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A
Year in the Life
-- Posted by The_Duke on Friday, October 1 2004
Based on the overwhelming email response that I received
over the last few days concerning my last commentary,
it has become apparent that like me many of you live
or have lived in a "television induced vegetative
state.” That IS an actual medical condition, look
it up if you don't believe me. Most of your emails cry
out for help and ask "what can I do, my TV has
stolen my will to live" (ok, so I made that last
part up). To my knowledge, there is no "official"
treatment being offered by the medical community for
this often overlooked epidemic. As one of the outspoken
leaders in the fight to find a cure, I encourage all
of you to follow my lead and immediately pull the plug
on your cable and satellite service. Seriously, it may
hurt for a while, but if it hurts then you're probably
doing the right thing (except during sex, unless you're
into that). Ok, I'll quit before I dig myself a bigger
hole.
During
this week’s commentary I’m going to reflect
back over the last year or so and give you an inside
look at some of the projects that I was honored to be
a part of.
In
the spring of 2002, Fozzy was asked to perform in Balingen,
Germany at the Bang Your Head metal festival. While
arrangements were being made for Fozzy's travel and
accommodations, I received an email from a German musician
who would later be known to us all as "Ronnie Rock-star”
(see picture below).
Ron
wanted to know if Sick Speed would be available to do
some German club shows while we were over with Fozzy.
For those who don't know, Fozzy was basically Sick Speed
plus Chris Jericho and guitarist Ryan "The Kidd"
Mallam. Ron was the band leader of the German band Kickdown
and his plan was to have Sick Speed and Kickdown tour
together and do a week or two of club dates. Both bands
would share a bus, band equipment and crew to keep costs
down. During the tour Ron mentioned to me about the
possibility of having me involved with the production
of their next album. I thought the band was great so
I was very interested and said to please keep in touch
when they got closer to recording. Well he tried to
get in touch but I had moved to the top of Duke Mountain
(see bio for more info) and we didn't hook up in time
to have me produce the album.
Once
we finally talked, he said that he still wanted me to
come over to Germany to sing and play guitar on a few
songs. So, in the summer of 2003, Kickdown's label flew
me over and I tracked vocals on one song and guitar
solos on three. We had a fantastic time and the album
turned out great. During my visit, they had a video
crew come to the studio and we filmed a video for "My
Anthem," the song that I sang on along with their
singer. (Check out the video here) Kickdown are an excellent
band, a great group of guys and they are my friends.
I encourage all of you to check them out right here.
I'll
preface this next story with a little background information
going back to my childhood. When I was in third grade
I used to carpool to school with a girl named Monica
Munn. My memory is generally fuzzy when it comes to
my childhood, but I will always remember Monica for
one reason. She liked the band Kiss. When I say liked,
I may be understating it a bit. I can make this point
easier by telling you that this third grade girl used
to "publish" her own Kiss newsletter. I had
never even heard of Kiss before the first day we headed
off to school in the back seat of her mother’s
car. My parents were careful to not expose me to anything
more dangerous than the Saturday Night Fever Soundtrack
and I guess four dudes in face paint seemed reasonably
dangerous to them back then.
I
must admit that I was shocked THE FIRST TIME that she
showed me that picture of Gene spitting blood. But after
a few weeks of hearing that Ace was "the space
man" because he likes science fiction and Peter
is "the cat," blah blah blah, I was ready
to open the door and hurl myself into oncoming traffic.
It was during that year of endlessly annoying car rides
with "Kiss' #1 Grade School Fan" that I decided
that Kiss sucks and that Paul Stanley needed his ass
kicked for giving this girl a reason to talk so much.
It scarred me so bad that to this day I don't like Kiss
and I will always view them as one of the most overrated
and annoying bands of all time.
Now,
here is the ironic part of this story. Last fall I was
asked to play guitar on a Kiss tribute album and I gladly
participated. This wasn't some half-ass local project.
This was going to be a worldwide release put together
and produced by Bob Kulick, whose credits include playing
guitar on multiple Kiss albums in addition to being
the touring guitarist for Meatloaf on The Bat Out Of
Hell tour. Bob's brother Bruce came by early in the
day to lay down a scratch bass part for the album and
we hung out for a while. Bruce played guitar for Kiss
during most of the eighties and nineties and was probably
the only really talented guitarist that the band ever
had.
After
hanging out for only an hour or so I was glad to find
him as genuinely nice as he is talented. My Fozzy brother
Chris Jericho was to sing on the same track l that I
was to appear on along with Mike Inez (Ozzy, Alice In
Chains) on bass and Fred Coury (Cinderella) on drums.
The track that I was to play on was one of Kiss' classic
songs, “King of the Night Time World,” a
song that I had never heard before. Wait a second, I
know what you’re thinking. “Did Rich have
a change of heart? Did he listen to King of the Night
Time World and find a new appreciation for the band
he once swore to hate until his death?” No, I
did it for the cash.
OK,
I’ll admit, even though my initial motivation
was a paycheck, the experience was one that I really
value and is something that I am really glad that I
did. For this project we were tracking the guitars in
L.A where my brother and guitar hero Zakk Wylde lives,
so we called him and asked him to come down and hang.
He showed up while I was tracking the last solo bits
for the song. Now, if you want to know what pressure
is, try playing a solo while Zakk Wylde is looking over
your shoulder! I must say that I usually have no lack
of confidence in my playing and I never get nervous.
Well, my hands stiffened up like I had rubbed Viagra
all over them. It was ugly, but I got through it and
managed to throw down my best Randy Rhodes lick. The
Randy lick got me a few words of praise from Zakk and
I managed to walk away with only slight nerve damage.
Then,
Zakk went out to his truck to get a new guitar that
Gibson had just made for him. You may have seen it on
the cover of a few magazines. It's his trademark bulls-eye
pattern on top of camouflage paint. Anyway, he handed
it to me and said that I had to check out how good it
played. After playing it for a minute, he asked me if
I liked it. Gibson doesn't give one of a kind, prototype
signature series to their artists unless it is the finest
that they make, so my answer was obvious. Then he got
a serious look on his face and said "It's yours."
His tour manager Tim Boland was there and he told Zakk
that he couldn't give it to me because it was the only
one in existence. Zakk said, “I'll get another
one” and then explained to Tim and I why he wanted
me to have the guitar. Even though I like these commentaries
to be completely open and honest, I feel a little hesitant
to share the details of what he said. I’ll just
say that I will remember his words for the rest of my
life. Well, as you might expect, I cried like a little
girl.
After
that, we listened to Black Label and then Fozzy songs
back to back, that is until Zakk turned the faders on
the mixing desk all the way up and blew 3 out of the
4 speakers in the studio. One by one, a speaker would
go puff, followed by a small discharge of smoke. It
was very metal. Then, Zakk went into "stand up
comedian" mode and told some great road stories
about throwing TVs out of windows, Mr. Newsted's tenure
in Ozzy and the finer points of threatening producers.
To
finish the night up, Zakk and Jericho started working
on a Guinness book world record for drinking beer while
punching each other in the chest. It was I night I'll
never forget. The Kiss tribute album is called “Spin
The Bottle” and I have heard the final version
of the track that we did and it's really good. So please
go to the store, buy two copies and give one of them
to ME! Bastards didn't send me a copy and I'm still
too bitter to drop $14 on a record that would put cash
in the pockets of the men who ruined my 3rd grade experience.
Remember, that this record is good because Gene (The
Demon), Paul (The Star Child), Ace (The Space Dude)
and Peter (The Cat) didn't play on it.
One
of my best friends in the world is Richard Marcum. I
met him at a Stuck Mojo show in his hometown of Macon
Georgia where he worked part time doing promotions for
the club we were playing. Over the course of a year
or so I got to know Richard as a hard worker and a good
friend. So in the winter of 97-98, I offered him a job
to come on tour and work for Stuck Mojo. You may know
him best as the lovable Arthur, Fozzy's pork-faced mascot.
Over
the years Richard had told me about a local band that
he was friends with called Lilitu. I had met them a
few times over the years, but never had the chance to
see them live. In June of 2003 I got a copy of their
new demo and it was great. I spoke to their guitarist
Jason about trying to help them to get a record deal
with some of the indie metal labels that I knew. The
plan was for me to lay the groundwork for a deal and
then to produce and mix the album. Much to my surprise,
my main contacts Century Media and Nuclear Blast, showed
little interest in the demo that I had given them. I
even called my former label Century Media several times
explaining that I really thought that this band could
do well and that I would work with them in the studio
to make sure that the album sounded great. Anyway, to
make a long story short, a few months later I got a
call from Jason and he said that they got an offer from
an independent label called The End Records.
At
that point, I was knee deep in the new Fozzy record
and I hardly had time to shower, so working with them
wasn't an option at that time. Their singer Derrick
ended up helping us out by doing some guest vocals on
the new Fozzy record and, as I knew it would, his contribution
turned out great. Lilitu eventually went to a local
Atlanta studio to track and mix their record. I spoke
with Jason on and off for the next couple of months
about their record and he would vent about how they
couldn't get the mix to sit right. I knew how it felt
to be so close so I took a couple of days to help them
mix and even tracked a guitar solo on one of their songs.
As with Kickdown, these guys are my friends. They are
hard working musicians whose only goal is to be the
best of what they do. Check them out here and if you
dig it I encourage you to buy their record.
Thanks
to everyone who regularly comes to the site and reads
my commentaries. It's an honor to share these stories
with you and even more of one to receive your email
thoughts about them. Your words and support always put
a smile on my face and I'm glad to know that you are
out there.
Talk
to you again soon. The Duke
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