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Troy Patrick Farrell is fast becoming one of the most sought after drummers in music. I think it is safe to say that 2006, is shaping up to one of the busiest working years for the talented L.A. musician. Troy Patrick Farrell will be heading out on the road with Hookers N' Blow for a two week tour that begins in New Orleans. The trek of HNB tour will take the LA Rockers to New England, and on September 9 in California.
Troy Patrick Farrell has a Rock and Roll resume that would make any 80's musician proud. His special unique drumming style has captured the attention of some of the top names from the 80's genre.
I recently caught up with Mr Roll and Roll- Troy Patrick Farrell. In this Exclusive interview for Glam-Metal.Com. Troy discusses the upcoming HNB Tour, working with Jani Lane, Mike Tramp's White Lion.
Hi Troy, First of all Happy Belated Birthday! How are you? I hear that the ultimate party band from LA, Hookers N'Blow will be embarking on a two week tour soon. The tour kicks off in Los Angeles at The Cat Club on Aug 19. Dizzy Reed of GNR will be performing with HNB. Tell me about the upcoming HNB Tour and what the fans can expect to see this time around. Who will be touring line-up of HNB this time around?
Hey!..thx for checking in and for the Birthday wish.. We managed to squeeze the most out of Dizzy’s time off from GNR to do some dates. We’re hitting some areas we’ve never hit, and making a return to some old friends as well. We’re starting off the run at the Cat Club on the Strip in Hollywood and Richard Fortus, GNR’s guitarist and friend of HNB will be joining us. Expect to hear some old fav’s, a couple of new ones and maybe a Dizzy Reed solo song here or there. For the rest of the run, we have Quiet Riot’s Alex Grossi,Scotty Griffin, Dizzy Reed of Guns N- Roses as well as Chad MacDonald of Jani Lane’s current band.
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It is so cool that Dizzy Reed will take time out of busy schedule to do the tour. I was beginning to think that HNB would not tour till the GNR Tour was over?
We actually kept a version of HNB out there w/ Jizzy Pearl (of Ratt). It was a bit different, but still well received. Jizzy brings a different side of us out..and we do almost completely different songs. We’re glad Dizzy is able to do this and we can’t wait to get out one more time. Who knows when this will happen again, as all of our schedules are filling up.
Why do you think Guns N'Roses songs have remained so timeless and popular? FM radio has been playing so many tunes off of "Appetite For Destruction" lately. I am looking forward to "Chinese Democracy."
Well, Appetite is a great album and one they’ll play forever. Guns made such an impact and hung around, and people know they’re the real deal..and they stay current and people keep them on the map because they still dig them..that’s why they’re timeless.
Hookers N' Blow are the ultimate party band. How did the band get the name Hookers N' Blow?
Ya know..I gotta say..ultimate party band doesn’t work for me…when you’re called HOOKERS N-BLOW..you don’t really need any more words to describe us. It’s just that. Plus it’s hard to say Hookers N Blow..which sounds so vile, and ultimate party band, which sounds so happy in the same phrase!.. Dizzy came up with the name. I heard that it was said on an episode of the Soprano’s…but can’t confirm that.. I remember when we 1st got the artwork for the logo, we weren’t sure if we were going to use it. It’s the 1st logo you can actually snort!
This time around HNB will be heading to New Orleans to perform. This leg of the tour must be so exciting for you. Will this be your first time to new Orleans , since Hurricane Katrina caused such terrible devastation to the once mega music capital of the world?
I was thru that area (actually Mobile,AL) on another tour in January, and it’s so insane looking down there.The photos and news reports have nothing on really being there. I do look forward to rocking down there and we hope to be welcomed back.
HNB have a huge repertoire. The band performs a lot of bluesy Rolling Stones tunes? Since you will be playing the heart of the blues country, would you say your roots are blues oriented, seeing that you hail from Chicago? Dizzy is a big stones fan, that’s really the only reason we play so much of that. I’ve learned to like them more and more..but I prefer playing Loverboy or Dio, or GNR. Growing up in Chi Town.I got into the Cheap Tricks and the Enuff Znuffs, not so much of the blues. Chicago does have one of the best scenes around though.
HNB will also be touring New England, the band has a huge following here. Are you looking forward to performing at the Hard Rock Cafe at Foxwoods? Kevin and the Hard Rock have taken such good care of us, we’re happy to be back. That show will actually be the reception for the TOUR DE ROCK bikers. A benefit for the Lance Armstrong foundation among others where some servers and employees of the Hard Rock Foxwoods rode bikes from LA to Foxwoods. They arrive that day…to HOOKERS N BLOW.. I think it’s insane and super generous doing what they did.I wonder if they got sick pay?
Troy, You are from Chicago. How did you get started in the music business ? How did you meet Dizzy Reed, and Hookers N' Blow come into fruition?
I grew up in Northwest Indiana, the region to the locals. My brother Shawn had been in bands since he was 12, my brother Scott played guitar for the school band, and it was natural for me to get involved since music was always rocking at my house. After moving out to LA awhile ago,I met Alex Grossi and Matt Starr. I started playing w/ them in the now defunct Fastmaster. Matt and Alex met Dizzy, and quickly becamefriends. It was soon after we started the cover band called Hookers N Blow and w/ my association w/ Matt and Alex, I met Diz and became the drummer for HNB.
When did you move to Los Angeles, and is the metal scene in Los Angeles thriving these days?
I moved to LA in 92 ,just in time to see the riots. I’m not familiar w/ any Metal Scene, good or bad. I don’t really check out tons of Metal..but Rock in general is pretty strong. It’s never going to be like it was in the 80’s, but there are still some great bands out there.
You have a very modern approach to performing. I can hear a lot of Kiss influences, and at the same time you have a modern flair? Do you listen to all different genres of music?
Kiss, Really? (ED Note:I don't hear it either:) I really never listened to a lot of Kiss, more Cheap Trick and ya know, Vik Foxx, Tommy Lee, etc. I love the way those guys play. Check out Seven, from Opiate for the Masses. He comes from the same school I do, but he took the advanced classes! As far as music, I love Kings X, Trick, Thin Lizzy and so on.
Troy, You have performed with many different 80's bands. You recently worked with Jani Lane. Tell me about that experience and why you left the band? (ED Note :Oh fuck, here goes our good rapport with Jani)
Jani Lane?..I think I worked with the shell of a person named Jani Lane. This is really the 1st place I’ve been asked about him other than in a million emails after that “tour”. I was fired by Jani, or management. Nothing was said as to why other than being told I said something that offended him. I tried to figure out what happened, as I’ve never been fired before, but I never got an answer. I simply got ignored. I have a feeling Sheila (his manager/girlfriend/everything) didn’t like me either, and that may have had something to do with it. Jani and I didn’t hang much. He was fucked up most of the tour. Some days were better than others, but he either hung in his room, slept in the van, we saw one another 15 min before shows, and he was out of the venue provided he showed up at all or made it thru the entire night. The only night I hung out w/ him was when he was very sick and vomiting and I kept him from rolling on his back to avoid the typical Rock Star chokes on his own vomit story. I thought we bonded, I did genuinely care for him and wanted to see the Jani Lane that is super talented and very much a
nice guy. I never got to meet him. The guy I toured with was a mess and it was truly one of the most embarrassing and saddest moments in my musical career. A total fucking joke. I’d rather talk about Dario Lorina or Chad MacDonald and “Z” who are total pros and kick ass every night. I was glad to hear at least for their sake Jani has gotten his shit together a little bit.Honestly though, I’ve moved on and I look forward to playing with the Mike Tramp’s, the John Corabi’s and Dizzy Reed’s again soon…
You are also a member of Mike Tramp's White Lion. I hear that Mike Tramp's White Lion will be touring Europe soon. Do you know when the European Tour is slated to begin?
The dates are getting finalized. I think we may hit Indonesia in November and Denmark later that month. I see the UK and Turkey in Late November thru December. I don’t have exact dates and you know the saying, the dates could cancel for no apparent reason.
Any plans for an U.S. Tour?
Tramp’s White Lion is planning on recording our 1st record the end of this year and I suspect we may support it in the States in 07, when the TWL album is to be released.
How has the impact of terrorism impacted touring since 911? Is it harder for bands to go to Europe and take all of their musical gear? Also, how is touring in the U.S. more difficult since 9-11?
Well, air travel is air travel. It’s much safer and as long as your passport is good, you don’t take any knives on board, you’ll be okay. It also helps to have work Visas ready and waiting as well. The more planned out you are, the better. Tramp’s White Lion played the Bang Your Head fest last year as a Special Guests with the likes of Sebastian Bach, Dio and Twisted Sister and we left on less than 4 days notice and our flights and customs were very smooth. Maybe we got lucky. I think everyone is more aware and w/ restrictions, safer…but you can still rent a van
and go anywhere, Hookers N Blow do it every few months!
Who is in Mike Tramp's White Lion?
Tramp, Jamie Law on ld guitar, Claus Langeskov on bass, Henning Wanner on Keys and myself on drums.
Any plans to release a DVD from the Mike Tramp White Lion Tour last year?
We’ve got quite a bit of footage still in the editing stages, but I think we’re primarily focusing on this new blood the band now has. You can see TWL on the Bang Your Head 10th anniversary DVD and Best of DVD. 4 songs in total. Great Footage,10 plus cameras, 30,000 people and the band played quite well. I imagine we may have footage from this year and some from last year for release in 07,but who knows.
Will you be going into the studio soon with Mike to record a new MikeTramp White Lion album? Also, what kind of sound is the band aiming for this time around?
We hit the studio in Nov/Dec of this year for an April release in 07. I know Tramp has been writing w/ Jamie and Claus and we’re going to get together and see what we come up with as a band. It will be nice to see everyone add their spices to the chef’s main dish.
In 2005, I read that Mike Tramp was not going to take the band on tour anymore? What changed his mind, and decide to go back on the road and record new material?
That’s a great question for Tramp. I get my orders, and I march, I don’t really ask those questions. Obviously some demand was there to make him think about doing this again and when there is a demand and a request to do a record, you think about it. If everything is right, you do it.
Have you heard from Vito Bratta lately? Would you say the new line-up has a new out look and different approach to the songwriting than the original lineup of White Lion? (Ed Note: What the fuck kind of question is that???)
I have heard from Vito NEVER! The original version of White Lion is exactly that..this is not. Different guys, different decade, different relationships, experiences etc…you won’t hear any repeats of the old WL, but still the voice.
What do you think caused the end of the Glam-Metal era?
A shortage of make-up and Aquanet.
Tell me about your contribution on the "Just Like Paradise", CD compilation on Versailles Records. When will the CD be out, and where was it recorded?
The CD is out and it was recorded at Keri Kelly’s home studio in Cali. The Guns N Roses “It’s So Easy” is out as well. Expect a KISS Tribute and Whitesnake Tribute late this year and early in 07 respectively. I love the guys at Versaille’s and Marko Pukkila who puts this all together is great to work with.
What do you enjoy most about being on the road?
It’s what I do, and if I’m not out there, I’m not doing. I love playing of course and meeting new people and seeing old friends. It’s really not bad work if you can get it!
Thank you Troy, for taking time out of your busy schedule to do this interview. I will be out to see HNB on their upcoming New England Tour. Is their anything else that you would like to say to your fans about the upcoming HNB tour?
Not much else to say..but come check it out. If you’ve seen it, come again, if you haven’t..it’s worth being hung over the next day for. You can read more about Hookers N Blow at www.hookersnblowme.com and www.myspace.com/hookersnblowme . My personal site w/ some DVD footage from Bang Your head is www.drummertroy.com and www.myspace.com/drummertroy . Tramp’s White Lion is at www.trampswhitelion.com . Expect tour dates and updates there very soon.
Thx again!...troypatrickfarrel
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GlamMetal.com’s Deb Rao recently caught up with our good friend and highly sought after drummer- Troy Patrick Farrell. As you will soon find out, Troy has been keeping himself rather busy of late. One noteworthy mention is that Troy and his good friend, guitar whiz kid Alex Grossi, have played a combined number of over 7 million gigs and with every band on the face of the earth... Well, maybe that’s a bit of an exaggeration, but these two talented human jukeboxes have performed with many high profile musicians over the last couple of years and it’s because they are really rather amazing at what they do. But enough kissing ass, and how the hell did Alex weasel his way into this intro??? Anyways, let’s get to the interview and read what Mr. Troy Patrick Farrell had to say.
Hi Troy, It's been awhile. You have won another interview with Glam-metal!! What's up? Hey Deb and Glam-Metal! I want to thank you for another chance at staying in touch with your readers. I just got off a touring gig with EMERALD TRIANGLE. It was with Ira Black (Metal Church, Vicious Rumors) on guitar. It was a humbling experience, seeing that the last gig I did was the Bang Your Head Festival w/ White Lion in Germany in front of 30K…!!
Don’t get me wrong love doing clubs, but it was a building block tour for a band that had never been out there, so food, beers and cockroach-less hotel rooms were few and far between. Overall, any tour you make it home from is by most accounts a successful one. Big or small, it can be tough to be out there.
By the time you get this, I will be in Florida for SPRING BREAK (see how hard touring is??)…we’re bringing HOOKERS N BLOW to Destin, FL at a club called RUMRUNNERS. This time the line up is DIZZY REED (GUNS N ROSES), JOHN CORABI (RATT/MOTLEY CRUE), ALEX GROSSI (QUIET RIOT), SCOTTY GRIFFIN AND MYSELF. I can’t wait!
We then will swing up to the east coast to do some New England dates. This line up is DIZZY, ALEX, SCOTTY, JIZZY PEARL (RATT-LOVE/HATE) AND MYSELF.
I just recorded a track for a Versailles Records’ release of a TRIBUTE TO GnR. Alex Grossi and myself did ROCKET QUEEN. Derrick from LILLIAN AXE will sing and Marko Pukkila (Finland’s ALTARIA) will play bass. I’m going to be contributing to the tribute to KISS that comes out later this year.
Let me congratulate you as you were right on the money for your 2006 Rock and Roll Prediction. Do you have ESP or what?
I don’t know!..Funny Huh? I just didn’t see it working out..and of course they didn’t even do one show. I’ve heard too many versions of what happened to figure out which story is the right one, but they (QR) have Billy Morris now, and I guess Guns is taking out the old guys to do some LA Guns stuff or something…
Hookers N- Blow will be heading out on tour soon. Dizzy Reed is busy rehearsing for the upcoming GNR Tour. How will that affect the Hookers N- Blow Spring tour?
We’ve worked out most of the dates that feature Diz, but due to the ever changing schedule, I recommend checking out our sites at either www.hookersnblowme.com
or at www.myspace.com/hookersnblowme for the up to date schedule. Dizzy will be doing the 1st half of Florida for now, and the 1st weekend of our east coast run, but please check the sites as this may and probably will change. We’ve added John Corabi for Florida and Jizzy Pearl for the New England dates.
We heard Jizzy Pearl was involved. How did this transpire? Jizzy, Alex, Chuck Wright (Quiet Riot/Stephen Pearcy) and I did NAMM together, and in light of Alex and Jizzy doing LOVE/HATE in Europe this spring, he was a natural choice. We’re doing lotsa GUNS and Jizzy did do Adler’s Appetite, so it just seemed natural to ask him.
Jizzy Pearl is one of those performers who can sing anything and make it sound like the original singer of a band. I have seen him perform in LA Guns, and Ratt, and I am really looking forward to seeing him perform with HNB. What can the fans expect to see on this tour? Jizzy is great, he’s one of the best front men I’ve seen. Expect an Appetite heavy set with some AC/DC, and someone told me Dio! too...
Who will be playing keyboards, when Dizzy is rehearsing with GNR? No one will or can replace Diz!..it’s not possible, that’s why we got Jizzy and Corabi involved, to help make it a slightly different Hookers N Blow…
When the GNR Tour begins this year, how will this affect HNB? Will Dizzy Reed still be able to perform with his solo band? I suspect Dizzy will have his plate full this year. He loves doing the HNB stuff as we have fun, but I expect this spring run to be the last for some time. Guns has lots of catching up to do. Expect us to morph a different band doing some cover stuff with Jizzy in the future. When Diz gets back, I have a feeling HNB will be easier to get out there with the Dizzy / Guns Exposure in 06.
In our last interview, you mentioned that Hookers N- Blow were asked to write a song for a movie soundtrack, how did that go? It didn’t! Ha, Ha…it just didn’t work out, and we’re bummed but it was going to be for “LOST IN TRANSIT”, a friend of mine did phony phone calls under the moniker of TOUCHTONE TERRORISTS. It’s the funniest stuff. They’d prank people misdialing UPS or something and just jack with them, and with that spawned the movie. It’s going to be really funny….I think Fred Coury is in it!
Will you be performing with Tramp’s White Lion soon? Are there any European dates scheduled Due to scheduling conflicts, I will miss Mike Tramp solo shows in Indo and Australia in Mid March. As far as TWL this year, I guess it depends. I know Tramp is working on his new solo record…but maybe we’ll do some one off’s or something. I have given Tramp a full commitment for the remainder of the year to do Tramp or TWL dates.
The summer concert season is heating up with the 20Th Anniversary Tour with Poison and Cinderella, and Def Leppard and Journey . Are you looking forward to any concerts thus summer? Only if I’m on one of them!! I’m sure I’ll check out CC and the Poison run this year…I’ve never seen Poison live, but have been lucky to share the stage w/ CC a few times.
The musical trend seems to be going Old School this summer. What is making 80's bands so popular again? There seems to be a whole new generation of fans who are discovering 80's rock music. Playing music, I’ve tried to become familiar with all genres of music and I never see people having more fun than at an 80’s themed Rock Show. Look at Metal Skool...they play every Monday at the Key Club, selling it out doing the same shit every week, and it’s fun, EVERY week. People have a blast, they drink, take their clothes off, and come back 7 days later to do it again. The 80’s was a fun time in music and some of the young bands that are out now, grew up listening to that stuff as their older brothers and sisters blasted it every morning before school…so now it’s seeping in to the new stuff I guess.
What is your favorite part of touring, and what do you least enjoy about being on the road? Well, when I’m on tour, I’m in my element and I’m out doing something, working if you will. I like living out of my suitcase, I like meeting different people every night, doing different things in different cities. Living the Local life of where you’re at for a night. The rest of the USA is different than LA. The pitfalls of touring?...Ya know, Agents, Promoters and sometimes band members. It’s tough to cram yourself in a van and a hotel room every night with the same people. But I would never want it any other way.
You grew up in Chicago? What was the music scene there like? Was there alot of blues? I’m from NW Indiana, a hop skip from Chi-town. My scene was the 80’s stuff. I grew up seeing Enuff Znuff, D’molls, Life Sex and Death, and Disturbed before they were Disturbed. Playing the Thirsty Whale..etc…it was a great little scene and some good bands have come out of Chicago. The blues scene is something I haven’t seen first hand, but it’s got a reputation better than the rest.
When did you move to LA? I left the Midwest in 92 for the Left Coast to play with Crystina LLorree (who went on to marry the bassist of Marvelous 3). I never played with her, but went on to do the Tod Howarth gig (Frehley’s Comet/Cheap Trick/Nugent).
How did you meet Dizzy Reed? I met Dizzy thru Alex (Grossi) and Matt (Starr). It was the 3 of them that started the HnB thing and I was in the loop so I was asked to play drums. It all hatched out of the regular incestual dysfunctional crowd at the CAT CLUB on Sunset.
Are you looking forward to performing with Alex Grossi again in HNB? I really wish this new line-up would record an original album, the talent in this is band is amazing. Alex is my bro…and yes…I can’t wait to do some more work with him outside of HnB. We’ve had some offers to do something with Dizzy, but covers and one or two originals for a label. It’ll happen someday when the time is right.
You recently performed at NAMM? How did that go? NAMM showcases the best talent and in the business. We played at the PRS Guitar party. It was a blast. We played with Joe Lynn Turner, Paul Reed Smith, Dee Snider and Michael Bolton. What a line up eh?.. It was myself, Jizzy, Alex and Chuck Wright.
Did you get to meet any of your music idols at the convention? Are their any endorsements that you would like to mention? I met a lot of the same people I’ve met the past few years. It’s a great way to catch up with old friends. I went with my new friend and former Skid Row drummer Phil Varone. I saw Dee Snider (we played w/ him at the PRS Party). I did a Poison song with CC Deville at the COFFIN CASE PARTY on the Saturday night at the Hilton. It’s blast and I don’t remember too much else!! As far as endorsements…I LOVE DRUMS and I will be playing them all this year…I got to see my rep. at Sabian and I look took make some friends at VATER DRUM STICKS. I still play Evans Drum Heads. They have a new head called the EC2, it’s amazing…
Are there any new projects in the works? Will you be performing with Chuck Wright again? Other than the Tribute record stuff and Mike Tramp, we’ll see…my status is AVAILABLE for now as of mid April, so if anyone needs a drummer…I can be reached at tpf@drummertroy.com. I hope to work with Chuck again, he’s an amazing bassist and greater guy. I am also going to be doing some work in some way with Ira Black this year.
Troy, Thank you for taking time out of your busy schedule to do this interview with me. Is there anything that you else you would like to say to your fans at Glam-metal? All my happenings are at either www.drummertroy.com or www.myspace.com/drummertroy.
Thanks again to you guys for letting me do this! I love the site, don’t forget to tip your bartenders and waitresses, and if anyone wants to drop a line…you know how to reach me!
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