Ross The Boss is part of heavy metal history.
After co-founding the legendary Manowar in 1980, he spent the next eight years and six albums with the band before embarking on a successful solo career.
Manowar revolutionised metal music as we know it. Merging the sounds of the New Wave of British Heavy Metal with a thrash intensity that was lacking at the time, they set a new bar for heavy music and were one of the forerunners of the power metal movement.
One of their most acclaimed and popular records remains Hail To England and now, to celebrate the albums 35th anniversary, Ross The Boss is headed our way to play the album in its entirety.
“It just seemed like a good idea to do it”, he laughed. “It’s full of great songs and you can’t lose with great songs. It’s really cool to play.”
Although being an American band, Ross says the reasons behind dedicating an album to England were glaringly obvious when it was released.
“At the time we were getting amazing press from the English press,” he recalled. “Kerrang and all of the major magazines were giving us press but that was pretty much the only place we were getting it from so we said lets do the record – we had the tour booked and were going over – so we just figutred we had the song but no title yet so we suggested Hail To England… we changed things up and had Hail To England the song and its a great song. We decided to call the album after the song and then we came up with the artwork and I think we have one of the best album covers ever.”
IN the full interview Ross talks more about that album, what makes a song or album timeless, tells the story of how Manowar came to be after a chance meeting at a Black Sabbath concert, Manowar’s early driving force, the difference they made to heavy music, the slogan ‘death to false metal’ and where it came from and more.
