Press

By Jeb Wright
Classic Rock Revisited

Eddie Trunk is the poster child for all things hard rock and heavy metal.  He has hosted numerous music related shows on VH1 Classic and been on the radio celebrating hard rock for over 25 years.  Despite becoming famous in the industry for his dedication to the music, Trunk remains an ordinary, average guy, who just happens to be a huge music fan.  He wears his love of music on his sleeve and is among the rare few whom not only listen to music; they feel it.  Trunk has returned to VH1 Classic to host That Metal Show, a new program dedicated to keeping the rocks a' rolling and the heads a' banging.

We caught up with Eddie to learn more about That Metal Show and his co-hosts, comedians Don Jamieson and Jim Florentine.  While Eddie considers That Metal Show to be hard rock's answer to The View, Classic Rock Revisited is just happy that Eddie Trunk and VH1 Classic are keeping the music we love alive and well.

Jeb: Tell me about That Metal Show on VH1 Classic.

Eddie: We are airing several episodes already.  New episodes premier every Saturday, at 11:00, and then repeat 15 to 20 times every week.  I want to make sure that everyone knows this is VH1 Classic and not VH1.  If you try to find us on VH1 then you will only see reality shows.  This is a separate channel.

Jeb: There have been shows about metal before, so let me ask you what makes this one different?

Eddie: It is done in front of a live studio audience.  It is a combination of what the co-hosts bring.  One side is comedy, and one side is the 25 years in the business that I bring.  Out of the box, people are noticing the chemistry between us.  There is a lot of ball busting going on.  I have gotten a lot of emails about my co-hosts asking why I let them diss me.  They are not getting the joke because we are all great friends and that is how we really are.  They are big metal fans and they are stand up comics in their regular gigs.

Jeb:  How did you think to bring comedians into a show on hard rock and metal?

Eddie: I brought them into the show because I wanted to do something different.  VH1 Classic did not want a straight interview show, which is something I like to do.  They wanted something a little bit left of center.  I gave them the idea to do the rock and metal equivalent of The View.  I introduced them to Don [Jamieson] and Jim [Florentine] and we pitched it, shot a pilot and got picked up.  We are tied together by the fact that we are friends and into the same kind of music.  They handle the roles of doing the field pieces and providing the comedy, and I am there to anchor the whole thing.

Jeb: I see that Lita Ford was on the show.  We have not seen anything out of Lita in years.

Eddie: She was great.  She was in the pilot episode and the first episode.  If you go to my site,  www.eddietrunk.com  then you can see the complete schedule with all of the repeats.  Back in June, Lita had done my radio show, and we got lucky that she was still in New York, when we needed a guest to shoot the pilot.  It was great because so many people have not seen or heard from her for so long.  In addition to being a great guest, she brings out the whole, "Holy shit, where has she been?" factor.

Going forward we have Rush and we have Angus [Young] and Brian [Johnson] from AC/DC and we have Mike Portnoy from Dream Theater.  Next week, we have Twisted Sister.  We will also have Ace Frehley.  The guest's get bigger and bigger as the show goes on.

Jeb: Is there any music?

Eddie: It is strictly talk.  The episode with Yngwie [Malmsteen] has him shredding with his guitar for a bit, but it is a talk show.  The guests come out and they stay out the entire show, which is another thing that differentiates us from shows that have been done in the past.  We want the guest to be a part of the entire show, instead of just coming out for an interview and leaving.  I get into a lot of stupid debates with my co-hosts and we argue a lot.  It is a lot of fun to have the guests jump in and do that as well.

I was adamant that the guests be part of the show, as that makes it unique.  The feedback going into this has been really strong.  It is very encouraging and I am grateful I have these opportunities.  I have some great people around me that have helped me bring this show alive.  I never get too high, or too low, but all the signs are really good.

Jeb: You mean you debate stuff like Sabbath vs. Dio with Sabbath?

Eddie: That actually is one of the debates.  We open the show with a topic that we will toss around and talk amongst ourselves.  The artist then comes out and hangs out the rest of the show.  We usually have Don and Jim do a pre-recorded segment with fans.  The first episode was Don and Jim in front of Madison Square Garden telling fans that they were talking on a closed circuit to Van Halen backstage, and they really were not doing that at all.

In the episode with Yngwie, they tell people they are tour guides for the Hard Rock Café and they take them on a tour of the Hard Rock and some funny stuff happens.  We also have a segment called Stump the Trunk.  The audience asks me trivia questions and if I get it wrong then they get a prize.  We also have what is called Throw Down where we debate over stuff like Sabbath vs. Dio, that you mentioned.  It is a timed segment; everyone has two-minutes to get their points across.   We have Pick of the Week, which is something that we recommend to the audience.  It can be a CD, a DVD or a book and it doesn't have to be something new; it can be something that flew under the radar and we want people to know about it.

Jeb: You are getting new things out there that the mainstream is not doing.  I think it is a no brainer for hard rock fans to get into this show.  It is great for the bands to be able to get their new releases mentioned on national television.

Eddie: Some aspects of this show come directly from my radio show.  Stump the Trunk is an example of that.  I certainly don't claim to be a 'know it all' but when I go out, for whatever reason, people inevitably ask me questions about bands.  When they stump me, they get something out of a box that we call The Eddie Trunk Box of Junk.  I actually do that on the air on my radio show.  I stole that from myself.  We don't have the amount of time on television that we have on the radio, but it does have some of the same spirit.

Don and Jim had done my radio show too.  We are all about the same age, we are all from Jersey and we like the same bands.  If you don't know that we are all friends, and that we have been doing this on the radio, then you might wonder how we are all clicking like this, or why one of us doesn't get pissed and walk away.  I tell people that if we were not doing this on the radio, or on VH1 Classic, then we would be sitting around doing this anyway.  We are all buds and we are all just having fun.

Jeb: Metal has always been the bastard rock music.  Was there any difficulty getting this show pitched?

Eddie: I didn't really answer the last question about getting the word out about these bands.  I do a satellite radio show on XM.  Living in New York, a major market, my whole life, we take for granted that we see and hear about everything going on.  When I do the satellite show, it shocks the hell out of me that people outside of the major markets don't know that Twisted Sister is back together or that Iron Maiden has a new record out.  Hopefully, a TV show that has a big reach can help some of these bands that I take for granted, but others don't know what is going on.

To answer your most recent question, it was to the contrary.  I didn't have any problem pitching the show.  Let's be honest right out of the box: This is a metal show that is about hard rock and metal.  That Metal Show is the title that VH1 Classic gave to it.  The show caters to hard rock and heavy metal artists of the '70's and '80's.   I have already heard from people who are fans of death metal bands asking why we are not doing anything about the bands they like.  You can't be all things to all people.  The show is only a half an hour long, and it is aired on a network that is classic based.  It is what it is, and we have our hands full just trying to deal with the artists from that era.

VH1 Classic does tremendously well with anything that has a hard rock or metal tag associated with it.  It was not difficult to get them to want to do a show like this.  For the last five years, I have hosted their metal video hours.  They wanted something different and that it is how the format of the show came about.  I initially did not want the word 'metal' in the title as I wanted a wider reach.  People may think that Rush and Lita Ford are not metal, so they should not be on the show.  VH1 Classic wanted 'metal' in the title simply because they do so well with shows that deal with metal.  I was just happy to do the show.  They could have it called it anything they wanted.

Jeb: A deejay, the other day, on the radio announced that Uriah Heep had a new album out and they said the name of the album, Wake the Sleeper, and then they played "Gypsy" from the band's first album.  Why can't they play a song from the new album?

Eddie: You're lucky that you are getting a radio station to play anything by Uriah Heep.  Outside of the occasional spin of "Easy Livin'" no one in New York is playing anything by Uriah Heep, new or old.  That is an issue that goes on with so many artists.  We cram in as much as we can in a half an hour.  That said, Yngwie got to mention his new CD and we put it up on the screen.  They get to give a pop to what they are doing now, but it hard because people want to know about the old days.  I have always been adamant about playing new music by classic artists.  I think it is very important.  It can be a band like Iron Maiden, who is a mega-band or it can be a smaller band like Uriah Heep, but they have a hard time getting their new music played.

The story you just told me about that deejay saying that makes me want to tell you to credit them.  It was probably his only way to let people know that the band had a new record out.  A lot of people don't know that 99% of radio deejays do not pick what they play.  In fact, they have no say so whatsoever.  That deejay may have wanted to play a new Uriah Heep song but he knew that if he did that he would get fired.  He had to play what was on the play list.  I am fortunate that I have total creative control on my radio shows, but most people don't.  They have to follow the blueprint or they are out of a job.  I have been in that situation as well.  It took a long time for me to establish what I have now.  The radio does market research to reach the mainstream fans, instead of the more fanatic fans like you and I.

Jeb: You are the keeper of the flame. You have the highest profile for hard rock and metal that there is.

Eddie: Thank you man. I am grateful for everything that I have got.  I celebrated the 25th anniversary of my radio show earlier this year and Judas Priest played a private show for me at the Hard Rock in New York.  To have something like that happen and get that kind of acknowledgment from legends like that just floors me.  I am still the same guy who is a fan of this stuff.  Having a band like Priest give a tip of the hat to me and play a free show for me is amazing.  I am lucky to have a loyal audience.  Not everyone is going to like everything I say or do, but that is what gives me credibility.  I want to be real and honest.  The biggest thing I wanted to accomplish in my career was to have the ability to talk to people like I would talk to them on the street or in a bar.  To have that sort of unfiltered conversation is really a big part of the TV show is about as well.

We got into a debate on the TV show about the new Metallica album.  I think it is a great album but I think it is recorded like crap.  It is distorted.  We get into a huge debate about that with no holds barred.  There are Metallica fans that are going to be pissed off about that, and maybe Lars is going to be pissed off about it, but, at the end of the day, you find out that they are going to have a lot of respect for you because you are not just kissing ass.  The fact that I made the decision to be that way, a long time ago, has paid off for me.

I didn't get into radio to become rich and famous.  God knows that is not going to happen.  I initially got into radio because I wanted to share music that I loved, and was not hearing anywhere else, with other people.  I am a huge fan of UFO.  They didn't get any respect and they flew under the radio.  They are forty years down the road and far from a household name.  To be able to take Mechanics by UFO and get it on the radio, back in 1983, was what drove me.  I loved the record, and I couldn't wait to let others hear it, because maybe they will go buy it and love it too.  I am a much different person than I was 25 years ago, in the sence that I am married with kids.  It becomes a bit of a different beast because you have mouths to feed and people relying on you to keep the lights on.  You have to maintain the passion and pureness of what you got into it for but you also have to make it pay the bills.  I have been fortunate to be able to do that.  I would love for it to happen that I got rich, but as long as I can keep a roof over our heads and make a living, and talk about music I love, then I am happy.

Jeb: Last one: What is your side on the Ozzy vs Dio debate?

Eddie: I went with Dio because that was the Sabbath that I discovered.  Heaven and Hell was my introduction to Black Sabbath.  I think that album is one of the best they have done.  I went back and discovered the Ozzy stuff and became a fan of that as well.  I am also partial to Ronnie James Dio because he is a good friend, and one of the nicest people that you will ever meet.  I am not trying to slight Ozzy in the least but for me there is a lot of personal connection with the Dio era.

I love what they are doing now with the band Heaven and Hell, and I can't wait for the new album to come out.  I don't really acknowledge the influence that I have with these artists.  It doesn't connect to me until they tell me things.  For example, I was talking to [Tony] Iommi and I asked him, "How did this reunion with Ronnie come about?"  Tony said, "You can give yourself some credit for that. Every time I saw you then you were telling me how much you loved that era of music and that we should revisit it. It gave us the kick in the pants to take a look at it again."  That knocked me out, but I am under no illusions.  I am not saying I am responsible for the reunion, but the fact that I put that bug in Tony's ear and he acknowledged that is really cool.  If I can have that impact then I am very happy.  I reunited Twisted Sister seven years ago for a benefit that I put on.  Now, seven years later, they are still together and they are more active than they have ever been.  It is cool to have the sort of ripple effect.  I get a kick out of doing that.  If I am lucky enough to do it again, then I am happy to do it.  I want to help these bands out anyway I can.