Jimmy Kay from Canada's The Metal Voice recently spoke to Frankie Banali drummer and manager of Quiet Riot. He spoke about Randy Rhoads, Kevin Dubrow and the upcoming album Road Rage
On how Randy Rhoads introduced Frankie to Kevin Dubrow
"I used to see Quiet Riot play all the time at the Starwood in L.A. When Randy Rhoads left Quiet Riot in 1979 to go play with Ozzy Osbourne I got a call from Randy asking me to go play. We played together with Ozzy for about a week. Nothing came of it but from that experience of Randy and I working together for that week, Randy recommend me to Kevin Dubrow. At the same time Rudy Sarzo was still playing with Kevin in Quiet Riot in band that was now called DUBROW and Rudy and I have know each other since 1972, so Rudy also recommend me to Kevin. So the two Randy and Rudy were responsible for me playing with Kevin in 1980."
When asked his opinion of releasing Quiet Riot 1 and 2 albums which features Randy Rhoads on guitar "I don't have the rights to those records, those were pre my involvement with Quiet Riot. That is something I have no control over. There are a lot of people involved, the original label Sony Japan, there were managers involved, there were producers involved, musicians and in the case of Randy and Kevin, their estates. They would all have to come together and commit to some kind of agreement for those records to be officially released. I can tell you that if Kevin was alive he would be against releasing them, cause he didn't think they were as good as they could have been. Kevin didn't feel he was as good as a singer as he eventually became from his perspective. I don't think he would have been happy about it but it's not my call." When asked if the press in 1983 was to harsh on Kevin Dubrow when he claimed that Without Quiet Riot other LA bands would be nothing and never got signed "From my perspective I didn't agree with what Kevin said, I didn't agree on how he said it but I supported his right to give his opinion. One of Kevin's biggest faults is he was so incredibly honest. Kevin just spoke his mind, if anything he was guilty of being way to honest and it came back and ultimately affected him personally and affected the band professionally." When asked if there were any left over tracks from the Rehab recording sessions prior to Kevin Dubrow's death "There are a couple of things that I have on my drives in the archives whether they will ever see the light of day it's hard to say, we will just have to wait and see" When asked what he saw in new singer James Durbin that he didn't see in the other singers he worked with that did not work out "I hadn't met him before and I really didn't follow American idol but I did see that one season where he sang with Rob Halford Judas Priest and I said to myself this guy is really talented. His voice is not the same as Kevin's but he has the range that Kevin had and he has got a very melodic style of singing. And he's got that same kind of energy as a performer that Kevin had and for me that is something that has been missing since Kevin passed away since 2007. I needed someone who can sing the old material live as well as someone who can bring something new to the table."
When asked what is the musical similarities between the new album Road rage to the Quiet Riot catalogue "It's bits in different places if you take a track like Freak Flag and Wasted, I think they are siblings to some of the material we did on Metal Health and Condition Critical and then there are songs that are completly different than anything we have done in the past . I just let the music just come out and progress as it did. The only thing that is the same from the original Road Rage is the music. We got rid of all the lyrics and the vocal melodies of the first version and had James created all new lyrics and all new melodies. James to this day has not heard the original record cause I wanted to make sure that he had a blank canvas." When asked if they will record a live album or a biography "There is a real possibility that would happen if the situation is right for a live album. There is definitely several books in me, its a possibility"
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