Corey Glover of the super influential band Living Colour came into the Baltimore area with his solo band and showed us all how a true and inspirational front man is suppose to be. Before he hit the stage at FishHead Cantina, Empire Extreme sat down with Corey and had an amazing one on one chat.

Empire: You just came back from South America with Living Colour, how was that?

Corey: It was great, we went to Chile, two spots in Argentina and São Paulo Brazil. The fans there were great the audiences were amazing.

Empire: Have you done that area before?

Corey: Yeah, we haven’t been there for like 7-8 years though. It was long overdue.

Empire: Did you guys think Cult of Personality would blow up as big as it did?

Corey: We thought it was a good song, there’s a bunch of songs throughout all our records that you can look back and say, wow that really did happen. With Cult we were talking about Ronald Regan then and now it continues, it happens all the time. Which way to America is still relevant, all this stuff is still an issue, it makes you think the more things change the more they stay the same.

Empire: Yeah those songs are timeless don’t have a lock on any time period.

Corey: Ya, you can still listen to them now or 30 years later and still understand the message.

Empire: You guys won the first hard rock performance award at the Grammys and then won again the next year, how was that?

Corey: The first time was a complete shock, the second time was a shock too because we weren’t there.(Laughs) But it opens up eyes and ears to our music and gets there attention. The first time we had no idea, we happened to be playing that night on the Grammys. It was a real surprise to us, when they announced it you can audible hear someone say “oh shit”

Empire: You we’re in the movie Platoon, how was that and working with Willem Dafoe?

Corey: Willem was great, all the folks that came out of that movie went on to be something and do something. Johnny Depp was in that movie, of course Willem Dafoe and Charlie Sheen and Tom Berenger. Forest Whitaker was in that movie. It was a bunch of NY and LA actors that were struggling and went on to do amazing things.

Empire: How did you get hook up with that?

Corey: I’ve been an actor since I was like 14 years old. I was going to auditions everyday and doing commercial stuff, that was my bread and butter gig and being in a band was kind of secondary to that, and then it all flipped.

Empire: You also did Jesus Christ Superstar on stage?

Corey: I did that for a couple years. That was a dream come true for me. It was with Ted Neeley. I wanted to sing like Carl Anderson and wanted to play Judas my whole life.

Empire: What’s been your favorite tour moment?

Corey: Oh man, too many to even say. Opening up for The Rolling Stones was a major moment, going to Europe and playing for thousands of people, playing the Grammys or doing Saturday Night Live. Doing a show with this band and having Jimmy Page and Robert Plant show up just to hang out and watch the gig. Getting to meet at the people we got to, Chris Cornell (god rest his soul) and Soundgarden opened up for us in 88-89.

Empire: What band would you like to see reunite?

Corey: I love to see Rage against the Machine come back although I love Prophets of Rage.

Empire: If you could bring a musician back from the dead who would it be?

Corey: There’s a list of them. So many like Dio, hell I would want to bring Elvis back, Micheal Jackson and Prince. So many great musicians B.B. King, Layne Staley. They all left a mark on this world.

Empire: Anything else you like to add?

Corey: Shade is out now, you can pick it up anywhere or download it. I’m doing a new project now with George Lynch called UltraPhonix that comes out in August.

Corey put on one hell of a roller coaster show. He came out with Original Sin and after he kept saying “ this wasn’t what you were expecting”. During April Rain you could tell that these songs were very emotional for him. During Last Temptation Corey even stopped singing on the mic, came up close to us in the crowd and kept singing with just his pure voice and soul. Everyone was blown away and even shed some tears with him, on how powerful and raw emotional Corey sings to your soul. Corey even mentioned our conversation about bring back a dead musician while playing Prince’s The Cross which Corey says he can play this song on guitar because it’s two cords for him.

It was amazing to see Corey again it’s been far too long since I’ve seen him live, I’m so glad to see him on a solo tour and got to sit down and talk to Corey who has always been an icon of mine. Can’t wait to see him again in the future and maybe some ultraphonix will be soon as well.

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Ron

Ron has keen eye for new talent, a love for the underground, and a tremendous passion for music of any genera. You’ll probably bump into him at a horror convention or some seedy club checking out the next need-to-know band.

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