Badlands Bassist Greg Chaisson Talks 1989 Album, Jake E. Lee, Ray Gillen, Steeler, Surgical Steel

[@ScotDvorak]

Cool interview... Love Greg’s humility and respect. Badlands were my soundtrack of the era. Both albums (and then Dusk) still stand as some of my favorite music ever recorded! Like nothing else being done at the time... Pure Classic!

[@shotgunrebels]

One of my all time favorite bands. The debut is so amazing. Ray’s voice....

[@richardgiraldezjr.3873]

Are

[@Twotontessie]

Hell of a good interview thank you.

[@fullinbloom]

Glad you enjoyed it.

[@elitecombatfitnesscentral6170]

Met Ray many many times even ran into him in the bus in New Jersey. I saw him play with Rondinelli and as soon as I heard this kid sing live I knew I knew he had that special voice and he was going somewhere little time after that found out he was with Black Sabbath and then when I saw the MTV video of Badlands it was just logical that this kid was going to go places

[@empireblack2351]

LMAO!

[@elitecombatfitnesscentral6170]

@@empireblack2351 ?

[@BryanX64]

Did he really refer to Ray Gillen as “this kid”

[@Killerklownsfromouterspace]

So glad I had an opportunity to see them. It was a local state fair here in Illinois and the band I played in was playing a beer tent that night. At the grand stand that night it was Tesla, Great White and Badlands. A couple of the guys from Badlands and Tesla hung out at the soundboard and watched a few songs from our set. Very cool night indeed. RIP Ray. One of a kind voice for sure.

[@fistoftulkas7335]

Badlands, one of the greatest bands of all time. Hope everything is and goes well with mr Chaisson, cancer is bad news and chemo is even worse, it's what can actually kill you, but hopefully he got over it.

[@secretpowerinu]

Currently going through it brother @Fist Of Tulkas. It’s been tough to say the least!

[@fistoftulkas7335]

@@secretpowerinu Hope you'll get out of it. Remember that food is extremely important, we are what we eat. So is physical activity and a calm, positive state of mind. All much more important that any medicine or so called "cure". Just my two cents.

[@robertgoodwinr6523]

Thank you for this! Great interview, saw these guys in 89-90 at The Channel Club in Boston with Eric S on drums and we're all amazing. RIP Ray. You wouldn't happen to have anything on Savatage?? another great band.

[@bluesoddity2094]

Love Badlands dude! I was 20 when they played the Channel and show was 21+. Friggin bummed I couldn't go. Missed out on Ramones, Motorhead and Roy Orbison and Lonnie Mack..... Channel was a great club, played my 1st show there in 1988. Cheers :)

[@image30p]

Great interview! Greg is very well-spoken and lucid. There are a lot of interesting details here. Thank you for sharing it.

[@joeyvanostrand3655]

I just bought a Wolfgang Standard, Mango Burst from Bizzare Guitar! Great folks! Awesome guitars!! Didn't know Greg worked there. That's awesome!

[@christophercirocco8611]

Great job GC. Loved Badlands

[@Twotontessie]

Talking about volume on stage .... love that. I saw them in 1992 in Seattle and Lee’s guitar was simply overpowering - loudest band I’ve ever seen.

[@cass-7148]

Met Greg at the AGORA in Cleveland, OH back in 2014 I'm thinking...he was playing with Jake E In Red Dragon Cartel...hung out after the show with them both...GREAT GUYS !!! KIK ASS SHOW...CONGRATS ON BEATING THE BIG "C" MY FRIEND...GOD BLESS..AND KEEP ROCKING🤘🤘🤘🤘

[@WhyTheHorseface]

Definitely gonna check out his music. Congratulations on his recovery from cancer!

[@am3986]

Badlands one of the best bands no one has ever heard. Both official albums are top notch and the third one is amazing when you consider it was recorded live... what a band. But egos kill bands. Eric was fired after the 1st tour, Ray was fired as well and then came back and eventually the band had broken up -way before- Ray was severely ill.

[@metaljew4456]

A M ; AIDS does a pretty good job as well

[@allsystemsgo8678]

I'm not sure what ego has to do with it.

[@orvil9223]

Yeah, I think AIDS killed that one, Genius.

[@livingbeing1113]

Nothing to do about ego, issues are well documented in various interviews by both Greg and Jake.

[@lrm215]

Greg is a great guy and bass player glad he beat the big C!!!

[@randyperfecto7468]

Loved this band still have the cassette Badlands, Hua

[@blueberrypie8691]

Seen Badlands twice, love all 3 albums. Jake has been my fave guitarist forever since I was a kid. Greg's solo album is also pretty good, if you haven't heard you should pick it up. ?First time seen ?Badlands was at Riverfest on one of the smaller stages which was amazing cuz we were so close but Stevie Ray was headlining and me being the dumb metal kid was like ?Stevie who and never went to it. I feel so foolish cuz 2 years later he was dead and I was an insta fan after the cassette of the month on columbia records club sent me The Sky is Crying and I was blown away.

[@bigdeal7043]

Record was out of print for awhile but I found it at a pawn shop for $1!

[@fullinbloom]

Nice find at a pawn shop.

[@hastobe303]

I bought the LP relatively recently... and then I gave it away. This was, of course, before I knew how hard these records are to come by.

[@ttidforever7416]

Great interview, but i was wondering if maybe Greg didn't want to mention anything about Ray's death specifically, because there wasn't a direct question asked about it. One of the best interviewers on youtube, and great for metalheads like myself!!

[@fullinbloom]

Thank you, my friend. Yes, Greg told me before we did the interview that he didn't want to talk about Ray's death in detail.

[@ttidforever7416]

@@fullinbloom My bro, i had my journalism hat on and was just wanting to know if he was comfortable with that part of his Life. Thanks so much for commenting, as you are kickass as an interviewer. i remember seeing Badlands live when i was a young teenager, and someone threw a bottle at Ray, and Greg and Ray looked like they wanted to fuck some shit up!!! Brothers in arms!! Such a terrific show as well!!!

[@kevinrosner8676]

Epic releases. Nobody and I mean nobody was doing Voodoo Highway stuff. and all musicians in my local scene were all about it. Public acceptance be damned, it was epic. then ya got ‘In A Dream’ being performed on America’s Got Talent decades later. That’s ALL you need to know

[@Simon-IFF]

Great interview! What song do you use as into and outro? Good stuff

[@scottbarcheski8040]

It’s an absolute disgrace to not have the badlands records still in print.

[@scottbarcheski8040]

@Fusion72 yes, because of Ray. I've heard... ray died 27 years ago so youd think it's time to move on.

[@hastobe303]

@@scottbarcheski8040 Yeah, art is still art. At this point, it's just silly to keep it hidden away, especially when it's good music. If it was shit it would still be wrong, but at least then I wouldn't care.

[@christiancarpenter753]

The story from Jake a couple of years ago. Atlantic, who owns the music rights, will not allow the release of the first two albums because Ray knowing he had aids still had sex with 2 or 3 women and gave it to them. They brought up lawsuits, and won, that ended up going against Atlantic. Payments would come from album sales from that point. So they stopped production and buried the albums.

[@MrNWA4Life]

@@christiancarpenter753 That doesn't make any sense. If I infected some women, what sense does it make to sue my employer? They have nothing to do with it. You sue the guy's estate. But I also heard that one of the women Ray infected was the daughter of an Atlantic Records bigwig.

[@christiancarpenter753]

@@MrNWA4Life It would be that the record company owns the rights to Badlands music, Atlantic actually were ordered to pay undisclosed amount. They make more than the artist off the music, so if they don’t make any money, they don’t pay out. Lawyers will find a way to the money.

[@orvil9223]

How come every guy Jake mentions in an interview - not in a positive light, lol, the guy never seems to hear that interview?

[@RestoRoxx]

Somebody please buy the master tapes for the first 2 Badlands records from Atlantic Records. This ridiculous, are these Atlantic reps even alive?

[@MrNumber1gator]

Jeff Martin!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[@owendurkin6292]

right?? what a player!

[@sarahtuberville8467]

I like Greg and Badlands but he needs to leave Eric alone. Almost every artist had no problems working with Eric since they were willing to cooperate and work differences out just like Eric does. Everyone else described him easy to work with, talented, and a great guy. The part where he said it weren’t his or Eric’s fault they fought was hypocritical since he was previously talking like how he was victim to Eric’s crap, plus considering to beat Eric up is immature alone. Sorry but not sorry, I don’t agree with what he said about Eric and he was pompous and impolite. Don’t get me wrong, he’s not a bad person but he’s not perfect like some days or thinks he is. I’ll say this, I'm very glad he beat his cancer since no one deserves that.

[@kenwheeler4731]

I actually drove Eric Singer to his gig with Gilby Clarke at The Magic Bag or was it The Magic Stick in Detroit, Mi back in like the mid to late 90's. He did a drum clinic at Motor City Guitar that day before the gig with Gilby Clarke and my friend worked there part time at the time. After the clinic me, Lance my friend, and Steve the guitar player in Lance's band Pain Station drove Eric Singer to the gig. Eric seemed somewhat ok but didn't like us smoking in the car or my driving at times. I kinda had the feeling that he didn't really enjoy the conversations we all had on the way down there. Great drummer I thought but a bitt of a dick though. He did sign a drum skin with Gilby Clarke and the bass player but one guy in Gilby's band didn't sign it. They put on a good show and we all had fun that night.

[@paganjay1085]

Working for Alice Cooper and eventually KISS will check your attitudes. As great as Badlands was,I don't believe Eric ever worried about losing that job cuz they weren't as big,so his attitude may have been difficult. But who knows.