Tag Archives: Kirk Hammett

Ernie Ball Presents The “Hetfield and Hammett Experience”

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3 GRAND PRIZE WINNERS WILL GET ONCE-IN-A-LIFETIME CHANCE TO FLY TO METALLICA HEADQUARTERS
AND HANG WITH JAMES HETFIELD AND KIRK HAMMETT 

ERNIE BALL LAUNCH CONTEST EXCLUSIVELY WITH GUITAR CENTER AND MUSICIAN’S FRIEND 

CONTEST RUNS TODAY THROUGH OCTOBER 31

Los Angeles, CA (September 7, 2017) – ERNIE BALL, the iconic maker of SLINKY guitar strings and instrument accessories, has announced the launch of the “Hetfield + Hammett Experience,” a partnership with longtime Ernie Ball artists and legendary guitarists JAMES HETFIELD and KIRK HAMMETT that will grant three lucky winners the once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to hang with the guitarists at METALLICA Headquarters in San Francisco, CA. Click HERE to see Hetfield and Hammett talking about “The Experience.”

Winners will also take home their choice of a Hetfield or Hammett Signature ESP Guitar as well as an Ernie Ball Prize Pack complete with their favorite gauge of SLINKY guitar strings and other prizes. The contest launches today, September 7, and runs through October 31.

“I have to say that HQ is kinda like NASA,” says Kirk Hammett. “You need the right credentials to get in; you need to know the right codes to get through the door. There are constantly people around making sure that whoever is there is there for a purpose. It’s pretty tight because it’s like the brain control…The mission control for all things Metallica.”

This is a pretty cool opportunity to get into Metallica’s creative space and see what it is, why it is, and what is in there that inspires us, said James Hetfield. “For me, as a fan of other bands, it would’ve been pretty awesome to have shown up in Phil Lynott’s writing space. This is gonna be an extraordinary moment for whoever gets to show up at HQ.”

“To have artists like Kirk Hammett and James Hetfield trust our strings for over 35 years is something the Ernie Ball family is incredibly thankful and proud of,” says Ernie Ball President Brian Ball. “It also means our strings have been along for the epic ride of ‘Seek & Destroy,’ ‘For Whom The Bell Tolls,’ ‘Sad But True’ and many of the band’s biggest hits. We’re excited about this contest and looking forward to connecting the band and a few lucky fans in a special way.”

Fans can enter Ernie Ball’s “Hetfield + Hammett Experience” by purchasing qualifying packs of Ernie Ball Strings at Guitar Center or from Musician’s Friend, then entering the codes found inside the packs at ernieball.com/metallica for a chance to win. 

ABOUT METALLICA

Metallica formed in 1981 by drummer Lars Ulrich and guitarist and vocalist James Hetfield and has become one of the most influential and commercially successful rock bands in history, having sold 110 million albums worldwide while playing to millions of fans on literally all seven continents. They have scored several multi-platinum albums, including 1991’s Metallica (commonly referred to as The Black Album), with sales of nearly 17 million copies in the United States alone, making it the best-selling album in the history of Soundscan. Metallica has also garnered numerous awards and accolades, including nine Grammy Awards, two American Music Awards, and multiple MTV Video Music Awards, and was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and Museum in 2009.  In December 2013, Metallica made history when they performed a rare concert in Antarctica, becoming the first act to ever play all seven continents all within a year, and earning themselves a spot in the Guinness Book of World Records. Metallica’s latest album Hardwired…To Self Destruct was released on November 18, 2016, on Metallica’s own Blackened Recordings record label and debuted at No. 1 around the world, selling over 800,000 copies worldwide in its first week.

The Professor Joe Satriani

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By Andrew Catania

For most musicians, just being nominated for a Grammy is a dream come true in itself. However, being nominated for the Grammy Award a total of fifteen times and selling over 10 million albums makes Joe Satriani incomparable to most musicians.

The Midas of all instrumentalists, it would be nothing but fair to say that Satriani truly turns everything he touches to audio gold. Joseph “Joe” Satriani is an American born and bred multi-instrumentalist best known for his career as a rock guitarist.

Influenced by the death of the legendary Jimi Hendrix, Satriani was drawn to the world of guitars at the age of 14. How he started to play the guitar is a narrative made for the history books. He heard of Hendrix’s death on the football field during football practice, walked off to his coach and informed his coach of his decision to quit in order to become a guitarist. He fell in love with the legend Hendrix was and today, he is nothing short of extraordinary himself.

In 1978, Satriani moved to California to pursue a career in music. He started teaching the guitar during this period. His skills on the guitar and fluid communication methods as an instructor led to numerous of his former students achieving unparalleled levels of success. Some of his former students include Steve Vai, Rick Hunolt, Larry LaLonde, Kirk Hammett and Charlie Hunter.

In 1986, Satriani released his first studio album titled Not of This Earth. It drove in successful critical acclaim and led to Satriani recording his second solo album, Surfing with the Alien, the very next year in 1987. It was the first all-instrumental solo album to perform as well as it had and to have become a radio hit since a significant number of years.

The news of his talent spread like wildfire through people who had witnessed his firsthand success. In 1988, a decade after he became a teacher, Satriani was recruited by Mick Jagger as lead guitarist for Jagger’s first solo tour. In 1989, Satriani released his third album Flying in a Blue Dream, inspired by the death of his father who had passed away during the making of the album. In 1992, Satriani released The Extremist, which has proven to become the most critically acclaimed and commercially successful album of his till date.

With one successful solo album release after the next, Satriani soon rose to worldwide fame. In 1993, he was invited to join the incredible Deep Purple as a temporary replacement for Ritchie Blackmore who had just left the band.

With 15 albums released since 1986 and with 15 Grammy Nominations, Joe Satriani is a name recognized across the world, from every corner of the United States to developing nations across Asia. He is considered to have mastered extremely difficult performance techniques on the electric guitar. Influenced by blues – rock guitar icons such as Hendrix and Clapton, he is skilled alternate picking, legato, harmonics and extreme whammy bar effects amongst numerous skills.

The fact that a significant number of his students have achieved critical commercial success is only a reflection of the master’s trade. It’s a pleasure following Satriani’s success and we’re just around the corner – waiting for his first Grammy win because it’s about damn time.

The Legend That is Dave Mustaine

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By Andrew Catania

He is one of the most influential metal guitarists, lead singer and composer, who holds the privilege to be one of the thrash metal pioneers. He is better known for being the founder and leader of Megadeth, the band that made it all faster and aggressive as it could get by that time. Of course we’re talking about Dave Mustaine, the mind behind the complex riffs, dark lyrics and concepts that made Megadeth one of The Big Four of Thrash Metal along with Metallica, Anthrax and Slayer.

Playing the guitar since he was a teenager, Dave’s attendance to a Kiss concert during their Destroyer tour in Anaheim in 1977 was a mind-blowing experience to him, being highly influential in his decision to take music more seriously. He started his own band, named Panic, which was a short-lived act due to the tragic decease of drummer Mike Leftwych in a car accident. Dave’s ongoing journey into the music took him to the infamous Metallica auditions for a lead guitar player in 1981, which as he recalls: “I was setting up my stuff, tuning my guitar, and doing some warm-ups and then I asked ‘So, are we gonna do the audition?’ and they replied ‘No, you got the job’, so I think what they’ve heard pretty much impressed them to a point where they didn’t need to do that”.

His time as Metallica’s lead guitar player was short-lived.  It ended before the Kill ‘Em All recordings. Too much have been said already about this moment. Dave is constantly taken back during the interviews to this point in his life, where he “had no one but you [Lars] and James”, as he states in the Some Kind of Monster documentary, so there’s no need to extend on this controversy anymore. What is important here is how this experience became a defining moment in his life, and how it turned to be the necessary incentive he needed to go into his own path as a musician and individual: it led to the creation of what would become Megadeth.

After his departure from Metallica, he met bass player David Ellefson in Los Angeles, and together formed Megadeth. His artistic intentions were to play faster and heavier music than Metallica, a goal in which Megadeth greatly succeeded. Rather than an “I’m better than you” race, as it is depicted, Dave Mustaine’s contributions to Metallica were a demonstration of what he intended as an artist: his riff near the end of the bridge of Phantom Lord, the Mechanix song (which you know as The Four Horsemen) or Jump in the Fire gives you the idea of what his musical concept was: fast tempos, fast riffs, a dark and decadent atmosphere surrounding his music.

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In 1985 he released Killing Is My Business with an 8,000 dollars budget from Combat Records to produce and record the album. Dave’s musical approach raised the bar for all guitar players in the metal scene out there. There are many examples of the high level guitar playing in Megadeth’s debut album, such as Killing is my Business riff, bridge and solo work. Also remarkable is the aggressive, right-to-the-face lyrics work: Last Rites/Loved to Death, a not so typical story: boy meets girl, boy falls in love with girl, girl doesn’t, boy kills girl so no one else will have her. This album is one of the keystones for thrash metal music, and the one who introduced Megadeth to the metal scene!

The highly technical riffs and aggressive, full of meaning lyrics will become Dave Mustaine’s signature as an artist, and Megadeth’s definition as a band. The following albums became success after success, and grew an enormous worldwide fan base that loves him for remaining loyal to his style during his entire career. Peace Sells, Rust in Peace, Countdown to Extinction, Risk, The System Has Failed and Endgame are Dave’s mostly recognized efforts and artistic success in his career, including hit after hit in a regular basis, making each one of them a memorable record.

Dave Mustaine as a musician has a lot to offer: he sings, he writes, he composes his own material, he plays rhythm AND lead guitar! His guitar playing is quite appealing to us guitar freaks: he delivers legendary riffs, famous for his technical demand and use of chromatic scales, giving them a menacing feel : Killing is my Business, Peace Sells, Good Mourning/Black Friday, Liar, Holy Wars, Take No Prisoners…and that’s just a few mentions!

His soloing work consists of altered pentatonic patterns combined with exotic scales. Dave is away from the typical scalar-running shred from his generation, and aims for the creation of a proper feel to go along with the song’s concept. He often trade his solo works during Megadeth’s live performances, and he seems very proficient at playing the most challenging ones: Burnt Ice, Kick The Chair, Ashes In Your Mouth or Hangar 18 just to quote some examples.

Dave Mustaine proves to be one of the most versatile and accomplished metal musicians of our time, and his undeniably great contributions to thrash metal makes him a living legend, with an artistic legacy that transcends to this present day in his music!

Interview with Geoff Thorpe from Vicious Rumors

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By Andrew Catania

Vicious Rumors came out at the same time as Metallica, Megadeth, Slayer, and Exodus.  Vicious Rumors are known for killer guitar riffs and head banging music.  It’s been 37 years since Geoff Thorpe formed his iconic brand.  I recently caught up with Geoff to discuss Concussion Protocol and other happenings of Vicious Rumors.

Man last time I saw you were in Windsor, Connecticut at a dive bar in 1990.  I was disc jockeying at a college radio station in Hartford, Connecticut.  McGee was with you guys, and all of us got on your tour bus and went to see Total Recall.

Yeah Man! Well, when you mentioned that about going to the movies in the tour bus, you know, I remember that because we’ve never done that before, just taking a bunch of fans, jumped on our bus and went and did something on our off day, so yes, I completely remembered it.  Also, it was hilarious; you were like how did you remember that? My God!

I know 26 years, like five albums for you guys.

Yeah, Incredible man!

Are you touring in Europe?
Yes! We’re not on tour right now, but we’re doing a big tour with Dirkschneider.

Yes, I saw that! Is he done with Accept?

Yes, he is doing a tribute to Accept where I think he just sees how popular Accept is and so he’s cashing in on it and it’s working.  When he does the Dirkschneider thing, he plays to packed houses, and so it’s a big tour for us. We’re kind of excited about it.

Good! That will lead me to my first question for you. You guys are trendy in Europe.  You guys are playing festivals 40,000, 50,000, 60,000 people and your counterparts, I mean everybody Slayer, Megadeth, Metallica, everybody goes over there, seems like they’re making more money than they are in the States.  Do you think the market is pretty much dried up here in the states for metal?  Could you come back and play a thousand seat clubs? Then you guys go over for the Wacken Festival or whichever festival you guys are at —

Well you know, I don’t think that it’s ‘dried up’ but there’s just, I say the difference between the European audience and the American audience is that you know trends come and go and the European audience tends to, they might embrace something new but just because they embrace something new they don’t reject stuff that they liked before, and I think that the American audience like fads come and things change, and then all of a sudden people might think like, I mean I’m not like you know I’m just thinking out loud what is the possible reason for that? I just feel that European audiences are more open to still loving what they used to love and then embracing new bands that were sometimes American audiences tend to go with new fads and just move on from what they used to do to something new.  I don’t know man, you know the bottom line is there are great metal fans all around the world but there’s definitely something special that goes on here in Europe, and we were lucky enough to start in the 80’s and we were embraced here by the fans here and so you know we just went where the opportunities were, and we’re just really thankful that we have this incredible European fan base here and I always love being in Europe.  I love the people.  I love the way that they can get together in large numbers and they know how to behave you know.  People aren’t getting robbed or beat up or vandalized.  You know they get together, somebody falls, and someone gets picked up. You understand me?  They don’t get trampled on.  So it’s just a different vibe out here man, and it’s very cool especially for us, we’ve just been fortunate to have this incredible fan base that’s been with us from the very beginning and here we are on our twelfth studio album 37 years later it’s all going strong so it’s just – you know we’re humbled by it and at the same time we just want to give the fans the best possible metal experience we can deliver, night after night.  We just want it to be a metal party that you can remember for all time and that way if we just give our best every time, you seem to be invited back.

Going back to Soldiers of the Night which is still considered a Metal classic is going up with the Carl Albert Fronted band 1988-95 RIP Carl –When you’re doing pre-production for your records, and all are you primarily the one doing the writing of the music and the lyrics, is it a band effort?  Because I know Vicious Rumors is, you see, you found it, how do you dispense what the duties are?

You know I am the primary writer, and if the guys don’t do exactly what I tell them, they need to get the fuck out and if we don’t do it my way we don’t do it anyway but really, I’m easy to work with. I’m just kidding bro!

I was going to be like; you sound like Mr. Malmsteen!

No shit huh! That was insane; it felt excellent to say that though.  No, I’m just playing with you man.  I lead the direction, and I write most of the music.  I do write a lot of lyrics and melodies, and I always have.  When we had Carl, we worked together in that way too. Vicious Rumors has always been a team, and we work together much like a sports team.  I’m the leader of the team, maybe I’m the driving force, but I like to surround myself with really talented creative people, and right now we have a unique combination.  I never intended to have this  worldwide line up this international lineup with guys in Europe and guys from California it comes down to chemistry, the most important part of having a band is the chemistry within the group, and that’s what made bands like Led Zeppelin and Deep Purple and Metallica  they have chemistry together and when you find that kind of chemistry,  luckily we live in a day and age we’re just a  flight away and with the internet it’s possible to have these guys half way across the world and we can still do it and like I said, I never intended to do it but when we got together and when I found Nick and found Tilen they just brought so much to the table in every way they’re super creative;  talented, they got a lot of  great ideas. So to me, chemistry is number one, and if you have that, then the rest will follow. So yes, I do a lot of the writing but we work together as a team, and I’m entirely open to all the guys’ great ideas.  We don’t always use them because I do so much of the writing, but they help me shape it.  The one thing that we’ve had with all the different lineups is my songwriting, and that is sort of like the thread from the beginning to now that’s kept up Vicious Rumors, so I don’t want to lose that but at the same time, I really value the talented guys that I work with.

When did Nick come along?  Was he on the last album or come on the tour?

Well what happened was we had a big US tour in 2013 and then Brian Allen was becoming more and more unavailable you know understandably, he’s got, three kids, he’s a single dad with 3 children, so you know that’s a huge responsibility and so he started looking at, he just became unavailable and the problem was when he decided that he was not going to be available it was four weeks before a giant tour that I had already spent four months working on and so I was just lucky that I found Nick off a recommendation of a good friend of mine in The Netherlands from my brother Jake’s band in The Netherlands he recommended Nick to me and we had just gotten Tilen in the group, and I was just lucky to find him in time, and he came in we did the US tour together and he did the last live album  Live You To Death 2: American Punishment and he had only just joined the band and just crammed in to learn like 20 songs and did a fantastic job and now we’ve had three years of chemistry behind us so if you listen to the last live album and the way he sounds on the new album you can just actually hear in percussion protocol the growth that’s taken place and the way his voice has evolved, you know he can sing
high and clean all day long but we worked on his lower range and bringing out more of a full-voiced thing with his classic high decent thing and really you know he just has the ability and the range to do all the styles of Vicious Rumors music you know.  I think you being someone who really knows Vicious Rumors from the beginning to now know we are aware that we don’t just have one style or one sound we have a lot of different aspects to our music from speed metal to ballads to slow quenched stuff and we need a singer that can sing low and cumbersome, high and clean, dark and moody and also melodic, so it’s  a real tall order to be the singer in Vicious Rumors and Nick’s just done a great job in the band the last few years and a fantastic job on the new record.

Yeah, it’s an excellent record.  I reviewed it for another website that is not mine. I think you guys liked it on Twitter and followed me back as a matter of fact. For Concussion Protocol did you do anything differently in production for the preparation of recording the other albums? 

We did, it was the most I mean months of great lots of hard work man.  I started by just writing riffs on my little digital recorder. Once I had put together the body of twelve songs we actually got together and rented a house in The Netherlands and spent like three weeks together you know finalizing the ideas and taking suggestions for the guy’s and really just working together to try to make the album the best it could be and luckily we had the three years experience together and all the touring we did. Since Nick and Tilen have been in the band we’ve done a major US tour a South American tour, two European tours we had built the chemistry already which was really helpful, we were all really comfortable with each other when we started writing this album and after I kind of assembled most of the songs you know we rented that house in The Netherlands and put the final touches on it.  Once I really felt like the album taking shape I really felt like wow this is going to be probably our heaviest album and one of our most powerful driving records that we’ve ever done, and so I really felt at that point like man I need lyrics, I need a cover, I need a concept to be to be just as heavy and after the guys had gone home I stayed in Europe for like three weeks, just with a notebook and a pencil and my pads and paper and I just wrote lyrics and started coming up with this crazy doomsday story with the asteroid taking out the world and I was just thinking when we went digital dictator we were at the beginning of the digital age, and I was thinking where are we now?  Well, unfortunately, we’re in the age of disasters.  You know with tsunamis and earthquakes, terrorism and all this shit I just thought man what would be the ultimate catastrophe? That would be the whole planet being destroyed in one swift blow! So I wanted to make a bad ass heavy metal loud one and a total nightmare at the same time, and that’s how the whole thing came on the Concussion Protocol.  I hope you know I was just kidding when I said we were going to do it my way and all that.  You know, people, it’s the funny dude the way you know how long this band’s been together.

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Yes, I sure do

And anytime you have a band together for half as long as we’ve been together there are lineup changes, and that’s just life. I mean look at any heavy metal band that you can think of at off the top of your head Judas Priest, Metallica,  Iron Maiden, Black Sabbath you know Testament and the list goes on and on everybody’s had lineup changes.  So there’s nothing different from Vicious Rumors to any other bands.  If you love what you’re doing you just fix it and move on and that’s what we’ve done in the past.  Right now we’ve got a very particular combination and I really hope that we can stay together and make a few more albums together in this lineup and if for some reason that doesn’t happen, then I’m just going to go ahead and make another bad ass album without, you know I got a great bunch of guys right now, and we have a real good chemistry together.  I think as long as we can work together you know I think the guys are very excited about the response so far, the views and the ratings that the album’s been getting like 9 out of 10 and 8 out of 10.  People just responding in such a positive way and I appreciate your comments too man

Oh yes I rated you guys an 8 out of 10 

that’s fantastic man!

Soon as I heard it, I knew it was you! Soon as the opening riff, I knew it was you.  That’s how distinctive your riff playing is

Thank you very much

Drums, everything about that you can always hear a Vicious Rumors song

I appreciate that 

Going on from Concussion Protocol you’re on a German label now.  How was that first back in the day when we had big budgets with Atlantic Records all that compared to now and the market? 

Well, I tell you it’s been fantastic.  Working with SPV has been an incredible experience.  They know what they’re doing Ali Han and Marco over there in the office.  They’re seasoned veterans.  They’re into the music they know the market.  They’ve done a great job??? Spinning up the album and this year I think they’ve done more for the band than ever before.  I was just here two months doing Press.  I did like 70 interviews.  So it’s been a great experience to work with SPV, and you know Atlantic was also you find out when you’re in a band, and you’re trying to get signed it’s a very tough business you know.  When you have the opportunity to sign with the same label as Led Zeppelin and AC/DC you know it’s a dream come true and you take that opportunity no matter what it is but you know there’s also the reality of being  a minuscule fish in a huge pond and so to be with SPV and be one of their  more featured bands it’s also working out quite well

I remember Sylvio Bonvini, the guy that was doing your A & R at Atlantic

Yes, he was one of them it was him Sylvio and Peggy Donnelly.

Talk about names I remember dealing with getting your stuff.  Sylvio hooked me up with posters of you guys. 
Well you know, like I said Atlantic Records is no joke and everything we’ve done in the past has led us to where we are now.  So I have no regrets, I have no excuses, and I make no apologies.  We’re just trying to do the best we can do and do it.  We’re not trying to reinvent the wheel we’re just trying to take our art and our music and make it the best we can

Going on with your music we’re going to kind of go to a different level we’ll get back to that in a second.   The YouTube issue.  It’s becoming a big issue about YouTube, and I ask everybody these questions I always want to hear what everyone’s opinion is.  There are a lot of people like Nikki Sixx, and a few other people are saying that YouTube is not fair in compensating the artists due to all their music being on YouTube and it just being replayed and replayed and people uploading full video’s of the bands without consent.  I mean do you have an opinion about that?  Have you been following that story at all? 

 

I mean it’s a real double-edged sword. I mean it’s great for people to find the band and get to see it.  Like our albums just came out Friday and I think later that day someone had already put the whole album on YouTube or some link to go and get our entire album for free and it’s just like in some ways it kills the industry so it’s such a double-edged sword I mean in one respect it’s great because people can find out about you they can hear the music and if they’re real fans maybe they’re going to go out and buy it but there are so many people will just bootleg  your stuff and won’t pay for it, and it is unfair in a lot of ways, and you know it just comes right down to being victims of a digital world.

How do you feel about the streaming service like Spotify and Apple music and all them? Do you think they help or hurt the industry?

Well you know there’s some accountability there.  You know with YouTube it’s just the artist ripped off so at least with Spotify and some of those other things there can be some accountability. You know man, that’s just the world we live in today, and it just makes touring that much more valuable.

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Yes to increase the revenues you’re losing on record sales

Exactly and selling your album to the hardcore fans that go to the shows you know luckily in my case and I think the guys in my band, everybody in my band are guys that love what they do it’s not about money, it’s about passion and fire and living out our dreams you know we’re just very thankful to our fans that stood by us and the new ones that we get all the time cause man without the fans there is no band, and we’re all about the fans we’re nothing without them.

Your video that you came out here, are you playing Dean Guitars now?

Yes, I’ve been with Dean for a while now.

I saw I don’t know if it was you playing a Dean Dime Guitar are that what you’re primarily playing or do you have your signature model? 

Yes, I use the Razorback. You know when I saw that thing I was like my God it’s like a bolt of lightning, and it’s just so fun to play and I’m also a good fan of Dimebag so yes I was euphoric and honored that Dean Guitar would sponsor me with and give me so many great guitars to work with that’s been really a privilege and I’ve been really really proud to play my Dean Guitars around the world.  I have three Razorbacks a Razorback B and ML also an Eric Peterson, and the Eric wasn’t given to me by Dean it has been paid to me by Eric.  He came to my house and gave me the guitar we’ve known each other a long time, and I remember the day he gave that to me I was.  I was like man there are a couple of million people that would just be so blown away to have you come to their house and give them one of your guitars.  Eric and I have grown up together we’ve known each other a long time, so that’s part of being fortunate enough to be a part of the Bay Area metal scene that turned out to be something that the whole world looks to is just something extraordinary.  Metallica, Exodus, Vicious Rumors, Death Angel, Testament, Megadeth bands that are still going strong today.

You’ve got Dave Messina on Dean Guitars. You’ve got Michael Androvetti??? Who are in my group, you’ve got Vinnie Moore, and Rusty Coolidge is on there you know I can go on. It seems like Dean is picking up a lot of different artists and all.  Is there any top signature model for you or are you just happy with what they provide you?

Well you know, we’ll see, we’ll see.  I would love to do that at some point but I’ve been very thankful just to be sponsored by Dean, and you know they’ve given me some great guitars. You know I strangle the hell out of them, I beat the hell out of them and they seem to hold up quite well, so it’s not like a top priority for me my priority is the music and keeping the band working.  I would love to have a Geoff Thorpe signature.

What are your rigs consisting of?  I know you have the Dimebag but what else are you using? 

I’d love to tell you, but unfortunately, I’d have to kidnap you.  No man, I use a real classic rig called a Langner power amp and preamp with a very particular amp called a More Sound, and the More Sound amps are made in San Diego California, and he did make me a signature amp.  I do have an amp it’s called a Megajet amp.  It is not available on the market is a custom amp that was made for me by More Sound amplifiers and yes it’s pretty bad ass I think we got a really great guitar sound on the record and other than that I don’t have a lot of special gear to tell you about and quite honestly 90% of the way guitar players sound is their hands.  I could go into Guitar Center and plug it into the amp, and I’m still going to look like Geoff Thorpe of Vicious Rumors because it’s me playing, so gear and tone is definitely concordant but like I said you know Michael Schenker walks into a Guitar Center picks up the guitar and amp he’s still going to sound like Michael Schenker, and that’s because 90% of guitar players sound is coming right out of his hands.

That’s what I was getting to are you still practicing before each show? You’ve pretty much been at it for 37 years

Oh yes man, I still rehearse and warm up it’s important.  I feel like I can play much more freely if I get a chance to warm up.  I enjoy having rehearsals but unfortunately, nowadays we have this international line-up, and so we don’t get to have so many rehearsals. Everybody’s professional enough just to be ready, and we talk about the list, put together the set list everybody’s ready to go.  We get together, have one or two rehearsals and start the tour.

Are you still up in the Bay area?  Are you guys still practicing up there because you guys are playing Europe so often do you guys stay out there?  

Yes, Larry and I and Thaen still live in the Bay Area and Nick is in The Netherlands. So usually what happens is when we are preparing to go on the road I’ll have three or four rehearsals with Larry and Thaen just the two guitars and drums and then we’ll come to Europe a week early before the tour and  have three or four rehearsals together as a band and then just do it and then everybody shows up individually ready to go so we can have our rehearsals be very concentrated and we’re already rehearsed and ready and you know when you’re in that situation no one wants to be the guy that’s not ready you understand me? So everybody shows up prepared.

What is your touring schedule going to be like for the next twelve months?  Are you guys going to be in Europe?

No.  We’ve got some large plans.  We start October 31 we’re going to be with Durkschneider playing into November supporting him through Scandinavia and Germany,  Czech Republic, Austria then we’re going to break and do two and a half weeks of headline shows, and then we finish with another run with Durkschneider till December 19. We’ve got the 70,000 tons of metal cruise coming up at the beginning of February.  We have a second opportunity for a tour in Europe that we’re negotiating right now, and we certainly have plans to return to the United States as well as Japan and South America, so it’s going to be a very busy 2016-2017 for Vicious Rumors man we’re just putting the classic set out there with the best material. We just want to make it a heavy metal night to remember every time we hit the stage.

I ask everybody this question too. Is there any guitar player of a younger generation that has caught your eye? 

Oh man, there are so many good ones.  Everybody’s younger than me though so I’m not sure what the guys in Arch Enemy.  I don’t know how old Jeff Lynne is he might not be that much younger than I, but he sure is amazing.  It’s funny the part playing of soloing and stuff was a lost art for a while, and now it’s coming back again big time, so I think it would be great to see somebody stepping up the guitar playing again.  Especially with like schools losing music programs and things like that dropping out.

 Well, Geoff, those were exquisite.  Those were the questions I got for protocol, and it sounds like a good album and Nick looked superb on it, the video is sharp there.  Hopefully, you can get your signature endorsement from Dean so you can do that

I appreciate that, and I just want to thank you and the followers, of all your info like I, said we’re all about the fans whether it be the fans from the beginning or they’re just finding out about us you know no excuses no apologies it’s just bad ass heavy metal, and that’s all that matters.

It’s been one hell of a ride with Vicious Rumors in my collection for the past 26 years.  All of us going to see Total Recall is still one of my favorite memories.

I’ll tell you what, just keep rocking my friend and we’ll take you to the movies again sometime ok?

Well if you’re down in Florida, are you guys going to be touring in the states soon or you guys just stay primarily over there because Europe is more of a money maker for you?

Well, we plan on doing a US tour sometime I’d say mid-2017 so yes we’ll be back for sure.