By STEVE MASCORD
SLAUGHTER have just touched down in Australia for the very first time, some 36 years into their career.
The boys are playing GlamFest this Friday in Melbourne and Sunday in Sydney. We recently spoke to Dana Strum, the bassist and co-founder whose list of industry credits runs much deeper than than that, along with being a member of Vinnie Vincent Invasion and Vince Neil’s touring band. For a start, he is the man who introduced Ozzy Osbourne to legendary guitarist Randy Rhoads and to his successor Jake E Lee.
Our interview garnered a strong reaction, picked up by news aggregators within two hours of it finishing. Rather than trying to whip up an insightful feature story from the encounter – and with the looming Melbourne show in mind – we’ll pick the eyes out of what the 66-year-old industry veteran had to say. Some of this describes key moments in rock history and needs to be placed ‘on record’, as it were.
The death of guitarist Tim Kelly in 1998: “An horrific car and semi- truck crash, head-on, in Arizona. It was just Godawful and you never believe that is going to happen when you have early success like that and you’re burying your band member. It’s not exactly anything you could plan or ever think of. Jordan Cannata is the (current) drummer. He was from a group called Adrenalin Mob … and Adrenalin Mob was also in an horrific car crash with their tour bus and a couple of vehicles and a semi went actually through the vehicle. Jordan was thrown into an alligator and crocodile swamp area. The only reason he lived is because there was a fire from the explosion and the law enforcement told him ‘the only reason you’re alive is because they’re scared of the fire or believe me you would have been food’.”
Upcoming documentary/biopic:“We are in the process of working with two major companies that you guys would know well that I don’t want to say because they both shouldn’t know that. But they both have crazy interest in it. And one of them wants it tailored a little bit to them and we’ve said we want it to be honest and real and that may call the cards. Because the real story is really true. For people that are listening that their parents either encourage them to play music or to do a podcast or to pursue their dreams, whatever they may be, Mark Slaughter’s father was really the one that I spoke to and he has a great role in this thing. Because in the end, if Mark’s dad didn’t love his kid and encourage his kid, I would have never met Mark. I actually spoke to the dad, just playing around and joking around, before his dad ever admitted to me ‘I want you to come see my son. You may be a guy that could just bring my son and squeeze him through this’. So it was really a story of this guy loving his son and he appears in and out of the thing because he got to see his kid go from a very small one-bedroom-type rehearsal environment to playing Madison Square Garden on the KISS tour. And not many parents quite get to see quite that. There’s people that portray the younger versions (of us) and watching some of that going down is interesting, because you’re, like ‘[it’s] pretty fucking close’. Some of it is amazing. Some of the people study early footage and, I’m, like ‘look, dude, the guy’s got every fucking move you’ve made’. It’s like seeing that Queen biopic, that guy [Rami Malek] was so good – and they were all so good. It’s important to us to bring those funny moments out, where a manager came in once to the studio and said ‘It’s really too bad that ‘Fly To The Angels’ doesn’t have a chorus, guys. If it only had a chorus, it could be a big song.’ ‘Fly To The Angels’ currently has about 44 million views on YouTube, unpromoted — very naturally. And every night we play it, people are crying, singing and relishing. But that’s the truth. Now, if you listened to that manager guy at the time, you could have taken it into a whole another direction. And I looked over and I said ‘you know what’s great about opinions? They don’t really matter.’ He just stared at me. He just stared at me, like ‘I’m gonna fucking kill you.’ And I said ‘Well, either you’re gonna kill me or you’re gonna be thankful I stuck to my guns.’ And [there were] many moments like that.There’s not a finished cut, but the story and the interweavings of the story have been worked on for a good while. It’s like a good movie — if you don’t have a great story … or a good song. If you don’t have a good song, you can be a greatest band in the world but people may not be able to hear you. So, it’s that kind of thing. But the story, I think, is a really, really good story.”
Vinnie Vincent: “It’s a funny subject. Mark and I were obviously involved in many tours with VVI. We still talk to (drummer) Bobby Rock. He’s a great guy. We’re actually still all friends and we can sit around and reminisce about the crazy times on those tours. And it was. There were some crazy moments for sure. I enjoyed the records I worked on, doing that. Some of them, I thought, had really interesting moments and I can go back and listen to them and think ‘I feel like I was really onto something that became an extension off of All Systems Go where Slaughter later went a bit’. But what’s funny is people have asked me and I just tell the truth. I’ve never spoken to him since we each saw each other leave at the Celebrity Theater in Anaheim – Santa Ana area – when we left. And I never really wanted to. I didn’t really have anything to say. The whole thing was just so kind twisted – one of those VVI songs – it was almost better off just leaving it unsaid. But then I’ve seen ‘oh, there’s going to be a special concert here and there’ and I always scratch my head and go ‘OK … good luck’. It is what it is. I think some times if you talk about someone you’re garnering then publicity and awareness and it may not be, um, something I am interested in doing for him.”
Ozzy Osbourne: “Number one, he is a really funny guy. He has a lot of heart and to see him say he couldn’t play … as a performer myself and knowing (him), as an early guy when he was just canned from Black Sabbath …. those are memories that if I close my eyes I can relive every second of them. Because I was a huge Black Sabbath fan. Still am … when I met Ozzy he was very down and out. He’s documented it, talked about this. There’s my side and his side and they coincide, almost vertically the whole time. And he had a lot of doubts if he was going to have an on-going career. He says that out there too, ‘I had no idea’. I did have an idea and I told him ‘look, people love you’. And he questioned that. A very funny episode that happened: I didn’t know him well, my Black Sabbath-sounding band was playing the Starwood, he came to the Starwood. Again, well documented out there. I didn’t know much about him, I just loved the music. At one point in the hotel as we were talking, getting to know each other, I said ‘what do you play’ …. he said ‘I don’t play anything, Dana’ … I said ‘how do you make that stuff up that you do?’ and he said – it was a really honest answer – ‘it’s just in me head’. I’m a kid, I’m kinda awestruck and I said ‘do it! Just do it!’. He said ‘I’m not auditioning for you, Dana’. I think he was offended. I said ‘I’m curious, just do it for minute’ and he puts his finger in his ear and (sings).’ All I had to hear was three or four notes. I said ‘you can stop’. He says ‘why’s that?’ I said … ‘you are the guy that made that stuff up’. You could see him get very sombre and, like, ‘I am’. I said ‘you still are’ and he was like ‘they’ve sacked me, they have Ronnie Dio’ and I said ‘but it doesn’t matter’. I said ‘believe me, it doesn’t matter’ and he said ‘I hope you’re right’. I said ‘oh no, I’m right and meanwhile I want to tell you: I know this guy who’s going to change your life’.”
Randy Rhoads: “I just knew ‘the world has to see this’ and once the world did start to see that, I think Randy Rhoads changed the world of guitar for a lot of people. I was always really proud and then I was horrified as his death. Because the truth was, he had never really been on a plane before, before he went to England. A lot of people don’t know that. He had never flown. And how does he die? In a plane crash. And of course I am thinking ‘oh my God, I tried to convince him to do this’. And one of the funniest oddball moments was him telling me that he really didn’t like Black Sabbath … I’m like ‘how can you play like that and not like Black Sabbath – be real!’. But he was so real he gave me a bootleg cassette. I said ‘what’s this’ and he said ‘all the stuff that you like about me, it’s right here’. I said ‘is this you guys playing live at the Starwood or the Whiskey’ and he went ‘No, no. Have you ever heard of David Bowie … you know his guitar player, Mick Ronson?’ Now I’m looking at Randy Rhoads with the frosted hair, the big hoop earrings, the polka dots on, and I thought ‘Jesus Christ, he looks like Mick Ronson’. He’s like: ‘Because everything you like that I do, I took from this guy’. Not only was it honest … he’s emulating his hero. If you look at an early picture of Randy with never even thought ‘how did I miss this?’ It was one of those things where things can be so obvious … I was very proud of doing that. I was also very proud of putting Jake (E Lee) together with him (Osbourne) … I never made any money doing those things, I never asked for any money doing those things. It was the right thing to do and I thought in my mind ‘I’ll have my day’ … ”
Vince Neil: “Underneath what anybody may think, Vince Neil’s a good guy and he’s got a lot of heart. It hurts me to see or hear people say things just ignorant and wrong. This guy’s done it all his life. He’s lost a kid. He’s been through hell and back. You’ve got to have a lot of respect for anyone who’s been through that that guy has been through and still does what he does. Vince, he’s one of the good guys and a lot of people would unfortunately maybe not know that. But I know that.”
Grief, guilt and peace: “The truth is I was driving down the street after I knew I’d put Randy and Ozzy together and I remember … Randy’s mother who owned the music school that he taught at, Delores Rhoads. She would religiously tell me ‘don’t call here, he’s in the middle of a lesson’ … because he taught music lessons. And I would say ‘I really need to talk to him because I’ve got a studio and he needs to come down and play for Ozzy Osbourne’. ‘He’s in a lesson!’ (mimics hanging up a phone). Click! Alright, I’ll just pretend that that didn’t happen and I’m gonna call again. ‘Stop calling here!’ So all of the things go through your mind, the moments that lead up to something, and when the world accepted him so wholeheartedly I was proud and thrill. I was like ‘hey, I was right!’. The world did get him and the world needed him. The world embraced him and he changed … how many young kids wanted to play guitar because of him? Then I was driving on Sunset and I heard on the radio ‘we just played Lynyrd Skynyrd ‘Free Bird’ and that’s dedicated to Randy Rhoads who has passed away this morning in a tragic plane crash’. And I pulled my crappy car over and just started crying. I thought … ‘what the fuck did I do?’. He didn’t really like Sabbath. I kinda pushed him. What if I never did that. He’d still be alive. All the thoughts race through your mind. You know, I felt horrible for years … until I did a documentary peace where a student of his became an award-winning writer and photojournalist. He said ‘you know, I was in the room when you called the front a number of times’. I said ‘you’re kidding’. He said ‘no, I was an Rudy Sarzo was in the other room’. I said ‘OK’. He said ‘you know his mom Delores told him that guy might be right, this might be your chance, you should go down there and do this’. I always thought I was the one that really leaned on him but apparently his mom looked at him and said ‘this may be the thing for you, the guy might be right, as strong as he’s coming on, he may be right’. That just took 50 of the 100 pounds off my shoulders. I don’t know if I would ever let go of it because if that exact timeline didn’t occur, who knows? Ozzy may not have had the career that he had, Randy may not have been known all over the world as the inspiration that he was. If certain things don’t line up, it’s the same as Tim Kelly getting in that horrible accident. He left talking to the drummer and I – Blas (Elias) – like it was just another day. By the end of the day he was dead. If one little thing … if I kept him on the phone a little longer of if I said ‘don’t go there, come to the studio and work like you should’ .. which I did say earlier in the day, ‘you shouldn’t be going there’. ‘Dana you’re too serious all the time, you want to work, live a little bit!’ The guy dies that night. So you don’t really let go of it when you lower someone in the ground in a casket that you were on those tour buses with … he deserved to see a bit of a comeback of the genre of music where it wasn’t a crime to admit you liked it anymore. He never got to see that so you think about that often when you play.”
HEAR OUR INTERVIEWS WITH DOZENS OF ARTISTS INCLUDING SLAUGHTER VIA OUR PATREON PAGE. EAVESDROP AS WE TALK TO SOME OF THE BIGGEST NAMES IN ROCK AND METAL – FROM 1987 TO THE PRESENT!
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