‘Kuarantine’ Project Chris Jericho teams up with other rockers to honor Kiss BY CHRISTINA FUOCO-KARASINSKI As a wrestling superstar or a musician, Chris Jericho is always up for doing something creative that produces headlines. Not one to let a pandemic get to him, Jericho jumped at the chance to join Kuarantine, a Kiss cover band that covers on the years 1983 to 1996 with drummer Kent Slucher (Luke Bryan), guitarist Joe McGinness (Klassik ’78) and bassist PJ Farley (Trixter).
“Only in a pandemic could you form a non-’80s makeup Kiss cover band with the guitarist from Kiss. We’re four guys who all really enjoy that era of Kiss, a forgotten era in the land of ‘kisstory,’” Jericho says. “They have all of these great tunes from ’83 to ’96 that no one’s really focused on. We were ready to do that. It
Hurd...continued from page 12 er Get Over You” (Lady Antebellum), and “Heartless” (Diplo ft. Morgan Wallen). “As far as lyrics go, we work so hard on them,” he says. “It’s nice to have people listen to them. I thought the one thing we do so well in country music is nostalgia and painting visual pictures with song. “It touches on so many different nerves for the listener. I really love the way it turned out. We knew immediately ‘Every Other Memory’ was going to be special. Everybody’s eyes went up when the band figured it out.” Music has been Hurd’s calling since his www.LovinLife.com
came together very easily. It was very organic.” Kuarantine was founded by Slucher, who sent the drum parts to the Kiss song “No No No” to Jericho and asked him to guess the song. The band sent its cover of “No No No” to Kiss’ Gene Simmons, who liked the song. He sent it to his guitarist, Bruce Kulick. The axeman joined Kuarantine for the next single, “Heart of Chrome.” This time, Jericho played the song for Kiss’ Paul Stanley, who said the singer was “pulling off quite the task.” “‘Heart of Chrome’ is a very hard song to sing,” he says. “I’ve been singing that song for 28 years, since ‘Revenge’ came out. I’ve always loved that song. It was my suggestion to do it. It’s high and in my range. I know the nuances. ‘No No No’ was harder. I never sang it before, and I wasn’t the biggest fan of it until we actually recorded it.” In addition to his wrestling career—first with World Wrestling Entertainment and now with All Elite Wrestling—Jericho is the lead singer of Fozzy, which will release its eighth full-length album this fall, featuring its latest single, “Nowhere To Run.” Jericho also hosts “The Rock Of Jericho,” a weekly radio show on SiriusXM Octane and the “Talk Is Jericho” podcast. For Kuarantine, Jericho surrounded himself with top-notch touring musiformative years in Kalamazoo, Michigan. “I think this is the only job I ever wanted since I was 11,” says Hurd, who earned a sociology degree from Belmont University in Nashville. “I did school, but I thought I would give this a go. I’ve always loved writing songs. Once I found out this is the job I can do, I made sure I really cherished being a songwriter in Nashville.” And he has done so since then. COVID forced the cancellation of the back part of his headlining tour, and he’s “bummed” it didn’t work out. Hurd says it feels “strange” to be home in July, but to be home with Hayes and Morris is priceless.
Kuarantine
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Chris Jericho
Facebook: ChrisJericho chrisjericho.com cians. Slucher has backed Bryan for 12 years in small clubs and giant stadiums. McGinness is a rising country singer/guitarist who has shared the stage with artists such as Old Dominion, Florida Georgia Line and Granger Smith and is also a member of Klassik ’78, a digital tribute to ’70s Kiss. Farley rose to fame in the New Jersey-based gold-selling rock band Trixter, which toured with Kiss, Poison, Scorpions and others. “When you get a guy like Kent, who’s known for being a great live drummer, it’s cool,” Jericho says. “He has a rock background. In Nashville, those guys often have their own session musicians. They don’t use their own guys in the studio. He’s dying to do some of his own stuff to really show off his chops. Recording ‘No No No’ he said, ‘My legs are killing me from the double bass drums. There’s not a lot of double bass in a Luke Bryan show. “He wants to let loose and do what he can do. For me, I don’t sing like this in Fozzy. They don’t have super high vocals. It’s fun for me as a singer, and doing ‘Heart of Chrome’ in the original key and knocking it out of the part is awesome.” As for Farley, Jericho says he has “street cred” because he toured with Kiss as a member of Trixter. “One of the pros of a pandemic and lockdown is a lot of people found other kindred spirits to be creative with, ipso facto bands to record songs with,” Jericho says. “We’ve enjoyed being in Nashville in the summertime,” he says. “There are good parts to this pandemic. We miss the teams, and we miss our fans and all the people on the buses and our friends we see in every city—the people we count on seeing on tour. We’ll see them next year.”
Ryan Hurd
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Clark...continued from page 12 Purple material; the stuff that has Glenn Hughes in it. I had learned all that material.” To put this project together, he had to “dive deep” and make sure he was getting the guitar solo “YouTube ready.” “You don’t want to mess it up on YouTube,” he says with a laugh. “It was a personal challenge. I feel I got a good result out of that.” Clark grew up in New York City with an opera singer mother and a father who played the cello. Music filled his home. “I took up the guitar in earnest when I was 13, the same year Pink Floyd’s ‘The Wall’ came out,” he says. “After that, I was just learning Pink Floyd and Black Sabbath and ‘London Calling’ by The Clash. Then I discovered Ritchie Blackmore’s Rainbow. “I was a huge devotee of the giants of guitar, like Michael Schenker, Randy Rhoades, David Gilmore, Tony Iommi and Yngwie Malmsteen.” Clark landed his first deal in 1992 with the band Naked Sun, a progressive metal act. But the musicians were dropped as “grunge took hold,” he says. After that, he spent the rest of the ’90s touring the world with Japanese new age musician Kitaro, who was signed to Geffen Records. “I was playing, essentially, instrumental Pink Floyd-style, orchestral rock music with no singers,” he says. Around 1999, his friend and Kitaro fan Marty Friedman recommended him to Trans-Siberian Orchestra. If there are concerts this fall, Clark will celebrate 20 years with the West Coast team of Trans-Siberian Orchestra. He’s especially fond of the Valley. “We love that area,” he says. “I’ve previously worked with some guitar builders based out of Phoenix and (Peoria’s) Atomic Guitar Works. They’re great. We love that town. I can’t wait to get back there. “I love playing with TSO and the fans are the best. The band is really tight knit. Al Pitrelli, Jane Mangini and I have all been in the West Coast-touring band for about 20 years.” For now, he’s spending a “fortune” on cameras and home recording gear through the pandemic and posting content on his socials @angusclarkGTR. “Since the lockdown hit, we’ve becoming self-producing broadcasters,” he says with a laugh. AUGUST 2020
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