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You are all very pro-active online and on social media. Ryan – “You have to be. We have been given this tool, that no-one has ever had before, and maybe I over use it, but if you give someone like me something like that, then I’m going to be using it in every way possible!” Is there ever the fear that maybe people might become too familiar with you and feel that they “know” you, so they are “allowed” to push buttons? Ryan – “Maybe yeah, but when that happens I already tell myself, ‘Well you did this to yourself, so you might as well play along, because you’ve made it feel that way’, and I’d rather it felt that way than all the fake bullshit music business mystery wall.” The good thing about the more DIY approach to the music business these days is that “wall” that you talked about coming down. You’ll be hanging at the merch stand tonight, talking away to punters. That never used to happen until recently. Ryan – “Especially in Britain. There is this community spirit amongst bands and fans, that people are part of a scene. Lots of bands, Ginger, Massive Wagons… there’s a cool family thing going on, and there is a lot of healthy competition, in a fun way! Massive Wagons are a good example, and we love those dudes, we toured with them, so you’ll see that one of us posts something and then the others will post something similar, and it’s all in good fun… and love! There is this super new version of the record industry, and I do love it. I love this family. Ginger has been a big part of introducing everybody if you will, but Ginger, Tony Wright, Danny and The Main Grains, Massive Wagons, us… The Professionals… I feel happy to be part of it”. Back in the day, support bands were treated like shit. You can’t go there, stay on this small part of the stage, no lights etc. but nowadays, multi band line-ups seem more on a level playing field? Rob – ”Have you ever seen the footage of Warrant supporting Poison? 1990 or 91, and someone has it on video, so you can see it. Poison had all these grills and vent holes on stage for air conditioning, and they removed the grills when Warrant were playing so Warrant couldn’t actually move from this small square! It’s unreal, these massive holes in the stage! Obviously, you couldn’t get away with that now with health and safety, etc, but that was to stop Warrant running around on stage!”. Mickey, quick question… Van Halen – Sam or Dave?! Mickey – “Dave all the way. I think Sammy did a great job, some of the songs that he did with them were fantastic. I’d love to see Van Halen back with both of them, two sets, whether that ever happens or not, who knows.” Rob – “If it’s going to happen, then it’s got to be now. Dave is a lot more humble these days, and Sammy knows that the fans would just love it. I think that it’s just down to the brothers”. Mickey – “I’ve got my memories stored away; 1984 Monsters Of Rock, I was there, I witnessed it”. Yeah! I was also there, cracking line up! Mickey – “Please don’t tell me that you were the Scottish guy who was gagging for a drink, that I gave a bottle of piss to?… I gave him the bottle, and he took a few swigs then said “this tastes horrible!” Still drank it though, I bet! But no, I have drunk some weird stuff in my days, but never someone else’s piss. Not even my own, for that matter! Mickey – “That was a great line up, weren’t Motley Crüe opening? Accept, Y&T, Gary Moore, Ozzy, Van Halen & AC/DC! Incredible!” That was the year that Nikki Sixx threw his bass into the crowd and it hit someone! Mickey – “Yep, I was about 20 feet away from the person it hit!” Ryan – “Errr… I was two years old in 1984” Mickey – “Dick!” Talking about musical heroes, the last few years have been hellish for icons dying, but for you Ryan, the death of Tom Petty must have been particularly hard? Ryan – ”That was the worst. I think it was probably the only celebrity death that made me cry. You never know how much each one will affect. Bowie’s surprised me in how much it affected me. I think that all the real rock stars, like The Rolling Stones, I mean they are getting up there, and they are going to start dying because it’s life, and there are not many others to take their place. Real rock n’ roll will go extinct and that makes me sad. The real, authentic thing that is slowly dying”. So many have died through prescription drugs. It seems so common, especially in America? Ryan – “Fentanyl, that’s the common one. That’s powerful”. Rob – “Was it lots of painkillers with Tom Petty?” Ryan – “Yeah, a combination. He had a fractured hip, but he didn’t want to quit the tour. As the tour went on it got worse, so he took more and more painkillers. When he got home from the tour and stopped moving so much, it seems that he was taking extra to cope with the pain”. You are closing your set with a cover of ‘I Won’t Back Down’? Ryan – “We are. We just kind of pulled that one out of our butts! I mean, it feels good to me to play that song. He meant a lot to me, and will forever, I love it because there was no-one else like him. An influential songwriter, also a little bit of a pop star, a little bit of an old school rock n’ roller”. Plus he was one of the first guys to take on a major record label and actually win? Any musician should appreciate the fact that Tom Petty stood up to MCA Records back when record labels ruled the world. Ryan – “Amen! The whole tour to fund the lawsuit against MCA where they had “Why MCA?” tshirts made up! That was amazing, he was the first, to my knowledge, to win a fight against a record label. John Fogerty from Creedence Clearwater Revival is another great example. They beat him down so much that he ended up not playing for twenty/thirty years before he finally got his songs back. It’s important to learn from these guys. A lot of us, we don’t learn. I signed my first record deal ten or fifteen years ago and I was screwed. You are just so excited to get signed, and people are telling you that you will do this and that. Then you go do all of that, and even if you do okay, which we did, you might just break even, but mostly you end up in debt, and they make sure that you are in debt. I wish that I had learned from the Tom Pettys of the world sooner than I did… but lesson learned.” Ryan Hamilton and The Traitors will make their UK festival debut at this years Camden Rocks Festival. More information can be found here. Mickey is out on the road during May with Love/Hate (dates here) and Rob has his online ‘Straight To Video’ store here. Ryan Hamilton himself will also be going out on the road with Tony Wright to support their recent album of classic country covers. Check out the dates here. Interview – Dave]]>
