Metal-Rules.com has issued a new interview with vocalist PAUL SHORTINO (ex-ROUGH CUTT, QUIET RIOT), conducted by Marko Syrjala. The following is an excerpt:

Q: First of all, Paul, it's 2010... what's going on with your career at the moment?

A: "There’s a whole lot of stuff. I’m filling in for Jack Russell with GREAT WHITE for this gig. Hopefully, we might do some more dates, but really focusing on the KING KOBRA record. We have a deadline by October 30th. So, we wrote a song that's going on to RONNIE JAMES DIO's tribute record for his Stand Up And Shout Cancer Foundation. All the money and proceeds will go to that. That's that song I played for you, 'Monsters And Heroes'. Ronnie was a great influence on me. I'm so sad he's gone. Other than that, I'm just rocking and rolling and I'm actually also working on a rock and roll show called Duke Fame And His Band Of Misfits from the movie Duke Fame. It's going to be kind of like a spoof on rock and roll too. So, a live show. But, like I said, mainly just trying to get the King Kobra record done. We're down to three more tracks we've got to finish."

Q: So, what kind of plans do you have with King Kobra after the album comes out and who's going to release it?

A: "Frontier Records is releasing it. It should be released the beginning of next year, I think – either January, February… around that time. Then, hopefully, we're going to hit Europe and do all the festivals, and get out and rock and roll. Like I said before, if this works out with Great White, I'll still be doing some dates with them as well. I'm working on a project with this guy named Michael Cousin. He's like a Robin Trower type of guitarist. I've been working on his record for about two years on my time. When I have some free time, I work on his songs. I've got his whole record almost done."

Q: The whole King Kobra thing, how that did that came about?

A: "The King Kobra thing was really trippy, how Carmine (Appice) was trying to put the band together. I was in the middle of working with Ron Keel on the vocals for the KEEL album we recorded at my studio. Bryan Jay from Keel was at the studio with Pat Regan. They were working on some of the Keel stuff. Carmine happened to stop by there and found out that they got signed to Frontiers and he was, 'Wow, maybe I should put a King Kobra record out on Frontiers'. Pat Regan said, 'Yeah, maybe you should do that', and next Bryan Jay said, 'You should just use Paul Shortino'. So, the next thing I know Carmine is staying at my house, and David came up, and we started writing songs, and the rest is history. I mean, he stayed at my house for a couple of weeks, and then left and came back. We cut the drums in Vegas on tape. That's why they sound so huge. It just so happened that we were going to mix the record ourselves. I told them, I said, 'Well, I got an e-mail from Michael Voss who produced my last record – I think its Chasing Your Dreams. He e-mailed me saying he'd really like to mix one of the songs free'. So, he mixed 'Monsters and Heroes'. Carmine was going, 'Well, he wants too much money', and Michael came down because he really wants to do it. Carmine said, 'That's still too much money'. Anyways, he sent it around to a bunch of different people. We were telling Carmine, 'You know, for what Michael's going to charge, we're not going to get anybody that's going to produce this record like he's going to do it – produce'. He's probably going to put a signature on it because mixing's one thing, you know? He's just a phenomenal guy. He just really has got a talent for that. There are certain guys that can do that. I got a studio and I can sit and mix stuff, and I've mixed stuff for other people, but there are guys that can really mix and make something sound incredible.

Read the full interview at this location.