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Legs Diamond Discuss Van Halen, KISS and 'Diamonds Are Forever' 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 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 reportedly 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 stor y 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 ban d 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 crashing 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 relationship 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 |
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