Joe remembers going to the family dinners as a child where his uncle would sing Portuguese folk songs on his homemade guitar. As Joe got older his parents got him clarinet and piano lessons. After listening to Ike & Tina Turner, Roy Orbison, and Elvis on the radio in the late 1950's, he wanted to emulate the sounds he was hearing. Joe finally talked his parents into getting him a guitar that he played for a while and then put it…
Aerosmith guitarist Joe Perry talks about his current rock & roll supergroup The Hollywood Vampires, which features shock rock singer Alice Cooper and actor Johnny Depp on guitar. They take their name from the Hollywood Vampires, which was a celebrity drinking club formed by Alice Cooper in the 1970’s, that included stars like John Lennon, Harry Nilsson, Keith Moon, Mickey Dolenz and Ringo Starr. “It’s kind of a tribute band to a lot of the people who have died,” says Perry. “It’s a real…
On September 7, 2007 I interviewed Ronnie James Dio. I explained to Ronnie my vision and was glad to oblige. "Sabbath created heavy metal music. Purple were much more of a musical entity. They were much more trained and from Jon Lord to Richie Blackmore to Roger Glover, all of them were just really great players who learned from other great musicians. Zeppelin, those guys were a little bit between Sabbath and Purple in that they had musical expertise but…
Carl Palmer started playing drums at the age of 11 years old. He comes from a long line of musicians in his family going all the way back to his great grandmother who was a classical guitar player. While in school, he left school played in numerous orchestras. He could read music very well & found too easy. He desired a path more exciting and was invited to join a rhythm and blues band called the King Bees, which he…
Gene Simmons talks about coming to America when he just turned nine years old. Although he didn't speak any English, hearing Chuck Berry, Fats Domino, Sam Cook, Otis Reding and James Brown on the radio made perfect sense to him. The music moved him and he moved to it! At that young age, he couldn’t quite figure out what it was that excited him so. One thing he knew for certain, he was smitten by the music. Gene reflects on the first time he saw the Beatles…
Stephen Pearcy of RATT talks about his early days before RATT. Getting run over by a car, his first band Crystal Pystal, Mickey Ratt hanging out with Eddie Van Halen, smoking a joint with David Lee Roth in the late 70s, getting signed and recording Round and Round with Beau Hill.
Michael Wilton of Queensryche talks to Rock Scene about his very young years in San Francisco, moving to Seattle Washington and playing bass in garage bands while growing up. Eventually switching instruments with a guitar player, Michael began learning all that he could about the guitar. After high school, he attended the Cornish Institute of Allied Arts for a year and a half until running out of money, forcing him to take a job. In doing so, he met Eddie…
Nita Strauss takes her name from composer Johann Strauss. She grew up listening to classic rock with her father and picked up the guitar at age 13. After going to the movies to see “Crossroads” she knew she wanted to be a musician. The scene with Steve Vai just blew her away. Only two years later, she started playing in clubs. Since the age limit was 18, she would wait outside until it was time for the band to play.…
For Tommy, listening to ‘The Who’ was his first introduction to music. At 14, he got his first guitar. At the time, Tommy was known as a ‘Rink Rat’. He was on a speed-skating team. The rink had live bands that played. Tommy would help the bands load their equipment, and it’s there where one of them first told to Tommy that he should loss the guitar, learn how to play bass and sing, because there are ‘guitar players on…