On the latest episode of the '80s Gam Metalcast, host Metal Mike catches up with Dangerous Toys frontman Jasonn McMaster, who talks about the band, Ignitor, and various other projects. He aslo chats about his recent work, podcasting, looks back on the Operation Rock N Roll Tour, and more.

On the Cassius King project and new Dangerous Toys music

McMaster: "I’m always working on new music. I’m busy, there’s a lot of things on my plate right now. I’ve got a new thing called Cassius King that I’m doing with these guys out of New Jersey. The record is called Field Trip. It’s coming out this year. There’s a lot of things I’ve been working on off and on. One of those would be new Dangerous Toys music. We haven’t written together in so long. We didn’t feel like there was a reason to. There’s a lot of bands from back then that kept it alive and kept it going. They had different versions, sometimes two versions of the same band out on the road. We didn’t do that. As far as I’m concerned, we’re still all original guys. To keep that credibility going, we just went at our own pace. If that meant not getting in a room to write together....so be it. We never broke up, we just pulled way back. We have like 8 or 9 songs. Maybe not all of them are record ready. It’s basically me and Scott putting them together. I feel like it’s the sound of Scott’s guitar and my voice that makes the band. I think the rest of the guys would agree." 

On coming out in 1989

McMaster: "I call it the class of ‘89. I’ve been calling it that for a long time because it’s spot on. A lot of bands got a deal in ‘87, ‘88, ‘89. A lot of them were good and a lot of them were crap. Business was swinging around, hanging on with their claws to the coattails of Guns N’ Roses, which were the new thing. It was an exciting time. There were a lot of bands who got their chance to stick their foot in the door. I think there was some healthy competition going on with the labels and the bands as well. I really think they were trying to find another Guns. MTV was eating it up, too." 

On the 1991 Operation Rock & Roll Tour with Judas Priest, Alice Cooper, Motörhead, Dangerous Toys, and Metal Church 

McMaster: "Fun times on that. Touring with what would seem like our peers to everybody else, but we were on tour with our idols. We just stayed true to ourselves and stayed in our own world. We were sandwiched right between Metal Church and Motörhead. If you let it, it’s an uncomfortable place! I can understand why someone might call it 'ill-fated' if your just talking about the numbers. The fans that went to it are still talking about it and think it was fucking awesome. It was the summer of 1991 and there were a lot of things going on. All the bands were either on Epic or Columbia which is all Sony. It was a last ditch effort for Sony to try and sell off their catalog that was slowing down. Priest and Cooper were kinda winding down from their records. We were out for blood. We thought this tour was the only way to get Hellacious Acres to sell at all. A year later, we were off the label. Maybe two of three of the dates fell out completely because of poor sales. Then there were a few other shows that were brought down to a smaller venue. At those dates, not all 5 bands played. For those it would be Toys, Priest, and Cooper. It was a total mind screw. I know fans were pissed and I was too because I wanted Motörhead and Metal Church there. The reason we stayed on the bill is because we were selling more records than them in the market we were at."