The members of DAMNOCRACY
(Click here to open link) Ted Nugent (guitar), Sebastian Bach (SKID ROW; vocals), Evan Seinfeld (BIOHAZARD; bass), Scott Ian (ANTHRAX; guitar), and Jason Bonham (BONHAM, UFO, FOREIGNER; drums) recently spoke to Maxim magazine
(Click here to open link) about their upcoming VH1 reality TV show, titled "SuperGroup". Filming for the program commenced on February 22, with the premise being to lock several musicians in a house for 10 days and get them to write and record some new original music. In addition to the five musicians, star manager Doc McGhee (KISS) was in charge and was also living in the house for the duration of filming/recording. The all-star band also performed a headlining set at the Empire Ballroom in Las Vegas on March 5. A few excerpts from the Maxim interview follow:
Maxim: Describe your first reaction to your new bandmates.
Bach: "I was stoked when I saw Scott, because he's fucking killer. But when I saw Ted, I fell right the fuck down never in a million years could I fathom being in a band with him."
Ian: "I kind of thought that Sebastian was in it, but in the back of my head I wondered, 'What if it's Rob Halford?'"
Seinfeld: "When they said I wouldn't be singing, I thought the singer had better be pretty fucking good. And when Sebastian Bach walked in, I had nothing bad to say he was just born with a bigger gun."
Ian: "I've met everybody from every metal band of the past 20 years, and I didn't recognize the guy behind the drum kit at all."
Bonham: Nobody does. I've shaved my head, and I'm, like, 40 pounds lighter."
Maxim: What do you think of the name "SuperGroup"?
Nugent: "It offends me on all intellectual levels, but I'm the eternal optimist. I will find gold in your shit. I have faith in VH1
Did I just say 'faith' and 'VH1' in the same sentence?"
Ian: "From the age 11 to age 15, NUGENT and KISS and CHEAP TRICK basically ruled my life. Those four years flew through my head as I tried to comprehend the fact I'm playing in a band and living in a house with Ted Nugent for two weeks."
Bach: "Me? I don't want to say anything to Ted, because he's Ted fucking Nugent."
Seinfeld: "Sebastian's such a fan he can't even function. I had to slap him the other day: 'Sebastian, stop!' He wanted to do all TED NUGENT covers. He pulls me aside twice a day and says, 'I'm getting better about the being-in-awe-of-Ted thing.'"
Nugent: "Aw, that's cute. I hope our cameras are picking up on some of these Ted adorations."
Maxim: Describe the sound you guys are going for.
Bach: "It's gonna be loud and clear, mothertrucker."
Seinfeld: "Sebastian wants to make this a heavy metal band. And I'm like, 'No, dude, let's be the kind of band that, if LED ZEPPELIN reunited, they would want us to open for them.'"
Nugent: "Obnoxious, guttural, voluminous, sexy."
Ian: "I'm gonna have to drag Ted into my world a bit. We can't just sound like Ted Nugent."
Maxim: Are you guys getting along?
Bonham: "Yeah. But that's probably not what VH1 wanted. I think they wanted us to all have a big falling-out."
Ian: "My attitude going into this is that it's summer camp with guitars. If something comes out of it, that's just added to the fact that I hung out in some fucking retarded house in Vegas for two weeks on VH1's dime. It was fun to make a rider of the most over-the-top list of stuff and have them call up and say, 'Everything you wanted is there.'"
Nugent: "I can't gush enough about what Evan and Scott and Jason and Sebastian bring to this and believe me, I don't suck dick. It sounds like I'm sucking dick, but I ain't sucking dick. They're just greaseballs of integrity. This collaboration is genuinely moving."
Maxim's entire interview with DAMNOCRACY is available in the magazine's May 2006 issue, available on newsstands now.
VH1's "SuperGroup" is scheduled to premiere on Tuesday, May 18 at 10:00 p.m.
(edit: yes, every opportunity I can to say this I will)
