Metal, Hardcore, Indie, Rock
We had the pleasure of interviewing Ryan Roxie. Ryan is an American guitarist, vocalist, and songwriter who is most known for his solo work as well as his guitar work with Slash’s Snakepit, Alice Cooper, Casablanca, and Gilby Clarke.
Hi Ryan, how are you doing? You’ve just finished the US leg of the Alice Cooper tour, “Alice’s Attic”, a few days ago you also played with Dad’s Porno Mag at the Viper Room – how was it?
Ryan Roxie: Yeah! It’s been a very exciting couple of weeks for myself and for the band. We basically played three different shows in a matter of two weeks. Because we were on the road doing the Alice Cooper, “Alice’s Attic” tour, which is one type of set, one type of list of songs, then we had a week off where I did DPM – Dad’s Porno Mag – and learnt another set that I hadn’t played in 30 years. Then we went to Las Vegas to do a third set, which is the Alice Cooper / Criss Angel’s show, “Welcome to my nightmare”, which has some of the same songs that the “Attic” show has but with different arrangements and some songs that we don’t play at all at “Alice’s Attic” tour. So it’s basically having to learn three different shows in one or two weeks.
Wow. That must have been a lot of work.
Ryan Roxie: It was a lot of work but it didn’t seem like it because we were really enjoying the process. All of these things we knew already, so it was just making them common again, making them normal habits. Cause once you’ve played something so many times – especially with the Alice Cooper band, we’ve played these songs hundreds if not thousands of times – even though you might walk away from it for a little while, you think you would forget but your muscle memory doesn’t let you forget. So we know these songs pretty well.
And well, the Alice Cooper shows are always very intense – you’re touring a lot.
Ryan Roxie: Yeah. It’s non-stop. You know, knock on wood. Because we want to work as much as possible, we want to reach as many Alice Cooper fans as possible, we want people to see Alice Cooper as many times as they possibly can because what we don’t know is when we would stop touring. So there’s always that question, and especially with how crazy the world is right now, while the Alice Cooper band is out on a tour… It’s one of the things that’s the most stable in the world. [laughs] You know, it’s the most consistent. Cause we consistently tour every single year. So if you haven’t seen the Alice Cooper band yet, I would strongly welcome you to come see us and become a part of our family, and if you have seen us before, come and check us out again – we have a very cool lineup. On this tour that we’re having this year Anna Cara has stepped in for Nita Strauss and Anna’s doing a great job, I think a lot of people should come watch her play guitar while she’s in this band!
That’s actually something I was going to ask you about – after all, you’ve welcomed a new band member. I feel like Anna is very well maintaining Nita’s spirit in the band, and yet she’s bringing in something of her very own.
Ryan Roxie: The most responsibility fell on the shoulders of Anna to learn all of Nita’s parts, to begin with. So she took it up on herself to really nail down and learn all of those parts. And then, once she knew those parts, she put her own style into it, which matched with my guitar playing and Tommy’s guitar playing… they all have to match together and form, like, one guitar sound. So, because she is such a talented guitar player, she’s able to learn very quickly, adapt to a three-guitar-player lineup and put her own personality and her own style into playing the Alice Cooper songs. And her own solo – she’s written her own guitar solo now – it’s very impressive, you can tell who influences her. It’s a lot of old-school, classic rock guitar virtuosos. Like Gary Moore is a big influence for her. So having that shred and classic rock combination for Anna is a very big plus in this band.
Was it hard for you all to technically learn everything from scratch? Cause you were already used to playing with Nita – you could expect what the other would do at a certain point of the show and suddenly there was somebody new who joined the band.
Ryan Roxie: Well, this is not the first time that we had to bring in another guitar player – we brought in Gilby Clarke, before we brought in Kane Roberts. Sometimes Tommy and I have done shows with just the two of us playing guitar… so we’re pretty adapted to bringing in new guitar players and making their strengths work out the best for us. Fortunately for us Anna has really done her homework – like I said, she’s been really able to blend in with us almost seamlessly. You know, a lot of people really enjoy listening to this guitar trio and we’re excited to go out there and prove it every single night.
Oh, I could tell that from the live videos! But regarding your bands – you were around when glam metal was forming… You were around Guns n’ Roses in their early days. Then you saw the glam scene being sort of taken over by grunge. Then the rebirth of hard rock, and now you’re playing horror rock with Alice Cooper.
Ryan Roxie: Yeah.
And yet, throughout all of these music eras you’ve managed to maintain your individuality. But was there, at any point, a temptation to fit into some kind of a style that didn’t really feel “yours” just to keep yourself in the mainstream?
Ryan Roxie: I think that I’ve always considered that whether it’s glam metal – or whatever label they would put on it – horror rock, soft rock, heavy metal or grunge, I think there’s a consistency of rock and roll in that. Because it’s always been melodic, memorable songs, good songs and heavy sounds. And if you can keep that combination of really good songs and really heavy tones, I think it can be successful in any genre of whatever is a mainstream of the year type of music. I’ve pretty much remained consistent in, I like to call it, rock and roll. When I can fit into a glam band or I can fit into doing shock rock or I can fit into doing even grunge. I mean, on this last tour Alice has been playing, as an ode to Kurt Cobain, we’ve been playing “Smells Like Teen Spirit” as the encore song. So it kind of shows that it doesn’t matter what kind of genre you might want to call it – a real rock and roll band can pull it off, no matter what style of music. And that’s why I’m happy to be in the Alice Cooper band, because I think Alice’s career – whether it’s the 70s music, the 80s music, the 90s music, 2000s and beyond, there’s always different shades of a style in there, but it’s always consistently Alice Cooper.
Well, that’s actually the response I was hoping to hear! [laughs] Do you think that if, let’s say, the glam scene hadn’t been overtaken by grunge, was there any chance for your band Electric Angels to record something more? Or did it feel like it was the right time for you all to part your ways?
Ryan Roxie: We actually did record a second album and it got released years, years later, called “Lost in the Atlantic”. It was all the songs that we had compiled for the second record. But I kind of think that all the time that we spent before the album came out – the first Electric Angels album which is a self-titled and it was on Atlantic Records – all the time that we spent writing the songs, forming the band, moving from Los Angeles to New York City, having two different scenes and then touring back and forth across the United States constantly for those years… I think that gave us a lot of experience, it gave us a lot of good times, it gave us some bad times as well but we rode through everything. So we knew what it was like to have a bit of success as far as having a song on the radio and having a really strong, dedicated fanbase… but we also knew what it was like to not be a priority on a major label, and it was a tough pill to swallow sometimes. Because you see these other bands that are getting much more money to go out on tour, tour support, you see them getting a lot more promotion for their album… and you have to deal with that. And I felt that we dealt with it the best way we could. With all the records that we ended up selling, we really made an impact on our fans. We did try again to get that second album out on the same label or at least on another major label – the times were changing, like you said, with grunge music coming in but I thought we could adapt within that. But I think for us at that point, at least for me personally, living in New York City had run its course. I came there with 50 dollars and two milk crates in my possession – that was it, two milk crates full of stuff that I came there with. And then I left with even less money – I left with 20 dollars and the same two milk crates back to Los Angeles! [laughs] But in between I had lived a bunch of amazing experiences that I’ll never forget, that influenced me, impacted me on my whole, entire career. So I knew what it was like to have money from a record deal and a publishing deal at that point, I knew what it was like to spend money living in New York City and how expensive it is. Coming there with basically not a lot of money and leaving there with less kinda taught me that it ran its course. But when I went back to Los Angeles that just inspired me more to play with as many bands as I could, and luckily at that point I got together with an old bandmate that was Gilby Clarke. He was putting out a solo album, and that’s what started the whole journey for me of playing with Gilby Clarke and then Alice Cooper noticing me from that band. So that’s just a very short story of what happened because there were a bunch of bands that didn’t happen to get to that level and a bunch of shows, and a bunch of tours but all this experience through it, starting with Electric Angels, has made me sort of a survivor, a guy in the trenches that plays rock and roll for a living – the guy that I am today.
I guess you can indeed treat it like a great adventure.
Ryan Roxie: It is a great adventure, it’s a great rock and roll adventure!
Now, as for the latest single, you released “Fight another day”. What was the inspiration for that one? The lyrics are really deep.
Ryan Roxie: Well, “Fight another day”… It goes back to being in the trenches and always doing your best to make a goal happen. You have to practice it, you have to first set the goal in your mind. And understand that it’s not gonna come instantaneously. Sometimes when you want success, what you consider success will come either quickly or it will take many, many years. And “Fight Another Day” is basically just having that persistence inside yourself, the patience to wait it out. So, I’ve talked about the “three Ps” a lot in interviews. I can say: “Practice, Persistence and Patience”, these are the keys to achieving goals – no matter what it is. Whether you wanna play music or whether you wanna be successful in whatever career you decide on. But for me that song, literally “Fight Another Day” – sometimes you have to understand, you know what? The goal is not gonna happen today, but I put work into it, so tomorrow it gives me a better fighting chance to make that goal happen and make that dream a reality.
That has a very positive mindset, like most of your songs! And now that you are in South Africa, I’m curious, have you started exploring the local rock scene? Is it any different from the Swedish one that you’ve gotten to know or the, obviously, American one?
Ryan Roxie: The South African rock scene is here. I’ve met some great musicians. I think there’s definitely potential to start something that has a little bit of my American influence and merge it with the South African love for rock and roll. Cause I gotta tell you, especially here in Cape Town, South African musicians are really proficient, good on their instruments, they love good, old-fashioned, classic rock and other new styles as well. It’s no different than anywhere else but, the thing about it is, I just haven’t spent enough time in Cape Town because we’ve been touring so much. My wife and I were talking about that – I’ve spent more time so far this year on the road than I’ve been at home. So, obviously I’m happy for that, I wanna work as much as I can with Alice and I wanna tour as much as we can and play as many shows as we can with my own stuff as well as with Alice Cooper. So I’ll never turn down the work. But if I am here and we’re not touring, I’ll do my best to get some sort of scene going. Because there is potential and I think it would be really cool if more European and American bands were able to come down here and tour. If I can help make that happen and get more rock bands down here to Cape Town to play, then I think I’m doing something good not just for myself but I’m doing good for the city as well.
That would be a cool project!
Ryan Roxie: Yes, absolutely.
In the 90s you also played with Slash in Slash’s Snakepit. You’re both truly influential musicians, both of whom have very distinctive musical identities, and yet in a great way you managed to complement each other! What was working with Slash like for you?
Ryan Roxie: He’s one of the best guitar teachers I’ve ever had. Cause I spent so many years playing right next to him, playing off of him. Writing counterparts to his riffs, and things that would melt together, that’s the reason why we got together in the first place – it was that he would come in and guest at Alice Cooper shows, and we always ended up sort of side by side playing off each other and it worked really well. So I feel that the album “Ain’t Life Grand” that we spent a lot of years working on, first and foremost I think the singer that we had on the album, Rod Jackson, has done such an incredible job singing. And every musician that played on it was in top form, like Johnny Griparic, he’s such a great bass player, Matt Laug, who was such a solo drummer, he now plays for AC/DC – it doesn’t get much more rock and roll than that! And of course Rod singing, and then we had Teddy Zig Zag on keyboards, he came in and guested. The great late Jack Douglas produced the album, he just passed away – he made such a great album of “Ain’t Life Grand”. And I thought that Slash’s guitar playing during those years was some of the best guitar playing that he’d done since “Appetite for Destruction”. It’s one of those albums that not enough of the world heard. So if you find it on Spotify or find it streaming somewhere, because sometimes it’s up on the streaming platforms, sometimes it’s taken away but if you find it, it’s one of those diamond-in-the-rough types of albums that I’m really proud to be a part of. It took a long time to record, there were definitely highs and lows in the recording process as well, but through it all Slash and I really played well together. And I feel that it was a good guitar duo. And, you know, what can you say about Slash’s guitar playing – he’s a household name. So, just a great player and someone that I obviously have been influenced by, as well as a bunch of other great guitar players that I’ve been lucky enough to play over the years in bands with.
Who would you say has influenced your guitar playing the most? I know that you’ve always been a huge fan of Cheap Trick and bands like that. So, if you were to mention three guitar players who have shaped your playing the most, who would that be?
Ryan Roxie: Well, three guitar players who’d shaped my playing the most, I would say… It’s hard to narrow it down to three cause I have about four or five. But I’ll give them to you. Rick Nielsen, as far as an entertainer, songwriter, or just solo guitar player, Rick Nielsen of the band Cheap Trick is probably one of the biggest influences. I would say that Neil Giraldo, Steve Stevens… Neil Giraldo plays for the band called Pat Benatar and Steve Stevens plays with Billy Idol. Both those guitar players are really, really solid, great lead players, also great parts players. So I would say they’d influenced me as well… Elliot Easton from a band called The Cars – some of the best guitar solos and parts. He would write the guitar parts that would elevate the songs, that’s all I ever wanted to do as a guitar player, to write guitar parts that make the song better. So Elliot Easton of The Cars. And probably one of the biggest influences would be Peter Frampton. “Frampton Comes Alive!” is one of the greatest albums of all time. Now, those are all of the underground guys who maybe you wouldn’t think that Ryan Roxie would be influenced by. Of course there’s the obvious ones, Eddie Van Halen, Ace Frehley, Randy Rhoads, Brian May from the band Queen, obviously these are all huge guitar players too, so I can’t just narrow it down to three – I’m sorry. I think I gave you at least six or seven!
Oh, that’s okay. [laughs] I expected so. Also, now that you’ve been touring with Alice Cooper for so many years, has there ever been that one moment on stage, or possibly not only one, when something suddenly went a bit wrong and you guys now remember it as this sort of band inside joke?
Ryan Roxie: Yeah! I think almost every night something goes wrong, I mean, that’s just rock and roll, almost every night we have something that happens. But once every few years when Alice is getting his head cut off and the guillotine doesn’t come down all the way, and it actually doesn’t chop his head off… that’s always one of those moments when you go “wait a second, all these people are waiting, they’ve been waiting all night to see Alice’s head getting cut off. What do we do…?” But that just happens. There’s been times when we’ve been on the stage where all the power in the building and on stage goes off, there’s been times when the PA goes off but we can still hear ourselves in our IEMs, so we keep on playing and we’re rocking and we’re like, “why is the audience not getting into it?” Because they’re not hearing anything! That’s the reason why. So those are the moments that’s always just, you know, interesting, but we’ve been a band for so long together that we always deal with any sort of adversity with a smile on our face. It doesn’t make sense to get angry and mad about it because at the end of the day, for an audience to see something that goes wrong in an Alice Cooper show is so much more rare because the band is pretty consistent and we try to deliver a killer show every single night we go out. So if they see something that goes wrong, maybe that’s a little special for them…? Maybe it’s special for us. That’s one way I’m looking at it – that’s a positive way of looking at it, I guess! [laughs]
I think so! And by now you’ve grown together so well that you’re pretty much like one huge family.
Ryan Roxie: Yeah.
If there was one gig of all that you’ve ever played that you could go back in time to and play again, which one would you pick? Would that be one with Alice Cooper?
Ryan Roxie: Wow, that’s a good question because if there was one gig that I would want to do again… maybe it would be a gig that I haven’t done yet. Because, the first time we played at Madison Square Garden, the first time we played the Hollywood Bowl, then last year, after all these years, I finally was able to play the Los Angeles Forum… those were some of the bucket list gigs that were just so much fun to play and I wanted to keep that memory of these gigs. Because every single one of them was really memorable and special to me in my heart. If I were to go back and do one again just to relive it and have fun… my own band Roxie 77, at that time we were calling it Happy Pill – we were formed of the Swedish lineup and had Anton Körberg on drums, Magnus Hägerås on the guitar, and Johan Bergqvist on the guitar as well. We ended up playing Stockholms Stadion, the Olympic stadium, opening up for Kiss. That was such a memorable show for me, I would love to go back and do it again. For just like, maybe five more minutes on stage so we could do another song.
Are you thinking of reviving any of your past projects? Just like you did a few days ago with Dad’s Porno Mag?
Ryan Roxie: Hey, look, the 30th anniversary of DPM was very special for us. So… I guess! And maybe another year… maybe next year there might be a 30th anniversary of the Roxie 77 album, so maybe we’ll have to do that. And we’ll see! Like I said, it was such a positive experience, putting that band back together, the original recording lineup with Will Effertz and Mike Fasano on drums, Mike is playing in another band called Tiger Army that’s very popular now and yet he put so much effort into making the DPM Dad’s Porno Mag a special night… My hat’s off to him, and Will Effertz, he hadn’t played bass in 20 years and he picked up the bass and learnt the album again and he was really, really amazing to play with – I’m still watching some videos taken that night. So it was such a cool experience, I would do it again with any of the other bands I put together or I’ve been a part of as well. It would be fun as well to someday do a reunion with Snakepit! It would be fun to do a reunion with Casablanca, it’s a band I joined and was a part of two albums there – I always enjoyed playing with these musicians so I like this idea of putting something together and having a very special night of it. Or maybe even a tour.
Roxie 77 was an amazing band; it would be interesting to see a reunion! I’ll be looking forward to such updates then. As for Casablanca, “Hail the Liberation” is a really catchy track – it also has this positive attitude that’s sort of characteristic of your music over the years.
Ryan Roxie: Cool, thank you. Yeah, like some of the stuff, if you really dive into it, there’s some dark stuff as well, no doubt about it. Like “Two sides to every story”, that I put out with Roxie 77, was when I was going through a divorce from my first wife, the mother of my kids. So there’s a lot of dark themes and stuff that I had to get out but I always try to balance them with some positive songs as well and positive life.
I see… but that’s an inspiring attitude. Also, you started playing guitar as a child – at first you were practicing drums because your mother did, but then you switched to guitar. Was there ever a time when you started doubting if that’s the thing that you really wanted to do?
Ryan Roxie: I think I learnt very quickly that being a drummer was a lot more work than being a guitar player! [laughs] Because drums, if you were a drummer in a band – at least in my time growing up – you had to come first to the gig, set up all your stuff, you had to usually own a big van to get your drums across there, while as a guitar player you just had a small amp, you had a guitar, sometimes you could walk to a gig with your instrument. And the most important thing I think for me was wanting to be like those posters on my wall – I saw the guitar players and the singers being in front of the stage. Right in the front. And that’s where I kind of wanted to see myself, where I always saw myself being. And now I’m lucky enough to play in a band where our lead singer is very, very secure with his own iconic status that he wants us to shine as well. I mean, he actually wants us to step in the middle of the stage under the spotlight when it starts turning to a solo. So I really appreciate Alice Cooper for that.
Yeah, that’s a great thing. Well, thank you so much for your time! I hope that you’re all going to have a blast at the European part of the tour.
Ryan Roxie: Thank you very much!
