Interview with Ratt's Carlos Cavazo
Miranda: I’m Miranda Wilson, I’m sitting in the back of Bridgestone Arena with Carols Cavazio
Cavazo: Kah’va’so, very close
Miranda: Cavazo, close, I try, I try ... so you’re on tour with the Scorpions, so far – this is your second date
Cavazo: yes it is
Miranda: how is it treating you
Cavazo: uh, really good, last night was a date by ourselves, sort of a warm up date and then tonight we start with the Scorpions – and we’re here in your lovely city of Nashville, we love coming here, it’s a great city and, you know I’m glad to see that it’s not as bad as I thought it would be after all of the problems that you guys had
Miranda: it’s gotten a lot better, we’re really pulled together and a lot of our musicians from the local area and that loves Nashville has really helped us out a lot
Cavazo: that’s important, that’s good
Miranda: it’s really helped a lot
Cavazo: give back to the community, huh
Miranda: hey, if they love us, we love them too
(Laughter)
Miranda: so what I want to know is, you were in Quiet Riot and you came over to Ratt and you’ve probably had a lot in between as far as playing and stuff, how has touring changed since you first started touring to now
Cavazo: I think, uh, well touring is sober now, we don’t go out an party like we did in the 80’s, obviously, I’m in my 50’s so I can’t party like that any more and if I did, I’d probably, ya know, fall over
Miranda: you carry 50 well
Cavazo: thank you, but I think everybody is more together, I think we’re more adult about it and we’re not the bratty little kids that we used to be and obviously we’re sober and, it’s just fun, other than that it’s just fun. People are more responsive and we get the girls coming out like it was and you know, it’s just a lot of fun, I still enjoy doing it
Miranda: so how long have you been playing guitar
Cavazo: I’ve been playing for – since I was, 9 – 10 years old and I was taught formally you know, how to play to read music and uh, actually I played Flamenco on classic guitars and stuff like that – I’ve been doing that most of my life, I happen to make a living off of rock ‘n roll – I’m a big fan of Flamenco music – Spanish guitar
Miranda: so who influenced you to pick it up
Cavazo: for rock guitar I would say, Jimi Hendrix, you know when I saw him, he pretty much turned the whole guitar world upside down the way he played and performed and stuff, he just knocked me out and I had to play like him – I wanted to be like him, but as far as being in the music industry, I have to say the Beatles, my father got me and my brother their first couple of Beatles records and we were just knocked out –like, "I wanna do this" ya know. We used to get you know like sticks and we’d pretend that we were playing guitars and that kind of stuff and we had a good time doing that and that eventually led to playing real instruments so, it gave me a career. I even got a career out of it.
(Laughter)
Miranda: so, do you remember what was your first guitar was
Cavazo: yeah, actually the first acoustic guitar I ever had was called a Stella – I think it’s an American-made guitar – and then the first electric guitar I had was called a Teisco Del Rey and they used to sell those at Sears, I think, or something like that, anyway I think I got it for my 10th birthday or something like that, bought me an electric guitar and amp – I thought that was a really good present, I remember that
Miranda: well it brought you to where you are now
Cavazo: yeah, it really did
Miranda: so how has music evolved over the years for guitar players like yourself
Cavazo: well, I think the art of the 80’s guitar playing has kind of like faded a little bit – I think people have had enough, I think some bands kind of took it too far or got a little silly after a while, but I know of some 90’s bands that are getting away from all of that Guitar Hero kind of stuff but I don’t think it’s going to go away some people still like to hear that kind of music anyway so I think its obviously they’ve got Guitar Hero the game and Rock Band and they’ve got all those 80’s bands on those you know video games so our songs are lasting this long, I’m surprised they still playing them after this (laughter)
Miranda: well they’re ON the games
Cavazo: yeah right
Miranda: y’all have one on Brutal Legend
Cavazo: yeah right
Miranda: and then we have y’all’s Guitar Hero and Rock Band
Cavazo: and there’s Need for Speed – there’s a lot of them actually
Miranda: there’s a lot of them, a lot of y’all’s songs
Cavazo: I’m glad to be part of that, I love video games and I’m a fan of video games
Miranda: well I mean it’s, it’s it’s moving through the generations still
Cavazo: right, and I think it’s a good thing to have the Guitar Hero – I think it can influence other people to really pick up a real instrument and play
Miranda: it’s fun and it, it, it’s fun to pretend and then you think wonder if I can really do this but it’s really a lot different
Cavazo: you think about it you don’t want to be on a tour bus for months on end and miss your home and miss your family – it’s not that glamorous really, sometimes it’s not fun.
Miranda: that’s gotta suck sometimes – so, how did you become a member of Ratt
Cavazo: actually I got a call from Warren DeMartini, he called me up and I missed his call was playing outside in my back yard enjoying the sun as a summer afternoon, and I checked the message and it was Warren and he goes "Carlos can you give me a call I want to talk to you about something" and I’m thinking oh god either there’s a big party in town and everybody’s gonna be there or they’re looking for a guitar player and it up being looking for a guitar player and he asked what I had been doing and I told him I had been working on a couple of different projects and he wanted to know if I wanted to come down and I said that "sure", so you know I learned some of their material and worked with them for a little while – they chose me somehow – got lucky – I’m really proud to be part of this band – they’re a great, great bunch of guys and I love the music - I’ve been a fan of the music for a long time – I’m enjoying it
Miranda: same here I’ve been a fan for a very long time too so the new album that y’all got, Infestation, has just been out for four months so far – it was released in April, so tell me a little bit about it
Cavazo: the album was recorded in Virginia, the producer had a vacation home he built into a studio and that was kind of nice – I think that was the first time any of us had ever left L.A. to record a record. Most of our records are done in town, so we go home every night, but this was kind of neat because we were away from home and we got away from all of the every day things like taking out the garbage and shit like that you know (laughter) picking up after your dogs and things like that so we’re able to concentrate more on the music. We had written the material before we went there back in L.A., the producer would come out and we’d work on the material there and then we finished up there in Virginia and then recorded the record there – we were there for probably about a month, month and a half at different times and we’re doing fly-out concerts in between like we’d fly out on weekends and do two shows, come back, record more during the week – it was a really relaxed atmosphere, I was able to like lay on the beach then they’d call me on my cell phone or either yell at me from the balcony “come on up and do a solo” you know so I’d go up there in my bathing suit, half wet and just lay a solo down it was really relaxed. It was nice
Miranda: working on vacation, I like that
Cavazo: we were really in the middle of nowhere, it was like in Matthews County, I don’t know if you’re familiar, it was like Chesapeake Bay there – it was in the middle of nowhere really like you could get lost if you tried to like walk around at night and then mosquitoes like crazy – you get eaten up, it’s pretty crazy
Miranda: but it was relaxing
Cavazo: yeah it was – in the daytime – nighttime you had to stay in and put a lot of OFF on you
Miranda: or get eaten by the bugs
Cavazo: yeah
Miranda: how do you prepare to play a show?
Cavazo: you just warm up a little bit like we were back there warming up a little bit, warming up our vocals and going over some scales and things like that – everybody has their own little routines that they do, some of them warm up more than others, but I definitely like to warm up before I go out there for sure, vocally and guitar wise
Miranda: So you share the lead and rhythm guitar duties with Warren
Cavazo: yes
Miranda: How do y’all determine, do y’all have it set up by song, you do certain songs or do you take turns at night or do you flip coins or what
Cavazo: Um, actually, we have it predetermined who’s gonna play what, basically the most popular older songs he’s gotta do it cuz he did the original so why would I interpret what he did – it’d be stupid. The new material is pretty much split 50/50, but the older stuff some of the songs we doubled the length of the solo so he’ll do the first half and I’ll do the second half. We do that to Way Cool Jr., one other where it’s a double, double time solo so its kinda cool
Miranda: well I know y’all do it double together on Round and Round
Cavazo: harmonies, yeah we do
Miranda: I want to see that – I really want to see that
Cavazo: yeah
Miranda: so out of the whole career of your playing, can you name one of your most memorable shows
Cavazo: most memorable shows – I’d have to say the Us Festival because it was so enormous, so you know, promoted and that one, really comes to mind when I think of the most memorable show we’ve done – it was a lot of fun to be part of that it really was
Miranda: a lot of musicians tell me festivals that they’ve been a part of
Cavazo: yeah
Miranda: because they see a lot of fans and everybody’s having a good time – I guess it’s different than the arena
Cavazo: yeah, you know one other memorable show that I had was actually. We played a lot for the military, you know. We enjoy playing for the military. They treat you really good and I’m glad to be you know, able to work with those people and we did a show in Iraq and I got to go to Kuwait and Iraq and for like 10 days we were like – I was with a band called Big Noise with Joe Lynn Turner, and Phil C. Sawn and Simon Wright and we went over there for like 10 days. It was like being in the ARMY for 10 days it was really a lot of fun it was really an adventure
Miranda: sounds like it would be, a lot of bands are supporting the troops with music
Cavazo: yeah we had gone over there and other bands had been there prior to us but we played at like eight different camps and we’d leave every night at like two in the morning in helicopters, they follow each other, it was a trip, we had to wear flak jackets and helmets for the flights and stuff . I remember one time we had to do a military flight landing like this so in case people were shooting at you and stuff
Miranda: its something to experience
Cavazo: yeah I remember he had the machine gun in the rear and each side of the helicopter and in some sick way I was kind of thinking I hope the guy doesn’t have to shoot off on me – that means somebody is shooting at us and that wouldn’t be a good thing you know
(Laughter)
Miranda: you were escorted, military escorted
Cavazo: yeah – they treated us well as well
Miranda: like the President
Cavazo: I don’t know about that big (laughter)
Miranda: so what do you do when you’re not on tour
Cavazo: uh, hang out with my lovely girlfriend – we have a house in Northridge, CA and we have pets and, I love my home life. I work on cars, I’m a mechanic, all my friends come to me when they have car problems they can’t afford to send it to somebody and they say "Carlos fix my car" and I like building models, um actually I still build car models and things like that. I’ve been doing it all my life and what else do I do? Uh, you know I obviously play classical and Flamenco guitar and things like that, and I like doing yard work too. Like when I’m on the road I have gardeners that do my yard work but um, when I’m home I like to do it myself – I love mowing the lawn and doing things like that
Miranda: pretty normal
Cavazo: yeah, it’s a lot of fun – it makes me think and keeps me on the ground I think
Miranda: keeps you humble
Cavazo: yeah
Miranda: so do you have any special messages for the fans and our readers
Cavazo: um, yeah, I’m glad to be here playing and I hope you guys come and see us play. I’m looking forward to entertaining you and, I’m hoping you enjoy the new record and we’ll be out there busting our balls for you
