The 2015 XG Extreme Guitar tour is now done, and Vinnie Moore, Uli Roth, Craig Goldie, Vinnie Appice and an esteemed cast of support characters are heading back to their day jobs. Fans were able to see six-string versatility at its finest, given the divergent styles of the legends up there doing their thing.

“I think it’s a little bit for everybody, guitar fans and just rock music fans in general,” notes UFO axeman Vinnie Moore. “Black Knights Rising put on a show, and they’re playing like Purple and Dio songs and Black Sabbath songs and the covers thing, and then I come on, you know, doing solo stuff that I haven’t done in years in America. And then Uli comes on and does his thing. So it’s guitar-centric for sure, but you get some recognizable songs with Black Knights Rising. When I look out into the crowd, it looks like the normal rock fans who come to our UFO shows that I see everywhere. And I’m actually even seeing some of the same faces that I recognize from UFO shows.

Now five records deep with UFO, Moore gets to stretch out a bit during this unique opportunity. “Yes, it’s the stuff that I’ve never done before, even from the first record. For example, a song called ‘Hero Without Honor,’ people seem to be responding to that one. When I mention that I’m going to do it, I get a lot of audience feedback immediately; it’s pretty insane.”

Asked to contrast his style with his tour mates, first Vinnie says that, “Craig’s been awesome. I always knew he was a great player, but he is absolutely killing on this tour. He’s pretty much doing cover stuff, so he’s got Richie Blackmore down like you wouldn’t believe. Yeah, he’s just killing the Ritchie stuff, and it’s pretty amazing. He’s playing Dio stuff, Sabbath, Purple, Rainbow... And Uli, he’s just playing in his normal inimitable way, very melodic and expressive, and it’s fun and inspiring watch him play also. As of yet, we haven’t actually sat down together and played, because it’s been so chaotic on this tour. But I’m hoping we get some moments of that we can just sit down and trade some ideas.”

 

 

As for Vinnie? It’s interesting how he’s been a somewhat bluesy and earthy presence on this latest string of UFO albums, given his past as a shredder. But summing himself up, he says, “I think I’m more the funky guy, like rock but funky. It’s hard for me to judge my own playing, but that’s the kind of feedback I get. When I started, the big thing was Purple with Blackmore, Zeppelin with Jimmy Page and Brian May with Queen. And the Beatles, even before I played guitar. And then after I started playing guitar it was guys like Jeff Beck, who’s still a huge influence on me, and Larry Carlton, Al DiMeola, Allan Holdsworth, and also blues guys like Albert King; Stevie Ray Vaughan was an influence later on. And, you know, I’m also into bands that you probably wouldn’t expect, like Lynyrd Skynyrd and Mother’s Finest, the more groove-oriented stuff. I also was a big jazz fan—be-bop, Charlie Parker and stuff like that. I’m all over the map; pretty schizophrenic.”

In closing, I thought I’d check in and see if Phil Mogg is getting any easier to figure out; after all, the guys have just banged together what this author considers to be the best UFO album of the Vinnie Moore era, a little something called A Conspiracy Of Stars.

“I still don’t understand what he’s writing or talking about it,” chuckles Moore. “He won’t tell us. A lot of people ask me about titles or even the title of the record—what does this lyric mean?—and you know, it beats me; I have no idea. And if you ask him, he doesn’t really like to say. I think he keeps things close to his heart. He doesn’t want you to know, really. He’s a pretty down-to-earth person though, and the deep stuff comes out when he’s writing the lyrics. So he’s not like that all the time. He’s a fun guy to be around.”

Part of it’s the heavy English colloquialism to the guy as well though, right?

“Well, I don’t know. Some of his lyric, I thought I didn’t understand because I thought they were very English. But I talk to Andy, and he’s like, ‘No, mate, it’s not English; we don’t understand it either’ (laughs).”