Welcome one and all to episode 374 of Signals from Mars. I'm your host, Victor, and for this episode, we welcome back some of my patrons for the hour one format where we discuss all types of new, buzzworthy, hot button, topic, hard rock, and metal news. We'll jump on that next. I'm ready. Let's do it.
If you're unfamiliar with the whole hour one premise, name honestly came from the fact that I was doing two hour shows and the first hour was my patrons and the second hour was somebody that I would be interviewing, but I haven't done an interview in a while and I hope to get back to doing that soon.
And these are my patrons joining me to discuss either topics that I've come up with or they've come up with and things that you've read on all the more popular hard rock or metal sites, or we'll talk about things related to festivals or whatever. Just, it's a fun discussion. It's almost therapeutic talking to them about music. It's a whole lot of fun. And if you're so inclined, I mean, you can now sign up to Patreon to get a week for free. That's on them, not on me.
If it were up to me, it would be a month for free. I do think that if you try it out, it'll be something that, I mean, if you're into this kind of music banter, I think that you'll stick around and check out some of the other episodes that we have cooked up along the way. It also gives you the ability to appear on any of the poll shows or countdown shows that we do. There'll be a 1987 show shortly.
It'll be in March because we're just running out of time in February, and I don't just wanna have throw it out there and just do it like in a week. I did that in December and it really did not work well. Anyway, so, and if you don't want to be a part of Patreon, you could always join us in the chat when it's live.
Honestly, just go to signalsfrommars.com and you can find all the social media platforms where you can follow the show, check out the live stream, check out the replays, subscribe to the podcast version if you're listening to this, and pick up March if you're so inclined. I know that some people, again, aren't into the whole Patreon thing, which you can pick up March, you can do a PayPal donation. There's a bunch of different things that you can do to help support the show.
One of the things with Patreon is my Victor M. Ruiz podcast or the VMR podcast. And recently I talked on the show about hearing loss and I've been wearing hearing aids for about two weeks now. I just turned 50 in October.
And although the place that I went to, four, or one of the many places that I went to, I went to several places, and said that most people my age are scared or for various reasons, for vanity, or for hearing people say, oh, you're too old, or already you're wearing hearing aids, blah, blah, blah.
Listen, just mentioning this because the person that kind of gave me the kick in the ass to check this out was Charlie Benante, he was sponsoring or talking about some hearing aid brand that isn't available where I am. So I've went to a few different places, checked it out. My family's happy, I'm pretty happy as well. I don't have to struggle to hear people talk. It's still an ongoing process to fine tune things.
But at least it's not one of these situations where you're in a loud room and people are talking to you and you're saying, yeah, yeah, yeah, right, yeah, of course. And what you're not hearing is that the other person on the other side of the conversation is saying, okay, so I can pick up that red hot poker and stick it in your eye?
So if nothing else, if I can help people out to say, hey, check your shit out, get your hearing looked at and don't be scared, do whatever's best for you and fuck what anyone else thinks basically. So yeah, drop me a line if you wanna talk about it more. In any event, let's get on with the show. Okay. Welcome to the February 16th edition of Signals for Mars. I'm your host Victor, and we have a, once again, an extravagant group of cavalieres gentlemen cavalierish gentlemen from around the world.
We have Ed Ferguson in Kentucky, Metal Dan in California, Anthony Mackie in Ireland, and we have Brad Doll in Idaho. Utah. Everyone is doing great tonight. I just realized that my hair is not ready for this show, so I'm going to put a hat on. Yeah, we noticed that. I'm going to put a hat on. Yeah, here we go. What do we think of this? Looks good. First of all, the logo is stupendous thanks to Mack. The logo is brilliant.
He doesn't take well to me saying thank you a million times to him, but I can't thank him enough for all his help making, that logo look respectable and cool. I just took what was there and tweaked it. There you go. Quick story about this hat. My son was here for almost a week, and he was on his way driving home. He lives in Utah a couple hours away, and he called me about halfway there, and he goes, oh, I forgot to say something to you.
He says, I was in your office, and I saw this bucket hat in there, the signals from Mars bucket hat. He says, man, that thing's fire. There you go, guys. There you go. If you want the bucket hat. I told him it's not a bucket hat. It's a Brad hat. Brad hat. There you go. Brad is sporting several pieces of merch. He's also sporting the- I got the Speedo on too. You can find that. He has a Speedo. He has a Speedo on. He has panties.
It signals from Mars in the front, and it signals from Uranus in the back. Oh, boy. There you go. But anyway, click on this Mars.com and click on merch. You'll find that and a bunch of other cool things as well. Joining us is also Sean Richmond in the chat. Sean, thanks for joining us. Sean has been providing us with some pretty cool videos these last few weeks, and I did a new walk and talk for the Victor Amaroues podcast, which I hopefully will be posting after we record this tonight.
But I tried some new lapel mics that I picked up, and I was mentioning how it's cool to get that type of feedback from you guys if there are bands that you guys are checking out and enjoy and think that the others might enjoy. It's another reason to join us on Patreon, and we're sharing a bunch of different bands and tracks that we enjoy, as well as some of the other stuff that I've been posting lately.
So tonight's episode is a return to the Hour 1 format, where we're going to be talking about a bunch of cool topics, some buzzworthy topics, and just some things that have come up over the last few days that at least one or two of these topics are things that I'm sure either one or multiple of us have been discussing or have come to mind. Metal Dan, obviously.
Metal Dan waits for me to discuss a lot of these things on the Patreon show, so we're kind of throwing some new stuff at him here today, but his comments are always welcome. So first thing that I did want to talk about is ACDC announcing tour dates, and they're going to be hitting my neck of the woods in May, and as of a few hours ago, they've announced a second date on June 1st. But ACDC finally announcing what we've been expecting,
what, for two years now? Power Up came out two years ago at this point. So I guess they're finally going to do some touring here. Anthony, you had some interesting comments on Patreon saying that you got to see them a few years ago already. Oh, I've seen ACDC six times, I think, at this stage.
So I was in two minds about going this time, because they've announced Dublin, you know, a very big football stadium, which is where I saw them last time, in a different football stadium, and, you know, didn't really enjoy the experience. So I was in two minds about going again. And the short story is I ended up getting two tickets. Not that I suppose I'll tell you the long story. Tickets went on sale today, and they sold out in minutes, of course.
Right. 80,000. But on Thursday, a link was circulating the internet, which allowed you to get tickets on Thursday. And I got this link and I thought, well, might as well try. And so I didn't think it would work, but it did work. And I was able to get tickets at the price that they were on sale for. OK. And the seat that I was offered, because I went for a seat because, you know, my health is not what it was usually. And the seat that I was offered was very good.
So I was like, oh, you know, you got this fucking ticket master countdown going in the corner. And you're like, oh, Jesus, the pressure. Yeah, it's so expensive. I still really want to go. And I ended up going, fuck it. Yeah. It was a good job. I did, because those same tickets are now going for like 400. Wow. The dynamic pricing kicked in. So, you know, I got one for. I don't even want to say how much for, but they're going for many times that now. And it's a few months away.
We'll see, you know. So I'm going anyway. Is that the band that you've seen the most over the years, Anthony? I don't think so. That would be Merlion probably. But I'm. Even Kings X seen quite a few times because I've traveled to see them multiple nights in a row. Whereas ACDC, I've just seen every time they've been to Ireland since ninety one. OK, which is seven times will will be seven times. Now, they were here before that, but I was three. Right.
But it's hard to know what this one's going to be like, really, you know, with. Basically, Angus and Brian Angus and Brian. Yeah. And realizing that I gave Mike Jones the wrong time. And, you know. My two my favorite things about ACDC are Malcolm and Phil. Right. So I'm seeing neither of them in there. It is different without Phil, for sure. Definitely. Well, of course, Malcolm. I mean, that. Yeah. But last time I saw him alive, I'm saying it's yeah, it's different without.
Yeah. Yeah. Last time I saw them was was with Stevie. And it's different. Like the field is different. It is. Yeah. It's kind of like Slayer with that day that doesn't have the same snap to it. Yeah. And the same groove. Yeah, that too. Yeah. This must have been a recent realization for the band. A lot of bands these days put tickets on sale that are like 16 months out before the event happens. And if it's happening this year, you know, that's not a long time.
Sorry, Dan. These tickets are on sale, you said, and the event's coming up this year. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Well, Metallica, Maiden, etc. I can go on. Those tickets went on sale 16 months ago. Yeah. So ACDC must have just figured out, hey, let's do this. You know, they're maybe they weren't feeling as well to do it last year. And now they're like, well, we better get it in now. So that's just that's just that's just thinking. Yeah, maybe they're they're feeling good.
That's what we might feel great in a year's time. Yeah, exactly. Yeah. Yeah. I think it probably has a lot to do with just the demand because with them playing at Power Trip, I think it made a lot of people expect that they would be announcing something right after because a lot of those bands did do that. Like you mentioned, Dan, Judas Priest announced stuff, Maiden announced stuff right after that festival and ACDC didn't.
They're lucky enough that their last few tours, at least in Europe, have all been stadium tours and they've all sold well. So I'm gathering the fact that it's a combination of both things. And think of this with their last, at least with Power Up, Power Up. They announced the single. The album was out like in a month. You know, there aren't too many bands that can do that without a big, huge, as you're saying, build up to try to sell stuff. Even even Metallica did that.
Metallica released three singles before the album came out. ACDC did the one and then the album was out in a few weeks. I guess they're just they're gauging that their diehard are going to, you know, pull up to the register and buy and whether it's an album, whether it's tickets, that's my best guess. Oh, yeah, that's true. They do not need much lead in time for it. They know people are going to buy those tickets. So, yeah, yeah. Yeah, it's funny.
I wanted this third time I saw them was on the stiff upper lip. No, it wasn't that it was ball breaker. The venue was only half full. It was really weird. You know, this is the same venue that they they could. Few years earlier, a Raze's Edge tour. My gosh, it was it was unbelievably packed. It was the most exciting gig I was ever at. Well, yeah, I saw them on the ball breaker tour as well. I don't know. I know that a lot of people were down on that album, although I I enjoy that album.
So I like it. Yeah, I think it's pretty solid joining us is Mike Jones as well. I messed up the time. And for some reason, you said six o'clock and I said, yeah, it's six. Sounds good. And then as we're talking here, I'm thinking, why isn't he logging in? I gave him the wrong time. That's why. Yeah, I apologize. That's okay. Yeah. The other thing I wanted to bring up, the fact that Chris Cheney has been announced as the bass player for the European tour.
It's possible that as Mike mentioned that Duff McKagan will be their bass player for the American tour. Now, I'm not sure if G&R is going to be touring at all. If they are, I would have a hard time thinking that he would give up that gig to play for ACDC because he's going to be making a lot less money playing with ACDC. And then he's going to be playing with G&R because I mean, let's face it, they're selling that tour based on him and Slash and Axel being together.
You know, so I don't know. The other thing that I brought up that you guys just talked about, I mentioned this on the VMR podcast, which I'll post later, is the whole Phil Rudd thing. I don't know that, I mean, Matt is now what their fourth official drummer after Phil. They went to Simon Wright and Chris Slade and now Matt Lang, I guess his name is, if I'm pronouncing that correctly. I don't know. I mean, a lot of people say, oh, well, you know, it's not that hard to play his parts.
I don't buy that because Phil has a certain feel to his playing and I think Simon did it well. I think Chris Slade did it okay. But I'm just thinking he's not touring because he may not be legally able to tour because let's not forget this this fucker went to jail for what, having a meth lab and trying to kill somebody. I mean, he ordered, he was trying to order a hit on someone. Sounds like a character.
The videos from power trip, the guy that they're having, whatever his name is, Mutt Lang, he was good. You know, he was no Phil, but he was pretty good. Well, and I'm assuming that he's got some association to the band at this point. Well, then again, yes and no, because Chris Cheney, I mean, outside of Jane's addiction has been more or less a session player for a lot of different people. So I mean, he's going to be a solid player. He's not going to, let's put it this way.
They're not just hiring anybody to fill in the blanks. They're getting seasoned professionals that are going to make sure that that, A, they know their role within the company and B, do a good job of it. I mean, they're obviously not just getting some dude that's covering ACDC at a bar at this point. I can't imagine Angus knows who Jane's addiction are. I don't know. That's always, when you hear about stuff like that, it always kind of surprises you.
There was something that came up the other day where Jimmy Page had shown up to see some band in London. I saw that, yeah. And I don't remember what band it was. And it was like a younger band. And it was kind of like, how the fuck does he know who this band is? Or listening to the Metallica podcast, Bob Rock was saying how he ran into Jimmy Page and Jimmy Page telling him that he thought that St. Anger was a brilliant album. And you think, wait, how's Jimmy Page listening to St. Anger?
Stuff like that just kind of throws you for a loop. Well, what I mean is I'm sure that they would know him more through his session work than through a professional relationship rather than going to the guy in Jane's Addiction. Right, right, right. Because again, he's like the third or fourth bassist to pass through Jane's Addiction. So it's not, yeah. So probably when they're most steady guy.
Outside of Anthony who's already gotten tickets, if they announce US dates, would any of you guys venture to go see the band? I mean, I absolutely would. They're not going to SoFi or Rose Bowl or the Coliseum or wherever they're going to stick them. Yeah. OK. I don't know. I have a hard time as much as I love ACDC.
I have kind of a hard time when I watch them and especially Angus in his old age because he was so he was such fire, you know, younger running, you know, four miles a show back and forth across the stage. And now I think he just kind of has to carefully walk around. And it's one of those things to where I'd be excited to be there and see it. But there's also it just without that energy of what you remember the way it used to be.
Sometimes I like to just keep it to my records once they get to a certain age. Yeah. Well, we we've said the same thing about Rob Halford. He's kind of boring on stage, too. But I guess it depends on the ticket prices. I mean, if they're going to charge five hundred dollars to get in. No, I'm not going. Yeah, the price would make a big difference for me, too. If it was, like I said, easy to go. No problem. But I probably wouldn't pay a lot to go see that being the age that they are.
I'd probably rather buy a ticket like I did that last kids show. I just bought a ticket and watched it here at the house on a big screen TV with my stereo and cheap beer in the fridge. You know, there you go. Brad, what about you? Would you go see ACDC? Being that I've never seen them, I kind of feel like I should. So I'll take a look at the dates and see if any of it makes sense for me. And I will I will seriously consider it. Would them playing with Duff sweeten the deal for you?
No, not at all. No, if I'm not the bass player, then I don't care who is. I'd want that job. I would do a really good job. I've played plenty of ACDC songs with other bands and I feel like I do I do them justice and would be very true to the spirit of the song. But enough about me. Yeah, I really like to see them. And, you know, the beauty of seeing them never seeing them before is unlike Ed, I wouldn't be sitting there going, oh, geez, look at him.
It wouldn't be like when I saw the first kiss reunion and how disappointed I was in that. Because mostly because of Peter Chris. And he was just awful. And Ace was kind of lethargic, too. And it was it was very disappointing because I remember what it was like in seventy five seventy six seeing them and how just, you know, every piston was firing and everything was just right. So you know, I think I think for like Anthony has seen them quite a few times and he's going to see them again.
It'll be interesting to hear what he thinks if he if he thinks it was worth it and if he loves it and enjoys it and he does, that's awesome. I mean, to me, maybe it's all more about the songs than it is the prancing around stage. I don't know. I think to check out the power trip footage. So it's good. It's good. Is Angus just like a lot more calmer than than he is? Is that is that the thing, Ed?
Yeah, I think he's from what I've seen video wise, he's I don't see him doing any of the moves he used to make. I mean, and of course, it's not his fault. He's getting old. You can't help it. Yeah, it's just yeah, it's just hard sometimes to watch it happen. But I mean, still, it would be awfully cool to be there in a arena in a good spot, you know, with the big sound system, listening to those big power chords of those old songs. But yeah, what a band I'll really miss.
I think Angus is aging quite gracefully. Yeah, he is. Does he still do the mooning? I've been wanting to ask him. I wonder at what age he quit doing that. He probably still does it. You know, I thought the power trip stuff, he looked really good and I thought he was playing really well and the band sounded good. Brian was on point. And yeah, I know, I thought it was pretty cool. So it's not like you see an abundance really sucking.
No. Yeah. OK, another big tour announced that I know is kind of a little left fieldish for the usual here on Signals from Mars is Pearl Jam was also announced dates in July here in Spain. Any interest in in seeing them? I know they're a band that mixes it up quite a bit and plays fairly long shows, even covers Van Halen from time to time. So anyone interested in seeing Pearl Jam at all? I saw them once back on the Versus tour and was so thoroughly underwhelmed at that point.
Just you know, that I think Eddie Vedder's vocals, you know, because of the way that he sort of slurs his words and doesn't really enunciate, it definitely does not come across well live for me. So I would I wouldn't wouldn't kick down for a ticket on that myself. Although that first single is a lot more rocking. Very impressive. I'll give them that. But to me, yeah, they're more of a studio band than a live band.
Yeah. Yeah, that's that's interesting as well, because Mike McCready has been saying that this is going to be a quote unquote heavier, more rocking album. And this is a guy that has a UFO cover band and a Kiss cover band. And he's always been saying that he wants to bring more guitars back in the Pearl Jam, which those first two albums had it. But after that, the songwriting started to get channeled through Eddie Vedder and kind of went in a different direction.
So yeah, I don't know for me, it's similar. Well, the new date that they announced for ACDC is going to be a Saturday. So that makes it a little bit more. More feasible. But the Pearl Jam dates are in the middle of when I'm going to be busy as shit. So I don't think I'll be getting out there. But there are a bunch of other good acts that are going to be hitting here. The day that we actually set off for the states speak about an eclectic lineup.
It's going to be Scorpions with Bad Religion, Royal Blood and a bunch of other bands. But they're all like mixed within the heavier side of rock, more or less. It was kind of a cool mix, but I'll be flying. There's a few other tours of note, but yeah, those are the ones that come to mind right now. Also announced earlier this week is that Ozzy as a solo artist is amongst the nominees for this year's Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.
And the list is Mary J. Blige, Mariah Carey, Cher, Dave Matthews Band, Eric B. and Rakim, Turner, Peter Frampton, Jane's Addiction, Cool in the Gang, Lenny Kravitz, Oasis, Sinead O'Connor, the aforementioned Ozzy, Sade and A Tribe Called Quest. The biggest thing to me out of this whole list is that after two years of having Iron Maiden mentioned, or at least being in the running, that they're completely gone from this list is the first thing that comes to mind.
Second, is Ozzy as a solo artist more important than Maiden, more important than Motorhead, for example? I'm not saying that Ozzy shouldn't be there eventually if we're going to give any credence to this thing, but to say that they kind of overstep a lot of these other artists that I mentioned to me is kind of a hard pill to swallow, even without getting into some of the other acts that are nominated.
Ed, what do you think out of hard rock and metal bands that could be going in, do you think Ozzy as a solo artist deserves to be in there before others? I don't know, man. I hadn't thought about that until you brought that up just now. That's a good point. I feel like they're going to probably make it work for Ozzy because it's obvious he's getting to the end and the media is going to milk the right moments for all the views and money they can. So I wouldn't be surprised if it somehow happens.
And I would love for him to… it would be great for him to experience that before something were to happen to him, to where he couldn't. Right. But no, I don't know if there was anyone that you could say might be that great. Wouldn't it be him? If any one solo artist could be on that level of greatness, it would probably be him, wouldn't it?
Yeah, I mean, just out of album sales, yeah, it would be hard to… it would be hard within this genre because, I mean, do you get into the argument of is Bon Jovi a solo band? They've sold a ton more than Ozzy. Is what Bon Jovi has done, is that more important than what Ozzy has done? Ozzy obviously has sold more than, let's say, Dio from that side of things. But is this more of Ozzy, the guy that was on the Osbournes, more than Ozzy, the guy that actually worked with Randy Rhoades?
Are we getting nominated for this because of the first album and really nothing else is going to be mentioned, which is historically kind of how things have gone. The other thing, because the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame to me has always had an underlying… like something… they've always been trying to stir shit and get some more attention on them. Is them nominating Ozzy just so that they can be the last people to say, oh, well, we had Ozzy perform his last show? That's it right there, I think.
So that could be one of these things, one of the reasons why they're doing it. Dan, what do you think? Because Ozzy as a solo artist deserves to go in before other hard rock and metal acts. He deserves to go in before Motorhead, Ozzy over Motorhead. Maiden doesn't… they don't care. So Ozzy over Maiden. And I don't think you're going to get Ozzy performing at the show. He doesn't have to. So he's going to do those upcoming events, hopefully, in England and he's going to be done.
He doesn't owe the Hall of Fame any performance. If they nominate him and put him in, good on them. They should do that. He doesn't owe him a performance. Okay. Mike, what do you think? Yeah. I mean, I don't think he as a solo artist, he kind of made his bones in Sabbath and his influence comes from Sabbath. He did have the two Randy Rhoads albums. But outside of that, I think that's more a Randy Rhoads influence than an Ozzy influence on the genre as a whole.
So I don't feel like he deserves it over other bands. I mean, we all know that the Hall of Fame is a joke. They don't like metal. They need to change the name to just the music Hall of Fame or the pop music Hall of Fame or something to better reflect what they're actually doing. Yeah. And this, to be honest with you, a few months ago when Sharon started talking about the fact that Ozzy deserved to go in as a solo artist, I figured that this would be something that would come up.
And apparently it has. They've already gotten Randy in there previously. So I mean, to me, it seems like they've got some type of influence over the Hall. Anthony, you're in a country that doesn't give a shit about any of this stuff. And I don't give a shit. I'm here and I don't give a shit. It just means nothing. I've got nothing to add to this conversation. Brad, your thoughts?
Well, I mean, obviously Ozzy hasn't contributed enough to the world of rock and roll as let's say Mary J. Blige, Ryan Carey, Cher. I mean, really, these other people are much more deserving to represent rock and roll than Ozzy. Good answer. Good answer. Oh, oh. When does Kansas get in? I'm going to be part of the grassroots effort to get Kansas in the rock and roll hall of fame. Well, I hear that Mary J. Blige, Cher and Mariah Carey are going to be recording an album of Kansas covers.
Who could blame them? Here's the funny thing, Victor, is that, and I don't know how this is happening, that Kansas keeps coming up on my YouTube feed. Are they listening to this show? You've been talking about them. So it's obvious that they're the most important rock band, American rock band. It's all your browser searches. You can't let it go. So the cookie's in there and it's what you're really looking at. It's okay. You can come out and admit it with us.
So I think Kansas needs to do like a combination thing with Eric B and Rakim. I think that would be just magic and fire the whole thing. There you go. They can back Eric B and Rakim up on It Takes Two. Yeah. Wait, is that one of their songs? It is. It is their biggest song. Would I know it if I heard it? That's the real question. That was the game we played during the Super Bowl. It's like, okay, whoever hears a song that they've heard before gets a prize.
And it didn't happen until the last song. It was like, hey, we've all heard that song. We don't know what it is. I would gather to say that at Chavez Ravine, you've heard It Takes Two. Really? Okay. I'll see if Nathan's heard of this. Enough about those guys though. I'm sure they're magic and brilliant and the whole thing. They've moved the whole genre of rock and roll forward. Metal dance. I think Ozzy should. Yeah. In our world, Ozzy is huge and he deserves to be in the Hall of Fame.
Metal dance. So let me ask you this. You were saying who before who after Ozzy. Let me ask you this then. Does Ozzy deserve to be in there before Motley Crue? Yes, indeed. Okay. You know, you know, I was speaking at the Super Bowl that we're not allowed to say that word or I'm going to get fined. I was surprised that when they did the intro for the Niners, they played Metallica for whom the bell tolls. I was like, fuck yeah. We have come a long way people.
That's the only way Metallica will ever be involved in the Super Bowl, unfortunately, because even though they play the shit out of their music during every like sporting event in North America. Yeah. The people behind the Super Bowl are still too stupid to understand their pull and their popularity in that. I'll bring this up in a second because there's another topic that I didn't mention that I wanted to bring up that I saw a known musician post about.
So anyway, so real quickly here, you said that Ozzy over Motley Crue. So, okay. What about Slayer? Absolutely. Ozzy is should be respected. He's a mainstream musician deserves all the accolades he gets. He is a God. Ozzy is the best. So Ozzy is a solo artist and all that. Absolutely. He's the best. Okay. There we go. All right.
So the other thing that I wanted to mention was that Rick Fox, who has played in Wasp, played in Steeler and a few other bands made a post today on Facebook, which was an old post of Jakey Lee saying how Ozzy wanted to make sure that everyone that played with him had a certain look about them and that they couldn't look like someone who was in the crowd.
And I think I was smart enough to not respond to the post because the first thing that came up to me instantly, the first thing that came to mind because what Rick had said was that something to the effect of, well, you can't just have a bunch of people on stage in jeans and t-shirts. Judas Priest don't go up there with jeans and t-shirts. And my first thought was, well, if Jake had remembered, there was this band called Metallica that opened up on a tour for Ozzy.
And I think they did pretty well for themselves going up there and playing in jeans and t-shirts pretty much for their entire career. I think it has more to do with the music than it actually has to do with the image because if it was really about that, then Ozzy wouldn't have taken the ultimate sin out of circulation because he was wearing Mrs. Roper's moomoo's on stage for that tour.
So again, I don't buy this whole argument that, oh, you know, I grew up in an era where you had to look like Bowie or you had to look like Kiss or you had to look like, yeah, I think there are a few bands that made it work without having to look extravagant on stage. And that's not to say that Metallica didn't have cool stage settings because we knew on Master of Puppets, they had the crosses, they had other shit going on. But I think the music is what ultimately connected with their fan base.
So I don't buy the whole thing that, oh, you know, the artists have to look like otherworldly. They can't look like people that are in the crowd. If your music sucks, you're not connecting with anybody regardless of what you look like. And I can mention a ton of bands that were all about the image that couldn't do it. So I know that this drives Anthony nuts when we talk about Kiss.
But is there any band at all that comes to mind where the image instantly grabs you and that's what made you get into their music first? I'm going to say Maiden and when I say the image, I don't mean to say wear some pretty awful clothes, but you know, the cover is Eddie. Eddie is what got a lot of people into Maiden. So you could say that, but that's not really what you mean.
Right. But I mean, even to your point, because a lot of people bring up the fact, even if we go the other way, where if we want to talk about what the thrash bands were wearing, a lot of people don't admit to the fact that Maiden was wearing spandex for a really long time on stage. A lot of people won't cop to the fact that there were a few guys in thrash bands wearing spandex on stage. Lars Ulrich, Tom Hunting, Dave Lombardo.
It was fucking easier for them to play in spandex for they were sweating their nuts off. So it made more sense for them to wear that than it was for them as drummers to wear jeans on stage. So I mean, I think that on both sides of the argument, people get too hung up on the image thing. I kind of lost track of the initial post, was it that this guy said that you couldn't play in Ozzy's band or you couldn't play on stage in general?
It was the Jakey Lee quote came from the fact that you couldn't play in Ozzy's band. But then Rick took it further with saying that to get on stage, you needed to look like a rock star. Yeah, that's bullshit. Mike, what do you think about this subject? Yeah, I mean, there are definitely bands that the image goes hand in hand with the music and it helps, I think, from a marketing standpoint to draw you in.
But I've seen plenty of bands live that just came out in jeans and t-shirts, shorts, what have you, and completely melted my face, as well as bands that were fully decked out with elaborate stage shows. You're King Diamond, Merciful Fate, Alice Cooper, over the top, shock rock type bands. The image is important to them. But I can listen to the music all day too and not need the visuals. So I think that the music is really the most important part of it. Yeah, okay. Dan, how about you?
When you're young and influential, yeah, the image can grab you and make you a fan. You know, thinking of myself as 20 years old, probably seeing Britney Foxx and going, oh, wow, or I don't know who else. Maybe seeing Slayer and going, oh, those guys look something, so I'm going to check them out. So that could be better at an older age. No. So to answer your question. Okay, Ed?
I think that imagery can be a nice enhancement to the whole package of what you're trying to present, like especially in a concert. But it can also kind of pigeonhole you. If you come out, if you're playing in the jeans and t-shirts, you kind of are, you look like you could be playing many genres of rock music and your image would fit. If you're a new wave band, it would look weird if you came out and started playing death metal. It'd be kind of cool to see it too.
It's fun to see the clashes, you know, styles, but you know what I mean. So I'm all for imagery, but imagery also can make me laugh at you pretty hard, you know, which was something that happened a lot in the 80s. But that also has to do a lot with just fashion and times, you know, the things we like coming and going and it all happened so fast that something's really cool one minute and then the next minute you're laughing about it.
Yeah, you know, I like Steve Harris's was a blue and white spandex. I wore spandex on stage when I was playing and now I look back and think that was pretty stupid. I did it. But maybe even though they had the spandex, they still had the metal look, you know, they were wearing the leather and everything along with it.
Later on though, those bands, hard rock bands, they made themselves look more girly, I guess, you know, it was just like who could look more and more like that to the point where it just became silly. It was like who could have the biggest hair? It's weird. Who could have the biggest wig? Yeah, yeah, the biggest ego. Yeah, I wore spandex, but then I just used a t-shirt or a thin thing, you know, so I wasn't totally glammed out. You have a picture of that metal band?
Yeah, I don't want to share that. I'd love to see that. I really want to see that. Me too. I'm not going to forget. Get back to you on that. Brad, what do you think? Have you ever worried about your image when you get up and play on stage? Actually, well, no. Yeah, I feel like you should look like you didn't just get off work at Radio Shack.
Okay. Because I've seen bands like that where they walk out and even if they are kind of good, you're still like, geez, guys, at least throw some kind of effort in there to look cool. Some guys are just cool no matter what. But a lot of these guys aren't cool and they look uncool. But it's like, yeah, the song's pretty good. But usually they're not killing it. I can't think of, I'm trying to think of somebody that, oh, actually, I can't think of one band that I saw when they walked on stage.
It was like, what the hell is this? It was Bebop Deluxe, 1976 warming up for Blue Easter Colt. And back then it was the era of where you had the big coming on stage music and lights out and then everything would boom and the lights would go on and you'd be playing your song. These guys walked out with the lights on and said, yeah, we need to tune up. So bear with us for just a moment. And so they all stood there and tuned up and then they just killed it. They just slayed.
And these really cheap polyester suits, if you look at the modern music album on the back, you can see that, I mean, that was what they were going for. So they're all wearing the same really bad polyester suits. They look like crap, but they killed it and made a fan out of me. So yeah, it's not everything. But I don't know. I try to not look like I just got a Fork It Radio Shack when I play. I don't get too dolled up though. That just makes you look like you're part of a new wave band.
I've done that kind of. Yeah. I've worn my band in the 80s. I mean, we used to shop women's clothes because the dude's clothes just weren't colorful enough, weren't hip enough. No, the shoulder didn't have the shoulder pads. And yeah, I wish I had. Why are there no pictures of this stuff? We had to actually look pretty cool. And yeah, if I had a picture I'd share, I'll look around. I've got pictures of me from the 70s.
And my problem there is I always wanted black pants, but they didn't make black pants for men in the mid 70s. So all I could get is dark blue corduroys, which can you imagine? That was cool. And a black t-shirt. So black and blue, which I was like, why can't I get black pants? That's what I was going for. I was going for all black. And then I kind of morphed into the red and the black. Yeah, those were the days. But I can pop up stuff from the 70s. Yeah. All right.
So next topic here is Super 7 is releasing a new set of figures. Motley Crue from the Shout at the Devil era. And now all this talk about the different wardrobes that everyone had at one point in time or another. I think I'm going to have to reach out to Super 7 and see if we can make signals from Mars patrons figures. We can have Dan in spandex shorts and t-shirt. We have Brad and his shoulder pads. You know, we could see if that would sell.
I don't know if any of you guys are fans of what Super 7 has been doing over the years with some of these figures that they've been releasing. Oh, you've got a few. Oh, cool. Yeah. I mean, for me, I think it is kind of neat that they've released stuff that isn't overly popular or not overly popular. But some of the Rob Halford stuff or some of the stuff has been kind of cool. Oh, you guys are okay. There's a big meat bone. Wait, was that Dora? Mr. Rob Halford. Rob Halford.
Have they got the Carrie Livgren one? King Diamond. King Diamond. Okay. Okay. And King Edward. There you go. Somewhere in time, Eddie. That's pretty cool. I have the NECA stuff. That's very close. The NECA maiden figures. Okay. Those are cool. Nice. That's pretty neat. Yeah. And they actually just announced the Cliff Burton, which looks pretty neat. There's some of the Super 7 figures look pretty spot on with the original. And there are others that seem like they're almost like a knockoff.
Brad and his Godzilla Mothra and Japanese monster figures. It's interesting because for a lot of bands, this type of stuff is almost like taboo for such a long time. And for some of them, it just seems like now the opportunity of a company coming along and wanting to do this stuff with them is kind of propelled other bands to do it.
Like you're seeing with the NECA stuff or even the knuckle bone stuff where they have some pretty expensive shit with Slayer figures or Ozzy and Slash and stuff like that, which with them with knuckle bones, it's $200 a figure. So it's not exactly cheap, but the details is pretty cool. It's obviously just for diehards. This isn't stuff that you can, I mean, for as much as a band like Kiss has received shit for a lot of their merch.
I think at this stage of the game, all of these figures that are being released are for diehards. They aren't being made specifically for kids, let's say. So because a lot of the stuff isn't cheap. But Ed, are you fine with bands releasing this kind of stuff? Yeah, I think it's cool. OK. Dan, you've actually got the Eddie you just showed us, so you're down for the cause. Yeah, absolutely. I have no problem with that.
I just don't understand how people can worship a political figure and do the same thing. So for that, it is normal for me. It's not like back in the day to play with anything like that, but there's this little knickknack shit to have around. Then once you start, then you kind of have to finish it. Yeah, then when you get into that two hundred dollar range, that's too much. And I don't. So it's kept within a premium of don't price me out and I'll buy it. Yeah, yeah.
I've got a bunch of fun because behind me mostly Maiden. There's an Eddie Van Halen. There's a few other like movie characters and stuff like that. It's similar. I mean, if any of this stuff is overly expensive, I don't bother checking it out. On some of the Super 7 stuff I wanted to pick up, I wanted to get the original Cliff Burton there released, which was pretty cool looking. But the figure cost a lot and the shipping was like twice as much as what the figure was. So I missed out.
Anthony, what do you think about this type of merch? I think it's fine. I mean, I wouldn't buy it. But you know, I say that and you know, people say that and then suddenly they've released something that you like and you're like, oh, maybe I maybe I do want these things. You know, yeah, like I'm just looking at some of those ones that Mike had a pretty cool, you know? Yeah. And I wouldn't get one next thing. They released one of Doug Pinick in back in the peak Doug Pinick with his Mohawk.
I'm like, oh my God, I want that. So that that or, you know, Funko is based on the first few Marillion albums. Well, Funko is funny pushing a bit. But you know, I'd rather see bands doing little kind of fairly faithful models than whiskey or beer, you know, which I think is a bit tacky. I'd like to have one of Lemmy that I would put up there on my bourbon shelf. That would be cool. A Lemmy what drink or a no, a figurine like that.
Yeah, there's there are super seven Lemmy's and is there I'm going to have to buy one of those. And then I need to find the Jack. I need to find the Jack Daniels Lemmy whiskey. And then that figurine is going to make me spend money. That's cool. Oh, look at that. It's a super slow man. You get you start buying them. That's the problem. That's one problem with doing that. That's right. It's hard to stop. Exactly.
You have to make sure that you go into it and know that you've got a limit because yeah, that is your limits. You know, you're like gambling. Because I have right next to that, I have it's the first four Maiden covers in one box. And then, of course, they released seven son on its own and they released somewhere in time. So I had to get those as well. Thankfully, the rest that they released kind of didn't interest me. So I was able to stop with the Maiden ones.
But the Eddie Van Halen came out and I'm like, oh, wow, I got to get the Eddie Van Halen. And now they've got one with him with the shark guitar, which is a limited edition. And because it was ridiculously expensive, I didn't pick it up. But if not, that would have been up there as well. So this week I got a spinal tap set from my friend I told you about that died last month. I went to his house and was starting to collect his stuff. You know, his family wants me to get his stuff out of there.
And he's got, of course, his are much taller. And they're a little bit beat up. But that'd be kind of fun to clean up. I'll show you here next time we meet. I'll pop them out. And I think a dime bag, maybe one small dime bag that I'm going to have to bring home to. That'd be cool. The dime bag may actually be the knuckle bones that I mentioned, which are on the pricier side. I'll be able to show some of his stuff to you guys throughout the year. He's had some cool things in his collection.
Cool. I'm down for that. Last topic here of the night and kind of ties into the Motley Crue figure thing, which surprisingly they're releasing this with Mick Mars. Yeah. So, yeah, so obviously, I mean, you got to go with the shout out to devil. You have to go with one of the first few iconic albums. And that one obviously had a specific look about them. Obviously, Mick is getting his cut.
But so soon after litigation and everything else, just interesting to see that that was, I'm assuming, in the works for a long time. The last topic is Mick himself as a player. He was asked if he felt that he is an underrated player from the 80s. Do you guys feel that he was underrated for his work? And one of the first things that's come to mind with me specifically since revisiting a lot of the early Motley Crue stuff recently. Obviously Mick isn't in there. Let's say he's not Eddie Van Halen.
But I think that especially on those first few Motley Crue albums, he was a tasty enough player to know how to make his solos work within the confines of the songs to make, to release memorable solos. I mean, think about Solo for Looked at Kill or even Home Sweet Home, stuff like that, where they're memorable and they don't have a million notes to them. They're totally part of those songs.
I think if you hear those songs with any other solo in there without the kind of meat and potatoes of what he did. I mean, I haven't heard them with John 5 playing them, but I would imagine that John 5 is sticking close to those originals just because of that. Ed, you're obviously a guitarist. Mick Mars, underrated for the 80s? Or do you think he got the correct amount of recognition for what his playing was all about? Yeah, I think he stands on his own in a way because he's different.
I've never heard a single guitarist say anything negative about Mick. I mean, he wasn't doing the shredding thing that a lot of players were back then. Although when he first started, there wasn't a ton of shredders either. I mean, you had Eddie Van Halen starting it. But like I've said before on this show, he's got his own tone that you can almost feel like it's in his hands that nobody can else, no one else can replicate.
And like we talked about before, and you just said, his solos are super well done. They're memorable. You can sing them from memory. He stands alone or he stands on his own as a great player. Even though he's not shredding like Eddie Van Halen, he was still an awesome player and everybody, I think every guitarist really respects him highly.
I think that's a good point too, that I mean, if you set Eddie apart, you put Mick in with a Vivian Campbell, with the George Lynch, with the Warren D. Martini, because I think that would probably be the next group of guys. Yeah, he was more in there. I mean, would you guys think that it's fair to put him in that group or do you think that, you know, he... That's the way I think of it. Yeah. Yeah. Okay. Dan, what do you think?
I think the reason this statement like this can come up to be even questioned is because he was the quiet one. He was the quiet Beatle. You know, he was, he's underrated because he didn't want a lot of attention, but absolutely solid player and should get more credit than he's been given by the band. As you mentioned, you guys have all mentioned, the early days especially, his sound and his contribution to his playing. Absolutely. Yeah. Okay. Mike?
Yeah. I mean, I think, you know, he was the older, more mature guy in the band early on. So his technique and everything was probably more refined than everybody else's was at that point. And, yeah, I mean, without him, you know, I don't think Mala Crew would be where they are, you know, having that kind of maturity and leadership to keep them together from, you know, all the stupid stuff that they did way back when.
And yeah, it's, you know, like everybody else has said, you know, his solos were just perfect for the songs, for the time, for that timeframe. And, you know, I can hear them in my head when I think of the songs, note for note. And if you're not great, that doesn't happen. Yeah. I can think of some of the lesser known songs by the band where just like you're saying, you know, you start to hear the song and some of them, you kind of fast forward in your head to, oh yeah, that solo's in this song.
You know, so it's I think he's always been good at that is, like I said, is putting a memorable notes together, you know, with with the full composition to make it all work. Right. What do you think? I echo what most of us said here. Mick was a boss. We're talking about music. He's gone. But Mick is a, you know, he's a musician. He's not a, it's not just a guitar player, but, you know, he's only there for solos. Mick plays the song from start to finish.
And, you know, let's face it, I suppose Tommy has a big impact on Motley Crue. But, you know, I can't think of any particularly memorable bass lines in Motley Crue. So, you know, he's in many ways one of the most important members of the band. Yeah, I mean, outside of the intro to Shout at the Devil and maybe Primal Scream, there really isn't any other bass track that you could think of that instantly stands out, you know, like you could Mick's solos.
There's some nice bass played on the first album. Yeah. But look, he's absolutely fine. There's nothing wrong with Mick Vars. Yeah. Brad, how about you? Yeah, I'm going to say it was the guitar that actually attracted me to their music first, the first thing that I heard them singing. Yeah, yeah. It's like, wow, that guitar, that sound is just so badass. And so, yeah, he's very important and really important in that band.
I mean, I don't think they would have been, I guess they could have been this big without him, but, you know, we'll never know. But yeah, I think he's a great player. Great tone. Interestingly enough, the first thing that drew me to the band was hearing the riff for Look That Kill. Yep. That heavy crunchiness to that was, what is this? You know, that was the first thing that really grabbed me. He didn't sound like anybody else.
I mean, you couldn't go, oh, that's, he's going for what that guy's doing. Yeah. Not at all. It's like, this is different. And that's tough to do. Yeah, that's what I'm trying to think about him is, yeah. Yeah, it's real difficult to have your own sound, especially now, and actually be good, I guess. It'd be easy to make your own sound that sounds like crap.
I think the neat thing too is from the songs we've been hearing off of the solo album, look, the rest of the solo album could be utter shit, but the three songs that have been released so far sound pretty cool, they sound like what you would want to hear from him, you know, some heavy guitar playing and he's not reinventing anything, but it sounds good so far. So I mean, at least it's making me look forward to what the overall album is going to sound like.
You know, when I think about it, Nick, especially on Shout at the Devil, he had a guitar sound that when you're a kid made you start doing chores to make money to go buy a guitar. That you hear that. My first experience was hearing Shout at the Devil, just like you were saying, that guitar sound, that makes your hair stand up and you just you start dreaming about buying a guitar and you can't stop thinking about it. Yeah. That's an interesting topic for another day.
Things that made you want to work to buy your first instrument. That'd be fun. Yeah. Yeah. Cool. So on that note, folks, I do want to thank Ed, Dan, Mike, Anthony and Brad for joining me tonight. I also want to thank Sean, who is in the chat, and thank anyone else that may listen to or watch the replay of this. Thank you very much for your support.
Remember to go to signalsfrommars.com to find all the great links to where you can follow and share on social media, subscribe, buy merch and all that great stuff. On that note, we end tonight's show. We will see you next time right here on Signals from Mars. See you, folks.