A couple of years back now EMN dropped the ‘Grind EP’. It was a great piece of work that contained 5 new tracks, their first new material since the ‘Deeper Shade of Grey’ album in 2002. That EP has now been picked up and repackaged with 3 further new tracks and 3 live songs to form the new ‘Grind’ album. The release also adds the new video for ‘Push’ along with the two previously released videos for ‘Blown Away’ and ‘Loco Crazy’. We caught up with Rick Ruhl to talk all about the new album and what’s next for EMN.
Mark: Thank you so much for talking to The Rockpit today Rick, how’s the weather where you are?
Rick: (laughs) Believe it or not it’s finally started to cool down, it’s bout 70 degrees and it’s tolerable!
Mark: (laughs) I like that! Tolerable!
Mark: There’s a great new album out from EMN but I just have to say I think as far as debut albums go that yours in up there with my very favourites.
Rick: Oh the old record! (laughs)
Mark: ‘Grind’ though – the new album is pretty damned cool too, we can’t stop spinning it at the minute.
Rick: Well thank you man, we’re just old rock and rollers, we just met up with Justin Rimer, I love the stuff he’s been producing, so we got with him and kinda talked him into putting his little spin on an eighties rock band just to see what it would come out like you know. We kind of mashed our style with his and it came out pretty cool, I’m loving it. It’s different but it’s still us it’s got more of a modern lean to it but it’s still Rock and Roll!
Mark: It’s definitely Rock and Roll and that’s what I love about it, pure and honest Rock and Roll. I’ve only ever seen you guys live once at Rocklahoma in 2009 along with Tora Tora, Black and Blue, Lynch Mob, Kix, Warrant and Cinderella – what a great line up!
Rick: Oh lord! Tornado-fest!
Mark: I was hoping back then that we’d get a new album,but it took a few more years.
Rick: Yeah I think that when we came out with ‘Delta Voodoo’ before that we just didn’t have the label,music had changed, radio had changed and the label we were on was real small and didn’t have a lot of push, you know,and we just went out there and had a ball.That’s probably the album I’m most proud of the ‘Delta Voodoo’ record. (laughs) maybe because I had to sell my car to do it!
Mark: (laughs) hopefully you got a new car after that!
Rick: well I’m working on it! (laughs)
Mark: It’s 30 years since you formed in 1987 and obviously the band’s changed a bit since then, what’s the scene for Hard Rock like where you are now?
Rick: I think it’s changed, you know we were the biggest band no one ever heard of, back in the radio days you got pigeon-holed into being, you know, a ballad band or a certain type of band, but with the internet it lets you find some great bands. And I like everything from Punk to Bluegrass, if it’s good it’s out there. I think the Internet’s turned people onto a lot more good stuff than radio did.
Mark: You got signed pretty early back in the day I think you’d only played a dozen or so shows?
Rick: Yeah we did 13 I think.
Mark: What was the feeling back then? Was there a feeling that there was a real chance to make it on a label like Arista? They didn’t have many rock bands, were you happy with the way you were treated?
Rick: Oh yeah I think the way I was looking at it was I went with Arista because of Clive Davis, he was a legend and he signed some pretty major people and they didn’t have a lot of Rock bands but I figured if I was on a label with 50 Rock bands I wouldn’t get as much attention or as much of a push as on a label with someone like him who was into it,so I just went with my gut. What maybe went against us was our lack of shows, we;d got a deal but we were up against the big guys, bands from The Stones down that had played for years. We were just young and it took a while to learn but it was worth it.
Mark: You got some great tours and some fantastic reviews so the feeling must have been pretty high, then the second album ‘Wake Up Screaming’ was great too and I hear echoes of that sound in ‘Grind’, you’ve not strayed too far away from that Bluesy Rock and Roll.
Rick: That’s it man, we play what we live and we live what we play. You can’t stray too far from good old Rock and Roll!
Mark: The new album ‘Grind’ comes out on HighVol Music on the 6th of October and I think you just filmed a new video for ‘Swing Again’ which is one of my favourite tracks on there, is that done and dusted?
Rick: Yeah that’s ready now, it’s the first single from the new album, I kind of like that song because we went at it with a whole new approach you know. We just pretty much let it go wild until the chorus and then went back to a 4/4 groove, man it fell together good.
Mark: You’ve also got some great guests on ‘Grind’ Zach from Shinedown plays on one track, and I think you were probably the first person to ever record him when he was starting out?
Rick: Yeah, I’ve known him since he was about 11 or 12 years old, his guitar was bigger than him (laughs) When we started recording I ran into him and said hey you wanna play on this album? And he was gracious enough to do that because his band, you know is riding pretty high right now, so it’s great of him to come and mess with an 80’s band like us. And we’ve also got Wayne Swinny (of Saliva) who I’ve known forever and he’s a phenomenal guitar player.
Mark: And that’s a great cameo too, but you’ve also got one of my all time heroes on there too, the man himself Big Jim Dandy Mangrum!
Rick: Big Jim! Man that dude you can sit for like three hours and he’ll tell you story after story.He came to the studio one night and we had this little Southern song you know, my Sunday morning hangover song! I let him hear it three times and I said if you feel like doing something on it? And he started doing his thing and it came out good!
Mark: Definitely one of my favourites. You put out the ‘Grind’ EP back in 2015 and that’s all there on the album along with 3 new tracks and 3 live tracks – did you end up with any other material? Is there more new stuff to come?
Rick: We’ve three or fur more that we’ve written since then and we have two more from that session that we didn’t get to record. When we first started and did that five song EP we were just kinda selling it out of the trunk and we ran into Bill Chavis and he told me “Man lets do a whole record”. So I just jumped in the studio, I had three songs ready to go and I threw those down and we happened to be doing a benefit for Patrick Francis (Tora Tora’s bass player who was diagnosed with cancer last year) and that got recorded as a DVD and I saw all the footage and we used some of those live tracks. It’s not perfect but it’s got the feel, so I figured we’d throw them on there, the songs are good why not, it’s a little more bang for the buck! You get the videos and the songs too!
Mark: Your voice is sounding fantastic, probably even better than it used to. What’s the secret?
Rick: I just learned how to sing in tune! (laughs)
Mark: (laughing)
Rick: Oh man there’s no secret, we go with it man. We have a big shot of whisky and just go out and scream!
Mark: Did you record the whole show?
Rick: I think that there were five songs but we just put out the first three but we didn’t have the rights to the others, the guy that did the recording bought the rights to the others. So there’s probably a couple more that might turn up here or there.
Mark: The best thing about the new album is just how good the new tracks are, everything from the ones you’ve done the videos for: ‘Blown Away’ and ‘Loco Crazy’ to ‘Snake’ which I think is my favourite at the moment.
Rick: Yeah that’s one of my favourites too, that’s my love song to my girlfriend (laughs)
Mark: (laughs) And that’s the track with Wayne from Saliva on there, he does a great job.
Rick: Yeah man he came in and tore it upon there. When I moved to Memphis he was one of the first people I met, he was playing n another band and we kind of hooked up with them guys, and it feels like we’ve been friends forever.I sold him one of my Les Pauls, good guy!
Mark: So where can we see you live? I see a few dates up there from September to November, but there’s talk of a tour with Kix? Is that still going ahead as planned?
Rick: Well yeah, I don’t know how many shows we’re doing with Kix but the first one is November 4 in Detroit, then we’re doing a show in Mississippi for a radio 40th Anniversary party, you now what it’s like setting up a tour the dates change and at the moment I just don’t know what they are, but I’ve got a lot of people asking what we’re gonna do. But we’re coming everywhere! Five guys drunk in a bus! (laughs)
Mark: (laughing) You’ll get in front of a good few people at the Brett Michaels show I’ll bet.
Rick: Oh yeah for sure, it’s for the radio station here in Memphis, it’s their 40th Anniversary party. They asked us and Tora Tora, and Roxy Blue and Bret Michaels of course. It should be real good.
Mark: I’ll have to try and get over for that one, you mentioned three great bands there – Every Mother’s Nightmare, Roxy Blue and Tora Tora – three great bands! I can go without the Brett Michaels but…
Rick: (laughing) both those bands have great song writers and Tod Poole (Roxy Blue) he’s a great singer, we’ve all been around the longest time! We rode it out right!
Mark: (laughing) You did you made it out the other side! And we’re so glad that you’re all still out there playing for us. Not only that still making great new music in your case. Let’s take it all the way back now, when did you know that music was going to play such an important role in your life?
Rick: Man I think for me it was when I went to see Alice Cooper on the ‘Welcome to My Nightmare’ Tour. I’ve always loved and been around his stuff but when I saw that show, just how big that show was. I just knew then and I started to write songs.
Mark: It’s interesting that you mention Alice because I sometimes get a little burst of Alice in some of your songs – maybe like in ‘Loco Crazy’?
Rick: Oh yeah man, that’s what I started out with, I loved ‘Welcome to My nightmare’ and by the time I was ten I knew word for word every breath of that thing. I’ve been a fan all these years but also Marshall Tucker, Wet Willie all that stuff too. Good music was always around.
Mark: 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 it be and why? What’s the album that you’ve always loved?
Rick: Oh man, there’s a lot of those! I really would have loved to have been in the studio for ‘Back in Black’ such a difficult tie of transition, but they had to know when they recorded it that “this fucking thing is awesome!” I’d love to have been there just to see the creative process of it.
Mark: Every song a killer!
Rick: Oh man yeah we was listening to it the other day when we were working and every song you know it by heart, you’ve heard it a million times, they have done it all!
Mark: It would be nice to have just a little slice of their catalogue.
Rick: (laughs) A quarter of a piece of a half of a piece!
Mark: (laughing) And we always end with the easiest question: What is the meaning of life?
Rick: The meaning of life to me is doing what you love even if you don’t make a whole lot of money doing it. If you’ve got ten people into it I’d still do it, that’s a good day for me. Just doing what you love and loving what you do.
Mark: The perfect answer and my thoughts exactly. Thank you so much for talking to us today Rick, it’s a great album ‘Grind’ and I’d suggest that everyone out there goes out there and grabs a copy. It’s just real good Rock and Roll.
Rick: I sure appreciate that ! That’s what we do Rock and Roll and act crazy! Thanks brother!
EVERY MOTHER’S NIGHTMARE release ‘Grind‘, on October 6, 2017 via HighVolMusic.
