Legendary Canadian guitarist Frank Marino has been in the business for over half a century and now he has finally released his first DVD. Metal Express radio's Mick Burgess called him up to talk about his new release, how lockdown has impacted on his life, and going right back to the beginning when he started out as a drummer before turning to the guitar. Marino also puts to bed once and for all the Hendrix reincarnation myth. Following in as excerpt from the interview.

MER: Are you using this (lockdown) time to create any new music?

Marino: "One thing that I put on the backburner years ago is a blues record that I’d started so if this goes on much longer, I might just finish that. I’m half way through it at the moment. I’ve been asked many times to make a blues record. I don’t think that anybody should just make a blues record. We had a saying in the ’70s that you went off to make a blues record when you didn’t have anything to say on your own record. I love the blues and I can play it but I’m not a blues artist and I think you need to be honest with an audience. I don’t think that anybody can just jump into the blues thing. I resisted doing a full blues album although I do have blues songs on my records."

MER: Mahogany Rush is a great name for a band. Where did that come from?

Marino: "Mahogany Rush were the words I was using to describe my LSD trip and I told my doctors that. When I did music that was my way of getting it all out of my system. When I first started playing with people when I was a kid and they asked what sort of music did I play, I told them that it was Mahogany Rush music meaning it was my acid trip music."

MER: Why did you drop the Mahogany Rush name for The Power of Rock ‘n’ Roll and Juggernaut albums?

Marino: "The first label I was on sold my contract to 20th Century Fox who sold my contract to Columbia. I didn’t leave one label and go to another. I was sold like a commodity. Columbia started saying that I was the guitarist and I was this guitar hero guy and that they should just use my name. I didn’t want to do that. They said no one is doing band names anymore look at Ted Nugent. They said that they couldn’t sell me as a band so I said put both names on but they said it was too long. I thought it was too and it was ridiculous. They used that for a couple of albums. I was at loggerheads almost every day with Columbia whether over a cover or a song, the length of songs or even the musicians in my band. They were always trying to make a problem for me. When The Power of Rock ‘n’ Roll came out they did the cover and renamed the band without even telling me.

This created a major fight but I still had another album to do which was Juggernaut which also went out as Frank Marino. That was it for me. I left Columbia after that. I had an option to do another album and Columbia didn’t think I’d leave but I did because I just wasn’t happy with what they’d done. That’s why I didn’t make another album until 1986 when I did Full Circle. By that time, everyone including my crew had left. I was all alone so I wasn’t sure what name to use but when I went out on tour I’d see all sorts of combinations of the name and I decided to do Full Circle as Frank Marino, I did the Double Live as Frank Marino and Mahogany Rush then for From The Hip I went back as Frank Marino and I don’t even remember what I did Eye Of The Storm as.

It was all very confusing but one thing that wasn’t confusing is that the music was still the same. You can take any of the albums and combination of names and you can still tell that it’s the same music. It’s not like I went off in a different direction. Now, there’s only the drummer Dave with me that did the DVD, Mark and Mick have gone. Maybe now is the time to just be me and just go out as Frank Marino. I don’t think the name is a circle I’m ever going to square. I’ll live with it as long as the music is still the music. I’m not after accolades or riches, I just want the music to be right."

Read the complete interview here.