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Metal
How did the Metal Knights come together? To get signed and
start touring the world! We have had some offers, and we are working on our new
CD "WORLD OF FOREVER" with Craig Goldy of Dio producing. It is a real pleasure
to work with Craig, he really digs the band, the songs, and we all really enjoy
working with someone of his caliber and musical knowledge. This past year also
saw us sign with major management, HUNT TALENT MANAGEMENT and it's head, Tammy
Hunt, she is really great at looking after us and doing what a great manager is
supposed to. The new CD is sounding great, and there are also some talks with
some major acts about doing some shows in the near future so we are right now
just trying to finish the new CD and go from there. Conquer the world, I guess
you could say! Like any good Knights would do! (Laughs)
Well, Thanks! Yeah,
BOC was the first concert I ever attended as a teenager! I've met the guys in
the band, Eric Bloom is absolute freaking crack up, and Buck is really down to
earth and nice and of course Rudy has been playing with them live for a while
now. Other major influences would be of course, Judas Priest, I fricken LOVE
that band, and Rob Halford is probably had the single biggest influence on me as
a vocalist. Then of course Iron Maiden, Rainbow, Dio, Deep Purple, Alice Cooper
and Megadeth, Motorhead a little Dimmu Borgir for seasoning. If you throw that
all in a pot and stir it up, something good has to come out! It was fate actually! I have been friends with Rudy Sarzo for almost 4 years now, and knew that Craig lived near where I do, and one day I was at the Movies with my daughter Valerie and she wanted an Ice Cream while we were watching the movie. I kept saying NO, and of course, her being 8 at the time, kept pestering me, so I finally said yes. We went out to the lobby, got her her Ice Cream went outside to check out some lady that was doing drawings of kids, and then I said, "Ok, it's time to go back and watch the movie!" As I opened the door, I bumped head on into Craig and his family coming out of the theatre! I just went, "Craig!" and he looked at me like, "Yeah?" I said, "I'm Robbie, Rudy's friend" and he just threw his arms around me and hugged me and said he had heard a lot about me from Rudy and had wanted to meet me. We were getting ready to do a show for legendary Metal Radio DJ Tawn Mastrey, a benefit to help her get a liver transplant, and so I asked Craig if he would come jam with us at the end of the set, because Simon Wright was already coming to jam too, and he said "Absolutely!" Well, we headlined that benefit show, and when I walked off stage, Craig was the first one to rush me and just hugged me and said, "Do you realize how hard you guys just rocked?" The next day we talked on the phone and he asked me how serious was I and did I want to take the band to the next level. I mean, what are you going to say to that? Of course! So he told me about Destiny Bridge and I read the book, and then he came over to my house and we just hit it off and started writing some songs in my living room. Next thing you know, we were in the studio and he was working with us. He has been everything to us! Such a helpful, kind soul. I love the guy to death. We joke how we might have been separated at birth, because we are so much alike. When the STAR MUSIC AWARDS told me that they were giving Craig the first ever HALL OF FAME award, I jumped at the chance to present it to him, so I wrote the speech, and then gave the award that night. He had no idea he was getting it, it was top secret. When I started the speech, I had all these cameras on me and photographers and people in the audience and it was quiet, and then as he realized HE was getting the award, about 15 seconds into the speech, I heard an "OH MY GOD!" and it was Craig in the audience. So it felt really good to be able to give him that on behalf of the SMA's. After words his great wife Annita took me aside and told me, "You are his brother! You know him better than his OWN brother!" That was cool. I love the guy!
Yes. The story! (Laughs). In 1995 I went in for a routine physical and was told that I had contracted Hep C. I was floored. They told me I had maybe 15 years to live, if I was lucky and my only hope was a transplant, and good luck with that! Some Doctors are scary eh? So I sought out the best in the liver transplant field right away, that being UCLA. When I called the referal line, I told the lady I wanted the best in Hepatolgy. She said that was Dr. Leonard Goldstein and he wasn't taking any new patients at that time. Well, me being me, I went to his office and demanded to see him, his office lady at that time was this woman that must have been a drill instructor in another life, because she was NOT going to let me see him, and he overheard me begging with her, and he said, "Just let him come in!" That began a now 14 year relationship with this great Doctor that fought for me, along with my wife to get on the transplant list, which is like hitting the lottery with your life! But it took 10 years, and on April 23rd, 2005 after dying twice in an emergency room and being resuscitated, I got pushed up to the #1 slot, and got my new liver. Hardest thing I ever went though in my life! But, I lucked out, I got a good liver, and had no rejection, and after about 6 months fully started to get back to normal. But it was about a week or two after I was released from the hospital after the transplant that I made my wife take me to the 3D animation and Visual FX Expo called SIGGRAPH in LA. I was still in a wheelchair, had lost all my hair, was only 140lbs. and ended up meeting Rudy Sarzo there at lunch! That began a treasured friendship with someone that was a musical hero to me. That kind of thing doesn’t happen everyday you know! Then when Craig and I started writing the first time together, I told him, I wanted to write about what I had been through. So we wrote a song called MIRACLE IN DISGUISE, because that is what it was to me. I was written off for dead, and I got the miracle of a second chance. Then Craig and I were thinking of names for a song one day, and he said "You know man, you are the DEATH DEFIER", and we both looked at each other and said "SONG NAME!" So we wrote that song together too, and then I told him that when I had died on the table, I really felt like I had been to the Gates of Hell and to Heaven too. I didn't know for sure if it was the drugs I was on, the fact that while I was out, maybe I was thinking about the Black Sabbath song HEAVEN AND HELL, or if it was real, but it sure felt real. And that is where the name for that song THE GATES OF HELL came from. I had also just read a great book called GODS DEMON by Wayne Barlow, and it was about this Angel who along with Lucifer and all his minions fell. But this demon, after spending millennia in Hell, wanted to redeem himself and go back to Heaven. The tag line in the book said "HOPE SPRINGS INFERNAL" and I just started writing the lyrics to the music that Craig and I had written, it just flowed out of me, and I even contacted Wayne and told him if he minded if I used that tag in the song, and he was all for it. So, that song is kind of a mix of what I went through dying and the book. Craig liked the lyrics so much and the song, that when it came time for the guitar solo, I just told him, "Dude, you got to play the solo on this recording!" and he answered back with "Your damn right I do!" So, the whole thing I went through played a huge part in the first songs that METAL KNIGHTS recorded.
Sure! Contact Craig
Goldy and get into his Destiny Bridge program! I don't say that to try and help
sell anything for Craig, I mean it is like going to AA, what is they say? "IT
WORKS IF YOU WORK IT!" (Hi I'm Razor and I'm a Destiny Bridger! "HI RAZOR!")
Well, Destiny Bridge is like that! And if Craig sees you trying and following
what he is trying to teach you with this great program, well then he is willing
to help you all the way. I mean, look at BENEDICTUM! Those guys are huge now,
and they are a Destiny Bridge band too. We're friends with them and hopefully
soon, we will be doing some shows opening for them. But my advice would be also
to NEVER GIVE UP! If you are in the music business, remember it is a BUSINESS!
Treat it like that, and follow your heart, and follow your dream and give it
everything you got. Live it day in, day out. Sure there are going to be hard
times, and you have to deal with rejection, and compromise, but remember,
compromise is NOT a bad thing! One thing I learned getting a second chance at
life, is you have to go for it with everything! We are here for such a short
time, we really are. Do what you love in life to the fullest, because you
might wake up dead tomorrow! So, just DO IT! And do it now! I tried really hard
to help my good friend Tawn Mastrey get her MIRACLE IN DISGUISE, I loved Tawn,
she was a great friend when I was in Radio in the late 80's through the mid 90's
and when Rudy told me that her sister Cara had contacted him telling him about
Tawn's plight, which Rudy of course knew what I had gone through, I wanted to do
what ever I could to help. That is how the TRIBUTE FOR TAWN benefit show came
about. But Tawn didn't get her Miracle and she died on October 2nd, 2007. Her
dear friend and a friend of mine, Remy "The Max" Maxwell called me when METAL
KNIGHTS was in rehearsal late one night, and he told me that she had just died,
and both me an Remy just started crying, and it really hit home with the band
how things are in life. Tawn lived her life for music. Her last words before she
died were "Rock Hard Live Long". Cara has now started the TAWN MASTREY
FOUNDATION to help spread the word of Hep C and Organ Donation, which METAL
KNIGHTS are fully behind and support. Life is just too precious to sit around on
your ass and NOT do what you are meant to do or dream of doing! Take it from me,
and take it from Tawn's story! If you’re a musician, get off your butt and make
it happen! You can do it! And, if you don't make it, well, at least you will go
to your grave knowing that you gave it your all with everything you had! I know
if METAL KNIGHTS never got any bigger than we are today, I would know when I
cross into the pearly gates, that I did EVERYTHING I humanly could to make this
band a success. That means, I can die a happy man. That means something to me
now. It didn't before.
Well, they can pick up THE CROSSING, our first effort at any of the online music retail outlets worldwide. iTunes (all countries), Amazon, Rhapsody, Napster and about 8 or 9 others. To make it simple, just check out the METAL KNIGHTS OFFICIAL WEBSITE at WWW.THEMETALKNIGHTS.COM and there is a link to buy it right there. Of course people can also check us out on Myspace at WWW.MYSPACE.COM/METALKNIGHTSMUSIC and now also on FACEBOOK, and MYSTAGEMUSIC.COM
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