Rockoverdose.gr and Apostolos Pantazoglou, had the chance to speak with the legendary, Arthur Brown, right after his concert in Thessaloniki, Greece (10th of March). You can read the interview below.
Rockoverdose.gr: Hello and welcome to Rockoverdose.gr.
Brown: Thank you.
Rockoverdose.gr: It was an excellent show. What do you think about it?
Brown: Well, I think the audience loved it. We had a great time. We came from Athens where we played last night. It was a long drive but everywhere we’ve been in Greece the people have been very nice to us. We finished the concert last night, we had a party, we did the concert tonight and we are going to have a small party as well.
Rockoverdose.gr: So what are you up at the moment?
Brown: With this band that played tonight, we just begun creating the models for the songs and then we are recording the new album, with a new stage act. The new album will probably come out in autumn or next spring. Before that though, we have several concerts in different places in the world. There is also a box set coming out with a DVD.
Rockoverdose.gr: From the Crazy World Of Arthur Brown or the Hamburg Blues Band?
Brown: From neither actually! It’s from before that. Well one of the DVDs is a concert of the Crazy World Of Arthur Brown but not with the current lineup. The present lineup I like it very much.
Rockoverdose.gr: The chemistry of the band up stage is great.
Brown: Yes! Well you know we all found each other. We are the same kind of people.
Rockoverdose.gr: I would say a bit crazy but in a good way.
Brown: (Laughs) Yeah. Well look at the world it’s a bit crazy. But with the standards of what’s happening in the world, we’re not so crazy.
Rockoverdose.gr: You are quoted by many artists as their influence. From Alice Cooper, Bruce Dickinson and King Diamond to Slipknot, Marilyn Manson and Prodigy. How does it feel?
Brown: It’s very nice. After the first hit, “Fire” I was never into the commercial success. I wanted to create music. So it’s nice that other bands that pursued commercial success found something useful in what I did. Yeah it’s lovely.
Rockoverdose.gr: What I find really interesting is that you didn’t only influence artists and bands from rock genre but also bands who play dubstep, R&B etc.
Brown: And George Clinton as well!
Rockoverdose.gr: Exaclty. It’s very rare finding someone who influenced so many different kinds of music.
Brown: Well I think that some of the rock musicians pursue the commercial success and then they always have to produce music of the same kind. So you are going to influence only people of that genre. For me that was not the way I did things. I always have been trying different kinds of music and I always tried to embrace what meant something to me. So this allowed me to have music that dubstep people like it, punk people like it, gospel people like it. I don’t feel that I have to do any kind of music and some of them have been more successful than the other because of that. What is strange is that even the one that were unsuccessful now people are going back and say that it was influencial to some people. So they get to be very popular now although they were not in the beginning.
Rockoverdose.gr: A few months ago you played with Alice Cooper in his Helloween show. How did it feel playing with the person who said “If there was no Arthur Brown there would not have been Alice Cooper”?
Brown: You know he was so nice. He was so generous that I felt that that I was with a friend. From what I explored back then, came his shows and everything. In that sense, artistically we can say that he is my musical son. But he took it in his own direction. It just felt like two people in the same field that had a friendship. And as I said he is a very generous man.
Rockoverdose.gr: You also worked with Bruce Dickinson in his 1998 album “The Chemical Wedding”.
Brown: The second time I had Kingdom Come the road manager worked for us for three years and then he went to Bruce Dickinson. Bruce also has been very generous. Since then he is a very good friend of me. He helped my when I was in a very bad way. Now he is back at the top again. He is an intelligent man and he likes to move forward and create. But he is very humble person. He knows what he stands for but he is very humble.
Rockoverdose.gr: We can say that you invented shock rock. What can you do today to shock people? They have seen everything. Is it easy?
Brown: Well with the internet and news people have seen so many things. What can you do to shock them? I think what can shock is if we go out and be total spontaneous. Nothing planned. You can even shoot a person on stage but that would that be?
Rockoverdose.gr: One final question. Do you want to say anything to your Greek fans?
Brown: Yes. As I said I am very impressed of how warm and receiving the Greek fans are and how much they love music. And that’s a wonderful thing. And you know everybody goes through bad times. Everybody goes through good times. It’s a way to find who you really are. So I really hope they had a great time and I look forward seeing them again.
Rockoverdose.gr: Thank you very much for this interview and I hope to see you again sometime soon.
Brown: Thank you.
For Rockoverdose.gr
Apostolos Pantazoglou
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