Ross The Boss On Touring ‘Sign Of The Hammer’

SIGN OF THE HAMMER is one the iconic albums ROSS THE BOSS released during his time with the “Kings Of Metal”, the mighty MANOWAR. This album will be played in full for the Aussie shows, along with a best of set which includes some of that band’s most anthemic songs.

ROSS THE BOSS will be joined onstage by the Metallic trio of Marc Lopes from METAL CHURCH on Vocals, Dirk Schlächter from GAMMA RAY on Bass, and one-time MANOWAR member Rhino destroying the drums up the back. This is a star-studded line up performing this album and a once in a lifetime opportunity for Australian fans.

Bronx native, Ross Friedman AKA Ross The Boss, is a household name in the world of Heavy Metal and Punk. From his early beginnings forming THE DICTATORS in New York and releasing a slew of albums with this band, who always gave THE RAMONES a run for their money… to his headlining chart topping glory days in MANOWAR. Ross’ career has always been one to follow, including some killer albums with DEATH DEALER, a band formed by our fellow Australian Stu Marshall. And with the last decade concentrating on RTB albums, with four releases since 2008. Marc Lopes talks to Hi Fi Way about what it all means to playing Signs Of The Hammer in Australia.

Australian tour kicks off this are you looking forward to it?
Ah, can’t wait to come back. I love it down there!

Four shows in four days is a tough assignment.
It always happens when we go down there, four in a row, it is what it is.

Forty plus years of Signs Of The Hammer, for you personally what does that legacy mean to you to be able to perform this album?
Oh man, that’s like definitely one of my favourite albums. It’s great, because we get to do a couple of deep tracks that we’ve never played before. So, that’s exciting. The song “Sign of the Hammer” was a big time favourite of mine growing up and I still have the cassette version of that record. I just realised that! It’s an honour to be able to play this and interpret it our way of doing it and keep true to the source material as possible.

Does it, does it take quite a bit of rehearsing that album, especially to be able to play it start to end?
Funny thing is, we already play three quarters of the record in every show. It is part of our set, so we added a couple more. Without the bass solo!

Are any of those songs harder to play than others?
Yeah, at first, it’s foreign, especially Guyana (Cult of the Damned), because the whole beginning is very tricky, the way that the timing and the pacing goes. We laugh because we figured out that the record doesn’t play in a straight time because they played live. So, the timing fluctuated. If you want to call them mistakes, the way that they did a couple of things, made it unique that they kept it, because technically it wouldn’t be right. You could never put it to a click or something like that because it bounces too much. So, learning it from the record and then going and playing it with the band, it’s always takes getting used to. Unfortunately last time we only had one rehearsal before we played Denmark. By the fourth show we were killing it because we got used to it after that. Rehearsals are always different. You’re can have the best rehearsal ever but as soon as you step on stage it changes. That’s why it’s kind of cool trial by fire, just doing it, just get it done and if it was going to be average, we’ll make sure that we don’t do it next time. That’s how it’s always been with us, in a rehearsal room for eight hours or something!

Is that a bit like muscle memory as well?
Oh, yeah. Denmark, we did a couple of weeks ago, that was our first show in like ten months. We were a little rusty in some spots, but it healed quick, it’s just like getting up and riding a bike, it might’ve been a little wobbly at first, but we got it going.

Is it hard not to get swept up in the nostalgia of these tours when you’re playing classic albums like this?
I never look at it in that aspect. I look at it as I grew up listening to these tunes. I love hearing these tunes, and I enjoy playing the tunes. It’s a great question. I never conceive it as time. It’s weird, but I think because we put such a different spin on it, I sing it a little bit more so-called more modern than it’s been done before. That’s my interpretation of it and everybody’s interpretation that plays, it’s definitely a different way to do it. The beauty of it is that Ross is there, keeps the sound that everybody wants to hear, but we’re all around him and we’re going to inject our own personalities to it but keeping true to the form, it’s not like we’re changing lines or anything crazy like that.

It’s just the way that it’s performed. We’re going to have our own energy as opposed to somebody else doing it. I never look at it in a nostalgic way other than making sure I respect the music where it came from. Eric Adams is one of my all time favourite singers. No one can sing that stuff like him, don’t even try. It’s a waste of time because you’ll never do it because you’re not him. You know, that’s like, you’re never going to sound like Bruce Dickinson. You’re never going to sound like that. You’ve got some people that can have similarities and that’s great, but it’s still something missing, you know? I guess that’s why I don’t look at it in a nostalgic way because I’m in it at the moment.

So there’s no nostalgia there. This is now, and that’s how I approach it. I have a different way of approaching it, the past is a past and, and Manowar still exist, and that’s a whole other thing. You can go see that and us and have double the fun. You’re going to get two different presentations of the songs that you love, but they’re going to be the same. It’s just the way that they’re attacked and the way they’re performed in the moment. They’re playing on big arena stages. We play smaller places. That’s okay. It’s more intimate for us. We like that, do I oppose playing big places? Of course not. We love festivals too, but it’s about the people and that’s the beauty of the smaller shows is that you have them right there.

That feedback will always make you play better no matter if you’re having a bad night or not. Well, like the other night, oh gosh, in Istanbul, this happens very rarely and it happens to the best. Went to go do a note and I fucking botched it. I don’t know why. Something mentally just set me off. It was a slow tomb, so it was like really noticeable. I was so pissed. But the beauty of it is that that only happened that once, and I made up for it at the end of the night and the fans, they didn’t give a shit. They were just happy to be there. That’s the way it should be. I mean, everybody’s going to make errors and it shouldn’t be that polished, things happen.

It’s not like, oh well he doesn’t know what he’s doing or whatever. Hey look, have you ever tried to tie your shoe? Then you step on it after you tie it and it comes undone. You don’t know how to tie a fucking shoe? Same difference! I know how to tie a shoe, but I stepped on it by accident, so it’s one of those things. So yeah, that’s as far as that question goes. That’s where I would leave it. Trust me, I love the history and I respect that, but when I’m up there doing it’s our thing, we’re doing our thing and that’s not nostalgic, that’s now. So that’s how we look at it.

Interview By Rob Lyon

Catch Ross The Ross on the following dates, tickets from Hardline Media…