OVERKILL’s Bobby “Blitz” Ellsworth – “We Are A Great Representation Of What Is Happening In The Thrash Scene”

The same day Overkill put out a press release about the special show in Germany in 2016, celebrating the anniversary of both the debut Feel The Fire and Horrorscope, Metal Asylum so happened to have an interview scheduled with frontman Bobby Blitz that morning. An excerpt below:

Metal Asylum: Unlike many hard rock and metal bands from the ‘80s, Overkill has seen an increased interest in both your new music, and live shows. Your observations?
 
Ellsworth: “I have said this before, I appreciate the past to know where you are to know where you are going. But we just don’t want to know what we were, it’s all about being as relevant in the present day. And you could see that at the Terminal 5 show, these old guys are here to kick you in the teeth. Any of the accolades we get, when they are based on the day, instead of just the past, and not hearing how the past was great, that’s when I get the boost of adrenaline and a hard on (laughs). I don’t think you ever go in the studio to fail, and we are a great representation of what is happening in the thrash scene, but we’ve always done what had to do done when it came to this music. We have always been in this to win. Overkill has always been identifiable, regardless of what is happening in music at the moment.”
 
Metal Asylum: As we do the interview, a press release just came out today about Overkill playing a special show in Germany in 2016 where you will perform Feel The Fire and Horrorscope albums in their entirety. Can you tell us more?
 
Ellsworth: “Hahahaha, speaking about what was, and what is, hahaha shit did I just get caught, hahaha. You know, the thinking was we weren’t going to do this as a tour, we were going to do only one record, but then we had the opportunity to celebrate two milestones. Plus, it was an opportunity to celebrate what this lineup could do with those records. This is a dice rollin’, beer drinkin’ lineup, who likes to hang out and work together. And what the Rock Hard magazine guys were doing was doing a 30th anniversary of the Feel The Fire album, and we thought that’s where it started for us overseas, touring on buses. So to do one show was not going to change our ‘in the day’ type plan. So it’s one show special show for a country who in the beginning embraced us like they embraced their own. So it’s cool to celebrate two records instead of just one. It was kinda both our ideas from both camps before we knew it. This is our thing, we are the promoters for it. We are hoping, and really bettin it’s gonna be a winner.”

Overkill recently announced a special anniversary show at Turbinenhalle 2 in Oberhausen, Germany on April 16th, 2016. On that evening the band will play the records Horrorscope (25th anniversary) and Feel The Fire (30th anniversary) in their entirety. The show will be recorded for an upcoming DVD release.

Vocalist Bobby “Blitz” Ellsworth states:

“This April in Oberhausen we will celebrate not one anniversary but three in one, by recording for DVD, Horrorscope and Feel The Fire in their entirety, and 30 years touring Germany. Why Germany? Well, this is where it all started for us, and truly our first home when it comes to live performance. It is not so much the celebration of the releases but more so one that celebrates our solidarity and commitment to the Deutsche-metal scene from the beginning….so join us, be loud and above all BE metal! Over the wall boys and give ’em the cold steel!”

Metal Shock Finland Senior Manager Alison Booth recently had an entertaining and enlightening discussion with Overkill vocalist Bobby “Blitz” Ellsworth about his band’s new Historikill release, forthcoming tour dates, British fans and their sense of humour, plus lots more. An excerpt can be read below; listen to the audio interview here.

Talking about the Historikill box set, Bobby explained: “It’s an era of metal that was probably not the most popular with regard to being in any type of limelight or spotlight, it was the underground, darker days. Just prior to this, Metallica changed the world with a bunch of their music – they were picked up by Elektra Records and many of the other major labels followed suit. You were a horse for these big labels, you were supposed to make them cash. But the cool thing about this type of music and thrash in general was that it was really hard to be, kind of hard to saddle a wild horse you know. And what ended up happening was that a lot of bands didn’t follow suit with Metallica and a lot of labels started disposing of them when grunge came in, you know they couldn’t get rid of bands fast enough. Everybody either quit or went to smaller labels who started understanding we came from the underground, that’s where they should be and Overkill’s one of those bands.”

“Because of that change we started managing ourselves, we started taking our business and bringing the fences in and understanding that if we were smaller, we’d be less penetrable by the outside. So we managed ourselves, cut some great deals and the Historikill period is that era for us. It was great releases from the underground, regardless of popularity. Just because it wasn’t popular didn’t mean it wasn’t worth doing, I mean this was something we loved doing. I think it’s that great crash course for the fan that has gotten on board in 2008, 2009, maybe our last three releases where popularity has not waned any more, but it’s exalted, it’s back to some degree. So here’s this era you can experience when it wasn’t the easiest thing to do and not the most popular, but still solid, really upscale, tight thrash releases.”