MOUNTAIN - America's First Heavy Metal Band Page 2
By Martin Popoff

With respect to the Sony/Legacy reissues, Leslie comments that "the way they remixed them really sounds good. Plus we gave them a couple of new cuts for each one of the new albums. And I'm really excited about it because Sony is really excited about it. Besides that, I think they are releasing Delaney and Bonnie with Eric Clapton - Super Sessions and a Stephen Stills album. It was the sales department that had this meeting and they were looking for stuff that was big sellers, because that's the name of the record business now. And they asked me if I wanted to get involved in it. And you know, it's great to reissue them because we could turn on a lot of fans who might not be aware of them or have forgotten them."

In closing, we offer this little bit of advice: if Mountain ever asks you to audition for the band, don't bother. You won't win the gig.

"Recently we played in Hollywood at the House Of Blues," explains Leslie. "I had a contest and in the afternoon I invited all these guitar players down, like American Idol. I said 'All right, you come down and audition and then I'll pick someone to play with us at night.' So at the show after the first songs I said 'All right, I'm going to pick the winner now.' And the winner is, let me see, Ed... Van Halen. And I brought him out and the place went nuts; it was great."