Book Review: Jim Peterik – Through the Eye of the Tiger: The Rock 'N' Roll Life of Survivor's Founding Member BenBella Books All Access Rating: B+
Jim Peterik - Through the
Eye of the Tiger: The
Rock 'N' Roll Life of
Survivor's Founding Member
Usually, rock 'n' roll autobiographies are a damn sight more tawdry and scandalous than this.
A faithful husband devoted to his wife of 40-some years, Karen, and a good Catholic, whose greatest vices seem to be a love of fast cars and vintage guitars, Jim Peterik, practically a teetotaler, never experienced a harrowing descent in the dark world of addiction or took part in out-of-control sex orgies with underage groupies and farm animals.
Nobody's doing blow off a stripper's ass or tossing televisions out of hotel room windows in the refreshingly sweet, sometimes tumultuous and deeply personal "Through The Eye of the Tiger: The Rock 'N' Life of Survivor's Founding Member," from BenBella Books. Aside from a brief moment of weakness in a hotel room with Connie, made famous in the Grand Funk Railroad song "We're An American Band," that ended before anything serious happened, Peterik was practically a choirboy.
His story is pretty tame stuff compared to the endless debauchery of Motley Crue's "The Dirt: Confessions of the World's Most Notorious Rock Band" or even Sammy Hagar's "Red: My Uncensored Life in Rock." The juiciest bits have to do with Peterik unwillingly ceding control of Survivor to Frankie Sullivan and their often fractious relationship, as well as behind-the-scenes power struggles with meddling music-industry Svengali types – kingmaker John Kalodner being one of them – and the dirty dealing that resulted in .38 Special's hit version of "Rockin' Into the Night," originally written by Peterik and members of Survivor for their own use.
Mostly a straightforward account of Peterik's struggles and triumphs in a music industry, as well as interpersonal relationships with band mates, friends and family, "Through the Eye of the Tiger" –featuring a forward by REO Speedwagon's Kevin Cronin – focuses on Peterik's almost obsessive drive for success, which almost cost him his marriage and his own sense of identity. The commissioning of the rousing Survivor anthem "Eye of the Tiger" by action-movie star Sly Stallone for "Rocky III" is addressed right up front and without delay, and his sometimes scattered prose, competently shaped by writer Lisa Torem, turns almost giddy with excitement any time the conversation turns to the process of making music, which, for him, has always been something magical. That's what garners the lion's share of attention in the book.
From his teen years fronting Ides of March and riding the smash hit "Vehicle" to the top of the charts on through the mega success of Survivor's "Eye of the Tiger," Peterik leads readers into intensely creative studio sessions, recalls sensational live performances and gigs that fizzled, and handles uncomfortable matters, such as the firing of band members or personal failings, with kid gloves. His musical fandom and admiration for bands like The Turtles, the Allman Brothers and British Invasion influences comes shining through, as well, and, in the end, even though it's not a torrid page-turner, "Through the Eye of the Tiger" has a charming and rare innocence and a good heart that other books of this ilk simply don't. That makes Peterik's story one worth telling.
– Peter Lindblad
Making rock 'n' roll dangerous again By Peter Lindblad
Motley Crue - The Final Tour
Being that it was the Fourth of July, Motley Crue didn't skimp on the pyrotechnics on the second night of what is being billed as the glam-metal ne'er-do-wells' final tour.
Getting a late start, technical problems reportedly being blamed for the delay, as the crowd was still being herded in right around the scheduled concert start time, Nikki Sixx, Vince Neil, Mick Mars and Tommy Lee appeared onstage at Summerfest in Milwaukee after a full blast of loud, dazzling fireworks announced their arrival.
Alice Cooper had already worked his dark, twisted magic on the audience, giving Cooper fanatics exactly what they wanted – a mock electrocution gone horribly wrong, Cooper shackled in a straight jacket and tormented by a demented nurse, flares shooting from Glen Sobel's drumsticks, a boa constrictor draped over Cooper's shoulders, and, of course, a final beheading staged with a guillotine.
The act may be familiar, but like the Harlem Globetrotters' old bag of tricks, it's still a fun, vaudevillian treat for the senses, and the band's tight, rousing renditions of Cooper classics like "I'm Eighteen," "Under My Wheels," "Poison," "No More Mr. Nice Guy," "Feed My Frankenstein" – complete with a 20-foot singing monster – and "Billion Dollar Babies" were performed with theatrical panache, punk energy and vicious playing from a band that now includes new guitarist Nita Strauss. She didn't disappoint, tearing through full-throttle solos and leads that let everyone know there's a new sheriff in town, and when Cooper and company close with a galvanizing "School's Out," he had the whole Marcus Amphitheater in a stranglehold. Cooper was in fine form, acting out every well-worn scene as if he was doing it for the first time, and his durable, switchblade vocals cutting through crowd noise with ease.
Appetites sufficiently whetted, it was time for Crue to come out and bid farewell to Milwaukee with a fiery, defiant send-off. In between explosions, blinding flashes of lights and plumes of fire shooting from every orifice the industrial-designed stage had, the Crue delivered revved-up, razor-sharp versions of "Live Wire," "Too Fast for Love," "Same Ol' Situation (S.O.S.)," "Looks That Kill," "Wild Side" and "Smokin' in the Boys Room," among other favorites, including a stomping march through "Shout at the Devil" that shook the Marcus Amphitheater to its foundation. A "Carnival of Sins"? Perhaps not, this set being somewhat more spartan and business-like, though still elaborate and never threatening to detract from the band's rough-and-ready power. Mars' guitar riffs had that raw, down-and-dirty tone that's so delicious, and Sixx did his best to get everyone to believe Crue's hype, his rock-star swagger still as entertaining as ever. If this is, indeed, the end, it's clear they intend to go out with guns blazing.
With flames shooting from Sixx's bass at one point and scantily-clad back-up singers gyrating all over the place, Crue refused to tone down their lusty bravado, not that anyone there would have wished for that. A non-stop thrill ride from beginning to end, plus a run through a scintillating new song called "All Bad Things Must End" – culminated by a mind-blowing solo from Mars – the show didn't exactly go off without a hitch, though. Neil's vocals were often barely audible, and Lee's punishing drum work busted up a snare drum fairly early on, leading to Lee not-so-sheepishly admitting that perhaps he was hitting his kit "too f--king hard."
Due to the limitations of the venue's facilities, Crue was not able to haul out its most death-defying maneuver, known as "The Cruecify," where Lee's drum set-up is extended out over the crowd. Nevertheless, with all the fire and ear drum-shattering bangs surely scrambling their senses, Crue seemed to be courting danger at every turn. Say what you will about their music – and critics have lobbed plenty of insults their way, as Sixx so eloquently dismissed in an expletive-laden rant – nobody can accuse them of playing it safe, and on this night, they put on a display of dangerous rock 'n' roll that left the paying customers breathless.
New York City retro-rock siblings do it their way By Peter Lindblad
The Raskins - The Raskins 2014
When the major labels started sniffing around New York City retro rock ‘n’ roll animals The Raskins, they said, “Thanks, but no thanks. We’re
good.”
At one time, long ago, they would have jumped at their
offers, but like another Big Apple icon, the Chairman of the Board Frank
Sinatra, twins Logan and Roger are set on doing things their way, and it’s
gotten them pretty far. So, they turned them away.
“It’s funny, when my brother and I kind of finished all our
videos, we finished doing the web site, we finished recording the record,
everything was done, our fan base was growing leaps and bounds – all of a
sudden, we started getting all these record deals,” Logan related. “I was in my
attorney’s office, and he goes, ‘You know, you’ve got six major labels wanting
to sign you guys right now – six!’ He put four contracts right in front of me,
dropped them on the deck. He goes, ‘There you go. Four major labels want to
sign you guys. What do you guys want to do?’”
Taken aback by all the sudden record label attention they
were getting, The Raskins’ heads were swimming, and they needed some objective
advice.
“And I said, ‘Well, if I’d have been younger, I’d have been
freaking out,’” said Logan. “And I said, ‘As my attorney, what do you advise us
to do?’ And he said, ‘Well, as your attorney, I advise you to do it all
yourselves. You don’t need them. You don’t need those labels for anything. Why
would you want to give away everything you’ve done and give away all that
control, give all that power, everything you guys have worked for? You guys
have done it all on your own to this point.’ He goes, ‘You’ve got it.’ He goes,
‘You have it all. Don’t give it away.’”
An honest-to-goodness DIY success story – of which there are
precious few these days – The Raskins have been surrounded by music their whole
lives. Their father, Tommy, was a Broadway singer who appeared in such shows as
“West Side Story, “ “Oklahoma” and “South Pacific,” among others, and their
mother, Judith, known in the entertainment community as Judith Lee, was a jazz
singer of some renown.
Successful forays into the world of making music for TV and film helped The Raskins make a name for themselves, but in recent years, they've felt a tug to break out of that box and perform for the masses their own uniquely New York-style rock 'n' roll, an exciting, punched-up blend of singer-songwriter pop, the gritty, sleazy proto-punk of the New York Dolls and The Stooges and sophisticated classic rock clothed in tight black jeans, black leather and spiked hair and brimming with attitude.
Cover for The Raskins'
single "We Had It All"
Their self-titled debut album dropped in May, which includes the red-hot single "We Had It All," while the duo was on tour supporting ex-Stone Temple Pilots and Velvet Revolver front man Scott Weiland. Soon, they will embark on another jaunt with modern-rock heavyweights Saving Abel, and the day before this interview, they got even bigger news. We'll let Logan talk about it in Part 1 of our Q&A with these rising stars.
How did you get on the Scott Weiland tour?
Logan Raskin:
Well, you know, we have an album coming out May 13. So our management and our
label over Sony/Red obviously they’re looking to get us on to the biggest tours
possible that are going out this summer, and the Scott Weiland tour was one of
the opportunities that came across their desk for us, and of course, they had
asked my brother and I how we would feel about going out with Scott Weiland,
and you know, Scott Weiland is a big influence on my brother and I. Our musical
styles, I feel, are very similar, so for me it was a no-brainer. I said,
“Absolutely. Let’s get out there with Scott. I think it would be a really good
pairing.”
So they called Scott’s camp, and they told Scott about the band, and
Scott, it was really his decision. So they’re management said, well, we’ll talk
to Scott about it and it’s really up to him. So, yeah, Scott checked out our
music and our videos online, and he really dug what we were doing and said,
“Yeah, let’s get these guys out on the road with us.” So the first show we did
last night. We’re doing an 11- to 12-show run with Scott, and then when we get
back, we’ll go back to Hollywood for about 10 days and then we’ll go back out
again and we have about 20-plus shows booked with Saving Abel. So, we’ll go out
with Saving Abel and do all that, and actually, we just found out it looks like
we might be doing some of the Motley Crue-Alice Cooper shows. So believe it or
not, you’re the first person I’m telling that to. So we actually got offered 27
dates with them. I don’t know exactly … the label and our management right now
are working on all the details and the scheduling of it all, because I mean,
obviously, that’s the biggest tour of the year. And we already have contracts
signed with the Saving Abel tour, so we have to work out all the logistics with
that. Obviously, I’m like, “Let’s make it work (laughs).” So, let’s see:
Madison Square Garden is on there, Hollywood Bowl is on there … I’m like, “Are
you guys kidding me? Of course, let’s go. Let’s make it happen.” (See The Raskins' video for "We Had It All" below)
So it’s overwhelming, things are really taking off for the
Raskins, and you know, we’re just trying to take it day by day. It’s a
whirlwind, but my brother and I are just taking it day by day. We’re taking it
in stride. The band is kicking ass and playing amazing. The show last night
with Scott went great. Really, our focus right now is the Scott Weiland tour.
We really want to try and make this a successful tour, and last night, the
first night was great. A lot of kids bought our CDs, and we signed a ton of
posters and stuff. I mean, the response was pretty much overwhelming. So I’m
really excited about things to come and moving long with the Scott Weiland tour
now.
Wow. That’s pretty
amazing news. LR: Yeah, you
didn’t expect me to say all that, right?
No, that’s kind of
mind-blowing.
LR: Yeah, let me
tell you something. It’s like every day things change with us, and different
opportunities come up. Our single right now is being played on 150 radio
stations across the country, our single “We had it All,” and our album [wasn't] even out yet. So it’s like the single is starting to do really well. The video
is blowing up online. We’ve got almost two million views online with YouTube, so the
response has been really, really great. The anticipation of the album coming
out [was] really high, so we’re excited about that; it just seems like
everything is coming together at the right time. We’re firing on all cylinders
right now. We just want to keep this train on the tracks and keep things moving
forward for us.
I have to tell you
after listening to the songs on the electronic press kit, this is the kind of
music I miss.
LR: Cool, man.
It’s cool to hear you say that, and you know what? Me, too (laughs). You know
what’s funny, for the last several years, my brother and I were writing a lot of
music for TV and film. And we got heavily into that for a while, and we were
known as The Raskins. We were writing a lot of stuff for different film projects,
and we were getting an overwhelming amount of e-mails from fans – pretty much
not just in the U.S., but all over the world – that were seeing these movies or
seeing these TV shows that we did the music for, and they were always asking,
“Where can we get your guys’ music? When can we see you live?” So it was just a
matter of time before my brother and I were like, “Look, I think it’s time. The
writing is on the wall. I think it’s time we just put the band together and
start playing out at The Raskins.”
So we decided to do that a couple of years
ago, and then last year or about a year a half ago, we started recording the
music for this album that’s coming out and we
took our time writing it, and we just wanted to put together a solid group of
songs that really represented my brother and myself, our writing styles and our
influences.
Being from New York City, we really wanted to incorporate
that rock ‘n’ roll style that my brother and I grew up with, but also
incorporate the different style of our writing ability. Because, look, some of
our biggest influences were The Stooges or the New York Dolls or the Ramones,
but it was also acts such as Simon & Garfunkel and Steely Dan – those acts
out of New York City. We kind of grew up with those influences and it really
influenced our writing style, and we wanted to put together a record that
encapsulated those styles. And I think we accomplished that with this record.
The lead single, “We
Had It All,” dropped on Feb. 18 and I was going to ask about what kind of
feedback you’re getting, but it seems like it’s been pretty good. What inspired
that song?
LR: And it’s
funny, Peter, because I was nervous about it because when you’re writing music
for somebody, basically they’re telling you what they want. So it’s an easy
process for me, because I kind of try to detach myself from the music because
I’m basically just giving the client what it is that they want. And a lot of
times, we’ll finish a composition for a client, and I’ll say, “Well, I know how
I would have written that,” but they’re very specific about how they want
things, and we try to just give them that when we’re writing for these
different music supervisors for these movies and things like that, and we just
read the client. But with the record and writing for us, we really took our
time and wanted to really come forward with our influences and our styles we
grew up with , and really try to capture that on this record.
I really love the
songs “On the Radio” and “We Had it All.” Can you talk about what inspired those
songs?
LR: Absolutely.
Well, first of all, “On the Radio,” it’s pretty much exactly that. Every
musician growing up, I don’t care if you’re young or old, the first thing you
dream about as a musician is hearing your music on the radio. It’s the first
thing. For my brother and I, the first time we ever heard our music on the radio
that was a big moment for us. And I assume it would be a big moment for any
musician coming up. So for us, I remember exactly where we were, the moment it
happened, the first time I heard our song coming across the airwaves on the
radio. It was a big memorable moment and one for me I’ll never forget. And I
felt it was an important thing to write about, because that was an important
moment in our music career. That’s exactly what that song is about, “On the
Radio,” and it means a lot to us. It was important in our music career, and I
wanted to write a song about that. And then the single, “We Had it All,” which
by the way, it was difficult to figure out what was going to be the initial
single for this record. (See the video for "On the Radio" below)
I was going to ask
about that.
LR: Yeah, I mean,
I’m so attached to all these songs. But this particular song ... I’ll explain what
it’s about, and you’ll see why we decided to use it as a single. I mean, the
song was basically written about how the music industry is today. My brother
and I, being from New York City, spending our whole lives growing up and doing
music in New York, and our parents being in the music industry, we were doing
our thing musically and we were struggling, just kind of pushing along, playing
all the clubs in New York, and trying our hand at being musicians. But my
brother and I had gotten some opportunities to go out to Los Angeles to work
with a couple of pretty big producers out there, and I thought it was a good opportunity
maybe to go out to L.A. and try to expand on our career, and try to push our
career forward, and as we were doing that, it was an interesting time in the
music industry.
I mean the music industry was really changing, so like the
way the online market is now, you don’t even see record stores anymore. I grew
up with vinyl. I still have my vinyl collection. I remember going to the record
stores and paging through my favorite vinyls and buying vinyl, and you can’t
even go to a record store and buy a CD anymore. It’s all digital downloads now.
Getting back to my point, from when we kind of got out to L.A. and we were
working with those producers and stuff like that, my brother and I kind of
realized that we never really had to leave New York, or we never really had to
change what it was that we were doing to be successful. We had everything we
needed to be successful, and I never really realized that until we made that
trip out to Los Angeles. I mean, we packed our car, drove out, packed up
everything we had and just drove out to Los Angeles, started working out there,
trying to play the clubs out there, working the system and doing recording,
working with the producers out there, but I realized the way the music industry
is right now, if you have the knowledge and the wherewithal, you can do it all
on your own. You don’t need anybody. If you’re not lazy, you can do it all on
your own. The way the Internet is now, you can work your online market, the way
Twitter is, the way Facebook is, you can get your music up online. You can
build your fan base online. And that’s exactly what we started to do.
And I realized how to make all that work for us, and we also
learned how to record our own music, to do it in our own home. We built a
recording studio. We have a recording studio in our home in Los Angeles, and I
have one in my home in New York, but when I learned how to do that, the way
recording music has changed, they’re not using the big recording studios. A lot
of those big recording studios are going out of business now. You can record
killer quality tracks in the privacy of your own home. Everything’s digital
now. So, basically, the song is “We Had It All.” I never had to leave. We never
had to leave New York. We had it all. We had everything we needed to become
successful. And I realized that. My brother and I had all the music. We had the
knowledge and the wherewithal on how to record the music. We knew exactly how
to market and promote our music online, sell our music online, and that’s
exactly what we did. And that’s exactly how we built our fans. We built up our
fan base online, we recorded all the videos ourselves and released them to
YouTube and pushed and worked our fan base there, and that’s exactly what the
song is about. It’s called “We Had it All.”
We always had it all. I never realized that. I was always
talking to my friends and saying, “I wish we could do this. I wish we could do
that. I wish I could work with this person. I wish I could work with that
person.” And I try to tell it to a lot of younger kids coming up: “You’re not
lazy. The way the music industry is set up now, you can do it all yourself.”
You know, my dream growing up was to get signed by a major label. Now, it’s the
worst thing, the worst thing. The only deals that these major labels are giving
out now are 360 deals. They believe that with the digital market now, the
online market, the only way these major labels can make any money is to take a
percentage of everything you own, everything.
So my brother, Roger and myself and my older brother,
Micah Raskin – who’s our business manager, and he lives in New York, owns a
computer software company in New Jersey and he’s great with business, great
with business, and he handles all our business and is our business manager –
and the three of us put together our own record label. And we called the label
MIRAL, which stands for Micah “Mi,” and I “Roger,” and “Logan” – MIRAL records. So we signed ourselves to our own record label, and then once we did
that, Michael said, “Okay guys, we have everything we need. Everything is done.
The only thing we need is distribution.” I said, “Micah, there’s only one place
to go.” He said, “Where’s that?” I said, “Sony Red. Go to Sony.” And he said,
“Okay, I’ll go.”
Called him up, set up a meeting, just my brother went down
with the attorney, they signed us in 20 minutes. It took 20 minutes, that’s it
and it was done. Now I have my own label that I’m signed to, three brothers own
it all outright. I have total control over my musical career, creatively …
everything. And I have distribution through Sony. It’s been amazing, amazing.
And let me tell you it was hard work, but this is what I try to tell people,
and I try to tell these young kids out there, I’m like, “You can do all this.
You can do all this on your own.” And that’s what we’ve done, and it’s a great
feeling, a great feeling. I go to sleep at night with a big smile on my face,
just having the ability to play music every day and do it full-time is a major
accomplishment for my brother and I.
It’s a major accomplishment, and we’re the
kind of guys … I don’t need to make millions of dollars, I don’t need to make a
lot of money, because I’m a music lover. And the reason why we got involved in
music was to just play music. We loved it. And just the fact that we have the
opportunity to do that now, to travel all around the country and travel all
around the world, playing music and giving out our message to all the kids out
there, it’s crazy. So I’m living the dream, man. And I think this is just the
beginning, but I’m having the time of my life with it.
This is the kind of
album – guitar-driven, melodic, with lots of hooks – that would appeal to a
wide range of people, and music is so fragmented these days. Can an album like
this break down some of those walls?
LR: I mean, look,
I totally agree with you, but what was happening … like I would just take maybe
five years ago. That’s before you really saw the radical changes in the music
industry with the online market, the record labels really would get confused
with a lot of these bands. And they had the mentality like, look, we need to
know exactly what bin we’re putting this music in. Are you guys rock? Are you
guys rap? Are you guys pop? Are you guys heavy metal? Are you guys country? And
that’s how they would define it. So a lot of these bands would go along with
that protocol, and they’d only put out rock or they’d only put out heavy metal,
or only put out punk, and they were some great bands, but they would only be known
and categorized as just that, but my brother and I, being in the situation that
we’re in, I don’t have to answer to anybody. I can sign my own people.
I can put out all the music I want in the style that I want,
and it’s very important for my brother and I to let our fan base and to let the
public see our musical influences – the styles we grew up with, and the kind of
music that we love. It’s not just aggressive rock. It’s also really good pop
songs, and most of the music that I write is off of an acoustic guitar. So a
lot of those Simon & Garfunkel or Steely Dan or Richie Havens influences
come out in our writing styles. And we really want to try to have those hooky
chords, those pop chords and there’s a lot of harmonies going on, whether it be
in an aggressive rock song or whether it be in a slow ballad. It’s important to
us. So I don’t really care. I wanted to make sure that Roger and I were happy
with our finished product and happy with the music that we’re putting out
there. That’s the most important thing.
We write for ourselves. And I know the beauty of the
position we’re in is that I don’t have to answer to a president of an Atlantic
or an Interscope or an Island, or whomever, and that’s all good, but I can put
out the kind of music that I want and it took me to this point in my musical
career to get it to this point and learn. Believe me, we went through the
trials and tribulations of all of it, but now we’re at this point where we were
able to take our time writing the record, and we had an amazing time doing it.
We recorded 50 songs … 50 songs! It took us almost a year and a half. I wasn’t
under pressure. I wasn’t under a time restraint. We just had a great time
recording music, and when we felt like it was done, it was done. We had 12
songs that we felt good about, that had a good flow and that really represented
us and put it on the record and that’s what we wanted to represent us. That’s
what we wanted to put out into the universe. So I hope that maybe it catches
on, and I do think it will catch on, because the music industry is changing so
radically and I think that these kids are going to be doing more and more on
their own, and I think the music is going to change with that. There’s a lot of
talent out there. There really is, and the way the industry is now, it’s
freaking beautiful. It’s amazing. I love it. I love it. It’s giving the power
back to the artist. And that’s the way it should be. That’s the way it should
be. I think the music that the world is going to see now, it’s going to blow
people’s minds. It’s going to blow people’s minds. So that’s what I would like
to do. I can’t wait to get on to our second record.
Our management and Sony and everybody and Sony Red, it’s
like you guys for the next year and a half we just want you to tour the shit
out of this album. And I’m like, “Well, that’s cool. I love touring, too.” But
creatively, I’m like, “Aaaahhhh …” I can’t wait to do this next record. There
are so many songs I want to get out there. So, it’s exciting. It’s exciting,
and I think it’s going to catch on, I really do. And I hope that we can
influence a lot of these younger artists out there to follow what we’re doing.
I think that it’ll be good for the public to hear, to change it up and hear
that quality of music coming from these new artists, these up-and-coming
artists.
KISS guitarist releases ace first single from 'Space Invader' By Peter Lindblad
Ace Frehley - Space Invader 2014
Ace Frehley hasn't been shy about expressing his feelings lately, especially when it comes to KISS and the kerfuffle surrounding their rather awkward and unsatisfying Rock and Roll Hall of Fame induction.
Putting all that behind him, the ex-KISS guitarist debuted a new single last week titled "Gimme a Feelin'" in anticipation of Frehley's upcoming new album Space Invader, ready for launch this summer on eOne Music. Click the link below to take a listen:
The Ken Kelly rendered, sci-fi artwork for the record has already been released and is included here for your viewing pleasure.
Known for his work in the sword and sorcery and fantasy realms, it was Kelly who created the cover art for 1976's Destroyer and 1977's Love Gun, and the painting, with its rich hues, colored smoke and metallic space ship design, is almost as striking as his more famous pieces.
Ace Frehley - Gimme A Feelin'
As for the swaggering, rough-and-tumble "Gimme A Feelin'" – already available via iTunes, while Space Invader can be pre-ordered through Amazon – it's got all the trashy, bump-and-grind strut of the New York Dolls, but it's clothed in a more modern hard-rock suit. Built around a strong guitar riff that grabs and refuses to let go, "Gimme A Feeling" revs its engines at the beginning like Motley Crue's "Girls, Girls, Girls" and gives Frehley plenty of room to reel off a variety of agile, sharp-as-a-switchblade solos, the song growing increasingly desperate in its search for sexual gratification.
A piece of rollicking, vintage '70s New York City rock 'n' roll that's caked in grit and full of swagger, "Gimme A Feelin'" could be a museum artifact in this day and age, but it shouldn't be kept behind velvet ropes. "Gimme A Feelin'" finds Frehley confident, reinvigorated and ready to take on all comers, swinging big hooks like a heavyweight champ. About to arrive, with nine originals and a cover of Steve Miller's "The Joker," Space Invader may prove that Frehley is, indeed, back in a New York groove.
New album from '80s rockers on the way, with touring to follow
(NEW YORK, NY) – Sacramento rock band Tesla have announced an all new LP titled Simplicty due out June 10, 2014 via Tesla Electric Company Recording's arrangement with Entertainment One Music and Distribution.
Simplicity will be the band's seventh studio full length LP and 15th release overall. The new effort will be the followup to Forever More, which was released in October 2008 and featured the single "I Wanna Live."
Teslalocked themselves away for weeks writing the new material that would become Simplicity with longtime A&R man Tom Zutaut. Fourteen solid tracks later the band sank their teeth in while recording began at bassist Brian Wheat's very own J Street Recorders. Legendary engineer Michael Wagener(Metallica, Skid Row, Motley Crue) was then tapped to put the final touches in place.
Fresh off the Monsters of Rock Cruise, the band has quite the itinerary of tour dates throughout the rest of 2014. Click here for all tour dates.
Formed in 1981, Teslahave firmly carved out their own space in rock and roll history. The band saw great success with their own rendition of the 1971 classic "Signs" and their own hit single "Love Song" from the The Great Radio Controversy, released in 1989.
Tesla includes the members Frank Hannon, Wheat, Jeff Keith, Troy Luccketta and Dave Rude.
Pete Seeger died, Motley Crue submitted their retirement papers and the Grammys spit on hard rock and heavy metal once again, incurring the wrath of Nine Inch Nails mastermind Trent Reznor. It's been a hell of a week in music.
And let me just start off by saying that I really hemmed and hawed about writing this, mostly because to do so would give the Grammys credence they don't deserve. I didn't watch it. I haven't watched since probably high school, and I don't plan on watching them in the near future. They have so little to do with music I enjoy that I'm just not interested in them in any way, shape or form.
But then, Seeger passed away, and not long after, Motley Crue finally said what they've been hinting at for a long time, that they'd decided to call it a day. Finding a way to connect all three huge news stories seemed like a good way to kill an afternoon.
So, the world mourns the death of the banjo-playing Seeger, who could someday qualify for sainthood. A folk singer and political activist who stood up for the working man, he was willing to go to prison rather than kowtow to the tyrannical witch hunt of Sen. Joe McCarthy and his House Committee on Un-American Activities. Into his nineties, Seeger railed against injustice at every turn, was a man of principles and sang simple, unadorned songs of rare, rustic beauty, always with an eye toward a better future for the country he loved and its people, especially the downtrodden.
Motley Crue officially retires
And then there's Motley Crue, who never really cared about the downtrodden as they were partying past sun up and sleeping with anything with a pulse. Terrors of the Sunset Strip in their salad days, these glam-metal hellions lived the "sex, drugs and rock 'n' roll" ethos to the fullest extent possible, and almost didn't actually live to tell about it. They've shouted at the devil, extolled the virtues of their favorite strip clubs and indulged in just about every vice known to man. And their music is loud, rebellious, dirty and played with a street-fighting swagger that, from the very beginning, tapped into suburban teenage longing for danger and excitement.
It didn't hurt sales that they surrounded themselves with scantily clad women in videos and onstage, set off a scary amount of pyrotechnics in concert and rode fast motorcycles and cars. Boys on the cusp of manhood tend to go in for that sort of thing.
The wreckage resulting from their misdeeds being common knowledge, Motley Crue wanted to put on a show. Seeger aimed to change the world. Both never wanted to be told what to do, and when institutions and authorities tried, they balked at attempts to shut them up. Musicians and artists, at least the good ones, are like that.
Not surprisingly, critics have differing opinions about the bodies of work left they've accumulated. Not that Vince Neil cared one jot about what they had to say about Crue's music. Rightly, after the announcement was made that Crue was going to dissolve their long-lasting partnership after one last tour, Neil declared that Crue is, and always was, a "fan band," that they didn't make music for critics or to garner awards. Of course, every band the critics hate has to say that.
Still, there's more than just a kernel of truth in that statement. Crue's fashion sense was something out of the movie "The Warriors" or Adam Ant's nightmares, but their songwriting, especially those bad-boy ballads, certainly had an audience, and a big one at that. In that way, Crue was a band of the people, and the salt-of-the-earth Seeger was nothing if not a man of the people, critics be damned.
As for the Grammys, there are some people they just don't care for. And Sunday night's telecast of the awards proved that they would rather not have anything to do with hard rock and heavy metal. Sure, Black Sabbath won the award for "Best Metal Performance," and it's hard to gripe about the nominees in that category, but wouldn't it have been nice to see Sabbath perform or even simply just accept their award? The point's been made by many that Metallica and Lang Lang doing "One" was an inspired pairing, even if it didn't come off all that well, and as others have also remarked, Metallica didn't put out any new music this year.
So, what were they doing there? Did somebody with some pull say, "Hey, Metallica … that's a band I've heard of. Let's get them on." Isn't that why Foo Fighters are always the default setting when the Grammys want somebody to represent hard rock, but they also want a band that's sort of non-threatening and that everybody kind of likes?
And then there are the "in memoriam" snubs of Slayer's Jeff Hanneman and Iron Maiden's Clive Burr. In Hanneman's case, the oversight is unforgivable, considering Slayer's five Grammy nominations and wins in 2007 and 2008, and Hanneman's songwriting contributions to Slayer. Burr is also more than deserving of recognition as well. Jesus, he was in Iron Maiden for God's sake. Both bands have racked up millions in record sales, and really, that's all the Grammys care about, isn't it? Just to be fair here, I heard they also forgot about The Dyvinyls' Chrissy Amphlett, which makes you wonder, who didn't they leave out?
Trent Reznor had a few choice words
for Grammy organizers
Anyway, seeing as how they cut to an ad and rolled credits while Trent Reznor and members of the Foo Fighters and Queens of the Stone Age performed the finale, Reznor, in no uncertain terms, let them have it in an angry tweet, as is customary these days. Grammy Executive Producer Ken Ehrlich apologized … sort of, noting that the show was going long and they did manage to run all but 1:20 of it. Okay, but what about all the other stuff you didn't do?
Eddie Trunk gives the Grammys a bit of pass when arguing who's more disrespectful of hard rock and heavy metal, the Grammys or the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. It's not that the people behind the Grammys are doddering old fools who don't know any better. I just simply don't believe that. After being the butt of so many jokes about Jethro Tull getting the heavy metal Grammy Metallica should have won, they had to have learned from that mistake.
If it is ignorance on their part, it's willful ignorance. They don't want to present the award for "Heavy Metal Performance" during the actual telecast because they never wanted to include such a category in the first place. The circumstantial evidence of that is overwhelming.
At the end of the day, it's pointless to get all worked up about the Grammys. I realize that. Most right-thinking people do, too. Style has always trumped substance with that show, and in all likelihood, it always will, and who needs an awards show for music anyway? On the other hand, why not speak out about it? Why not try to get them to change their ways? What's that saying about all evil needs to triumph is for good men to do nothing?
All right, maybe that doesn't exactly apply here, but then again, perhaps it's long past time for the Grammys to get it right. With the state the music industry is in right now, it can't afford to shun a rather large segment of consumers. Pete Seeger wouldn't do it on principle, and Motley Crue wouldn't do it because it just doesn't make sense from a business perspective.
Unaccustomed to the – shall we say – “enthusiasm” of
American audiences, Loudness singer Minoru Niihara was greatly taken aback by the
uninhibited behavior of rowdy crowds they encountered in the U.S. As the
support act for Motley Crue on their 1985 American tour, Japan’s biggest
heavy-metal export experienced all the insanity the road has to
offer, and then some.
“They were crazy,” laughs Niihara, referring to the U.S.
concertgoers they encountered back then. “I remember one night, we opened for
Motley Crue and it was some big arena and there was underwear flying at us. I
was surprised by that.”
Coming off the unparalleled – at least by Japanese metal
standards – success of their initial introduction to the world at large, Thunder in the East, Niihara and Loudness
had already established a beachhead on these shores. Put out in January of’85,
the LP had scratched and clawed its way to No. 74 on the American Billboard
album charts and fought like hell to stay there 19 weeks, a feat no Japanese
act has ever accomplished. They’d even played Madison Square Garden, another
first for a Japanese rock band, on Aug. 14, 1985.
A far cry from the wilder and less polished work of
Loudness’s early Japan-only releases, Thunder
in the East was the product of Los Angeles studio sessions with Ozzy
Osbourne producer Max Norman and it kicked down doors that may never have
opened for them had they done it any other way. Having signed to an
international record label in 1984, becoming the first Japanese metal band to
do so, Loudness had been slowly building momentum, and Thunder in the East was an attempt to harness it and propel the
band forward.
“We thought it sounded different from our older albums,”
says Niihara, “and we really enjoyed it. It was the sound we were going for,
and we were happy about that. I love ‘Crazy Nights’ and I like ‘Run for Your
Life’ and ‘Like Hell.’ They are very great pieces of the album.”
Loudness - Eve to Dawn 2012
Still beloved in their homeland, Loudness would be hard
pressed to duplicate those sales these days, but with their scorching new
album, Eve to Daw – their 26th
LP overall, amazingly enough – kicking and screaming violently against those
who would doubt them, the band and its country of origin had bigger issues to
grapple with during the making of it – namely, trying to deal with unimaginable
destruction, human loss and even nuclear danger.
“I was trying to make songs to help the people of Japan,
because when we recorded this album, it was right after the earthquakes [in
2011], so I wanted to help those people,” said Niihara.
With defiant, life-affirming tracks like “Come Alive Again,”
“Survivor,” “Hang Tough” and “Comes the Dawn,” Loudness certainly has given
their countrymen hope for a better tomorrow. And for the rest of the world, Eve to Dawn offers Niihara’s demonic, live-wire
vocals, furious, bone-crushing rhythms, and the maniacal fretwork of guitar
savant Akira Takasaki. Niihara says Eve
to Dawn combines the raw energy and reckless abandon of Loudness’s early
creations with the intense focus of 2010’s King
of Pain, the follow-up to 2009’s The
Everlasting, which wound up being the final recording of the classic
Loudness lineup. Drummer Munetaka Higuchi, one of the founding members, died of
liver cancer in 2008
“The music did remind me of our older music and how it felt,
and some of it reminded me of the last album, but it is very loud,” said
Niihara. “The album is very loud.”
No one could ever accuse Loudness of being too quiet or
soft. From the start, Loudness intended to push their amplifiers to the limits.
Together in the more pop-oriented rock band Lazy, Higuchi and Takasaki broke
off to form Loudness in 1981. Niihara, formerly of Earthshaker, gravitated to
the newly created outfit, even though soul was his mistress back then, and a
childhood friend of Takasaki’s, Masayoshi Yamashita, joined up on bass.
Assuming a bunker mentality in August of that year, Loudness hunkered down and
spent three months creating their debut, The
Birthday Eve – a riotous showcase for the dazzling guitar shredding of
Takasaki.
As it turned out, The
Birthday Eve would become an important record in the history of Japanese
rock and roll, especially in light of Loudness’s first concert. Held at Asakusa
International Theater, the show drew around 2,700 people, a number that stunned
the country’s music industry.
Of that gig, Niihara said, “I was extremely nervous.
Actually, I don’t remember it, but I remember there were many people and they
went crazy. Yeah, that was scary.”
The match was struck, and word of Loudness spread like
wildfire. Feverishly, audiences in Japan waited for another Loudness record,
and in July, 1982, they delivered Devil
Soldier, another step up on the band’s evolutionary ladder. Hot on the
heels of that effort, Loudness detonated The
Law of the Devil’sLand in
January, 1983. By that time, with the help of American Daniel McClendon,
Loudness had won over Japan with a triumvirate of high-quality, high-impact
recordings, but they had grander ambitions.
Since there was a dearth of experienced heavy-metal studio
hands in Japan, Loudness’s wanted desperately to record with an English
producer. Their 1983 tours of the U.S. and Europe had attracted a great deal of
attention, and they were able to go outside Japan for help, securing Julian
Mendelsohn – in demand due to his work on Yes’s 90125 – as sound engineer for their fourth album, Disillusion. For the first time,
Loudness left Japan to make an album.
“We had a name producer, who was English,” said Niihara. “I
thought it wouldn’t be that different, but the recording was very different
from Japanese studios. I thought we were good in Japan, but I was surprised. I
was shocked by how clean [Disillusion]
sounded and how heavy sounding they made it. We were very happy with it, and we
had a good time, but we didn’t like the food,” he laughed.
Culinary disappointments aside, Britain offered Loudness a
plethora of options when it came to producers and recording engineers. With an
international record deal under their belts courtesy of Atlantic Records,
Loudness headed into the studio with Norman to create Thunder in the East. Released in January 1985, Thunder in the East rose all the way to #4 in Japan, and it made
significant inroads in the U.S. While the iron was hot, Loudness decided to
strike, returning to the studio to tear through Shadows of War, again with Norman. Released in March 1986, the
American version of the LP, titled Lightning
Strikes, outdid Thunder in the East,
vaulting all the way to #64 on the Billboard charts.
With the help of Norman, and then the legendary producer
Eddie Kramer for 1987’s Hurricane Eyes,
Loudness had refined their sound to gain broader appeal. Some felt that
Loudness had lost some of the aggression and fury that powered their early
work. That was by design.
Asked if there were pressures from the label to make more
accessible recordings, Niihara replied, “We wanted to make our albums more
commercial than they used to be, but we played what we wanted to, and we liked
it.”
So did their countrymen. In Japan, Loudness was revered, as
tourists would return from America with glowing reports from U.S. heavy metal
fans of the band’s growing fandom. As a way of rewarding the loyalty of their Japanese
audiences that had supported them through thick and thin, Loudness put out the
1988 mini-album Jealousy in Japan
only – this after recording every album since Thunder in the East with lyrics in English.
From an outsider’s perspective, it seemed everything was
going swimmingly for Loudness, but all was not well within the Loudness camp,
and by December 1988, Niihara was out of the band. There are varying reports as
to what led to Niihara’s departure, with some saying he left of his own
volition. Niihara has a different point of view.
“I knew something was very wrong in the band,” said Niihara.
“Then, one day, Akira said I was leaving because they wanted another singer who
could be very good with English lyrics. I was shocked, and I didn’t want to
leave. I didn’t understand, but I just realized it was time to go.”
To fill Niihara’s shoes, after a lengthy period of
frustrating auditions, Loudness picked former Obsession vocalist Mike Vescera
in 1989, who debuted on the Soldier of
Fortune album. He remained with Loudness through the 1991 LP Slap in the Face, after which Vescera
left. Loudness carried on through the 1990s, establishing itself as one of the
biggest bands in Japan with a flood of albums despite various lineup changes.
Around the time of the dawn of the new millennium, Takasaki
started thinking seriously about getting the old band back together. With
designs on reforming the original Loudness lineup, Niihara was approached about
re-enlisting. Letting bygones be bygones, Niihara accepted, and a new chapter
in the life of Loudness began. “Time heals everything, and I was happy to be
with Loudness again,” said Niihara. “When the band reformed, we wanted to play
again, we wanted to make whatever we wanted, and we wanted to play outside
Japan.”
Rejoicing at the return of their heroes, Japan welcomed
Loudness’s comeback LP Spiritual Canoe
with open arms. A live DVD, “The Soldiers Just Came Back 2001,” spoke volumes
of the band’s massive popularity in the country, and in September, Loudness
blazed while on tour with Annihilator. Feeling their creative juices flowing,
Loudness released Pandemonium in
November 2001.
Working harder than ever, Loudness hit the road for the “20th
Anniversary Pandemonium Tour,” some of which was documented in another
live DVD released in February 2002. Later that year, Loudness let Biosphere off the chain, again followed
by a live DVD, “Live Biosphere.” Slowing down wasn’t an option for Loudness, as
they produced the “Loud Fest” concert, featuring many of the bands they’d
influenced. 2004 saw the release of Terror,
the band’s 18th album, and a performance at the annual “Sonic Mania”
in Osaka and Tokyo, where they shared the stage with newer acts like Korn and
Evanescence.
More live DVDs, records and tours were to come, including
the albums Rockshocks and the
Japanese version of Racing. All this
led up to the Japanese release of the Loudness
Box Set in 2007 – including the remastered albums The Birthday Eve, Devil
Soldier, The Law of the Devil’s Land, Disillusion, Thunder in the East, plus Takasaki’s solo LP Tusk of Jaguar, Higuchi’s solo record Haiki Gaisen Roku, a pair of DVDs , and a singles compilation with
unreleased tracks.
In 2008, however, joy over the reunion turned to sadness as
liver cancer took the life of Higuchi. Before he passed, though, Loudness
finished a new record called The
Everlasting. Even after such a devastating blow, Loudness had no intention
of going away, and after hiring new drummer Masayuki Suzuki, they returned with
King of Pain in 2010. European
festivals and a tour followed, setting the stage for Eve to Dawn, Loudness’s newest slab of molten metal – a prime
example of the kind of serious rock ‘n’ roll firepower Loudness has at its
command, and a showcase for Takasaki’s sublime fretwork, a mix of Eddie Van
Halen’s dazzling speed and the more tortured artistry of an old master.
“He’s great. He’s like Jimi Hendrix. He’s very fast, very
technical, and he can sometimes be an asshole,” laughs Niihara, who believes
that Takasaki is a bit easier to deal with nowadays. “But, you have to be
sometimes. He’s got lots of ideas, but you know, he’s 50 years old now, so he’s
very different.”
It helps to have a little distance from each other. Niihara
says does vocals at his house and then sends tapes of his work to the others.
So, Loudness’s writing and recording processes have changed somewhat. As for Eve to Dawn, Loudness has high
expectations for this beast of a record.
“I hope people like it,” said Niihara, now 51 years of age.
“We have come a long way.”
CD Review: Sixx A.M. - 7 Eleven Seven Music All Access Review: B+
An EP featuring seven acoustic sketches of tracks from both The Heroin Diaries and This is Gonna Hurt, the two albums SixxA.M. has released so far, 7 comes
wrapped in a cloak of gothic darkness. The oaken strings, the black-hearted
piano that seems to drip blood and the rich, full-bodied acoustic guitar tones
– all of it is ensconced in shadowy atmospherics, graveyard meditations and
poisonous opium den gloom. Occasionally, however, the door to this dim crack
house opens and lets in streams of hopeful, life-affirming light that make the
half-dead inhabitants’ eyes wince. As for Sixx, he walked out of his own
dungeon of lost souls a long time ago and hasn’t been back since.
As serious as the heart-stopping drug overdose in 1987 that
almost killed him, Nikki Sixx’s side project is the very antithesis of Motley
Crue’s revved-up Sunset Strip sleaze and gleeful immersion in a carnival of
sins that nearly destroyed them all. He may vicariously relive his wild days
through various Crue nostalgia tours, but the dangerous drugging and boozy
escapades are a thing of the past for the now clean and sober Sixx. Therapy,
though, is good for the soul and it seems to be an essential part of Sixx’s
recovery from addiction. Sixx A.M. has certainly helped keep Dr. Feelgood at bay.
The Heroin Diaries,
Sixx A.M.’s edgy, oddball debut, served as the nightmarish musical
accompaniment for the no-holds-barred autobiography Sixx wrote in the mid-2000s
that chronicled a life of excess so extravagant and scary that it made you want
to vomit in the dirty toilet stall right next to him. And whatever skeletons
Sixx had that remained in his closet were trotted out for Sixx A.M.’s sophomore
slump This is Gonna Hurt. Less daring
and not nearly as original as The Heroin
Diaries, This is Gonna Hurt –
released as a companion piece to another Sixx book, this one an artsy photo
gallery of stark black-and-white stills – paled in comparison because Sixx A.M.
played it safe. But, it did, once again, release some strong emotions that had
laid dormant in Sixx’s damaged soul, and there were some well-crafted songs
hidden among the weeds of familiar hard-rock tropes that touched nerves and
raised spirits. Some of them are completely deconstructed and reanimated on 7, like “Lies of the Beautiful People,”
the dramatic reworking of which opens the EP, and “This is Gonna Hurt” – the
former cutting its wrists with a tasteful, tension-filled string arrangement,
percussive guitar strumming and James Michael’s expressive singing and the
latter a sparse reading of the title track to the second LP comprised almost
solely of wounded, angst-riddled piano.
Bruised but not beaten, the uplifting new versions of “Help
is on the Way” – as affecting a track as Sixx has ever recorded, its
bittersweet violins arranged and played with great care and eloquence – and
“Life is Beautiful,” its chorus soaring high on Michael’s impassioned wail,
have acquired greater depth and meaning. If Sixx were searching for beauty
among the ruins of his past indiscretions, he seems to have found it, although
“Sure Feels Right” is a sickeningly sweet and cloying love song that’s as
sentimental as a Hallmark card or Uncle Kracker’s “Smile,” which means it’s
made for Top 40 radio. Only temporarily weighed down by those empty calories, 7 rights the ship slightly with “Pray
for Me” finding salvation with some complex acoustic picking and yearning
vocals that sincerely search for divine intervention, this laboring through a
section of disinterested guitar strumming that would bore even the most
forgiving folkie.
“Accidents Can Happen,” on the other hand, is a lovely,
heart-wrenching ballad, augmented by searing guitar leads, about second chances
and healing, themes that are dear to Sixx’s adrenaline-spiked heart. If Motley
Crue is still out having a good time and staying out till all hours, Sixx A.M.
is the morning after, where Sixx takes a good hard look in the mirror and
thinks about mortality, God and pain. And these bare-bones revisions to
previously recorded Sixx A.M. material, while perhaps not completely
reinventing the originals, strip away the “sturm und drang” to reveal
well-built song structures sturdy enough to support complex string arrangements
and stand up to a hurricane of emotions. These are redemption songs, not for a
visionary island martyr seeking to lead his people out of poverty and
oppression but for a prodigal son of rock and roll who is still dealing with
some heavy sh*t and is optimistic about his future.
Frank did it. Sammy did it. Dean did it. Mötley Crüe? Yes it’s true, Crue is invading Las Vegas with a three-week stint in February as the “house band,” if you will, at The Hard Rock Hotel & Casino ( This first-ever rock residency kicks off Feb 3-19, four shows a week).
And then there’s the motion picture. The band is in negotiations to create a film based on the band’s book The Dirt: Confessions of the World’s Most Notorious Rock Band. And in the forefront of Mötley Crüe’s immediate plans include new music, which is great news in the face of most other bands whose careers have spanned 30+ years like Crue’s, who are resting, shall we say, on the musical laurels of their past.
I had the chance to catch up with the ever-creative, ever-moving, ever-present bassist and founding member, Nikki Sixx, who opened up to me about love, sex, music, and just about every topic you can think of in a talk full of candor and honest …shall we say, lust for life.
How would you describe today’s Mötley Crüe?
Nikki Sixx: I think you’ll get a different answer from everybody in the band, that’s what I love about our band; it’s like four different personalities. But in my opinion, I feel Mötley Crüe is built to insult you. We’re here to assault you. I’m not interested in snuggling and a kiss. I just want to get right to fuckin’.
And it’s, like, Sixx:AM is seductive, sexually charged, beautiful evening out under the moon that ends up making love. Fortunately in a grave yard.
Mötley Crüe, it’s just like fucking a nasty stripper that’s probably gonna give you a disease. And I’m proud of that. I don’t want us to be tame; I don’t ever want us to be rightable. The things that we do and say. And our lyrics, it amazes me to this day that they will play ‘Shout at the Devil’ on radio. It says ‘I’ll be the love in your eyes; I’ll be the blood between your thighs.’ I’m like, ‘Are you sure you’re listening to the lyrics?’ We’re not Bon Jovi. It’s a miracle; the whole thing’s a miracle.
What keeps you creatively stimulated after all these years?
Nikki Sixx: Well I have plateaus. You know, I push and push and push myself, and I a lot of times watch other people in shock and awe, and they take on the energy of Mötley Crüe or my radio show or clothing and they go ‘Oh, we’re all about that.’
When I work with pyrotechnic companies, they don’t ever come to me anymore and go ‘Oh this is our pyro.’ They come to me and go ‘We designed a new head that shoots fire 30 feet and it will end with an explosion that’s never been used before.’ Any time I’m involved in anything, everyone is always trying to find something new and exciting because we sort of pull that out of people.
I love your book, and I was particularly moved by chapter four, it really touched me. How would you compare your humility and success?
Nikki Sixx: Thank you. You know that’s the greatest compliment I can get. You know I struggle every day. And when I put it on paper it helps me work out what it is I’m doing with my life. And you realize that you’re not alone. You know when you write a book and people say ‘Man, you know that touched me and I related to that.’ I have so many young readers that are like ‘Dude, I totally know where you’re coming from.’ Or fathers that have said ‘I totally understand your struggle.’ And you know when you keep it to yourself you don’t realize. It’s kind of like these AA meetings. When you go to an AA meeting you go ‘Well, I’m not the only one that’s having a hard day.’ And I think that’s part of the beauty of writing is that you can just write it out, even if it’s only for yourself. You sort of start to get it out. And that’s what photography is for me, too. You know I see something like You Will Not Grow. And I remember I felt like I was being told by small-minded people that I could not be successful, I could not achieve my dream. And they were my dreams, not their dreams. And they were telling me what I can dream. And when I was doing the You Will Not Grow sessions I wanted to capture that by having a very small person in Selena and having a very large person in George the Giant capturing that. Now whether or not that relates to other people or not, but it like un-corks something in you. You know what I mean?
I don’t think we really have an end zone in life. I think a lot of times people think ‘I’m gonna work to get that car.’ ‘I’m gonna really get myself in shape to get that girl.’ And ‘I’m gonna work really hard to get that promotion.’ But that isn’t really, that’s never really enough. So I’m trying to figure all that out myself, just like everybody else is but if you live in the moment, in the click of the camera, or in just the downbeat of the song, and if you can actually stay in that exact moment, in the moment that you can just smell her perfume, that moment, and don’t worry about what’s after that. If I can do that, put that on paper, or capture that in a song, or capture that on my radio show, I know so many people relate and I feel so good. Because I don’t feel alone.
Speaking of your sobriety and AA, that’s inspirational to so many.
Nikki Sixx: I’ll tell you; one thing I find about AA is that they’re very much like a lot of things that are inspiring to me. It’s really about just the moment. Like everybody goes ‘they’re struggling with the moment.’ It’s like one day at a time, one minute at a time. And I guess it’s all like one thing at a time, like one click of the camera at a time. You know one breath at a time. Like, I’m trying to slow down; I’m trying to capture it all. I know I’m on a clock, you know, I want to maximize my happiness and I want to minimize my drama.
When you write about going to a drug ‘shooting gallery’ with the harshest of addicts to capture those dark moments, what did you think when they asked you to come back and visit? That to me, was very deep.
Nikki Sixx: It’s just such an amazing moment, because it took so much just to get in. First it took a long time to find the place, then to get into the place. And then once I was in, I was not accepted — nor should I be. And then after hours and hours I was let into sort of a sacred society. And then that came in. And it was like, wow, everyone just wants to be loved.
I know, I was telling my friend. ‘You know I scare people for a living.’ Whether they’re little kids in a supermarket or fathers in the front row. That’s what I get to do. Every day to me is like seeing what trouble I can get into or what limits I can push. Including speed limits. Whether I’m doing photography or the radio show or designing clothes, that’s who I plug into every day. Dude, don’t get fuckin’ old. It’s all in your head.
Speaking of age, the Mötley Crüe summer tour was a huge success, celebrating the band’s 30 years in music. How did you pick the bands to go out with after all these years?
Nikki Sixx: We took Poison because that’s what the fans wanted, we didn’t want ‘em. I didn’t want them; we never said we wanted to tour with any ’80s bands. You know we came from 1981, by ’84 or ’83 we were gone. And we never looked back. And then there kind of came this movement after us and we got rolled into it. We’re about Black Sabbath and The Ramones and AC/DC. To me, it was like we were like NY Dolls juiced up on, you know, Van Halen.
So we never understood the correlation, and have been very vocal about it. It’s not that we have anything against a lot of these bands personally; it was just, you know, we didn’t want to be associated with it. I don’t think that U2 wants to be associated with Flock of Seagulls. They’re from the same fucking time. You know, U2, the Go-Go’s, Fleetwood Mac, but they said ‘No. We are our own band.’ And that’s what we said, but when we were going out and doing this ‘Let’s see what the fans want for a tour.’
And you speak of photography as getting you out of the norm. How is that?
Nikki Sixx: I will build you up to tear you down, whatever I need to do to capture what I’m looking for. And it’s not always safe, and it’s not always sane, and it’s not always nice, and it’s not supposed to be. It’s supposed to be real and raw. And when I capture it I’m done, you’re gone. I’ve got what I wanted; I’ve got what I needed. It’s finished something inside of me.
I think its part of me trying to finish out my issues. I was talking to a photographer friend of mine the other day and he said ‘What are you working on?, — you know we talk ‘What project are you working on?’ And songwriters are like ‘Hey man, whatcha been writing?’ And photographers are like ‘What project?’ We look at bodies of work in like paragraphs in a story. And I said what I’m working on, something I’m not going to disclose, but something that I’m working on right now which may not be available for quite a few years. But it’s nothing that I’ve shot before. It is nothing like anything I’ve shot before. And he raised his eyebrow and looked at me and said ‘People aren’t going to expect that.’ And I said, ‘Perfect.’
So it’s always about trying to get that little bit of fear, feeling something.
What is it you hoped to accomplish with your photography and getting it out to the people?
Nikki Sixx: That people are looking at my photography as if it’s real. I’ve already been accepted as this musician or not excepted, I accept that. This is the layer of something that I never really thought would be exposed.
It’s so interesting because I’m so guilty of what I don’t want. I, a lot of times, get inundated with so much stuff and I get so entrepreneurial in my head. And the problem with entrepreneurs is that they start a lot of stuff and don’t finish a lot of stuff. I get so into a movie that I never finish the movie because I have to check my email. I never finish my email because I want to go read the manual on my new camera. And I never learn the camera because I want to finish the chorus of that song I started. And I have to stop myself and just capture these beautiful moments.
Thanks Nikki!
Nikki Sixx: Thank you, I always love doing an interview with you!
This interview was originally published on Powerline. For more interesting interviews, reviews and metal news check them out here: PowerlineMag
