Overkill may not have the profile of Metallica or some other member of thrash’s Massive 4, however they have been simply as integral to the scene as these bands. Shaped 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 due to basic late 80s and early 90s albums similar to Taking Over, Below The Affect, The Years Of Decay and Horrorscope. In 2019, the band ready to launch their nineteenth album, Wings Of Warfare, Blitz appeared again of his eventful life and profession.
Bobby ‘Blitz’ Ellsworth has the most effective snort 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 get better earlier than the following one arrives.
However then the Overkill frontman has quite a bit to snort about. His band’s nineteenth album, Wings Of Warfare, 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 industrial highs of the late 80s and the grunge-induced lows of the 90s. Blitz himself has battled by varied 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 automotive battery’s lifeless, I believe I had dangerous fish for lunch. [Cackles] Nah, I am positive.
Wings Of Warfare is Overkill’s nineteenth album. How do you stick with it?
It’s as a result of we’re egocentric bastards – the fellows with essentially the most data 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 is not about mailing issues in or questioning what we have 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 in the future, 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 obtained 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.’ Individuals have forgotten that. The music Batshit Loopy is about that – the place did all of the frequent sense go?
You grew up in New Jersey. What that like?
I used to be a suburban child, like most steel youngsters are within the US. Me and DD each had skilled fathers. My grandparents have been immigrants, so have 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 advanced?
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 after they develop up – they simply go there cos that is the place the cash is. However the individuals in Jersey had a fantastic work ethic and a hell of an perspective. It is essentially 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 need 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 have 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 essentially the most distinctive presentation to vocals, and it is one thing that has stayed with me for all these years.
You’ve obtained a hell of a scream. When did you realise you might try this?
It was sitting on the seaside in a washing go well with 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, might you do Priest’s Inexperienced Manalishi, and I might do it. It turn into form of my trademark, and it is by no means left me – it grew to become one thing I might 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 observed the vitality. We’d been coming alongside on the identical time, and we have been rather more into the punk rock finish of issues and fusing it with conventional British steel. We have been Misfits followers, we have been Useless Boys followers, we have been Ramones followers. However you begin performing some Priest covers with that and also you begin creating a 3rd entity.
The great 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 instantaneous data, so it was form of onerous to steal it from one another. The sweetness was that it developed barely in a different way in all these locations and lots of others, with out the consolation or the know-how we have now at this time.
Was there camaraderie between you and bands like Anthrax and Metallica, or was it extra of a rivalry?
I believe it was aggressive. We knew the Anthrax guys, however we by no means actually frolicked with them. They have been hanging out with Metallica. And typically Metallica would come down and hang around with us too, nevertheless it by no means appeared just like the three of us have been in the identical room.
You have been a fixture on the legendary membership L’Amour in Brooklyn…
Fuck man, we have been the home band there. We have been truly managed by two of the homeowners again then, We have been a very self-promoted band – we would put on out our Converse placing flyers into windshield wipers, and we might consistently 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 obtained 40 of your fucking packages on my desk, you are a pleasant child, however your band sucks. A fucking yr later we have 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 individuals at L’Amour in Brooklyn, and a median Overkill present would maintain roughly 1750. A mean 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 can see individuals shifting in fully instructions in complete unison. It was off the hook.
What have been the degrees of violence like?
There was all the time fights, however I don’t suppose they have been essentially primarily based on the music. I keep in mind when the hardcore scene and the steel scene obtained fused collectively, there was little little bit of a time of unrest, nevertheless it by no means occurred between bands. You’d 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 in addition to, I used to be solely 150 ft 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 Hearth?
Oh, I’m very proud. I like having the ability to return – it is virtually like having a snapshot of your life. There’s some good younger man angst on these data. 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 once I hear Really feel The Hearth, 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 need 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 all around the information that data have been going to be stickered and banned. It might 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 combat. Now I’ve a cup of espresso and I’m in search of a clear bathroom.
You hit a sizzling streak with 1989’s The Years Of Decay and 1991’s Horrorscope. What do you keep in mind about that interval?
We knew we have been completely different, and we considered that as a very good factor. We weren’t being lumped into the entire scene as we developed. [1988’s Under The Influence] upset me somewhat bit. However by The Years Of Decay, it got here to fruition – we grew to become a purely identifiable factor. With the Horrorscope file, we added a contact of groove to our strategy, and I believe that’s once we grew to become full-grown.
The 90s was a troublesome time for lots of thrash bands. How was it for Overkill?
The 90s is without doubt one of the proudest eras of Overkill. It’s once we obtained the hair on our balls. Sooner or later, there was 200 thrash followers in a room sharing a draft beer, the following day there was eight. And we occurred to be 4 of them. We thought to ourselves, ‘If we need to do that, need to retool this fucking factor or simply go residence dwell in our dad and mom’ basements and marvel why no person appreciates our fucking genius.’
We took our administration over, continued to tour. I obtained sober, I needed to have a transparent head to cope with it. However we obtained it executed. I take a look at it as separating the lads from the boys. It made us what we’re at this time.
![Overkill - Elimination (Official Vídeo) [HD] - YouTube](https://img.youtube.com/vi/svi6JiMe9c0/maxresdefault.jpg)
You have been recognized with most cancers of the nostril in 1998. How did that have an effect on you?
Nicely, I used to be sober by that point so I had a transparent head to cope with 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 drawback. It’s nearly getting by 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 might 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 dwell file and we’re calling it, You must see the opposite man.’
Just a few years later, you had a stroke onstage. What did that really feel like?
Nicely, the sunshine went off. I assumed 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 executed to me. I used to be on my bike in fucking two weeks. Thoughts you, I might 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 suppose that being in a steel band isn’t good in your well being?
Nah, I by no means suppose 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 in the future, ‘The one purpose it really works is that you are the identical individuals. 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 handle life so we are able to do regardless of the fuck we would like. And I believe that is why it really works
The longest break you’ve had between albums is three years. Largely 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 finished 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 suppose, ‘Why aren’t we as large as these guys’?
Nah, that might wreck it for me. I might quite rely my success by way of alternatives and the times I’ve, not what Tom and Kerry are doing.
Do you ever see a day if you retire?
Provided that I am unable to take pleasure in 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 degree, positive, that is sensible. However at this level, it hasn’t crept in but.
Initially revealed on metalhammer.com in 2019