Eddie Ojeda Interview
Lords Of Metal

Some weeks ago, Twisted Sister's axeman Eddie Ojeda released his first solo-album entitled 'Axes 2 Axes' through Black Lotus Records. I asked him some questions about that exacting disc, but I also took the opportunity to talk about the glorious Twisted Sister videoclips, the Wacken DVD, the mans nickname, the 'Hear 'n Aid' sessions and so on. Sit back and enjoy.

Lords of Metal: Last month, your first solo album 'Axes 2 Axes' was released. Did you read or have you heard any reviews yet and how's feedback so far?

EO: So far most of the reviews I have found have been great. I would say I have about eight good ones for every two bad ones. Maybe I'm just lucky to be finding most of the good ones. With the bad reviews I notice that they have the facts wrong they keep confusing my vocals with Joe Lynn Turner's, which is good for me but I don't think that Joe would see it that way.This tends to make me think that these critics did not really take the time to listen to the CD well enough.

Let's take a decent look at the album. A number of guests are enriching the album. Opening track 'Tonight' contains the tender voice of Ronnie James Dio. You always kept contact with him since the 'Hear 'n Aid Stars' sessions (on raising money for the famine relief in Africa 1985 and other parts of the world)?

TS did some gigs with Ronnie over the past two years and we all reconnected again like old times when we toured with Dio in the eighties. When I wrote the song 'Tonight' and started to sing it I realized that it was a perfect song for Ronnie's super powerful voice. I sent him a copy of it with my vocal on it and he really liked and told me at a gig we did together in Puerto Rico that he would do it. I had sent Rudy Sarzo the files for 'Funky Monkey' and 'Crosstown' along with the files for 'Tonight' so he went to Ronnie's house and loaded them on Pro Tools. Rudy Sarzo engineered it for him and two days later Ronnie sent them back to me. When I heard how he sang it I was blown away. I knew it was going to be great but he really nailed it. Needless to say he totally blew away my vocal version of it.

The 'Stars' initiative was originally coming from Jimmy Bain and Vivian Campbell. The idea was put forward to Ronnie James Dio whom after this played a major role in the recording of 'Stars'. The basic track was laid down at Sound City Studios in Los Angeles, USA, by Dio and drummer Frankie Banali of Quiet Riot. The rest of the recordings were done at the Rumbo Recorders and the A&M Records Studios). Recordings were made May 20th and 21st 1985. You did a solo on the 'Stars' song. How do you recall these days?

That was a great weekend. I was hanging out with Nikki Sixx he gave me a lift to the A&M studio that day. It' was allot of fun hanging out with everybody. We all stayed at the same hotel in Hollywierd everybody was cool. We all went to the same places every night, which was a strip joint first, and then on to the Rainbow. We were on tour with Iron Maiden at the time so myself Adrian Smith, Dave Murray. Rudy Sarzo, Nikki Sixx, and Tommy Lee made the L.A. rounds. It was definitely a special weekend.

There were 7", 12" singles, an album and a video documentary. Do you know if these recordings will ever see the light of day on CD or DVD?

I hope someday we can release all that stuff on a CD for now we don't have plans to but I'm sure that we will get to it somehow. I think because its old stuff we haven't bother but I'm sure our diehard friends would like to have CD copies. I personally would like to have the 'Stay Hungry' Video on DVD I only have 1 old VHS copy with a broken box.

Back to your recent album then: your bandmate in Twisted Sister, Dee "S.M.F." Snider sings the re-arranged Beatles classic 'Eleanor Rigby' (also covered by Vanilla Fudge and Peter Tägtgren's Pain). Are you a Beatles fan yourself or did you like to metallize a classic rock song?

I'm starting to find out about the different versions of the song. I have always been a Beatles fan since I was a kid. I happened to create this version of E.R. by mistake I was just playing the song and wondered what Iron Maiden would sound like doing the song with a Run To The Hills type of beat. I liked what it sounded like so I decided to do it.I really wanted Dee to sing this version of 'Eleanor Rigby' because I new he would give it a great dark feel. That song always had a dark side to it so I finally got to do the heavy version of it that I always wanted to do. I would love to start doing it live with TS next year.

Recently, the Twisted Sister DVD 'Live At Wacken' saw the light of day. Somewhere I heard T.S. didn't use the audio tracks of that particular gig because they were fucked up. What went wrong?

I guess I can say fuck in this interview? Yes the audio files were very fucked up. The problem happened on the hard drive that was used when we recorded the show, somehow the drive got corrupt (I thought that only happened to managers) so we had to run it through some process to be able to use it. I know it was a major pain in the ass but somehow Mendoza and our sound man Denny Mac managed to do something useful with it.

Twenty years ago, Twisted Sister were famous for their videoclips of songs like 'We're Not Gonna Take' (thé T.S. anthem) or 'I Wanna Rock'. Will these fuckers ever be released on DVD, because I'm sure that DVD will make you guys more rich and famous…

We are working on that. I hope we get all the videos that we made and put them on one CD. I personally could use a copy of them. I'm not sure what's taking so long but that's the way we (TS) do things.

The Twisted Sister guys have been touring the U.K. with Alice Cooper last month. How do you look back on that tour?

It was a great tour. Alice is amazing live. I never got the chance to see him back in the day so it was really cool to do this with him and his band. It felt like it did in the eighties we had three tour buses and three big trucks doing all arena shows. Yea Baby!!!

When will we be able to see you Twisted Sisters on the European mainland again?

For now we are doing mostly one off shows. Mostly spring and summer festivals in Europe. We have no plans do a full tour. Everyone in the band has different projects that they are working on so this gives us the time we need to do them as well.

Of course I'm curious if you are able to come over with your solo band before long? And if so, who's in the band?

As of yet I don't know who will be able to go out a tour with me. It all depends on who is available.

There are three instrumental tracks on the album: 'Axes 2 Axes', 'Crosstown' and 'Funky Monkey'. You're not that kind of an Yngwie Malmsteen or Steve Vai kind of guitar masturbator, but there's a certain drive to these songs I certainly love. The next solo-album will be a full instrumental CD or do you like the variation between instrumentals and non-instrumentals on your albums?

I do like the variation of both Instrumental and vocal songs. I'm not sure what I will come up with till I start writing the songs. The next album will have songs with vocals for sure. I don't think I will ever do an all-instrumental album I like doing songs with vocals too much.

There's also other guests on your album: Joe Lynn Turner (ex-Yngwie, ex-Rainbow etc.), Terry Ilous (XYZ), Chris McCarville (Obsession, X Factor X), Rudy Sarzo (Dio, Quiet Riot, Ozzy…) and Joe Franco (Widowmaker, Magellan, Vinnie Moore…). You must be really proud to be able to perform with this all star metal team!

Oh yes, the guys all great musicians as well as people. I always loved JLTs voice as well and even though we had never meet we knew allot of the same people. The son of an old friend of mine (Henry Raven) who works at the Guitar Center in New Jersey bumped into JLT and told him I was working on a solo album an that I wanted him to sing on it. I went down to a one of JLTs gigs in New Jersey near me and told him about the song a few days later I sent him a copy of the song and he really liked it and told me he wanted to do it. The following week we went into Beatstreet in NYC and did the session. We had a great time in the studio. Joe (JLT) lives near me in the NY area so it was great to finally meet and work together. Joe Franco was the original drummer of a band called the Good Rats that was very big in the NY area during the late seventies and early eighties. Since then he has played on a countless number of albums for some of the biggest artist in the world. He also played all the drums on the TS album Love Is For Suckers and was the drummer for TS when A.J. Pero left the band back in 1987. Besides being a great drummer he's an old friend of mine and I have a great time working with him. He is also the owner of the Beatstreet the studio we did the album in. Chris McCarvill did a some shows with me a few years back, one with Sebastian Bach and one with Rob Afuso the drummer from Skid Row we always kept in touch over the years. He's a great bass player so when I decided to do this record he was the perfect player for the project.

How did you end up earning the nickname "Fingers"?

TS was playing at a club in Brewster NY and I cut my index finger on one of my guitar strings we had to keep playing so I was bleeding all over the guitar neck. This was the third time this happened in a years time so when we got off stage Dee saw my finger and just shouted out the name Fingers!! Since then the nickname stuck and I sort of liked it so I became The Fingers or just Fingers.

Well the space below is all yours. Any famous last words?

Yes, I want to thank all the people that took the time to read this. Thank You, Thank You, Thank you.

This article originally appeared on the Lords Of Metal web site.