Bass legend Rudy Sarzo (Quiet Riot, Ozzy Osbourne, Whitesnake, Animetal USA) and fellow musician and vocalist/guitarist Tracii Guns (L.A. Guns) have paired up in Gunzo, which pays homage to the musical past of the two main protagonists.

Soundclash spoke with Rudy ahead of the band’s UK tour. An excerpt from the interview follows.

Q: The musical pedigree of both yourself and Tracii is widely known. However can you give me an introduction to the other half of the band with the Irish duo?

A: “Oh yeah sure, well Michael (O’Mara) came highly recommended by another great singer who not only happens to be friends with Tracii but also friends with myself. That’s how we met. In Los Angeles there is so much wonderful talent that sometimes that people can recommend others and you never get to meet those wonderful musicians because it’s such a large area. Sometimes people just grab a plane to certain places that we would be playing at. So he came to us highly recommended by this singer called Andrew Freeman. Now Andrew is the vocalist in the band called Last In Line, I don’t know if you have heard of them.”

Q: Yes I am familiar with them, it’s essentially the Dio band, without Dio.

A: “Correct yes, they have got Vinnie Appice, Vivian and Claude, Jimmy Bain. A wonderful band - so he is the singer in that band. He in addition he is also the singer in Rock Vault - I don’t know if you are familiar with that but it is a Las Vegas musical and Tracii has been a member of Rock Vault for a while. He is going back as a matter of fact.

“Anyways we asked Andrew Freeman if he could recommend a singer and the first name was Michael O Mara. The guy is phenomenal and I think that everyone will be really impressed to hear his singing. Shane Fitzgibbon not only is he a wonderful drummer but a great producer and engineer. He is 26 years old, so he comes from more of that modern background or just a modern attitude. By that I mean that musicians today have a different attitude from like myself growing up. Also growing up we didn’t have the technology that young musicians have available today. I mean growing up as a musician I never actually had the opportunity to engineer, or even produce a record. That was a job for you know the people that were in the studio. Today pretty much with young bands it’s left to them to come up with the recording of content of their music. They have to diversify and not only be a musician but be an engineer/producer or even a video content creator for your social network. It’s a whole different battle for today’s musician, and Shane is one of those guys who excels at everything. He can play anything from old school r’n’b to modern jazz. Then he can be the engineer in the studio with the band. It’s wonderful to be playing with someone like that.”

Q: What happened with Keith St John? Was he in the band for a while?

A: “Yeah he was part of the band for a while. You know as it happens with today’s musicians - most of today’s players cannot really just have one project. We have to have multiple situations. That’s the way it goes. What happened was that he could not come to and fulfil the UK dates, because he already had other commitments. We had to find somebody and we are so happy that we have found Michael O Mara.”

Read the complete interview at this location, and check out Gunzo at Facebook.