Focus On Metal spoke with Mark Slaughter in celebration of the 30th anniversary of Slaughter's Stick It To Ya. A couple of excerpts from the chat follow.

Q: Was the band named after you because you had the record deal or were other names considered?

Mark Slaughter: "No, there were other names considered, what happened was we couldn't think of a name that wasn't already taken so we started calling the band Slaughterhouse as a kind of default but there was a band called Slaughterhouse so we were like, ok. We had names like Loaded Dice and other stupid ones and eventually the attorney called and said we have to come up with a name and we found out my last name wasn't taken so let's use that and be done with it. It put a lot of pressure on me as an artist because if it failed I would always be known as the failed Slaughter guy so we went with it and it worked out ok."

Q: When "Fly To The Angels" broke the band were you worried you would be tagged along with the other bands of the era as a ballad band?

M.S.: "Well the ballads were what was connecting people at the time, that were what was happening and that's what people were attracted to so I wasn't really worried about it. I was worried we wouldn't have something that would connect at all."

Q: I'm sure you've had a lot of people ask over the years was the song "Burning Bridges" written specifically about Vinnie Vincent.

M.S: "A lot of people have asked and the song wasn't written about one person in particular, in fact we have a disclaimer on the record that it wasn't about any one person, we really just wrote the song about the experience of us all going through that."

Listen to the interview at Focus On Metal.