Rusty Wright Band
BAD AXE History
By Rusty Wright
Bad Axe was originally formed in the mid 70's by people I never met. The band had a track record of changing players due to one setback or another but the reputation in Michigan was very good. I actually was asked to join around 1979 or 80 to replace another guitarist who had bowed out. I was 15 at the time and looked much older than my age so I was able to play the clubs and keg parties and "Hash Bash" events that were so popular back then without a question.
Chuck Parenteau was a high school friend and he had joined a year or so before me. He was 2 years my senior but he recommended me to fill the spot. We played as much as possible through out the Michigan area doing mainly clubs, parties and out door events including a show at the legendary Sherwood Forest where so many other great Michigan acts had played. But true to the Bad Axe form the lead vocalist at the time decided to get married and settle down and left the band to work for General Motors.
By Rusty Wright
Bad Axe was originally formed in the mid 70's by people I never met. The band had a track record of changing players due to one setback or another but the reputation in Michigan was very good. I actually was asked to join around 1979 or 80 to replace another guitarist who had bowed out. I was 15 at the time and looked much older than my age so I was able to play the clubs and keg parties and "Hash Bash" events that were so popular back then without a question.
Chuck Parenteau was a high school friend and he had joined a year or so before me. He was 2 years my senior but he recommended me to fill the spot. We played as much as possible through out the Michigan area doing mainly clubs, parties and out door events including a show at the legendary Sherwood Forest where so many other great Michigan acts had played. But true to the Bad Axe form the lead vocalist at the time decided to get married and settle down and left the band to work for General Motors.
New Wonder Man CD available
RWB's 5th release titled "Wonder Man" is now available.
You can get your copy direct from us.
Be sure to check out the combo package deals on the Merch page.
"This is some of the best work I've done yet. I hope you like it."
~Rusty Wright
RWB's 5th release titled "Wonder Man" is now available.
You can get your copy direct from us.
Be sure to check out the combo package deals on the Merch page.
"This is some of the best work I've done yet. I hope you like it."
~Rusty Wright
Good Vocalists were a tough thing to find at that time and I found myself doing the singing to fullfill club shows we had booked but the original bassist and drummer both decided they were burnt out and after we finished the dates we had booked they also left.
This being the first band I had been in that played out I didn't want to just let it die out so I decided to try and reform it myself. No one in the original line up cared so I eneded up keeping the name since it had a good reputation and asked Chuck if he wanted to rebuild it. He was all for it and we started the task of auditioning drummers.
Tommy was a friend of a friend who was told about us and he decided to try out. He was just 15 and I was 17 and Chuck 19 at that time. His mom brought him and his drums over to the band house we had as I had moved out but was finishing school in my senior year. Tommy was a huge Rush Fan as was I and Chuck and he brought in this massive double bass kit with more toms and cymbals than I had ever seen. We sat down together and Chuck who had been a second guitarist decided to play bass for the auditions. We played some rush tunes we all knew and by the time we finished playing Working Man I looked at Chuck who was grinning ear to ear and I said "You're hired!" and the new Bad Axe musical core was born.
We played as a 3 piece but decided to expand our musical spectrum by using a more diverse set
of instruments. Chuck and I got a loan for 2 Carvin 6 over 4 guitar and bass doublenecks. We also added Moog Taurus Pedals so Chuck could switch to guitar when we played harmony leads and I would switch to bass when Chuck took a solo so we each had guitar rigs and bass rigs on each side of the stage. It was a wild looking and sounding setup but we pulled it off and quickly started attracting a lot of attention from other musicians as well as music fans. Nobody had seen anything like this except Rush and we started getting a lot of people coming to shows to see and hear what it was all about.
I have always been able to sing well but I trained as a guitarist not a lead vocalist and the stress of playing 5 - 6 nights a week and also partying too much caused me to have more and more trouble with my voice. I finally lost it altogether at a show in Ohio and we had to cancel dates for a month as I nursed my poor throat back to health. Chuck and Tommy and I agreed we needed a frontman lead vocalist so I could do harmonies and backups but not wear myself out.
We put the word out through the local music scene that we were looking and we began to get calls. The first several auditions were pretty bad. Lots of people want to sing but without the experience of being with a band you just can't walk in off the street. At least that's what we thought until a spastic guy with a constant smile showed up and announced that he was Slammin Sammy Tindall our new lead singer!
Sam was a guy who was on eleven all the time and at fist I wondewred if he was on Coke or speed he was so energized but that was just him naturally. He walked up to the mic and we decided to find out what he had right away. I asked him if he could sing The Green Manalishi by Judas Priest and he smiled and siad of course. That song is a real killer for the vocalist and I knew he would either crash and burn and we could politely send him on his way or he would be the one for us. Well by the time we reached the big finale Sam is
standing there head back with Robert Plant swagger and proceeds to NAIL it. He had an incredibly powerful set of lungs and could sing like that for hours without a problem.
And so the final BAD AXE line up was complete. We rehearsed for a month and started pitching the band to regional agents across the state. We were something unique but also very heavy. Metal had come to life in the late 70's but was still considered more of an underground thing. Radio was moving towards the lame synth pop of the 80's and Metal was being turned into glammy Hair band style stuff instead of the pissed off angry white boy thing we all loved. We tried to walk a tightrope of semi accessible hard rock and heavy driven metal riffing but found more and more clubs pushing us out in favor of the pop rock stuff and spandex crowd. Contradiction to the rule was our attempt at capturing our musical expression at the time but still trying to be accepted
by the trends of that time. There is some incredible playing here especially when you remember we started recording this when we were still teenagers. The Album was released privately on our own label after we raised the money ourselves. Only 1000 copies were pressed. We recorded it all on a Tascam half inch reel to reel that only had eight tracks. Everything was analog. There was no ProTools or computers or autotune or amp sims or drum machines. You had to find the sound and you had to play the parts over and over until you got it right.
We tried to push the record but radio was still locked up tight and we had little success getting much airplay. We could not get a record deal because we just didn't fit the trends at the time. We did manage to get a distrobution deal with a European company which led to success overseas but were never able to tour over there before the band folded.
The indie scene was still very basic and undeveloped so DIY was all but impossible. We sold records at shows but those were getting harder to come by as the club scene started to die out due to heavy handed DUI laws and Karaoke coming into popularity. We went from playing every week doing 4 to 6 nights at a club to playing once a month on a Friday/Saturday so the money got very tight as well.
The stress of all these factors and the changing music scene spelled the end of Bad Axe and we
quietly went our separate ways in 1987.
Chuck Parenteau moved to Boston and became an Air traffic controller as well as a pilot and settled down to a wife and family in New England. He plays music as a hobby in the local scene but has not released any other recordings that I know of.
Tom Stewart went on to become Tommy Scott and played drums for Halloween The Heavy Metal Horror show in Detroit then to Lillian Axe where he recorded with the band on one CD "Psychoschizoprenia" he went on from there to work with Godsmack and then LoPro, Fuel and others he now lives in LA and plays periodically as a fill in drummer but owns a personal trainer business in LA. We did work together in the early 90's and toured with a band called Damge Inc. He also recorded the drums on my first solo CD "Ain't No Good Life" in 2004. We hope to do some work on another solo project in the near future.
"Slammin" Sammy Tindall continued singing and toured the club circuit with several different hair metal bands. The Grunge and Alternative music movements that took over in the mid nineties put and end to the screamer head banger style vocalists and Sam eventually settled in California but could not adapt to the style of music that was prevalent. He was a sweet and innocent soul who just loved heavy music and singing his heart out.
A life of hard living led to a serious illness that would be a long slow ordeal may have been the reason for his death. He was found in his car inside his garage. We are still not sure if it was an accident or suicide. No note was found and he had been drinking when he pulled in. Some speculate that he fell asleep with the car running and the automatic garage door closed behind him and some say he did it himself to avoid the long process of the illness he contracted. I don't know myself. But he was a wild and crazy personality of endless exuberance. The first guy to laugh and the last guy standing around the keg after a long night of music and fun. I will miss him and if you ever met him you know what I mean.
Rusty Wright went on to play with various touring acts and released another CD of Heavy Rock by his band FADE in 1996. He has been a studio musician for many years and does soundtrack work for Tv and Film. In 2004 he began a solo Blues/Rock career and has released 4 CDs on the Sadson Music Label. He tours the US and Europe with his band "The Rusty Wright Band" including his wife Laurie LaCrossWright. As mentioned above Tommy Stewart played on the first Rusty Wright CD and may be involved in some new solo work in 2015. For more info or to say hi go to www.rustywrightband.com
I hope you enjoy the music I made as a young man. I loved making it and I will always remember this moment in the past with a smile. Thanks for letting me play for you.
Rusty Wright
Dec. 27, 2014
This being the first band I had been in that played out I didn't want to just let it die out so I decided to try and reform it myself. No one in the original line up cared so I eneded up keeping the name since it had a good reputation and asked Chuck if he wanted to rebuild it. He was all for it and we started the task of auditioning drummers.
Tommy was a friend of a friend who was told about us and he decided to try out. He was just 15 and I was 17 and Chuck 19 at that time. His mom brought him and his drums over to the band house we had as I had moved out but was finishing school in my senior year. Tommy was a huge Rush Fan as was I and Chuck and he brought in this massive double bass kit with more toms and cymbals than I had ever seen. We sat down together and Chuck who had been a second guitarist decided to play bass for the auditions. We played some rush tunes we all knew and by the time we finished playing Working Man I looked at Chuck who was grinning ear to ear and I said "You're hired!" and the new Bad Axe musical core was born.
We played as a 3 piece but decided to expand our musical spectrum by using a more diverse set
of instruments. Chuck and I got a loan for 2 Carvin 6 over 4 guitar and bass doublenecks. We also added Moog Taurus Pedals so Chuck could switch to guitar when we played harmony leads and I would switch to bass when Chuck took a solo so we each had guitar rigs and bass rigs on each side of the stage. It was a wild looking and sounding setup but we pulled it off and quickly started attracting a lot of attention from other musicians as well as music fans. Nobody had seen anything like this except Rush and we started getting a lot of people coming to shows to see and hear what it was all about.
I have always been able to sing well but I trained as a guitarist not a lead vocalist and the stress of playing 5 - 6 nights a week and also partying too much caused me to have more and more trouble with my voice. I finally lost it altogether at a show in Ohio and we had to cancel dates for a month as I nursed my poor throat back to health. Chuck and Tommy and I agreed we needed a frontman lead vocalist so I could do harmonies and backups but not wear myself out.
We put the word out through the local music scene that we were looking and we began to get calls. The first several auditions were pretty bad. Lots of people want to sing but without the experience of being with a band you just can't walk in off the street. At least that's what we thought until a spastic guy with a constant smile showed up and announced that he was Slammin Sammy Tindall our new lead singer!
Sam was a guy who was on eleven all the time and at fist I wondewred if he was on Coke or speed he was so energized but that was just him naturally. He walked up to the mic and we decided to find out what he had right away. I asked him if he could sing The Green Manalishi by Judas Priest and he smiled and siad of course. That song is a real killer for the vocalist and I knew he would either crash and burn and we could politely send him on his way or he would be the one for us. Well by the time we reached the big finale Sam is
standing there head back with Robert Plant swagger and proceeds to NAIL it. He had an incredibly powerful set of lungs and could sing like that for hours without a problem.
And so the final BAD AXE line up was complete. We rehearsed for a month and started pitching the band to regional agents across the state. We were something unique but also very heavy. Metal had come to life in the late 70's but was still considered more of an underground thing. Radio was moving towards the lame synth pop of the 80's and Metal was being turned into glammy Hair band style stuff instead of the pissed off angry white boy thing we all loved. We tried to walk a tightrope of semi accessible hard rock and heavy driven metal riffing but found more and more clubs pushing us out in favor of the pop rock stuff and spandex crowd. Contradiction to the rule was our attempt at capturing our musical expression at the time but still trying to be accepted
by the trends of that time. There is some incredible playing here especially when you remember we started recording this when we were still teenagers. The Album was released privately on our own label after we raised the money ourselves. Only 1000 copies were pressed. We recorded it all on a Tascam half inch reel to reel that only had eight tracks. Everything was analog. There was no ProTools or computers or autotune or amp sims or drum machines. You had to find the sound and you had to play the parts over and over until you got it right.
We tried to push the record but radio was still locked up tight and we had little success getting much airplay. We could not get a record deal because we just didn't fit the trends at the time. We did manage to get a distrobution deal with a European company which led to success overseas but were never able to tour over there before the band folded.
The indie scene was still very basic and undeveloped so DIY was all but impossible. We sold records at shows but those were getting harder to come by as the club scene started to die out due to heavy handed DUI laws and Karaoke coming into popularity. We went from playing every week doing 4 to 6 nights at a club to playing once a month on a Friday/Saturday so the money got very tight as well.
The stress of all these factors and the changing music scene spelled the end of Bad Axe and we
quietly went our separate ways in 1987.
Chuck Parenteau moved to Boston and became an Air traffic controller as well as a pilot and settled down to a wife and family in New England. He plays music as a hobby in the local scene but has not released any other recordings that I know of.
Tom Stewart went on to become Tommy Scott and played drums for Halloween The Heavy Metal Horror show in Detroit then to Lillian Axe where he recorded with the band on one CD "Psychoschizoprenia" he went on from there to work with Godsmack and then LoPro, Fuel and others he now lives in LA and plays periodically as a fill in drummer but owns a personal trainer business in LA. We did work together in the early 90's and toured with a band called Damge Inc. He also recorded the drums on my first solo CD "Ain't No Good Life" in 2004. We hope to do some work on another solo project in the near future.
"Slammin" Sammy Tindall continued singing and toured the club circuit with several different hair metal bands. The Grunge and Alternative music movements that took over in the mid nineties put and end to the screamer head banger style vocalists and Sam eventually settled in California but could not adapt to the style of music that was prevalent. He was a sweet and innocent soul who just loved heavy music and singing his heart out.
A life of hard living led to a serious illness that would be a long slow ordeal may have been the reason for his death. He was found in his car inside his garage. We are still not sure if it was an accident or suicide. No note was found and he had been drinking when he pulled in. Some speculate that he fell asleep with the car running and the automatic garage door closed behind him and some say he did it himself to avoid the long process of the illness he contracted. I don't know myself. But he was a wild and crazy personality of endless exuberance. The first guy to laugh and the last guy standing around the keg after a long night of music and fun. I will miss him and if you ever met him you know what I mean.
Rusty Wright went on to play with various touring acts and released another CD of Heavy Rock by his band FADE in 1996. He has been a studio musician for many years and does soundtrack work for Tv and Film. In 2004 he began a solo Blues/Rock career and has released 4 CDs on the Sadson Music Label. He tours the US and Europe with his band "The Rusty Wright Band" including his wife Laurie LaCrossWright. As mentioned above Tommy Stewart played on the first Rusty Wright CD and may be involved in some new solo work in 2015. For more info or to say hi go to www.rustywrightband.com
I hope you enjoy the music I made as a young man. I loved making it and I will always remember this moment in the past with a smile. Thanks for letting me play for you.
Rusty Wright
Dec. 27, 2014
European tour announced
RWB will be performing at the Jimiway Blues Festival in POLAND on October 16, 2015.
More tour dates are being booked in Germany and the surrounding countries.
Check back soon for a complete list of shows. RWB will be traveling as much as possible. To get the band to your town let us know the cool venue or festival you would like to see us at and don't forget to send them a message yourself.
You have the power to help bring the band to your area
by letting the venues know you want to see us!
RWB will be performing at the Jimiway Blues Festival in POLAND on October 16, 2015.
More tour dates are being booked in Germany and the surrounding countries.
Check back soon for a complete list of shows. RWB will be traveling as much as possible. To get the band to your town let us know the cool venue or festival you would like to see us at and don't forget to send them a message yourself.
You have the power to help bring the band to your area
by letting the venues know you want to see us!
RWB music is available at these retail, radio and music outlets and many others.
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