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INTERVIEW WITH ANDY LAROCQUE

King Diamond returned to the limelight after a long break. The whole band had been put on hold when the legendary Danish metal icon experienced several health issues. However, the man returned from the world beyond to show that King Diamond still reigns supreme in the metal world.  I had the great pleasure to talk to the guitarist of King Diamond Andy LaRocque about the return to the stage, the song writing process and of course his producer role for several bands. Enjoy!

Interview and live pictures by Arto Lehtinen

Studio picture by the courtesy of Andy LaRocque

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Magnus Rosn, Tony Martin, Andy LaRocque

Former BLACK SABBATH singer Tony Martin, ex-HAMMERFALL bassist Magnus Rosén and KING DIAMOND guitarist Andy LaRocque have launched an all-star project that also features drummer Danny Needham (VENOM).

The as-yet-unnamed four-piece are currently writing material at LaRocque’s Sonic Train Studios in Varberg, Sweden and in England.

The foursome stress: “This all-star band is not a project! It’s a band!”

Check out a photo below of Rosén, Martin and LaRocque in Sweden in late February. Martin held two workshops in Göteborg and Falköping, Sweden at Rosén’s Musikstationen and Musikskolan respectively. According to Rosén, “Tony Martin was a hit with his tales from the ten years he played with Black Sabbath. He also talked about his way of singing, plus even had a little live performance.”

Many things have happened in the King Diamond camp since their last visit to Finland. The band has released two studio albums ABIGAIL II and THE PUPPET MASTER and and also a live album called "Deadly Lullabies" which came out in 2004. Although it’s already been three years since the release of "Puppet Master" King Diamond hasn’t been able to do any touring outside U.S for a while and actually this tour was his first in Europe in five years. So it was about time to get an update on what’s going on in the world of King Diamond. I managed to reach bands guitarists Andy LaRocque and Mike Wead before the band’s first sold out night in Helsinki and they were nice enough to have this brief conversation.. Hope you like it!

INTERVIEW AND PICTURES BY MARKO SYRJALA

TRANSCRIPTION BY ANDY OSBORN

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Interview By Lord of The Wasteland

Transcription by Duke

***Pics courtesy of Metal Blade Records, Roadrunner Records, King’s official site & Metal Rules staff.

One of the great things about this job is getting to speak with the legends of heavy metal.  Despite being online for ten years, Metal Rules has never spoken to King Diamond himself (a conversation with guitarists Mike Wead and Andy LaRocque was done in 2001 and may be read here), so when the opportunity came up, I was on it like flies on stink. 

Calling from his home in Texas, King is a dream interview subject as he loves to talk and is also one of the nicest guys in metal today.  I could have spent hours and hours talking to him but during the course of our 50-minute conversation, King discusses his latest offering, DEADLY LULLABYES LIVE, new stuff from Mercyful Fate in 2005, the possibility of turning to movies, and loads of other things, so sit back and enjoy this interview with the one, the only?KING DIAMOND!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

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