At times over the past 18 months or so, it must have seemed as though the rock and roll gods were conspiring against the newly-minted rock band Rated X and their quest to write, record and release a debut album.
From difficulties in securing the services of a front-line guitar player to dealing with a sudden and near tragic serious medical issue to trying to juggle schedules and studio time to get the tracks laid down in a reasonable period of time, the road has been tough – but so are the individuals comprising Rated X, as they persevered to create a self-titled work that is already being hailed as a classic, particularly amongst the fickle European classic rock and hard rock press.
Eschewing the term ‘supergroup’ or even ‘all-star band’, there is little doubt that Rated X is a conglomeration of enormous musical talent, with a pedigree that is as hallowed as any group in existence today. They prefer to bill themselves as legendary musicians coming together to make, vibrant, powerfully evocative new music. The intended targets are not the ‘opinion leaders’ within the music industry, but instead fans who appreciate well-crafted songs and virtuosic musicianship. And they have been appreciating it since the eponymous album was released throughout North America earlier in the year.
So who are these people? Who is Rated X? To start, there is Joe Lyn Turner, one of the most recognizable, powerful and oft-imitated voices in the history of what is known as class rock music for his work with Rainbow, Deep Purple, Yngwie Malmsteen and a host of other musical contributions.
He is joined by arguably the quintessential rock drummer: one of the most formidably talented and prolific skin bashers ever – Carmine Appice. His credits would use up a ton of printer ink to recite, but the highlight include time spent playing for Vanilla Fudge, Rod Stewart, Ozzy Osbourne, King Kobra, Blue Murder and more.
Not to be outdone is the co-called ‘Fretless Monster’, Tony Franklin on bass. He formed part of The Firm alongside legends Paul Rodgers and Jimmy Page, did a tour of duty in Whitesnake and appeared with Appice in Blue Murder in the late 1980s. He has also toured or played on records by Pink Floyd’s David Gilmour and Kate Bush among others.
That potent trio is complemented by Karl Cochran on guitar – a long-time sideman for Turner in many of his recent projects, as well as having a stint working with founding Kiss guitarist Ace Frehley.
“We just thought it would be great to have a bunch of seasoned professionals coming together, creating music, making music and going out on tour. Everybody in this band has parked their ego, if they even have one any more, in the sense of having a bad or negative ego because we’re all past that now. We’ve got nothing to prove to anyone,” said Turner from his home near New York City.
“It’s classic rock, I guess, because the word ‘class’ is there. And to me that means it’s just good solid melodic songs with messages, great playing and excitement. That’s the way music used to be so I guess you can say it is ‘classic’ rock. We wanted to go a bit retro in that we are sort of old timers but at the same time we wanted a modern edge to the sound and the production. So thankfully our engineer and mixer Pat Regan was able to put that twist on it.
“I tell you, we went through so much to get this album created and the sum total of its parts just came out fantastic. I am so jazzed about it. I think we’ve got some classics on this record. I really want people to dig into it and listen a few times because it’s like an ear worm, it just grows on you.”
Turner said the band was convinced to try to enlist a ‘big name’ guitar player to join the group. After that recruitment process fizzled, he convinced Franklin, Appice and the record label, Frontiers, that the best person for the Rated X job was right under their noses.
“When we started this thing we went through five guitar players. It was an insane situation. We started with Bruce Kulick who was in Kiss and is now in Grand Funk Railroad. When he came in and started with us we asked for a commitment. We respect his workload but he said he didn’t think he would be able to dedicate full time to this. So we told him that before we got any deeper we would have to part ways. He respected that and we respect him. It’s just the way we had to do it. The label owner Serafino [Perugino] wanted a ‘famous’ guitar player, and we understood the importance of marquee value, but most guys were working,” Turner explained.
“We thought of Jeff Watson from Mother’s Army. He played with Night Ranger and he was creative and innovative but he was working on his own studio so much and didn’t have the time and he did about two months of tracks with us when he moved on. At that point, after going through a couple of other guys, I turned to Serafino and said I had the perfect guy, a star waiting to happen. So I called in my buddy Karl and he jumped at the chance.”
Turner and Appice had known each other for years and worked together in a progressive rock outfit called Mother’s Army in the 1990s. And of course Appice and Franklin comprised 2/3 of Blue Murder, which was led by former Whitesnake and Thin Lizzy guitarist/vocalist John Sykes.
Of Appice, Turner said:
“Carmine is a legend in his own right and he has a style that I don’t think anyone has ever even challenged, not even his brother Vinny, and I played with Vinny in a band called Big Noize. It’s his sense of timing and his ability to do these intricate fills but still keep time that makes Carmine stand out from the rest. All those years of playing and honing his craft – this guy is a monster.”
Franklin augments Appice as part of the band’s impressive rhythm section, but he is more than just a great time keeper and provider of the much-needed ‘bottom end’ for a rock band. He, like Appice, has a similar penchant for innovation.
“I was talking to him the other day and I said, ‘I am hearing this from you that I have never heard before, or anybody do.’ And he said, ‘yeah, I like to just float around and not stay in one place. I like to get to where I need to be a certain way melodically. So you are going to hear a lot of melodic phrases,’” Turner said.
“Tony and Carmine both stick out on this album because it’s a performer’s album. We may do two verses and then drop down for a little bass interlude from Tony and the Carmine joins in and he will do a little solo inside a song that takes us to a guitar solo and then we bring it all back together. We have a unique way of arranging our songs and a unique way of presenting them which is very performance oriented. Each person shines in his own light, and yet we stay together as a group, which is pretty remarkable.”
Working with producer/keyboardist Alessandro Del Vecchio and mixer Pat Regan, the band members were able to record their parts individually, trusting Regan to bring it all together in a way that makes it sound like the players were mere steps from one another. From Turner’s point of view, he succeeded.
“It’s got separation. You can reach into the tracks and actually hear the space between the instruments and for some amazing, unique reason, it sounds like we were all in the same room together and we weren’t at all. I think it’s a feat of skill and technology,” he said, adding that it wouldn’t have worked so well if the musicians themselves weren’t so in tune with the music emotionally and able to pull off great performances, even in isolation and from a distance.
“I firmly believe that the professionalism of all of us and the years of experience and knowledge and being able to anticipate each other’s moves is exactly what you need for this kind of project. And thanks to the amazing work of Pat Regan, it turned out great.”
After securing Cochran as their string-bender and Del Vecchio and Regan showing they are masters of sound engineering, the most difficult and heart-aching challenge awaited the band as everyone was well into the process and loving what was happening. Suddenly, from out of nowhere, the 45-year-old Cochran suffered a massive stroke and slipped into a coma for a time. Turner was on tour in Europe when he got the news.
“I am in the middle of this tour and I get this Skype from Carmine saying Karl had a stroke. Not only is he my rock brother and a guy that I have known for 30 years who I love dearly, but he’s our guitar player. It was heartbreaking. He’s doing better now. It happened on the left side of his brain, so there are some cognitive issues and paralysis on the right side of his body, which includes his picking arm. But he’s got conventional medicine, reiki and acupuncture and now he is able to raise his arm up to his shoulder which is amazing. We have every faith that Karl will come back eventually because he is really strong. We feel he will be back in a year or so. But we had so many different emotions running through us because of what we had already gone through,” Turner said, adding that once he regained consciousness, Cochran insisted his bandmates get back at it, finishing off the tracks that he couldn’t.
Turner called in a favour from a friend, Bulgarian guitar whiz Nikolo Kotzev to quickly finish the guitar parts.
“He has a Master’s degree in orchestration, he is a conductor, and he is an electric violinist and a virtuoso guitar player and songwriter. So he was able to finish some of the rhythm parts and do some soloing that Karl wasn’t able to complete. He really helped us out, and Karl has been supportive of Nikolo and everything that we’re doing. Karl is our guitarist. He is part of this band and we know he will be back.”
For touring purposes Kotzev will fill in for Cochran.
The bulk of the writing for the debut Rated X album was done by Turner in collaboration with his bandmates and some of his other songwriting partners. He says there is both lyrical and musical depth to what folks will hear on the record and that fans who appreciate a dash of class and flair with their rock music should be well pleased with what issues forth from Rated X.
“There’s a song called You Are the Music and it’s for a musician friend of mine who died suddenly, was revived and then died again because of an aneurysm. I didn’t think it suited what we were doing but then Tony and Carmine heard it and said it was an anthem – an anthem for anyone who loves music and for those musicians we have lost. Peace of Mind is a straightforward rock song with lots of great playing and it came out really cool and will be a great live song. Lhasa: Devil in Disguise is a political song, and the video is going to just be pictures of all the heads of state from around the world, because this is the devil in disguise in this day and age,” Turner said.
“A lot of the songs are personal. Maybe Tonight was a song for my wife. We have only been married for three years but it was a love song for her, the first song I ever wrote for her. It started as a ballad but we rocked it up and it came out great. It’s a beautiful song and Nikolo did the most amazing guitar solo on it. There’s so many tones and emotions in the music on this record, but it’s still a great rock record.”
With Kotzev in the fold temporarily, touring plans for Rated X are starting to come together, although it has been difficult to get everyone together because all four band members have so many other projects on the go. Turner is quite cognizant of the fact that the live shows, if and when they happen, will necessarily include a heaping portion of familiar material from the various band members’ back catalogues.
“Promoters are extremely interested in that and we said of course. We’re going to do everything from Do Ya Think I’m Sexy to Radioactive to I Surrender to make it a bit more palatable for the bookers and promoters since they sort of see us as a new project. But once we get out there I think we’re going to kick butt and people will start to notice us for Rated X, not just for our back catalogue. I really do believe this is going to be a success.”
For more information on the band, visit their Facebook page or http://www.frontiers.it/album/5230/.
- Jim Barber is a veteran journalist and author based in Napanee, Ontario. Contact him at jimbarberwritingservices@gmail.com.
