With HRH in its 13th year, we sent our two new recruits Glenn & Glyn to Great Yarmouth to check out the new venue for us. While there, in their first interview they got chance to speak to the Legend Michael Monroe. Check out what they had to say below.
“I could work a kitchen table, and I’d still do the same show. One hundred percent.” Michael Monroe.
Now a successful solo artist and former Hanoi Rocks lead singer, Michael Monroe agreed to meet us for a short interview before his set at the Hard Rock Hell Festival 2019 in Great Yarmouth.
Rock and Roll Circus; Thanks for meeting with us Michael, we won’t keep you too long!
Michael Monroe; Alright, cool!
Rock and Roll Circus; Chemia recently supported you in Paris and Berlin, which presented them with more exposure and potentially a more significant fan base. Do you enjoy taking out bands on the road and taking them under your wing?
MM; Yeah, and we had the Japanese band Electric Eel Shock. They're great guys and if other bands are nice, It's cool. They play good rock and roll, maybe away from all that hair metal. There’s a lot of bands that think we're that type of thing, but we’re more towards punk. It’s good to have different styles, otherwise, your ears get numb. The agency suggests bands to us, and hopefully, we can help each other too.
Rock and Roll Circus; In previous interviews, you’ve talked about how it only takes one break in the band's chemistry to throw everything out of sync. You’ve gotta spend time with these guys on a bus. Hows the chemistry in the band at the moment?
MM; We’re the best of friends, we have a great time together. That's the key to living on the bus for three weeks. It only takes one guy to make everybody uptight. You don’t need or want that. Life’s too short for that, and it doesn’t matter how good a player you are or how talented, a jerk is a jerk. We’ve got a great vibe in this band. We have a great time all the time. Wherever we go, whatever we do. Yesterday we were trying to warm our hands on the bus, we got outside it was even colder. We’ve just gotta laugh.
Rock and Roll Circus; We all had dreams when we were kids, and I just wondered what kicked off your passion to want to become a singer/musician? What was the one band that you listened too and thought I wanna be a singer?
MM; Black Sabbath. I saw Black Sabbath on TV when I was eight years old. Live in Paris in 1970, I was like, wow! Powerful sound and the lead singer with long hair going wild and free. I thought I wanna be that! Then I discovered Alice Cooper. I had two older brothers, and my Dad went to the store and asked what the youth are listening too at the time, and ‘Led Zeppelin ll’ was the first rock album in the family. Alice Cooper’s ‘Love it to Death’ wow, what an album! He’s my hero. He was the kinda guy that your parents wouldn't want you to go and see. He was a threat to society, dangerous and I liked that. He wore makeup, and in Finland they only had two TV channels, and they were on half the day. There wasn’t much rock ‘N’ roll. Then I saw a documentary about Little Richard and one about the Stones. I thought, wow! This is my thing. At eight years old, I decided that I wanted to be a rock star.
Rock and Roll Circus; Your new album ‘One Man Gang’ is out. What was the creative process like?
MM; We all write and I encourage everyone to write. There's a lot of creativity and talent in this band, and I wanna encourage it. So, we write all the time. Rich Jones really came through on this album, and he had so many good ones. I had four or five songs, and Rich kept coming up with more. It's a band situation. We went to the studio in March 2018, we had been writing for a while before that and we recorded eighteen songs. We took a break in the summer, then Steve Conti, Rich Jones, and I went to the studio in the fall, and we started picking out songs. When I was fourteen, I was like I’m not gonna lose this or that, gotta make it thirty-five or forty-minute album. Because you wanna listen to it again.
Rock and Roll Circus; That's gotta be difficult. You write that many songs, and they're like your babies. When you get to that stage where its time to start cutting them out, some songs may never see the light of day.
MM; Like killing your dogs, right! Yeah, there’s two bonus tracks and three other songs that are too good to be bonus tracks, so they’ll be on the next album unless we write something better. This album, in its entirety, is a great combination of songs, musical style, and everything, so there's plenty to choose from.
Rock and Roll Circus; It’s good when you’ve got more songs than you need!
MM; It’s a good problem to have!
Rock and Roll Circus; Its better than trying to force the song because you haven't got enough!
MM; Nah, all killer no filler! I would never put anything out less than that.
Rock and Roll Circus; Once it's out there, it's out there, isn't it.
MM; Yeah, you live with it for the rest of your life, that's why I wouldn’t put out anything that isn’t 100%. Why would you put a weak song on an album? There was no panic or stress. We finished and mastered by mid-December 2018, but we wanted to wait until we had a record label and a booking agent to work the package and have the whole team together, so the album wouldn't go to waste and let my fans down. Now we have a talent agency and a fantastic record label. It’s been great working with those guys.
Rock and Roll Circus; When you got people around you that you trust and your all working towards one goal, it takes the pressure off you, and your free to do your thing?
MM; Yeah, exactly. Steve and Rich write lyrics, and I can stand behind every word. We know each other so well, it's like their inside my head. The record label knows what they're doing. They flew me over to Stockholm and Paris to do press, and that hasn't happened for years. They're acting like a real label. Dare I say; I can feel a little optimistic about the future.
Rock and Roll Circus; You're off to Japan next. You seem to love it there?.
MM; I love Japan! It's one of my favourite countries! Ever since Hanoi Rocks went there in 1983/84 and since Michael Monroe, I’ve been even bigger there. I’ve played there about thirty times, and I’ve always had a great relationship. They've been really good to me and vice versa. I guess they like a colourful character and I like their culture. I’ve had a tattoo there, so yeah I’ve always a good relationship. Our song ‘Last Train to Tokyo’ is an homage to them because their so passionate about rock and roll and they still sell CDs. They’re nice people and brought up to be really polite. Even when they drink, they giggle and pass out. In Finland and even in England, maybe they get aggressive.
Rock and Roll Circus; Its a lot different here!
MM; And the rest of the world!
Rock and Roll Circus; You’ve done a few shows for Hard Rock Hell over the last few years. How have they gone?
MM; Yeah! I’ve been here quite a bit, but its always freezing cold!
Rock and Roll Circus; You’ve been to Wales to play HRH. The stage is a little smaller this time around. Smaller than what you're used to maybe?
MM; It’s alright, it could be a little bigger, but we play stages like this all tour. Yesterday I hit Samuel on the hand with my mic stand, and it’s swollen, I felt so bad. It’s nice to have a little more space, but I could work a kitchen table, and I’d still do the same show. One hundred percent.
Rock and Roll Circus; It’s a lot more intimate?
MM; Yeah! It’s a lot more intimate, and I like that. Someone asked me if I get nervous, but it’s a lot more nerve-racking being face to face than being in a big stadium. It takes more to be intimate, but I like that situation.
We ended the interview, and Michael allowed me to take some more pictures. We talked about the stars on his fingernails, which glow in the dark. I mentioned how my daughters have some glow in the dark rings, and they love them. A Japanese fan sent me them to me, which was kind and we went to meet her in Japan, Michael said. An all-round good bloke. Who perhaps, isn’t appreciated as much as he should be. Given how Hanoi Rocks and Michael as a solo act has influenced so many bands. At fifty five years old, he still has as much passion as he did when he watched Black Sabbath for the first time in 1970 and played a great set that night in closing Hard Rock Hell 2019.
The Rock & Roll Circus Team at Hard Rock Hell XIII over the weekend were Glenn Dene & Glyn Mason.
All photos taken by Glenn Dene
©The Rock'n'Roll Circus Radio
(Contact The Rock'n'Roll Circus if you want to use any of the photos)
Ceri Davies
Presenter and Co-Director