In a brand new, exclusive interview with Rock N Roll Universe
(www.rocknrolluniverse.com) legendary Southern Californian hard rockers
Legs Diamond discuss their new album 'Diamonds Are Forever', the
association the band had with Deep Purple and KISS during the early
days of the band's career as well as the departure of original vocalist
Rick Sanford. Also covered are the band's days on the Sunset Strip
where a young David Lee Roth and Eddie Van Halen re****tedly begged the
band to open for them early in Van Halen's career. A short excerpt from
the interview follows below :
Rock N Roll Universe : During the early days of the band, Eddie Van
Halen and David Lee Roth came to you and begged the band to let Van
Halen open for you. What can you tell us about that situation?
Jeff Poole : Actually it was to Mike Prince and myself. We were at the
Rainbow Bar & Grill. They came up to us, and at the time, we were one
of the first bands to actually get signed. There was a lot of good
music going on in L.A. at that time. We were one of the first bands
though to actually get signed and get things going. Van Halen were
making a name for themselves doing some of the clubs. They were playing
a lot in Pasadena, they were playing Gazarri's, which I guess is now
the Key Club. At the time, we were doing some bigger shows, so they
wanted to get on with us. They actually came over and basically said if
there's anything you guys can do to talk to promoters into letting us
open for you it'd be great. We said, sure, we'd be glad to do that. I
remember asking a few different people saying "Hey, Van Halen would be
a great band to play the show." But it just never worked out, they
never got a chance to do that. It's kind of a shame, it would be a
great story to tell now that we started playing together. We joke now
that it's time to let them know that we're finally ready for them to do
it. (Laughs) It was a good time to have a band in Los Angeles back
then, because the Rainbow, The Sunset Strip, it wasn't as touristy as
it is now. You could mingle with whoever were the biggest stars of our
time. I'd go there at night and literally sit there and talk with John
Bonham. Then he'd say "We'd better sit down, the show's about to begin,
because Keith Moon just walked in." With his antics, he'd just take
over the entire place. A lot of times, we were very good friends with
everybody from Deep Purple, so we would sit at the table with Ritchie
Blackmore, who actually had started Rainbow at the time. then get
together with Ian Paice. It was a really good time to get going. Cozy
Powell of course was there as well. It's amazing, some of the people
that have asked if they could produce us over the years. Cliff Davies
from the Ted Nugent band wanted to be our producer. Ian Paice wanted to
get involved and do it, Cozy Powell wanted to do it. I always found
that amazing that three drummers that I really look up to have all at
one point asked if they could produce this band. Just a little bit of
trivia that I find quite interesting.
Rock N Roll Universe : During the early days, the band enjoyed the
patronage of Gene Simmons, which resulted in the band opening several
shows on KISS's '76 'Rock N' Roll Over' tour, but also in a way led to
your signing with Mercury Records...
Roger Romeo : Well, yes and no. The Gene Simmons thing was kind of
separate from the Mercury Records deal. But what happened with the Gene
Simmons thing was our original bass player, Michael Diamond, was the
best person I've ever seen in the entire universe for cra****ng into any
party or backstage area. We actually got backstage at a KISS concert,
and that's where we met Gene Simmons, and started a relation****p with
him. That was me, Jeff Poole and Michael Diamond.
RNRU : KISS actually wanted to record "Satin Peacock" but you turned
them down. Any regrets about doing that?
Roger Romeo : Yeah, unfortunately. Oh yeah, absolutely we totally
regret it, to this day. (Laughs) But, what happened with the KISS
thing, was that Gene Simmons actually wanted to manage us, and as a
result we ended getting on a few gigs with them. We had since got the
management we ended up with, and Gene wanted us to go with their
booking agency ATI, out of New York. Our management company decided to
go with DMA out of Detroit, because we did get a lot of Ted Nugent gigs
out of that. However, between Ted Nugent and KISS, I think we would've
been better off with the KISS thing, but whatever, it's all water under
the bridge.
To access the entire interview go to this location :
http://www.rocknrolluniverse.com/rocknrolluniverse_088.htm
Rock N Roll Universe
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