About a year ago Randy and I spoke of his dreams to be on a stage singing his heart out looking out a crowd absorbing his every word. I decided to meet up with him and see where he was with his master plan. Dream it hard enough and it will happen would be a good description of the outcome. Seeing his voice as a rare commodity (yes, he has an uncanny ability to sound just like Axl), he joined forces with guitarists Paul and Bobby, bassist Spike, and drummer Rob to form this line-up of Paradise City in 2001. Since then, they have played from New York to Nebraska, Florida to Massachusetts, not to mention they had the notoriety of being featured in the New York Times in March. Recently Paradise City came to town as part of Fake Fest and the Tower City Amphitheater so I snuck past security and sought Randy out…
Tourbus: What brought Paradise City together?
Randy: I initially did Paradise City in Cleveland along with my original thing Wycked Heart. I always knew I could do Axl and I kept being told “why don’t you do something with that” so I went for it, and I’m glad everything seems to be working out with it.
T: Any plans on where you will go from here? A full scale tour? Side projects?
R: From here, we are extending Fake Fest to Pittsburgh, Columbus, Kansas City, St. Louis, and Indianapolis and hopefully it will continue from there. We are booked clear through October and are now beginning to work on an original album.
T: Which former Guns ‘N’ Roses member would you like to have as your guest for an upcoming show?
R: I would love to have Axl, but being halfway realistic maybe I could get Steven Adler out of the heroine clinic. Putting a gamble on it though, I can say Slash because I heard a radio interview of him when I drove through Columbus. They asked him if he wanted them to play one of the old tunes. He said yeah, play Paradise City! I thought how cool is that. I think Slash would be the most open-minded about coming out to jam.
T: How did the feature in the New York Times come about?
R: Chuck Klosterman from the Akron-Beacon Journal called me up and asked me if I would be interested in being in the New York Times so we took him to Virginia with us not knowing what to expect on either side. He got to share and show everyone that a tribute band is just as serious as an original band with just as much fun and just as many headaches.
T: What would you say is the best part of being on the road?
R: Rebates on Vaseline at Motel 6! But seriously seeing all the different places. It’s like a vacation with extreme karaoke for me.
T: You mentioned work on an original album with the Paradise City line-up, do you have plans to revisit that aspect of the scene?
R: Most definitely, we under a different name have started work on our original stuff and don’t be surprised if we throw one out in up and coming dates to get a reaction. I miss the original scene and when I first started the Tribute thing I didn’t want someone thinking I was stealing someone else’s music so I am dying to get back to the original stuff.
T: If you weren’t doing this right now, what would you be doing?
R: I would either be trying to do this and putting it together or I would be hard at work on my originals. I just thank God that this is working out.
T: Is there an experience that ever made you think you were crazy for doing this?
R: Everyday I say that when I wake up! It’s kind of like when I played high school football and I ran after the guy with the ball thinking “I’m never going to catch him so why am I doing this”. It’s because you love it that you do it!
T: What’s in you CD player right now?
R: Guns ‘N’ Roses and the Chris Akin Project!
T: If they made a movie of your life, would you be a villain or a good guy?
R: I would be the good villain, kind of like Robin Hood. A villain but yet a good guy.
T: Anything else you would like to say?
R: Go see the new Spiderman movie. I hear it’s really good. And Hells Bells is a kick ass AC/DC tribute and we’re touring all over the place with them. And thank you for all your support and to Al Spohn and everyone else who made this show possible and to all the bands involved.
"The Best GNFNR Tribute in the Country"
