QUIET RIOT guitarist Alex Grossi was recently interviewed by Anne Erickson of Audio Ink Radio. You can now watch the chat below. Asked what he misses most about late QUIET RIOT drummer Frankie Banali, who died last August after a 16-month battle with pancreatic cancer, Alex said: "I miss just having the day-to-day text message exchanges and just jokes and laughs. I mean, the music's one thing, but when you're in a band with someone, it's like you're married to them. It's like you're having a brother, or three brothers. And it's like we lost a brother, literally. 'Cause it was every day. I mean, if something really funny happened, I'd have to call him and tell him about it. If something really bad happened — a tragedy… We went through a lot together, good and bad. With Kevin [DuBrow, original QUIET RIOT singer] dying and then getting the band back after Kevin died, and then burning through all the singers — everything. I don't know if you saw our movie or not, but we have a documentary that documented the whole process… That was shot over five years of our lives, and we went through a lot together. "He was always the anchor and the rock in QUIET RIOT," Alex added. "I mean, he held everything together. If Kevin had some sort of issue or Kevin went sideways or the promoter went sideways or the airlines went sideways, Frankie fixed it. He was the guy. He was like the Wolf in 'Pulp Fiction'. ... I just miss him. I mean, he was a great person, and the world is definitely a little bit of a quieter and not as cool of a place without him, for sure." Asked if he feels that he's carrying on Frankie's legacy by keeping QUIET RIOT going, Alex said: "Well, yeah. I feel that it's his legacy, it's Kevin's legacy, it's that whole genre's legacy. I mean, listen, 10 out of 10 people are gonna die — that's a fact. So, when the time comes where a lot of these guys are no longer around but that music is still out there, people are gonna want to hear it. Especially '80s metal, those bands were so big and so iconic, you're still gonna see a version of KISS or probably a version of MÖTLEY CRÜE out there 20 years from now. Who knows? Because, at the end of the day, it's a brand name, it's a license to print money, and people wanna hear it. Why wouldn't you?" Last September, QUIET RIOT announced that it would carry on after Banali's death. The group, which now features drummer Johnny Kelly (DANZIG, TYPE O NEGATIVE), played a couple of shows in October and has a string of dates booked in 2021. QUIET RIOT played its first concert after Banali's death on October 9 at at the Grand Stage Amphitheater near Urich, Missouri. At some of QUIET RIOT's 2019 and 2020 shows, Banali was replaced by Kelly or Mike Dupke (W.A.S.P.), depending on each musician's availability. QUIET RIOT's shows in 2019 with Kelly and Dupke marked the first time ever that the band performed without any of the members from its classic lineup: Banali, singer Kevin DuBrow, guitarist Carlos Cavazo and bassist Rudy Sarzo. QUIET RIOT initially featured the late guitar legend Randy Rhoads and went through some early lineup shifts before securing the musicians that recorded "Metal Health". Bassist Chuck Wright has been a part of QUIET RIOT, on and off, since 1982, having initially been involved in the "Metal Health" recordings (he played bass on the tracks "Metal Health" and "Don't Wanna Let You Go"). Grossi was in the last version of the band, from 2004 through 2007, before Kevin passed away, and was asked by Banali to return in 2010. QUIET RIOT went through two vocalists — Mark Huff and Scott Vokoun — before settling on Jizzy Pearl in 2013. Pearl announced his exit from QUIET RIOT in October 2016 and was briefly replaced by Seann Nichols, who played only five shows with the group before the March 2017 arrival of "American Idol" finalist James Durbin. Pearl returned to QUIET RIOT in September 2019.
Continue reading...
Continue reading...
