Kissing Judas

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Not only do I love it, I want to record it. I want to sing it. And let’s do this.’ And I was like, Holy crap. This is a guy I grew up watching on MTV since I was like a teenager.

Morgan Sullivan: Since you were however old.

Dave Sullivan: I was young, since I had hair. And so we set up a thing and got him in the studio, and he did vocals on it. Next I got a hold of Rudy Sarzo and he played bass on it. And not only did he play bass, it’s the first time I’ve ever heard Rudy… he recorded the bass solo, doing some riffs on there that are just incredible. And I’m like, Okay, you want to tease me that ‘sound 80s’. I’ve got two of the biggest 80s icons on this song, and had them play on it. And that kind of sparked getting the whole band thing back together, because we were kind of on hiatus and everything because of COVID. So that really kind of put a fire under our butts.

Music News: But when they added their parts to it, how much did it change the dynamics of the song from what you originally planned.

Corey Sullivan: So much.

Morgan Sullivan: Oh, it was amazing.

Corey Sullivan: It really was a simple, straightforward track until we added those guys to it. And it just it took on a life of its own from that point. I was kind of getting bored of hearing it before then.

Morgan Sullivan: Yeah, but I’m never bored now.

Corey Sullivan: Now it kicks ass.

Morgan Sullivan: Yeah, It kicks ass.

Dave Sullivan: Well, I had told Steven, let’s do something a little... it’s supposed to be aggressive and angry and you have a whole attitude of you, and he did that. And then when it comes into the bridge, and the chorus, then starts sounding like his iconic voice, and everybody’s like, ‘Oh my God, that’s the dude from Ratt.’ I’m like, Yeah, so it kind of kicks in, but it went from being a hard straight-ahead song to a little bit more fun.

Bret Gyrich: And then it’s now my job to live up to that every time we perform it on stage.

Dave Sullivan: Oh, yeah!

Morgan Sullivan: But you do it so well. You really do. You do a great job.

Bret Gyrich: I try.

Music News: Are you confident that you’re doing a good enough job?

Bret Gyrich: For the most part? Yes. I’m sure if I wasn’t, David and Morgan would be more than willing to tell me that I’m not, which I’m sure that they have before.

Music News: Okay.

Dave Sullivan: You know, we want to get it right.

Music News: Right. Well, did you have to rehearse that a bit to get there. Are you using the same inflections that Stephen was using or are you just redoing your part of it?

Bret Gyrich: It’s a little bit of both. When I first heard the song or when they introduced the song to me, then yeah, I took it, as you know, it’s requiring this to me and I should deliver it this way. And I don’t even know if I really heard

Stephen Pearcy singing on the record when I first heard it. I just kind of went with what the song felt like and delivered what I thought was fitting and it just so happens that this kind of... it’s almost the exact same thing that Stephen Pearcy laid down on the record.

Music News: Okay. Well, that brings us to the next song “Taste Like Blue”. What the hell tastes like blue?

Dave Morgan: Popsicles.

Morgan Sullivan: Yeah.

Music News: It’s about popsicles?

Dave Sullivan: Popsicles, I’m just kidding.

Morgan Sullivan: That’s about the taste of bitterness, the taste of loneliness.

Music News: You interpret bitterness as blue?

Morgan Sullivan: Bitterness, loneliness, crap you kind of bring on yourself, you know. All right, taste like blue. Soda popsicles. Doesn’t matter. Absofreakinlutely.

Music News: The popsicle song.

Bret Gyrich: It will forever be called the ‘popsicle song’ continued on next page

Morgan Sullivan: It’s about the lies and the B.S. we tell ourselves and then the taste of the bitterness and loneliness that comes from that.

Music News: Did it come to you easily or was it something you really had to work at writing?

Morgan Sullivan: Oh, no, that came really easily.

Music News: You must have had one or two people in mind when you did that.

Morgan Sullivan: Allegedly. You might find yourself or someone you know in our songs. Yeah, absolutely. I think that’s in the album there. We have a little dedication for that.

Music News: Okay.

Dave Sullivan: One of the coolest things with the vocals on that is how it all came about. We had a studio session and he came in, sang a couple songs. He’s grabbed his notebook in his backpack. Okay, we’re ready. I’m like, nope. We’re going to do the vocals for “Taste Like Blue”, and he just kind of gave me a look like, oh shit, no way.

Bret Gyrich: I’ve never even heard the song and he was like, Alright, we’re gonna record the song and I went what? Okay.

Dave Sullivan: And I was like, Yeah... His voice was a little strained towards the end because he’s just belted out this other stuff and did an amazing job. But “Taste Like Blue”, you know, when you’re walking away and you’ve just felt like you’ve lost everything. Your whole life is crumbling around you. You don’t want all zippity doo da happy vocals. You want vocals that have a feeling and an emotion behind them. So when his voice was already strained from doing the other stuff, I said, Yeah, let’s do this now. And it came out perfect.