The real reason to why Kotipelto decided to leave Stratovarius? Perhaps not? RockUnited asked keyboardist Jens Johansson, about the really high vocals on their new record, since Kotipelto has never sung that high before?"

"Well, Tolkki told him to, under pressure, he threatened him with a whip, actually...."
Jens Johansson (Stratovarius)

Ken Tamplin is a nice chap and his answer to the simple question: Wake The Nations" is the title of your new CD, do we need to be awaken and for/to what?

"One of the other meanings it has for me has to do with music. The world (for the most part) has embraced homogenized crap. Boy bands, girl bands, packaged bullshit! It's all big business and big corporation with no care for artistry or creativity. I think it's time we wake up to the fact that we are being manipulated to buy spoonfed musical nonsense. I feel like the little boy who shouted "but the emperor has no clothes" (taken from the story The Emporer's New Clothes)."
Ken Tamplin (solo, ex-Shout)

RockUnited: Do you still feel angry if you get a bad review?

"Of course. If you have a child and somebody comes up to you and says: My God, that’s an ugly baby. How would you react?"
Anneke (The Gathering)

The big question everybody needed to know the answer to: Who the heck is Margritt anyway and why so good darn Mad?

"Margritt is what we nicknamed our drummer Danny. Wouldn’t you be mad if your name was Margritt?"
Eddie Smith (Mad Margritt)

Quiet Riot wrote a song with the line 'bang your heads' in the past and I guess Tony (Sonata Artica) & Timo Tolkki (Stratovarius), took it very seriously. RockUnited saw them banging their heads together like crazy, at a Stratovarius album listening session during 2003. Tolkki ended up having the biggest bump on his forehead and thus why he decided to get rid of all the other members??? We asked Tony if he needed a aspirin?

"Yeah ! Goddamn what a headache. Tolkki's forehead was really terrible! I have a hard head though. I've fooled around like this earlier with Jukka from Nightwish... but I haven't had the guts to call Tolkki yet after that...Sorry Timo."
Tony (Sonata Arctica)

Narnia is a W***e M***l band from Sweden and RockUnited asked them: why they hate to be put into a musical box.

"No, that is not quite right, I do understand that especially journalists have to put bands into musical boxes or into genres but I do not like it when they describe us as a white metal band. We are not that, we are a melodic hardrock band, and yes, we are christians, but that does not mean that we make white metal. That genre has a negative effect on listeners, if they think that you are a white metal band, you get compared to Stryper or something like that and we are nothing like Stryper, we are NARNIA and we kick ass!!"
Christian Rivel (Narnia)

Oscar from Hammerfall is really into pro-wrestling I guess? The man even had his own magazine about the phenomena. Why oh why???? RockUnited asked.... I kinda' wish we never did ;-)

"If I knew that I would probably write a thesis or something on the matter, but it's something I've been heavily into since 1991. It's just the excitement what I like about it. A lot of similarities between heavy metal and wrestling I think. The ongoing argument by the people in the eightees and the beginning of the ninetees was that this is not real, so how can you like it ? But it's like saying this movie's not real, it's not a documentary, how can it be good ? But it's good because it's not real, it's entertainment. It's well- thought action normally. The wrestling matches also tell a story inside of the ring, like this guy beats that guy for a while and people want to see that guy come back and when he does everybody's gonna go "yeahh !". There's a whole psychological thing with the wrestling matches that people have no idea about if they're not involved with it. I don't know much about it, 'cos I'm not in the ring, I've studied it pretty close for the past ten to twelve years, close enough that I have a good feeling for it."
Oscar (Hammerfall)

Little Jasper thinks his daddy is ok... but the drummer is way too cool!!!

"He actually came on stage with me at a place called Sacameto. It was great. Although at this time he wants to be Tommy Aldridge rather than his dad so I’ll have to talk him out of that – singers make more money for instance".
David Coverdale (Whitesnake)

Starbuck's advise to the finnish youth about their drinking habits and what else to do for fun, since this is a growing problem???

"I´d say get a life and use your imagination ! Do you want to be out of shape and fat, with a vice that´s way fucking out of control and drags you to hell like a dog on a leash, or do you want to feel empowered and in control? Don´t be a brainless, gutless sheep. Have the balls and character to call your own shots. And if some dipshit doesn´t dig the fact that you´ve got the spine to swim against the tide then you don´t need them. That´s a fact. Have some Finnish SISU, dammit! Show some balls".
Starbuck (Stonerkings)

After reading RockUnited's "Don't Mess With my 80's" article. (click here to read) What can you say about yourself and other musician friends, from the time. Is there any truth in that "most" 80's rockers are ashamed about their past?

"I am not ashamed of the 80's!! It was a blast, best time in my life. Played huge concert, had great moment with the fans, fucked more girls then I can remember... love the music girls were pretty, music was fun, cool cars, man what a blast. I was a little boy in a candy stores. Your article of "the 80's" was very cool, you said it very well. Man, the sunset strip, girls in mini skits, what a blast! Thank god I was not into drugs, cause it was all over.. I was into women... women, from all over the world, all colors.. and with one thing in common... well I won t say it cause I'm polite, but all I can say is LOVED THE 80'S. The only man that has been with more woman then I, is Gene Simmons, and that is because he was a bigger rock star.. that is it. The 80's were great, America was strong, the Dodgers were great, Mike Tyson was winning... we had a blast".
Terry Ilous (XYZ)

Turn Up the Radio!!! RockUnited even asked this question to Ronald McDonalds long-lost brother Steve: The music scene has changed a lot since 1989, do you think that Autograph can still fit in that scene, or maybe fill up a gap? (the gap is a great store by the way)

"I am a realist and I know how the music scene has changed. We don't stand a chance, haha...... I think that there still is a certain incrowd that listen to our "sort" of music, but the majority does not, and that's okay by the way. Here in the US if you listen to the radio you hear bands like Nickleback, Lifehouse, Creed or Audioslave and I really love their music, but there is no way that Autograph will be played on any major radio station. I know that the scene in Europe and Japan is quite different; there they still play Def Leppard and that sort of stuff".
Steve Plunkett (Autograph)

Did Bunton refer to his fans as the "Vulgar" people, when naming his new CD "Fame Among The Vulgar". Nope! It was all about the evil thing called music industry! Thus why we haven't seen any new 'super bands' or artists since the 80's really.

"The title "Fame Among The Vulgar" is referring to the music industry. The vulgar people are always looking for the next big thing instead of developing the acts they already have. You get one shot these days with the major labels. If your first single doesn't sell a million copies, they forget all about you and move on to something else".
Jacob Bunton (Mars Electric)

Some people are into Tolkien and role playing... and some try to take it to the next level somehow??? RockUnited asked Lost Horizon about their role names, do they tell something about them as a person and how did you decide on the names? (Bilbo is already called for I believe).

"I think it was very natural for us to do it. I didn't like to have a hero or something with normal name like Sven Svensson, who f*cking cares. If you are doing something like building a concept with a message and everything, you have to do it all the way. You cannot just hear music and the message and then you go "hello, I am..", you know. You have to do everything, because otherwise there's a lot of holes in your concept. My title is: Transcendental Protagonist, I love it everytime I say it and I see it, because it's exactly what I think of myself".
Wojtek (Lost Horizon)

We had to bug Gregg about his new band's name... Sum 41, Blink 182...did he plead guilty at bandwagon jumping? Nah... but we still think something's going on there :-)

"NO...i don't............ATTRACTION 65 is a sign on the interstate that I see everyday on my way home...it's the exit I get off on to come home......there are various "attractions" around the state, probably the country...and we happen to live off an exit that has one of these "attractions".....thus..ATTRACTION 65".
Gregg Fulkerson (Attraction 65/ ex- Blue Tears)

Did christian rockers Leviticus, experience any harsh words from their local church or other parish halls in the 80's? Hardrock was after all considered as the "devil's music" by many back then and still I guess??? How about reading the lyrics next time bucko!!!

"Yes! We received lots of harsh words from many churches and christians at that time. They were sending back our posters which people had been setting up for concerts and we received letters where they told us that we were serving the devil! And in the christians newspapers they wrote that hardrock music was satanic music, even if you were a christian and the lyrics tells them all about Jesus and the kingdom of God".
Björn stigsson (Leviticus)

The other side of the coin is of course "Hell"... and why did Crystal Ball name their new CD "Hellvetia" instead of "Helvetia"???

“Well it’s a kind of joke actually. Helvetia means Switzerland as you know and we tried to deal with the prejudices that people tend to have about our country. It is all Ricola, Swiss cheese, Milka and yodelling that people come up with if you ask them about Swiss characteristics. It is also a bit of criticism on our country(Hell) because a lot of things are still not very good; it’s a very conservative country, if you know what I mean.”
Scott Leach (Crystal Ball)

'Best Night Of My Life'...if this was a Kiss or a Mötley Crüe song this would be about a night spent with a dozen groupies, whipped cream and handcuffs, but since you're a nice family man, it probably isn't...or is it? :)

"Just because I'm a family man, doesn't mean I don't like using whipped cream or handcuffs, or spending the night with a dozen groupies. The only difference is, I'm only allowed to let it happen in my head (at least the groupie part). Anywhere else and I'm sure the wife will cut the family jewels off. OUCH!!!"
Johnny Lima

“Songwriting for Dummies”???? You betcha'!! Here's something for all you wannabees out there (including the entire RockUnited crew). Jim wrote the book... now go ahead and buy it, write a hit, and tell us all about it later.

”Song writing for dummies” is a dream come true for me- I always wanted a forum to talk about my love affair with song writing- trying to help the beginners along- and sharing some tricks of the trade- when the dummies people approached me- I jumped at the chance- it took us a year to write the book and gave me many grey hairs along the way- but it was worth it!
Jim Peterik (Pride Of Lions/ Survivor)

How come that 'Wild Horses' decided to give it another go with "Dead Ahead" in 2003? The millions and millions of $$$ they received in advance from the label... or was there another reason? Yep... Norman Bates I believe????

Some psycho from Z Records called us saying Wild Horses first release, 'Bareback', was his all time favorite disc and would we consider doing another..... we said 'why not'. I was on break from Scorpions, Rick (Steir/guitar, ed's remark), is independantly wealthy, John was homeless again".
James Kottak (Wild Horses, Kingdom Come, Warrant, Scorpions)

And finally... Satu had no complaints about COB's new guitarist Roope, being an old Stone-fan, she saw about 200 'Stone' gigs, in the eighties and the beginning of nineties. I guess even Roope was as impressed as the rest of us here at RockUnited. Need I say more???

Two hundred ????!!!!
Roope (Children Of Bodom)

This "great" selection of words by: Urban "Wally" Wallstrom
www.RockUnited.com 2003