ROCKNATION ISSUE 21
is a great addition to the line-up-he’s from Fritz’s hometown of Cambridge, Ontario, a seasoned musician/singer
and a guy with a sameness of attitude that the rest of us
have. That’s vitally important, because this is a marriage
of 5 people, so you don’t want 4 guys going one way and
one person turning left. Unlike The Sweden Rock
Festival, which was a one-off, this time around we’re in
Spain for 3 dates in May (Barcelona/Pamplona/Madrid)
and in Sweden and Norway for 6 dates total in October.
That tour is through Live Wire Booking and they tell me
there will also be dates added in Finland & Denmark.
Rocknation: Have you had many fans been contacting
you about how excited they are to see you for the first
time in Europe?
Brian: A lot of fans that have contacted me about
returning to Europe are fans that saw us for the last time
on either the KISS tour in 1983 or in 1988 with Ian Gillan.
Some are even flying in from other countries. I’m impressed.
Rocknation: You are one of
the many famous
Canadian musicians
involved with the Metal on
Ice project. Please tell us
about that project.
Brian: The Metal on Ice
project is the brain child
of Sean Kelly, with whom
I write. Sean wrote a best
seller book for Indigo by
that name. The book was
about Canadian heavy
metal/heavy rock bands
from the 80’s who
influenced his career.
Accompanying the book
was a CD featuring Lee
Aaron, Darby Mills of the
Headpins, Carl Dixon of
Coney Hatch, Nick Walsh
of Slic Toxic, Russ Graham
of the Killer Dwarfs, and
myself singing our biggest
hit songs re-recorded. On
May 10th we’ll all be getting
together (except Russ-who
is on tour) for a live show at
The Opera House in Toronto. Tickets are now on sale.
Rocknation: You are a very
busy guy with Helix and
Vocal teaching your last
solo CD “When Pigs Fly”
was in 1999. Will the fans
see a solo release from you
in the future?
Brian: I’m always talking
“solo release” but Helix always gets in the way...LOL.
PAGE 11
Eventually I might get around to it, but right now I just
don’t have enough time.
Rocknation: Let’s flashback here and tell us about a
Eddie Van Halen incident of him jumping on stage with
Helix.
Brian: The Eddie Van Halen incident...yes, I’ve been
asked to recount this story many times. We were on tour
with Heart when, during Brent’s guitar solo, some guy
jumped onstage and grabbed Anne Wilson’s handmade
acoustic guitar and started air-guitaring behind Brent.
Brent didn’t even realize anyone was there-wondering
why the crowd was going crazy. After we came off stage,
we were greeted by Alex and Eddie at the side of the
stage. Brent was dumbfounded, but finally spit out the
request, “Hey, wanna come up to the dressing room for a
beer?” To which they both agreed...
(continued on page 12)