“When I became well known, every company in the world – Gibson, you name it – said, ‘Whatever guitar you want, we’ll make it for you.’ I told them, ‘No, thanks. (Image credit: Mark Weiss) Sign Your Name If you put an obstacle in front of me, I will crush it and I will go forward. It was just a horrible time, y’know? But when you’ve been struck down that hard, you either come back stronger – or you don’t. But worse things happened to me at the same time. “My car crash of 1987 was a horrible thing. It’s just matured now – that’s all.” The Dark Ages My style of writing and playing was already very much shaped. “My first solo album, 1984’s Rising Force, was already half-done when I was out on the road with Alcatrazz.
That band was supposed to be Graham’s thing, but I totally took over and he was really pissed off. He tried to sabotage my performance a few times, but that’s a long story. “Every song, every vocal melody, everything you hear on that first album, No Parole From Rock ‘N’ Roll – I wrote that. So I tell them, ‘Okay, I’ll join on two conditions: I write the songs and we get a new drummer.’ I was setting the terms, this cocky 19-year-old kid. I walk in the room and start ripping it up and they look at me like I’m crazy, again. “One morning, I get a call asking me to audition for Graham Bonnet’s new band, Alcatrazz.
I asked the bartender, ‘Hey, who’s playing in town tonight?’ And the guy says, ‘You are.’ That was after one week in America. I remember, 30 people came to our first show, but one week later we played the Troubadour and from the dressing room window, I was looking down the street and there was a line around the block. “When I first came from Sweden to America in 1982, I was in a very run-of-the-mill LA band called Steeler.
0 kommentar(er)
