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00:00we said okay now we need some really really hot players for this one to come alive you know when
00:05we asked brad he said why don't we ask tommy and rudy we haven't played together since ozzy and
00:10and i said okay so let's try it i mean the rest is history
00:14rock metal frog and everything in between welcome to this episode of talking rock with meltdown
00:22don't forget to follow the audio only talking rock podcast on all podcast platforms and now
00:27it's time for today's conversation here's meltdown hey rick good to make your acquaintance
00:33likewise i'm really happy to be with you right now you know i was i was thinking about this
00:39earlier as i was uh doing some research on you i'm i'm one of the older guys i played saints and
00:45sinners on the radio ah that was yeah that was quite quite a band i had some fun with that yeah
00:52and that was in 1992 and boy i'll tell you what uh uh that that kind of music and that genre really
00:59took a beating uh just shortly after that it was kind of a bad time to release a record like that
01:04huh oh yeah it was it was yeah you know with everything with the grunge scene coming in but uh
01:11but man those are great memories for sure and now you got redemption that drops uh tomorrow uh as i
01:17talked to you today that comes out on october 24th so uh tell me about redemption well yeah it's it's
01:25been a long time coming i'm i'm i'm the kind of guy that doesn't wait for stuff to happen so i've been
01:31keeping really really busy since saints and saints and sinners and and i mean a good busy you know i've
01:37been doing tv shows uh as well you know back to go back to what you just said about 1992 and and
01:45the grunge scene and the grunge scene and and all that stuff it was um i guess like they say you
01:52don't stop progress you know it was it was something it was progressing into something different and
01:58and i was fine with that because uh back then i was i've been touring for like 10 years and um i just
02:05had two my my daughter was born in 89 and my son in 92 so comes 93 with the grunge and everything
02:15i had to pull away from it so i i got jobs here in montreal like a hired gun for tv shows i did that for
02:2410 years so it it brought the the the bread and butter and it it kept my voice uh very very very up
02:32there and uh and i did um some musical for another 10 years so i've been i've been working my voice
02:40the entertainer since then i never stopped yeah and it's like you know i mean the old saying you know
02:47uh if if you do what you enjoy you'll you'll never work a day in your life and of course you know
02:51i come to work every day unfortunately for the past 35 years there's not a day that goes by where i'm
02:56like i don't feel like going to work every day and i guess i'm lucky in that aspect uh probably like
03:00yourself i got the same philosophy i go i i'm a very very very go go go i'm i'm a happy guy and and my
03:09philosophy is that whatever you're doing love what you're doing and you'll be you'll be doing what you
03:15love you know whatever it is i mean i cutting down that go outside and washing the car you know i don't
03:23rush it i just uh i love i love being alive well washing a car how many how many cars by the way do
03:31you have because before we started you said you're kind of a car collector well no i'm a collector i got
03:38a couple of cars a couple of guitars you know i love old stuff so i got an old mustang an old pickup
03:45truck i got an old carvet yep and i like to drive with a 454 but but to come back to the redemption
03:53album i was saying so when i did uh the last sword album back in 2022 we did we did a couple of cool
04:02gigs we we we uh we did the tailgate party for metallica when they when they were here at the
04:08stadium a couple of years back uh we opened for anthrax black label society we did some shows
04:16here in quebec for sword so when when that that wave kind of start to drop down i told my manager
04:22i said okay it's time to for a new solo record so we started to work on that because like i said
04:29i'm i i love what i do so i i don't wait for things to happen i just kind of make them happen
04:36and i mean you know the obvious question i'm sure you've answered this a million times but
04:41how do you get the uh you know the the ozzy speak of the devil lineup together yeah that's it i owe it
04:48to to brad gillis brad i'm a big big big fan of brad gillis i've always been so when it was time to um
04:56find some outside writer for the album because i didn't want to be the one to write all the songs on
05:01the album i wanted something outside the box you know a riff that i wasn't not a guitar hero that i
05:08couldn't write myself so so so my manager told me uh oh saints and sinners there you go jesse
05:15bradman who plays keyboard so we we called him and uh asked him if he had some song he says oh yeah
05:22i've been working with brad gillis for a couple of years on on some songs so to pitch in there i said can
05:29we hear it so so he so we we took two songs from brad and uh then became like a friendship with him
05:37so uh when it was time to record the real me um we we we thought of a of a super group we said okay
05:45let's ask brad because we already have him maybe he's gonna he's gonna he's gonna he's gonna want
05:50to do it so he said yeah and and he came up with the idea when we said and we're looking he says well why
05:55don't we we call rudy and tommy we haven't been together since the aussie gig so that'd be cool
06:02so so we so we made it happen and i'm i'm so grateful yeah i uh i was hanging out with brad
06:09earlier this summer like in the middle of summer and he he's like he's like hey man we're putting
06:13the band back together this song coming out and stuff but he didn't really tell me too much about
06:16it then i saw him again um uh here in michigan when they played uh at a show i don't know if you
06:21recall the one where ted nugent joined him up on stage it was yeah i saw that yeah it was a
06:27private event for like 2 000 people it's so cool to be there uh but uh brad's a great guy a super
06:33talent and uh the first time i met him he let me hold that that classic guitar that he plays in the
06:38video as well the one from speak of the devil there you go absolutely and while we were shooting the
06:44video yeah the guitar and it was explaining what it was you know because it was this baby and they and
06:49he changed it over the years because he had this guitar all his all his life for all of his life
06:56uh if i can recall if i recall i think he said it was an it's a 1965 guitar i want to say 62 but
07:04you're i think oh maybe yeah it's the 60s it's the 60s there you go it's something old right exactly
07:11but yeah that uh that that guitar just has such a great history and has such a great tone and he comes
07:16out he was playing it at that that night i saw him at uh with night ranger that thing just sounds
07:21amazing i agree with you and and and the tone has a lot to do with the player you know because um
07:30a guy like brad i i guess he's gonna pick up any guitar and it's it's gonna sound amazing you know it's
07:37like he's a he's a he's a maestro and that song you guys uh chose uh the real me to cover it was um
07:44it's really bass driven too and to get rudy on there it's so cool why did you pick that particular
07:49song that's a good question the reason is that i'm a big uh the who fan and zeppelin fan what those
07:58band those two band have in common is that if you listen to any zeppelin song any who song um it's really
08:06really easy to just listen to the drum or just listen to the bass or just listen to the guitar you know
08:13it's not overproduced zeppelin and and do it's it's if you want to listen to bonham it's there
08:19you just listen to him it's not all intertwined and overproduced so it was one or the other so we
08:26went with the who and when we chose that song we said okay now we need some really really hot players
08:32for this one to come alive you know so when we asked brad he said yeah do it and i and and we said and
08:38and we want to to find like a super group you know some the guys that would play with he says
08:44why don't we ask tommy and rudy we haven't played together since ozzy and and i said okay so let's try
08:50it i mean the rest is history and you met tommy or rudy before no it was when you know these guys rudy
08:59and tommy and brad tommy and rudy for for right now we got a 10 15 years difference in gap difference
09:09you know so when i was 15 years old i would go to the montreal forum watch white snake watch ozzy and
09:18dio and i would see them on stage because they were like 20 30 you know so i would not in my wildest
09:27stream whatever thought they would play on my album so when when they accepted to do it
09:33i guess they checked me out because yeah i mean you know if you play on somebody's record you have to
09:38to be in line with their music and and their and their talent i guess so so that was a big deal for
09:46me but it was even a biggest deal when it came down to do came time to do a video and that they accepted
09:53it to do the video because that's an even bigger deal when you think about it because these the the
10:01album was recorded like back in the days in the studio little mountain studio with john webster at
10:08the elm and on drums we had um randall randall's toll on drum and and tony marriott on bass so so they
10:17recorded the core of the album but and all the rest is is guys with their home studio doing their part
10:26and then we blend it in you know so my point is that once we had rudy's part we had tommy's part and
10:34we had brad's part we we we took the other parts away and put them in the song and so there it is so if
10:43we didn't have a video of that of that song then i would have to explain to everybody hey by the way
10:50you like you like our version of of the real media can you hear who's playing the bass because it's
10:57not john and whistle you know it's rudy sarzo but i don't have to explain it now because they they
11:04accepted to do the video which which is a bigger deal than than doing just a track on an album when
11:10you think about it yeah that's hysterical i never thought about that before you could have put it
11:13out in the world without a video and nobody would know who would have been on it that would have been
11:17crazy exactly yeah well the record comes out like i said tomorrow october 24th is uh as i record this
11:23uh robbie krieger by the way is on it too right man robbie krieger imagine that the the the lead
11:31guitar for the who it's like he's the doors the doors think about that yeah when i when i was 15 years
11:39old i was uh i was like a lost ship i had lost my dad my dad died really young he was 29 years old
11:47he was a guitar player my mom sang in his band they were like that johnny cash jude carter type of deal
11:53you know and he died of an aneurysm to the brain suddenly i was eight years old so by the time i was 12
12:0113 i had to go to work for my mom because she raised us on the the waitress salary you know so
12:08so i had to go to work and and and and i was like a stranger in a strange land because back in those
12:14days if you didn't have a father you know you you weren't you weren't necessarily part of the gang
12:19you know so when i started to listen to the doors it kind of broke the shell i mean jim morrison the
12:27lizard the lizard king to me was was a professor you know i could i would understand what he was saying
12:34and i and i could and read between the lines make my own stories and and i came of age by listening to
12:43the doors when i was 15 years old and now fast forward to today i have robbie krieger playing a
12:51track on my album he starts the song if you you heard the song you know he goes
12:59i didn't know that was him okay yeah and you go i know that sound yeah that's robbie krieger man
13:06with his sg in his own studio with his gear it's that's the sound man that's the sound so did you
13:13tell robbie this story that you just told me no but uh one day uh i will okay you haven't had a
13:20chance to to really kind of press the flesh and hang out with them huh well you know when i did the
13:26video with uh with uh with with brad rudy and tommy i was waiting on them you know i was first arrived
13:33it was shot in la at um um castle studio in burbank state of the art 3d technology it's the only studio
13:43in the world that has that so i was waiting on the guys so tommy got there first and then rudy and then brad and
13:50they they all that were happy it was like a party everybody and we had a an old day we had to film
13:56all day you know so i kept saying to myself don't be that guy don't be the guy that has the stupid
14:03question just hang with the boys and pretend that you're you you've been part of their life for all
14:10their life you know because that we had to shoot a video there was a live feed in montreal where my
14:17manager my producer they were listening to it you know because it was it was an important day for us
14:23and uh we're getting ready we're shooting the cameras and stuff so my girlfriend was there and
14:28she says rick your manager wants to talk to you so i pick up the phone and he says okay rick everything's
14:33going fine everything's okay we're about to get the real stuff now you look like a deer in front of a
14:41headlight please we know you are starstruck but you gotta get over it i says okay okay okay thanks
14:48for telling me thanks for telling me so so i kind of just hang out with the boys and and and and then
14:55everything went okay so i guess when i finally meet robbie krieger i'll do the same thing i won't be the
15:01guy that goes i was jim morrison you know everybody wants to know that's what you know you know i i've met brad
15:09um friends with brad i actually texted him a little while ago i'm like hey give me a question for rick
15:13but sometimes he's not real good with the texting and whatnot uh rudy could have been nicer i've never
15:18met tommy before but i had to i have to imagine that those guys probably made you feel pretty
15:22comfortable right oh yeah they're the best i tell you man i couldn't i feel so lucky so grateful they were so
15:32down to earth rudy's like rudy's best bass player around you know tommy's best drummer around same
15:41for brad no no no it doesn't show in their persona they're just down to earth you know it's it's only
15:48rock and roll you know yeah right um you know um i was i was reading your bio earlier and you got a
15:54chance to open up for a lot of bands and stuff and you mentioned ozzy before how did the death of
15:58ozzy affect you earlier this summer well it was it was one that is yeah it affected me uh quite a bit
16:08because um he influenced me a lot i mean ozzy when you think about it um people when before his death
16:19at least when they were doing surveys and asking who is the best rock and roll singer that ever lived
16:25you know they always get the same name you know and ozzy sometimes was not on the list because he was
16:33so bigger than life you know he's antique is it and i say that in a most respectful way because i loved
16:40everything about him so people kind of forgot that he was a hell of a singer i mean if you listen to
16:49to to diary of a madman over the mountain diary of a madman i mean all the melodies and and triquid
16:58the the the way he changes his voice and his voice is always full is a
17:03ozzy was one of the best rock and roll singer that ever lived yeah that that's why he became so big you
17:11know yeah no doubt and i just i just finished reading his book and he said very nice things about brad and
17:16about uh uh rudy and tommy in in his book as well and then we just lost uh ace fraley were you a kiss
17:22fan growing up uh yes well i was a i'm a fan of uh of rock music so of course i i grew i grew up
17:33listening to zeppelin mostly because back then if you were a zeppelin fan you were not necessarily a kiss
17:41fan because zeppelin went natural you know it's all about the music and kiss brought the glitter you
17:50know they they brought the wow effect to the show so hey for for the fans that like me that were into
17:57zeppelin and the who and it took a while before we recognized that yeah yeah there was makeup there was
18:05that the attire yeah that the accoutrement and everything but the music is amazing you know
18:11detroit rock city yeah that's true yep that's where we are right so what was it like growing up in a and
18:18you grew up in did you grow up in montreal right is that where you grew up primarily i was born in
18:23montreal but when my dad died my mom like i said that raised us alone on the salary of a waitress had the
18:31good idea to take us away from town and and to bring us in the country because we were very rowdy
18:41a little bit so so i grew up on the south shore of montreal like an hour from montreal all right so
18:47what was it like when you were growing up and you said you went and saw like ozzy and stuff when you
18:51were a teenager in that uh did you have to drive like an hour to go see these shows was it like uh when
18:56you see pack a lunch and go see a concert or or what was it like yeah well we we
19:01formed sword uh we were friends from uh from from from little school so we formed sword we were i was
19:1015 my brother was 16 the other guys were 15 16 too so we played bars from six from 15 years old to
19:19not bars but i mean we played gigs and when we got the age to go play in and the clubs that we started
19:27to play we did the club scene for years and uh we had one car because i mean we we were kids we we
19:36we were rock and rollers you know we everybody was broke that that wanted to be musicians because all
19:41our money was going into equipment so so we had a sword mobile we called it yeah it was a big thunderbird
19:501977 that if a friend of mine had and the car was a wreck because he went through a toll booth
20:00and that's the story i heard he didn't have money to pay the toll and he scrapped both sides of the car
20:07and then he got home and and and then later on he lost the keys so he had to break the the thing and
20:14and and and you know but back then when you lose your key you lost your key you only broke in with
20:19a screwdriver you would start the car that was our car so we would pack the car and we would go see
20:26aussie you know in montreal and let's go to montreal and yeah man that was something oh that's great yeah
20:33i grew up outside of buffalo like about a half hour or so so we would just you know uh i guess pretty
20:38much doing the same thing but we didn't have a sword mobile that's for sure i but you want to hear a
20:43a very cool story about the sword mobile okay we were in when we're in our 20s and we just released
20:52metalized and um it's all over the world and we've got rave reviews all over for for the metalized
21:00album our first album we released that in 86 so we're in the sword mobile and we're we're always together
21:07and and we're listening to master of puppets all the time it's it just comes out and we go wow what
21:14an album you know and we keep listening to it and listen not knowing that on the other side of the
21:20atlantic while on tour metallica was listening to metalize oh no kidding wow that's how we got the gig
21:27so you've met the guys from italica then oh yeah sure did wow toured with them and and i mean that
21:37was that was that was unreal that was unreal we we just got back from the from doing something and
21:44when we're in our we rented a house and we were rehearsing and at in the basement of that house and
21:51got the phone call from my manager that the manager at the time that said rick i got a big news for you
21:58i said what is it i just got a phone call from um metallica's management they're coming to canada
22:03and they want you to open for them my god wow that was big yeah so uh so this was 86 you said 87
22:14a year after yeah the release yeah so they had just gotten off tour with ozzy probably and then went
22:20on their own tour well let this is gonna get get a bit uh gloom and doom the the tour was postponed
22:29twice so there was tv advertisement metallica sword coming to montreal and and it was on the tv and
22:37everything and then my manager calls me says rick bad news the tour is postponed jane's broken arm
22:45doing skateboard oh yeah yeah seriously seriously so it was postponed for a month or two then we a month
22:53after that the dad started again on tv coming to module metallica sword and then we got the the phone
23:02call that uh that um that cliff had died on tour so it was postponed twice wow so when we got so when
23:11we toured with them it's it's it's when that happened just when when they started to tour back
23:17again when when they kind of mourn because they they didn't have much time to mourn him i guess because
23:26yeah i i felt i when when i was with them i felt that they were still like in shock
23:34and when they just played montreal a couple years ago did you open up one of the shows or did you play on
23:39that day off yeah well we we we started the the old thing it was at the montreal stadium and um we
23:47received an offer to do what they call the tailgate metallica tailgate party okay so when when people were
23:55arriving they they set up a stage where where people arrived on a sword concert oh no kidding yeah
24:03they played here in november so they they probably wouldn't have done that here just simply because of
24:07the you know the weather there was tailgating and stuff but uh yeah that was in november um yeah
24:12almost almost two years ago now 2023 is that what you're is that when you were doing 2023 yeah that
24:18and here it was in august okay there you go yeah yeah well i'll tell you what rick uh we'll give a
24:24good plug here to uh redemption like i said that comes out tomorrow on october 24th and uh next time
24:30you're in detroit rock city you have to come by and say hello i'm sure will and thank you so much for
24:36giving me the time to talk to you and uh and uh i want to invite your listeners to give a good
24:43lesson to redemption it's a it's a now it's an album about uh hope and peace and uh and you know it's a
24:50i'm i'm really proud of it there's not a song on it that that that that is not optimistic about life and
24:57and and such
25:06so
25:13you
25:15you
25:17you
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