Post by HARD ROCK UNIVERSE on May 28, 2006 23:10:57 GMT -5
Graham Bonnet Of Rainbow/MSG/Alcatrazz
Interview by Nightwatcher
December 4, 2005
Ever since emerging on the metal/hard rock scene back in 1979 with the release of Rainbow's 'Down To Earth' album, Skegness, Lincolnshire, England born Graham Bonnet has been rightly considered one of the finest vocalists ever to front a hard rockin' band. Even after leaving Rainbow, Bonnet's work with Michael Schenker on '82's classic 'Assault Attack,' Alcatrazz's 80's classics ' No Parole From Rock 'N Roll,' 'Disturbing The Peace' and 'Dangerous Games,' as well as Impellitteri's '88 classic 'Stand In Line' all worked to solidify his reputation as having one of the most powerful voices ever in heavy rock history. In addition to his incredible prowess as a singer, Bonnet has had the knack of aligning himself with some of the most talented guitarists in the history of the genre, beginning with Ritchie Blackmore, continuing with the young Swedish virtuoso Yngwie Malmsteen and Steve Vai in Alcatrazz, through Chris Impellitteri, all the way to the present day with his work with Italian guitarist Dario Mollo in Elektric Zoo and the upcoming Moonstone Project. the brainchild of yet another Italian axe wizard Matt Fillipini. Keeping himself busy seems to be one of Bonnet's driving forces, as he's also written and recorded the title track to Michael Schenker's 'Tales Of Rock & Roll' album, which celebrates the 25th anniversary of MSG set for release in 2006. Recently I had the pleasure of sitting down with Graham as we discussed, not only about his years in headbanging rock, but his early days as well as part of the hit making duo The Marbles, whose Barry Gibb produced "Only One Woman" reached the upper reaches of the British singles charts all the way back in 1968, jump starting the career which has spanned almost an incredible 40 years thus far, and doesn't seem to be slowing down anytime soon. Join us as we take a trip though the history of one of rock's legendary vocalists, Mr. Graham Bonnet.
Special thanks go to Billy James of Glass Onyon PR for coordinating, and a BIG thanks to Graham for doing this interview for Rock N Roll Universe!
Rock N Roll Universe : First off Graham, we'd like to thank you for talking to us, it's truly an honor...
Graham Bonnet : Oh, okay thank you!
RNRU : You've recently cowrote and recorded a track for the Michael Schenker 25th Anniversary 'Tales Of Rock & Roll' album. What can you tell us about that, and what was that like?
GB : Yeah, in fact that's the title track. I just received a letter from the people putting the album together to get the words over to them. I wasn't sure if that was going to be the title track or not. Michael gave me the title and said "Can you think of a song around that kind of title"? So, I said "Okay," It kind of restricts you a bit, but I'm glad that it turned out to be the title track. I did that about 4 months ago, and it turned out good I think.
RNRU : Would you ever consider it if Michael were to ask you to sing full time for the band again?
GB : I don't think he will. I think he's kind of happy with what he's got right now. I'm not quite sure if everybody's thinking the same way I do, but I don't think he really wants to go through what we went before. (Laughs) It was a bit of a mess sometimes.That's a few years ago now. It wasn't a case of clashing personalities, it was clashing beer glasses I think. (Laughs) It was kind of a bit too much. I'm not quite sure if Michael would want that again, I think he's very happy with the situation the way it is now, I THINK. I don't know, if it came up, I'd certainly think about it, yeah.
RNRU : Earlier this year, you toured Russia for the first time. What was that experience like for you, and what was the response there?
GB : I didn't know what to expect there, but it was a great experience, because it's so different from anywhere else that I've ever been in the world. The audiences were fantastic, just amazing loveable people. Very outgoing.
RNRU : So, they were pretty familiar with your music?
GB : Yeah, in fact one afternoon I went to a Deep Purple fan club meeting, they invited me down to for an afternoon tea type of deal. They had a band on that was doing all the Deep Purple music, and they were incredible. God, it was just an amazing show. They're all like army guys, Russian army guys, and they know everything. They're just starved for that kind of music. People never went over there, it was kind of like going to Bosnia, or touring Iraq. (Laughs) It seems like an odd place to go, out of the way, and a completely different way of life. But, when you're there for a little while, after a few days I realized they're just the same as we are really. There is no difference. You kind of have this image of the Russian people being very stern, even war-like even, kind of scary. But it's not like that at all. I was very pleasantly surprised.
RNRU : Are your albums released over there?
GB : Yeah, there's a couple that have been released just recently I think. But they knew everything, from when I was living in England, way back. Which is very strange. You think "How the hell did they hear that?"(Laughs) They say "Oh, we got it from our friends in England..people send over albums to us." So, when I was in Russia, I was playing with a Russian band, and I bought them all a pair of Converse, in every different color as a thank you to the band. Because they have to pay like 10 million dollars for a pair of sneakers over there, American shoes. So, I sent them over some shoes.(Laughs)
RNRU : Let's go back kind of to the beginning if you don't mind Graham. Who were your early influences both musically and vocally?
GB : Well, really it was like the girl groups, like The Ronettes. I used to listen to people like The Ronettes and The Shirelles. Fats Domino was another guy. Little Richard was another person that I listened to a lot. Paul Anka, believe it or not. Many different influences. When The Beatles came along, that's kind of when I decided that's what I'd like to do for a living as opposed to working. Lots of different influences. I listened to kind of pop opera singers that were around in England at the time who had singles in the charts. Like Mario Lanza, that kind of thing. But the English version of that. As a kid I used to go around copying their voices and make my mom and dad laugh because I was singing like this operatic type of thing. A little kid running around doing that kind of a thing, it was amusing. So, I thought it was pretty cool to sing with a big voice. That's what I started listening to. But The Beatles, I think they turned everyone around. They've always been my favorite band, and they always will be I guess.
RNRU : You first came to prominence with The Marbles, and you had a Top 5 UK hit in 1968 with the single "Only One Woman." How was that experience, having such a big hit at such an early age, and what was the English scene like for you at that time?
GB : That was a surprise when that happened in '68 obviously, because I'd just moved away from a small town into London. We'd played a couple of clubs, my band and I, and the ex manager of The Bee Gees was in the audience one night. My cousin, who was the guitar player in the band, happened to play with The Bee Gees in Australia. This guy said "I'll give you Barry Gibb's phone number" to my cousin Trevor. He called him up, and went over to see Barry Gibb. This was at the height of their career, when they had all their hit records out. He went over there, and he asked me to go over and meet Barry and the rest of them. They didn't want to sign up a band, but they wanted to get my cousin into the recording business again, because they made records over in Australia. He played guitar and sang with them, they made records together. My cousin said "Well, my cousin sings too!" So, he invited me over to Robert Stigwood's apartment in London, and we kind of auditioned in a way. We sat there with acoustic guitars, all of us singing. And, before we knew it we were making a record. We were in the studio a few days later with the song "Only One Woman," which had no words or anything. It was weird. It was like a bad movie : "Right boys, tomorrow you're making a record and you're going to # 1!" It was really kind of like that. Well, in a few months, it was in the charts, I think it got to # 3 in England, we were doing 'Top Of The Pops' and all the other pop shows. It was an amazing time. The 60's, especially in London, where all the fashion stuff was going on. Everything was changing. You'd see The Beatles in the street, that kind of thing. I saw George Harrison one day and he waved out the window of his car. I didn't KNOW him, but he'd obviously seen us on TV too or something. We're walking down the street and he drives past with this like 6 wheeled Mercedes limo or something, something very strange that I'd never seen before in London. Because it was too big for the London streets.
That time was great, because music was changing around, everything was changing. Fashion, the whole bit. London was quite a place. But, it's changed a lot now. It's no longer the place where everybody looks towards music and whatever else. But, at that time, it was the ONLY place to be from, or from Liverpool, where The Beatles are from. It was a great time. It's changed completely now, and that time will never come around again, I don't think. But, you never know there might be something else happen one day. The hard rock thing has kind of come back in a big way with the younger bands. It's kind of incredible to hear stuff now on the radio, and I'm thinking "God, that sounds like something I did."(Laughs) It's like "Oh good, I don't have to listen to rap anymore." (Laughs) There's a whole bunch of them, but I can never remember their names because there's so many of them. My son plays all their CD's and I never know who's who. It sounds like they're emulating a lot of the stuff that was recorded in the '80's by Deep Purple etc. There's some great guitar players and drummers that I've heard on some of these albums.
RNRU : It's good to have some musicians actually playing their instruments on the charts again...
GB : Yeah, it's nice...none of that lip synching bullSh*t. It is quite amazing, because they grew up listening to people like Jimi Hendrix, Ritchie Blackmore, Michael Schenker..that's who they learned from. When I was a kid, it was The Ventures, or "Wipe Out." There were no inventive guitar players back then. There were great guitar players, but it was a whole different thing. Guitar players played melodies as opposed to riffs and doing what they wanted to do. It was simple guitar playing. They were great records, but these guys have real masters to learn from and emulate.
RNRU : Well, they have a whole blueprint to draw from versus having to come up with it on their own..
GB : Yeah, I just wish it was around when I was a kid. Guitar playing's like secondary, my voice comes first. The guitar's a tool for writing songs. I can strum along with anybody, but I can't do all the widdly widdly things. (Laughs) I know all the chords, and I know what it's all about. I know HOW they do it, I just can't accomplish it.
RNRU : After you had the hit with The Marbles, and you were unable to have another hit, you went on to sing on commercials. How was that experience for you, and since you're living in L.A., have you ever been approached to do any vocals for any commercials?
GB : No, a simple answer there . (Laughs) Not really, I did a few commercials, but I'm not really a session singer. They want you to sing on the spot, in one hour and stuff, and I'm not that spontaneous. Because I like to think about things, and go "Hey, I'd like to do that again." And they don't want it done again. They want it done once and that's it. I always think you can do it again, and it could be better. You can spend all day recording a damn 2 second commercial. I did a few, but I had to kind of psyche myself up to doing them, because those things they kind of scared me. These people came from whatever company, they're sitting there watching you do it, every damn thing. I didn't like being under the microscope. But, I liked the money. That's the reason I did it. You work for an hour, or whatever it is, they give you the money and you go home. Hopefully you get something later on down the line. I don't know how people can just do sessions like that, it'd drive me nuts. Your mind has to be really set on it. You know, "I'm singing at one o'clock today, and I'll finish at two" That's not how my mind works. I'm more like "Do I want to sing now? No, I don't think I should sing now."They just have a different lifestyle, session singers, session players. They have a way of just doing it and that's it. That's not the way I work. It pisses me off, because some people are so great at doing that. They just walk in there, do their bit, and that's it. Next song. With me, it's not like that. I have to have some sort of say in the creative side of things. They want certain words sung a certain way, and if your accent's a bit weird, like mine is, I say words in weird ways. You have to have the product name said the way they want it said. Things like that kind of drove me nuts. I just couldn't do it after awhile it was like "Oh God, the hell with this." (Laughs)
RNRU : You also tried your hand as an actor, and you played the part of a rock singer in the 1974 British comedy 'Three For All,' directed by Martin Campbell, who went on to direct a couple James Bond movies, 'Goldeneye' and 'Casino Royale'. How'd that come about, and have you ever thought about doing any more acting?
GB : Well, I thought about it yeah, I thought that would be the beginning of it, but it was kind of the end of it. (Laughs) That was the beginning and the end of my acting career. It's always something that I wanted to do, because it was something that I used to pursue when I was at school. Plays, stuff like that like every kid does I guess. It was something I wanted to do, and the reason I got that job was because I was with DJM Music at that time, and it was financed by DJM Music...Dick James, in London, and he kind of put all these acts into that film to write the music. Some of the people were managed by him too, the actors. So, that's why I was in it. It was kind of like "Do you want to do this?" "Oh yeah, yeah, how many songs do I have to write?" Not many, 4.."Oh okay." That's how I got into it, and I'd have loved to done something else, but it kind of didn't happen. I had a couple of scripts actually come to me, which were rather good. I thought "Oh, great, I'd love to do this" It just didn't come to any fruitation.Which was disappointing for me because some of the things were really good, written by real, proper writers so to speak in England. I was surprised that I GOT scripts.
RNRU : You were chosen by Ritchie Blackmore to replace Ronnie James Dio in Rainbow. How did that whole situation come about?
GB : They were in Switzerland recording the album I actually did in the end, and they were looking for a singer. They auditioned a bunch of singers, and they were playing tapes of past records of other bands, singers, etc. My song came up, the "Only One Woman" song, and they said "Where's this guy now?" To make it short, they got in touch with me, I went over there, auditioned and got the job. That's how I got that, it was through like a competition. (Laughs)
RNRU : Coming from a sort of rhythm and blues background like you did, how difficult was that for you to make the transition from that type of music to singing metal?
GB : It was pretty easy actually. I always though that heavy metal was like "pretend" singing. I thought, "That's not real music, it's all silly" (Laughs) Then all of a sudden, now I'm a heavy metal singer, and I never knew I had it in me. But it was kind of an easy transition because I'd sung so many different damn things over the years before I did the Rainbow thing. When you're working clubs in England when you're a kid, you do every type of Top 40 song there is. So, you have to use different voices and different sounds, to be as close to the band as you can that made the record. So, this one, for heavy metal, was just another one of the voices I used for Little Richard songs or something. It was just another singing job as far as I was concerned. I just wasn't a big fan of metal music. It's just something I'd avoided because I thought it was kind of pretentious, and kind of not very exciting to me. Maybe because of all the guitar playing in it. Being a singer, I'd listen to singing records rather than guitar hero bands. I almost didn't do it. I almost turned it down, but my manager suggested I go ahead and have a go, so I did.
RNRU : So, you never really listened to metal before?
GB : No, not at all. As I said, I was into The Beatles, and the heaviest thing was The Rolling Stones. That was it. I loved The Beach Boys, with all their harmonies and stuff. Very, very weird taste, The Kinks, people like that, never the really, really heavy stuff. Because it sounded a bit boring to me, a lot of it. Which of course a lot of it was, if you look at it. But not all of it. But then my mind changed completely when I actually went in there and started doing it, and seeing how the songs are put together. It was a very interesting process. So, I got really involved with the whole thing, and now my mind is changed completely. But I would never listen to it at home. I'd always listen to something that's nothing to do with what I do. Like I think a lot of people do. You want to get away from it. It was a new way of songwriting, Which to me, I'd start a song with an acoustic guitar, have all the melodies worked out. Whereas with heavy metal, you had the arrangement, then you put the melody part into it after the arrangement has been done. Which is why it's based around basically guitar playing, instrumental stuff, you put the vocal in where you can. In this slot HERE. (Laughs) It was like writing songs backwards for me a bit. Now I'm so used to that, it's become like second nature. It's really easy now. But at first it was really hard. You have to kind of think like a guitar, you know "Here comes the solo" It's being another instrument as opposed to being like the guy up front. Because it's like a shared thing in a metal band.
RNRU : When you went on tour, did you get a lot of flak from Dio fans?
GB : At first a little bit. On the first gig I remember something. But after awhile, the people that were giving me a hard time came back and said "We were down front going hiss, boo, and we're sorry"(Laughs) "We didn't realize you were a singer". Because I looked wrong. They were expecting me to sing like Elvis or something, I don't know.(Laughs) They changed their mind after awhile. Now, years on people have said to me "It was so cool, you're so completely different from everybody else, you did it all wrong, you had the short hair, but had the right voice." And I said "Thank you, that's what I was trying to do." I was supposed to be the singer, not another clone of a heavy rock singer with the fringes and long hair.
RNRU : Well, you definitely stood out with that image, it was a distinctive look at that time..
GB : Yeah, kind of it is. Not as a joke, but as kind of tongue in cheek, a little bit of cheekiness there. I mean now if I had long hair people'd say "What the hell are you doing?" (Laughs)
RNRU : During your time with Rainbow, you did a lot of touring on the success of the 'Down To Earth' album. What was your favorite Rainbow song to sing live, and were there any that you got sick of?
GB : I liked "Eyes Of The World," "Lost In Hollywood"..."Love's No Friend," which I still do, those three tunes. Got sick of singing? Not really, I just didn't like singing the old ones.."Man On The Silver Mountain" from the Ronnie Dio era, I didn't like singing those because I didn't record them. I always felt like I was being judged. "Oh it's not as good as"..but I ended up kind of getting labelled with "Stargazer" for some reason. Everybody thought I'd sung it. So, I still put that in the set now. Even though that wasn't one of my tunes. It's just "Man On The Silver Mountain" I didn't really like. "Long Live Rock & Roll" was another one, I didn't like that one either. Sang it, got through it, but it was like "Oh God." (Laughs) Because it wasn't MINE. I felt uncomfortable.
RNRU : Ritchie has a penchant for playing practical jokes on people. Did you ever get caught up in any of any of that?
GB : No. The only thing he did to me that was pretty horrible was get rid of some of my stage clothes. He got rid of a lot of my 1950's jackets.(Laughs) They disappeared one day. It's the only thing he really did to me, that was a bit NASTY I think. But, I know he played jokes on other people. But he never played them on me. I'm not going to wake anybody up in the middle of the night, and he didn't want to wake me up especially. "I'm not going to fool around with him, he's got to work tomorrow". He was very good to me that way, I'll give you that.
RNRU : What was the real reason you left Rainbow? Some accounts say you quit, others say you were fired. What's the real story there?
GB: I left. I left because it wasn't happening. We got new personnel, Bobby Rondinelli was playing drums and everything changed. Cozy left, Don Airey was going to leave. We were rehearsing in Copenhagen for the next album, and nothing was happening. It was just non productive. So, I came back to Los Angeles, and from there I said I don't want to come back. They suggested getting another singer in to do songs that I didn't like, and have me sing songs that I liked. That was the story basically. But I wasn't fired. I just left. They wanted to get me back. I don't know, I should've stayed a bit longer. I just got a bit above myself, I thought I could do it on my own. I should've hung in there a bit. That's just something I kind of feel bad about, I wish I had stayed, because Don Airey ended up staying anyway. He didn't leave when he said he was going to. So, that's that. There was just no excitement anymore. Everybody looked bored at rehearsal. It was just not happy. It was like a 9-5 job, I've had that before. When it gets boring, and the work becomes labored, get out of there, so I did. (Laughs)