JAMES LOMENZO

Brooklyn born James Lomenzo started his musician career in the late 70's. His first bands included such names as Empty Sky, Clockwork and Rondinelli but it wasn’t until 1984 before he found big success after joining hard rock band White Lion. PRIDE was released in 1987 and with the help of hit singles “Wait” and “When Children Cry” it sold over two million copies in U.S alone. That band did huge tours opening for names like Aerosmith, Ozzy and AC/DC and they were on the top of their game. Ironically named BIG GAME came out two years later but although it failed to reach its predecessor sales, it still went to gold. The last White Lion album MAIN ATTRACTION was released in 1991 but its sales figures stayed proportionally low. James and drummer Greg D’Angelo left the soon to be disbanded group in 1991. James’s following years included touring with former KISS guitarist Ace Frehley and forming a brand new band called Pride and Glory together with Ozzy guitarist Zakk Wylde and drummer Brian Tichy. Unfortunately, that band didn’t last too long and they split up after just one album which was released in 1994. James and Brian Tichy continued working together and joined Slash's Snakepit -touring in 1995. Few years later James joined David Lee Roth's band and recorded the album DIAMOND DAVE with him. In 2004 Zakk Wylde asked James to join his Black Label Society and James agreed. HANGOVER MUSIC VOL 4 came out soon and although James briefly split again with Zakk, he soon returned and another album MAFIA came out in 2005. Later, on the same year, James decided to leave Black Label Society for the last time and try to find some new challenges.  It wasn’t too long before it was announced that James was chosen as new bassist for legendary thrash metal band Megadeth. James played his first show with the band in March 2006 in Dubai. UNITED ABOMINATIONS was released in May of 2007 and since its release band has been more or a less constantly on tour across the world. Band started their European leg of the tour on last February from Helsinki and then we were able to sit down with James and talk about various topics including the current state of Megadeth, James’s work with some of his former bands as well as about many other interesting things…

INTERVIEW BY MARKO SYRJÄLÄ AND LUXI LAHTINEN

LIVE PICTURES BY MARKO SYRJÄLÄ

TRANSCRIPTION BY NICLAS LINDSTRAD