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1. Joey De Maio (born in Auburn, NY)
played bass in schoolband. Worshiped Black Sabbath. Used to get
closer with BS on their "Heaven and Hell" tour, when
he lended some of his equipment to Terry Butler. For a while he
worked as a roadie for BS (he himself claimed that he worked just
as a light-effect technician). Now (and since 1983) he almost
singlehandedly has written music and lyrics.
2. Eric Adams (born Auburn, NY) a school
days friend of Joey. Started singing earlier (when he was 9) than
Joey plaing his bass. Being from one town - never played in the
same band (even on school level) before Manowar came to life.
He handled the band's finances since he joined Manowar.
3. Ross Friedman (born in Australia)
moved to New York City and played guitar for The Dictators since
1975. Released 3 albums with them. Than went to France (worked
for 1 year in "Shaking Street"). On Black Sabbath heaven
and Hell tour Shaking Street opened for Sabbath - this how De
Maio met Friedman.
He left manowar in 88 after "Kings
of Metal" album to play more blues stuff - he organised
"The Pack"
4.Donny Hamzik (born in Poland) and
Karl Kennedy before him were found from a newspaper advertisement.
Basically, Manowar searchedf for an appropriate drummer with "heart
black enough" for 2 years, until one of accident female friends
of De Maio recommended to him:
5. Scott Columbus, who worked in a plumber
shop in a little town in New York State.
6. Michael Shankle played for a while
for "Chicago", before he was choisen from about 150
guitarists to replace Friedman. Eric and Joey met him while recording
"Kings of Metal" in Chicago.
7. I hope to unfound more about Karl
Logan after next Manowar album (due in April 95) will be released.
STYLE of Manowar was heavily influenced by
Ozzy Sabbath on the musical side, and by an outburst of interest
to Sword-and-Soucery fiction in early 80th on the side of the
lyrics. This made band exceptionally popular in Europe (esp. Germany
and England), but next to unknown in USA. They were dropped by
their label month after "Battle Hymns" was released.
They had problems with Megaforce. But they didn't have too much
problems with Geffen , which released them in Europe. Atlanic
picked them up in 87, promoting their "Fighting the World"
album quite well, "Kings of Metal" was promoted way
worse, after the band refused to sell it out in their "Trimph
of Steel"(92) release, they were finally dropped by Atlantic.
Now they back with Geffen also for the US (as well as European)
deal for the oncoming album.
NAME of Manowar was described by Joey as a
compiliation of WAR (because life is WAR, in his opinion) and
MANnish substance (because the metal scene was and is whimpy).
PRESS and MANOWAR - mutual animosity with
US press. American press tried very hard to neglect them totally.
They. , in responce, never lose a chance to bash US metal press
on their European concerts.
HOBBIES of Manowar members - Joey is known
in metal circles as a "karate kid" for a long time.
All memebers of the band are know as a dedicated weighlifters,
who like to pump their muscles up and than demonstrate their impressive
physics on the concerts.
CHILDHOOD REMINISCENCIES - Joey used to tell
that he's prouid that he's grown up in the 70th, when the music
was great (he always mentions Ozzy Sabbath and Deep Purple as
the most prominent examples).
TOPICS of MANOWAR SONGS - I tried to "group"
them up - here's the result>. Don't forget that Sword-andSoucery
topics are often played with a "magik number of 4 metal KINGS"
(4 members of Manowar), therefore, in many cases Sword-and Soucery
topic is very close to that of Manowar as a band.
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