Foreigner vocalist Kelly Hansen had blistering phrases for bands that use backing tracks: “Inform them to go fuck themselves.”
He isn’t alone with regards to that opinion. But for many years, it’s been rumored that a few of traditional rock’s most beloved artists — corresponding to Aerosmith, Kiss and Ozzy Osbourne — had been responsible of enhancing their stage performances.
Bands augmenting their reside present is nothing new. For instance, Van Halen employed former Evening Ranger keyboardist Alan “Fitz” Fitzgerald beginning within the early ‘90s to play sure keyboard elements on a few of their extra synth-heavy materials, like 1984’s “Bounce.” He is credited as “keyboard technician” on their 2015 reside album.
Black Sabbath employed keyboardists as nicely, together with Geoff Nichols and Adam Wakeman. Nonetheless, principal man Ozzy took issues additional, at one level hiring future Warrant vocalist Robert Mason to shadow his vocals. The experiment didn’t go nicely, and Sharon Osbourne bristled when the topic was introduced up years later. “Why are we speaking about one thing that occurred 20 years in the past?,” she shot again at L.A. Weekly. “We tried it out for one leg of the tour, nevertheless it didn’t work out.”
Increasingly, bands are being known as out for taking know-how too far — counting on recordings to pad their performances and in some instances, the majority of their reside present. Guitarist Mick Mars, who left Motley Crue in late 2022, alleged that every one of his former bandmates had been utilizing tapes throughout that yr’s Stadium Tour. “He didn’t play a single word on bass throughout all the U.S. tour,” Mars charged in a lawsuit, talking particularly about Nikki Sixx.
As you may learn under, the topic of backing tracks stays an advanced subject. Members of Kiss, Weapons N’ Roses, Iron Maiden, Def Leppard and others share their ideas.
How 22 Basic Rock Artists Really feel About Backing Tracks
Kiss, Motley Crue, Weapons N’ Roses and extra share their opinions.
