Published by : vampire-magazine.com
Interviewer : Toby
Published on : December, 2002

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Manowar was one of my teenage idols. This was a great opportunity to meet those guys for real. I was nervous like a kid but i prepared myself well. To be honest we don't see Manowar so very often here in our lowlands. So this is a great kick off for a concert of pure Heavy Metal and a few questions.

How is the tour right now going on?
Scott: it’s great. This is the last show. It’s going fantastic. See a total of thirty five shows in thirteen country’s. And the last one here in Zwolle tonight, it’s great. You guys are lucky to be here because it’s the last night of the tour. And that’s where all the jokes get played on everybody. It would be a lot of fun. In a matter of fact, the sound check I went out, have you seen our stage set yet? They basically put me into a cage, so I couldn’t get inside my drums. I said OK, hit the bass drum, hitting the bass and I watched my sticks. A couple of sticks sticking out of my bag like normal and sudden the whole bag comes out. They glued the inside of the stick back together. And after that, I hit the drums but they sawed my sticks almost through so the whole bunch exploded. So this was our sound check.

There are a lot of Heavy Metal vocalists from the eighties with a powerful voice but nowadays a lot off those lost their power. How did he manage to keep his voice at least for twenty years in shape?
Scott: It’s a matter of lots of pussy juice and beer. He’s getting stronger and stronger, I mean on our last record we were able to do Nessun Dorma and which other singer in heavy metal could do that like him? No one!

Joey played the Keyboard on stage since David Shankle left the band but when you listen to your CD’s, i can hear more instruments playing. Will it ever happen that Manowar will use choirs and orchestra’s for example arranged by Joe Rozler on stage?
Scott: We would love too, as a matter of facts this is one of our plans for the future. To do some live performances with a whole orchestra would be great, a lot of our arrangements are allowed for that, it would be really great.

Do you already have a time schedule for this plan?
Scott: We are now planning for next year and the year after moves what we going to do. There are a lot of things floating around and we don’t have definite plans yet. We are talking about the new touring in March and also starting a new Manowar record in the middle of next year. The new Manowar record will come out early 2004. No more five years between records!

Why does it take so much time to release an album? Touring a lot?
Scott:Yes we are. We tour a lot and the time in between "Louder Then Hell" was released until we stop touring before that record in 1999, we did club touring and we assembled a full production video- and audio crew. We video taped- and recorded the show every single night. That’s a lot of work. As you know we released "Hell on Earth Part 1" and we just released "Fire And Blood" which is actually "Hell On Earth Part 2" and then "Blood In Brazil" which is the complete monsters of Rock festival we’ve played in a hall in Brazil. It’s a lot of work to do that other people don’t see. I think it’s time to make two double live records.

Do you do everything your self?
Scott:We are the video directors etc. etc. We always have to see everything to make sure everything is perfect and to make sure everything is right so we have to look through miles and miles of video tape and listen night after night to audio tapes.

Your product is just a reflection of your own ideas?
Scott: Right. We want to have everything to be as perfect as possible, so this takes time to look right. In 1999 we get together in Joey’s recording studio in NY, in his basement. It’s a professional recording studio that we’re able to write Warriors of the World in about eight months or whatever it took. This is my seventh time in Europe this year, so we were very busy this year. And when we got back in August we went in to the studio to put together two brand new songs for a single. My point is, we got the studio up and running perfectly now so now we we going to start working.

The attitude "We don’t like other bands " is this still according to you all in 2002? And if the answer is no, which bands do you listen to?
Scott: What is that fucking shirt you got on? Whoohahaha. Scott: Take that shirt of! Is it an image? Scott: It’s more like, we don’t really care what anybody does. We only care what we do. You know what I mean, we don’t like to look to other bands to see what they are planning or what they are dressing like or what they are doing. We don’t give a shit! We give a shit about Manowar. To give the best possible form. I went after the bus this afternoon and a fan out there shouted Scott look! He pulled up his shirt and he had my name there written. Me and the rest of the band’s autograph tattooed on his arms. He had a full back tattoo of Manowar. Fans are unbelievable. Dedication, incredible and that’s why we still here. If it wasn’t for the fans that’s why we are still here.

The attitude of Manowar -I don’t want to offend you- is a bit puberal like for sixteen years old. Wat do you think about that?
Scott: Let’s think about when you were 13, 14 years old and you saw a band when you were wild and crazy and then you saw a chick come out and throw her tits out. Wouldn’t that be the greatest thing? You are not getting late while you’re at that age. That’s what we try to do, you know, just have fun. That’s a part of the show. We are here to entertain. Some people don’t dig it sometimes but most of the people do.

The Year 1996 was a year of renewal and the year of the return of the warlord! Which number will be most suitable for this time?
Scott: for this year… I don’t know. We are the warriors of the world because, you know, we do it for our fans it’s a sound rip for our fans as an anthem. Always we played that song, the whole place rocks and goes crazy. Everybody is jumping up and down. This anthem stump and shout songs that really gets the crowd into it.

Is there anyone of you who has a relationship(married) with a woman? Is the way you live to merge with a relationship?
Scott: We are married with Heavy Metal. We were having to much fun to live like that.

From 1982 till now. What can you say about twenty years of Manowar?
Scott: Well it’s amazing to see the loyalty and the support of our fans. Cause we started of small. Every year it becomes a little bit more. So now we are here, and it is great to see the loyalty of our fans over all these years and it is so much better this way than to have a few successful records like five million records one year and the next year nobody knows who you are. Like in the states we have MTV where are they now. They show the bands that were huge and even it was five years ago. And now they were hanging billboards. We are not really by choice of design. We were able to have a slow increase. And for twenty years it seems to be going up a little.

During a tour you all got the habit to ride the H.D.. Are there any H.D. clubs you visit?
Scott: There are Hells Angels groups and other bikers who come to see the band and have a lot of fun. There are a lot of biker groups who come to support the band and we have a beer with them afterwards. You drive with your HD where ever you are and visit a club or something like that.
Scott: We did the whole promotion tour a few years back. We’re nuts!

I always have the feeling that Manowar was always a typical European style band. How is the situation in the states?
Scott: It’s OK(with a deep breath). Trust me the fans we have there are very dedicated like here but they are not with many. How come? Scott: I don’t know. Maybe in Europe a band is picked to be someone’s favourite band, they generally sticked with it to be loyal to the band. In The states it goes like who is this week on MTV? OK they are cool or Who is on the cover of the Roling Stones? Ok They are cool and then there is, you know, the trends shanges and the styles of music changes, the fans changed right along with it. I think that is a part of it too.

If you go to Germany Manowar is the best but in Holland they say they are good but not the biggest band. How come?
Scott: Let’s put it this way. We’ve played Fifteen shows in Germany. Korn was over there two months ago and they only played two shows.

Most of the numbers(tracks) were written by Joey but Karl seems to be a good writer too, is there a possibility for the next albums that he will write more songs for Manowar?
Scott: I don’t know we are not there yet. We are not really thinking about, what songs or how we going to write or what type of songs it going to be on our next record yet but we are now focussed on touring. In the middle of next year I will be able to answer that question. I mean Joey has as well recording equipment on computers and I’ll fool around a little bit and I do some writing my self. Actually I’m working on a solo record so it takes a lot of my time next year as well and see what happens then. A solo record, what style of music it is going to be or what can we expect? Scott: Very, very heavy. With no vocals, it will be an instrumental one. That’s all I can say.

It’s remarkable to know that Thomas Miller, your manager, is one of the men who joined Manowar for at least twenty years. Can you tell me more about the Overlord?
Scott: Oh Yeah… For the last 14,15 or 16 years, something like that. He is been great. There came a time, the last year or so that we drifted apart. He’s doing his thing and we are doing our thing.

Can you tell me the story about the departure after "Kings Of Metal" when Rhino came in?
Scott: I have children and one was very sick It’s very simple, you make a decision that I couldn’t very well make a record and touring and worrying about what’s going on home. I took that time to handle that situation. A friend of mine Rhino, a nice fellow and very good. Then when Manowar was gun showing with the "Triumph Of Steel Tour" and getting ready to make a new record. He said how is the situation at home. I said it’s fine you don’t have to worry anymore. I offered him to make a record tour in 1995 and he said it was OK. Was it an agreement, before that Rhino was a temporary replacement? Scott: Yes…

This Tour is the biggest Manowar ever did. For me as a fan and even after all these years it’s amazing to see that Manowar managed to maintain it’s power and grow even bigger than it was in the eighties. How did you manage to maintain your powers?
Scott: More amplifiers, more speakers, more lights. This is the biggest production we ever taken out. Four Semi’s (four Trucks), four busses, forty-two people and the coolest and largest light show we’ve ever had and the biggest PA system we’ve ever taken. How did you do it for your self, everybody is getting older and need some training to maintain their power? Scott: Who is getting older? And besides you just take care of your self. Maybe ten, fifteen years ago you drink beers all night and get two hours of sleep, wake up and play your show. Put it this way: The fan who pays the ticket last night pays the same ticket as the fan today. If you’re not feeling 100% then you can’t deliver 100% so you just learn to take care of your self a little bit and exercise when you can at the hotel, eat properly, You know, you last longer.

Can you give the definition of True Metal?
Scott: Yes, Manowar What ever style of metal you playing, as long you maintain the integrity of that music and not changing or cut of your hair and start to play happy music. If you follow where you started, you end up the same place and that’s good.

The Dawn of battle is the new single containing two tracks, "the Dawn of Battle", "I believe" and "Call to arms" plus an extra footage from the upcoming DVD’s "Hell on Earth part II" and "Blood in Brazil". Can you tell me more about these DVD’S?
Scott:Yes, ‘Hell On Earth Part II" is a continuation of "Hell on Earth Part I" , so it picks up where it left of. It’s very cool for the fans who like the classic Manowar songs like "Hatred", ‘Dark Avenger" and ‘Bridge Of Death", because they kind of focussed heavily the touring we did when we’ve played a lot of those classic songs so that would be very cool. That chares the wildness and craziness backstage and just being on tour with Manowar. The DVD is going on with the live gigs on tour till now? Scott: No not quit. Put it this way: What we were filming on this tour right now and the last three weeks would be "Hell On Earth Part IV". Part II came out and Part III is almost done. Like "Lord Of The Ring". Scott: haha No it’s better. There is so much footage and so many events, you have to capture them all and there is always so much time to buy a cd set, yes they are coming out in bits and part three is pretty much done. Right now and tonight would be on "Hell On Wheels Part IV"

Your last album "warriors of the world" is an album full of remembrance for example Puccini’s Nessum Dorma taken from Turan Dot. Eric: Was his mother also responsible for the classical influence’s for Manowar?
Scott: Yes, I mean he’s not into classical music heavily but there is more a situation we decided to put that track on the record and it was already recorded. Unfortunately he lost his mother during the recording, he decided to dedicate that song to his mother.

About the style, a lot of fans wanted after "Louder Than Hell" . which style of manowar do you like the most? Some people say the epic style. Is that so?
Scott: Not really it’s more when you start writing you have an overview what the record is going to be like and sound like. Intentionally write songs that would be double bass is not very epic. It’s just a bass melter but I know what you’re saying, I’ve heard this quit a bit that this album is like a return to the "Sign Of The Hammer" and "Into Glory Ride". It’s kind a like when we start writing the album takes shape by it’s self and a kind of evolve into that type of record.

Manowar is a very fan based band, I can imagine that you ask the fans: what do you want to hear?
Scott: Some people asked "What are you going to play tonight? Are you going to play this song or that song". No "Why Not?"(LOL) Well we have nine studio records and ninety six songs on them between those records and we can only play in about 20 songs tonight.

A few years ago Manowar had a quarrel with our colleague’s from Aardschok because the negative containing of a column about Manowar. On Dynamo Joey torned an Aardschok to pieces. Is this nowadays still an issue?
Scott: I m not aware of that. It’s not an issue for me.

What is your opinion about downloading music via Kazaa etc.?
Scott: in general, overall it’s fucking the whole music industry because it’s like picking a book out of a library and copying every page. When you do that, it’s taken away from the band and from the record companies, it’s pretty much stealing. Put it this way: eight million people recording this particular album, it’s eight million lost sales. Otherwise there are a lot of people, me for example, who want to know bands and than I can say this is a great medium to know more of those bands. Scott: That’s the other side. I think the up-side is for bands who are maybe not known and trying to come out and trying to started to put up a career. If you put two or three songs on your website or something and download those for free, that’s fine, you know what I mean, you tried to getting started anyway. A great thing too is, like in the states we have something called CD now, they have a little section to see a new album by someone. They have every track but for just thirty seconds and afterwards you can see if you like it or not. That’s a really good idea. But copying tracks one for one, I think it’s wrong.

How do you think about all those reunions we have seen last year and we will see next year on several festivals. Are you waiting for a reunion?
Scott: Not really but farewell tours or something, it’s good for them. and afterwards, "Get out of the way so that we can play".

Is your spirit now so high that you can go on for another twenty years?
Scott: Sure why not? Believe me if you are so close to everybody for eight weeks straight on a buss cabin, get out of my way. Yeah You got to get along, there is a good chemistry in the band. there is no reason we can’t go on tour.

How would you describe Manowar with their roles they have in the band?
Scott: I can say I’m the joker in the band. I have a lot of fun and keep everybody happy. I just like to have fun. And The others? Karl could be a little quiet but we all get along and now what we are doing.

The Fight for Freedom was a direct reaction on the cruelties that happened on 11-9-2001, even now we are not certain what’s going to happen in the nearby future. What’s your opinion about this issue?
Scott: Well actually, again "Fight For Freedom" was already written and recorded when 9-11-2001 happened. It’s not that we wrote that song for the events that happened. But we did take the liberty to dedicate that song to the lost ones. What’s going to happen now? Who the fuck knows, the world is a crazy place, it always has been. We as Manowar don’t have a lot of time, you get up the tourbuss stops, you take a shower, you brush your teeth, get something to eat and you do the sound check. You just have a little time to follow what’s happening. For example this is the fifth show in a row. It’s kind of hard to keep in touch.

I wonder about your relationship with Nuclear Blast because switching labels seems to be a hobby for Manowar or not?
Scott: That’s not a hobby(LOL). If you aint do the fucking job you find somebody who can. Nuclear Blast, a great company, they are behind us for 100%. They pretty much know that we know what we are doing. They let us do what we want to do and it always working out right. It’s a great relationship.

Is there territory you still want to conquer in the world?
Scott: Yeach, there are Heavy metal fans all over the world. We got letters from different territory’s like Turkey,Mexico, Poland, Romania, Korea, Asia and England. We’ll play any play there is fans and we can go. Is there a time schedule for playing in country’s you’ve never played before? Scott: Yes for those ones I just mentioned.

2002 is almost at its end. What are the depths and what are the heights in this year?
Scott: my heights is that I’ve been here in Europe fore the seventh time, we were very busy and love to do the promotion, TV shows and the interviews. That’s where we live for. These where the high points of this year. The low point for me is I lost my father a couple of months ago. That sucked.

Do you also do smaller clubs or just only big gigs?
Scott: Both, we generally play in larger venues like here in Europe and in the states we generally play in smaller venues.

Some bands like to play in small clubs because of the atmosphere. What’s your opinion?
Scott: There is really something to that, it sounds like horse shit but the intensity of a small club is very cool. Remember this you can have 500 wild crazy screaming maniacal fans that sound better and have more energy then 4000 people sitting on their hind.

How many amplifier blocks do you have?
Scott: The PA system? Yes. I couldn’t tell you, that is a question for Jack H. ( note webmaster : should be Jeff Hair ). It’s fucking loud, I can tell you that. Excuse me Joey’s bass the other day, he did some tests on it. He has a couple of speakers, there was a spot where you stand on stage and you actually vibrate your stomical intestines. It’s crazy.

You also hold a record in the Guinness book of records as loudest band of the planet. Is that right?
Scott: Yes we really have this record.

Karl Logan is a Great guitarist, how did he become a player like he is now and which bands did he play before Manowar?
Scott: Yes he is a great technician. He knows the music, he can hear a not and say, "Oh that’s a C" or he can play something and transform it completely. He has a very deep knowledge of music and theory. When he’s coming up he totally practice and practice etc. He is nuts about music. And the question in which band he played is: Nothing until Manowar.

You all as Manowar is there something you want to say?
Scott: You are lucky to be here Tonight because it’s our last show…