The thunderous rumble of the bass guitar, the heartbeat of rock and roll, is often overlooked amidst the dazzling solos and soaring vocals. But for Greg Chaisson, former bassist of the renowned band Badlands and now a member of The Atomic Kings, the bass has been his weapon of choice to carve a path through the annals of rock history.
Chaisson's musical journey began in the 1980s when he joined forces with ex-Ozzy Osbourne guitar virtuoso Jake E. Lee, former Black Sabbath vocalist Ray Gillen, and his cohort in Sabbath, drummer Eric Singer to form Badlands.
The band quickly gained attention for their blues-infused hard rock sound, with Chaisson's pulsating basslines providing the backbone of their raw and gritty compositions. Together, they released their eponymous debut album in 1989, which showcased his prowess as a skilled bassist and solidified their place among the era's most promising acts. It was this album that garnered the band placing #35 on Rolling Stone Magazine's 'Top 50 Hair Metal Albums Of All Time',
Badlands' success soared as they toured alongside rock legends such as Ozzy Osbourne and Aerosmith, captivating audiences with their electrifying performances. Chaisson's stage presence and undeniable talent garnered him a reputation as one of the most respected bassists of his time. His ability to seamlessly fuse melodic hooks with intricate rhythms elevated the band's sound, making him an integral part of their sonic identity.
Following the dissolution of Badlands after a couple of further albums, Chaisson embarked on a journey of musical exploration, collaborating with various artists and lending his bass skills to numerous projects. His passion for creating music and his desire to push the boundaries of his craft led him to join forces with guitarist Ryan McKay, drummer Jimi Taft and vocalist Ken Ronk in The Atomic Kings.
The Atomic Kings, a powerful rock quartet, emerged from the depths of Chaisson's creative mind, blending elements of hard rock, blues, and heavy metal into a sonic force to be reckoned with. With Chaisson's signature bass groove at the forefront, The Atomic Kings deliver hard-hitting, soulful anthems that reverberate through the hearts of their listeners.
In The Atomic Kings, Chaisson's bass work takes center stage once again, showcasing his dynamic range and masterful command of the instrument. Whether he's laying down a thick, driving foundation or unleashing intricate bass solos, his playing adds depth and intensity to the band's music, cementing his status as a true rock icon.
Beyond his instrumental prowess, Chaisson's contributions as a songwriter and collaborator are undeniable. His keen ear for melody and song structure has helped shape The Atomic Kings' sound, infusing their music with a timeless quality that resonates with both longtime rock enthusiasts and a new generation of fans.
In addition to his musical endeavors, Chaisson's resilience and passion for his craft have earned him respect among his peers and fans alike. His commitment to honing his skills, pushing creative boundaries, and delivering electrifying performances remains unwavering, a testament to his enduring love for music and his unwavering dedication to his art.
Greg Chaisson's journey from Badlands to The Atomic Kings represents the evolution of a musician who has left an indelible mark on the world of rock music. His skillful bass playing, combined with his songwriting abilities and magnetic stage presence, has solidified his place in rock history. As he continues to create music with The Atomic Kings and captivate audiences with his unmistakable style, Chaisson's legacy as a legendary bassist lives on, reminding us that the heartbeat of rock resides in the hands of those who dare to master the bass guitar.
Recently I had the wonderful opportunity to sit down with Greg and have an exclusive conversation at his home in Phoenix, Arizona on the eve of Atomic Kings opening for fellow rock legends Kings X at The Salt Yard West in Albuquerque, New Mexico on June 8th. The subjects covered were the band's brand new self-titled release 'Atomic Kings', released in May 2023 via Armored Saint guitarist Jeff Duncan's Tone House Records, his influences, why he's not in Red Dragon Cartel anymore, plus much more.
Interview and text © 2023 Keith Langerman
KL : Can you share a bit about your journey as a bassist, from your time with Badlands to your current venture with The Atomic Kings? How has your musical approach evolved over the years?
GC : After Badlands ended, I wasn’t really interested in going back on the road. I put myself out as a hired gun for recording purposes. I ended up playing on a bunch of people’s records including making a solo album called “It’s About Time”. During that time my wife, son, and I moved back from L.A. to Arizona.
After playing on a bunch of different albums I decided that I really wasn’t that interested in continuing that path. One of the reasons is that I don’t like flying. I decided to take myself completely off the grid musically and I enjoyed hanging around with my family, as we now had a daughter as well. I basically just became Dad and husband. Every now and then I would get in a cover band for some extra money, but most of my time was spent coaching little league baseball and softball. I ended up coaching in Jr. High, High School, and College as well. My son was a star baseball player and my daughter was a star softball and badminton athlete, life was pretty full.
Jake and I had maintained a friendship all this time and out of the blue he called me in the Spring of 2014 and asked me if I would play at a Red Dragon Cartel show here in Phoenix. Apparently, he didn’t like the bass player he had. I said yes, so we got together and rehearsed for a couple of days in Phoenix. I hadn’t seen him in a number of years. But when we played together it was just like we had played together the day before, it was awesome.
After I did the show, he asked if I wanted to be in the band permanently. I told him I did but I had commitments for the next 4 months. I told him if you still want me when my commitments are over then let me know. He called me the day after I had fulfilled my obligations and asked if I still wanted to do it and I said yeah. The chance to play with him always interested me because of our history and I liked the guys he had in Red Dragon Cartel. We rehearsed for a week or so and went on the road. I did around 40 shows over a 2-month period, and it was great, except I was sick a lot of the time which was weird for me because I’m kind of a health nut.
When the tour ended, I went back to Phoenix. We were supposed to go on the road in April 2015 but I was still sick. When I finally got the correct diagnosis, I discovered that I had stage 4 cancer. I had to quit Red Dragon Cartel to have the treatment. I had cancer on my tongue, and the treatment for that is definitely no fun!
I ended up losing 79 pounds in 5 months. By the time I was cured, Jake had another bass player which was to be expected, but we stayed friends. In October of 2015, my cancer treatment was done and I was cancer free. I was offered to manage the guitar store which I still manage to this day which is Bizarre Guitar and Drum in Phoenix. I had a band with Ryan McKay, Jimi Taft, and another vocalist, and this is the band that turned into Atomic Kings after we replaced our singer with Ken Ronk. We wrote a record, and it came out about a month ago and everything is groovy.
KL : What was your inspiration to pick up, and start playing the bass initially?
GC : When I first got out of high school, my plan was to go to college to play baseball. I had some opportunities there, but out of the blue, a couple of younger guys approached me and said “If you buy a bass you can be in our band”, which was pretty weird because I never had any musical aspirations whatsoever. I went to the pawn shop and bought a crappy bass, they already had an amp, and I became a bass player. I gave up my baseball aspirations at that point.
I had no problem with playing baseball, I just didn’t want to deal with going to college, high school was hard enough. I found out some months later that the reason they asked me was that they were getting picked on by some of the older guys and they figured they would get one of the neighborhood hardasses to play bass, maybe the bullies would leave them alone. I don’t know anyone else who got their start that way (Laughs)
KL : What was the inspiration behind the formation of The Atomic Kings? How did you come together with guitarist Ryan McKay, drummer Jimi Taft, and vocalist Ken Ronk, and what made you decide to collaborate on this project?
GC : Atomic Kings came together out of the ashes of another band. In this other band, Kings Of Dust, we had just fired our singer. We were looking for someone like Ken who had a very soulful 70’s style rock voice. Ken is kind of a local legend here in Phoenix. Most people consider him the best singer of his style in town. I called him up and said ‘Do you want to come down and check it out?’ which he did. Right from the very beginning, it was a perfect fit. He is a great singer/lyricist/frontman and really easy to get along with. Everyone likes him, which is a perfect fit because no one likes me (Laughs) Shortly after we decided on Ken, we decided to change the name of the existing band to Atomic Kings.
As far as Ryan and Jimi, I had heard about Ryan from some other people and had seen him play a couple of times and I really liked his style plus he’s an excellent singer and songwriter. Jimi was someone that I’ve known for a long time. We’ve played in a couple of bands together and he is just a natural fit for what it is that we do. I’m used to playing with top-notch musicians and I’m certainly not going to change now. These guys are at the top of the heap!
KL : How would you describe the sound and musical style of The Atomic Kings? In your opinion, what sets the band apart from other rock acts?
GC : We are well-versed in the ’70s. We don’t try to hide our influences. As a matter of fact, we celebrate them. If you’re a fan of a lot of those great 70’s bands like Zeppelin, Deep Purple, Sabbath, Humble Pie, etc. you will definitely hear some of that as authentically as possible.
Ryan is a 70’s style guitarist, he can shred if he wants to, but that’s not what we do in this band. Jimi has the swing of all those drummers you love from the 70s.
Ken is a throwback to the great vocalists of the 70s, especially the bluesy soulful stylings of people like Paul Rogers or Robert Plant, and even Greg Allman. We don’t copy anyone we just do our take on the 70s and it’s actually easy for me because I started playing the bass in 1971 so I grew up as a musician during that era. We don’t write 3-minute songs and we don’t use any auto-tune or sampling. It’s just us, 4 dudes, doing what we do best and what we love. I call it 70’s riff/blues hard rock with a twist.
KL : What are your personal favorites on the album, and why?
GC : Wow that’s a hard one. I actually like every song on the record for different reasons. On any given day it could be any given song. I think the guys did a great job on everything. But if I had to go on a limb today and pick a couple I would say "I Got Mine", because it has such a funky feel, or maybe "Take My Hand", because it has a killer riff, a big hooky chorus and then out of the blue goes into a crazy boogie/shuffle sort of thing, kind of like if Motorhead did La Grange. (Laughs)
I have to mention "Live", because it just hits you in the face from start to finish, or maybe "Escape", because of all of the different textures of that song. Like I said it’s a difficult choice.
I really like "All I Want", and I actually wrote the song in the late 70s and finally got to hear the song get its just due. Like I said I like them all.
KL : It's really difficult to choose, they're all like your children in a way .. (Laughs)
KL : As a bassist, you have a unique role in the band, providing the foundation and groove. How do you approach crafting basslines that complement the music and enhance the overall sound of The Atomic Kings?
GC : My style is very 70’s oriented. Back in the 70s bass players had a much more important musical role than just peddling along on the E string, they were allowed and required to make a definite musical contribution to the song. That’s always been the way I approached the instrument. I’m not interested in just playing some boring musical piece that doesn’t contribute anything. Since I co-write the material, I write my bass parts accordingly. Having said that, we all get to add our parts, there’s plenty of room for everyone in the band to say what they want to say. These guys are excellent musicians, and they prove it on every song.
KL : Can you tell us about your songwriting process within the band? How do you contribute to the creation of new music and collaborate with your bandmates?
GC : For the most part the songs start with an idea of Ryan’s or mine. I’ll usually write a few things then get together with Ryan at Bizarre Guitar (we work together). I’ll show him what I have and tell him what parts I think it still needs. He will then write something. Once we have that much of it together, we play it at rehearsal and Jimi and Ken add in their parts.
You can also reverse that, Ryan will come in with a couple of parts, show me what he has, and I will add my two cents worth. Sometimes it’s as simple as me writing a bridge and a guitar solo section or Ryan writing a chorus, etc.
We also have a song on the record called "Running Away" that started with Jimi playing a particular drum beat that he had been fooling around with. We liked it, Ryan wrote a couple parts to it, I wrote a couple parts to it, and it ended up being a very cool different sort of song for us.
There is also an acoustic piece on there written by Jimi called "Jimi’s Page", he plays guitar on it as well. Ken pretty much comes up with the melody line and lyrics and occasionally we will chime in with our opinions on what he has but for the most part that is all Ken. As far as arranging the material, most of that is probably done by me, I have a knack for it. We are very open to who contributes to the songwriting process. As long as it works, we don’t care and there’s no real egos about it. Normally when a song is close to completion, I’ll take it home and keep going over and over it, making little tweaks here and there and by then it’s an Atomic Kings song.
KL : Are there any specific musical influences that have shaped your playing style and approach to music? How do these influences manifest in The Atomic Kings' music?
GC : My style of bass playing is kind of a mish-mosh of about 20 different bass players from the late 60’s into the ’70s. The usual suspects like Geezer Butler, John Paul Jones, Jack Bruce, and John Entwistle, along with other guys like Felix Pappalardi from Mountain, Tim Bogert from Cactus, Mel Schacher from Grand Funk, Andy Fraser from Free, Greg Ridley from Humble Pie, Jimmie Randall from Jo Jo Gunne, Rob Grange from Ted Nugent, Gary Thain from Uriah Heep, Jack Casady from Jefferson Airplane, Martin Turner from Wishbone Ash, even Ronnie Wood when he played bass with Jeff Beck. There are a lot of other guys on that list. All of this mixed together kind of makes my style and because we are so ’70s influenced it makes it really easy to play in that style.
KL : What is the most challenging aspect of being a professional musician, and how do you overcome those challenges?
GC : Not making any money, the word professional is a misnomer. Most of the professional musicians I know are always scrambling for a buck. I figure if you put all the money you make into some sort of hourly wage most musicians don’t come anywhere near a penny an hour. I’ve actually made some money at so I supposed my hourly pay would be a nickel an hour, or maybe a dime on a good year.(Laughs)
Having said that most musicians don’t play music for the money they play it because that’s who they are. They like to create. They are artists. Don’t get me wrong, money is great and I like to make it but it’s certainly not the sole motivating factor.
A good example would be when I joined Red Dragon Cartel in 2014, I was getting paid, but that was kind of extra. The motivation for me was to be able to play with Jake again and to continue creating what we had always done since the Badlands days.
The other thing was that neither one of my children who are now grown had ever seen me play in any kind of setting other than a cover band in a bar for 100 or so people who couldn’t give a crap. It allowed my kids to see me on a couple of big stages where people were coming to see what we were creating. That was worth 10 times more than money to me.
KL : The Atomic Kings have been gaining popularity and attracting a dedicated fan base. How does it feel to see your music resonate with listeners, and what do you hope people take away from your songs?
GC : It’s been very rewarding. When we are writing we are not really considering whether people are going to like the songs or not. We just write what we like and hopefully some people will be able to relate to it. The fact that so many people can relate to it is both unexpected and expected at the same time.
What I mean by that, is we knew the songs were good, we knew they were memorable with plenty of good hooks in them without trying to be part of the commercial machinery that is the music business today. We knew the performances were good. It’s been very gratifying to have so many people jump on board with us. We’ve done a few shows and the response has been through the roof. We are just 4 guys writing what we like and playing what we like.
KL : If you had to take 5 albums with you to a desert island which ones would they be?
GC :Tough call. I think today I would take Humble Pie's 'Performance Rocking the Fillmore', but then again that’s always on the list. I’d probably take the first Captain Beyond record. It’s about as Prog as I get. There are a number of similarities between that and what we do in Atomic Kings. I’ll take 'Who’s Next' by The Who. Grand Funk's 'E Pluribus Funk', and what the heck, I’ll take Atomic Kings. I’ve actually never listened to the disc yet. By the time we get done mixing it, I usually don’t listen to stuff I’ve played on for about a year. Yeah, I know it’s weird.
KL : Can you share any memorable experiences or stories from your time performing live with The Atomic Kings? Is there a particular show or moment that stands out to you?
GC : We’ve only done 5 shows and they are all memorable for their own reasons. The first show was in the parking lot of Bizarre Guitar. They do a street fair every year and block off the street in front of the store, in effect killing my business for the day. There’s all kinds of booths and food trucks and all that kind of stuff. In protest, we set up in the parking lot hoping to be able to get in a couple songs before the police shut us down, because we’re really loud.
But instead of people being upset by this, they loved it. Even the police were taking videos and clapping. Not the response we expected but what the heck, when you have lemons, you make lemonade!
A very interesting thing happened because of the show. My good friend Nite Bob who was the sound man for Badlands, and who is the best in the business bar none, saw some video of us playing in the parking lot. He really liked the band and told me so. I said the only thing that would be better is if you were running sound for us. He said, "How would you like to open for Ace Frehley when we come through Phoenix in the next 6 weeks?" I said, "OK!"
We got to be direct support and open for Ace at a place called the Marquee. It’s about a 1500-seater and I believe it was sold out. Nite Bob ran our sound and from the response we got it must have been a pretty great show. Since then, we have done a couple of other shows and the response has been every bit as good. We are heading to New Mexico on June 8th to open for Kings X. So far everything’s coming up roses.
KL : Besides your own band, are there any other artists that you've heard recently who have caught your ear?
GC : Oddly enough, I don’t really listen to a lot of what’s going on these days. I heard the last Red Dragon Cartel record and I thought that was really good. I have to admit I like Rival Sons. I’m sure there are some other ones out there, but I can’t think of any right off the top of my head. I’ll tip my hat to anyone who’s still out there making original music and pushing the pile forward.
KL : What's next for you musically speaking?
GC : Well, like I said we have the Kings X show coming up and I know there will be a show in Tucson in the near future, along with Las Vegas and probably L.A. The chances of us going on a full-blown tour isn’t very good as we all have jobs and businesses that require a commitment. But much like the Kings X show we are available for fly in’s or drive in’s for something close.
We are also writing songs for the next Atomic Kings record. We have a number of things written already, writing is very easy for us, and I don’t mean to be smug. It’s just every time we show up at rehearsal someone’s got a new idea whether it be Jimi, Ken, or Ryan and that’s the same with me. It’s all about creating something out of nothing.
KL : As an experienced musician, what advice would you give aspiring bassists or musicians looking to pursue a career in the music industry?
GC : Be yourself. Don’t take too much stock in other people’s opinions. Be true to yourself. When I was in L.A. my style of bass playing was not in vogue. People wanted something a lot simpler, and I just wouldn’t do it. I would just walk away. As the saying goes, to thine own self be true. But having said that, if you’re going to be a musician put the work in to be the best musician you can be. If you are doing it to be a rock star or to be rich you are probably going to be disappointed. But if that’s your goal, give it your all.
KL : Is there anything else you'd like to say to all your fans?
GC : I appreciate every single one of you. One of the things I enjoyed about getting back out with Red Dragon Cartel is I got to meet a lot of people that had been fans of Badlands all that time. Of course, the internet makes it so much easier to connect with people that had been fans or followers or whatever. If you come to see Atomic Kings and you have a chance, come and say hello. I always have time. And if you haven’t checked out Atomic Kings yet, give it a listen. You might just be surprised. It must be pretty good, after all, I’m taking it as one of my 5 albums to a desert island! (Laughs)
For more information on Atomic Kings, or to purchase their latest self-titled release go to https://www.facebook.com/atomickingsband/Tone House Records -Atomic KIngs
https://www.instagram.com/atomickingsband/
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