SLAUGHTER DANA STRUM Pt. 2 Talks Ozzy, Slaughter & Vince Neil

Hey Danny, you really know how to pick them, don't you? This is going to be fun. Dana

strum

s, it was a good lesson. You know, the day before you are hungry and you want to do everything you can and you see some. some high stuff, uh, a gallon of speed metal, the band, the band, you know, pissing in a bottle and drinking it like it's a beard and you're like, oh, that's over, but you see the internal turmoil, uh, you know you work with other people and you realize that they have demons and problems and I remember when I saw that about Ozzie because we were very, very different people and he liked to tell me no, don't play.

Being in business will ruin your life and then of course I realized you know how funny he was right. I never told the boy I did it, I did it much later to his face. You know you were right. But we were joking. about it, uh, but it was a good character builder for me and, uh, my mom wasn't, you know God, you're an idiot, my mom was somehow, I could make this work, it may not be fair and It may not be fair to me. but I will make it work and somehow there has to be something that comes out of this, you know, there has to be some reason why I would meet different or unusual or difficult people and somehow I wouldn't be the one that could be the snapdragon and and be. overly reactive, so sometimes when you look at people who were extremely over the top or overly emotional, what do you realize was of no use?

Nothing that just happened in this room was of any use. The only thing we did was lose two and a half and three hours. You went back to zero and nothing good came out of it, so it was a big school lesson for me. Don't forget there was no Internet, so you couldn't go to YouTube and know how to do this or how to deal with a problem. difficult person or how to deal with an asshole or how to deal with someone with mental problems just try, I mean, whether you figured it out or not and, in some way or another, from the first time splashing around the beer bottles or being at Starwood in Those days I realized that part of my role was never going to be normal and always would be.

I have to see through the mess and somehow, if I can see through the mess, I'll find something good there and I'll see if I can chase that, I mean alcohol, I drank um, I wasn't a young drinker, I really wasn't a young man. party animal, um, you knew you were going to perform at the Starwood, let's just say the Starwood was a drug haven. It was a prostitutes' paradise it was a prostitution paradise in Hollywood there was nothing, it wasn't, there are movies about that, there are movies about how to get the drugs out of Starwood and how they kill people for it.

I always knew something strange was happening there. but after that early experience for me because I was young with Ozzy and a little bit of that was a shock because I love music so much and everything and I think that's not what I thought. I don't know why I thought something, but it wasn't who someone was, you know it'll be like some people say, see if you love someone's music, don't know them, you might really hate everything, um, so I drank. but it never got to a point where I felt like an angry alcoholic. I worked with some of them and I was like, "Oh my God, do you know what just happened?

We were laughing, we were having fun and the next thing you know you realize and I know I mean it's a black demon coming out of someone, like that." that I had seen a lot of that and you know, Ollie was a bit of a funny drunk. Others that I worked with later were much more bitter and much angrier and I was lucky that I also worked with some older bitter drunks when I realized that. that it's the same, it's the same you and, oh, it's the same, it doesn't matter if you're 20 or 60. If you're an angry alcoholic, you're an angry alcoholic and it's not my problem, but I think I've learned to deal. with that, which is just ignoring it.

Nothing you say really matters, so can we do what we're supposed to do here or let's go? I was lucky, so there were no drugs, uh, and everyone was telling me what I mean. to Ozzy, oh come on, you know you do coke, I'm like no, I'm not really interested, oh I know you and um, but I didn't know you. I know after seeing people who didn't do it, it was destroying their lives. He was the best teacher in the world for me. Have you ever done anything better high on coke? Let me help you. No, I'm not doing it, so I would drink, but.

I was kind of the monitor of my own house and um, hey, did I drink and drive when I shouldn't have? Yes, I made absolute mistakes lulu. Did I do things I shouldn't have done? Yes, yes, I'm a liar yes. I'm not saying yes, of course yes, I didn't get caught, it was nothing but luck, but I started learning when I was a kid, I was a kid in my room, I didn't go to prom, I didn't. going on dates I didn't really care about girls I wanted to play the stupid bass today I still call it the stupid bass sometimes I laugh at it but I was that kid that just sat there just wanted to play I do everything I do You can always try to remember, Don't forget that you were the one who made that decision, that you wanted to play the stupid base, no one made me do this, but remember that when you used to close the door and turn up the music, you did it.

I don't need drugs, I couldn't afford to drink alcohol if I could, it was any Green Springs, you know, a buck 05 for a bottle and you'd get it at a 7-eleven, but you wanted to do this, no one, Dana, made you do this. but you and I didn't try hard, I loved it, so every time you get that uncomfortable feeling, I try to go back to that teenage room and realize it, and I was lucky enough to be able to continue doing it there. There were many times, even at the beginning of the

slaughter

, I thought, look, I'm really too old, you know, I'm too old, Mark is younger than me, I'm too old, maybe he'll break the records. with him and writing and then maybe I don't know and I was older so I missed that same window because of a lot of the other things I was doing, I really missed that window and I was I'm not really bitter about it, I just thought that It hadn't happened to me, but I learned all these other things and I'll find something to do with them every couple of years that I started going through, especially when the massacre guitars, Tim Kelly.

I died, I thought well, the music scenes changed, the grunge scene has almost put 80's rock out of business, the plug pulled out faster than you can say bitch and the plug was ripped out of the wall and nothing came back. to be equal. We went from tour buses and stadiums to rental cars and traffic tickets, none of it was glamorous, none of it was what we really signed up for, but none of us were willing to say it and with Killing we were one of the few bands that were still playing. out there and I never really changed what we were doing, I left that stuff and I was like, you know, damn man, motherfucker, that's not really what I saw. one of us signed up for me.

Did anyone know? Maybe I should be the one. when tim kelly died i remember maybe this is it maybe we all took this too far now the guy is dead i never knew what tim was going to do i always thought well look at mark he'll be fine he's going to sing he's going to write he's going to do it yours mark plays a lot more guitar than people think and is more musical than people think markle always rationalized in my head a cute guy, he will find his way, i never really did, now i could never put my finger on what It was really tim, do you know what would happen if this wasn't like that?

I never could put my finger on it and um, I really thought in my mind, you know, maybe maybe this should be it and I never dared to say it, so that's it. Imagine my dumb luck and the dumb luck of all these guys, that same year in '98 was one of the first years of touring with the rock Never Stops that changed the face of these bands from the 80s that came out again that same year and , even worse, it was one of my concepts with the agent, but maybe two and two and two, something has to happen here, maybe these bands will do better together and they all stopped fighting each other and you know my dick is bigger than yours, or we put it together, put it together and put it together.

I mean something has to happen here because none of these bands are going to make it, you know, I mean let's be real financially here, it's not going to work out and let's imagine that year of rock never stops, a lot of those dates came in at percentages of overflow for The first time in these bands lasted seven eight years and suddenly there was a bright light that was almost extinguished and we were proud to be involved. We were at every one of those Rock Never Stop things except one and it was just because we were literally at every one of them and it was almost almost seemingly like an inside, well, it was kind of an inside thing, I mean, it was the agents along with us who they loved, they called mark because they liked me, call me because I became a business partner and they liked me.

We were very lucky to have those relationships and, uh, all the bands that cooperated were among the same bands that ended up with us, every single one of them, including Vince. the joke about that mark said the same thing you wrote it you worked on it you produced it you mixed it there will be something because those were your songs and you knew it when you sat there he and I fell asleep you know by bathtub, I remember I almost drowned that night I was so tired I pulled the thing out, I don't know, I jumped out of the water because I was so beat up, it was the night we finished all the acoustic guitar layers on Flight of Angels.

I remember us sitting there and listening, I said, damn, man, if we don't have something with this, I mean, if what we're listening to right now is as stupid and harsh as it is, not even me. I don't know what to say, damn it, how can it not be like this? So, of course, you remember that you can turn the clock forward to win the American Music Award, but again with your own efforts, uh, the motley crew is and it's the. Undisputed champion of the 80s rock genre Kiss really was a 70s band, they flowed into the 80s and floated into the 90s, including the first tour, it was the

slaughter

tour, uh, a motley crew are the undisputed kings of Hollywood and no one is going to accept them. away from them when

vince

plays with motley crue you see that same shine and I was out there and I saw the same shine those were the guys he was on that bus with just like me and there's nothing wrong you know many many I I'm like Dude, it's you, you know there's going to be a jump start on a sports program, it's you, it's not me, it's you, okay, needless to say, when we touch on things, I know he and I went through this, including that. very fateful meeting and vinnie vinson's first experiences you're putting your ass out there and this is all we have to say you know everything we have to do everything we have to say and we're not going to run away from the beginning things we did because you know what we knew at the time, this is not happening, I don't know what we're going to do and, um, so it's just a natural, I mean, it's no different than when I was.

I dated Motley Crue um and I was purely in a managerial capacity but I saw the fire, I mean, of course, that's his band, that's his band and no matter what it is, he loves being in his band, does he? who does not? I think number one is almost like auto racing or drag racing, no matter what the Internet has done to music purchasing and no matter what Pandora and Spotify have done, a lot of those free streams from younger kids maybe they wouldn't be people who are. Were we ever exposed to hearing things like, wow, what is that?

So they get that free listening and we complain because they don't pay us, they don't pay us properly, we never agreed to be exposed in that format for any of those amounts of money. That's a separate story or legal issue, but the fact is that the benefit could be that people discovered some of these things that maybe they wouldn't have discovered if you had to buy or not buy. That's the question if you went to your local mall. store and you had your nine and ten dollar bill if you couldn't damage it for free at a listening station or you couldn't damage it, they do know that they program for the Pandora station or they listen to it or they snoop on the Internet and I think it has given it different legs if you go to a drag race you know it's loud it's furious it smells there's no experience like something live there's no experience like a live rock concert I think people will, people who love this music will I've always loved this music and If it weren't for them none of us would be here, you wouldn't be here, there wouldn't be anyone interested in hearing an idiot like me say any of this or anyone else.

I am grateful for that, I don't think the musical style will ever die, it will go through the secular changes it has had, but I think the living fire will always be there, I said it to mark and it is parallel to one of the questions you asked me buddy you'll be like frankie valli you can always go sing these songs you're the singer you can always go sing these songs huh, 80's rock certainly went through the biggest thing in the world, dominating mtv until it was almost extinct two You know, damn, that was fun and a lot of those people were pretty good and it gives you an exhilarating feeling to see it that way.

I don't think '80s rock will ever die a certain and complete death. I think 80s rock will be present. As long as the peopleis willing to remain interested in it and as long as it says that the singer is willing to sing it.