- 5 months ago
Category
🎵
MusicTranscript
00:00When I first came to America, I couldn't wait to get to Detroit because of the blue collar thing,
00:04the hardworking people, the tough people, the people that will give you the shirt off their
00:07backs. It's still there. And Detroit is a surviving town. Rock, metal, prog, and everything in
00:14between. Welcome to this episode of Talkin' Rock with Meltdown. Don't forget to follow the audio
00:20only Talkin' Rock podcast on all podcast platforms. And now it's time for today's conversation.
00:26And here's Meltdown. You asked me how I was, Rob, and I have to say, whenever I get a chance
00:31to talk to the metal god, it's always a good day. So that's up. Yeah. Hey, everybody. It's good to
00:35see you. It's your metal god once again, catching up on all things metal. That's right. And you're
00:40you're in Phoenix. You know, you're coming to town with the Alice Cooper. And I was wondering about
00:44this. Alice lives there, too. Do you guys ever hang out? It never seems like I see any pictures
00:49of you guys hanging out or anything like that. Are you guys you guys friends? You guys go out
00:52have a cup of coffee or anything? Yeah, he's my neighbor. He's my neighbor. I could just
00:56walk over to his house from here, which I wouldn't in this heat. That's a little bit
01:00further than that. But we go back a long, long way. I'll tell you what's so cool about
01:04Alice. Here's something I haven't really thought about forever. If you read my book,
01:11confess plug. I talk a little bit about I think I do. I talk about this time when I worked
01:18in a spinal tap in a men's wear. Would you like a shirt? Would you like to tie to go
01:25with that shirt, sir? Well, at the time, Alice Cooper's School's Out, right, was like the
01:32thing. It was the song. And we used to play it in the store all the time. This is what
01:38I love about life. You know, you know, just been on tour with the guy for the umpteenth
01:44time. We just did some shows together in Europe. And we had a great show at the O2 in London,
01:49which is like the Madison Square Gardens of the UK. And I moved to Phoenix. And I find
01:55out that he lives in Phoenix. It's like way back in the 80s. And then we have this great
01:59friendship through the Solid Rock Foundation and other stuff. And it's like, I'm still, you
02:08know, there are certain people that I'm still in awe of. I've not lost that. I'm a fan.
02:14I'm a fanboy. So even now, when I'm talking with Alice, my brain's going, you're talking
02:18with Alice Cooper. You're talking with Alice Cooper. He's a wonderful, beautiful man.
02:23Does so many great things. But let's talk about his music, you know. All those records,
02:28all those songs. Such a strong performer. Charisma-like. Off the hook. When you watch him,
02:34even now, it's just unbelievable. So to get him and Priest and Pepper from COC all together
02:44on the same bill, this is just mad. This is an event. An event. Yeah.
02:49And Alice inducted you guys into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. And I was watching that.
02:53And first of all, he mentioned a couple of things I wanted to touch on. He said you guys
02:57are from Birmingham, which is like the UK's Detroit, which is where he came from, which
03:02is where I'm broadcasting from, right? Totally. Totally. Totally. When I first came to America,
03:08I couldn't wait to get to Detroit just because of that connection, because of the blue collar
03:13thing, the hardworking people, the tough people, the people that will give you the shirt off
03:17their backs. You know, all that great empathy and substance and solid community support.
03:24It's still there. It's still there. And Detroit is a surviving, surviving town. I was around
03:30when all that, all the stuff went bad, you know, and everything just like kind of went shaky.
03:34But now look at where Detroit is. It's thriving. And so it's a joy to be coming back to your part
03:41of the world again with this, uh, this special tour and this special show.
03:44And then Alice, you know, he was, he was, he was inducting you guys. Did you know anything
03:48he was going to talk about? Did you have any inkling of what he was going to say?
03:51No. Um, um, the, the, the rock and roll hall of fame, people reached out and said,
03:57who do you want to induct you? And my first thought was Alice, you know, and he's such
04:02a busy man. He's one of the hardest people in rock and roll. I thought I'll just, I'll
04:08just throw it out to him. And I think I sent him a text. I said, would you induct us?
04:12He goes, I'm on it. Tell me when, where, what time? That's it. That's him, you know?
04:17So, uh, that's part of the Detroit thing that's in his blood. Um, so, uh, yeah, that I had
04:24no idea what he was going to say. It was just a really special to hear those kind and generous
04:30words that, um, that he spoke out at the hall of fame induction.
04:33Yeah, that was great. And congratulations by the way, for that. I mean, obviously a long
04:37overdue. There's a lot of bands that I should be in there. And I was talking with Glenn Hughes
04:42earlier to say his birthday is coming up at the end of the week. Your birthday is next
04:45Monday.
04:46My buddy, Glenn, he's another local guy. He's from a place called Cannock, which is not
04:50too far from my hometown Walsall, which is so close to Birmingham. I tell you all these
04:55great musicians that come out of the, of the Birmingham scene, like the Detroit scene, uh,
05:00full of all of these different textures of rock and roll. Uh, yeah. Um, what a great singer.
05:06What a great singer. Did he tell you, did he tell you the story of me and him at the back
05:12end of the Queen Mary in long, uh, in long beach going through so much blow?
05:20No, we were up all night. We did a show together and we were up all night doing like rapping
05:28and, and just riffing and singing. And it was like going on till the, till the, the sun was
05:34coming up, you know, people that we've got to leave now. We've got to go to the next
05:37show. Uh, but what a voice, man, his voice is just so spectacular and unique. Love him
05:43so much.
05:44Yeah. Now both of you guys have been famously sober for a long time.
05:48Yeah. Yeah. That's what's so great about, uh, him about Alice. So many people now, you
05:53know, so many people, music, a lot of the younger musicians back in the old days, when
05:57you, when you, uh, you, you, you pull up the bus, it would be like, where's the liquor
06:01store? Now it's like for a lot of, a lot of it's like, where's the gym? You know, I've
06:05got to work out, you know, get, get, get the, get the rack out of the luggage by, and that's
06:10great. That's great to see that, um, that kind of, um, willingness to live in the moment,
06:17enjoy the moment, love the moment, you know, love your music, love your band, love your
06:21fans, keep it real, keep it healthy.
06:23Yeah, that's great. So, uh, we're just talking about Birmingham and, and of course, I mean,
06:27you guys were playing with Alice and the Scorpions, if I'm not mistaken, on the back to the
06:30beginning concert when that happened.
06:32Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. Oh man, I got a call the day it happened. I just like, I just put
06:38the, I just put the phone down in my hotel room in, I think I was in Leeds in, in England
06:44and I just crawled up, curled up in a ball and bawled my eyes out for hours. I just couldn't,
06:50I just couldn't believe it. I still can't believe it now. I'm still grieving like so
06:54many people, you know, and then we had the show the next day. So God, you know, how do
06:59you, how do you process all of this, all of this tragedy, all of this love, because
07:06I've never seen so much out, such an outpouring of love. Um, and, and, you know, we did the
07:13show and, and we come to, we came to this song that we'll, we'll be playing when we come
07:18to see you guys called Giants in the Sky, the Invincible Shield album. And that song talks
07:22about people that we love in music that have moved on to this beautiful place. You know,
07:28when we, we referenced, um, we referenced Lemmy and Ronnie and Paul D'Arno and Jill
07:34Huntress and, um, and, and Chris, uh, and, and all of these greats, Janis Joplin, Freddie
07:41Mercury. And then for that show, we added Ozzy at the end, you know, and I said to
07:46everybody, you know, this is really, this is just so much to, to try and comprehend and
07:52so tough. But Ozzy would say, let's party, let's rock and roll. Let's live it up. Let's,
07:58let's enjoy. That was in his heart, his soul and his spirit. You know, whenever we did shows
08:04together, he would always say to me, did you have a good time? Yeah. Yeah. Did you have
08:08a good time? Did you really have a good time? Yeah. He was such, uh, he, the stuff he pushed
08:15out for himself to his fans, to everybody, the generosity, you know, the, the caring,
08:22all of the incredible things that he did in, in music. He was the embodiment of kindness
08:29in that respect. So it's great that we, that we're talking about him now and we should keep
08:34talking about him forever. Like I always talk about Ronnie. I talk about Lemmy. These are all
08:38friends of mine and we have to celebrate. We have to celebrate, you know, that's the way
08:43of helping you through the grief. You think about the memories, you think about the jaw,
08:47you think about the good times and that's what we will always do with Ozzy. Yeah. And
08:51you guys are so great to cover that war pigs. It was so awesome. Did you remember the last
08:55time you had any conversation with Ozzy or last time you talked to him? No, we used to
08:59text occasionally because he's another guy I was in awe of, you know, I'm still in awe of
09:04Alice. Oh my God, it's Alice Cooper. Um, and, um, and I was just used to feel the same
09:11moment where I was in Ozzy's presence because he had this larger than life personality. It'd
09:16been a while since we've been in touch. Um, but, uh, again, I, I just have the, the wonderful
09:24memories of the two opportunities I was able to, to sing for him with Sabbath. Uh, uh, and
09:30then this recent opportunity to cover, uh, war pigs, which we still play at the start of our
09:36show, which is one of the greatest metal songs ever written. Um, so that connection,
09:41we will never be severed in that respect. Now that, uh, that final show, um, you know,
09:46I was thinking about this before I was going to talk to you. I mean, you guys have had a,
09:49I mean, a five decade plus career, I mean, legends of the game, the metal God, I mean,
09:55everything has, has, has a thought ever crossed your mind after watching that back to the beginning
09:59show that maybe this should be something priest will do someday.
10:02Uh, when we had, the reason we couldn't do the, the, the show with, with Aussie and Sabbath
10:09was because we'd committed to doing the 60th anniversary with scorpions in Hanover, you
10:15know, and Sharon called me and said, can you, can, can you flumming it? Can we fly you in
10:19and fly you out? It's a great idea, but you know, what if the weather screws up or there's
10:24a technical thing with the, with the plane, it's just too risky. So at the time that Aussie's
10:29thing was going on.
10:30Huh? I'm talking about doing a back to the beginning concert for you guys.
10:34Oh, okay. Cause I was thinking about the 60th anniversary that will be for priest in a few
10:39years time and I'm going to get there brother. I am aiming for the 60th anniversary for priest,
10:44but Hey, that's a really nice, that's a really nice idea, man. I appreciate you thinking of that.
10:49I don't know. I don't know. You know, um, maybe it's it in our blood like it is with,
10:57with Sabbath and Aussie and certain musicians. When, when it comes to celebrating us, we kind
11:03of want to step out, step out of the spotlight because we, we, we feel a little bit, not
11:08uncomfortable, but to get that type of praise and that type of reception is just a little
11:15bit too much, you know, but listen, if, if you want to be the guy that puts that together,
11:20I'll be your time. If you want to be the Tom Morello and put the, and God bless Tom Morello
11:27for doing that job. That was a hard job. I knew all of those bands, you know, and when I could see
11:33the list of people that were going to come and, and, you know, play for Aussie and Sabbath and thank
11:39him, uh, I thought, man, how's Tom going to do this? But he did it. He did it magnificently. So
11:45props to Tom Morello and everybody that day. Um, but for priest, I don't know. I don't know. Uh,
11:52it's a great idea. Yeah. I know it's probably a hard, a hard thing to think about, but man,
11:57lots of records, lots of roads traveled in the, the priest. I mean, just metal legends. Now you've got
12:02your own six inch action figure that I don't know about these things. My friends were texting me
12:09and they go, I like it. I like this action figure I've ordered. What are you talking about? You've
12:13got like a, a, a, a McFarlane action figure. I said, Oh my God, do I do? Do I, can you send me,
12:19please send me a picture of myself, you know? And, uh, that's pretty cool. That's pretty cool to have
12:25an action figure of yourself. Um, I'm looking across my room and there's an action figure of, of,
12:30of Norman Reedus. Yeah. Uh, it was a friend of mine from, from walking dead. I can't remember,
12:35remember whether he sent me that or, or whoever, but that was one of some that I've collected.
12:42And I always thought, I wonder if one day there'll be like a, a movable, all joints movable,
12:47except the prime one, uh, of the metal God, you know, and now it's happened and that's pretty cool.
12:54So if you want to play with your own little metal God, I'm not going to go any further.
13:01You collect a lot of pre stuff. Are you the guy that collects all that stuff or?
13:05Uh, I've got so much stuff. I've got so much stuff here in the house in Phoenix and in my house in
13:10England. I really got to find a place to put it all. You know, maybe I'll start a metal God museum
13:16or something. It's just all stuff that surrounds me. It's mad metal God museum. Wow. That sounds great.
13:22Well, I'll tell you what, Rob, we'll let you go. It's always a pleasure to talk with you. Uh,
13:26thanks so much for the time and all the great music over the years, October 2nd here in a pine knob
13:31in Detroit and a manic and hardly wait. It's going to be a great show. It's an event.
13:38Alice Cooper, Judas priest, corrosion of conformity. It's a one-off don't miss it. It's going to be
13:43extra, extra special. Thanks for the, thanks for the chat. I love you, brother. Love you, Detroit.
13:48Thanks for looking after priest and rock and roll and everything. You guys are the backbone.
13:52You, you, you send out the messages, you send out the music when we're off in different
13:56parts of the world. So thank you for what you do for us.
Comments