BUDGIE Drummer RAY PHILLIPS - METALLICA Saved Me From Financial Ruin
October 27, 2018, 6 years ago
When Metallica famously covered key NWOBHM influences on The $5.98 E.P. / $9.98 CD: Garage Days Re-Revisited in 1987, little did they know that bands like Diamond Head, Budgie, Holocaust and Killing Joke would see a financial windfall of sorts.
In the case of Budgie, “Breadfan” royalties from which helped rescue drummer Ray Phillips from financial ruin.
"It's strange, I never considered us mega rock stars, but it started when I was 18 and I'm 70 next birthday and still having this conversation," he tells the BBC.
"It had a massive impact on a lot of bands, including Metallica, Megadeth and Van Halen who say we influenced them. Thousands and thousands of pounds,” started arriving Phillips says.
He went out and bought two BMWs - that was before Budgie's “Crash Course in Brain Surgery” also appeared on Metallica's 1998 album Garage Inc.
"Budgie wrote great songs, abstract songs about life," he said. But he joked: "'Breadfan' is about nonsense. Burke (Shelley) wanted to write a song about nonsense."
Read more and watch a video interview at the BBC.
