|
 |
Rob "Blasko" Nicholson is probably best known as the thundering, bass guitarist behind Rob Zombie. There is no mistaking his heavy bass riffs on killer song's such as "Demon Speeding," "Dragula," and "Feel So Numb," just to name a few of the many songs that Blasko has recorded with Rob Zombie. Blasko has been with Rob Zombie since the beginning of his solo career, and is undeniably a driving force behind the horror band.
Before joining up with Rob Zombie, Blasko played in bands such as Prong, Drown, and Danzig. Blasko just recently got of the first leg of Rob Zombie's very successful "Educated Horses" tour, and is taking about a month off from touring, before he goes back out to play OZZfest 2006! Yes folks, the rumors are true, Rob "Blasko" Nicholson has definitely rejoined Ozzy's band, and will be out pounding on his bass guitar along side the man himself, OZZY!
Blasko replaced Jason Newsted, (ex-Metallica) back in 2003, just before Ozzy got into that terrible accident, and he has basically been on stand-by until now. Though he'll miss touring with Rob and his Zombie-mates, he's committed to the Ozzy gig and is totally looking forward to kicking some serious ass at OZZfest 2006 along side Ozzy Osbourne, who will be back on stage as well! Welcome back Ozzy!
We at GlamMetal.com TM are happy as hell to have this exclusive interview with this incredible power bassist, Rob "Blasko" Nicholson. So kick back, crack an icy cold one, and read what Blasko has to say. I hope you dig it!
 |
Blasko, welcome to GlamMetal.com TM. How the hell are you?
I'm good!
Glad to have you aboard! Mind if I ask how you got your nickname?
It actually came from us watching a documentary on Bela Lugosi, and his real last name is Blasko. He was born Bela Blasko, and we're all big fans, so with my name being Rob, and Rob's name being Rob, we had to do something, and we were like, "Oh dude, that's killer, lets do that!" That sounds cool enough, and it's interesting enough. You're asking about it, so that's cool!
It is interesting man. I like to say Blast-ko with a T, because of the way you blast that bass!
Awesome!
I understand you have recently rejoined with Ozzy, and will soon be embarking on the OZZfest 2006 tour. How stoked are you about rejoining with the Prince of Darkness himself?
I couldn't be any more stoked! (Laughs) It's gonna be fun. For whatever else, I'm a huge Black Sabbath, Ozzy fan, and I'm just excited that Ozzy's gonna be doing OZZfest again, whether or not I'm in the band or not, you know? I go every year whether or not I'm playing, and this is my fourth year playing OZZfest, so yeah, I'm really looking forward to it.
Yeah, my next question was going to be how many times this will make that you have played OZZfest?
This will be number four, and as far as tours with Ozzy goes, I've opened for him on two other occasions. I guess this will be my sixth time then.
When will this tour officially kick off, and how many shows does Ozzy plan to play?
Ozzy is going to do ten shows, three of which we'll be headlining the second stage. It starts on June 29th, so about a month away.
Being a huge Ozzy fan since I was like twelve, I have to ask you, what's going through your mind while you're actually on stage with Ozzy, while he's jumping around and going crazy?
What's going through my mind, is DON'T SCREW UP! (Laughs)
(Laughs) It must be pretty cool to have Ozzy jumping around in front of you man!
It's amazing! I've been a fan for as long as I can remember, and some of the very first records that I had, were Black Sabbath records, so to be up there with Ozzy, is amazing man.
What's the overall experience like to play and work with Ozzy Osbourne?
It's been pretty short at this point. It's a very professionally run organization, and you just get up there and you kick out the jams, it's pretty simple, and it's a great situation. It's super fun, and everyone's really cool, and I certainly can't complain on any level.
Ok, we've all heard the crazy Ozzy stories, any that you care to share with us Blasko?
I really haven't been around long enough to experience anything overly crazy. I'm sure if you did an interview with Zakk, you might hear some stories. (Laughs)
I've heard so many crazy, funny Ozzy stories man. Ozzy will be Ozzy.
That's it right there.
There are some incredible bands playing OZZfest this year, like Disturbed, and one of my favorite newer bands, Avenged Sevenfold. What's a couple of bands you're looking forward to seeing perform?
I'm looking forward to seeing most of the side stage stuff, because the main stage bands I've seen countless times. Hatebreed is always a lot of fun, Lacuna Coil is great, I actually just got off tour with them. Disturbed, I'm friends with all those guys, I'm friends with pretty much everybody on the tour, so I'm more excited about the side stage stuff, like Norma Jean, Unearth, and Walls Of Jericho. I've seen these bands in clubs, but I'm looking forward to seeing them in front of six to seven thousand people, it'll be cool to see them like that.
Avenged Sevenfold are really kicking ass these days as well man. Very talented band.
Yeah, they're doing really good. They're bringing the rock back, that's for sure!
I'll say this man, you're an incredibly talented bass guitarist, and you, along with Zakk Wylde, Mike Borden, and of course God, are truly a force to be reckoned with! That energy must be fucking amazing!
Well thank you! Yes, I think it's gonna be really, really good.
You've recorded and toured with Rob Zombie since the beginning of his solo career. How will you playing OZZfest this summer effect Rob's upcoming "American Witch Tour?" Do you still plan to tour with Rob Zombie as well, and try and swing both gigs?
Not at this point. At this point, he's got two tours left on this record cycle. I got someone to take my place for those tours, so anything beyond that, is obviously up for discussion, who knows what could happen, anything's possible, but at this point I'm gonna play with Ozzy this summer, and my buddy is gonna play with Rob Zombie until the end of the year.
Who's replacing you on the "American Witch Tour?"
My friend Matt Montgomery, he was in Wednesday 13's band, and he was in AMEN for a little while. He's a good buddy of mine, and it's something that felt right, and they checked him out, and everything is working. His first gig was on Letterman the other night, so he got thrown right in the fire! (Laughs) It was almost a right of passage, I told him that my first gig with Zombie was on Letterman as well, so this makes sense.
No Shit. Your first gig with Zombie was on Letterman also?
Yeah. It's kinda cool how things worked out.
Playing with Rob Zombie for so many years, you must have some mixed feelings about being absent during his tour huh?
Oh yeah! Certainly it's a little weird, I've been the guy man! I've been there and survived through a lot of stuff, and I'm definitely gonna miss the guys, and miss Rob a lot, and playing with them, but I'm still there in spirit, and everything is still cool, and everybody understands the situation. Luckily it all ended up ending on a really good note, and everybody is positive, and supports each other and stuff, so that's really cool.
I assume you're still officially still in the band, and you'll be going right back to playing with Rob Zombie after the Ozzy tour, yes?
No.
No? Wow, that bums me out man!
Me too, it's just one of those things, like sometimes you just gotta make a decision , and that's the way that it's gonna go. You gotta do what you gotta do, you know? At this point, they're gonna have Matt do the rest of the touring, the Anthrax tour, and the Godsmack tour, and that will most likely be the end of touring for this record. So...whatever happens after that, only time will tell.
So, you and Rob are cool? No bad blood or anything over this right?
Everything is cool. What happened was, when I got the gig with Ozzy, I got it at the time when Rob wasn't making music, he was making movies. After I got the gig with Ozzy, he got into that accident, and he cancelled that tour, so it's been Black Sabbath on OZZfest ever since, so there's been nothing for me to do in Ozzy since I got the gig, it's just all coming about now.
Yeah, I understand. This is actually the first time Ozzy has played solo for like three years, and Rob was making movies, and you were caught in between it all.
Exactly! And yeah, Rob was definitely in that world for a while, and he just had a little insurgence to get back to the rock for a little bit, and ah...so we did that, it's just unfortunate that his next tour and the OZZfest clash time wise, and I just chose to go off and do OZZfest and stuff. Rob totally understands that.
You just recently got off the "Educated Horses Tour," how did that go?
It was awesome! It was really, really successful, we had really good turn-outs, and we had a great time, and probably one of the most fun times as a band we've ever had. The tour was very successful, I'd say that ninety-five percent of the shows were sold-out, and the turn-out was great, we had a lot of young kids out there for the first time seeing the band, and it was a lot of fun.
Which songs off from "Educated Horses," made the set list, and how was the audience's response to the new stuff?
It was great man! We opened up with "American Witch," which is the single now, and it went off really good. We played "Foxy, Foxy," which was the single at the time, and we also played, "Let It All Bleed Out," and that was always really fun to play. We ended with "Lords Of Salem," which was super, super fun to play, and was definitely one of the highlights for me to play that song every night.
I was just gonna ask you what a couple of your favorite Rob Zombie songs to play live are.
"Lords Of Salem" is my new favorite to play. Everything's fun to play man, you know? "More Human Than Human," "Thunder Kiss," I mean these are classic songs. Getting up there and playing these songs is just great man.
How drained are you after a major tour, and what's the first thing you do when you get home Blasko?
I'm pretty worked, our show is pretty physical, and I'm not getting any younger, that's for sure! (Laughs) I usually lay low for a couple of days, and just chill out, and don't answer the phone and stuff. You just gotta decompress more or less, and then I'm good to go. Once I get a couple of days of decompression, I'm ready to rock again. So yeah...I'm usually pretty burned out after two months of touring, for sure!
Of all the albums that you have recorded with Rob Zombie, which is basically all of them, which is one of your personal favorites?
(Laughs) Of records I wasn't involved in, I'd say that "Astro-Creep," is my favorite. Records that I was involved in, I'd say that "Hellbilly Deluxe," is my favorite, and I don't know why, I think it's just because Rob was on fire! I mean he was really on fire, and he knew that he had to make it happen then, and I think that that really shows in the record, and the songs are really cool, and the vibe is really cool, and just everything about that record I really like a lot.
What was the writing process like? Did you lend a hand in the writing?
No, I don't really fancy myself as much of a writer. I kinda just do what needs to be done, when ever it needs to be done, you know? The writing process, is all Rob, that's his thing man.
Are you still working with your solo band, The Death Riders? If so, mind telling us a little about that project, and who else is involved in it?
Sure. It's me and some buddies, and the only person you might know, is Johnny Coffin, the creator of the coffin case. This is just something that me and him, and a few buddies of ours just threw together on the side. We really didn't have much aspirations other than just making a record, and we did that. We're totally content with saying, here's our record, and if you like it, that's cool, and if you don't, well... that's cool to. We're not gonna tour on it, or do a lot of stuff on it, we just made a cool little record, and we like it. We made it for ourselves.
Do you think you guy's will do another Death Riders record sometime?
If we can pull it together, we might. We're all so busy individually with everything we've got going on, so...if we can pull together and record some more songs, then we'll release another record. There's really no set goal, we kinda do really random things, and that's it, you know? If things pop up, we'll do them, but generally, we're pretty low maintenance, and don't spend a whole lot of time doing it. (Laughs)
That coffin case is a brilliant idea, just fucking brilliant!
Oh yeah! That guy's awesome.
I'm sure you have a few yourself huh?
Oh yeah, of coarse!
At what age did you start playing bass, and who inspired you the most musically growing up?
What made me want to start playing bass, was Gene Simmons. 1977, KISS Destroyer was like the first record that I got. I mean, some dude blowing fire, and spitting blood, was what made me want to be in a band. (Laughs) As far as when I started playing, it was as long as I can remember. I was probably like twelve or thirteen, and just immediately started getting into bands, and playing in bands and stuff. As soon as I was in bands, I was starting to put out records and tour right away.
So you basically started out by playing that broom stick in front of the mirror didn't ya? (Laughs)
(Laughs) Oh yeah, playing the tennis racket, all that dude, putting on KISS ALIVE and doing the whole show and stuff, oh yeah! (Laughs)
(Laughs) Unfortunately, I'm still playing the broom stick! (Laughs) That's why I'm a rock journalist instead man.
Hey, that's cool man!
What's one or two of your favorite Glam-Metal bands from back in the day?
I don't have any, because I hated that whole scene.
You hated the whole 80's thing then huh?
Yeah, because I was in a Speed-Metal band back then, and we were on Metal Blade Records, touring and putting out records and stuff. Dude, I missed the whole boat on that, we didn't listen to, or even know any of that was happening, we were so young, you know? It definitely wasn't our scene, we would laugh at that stuff.
So I take it you weren't wearing spandex and lipstick then huh? (Laughs)
(laughs) Oh no, no, no, no!
Well, don't let our site GlamMetal.com TM throw you off man, because I've done interviews with everyone from Jethro Tull to Sevendust, and everyone in between.
Oh no, absolutely not man! At the end of the day, it was what it was, certainly. I guess I was probably more-so turned off by the packaging than anything else.
You've been in this business a long time now, what advice would you give to any aspiring musicians trying to get into this business?
You really have to be willing to make the sacrifice. If you really and truly want to be a musician, and that's really what you wanna do, you have to be willing to make a sacrifice, you have to get out there, and you have to do it. You can't talk about being in a band, and you can't talk about how cool it would be, you have to go out there and do it. If music could be your lively hood, or you feel you could make a living at music, you can't talk about it, you have to go out there and do it, you have to be in a band, and you have to tour, and you have to treat it as a job, and that means making a sacrifice to make it happen, that's just the only way. That's how it happened for me. I was willing to sacrifice everything that I had, and make sure that it was gonna happen. And, that's not a guarantee that it's gonna happen either, but I can guarantee you that it's not gonna happen if your not willing to make a sacrifice.
What do you like to do for fun when you aren't working or touring?
For fun, I suppose for business and pleasure, I run a management company. Me and a partner of mine have a management company called Mercenary Management, and we manage five bands, and that's all I do, so whenever I'm not playing, I'm working behind the scenes. So...that's all I do. Right now I'm talking with you, and as soon as I'm done with you, I'm gonna go back to making a tour budget for one band, and a recording budget for another band. It's good, I'm super busy, and super involved, and it makes me happy.
What's the name of these five bands that you manage?
MANNTIS is on Century Media Records, and they're about to go on tour with Dope. BURN IN SILENCE, and their record comes out July 25th. AT ALL COST, who are going out on tour next month. THE BANNER, which are on Ferret Records, and they just got back from Europe, and are out touring around, and IN THIS MOMENT, they're gonna be in the studio, and their record's gonna come out the first part of next year. All great bands!
Alright, in closing, anything you'd like to say to all of your fans out there Blasko?
I just wanna say thanks for all of the support, and I'm bummed that I'll be missing people on the Zombie tour, but just come on out to OZZfest!
I can't thank you enough for taking the time to talk with us here at GlamMetal.com TM! Good luck with OZZfest 2006, your management company, Rob Zombie, and everything else you got going on man!
Thank you as well. I appreciate it.
Anyone who wants more info on Blasko, can go to www.myspace.com/blasko666 also check out Blasko's management company at www.mercenarymanagement.com and www.myspace.com/mercenarymanagement
|
|
