Live Preview: Michael Monroe

With a new album, Blackout States, Michael Monroe returns to the UK with his solo band.

Whose idea was this alliance with Hardcore Superstar?

I’m not sure, but it suits us both to join forces. I did a guest appearance,** **a cover of Alice Cooper’s A Long Way To Go, with them several years ago, so the music is pretty compatible.

Will you rotate who goes on last?

No. It’s about who has the bigger name in each country.

Talking of Alice Cooper, your visit concludes with two shows supporting him.

Yeah. That’s the answer to my childhood prayers. A month ago Alice invited me to sing** **School’s Out with him at a festival in Helsinki. That was so cool. I hope it happens again.

Apart for the departure of guitarist Dregen, your solo band is now very settled. And the new album, Blackout States, sounds like the product of a well-oiled machine.

I’m blessed to have this band, and it’s only getting better. The sound is moving away slightly from hard rock towards something punkier.

You sing about those spiky-topped days on Old King’s Road, which has a hard-to-decipher lyric about ‘a bucket of piss’.

[Laughs] No, it’s a bottle of piss. Hanoi Rocks played the Reading Festival in 1983, and Andy [McCoy, guitarist] got hit on the neck by a one-and-a-half-litre bottle as he played the solo to Don’t You Ever Leave Me, but his facial expression didn’t change a bit.

Does the song The Good Ol’ Bad Days bemoan today’s lack of real rock’n’roll?

In a way, yeah. There are some good bands, but not many. I’m happy to see Slash and the Foo Fighters doing so well. They honour the greats, but with integrity. They’re passing on the legacy of great rock’n’roll.

Six years after Hanoi Rocks split for the second time, are you still in contact with Andy McCoy?

We’re not enemies, but we’re not close friends either. Andy was at that Alice Cooper show in Helsinki and we had a nice chat

Classic Rock 216: News & Regulars

Dave Ling was a co-founder of Classic Rock magazine. His words have appeared in a variety of music publications, including RAW, Kerrang!, Metal Hammer, Prog, Rock Candy, Fireworks and Sounds. Dave’s life was shaped in 1974 through the purchase of a copy of Sweet’s album ‘Sweet Fanny Adams’, along with early gig experiences from Status Quo, Rush, Iron Maiden, AC/DC, Yes and Queen. As a lifelong season ticket holder of Crystal Palace FC, he is completely incapable of uttering the word ‘Br***ton’.