There are very few artists who can stake the claim of being an icon of both metal and punk. In fact, I can only think of four, and two of them are dead (Lemmy and Wendy O. Williams). Of the two living icons, one is about as reclusive as they come (Glenn Danzig) and the other is Ross the Boss. Born Ross H. Friedman, it’s no wonder he quickly earned the title of “the Boss”. His aggressive riffs, piping hot solos, and no nonsense attitude would pioneer what we know today as punk with The Dictators in the 70s, and eventually play a role in the development of power metal with Manowar in the 80s. We sat down the Boss to discuss both genre defining outfits, as well as his current output with Death Dealer and his namesake solo band. “Hail, hail, hail and kill!”
Greetings Ross and welcome to Defenders of the Faith! How are you doing today?
Ross the Boss: I’m good! I’m very good. Thank you for having me here today.
Thank you for taking the time. We’ve got so much to talk about, but I want to start with the here and now. This past week has seen the release of a new Death Dealer EP, Fuel Injected Suicide Machine. This band features yourself, as well as members of Cage, Symphony X, and others. When did this latest collection of songs come together?
RTB: We’ve been on a writing tear since the scamdemic started. We figured, well, no one’s playing anywhere. Stu (Marshall) is just a well of ideas and Sean (Peck) was just…I don’t know. We recorded Death Dealer 4 and Death Dealer 5. They’re in the can. We just took a couple of songs off 4 and chose to make an EP. *laughs* In this strange sense, we’ve been quite prolific.
So we can expect these subsequent albums in the near future?
RTB: Well, we just put out the EP. Everyone thinks some bands just put out music, that’s it. There has to be a way to make money at this for everyone, otherwise you’re not gonna see bands.
Exactly, especially after what we went through the past two years. Do you have any shows lined up coming soon?
RTB: My Ross the Boss band tour is going to start after about 4 or 5 warmup shows in the third week of April here in the northeast. We’re gonna be going to Europe. We’re gonna play Barcelona on April 21st, and then I have 36 shows in Europe. That’ll bring me to the summer festivals. I’ve got a pretty big spot on Sweden Rock, a big show in Poland, if the world doesn’t go to World War 3.
Yeah, that’s definitely something to take into consideration.
RTB: Right.
Now Death Dealer plays that old school power metal style, similar to that of your solo project. When it comes to writing, do you predetermine which riffs and ideas are gonna be for Death Dealer and which ones are gonna be for Ross the Boss?
RTB: Well, the thing about it is, Death Dealer is a two guitar band. In RTB, it’s just me playing guitar. Stu and I have a certain chemistry that we trade off on in our ideas. It seems to just fall into place for ideas.
For most people, they’re introduction to you was likely through Manowar, who we’ll talk about in a little bit. For me, it was at a very young age through a raucous song featured in the movie Kindergarten Cop, “The Party Starts Now” by Manitoba’s Wild Kingdom. Could you tell us a bit about that era and record? Also, why did the band decide not to use the Dictators moniker?
RTB: Manitoba’s Wild Kingdom was an offshoot of The Dictators with only one guitar player. Originally it started with Daniel Rey, who came to play in The Dictators NYC and Shrapnel to start with. What happened was they got me. Daniel said, “I think we need more firepower in this band.”, so they got me, asked me to play and I said, “OK”. It’s basically The Dictators without the rhythm guitar player.
How did that song end up in the movie?
RTB: We had a really strong agent at the time that got it placed there. It’s really amazing. Everyone still loves “The Party Starts Now” *laughs*.
Absolutely! I think I was 6 or 7 years old and I remember that song standing out to me more than most of the movie. I’ve been a fan ever since.
RTB: Even these days, it’s good to have a song like that to remind people, let’s live!
Yep! Of the first 3 Dictators albums, which one is your favorite and why?
RTB: My favorite Dictators record, not in a technical or musical sense, is the first one because it was 1975. It was one year before the Ramones’ first record. I think Go Girl Crazy encapsulated the teenage movement at the time: cars, girls, surfing, beer. Nothing else matters here. Throwing up in the schoolyard. It’s just part of growing up. I think that record pre-dated the punk movement. There was no punk when we started. It was only until CBGB’s and Max’s (Kansas City) and the whole New York scene really started in ’76 that the media swooped down on it and called it punk. Of course, punk in England became the safety pins and the Sex Pistols.
That’s a very interesting point. When society thinks of punk, they think of, as you said, the mohawks, the safety pins, England. But there those bands like yourselves and Ramones tearing up New York at the time, that were really just playing straightforward rock n’ roll, but with a different attitude.
RTB: Yeah, it was never about the style in American punk. It was always about the attitude.
So when did you realize the scene at CBGB’s and those venues was starting to take off, and that there was something more going on than just bands performing?
RTB: Well in late ’76, early ’77, the band started really playing there. Bands seemed to converge on CBGB’s from all over the country. All of a sudden, you had Talking Heads, Blondie, Television, The Dictators, Dead Boys, Ramones, Mink DeVille, a lot of bands from all over. Even when The Dictators went to a five piece, we headlined the Palladium on 14th Street. There was this band from Australia that opened the show. They were called AC/DC. We were like, “These guys are fucking amazing.” Great guys, great band, perfect. When they finished their set, they went to CBGB’s. That’s how famous CBGB’s was. They played two sets that night. It’s even in the AC/DC blog. We played a lot of shows with them, Thin Lizzy, Cheap Trick. ’77 really was the explosion of CBGB’s.
Now that you mention it, was it around that same time you guys played a show with AC/DC here in Chicago at the Aragon?
RTB: I don’t know. We played a couple of shows at the Aragon. I know we played with Mahogany Rush. I know we played with a lot of bands we shouldn’t have been playing with *laughs*. Frank (Marino), great guy, Styx, a lot of bands we weren’t even supposed to be playing with, but we played with anyway. I know we played with AC/DC…I’d have to look at the bio, but we did play with AC/DC a couple of times. The AC/DC/Thin Lizzy/Dictators shows were very, very interesting because they hated each other.
Really?
RTB: Both of those bands loved us, but they hated each other *laughs*.
Was it an ego thing? What was the deal?
RTB: I don’t know. I think it was something about Aussies not liking UK guys. I don’t know what it was *laughs*. It was really strange being in the middle of that. Both bands were just absolutely phenomenal. There was Gary Moore on guitar there. I remember the first time I walked in and he was playing Greenie, that Les Paul which was Peter Green’s original ’59 sunburst. That guitar is now in the hands of Kirk Hammett from Metallica. I think he bought it for millions of dollars. I don’t know what it was, but I’m glad it’s at least in his hands and not a collector.
By the way, there’s another very famous guitar. I mentioned Daniel Rey, who was in The Dictators NYC for 7 years. He was a producer and writer for the Ramones, as was Andy (Shernoff) from The Dictators. Anyway, he bought Johnny Ramone’s guitar. It was his famous Maestro guitar. That guitar was just sold to Jim Irsay of the Indianapolis Colts, who supposedly has biggest collection of guitars in the world, for $750,000.
That’s a nice lump sum right there!
RTB: *laughs* You know, that’s why I’m saving all of these *shows room of 25+ guitars*. That’s just a little fact about that, but yeah, AC/DC was amazing. CBGB’s was a great scene, and the sad thing about it is The Dictators NYC, which is not what the new band is, played the last two shows there. We played Friday and Saturday, that was it. On Sunday, Patti Smith played, but she can’t be considered punk rock or proto-punk, so we played the last two shows. On Friday night, it was like, “Okay, it’s another normal night at CBGB’s.” We had played there 37 times already, true. That Saturday night, I’m onstage and I’m thinking, “Ross, this is it. THIS is it. There’s no more CBGB’s after this. It’s the end.”
Hilly (Kristal) did an amazing job to keep it open, but the headliners were just not there every weekend to make the money. We used to do two shows a night. So what we did was the last song that we played, we invited Tommy Ramone, who was the only surviving Ramone left, to come up and play and sing “Blitzkrieg Bop” with the band. Later he passed away from cancer. That was it.
What a fitting sendoff. I couldn’t think of a better band or combination of people to close that place.
RTB: Yeah, it just broke our hearts. I remember saying, “This is the end.” To me, to walk out of that place where I spent so many days and weekends of my youth, our youth and the history of rock n’ roll, to know what went on and to just leave, it was quite emotional. It was.
Going back to the AC/DC/Thin Lizzy/Dictators tour, if I remember correctly, I think that was the tour for this album right here, Bloodbrothers, which is my favorite Dictators release. There’s so many classic cuts on here, my favorite being “The Minnesota Strip”. How did that song come together?
RTB: We couldn’t believe 48th Street and Port Authority, where all these girls from all over the country would come in and started working, selling themselves. We called it “The Minnesota Strip” because all these folks from Minnesota came *laughs*. You know, “Hey, hey, who’s your daddy little girl? Hey, hey, we gotta do it quick. We like young girls on the Minnesota Strip.” Andy, being the main songwriter of The Dictators, said, “I got this riff.” It’s a pretty heavy fuckin’ riff! So we put the song together and that’s “The Minnesota Strip”.
Did it ever occur to you the similarity between that riff and the lead riff to Danzig’s “Twist of Cain”?
RTB: Well, we know whose song came first *laughs*. We also know that Stone Temple Pilots must’ve listened to that song once or twice. A lot of bands went to school on The Dictators, let me tell you. I’m not saying anything, but you can kind of hear it in a lot of bands.
Totally. Another song off Bloodbrothers I’ve been curious about is “Faster and Louder”, which features a brief cameo from the other Boss, Bruce Springsteen. How did that end up happening?
RTB: We were recording at the Record Plant in New York City on 45th or 46th Street. I don’t remember, but it’s not around anymore. It was a very famous studio. KISS recorded Destroyer there, Springsteen recorded Born to Run, we did Manifest Destiny, and BÖC recorded a lot of records there. Everyone who was anyone recorded at the Record Plant. We were in Studio C. Bruce Springsteen and his E Street Band were in Studio A. They were doing Darkness on the Edge of Town. Clarence (Clemons) would come in all the time and ask us if we got any weed. He’d be like, “Don’t tell the Boss!” “Okay no problem! We won’t say a word!” “Don’t tell the Boss about this weed man!” “Clarence, relax. You can come in anytime you want. We love you. Ask Bruce if he wants to come in and do something with us.”
There’s pictures of Bruce wearing Dictators shirts live. He obviously liked us. He wouldn’t wear nothing that he didn’t like and respect, so he came in. “Alright, what can I do fellas?” “We’ve got this part in “Faster and Louder” with this buildup. We want you to say 1, 2, 1, 2, 3, 4!” He did it first take and was right there man. It was cool. He’s a great guy. A lot of people don’t like his politics, but that’s OK. I don’t think people should put politics in music. I think it’s boring, but we love him. We love him and the E Street Band, there’s no doubt about it. Back then, all that mattered was rock n’ roll. To me, all that matters is rock n’ roll and metal and doing a righteous job, playing from your heart. That’s the way I am.
Great rock n’ roll and great heavy metal at that. After The Dictators, you joined a short lived early French metal band named Shakin’ Street. How did you get involved with this band and what was the scene like in France at the time?
RTB: The thing with Shakin’ Street was that Sandy Pearlman was in Paris with Blue Öyster Cult. This band Shakin’ Street, they were on CBS France, so I guess they got passes. They went to see Blue Öyster Cult. Fabienne (Shine), who was an absolutely stunningly beautiful woman, went to meet Sandy. “Sandy, hi! Sandy, we’re on CBS France.” She’s seducing him and Sandy’s like *eyes wide open* *laughs*! When you met her, she was going out with Jimmy Page, so Sandy’s like, “What are you doing for your next record?” “There’s a problem Sandy. Our guitar player sold his guitar for heroin and he’s not in the band anymore. We need a guitar player. Do you know anybody?” Sandy goes, “Well…”
The Dictators had stopped playing. We took a hiatus. I wasn’t doing nothing. That night, Sandy calls me. “They want you in Paris.” “Who wants me in Paris, Sandy?” “They’re called Shakin’ Street. You’re flying to Paris tomorrow.” I get my guitar, pack my bags, went to JFK. Next think you know, I’m in Paris at the Paris University. They got a room down there. I plug in my guitar. “Blah, blah, blah. How you doin’?” I played like five seconds and they stopped me. “Oh, they must hate me.” They go, “You wanna be in the band? You want the job?” “Yeah.” Their songs were OK. It was alright. I can play anything since I play blues. That’s how I started playing. My library, I started with A on guitar.
During the band, we went to San Francisco, made the record, and started touring. They got us on these big shows. Stadium shows with UFO, Cheap Trick, Molly Hatchet, BÖC, Day on the Green. Next thing you know, we’re in England supporting Black Sabbath on Heaven and Hell. It was Ronnie James Dio’s first tour of England with Sabbath. We were playing in Manchester or Newcastle. Ronnie comes up to me and goes, “You know Ross, you’re a fuckin’ great guitar player.” “Why thank you sir.” “I got this guy on my crew named Joey (DeMaio). You should meet him. He plays bass unlike anybody you’ve ever seen before.” “Okay, yes sir Mr. Dio.”
I put my guitar down. Doors were in about an hour, hour and a half. I go see Joey. “Ronnie says I have to meet you. You play bass?” “Yeah, let’s go up to Black Sabbath’s dressing room. I’ll play Geezer’s (Butler) spare bass.” We started playing, blasting on their amps. I remember they had these big Roland amps. We were blasting on them and talking about things. We wanted to form a band that was like a power trio, where each guy is mighty, like Grand Funk Railroad, Mountain, Cream, Led Zeppelin, The Who, in that kind of format. As the days went on, I kept playing and playing.
We’d be playing in all these odeons when Black Sabbath was on and the dressing rooms were right above the stage. Sabbath would stop and we’d be blasting away. Geezer and Tony (Iommi) would look up and go, “What the fuck?!” Ronnie would go, “That’s OK. It’s Ross and Joey.” They go, “Ah, OK. No problem!” *laughs* They were very supportive.
Thus Manowar was born.
RTB: Yep. I had a guy. We came back to the States. I arranged to leave Shakin’ Street. My last show was in Hawaii at Aloha Stadium. I came back and we named the replacement. We were very, very courteous and very respectful. We didn’t want to hurt anybody, didn’t want to hurt Shakin’ Street. One of Joey’s friends got the job. They kept playing and we kept writing. I had a friend who was the head of A&R at EMI Liberty in New York City, Bob Currie. He happened to come see me when Shakin’ Street played with BÖC on the Boardwalk at Asbury Park. Next thing you know, we have a demo budget and we got the record contract. I got the record contract.
It’s hard to believe, but this year marks the 40th anniversary of Manowar’s first album, Battle Hymns. What are your memories of recording that album and which songs stand out to you?
RTB: We recorded it down at Criteria Studios in Miami. Aerosmith was recording with Jimmy Crespo. Meh, that album was alright. But Battle Hymns was an amazing collection of songs. What can I say? We were rehearsed. We were so tight. We went in there and it was great. We had a party house in Fort Lauderdale with a pool. *laughs* A lot of female friends from the rock clubs would always pay us visits and go out at night, have a few adult beverages. We’d wake up and do the same thing everyday. *laughs* It was a really tough life! We finished Battle Hymns and it was a horrible winter in the northeast. We didn’t want to leave. It was great, but it’ll never happen again though. As a matter of fact, those 6 records in a row will never happen again.
How did Orson Welles end up doing the narration on “Dark Avenger” and “Defender”?
RTB: We had the song “Dark Avenger” and this whole section that needed something, and not singing from our singer, Eric Adams, one of the greatest metal singers ever. I thought, “Who do we get? How about a narration? How about we get James Earl Jones or Vincent Price or…Orson Welles?” Bob Currie, being the great guy he is, looked up his manager. He was living in Las Vegas, and in an amazing set of events, Orson would be in that coming weekend for the Night of 100 Stars at Radio City Music Hall. He’s in New York, so what do we do? We rent Media Sound on 57th Street and send a limo. He agrees to it!
We sent him the text and he loved it. They sent him up in the freight elevator because he was too big to be in a regular elevator. These rich New York City women in their mink coats were fawning on him when he got out of the limo. People were freaking out because of what he meant to that generation. Joey and I come in. We hear him set up in the studio. “Are the authors here?” Joey and I are looking at each other like, “Holy shit!” So he did it, that, “Defender”, and the intro. “Ladies and gentlemen, from the United States of America. All hail Manowar.” The rest is history. Everything just lined up. The stars were in our favor.
You speak of those first 6 albums and how they’ll never happen again. They built the bedrock for everything that would follow for Manowar, as well as power metal as a genre.
RTB: My man from Amon Amarth said “Gates of Valhalla” really spawned viking metal to them. We’ve been very influential. It’s an honor. I play the songs from my era all over the place. I do RTB songs and then Manowar. People are just so complimentary. Everywhere I go, there’s so many new fans coming. I can’t wait to get back to Europe to see what’s happened in the past two years, IF we get back to Europe. I’m watching this shitshow daily. We’ll see.
Manowar has an extremely dedicated fanbase, the Manowarriors. What is the most over the top run in you’ve had with a Manowarrior?
RTB: This guy had the whole Manowar Battle Hymns eagle on his back. I signed his arm. He tattoos “Ross the Boss” on his arm, from the way I signed it, right? Then he says, “Let’s cut ourselves!”, like they do in Excalibur, the two kings. I go, “Let’s calm down there kid. We don’t need the blood. I see your dedication.” *laughs* This guy was so over the fucking top. He goes, “You changed my life! You saved my life! I was so depressed and this music kept me going!” You wouldn’t believe how many times I hear that. It’s an honor to hear that, and I hear it every single day, whether it be with Manowar or The Dictators. All these records may not have been the biggest records in the world, and may not have sold more records than some bands, but it’s out there and people are really very wonderful to me. It’s an amazing thing.
Going way back in time for a minute, I came a cross a demo on YouTube from 1975 of you and Albert Bouchard of Blue Öyster Cult performing an early version of “Sinful Love”, which would end up on BÖC’s, Agents of Fortune. Would you regularly demo songs with Albert and do any other demos of this nature exist?
RTB: The only one that would know that is Albert, but I’ve been working with him for a long time. We’ve always said, if we would’ve put Albert on Go Girl Crazy, it would’ve been a massive hit. He was in the studio with BÖC, in the studio next door. I said, if only he played. He was so much better than Stu Boy (King), who’s not with us anymore. I collaborated with Albert a lot. I joined his band Brain Surgeons and I did this amazing record called Denial of Death. It has mostly all my songs. My wish is to redo that record with a great metal female lead singer. Albert’s like, “Eh.” I’m like, “Albert, please. Eddie Trunk said if we would’ve done that, if the singer was top notch, it would’ve been a smash record.” That’s how good those songs were.
Now, Albert Bouchard once again, is the new drummer in The Dictators. We’re still working together. I love him to death. I know he feels that way about me. We have a couple singles out. We’re supposed to have a rehearsal Wednesday, but I have to go to a funeral now, so we’re gonna move it to next week. We plan on starting to play gigs. It’s me, Andy Shernoff, Keith Roth from SiriusXM, and Albert Bouchard, because our other guitarist, Scott Kempner, tragically has dementia.
If you don’t mind me asking, where does Handsome Dick stand in all this?
RTB: He stands on the outside, likely to never to get back in.
We can leave it at that. Now besides those upcoming European tour dates for Ross the Boss, what does the rest of the year have in store for you?
RTB: As I said, The Dictators are recording now. We’ll probably have a record contract pretty soon. We can’t divulge with who, but we wanna put out this record and start playing shows. The Ross the Boss band is playing in April here, four shows to warm up in the northeast. We’ll then go to Europe for the main tour that was cancelled and postponed twice already. Then we have the festivals in the summer. Hopefully we’re gonna have a US Ross the Boss tour in the fall. As far as live shows for The Dictators and Death Dealer go, hopefully we’re gonna start in 2023. Let’s just hope we can do it. Plus, I do all sessions all the time. People send me songs. There’s always something! I just wanna wish everyone all the best and thank you for listening. Wherever you see Ross the Boss band, come see us! You’re not gonna be disappointed, I guarantee it!
The new Death Dealer EP, Fuel Injected Suicide Machine, is out now on Steel Cartel Records. For more information on Ross the Boss, visit www.ross-the-boss.com. For more information on Death Dealer, visit www.deathdealermetal.com. For more information on The Dictators, visit www.thedictators.com.