• Home
• Top 40's
  • Pop Top 40 Hits 1980 - 2007
  • Country Top 40 1980 - 2007
• Interviews
  • Actors/Stars
  • Authors
  • Adult Entertainers
  • Central New York Musicians
  • Country Artists
  • Entrepreneurs
  • Entertainers
  • Models
  • Political Hopefuls
  • Rock & Roll
  • Sinatra's Corner
  • Stars Of The Past
  • Unsolved Mysteries
• Entertainment News
• Who Sang That Song
• Celebrity Deaths
• Contact Us

Ron Taylor Interview
(Lillian Axe)

Lillian Axe has ushered in the New Year with the release of "Poetic Justice," their label debut for Grand Slamm/I.R.S. Records. In support of that release, the group has taken to the road. Lead singer Ron Taylor, talked about Lillian Axe.

Q. You did a promotional tour of the country recently. What was that all about?
A. Right. Steve (Blaze - lead guitarist) and I just finished a six week promotional tour. We started out in the New York area and then took it down South, and then the Southeast. We were doing radio, retail, Kentucky Fried Chickens. Anybody that would have us, we would go play. We worked up a short acoustic set. We were doing in-stores, playin' about a half hour set for people. Signing autographs. Doing radio. Doing magazine interviews. Just anything we could do to promote the album. It took us over to Europe for a week. We did London, Paris, Munich, and back over to the States, and hit the West Coast, after that. So, that was six weeks with no day off. Then we had three days off, rehearsed two days, and took off on tour.

Q. Your first single, "True Believer," off the "Poetic Justice" album was released in December, and according to your press release that is the toughest time of the year for new music. That's because of the Holiday Season?
A. Right. The Billboard and R and R charts freeze, over the holidays. All the industry people are off for like 2 weeks at the end of the year. And you also got all the heavy weights that put out their records right before Christmas, so there's a lot of competition, as far as releasing an album around that time. To release a single around that time was perfect for us. The bands whose albums came out in December, had released their singles before that. So, this had been a plan by I.R.S. for a long time, and Grand Slamm to wait till the beginning of the year, work the single, without officially tryin' to get ads until January, but tryin' to get people to start playin' it in December. We recorded the record in May and June of last year. So, we had quite a wait before the record came out.

Q. What did you do with yourself during that time?
A. After we recorded the record, we went out on the road and played, which seems to be what we always do. We've got a lot of following down South. We'll go play anytime. We're a rock 'n' roll band, and we like to play. That's what we do. We'll go home for a week and we're all calling each other sayin', 'man, let's play.' There are no rock star attitudes in this band. Everybody loves playin' music, and loves gettin' out there and hittin' the road. It works out great for us.

Q. Who came up with that name Lillian Axe?
A. Not me. (Laughs) Steve (Blaze) came up with it. He was watching the movie "Creep Show," the Stephen King movie, and there was a bridesmaid skeleton floating in this little boy's window. I believe at the beginning of the movie. I can't believe how many people have asked that question. I haven't gone back and rented the movie, to see where we got our name from. He just saw this old lady and thought of an old senile lady, kind of like Norman Bates' ("Psycho") mom, and just thought the name Lillian sounds like a psychotic old lady, and for some reason put the Axe after it. The band at that time, loved the name.