Show 231 – Ace Von Johnson

Show Notes

• Interview: Ace Von Johnson of LA Guns and (sort of) Faster Pussycat about everything from his bands to pitbulls and Ouija boards
• Double-Shot from the Rock Artist of the Decade
• Triple-Shot from the Best Selling Metal Album in History
• Triple-Shot from L.A. Guns
• Tribute to the Motley Crue, Def Leppard, Poison, Joan Jett Stadium Tour
• Hits and Deep Cuts from Killer Dwarfs, Badlands, Steelheart, Seven Past Sunset, Firehouse, Faster Pussycat, LA Guns, AC/DC, Can’t Swim, and more!

The Complete, Uncut Ace Von Johnson Interview

Below you can listen to the complete, uncut, uncensored interview with Ace Von Johnson of LA Guns and Faster Pussycat on the Hard, Heavy & Hair Podcast. Note: There is no music in the full interview. To hear the music discussed, listen to the show.

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Start (mm:ss) – Subject

0:39 – Introduction
0:55 – LA Guns in Seattle
1:10 – Thanksgiving, Danny Nordahl, the Rainbow Room
1:40 – (Sort of) Still in Faster Pussycat?
2:38 – Touring Schedule
3:13 – Sam Bam Koltun
4:43 – Internet Rumors
5:22 – Adam Hamilton
7:20 – Working with Phacii and Tril
7:39 – What it’s Really Like Working with Tracii and Phil
9:30 – L.A. Guns – A Great Camp and Fun Band to Be In
9:42 – The Other Lead Guitar Player
10:00 – The Man, the Myth, the Legend
10:14 – A Band That Gets Along
10:48 – Phil’s & Tracii’s Partnership
11:30 – Favorite LA Guns Song to Play
12:20 – SONG Hellraisers Ball
12:28 – SONG Over the Edge
12:29 – Favorite L.A. Guns Deep Cut
14:36 – SONG Sticky Fingers
14:37 – Influences and Getting Into Hard Rock
15:23 – The U.S. Bombs
15:35 – Big Bang Babies and Kerri Kelly
16:19 – Charlie and the Valentine Killers
17:02 – Switchblade Kitty
17:15 – Butcher Babies
17:45 – Joining L.A. Guns
18:18 – Murphy’s Law
19:00 – Monsters of Rock Cruise
19:49 – Jamming – Burnout and Charities
21:43 – Robert Mason of Warrant
22:18 – Play With Wishlist
23:26 – PItbull Advocate
24:59 – In Other News: 74 Million Other Dogs
25:24 – Judge the Deed, Not the Breed
25:58 – Saving My Pitbull for $30k
26:51 – Charity Cause
28:29 – Whiskey Man
29:44 – Road Stories
30:02 – Pranking John Corabi
30:41 – Jizzy Pearl the Intellectual
32:05 – Pleading the 5th
32:13 – Ouija Boards
33:23 – Ouija Board Collection
33:58 – The Ouija Guitar
34:14 – The Plaque at the Rainbow Room
34:57 – Neon Coven
35:21 – Ace Von Johnson Merchandise
35:27 – Pitbull Benefit Merchandise
35:41 – Patreon for Fans
36:16 – Voiceover Work and Netflix
37:05 – Character Voiceover Demo
37:41 – Upcoming L.A. Guns Concerts
39:11 – Wrap-Up

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Playlist

Own the hits and deep cuts you hear on Hard, Heavy & Hair! Click the iTunes/Apple Music or Amazon Digital Music icons to the left of each song.

FireHouse – Rock on the Radio

Seven Past Sunset – Need

Mötley Crüe – Saints of Los Angeles

Def Leppard – Pour Some Sugar on Me

Poison – Talk Dirty to Me

Joan Jett & The Blackhearts – I Hate Myself for Loving You

Faster Pussycat – House of Pain

Mötley Crüe (with John Corabi) – Hooligan’s Holiday

Halestorm – I Miss The Misery

Halestorm – Black Vultures

Killer Dwarfs – Dirty Weapons

Steelheart – Sheila

AC/DC – Shoot to Thrill

AC/DC – You Shook Me All Night Long

AC/DC – Back in Black

Can’t Swim – Power

Manowar – Metal Warriors

Transcript of the Show

[INTRO]

I’ve got a killer show for you today, my dearest head banging friend.

Coming up is a Double-Shot from the Rock Artist of the Decade, another
Triple-Shot from the Only 25X Platinum Metal Album in History
Tribute to the Motley Crue, Def Leppard, Poison, Joan Jett Stadium Tour
AND
my interview with Ace Von Johnson of LA Guns and (sort of) Faster Pussycat.

Find out what I mean by “Sort Of” at the bottom of this hour when it’s the first question I ask Ace Von Johnson.

This Hard, Heavy & Hair, and rock on the radio is here to stay!

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FireHouse – Rock on the Radio
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Ready for your first Cover Song of the Week clue? The first one is always the hardest.

The Cover Song of the Week original was the breakthrough song to make the career of an early 70s troubadour from my home town of Boston, Massachusetts. It’s from a singer-songwriter who, with more than 100 million records sold worldwide, is one of the best-selling musicians of all time. He was also married to fellow 70s singer-songwriter Carly Simon from 1972 through 1983.

More and easier clues later.

Hailing from the American Midwest, this is Seven Past Sunset with their latest, “Need,” on Hard, Heavy & Hair.

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Seven Past Sunset – Need
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Unless you’ve been living under a rock or hiding from TV, the Internet, and all other news because you can’t deal with the Impeachment hearings in the U.S. or the fracturing of Great Britain and the United Kingdom, then you know Motley Crue is back, that they’re embarking on a massive stadium tour in 2020, and that they’re not doing it alone. Despite ridiculously high ticket prices, most of those shows have already sold out and did so on the first day of ticket sales!

To celebrate–or maybe lament–that fact, I thought I’d play you a little musical tribute to that tour. Here’s a block of four songs from the four bands embarking on that massive stadium tour, beginning with the Saints of Los Angeles who put it together.

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Mötley Crüe – Saints of Los Angeles [Gang Vocal Version] Def Leppard – Pour Some Sugar On Me
Poison – Talk Dirty to Me
Joan Jett & The Blackhearts – I Hate Myself for Loving You
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A little tribute to the new stadium tour featuring the return of Motley Crue to the stage. In order you heard the Crue themselves with “Saints of Los Angeles,” Def Leppard with “Pour Some Sugar On Me,” “Talk Dirty to Me” by Poison, and, closing out the block and the tour lineup, Joan Jett & The Blackhearts and “I Hate Myself for Loving You.”

My interview with Faster Pussycat and LA Guns guitarist Ace Von Johnson is next, right after this Faster Pussycat song Ace has played live many, many times. This is “House of Pain.”

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Faster Pussycat – House of Pain
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After being introduced by mutual friends at a recent L.A. Guns show, I had a talk with Punk guitarist turned Hard Rock and Metal guitarist Ace Von Johnson. Ace plays lead guitar in Faster Pussycat and, in the words of Tracii Guns, the “second lead guitar” in the version of L.A. Guns featuring both Tracii Guns and Phil Lewis.

[Ace Von Johnson Interview]

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L.A. Guns – Hellraisers Ball
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[Ace Von Johnson Interview]

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L.A. Guns – Sticky Fingers
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Great cut there as chosen by LA Guns guitarist Ace Von Johnson for that sweet riff.

Ace is both a member of Guns and of Faster Pussycat, and with the latter, he’s played the Monsters of Rock Cruise many times. He will be on the cruise in 2020, too. You can check out his answer to the question of what he’ll be doing on the MORC cruise in the longer version of the interview on PariahRocks.com. Just look for “Ace Von Johnson Full Interview”.

After we talked about regular performances on the Monsters of Rock Cruise, I asked Ace if he’d play any of the jams that usually come together on the Rock and Metal cruises. His answer surprised me, as did the harrowing story of what happened to his dog. Have a listen.

[Ace Von Johnson Interview]

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L.A. Guns – Over the Edge
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[Ace Von Johnson Interview]

Remember to hit PariahRocks.com, MixCloud.com, or your favorite podcast platform to listen to all 40 minutes of my interview with Ace Von Johnson. In that longer version Ace and I talk about his other bands and projects, human body parts, our favorite whiskeys, his affinity for Ouija boards, Jizzy Pearl, Robert Mason of Warrant, and lots more, including a deeper discussion about how different L.A. Guns is to any other band Ace has played in. Check out that full interview recording–PariahRocks.com, MixCloud.com, or your favorite podcast platform–just search for Ace Von Johnson or Pariah Burke.

Why don’t we give a listen to that song Ace and the rest of Pussycat playfully interrupted when John Corabi tried to play it on tour? This is “Hooligan’s Holiday” from the 1994 Motley Crue album featuring John “Crab” Corabi on vocals and rhythm guitar.

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Mötley Crüe – Hooligan’s Holiday
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Ready for another Cover Song of the Week clue?

The Cover Song of the Week is a deep cut from the 1991 second and final (finished) album by a Blues Metal band founded by a former Ozzy guitarist and two former members of Black Sabbath. There was a third album released by this riff-heavy band in 1998, but it was an LP of demos that were never completely finished in large part because the band’s vocalist, Ray Gillen, passed away in 1993 from an AIDS-related disease.

Loudwire just named this next artist the Rock Artist of the Decade. What do you think? Here’s a double-shot of Halestorm on Hard, Heavy & Hair!

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Halestorm – I Miss The Misery
Halestorm – Black Vultures
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Loudwire’s Rock Artist of the Decade, Halestorm, in a double-shot that started with “I Miss the Misery” from 2012’s The Strange Case Of LP and then, from the band’s latest album, “Black Vultures.”

I’ve got a couple of requests here. First up, reaching out to me on Twitter under the handle of Rock Bands of the 80s, is this one for Killer Dwarfs. It’s the title track to their 1990 album “Dirty Weapons.”

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Killer Dwarfs – Dirty Weapons
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My next request comes from Steelheart superfan Jessica Frehley. Jessica writes: “It’s been a year since i’ve first heard the Hard, Heavy & Hair show and joined the Hard, Heavy & Hair family. I’ve been hooked ever since. I would love to hear sheila by steelheart to help me celebrate this anniversary. Here’s to another year of the hard, heavy and hair show. cheers and merry Christmas.”

A year already?! Happy Anniversary, Jessica! And a Merry Christmas to you as well. Breakout the champagne and sexy teddy, because here’s your request, “Sheila” by Steelheart, to help you celebrate your anniversary with me playing music and talking dirty in your ear.

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Steelheart – Sheila
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The RIAA just certified a particular album every true headbanger or horn thrower should not only own but listen to in its entirety at least once a year as 25 times Platinum–more than double Diamond sales. That means the album has sold more than 250 million copies, making it the best-selling Metal album in history. Can you guess what album that is?

Let’s see if three songs from that album will tell you. If it were up to me, I’d play you the entire album, but three songs from the same album in a 2-hour period is the maximum I’m allowed by law. Seriously. So, three songs it is, all three of them from the best-selling Metal album history!

If you’re driving, remember that normal speed limits don’t apply when you’re listening to this band, so crank the radio way the hell up!

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AC/DC – Shoot to Thrill
AC/DC – You Shook Me All Night Long
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Can you handle one more by AC/DC? Also from the newly certified 25x Platinum Back in Black album, is this, the title track!

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AC/DC – Back in Black
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More than 250 million album sales of AC/DC”s Back in Black, the most commercially successful Metal album in history! Good job, boys. Keep it up.

For your final Cover Song of the Week clue, let’s talk about the Cover Song of the Week lyrics. It’s a sombre song with a thread running through it of speaking to a friend whom the songwriter has just learned had committed suicide months before. It’s a true story. The song begins with this stanza.

Just yesterday morning they let me know you were gone
Susanne the plans they made put an end to you
I walked out this morning and I wrote down this song
I just can’t remember who to send it to

Featuring Frank Carter, this is Can’t Swim with “Power.”

[COW]

Have you figured out that the Cover Song of the Week is “Fire and Rain,” originally by James Taylor, and covered by Badlands?

It’s a sombre song chronicling several low points in then-20-year-old James Taylor’s life. The lyrical thread running through the song is about a friend, referred to as Suzanne, whom the songwriter has just learned died months before. It’s a true story. Her name was Susie Schnerr, and she was a friend of James Taylor’s. Schnerr had been placed into an isolation cell a psychiatric facility. She would take her life in that cell. She did it while Taylor was tour and just beginning his musical career. His friends withheld the news from him until months later so as to not distract Taylor.

On their 1991 album Voodoo Highway, the second and final finished Badlands album, Jake E. Lee, Ray Gillen, Greg Chaisson, and drummer Jeff Martin, covered the James Taylor classic in their Bluesy Hard Rock style. That song is the Cover Song of the Week, “Fire and Rain.” Here it is by Badlands followed by Jame Taylor’s original.

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Badlands – Fire and Rain
James Taylor – Fire and Rain
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You just heard James Taylor’s original “Fire and Rain” following the guitar-laden, Bluesy Hard Rock 1991 cover by Badlands featuring Jake E. Lee on guitar and the late Ray Gillen on vocals. “Fire and Rain” is the Hard, Heavy & Hair Cover Song of the Week.

Let’s end the show on a much higher note with Manowar and “Metal Warriors.”

I want to again thank my guest Ace Von Johnson.

Remember to hit PariahRocks.com or your favorite podcast platform to listen to my entire interview with Ace Von Johnson of LA Guns and Faster Pussycat.

Also remember to hit PariahRocks.com to stream the very cheery, very fun A Hard, Heavy & Hairy Christmas special full of your favorite Hard Rock, Heavy Metal, and Hair Band artists doing their renditions of Christmas favorites and new songs bound to become your new Holiday favorites.

I’m Pariah Burke. Thank you for tuning in. I’ll be back next week with another all new Hard, Heavy & Hair Show full of music, trivia, and good times. Again, this is “Metal Warriors” from Manowar.

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Manowar – Metal Warrior