Published by : neonblonde.com

Interviewer : George Call

Published on : JULY 2002

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With the release of Manowar’s first studio disc in six years imminent, we knew it was time to speak with the band’s incomparable-often-controversial founder, Joey DeMaio.  Many of us here were afraid of Joey and his ever-sharp battleaxe so we sent our intrepid, always irascible, dark avenger/ defender, mega-manowarrior, George Call, into the fray.  He returned with no arms, legs, or tongue. Oh yeah, and there was a scroll in his mouth which read:  “When you are old enough to read these words, their meaning will unfold. These words are all that’s left…”  

Interview with Joey DeMaio of MANOWAR

  By George Call

POWERPLAY Magazine

Transcribed by Neon Blonde

GC:  Hey!  How ya doin’ Joey?  This is George Call for PowerPlay Magazine.

JD:  Hey what’s happenin’!

  GC: How ya doin’ brother?

  JD:  Good! What’s goin’ on? You’re in the U.K. huh?

  GC: Nah, I’m actually right here in America.

  JD: You don’t sound English!

  GC: I’m American, man! I’m down here in Dallas. You know me!

  JD: Sounds good. Now where did we meet before?

  GC: Well, the first time was when you guys came down and played Tommy’s in ’89 in Dallas, Texas for that live Z-Rock broadcast…

  JD: Oh wait, you borrowed a hundred bucks from me fucker!

  GC: That was me!

  JD: I want that cash back! It’s like five thousand bucks you owe me now.

  GC: Remember that tape I gave you then? (brief pause) Remember that?

  JD: Keep goin’!

  GC: We gave you and Eric (Adams, vocals) a tape and you guys took it on the bus. About a week later Eric called on the telephone and then you did. Then a few weeks later you both did it again. You sent us shirts, and all kinds of cool Manowar merchandise that had been left over from the “Kings of Metal” and tour. And then you guys called a bunch of times after that. You remember that?

  JD:  I do. It’s starting to come back to me now. I remember we were hangin’ out for a while. You remember? We were hangin’ out for a while listening to that tape.

  GC:  Well, since we’ve been out of touch, I’ve been takin’ care of you guys in PowerPlay man.

  JD:  Well thank you very much!  George, do you have our address?

  GC: I’ll hook you up bro.

  JD: Perfect.

  GC:  Ok, well let’s get things started. How much time we got?

  JD: Five minutes!

  (laughter)  

GC:  Epic, grandiose, pure fucking heavy metal; These words are all synonymous with your latest disc, “Warriors of the World”.  It’s quite possibly Manowar’s finest moment ever.  How does it rate for you in the Manowar canon?

  JD:  Well ya know, I hate to sound cliché but “Father loves all his children.”  For us this is just another chapter in the book of Manowar.  I hate bands that turn around and go, “Oh yeah man, this is definitely our best record!”  What does that mean?  You fucked everybody over on your last one or the one before that? What does that mean?  We put out shit on a regular basis but we got lucky this time?  I don’t fucking get that. And any band that would say that, you know, they’re fuckin’ assholes!  We’ve given 100% to every record, to every song we’ve ever made and we’ve always done the best we could.  Whether we had 10 hours of studio time, $10,000, or a million, it never mattered to us.  We’ve always given a 100% in the studio and on stage and that’s what all the records represent and this is just one more.

GC:  I noticed on “Warriors of the World” that there is more orchestration than on any of the previous releases.  This, for me and I’m sure for many others, has set a new watermark that will take other bands years to equal or even surpass.  Was this intentional?

  JD:  Well, you know if you listen to all the records, even if you go back to “Battle Hymns”, there’s a choir in the middle of “Battle Hymns”.  Listen to “Into Glory Ride” and there’s orchestral stuff there, particularly if you get into “Hail To England” there’s a choir on that record.  As you go on through the lineage of the band there’s always been hints of it, it’s just that at this point in time it’s a lot easier and it’s a lot more practical for us to use orchestral instruments than it’s ever been.  It’s always been something we’ve done.  Point number one.  Point number two is if you listen to a lot of these records people really don’t know how to orchestrate because they don’t have any background in classical music and they really don’t know what the fuck they’re doing.  This was kind of a way for us to show the jokers what kind of fools they really are.

  GC:  Well, you certainly did man. You’ve basically knocked everybody back into place, you know?

  JD:  Yeah, well that’s what we’ve basically done every record in one way or the other and we’ve always tried to stay ahead of the curve.  Technology-wise we’ve always tried to be ahead, we’ve always tried to give that extra bit of effort so that it ends up on the record and the fans get that extra bit of value for their money.  Let’s face it, our fans are not rich people.  When they buy a record and they shell out their money, we’d like to think that they’re getting the very best they can get.

   GC:  Was the title of the new disc at all influenced by the events of September 11^th?

  JD:  Well, I wouldn’t say the title of the disc was, no, I mean, but certainly the Sept. 11^th thing does play in.  If you listen to “Fight for Freedom”, that song is kind of dedicated to all the victims and all the people that were struck by this thing all over the world.

  GC:  Well, that kind of leads to my next question; Being that the band is from New York, in which ways outside the obvious did the terrorist attacks on the World Trade Center affect Manowar and/or the songs featured on “Warriors of the World”?

  JD:  Well, you know we’ve always been an international band and we’ve traveled all over the world and we, as Americans, got a taste of what people in Ireland and many other countries live with on a daily basis.  Death threats, bomb scares, all this terrorist activity and we’ve always been aware of these things. And this was one of the biggest attacks that’s ever happened here in America. And if you look at it globally, yeah it happened in America, it happened in New York, but a lot of those people lived and were from all over the world. And this, really, this event affected everybody, not just  Americans, not just New Yorkers, but we’re all affected by terrorist activities all over the world. 

  GC: Bin Laden: Death, prison, or is there a special DeMaio punishment you’d like to impart?

  JD:  Well if I could do it legally I would certainly think of something creative, that’s for sure.

  GC:  Anything you’d care to share?

  JD:  Nah, I just like to see bastards suffer and die. It’s always a nice feeling when somebody gets what they’ve got comin’ to ‘em!

  GC:  You’re full-on opera version of Puccini’s “Nessun Dorma” is incredible.  I was awestruck, moved nearly to tears. This was a bold, courageous, and unprecedented move in the metal world.  Was this a challenge for Eric?

  JD:  I think it was a challenge for everybody, sure, most of all Eric of course, because it’s certainly a demand for a singer who’s considered a rock or heavy metal singer to sing in a style that’s considered the height of the art of singing.  It’s like saying, “All right, I like to fuck around with being a track runner in high school” and then all of a sudden somebody puts you up against the number one track runner of the Olympics.  Now all of a sudden your skills are being compared against the very top, I mean, the tip of the top, not just the top. So yeah I would definitely say that’s pressure up the ass to deliver. Fortunately he has the kind of voice that exceeds the boundaries of all other heavy metal singers and he always has.  He can sing softly and quietly with a lot of control one minute and then soar way up high and belt out a note higher and longer than anybody else or scream and this just shows another aspect of his voice. It certainly puts him in his own class as a singer.  There’s nobody that can stand up to this. Of course, nobody’s ever stood up  to anything he’s ever done anyway. It’s just another thing that separates us from the jokers. There’s the people that are out there, doing, and there’s only a few, and everybody else is trying. Not to be arrogant or bold but I’m just telling you the truth. There are those that want to and there are those who can.

   GC: Men from the mice.

  JD: Hey.

    GC:  I was told that you guys played many of the orchestral instruments yourselves.  Who played what?

  JD:  Well, a lot of the stuff you’re hearing is a combination of string and orchestral sounds that are played back from a keyboard and a lot of the stuff you’re hearing are actual real orchestral players in combination. A lot of people don’t know that just having a real orchestra sometimes is not necessarily the best thing for an album. Or having a sampled sound is not necessarily the best thing but usually a combination of the two achieves the most realism and that’s kind of what they do for most motion pictures and a lot of people don’t know that.

  GC:  Manowar is arguably America’s top metal export, beloved throughout Europe and South America.  What in your estimation is the reason American and Japanese audiences have failed to connect with the band?

  JD:  Well, you know, the American and Japanese audiences have connected  but you have to remember that it’s on a real semi-underground level.  I mean if we went to Japan and played tomorrow we’d have an audience.  It’s not like there would be nobody there. Same with America, there would be people there.  America is, basically, and has been caught up in the dog shit that comes across the radio and the other dog shit that comes across MTV and it’s unfortunate that this whole country’s controlled by those two shit boxes.  There’s nothing we can do about that.  Let’s remember the style we play is pure, true, classic heavy metal.  It’s not this rap-metal stuff and that’s kind of what’s in fashion.

  GC:  You’ve always had very strong negative feelings towards “false” metal and it’s purveyors.  How do you feel about this annoying rap-metal that’s currently making the rounds here in America and other parts of the globe?

  JD:  Well you know, it’s not, again it’s a different style of music than what we’re playing.  They might wanna call it metal but it’s not metal, is it?

  GC: Not at all.

  JD: Heavy metal is heavy metal. It’s just like saying “Well we’re playing rap-jazz”.  There’s no such thing.  Jazz is jazz.  There’s pure jazz and the purists who play it. And there’s pure classical music and there’s pure country.  Then you’ve got derivatives.  If I’m gonna drink a shot of tequila I don’t wanna put any water in it.  It’s the same thing.  If I want heavy metal I want pure, true, heavy metal.  And that’s the audience that we have. That’s what they want.

  GC:  How soon before we see the “Hell On Earth II” DVD on the market?

  JD: Well that’s something we’re hoping to get out for Christmas actually.  We’re talking about making a part II & part III together.  It would be a double DVD.  There’s gonna be an hour or two of bonus footage on those two together.  It’s gonna be pretty interesting.

  GC:  Many bands have been accused of sounding like Manowar.  None moreso than your fellow New York band, Virgin Steele, particularly on their jaw-dropping “Invictus” disc of a few years back.  This is made more poignant by the fact that some people have confused pictures of you and Virgin Steele singer, David DeFeis.  Noise/Sanctuary records ran a contest recently which in order to win, you had to pick out which picture was not Defeis. The winning picture was of you. Are you familiar with DeFeis’ or his current work in Virgin Steele and what are your thoughts regarding the similarity of their sound to yours?

  JD:  I’m not really familiar with any of their stuff.  I know of their existence and I know the band’s been around but you know they’re not the only band to copy Manowar, there’re millions of them and we consider it a compliment.  When it comes to Manowar it’s often imitated but never duplicated.

  GC:  I mention them specifically because they’re from New York and they did play with you guys in the past, I think. There are no rivalries or any of that kind of stuff right?

JD:  Actually, I think they did support us on a few shows some years back.  We don’t really have any rivalry with anybody else.  We don’t really think in terms of that.  We’ve been fortunate enough to be named the “KINGS OF METAL” by our fans.  In 1999 we headlined every major European outdoor rock festival playing to crowds of 20,000 to 50,000.  I guess anybody else that does that, I suppose you could say they’re kind of colleagues but there’s not too many of those.

  GC:  The phenomenal, “American Trilogy”, is a medley of classic American songs given the Manowar treatment. It elevates the whole stature of “Warriors of the World” and coupled with “Nessun Dorma” adds a level of maturity that quite possibly makes this album one of the best releases ever in the history of the genre.  Why were these particular songs, Dixie, The Battle Hymn of the Republic, and the other chosen?

  JD:  That particular song is a real American anthem and I think this is a time when certainly people need to reflect on America and songs of unity are important but that’s the smallest component of it. Really the song is something that we’ve always thought was brilliant. For years it was one of Elvis’s encores. It’s just a brilliant song, and a brilliant arrangement.  And we like what it says.

   GC:  You took a portion of all three songs and combined them.

  JD: Well that was actually part of the arrangement.  That’s what the song is.  If you look at it and break it down it’s actually “Dixie” which is a song for the South and the Civil War that happened. 

  GC: And being in Dallas, I appreciate that.

JD: Right. Then there’s “Battle Hymn Of The Republic” which was the North’s hymn and then “All My Trials” which is a prayer for the war dead on both sides.  It’s kind of cool; everybody’s kind of looked after.

You’ll hear that song live when we come to Dallas and melt your face!

   GC:  I can’t wait.

  D:  It’ll be like somebody threw lighter fluid on your balls and lit a match!

  GC:  I’ll bring a couple of Dallas babes so they can return the favor for you.

JD: Ha! Well just have them checked by a doctor first.

   GC:  Going back a couple of years I’d like to ask why Rhino (drummer who joined the band on “Triumph of Steel”) left the band?  Was it because Scott (Columbus) was ready to return to the band or were there other mitigating circumstances?

JD:  No actually, Rhino being a friend of Scott’s came into the band-- real simple story--Scott’s son was sick and he didn’t want to be out on the road not doing justice to his family and being worried about his son and also not doing justice to the band.  He just said “I don’t know what’s gonna happen. Maybe Rhino should step in for a while”.  Being that they were friends and he knew all the music, he was into it and it was always with the understanding that, hey, it could be a forever thing but his son did recover and Scott was able to return and it was just a brotherly exchange.

  GC:  So he wasn’t forced out or anything like that?

  JD:  No man.  We’re a band of brothers.  In fact Rhino was just up here two weeks ago just hangin’ out.  He’s working on a different project.

  GC:  “Warriors of the World” was recorded in your new studio.  What became of your old studio, Haus Wanfried?

  JD:  Oh we still have that studio.  This was a studio that I built inside my house but our main studio is still in existence and we also have a video studio in there.

  GC:  Did you record any portion of the new album there?

  JD:  No, there was no need.  We did the whole thing at the new studio. And the new studio is called “Hell”.

   GC: Right, right, Studio Hell. I caught that.   So can we expect an American or U.K. tour in support of the new album?

  JD:  You can definitely expect the fact that we’re gonna get out all over the world, no doubt about it. We’re just putting things together now.  We’re focusing on a tour that’s gonna happen in the fall: September-October, but in the meantime we will be playing dates here and there. 

  GC:  So what is in Joey DeMaio’s CD player right now and is there anything you’ve been listening to a lot lately?

  JD:  Yeah, our new record, only because I have to approve the mastering.  We’re still working on it right now.

  GC:  Absolutely.  I’m sure you must have had to listen to it a million times but let’s say outside of Manowar, is there anything makin’ the rounds in your personal home player?

  JD:  Just a lot of demo tapes that bands send us for our new label, Magic Circle Music.

GC:  I was gonna ask you about your new label.  How many bands have you signed and who’s distributing the label?

  JD:  Okay well we haven’t struck up a distribution deal with any one label because we want to make sure that each artist on the label is placed with a distribution company or record company that wants to work that artist.  So that’s the most fair way to the artist and the music and also to the label. They’re the people that have to work it.  Secondly the artist that we have now are a new band called Bludgeon.  If you haven’t gotten that information yet you should check it out through Metal Blade.  I’d appreciate it if you would give that a listen and some support in the magazine because it’s an ass tearin’ band from Chicago. They’ve got a killer album called “Crucify The Priest” about a crooked priest and you’ll fucking blow your mind when you hear this band. Anyway, Magic Circle is a label designed to take new talent that’s different, wild, crazy, exciting, and get it out there to the people. That’s the name of the game.

 GC: Is metal your focus?

  JD: Metal is the focus because that’s what I know, that’s what I do. Right now we have Rhino doing a solo project which is a rock opera. Also, Dave Shankle of Manowar fame is on the label. And then also a new project called Holy Hell.

  GC:  And you’re currently looking for more acts?

  JD:  Definitely.  We’ve always got our eyes open, sure. It’s not Sony music. We don’t have money like we print it up in the basement. We’re not a bank. We’re looking for people that write good music that need help getting it out there and that’s what we do.

  GC: Well I’ve got a CD for you then.

  JD: Do it! Send it in.

  GC:  Let’s talk about Dave Shankle for a minute.  What caused him to leave the band?

  JD:  Actually, Dave got to the point where after touring, making videos, touring all over the world-- His dad’s a guitar teacher, that’s how he came to play guitar. He really always was… his first love was classical music and classical guitar and he decided that after touring all over the world and getting a taste of it that studying and teaching classical guitar was an important thing for him so he went back to college, got his degree.  It’s kind of like what Randy Rhoades used to do; He’d take a classical guitar lesson in every town that he went to.  And Dave kind of did the same thing but I mean really took it to the limit.  Then he graduated and got his degree and now he’s ready to rock out again.

  GC:  It’s unfortunate that he couldn’t pursue those interests alongside the band.

  JD:  Well you know, you’re right.  It was unfortunate but how the hell could he really go to college full time and do all the study work that’s necessary, and all the practice, performance and then give 100% to the audience?  Dave’s a brother he would never fuck the band.

  GC:  Well man, I’m just glad you got Karl Logan in there.  The guy’s a wicked guitar player and a helluva nice guy!

  JD:  He’s a good guy.

  GC:  Since “Fighting The World” Ken Kelly has painted all of your covers, but one…

JD: He’s done all the covers since “Fighting the World”.

  GC: Well, there was that live album…

  JD: Oh exactly, yeah. You’re absolutely correct.

  GC: Do you tell him what to paint or give him a title to work from?  How does that imagery come about?

  JD:  Yeah, he and I usually work right around midnight, you know, in the midnight hour, so we won’t be disturbed and we just, you know, pull all these visions out of the conscious and subconscious, and just lay it out.

  GC:  Are you being facetious?

JD:  No, I swear to fuck!  I’m not kidding you! Call him up and ask him. If you ever want an interview I can always arrange that for ya.

  GC:  Who keeps the original paintings?

  JD:  I have them here.

  GC:  So you commission them and he gives them to you?

JD:  Yeah, they’re my life.

  GC:  Most of your songs are based and steeped in Norse mythology and lore…

JD:  Not most, but a lot of them.

GC:  …Well a good portion of them and right from the get go, I mean, to be fair you’ve touched on Judeo-Christian imagery in songs like “Bridge of Death” or “Defender” and even some Native American great spirit songs. Yet a greater portion of your songs are replete with references to Odin, Thor, Valhalla, Valkyries, and such.  If you don’t mind me asking, what are your personal religious beliefs?  Is the attention paid to Norse mythology in your music part of your, say, part of your thing?

  JD:  No, no, no.  My thing is very simply this: Everybody has a right to believe whatever works for them. That’s really my personal thing you know?

GC:  But your religion specifically…Is that something you want to comment on?

  JD:  No not really because you know, it’s such a personal thing. Everybody has got the right to think, believe, and act the way they want. Everybody’s gotta find their own peace in terms of how they deal with spirituality in their own way. The problem is everybody claims that their one religion is ‘the way’ and everybody else is going to hell and I just don’t buy that. I believe it’s just something that everybody’s gotta find what works for them. Usually experience is the best teacher with that.

   GC:  When not touring does anybody in Manowar, and I don’t believe this at all but I have to ask, does anyone work a day job?

  JD:  No.  We devote our whole life to heavy metal.  That’s it. We’ve given our whole life just like a priest or nun gives their life to religion we’ve given our whole life to the band.

  GC:  No sellin’ shoes on the side?  

  JD:  (Laughter) My grandmother always wanted me to be a shoe salesman when I was younger because it was good, steady work but I chose to not go for the steady thing.

  GC:  You did the risk-takin’.

  JD:  Exactly. And still takin’ ‘em bro!

  GC:  It paid off, man…

  JD:  I like it everytime I do an interview like this with somebody like yourself who has really studied the band’s career and knows what the fuck they’re talkin’ about.  I can tell you that you certainly didn’t do it because you didn’t have any interest in doing it.  You certainly have really done your homework and researched the band because you obviously enjoy it and, I mean, that means all the difference in the world.

  GC:  I appreciate that.  Thank you very much.

  JD:  I can tell by the questions you’re asking and some of the things you’re talking about that you definitely are familiar with the band. And you have to understand I’ve got a good perception ‘cause I do a lot of interviews and I know who’s full of shit and who’s not.

GC:  Well thanks man.  The pleasure is all mine.  Moving along then; It’s been 20 years since Manowar’s inception. To your critic’s dismay, Manowar has become an American institution.  Can we hope for more Manowar releases in the future and is everybody still committed 100% to the continuation of the Manowar legacy?

  JD:  Oh definitely, definitely.  We’re back from building the studio and we’re ready now to continue just touring, putting out records and DVD’s, that’s it, non-stop.

  GC: Can we expect another 10 years?

  JD:  Well, you know, I’ll never see myself being that shoe salesman that my grandmother wanted me to be so, I guess we’re gonna be around for a while.  We don’t plan on going anywhere else.

   GC:  So why do bands like Megadeth have such a problem with Manowar?

JD:  I don’t know.  I didn’t know Megadeth had a problem with Manowar.

  GC:  Apparently when you guys played that festival together in Brazil a few years ago, you guys co-headlined with Megadeth and after your show they went onstage and Mustaine started makin’ somewhat snide sounding remarks regarding Manowar’s presentation.  I mean, for me, you guys are real and true and have “stuck to your guns”, so to speak, as opposed to somebody like Mustaine who gets up there and tries to ride the latest trends, pleasing few and disappointing many.  What was the deal with that?

  JD:  I really have no idea.  First of all we weren’t co-headliners we were the special guests on the festival.  Number two, there were 30,000 people there and 15,000 had our shirt on.  Now you don’t have to take my word for it and I’ll tell you why; because probably around the first of the New Year there will be our full length DVD that was recorded at that show called “Blood In Brazil”.  It’s gonna be the first full length DVD ever that the band has done of a full concert. And you’ll see 15,000 people wearing our shirt out of 30,000, but every song, 30,000 people that were there are singing our songs, and it was clearly our show. If you read the reviews that came out about it, it said everybody was there that day to see Manowar.

GC:  Absolutely. That’s the word on the street man.  That’s gospel.

  JD:  I really, truly, and I’m saying this honestly from my heart, I really wasn’t aware anybody else had any issues.  The only thing that was said to me was the guitar player from, uh, he’s a nice guy, his name is Chris Caffery. He was with Savatage. He came up to me afterwards, after the show, and said “Why didn’t you guys just go home after the first song, that’s all it took.  You didn’t need to keep on playing and do what you did to the rest of us.”  It was a really nice compliment.  He’s really a good kid. He’s a good guy.

GC:  Well I was really wanting your take on the whole Mustaine thing…

  JD:  Yeah, but I don’t really know anything about it. I really don’t. You see the thing is this, we don’t have any competition.  We just get on the stage and give the audience what we do so how can we have any competition?  There’s only one Manowar.  It’s not like, Ok well there’s another band exactly like us and we’re competing against them. We just get on the stage and we give the audience every fucking thing we’ve got. And that’s it. It’s not my fault we’re just bigger, louder, heavier, faster… I don’t know. There’s nothing we can do about that.

GC:  I know that you have an aversion to all of the bootleg material that’s out there on Manowar.  I experienced it first hand. I had you sign a bootleg disc of your band for me when I saw you guys in Oklahoma City a couple of years ago.  I had bought that one and a few others while I was on tour with ASKA in Italy. You weren’t happy to even see the thing, in fact you told me I should throw it away because it was shit but you went ahead and signed it for me anyway. I realize that these are rip-offs to the band, they’re substandard, and you don’t make any money from their sale and these are probably just a fraction of the things that piss you off about them.  Elucidate for me your take on bootlegging in general.

  JD:  I can’t stand it. I think it’s an opportunity for people to use the love and ignorance of the fans, to their own benefit.  You have to remember the fans don’t know that the guy that’s selling them a t-shirt at a train station outside the gate is a bootlegger. They think ‘cause it’s got the name Manowar on it it’s coming from us…

 GC:  Yeah but what about the informed fan though? Because when I purchased my ‘boots’ in Italy I knew full well that these things were rip-offs and that they were gonna sound like shit because they were probably recorded by some idiot that snuck into the show with some hidden recording device. Nonetheless, my love for the band is so great that I want to hear the band warts and all, you know?  

  JD:  I understand that and I understand that part of it.  The thing is I just want the fans to have the very, very best so if they want a live tape or live performance I’m happy to make it and that’s why I’m gonna continue on with live albums.  ‘Cause I don’t want people buyin’ bootlegs.  If fans want souvenirs of that show that they were part of on that tour, I want them to have it. But I’d rather do it myself than have some motherfucker with a piece of shit DAT machine recording something that sounds like shit.

   GC:  That brings us to yet another thing unique to Manowar.  It was an extremely bold move to release two live albums in a row. Totally unprecedented in the history of rock to my knowledge and done in true Manowar style. It’s these things that set you guys apart from the pack.  Did you catch a lot of flack for doing that?

  JD:  Definitely. A lot of people suggested, “Oh you’re just trying to milk the fans” and all this other bullshit.  It’s just people, again, sour grapes, talkin’ out of their ass because if we were interested in milkin’ the fans we would have done what everybody else does.  We would have made a live album after the first, second, or third record.  We waited eight fucking studio albums to make a live record because we wanted to be sure the fans wanted a live album from Manowar.  Then when we did, because we waited, it didn’t take long to figure out that we couldn’t fit all the songs the fans wanted on just two records.  It wasn’t possible.  So, after that first live record came out we were bombarded with people saying “What about this song, what about that song? You didn’t play my favorite song!”  So we had no choice but to make a second live album.

  GC:  Yeah and it wasn’t like KISS repeating the same songs over and over.  Your second live album was a completely different lineup of songs.

JD:  Exactly. One guy from Japan called me up and said there’s 37 other songs you didn’t do. I’m serious.

  GC:  I want to thank you for a great interview Joey and for 20 years of kick-fucking ass heavy metal, staying true to yourselves, your fans, your following and for not mincing words and speaking your mind.  Like I said earlier, when we met back in ’86 and gave you that tape and then the phone calls kept coming from you guys followed by the Manowar care package, dude, you cemented our loyalty to the band forever with your actions. You went above and beyond as far as we were concerned. And we were just some nameless fans from Texas. We didn’t write for any magazines then, our band wasn’t shit.  There was absolutely no ulterior motives for you guys to do what you did other than respect for your fans.  That says a lot about what this band represents and why your fans are so loyal.

  JD:  We don’t talk shit.  We don’t build people up and fuck their dreams or jack people up, that’s not cool.  Obviously you guys thought enough of the band to put that tape together.  It was only just being courteous and polite to return that compliment by being polite. Anybody that can’t be a basic human being, you know, they should die.

   GC:  Man, again, thank you for your time, Joey.  It’s been a killer interview and good talking to you as usual.

  JD:  I’ll look forward to seeing you again in person when we get out on tour.  We’re definitely coming through this time. We’ve got a new booking agent. We’re tryin’ them out. Things might work out better for us this time.  Keep your fingers crossed.

  GC:  Were you disappointed with the Oklahoma turnout?

  JD:  No, not at all.  I don’t give a shit if there’s 100 people there or 100,000.  I don’t give a fuck. You didn’t see us put on a shitty show.  I’m not gonna shit on the 100 that are there for the 10,000 that aren’t.

  GC:  And that’s why you have everyone’s respect and admiration from the bottom of our hearts.  Hail to Joey DeMaio and Manowar.  

  JD:  Thanks bro. We’ll stay in touch and you send me some of your band’s music and anything else you think is good.

GC:  I’d like to. Thanks Joey…

  JD:  My pleasure.

  GC: …and much success with the new record.

JD: Thanks George. 

KEEP ROCKIN'!