Greg Leon Invasion

presents Tell The Children

Interview and Photo by Ken Morton

Greg Leon is best known for his stints with the likes of Quiet Riot and Dokken in their early days, and since then has amassed an impressive collection of solo material. Under the name of the Greg Leon Invasion, the musician would launch his own visions starting in 1983. And now in the post pandemic year of 2021, the Greg Leon Invasion has presented Tell The Children to the world – featuring 13 songs of classic hard rock that should absolutely captivate the minds of all types of music fanatics. The Greg Leon Invasion also features dynamic performances from Rick Brandt on bass and cello as well as Ronnie Ciago from Diane and the Deductibles (among many other massive credits such as Brand X and River Dogs) bringing his own supremely imaginative flair to drums and percussions. Here are excerpts from an interview Highwire Daze recently conducted with the band.

TELL THE CHILDREN

Greg: I wrote the song years ago. It just kind of came to me. I came up with this riff and it kept building on itself and then the lyrics came to me - and it was kind of fight of good and evil in the world - at the end you realize “Jesus saved you and Satan enslaves you, don’t make a foolish mistake, beleive in the word and your prayers will be heard. Tell the children today.” It’s not a preachy song and I’m not trying to preach to anybody or tell them how to think or how to run their lives. If you do the right things in life, most likely good things are going to happen to you. And that basically all I’m trying to say. Do the right thing. Treat people the way you want to be treated

MEET RICK BRANDT

Rick: It’s almost 50 years that’s I’ve been playing. I started playing piano first and then I went to the recorder - that was boring. In the 4th grade, my teacher came in my class and she was recruiting orchestra players. She asked me what instruiment I would like to play. So I wound up on cello and I’ve been doing that ever since. I’m still doing it. I played all over the world. I toured when I was 16 and was touring over in Europe. And I picked up the bass after the cello. The bass and cello are kind of similar - just different tuning. I did some guitar playing too. When I met Greg, I was playing up the street here in this tiny dive bar, My friend had a birthday party and I was playing bass for him. And Greg got invited and was the last guy to play. Greg: They made me wait until the very end because they said no one else would get up to play after I played. But I see this guy and I felt the way he played and it was like what I’d always been looking for in a bass player.

Rick: So that’s how we met and we starting playing.

ENTER RONNIE CIAGO

Greg: We orginally had a different drummer and it was good - but when Ronnie came up here it was great! He was the missing piece of the pie - the icing on the cake. We played for four hours straight the first time we all got together and we came outside and looked at each other and one of us goes “we should call this a band!” And I was praying this would happen because I was looking for this feel - the real rock and roll feel - nothing phony about it - wer’re all playing, shooting from the hip and just locking into our roots and why we all play music in the first place. We all bring something totally different to the table, but it all comes out as Invasion music and the sound that’s us.

Ronnie: We’re all from different backgrounds. I grew up in New York. I started playing when I was 5. My dad was a jazz sax player and I was around music all of the time. I started playing with my dad and then I started playing with local rock groups. I went to Berklee School Of Music and then I went on tour with different fusion jazz groups - and then I started making records with people over in LA and I’ve ended up being on over 500-600 albums today.

GUITARS CARS AND WOMEN IN 1983

Greg: That was my first record and there was a comraderie in that band too. We thought we were going to take on the world. And that’s where I came up with the name Invasion - because I wanted to take over the world with the music and I knew we had what it took. We didn’t have good management. Some of the guys in the band - they were not going to be in it for the long hall. And here I am 40 years later - I’m still talking - I’m still playing - I’m still putting out records. None of those guys are doing that now as far as I know of. It was a thing to just get girls for them or get high or whatever - or an excuse to not have a job. I always did stuff on the side and I always did my music, because that’s just who I am. But when I listen back to that, I just remember fun times, girls we used to run with, the funny stories. Just being in a band and having brothers - I never had any brothers - I have two sisters Debbie and Nancy. I didn’t have any brothers and I’ve wanted a brother. Ronnie’s my brother now and Rick’s my brother now. It feels like a family. We call each other all the time and complain about everything. No we don’t. (Much laugher.) We love hanging out. But I listen to that record and I remember my youth and remember high school - because it was right out of high school pretty much. But we did that record in two days and we mixed it in another day and I had myself my first record - and we did the whole thing for under $1,400. It was pretty amazing.

QUIET RIOT and DOKKEN LEGACY

Greg: Randy Rhoads was a really good friend of mine. We’d hang out - I’d show him riffs - he’d show me riffs. The Crazy Train riff I gave to him - that was a song I showed him in his bedroom - we were sitting down and playing guitars together. And then when he got the Ozzy gig, I got the phone call from Kevin (DuBrow) and Randy to come in and replace him. We were going to keep the name Quiet Riot until we started playing live - and we decided let’s just change the name to DuBrow - when we get a record deal we’ll change it back to Quiet Riot. Everynbody in LA knew it was a fresh thing. It was a great band - Kevin was impossible to work with - God rest his soul. He was so argumentative - he had an opinion on everything - you were wrong - he was right. I’m the guy that actually brought in Cum On Feel The Noize and Mama We’re All Crazee Now - I borrowed my sister Nancy’s Slade record and brought it in and that was the first argument we got in. He did not want anything to do with that. He started screaming at me. I’m a really peaceful guy and I like having fun, but I can’t stand it when someone yells at me. And so we go into it, and the drummer Drew Forsyth, he pulled us apart and walked me around the block a couple times to cool me off. There was no need for that. I was thinking of Van Halen and You Really Got Me - we needed a cover song to put us over the top. I thought it would be great and his voice was perfect for it.

After about a year with them, Don Dokken has been after me for a couple of years to play. How I met Don was we opened for him and my roadies accidentally loaded his equipment into my car. So I get a call from Don and he said, “Hey we played together last night at the Rock Corporation and I think your guys got my equipment.” So I checked in the van and sure enough there was his old Marshall heads. He comes by to pick them up, we start talking, and he goes “Dude, I really love the way you play. I love your voice, We should do something together.” At the end of the Quiet Riot/ DuBrow thing, he was still after me and he had European dates booked and that was all I need to hear. I wanted to get away from Kevin and arguing, and it was great!

http://www.gregleoninvasion.com/