Quiet Riot is in the house! Well...not this house, but they were in the Rhythm House a couple of weeks ago where they put on a kickass show as always! As many of our readers know by now, Quiet Riot were a huge part of the Labor Day Weekend Blowout in PA that featured Jackyl, BulletBoys, Daniel MacMaster and Ron Keel, thanks to our good friends Sweet Lou Hetzer and his wife Sue Hetzer of Glam Slam Productions.

Quiet Riot is a band that has without a doubt, stood the test of time. These guy's have been on more tours than you can imagine over the years, and have shared the stage with bands like Whitesnake, and Judas Priest! They've been around the block so to speak, and are still out there bringing their thundering live shows to our neighborhoods so we can all Bang Our Heads!

During the rock n' roll madness on labor day weekend, I had the opportunity to sit down with Drummer Frankie Banali, and vocalist Kevin DuBrow who were kind enough to give us a peek into their world of touring, recording, and how they like to do business in general. They also talked about their new album titled "REHAB," which will be coming out early next month here in the states! So, here's the legendary Frankie Banali and Kevin DuBrow of Quiet Riot! Enjoy!

Kevin DuBrow and Frankie Banali, how the hell are you guys?
KEVIN: Great thanks!
FRANKIE: Doing great!

Welcome back from vacation, I didn't think you guy's ever took a break from touring.
KEVIN: Believe it or not, we don't tour as much as you think anymore.
FRANKIE : We're on the road more than most bands, but not as much as we were a few years ago. A few years ago, we were touring constantly, and it was more of a deficit than a plus, and that's why we cut back.
KEVIN: When Frankie and I got back together, we came up with a working philosophy of the way the band was going to be run, which changed from how the band was run previously. We've stuck with our philosophy, and it's made the whole thing better musically, better personally, and easier on him business wise. Everything's not up to a vote, people say the band is an equal partnership, and all of this democracy, well you know...you can't really run a band like that, it's just to difficult, everyone specializes in their own thing. You have to have one chief man...everyone says hey Kevin, what's this, what's that, and so on, and I just say, "Ask Frankie."

I understand. You can't have to many cooks in the kitchen man.
KEVIN: Exactly! But sometimes you shouldn't tell people they shouldn't be cooks. (Laughs) I'm not speaking necessarily for previous members of Quiet Riot, I'm just talking about musicians in general, you know? This is what works best for us.

Starting with you Kevin, what did you do to relax and chill out on your vacation?
KEVIN: I went to Maui.

How about you Frankie?
FRANKIE: I just enjoy spending time with Family really.

Kevin, I'm excited to hear that Quiet Riot has a brand new studio album coming out, titled "REHAB." Mind telling us a little about the album and what people can expect from it?
KEVIN: It's a departure from previous Quiet Riot albums. The songs are composed differently, and recorded differently. It's similar to our Quiet Riot albums in two ways, it's got my vocal sound, which is like it or not, distinctive, and Frankie Banali might be only one of maybe five drummers around who's identifiable with his drum sound. You've got John Bonham, Ginger Baker, Cozy Powell, Frankie Banali, and maybe Keith Moon as guy's who are distinctive by their drum sounds, besides their playing. Song writing wise, we dug into our 70's roots, and some of the guitar texture are more modern sounding. Not modern sounding like you may think, but more bluesy I think.

How happy are you with the new release, and is there anything you'd like to say about the new record Frankie?
FRANKIE: I'm very happy with the fact that it's getting released, and that it's getting released worldwide. Beyond that, I think it's a great record, I think the songs are great, I think it's a very different Quiet Riot record, but we'll let the listening public decide what they think.
KEVIN: It's all about the songs. The big emphasis was on the song writing, and other times for one reason or another, we went in a direction that was applicable to all four people that were playing in the group. On this one, Frankie and I were able to go in whatever direction we wanted to, and not having to cater to any personal style other than what we wanted to do.

I actually dig the title, "REHAB" for some reason. Who's idea was it for the name, and is there a particular reason why it's called "REHAB" Frankie?
FRANKIE: The idea to use "REHAB" for the title, was Kevin's idea. When he called me up and told me about the possible title, I saw it as a potential gold mine for marketing, so it has to do more with that than any notion of "REHAB" as it's usually found in the rock music business.
KEVIN: But also, it's a good solid title like "Condition Critical." You've got "Metal Health," "Condition Critical," " Rehab."

Kevin, are you guy's planning on touring in support of "REHAB?"
KEVIN: We tour whether we are supporting an album or not. With "REHAB" being released worldwide, it gives us the opportunity to play places that we haven't played at all, so absolutely we're going to tour in support of "REHAB."

Are you guy's going to do a huge tour and take a couple of other bands along with you?
FRANKIE: I think for 2006 the idea of any package tours where the summer is now over, is minimal at best. This record is new, so we'll have next year as well to tour in support of "REHAB." We'll see what next year has to bring.
KEVIN: We'll have a good twelve months off "REHAB" easy. If it comes out the 3rd of October in the U.S....Ah...What's the dates on the rest of the world Frankie?
FRANKIE: A couple of territories are mid November, Japan is the beginning of December, South America is the middle of November...
KEVIN: So we'll have at least a solid year for "REHAB."

Kevin, what's a couple of your favorite tracks off the cd?
KEVIN: I really like a song that Frankie brought which is called " Old Habits Die Hard." That's my personal favorite, because it's a blues song that Glenn Hughes wrote the lyrics for. That's my favorite, because I've always wanted to do a Blues song, but for whatever reason, we never did. Quiet Riot isn't known to be a Blues band, and we aren't a Blues band, but all rock bands are Blues based. I like the whole album, I really like "Black Reign" which is a song that I demo'd and decided not to use, but Frankie said, "Let me do my thing to it," and it turned out better than I envisioned it, and it's now one of my favorites also. I like the whole album for one reason or another. I think it captures what we were going for, it wasn't the easiest record to make, but not all good things come easily. It's all about the songs on this record.

How about you Frankie? Do you have a personal favorite or two?
FRANKIE : Yeah. I can agree with Kevin, I like everything on the record, which is pretty rare. Kevin wrote a song called "South Of Heaven" which is a very Zeppelinish type of tune, so it was the perfect vehicle for my style of drumming, so that song fit for me really well. Another song on the record called "Don't Think" which has a real dirty, gritty kind of vibe to it, which is cool, and I like that quite a bit as well. There is no song on the record that I don't like. There aren't any weak tracks.
KEVIN : I wrote "South Of Heaven" specifically for his drum style. I came up with the riffs specifically for his drumming and his actual drum set, his Ludwig kit that he uses in the studio. We don't always use it on fly-out gigs, but it has such a unique sound when he plays them. The first thing you hear when the drums come in, was written for his style and sound. Keep that in mind when you listen to this album man.

Was the writing process for "REHAB" any different than you guys would normally write?
KEVIN: It was different in two seperate ways. It was pretty much half and half I think. Frankie wrote his half of the songs with Neil Citron, and what they did was, they would go into the studio at Steve Vai's house, they would cut a demo... basically a two minute version of whatever the song is. That's all they did, a verse, a chorus, a verse, chorus, and so on... that was pretty much it, not even a solo for most of them. Then, they would send me a good mixed MP3, and I would then put the MP3 on my program at home, and try to write lyrics and melodies, and in most instances, I had a lot of difficulty, because the music was a real departure for me, I'm used to "Bang Your Head," and everything, you know? For example, a song called "Blind Faith" on the album, which I came up with the title for, and I heard it for over a year on the Rock Never Stops Tour last year, and I played it for my friend's Chris Logan who is the singer for Michael Schenker Group, Michael Lardie, and a couple of other singer's, and nobody could figure out what to sing on it, nobody! (Laughs) So...I played it for Glenn Hughes at my house one day, and he said, "Go away," so I went into the other room, and I went back in a few minutes later, and he had recorded and written the lyric and the melody for the whole thing! So... I would do my stuff at home on the computer, then I would send it to Frankie, and then he would take it to rehersal, and add in his parts and arrange it. A song I mentioned earlier called "Black Reign," inherently the music was very similar to what the demo was, but it sounds like a completely different song...if you heard the demo you'd giggle. Even though the music is the same, what the drums do is capture the spirit of the song. When you listen to it, you'll understand. I don't think anybody is capable of doing this. It's really exciting! The only guy who has tried to do this kind of drumming in recent years is Taylor Hawkins I think on a couple of Foo Fighters songs. I think Frankie has managed to capture this better than anybody.

Frankie, You are a kickass drummer man!
FRANKIE : Thanks Doob! I kick my own ass sometimes. (Laughs)

You remind me of the Animal on the Muppets! Fucking hair and sticks flying everywhere man! (Laughs)
FRANKIE: I get told that quite often actually!
KEVIN: Yeah, Frankie does get that a lot!

When you guy's have been out on some package tours and stuff over the years, does it make you feel bad when you blow other bands completely off the stage?
FRANKIE: We don't go out there with the idea of blowing other bands off the stage, but we definitely go out there with a competitive edge. That's the way Kevin and I have always been. We don't go up there to make another band look bad, but we definitely go up there to give them a hard time musically to follow us.
KEVIN: We're very competitive! Frankie and I are sometimes competitive with each other as well. We try and bring out the best of each other as well. You'll see Frankie and I look at each other alot when we're playing, which you won't see with a lot of other bands.
FRANKIE : My personal feeling has always been to give the audience more than what they've paid for, sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn't, but that's the attitude.

You've got the very talented Alex Grossi and Chuck Wright currently in the band still. These guy's seem to jell quite nicely with you guys, and obviously have a quality about them that you like. What are the qualities in these two guys that you really dig the most Frankie?
FRANKIE: There's a couple of things. Let's first start with Chuck, because he's been a part of the Quiet Riot equation over the years. Chuck is probably overall the most talented bass player that Quiet Riot has had...

Even over Rudy?
FRANKIE: Yeah, and the reason being, Chuck has a history of doing a lot of different sessions, and when you're doing a lot of different sessions, you bring a lot of different styles to the table. Rudy is great at what Rudy does, and he's probably the best showman in the business when it comes to it, and obviously he's a great bass player, because he's out with Ronnie James Dio now, but as far as being able to play a variety of styles, Chuck has definitely brought more to the table musically, and I've gone on record to say that many times. Musically, Chuck is a valuable asset. What Alex has brought to the table besides being one of the funniest guy's I've ever known, is he brings this youthful enthusiasm to the band, and also, he listens to a lot of music that Kevin and I don't generally listen to, because we're pretty much set in our ways, and our taste in music. Alex brings another side of it that seems to infiltrate into the bands psyche.
KEVIN: I think it's important to remember, that a band plays about seventy-five minutes per night, and spends about twenty-two hours together besides that. Not when we're sleeping obviously, (Laughs) but you get my meaning right? It's interesting to know that you can have the greatest players in the world, but if you cannot tolorate somebody, let alone like them, it can be very difficult. I've had many cases where I've played with musicians that were great players, but I couldn't stand to be around them! Having just said that, on a personal level, we all have good chemistry, and we all have the same sense of humor basically...
FRANKIE: Fuck You! (Laughs)
KEVIN: (Laughs) There, you see what I mean!?

Frankie, I understand Rudy is out with Dio, but I'm surprised Carlos hasn't been touring with Quiet Riot. Why is that, and do you expect him to return anytime soon?
FRANKIE: When we decided to re-group, we did ask Carlos if he wanted to participate, and Carlo's position was that unless it involved the so called original "Metal Health" era members, he wasn't interested. So...by his own choice, he declined the offer. I can tell you without any reservation, and with no disrespect to Carlos, that that invitation would not be repeated, and I told him that at the time. Is there a chance that Carlos will be involved in Quiet Riot again, I can say with all assurences, no. Will there ever be a Quiet Riot that will include the so called original "Metal Health" era band members... no, that will not happen either. I think people need to put that to rest. I think also people need to understand that with the time that Quiet Riot has existed, and i'm talking post Randy Rhodes era Quiet Riot, there has been a longer period of Quiet Riot that did include those four individuals, including Kevin and I. I think people need to get the notion that the so called original Quiet Riot isn't going to happen anymore than Bill Wyman is going to start playing with the Stones again.
KEVIN: I think it's important to remember to, is that when we play live, people have a certain vision of Quiet Riot, but I think it's about the era, and songs, and the memories from that era, the early 80's, and the whole MTV generation. I think we've proved for the last three years that Quiet Riot as a concept is what people are really still enjoying regardless of who's in the band...
FRANKIE : You know...it's impossible to meet an audiences nostalgic view of what the band should be, and be realistic, because once they leave, that nostalgia goes out there with them, but we still have to stay together, and that doesn't always work.

Frankie, since you handle all of the Quiet Riot business, I'll ask you this next question. I'm curious about all of the line-up changes in the past few months. What's up with that man?
FRANKIE : It's actually pretty easy to nail down. At the end of 2005, Chuck and Alex's contracts were done, because we do an annually contract with them, and at that point in time, Kevin and I knew that we wanted to do a record, we didn't know when or how, and it was best to cut them loose. There were some issues that were going on internally anyways, that needed to be worked out, and we figured that time would take care of those, but we didn't have the time to wait for that, and also go in and do a record. We auditioned a variety of bass players, most of them were not working out. We went into the studio and used Tony Franklin specifically to do the record, and Glenn Hughes was kind enough to play bass on a track and do a vocal duet with Kevin. We used Neil Citron, who is a briliiant studio gutarist, and is also a very good engineer. At one point we entertained the idea of having Tracii Guns in the band, but that was very short lived, and didn't work out, we had only one rehersal and it wasn't working for everybody. Ah...so we went ahead and did the record from a seperate situation as an actual touring band, and during that period of time, we've gotten back together with Alex and Chuck, and we've been moving forward ever since.

Again Frankie, speaking of the business part of the band, how much of the business are you involved in, and what's your secret to running the business end, as well as being the drummer, and not going completly fucking crazy?
FRANKIE: It took me a long time to actually learn the value of seperating church and state. It's like the government, church and state. As far as I'm concerned, the music is the church, and the business is the state, and if you can seperate the two of them, you should be able to function in both worlds very easliy.

How much of the Quiet Riot business are you involved with?
FRANKIE: All of it.

Ok Frankie, another question for you. Of all you have accomplished so far in your music career, which is quite a bit, what are you most proud of?
FRANKIE: Musically, I'm most proud of the fact that Kevin and I have been able to maintain a friendship for over a quarter of a century, and that we've managed to keep Quiet Riot a viable music entity in spite of a lot of negative things both internally and externally. I think being able to do something that you love professionally for twenty-five years, and to keep that spirt alive, is a great accomplishment. Beyond that, my family, that's it. Everything else is everything else.

Same question for you Kevin, you've got a lot to be proud of as well man.
KEVIN: I have the same answer pretty much. My greatest accomplishment is to still be here and being able to discuss it with you. You know, you read some of the websites that give us a lot shit, and they say, why don't they pack it up and so on, but we're still here doing it, and enjoying it, and I would never stop doing anything I enjoy doing, no matter what anyone says! That's like having sex, and somebody says, you shouldn't be doing that. Why? (Laughs)
FRANKIE: Because you do it poorly! (Laughs)
KEVIN: There's a good reason! (Laughs) So...no matter what anyone says, I'm gonna keep on doing it, and I still get to do it, I'm still able to do it, and I feel I still do it well. The important thing is, I still get the opportunity to do it after all these years. I agree with Frankie, that's the greatest accomplishment, to be able to still earn a living doing what you love, there's no heavy lifting involved, it's not brain surgery, and people are very entertained at what we do, and we managed to make a new record again. It's cool to still be able to make another record, and we almost didn't make it to sell it, we made it because we wanted to make a record for ourselves, an artistic statement for ourselves. I'm very happy that after all these years, we still were able to record and put out new material.
FRANKIE : I think the truly important thing to also remember is the fact that if there weren't still people out there interested in Quiet Riot, regardless of what you may hear, or may read, we wouldn't be able to do it. If it wasn't for the fans, you and I wouldn't be having this conversation right now.
KEVIN: The proof is in the pudding! 

Frankie, I think it's safe to say that Quiet Riot have pretty much played everywhere, except Iraq, Iran, and North Korea, places like that, but is there some place that you haven't played that you'd like to?
KEVIN: We haven't played Australia.
FRANKIE: The only place I think we haven't played that we would like to go to, is Australia. There's some other countries that I think we would enjoy playing, but unfortunatly touring in the new millennium, with everything that's going on politically in the world makes it impossible. So...you can't just go to India anymore, because there could be a problem.
KEVIN: I'd like to play Italy and Greece, I've never played there.
Frankie: There's a lot of Asian countries that you can no longer go to, and you can forget about any Islamic countries man. But Australia is a target place for us, and there are some Eastern European countries that I know Kevin hasn't done, that he would enjoy.

Australia would be a great place to introduce "REHAB."
FRANKIE: You never know! Stranger things have happened.

Frankie, you guy's have toured with so many different bands over the years, is there a particular tour that you enjoyed the most? One that really stands out in your memory?
FRANKIE: Probably with Cinderella. They are a great band musically, and as people, they were great. In a business that's full of unprofessionals, and a lot of ego's, we didn't find a thread of that working with Cinderella. They were truly a pleasure to work with.

How about for you Kevin?
KEVIN: I would have to agree with Frankie again, Cinderella were great. All of the guys in the band, personally, professionally, and musically were really cool to work with. Second to them, I'd say Whitesnake in 1984 opening for us was a thrill, because David Coverdale was an old hero, Cozy Powell was definitely an old hero, so to play with those two guys every night for a couple of months was great, and on a personal level as well. So Cinderella, and when Whitesnake opened up for us in 84 really stands out. Oh, and Judas Priest, we opened for them in 83, on an English tour! First, I have to say, as a "Heavy Metal" band, I think that they're the best at it in the world, and we couldn't even get close to blowing them away, and we had been doing that with some other bands that we had been opening for in 83. Judas Priest were the nicest, most professional, coolest guys you can ask for, and I saw them again at the VH1 Rock Honors, and I saw K.K. and Glenn, and they were exactly the same! The coolest, best Heavy Metal band there will ever be. Rob Halford came into our dressing room on our first date in New Castle, and introduced himself like we didn't know who he was. Frankie had had the video that had just came out recently of the "Screaming For Vengeance Tour," he had it on VHS at home, and we had just finished watching it until months earlier. We loved that "Screaming For Vengeance" album! There were three defining albums for us at that time, "Screaming For Vengeance," Back In Black," and "Heaven And Hell" by Black Sabbath. So... in walks Rob, and we were just knocked out by it, I mean we were all fans, you know?

Kevin, what's one of the craziest, weirdest, or sickest thing that you've ever witnessed on the road?
KEVIN: That question gets asked, and I can never really pinpoint anything man.

How about you Frankie, can you share a road story or two with us?
FRANKIE: You know, what ever it was, it was fun at the time, but now in retrospect, it really wasn't that much fun. (Laughs)
KEVIN: There are those comedy moments, but you'd have to have been there and know the person involved in the story. It usually involved roadies, and we had one roadie in particular that we really liked, that was really really funny, and he used to make us cry laughing man, but nothing that anybody would understand if they weren't in the band or in the group.

So nobody got stabbed by the bus driver or anything then huh?
KEVIN: Ah...no, but some bus drivers almost got stabbed by the band. (Laughs) 

(Laughs) Ok then...what's a couple of your favorite Glam-Metal bands from back in the day Kevin?
KEVIN: Sweet, and I don't know if you'd call the Faces a Glam band, but Mott the Hoople. I like the Faces, Sweet, and Mott the Hoople of that kind of image.

How about you Frankie?
FRANKIE: Bowie.
KEVIN: Oh yeah man, Bowie. That's one I forgot.

Frankie, you've been a musician forever, and you know the in's and out's of this business as well. What advice would you give to any younger musicians trying to break into the music business today?
FRANKIE: To stop expecting that you're gonna be successful right around the corner, because it takes a lot of hard work. It's really as simple as that, and it doesn't even matter whether you're great or mediocre. I've seen a lot of mediocre bands have an incredible amount of success just by their tenacity and luck, and keeping at it. I've also seen great bands that have amounted to absolutely nothing, it's like anything else in life, you know? It's like playing the stock market, you bet on the wrong stock, you lose, you bet on the right stock, you win. Are there any guarantee's? No. Same thing in the music business.

Kevin, you've been doing what you do for a long time as well, how has the music business changed since you first started out back in the day?
KEVIN: Everything! There's no career's anymore, there's a hit record and that's it.

One more thing, and again Frankie, since you're the business guy, I'll ask you this. What happened to the official Quiet Riot site, and do you plan to get one up at some point?
FRANKIE: Probably not. Kevin has his own website which he devotes a section of to Quiet Riot and I have my own website which I devote a section of to Quiet Riot as well.

In closing, is there anything you'd like to say to all of the Quiet Riot fans out there Kevin?
KEVIN: Yeah, it's all about the new album for me. It's all about "REHAB." We've put a lot of time and energy into it, and a lot of love, and it's all about these songs. In the next couple of months of touring, we're gonna be adding songs from "REHAB" into the show, so that's what it's all about for me.

How about you Frankie?
FRANKIE: "REHAB." It's being released in the beginning of October here in the U.S., and it's being released in November worldwide.

Thank you both for talking with GlamMetal.com once again, and good luck with "Rehab," and everything else you've got going on!
FRANKIE : Thanks for having us man.
KEVIN: Thank you Doobie.