THE
THREE
There
have been quite a few reunions in the last couple of years, but only one
of them has actually taken a step forward instead of just trying to
recreate the original foundation, and Nasty Savage are responsible for
that reunion. Without further ado, let us jump to when I as a long-time
Nasty Savage fan gets the chance to talk to Nasty Ronnie, and as most
metal fans who have followed a band for many years probably can imagine
you have 10,000 questions ready for when you get the opportunity to speak
to someone who has contributed to your ‘musical upbringing’. However,
as it turned out all of my questions were quickly put aside, as Nasty
Ronnie was a very eager and spontaneous speaker who seemed happy to talk
to an old fan. Therefore the interview was promptly replaced by a
conversation that went in the direction which the answers set the scene
for, and presented Nasty Ronnie as not only the musician but also the
wrestler and the TV-producer. But before the three faces of Nasty Ronnie
were to reveal themselves, he was one and a half hour late for the
interview since Nasty Savage had played live the day before, and in
keeping with tradition Nasty Ronnie had caught a TV with his chest.
“Sorry,
I’m late, but I haven’t been able to get to the phone until now. We
played live yesterday and it feels like I broke my sternum
and my chest is sore... I always wonder: why do I do what I do? I mean, do
I really need a gimmick to get over? Why can’t I just be a singer like
everybody else? You know, sing and nothing more. But there’s something
about me; I just have to put on a show when I get on stage. Sometimes I
can’t understand it either, but that’s what happens every time – and
I’m paying for it. You’d think I would mellow out around this age [laughs].
When I got home I had to change into a t-shirt so my wife doesn’t see
the scars and bruises from last night. Otherwise she will go: ‘You
stupid ass! Have you done that stupid stuff again? When are you gonna grow
up? You’ve got a family now; you need to mellow out.’ I got married
and got kids since the release of Penetration Point, and I know she
doesn’t mind what I did before, but now I’ve got a family and
responsibility. She’s okay with Nasty Savage being back, but she’s not
too happy with me picking off the stage show where I left it several years
ago [laughs]. But dammit, we may get more successful this time around, so
it happens for a reason.”
#
What have you been up to in all the years between Penetration Point
from 1989 and the mini-CD Wage of Mayhem as well as the new album Psycho
Psycho?
“Well,
I had a chance to live life, you know. Experience the ups and downs of
life, get a family, etc. I produce a television show called Born To
Ride which is a motorcycle show here in Florida. It’s my own show.
I’m the producer so I have to sell the advertisements, produce the
commercials, work with my editors, buy the television time and travel
around to all the motorcycle conventions and rallies. For more information
on my show, people can check out the website www.borntoride.com
to learn more about what Born To Ride is all about. I have a Harley myself
that I ride, and that along with the show takes a lot of my time. Of
course, at first I was producing some wrestling. When I first got out of
the band I did some IWF wrestling in Universal Studios, Florida. I
co-produced over 200 episodes there, and that’s where I got my
TV-background. I got my own television-show after I got out of that. So I
have been doing television pretty constantly, but I also got a chance to
deal with the human factor as well. The anguish and things that happen in
life. When I had the chance to create again, a chance to write new songs,
I had a lot of passion and emotions built up that I wanted to let out, and
when I got the chance to write songs again I was really excited about it.
How many times in life do you get not only second chances but also the
opportunity to use everything you’ve learned in life in between?”
#
With Psycho Psycho it sounds like you have never been gone?
“I
think anybody who has been part of a band or participated in sports on a
professional level all crave for a second chance, and we got the
opportunity to come back from the dead and took that chance. What started
it all was the Bang Your Head festival in Germany when we played there in
1998. That was a chance for us to come back and get a taste of it. After
that nothing happened for a while until the re-release of Penetration
Point in 1999. We got some good response of that and wanted to do some
more, so we released the Wage of Mayhem mini-CD last year. Then we
got the deal to do the full album on Metal Blade, and at that moment we
knew we got a second chance and we not only had to deliver but we had to
deliver something good; not only for our own but for the public, the press
or whoever. We simply had to deliver music that was worthy! We all came
together as one democratically. We split everything even. Even if I write
lyrics to ten songs, and they write music to six songs, everybody gets an
equal cut of it. There’s nothing to sway us away from each other, and I
think because of that everybody’s more focused. Curtis wrote the lyrics
to “Return of the Savage” and that’s the first song he’s written
lyrics to. Richard got to write two songs on the album, and I got to write
a lot of the lyrics. Everybody knew we had to do it that way, and we had a
lot of passion. We knew we had the chance to do it one more time and this
could be our last chance. So we said: ‘Let’s make the most of it.
Let’s make it happen. Let’s do something that will get people’s
attention.’ Actually, we didn’t know what to call the album until we
recorded it. Then everybody in the studio went around singing “Psycho
Psycho”; even my little daughter was singing it [laughs]. It was catchy
so we went with that. Actually the song was called “Psycho Sexual”
from the beginning, but when everybody started singing “Psycho Psycho”,
I thought “Psycho Sexual” was kind of a gay name. It just didn’t
sound right for a metal band to call the album Psycho Sexual, so I
changed the title and song to Psycho Psycho because it got the
drive we were looking for. That’s a little secret right there [laughs].”
#
You certainly got my attention as the new album is great, simply put. But
are you satisfied with the album yourself?
“It’s
weird how it came together because I was still writing lyrics when they
were doing the recording. In the old days when Nasty Savage did the first
album we got 10-12 songs, and we would rehearse them day after day and
then go in the studio and record them. We kind of wrote Psycho Psycho
in the studio, so to speak. David is not living in the same area as the
rest of the band.. He lives in Tennessee and the rest of us in Florida, so
we recorded ideas and sent them to each other on discs. I would get a lot
of discs in the mail from David and I would say: ‘I like song #1;
let’s go with that.’ I would then come up with a title, write the
lyrics, etc. but the album really came together in the studio. Curtis went
in and did the drums, and I think he really kicked ass on the drums. We
got a really good drum-sound and that’s the most important thing. From
there we built up on the rhythms. We got a good heavy rhythm with the
leads and bass. Everything came together and then it was my turn to come
in and do the lyrics, and I was still writing the songs months after the
other guys were done with their parts. Even the day I went into the studio
I did not have all the songs ready and complete. So I knew I could go into
the studio and try out things and experiment, and I was excited about that.
But I also knew I had to deliver because everybody else did. Everybody did
their part 110% and when I went in there, I had to do the same thing, and
because of that I think we came up with a good body of work in general.
But you can never be completely satisfied with what you do if you are a
professional. You always think the next thing is going to be better and
that goes for this album as well. I’m really excited cause David has
finally started writing some new material and he’s going to write some
stuff that will reach the next step and be even better than Psycho
Psycho. As a musician or anything else in life, I think you’ll have
to never be totally satisfied with what you are doing because you can
always improve. I think it’s bullshit if a writer, musician or artist
goes: ‘This it the best I can do’, because you can always do better.
For me to say this is the best I can ever sing would not be right. I can
be better. You can always use more emotion and passion, and if you do not
have the passion to do better you might as well quit right now. So
overall, we are happy with the new album and it’s getting good reviews
so far. But that’s not going to let us be content with what we did. I
think everybody in the band is ready to show the world what the next step
for Nasty Savage can be.”
#
Has the reunion of Nasty Savage had an effect on the lives and careers of
the other band members?
“Well,
it’s weird because Ben and Richard are like road dogs. They will be
musicians and in rock bands till the day they die [laughs]. Ben’s goal
in life is to be in a band and be successful.. He plays in other bands
besides Nasty Savage. He plays concerts where they are paid $100 for the
whole band even though they have to drive across the state to get to the
gig. That’s unheard of to do stuff like that, but that’s how much they
love being musicians. Curtis drives a taxi, and like the rest of the band
works around the schedule to play in Nasty Savage. I run a business and
have a lot of other things I do, but I find time to do the Nasty Savage
thing because it’s in my heart. Like everything else in life; if you are
going to try to make a commitment, and in this case if you make a
commitment to four other guys, you’ve got to live up to it and you are
going to find time. It’s not like we have put our careers on hold,
because we can’t afford to do that. To have a career in music you have
to have another career to pay the bills. You have to be multi-talented to
be a musician these days. Unfortunately, the music does not pay the bills,
you know.”
#
You got WWE-wrestler and Fozzy vocalist Chris Jericho to sing on three
songs on Psycho Psycho. Are you going to do vocals on the next
Fozzy album to return the favor?
“That’s
a good question; nobody’s asked me that yet. Actually I’m seeing him
on Friday at a gig. Maybe I should ask him: ‘Hey, I just did an
interview and Bo from Denmark was asking me if I’m going to be on the
next Fozzy album, so what should I tell him, Chris?’ [laughs] That would
break the ice, and he would just have to let me sing on the album,
wouldn’t he? [laughs again]. It’s great to have Chris be a part of the
new album because I’ve been a big wrestling fan from back in the day and
I found out that Chris Jericho is a big Nasty Savage fan. I have a lot of
respect for him cause he’s a really professional guy. He’s not the
biggest guy in this world, so being a smaller guy making it in a big
man’s world is really good. I have a friend who knows him and Chris told
my friend that he wanted to meet me because he’s been a Nasty Savage fan
from back in the eighties. We had dinner one night and for the first half
hour he talked about nothing but Nasty Savage. He knew all the facts, the
band-member changes, song titles etc. He really proved he was a true Nasty
Savage fan and I thought that was so cool. We had a great time together
and I thought, since he was such a big fan who has superstar status within
WWE and also is a part of the metal world with Fozzy, why not ask Chris if
he wants to do a song with us? He said he would be honored and would love
to sing on the album. He was really cool in the studio and we recorded an
interview with him where he talks about Nasty Savage. Maybe some day when
the album has been out for a while, we’ll release a DVD with the making
of Psycho Psycho so the fans can see this interview as well as
include the history of Nasty Savage, etc. Make a really interesting DVD
which covers the career up till this point.”
#
Heavy metal and wrestling have merged, especially through the last years,
as Motörhead and Type O Negative among others have made entrance music
for wrestlers. With you being a wrestler and a musician, do you think
Nasty Savage at some point will make an impact on the wrestling world as
well down the line?
“That’s
a very good question because I think the song “Psycho Psycho” would be
great as entrance music. Vince McMahon [owner of WWE] should come up with
a wrestler called Psycho who could use our song. I think it’s a
remarkable song that would be perfect for the WWE. They have Triple H
coming out to Motörhead. Sick Of It All, Type O Negative and a bunch of
other cool bands have also made entrance music through the years. So
there’s a possibility for that down the line... It would also be obvious
to ask Chris Jericho if we should perform at one of the shows, but it’s
hard to ask for that kind of favor. I don’t want to do that because
it’s a really touchy thing and I don’t want to jeopardize the
friendship because of that. I have thought of presenting him with some
ideas and if he likes them, he can present him to his boss. But it has to
be something that makes him look good, you know, and I think we would make
him look great. Hell, I can be his manager for a day, I have been in the
wrestling business myself, so I know what to do and what’s expected of
me. Back in the day, when I worked with Kevin Sullivan, The Prince Of
Darkness and all that, some of that is what I’m singing about in
“Dementia 13”. That’s the stuff we used to say before we went to the
ring. I was a wrestler but I was a manager mostly. I was the bad-guy
manager of the Nasty Organization in IWF, and everything went really well.
But I never really had an opportunity with WWE or WCW; it’s a hard
business. I’m doing a lot of stuff on my own: hardcore wrestling,
promoting a lot of shows with all-woman wrestling and Luna Vachon, etc. I
did the best I could but Vince McMahon own the whole real business, and if
you want to make money you need to be in the WWE. Otherwise it’s hard.
It’s a very secretive world where they won’t let too many people in.
They announced on their website that Chris would sing on our album, but I
don’t know if they will do more promotion than that. I guess they
concentrate on their own products where they have economical interests...
At one time I was managing a guy called The Repo Man and I wrote to the
WWE concerning tryouts, and the next thing I know they trademarked the
name, sent us a letter saying; ‘You can’t use The Repo Man cause we
own the name.’ It got me a lot of trouble in IWF. And the really sad
part of it is that their version of Repo Man stunk. My guy was from
Hell’s Kitchen and was a real psycho demon-dude, really intense, evil
and dark. Their version was a bouncing clown... A lot of Europeans still
don’t understand wrestling; they think it’s just a joke. It’s a
farce, it’s fake and it’s stupid. You know, you’ve got to have an
open mind for wrestling. It’s not real. It’s like a drama or
soap-opera. It’s entertainment and if you look at it as entertainment
you can see it with an open mind. But to all the people who say it fake
and bullshit: I dare you to get in the ring and bounce of the ropes a few
times. Your sides will hurt, your legs will hurt where the ropes hit you.
Take a body slam or two; you will be going: ‘Shit, that hurts!’ It may
be fake but it’s going to be real pain you will experience. It’s a
hard life and wrestlers live in constant pain. What really saddens me are
all the untimely deaths in the business. They take too many steroids, they
are drinking to much alcohol and sooner or later their body can’t take
all this punishment. That’s why a guy like Chris Jericho has a very good
head on his shoulders. He’s all business. He doesn’t party down; he
doesn’t do all that crap. That’s why he’s on top of his game right
now. ”
#
What do you think of Fozzy and their Spinal Tap approach to metal?
“I
think they are great. Chris got a good professional band behind him, and
he seems to be pretty original... He seems to be pretty much into what
he’s doing and that’s great. They played a lot of cover songs on the
first album, but they have shown that they can write great songs
themselves. He also likes to do this Spinal Tap routine, and is really
funny with his Mongoose McQueen character and all that stuff.. I think he
brings something different and fresh to the metal world. It’s a shame
people tend to focus more on Fozzy being a band with a wrestler as
vocalist than the actual music, but it goes back to what we talked about
before concerning people and their views on wrestling, especially in
Europe. Before you judge something, think about what you are judging.
Wrestlers are professional athletes who put their lives on the line. The
wrestling business is a very tough business to be in. I know as I’ve
been there. I’ve seen wrestlers come and go, get career-ending injuries
or even die.
#
Are you getting back into the wrestling business down the road or are you
retired at that point?
“I’m
not really looking for it... I picked the three worst things in life to
do: being in a rock’n’roll band, being in the wrestling business and
producing television. The three jobs with the most backstabbing where
there’s no loyalty or anything. People will cut your throat or stab you
in the back and walk right over you to get your position. But that’s why
I’m a survivor, because I’ve been in businesses like that. The strong
survive, you know. You can’t be a follower; you have to be a leader..”
#
There are a lot of similarities between your three careers in music,
wrestling and TV?
“Yeah,
they are all backstabbing businesses where the next guy is waiting for the
right moment to take your spot. I think the wrestling business is the
worst of them all. Not only do you fight for the spots on the shows, but
these spots also affect your merchandise sale, and there’s a lot of
money in wrestling merchandise. It’s a multi-million dollar business and
everybody wants a piece of it. In the TV-world it’s not about
merchandise, obviously. It’s about getting a chance to get on TV and
make a name for yourself. No matter if you are striving to be the next Jay
Leno or if you are happy doing a local show, there’s always going to be
somebody who wants you gone so he can take your spot. And even though
I’d say the music business is the most tolerant of them all, it has
similarities to the other two businesses as well.”
#
Now that you have released a new album, will Nasty Savage fans have a
chance to experience you live again?
“Let’s
see what happens... But I would love to come to Europe again and play;
that’s where metal is real! America really sucks. We just did a concert
a few days ago. Deicide was there, and Hate Eternal played as well.
Obituary’s return after seven years and Nasty Savage’s return after 14
years as well as quite a few other bands – all at the same concert and
there was maybe 500 people there. It was a joke. If that concert with this
kind of line-up had been in Europe, the place would have been packed! It
just shows how ignorant metal fans in USA are. They take things for
granted and every day they change what they like: one days it’s grunge
and the next day this rap-bullshit rock. Europeans are loyal to metal
bands and support the bands through good as well as bad times, Americans
don’t... There’s just something about the fans in Germany, Denmark and
Holland. They really appreciate our work, and it’s really great when
your fans support you in what you do, on stage as well as in the studio.
It makes it all worth it. We are really excited because we think we have
something good here. It’s been a while since we have come out with
anything and the timing could be right. Over the years newer metal bands
have become stale with the same recipe done over and over again. Something
like Nasty Savage has not come out for a while, and it will hopefully kick
people in the balls and say: ‘Let’s go get Psycho Psycho;
it’s hard, it’s different and it makes me feel psycho psycho myself!”
#
What’s the difference in the industry between the time when you released
your debut album and now?
“If
I were in a new young band today without a history of being Nasty Ronnie
from Nasty Savage, but just ‘Average Joe’ coming in with a new band,
then there would be a long road to travel for making it anywhere. It’s a
different market today where bands come and go, and few make it past the
first album before they are gone and forgotten. So it’s a hard market to
break into again, but we have the roots from the eighties to support us.
We were around when the metal scene started with Exodus, Megadeth, Slayer
and Metallica. Nasty Savage was cut in that same category back in the day,
but we lost focus and were gone. But the true metal kids still remember us.
Like yourself: you grew up in the eighties and remember Nasty Savage from
back in the day. You remember us from back then, and we were part of your
youth. Now you are in the industry as well like a lot of our old fans, who
are now writers doing magazines, websites, etc. A great part of the
industry are headbangers growing up in the eighties, who remember us and
are excited about us being back. If we did not have the roots to the past
through people like you, we would be just some other band coming out. It
would be very difficult unless we made an impact like now and did well...
But because of the roots there is an anticipation. People are excited
because they know of what we did in the past. This is not just a half-ass
effort on our part. This is a real piece of work that we put out. You’ve
got to put heart and soul into the music; otherwise people like you would
know it. It’s obvious when a release is half-ass, and the fans and press
will notice from the beginning. Some bands are trying to make a comeback
and think they are going to fool somebody, but people know, man. What we
did came natural. We did not get together and said: ‘Okay, let’s try
to make it sound like 1985.’ We write for today, not for the past. We
experiment a lot on the new album and are always looking to improve and
bring new ideas into Nasty Savage. For example, there’s no lead in
“Triumphal Entry” and that’s never been done before in Nasty Savage.
There’s always going to be room for new things. As a musician, you must
never think you got it all right and thereby stop developing. Keep looking
for new ideas! Search for the one thing that’s missing, even though you
might not notice it missing. Try to figure it out, be curious, work
constantly with the music, develop. I don’t think you should ever find
the answer to complete your music.”
#
Are Nasty Savage back for good?
“Well,
I think Psycho Psycho can do a lot for Nasty Savage. We missed out
on a lot back in the eighties and broke up in the nineties. A lot of
people think we never got the break we deserved, but it was probably our
own fault for fucking it up with bad management, etc. But what happened,
happened. You can’t change the past. But then we got another chance...
just like in the song “Psycho Psycho” where I sing: ‘Give me new
birth, put me back upon the earth..’ We got a new birth and are back
upon the earth, and we are going to ride this horse as far as we can. [laughs]
We are older and wiser now. We respect each other better. I think it’s a
prime opportunity to go as far as we can. It’s really cool to be back!
We got the chance to tour Europe in the eighties and I hope we get the
chance again. I would love to go on tour again and meet our fans. We are
down-to-earth people and I think the album shows that as well. It would be
great to go on tour and show our fans that we are not rock stars but five
down-to-earth guys who are very happy to be back. That’s what we are all
about, the reality of life. We are not glamorous rock stars. We do our own
laundry and live like normal people, you know. Some musicians have a
tendency to portray themselves as stars, but they are just ordinary people
like everybody else, so why not be those ordinary people instead of the
charade? They aren’t fooling anybody but themselves.”
#
Do you feel Nasty Savage has got the recognition you deserve?
“Now
we might get some with the new album out and everything. Maybe that’s
the reason we came back: to get the credit we feel we deserve and maybe
even be successful again. I don’t think we received it in the past but
it was our own fault.”
#
Where would Nasty Savage be today, had you not broken up in the nineties?
“That’s
one of those philosophical questions that’s very hard to answer. I think
we would be somewhere, but I don’t know where [laughs].. Shit, we might
have had four or five more albums out by now. Maybe we would be on a tour
bus right now, making enough to not need to have other jobs – things
like that. See what Metallica and Slayer have done through the nineties.
Some of the bands from our generation had the chance to make it big; maybe
we might have been one of those bands. Who knows? We can always look back
and say: ‘This is what we did and this is where we are now.’ We might
have made some mistakes in the past, but the future is in our hands now
and we won’t be making the same mistakes twice. We always had bad
management who screwed us up every time we turned around. We are doing it
all by ourselves now, taking it step by step. We are older now, we have
learned and matured. It also shows in our music. Sometimes you can go to a
concert, and it’s brutal and it’s heavy, but after five songs all the
songs sound the same. Or you can put a record on, and side A sounds
exactly like side B, you know what I mean? We don’t want to do that. We
want to have an identity where people might not pinpoint a favorite song
because they consider the album as a good body of work due to the
diversity. That’s what we want to do now that we got a second chance to
come back from the dead and improve on things. How often haven’t you met
a guy who said: ‘Man, I was a rock star once.’ It’s like “Glory
Days” with Bruce Springsteen where he sings: ‘Glory days well they'll
pass you by / Glory days in the wink of a young girl's eye / Glory days,
glory days.’ The guy goes: ‘I used to be a lead singer in a metal
band,’ and I go: ‘Well, what do you do now?’ and he answers: ‘Nothing.’
People can always talk about the past, but now we have a chance to do it
again and talk about the past some other time. It’s very important in
life to take a chance like this. I never dreamed I would do another album
with Nasty Savage, but I took the opportunity when I got it and am going
to make the most of it.”
#
What’s the difference between musician, wrestler and TV-producer
Nasty Ronnie and Ronnie Galletti, the husband and father?
“When
I’m off stage I’m just a mellow, nice, down-to-earth guy, but when I
go on stage I turn into a totally different person who kind of takes a
trip, and when I’m done I’m back to normal again. I let out a lot of
frustration on stage and when I’m done it’s like being born again and
it’s back to low-key. A lot of people can’t understand that and say
stuff like: ‘Man, you were a crazy wild man on stage; were you on drugs
or something?’ No, it’s just natural and it helps me as a person to
let it all out on stage. Because I can’t walk around all day and be the
crazy and wild Nasty Ronnie. I just do that on stage. In reality, it’s
the music that does it to me. It’s a good way to get some shit off my
chest by letting the anger and frustration out on stage instead of doing
it in my normal life. You know, get a TV-set off my chest [laughs]. But I
have to think about what I’m doing, because what will my kids say when
they are old enough to understand that daddy is blowing up TV-sets on
stage and catching them with his chest, etc. How am I going to explain
myself? There’s a world between Nasty Ronnie and Ronnie Galletti, and I
hope they will understand that when the time comes.”
Ronnie
Galletti concludes our conversation with these words. He was off to pack
and say bye to his family Nasty Ronnie headed off to New Jersey to perform
with Nasty Savage.
Conducted and
written by Bo