?
Lizzie: We couldn’t find a vocalist to replace the unique voice of Nigel Benjamin. That was an integral part of the chemistry of London. We had great pop melodies that simply couldn’t be carried off by the average vocalist, regardless of how much make-up or hairspray they tried to disguise it with.
full in bloom: Soon after Nikki left London, Blackie, once again, joined the group. Why did he join, and why did the band break up soon after?
Lizzie: No mystery there. Blackie was tired of wallowing in obscurity, as anyone can become after years and years in the rock and roll underground. London had a name and a huge draw, and Blackie wanted to be a part of it. Unfortunately, he simply couldn’t pull off the pop melodies. I told him that his best angle was being an Alice Cooper shock-rock animal, not a pop crooner. Fortunately for him, he took my advice and formed W.A.S.P. Good thing because he was absolutely horrendous in London.
full in bloom: After Nikki and Blackie “made it,” did you notice a change in either of them?
Lizzie: Yes. They didn’t want to be around anyone that reminded them of the time when they weren’t rock stars. That makes Lizzie Grey “Public Enemy #1” to them. Pardon the pun.
Former Mott / London vocalist Nigel Benjamin has passed away. He was 64 years old.
In addition to fronting the band Mott (formerly Mott the Hoople), Nigel also fronted the Los Angeles band London, which featured Nikki Sixx and Lizzie Grey. (I believe he’s the one that gets into a fight with Nikki on stage during a London show in the movie The Dirt. The altercation prompted the bassist to leave the band and form Motley Crue.)
You can read our full in bloom interview with Nigel Benjamin at this location.
Morgan Fisher: ? Nigel Benjamin RIP ?
Sept 12, 1954 ~ July 31, 2019.
I have heard this news from two good friends on Facebook, who knew Nigel. He was living in Pine Mountain Club, in Los Padres National Forest, 1 1/2 hours north of LA. The cause of his passing is not known yet. He had heart problems in recent years, and was found in his cabin yesterday.
It is known that we had our differences – but we also succeeded in creating some powerful songs, especially this one. My music. His words. His voice. Farewell.
Joel H Rollo: Devastated to learn that Nigel Benjamin has passed away. I got to know him over the past few years, and I even bought one of his guitars from him. R.I.P. ….you will be missed.
You can learn more about Nigel by reading our recent full in bloom interview with London guitarist Lizzie Grey at this location.
Mott The Hoople ’74 extends first US tour in 45 years with new Fall 2019 dates. Tickets on sale Friday, August 2nd at 10am local time at this location.
NEW full in bloom Interview w/
London / Spiders & Snakes Guitarist
LIZZIE GREY
full in bloom: I wanted to start off the interview by saying how sorry I was to hear that you had been diagnosed with Parkinson’s Disease. How long have you been having issues with it?
Lizzie Grey: It’s been going on for years. It’s something that you don’t really recognize that it’s causing these things that are happening in your life and you’re going ‘why is it like this?’ It’s miserable. It’s the most miserable disease I have ever heard of in my life. But I’m not going to roll over and let it beat me to death. I’m going to give it everything I’ve got.
full in bloom: When did you first get diagnosed?
Lizzie: It’s been about four or five years that it was diagnosed…that it has been definite.
full in bloom: Are you still able to play guitar?
Lizzie: Well that’s the tough part, there’s good and bad to it. My vocals have gotten better than ever, but I can’t play guitar anymore. For me, it’s a heartbreaker. I’ve been a guitar player for over thirty years, it’s in my blood. But after I did a couple of shows with Spiders and Snakes, we pulled it off and it was a lot of fun, I said ‘hey, I’ve been putting this off for a long time being the lead singer.’ It works, so that’s good.
full in bloom: I’m sure you saw that Glenn Tipton (Judas Priest guitarist) had been diagnosed, right?
Lizzie: I can’t believe it. Yeah, Glenn Tipton. One of the awful aspects of Parkinson’s, Michael J. Fox, that poor bugger, has had Parkinson’s for years. He’s been taking the same medication that I take…..that I know of anyway, and still he got a horrible attack, over the last couple of years, where his Parkinson’s just flared up and he’s falling down and he’s having all kinds of stuff that was more attributed to the kind of Parkinson’s that I have. But mine has kind of stabilized and poor Michael J. Fox, his has gotten worse. I really feel for the guy. No one can fully understand it unless you got it yourself. It’s made me appreciative of ever being able to have been a musician. Everything you do, you appreciate…that you can do it.
full in bloom: And your medication minimizes your symptoms?
Lizzie: It’s dopamine. Your brain produces dopamine so you can function. It allows you to do stuff. Without the dopamine, you can’t function.
full in bloom: I saw on social media that your former bandmate Nikki Sixx (London, Motley Crue) was trying to track you down. Was he able to reach you?
Lizzie: Yeah, it’s the wildest thing. For twenty years, I couldn’t have a conversation with him and then he calls me up. Yeah, he’s a good ol’ guy.
full in bloom: How was it reconnecting with him?
Lizzie: It was fun. The whole thing is, people end up thinking that ‘oh, he’s going to find somebody famous and leech off of them,’ but my relationship with Nikki didn’t really happen because I didn’t want to be perceived as a wannabe Sixx guy. It’s great…the truth is, he’s actually become a bit of a friend to me. It’s a lot of phone conversations.
full in bloom: You’ve talked several times?
Lizzie: Yes, several times.
full in bloom: What’s going on with Spiders & Snakes?
Lizzie: We’re going to do it for as long as we possibly can. I’m going to do it for as long as I possibly can. I don’t have any false aspirations that it’s (the Parkinson’s) going to go away.
full in bloom: There was a benefit concert for you at the Whisky in Hollywood in 2017 and you were going to perform at it. The concert ended up being cancelled. What happened?
Lizzie: I didn’t make it. It really sucked. I never had an attack like the one I just told you about Michael J. Fox. I was on my way to the gig at the Whisky. I was really, really looking forward to it because I really needed it. I got vomiting convulsions. It was the worst reaction I’ve ever had….it’s partially the drug itself, the dopamine, and the rest is the disease. I started throwing up in his car, my guitar player, Chris, was driving. The poor guy got vomit all over his car.
full in bloom: Was that Chris Sheridan?
Lizzie: Yes. He’s our guitar player.
full in bloom: Wow, I had no idea he was in Spiders & Snakes. I interviewed him long ago about his Sweet Savage days.
Lizzie: He’s been in the band for about five years. He’s a great guitar player. If I had to hand over the reins to the guitar, I feel very confident to hand them over to Chris. He’s a good guy. He’s always got something good to say.
full in bloom: It must have been hard to walk away from the gig.
Lizzie: Oh, it was. That’s the hardest thing to do if you’re a musician, but I was gone. It was so bad that they took me to the hospital.
full in bloom: You’ve never had an attack like that the entire time you’ve had it?
Lizzie: Never. See, I don’t have the shakes, you know, the shaking hands that people always associate with Parkinson’s?
full in bloom: Sure.
Lizzie: I’ll get that in my leg…my legs will go completely numb. They call it gait freeze where you can’t walk, you can’t lift your leg.
full in bloom: Are you in a wheelchair?
Lizzie: No, and I’m trying to stay out of one. I do tons and tons of exercising. I’ll walk probably twenty miles in a day or two. First thing I said when we started this conversation, I’m going to fight it.
full in bloom: Forgive me for my ignorance, but, since your hands don’t shake, why can’t you play guitar?
Lizzie: Because they don’t move. This aspect of Parkinson’s, you can’t move and everything is slow. It’s like you’re locked down. What’s really going on is your brain can’t send the messages. Your brain is trying to say, ‘pick up the guitar and play these songs.’ You can’t get the message across. Your brain is blocked. The purpose of the dopamine is to replace the missing dopamine that would make you be able to do these things. But it’s not perfect. The drug does not really solve any problems. I did some clinical trials, which was great because they gave me like 3 MRIs for no charge, it was part of an investigation. It was good to know that they are trying so hard to find a cure. It’s a progressive disease….and singing is supposed to be one of the best things you can do to keep the symptoms of Parkinson’s back.
full in bloom: And just by continuing to move, it helps keep everything at bay?
Lizzie: Yes, exactly. You wish it was more direct, but it’s not. I’ve had the hand tremors before, but, fortunately, they aren’t prevalent. I hope it stays that way. I don’t want anymore symptoms; I’ve had enough. My poor neurologist, I tortured him with questions, and they’re good with it, but……I mean, you’re sitting there saying ‘why can’t I do these things anymore?’ I can’t do anything and it’s really depressing. I’ve got to fight through it…and I am. It’s gotten bad….they have what they call good days and bad days. When you’ve got one of these diseases, a bad day – you wish you wouldn’t have woken up that morning, that’s how bad you are doing. On a good day – you can almost convince yourself that you don’t have it, because you’re trying so hard. But anyways, yeah, Nikki really surprised me. I’m sitting there one day and the phone rings, “I’m trying to get a hold of Lizzie Grey.” It was fun talking to him. It was about time.
full in bloom: What did you and Nikki talk about? Were you just catching up?
Lizzie: Yeah…we were talking about….they’re (Motley Crue) doing a movie (The Dirt) and he was talking about how there’s a song Spiders and Snakes does that was an old Motley Crue song, “Public Enemy #1,” and he loves it. He goes, ‘that’s my favorite song’ and he goes, ‘you guys do it better than we do’ (laughs). I thought it was really cool of him to say that.
full in bloom: There was rumor of an initial fifth member in Motley Crue.
Lizzie: It’s been talked about.
full in bloom: Is that not true? Were you not a part of the initial stages of Motley Crue?
Lizzie: No. Nikki was in London. London was like a ’70s retro-type band and a lot of the material that was London material was also the first run of Motley Crue stuff. The only one I got actual credit for was “Public Enemy #1,” and that’s fine. So for twenty-five years, I had to listen to people saying, ‘tell me about Nikki,’and I’m going, ‘I want to talk about my band.’
________________________________________________________________________________
Nikki Sixx,
We wrote great songs in that original version of London.”
full in bloom: Of course I know London, but there was some talk on the internet that Nikki left London and initially brought you into Motley Crue, and then Mick Mars wanted the band to have only one guitar player. But that’s not true?
Lizzie: No. I’m not real familiar with all the history of Motley, but I know that I wasn’t in Motley. The material was kind of handed down and kind of evolved, that’s how the Motley-thing kind of came together. Nikki was having trouble getting along with Nigel Benjamin (Mott), the English vocalist we were using in London. It just didn’t work out, because Nigel didn’t have any respect for Nikki as a player. He kind of looked down on him. So, it was really funny, because Nikki never had that conversation with me, and he goes, “Lizzie, who is Nigel Benjamin?’ He goes, “I played with him, right?’ (laughs) I said ‘yeah, you did, he didn’t like you very much.’ He goes, ‘he hates me, that guy hates me. I don’t know him and he hates me.’ I thought that was pretty funny.
full in bloom: I thought Nikki left after Nigel left the band.
Lizzie: Not really, there was a small space there that Nikki was already working with Mick Mars and little by little the Motley-thing exploded, high impact.
full in bloom: He was working with Mick while he was in London?
Lizzie: Yes. Because of the attitude problems with Nigel, and the fact that Nikki had kind of been pushed around, in a way, by Nigel, that made it like there were no bridges coming across. He was like, ‘I don’t want to think about that.’ I can’t blame him, he picked the right one; he picked the platinum band.
full in bloom: Didn’t Nigel leave and then come back to the band?
Lizzie: Yeah, Nikki was long gone by then. Motley Crue was flying high by then. Yeah, Nigel came back because of another Nigel. Nigel Itson was the drummer and he said I’ll get him back in the band. For some reason we thought that we needed Nigel’s voice. I think it was probably a big mistake. There were a lot of other things that could’ve happened and that was one that wasn’t beneficial for me. Every time I would try to put a new version of London together, somebody would leave the band and start a platinum act. I don’t know how they did it (laughs). Guns N’ Roses did it.
full in bloom: One of the guys from Cinderella.
Lizzie: Yep, the list goes on and on. I had the Midas touch, but backwards. I could make it happen for other people, but not for me.
full in bloom: Wasn’t Blackie Lawless in the band?
Lizzie: Yep, and as soon as he was out, boom, Capitol Records….(laughs) Blackie Lawless. That was funny, Nikki asked me about that, he goes, ‘did I use to play with Blackie?’ I go, ‘yeah, why can’t you remember?’ It was funny. It’s almost like Nikki seems like somebody who has reached, kind of like a…..what do you call it…a mid-life-thing where you kind of look at yourself. Nikki seems to be in that phase right now where he’s kind of like, ‘did I do this? did I do that?’ and I’m going, ‘yeah.’
full in bloom: There have been many others who have talked about Nikki’s lack of skills as a musician.
Lizzie: Right.
full in bloom: It’s kind of cool how recently he seems to be falling in love with playing an instrument. Like you do when you’re a real musician, you want to play every day. When he was doing Sixx Sense, Nikki interviewed Billy Sheehan and he asked Billy if he ever got tired of playing the bass. Nikki told him how he doesn’t even want to play an instrument for a couple of months after a tour and asked Billy if he ever tired of playing and Billy was like, ‘no, I never feel like that.’ If you’re really growing with an instrument, you don’t want to put it down for months.
Lizzie: I can absolutely concur with that observation, because, for me, I get scared of the idea of me not being a part of music. This last go around with me getting sick, I just felt horrible to let Timmy (Yasui) down. Chris was with me when we were leaving and he goes, ‘dude, you’re sick, you can’t do this. We got to get you to a doctor.’ It was one of the hardest things to do. It’s so hard to get to shows and do the things you want to do when you got this disease. It keeps getting worse and you start losing more and more. That’s why I’m really following this one neurologist’s direction, he saying, ‘sing, sing, it’s what you need.’ Nikki, I said, ‘dude, you sound just like me, if you’re not a part of it, you’re not.’ No one really believes that, but it really is the way people get. When you’ve been playing music for thirty years, it’s hard to say, ‘oh, I’m not going to do that anymore.’
full in bloom: I thought that about Nikki. It seems like the other guys have been able to take a break after the retirement tour, but Nikki never stops, he didn’t even take a break at all.
Lizzie: Yeah, he can’t walk away from it. He said to me, ‘when I think about you and the Parkinson’s, I don’t know what I’d do if I couldn’t play music anymore.’
full in bloom: Aren’t you and Nikki founding members of London?
Lizzie: Yeah, the original band was me, Nikki, Dane (Rage), he was the drummer, John St. John, the keyboard player, and Nigel Benjamin. The guy (Nigel) really did have a great set of chops, as far as his voice, but his attitude was so bad. I don’t know how he ever got in any bands.
full in bloom: You and Nikki were great friends when you guys were in London, right?
Lizzie: Yeah, we definitely had a good groove going with the whole ’70s glam thing we were pushing. It was working, it worked really well. It was, I believe, how Nikki was able to catapult himself with Motley Crue.
full in bloom: Right. Well, he was a good songwriter as well. Maybe technically he wasn’t a great bass player, but he was an excellent songwriter.
Lizzie: Right. Yeah.
full in bloom: Did you guys co-write songs back then?
Lizzie: No, to tell you the truth, I was doing stuff that I would bring and Nikki would do songs he’d bring in and Nigel would do songs that he’d bring in. It was all independent; everybody just kind of did what they wanted. It’s ironic…in Spiders & Snakes we do what we call the ‘classic glam set,’ where we do a lot of London stuff. It’s the poppy stuff that people still love; they still love it. We do some Sweet covers, which is really great. We’re just Sweet fanatics, Mott the Hoople…It was a short run for a unique kind of music, but it’s still the music that I love.
full in bloom: Nigel wasn’t the first vocalist in London, right?
Lizzie: No, there were a couple of other guys. A guy named Henri Valentine….a guy named Steven Toft. But whatever it was, Nigel put the whammy on London, so without him it wasn’t going to fly.
full in bloom: How long has Spiders & Snakes been together?
Lizzie: We’ve been playing together for almost twenty-five years….I’m really happy about that. That really means something to me…when I play shows and people come up and go ‘when you do the London songs, you guys make me think it’s 1974 all over again.’
full in bloom: Are you living in Vegas now?
Lizzie: Yes, we got a house out here.
full in bloom: You just drive in for shows?
Lizzie: Well, that’s the tough part. I better love it because it’s not easy. Sometimes I’ll take the Megabus, or I’ll take a Southwest Airlines….that’s the tough part, the distance. But Tim (Yasui) and I have such a good working relationship. It’s worth it to get to rehearsal even if it took a whole day to get to play music. That’s the exchange you have to make when you mix family and band. It usually works poorly, but as long as I can keep playing music, I’m happy. Ironically, my wife is a supporter of the band. Like I said, we’ve been banging it out for twenty-five years.
full in bloom: In the old days, what was your writing style? Would you come up with a riff on the guitar first?
Lizzie: Yeah, I would write on the guitar….or a lot of times I would come up with a lyric line first. The lyric line would give me a little inspiration for the music itself.
full in bloom: Are you still able to write and create music?
Lizzie: Absolutely. A lot of what I do is take the structuring, it was like a draft…and I’ll have a draft of a song that’s maybe like ten years old. I’ve got tons of them….maybe like a hundred songs. Then I go, ‘maybe I’ll rewrite this and do it differently.’ That’s what I usually do. For some reason, I’m not really motivated by the current trend in pop music. I’m more motivated to take stuff that I had written and rearrange it. It’s stronger, you got something that was written like twenty years previous so it gives it its own feel.
full in bloom: Is there any new music coming from Spiders & Snakes?
Lizzie: We definitely want to do a new record. We just do stuff independently.
Make sure to read our old school interviews with Nigel Benjamin, Tim Yasui, Chris Sheridan and our first interview with Lizzie Grey.
Mott (the Hoople)/ London Vocalist
Nigel Benjamin
full in bloom: You’ve been absent from the music scene for a while. What have you been up to?
Nigel Benjamin: I quit the business a number of years ago. I was building recording studios for a long time. Had a ranch in Texas for a while. Worked in TV for about eight years for Thom Beers. He’s the mastermind behind “Monster Garage”, “Deadliest Catch”, and a slew of others.
full in bloom: Who are some of the bands you listen to nowadays?
Nigel: Not many, I’ve never stopped listening to Steeley Dan. I discovered Thomas Feiner a while ago. Mostly classical, I hear the odd song now and again. My dogs listen to the radio more than I do.
full in bloom: Who were some of your biggest musical influences?
Nigel: Mickey Jupp, John Lennon, Peter Green, Zappa(M.O.I.), MC5, Blue Cheer. Lennon and (Mickey) Jupp were the main reasons I joined the club. I roadied for Mickey”s band, “Legend” when I was a kid. Now THAT was a band!
full in bloom: You are releasing an album this summer. Tell us about it.
Nigel: The seed was planted a while ago to write again, but I didn’t leap at the idea. I was going to build a studio in Texas and start, but I didn’t start writing until the end of ’07. Then I got too busy with the production company again. I was building a mobile studio in my motorhome so that I could record anywhere I felt like. Then busy again. Then enough was enough. I was working way too hard, so I quit for a year to do the album. I moved to the mountains, put the studio in my house, and started in earnest last December. The whole album was done here.
full in bloom: What stands out when you reflect on those recording sessions?
Nigel: Getting snowed in during the winter was a little unnerving at first. But I had plenty of food, Coronas, and tequila; which is vitally important. I’ve never been snowed in before. It’s only psychological, but I think it did influence what I was doing on occasion. It’s a pretty intense album.
Nigel Bejamin – Mott (Fisher, Griffin, Benjamin, Major, Watts)
full in bloom: How long did it take to record?
Nigel: I’m tidying up and mixing right now, but I don’t record every day. My ears are a little tired these days, so I take a lot of breaks: long motorcycle trips, tequila runs, that kind of thing.
full in bloom: How did the Mott reunion come about?
Nigel: Verden Allen’s idea, so I heard. He asked Ian, who, surprisingly, said yes.
full in bloom: How did you get the nickname “The Dome”?
Nigel: I’ve only read this once before on some jackass’s website. To the best of my memory, everyone referred to Morgan as “the dome” 1st, as he was balding, then Overend after his hair transplant. If they referred to me as that, it’s not only odd, but gives you an idea of what dicks they were.
Mott (1975)
full in bloom: Go back to 1975. How did you come to join Mott?
Nigel: They asked me to. For some godless reason, I did. Stupid move.
full in bloom: Immediately after joining, Mott begins recording the album, “Drive On.” Does anything stand out from those recording sessions?
Nigel: Recording in the castle was fun, very spooky at times. I had little to do with the album. I wrote a short song, “Apologies.” Ray Majors took credit for that though for some “publishing reason?” I was naive. I have never been paid a penny for any of my work with Mott.
full in bloom: Where was the album recorded?
Nigel: It was recorded at Clearwell Castle in Gloucestershire in England. We mixed at Air London, I think.
full in bloom: What was the transition like for you?
Nigel: What transition? I’d been playing in bands since I was a teen. We’d been playing with Thin Lizzy and Humble Pie and the like for a few years. Real rock bands with good guys. Bands used to help each other in those days. No backstabbing grabs for fame. I enjoyed playing back then. It got progressively harder to tolerate certain behaviors. Humble Pie would move their gear to make room for us to have space to perform. Aerosmith would move their gear forward so I had 2 feet of space, and then pull it back after we were done. Revenge from the HOOPLE days, I’m sure.
Mott – “Drive On”
full in bloom: Who were some of the bands you toured with supporting “Drive On?” Any good stories?
Nigel: Kiss, Aerosmith, the list goes on. Blue Oyster Cult; it’s all a blur now. Good stories? Too many: Gene Simmons was a good guy. Steven Tyler was not. He never spoke to me one time. I stole his limo in L.A. at the Forum. Speedwagon were cool guys, too. I got to see an Iron Butterfly reunion, but no one could make heads or tales of what they were doing! One of my fondest memories was using B.L.C’s laser rig to light up billboards down the freeway from the hotel – light up in flames I mean! Lots of partying, drinking. I even remember seeing some women once or twice!! Police chases, hotel wrecking. All the usual antics, but often way more extreme than average RnR stuff. We’ll leave it at that.
Shouting and Pointing
full in bloom: As soon as the band returns from the road you guys are right back in the studio, recording your second album with Mott, entitled “Shouting and Pointing.” What stands out?
Nigel: The album was written mostly by Overend in a shut room ahead of time, closed shop. I did work on “No Such Thing as Rock and Roll” for a long time, but, when recorded, the band decided it would not appear on the album. I quit. They changed their mind. It then appeared on the album as “Career.” What the fuck was that? I planned to leave at that moment. Sucky moments? Yeah. When you find out you’re producer is spending more time on the phone with Led Zeppelin planning “The Song Remains the Same” than he did producing us. Many tracks got wiped and had to be re-done at Air London. We didn’t use songs because they were great; it depended on who wrote them. That was the criteria. It should have been so much better. We recorded it at The Manor. People were more interested in what room they got than anything else. We tossed for it. I got the really good room, and boy, that was cause for problems. I thought Overend was going to cry.
full in bloom: Why weren’t they playing more of your songs?
Nigel: Overend told me on the last tour with Mott that he was sorry that they weren’t playing some of my music, but it was because “this was his last chance!” At what? Publishing money? I once asked if the band could occasionally write something that involved singing and not screeching all the time, Morgan asks, “well how many albums have YOU sold”?…..Dick?
Pete “Overend” Watts
full in bloom: What was it like working with Pete “Overend” Watts?
Nigel: I put a smoke alarm on my ass eventually, so much smoke was being blown up it. Look, I know I was ‘The Kid,’ but I didn’t just hit the ground. I’d been hanging at the Speakeasy since I was 15. I knew all these clowns. I cannot stand ambiguity. I still got a lot of faults, but I’m honest.
Eddie Kramer
full in bloom: What was it like working with producer Eddie Kramer?
Nigel: Uninspiring and annoying, to this day. A total waste of money. If I knew then what I know now, I would throw him out of a fucking window! One story: He likes to have all the fucking lights on all the time. Screw the vibe, screw the artist. It’s all him. We really didn’t need to be there apparently. And his idea to make my voice ‘more raspy,’ which is stupid anyway, was to run around the building right before singing! And me, the idiot, tries it cause he’s Eddie fucking Kramer. He had to have a car, but he never drove it. He was a wine “expert” and would send people out for it every night. I gave him some shitty wine once and he extolled its virtues for 5 minutes! Nonce!
full in bloom: You hit the road following the release of “Shouting and Pointing”. How did that tour go?
Nigel: I couldn’t wait for it to end. We would stop at truck stops to eat at night and be given a pound or two to spend by the tour manager, like fucking children. Then they got pissed cause I didn’t need the money or the embarrassment. I had my own money. When we hit the suburbs on the last night, I said “Let me out here-I’ve moved.” And I never saw them again. I told the label(CBS) that I quit 2 days later, and they were dropped. CBS tried to hold me to my contract for a while, but my new manager Cliff Cooper wanted me out. I still don’t know if that was a good move, but, what the hoohay.
full in bloom: Why did you decide to leave Mott at the end of ’76?
Nigel: Oh, because we sucked. Because I had only heard myself on stage 2 times! Because I was never really in the band, I was just hired for a paltry amount of money to do as I was told. I don’t do that. Because we never wrote together. Because I need a team to be a team player.
The English Assassin
full in bloom: You then form a band called The English Assassin and get signed to Arista Records. What were the terms of the deal and how much was the signing bonus?
Nigel: It was a solo deal. Against the advice of my manager, I made it a band deal at my end and put everyone on salary, everything split 5 ways, so, in the end, I was out of pocket. The album and tour with Judas priest soaked it all up. If the contract had not been broken by Arista, the whole deal was worth a lot of money. No signing bonus. All the money was spent on the band, plus what I had, plus I believe my manager was out at the end, too.
full in bloom: Tell us something about the recording sessions.
Nigel: T.E.A. was a brilliant band. It should never have failed. At one point I remember we were using all 4 studios at Air London simultaneously – Guitar in one, keyboards in another. Good times. I sang one song “King Crazy” on a ledge outside the window of studio A, 4 floors above Oxford Circus. Arista killed us like they did the whole “Stiff” entourage.
full in bloom: How long did it take to record?
Nigel: 3-4 weeks. We’d been hanging there way before I joined Mott. Great studio and good friends.
full in bloom: Why was the album never released?
Nigel: Clive Davis is often quite an imbecile. He wanted us to do stuff that made no sense. If I had wanted desperately to be famous at any cost, he would have made that happen. He can do that. But there was integrity involved. Merits. Art, silly things like that.
full in bloom: Do you have a copy of the album? Will it ever be heard?
Nigel: Not on me. I have a copy back in Texas if the armadillos ain’t got it. I haven’t been back for a while. I think my daughter has a copy. I’d love to release it, but I’d get sued I’m sure.
London (the band)
full in bloom: Tell me about joining London in 1979. How does all that come about?
Nigel: I’d just moved to L.A. and an ad was put in the paper looking for a singer influenced by me! I thought, “That’s odd.” So I called and went to a gig that night.
full in bloom: How long were you in London? What memory stands out the most when thinking about those days?
Nigel: A year, maybe? Living in my beach house, splitting up with my wife.
full in bloom: What was the club scene in L.A. like back then?
Nigel: I hung out mostly at the Starwood. Elmer had closed the Whisky for a while I seem to remember. I wouldn’t call it a scene. The Rainbow was changing in the wrong direction for me. I eventually stopped going there, but I’m still friends with the owners, I had a free tab at the Starwood up until it closed. Didn’t pay for a drink for years!
full in bloom: London was at the center of the early days of L.A. glam rock. What was that like for you? Any great stories or parties?
Nigel: Someone’s been pulling your leg. There was no glam rock scene, not in the true sense of the word. Not like Carnaby St, or Chelsea in 60-70 England, or New York with Lou Reed or the (New York) Dolls. I don’t remember any great parties. I remember going to some lame-ass normal parties and leaving. Maybe that’s what they’re thinking of.
full in bloom: Describe a typical day-in-the-life of Nigel Benjamin during this time.
Nigel: Getting up, going for a swim. Rehearsals in Hollywood in a tiny little office. The consumption of huge amounts of gin. Magically getting home most nights about 2 am by the grace of God. Repeat.
Nikki Sixx & Nigel Benjamin
full in bloom: What was it like working with Nikki Sixx? How would you describe him?
Nigel: Nikki wanted SO desperately to be a star. And now he is.
full in bloom: Tell us a good Nikki Sixx story.
Nigel: He liked to throw drinks in people’s faces if they heckled him, glass included! I prefer a more subtle approach. I never saw him drunk or take drugs.
full in bloom: What comes to mind when thinking about your last gig with London?
Nigel: Lizzie and Nikki trying to shove me off the front of the stage at the end of that show, but I and my security had anticipated them doing something stupid, so it failed.!
full in bloom: When was the last time you talked to or saw Nikki?
Nigel: At Heather’s (Locklear) wedding to Tommy (Lee). Previous to that, at the Whisky where I explained once and for all I did not want to join Motley Crue or give Vince Neil singing lessons. Oh, wait. I saw him at S.I.R studios when we were making Rocktober Blood. That’s when I first met Tommy.
Nikki Sixx, Nigel Benjamin & Lizzie Grey, John St. John on keyboards
full in bloom: What can you tell us about your relationship with Lizzie Grey?
Nigel: I don’t have one. He owes me money. He stole music from me. He is a total parody of a musician. There is less fluff in my dryer.
full in bloom: What was it like working with Lizzie?
Nigel: Empty.
full in bloom: Did you ever see Lizzie wasted?
Nigel: I never saw him drunk or drugged the whole time I was there.
London – Nikki, Nigel, Lizzie Grey, John St. John
full in bloom: Do you have a favorite London song.
Nigel: “Nobody Loves You Like I Do”. I wrote it with John St. John. Lizzie says he wrote it all. It has the best structure and keyboard parts. I stress KEYBOARD.
full in bloom: What was a typical London show setlist? Covers, or originals? What covers did the band do?
Nigel: We got slammed by Kevin Dubrow for doing a Slade cover! Then Quiet Riot did what? I think that was the only cover. The whole thing was weird back then, it was Randy Rhoads (Ozzy Osbourne guitarist) that I was looking for when I moved here. One of the girls from The Runaways said he was the only guitarist worth looking at for a band. Everyone was so contrary.
full in bloom: How often did London play live at that time? Were you guys raking it in financially?
Nigel: Maybe 20 shows total! Financially? Nobody told me we were being paid!
full in bloom: Why did you leave London?
Nigel: We were done. It was going nowhere. We could not progress or improve. It was all it was ever going to be. I had taken it as far as I could We couldn’t make the leap. I was frustrated with Nikki’s bass playing and was getting ready to move on. It was Lizzie that asked Rudy Sarzo to come down. I didn’t know the man!
full in bloom: Why didn’t you join Motley Crue?
Nigel: I didn’t wish to go down that road any further. I’d already done a lot of the glam stuff years earlier when it was new. I didn’t want to do metal. And you have to trust the people you form a band with. I didn’t trust Nikki. But I became good friends with Tommy. I opened the door when he came for Heather on their first date. I was living there at the time, as I dated her sister for about 4 years back then. It was like Nikki would never leave my life! Look, maybe he’s a good guy now. I didn’t hate him back then, really. But he and Lizzie did a lot of backstabbing when I had the nerve to leave. They couldn’t hang, so they blamed me. My marriage was ending, and I had a lot to deal with. I did give Lizzie a second chance with another version of London. He doesn’t mention it much. I don’t want to prattle on too much here, but suffice it to say it was a fiasco. Absolute nightmare. The most unprofessional attempt in the history of ever! I couldn’t get into a gig one night at the Troubador as I wasn’t on the list! That was the same night our old keyboard player showed up for his gear that the new guy was using because Lizzie had not told him he was out! Sorry, the question was about Motley, but it’s all connected back then.
full in bloom: Tell us about doing the soundtrack for the movie “Rocktober Blood” with the band Sorcery.
Nigel: Nothing to tell. They asked me to sing the songs for Tracy Sebastian to lip sync to, then somehow thought that I had joined them. When I got asked to star in the movie, they wouldn’t pay me to finish singing because I was being paid to act. I stopped singing, they lost the gig, I finished the soundtrack with Pat Regan, my then keyboard player. I didn’t know who Sorcery was. Nobody I knew did either. According to them, they were huge…go figure. Some of the guys were cool, though.
full in bloom: Of all the bands you toured with over the years, who were your favorites?
Nigel: Humble Pie, Thin Lizzy, Kiss, Reo Speedwagon, most of Judas Priest. There are a few more but I need tequila to remember, hold on… Okay, I’m back…there’s a thunderstorm brewing outside…where was I?..oh yes, they were all cool.
full in bloom: Tell us about your experiences in the band Satyr. What stands out?
Nigel: Satyr was another great band. We couldn’t get label interest. Chuck Wright threatened my then-best friend backstage at the Whisky. I quit. THE BAND fired him to get me to stay. He blames me. That was that. He still blames me. Do you really think that was all it took for his own band to fire him? There is always a list.
full in bloom: What was it like working with Chuck?
Nigel: Well I guess you must have talked to him already, huh? He was a fine bass player.
full in bloom: Didn’t you guys record an EP in 1982?
Nigel: I think you mean with Eyes, which was Satyr without Chuck. Yeah, I was talking to Richie Onori a bit ago, and we both agree that our own studio recordings that we did at Technopolis, our own studio, were far superior to the one we released. I think Bobby Stephan the guitarist said so too. The demise of Eyes, which was the end of an era as far as I am concerned, is way too complicated to explain here. Eyes was what everything came to. It was the fountainhead. That band was THE band. That end was a crying shame on all of us. I should mention here though, that I also have a new band, aside from the album project. We’ve also been recording, are currently rehearsing to do a show or 2. I’ll let you know when that’s up and running. There are connections here going back to those days!
full in bloom: Nigel Benjamin is transported back to the Mott days and has to do two things differently. What would they be?
Nigel: I would not return their call. I would not return their call when they called again.
full in bloom: Is there anything else you’d like to add?
Nigel: I’ve already bitched enough. It’s just that I’ve been lied to and about for so long, that I am really pissed off. I am no saint, and I’ve created my own mayhem sure enough… and I was and probably still am a bit of a poser! Of course…priests don’t play rock-n-roll! But I have never crapped on a friend, or backstabbed, or lied, or stolen, or pretended to be anything. I still have the lyric sheet to a song called “Girls, Girls, Girls” that I wrote in 1979, the year BEFORE I met Nikki Sixx! It was always about the music…the art..the soul of the matter. Never the money or fame. That’s why I’m doing this last album. No compromises. No lies. No pretense.
“London” meant something, though not that much, for one long summer all those years ago. Mott pulled off a few good shows now and then. All of the bands did. “Satyr”,”Eyes”,”Future”,”The English Assassin”,”Fancy”…..They all were great in their own ways, and I thank all the fans over all those years, and all the road crews, security guys, and bartenders for all of the good times. But like I said in “No such thing as Rock and Roll”, 30 plus years ago….”When the lights have all gone down, you’ll marvel at the speed that things turn ’round.” I only play music for one reason. When I release “In The Absence Of God” this summer, I hope that some people at least will finally understand.
THE FAST 5
full in bloom: What is your most disgusting habit?
Nigel: I eat children.
full in bloom: What is the most feminine thing you do?
Nigel: I have multiple orgasms.
full in bloom: If there is a God, what is the first question you would ask God when you arrive?
Nigel: Why don’t you exist, and if you do, why is it still a paradox?
full in bloom: Greatest Rock band of all time?
Nigel: Iron Butterfly.
full in bloom: What were you doing 40 minutes before you sat down to do this interview?
Nigel: Recording guitar parts, having cleaned my gun and the mess outside from what happened last night. “Look honey! Thar’s a new bump on the hill over near that crazy guys place!” “Come away from the window Sugar, come away”.
