I feel confident enough to go out there and sing. They were leaning more toward rock, but still leaning metal. I tried a couple other bands: Black John Wayne and Letgodaylight. I wasn’t playing anymore I was just singing for a metal band.
RR: The Tradition was where I wound up trying to slide out of metal and hardcore into rock and play and sing a bit more. LG: You did all that and now you have a new band that you’re playing with, called The Tradition. RR: I was an angry guy at one time so I guess it worked for the best. Screaming was where I found my comfort zone, I guess. I was always playing acoustic and singing in my room, but I’d never dared do it on stage because I didn’t feel I could do it. RR: You know what I mean? I was always a rocker before I was a metalhead or punk-rocker, or whatever you’d want to call it. All the while, though, I wanted to play rock-and-roll. I was singing for them and I would write music. That band was short lived because everybody was busy with their own bands and families. People came for the comedy as well as for the music. Four different kinds of people that played really wacky, silly punk-rock and hardcore. RR: I played bass in a band called Politics of Contraband. So, I really wasn’t a musician until I started playing in a band when I was 23 years old. Then, of course, being a child of the eighties, I became a DJ. That’s what drove me toward classic rock: Led Zeppelin, Pink Floyd, Beatles, Eagles, all of those bands. RR: From there, I was like, “OK, she tried to buy me music she liked.” But still, she was a cool mom and supported me, she was just scared about that whole Satan thing with Kiss. Early on, she took away the Kiss records and said, “Don’t worry, I’m going to go out and buy you six new records tomorrow.” She came home with the Village People, Andy Gibb… she came home with those K-tel records… They always let me do what I wanted to do as a teenager and young adult. One night she came home from a meeting and the hot topic in the meeting was “Kiss: Knights in Satan’s Service.” My mother said “We’re going to take away your Kiss records.” My parents were never like that growing up. My mother started going to these meetings down there, we come from a Catholic family. RR: I was going to a Catholic school at the time. I was like, “Wow, I want to do this!” I think it was more that I wanted to be a monster than a musician. Then, shortly after that… I was just intrigued by their faces on the covers. I think my uncle bought me the first four solo Kiss albums.
It scared the hell out of me, but I loved it. RR: I was about seven or eight years old and I loved Kiss – I saw Kiss on TV. Tell us a bit about how you got into music. LG: Yes, that’s why I reached out to you today, to talk to you before the festival. Life is strange, but NipperFest is like the rainbow at the end of a dark cloud. Lucas Garrett: Thank you, Ralph, for talking with me today.