______ _______ /\ ___\ ____ ____ ____ /\__ __\ \ \ \__/ / __ \ / __ \ / __\ \/_ \ \_/ \ \ \ /\ \_\ \ /\ \_\ \ /\__ \ \ \ \ \ \ \____ \ \____/ \ \___,_\ \/\____/ \ \_\ \ \_____\ \/___/ \/__/__/ \/___/ \/_/ \/_____/ _______ The /\__ __\ ____ Issue GLENN \/_ \ \_/ / __ \ #46 HUGHES \ \ \ /\ \_\ \ May 2nd Electronic \ \_\ \ \____/ 2001 Fanzine \/_/ \/___/ ______ _______ /\ ___\ ____ ____ ____ /\__ __\ \ \ \__/ / __ \ / __ \ / __\ \/_ \ \_/ \ \ \ /\ \_\ \ /\ \_\ \ /\__ \ \ \ \ \ \ \____ \ \____/ \ \___,_\ \/\____/ \ \_\ \ \_____\ \/___/ \/__/__/ \/___/ \/_/ \/_____/ ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||| INTRODUCTION ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||| Hi Everybody! What a year it's been so far and it's only May! We have a bumper issue for you this time around, in fact the biggest issue to date!! A big thanks to all of you who submitted items for inclusion in this issue and for those of you yet to do so - please consider it for the future, it can be anything - an exclusive newsbrief, a review of a live show, past or present. An album, a guest appearance, remincising the old days with Purple or Trapeze - anything you think would be of interest to us all. We're still buzzing from the New York show we attended back in late March, and even from all the great reports and pictures from the other two gigs that everyone have made available through various web sites. With upcoming appearances in Europe, Glenn continues with his hectic schedule, both live and in the studio - with not only his next solo outing due soon, but also collaborations with Joe Lynn Turner as well as continued work with his pals that make up 'Voices of Classic Rock', over at rockforever.com - this in addition to a guest spot on an upcoming Nazareth tribute CD, "Another Hair Of The Dog", and the now released, "Nostradamus", the rock opera from Nikolo Kotzev. So another busy year is in full swing and for us the fans, lots to look forward to over the coming months. Drop us a line anytime - until next time.... Cheers, David & Shirean ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||| SUBMISSIONS ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||| UPDATED AND CONFIRMED 2001 EUROPEAN TOUR DATES ---------------------------------------------- To be safe, you should always call the venue before purchasing and making your way to each show - cancelled dates are always a possibility! Friday, May 25th - Revolver, Madrid - Spain Saturday, May 26th - Mephisto, Barcelona - Spain Monday, May 28th - Bloodstock Festival - Derby, UK Tuesday, May 29th - La Locomotive, Paris - France Thursday, May 31st - De Kade, Zaandam - The Netherlands Friday, June 1st - Biebob, Vosselaar - Belgium Saturday, June 2nd - Podium, Hardenberg - The Netherlands Sunday, June 3rd - Plato, Helmond - The Netherlands Tuesday, June 5th - Logo, Hamburg - Germany Wednesday, June 6th - Proxima, Warsaw - Poland Friday, June 8th - Sweden Rock Festival, Sölvesborg - Sweden Saturday, June 9th - Nostori, Helsinki - Finland -END- From: hardradio.com [mailto:news@hardradio.com] To: ctc@ghpg.net Subject: CTC: GLENN HUGHES' European touring band GLENN HUGHES' European touring band will include guitarist JJ Marsh and drummer Shane Gaalaas (DIESEL MACHINE). Gaalaas will be replacing Brian Tichy, whose previous touring and recording commitments have prevented him from taking part in the European portion of the tour. Hughes is scheduled to release a new record this fall through SPV. -END- From: Nostramusic [mailto:nostramusic@freenet.de] To: ctc@ghpg.net Subject: CTC: Nostradamus Release Dear Fans and supporters of Nikolo Kotzev, We are proud to announce that "Nostradamus" the rock opera will be released in Europe on May 21st and in US on May 22nd by Steamhammer / SPV. Japanese release is scheduled for April 5th. Please, visit the Nostradamus website at : www.nostramusic.com Beside detailed informations on the album you´ll also have the opportunity to listen to MP3 files, we hope you´ll enjoy it ! THE NOSTRADAMUS TEAM -END- From: amust4music [mailto:vince@amust4music.com] To: ctc@ghpg.net Subject: CTC: Glenn @ Bloodstock01 - UK Metalfest Hi I am writing to confirm Glenn's appearance as Special Guests at the 1st Bloodstock Festival to be held at the Derby Assembly Rooms, UK on May 28th. Other bands on the bill are: Saxon Blaze Skyclad Dirty Deeds Shadow Keep Area54 Primal Fear (from Germany) Return to the Sabbat + 7 others! Due to the current debate as to whether the Dynamo Festival in Holland will be cancelled due to the outbreak of Foot and Mouth disease, I am writing to clarify the position with the Bloodstock Metalfest. Bloodstock is being held within Derby City Centre and is an INDOOR event. Travel to and from the event will by Road, Rail and Air, with ZERO access needed to Rural areas (Fields etc!). This means that the Virus cannot be spread by people travelling to and from Bloodstock (unless you do find yourself in a field and then you would be nowhere near!!). This means that we are the only definitive festival with a 100% guarantee of happening!! Details can be found at www.bloodstock.uk.com Thanks Vince -END- From: Shirean [mailto:shirean@ghpg.net] To: ctc@ghpg.net Subject: CTC: Charts are on fire!! Check it out..."Burn" and "You Keep On Moving" are straight in at #21 and #39 respectively over at the 'Classic Rock Charts' on MP3.COM http://genres.mp3.com/music/pop_rock/classic_rock/ Big thanks go to www.rockforever.com for generating this success. Remember, if you listen to 1 minute or more of a track, Glenn gets "credit" and that increases his chart position on MP3.COM as well as his earnings! -END- Subject: CTC: TABLOID CONFUSES GLENN HUGHES WITH DECEASED VILLAGE PEOPLE MEMBER To: ctc@ghpg.net From: "Mazur Public Relations" Date: 29 Mar 2001 22:03:36 -0000 Mazur Public Relations - New members - www.mazurpr.com For Immediate Release: March 29, 2001 TABLOID CONFUSES GLENN HUGHES WITH DECEASED VILLAGE PEOPLE MEMBER LOS ANGELES - Rocker Glenn Hughes and his wife were shocked and a bit bemused when friends and associates began calling their home after word got out that the singer’s mug was mistakenly placed along that of the recently-deceased Village People member of the same name in the April 3 issue of The Star. The tabloid ran a recent photo of Hughes alongside an old black and white shot of the Village People’s Biker persona in an announcement of the early March death of Village People’s Hughes. “Whilst I’m sorry to hear about the passing of the other Glenn Hughes, I’d like to let everyone know that I am very much alive and well, said Hughes. In fact, just last week Hughes completed the first U.S. solo performances of his career. See www.glennhughes.com for live photos from the dates. Hughes’ latest album is Return of the Crystal Karma, out on SPV Records. Now a solo artist, Hughes was formerly a member of Deep Purple, Black Sabbath, and Trapeze. For more information, please contact: Michael Mazur or Debbie Sellnow/Mazur Public Relations Tel: (609) 426-1277 Fax: (609) 426-1217 E-mail: michael@mazurpr.com / debbie@mazurpr.com www.mazurpr.com www.spvusa.com www.glennhughes.com -END- Britains Best Kept Secret? Glenn Hughes - The Interview By Troy Wells Courtesy BallBusterHardMusic.com, The Official Int'l Underground Hard Music Report www.Ballbusterhardmusic.com/ In today's world of overexposed and expertly marketed artists, it is unsettling to learn that one of the greatest talents of the last 30 years has remained one of Britian's best kept secrets, especially here in the United States where Glenn Hughes is often shrouded in obscurity. Glenn has graced the ranks of such archetypal bands as Deep Purple, Black Sabbath and Trapeze. He has also recorded dozens of albums on his own and with name talents such as Gary Moore and Pat Thrall. Glenn is a prolific songwriter, exceptional bassist and is at the very top of his field as a vocalist. His versatility alone puts him in a league with the likes of Prince, Freddie Mercury and Stevie Wonder. Glenn's future notoriety is ensured by his constant recording activity and quality of work. In this exclusive interview, Glenn sets the record straight on past rumors, recent activities and future projects. Glenn Hughes: I'm working on a song with Audley Freed, the guitar player from The Black Crowes. He sent me a song, which I'm actually working on at the moment. You never know, it could make the new album. At some point do something together on an album. BB: He's great, I saw him once with the Crowes. Glenn Hughes: He's incredible, man. BB: It's teasing me to know you're working on all this cool stuff, man! Glenn Hughes: A lot of crazy things going on at the moment. BB: Your wife's a lucky woman to come home and be able to hear all that stuff going on...or is she sick of it by now? Glenn Hughes: You know, when we met, she hadn't heard my music. My wife's a producer and music is what she does. Funny enough, she got into it very quickly. She went on Amazon.com and bought everything I ever did and then brought it in the car one day...all the fuckin' CD's, all my stuff and she really likes it. I guess it's a plus, ya know? She produces music for TV commercials, a lot of the things you probably hear on the Super Bowl and everything else like Budwiser and Coke. She does a lot of live music. My drummer introduced us. So, Gab does a lot of TV work. We've been together a year...she's the best thing that ever happened to me. BB: For those who might not know, tell us about your latest releases such as "Return Of The Crystal Karma" and "Voodoo Hill." That covers the last three months, doesn't it? Glenn Hughes: I did "Crystal Karma" and "Voodoo Hill" about a year ago. They came out in June and September. I personally love both of them. I think for the classic rock/hard rock fan, they're both good. But, they both offer something a little different. I think my album is a bit funkier, funky rock. Basically, I live in that funky place, which is great. To tell you the truth, I can't play unless it's kind of groovy anyway. But, the "Voodoo Hill" thing is a classic rock album. Much more of a Deep Purple sounding record than anything else I've ever done. The guitar player is a really great classic rock player. BB: Well, it actually has the Purple cover on there as well. Glenn Hughes: Yeah. BB: My favorite off of there was "24." Glenn Hughes: Isn't that great? BB: Great song. Any story behind that? Glenn Hughes: Yes, there is a story behind that. BB: Is there a young lady running around somewhere? Glenn Hughes: No. I wrote that song when I was dating Gabby and, to tell you the truth, it's kind of personal. I guess that a lot of guys that are rockers, especially when they become elder statesmen, have the opportunity to meet a lot of girls and a lot of younger girls. And what I was saying in this song is, "I can't be running around with young chicks anymore!" and that song really is a farewell, for Glenn Hughes to say, "you're much too young, you're not what I'm looking for." It really is a beautiful song and I really fucking love that song. The chorus is so melodic. BB: It's so different from the rest of the song. There's such a dynamic build. The begining is sort of like this ominous dark metal thing. Glenn Hughes: Right. BB: Then the chorus has such a resolve and it's so lush. Glenn Hughes: I love it. I'm glad you like that because it's my favorite. BB: Well, I guess that sort of follows up the sentiment of "Golden One." Glenn Hughes: That's Gabby's song. I wrote that for her. Funny enough, Dario Mollo sent me some music and I didn't tell Gab that I wrote a song for her until I actually came home from Italy. I'd written the song six weeks before. I sent it to her office by Fed-Ex from Italy. She was blown away. I don't normally write songs for my girlfriends. But, with Gabby, it's just a different thing. She's my soulmate. It's a beautiful song. BB: "Crystal Karma," which is the latest Glenn album, "State I'm In" and "It's Alright" are my favorites. Glenn Hughes: Once again, I love the album. I chose to play and write an album like that. I wanted to make more of a crunchier guitar sounding record than the previous album. It's all done pretty much live. We overdub a few things. The nucleus of my band is J.J. and Ferg. We're so tight. We've condensed down to a trio now and it's such a great band. BB: So you're playing bass full time then? Glenn Hughes: Oh, God yes! I can't not play bass. For awhile there, I decided not to play bass to concentrate on...I don't know what I was thinking. I think I made a mistake. It's okay to tell people that. I really love playing bass. In fact, at the NAMM show, I just picked it up a fretless bass. I had a fretless before. But, this one that Vergier gave me is so amazing. I'm gonna take some lessons and learn how to play fretless. BB: I've dabbled. It's tough. The intonation has to be so precise. Glenn Hughes: You don't play in the middle of the fret, you play on the top of the fret. I'll tell you, man, it's a little gruesome. I couldn't play "Burn" on it cause there are so many notes. I could play certain things. BB: Are you into Tony Franklin at all? Glenn Hughes: Very much so. I'm also into Marco Mendoza. BB: Both John Sykes alumni. Glenn Hughes: They're both really good friends of mine. Very good friends. BB: Do you know Sykes as well? Glenn Hughes: Very well. BB: That guy is another like you, sort of a best kept secret over here in the U.S. that people aren't aware of like they should be. Glenn Hughes: Well, you know, now that I'm coming out to play live, I'm hoping that's going to change. The beauty of my whole career has been... when I was young, in Trapeze, Trapeze made it basically because of strong word of mouth and there was hardly any press. But, because the band was so awesome, we got a great reputation in the club circut for being really, really good. And in Europe, the far East and South America, we have a reputation now with my group. Now we're gonna do it in America. BB: Yes, it's long overdue. Glenn Hughes: And you know, I'm not chasing the dream I had when I was 21. I've got 80 plus gold records and, you know, it's like I've done it, I've been there. Why I do it now is because I really fucking enjoy it. BB: You can tell big time. Glenn Hughes: The beauty of playing the club tour I'm going to do in America in March is that I can connect to my really die hard fans. It's really important for me. BB: I don't see this as chasing the old dream. It's a whole other market that should be exposed to you and plus, you live over here. Glenn Hughes: It's difficult. You know Troy, you probably know what it's like to tour. You've probably met a lot of bands that tour across the nation. It's difficult to do it. You've gotta make some money. Unless you're making money, I'm not talking about me per se, I've gotta make enough money to pay all my crew and my guys and it's gruesome cause it's such a big country. But, I'm going to pull it off. I decided that I waited long enough. I got myself an agent that really believes in me, so, we're going to do it properly. We've got a few Northeast gigs booked and we're obviously moving into the Midwest through Ohio and I'm presuming the Detroit/Chicago area and then down to Texas and stuff. From what I can see, we should be entering the Michigan area around the second week of April. Man, I've gotta tell ya, Detroit was a great city for Deep Purple and for Trapeze. This is really horrible to tell you, but, i haven't played Detroit since 1976. So, that's kind of strange, isn't it? BB: So you played with Tommy Bolin here? Glenn Hughes: I believe we did. We played Cobo three nights in a row with Purple on two tours and then we played another venue with Tommy, it was like a really old bloody place. BB: Maybe it was Olympia? Glenn Hughes: It was old, man. It was horrible. BB: I can't wait for that. Speaking of the new band, Joakim is amazing. Every album, I get more and more into him. Glenn Hughes: Oh, he's great. BB: Now tell me "Ode To J" isn't Jeff Beck. Glenn Hughes: It is. BB: I think I'm going to call him 'Lil Jeff and I don't mean that in an imitation sort of way, it's a genuine influence showing. Glenn Hughes: When I wrote that, I wrote the guitar melody. I don't know if you know the story of Jeff Beck and I. In 1972, he stood on the stage at Hammersmith Odeon and said, to Ronnie Montrose funny enough, "I'd love to play with Glenn." Years later, in 1994, Epic Records, Sony in New York, called me and sent Jeff's manager to see me. play in Trapeze. We did some gigs in London. They decided that Jeff was going to have me sing on Jeff's next vocal album. That was seven years ago and it still hasn't happened. You know Jeff and I, I sent him "Ode To J" and he loved it. But funny enough, on this next album there's another instrumental, which is probably more like that vibe. So... BB: So, like a hint...nudging Jeff a little? Glenn Hughes: Well, I write instrumentals like that. I have this voice that's very melodic. So, I write those things for guitar and bass as well. The first thing I did last year, which was "Ode To J," I thought was great. The next one is more dreamy. But, it's very, very cool. BB: "Ode To J" is sort of like the "Ode To G" with you and Jon Lord. Glenn Hughes: Yeah, it's kind of a joke. Someone said why don't you just call it "Ode To J?" BB: I saw the thank you's in "The Way It Is" that you mention Jon Lord. Are you still friends with him? Glenn Hughes: We did a tv show together in Switzerland. I was on the panle first, he came on and joined me and I had no idea he was there. He had no idea I was there. I hadn't seen him in 20 years. The camera rolled and we both got very emotional. I haven't spoken to him since. But, you know, people ask me, "Do you hang out with the guys in Purple?" Not really, cause I never see them. BB: I heard that you and David Coverdale recently did "Burn" for the first time in 25 years. Glenn Hughes: We did. BB: How was that? Glenn Hughes: That was incredible. BB: I bet. Glenn Hughes: You know, I didn't ask him to do it. BB: did he guest at your show or did you guest at his? Glenn Hughes: He was singing on Mark & Brian's Christmas show. On the last week before I got into town, before Christmas, Mark & Brian called me to see if I'd sing a song with Ronnie Montrose. I heard David was on the show and the night before the gig, he came down and they asked him, "You know Glenn's going to do the show, why don't you guys sing "Burn?" He thought about it and the next day at rehearsal he called me and said, "Let's do it." we struck up a great friendship again too. And you know the most important thing about my life is, it's all about spirituality and friendship. I'm not really pushing the envelope to play with David again or Ritchie Blackmore or whatever. There are things probably being talked about in rumors, but... BB: It's the connection. Glenn Hughes: The connection has been made and I think that David and I have really hit it off as men and we dig each other. We both laugh at each other's jokes, we like each other a lot. We just haven't spent a lot of time together the past 10 to 15 years. BB: He's a very charming man. A very cool guy. Glenn Hughes: Oh yeah, he's very sweet. We get along really well. I think we really needed to spend some quality time together, which we did. And I think it was very good for the healing of anything that may have gone on in years gone by. It was very cool. BB: I know you did backup on Whitesnake's "Slip Of The Tongue." Glenn Hughes: Right. BB: what songs in particular? Glenn Hughes: If I can remember correctly, it was "Fool For Your Lovin'," but the other two songs, I can't remember because it was very high. Super, super duper high and I can't remember what they were. It was the title track I think. I don't know the other one. BB: I was just curious because a lot of times with backups, they tuck them in and bury them in the mix. Glenn Hughes: Well, they were very buried, I know that. But he took care of me and he was really instrumental...see, I got clean and sober around that time. David was instrumental in helping me get through that period. So, I want to thank him for that. BB: One thing I think worth mentioning on the two latest Glenn albums, "The Way It Is" and "Crystal Karma," one thing that impressed me, beyond how great the songs were and how versitile, particularly "The Way It Is," is how modern it sounds. And I don't mean that in a trendy way, I mean that it has a very fresh, forward thinking sound to it. Every time I hear something great of yours, it frustrates me cause I'm like, "Why is all this other crap on the radio getting all these accolades?" Glenn Hughes: I know. BB: Here's this guy who is just unbelievable. It's not like this sounds like, "Oh, he's some old Purple guy rehashing." I mean this is very vital, current sounding stuff. Glenn Hughes: Oh, I believe it is. When I make records I really take it seriously. It's not like I'm just going to write eleven filler songs. I try and make each song different and I try to give it a new spin. I really have been given that gift. I'm pretty sure if I had an incredibly huge manager, it'd be different. But you know, I've worked with a bunch of assholes in this industry. I don't wanna work with them anymore. I'd rather just keep on doing what I'm doing. I have been very fortunate to make money so I don't have to worry that much about things. But, I do my albums because I like playing music. I just hope a lot of people feel the same way you do. BB: There's a few friends of mine that I've been trying to turn on to you and that's a difficult task in a way because you've got such a large body of work. I don't quite know where to go to give them their introductory taste. If you could pick one album, we'll exclude "Burning Japan" because it's so varied... Glenn Hughes: Oh yeah. BB: If there's one solo album I could give them, which should it be? Glenn Hughes: I'd say to them, get the last album, "Crystal Karma." You know, cause it's kind of rock. The next one comes in July and it's going to be even better. I really believe that from my gut. The next one, it's going to be different. It's going to be more acoustic than the last one. There's many different sides of Glenn as you know. The very hard rock side, there's very, very funky and there's the cross of those two. There's also poppy and jazzy and it's all very different. If I don't perform those songs, if i don't perform what God's given me, I'm not giving the listener of myself or their money's worth, I guess. I've been cursed and blessed with this gift to sing and write in many form. I think Sting does it really well, hence he came from The Police and he had a huge following. If I'd have stayed in Trapeze and got famous in Trapeze, I would have been able to do a lot more, but, i can't go on coulda, woulda and shoulda's. I'm very happy where I am. I don't do this to chase the last album sales to make them better. Obviously, I'm hoping things do remain good, but I do this because I really do love working with my group. I'm in heaven right now, writing another album. Writing music is the best thing I can do. I just finished a new song called "Cry" when you called me up. The next thing I'm working on is the one with Audley. It's different. More Trapeze sounding. We'll see if it makes the album. BB: There's two people I want to ask you about that I've heard a little about from you in interviews that I've read. One being Ray Gillen. I heard that as part of your recovery, you had to call some people that maybe you were angry with back when you were struggling with your addictions and that ray was one that you called up because of the animosity towards his replacing you in Sabbath. Did that call happen? Glenn Hughes: No, there's no animosity. When Ray got the gig, I think we were in Rhode Island or something. I had been really suffering with this condition. The truth of the matter is, I'd had an altercation with the tour manager on the night before the tour. Regardless of what happened, I got hit in the face and my nose, there's a bone in the eye socket that went through the nose and caused a lot of blood to go into the throat causing a blockage. What happened was, I couldn't speak, let alone sing. I wasn't that screwed up at the time, it was just that something bad happened. Something in my life at that moment, that caused them to get a replacement. BB: I'm glad we cleared that up because it has been widely reported that drugs were the thing inhibiting your singing. Glenn Hughes: No, I'll tell you why. Although at the time I was not clean and sober, Doug Goldstein, who is now Axl's manager, was my bodyguard at the time... and I'm going to tell you the truth. If you've met Doug, he's a fucking ox. He fuckin' followed me everywhere. You know something, there was no drugs involved on that tour. There was a lot of drinking going on. I think there always was in the 80's. I'm the kind of guy that will own up to anything I've ever done bad and, let me tell you, I've done some bad things to myself. One thing I didn't do was deliberately try to hurt Tony Iommi or the Sabbath family. It just so happens I got into a fight. I guess I might have caused it. But, the lead singer of the band being hit smack straight in the face is not something you should have done. So, consequently, I had to go to the hospital. Funny enough, Ray was hanging out with the band at that time, so, he obvioulsy was going to be brought in. When I found out, I wasn't very happy, but, I didn't blame Ray. In fact, Ray and I spoke about it when we did the Phenomena together in 1987. He and I were very good friends. There was never a problem with Ray Gillen and Glenn Hughes. I was kind of happy that they got someone else. But, they did it in a way that they never told me. They fucking told Doug to just take me to the airport. So I never got to speak to Tony before I went. It really wasn't a matter of "can Glenn sing tonight," Glenn couldn't speak. BB: I saw the Detroit show. Glenn Hughes: Oh my God, well, you see what happened. I don't know if you could tell, I wasn't fucked up. I might have looked nervous, overweight and bloated. You know, I wasn't well back then, but, I was not fucked up. I just couldn't sing. Isn't it weird, six weeks of rehearsals were brilliant. The night before the tour, this happens and on the very first fucking night in Cleveland, my voice started going. The singer doesn't lose his voice on the first night. I mean, my voice is like elastic, I never really have any problems with it. BB: Well, I guess I can kind of verify that. I don't know how you feel about the bootleg thing, but, as a fanatic I can't resist. I do have a bootleg called "Turn To Glenn." Glenn Hughes: Got it! Somebody sent me that. BB: That's a Sabbath rehearsal and your voice is fine on that. Glenn Hughes: Yeah. Oh my God Troy, if I could erase something in my career, it would be that moment. Those 5 shows I did in Sabbath, I'd absolutely have to erase those because it was...can you imagine playing in front of 17,000 boys and girls, not knowing what was going on cause you couldn't sing. It was horrific. It was almost like, is this really happening to me? And let's just say that a good three quarters of these people had never heard me sing before thinking, my God, this guy sucks. But, you know something, I couldn't help it. Tony is a very good friend of mine. I think we're okay about it now, I mean, it was something I didn't plan on doing. Although I must say, in the 80's for me, I wasn't firing on all cylinders. When I got clean and sober that's when my life changed. BB: Was the John Norum album the first album you did after Sabbath? Glenn Hughes: The first album I did in '92 that came out was Norum. I did it in October '91. BB: And then the blues album. Glenn Hughes: The blues album was in September '92. BB: And that brings us up to "From Now On." Glenn Hughes: And "Burning Japan Live." BB: That's one of my favorites, "From Now On." Glenn Hughes: I love that one. BB: There's some phenomenal ballad type of things. I keep going back to your ballads. That's where you really show off your voice. Glenn Hughes: Yeah, on the next album, there's going to be a couple of killers. In a very classic rock sort of way, not in like Glenn does his black thing way. It's going to be very, very almost AOR-ish classic rock-ish cause all my fans in japan freak out when I don't give them enough rock, they love that stuff. BB: That's a difficult thing that you have, speaking of a blessing and a curse. Not only can the talent be a blessing and a curse, but, the versatility is a blessing and a curse big time because it's like you listen to your stuff and the big powers that be at the label, they don't want somebody who can do everything. They want to be able to pigeon hole you in this little box so they can market you. Glenn Hughes: Yeah, they definitely do. The trouble I've had in Japan is they really want me to just be totally Purple sounding. BB: A lot of people do. A lot of my friends, when I tell them there's a new Glenn, they're like "Well, is it rock enough?" It's like, man, if you're only listening to the rock Glenn, you're missing most of it as far as I'm concerned. I love the rock stuff, but, I think where you really shine is on the ballads. Glenn Hughes: Oh, absolutely. It's from the soul. BB: Even stuff like "Coffee & Vanilla" is a favorite of mine. Glenn Hughes: Oh, I love that. BB: I like when you have an album with variety. Sometimes you do a rock album, sometimes you do a funk album. But, I like when you do things like "The Way It Is," where it's like a Queen album. Every song could be from a different artist because the album is so versitile. It's all very different yet it's all very Glenn. Variety is a tough thing to sell on people. Do you have that frustration? Glenn Hughes: Definitely, it drives me nuts. If I listened to everybody that's got an opinion on Glenn, I'd be scared to write. I have a huge fan base of people that really like...there's two camps. It's almost like there's a younger audience in some markets. A lot of girls in some markets. In some markets, like East Germany, it's all men. When I go to do South America, there's a lot of young girls. One set like the ballads, one set likes the very intense songs. It's different. I'm just blessed to have a different quota of fans. I really do believe that I'm still making great music and I'm making even better music as I go along. BB: I really believe that. Purple was great, but, I'm fine with it that it's done because I think you're blazing a trail in so many different directions. It's very exciting. Glenn Hughes: I just wrote a new song, this "Cry" song on my album. It's really funky, almost like...I don't know, it's sorta nasty, almost like the Gap Band. I said to myself, "I can't put this on my album." I played it around the house for a couple of days, Gabby came in and said, "You gotta put this on your album." So I said "Fuck it, I'll just write some lyrics to it." So, there you go...the reason I started the last album, "The State I'm In," was that I wanted to let people know who were listening to this at Virgin Records or someone putting the headphones on...oh my God, this is a rock record. Cause "The Way It Is" started out with that radar submarine thing and the people in Japan didn't get it. BB: But "Crystal Karma" gave them what they wanted. Glenn Hughes: And "Feel" : "Too Funky - No Rock!" I was just over there with Joe Lynn Turner, which was a huge classic rock thing. BB: I heard about that, has that been recorded? Glenn Hughes: I guess, yeah. I mean, there's bootlegs going around. But Joe and I are making an album in the summer. BB: So you'll both be singing? Glenn Hughes: Oh yeah. BB: Have you heard his latest album? Glenn Hughes: Yes, it's fabulous. Joe made a very Japanese classic rock record. BB: The Japanese guitarist, Akira, on there is smokin'. Glenn Hughes: Yeah, he's playing on the album with me and Joe. we're bringing him in in May. BB: He's a real Yngwie/Blackmore kind of guy. Glenn Hughes: Oh, I'd say Richie Blackmore. The reason I'm going to use Akira on the album is because Joe and I have a vision that we're not gonna step outside of the Mark III, Mark IV Rainbow/Purple box. We're gonna give the Japanese... well, basically, the classic rock Glenn and Joe fan exactly what they would want. So here I am trying to rewrite "Mistreated" or "Burn" or ...who know's. BB: The other person I wanted to ask you about, I've heard you mention him, but everyone is always barraging you with the rock questions, is Stevie Wonder. Is that his harmonica bit at the end of "She Wants Your Money?" Glenn Hughes: No. It's a mouth box played on a keyboard. I produced it in a way that I told my keyboard player that I wanted that Stevie Wonder thing. I thought it was appropriate. BB: I heard that you not only know him but that you've played with him? Glenn Hughes: It was on the "Stormbringer" sessions. I was at the Record Plant and he was next door. I met him, funny enough, in the toilet taking a piss. And his cousin, Calvin, was there and I said, "My God, I wanna meet him." Check this out, I brought him into Studio B and I played him "Can't Do It Right With The One You Love." I ripped him off so bad. He came up to me and could not believe I was white. He touched my face and said, "I can't believe you're not a brother." He took me under his wing. I stayed and hung out with him for two days. I sat on his organ bench while he was playing some keyboards and we became real good friends. He called me his favorite white singer, which I thought was brilliant. BB: Wow, I can't imagine you two jamming on something. That would be amazing. Glenn Hughes: I must say, I never actually played with him but I watched him record. He was making "Songs In The Key Of Life." So, I was watching that and we were doing "Stormbringer" at the time. BB: Holy shit! To have seen that! Well George Lynch definitely titled you appropriately, he called you the white Stevie Wonder. Glenn Hughes: You know something, I gotta tell you a funny story. In our studio with Stevie, David Coverdale was doing a vocal track and he couldn't see cause David's like half blind, he couldn't see. He was in the control room. He could just make out it was me and he said, "Who the fuck is that there with you? Tell him to fucking get out." And it was Stevie Wonder. BB: Did you tell him right then? Glenn Hughes: Oh God, he freaked. BB: What a great story. Glenn Hughes: Isn't that funny? Dave and I laugh about it. BB: One more Stevie thing. Hypothetically speaking, there is going to be a Glenn Hughes tribute album and Stevie's going to be on it and you get to pick which song of yours he's going to sing... Glenn Hughes: I'd have to say, probably "This Time Around." BB: Let's play word association. Just some song titles and some people. "Blue Jade." Glenn Hughes: Oh, I love that song. It's one of my favorite songs that Glenn Hughes has ever written. It's deep and emotional. It's very real. It's even visual, isn't it? BB: "Talk About It." Glenn Hughes: I love this song. Mark wrote the music. I finished it in the car on the way home. Give me a piece of music that stands out like that and it's immediately...I just start writing like crazy. The best songs are all written like that. BB: "In Your Eyes" from the John Norum album. Glenn Hughes: Oh, that's another good song. I blew him away. When he played me that, once again I went, "Okay, I know where this is going." I just like the freedom of what he allowed me to sing. He's very cool. It's very, very pop. BB: "Stoned In The Temple." Glenn Hughes: I love that track. It just moves great. The song is about a guy who can't get sober. He's always fucked up. Wasn't about me. I can't say who it was, it would be telling. Some of my songs I wrote about people. But, I can't really say. I write about issues that involve the heart and flesh and bone. I don't write about goblins and weasels and dolphins. BB: Speaking of someone who can relate to sobriety, Steven Tyler. Glenn Hughes: I met him when they opened for me in Purple in 1973 and I may have been rude. Elf was the opening act and Aerosmith was second and we were third. And they didn't allow any room for Elf and I actually was really mad. I think I did something bizarre but, I didn't see Steven again until 1994. I was introduced to him by their guru, Bob Timmons, who is a friend of mine. So I went backstage and met them and they were very nice. We had a great talk. He's a genius. He's a rock god. He's an ego maniac, but, he gets the shit done. He's an addict, so, I know exactly where he's coming from. BB: Prince. Glenn Hughes: A genius. I think he's gone a bit too far as of late. Early Prince is ungodly. Even some of the new stuff is good. He's just amazing, he's unbelievable man. BB: Have you met? Glenn Hughes: I'd prefer not to. I'd prefer not to meet anyone that I thought was going to be difficult. I'm an admirier of many musicians, especially the real good ones. But, if they are known to be difficult, I would not like to meet them. BB: "Double Life." Glenn Hughes: Which one? Which version? BB: The "Incense & Peaches" version. Glenn Hughes: I love it. It's a great vocal performance, isn't it? It sounds like a girl in some places. BB: "Welcome To The Real World." Glenn Hughes: Song I wrote with Mel Galley for the Trapeze reunion that never happened. I wrote it in his living room in 1984-85. BB: There's a great version of the live disc. Glenn Hughes: Yeah. BB: What happened to his hand? Glenn Hughes: He broke his arm. They were jumping over some cars in Munich in a car park before the gig. And Mel fell and Sykes...you know Sykes wears these big army boots. He fell on his arm with his boot and broke it. It went septic inside with the splint and it paralyzed his arm. So he has to wear a special brace to put his fingers in. BB: And the last song, even though it's the most obvious song to comment on, it just continues to get bigger and better and it takes on a life of its own year after year, which is "Coast To Coast." Every time I hear it, you continue to add cool extra things to it. Glenn Hughes: It's great, isn't it? I keep adding bits at the end of the song. I don't think I can play it in the trio with keyboards. Although, we did it in London in November. But, it's a song that, I guess, my signature song. BB: So you won't do it on this new tour? Glenn Hughes: I might. There's so many songs lining up here. When you have a trio, you have to play trio sounding stuff. BB: Richie Kotzen. Glenn Hughes: I Love him. My wife just had him in a session. He's very shy. He's not a cocky boy. What he was doing in Poison, I have no idea. He was so un-Poison. because you know, Richie is a fucking great guitar player/singer/writer. We're not done yet. Him and I aren't done. We are gonna do some work. BB: Do you totally hate bootlegs? Or do you understand our, the fans, want for them? Glenn Hughes: Love 'em, love 'em, love 'em. Can't stop 'em. Keep bringing them on. BB: Except the Tony Iommi one. Glenn Hughes: Except that one. Cause that sucks because I never actually got to sing on his record. I've been known to say at concerts, "Get your tape recorders out, it's going to be a good show." It doesn't bother me. Except the Tony thing. I lost a bunch of money because I never got to perform with him on his album, because of that shit that happened. But Tony and I, once again will make more music. Tony and I love each other and we love working together. So, I don't know when we'll work together, but, I think we'll work together again. BB: Was the "shit that happened" the reunion? Glenn Hughes: Funny enough, in 1996, he asked me to go back to Sabbath before Ozzy went in and I refused. I said, "I'd like to make an album with you." And we started to make the album and then he went back to Sabbath. That's why. And then of course, when the producer was producing the new Iommi album, Tony was in Sabbath and he wanted to go back to the real dark stuff. They told me that my vocal duties would not be needed on the album because I wasn't the right singer for the album. I said, "Fair enough." BB: Do you have that bootleg, "Eighth Star?" Glenn Hughes: No I don't. BB: There's some things on here, just as a boot fan, I'd like to clear up. They've got the song titles all wrong. Glenn Hughes: I can tell you the titles. "Not The Same," "I'm Gone," "Real World," "Don't You Tell Me," "I'll Be Fine," "From Another World," "Through The Rain," "I'm Not The Same Man," "Gone," "Don't Drag The River," "Don't You Tell Me," "Fine," "From Another World," "What The Fuck Is That." Tony loved that stuff. They were only demos, we were gonna add things to it. But, Tony loved working on that. We had such a ball. BB: You know what they put on this boot? Glenn Hughes: Jethro Tull song? BB: Yeah, that's just off the tribute album "Cry Me A Song," right? You didn't play that with Tony? Glenn Hughes: No, God no. BB: Was there only seven original songs? Glenn Hughes: No, there's one more song, "Time Is A Healer." Just to prove it wasn't me who bootlegged it, I have a tape with that on it. When the tape got out, I'm going "Fucking hell! Did I give anybody a copy?" Cause you know you have to think about that and I went, "Nope." BB: Let's talk about the new making of the "Days Of Avalon" video. Glenn Hughes: It's beautiful man. It's about 25 minutes. It's a video plus behind the scenes. It's me at the house, it's me in the studio, it's me having fun with Gabby at the beach. It's a behind the scenes look at what goes on. And the video is a motherfucker , man. It's a beautiful video. I shot it at the sound stage and at the beach. It's like a $175,000 video. It's a big fucking video. BB: Did you see Niacin at NAMM? Glenn Hughes: Yes. BB: Wasn't that insane? Glenn Hughes: Yeah. I saw a couple of songs and then I left. BB: Dennis Chambers is just completely out of hand. Glenn Hughes: Yeah, he's incredible. BB: I thought I had seen everything Billy Sheehan could do but, he was whipping out shit that was blowing my mind. Glenn Hughes: He was amazing. BB: Speaking of Billy... Glenn Hughes: I love Billy Sheehan. BB: Do you like Mr. Big at all? Glenn Hughes: I'm not a big fan of technical playing, you know that. But, you've gotta take your hats off to people like Billy who was great that night. BB: Getting back to your voice, do you have a regimen or a vocal workout that you do? Glenn Hughes: When I perform, I really do honestly take care of myself. It's very important for me to get eight hours of sleep. I do warm up's before the sound check, just very casual. I have to sing for about 20 to 30 minutes. I've gotta sing not full boar, but, I've gotta be warming my voice at sound check. That to me is my warm up tape. All these guys have the tapes and I think it's great. I haven't done that yet. If I feel that I need to do that, I'll do it. But, i haven't had a problem yet with my voice. I'm singing four nights a week, it's been okay. I just don't smoke or drink or do drugs. It's just a healthy lifestyle. BB: As a last question, you said there was gonna be another "Archives" release. Glenn Hughes: We are now mastering a new one. I haven't gotten the title for it yet. But, you can expect it in the summer. BB: What period is this from? Glenn Hughes: 1994 upwards. There are other "Archives" releases coming next year that are older periods. The next release is very melodic. It's definitely a lot of vocals. -END- JOE LYNN TURNER (Ex-RAINBOW, DEEP PURPLE) Interview Courtesy Brian Coles www.electricbasement.com Joe Lynn Turner has been one of the premiere vocalists in hard rock music for over 2 decades. He garnered his first major thrust of attention as the lead vocalist for RAINBOW from 1981 till 1984. During that period fronting guitarist Ritchie Blackmore's band, he helped create classic tracks and hit singles such as "Surrender", "Can't Happen Here", "Stone Cold", "Power" and "Street of Dreams." In 1990 he served a stint with Deep Purple, who Blackmore had returned to 5 years earlier after splitting up Rainbow. Slaves and Masters yielded the minor hit "King of Dreams". The musical chairs of Deep Purple, rarely warm for long, found early front man Ian Gillan returning to the band, with Turner pursuing a solo career. Over the years Turner had cranked out several solo albums, including his latest Holy Man, plus guested on prominent tribute albums to Deep Purple and AC/DC among others. His current project will be a collaboration with one time Deep Purple and Trapeze throat Glenn Hughes. Turner generously chatted with us about all these aspects of his career. BC: I have been a big fan of your work for years and years, yet I didn't know till recently that you were an English teacher at one time! JOE LYNN TURNER: I did teach, but it wasn't like I had any type of big career or anything. I was a substitute teacher for awhile and then I was on my way to tenure and I thought, "I don't want to do this." I got an opportunity to just do the music and I went, "Screw this, I'll take my chances." BC: I heard you're gonna be working with Glenn Hughes. How'd that develop? JLT: Glenn and I have known each other for a long time, throughout the years... throughout the good times and bad times...crazy times. We've always had a mutual admiration and respect for each other. Recently, before the Holy Man tour in Japan, I needed a bass player. I was gonna use three of the guys from Japan - Akira Kaijyama on guitar and two other guys from these big rock bands in Japan on drums and keyboards. So normally I get Greg Smith whose a good old friend of mine...plays great...sings great. So when I was visiting Tokyo on this promo tour, trying to put this other tour together in a couple months, I mentioned to the record company and promoters, "What about Glenn Hughes?" And they all went, "That's impossible. He'll never do it." So I said well, let me try. So I gave him a call and he went, "Absolutely. For you, I'll do it. Nobody else." And I was very honored. So we went over there and to make a long story short, we kicked ass. Glenn is just amazing. He's always been an idol of mine, a hero...as far as singing and writing and playing. It was just fantastic because he played bass and sang. And people went so crazy over it, we looked at each and said, "Let's do a CD. Let's recapture the old [Deep] Purple days, nobody's doing that." There's nobody out there now, including Deep Purple or whatever you want to call them now, Dixie Dregs or something. The Deep Dregs... BC: (Laughs) Yea, there's definitely a stylistic change there... JLT: If you ask me...I got all the records and stuff, either by accident or fan clubs and stuff like that...and I just don't find the point. It's like yea, there's a couple of good songs here and there, but I don't know who they are. BC: Speaking of Purple, do you and Glenn share stories? JLT: Yea, like we were in the same band together but not at the same time? (laughs). He went through the Coverdale and Bolin era and I went through the MK V era. It's pretty much the same people who pull out there knives and all that other stuff. I mean, a leopard doesn't change his spots. We kind of shared all that and had that in common. As far as stylistically, we both love that kind of stuff...bluesed based hard rock...melodic...and we figured we'd do a CD like that. BC: What musician's will you use on the collaboration with Glenn? JLT: We'll probably use Akira Kaijyama on guitar...because he's got that whole Yngwie-Blackmore thing down. And we toured with him and Glenn loves him. BC: How will the vocal duties be structured...like Coverdale and Hughes did? With Glenn slappin' bass and used more in the background? JLT: Nah, I think we got to balance that out a little better...our approach to writing and performance. I want people to get enough of Glenn as well. We'll share the duties so it will be a little less one sided. We'll probably try and invent things where the two of us can harmonize or do something interesting together. BC: Will you be doing any covers on the album? JLT: I don't know yet. He may have something up his sleeve. Glenn is incredibly prolific with all that stuff, so if he turns around and says I got a great idea for this one will work it up. BC: You've done a lot of covers over the last few years. You did some for a couple Deep Purple tributes and then a cover of "Back In Black" for an AC/DC tribute. Your vocals on that blew me away. I remember my friends hearing that for the first time and going , "That's Joe Lynn Turner?!?!?" JLT: Yea, people don't know. They really don't know what you're about. People just think I'm locked into one thing. I thought I did a pretty decent job. And plus putting my own self in it. I knew that one would be a lot of fun because it would make people scratch their heads. BC: Have you found your voice getting bluesier over the years? JLT: Well, I am allowed to because I am my own boss. Back when I was in Rainbow with Ritchie...Ritchie wanted me to do a certain thing...and he wanted that very clean, pointed voice... BC: Do you think that was why Ritchie would often say he didn't like Ian Gillan's voice? Ritchie seemed pretty particular. In Rainbow, you had the quite a long stay, relatively speaking. JLT: There was a lot of mutual respect and all that. I think we wrote some great songs together and I think we understood what we were trying to do. To put it mildly, I guess I'm an armchair psychologist...it's all politics with people and trying to get along. Just don't fuck Ritchie around and just tell him the truth no matter how good or bad it is and he'll have respect for you. But anyway, I am allowed now to get gritty and all that because nobody is telling me not to. BC: What did ya think of the remastering jobs Polygram did on the Rainbow albums? JLT: Well, they're selling the catalog...but yea, better. I really don't get too thrilled with all this crap unless it's a leap and a jump. BC: You'd think they'd want to spend the money to remix them a bit instead instead of just remaster them? Not that they sound that bad... JLT: Oh, I'd love to remix stuff. I'd love to have the budget to mix them properly to begin with. I mean, nowadays, you're not getting that much money for the albums and we're squeaking them out. One thing that I make sure I do is always spend the money on the recordings. These guys, they pocket half of the money and it starts sounding like an ADAT, which usually they use. I've always said I wanted my stuff to last in some time capsule. You know, the drums sound like drums... BC: Have you imposed a time frame for getting the project with Glenn going? JLT: I am supposed to go out there [L.A.] March 9th and start some writing for about ten days. And then I've got other things happening here with the Voices of Classic Rock. You can go to rockforever.com and check that out. Basically that's Bobby Campbell from Toto, Mike Reno from Loverboy, Jimmy Jameson from Survivor, Micky Thomas from Starship, me...we've got everybody from Edgar Winter to Leslie West from Mountain. It's like a traveling circus. It's got all the real vocalists and all the tunes from "Rosanna" to "Eye of the Tiger". And it's a great show. We'll be going down to South America again...we just got back before the holidays... BC: Does it ever blow you away that your music is heard on different continents? JLT: It's kind of mind boggling. It never used to be but then I started thinking, this is international, global shit. BC: Tell us your thoughts on American labels and there lack of support for rock music? JLT: ...I've lived all over the place, and America just a completely different animal. It's all about corporate greed. I mean, things just change at the drop of a hat. I mean, there's millions and millions of rock fans out there that the record companies turn there back on. I mean as soon as Nirvana, it was like, you know, "fuck the hard rock groups...fuck Van Halen...here's where we're goin'. We're goin' Nirvana, Creed and all these bands." It was like the music died. I got that sinking feeling in my stomach..."Rock 'n' roll is over." BC: I remember that feeling too... JLT: It's the corporate powers...they do not nurture. They do not develop bands any more like they used to in the 60s and 70s and even part of the 80s. Thank God I lived in the 80s, the height of the "hair bands"...the whole thing...it was just fantastic. BC: Do you think the net has kept rock alive? JLT: Yea it has. I am talking to you now! At least [the net] is a bastion to go to where all else fails. At least there's some place to go. I remember a few years ago when there was no place to go. I am just happy there are some people around that are showing some interest in it. BC: Right on! Thanks for doing this! JLT: Thank you! -END- From: Bill Jones [mailto:billj@snet.net] To: ctc@ghpg.net Subject: CTC: Voodoo Lounge review We arrived at the Voodoo Lounge just after 8 PM when the doors opened. The exterior looked good - a seemingly safe, clean, and relatively quiet neighborhood for a borough in New York City, and the club entrance itself was clean, well-lit, and manned by a club security guard of sorts. It was all downhill from there literally and figuratively as far as the club's physical attributes go unfortunately, and the descent to the club was something straight out of Dante's "Inferno." Our group's collective thought was something like, "Could rock legend Glenn Hughes really be performing later in this, er, s#!thole?" The girl at the entrance holding our VISA-purchased tickets assured us that Glenn would indeed be showing up later, but since he wasn't yet on the premises according to her, we thought it in our best interests health-wise to exit the place for awhile. We returned just after 9 PM, and appropriately enough, during our second hellish descent we heard "Way Back To The Bone" from the depths of the club. But, was this possibly ... LIVE?!? Running down the steps now to see if it was possible, we rounded the corner to see Glenn and his two bandmates in living color doing their thing on stage, not twenty feet from where we stood. Glenn looked to be bored and annoyed and merely going through the motions, but nonetheless it was still Glenn Hughes performing what was essentially a private gig for us. I'm terrible at estimating crowd size, but this was easy as there were only about 25 people in the club at this point witnessing one of rock's greatest stories. What was amazing to me is that no one was rushing the stage or going nuts; quite the opposite in fact, as the folks present were quite casually laid back, and some were actually turned around not even looking at The Man and his band! I walked closer to the stage since nothing was there to stop me, and felt that ten feet away was close enough to see everything there was to see and not be in the band's face. It was obvious now that this was a sound check. Glenn and the band weren't intent on nailing the song, but seemed more focused on the amplification, instrument and mic placement, and getting their general bearings around the stage. After the Trapeze run-through, they broke into "Gone," and any notions I had that George Nastos was merely a funk player were quickly erased from my fat noggin. His thick riffing easily sounded closer to Iommi's EIGHTH STAR version than Jocke's attempt on the RETURN OF CRYSTAL KARMA album. Halfway through the tune they suddenly stopped playing, apparently satisfied that everything was up and working, and were quickly ushered off to a room behind the stage before anyone could approach them. It was just an appetizer, but quite filling. Around 10 PM the first of the two horrible opening acts started their set. Though the club was only a single level down, this Motorhead/Slayer wannabe band was a horrible torment worthy of one of the lower levels of the "Inferno", where violent sinners and the like might be destined to spend eternity subjected to their output. It couldn't get much worse, but of course it did with the second band, another thrash-metal outfit, except with less talent, even worse sound, and a truly horrific vocalist. This reject-from-a-high-school-variety-show band belonged in the lowest level of Dante's image of Hell, damning the most odious of the fraudulent, the traitors, to an eternity of the most unbearable punishment. Mercifully, we being only on the first level of the Inferno, thus blameless of greater sins (at least speaking for myself), were only subjected to this torture temporarily, and soon enough it was over. At 11:45 PM it was finally showtime! The place was packed now with, oh I don't know, maybe 200 fervent Hughes fans, who Glenn and band treated with a rousing version of "Stormbringer." Joined by hard-hitting bandmates George Nastos on guitar and Brian Tichy on drums, Glenn was fronting a power trio to end all power trios. This was one heavy, nasty band. When seeing Glenn perform live, especially in the power trio format, his amazing voice is not his only instrument, as his bass work is equally impressive. He's not content to merely be part of the rhythm section either, and is constantly throwing in little bass lead licks whenever possible. He's got a funky hybrid playing style, using a pick rather than his fingers like most of the bass players he grew up admiring, but he still gets a solid sound somewhere in between rock and funk land. It's a monster band he's got with him now too, with Nastos having no trouble playing anything from Glenn's back catalog on his white Telecaster, and sounding quite convincing while doing it. I've heard others say previously they thought his funk playing was great but his hard rock playing was maybe a little too tame. I'm not sure if George has altered his playing since, or the comments were made based on the few studio recordings he has made with Glenn, but I can say first-hand that in the live context, George can play heavy riffs with conviction, and does not hamper the band at all. He's as versatile a guitarist as Glenn could hope to land, and the advice from this corner would be to keep him in the band. Brian Tichy is a fairly big name drummer, having played with Ozzy's guitarist Zakk Wylde for years and a number of other impressive sessions. And it's easy to see why he's in demand when you see him live; he nearly stole the show! I'm dead serious. This man plays like no one else. Traditional drummers hit the drums using an economical wrist action with as little arm movement as possible to get the job done, enabling them to do the most intricate rudiments at great speed. Ian Paice for one. Other drummers prefer the brute force approach, where harder is louder and therefore better, and also looks much cooler in an arena from a seat 200 feet away. This style generally lends itself to a simpler rudimentary approach, since details would be lost in the bombast anyway, and the wild arm movement is not as efficient as the shorter stroke of the wrist. Until now. Tichy has managed to merge the two styles into one somehow, and it must be seen to be believed. He played all the essential beats and fills from the Deep Purple and Trapeze material. Basically did whatever it took, and put on an amazing visual show while doing it. His drum hardware was of the super heavy-duty variety, and yet every cymbal stand and drum was firmly attached to the stage with gobs of gaffer tape, in order to withstand his fierce punishment. Note to Glenn: this guy is also a keeper! The setlist: Stormbringer Muscle and Blood You Kill Me Medusa Coast To Coast You Are The Music Your Love Is Alright Gettin' Tighter You Keep On Moving Encore: Way Back To The Bone Burn While watching them play "Medusa," I realized what this band really is. No disrespect to the original members, but this current touring band is essentially the new Trapeze - more technologically advanced than the original, heavier, funkier, and basically better in all ways. They have 30 more years of rock licks to improvise on than the original band had, therefore a bigger bag of tricks, and they use them well. To think that this was only their third live show together is pretty much beyond belief. Nastos had a couple of near misses where he almost came in a few measures early, but was able to stop himself, and the band was as tight as you could want. Of course you have to marvel at Hughes, who is still screaming his lungs hoarse night after night some 30 years down the rock and roll road. Whatever he's got, and we know that is more than anyone else, he lets it all fly during his performances and cannot be accused of holding anything back. He's the Voice of Rock, the Funkmeister, the Big Daddy, and whatever other names have been attached to him in these last twelve prolific years, but whatever he's called, he's certainly in charge on stage. Personally, I had a lot of different emotions witnessing this great show. First, I have been a Glenn Hughes fan since 1971 or so, and even had a Medusa 8-track tape that I literally wore out in the car tape player during my high school days. Since then, he has remained my absolute favorite singer. I never got to see Trapeze live, but I did see Glenn twice with Deep Purple; August 1974 at an outside stadium concert in New Haven Connecticut (when the opening acts were Ronnie Dio's Elf and Aerosmith, no less), and again in January 1976 at the Springfield Massachusetts arena show that popped up a few years back as bonus tracks on the "Foxbat" recording. Of course at both of those shows, it was impossible to get much closer than 100 feet or so from the band, so seeing Glenn from a mere six feet away this time was the realization of a lifetime dream. I can die in peace now! On the other hand, I felt bad that Glenn has gone from playing 10,000 seat arenas (and bigger) to playing such disgusting dives as this place. Despite somehow attracting other fairly big name acts like Starship and Lynch Mob, the Voodoo Lounge is not worthy of Glenn's talent. Believe me. From the fans' point of view, it's awesome that you can get so close to the action, but can club dates with $10 admission tickets and a couple hundred fans really be worth Glenn's while? Surely he's doing this as a labor of love for his fans, and for that we should be truly grateful. Glenn, if you're reading, this night was one of the thrills of my life, and I thank you for giving me and the other fans such pleasure. Hope I don't have to wait 25 more years for the next time! Bill Jones -END- From: Tom Cullen [mailto:trcullen@mediaone.net] To: ctc@ghpg.net Subject: CTC: Review of US Mini-Tour Made it back home to Chicago after a wonderful, tiring yet exhillarating weekend! Glenn, thanks to you for all the music. As you said on stage, 'you got to give it away if you want to keep it'. Glenn gave it all away this weekend. I know he was tired after playing his a$$ off until almost 2:00 AM, but he stayed and greeted every fan, and signed autographs for everybody who wanted one. Glenn looked terrific - very fit & trim. Maybe a bit too trim, though. Gabi & Glenn, you should think about fattening Glenn up just a tad, IMHO. The others in the band & crew were wonderful, too. George Nastos is a terrific funky guitar player who handled all the material very, very well. He actually worked his fingers 'til they bled. You will notice blood stains on the guitar in some of the pics I submit. George plans to keep the stain as a badge of honor. My hats off to you George. Brian Tichy also lived up to his advanced billing. He was an animalon the skins, and a great guy when we spoke after one of the shows. One of the things I get a kick from is all the comments from the crowd about the band. GH, as always, had peoples jaws agape with his vocal range, and several were similarly wowed with his bass playing. I heard those same types of comments about both George and Brian, too. What a trio! Hope to see and hear much more from you guys! It was also great to see Andy again, and to meet Ken for the first time. You guys are great, and are doing a tremendous service to all us fans by helping take care of Glenn, and some of these arrangements. By the way, Ken, I did share our phone conversation with Teri, which lead to her little prank backstage. Hope you got a kick from that! ;-) Teri & I had a bit of a hard time finding the Birch Hill club on Thursday. We decided to look for it in the daytime (fortunately), and ended up going past it a couple of times. We called the club to get their directions - which indicated an obvious billboard leading the way to the club. On the third try we got lucky. I noticed the distinctive, and yes, follicly challenged pate (read that bald head) of Andy Grow in the car ahead of us. I wasn't completly convinced until the front passenger turned his head sideways to show me Glenn's glasses. It was GH, Andy & Ken on their way to the club, too. I followed them. We got to the turn, and sure enough, there was a pile of rubble that once upon a time may have been a billboard for the club. We pulled in next to Ken's car, and the three of them looked at us like we may have been stalkers, or something. Glenn recognized me when I got out the car, and it was greetings all around, and Teri & I left them to check out the conditions of the club and to gget ready for the evening to come. I'd have to say that the Birch Hill club was the most impressive facility of the three. It looked like it may have been capable of suppoprting up to about 500 people or so, and I think we got 3-400 in the room for the show. There were three support bands on Thursday. The first was a local group of young folks who had been together for just a short time. They did a pretty nice job. Their guitar player had some skills that can be developed. The second band was also pretty good - Eyes of Many, I think. They were pretty excited about a show with GH, and had been concerned earlier in the week about hearing of the death of Village People GH. The Spider Rockets turned up the energy a little bit. They did a decent show, but the material didn't really seem to fit an evening with GH. Finally, GH came on at close to midnight. There were some equipment difficulties that pushed back the start time a little bit. They finally got it all straightened out, and the show began to the strains of Stormbringer. You've already heard the superlatives of the show and the details of the set list, so I won't repeat. Glenn drew on the energy of the crowd and fed it all back to us in his performance. The range and power of the vocals, and the virtuosity of his bass playing left an indelible impression on all in attendance. A wonderful show!! As usual, Glenn made it a point to stay and meet with anyone who wanted say hello or get a picture or an autograph. We went back to our hotel that night exhausted, having started our day 20 hours before to get there, but too excited to go to sleep. In Virginia the next night, we found the club much easier than the night before. Fortunately, my eyesight is poor enough that sign written in Arabic for a store selling persian rugs looked to me like it spelled out Jaxx. The real club was right next to that. Another lucky break for us! Inside, this place was smaller, and I would estimate less than 200 people showed up for the show. Ran in to Big Jim Wilson at the show, and shared a table with him and a friend until it came time to stake out my spot in front of the stage. Again, their were three support bands. The first was totally unremarkable. They did some grunge metal stuff that left us applauding that the set was over. Next came the Jezzebels. 4 lovely English ladies who I thought were actually quite good. They did some Bangles-ish style pop music (their own stuff, though) that was entertaining - especially from my post a foot and a half from the stage. Next came a group that did a fine job on some 80s cover versions from Ozzy to Queensryche to Whitesnake. This band had absolutely the most impressive drum set that I have ever seen. It took up most of the room on the stage, forcing the lead singer to be way out to the front of the stage. Because the hour was getting late, however, their set was cut shorter than they had planned. The singer was visibly disappointed and upset that they could not complete their set. I can understand and respect that, but the night belonged to Glenn. As it was, Glenn did not go on until about midnight again. Again, the show was superb. There just aren't enough adjectives to describe it. From my perspective, everything went well. I thought it did not have quite the energy level of the night before, however. Could it be I had gotten used to the level of Glenn's performance? I don't think so. As the show went on, it became apparent that Glenn was having some trouble with his monitor. I think this threw things off just a tad. Nonetheless, this was still a terrific experience. As you've heard, Glenn stayed around until after 3 AM signing autographs and meeting the fans who hung around. He had to be completely wiped out by this time. On to New York. Another step down - club wise IMHO. The Voodoo lounge was something of a hole in the wall. And I mean that literally. At street level, all there is is a doorway. That led to the basement of the building which had been turned into the club. Actually, once inside, it wasn't a bad place. The staff was gracious enough to let Teri and me in even an hour before the doors opened. I don't really know why - but we struck up conversation with one of the security people, and learned about the happenings of the night before. For those who missed it earlier, there was a stabbing and the police had shut the place down, and almost didn't allow Glenn's show to happen. However, cancelling the show would have created a larger problem than letting Glenn perform. The police were very strict, however, in the time that the show had to stop. Glenn seemed to be a bit distracted by the stabbing and also by the condition of the stage. The sound system was arranged in a configuration that had Glenn comment on a rehearsal rather than a performance. The sound guy, Jerry, said the place sounded good - if you were a high school band. The stage itself seemed to be in at least two sections - with a signicant gap between the two right where Glenn would be performing. With as much movement as Glenn does, that could have been dangerous. Big Daddy manuevered his mic stand around it and was able to avoid any problems with the stage. He was not so lucky with the lighting. Basically, there was no lighting system. All that was there was a series of spotlights that shown directly and unchangingly towards the same spot on the stage - right in to Glenn's eyes. So there were many obstacles to overcome on Saturday night. Glenn had to announce to the crowd that he had to remove several songs from his set. He eventually was allowed to add one back during the encore. So the only songs not played during the NY set were Gone, and Might Just Take Your Life. I also consider the two opening acts on Saturday night to be obstacles. Both were in the grunge metal category. The "singing" in these two acts left a LOT to be desired. The first act was tolerable, but the second was terrible. To be fair, I thought the guitarist and the bass player weren't bad, but the singer had to rate right up there with me as one of the 5 worst singers on the planet. I'm sorry, but these acts just do not belong on the same stage with Uncle Glenn. It was quite a transition from that to the best singer in the world. Despite these obstacles, the people who were there showed tremendous enthusiasm and got into the show bigtime. This show was every bit the equal of the Birch Hill show in terms of performance energy, and may have exceeded it for fan involvement. Rumour has it that there were some other rock luminaries in the crowd, and Glenn was at the top of his game. Again, to Glenn, George, and Brian, thank you for three wonderful nights that I will NOT soon forget. I'm suffering from withdrawal already. I hope you make it out this way in the not too distant future. I also want to say hi to some of the folks I met over the weekend. Ann-Marie, the mother of the bass player in the first act at Birch Hill, you can be proud. Big Jim, I was looking for you after the show - to no avail. David & Shirean, I had met you briefly at one or two of the Bolin tribute concerts. It was great to meet you again. Joe Mauriello, I'll see you on the Coverdale page. Steve, my fellow fanatic in the front row for all three shows, it was a blast! Tom -END- From: Shirean [mailto:shirean@ghpg.net] To: ctc@ghpg.net Subject: CTC: 2001 US Mini-Tour - Voodoo Lounge, New York - Review. After hearing Glenn was to bring George Nastos on guitar for the US tour dates, we quickly checked our airmile balances and immediately decided to catch the Voodoo Lounge, New York date. We hadn't seen George with Glenn since the 'Feel' tour back in '95, so were anxiously awaiting his return to the fold. As soon as we landed at JFK, we headed for 'Breakdown Records' in Bayside, where our tickets were being held. It was right around the corner from the Voodoo Lounge, so it gave us a chance to check out the area. David said it reminded him a little of Peckham in South London!! It looked safe enough, in daylight... Later that night we almost didn't make it back to the club due to the cabbie getting lost and almost hitting a concrete barrier down an on-ramp, guess its true about those NYC taxis! I was a nervous wreck by the time we pulled up to the club. As we walked down the stairs, we heard Glenn doing the intro to "Gone", my first thought was, "oh great, he's already on!" The person at the door, assured us it was just the sound check, phew!! Glenn abruptly finished and headed backstage, where we had a chance to speak. While the awful opening bands were on, we headed over to the merchandise table to say 'Hello' to Andy and to check out the GH gear. That's where we bumped into "Bill Jones", no introduction needed. Andy had to make a pitstop and couple of phone calls, so he asked David & I if we wouldn't mind controlling the merchandise table for awhile. Thanks Bill & Tom for not taking a picture of us!! The moment finally arrived, Glenn broke into "Stormbringer", I headed up front so I could get some pictures and ended up right in Glenn's face (thanks Brother Tom). I had'nt heard "Stormbringer" live since the "Addiction" tour in '96. I thought George and Brian melded with Glenn just perfectly, they sure had the FUNK going on! Brian's drumming is simply amazing, a real powerhouse. The only song that didn't do much for me, at least on this night, was George's guitar work on "Medusa" - I prefer JJ's playing on this song. After the show, Glenn met every single person in that club (I swear) - we were lucky enough to be behind him while he was speaking to everyone, you should have heard all the wonderful things they had to say - he truly has the best fans on the planet. In closing, David and I want to thank Glenn, Ken and Andy for looking after us! Great to finally meet you Bill and hope our paths cross again real soon. And to you Tom (Cullen) - thanks for letting me squeeze in up front! Cheers, Shirean -END- From: Dinosaur David B. To: ctc@ghpg.net Subject: CTC: Glenn Hughes, Voodoo Lounge, NY 3/24/01 This was fun. I finally got to meet my friend and fellow Dinosaur "Don the Greek" and some of his family/friends (including Dimitri and his wife) at this show down in Queens NY. We all stayed at the same hotel. And when I say "all" I mean me, my wife, Don's party AND Glenn Hughes and his band. We all hooked up in the lobby in the late afternoon. I asked Glenn about the gig that night and he said he'd be going on just before midnight and that he'd be playing 15 songs. Unfortunately this meant sitting though some opening acts. A word about the club: They ought to call it the "Doo Doo lounge." What a shit hole! I've played plenty of nicer places than this myself. We tried to arrive late enough to miss the openers, but no such luck. First act was a lousy death metal band. Second act was even worse--bunch of highschool-aged kids who were TERRIBLE, and when they were'nt annoying the shit out of everyone with their originals, they were butchering some classic Lizzy and Sabbath tunes. Things went from bad to worse. 4 NYPD officers showed up because the previous night someone had been stabbed at the club. They informed Glenn that he'd have to cut his set short. Classic. We're stuck listining to this garbage opener, and the headliner has to cut HIS set short!!? This wasn't anounced until Glenn came on and apoligized for it himself (he was NOT to blame and plenty pissed off). I had a clue it was coming because I saw the setlists being editied and when they pasted them up, it was only 9 songs (though they snuck in a 10th). And Glenn had said 15. ROCK AND ROLL! It was fucking ridiculous. Glenn's fans are impeccibly well-behaved, and there were 4 officers on the premesis. They certainly could have let him play his whole set for a bunch of fans that had come from far and wide to see him! So Glenn finally comes on. I'm about 6 to 8 feet away from him. I didn't take any pictures, but everyone around me was taking them (including David and Shirean who were standing right next to me--if you see their pics, you see "my view.") I'll point to their pics when they appear on the GH website. Pat Thrall was in the crowd, but unfotunately, he didn't play. The band smoked. This was a stripped-down 3 piece power trio. Seeing them this way must have been very similar to seeing Trapeze in the early 70s, execept that (IMO) this guitar player and drummer are better players than Galley and Holland. George Nastos did a nice job on guitar. He's a tastier player than JJ Marsh and had a nice tone with a Tele and a JCM900. He did a very good job on the material. The drummer, Brian Tichy, however, was an absolute mosnter! He almost stole the show from Glenn! He was doing some stuff that was positively AMAZING. A very heavy hitter, yet he also had an incredible finess you associate with some the of the stuff you remember from Ian Paice's live work. In fact, I don't think it's a strech to suggest that this is the best drummer Hughes has worked with since Ian Paice. EASILY! Glenn, however, remained the focal pooint. He's bass playing is rock solid. He lays down a great groove, and his vocals are just unreal. Considering that this was this band's third gig, they were very, very tight--particulalry Tichy who knew every flam and paradidle on the material inside out. It was as if he'd been playing those songs for years rather than two weeks. Color me VERY impressed. The Setlist: Stormbringer Muscle and Blood You Kill Me Medusa Coast to Coast You are the Music, We're just the band Gettin Tighter You Keep on Moving ENCORES: Way Back To The Bone Burn More songs would have been great, but it wasn't meant to be. A great time was still had by all! BTW, Glenn mentioned that Hughes Thrall II was half done, and would be out next year. -END- From: Ken & AnnMarie [mailto:boyd@ctaz.com] To: ctc@ghpg.net Subject: CTC: 2001 Tour Glenn, We are very much looking forward to seeing you here in the United States again! It is only my hope that you will be able to play more than just the few dates listed for the East Coast. If at all possible I will certainly travel--just to have you here is a treat! But it is my hope that the new album is successful enough to warrant you hitting a few dates on the West Coast as well....Coast To Coast! LOL! Keep yourself well, and all the best, KEN *~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~* The Man On A Silver Mountain www.DioZine.com The Only choice when it comes to Dio *~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~* -END- From: McDonald, Tony [mailto:avm1@cdc.gov] To: ctc@ghpg.net Subject: CTC: Play Atlanta Please Hey there Glenn, Just wanted to say that the news of a US tour is great. I last saw ya at the Roxy with Trapeze in mid 90's. I continue to go to your website, and read Coast to Coast. I turn more and more people on to your new stuff all the time. We are so excited to hopefully have the opportunity to see ya in concert again. Please come back to one of your old homes and tour Atlanta. Don't play the Roxy this time, but check into playing the Tabernacle. Great old venue that you will love. Also, please dont even consider the Masquarade. The Tab is the place for you and your acoustics... Stay in touch, We would love a chance to meet ya or get an autographed photo for our home. Let us know how that might be possible. God Bless, and Best Wishes! Tony Mac -END- Glenn's 'Karma' Marks His Return by Robert William Perry Courtesy "The Private Times" www.tommybolin.org After a two-year recording hiatus, Glenn Hughes' latest CD, Return Of Crystal Karma, is arguably his finest musical offering since his excellent 1995 release, Feel. Straight away, the album sets off at a frantic pace and panic ensues with "The State I'm In," Glenn brandishes a stubborn scream seemingly born of frustration. Once the hysteria is over and the listener gets the chance to breathe again, the mood seems to relent and Glenn encourages us to get "Midnight Meditated." A punchy, yet relaxed number that has a heavy styled swank to it and Mr. Hughes seems in a rebellious mood. "I don't give a damn," he declares while the music grooves. The album takes on a chameleon form in the shape of "It's Alright." Commencing with a funk feel, then in the blink of an eye, the sonic reptile sheds it's upbeat skin and reveals a pumping rock tempo. No sooner do the ears adjust to this, the animal returns to its former appearance, and swaggers on the boulevard. Sliding straight into "Switch the Mojo," the mood also switches from chic-rock to esoteric arcane. Once again, the chameleon assumes another identity with strange space-like language, and "The Voice" anguishes over the "Freak Show." In revamping the Hughes/Iommi written "Gone" from Glenn' s days in Black Sabbath, the band shows both the heavier side of their nature, and versatility as musicians. And sure enough, the boy from Cannock, Staffordshire, shines. His heaven sent voice at times possessing the anger of the Devil and the sympathy of an angel. The urgency returns in "The Other Side of Me." An aggressive acid-jazz type of groove from the Funkmaster. He delivers an acrobatic vocal display that leads us into Atlanta, Georgia, to find "Angela," another funky wayward beauty. At first glance, the title "Owed to J," conjures images of the Deep Purple classic "Owed to G." Although vastly different, it is no less enthralling, and keyboardist Hans Zermuehlen takes a leaf out of Jan Hammer' s book with a stunning display of ivory athleticism. JJ Marsh meanwhile, more than justifies his position as the guitar-slinger in the group. His eclectic diapason is a fable of melody and mystique, and will surely inspire a new generation of guitarists worldwide. "This Life" is more than a song or melody. It's a celebration and a reminder to us all to be grateful for all that we may have. And nowhere is Glenn more sincere in his singing than here. Indeed one can feel the jubilation overflowing from this elated voice rejoicing in the gift of life. After the headlong attack that began the album, "Days of Avalon" is a serene bathe in melodic beauty with which to conclude. Like a warm calming breeze, after the variety of vicissitudes experienced along a delightful, and sometimes euphonious journey of energy and passion. Enjoy the "Crystal" clarity of Glenn Hughes - still the "Voice of Rock." A rare talent, singing with the youth of a teenager, and the experience of a veteran still riding the "Karma" train. -END- From: Dr. Denbow [mailto:denis.f@ntlworld.com] To: ctc@ghpg.net Subject: CTC: Trapeze "The year would be 1974, I would be about 14 years old. The Civic Hall in Wolverhampton was the local place to see top bands from all over the world. Being young and rather impressionable I had been banned by my parents from travelling to Birmingham, some 12 miles away, by train to savour the delights of rock n roll so the local venue had to do. I was far too young to gain entrance to licensed premises (ie night clubs that sold booze and stayed open until 2.00am) so any band I wished to see live had to play at the Civic or I wouldn't get (or be allowed) to see them. I was a major Trapeze fan, and was at the time singularly unimpressed by the "new" Deep Purple's "Burn" album, seeing it at that time as a waste of not only Deep Purple's massive talents - but also those of Glenn Hughes. For this reason I had made no attempt to get tickets to see Purple as they passed through my hometown in 1974. "Hot Wire" was the album Trapeze were promoting on that tour -they'd bounced back since Glenn Hughes' departure with the recruitment of two additional band members, Peter Wright on bass and Rob Kendrick on guitar. The latter coming in to allow Mel Galley the luxury of delivering lead vocals himself. Honorary "Trapezers" like Terry Rowley and local newspaper writer John Ogden leant their assistance in the recording process as usual as did some well known and unknown (to me at least) session performers. Chris Mercer went on from this album, and no doubt others, to record with some of the biggest names in rock music - Bryan Ferry notably. The album itself was full of real enthusiasm and some genuinely great songs, but the spark was missing - that spark being the extraordinary vocals of young Glenn Hughes.It was a slightly different sound to the band with the rockier moments being rockier, and the funkiest moment, the brilliant "Feel It Inside" being the funkiest tune Trapeze had released to date. To digress a moment, I had always wondered what this would've sounded like had Glenn Hughes sung it instead of the limited if enthusiastic and soulful Mel Galley. An Friday evening in the late 1990s gave me the answer. At the Robin Hood in Brierly Hill a four piece Trapeze (Hughes, Galley, Holland and Erickson) with John Ogden playing congas tore that song apart - truly magnificent! Anyway back to the gig - me and a few similarly young and enthusiastic kids were up at the front of the stage waiting for Trapeze to play. They opened their set with "Back Street Love" which as on the album they followed with "Take It On Down The Road" Memory here lets me down, for I have no idea what songs they played until they got to "Way Back To The Bone." As Mel Galley played the "der der duh duh" guitar riff - he was also making those same gestures that David St Hubbins made to Nigel Tufnel in the immortal "This Is Spinal Tap" movie. You know the one, a calling to someone to join them on-stage. From stage right (as we mere mortals in the audience watched) strode Glenn Hughes! The cheer was deafening. The band ripped through "Way Back" "Medusa" "Black Cloud" (I think) "Jury" (dead sure!) The band were absolutely brilliant and whenever I've seen remarks attributed to Glenn Hughes saying he'd never sung in a band without a bass ( ie circa Black Sabbath time) I always think back to that glorious night at Wolverhampton Civic Hall in 1974 and wonder - am I the only one who remembers that night?? Well am I?? Does Glenn Hughes??? Does anyone besides me and my pals who periodically salute the finest Trapeze line up, Hughes, Galley, Holland, Kendrick and Wright. I know cos I was there!!" Dr. Denbow www.dr-denbow.fsnet.co.uk -END- 1983 Hughes/Thrall Interview ---------------------------- Sounds Magazine by Sylvie Simmons "Gutter Snipes" Glenn Hughes and Pat Thrall are not living the life of degenerate ex-rock stars. Not yet anyway, "we've still got to play Britain," says Glenn... Down on Sunset Boulevard, opposite the notorious rock and roll Rainbow Bar, there's a man slouched in the gutter. Nothing strange in Hollywood, city of lost dreams and all that. He's got long hair; could have been in some big rock band in the seventies. You know these people disappear off the face of the earth and wind up on the Strip, stonedly making 'V' signs at Mercedes rolling by. Just past him there's a Sushi Bar, place of raw fish and sake and obliging Japanese waitresses. That's where I'm heading. Can't stand raw fish personally, unless they're swimming around in goldfish bowls, but I'm here to meet some rock stars. You know the sort, big in the seventies, who disappeared off the face of the earth and wound up on the Strip. The comfortable bit. Glenn Hughes and Pat Thrall, Deep Purple and Pat Travers refugees - are doing very nicely; looking very nice too - at last, the respectable-looking HM heroes! All dressed up and smiling like Hare Krishnaites who've just flogged a dozen carnations. So what about these reports that, after leaving Purple, Glenn was keeping the bloke outside in the gutter company, shooting up and generally being a degenerate ex-star? "This is disgusting!" protests Glenn. "What is it about the English that they think that when somebody disappears for a bit they're hitting junk?! It's great, because number one I've never done any of that in my life. And number two, there's so many jealous musicians over there who can't play; and because I can play better and sing better than any of them assholes - basically this is the best band that's ever come out of Deep Purple." "It's the best" Pat interrupts, "thing I've ever done that's come out of Deep Purple." "It pisses me off," continues Glenn, "because everybody thinks that. I should have done it, man. I've got so much press on it!" "No, no, that's okay," Pat tries to dissuade him from a future life of degeneracy. "Don't give him any ideas, he's clean folks, honest. But I can understand. People think that if you disappear, you obviously must be down and out somewhere. You equate Rock God Disappears In Recluse as meaning totally out of his brains and not capable of doing anything. You can see how that would leave a lot of things OPEN." So what did happen to Glenn? "I sat in the fridge for four years! All I did was eat...I was the only one in Deep Purple who wanted to leave the company. I wanted totally out of everything - there were so many little companies in Deep Purple. So I had to sit around for three or four years wait for this to happen. Consequently I didn't go to any shows. I didn't want to see anybody play, because I was freaking out. I missed being in the music business so much that I just had to stay totally away from it because I couldn't work in it until I was out of all these contracts." Pat: "You played a lot though." Glenn: "I did some sessions with black people - Stevie Wonder, Herbie Hancock, but nothing visible. I was signed to Deep Purple for 10 years, from 73-83, so it took me four years to get out. This really is the first I've done since Deep Purple." Pat's been nodding like one of those dogs on the back seat of the car all through this sorry tale. Did he know Glenn at this time then? "He and Pat Travers were friends. We talked about putting a band together in the seventies. But we've been together 18 months, so I've heard the story a few times." His own is far less dramatic. "The opposite. See, I've always been free. I've pretty much kept myself freelance and gone and done whatever I've wanted to. This is really the first time I've tied myself to something. So the idea of a contract for 10 years..." "Well," Glenn defends himself, "they're waving all this money in front of you, so I just said yes." Buys a lots of drugs. "Yes, really!" he chuckles. Glenn's none too favourable about his former Purple pals' current projects, not that they seem to have been too favourable about his, though "from what I've heard," says Glenn. "Ritchie (Blackmore)'s favourite album is our album." "Oh go on!" reckons Pat. "Which freaks me out," Glenn continues, "because I haven't spoken to Ritchie in a long time. But it's really nice to hear." What did he think about all these Purple reunion stories. "I meant to ask him about that," says Pat. "There's supposed to be a reunion in the Summer." Glenn says. "Blackmore's Rainbow's broken up again, Gillan's supposedly breaking up, so I guess it'll be Mark Two Purple with Gillan and Glover." "Would he be involved? "No. That's like saying my last farewell to the music business, doing that. What can you do after that again? Come back? That's like pimping to me. I want to continue with what Pat and I are doing. Although the days of the big money are over, I'm really content to just do what we're doing and live comfortably rather than having all that money and buying drugs with it!" "If it happens," asks Pat, "could I jam?" Glenn: "This is more honest to me, doing what I'm doing now. Although the money would be great. But let's see if we could do the same. "You know, I kind of dig this starting over again stuff. It keeps you on your toes. One thing we did in the Deep Purple thing, we'd go onstage and play really badly and people would go nuts, and it was like insulting them all. I just used to go up there and yawn. It's pretty bad for people to pay all that money just to see all that long hair and snake skin boots and stuff. The money was fabulous but the playing was boring." Talking of boring, what brought him to laid-back California, a veteran HM man? "I left England for taxes in '73 and I just liked it here. I couldn't live in England anymore. I've been spoilt by this California stuff." "I mean," explains Pat, "they don't have a Disneyland in England, do they? Pat Thrall is a great guitar player. If you don't believe me, "Pat's a great guitar player." That from no less an authority on the matter of great guitar players than Pat Travers. Thrall edged him out of his job as lead guitarist in his band for a few years, so he should know. "He's probably my favourite guitar player. Have you heard that album he's done with Glenn Hughes? I like it a lot." Hughes, doesn't think too badly of him either. "I think he's the best guitar player on the scene right now. He's one of the warmest guitarists I've ever heard, and his use of echo and digital stuff is the best I've worked with." All this praise for a guitarist who used to be a drummer and has a thing about synthesisers... "I was 16 when I started playing guitar." Pat Thrall recalls, his memory jogged by the odd shot of Japanese beer, "and before that I'd been a drummer for four years. I wasn't really succeeding as a drummer, and I always fooled around with whatever band I was playing in with the guitar, and I always liked it, but because I'd started as a drummer, I put the blinkers on about it - like, 'I'm a drummer so that's what I do'. "So I was playing with a band and noodling around on the guitar one day, and one of the people in the band came up and said, 'you're better than our guitarist'. So I started playing guitar. It usually takes somebody else to say what I'm doing to make me aware of it!" After that, the guitar came "real easy" to Pat. "I locked myself in my basement for about a year and just studied guitar." He had no formal training. "I play by ear, and I think I have an advantage playing by ear for spontaneity. I know people who have studied music and know classical and all, but have a hard time getting away from sheet music - fly doo-doo as they say in the sessions - so I think it's actually an advantage that I taught myself. And I study enough of what I do to keep within the bounds of what I'm trying to accomplish." His first real guitar was an electric one. "A Vox Bobcat. I rented it for a year, and after playing it for five months, never changed a string on it. I broke an E string. I continued to play it with five strings for another five months! That's the kind of guy I was, living in the San Francisco Bay Area, you know." A laid-back bunch of musicians, one and all. "But I put that sixth string on and a whole new world opened up to me!" "Actually, my parents had bought me an acoustic guitar, and I fiddled around with that for a bit, but I'd already been playing electric guitar when I was a drummer." "I was more fascinated by the sounds on an electric guitar than the actual playing. I started fooling around with the guitar, turning up all the reverb and tremelo. I've got a rack now that's got enough equipment to do well in the studio. I've had sound guys come up to me and say, 'I'd give anything to have all that stuff'. And now I'm using guitar synthesiser and all - I love sounds. I love experimenting with the possibilities of the guitar." So there was never any urge to creep back behind the drum kit? "Not really, I still play them, and I think it helps my music. It's a good idea for every guitarist, every musician, to learn something about the drums or percussion and have a rhythmic understanding. I think that gives you a stronger basis in music." Was it Jimi Hendrix or John Bonham that he impersonated in front of the mirror back in his early days, then? "When I did go through that phase - and all performers do that, you stand in front of the mirror pretending you're out in front of people - actually it was Robert Plant I used to do that to! A singer, oddly enough. Because when I started playing guitar and seriously got into it, I stopped all that, because at that point I was thinking mainly about playing. My main influence at that time was a gentleman by the name of Terry Haggerty, who played in a band called The Sons Of Champlin (a progressive and somewhat eccentric San Francisco sixties band, Haggerty had been known to spend an entire show sitting on a stool with his guitar, Val Doonican-style). And he was actually the first true jazz rock guitarist. He had an extensive knowledge of Bebop guitar, but applied it to rock format with sustain and distortion. "A lot of musicians in the Bay Area at that time had that purist attitude towards music, so my aim then was just to be a good player. I didn't have as much of the performer in me at the time. "And then later on, Hendrix had an effect on me - I lived in England, that's when Hendrix really kicked in for me, because I was around some of the people who had actually hung out with Jimi. And seeing how some of those people were still living, having those same kinds of beliefs spiritually, kind of rubbed off on me. The influence that Hendrix had wasn't so much his playing, as the way he lived and the way he thought and saw things and interpreted them and then brought them back out again in his music." Pat's first major group had something of that spiritual aura about it: the supergroup of sorts, Stomu Yamashta's Go, which included Stevie Winwood and Santana's original drummer, Michael Shrieve. While playing with Go and building a reputation as a guitarist, Pat and Shrieve put together a band which had two albums of its own out on Island Records. That's when he started finding his own instinctive style, he reckons. "It probably took me until '76. The first time I played in a band when I was afforded the opportunity to play my own ideas was actually when I found my style. That's why that band is so important to me. I really did find what I wanted to do with the guitar - and it took me from the time when I was 16 to 22 years old to find it, and about a year after that, it just kind of came to me. I was living in England at the time." After some time as a session guitarist, getting a lot of jobs with fusion musicians, Pat got the lead guitarist job with Pat Travers, and spent the next couple of years almost permanently on the road, a situation he liked very much, thank you. During that time he introduced Travers to the music of Bob Marley, co-wrote the HM hit 'Snortin' Whisky And Drinkin' Cocaine' and met Glenn Hughes. They took a shine to one another, started writing songs together, officially formed the Hughes Thrall Band in 1981 and put out their first album on Boulevard Epic Records. It's really the first time Pat's stepped into the spotlight, with his name up there for everyone to see. "There's pressure that comes along with that, but in our case it's pressure that's good. It gives us a creative edge actually because we have to be there. When I was working with Travers or Go it's like I did whatever was required, but then I could lay back if I wanted to. It was harder to motivate. Now it's a must." Pat doesn't collect guitars. "I prefer building them. Most of the guitars I own - he has a total of six - four of them are all custom-made. I made one myself and some I just fiddle around on them a bit and send them to guys to re-do them. So he's not a purist? "No, I'm terrible in that way! There's one Strat I have, a '60 Stratocaster, and I had a pre-amp for it which requires that a hole be cut in the back of it to put a battery in. So for all the guitar purists out there, sorry! But it made the instrument sound a lot better. I'm much more into how an instrument sounds and performs to my needs than what the instrument is, a work of art. Maybe when I get older and become a domesticated person that'll change!" His chief interest now is guitar synthesisers. The one he's using, from a Berkeley company, has a "a pitch to voltage control, and what that does is, the signal that a guitar puts out is an electromagnetic signal from the pick-ups, and that changes the electromagnetic signal into voltage, so I can run an oscillator...which is what a synthesiser is based on - send it through the filters, and that's how you synthesise strings or foghorns or cows or whatever. What they built for me - instead of using a Roland system - I use an OBX, which is a keyboard synthesiser, which has six voices in it, which means I have a separate voice or oscillator for each string. So I have all the capability that any keyboard synthesiser has - I can split up each voice to stereo and send it wherever I want and have independent control of each string - as opposed to right now with guitar sysnthesisers, the state of the art - which is Roland, commercially speaking - is about 15 years, maybe 20, behind keyboard synthesisers, where now there's digital synthesisers. "I don't have that capability yet, but I have the full programming possibilities of an Oberheim, and all the filtering and everything that's available...I can play against it, solo against it, throught my guitar system, so I can accompany myself, which is great. The only problem I have with it, because it's prototype and they still require a great amount of funds to bring it into being. It's still not really practial for me to take it out on the road, which is a killer." His aim in life as a guitarist - wouldn't you know it - is to "eventually incorporate synthesising with my guitar playing. Because that's the kind of music I'm listening to now" - Peter Gabriel is a current favourite - "is so synthesiser oriented that it's really influencing me. And there's only so much that you can simulate with just the guitar alone." "With the guitar I'd like to be able to play bass parts, horn parts, string parts. It'll open up all the possibilities of the guitar for me. I'm as intrigued with the sounds and rhythms as I am with the actual playing of the guitar." "Actually, what I want to do is take the Oberheim - the Oberheim people aren't going to like this too much! - out on the road, set it up so people can see I'm using it, and have all the keys torn out and hanging out in defiance." "Kind of up yours to all the keyboard synthesiser snobs that are out there!" Both Pat and Glenn agree this is the perfect partnership, better even than Sonny and Cher. "I've never," says Glenn, "felt more happy than in this business than I have with Pat. It's a very stable relationship. We're very good for each other, personally and musically. I took a shine to him when he was with Travers - I always liked him - and I needed some strength to come back into the business after five years. It's not the same. But when we went into the studio it was like I'd never left. Every other person I've worked with in the past, I've had to show them what the guitar part to a song would be, but I've never done that with him because he just knows what I hear, he makes the sound perfect to what I want. And his use of echo and digital stuff is the best. He's just a perfect partner for me. Perfect!" "God," says Pat, "this sounds like my retirement banquet or something!". What he likes about Glenn is his "ability to jam a song and be a spontaneous lyricist. Like 'Muscle And Blood' was a jam, and that was formed probably in about half an hour. I'd say that is the biggest advantage of working with him than anybody I've ever worked with. And the chemistry, I would say, was immediate." And what they think they've got as a team, they agree, is "staying power and ability. I think the combination of Pat and myself," says Glenn, "is the strongest combination of a guitar player and bass player on the scene right now. I feel real good about us." So why then is there a rumour going around England that they're about to break up? "Oh my God!" says Glenn. "We can't! That's impossible. No, me and my wife are breaking up, not Pat and me." "It's news to me, " adds Pat. "We have our differences, like any relationship you have with somebody, you walk out or pull moodies, but that isn't the case!" Glenn: "We haven't played England yet. We can't break up before we play there." Pat: "We've been sitting here making plans for the next six months, so if that sounds like a break-up - wow!" Glenn: "The break-up was probably that Tommy Aldridge went back to Ozzy Osbourne - we're still trying to figure out which is the best for the road. Pat: Maybe he's spreading it..." Glenn: "This is at least a five year commitment for us." They called it Hughes-Thrall to make sure no-one sneaked out the back-door. No escape. "You got it," says Pat. "We're not breaking up. We're just beginning!" -END- Guitar Player April 2001 Hughes/Thrall album review by Matt Blackett www.guitarplayer.com Here’s an album that went almost totally unnoticed, but not for a lack of great guitar playing, killer tones, and strong tunes. If anything, this one-time collaboration between former Deep Purple bassist Glenn Hughes and ex-Pat Travers guitarist Pat Thrall might have been too far ahead of its time when released in 1983. Thrall proves himself to be a world-class guitarist on this record. He was possibly the only player to successfully marry Van Halen-esque whammy bar work and chord chops with Edge-style delay textures, as on the tune "Who Will You Run To." Thrall’s power chords on "Muscle And Blood" are so heavy they can still strike fear almost 20 years later. He gets great dirty tones throughout Hughes/Thrall, but it’s his clean tones that really make this record shine, and he showcases them beautifully on "Where Did The Time Go" and "Coast To Coast." The fact that Thrall could eat most ‘80’s rock dudes for lunch is only one reason that this band’s demise was such a drag. His work on this album foretold a super-cool fusion of heavy metal and new wave - a musical evolution that never really came to be. Despite some dated synth textures, this record holds up amazingly well. Worth a listen? I’m so sure. -END- Come Taste the Band - Deep Purple (Warner Bros.) review ------------------------------------------------------- Circus Magazine March 23, 1976 By Jim Brodey With the exit of Ricthie Blackmore as lead guitarist of Deep Purple, many fans and friends thought the band might flounder, disband , or merely go on making albums that were not quite as heavy as they used to be. Time passed, Blackmore put together his Rainbow group, and vocalist David Coverdale was looking around for a new driving force to front his Purple/on guitar. Enter Tommy Bolin. An ex-James Gang guiitarist, he was once the perfect replacement for their lost Joe Walsh. Bolin - one of the most promising of the rising new crop of super-heavy, fast guitarists (a la Mahavishnu and definitely post-Hendrix) - exploded onto the scene via ex-Mahavishnu drumer Bill Cobhams's excellent first - LP jams. Coverdale had heard the Cobham record and was naturally very impressed. He got in touch with Bolin, and found the lad drifting between recording studios, not offically with a group, and just jamming when and where he could. The guitarist was flown to England, where the group met him. It was probably love at first sight because Bolin really fits in with Deep Purple. In fact, he makes them sound like the whole new band they really are. Come Taste the Band, the first Deep Purple disc featuring the complete, whirling, furious, hurricane-pitch tempos of Tommy Bolin's plunging guitars, is a fine record, easily worthy of the band's past recordings and a pretty solid reply to anyone who still thinks that Purple without Blackmore ain't Deep. Not only is it Deep, it's also dense. There are so many guitar tracks that it sounds as if Bolin is doing everything. The guitarist makes mincemeat out of his solos, continually bombing in from behind Coverdale/Hughes (who react to the new push by really getting it not only on, but under, and pretty high indeed.) The group backs Bolin very well. His favorite guitar effect is a low, growling whine that sails on top of the backup vocals. He then opens this up into a frightening rage that encompasses everything in its majestic stride. But while Bolin's force breaks down the walls of your mind, there's a mellowness here, too - something for which Ritchie Blackmore had no use. The album's major surprise is the lone instrumental, Bolin's own "Ode to G," a jazz rock cut complete with some contemplative John McLaughlinesque riffs that must have sounded very far out while being recorded, booming out of a West German Studio. If the Blackmore daze are gone, it's just something we're going to have to forget or at least remember only when listening to the old LPs. Bolin is clearly in control now, having written or collaborated on all nine tracks of Come Taste the Band, thereby taking over another position Blackmore held so dear, that of Chief composer. Even though the whole band makes the music, the spotlight will be on the guitar player. And most of the pressure. But if this album is any indication, we're going to be getting a lot tougher records from the new Deep Purple. -END- From: BENPERKIN@aol.com [mailto:BENPERKIN@aol.com] To: ctc@ghpg.net Subject: CTC: Trapeze - Guitar Tablature Does anyone know of any guitar music for Trapeze classics from Medusa or You Are The Music... Do you know if Mel or Glenn plans to publish on the web? I'd love some info and I'm sure many others would. Mark -END- From: peter hjortdal andersen [mailto:overmarken@worldonline.dk] To: ctc@ghpg.net Subject: CTC: Lyrics Hello. I have been searching for the lyrics of "Shake The Ground" from "Blues". Could someone help me finding it? I need it for my copy band. Thank you. Peter from Denmark. -END- An Interview with Brian Tichy SOURCE: www.DRUMStuff.com Interview with Brian Tichy by Ty Parker As a kid most of us only dreamed of the chance to play with Ozzy Osbourne. We'd sit in our rooms banging away at our drums to one of Ozzy's many records. For Brian Tichy playing for Ozzy is a reality. Prior to Ozzy, over the past 10 years Brian was playing with Foreigner, Slash's Snakepit, Zakk Wylde's Pride & Glory, Gilby Clarke, Sass Jordan, Glenn Hughes from Deep Purple, Nicklebag, Vinnie Moore. He currently fronts his own band Ball, playing guitar and singing. Check out Brian's site at www.briantichy.com --------------------------------------------------------------------------- DRUMStuff.com: How did working with Ozzy come about? Brian Tichy: Well, I guess a little bit of luck and hard work all put together. The Ozzy thing came in a round about way. Playing with Zakk Wylde and "Pride and Glory" was a direct Ozzy connection. Over the years you meet people. I got to know Zakk, Mike Inez and Randy Castillo and I knew some people in management. Joe Holmes and Robert Trujillo are in the band now. I kind of knew everybody and someone told me they were looking for a drummer. This was in March this year. And I thought "Man, I'm too close to this. I just want to get a shot." I'm in LA and it's all LA based, so I called a few people and the first person to call me back was Joe Holmes. We had met a few years ago, he had seen me play with Slash. He said, "You should come down next week, we are setting up a day to have people come play." So that was it. I went down and played and it went well. The band and I played together for a while and then Ozzy came down. I played with him and it went really well. They went to a final audition and ultimately, for a month, chose another drummer. I guess I was the number 2 guy for them. They went into rehearsal with him. I guess something wasn't feeling right and they called me back. It was probably over the course of 6 weeks from auditioning to actually becoming part of the band. DRUMStuff.com: Did you know Ozzy before the audition? Brian Tichy: I met him once at Zakk Wylde's house. It was Zakk's son's christening. Honestly, I don't think if you mentioned my name he would have remembered me. It was just one brief meeting, you know. I don't think that had anything to do with auditioning for the tour now. I just went in as a drummer trying to get the gig. DRUMStuff.com: Did you do any rehearsing before the Ozzfest Tour? Brian Tichy: Yeah, we did six weeks of rehearsals in LA and a couple warm-up shows. One warm-up show was in Vegas. And then we began the tour. DRUMStuff.com: Was the warm-up show just like the regular shows? Brian Tichy: The warm up show was at the Hard Rock in Vegas. It could hold about 1,200-1500 people. They announced it a couple days before the show. We were on a smaller stage without all the Ozzfest antics going on. Then there was a KROQ show at Anaheim stadium with Godsmack, Stone Temple Pilots, Limp Bizkit, and KORN. We played 3 songs. Then, Black Sabath came on and played 3 songs. For lack of time in-between sets I got to play on Bill Ward's drums. That was pretty awesome. We also played a KROQ show in New Jersey with the Howard Stern entourage watching from the sides. DRUMStuff.com: And you are from New Jersey. What was that like going back to where you grew up to play with Ozzy Osbourne? Brian Tichy: Playing with Ozzy in general is amazing. It doesn't matter if you are playing in a little bar in the middle of nowhere. The first show, and the first audition, where he actually sang and I was keeping time to his vocals was trippy. I grew up on the guy and I have all the records. I grew up playing drums to those records so that is a big part of me. Whether is was Zeppelin, AC/DC or Ozzy and Sabath. DRUMStuff.com: You had to put Ball on hold. Was that a tough decision? Brian Tichy: Actually it worked out great because we signed with Time Bomb Recordings in January, and by the time we got recording it was April. So I did my record all through April. Joe Travers and Fingers, the Bass player are on half of it. The day I finished recording was the day they called me about the Ozzy gig and said "Hey can you come back down in a couple of days." Time wise it worked out great. Then we got into rehearsal mode and tour mode. There was a couple week period where I had to rehearse during the day with Ozzy and then go mix my record at night. But it worked out cool. You know, initially my label didn't want the record to come out until next year. It was the way we saw the schedule. It was best to release it in January-February. So in my head I was like "Shit, I'm going to record and the have the rest of the year. There might be some Foreigner stuff going on and some odds and ends, but I have six or seven months before Ball will get started." So the Ozzy gig came and it was just perfect timing. DRUMStuff.com: So your record is still due out in early next year? Brian Tichy: Yeah, we mixed it and just mastered it last week. We had a couple of days off from the tour so I went home and mastered it. And it will be out in February. (Editors note: The label is switching distribution and Ball's CD will be released in the summer). DRUMStuff.com: Did this tour with Ozzy help with distribution deals or anything else with Ball? Brian Tichy: Playing with Ozzy naturally just increases your notoriety or whatever, you know. DRUMStuff.com: Last time we had talked you mentioned Ball was doing well in Japan. Brian Tichy: Yeah, I got a licensing deal for the demos in Japan. So we just fixed those up and mastered the demos and released them in Japan. They were never intended to be released, but the label, Big M.F., dug how they sounded and they weren't that bad so we just tightened them up. And then just through playing shows in LA and that demo, the Time Bomb guys liked the show and the demo so they offered us a deal. So we got a proper budget, went into the studio and took our time with it. DRUMStuff.com: What is your connection with Joe Travers? Brian Tichy: We went to Berklee School of Music in Boston together. I think I was there a couple of years before him. My third year may have been his first year. We met there and I think we lived on the same floor in the dorms. The first year we just knew each other. We weren't great friends. But a couple years down the road we did become great friends. He ended up going out to LA years before me and when I would be in LA touring, we hooked up a couple of times. He turned me on to an amazing video of Miles Davis with Tony Williams from the mid-60's. Then, when I moved out to LA I realized he lived two minutes from me. We started hanging out and jamming and little by little I realized I wanted my own band. I wanted to play guitar in it. I tried singing, tried getting that all together. When I finally got a bunch of the demos down. I asked Joe if he wanted to go out to the clubs instead of just screwing around jamming in my room. He's awesome. He's one of those drummers. He's just one of those guys. He has a huge vocabulary on the drum set. It's actually pretty amazing. He can go from the Miles Davis, John Coltrane thing right up into every detail and every nuance of Frank Zappa to Led Zepplin and Marilyn Manson. He just listens to so much music. I don't know how he finds time to do anything else. He's doing the Duran Duran gig right now. Yeah, everyone is at opposite ends and we all meet in the middle somehow. He's just one of those amazing drummers. He sounds great in Ball. He plays his ass off. But he also sounds great in Duran Duran, which has nothing to do with my band. And he sounded great when he played with Dweezil Zappa, which has nothing to do with either Ball or Duran Duran. You know what I mean? He's one of those multi-talented kind of guys. DRUMStuff.com: What interested you in drums at an early age? Brian Tichy: I thought everyone thought that the drums where the coolest thing in the world. To be able to play drums, I believed everyone wanted to do that. As a kid when I saw a set of drums or I heard drums on the radio I was like, "that is the shit. That was probably what everyone wants to do" Whether you get the chance to do it is a different thing. So there was no if and or buts about it. It was like "you have to play drums!" My parents fortunately got me a set and dealt with the noise from 4th grade on. DRUMStuff.com: Did you take lessons? Brian Tichy: Yeah, that was the deal. My parents said they would get me a real set if I took lessons which helped a lot. I grew up on metal pretty much, all rock. I was self taught in the way of playing rock drums, no one was telling me what to do on the set. But I was learning jazz and all my rudiments and all that stuff. I was doing that for years, which helps. It gives you the edge, instead of only knowing how to play to an AC/DC record. If somebody needs you to be in a different situation, you will have some tricks in your pocket. DRUMStuff.com: So you actually studied rudiments and all that at Berklee? Brian Tichy: At Berklee I went mental. I dove into the whole Bozzio, Weckl, Gadd, Tony Williams thing... All stuff that was going on at the time. I knew of these guys but I had never really listened to them. So when I got there and people started turning me on to all these drummers I was just blown away. So I just lived it, 6 hours a night, 6 days a week, behind the drums, just working your ass off at getting better. And every few months I was ten times better. I could tell. It was just that nobody had turned me on to these things before, so when I got there it was some new shit to check out. I was like, "oh my god" and I engulfed myself into all of it. It was the late 80's and the rock seen was pretty beat and it was all that poser rock kind of stuff going on. There was Zeppelin. Van Halen, AC/DC and Sabath, but I didn't like the new shit. Fortunately, along came Jane's Addiction, Chili Peppers, Soundgarden and Living Color. It was a breath of fresh air. DRUMStuff.com: So what was it like when you moved to LA? Did you know many people? Brian Tichy: It was the easiest move anyone can make cross country. I was already playing with Zakk Wylde. I was already in Pride and Glory. And. I had already been out there playing on a couple different records. Before I moved out there, I was playing with guitar virtuoso Vinnie Moore. He is an instrumental shred guitar god. My bass player buddy JD and I were touring with him in clubs around the country and we actually got a chance to open up for Rush for ten shows at the end of '91. That was amazing, because I also grew up on Rush and here I am playing my Tama Swing Stars and there's Neil Peart's kit behind me. That was heavy, you know. So I did that and then when I finished, when the hell was it, It was like 93, I started going out to LA. I did a record called Rats for Sass Jordan. She's a bad ass bluesy rock female singer. I did a lot of different stuff with her guitar player Stevie Salas. He was doing really well in Japan on his own. He had played with Rod Stewart and had his own band going. He hooked me up with the Sass Jordan thing and I was also recording drums for him. I went out with Sass to Canada and then when I got back Zakk Wylde called me and said to come back to LA to join his band Pride and Glory. He had just left Ozzy and started his own band. This all happened around the same time in '93. I did the record with Zakk and then sometime in the middle of the tour, Stevie Salas was looking for another roommate, It worked out really well. My drums were already out there, since I was playing with Zakk. I just threw my clothes, guitar and CD's together and moved out to LA. DRUMStuff.com: Sounds like you had some great connections. Brian Tichy: Yeah, it was definitely an easier moving experience than what most people think of when moving to LA. "I'm not happy where I'm at, I want to make it in the business, OH.. I'm just going to move to LA". I wouldn't even know what to do if I have to move there blind. You know, pull up in your car, looking for an apartment and trying to figure out what is going on in the city. I didn't have it like that. I had friends that had moved out there previously, and other people I had played and recorded with. DRUMStuff.com: Have you done any session work since you have been in LA? Brian Tichy: You know why I haven't done any sessions? Because Josh Freese has taken them all! (Laughing) Wherever you turn, Josh is there. He's done so many records. We ran into him when Perfect Circle was rehearsing in LA. Ball was getting ready to record in the same rehearsal studio. I don't know Josh that well but he's a really nice guy. And he's a fucking great drummer. I would love to do session work. If the phone was ringing, I would be psyched. But it's a who-you-know type of thing. If you can get on a record that has a hit single that helps a lot. DRUMStuff.com: What is it like the be headlining Ozzfest with Ozzy? How is it different than playing with Foreigner? Brian Tichy: Foreigner was great and we played all over in large amphitheatres. But this is bigger because it's Ozzfest and it's always sold out. Ozzy is still valid He's the godfather of metal. DRUMStuff.com: Is Ozzy demanding on his drummers? Brian Tichy: Yeah, he makes me do his laundry and pick up his dry cleaning (laughing). "Brian! Where's my coffee???" (laughing) No, he's great. He basically just wants you to pound it out. DRUMStuff.com: Do you think that growing up on rock made it easier to play? Brian Tichy: Yeah, if I had grown up on jazz I definitely think this would be harder to play. But this is the style I've listened to and played all my life. Ozzy is definitely a big part of what I grew up listening to. DRUMStuff.com: I noticed that you are here at the show rather early. Is this a typical day for you? Brian Tichy: I've been coming here earlier than usual because there is a lot of people in the bands that I have become friends with. I haven't been able to see them play because they go on early. Bands start at 10:15 in the morning. We usually get here around 3, when Tommy Lee's band starts. So I see a lot of the bands from then on. But all the bands that have been playing around noon I don't see. I made a point in saying that "before the tour is over and after we get out of the Texas heat and on the west coast I'm going to make a point of coming early". There are a lot of new bands coming up that are kicking ass. I know them personally and I may have heard some of the music on CD or watched one of their videos, but they are playing everyday. I want to go check them out. And I'm also here early because Zakk Wylde's band Black Label Society just started playing on the tour last week in Seattle. They are doing the last week of shows on the west coast. I haven't seen his band. Every time he's in LA, I'm out of LA and we just haven't connected. He's a great guy and a great friend so I wanted to get down here and support him. DRUMStuff.com: Are you friends with Tommy too? The interesting thing about Tommy Lee is he was a drummer and now he's fronting Methods of Mayhem, which is what you are doing with Ball. Brian Tichy: Those guys are great. Tommy has Steven Perkins on drums and he's a great guy. He has tons of energy. I have tons of respect for Tommy. I was a kid when Motley Crue came out. I don't know many kids into rock drumming that were not influenced by Tommy Lee. He was definitely a big influence for me. You look back 15 years and I can't think of another drummer that stands out in Rock more than Tommy Lee. At least I can't think of any. You know what I mean. He's doing 360's on his set, and he's got all this pyro going on and he's got a killer groove. DRUMStuff.com: So what is the plan for Ball? I know you play guitar but since you and Joe Travers both play the drums will you be doing any drumming like the drum jam at the beginning of Tommy's set? Brian Tichy: Yeah yeah, we do a whole drum jam thing. It started because there is at least 2 drummers in the band. One day we ended up bringing some percussion to the show, more than I thought. Everybody had a percussion instrument to play so we ended up doing a full-blown percussion jam. You know what, the bass player in PowerMan 5000, Dorian, is a great friend of ours and a great drummer. When Joe Taylor wasn't available to play bass, Dorian filled in. He had some percussion laying around. I told him to bring the Conga to the show and I'll just bash it around during the solo. But he also brought bongos, so I thought, "Cool yeah, we are all just going to jam." In the middle of this slow, droning song, it kind of breaks down and we go into this whole jam section. I guess it's kind of a Zeppelin meets Santana type of thing. We have no idea what we are going to do and we never talk about it before we go on, we just play and see where we end up. Hopefully we land on our feet together. I know Tommy is doing the double drum thing at the beginning of his show and I think that maybe if Ball had a tech or something, we would have another drum set up there. For now percussion is cool. I'm basically the singer, the guitar player, the guitar tech, the tour manager and accountant. (Laughs). DRUMStuff.com: So what are you playing now? Brian Tichy: It's all DW Drums, Zildjian Cymbals, DW Hardware, Zildjian Sticks. Remo heads. I've been using all that stuff forever and it's all killer. DRUMStuff.com: Any stand outs on the tour? Brian Tichy: One of the coolest things didn't even have to do with the show. It was actually doing the hi-hat pattern to War Pigs and Ozzy singing the melody, "generals gathered in there masses". (singing) And I'm going, "szzzzzzttt szzzzzt szzzzzt" on the hi-hat. Just sitting there doing that, thinking this is such a classic metal song and I'm sitting there getting t