Michael Batio
Posted: Sat Sep 07, 2013 6:17 pm
Here's what MAB said in an interview in last year! Nice,
I went to one of your clinics a few years ago, and you mentioned how you got to jam with Kiss once. Can you talk about that?
I learned a valuable lesson then because I was completely star-struck. I was on Shrapnel Records with Mike Varney. He set this thing up for me, and I still lived in Chicago. I was just out of school and I looked like a mid-western kid, but I had a really good promo shot. In fact, it's on my website -- my very first promo shot. So Mike sent it to Kiss, and they flew me out to audition. I still have the and ticket stubs. I was completely star-struck. I mean I was scared to death. And I had played with Kiss before. We won this battle of the bands contest in Chicago to open up for Kiss, and I was in high school; no, I had just graduated high school. I was 18, and this wasn't my first encounter with them.
But when I jammed with them, I actually showed Gene Simmons how to play over the neck. I literally showed him, and he would stop and start, make me play it -- he was in control. It was me, Paul Stanley, Gene Simmons and Eric Carr. I sang “Calling Dr. Love,” and I kicked ass. I was a pretty good singer, and I don't really work on it anymore, but Gene was laughing because I had some of the lyrics wrong. I didn't buy a songbook; I just kind of picked it up off the record, and he was telling me he was cracking up because I had some of the words really wrong. And that was funny because I didn't get the gig. Vinnie Vincent got it and Vinnie Vincent resurrected their career, too.
I mean Lick It Up” -- what an album and what s song. But I learned never to be in awe. That if I'm going to be a rock star, I've got to act like one. And one of the biggest reasons, it wasn't my image; it wasn't my age that prohibited me from getting it. It was that I became a fan. And I really didn't realize that. I went in there acting like a fan instead of a guy who could be the guitar player in the band. And I never forgot that, you know. Even when I talked to Eddie Van Halen, I'm not saying I'm bigger than him, but it wasn't like, “Oh, dude, you’re a god, dude.” I just went in there and we were just talking, just two people talking and that's the lesson I learned. And then later on Gene Simmons, I know him now we talked about that.
He remembered me from that. He told me in my Michelangelo band before Nitro, they had a rhythm guitar player and he goes, “Your playing is light years ahead of other guitar players.” He goes, “You play two guitars at the same time -- what the hell do you need another guitarist for?” (laughs). He really liked my guitar playing.
I went to one of your clinics a few years ago, and you mentioned how you got to jam with Kiss once. Can you talk about that?
I learned a valuable lesson then because I was completely star-struck. I was on Shrapnel Records with Mike Varney. He set this thing up for me, and I still lived in Chicago. I was just out of school and I looked like a mid-western kid, but I had a really good promo shot. In fact, it's on my website -- my very first promo shot. So Mike sent it to Kiss, and they flew me out to audition. I still have the and ticket stubs. I was completely star-struck. I mean I was scared to death. And I had played with Kiss before. We won this battle of the bands contest in Chicago to open up for Kiss, and I was in high school; no, I had just graduated high school. I was 18, and this wasn't my first encounter with them.
But when I jammed with them, I actually showed Gene Simmons how to play over the neck. I literally showed him, and he would stop and start, make me play it -- he was in control. It was me, Paul Stanley, Gene Simmons and Eric Carr. I sang “Calling Dr. Love,” and I kicked ass. I was a pretty good singer, and I don't really work on it anymore, but Gene was laughing because I had some of the lyrics wrong. I didn't buy a songbook; I just kind of picked it up off the record, and he was telling me he was cracking up because I had some of the words really wrong. And that was funny because I didn't get the gig. Vinnie Vincent got it and Vinnie Vincent resurrected their career, too.
I mean Lick It Up” -- what an album and what s song. But I learned never to be in awe. That if I'm going to be a rock star, I've got to act like one. And one of the biggest reasons, it wasn't my image; it wasn't my age that prohibited me from getting it. It was that I became a fan. And I really didn't realize that. I went in there acting like a fan instead of a guy who could be the guitar player in the band. And I never forgot that, you know. Even when I talked to Eddie Van Halen, I'm not saying I'm bigger than him, but it wasn't like, “Oh, dude, you’re a god, dude.” I just went in there and we were just talking, just two people talking and that's the lesson I learned. And then later on Gene Simmons, I know him now we talked about that.
He remembered me from that. He told me in my Michelangelo band before Nitro, they had a rhythm guitar player and he goes, “Your playing is light years ahead of other guitar players.” He goes, “You play two guitars at the same time -- what the hell do you need another guitarist for?” (laughs). He really liked my guitar playing.
