 Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Is it grandma? Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. That's it. Yeah. All right. Here we go guys. Yeah. Live on the metal voice. He's back. The man. The Greek God. We're here. All Gus all the time. That would be a great station. Alan was just giving us a little bit of Greek lessons right before we started. I'll leave it to you Jimmy. In case we forgot it. All right. Some exciting news. Gus G is going to give us a little update on what he's been doing, what's going on in his life. Also we're going to go through a list. The top 10 best and most impactful keyword cover songs done by metal bands. Really? There's tons, tons of covers. I mean even Gus has done covers on this. But we're talking about songs. My most successful Fyron song is a cover. Let's just say that. The Dire Straight song. The Money for Nothing. No, no. That was not successful. I mean the original. I love that song. Not mine. Not mine. Chicks for free. Yeah. But I'm talking about Maniac. Oh yeah. Maniac. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. That's the biggest Fyron song that we never wrote. So there you go. I have the song King Leonidas in my head. It's been stuck there ever since. I know you're going to be on here today. So there you go. Here's a little bit of plug here. Here's a plug there. There you go. United, yeah. I love that album. Great album. Thank you. All right. So that's what we're going to do. We're going to count down the top from 10 to 1. Most impactful cover songs done by a metal band. And what is the definition of that mean? It means that a song that a band, I don't know, maybe it's become part of their legacy, part of their history. It's a song that changed the landscape. It's a song that maybe changed the genre, that charted higher than the original. Maybe people didn't even know what the original was, but suddenly this song came out of nowhere. They made it their own. Alan, you want to add to that? Well, for me, it's when the cover song becomes the standard moving forward. If you look at Joe Cocker with the little help from my friends, when kick-axe we did it in the 80s, that's the version they went to. For me, that's what it is. It's when the cover song becomes the standard that everybody else looks at afterwards. So it becomes better or it's improved upon version of the original. Are we talking about covers that were more successful than the originals or just covers that had impact on a specific generation, for example? Both. We got three interpretations happening, so this should be interesting. We'll wing it. It's okay, guys. Well, you think love hurts from Nazareth. For me, you think love hurts from Nazareth. Nobody knows the Everly Brothers version anymore. That's the one everybody references. Oh, that's a cover. I didn't know that. Yeah. There you go. There you go. See, even Gus is learning something. That's why we do the metal voice. We share our knowledge. Oh, you have more knowledge than me on that. And you know what? I would like to hear when we mention these songs, maybe if you know the songs, the take on the guitar work, maybe, or there's something that speaks to you in the music part of this, because me and Alan couldn't tell you. No, we couldn't have it done. Not a clue. But first, Gus, tell us about your European tour. Yeah. Oh, we are actually leaving in a couple of weeks. We're doing a massive tour with Firewind. We're starting, we're going out there as special guests of Beast in Black. Oh, yeah. Yeah, it's like 42 shows in 54 days. Wow. It's gonna be the longest trek we've ever done. I mean, we've been out there for long periods of time, but with breaks. But this is gonna be like two months on a bus. It's gonna be fun, man. Like a lot of the shows are selling out already. And it's crazy. So it's gonna be good. We're excited. And we love Beast in Black. They're blowing up right now all over the place. And it's a good tour for us to be on. What's the first country that you're playing in? Tour starts in Portugal, in Lisbon, January. Yeah. And yeah, then we go to Spain, France, and then up in the UK, and then back into the mainland Europe. So it's gonna be all over the place. We're playing in 20 countries, 42 shows. Wow. Yeah, crazy. You know what's amazing? When you guys, when you came here with Dragon Force, and I can't remember the Atlantis, Ship of Atlantis, what's the? Vision of Atlantis. Vision of Atlantis. Those shows were like jammed. They were theater jammed. That was a friggin' great tour. That tour was also sold out. I was everywhere. It was packed. It was, I mean, yeah, the Canadian shows were some of the biggest crowds. Yeah. Also, I think Massachusetts. It was big, man. It was great. It was a great tour. And, you know, I think I told you the story. We jumped in like last minute because there was a tour ban in Finland that could make it Battle Beast. And Herman called me up. He's like, dude, it's like, I think six weeks before the tour started, he said, can you make it? I said, we can make it. We can make it. We just don't know if we can get visas. No, it's because US visas take a while to process. It can take up to two or three months. But somehow we managed to expedite it. And like, I think Herbie, our singer, got his visa like the last day before the flight. Oh, wow. UPS. That was it. You told me like a UPS delivery or something? I think he drove. Like an Uber driver or something. I think he drove to, what was it, Berlin? Because he lives in Hanover. I think he drove to Berlin and went to the courier company, knocked on the door and said, I'm leaving tomorrow. I have to fly to America. Is my visa, is my passport here? The guy looks and says, yeah, it's here. Here you go. And he left. He went to the airport. Unbelievable. Unbelievable. You guys were spectacular. Farwin, everybody go check them out in Europe. You know, they're coming your way end of January. All right, let's start it off. All right, let's start off with a ban that everybody loves. I'm sure you love them. Everybody loves. And that singer that you played with recently. Number 10, let me show everybody the graphics here. I don't know if you could see them or not, but we are live. So I'm going to show everybody the graphics here. Boom. Iron Maiden, women in uniform. Coming in at number 10. Alan, what do you think? I don't know if we're making my 10 top 10. Yeah, it was probably an improvement on the original, but I think there's other songs that might be stronger on the list. So you don't like my choice? Well, it's like they were forced to do it, I guess. I thought the original stuff was strong enough that they didn't have to do a cover version. I mean, they were always did some great B sides, like Cross-Eyed Mary. I thought that was a great B side. But did they change, prove upon the original that it become the defining version? I don't think anybody ever did another version of that song afterwards. I don't know. Maybe I'm kind of like, look, it was the Skyhooks, Gus and Alan in the 1970s that released the song in Australia. It kind of like charted a bit, peaked at number eight, and then in UK it did a little bit too. But then Iron Maiden, probably in two years later, they kind of redid the song to promote their upcoming tour when Paul wasn't bad of the British leg tour. This was released in 1980, never was put on an album officially, right? It was just released as a single. And maybe because I remember the time it was the video just was so significant to me, I had no idea it was a cover and go, wow, this is hooky. It's catchy. It's made in. I don't know. What do you think, Gus? Great video. Yeah. I actually, I saw the video at a friend's house on VHS tape. I don't know, sometime in the 90s, obviously, you know, my generation, and I thought it was, I didn't know it was a cover. I knew it was like some kind of a B side single or something. And I love the video. It was cool. And I thought the song was cool as well. And I tried adding it. It's like a little bit of a, you know, going. I tried getting it, slipping it the set list when we did those shows in Greece. And, you know, with the band, we rehearsed it, we played it. It reminded me of my childhood. I think you're just cutting it out, guys. Just cutting it out. If you have anything open on your computer, shut it down. Okay. Okay. Okay. Got it. Okay. Don't watch Netflix as you're doing a show. You know, maybe my wife is watching Flix upstairs. Well, you know what? It reminds me of my childhood. I think that you nailed it. There's something about that song, you know? I don't know if you can hear me now, but yes. Yeah, but I was saying that, you know, I tried to slip it into the set list when Paul came to Greece when we did those shows, but he didn't want to do it. So, and I kept bugging him. I went, I would go to him and say, okay, so we're going to do women you're in for now, like three times in a row. You really have to catch your breath when you sing that song. It's, you know, the pace of the melody. So I could see that it's a, it's not a difficult range song to sing, but it's sort of like more of a phrasing and a pace that you really need to keep up. That's what makes it hard. Hey, you know, if you're talking made in Jimmy, maybe I think hallowed be thy name is a better cover. You mean that they ripped off somebody else? Yeah. The story is they, they, they tried, they almost got sued for hallowed be thy name. They didn't get sued. They lost, but then they lost. They lost the case, right? Made in the blues. I think moving forward, Steve's got to share the writing credit on that now. I think that's how they, they lost the case. So who did they get sued from? Apparently from what I read, it's a band that Steve was aware of. Steve has said that they were influenced in some interviews way, way back in the 80s. And the lyrics are almost taken word from word from the song from this other band. I mean, it's one of my favorite made of songs of all time, but I was a little disappointed to hear that it was, I guess plagiarized the word. Kind of like stairway to heaven, right? As that had, you know, got Yeah, somebody took Zeppelin to court and they lost them. Yeah, they lost. Yeah, they lost, they lost, they lost. I thought it was pending. I thought it was pending, Alan. Anyways, yeah. Oh, I don't know. Things change. The internet's not always right. All right. So, okay. So anyways, so since we're on the diano topic, I know Alan and I have a few questions. What do you feel like to be on the stage in Greece playing with Paul and this Greece fans going nuts? Yeah, it was insane. And I play here a lot, obviously, because it's my country and we have really loyal following and people to support us and a lot of love. And I know what it's like to play here. And but, you know, experiencing the Iron Maiden crowd next to Paul, it was like, and I played in Greece also with Ozzy, you know, but like Iron Maiden crowd is a different thing. It's almost like going to the World Cup final or something. You know what I mean? Like everybody's just like, wow, like They're amped up to 11. Is that Greek Maiden fans or just I get Maiden fans? I think Maiden fans in general, you know, I don't I'm not sure. But very close to that if you've seen that Flight 666 thing, you know, that they released that DVD, it's very similar to that South America thing. And yeah, man, they were like, especially now after, you know, everybody came with like the love that they they were just pouring out, you know, for Paul, you know, because obviously with the surgery and stuff that just came there to see him and and honor him. And it was it was touching, man, you know, just and I knew Paul, especially in the first gig, he felt a little bit out of it because he was like, you know, he was in the wheelchair and he kept apologizing to the crowd and but he sound great, you know, he did great. And every night was better than the other. And it was incredible. And, you know, it was like a little bit like a Beatle Mania in a small kind of level, like fans were waiting for him outside the hotel every night and every morning, like they were waiting there to to get their stuff signed and to take photos with him. And he was very nice with everybody. It was really cool, man. It was it was nice to experience that. My question is what what makes the Greek fans so fanatical when it comes to metal, in your opinion? They're just very they are they the same for Demi Rusos, you know, they react the same way. Maybe it's just music in general. I don't know. No, not for them. I think so. I think with especially with metal fans, because it's such like underground kind of music, you know, it's not part of the culture here. They're just very attached to it, very loyal, very, very emotional about it. And they're like fans for life. They really are fans for life. And I know that because, you know, from my experience, from my band, like, we grew up together with our fans. And now they bring their they start to bring their kids to the getting older and bring their kids. But we see also a resurgence in generations, you know, there's always like mixed, like, ages in the in the crowds, you see kids, you know, 15 year olds to, you know, 55, 60 year old people. So it's really remarkable. You know, you don't see that everywhere. And, and they know their stuff, man, they know their stuff. Like, they know what their first album was. And they they're that's what he's telling Jimmy before watching some of the videos on YouTube from the show is like, Hey, Jimmy, what a nice gig you come out, you sit down, you let the let the crowd sing all the songs, you know, I mean, that's that's the the the marquee value of being an Iron Maiden, I guess. Let me tell you, man, when I was when I used to go spend my summers in Greece, when I was a kid and teenager, there was frigging more metal albums in those little stores that I could even find in Montreal. I don't know what it was. It was bizarre. I went from metal here to metal there. My father's small little town and I walk into a record store and I saw like more albums that could even get in Montreal. You know, a lot of European bands were always like I said, like we're small record stores everywhere. And they always had next to that the Greek artist, they had like Iron Maiden or Sabbath or whatever. But the thing is, it's, it was, I don't know why I think it was always, like I said, it was it's an underground type of music. But there was always quite a lot of people listening to hard rock and metal. I mean, look, Iron Maiden played here this past summer and they had like 40,000 people. We're a small country. We're a country of like 10 million people. We're not, you know, it's not a big country. So considering the size and all that, it's, it's a pretty large crowd. That was the biggest show of the year. And I don't know, I think it helped a lot that, you know, Paul reconciled with Iron Maiden lately and they helped him with this surgery financially and stuff. And, you know, you know, Maiden is like this big family. Would you do it again? He calls you up? Hey, we're playing in Canada or we're playing in the US. Would you come do a few shows? Oh yeah, yeah, sure, man. I would love to do that. What an experience. I saw you on stage. I saw him on stage and it was like, okay, I mean, he was having a hard time because he had spent a long time. Yeah, the fans just the fans pushed him, you know, like there was a sort of give and take, right? Yeah, the energy was that we were getting from the crowd was so much that I think, you know, they carried, they carried the show, basically. And, you know, we went there with the intention of, you know, we wanted to, to, to build a really good backup band for Paul. And you know, we rehearsed a lot, we practiced a lot with all the guys and everything. And just wanted to put on a good show for everybody, you know, and make Paul feel comfortable. And so, so let's see, let's see, where, you know, let's see if we get to do some more stuff, you know, Tam will tell, you know, I think he has his schedule, I have my schedule, but you know, he's up for it, you know, we'll do it again. It would be nice to do that in America. It was Helena, right, on guitar, right? She's also plays with Nervosa, right? And, and who are the, who's the drummer and who is the other, who's the bassist? Minas, a guy called Minas, he was the drummer, you know, from local bands and the guy called Kostas who played the bass. And I didn't know the guys myself, because the promoter, he's a friend of mine and he put the band together. Okay, all right. That's how it came into the fall, because he called me and said, because he had done that with Paul, he's done a few tours with Paul before here in Greece and he had a Greek band for him. And I think the other guitar player couldn't make it for some reason. He had some other gigs lined up and stuff. And he said, would you do it? And I said, well, I don't have anything going on in December. I'll do it. So that's how I, that's how I got involved with this. Cool, cool, cool. All right. So what are we on number nine? It's going to be a long night, Alan. Maybe just a top five. No, no, we'll go, we'll go through them fast. All right, there we go. Number nine. And I know Alan, I told Alan this one here. It's, it's Voivod, Astronomy Domain. All right. A lot of people are going to say, what, you put Voivod there? What's going on? And Alan goes to me, Jimmy, yeah, I don't know if I would have put that one there. And there's a reason, there's a reason. Okay. Pink Floyd did the original song in 1967. It's the Sid Barrett album, right? It was a space rock kind of song, sure. Made a little traction back then amongst the cult. But then in the 80s and 89, Voivod took this song and it brought them from this cult status band to a global band to a mainstream band. It just, it clicked. It just clicked at least in Canada and the US and around the world. They built their career off of that song. So they took a song that sort of was known and they've taken it and elevated and had more success and charted and sold more albums because of it. So if you guys want to add anything. I believe you. Nothing. Look at this guy. I like what he said. At least in Canada, US and the rest of the world compared to what? The universe? Well, the universe. At least in Canada and the US and the rest of the world. Geez, guys, you're a tough crowd. Tough crowd. Maybe it didn't do well in, I don't know, in Siberia. Yeah, maybe. Guys, Voivod, nothing face. Did you hear it, Gus? Did you put it on a little bit? I haven't heard it. Sorry, sorry. You're gonna love it. You're gonna love it when you hear it. You're gonna love it. You're gonna say, you know, Jimmy, Jimmy was right. Okay. Jimmy was right. I'll check it out. I'll take your word for it. Dimitri. Dimitri. You know what Gus's real name Trivia? What do you think Gus's real name is? It's not Taki. It's what is it? What do you think it is? A year ago. That's George. Yeah, I know, but I, you know, Gus, George, I said maybe. Costas. Costantinos. That's it. That's what it is. What's that? That's also wrong. You know, why do all the costantinos that came to America became Gus? Not in Canada. Not in Canada. Ah, okay. It's more of a U.S. thing than a Canadian thing. Yeah, because my uncle told me when I was a kid and I said, what's my name? Do I have like an English name? Of course, I was just like, it's Gus. And I don't think that's, I don't think that's right. It's true. It's not right. I don't know. Well, I go, you know, my passport's Dimitrios, right? But they go, Jimmy, well, how did that come about? Like, where's the connection, right? They just made it up at some point. I don't know. You mean, Alan, you're just Alan. Yeah. The minority. There's no Alan. Oh, there you go. See, I learned something today. There you go. All right. We'll go through this since you guys undo your homework. Number eight. You guys know this one, right? You guys know this one. Alan, you don't know this one? I don't know. You're going to tell me what it is. It's anthrax got the time. Oh, I love that one. Yeah. There you go. Okay. Finally. There we go. I'm sure, Gus, you've heard this song too, right? Of course, yeah. Alan, you want to talk to about it? What's that, guys? The Jackson, was there really? Joe Jackson did it in 1979. He was on his debut album. It was a five thousand- See, this is a good example where I'm going, you know, this takes it to a completely different level with people just referred to the anthrax version and nobody else's, right? As far as I'm concerned. Strangely enough, if you listen to the Joe Jackson album, it's like sort of like a sort of a punk. I guess punk was sort of like new wave punk was sort of happening back then. And then anthrax took it and made it into a thrash, you know, a tribal sort of sounding thrash tune, right? It's got a nice groove to it. Guys, you like anthrax? I didn't know the Joe Jackson song. See? His version. I first heard it, you know, in metal clubs when I was a kid from anthrax. So I think a lot of it had to do also with generations, you know, how you get exposed to music or where. And, you know, some songs we might listen to the originals. It just happens. And some others, we just listen to them and depends on the time. And like I said, generations, you know, like for me was like that, you know, I was, I didn't know who Joe Jackson is. Sorry. And again, I just saw some of the comments, anti-social from the French group trust. That's another great one from anthrax as well. You know, they took this song and they really made it their own to the point where I don't think they play a show and they don't play this song. It's a standard in their set list, right? Like maniac is with firewind. Do you play it in every show? Do you play maniac? Actually, finally enough, we didn't, we refused to play it for over 10 years because we just thought it was ah, whatever. Why do we, we did it for fun in the studio, kind of like ashamed about it. And then I was looking at, we were looking at the Spotify numbers a few years ago and we were like, oh my God, this is like, this is like over 10 million streams. This is like our most successful song. And we started playing it like, okay, let's play it on this festival run that we're doing. And then everybody went nuts again. And that was the party moment of the show. And I think now it has to kind of like stay. It's, it's, it's one of the songs that is to highlight on the show. It better be on our top 10, Jimmy. It better be on the top 10. Well, I just put it in. Okay, well, eight and a half. Exactly. I didn't think about it. I remember, to me, it's always been money for nothing, which was like just recently. Yeah, but the thing is the firewind version is not more popular than the Michael Sambello version. I thought we were talking about it's true. That's more popular than the original ones. Ours is not more popular than the original one. The more the original ones will always be top. But, you know, the heavy, it's, I think it's the most popular heavier version because a lot of bands, a lot of metal bands have done Maniac. And I think actually Avantasia did one. And I did Rock Me Amadeus. No, no, Avantasia, they did Maniac on the last track. Okay, that's it. That's what I'm thinking of. But, you know, I think our still is kind of like the top hard rock version, metal version of it. And just in case Todd Lattori is watching, I hope Rebel Yell from Queens Right makes a list. Did you hear it? It's really good. They did Billy Idol, Rebel Yell. Okay. I haven't heard it. Well, Queens Right did it on their last album. It's sort of like a bonus track. It's pretty good. It's true to the original. Oh, yes, Send Gus My Best, they taught. Is that why you said that, Alan? Todd's always lurking in the shadows. He's in the marshes. Well, I'm just to finish off on that. Queens Right did a Queens Right version of Billy Idol, keeping it true to the original, but yet new with the nuances of Queens Right. That makes sense. I got to check that out. Check that out. That's another thing. Voivod Queens Right. We'll get to that. We'll get to that. All right, number seven. Come on, Alan. Come on. I need you to speak to this, Alan. Where's number seven? Boom. Metallica off the creeping death single, what they released, but it's not creeping death. It's Am I Evil? Yeah. A Diamond Head cover. Of course, Lars being a huge new Robin fan and Diamond Head and I think this song in Metallica's version introduced many people back in the day to Diamond Head where they were completely unknown and people got to learn from them because of this release. Yeah. It did well. When Diamond Head released it, it got some traction and to your point, Lars was following the new wave of British heavy metal groups and he goes, oh, hey, this really stuck out. I want to cover this. They took that original and they grew it, even though they put it as a B-side. You know when the Big Four played in Bulgaria? Yeah. The last encore song was that song. Everybody did that. So think about sort of how that song sort of shaped the blueprint of thrash in a sense. Yeah. Yeah. And they still played. You know, it's part of their set list, I think. And I think, what's his name? Tutler, I think. Tutler, yeah. Didn't he recently say that because of that song, it has afforded him a living, a very good living because of Metallica's cover. Did you get any money off of Maniac? How did that go? No. I haven't seen it that much. But maybe Michael Simbello has seen some money out of that. He must have. Yeah. I guess it would be the other way around, right? You're right. It'd be the other way around. All right. Well, how many streams? I'm sure you're seeing some kind of money with that. Well, 10 million streams equals like what? $50? No, I think that's more like $40,000. Wow. Look at that. I think it's like $1,000 per, no, no. It's like, it's like $4,000 per million streams, 0.004 per stream or something. So every million is like 4K. So 10 million. But since he's the publisher, right, he's getting money, right? I don't know how it's split with exactly with the streaming. But I think back in the days when there was physical, you know, there was a publishing, obviously the publisher was getting paid for that, you know, like a dollar per copy per sold copy. But I think, yeah, I think the publisher gets also part of the stream. But I think some of it goes to the artist. So there must be some kind of, even with Spotify, there's some kind of split there. And I think some of it goes, like the mechanicals, they go into the, into fireman's accounts. So I don't know how much that is, but I can tell you it's not a lot. All right, here we go. See, now we're going quicker, Alan, because you have a lot less to say. Number six. This is a band that, oh boy, just as much love as any R&B fan. It's a Judas Priest, Green Manalishi, and the two-pronged crown. Peter Green's Fleetwood Mac. All right. What do you think, Gus? When you hear those guitars, I don't know if you've heard the original or not. I first heard, again, I first heard Priest and then, I think it was my guitar teacher back in the day who told me, yeah, was Peter Green that wrote that? And I was like, really? Like, who's Peter Green? I was a kid, you know, I was like, what? You don't know Peter Green? Yeah, because I think Albatross was a huge hit in Greece. What are their early songs? It was a huge hit in Greece. Yeah. But there's another example. Look, you take Black Magic Woman, everybody thinks of Santana's version, where it's actually Peter Green's Fleetwood Mac that wrote it. So yeah, that one too. Yeah. So that's where I'm going with this list. You know, Santana took it to a whole other level where it became the definitive version. So absolutely. Yeah. I think that's the key word, Alan, definitive. Yeah. I mean, I like this version, but for me, Diamonds and Rust is almost like the definitive version. For me, Judas Priest cover of the Joan Baez song. So yeah, I love that song. Yeah. Well, Green Manalishi, to me, when I first heard it now, we're talking about my teenage years, I had absolutely no idea it was a cover. You know, it just sounded so much like Judas Priest. Like, you just, you couldn't comprehend it was a cover, you know? No, it totally did it the wrong way, man. Yeah. All right. All right, guys. Moving along. Should be looking, should be looking at the comments here. Let's see. All right. Well, we get a lot of, I didn't know that was a cover, so that's good. All right. Let's see. Dan Zieg's version of Trouble is very good. Yes, was an amazing cover, a great 12 inch at the time. Anyways, you tell us what your top five is as you're watching and I'll read them out. Saxon's ride like the wind. I don't know. I love Saxon. I always found that. I don't know. I don't know. That's what Christopher Cross, I think. Yeah, Christopher Cross. Yeah. Yeah. That's right. So what's next, Jimmy? Who do you got next? Here's a big one. Here's, Costas is his real name, likes Nutella. Yeah. Nutella. How can you not love Nutella? I love Nutella, but I stopped eating it, man. It was bad. First time I had Nutella was in Greece. Really? Yeah, because I don't think we had Nutella till later on. They don't have it in Canada. They must have it now. They do. They do now. Yeah, they're all kinds, all kinds, but I think it was. I love Nutella that much that my tour manager a few years ago, he went and made a whole Nutella outfit and brought it on tour and I was wearing it on the whole tour. I have Nutella pounds and then Nutella shoulder. But I stopped eating it because it was just making me feel so bad afterwards, like my stomach fell off. Guys, it's the bad. Guys, you have to have a little... Is that my clue? A little cough medicine. I'm getting over COVID. You're giving me a wake during the shows. All right. Just so I don't start hacking a cough here. What are you getting next, Jimmy? Number five, this sort of was my childhood, right here and now. Let me grab it. Let me grab the screenshot. Ace Freely, New York Roof. Okay. When you think about the Kiss Soul albums, guys, maybe we're a little older than you, okay? I think we are not maybe. He's got hair. We're all enough to be your father. No, no, no, no. When the first Kiss Four Soul albums came out, the whole sort of buzz and the rage was for Ace. Suddenly, Ace was the superstar. New York Roof was playing on the radio. It was a cover, but it was sort of like a cover that nobody really knew back then, written by Russ Ballard, who's done so many, you know, so many songs for so many rock artists. But this was big. 1975 was everybody was, you know, buying Ace Freely's album. And that's kind of like sort of, I guess, started the cracks, formulate more cracks in the Kiss Camp because Ace's album sold more than the others, huh? Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Meanwhile, they thought they'd be selling more of theirs, right? So, yeah. Allen? I believe you. It was a minor hit on the radio, a minor hit. I guess it was a hit on the radio. And I think they even played it live a few times. But I mean, you know, was it was a very well known to begin with, Jimmy? And it's kind of like women in uniform, right? It wasn't too well known to begin with. Allen, what are you talking about? Because Allen wasn't a Kiss fan. Allen wasn't a Kiss fan. That's the problem. Oh, I mean, the original. Glenn Ballard wrote it, I think. Who was Ballard wrote? Yeah, Glenn Ballard wrote it. How big was that song before Ace did it? You know what I mean? My point is New York Roof sold Ace's album, made it the more popular album. So much so that when they did their reunion tour in 97 or 98, they was in their set list. Yeah, that's it. Yeah. Okay. That's how popular it was. And Kiss fans will attest to this. Good. Fantastic. All right. All right. Next. When we do these shows with Todd, when we do these shows with Todd, I think we must spend like 20 minutes arguing about things. So it's like, it's okay. It's good to argue. Gus, if you have negative feelings to wear any of these songs. No, I mean, I don't say much because I don't know the song. So New York Roof. You don't know New York Roof. No. Write it down. Okay. I know a lot of Kiss stuff, but I don't know this. And I definitely don't know their solo albums. So there you go. Fair enough. Fair enough. Okay. Now this song, you know, this song, you know, coming in at number four, Van Halen, You Really Got Me. And of course, the beginning of You Really Got Me is your option, right? Sort of. Yeah. An intro to it, right? No, great choice. I mean, we can put on Pretty Woman, Dancing in the Streets, there's tons of covers Van Halen did that, You're No Good, that's Linda Roddenstad, right? I mean, there's so many, they did such a great job on all of them. But yeah, this one, this one really put it, you know, it was a great Kinks tune, but it really put it on the forefront. And again, I think it became the definitive version. So yeah, without a doubt, I agree. Yeah, gosh, first time you heard of your option. When's the first time I heard it? Yeah, what'd you think? What'd you think? What was your sort of your feelings? The first actually the first Van Halen song I ever heard was Jump, which was a keyboard song. Yeah, right. I don't know why because that's the first thing that came up on TV one late night or something that I was watching. I don't know if it was MTV or some Greek music channel back then, we had those that played videos all day long, all that long. I was like, wow, of course, I was floored when the solo came in. And then I kind of like discovered the eruption and all that stuff. I mean, it was a shock to me just like any heavy metal hard rock guitar player will tell you. I was shocked. I was like, wow, what is this, you know, tone, the licks, you know, how does he do that, the technique? And of course, because I was always like, I'm into great guitar playing, but I'm also into great songwriting. I love to hear great guitar parts, great guitar solos crafted into a really good song. And, you know, Eddie could write songs, not just like play incredibly, you know, and just being so innovative on the guitar, but it was also his songwriting. So yeah, I just loved the whole thing like that. I agree with Alan. Good choice. Yeah, yeah. I think 1964, Kings released it. Yeah. And Van Halen released it in 1978. So they turned a sort of pop punk song. 1964. Girl, you really got me now. You know, it kind of got that punk phrasing, right? But then Dailey Roth took it and he made it more of a, they want to call it a hard rock. Even the breakdown, like they always, you know, the breakdown. Let's just say that when somebody does, when somebody does, you really got me covered nowadays, they do the Van Halen version, not the Kings version. Exactly. It became the definitive version. I agree. So there you go. This is where we're going with this now. This is where we're going with this. This is where I always was. I don't know where you were. You're on medication. So we'll let it go. All right. COVID doesn't stop me, guys. COVID doesn't stop me. Exactly. Next. All right. Next. Alan's got supper ready. Okay. I'm not taking the cough syrup. Number three. Number three. Number three. Oh, this is a great one. This, I didn't even know this was a cover song. This is Nazareth. This Flight Tonight. Joni Mitchell, yeah. When you sent me the list, Jim, this is the song I said has to be on there because for me, this is, you know, again, a perfect example of the definitive version. This Flight Tonight is so much different than Joni Mitchell's version. The lyrics are unbelievable, but they really made it their own Nazareth and just a great, we lost Dan McCafferty in 2022 and that was a huge loss. What a voice and just a great band. When you first heard this Flight Tonight, guys, did you go, wow, man, this sounds like a cover or wow. I can't believe it. What was your reaction? I just heard it tonight for the first time. So what was your reaction? Great, great song. I didn't know who it was. I thought it was a great Nazareth song. Yeah. All right. Okay, good. You never heard it before? Yeah. Not even on Greek radio or anything? Not much into Nazareth, man. Sorry. But I mean, just turning on the radio, you go, oh, I remember that song. You only hear Love Hurts. That's, that's the only one. Maybe we should have chose Love Hurts. Yeah. That's a bigger one. And then, yeah, anyways. And that's a cover too, right? Yeah. It's a cover too. You got it. Yeah. You know, off of Hair of the Dog, there's also Guilty, that Randy Newman song, that Joe Cockett is an unbelievable version of that cover. And there's Morning Do I think is another one that's written by somebody else. So, yeah, yeah. I mean, Black Sheep of the Family Rainbow, there's another one that's a great cover. So, yeah. You know what, I'm realizing with this conversation here tonight, that I should have done a lot more covers in my career. Maybe I would have had a bigger chance to have a hit because I'm always struggling to write songs and make the better songs up. And then everybody that we're talking about has like had major hits of cover songs of others, you know. Yeah. But where does the money go? But yeah, where is the money go? I mean, it's not who also, it's not about also who makes the money from a song because that if the door opens, the opportunities open, and that takes you to another level, you're gonna, you know, make the money as an artist by performing the song. So, I guess the real question is... Another avenue, that's what I'm saying. Yeah, I agree with you. I think the question tonight is, what song should Gus G and Firewind perform as a cover on the next album? Dude, this is such a, I mean, that was a great, that's a great question. Yeah, I would love to see some comments about that. We actually just recorded the new album. We just did drums. I haven't started with the guitars yet, but we, drums are done. And we did record one cover so far, but I think we're gonna go back in the studio after this tour. We're gonna go back and do a few more covers. So, I would be interested to collect more ideas and suggestions, but we did do one song that I think it's amazing. It was a hit. Oh, it was a big hit. Can't say nothing. Which one was it? Do we know it? Do we know it? Yeah, you know the song. Of course you know. Yeah. How many syllables? How many words? Sounds like... Sounds like back. You know, the first sound that came to my mind when you asked that question, Jimmy. What? It would be Man on the Silver Mountain by Rainbow. Oh, it did a great cover. Yeah. But personally, for me, being a huge 80s pop fan, I'd like to see, I like seeing when metal artists take like songs like Maniac and sort of bring it into a new genre. It makes it exciting. Yeah. I mean, I guess it has to be to a certain extent, you should try when you make a cover. It has to be something that's fun, something that I want to make people party, and not just a song that is just a popular song for whatever reason. You know what I mean? It's something that will get the party going. And I think that's where we succeeded with Maniac, for example, because it's the ultimate parties. And it's cheesy and all that, but it's still a great song. And it's a party song. And whenever you play it, people just go wild, you know? Maybe that's your calling right there, you know? That's you keep doing that, you know? Push that button. We'll release the next album will be called Firewind, the covers. It's been done, it's been done before, undercover. Oh yeah, right. Ozzy did that. Yeah. Guys, so when's the album going to be released? The studio album. What do you think? They don't know yet, because now the thing is, I was talking to AFM Records, to the owner, actually, we met over Christmas, actually, and we talked about it. And now there's like a new approach. It seems like we're just going to be releasing singles. So that was like an interesting topic they brought on, because they just want to keep on releasing singles. And then eventually those singles will be part of an album. I mean, we still worked on the album, like we did old school, you know, like how we did it. I mean, I already wrote the songs, I wrote 10 songs and all that. But they were like, you know, just we'll just drop singles as we go and see how much traction you get, see if we get like playlist placements, because, you know, Spotify playlists are like the new radio. That's like the new medium right now. And that's what makes money for labels and artists, I guess, you know, you get someone that gets X amount of million streams, then that's revenue and that keeps it going. We move on to the next song and the next song. And then eventually you take those five or six singles over a period of a year, and you package them with another four or five songs. I know it sounds very boring now. It doesn't sound like artistic at all. But that's how labels sing nowadays. We've come full circle because pre, that wasn't that the way it was in the music industry before the Sergeant Peppers, right? Sergeant Peppers really say, hey, we can get into an album. And I mean, Pink Floyd took it to another level where it's all about the deep tracks and the experience of the LP. But before that it was all 45s. I think that's, you know, that's how Elvis made records. I think they put out like, yeah, 45s, they put out singles. And then eventually the album, you know, oh, the new album featuring this smash hit, this and this and this and this. Exactly. Remember that? We have like three, four radio hits. Yeah, very good analysis there, very good. Yeah, well, you know, then another 10 years ago, by and we'll be screw this one, but put the albums out again. So yeah, 10 years from now, we'll be buying cassettes again. Yeah, I don't know. I don't think I'm going to jump on that one. There's an underground cassette, used cassette market out there that I love to tap in because I got a huge, I got a whole bunch of cassettes I like to get rid of. So Gus, and the last question on the new album would be, are you continuing along the same path or you're going into different directions? I think it still sounds like firewind. I mean, I tried to make more, I don't know, my goal was to make a little more anthemic type of tracks this time around because of the whole, because of the whole direction that was, okay, let's work singles. I thought every song should be a single, you know what I mean? So like, not like, I didn't write any kind of obscure type of tracks or didn't experiment in that type of area. You know what I mean? I kind of focus on writing three, four minute songs that are like, you know, very high energy, something that you can play in an arena in a festival in front of a large crowd. That was like my philosophy behind this one this time, which is good. You know, it's not easy to write that type of songs. People think it's easy, you know, it's whatever. It's so simple and stuff, but it's not so easy to make that and resonate with a bigger crowd. So let's see how it does. Great segue because we're going into number two. I think we're going into number two. I'm not keeping track here. Okay, we're running out of fingers. Okay, we are going to number two and this is probably the anthem of all anthems. Okay. It's quiet riot. I'm sure you heard this one guys. Come on, feel the noise. Right. So what's the original one? Slade. Slade, yeah. Yeah, of course. Now, Slade, what was it? They got a number one hit back in the day. It was released in 1973 and then in 1983, 10 years later, because of the similarity between Kevin Dubro's voice and the Slade singer, what was his name? Naughty Holder. Naughty Holder. You know, the Spencer Proffer, the producer said, you know what, we can really revitalize this song and make a big hit out of it. The band was reluctant, quite right, that was. Yeah, they were actually, yeah. And they made it, not only did they get a smash of a song, the album was the first heavy metal album, they say, to go number one on Billboard charts. Not only did it go number one on Billboard charts, but it opened the gateway to all the other bands to get signed to the record labels, like Rat and whatever else was in. So this was like a game changer of a cover. Metal health. Yeah. That was the album that kind of opened the gates for all the hair metal bands. Yeah. Well, the whole LA scene, right? Everything was kind of New York centric back in the day and that really allowed the LA bands to have, you know, there was Night Ranger, Don Patrol was released at the same time and Rat was out there, Dawkins was floating around, Van Halen's success coming out of California. So, but this album really opened up the floodgates to the whole metal movement in the 80s as far as I'm concerned. So, and you know, Jim, who else was a huge band, a band that was hugely influenced by Slade as well in the early 70s. Oh, sweet. Yes. Yes. Yeah. They wanted to be Slade. They never understood why Slade never made it big. It's just because nobody could understand anything those guys were saying. So the British British. But they love Slade. They wanted to be Slade. Kiss wanted to be the US version of Slade. So it's strange because when you listen to metal health today doesn't really sound like a metal album that we sort of relate to today, right? But back then it was metal, right? It was as metal as you got. It was heavy metal, right? That's what the term was. So yeah, I think that's it. And that became the definitive version, Jim. So that's a great choice, I think. Yeah. Yeah. Now, I'll throw out one before you get to number one. Go, go, go. Number one. Yeah, you gotta go. White Snake ain't no love in the heart of the city. The Bobby Bland song. Yeah. That's a great version. It's a great song, but it didn't do what Quiet Riot did with Come On, Feel the Noise. Yeah, live. They played it right until probably their last tour or so. But it's not like, was it a big radio song, though? No. No, it was more a live track. More like a live track, yeah. So it really doesn't count. Yeah. My list. I've come out of my own list while you're doing your groove thing and your last year. Guys, before we get to the last one, what would you put as your sort of your all time favorite cover song? Again, you know, within what we're talking about today, if you had to think of one. Yeah. Mine would be, I'm gonna, you really want my opinion on this? Yeah. It's not gonna be Demirusus. I'm just gonna ruin your number one. That's why. No, don't tell me my number one. No, no, if there was another one. Okay, that's the one. To me, that's the one. Okay, so we'll just talk about that one. Okay, here's number one. All right, it's okay. So the number one song, the most impactful and defining cover song done by a hard rock or metal band is Alan Drumroll, please. Jimi Hendrix all along the Watchtower, originally done by Bob Dylan. Yeah, without a doubt. And I mean, you know, when Frank Marino did it later in the late 70s, early 80s, that's the version he did, right? It was the Jimi Hendrix version. I mean, not surprisingly, because Frank Marino was a Hendrix disciple, but again, nobody ever goes back and listens to the Dylan version. That's the version that everybody listens to. I think this is the song that even Bob did that Hendrix did it better. Yeah. If I'm correct, I don't know. Yeah. No, Dylan said that all his songs, Hendrix could have lived all his songs. He could have, he was really a big admirer of Jimi Hendrix and what he did for it through his music. So you know, it's funny about Jimi Hendrix. Before he started, I guess, formulating his band, he wanted a singer, right? I need a singer. I need a singer. But then he looked at Bob Dylan and goes, if Bob Dylan could sing, then I could sing. So Bob Dylan was his motivation to say, you know what, you could just sing anyways. And you know what, people don't give credit to Jimi Hendrix's voice. I think he has like a spectacular voice. And Ronnie Romero wasn't available. When you think of Jimi Hendrix, the guitar licks, the tone, the sound, what comes from like this? I don't know, man. I mean, Hendrix was like life changing, like that style, the style of how to play the guitar. Like, I don't know, it's, it sounds, it still sounds fresh, you know what I mean? Okay, maybe not the production, but like it still sounds fresh, you know, the way he played the guitar, even today. So just, yeah, I have a lot of memories listening to Jimi Hendrix, obviously, for the first time, and just going like, whoa, what is that? You know, I remember, because I was like, into that, I was into classic rock, and then I was into a lot of the shred stuff, you know, growing up on stuff like that, and listening to somebody like Inge Malmsteen and how he credited Hendrix. And you can hear so much Hendrix into Inge style. If you take away the classical stuff, but when he does rock and blues, that's all Hendrix. So like the, you know, the same for it with Satriani and all the greats. So the impact is just like rolling over to generations and generations of players and still relevant as ever. I just did actually some Hendrix tribute shows here in, you know, in Europe. Wow. It was just, and when I got, and when I went into that doing that, obviously it's a lot of fun for me to do that and all that, but it's not easy to do it. And I can play technical stuff, you know, pretty technical stuff. And like just to replicate that vibe and, you know, the atmosphere and just like, you know, the licks and all that stuff in the tone and all that. It's not easy, man. You hear a lot of players that cannot do Hendrix, not all the guitar players today, even today can do Hendrix justice, you know. Is there more technical players than him? Sure, of course, you know, no doubt, but it's about the attitude. And yeah, just, you know, the guitars with the biggest impacts in whole history of rock and roll without a doubt. So, you know, you know, Frank Marino said to us, he goes, Jimi Hendrix didn't play fast. He didn't need to play fast. Like, you know, we always associate how fast you can play as a guitar player, right? You didn't play, you think he was playing fast, but he wasn't, right? So I think that was, that's a pretty cool, like you think he's playing fast, that the way he's playing sounds that way, but it's not really like that. You know, it's Sting from the police. When he first saw Jimi Hendrix play, he wanted to become a musician. You're talking about Sting from the police. He influenced, even to your point, even musicians today, I mean, he's long dead, you know, and he's still influencing people. Oh yeah, absolutely. Yeah, yeah. I watched a documentary once, I think it was Pete Townsend. He was late for the show. It was one of Hendrix's first gigs in London. And before Townsend got there, here's Jeff Beck and Eric Clapton coming out of the club. And they're like, he says, you're leaving? Is he that bad? They said, no, he's that good. Now, those guys were definitely, they were intimidating, you know, when they first saw Hendrix. I think Townsend wanted to, which festival did they invite him to, or some gigs? And I forget what it was, but he wanted the who to play before him. Yeah, Monterey Pop Festival. Monterey Pop and, yeah, they were both going to destroy their instruments. There was a question of who was, nobody wanted to close the show. They wanted to be the first to destroy their instruments. And they did a coin toss, I think, and the who lost. So they won. So they were able to go on before Hendrix. And that's where, that's why Hendrix lit his guitar is strad on fire because they had already destroyed the stage. Yeah. So he won. And even when you take the song like all along the watch tower, and then when you two does it, it just doesn't, it's not the same as the Hendrix version or even when Bob Dylan does it, it's not the same as the Hendrix. It has become, as Alan always said, the standard and the definitive version of the song of everyone who knows the song. Agreed. So we got guesses. Number one is the same as our number one. So that's that says it all right there. So I thought it would have been like, you know, something else. Metallica Turn The Page is a good one. I saw that in the comments. That's a great, great, great version of Bob Seager. Then Lizzie Rosa leave about another Bob Seager song. That's a great, great copy. You know, who made, who had, I don't know, I think he, his biggest hits were covers. I think it was Marilyn Manson. People forget about that. Tain and Love. Sweet Dreams. And Sweet Dreams. Oh, there you go. Yeah. That's true. But Sweet Dreams was a very big song. And you see, this is what you were talking about before, guys. Like Maniac was this massive song. You just kind of put it into another genre, but it still was a massive song. But Sweet Dreams, like in the 83, 84, when it came out, it was like one of the biggest songs on the radio and TV and whatever, right? So he didn't really take something that, he didn't take something that was obscure and make it a big hit. He already took something that was already a massive hit. Yeah. But he did, he did his own version. He just completely his own. And like, if you want to hear a dark goth, like version of that, that's what you, that's what you get. You know, that's Marilyn Manson. Yeah, you're right. You're right. If you get fire wind doing, do you really want to love me by Culture Club? I mean, that, take that. Oh, there we go. There we go. Okay. Take On Me by Aha. That's great. Take On Me by Aha. Or Hunting High and Low. Or, you know what? You know what, I always like 99 Loof Balloons. But you know, when I think Goldfinger did the version, like they did this sort of metalized version of it. Sorry, what song? 99 Loof Balloons, Red Balloons. Nina, Nina. Don't you remember that song? Oh my God, Gus. What is going on here? First Voivode, then no Nina. What's going on? I want to listen to Sabbath and Inge Mountain. That's it. There you go. That's about it, man. Excellent. All right. Anything else you want to promote? Gus, anything else you want to plug? I don't know if I'm forgetting something, but you know, I just want to thank you guys for having me over. It was great to catch up with both of you. Good to see you, Jimmy, again. And I'm glad you're doing better after COVID. Yeah. No, thanks, man. I mean, if anybody watching from Europe, you know, hope to see you out there on the road. We started in a couple of weeks. Just check the dates on our website. So yeah, hope to see you out there. It's going to be a busy year. So that's all. Thanks a lot. So are you touring the last album? Were you able to tour the last album? Or is that why you're going out this time? We're going out because it was a great tour and we wanted to do it, you know, regardless of the album. I mean, the last album was, it's almost three years old now. I mean, we're going to try and drop a new single, like I said. Or several. At least one, you know, we're actually starting to mixing it now. We recorded one song fully and then we've got to finish the rest. But we're going to try and drop a new song while we're out there with Beast in Black and see what happens. So this is going to be the year where we just release stuff. I don't know when the album is coming out, what month. I think it's going to be the second half of 23. But let's see, you know, we're going to drop some singles, see how they do, see what people think. And, you know, we're going to, we already confirmed a lot of festivals for the summer. So it's going to be a busy year if another pandemic doesn't hit us. Who knows? I think we're good. We're all good. I'm good. I'm immune. I'm immune now right now. I'm just immune. Good. Good to go, man. The system has adapted. All right, guys. Hey, great to have you on the show, Gus. Thanks for your participation. All right. Kalinikta. Kalinikta, that was fun. Have a good night, guys. Bye.