The Jersey Guys Podcast

In this episode The Jersey Guys talk with professional rock photographer Frank White and veteran metal singer Alan Tecchio, who have just co-authored a brand new book titled JERSEY METAL – A History of the Garden State’s Heavy Metal Scene – Volume One (1969-1986).

In Jersey Metal, Frank and Alan team up to offer a unique, autobiographical perspective on NJ’s Heavy Metal music history through photos, ads, interviews and band bios.

Jersey Metal Volume One 1969 to 1986 covers the early years to the mid 1980's of the formation of Heavy Metal here in New Jersey and how it became such an important part of the music scene in the Garden State. The book covers the Metal scene when bands started out as cover bands that rose to worldwide successful acts to local cover Metal bands, Metal tribute bands, original local Metal bands, and Metal bands that toured throughout the state over the years. There is also respect paid to the venues these groups frequented, the radio stations, record companies, stores and the Jersey shore that all helped grow New Jersey’s wild Heavy Metal scene.

In Frank’s words, “Jersey Metal is for all fans of the metal scene from the Garden State and beyond.” Adds Alan, “Putting this book together brought back so many great memories for me and Frank. It is our hope that the same reaction will trigger interest in the book from all the people (fans and artists alike) who were a part of NJ’s Metal scene in one way or another. Even if someone was not directly a part of it, this book should still be an interesting look at a vibrant scene that spawned some amazing careers.”

Joshua is a Christian hard rock/AOR band that formed in 1980 and is centered on guitarist Joshua Perahia. Despite being based in Los Angeles, CA they are probably best known outside of the United States.

The band's first release was entitled The Hand Is Quicker Than the Eye, which referred to Perahia's guitar skills and songwriting ability, was released by Enigma Records in 1983. The single "November Is Going Away" was the band's biggest hit, achieving No. 1 status in Japan. Perahia had a religious experience at a Hal Lindsey–lead Bible study in 1983, and converted to Protestant Christianity from his Greek Orthodox upbringing.

Perahia put together a new band for his 2nd album, Surrender, which included singer Jeff Fenholt. Surrender was released in 1985. Lyrically, the album marked a change in the band's style to lyrics which were evangelical in nature. Rob Rock was involved with their third album on RCA Records, Intense Defense. In 1988, Intense Defense, which was recorded at Dierks Studios and produced initially by Eddie Kramer and then Dieter Dierks (Scorpions fame) was characterized by the editor of HM Magazine as being "probably the best AOR melodic metal album in the universe." It sold well worldwide, but not in the United States.

In 1995, the group re-formed and they released one album under the name M Pire, Chapter One, though it was never released in the US. The band then expanded its name back to Joshua Perahia. The addition of Joshua's last name was to avoid confusion as so many bands were using the name Joshua at the time. The band lacked a permanent vocalist and hired Alex Ligertwood of Santana to fill the spot on the follow-up Something to Say in 2001. However, while in production, the band recruited Jerry Gabriel and re-recorded the vocals. As a result, the album (except four tracks) contains Gabriel's lead vocals, and Ligertwood's vocals are available on a re-release. One song, "The First and the Last", appeared in the Larry Buchanan–directed movie The Copper Scroll of Mary Magdalene in 2004.

2012 saw the release of the band’s latest work, entitled “Resurrection” and featured vocals from Mark Boals (Yngwie Malmsteen, Ring of Fire, Shining Black, etc.). While Joshua still writes music today for a possible future release he has shifted his focus to his son and their passion for vintage muscle cars and exotic cars as well. It’s a passion that was ignited when Joshua was just 13 years old. The fact that Joshua still writes music means that fans can be hopeful of seeing a new recording in the future but for now please enjoy this episode of The Jersey Guys Podcast!

Jeff Martin is an American musician, singer and drummer who has sung for the bands Racer X, Bad Dog, Surgical Steel and St. Michael and has played drums for the bands Badlands, the Michael Schenker Group, Blindside Blues Band, Red Sea, St. Michael and The Electric Fence, a side project with Paul Gilbert and Russ Parrish (aka Satchel from Steel Panther). Jeff played drums om albums and tours for UFO, Paul Gilbert, George Lynch, and Dokken.

He played drums in Surgical Steel before switching to lead vocals and was the drummer/lead vocalist for St. Michael, both Phoenix, AZ-based bands that at one time featured future Badlands cohort Greg Chaisson.

Martin also released a solo album in 2006, The Fool, featuring the guitar talents of Paul Gilbert and Michael Schenker and has also sung backing vocals for Judas Priest and The Scream and he appeared in the 1985 movie Thunder Alley, starring Leif Garrett, with his band Surgical Steel.

Badlands, of course, featured the talents of ex-Ozzy Osbourne guitarist Jake E. Lee and was signed to Atlantic Records. Jeff played drums of the bands 2nd and eventual 3rd releases while also touring on with them on the “Voodoo Highway” tour.

Jeff has some of the best rock n’ roll stories, many of which could have been compared to Spinal Tap! So check out episode# 38 for some of those great stories and his career!

Vain started out as a glam metal band from the San Francisco, CA area. After recording a demo, Davy Vain founded the band in 1986, adding Dylana Nova Scott (aka Jamie Scott), Danny West, Ashley Mitchell and drummer Tom Rickard to the lineup. They signed with Island Records in 1988, before releasing their debut album the following year, titled No Respect, which peaked at number 154 on the Billboard 200.

Though they recorded a second album, Vain were released by Island in 1991, with West and Rickard departing the same year. Following the addition of both Shawn Rorie and former Guns N' Roses drummer Steven Adler, Vain renamed themselves Road Crew. However, they also disbanded in 1991. Vain reformed in 1993 and went through a number of lineup changes for the release of their next two studio albums. By 2005, Scott and West had returned to the band, while Rickard would rejoin them in 2009.

To date, Vain have released seven studio albums; No Respect (1989); All Those Strangers (1991); Move On It (1993); Fade (1995); On The Line (2005); Enough Rope (2011), and Rolling With The Punches (2017) along with a Davy Vain solo album that featured the core of the Vain band also.

Ashley Mitchell, the bassist on every Vain album, including that Davy Vain solo album, talks with The Jersey Guys for this episode and he shares some great stories about the bands history and what they are currently up so be sure to check this episode out!

Louis St. August of MASS was born in Medford, MA and his love for music all started at the very early age of four while watching The Beatles on the Ed Sullivan Show. From there on, the love for all music began from Motown to Heavy Metal!

At the age of ten, his family moved to Revere, Massachusetts. Already playing the drums and singing, Louis recruited his new neighbor Gene D'Itria. Gene wanted to play the drums too but Louis said, “No, you’re going to play guitar.” Heck, he needed a guitarist, right? So Gene took the confirmation money he had just received and bought himself an electric guitar; and so it began. Louis and Gene have now been performing and writing songs for over 40 years. At the age of 15, Louis left the drums and decided to become the frontman for his band called Axes in 1978. By 1981, the band added drummer Joey "Vee" Vadala and changed the name to MASS.

Now having recorded over eight studio albums, and releasing singles and Christmas EP's on major labels such as A&M Records, RCA Records, Enigma Records, and Escape Music the band has officially sold over half a million records worldwide. Louis has also lent his voice to other projects and bands such as the "Liberty & Justice" project and has also appeared as a special guest singer on the band Boston’s 2013 release, “Life, Love & Hope", singing on the opening track "Heaven and Earth".

In 2012, Louis won the "Best Male Vocalist Of The Year" award presented by Limelight Magazine. Now having performed over a thousand shows all across America and having the opportunity to work with legendary producers such like Tom Allom (Judas Preist) Tony Platt (Led Zeppelin) and John Rollo (Joe Cocker), to name a few, it has been a lifelong dream come true for Louis.

Since the early '80s, MASS has continued performing and releasing new music all along the way with their latest acclaimed release “When 2 Worlds Collide" on Escape Music (2018).

MASS is in the beginning stages of creating new music that will hopefully see the light of day in the not too distant future but for now check out episode # 36 of The Jersey Guys Podcast with Louis St. August of MASS and check out www.massrocks.com to keep to date on the band’s happenings!

Holy Soldier was a Christian hard rock/metal band from Los Angeles, CA.

The band was originally formed in early 1985 by bassist Andy Robbins and guitarist Jamie Cramer. They gained a strong local following before signing to A&M Records in 1989. Holy Soldier was initially noted for their strong evangelical focus, although they regularly played to secular audiences. For a time they held one of the largest attendance records at Gazzarri's, a notable nightclub on the Hollywood circuit. In 1989 they signed to Myrrh Records, an imprint of Word/A&M, as that label's first hard rock act. Their self-titled debut, produced by David Zaffiro, was released in 1990 to critical acclaim and moderate commercial success. The band garnered two Dove Awards in 1991, in the hard rock song and album of the year categories. After heavy touring the band lost two members – lead vocalist Steven Patrick, and guitarist Michael Cutting.

They replaced the departing members with Eric Wayne and Scott Soderstrom respectively while continuing to tour. Wayne exited when Steven Patrick returned in 1991, but would again rejoin the group in 1995. Two years later, the band followed up their debut with “Last Train”. While praised, it was not a commercial success. Although “Last Train” charted, peaking at the No. 10 slot on Billboard's CCM chart, the album did not meet the sales expectations of the label unfortunately.

The band experienced personnel changes when Steven Patrick again departed. They again replaced him with Seattle-based vocalist Eric Wayne, who helped move the band into the current grunge sound seen in the marketplace at that time. Wayne's lower vocal register caused Holy Soldier to be compared in the alternative hard rock and grunge market with the likes of Pearl Jam, Stone Temple Pilots, Temple of the Dog, and Soundgarden. After Holy Soldier's reinvention and extensive touring, the band was signed to ForeFront Records in 1994. Once again recruiting the production skills of David Zaffiro, they released “Promise Man” in 1995 and it returned the band to critical acclaim within the Christian music circuit. Despite the success of “Promise Man”, In 1997, after a short hiatus, bassist Andy Robbins independently produced on his own boutique label (Spaceport Records) and a live retrospective album featuring both current frontman Eric Wayne and original vocalist Steven Patrick was released. After the release of “Encore”.

In 2005, the original Holy Soldier lineup reunited briefly. But again, Steven Patrick's reunion with the band was extremely brief. The band played only a handful of shows and the rest was history. Jamie Cramer is currently working again with David Zaffiro and looking forward to releasing new music in 2023 so keep an eye out!

In this episode of The Jersey Guys Podcast we welcome back special co-host TJ Coyne as we each share our Top 25 albums of all time! Tom, Mark & TJ let everyone in on the albums that mean the most to them so take a listen and see what you think. Maybe some of ours will also be some of yours!

In addition to each listing our Top 25, we also throw in some honorable mentions and then have a general discussion on some choices that may have surprised the hosts. It was a fun episode so be sure to check it out!

Ronnie Mancuso is not only a guitarist and songwriter for the band Beggars & Thieves but is also COO of the Bootlegger Italian Bistro, a staple on the Las Vegas scene for many years, the owner of a recording studio, a live concert venue and a writer of jingles and music for the Fox TV network amongst others. He’s a man of many talents and endeavors without a doubt. Having wrote and recorded a total of four Beggars & Thieves albums (and one EP) to date with longtime bandmate and singer Louie Merlino, Ronnie has also toured with Jake E. Lee’s Red Dragon Cartel and worked with former Kiss guitarist Ace Frehley too, so episode # 33 is a good one packed with lots of great stories from Ronnie about his career and life.

Mancuso is always writing songs so there may even be new Beggars & Thieves music on the horizon but for now check out episode 33 of The Jersey Guys Podcast!

Hittman are an American power & progressive metal band active from 1984 to 1994, and then from 2017 to the present. It was in 1985 that Dirk Kennedy answered an ad in "The Music Paper" and became the lead vocalist for the band. They went on to release two albums through SPV/Steamhammer and Roadracer Records, "Hittman" (1988) and "Vivas Machina" (1993). Both albums were critically acclaimed and the band was featured on the cover British magazine of Kerrang! (getting a near perfect KKKK 1/2) and other international rock magazines heralded them as the next great force in hard rock music. After the 1993/94 tour for "Vivas Machina" the band went on hiatus. Whilst never achieving mainstream success, the band has had a cult status over the last 25 years, especially in Germany, Japan and Greece. In 2020 Hittman released their 3rd album, "Destroy All Humans" on No Remorse Records.

In 2009, there were talks for a Hittman reunion including an appearance at the 12th annual Keep It True Festival in Germany. The performance was canceled due to a non-specified family issue. Up until then, no other reunion of Hittman had ever taken place. On November 11, 2013, original bassist Mike Buccell was involved in a fatal accident, making a reunion of the primary lineup impossible. At that time, the band could not imagine moving forward without Buccell but then in 2017 the band announced an official reformation and the renewed and invigorated remaining original members came together to record material for a new album to coincide with their appearance at the Keep It True Festival. They have asserted that it sounds like the logical album to follow the debut from 1988.

Dirk Kennedy also sang for Anthrax in its formative stages when they were merely a garage band. He was a freshman in high school and was friends with a schoolmate of Scott Ian's then girlfriend Marge Ginsberg. Persuaded to sing with the band after hearing him mimic Ronnie James Dio it lasted a few months although he was never a full “official” member of the band.

Hittman eventually acquired the rights to their initial two releases and went into the studio to remaster their classic 1988 debut. Released on October 31, 2017 on No Remorse Records, the album contains a faithful re-master of the original recording and for the first time, the original 1985 (and much-bootlegged) demo that has been re-mixed and re-mastered also and included as a bonus on the release. Kennedy says the band are working on two new records of varying styles so hopefully we will see new music from Hittman in the very near future so in the meantime enjoy this episode with Dirk Kennedy!

The Jersey Guys Podcast is back with a brand new episode and this time we talk with guest Danny Martinez of C.I.T.A./Guild of Ages.

Caught in the Act (aka C.I.T.A) and later Guild of Ages, is an interesting band to say the least. Born in the late 1980’s on the Denver, CO music scene they finally released their debut album in 1995 to the delight of melodic rock fans worldwide. After a quickly following up with their second record they were forced to change their name for legal reasons and Guild of Ages is the name the band continued on under releasing several albums including the 2018 comeback “Rise”. The band sounded as good as ever on this record so we tracked down singer Danny Martinez and talked at length about the bands career and the possibility we will hear new music from them in the near future. This was great conversation with one of the more talented artists of the underground melodic rock scene, so check out episode 31 of The Jersey Guys Podcast now!