Ex-SKID ROW singer recently spoke with May The Rock Be With You during his Australian tour. A couple of excerpts follow (as transcribed by Blabbermouth.net).
On his plans for the rest of 2015:
“I have to finish my book. It’s a boring answer, but that’s what I have to do. I’m on a deadline. I’m also on a deadline for my next record. So I have to do a book and a record.”
“I have a manager. His name is Rick Sales. And the reason you have a manager is to help you with your career and guide you. And he said, ‘Dude, you have to do a new record now. It’s a great timing.’ I feel like I’ve done a lot of records; that’s the way I feel. But I trust Rick’s judgment; he knows what he’s doing. And he said, ‘You’re putting out a book. If you put out a record at the same time as the book, this is good for your career. This is a good plan.” So I’m following his advice. To me, it seems crazy to do all of that at once, but I’m lucky — I’m f**king lucky — to be doing this.”
On whether he has any songs in the works for his next solo album:
“Well, I don’t know if I do. There’s two songs that I’ve heard that I want to sing. One was written by [former GUNS N’ ROSES and current SIXX: A.M. guitarist] DJ Ashba. He played it for me back in 2010 when we were on tour with GUNS N’ ROSES. He goes, ‘Listen to this.’ And I’ll never forget it. He put it on my head. He wrote it for Axl [Rose, GUNS N’ ROSES lead singer], to be [used by] GUNS. It’s the most badass f**king riff — one of the coolest songs I’ve ever heard. I haven’t heard it since then, but I never forgot how much I loved it. And he’s not in GUNS N’ ROSES anymore, so there’s one song that I do wanna sing. But I don’t even know if I can have that. DJ, I’ve gotta call you. But that’s one song. And then, my guitar player, Devin Bronson, [who played] on ‘Give ‘Em Hell’, sent me one riff that I could definitely sing over. But that’s where it stands. There’s… You know… I’m just… It seems like so much work. [Laughs] You don’t understand how much f**king torture it is. But, anyway, it’s great.”
On whether he will work with producer Bob Marlette once again:
“I don’t know… Bob… Man, he helps me write songs — he really does. He helps me with the hooks. I don’t know if I’m gonna work with him again, ’cause I just did two albums back to back with him. Maybe I will; I don’t know. I’m really dying to make a record that sounds like the records of the ’70s that I always listened to. I don’t know if that’s possible. You know what? I’ve gotta give props to JUDAS PRIEST and BLACK SABBATH. The BLACK SABBATH ’13’record inspired me, like, to… That sounds like an old album to me — the sound of it: the vocals, the drums, the guitars. And then I got the new JUDAS PRIEST recently, ‘Redeemer Of Souls’, and there’s three tunes on there that f**king destroy my brain, I love them so much. One of them is ‘March Of The Damned’, [which] is one of the best PRIEST tunes I think I’ve ever heard. And when I’m listening to that, I’m going, ‘Dude, you can do it. Just f**king do it. You can do it.’ It’s just that… I just put really so much into ‘Give ‘Em Hell’ — I really did. Getting Duff [McKagan], John 5 and Steve Stevens, assembling those players on one record. I go, ‘How the f**k am I gonna top that? Who am I gonna get? Eddie Van Halen….? Who am I gonna get?’ I think [Eddie Van Halen] is busy.”
On his social media presence:
“I look at my social media as a rock magazine. That’s the way I look at it. When I was a kid, I would buy Creem and Circus, Kerrang!… a long time ago. That’s how we got our information decades ago. So when I look at my web sites, I want it to feel like that, like Circus, ’cause that doesn’t exist. So I try to make it look kind of like that and feel like that, and block f**king assholes, which is, you know, boring. I spend a lot of time blocking people. [Laughs] ‘You look like a girl?’ ‘Dude, come up with some new f**king material. You don’t think I’ve f**king heard that? You think that hurts me? That I look like a…? Wow! There is an original putdown. F**k! You really went all out coming up with that one. ‘You look like a girl.’ Block! I know I do! Everybody knows it! F**k! It’s been like that forever. It’s true. It’s, like, I know I look like a girl. I used to get told that in the playground. So you’re not telling me anything I don’t know.”
Entire interview can be watched below.
