What do Ritchie Blackmore, Michael Schenker, Yngwie Malmsteen, and Steve Vai have in common? If you answered they’re all legendary guitarists, you’re only half right. At one point in time or another, all of these six stringers played alongside the one and only Graham Bonnet. Despite being a self taught singer who never took a lesson in his life, Bonnet is one of the greatest voices in metal history. By the way, that’s not an opinion. That’s a fact. Look no further than vocal heroics displayed on Alcatrazz’s brand new album, Born Innocent. We had the honor of sitting down with Bonnet to discuss the past, present, and future of one of the most super “supergroups” that ever formed, Alcatrazz.
Hi Graham! Welcome to Defenders of the Faith webzine. How are you doing this afternoon?
Graham Bonnet: Okay you know. Just sweating it out here in wonderful downtown L.A. It’s beautiful, hot weather, but a very scary time for all of us with this virus. It’s lovely weather, but nowhere to go.
I can say the same thing for here in Chicago.
GB: I bet. It’s getting worse here. I was speaking to somebody in Spain and they said it’s getting worse over there too. In California, the numbers are going up again. Stay inside I think is the best thing to say to everyone.
First, I’d like to send my most sincere condolences regarding the passing Martin Birch, with whom you recorded Michael Schenker Group’s Assault Attack (1982). Are there any memories or stories that come to mind from those days working with Martin?
GB: *laughs* Yeah, lots. Probably drunken ones. But that was me then and this is me now. I’m sober I’m glad to say. But back then, everyone was drinking like crazy, including Martin. I liked to do my vocals in the morning and before I went in, I’d have a couple of beers. If I did that, Martin would say, “Graham, have you been drinking?” I’d say, “What do you mean? I’m not drunk.” He’d say, “I know you’re not drunk, but your voice sounds weird.” It was a giveaway because alcohol is not good for your throat. You tend to spit a little more and it just doesn’t work properly. You feel really relaxed and cool and confident, but it doesn’t come out that way. So he’d say, “Just piss off with it. We’ll do Michael this morning and I’ll record guitar or bass today.” And he’d ask me back at night when I was sober.
I remember one time, after we finished the whole album, me and Martin were standing in the courtyard of the chateau where we recorded. It was a lovely, starry night. I was drinking something and he was too. He fell over onto his back into the long grass and he said, “Oh it’s good down here!” *laughs* “Is it Martin?” “Yeah, why don’t you fall over too?” So we both fell over and fell asleep in this long grass at about 1:00 in the morning. I’ll always remember that. He was one of the best producers ever. If it wasn’t for Martin, doing what he did with that album, I sometimes wonder if it would’ve been as great sounding as it still is today.
If I’m to interject my personal opinion, I always felt between your vocals and his production, that’s the best MSG album, period.
GB: Thank you. That’s very kind of you and I know Martin would appreciate that too. You couldn’t go wrong with him. He was just the best.
On a happier note, congratulations on the release of the brand new Alcatrazz album, Born Innocent! It’s been quite some time since we’ve heard new music from Alcatrazz. When did the idea for this album come to be?
GB: It started on the road, sort of saying “Okay, what do we do next?” We had the Graham Bonnet Band and then sort of Alcatrazz and then not quite Alcatrazz but maybe now a little bit more Alcatrazz than it was before. It was the band name. I think people know the band name rather than “Graham Bonnet Band”. I think, but I don’t know. So we decided to put the band back together. *laughs*
We got in touch with Jan Uvena, our drummer. He doesn’t play drums anymore. He completely retired. Gary Shea was up for it, so he was the new bass player, well, the new old bass player. Of course when it comes to guitar players, we didn’t ask any of them because they have their own careers, especially Yngwie and Steve Vai. So we had to look for a guitar player. It’s almost Alcatrazz. It’s me, Gary Shea, and Jimmy Waldo, three original members. We’re almost there, but it’s a pity that Jan has retired. He was a great drummer and I don’t know what happened to him. He thought he was getting too old for it. I said, “Are you kidding me? I’m older than you Jan for fucks sake!” *laughs* I’m the oldest in the bloody band! Always was, always will be.
It was down to finding a new guitar player that played in the same genre as Yngwie and Steve Vai did. We found Joe Stump who I played with a long time ago at a music school. There were all different players. There were guys from The Doors there and from Toto, me, Joe, Uli Jon Roth. We were all demonstrating our skills in front of these music students and Joe Stump wanted to play a couple Rainbow songs with me. That was the first time I met him and that was maybe 15 or 20 years ago. His name came up when we were looking for another guitar player. I knew the name and said, “Yeah, he sounds like the guy to me.” He’s very Yngwie, Ritchie Blackmore, Gary Moore. He plays like everybody.
If I hadn’t known that was him playing on the record, I would’ve thought it was Yngwie.
GB: Oh yeah.
And that kind of helped answer the next question which is, how would you compare this lineup to previous lineups of Alcatrazz?
GB: It feels the same as it was, sort of. We have Joe the chameleon there, doing what he does. He’s great at imitating other people, but he does have his own style. I always say to guitar players when they come in, like Steve when Yngwie left. Steve said, “I don’t play like Yngwie. I can’t play that stuff.” I said, “No. You play like Steve Vai which is fucking incredible. Don’t play like Yngwie. Play like you.” I wish sometimes Joe would do that, but he loves doing all that stuff and I can’t knock him for it. He’s incredible at doing what he does and a hell of a player.
After repeated listens to Born Innocent, I can’t help but think this is a musical and spiritual successor to No Parole from Rock ‘n’ Roll (1983). Whereas Disturbing the Peace (1985) and Dangerous Games (1986) were more polished, this just feels like a straightforward, old school heavy metal album. Would you agree?
GB: Absolutely! That’s what we’re going for and I think that’s what we’ve captured but with modern production, hopefully. I don’t want to be the old man in the sea. I don’t want to grow old and not keep up with what’s going on. Production and mixing has changed so much now. Everybody records at home and send in their parts, which is basically how we did this, or some of it. It hopefully has a modern sound, but with touches of the old school Alcatrazz.
And it works!
GB: I think so! Of course I think so. I’m on the damn thing. *laughs* I write the songs the same as I’ve always done. I think that comes out in the so called Alcatrazz style.
Much like past Alcatrazz releases, there’s no shortage of witty and tongue in cheek lyrics on this album. What inspires you lyrically?
GB: Anything. You know, it’s life and such. Nothing to do with Alcatrazz, but I wrote a song for Michael Schenker on the last album I did with him. It’s about Alzheimer’s which I’ve had personal experience with because my dad had it and my brother died recently from it. I made this song up about a real scary thing, not Dungeons and Dragons. It’s called “The Beast in the Shadows”. This damn thing creeps up gradually and it never lets you know what it is until its got you in its grasp. That’s about real life.
There’s a track on the Alcatrazz album called “Warth Lane”. It’s about a friend of mine who wanted to be a jockey. He was 14 years old and committed suicide. That’s about real life too. My next door neighbor had tuberculosis. He was in pain all the time and would eventually die in pain. So he took himself to Warth Lane and tied a dog leash around his neck. The dog was found at the bottom of the tree one morning by the milkman. He was delivering very early in the morning. The dog was howling up the tree at my friend’s hanging body. It was pretty serious. So I try to take from real life, except for “Finn McCool” which is a legend.
I was going to ask you if “Warth Lane” was based on a true story and…wow.
GB: I’ll never forget that day because it was Christmas time. The police was at the door and said, “Is your mom and dad in?” I said, “Yeah…what’s wrong? What have I done?” I thought I had done something wrong. Well obviously they couldn’t tell me because I was a kid. I was 11 or 12. My friend was 14. I played with him everyday in the summertime. It was absolute horror. I’m telling the story as it happened in the song.
There’s a lot of guest appearances on this album, including one from the late Bob Kulick on “I Am the King”. Can you tell us a bit about your relationship with Kulick?
GB: I was in a band called Blackthorne with Bob for a year or two. Jimmy Waldo was also with us. Me, Jimmy, and Bob were the mainstay of the band. The rest of the band was, “We’ll get this guy to play drums and this guy to play bass.” It was an experience for me because he was very, very serious about the music and a great guitar player. He just blew me away. And he had a bald head! *laughs* You can’t have a bald head! But it’s kind of cool now. And short hair, let me remind you. *laughs* So he didn’t have the long hair, but Bob had the uniform, even if it wasn’t on his head. He had the rock n’ roll garb, leather pants, etc. We played together with my band, the Graham Bonnet Band, in Vegas. He played two songs with us and it wasn’t long after that he died. I still can’t believe it. He was so full of life and energy, funny and horrible sometimes. He loved a nice fight or argument. How could he be gone? He was incredible.
These days everything is tentative, but what are Alcatrazz’s plans for 2021? I know there were some shows lined up for this year.
GB: Because of the virus, nobody knows if we’ll even be playing next year. That’s why I’m doing what I’m doing now which is playing with my own band. It’s my girlfriend, Beth-Ami Heavenstone, on bass and the original guitar player for Graham Bonnet Band, Conrado Pesinatio. He’s playing with us and we’re putting some tracks together as we speak. We’re recording now and I’m writing with Conrado and Beth-Ami. We’ve got about 6 or 7 tracks ready to record. It’s cool because I’m doing something with people I love and I’m not on the road arguing with people. It can be hard on the road sometimes, bloody hard. But now we’re recording at home and doing it whenever I want to and sending in our parts to each other. I’m doing something I’ve always wanted to do and that’s have a mixture of songs that aren’t all necessarily hard rock or R&B. It’s just anything good of any genre, well hopefully.
Is there an estimated release date for that project?
GB: We’re working with Frontiers, but it won’t be out until the end of this year or early next year. We’re aiming to have it done by September. It’s really exciting for me because it’s away from the heavy metal/hard rock thing. At the same time, there are a few tracks on there that are that, so I’m not escaping it completely.
Let’s talk a bit about the early days of Alcatrazz. Of course the band is perhaps most famous for launching the career of a young Yngwie Malmsteen. When did you first meet Yngwie and what was your reaction to his playing style?
GB: I wanted to put a band together that was like Rainbow, you know, keyboards and a guitar player that played like Ritchie Blackmore. Some of the guys from the band went to a store one day. One of the guys came from around the counter and said, “I hear you’re looking for a guitar player that’s like Blackmore. I’ve got just the guy for you.” He got in touch with Yngwie and he showed up to rehearsal. I asked him to learn a song that wasn’t heavy metal or hard rock. I asked him to learn a song from one of my albums and he did. He came in and played that for his audition piece, not some Ritchie Blackmore impersonation. He played it perfect and I said, “Bloody hell! That’s fucking great man! Okay, let’s do a couple Rainbow tunes now.” And he fit the bill immediately. He looked a little bit like Ritchie and had the same stage clothes on. He was the obvious guy and he was young too, so he had a lot of fire. He wanted to prove himself and he sure did.
As a young, teenage metalhead in the early 2010s, I used to spend my Saturday mornings watching VH1 Classic’s Metal Mania, which would regularly show the video for “Island in the Sun”. What are your memories of that video shoot?
GB: Oh blimey, I got in some trouble over that. At the time, I was married. I sort of had a bit of thing with the makeup artist on set. You know who Debbie Harry is?
From Blondie!
GB: She looked like a double of her. *laughs* I saw her everyday when we were making that video and I had a thing for her. I didn’t actually sleep with her, but she slept with me. We both slept together, but didn’t do anything naughty. *laughs* I was talking on the phone to somebody and a friend of my ex-wife’s overheard me talking about this girl I met on the video shoot. I was in trouble. I had to explain myself that I didn’t actually sleep with her, I slept beside her.
Anyways, it was great fun to do! Those were the days when you did real videos and there was money all over the place and you’d go to Hawaii to film things. It was just amazing. I went there on my own with my manager and we did the rest of the video in Hollywood at the set of Clint Eastwood’s Escape from Alcatraz.
Talk about living up to the band’s name! *laughs*
GB: *laughs* Yeah I was disappointed the bars were made out of wood! It was totally fake, but that was the real set from the movie.
My favorite Alcatrazz song of all time is “Jet to Jet”. What was the inspiration behind that song?
GB: It’s about going to Africa by jet and playing to an audience that’s “jet black”, so it’s “Jet to Jet”. How would they accept this band who were all white? That’s how the title came up. I thought what a great title. I mention that at the time, a black person was stereotyped by carrying a big radio on their shoulders, blasting their music. So I put in, “Two hundred pounds worth of megawatts that smack you in the face. There’s no reason to take that weight. Life’s not strapped to your head. Don’t wear the token till the token black is dead.” I was saying you don’t have to do that. You don’t have to be that stereotype. They think in England we go, “Oh blimey mate ye’ alright!” We don’t say that. And not all black people would be carrying a radio on their shoulders, but some of them did while they were rollerskating. That’s where that line came up.
It was sort of tongue in cheek. I remember one night there was a couple of young black metalheads at the front of the audience. When I sang that song, I sang it to them. I made them laugh which was cool. They got what I was getting at. It’s alright to be sarcastic in your lyrics. I’m trying to make fun of myself and the world as it is, but sometimes take the world seriously.
Finally, I couldn’t end this interview without asking the age old question: Yngwie or Vai?
GB: For the first album, obviously Yngwie. He was the perfect guy. It was absolutely perfect for what we wanted to be as a band which was Rainbow part 2. But my favorite album is the second album with Steve Vai. I love the way he played. It was so unexpected and all over the place and avant-garde. He had been with Frank Zappa. He was not your speed freak. He could do it, but he didn’t. But he could and he did. He had to eventually. He had this way of songwriting that I found really, really interesting. I got into songwriting more with him then I did on the first album. I really respected him for being a little bit different. So am I. I like to take things where they unexpectedly would go. Make a left turn when you’re supposed to go straight ahead.