In bed and in a broom-cupboard – been there, done that!

Came to think of some of the weirdest or funniest interview-occasions I’ve been involved in through the years. Generates a big smile every time. :)

One of the craziest ones was with Pretty Maids when they were playing at the KB-hall in Copenhagen. I was doing the interview for radio, so it had to be somewhere quiet.

But they were doing sound check out there in the big concert arena (those were the days of arena-rock…) so you kept hearing that annoying “ONE….TWO…!” everywhere you went.

After having walked through the entire KB Hall, trying to open various doors without luck, one door suddenly opened. It was the broom-cupboard! Perfect!

With all those brooms and buckets in there, it was definitely sound proof!

Let me tell you, five people in a small broom-cupboard was not easy to organize, and it must have looked absolutely ridiculous if anyone had walked in on us. But they were good sports, took it with a grain of salt and just laughed about it. When asking for a radio ID, this is what I got:

So, you just make the best of the situation. :) It was fun though, having one foot in an empty bucket and the other one on a vacuum-cleaner while trying to be a serious reporter…! The good part? There were NO sound check noises on the tape! ;P

Another strange interview was with the ladies of Vixen when they were on tour with Deep Purple in the early 90’s. Their hotel suite didn’t have CHAIRS. But… it DID have a king-size HUGE bed in the room, so, we all just crawled onto the bed and did the interview there. :) Talk about RELAXED, huh? ;) Here’s Roxy and Share from that “bed interview”….

Janet Gardner walked in later towards the end of the interview, she wasn’t on this taped version.

Other strange things, not necessarily interview-related…. I was doing an exclusive interview with Alice Cooper at SAS Radisson in Malmoe ages ago (didn’t even know until the last minute if he would do it or not) and on my way out,

I met his band in the elevator on my way down. They were in a party mood and asked if I lived nearby. I said I lived almost just around the corner and they got all excited and wanted to come over to my place and party! They got so seriously into that idea that I didn’t know HOW to tell them that it wouldn’t happen.

I was still living with my parents, and just the thought of my mother walking around the house with curlers in her hair and dad being half asleep in front of the TV – and then me walking in with Alice Cooper’s band….just felt slightly bizarre. :)

I told my mom about what happened, and she was almost disappointed that I hadn’t invited them. Her comment? “I could have served them cookies and we had orange juice in the fridge…!”.

Oh. My. God. I’m SO glad that I DIDN’T say yes to THAT! Talk about total humiliation and embarrassment for a young rocker girl. Maybe I would have been more cool about it today but not back then.

Another slightly strange situation happened with Judas Priest. I had done an interview with them in the afternoon and they asked if me and the photographer wanted to come back after the show and hang out. I said I couldn’t cause it was Halloween and I was invited to a Halloween-party. Meaning – I was going to be dressed as some sort of ghost. Or something.

“Even better!” they laughed. Well…. Suit yourself, I thought, so we walked through security after the show that evening, wearing Morticia and ghost-makeup! If Priest even for a moment had thought that we were kidding they were now aware that we weren’t. ;)

It doesn’t happen often that the BAND starts digging for their cameras to take pictures of their GUESTS, but that’s what happened in this case. Either way, it was a fun evening!

[Me and K.K Downing after the show on Halloween!]

Then of course there was the interview that turned into a cookie-war that totally went out of hand. Electric Boys – crazy guys back in those days. Started with Niclas throwing a cookie at me for fun, I threw it back and before you knew it, cookies were flying across the room, people running around, pretty much stomping the chocolate cookie crumbles into the carpet and into the couch while screaming like three year olds.

The owner, Totte, opened the door in the middle of all this and saw me just as I was throwing a cookie. Oh great. The reporter from Kvällsposten acting like a total retard, caught in the act. Oops. The dressing room looked like World War 3, but at least we had fun! :)

Come to think of it – the past 25 years have been so much fun, I’ve loved every minute of it! And it ain’t over yet! :))

If all interviews were like this

Travelling all over the place to see bands, is not only about the travelling, the music or the adventure. There is yet another important aspect of it, and is something that I truly value. It’s getting to know people. Friendships, plan and simple.

It started in 1989 with Skid Row. That was the first band that I travelled around to see live everywhere. Up until a few years ago, it was the band that I had seen the most times, but that has been far surpassed by Firewind since then.

If I had only seen one of their shows, there obviously wouldn’t have been a platform for friendship.  But, we were all young and it happened, and even after all this time, we’re still glad to see eachother – anytime, anywhere.

Scotti Hill walked out of a photo-session at Sweden Rock last time Skid Row played there a few years ago, cause he was so glad to see a familiar face that he just ran over to give me a hug.

Then I met Sebastian Bach at the Swedish Metal Convention two years ago. In this short video sequence he mentions that we’ve known eachother for 25 years. It’s a long time, but it doesn’t feel like it. :) I love those guys (regardless what they think of eachother) they will always be special to me.

Then there’s the “smaller” bands who went from “interview-objects” to friends who I love catching up with anywhere in the world. Jon Oliva’s Pain bassplayer Kevin for instance, really became a friend for life. And the girls and boys in the Oliva-crew, they rock. We’re all travelling people, so of course, we get to see eachother every now and then, still.

We’re all just people – some you just simply click with. Especially when we all share the love for music (which is a total dealbreaker for me) :-)

When I started travelling all over Europe (and a few states in the US…) to see Firewind, I eventually got to know those guys one by one as well. But for some reason I didn’t get to talk with Apollo the first two years. The first time I did was in Hamburg last year, and I noticed that we had a very similar taste in music. And as we’re also the same age and grew up in Sweden, it was just easy to find topics to discuss.

[Spooky looking but fantastic sounding Apollo with Evil Masquerade]

Before a gig in Kolding, Denmark, I showed him to the nearest 7Eleven that he was looking for, and then took a short stroll around the small town (not a soul outside that day for some reason, maybe it was a Sunday, I don’t remember).
That was definitely when I could establish that Apollo was a great dude. Very easygoing, down to earth, unpretentious.

So when it was announced that he had decided to leave Firewind, I thought it was a shame that I wouldn’t see him on tour anymore. But then it hit me, what the hell, he lives in Sweden, how hard could it be to get back in touch?!
I just dropped him a line.

And so after a few mails and phonecalls, he drove down here to Malmo yesterday afternoon. Did a video interview because I figured it would be good if he was given an opportunity to explain, in his own words, why he left Firewind – after being with the band for ten years.

Up until now the statements have been from the others in the band. Time to hear it straight from the “horse’s mouth”. I’m glad he took the time, I think it turned out really well – so stick around for that.

Had brunch before we got started, just chit-chatted about bands, tours, albums – all the stuff that I could spend hours talking about. :)

It would have been great if all interviews could be this relaxed. To be able to do an interview in a home-setting without the stress of soundchecks, gigs or other journalists stomping outside the door – is pure luxury.

“The camera guy” Henrik and Mari instantly liked Apollo as well, he’s simply a very likeable person. Well, all the Firewind-guys are, actually. :)

Apollo is still a busy guy these days. He had a rehearsal to get back to with Spiritual Beggars, as their tour is kicking off in Germany next week. I’m taking time off to catch the gig in Hamburg next Monday. Should be interesting. Not normally what I’d listen to, but curious to see Apollo in a different setting.

The video-interview will be uploaded soon of course, as soon as Henrik’s had a chance to make something really cool with it. :)

Like or follow my Facebook or Twitter and you’ll be the first to know! :)

www.facebook.com/intherearviewmirror 

www.twitter.com/lita77777 

In love with a VOICE

Had one of those YouTube-evenings last night. THANK GOD for YouTube, it makes people discover and RE-discover things.

I fell in love with [Black Sabbath-] Tony Martin’s voice all over again. Made me remember the first time I saw him, or learned about his existence.

When Black Sabbath played in Copenhagen 1989, I was there to review it for Kvällsposten – the newspaper I was working for at the time. I remember being slightly reluctant at first, because I didn’t see myself as a Black Sabbath-fan at all. I didn’t like the Ozzy-era, was never much for the 70’s sound anyway, so I thought it was going to be an evening for the elderly.

Boy, was I wrong.

On stage was this guy I had never heard of before – Tony Martin. That voice just filled the whole arena with magic! Backed up by Tony Iommi’s legendary, heavy riffs, it totally blew me away. It was really like having one of those religious experiences. I was just filled with this “wow!” sort of feeling, jaw dropped, eyes wide open, heart beating faster from pure excitement – the music and that VOICE was out of this world!

He wasn’t exactly a hot dude by any means, but he could SING!

About a year later, Black Sabbath came back, and this time I made sure to catch their press conference. That was a classic one. If there had been cellphones back in those days, I would have taken a picture of it, but I’ll just settle for the picture in my head instead.

It was an oval table somewhere in the back of the KB-hall, looked like a catering -or a conference room, I’m not sure. Right next to me to the left was Cozy Powell, then right in front of me Tony Martin followed by Tony Iommi. I’m not sure if Neil Murray was there. I think he was but he didn’t say much.

The topic was the new album “Tyr“. Every journalist was asking about shit that had to do with the occult, devil-worshipping, satanism, religion…. It’s as if  Black Sabbath were there to represent some Satanist church or something, and I could tell that Tony Martin was kind of annoyed by the whole thing.
While the others are more old-school british rock stars who have learned not to get too upset about anything, and to be very diplomatic about those questions, mr Martin was more openly pissed off, although he tried to restain himself. :)

I didn’t say much at that press conference. I was kind of star struck I think. Well,I was young, so I was allowed to be. ;)

It’s a strange thing – being in love with SONGS or VOICES. It has very little to do with the PEOPLE, as strange as that may sound. I don’t think I’ll ever be able to quite explain it. But it’s that same kind of feeling that you get when you’ve got a crush on someone, it’s like a drug, it makes you high, it just fills you with this feeling that’s larger than life.

And eventhough Tony Martin was the least interesting person in Black Sabbath to most other people, he was the MAIN reason why I even started listening to Sabbath.

I wrote him a letter at some point. I don’t really remember much about that letter, other than that he actually wrote back and I was so happy about it. Couldn’t believe he took time to write. This was before the internet made its entrance in people’s lives. (Just noticed now that he wrote that Sabbath were bringing Bill Ward to do the South America-shows…. Those were the days, huh?)

When I met Tony and Cozy Powell for an interview in Karlshamn, Sweden, in 1995, Cozy started chuckling the minute he saw me cause he probably knew that I was “the fan“. He was teasing Tony about it every chance he got, which I guess was just a feather in the hat for Tony. :)

In 1995 I travelled around to see Black Sabbath everywhere I got the chance. Took me over to the UK, the Sweden shows, Denmark….

I had a good contact with the Sabbath-members at the time. Even Tony Iommi was smiling his mysterious smile every time he saw me, going: “Tony will be down in a minute!”


One of the best memories I think was when Black Sabbath played in Copenhagen and I ended up being mr Martin’s guide around town.

He went to HMV to see if they had the new Sabbath-album, went to a small shop that sold leather clothes, cause he needed a new jacket, went to the exchange-office as he needed Danish money… And after all that walking, he got hungry and we ended up at this little Italian restaurant.

I was slightly terrified, cause THAT hadn’t been in my plans and I didn’t have any money. So I got the cheapest food I could find on the menu, to fit my budget.

When I got my wine, it tasted like vinegar. Absolutely horrible. Tony saw my face and asked if I didn’t like the wine. “Noo, no it’s fine, it’s fine!” I tried to assure him, cause I couldn’t afford anything else.

The whole time I took for granted that I was paying for my own meal. I’m Swedish, we aren’t necessarily taking for granted that “the guy” pays. Especially when it’s not exactly a date.

Suddenly I see Tony waving for the waitress. Then he goes:

– The lady doesn’t like her wine. Do you have anything else?

“Holy fuck NOOO!” I thought. There wasn’t “anything else” I could afford, other than a glass of WATER… As it turned out, Tony paid for the whole thing, he looked at me like I was crazy when I took out my wallet to pay for my meal. “What are you doing? Put that away! I’ll take this!”

It was just a great dinner, Tony was nice and easy to talk to. At some point I said that I just loved “The Eternal Idol“. And he started singing the first few lines of it, right there.

I’ll never forget that. That VOICE, singing just for me, in a restaurant, I couldn’t have asked for a more memorable pasta-dinner…!

http://www.allmusic.com/song/eternal-idol-mt0029112067

When I got a modem for my Mac and internet started getting more common, I stayed in close touch with Tony through e-mail. I had collected everything he had done, demos and projects, his solo- thing, the whole hoopla. Was active on message-boards and it felt like all I did was arguing with assholes who kept talking about Ozzy or Dio, sometimes Ian Gillan or even Ray Gillen who hadn’t even been in the band long enough to be called a Sabbath-member, being “the real Sabbath”.

It just pissed me off that Tony never got the credit he deserved. Even to this day, I think that he was being treated like shit by many fans and even by Sabbath at some point. He contributed with a lot and sang on a few of my favorite metal albums of all time.

His only problem was that he wasn’t Ozzy. Other than that – he was amazing.

If someone asked me today who my favorite metal singer is – the answer is simple – Tony Martin.

I have my heroes, Rob Halford, Coverdale, Dio – all the legends. But if we’re talking about JUST the VOICE, it’s, hands down, T Martin.

He’s got this massive, huge masculine, powerful metal voice with all the depth and grid that’s needed for a heavy metal tune, but he’s also got the range to reach the higher notes, and do if effortlessly, getting those crystal clear notes that you usually hear by singers in the melodic rock genre.

He had it all, he could do the dark, mysterious vocal parts and he could go flying through the stratosphere in “Lost Forever” or “Eternal Idol“, well – anything that Sabbath wrote during his 10 years in the band.

He became a friend in a sense during those few years. I built his first, own official website. That was back in 1997. I think he had gone solo by then.

But… Well, he is a pretty stubborn personality and so am I. Although I think that back in those days I was more difficult to deal with than I am today. Basically – I got pissed off at him at some point in this website-making process, and he, of course, got even more pissed off at ME right back.

We haven’t spoken since. I went to his solo-tour throughout Sweden maybe 10 years ago or so, cause to me that whole thing was old news. It wasn’t to him. He was STILL pissed off, and I’m guessing he still is today. I don’t know, haven’t tried to contact him ever since.

But I still love his voice, and I always will – it’s one of a kind, I spent all morning listening to the 1987-1995 Sabbath albums on repeat again. He is absolutely outstanding – and if you haven’t heard these albums, do yourself a BIG favor and go get them!

Guess you’ll gave to refer to YouTube or a friend as those seem to be out of print, but everything is available through the web nowadays:

Eternal Idol

Headless Cross

Tyr

Cross Purposes

(Forbidden also had Tony singing on it but…not a fan of that particular album, eventhough it has its moments)

AMAZING PERFORMANCE BY TONY ON THE MISCHA CALVIN “EVOLUTION” ALBUM:

Gus G to the Swedish Metal Convention in October

Photo: *** GUS G TILL ROCKMÄSSAN 2013 *** Vi har glädjen att presentera Gus G som vår första gäst till Rockmässan 2013. Han är mest känd som frontmannen i Firewind och fick rollen som Ozzy Osbournes gitarrist efter att Zakk Wylde och Ozzy gick skilda vägar. Gus är född i Thessaloniki, Grekland och är idag känd som en av världens bästa gitarrister. Redan år 2003 kom han på tredje plats som världens bästa gitarrist i Japanska tidningen BURRN! Ni kommer att kunna se Firewind spela på Sweden Rock Festival i år.

It was announced yesterday:

Gus G will be visiting Malmo, Sweden in October to attend the Swedish Metal Conventon.

Needless to say, considering that I’ve seen this guy all over the freaking GLOBE with either Ozzy or Firewind the past two years, I’m definitely happy about his participation at the convention.

It’s a great event, cause usually top-notch musicians do clinics – but people who aren’t musicians themselves (just fans of their work) may feel misplaced at a clinic.

Then there’s the VIP-meet-and-greet packages, that…. well, never been a fan of those. I absolutely understand the reason behind them, as people are downloading music for free nowadays and it’s more difficult for artists to get paid for their work. Money has to come from somewhere, it’s not free to tour or to make albums. Hence the VIP-packages. But, not something that I would do personally.

The convention however, is open for all metalheads and for the curious. Fans and artists get to meet in a very relaxed atmosphere – eventhough there are enthusiastic and stoked fans standing in long lines to get their CD’s signed, say a few words to the visiting artists or take a photo. :-)

There are still the more niched segments to enjoy at the convention as well – the Q & A, clinics or like last year when Mike Tramp did a very down-to-earth acoustic set in a small conference room. When would you ever get the chance to see something like that elsewhere? :)

Gus is an amazing guitarist and performer, and on top of that also a really nice guy. And as icing on the cake, there will be at least one album-release this year: The Firewind live CD from the 10-year anniversary shows in Athens and Thessaloniki (those were amazing by the way), and maybe – just maybe, also Gus G’s first real solo album. And I KNOW that I’m not the only one looking very much forward to that.

[Gus with OZZY – Westfalenhalle in Dortmund, Germany last year]

But, first thing’s first. Going to Dortmund, Germany to see Firewind at the Rock in den Ruinen festival now in April – and then there’s of course Sweden Rock Festival where you’ll find Firewind on the 4Sound stage (also more known as the classic Zeppelin-stage) stage June 7th (Friday) 13.45 to 14.45.

See you all there!

[From the anniversary show in Thessaloniki back in December where Gus decided to take a dive into the crowd ;P]

Fan or professional

I have a little photo-gallery at this Swedish mini-community, where I uploaded a few pics of some old meetings with random “rock stars”.  I tend to get the same question over and over. “How did you get to meet all those legends?”

There’s never just one simple answer to that. If I was to sum it up in just two words, it would be luck and determination.

Some figure that it was through the job that I met all those. Maybe some of them, but I got my job through luck and determination as well.

Some thought I was just some blonde groupie-wannabe (you always get that shit when you’re a girl and you’re hanging with musicians) and I was accused of getting “special treatment” because of it.

I don’t know if I should laugh or get pissed off. Cause if those who said that had ANY idea what I went through to get to say hello to Dio or Steven Tyler or whoever back in the early days….! I remember standing for hours out in the pouring rain outside a stage door cause I wanted to meet Lemmy.

I was freezing my ass off outside Aerosmith’s hotel cause I wanted to meet Joe Perry (and ended up getting royal treatment by Steven Tyler instead. Me and a friend had initially been waiting in the hotel lobby, but back in those days when rock’n’roll was huge, hotel staff used to throw out everybody who weren’t guests at the hotel. Steven felt bad for us and invited us in, telling the staff it was okay and took time to talk to us and sign whatever….).

I’ve been hanging for hours in hotel lobbies, freezing outside of hotels in the middle of the night after shows, and travelled for miles to see some of my favorite bands. No royal or special treatment there, trust me.

Blackie Lawless from W.A.S.P decided that he wanted to invite me on the bus the last Swedish date of the Helldorado tour. The reason? I had been hanging with the guys from the opening act Get Animal and with Chris Holmes during their tour through Scandinavia, and also been front row at every show rocking out.

When Blackie was heading for the bus after the show in Malmo, there were lots of fans standing there waiting for him (including me) and he spotted me – pointed at me and went: “YOU! Come with me!”

I was scared chickenshit, thought he was pissed because I had been taking pictures or something. When a tall guy like Blackie, who isn’t exactly known for being Mr Sunshine, points at you and wants you to come with him, you don’t know WHAT to expect!

I followed him up on the bus and the manager closed the door in all the other fans’ faces. Bam! And there I was, thinking “oh crap… now what?”.

He totally changed his usual angry attitude, smiled and said: “I’ve seen you at every show. You seem to really enjoy the shows. So I thought I would do this. What have you got for me?”

He figured that I wanted something signed, and he was right. He signed everything, smiled, answered a few questions and was just very sweet. I’ve never seen Blackie like that.

So, it’s like every situation has had it’s own story and explanation. But I never got any “special treatment” just because I was a girl.

I used to take time off from school and hang all day outside a venue and watch the activity (I actually still enjoy doing that…) and there was always some bored bus driver or crew-guy who got curious and wanted to know what I was there for. We would end up talking, and a lot of times I would get invited to meet the band before or after the show. I never asked for it. They would offer.

And contrary to popular belief, very few (almost none) treated me like a groupie. I think I only got that shit maybe twice. One of them was David Lee Roth‘s bodyguard and the second one was some tour manager working for Megadeth back in the early 90’s. I got the “what’s in it for me?” crap, but I’d rather walk away than ever stoop to the groupie-level. Not my thing.

[David Lee Roth, not an easy man to get to stand still for two seconds…!]

I think I even had an advantage sometimes for not being just another groupie, which was otherwise extremely common back in the “good old days”.

I remember backstage after a Skid Row show in stockholm, I overheard Sebastian saying to his body guard “Get them out of here...” and nodded at the horde of stoked groupies. I quickly got up and started walking towards the exit. Didn’t want to get humiliated by being thrown out, I could walk myself thankyouverymuch…

Then I heard Sebastian yelling: “DANIELA!! WHERE ARE YOU GOING??”

“But you said…..”

“Not YOU! Get back in here!”

He totally cleared the backstage area but wanted me to stay, and we just spent the evening talking music. That was the only time groupies were not welcome backstage, by the way. Usually there was a whole smorgasbord of them after every show.

[With Sebastian after their opening gig with Guns n Roses in the Globe, Stockholm, 1991]

My point is that I think I distinguished myself a little back then, because I didn’t sleep with bands. Groupies were the big thing in the 80’s or 90’s – kind of part of the whole rock’n’roll dream package.

I was there because I loved their music with all my heart and they knew it. At the same time, I wasn’t a pain in the ass bringing my whole record collection to get it signed,  it was totally up to them if they wanted me around or not.

So, the answer to “how did you meet all those?” is – I was determined and lucky. Invested many hours waiting for the artists I wanted to meet.

After I got my job writing about hard rock for Kvällsposten (major Swedish newspaper) in 1988, I could have met all of those by just doing interviews. And a lot of times I did. It just wasn’t the same. And I was torn between my two roles – professional or fan, and I couldn’t get those two roles to co-exist for a very long time.

When I was doing interviews, I felt a responsibility to be a pro, cause I wasn’t representing myself, I was representing a newspaper, a magazine, a radio station or a TV-station. It didn’t feel right to start asking for autographs or telling them how much I admired their music. I would have lost all credibility if I had done that.

So I separated those two roles. But that also felt weird. Once again remembering Skid Row – I had done an interview with them at the hotel in London 1991 (they played Docklands, the time when Sebastian wiped his ass with a newspaper article he didn’t like, in front of a few thousand people…).

After the show, I was among the fans outside the hotel cause I just wanted to be a FAN. Vanessa Warwick, who was working for MTV’s Headbanger’s Ball back in those days) arrived in a taxi, and saw me among the fans. She gave me a puzzled look and I’m sure she didn’t understand why I would be freezing there in the middle of the night, when I had already met the band earlier that day under more professional circumstances.

That was precisely the point. I didn’t want to be “professional” with bands I really liked. I was more comfortable not “being worthy”.

But that was then. We’re talking 20+ years ago. I was young, my attitude was different, well – I was a different person. NOW I don’t think it’s much of a problem being a fan and a professional at the same time. Maybe cause I’m not nearly as starstruck as I used to be.

Things are just way more…”cool” nowadays. :-) In some cases I’ve even been a part of the business longer than some of the bands I meet, so I feel differently about it.
Thank god. It only took me a lifetime to learn how to deal with that stuff.

So – I guess that maybe answers the question I keep getting “How did you meet all those legends?” 

I just wanted to. The rest kind of happened by itself. :)