In a brand new, exclusive extensive interview conducted by Rock’n Roll Universe (www.rocknrolluniverse.com) drum legend Carmine Appice discusses his entire career, from his early days in VANILLA FUDGE, CACTUS, BECK, BOGERT & APPICE, through his years spent with ROD STEWART, KING KOBRA, OZZY OSBOURNE and BLUE MURDER, all the way to his present activities with TRAVERS & APPICE. Also covered in the interview are the drummer’s recollections of LED ZEPPELIN’S first U.S. tour where the rock legends opened for VANILLA FUDGE, the upcoming CACTUS reunion at this summer’s Sweden Rock Fest, as well as possible BLUE MURDER and BECK BOGERT & APPICE reunions.
Appice also gives his thoughts on the VH1 Classics ‘Decades Live’ DOORS Tribute show, which featured performances by VANILLA FUDGE, PAT TRAVERS and DC21 among other performers.
In the interview Carmine say’s he does not like Rod singing Songbook material It’s ridiculous,first of all he doesn’t have the voice, I don’t know who’s buying it or why, but I don’t think he sounds good,but he did it for fun, he did it because that’s what he wanted to do it took off, It’s unbelievable, They’re advertising it a lot on TV I saw him this past year in New York and he looked like he didn’t know what to do when the solo came, he can’t run around like he did doing rock, so he looked like he was uncomfortable obviously he must’ve been, because he couldn’t do the whole show in that style, he had a two hour show and only 20 minutes of it was that. But he also goes on to say that Rod is the best frontman by far especially in 78-79 era, he was truly original, he could really move around the stage, I think he was better than Robert Plant, Rod was the template for Rock frontmen for everybody Paul Rodgers, Plant anybody that came along, he had the hair the look and the voice plus he was all over the stage, he was a sex symbol, he was everything definitely the template.
And just as a matter of interest here’s what some other big names think of The Songbook…..Rod attended the funeral of Celtic legend Jimmy ‘Jinky’ Johnstone in March, Jinky was a huge Rod fan but he did not like the Songbook stuff, Willie Haughey, a former director of Celtic, said Jinky told Rod Stewart he didn’t care for his new music album: “Rod told him, I’m making a fortune from it.’ Jimmy said: “I don’t care, go back to the old stuff”.
Jazz stalwart Chris Botti also had a pop, sarcastically finishing a recent gig with what he called the Rod Stewart classic ‘I’ll Be Seeing You’, But Michael Bublè on the other hand doesn’t see Rod as competition and say’s Someone like Rod can help keep this type of music alive.
