[MUSIC] What's up everybody, Metal Dave Glesner here along with my co-host Jason McMaster, bringing you another episode of the Talk Louder podcast. Today, we are joined by except singer Mark Tornillo. Mark is out on the road currently with KK's priest. Great double bill, except in KK's priest, man. You talk about a ton of great classic metal between those two bands. That is a hot ticket. They're in the middle of the tour right now. And Mark was kind enough to join us on short notice. And we got to pick his brain a little bit about current happenings. We have had Mark on the show in the past. So if you're looking for more past history, maybe a little more in depth conversation, definitely check out our previous episode with Mark Tornillo. And yeah, today was kind of an update on the latest album, Humanoid. And the current tour with KK's priest, Mark looked like he's in good spirits and great shape and he's just out there being a rock and roll soldier. >> Yeah, when they announce this tour, which has a title, the full metal assault tour. And I actually thought that an event shirt for this tour, maybe they have one. I didn't get any information indulged quite offered to us about the merch table. It's not something that we talk about often here. But when I saw the ads for that, KK's priest and accept and it had KK and Wolf doing the whole like warrior thing facing each other with their flying V's, I was like, I need that on a T-shirt. >> Yeah, that's good. >> And I don't know if that's going to be offered. But anyway, the idea of a tour called full metal assault, which is KK's priest with Ripper Owens, of course. And playing songs off of their current record. And then accept humanoid coming out this year as well. I think is an unbelievable actual full metal assault for a night of hits of heavy metal hits. It sounds like a heavy metal party to me. I believe that anyone who has any love for either band, Judas Priest, accept whether it be the old Udo days. Or the last 15 years with Mark Turnillo, our guest today. You're in for a treat no matter what. Like I divulged in the interview, I saw both bands on the monsters of rock crews. And it was unbelievable. So when they announced that tour right after that cruise. I was like, I felt like I was a fly on the wall that wasn't paying attention. >> Yeah. >> It's like, wow, that needs to be one show, you know? Cuz I saw both acts play separate on the boat. And that needs to be one show. I didn't even, I was like, of course, when they announced the tour. I was like, duh, of course that's gonna happen. And so I'm excited to see it here in central Texas at the end of September, September 29th. But awesome to get Mark in here today to talk about it. Mid tour on his phone from his hotel room. >> Yeah. >> Which can be a pain in the ass sometimes. Because you're tired or on the road, just you got to wake up to go do something. >> Yeah. >> Yeah, so yeah, great to see him. He looks fantastic and I'm sure he's sounding fantastic and tonight makes four in a row, he said, so I mean, seeing him like that can be a bear. You gotta be careful. We talk about that a little bit too. >> That's another reason I was so grateful that he joined us today, especially on short notice because he's going on gig number four in a row. And guys need to rest their voice, man, a lot of times people won't do interviews on a day when they have a show or especially on a day when they're already clocking for in a row. So we truly extend our appreciation to Mark for making time for us today. Great guy and we talk a little bit in the episode. He's filled some pretty mighty big shoes. And the thing is that he's amassed a catalog now with except they can stand on its own. He's done a significant number of albums that have all been killer stuff. And so hats off to Mark for stepping into gigantic shoes and creating his own identity and making it last and making it work and still giving all of us metalheads lots of great new music to listen to under the accept banner. >> What's awesome is how humble he is and realizes that he's going to get shot at if they don't do balls to the wall and fast as a shark and stuff like that, right? >> Yeah. >> Yeah. >> Restless and wild, they have to do those tunes. And at the same time, he also knows that they could probably at this point with the fandom that they do have over the past, over hit the mark era as he even calls it. >> Yeah. >> You know, they could do a whole set of that stuff and it would be great and it would still kick ass and people would still have a good time and enjoy the songs because it holds up. >> Exactly. Exactly. Yeah. Hats off to Mark. I mean, wow, what an incredible career he's had. And yeah, it's really tough to step into someone's shoes. Someone as iconic as Udo Darksnighter with a voice that's so unique. And Mark's done it, you know, just knocked it out of the park and he's still going strong. >> Well, he just celebrated his 70th birthday. >> Yes. Yeah. >> So to be able to go out there and be in the, he's in great shape. >> Yeah. >> Locally and mentally and physically. >> Yeah. >> But as he, as he says, it's not something that just happened because he's now an accept. It's something that he's habitually sort of, he's got good habits, right? >> Yeah. He's been working hard. >> Obviously takes care of himself and cares about the job that he's doing when he's on stage. >> Yeah. >> Happy birthday, congratulations on everything, and especially the full metal assault tour with accept supporting KK's priest, a double headliner bill, if you ask me. >> Yeah. >> So for sure. >> That's probably going to go on for another couple of weeks. I don't know how much longer they're going to go through, but it's a US tour. It's a full tour. But they're in New York this weekend. They just played in Hollywood. So they're working their way, they're gobbling up the calendar. >> Yeah. And he told us also that you might get a surprise every now and then, because he's already joined KK's priest, he got up on stage with Ripper and did a song, or did Ripper get up with him? >> Ripper got up with accept and did balls to the wall at vodka. >> There you go. Okay. It's a chance that they could join forces at some point on this tour and knock out a classic. So if you're going, be on the lookout for that. And you should be going to this anyway. It's like we said earlier, it's rare that you get a double bill that's strong. There's always, oftentimes, a support band that's good, but these two guys are like titans of the genre, and they're toe to toe equally matched, and this is a really strong double bill. So here's a way to look at it, and then you can take us out. So at least my friends who like heavy metal, they've got plenty of records with KK, and they've got plenty of records with accept of accept, right? So KK's priest, whether they have the KK's priest material, they've got old Judas Priest records sitting right next to their accept albums too. I don't know any heavy metal fans that don't have a Judas Priest album that don't also have at least a couple of accept albums. Oh, yeah. That puts it in some kind of like, you know, different sort of perspective of the genre and it generalize, I'm generalizing, but when you put those two together, it's like someone can go, oh, I have all their records. Wow. Ding dong, right? Yeah. You have to go. Yeah, it's perfect. It speaks to the might of each band and the history of each band. That's right. Yeah. It's a great double bill. By the time this episode drops, there'll be halfway through the tour, so there's plenty more to see. Get tickets, go out, check them out. I mean, what a night of metal except in KK's priest. So glad he could join us today, Mark Tornello from Accept on the Talk Louder podcast. Mark, so happy to see you and have you today on the Talk Louder podcast. Yes. Thanks, bro. Pleasure to be here. Thanks for having me. Of course. Yeah, indeed. So you're out on this KK tour with KK's priest and man, I don't, that is a great double bill. You know, usually there's a concert comes through town and one of the bands is really strong and the other one's not bad, but you know, maybe not on equal footing. I think you guys paired with KK's priest is about as good a 50/50 split as we could anyone could hope for. So how'd that come about? Yeah. I'll tell you what, it is a serious night of metal there's no unhappy faces in the audience, man. It's some good stuff. How did it come about, I guess we had discussed it at one point of possibility of it with the promoter, but then on the monsters and rock crews, Wolf and KK caught up with each other and sat down and they had played together on the same stage and shit, 40 years, whatever. Yeah. So they, you know, reminisced and hit it off and said, come on, let's do this. Yeah. Was it a matter of a meeting over a coffee, so to speak, with maybe the agents on speed dial just hooking them up with each other? I'm guessing so, man. But that was the, that was the beginning of putting the wheels in motion to them actually sat down and talked about it. Yeah. Well, it's a, it's a great double bill. And like I was saying, I think both bands are on equal footing and that's so rare that we get to two great punches from two great bands. So it's an awesome tour. What is your, as a fan of Judas Priest, what is your earliest memory of seeing KK downing with Judas Priest? I think the first time I actually saw Priest live was massive square garden where he ripped up the seats. Oh, that's an infamous show. Yeah. Were you responsible for that? You know, I was sitting on a floor, I was sitting on the floor, I was back in about maybe the 20th row in the center, I was sitting on the floor and all of a sudden, things started flying everywhere. And I'm going, what is that? It looks like, looks like foam turned around and it was just a sea of foam because fans were ripping the seats apart, Judas Priest has never played there since, from a massive square garden. Wow. Wow. That's infamous. What, what tour was that? It was screamer fangents, I think. Okay. So like 82 maybe? Yeah, something like that. Yeah. Okay. And made three. Yeah. Wow. Oh, man, I remember that tour, that was a great double bill. Speaking of great double bills, here you are touring with, with KK, with except, I mean, it's hard. You can't make that shit up. You know, it's kind of like when you were, you know, back then, late 70s, early 80s, when you were a young man, and you were going to see all these new sort of budding and influential heavy metal bands, and then later becoming a member of one of the sort of spin-offs, if you will, I don't, you take that with a grain of salt, except being heavily influenced by bands like early scorpions, of course, because they were neighborly. And that, of course, Judas Priest and, you know, deep purple and guitar rock, you know, yeah, exactly. And here you are in 20, 24, going into 25, looking at this, this, I mean, a heavy metal fucking storm, a full metal assault, a full metal assault. Yeah. Yeah. I can imagine a kid in the candy store kind of a thing. It's fun, man, we're having a good time, you know, we're having a damn good time. How's your voice feel? You can reveal whatever you want, or not at all. It's feeling pretty good. I mean, just we're playing again tonight, this is four in a row. Okay. You could hear a little fatigue in there, but yeah. Once I take a quick nap, get up, take a shower, it'd be fine. Yeah, yeah. So you're, you and I are both like, you know, good talking, talk about this, you know, sitting in a room last night going, I ain't feeling that since yeah, I, you know, I don't think I had it quite dialed in last night. I want to get it tonight, you know, yeah, but it's, you know what it is, man, it's, it's a console. Yeah. It's unpredictable. Like I, I kind of, I like to use the baseball euphemism, it's, it's like a starting pitcher. You're in the book, you're in a bullpen, you're throwing strikes, you're throwing a hundred mile an hour fastballs, it feels good, then you get out on the mound and that first pitch, what the hell happened? Right. It was so good. What did I do wrong? You know, right. So that'll go to the curve ball or to change up and find an avenue that works. That's pretty good. Yeah. Yeah. Of course, of course, it's kind of like a, you want to come out with a big bang, you know, you want to come out with that ultimate screen that just explodes the PA right when you walk on the stage. But at the same time, you have to be careful how deep you dive exactly, how hard I did to do that. Yeah. Yeah. It's hard to know how hard to throw the ball or swing the bat exactly at the top of the game. Um, so, you know, yeah, easing into it, but you've been doing this a long time. Yeah. You know what it's supposed to feel like and you know when to pump the brakes and sort of take it easy. It's impressive for in a row when you, how long as you're set 90, uh, no, we're doing 75. Oh, okay. Yeah. That's still awesome. Great. Yeah. You've got a shared experience obviously with Ripper. You guys both replaced iconic singers and did so. I would say probably better than any other candidate could have done the job. I mean, you both stepped into iconic shoes. You both stepped into a situation where the guy you were replacing had a very, very unique and distinctive voice. You can't just open the phone book and find those guys to replace. So. Ned, it's, uh, I think both of us got very lucky, but we also stepped in and did the job too. You know, yeah, I mean, it's, it's, it's luck or fate or whatever it is that puts you in that situation, but you still got to man it up and do it, you know. Yeah. So you, you get to talk to Ripper at all, like when you, when this started about your common experience about the first time you stepped into those iconic shoes and you had to introduce yourself to the world as I am the new singer for except in here I am. Right. Well, we both, you know, went through the same things, you know, the, uh, audience is not always on board with this one day when you make the announcement, you know, right. They certainly weren't when they made it about me. I mean, the, the, uh, the internet was not kind. Yeah. I'm going to jump in the nation's came out and then everybody shut the hell up. Right. Right. Right. I was going to say something similar by way of if you go and listen to your previous works and not to compare to just kind of check the temperature of what's about to happen on blood of the nations, you know, a new except record just to hear, well, who the fuck is this guy? And they go check you out. Hey, I think I would have felt pretty good about the tones and the ability and the power and, and, and everything as far as that style of metal and hard rock goes, I would, I, you know, I, I remember call going, Hey, that's going to work that tone. That's going to work. That guy's going to kill it. Um, you were kind of, uh, in certain markets, you kind of had, uh, sorry, it just makes you feel a little uncomfortable, legendary status in, in your market, you kind of had a thing going on. Uh, you know, you were, you might have been a household name as far as tri state counties. Yeah. You know what I mean? It started circles, maybe, but you know, well, I knew who you were and you know, I, I don't think I ever saw TT quick tour Texas. Yeah, we did. You did. Yeah. How, how, how, uh, how extensive did you, did you get, how far out did you get with that? With TT in 86 on the middle of honor tour, we were out with maybe death. Oh, okay. On the peace cells tour. All right. So we toured pretty extensively and we did a bunch of one offs as well, right? And we toured with Raven when we did the, the EP in 84, 86, right? Okay. Five. So I did, but you made, you made, you had made your mark. So I think that what I, the gauge was there for someone to sort of, you know, give it, you know, they could check it out if they were really interested instead of flying off the handle and going, who the fuck is this guy they, they could have found out is really my point. And the, and Ripper, there was nothing else to go on other than, I think Scott Travis bringing in a videotape of VHS video tape of Ripper into priest camp. Right. So you guys, you guys got on stage together recently, didn't you? You and, uh, yeah, it's rocking. Yeah. So we played together at vodka and he came up and lasted balls with us at the end of our show. That's right. Yeah. So are you, are you guys making that a regular thing on this tour? You know, could we make this, you know, we're talking about it, you know, we may jump up back and forth a little bit. See what happens. Yeah. Awesome. What priest song would you like to sing if you were asked to come up and do a priest dude? Good God. And they're doing it, man. They're doing some, some old stuff that's freaking killer. I saw, I saw both of you guys, of course, uh, on the monsters of rock crews and, um, it was just killer every, you know, both, both shows you guys did on the ship. Incredible. Uh, energy level, uh, I believe it was the first couple of times you had played humanoid stuff live. Yeah. It was the first time. The very first time. Yeah. You would come out that you had played the humanoid stuff and, uh, went over great. Uh, and I saw KK's priest and just nailing all of the classics, uh, an unbelievable band that KK has. Everybody knows Ripper can kind of go out on a bad day and just destroy and sound fantastic. Um, but the band, I knew and no, actually still not that much about KK's band, but it was unbelievable how tight and how all of the nuances of all the classic priest, they're just wearing it like they've owned it the whole time. Yeah. And the band is really a bunch of great players. Um, I mean, we, I enjoy watching them, you know, yeah, I can sit back after we're done. I can sit back with a beer and get up there and go, yeah, this is great. Yeah. I mean, the crowd is just, the crowd just salt into it with both bands. It's just, you know, it's, it's a, it's a, it's a full metal assault. Yes. Yeah. I would say the same, I would say the same about you though. I mean, you know, you replaced a singer with a very unique voice, a much different voice, but definitely not one you just pull out of the yellow pages and, you know, you came up and, and knocked it out. When you look back on that first album, knowing that it was your introduction to accept fans and the world, uh, were you at the time that the album was done and you were going to release it? I'm sure there was a little trepidation, but, but did you feel confident that you, you, you knocked it out of the park or were you kind of going into it a little uneasy, wondering if you're going to be pardoned upon, accepted, uh, what were your thoughts on having to let that album go out into the world? Well, you're never that confident, you know, I mean, just the songs are like your children, you know, you're still, it's hard to know how other people are going to react. Right. But you know how you feel about it. I know how Andy Sneap felt about it because we took a lot of time on Blood of the Nations because obviously because of all the things that were being said on the internet and everything else that this doesn't have a chance, you know, no, who don't know, accept, blah, blah, blah, blah. So, so we really spent time writing songs, spent time in a studio and, and the record company loved it. He loved it. He said, well, here we go. And we released the first single was the abyss and their reaction was great. And then right after that, the Teutonic Terror video came out and that was, that was it. Yeah. And that broke the internet, actually that day. Yeah. Yeah. Something happened on Twitter and I was just, I just read an article about it and it just went freaking viral. Yeah. And it really set it up for the album to come out. So. And your partnership with Andy Sneap is longstanding. I mean, he, he did the, he did the current album humanoid as well on everyone that I've been on. Yeah. So that, that's a string. Yeah. So does he, does he still find new ways to push you guys or have you guys sort of gelled into a well-oiled machine to the point that he trusts your instincts and you trust his? Is it more of an even keel kind of thing or after all this time? Yeah. I would say, I mean, we've, we've done so many things together now that we've obviously learned to trust each other, but he, you know, there's always, he's not just a great engineer. He's a great producer, you know, and he's a musician. So he's always got ideas and he'll never say, I don't like this. What else do you have? If he doesn't like something, he's got a way to fix it, you know, but I don't think this is working here. Why don't we try this instead of, you know, you go fix it. So, which is what the producer does, you know? Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Does he, does he a great partnership? Does he, does he, does he ever ask you to change a word or a line or is it very? Yeah. Yeah. Because of maybe the, the vowel shape is not gel and with the chords. The way it's being enunciated, the way it's going, it doesn't feel right. Yeah. He's really good with that too, man, he's, he's really quite the wordsmith also, you know. Excellent. Yeah. Yeah. So you gotta feel, gotta feel kind of lucky having a guy that just has your back on your best interest. Yeah. Yeah. Wow. Yeah. I've seen, I've seen three videos from the new album. I don't know if there's more video, something you enjoy, or are they unnecessary evil that you just put up with? They, they're, they're kind of fun to do. You know. Yeah. Um, and they are necessary evil, obviously, you know, it's, it's great for marketing. But, you know, I think it's important to have that visual, especially on a new song, you know what I mean? I think to having the visual, it's sort of like a birthing of the record or. Yeah. I agree. Yeah, man. I agree. Yeah. I don't know if that's artificial intelligence going on or whatever the term is now, where there's all this animation that's like super Hollywood, high tech, real amazing looking. Yeah. I thought that was really a Frankenstein comes to mind because that one was cool. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. That was totally, you know, obviously we're not even in that one. Yeah. Uh, what is your, uh, what is your memory from your first gig fronting accept? You said earlier that, you know, obviously it's a, it's a scary place to be. Um, you didn't know how well again, pardon the pun, you were going to be accepted or not. But what do you remember walking out on stage for that first time with accept? The first, the first gig was in New York. I wasn't worried about that. That's my backyard. Yeah. Yeah, sure. The place was full of people I knew. So I really didn't have that wasn't that big of a stretch, but it was a good night. It was a great night. But then three days later, we did the next show was in Lithuania. I had no idea what the hell was going to happen there. Uh, yeah. But I've, I've never really not, you know, never really had any bad audiences where, you know, where people were disappointed that I'm not Udo, you know, right. Right. I mean, you, you clearly have the staying power. I don't know. You've been in the band, what, uh, seven, fifteen years now, six hours, fifteen years, you know, it's very similar to, and I'm not throwing all of these replacement singers into a bucket. So we can just look in the bucket and go, wow, check this guy, you know, but, uh, Todd Latori and Queens Reich, he's been in the band a long fucking time and again, just like we're going to join you right after I joined accept. Yeah. Yeah. So kind of coming in and sort of revamping the whole thing and sort of saving the fucking day, um, for fans, not just for the band and, you know, like given a new spark and a new outlook and a, and a whole new chapter of the band, exactly, has just fucking killed it, killed it. And, um, also goes through some of the has to deal with some naysayers. It's like all three of you guys have had to kind of walk the gauntlet and, uh, get, you know, take the punches here and there and sometimes you can do about that. That's right. And you know what? That's okay. That should be okay. Uh, had to be hard for some of you guys, you know, uh, to take some times, probably, if you read into it too much, probably bum me out a little bit. You know, I learned early on, don't read the comments. Right. Yeah. Right. Do you set yourself up to be, you know, I don't see how anyone, you know, we're talking about three singers specifically, but I don't see how anyone could say or even argue about the, the credibility and the talent of, of, of Mark or Todd Latori or Ripper. I mean, these guys replaced iconic singers. We can do a whole fucking episode on that. Yeah. I mean, we did an episode a long time ago called replacement singers and there was a lot of this sort of talk and it was just me and Dave where we pick a topic and we just go for three hours and we did and it was kind of an amazing sort of adventure to think about Sammy Hagar and Brian Johnson and just all of the guys who have had to be there to like keep the train on the rails, you know, for that matter, you know, yeah, yeah, there's it. Yeah. But I think the point, the point I was making is that, you know, you look at like a Sammy Hagar and a David Lee Roth, they're going to have their two distinct camps of fans and one's going to argue that the other was better. And my point is I don't see how anyone can look at Queen's Reich or except or, or Ripper Oh, and Ripper might be the exception because people are so passionate about Rob, but talent for talent. I mean, this, you can't make a really valid argument over other than just personal preference. I mean, all three of these guys have stepped in and just killed it. And the fact that they've lasted for more than one or two albums is all you need to know. You're going on your second decade with except now, just like those other guys. You know, you're there or him and her and whoever the fuck else. You're going on a long time with the fucking band now with quality releases stacking up behind you. I mean, you have left your fucking mark with except as the fucking singer for accept. And I applaud you, you've really, you've really killed it. You've just killed it and having, let me piggyback on that. So you, you know, you've, you've done what six albums now in your time with expect studio records, six studio albums. And so when you go on tour now, I mean, you are, you're in a position where you're not just dependent on three quarters or 80% of your set being your predecessors, stongs, you're in a position now where you could just defy oblique do 75% of Mark Tornillo material and then close out the night with some oodos stuff. I mean, that's a huge credit to you. Well, thank you. And it is true. I mean, seriously, we could just go out and do all my air stuff. More than enough material. Oh, yeah. You got to play. You're not getting out of the building when I play balls or shark, you know, it's, it's just not going to happen for a restless and wild. You know, goes with people if you know, oh, yeah, goes with all of the classic bands, though. And I think except as a classic band for the genre, for sure. Yeah. Did you see that picture? This is kind of a derail, but did you see that picture I sent you of that, uh, balls to the wall to her shirt that was on a man again and a vintage store that was going for how much is it $275 and it was a Jersey with the sleeves cut off. It's on a man. It's like a baseball jersey in Lockhart, Texas in 2024. It's like half a mile from my house. I'm like, what? And my wife pointed it out. She's like, check out that mannequin. And I turned around, fucking accept balls to the wall original t-shirt and I, I, I be lined for the price tag because I knew it was an OG. That's crazy. Yeah. But, you know, that's a whole other subject because vintage is, you know, is hip now. They had an old priest. I think they had an old British steel tour shirt as well. That was, it was pretty mangled, but I bet it was, you know, worth a couple of hundred as well. Um, but anyway, I, I just, um, I wanted to ask you, uh, about how it went with, uh, the, uh, the, uh, the Europe and South America with Joel Hochstra on guitar. Oh, yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. How was that? Dude. He's amazing. He's just freaking amazing. I mean, he learned so much material in a matter of, I mean, I don't know how he did it. Yeah. And he's just a consummate professional, great guy, great hang, humble, great singer, great player. I mean, it was, it was, it was a, it was a wonderful experience. Yeah. So actually I, he's going to be at the New York show and we played a palladium next week. This thing is next Friday, actually. Awesome. So we may just, uh, bring him up, he attacked going. Wow. Yeah. Absolutely. Speaking of writing, uh, do you guys, uh, how do you work? Do you write while you're on the road, like, for example, you're in the middle of this tour. Is there any writing going on or do you guys kind of save all that for once the travel is over and you've had some time to cool down? If we, if we know we're going to be doing a new project soon, which, um, I would imagine we're going to do. We just signed a deal with napalm, you know, this, this was the first one that came out of napalm. I've been assuming they're going to want another one. Yeah. Oh, yeah. Um, we're always throwing ideas, right? We'll always write in riffs. I'm always writing lyrics. Um, if we, if we really, you know, have something we think is great, we'll start throwing them back and forth on tour, but mostly when we're home, it's, it's a whole lot easier, you know. Yeah. Out of all the albums you've done with accept now, uh, which one would you hold up as your proudest moment? Oh, blow the nations. Yeah. Nice. Wow. Nice. Not, not the new, the new, you know, your songs are your children. You got to move the, the older kids out of the way to make new for the babies, you know what I mean? And you're proud of your babies because they're new. So probably hard to filter that, but you didn't even stutter. You just said blood of the nation. Yeah. It is. That's my favorite record. Yeah. That's all right. Well, what kind of music, uh, if I was going to ask you, what's your guilty pleasure when it comes to music? We know that you're the singer for accept and obviously you've got a heavy metal background, but what do you listen to for your own enjoyment when nobody's looking? Ha ha ha ha. ACTC, ha ha ha. Not quite what I was going for, but that's fair enough. I know what you're going for, but I really don't. I mean, I don't wander off that much. You know, my wife will put on some stupid stuff and I'll have to listen to it. But I get in the car or at the gym or something, it's priest or ACTC or maiden or deal or Sabbath. Yeah. I call that comfort food. Yes. Yes. I understand that. I mean, surrounding yourself as a, as a rocker, right, with the things that you fell in love with originally that kind of kind of got you where you are now on your path. And those are the things that remind you, I like to go back and listen to the old priest and the old ACDC. And you know, I, I mean, yeah, let's throw that Zeppelin in there too. Sure. You know, oh, yeah, stable. Yeah. Deep, deep purple. And yeah. Exactly. Yeah. But taste hasn't changed. What about, what about stuff that was kind of like leaning into a Zeppelin like a, like a Montrose? Oh, yeah. Like Montrose. That's in my rotation. Yeah. For sure. Yeah. So yeah, he, he's not going to cough up a Celine Dion or anything like that. No, no, not a Duran Duran. He and Dave will, but, but no, no, I was picking his brain. I was going to see if he's going to join our club of guilty pleasures, but he's, he's, he's metal to the bone. Yeah. I did it. So you mentioned, uh, uh, working out or whatever, you're, you're an amazing shape. Uh, do you, are you able to maintain that sort of, uh, exercise routine or whatever while you're on the road or what kind of try to, you know, try to book hotel rooms and have a gym, but otherwise, you know, um, I'll be down here on the floor later before I go to the, before I go to the gig, man, stretching and doing core and, uh, you know, always bring one of those straps to work with that. Yeah. Yeah. It's amazing. Yeah. You're, you're in great shape, man. For, uh, I'm not going to say your age, but, uh, you're, you're in very good shape for saying, I wouldn't be able to go out in public June, so 70 in June. See, I'm, I'm, I'm 57 and I wouldn't go out in public with no sugar at all. I had asked, I had asked, well, happy belated birthday. Yeah. Yeah. 70 is that you're making 70 seem like you're giving me hope, bro. It's like, it's like, it's like, I need like a poster, a mark for inspiration. So I wear it like a badge at this point, you know, yeah, right, the, your age and, but the thing is, um, do you feel because you, you seem nonchalant about, you know, the questions about working out and warming up and, you know, and, and then, oh, by the way, I'm 70. I mean, you seem nonchalant, just about whatever. Do you feel like when maybe you were even 20 years ago, were you still working out and still singing metal and nothing has really changed, right? This is not a routine. Okay. That's what I thought. There's not any new routine for a long time for, uh, what is, is. If any broke, don't fix it, right? Right. Obviously the resistant, you know, yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Well, so when you speaking of warming up and, and I have been lucky enough to see you warm up in, in some sticky situations that you've been in and you're, you have an interesting sort of tool that you use to warm up my will be that sounds. That's not metal enough, I think. It's kind of like a horse bit, you know what I mean, but I know, I know what I know what it is. Do you, can you share that with us and, and what that actually does for your airflow, your voice and, and where you are, like say, like say today, what is you're going to be your, you're, you're right? Oh, he's going to go get it. I've got one right here. We're going to get a demonstration. Awesome. Well, I don't, I don't bring the secrets. Oh, he's going to. Yeah. He's got it right here. Hearing the secrets. So let's hold this a little bit. I love it that he's done. Give a shit. He's going to give us the secret. Yeah. Roll it up like so. And yeah, but, but it makes you work harder, it, it warms, you're keeping all the heat in, I think. Yeah. Okay. Right. And the way this started for me was way back in early 80s and I used to just scream my ass off, drink two six packs, you know, in the dressing room before we would go on. And we were playing at a club called soap factory in New Jersey and dressing room was right next to the owner's office screaming, yelling, you know, just trying to get loosened up. You shut that hell up. I'm on the telephone. I can't even think. I'm like, well, I gotta warm up. Well, stick something in your face. I don't know. Hey, there's my rolled up towel. Put it. Yeah. I've never not done it since. Wow. Wow. My warm up. You know, I have a proper exercise and I just do it in the towel though. Is it scales? Is it is it pretty? It's contemporary. Kind of. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. I went when I first came back to when I first joined, except I had sang hard, you know, on a consistent basis for a long time, you know, I was a few fans in the 90s and 2000s. But you know, we would play all the time. So I said, well, if I want to do this night after night after night, I better go get some help, maybe just see what I can find out. Went to a guy who was recommended to me. His name is Mark Baxter in New York. He's worked with Stephen Tyler. He's worked with like, you know, well, that says it all right there. You have to know, and he put together, he says, look, I can't teach you how to sing. You know how to sing. I can hear it. You know, listen to your records. I can hear you sing. So I can teach you how to sing tomorrow. I said, yeah, all right. What do you got? You know, and it's just a series of, you know, it scales, but it's, you know, all different positions of your tongue and your jaw and different, you know, and the vowels because you know, Jason, that vowels are, you know, means everything, you've changed that to go from an E to a U or something like that, and it just feels like you're singing. You're, you're in a different throat. It's a foreign, it's a foreign land immediately. It's like, it's kind of like slipping on a banana peel. Yeah. You have to, you know, nobody knows why, but right, so you cover all the vowels and try and get every, every portion of your drill warmed up. But there are guys that don't, you know, river doesn't do a formal warm up. Yeah. I discussed it. Alfa doesn't anymore. Right. I discussed it with him as well. He said, at this point, I'm glad I get through two hours. I'm not going to add another one on top of it. Right. Right. Put a couple of easier songs to start with, and that's the warm up. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. I don't get that luxury. I got to come out of the gate with like God knows what. So. Yeah. Yeah. Is there a, is there a deep cut from except that you've always wanted to cover that just never made its way into the set list for some reason? Classic one or one from my era. Both. Hmm. I think about the classic ones, there's so many old good ones, but we've pretty much covered them all. I mean, I don't think there's anything of the old stuff that, that we haven't done at one point or another as far as mine. Yeah. One, I, the deep cut I always wanted to do that we never did was shades of death from blood of the nations. And then we finally did do it with the assembly orchestra. Oh, cool. Oh. Good work. So how was that? How was that, you know, that transition or that translation, you know, to do that? Great. Yeah. Well, there's a string in that song anyway. So that was an easy, you know, one to pick out. I think there's a DVD of you guys doing that as well as it's probably on YouTube by now. Probably that. The only, I think the only the live from block and what's the one that's, that's the DVD. Oh, that was just a one off that we did with, with the Czech Symphony Orchestra. And then in 18, we did the orchestra tour with the symphony of death orchestra of death father. Nice. And that was totally different songs. And we, we didn't do shades of death and vodka. So it's not on there. Okay. Wow. Yeah. Well, I think this double bill, like I said, at the start of this conversation is a, is a real treat for metal fans. I mean, both of you guys are obviously classic, huge, heavy metal favorites. And you're paired well together. I think you guys make a great team and I'm so glad that this tour was put together. Can you get along really well too, which is, you know, which is nice. So it makes a whole lot, makes life a lot easier when you're, when you can be friends with the other band too, you know, Oh, yeah. Yeah. Yeah. KK is a great dude. Yeah. Have you learned anything about him now that you're traveling in close quarters or anything that you, you know, any character traits about KK that we don't know about? Really? Yeah. Yeah. He's not going to give up any secrets. Well, that's cool. I, I, congratulations on your album. Humanoid is another credit to your catalog with accept. I think it's amazing that you're still out there doing this and doing it so well. And I think it's great that you're paired up with KK. You're bringing two iconic bands to the masses on this tour. We're coming down your way. Yes. You're playing in our town. Nice. I'm going to be, I'll be banging on the backstage door going, let me in. Yeah. You know that? Yeah. Yeah. I can't wait to see you guys. You're playing at the Paramount Theater, which is downtown on Congress. It's one of the oldest theaters still standing in central Texas. And I know a lot of classic bands have played there, Rush played there in the 70s, I think, on 21/12 tour, and probably, I mean, Jimmy Hendricks could have played. I mean, I don't know the true history of it, but I've heard stories about it. I saw Bruce Dickinson do his spoken word thing there a couple of years ago, and that was pretty cool. So it's not this huge theater, it's kind of this quaint, old school downtown theater. I think it's going to be pretty incredible for fans to see both bands in an intimate enough setting. It was personal. Yeah. And wall of sound in a classic venue that's 100 years old or more. Yeah. It's a true theater. Yeah. It's the true theater. I just did one like that last night, to planes right outside of Chicago, this old gorgeous theater. Awesome. Yeah. When it was announced that you were playing the Paramount, I thought that was great because we don't typically get metal shows at the Paramount, and it is an old school classic venue. And I think your music is going to be perfect for that environment. It's like watching the medieval nights ride in on the, I mean, it's going to be a cool environment for your, for both bands. Yeah. I'm excited. It's on, I believe it's a Sunday, September 29th, just for people in our area in central Texas. Yeah. So I'm glad that we got you, you know, a couple of weeks before. So hopefully this episode will come out the week of that show. I'm not sure how our scheduling is going to go, but hopefully it will and help sell the ticket. Yeah. Talk about. Yeah. Mark, thanks so much for your time. I know you have a gig tonight and you've got to take care of that voice. It means a lot that you took time out of your day on short notice to make this happen, especially now that this is plan B because we had to reschedule. We do appreciate that very much, man. Hey, my pleasure. Thanks for having me. Yeah. And we wish you continued success with the album. On behalf of my co-host, Jason McMaster, I'm Metal Dave along with our special guest today. Mark Tornello from Except on the Talk Louder podcast. [MUSIC] [MUSIC]
