WASP’s Blackie Lawless pays homage to Frankie Banali: ‘My Friend Is Gone’

WASP songs Blackie Lawless has respect to Frankie Banali, who died Thursday night (August 20) at the age of 68.

Banalihis history with ROLE RIOT span over 37 years and he was distinguished to be the only member of the band to be recorded on every single ROLE RIOT release from 1983s “Metal Health”, which was the first heavy metal album that no. 1 on the Billboard chart, fia 2019’s “Hollywood Cowboys”. He has also recorded seven albums WASP between 1989 and 2004.

In a social media post on Friday (August 21) Lawless wrote: “Frankie Banali and the battle he has now maintained for well over a year with cancer, which has taken its toll physically, emotionally and mentally, is now complete. My friend is gone.

“I met him on July 17, 1975. It was my first night in Hollywood. I was scared to death and had no idea what was waiting for me in this ‘Dream Factory’ that had promised so much but had a reputation at the same time. that even began to be surprisingly cruel to his naive dreamers.He lay outside to the wall at the Roxy on the Strip. Arthur Kane had finally met him NY DOLLS trip to LA and he introduced me to him. I remember thinking, ‘I do not even care if this guy can play. This man is an absolute Rock Star and nobody knows it yet ‘. I wanted to be in a band with him… BAD!

“Over the years, our life paths crossed in different ways, both personally and professionally, and I would see the bands he played on, and he stood out in all of them. His talent separated him from everyone else where he was. was on stage.

“One night in 1979, I ran into him at a burger joint and played him a demo of the songs I had just finished. We were sitting in my car listening, and it was at that moment that we began a friendship. develop that would last our whole lives.These songs we heard that night in my car would later become the foundation that both he and I built from the ground up 11 years later.The record would be called ‘The Crimson Idol’.

“Over the years we learned each other well. His love for music and its history would lead us to countless hours of romance of the music and the bands we idolized. One of the things that I was impressed with how much detail he knew about other instruments. Little things that are usually just players using these instruments, Frankie could discuss with them, and it would always get these players attention that a drummer could have that kind of detailed knowledge. But he was not your average drummer. He proved that over and over again for everything he touched with his musical greatness.

“When we were kids from New York, we obviously had a love for baseball. During ’89 Headless Tour on holidays we would go to anyone Major League Ballpark we could. One day we were in Cincinnati and the Reds were in the city. We had a show that night, but we thought we could catch the first half of the game and then get to the venue. Well, the game turned out very well, and we knew we would have to go, or we would be late for the show. We were sitting there talking, and he said: All those people in the location are all excited and thought, ‘oh man, the Band is backstage getting ready to come out and it’s going to be crazy! ‘. But there we sat, sitting in a ballpark watching the game, eating peanuts and laughing, and having a good ole time. Eventually we knew we were in trouble, so we grabbed our sips and brought them to the show, and we were on stage about half an hour late. I would turn around during the show and look at him, and we would both laugh out loud, like a couple of little kids skipping school. It was one of those moments that only you two would know.

“We had some really fun times together and I’ll really miss that. He could make me laugh more than almost anyone. He was one of those guys who was really funny. Frankie could make a dog laugh. I could go on and on, but those stories will be just me and me, and for that I am selfish without shame.

“But we also experienced heartache together. Years ago he and I sat alone in a room with the alarm clock for his mother. I hurt so badly for him and I could not take the pain away from him. It’s the kind of moments that make you.” strak ‘.

“As Christians we are told ‘not to let the left hand know what the right hand is doing’, that is to say, whatever good works you do in this world, do not do it for the recognition of men, so that the world will praise you. over the years he supported many orphaned children in different countries and looked after these children until adulthood, from time to time he would show me pictures of these children … children he could never meet. never talked about it publicly.That’s who Frankie Banali used to be.

“I want to take a moment, to put into perspective, the contributions that this man has made to the Rock genre that we all now take for granted. Unlimited called … Heavy Metal!

“For better or for worse, the entertainment industry is trying to emulate its own successes.

“Rarely will any film, television or record company venture into uncharted areas for fear of failure. In 1983 when ROLE RIOT published the groundbreaking album ‘Metal Health’, the music business as we know it has changed. There is no way I can exaggerate this fact. That album gave birth to a huge movement, which later himself and many others would benefit from.

“‘Metal Health’ would continue to sell a whopping 10 million copies in the US and much more worldwide. This had never been done before by a so-called ‘Hard Rock’ or ‘Heavy Metal’ band in the history of the music business. It blew the doors out of all conventional thinking about what a Rockband could do. Every Rockband, and I mean EVERY Rockband that came after it ROLE RIOT owes them that which can never be returned. Without that band, the genre we know and love today would simply not exist as it does now. It created a domino effect that showed MTV, all the record companies, live music promoters, booking agents and all the other pop growing, emerging rock bands that not only would not take this music away, but just the opposite, became massive!

“For me, there is no way I can exaggerate the importance of his talent on my career. Of the many, many records we have made together, the thing that was most memorable to me was to see how he found a way to express my vision on the things I heard.As a musician he was far superior to myself and he knew it, but what made our collaboration work was his respect for the songs.Because it was only the two of us were in the studio, I would use him as a Lead Instrument, I would push him to perform the arrangements in a way that is usually reserved for lead vocals or lead guitars only. It was remarkable to see that his thoughts work I would throw ideas at him and then see how he drives them through this extraordinary running drum filter.

“It’s impossible to sum up the totality of a man’s life in just a few words. The only thing we really have in this world is what we leave behind. It was the great educator Horace Mann that said, ‘Shame on you for dying until you have won some victory for mankind’. Frankie Banali has nothing to be ashamed of. He was an enormous part of that band that achieved that victory for the music we all love.

“My friend is gone.

“But in every heart there is a Truth that strikes.

“He was a believer in the Lord Jesus Christ. That I have the guarantee that I will see him again.

“A few days ago, the last thing I wrote to him was, ‘A while back, I was doing a song called ‘Hold on to my heart’,… Hold on to mine… I’ll stick to you. He replied: ‘Love You Brother’.

‘Godspeed Frankie Banali…. My friend”