E-mail of the week, month and season.

Alex Grossi with Jani Lane and C.C. Banana

 

The other day we got an e-mail from Alex Grossi. For those of you who don’t know, Alex is one of those younger (younger meaning under 45) guys like Keri Kelli, Robbie Crane or Troy Patrick Farrell who makes a living hopping from one old-school band to another. Currently he’s the guitarist for Quiet Riot, but he’s also been a member of Beautiful Creatures, the Jani Lane solo band and the ill-fated Bad Boys of Metal Tour in 2004. Alex did 20 Questions with us back in February and also appeared in C.C. Banana’s monster interview feature from this year’s Rock Never Stops Tour. He even managed to weasel his way into Jani Lane ‘s Back-4-More, as seen in the photo above.

Anyway, it seems that Alex was asked to do an interview by another website. For whatever reason, after Alex had already responded to the questions, the website ended up not running the article! A website not running an interview with a virtually unknown guitarist? Shocking! But knowing that Metal Sludge is the #1 hard rock/metal site in the web, Alex came to us to see if we could run it instead. We eventually agreed to post the pussy questions asked by that other website… but only if Alex stepped up to the plate and answered a few of our patented Metal Sludge-style questions, too! Alex agreed, so here we are.

Keeping with tradition, our questions will be in Metal Sludge RED. The aforementioned pussy questions will be in pussy PINK. Naturally, Alex’s answers will be in Michael Jackson WHITE, and of course when ever we mention

CC Banana it will be in green, oops, we meant yellow.

We now present our E-mail of the Week from Alex Grossi!

Dear Sludge,

I was recently asked to do an interview for a rock website who shall remain nameless. Long story short, after the website had some internal issues (nothing to do w/ me) they scrapped my interview along w/ a few others……I am sending you guys a copy of it to check out because for one, I am a horrible typer, so it took me a long time to answer the whole thing, so I can’t just delete it…..PLUS, I am pretty sure I spelled everything right!!!!!!—- enjoy!!!

All the Best,

Alex Grossi

www.AlexGrossi.com

Pussy Question #1: Alex, how does it feel to be recording with Quiet Riot, one of the most legendary metal bands of all time?

Well, I feel extremly lucky to be working with guys like Kevin, Frankie and Chuck. I think it will be cool to blend new school with old school if you will, Frankie IS John Bonham, (If Led Zep ever did a re-union, they would be high not to ask Banali to be the drummer) the whole thing has really been a cool experience, I am definatley learning A LOT from him. Kevin is also much more of a guitarist than people think, not in the "player" sense, but he will come up with these fucked up chords and non-conventional parts that most guitarists would never think of…. It makes for a cool dynamic, that sort of thing really helps me staying away from the standard rock cliche’s. Everyone is bringing different songs/styles in so I think the record will definatley reflect QUIET RIOT 2005. You can get more info on what is going w/ QR at http://www.frankie-banali.com

Metal Sludge Question #1: Alex, does your contract with Quiet Riot require this kind of ass kissing or do you just do it out of habit?

I am not contractuly obligated with QUIET RIOT to do anything other than play guitar, and I really wouldn’t consider my answers ass-kissing, I am just very happy to be where I am, and not "too cool" to admit it…

Pussy Question #2: Beautiful Creatures’ second album "Deuce" is finally available in the US. Prior to its release, there were rumors that your guitar parts from the earlier Japanese edition were redone by current BC guitarist Mark Simpson. What’s the real story? Also, is it true that Anthony Focx produced this album?

Anthony pulled that record out of the fire! — BC went through FOUR different producers, None were right, then Ant started fucking around w/ some rough mixes and they sounded pretty damn good, so they went for it, and it came out great! I am very proud of the guys, I wish them nothing but the best.

As far as the Guitar tracks being re-cut, NOT TRUE—-Joe, Kenny, Myself, Anthony and Matt wrote and recorded that entire record (minus 2 tracks on the U.S. release). I really have no clue how that rumor got started, but I did hear that the Easter Bunny played Tambourine on a couple of tracks too…..

Actually, here are the album credits directly from Beautiful Creatures’s label—- Spitfire/Eaglerock  

Metal Sludge Question #2: How difficult was it to record your guitar parts while Anthony "Foggy" Focx was busy smoking up the room with his fog machine and updating his birth certificate?

The Fog Machine actually added a cool vibe to the studio, sort of like The Munsters meets a pro-tools class at MIT…. as far as the birth certificate, never saw him w/ that, but I can say that he was getting a lot of stuff notarized the whole time……hmmmmm……

But seriously, Anthony did an amazing job on Deuce, Just listen to it, it sounds like it was done for a lot more $$ than it actually was, and love ‘em or hate ‘em BC has been able to keep making records w/ record companies like Spitfire or JVC/VICTOR behind them…..I can’t say that for too many bands at thier level.

Pussy Question #3: Give us a quick recap of the Rock Never Stops Tour.

QUIET RIOT had a great time on the RNS tour this year, CINDERELLA treated us great and there was hardly any bullshit that you seem to hear about on those package tours, had some great shows, made some great friends….. by show #60 we were all a little fried, but I had a blast, it was a dream come true for me!, PLUS it was nice to be on a bus where the band actually got along with each other!

Metal Sludge Question #3: For as good as it was on the Rock Never Stops Tour this summer, tell us how bad it got on the Bad Boys of Metal Tour last summer. With both Stephen Adler and Jani Lane on board, we know you have at least one good tale of tragedy to share.

The entire tour was a tragedy! If I were to try and type all the bad stuff out, I would end up in the hospital w/ Carpel tunnel syndrome!!—- I will, however give you guys a "Letterman Show" style top 10 list…..here goes…

BAD BOYS OF METAL 2004 TOP 10….this is ALL true!!!!

10. One of the clubs burning down the day before we were booked to play there…

9. Switching tour Buses 4 times in 3 weeks!

8. Being woken up in the middle of the night to smell of the carpet in the front lounge on fire (Adler fell asleep w/ a cigarette in his hand)

7. Kevin DuBrow choking what sense was left out of Steven Adler in Ohio

6. Playing in Tuscon in a dirt parking lot next to a trailer park with a soundcrew that didn’t speak a word of english.

5. A drunk, mexican midget running onstage to make out w/ Steven Adler during the breakdown of "Knockin’ on Heaven’s Door"

4. The trailer falling off the bus on the highway in michagan…

3. One of our crew guys hooking up with a 60-year old cleaning lady at a Holiday inn in Arizona …..

2. Walking on to Bus #2 to find the bus owner’s wife making the bedding in the bunks up, then, about a half hour later seeing her on the TV in the back lounge getting ass-fucked by my guitar tech (apparently she had done some "acting")

1. Jani calling 15 minutes before showtime saying he needed the "night off", never to be heard from again for duration of the tour….

Pussy Question #4: We understand that you will be recording some guitar tracks for the new album by Orange County punk rockers Ignite. How did that come about?

I had been filling in for IGNITE on guitar for a couple years since moving to LA, they are HUGE all over the world, last year alone, I got to see EUROPE, BRAZIL and AUSTRAILIA with them, but they are more of the O.C. punk thing so we both knew that it would never be permanent due to the fact that for whatever reason I can’t seem to get the Butt-Rock out of my system!. They just signed a huge worldwide deal w/ CENTURY MEDIA and are preparing to enter the studio. They have asked me to come in and cut some the leads on the record. Most punk/hardcore bands are very anti-guitar solo, but when I joined up w/ IGNITE we started adding a full-on cock-rock solo into the show and the kids went nuts!— imagine opening for HATEBREED and SLAYER in Sweden in front of 15,000 punk rock kids and busting into "Eruption", those kids completley lost thier minds!, I remember Jamie Jasta on the side of the stage feaking out!!! So, when it came time to track, they called me to come in, it should be a lot of fun!— Just a couple old school solos!– I always think it’s cool when bands take chances…..

Metal Sludge Question #4: David Hasselhoff is huge all over the world, too. His albums actually sell like crazy in Europe. Will you be playing with him anytime soon?

Well, I have never been a big Hasselhoff fan, but I bet there would be a lot of Pussy at the shows…..I would also like to do a remake of "Heartbeat" w/ Don Johnson, featuring Rick James on bass, oh wait, he’s dead. Nevermind.

Pussy Question #5: What was the deal with Jani Lane and "Celebrity Fit Club?" We hear that you were the guitarist the night of that infamous LA show.

Well, it was exactly what VH1 wanted- a Train Wreck! but Since then Jani has kicked the bottle, and even quit smoking, I heard they are working on an acoustic tour for him, I wish him the best of luck. As far as the LA show goes, all I can say is Gary Busey, CC Deville, Joe Leste, The Snapple Lady, Victoria Jackson, Mark Rojas, a bunch of booze, 2 drumsets, 2 Marshall stacks a P.A. and a stage……. need I say more?

Metal Sludge Question #5: If you had to bang any of Jani’s fellow "Celebrity Fit Club" cast members BEFORE their weight loss, whom would you choose and why? And no, you can’t pick the hottie doctor chick who weighed them in every week.

No question, it would have to be Wendy the Snapple lady, she was so nice when I met her, and she even shipped cases and cases of Snapple to us after we shot the show!!, If I were gay, defintley Gary Busey, he seems like he would be pretty wild in the sack!

Well, that was certainly an eye-opener! We weren’t sure what Alex would come up with in response to our supplemental questions but it turns out he had some good comebacks lined up. Plus he spilled some Sludge about last year’s Bad Boys of Metal Tour. We’ve been waiting for somebody to officially dish some dirt on that fiasco and Alex finally delivered. The Steven Adler and Kevin Dubrow stories alone are priceless! Although the less said about banging Wendy the Snapple lady or Gary Busey, the better. Still, Alex proved yet again that he can hang so maybe we’ll hit him up for a full Rewind sometime next year.

And so ends our latest E-mail of the Week. Be sure to come back for our next

E-mail of the Week… probably sometime in 2006.

Metal Sludge

Giving Replacement Rockers a Platform Since 1998