Canada's The Metal Voice recently spoke to former Quiet Riot guitarist and now King Kobra guitarist Carlos Cavazo. In the chat Cavazo talks about King Kobra's new album 'We are Warriors' (That will be released on Aug 11, 2023 via Cleopatra Records) as well as his time in Quiet Riot and Ratt plus a whole lot more.
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When asked how he got involved in King Kobra
"I've done a things with these guys before in the past. I've done a few records with Paul Shortino obviously and I've done a lot of gigs with Carmine Appice here and there. We never did a record together but I've always admired Carmine , he's a great drummer, great musician and great person to work with and Paul's a great person to work with too. So they contacted me one day and asked me if I'd be interested in maybe doing a song or two on the record and I said yeah. And then they ended up wanting me to do the whole record, so I ended up bringing some songs as well. They had about half the record written before I joined and I liked their material so I quickly jumped on the opportunity. I figured they're all nice guys, I'm sitting around not doing anything right now. I didn't really even want to be in a band anymore or even tour anymore but they kind of dragged me into it but uh we'll see what happens."
When asked about the musical direction of the new King Kobra Album 'We are Warriors'
"It's sort of like 80's style Rock. Anthemic sort of choruses and a lot of guitar shredding here and there. Bluesy-based Edge on some of the songs. There's a couple fast tracks. like one or two Up Tempo and there's double bass drumming and a lot of vocals and harmonies."
When asked about the incident of abandoning Kevin DuBrow in the hotel room in Hawaii at the end of the QR 3 tour in the late 80's
"It was my fault indirectly, I didn't mean to do this but we were in the hotel and our tour manager came to me and he goes here's your airline ticket everybody leaves at 12 noon. I go oh please can you get me home earlier I just want to get the hell out of here, can you get me an eight 8 A.M flight or 7am and he goes okay. So he switched me earlier and then everybody else got word of it and wanted to go home early too, we all wanted to get the hell out of there. And so everybody switched and I think he (Tour manager) switched Kevin but Kevin was passed out and he didn't get the memo and he (tour manager) put his tickets under the door he didn't get it and he was like maybe he had a hangover or something. He woke up and everybody was gone. It wasn't intentional, we wouldn't do that to him even though we had a little falling out, we're not gonna leave somebody behind."
When asked if he was asked to rejoin Quiet Riot
"They haven't asked. That's a political thing. I don't think I would do it anyways. I don't even want to be in a band anymore to be honest with you. I'm still recording and writing songs with other people but as far as touring and being in a band I don't know about that anymore I'm just kind of over as far as being in that band (Quiet Riot). I mean I already jumped off that crazy train once I'm not gonna get on it again."
When asked about his time in Ratt
"We toured in 2017, we did all kinds of festivals and stuff and then they decided to fire Warren (De Martini) for whatever reason and I said I can't do this without Warren. I don't want to be in a band with a revolving door of musicians like Quiet Riot, I'm not going to do that again so I left. "
When asked if he participated in the making of the Quiet Riot Documentary 'Well Now You're Here, There's No Way Back'
"I didn't. I was out of the band and they called me up and it's like those guys kind of screwed me over a little bit and after that I was like you know what I didn't want nothing to do with these people or this band anymore. I vowed to myself I'm not gonna ever do anything for that band and I haven't for 20 years. People still think I'm in the Band. I've been out of the band for more than 20 years. It's like being married. Sometimes the marriage breaks up in a bad way and it's a bad divorce and sometimes it's an amicable divorce if you don't know what you're going to get. "
When asked if he would ever return to Quiet Riot
"If Frankie and Kevin were around today I would come back but without them I think it's a no for me."
When asked about Kevin Du Brow's Character
"Kevin was a really nice guy. He really was a great person but he had a dark side that would come out occasionally and he had a substance abuse problem, I'm sure everybody knows that. I have to say that Frankie was his bad medicine when Frankie (Banali) wasn't around Kevin (Du Brow) was a good guy but when Frankie would come around also he 'd get evil you know. Well on that note I don't think I've ever said that in an interview before."
A new King Kobra line-up of the band, perhaps their strongest gathering yet, is ready to announce the release of We Are Warriors, the band’s hard-hitting 7th studio album. KK founder Appice is joined once again by longtime bassist Johnny Rod, and vocalist Paul Shortino who welcome to the den the newest vipers, Quiet Riot guitarist Carlos Cavazo and former Dio member Rowan Robertson. With these two talented virtuosos aboard, We Are Warriors is bound to be one of the band’s most celebrated albums!
Check out the first single, the supercharged title track, which is being released today on all digital platforms. The band even recorded a captivating performance music video that proves these veteran rockers still have what it takes to bring the rock!
Watch the video:
TRACK LIST:
1. Music Is A Piece Of Art
2. Turn Up The Music
3. Secrets And Lies
4. Drownin’
5. One More Night
6. Love Hurts
7. Dance
8. Darkness
9. We Are Warriors
10. Drive Like Lightning
11. Trouble [CD ONLY]
12. Side By Side [CD ONLY]
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