Interviews

Interview with Dizzy Reed

Published

6 years ago

October 24, 2018

Ron

It’s not to often that you get to have a phone conversation with one of your musical icons and rock and roll hall of fame musicians. Empire Extreme got to talk to Dizzy Reed of Guns N Roses and Hookers& Blow and talk about GNR among other projects that Dizzy has been fortunate to be able to do.

EE: So Let’s talk about the Rock N Roll Ain’t Easy album?

DR: It was fun making it, but it was also difficult. I took a very long time, but it was satisfying. We wanted to capture everything more live and not use computers as much. A lot of great musicians came down to play on it.

EE: Who was you’re favorite guy to work with on that album?

DR: Well if I don’t say Richard Fortus he would be upset (laughs) He added so much to the record. He played so much stuff. Frankie Banali came down and I wanted him to do the title track and I wanted big drums like John Bonham but lucky I had Frankie. He found a sweet spot to set the drums.

EE: How was the tour with Dead Daisies with your band Hookers & Blow?

DR: Man they were fantastic, they worked with us go greatly. I spent some time in that band, so we are all friends, it worked out very well. I went on before them I got to play 40 minutes which was great I’m use to playing 3 plus hours. Fans seemed to love it, sold a bunch of CDs and Vinyls, was a great tour.

EE: How was it like doing the GNR reunion tour?

DR: it’s been amazing, I can’t say enough of how pro those guys are, and the fans loved it. We start rehearsals soon we play overseas for 5 weeks. It’s been great and unbelievable.

EE: Yeah me and my gf are huge GNR fans and seen the show in DC and Hershey and both shows were amazing, you guys sounded awesome live.

DR: Yeah that’s seems to be the thing, it’s still relevant, it’s not nostalgic like others things that are going on like that. It’s cool to see generations of young and old going to the show.

EE: How was it like joining the band for the Use Your Illusions Albums when the band was such a big band?

DR: Well I knew everybody in the band before they got signed, I was in a band in Colorado called the Wild and Guns moved next to us in this recording studio in LA, so we all hung out. We became close, and they became gigantic, and Axel told me he wanted to be his keyboardist at some point and had this vision in his head, and made it Happen. When you’re that big you have a chemistry together and Axel threw me in and the other guys went to keen on it at first. I wanted to stick this out and do what I can to make things better. It’s been 28 years now.

EE: Which one of the Illusions do you think is the better album?

DR: people always ask me that, and to be honest I don’t even know what songs are on which album.(laughs) there is so many great songs on that collections. For a while we didn’t play any of those songs and then we looked back and was like there soo many great songs on them.

EE: I couldn’t imagine seeing you guys Live and not playing songs of those albums

DR: Yeah, there’s a lot to choose from, and songs that I wish we would do live.

EE: Is there a song that is your favorite you did with GNR?

DR: That’s a tough one, but if I had to choose I would say Civil War. That was the first song I ever recorded with them, before the Illusions album. That was the first time I was involved with a song of that magnitude, I was driving down in LA and it came on the radio and I was like “oh shit”.

EE: Is there a possibility of working on a new GNR album?

DR: ahh the eternal question, I’m not sure. I hope so, there’s a lot of music out there. I’ll be working on my stuff as well.

EE: What all do you have planned for your stuff?

DR: Well the label loved the first album, and they want another one. I’m always writing.

About Author

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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Related Topics:Dizzy Reed Empire Extreme featured Guns N Roses Hookers&Blow Rock and Roll ain’t easy

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Interviews

INTERVIEW WITH MERCURY OF PRIEST

Published

1 week ago

April 23, 2024

Ron

Empire Extreme got to sit down and talk to Mercury of Priest when the band came into PA at LoveDrafts.

The show was amazing all the bands that we seen put on a great show for the fans. Vampires Everywhere killed it once again. Last time we seen Priest we only got to see them open for Powerman5000 and got like 6 songs, this time Priest was headlining and we got to see much more which I was excited to see.

Priest played a good mix of old and new and even a few songs off the album “Dark Pulse” which is out in May. We got to see 13 songs played and even Mercury come out into the crowd a few times and when they played “Obey” even blessed some of the crowd. It was great hearing songs like “BlackListed”, “Signal in the Noise”, “History in Black” and “Vaudeville”. It was such a great night of music and a great conversation with Mercury. If you get a chance to see this band play in ur town, it’s a must

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Ron

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Interviews

INTERVIEW WITH OF VIRTUE

Published

2 months ago

March 4, 2024

Ron

Where does the band name come from? Wanting to be the best version of yourself at all times. The name is a reminder to hold ourselves accountable.

How is the music scene in Michigan? The Michigan music scene has always been vibrant and in my opinion, important. Do we get the credit we deserve? Absolutely not. But for the state that brought you Motown, Eminem, Lizzo, The White Stripes, I Prevail and so many other incredible artists – it’s kind of hard to believe that Michigan remains a hidden gem.

How’s the reception from the fans of the latest album “Omen”? It’s been incredible. From seeing people singing along at shows to us seeing new supporters of all different ages, colors, and creeds joining the journey. Omen has been a pivotal album in our career and we’re proud of it!

If you could tour with 2 bands, which bands would you want to tour with? Spiritbox and Bad Omens. They’re both making waves, changing who the metal audience is, and surely they’d be fun to hang around with.

Where do you draw inspiration for the lyrics? Honestly, the lyrics are our stories. The stories of our struggles, our trials and our tribulations.

What’s been your favorite tour or show? We just got off of a tour with our labelmates, Any Given Day. They treated us to a handful of sold out shows over in Europe, which at this point we call our second home. Those were great shows, but any show we’ve done in Europe is typically one for the books!

If you could bring back a dead musician, who would it be? Prince for sure. An incredible musician I would love an opportunity to chat or make music with!

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Ron

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Interviews

INTERVIEW WITH TWIN TEMPLE

Published

3 months ago

February 16, 2024

Ron

Being Married and being in a band together. Do you feel that makes it easier or harder?

We love to do the Devil’s work together so for us its a match made in hell.

What’s your favorite horror movie?

That’s hard to narrow down but the first few that come to mind are Rosemary’s Baby, The Devil Rides Out, Wickerman, The Devils Reign featuring Anton Lavey, Mario Bava’s Black Sunday, anything starring Vincent Price. We also got to see an advance screen of “Late Night with the Devil” featuring a very evil performance from our friend Dave Dastmalchian. We’re also looking forward to Bryan Fuller’s “Dust Bunny” and are positive it will be a new favorite. The list goes on…..we are huge horror fans.

Favorite Non Horror Movie?

Alfred Hitchcock’s Rebecca (which is horror/noir adjacent) and The Burbs (also horror adjacent…haha.)

All of Quentin Tarantino’s films- our latest favorite is Once Upon a Time in Hollywood, because 1960’s LA…

What misconception of Satanists would you like to educate people on?

We’re not here to proselytize, force our beliefs on people, or educate people on them Selves, Satanism or anything else. If people are interested in exploring Satanism, we encourage them to do their research and question everything.

If you could bring back any dead musician, who would you pick and why?

We would have loved to do a song with Ronnie Spector who recently passed. Also would have been amazing to collaborate with Jack Nitzsche who arranged so many amazing songs.

If you could tour with any 2 bands, who would you want to tour with?

The Ronnettes & The Shangri-Las.

What has been your Favorite Tour so far?

The God is Dead Tour that we’re currently on is definitely the most evil and blasphemous tour yet. We find it very pleasurable to be able to continue expanding the rituals and seeing our nightmares come true on stage.

You were on “Dragula” with the Boulet Brothers, how was that experience?

It was a fiendish delight to collaborate with some of our fav monsters.

What was it like Touring with Danzig?

Another nightmare come true! We’ve both been fans for a long time and we’re obviously inspired by the wicked world Glenn has conjured. So to get to spend time with him and watch him live every night and to now call him a friend is completely surreal. He’s a legend— but was also one of the coolest, kindest, most unholy people we’ve had the carnal pleasure of touring with.

How’s the reception of the last album “God is Dead”?

Personally, we love the record and are very proud of what we’ve accomplished. As far as other peoples’ reactions…. we don’t know and don’t care! We pleasured ourselves and that’s what matters most.

What got you interested in the style of music you play? And how would describe your music?

We’ve always loved classic American music from jazz to blues to country to rock and roll and so on. We also love the pageantry of heavy metal and theatre. So for us it was a very organic culmination of our obsessions. Rock and roll has always been the devils music.

Have you visited the Satanic Temple in Massachusetts?

No we have not but Lucien did attend one of our rituals so we had a chance to share where we get our babies blood and all things Satan.

Have you had any bad encounters at shows because of the misconception of satanism?

No! We purposefully foster a live show environment where all are welcome, all should come being the most important person in the world which is themselves, whatever that may be. Even Christians! We believe music is meant to bring joy, transcendence… We just want to share the things we love; pink, rhinestones, big hair, great rock ’n’ roll, Satanic ritual, you know… but we have had churches assemble outside our shows, screaming through distorted PA speakers that God is not dead & wishing us all a “terrible time”. Why would their God not want us to have fun? This kind of behavior is only makes us more proud to be who we are and do what we love.