EXCLUSIVE INTERVIEW: Ross The Boss (ex-Manowar / The Dictators)

How the last tour of Australia in 2018 went and about the upcoming tour in which Ross The Boss will playing "Hail to England" in its entirety...

Ross the Boss: It was a smashing success, my friend, it really was, and made so many good friends. I met so many people that had been wanting to see me since 1982. What can I say? It was great. I mean, we had great shows. We can't wait to start it and can't wait to do it again, because the band just gets better and better. What can I say? We're working on a new record. The last record came out last April and it did fantastic. We're going to do the Hail to England tour, the Hail to England record, and we're extremely excited about it.

The importance of 'Hail to England' and how England came to embrace Manowar in the early days...

Ross the Boss: Yeah. That was it. We had recorded this record and hadn't done the song yet. And then we were getting all this press from England, from the United Kingdom. Kerrang, Melody Maker, Music Maker. We had all these writers talking about the band and so much fan mail came from the UK from us. And we said, "This is unreal. What should we call the record?" So came up with the song and we said, "Well, you know what? It's going to be Hail to England." And that's the story. That's why we said it.

About being one of the first bands to bring sword and sorcery fantasy to the Metal genre...

Ross the Boss: Well, to be honest with you, there weren't. I mean, Ronnie Dio was having some ... his music was a bit fantasy. He had the sword. But wasn't quite as visual as we were. But definitely I would say the closest would be Ronnie James Dio, and Ronnie definitely had a big part of creating Manowar. He introduced me to Joey DeMaio. I was in England. He introduced me to Joey. Joey was on the crew and I was playing in this English band called Shakin' Street. And Ronnie said that I should go meet Joey and I said, "Yes, sir," and I did, and the rest is history.

How KK Downing from Judas Priest came to join Ross The Boss at Bloodstock festival...

Ross the Boss: Well, that's a great question, too. We did it about four weeks ago, three weeks ago, at Bloodstock. I had a friend, English friend, that knew him. I talked to him a lot and I said, "Well, we're doing this show." I had this show last year. I got the booking. And I said, "Why don't you ask him if he wants to come down for a beer? Come down, hang out with us, because he lives right there." I said, "Wouldn't he like to come down for a beer?" Then he said, "Well, why don't you ask him if he wants to play a couple of songs with us?" and that's how we got there. The whole thing just kept morphing and evolving until he said, "Yeah, K.K. wants to play." It was the perfect spot for him to come, he hadn't played in 10 years, and we did it.

Listen to the full interview