Monsters, Music, and Muscles

Greg Chaisson is currently the bassist for Deep Black Led but has also played with Surgical Steel, Legs Diamond, Blindside Blues Band, Die Happy, Red Sea, Steeler and Badlands. I met Greg back in his Badlands days. Besides being a highly underrated incredibly talented band Badlands had a great bunch of guys as members. Not to mention their incredibly talented bassist. Ahem. I met them many times and it was always fun. The shows were phenomenal! Greg was always a sweetheart & still is. I recently had the pleasure of interviewing him!

1. Any person (living or dead) that you would like to meet and why?

I�m going to break the rules already.
So, Jesus, for the obvious reasons.
Bruce Lee, because he�s Bruce Lee, and I love his philosophy.
And Honus Wagner, because I love baseball, and he played it the way it should be played.
Billy Gibbons, because he�s such a character.
And One Direction, so my daughter could meet Niall. She says he�s so dreamy.

2. Who are some of your favorite musicians?

Bass Players: John Entwistle, Geezer, Felix Papalardi, among others.
Drummers: Ian Paice. Mitch Mitchell, Bobby Caldwell, among others.
Guitar Players: Jake E Lee, Duane Allman, Ritchie Blackmore, among others.
Singers: Steve Marriot, Ray Gillen, Mark Farner, among others.

3. What's your guilty musical pleasure?

I like to play the drums, naked. Ok, not naked, just seeing if you�re paying attention. I really love playing drums, and I�m pretty good at it.

4. Who did you idolize as a child?

My father, Sonny Chaisson, and Willie Mays.

5. Stranded on a deserted island, what 3 cds would you have with you?

ZZ Top, Rio Grande Mud,
Humble Pie Rocking the Filmore
Johnny Winter And Live
Deep Purple, In Rock
The first Captain Beyond Album...... I have a hard time following the rules.

6. The difference between today's music and the music of the 80's?

The way things are recorded now. Even back in the Badlands days, things were recorded Analog, and not digital. There were no pro-tools or auto tune for singing. You actually had to be able to play the whole song all the way through. Wow, what a concept. Also, most songs today don�t have a lot of guitar solos, at least not as much as back in the dinosaur days. What the heck, I like guitar solos, if they say something. I know a lot of bands are trying to record like the 70�s, and there are some newer, great bands. So I applaud them. Even though Badlands was in the late 80�s, we wrote, recorded, played, and acted like it was still the 70�s. We got it as real as we could.

7. Favorite place to perform?

Oh, so many. I�ll say Hammerjacks in Baltimore. What a fun place. I think we played there three times. Also the Palace in Hollywood.

8. What makes a good song?

I don�t know. To me, I just write what I want. I don�t worry whether other people are going to like it or not. If they do, great, if not, no big deal. We always wrote that way in Badlands. And I write that way in my new band. One of the things I got from Jake was when he wrote, the solo section was always a different musical part from the rest of the song. I always liked that. That always made it more interesting and kind of a surprise. And when you�re playing it, it�s never boring.

9. What are your hobbies?

I coach baseball and softball. I coached my son all the way through high school, and he plays in college now. I�m currently the head coach at my daughter�s middle school where she plays.

10. Favorite food to eat on the road?

Anything that isn�t a truck stop. We would drive 100 miles out of our way to go to a Cracker Barrel or a Bob Evans. My favorite food period is Mexican Food.

11. The first concert you ever went to?

I went to the Monterey Pop Festival with some older friends, but I couldn�t have cared less, some crazy guy lighting his guitar on fire. HA! I was all about baseball back then. A year or so later, I went to the Northern California Pop Festival. I wanted to see Deep Purple. It was cool.

12. Who's the best person you've met on the road?

You mean besides you! I met a lot of really cool people, fans, and other musicians. I enjoyed going out after the show and saying Hi and doing the whole meet-and-greet thing. I would have to say a great experience would be that I got to meet Rory Gallagher when he played on his last tour in the US. I went to the show in Tempe, AZ. The promoter mentioned I was there, come to find out he liked Badlands, so he asked to meet me. I was blown away because I was a huge fan of his. He was very nice.

13. Any current projects?

I have a new original band called DEEP BLACK LED, I wonder who our influences are..LOL. It's very cool, very 70's, very retro. The guitar player Ryan Mckay is a younger guy but he's really into that 70's style and sound, a great player. Dwain Miller who is from Keel is playing drums. He thinks he's a cross between Bonham and Paice LOL, And he's damn close, Awesome! The singer Michael Beck and I write most of the stuff, we like it, HA! He's an excellent vocalist. His influences are a little different, and that gives the songs a cool twist. I'm real happy with it and we've gotten a lot of great feedback from everyone who's heard it....I'm tryin to get Jake to do a solo on a song and I'm pretty sure Ozzys former guitarist Joe Holmes is gonna do Track! I'm even gonna play drums on a couple of tracks. My brother Kenny is gonna play bass on those two. It will be a blast. I think Marc Danzeisen of the Riverdogs will be mixing it. Should be great. It's the some of the best work I've done since Badlands....Check it out!

VISIT GREG!