Welcome one and all to episode 410 of Signals
from Mars. I'm your host Victor and this is the
Hall of Fame episode of the show. What we've
done is we've had people vote on 10 bands they
would include in their own personal Hall of Fame.
I've compiled all that information and come up
with a 10 band countdown for this episode. I'm
ready. Fantastic turnout. This has been the one
show where I've been able to achieve the most
amount of votes, gotten the most amount of people
to vote for this topic. It's a topic that for
a lot of people, especially in the States, is
near and dear to their hearts because a lot of
people feel that the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame
does not represent them. There are certain things
that they do that are, that is head scratching.
There's other stuff that I understand the importance
of some of the artists that are included. I think
the biggest sticking point is the name of the
establishment for a lot of people. With that
said, I do think that there are huge trolls that
They induct people into the Hall of Fame just
to get a rise out of people online, just to get
people talking just like I'm doing right now.
So I kind of fit that bill. There you go. So
to kind of put it to rest, what I want to do
is have a yearly Hall of Fame induction where
I have people vote for bands that they want to
include in this Hall of Fame. whoever they choose,
so long as they stay within the hard rock and
metal, or as you guys will hear during this episode,
maybe straight up rock bands as well, because
it's an interesting take on what a band means
to you, depending on where you came from, when
you grew up, so on and so forth. So I think it's
a fun listen. Of course, I'm biased. But yeah,
so it's always cool to hook up with my patrons,
with people that decided to chime in and be on
the episode with me live. And real quickly, let
me just run down all of the patrons. We have
Steve Saylor, Stephen Saylor, excuse me, Steve
Hoker. Jeremy Weltman, Mike Jones, Brad Dahl,
Gabriel Ruiz, Chris Vaglio, Jose Ruiz, Metal
Dan, Johan Edestrum, Ed Ferguson, Anthony Mackey,
Tony Espin, Chris Sinzak, Sean Richman, and Pascal
Schomacher. Thank you guys all for your support.
I appreciate it. greatly and you can become a
patron for as little as two bucks a month join
our great troll free environment discuss new
and exciting music various music topics uh different
things that i'm going to be working on that i
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go to signals from mars .com it is your one -stop
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talking about anyway i want to thank you guys
for checking the show out keep in mind who we
voted on who made it into the Hall of Fame and
who you'd like to see added for next year. Maybe
this will kind of get things going and get you
to want to participate and check out our cool
community of like -minded music nerds like myself.
In any event, thank you so much for listening
to the episode. Thank you for choosing to listen
to Signals from Mars. Let's get on with the countdown.
Welcome one and all to the March 21st edition
of Signals from Mars. I'm your host, Victor.
And we have a cavalcade of guests from around
the world. We have Jeremy in the UK. We have
Ed in Kentucky. And we have Johan in Sweden.
How is everyone tonight? Yeah, good. Thanks.
Thank you. Excellent. Excellent. So today's episode
is the Hall of Fame. So I was thinking of topics
to cover on the show. And I recently guested
on Hooligan Nation podcast to talk about the
Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, which interestingly
enough, when we talk to people outside of the
U .S., nobody seems to care about it. A lot of
it, I think, probably has to do with the fact
that it's kind of, how could I say this, trollish.
In the sense that I think a lot of what they
do is just to incite clicks online, to incite
discussions, or to get credit for reuniting bands
that had been away for a very long time. There
are other Hall of Fames out there. Some of them
are based on how much people are paying to get
their names put in there. So what we did... To
make things different is, it's all about the
music. And I had people vote on 10 bands that
they would use to induct into a Hall of Fame.
And what I want to do is have a yearly discussion
on 10 bands that we all love and talk about their
music and how they've become part of the soundtrack
of our lives. And I was mentioning Off Air. This
is the biggest turnout that I've ever had for
people voting. And 121 bands were voted on. All
right. And there's all types of hard rock and
metal. There's a bunch of different rock acts
that were voted on going back to the 50s. All
right. So I find that to be pretty cool, actually.
That we have listeners that will go back and
pick out someone like the Beach Boys or Roy Orbison
and say, you know what? I think they're worthy
to be in the Hall of Fame because what they did
in the inception of rock music influenced what
came later on in hard rock and metal. So there
are a lot of different. bands that were voted
on um and one could even argue that some of this
stuff leans into the fact that even the the quote
-unquote rock and roll hall of fame has a lot
of diversity um because you know people voted
on stuff like pink floyd stuff like the beastie
boys stuff like um All types of grunge stuff,
all types of industrial, hard rock and metal,
new metal, bands that could be considered founders
of what ended up happening in the 70s. You know,
bands that didn't make it in this year anyway
are bands like The Who, Nirvana, UFO, Queen,
Mountain, you know, and even going on. Further
on down the road, you have bands like Rage Against
the Machine, Faith No More, Tool. So there's
a wide variety of bands that people voted on
that did not make the top 10. What we're going
to stick to, because I'm sure this will be quite
a bit of discussion even between the four of
us, the top 10 bands that made it, in my opinion,
are all very deserving to be here. The voting,
it was very close all the way down to the last
few people that voted. I mentioned this off air
to Jeremy and Ed. There's literally one point
separating a lot of these bands. So anyway, without
further ado. I think the top 10 is going to shock
a lot of people, given what we're normally voting
for on signals from Mars. Going in. All right.
Let me ask this. Going in. Jeremy, what do you
think the number one is? I think it's going to
be ATTC. OK. Ed? Black Sabbath. OK. Johan, what
do you think the number one is? Rush. Okay. So
let's kick things off at number 10. And they
barely made it to number 10. They squeaked in
at number 10. It is. Wait. Number 10. I forgot
that I had that. Sorry, Johan. It is Rush. Okay.
Yeah. Johan, you are the ultimate Rush connoisseur.
Obviously, this band has been a big part of the
soundtrack of your life. And not only to you,
but to a lot of people that have voted for them.
To even get into number 10. And I think this
is, to me, this is a big deal. Yeah. One of the
first 10 bands to make it here. So they've impacted
enough people to be there. Your thoughts, Johan?
Well, you know, Rush isn't the easiest band to
get into. It's not like they have a master of
puppets, but they have. But they have Tom Sawyer.
But I think that perhaps they are the band that
you have to spend a little more time with than
the usual band. But when you do, you find them
to be your friend for life. So I think it's...
I'm very happy that Rush is number 10 on this
list, but I think, and I have to tell people
that if you listen to Rush, you will get, that's
the music that you need. Okay. Yeah. Okay. For
you, if you had to recommend, you mentioned Tom
Sawyer, if you had to recommend an album for
somebody that you want to suck them in and have
them start to listen to Rush, what's that album?
Ooh. Signals. Okay. Yeah, great album. Yeah,
Signals. I think it's... Moving Pictures is perhaps
the obvious choice, but... If you are a casual
fan, Signals. Okay. Jeremy, your thoughts on
Rush? Yeah, well, I sensed a slight disappointment
in Johan's voice when he said they were 10th,
but you've got to remember they're one of the
first bands that are being inaugurated into this
Hall of Fame, so they're there, and they're one
of the first, and they're there on merit because
they're one of the greatest sort of prog rock.
prog metal bands of all time. You know, they're
quite unique sound. They've got a fantastic history,
great canon of history of, you know, albums.
And they changed a lot through the years, but
they built up a massive following. There's so
many people who just like, you know, they love
Rush, just like Johan. You know, they understand
the musicianship. that's there and that's what's
carried them through really you know they're
fantastic musicians they write fantastic lyrics
great songs and you know not every song's for
me personally but i can see why they would be
in in this hall of fame it's it's a no -brainer
okay ed anything to uh add yeah i've i've realizing
that i've failed my hall of fame list and i didn't
put rush on my list And that's not right now
that it's been brought up. There's a couple of
bands at the end of my list that I probably would
have put Rush instead of them. But I've not been
a super fan of Rush like a lot of my friends
were. But I will say I've had a lot of friends
that were super fans of Rush and just talked
about them all the time. And so I collected the
records, listened to them from time to time,
but never was a huge fan. But one thing that's
interesting is I just turned 55, and I've noticed
as I'm getting older, I've been wanting to listen
to Rush a lot more, especially in the last few
months. You know that YouTube channel called
Lost in Vegas? Yeah. A couple of guys that review
records, I guess their background is hip -hop,
but they're reviewing a lot of hip -hop. Those
guys love Rush. Yep. And they recently did another
song off of the same record with Tom Sawyer,
Moving Pictures. Moving Pictures, yeah. And one
of those guys brought up the fact that when you
listen to Rush songs, even though they're talking
about a lot of fantasy. Just the feeling of their
music takes you back in time. Yeah. And that's
what their music makes me feel lately. It's connected
me with old friends when I listen to their music
through the melodies and the emotions that the
music brings up. And, you know, when you think
about, even though they weren't, you know, heavy
metal, the impact that they've had. on just everyone
is just amazing. You know, we could talk for
hours about that influence with them. And that
influence is going to go on for many, many years,
too, after they're done. So they deserve to be
on the list and they probably should be higher.
And I've sinned by not putting him on my list.
I won't do that next year. Yeah, a bunch of interesting
points that you guys have mentioned. For as much
as people talk about King Crimson and talk about
Yes and talk about other progressive rock bands,
Rush is kind of the one that pushed progressive
music to the forefront. that kind of made it
digestible for a lot of people. And Ed will know
this out of the group, a band that has always
been on terrestrial radio in the U .S. I mean,
every single day you hear Tom Sawyer and Limelight
and Red Barrichetta and... The YYZ and, you know,
there's five or six Rush songs that get daily
rotation all over the U .S. For as much as, again,
I don't know that to be the fact out of maybe
Yes gets Roundabout and Seen All Good People
played. That's it. But those songs never had
the same impact that Rush had. Rush also came
along. video age they tried different things
they didn't just do one thing where for yes to
do that they had to bring trevor rabin in and
they had to bring in like a completely different
band to go in a different direction rush outside
of that first album was the same three guys you
know the the whole trajectory of the band so
there's there's so much that hard rock and metal
has been affected and influenced by Rush. And
you want to go towards, you know, a lot of people
talk about the double bass that Filthy Animal
did with Motorhead and Bomber and Accept as Fast
as a Shark that helped push thrash metal and
death metal and stuff like that. I don't think
Neil Peart, gets the recognition for what his
drumming has done to the death metal and extreme
metal world. Because before that, yes, okay,
I'm not discounting the double bass in those
songs that I mentioned, but Neil Peart was always
busy. And that's something that you later had
bands like Death and Cannibal Corpse and stuff
like that do. So Rush has had a lasting impression
on... a lot of different sub -genres of rock
and metal. So I think it's uber important that
they're on this list. I almost feel like their
popularity is growing, even with them being done,
and that it's going to grow more, I think, as
these younger generations continue to catch on
to how awesome they really were. Yeah, and a
lot of that has to do with the fact that they
quit when they had to. They were a great band
to see live. Every album has good music on it.
Where there are other contemporaries of theirs
that have hung along too long. Until singers
could no longer sing. They've had to lip sync.
They've had to do, you know, they've also been
good at being humorous about themselves and understanding
their places and stuff like that. And you look
at, for example, what Alex Lifeson is doing now
with Envy of None. Sounds nothing like Rush.
But with the legacy that he's left behind, I
think Alex Lifeson. has the cash to do whatever
he wants he's left enough of a footing for everyone
to to learn from and to continue to enjoy for
years that if he wants to put out a ukulele album
he can do whatever he wants you know so i think
it's uh nice that alex has uh done that with
that band because I honestly I think he's just
a music lover and he just want to do what he
wants yeah and he's mentioned in interviews he
found the singer she has an amazing voice he
hears different types of music for her And whatever
comes out, comes out. So school me a bit. What's
he doing with this Envy of None? Because I actually
just listened to this song right before I jumped
online with you. Right. Loved it. I can't wait
to listen to it again. Yeah. This second album,
the songs that they've released, the album comes
out next Friday, sound a lot more like pop rock,
whereas the first album was a little bit more
ambient. Um, this is more towards like nineties
alternative pop rock, like something like the
band garbage, for example. Um, which is a band
who I'm a fan of. So I'm really looking forward
to hearing the entire thing as well. Cool. So
let's move on to number nine. All right. The
first entry from the United Kingdom. A hugely
influential band who has influenced more than
one band that is on this list. It is Deep Purple.
And the lineup that I picked is probably the
most important out of them. Just, again, based
on popularity, the weight of the songs, not to
say that any other lineup isn't great because
they've had a lot of different really good lineups,
but John Lord, Roger Glover, Ian Pace, Richie
Blackmore, and who am I missing? I said John
Lord, Roger Glover, Ian Pace. No, that's Ian
Gillen. That's who I didn't say. I said one Ian,
not the other. Okay. Again, each component just
so important, so influential with music in general.
I mean, again, they've done so much over the
years. Jeremy, lasting impression of Deep Purple.
Yeah, I mean, they were actually on my list.
Absolutely no surprise that they've been picked
for your Hall of Fame because, like I say, they're
such an influential band. A lot of the players
have gone on to do other things. Ian Gillan's
gone back to play, as we know. Ian Pace has gone
back to play. Roger Glover went back to play.
They just came out with their own sort of heavy
rock. There's a few British bands that you can
say are proper heavy rock, and they're one of
them. They obviously had the talisman, Richard
Blackmore, in the band, doing a lot of the stuff.
And they created a lot of hit singles as well,
you know, along the way. So it's no surprise,
really. I mean, they've lasted such a long time.
you know they're still going today and they've
recreated themselves as well you know the deep
purple of today that you're watching is very
very different to the 1970s mark ii which you
put up there um and they've you know they've
had other they had the mark three with david
coverdale and glenn hughes in and and that was
you know that was an interesting you know modernization
of the band very few bands really have gone through
so many They're almost like, I don't know if
you've heard of Doctor Who, the program on TV
where the Doctor recreates himself all the time,
but Doctor Who keeps going. And they're kind
of like that. They recreate themselves and keep
going. So yeah, they're a fantastic band. Everybody
learns to play Smoke on the Water. Let's face
it, for a band that's done Smoke on the Water,
they need to be in the Hall of Fame because no
matter how much we hate it now, If you actually
listen to it, it's an absolute classic. And we
can't ignore it. It's a classic. Everyone learns
to play it on the guitar. But they had so many
others. Great, great, great band. Yeah. Ed, your
thoughts on Deep Purple? Yeah. Besides Black
Sabbath, I think they're probably the biggest
influence on hard rock and heavy metal. Because
you just, especially that, you know, in rock
through burn era, you know, up until Coverdale
came in. Coverdale came in on Stormbringer, I
think, and much different sound. But, you know,
everything they did in those years, you end up
hearing in every band in the hard rock and metal
world, you know, for several decades, I think.
And, you know, every guitar player idolizes Blackmore.
John Lord, I mean, he's just like a godfather
of the hard rock genre. A keyboard player, too,
at that. It's just a heavy, great jam band. And
as far as, you know, the influence that they've
had on everything else. I think I have a hard
time picking another band above them besides
maybe who I'll be choosing as number one later.
Okay. Johan, Deep Purple, the importance and
impact in Sweden. Well, I think that the album
Perfect Strangers was very important here in
Sweden because it came at the same time as all
the other US and UK bands and also German. But
I think that the impact that that band had is
like... If I compare them to Rush, they have
a similar effect on bands. They are some kind
of a measure point. I agree. Where the world
is going. By the world, I mean the metal world.
But where is it moving? But Rush has perhaps
been like they have followed the world more.
But Deep Purple has stayed more in their own
world, if you know what I mean. So I think that
Deep Purple is kind of like a foundation, like
an anchor for our type of music. And I think
that they are one of the most important bands
of all time. Of course. Yeah. Yeah. I'm surprised
they're not in the top five. Yeah. Yeah. Me too.
Me too. Well, I think you guys are going to say
that for a lot of different bands. All right.
So moving on. Number eight. Van Halen. This original
lineup, to me, again, another important, pivotal
band, pivotal members, changed the game. I mean,
let's be honest, we've talked about Eddie a lot
on this show. Eddie as a guitar player, Eddie
as an amp builder, modder, pickup creator. Pedal
designer. I mean, just ridiculous. He reinvented
what people were doing on the guitar. But outside
of that, David Lee Roth as a front man kind of
picked up the baton from Robert Plant and took
it in another area to make it so that for I mean,
people wanted to be David Lee Roth as a singer.
And there's so many huge bands. I mean, look
at Vince Neil. I think Axl Rose to an extent.
There's, you know, a lot of different people
that have come after Van Halen that have tried
to glom off of the look, the sound. And I mentioned
Neil Peart before, but I don't think Alex Van
Halen gets his just due as a drummer either.
There's a lot of stuff that Alex would do that
was atypical at the time, just different rhythms,
different things that he played. And I think
as time has gone on, I've kind of refocused and
listened to a lot of those early albums over
again. to realize how intricate he's playing
and different patterns and different things that
before him, again, I mean, the three drummers
that we've talked about so far, Neil Peart, Ian
Pace, and Alex Van Halen, I mean, just super
influential, completely different players, but
have influenced millions of, music listeners
you know to pick up an instrument um so i think
it's it's a no -brainer and i and i don't want
to diminish michael anthony at all because i
think his backing vocals also was something that
um for a lot of bands they it brought another
element that people wanted hey we need to have
somebody harmonize with The singer, you know,
we need to have, and Michael Anthony was a big
part of that. So, and to be able to hold down
the middle there to kind of be the glue on a
lot of what was going on, very important as well.
Johan, anything to say on Van Halen? Actually,
as I said before in the show, Van Halen weren't
a big band here in Sweden. until 1984 when they
played monsters rock and after that they were
bigger but not huge so they were more of a what
can i say more like a legend than a big band
to me van halen is american hard rock in the
80s and I don't have any specific no I I like
the albums some of them but no it's not my and
I think I speak for most of Sweden that They
weren't a big thing here. And I'm sad to say
because they have a high place on the list, but
no. No. I leave it up to you guys. Okay. Ed Van
Halen. That is interesting to hear him say that,
you know, when they were just so massive here
for us. It's hard to imagine that. But like he
said. They're very American, especially with
David Lee Roth. I mean, it's just California
all the way, isn't it? And, you know, I wasn't
the biggest fan of that either because I like
darker music. You know, I'd rather be listening
to Sabbath and Dio and Maiden, whereas Van Halen
seemed more party time to me. And the Van Halen
stuff that I do like is their darker material,
especially like on their first two or three records,
maybe. But, you know, David Lee Roth, it's interesting
when you were talking about him earlier. Let's
see, their first album was in 78. So they were
getting their start at a time when... Everything
was extremely flashy because we had gone through
the punk scene getting started. And then you
started having, you know, all of the, you know,
the fashions and images of punk coming into rock
music. And then you had disco explode. There
was a lot of funk music. And, you know, the way
everybody was starting to dress, super flashy
because of, you know, bands like the New York
Dolls and all that, you know, influencing. And
so you had this hard rock band from California
come out at a time when Kiss was probably one
of the bigger hard rock bands, but they were
going to start going downhill. And then the dynasty
to try to stay in the game. But with David Lee
Roth, he was able to kind of shine through all
of that stuff. Don't you think? I mean, he cut
through all of that and was able to make everybody
look at Van Halen. um by doing his own thing
you know too he was such a character and then
him along with eddie's playing you know i mean
what what a duo to be working together to be
able to make themselves noticed with all that
other stuff that was going on in the music world
at the time so what they did was legendary and
yeah another band that no musician does not talk
about and honor and respect. And I'm, I'm favor
guitar players like Randy Rhodes more than Eddie,
but he is just super amazing. And I also love
his amp work. His 5150 series, I think is my
favorite sound I've ever heard. Right. Yeah.
Okay. Jeremy. Yeah, they blew me away. They blew
everybody away in the UK. We were listening to
very classic rock stuff, as you know, the new
wave of British heavy metal. And then I think
the first album sort of passed us by a little
bit. It came a bit later. But I remember listening
to Fair Warning with some friends and just listening
to the quality of the musicianship on that and
thinking, you know, this is a totally different
level to the stuff that the British bands are
playing, really. I also think that Van Halen,
the reason why they're voted in here is that
I remember somebody saying to me once, you can
almost dance to every Van Halen track. They're
a very danceable band. And the reason is because
they've got this very boppy sound to them. You
know, it's that bass line by Michael Anthony.
It's really sort of happy, sort of boppy stuff.
So they really got the commercial aspect of it
as well. You know, there's a lot of metal bands
out there that don't get that, and they did.
And then, you know, they brought out, you know,
a series of hits later on. But you're right about
Dave Lee Roth. I mean, he was probably the ultimate
frontman, really, you know, at that time. And
they were very influential in terms of, obviously,
guitaring. As we know, you know, Eddie Van Halen.
don't really need to, to go on about that because
we know what an amazing guitarist he was and
how he influenced so many people. So, um, yeah,
they didn't always get it right. They didn't
always produce, you know, the greatest albums,
but they were, they were extremely influential.
And I think even today you look, you listen back
to some of that stuff and just think it was mind
blowing for the time really. Yep. Agreed. All
right. So, uh, let's move on to number seven.
This band, always a topic of discussion of where
they're actually from. Some people claim them
as their own. Others people claim them as their
own as well. But at the end, they finish conquering
the entire world. ACDC. Never heard of them.
Ed, since you've hardly ever heard of them and
you've barely talked about them on the show,
you lead the ACDC talk. Gosh, where do I start
with that? I put them number six on my list.
A lot of my choices will be in order of. you
know, when they came out, who preceded who sometimes,
you know, you got to honor and respect those
who came before you. So they were in the middle
of my list right after, you know, like a kiss
for me, as far as influence on everything that
came after that. And again, that's a band where
the characters, in the band were just as, uh,
you know, interesting as the music. Um, so there
was, you know, Bon Scott and Angus Young, especially
just two of the most amazing, uh, front men and
musicians for the rock and roll genre of all
time. Uh, gosh, so sad too, that Bon hasn't been
around as we grew up. He died before I even got
the chance to start listening to ACDC and collecting
their music. They were the band that excited
me the most when I was growing up. I wanted nothing
more than to be like Angus Young, to grow up
and do something. He was just always so fun.
I loved rock and roll, but He made me love it
even more. I mean, he makes you feel it. Right.
I struggle for the words to say how important
I think they are. But I really don't need to
because I know everybody gets it. And I think
that, you know, even though I like Bon Scott
the most and the Let There Be Rock, especially
the song Let There Be Rock, I just think like
one of the pinnacle moments of rock and roll.
of all time you know back in black is like the
most amazingly produced record i've ever heard
i i don't think i can think of any record that
sounds better than the way that record is as
a matter of fact i heard from time to time on
podcasts people talking about it that a lot of
times uh producers in the studio will uh use
that album as a gauge as they're trying to mix
the sound for you know, bands that they're recording.
And that makes a lot of sense. Kind of wish that
Mutt Lang had been around for another couple
of records. It would have been interesting to
see what he could have done with like Flick of
the Switch and Fly on the Wall. But yeah, I better
stop or I'll take up too much time. Because I
really love this band. If Mutt Lang would have
still been around. Because he did Back in Black.
Did he do for Those About to Rock as well? He
did Highway to Hell through Those About to Rock.
Yeah, yeah, yeah. Okay. Which you can tell. Each
album has his sound on it. Right. And then it
showed back up in Shania Twain about 15 years
later. The funny thing there is with ACDC, he
didn't have that. We have to work six months
on the snare sound deal. He wasn't in that dynamic
yet. Yeah. So imagine if he had started working
with Def Leppard already, done Pyromania, and
then he goes back to ACDC. Fly on the Wall and
Flick of the Switch may have never come out.
Yeah. They may have gone straight to... blow
up your video because I know I said I was going
to shut up, but I also, I have to bring up to
the rhythm section, you know, Malcolm and Phil,
I mean, they, they, they hold it all together.
Like, you know, no other rhythm section does.
And they're just back there pounding away the
beat and it's just marvelous stuff. But yeah,
go ahead. Johan or Jeremy. Go ahead, Johan, ACDC.
Yeah, what can I say about them? That hasn't
already been said, but one of the greatest bands
of all time, of course. The first time I saw
them was at the Blow Up Your Video tour in Gothenburg,
1987 perhaps. And they were with me forever since
and before that. They are something special.
They are a rock and roll band that are, you know,
they are whatever that... whatever that's popular
it doesn't nothing ACDC is always popular when
they come to Sweden they can sell out the biggest
arenas and I think that's similar to all over
the world no matter what music style is popular
at the time so um yeah and uh for me personal
i like the 80s acdc i like blow up video flick
of the switch um for those about the rock lp
fly the wall those were the albums that that
i grew up with and um fantastic band and everything
has been said about them so i'm curious that
curious what jeremy like what has he has to say
about them yeah yeah i can i yeah i mean i can
only echo a lot of what you've said i mean what
what what i think is that acds are actually their
own genre in their own right really um because
they are very unique in their sound But the other
thing I would say is that a lot of people seem
to like ACDC who don't like other types of rock
bands as well. So they seem to sort of cross
over. There'll be a lot of people who like disco
and whatever, other types of music. But everybody's
heard of ACDC. I mean, probably your grandmother
and your great -grandmother have heard of ACDC,
but they've never heard of any other rock band
that's ever existed. because they are quite ubiquitous,
really. And there's a reason why they're successful.
And there's been some research done on this,
actually. Their beat that they do on many of
their records, that sort of steady beat, is the
beat of the heartbeat. And so anything that's
in line with your heartbeat, many people like
as a music. It feels good. It feels good, yeah.
Yeah. So there's that. And obviously there's
a huge amount of tribute bands out there that
are selling out because people still want to
hear ACDC music everywhere. I was brought up
on Whole Lotta Rosie because we played that at
parties in garages when we were 13 years old
or whatever. And we were headbanging in a garage
on the stone floor to Whole Lotta Rosie. That
was my introduction that had Highway to Hell.
I just think, you know, you couldn't have a Hall
of Fame without ACDC. You know, they kind of
took, they made all the exciting rock and roll
of decades past, and they brought it to us, you
know, through their music and through their stage
presence. Like we talked about Chuck Berry. Angus
Young was Chuck Berry for our generation. They
were channeling guys like that and allowing us
to feel the excitement of what all those guys
created before we were born. And they did it
unlike any other band could, I think, of those
years. But also another great thing, all the
great bands have a gimmick. And obviously they
had Angus Young with his shorts on and his cap
on, his school uniform. And that really is, they
had everything really that went for them. They
have the music, but they also have the gimmick
as well. And, you know, you're not a winner.
Yeah. Absolutely. Cool. What number was that?
Were they at seven? They were at seven. Yeah.
Yeah, that's a fair problem. Okay. Number six.
I wish I could use music to intro these. Bands.
That was one of the things this afternoon when
I was putting all this together. I'm like, I
have songs in my head for each of these that
would have been cool to be able to play a little
snippet, put the picture up and then talk about.
But unfortunately, we would get hit with, you
know, all types of claims about copyright and
have the videos thrown off and then the. The
podcast couldn't go up on Apple Music and Spotify,
especially. So anyway, in my head is the intro
to their 1990, 1991 album, which brought on a
new drummer, a heavier sound. It probably gave.
Someone who wasn't into them a headache and,
oh, yeah, they probably needed a painkiller of
some sort. At number six. Yeah. Judas Priest.
Jeremy? Yeah, well, yeah, I mean, I was brought
up on Judas Priest when I was young. They were
the greatest band at the time. remember getting
british steel obviously i went straight into
their very commercial period but that's what
commercial periods are all about they attract
all the fans in and everybody likes those sort
of commercial songs at the time um they are extremely
influential as we know um you know in terms of
their look in terms of their they they really
sort of um they sort of epitomize what a heavy
metal band is really without it being too extreme
Just something that, you know, you can get your
teeth into and you can really feel that heaviness,
those riffs, that screaming, that melody. And
you put it all together into a metal band, what
would you come out with? You'd probably come
out with something that looks like Judas Priest.
You know, they sort of, they talk about the devil,
but they shun the devil. They, you know, they...
They look a little bit scary on stage at times,
but they did in the old days with the studs and
the leather and the motorbikes. They just had
it all, really. But the main thing is they had
this lovely dual guitar attack, which was great
on the early albums as well, even before they
got into the really heavy stuff. And they had
Rob Halford, who really reaches pitches that
no other singer can do. And, you know, they have
such a canon now of great songs. It's hard to
put all of them into a set. So probably one of
the greatest British bands. And they started
well before the new wave of British heavy metal
as well. We've got to remember that, you know,
they were going in the 70s and they were cultivating
their sound and modernizing it a little bit as
they went along. And they're still going now.
You know, OK, it's not the entire band, but it's
quite a lot of them. and they're still selling
out shows and playing really well. So hats off
to Judas Priest. They're brilliant. Johan, Judas
Priest? Well, the first record I heard was British
Steel, of course. And it was an opening. And
the first record I bought were Defenders of the
Faith. I think that Judas Priest is one of the
best metal bands of all time. To me, the journey
started with Defenders. But I went back and discovered
Sad Wings of Destiny and Killing Machine. And
I still listen to those records to this day.
And they are still a band. They are not the best
live band now, but they are okay. And they can,
for somehow, the old song they had, they can
still, you know, produce what you say it's present
them to the audience in a fashionable way so
to me judas priest is i mean they are i i try
to look at my apple music to what i listen to
and judas priests All the areas I still love.
I mean, for example, the album Turbo is, for
me, an album that I hold very close to my heart
because they changed the direction, but I think
somehow when they changed that direction, they
efforted, they tried to... make something different.
And when they did that, it was good. If you know
what I mean. Victor, do you understand what I
mean? Yeah, yeah, I understand. So they are,
you just placed this very close to my heart and
they are They are very honored. They should be
on this list, and I think it's good. Sorry for
the bad English. It's been a while. I don't speak
English at my normal day, so it's been a while.
Sorry. We're just happy you're here, buddy. Yeah,
you're doing fine. Don't worry about that. Yeah.
We all understand metal, so no problem. There
you go. Ed. Oh, yeah. And this was the hardest
band for me to figure out where to put them.
Between Kiss, ACDC, and Judas Priest. And I ended
up putting Kiss and ACDC higher than Priest because
it seems the whole world knows Kiss and ACDC.
With Judas Priest, not everybody in the world
knows them, but their influence in the metal
world is probably the greatest of all. Because
they weren't just influential, they were pioneering.
I even had a friend who passed away a long time
ago, sadly. But he was one of my best music buddies,
and he was the kind of guy that would spend a
lot of money buying Venom. imports and just had
everything that you wanted. He would make the
argument that Judas Priest is when heavy metal
started because of the difference in the removal
of that bluesy rock sound that you heard up until
then with Sabbath. I don't quite agree with that
point, but I get what he's saying. Especially
the imagery of Judas Priest. I can't think of
anything that's influenced the imagery of all
of metal more than Priest. So if this was like
a list for just purely the heavy metal genre,
besides Black Sabbath, Priest would be at number
two for me. They're that big and influential
in the heavy metal genre. And what you all had
to say about their songs. And the way even the
music has influenced all the music we've grown
up with with other bands. I totally agree with
every bit of that. It's true. So, Ed, I agree
with your friend. To me, Judas Priest removed
the blues from Sabbath. Yeah, they did. Put gasoline
on it. And start on leather. And started. And
they're the. They've never shied away from the
fact that they were a metal band. No. So that's
why I've always considered them the first metal
band. I do get that. Yeah, yeah. Edgar Winterson,
thank you for joining us. He's saying, you're
wrong. Outside of the U .S., Priest is way bigger
than Kiss. That is true. But I think on a total
global scale, people around the world would know
the name Kiss more than Judas Priest. Yeah. If
you expand that outside of the U .K. or Europe
and stuff. We'll touch upon this. Yeah, that'd
be a good discussion one day, wouldn't it? Yeah.
We'll touch upon that whole thing. How about
at... Number five. Ah, there they are. Shock
me. There you go. Priest, yes. Okay, so this
was a discussion that I had yesterday, guesting
on another show. Kiss really didn't break it
huge in Europe until the reunion tour. People
knew who they were. The music... Say that again?
Until the... 2006 reunion tour, KISS did not
move big numbers in all of Europe. They did in
Japan, just not Europe, right? Yeah. Just Europe.
KISS has always been huge. U .S., Australia,
Japan, and South America. Always. They've had
issues in Africa and in Europe. they had issues
breaking through and Jeremy, correct me if I'm
wrong. There's still a good percentage of the
public that does not like KISS because they can't
look beyond the image and consider them on their
music alone. Yeah. Yeah. I think that's right.
Yeah. So the, the, the snobbish music critic,
Oh, they, you know, the Stones are more this
and that, yet the Stones have jumped on every
bandwagon as well over the years. There's, I
don't know how many bands that I could get into,
but we're talking about Kiss now. Kiss is my
favorite band of all time. It was the first thing
that I listened to and saw when I was four years
old. The band that has touched on more bands
from the 70s onwards, and you can criticize whether
in the 80s they did this, they did that, blah,
blah, blah. Bottom line, you talk to a lot of
hard rock or metal players or even people out
of the genre, and they'll tell you that. Kiss
is what made them pick up instruments. Kiss is
the first band to revolutionize the live experience.
And I don't care how many people have said to
me over the years, no, but the Grateful Dead
did this. And who did that? Pyrotechnics, a sound
system, lighting rigs. None of these bands had
all of that. And that's without getting into
the merchandising aspect. And for as many bands
have shit on them over the years for what they
do with merch, how many of those same bands has
followed them? So to me, Kiss should be on here.
You can debate whether they should be higher
or lower. Bottom line is their importance is
universal in music. And Edgar is posting a bunch
of emojis in the chat. There you go. Anyway,
Ed, kiss. I think that's the right spot for them.
Was that five or six? It's five. It's five. Yeah,
that's the perfect spot for kids. I'm curious,
though, Johan and Jeremy. So how old are you
two? You're about my age, right? I'm nearly 58,
so I'm a bit older than you. I'm 52. Okay, so
you're my age. So when you were, like, seven
years old, was... kiss on tv uh were you hearing
about kiss from friends or seeing any of their
records or any of this merchandise or was it
just you never saw or heard about them not at
that age no it was much later for me because
you know like i understand why some people think
they're silly and gimmicky but still man you
got to understand when you're a seven -year -old
kid in the 70s and you're all into comic books
and Six Million Dollar Man and Bigfoot fighting
and, you know, all the sci fi stuff that was
out there that we were watching on TV. You know,
to see something like Kiss, they were like superheroes,
you know, with fun makeup on their faces. And
and then you add to that, you know, Gene Simmons
spitting blood and fire. I mean, you know, unless
you're. of it for some reason. How can you not
like that? As a kid, that's just mind -blowing
stuff. It's so cool. I argue that their music
is great, too. I listen to their records for
their songs just as much today as I love the
imagery and all the artwork. I get why some people
think they're silly and don't like them and make
fun of them. I don't know. I get a little bit
offended by people who can't understand why someone
like me at that age would realize or just realize
the greatness of what they were doing or why
that was so awesome for kids back in the 70s.
For me, it was going down the street to my friend's
house and one of those big furniture record players
you know that were as long as the wall in the
room and his parents let him turn it up to 10
he probably put on a live too and uh just uh
man those are memories i'll never forget how
awesome that was specifically listening to shock
me and uh and then after that i was just hooked
forever but uh yeah that's it's just that whole
story is interesting to me about how they're
so popular in other places And I get why they're
popular in Japan and places like that because
of the makeup and the show. And, but yeah, it's
very, and of course, like Van Halen, they're
a very American band in a sense. But yeah, it's
interesting that you all weren't even exposed
to it much to have the chance to see how cool
it was as a seven -year -old. Am I making sense?
I hope I'm not just babbling. Makes sense to
me. I lived it. Yeah. It's interesting. Jeremy,
your thoughts on Kiss? Yeah, I mean, I got into
them just a little bit later than that, really.
And I think somebody who led me Kiss Alive 2
and I listened to that album and, you know, I
saw what... I saw, you know, the theatrics of
it all. And that, for me, is why they're in here.
I think if Kiss didn't have the makeup and the,
you know, everything that goes with the band,
you know, the merchandise and what have you,
I think that just their music alone may not have
just been enough. But they had everything. You
know, they put it all together into a package.
And so the package itself is what stands the
test of time, really. um you know they did start
in the 1970s they started early they played you
know sort of um more stripped back type of music
then as well on the early albums and that i think
that's better i think you know looking back on
it now listening to those albums i like that
stuff much better than the 80s and the 90s sort
of kiss that's you know since that came out so
It's not a surprise that they're in the top 10
at all. And I'm not placing much weight, by the
way, on whether these bands are 10, 9, 8, 7,
6. These are the first 10 bands in the Hall of
Fame. And these are all fantastic bands. And
they're in there for a reason. They were the
very first band to really do this kind of thing,
to do the theatrics, to do the fire on stage
and the wearing all that looking amazing. And
they sold rock and roll. And that's what rock
and roll needed. It needed people to sell it.
That's another great point. You know, if this
came out today, it'd just be another band doing
something that everybody's done before. Back
then, it wasn't. I mean, you had things leading
up to it they borrowed from, like Alice Cooper.
But, yeah, I mean, that was the first time us
kids were seeing something that incredible. So
it was mind -blowing back then. Absolutely mind
-blowing. Yeah. Yeah. And that kind of gave rise
to a band that won the Eurovision Song Contest.
I mean, you wouldn't have had a Lordi without
a Kiss. Right. Absolutely. True. Johan, I think
you've got to, even if you think they're silly,
you've got to respect them or I have a hard time
respecting you. Johan, Kiss in Sweden. Huge.
Always were. They were here in 1976 in Stockholm,
played at our biggest amusement park. So ever
since that, they were a big item here. Still
are. They played their final show here in Dahlhalla,
it's called. It's like a big mining. It's a natural
concert area, a big pit, a couple of hundreds
deep, very good for concerts. And Kiss used to
be the last show there. So Kiss were and is huge
here in Sweden. Kiss is a big reason that...
Sweden Rock exists and other Swedish metal festivals
and so on. So Sweden may be a small country,
but the impact of Kiss were, and I'm not exaggerating,
they were huge here and they still are. Even
though perhaps people laugh at Gene Simmons.
what he says nowadays and so but they're huge
so uh and for the personal matter uh creatures
of the night lick it up and animalize an asylum
is my absolute favorite albums by kiss i had
to say i had to say that yeah but it's good stuff
it all is yeah So you're saying that they were
popular where you lived? Yeah. Johan, even when
you were a kid? Absolutely. Or was it like after
in the 80s later on? No, no, huge. Like Edgar
Winterson said that it wasn't until Crazy Nights
that they became massive where he lives. No,
no, no. Long before, long before. Yeah. So you
were exposed to it more than Jeremy was. I don't
know, perhaps. As a girl, not probably. Yeah.
Sweden and UK are similar, but different. Anyway,
I'm sorry. I'm taking up too much time. No, no.
Just go on. It's all interesting, though. Crazy
Nights was a big hit in the song. They even played
that all the way up until the end when they were
in the UK. Because it charted, I think it was
like number three in the UK. Of course, it was
the Bon Jovi wannabe album, which is the one
that charted high there. They ended up second
band on the bill at Monsters of Rock that year
as well. Where, you know, just to stir shit up,
Gene and Paul said, well, why are we going on
before Iron Maiden when Iron Maiden used to open
up for us? and stuff like that, but that's the
showman in them. All right. So moving on. Number
four. Would help if I had the right screen open
here. Here we go. Number four. The New Yardbirds,
also known as Led Zeppelin. This is so interesting
because there's very few points or votes, I should
say, separating Judas Priest, Kiss, and Led Zeppelin.
And there's very few separating them from the
first three bands. And I think what Jeremy said
before is very important that regardless of how
much or who got the most votes in the end, what's
important is that the initial class are these
10 that are going in. Zeppelin to me was huge.
I mean, my brother brought home Led Zeppelin
4 and then physical graffiti. And it was like,
what's this? Up until then, it was Kiss, my folks'
records. I don't know if we had Back in Black
yet or if we had The Wall or Scream Dream by
Ted Nugent or stuff like that yet. But I remember
listening to Zeppelin for the first time and
hearing those monstrous John Bonham beats and
the soaring vocals. John Paul Jones all over
the place on bass and keyboards and Jimmy Page.
I mean, they're a hugely influential band for
me personally. I absolutely love them. It's a
shame that they've never done more where this
is a case where I get it. The mystique is there
to an extent because of it. But at the same time
with. Jason being around, Jason Bonham, it's
a shame that they didn't try to do more stuff
with him. I know that Plant and Page did get
back together again, and I was listening to Walking
into Clarksville a few months back, and it's
an okay album, but it's missing the other ingredients.
It's missing John Paul Jones is huge in that
band. I think those four guys were just huge.
Johan Led Zeppelin I'm happy to say nothing okay
yeah perhaps I'm one of the hard rocking lovers
in the world that I don't have an opinion about
this band I don't think they are metal or hard
rock I can't compare them to Deep Purple or Sabbath
because they are they are something else and
they don't appeal to me never had so I'm not
the right person to ask about them so I'm so
sorry they have some decent songs but I I think
they are extremely overrated. I know. That hurts
a little bit there. Yeah, that was a dig. What
did you say? I said that hurt a little bit. Yeah,
I'm really looking forward to hear you guys.
I'm probably alone in this world to think this,
but yeah, you heard my opinion. So go ahead,
guys. As Johan is saying that, this goes off
around the world. The needle goes across the
vinyl album there. Jeremy, since they're a UK
band, take it. Yeah. Yeah. Well, when I was a
young kid, and this is very young, you know,
Ed just mentioned seven years old, Kiss. I mean,
I was seven years old, eight years old. I was
staying at my gran's house and my auntie had
a copy of Physical Graffiti. And it was sitting
there, you know, in the room where I was staying
overnight. And there was a little record player.
So I picked up this album and I put it on and
it blew my mind. I could not believe what I was
listening to. In My Time of Dying was one of
my favourite songs on it, actually, not Kashmir
or Custard Pie, which I like those as well, but
I just couldn't believe the drumming on it, you
know, and I'm not a drumming man, really, but
incredible songs and such a varied selection
of songs, you know, they can play folk music
on an album and heavy metal. It's quite extraordinary,
really, what they could do on an entire album.
They didn't always get it right. You know, there
were certain albums later on in the career where
there was, you know, a little bit of hodgepodge
going on. But generally speaking, they really
pushed the boundaries. And that's what I liked
about them. They're very, very creative. Very,
very creative. And they influenced so many people
over the years. And they did it first. And you
couldn't have, I don't think you could have a
Hall of Fame without Led Zeppelin as an original
member. It just wouldn't be possible. You know,
it's almost like we listen. I don't think any
of you now listen to Led Zeppelin 4 at the moment
because you've heard it so many times. But if
you put it on tomorrow, you'd still marvel at
how good it is. And that's Led Zeppelin in a
nutshell, really. Yeah, Zeppelin for me is a
band that U .S. radio has destroyed them for
me. That is one problem. Yeah, because we're
talking about songs that make it on the radio
from bands. I would say that there's maybe three
or four songs from their entire catalog that
do not get played on U .S. radio. Every single
day. Three or four that do not. So they're playing
almost everything. I have a question, Victor.
Yes. How is that possible? Because in my ears,
Led Zeppelin is not like a mainstream band. Or
is it? In your ears? In the U .S., very mainstream.
How is that possible? Stairway to Heaven. Yes,
that song. But, I mean, all the others. Over
the Hills and Far Away. All of My Love. Kashmir.
Ten Years Gone. Gallows Pole. The Ocean. Living,
Loving. What the hell is the name of that song?
I wonder, how can a country that loves Led Zeppelin
in the 70s love Motley Crue? I mean, just a couple
of years after that. Easy, because Robert Plant
was a huge influence on Vince Neil. All the screams
and moves and stuff like that. Vince Neil was
a mix of David Lee Roth and Robert Plant. Yes,
but not the music. I understand, but the music.
Can you hear the music in Motley Crue? From Led
Zeppelin? Yes. Yeah, in the drumming, you can
hear it. John Bonham is a huge influence on Tommy
Lee. The way that Tommy Lee plays behind the
beat, the way that he mixes a lot of, I was listening
to Motley Crue today, Primal Scream. Primal Scream
has always reminded me of Led Zeppelin. There's
several different parts of that song. Coming
out of the chorus, what they're playing, that's
Led Zeppelin 100%. Then the way that Tommy's
playing throughout the song, he's playing cowbell,
hi -hat, and ride cymbal at the same time. They're
mixed in over one another. That's something that
John Bonham would do all the time, where he would
add different percussive elements in there. Tommy's
playing a superly big bass drum because of John
Bonham. And just the syncopated way that he plays
is very similar. I picked up a lot of their playing.
I would say me as a drummer, with Kiss being
my favorite band, I probably play a lot more
closer to being a mix of... John Bonham, Tommy
Lee, and Bill Ward as a drummer than, say, Peter
Criss or Eric Carr, people like that. I can play
that stuff, but I gravitated more to the groove
and stuff like that that they did. And you have
a band like Rage Against the Machine. Rage Against
the Machine is 100 % influenced by Led Zeppelin.
Aerosmith, Kiss, there's... There's a lot of
bands that even you wouldn't think of it, but
that Zeppelin has a lot to do with what they're
doing. I think without Zeppelin, you don't get
Metallica doing certain things as well with the
acoustic intros and stuff like that. A lot of
that has to do with Randy Rhoades and Michael
Shanker, but a lot of it also has to do with
Led Zeppelin as well. Okay. Ed Zeppelin. Yeah,
I had a hard time knowing whether to put him
on the list because I agree with Johan. I don't
consider them, they can be hard rock at times,
but they're not a full -on hard rock band. It's
like Jeremy said, they do so many different genres
very well. And I was really offended by VH1 when
they did their top 100 best metal bands or whatever
about 20 years ago. And of course, they had to
put Led Zeppelin number one over Black Sabbath.
And I just this is ridiculous if it's going to
be a heavy metal. Now, if we're talking about
rock, they would have probably been a little
higher on my list. But I put them on my list
because, yeah, I think they have a massive influence.
on the music scene, even more so than Kiss and
ACDC and Judas Priest. And I think that the main
link to hard rock and heavy metal between Zeppelin
and those bands that we've grown up with is,
like Victor said, John Bonham. The way that man
plays drums has just influenced everything we
listen to. And then also Robert Plant. Man, his
voice is just... I love him. I also love all
the folk stuff that he does even now, solo and
with Alison Krauss. One of the best shows I've
seen in my life was Robert Plant and Alison Krauss.
Oh, wow. You know, his voice is just sensational
with all kinds of music like that. And you can
hear, especially in 80s metal, so much Robert
Plant and so many rock stars. And so many rock
stars wanted to be like Robert Plant, too. And
too, when we were young, we used to love, I'm
not encouraging people to get wasted, but when
you get wasted, one of the best movies in the
world to watch is The Song Remains the Same.
Oh, wow. I mean, that is a great drink and smoke
and film right there. That was one of our favorite
activities. So, Johan, at least do that. Get
wasted one night, watch the song remains the
same, and then you're going to come back telling
us about the beauty of Led Zeppelin. We can't
wait to hear it. I can do all that besides smoke.
Yeah, you know, because in Sweden it's not legal.
A little fun fact about Led Zeppelin, by the
way. You know, top of the pops we have here in
the UK, the theme music is Whole Lot Love. Oh,
wow. Didn't know that. There you go. All right.
It's also the feel of their music that is so
much of everything. But anyway, continue on.
Yeah. All right. So we agree for the most part
that these bands should be in there. Now. I think
people are going to be where the cussing and
cursing is going to come are these top three.
Number three. Slayer. Slayer. Iron Maiden, number
three. Not to be there. With every countdown
that we've done, Maiden has always come out on
top. This is the first time that I can remember.
Well, no, I take that back. Whatever year Seven
Sun came out, it was 88. That was, I think, third
or fourth. I was truly expecting Maiden to be
number the most voted for. And it was a tie with
the top three, as I said, leading up to today
when I tallied the last few votes in and they
ended up at three. If you follow this show, you
know that for me, it's Kiss is 1A and Maiden
is 1B. I love both bands. Just a huge influence,
a band that I've listened to so much over the
years, a band that a lot of people that follow
my show absolutely love as well. I mean, I don't
know what else to say. Outside of they've been
a huge part of the soundtrack of my life, and
they deserve to be one of the first 10 bands
to go into the Hall of Fame here. Jeremy, your
thoughts? Well, I'm not sure I can say very much
more about Maiden that hasn't been said in the
past. Obviously hugely influential on the, you
know, they were the biggest band that came out
of the new wave of British heavy metal. They
designed their own sort of sound that had the
sort of plinkety -plonkety bass line. I call
them plinkety -plonkety metal. So they're almost
slightly proggy, aren't they? And they have sort
of done some sort of proggy metal later in their
career. They did have a lot of commercial success
as well. You know, they came out with songs that,
you know, got into top tens of singles lists
and all that sort of stuff. So, you know, they've
got the famous songs. great band has to do as
well um they have some great musicians and i
think steve harris obviously is the man driving
the force uh i mean he is iron maiden he is the
uh one of the greatest bass players i think in
heavy metal um and um they had the image just
like we've talked about some of these other bands
had a great image they've they had an image from
the start they realized that you need that to
push the bands push the bands along and sort
of get an audience And they've survived to this
very day as still probably the biggest British
metal band that's going now. I can't think of
one that's bigger. So, yeah, they deserve to
be in here. Absolutely. Again, everyone's probably
heard of them, just like ACDC and Metallica.
You know, they're all big names that any even
non -metal fan will have heard of and probably
likes and would want to go and see live. Great
shows live. And the fact that they toured 200,
300 days a year every year through their early
years is probably one of the reasons why we're
talking about them today. Excellent. Ed, Maiden?
I didn't expect to be talking about them until
our next list. They definitely have to be in
there at some point. I just put bands that came
before them on my list. But now, yeah, of course,
though, their influence on heavy metal is...
I mean, it would be hard to describe just how
deep their influence on everything goes. So,
yeah, they deserve to be on... That was number
four? Three, three. Wow. Yeah, that's interesting.
I didn't expect that to pop up that high just
yet, but great choice. I can't argue with that.
They have to be in there at some point. Especially
with Eddie. Yeah, well, that in itself has influenced
how many people, how many bands, I should say.
With just having the mascots, I mean, we've talked
about it in the past. We've talked about Murray.
We've talked about the the the the wine team
mascot, if I'm not mistaken. You could say that
Quiet Riot, to an extent, with the mask also
did something similar. So, yeah, it's a huge.
Johan Maiden. Maiden is probably the biggest
metal band here in Sweden over time. So everything
has been said about them, the music and everything
else. But when Maiden comes to Sweden, it's special.
Nowadays, they play outdoors. They play the big
arenas. But I think that... They started out
in the small handball, if you know that sport,
arenas, yeah, in 1980. And they worked their
way up to the big ice halls, and there they stayed
for a couple of years. But now when they come,
they are... playing the biggest uh always so
in sweden iron maiden is they are it's when maiden
comes if you remember you go that's uh so uh
I think that everything else has been said about
this band, so we go on. Okay. Two bands to go.
Let me get my screen ready here. Number two.
Black Sabbath. Again, the band that probably
influenced more bands in this subgenre or this
genre of rock or however you want to say hard
rock, metal. Doom Metal, Stoner Rock, Stoner
Metal. On and on, you can add different adjectives,
but Sabbath is a huge influence. Even throughout
the lineups, we talked about Deep Purple before.
I mean, I displayed the original four there.
Ozzy, Tony, Geezer, and Bill. You could talk
about Dio being in the lineup. You could talk
about Ian Gillen being in the lineup. And even
with the recent reissues with Tony Martin, although
I know that there's a certain pocket of the Sabbath
crowd and a lot of the more popular fans don't
like the Tony Martin stuff, I love that as well.
It makes all the sense in the world that Sabbath
is one of the first 10 bands to make it in here,
in my opinion. I wouldn't expect it any way else.
There are other bands that I was like, similar
to what you said, Ed. Huh, okay. Cool that they're
there. I would have thought that within the first
two years they would have gone in, so I have
no problem with them. But there are others that
had they been excluded, I would have been kind
of upset. Yeah, it would have been like, well,
they need to be in there, you know? So Sabbath
is a must in here, in my opinion. Yeah. I'm breaking
my brain trying to think of who got more votes
than Sabbath. I'm more interested now in that
than to talk about Sabbath because I don't understand
who could be more influential, especially after
we've already chosen Deep Purple and Zeppelin.
Unless people are going to give Alice Cooper
that much credit, I don't. But yeah, Sabbath
to me is the beginning of heavy metal. Not that
there weren't heavy metal sounds before that,
but they put it all together into that first
heavy metal package. And throughout every record,
experimented with different things within that
genre that just made them more heavy metal with
each record, all the way up through Sabotage,
at least. Man, from the first note, or I guess
the first thunder of Black Sabbath to the last
note of Sabotage, it's just heavy metal perfection.
And every single one of those members have influenced
every band and every musician, even if they don't
know it. If you're a hard rock and metal musician,
you've got Black Sabbath in your blood. Yeah.
Yeah, absolutely. Johan, Black Sabbath? Well,
it's a great, absolutely great band. I love every
record, almost, except... for the last Tory Martin
record and the Ron James CEO comeback record.
I love, no, but somehow I love every one of them.
But Zabat is, of course, like Maiden. Everything
has been said. They have done the best records.
I listen to them every week. Every week. I go
back and listen to early Aussie. I listen to
Tony Martin stuff. I think Tony Omi is a genius
in riffing. I don't know who writes the song
melodies. If it's a singer, it's good because
they always had great melodies for vocals. Like
I said, everything has been said. I don't want
to go into the specific records or anything because,
yeah, you know. Yeah, we'll be here all night
talking about the goodness of those records.
Yeah, I know. I know, Ed. I know. Yeah. No, it's
some bad, but 95 % is amazing. Have you listened
to the last Tony Martin record with the new remix?
Nope. Soul album? No, no, no. Forbidden, the
last one that he did with Sabbath. You're saying
that you don't like that album. Listen to the
– they remixed it last year and they put it back
out again. Forbidden. Yeah, yeah. Like I've listened
to it but not with – no, I listen – not with
my heart. I listened to it, but it was... I had...
I thought about it before when I listened to
it, and it was... So sorry, because of the bad
English. No, no, that's fine. I have all thought
out in Swedish, but I can't pronounce it. That's
fine. That's fine. So sorry. That's my number
one listen to album last year. So that's why
I'm saying the remix. As much as I like the original
version, I really like what they've done with
some of the songs with the remix version because
there are songs that I think they've brought
other elements out of them to make them sound
a lot better than the original. Anyway, Jeremy,
go ahead. There's a reason why they're in this
Hall of Fame. Obviously, they've influenced so
many bands. They created their own genre, the
sort of doom metal genre, which is going on today.
They had one of the greatest heavy metal guitarists
of all time because he had a problem with his
finger and it made him do those sort of very
chunky riffs. They created quite a few songs
that I would put in my top 10 of all time. You
know, War Pigs would definitely be in my top
10 metal songs of all time. Falling Off the Edge
of the World has about three different riffs
in that song. And yeah, it's probably... one
of the greatest metal songs of all time. And
then Into the Void, another one with absolutely
amazing riffs going on, not just one, but again,
several. So, you know, to do that sort of stuff
all in one. And the other thing I would say is
that when I was growing up, you know, I was about
sort of 11, 12, when I first heard Black Sabbath,
I heard the debut album. And they frightened
me to death. I mean, I was brought up, Ed will
probably be in the same sort of situation, I
was brought up in a moderately religious family.
And, you know, I had to hide the album, really.
I mean, the name itself, Black Sabbath, was not
something you'd want to shout about. And to hear
the tolling of the bell, this is something that
was alien to my kind of life at the time. And
yes, it was something I wanted to hear more of.
think about what they were doing, why they were
doing this and, you know, why I liked it. So,
yeah, they were just very, very different, very
different. And obviously they incorporated the
blues a bit in their early stuff, but then they
tossed that aside and just went into sort of
more of the metal stuff. And the other thing,
just to finally say, is that they then went on
after having Ozzy for so long and produced two
of the greatest metal albums with Dio that, you
know, They were incredible, and you can't even
choose between them. Heaven and Hell, Mob Rules,
probably equal albums in terms of content, quality,
amazing, amazing stuff, and they influenced a
lot of people and still do today. You can see
with this final concert they're going to do at
Villa Park how many people want to turn up and
play. Yeah, it'll be interesting to see how that
all turns out. We already know that every band
there is just going to be playing Sabbath. So
it'll be interesting to see. Hopefully we all
get to see that at one point in the future. All
right. So. Number one. Still intrigued, Ed? Yeah,
I can't wait. Or you think you've. I haven't
figured it out. You haven't figured it out. The
only thing I can think is Alice Cooper because
of, you know, his imagery and the way that's
affected so much of metal. But I don't think
there's enough Alice Cooper fans for him to be
number one. Johan, you're agreeing to what Jeremy
just wrote? Sure. Celtic Frost. Or no, that's
wrong. No, it's commercial. I've got Metallica.
Oh, I didn't think about it. Yeah, that's probably
what it is. Number one. I'm thinking early. Yeah,
never mind. I get it. Okay. I'm just thinking
too early. Yeah, well, what ultimately ended
up happening here, because when I proposed this,
a lot of people started asking, well, should
I pick early bands? And I said, well, if you
want to pick early band, sure. And then I said,
you know what? Pick whatever 10 bands you want.
Yeah. Because ultimately I want this to focus
on bands that we love listening to and that,
you know, have a big influence, have, I mean,
out of the entire genre, Metallica is the biggest
band. Yeah. Having said that, one point separates
them from Sabbath, and one point separates Sabbath
from Iron Maiden. They're all up there together.
All 10 of these bands, to me, are hugely influential
and deserve to be there. And the bands that are
on the outskirts looking in, I mean, if I go
out to 20, I can't really argue with any of those
bands either. You know, if I go beyond that,
11 was Slayer, 12 is Scorpions, 13 is Pantera,
14 is Thin Lizzy, 15 is Motorhead, 16 is Alice
Cooper, 17 Motley Crue. 18, Aerosmith, 19, Anthrax,
20, Megadeth. All right. When we get to the 20s,
it starts to become a little bit more varied
because we have Alice in Chains, Dio, Korn, Guns
N' Roses, Ozzy Osbourne as a solo artist, The
Who, Nirvana, UFO, Queen, and at 30 is Soundgarden.
I mean, to me, these are all bands. that have
formed the soundtrack of my life so the top 10
need to be there I mean those 10 bands need to
be in there we can argue 11 through 30 if any
of those could be in there or what the importance
is but I think as time goes by and we listen
to a lot of this stuff There's almost like no
wrong answer, you know, because these bands have
put out such great music that they've all they've
they've all taking up a lot of space and time
in our lives. But getting back to Metallica,
Ed, Metallica for you. Yeah, that was life changing
for me, Metallica. That's when I went, you know,
because I was always looking for something a
little bit heavier. Anything heavier attracted
me. When I heard them on the metal shop that
one night, I've told you that story. Boy, I went
to the mall the next day and bought that Ride
the Lightning as soon as I could. I'll never
forget those days of how exciting it was to listen
to that record, especially when I brought it
home and heard Fight Fire with Fire after having
heard Ride the Lightning and For Whom the Bell
Tolls first. right uh so it was like almost two
life -changing moments one hearing ride the lightning
on the radio and then bringing the cassette home
and hearing fight fire with fire and uh i just
i can't describe how cool that album sounded
back then and how cool it looked and uh and it
was also refreshing to see guys that weren't
you know doing their hair up like docking started
to do And just had the jeans and T -shirts and,
you know, metal patch jackets and was just, you
know, thrashing out. That I was able to connect
with. You know, an average Joe like me, you could
be like that. You know, just grow your hair out
a little bit, look sloppy, whatever. Put your
jean jackets on, your ripped up jeans, grab a
guitar. It was a lot harder to try to be, you
know, a glam metal musician unless you're a pretty
boy. and could grow your hair really long, real
fast, you know. Right. So it was, you know, they
were like a, I mean, I know there was bands like
them that preceded them, but, you know, that
kind of music really exploded in that year with
Metallica, especially, I think, when Ride the
Lightning came out, because that one was a little
more probably palatable for some people. Right.
Because a lot of people that became fans of that
kind of music, they had to get used to it for
a while. I remember playing that for friends
of mine that did not like it, heavy metal buddies.
But of course, they're all huge fans ever since
then. Right. Yeah. That was me. Was it? Yeah.
Yeah. Keep going, Jeremy. Yeah, I mean, that
was me, Ed. I didn't like Metallica at all, not
one bit. I was into hair metal, you know, obviously
progressed through New Wave of British Heavy
Metal into the American hair metal, loved sort
of hair metal, all that sort of stuff, you know,
all that glossy image. Metallica came out, I
couldn't feel it. I just didn't feel it at all.
It was, I didn't know what thrash metal was.
It was noise, total noise to me. And it was only
when the Black Album came out that I enjoyed
some of it, you know, and started to get into
that proper melody and beat with the heaviness.
And then it was after that that I started to
like thrash metal and I started to get it. And
then I went back and listened to the early stuff
and I really liked it. But obviously they're
here because a lot of people were like me in
that time. You know, I don't think they had that
mass appeal initially. And they built and built
their career. And they did lots of different
stuff through that career. And they had the word
metal in their name, which helped. um they they
took the bat they took no they carried the baton
for metal i think you know they were uh they
were sort of path breaking for for that and they're
really good on the marketing side you know they
didn't have any gimmicks but they had these great
um logos and you know just had that sort of uh
they were edgy um you know thrash metal was edgy
uh and they were better than bands you know i
know you might disagree victor because i know
you love anthrax but for me they were better
than anthrax they were They were stronger and
more powerful, and they still are, and they're
still going, and they managed to keep that marketing
going and still be out there pushing it for heavy
metal. And they talk about all the early days,
their influences, and I think that's important.
And so they're definitely worthy here because
they're really good at it, at what they do. Absolutely.
johan metallica well to me i discovered them
through a friend back in when was right lighting
released 84 yes yeah uh so it was uh i love that
record it was totally mind -blowing uh And at
the same time I loved Motley Crue. So back in
those days that weren't a problem. You could
like both Metallica and Motley Crue because both
bands were metal bands. Metallica was harder
but Motley Crue was still distorted guitars.
i love that band everything has been said of
course i have seen them perhaps 20 times i don't
think that's enough but but metallica is kind
of like the they are not ground zero for heavy
metal because that's probably black sabbath but
But they are great. At least here in Sweden,
it's good to like Metallica and still like any
other band. So here, Metallica is mainstream,
but it's a good mainstream, if you know what
I mean. They are the the household band for all
heavy rock So I think they They deserve their
position on this chart And I can discuss them
all night but There are so many things to say
about them, but they deserve number one on this
very important chart. All right. Awesome. So
I'm sure that all of the bands will be listening
to this episode and be thrilled to be part of
the inaugural class of the Signals for Mars Hall
of Fame. Let's just do a quick recap here at
10. Rush, nine. Deep Purple, eight. Van Halen,
seven. ACDC, six. Judas Priest, five. Kiss, four.
Led Zeppelin, three. Iron Maiden, two. Black
Sabbath, and one. Metallica, but I think the
overwhelming kind of reaction from all of us
is that this is... A complete class all onto
itself and regardless of how many votes one band
got or another. This is the foundation that we're
laying for this Hall of Fame. So I think it's
very important. I want to thank everyone that's
joined us tonight. We had Edgar Winterson in
the chat. We have obviously Johan in Sweden.
We have Ed in Kentucky. And we have Jeremy in
the UK. And that is it, folks. Thanks again for
watching the episode or listening to the replay.
And we will see you next time right here on Signals
from Mars. See you, folks. See ya. Thank you
for listening to the Signals from Mars podcast.
You can subscribe to the show on all your favorite
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