Jimmy Kay and Alan Dixon of Canada's The Metal Voice recently spoke with former Riot singer Tony Moore who had not spoken publicly for some years. Moore spoke about his new bands and the new music he is working on. As well as his decision to leave Riot after the passing of founding member Mark Reale in 2011.
When asked about his current band project Immortal Soul
" 'I have been working with former Anthrax vocalist Neil Turbin, we have been doing this absolutely crazy thing called 'The Immortal Soul Band' . Who knew that Neil Turbin is just the most remarkable soul singer. I was blown away. Neil had this concept, that he wanted to do some classic soul and R and B stuff with a total Rock angle, so we got this band together. I'm playing bass, that's all I ever wanted to do musically. Playing the songs from the Spinners, Temptations, Four Tops, Otis Redding if you lean on this stuff with a rock sensibility the stuff really kicks ass. The rhyme section is me Todd Vinny Vinciguerra who is this awesome bottom style drummer and Darren Housholder is the guitarist and he is a monster. We have been performing on and off here in L.A. at Lucky Strikes live and when we play out we do it with full horn sections and back round vocals and I am having a ball just sitting back and laying into these classic grooves ,it is so much fun. We are going to record stuff cause we are getting some really good responses. "
When asked writing a new metal album
"Yesterday i just started a project with Alex Kane on guitar and this is going to be a straight up hard rock heavy metal thing. We are just in the early stages of writing. it;'s going to be me Vinnie Vinciguerra and Alex Kane, straight up three piece and I am going to be playing bass and singing lead. We are just now starting to share grooves and start the writing process. We are going to record."
When asked about why he left RIOT right after the Immortal soul album
"Honestly it was kind of dramatic process for me and really most of the reasons were personal. I was having a little difficulty fitting in Los Angeles I'm a New Yorker and getting back into the whole world of metal and everything that it entails, in terms of working. It didn't come naturally, back in the 80's when I was fearless and much younger the whole idea of just taking a left turn and creating this character Tony Moore, which is essentially a character. I was a little more flexible back then in terms of my personality and then all of a sudden all these years have gone by and I am out here in L.A. and it seemed kid of surreal. I think wjat iced it for me was when we went out, we did like a little mini tour coming into the 70,000 tons of metal cruise and we out there touring without Mark Reale cause he was very very sick. Mike Flyntz was trying to play all the guitar parts. We were trying to play some shows in little clubs , we showed up to one place the club was closed , the promoters tried to keep our deposit and it just rang a lot of bells for me. This is back in the world of rock and roll where musicians still get screwed 24/7 and it was just lay d out for me so clearly and I thought to myself honestly fuck this. As good as this band is . All this stuff was happening it had gone down the same way it did before, to the bands credit they all wanted to tour like demons and I just didn't have it in me and then when Mark Reale passed away while we were on that cruise I didn't have it in me to continue to go forward. "
Diamond Head (Brian Tatler) Interview by Neil Turbin