 Welcome to the Metal Voice and first time on the show, it's Buck. It's Buck Dharma from Blue Oyster Cult, so nice to have you. Not looking very metal today, but that's me. It's all good, my friend. The good news is, a Blue Oyster Cult coming out with a new album, Ghost Story is going to come out on April the 12th on Frontier's Music, a reimagined, newly completed songs that span from 1978 to 2016. That's pretty incredible. I mean, who's idea was this to take all the tracks from the past and sort of twist them and turn them and AI them and make them into songs today? Yeah. Well, BOC historically didn't record a lot of extra material that didn't fit on vinyl LP, which had a run time of about 40 minutes maximum. If CDs had been around at the time, all these songs would have gone on the CD, but they were fallow. Most of the source material were pre-production recordings done by our live sound mixer, George Durranius. A lot of them were eight track analog, some were direct to stereo, but some of the source tapes had deteriorated as the tape formulations of that time were famous for and had to be resurrected or in some cases re-recorded. Frontier's was clamoring for some more product. We just had the three night Sony Hall live performances of the first three records and bonus tracks and with original drummer Albert Bouchard on the stage too. But they wanted more stuff, so we got this idea to do it. So you used AI to reconstruct the songs or to fix the quality? Yeah, the AI actually demixes a stereo recording and lets you have more control over the individual elements, the drums, the bass, and the vocals specifically. Guitars are a little harder to extract. I think what it does is it separates the tracks. It gives you a little more individual control as if you were dealing with a multi-track sound. Which song from this new album did you have the most difficulty recreating or re-imaging? I don't know because it was done by Richie Castellano in Staten Island. And he did most of the tech work on this with Steve Shank as producer. Which song, then, I'll ask you, are you happy that it's been sort of rebuilt and brought out for today? I like the one that I sing. Well, there you go. Yeah, the only thing. I like that because that was Albert Bouchard's song that he asked me to do the vocal on. And it didn't make the record. And now when I hear it, I said, oh, I wish that it made the record. And a cool thing is kick out the jams, which is a cover that you did back when you play live. And now you have finally a studio version of it. How did that come about? Yeah. I don't know if we were playing that for fun or do we actually consider putting it on the record, but I think it's a really good version. And especially now that the MC5 are gone, it's just I feel really sort of affectionate and nostalgic for the whole MC5 thing. Wayne Kramer just passed away. Yeah, actually, it's a great version. And I'm happy that it's included on this. I think we could be proud of what we did. What was it like working with Albert, the Bouchard brothers, Joe and Albert all these years? I mean, I guess it's been on and off, right? I mean, yeah, yeah, yeah. You know, we've had some collaboration over the years since they left the band, but it's fine. We've done quite a lot with Albert. And this is the first time we've done stuff with Joe in a long time. Do you see this as the last album by Bluestar Cult or you think you got another one left in you? As far as promises, it's the last one. But you know, in reality, I don't know, perhaps there'll be more stuff. I guess Richie reinvigorates you. If we stop recording, we might get restless. What can I say? I don't know. How many dates a year do you do on tour? We did 75 in the 50th anniversary, which is 22. And then last year we did about 30. And we're going to do less this year. And, you know, we may we may want to tour again, but I'm thinking I'd like to just not tour for a while. So is that like a pause or retirement? What's that? Is that a pause or a retirement? As long as I can play and sing, I'll probably want to, you know, be out there somewhere, you know? But as far as the grind of making a living at it, you know, I don't have to. So we'll see what happens. Yeah. Let me ask you, like we started off with, hey, I'm not looking very heavy metal today. What's the connection between Bluestar Cult and heavy metal? There's always been that connection. Yeah. Well, I think the term was coined right about the time that we got started. And also, you know, we admired Black Sabbath and, you know, I think when we were starting, we were casting about for an image, you know, because we were the soft white underbelly before Bluestar Cult, you know? And I always thought of the underbelly as the last of the East Coast psychedelic bands, you know? So, you know, we're sort of a jam band, you know, more than a metal band. Certainly what metal has become is nothing like what BOC is, of course. Did you at one time consider yourselves a metal band back in the day in the early 70s? Only before the term was really defined by the bands that followed us. It's interesting because the movie Heavy Metal, which actually had nothing to do with Heavy Metal, but it sort of inspired everybody. Bluestar Cult, you know, you had a song on Heavy Metal. Yeah. And when you look back now at that movie and your contributions, do you think it was the right song or the right, or maybe the movie didn't hold up well over time? Yeah. Well, I think Veteran of the Psychic Wars is actually a great song, and I think it fit in the movie, you know, fine. And we had actually all written songs for submission to that movie, and some of them came out on other BOC records. So. Yeah. Even the song Heavy Metal was in the movie, right? Right. On the same album, right? Yeah. Yeah. Actually, I don't know if that was part of the effort. I guess it was, yeah. Yeah. I mean, you would think Heavy Metal would be with Heavy Metal. Strange enough, that magazine inspired the movie in that magazine. Yeah. Well, that was a Sandy Perlman lyric, you know, Heavy Metal of Black and Silver, and he might have coined the phrase, you know, I don't know. I'd never heard it before he said it, you know, and applied it to us as a defining descriptor, you know. So did anybody say Heavy Metal before us? I don't know if that did, you know. I think we were the first Umla band. But we've spoken to Albert, you know, a few times, and you know, we always talk about, you know, the big songs, the Godzilla's. I know you've spoken about these songs so many times. But do you think that sort of fractured the band because you were the big hitmaker of the band, you had that voice, your songs were the ones that sort of took the band over the top. Did that cause sort of friction in the band at the time? Well, we all sang in Blue Oyster Cult, you know, and Eric Bloom is the prime singer and he was the, he was the, you know, the the the shouter and the growler, you know, putting across the heavy stuff. I'm more of a crooner myself, but it's just the way it worked. Once the Reaper was a hit, the whole band wanted to write hits, you know, and I think that that actually, you know, was was not the best strategy for the band, but you can't blame everybody for wanting to hits and the record company certainly wanted hits, you know, so we became a lot more pop oriented, I think, in in response to having a pop hit. When you came to the band and you said, I got a song called Godzilla, what did they say to you? Yeah, okay, let's hear it. If there was any song that was close to metal, that would be it. Yeah, well, you know, I did a demo in my basement and the demo basically is, you know, conveyed the song as it was recorded, you know, same with Don't Feel the Reaper, you know, it's very similar to my demo. Any plans to re-release the the Black and Blue show that everybody is always talking about on, I guess it was released in 2000, but and, you know, I don't know who has the rights to that. We don't, you know, so. All right, so you haven't heard anything about anyone? I had heard that that Ozzie and his camp didn't want that out, although, you know, Ozzie's not on that, it's Ronnie Dio, but, you know, who's ever suppressing that is not us. Okay, I remember my friends in Milwaukee at the time, you know, everything was being torn up. If you remember what happened there, there was like 160 arrests, I think, something like that. Yeah, yeah, we, you know, we had played our show, you know, we were supporting sabs at the time and when the hell started to break loose, you know, we got out of the building, so I didn't even, I just saw it on television basically after the afterward of that. Any thoughts on Ronnie James Dio, you know, seeing him perform at the time? That was his heyday, you know? Yeah, yeah, I saw Ronnie play a fraternity house in Cortland, you know, actually was in Geneva, New York. He was from Cortland, yeah, because I went to college upstate New York with Albert, and that's where I met Albert Bouchard and Eric Bloom went to Hobart in Geneva, and we went to Geneva and saw him play Tommy in a fraternity house. And, you know, he was an incredible singer, he could mimic Tom Jones, like Tom Jones, you know, he was just great, you know. So, yeah, it was great to see Ronnie, you know, reach his prominence that he did, you know, he's always good. Going back to the album, like I hear late night street fight kind of reminds me of the revenge of your Gemini, is that, were there like little aspects of these these unfinished or now finished songs that sort of made their way onto other albums? I don't know, both those songs have the Bouchard Brothers shuffle groove, you know. Like Albert and Joe, when they're doing that Vera Gemini and street fight shuffle beat, you know, it's really infectious. Like, we've got to get out of this place, you know, that sounds like classic B.O.C., probably in the mid-70s. Yeah. Well, you used to play that as a club band, we used to play that song, you know, and of course we love it. So, you know, I'm glad that that version exists. How much is Richie, he seems to be like the conductor today, right? He's sort of like bringing it all together. What's his role today? Well, Richie, he's got a big talent stack, you know, he's a great player, he's very tech oriented, he's a good recordist, he's a good video guy. He's collaborating with John Anderson now on a new post-Yes, Anderson material. Yeah, yeah, yeah. And, you know, he's worth his weight in platinum or diamonds or whatever you want to say. Newtonian he's with. You know, he's touring with John Anderson, I think he's going to tour with him as well, correct? Yeah. Yeah, he did a tour last year and then went over like gangbusters. The Yes fans just couldn't believe what they were hearing, you know, with the band geeks and with John. So, they're doing more. Tell me about Cultosaurus and working with Martin Birch, you know, on those two albums after the one album. Yeah, yeah, I feel very affectionate toward Martin and said he's gone, you know, he was the most open and with his knowledge, you know, as far as teaching, you know, me how to how to record at home and stuff like that, you know, he was just, he was a great guy. Yeah, he was interesting, great. You know, for Cultosaurus erectus and far of unknown origin, when you put those two albums on, they seem to be the most consistent from start to finish. Is that like, would you agree with that compared to? I think, yeah, I mean, I think a lot of that's Martin in terms of, you know, he engineered and produced and he, you know, he didn't have a heavy hand as a producer, but he would really, you know, if he thought something was important, he would, he would, you know, stand up for it, you know, so I think the coherence of his records are basically his doing. And tell me about Sandy Perlman, another great talent, you know, and his legacy in regards to always these obscure lyrics. Did you, when he came with you with these lyrics, did you sometimes know where it was going or you just, would he explain them to you before you kind of made them into songs? Not really, no. But, you know, they're just, they inspire your imagination, you know, he would not want to really give you a literal description of what he meant, you know, but, but the story aspect was just left off the pages, basically, you know. And Sandy's the reason why I'm a professional musician and a recording artist, you know, before meeting him, I was never self-motivated enough to consider doing it, you know, but he, he recognized my guitar talent and with the synergy of the elements of all the original guys' insanity, it's, it made sense to really give professional music a, a shot, you know, it's, we, we felt like we could do it with all of us together. Tell me about what Metallica covering astronomy did to, to Blue Oyster Cult's credibility, I guess, that didn't change it. Yeah, it gave us some cred with the, with the younger generation behind us. And of course, we were very flattered when they did it, you know, it's nice to get some, some recognition like that. I mean, I, I love all the covers of our songs that, that I, that people do, and there's a lot of them out there. You know, it's interesting about astronomy. It's a song that I always knew, but when Metallica covered it, then it just became that much bigger, right? Yeah, I mean, I guess that record sold a lot, didn't it? It did. It's a great song. Do you think you'll ever live down the cowbell? No. No, the cowbell is like a ball and chain around Blue Oyster Cult's ankle. You know, and it's okay. You know, I've, I've long since, you know, not for given whatever, you know, connection we have, you know, it's, I just accept it. Don't fear the Reaper. How many times a day has it played worldwide? Do you have any statistics? I don't know, but it's, it's still, it's almost, it's probably a bigger hit these days than it was in 1976. It's incredible, isn't it? What does the song mean to you today? I mean, like, is it just like you can't, it's not yours anymore. A lot of artists say once a song's so big, they feel that it's not theirs. It belongs to the world in a way. Well, it certainly has rippled out into the culture, you know, and at this point, it's, it's, it's, it's a eulogy and a tribute to the people that are passing away. That's the way we, you know, we dedicate, we dedicate it to the people that have gone, you know, on a regular basis. I want to play it at my funeral, you know, have it on loop. I think I want to play Godzilla at mine. That's okay. Yeah, you're welcome to it. Tell me, um, any, anything else that's going on with Bluice or Colt that you want to tell everybody about with the exception of the new album that's coming out? Yeah. Okay. Well, we get ghost stories. We are touring the, the, the dates are fewer. So if you want to see us, I would recommend coming, you know, and I've got a solo tune that's coming out later this year. And it's the first thing I've done solo since the 80s. And going forward to the future, I would be surprised if you'd never heard anything more from us. You know, they'll probably will be something at some point, but we are content to present what we have out right now. And we, we still like what we do. All right. On that note, ghost stories coming out April the 12th, Frontier Records, I think you guys like ghost stories. I'm sorry? It's creepy. Well, you look good, man. You look good. You look good. You look good. And I'm, you know, I'm, I'm hoping one day you guys will come back to the eastern part of Canada. Yeah. Your last show or something. Right. It just takes a lot of money to get us up across the border. That's Yeah. We got it. We got to figure something out. On that note, Buck, thank you for so much for your time. And yeah, I wish you all the best. Okay.