Chuck Wright has a resume a mile long! The guy has contributed his bass expertise to so many bands and projects. There are probably quite a few of them that you weren’t even aware that he played on. I think the one that a lot of people know him from would be Quiet Riot where he spent close to thirty years in. You may remember House of Lords and Guiffria from back in the 80s. A favorite of mine and very often overlooked is Impellitteri’s Stand in Line which also features Mr. Big drummer Pat Torpey. He was also in the band Heaven and Earth for two amazing albums called Dig and Hard to Kill. The guy is highly respected for not only his amazing musicianship, but for also being a top notch guy with a sparkling reputation. He’s also played for everyone from Alice Cooper to Gregg Allman to John Waite.
After over 40 years in the music industry, he just now released his first solo album titled Chuck Wright’s Sheltering Sky. Why the wait? Well, be patient as we get into that in our interview. First though, let’s talk briefly about this album. It is a cinematic landscape of so many layers to Chuck that many people did not even know existed. You may think of him as just a rocker, but this guy is well versed in reggae, jazz fusion, prog, funk and more which he dips into on this album. If Ringo got by with a little help from his friends, would he consider over 41 a few? Yeah, Chuck has a lot of musical friends who jumped at the chance to help out on this album. I had the chance to sit down with Chuck for a pretty amazing talk about this album, which seriously is pretty bad-ass, and much more.
Chuck, you are tied into so many songs in the soundtrack of my life. I first learned of you back in the 80s with House of Lords and then Quiet Riot and Heaven and Earth.
Chuck Wright: By what you’re saying, I am kind of the man behind the mask.
You spent a lot more time in Quiet Riot than what I realized. I mean, you are on their landmark and sonic landscape altering of an album Metal Health.
Thank you, I look back to my professional career and it was a total of 26 years with them. You know, the different versions of it and being a part of changing the fabric of music. “Cum on Feel the Noize” really changed everything. Sunset strip bands started getting signed left and right. It was kind of the demise of the new wave scene as grunge was the demise of us. I’m proud to have done my part on that album playing on a couple of tracks and singing on all of them.
So, after so many years and so many groups and projects, was there a catalyst for doing a solo album?
First off, I never intended on doing a solo album. When Covid hit we were all sheltered in. My past, such as Quiet Riot, on QR3 I was a writer around every song. With House of Lords, who I was a member of, I was majority writer. In the seventies, I had a prog band and I was 100% the writer. That band was actually the first one in music history to have a laser show. We worked with the guy that developed the technology for lasers. So anyway, I have been a composer but I just did not have time to sit down and write again. I also run an event called Open Jam Night at the Whiskey A Go Go which is a weekly event coordinating between 45 to 100 musicians. Just organizing a rehearsal with four or five guys in the band is crazy stuff so just imagine what it’s like with that many involved. Plus, we had fly out dates with Quiet Riot on the weekends so there just wasn’t time. So I sat down and I took my very first composition called “The Weight of Silence” which is just what I was feeling at the time with the world looking like it being almost apocalyptic. The empty streets and cities like Paris looked like there were just no humans anywhere. So I recorded that and I edited together a video with drone footage of the empty streets. It’s a pretty emotional song and if you can imagine Pink Floyd goes flamenco. In fact, the whole album’s hard to describe as I carry everything from hard rock to funk to prog and I even have a jazz fusion number. I have a full gospel type of song which is like a Robert Plant and Alison Krauss song. The album’s cinematic but I never intended it to be. I was just writing music that I wanted to listen to and I reached out to different friends of mine. I would send them the track and asked if they wanted to play on it and every one of them jumped in. I have 41 guests on the album including members of Mr. Big, Skid Row, Tesla, Dream Theater, Asia, Jefferson Starship and more. Right now, I’m just trying to get this thing out there. We’ve done four music videos and it’s on Spotify for people to listen to. I just want people to know what I’m all about.
When it comes to music, dude you’re all about everything!
Yeah, pretty much! (laughs) I know a lot of people don’t know that I was in a flamingo group for two years. I worked on a heavy rock rap record along with Glen Sobel who was the drummer on that record and is also the drummer in Alice Cooper. I’ve worked on seven silent film scores which is part of the reason that my album sounds so cinematic. It’s because of that plus five songs in the album were co-produced with Tim Janssens who is an award-winning film composer and he is an engineer. He was a big part of the way that the record sounds.
Cinematic is a great way to describe it because it has such a huge sound. A friend of mine asked what your album was like and I told him it was really hard to pinpoint and describe it other than it has this really huge sound to it. If you were a painter, you painted with so many colors on your palette.
Right! I definitely didn’t stick to black and white. For a lot of people who know me just from Quiet Riot, House of Lords, Alice Cooper or Ted Nugent, it’s kind of a surprise to them when they hear these different styles. A very welcome surprise because so many people just keep releasing the same record over and over. Once I’ve decided this was going to be a solo album, it was just organic the way it all came together. A couple of surprises came along one being the first song, “The Weight of Silence,” winning Best Musical Performance and Best Video at The Rock Music and Alliance Awards I was up against Joe Satriani and John 5 and didn’t even know about it. Then about a week ago I found out that I was up for Grammy consideration in the rock category which is kind of funny because that could be up for folk country too.
I interviewed Billy Sheehan recently and we talked a lot about Pat Torpey and he is on this album several times. He passed away in 2018, so when did you guys work on the tracks with him?
First off, Pat was one of my closest friends and he and I actually had a band in 1983 called. I did Impellitteri with Pat and we had a project in the late nineties called Odd Man Out. He and I have always been kind of a team. I went back and I looked at some tracks for something else and I forgot all about the session tracks that we did. Three songs that we decided to pursue were just basic tracks. They have Pat’s drums, some guitars and my bass. I listened to them and they kicked my ass! I could not let them disappear and not be heard, right? One of the songs we decided to pursue was “Army of Me” which is a Bjork cover. I know what kind of surprise that is. That came about because we were talking about how Bjork used John Bonham’s “Levee Breaks” as the drum track for that. We all really love that track and we played it by memory. We recorded it and when I found that track I knew I just had to finish it.
You’re current single/video is for “Throwing Stones.” Can you give us a little info on that one?
“Throwing Stones” has an anti-war message and the words and lyrics were written by my friend Joe Retta. He and I were in a band called Heaven and Earth. People may know him from Trans-Siberian Orchestra, Disciples of Dio and The Sweet. The lyrics are based on the fact that as human beings, we started throwing stones at each other way back to get our way and now we are throwing grenades and missiles. When are we going to learn? It’s very topical because of what’s going on in Ukraine and I wanted to get that out there even more now. The video is really cool. One reviewer compared it to Primus meets Stevie Wonder which is true; it really sums it up if you listen to it. It’s bluesy and it’s funky with a Stevie Wonder kind of vocal with a very aggressive chorus. Shelly Bonet is another female singer on the record. She sang backup on it and she also did a duet on the gospel track “Cradle of the Sun.” The other song that was from the session is called “It Never Fails.” It’s another pretty aggressive kind of funky song and I asked my friend Jeff Scott Soto to sing knowing that he is a killer R&B singer besides being known as a rock singer I met him when he was singing with Yngwie (Malmsteen) back in the 80s. I sent it to him and three hours later he sent it back and said ‘here you go!’ Scotti Hill from Skid Row has an awesome solo on it. That’s why I reached out to some of the other people. Although I could have played some of these parts, it’s all about what makes the album better. When I have people like Jeff Scott Soto or Joe Retta, I would rather have them do it. I don’t want to diminish my own album by using my singing (laughs).
So, that’s how you chose some of the guests on your album?
Here’s the thing, I made so many friends over my career and doing Ultimate Jam Night as well. I’ve got to know every one of them. So, I kind of know who would be best part. or add the best vibe. A friend of mine who’s in a Pink Floyd band killer lap steel so he’s on a couple of songs. I really wanted that David Gilmour slide on a couple of songs. There’s a song on there “See You on the Other Side.” I got the call about Frankie Banali (Quiet Riot) passing and then I started thinking about losing my mom. Plus, six or seven of my closest friends over the years who have passed. All of those emotions came up and I picked up the 12 string and I wrote it from top to bottom including the vocal cords and all of that.
“Giving up the Ghost” is so amazing as well as the video for it. Where did the connection with Whitney Tai happen?
I try to have a narrative in all of the videos and that one is the fourth one that we did. She would come down to Ultimate Jam Night to perform and we would but was about it plus I was familiar with her solo career that I love. We became friends and I reached out to her about the track “Army of Me.” She loves Bjork and her voice is perfect for that one. I also thought of “Giving up the Ghost” because it had a Sarah McLachlan vibe to it. I had that song in me for a very long time. I would always pick up the guitar and mess around with it a little bit and I always found myself going back to that song so finally I am able to record it properly with a bunch of great musicians and her voice is perfect for it. It ended up being one of my favorite tracks on the album. What’s really cool about that track is I used my fretless bass as a melodic instrument from the chorus to the next verse. I just do whatever is best for the song, whatever I am feeling.
I am a bit old school when it comes to cover art. There’s a whole generation missing out on that because everything is going digital and you just don’t see a lot of bands putting that much time or effort into great cover art like we used to get. The cover for this album is an absolutely beautiful shot. Can you tell me a little more about it? Is this an original piece or was it something you found?
I hate that everything now is down to the size of a postage stamp. Back in the day, you got a ten inch record. You got the artwork and may be a picture of the band and you couldn’t wait to see them live. Today you’re just oversaturated with way too much stuff. I’m glad you appreciate that album cover which was done but my friend Glen Wexler. People might know him from his work with Van Halen, RUSH and ZZ top. We’ve been best friends since the late 70s. I was actually the first rock band musician that he ever took photos of. He’s also a sounding board for me and I appreciate his opinion and taste in music and I would send him tracks. So he came up with the concept of the vulture leaving the decimation of the desert as an eclipse is finishing. Basically, what it represented was that we were coming out of the Covid pandemic. It looks dark as a cover idea but it’s actually a cover of hope. That’s a real vulture that he captured a shot of. I told him I wanted to have a vulture in my video and he told me no because they’re a pain in the ass to work with. (laughs)
Your focus is on this new album right now, but is there anything else coming up that you may want to mention?
As you said, right now I’m really still trying to work on getting the word out about the album. As you probably know there are over sixty thousand songs a day been released on Spotify, so getting people to stop and listen takes a lot of real effort. Although my record came out at the beginning of June, I feel as if I’ve only scratched the surface. Once people discover the record, they’re really being blown away. I’m serious that every single record review of the album that people have been blown away and even saying it’s their favorite record of the year. As for upcoming, for my hard rock fans, there’s an album coming out next year that we completed with my friends Ken Mary from House of Lords. He’s their drummer and he also drummed and mixed “See You on the Other Side.” Plus, Jimi Bell who is in the new House of Lords guitarist, so you have three different eras of House of Lords. They came up with the name Demon’s Down because it was a House of Lords album even though none of us were on that one. I actually passed on it at the beginning because I had I didn’t want to go what I felt was backwards after doing this album but then they sent me some of the material that they were going to do and I was impressed that it kind of sound like old House of Lords meets Queensryche. A little heavier and a little deeper with prog items in there. I just heard the final mixes and it’s killer. The people who like that melodic rock in your face rock, this is a really cool album for them. We’re going to do videos for it too so it’s going to be out the first part of 2023
I see that we need to wrap this up, but before so we must end it with our traditional Three For The Road segment. It’s three, hopefully different questions that you don’t normally get hit with. Do you remember the very first album that you bought with your very own money?
Yes, Disraeli Gears by Cream. There’s a little back story with that too. I was in military school for eight years and I was going to go into the Air Force Academy. but I got into a band. I got my first gig, made seventy-five bucks, drink beer and the girls thought I was cute so I changed my mind and my direction. This band asked me if I could play bass so I thought this is four strings so I would give it a shot. The very first song I learned was “Sunshine of Your Love” which was on that album. Two years later and I’m on the road with Vanilla Fudge. The opening acts bass player inherited a lot of money and started a music memorabilia room at his house. He actually had Jack Bruce’s bass. So I got to play the first song I ever learned which was his song with his bass so it’s kind of crazy if you really think about it. It’s kind of full circle. Going to a record store, it’s an experience that the youth of the day are sadly not going to experience. I discovered so many great bands by this one guy at the record store. He told me ‘you’ve got to read this magazine called Melody Maker.’ I discovered so many great bands in it. Also, they would play something very cool in the store and I would be like ‘who is this’ or he would tell me ‘you got to get this album by this band called Led Zeppelin because they’re really cool.’ I got that first Led Zeppelin album and it’s still one of my favorites. Going online and hearing little bits and pieces is just not the same.
I had one of those guys too and I spent a fortune in that store!
Me too! I was always hitting up my mom for more money! She was so supportive of me, but she was disappointed I was not going in the military school. One of my proudest moments was handing her a platinum record with her name on it.
Wow, that’s pretty cool man! Next question, do you remember who your first celebrity crush was?
My very first celebrity crush? Wilma?
The cartoon Wilma?
(Laughs) Yeah, I mean my very first one as a little kid. I thought she was hot. Think about it, that skirt (laughs)
Wilma is definitely a first time answer for us! Ok, last question. If music was over today and you had to go into professional wrestling, what would your name be?
What a weird question! The Crusher! That’s inspired from a Bugs Bunny cartoon.
I remember that one; that’s classic!
My mom used to sit with me and watch cartoons. The Warner Brothers cartoons were the best. I know some people say they’re so violent but they didn’t make us violent. Just because of what you watch doesn’t mean you’re going to be violent.
To this day, I have never dropped an anvil on anyone’s head! Chuck, this has been fun! Thanks again for taking the time to talk to us today.
Thank you for the support Johnny and for the review.
I’m Music Magazine Owner/Editor Johnny Price
Connect with Chuck Wright Online:
Instagram: @chuckwrightbass
Facebook: @ChuckWrightOfficial
