ROSS THE BOSS –New Album

ROSS THE BOSS – Recording New Album For AFM


Special Report By Martin Popoff

First the immediate news. Tomorrow, DICTATORS and MANOWAR legend ROSS THE BOSS will be co-hosting a German Metal TV Show called Strike!. See www.ross-the-boss.com and www.streetclip.tv for more.

Once you’ve finished headbanging with Ross, be advised that June ’08 marks the release date for an album by the ROSS THE BOSS BAND, on AFM Records.

“Initially, I started playing,” says Ross, “and there's this band MAJESTY, and Tarek is the lead singer. And he does this festival called the Keep It True festival, but this was before. But all of a sudden Manowar were at this Earthshaker Festival, 2005, and all the old members came. And I came out, and the place went berserk. I walked out on stage, and you know, I'm the founding member of Manowar, and they owe it all to me, I mean, right? (laughs). And so my friend Tarek, and his friend Olli says, ‘Do you want to play the Keep It True festival, the very next one?’ And I say, ‘Well, I don't have a band,’ and they said, ‘Well, we've got you a band, they’re called MENOWAR, and they're the greatest Manowar cover band in all of Germany.’ And I listened to the tape, and I said, ‘Wow, these guys are amazing.’ So we were there and we rehearsed twice and then I played this festival. And all of a sudden I got offers to play in Greece, play in Italy, all over the place, Moscow. Everywhere we went it sold out and we were packed; people were flipping out to see us play. And last October I went to Tarek's studio to record a demo, and they finished it over the year, over the winter, and I had all these festivals to play, Rock Hard, and pretty much up high on the bill, a lot of these gigs, right? And I got out of the car at the Rock Hard festival, and they said, ‘You've got a deal, with AFM.’”

And you're going to record in January?

“Yeah, just got back from Germany, we've got ten songs, unbelievable stuff. It's heavy metal. Well, it's my style, I guess, the style that propelled Manowar. So if you would say it is Manowar-tinged, I wouldn't be offended with that. It’s melodic, super melodic. My singer is a genius. He's a real singer (laughs).”

And to clarify, it’s coming out as Ross The Boss Band?

“It’ll come out as Ross The Boss Band, absolutely. The label was insisting on that. I didn't want that. But they said, ‘Everyone knows you,’ and we’re not throwing any curveballs to any of these people. And they're looking for it to be the biggest album on AFM, ever. Listen, I'm not going to hype this record up to people, but let me tell you something, this record is just going to kill. When you think of heavy metal, and my guitar playing, it's going to be there (laughs).”

Ross is also a big loud part of a Dictators rarities CD that has recently been issued called Every Day Is Saturday. “Actually, I don't even know exactly what's all on it,” laughs Ross. “But it's our early demos… Sixteen Forever, all the stuff we never used. Backseat Boogie, Fireman’s Friend… you can't believe all the stuff that never made it to the record.” See www.nortonrecords.com for more on this – a double vinyl issue will be available as well.