Reporting for The Metal Voice, Kenny Kessel interviewed former guitarists of Riot, Lou Kouvaris and Rick Ventura, of the newly formed group, Riot Act, at the Warehouse bar in Amityville, New York on August 2nd.  This was Riot Act's second show where the band played songs from the first three albums: Rock City, Narita and Fire Down Under.

Lou Kouvaris played and wrote on the Riot debut album, Rock City, and wrote on the band's second album, Narita  Rick Ventura played and wrote on the Riot albums Narita, Fire Down Under, Restless Breed, and Born in America.

On how Riot Act was formed

Ventura: "It came about from Riot V. Guitarist Mike Flyntz invited me to perform with Riot V as a guest at B.B. King's club and I got to play 'Swords And Tequila' and 'Warrior' on stage after so many years, and it just escalated from there. Then, Lou was invited to perform with Riot V in Japan. So our performances lit a fire under our butts." 

Kouvaris: "I went to Japan in 2015 with Riot V as special guest, I did a little tour with them. Riot V was very gracious and the rest is history. I did ask Rick to do this in 2011 but he was busy doing something else, but it took the Riot V people to ignite us."

On the possibility of recording new material

Kouvaris: "We are going to do an album, resurrect some old and bring in some new songs. Rick and I have tons of material and we can probably collaborate on."

Ventura: "It's about getting new material ot there not just playing not just playing old stuff, but right now we are playing older material because fans want to hear it. Lou and I never worked together, we never played on the same stage together, so playing those classic Riot songs is fun. We are having a blast, it reminds you of how great and intense those songs were."