Albums of Purgatory Interview Liege Lord Guitarist Paul Nelson

Albums of Purgatory: Firstly, Paul, you released a solo last year.  How did that feel?

 

Paul Nelson: I was very pleasantly surprised by all the good press, airplay and sales and  the fact that my fans who knew me from my heavier side allowed me to stretch  without cutting my head of. I mean I do my own thing anyway but it's great  when you have support without desertion

 

 AoP: What are the rest of Liege Lord up to at the moment?

 

PN: The only ones really doing the music thing are Joe Comeau (now in Annihilator) and my self and along with our careers we both try to keep the  Liege lord name alive. That's why we agreed to the recent reunion show in

 Germany at the Wacken Open Air Metal Fest (now out on DVD/Nuculear Blast)  which was a blast. You can always visit the new official web site at  www.liegelord.com

 

AoP: You're mentor was a man thought of now as a guitar legend.  Did you learn a

 lot from Steve Vai?

 

PN: We met at Berkley College of Music in Boston, we were both students.  He was  an excellent player even back then, the only problem was that his sight  reading stunk!  So we would get together and sight read music from saxophone  books. After that he would show me some amazing stuff like finger exercises,  modal work and some amazing chordal stuff that I found out later was from his  studies with Joe Satriani.  And get this, the payment plan that we worked out  was that I would supply him with a carton of cigarettes for every one hour  lesson I took.  I think I got the better end of the bargain. One thing is, he  used to piss me off when he borrowed my amps without asking all the time.

 

AoP: You auditioned for Ozzy Osbourne.  Is there a story behind that?

 

PN: My reputation as a guitar player was starting to get me noticed in the  industry with Liege Lord and other projects. Offers to join other bands were  becoming more frequent. My dedication to the band remained solid, although I  will admit (only now), that there were a few offers that I did weaken to, and  upon hearing this list, anyone would have done the same; Dio, Ozzy, Anthrax,  House of Lords, Icon, Slaughter, as well as an offer to join Steel Heart a  week after their deal with MCA while I was still in the studio (recording  "Master Control") As far as Ozzy the story it goes like this! Scouts were  sent to one of our shows to see me live at night but unknowingly the choice  had been made that day to a student of a friend of mine in New Jersey - Zack.  Ha Ha... Dio was very close only one guitarist away from getting that  position. It's a crap shoot I'm just flattered that I 'm always considered.

 

AoP: You became a part of Liege Lord after they had had success with there debut  album, Freedoms Rise, was there a lot of pressure on you, at that point, to  succeed?

 

PN: No not really I learned the material very fast and immediately began doing  live shows and almost overnight we were signed to Metal Blade records and  began recording and touring. The pressure came when I began writing songs for  the band but luckily things worked out quite well on the Master Control Album.

 

AoP: How does it feel to be thought of as a founder of Power Metal?

 

PN: We'll its pretty funny and that I can describe the type of music we play now  because there was a time when no one could label us, not even the members  themselves. At the time when we were touring there were thrash bands, speed  bands, death bands, but we were the only band writing songs about medieval  stuff. That's why we did so well in Europe at first. Kerrang, Metal Forces,  Rock Hard, Scream all the big metal mags. featured us with very kind reviews.  Now they call it Power Metal, Remember I joined late in the 80's Liege Lord  had been playing since 1982 and recorded their first Album in 84!!! I find  the title quite flattering.

 

AoP: Which bands did you enjoy performing or working along side with the most?

 

PN: (get ready for this...) Anthrax, Overkill, Candlemass, Exodus, Flotsam,  Megadeth, Death, Raven. There are quite a few that I had fun with Candelmass comes to mind they were  a great bunch of guys I set up their first US tour with us. Anvil were also a  cool band and so were Anthrax and Flotsam as far as personally I had done  some clinics for ESP guitar at the Namm show in California some time ago and  had the opportunity to play with George Lynch that was a thrill there are so  many more but those seem to stick out.

 

AoP: Was it a difficult decision to disband Liege Lord in 1990?

 

PN: Yes the 90's played major factor of our bands break up along with the whole  metal scene as you know. We had just finished a massive US tour with Anvil,  Candlemass, promoting the "Master…" CD.  When the '90s hit the whole scene  fell apart, fast. During the ladder part of the '80s when I recorded with the  band, you could sense a change among the musicians and music everywhere.  Everyone wanted to become a blues player, a grunge player or even a funk p layer, you name it. Metal in the US died and was in no small part due to  the fact of the over marketing of long hair, lipstick wearing, sugarcoated  metal bands were giving the true metal movement a bad rep.

 

AoP: What's your favorite all time Metal song?

 

PN: There are just to many good ones!

 

AoP: Do you have a favorite album?

 

PN: I listen to everything and make it a point on the road to always listen new  CDs constantly and don't really have any favorites because I never listen to  a CD more than once and then I move on.

 

AoP: What would be your dream team metal lineup?

 

PN: That's a tough one just make Rob Halford the lead singer. HaHa

 

AoP: Do you have any funny stories from the road you can share?

 

PN: Yes, I do, from near plane crashes, wild women, tour bus nightmares, to  drinking binges you name it. There are so many great memories from those  days, playing with Anthrax, a funny thing was playing with Carnivore, you

 know who he ended up being (Peter Steele of Type O Negative's former band),   and when I first saw them and they came out with fur shorts on, and they  actually took supermarket steak and tied it to their arms with rope,

 (laughing) I was cracking up. But there's so many memories, playing with  Megadeth and Overkill, drinking with Jason Newstead before he was Newstead.  Playing with Death for the first time and being booked on tours that were  never in a straight line, it was like Van Couver, then two days later you're  in Texas, then Florida, and then California, and then you've got a nice gig  in Maine. There's so many stories. I remember when Candlemass came over for  their first big tour of the USA, they didn't speak a word of english,  nothing. So they toured with us up and down the East Coast and then they were  to head over to meet the people at Metal Blade. Whenever you try and teach  someone the language you always teach them the bad swear words first. So I  told them that when they get into Brian Slagel's office call me up and put me  on speaker phone, and when he comes in I want you all to give him a popular  US compliment and tell him this, 'white trash piece of shit.' I remember  telling Messiah (from Candlemass) 'are you ready?' and he says, (with a thick  accent) 'Yes Paul.' And sure enough when the record executives walked in, the  whole band screamed   'White trash piece of shit.'  I lost it.

 

 

AoP: Finally, what is in the future for Paul Nelson and the other members of  Liege Lord?

 

PN: Joe Comeau and I were asked to take part in 2 tributes for Century Media so  we recorded the song "Too Scared too Run" for their Uriah Heep Tribute and  "Dungeons are Calling" for their Savatage tribute due out soon world wide. It  was great to work in the studio with Joe again the tracks came out really  well. I just finished shooting footage for the NYC Charity DVD discussing my  thoughts regarding 9/11 and the song I covered (Speak by Queensryche) due out  September 11/2002 on Then and Now/Frontiers. I will have a track on Jason

 Becker Vol. ll there are a whole lot of albums and things are in the works. I  guess my website www.paulnelsonguitar.com would be a good place to go for  more specific info.