The red carpet reception before the Randy Rhoads Remembered concert was the perfect opportunity to talk with the founder of the event himself, Brian Tichy. I was able to catch him for a few words on the event and his thoughts on Randy just before the show started.

This is the fourth annual BashFest, a really great event with lots going on, and of course it’s your own creation in Tichy/Sutton Productions. So how does it feel seeing it all come together for the fourth time in a row?

It really is great, this makes it all worth it, because the months prior I’ve been on tour preparing these shows, so to try to do it on tour is a little bit of extra work. But you know, I’m sitting here right now going, “Man, we’re about to do a three-and-a-half-hour rock show all in honor of the mighty Randy Rhoads”. It’s just nice to do, and there’s nothing unique about what I’m doing, everyone on stage feels the same way about Randy. Rudy Sarzo, who is my bud but he’s also got such an amazing history within this show and with Randy, and for him to be here all night is great, and the Rhoads family…it’s just a nice way of saying thanks to Randy Rhoads for what he did for us all. I mean, I have intense memories of the first time I heard him – I was like, “I have to learn how to do this”, I’m a drummer, but I want to play guitar like that. Like everybody in here, that’s why we do it, you know what I mean? And it’s just a fun night out. You’ve got to put a bunch of time into prepping it, making it happen, but if you dot your i’s and cross your t’s, you can usually come across all right.

Well, what you described about the first time hearing Randy, I feel like a lot of people – fans and musicians alike – get that with Randy’s music, just that feeling of…amazement, really.

Well, I’ve done this enough times over the past few years to not have to worry about learning the songs, but even for the first time we did it…I mean, it’s rock drums, so it wasn’t I had to learn some crazy out-of-the-box thing I’ve never done before, but…the songs are in my head from the amount of times I listened to them as a kid. Then when you start getting into rehearsals, I love the rehearsals almost the most because you’re really digging into the music and wanting to make it right with the guests that come in, you know. It’s just fun because it brings me back to what it made me feel like the first time as a kid. It’s really that, you know, seventh grade, eighth grade, being so excited the first time you hear stuff that blows your mind and you realize, this is something I want to aspire to be or try to get there somehow. I didn’t know how, I was a kid, but just being an adult and a professional musician, you just go “Hey, I got some time, it’s a fun idea, let’s do it”.

And it’s fantastic.

But seriously, I appreciate anybody’s interest. It would really suck if we put the show on and nobody cared, you know? It’s nice that usually everybody’s here going “Yeah, I know all about Randy and I know what that music meant”. It’s not that far away from anything in the world of rock, like Blizzard of Oz and Diary of a Madman, those are two of the most iconic Hard Rock/Metal records since they came out. I mean, you go through every band and that’s at the top, you ask anybody, give me your Top 10 guitar records or you know, Hard Rock/Metal guitar records, it’s Randy Rhoads. He’s right there all the time. That’s the kind of impression he had. 25 years old, I’m way older than that now and I’m just like, “That guy did so much in such a short time”. He just devoted everything he had to his art, his belief of what he wanted to be. Even just talking about it makes you inspired.

So true, such an incredible musician.

It doesn’t matter what you do, you just look at a guy like that and it’s like, he had a natural gift of course, but…a lot of guys have gifts, but are you going to know how to use it? Are you going to back it up and support it, you know what I mean? It’s there but you’re never going to really do the right thing with it. He did the right thing with it, every step of the way as far as I’m concerned.

Absolutely. Also, this event is one part of the whole BashFest, you had the Rush Tribute last night, there’s Bonzo Bash tomorrow, and I believe for the House Band, you’re the only one who’s playing all three nights.

Well, I should be because I came up with the ideas (laughs).

Of course!

It’s myself and Joe Sutton, my partner, we did the first Bonzo Bash thing together and we just kind of went “okay, let’s do it again – oh wait, let’s do Randy Rhoads Remembered”, you know? It wasn’t like a big meeting of how to go about the future, it was more like “Well, do you want to do it? I think we can do this”. So being a drummer who loves guitar, I play in the shows as much as I can. So thank you! I’ve got to get ready for the show, we’re playing soon, but thank you for coming. Have fun!

No worries at all, thanks for your time and have a great show!

For the rest of my red carpet interviews from Randy Rhoads Remembered, check out my review of the show as well as the interview page.

Eddie Trunk hosted quite a few concerts in a row during NAMM week, including the Hall of Heavy Metal History and Randy Rhoads Remembered. Despite the stormy night outside on the red carpet, we stepped aside out of the rain for a quick chat about Eddie’s latest radio shows, the Hall, and of course – Randy Rhoads Remembered.

You hosted the Hall of Heavy Metal History last night, great event and the first of its kind. Just wanted to get some of your thoughts on what it was like to host and pay tribute to all those great artists.

It was cool, it was something that was a first time event – I didn’t put it together, it was not my event, I simply hosted it – but I was honored to do it. I think that it’s a good start for something, I mean like anything, the first time somebody does something you learn a lot and you can make some changes and what have you, and I’m going to continue to work with the guy who put it all together to hopefully continue it and make the next one even bigger and better. But I think that for a first time event, it went very well.

I agree, I was there myself and I also think it went well. Speaking of next year, who else might you like to see inducted next year, anyone off the top of your head?

Oh my gosh, so many. I think what was cool about what they did this year was that they put some of the lesser known people in, you know? They put some of the people that don’t really get a lot of accolades and aren’t always right in the front spotlight, and I think that was really cool. So what I think that they should do, and I’m going to suggest this for next year, is there should be categories. In other words, they should have like…“Under the Radar Legend” or, you know…make categories for everybody to put them in these different slots, and then maybe also let the fans decide and vote in some way about who they would like to see go in. So I have a lot of ideas. The guy who ran that whole thing and put it together, he actually lives right by me in New Jersey, so we made plans to get together in the next few weeks and have a meeting to talk about it, and just try to come up with ideas together that could make it better.

Definitely sounds like the start of something really great. I also wanted to ask you, you have your recent show on Volume, you’re still doing Trunk Nation, plus several radio shows, it just seems like you’ve got a lot going on right now.

Yeah, you know, I’m very lucky that after all these decades, I can keep doing what I love. I’m currently doing eight broadcasts a week, I have six live shows on SiriusXM, as you mentioned – five doing rock talk on Volume, one show with music on Mondays, and then I do a syndicated FM show that’s on KCAL here and about 30 other stations, and I do a podcast every week. Eight shows a week is pretty cool, I still have some new TV stuff in the works, hopefully that’ll come through, and hopefully someone will pick up That Metal Show and we’ll do that again. But I’m open to anything and everything, I’m just grateful that for coming up on 34 years, I’ve been able to make this whole business and this music I love my passion, to be able to continue to work in it and help spread the word about it.

Excellent. Lastly, your thoughts on tonight’s event?

Should be great. I’ve known Brian, who’s behind all these things, for a very long time. He’s also from New Jersey like I am, actually from the same town I live in, and I think it’s great that he does this stuff. I didn’t even know I was going to be out here until a few weeks ago and then when he found out, he’s like, “Hey, are you going to be out there?” This was the one night I had off, and he asked me if I’d come and help him host and I said of course. I think it’s going to be fun, so many of these players I know, so it should be a great time.

All right, well, thanks for taking the time to talk with me.

Thank you, appreciate it.

For the rest of my red carpet interviews from Randy Rhoads Remembered, check out my review of the show as well as the interviews page.

Ira Black seems to come along with his own tagline – “the best hair in metal”. With a background that includes bands like Metal Church, Westfield Massacre, Lizzy Borden, and Vicious Rumors, among many others though, there’s no question of his impressive guitar abilities. Ira stopped by the red carpet before going in to take the stage at Randy Rhoads Remembered, and I was able to grab him for a quick interview about the show.

Just want to start out getting some of your thoughts on tonight, what an awesome event, Randy Rhoads Remembered.

Oh man, I’m just blown away by this thing, ‘cause it’s like…Look, the funny thing is, I always wonder about this, someone like Jimi Hendrix who was such a great guitar player, if he hadn’t passed away, would he be as legendary as he is now? And it’s a hard thing to wrap your mind around because basically, these are great players and stuff and a lot of times great players don’t get their accolades until after they pass away, just like a lot of times it’s like that with art – you know, painters and other artists as well. So this is where we stand. Randy isn’t with us anymore unfortunately, and we’re celebrating him. I think when he was alive, he got a lot of accolades and people respected him – people loved Ozzy when he did that material, you know? He came out after Black Sabbath and blew everyone’s mind with this new thing. He merged with L.A., coming from England, that metal scene over there was a little more dirgy and dark, and then he mixed with Randy, who was like a seventies guitar player in L.A. whose music was a little more happy sounding, more energetic, more fun. So to be here in Southern California tonight, and to be part of all this, having grown up listening to this, I’m honored. It’s – “Wow”, you know? Like, pinch myself. What guitar player wouldn’t want to be doing this!

So what will you be performing tonight?

I’m going to be playing “Steal Away the Night”.

It’s Bashfest, so you’ve got the Rush tribute that was last night, Bonzo Bash tomorrow, and Randy Rhoads tonight. Anything else going on in Bashfest for you, Ira?

Well, I played last night with the NAMM Metal Jam with Neil Turbin and Michael Angelo Batio, we opened for the Rush Tribute. And I’ll be here hanging out at the Bonzo Bash too, I’m not playing it – maybe another time, who knows. Zeppelin’s another one of my favorites, of course. Sabbath and Zeppelin, what else do you have? So much comes from that, you know?

Also, when we were talking before the interview I mentioned that I caught you at the Ultimate Jam Night at the Whisky the other night, do you play those often?

Oh yeah, there’s 90-plus that have happened so far and I’ve probably played somewhere around 75 of them. So if that’s a lot, then yes, I do. My girlfriend Jessica Chase, she does all the PR and Social Media for Ultimate Jam Night, and Chuck invited me to play the second Ultimate Jam Night that happened, so I’ve been there ever since that. The first one happened at NAMM two years ago, so two nights ago was Ultimate Jam Night’s Two-Year Anniversary, so there’s a little history on it.

Nice! A lot of great stuff going on and I’m sure you’ve got to head in now, so thank you for taking the time to talk with me.

Thank you, I appreciate it. Have a good one.

For the rest of my red carpet interviews from Randy Rhoads Remembered, check out my review of the show as well as the interviews page.

“Crazy Train” is probably the best known song from Randy Rhoads, so being the guitarist to take it on in a tribute to the great virtuoso himself must be both a thrilling and daunting experience. It certainly seemed to provide nothing but excitement for the musician who took it on at this event, as he was very enthusiastic about the whole thing. Scotti Hill of Skid Row was the man who took to the stage to play this wildly successful hit, and I had a few words with him on the red carpet reception beforehand to get his thoughts on the show.

We’re here at the Randy Rhoads Remembered event, an excellent event to remember an excellent guitarist, so I’d like to ask how you’re feeling about tonight.

I’m very excited, very flattered to be here. I’m usually out on the road when this is going on, so I was thrilled to get a call about a week ago…Brian called me and he’s like, “I didn’t realize you were in L.A.! Come on down and play”. I was like “Wow, what song do you want me to play?”, and he said “Play ‘Crazy Train’”! I said, “Really?! Awesome! I just happen to know that song!” *laughs*

That’s awesome! Well, that song is definitely something to look forward too. Also, you’ll be performing in the Ronnie Montrose Remembered event this weekend as well. Two events in one week remembering two great guitarists, so what are your thoughts on that one?
It’s great, I went and rehearsed last night and, like I said, it’s an honor to be asked to do these things. I used to look through the guitar magazines when I was a kid and just dream about playing with guys of this caliber, you know? I mean, there’re just incredible players here and to get to stand next to Rudy and actually play one of the songs he performed with Randy is really, really cool!

Very exciting. And of course, some other exciting stuff in the area is NAMM, just kicked off. What have you got going on at NAMM?

Well, tomorrow is my browsing day, I’ll be walking around getting my feet tired, and Saturday is my signing day. I’ve got some signings, and I’m going to take care of all that – I’ll be at the Yamaha, I’ll be at Korg, I’ll be at Ace Music – kissing babies, shaking hands, and all that good stuff.

Sounds like fun. Last but not least, a little update on Skid Row and what’s going on lately?

Yes, we’ve made it official, Zp is our new singer, actually. And he’s a great guy, he’s been with us for about a year, playing. We just went under the radar, we didn’t do any press or anything. So we decided to make the announcement the other night on stage in Nova Scotia and it hit the press quick and we’re very excited about it. He’s a brother and we’re happy to have a guy who’s one of us.

Excellent. Definitely looking forward to hearing “Crazy Train” from you tonight, and thank you for taking the time to talk with me.

Absolutely, pleasure to meet you.

For the rest of my red carpet interviews from Randy Rhoads Remembered, check out my review of the show as well as the interviews page.