 Jimmy K here. Metal voice. Look at this. The metal voice shirts are now on sale. Just go to a video description to find out on how you can purchase one. Metal! Welcome to the metal voice. Today we have the the main metal man himself. Yes, none other than Carl Kennedy. You know I used to pronounce your name Kennedy. Do a lot of people do that? Everybody does that. It's perfectly fine. It's Kennedy, right? It's Kennedy would be the correct, but we found that at the Civil War one of our ancestors signed with an X joining the Civil War and I think he was joining for the Union and it was where it became from Kennedy like K-E-N-N to C-A-N and when he signed with the next they what they believe the genealogy family members believe that that's when he he couldn't read or write and so somebody spelled it for him and that's when it changed and it's been nothing but a problem for me my entire life and I would like to go back and just slap that guy and say listen A, B, C, D. Let's get it together and write the freaking name. You only have to do it first and last. It's Irish. Yeah, it is. Okay. So today on the show we're going to talk about your new album or your latest release that was released I think in May and it's going to be a hard copy release come in in August, right? Yes, just a few weeks three weeks. It's called Warrior from your band, the Kennedy Band, right? Again, I'll be honest with you, I listen to it like once, two, three times just as I'm working in the background and I really enjoyed it. It's classic metal. How would you describe this new album Warrior which I haven't back to me? How would you describe it? It's hard for me to describe it. I would have to say it's the best album has ever been recorded in the history of music but reality is I think I'm really proud of the album. I think it's a great album but I do think it's traditional metal and a lot of people have said it's traditional but it's modern at the same time so with a modern twist or whatever so I thought that was a good fit for it because we all listen to new music and we all have same roots so a lot of that comes out in the music as well so we're bringing new ideas and approaches to things as well as traditional feels. And I should set this up a little bit better when I first introduced you, you know, you're the drummer for the rods, you're a producer who's produced so many great albums over the years including the early years of Thrash with of course Anthrax, with of course Overkill and what am I missing out here? Blue Cheer, right? Well they were in Thrash but T.T. Quick, Overkill, yes and of course the rich history of the rods, Exciter, yes I almost forgot about Dan Beeler and the Boys but let's talk about this new album then we'll go back into the past and we might have a surprise guest if I could get him on, all right? Great love that. All right so tell me about the new album Warrior, why did you want to do this soul album? You got the rods as your musical output but why did you want to do the Kennedy band and pull out Warrior? You know I've been, I had moved here from Cortland to Scranton about 30 years ago so I've been here for a long time I'd still tell my friends I'm not from here and they laugh at me you know after 10 years pal you're from here but I still say I'm not from here but I look for musicians like-minded musicians I've been wanting to do some little side project, write material with other people who are close I couldn't find anyone, found great musicians, I couldn't find like-minded people. I've been playing with the Jeffrey James Band, it's an eight-piece horn band here for 22 years of course they have the percussion that jumps in when I go so I can travel whenever and the drummers fill in, there are two drummers who fill in for me but so Tony the bass player for Kennedy joined about six years ago and Tony and I hit it off and Tony we always laugh because it's a cover band that Tony joined Tony when Black Sabbath he was young and Black Sabbath his first album he just went into this parallel universe where it was all heavy music for his entire life he doesn't know pop music it cracks us up because we'll say oh what about this you know that now I've never heard that sound it just is the parallel heavy metal universe so Tony and I hit it off we were very strong rhythm section so he was in a band TLC totally lost cause no hot chicks just three guys four guys you know who were I guess okay looking but not the hot chick band not that TLC the other one yeah not that band not the cool looking band and so they had their drummer was just unable to continue with them because they were starting to write and they was unable to continue and they had a tv show they had a commitment so they said would you do this tv show with us so I learned some songs and I did the tv show and it went well and it went so well we decided that hey let's get together at the recording studio one day a week and what we'll do is we'll just start writing and that's what we did for a year and a half or more and all of a sudden one day we woke up and it sounds funny but it was really that organic no plan we actually become a band and we had an album of material we were really proud of so we started recording and by the time we got it to Chris Collier who mixed it you know this is this was the album that came from that so and there was no plan and then we're talking about what do we release it as and I'd had the Kennedy album out in the logo and so we're like you know what let's just call it Kennedy so it was I know it sounds a little forest gump but it is it was that simple there's no master plan yeah you know it is a traditional heavy metal album it is a little thrash there and I'm going to describe it for people so they could get a gist of it right who haven't heard it a little power metal I would say power metal right great vocals great vocals it's a mic right mic yeah and Mike does it every he delivers every time out unbelievable I think my favorite song in the album is a tia it's the last one is it pronounced a tia that's like the big single for me that's it's your big one there that's that's your big your big single there but it's not released yet as are you gonna release that as a single yeah you know I'm up for anything you know like I said we really have no plan that's why you know we were we were looking at this album sitting here like okay we're ready to go and then COVID-19 hits we played one gig and it went great and now we're screwed now we're like well there's no gigs I can't get this band to play any dates you know even local dates and we've got this album what are we gonna do so I started talking to my friends in the industry and they're like well some of the press people are getting back to us who normally don't like you know what then let's just put this out digitally for now and then we'll release it after and so it was a big move to do but I think it was the right move for us because we're a baby band doesn't matter that some people know of me you know it's the band nobody knows it's a brand new band but I would never at this point in my life would I have started a band no because the rods I think we just made and thank you number three I mean that was that was incredible for the new rods brotherhood of metal which dad he's got it right there you didn't think I'd pull it out what did you but you know the rods we just made one of our best albums since our first album in my opinion and and now we're working on the next album shockwave which is going really well so you know having this as a band wasn't really the plan but it's turned out so well and I'm excited and okay now that you're opening kind of words on the rods a new album okay is this a new singer that's singing all the songs he's going to be your vocalist now and take over okay so that I'm glad you asked me that that's that's a really great question I've been getting that a couple some people are like really cool with it and some people who've known the band realize that Rick caudal Schmulek Avigal you know we've had singers in the band you know yes it has yeah yeah so it's not like oh my god that's what's happening here but we call David we call him the the right reverend rock you know David rock that's his I call him rock you know so David or as I call him rock we call him the right reverend rock because when he starts talking to the crowd it's a freaking he's like a like a gospel like it's a sermon he's preaching to the masses and you know we can't lose that the guy is so great with the crowd and he loves the crowd and and they seem to love him but he and Mike are working and they're trading vocals and Mike is doing an incredible job of on the older material elevating and taking adding some things that weren't there because of his vocal talent and so it's working out so they're trading vocals David's still going to sing they'll still hear him singing songs but Mike he and Mike will be singing them together and David was singing all the harmonies with him so for those who are concerned that they won't hear David's voice well I mean I you know what okay Dave is not you know he's not no Bruce Dickinson but he's got a tone right and it's recognizable I love his style that's right I love it too man like the brother I've always pushed him to sing more yeah I've always pushed him to you know you have a style and you know of course you're not like the three octave range but you definitely come across and you deliver the songs very very well and by the way just so everybody I'm going to big I'm going to promote this album it's a fantastic album and it's very well produced songs are great and that's an end of the day all the rods albums are about songs nice catchy tunes right so a big plug for the brotherhood of metal okay adding adding Mike just to finish with this with the rods adding Mike it was seemed like the right time David and I we write a lot of material and we write material that has now remember David started with Ronnie you know worked with Ronnie Dio for forever and those are his reads yeah so he loves working with singers and he loves working with a more developed vocal style and I write those as well and so but we you know we work within the limitations of the rods and we always say we have a standing joke in the band which is if one of us brings in a song if it's more than three chords it takes more than five minutes to learn it's not a good rod song so but so with Gary retiring from the band which you know we were sad to see Gary retire and we waited and hoped he would change his mind but you know Gary was he'd seen the world and Gary was ready to just retire so with that we wanted a keyboard player we wanted a vocalist and we wanted to just make some changes you know we've been doing this we wanted to stay true to ourselves which I don't I don't think we'll even with a singer and even if we add a keyboard player it'll still be the rods there's no pattern but nonetheless we wanted to have that little expansion and we thought this is the best time so that's what's going on and I think people will be surprised because the music is remarkably rods despite the changes we're okay so shockwave is the new album right shock that's the working that's the working title okay and and and Jimmy I'm pushing for that because I have I have titled every album we've done which is all of it's been the kiss of death for every album I don't want to break that streak all right so shockwave yes you said you know there's a couple of songs how much of it has been completed we're about four songs in okay recorded or just we have the song I have I have two my drums are right behind me I have two drum tracks ready to put down okay and the other two tracks are right we'll be ready to go soon along with we have a lot of ideas so we'll be you know we really feel a little bit of pressure you know because and we don't of course we're not going to let it get to us because the rods are the rods but this last album was really good and we want this next album to be very good because any one of these albums could be the last Rod's album so we want to make it as good as we can song writing wise um and what would you say the musical direction is it's the rods you know I mean David and I from day one when we play under five minutes just three chords and that's that yeah take no take longer than five minutes to learn no more than three chords we're in now I think we'll stretch out a little bit but nothing that's crazy you know and if you listen to the first album songs like music man and some of the things and we developed those live as well to add to them there are elements you know that somewhat orchestrated in those within the confines of that type of music so you know that's what it will be again nobody will be surprised nobody will be this if you love the rods most likely you'll still like what we're doing great great and what's what's the sort of timeframe what do you like I get it COVID-19 and all that yes no I think it has to be we're really we're really working hard I just talked to David today about my coming up again to work on some of the material to keep us moving forward we want to get it done we don't want to wait so you're saying you know we'll do this before 2021 I'm hoping by the end of the year we'll have this album done oh good that's pretty refreshing I mean the only thing that will be you know if we don't feel we have enough songs but I think we'll we're on track okay and a lot of people don't know this and I've talked to Dave about this you guys opened up for Ozzy on the Blizzard of Oz tour in the UK what are your fond memories of you know the Randy Rhodes era you know with Blizzard of Oz back in the day well actually we opened for did we do Ozzy in the UK I thought we did Ozzy we did Ozzy dates here oh yeah yeah my correct correct it was Aron Maiden in the UK and it was Aron Maiden in the UK Aron Maiden in the UK and Ozzy in North America well sticking with Ozzy for a minute we we show up and we're in the dressing room and he rose just down the hall and Randy Rhodes we're in the dressing room we're all excited and it's kind of an echo we place but all of a sudden we hear the loudest guitar playing we've ever heard he must have had a Marshall stack is all we can think of a soul freaking loud that we literally were talking to each other and our lips were moving and we couldn't hear each other and he's way down the hall but Randy Rhodes was playing all of the stuff that you know all of the modes all the sweet picking nothing you hear on the albums he was playing way stuff that was way ahead of anything he was doing on the Ozzy album and it was incredible we're all in awe like hearing all these fast modal kind of playing and just ripping and we were blown away while he was warming up we couldn't talk to each other so all we could do is just sit and listen you weren't allowed did you you had no conversations with Randy we not even uh hey good job yeah we said hi but we used an dressing room at the time so we only saw them in passing you know yeah and Rudy was great Rudy Lomgaria bass strap and you know everybody's cool Tommy Aldrich and I always tell this story and one day Tommy and Aldrich and I will meet again and I'm sure you want to punch me but you know that whole deep purple elf thing a lot of the road crew from deep purple were from elf and from the rods they went would go on the road and stayed with deep purple for years and so ox who would became Tommy Aldrich's Rudy okay drum tech so we're playing when a Utica arena or somewhere and the first night I see Tommy Aldrich when I'm doing my drum so he's looking out from behind the curtain side stage I'm playing on lookover and I see him like wow Tommy Aldrich because I've stolen so much from Tommy Aldrich I should probably send him monthly checks but he's looking over at me and I then suddenly sees me he darts away so the next night we're in the arena and I walk up to him and I I go hey you know Tommy he's just sitting there and Tommy I can tell you I'm one of my favorite drummers you know I just think you're phenomenal and you know I love watching you play I love you know listening to you play you're really a great drummer and he just turns his head and doesn't say a word geez and ox looks at me and he just goes you know what could ox do he's my friend but would it make Tommy talk to me so I would have made him that was I would have made him that was there I would have made him talk to you and I'm sure he's a really great guy I don't know what the problem was man he was in a bad mood yeah but it was my first experience with because I studied with Carmine Aposy oh yeah Carmine's great when I was 19 yeah and Carmine was phenomenal he was totally no rock star he was all about the music he told me you know with some kid in front of me was playing wanted to play fast and I took double lessons because I drove in the kids talking line play fast and go wow that's all I could talk about and he said you know if you're playing because you want to get laid you're playing because you want to get rich and playing because you want to be famous because you know you may know that may happen if you play because you love it it'll last your whole life and I'm experiencing that now and I've passed that on so many times yeah but so that was my first my first time experiencing that be careful of your heroes when you meet them that's right um and then flipping to the UK you mean the number of the beast tour with with our maiden right I mean you you actually were on the two most iconic tours of of metal history right what was it like Bruce Dickinson paul deanos out Bruce Dickinson's in number the beast right what were your thoughts like oh my god these guys are amazing or maybe you just thought okay they're no and the first night they came in with champagne and welcomed us and they were the best and we were treated very well on that tour and you know clive and I became friends I used to sit behind them stand behind watching play like he was up in a huge drum rise when he looked down and smiled you know sometimes but clive was great I was sad to see him go I understood why but but because I love Nico Nico's been such a big addition to the band but clive is a great guy and his little fill in run to the hills little tom descending tom fill single stroke world that's just such a great hook but it was great and and Bruce was just stronger and stronger every night and the band was phenomenal you know so it was a great tour for us we were going down really well with the crowd all the fans were excellent so we were very fortunate to be on that tour and of course after that we came back and then acdc wanted us on their tour there you go and so I'm sure you heard the story from David then you know our manager in his infinite wisdom declined it was a buy-on and arista uk put up I think it was 25 000 but arista us declined and said we're like well we'll just take the money and we'll put it up and he's like no he's not going to borrow that money to do it not going to happen boys you're not going on the tour but it would have been a huge one for us Dave talked to me a lot about you know his brotherhood with uh with Ronnie James deal and you know growing up and uh you know the crossword puzzles and family feud and uh you know a lot of sort of like little moments they had together um I mean you know their cousins right they grew up together and I guess I had you must have a connection with Ronnie too I mean being around David being around Ronnie yes and Ronnie loved David I mean they had there was a you know the familial thing they had I mean there's no doubt that Ronnie just loved David and you know and rock as well love love Ronnie um and Ronnie was a guy so and you know for me that whole the whole thing with I was in a band called raw meat one of the worst names but the band was really great heady Dave Dave Porter from 805 I don't know if you've ever heard of the band but excellent Frank Briggs was a drummer David you know on RCA but anyway they we rehearsed in the same house with as elf we were in the garage which was finished and they were in the house they were rehearsed so we saw these guys in passing all the time and so I'd known them for a long time I used to go see them before that when it was a high school dance and everybody danced except when elf played everybody sat on the floor and nobody danced even though they were playing cover material they were a concert band right from the get go and so you know this guy's elf and I became friends with the guys at elf anyway because of all that time together so now it's very sad Ronnie passing he was such a great guy and I was such an honor for me to have him sing the code the song I had written like a career highlight for me yes yeah and David you know Ronnie was singing two songs and we had gone to gone to a couple of shows right before and then Radio City was right before when he came up to sing the songs but it was David was gracious enough because Ronnie was going to sing two songs and David could have we knew he was going to sing metal will never die because we had worked on that was the perfect song for Ronnie but you know we had other songs and Ronnie was willing to sing them and David could have said now I'm going to do one of yours but for one of my own David's always been a big supporter of my material and I always thankful for that because that was truly a career highlight and Ronnie coming in David had always told me Ronnie's a one take guy now I produced over 40 albums I've worked with some great singers and I know how it works I love working with vocalists and you know most of the time you can get through 90% of a song about the great singers but not everything is perfect or you want to redo it because a little thing a little phrasing a little timing Ronnie nailed it every time he was first take I'm like blown away David goes you thought I was joking I thought that so much time had passed from when you recorded with Ronnie that you know your memory was a little skewed you know like we all think that's right that's right that's right you know so like oh yeah you know he's really you know and I was like oh my god it's unbelievable I had never seen anything like that it was it was just amazing and then Ronnie would listen to my crappy demo and my voice on it right which is just horrific like oh my god please he's gonna live you know and Ronnie Ronnie would say Carl do you mind if I change this little Pete I'm like please carte blanche whatever you want you know the greatest metal in my opinion the greatest metal singer of all time so sure so for him but that's that was Ronnie a very polite asking you know do you mind if I change this melody a little bit and like you know and as we go down memory lane let's not forget Kennedy's album warrior that will be released August when 15th August 15th that's the hard copy CD is it gonna be on release on vinyl vinyl with a splatter a cool three different splatters okay yeah I'm very excited about that because in the label label is sleazy rider is it gonna be available on amazon and all the regular sort of distribution channels it's everywhere yes it'll be everywhere all right and now we continue our journey down memory lane Johnny's Azula you hook up with Johnny right and uh you know a lot of great thrash arms you've done over the years with him being a Canadian exciter right violence and force yeah most of life in your studio what were the high points and the low points of being in the studio with Exciter back in the day I think the low point we'll start with the low point was that you know the studios then first of all we didn't have a lot of money we didn't have a lot of time and it was trying to capture a great John's guitar sound because John is such a massive great tone and you know I wish we could have done a better job on that but with the limitations we had you know we did with the best we could but everything else those guys are the greatest guys they are and Dan Beeler is just a killer drummer but an amazing vocalist and then he can do both at the same time so you know that's even more amazing but they were the best guys they were the easiest to work with we had a lot of fun and it was a great session and I love those guys to this day we did a show with them a couple of years ago in New York and it was great to see them again this is good as ever oh yeah do you find because there was so little money and there was so little time that more pre-production getting the songs down and then going in and just knocking out of the park and that's what's missing today we just have too much time we have no deadlines so we kind of it's not as that's right if you have a deadline today it's a self-imposed deadline yes it's different it's different when you know God we're never going to get this record done if we don't do this right I wish in hindsight I wish that we had had what we were doing running a house like we did with anthrax for spreading the disease we were pre-production in Long Island and then we came to Ithaca and then we still had time so I wish we had had that kind of time because I would have said looking at it today I would have said we need to go into the pre-production until we are everything is just nail it and then go to a great studio for a very short period of time but a studio that can with engine a top engineer can capture the sound of the band and and do it and I agree with you well today it's you know it's just it can go on forever with my album for the first canady solo album I let things go on my drum tracks I didn't want to be detective I'm like I don't people know I can play the drums but if there's a little glitchy things here or whatever it's real and I don't want to change it you know otherwise I could have just programmed the drums yeah yeah and it makes a difference I mean also we had less songs on an album right which makes a difference you know when you have eight songs versus like 15 songs you know it's there there's a lot that's right right yeah and you're concentrating more you're targeting more and less songs anyways I think the deadlines and the great producers who were working within those deadlines really made a difference and that's why these albums are classics a lot of people come up to me go look Jimmy we had no money for this album but it's still not the same because there was no pre-production done there was you weren't they weren't playing those clubs endlessly fine tuning the songs right uh well that's what it is today and that's what it is you can't change it how about overkill feel the fire I mean there's a groundbreaking debut right there unbelievable well blitz what can you say about blitz indeed he's you know great um but those guys are all rat was a cool guy you know they're all monsters and uh it's just a killer band but blitz is a force to be reckoned with this unto himself and when you listen to them today you go oh my god they're still going on strong right there's yeah relentless I just I just saw Bobby in California with I was a guest drumming it for a band and we were out there at the band held hostage they have a new album now okay with Tim Ripper Owens on it and I was out there open we were opening direct support for metal allegiance and yes and Bobby was there and you know we got to this little reunion but what a great guy but man he's just you know he's singing as powerfully as ever all right um what about well we'll get to like the debut album by anthrax but what about like you mentioned you know armed and dangerous spraying the disease when you look back at these albums you go do you want to fix them is there is there something to fix or you're saying you know what that's a piece of history right there you know it's probably one of the most loved anthrax albums you know uh spraying the disease at least what I get from people right I I get that too a lot of people and I read that as well um yeah I mean I would love to go back and like I always thought that doing a remix of those albums would be a great idea the one thing that I worked for for the bands I always work whether I succeeded to make a great album or not I my goal has always been to capture the band's energy I always try to recognize what it is they have and I've always tried to realize their vision as best I can but I always push them to capture that energy in recording and I think that's there and of course Charlie would just go out there and like playing gung-ho he's just a monster and Charlie went out and just nailed it you know it's phenomenal drummer how'd you meet Johnny by the way Johnny Z Johnny was I'm trying to think he had released an album uh by someone somebody maybe it was a man of war album something but somebody's name came up and so I just said hey let me give him a call and I called him and said look I'm I'm producing you know if you have a project I'd love to work with you yeah that was it it was simple as that uh let's just talk about Fizz full of metal all right and you know here's a groundbreaking album for a band that's done very well for themselves and you're part of that history you know you were on you did you produce the first I guess three albums by anthrax right BP and the two albums to me it's always been like one of my favorite albums I became friends with Neil because of that album I mean low budget right every very low budget every take counts what did you think about it like I mean we're the the pros and the cons of just doing that album well the pros were that these guys were great and I mean Neil opens his mouth and he's unbelievable you know I mean what a powerful singer they knew what they wanted anthrax in any of the incarnations they are dialed in they know what they want and they go after it ferociously and I love that because that's how the rods were that's what we were single-minded and they were single-minded purpose as well the limitations were that initially we got to a point where we worked very very well but the guitar playing you know they were new so it's under a microscope getting everything to be spot on was it was difficult Dan Loker is a great what a brilliant musician Danny is but Danny didn't play with a pick so I really forced him to play with a pick which was you know you're bringing in people they're kind of green and now all of a sudden it's you know you're asking them to do something out of the comfort zone but Dan Loker made me feel really great because I thought Dan was going to bust me a few years ago in Chicago they were headlining nuclear salt and we were right before them and we're sitting at a table and we're going to have dinner and Dan comes over and of course he's really tall and I'm sitting down and he's standing over me because I want to talk to you and I'm like oh here we go we're gonna have some bad story to tell about me being a prick back in the day and he sits down and he's so nice and he said you know I have to thank you you changed my the way I played and if I hadn't switched playing with a pick that totally changed everything for me and I want to thank you for that I thought wow that was fantastic because I really thought he was going to bust me and give him such a hard time back then but so the really the thing was to I knew how they sounded I knew how anthrax sounded I knew how powerful they were but the challenge was to make sure that the rhythm guitars were tight the solos were in sync and that the bass was pumping charlie from day one was never an issue charlie was just go out there done he was the one take guy but then dialing everything into that and so that was the challenge but those guys picked it up fast and by then um dan spitz we laughed because danie spitz he would stand on behind the console between the speakers and he would just after a while he'd just look at me okay do it again like we just would created this synergy and it was just an easy working situation and but the bottom line was that time was as we went along the timeline of what we had it kept getting shorter and shorter for the vocals and of course my mistake was not letting I was so worried about having pristine quality sound with what we had which were limitations so that I didn't just let neil do his vocals I was worried that we'd be just destroying them the take after take so I wanted them to sound great so we wind up compressing neil's time when the poor guy had to sing them a very short period of time and you know that's I've apologized to him for that you know that was a young producer and you know just worried about the technical side as well but I should have said screw that we'll polish it up in the mix yeah I mean but maybe that's what adds to the charm of the record maybe again you had all the time in the world all the time to do the vocals I think it came out great you don't know how it would have turned out otherwise I don't know I mean sometimes you rethink things and then you wind up losing that energy there's an urgency that is on that album neil had to do it and it was a lot of pressure for him but he rose to the occasion because he kills it on that album yeah I mean to me I got to tell you just for me I could speak that I bought I heard it on the radio in Montreal and I bought the album and then after I found out when neil wasn't on in the banding where I just didn't follow anthrax I and I only appreciated them later on I got into them later on with the John Bush era and the Joy Bode Donna but I was kind of like that was the draw for me back then it was of the voice over the music and the music was great too don't get me wrong and the production I mean it was just that lineup and I was just sad that that lineup didn't continue on for a few more albums but that's just me but that's just me I can't well no I think that and I think that I think that when they came back they came back with Matt Fallon I think that's his name the singer yeah and you know so whatever issues they had with neil or whatever they wanted they chose to do they came back with Matt Fallon and Matt Fallon after a week in the studio he was not the guy and you know I'm I've told the story but it's so true that I told the guys you know this is not the singer is going to get you to the major label because we were they were right on the cusp and they were really needed to make a great record for the major label to pick them up and so they were right there and they had to be that album and when I told them that they obviously knew and they said get Johnny on the phone so I called Johnny and then Johnny said put the band on the phone they go into the conference room five minutes later they come out and they said Johnny wants to talk to you I go into the into the conference room I pick up the phone hey John what's up put him on a bus and hung up the phone and so you know talk about a ballsy move the band is the critical part the music is recorded and now they have no singer and this is and then they're in the studio and they've got the clock is ticking and that that's what I might have so much respect for for anthrax because those guys had the balls to do that and if they hadn't done that who knows where they would have wound up because that's a pretty risky move like you you get your success with one guy and then you have no singer and they're really lucky that it didn't go the other way right well right and I was able to find Joey Belladonna my friend Andrew duck McDonald we did the thrash album together and and you know he's playing with blue chair and Kim Simmons but I called called duck and he said look try this guy and so I called Joey and he came in and it was clear right away that even though Joey wasn't dialed in perfectly because gotta remember that that speed that tempo was not what people were used to but Joey was the right guy you know for the sound but they brought in this guy and I'm I don't mean to diss this guy Matt Fallon I don't really know him I met him for five or six days you know in the studio and he was young and and maybe wasn't as focused as he could have been but after Neil to bring in Matt was like what it made no sense to me and of course Neil is a phenomenal singer so if you're going to bring in a singer it would better be somebody who's amazing I always average I always thought they still would have attained the same success it would have been different with Neil it would have been more of a Judas pre-success they would have attained it he had the voice to deliver you know at a sort of a high level you know you know he had the professional voice I mean I love that Neil is doing well now and doing really well and death writer and I mean I just think Neil is phenomenal but you know right after that it was a tough go for you know for a while I think yeah and Neil should have been in any of those bands that we've spoken of you know he should have been in that caliber of a band I'm just surprised that no one snatched him up because he was phenomenal and I think he just got a bad rep possibly from something and and maybe just wasn't making the connections but Neil was the guy you know yeah okay on that note on that note I'll thank you very much and I want to tell everybody pick up Warrior all right traditional heavy metal album by Carl Kennedy the band again the rods coming out with a new album not this one this is the last one you can pick this one up too look out for shockwave that's right before 2020 and any final words you want to throw out there you know thank you for for the support because you know especially now there are no live gigs this is all there is and it means a lot so thank you I really appreciate it and and I always say to the fans you know I think sometimes people like I was talking about an experience earlier I love talking to the fans I've made a lot of fans a lot of friends over the years and they travel with us throughout Europe and I love that I love that they show up and they'll follow us and we all hang out and have dinner together and so and so I always encourage fans just come up say hi nobody's going to charge you for a meet and greet you know just look for and when I when you say hi to me I will say hi back and we'll have a conversation and who knows maybe we'll become friends but I definitely love meeting anybody who's into the band and wants to meet me yeah yeah and thank you very much uh and we will talk soon my friend thank you so much