When you ask METAL CHURCH guitarist Rick Van Zandt about long he’s been playing guitar, you may as well be asking him how old he is. He will likely offer an answer like, all my life… So to keep it short, we should fast forward to the highlights of this relatively unknown guitarist.
In the late 1970’s he attended Seattle’s Roosevelt High School, which was only a short walk from his parents house. Every day after school his band would practice so loud, you swear it could be heard from the school… This attracted a following of hard rockers who came over to play or just hang out, and yes, he is the Rick Van Zandt that Nikki Sixx speaks of when referring to his life in Seattle before moving to Los Angeles and Motley fame… During this time his band was playing songs by Uriah Heep, Hendrix, Alice Cooper, Deep Purple, UFO, Rush, as well as original songs.
After high school, Rick studied guitar and music theory at Seattle’s Cornish College of the Arts. It was there that he met jazz and studio great Howard Roberts, who showed him a thing or two, and gave him the inspiration to start playing in a more technical style, like fusion shred master Alan Holdsworth. Over the next couple of years his band recorded a demo of original tunes, and played some gigs with another band from his high school days - The Mentors... But back then, The Mentors sounded more like The Mahavishnu Orchestra… Belive it or not!
In the 1980’s Rick was in the band Rottweiller, that was featured along with Metal Church on the legendary 1984 Northwest Metalfest album. Rottweiller later recorded their first album, and although not officially released by a label, Screams of the Innocent went on to gain Kult status, and it was republished in 2002 by Hellion Records. That same year Rick was introduced to Ronny Munroe, who joined Rottweiller for their tour of Germany where they performed at the Wacken Open Air Festival. Rottweiller’s second CD Rage of War, was released in 2005 by Hellion Records, although with a different singer, as Ronny was in Metal Church by this time.
Rick spent the better part of 2006 as the singer/guitarist for Rottweiller, and writing new material. During the time he was recording demos for the next album, Ronny Munroe enlisted Rick to put together a band for his solo project. This eventually lead to a short west coast tour in 2007 with other ex-Rottweiller bandmates, along with Rick Pierce (TKO/Q5/Nightshade) on second guitar.
Rick was brought into the METAL CHURCH line up in 2008. The new album THIS PRESENT WASTELAND is scheduled for release in September.
Early influences: Black Sabbath, The Who, Uriah Heep, Deep Purple, Blue Oyster Cult, UFO, Queen, Alice Cooper, Mahogany Rush, Cream, Hendrix, Zappa, Alan Holdsworth.
Thank you so much for add and friendship, Rick! Your amazing riffs makes you wonder if the guitar is spelled or the musician have magic fingers? I think the second answer is the true one! Wish you all the best from Bucharest!
Hello there, just stopping by to send out a heads up for Saturday. I'll be doing my first Powermaker Radio Post Retirement Drive-by on KWTF The Edge. I should be taking possession of the radio stream at 11:00 am pst. Hope you can make it for this Drive-by at www. kwtfworldwide. com . If you swing by the website grab a player link from the left side of the site and also swing into the chatroom, link at the top of the site. If you can make it, please give me a heads up that you'll be there and I'll make damn sure you are in my playlist. Looking forward to seeing ya, until then take care.
Wanted to stop by here and give you a warm welcome to the Metal Church family! Now tell the rest of them to get their butts back to NY so I can give a proper greeting!! :-)
