Good afternoon, Frankie!
First of all, I am honored to make an interview with you - a leader of my favorite band of all time and great metal band overall! Speaking of questions, I tried to make them as unique as they can be. I would like to ask about fresh thing like your newest release, but as a fan, I also have questions, which you probably were never asked.
Thank you so very much for your kind words and support!
1) Let's start with your newest release - "One Night in Milan". Firstly, I was there in the audience and I'm really happy to see myself in the DVD! Not only I fulfilled my dream - I saw you performing live - but I'm also in your DVD! The show was a really special thing for me, but what's your opinion about Italian show? I know it was special, but any interesting moments?
It was very special for me since it was the first time in QUIET RIOT’s long history that we ever played in Italy. I was very surprised to see so many fans from all over Europe that came to see QUIET RIOT at the Frontiers festival.
2) Speaking of European shows - you play here really rarely. What's the reason of that and can we wait for a European Tour?
We spend so much time touring in America that it is sometime difficult to get to Europe, though we have done festivals in Europe in the past. The real problem is that if the promoters don’t want to properly pay QUIET RIOT, it is too difficult to tour in Europe, It’s not a European vacation.
3) How did you manage to cooperate with Alessandro del Vecchio and play Thunderbird for the first time with piano live? For me it was a stunning performance of this song and I wonder who came with that idea!
I had briefly worked with Alessandro a few years ago and became friends. I love and respect him as a person and musician. I thought it would be a great idea to perform Thunderbird live with piano as it was originally recorded and I knew that Alessandro would be perfect and he was.
4) I also really wanted to see your encore on DVD - "Highway to Hell", but it was cut and is only available in Japan on CD. Why it's not on all releases - were there some kind of restrictions due to copyrights or so?
Frontiers likes to have one track to use for Japanese releases that is not included in the regular release, so that was the only reason. It was a unplanned encore performance.
5) Speaking of Thunderbird, let's go back to early years when you still weren't in a band and the band was still called "DuBrow". There is a recording of one of the first DuBrow shows from 1980, where band performs Thunderbird only with 2 verses. When approximately 3rd one was added and are there any recordings of it before lyrics were changed after Randy's death?
I was in the band “DuBrow” and I first started working with Kevin DuBrow in 1980. I recorded the drums for the original demos of Thunderbird. The song was not originally written about Randy Rhoads’ death but about him leaving QUIET RIOT. Randy and Rudy Sarzo were both scheduled to come in and record that track with us. After Randy died Kevin wrote the last verse to reflect Randy’s death.
6) During DuBrow years Kevin, you and other members wrote many, many songs. Some of them became really forgotten like "First in Line", "Key to My Heart" or "Out on The Streets" and some were still played during Metal Health Tour like "Danger Zone", "Gonna Have a Riot" or "Anytime You Want Me". And here's my question - how did you choose songs for Metal Health that those previously mentioned ones didn't manage to be there and why were they abandoned after releasing your best-selling album (only Danger Zone was recorded in a studio)?
It was felt by both the band and the producer that the other songs were not as strong as the ones that appeared on the final version of the Metal Health record.
7) There are quite many recordings from Metal Health Tour (US Festival 83, Rockpalast, Rock Palace etc.), but apart from few TV appearances, there are almost no decent video recordings from Condition Critical and QRIII Tour. Has anything survived from those times and are there any chances to publish them some day? Also, something more from DuBrow years (like a snippet from 1982 from 'Well Now You're Here, There's No Way Back' movie) would be fantastic!
I have a lot of audio recorded and video material in my archives. I’m not sure if I will release any of it.
8) I think I'm the first person, who would ask about it. Barely anybody knows that you were one of bands who recorded proposed theme song for movie "Cobra" in 1986. I and your huge fan Kevin Boisvert have found an extremely rare cassette tape with your song "Hang Tough", which was recorded for this purpose. Why this song didn't appear on any album? Was it recorded after QRIII release? What happened to it and why it isn't available anywhere?
The film company decided not to use that song which we recorded during the QR III sessions. There are other songs from the QR III sessions that we never released as well as my home video of those recording sessions.
9) After QRIII, we have "Paul Shortino era" - you didn't play many shows then with Paul and Seann. Why? And have Rudy Sarzo performed any show with you then (we all know he returned to band for a while back then) And were there any ideas (or even demos) for songs for QR 1988 album successor?
The Qr 4th record was a very good record, but not too many people were interested in the band with a different singer which is why we never played a single show in the US which was a shame. Rudy did rehearse with us but never performed live. Yes, there are about a half dozen songs in my archives that were not released on the Qr 4th record. But there was never any idea to record another record with that lineup.
10) When you were working on QR album in 1988, Kevin was still writing new songs. Some of them appeared on Terrified or Down to the Bone, but most of them are unreleased until today. Are there any chances to release an album with those tracks? I think many fans would love to hear songs tracks like "Burning Fever", "Hold on To Your Dreams", "Take a Shot" or "Struck by Lightning" with stunning vocals of Kevin.
Kevin didn’t like any of that material that was written, so out of respect for him they will not be released.
11) Kevin reunited with Carlos Cavazo in 1991 and they formed Heat along with former members of Kevin's band Little Women - Kenny Hillery and Pat Ashby (Carlos replaced Sean Manning). Soon band returned to "Quiet Riot" name, announced never released album "Quiet Riot in Heat" (I heard that name on one of bootlegs from 1991). Soon Pat was replaced by Bobby Rondinelli, who later was replaced by you. How did you get back to band and how many tracks you coowrote on Terrified? I know that some songs like "Rude Boy" or "Cold Day in Hell" were already played in 1991 with Heat.
In late 1992 Kevin asked me if I would come back, record Terrified and tour live, so I come back in January of 1993 and at that time the band asked me to manage QUIET RIOT as well.
12) Apart from Terrified, you released The Randy Rhoads Years album in 1993. I think it is a great tribute to Randy and I really like it. I have two questions connected with that release - which
parts were rerecorded (apart from Kevin's voice, which changed very much during years and it's really hearable there) and who did that? Also are there any chances for a second volume with James
on vocals? There are still many great songs, which were never released or demoed properly.
I know everything about those recordings, but out of respect for Kevin I will not give you that information. There are no plans to release any further material from that period and I would never have James record any vocals connected to those recordings.
13) Speaking of James and future, let's leave the history. I've heard that you already work on new album. How's the work going and can you give us approximate date of release? Could you tell us something about it?
The recordings are complete and I start mixing the next QUIET RIOT record in about ten days but that is all that I will say about this right now.
14) I asked about European dates, what about Poland? Would you like to play in our country?
We would love to play Poland if Poland wants us to play!
15) Do you know any Polish bands? Could you name some? If not, here's small compilation of those smaller ones, feel free to listen! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j6oEGLOy02o
I’m sorry to say that I am not familiar with any bands from Poland.
I asked many questions, but I hope you will give all of us exhaustive answers. Once again thank you for letting me ask you them and I hope we finally meet somewhere somewhen (I didn't manage to catch you during Frontiers) - I would really love to meet my masters of hard'n'heavy! Thank you once again and have a great rockin' day!
Your big Polish fan,
Maciej Uba
Thank you for taking the time to ask such great questions and I hope we can play in Poland someday and we can meet.
Your friend,
Frankie Banali