As far as my personal Metal education goes I started rather late, being far more entranced by the sounds of Heavy Rock and the likes of Humble Pie and Led Zeppelin than the more metallic tones of an Ozzy-fronted Sabbath or a questionably attired Judas Priest. One of the albums that led me to broaden my horizon along with the nascent Iron Maiden was Manowar’s Battle Hymns – an album that musically just hit the nail on the head. Sure it was ‘over the top’ and yes those men were wearing loincloths, something rather ‘Dungeons and Dragons even to a kid who still played the game. Hell part of me even wants to argue that Manowar was 20 years too early and would have been the perfect soundtrack to the Lord of the Rings movies or Game of Thrones…
Now Ross the Boss is back in Australia with the Ross the Boss Band ready to treat us to an evening with the music of Manowar!
Mark: Hi, Ross, how are you, this is Mark calling from The Rockpit in Australia. We almost saw you a few years ago with Death Dealer back in 2016, but you’re finally coming over with the Manowar catalogue at the end of April. I think the only time you would have been over before would have been with The Dictators?
Ross: Yes, I can’t quite remember the year, but it was with The Dictators.
Mark: Have there been opportunities to come over in the past, it seems like a couple of times over a career such as yours isn’t much!
Ross: No, as a matter of fact I sometimes wonder why we haven’t been to Australia more, but hopefully now with our tour, with the four shows it’s going to set a precedent with the promoters and we’re going to come, maybe once a year we’d like to come.
Mark: That would be fantastic! You’ve got a new album out with the Ross the Boss band on April 20th, there’s already a video out there which is pretty cool, and on that album you’ve chosen to revisit a few Manowar songs. How on earth did you manage to choose which songs to play?
Ross: That’s a good question. You know a lot of people have been asking me how did you choose them. Well we’ve been playing them live in our Ross the Boss shows and I always wanted to hear those songs done again the way I’ve been wanting to do them, I had my own concept, and I was never really super happy with the mixes or the original records, so I could get to do them again as a do over which was really, really great, I love do overs!!
Mark: I guess it is fantastic to re visit your work and either bring it up to date, or just fix those little bits that you always had a bit of a problem with.
Ross: Yeah, but this time I got to re do it over from the beginning.
Mark: Tell us about the sound of the album, what should we expect?
Ross: Well, that’s another good question. We wanted to record an organic, old school record, it’s definitely not a computer driven drum mix record like most of the metal bands are putting out today. It’s a totally organic record, we played live in the studio and we really went for the live feel, you want to make it as good as you can, but a little mistake here and there, we didn’t care about.
Mark: Yeah, all the classic albums have little mistakes on there!
Ross; Yeah, it’s the feeling of the whole thing, and that’s what made the early Manowar records great.
Mark: So, who’s in the band? Tell us about the guys you’ve got with you, there’s quite a pedigree there and it sounds great!
Ross: Yes, we have an amazing band! On bass we have Mike Lepond, he is probably the best bass player in the world, in my opinion, and he’s an incredible guy and an amazing song writer, and we wrote together on this record. Then we have our lead singer, Marc Lopes, he’s an amazing guy and a great front man, he has a tonne of energy and he brings an amazing set of lyrics and he came up with all the metal hooks on the record, vocally and lyric wise, and he’s able to sing live, so we are very happy! A great guy, and then our drummer to fill out the band, is my nephew, Lance Barnewold, he plays drums on the record, he’s 23 years old, he plays in a band and for the live touring he’s going to be staying home, he plays guitar with his band so he’ll be working with them. So we have Death Dealers drummer Steve Bolognese touring with us, he plays with Into Eternity, and he also teaches at Berkeley, he’s an incredible drummer, so the band are very, very good! Deadly good!!
Mark: It’s sounding fantastic. Take us all the way back, to 1980 when you formed Manowar, and you came up with the concept of true metal, you’d been in The Dictators and a few other bands, what was it that drove you to play that kind of metal music?
Ross: I think we’ve touched on this before; it’s just the way it happened!! We wanted to make a metal band, and we wanted to make it as heavy as it could possibly be and that’s what came out, Manowar, we didn’t want to be the denim and leather kind of band like Judas Priest, Iron Maiden, Saxon, we loved them but we wanted to take it a little bit further, and so like animal furs and barbarians were a little bit further than all that, so that’s how we got to that!
Mark: Yes, and look at all the bands you’ve inspired. New York, to me always seemed to throw up a lot more variety in rock music, especially, rather than the West Coast, why do you think that is?
Ross: Because we’re smarter!!
Mark: Good answer!! One of the questions I’ve always wanted to ask, is, you played at the closing of CGGB’s, I’m a big Punk fan, and a big fan of the seventies scene in New York. You’re one of the few artists that stride both those worlds, Punk and Metal, is there anyone else out there like you who’s equally comfortable in both those worlds?
Ross: I don’t know, I’m not aware of anyone who’s done that, I mean, I created The Dictators band with Andy, and helped create American Punk, and I created Manowar with Joey DeMaio, which definitely created Power Metal, so, it’s hard to say, I don’t know! When people say to me, Ross, do you realise what you’ve done, I say I didn’t realise what I was doing when I did it!! Now, I can look back on my life and my career, I can think, “holy shit” you definitely did something good!
Mark: You definitely did something good for the world of music, and made a lot of people very happy, and you still continue to do so!
Ross: That’s my thing, my pursuit of music and my pursuit of excellence, if I’m happy that’s what keeps me moving you know, I don’t sit on my ass, I’m a workaholic and that’s why I keep grinding them out!
Mark: And at the end of the day it’s all just Rock and Roll!
Ross: That’s right; it’s Rock and roll, that’s what it is! Manowar forgot about that when they made me leave!
Mark: The set you’re bringing to Australia draws on those first six classic albums, which, in truth I don’t think Manowar that followed that, didn’t get anywhere near! Obviously everyone has a soft spot for “Battle Hymns”, and I love that album, it’s one I never get tired of playing, but what was your favourite period of the time you were in the band?
Ross: I would say forming the band, struggling, finally getting the record contract, getting started, getting the money, building the equipment and getting Orson Welles on the record and “Battle Hymns” coming out! People having absolutely no idea what the fuck we are and what we were trying to do and then getting that band together and finally after three albums making it to Europe, making it to England. That was the greatest thing to do.
Mark: That’s where I first saw you playing over there many years ago which brings back some fantastic memories when you get over here in April. The website has some fantastic artwork on there as well, the album cover is looking great. How did you find the artist and did you have a concept that you gave him?
Ross: Yes we did, Stan W. Decker, we had a whole bunch of candidates of artists. We love Stan, he really impressed us the most that we contacted him and he’s French and it turns out he’s a huge Shakin’ Street fan and Manowar fan but Shakin’ Street is a French name and he went crazy and said, ‘I’m going to make you the best album cover you ever had’, and I think he done it.
Mark: You played with Shakin’ Street of course, are you stil fluent in French?
Ross: Just a little bit. It was a long time ago.
Mark: I love the way that the artwork has the eagle behind the figure and obviously there’s the sword on there but with that sort of molten metal eagle so it seems to almost be like that cover of “Battle Hymns”. Was that part of the concept?
Ross: Yeah I kind of like my eagle on my solo records present as my spirit so it kind of symbolizes me. So the eagle we couldn’t take it away but you couldn’t take Eddie away from Iron Maiden so the eagle is behind me rising like a phoenix.
Mark: That’s fantastic! You just played the US, how did those dates go?
Ross: US was very good, Canada was really great. America is not as great as Europe but still OK. I’ve never played the US with Ross The Boss so we made a lot of fans and hopefully the scene is getting a little better, Judas Priest has had a successful record so the US is getting there. Still nowhere near Canada, Europe and Australia, South America, Japan, nowhere near.
Mark: And talking of Europe which is where you are heading next, it’s a great place for metal. How healthy is the scene these days a someone who has been involved in the industry and been playing music for decades now?
Ross: Europe is always great, Europe is fantastic. European culture is about heavy metal, it’s part of their culture with warriors and power and struggle and war. It’s ingrained in their culture so it’s amazing.
Mark: Every time I head back there it just seems to get stronger and stronger, there’s definitely an appetite for it. After that you come see us for a fleeting tour of 4 dates down the east coast, a lot of West Australian fans out there are heading over east to see you. I think there’s about 20 people heading over from Perth where we are based to come and see that show in Adelaide so they’re travelling for you.
Ross: Amazing!
Mark: Can you take all the way back for us, I know you played other instruments before you picked up the guitar but what was it like the first time you actually picked up an instrument?
Ross: When I first picked up the guitar I thought I was cool, I thought if I could play Beatles chords I would be popular with the girls. Every guy playing guitar would be popular with girls so if you played guitar you won! But I really learned the instrument very fast but growing up I had extremely high musical aptitude, that’s from my theory teacher. I studied piano and violin when I was very young and they said your musical aptitude is off the charts so that was good, so playing guitar was easy. I mean it’s not easy but it fell into me and I really embraced the blues, that’s my first music, my first love is the blues.
Mark: And you dipped into the blues over your career which is fantastic. Obviously we’ll come see you with Ross The Boss band at the moment but is there anything you feel that you have just not done so far in your career that you would like to get to eventually?
Ross: Yes I just said it, it’s blues. Gotta be a blues record that I want to do, absolutely. Before I die I’m going to make a really great blues record, definitely. I don’t know when or with who but it will happen, guaranteed!
Mark: As someone who’s been in metal for so long, you must have your favorites. What bands out there has really did it for you as far as metal bands go?
Ross: Oh that’s easy, Black Sabbath.
Mark: Just the one?
Ross: Black Sabbath, early Judas Priest, Led Zeppelin. A lot of other bands are my contemporaries but I don’t really know much about them but the bands that are sent to me when I was young like Judas Priest I started following in the 70’s but the Yardbirds are the godfathers of metal.
Mark: fantastic! And a quick one that we always close with, what is the meaning of life?
Ross: The meaning of life is EABGBE.
Mark: [laughs] Good answer, no one has ever given us that one before!
Ross: You know what I just said right?
Mark: Yes [laughs]
Ross: [aughs]
Mark: First time anyone ever said that though! It’s fantastic to speak to you Ross, can’t wait to see you down under. You take care mate and have a blast when you get here.
Ross: Well we’re so honoured to be coming, can’t wait to meet you so thank you!
TOUR DATES
Thursday, April 26: The Bald Faced Stag, Sydney
www.facebook.com/events/2034045880213454
Friday, April 27: Fowler’s Live. Adelaide
www.facebook.com/events/1753035954768234
Saturday, April 28: The Croxton, Melbourne
www.facebook.com/events/354317774978250
Tickets are $55 + bf
On Sale Now! + VIP Packages Available
www.dinnerforwolves.com
www.facebook.com/rossthebossofficial
www.facebook.com/dinnerforwolves
