Speaker 1: 0:46

Today I am excited to have a truly legendary guest on the show with me. My guest is a powerhouse bassist who helped define the sound of rock in the 80s and beyond. You've heard his iconic bass lines on classic albums like the Ultimate Sin with Ozzy Osbourne and Rebel Yell with Billy Idol. Hey, everyone, it's Randy Holsey with Backstage Pass Radio. From touring the world with Ozzy Osbourne, rocking the stages with Billy Idol, to his successful solo and producing career, my guest today has been at the heart of some of the biggest moments in rock history. Today we will dive into the musical journey his time with two of the biggest names in rock. And what's next for this iconic musician? Whether you're a lifelong fan of Ozzy, billy Idol or just love the art of bass guitar, sit tight and we will talk to the one and only, phil Sussan, right after this.

Speaker 2: 1:38

This is Backstage Pass Radio. Backstage Pass Radio A podcast by an artist for the artist. Each week, we take you behind the scenes of some of your favorite musicians and the music they created From chart-topping hits to underground gems. We explore the sounds that move us and the people who make it all happen. Remember to please subscribe, rate and leave reviews on your favorite podcast platform. So, whether you're a casual listener or a die-hard music fan, tune in and discover the magic behind the melodies. Here is your host of Backstage Pass Radio, Randy Halsey.

Speaker 1: 2:19

Phil, welcome to the show. It's good to have you on and I was curious where you're calling in from today.

Speaker 3: 2:27

Hi, randy, I'm glad to be on the show. It's my pleasure and I'm calling in from Las Vegas.

Speaker 1: 2:33

Is it still warm in Vegas right now, or has it cooled down, maybe just a little bit? No, it's bloody freezing. I've never heard anybody say that Vegas was freezing it snows.

Speaker 3: 2:45

You know, it snows Of course, like one day a year.

Speaker 1: 2:48

Yeah, yeah, yeah. Well, we talked about that a little bit before we got started. But you know, here in Houston we have the high humidity and then you guys have the low humidity, right. So we have the opposite problems of one another, and I always said, either way, when it gets up to 100 degrees it's hot, no matter how you slice it. But the nice thing about the low humidity is in the evenings it cools down. In Vegas and it's actually tolerable to get outside. Here in Houston it's still 80, but it's wet and it still feels like 95 degrees at 11 o'clock at night. It's just. It could be better, but it's home. You know what I mean.

Speaker 3: 3:27

Absolutely. I made a mistake of being in Mississippi one time and the hotel said do not open your windows and I went into my room, opened my window, took a shower and when I came out my camera proper camera was full of water, of course.

Speaker 1: 3:45

It's a real problem. It is a real problem, for sure. Well, so is Las Vegas, home for you these days.

Speaker 3: 3:52

It is yeah, we live here, we still have a place in LA, but we go back and forth. Honestly, I seem to be spending most of my time in Vegas at the moment. Ok, a lot of the music community in LA seems to have dispersed a little bit. There's no secret to that. Many people have gone to your neck of the woods, to texas, to austin. Yep, las vegas and um, I was talking my pal billy sheen this morning. Of course, he moved to nashville. Yeah, uh, there's been definitely a um, a bit of a sort of a move. Yeah, it's gone on. So we find ourselves. You know, a lot of music community is here and I love that.

Speaker 1: 4:30

It's funny how that happens. You know, a lot of the of the rockers have moved to Nashville, and you don't normally associate rock and roll people as moving to Nashville, because that's the country music capital of the world, right? So you don't, but it's where all the players are at the end of the day. So Sure.

Speaker 3: 4:46

But I mean, if you look at country music today, I mean it has more in common with pop, rock music than it does in country music, doesn't it? For sure it does.

Speaker 1: 4:52

Absolutely Well. It's neat to hear that you're out in Vegas. I've had a few people on from the Vegas area. I had Scott Little Billman on my show. He's kind of a staple out there in Vegas. And then Stoney Curtis has been on my show. I think you might know Stoney from Danny Coker and the boys over at Counts right.

Speaker 3: 5:14

Danny and I are very, very good friends and of course, same with Stoney and Barry and everybody in his band as well.

Speaker 1: 5:20

Good guys. Good guys for sure. Anyway, it's good to have you here today and a quick shout-out, real quick, to Dave for linking us up. So I appreciate Dave for doing that. It's funny. I talked to different people that have been on my show and a text popped in last night and Bethany Heavenstone says hello from LA.

Speaker 1: 5:38

So Bethany is the bass player for Graham Bonnet right and uh, yeah she says hello, and then of course Adam Hamilton there and LA says hello as well. You know, Adam was tied into LA Guns there for quite some time, right?

Speaker 3: 5:55

So, absolutely, we go back a long way. Yeah, yeah, a long time I bet.

Speaker 1: 5:59

Well, I wanted to get to the main reason why you know I had you join me today and that's for one of the latest production efforts with the the Prophets of Addiction. But it's kind of hard to completely bypass the story and musical history without briefly touching on, you know, a little bit of the past but then come in full circle to where you are today. But I was curious for the listeners kind of share with them, if you will how the Ozzy gig came about for you back in the day.

Speaker 3: 6:32

The Ozzy gig was. It was a gig that I auditioned for. They aussie was looking for a bass player, bob had left and a very dear friend of mine, uh, randy castillo, had just got the gig playing drums. I knew randy from before aussie. We were friends from back in leader ford days. That's where I knew Randy from before Ozzy. We were friends from back in Leader Ford days. That's where I knew him from and I was, believe it or not, I was playing with Jimmy Page.

Speaker 3: 6:56

At the time. We were jamming in a rehearsal facility for quite some time many weeks, months in fact and working on nothing in particular. It was eventually a project that was eventually to become the firm and during that time I had auditioned for Ozzy and I got this gig and, um, I wasn't sure what to do. I have a huge Jimmy Page fan and I love Jimmy and I really want to stay with him.

Speaker 3: 7:22

And I actually went and talked to him and said hey, you know, this is my dilemma, what do you think? And he said well, you know, if you want to go out straight away, I would probably do the Aussie thing. If you want to wait, we're probably not going to do anything. For I think he said a year and a half or so at the time, which was about, which proved to be about right, and if you want to say, we'd love to have you, but that's kind of how it worked out. Wow Interesting. I made friends with Jimmy and spoke to him and got together many, many times after that and anytime we can we do. He's a lovely, lovely man, oh yeah.

Speaker 1: 7:52

Well, I'm trying to jog my memory a little bit. The firm, of course Jimmy Page, but Paul Rogers as well, and Tony Franklin, tony Franklin, yeah, okay.

Speaker 3: 8:04

So Tony came in after I had gone out. He had been playing with Roy Harper. So that's how Jimmy knew Tony, okay, and so that that's how that happened. And, um, and uh, chris Slade Chris Slade was playing drums, yeah, of course, all the time I was working with Jimmy, um, uh, paul Rogers had never had not come down yet he was slated for it. But I think Jimmy was just really trying to get back into you know, messing around with ideas and playing a lot. He'd kind of been on a bit of a hiatus for a while. So that was, that was what, uh, what we were doing.

Speaker 1: 8:38

It's always interesting to hear world-class players like yourself that have been around the scene for so long having to audition for a band. It's, it's kind of funny in and of itself. And I I had, um, of course, and I'm sure you him, because you played with his brother, right. I had Carmine, a piece on my show not too long ago and he was talking about the whole Rod Stewart thing, right, and he said you know Rod just said you know, if you want in, you just come on in. I already know you come play the drums for me. No audition. But so many times there are auditions, even for you know at that level that you guys sit on Right, so it's interesting to hear that you know at that level that you guys sit on Right, so it's interesting to hear that.

Speaker 3: 9:13

Yeah, you got to remember. I mean, first of all, I love Carmine. I do a lot of work with Carmine, by the way. I do a lot of sessions with him. He's actually playing on one of my solo tracks as we speak. But, um, you know, at the time I was, I didn't have that kind of pedigree that someone like Carmine had vanilla fudge with cactus where Rod Stewart could turn around and say, yeah, just come on in. At the time when I got that gig, I was 23 years old. I mean, certain people in London knew me and I was making some good impressions with people, but not to the point where someone was going to open the door and say come on in, of course.

Speaker 1: 9:44

And.

Speaker 3: 9:44

Ozzy had a lot of people come down and play and that chemistry was going to be all important. Ok, when I went down, that's it just worked out and and that's how that came to be. Today things may be a little different. You know, people will say to me hey, just I don't need to try out for something, of course.

Speaker 1: 9:59

Well, you've kind of set your mark in the in the business, right, you've been around for a while, you've. You've been with some notables, for sure, and and there you go. I guess it was what 86, right, ultimate Sin Tour. That was the tour you were out on with Ozzy and that was the Jakey Lee and, of course, randy Castillo on drums, right, that was that lineup. Okay, I am, I've loved all the information I've gained from so many wonderful artists over the four years that I've been doing the show. But it was interesting because I always learn little bits here and there and I had no idea at the time before I kind of started boning up on a little bit more about your career, that you co-wrote Shot in the Dark and I had no idea of that.

Speaker 3: 10:51

Yeah, yeah, yeah Brought the song in and we were looking for a song at the last minute and I brought in three songs. We went to actually cut the album and I don't remember exactly if it was the label or the producer, but one of the two or whatever it was they decided they needed one more song. They weren't hearing the single that they wanted on there, okay, and they started tossing around ideas for cover songs and what have you. And then finally they turned around to randy and me and said do you guys have any songs? And I ran, didn't have anything because they didn't really write like that, but I did, and I had three songs. I played in three songs and one of them was shot in the dark and, uh, we ended up. Ozzy said oh, that sounds great. Well, let's work that up.

Speaker 1: 11:31

So that's what we did, so you already had that one in the can. You didn't have to come up with that after the fact.

Speaker 3: 11:36

No, no, I had it written. I played it for him on the piano actually. Okay, all right, it was written on piano. So I said to Bobby Thompson at the time, who was our tech we were at John Henry's in London a, I can't do the Scottish accent that well, I'd say I'll go get it for you. That was pretty good actually. It was good right, yeah, yeah, and that's how that happened. Yeah, I'd written the song a long time before.

Speaker 1: 12:10

That's interesting because I think that that song was probably one of the most commercially successful songs off of the record, if I remember correctly. Would you agree with that?

Speaker 3: 12:21

Oh, completely. I mean I was involved in lots of different kinds of styles of music, especially with my writing. I played in various different bands that were basically blues rock, classic rock bands, but I had a huge influence from the kind of jazz fusion community, okay, and actually it was soft what today is called yacht rock Sure of jazz fusion community, and actually it was soft, what today is called yacht rock Sure, of course, yeah. So I loved all that stuff. I mean I was a huge follower of the people who created that music and one of the groups that was ubiquitous in all of that stuff were Toto, were all the individual members of Toto, yeah, and I was listening to all kinds of music. I was listening to Al Jarreau a lot and the whole basic idea from Shutting Dark was was some chord changes that I kept hearing in an Al Jarreau album and I just love these chords and I just thought, wow, that's so atypical for kind of rock music and that's how the song came up. I started writing yeah.

Speaker 3: 13:21

That's why, again, it was written on piano more than anything else. Um, so, yeah, those are some of the influences. And when you, when you cross over a style, when you bring in something that has very little to do, when you bring in that kind of uh, I don't even know what you'd call it other than yacht rock today, but back then it was probably called fusion, jazz, fusion or whatever crossed that over with another style, you get a different sound.

Speaker 1: 13:40

Of course you do. Yeah, wow, you're going from the Ozzy and Billy Idol days and then kind of continuing on that musical journey. I wanted to touch base on a couple of the other musical projects that you either had going on or you still have going on, and I'd like for you to educate me and the listeners of backstage pass radio. But there's the moby dicks. Now this is a zeppelin tribute. Are you still current with those guys?

Speaker 3: 14:08

okay, we just did. We just did a dick show about two weeks ago and in fact we've got another one january 4th here in las vegas. Okay, so that's, that's a lot of fun. I love doing that. I've love doing that. I've been doing that on and off for I don't know since it started, which I don't know 15, 20 years or something. Wow, I think it started at the. Brian Tisci started it at the NAMM show. He would do the Bonzo Bash. That's kind of how it all began. It was a tribute to John Bonham and they'd have all these different drummers come and sit in and each drummer would play a different song on the same kit. Sure, and you really get to hear just how much of a difference one drummer makes next to the next. I can imagine All things remaining the same. Sure, it sounds completely different, 100%.

Speaker 1: 14:52

It does Talk about the lineup for that band for just a second. You spoke of Brian and I think Brian has been tied back to what Foreigner and maybe Whitesnake. Who are the other members in the band? And is this an evolving project where people come in and out of this group, or is it the same lineup all the time?

Speaker 3: 15:11

Yeah, there's pretty much a revolving door on the project and so obviously, the only two that do not seem to vary are brian, of course, and chas west, who sings. Um, chas does a pretty good robert plant, so those two, uh, seem to be the mainstays. And then, um, we'll have a keyboard player it's great fox at the moment but then, uh, I'll play bass. Sometimes I'm not playing bass. Robbie crane's come and play, come in and play bass and on guitar, you know, we've had, uh, we've had great people. We've got christian christian brady, who's phenomenal, great, but we've had also doug aldridge has been great, rowan robertson's played with us, brent woods, so it's a. It's really a a little bit of a revolving door and it's probably dependent on who's available at the time.

Speaker 3: 16:00

Yeah, I wish we could say that we did more shows. We actually talked, brian and I talked, about trying to see if we could take something like that nationally, of course, but you know what the challenge is? It's really plain to see. Just about every city in this country has a Zeppelin tribute band and that city is loyal to their local tribute band. So it just seems, for some reason we've got a, we've got our foothold here at at Vampton and Corey. Coco runs Vampton, who's a sweetheart. She loves our band and we have a home here um for that band. But I don't know that it'd be easy to do it anywhere else.

Speaker 1: 16:39

Well, it would be like me trying to put together a Zeppelin tribute and come to Vampton played I mean they're probably not going to let me in the door right, they already have their Zeppelin band.

Speaker 1: 16:49

But you know, being a local musician here in the in the greater Houston area, it is probably like anywhere, vegas, wherever but it is heavily influenced by the tribute bands these days, for sure. And there are some mega good ones out there, I've seen, I've had some good ones even on my show, because they're just so good like they're unbelievable. But then there's the others that maybe, maybe, are a little less desirable. So you never, you know it's, it's hit and miss. You never know what you're going to get with a, with a tribute. But if you you know we spoke of carmine earlier look at this tribute thing that he's doing with rob caudillo, the rod stewart impersonator, and I mean they're going out and selling out like big arenas with this, with this thing, right, which is really cool. I mean they got their stuff down for sure.

Speaker 3: 17:40

He asked me. He said hey, you know, if our guy can't make it or anything, would you be interested in cutting? I said are you kidding? I'd love to. I would absolutely love to do that. Are you kidding?

Speaker 1: 17:49

Yeah, that would be super cool. You know, and what's scary about it is you, as you know, feel like some of these impersonators, like the Rob Caudill's, are so damn good that it's it's almost like you're at a show Right Of that person that they're, they're doing. You know what I'm saying. You know I can be that good.

Speaker 3: 18:09

I, you know I'm giving a little shout out to another group of good friends and very dear people of the foreigner guys. Yeah, I mean you know Kelly's. Just, I mean he's, he is, he does, he puts his, his fingerprints on it. But it sounds like he's paying complete respect to that catalog. And I got to say I mean I saw, I saw them when they played out here a few times and it was about the time before last I saw them, probably one of the best sounding concerts I've ever heard in my life.

Speaker 1: 18:44

I'm telling you I would agree. I was just going to when you started talking about Kelly Hanson and Foreigner. I've seen a lot of shows and whatnot over time, but those guys are still so tight and they sound amazing. Live Jeff Pilsen. You know, mick, all of the guys sound amazing in Foreigner, for sure.

Speaker 3: 18:56

Yeah, yeah, they really are, and it's just a great. I mean, they're doing a fantastic job of those songs, sure, and it's a great show. You get to hear the songs that you want to hear. Never, you know, you can't fault the sound.

Speaker 1: 19:09

No, I mean, just kill it, no you can't Well talk to me a little bit about your project called Last in Line. Now you know we spoke about Carmine. Of course Vinny's in this project with you. Talk to the listeners a little bit about that project.

Speaker 3: 19:23

Well, last in Line is basically a band that was formed from the vestiges of the Dio, the original Dio band. So Vivian Campbell, vinny Appesee was Jimmy Bain at the beginning Jimmy sadly passed away very, very early in the proceedings was a good friend of mine as well when I first moved to LA. We lived together, so we went back a long way and Andrew Freeman's, a singer, who's a, who's a Vinnie, had found locally here. I came in after Jimmy passed away. It sort of made sense. I suppose we were Ausszy and Dio were very, you know, sisterly bands. Of course, sure, and there was initially.

Speaker 3: 20:06

I came into the band just to finish the obligations that they had for shows and, in my own personal way, to pay a little bit of an homage and tribute to Jimmy. I just tried to basically channel him and see if I could go out there and do what he would have done. But very quickly it was evident that there was some additional chemistry in the band. Yeah, and we made a decision to make a second album and then the third album and we're on our fourth album right now. So it's a little difficult to work at the moment because we're having to get around our schedule, which primarily involves Def Leppard.

Speaker 3: 20:42

Okay, of course, with Vivian. Yeah, we have to play like peekaboo around that schedule to do our shows, which is fine, but also it's no secret that Viv's going through some serious medical treatments at the moment. So we're taking a little bit of a backseat and during that time I'm working on some other stuff, doing lots of sessions with Carmine and, for example, and I actually started writing material for another solo record. So all of a sudden, all these songs started coming out and I was when that happens, you just run with the ball.

Speaker 1: 21:14

You know Well, they say to diversify your portfolio, don't put all your eggs in one basket, right? You know, you've got a lot of things going on that keep you busy, and that's. That's a wonderful thing. It keeps you young too at the same time.

Speaker 3: 21:26

So absolutely does, and I think that you know the beauty of music and what we do is that part of it is is in the studio. It's creative Part of it is on the road, and there's a great deal of variation of what you do, you, and there's a great deal of variation of what you do. You might do sessions. I also am a mixing engineer and a mastering engineer. So the minute I get bored of one thing, there's something very diverse to be involved in, and it's only a matter of minutes when I'm on the road that I'm thinking, geez, I wish I was in my studio. And then, when I'm in the studio, it's a matter of minutes Geez, I wish I was on the road, you know. So it's very varied.

Speaker 1: 21:58

I totally get it. Well, the last thing I did want to mention about the Last in Line I. You know the beauty of this show, what I love about this show and the reason I started it was because I love the stories behind the songs and I love being exposed to new artists, things that that I may have never heard, maybe I would never even listen to, but I've gone out and I've listened to the whole catalog from you guys three records, I believe, that are out on spotify, specifically, and the I I guess it was the 2023 jericho release. Like the songs are phenomenal, I really enjoyed them and I mean hats off to you guys.

Speaker 3: 22:36

Thank you, yeah, for sure, it was a tough album to do, because we started it right before the pandemic. Purely, we just were in LA and said, oh, let's go into a studio and let's bang a few ideas down. Sure, but we got something in our back pocket. And how prophetic that turned out to be, because when everything got locked down, at least we had some material that we could work on.

Speaker 1: 23:06

And so half the album was pretty much done that way.

Speaker 3: 23:07

The rest of the album was done almost by remote control. We, we remote control, done remotely, excuse me. Yeah, exactly, and it came out great. I think the whole album is a fantastic record. During that time as well, uh, I'd had the idea I'd kind of been pushing to do a cover song and um, we, just because we were sitting at home that's how a day in the life was was born. It turned into an ep, but we recorded that the same way. I produced and mixed it here, and then the files came back and forth and visited stuff and vinnie did stuff and it showed that you can actually do a record that way. I mean, that's pretty remarkable it's uh, technology's amazing.

Speaker 1: 23:39

You know, I had um nibs carter, the bass player for saxon, on my show and he said the carp, the carpe diem record that saxon put together. They were in like basically five different countries when they recorded that. Like just here's the file, here's the file, here's the file. They're passing them around. They're not even like we think back to the old styles of recording. The whole band goes into the studio and lays their tracks down and you get a record out of that. But now it's with technology, you're sending them over the Internet and doing all the wild things like that. So the versatility is wonderful, right.

Speaker 3: 24:14

Yeah, I remember a story about a band that was taking their album to mix it in Canada and they took the reels up there and they got stopped at the airport at the border when they found they brought those reels up there, they confiscated the reels because they didn't have work permits in order, they didn't have arrangements in order and it was a real mess. You think about it, you could literally these days you could put an entire album of multi-tracks onto an SD card.

Speaker 1: 24:41

Instead of carrying these big old things around. Right, yeah, it's amazing. The technology is an amazing thing.

Speaker 3: 24:46

Or phone, transfer it to yourself and then catch the plane you know Exactly.

Speaker 1: 24:51

Exactly. Technology, I guess, is a blessing and a curse all at the same time. You know, we love to hate it.

Speaker 1: 24:57

You know, we hate it but we wouldn't know what to do without it. It's the life and the times that we live in for sure. Yeah, you nailed that, randy. That's exactly what it is. Well, you know, along with being a world renowned musician, phil, you have also recently produced for, basically a project for a band called Profits of Addiction, and that's one of the main things that I wanted to chat with you about today. Talk to the listeners about the band and how this project came about for you.

Speaker 3: 25:28

Yeah. So Leslie Sanders is a guy I've known for a long, long time, and way back in the day, I think, he wanted me to help him or get involved in some of the stuff he was doing, and that turned into a relationship that went on for a long time. I think I've worked on just about everything he's ever done, and the reason I have is because I think he really is a great songwriter. I mean, he really has a great songwriting sense about him. He writes stuff which is commercial, which is hooky, but it also has a cool vibe to it and that's the icing on the cake. There is to be able to write songs that actually also have a great vibe.

Speaker 3: 26:10

And so when it came time to doing this record, he said hey, I in the past. He said look, I've piecemealed this, this record, together. I've got some recordings here. I've got some stuff there. Can you mix it? And that's usually what I would do in this particular case. We had an opportunity to start from scratch and do it from the beginning, and he wants to incorporate and include many of the people who have been helpful to him over time the other musicians and what have you. So we included everybody and we did this record. It turned out to be a lot of fun. We had a great time doing it.

Speaker 1: 26:43

And is this where the Marky Ramone and Phil Lewis guys come in to the mix for Prophets of Addiction?

Speaker 3: 26:53

Not in terms of being involved. No, okay, gotcha, I think that you know these are all people that Les or myself obviously have known about or have been friendly with for a long time. Makes sense. In this particular case it was really, you know, the guys who played on the record. There was, you know, a couple of guitar players that he had come in Chad came in, and Terry came in and played guitar and, of course, wayne Stokely played drums.

Speaker 3: 27:23

We went and cut everything, funnily enough, at Danny Coker's studio he has a place here called Desert Moon and so we cut the basics there, we mic'd up the drums and we went through all the drum tracks and then we came back here to my home and my home studio and you know, there's no clock going. There's no, you know, money clock going, so we could take our time, we had fun with it, we took a few days off here and there. Let us go off and come back, and I think we captured the spirit of the record. It's not too polished, but it's still. It's got a little bit of an edge to it. Yeah.

Speaker 1: 28:00

Well, is it safe to say that the I guess the band profits of addiction? Is it? Is it not really a touring band? It's just kind of a collaboration. Is that is that is that safe to say, or am I missing something here, right? Well, it's, it's, it's not my band I had, you know.

Speaker 3: 28:12

he asked me when I was doing it. I was just going to produce it and he said because Les is a bass player as well, you know, sure, and he said to me he said would you want to play bass on it? And I said, well, I don't know. If you want me to, I'll play on it, of course. So I ended up playing on it, but I'm not really in the band. It really is Les' band.

Speaker 3: 28:32

He's also had three or four releases prior to this, which are all excellent, but the reason I was chuckling a little bit as I was just talking to him yesterday about that, I said you know, you should really get out on the road and start thinking about touring this, because really that's what we do with music now. Actually releasing the music is a bit of a lost leader. You're really inviting people to the live show, of course, and you know, monetarily wise. Now what do we do? We sell merchandise, we sell t-shirts, we sell stuff like that. So we're in the t-shirt business. In the past we used to give away the t-shirts. You used to buy the record, yes, so it's funny.

Speaker 1: 29:09

Go ahead, finish your thought I was gonna.

Speaker 3: 29:11

I was. I was just saying I think you should start thinking right now about taking this out and do some shows. Every time I've seen them live, it's been a high energy show. It's been a lot of fun yeah that's awesome.

Speaker 1: 29:21

It made me think when I was talking to Tony Carey on my show. You know, ex-rainbow.

Speaker 2: 29:25

Keepers.

Speaker 1: 29:27

Tony's a wonderful guy. I've been on my show a couple of times, once with Leslie Mandoki you know he's doing the Mandoki Soulmates thing. But the first time Tony was on I asked him that question specifically and I said how has the music industry changed since the 70s, when you know you were in Rainbow and then your, you know Planet P Project stuff. And his expletive was we're effing T-shirt sales these days. Right, that's, that's how it's changed. You know, back then you sold records. That's how you made the money back in the day, uh, seventies, eighties, and it's just, it's funny how everything is just totally different now than it was.

Speaker 3: 30:06

Well, that's it we used to. We used to give people a. Here's a. Here's a free lighter, here's a free headband, here's a free baseball cap. Sure, it's a cheap concert ticket. Come to us, go and buy the album. Now we're going. Here's the record. Come to our show. You can buy a liner, buy a headband, buy a baseball cap.

Speaker 1: 30:23

Yeah, that's so funny. It's so funny. Well, I'll tell you that. You know, I've listened to the Prophets of Addiction stuff as well. Like let's get high and slip it away were some ones that stuck out for me, but all all great songs. The rendition of the old rod stewart maggie may tune sounded great as well. So good, good job there, phil, good stuff man, that was a blast doing that song.

Speaker 3: 30:47

In fact I sent it to carmine and he he loved it and he I guess he played it for rod rod. Apparently rod liked it, I don't know okay I haven't seen.

Speaker 3: 30:55

I haven't seen rod in a in a in a bit. We went to see him play a show here. I actually did a video with rod stewart. I was in in his uh in his band for a song called uh. It's like the last song that he did before he started doing his kind of residency here. Okay, back in my arms again. Okay, yeah, yeah, okay, so, uh and yeah, and I worked with a lot of his guys. You know Robin LeMessurier, cregan Dabagar, all of those guys.

Speaker 1: 31:20

You know, when I was talking to Carmine about the whole stint with with Rod Stewart, we both agreed and I told him first I said Rod Stewart top five of all time for me as from a front man perspective. Like, how do you not like Rod Stewart Right? And he said number one for me as from a front man perspective, like you, how do you not like rod stewart right? And he said number one for me by far. Yeah, just, he loves rod stewart right and it's so cool to hear a guy of his caliber say you know, that's the guy, he. He has the looks, he has the voice he has, he has the whole package.

Speaker 3: 31:48

You know you know he's got that kind of sam cook thing. I mean he's, he's the the white soul singer. Yeah, I mean he really is. He's got that kind of Sam Cooke thing. I mean he's the white soul singer. Yeah, I mean he really is. He's got that voice and it's for real, yeah gravel-throated.

Speaker 1: 31:58

Yeah, I love it too, man. Well, I would say, you know we talked about the merch and whatnot, but I would ask the listeners you guys listening in right now if you'd like to support the band, something that you enjoy more now than maybe the touring and the playing live, or do they both have a special place in your heart still? Is there one that you gravitate?

Speaker 3: 32:30

more Very special place in my heart because I think mixing is something that takes forever. It takes a long time to learn. I was just thinking about this. Funnily enough, yesterday I was putting something together. I had to knock a demo together very, very, very quickly, and then I put down some parts and then I went All of a sudden, instinctively, I started putting compressors on different things and dialing them in really quickly, and I remember sitting back for a second and going my God, you know it would take me hours and hours to figure out how to dial something like that in, and now I know exactly what I'm listening for and how to shape that sound.

Speaker 3: 33:08

But I think it's a very creative process. Mixing it's really where you get to take that whole, all the ideas, and I always say that you know, mixing makes your song sound great and uh, and so you know you get. It's not really a participation sport, it's not something where there's people. Somebody wants to sit there and watch you for hours, but you get lost in it. Um, and then mastering is well. Sometimes people ask me what's the difference? And my answer answer to this is mixing makes your song sound great. Mastering makes your stereo system sound great, exactly.

Speaker 1: 33:41

Exactly. Well, is that a, I guess, a talent that you acquired over time? Did you go to school or classes to do that, Like it's just something that you've been around it so long? You just kind of taught yourself how to do it all?

Speaker 3: 33:57

I mean, I come from a very technical background, very scientific electronics, chemistry. That was all my majors and stuff, and so there's that part of it that came into it. But, to be honest with you, when I started playing music I was broke. I was a kid in London. I needed money, money and I started running sound in, uh in clubs and it's a great way to dive in at the deep end and learn to learn that craft, because some of those clubs that you know with uh, the rock garden, in in, uh and in saying sorry, and dingwalls and all of those clubs, those, those clubs would have like six or seven bands playing. So if you're running sound, there was no time for any nonsense. You literally had to set up a band, run the gig. They change it over, you change it to the next one. Everything was done on the fly and it was a great way to learn your skill, and it was different for every band too, right?

Speaker 1: 34:52

Like the next band that came on, their sound had to be a little different than the first band, right?

Speaker 3: 34:57

Well, yeah, well, think it wasn't so much that that these bands didn't have sound checks, so you had to do this on the fly. So what was happening is I've got to get you know, make sure everything's there. Kick drum sound, snare drum sound, guitars, vocals Can we hear everything? Yeah, and then imagine that you do this every day for a long period of time. The band comes in. You know, straight away I'm going to put my kick drum, I'm going to dial out 380 cycles out of that, I'm going to put this in there. Yes, you sort of know where your starting point is going to be.

Speaker 3: 35:25

Of course, sometimes I would go on the road with bands. I remember going out and doing mixing, for there was a band called Bumble and the Bees. That was Mike Riley from Steel Pulse and he had a kind of reggae band that was, reggae was big in England, and I went out and sometimes I would go to a place where they had a sound engineer who was resident in the club. I wouldn't interfere with that. I'd say, hey, you know your club, you know your board, you set it up. And then, when the band's playing.

Speaker 3: 35:58

You don't mind, I'll just handle the faders and I'll do some fader moves, yeah, and that's the best of both worlds, sure, I think that's where I started to learn, that's where I learned my engineering skills and eventually, a minute I it was possible, even with ozzy. I built a studio, a 12 track studio, when I was with ozzy and we started writing songs in. So it was something I'm very passionate about is the recording process. Yeah.

Speaker 1: 36:16

Well, on the balance scale of justice. If you thought about the balance scale of justice for just a second, does it kind of tip one way or the other for you like live playing, or is it truly a 50, 50 split?

Speaker 3: 36:28

No, it's part of the same processes. I mean, if I had to use an analogy, it'd be like I don't know, it'd be like building a car or something Are you more interested in painting it or are you more interested in building the engine? And it's all part and parcel of the same thing.

Speaker 1: 36:44

Sure, well, I'm asked a lot of times because I'm a local musician here. People have said you know, do you like podcasting better or do you like playing live shows? And it's like two different things. But I think the the older I get, the more I kind of like the podcast. And because I don't have to load in and load out gear Right, you know, I'm not, I'm not a touring musician, that you know I have a road crew that does all that for me, so that becomes a little cumbersome over time when you're playing a lot of shows, right? So absolutely.

Speaker 3: 37:14

Yeah, yeah, so I, I do. I do understand that. I appreciate that aspect of it. But, uh, you know, at the same time, you know you've got to love um, uh, you've got to love um the live show and it's. It's almost like there's so much effort that you put into the live show. Who is it? Somebody said one time they play for free but they get paid to travel.

Speaker 1: 37:40

Right, I don't remember who said that, but I remember hearing it.

Speaker 3: 37:47

It might have been Vinnie or someone, but it was. It was. It's true. It's the amount of work and effort that you go into and lugging stuff around and taking things into shows, and effort that you go into and lugging stuff around and taking things into to shows and you know, uh, but by the time you get to play, that's really where you get your, your enjoyment out of it.

Speaker 3: 37:59

I did a gig with a band I played with occasionally in vegas by the name of tinnitus and it's a band that's made of incredible musicians, the best musicians in vegas, and and we had george pahone jr playing guitar with us last time. He's the main musical guy for Black Eyed Peas and he's a rock guy, you know. But he came in I mean we do crazy, really difficult music and he came in with eight guitars and I had four and I thought I was pushing it and he had eight guitars. I've never seen so many guitars on the stage because of all these different tunings and everything else. And you start carding all that stuff in and bringing in the amount of work that goes into it, but by the time you play, I mean that's really the enjoyment out of it.

Speaker 1: 38:41

Yeah for sure. No, you're worn out before you even get started. You even hit the stage. Well, from a producing or a mixing and mastering perspective, is there anything else coming up that's new and exciting that you can talk about to the listeners right now?

Speaker 3: 38:58

Maybe some projects that are maybe coming up Well, you know, we're working on our last Inline Force record, as I said, but in the meantime I started writing some more solo stuff.

Speaker 3: 39:10

I've had two solo albums over my career that came out and I just started messing around. You know how it goes more solo stuff. I've had two solo albums over my career that came out and, uh, I just started messing around. You know how it goes. I've started messing around with some ideas that, uh, I found on my phone, because I usually had two or 300 like little snippet ideas on the phone and all of a sudden I started putting these things together and I got one, two, three, four, five songs and in the space, space, the last couple of weeks I've got about six working, working things, two of which are completed now. Uh, actually, carmine's gonna play on one track and vinnie's gonna play on another, but, um, so hopefully I'll have a solo record to come out there. I've also got an autobiography, which I'm in the final processes of editing, which should be I want to put out.

Speaker 1: 39:52

that'll be my first book. Are you able to speak on the title of the book, or do you not know that yet?

Speaker 3: 39:58

No, I know the title of the book. Okay, all right, I won't, we'll keep it, that's fine, we'll keep it secret.

Speaker 1: 40:04

I'll just I'll just be on the lookout for it. I just wanted to make sure that if, if it was something that you could talk about, the listeners know, so they know how to get their hands on it. But uh, we'll have to come back and have another conversation around the book. How about that? Yeah, I'd love to do that.

Speaker 3: 40:17

I'd love to do that with you, right, randy? Uh it, I'll give you a little bit of a of an oversight of the book. It really is. Rather than a chronological list of events, it's more like I tried to describe what it was like being in certain places at certain times, so being growing up in lond, the music scene in London when I moved to LA, so that has to make it a little bit more interesting. So, and there's some humor in it, there's some funny bits in it as well.

Speaker 1: 40:40

So, yeah, Well, we'll, we'll be on the lookout and then, like I said, when it, when it drops, maybe we can do another quick spot and talk a little bit about the book. For sure, where can the listeners find you on social media these days, phil? Where can the listeners find you on social media these days, phil?

Speaker 3: 40:54

My main place for music is going to be Instagram. I have a website, but nobody goes to websites anymore. Yeah, they go to Facebook and they go to Instagram, so that's really where all my musical stuff is on Instagram. Okay, so at Phil Sussan, funnily enough. Yeah, never think that.

Speaker 1: 41:09

Easy, easy enough to remember right.

Speaker 3: 41:20

Of course, since Last in.

Speaker 1: 41:20

Line. We have our.

Speaker 3: 41:20

Last in Line. Official website as well, which is Last in Line. I don't know what it is LastinLineOfficialcom. Yeah, okay, just Google. Last in.

Speaker 1: 41:24

Line. Yeah, I was going to say if you Google Last in Line, phil Sussan, then you'll find you right, they'll get to you, absolutely. Are you producing you'll? You'll find you right, you, they'll get to you. Um, are you producing um? I guess? Are your mixing or production services open for public consumption, or do you prefer to handpick the projects that you work on? Can you speak a little bit about that?

Speaker 3: 41:48

yeah, very often people will write to me and they'll say that they they'll ask me if I will play on something or if I will um, you know, mix something.

Speaker 3: 41:57

Um, mixing, I think, is um, it sort of stems from a bit more of a connection, in other words, the person who's being asked to mix a record, typically somebody who's been involved with the band for some time, of course, although there are exceptions to that um sessions, on the other hand, they can be quite you know, I can get contacted by somebody who I've never met before, and I have a couple of considerations for that. I mean, I want to listen to the music first and I want to make sure it's something that I can really contribute to, of course, in a meaningful way. If it's something that I don't think that I can do, I'll tell somebody. I don't think it's, you know, I'll be able to add what I would like to. But if it is, I mean I've done sessions where it's been fantastic and I've made friends and met people that I would never have known before, who have great musicians, great artists. I'm very proud of what I've recorded.

Speaker 1: 42:52

Well, and I just wanted to make sure that the listeners of Backstage Pass Radio were aware that you know, if there's a project, maybe they can reach out to you and then you guys determine whether it makes sense or not. Right, like you said, like I wouldn't want to take on, it just doesn't make sense to take on every project because there's just some projects that are not going to make sense at the end of the day. But yeah, for the listeners, if you're looking for some baselines or whatever Phil has to offer, certainly reach out and you guys work it out and figure something out there, right?

Speaker 3: 43:23

Yeah, so you know. I mean there's some contact information, I think, on my website and philcestowncom or you can always send an email from there and, uh, you know, always down to listen to playing on material and mixing. Sure, if somebody wants me to mix something, you know we can talk and see if it's something which I love mixing.

Speaker 1: 43:46

So that's awesome. Well listen, Phil, it's been an honor getting to spend a little bit of time with you today. I certainly wish you and Jen a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year, and I also wish you continued success in all of your musical endeavors. So thanks for being on with me today.

Speaker 3: 44:07

That's very kind of you, randy, and, needless to say, I wish you all the same as well Happy holidays, merry Christmas, whatever you want to celebrate, and, of course, wishing everybody a great, happy New Year and hopefully it's a good one.

Speaker 1: 44:22

Yeah, thanks for that, phil. You guys make sure to head out toS-A-Ncom and keep an eye out for tour schedules and music releases and, of course, you know, buy up some of the merch that he has out on his site. I also ask the listeners to like, share and subscribe to the podcast on Facebook at Backstage Pass Radio Podcast, on Instagram at Backstage Pass Radio and on the website at backstage pass radiocom. You guys make sure to take care of yourselves and each other and we'll see you right back here on the next episode of backstage pass radio.

Speaker 2: 45:04

Thank you for tuning into this episode of backstage pass radio, backstage pass radio. We hope you enjoyed this episode and gain some new insights into the world of music. Backstage pass radio is heard in over 80 countries and the streams continue to grow each week. If you loved what you heard, don't forget to subscribe, rate and leave reviews on your favorite podcast platform. Your feedback means the world to us and helps us bring you even more amazing content. So join us next time for another deep dive into the stories and sounds that shape our musical landscape. Until then, keep listening, keep exploring and keep the passion of music alive.