Talkin' Rock With Meltdown Podcast Beasley Media Group

My latest Talkin' Rock with Meltdown guest is none other that Blackie Lawless of W.A.S.P.. It's always a treat when I get to talk with Blackie. He's a great interview, and also the force behind one of my favorite bands of the era.

Lots was discussed including his health. After undergoing surgery to ease his back last year, he's on the mean. "But, you know, we had surgery on it about ten months ago, and, you know, I'm on the mend and everything's cool, you know? So, you know, we should be ready for the fall tour coming in, in October."

Blackie Lawless On His Special Meet & Greets

Blackie's meet and greet is very unique, where the fans get pictures and stuff signed, then he'll do a Q &A session with them. "Well, we looked around at what other VIP packages were doing and quite honestly I didn't get excited about it. I thought, you know, if I'm going to meet somebody that I've always wanted to meet, wouldn't some sort of back and forth, you know, question and answer? I mean, wouldn't that be what you would want to have it be? And for me, that's what I would want. You know, and quite honestly, I didn't, because I've never done these before until we had done that the last time we were in the US a couple of years ago. And I'll be frank with you, I got as much, if not more than the people did out of it because like every other artist, you live in your own bubble and you don't really have a chance to talk to people on a one on one basis without it being in a chaotic situation." He later told me that some of the questions he received jarred some memories that might end up in a future autobiography.

Blackie On New W.A.S.P. Music

The last time I talked with Blackie, he told me he was working on new music. Where does it stand now? He said the surgery set him back a bit, but he got back into it. "I've had a long time to go through that. Those early demos of what we have been working on it, listening to it with fresh ears. Some of it's really good, but there's not enough of it yet where I would be comfortable in saying, okay, this is finished, and let's go with it. You know, I want to, I'd like to like to go back and visit the drawing board, so to speak, you know, and see what else is there, because even from a two year period of when we started working on that before to where we are right now, you're going to gain so much, you're going to grow so much, you know?"

He went on "So you really have to I've learned and you don't make records or I don't make records anymore that are spread out over a 2 or 3-year period. Because the guy you are when you first start making it is not the guy you are when you finish making it, get in, try to, you know, six months top to bottom, get that thing cranked up, you know, because like I said, if you don't, you end up running the risk of it kind of being a schizophrenic type of record. You know, where you've got one type of one thing and then some. The other half is something else, and it has no real cohesiveness"

You can see Blackie and the band perform their entire debut album at the Royal Oak Music Theater on November 10th. For tickets, click here.

 

 

 

Ed Roland is one of those guys that's just easy to talk to and we talked about a lot of things. 

When the band broke in 1994, they broke big time! That year they played Woodstock, as they did in 1999 too. He told me they are one of only 5 acts to play both concerts. 

His brother, Dean, has been in the band the entire time as well. I asked him about sharing this journey with him. "Well, I mean, it's it's family. It's been a blessing for me. And I'd like to think he thinks the same because it's family. You know, we all are family, to be honest, we all kind of grew up in the same community and, the same environment as parents and things like that. Same school, same church, all of the above. It's been wonderful for me. And I think he would say the same thing, you know." He went on to say that they don't fight much. "But I always say to my brother, I mean, I would never hit you with a guitar because I like my guitar, too much." LOL

As far as the new record, Here To Eternity is concerned, that's a great story! They recorded it in Elvis Presley's house in Palm Springs. He talked about how quickly they recorded the album, and why they made it a double album. 

I had to ask him if he had any peanut butter and banana sandwiches. "You damn right I did, I'm a southern boy, I'm not afraid of that." They were actually in the house the day Lisa Marie Presley died. He said the ceiling caved in that night! 

Now, onto the first big hit "Shine". He had told me the trick that they used on that song years ago, but I wasn't sure if he was pulling my leg or not. He sang the "Yeah" part through an empty toilet paper roll. "Yes, that's very true because I only had one amp, one guitar. And, you know, I just had to make up different sounds. It's crazy that I could. So I kept doing "Yeah", I was like, it just sounds like a Southern boy going yeah. Almost lazy. Like, you should be in a rocking chair. So I went to the bathroom in the basement and took the toilet paper off. Just put the the cardboard part off. And that's what I sang through. Oh, yeah."

What a fun conversation with Ed.

The new Dead Daisies album is dropping in September, so it's good to get Doug Aldrich from the band on Talkin' Rock with Meltdown to tell us about it. Plus, they'll be playing the Machine Shop on June 11th, in Flint, Michigan.

As far as song ideas for the new album, he said everyone chipped in. "We all, all we all were, brought different parts in different song ideas. And that's generally what we do with The Dead Daisies is we'll bring in ideas and then, you know, in this situation, Marty Fredrickson was producing and he's like an amazing songwriter in his own. So he had a couple ideas already. Him and John (singer Corabi) had a couple ideas. I had a few. Michael Devin had a few. David (Lowy) had a few. I kind of helped David, finish off a couple of his ideas, and then we, we played them off for Marty."

He told me that the first single's main riff for "Light Em Up" was actually written by Stevie D. from Buckcherry. "Yep. And Stevie had he had a whole song, but we just basically pinched the riff and Stevie gave his approval, and then we kind of wrote a little bit new around that riff and, and then we, you know, originally I don't remember, I can't remember his demo, how the riff was played. It might have been played down here or I'm not sure it might have been played in this position here, but this is how we ended up doing it. And it's got kind of a classic Daisy's. But yeah, it's obviously derivative of kind of the way we played it was derivative of kind of AC/ DC" He told me the new album covers a wide range of rock and was recorded in some historic studios. "There's there is a bunch of stuff that's in the vein of what we just talked about that's that fits together really well. But then we had a couple of songs that came in. Actually we we wrote one in Muscle Shoals, Alabama, in this studio called Fame Studio. That is a crazy, important studio for, you know, for early rock and for R&B. And like, Wilson Pickett and Aretha Franklin recorded their hits there. Duane Allman worked there with Wilson Pickett. And we were in the studio working on just playing through some blues stuff and kind of noodling around in a little bit for a week, and we wrote this tune that turned out to be way is really deep, it's like an album cut, it's not a single. It won't be a single, but it's probably one of the coolest songs on the record because it's like a cornerstone track that it makes the album so much better just because it's on it."

Past Rock Projects With Doug Aldrich

Doug told me about earlier stuff he'd done with other bands, including auditioning for KISS. "I got a call from Eric Carr, who came and saw me play, and I met him, and he invited me to come down to the studio and, and meet Paul and Gene and, and I played on a couple of tracks in the studio just to see. And then they had me come and play a couple times live with them. And it was it was, you know, I felt guilty because these guys, nobody had seen them without their makeup yet. So I really felt awkward about looking Gene Simmons in the eye and, and, and seeing his face, you know, it's like shouldn't, shouldn't be doing this. But the bottom line is, is that they wanted a little bit more of a technical guitar player."

That's just for starters on this wide-ranging conversation with Doug.

Get your tickets to see The Dead Daisies at the world-famous Machine Shop here. 

 

Mr. Big is on their "Big Finish" tour and makes a stop in southeast Michigan at District 142 in Wyandotte on May 30th. 



Mr. Big From The Start



Eric told me the entire story of how the band started after his solo career had seemed to fizzle out in the late 80s. He spoke of meeting Billy Sheehan, a guy who he didn't know about. It was interesting to hear how the pieces came together.



New Mr. Big Drops On July 12th



Eric had a lot to say about the upcoming album. Their 10th record Ten drops on July 12th. He told me how he and Paul recorded demos for all the songs. "We mapped it out perfectly," he said. Eric talked of starting from scratch on this album and the reason for doing so.



Jay Ruston produced this album, as Eric explained to me why they went with the rock producer. "I liked what he did with the last Winery Dogs album...that record was slick"



I also grabbed a couple questions from some of his solo bandmates, PJ Farley and Jason Hartless. Those made for a few laughs.

Fun conversation with Eric for sure! I cannot wait to hear the full album. 

When I heard that Lzzy Hale had signed on to help the Skid Row guys for 4 shows, I was stoked! I was excited for the band, excited for the people who would see her sing live, and excited for Lzzy!

After the first show was in the books, I texted Skid Row bassist, Rachel Bolan and drummer, Rob Hammersmith. Both of them were giddy with how the weekend went. That's when I decided to ask Rachel if he'd come on my Talkin' Rock with Meltdown podcast to talk about it.

"We had one rehearsal before the first show, and she blew us away." - Rachel Bolan

Rachel told me how the ball started to roll at producer, Nick Raskulinecz's birthday party. "I was like, "Hey, man, would you want to step in and do a few shows with Skid Row?" And she, you know, after we kind of cleared out what exactly the shows were because we, you know, I think she kind of thought we were just going to jam at like the Mercy Lounge or something. But, so when we cleared that up, she said, yes. "Let me talk to my, my, team and my people and I'll have an answer for you." And the next day or a couple of days later, I was like, "Hey, man, were you serious about that?" She's like, yeah, it's a go. And we were all excited."

"She unleashed that first scream, and we were all just like, whoa." - Rachel Bolan

Rachel went on to say that they only rehearsed once before their first show. Lzzy said that she was holding back a little as to not blow out her voice. Then it was time to take the stage. "When we took the stage, 'Slave to the Grind", she unleashed. Unleashed that first scream. I was just like, I'm actually getting chills thinking about it right now. I was we're all just kind of looking at each other like, whoa"

He couldn't heap enough praise on the Halestorm front woman. "You know, when someone is great at what they do, people appreciate it. They appreciated Lzzy because she is great. She's just freaking great!" He said the energy on stage was off the charts. "And you could you could feel the energy on stage. And, a few of my friends that said I've never seen you smile so much. You're always like the punk rock don't smile, guy. You know, like you're laughing up there, you're smiling and you're interacting, you know? So it was really cool, man. And we got two more. And I just feel like that's like another nine days and I'm like, climbing wall of, like, what do you know?"

The other two shows he's referring to are in Reno, Nevada, and Sacramento, California.

"Lzzy Hale is one of the best vocalists on the planet." - Rachel Bolan

When I commented that Lzzy is such a badass, Rachel agreed. "You know, you just said something that is, descriptive that everyone has been saying, and that's badass. Man, it's so perfect because she is a badass. She's a beast on stage, man. She's great."

 

This is such an interesting listen. I'd never met or interviewed Chris before. He was so much fun to talk to!

We talked about his new gig, at the University of Michigan. He's taking his lessons learned, and passing them on to a younger generation. 

Of course, we had to talk about his time in Nine Inch Nails. He talked about the song "Closer" and how Trent Reznor spit out the lyrics to the surprise of Chris and the producer. He spoke of being inducted into the Rock Hall, Johnny Cash covering "Hurt" and more.

There's so much we didn't get into, so Chris has promised to come back on in the future. This is a fun listen!