Hired Gun Page #9

Or, or... "Hey, I heard you're playing in my town?"

"Billy's coming to town. You're with him, right?"

"No, I'm not."

You know when, it's like saying it is like,

it could happen, but once you say it, it's like,

"F***, yeah, I'm not that guy anymore."

So, the divorce and that happened at the same time.

So, my wife buried me in sand up to my neck,

and then Billy kicked me in the face.

[man] What do you think now that

you are a Rock n Roll star?

I don't think too much about it.

Because if I did,

I'd probably get a real swell head.

[Liberty] The question is, when did it go from,

"Love me, love my band," to "Get

the f*** out of my dressing room!"

We played in Fargo.

It was Easter Sunday the next clay,

and Billy had a private plane.

And I wanted to get on the plane.

And I was told, "No, there's

not enough room for you."

"What... What do you mean?

I know there's so many seats on the plane

and there's only so many people going?"

"No, not enough room.

Billy might want to lay down."

[laughs]

"What?"

"Billy might wanna lay down.

So, you can't go home for Easter."

I thought I was part of something,

that was going to write

"payoff" at the end, but, uh...

F***, I guess it's never going to happen!

I told him. I said, "I understand

why you're doing what you're doing.

You are Billy Joel. Your name is on the album cover.

But, if you ever need my help,

I'm there for you."

[Chris] When you're touring,

and you're getting all those checks

and they're just stacking up,

you're like, "Ah, I'm good!"

But when the tour is over it's over.

The money you have left in your account you need,

and all of a sudden it's like, "Whoa,

like, I have less than a $1000 in my account now.

And I don't know when my next gig is coming up."

You know, you're living the life, you're on tour,

everything is really great,

that check is deposited in your account every Friday.

And then it stops.

And you're like,

"Hmmm,

maybe I got a little cushion, but I

still gotta provide for my family."

[Paul] Throughout the journey of being a player,

sure,

there have been lean moments along the way.

And you know that moment where you go to the ATM

and you realize,

"Wow, somebody around here has go to get a job."

Th funniest thing is my friends

from high school think I'm rich.

"Are you kidding me?"

I go on the road,

I come back,

I have to get a job. My buddy

and I are painting houses.

I remember painting this house,

and I'm taking a break.

I'm sitting on a bucket eating a sandwich,

I look up and Matt Sorum walks in.

I'm like, "Holy sh*t! Matt Sorum."

He's like, "Hey, man." And then

he's like, "Looks good, looks good.

And he looks down on me, he was like,

"I know you from somewhere."

I was like, "Yeah, we met at Hamburg.

We were on tour with Soundgarden."

He's like, "Sh*t, that's right.

How you been?"

I'm like,

"Well, I'm painting your f***in house, man."

[Hook] The only reason why I sorta fell

into hired gun type work is because,

I was failing, you know, to get to the dream.

The A dream I kinda call it... The A dream for me,

was to be in a band with four, five guys

writing original music and everyone loved it,

and everyone wanted to buy a ticket to the concert.

That's the A dream.

So, the B dream to me was, like,

"Well, nobody... All the bands

that I'm putting together

nobody gives a sh*t about.

So, I'll just look after myself,"

and go rent myself to somebody,

because I know that I can deliver.

You know, if somebody would have told me

Hilary Duff's guitar player was coming

and I go, "Yeah?" And he's going out the back door...

But, I also knew about Jason Hook's playing.

I didn't have to audition him.

I already knew he was going to be fine.

[crowd cheering]

Well, we got no choice

[Ezrin] Alice has always had a fantastic band.

And even when I wasn't working with him,

he had... Davey Johnstone who's with Elton john,

Kip Winger who's just a fantastic musician,

and Eric Singer, lots of great drummers...

and yeah, he's always attracted the

best of the best of the sidemen.

Always surround yourself with A-list players.

I mean, everybody in my band's an A-list player.

It's that... I just don't have time for B-list guys.

[Nita] I got a phone call from a

national number that I didn't know.

And he said, "This is Kip Winger."

And he goes, "Are you available this summer?"

And I said, "I would have got some gigs.

Why, what's going on?"

And he goes, "Well, I hope you can cancel them

because I just got you an audition

to play guitar for Alice Cooper."

I went back at the phone, I said,

"Ah, my schedule just cleared up."

[man] I just had a feeling about

her and she was so eager.

And she was so pumped about doing this, you know.

She wood shedded, she had studied...

She came in and, well, she was perfect.

Now Nita will be in that A-list carrel now.

All the guys now will look,

and they've heard her now and they go,

"Okay, she's a proven... She's a proven thing now."

[Hook] It says a lot about you,

if you've been selected to be in Alice's band.

I know this because I was.

And I saw the other guys around me that were.

It says a lot about you and your ability,

because those shows were exhausting.

There is no backing vocals,

there is no click track,

like, we do everything, live.

[Alice] When it comes to the stage

show I let them have their movement.

When I back up, they move forward.

When you're playing the lead

you are now Alice Cooper.

So you take over.

Guitar players,

are show offs.

Anybody that says they're not is lying.

We all want to show off all the time

and if we could just stand in the middle

and just do tricks the whole time

we would. At least I would.

So, you know, and you learn as a guitar player

till you show some restraint on stage

and let the singer do their thing,

and especially as a hired musician.

I've shown an unbelievable

amount of restraint sometimes.

Alice let you be yourself.

If you were flashy,

and wanted to be flamboyant, a real performer,

he didn't care.

I played with Alice,

all the way through up until 2008.

And Alice would be cool enough

to let me get a replacement

to come in for him for a week or two

while I would go and play with Kiss.

[Alice] Kiss and Alice never toured at the same time.

We were sharing the same drummer.

So Kiss would go out for four or five months,

and then my tour would start

right when the Kiss tour ended.

Eric never got a break.

There's no better compliment

than to be in demand

by two of the most legendary,

bands, ever!

I think finally Eric just said, "I...

I can't do this anymore."

And I just said, "Go with Kiss."

When I was a kid I always said

I wanna be in a band like...

like a Kiss.

I want to be in an Alice Cooper.

I didn't know I'd end up in Kiss.

You tell that son of a b*tch when he was 18,

"You're one day you're gonna be in Kiss."

He'd be, like, "Get outta here."

[John 5] I always looked up to him

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