 Okay. Going live, we're live. Here we are, guys. On the metal voice, a reunion of sorts. Legendary photographer, Mark Wise. Wise guy. And of course, I didn't trust teachers. I didn't trust politics. It's all good. Mark Wise, I had such a great, nice introduction there. Start over again. On the show today, Mark Wise. Legendary, metal, hard rock photographer. And of course, former Watts guitarist, the man, mean man, Chris Holmes. What's going on, guys? Hey, how you doing? Chris? Oh my God. Yeah. You haven't changed a bit? Oh yeah, I have changed. No, no, you haven't changed a bit. 35 years since I last saw you, I think. I've changed. I got a beard. I don't shave anymore. I'm tired of it. Tired of it, you know. My phone's going to keep falling. It's okay. It's all right. It's live. It's all good. Yeah. It's part of the charm of life. Guys, okay, I'm going to first plug what you guys are doing, okay? We're talking on the internet, right? We are on the internet live, my friend. We're on YouTube. Chris Holmes, mean man documentary, Mark. It's coming out January 15th. This is the documentary, the long awaited documentary by Chris Holmes, mean man. Spectacular. Spectacular. And also, Mark Wise, the decade that rock. Show your shirt. Oh. The decade there. Where's your book? Do you have your book around? I do. I do. It's in its third pressing. Is that it? Third press. Look at that. So that's the first plug of the day. All right. Look at that. And if we go back in time to 1985, when these two fellas first met, here it is. You see that? You see that, Chris? There you are. Yeah, photos and a photo session. Now I'll show the other side. The last command with your buddy there, the last command. So that was done by Mark Wise, the photo session for Wasp. Guys, can you just tell me about that photo session? I'll start off with, what do you remember, Mark? And we'll go to Chris. All right. Well, I remember, you know, Blackie calling me up and saying, you know, telling me the concept of having this big mountain of, you know, like he's on top of a mountain with a flag and bones coming out of it and whatnot. And then we're going to stand on top of it. Now he wanted to do this, not on location, because we had to control it. We had to get a thunderous sky. So that sky was like kind of a painted backdrop that I brought into the studio. So it was really like specific what we needed to do. And we had like two tons of dirt brought into the studio. I forget what studio it was. It was an SIR. And we had all this dirt piled up. And I had to strategically place the bones and everything. It was an ordeal. I mean, this took like, you know, a lot of preps. I think I went in there a couple of days before and set it up, had to light it, did my little gel thing. And then we did some individuals of Blackie with the flag, like, you know, Mount Rushmore, you know, just like, you know, sticking the flag in there. And then I bought the other guys in and we did individuals and it was, it was, it was definitely a long day and got some great imagery from it. And that's before we had all this CGI stuff where you can, you know, green screens and all that fun stuff. You had to build the sets, right? Totally built. Totally. All my, all my sets were built like to stay hungry as a built room, docking under locking key was all that was a cut out with the keyhole. So yeah. Fucking thing keeps falling. Very good. You're good, Chris. What do you remember? Okay, you tell me what you remember. Okay, I know what you think about this album cover, like, you know, with Blackie by himself on it. But what do you remember from the shoot meeting Mark, you know, hanging out, working hard? I just remember a week later, SIR guys were complaining. There was dirt all over the studio. You know, I'm trying to fix my phone so then keep popping off the thing, you know, that's all. No, it's fine. So yeah, I would, I went down while they were shooting it. They had even set it up on a table. Remember that? It wasn't on the ground. It was up on some table or whatever. I don't know, maybe for the backlighting or whatever, you know, it was an all night thing. Shoot. Sorry. My phone's going to keep falling. It's okay. You know, it's live TV. It's all good. It's all part of the charm. It's not good here. Hey, Chris, did you, were you surprised that it was just Blackie on the cover or was like, because we did band shots. Did you, like, was there anyone told? Because, you know, what were your feelings on it, like, you know, when you saw Blackie? Well, he told me about this, but he'll tell you again. Well, you know, Wasp was at first was a band of four people, you know, then after the first tour, you know, the narcissists of somebody comes out and they want to be the main guy. You know, and what, you know, you're supposed to fight, you know, he's the main guy in the band, so you can't fight against it. You know, you go along with, go along with the program, you know. There was, sorry. It's okay. I don't know how this is going to work. Can you see me here? Yes. How about this? That's good. I'll keep it like that. I'm trying to get it stuck there. It's in my dresser. Well, it's just the way Blackie wanted it, you know, it's his band. And it's, you know, you can't put two guys on the cover. You know, it's either a whole band or him. So it's the last, you know, it's the way it is. Well, imagery is like, you know, like when I did the Stay Hungry album cover, it was supposed to be the whole band, but we didn't, it wasn't that magic shot. And then when D grabbed the bone at the end, he came alive. So, you know, it's like the Alice Cooper band is like Alice was the person. So it's sometimes a single image of one person that works. So you never know what actually is the shot. I mean, with the twisted cover, it wasn't thought out to be a solo shot of D on it. It sounds like with the Wasp cover, the last command, it was a thought out that it was going to be Blackie. So that was just an internal decision that Blackie made as he was the leader. Yeah, yeah. And he always said it was a management's decision, but it's just the way it is. It's the way, you know, I went down and picked out the picture that I wanted on the back. And the picture that went on wasn't the one that I picked out. You know, so why the fuck even have me come down. That's it right here, right? You're talking about your shot, your head shot, basically. Guys? I wouldn't have picked the picture. I wouldn't have picked the picture out of me going, you know. It's the first I knew about it. And just so you know, Chris, I had nothing to do with the selection. We're clearing the air right here now. No, it's not your fault, Mark. You just take the pictures. You don't decide what goes on the records. No, I know. Okay, guys, you know, so I remember going down to the office and, you know, they went through a thing, you know, so what's the thing you look through on a loop? Yeah, whatever the hell. This right here, the loop. Yeah, yeah, yeah, you look through all the pictures and you decide what picture you want. I decided a picture. And that didn't go on. You know, the picture that I decided, you know, I don't, I don't, I got my reasons to think why, but I don't, it's not, you know, I don't want to sit here and bad mouth blackie about it. So that's just, it's just the way it is. It's the way that the, you know. Okay, guys, I don't want to catch you guys on. What? But we got all kinds of people who want to jump on. Okay, so this is what we're going to do. I'm going to bring people out. What are they going to jump on? Jump on this, this call here, say hi, maybe ask a question to one of you guys. This is like, this is completely live. I don't know what's going to happen. I'm bringing Carl on. Are we going to hear them or are you going to read it? Oh, you're going to see them. Oh. And if it's a disaster, I'll just shut it down. So be patient everybody as we try to figure this out. This is Carl. I don't know who Carl is. I've never met Carl before, but maybe you guys have. So Carl, can you hear us? We're having the same problem that Chris had before. What? I'm just trying to balance my phone. You know, Carl, we do not hear you. We can go to the next person as Carl tries to figure that out. Let me see where Carl is. Carl, you do not have video. We're going to have to leave you there for now. I'll show some pictures of my, my book while you're getting callers in. Henrik. Let's bring in Henrik here. Henrik, what's going on man? Carl. Oh, that's Carl. Carl, can you hear us? I see. I see Henrik. Henrik is there and Carl is there too. Carl. He's having the same problem I am. Can't hear you. Can't hear you. Click audio. Now Henrik is connecting to audio. So I guess I'll grab two people at once because it might take a little while. Can we hear you guys? Can you hear us? I can hear you. I mean, doesn't get more live than this. Problems and all. Warts and all. Carl, Henrik, can you hear us? Because if not, I'm going to have to drop you off, man. I got other people. Yeah, I can, I can hear you. Is that Henrik? Yeah. Do you have a question for Chris or Mark? Yeah, I do. I have a question for both. And I just want to thank them both for being such a fantastic professional studio. I grew up with both Chris and Mark. They're fantastic work. Okay. Thanks. And my question for Mark is when you enter a shoot or when you did enter a shoot with these bands in the 80s, how much of a input did you have initially with sitting down with the band and the management, figuring out what to shoot? Or were you given sort of a scenery or an idea from the band and management? Yeah, it's usually, if it was an album cover, it was usually came from the band. And I kind of like, you know, interpreted a little bit and, you know, tell them what I'm going to do and how I'm going to build it. Like the Stay Hungry cover was, they just wanted an old room and I made this thing happen in my studio and got the bone and photo shoots that just I take on the road. I kind of just make stuff up. I bring locations and kind of just go by feel. It's kind of very, you know, it just really happens. It falls into it. So I have a lot of input when I'm on the road with them. When it's in the studio and they have a specific product, then the record company is something to say management. Of course, the artist who initiates the idea. All right, Heinrich, I'm going to let you go. Thank you so much for jumping on. Carl, can you hear us? Awesome. Thank you. Carl, can you hear us? Well, Carl, we're going to have to see what we're going to do here. Carl, can you hear us? Can you hear us? You got to turn your audio on. Can you turn your audio on? I'm going to bring somebody else in as you figure out that. I'm going to bring on Fernando. You got to love this. Carl's having problems. Fernando, you there? Oh, what a picture that is. He's connecting. Here we go. I think Fernando's got it going. So you, as you turn on, Mark, why don't you tell us about your Broadway potential, your Broadway play? Well, I did this. I did this exhibition at the moment museum. And I had my good friend Keith Roth from Sirius. And his band of ghouls play at it. And I had, and we played some songs. I played Alice Cooper. I sang my nightmare. And. Okay, here we go. Make sure to remove that guy and report in. We need to get our hands around that guy's neck. That's what we're going to do next time. I thought I'm going to get a Bubba Bowie or something. Okay. So tell me about your Broadway, Mark. Well, it's, it's a little bit off from going on Broadway, but I want to take it to the road in October because it, it kind of stemmed from the idea when I did this exhibition at the Mount museum, where Keith Roth from Sirius played with his band and I had like special guests like Robert Fusso and Jerry Gaskill and Mark Tarnillo from Accept. And in between those performances, I had people virtually interviewing them showing in the gallery, like these Snyder came in and Ingve, Steve Whiteman from Kix, Charlie Benante. I had like Rudy Sarge though I had like 12 people come in and out. So I got the idea from that. And so I want to take, take that concept on, you know, on the road, you know, during the Halloween season and tie in my photographs and then take it from there. You know, I see like a screenplay from that, taking it to Broadway and then a movie. So yeah, it's, you know, I give it a five year plan. That sounds like really cool. And Chris, okay, let me ask you this. You're coming out with your documentary in January 15th again. The album is, you came out with a single, right? Tell me about the music that you've been cranking out. An EP. Okay. Tell us about that. It's an EP is four songs. It's a, because I couldn't finish the record. I didn't have enough money. So I did an EP. I did an EP. I got all the songs written. Done. Not recorded, but you know, I'm finished, but I could only finish four of them. So I did, we did that. And those are going to go on the album when that comes out. I don't know if it's going to be 20, probably 20, 22, you know, around there. And now we're going to bring the special guest that we've been talking about. And hopefully we won't get some sort of crazy animation. It's Stet. Stet Howland from I guess Wasp. And now the current drummer for metal church. Stet, can you hear us? We're having this audio connecting thing today. Metal church. How, how many years have you played with Stet, Decris? Oh God. Since 95 played. 95 till 2001. Okay. Stet, you got to turn off the, the YouTube. Link. All right. You good? I think so. I'm out here. Yeah, you want to turn on your. You can hear you. Do you want to, do you want to be seen? Well, I'm working on it. Yeah. What's, what's my next move here? What am I doing wrong? Click on video. All right. Where the fuck is it? Technology. Right. There I am. Reuniting the world. Okay. Hold on a second. Okay. We're almost there. So in the meantime, Chris. How many years ago has it been? Tell me how many years ago. How many years ago has it been? Tell me how you, how many good. You and this. Instead of been together or working together. From when we've played or seen each other. Well, I guess when he came into the band, he came into the band, uh, what? Crimson Idol. I guess you weren't in the band, right? No. K F D kill fuck die. Yeah. Okay. Yeah. You guys became friends and how many years were you guys friends during that wasp era? We're still friends today. Okay. That's a good answer. I can't get this fucking. We're not, we're not enemies. We're still friends today. So it's been probably 30 years. Okay. Cool. And when he came into the band, I mean, what is it that we got to Crimson Idol? We have still not black enough kill fuck die. That's when you were on double assassins. Oh my God. You must have played on like eight or nine albums of wasp. Yeah. I had a, I did a lot of recording with those guys. I did a lot of recording with them. I did a lot of recording with them. I did a lot of recording with them. There's a bunch of stuff we recorded that I, that didn't get released. And, uh, Blackie will dig into the files now and then and pull outs. For a while there. He would dig into the archives and just, I'd be on a record. And I hadn't even talked to him in a while. I'm like, shit, that's cool, man. Thanks for including me. But, uh, yeah, me and Chris had a really good time in the band. We. It was. You gotta enjoy yourself. You know, I was sitting here thinking, you know, trying to think in advance of some cool stories in case I got put against the wall, you know, and there's just, there's way too many. So I figure, fuck it, we'll just, uh, go off the cuff. Yeah. We, I, I can't count the episodes me and Chris have had worldwide. You got to go to Japan with Chris Holmes and go to the mall and try and lose them. Okay. Okay. Remember, remember when we were walking down the beach in the south of France, looking at all the tits and all of a sudden we get to the gay area. Yeah. That was amazing dude. We were walking down. We were walking down France. They're all naked tops, you know, looking at the girls. And all of a sudden we're keep walking, talking and we get this. All of a sudden it's all guys. And I'm like, I think we're at the wrong beach. Dude. And then, and then, uh, wasn't that the day that, uh, a big wave hit us and we lost, I hit me and I lost the keys to the hotel and all that shit. Do you remember that? Yeah. God damn. I'm still trying to get my ugly puss on here, man. I'm clicking on every fucking thing. And you also played with Chris on his, a current track, right? What a song. I know, actually I didn't, I, I, uh, I had a problem. And I did not get to do that. Okay. You didn't. Sorry about that. No, no, no problem. We had, we had planned to do it. And I had a little glitch on my end and he had a timeframe to keep up with. And, uh, Have you ever, have you ever met Mark Weiss? I have, you know, it's, it's, we've been scheduled to do a session, uh, photo sessions. We've never did a scheduled session, but we met, um, side stage a couple of times and I was always excited cause I consider Mark Weiss the buddy rich of photographers. You know, it's like the guy's just bad ass. And I'm like, yeah, we're going to get to do a session. And, and I, you know, I think he might've done a couple of those crack shot, you know, like we have those quick session side stage and shit like that, that everybody hates. I just remember meeting him at a couple of shows and, and, and, uh, we never got to actually do a session. And I was kind of bummed about that. Mark. I remember the first, I remember the first session you did Mark. It was a first during the first album before we went on the road. At a, um, God told, I just might've been total access. There's a rehearsal room. And I can remember, you know, the thing you put up to your face, you'll click, and it tells you whatever light bullshit. I don't know. Yeah. Yeah. And you were doing that. And I remember you put a light behind us and I was like, what the fuck? He's not going to take a picture of our back. But then I, after I saw the picture, I understood what the light was for in the back. You always use the backlighting. Yeah. I always, I've known for smoke and gels. Cause you know, anything, you know, you bring a black background or if there's a black wall, you can turn it to any color. And so, and you put a little smoke and you light it up and then it just explodes into color. And I, we did a shoot at the limelight. Remember the limelight shoot? Oh God. I remember. I don't remember going there. I don't remember the shoot where we did. I remember the, I remember the, I don't remember going there. I don't remember the shoot. Were we down on the floor? Where are the big? We set up the trap cases. It was 1984, I think, you know, we set the trap pieces up and we shot you. I shot Blackie on the pulpit up there and shot the band. A lot of good imagery. It was exciting. I love shooting bands that have image and, you know, and wasp has image, right? Let me ask you, is that place still open? I don't know. The limelight, nobody knows. I don't know. Hey, Mark, do you have any pictures in your book on, of wasp on this, on the deck of that rock? Yeah, there's, there's some pictures in there from that shoot. Yeah. Okay, cool. Cool. So that's good to know. So Chris, there you go. You made his book. You made it. Yeah. I think we, I think we interviewed Chris and he talks about that story about this, about the light in the gel. And he's like, he's like, what the hell's going on here? What is this? You know, it's like, yeah, I was always tripping out cause he put a light in the back. You know, I was like, what the fuck's that for? Don't they take a picture from the front, but I didn't understand it, you know, and lights up the back and whatever. You know, I'm not, I'm not a photographer. So I actually want to tell everybody about this. So recently, you guys can't see this. There's a picture of Mark holding up life and Van Halen. So bring it up. There it is. Look at that. Look at that. Congratulations, man. You made a life. I know, I know. My mom would be proud. Iconic. So just tell me, did they ring you up? Did they say, you know, can we use your picture? What happened? Just tell me. I put a lot of my imagery on my site. So I'm very, you know, I'm social media, you know, since the pandemic, that's, I had no choice to sell books cause I was supposed to go on the road and travel with some of the bands and promote my book and, and promote the shows and do some radio stations. But when that all cut down, like in June, June 2nd, I had to switch forces and go into my, into my office and stay here, which I was doing for five years. I was looking forward to going out there. So, you know, I just really had a, like, you know, go go crazy with the social media. So I post stuff. So whenever there's like an anniversary or a birthday, I would post it and, and link to my book to buy the book. So my imagery is all, is out there. I want people to post it. And I don't want them to make shirts on it, you know, and all that, but, you know, I want them to post it and be fan-friendly to it and, and have them appreciate it and buy a book, buy a, buy a print cause they can buy my prints on my, on my site too, where I sign it and, you know, it's like an art print. But the life magazine called me up. They said they, they saw some, some of your photos on, on, you know, on the internet. Incredible. And then, and then they, they, they picked a few shots and I'm like, do you have a cover yet? And they said, no, we're looking. I'm like, okay, I know what I'm doing today. It's not only images, you know. Show it again, show it again, show it again. I wanted this cover, you know, and, and, and it was like, I thought I had it and they weren't sure. And then they got, I got the call and said it's going to, you got the cover. I was like, you know, I was like, I couldn't believe it. But this is another shot that they used. It's in my book. And Chris Holmes with the, with the history of the Van Halen's. And then the Eddie and Valerie shot they used. That's in my book. Look at that great shot, man. Yeah. That's, that's congratulations, man. That's, that's huge, man. That's huge. I mean, not to say that you haven't done huge stuff, but that is another, you know, another. No, it's good. It's good. Like I, you know, they told me, I had the magazine for about a 10 days and they said, I had to wait till like the 18th to put it up. And then I kind of forgot about it. And I was like, wait, it's the 18th. And I just put it on on Sunday and I, I've got a lot of, a lot of love from my friends and family, you know, on my social media, like, I didn't even expect it. Like, but it was, it's nice, you know, just kind of like people writing comments and liking it and all that. And hopefully buy some books and prints. All right. We got a rich rich, who's a friend, rich, mentally and mentally, high, mentally, mentally, mentally and mentally and mentally and mentally and in all of calls. All the fame, what's going on rich rich, I know rich really want to ask Chris a question today. Oh, wait, can you see me or can you just hear me? We can see you. I'm here, you know, like step, we could just hear, but we can't see, oh, okay. How's it going guys? What's up again, Mark? I met, Mark recently. Yeah. How you doing, man. All right. How's it going? Chris. Nice to meet you. Hi. Long time. How you doing? All right. How you doing? All right. Chris, do you have any good memories or stories from the wild child and blind in Texas video? From the video? Yeah. Any good memories? I remember grabbing a little armadillo, a little animal, a little armadillo. I just thought it'd feel like a turtle, you know, their shell. And when I grabbed it, it was like leather tripping me out. You know, they had a little armadillos there. Yeah. I remember all the cowboys with their guns. They were loud as hell, man. They'd hurt my ears when they'd shoot them. You know, the blanks. Yeah. Yeah. All the people in the video. Who's dog? Rich? Not my dog. Not mine. Oh, that would be me. Yeah. She passed her. Sorry about that. Sorry, Chris. The cowboy guys in the video, we shot it at Old Tucson. You know, it's a place in Arizona where they used to do a bunch of movie sets and stuff. It's still there. It's like a historical site now. But it's where they used to shoot a lot of old movies. And it's the act that people, you know, they put on a show, you know, with guys with guns and they fall off buildings and stuff. And those guys work there every day. And they were in the video. They're all cool, man. Really cool guys. All right. Cool. Thanks, Rich. Rich, I'm going to let you go. I got other people. Thank you so much for talking to me. Thanks, guys. Yeah. Happy holidays, everybody. Happy holidays. Peace. Stett, you got to get your video going. Yeah. So, Stett, just now, Kenny is saying, tell Stett, I said thank you for the shout out in Pukimpsi. I was there for a metal church interview with Mike Howe and got to talk to Stett instead. Stett, were you at the Metal Hall of Fame last year? Yes. Gala? You were there? Yes, I was. Yeah. I don't know if you saw me there or not, but I think I did see you. I did. Yep. I recognize you, man. Yeah. That was a lot of fun. Great event. So, a big plug for the Metal Hall of Fame, which we will get more information on that. Let me see. I got, now, Jamie's going to jump on. Let's see what's going to happen here. Stett, any news on any update on that video there? We're still waiting for a video feed. Yeah. I've been messing with the thing since we, I'm working. I'm just clicking on the same shit and it will not let me get on. Okay. Which might be good for people, you know? I'm saying. All right. I'm admitting something else here because I keep losing. What is going on? All right. All right. What do we got? Lord Erech. Let's hope that's not one of the last guy. Well, nope. We lost that person there too. All right. Jesus. Moving along. Moving along. Okay. Kismas in Florida, Mark. Kismas in Florida. What's going on with that? Oh, I didn't go to that. Oh, no. It's coming up, right? No, it happened. Oh, it happened. Yep. Okay. All right. Last week, yeah. I was going to go down there, but I opted out of that. But I watched it. It was really amazing. Yeah. Meat Hook Live put it out and it really ran flawlessly. I mean, it was a two-day event. It was really cool. Yeah. They put it together really nice and everyone, you know, controlled and no issues. So, yeah, it was pretty successful. It was what I, what I saw and what I heard. Let me ask you, when did you leave Wasp? Uh, 2005. Okay. Um, go ahead. Or are you just, you figure, okay, do something different? Well, yeah, kind of. I mean, we kind of reinvented the wheel. We did all we could do with, with, with me as part of it. There was a couple of things. I kind of just wanted to have my own life because when you're, when you're in Wasp, man, you're, you're dedicated to it, especially me. Holmes tried to warn me. He's like, don't let Blackie know all the shit you can do, you know. And I, I was, you know, a pretty handy guy. So I got, I was very busy helping Blackie all the time. And basically, I kind of didn't really have time for my own life. And come 2005, I'd done several records and I was starting to repeat myself drum and wise a little bit, you know, and I was thinking, man, it's time for me to move on. And I had a band with David Ellison at the time. He was out of Megadeth. We had a thing called Templar Brutality. And I was like, I'm going to go and do my own thing, you know, I'm going to take a chance. And I, and I wanted to get married and stuff. And I just kind of want to have my own life. So, you know, we didn't, we didn't have an ugly parting like we had had ugly ones in the past. You know, I left the band a few times. But we had a very friendly parting, you know, it was just, he's like, you're, you're, you're not happy here anymore. And I'm like, yeah, I know it was like that. Metal Church is a great gig. Kurt's amazing. You know, he's, he's, he's awesome. Well, yeah, metal, metal church is just like, I always, when they would tour with us, I would go out front and watch them and just think to myself, how, how are these guys opening up for us? I mean, they were so good, you know, and then down the road when Jeff Plate gave his notice, they were like, you know what, my, their bass player, Steve was like, you know, man, I have an idea. And you said, let's call Stett and just see, you know, if he's interested. And they called me and their approach was, listen, man, you know, we don't have a ton of money to offer you with salary and stuff, but we're, we'd like, we'd like to offer you an equal piece of the band. We went together, we lose together. And that just resonated with me after being in Wasp for so long, you know, it's like to actually be offered a piece of a pie. And I love that when to when to get a lose together thing. And as it turns out, you know, Kurt is just an endless fountain of fantastic ideas. Mike is a great writer, all the guys in the band are great players. They're great guys. We have no bullshit. It's, it's like really a great gig, you know, yeah, here's Tommy says, tell Mark and Chris that Tommy says, Merry Christmas and that I love the decade of rock book and the new EP from the mean man and can't wait for the new documentary from Chris. Nice. There's some Yes, word, man. So the best friend, the word friend, the word. And if anybody off here, I apologize, just I'm sort of managing so many things at once. Okay, you're fine. Yeah. I'm going to bring on another, I guess this is a surprise guess and somebody from your past, Chris, you may or may not remember. I think you do though. It's Rick Fox. Can you, can you hear us, Rick? So as Rick, I think Rick, what are you using this car? I know Rick too. Yeah. Yeah. Back from the early days. Back from who doesn't know Rick from Steeler from the early, early days of loss. We're talking like the super early days. Can you hear us, Rick? He's got his audio. Turn your audio on. Turn your audio on. Just push that button. Just push that button. It's there. There we go. I love the confusion. I love the confusion. It's great, isn't it? This is a great way to celebrate the holiday season. Hey, can you see us that? Yes, sir. Oh, yeah, I can see you. I can hear everything. I just, you can't see me. And again, it could be a my Christmas gift to you all. Remember that step? Remember a step? Remember that? Hey, don't sing. Step. Don't sing because you're going to be fucked. You're going to sing all the time. God. Oh, of course you were right. Yes. I had to open my mouth and start singing. And I never sang. Fuck it. I'm not, I'm not getting paid twice the amount of money. So I know. Yeah, you tried to warn me, man. I you gave me several warnings that I didn't heed. But oh, yeah, that's the way it is. Hey, Rick, can you hear us? Yeah, he can hear us, but he can't. You got to press the audio connect button there. I guess over time, what's going to happen, people are going to get used to Zoom. He says, I think I'm saying he loves you. Hey, I can't, you want me to read it? This is a picture in 1984 and it's in my book. You see it? Let me see. I'm going out with the chap cake. That was it. I think that was a delimelight. Wow, look at that. That's a cool shot, man. Okay. There he is. Yes, go ahead, Mark. We interviewed Chris for the books. Can you hear me? Yeah, I can hear you. Rick, hold on. Mark's just going to say something and we'll have you on there. So, Chris, I know if this sounds familiar because you made the cut. Here we go. He goes, I remember we did our first tour and we were sitting on some old road cases. Mark was one of the first photographers that I noticed that used the light behind it. I never saw him take a bad picture of me. Thanks, Chris. Yeah. So, not only do we have a reunion. And one thing is Mark, he never took thousands of pictures. Like, like, like, like, like, like, like, like, you know, he just took one, you know, do you know which one's a good one? Right? Yeah, I mean, I didn't waste it. You only have 36 frames on a roll of film back then. And yeah, you know, you got to make sure I'm just not going to take photos. If it doesn't look good, I'm not going to take it. A lot of photographers just take it and they let the band just do whatever they want. But I'm very like hands on. I'll even take you and move you. I'll move your head even, you know. Yeah, little screen. Okay, Rick, can hear us. Can hear us. Yeah. Can you can you hear me? Yeah, yeah, we can hear you. Okay, thanks for joining. This is cool because go ahead, Rick, Chris. Are you in a car? Were you driving somewhere? We're in Donnelly, Texas. Nice. Nice. Oh my god. Rick, and this is I always found this interesting, you know, we always talk about Wasp and the name Wasp where it came from and the idea of it. And you know, Rick is famous for sort of explaining that story. If you could just tell us in 30 seconds, Rick, as you were sort of part of the sort of the the start of that band when it first got going. All right, well, I was in the band for about two months in February, March, it was somewhere around March, March into April. I was out in the courtyard outside of Blackie's cottage. And I was I was on a phone, you know, we didn't have cell phones then. It had a really long extension cord. I was walking around talking to somebody in New York on the phone. And I was kicking over leaves on the ground, aimlessly. And I kicked over a leaf and there was a hornet on the ground under the leaf. And I stepped on it real quick. And then I moved the leaf again, and it wasn't completely dead. It was still throbbing like that. The tail was throbbing like you wanted to sting. And it reminded me of the old green hornet logo from the 60s from the TV show, you know, would come on with that optic pattern. And I got this idea and I went in the house, there's Blackie like this, watching the ball game, bored out of his head. And I said, you remember you told me you wanted to change the name of the band. You were looking for ideas, whether you didn't want to do what you were doing. Cliffhanger, you froze. There we go. Okay. I lost the connection there for a second. Sure. Can you hear me? Yes, go ahead. Okay. All right. So I walk in the house and I said, I got an idea for the band name. And he looks up at me and he goes, what? And I said, well, wasp, I just stepped on one outside and it looked like the old green hornet logo. And, and, and he looked up at the ceiling that he was thinking, he was thinking, he looks at me goes, that's a great idea. Keep thinking like that. And that was the last we talked about it until a few nights later at rehearsal, after the rehearsal was over, he, he gathers Randy and Tony and I together and he says, listen, we got a new name for the band. And, and Tony goes, what? And Randy goes, well, what are you going to call it? And I said, Blackie goes wasp. And Tony goes, wasp, who names a band after a bug? And I said, Scorpions. The Beatles. I said, the Beatles, Scorpions, you know, the bees. That was it. That was the moment Black, that, that, that particular moment wasp was born and we all four were the co-founders of the band, the original lineup, until the end of May, when he decided to surprise me with, guess what? You're out of the band and you are to surrender all of your photos. Wow. He didn't want me to have any proof that I was in the band. Wow. You know. And Chris, that's when you came along, right? Chris, that's when you came along, right? Like right there at the beginning? No, no, no, yeah. He, at that point, Tony was in a band called Dante Fox, which was Tony, Tony, before that was in a band called Dante Fox, which was great white, which was Jack Kendall, Tony, and a guy named Don Costa that played bass. Right. When I came into, Don was already there. Rick was gone. They threw Randy out to get me in the band. Right. Everybody there? Yeah, we're listening. And then after the first show, Don, Don was playing his bass out of tune and pissed me off. I was going to kill him and I told him if he ever did that again, I was going to chew his cock off and spit at his face on stage. If he ever did that again, I go, I don't care what you do, but you never, you never play out of tune, man. You turn your bass off, entertain, do what you do, but don't play. He played out of tune. And Don, Don auditioned for Ozzie at the time, but was too scared to tell everybody to fuck off in the band and me telling him that gave him the opportunity to split. So when he split, that's when, that's when Mr. Lawless decided to play bass and bring Randy back. All right. It's a big clumpster spot. Rick, I'm going to let you go. I got other people there, but thank you so much for jumping on. Okay. All right. Thanks, Jimmy. Thanks for having me. Hey, Chris. Hey, Mark. Everybody. Have a good time. Don't get too drunk in Texas. I'm already. All right, Chris. Thanks. All right. So we're back to four. Okay, wait. Yeah, Rick was, he was a founding member of the name. Yeah. I know. I got it. I got it. Yeah. Cindy Wickerman. There's Cindy Wickerman. How you doing, Cindy? She's connecting to audio. I know she's been waiting there for a while in the mix and she knows how to do the, there she is. Okay. The video. Well, we can't hear you, but if you can hear us, we can't hear you. Can't hear you. If you write it on a paper, we can tell what you want. Chris is a thing. Write it on the paper. Yeah. You know, you got to connect to audio. All right. You got to connect to audio. You got to figure it out. Stat. How you doing? How's that going with the video there? Fuck. I've been dicking around the whole time, man. You haven't figured it out yet, Stat. What's going to happen, Mark, is over time, people are going to get used to Zoom, and it's going to be just sort of like second nature to just jump on. I'm so sorry. I've never, I've never been a Zoom guy, but I'm mildly embarrassed at the moment. It's all good. It's all good. So what else we got going there, Mark? What else is coming up? Okay. You did your, your Alice Cooper. What was it called? Welcome to my exhibition. Welcome. Now, what's going on? Are you doing a second part to that? What's happening there? Well, actually next week, because I'm trying to, they got me on the board. They asked if I wanted to be on the board because I had some ideas to have a musical experience where we can, you know, make a museum out of the history of music. So they, they liked the idea. They wanted, they asked me to be on the board. I said, yes, of course. I mean, I'm on the board on a museum at my mom with, you know, at the mom with County. So it was very, you know, very honored. And then I'm trying to raise money for them. We did some charity buzz auctions. So I'm raising money every month for them to go to some, you know, fixing this up a little bit. We're, we're on, we're down for a few months now. We're going to, they did get a grant and they're going to, you know, put some money towards my, my vision with the musical experience. So it's, it's going good. I have my dark room there. I have a photo session there. I had the original slippery wet t-shirt with my gold record. So it's really a museum. I have my stay hungry props like the manhole cover. So it was really a fun experience to do. And then just recently last week, I said, why don't we do like a holiday, a holiday show and try to raise money and donations and, and talk about, I have the board members talk about each part of the museum and let people be aware of it. Because it's a beautiful museum. It's huge, but it's, it's on the, it's on the campus of Brookdale College in, in Monmouth County near Link, Linkroth, Redback, New Jersey. And not too many people know about this museum. It's on the campus. And so it's my, you know, I wanted people to find out about it and come visit it and what better way to have music related to it. Because everyone loves music, you know, and, you know, my, the home, the town that Monmouth County's in, you know, Springsteen's there, Debbie Harry's Jersey, you know, Bon Jovi, you know, a lot of people, the East Street band, you know, a lot of, a lot of history in Jersey. So I'm going to, you know, work with everyone and try to create things. I've been in touch with Gibson and they're going to help me out with some equipment. So we're going to set up like a little recording studio. We're going to do some live stream events. And so this, it's called the 2020 holiday extravaganza hosted by Mark Weiss. And I'm the host. And they, and so this is going to happen on the either next Tuesday or Wednesday. And it's like a free pay per view, but it's free because we're just looking for donations. And it's going to be on all day. Meat Hook Live is the one that's, you know, putting it out there. And there'll be a little donation button on the bottom. And I'm probably going to donate my prints that day for, you know, prints that I usually sell for hundreds or thousands of dollars. It's going to be like that one day only. It's going to be like 75 bucks, you know, where it goes to the foundation. So, or to the museum. So, yeah, so that's going to be good. I have local guys, Bob Berger, not that local. He travels around and does this thing, Bob Berger, Keith Roth, and Zusu from Saraya. Little Steven talked about his Teach Rock program. And I have the Rocket Foundation that I'm involved with, all these amazing kids coming to the table. So it's very entertaining. And Matt O'Ree and Erin O'Ree. So it's really, really, it's going to be out next week. So I'll post it. And I didn't start promoting it yet because, you know, I wanted, we're editing it, me and Anthony are editing it. As we speak, you know, like after this, we're going to get right on and finish it up and then start promoting it. Until we have it in hand, you know, I just want to, you know, keep it under wraps. But this is, you know, it's not heavy metal rock and roll, but it's just fun Hollywood holiday experience. So, you know, but for, for Cindy, a Christmas experience. I can hear you. Okay. We finally look at that. And we finally got you going. Yes. I'm so sorry. I'm glad to meet all of you. I have a question for Chris. I'd like to know if he's going to come to the States to tour anytime soon. That would be great. When the COVID's done, probably, probably not 2021. I'm booked in next year in Canada, but I don't think I'm going to make it there until I'm inoculated. I would plan, I'm planning on going there in 2022, forget the right booking agent. You know, oh, that'd be great. That'd be great. I was going to test a little while ago. So yeah, it's just, it's a bit with the COVID. Nobody knows when they're going to be inoculated or, you know, shots and who's going to go to a show unless you're, unless you're safe, you know, nobody, you know, Cindy, what state are you in? I'm in Illinois. I'm a nurse. So it's pretty intense here. So here's the good news. You're supposed to say what state of mind. Here's the good news. Chris had a Canadian tour, like from all, from let's say the East Coast all the way to the West Coast. And I'm thinking Illinois, you're looking at what, Thunder Bay, you're looking at Manitoba, like that area, I think he's crossing that area. So if you jump over the border, you can actually go check him out. That sounds great. That sounds great. Is there a place called Half Moon Bay? Thunder Bay. I don't know. I don't know. Never been there. I don't know. I don't know. Maybe, maybe, maybe. Mark, do you remember Half Moon Bay? Nope. I haven't. Nope. All right. Well, thank you, Cindy. Thank you for jumping on. And thank you for your question. Thank you. Merry Christmas. Merry Christmas to you all too. Stay safe. Yeah. So when it works, it works. When it works, it works. Right? Steph, you got to get your video on. Steph, it's actually, are you using your phone for anything else? No, I'm actually on a laptop and I've, it won't accept my camera. It's telling me to use another camera, but the camera's built into the screen. I'm trying to find a setting. I'm actually smarter than I look. But well, you can't see me. So I think what your problem is, you might have like an ad blocker. You might have some sort of VPN. You might have something you need to turn off to get, to sort of like click on your camera. All right. I'm turning off. Turn off all extensions. Mark, what do you want to show us? This is me. It's Alice Cooper. Yeah, look at that. So I don't, I don't sing, but you know, welcome to my nightmare. It's kind of like a talk. So, you know, it was fun. It was fun. You know, it's fun to feel how these rock stars, you know, feel when they're on stage. So I had a little taste of it. So I liked it. It was fun. Yeah. I heard you sing. You're not too bad. You're not too bad. Thanks. It was a fun video. I watched it. Okay. Here it goes. We got Pratt coming on. Hopefully, we can, is this okay guys? Was that your first time singing live, Mark? Yeah, totally. Oh no, no, wait. I sang live with Zach. It was at my 60th birthday party and we sang born to be Zach Wilde. When we were, when he first got into Ozzy, we went to a karaoke place and we recorded in 1987. We were just getting shitfaced and we, there was a karaoke place. So we went up there and we wrote down lyrics about like how we got and it was pretty funny. And then we sang it. And then when him and his family came to my party last year, I asked them, I put the lyrics in front of them and I said, let's do this live, bro. And we did. And so I sang and he played guitar and with the Rocket Foundation kids were playing guitar. So that's on my website. You can check that out. But it was fun. Yeah, it was fun. All right. Welcome to the chat, Prack. Prack, how you doing? Did I pronounce your name properly? Can you hear us? Well, his- Yeah, that's, I know Prack. That's right. Okay. Well, I have a question for you, Stett. What songs did you play on the Crimson Idol? Ha! Wow, that's such an incredibly asked question. Okay. You know, when I first came in, I was doing, I started on Chainsaw Charlie. Go ahead. Sorry, my wife's here trying to help me with the video now. My wife. I touched up a lot of the record because a lot of the stuff Frankie didn't just didn't get to finish because the way Blackie records, we do sections at a time, you know, we do like, like literally intro, change drum heads, verse, change drum heads, chorus, change drum heads. So when I came in to start the Crimson Idol, I was a student came in as a studio drummer. So I started on like Chainsaw Charlie. And I did like, you know, the middle and I fixed up the pieces that he wanted to change on that. And then I was piecemealing most of the stuff. And then I started on Great Misconceptions and Me. And I am one. And, you know, sort of to say exactly what songs I exclusively played on, there's only a handful. But I have, I have touch-ups on most of it, you know, because like Frankie barely, really barely got to really finish a lot there, you know, he didn't because his mom passed right in the middle of the recording. And it was weird, because at that time, Ken Hensley was my roommate. Ken Hensley, who just passed from Uri Heap. And he would come home and tell me about, he would tell me about the sessions for headless children, you know, and he'd come back and just, you know, really rave about what a, you know, what a great musician and writer Blackie was. And at the time, I'm like, really, I like Washington everything, but I didn't really know, you know, how smart the guy really is, you know. And so any, you know, many people have asked me that simple question, what songs did I play on? And it's not a short answer. It really is not. Speaking of Frankie, and I know that Mark, you knew Frankie, right? And you knew Frankie, you know, what are your thoughts on the passing of Frankie, you know, not too long ago? Me, I mean, I think we're all pretty devastated. I always get along amazing with Frank, you know, he was a, obviously he was an influential drummer to us, all of us. I was a little younger than him, you know, so he was already famous when I was still reaching for the stars, you know, and he was a great drummer, a great guy, always a wonderful friend. I'd see him mainly at NAMM, you know, or at the Rainbow. And, you know, it's always hugs and love, you know, no matter how, I was always put, we were always put in a very uncomfortable positions by Blackie, as far as song credits for recording and stuff. So it was almost a wedge that was tried to be put between us, but we always get along amazing. I love the guy and I absolutely did cry the day he died. Mark? Frankie? You know, it's, he was such a, like, you know, resilient and just fighting this fight. It doesn't even seem like he's gone. I mean, I know he's gone and everything, but, you know, he just was so positive in how we, how we expressed himself to everyone. It almost, it made you not feel sorry for him. And I think that's what he wanted, you know, I think he, because he was just, he lived his life to his fullest. He is so smart. The bands that he played with, I first met him in 83 and actually at the Us Festival. And then shortly after that, when they opened up for Black Sabbath at the Garden, I had an assignment to shoot him for Faces Magazine. And I got a request from management saying, Frankie wants you to bring like a big tarp behind you, a big, like something he could paint on and get and bring some paint. I had no idea what he wanted to come up with, but he just figured, all right, he has an idea. And what it ended up being is he wanted, he needed a photo for bang your head for the single sleeve and he knew me, my reputation. So this is what we ended up with. This is, Yeah, I remember that. It's very famous, very famous picture. Yeah. Wow. So he actually painted that and we did the photos and, you know, the rest is history. Then we became very close. I used to stay, I became really good friends with Kevin. I stayed at his house. He gave me keys to his house when I went on tour. I had keys to his big mansion on Rossmore and just became friends. He came to my wedding and he actually jammed with Zach and Sebastian before they were even in Ozzy or Skid Row. I mean, Zach was in Ozzy like a few months earlier, but he didn't record with him yet. So they all came to my wedding and Kevin came and they sang bang your head. Sebastian kind of dragged him up. Kevin didn't want to go up there. He's like, no, please don't, I don't want to sing and we dragged him. This is the famous video. This is the famous video that you've sort of posted recently. Yeah, we just, Rolling Stone posted one of them where they played rock and roll and then, and then I just, guitar world posted it. They played bang your head with Kevin Dubrow. And I was, you know, we actually debuted it at the, at the welcome to my exhibition. That was actually, it would have been Kevin's 65th birthday is when we had the show. So we kind of like had a little tribute to him where we had a lot of people talk, talk about him. Rudy was on the show, Rudy Sardzo and spoke nicely. And we actually, I have a book that I'm working with Missy who was a fan club. We're going to do an interview on that. We're going to do an interview. Go ahead. But okay, so you're there. Yeah. So, yeah. So Missy, Missy Whitney was the fan club president in Dubrow. And then later was the fan club president and later quiet riot would not with Randy, but with, you know, the four members, the classic members. And she was looking for an image for the cover. And it was my photograph. And she didn't have any money for it. You know, it's just self-publishing. So I told her to send me the manuscript and I thought it was amazing. It's just a really nice project. I'm going to pause you there in Dubrow. I'm going to pause you there in Dubrow because we're going to do a whole conversation on Kevin Dubrow and Missy, right? Okay. And we're going to, that's just a teaser. That's just a teaser that's coming up. Chris, you can go, go on, uh, India, go, go and donate. So there you go. So there you go. So, oh my Lord. Oh my God. Finally. My wife just saved my ass. She came out to, the link for, to donate for the, to the book, the, the, the Indiegogo mark for Kevin Dubrow book. What is it? Well, you just go to Indiegogo and you, you put in a keep on rolling. They just got Steph's video going right now. Steph, there you are. Okay. Chris. Hey, Steph, you need a cup like this. That's American style right there. I feel, I feel complete now. Hey, we're even now. It's funny, you guys. I'm just sitting here remembering, you know, of course, talking about Frankie, but as weird as it is, Kevin was actually my good friend. I spent like three birthdays at his house that you're just talking about, Mark. And, uh, we, we was just such a wonderful guy and we had so many laughs together. And it's weird because we never even really talked about working together, you know, and at the time he was, Frankie was out of the band and we just, we're just good friends. And we, we go out to the rainbow and get, get stupid, go back to his house, get stupider, laugh, talk about shit we'll never do. It was good times. You know, one interview I never did is with Kevin Dubrow. I pretty much interviewed everybody, but Kevin Dubrow would have been a great interview. Chris, tell me about Frankie just quickly about your last time you sort of had any sort of a connection or conversation with him. Last time I saw him, I played with him at the, at the key club with the big ball all stars. I've known Frankie since he was in a bank of scarab. Probably 78, 79, long time ago. You know, we had some, we had our ups and downs touring. Everybody does, you know, but he, he's, um, you know, I got, I was pretty mad at him for a while for doing something to say something to me on the phone. I was pissed off about hung it up and go, I'll never talk to that prick again. Um, you know, but it's, um, I was pissed. Anyway, yeah, we've had some good times on the road. You know, Kevin was the character. But I love Frankie. It's, it's sad to see him, you know, cancer got a hold of him, didn't get it in time or whatever, you know, um, he will leave. At one point I thought, you know, he's going to beat this. I mean, he was so determined. I go, he's going to beat this, but you know, it is what it is. And it's sad, you know, I remember once recording at Pasha, he had a, he had a Corvette and, um, I don't know what album they were doing their second one condition critical could have been. I don't know what, but, uh, they were doing their album at the same time was doing the, um, our second one and Frankie pulled in the only, and I could hear the drums from around the corner. I was like, and I was outside and he pulled in his Corvette. That's all you could hear was he, he would have the engineer Dwayne mix just as drums, as that was it. No vocals, no bass on that. So he just tried with his drums blasting on his stereo. Fucking funny. Mark, maybe he was listening to see if he made mistakes on the previous recording. I don't know. I don't, but it was just as drum tracks. That'd be like Eddie Van Halen driving around listening to just eruption, you know, we do that. Chris has told me so many great stories about Eddie Van Halen in his early days. It was just, just amazing stories. Chris has told me and he's told, you know, a lot of these stories on the show, but Mark, tell me your story with Eddie Van Halen. I mean, you must have met the guy as a person, as a professional, uh, just, you know, what comes to your mind at the passing of Eddie Van Halen? Yeah, really sad. I mean, really sad, you know, it's, it's sad that, you know, he passed and, and we didn't get more music from him. Hopefully there's some music that he didn't release that comes out. You know, so that's, but yeah, I first met Eddie, I was just starting to work for Circus magazine in 1979. And there was on there, they were doing theaters at that time, was on release of the second album. And they were, they were, they had the buzz and I was, I just started working for Circus magazine. It was one of my first assignments. And here's this, like, I'm still like a teenager, you know, and I'm, I'm going there and it was the convention hall at Asbury Park, uh, loved, as soon as I heard them, I loved the band and the stage presence. So I got there, I went there early at soundcheck just to see if I can go there and hang out. I figure, all right, now I'm with Circus magazine. I'm, you know, cool, you know, cool guy. They'll let me in. So I had a photo pass, but I didn't have, I had like an after show pass, but I saw the soundcheck and it was blown away. And I'm like, you know what, I'm just going to go up there and introduce myself. And, you know, no one was around. There wasn't like, no fans were there yet. So I walked up the steps. I had an after show pass. No one really looked at it. And there was Eddie hanging out, just hanging out having a cigarette and a beer on his trap case. And Michael was running around and, uh, and I just introduced myself. I said, Hey, I'm Mark. I'm working with Mark Weiss. I'm working for Circus magazine. I'm on assignment and, uh, and they were like, cool, man. I said, you know, can I get a photo of you real quick? And he's like, he just didn't even say anything. He just smiled. So I took that as a yes. And I just took my camera out and bang, and that there was, and that's, it's a full page in my book. It's one of my favorite shots of them, you know, uh, just very, you know, and then, uh, I shot the whole show. Uh, it ended up being like a centerfold of the three of them, Michael, uh, Eddie and, and, uh, and David. Uh, so it was one of my favorite centerfolds. And then they saw it. They liked it. Next time they went on tour, uh, next time they went on tour, I had more access. And then I got an assignment for an us called us magazine where it was more of a mainstream and got me more access. And then that's when I really got to know them, uh, did a bunch of photo shoots and that's the photo shoot that was on life magazine was 1981. What I did for us all day with them. And then they started hiring me after that. Uh, Mark, I'm just going to say something. Van Halen was sort of like wasp. You know, you just had these outrageous sort of, you call them character caricatures or just these just great visuals, right? The band looked great. You know, Van Halen looked great. There was just something about that band. Do you agree? Disagree? Absolutely. It's like, you know, I, I disagree. Van Halen was in a class of their own, man. Okay. There was not, there wasn't one, there's wasn't one band like them. They'll probably never be one like them again. That was a centerfold photo there. I guess what I'm trying to say Chris is when you see Chris Holmes playing guitar, that's a shot. That's an incredible shot. And when you see Eddie Van Halen playing guitar, that's an incredible shot. There's just something about it, right? You can have any guitarist in the world, but when you have these two guys in a picture, it's just something different. I, they're just something more there. I don't know what that is, Mark. I don't know what that is. It's just, it's just, it's chemistry. It's chemistry. You know, it's like, that's what makes Mick Jagger and Keith Richards and, you know, you know, Joe Perry and even Tyler, it's just that, that's what makes the band. It's like, it's just, you know, just magic. And, oh yeah, it's just the way Chris Holmes is a great to photograph this guy, you know, like, you know, he's just, there's something about some way, somehow some, the way people look. That's what I'm trying to say. I love shooting Chris up to, he was so, I didn't have to tell him what to do. And, you know, he was just animating all the time. And it's just, it was fun. And he had the blonde hair, so the lights would really take to it. So the gels. So he was always a cool subject. And if, you know, if I said, come on, give me a little more, it wasn't a little, it was a lot. And was that like, like, control him a little bit, you know, I got a little crazy too. We used to go, one, two, three. Yeah. Steph, do you agree with the way, you know, some people just have that. Okay, I don't have it. I don't have it. But I mean, other people do, right? I totally agree. And when you're in a band like Wasp and you have guys like Blackie and Chris, then you got to figure out how to, especially when you're the drummer, you have to figure out a way to make yourself interesting enough so you can be looked at as well. You know, it's, it's not, and these, I agree with what you said, you know, Eddie Van Halen, Chris, so those guys have a special aura and it's, it's undeniable. And Mark, is it an aura? Or is it, is it sort of like just a genetic thing? Or is it something you can create? Can you make something look better? You know? Well, look, my job is to make the rock star look as best as they can. But I know that I know them. But it really, it's, it's from within you, you know, like, it's really, it's their personality. Eddie, Eddie was a, a smiler. Like, I always ask them if I can take a picture and he would never say no, he'd never say yes. You know, he would just smile. So it's like, you know, so he would give me access to walk in his dressing room and I would know, like, if I walked in there and he's talking to Alex and they're talking about something or whatever, and it wasn't a thing, I would just walk away. And they respected that. They gave me the, they gave me the access to, to capture those magic moments. And that's what makes good rock and roll photography. But, but each person has its own aura, you know, I mean, like they make the photograph. Now, in a lot of cases, I'm in a situation where I have to create something for them because they just don't got it, you know, and there's a handful of them. And I have to make it, it's like pulling teeth almost, you know, I have to shape them. I have to light them. I have to tell them to stare. But, you know, that's what makes a good photographer, a photographer, a good photographer. You also look for that character in that person, like the smile of Eddie Van Halen, for example, right? The smile, that is sort of the key, right? That's the key. Or maybe Chris Holmes is sort of the, the aggression, the anger, right? Or I don't know, is that it, Chris? What do you think? I used to hear a lot of, not from Mark, but from another photographer that was really, really hard to shoot live. Me, you know, you know, you know, Ross Helfen is right, Mark. Yeah. He was on the Iron Maiden tour, whatever with us, and he'd go, Chris, I need you to stop jumping around so I can get a picture of you. Well, get my attention when I'm playing live, I'll pose for you. Right. Right. Yeah. Yeah. It's like, if you're jumping around really hard on stage, it's hard to get a shot from somebody, you know? And Mark, and Mark, and Mark, this is interesting. Sometimes you have these animated people, then you have bands like Metal Church, where it's the opposite, right? You kind of want to have that, the anti-rock star sort of, you know, image that they want to portray, right? Or maybe I'm wrong, there's debt, I don't know, like, but no, it's, it's, they're less, my band is less interested in image and more interested in the music, but everybody's got their own unique look and way, you know? But I did the first photo shoot, I believe it was the first album, they used it for the back cover, and I went to Washington, I think they were from, and I shot, I did all the photos, the big photo shoot for the record company, in which they used it for tons of stuff, and they were, I didn't know that, I didn't know that, I didn't know that. They were abandoned, they needed help, you know? But we, I had to put in this situation, I remember, I think it was Mother's Farm or Grandmother's Farm, and just, they had some fences and, and there was the abandoned building, so I had a, sometimes when they don't have a vibe, I'm not saying that they didn't have a vibe, but they needed help, you know? And I had to put them in an environment that had a vibe, and then that makes a good photograph, and then, and then I just, a lot of those photos were a lot the same, you know? They just, because once I had it, I was like, I just had to keep each one with that look, and that, like I said, that's what, that's what makes a photographer, you know, earn their living, you know, do their job, because, you know, it's not, you know, and then you shoot Poison or Motley Crue or, you know, Twisted Sister, and it's like, it's, it's a free-for-all, and it's like, you just got to like tame them, you got to tame them down, they got to look like a different guy, or Wasp, you know, these guys. But actually, actually, when I remember shooting Chris and Wasp, they, they were pretty controlled, they kind of knew, I didn't have to tell them much, they were, you know, Steve and, and everyone and Randy and, you know, everyone kind of had their own thing, and they were real interesting-looking, and they had a good look, that was a good-looking band, you know, in 1985, and, you know, they really, they, I had fun shooting them, it wasn't hard at all, it was like, anyone could have took the picture, really, just to have a get some gels in the back and some smoke, and, you know, they would have- Did you, did you do the Christmas card? No. With the meat on the tree? I think you did that. No, I don't think I did. Where everybody was wearing one person wearing a Santa hat, one pants. No, I didn't, I didn't take that. All right, I got one more. I'm gonna take one more person here. This is Kevin. Let's see if Kevin could connect. Let's see if Kevin could connect. Kevin's gonna put a naked guy on there again. Kevin, can you hear us? Some smart ass. Where everybody was wearing one person wearing a Santa hat, one pants. Turn off the YouTube. Turn off the YouTube, Kevin. Hang on. So, Kevin, where are you from? I'm from Colorado, but I live in Germany. Okay, cool. All right, so what's going on? Do you have a question for any of our guests today? Well, I just wanted to say hi to Chris, and then my, Chris played here, I live in Siegberg, Germany, and Chris, Chris had played here a couple years ago, and I helped him out at the venue or on the corner from me, and, you know, just wanted to say hi to him and used to live in Fort Myers. My parents live in Cave Coral. Yeah, man. Beautiful. All right. No questions? Nothing? Yeah, well, no, just, yeah. So was it like, when you met Chris for the first time, when he's a tall guy, right? I mean, maybe you're too old. He's a big guy. Strangely enough, the first time I met Chris was this, I met Stead at the same time. I was on the KFD tour in Kaufbauer in Germany back in 1996. So, and then, then Chris just happened to be doing a show over here in my town not too long ago, and just swung on by and just happened to run into him outside the venue, and then he was kind of hung out, and then I worked his merchandise form that night. So. Nice, look at that. You got a lot of things. Was that Chris? Yeah, Siegberg. Siegberg at the Cubana. Last February, right? Oh, no, that was 2017, and you gave my daughter a suitcase. Here's my daughter, Dana. You gave her a suitcase to carry in because she wanted to help you guys load in. So cute. Was it a heavy suitcase? Yeah, it rained later on. No, it wasn't. It had wheels on it. Yeah, but he gave Dana a suitcase, and so Dana could feel like she was helping because, yeah, I was helping. That's nice. Yeah, and then just to let Mark know, Mark, I got your book. All right, look at that. A two for one. Yeah, I got it on pre-order from Amazon, so I just received it about two months ago. When you're reading it yet? Oh, yeah, dude, I've been perusing it the whole time. All right, cool. You can thank JJ for that because he posted the Twisted Sister shoot up on there, and I went ahead and jumped in on it, and I was like, well, checked out Amazon, got it on pre-order, and just received it, so I'm just loving the book. That's my youth. Thanks, yeah. A lot of my subjects like Twisted and Ozzy, they're all posting it. They're saying, get the book, and so I got a lot of support, and that's why it's selling out. There's a French edition. There's a Spanish edition. Wow, okay. It's multilingual. Hold out. You can't even get them there. Twisted's band got me into Hard Rock and Heavy Metal, so your photos were the first ones I ever saw from a Hard Rock band. Nice. It's funny because Chris's music was sort of the soundtrack to my youth, but Mark, your pictures were the visuals to my youth. I think I told you this before. What did I tell you before? Remember, your pictures were the- I wrote it down because- You wrote it down. Your pictures- The visual soundtrack- The visual, not soundtrack. It was sort of like the visuals of my youth. So something like that. Something like that. You had a good little term there. I got it somewhere written. I'm going to use it. Yeah, next big, next book. All right, we're going to let you go, Kevin. Thank you so much for jumping on, okay? Not about it. Take care, brother. And we're going to bring Pratt on. We're going to bring Pratt on, and I think Pratt's going to get the last word. Let me remove Kevin here. See, I got to remove him, and hang on. Like that. And I'm going to bring Pratt on. Pratt tried to connect before, and is this okay, guys? I'm taking calls like this. Is that all right? Fantastic. Okay, cool. Pratt, can you hear us now? Yeah, we're going to bring Pratt on. Turn off the YouTube. We all do it. What's up, Pratt? Can you hear us? Guys, Chris, Steph. Hey, buddy. Good to see you, Pratt. Not too bad. Thank you. I just want to say happy Christmas to everybody. So, um... Where were you calling from? Well, calling from Birmingham, England. Well, nice. Nice. Yes. Where the medal began. Where it all began, my friend. Indeed, indeed. I just wanted Chris to share his baby pork rib ingredients. The ingredients? Yeah. Of how to cook it? I see it, indeed. I think we're going to have that for Christmas dinner this year, I think. Okay, what you do is you take the rack of ribs and you press your cook it for about six minutes previously. Okay. You've got to press your cook them. And then you get bull's eye barbecue sauce and put it on the barbecue and burn it on. Yeah. I can remember what you did. You have to press your cook them or they're no good. Yeah. I never tasted pork before. So, that was the first time when you cooked it, when you came over. That was an eye-opener, basically, because it just came off the bone. Just like, you know, it was so tender and yeah, very nice. Yeah. Cookie with Chris. Cookie with Chris. What other recipes do you have there? I know Chris told me a couple of these recipes there. What else have you got there, Chris? I like to head cook chicken chili. No, that's okay. That's all right. I like the pressure cooker. I like that. Okay, cool. And Pratt, I want to ask you, what's the weather like there? Birmingham, and what's the lockdown situation like? It's going into tier four, and that's going to be like everything. It's going to be, you can't visit your neighbors. So, shops will be open limited, you know, food shops, outlets. But apart from, you know, visiting, well, visiting family and that, that's the question at the moment. Okay. So, that's, I think that's going to last for some time, right through into January. Biff Beifer told me from Saxony told me that a quarter of a million people have been vaccinated in the UK. Yeah. Yeah, it's just, they got this, that medicines come out, you know, the vaccine. So, that's still in the early stages of our vaccinating everybody in the UK, but it's going through different stages, you know, the vulnerable to start off with elderly, you know, those guys in the, you know, on the front line, you know, hospitals and doctors and all that are there. The ones that are going to get the shots first. So, yeah. Okay. So, any other question for anybody else before we watch? No, I just wanted to say Merry Christmas to everyone, you know, Christmas. Christmas day. Thank you, you guys. Good to see you, buddy. Thank you. You too, man. All right. All right. See you later. Bye-bye. Let me remove him here. Thank you, Brad. And guys, final words before we let everybody go. I'll let that start. Do you have anything you want to promote? Anything you want to talk about before we let everyone go? Well, you know, as far as the promoting things, no, I mean, I'll promote Mark's book. That's good. But I wanted to, you know, we're just touching on it real quick. While we're talking about the Eddie Van Hill and stuff, I spent most of my time with Chris hearing great stories about Eddie. I mean, from somebody that was friends with him. And I just remember meeting Eddie side stage at NAMM when I played drums with Frankie Benelli and Ken Hensley in the Uriah Heap reunion that we did at NAMM. Did you go, Chris? I don't see Chris anymore. I love about Chris. You know he's your Sarah? Every time something's going to rock. My wife had to save me, man. I was screwed. But yeah, I mean, I just, my very brief meeting with Eddie. Bring the charger. Oh, I see what's going on. Okay. He's running out of juice. That's what it is. Okay. Sorry, is that? Oh, no, no, no. We'll wrap it all up anyway. So go ahead. It's fine. And I just, you know, it was just my very brief Eddie Van Hill and encounter was side stage when I was sharing drum duties with in Uriah Heap. You know, it was kind of a cool, it was kind of a cool thing. You played with everybody. You played with Impelletary, Chris, Chris Impelletary, right? Which is a great guy. I've had him many times on this show. But Ana, right? Joy Bella. Ana, you played on the church, of course, and Wasp, and so on, and so on, and so on. So you're pretty seasoned. All right. What's going on there in the home's residence? Gotta move so I can get over. Ah, Sarah, what's going on? He's fixing her. She's fixing up. The battery, the phone went dead. What's the battery? Hi. Sarah, where are you? Say hi. The phone went dead. The battery. All right. It's all good. Look, all right. So Chris, what do you want to promote before we let everybody go? I'm going to put links to all your, you know, your, your, your, your indigo go and to the documentary and mark. I'm going to put links for your book to purchase and anything else you guys want to put in the chat in the description of this video. But Chris, tell me what you want to promote out there and maybe we should have a Merry Christmas. If they want things from the documentary signed or whatever, the Blu-ray or DVD, they have to go to Bandcamp. And then my website, they can get it personally stuff signed from there. But if not, they just get from Cleopatra. You know, that's the company that's putting it out or whatever. Okay. All right. Cool. Yeah. Is there anything else, Chris? Chris, do you want to throw it? I think Bandcamp has all your merch, your documentary and your music there. Right? You have everything there. Correct? Yeah. Yeah. I think so. I think so. Mark, go ahead. Sorry. One thing I didn't mention is I have a podcast that I started. It's been a little quiet over the last month because it's been a little crazy with the holidays, but we have about 10 episodes. Zach Wiles on it, Rob, a few. So I interviewed the slippery wet girl, original girl that was in the cover. A bunch of people, probably about 10 on there. I do it with Greg Alperin, who's like my co-host and kind of puts it all together. So, you know, that's something fun I'm doing. And the guy that wrote my book, Richard Beanstock, has this book, and there's going to be a bunch of photos of mine in here. Nothing but a good time. It's like a lot of industry people just talking about the 80s. It's a soft cover, but it's a really nice, thick book. I was just getting that. Go to my YouTube channel. Definitely check out the wedding video with Zach Ashton. It's got like 150,000 views already. It's like crazy, you know? Everything's on my YouTube channel. My decade, the decade.rock.com has everything. You can get the book there. There's interviews. There's, you know, it's my show and tell. So you can go there and find out what's going on with everything. And yeah, so that's about it. Thanks for having me. And it's great seeing Stett and Chris and Rick Fox. You know, that was awesome. Yeah, whole thing together. And all the people who jumped on and we actually had a connection with, you know, it's pretty cool. Except for that one guy that was weird. The gay guy, the dancer though. It's a good dancer though. It's a great dancer. All right, guys. First of all, happy holidays to everybody. Merry Christmas to everybody. Happy New Year to everyone. All the best to your families, guys. And you. And all the best to everybody who watched today and really enjoyed this. It's cool. And Mark, we're going to do a part two on Kevin DeBrow on the book. And that'll, that's going to come up next week. So clear your schedule. All right. All right, guys. Awesome. Thanks, Chris. Thank you, gentlemen. Thanks, Stett. Bye. All right, you guys. Thank you. Thank you, Mark. Later, guys. Much love.