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David Afford Interview
(Rough Cutt)
"Rough Cutt'' arc on the loose! Currently supporting Krokus on i nationwide tour. Hough Cult is getting more than just a fair share of audience approval. They're knocking 'em dead, as the saying pies
Drummer David Afford spoke with us about the group he helped put together.
Q.. Since M.T.V has cut their showing of metal Videos, and some radio stations have reduced their metal format, has your management or record company, approached you and said. 'Fellas, you're going to have to stay on the road a little longer to break this record?'
A. No. What s Happened here is. you keep gettin' this heavy metal label Cause you're from L.A. The Motley, Quiet Riot, Ratt Syndrome. You got three bands out of L.A., all went over the double platinum status, so all the record companies panicked, and signed every metal band they could find, on cheap write-off deals just to see who was best, and throw the rest away. So, they flooded the market with this. I'm not going to mention any names trash. And. for awhile, this was messing up the more melodic bands like Rough Cutt. We're not just your head banging metal.
Q. Since you share the same management (Wendy Dio). as Ronnie James Djo, I'm curious to know what Ronnie thinks of Rough Cutt?
A. In one interview he said. This is not one of the no talent head-banging hands that are out there, there's more talent in this hand than in most bands '
Q. How did you headline a European tour, when at the time, you were an unsigned act?
A. We did this nationwide T V show called 'Rock Palace When we did that show we were actually fixin' to go to Europe, to sign a deal with Polygram. Right before we left Warner Bros, signed us with a worldwide contract. And what happened was Rod McSwain of I.T.B. came over to do business with Ronnie, and he saw our band, and flipped. He wanted us to come over real bad He's the one who set up the , tour, booked all the dates. So we went over there, and it went over real good for us.
Q. David, you might be the U.S. equivalent to John Magall (famed British musician).
A. Everybody seemed to have used my band as a stepping stone except Paul (Shortino-Rough Cutt's lead singer). Paul is my brother. He stuck it out. He stayed with us the whole way, when our chips were down, and I was alone, he stuck with me and vice-versa. Jake (E. Lee-Ozzy's guitarist) gets the first bandwagon, and he jumps on it. He split. Now he's still playing for salary, and ain't got no piece of the pie. Then I replaced him with a guy named Craig Goldy that plays in 'Guiffria.' He jumped on the first bandwagon also. It's like everyone used us because of Ronnie (James Die). I stuck it out. We didn't go for any small time labels. We didn't go for any independent things. We didn't put out any E.P.'s. We just held out for the big deal, which is having the greatest management in the world secured for us. If it hadn't been for Ronnie we'd still be banging our heads away tryin to make it. Eventually.Rough Cutt would've made it. but havin' good management, and being in the right place at the right time, paid off for us.
© Gary James All Rights Reserved
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