PipemanRadio Interviews Tommy Victor at Aftershock 2025

0:04 Hi, you love them too, Yes, that's true. For see why for you. It's a pipe man here on the pipe man W four c Y Radio and I'm here with Tommy Victor for Prong. Yes, you're Aftershock for a second appearance at Yes nice, Except this time it wasn't a last minute? Was it better to not be last minute like in two thousand and twe I think. We were last minute this time too, like we were the last times I'd added Yelly and we signed to a new management company and they're like, oh, you're not playing after SoC and they're like, oh, we'll get you on there. So yeah, we're always this outsider. Prong is an outsider last minute band.

0:53 But then the fans like super super show up for you anyway. Yeah, No, it was cool. We had a good show today. It was fun. How do you feel Dandy Wimmer treats the artists at his festivals? We treated fine. I mean, I think it's it seems like it's really good. I mean it's it's like a European festival. That's that's the common thing that's been said. And I don't know if you noticed, but somebody told me Wimmer went years ago, went over to Hellfest to check it out, Okay, to use as a model to make our festivals better in the Yeah, that seemed like it's modeled after Vocking, Alcatraz and health Fest, which are the top ones.

1:34 I don't want to leave anything out that we played Reload Alcatraz, Vocking and a couple other ones on our last tour of Europe, which was wow a month ago or something. So yeah, and this summer, yeah, we were over there health Fest. Right, we didn't do Healthfest. You didn't do it this now I think I've seen you one year at Hellfest. It's been a while. Health Fest all swirls in my head. Yeah, So what is it that keeps you going doing music? Well, now, I have like two little kids and it's hard to do it, and like my wife has me takeing care of the kids a lot of times. So but now, well, like I want my younger son, Tommy Victor Junior to see me play and be involved when in my life when I'm still playing, So I'm keeping going because for him and my little daughter too, So they're inspirational.

2:26 But I could still do it, like I could go out. And like I don't feel like an old man, like I feel like I always have, if not even better. So see, and I love what you said, Well you can still do it because I think it's great when kids can see you in that way opposed to remembering you after you do all these things in life. No matter what you. Do, I know they don't like already that I'm gone. Yeah, but so you got to balance that somehow. So like I know, as soon as I get home, like Tuesday, and I'm gonna be right to babying again, like changing diapers and take picking up kids from daycare and going to school and all this whole thing. So it's pretty funny, like I go right back into it.

3:08 Nice. What's your favorite thing to do with your kids currently? That's a very good question. Like my son is different than my daughter. My son I like going to like a pizza rear and hanging out with them, and then like he likes his little pizza and then we go to it. He wants a donut and we go to Dunkin Donuts, and then he likes watching movies. He's not big on like athletics, so like he wants to watch right now. He's likes in Canto a lot, So we will have been watching that like freaking crazy. So that's the thing. And my daughter, she likes to get thrown around. She's more rough and tumble, like we fight and like she's two and a half, but she's she's a little rough.

3:49 She likes to get rouffed up and I throw her all over the place. You know, I find a lot of girls. That's the same thing. Like I have three daughters. Oh wow, one, I've one three daughters. One of my daughters she beat up. She got kicked out of three preschools for beating up boys that were beating. Up her brother. Wow, brothers a year older. Oh my god, I'm impressed. Right, that's so cool. I've handed to you having four children. I love that. I mean I think that like I wish I had more, Like I wish I had especially with my wife. I wish I met her earlier. I wish we had like seven kids. You know, keep you young, No, it just keeps you young. But it's just like when you get you like that's what life's all about. It's like it's just bringing these other souls into existence, and they're like it's like what if they weren't here.

4:41 It's like it's a weird thing. But another thing we like to do, and I forgot to mention this is that we've been doing this. They want to have this dance, they would like to have this dance party, and like before they go to sleep, we took the lights off. We have like these flashing lights and for some reason they're on. They like every all four of us, we danced to Elvis Temperature Rising nice. They My son loves Elvis, so he's like Elvis. Elvis say we did. So we do this dance party and then we play it over and over like for four times, and we throw each other around and like jump around in his room. It's pretty crazy. Love it. Yeah, And how did he get Where did he first get the exposure to Elvis from me? Like ever since we started?

5:22 Because I played with Danzig too, and I did that Danzig Sings Elvis record and I was supposed to go out and do those shows with Glenn and I couldn't eventually, but. Like I was relearning all the songs. I flew the Elvis versions and he heard a lot of that and then he kept he just like goes on Spotify and he's just like Elvis the felf daddy. This is Elvis, Elvis, Elvis. He just loves Elvis. He looks his videos. It's like Elvis, Man, I'm like, all right, dude. Like and then in in Kanto they have Elvis. Oh no it in Moana they have Elvis music. So it's just like it's just it's weird. He goes like little Chips. He was like into Creedence Clear Worad of Revival for a long time too. That's wild too.

6:02 Yeah cool, Yeah, that's his two favorites, Elvis and Credence nice. Yeah. So does he have the bug yet to be a musician. I don't know he if anything, it's a singer, like I don't think he has the Unfortunately, I don't think he has the manual dexterity that's needed. It's like I could tell my daughter already has the manual dexterity. He's more mental, so it'd probably be like maybe like a singer or an artist or something like that with him. And how about your daughter, does she have the bug? She does? And like she's already picking up my son never did. She's already picking up a guitar at two and a half, fucking around it, and like.

6:45 She's got all this sort of the skills nice. Unfortunately, I don't think I don't see my son. That's something to change. Like I didn't know what I mean, I didn't know, never knew what I was doing until I don't know twelve. I had nothing going on. So and then you found it. What happened that twelve that changed things for you? I was in Little League and like I was batting, like I ended the season batting like two seventy and like we got destroyed, like in the playoffs. I was in like this team and Queens, and I was like, I wanted to do something cool for me. I guess I'm a bit of a narcissist. So I was like and then I did Pop Warner Football, and I wasn't really going anywhere. Like I was like, yeah, I'm that big, and I was a tight end and I I just wasn't that cross mediocre. So I was like, I'm gonna fucking I'm gonna get a bass and I'm gonna like play in a band. And like I picked up a bass, I'm like learning kiss songs. I'm like, this is what I want to do. Now, I'll be cool now, like maybe eventually I'll get laid playing I was.

7:53 Really wrong about that. I mean it took a really long time. I was like during high school, I saw I did was like like playing little band and shit. So I was already learning. So I picked up the bass, and I was like, I was already like singing in a band and doing that. So I just was into I got into rock. I was in my brother. I have an older brother also just say he turned me onto a lot of music, Like like from the age of like five, I was listening to Hendrix and Cream and Iron Butterfly and Vanilla Fudge and like acid rock. He was always acid rock, acid rock. And on top of that, my father hated rock music. He was like, this is garbage and so like he was into Perry Como and Andy Williams.

8:35 And all this shit. So it was a weird thing in my house. I it was just like and my sisters were into motown and soft rock like The Association and shit. So we had a lot of I had a lot of shit going on in my house. I have a very similar story, and I think it's just our generation. Yeah, I had an older brother eleven years older than me. Oh yeah, I used to steal all his album Yeah, Association, the Rescalssroots, oh CCR. Like you name it, all those bands. I even interviewed the Grassroots and none of them were the original members. It was the weirdest thing with Warren Ettner. You know who that is. He's a big music manager and he was in the grassroots, Like so yeah, I don't know. I saw Iron Butterfly Reunion like with the Iron, but with the Integuttadavida it was this is like in eighty seven and it was unbelievable, Like I was like, holy shit. And then I met all the guys too, and I was like, I shit my pants because that record had those Iron Butterfly that the first three Heavy into Gottavita and.

9:45 Ball were like I love those records. I met Doug Ingole and Lee Dorman and Ron Bushy, all those guys. I freaking lost my mind. They sounded great. I'm from Jersey. I played baseball for nine years. Wow. My dad in nineteen eight and he moved me to La And I remember I was starting high school and I was going out for freshman football and it was summer and I was scrawny as fuck and I saw these big dudes and write it out and stuff and then I went to a show on the Sunset Strip at the Roxy and I was like, fuck freshman football, Yeah, the same thing with me now a metal head. We have the same past, right, similar anyhow, And the same day it's like I wasn't cool. It wasn't I wasn't cool, I wasn't called metal.

10:34 I'm still not cool, right, I'm still like, let's start saying about Prong. It's like we're never cool enough. We're never but like I think that appeals to certain people, like some reason, we're allowed to keep going and it happened. So but it's a weird trip being with Prong. It definitely is having as my band, because like I said, I'd never feel like I'm cool enough for everybody. Well we think you're ahho, and that's why you're at after Shot, Okay, well all of us. Everybody hear it after Shot. Yeah. I mean it's like we're competing with all these not competing, but there's all these octane bands that have these big hits and you know what I mean, Like, you know there's some huge acts that are totally we're not in that league.

11:21 It was just fine, I think you're in that league. Thank you. And if it weren't for bands like you, there wouldn't be that league. That is true because a lot of the bands, I mean, yeah, we open up a bunch of doors. But every once in a while, like somebody like you mentions that. But you know, for the most part, the younger bands don't know. It's already the third generation after new Medal or whatever, so who knows what the fuckan, it's interesting about that. Going back to what you're saying about your dad, and my dad's same thing. Frank Sinatra, yeah and all that stuff, and he would have never gone to a show, oh for gaberam million years. Meanwhile, I've brought my kids to shows, my grandkids to shows. You go out here aftershock. It's every generation. That's what's cooler about today. Yeah, my grandson, Okay, it's funny.

12:08 He was like this very introverted gamer, never left his room, and then all of a sudden, it's birthday this year. He wants me to go take them to get a guitar. I'm like, okay, I don't even know we could play it. We can sit down and guitar center. He starts playing Green Day shit, and I'm like, first of all, I didn't know he could play second, I didn't know we'd like that music. Then we get in the car, I'm playing them all kinds of stuff and he's like, oh yeah, I like that. I like that. He's like, he asked me to go to Rockville, and now he has a battle vest. That's amazing. And now here's the fight thing. He just went with my door in law to Disney and most of the time he would not do or on cruise and he wouldn't do the team stuff for stuff because it's very not social. Now he says to his mom, Oh, she goes gee while I go to Teenser.

13:06 Oh yeah, Like now now I'm cool. So he associates it now that he's into metal and punk and wear's a battle vest. Now he's cool. And I think that was true of me too. Yeah. No, I mean it provised that it gives. Yeah, it's the same exact thing that I was talking about, like I had to be. It's just the American way, like you just gotta do be somebody Like I don't know if that's healthy or not, but I mean if you balance it out, it's cool. Like I think about that with me, Like if it wasn't for music, Like I don't know what I would be. I don't know that way, why would be? Like like I went, I was brought up, like I went to Catholic school and I couldn't. I never I still to this day like don't understand what the hell they're talking about. Like I just don't like yeah, okay, yeah whatever, but like I don't understand it. Like and I was in there with the nuns and I'm like why and they'd be like you bet it when I get punished because I was like I don't get it.

14:06 Why why? I'm just being honest, like and I. Get in so much trouble and it's like it's you know, like like now I'm like the only like I listened to like volume four, and I'm like okay, Like this is what I was into when I was a kid, Like there's something to relate to in life. Yeah, Like all you still talking about baseball too, like old baseball, like before it got what it is now. I still watch baseball, but like it was so cool like when the A's were big, like with's aal Bando and those guys, like those championship A's teams like and that's where I started, like oh the swing and eighth I got the green and yellow uniforms. I was so fucking bad ass and the white shoes. So stuff like that. It's like otherwise I don't have anything in life. But anyhow, yeah, kids can relate to it. I mean, my son, I don't know what my son. My son, he came out and he's like music.

14:52 Music. I went to music. I went music. He's not going like, oh, I want the Bible. I want the Bible. Like I'm like, yeah, but God's talking you guys. Oh, Like I try to tell him, like you know this God or whatever, and he does don't even. Hear it because music is are God. Yeah, I don't know. I mean it's the best therapy ever. I guess. Yeah. I mean, I'm you try to talk to kids about God, They're like, huh. Right, put on encanto please, yeah, get like and I would wear like Ozzie Diary of a Madman and the Catholics would call me a devil on the hell Yeah no, I mean, especially with Black Sabbath, like yeah that was I mean, Sabbath was the band. Now I'm like, I. Got pissed off the way the whole thing ended with Ozzie and all that, like.

15:36 It just became a fiasco. It's unfortunate. I mean, I'm I mean, I'm not anyone to judge the whole thing, but it just seemed like, you know what it is, Why could we just leave Sabbath alone like I have to never say die, like like the do O years and then bringing it back and everything is just like come on, like the whole mystique of. Sabbath got destroyed for me. So anyway, you. Want to hear something interesting as our final note on that note, So you mentioned Vanilla fudge, right, I was our airviewing Carmine. Okay, my airview went viral because and this was before Osie passed because he said, I don't really think Sabbath starred metal.

16:19 Well they didn't. He and Cream started metal. I see that. I kind of agree with too, because I always thought Cream was metal. I thought like Mountain. Mountain, yes, I mean yeah, I mean Mountain was is a for I love Mountain. I mean, Leslie West is definitely one of the greatest guys like you had, like he's he was amazing, but he sort of fucked himself all up a lot, but he like he was those like Avalanche I had that record. I love that in climbing right Like yeah, but maybe like the who had something to do with him. About we could argue that Helter Skelter is a metal song. Nah.

17:02 Maybe if you ask me that ten years ago, I would have said, yes, that's what I'm saying. Like, but then what else was like that? Yeah? No, it was hard. But I think Cream. Sabbath try to be like Cream, and I mean and say they try to be like Zeppelin and Cream, and so I think people say that Steppenwolf started metal, which is I mean, Born to Be Wild is definitely one of the first metal songs, but what it turned into was definitely cream. Like the heavy blues riffs is where where it started. Deep Purple Sabbath took it. I mean I love Deep Purple too, so I love all.

17:45 These perspectives too. Yeah. I think metal ebs today they are young, they don't know all this. It's unfortunate. It really is getting metal. I think I'm gonna get really old man and negative now again. I think digital technology really had a bad impact on. Music in general. It's just once you started doing computer music, it's just I don't know, man, Like it is something wrong going on, Like I listened to now, I was listening to Live, Yes, you know the group, Yes, I loved it. Oh my god, album dude. They said, like Siberian Ku Chew Live, look it up on and it's like they what they did live, vocal harmonies, the whole thing, like no anier, monitors, nothing, They just went out there and sang their asses off, played their fucking asses off a perfection. Like now these guys push a fucking laptop and everything it's all a puppet show.

18:50 Now, well not all that, but every band. With the digital music I think where a lot of kids are missing today. It's analog was a way yes, and you had mids and highs. And now it's all on and all original as chop. And that is no mids that stress the problem. So you're missing a big part of feeling of that music. It's not about soling. But like it's like like to me, like a lot of the like kids today they like say, oh, Jimmy Hendrick, he was terrible. It's like, what the fuck is going on in the world. I mean Hendricks was like that was like Hendricks is the greatest, Like, I mean, how could you, how could anybody ever criticize Jimmy Hendricks. He was amazing. Yeah, it's impossible.

19:33 It's impossible in my perception of things, like there would be no electric guitar if it wasn't for Jimmy Hendrick, right, there would be no Van Hallen, there would be no Tony Iomi, there'd be no well maybe Tyony Iaomi's like Womi's up there with Hendricks, Pete Townsend, Clapton and Jimmy Page. Hendricks is the king. It's like Elvis is the king of pop music of rock. Hendricks to me, if he would have lived, who knows, But that's all I gotta say. Any Hendricks was he was a fucking that was soul. It was like balls out. That was like and to me, that's like I go up a prong. I'm just like the aggression I have, just like, you know what, fuck everything, I'm just going out there. I'm just gonna like kick ass. How could you do that?

20:17 Playing to a track in your ears? Like it eliminates the whole soul and the spirituality of the whole thing. It's gone. I agree. Yeah, Well, it's like have you seen the meme going back to what you were saying before, of the eighties rock Star compared to the twenty twenties rock Star. The top picture, funny enough, is some dude with long hair lying on the ground, passed out bottle of Jack Daniels in one head, guitar and the other right, and the rock star today is sitting at his computer with guitars lap yeah, exactly, yeah, oh yeah, it's all like yeah yeah, solely shoe.

21:00 Well, it's been great, pipe Man, it's been absolutely great. The best. You a lot of common Yeah, and thanks a lot for being on the Adventures of pipe Man and being that after show. Oh I love it, I love it. Thank you. Thank you for listening to the Adventures of pipe Man on w for CUI Radio.