Paul Crook On Meat Loaf's Neverland Express Band, Anthrax, Future John Bush Touring Plans & More
[Music] about true cash now with Daryl trumpets get ready to listen to your favorite art artists [Music] technology aside Paul how is your day going so far I can't complain it's really a pleasure to be speaking with you because you've been part of a lot of artists legacies that I care about and have regularly listened to oh yeah I mean come on Anthrax Sebastian Bach meatloaf Queen We Will Rock You Hell hell of a line of credits right there but also a label guy but then you were attacked before all that happened so when did you feel like hey this is a career I don't have to worry about hits I can do a bunch of different things and life is going to be okay yeah you know uh growing up I grew up in a small town called Greenberg in New Jersey where are you from I'm from Long Island my wife's a jersey person I mean everyone is from Jersey around here right right yeah so I'm you know Central Jersey and I I don't know I I got lucky you know at a high school uh just coming out of high school I met this guy uh his name is Jack Secret and he at that time he was getting Lee's keyboard Tech and uh we we just we started the bands uh it's what was called the Jack secret project and I spent a lot he was in New York in in Brooklyn so I spent a lot of time in Brooklyn I was hanging out just 18 years old and I I found myself um actually you know what I gotta go back I'm sorry I gotta go a little earlier uh maybe senior year in high school I I just for some reason I knew I had to get out I knew that being in Central Jersey in this town my graduating class was 52 students wow yeah so I knew I had to get out to do something so I just started to go into Manhattan I would go um I I found myself at the Lion's Den a lot oh yeah we just said I bring my guitar and I would sit in but these guys you know really ripping players you know and I would just um just kind of cut heads you know what I mean and uh I just met people that way and then I I met Jack Siebert uh has to go back to the story and uh he he's the one that took me on the road he said hey you're gonna you're gonna come with me to Greece we're gonna go to Greece with blue oysterical and you're going to be a drum tank and I'm like totally just destroyed the job it was horrible but thankfully the guys are very patient and they saw my talent was with guitar and keyboard so they moved me instead of firing me they moved me and then everything was perfect the world was perfect that was 1985 you know 80 45 somewhere around there yeah you answered a question of mine but then you also created a new question which is a fascinating thing about your career is when all the people overlap but in different periods so for example you winding up in meatloaf span because of Chasm Sultan and Chasm was in Blue Oyster Cult and you were in Anthrax and Scotty and winds up marrying Meatloaf's daughter and then that's another happenstance kind of thing so you have this interesting small world thing where I guess you stick around long enough you eventually meet everyone is that the lesson to gather from the whole thing I think that's that's a great point right there you stick around long enough you uh you don't give up I think that's everything I I think these starter we said that right the only reason why fans don't make is because they break up right yeah um you got a hard-working band you're gonna make noise you know so yeah it's just a matter of working hard you know and getting lucky yeah the uh luck is what gets you in the door right yeah and then your uh your hard work keeps you there wow yeah write that one down if that's not a regular thing you said but uh Neverland Express you're keeping the Legacy alive that's a fantastic thing how long was it from going this is a good idea to actually getting the endorsement and starting to plan the recordings and tours related to the meatloaf Legacy well who we had Meatloaf's blessing before we did it what happened was we were in Edmonton in 2016 and Milo passed out on stage right eight meatloaf passes out every show uh whether he was out completely or he's just on the ground taking oxygen every show I you know I I toured with him for 20 years we know we did he was on the ground at the end of the night this night in Edmonton Canada he dropped on the stage during anything for love uh after that he never recovered he went through back surgeries where uh we had to cancel the Braven yard tour which is a record that I produced you know for him and uh so he passed and he passed out on stage in June 2016. he said to me hey Paul give me till December and we can get back to work and said no problem boss gotcha December comes around he's not ready because I need I need till summer okay boss now May June comes around and he's not ready he's in a lot of pain actually yeah we need work so I I called him I said hey boss uh we're losing the band I gotta get out and play you know and we're great at methods you know that's what we do best so we're gonna play meatloaf and I'm going to find somebody else to sing until you're ready to do it you know we're not replacing you you know who could replace me but that's an impossibility I saw an article that popped up a couple days ago it said Paul crop replacement I'm like get the [ __ ] out of here first right yeah you know it was just it was just a way to keep the band working keep the machine oiled so that whenever meat was ready he could simply hop on a plane and it turned into a meatloaf show without any pressure the idea was we weren't going to ever announce it he would just call us hey okay I'm going to fly in tomorrow I'm like great boss wouldn't say a word we just play or we always start the song or excuse me to start the show and he would just walk out you know that's how we planned it and that's we did that four years ago okay so you know losing our boss last year wasn't the reason why we did this this has been going on for four years hmm I don't think the average person realizes that and I'm really glad to learn that element of the story because not only is this not a cash in on any level but and not only is it endorsed by the person whose Legacy that you're carrying out but at the same time he was cool about wanting to do smaller shows a lot of artists don't do the smaller shows except if it's a warm-up gig that's right yeah you know one of the uh it was probably the first tour I did with me yeah we're going back to like 2002 2003. and um yeah 2002. we actually did the China Club in New York wow okay
it was amazing it was like a 16 foot by 12 foot stage and he already had you off there the Chinese Club has been home to such history because I remember reading about that all-star band that had um oh oh who's the guy I don't know if it was a Steve Luka there band but that random man that did one tour of Japan and then just broke up you hear all these stories about bands that happened because people hung out of the China Club yeah the feeling this is another story going there it was this show was amazing you know I had no idea you know again it was it was early on in my in my tenure with the boss and uh man he blew up that room it was incredible sure really yeah well all that said and it's great to see that you're also documenting it in the studio with the paradise found that out of hell reignited project and Caleb is on the vocals how did you know Caleb how did he connect to the whole band picture thank you you know the uh the re-recording about it to hell we did that just so people could see what they were going you know what they were going to get when they bought a ticket um I've gotten some pushback on that you know people are you know this is this is Blasphemous you know that kind of stuff you can't record this you know I'm like well you guys not seeing the battle of the hell musical the gym Simon Musical they recorded a soundtrack we're not allowed to record a soundtrack of the show you know you want to you want to buy a ticket but you know is this guy any good listen to the CD Caleb is amazing and we are so fortunate that we found him he is a he's very much like meatloaf in the sense of he's a southern gentleman uh there's something that goes on in the South where um guys are just really polite you know they're they're very respectful for their mother you know it's just it's a good family unit usually right for the most part you know I we know that very much loves his mother yeah very very much you know he was uh you know just a really gentle polite man you know I mean obviously there's a there's a fire in meatloaf you know you you get him angry he's gonna he's gonna pop off on you like you get something you tell me how to work a stage he's gonna rip your head off you know his whole career was based on someone going you can't do that and him wanting to prove everyone wrong because you have to look like this you have to sound like this no one wants an eight-minute song you can never get that on the radio his whole career was basically a I'm gonna prove you wrong yeah that's right now to get back to your question uh at the time that we started this thing you know again we had meets blessing went around to the band got everything lined up now I had to find a booking agency you know so what you do is you call friends you know so I called my buddy Mike montarulo who uh manages Anthrax and he uh he runs TKO and uh which is a booking agency so we want the TKO you know I love Mike he's my buddy and uh we sent over the uh it's called a one sheet for the show and Serendipity uh one of his guys in his office was taking care of Caleb Jonas or when she went across his desk and there you go next thing you know I'm on the phone with Kayla and that's what it was uh since then we've um we've joined forces with day after day quoting the agency out of LA um yeah we feel good about it and uh Taylor was also there as well so it's a good it's a good fit and this album is a joint venture between Deco entertainment and crooked media is crooked media a real company or is that just say hey I'm gonna LLC this and be a normal thing in other words are there other artists or projects signed to Crooked media thank you uh cooking media is a uh it's our touring company this is our production company uh all the business I do goes through Cricket media even uh you know when I produced uh Helen the handbasket for meatloaf and greater than we are for meatloaf that was all done through cooking media uh we have uh I am focusing on one artist right now um I started working with her four years ago when she was 14. she's 18 now obviously her name is Kylie Baxter k i l e y Baxter b-a-s-t-e-r and uh John varal too which is really great I think she's up to what I have to learn followers on Tick Tock and she have just about 10 million views per video yeah uh she's a spectacular and she's actually uh doing shows with us I'm bringing her out like we have the show in Atlantic City uh January 27th and she's gonna come out and she's going to do all coming back to me now we're gonna do the Celine Dion version of that and she crushes it uh so she's uh she's definitely something I'm really focused on really excited about uh uh her Talent is undeniable to answer your question with one artist we're gonna get her get her to Madison Square Garden headline and then I'll find somebody else to produce as well after that so essentially it's all music all the time for you it's just you're very Diversified in that sometimes you're the music director sometimes you're the Hot Shot guitar player sometimes it's the producer sometimes you're the label production person it's all music all the time that's right thank you yeah nothing but music I'm very grateful for that too you know it's funny okay great questions thank you so much I I don't know if these are great questions I think these are fine topics right I last night probably one in the morning you know I'm in the same seat you know when I'm sitting here and I uh I always have my guitar and I'm always jamming so it's about one in the morning and I'm I'm just cranking and I was screaming in the room by myself thank you I was just screaming up to the universe I was so I said I'm so grateful it's one in the morning and I'm clanking music and look look how happy am I how lucky am I to be doing this I am not kidding I said that well your career path and this is intended to be a compliment you remind me of Steve Brown I'm assuming you know Steve from well you're two people who the average person would have went well I lost my major label deal time's up but instead you reinvented yourself in that you're the studio person and you're producing and you're leading the charge in a variety of ways that you kind of figured out that the major label is only the start of your career my father I was probably 22. years old and you know I was having a hard time I was uh coming off the road from being a roadie and I was just wanted to play guitar you know I I wanted to write music I I didn't wanna load trucks anymore and I'm sitting home and I'm pretty much starving you know I'm meeting like Chef Boyardee [Music] you know I I was I was I was kind of complaining to him you know what was me you know I worked so hard I'm saying and I can't get anywhere you know and my father says you know everything you're saying to me you're I understand you're a talented guy he said he goes yeah you know so reality is just it's not an egotism it's a reality you know you got talent You Got Talent and we're all talented in different areas right my talents with music just figure out how to make money that's it and when I heard those words I was like he's right you know I just got to figure this out you know this is a business you know it's not just about passion to play the instrument I got to figure out how to make this work and how to survive so you know I I did that and and and the one way to get around that or to figure it out was I went into production so rather than just sit here and just work my skills you know rather than just work D major scale up and down to 10 hours a day I got into sound production and video production and I went into that area and that helped me you know and that uh so when when in meatloaf when the music director gig came up I just kind of stepped in naturally because I had all the shots already and then uh when it came time to do a record you know meet and I were talking I was like I can produce this of course I can I feel like I can do anything honestly there's nothing I can't do we can do anything we want well said well my last question topic Before I Let You Go and this is not intended to be clickbaity I just don't know if this is a rumor or not is it true that you might be going out on the road with a John Bush oriented Anthrax show yes John actually this is about five years in the making you know John mentioned it in an interview I think 2017. and we we talked about it heavily we were
um I I don't want to go into any crazy detail sure but yeah we had a tour we had uh two of the bands on the bill it was all it was all you know just kind of speculation uh we're just kind of putting Steelers out seeing seeing what numbers would come back right because it's a business all right they want to go out there and lose your sure right so we um let's just say John's team went out and did some you know reconnaissance yeah and yeah you know this is gonna work and then Kobe hit so that was what two years of just lost maybe three right and then uh this year earlier this year John yeah let's do this and then all of a sudden wasp comes in and wasp you know it takes one to say now which is which is a great tour uh this is the best one right there they crushed it and so that we lost last year because of that uh so I'm not sure what John is thinking right now uh all I can say is that we are talking about it and I I feel fully confident this is going to happen because John wants to do it you know and believe me I would love to do it I I am I can't I'm the biggest fan in the world right I love I love the songs I I love my time at Anthrax I'm so proud of it and I love John bush you know and it's just the voice right you know hearing his voice coming through the cycles into the monitors that big Husky voice you know and the uh and the guys that we talked to as far as you know a band lineup crushing you know this is gonna be great I'm excited to know that that exists that you're keeping the meatloaf Legacy alive that your artist Kylie Baxter that's happening so Paul whatever it is looking forward to it coming from you in the near future man thank you hey we have shows in your area we're doing Westbury really March yeah I think I think it's um March 31st or April 1st we're at Westbury oh and now I'm looking at the corner the space at Westbury theater March 31st okay and Atlantic City England big shows Connecticut you're keeping busy yeah I mean yeah the UK tour we're really excited about that it's our first time there since we lost the bus and they've been asking for us so we're we're excited to get over there I can imagine but thank you for your time we'll get this a lot in the next couple of days and have a wonderful resume man thanks Paul all right now buddy thank you so much take care all right
2023-01-30 08:22
