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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 talk and rock with meltdown
00:22don't forget to follow the audio only talk and rock podcast on all podcast platforms
00:26and now it's time for today's conversation here's meltdown hey rick good to make your acquaintance
00:34likewise 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
00:53and 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 it's it's been a
01:25long time coming i'm i'm i'm the kind of guy that doesn't wait for stuff to happen so i've been keeping
01:31really really busy since saints and saints and sinners and and i mean a good busy you know i've been
01:37doing tv shows uh as well you know back to go back to what you just said about 1992 and and the
01:46grunge scene the grunge scene and and all that stuff it was um i guess like they say you don't
01:52stop 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
02:06had 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
02:24for 10 years so it brought the the the bread and butter and it it kept my voice uh very very very up
02:33there and uh and i did um some musical for another 10 years so i've been i've been working my voice
02:40the the entertainer since then i never stopped yeah and it's like you know i mean the old saying
02:47you know uh if if you do what you enjoy you'll you'll never work a day in your life and of course
02:51you know i come to work every day unfortunately for the past 35 years there's not a day that goes
02:55by where i'm like i don't feel like going to work every day and i guess i'm lucky in that aspect
02:59probably like yourself i got the same philosophy i go i i'm a very very very go go go i'm i'm a happy
03:08guy and and my philosophy is that whatever you're doing love what you're doing and you'll be you'll
03:14be doing what you love you know whatever it is i mean i cutting down that go outside and washing
03:22the car you know i don't rush it i just uh i love i love being alive well washing a car how many how
03:30many cars by the way do you have because before we started you said you're kind of a car collector
03:34well no i'm a collector i got a couple of cars a couple of guitars you know i love old stuff so i got
03:43an old mustang an old pickup truck i got an old carvette yep and i like to drive with a 454
03:50but but to come back to the redemption album i was saying so when i did uh the last sword album
03:58back in 2022 we did we did a couple of cool gigs we we uh we did the tailgate party for metallica when
04:07they when they were here at the stadium a couple of years back uh we opened for anthrax
04:12the black label society we did some shows here in quebec for sword so when when that that wave
04:20kind of start to drop down i told my manager i said okay it's time to for a new solo record so we
04:27started to work on that because like i said i'm i i love what i do so i i don't wait for things to
04:34happen i just kind of make them happen and i mean you know the obvious question i'm sure you've
04:39answered this a million times but how do you get the uh you know the the ozzy speak of the devil
04:44lineup together yeah that's it i owe it to to brad gillis brad i'm a big big big fan of brad gillis
04:53i've always been so when it was time to um find some outside writer for the album because i didn't
04:59want to be the one to write all the songs on the album i wanted something outside the box you know a
05:04riff that i wasn't not a guitar hero that i couldn't write myself so so so my manager told
05:12me uh oh saints and sinners there you go jesse bradman who plays keyboard so we we called him and
05:19i asked him if he had some song he says oh yeah i've been working with brad gillis for a couple of
05:24years on on some songs so to pitch in there i said can we hear it so so he so we we took two songs
05:33from brad and uh then became like a friendship with him so uh when it was time to record the real me
05:40um we we we thought of a of a of a super group we said okay let's ask brad because we already have him
05:48maybe he's gonna he's gonna he's gonna want to do it so he said yeah and and he came up with the
05:53idea when we said and we're looking he says well why don't we call rudy and tommy we haven't been
05:59together since the aussie gig so that'd be cool so so we so we made it happen and i'm i'm so grateful
06:06yeah i uh i was hanging out with brad earlier this summer like in the middle of summer and he he's like
06:12he's like hey man we're putting the band back together get this song coming out and stuff and he didn't
06:15really tell me too much about it then i saw him again um uh here in michigan when they played uh
06:20at a show i don't know if you recall the one where ted nugent joined him up on stage it was yeah i saw
06:25that yeah it was a private event for like 2 000 people it was so cool to be there uh but uh brad's
06:31a great guy uh super talent and uh the first time i met him he let me hold that that classic guitar
06:37that he plays in the video as well the one from speak of the devil there you go absolutely and while
06:43we were shooting the video he had the guitar and it was explaining what it was you know because it
06:48was his baby and he and he changed it over the years because he had this guitar all his all his life
06:54for all of his life uh if i can recall if i recall i think he said it was a it's a 1965 guitar
07:02i want to say 62 but you're i think oh maybe yeah it's the 60s it's the 60s there you go it's
07:10something old right exactly but yeah that uh that that guitar just has such a great history and has
07:14such a great tone and he comes out he was playing it at that that night i saw him at uh with night
07:20ranger the thing just sounds amazing i agree with you and and and the tone has a lot to do with the
07:27player you know because um a guy like brad i i guess he's gonna pick up any guitar and it's it's
07:35gonna sound amazing you know it's like he's a he's a he's a maestro and that song you guys uh chose
07:42uh the real me to cover it was um it's really bass driven too and to get rudy on there it's so cool
07:47why did you pick that particular song that's a good question the reason is that i'm a big
07:54uh the who fan and zeppelin fan what those band those two band have in common is that if you listen
08:01to any zeppelin song any who song um it's really really easy to just listen to the drum or just
08:10listen to the bass or just listen to the guitar you know it's not overproduced zeppelin and and do
08:16it's it's if you want to listen to bonham it's there you just listen to him it's not all intertwined
08:22and overproduced so it was one or the other so we went with the who and when we chose that song
08:29we said okay now we need some really really hot players for this one to come alive you know so
08:34when we asked brad he said yeah do it and i and and we said and and we want to to find like a super
08:41group you know some the guys that would play with he says why don't we ask tommy and rudy
08:46we haven't played together since aussie and and i said okay so let's try it i mean the rest is
08:52history and you met tommy or rudy before no it was when you know these guys rudy and tommy and brad
09:00tommy and rudy for for right now we got a 10 15 years difference in gap difference you know so
09:10when i was 15 years old i would go to the montreal forum watch white snake watch ozzy and
09:17dio and i would see them on stage because they were like 20 30 you know so i would not in my wildest
09:27dream when i ever thought they would play on my album so when they accepted to do it i guess they
09:33checked me out because i mean you know if you play on somebody's record you have to to be in line with
09:39their music and and their and their talent i guess so so that was a big deal for me but
09:46it was even a biggest deal when it came down to do came time to do a video and that they accepted it
09:54to do the video because that's an even bigger deal when you think about it because these that the album
10:02was recorded like back in the days in the studio little mountain studio with john webster at the helm
10:09and on drums we had um randall went 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 we had
10:35brad's part we we we took the other parts away and put them in the song and so there it is so if we
10:43didn'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 not
10:57john and twistle 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 out
11:13in the world without a video nobody would know who would have been on it that would have been crazy
11:17exactly yeah well the record comes out like i said tomorrow october 24th is uh as i record this uh
11:23robbie krieger by the way is on it too right man robbie krieger imagine that the the the lead guitar
11:32for 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
11:46he 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
12:00was 12 13 i had to go to work for my mom because she raised us on the the waitress salary you know
12:07so so i had to go to work and and and and i was like a stranger in a strange land because back in
12:14those days if you didn't have a father you know you you weren't you weren't necessarily part of the
12:19gang you know so when i started to listen to the doors it kind of broke the shell i mean jim morrison
12:27the lizard the lizard king to me was was a professor you know i could i would understand what he was
12:34saying and i and i could and read between the lines make my own stories and and i came of age
12:42by listening to the doors when i was 15 years old and now fast forward to today and
12:49i have robbie krieger playing a track on my album he starts the song if you you heard the song you
12:55know he goes i didn't know that was him okay oh yeah and you go i know that sound yeah that's robbie
13:05krieger man with his sg in his own studio with his gear it's that's the sound man that's the sound
13:12so did you tell robbie this story that you just told me no but uh one day uh i will okay you haven't
13:20had a chance to to really kind of press the flesh and hang out with them huh well you know when i did
13:25the video with uh with with uh with with brad rudy and commie i was waiting on them you know i was first
13:33arrived it was shot in la at um um castle studio in burbank state of the art 3d technology it's the
13:42only studio in the world that has that so i was waiting on the guys so tommy got there first and
13:48then rudy and then brad and they they all of them were happy it was like a party everybody and we had
13:54a an old day we had to film all day you know so i kept saying to myself don't be that guy don't be
14:01the guy that has the stupid question just hang with the boys and pretend that you're you you've
14:09been part of their life for all their life you know because i we had to shoot a video there was a live
14:15feed in montreal where my manager my producer they were listening to it you know because it was it was
14:21an important day for us and uh we're getting ready we're shooting the cameras and stuff so my girlfriend
14:27was there and she says rick your manager wants to talk to you so i pick up the phone and he says
14:32okay rick everything's going fine everything's okay we're about to get the real stuff now you look like
14:39a deer in front of a headlight please we know you are starstruck but you gotta get over it i says okay
14:47okay okay thanks for telling me thanks for telling me so so i kind of just hang out with the boys and
14:53and and and then everything went okay so i guess when i finally meet robbie krieger i'll do the same
15:00thing i won't be the guy that goes i was jim morrison you know everybody wants to know
15:06yeah that's what you know you know i i've met brad um you know friends with brad i actually texted him
15:11a little while ago i'm like hey give me a question for rick but sometimes he's not real good with the
15:15texting and whatnot uh rudy could have been nicer i've never met tommy before but i had to i have to
15:20imagine that those guys probably made you feel pretty comfortable right oh yeah they're the best
15:26i tell you man i couldn't i feel so lucky so grateful they were so down to earth rudy's like
15:34rudy's best bass player around you know tommy's best drummer around same for brad no no no it doesn't
15:44show and their persona they're just down to earth you know it's it's only rock and roll you know
15:49yeah right um you know um i was i was reading your bio earlier and you got a chance to open up for a lot
15:55of bands and stuff and you mentioned ozzy before how did the death of ozzy affect you earlier this summer
16:00well it was it was one that is yeah it affected me uh quite a bit because um he influenced me a lot
16:11i mean ozzy when you think about it um people when before his death at least when they were doing
16:21surveys and asking who is the best rock and roll singer that ever lived you know you always get
16:27the same name you know and ozzy sometimes was not on the list because he was so bigger than life you
16:35know his antique is it and i say that in a most respectable way because i loved everything about
16:41him so people kind of forgot that he was a hell of a singer i mean if you listen to to diary of a
16:51madman over the mountain diary of a madman i mean all the melodies and
16:56intricate the the way he changes his voice and his voice is always full is a
17:02ozzy was one of the best rock and roll singer that ever lived yeah that that's why he became so big
17:11you know yeah no doubt and i just i just finished reading his book and he said very nice things about
17:16brad and about uh uh rudy and tommy in in his book as well and then we just lost uh ace fraley were
17:21you a kiss fan growing up uh yes well i i was a i'm a fan of uh of rock music so of course i i grew
17:32i grew up listening to zeppelin mostly because back then if you were a zeppelin fan you were not
17:40necessarily a kiss fan because zeppelin went natural you know it's all about the music and kiss brought the
17:49glitter you know they they brought the wow effect to the show so hey for for the fans that like me
17:57that were into zeppelin and the who and it took a while before we recognized that yeah yeah there
18:04was makeup there was that the entire yet that yeah and everything but the music is amazing you know
18:11detroit rock city yeah that's true yep that that's where we are right so what was it like growing up
18:17in a and you grew up in did you grow up in montreal right is that where you grew up primarily i was born
18:23in montreal but when my dad died my mom like i said that raised us alone on the salary of a waitress
18:31had the good idea to take us away from town and and to bring us in the country because we were very
18:38rowdy a little bit so so i grew up on the south shore of montreal like an hour from montreal all
18:47right so what was it like when you were growing up and you said you went and saw like ozzy and stuff
18:51when you were a teenager in that uh did you have to drive like an hour to go see these shows was it
18:55like uh when you pack a lunch and go see a concert or or what was it like yeah well we we formed
19:02sword uh we were friends from uh from from from little school so we formed sword we were i was 15
19:10my brother there 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 in the clubs that we started
19:27to play we did the club scene for years and uh we had one car because ever i mean we we were kids we
19:35we 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 a friend of mine had and the car was a wreck because he went through a toll boot and that's the story
20:01i heard he didn't have money to pay the toll and he scrapped both sides of the car and then he got home
20:08and and and then later on he lost the keys so he had to break the the thing and and you know back then
20:16when you lose your key you lost your key you only broke and with with a screwdriver you would start
20:22the car that was our car so we we would pack the car and we would go see aussie you know in montreal
20:28and let's go to montreal and yeah man that was something oh that's great yeah i grew up outside of
20:34buffalo like about a half hour or so so we would just you know uh i guess pretty much doing the same
20:38thing but we didn't have a sword mobile that's for sure i but you want to hear a very cool story
20:45about the sword mobile okay we we're in when we're in our 20s and we just released metallized
20:52and um it's all over the world and we've got rave reviews all over for for the metallized album our
21:01first 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 an
21:14album 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 metal eyes oh no kidding wow that's how we got the
21:27gig so you've met the guys metallica then oh yeah sure did wow toured with them and and i mean that was
21:37that was that was that was unreal that was unreal we we just got back from the from doing something
21:44and when 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 metallica's management they're coming to canada and
22:04they want you to open for them my god wow that was big yeah so uh so this was 86 you said 87 a year
22:14after yeah the release yeah so they had just gotten off tour with ozzy probably and then went their own
22:20tour well let this is gonna get get a bit uh gloom and doom that the tour was postponed twice
22:29so 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 james broken arm
22:45doing skateboard oh yeah yeah seriously seriously so it was postponed for a month or two then we
22:52a month after that that the ad started again on tv coming to montreal metallica sword and then we
23:01got the the phone call that uh that um that cliff had died on tour so what it was postponed twice
23:09wow so when we got so when we toured with them it's it's it's when that happened just when when they
23:16started to tour back again when when they kind of mourned because they they didn't have much time to
23:23mourn him i guess because yeah i i felt i when when i was with them i felt that they were still like
23:33in shock and when they just played montreal a couple years ago did you open up one of the shows or did
23:39you play on that day off yeah well we we we started the the old thing it was at the montreal stadium
23:46and um we received an offer to do what they call the tailgate metallica tailgate party okay so when
23:54when people were arriving they they set up a stage where where people arrived on a sword concert oh no
24:02kidding yeah they played here in november so they they probably wouldn't have done that here just
24:06simply because of the you know the weather there was tailgating and stuff but uh yeah that was in
24:11november um yeah almost almost two years ago now 2023 is that what you're is that when you were
24:16doing in 2023 yeah and here it was in august oh okay there you go yeah yeah well i'll tell you what
24:23rick uh we'll give a good plug here to uh redemption like i said that comes out tomorrow on october 24th
24:29and uh next time you're in detroit rock city you have to come by and say hello i'm sure will and
24:35thank you so much for giving me the time to talk to you and uh and uh i want to invite your listeners
24:42to give a good lesson to redemption it's a it's an al it's an album about uh hope and peace and uh
24:49and you know it's a i'm really proud of it there's not a song on it that that that that is not optimistic
24:56about life and and and such
24:59um
25:05you
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