RockMusicStar.com recently conducted an interview with legend GRAHAM BONNET (RAINBOW,MSG,ALCATRAZZ). In the interview Bonnet talks about his time with Rainbow, MSG, Alcatrazz and what lies ahead. Excerpts from the interview are below:

RockMusicStar.com: You mentioned playing in Russia, when you go over there, how long do you usually stay, and what size venues do you perform in?

Bonnet: “We are usually there for a week, and a bit. The venues we play aren’t like huge venues; they are like 500 people, the biggest venue maybe holding 1000. They are not like the rock clubs here, where they are big and flashy. But, you have to take what you can get. I’m not stupid; I realize that I’m never going to play an arena again. Everybody that I know, from the era that I’m from, is basically doing the same kind of thing - playing the larger and sometimes smaller rock clubs.”

RockMusicStar.com: With all the success of Down to Earth, why did you decide to leave Rainbow before recording another record?

Bonnet: “Because everyone else was going to leave the band. Cozy left after the gig we did in Donington, Monsters Of Rock. After we finished the show with him, we were up until 6 AM saying goodbye to him. It was horrible, everyone was crying. Cozy was a very close friend to me, and to all of us. Me, and Don Airey, and Cozy, were all very close. So after Cozy left, a little later on, Don and I were together, and getting ready to record the next album, and we had a new drummer come in - Bobby Rondinelli. We then went to rehearsals in Copenhagen, to record a new album that was supposedly already written. But, the rehearsals for that record were not very good. It was like nobody was there. Sometimes, one guy was there, or two guys, mostly just me and Don, and sometimes Bobby. But Richie never turned up, and sometimes Roger wouldn’t come. We were getting nowhere. Russ Ballard rescued us by sending over a song called, ‘I Surrender’. So he sent that demo over so we had a song, but only one song. So then, Roger and I went into the studio, to do a quick backing track to that. I put down some harmonies, and then we were going to finish it a week later, but nothing happened.

The sessions were very unproductive, and then Don Airey got fed up, and said that he was going to leave. So then I said I felt the same way, so I booked a flight back to Los Angeles, CA. As it turned out, Don didn’t leave the band. I then got a call from Bruce Payne (Rainbow’s Manager) and he said, “I heard that you are not very pleased with the tracks going down.” And then I told him that there was nothing going down, we only have one song, and that’s been written by Russ Ballard. He then told me that the band started working on some new stuff now. I told him that I didn’t like the stuff we got, the little bits of that was written, was not very inspiring. Bruce then said, “Well, what if we get another singer to sing the songs you don’t like, and you can sing the song that you do like?" I told him that I didn’t think that something like that was going to work, and I can’t really see that happening. It would change the look of the band and confuse the fans. So, I told him that I just don’t want to do it and I left.”

Read the entire interview here.