I wanted to prove something, but I didn't know exactly what, or if anybody would be interested. But I really thought I had to do something different, worthwhile artistically, beyond what I did in Iron Maiden, which was great abd I'm proud of it. But I had to tell the guys that I wanted to leave an take a big leap into the unknown. I made three albums before being satisfied. My engineer, Shay Baby, played me some demos from a local L.A. band, Tribe of Gypsies. I was blown away by their demo, so I helped them get a record deal with Mercury and got them a management deal with Sanctuary Music.
Describe some of the songs on the new CD.
"Sacred Cowboy," was written by Roy and myself in the studio. It started sounding like, "Run To The Hills," so Roy and I went down to the pub and got readjusted and came back and finished it in 20 minutes. "1000 Point Of Light," was taken from one of George Bush's speeches. "Laughing In The Hiding Bush," is about my youngest son, Austin, playing with his cousins. He said, "Look, daddy, I'm laughing in the hiding bush." I thought it sounded cool, so I wrote it down and Roy came up with a cool riff. It made me think of all of these fu**ed up things kids think of. It makes me think of what we teach out kids.
Who's touring with you?
Tribe of Gypsies is making an album now, so on tour will be Alex Dickson on guitar, Chris Dale on bass, and Alessandro Elena on drums. Alex and I did a 3 and a half month tour of the U.S. after the CD was done.
What are the tour plans?
We're doing some shows with Jackyl, then heading over to Europe, then coming back to the U.S. and continue into 1995.
What does "Balls to Picasso mean?"
Anything you'd like.
What songs are you going to do live?
When we open for Jackyl, we'll do six songs off the new CD and when we headline, we'll do everysong off the new CD and a couple from "Tattooed Millionaire."
I heard you're a pilot now.
I'm flying the band from show to show. I hate tour buses. You end up getting sick and telling bad jokes. Instead, we'll be sleeping in hotelsand wake up in the morning and fly.