 Okay. We are live. We are live. We're a few minutes late and we could blame Amen. Well, I can blame. Amen. Blame. Amen. I'm sure he's going to watch this. I'm just going to say, Oh my God, what am I doing? Good, good impersonation. Thank you. Thank you. First time on the show, Alex Skolnick from, of course, metal allegiance and of course, Testament guitar's extraordinaire guru, I shall say. Alex, thanks for being on the show. Thanks. You're good to be here. All right. So many questions. I mean, I'll read it out. Actually, what's going on on January 25, 2024. The band of metal allegiance will reassemble at the House of Blues in Anaheim, California for their 10th anniversary celebration and they will be sponsored by Dean guitars, DD drums and heavy headphones. And the opening act will be death held hostage and core. Is that correct? Core? Yes. Core, not for core. Yeah. And it almost sounded like you said 10 year salivation. Yes, I did say 10 year salivation, by the way, which kind of works. We're going to be all amped up and excited. The saliva will be going out. Yes. Exactly. Also a VIP upgrade package. If you're interested, you can check out all the details there. A lot of pre-show meet and greet with the band, posters, VIP merch and all that stuff. And this is interesting enough. We said 10 year anniversary of the core band, Alex, David Elfson, Mike Portnoy and Mike Mengie. Mark Mengie. Mengie. Mark Mengie. I'm pronouncing his last name properly. Mengie. Yeah, exactly right. Yeah. I said Italian. Mengie. I guess first things first, I've never had you on the show. I never had, I think I had Mike. Mark, sorry. I'm confusing Mark with Mike. I think I had Mark in the past long time ago. But tell me about when you first joined the band. Like when you first were saying, you know what, I'm into this. I like this Metal Allegiance concept. Oh, it's funny because right when it became what it is now, what it's been the last 10 years, that was really my first experience with the group and with these guys. They had worked together previously, but it was called Metal Masters. And I remember seeing ads for this. I remember thinking, oh, it's really well promoted. I know a lot of the players involved. Why don't they call me? So careful what you wish for. So it finally happened on one of these music cruises. And this was the motorboat cruise. The last cruise that Motorhead would do with Lemmy, which is very fitting. And also, these types of music cruises were relatively new at the time. It had only been a few years since cruise companies started bringing rock and metal bands onto cruises. So it was kind of a new thing. And I don't remember the details behind it, but I know Megadeth was supposed to be one of the bands and it had backed out for some reason. And the other guys have had the idea to do the Metal Masters type thing, but under a different name, call it Metal Allegiance and basically make it an all star jam. So a lot of folks were invited to this thing, but for some reason we just had a good chemistry. And again, I had met everybody individually, but we had never played together. Yeah, I don't think I've ever done any kind of jam or event with any of them. And yeah, I think we figured it out backstage that we just had a really good chemistry. And in a way, in tribute to the now late Eddie Van Halen, he had something to do with it because they wanted to do a Van Halen song. And all of us are a little intimidated by Van Halen, but I had recently done a seminar on Van Halen, and specifically talking about eruption. And I think Mike Portnoy had played the drum fills for eruption while we were rehearsing, just as a joke. Because we, yeah, our song was running with the devil. And then he just kind of jokingly went into the next part, eruption. And then I was already dialed in with the song. So I started playing that. And nobody could vote. And then we went into the next song, and then we ended up doing it on stage that night. And it just worked out really well. And then all the other tunes we did sounded great. I think we did a rush tune at the time. We did, you know, Black Sabbath, we did a bunch of covers. And I think, yeah, within 24 hours of like coming to shore, phone calls were going back and forth. Like, yeah, we want to keep that going. And we want to do an album and do an album, not of covers, but original material. So what did that give you? Okay, you're in test mid Dave was in Megadeth. I think you was in Megadeth at the time. He was. Yes. Yeah, Mike was not in Dream Theater at the time. But he was 2014. Was he he was playing? He was he had winery dogs. Oh, okay. Okay. I don't think Sons of Apollo had no, I don't know, either. They might have started work together. But it certainly wasn't announced. So what what did this give you the metal legions that let's say testament you didn't feel was it just because you could just get up there and play the cover songs that you all love the music you grew up with? What was it? Well, it was for one thing. Well, there's a couple different things. So live in, it was a chance to work with other musicians that you wouldn't normally play with. Some of them were, you know, even in bands where you know, there was a slight competition or rivalry. You know, so yeah. But then here you are, you're, you're not competitors, your colleagues, and you're working together. So it was just a great way to kind of get to know these these people that you know, instead of feeling like you're on opposing teams, you're suddenly on the same team and having fun working together. But in the studio, well, it made a lot of sense. So they had between Mark and Dave, they had two bass players, and they had, you know, Mike on drums. But for the sense of for the sake of songwriting, they really needed a guitarist. And it wouldn't really make sense to have anybody from the same band. So I wasn't in any band with any of those guys. So it actually, it was a really good fit just to get together as a four piece and write songs and then plot it out and decide who we were going to work with. And we got support from nuclear blast records, which is wonderful. And they gave us the green light to just, yeah, go ahead, plan to do a record, get, you know, get as many top players and singers as you can. And you know, that first record, it was really epic. You know, just, I don't know how many, I got to count again, how many players we have on that. But we just, you know, we have so many, just great guest solos, great guest vocalists. And it was a lot of fun to do. And it was a very different situation from working with Testament, which is a band I didn't form initially. I'm, you know, grateful that we, you know, we've continued and we've sort of found this whole second life at this point. But still, when you, and I'm, you know, I'm involved in, I've been involved in the composition of some of the best known music. But in the studio, the rhythm guitar you hear is me. So for the most part, it is on some of the earlier records and there's sections here and there. But mainly Eric plays the role of like James Hetfield on the guitar in Metallica, or Dave Mustaine and Megadeth. And, or Scott Ian, for that example. Although Charlie plays a lot of guitar for anthrax, I didn't know this before. But anyway, most, you know, it's hard to find examples where you hear my tone. You know, here's my riff tone. Yes, with solos, but not as much with rhythm guitar. But with metal legions, you know, I got to be the foundation of it. So that's, you know, that's all my, that's my tone. That's, those are my riffs. Those are my, I mean, some of the riffs that we co-wrote or maybe somebody else in the group wrote. But, you know, it's, that was on, on both the metal legions records, I got to lay down the foundation as well as adding the frosting to the cake. Yeah, very cool. I mean, you've got two and a half albums of material, right? The show's coming up at the 25th, we said, right? The 24th or 25th? It's the 25th. Yeah. So now you hit the stage. Are people expecting the songs that you wrote that you love? The compositions? Are they expecting cover tunes? Or are they expecting, or what are you going to do? Are you going to do a mix of that? That's always a mix. Okay. Yeah. And it's, no two shows are the same. There are some common boxes that we check. Yeah, there's almost always a tune by Iron Maiden. We've got to have it. It's a must, right? It's mandatory. Banditory Maiden. And a few other examples. But, you know, there's enough original material for a full set of just originals. So what we tend to do is we pick the best of the originals. And it also is dependent on who is available. Yeah, yeah, because there's so many different artists who have sung on the recordings. It's rare we can get everybody. But some songs that, you know, may have been sung by one person on the recording can sound good, sung by somebody else. You know, one example of that would be the song called The Accuser. And sadly, Trevor from Black and Tallulah Murder is no longer with us. Yes, I remember. Yeah. Well, we've given that song to my singer from Testament, Chuck Billy, and he does a great job with it. And then most recently we did it with John Bush. And it's a completely different type of song than I associate with his voice. But he really like brought his own thing to it. He didn't try to sound too much like Trevor. He didn't try to sound too much like Chuck. And it just ended up being this whole new thing. So we do a lot of experiments with that. But anybody who's been to one of the shows knows there are certain originals that you can expect that you're always going to hear no matter who's singing. And they know and they sing along and they they chant and, you know, it's, it's, you know, it's so not it doesn't have the visibility of, you know, an arena act. But it's got fans. It's got some pretty loyal fans. And when we play, the energy is incredible. I remember, sorry to cut you off before I remember when I remember the big highlight in cheese. I don't know if it was 2020 or 2019, when John Bush hits the stage. And I think he did only, of course, his anthrax song, I think was only, wasn't it? Yes. Yeah, we are when he's there was a big deal back then, right? That was a really big deal. Yeah, when he's there, that song is going to happen. Yeah. And it's a great thing because in a way, we're sort of revitalizing that music, right? Because it wasn't being performed at all. Right. You had Joey return to anthrax. And they were doing mostly, or almost entirely Joey songs as far to my knowledge, which is understandable. You have that guy, why would you do anything else? But that era is is really cool. And people really like that music. And with, you know, when John's performing with armored saint, of course, he's going to do armor and saint songs, why would he do anthrax songs? But when he's with us, we can do slip it right in there. Yeah. And it works out really well. And since then, we this has actually happened a couple of times in my legions where people have played together for the first time in years. And that was the case with only John Bush with Charlie on drums, and they hadn't talked in a long time. And, you know, they, they both agreed to show up. And they So it truly is a metal allegiance. Yeah, they had they talked, they worked some things out. Yeah, it was just great. It went so well that it's happened since then. And if I'm not mistaken, even anthrax started doing the song again with Joey singing it. So Yeah, no, it's tell me about the the guests this year. There's some pretty great guests. I mean, you got Chuck bill. We got some new ones. Yes, this time around. Well, so Doc Coil is one of the guests. And he's been a friend for a long time. But we've never done anything musical together. I knew him from the days of God forbid. But since then, he's, you know, just blown up as a member of bad wolves. And bad wolves, you know, it's a different genre. So, you know, it's kind of a genre that I guess maybe I've aged out of it's like, not really my style. But you're born in 68, you're born in 68. Yeah, I was born in 68, too. So we both aged out of that, but it's okay. Yeah, there's still iron maiden, there's still iron maiden. And I respect it. And just because I don't necessarily get it, that doesn't mean there's anything. I agree. I agree. Yeah. And it's I think it'll be great to have him and to, you know, bring in some of you know, some of his that audience that he has now, which is very different. Yep. We're actually going to have half of mastodon, which I think is really exciting. Great band, great. I love mastodon. I know all the guys, the great guys. Braun is one of my favorite drummers. Period. So just, you know, anything he plays on, I'm looking forward to. Chris Poland has never played with us before. Oh, Chris Poland. Now I've toured with Chris with our instrumental projects. Even though my trio is more of a jazz guitar project, we played with his project called Ohm, which is more of like rock fusion. But it worked really well. And I really like what he does. But still, we've never played together. We might have jammed at some point during that tour, but this will be the first time that we're like officially. The way he holds the pick, the way he holds the pick because his his hand issues, right? I've seen Chris Poland live. He's incredible. He's incredible. Yeah, he has a really unique style of playing. And Troy Sanders, of course, who I'm super excited about. And he now he's performed with us before. And he's on on our work, our records. So he's he's a regular at this point. But we've never had him and Braun has performed with us before. We've never had both of them together. Oh, there goes there's a first right there. Yeah. So having both of those guys together is going to be real exciting. Andreas Kisser, who's yes, he's been part of it for a long time. He did some great guest solo work on the first album. And actually, he's on both and he's appeared with us before. The last time we performed as metal legions, he was playing with Sepultura and an orchestra was the Rock and Rio show, which was massive. And they are massive down in Brazil. And unfortunately, we were playing like back to back. So there was no way he could play with us and then be ready for his show. But yeah, but he has performed with us a number of times. But this will be the first time in a long time. Hell pire. Nervosa is from Nervosa. Yeah. This will be her first time with us, which is exciting to have somebody new. And then you know, folks Bobby Blitz, Bobby Blitz, right. So the regulars include Chuck Billy, Bobby Blitz and John Bush. And of course, the core for of myself, Mark, Mike and Dave. Tell me about if I give you all the people who've sort of not all the people, but all the artist who've appeared on the albums performed with you and as people, just give me like one sentence on each one of them. How's that? All the art. Okay, so you name them. I'm going to name them. I don't want you to name them. I can't be a long list. I got him in front of me right here. I don't know if I could count on myself to name them. Just give me their personality and as artists, how you feel about them. Okay, we'll start off with an easy one, John Bush. Okay, John. Just a gentleman on stage. Yeah, whole light. And now, you know, he has his, his look at this stage is, you know, it's pretty normal. It looks like you know, he exudes rock and roll, but, you know, could be an everyday guy. So some folks might be surprised to find that he's just this powerhouse vocalist, but also just, you know, consummate professional and just believes in getting it right. And he's, he is not going to leave the rehearsal or his spot, his time slot during the rehearsal until it's, it's gotten right. And it's, it's inspiration. You know, he still practices to this day. He's always practicing. That's what he says. Yeah. Yeah, I can relate to that. Yeah, Mike. Mike Bornoi. You better say something nice about him. Yeah, just a lovely guy. Larger than life on the drums and in personality as well. But also an encyclopedia. I mean, you can call out songs by Frank Zappa or King Crimson or Stevie Wonder and he'll know it and he'll at least be able to play a recognizable part of the song. And also, huh? As a drummer and as a drummer as a drummer, but you know, he also, you know, he can do riffs on guitar and bass. He's really all around, you know, kind of multi-instrumentalist and he can do vocals. He does, does vocals well. He can, he's great to work on songwriting because he's, he's really a take charge on a person and has a blackboard and just cute. Yeah. I mean, I can understand it can be overwhelming for some, but I like it. Here's the chart. This is how I see us. He does. We'll call it a visionary. Guys with blackboards are visionaries. He does that. He'll do, it's not really a chart, but he'll do a roadmap and I'll think of a name of, it's a very rock and roll way of doing it, but in some ways it is like orchestration because he comes up with some nickname for a part. You know, oh, it reminds me of, you know, let it be, we're going to call it, you know, let it be part or whatever. Come up with some name, write it down, write the order. Okay. How long, and then we'll try it, then we'll make the change. Okay. That's, this part's going to go here now. This part's going to go here. Let's try that. Okay. Let's get rid of that part. Let's add this from the others. You know what I mean? So it's fun to work with somebody like that. All right. Mark Mengie. Mark Mengie. Well, he's another sort of go get him, take charge kind of guy. Very good with leadership and motivation. Like he's, we get calls or messages from him. First thing in the morning. Yeah. Get out of bed, Alex. Get out of bed. Yeah. Yeah. He's kind of a contradiction in a way because, yeah, he has a blast at the shows. We have so much fun. And he loves fun, but he's also just, just got an iron work ethic. And, you know, he put the whole thing together and you got to give him credit because he was sort of more known as behind the scenes guy that we all knew. And, you know, we went, in fact, when this whole thing came together, we didn't know exactly what was going to happen. We thought, okay, maybe, yeah, he'll be behind the scenes, maybe jump out with the band once in a while. But he like very quickly kind of proved himself. No, he can be part of the band too. And today I had really good musical ideas and he's very focused on the type of bass playing he does too. I mean, he's very inspired by 70s players. And I'm not, I don't think it's, I'm embarrassing him by saying it, but he, you know, he likes a lot of yacht rock. Eagles. Yeah, it's okay. All the notes, nothing wrong with all the notes. And also a lot of that stuff had very, you know, live, just very tight bass playing. Bleatwood Mac, but on the metal side, Yeezer Butler, Cliff Burton, and just, you know, he's kind of combined all of that into like his own thing. And it just works great with the band. And, you know, I think there's no better acknowledgement than after we had Satriani as a guest guitarist and me and him trading off on our power drunk majesty. Well, he needed, so needed a bass player for some touring and he called Mark. And I think that's really liked the way he played. And, and he still worked with them. So, yeah, so he really like, you know, surprised us all. And so combines that with this, this very motivating work ethic. The glue, he's the glue, right? David Elson. Yeah, David's one of the nicest guys in, in music. Just real genuine guy. And you know, I'm not going to bring up anything. He's had a rough couple years, you know, the party. We'll leave that for the yellow press. Yes. Oh, it feels so bad, but just sweetheart. Just, you know, even with that, he still holds his head up high and he still continues on, right? With all that. Well, absolutely. And also just doesn't, you're gonna worry about him does not, you know, just, yeah, he's got so much going on. And he's just always working on something, whether it's the, you know, record label, the coffee, you know, and yeah, he's just always, he's got a lot of talents. And I think he was, I don't know if he was is trained in marketing. I think he might be, I think even before he was doing music professionally, he was doing marketing. And he brings that to it, but with a very distinct bass sound. And it's, yeah, it's just a pleasure to work with. David Elson, his motto is always say yes. Yeah, that's okay. That's all right. Could get you in trouble sometimes, but always say yes. Yeah. All right. We'll leave it at that. We'll leave it at that. I'll throw out some names. I don't want to go through the whole list. I'll throw out some cool names that you've played and participated on the albums. If you still want to do this. Marco Sigüeda. Oh, God, how could we forget? Well, yeah, I mean, honestly, he's one of the first names that should be mentioned when we talk about the project because he's one of the few that could sing almost every song that we do. Yeah, he's just got that type of range and just so much energy. And it's almost surreal to me that he's not going to be there. I'm like still. Oh, he's not going to be there. I haven't seen his name on the list. We could call him up. Yeah. Yeah, I think there's some I know he would if he could. Yeah, maybe he's very dedicated to the I mean, his enthusiasm, some of the best live moments have happened with him. But also, I think the project has been great for him because he's been able to really show different sides beyond death angel. And it's great as death angel is and what he does in death angel, he you know, he's just got a lot more range and he can cover a lot of different styles and you really hear that with metal legions. And I think it's helped him in a way because, you know, he's since gone on to some other projects that of, you know, what one is the wedding band with that coil and the guys and couple of the guys from Metallica is this fun cover band, but that's done in a really cool way. And yeah, some other things as well, some things that I think can't be announced yet. But he's got yeah, he's he's just amazing. And he's just always fun to be around. He just lights up the room when he walks. Yeah, real not me. I'm not that way. I mean, I can, you know, you can get me out of my shell. I'll loosen up. I'll have a good time. But I'm genuine not by nature. I'm not like a type a people person. But he Mark Mark is that he he's he's that guy. Yeah, I've met Mark a few times in an interview with a person and he is a ball of energy. Exactly. He is a bundle of energy works. Amazing about him. I'll say what's amazing about him. Like you think he's going to sing. You think he's boxed in the way that he sings. And then he'll do a song. You'll completely surprise you. He'll just completely surprise you. I remember you did that you two song during COVID. Right. I didn't what? Yeah, I didn't. Yeah, I didn't do that with him. But yeah, I remember. Yeah, I mean, that's right up his alley. It's or one of the shows we they did a mother love bone song. Yeah, that he sang beautifully. I also remember he did Heaven and Hell by Black Sabbath. But I love playing that with him. It's like, whoa, I mean, he's pulling off deal now. It's he's just oh, yeah, you don't expect it. That's what I'm trying to say. You don't expect it from me. He just blows everybody away. Yeah. And a lot of things who are associated with, say, thrash metal, or speed metal or whatever, you know, you don't think that they're guys that could sing deal. And exactly. And that that's a great way to say it. All right, Bobby Blitz. Bobby Blitz. Yeah. Like like a Sopranos character, but not Italian. He could be like a wise guy, just the guy he could be the guy hanging out at the bottom being just cracking jokes, hilarious, just hilarious, like as funny as his voice is intense. And yeah. And he's somebody who I mentioned earlier, like with metal legions, you know, we would go from being competitors to colleagues. I remember one of the very early tours that testament that was with overkill. And just everybody eyeing each other with suspicion, you know what I mean? It was just like rival college football teams or, you know, just not, you know, you know, there's your camp, there's their camp, very little interaction. That's such a good point, Alex. I mean, in the 80s, and I guess a bit of the 90s, there was this turf, you know, like they're not only this turf, but this band, the competitiveness of bands and especially the 80s, like, but it's changed so much today, hasn't it? Like, oh, yeah, I mean, now we like each other so much, and we can just insult each other publicly and just laugh about it, especially him and Mark Mengie. It's just they're like two, it's like Don Rickles and Triumph, the insult dog, you know, the puppet, you know, just going at it, just like throwing each other under the bus. And it's, they should be a comedy act they should take it on the road. Is it because contracts, there's no more of those sort of if you're on one label, and you're you're with a label, and I have a contract with a label, another band has a contract with another label, then you just can't, you can't just mix and mingle because it was more of a label thing to keeping you sort of a bay is innocent. I don't think that had so much to do with it back in the day, because a lot of us toured together, because we were on the same label. So, you know, anthrax was not on Megaforce, but they were managed by the head of Megaforce, Johnny C. Overkill was on Megaforce. And so was Testament Testament was distributed by Atlantic. So it was sort of this new mashup label, Megaforce slash Atlantic. But still, we should have been like the same family. And that's why we toured together. But there was that didn't lessen the sense of competition. I think also at that point, you know, you're trying to prove yourself and you see other bands as you know, you're, you know, that there's not enough room for both of us type thing. But then, you know, years later, you realize how silly that is. And it's just great to know everybody as individuals. And, you know, you don't have to be judged by your band to everybody's a person, even though they're in a band, but you know, again, a band can be like a sports team. And it's not tribal anymore. It's not you just see the team. Yeah, you don't even see each other as people. And then, you know, even before Metal Legends, but especially since, you know, we've been brought together with this project, you know, yeah, we we know each other individually. And we have camaraderie. And it's it's a yeah, it's much more fun to know each other on on that level. And then you have somebody like, you know, Chuck Billy, the chief, right? He comes in the band. And now it's suddenly it's Testament all over again, right? When so tell me about Bill. Well, kind of that it's actually really fun for us because we're we can work together, but in a completely different dynamic. That's good. Yeah. Yeah, every yeah, every band has its own dynamic. But yeah, when he comes to battle allegiance, really, like, you know, I have this role that's that's very different. I'm not just, you know, the soloist, the soloist, I'm really like directing and and it's it's a lot of fun. And, you know, he's somebody he's incredibly quiet offstage, like people expect the opposite. Yeah, because and he's so intense on stage. But off stage, he's the opposite of say a Mark Osso White. You know, he's not going to burst into the room and start hugging people. You know, maybe once he knows somebody, but you know, he tends to be very chill and relaxed and but on stage, that's that's where it all comes out. Yeah, interview last time interview Chuck was in Montreal. You know, and it's exactly the way you stated it. He's chill. He's nice. He's polite. He's kind. He's intelligent. And he's not a big fireball. Right, right. You know, that everybody's different. And you can't you know, there's certain types of artists who are like their stage personas. I'll give you another example, Steve Sousa of Exodus, who's our original singer. You know, he's the same. He's the same persona. There's no there's no different. You know, he sees you in the hallway. He talks to you like, like he's on stage talking to the audience. But then there's others. Are you the same person? Are you the same person? Like that's on stage? No, definitely not. Definitely not. Because I'm now when I'm on on stage, I am I'm you know, I'm pretty you know, I know I'm giving a performance, but I go into this Zen mode. And I'm just not afraid to, you know, take the guitar and just look with people straight in the eye and make funny faces and you know, whatever I do. And I do not do that offstage. I don't. You don't do that. I don't come up the subway and do that. No, I don't. Yeah, exactly. When I'm on the subway, I don't come up to people and give the look like I do in the middle of a guitar solo. It probably wouldn't be received too well if I didn't. What about I'll give you a few more and I'll leave you with that. Charlie Benanti. Charlie Benanti. Oh, yeah. I mean, just I think one of the for a long time anyway, very underappreciated, because his greatest he is in anthrax. It's very, it's very limited. I mean, he's so mega talented. Multi instrumentalists, you know, plays guitar well, plays keyboards well. There's art. I mean, just like a real Renaissance guy. But if you only know him as the drummer for anthrax, you'd have no idea. So I think, you know, this, this project has been great. You know, to work with him and see that side. But I've also done other outside projects with Charlie, you know, we started doing tributes to Rush after Neil Peart passed away. And that was during the pandemic. So our lockdown video has got a lot of attention, you know, YYZ, La Via, Strangiatto. I remember, I remember. Yeah, we did several and he actually put those out on a disc. Yeah, my interview for that. Yeah, when he put out, yeah, it was great. Yeah. So I mean, you know, it's funny. That's a great example. When people always talk about who can replace Neil, my mind always goes to Charlie. I don't know why I just think he would be like the perfect fit. Again, they're not doing that. They're not doing that. I'm just saying hypothetically, I always thought everybody throws out, they throw Mike Pornight because it's kind of obvious, but I always thought Charlie would be the best fit. I don't know. Yeah. I think he's and he's being more appreciated now because he's part of the Pantera reunion. Yes. And that's reaching, you know, whole other level of audience that that is hearing him and appreciating. Yeah. Let's see, one last one. Who's played with you guys for, I mean, we could throw in a girl here. What about Christina Scapa? Oh, just you can't say enough great things. Yeah, just the voice is operatic, like on level of somebody that does opera, but works for heavy music. And just incredibly unpretentious, funny, down to earth, no airs, even though she'd have every right to just be a complete diva. Because, you know, she's just a powerful presence on stage, both with the voice and her stage presence, but offstage, yeah, just incredibly unassuming, puts everyone at ease. And it's fun to hang out with fun to work with just really pleasure to throw ideas back and forth. And this yeah, this was a great opportunity to work with her. We're overdue to have her on stage live. It's been a while. Are there any surprise guests? I believe so. Yes. Really? Oh, yeah. I believe there are. I can't confirm that there are, but I know there's always some last minute guests that, yeah, we don't know if they're going to show up or not. And sometimes they do, sometimes they don't. And I know there are a few names that have been tossed around as folks who may show up and may not, but we shall see. Bruce Dickinson. Bruce Dickinson. That would be a dream. I don't even know if he's going to be in the area. He's in New York. He's going to be in New York. Is that right? He's doing a book signing and on the 17th and the 18th, I think. Oh, is he really? At St. Vitus? Is that St. Vitus? Yeah. St. Vitus. Yeah. Yeah. Comic book release. Oh, that is awesome. That is awesome. Gotta love Bruce. Yeah. Obviously, he'd be welcome anytime. He could walk in in the middle of the gig and just let him off. Right. The floodgates would open. Stop what you're doing. Yeah. And the mic over to Bruce. Yeah. And let's go. Yeah. Is there anything you want to tell everybody about metal legions that we haven't actually spoken about right now? Just that, you know, it's a show. If you have a chance to see it, you should see it. Every show is different. Yes, you can say you've seen it before, but you're never going to see the exact same show. So it's going to be a fresh experience every time. And everybody has a great time at the shows. Everybody wishes it would happen more often. So don't miss. So just everybody knows and the people are watching maybe they're from around the world, but this is during NAMM week, which is, you know, I think last year was in April or May, but this year it's back to winter NAMM. Yeah. And that's one of the reasons we're able to pull it off, especially at this level with this many artists because so many are visiting and in one place at one time in addition to those who are based in Southern California. Plus you get the walk-ins, right? Because people, there's artists at NAMM and they're walking in, right? And you go, Hey, why don't you just jump on stage, Bruce? Just come on right in. Oh, sure. Well, yeah. Usually we do know in advance because there's a lot of preparing and we know what songs are going to have. That's the other thing, too, because there are many events that week of shows and all-star lineups that aren't that prepared. This is very prepared. It's very professionally done. And, you know, everybody knows what song they're going to do. Everybody knows what part they're going to play. So I think even though there are a lot of all-star acts that happen that week, this one stands out. Well, you're getting me excited. I'm going to be there in a week and a half. The House of Blues in Ataheim. A week and a half already. Unbelievable. Yeah. Can you believe it? It's January 11th. I have to practice. No joke. That is what I'm going to be doing. I've got to book my airline tickets. I've got to book my airline tickets still. Luckily I have mine. 25th of January, that's a Thursday. House of Blues Ataheim. The 10-year perspiration. Yes. Salvation. I've got to use that. Celebration. Anniversary celebration, not perspiration. Dean Guitars, D-Drums, Heavy Headphones, and the Opening Act as Death, Health, Hostage, and Core. You know what? You're getting me excited. This sounds like a great night. The Opening Act, I'm not sure how it's pronounced. I have to ask David. I don't think it's death. I think it's dyeth. Dyeth. Yeah, like Shakespearean. You dyeth upon this sort. Dieth. Okay, it's dyeth. Yeah. Mega dyeth. Let's see if there's anything else you want to plug. I don't know. Is there any cool stuff that you're doing in the future? Yeah, very different stuff. Did I mention... If you want to talk about it, it's up to you. Yeah. Well, two days before that, I'm doing a tribute to Leslie West. Yeah, cool. You know about this? Yeah. And that's going to have a lot of exciting players. Steve Lukather, Orianti, Mateo Manusco, Tracy Guns, and Leslie West. You know, it's just one of my all-time favorite guitar players. And a big influence on a lot of my favorite guitar players that I was listening to growing up. Guys like Michael Shanker, for example. And Van Halen, too, was the previously West fan. Yeah, everybody loved Leslie West. What would you rate Randy Rhodes? Eddie Van Halen, Randy Rose? Yeah, they were both tremendous influences. And they both had a lot to do with me ending up in heavy metal, even though I do a lot of music outside of heavy metal. So in addition, on my instrumental side, I'm going to be playing on Friday, the 26th with Stuart Ham, great bass player. And we're going to be at the baked potato, which is a legendary jazz club in Studio City. Very cool. With the great Chad Wackerman on drums, one of my all-time favorite drummers, played for Alan Holdworth, played for Frank Zappa. And Stu and I have an album together. I played on his record that came out a few months ago called Hold Fast. And I recorded music last year with my trio, my instrumental trio. It's kind of the jazz guitar. It's called the Alps School in La Tria. And the whole album is recorded. It is in the process of being mixed and mastered. I think I'm going to drop singles this year. And probably towards the end of the year or next year, the whole record because of touring. You have to book further and further in advance nowadays to tour. I think you played Montreal. I think you played Montreal several times. And I'm also in a project called PACT PAKT, which is with the great Percy Jones, legendary fretless bass player known for his work with Brand X, which once had the great Phil Collins on drums. And also at Brian Eno, and it's an incredible group of musicians. We have a new album that just came out. And we're going to be touring down the West Coast right after all this. So I'll be starting in Seattle, working our way down. And I'll end up back in at the Baked Potato in Los Angeles, February 8th, I believe that is, and for two shows, and ending up in Phoenix and then flying back to the East Coast. So yeah, things are going to start get really busy starting the week of NAMM. Very cool. I appreciate all your time. I hope I didn't take too much of your time. No, not at all. It's fairly interesting. There's a lot of people in the chat saying hi. And I know there's Jay, there's Randy. I just didn't want to throw you off. There's Jim Harrison. There's a lot of people there just saying hi. There's Alexander from all the way from Peru. Maybe I'll come to the show. We've got British people online. We've got everybody from all around. All over the map. Yep. Anyways, thank you very much, everybody once again, during NAMM week on the 25th of January, Metal Allegiance. Like I said, I'm getting excited. This sounds like a fun time. You know what it is? It's the enthusiasm that you have for it. It sort of comes across and it sort of leaks into the world and the air. And then I feel that that enthusiasm. That's what it's all about. All right, looking forward to the show. See you there. And have yourself a wonderful, wonderful night. Thank you everybody.