This is the second part of the legendary Warlord's Bill Tsamis & Mark Zonder interview at Rock Overdose (the first part you can read here).
RO: You've announced just a very few shows. Would be difficult to be again on stage after all those years?
WJT: I don't think so. In fact, we have the ultimate stageshow plan since we are headliners. The key is to reproduce the old songs with precision and exactitude and we have the perfect live vocalist for this. The fans won't be disappointed in any of the shows. We we're offered to play more cities but we thought that "this time out," it would be best to hit a few major gigs. Headbangers Open Air and Keep it True practically went to war to have us as headliners, but we decided on Keep it True because it is an indoor venue and many of our peers said that the southern part of Germany is more accessible to Warlord fans across Europe. The idea of Warlord headlining HOA in 2014 is "on the table" though. We'll see . . we're gonna take it one step at a time. But after 30 years I think Warlord has finally gotten the notoriety. Remember, all these years there was no band, no label, no advertising or anybody promoting Warlord except "the fans" and some key articles in some magazines. But though Warlord as a band was a dead entity, the music was still working its magic and converting people to the Warlord cause. Surprisingly, as I said, I wasn't aware of that at all. Being in the academic world I didn't pay much attention to the music scene or Warlord. To me Warlord was long forgotten, but I guess I was wrong. So, because of the notoriety we felt we deserved back in 1984 . . . the notoriety has finally come full circle and vindicated what we always thought was true about Warlord . . . that it was something special . . . because of this, we are "charged" with an enthusiasm we haven't had since we were 20 years old.
MZ: Absolutely not!!! This is a dream come true.
RO: What do we have to expect from these shows? Having an “off the record” talk with our common friend Tom Phillips of WHILE HEAVEN WEPT, he told me that you're preparing something unique!!!
And will be the same show or here in Greece will we expect something special, because of Greek fans' love and that it will be the first ever visit here?
(Really, Mark do you remember your show with FATES WARNING, and SANCTUARY, at a cinema here in Athens long time before? I was there...)
WJT: As Tom said, the Warlord shows will be totally professional. He knows a lot of the specifics but his lips are sealed. Again, we are not going out for a casual gig as we did at 1:30am at Wacken in 2002 when we were forced into that timeslot by the promoters. It was so late we thought 100 fans would show up after a long day of the metal festival. No, this time we are going full on metal .... image, stagecraft, sound, lighting, and some things that Warlord fans won't expect to see. It will be something like a huge band like Iron Maiden playing a small gig at KIT or the Gagarin. Everything will be totally professional. They will be like big time shows, just brought down to a smaller scale. From the outset we insisted that "if Warlord is gonna headline, then everything must be totally professional." We won't settle for anything less than the dreams we had in 1984.
MZ: Yes I remember those shows. Greece has always been great for me, whether it is Fates or Warlord. The shows will be special and unique.
RO: We'll be waiting about six months to see you here. Would you like to send a message to crazy WARLORD fans in Greece?
WJT: Well, six months might seem like a long time but just one year ago I had no ideas of Warlord playing live anywhere. It is important that we hit Greece because Greece is the epicenter of heavy metal nowadays; plus, my Greek origins are calling me back to my parent's homeland. The irony is that we will be playing the Gagarin on April 27 which would have been my father's 87th birthday. Although he was born in Nemea the irony here is very interesting. When I was 12 years old I asked my father if I could quit playing the guitar (I was playing classical at the time and, frankly, to an American 12 year old kid, it was boring). And he told me, "No, I will not let you quit playing the guitar because you will regret it someday." So playing the Gagarin on his birthday is the supreme irony in this whole story. And I love the Greek fans. They are among the most die-hard Warlord fans in the world. They are my brothers and sisters. It will be like visiting family. So, yes, six months might seem like a long time, but this was never supposed to happen. It's just the circumstances of the past year were such that everything fell into place. "The stars were in alignment" to play Greece. And all I can say is that you will see and hear something that is beyond your wildest expectations. Don't think of the 2002 gigs in Germany as comparative to what you will experience here. We hardly rehearsed for those shows . . . we didn't even have a "rehearsal stage" but rehearsed in the smallest room in the history of Warlord. So those shows were just "thrown together." Plus, we weren't headliners. This time it will be different. The shows will be epic, I promise. I only wish I could tell you what we have prepared because you guys will not only get more than your money's worth, but these shows will be concerts that you'll never forget.
MZ: Let me add that I think we are as excited as they are!!!!!! Thanks for all of the support.
RO: Thank you sincerely for the honour and i'm very glad to have this conversation! Looking forward to April 2013 to blow our minds with your shows,to meet you personally and talk again!!
WJT: Thank you very much for your (and RockOverdose.gr’s) support of Warlord. We are looking forward to playing for everyone and meeting with everyone as well. I know I will be in Greece for an extra two weeks, so that should give me plenty of time to meet everyone personally. Because, to me, the Warlord fans are special. Like I said, one year ago when I was very sick I was under the impression that Warlord was a dead entity. And it was "the fans" who encouraged me and showed me that there were more than 10 Warlord fans. I had no idea that Warlord was still popular after all these years until "the fans" of the "Warlord Battle Choir" started telling me things that I didn't know about. So it is to them that I owe all of this devotion. Thanks again, and we will certainly meet in person next April.
For Rock Overdose:
Questions by: Panos" Warlord" Bougalis
Editing by: Antonis "Jey Key" Katsaros
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