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interview with dan lilker
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Dan Lilker is a musical legend. He’s also the first to admit that the title doesn’t sit comfortably with him. But really it is the only way to describe him – the man has sold more than 5 million albums, was one of the founding fathers of thrash metal and during his career has played in bands such as Nuclear Assault, Anthrax, Extra Hot Sauce, Brutal Truth, Stormtroopers Of Death, The Ravenous and Venomous Concept. There was of course other bands that he was a guest of and he created a new sound of distorted guitar playing.
With Nuclear Assault heading to Australia for the first and last time with their The Final Assault tour I ask Dan how the term ‘musical pioneer’ sits with him. “It is very humbling,” he says after stopping to think for a few seconds. “I’m very flattered with it to be honest. I was there when thrash first started and I know that our records were considered breakthrough records at the time so I guess I can see why people may say that but I guess other people see it as more than I do… I don’t know.”
It doesn’t take very long into my chat with Dan to realise what a humble man he really is, it comes out even more as I talk to him about what it was like to sit down with author Dave Hofer who recently published Dan’s biography – Perpetual Conversion: 30 Years And Counting In The Life Of Metal Veteran Danny Lilker. Dan admits that talking to Dave took him on an emotional journey. “Yeah it really did,” he says. ‘Dave dug up all these old posters, photo books and letters and stuff… because it was back when people actually sat down and wrote letters… and I guess you could say that it definitely had a lot of nostalgic elements to it. And then there was just this general feeling around the fact that somebody was actually asking me all these questions to write a book about me, that was really surreal. I’ve never been really egotistical or anything like that so it was a bit strange that somebody was writing a book about me, but a lot of people have had really positive responses to the book so I think that’s great, but I don’t let it go to my head I just think that it is cool.”
Dan laughs when we start talking about the fact that Nuclear Assault formed right back in the mid 1980s yet this is the first time they have toured Australia. “We’re certainly going to make it worth it for our fans,” he laughs. “For Nuclear Assault our live shows have always been about being raw, of course thrash with a little bit of hardcore thrown in, what people call a crossover I guess. So our shows have always been about not having any big visuals or anything like that, it’s just about four guys getting out and playing hard and material wise we try to keep it pretty true. We’ll play a lot of the stuff that people know from the 80s and we’ll update things with some newer stuff but pretty much a Nuclear Assault show is about playing music and not much else presentation wise. We just go for it.”
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He is also very apologetic about the fact that the band haven’t been here before. “It’s just things like the logistics involved. The flights are pretty for stressful and for our level of music obviously with thrash metal that’s not ideal. Plus we haven’t had many promoters approach us I don’t know why, maybe that’s distance as well but really I’ll get on a flight from L.A. to Sydney… I really don’t give a shit.”
That leads me onto asking just how much jet lag does affect a band when they are on tour “Oh shit man, I remember when I was in Australia with another band at one time in 1996 and we were about two days into the tour and was backstage in Adelaide about an hour before we were to go on stage and then all of a sudden I felt so f**ken tired out of nowhere. I was trying to lay down and things keep sliding over so that didn’t work… so yeah jetlag can really f**k with you. It really is the time difference that f**ks with you. When all the local bands are going on stage it feels like three in the afternoon for the rest of us. You really have to rest up which is not always because I remember once we landed in Sydney at 2am, flew to Adelaide and then had a eight or nine hour drive to Ballarat or somewhere like that. So year jet lag can f**k you up, but you’ve got to get there, rest up and adapt or otherwise you’ll end up on stage thinking “f**king shit it feels like it is 9 o’clock in the f**king morning.”
So how do you rest up do you go out and explore? “That really depends on where you are,” laughs Dan. “Sometimes in a place like Germany you’ll be in the middle of nowhere or in some industrial park and you really can’t go anywhere, other times you’ll be in a city centre and you can go and check out cool places or cool architecture or go somewhere and have a coffee or a beer so yeah it depends on where you are. If you in the middle of nowhere and you start going off you might never find your way back. But seriously the best way to rest up is to just chill out.”
With Nuclear Assault calling their tour The Final Assault we joke about whether they will do a John Farnham and do a number of farewell tours. “No way,” says Dan with a mock determined voice. “We’re not going to be one of those bands that makes our fans think ‘I’m never going to see these guys again’ and then twelve months later having them roll their eyes. We would never do that. So for our fans this is the last time and for our Aussie fans I am so sorry that it has taken so long to get down there but we thank you all for your patience and we are going to make the wait worth it.”
So there you have it Nuclear Assault fans this will be your one and only time that you get to see the band live on or shores so make you sure you don’t miss The Final Assault tour in February 2017.
Written by David Griffiths
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LISTEN TO
NUCLEAR ASSAULT
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