Lizzy Borden: There are still a lot of countries that Lizzy Borden has never played and we aim to fix that on the Appointment With Death tour. Our goal is to try and reach as many people as we can on this tour. There is a whole new audience out there just now being introduced to Lizzy Borden in every country around the world, and we’d like to visit every one of them on this tour.
What are your tour bus essentials?
Jagermeister, and we are all starting to slowly get into health food, so there's definitely going to be some of that, and of course, cases and cases and cases of beer.
With the resurrection of Decline of Western Civilization II on cable the past couple years
have you noticed younger fans discovering your music?
Absolutely. We did the tour last summer with WASP and we performed in front of quite a lot of young under 20 year old kids, it was great to see that again. We did the New England Metal Fest and at least half of the audience was under 20 and it was amazing to see their faces watching a show like ours.
Who were some bands from that scene/era that you thought would be huge but never made it, and vice versa?
There was a band called Shark Island that I saw early on and I thought for sure the singer was going to be a huge star, all their songs were really catchy and if I was an A&R guy I would've signed them on the spot. I actually have never heard a recording from them. I just saw the live show and I was blown away. I haven’t heard from them since. I saw Guns ‘n Roses once early on and I didn't notice that they were going to be the biggest band in the world, they looked and sounded to me like just another Sunset strip band, boy was I wrong.
What have been the biggest changes you've seen in the music industry over the years, both in relation to technology and the business side of things?
Well, we've always been on a very small label with very small budgets so we've noticed a lot of things a little less than some other bands. In a lot of ways that technology is making it really easy for us to do a lot of things with smaller budgets that we couldn’t have done before.. And in other ways it's taking longer to do some of the same things, there is a learning curve and as a band we are just coming to the tail end of that learning curve. Things are starting to pick up for a classic metal band like us in this day and age, mainly generated from the younger fan base getting interested and that also brings out some of the original fans who may now come out to the shows just because of the buzz.
What have been the high and low points in your career so far?
Some of the highest have been playing some of the festival shows we’ve done in the past, like playing the Reading Festival with Alice Cooper in front of 50,000 people, playing both Bang Your Head and the Wacken festivals in Germany. Making records that I could have never made on a major label. The lows have been the mid ‘90s, trying to get our music heard with very limited promotion, never having got that big tour, always being beat out by some other band on a major label.
What's your all time favorite album?
My all-time favorite Lizzy Borden album would have to be a cross between Master Of Disguise, Deal With The Devil and Appointment With Death. As far as someone else, if I was on a desert island and I only got to bring one CD with me, it would have to be Kiss Alive.
What's the biggest misconception your fans or friends have about you?
I guess the most obvious one is they think that I'm like my character onstage. I'm very opposite of that. I, for the most part am an introvert, but being the lead singer in a band makes you climb out of that shell more than I would have had I not been in a rock band. I'm not gregarious, and for the most part shy. But like I said, being in a band forces me to talk to a lot of different people and make friends all over the world, and if I wouldn't have been in a band I would have never had those opportunities, so I'm very thankful for that.
Anything else you'd like to add?
Yes, I'd just like to say to all of our new young fans we are glad that you found us and we hope you come to the shows and get behind the band, and to all the fans that have been with us from the start, we hope you like the new record as much as you like all the other Lizzy Borden records and we'll see everyone on the Appointment With Death tour.
