TV Rock Live recently conducted an interview with former W.A.S.P. guitarist Chris Holmes. You can now watch the chat below.
Speaking about the passing of his friend, former MOTÖRHEAD drummer Phil “Philthy Animal” Taylor, who died on November 11 of liver failure at the age of 61, Holmes said: “He was ill for a long time. His liver shut down. I visited him [the] week [before his death], and he was really ill. Since his liver wasn’t cleaning out his blood, he was really foggy in the mind, and I was trying to talk to him. And the last thing I said… They came to pick me up in a car, and I put my hand on his head, and I just said, ‘You know, Phil, this is probably the last time we’ll ever see each other.’ And he shook his head and said, ‘Yeah, I know.’ Then he died a few days later.”
He continued: “[Phil] was a really, really, really close friend. Out of anybody I’ve ever met in the music business — and I’ve met a lot of people; I mean, a lot — he was probably the coolest guy I’ve ever met as being a human being, towards other people. He would go out of his way to help other people — extremely out of his way. Not getting nothing out of it. It’s rare for people [to be] like that. He didn’t care about being famous or the fame crap. We’d go out places and he’d be really nice to people who wanted autographs; he treated everybody nice. He’d take the time out to… If I didn’t understand something, a book or whatever, he’d take the time out and read it to me, things like that. [He] helped me understand certain things.”
Asked how much Taylor was involved in the making of Holmes’s 2013 solo album, “Nothing To Lose”, Chris said: “A lot. If it wasn’t for him, I probably wouldn’t have even done a first [solo] album, ‘cause it was all done on his computers and stuff. Years ago, I went by his house. He asked me to help him with something with the car, and I went by his house, and I saw that he had his drums set up. For years before that, he didn’t have them set up. He had a computer. And I go, ‘Woah! You’re playing again, Phil.’ He goes, ‘Yeah.’ And I go, ‘Let me hear some of it.’ And he let me listen [to some of the stuff he recorded]. And I go, ‘Man, that’s a horrible guitar sound.’ And he’s, like, ‘Can you do any better?’ So I brought my stuff down the next day and we started recording. And it just went from there. We’d record about three times a week.”
Holmes’s latest album, “Shitting Bricks”, was released earlier in the year via M & O Music.
Holmes joined W.A.S.P. in 1982 and remained with the group until 1990. In 1996, Holmes rejoined W.A.S.P. and stayed with the band until 2001. Holmes has not played with W.A.S.P. since.
Source: Blabbermouth
