BELLADONNA Readies New Album... Page 2
By Martin Popoff

So will you yourself drum on the album?

"I'm trying to; I'm gearing towards it. That's been one of the hardest things, getting people who are in the same frame of mind who want to stick it out and practice and do the things you have to do. I just have a hard time finding anybody who's really going to be sincere. So it's just been the two of us. We're looking to maybe do it ourselves, do the whole thing, and also put it online at the website, and maybe even go with an EP to start; do it in pairs of EPs or something. I still can shop it, but I think there are some things I did before that seemed to fall through so fast - God it was a shame. But this way we can monitor it and talk to people directly."

I asked Joey to look back at the years and tell me about occasions where he'd met his own rock heroes. "Robert Plant in England, hanging out with him for over an hour at a show he did, headlining show, in a back room, in a nice dressing room in England with kind of a puppy-type of set up, just hanging out, some of the Maiden guys and us, and just chatting. That was... forget it. That was way too cool. And for me, it's just been a great year, meeting some of my favourites, Lou Gramm, Paul Rodgers, Ian Gillan, Steve Walsh I finally got to hang with, Jeff Beck at a show not too long ago. And of course Neal Schon, every time he comes in for show, two, three, four times a year, now it's just like we know each other. And I can't get over it; stuff like that just blows my mind."

And how do you feel as a vocalist, physically, right now?

"I feel pretty good about it. If I'm in a situation, depending on who you're playing with, sometimes you don't shoot it in the same direction. If I'm just fussing around with somebody and we're making some different arrangements for a certain song, you might not go for it in a certain way, depending on how it is. Some things haven't been a full-metal onslaught. They might have been a little more modern but not really; same tone and everything but just not as real high with the big screams. And even then, I dig doing that, but sometimes it gets to the point where you just go, God, that's a little too much; people aren't digging that. But I don't care anymore. If you do a decent job at it, it can be fine. And a lot of people aren't doing it, so why not?"