20 Questions w/ original TUFF skin basher Michael Lean!

To find out more about Michaels Bagels go here www.oldnewyork.com

To find out more about his drumming with TUFF go here www.TuffCds.com

Michael Lean @ NAMM 2006 a special guest at the DW booth!

1. This is your chance to plug your shit, your stores, website, & whatever else you want?

I have been a restaurateur for the past 12 years owning Old New York Deli & Bagel Co. www.oldnewyork.com , having one shop in Camarillo, CA and the other in the resort town of Mammoth Lakes, CA.  I currently reside in Mammoth, where I spend most of my time, you know doing the stuff most people do, skiing, sledding, hiking, mountain biking and enjoying the Eastern Sierras. I am now looking at franchising/licensing our concept to expand the brand.



2. You left the band Tuff in 1993 to pursue starting your own business. That turned out to be a Coffee & Bagel shop. How do you go from tattoos, tours

and heavy metal to selling poppy seed bagels and java?

Good question, sometimes I ask myself that over and over. I guess as I reflect, I had considered joining another group or two as I have a passion for drumming and music in general. After I left the group I wanted to put down the sticks for a while and go into business, I had the music business burn out. I wanted to start several businesses, restaurants, tanning shops, etc. and looked to move out to Ventura County, out of Burbank were I was living.  Being from New York and loving great food, we decided to start a small coffee and bagel bakery, the question was, where?  A quick Harley ride with my now wife Julie, landed us in Camarillo and we loved the area. A few months later back in ‘94 we opened our store. It started as just a little low key shop for the community(matter of fact it was called Low Key Coffee  & Bagel when we opened) that has turned into a full blown quick casual restaurant, deli & bakery. Twelve years later, and a new shop and move to Mammoth Lakes, CA., I guess you can say I put down the sticks for awhile!

 

Michael Lean, Stevie Rachelle, Jorge DeSaint & Todd Chase on Hollywood Blvd.

Well time has flown by since the Tuff days of traveling across the county in a van, or a bus and sharing pork and beans four ways in small apartments in the valley! I joined the group in Phoenix, then Todd, Jorge & I played some gigs in Phoenix with Terry and Jim (first singers) , we lived in this house out west and I met Deb Rosner (Poison Publicist at the time) at a Poison gig at Bootleggers in Phoenix.  I started talking to Deb and just decided we needed to move to Hollywood. I was 18 when we moved, and we never looked back. We hit Hollywood hard when we moved back in the day. We did our own demo back in Phoenix that we gave away in L.A. before we even moved, one with a full color cover sleeve, etc. I always thought we were signed! We just started working 24/7-365 like every band should trying to get our feet wet and get noticed. We really worked hard for a long, long time, changed singers three times before we got a record deal, we did all the things that only signed bands would normally do such as making full color posters, getting press coverage in all the national mags (thank you to all my press buddies that made it happen) and local rags, built a massive fan base and toured all the time to get noticed. We were always playing somewhere, somehow! We always wanted the show, the image to be larger than life, so we always had cool stage props, blew shit up with pyro at the shows, had large ads, flyers all over town, etc.  It was unreal that we could not land a record deal before we finally did. Timing is everything, I think if we were signed right after Warrant got signed we would have had a better outcome with record sales, we were a day late, a dollar or more short, who knows!. I think it starting coming to an end for me when Todd decided to leave the band, that was a tough time as we basically all grew up together, I felt that the vibe was lost and was getting burned out of the music biz in general, so I was planning a departure myself. It was a blast and I want thank Todd, Jorge, Terry, Jim & Stevie, and all the fans that supported us for so long, thanks again. Hey, and speaking of the band backer, I am still waiting on checks from Stevie, Todd & Jorge, I better go check the mail right now!

4. You were also a partner with Jim Gillette in Metal Power vocal lessons. How did that whole venture come to be, and how many lessons did you guys sell through those Rip ads?



Jim came to me with his idea of doing the M.P. and asked for me to put some dough into it. The idea came from Doug Marks Guitar lessons. A great idea, we sold a bunch, Jim made some dough, I did not. Tax loss #1. I just spoke with Jim, he’s been developing an island in Turks N Caicos, married to Litta with two kids, and kicking ass. I should have bought that lot!

5. Rate a Drummer 1-10. 1 being a hack, and 10 being a Drum God!

Tommy Lee = Bomber, mad man, what can anyone say bad about the guy that went up-side down with the kit, Tommy is insane, period!(10)

Steven Sweet = Fucks his drums like an animal, great guy too! (6)

Bobby Blotzer = Not a big fan (5)

Alex Van Halen = His kits are insane, great solid player (8)

Terri Bozzio = My favorite, got to see him on his first clinic tour put on by Pro Drum years ago in Hollywood, unreal in every aspect of drumming (10+++++++)

Rob Affusso = I like the S.R. stuff allot (6)

Jimi Lord = One of the many Tuff drummers since my departure (2)

Vikki Foxx = Solid player, killer tricks, (7)

Rikki Rocket = Makes more money than me! (2)

Vinnie Paul = Pounding, hella fast feet (8)