Rival Sons are poised to have one hell of a year. For starters the band was hand-picked to be the opening act for the final Black Sabbath tour. On top of that, they are locked and loaded with a brand new album, the follow-up to 2014’s critically acclaimed rock ‘n’ roll masterpiece, Great Western Valkyrie. Hollow Bones will be released on June 10 through Earache Records. I caught up with founding member and lead guitarist Scott Holiday before a recent show here in San Francisco.
“We wrote, recorded, mixed, and finished Hollow Bones in thirty days in between a headline tour and a tour with Deep Purple in Europe,” says Holiday of the new release on Earache Records, a label primarily known for its death metal signings. Rival Sons might be the last band you would expect to sign to Earache, but the story became so interesting that it created more opportunities than it took away. “Yes, it was weird when we started because it was like Mercyful Fate and us,” explains Holiday.
That’s not the case anymore. Rival Sons have done so well with Earache and so many great things have happened along that way that it opened the doors for other rock ‘n’ roll bands to sign with the independent label. Earache’s ever-evolving roster now includes a very diverse bunch of bands including White Buffalo, The Temperance Movement, Biters, and Blackberry Smoke—in addition to their impressive metal catalog. “If you ask me I think they are one of the best rock and roll labels going today,” says Holiday.
That begs the question how a major label plays a part in Rival Sons career, or does it at all? “We’d been talking to majors all along the way,” explains Holiday, “but they have to understand, no one’s sticking it up my ass. I own five records and I am about to own my sixth one. We’re recouping on all of our records like we’re a real business, so you’re not allowed to fuck us. If you want to do real business like grown-ups let’s sit down and talk and see how we can both make a little bit of money. If you want to try to talk to me like I am a 13-year-old and you try to fuck me out of a business that I’ve built, I am not doing that dude. I am not doing it. So I’ll just stay on my death metal label.”
Working with an independent label certainly has its advantages and one of them is the ability to call many of your own shots—especially when it comes to releasing their music on vinyl. Rival Sons’ recordings are “designed” for vinyl with the CD becoming an afterthought. Holiday explains “The whole record is intended for vinyl, the artwork and the overall feel of it. There is always a side A and a side B with our records. We’re not even really designing for the CD, it’s an afterthought. So if the copy is a little illegible on the CD that’s why because we don’t give a shit.”
So, how the hell did they land the coveted slot as openers for the final Black Sabbath tour? Holiday recalls the moment he first met The Osbournes. “Ozzy and Sharon were in the front row when we played the annual awards show for Classic Rock magazine.” The band’s critically acclaimed rock ‘n’ roll epic Great Western Valkerie was nominated for album of the year and they were asked to play the event which would include many of their peers as well as several rock legends.
Holiday continues, “Ozzy came running up after our show and said, “Look, look honestly this is the best band I’ve seen in years. This is fucking amazing, what an amazing, just amazing band. And then Sharon pops over his shoulder and says, “Really, honestly we love the band. We love the band. It’s fantastic, my god you guys are great.” Holiday says he eagerly replied, “Our manager is right there, that guy, the tall guy. The tall handsome guy is my manager, talk to him…”
But it hasn’t always been so easy for the four piece from Long Beach. Having toured the world over a few times I asked Holiday about his favorite touring moment past or present, to which he launched into a story about a show in Cleveland years ago that was seemingly a complete disaster—a Spinal Tap moment, if you will.
“It was before we were having any kind of success at all. It was like our first tour through the US and we did it in our van, and we weren’t making any money. We were actually hemorrhaging money. So, we were really just destitute and the prior manager was loaning us money to even stay alive. We were booked to play in Cleveland, Ohio at this really famous, (Holiday is searching for the name) like a Palladium kind of thing and it has a lot of history but we had never been through there. It just seemed ridiculous, like we’re not going to draw you know.”
Turns out their hunch was right as the show was empty—pretty much just the staff of the venue on hand. “We went out and played a really devastating show, a show that we really loved to the people who were working because nobody came. And the show was so good for us, the people who were there, they actually fell on the floor and were like writhing. They were freaking out, but we were quite happy with how it was going at the same time. And it ended up just being a really emotional show for us because it reminded me—reminded the guys—why we’re doing it in the first place. And now still, whether we play for 80,000 people or if we’re doing a ballroom show or whatever, that moment is something I will always remember. That’s an important tour moment for me that marked the rest of my career to this point.”
Rival Sons are constantly evolving their sound, but early on, comparisons to Led Zeppelin were all too common. I asked Holiday if he grew tired of the reference. “Yeah totally.” He explains, “I think it’s cheap. I think it’s a cheap, easy thing and it’s like a lowbrow comment up to this point. I think it’s nice, I am a huge fan just like we all are and there’s plenty of reasons why it’s there. Go through our records. The proof of the pudding is in the taste. It’s not like I can defend it till the dying breath, but in the end the records defend themselves. So, I think it’s a cheap comment, but goddamn it’s a cool band to be compared to.”
One question I like to ask all the bands who I interview is sort of a new take on a classic question—you’re on a desert island and you get one record and one guitar for the rest of your life, what are those two items. Holiday replies, “I hate these games. This is not the kind of game I like to play.” But he answers anyway, “Well it would have to probably be like a really nice Martin acoustic, probably something small like a Martin Parlor guitar from like a pre-war Martin era, that would be the guitar. As for the album, this is something I’ve contemplated so much. Part of me says something from Django, but then part of me thinks, no rock ‘n’ roll for the rest of your life, or no blues? It’s pretty tough choice, but I’m going to take the Nuggets compilation.”
Rival Sons new album Hollow Bones will be released on June 10. You can pre-order the LP here. They continue to tour the world with Black Sabbath throughout the summer. Don’t fucking miss this show as it’s likely the best rock ‘n’ roll show you will see this year.
