All language subtitles for Hired Gun.English

I could go out on tour, actually,
and play by myself as far as...

you know, most people
know, but, uh...

It works like an orchestra
on-stage.

I happen to write the songs.

♪ I write the songs ♪

And I kind of conduct the band,

and we work as an orchestra.

I don't go out and...

do a Tom Jones thing
with a bunch of sidemen.

A hired gun is an assassin.

The best available musician
that gets hired to go on tour,

to deliver that music
for that artist.

Nobody will know who he is.

But he gets the gig
because he is the elite player.

It seems like there's about twenty
musicians we're talking about

that have made every single
record that everybody owns.

There's always somebody standing
by ready to take your place

if things aren't going well.

That's for sure.

My job security was my
awesomeness.

You had to be even more focused than
somebody who's permanently in a band.

Because, what
you're doing today

reflects on what you are going
to be doing tomorrow.

You have to play great all the time
because you're entertaining the name.

And if you're not
great tonight,

you may lose your
gig tomorrow.

We know the riffs that they played
on guitar, or piano, or saxophone,

but we don't know their face
or their name.

Being a hired gun,

you're sitting
in the front row,

to a very glamorous, high
profile, exciting lifestyle.

But it has nothing
to do with you.

My mother
was always into music.

We used to cut school to go see Frank
Sinatra and stuff like that...

My father
was a bit of a square.

But, they bought me a set
of drums when I was, maybe,

twelve, eleven years old...

Because, my father says, "Because
they didn't make Prozac back then."

When I was 19 years old

I was playing with a guy
named Richie Supa.

And Doug Stegmeyer
and Russell Javors

are in the audience
watching me play.

There was just something about
Lib that was very, very special.

And I would go there
as a kid and I'd say,

"I'm going to start a band
with this guy.

That's the drummer
I want to play with."

And it just evolved.

Eventually we
started a band called Topper.

Doug Stegmeyer got the gig
with Billy first.

He went on the Streetlife
Serenader tour with Billy Joel

when Billy told Doug that he
wanted to move from California

back to New York,

and he wanted a New York
style drummer.

So, Doug said, "Well...

We got the guy.
I know the guy!"

First one Doug brought in

cause he was looking for a
rhythm section was Liberty.

So they really started doing Turnstiles
together with the three of them.

We got in the studio. The
three of us started to record,

me, Doug and Billy,
just bass, drums and piano.

And when we listened back,
Billy would say, "Well...

You know, I could use
some guitar on this."

And we said,
"Well, we know guitar players."

So, eventually,

Topper became
Billy Joel's band.

And that was the band that went on
and toured the Turnstiles album.

The rest is history.

As a hired gun you have
to be on point all the time.

Are you gonna be prepared
and ready to go?

The one most important thing
that'll make it good

is your attitude.

Be damn sure you know,

what the artist needs.

That's the key.

And then provide it.

Being able to sing is always a plus.
If you can sing good, and play,

you're gonna get the gig before
the guy that just plays good!

You gotta be able to memorize
stuff... fast.

We get good at zeroing in on
exactly what we need to hit

very quickly.

There's no room
for a B-game here.

You gotta always bring A,

and just knock teeth out.

That's what you gotta do.

I didn't really start
playing metal or rock

until I became part
of Quiet Riot.

And I'm talking about the Quiet
Riot version with Randy Rhoads

which I was a member
of in the 70s.

That version of Quiet Riot
was more of a glam rock band.

But the music scene
at that time

was very much centric on...

New Wave and Punk.

And bands like Quiet Riot...

We were considered dinosaurs.

There was word around town that
the singer from Black Sabbath

was looking for new musicians, you
know, to put a band together.

So, I was trying to get
a hold of anybody.

Meanwhile,

Ozzy's management,
his people, you know,

were trying to get
a hold of Randy

to come and audition.

He went out there, you know,
met with Ozzy,

and as he was tuning up and just
doodling around the guitar,

he got the gig.

And early 1981,

I get the phone call from Ozzy,

"Randy keeps telling me
that you're the one"

and I met with Ozzy that night,
and Sharon,

and I guess I passed the test.

"You want the gig?"

I said...

"Yeah!"

So, I went from sleeping
on a floor,

just a sheet,

to all of a sudden... I'm, not
only am a member of Ozzy's band,

but, I'm living with him
and Sharon,

up in a mansion
in Beverly Hills.

It's been an incredible ride
ever since, you know.

Good people don't stay
undiscovered for very long.

That's what I always tell people
that think the business is so vast.

It's not.

Because if you're good
you stand out quick.

Everybody in the business
from...

From Marilyn Manson
to Rob Zombie,

to Ozzy Osbourne, to myself,
who are lead singers...

All know who...

where the carrel...
The A carrel is.

So, you, of course,
go for those guys first.

All right. I broke two strings!

Whoo!

Two strings!

I remember getting the paper,

and opening it up.

And I remember my tears
hitting the newspaper...

And, like, snot hitting
the newspaper.

Man, it's like,
"Fuck, what? Fuck!"

Anybody, especially at that
time they were into metal.

He was our hero.

He was Jimi Hendrix
of the bass, man.

I've told that to anybody,
straight up.

I don't care who you
are, playing bass.

You're not as good as Cliff,
sorry.

And, I had only seen him
in concert, man.

I'm standing right in front
of Cliff, like...

And spent my last 14 bucks on
my Metallica shirt, you know.

The talk started happening.

They were talking
about auditions.

"Okay, who's the bass player,
man? We gotta get somebody

because we have to continue
this tour."

They have a big, big hit on her
hands, need to Rock n Roll.

They've gotta push through.
There's momentum,

and you're never gonna get
that momentum again.

They call out 45 to 50 people
from around the world.

And I got an early flight, borrowed
money from all of my friends.

Twenty from that person,
ten from that person,

seven, nine from that guy.

Whatever they could give
me. "Dude, you got... "What?"

An audition with Metallica?
Are you..."

Everybody's flipping
the fuck out!

And so, I was ready and I got there
early and I was there the first one.

I was there before the band
got there on audition day.

I look over and I poke my
head in,

"What have I got myself into?

Like I'm actually going
to step in and play with..."

It hit me, like,
"Metallica, dude!"

Eleven days after that
we were touring japan.

Metallica touring Japan for the first
time and I was the bass player.

And at that time,

I was a hired gun,

for $500 a week.

"Okay."

I mean, I would have done it
for a sandwich.

I mean, it wouldn't have
mattered then.

I would have paid you guys five
bucks to let me go. Shit, you know!

So that was it.
Five hundred dollars a week

until April the next year,

when I joined Metallica...

And I was a full member
for 14, 15 years.

I was not gonna pass this up
or take this for granted

that I was given this
opportunity by these guys.

"Now you're in it, dude.

You signed
to be in this thing.

You can't take that lightly.

This is big
responsibility now."

Everybody's got their
role in this band

and nobody wants
to be the weak link.

That's why that band
is still around.

Finding the right person for
your band is almost impossible

because you're looking for,
to me, three things.

You got to find
somebody who...

is an excellent musician

which, that's the easiest
thing to find.

There's a million excellent
musicians.

Then you gotta find somebody
who's really cool...

who can stand on stage

in front of you know 15...
a 100,000 people,

and be amazing.

Then, it whittles it down
to a smaller group,

and then you gotta find somebody
you can stand to be around 24/7.

Because, you know, you live
with them, day in and day out.

Then it shrinks
down to about...

Here's the three people,

in the music industry I can
actually stand to be around.

So, know, that is the trick.

You're gonna be traveling with
these guys for the next year.

So, you're gonna really
have to like these guys,

because there are certain
people, you just don't...

It rubs you the wrong way...
You know.

It all comes down to the
chemistry between people and bang!

And how you get along
with each other.

And what kind of person
you present yourself as

in the group.

I've been lucky enough
to not have to be on a tour

with any douchy people.

I've talked to so many
friends of mine

who just were, you know,
living hell on a tour,

because of who they had
to deal with on a daily basis.

There's been times where,
you know, you've...

had someone in the band who maybe
isn't the greatest musician,

and they leave and you replace
them with somebody better,

technically a better musician,

but the chemistry is gone.

There's just something
about it, you know,

because sometimes its just
that wacky personalities,

the glue that keeps the other three
people from killing each other.

There's a...

A bond with musicians

when the chemistry is right,

and it's an alchemic thing.

It's like people playing
together,

and when some take happens
that is just magic...

it's undeniable. There it is.

Right in front of you.

When we got
into the studio with Billy,

we had this interesting
chemistry,

that you know, just kinda
clicked.

You know, it was kinda cool.

We were a very easy band
to play with.

Nobody ever went in there with
a "I'll show you" attitude.

It was always about framing
the song,

framing Billy...

We were very open minded
as to how we would do it.

So, George Martin that comes
to one of the gigs,

and we're all excited,

"George Martin's here, Oh my,
God! The Beatles producer!

He's going to come and hear
us play,

and he's going to love it,
it's gonna be great.

I mean, this is fantastic, he's like
the greatest producer in the world!"

He watches the show...
After the show he says,

"I love you, Billy. I want to produce
you, but I want to use studio guys."

Billy was so loyal to the band
that he turned down George Martin.

I just went off on my own and said,
"Look, I'm going to use my own guys.

I don't care, politically,
what the ramifications are,

I gotta use my own band."

And, we went in with Phil
to do The Stranger.

He saw the guys and he went,
"Wow, they're great!"

He loved them, and the band
went, "He likes us?"

Certainly, Lib
and Doug's contribution,

is what stood out in those
records,

because, frequently, Billy would
record in a stripped down way,

and we'd even do a lot of the basic
tracks with just basic drums.

Phil came in and he said
to Liberty,

"Why don't you play this
backwards samba?"

And Liberty is a real Rock
n Roll drummer, and he...

it's against every grain
in his body to play these...

samba type line of beats.

And he turned it around.
It was like, boom...

And he gave it more of a flow.

♪ Don't go changin' ♪

♪ To try and please me ♪

And it just...

It flowed along a lot better.

Lib was right at
the core of those songs.

And his mindset was just really
perfect for those records,

because he had that tough
Rock n Roll

attitude about those songs.

Yet, he knew when to put
it out there and when not to.

So, these were really parts that really
brought the song out of the grooves.

Liberty DeVitto, some people
may not know,

but this guy has got 30 plus
years with the same artist.

Now, in the hired gun business,

three years is a lot.

Thirty, is unheard of.

He, definitely is, one of those
guys that made

the band he was in.

Billy Joel sounded like Billy
Joel because of Liberty DeVitto.

The Keith Richards
of that band.

There's no question.

Ow, right here,

Topo Gigio, the Italian
drummer...

When you see a Billy Joel
album, if you look at the back

of The Stranger, it will say,
"Words and music by Billy Joel."

It won't say,

"Music arranged by..."

anywhere.

Because we all
arranged the songs.

Only The Good Die Young,

he wrote it as a Reggae tune.

And then, I'm like,
"This is terrible.

It's really bad."

I looked at Billy and I said,

"You know, the closest you've
ever been to Jamaica is,

Jamaica, Long Island, where you change
trains on Long Island railroad."

♪ Only the good die young ♪

My drum part, the intro,

was I always loved the song
called Up From The Skies,

that is on the Jimi Hendrix,
Axis: Bold as Love album,

And Up From The Skies
starts like that...

And has that quick...

Sol kind of like thought
about that song when I said,

"Let's do it this way."

And it turned out to be good.

♪ Come out, Virginia, don't
Let me wait ♪

I had spent my entire younger years
trying to develop some kind of skill

Playing guitar.

That's the only thing
I cared about.

I practiced hours and hours
and hours a clay.

Not because I wanted
to make sure I was good,

I played because I
really loved it.

It was fun.

You could hear yourself
getting better.

You could pick up things that
you couldn't do a week ago.

By the time
I was moving to LA

I knew I had
a certain skill level.

So, any opportunity I had to
mingle with other musicians,

and get up and play,
be in it...

I was like three bands,
four bands at a time.

I had played Tuesday nights
with this band,

I had played three nights
with this band... local stuff.

Well, eventually, what
happened was,

one of the musicians in one of these
bands said, "Hey, you know, um,

Mandy Moore is looking
for an acoustic guitar player.

And I think that'd you'd
be perfect for the gig."

Jason got the Mandy Moore gig and I
remember thinking, "Good for you."

I mean, it's a little lighter than what I
thought he would probably go for but...

He was working, making a good
living.

People might not understand
me in the Mandy Moore gig,

but all I thought was, like, "Part
one of the plan in motion."

Like most of those gigs, I'm
not in control of it at all.

Right, I'm just the rented
guitar player.

So...

At some point they decided to do
some left turn with business,

she was going to go
make a movie,

or we're going to shut down
the music part...

She was going to focus
on acting or whatever...

Whatever the reason was.

And you, just in one
nano second,

you're job is over.

And then you start
to realize, "Hmm, okay.

There is no security here."

When you're a kid, you're like,
"I want to be a rock star.

I want to be a rock star."

I never said that.

I always said I want
to be a session guy.

To be a studio musician,
to be a great studio musician,

you have
to be a great musician.

I mean, you just do.

There's just no two ways about
it. You can't be mediocre.

Because there's,

you know, good
is the enemy of great.

So, if you're only good,

there's a thousand great guys
that are gonna take your place.

Our producer wants
to cast the right people

for the right role
of this record.

So, they go out and they
find the best player

that fits the role.

They find the best guy
for the drums,

they find the best guy
for the bass, they find

the best guy
with the keyboards,

they find the best guy
for the guitars.

But they also want these guys,

to be able to blend
as if they were in a band.

The guys on the record
not playing on the record,

never cross my mind.

In fact, when someone go,

"You know, that's not even,
whatever Ace Frehley playing that?"

That's so and so... That's...
Than"

"I don't think that's Joe
Perry." it's so and so...

I go, "Well, how is that
possible?"

It never even crossed my mind
that that ever went on.

If you look at the whole dynamic
of the L.A sessions scene,

all of us in that generation
that-that replaced,

obviously, the generation
before us.

We were all aspiring studio
musicians.

Everybody who was anybody had to
go through the record playing.

So, I had my guitar in one hand,
my amp in the other hand,

and my opening line

which is the same line
I'd use to sell songs was,

"You can sit here and I could
tell you how great you are

and we could talk
for 20 minutes,

or you could just let me play for five
minutes and I could get out of your hair.

We didn't carry ourselves like
rock stars might carry themselves.

We took a lot of shit
for it in the press.

They made it, like, being a
session musician was bad.

"Anybody can do that. You just
sit and read music all clay."

Well, I said, "No man,
that's not what we did.

We often times
polished the turd."

Before pro tools
there were pro's.

I'm a studio musician.

I'm doing what I'm supposed to do. I've
gotta save this, now, in real time.

That's my job.

Jay Graydon and I have
been buddies for 45 years.

I came into a club and I saw
him play,

and I had just moved
to Los Angeles.

I was so in awe of what I heard
and what I saw.

This amazing
technician with heart.

We became fast friends,

and have worked together
over the decades ever since.

Jay is like a
forensic scientist.

He is so in to what he does,

and he has such an inner ear
for production and for playing.

You know, obviously,
he's a great player.

I'm working with Roger Nichols.
He's a recording engineer.

And he realized I was a good
player in his eyes and said,

"Steely Dan's having a really hard
time with this one guitar solo.

I'm gonna recommend
you for the gig."

And I said, "Roger, that
would be great."

Because every studio musician,

wants to be on a Steely
Dan record.

This is as good as it gets.

Whether you like
that band or not,

you know that if they were ever
on a Steely Dan record,

they are one of the baddest
motherfuckers walking.

I am five milliseconds away from
crashing in the middle of the solo

and hitting a wall.

So I'll take a chance
and I'll step on my dick.

Fagen says to me,
the key words,

"Think blues."

And when I walked out of there I
had no idea I was the final guy.

I'm thinking, "Well, I'm just probably
just another guy they're going to try."

I know I was the seventh guy.

And they were gonna, "Who's
eight, who's ninth, who's tenth?"

They loved the solo.

Record comes out and I'm on it.

And I'm going,
"Eh, good, I won!"

So, good for me.

I was the guy that was, like,
if I said that's a hit record it was clue.

When Africa... The song, Africa,
almost didn't make the record.

♪ I miss the rains
Down in Africa ♪

When I played on Beat It
I thought that was hilarious.

I heard just the lyric and I cracked up,
and I went, "Beat It! Oh, yeah, that's...

destined for a hit."

And I played all the guitar
parts, and the bass parts.

♪ Beat it beat it ♪

♪ No one wants
To be defeated ♪

I said if this song's a hit I would run
naked down Hollywood boulevard, okay.

Fortunately, at this point nobody's
ever called me out on that, but...

We're seeing reviews saying

Quincy Jones manages to get the members
of Toto to play with some kind of taste.

On, you know, Thriller,

They just hated the fact that
we were on something so huge.

Most of us didn't stay
as studio musicians very long.

We realized that it was kind of a dead
end even though it was a great living.

But it was a dead end.

And all of us would watch the producers
on the other side of the glass.

And I just know, me personally,
I was going, like,

"Wow, I know I can do that. I'm
positive I can do what they're doing."

They're relying on us
to come up with the music.

Anyway, so, I'm
sure I can do that.

I went from six figures a year,

to the first year I produced,
I made a total of $5000.

Three albums.
All three of them stiffed.

No sales. No nothing.

And I was very discouraged.

Because I used to think that,

producing meant just getting a
bunch of great musicians together

and making a great track.

But it's not what producing is.

Producing, fundamentally,
is finding great songs

and pairing them
with great artists.

And I didn't have that part
together yet.

The break out,

was when I met Earth,
Wind and Fire.

And again that ties
in to jay Graydon

because we wrote After the love is
Gone together along with Bill Chaplin.

♪ After the love is gone ♪

♪ How could you lead me on ♪

And it just...
It propelled me into the 80s,

into, uh,

Alice Cooper, and Chicago,
and Chaka Khan,

and Kenny Rogers
and Kenny Loggins...

It was in a hell of a decade.

I got called by Tommy LiPuma
at Warner Brothers

to produce George Benson.

I've got four days
to come up with a song.

After two days,

I have nothing.

I'm trying to write something
and I'm just a blank.

I don't have anything I like.

I came over and he goes, "Well,
let's write a song for Benson."

And then afterwards, you know,
we'd hang.

"See if you can come up
with a verse?"

I said, like, "I'm just going to
walk away for 20, 30 minutes.

I'll just go do something.

And I'll come back
and see where you're at."

And I came up with a, you
know...

I had come back and he's got
the intro and the verse nailed.

And I'm going, "This is great.
This tune is shaping up great."

And I came up with that part,
and he says,

"Hey, man, I gotta take a shit.
I'll be right back."

I'm sitting on the shitter,

I pop a deuce,

and the melody comes
into my head.

I've got the groove,

I've got the melody,

I've got the bass part...

I've got the chorus
to the song.

And I'm going, "I've got to get off
the can as fast as I can, man."

I'm doing my best
to get off the can.

And as fast as I can!

And he comes back,

and he starts singing
Turn Your Love Around.

And we were laughing
because Jay when he'd...

He had one of his OCD things...

He has to take of all of his
clothes,

be completely naked when he
takes a shit.

Jay is gonna kill me for that.

♪ Turn your love around ♪

♪ Don't you turn me down ♪

♪ I can show you how ♪

♪ Turn your love around ♪

Unlike Dave and Jay,

I just wanted to be a star.

I want to see my face
on the TV screen.

My mama didn't understand
what I was doing.

I came home with a record
one time...

and I was so excited.

And she would look
at the record and go,

"I don't see you."

And you know what?
In all fairness, she was right.

I was wrong. She was right.

Well, why don't you see me?

And so, one day I thought
about it.

I said, "Well, you know what?
I gotta cut a record

where my face is on the front."
Well, I did it.

I've started writing songs,

then I decided to cut my own music
which I thought I was going to record

with this tune I wrote called
You Make Me Feel Like Dancing.

♪ You make me
Feel like dancing ♪

♪ I'm gonna dance
The night away ♪

Number one record,

won the Grammy which...
That's a whole another story.

And I had another tune
called Jack and Jill.

♪ Jack snuck down the hill ♪

♪ He snuck down the hill ♪

So, Clive Davis got wind of Jack and
Jill, and he thought that was a smash.

So he heard it, he loved it, and we
sold almost two million of those.

Only a few people
get phenomena,

and only a couple
of people get hits.

And it's more important,

to have a classic song

that is to have a number one
song.

First of all,

I never ever could possibly
imagine that I could write a song

that would become part
of worldwide folklores.

It's not even
American folklore.

♪ Ghostbusters ♪

While I was in California,
I'll never forget, I had...

dinner at Spagos,

and across the street
was this black billboard,

and every week, or so many days,
they'd put different things around.

So now they got the circle
board up

"I wonder what that is?"

Well, guess what, the phone
rings,

Here's Gary LaMel from Columbia
Pictures and he's saying, "Ray,

There's a movie coming out."

He says, "Have you seen these black
posters where we got the circle?"

He says, "By the time we
get the ghost inside

the movie's coming out, okay.
So, this is gonna happen fast."

And he says, "We've now spent a year,
a year and a half calling everybody.

We've hired everybody, we've
spent millions of dollars,

but the director is insistent
upon the word Ghostbusters.

Must be in the song."

♪ Ghostbusters ♪

Well, I told Gary, I said,
"Well, that's nice,

but I'm going back to Detroit.

I'm not doing this.
I'm like, sorta...

Not retired but sorta retired.

And you mean if you don't like it I
get to keep the..." He says, "Yeah."

"if we hate it, and you turn us the
music, you get to keep the fifty grand."

Stayed up two or three clays, wrote
the song and gave it to him,

and the director Ivan Reitman
called me at 3:30 in the morning.

He loved it.

Two weeks into this deal

Clive Davis said, "We sold
four million records overseas

just on imports."

And at the meetup festival
they were already presenting me

with a ten million selling
album award.

To this day people ask me, "Are
you tired of hearing people say,

'Who you're gonna call?'"
Well, no!

It's like, "Am I tired of
holding the best lotto ticket,

or the best thing that ever
happened?" No.

♪ Who you gonna call? ♪

♪ Ghostbusters! ♪

♪ Who can you call? ♪

♪ Ghostbusters ♪

Whoo!

Justin's amazing!

Nearly ten years
I've been playing with Pink.

It's been one of the most
amazing experiences of my life.

It's a cool process because
we all have a lot of input.

She really let's us
be ourselves.

And it comes across live.

People feel that,
people see that.

♪ Pretty, pretty please,
Don't you ever, ever feel ♪

♪ Like you are less than ♪

For me it's important that I create
a family atmosphere for all of us

because it just makes
for a healthier environment.

♪ Like you are less than ♪

♪ You are perfect to me ♪

To be a musician and feel like
you're being looked after

makes you want to do a better
job and do a great job,

because you know that you're being
looked after and you're appreciated,

and you feel appreciated.

So, it just makes everyone feel like
they wanna be their best at all times.

The bar is high.

So we have to be right there
with her.

As a hired gun,

I'm there to be a supportive
band member.

To the artist, to the other
musicians,

to the audience.

I have the most brilliant,
wonderful,

best ever band.

Give them a hand.

Mark Shulman on the drums!

Sometimes,

I look out at the audience

and it doesn't look like
anybody's looking at me.

But I think,

"Why should they look at me?"

They can look at Pink!

♪ Yeah! ♪

♪ We're perfect ♪

♪ Oh, perfect ♪

♪ To Me ♪

♪ Like you are less than ♪ ♪

I'm so thankful I've got
all these people in my life

because it's just been
an awesome ride, man.

You know, there's just...

Fuckin' nothing like it, man.

The first time I heard
something I did on the radio...

It was definitely uncredited,

I knew it was me.

Well, you look
at the Billboard top 100,

and you're, like, on 30 of the songs in
the Top 100, or something like that.

And they never include us in any of
the documentaries for these records.

And we had a lot
to do with them.

More so than people realize.

I'm of a mind where if anybody
does anything on a recording

they should
be credited for it.

Whereas, there's a lot of records
that you think were made by bands

by themselves in that
era and before,

where there were lots of the
side people playing on them.

They just didn't credit them.

You know, Stranglehold
is a big song for him.

And, of course,
in turn a huge song for me.

But most people think Ted
sings it.

What they don't realize
is that I'm the voice,

that everybody thinks
is Ted's voice.

Songs like Snakeskin Cowboys,
songs like Dog Eat Dog,

Songs like Stormtroopin',

songs like, of course,
Stranglehold.

The song I wrote, Hey Baby,

songs like
just What The Doctor Ordered.

That's me singing
all that stuff.

One night a man in the audience
comes up to me and he goes,

"Man, I'm sorry Ted's throat
wasn't feeling good tonight,

but, you did a really good job
singing the songs."

So, the next time you hear this song
you're gonna know it was my voice.

And not somebody else's.

♪I jammed everyday
I jammed every night ♪

♪ I practiced till I knew all
The licks ♪

♪ Now I'm on the verge
Of a nervous breakdown ♪

♪ I don't know
The meaning of quit ♪

♪ But I like it ♪

♪ Oh, Baby ♪

♪ Yes you know
But I like it?

♪ Yeah, baby, yes I do

♪ I've found a cure for my
Body and soul ♪

♪ But this is what the doctor
Ordered ♪

♪ But this is what the doctor
Ordered ♪

♪ But this is what the doctor
Ordered ♪

♪ Oh! That's what the doctor
Ordered ♪

Kenny, man...

I love Kenny.
He's got an energy, man.

One of the most
working dudes, right?

Oh, that guy is so energetic!

Kenny Aronoff, uh...

He loud.

I worked with him
one time. He's loud.

Fucking loud!

He's a really well schooled
musician.

To the point where
he writes out all of his parts.

He's kind of like the Godfather

of the hired gun of drums.

I mean, he was doing this shit
when I was in junior high.

Now, I grew up
in a small town of 3000.

How the fuck do you get
out of a town of 3000

into The Beatles, and on stage,
and touring and making records?

I didn't know.

I was gardening at 50 cents
an hour.

Gardening!

And I saved up
for the snare drum,

and the cymbal.

All I knew was I wanted
to be in The Beatles.

So the only thing I do
is I started a band.

I did five years at university.

I was practicing nine hours
a day,

and playing five nights a week
in a Jazz trio.

One day I'm sitting eating
dinner,

I'm about to walk out and I go,

"You know, I should just
chill for a second."

Had I not chilled for a second

I wouldn't have run into this
singer/songwriter who said,

"You know this guy
johnny Cougar?

He's looking for a drummer."

So they said, "Do you know any
of the songs on the record?"

I said, "I'm familiar

with the album."

They picked a song,
I tore it up.

Broke a cymbal,
sticks flying...

Looking at me smiling,

shakes my hand and goes,

"Welcome to hell!"

I'm like, "Well,
what does he mean by that?"

Well, I found out.

And five weeks later we were going
to go to L.A to make a record.

In one day
I was off the record.

Life changing moment for me.

Huge life changing moment!

John tells me,

"Well, you know,

Kroppa wants to get this song,
this album done fast.

You haven't had quite enough
experience in the studio."

And I'm thinking, "No,

no, no, no, no, no. This is not
going to go down this way."

"And, you know, you go home,
and..." And I just went,

"Am I your drummer!"

I'm going, "Did I just say
that?"

"I'm not going home."

"Am I your drummer?"

And he goes, "Uh, uh, uh, uh...

Yeah, it's just..."

"Well, find me a drummer.

I'm gonna go to the studio. I'm gonna
watch these guys play my parts

and I'm gonna
benefit from that.

And you're gonna benefit
because I'm your drummer.

Because I'm gonna get better.

And that's good for you.

You don't have to pay me,
I'll sleep on the floor.

But I ain't going home."

He didn't know what to say,

he went, "Uh... All right."

I did stay and I did watch,
and I took notes.

And that was the beginning
of a 45 degree angle

of my career which is still
going

at 45 degrees.

He's just a creative drummer.

You know, the thing in jack
And Diane that he does...

I don't care if it was like pulling
teeth to get it out of him.

He made it up.
It's brilliant.

That's Kenny Aronoff.

And, that drum fill right there
is that guy's personality.

"Aronoff, get in here.

We need a drum solo."

I'm like, "What!"

On a ballad?" I'm thinking,

"How do you do a drum solo
on a song that's like...

A little diddy,

about jack and Diane...

You can't go..."

Because nobody had done that.
Yeah, except for Phil Collins.

You know, I'm walking towards
the drums, I'm going,

"You got 25 feet to save your
career.

You got 20,

fifteen,

ten.

What are you
going to do, Kenny?

What are you going to do?"

I'm at the drum stool facing
that way...

"Five." Now I'm like,

"What am I gonna do?"

Ding! Something
pops into my head.

That was it. This short
little concise thing.

John's like,

"Groove, stop playing
the beats."

So, you know...

That song goes to number one.

Instead of getting excited,

I shit my pants.

Because down I'm going, like,

"Now you have to be,
number one,

and you have to do it again."

And I don't know if I'm that...

Am I good enough to do that
again?

I think out
of all the drummers,

when you people used to say,

"if there was somebody to take your
place with Billy who would it be?

And Kenny was the only one
I could think of.

Because I think me and him
play a lot alike.

Very aggressive
and to the song.

The great thing about it...

About Kenny is...

He is never satisfied
with himself.

So he will always give
you that extra bit.

He'll bother you to do it.

I traveled around
with guys in my band.

It's like a New York street
gang.

But we kind of keep each other
down to Earth.

We're always putting each other down,
and smacking each other around.

And we keep ourselves in line
like that.

We took a band attitude.

We took a family attitude
to what we did.

Those tracks and those tours,
and that whole trajectory

of what happened with Billy...

That was part
of our legacy too.

We all had a lot of laughs
and a lot of fun,

but, uh, I'd heard

a little scuttlebutt. You know,
that on the business side,

there was a lot of weird,

vibes going around.

That's when he found out that his
manager screwed him out of money.

I mean, there
was millions lost.

Millions!

That will make you paranoid.

Make you not trust anybody.

Charges in the lawsuit
are that they paid kickbacks

to Billy Joel's manager,

but never reported this
to Mr. Joel.

As a result of this Mr. Joel
did not fire the manager

until after he purported
to defraud Mr. Joel

out of tens of millions
of dollars.

When I got the phone call
from Billy,

he was... so... such a wreck.
He was broke.

He had no money.

He was, like,

broke!

The thing he said to me

was "I want everything back.

You're not gonna get that
payment anymore on the records.

You're not gonna get
a percentage of the gross."

And then he got this accounting firm
that was watching out for his money.

And they decided that,

"Well, you're name's
on the marquee.

Why are you paying these guys
so much money?

You can get anybody you want."

And that's really when
it started to get weird.

I was tired of being pegged, I
was tired of being stereotyped.

Tired of being pigeon holed.

Tired of being bagged.

As what?

As Billy Joel and his band
and his producer.

And, no matter how much
of a different album we put out

from the album before,

um,

it wasn't enough.

On The Bridge album,

I could kind of feel that,

it was coming to an end.

There was an undercurrent
there that I kinda,

in the back of my mind, you
know...

I could see the writing
on the wall.

I never felt it.
I thought we were gonna go on

and, you know,
continue to go on.

But we were in Australia
and Billy said to me,

"What if I go in the studio with
just you and all new players?"

And I was like, "Man, what are you
gonna do with the other guys?"

You know, he goes, "How am I
gonna get any new players?"

He just... cut them loose.

Now I've got three children
and I'm married,

and I'm like, "What am
I gonna say?

Well, I quit. I'm out."

We weren't making that much money
that I'm a millionaire, you know.

The way it would work is
that we would do a tour or whatever,

and then you wait around
and you get the call.

And you go in.
There's a new batch of songs

and you go bang em' out.

So, you know, we were kind
of in that holding pattern.

And one day I'm driving around
and I hear on the radio

that Billy's got a new band
and a new album.

I said, "What?"

I called up Doug, "You're
not gonna believe this."

And that's how I found out.

Nobody ever said a word to me
after all those years.

I knew it was
going to announced on MTV

that Billy Joel was going in with just
me and a whole new bunch of players.

The guys didn't know yet.

And I told Billy, I said,

"You gotta call these guys
and tell them what's going on."

And he was like, "I don't have
to do shit. I'm Billy Joel."

It was just time
to do something different.

I worked with a different
co-producer,

and I worked with some different
musicians for the first time since 77.

Doug and I got
let go at the same time.

I mean, I remember
calling Doug,

to tell him what I heard
on the radio.

You know, you think that you
know...

If you work for a company
that many years

you get a watch and a pension.

So, um!

You know,

I didn't even get a phone call.

Russell was upset,

you know, I think it still
gets under his skin.

I can honestly say that I never had
any animosity towards Liberty.

It's just... I just didn't get
it. You know, I just...

You know, here we are,

you know, we're all brothers
and now we're kind of out...

of the loop here.
It was just...

You know, it was... That was
the toughest pill to swallow!

You either accept
it and move on

or you don't.

You are no longer the person
that you were the day before.

You're no longer
in Billy Joel's band.

You're no longer,

going on tour.

You're no longer playing
at Madison Square garden.

Your identity is totally gone
now.

You're still the guy
that played on the records,

but you're not that person
that you were the day before.

And Doug had a very,
very diffi cult time with that.

Doug tried and
tried and tried to move on,

but... His life just kept taking steps
backwards instead of steps forward.

Then I went out,

to do a gig and then I came
home,

and my wife then
was crying on the couch,

and something had happened
in the afternoon.

I said, "Come on, you're still crying
over what happened this afternoon?"

She goes, "No,
Doug Stegmeyer killed himself."

Every time I spoke
to Doug on the phone,

it was always, "Hi, how
are you doing?

What's going on?"

Blah, blah, blah... Small talk.

And then,

you know, "Yeah, I'm having a hard
time paying for this." Or whatever...

"You at least... you still got
your fucking gig with Billy!

Fucking..." You know,

"I fucking lost my gig
and you got your fucking gig.

Remember, I got you that gig."

And I was like, "Holy shit!"

So, the one time
that he called,

I'm listening to him
on the answering machine,

and I didn't pick
up the phone

because I didn't want it to turn
into one of those phone calls again.

And that's when he
ended his life.

Doug did what
he did to himself.

We all could have been...

better,

and helped him.

But...

it's something I still can't
come to grips with.

I just don't understand,

how you go there.

It's been maybe one of the toughest
things I've had to deal with

because I felt like
I lost my brother.

And it's...

That's it.

Right before I got
the phone call from Ozzy,

the lowest point in my life...

I had just turned 30 years old.

The way that the industry was,

the music industry in those
days.

Being thirty years old,

being in a dinosaur
type of musical genre

like we were doing in Quiet
Riot wasn't very promising.

You know, to say the least.

But, what happened was that as I
was pursuing my musical career

I was also pursuing my own
spirituality.

You know...

Finding the meaning of life,

I made peace with God,

that if I didn't make
it as a musician,

it was all right.

That's cool.

But, as long as my fingers
kept moving

I was gonna keep playing.

And within days I got a call

from Ozzy.

That phone call came in
at the right moment.

Joining Ozzy had a completely
different meaning to me

that it would had had...

if I didn't had
made peace with God.

I understood the blessing
that it was.

I started my journey,

in music as a hired gun
for Nine Inch nails.

Trent had this record contract,

and he said, "I saw you
in that band Collapse,

and you were jumping
around the stage

and you looked like you
were having a good time.

Why don't you come
and join Nine Inch Nails

and use it as a stepping board to
get out and do your own thing?"

And I was, like, "Okay, cool.
This sounds like a great idea."

There was no negotiation.

It was, like, "Hey,
you want to go on tour?"

"Sure." "Okay."

I actually thought,
"I'm a part of this, right?

I'm allowed to work with you
and make some guitar stuff."

I had said to Trent, I said "But
when is the record coming out?

He's like, "Well, I'm almost done.
I'm mastering it-II

I'm, like, "Fuck, I
didn't play on it.

Like, I didn't do
anything on it."

I said, "Trent, man,
you're going to New Orleans.

You're going to, you know,
to rebuild your whole life,

rent a new house and put
a studio in it."

And I'm going back home and living
with my mom in a basement!"

And he's like,
he looked at me and he went,

"Get off your butt,
and go write a record."

So... I did.

I had written this song called
Hey Man Nice Shot.

There's a glass ceiling
in Nine Inch Nails.

There was a glass ceiling
at that time of,

even if you write
you're never gonna own it.

I was making $400 a month.

John had called me up,
who was their manager,

and he said, "Hey,

we're not seeing you that much,

and we know you want
some more money.

We're not really sure what
you're doing.

But if you want,

to make a little
bit more money,

there's a pizzeria,

at the bottom of Cielo Drive,

and they're looking
for drivers.

Would you want to go
make some money,

as a pizza delivery boy?"

I took my little song
Hey Man Nice Shot,

I got a new manager,

I've got a lawyer,

and I'm now in negotiation
with five labels.

What would you go at?

The pizza?

♪ A man ♪

♪ Has gun ♪

♪ Hey man ♪

♪ Have fun ♪

The power of having a great
song,

and the fact that
you're the singer,

changes everything.

All of a sudden it goes
from me being hired gun,

to me being the guy
who has to hire a band.

And I get why Trent
was so heavy handed.

Now I'm
in the hiring position.

To this day I sit him down
and I say, "Listen,

I'm not gonna offer you
anything.

You're gonna go on tour,

you're gonna have a fucking good
time playing music that I wrote,

as the drummer, as the bass
player, as the guitar player,

and that's what
you're gonna do."

Oh, man, Filter was...

it's almost laughable
what we got paid.

We were...

Of every band we toured with we
were the lowest paid band members,

even if we were making
the most in guarantees.

You know, as a hired gun
in a band at that level

you're not getting paid enough
to sustain anything.

Why are you in Filter?

You know, what are you
doing down here, like...

"We like to get in the muck.

We like to get dirty.

We play, fuckin', you know,

shitty clubs.

You know, we like
to keep it real.

We have to do the paid meet
and greets unless they paid.

Like, the fans are paying money
to meet the band.

We don't see any
of that money.

I didn't see any of that money.

The singer keeps
all to himself.

I like taking the money home.

I like just keeping
it all at home.

You know what I mean? Like I'm
not... I don't give a shit.

Like, it's a bus,
stay on the bus.

You don't need a fucking
hotel room.

I'd rather just sit home
and not be in a band

than have to deal with them
for another day.

I know of guys that are hired
guns that have great,

stories, great situations.

They love their jobs.

That in this situation
it wasn't for me.

I had that aha moment
of, "Is this really worth it?"

on stage, in Germany.

The show starts just like any other show
and I'm running and jumping, whatever,

and really just rocking out
and enjoying it,

and I almost felt this wave
come over me,

and I just...

I straightened up,

I turned to Jeff, our drummer,
and I just looked at him, I go,

"This isn't fun anymore."

Like, literally, that was the
moment where I was like,

"I need to find my exit
from this project."

And I was gone from the band
like, a month later.

Yeah, so we'll
just start with the duo.

You got it.

Rollin on one.

The Philly cheese steak burger

on a fresh baked bun.

At Carl's Jr. and Hardy's.

And, I now am the voice
on your TV and radio.

If they need stuff read,
I read it.

The grilled cheese breakfast
sandwich

only at Carl's Jr.

The most notable one
is the Carl's Jr. voice

"Without us, some
guys would starve."

On our second leg
of the Diary Of A Madman tour

we started in Atlanta.

We did one more show,
and our third show,

was in Knoxville, Tennessee,

which is the last time
that Randy Rhoads performed.

A 25 year old guitar player,
lead guitarist for Ozzy's band,

Randy Rhodes is dead
along with two other passengers

in the single engine aircraft
that spun out,

wing touching the tour bus,

cart wheeling into a two storey house
that you see in the background.

I wake up to this boom!

This huge boom by the middle
of nowhere.

I mean, the last time
I saw Randy,

he was standing on the doorway
getting out of the bus...

He was yelling, "Hey, come
on, Jim. Come on in.

We're gonna go on a plane"

Then I say, "You know
what, I just...

I'm going to get out of my bunk
when we get to the hotel."

And then it just lay
by the pool.

And that's it.

And I closed the curtains,

and went back to sleep.

That was the last time
I saw Randy.

It's usually we were like
always hanging out together

and do adventures
and do stuff together.

This was the only time
that I decline,

went back to sleep, and I wake
up to glass everywhere.

There was glass shattered
everywhere.

The window... The passenger
back window,

was gone. And I...

looked out and there was our
tour manager,

Jake Duncan, on his knees
pulling his hair out,

crying, "They're gone,
they're gone!"

I...

My thought, "We must have
been in a highway accident."

The last thing that I could imagine
was that the plane hit us.

And once you realize,

what's going on...

it's this huge hum...

Hum...

Really low frequency,

takes over and I couldn't hear
anything.

All I heard was a hum.

There's no cellphones,

there's no way to communicate
with any authorities

like the fire department or the
police, or anybody to come and help.

The plane, the Cessna just
crashed through some trees...

and exploded on impact on the garage
that was attached to the house.

So the house was also on fire.

We thought, "No, they must've
jumped off the plane.

They must be somewhere,
maybe on a tree or something."

You know, we couldn't just...

accept the reality of it, you
know,

that they had crashed
inside the plane...

And their bodies were burning as
we were listening to the fire.

That was...

the worst experience
I've ever had in my whole life.

Sometimes death
doesn't give you a warning.

It doesn't say,

"Treat this night,

and savor it,

because it will be the last
night."

So, I play like there's no
tomorrow.

I treat it like,
"This is special."

Because...

There might not be a tomorrow.

This is it.
This might be it.

Out of every tragedy there should be
something positive gained from it.

And that's one thing
that I've gained from it.

Living like
there's no tomorrow.

Has a replacement for
Randy been determined yet?

No, a replacement
hasn't been determined yet,

but a decision will be made,

in the course of the next few
days.

To be honest with you we really
didn't have much time to...

to mourn.

A decision was made
to continue,

to keep Ozzy busy... occupied.

If Ozzy would have just gone
home,

and canceled the tour,

he would have probably
drank himself to death.

So, basically, we had
about ten days

to find a guitar player that
could actually play the songs

the way that Randy composed
them and recorded.

And fortunately that's
when Brad Gillis,

came into the picture.

It was like the biggest gig in the
world that you could have at that time.

Because Ozzy was on top
of the world,

with, you know,

coming out with his
solo stuff...

And I got the call
and I thought,

"I gotta do this."

And the first night I stood at the
sound boards singing The Castle,

and the big huge stage.

The pyro and the lighting,

and the sound.

I was at the soundboard going,

"Oh, my gosh. This is huge!"

I've never even played
with the band,

hardly even met the guys,

And here I'm playing
my first show.

So, I didn't know
what to wear.

They gave me a... They got a
Ferrari jumpsuit they let me wear.

It was kinda cool.
Wore that for the first show.

And they put make-up on me,

you know, I never really
did make-up before,

and that was kinda strange.

And I tell you, for anybody,

that would have
been a tough gig.

But, you know,
I was a hired gun,

and been put on the spot,

and thrown into the fire.

It was either shit or get off
the pot.

You know, I thought if I didn't
follow through with this,

I'll kick myself in the ass
the rest of my life.

One big issue that we
were confronting at the time,

was that Randy's style of playing
was so new, so cutting edge,

that very few musicians
could actually play like that.

And Brad did a fantastic job.

There was so much pressure.
He had so much pressure on him.

And he was incredibly graceful.

Talking to the rest of the band

they said, "Hey, man, you can
branch out and do your own thing.

Just stick to the major solos,

and keep them as best as you
can."

So, you know, I did that.

I tried my best to learn
note for note.

But, with four days,

and 19 songs,

and I was learning on the spot.

I was... Everyday
I'd practice on the road

even after I started gigging
with Ozzy.

But from the start
it was tough for me.

It was tough for everybody
seeing me.

And I knew that.

And I just had to do
what I was there to do,

and to do the best I could,

and to get them
through this tour.

I remember performing
at Madison Square garden,

packed house,
and it was like a wake

for Randy Rhoads.

Every banner, every sign,

was about how much people
loved Randy.

You know, a lot of kids in the audience,
man, they were flipping me off,

and "Randy Rhoads
lives forever" signs,

and guys with their arms
crossed.

I had to expect that. I'm...

filling in for the late great
Randy Rhoads,

and I'm just trying
to help this tour move along.

After a couple of days
I went to Rudy,

I said, "I don't know
if I could do this anymore.

It's tough that
people don't like me."

And he goes, "Man, they'll
start to respect you, man.

You just... just keep moving."

Brad Gillis...

We have to give him respect
no matter what.

He and I have a lot
of common thread.

We had that thing,
like a beloved...

instrumentalist,

that reinvented their instrument,
Randy Rhoads/Cliff Burton.

We had to step into those shoes
that could not be filled.

Not everybody is made for that.

Metallica was already
established

as a giant touring band
by when Ijoined them.

So, you go into these countries where
they got to see Cliff dominate, right?

So, who is this guy
standing in Cliff's place now?

Some places I got tortured,

for the first couple of times
we went there.

But because I stood my ground,

and took it to em',

and didn't let them
get to me like I didn't.

You don't react back
cause then they win.

The only way you react is by
hanging in there and being better

and singing stronger
and that kind of thing.

So, I went through
that kind of trial by fire,

for a couple of years,

besides doing the band,

trial by fire.

Going on stage
after Randy died,

it was just a matter
of surviving each show,

emotionally.

I watch myself perform, and I'm going,
"I'm not connecting with anybody here."

I'm not even looking
at... around.

I'm not even looking at the audience.
I'm just going through the motions.

That's not the reason
why I started playing.

I didn't want to be a robot.

I didn't want to be disconnected
with music, with my soul.

So, I had to move on.

I had to move on.

It was the toughest decision
I've ever made in my whole life,

to go from, like, people
that I love,

because Sharon
and Ozzy, they...

took incredible care of me.

They were gracious, you know.

But, I had to get joy back
in my playing again.

I really did.

After having lost a certain gig where
it was all shut down without warning,

and then there's that sort of
gap where you're scrambling,

like a fish out of water
trying...

to get back into something,

just so you can pay your bills.

I get a call from one of the
guys that I used to play with

in Mandy Moore's band,

and he says, "I'm now
the musical director

for Lizzy McGuire,

a Disney artist."

I'm like,

"Who? I don't even
know who that is.

Tell me more."

So I find out later that
Lizzy McGuire is Hillary Duff.

And, "They're trying
to mold her into a singer,

and they kind of want
to make her edgy.

They want a rock guitar player.

I thought of you.
What are you doing?"

I had just come from two years on
the road playing with Vince Neil,

where it was drunk, rowdy,

you know... Big theaters, bars,

tits.

Girls French kissing
in the front row.

All kinds of Rock n Roll stuff.

And then, now I'm touring
stadiums packed,

but it's, like, little kids.

Some... In most cases it was their
first time ever at a concert.

The line backstage for me
became,

"Okay, guys, time
to scare the kids."

You know, I'll get the, "Ahhh,
who's this guy?"

It was funny because I took
my daughter

down to a venue in Phoenix, Arizona,
where we live to go see Hilary Duff.

And stage, left, is this,
like, really cool looking,

Rock n Roll, like,
heavy metal guitar player.

He's got on black jeans,

like Doc Martin, he's got a
chain hanging down, I mean...

He looked like he should have been
playing in Metallica or something.

When I saw Hilary Duff's show, and
I said, "Who's the guitar player?"

And somebody finally said,
"That's Jason Hook."

And I said, "Yeah,
write that name down."

Cause when I go
to see other bands

I always kinda make a note
of who people are.

The second year
that I was in that gig,

the craze for Hilary went off
the charts.

She was so successful
that the band was on retainer

which is something
that doesn't happen very often.

And essentially what
that means is that,

they pay you whether
you're touring or not.

I did something
sort of foolish.

I said, "I'm gonna
be an adult now.

I'm gonna buy a house."

It wasn't long after that
where I was stunned

because you literally
get out of bed one day

and you open the e-mail
that says, "Hey, all.

After several meetings,

with the label and the movie
department,

we've decided to take Hilary's
career in a new direction,

and we're gonna shut down
touring.

Thank you very much for all
your support and loyalty.

And we wish all of you the best
of luck for your future."

The end.

I'm like...

Sheer terror.

It's one thing being
Billy _loel's drummer,

but it's another thing being the
wife of Billy _loel's drummer.

I was getting divorced
from my second wife.

I ended up telling her to take
everything and just leave me alone.

So, I went to Billy and I said,

"You know, if any
scraps fall on the floor

maybe you could sweep
them my way."

And he just looked at me
and said, "I can't do that."

"I wished you'd never asked me
that. I can't do that."

Irrelative of my success
is complicating things because

everybody wants more money,
more money, more more...

And I continued on the tour
doing the tour,

but we didn't...
Never spoke after that.

The tour ends.

And the next thing I know is
Billy's getting married again,

to his third wife.

So, I call up the keyboard
player and I said...

"I guess we're not invited
to the wedding?"

And he says, "I got my
invitation."

You're never fired.

You're just not asked
to do the next thing.

I knew it was over when
he played Madison Square garden

and I was getting calls from people
that wanted to get tickets to go.

Or, or... "Hey, I heard
you're playing in my town?"

"Billy's coming to town.
You're with him, right?"

"No, I'm not."

You know when,
it's like saying it is like,

it could happen,
but once you say it, it's like,

"Fuck, yeah, I'm not
that guy anymore."

So, the divorce and that
happened at the same time.

So, my wife buried me in sand
up to my neck,

and then Billy kicked
me in the face.

What do you think now that
you are a Rock n Roll star?

I don't think too
much about it.

Because if I did,

I'd probably get a real swell
head.

The question
is, when did it go from,

"Love me, love my band," to "Get
the fuck out of my dressing room!"

We played in Fargo.

It was Easter Sunday
the next clay,

and Billy had a private plane.

And I wanted to get
on the plane.

And I was told, "No, there's
not enough room for you."

"What... What do you mean?

I know there's so many seats on the plane
and there's only so many people going?"

"No, not enough room.

Billy might want to lay down."

"What?"

"Billy might wanna lay down.

So, you can't go home
for Easter."

I thought I was part
of something,

that was going to write
"payoff" at the end, but, uh...

Fuck, I guess it's never going
to happen!

I told him. I said, "I understand
why you're doing what you're doing.

You are Billy Joel. Your
name is on the album cover.

But, if you ever need my help,

I'm there for you."

When you're touring,

and you're getting all those checks
and they're just stacking up,

you're like, "Ah, I'm good!"

But when the tour is over
it's over.

The money you have
left in your account you need,

and all of a sudden
it's like, "Whoa,

like, I have less than a $1000
in my account now.

And I don't know when
my next gig is coming up."

You know, you're living
the life, you're on tour,

everything is really great,

that check is deposited
in your account every Friday.

And then it stops.

And you're like,

"Hmmm,

maybe I got a little cushion, but I
still gotta provide for my family."

Throughout the
journey of being a player,

sure,

there have been lean moments
along the way.

And you know that moment
where you go to the ATM

and you realize,

"Wow, somebody around here
has go to get a job."

Th funniest thing is my friends
from high school think I'm rich.

"Are you kidding me?"

I go on the road,

I come back,

I have to get a job. My buddy
and I are painting houses.

I remember painting this house,

and I'm taking a break.

I'm sitting on a bucket
eating a sandwich,

I look up and Matt Sorum
walks in.

I'm like, "Holy shit!
Matt Sorum."

He's like, "Hey, man." And then
he's like, "Looks good, looks good.

And he looks down
on me, he was like,

"I know you from somewhere."

I was like, "Yeah,
we met at Hamburg.

We were on tour
with Soundgarden."

He's like, "Shit, that's right.

How you been?"

I'm like,

"Well, I'm painting
your fuckin house, man."

The only reason why I sorta fell
into hired gun type work is because,

I was failing, you know,
to get to the dream.

The A dream I kinda call it...
The A dream for me,

was to be in a band
with four, five guys

writing original music
and everyone loved it,

and everyone wanted
to buy a ticket to the concert.

That's the A dream.

So, the B dream
to me was, like,

"Well, nobody... All the bands
that I'm putting together

nobody gives a shit about.

So, I'll just look after
myself,"

and go rent myself to somebody,

because I know that I can
deliver.

You know, if somebody would have told me
Hilary Duff's guitar player was coming

and I go, "Yeah?" And he's
going out the back door...

But, I also knew about
Jason Hook's playing.

I didn't have to audition him.

I already knew he was going
to be fine.

♪ Well, we got no choice ♪

Alice has always
had a fantastic band.

And even when I wasn't
working with him,

he had... Davey Johnstone
who's with Elton john,

Kip Winger who's just
a fantastic musician,

and Eric Singer,
lots of great drummers...

and yeah, he's always attracted the
best of the best of the sidemen.

Always surround yourself
with A-list players.

I mean, everybody in my band's
an A-list player.

It's that... I just don't have
time for B-list guys.

I got a phone call from a
national number that I didn't know.

And he said,
"This is Kip Winger."

And he goes, "Are you
available this summer?"

And I said, "I would have got some gigs.
Why, what's going on?"

And he goes, "Well,
I hope you can cancel them

because I just got you an audition
to play guitar for Alice Cooper."

I went back at the phone, I said,
"Ah, my schedule just cleared up."

I just had a feeling about
her and she was so eager.

And she was so pumped
about doing this, you know.

She wood shedded, she had
studied...

She came in and, well,
she was perfect.

Now Nita will be in that
A-list carrel now.

All the guys now will look,

and they've heard her now
and they go,

"Okay, she's a proven...
She's a proven thing now."

It says a lot about you,

if you've been selected
to be in Alice's band.

I know this because I was.

And I saw the other guys
around me that were.

It says a lot about you
and your ability,

because those shows
were exhausting.

There is no backing vocals,

there is no click track,
like, we do everything, live.

When it comes to the stage
show I let them have their movement.

When I back up, they move
forward.

When you're playing the lead
you are now Alice Cooper.

So you take over.

Guitar players,

are show offs.

Anybody that says they're not
is lying.

We all want to show off all
the time

and if we could just stand in the middle
and just do tricks the whole time

we would. At least I would.

So, you know, and you learn
as a guitar player

till you show some restraint
on stage

and let the singer do their thing,
and especially as a hired musician.

I've shown an unbelievable
amount of restraint sometimes.

Alice let you be yourself.

If you were flashy,

and wanted to be flamboyant,
a real performer,

he didn't care.

I played with Alice,

all the way through
up until 2008.

And Alice would be cool enough
to let me get a replacement

to come in for him
for a week or two

while I would go
and play with Kiss.

Kiss and Alice never
toured at the same time.

We were sharing the same
drummer.

So Kiss would go out
for four or five months,

and then my tour would start
right when the Kiss tour ended.

Eric never got a break.

There's no better compliment

than to be in demand

by two of the most legendary,

bands, ever!

I think finally Eric
just said, "I...

I can't do this anymore."

And I just said,
"Go with Kiss."

When I was a kid I always said
I wanna be in a band like...

like a Kiss.

I want
to be in an Alice Cooper.

I didn't know
I'd end up in Kiss.

You tell that son of a bitch
when he was 18,

"You're one day
you're gonna be in Kiss."

He'd be, like,
"Get outta here."

I always looked up to him
ever since I saw him in Badlands.

Now he's in Kiss.

It's like, incredible.

I don't ever try to play
like somebody, per Se,

but you want
to at least be...

Be reasonably respectful
to the part.

People think just
because I wear,

make up that was associated with
Peter Criss as the original drummer,

all of a sudden they think,
automatically, that I'm

trying to act like him and play
like him. It's, like, "No.

Gene and Paul never said,

Oh, Eric, we want you to watch videos.
We need you to play more like Peter.

You need to do some..."

Never once!

It's so ridiculous that people
say that.

I don't play like him at all,
actually.

The only thing that
I do in common

is I wear that cat make-up.

That's where it stops.

And the irony of the whole
thing is that,

Peter and Ace didn't care
about the make-up.

They sold the rights to Gene and Paul
because they thought it was worth nothing.

Hey, who wants to sit out there
and play in clubs

and struggling their
whole life? I don't.

All I ever wanted to do was play
in a big band since I was a kid.

That's what I dreamed of doing.

And that's what I've ended up
doing,

and I'm very proud and happy about
all the things I've gotten to do.

I think it's cool.

The Alice Cooper Five finger
death punch transition,

it really all comes down to my
relationship with Jeremy Spencer.

I was out there touring
with Alice Cooper,

and he was in LA
playing the clubs.

And they were starting to pick up
heat and momentum quite quickly.

And when I would
come off the road with Cooper,

I would go see them
play in the clubs.

And I remember sitting there
watching them play, going,

"I don't want
to be left out of this.

This sucks."

Jason, you know,
he was supportive from day one.

He was at our showcase
that we got signed,

and he was at our first gig we
played.

And we were starting to have
problems with our guitar player.

So, I'm like, "Hey, man,
there may be

an opportunity for me
to get you in this thing

if you're serious about it."

And he was like, "Well,
I just wanted to let you know.

We can't afford to pay you
Alice Cooper salary."

And I was like, "I don't care
about that.

Money will come.

Money can be earned in other
ways.

It's not about...
it's about grabbing,

the right wave.

The one that you believe in,

and have a great time
riding it to the shore."

Everybody was, like,

"You really understand
what you're saying, right?"

Like, "Do you really
wanna go do that?

Do you really wanna travel around in a van
and eat bologna, and play heavy metal?"

I was like, "Yes, I do.
Absolutely, one hundred percent."

Because I knew their potential.

I had arranged
to speak with Alice.

And he was so cool,

he was just, like, "You know,
I always encourage my guys

to swing the bat, man,

go out there,

take your best shot."

All these guys leave
with my blessing.

"Go, and be a big star."

Jason took that step and now
he goes,

and jumps into a band that's
just on the cusp of making it.

And he puts that final...

That final touch that
makes it happen.

So Jason had joined
Five finger, I'm thinking,

"Okay, you're joining on the trajectory
on the way up, so there's...

You're taking a shot that this
thing is gonna win big."

And I tell you, you gotta
hand it to him, man,

because he signed in
at the exact right time.

A lot of the core ideas
of some of our radio hits,

have been from Jason...

and you know,
I'm really grateful that he's

has the ability to do that.

Six years later,

you have seven gold records,

one platinum single,

five number one songs,

and we're embarking on the
biggest tour we've ever done

headlining arenas.

Death Punch is one
of the last few

hard rock metal bands

that is actually able to make the
amount of money that we're able to make

and have the huge
audiences that we have.

I mean, people are still
buying our records.

In a time when nobody's
buying records

we're still going gold,

as a hard rock heavy metal act

with songs called
Burn Motherfucker.

Five hundred thousand copies
of Burn Motherfucker?

Very, very fortunate.

it's like,

your whole life you
are writing songs

trying to perfect the craft
of making music,

try to develop your skill.

And when you finally get
a chance to do it for real,

and people respond to it,

to the point where they're willing
to show up at an airport for,

and wait for eight hours
for your plane to arrive

just so they can
see you in person.

That's...

You can't pay for that.

For years I've been like, "I don't
wanna be a side guy anymore."

And even if my band remains
underground

I'm cool with that.

I can do sessions
playing on cool records,

meet cool people,

and do my own band.

But, how the fuck,

do you say no to Bon Jovi?

I love making music.

And if somebody calls
me up and says,

"I have $200

and I really, really
would love you to do,

guitars on this track."

And I'm, like, "Send it to me."

And they send me the song,
and the song's good

and the person
was really sweet,

I'll do it for nothin.

But if somebody sends me,
"I have $300,

and I want you to play on this. I
know you'll take it to the next leve."

And I listen to it,

and I can't stand the song,

"I can't do it."

I feel like I'm nickel
and diming my soul.

Because, when you
pay me 300 bucks,

you're not getting
Phil X for three hours.

You're getting what
it took me my entire life,

to cultivate into these hands
in this heart.

I can't play on a piece
of shit for $300.

♪ One eye on your shaker
One ear to the ground ♪

♪ Your doctor says you got
A mult-personality disorder ♪

♪ The choice is in your hands
Your voice on my dic-taphone ♪

♪ I got me some evidence
And the girls sing ♪

♪ Wop wop doo wah ♪

♪ Sunny days
Were made for you ♪

♪ Oh oh but everything you do ♪

♪ Downward spirals into blue ♪

♪ All I can say is Pound
for pound the bitch Crazy ♪

♪ Pound for pound the bitch crazy
She's out of her Goddamned mind ♪

I made the decision to go
from the biggest band in the world,

Ozzy Osbourne,

to the total
unknown Quiet Riot.

It wasn't even really
a leap of faith because,

I mean, I have
faith in Quiet Riot,

that we could sell
maybe 50,000 records a year

and make a living, play, you
know...

We didn't aspire
for anything bigger than that.

We just wanted
to make another record.

So, we have Metal Health
finished.

Ready to be released.

And we couldn't find a manager.

We would say,
"Listen to this record."

"Eh, I don't know,
that kind of music

I don't think is really ever
gonna come back."

So, our beginning with Quiet Riot
was very, very humble beginnings.

We were driving ourselves
in a station wagon,

playing up and down
the pacific coast.

And by the time the tour ended,

we were in Denver
and the promoter Barry Faith,

who was actually booking
the acts for the US festival,

needed a band
for the metal day

because somebody,

was out of the line-up
and they had a gap,

so, it's like they
asked us to do it.

So, we say, "Yeah,
we'd love to do it."

So, we were the first
band to go on.

♪ Come on feel the noize ♪

♪ Girls rock your boys ♪

♪ We get wild, wild, wild ♪

♪ Wild, wild, wild ♪

♪ So you think I got an evil
Mind ♪

♪ Well I'll tell you honey ♪

♪ And I don't know why ♪

♪ And I don't know why ♪

♪ So you think my singing's
Out of time ♪

♪ Well it makes me money ♪

And, that was
incredible exposure for us.

You know, just phenomenal.
Phenomenal!

And by then the record
was double platinum.

You know, we had Come On Feel The
Noise was in rotation on MTV

every half hour.
I could set my watch.

Because every half hour
Come On Feel The Noise came on

on MTV, you know,
Music Television.

Who knew?

And by November,

we had a number one album.

We're talking number one when
your competition is Thriller,

Synchroncity by the Police,

and all those those
incredible albums.

So, to me it wasn't just about,

having a number one album...

It was about being in such

great company.

What's really interesting
about going to the top,

with any group is that,

your landscape
is exactly the same,

because I've experienced that
with three bands.

Going from the bottom,

to the very top.

I did it with Ozzy,

I experienced that with Quiet Riot,
and then later on with Whitesnake.

And then once you get there,

the trick is to stay there.

To stay on the top,

which is because there's
plenty of room at the bottom.

There's only so much
room at the top.

There's only gonna be people
trying to push you,

you know, shove you
off the the top.

So, that is the toughest thing
to accomplish.

Getting to the top is hard.

Staying at the top
is virtually impossible.

I wish I would have
the foresight,

to predict any of the band's
successes,

or you would just have
to follow your heart.

And after doing this for a while
I began to see the signs.

You know, I began
to realize that,

all of these
opportunities, to be...

To be playing with some
of the greatest musicians,

in the world,

actually are...

it's a blessing to do that.

The Ozzy Band.

I played with Quiet Riot and
achieved such incredible heights,

you know, success.

To go on stage with Whitesnake,

a band that I'd been a fan of.

My God!

So, it took me a few years
to actually have the time,

to look back and really relish,

in all of the success
that I've been blessed with.

And after all said and clone,

the most important thing
that you have to remember,

is the journey itself.

That's when you say,

"Oh, wow, check this out.

I've accomplished this."

But I've gotta tell you,

it's the people,

that I am on the journey
along with.

That is priceless!

That really is.

And that is...

why I get out of bed everyday.

Since I made God a promise

that as long as my fingers were gonna
keep moving I was gonna keep playing.

I can't go back on my
promise, you know.

This is what I do.
I am a musician.

I must play.

I'd like to introduce
you to, Liberty DeVitto!

How's it going?

Good!

One of the last things
that was ever said to me

while I was on the road
with Billy,

came from the piano tuner.

We were walking
down the street

I remember coming
from breakfast or something.

We weren't even talking,
just silent,

He just turned to me
and he goes,

"You know what your problem is?

You're a nice guy."

You're the drums.
The center of everything.

Like almost being
the center of the universe.

We're the ones that make people get
up when they dance. it's our beat.

So' Little Kids Rock puts instruments
and gives free lessons to kids,

where their school program has
been taken out of the school

in underprivileged schools,
like in Harlem...

and you know, down and out
areas in different cities.

Little Kids Rock has been
a saving grace for me.

That was fun, right?

Yeah!

Music is always fun.
It's a lot of fun.

It's a great way to burn off
energy and stuff like that.

And, you know whats great about it
is going from emotion to emotion.

Like a fast song
to a slow song.

Reflecting back,

we made great records.

We really did.

I mean, those records
will last forever.

People still get off
on that stuff.

Every time I'm driving in the
car and the station plays,

Scenes from an Italian Restaurant,
like, "Yeah, that's me playing."

You know, and when
I hear that stuff, people say,

"Does it upset you?"

And I say, "No, I just go
right back to the studio,

and what it was like in the
studio making that record."

We were like brothers.

It was like going to war and we've
got very successful at what we did.

If Billy is the father,

the parent of those songs,

I'm at least the uncle,
you know.

But now if I saw Billy I'd hug
him and tell him I love him.

If he called me up and said,

"I'm sorry. Do you
want to play again?"

I'd say, "Yeah."

Playing music gives
you an identity.

It really, like,
"look what I can do!

It took me a long time
to learn how to do this.

But look what I can do now."

So, it's a great, great thing to
learn how to play an instrument.

And it's not too bad.

I got my shot. My mother
used to tell me all the time,

"Lib, you had your turn.
Now it's the young guys turns."

But right now life is good.

I play all the time,
great people.

You know.

It's cool.

I want to see Bucket-head
get together with the other guy

that's in the other band,

and the other drummer
that's in that band,

and put together a band,

of side guys.

They're all great players,
why not?

Why not put their own band
together?

Nobody's done that yet.

Just call themselves
On The Side.

Like French fries on the side.

One, two, one two, three four.

♪ Day fight shines through ♪

♪ My window shade ♪

♪ Feels like my dues ♪

♪ Are always far from paid ♪

♪ It ain't the good life ♪

♪ But I can't complain ♪

♪ When it's all said and done ♪

♪ Gotta carry on ♪

♪ I've been clawing along ♪

♪ It tears me apart ♪

♪ I'll be the last one
Standing ♪

♪ It started with hope ♪

♪ But finished with heart ♪

♪ I am your hired gun ♪

♪ Wake up alone again ♪

♪ Someone else is there ♪

♪ Talk to myself again ♪

♪ My only friend ♪

♪ When it's all said and done ♪

♪ You gotta carry on ♪

♪ I've been clawing along ♪

♪ It tears me apart ♪

♪ I'll be the last one
standing ♪

♪ It started with hope ♪

♪ It finished with heart ♪

♪ I am your hired gun ♪

♪ I sold my soul to protect ♪

♪ What's left ♪

♪ Cause it's worth defending ♪

♪ I will never forget ♪

♪ I am your hired gun ♪

♪ Hired gun, hired gun
Hired gun ♪

♪ Hired gun, hired gun
Hired gun ♪

♪ Started with hope ♪

♪ Finished with heart ♪

♪ I am your hired gun ♪

♪ I've been clawing along ♪

♪ It tears me apart ♪

♪ I'll be the last one
Standing ♪

♪ It started with hope
But finished with heart ♪

♪ I am your hired gun ♪

♪ I sold my soul to protect
What's left ♪

♪ Because it's worth
Defending ♪

♪ I will never forget ♪

♪ I am your hired gun ♪

♪ Daylight shines through ♪

♪ My window shade ♪