For those that have made the trip to the West Coast of America to check out the legendary Sunset Strip (remember those days?) you may well be familiar with the legendary ‘Hookers and Blow’ formed in 2003 by Guns ‘n’ Roses keyboardist Dizzy Reed and Quiet Riot guitarist Alex Grossi. Originally conceived as a method of obtaining free drinks on The Strip the band has been belting out covers for almost 20 years now and finally we have an album for those that haven’t managed to capture the band live. Over the past 15 years the band has included Todd Kerns (Slash), Chip Z’ Nuff (Enuff Z’ Nuff), Mike Dupke (WASP), Scott Griffin (LA Guns) as well as comedian Don Jamieson from ‘That Metal Show’ among others. We caught up with Alex to find out more.
Mark: Hey Alex, how you doing?
Alex: Good! How’s things with you Mark?
Mark: Not too bad, how’s Vegas?
Alex: Good, I moved here about eight years ago.
Mark: It’s a sad day to wake up here in Australia to the news that we’ve lost one of the members of one of the seminal bands you’ve covered on the Hookers & Blow album has left us, Charlie Watts.
Alex: I know I got that as soon as I woke up this morning, I couldn’t believe it. You don’t picture a guy like that passing away, he’s been around so long and never really stopped, a constant in all out lives, but you know we’re all human.
Mark: I know he’s been making music longer than either of us have been alive. ‘Rocks Off’ teh Stones song that you start the album with has always been one of my favourite Stones songs – what about you? What’s your favourite?
Alex: I think my favourite Stones song is ‘You Can’t always get what you want’
Mark: Great song. I think a lot of people will be playing that one today.
Mark: Hookers & Blow have been around for almost 20 years now – you and Dizzy must have had a fair few free drinks over the years?
Alex: Oh yeah! Free and not free!
Mark: I remember seeing you many years ago on the Strip, I’m not sure who was in the band that night but you’ve had many in the ranks over the years.
Alex: Well Dizzy and I started the band we’re kind of like the Gene and Paul of Hookers & Blow and we’ve had a bunch of different drummers and bass players but you know the whole thing came about almost 20 years ago in Hollywood and it’s definitely grown legs. And we finally after about our 13th or 15th little anniversary bus tour that we did, we decided to make a record and Golden Robot had put out Dizzy’s solo record so we had a talk and the next thing you know we’re in the studio.
Mark: Was it always the intention of doing a studio recording? As some who has seen the band I would have loved to have heard a live album from Hookers & Blow as well?
Alex: No you don’t! (laughs) No you don’t! (laughs)
Mark: (laughs)
Alex: You have to be there, it doesn’t translate, trust me! (laughs)
Mark: Aside from Hookers, I feel like I’ve known you as a musician for many years as I’ve loved a lot of music from a lot of the bands you’ve been with over the years . One of the last things I did when we got the interview was watch the new Beautiful Creatures live sho, but you weren’t there at the time.
Alex: Yeah I think that was one of DJ Ashba’s last shows before I joined the band. When I moved to Hollywood in 2000, or 2001 I was doing a bunch of little hired-gun gigs, I was playing with whatever label would pay me to work with their new up-and-coming artist, I played in a hardcore Punk band that played all over the world called ‘Ignite’, actually we toured Australia…
Mark: Yeah you played here.
Alex: That’s right in 2007. Beautiful Creatures though really got me back into what I grew up listening to which was 80’s hard rock – classic AC/DC, Guns ‘n’ Roses type stuff, and that kind of bridged me to where I met Kevin DuBrow who took me under his wing and the next thing you know I’m in Quiet Riot.
Mark: Yes and the legacy still goes on.
Alex: Absolutely, yeah.
Mark: I spoke to Frankie (Banali) many times over the years, he was always a wonderful guy to talk to, it was so sad when he departed and we also just passed the anniversary of the death of Jani Lane who you also played with.
Alex: Yeah, ten years ago, it seems like yesterday, it’s crazy.
Mark: I for one am very definitely in the camp of the music of Quiet Riot being what’s important, and I’m just so glad you guys are continuing to take that forward as well.
Alex: Yeah, it’s been going very well and we didn’t know what was going to happen after Frankie passed, but we’re honouring his wishes and we have Rudy Sarzo coming back and it’s working out, you know. It just goes to show the strength of those songs and the brand and the legacy of it. I’m very happy to have been a part of it for almost 20 years now.
Mark: You also played on a couple of Bang Tango albums and also ‘Deuce’ with Beautiful Creatures but you’ve also been involved with everyone from Skid Row, Steven Adler, even Love/Hate, I didn’t know about the Love/Hate connection?
Alex: You know the Love/Hate connection, I did two tours with them – with Jizzy and his version of Love/Hate – they had a semi-reunion in Los Angeles and one of the guys couldn’t travel to the UK and I had to go to the UK and fill in for him. That was 2006, I did about 20 shows with them in 2006. And then in 2008 I booked this thing called the ‘Dizzy Jizzy Tour’ with Dizzy Reed and Jizzy Pearl sharing a bus and a common band and we did an hour of Love/Hate songs and an hour of Hookers & Blow material. It was pretty crazy! I’m surprised we survived that tour to be honest with you (laughs)
Mark: (laughs) Well you’ve got form for doing huge tours like that, didn’t you also do that Tour a few years later when you were playing with multiple bands?
Alex: Oh ‘The Bad Boys of Metal’! That was Kevin DuBrow, Quiet Riot, Jani Lane, Warrant, Steven Adler and then Bang Tango opened. I played with four of the bands! (laughs) I was on stage for like 4 hours a night playing, shit, 50 songs or something.
Mark: That’s crazy. I love the new album, it’s a wonderful party album, great songs, and I love the mix as well, it’s pretty eclectic. I love that you have a couple of Zeppelin and a couple of Stones tunes, but you’ve also got some wild cards like ‘Body Count’ and ‘Eddie Money’ – whose final say was the track-listing? Did you all get to pick a few?
Alex: It was definitely a democracy, we all added our little touch to everything, but you know Dizzy was adamant about ‘Rocks Off’ and I’d never even heard the song before and then I picked out a few that he’d never heard before as I’m a little bit younger. So it was a great collaboration where we all got to do what we wanted to add to it while still keeping true to the original song structure and vibe and arrangement for the most part.
Mark: And then the party numbers – The Beastie Boys ‘Fight For Your Right’ and I’ve always loved Elton’s ‘Saturday Night’s Alright For Fighting’ – those will get any room moving. Have you got any Hookers & Blow dates lined up? Down here we’re looking at the US jealously as tours start opening up, but there have been a few cancellations too.
Alex: Well we were supposed to go to Australia in 2020 when the pandemic hit, we were in negotiations with a talent buyer down there and then come March everything shut down. So we’re in the pipeline to come down there when everything clears up, so I would imagine hopefully, fingers-crossed, some time in 2022.
Mark: Hopefully.
Alex: It’s interesting it changes day by day. Here in America venues are still cancelling stuff because of Covid and tours are still being pulled because of Covid – be it because of restrictions or because someone in their entourage got sick or because they’re just flat out being cautious, so it’s kind of everywhere but to what degree depends on where you’re at. It’s still here, we’re not out of the woods yet for sure.
Mark: It’s incredibly hard for every musician out there. Have you found it’s been a creative time for you – have you had the time to get onto projects that you otherwise might not have had the time to devote to if you’d been out there on the road with your various bands?
Alex: You know what. absolutely, because they say necessity is the mother of invention, so when we shut down all the studios that I use out here in Las Vegas closed so I had yo go out and buy a little Pro Tools rig and a little interface and build a home studio, which I never really had properly done before. So I spent the last couple of months of 2020 learning to record, so I’d say 50% of the guitar solos on the Hookers & Blow record were done from my home studio here. They had to be because everything was closed.
Mark: One of the few benefits of technology! I have to ask, even though I know how very busy you are with everything you have on the go – what about a solo album? Not one of my questions, just one a reader has sent in.
Alex: What like as a guitar-player? A Joe Satriani type thing? Nah, not really. This is my solo album in a way, it’s my band and this is exactly what I wanted to do. Usually solo albums come about because someone’s not given their creative freedom in their current situation, so to get that out of them they do a solo record. I don’t have that problem, so this is my solo record.
Mark: That’s great to hear. You’ve been writing for many years and I actually managed to go all the way back and track down Angry Salad’s ‘Bizarre Gardening Accident’ album…
Alex: (laughs) Oh man yeah!
Mark: It’s interesting.
Alex: (laughs) I was like 19 years old when that came out and it landed us a record deal with Atlantic, and that was really a cool time as it was before Napster and labels still spent a ridiculous amount of money on records. We go to do what we wanted and blow some of Atlantic’s money on a record , but you know, it came out and didn’t really do all that well and the next thing you know I’m moving to L.A. after being dropped by Atlantic. But I did it! Before I was old enough to buy alcohol! (laughs)
Mark: And almost 20 years later the move is going fantastically well. Which leads me to my next question – where did it all start for you? You were teaching guitar at 17 so you must have started really young?
Alex: No I started when I was 14 or 15. My parents are both performers and in the arts, so it’s kind of in my blood I think. But I took to it very quickly.
Mark: What set you off though? Was there like a defining moment? Was it something you heard?
Alex: My grandfather was a working musician, he was very working class, a guy who worked constantly. He’d do weddings, local bars in Connecticut and whatnot. I had been playing the French Horn in school band in Middle School and early High School. He passed away from cancer sadly when he was still in his 50’s, and one of the last times we ever talked to each other he told me “Ditch the French Horn and get a guitar – you’ll make a lot more money with it. It’s a lot easier and the girls like it.”
Mark: (laughs)
Alex: So I took his advice!
Mark: Sound advice and so much netter to hear a guitar than a French Horn in a Rock band! (laughs)
Alex: (laughs)
Mark: As I said earlier you’ve gone on to make some wonderful music over the years, none more so I think than ‘Hotel Diablo’.
Alex: That was a great record, I’m really proud of that. You can thank Gilby Clarke for that because the singer if that band was working with Gilby on his record and when we started writing together Gilby called me and said “I want to produce the record” and even though we had no budget because he was into it he really brought that thing to the next level, so you can thank Gilby for that. That was a lot of fun and actually if you want to hear what I would do as a solo record – there it is!
Mark: Definitely one to check out. You’ve also contributed to some great albums like Quiet Riot’s ‘Rehab.’
Alex: Well that one, I didn’t actually play on, but I wrote on it – I wrote a bunch of songs for that with Kevin and a couple of them made t onto the record. Before that I played with a band called ‘Ignite’ and played on their record ‘Our Darkest Days’ which came out on Century Media in 2006 I believe. And I did a record with Amie Allen who is now the led singer of The Interrupters and they’re on tour with Green Day, Fall Out Boy and Weezer. But I’ve always liked doing different things to broaden my horizons.
Mark: A few Steven Adler singles as well, another guys who has been over to see us in the past.
Alex: Yep.
Mark: What do you most enjoy? Is it the live work or the being creative in the studio?
Alex: For me it’s just about doing what you love for a living. I love the business side of it, the artistic part of it and playing guitar for a cool audience. The main thing is being around people who are like-minded, you know. Most people who moved to L.A. from a small town like I did – they have the same story. It’s kinda cliché, but that’s how it goes, you know. Either you sty in your hometown of ‘Bumfuck, Iowa’ or you get out and go to Los Angeles, because it’s not going to come to you. The world isn’t going to come to you.
Mark: (laughs) I’ve looked for that place many a time on maps, but not been able to find it yet, but we’ve got a few similar towns over here.
Alex: (laughs) Every State and every Country has a ‘Bumfuck’
Mark: (laughs) Just a couple of traditional questions to close – the first is ‘If you could have been a ‘fly on the wall’ in the studio for the recording of any great album of the past, what would you have liked to see coming together?
Alex: I would have loved to have been a ‘fly on the wall’ to have heard Ram Jam create ‘Black Betty’ (The American band’s take on the traditional work song or the Lead Belly classic whichever you believe)
Mark: One of the great Rock songs.
Alex: You have to watch the video, it’s a great video.
Mark: From a cool album too.
Alex: I would have loved to have been there just for that one song.
Mark: And now the easy one to close ‘What is the meaning of life?’
Alex: Honestly, just be a good person and the golden rule, treat people the way you want to be treated, and enjoy yourself because you never know what tomorrow is going to be, you know. Not live every day like it’s your last, but never go to sleep at night with anything left unresolved because you never know.
Mark: Good advice. Thank you so much for checking in Alex, it’s been great to chat. Hope to see you up on stage again one day soon. I actually saw you at the first Rocklahoma.
Alex: That was with Quiet Riot. Great times
Mark: And then I think a couple of years later with both Bang Tango and Beautiful Creatures at the same Festival.
Alex: Yes 2009 I did both shows – doubling up again! (laughs)
Mark: The good old days when it was still very much an 80’s Festival.
Alex: I know I don’t know what happened to it.
Mark: Take care and stay safe, mate,
Alex: Thank you for having me Mark, hopefully we’ll see you down there soon.
Mark: I’ll be there!
Alex: Rock and Roll!
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