Overkill won’t have the profile of Metallica or another member of thrash’s Massive 4, however they had been simply as integral to the scene as these bands. Fashioned in New Jersey in 1981 and led because the begin by livewire frontman Bobby ‘Blitz’ Ellsworth, they grew to become fixtures on the steel panorama because of traditional late 80s and early 90s albums resembling Taking Over, Below The Affect, The Years Of Decay and Horrorscope. In 2019, the band ready to launch their nineteenth album, Wings Of Battle, Blitz appeared again of his eventful life and profession.
Bobby ‘Blitz’ Ellsworth has the perfect snicker you’ll ever hear. This infectious madman’s cackle explodes out of nowhere and promptly rips your eardrums to shreds. There’s barely time to recuperate earlier than the subsequent one arrives.
However then the Overkill frontman has loads to snicker about. His band’s nineteenth album, Wings Of Battle, retains up their late profession hot-streak. A fixture of the East Coast thrash scene since earlier than thrash was even a factor, Overkill have weathered every little thing the music trade – and life – has thrown at them. There have been the business highs of the late 80s and the grunge-induced lows of the 90s. Blitz himself has battled by way of numerous well being issues that might have felled a lesser individual, but he stays as indefatigably upbeat, optimistic and devoted to the band he based again in 1981.
“Ya can’t let issues get ya down,” he says, earlier than unleashing the primary of many cackles: “Plus what else am I gonna do?”
How are issues with you proper now, Blitz?
It is snowing, my automobile battery’s lifeless, I feel I had unhealthy fish for lunch. [Cackles] Nah, I am wonderful.
Wings Of Battle is Overkill’s nineteenth album. How do you stick with it?
It’s as a result of we’re egocentric bastards – the fellows with probably the most information wins! Nah, it is one thing we have all the time cherished. We by no means discovered ourselves wandering round into partitions with an id disaster. It’s all the time given us the chance for recent concepts, if we all know what we’re. It isn’t about mailing issues in or questioning what we had been. It is about conforming what we’re.
Former Shadows Fall drummer Jason Bittner performs on this album. Was he a fan earlier than he joined?
He comes from Albany in upstate New York and he would present up at each Overkill present in Albany with two fucking sticks in his again pocket. I by no means knew the child’s title – I used to name him Sticks. And I stated to him someday, you are ready for Tim Mallare [Overkill drummer from 1993-2005] to drop lifeless onstage so you may throw in. And he stated to me, ‘I am prepared.’ So yeah, he is a fan.
We’re residing in a loopy world proper now. How a lot of that influences what you’re writing about?
We are the final cowboys right here. We got here from a unique period. The world is loopy is as a result of our data is instantaneous. Again within the 80s and 90s, there was time between the act and when it received to you, and within the interim the reality was discovered. I keep in mind my father telling me, ‘No matter you do, give it some thought first.’ Folks have forgotten that. The tune Batshit Loopy is about that – the place did all of the widespread sense go?
You grew up in New Jersey. What that like?
I used to be a suburban child, like most steel children are within the US. Me and DD each had skilled fathers. My grandparents had been immigrants, so had been DD’s. New Jersey has all the time been second to New York. There are 5 boroughs in New York – they name Jersey ‘The Soiled Six’. The purpose being is that we constructed their bridges and their towers, we picked up their rubbish. There is a hell of a piece ethic in that.
Did being throughout the water from New York offer you an inferiority complicated?
Extra like a fucking chip in your shoulder! It was, like, ‘Come over right here and say that!’ Seventy per cent of Manhattanites are nowhere close to Manhattan once they develop up – they only go there cos that is the place the cash is. However the folks in Jersey had an incredible work ethic and a hell of an angle. It is probably the most attitude-fuelled place I’ve ever seen in my life, and I am used to it. However some nice music has come out of Jersey: Bruce Springsteen, Bon Jovi, the Skid Row guys. Frank Sinatra for fuck’s sake. It positive produces trustworthy illustration in music.
Who made you wish to be a musician?
The primary voice I keep in mind listening to was my mom’s – she was a soprano. Nonetheless is for that matter. She had 12 brothers and sisters. Our household Sundays had been them singing harmonies across the fire, so it was a pure factor for me. When it got here to steel, I all the time thought the benchmark was and nonetheless is Mr Halford. It was simply probably the most distinctive presentation to vocals, and it is one thing that has stayed with me for all these years.
You’ve received a hell of a scream. When did you realise you would do this?
It was sitting on the seashore in a washing swimsuit and I dropped a cigarette on my lap! Nah! I simply began making an attempt it at rehearsals. I used to be initially making an attempt to imitate Rob Halford. The benchmark for a singer again within the early 80s was, may you do Priest’s Inexperienced Manalishi, and I may do it. It grow to be form of my trademark, and it is by no means left me – it grew to become one thing I may use for impact right here and there all through my profession.
You began in 1981, a pair years earlier than thrash arrived. How did that change issues for you?
We clearly seen the vitality. We’d been coming alongside on the similar time, and we had been far more into the punk rock finish of issues and fusing it with conventional British steel. We had been Misfits followers, we had been Useless Boys followers, we had been Ramones followers. However you begin performing some Priest covers with that and also you begin creating a 3rd entity.
The fantastic thing about it was there was no template. It was being created in San Francisco, and in Essen, Germany and within the UK and in New Jersey – we did not have that prompt data, so it was form of onerous to steal it from one another. The sweetness was that it developed barely otherwise in all these locations and lots of others, with out the consolation or the expertise we have now at present.
Was there camaraderie between you and bands like Anthrax and Metallica, or was it extra of a rivalry?
I feel it was aggressive. We knew the Anthrax guys, however we by no means actually frolicked with them. They had been hanging out with Metallica. And typically Metallica would come down and hang around with us too, but it surely by no means appeared just like the three of us had been in the identical room.
You had been a fixture on the legendary membership L’Amour in Brooklyn…
Fuck man, we had been the home band there. We had been truly managed by two of the homeowners again then, We had been a completely self-promoted band – we would put on out our Converse placing flyers into windshield wipers, and we might always go to those two guys and provides them packages.
I keep in mind it being my flip, and I walked up one among them, and he goes, Pay attention child, I received 40 of your fucking packages on my desk, you are a pleasant child, however your band sucks. A fucking yr later we had been the home band within the place, as a result of cash talks and bullshit walks. And these guys recognised that.
What was a typical there gig like?
Oh god, man. They’d a authorized capability of about 1200 folks at L’Amour in Brooklyn, and a mean Overkill present would maintain roughly 1750. A median Metallica present would maintain 2200. It was fucking insane, It was dick-to-ass all the best way to the again of the room however the entire thing simply pulsed. You possibly can see folks transferring in utterly instructions in complete unison. It was off the hook.
What had been the degrees of violence like?
There was all the time fights, however I don’t assume they had been essentially based mostly on the music. I keep in mind when the hardcore scene and the steel scene received fused collectively, there was little little bit of a time of unrest, but it surely by no means occurred between bands. You’ll get X quantity of hardcore guys in Doc Martins, and X quantity of metalheads in Motörhead shirts, and no person wished to provide an inch. However as time went in, it did fuse collectively
I keep in mind getting right into a fist-fight myself on the road with a few guys one evening. I wasn’t gonna again off. And apart from, I used to be solely 150 toes from the entrance of the membership that managed me, and all people within the place knew me. If I used to be gonna have large balls, that was the scenario to have ’em.
How do you look again in your first two albums, Taking Over and Really feel The Fireplace?
Oh, I’m very proud. I like with the ability to return – it is virtually like having a snapshot of your life. There’s some good younger man angst on these information. I used to be torn between two or three issues – I used to be a college pupil down within the metropolis, I used to be writing lyrics for Overkill, and I used to be an enormous fan of the punk scene. So after I hear Really feel The Fireplace, I hear all that. I hear my literary programs I used to be taking, stealing stuff proper out of Shakespeare in there. I hear the punk that I might see down at Max’s. And I hear the will to be a songwriter.
You launched the notorious Fuck You mini-album in 1987 with an upraised center finger on the duvet. That title was a hell of an announcement again then…
It was our solely political assertion. [Democratic senator and future Presidential candidate] Al Gore and his spouse Tippa created the PMRC, and it was everywhere in the information that information had been going to be stickered and banned. It may have been referred to as ‘Ban This’. Most shops bought it in black-wrapped covers or in craft paper. Some shops had the nuts simply to place it out. It was younger males to waving the flag of their very own freedoms.
If somebody had walked on the Overkill tour bus again in these days, what kind of scenes would they’ve walked into?
We had our enjoyable, let’s simply say that. I used to stroll in a venue with a beer in every hand, with a hard-on and in search of a battle. Now I’ve a cup of espresso and I’m in search of a clear bathroom.
You hit a scorching streak with 1989’s The Years Of Decay and 1991’s Horrorscope. What do you keep in mind about that interval?
We knew we had been completely different, and we considered that as a superb factor. We weren’t being lumped into the entire scene as we developed. [1988’s Under The Influence] upset me a bit bit. However by The Years Of Decay, it got here to fruition – we grew to become a purely identifiable factor. With the Horrorscope report, we added a contact of groove to our strategy, and I feel that’s after we grew to become full-grown.
The 90s was a tricky time for lots of thrash bands. How was it for Overkill?
The 90s is likely one of the proudest eras of Overkill. It’s after we received the hair on our balls. At some point, there was 200 thrash followers in a room sharing a draft beer, the subsequent day there was eight. And we occurred to be 4 of them. We thought to ourselves, ‘If we wish to do that, need to retool this fucking factor or simply go residence stay in our dad and mom’ basements and marvel why no person appreciates our fucking genius.’
We took our administration over, continued to tour. I received sober, I needed to have a transparent head to take care of it. However we received it completed. I take a look at it as separating the boys from the boys. It made us what we’re at present.
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You had been recognized with most cancers of the nostril in 1998. How did that have an effect on you?
Effectively, I used to be sober by that point so I had a transparent head to take care of it. I used to trip on this bike membership, and I keep in mind sitting with this man who had much more years within the membership than me. He goes, ‘There are two sides to each fucking downside. It’s nearly getting by way of it that sucks.’ I by no means appeared again after getting that recommendation, cos it was so simple as shit. I used to be complicating all these things in my head.
I got here in to do the primary present with my face all bandaged up. They’d simply eliminated a few of ’em so I may sing, and I used to be all swollen black and blue. I stated, ‘Any person get an image – we’re placing it on the duvet of the stay report and we’re calling it, You must see the opposite man.’
A number of years later, you had a stroke onstage. What did that really feel like?
Effectively, the sunshine went off. I believed it was an influence failure! It’s one thing I’ve a genetic disposition to. My mom has it. My pop would say, ‘Oh, mommy’s having an episode’, to not scare the youngsters. So I had the ‘episode’, and I did extra harm falling down the steps off the stage than the stroke had completed to me. I used to be on my motorbike in fucking two weeks. Thoughts you, I may solely make left flip [cackles]. It took me 4 hours to get residence!
Most cancers, a stroke, you had pneumonia just a few years in the past. Do you ever assume that being in a steel band isn’t good to your well being?
Nah, I by no means assume that. That is the human situation – we’re fragile. Exit with a fucking smile in your face and your coronary heart racing, not clinging on to it like grim loss of life.
You and bassist DD Verni have each been within the band because the begin. What’s your secret?
We had the identical upbringing, we perceive one another. His spouse stated to me someday, ‘The one cause it really works is that you are the similar folks. You do the identical issues.’ We’re not enjoying pool with one another on Friday nights when the band’s not collectively, however for positive, we have now the identical ideas. If we’re OK, the band takes care of itself. The band’s the straightforward half. Life is the onerous half. So let’s care for life so we are able to do regardless of the fuck we would like. And I feel that is why it really works
The longest break you’ve had between albums is three years. Principally it’s only one or two years. Do you ever fancy a vacation?
Nah. We’re proud of our instruments on,. It’s like a middle-aged boys membership – after the work is completed and the set-up for all of it, it turns into a trip. There’s 5 guys rolling cube, taking every others’ cash, lighting cigars.
Do you ever take a look at Metallica and Slayer and assume, ‘Why aren’t we as large as these guys’?
Nah, that might break it for me. I would reasonably rely my success when it comes to alternatives and the times I’ve, not what Tom and Kerry are doing.
Do you ever see a day whenever you retire?
Provided that I am unable to get pleasure from it. I’m an adrenaline junkie. That is factor that’s stored me going all this time. It is the excessive I chase. If I am unable to do it at a excessive stage, positive, that is smart. However at this level, it hasn’t crept in but.
Initially printed on metalhammer.com in 2019