WORLD EXCLUSIVE: STEEL PANTHER’S STIXX ZADINIA REVEALS HE HAS NO INTERESTING STORIES ABOUT EITHER STEEL OR PANTHERS AND THAT IS OFFICIAL… (DID WE MENTION THAT THEY TOUR AUSTRALIA IN JUNE?)
STEEL PANTHER continue their sordid love affair with Australia in June off the back of their spectacular garage-based video ‘Live From Lexxxi’s Moms Garage’. We caught up with legendary Stixman, um Stix to talk about the things that matter.
The Rockpit: Thank you so much for taking the time to talk to Australia’s finest Rock website today. How are things?
Stix: Things are good dude, how are you?
The Rockpit: I’m so good thanks and looking forward to a probing interview today. You’re in Australia later this month, Canada in July and then Europe; it’s a busy time to be a Panther?
Stix: It is a busy time, but you know what; I like the tours that are coming up because we’re going to places where people are excited so it seems like a good portion of the year for us.
The Rockpit: It’s always good to have you back with us, it’s a lot of fun and you always bring some great bands with you: last time it was Buckcherry and Fozzy and this time its Black Stone Cherry’s first trip down here. So you guys not only put on a great show you also bring along some great bands too!
Stix: Oh man that’s really nice to hear, we’re really excited to have Black Stone Cherry, I don’t know how popular they are down there, are they?
Mark: Not yet!
Stix: (laughs) They’re really big in the UK and Europe and you guys are gonna be very, very happy because they are one of the rare real Rock bands out there, they’re great players, they put on a great show and they’re really cool guys so you guys are gonna be stoked !
Mark: I know I’ve been a big fan for years and been lucky enough to see them and you over the years. The first time I caught you was at the Key Club in LA and then the sadly defunct House of Blues so it’s cool to get you over to my backyard so regularly now. What is it about Australia that keeps you coming back, is it the warmth of the crowds or the hot women?
Stix: You know it’s the ladies! (laughs) It really is… When bands tour and you go to a place that seems to want you back as much as you can handle as a band, it’s just so much fan, because every time we go down it just gets bigger and better and bigger and better and you know you Australian’s are just so receptive to what we do it’s a great fit.
The Rockpit: I loved the new album, and it was such a great film. Were you disappointed not to get an Oscar Nomination for ‘Live From Lexxxi’s Moms Garage’? – Was it jealousy on the part of the establishment?
Stix: (laughs) it’s always a disappointment not to get an Oscar or a Grammy or a Tony or an Annie because I feel that we are worth them all wrapped up in one, but as long as our fans are digging what we’re doing honestly a trophy ain’t no thing for me. As a matter of fact we’re in the studio right now and we’re tracking all new songs for a new record which we have a title for but I can’t tell you what it’s called but I want to so bad!
The Rockpit: Can you give us a clue? Stix: (laughs) I can’t! If I were to I’d be betraying my brothers in the band, I want to so much… but I can’t!
The Rockpit: OK we’ll let you off that one then!
Stix: (laughs) The Rockpit: ‘Live From Lexxxi’s Moms Garage’ showed a tender side to the band with all the acoustic versions, have you guys got anything else special up your sleeves that you’re looking at in the future? Stix: You know as far as this new record goes the songs are really catchy and the subject matter might be very much the same but the songs are all so good and we really like all the ones that we’ve tracked. They’re rocking! Just rocking tracks and if you’re a Steel Panther fan you’re gonna be very stoked and if you’re not you’re just gonna go ‘Whoa! Those guys are ripping!’
The Rockpit: I think what I most like about you guys is the songs and the fact that you always manage to up the ante, just when you think you can’t get any funnier you are and just when you think you’ve heard all the riffs another killer one just smacks you in the face!
Stix: Thank you. For us and all the things that we do and say, and all the crazy pants that we wear at the heart of it are great songs, and that’s what we try to do because if you had four guys who weren’t good at writing songs and they were just entertaining type guys it would be like ‘Oh hey guys you guys really are funny, and you’re like really handsome, you look really good in your spandex ’ but if we didn’t have the songs you’d like be over it in five minutes!
The Rockpit: I think that’s the whole point, it’s great music, it’s the music that we love and you guys are bloody good at doing it!
Stix: Oh thank you.
The Rockpit: You’ve played with some great bands who have been the biggest badasses you’ve ever played with?
Stix: Hmmmm (laughs) well Def Leppard could write the book on how to tour and how to treat bands. Def Leppard I think more than any other band were the nicest group of guys and one of the best bands we’ve ever toured with. Motley Crue were, dicks… you know what? Mick Mars was super cool and Vince was cool, but Nikki and Tommy were just like eh… indifferent. I’m trying to think who else we’ve toured with … oh Judas Priest were fantastic! I mean as guys they’re great and as a band they’re fucking Judas Priest man! I mean those guys are not in their 20’s but they throw it down every night and it was an honor to tour with them, it was a great experience. Yeah, Priest and Def Leppard stand out for me.
The Rockpit: Some great bands for sure. Lemmy who we sadly lost a short while ago always said that he first got a guitar when he noticed it attracted girls? What first got you into music?
Stix: Well I was in third grade when I first hit a drum and I remember it clearly was at a friend’s house and he had a maroon drum kit, and I just hit it and I remember thinking ‘What the fuck!?’ I just loved being able to hit something, and to have that instant response you know? So for me it was the sound of it that I loved, I was too early for chicks in third grade but by fifth grade, I also played piano, so if I was at a party I would you know start banging around on that and I’d notice attention from chicks and as you get older you notice the attention sort of changes and the ‘intention’ begins! It’s true, and most guys, including myself, continue with music because of the chicks!
The Rockpit: Music is a wonderful thing! Stix: (laughs) The Rockpit: A couple of final questions from the internet, so bear with me on these (laughs). Do you have any funny stories about either Panthers or Steel?
Stix: (silence, followed by a long pause) No! (laughs)
The Rockpit: That was my answer as well!
Stix: (laughs) that will be my official answer… No!
The Rockpit: And the next cutting question is: ‘Is it more important to have great hair so remember the words to the songs’?
Stix: Great hair all day long! (laughs) Great hair sticks with you all day but a missing lyric is a fleeting moment! The Rockpit: (laughing) good answer I’m sure the person who asked that one will be able to sleep now! And the final one ‘What is the greatest drumming moment ever in the history of the world’?
Stix: Greatest drumming moment? That is a good one. You know it’s hard to say because I wasn’t there! (laughs) but I imagine the greatest drumming moment in the history of the world happened when the first humanoid hit something and moved other people with rhythm, and I would say that was the greatest drumming moment in the history of the world.
The Rockpit: That’s a good answer to a very good question and thank you for clearing that one up for us. The world needed to know! I think we just have a minute left so a couple of quick ones we ask all our interviewees. If you could have been a fly on the wall for the creation of any great album just to see how the magic happened, what would be the album for you and why?
Stix: Moving Pictures by Rush. You know I would have loved to have been there for that record. You know Alex Liefson’s guitar tech Jimmy Johnson, he ended up teching for Satchel for a little while and he first and foremost is a great dude and an awesome story teller and he was there for ‘2112’ and ‘Moving Pictures’, and it’s not that I’m the world’s biggest Rush fan but that album was such a part of my youth, and the tones on that record! When you hear that first note of Tom Sawyer, that first ‘ooommm’ I would have loved to see if they knew what they were creating was that special!
The Rockpit: I saw them play that live at the Gibson Amphitheatre a few years back, it was pretty special.
Stix: You hear that first note and it’s primal, it hits you. Any time you want to test a new stereo out in your car that’s the first song you put it on and it’s ‘Fuck yes!’
The Rockpit: And the final question, the easy one to close with ‘What is the meaning of life’?
Stix: Vagina!
The Rockpit: (laughs) philosophers have pondered that for years and there we have it in a word! You’ll be surprised to hear that is the first time we’ve had that answer, but probably not the last!
Stix: No way Mark, no way!
The Rockpit: Even David Coverdale didn’t give that answer and based on his lyrics and I was hoping he would.
Stix: Totally! That’s the reason anyone does anything at the end of the day!
The Rockpit: That’s what gets us all up in the morning! Thank you so much for taking the time to speak to us today!
Stix: Totally! Mark I appreciate it thank you very much man see you when we get out there!
Catch Steel Panther on their Australian Tour June 2016
Friday, 17th June – Big Top, Sydney
Tickets: Oztix
Saturday, 18th June – Festival Hall, Melbourne
Tickets: Ticketmaster
Monday, 20th June – Eatons Hill Hotel, Brisbane
Tickets: Oztix
Wednesday, 22nd June – Thebarton Theatre, Adelaide
Tickets: Ticketmaster
Thursday, 23rd June – Metro City, Perth
Tickets: Megatix
Sunday, 26th June – Powerstation, Auckland
