Esquire Magazine asked Eddie who his ten favorite That Metal Show guests were, his list appears below. To read Eddie’s explanation about the artists not appearing here, click on their highlighted names to read why they made Eddie’s top ten.
10. Lita Ford
“Back in 2008, I had just gotten the show together. We were going to shoot a pilot, not knowing if it was going to get picked up or aired. I needed to reach out to someone who was not overexposed. Someone people were really wondering about, someone who’d be a good reveal. So I got Lita Ford for our first episode, which was that pilot. She’d moved away to a private island with her then-husband, raised some kids, and kinda gone off the grid. I always call Lita my good luck charm. Because getting her on and having her on that first episode was part of the reason why the show got picked up. It set the good omen for the show that continues to this day.”
9. Geddy Lee, Alex Lifeson, and Ace Frehley
8. Jani Lane
“We had Jani [the late, alcohol-plagued lead singer of Warrant] on one of the last shows he ever did. I saw no telltale signs of any distress or him being impaired or anything. But when I gave him a hug goodbye, he seemed very thin and frail. And passed away before the show even aired. But one of the things that really resonated with me about that show? A few weeks after, I was doing an appearance in Ohio. Jani was from Ohio, originally. I was in my dressing room, getting ready to go out and do whatever it was I had to do, and a guy came in and said Jani Lane’s brother is here and wants to know if he can see you for a second. I said sure. So he came in and told me how appreciative he was that the last thing that anyone saw of his brother was that he was being treated respectfully. Not just, ‘Here’s the Cherry Pie guy.’ Obviously, he was very sorry that his brother passed away, but he was glad that the last time anyone saw him, was on my show, being treated in a respectful manner.”
7. Ronnie James Dio
“Having Ronnie on was always very memorable for me. People always thought of Ronnie as this metal icon, which he was, but he also had a great sense of humor. An example? He liked to take the piss as the British would say. He told me that he went to see U2. And Bono went into one of his heavy moments and started clapping his hands and said, ‘Every time I clap my hands, a child in Africa dies. What should we do about this?’ Ronnie turned to the guy he was with and said, ‘Maybe he should stop clapping his fucking hands!’ Ronnie told me he didn’t believe in using the stage for any sort of messages.”
6. Axl Rose
4. Sammy Hagar and Michael Anthony
“Another guy, like Brian Johnson, who’s fun is Sammy Hagar. One time he came on with [former Van Halen bassist] Michael Anthony. We actually had them on twice. But after the first time, Sammy kept getting on me that I wasn’t tough enough with Michael. You know, ‘This guy got fucked by Van Halen more than I did. You gotta pull that stuff outta him, man. Let him tell the story.’ So I said to Sammy, ‘The next time you come on the show, you interview him!’ Sure enough Sammy told me he wanted to do it again and he wanted to be a co-host. Somehow we talked Michael into doing it. We had a blast. Sammy going to Michael, ‘How’d you get kicked out of Van Halen? How badly did you get screwed?’ We had so much fun.”
3. Mick Mars
2. Tony Iommi
1. Dokken
“That band was George Lynch [guitarist] and Don Dokken [singer]. George and Don have had lots of problems over the years. They’ve never gotten along. They both expressed interest in reuniting, but they could never pull it together. I started massaging this idea with both of them and said, ‘Hey guys, how cool would it be to come on the show, announce a reunion, go out on tour, and make a bunch of money?’ I finally got them to agree to come on the show and sit next to each other. These are two guys who really don’t like each other. It had probably been 10 years since they’d sat and talked with each other. They came on, with the intention of announcing their reunion. As they were walking toward the set, before the cameras start rolling, they’re already disagreeing on how the news should be broken and whether this was the right time to announce the reunion. We didn’t really know what was gonna happen. But when we got out on the set, I asked them, ‘Well, since you’re here, does this mean what we think? Is the band back?’ And they kinda disagreed about that, right on camera. And I finally say, ‘Are you guys breaking up on camera, before you’ve really reformed?’ They didn’t really know how to respond. We got through the show and it was over. The reunion lasted about 30 minutes. On camera.”
source: esquire.com