Interview

Yes. Possibly there will be gigs with THE DUKE later in the rest of Europe as well. So Iīve got STUCK MOJO touring, FOZZY touring and then THE DUKE touring. And itīs probably gonna be more FOZZY touring than anything else, but the MOJO will play a few shows here and there and then THE DUKE will... Weīll see how it goes, because since THE DUKE is more of a mellow type of music I donīt know - I donīt really know what market I will hit with it. So I kind of had to put it out here and just see how it does.

Whatīs your expectation with it?

I donīt have any. I simply wanted to do such a record. You know, today we were driving down the road and we had the DOOBIE BROTHERS playing. I really have a passion for piano. I love QUEEN. I love BAD COMPANY. I love classic AOR rock. And I wanted to do a classic AOR record. I really did. And I wanted to do it for a long time. And I just had to find a record company who will let me do it.

They seem to be supporting you, so....

Obviously I think a lot of fans will like it. Every guy that I know and girl that I know that listens to heavy metal, they all listen to mellow music as well. And so I think that this record neatly fits into every metal headīs collection. As well as I think it will reach out to people who donīt like metal.

You canīt listen to aggressive music all the time 24/7.

Thatīs right. Well, some people can but itīll drive you crazy.

So when did you discover that you enjoy listening to mellow music as well?

All my life. I love heavy music, but growing up my favourite band was JOURNEY. You know, I always liked bands like AC/DC and QUEEN, which arenīt really heavy metal, theyīre rock. I also liked stuff like Elton John and Billy Joel. Always. My whole life. And itīs just that somehow my success started in a different way. The band I played in right before I started with STUCK MOJO sounded like EUROPE. So I played in this kind of poppy metal thing. My hero was John Norum and I loved Yngwie Malmsteen. I just happened to find success first doing Rap-Rock/Rap-Metal. It just happened that way. I could have easily been in another band doing music that sounds like FOREIGNER. And if that would have been successful, that would have been it.

(Laughter)

You get what Iīm saying? People know me as being the guitar player from FOZZY and STUCK MOJO. So they only know me from the heaviness, but my passions lie in other styles as well. Itīs just like going to movies: I love horror movies, I like actions movies, I like comedies and I like all types of things. So I wanna be able to musicly do all of the things I enjoy.

About your songwriting: Obviously the late STUCK MOJO albums have more melodic stuff, but your STUCK MOJO debut "Snappinī Necks" was so damn aggressive. Did you mend it all together in the later parts, or what was it like back in the "Declaration Of A Headhunter” times?

On the last STUCK MOJO record I wasnīt getting along with Bonz anymore. And we were no longer able to write, we were not a team anymore. So I wrote the whole record myself and I interjected more melody because I like melody and I wasnīt good at writing rap. Thatīs kind of what happened - and it just happened that way. If Bonz and I would have maintained the good working relationship it may have had less melodies. So thatīs how that happened.

Now you just toured again with Bones, so what was the STUCK MOJO tour like?

It was great.

You got awesome reactions on your gigs and you sold out several places.

Yes, that was great. You know, weīve been together for so long that by the time we... we...
We spent I think 5 years apart where we didnīt even speak. But weīve been together for so long before that when we got back together it just didnīt seem like any time had gone by at all. Everything just seemed to be like "Hey Bonz! Itīs good to see you again today!” And plus, weīre older, you know. We donīt have time for bickering anymore. If I annoy Bonz or Bonz is annoying to me we just talk about it - instead of punching each other. And also having some time to be apart from each other gave us some chance to realize that maybe some of our arguments werenīt that big a deal anyway.

Are you planning to write a new STUCK MOJO album?

I am. But I donīt know when it will be released. Iīve worked on a few songs, Iīve got five songs finished and weīll see what happens. If I get a record company that wants to support it and that is passionate about putting it out than Iīll do it.

Century Media, for example?

If Century Media would come with a good offer I would do it. (Pause) I donīt suspect they will, but Iīll talk to any label. I loved all the people that worked for Century Media, itīs just that the owner of the company didnīt like our band and he didnīt support it the way we would have liked to. But then Robert Kampf who is the other owner of Century Media really liked STUCK MOJO. So there was always a little rift between them. For me itīs all about money. Not money in my pocket. Itīs about money to support. Make sure we could do a good album, make sure that you promote it properly, make sure that we tour properly. And that takes money. Just tell me that you gonna spend the money on it and weīll do it. Thatīs it.

Sounds reasonable.

Exactly. Just like you would do for any band that you want to be successful. Whether itīs SHADOWS FALL or whether itīs MACHINE HEAD or whatever. It takes money to break a band, it takes money and time and efford. As long as theyīre willing to do it - than thatīs great. Itīs all I ask for.

Wasnīt it a little bit of a bad timing? Because that time you broke up with STUCK MOJO KORN, LIMP BIZKIT and everybody else got successful immediately after you broke up. Isnīt it ironic?

Maybe a little bit. But like I was trying to explain to people: You canīt put a price on quality of life. And if you have to get on a bus with people you dislike and itīs like that every day, getting up, and you just play on stage. It doesnīt matter about the money. Youīd rather be poor and at home playing music that you love, than doing something with people... In other words - it was never supposed to be about the money, so we didnīt want it to be about that later. It was okay for me to walk away from it and go. People have this misconception that all musicians that put out records must be rich. They must have lots of money. Iīve done 13 albums, and Iīm still poor. And itīs okay. (Rich is smiling wide.) Because Iīve always put the music first. I did SICK SPEED before CREED and NICKELBACK were popular, and it was a melodic rock stuff.I suspect in 3 years that itīll be like THE DUKE album will be what everyoneīs doing. Just after I stopped, possibly.

Well... Leaders, not followers.

Thatīs right, thatīs right. And itīs fine. All the guys in LINKIN PARK and LIMP BIZKIT they all know who I am, they all say that I was one of the people that they listened to, who gave them the whole idea to start this stuff, thatīs great. And Iīd rather be an underground hero than be somebody that just jumped on the van and became one of the bands that just followed in line.

Tell me something more about the topics you write about on "My Kung Fu Is Good”.

Itīs a personal record. Most of it is all about me and things I went through when I was doing FOZZY and I was doing SICK SPEED and there was no more STUCK MOJO. So a lot of what I was talking about was things that happened in the break-up of STUCK MOJO. And then SICK SPEED ended. And so I started writing about those. And also I was married and I got divorced. And I wrote about that. It was like a sad time. I lost a couple of my bands, I lost my wife - for me it was really a sad period of my life. So most of the music is pretty sad. And thatīs why I did, why this record is appropriate, because you cannot do sad heavy metal. Heavy metal is angry. I wasnīt angry, I was just really sad, I didnīt know what to do. And also it was a weird time for me, because Chris Jericho, the singer in FOZZY, he had a child. So he wasnīt touring this much because he had a young baby at home. Obviously I wanted to tour with FOZZY but we couldnīt tour this much. And my SICK SPEED band broke up, I had no STUCK MOJO, my wife was gone - and I was by myself a lot of the time, just sitting at home. And - I just started writing. Playing piano, playing acoustic guitar and those songs evolved out of that. But it was good, too - instead of laying in bed and sleeping all day long, and just being sad about it I just wrote about it. And played guitar. Practised, practised singing, practised playing guitar, teaching myself to play piano. It was a very productive time.

... getting it out of your mind...?

Yes, thatīs right.

Did you contribute some lyrics for FOZZY as well, or is it all Chrisī writing?

Itīs all Chrisī. And also a good friend of ours, Ed Aborn who does the FOZZY website. He does our fanclub as well. He helped Chris with some of the lyrics. I did the music, and Ed and Chris collaborated on lyrical ideas. Iīm not good with lyrics. I was good with the DUKE album, because I knew I had something to say. And like the "Decoration Of A Headhunter” MOJO record, I knew what I wanted to say. But with the FOZZY record I had great musical ideas, but during that time we were doing the "All That Remains” FOZZY record thatīs exactly when I was going through this sad period of my life. So I didnīt think I had anything lyrically to contribute to that record which was really powerful and aggressive. Iīve come to learn over the years, that itīs important to never write with your ego. In other words: When youīre in a band, you always let the person do it whoīs best at that. So if Chris is the best lyric writer for the band at that time, than Chris should write the lyrics. If Iīm the best songwriter to write the music, I should write the music. If someone else in the band has better ideas than me, then we should use his ideas. You should never ever come to a position that the band members egos come before the quality of the product.

Thatīs wise.

It has to be. And you have to be able to trust your bandmates. That they could do. If my drummer says: "I have a better rhythm idea”, then he should come up with his own parts and I should trust him.

I can imagine thatīs hard sometimes.

Itīs extremely hard. Cause everybody thinks they know whatīs best. Everybody does. So thatīs why you have to take a deep breath and say "okay”. And trust your bandmates.

I saw that you first had your new website where you did put your own music on and then the FOZZY record came out. How did you attract a label to release THE DUKE?

The guy who is the head of A&R at Spitfire in the United States tried to sign STUCK MOJO years ago. He tried to sign SICK SPEED. And then he tried to sign FOZZY. He didnīt get any of those bands. He is just a fan of my songwriting and a fan of my work. He came down to see THE DUKE headline in Atlanta and at that show he said "Please, you have to let me put this record out.” And then we spent six month going back and forth on the details of the contract. It took forever to get it all worked out. I was so upset. But we finally got the details on the contract finished and here we are.

You website looks as if you have a personal look at it every now and then. Do you read your guestbook regularly for example or contribute to the side?

Every day. Except for when Iīm on tour, because obviously itīs difficult to get internet access every day. But everyday that Iīm at home I do the first thing in the morning I answer everything thatīs on there, all my emails from the site go straight to me and I answer all of them. Sometimes I get 200 emails a day, sometimes I just have to say one or two words, "thank you” or this and that, but I try to make sure everyone gets responses.

What an efford!

Itīs worth it. Because you build relationships, and thatīs important. Having relationships is better than necessarily having fans.

(laetti)