Intervju - Ross the Boss, The Dictators / ex Manowar Ross the Boss är väl något av en legend inom hårdrocken. Han var med och startade The Dictators och hade även, några år senare, en framstående roll i Manowar. Vem minns inte hur bandet signade sitt kontrakt med blod. Numera är det mest de gamla diktatorerna som tar upp hans tid, men han har även ett och annat sidoprojekt på gång. Dessutom medverkade han nyligen på ett stort Manowarcovention i Tyskland. Med The Dictators senaste liveplatta "Viva Dictators" visar han återigen hur en slipsten ska dras och att den bästa rock and rollen kommer från det stora äpplet i väst. Vi ringde upp en gladlynt Ross i New York och frågade hur landet ligger just nu! How´s New York? RtB: New York is hot again! It is? RtB: It´s so hot I can´t take it! I just can´t take it! So, a new live album from The Dictators! What made you put out another live album? RtB: Well, actually the last time we put one out was fifteen years ago. Our shows were really great and we knew it. We just wanted to give the fans a little taste of what it was like live. It´s not the full thing, but it´s a taste of The Dictators experience. We took about six or seven shows and then we chose. I read somewhere that the album was mainly recorded at Maxwell´s in New Jersey and the Bowery Ballroom? RtB: Yeah, those two shows in particular, but there are things from other shows as well. The bulk of it is from Maxwell´s and the Bowery! Who did the artwork for the cover? RtB: I think his name is Chris Nott! I think that´s his name, I may have it wrong. Andy (Shernoff) knows it for sure. He took care of that. It´s a pretty cool cover! RtB: You like it? It´s got us all pretty good on it! Did you guys give him an idea or did he just get free hands? RtB: We sort of suggested things and we´re a little cartoonish in the band, if you think about it! We´re five individual guys, different personalities and it´s kind of like a comic book. And the fact that King Kong is sitting off to the side...(laughs) he took him off the Empire State (laughs)! I love the album and I think it´s a great album for a night out. You get some beer and put on the live album! RtB: Yeah! I love it! The way it sounds and it sounds like we´re playing in your living room or the band set up in your office. My amplifier is right in your office! You really caught a great live feeling and it really sounds live. I mean, there are tons of live albums out there and you know... RtB: Yeah, you know it ain´t live! You know as well as I ,that anytime anyone says it´s a live record... Yeah, there´s a lot of fake stuff out there! RtB: Starting with "KISS Alive"! I know! I was devestated when all that stuff came out. RtB: Eddie Kramer told me the whole thing on that. He did? RtB: Sure! But not to take anything away from KISS, because they were THAT! Back then they were, I guess, a little more spotty (?), but they definetely got it done. I´m proud to call them New Yorkers! I read somewhere that you´re working on some kind of album with rarities, b-sides and unreleased stuff? RtB: Yeah, we´re always planning on that and finally getting that shit out there. People want it. Do you have any idea when that will be coming out? RtB: I don´t know! Before everything is done and mastered and so on, presentable...I figure, let people enjoy this little thing (Viva Dictators) for awhile. We don´t put out a lot of stuff, but when we do, like our last studio record...it´s a strong statement, those two albums for a band that just doesn´t tour like most bands. Some bands do...I guess The Hellacopters tour relentlessly right? Sure! RtB: Yeah, they´re just always at it! They actually played in Stockholm this past Saturday. RtB: Did they? I love them! Yeah, they´re good! You´ve played with them a couple of times. RtB: Played on their record! They started out on The Dictators tour! Our little children! We have little children called The Hellacopters! I also wrote in my review of the live album, that you can really hear in what way you influenced a band like The Nomads. You helped a lot of great Swedish bands! RtB: That´s what I´ve been told. And a lot of other bands too. I can hear...I´m not gonna say that every band is spawned from The Dictators, but I will tell you that every now and then and it´s more than now and then it´s every. I´m listening to MTV and these EMO punk bands and these pop bands and all of the sudden you hear riffs and I turn my head and go: "Wait a minute! That sounds familiar! Is that us?".It´s not, but it´s imitation, robbery and theivery. But everyone´s allowed to use it, just like we used Chuck Berry, The Beach Boys and Led Zeppelin and the Rolling Stones. You name it! All these great bands were all out there so...I hear a lot of it. Even from the Stone Temple Pilots I heard "Minnesota strip". That´s a legacy! RtB: Yeah! Listen, do we get credit for it half the time? No! But I don´t know. I think it´s great! About you then. I read that you grew up in the Bronx. Do you still live there or...? RtB: No. Parts of that is unhabitable any more. Where I grew up is pretty much...you can´t live there. There are only a couple of neighborhoods left in the Bronx whre you can live. I do live in Queens now, so I actually live close to where the Ramones grew up. Cool! Back in the day, in what way was the Bronx different? RtB: Well, middle class people could live there. It was great where I came from. Where we all came from. Scott, me and Richard were all from there and Queens, so the Bronx was a great place to grow up. You´d go down to the train, take five stops and I´d be in Yankee Stadium. So I did a lot of growing up at Yankee Stadium. The New York Giants and the New York Yankees used to play there a long time ago. We had a great time growing up there. Once a New Yorker always a New Yorker! RtB: Yeah! And actually, back in the day when CBGB´s started there were really only two true bands from New York city - The Ramones from Queens and The Dictators from the Bronx. And all the other bands, like the blessed Dead Boys were from Cleveland and that area and Talking Heads from other places. Everyone else was from another spot, except The Ramones and The Dictators, and actually KISS too! The New York Dolls, I don´t think were all truley, truley New Yorkers, but I´m not sure on that. I know KISS...I went to college, well I didn´t go to college. I sort of went to college and Ace Frehley and I were always in the lunch room of Lincoln College and I used to see this guy with bags full of beer and I was like: "Who is this guy?" (laughs). I didn´t know him back then. I knew him because of the way he looked. He looked like me a little with long hair...Space Ace...and he was always pretty damn drunk. You know! Gene and Paul were from Queens and Peter came from Brooklyn. Right! It always sounds like it was a really good era for music. RtB: Yeah, I would say that era and the CBGB´ and Max´s was the greatest movement. The first real English invasion was great because it spawned The Beatles, The Who, The Rolling Stones. That whole Europe and the late era, the hard core punk with Danzig and all these bands were...there so much that came out of CBGB´s. The first wave was the greatest! When did you get into music? Was it at an early age or...? RtB: I first got into the guitar when I was thirteen years old. And you´ve never stopped since! RtB: No, I have never stopped. (laugh) Was it punk music that you got into first or was it...? RtB: No, it didn´t really exist then. There were roots of punk. I started playing guitar because of BB King and the blues. Early Eric Clapton, The Bluesbreakers of course, Cream was a tremendous influence, Jimi Hendrix...you know! You can hear it if you listen to me, but then again the first MC5 album had a tremendous effect on me. I can´t even tell you. Then all this shit from Detroit, The Stooges and the Ashton brothers. That whole thing...and The Flamin´Groovies and all these bands. So I´m like a melt down of classic English guitar players and Ted Nugent and all these guys influenced me. That first Black Sabbath album...I used to go see them. Tremendous, I mean...I´m more into heavy guitar, because that´s what I am. That stuff really influenced me. Toni Iommi is a god to me! Wayne Kramer was a god to me and I´m a friend of his and I had the great chance to play with him many times in the 80´s and that fantastic Nomads reunion. For me it was a great honor. It really was and I never get tired of things like that! Sure! Do you remember some of the first bands you were in? RtB: My first band? My first real band was in high school and it was called Total Crud. I had bands before that, but this was high school into college. We lived in a town in upstate New York called New Paltz. It was a state college and all anyone really did there was take drugs and drink and have sex. That was the school there! I met Andy Shernoff there and he convinced me that me and him were gonna start The Dictators. And this band later on called Shakin´ Street? RtB: The Dictators had made three albums and we kind of didn´t know what the hell to do and I think the record company was a little fed up, so they let us go. Sandy Pearlman, our manager at the time, discovered this band Shakin´ Street in Paris, because Blue Oyster Cult was on CBS and they had a big relationship and they had to deal with CBS and he became their manager and they said: "Well, we need a guitar player!" and Sandy goes: "I´ve got the greatest guitar player in the world and I bet he wants to join this band!". So he flew me over and, yeah, I did the one record and then toured with Black Sabbath. So I guess you got to meet Toni Iommi and the guys? RtB: I got to meet my hero yeah! And then I got to meet Joey Demaio and we formed Manowar. When was this? RtB: In 1980! Right around ´79-´80. Ronnie James Dio introduced me to Joey and then we had our first record. I had a friend at EMI and got myself a record deal and then we put out "Battle hymns" in 1982. Yeah, I remember reading about that and there was and still is, a big music magazine in Sweden called OKEJ and they had a big spread about how Manowar signed the deal in blood. Colour photos and all. RtB: Our second record yeah. We were pissed off (laughs). I was totally pissed off, there´s no doubt about it. We scared the shit out of a lot of people with that. I remember we had a techician there to help us and he passed out (laughs). And I still have the scar because the knife was dull. We hade everything exept a sharp knife! I also read somewhere that you kind of reunited with Manowar in Germany recently, at some fan convention? RtB: Yeah! We had the first annual Manowar fan convention and we had the Earthshaker festival in Germany. Manowar headlined in front of 28000 people. I came back to play and I can tell you that the love that was spewing out of the crowd for me and at the fan convention, was very very moving. All I heard was my name from 28000 people. It sounds pretty intimidating. I´m not gonna have a big head over it. I haven´t been in the band for 18 years and then come ut to that and being remembered as the cofounder of Manowar and the writer of all those songs. It was agreat honor. Did you play a full show or just...? RtB: No, three songs! What songs did you play? RtB: I played "Metal daze", "Darkk avenger" and "Battle hymns". Right! Well, I´ve actually interviewed Eric Adams two times so far. I met him in Stockholm a few years ago. RtB: My favorite singer! Yeah, that was actually one of the best interviews I´ve done so far. RtB: I love him! No plans on recording anything with Manowar? RtB: You know what, they´re doing a new record but I think the stage has been set for me to work with the band. The fans want it I´ve been told and everybody´s into it. It´s just a matter of time. Things will happen in their own good time, but I can tell you know what I´m doing. I´m doing some very interesting projects, if you´d like to know about them? Absolutely! I read something about Thunderbolt Patterson and the Brain Surgeons? RtB: Yeah! Well, that´s the drummer from The Dictators, JP Thunderbolt Patterson. Me and Jp did an istrumental cd. No singing! There is some cheering though, but no singing. JP wrote all the songs and he plays bass, guitar, drums, harmonica and keyboard and I did all the insane shit. The shredding! Well, I´m not a shredder, I´m a killer! You can put that down! I´m not a shredder and I don´t wanna be known a s a shredder. I wanna be known as a killer! It´s really fantastic and not what you´d think it would be. It can be downloaded at Itunes and you should do it today if you wanna make your day. Go get it right now! It´s called "Thunderbolt Patterson with Ross the Boss". It´s really good and I´m really proud of it. Then earlier this year, Albert Bouchard from Blue Oyster Cult, gives me a call and asks me what I´m doing. I said I wasn´t doing anything special and he asked me if I´d wanna come play with him. And I was like "Play with You Albert? Absolutely!". So I went over and I recorded a couple of songs with him. "Cities of flame with rock and roll" and another song. So I did it in like an hour and then...it´s a strange story...I`m in the car driving back home and going "Oh my God! Wait a minute! Ross, do you realize what song you just played on?". And I go "You jst played on Cities on flame with rock and roll!". One of the great songs in heavy metal! "And you did it in an hour? You better get your ass back to the studio and you better listen to it, what you fucking did and he´s gonna put it out and you´re not gonna be...". I know I did a good job, but I gotta make sure. So I call him and say "Albert, I had a really agonising reappraisal of the whole thing and I´m coming back to listen and we´re gonna go through it.". So I went back and recorded it again. I did the job on it! Then he goes "Ross, do you have any songs?". "Yeah, a matter of fact I have a lot of songs.". So I wrote eight songs with Albert and his wife. The album´s being mixed right now and I just did twenty shows in twentyfour days when I got home from Manowar. We played the whole South and the Mid west. You´re keeping busy! RtB: Very busy! So the Brain Surgeons record is really heavy. It´s freakin´ heavy, but it´s really nice! When this one comes out, I´ll have three things out there for people to listen to. That´s probably my twentyfirst cd. Any other tour plans? RtB: Maybe The Dictators will go out next year and do all the festivals or something. We´re thinking about it and we´re constantly being offered...Handsome Dick has a full time radio show on Sirius. We´re just ready to do whatever we gotta do. We´re waiting to see how this record does and we´re happy with the people at Escapi. Great people! We´d love to come to Sweden again. You gotta come! RtB: Do you think we´d have a good reception? You bet! RtB: (laughs) Well, we haven´t been there in awhile so... Oh, we´ve got the perfect place for you guys here in Stockholm called Debaser. RtB: Oh, I bet it is! I personally don´t like too big of a place. No, this is a great place and The Hellacopters and The Nomads have played there. RtB: How are the Backyard Babies doing. My boys. Thy´re nice boys too! Very well! They´ve just got a book out and it´s like a Swedish version of "The Dirt". All the drugs and the girls and the booze and all that! RtB: Dregen´s a fine young boy and he should get an award! He´s a great man! Yeah! Any thoughts of a new studio album or so? RtB: (laughs) That´s really up to one man. I don´t write the songs in The Dictators and if I did, we´d have an album out every year. Andy goes in his own speed. But you can be assured that anything he writes is gonna be a good one! Sure! Does Manitoba still have his bar in New York? RtB: He´s got his bar and it´s doing great and he´s got his radio show and he´s got a little boy at home. So, his life is a little different. My son´s fourteen and JP´s daughter is twelve going on thirteen. So Richard´s life is a little more complicated. He´s like me twelve years ago. I understand. Another thing, I just read recently that CBGB´s has been saved. RtB: At least for now! Every day there´s a new thing going on and I don´t know what´s going on with it. All I know is that Hilly Kristal is a multi millionaire, so don´t worry about him! All those t-shirts you see around, well yeah. Don´t feel to sorry for Hilly! No, but it´s a classic venue. RtB: It´s a great place and I love it! I must´ve played there fifty times. I used to play there and walk over the dog shit. Dog shit, piss...(laughs) And I guess you guys knew all of The Ramones and all the other bands? RtB: We knew everybody! And these days it seems like alot of them are gone and they´re going one by one. RtB: Yeah, I know! As a matter of fact, Andy was great friends with Joey and he wrote songs for The Ramones and he played bass on Joeys solo record and unfortunately he was there when Joey passed. He was in the room...We got to be all good friends. I was sad...I knew Dee Dee wasnt too long for this world and then Johnny got the cancer. It was unbelievable! How would you compare those days in the 70s with, CBGBs and Maxs kansas City and so on, with the music scene today? Was it better before? RtB: Better before! Cause you know what? There was a competetive rock and roll scene in New York and we all really dug each other and we hung at each other and we got stoned and high and we had the same girlfriends. There was some competition there, but every night there was something to do ´cause someone good was always playing at CBGB´s. It was great and the scene was alive! It´s just not the same! Are there any cool bands you´re listening to these days? Like The Mooney Suzuki and stuff like that? RtB: Mooney Suzuki´s nice! I listen to Sirius satellite radio and I listen to the metal stations. I go between the metal and the garage and the punk, because that´s really what I am and there are a few good bands. New Found Glory´s pretty good. Not bad! I haven´t heard anything really that knocks the shit right out of me. Of course it´s totally different these days and you have just a few major companies and all the stuff with downloading. Seems to be all about creating the latest boy band or girl band. RtB: All that stuff is ridicolus and I´m so far behind that, what the major labels are doing. I mean, if you´re not gonna sell a million and a half records for them, they are not interested in you. It´s amazing! I talked to Carmine Appice just last year and he said that back in the day, a label was willing to work with a band for like five albums. And these days, if you don´t have that song, you´re nothing! RtB: Even The Dictators started out with a plan. "We´ll put you on tour and you´re gonna develop and you´re gonna get the show together and song writing skills together.". Put out a record now and if it doesn´t sell a million and a half, you´re gone! It´s totally different! Well, you sem to be keeping yourself busy anyway and keeping the rock alive! Thank God! It´s been great talking to you and we´re waiting for you here in Sweden and we hope you come soon. I wish you all the best with the live album and so. RtB. Thank you and it was a great honor to talk to you! The Dictators - Official website

< Tillbaka