Bobby Blitz: Oh yeah, Maria…that was a while ago.

FF: Yeah it was. After we had done the interview, the club was throwing us out because we were under-age and you came back out of the dressing room and told the bouncers that were with the band. You gave us back stage-passes and everything so we could stay. Thanks.

BB: (laughing) At least you didn’t say I was a bastard. It’s nice to know that I had moments of grace at some point in my life.

FF: Yeah, it left a lasting impression.

BB: You know it was pretty obvious what Overkill was even way back then. We’re just kinda regular and it still holds true today. I love hearing stories like that.

FF: I remember another Channel show, you were sitting out back of the club with Testament…

BB: I can tell you what I was doing too. I was standing there having a beer and throwing rocks at the rats (laughing). That’s where I always was at the Channel, throwing rocks at the rats. It was like hunting season.

FF: Let’s stay way back in the past. One of the things you had said during the Feel The Fire was that you were right at the beginning of living out your life’s dream. Is that how it worked for you? Have you lived it out at this point?

BB: Let me put it to you this way: I’m right in the middle of living out that dream. I don’t think I can put it any other way because, you know, what time has dictated to me in the 14 years since our first interview is that for me to say I lived it out would be wrong. I mean years have turned into decades and touring the world. Sitting back there and talking to you about this then, I never could have foreseen this but thing is that it has now in hindsight come true. I wouldn’t have redone anything. Every step I took brought me here to who I am and where I am now. I’ve found something I love so it all appears dreamlike.

FF: You wouldn’t have done anything different?

BB: Well, some personal decisions maybe but not about the band. I firmly believe in Overkill as an evolutionary process and that’s why it’s happened like this. The point is that the evolution happens and it lends us to keeping us committed to the genre. You know there were a hell of a lot of metal bands that started out when we did who have since said its only thrash and its not where it is. We never said that. We know that were a metal band and we know that within those confines we can be limitless. I think that’s what we’ve been able to do under the circumstances.

FF: Recently a teenage metal head called you one of the founding fathers of metal. Did you ever see that happening?

BB: (laughing) Shit, that makes me sound older than dirt. You know I’ve always known that my youth would be fleeting but I can tell you quite honestly that my immaturity is still quite contact. Well, I never could have foreseen that happening and I get a kick out of it too. You know one of things that are beautiful about Overkill over the years is that we’ve been able to transcend generations. We can see at a show guys who have been around since Feel The Fire and also see 18 and 19 year olds who have heard Necroshine and I’m not sure why I just know it is. Maybes it’s the honesty, the fact that were untouched by the masses were unpolluted by popular opinion. I guess it’s the same type of vibe when I was listening to Priest back when I was, I don’t know, 15. Naturally it’s on a much lower scale (laughing). Overkill is what it is.

FF: Know after 15 years and 10 albums, contrast on that milestone by the way…

BB: Yeah you were 16 then, I was 8 (laughing)!

FF: If I was 16 then, I’m 18 now.

BB: (laughing) There you go.

FF: Well since that time a lot of the bands you started with are gone or have changed their tune. How do you not lose that edge?

BB: I’m gonna sound like the rookie of the year: you gotta stay focused! In any case, it really is focus. A lot of our contemporaries have changed. I mean it’s always been quite obvious to us as to who we are. We’ve never changed our outlook. You know when someone waved a ‘metal is dead’ flag, hundreds of bands left the underground to ‘progress.’ To us we were always a metal band. It was live or die by decisions that we made in the past and ones we were making in the future. And we’re not the only ones who have stayed in this genre. Simply, we don’t have an identity crisis. I know who I am and you live and die by who you are, not what you want to be or by how popular you think you should be. Popularity is removed from the equation. We believe in this stuff.

FF: Back to the future. What the fuck is "Necroshine?"

BB: Necroshine is the positive center. I make up my own little words up if you can’t tell.

FF: (laughing) Really?

BB: Yeah, this isn’t something you’re gonna find in Webster’s. It made it up last summer, wrote it down and said hey this is really creepy. It’s got this double connotation. I liken to a very dark hole with a very bright pinpoint of light in the center. In the song when I say ‘don’t worry about me, I’m guided by the light of the Necrsohine’ I’m most definitely guided to a positive end and to do that you have to strip away negativity. There was a lot of worry about me over the last year when I contracted cancer. This was kind of a thank you to everyone that cared about me during that time. You know there's a lot of things you can do with negativity. You can let it consume you or you can strip it away. I don’t believe that the events in your life make you the man you are, it’s how you react to them.

FF: I didn’t realize you had cancer…

BB: It’s a lot easier for me to talk about it now, I’ve got a clean bill of health. But there was three or four-week period in ’98 where I was told it was uncertain. I sat down with my wife and said we’re gonna do the record. That was important and I think that what you hear on the record is an opportunity to live which I received. If a person can’t be thankful of that then that person is neglectful of life as a whole. I think its necessary to share a thing that I feel and go through, and that includes support. So this is a big motivation to the word Necroshine. I think that a lot of us have in common the same things that we are afraid of and I think the way to get over t hem is to expose them and that’s what this record is about.

FF: So you’re doing ok now?

BB: Oh yeah, I went through 3 operations. My last one was in December. I’m doing good. I’m C-free right now. It had eaten part of my nose and my skull away. It almost go to the brain and I figured if it got in their it would never find anything anyway (laughs). The idea is that hope is a great thing to have and we never lost sight of it and the support that I had was phenomenal. I just don’t want it to be a focus but I do want you to know what motivates. I want the readers of ForceFed to know that there are other things that motivate Overkill.

FF: Being a founding father of metal…

BB: Oh, stop with that one already (laughing)!

FF: (laughing) Well your opinion is important, oh exalted one. Who do you like now, how’s the new crop of bands?

BB: I’m always excited by a new release. I’ve gotten some new ones recently, the Grip Inc. release, Nevermore, Temple of the Absurd. Metal is ok and its not going away. These are good things.

FF: I have a question totally unrelated to Overkill. Joe Comeau used to be in Leige Lord and you thank the band on Necroshine. Are they still around?

BB: Paul (Nelson, Guitars) stopped by the studio in Stamford when we were recording and I know he’s worked up a website, LiegeLord.com I think it is. They may be getting together in the future to put something together.

FF: You and your sister Mary sang together on the album. Is that the first you sang together?

BB: She’s been doing her own thing for quite some time and I’ve helped here and there. This is the first time we’ve ever collaborated on something that’s been released. It was great. It was right before Christmas and it was a great Christmas present. We have a lot of in-commons in our personality. After we had blown the first take and she screamed "fuck!" our engineer (Andy Katz) elbowed me and said ‘is that the female you in there?’ I said ‘fuckin’ a it is!’ It was all about contrast having her sing.

FF: What are your plans over the next 6 months?

BB: Man, you keep asking me to look forward…

FF: Ok, then what are you doing in the next half an hour?

BB: (laughing) I’m gonna have dinner after the last interview. Other than that, we are gonna tour. The first show is at the Met Café in Providence on March 25^th. Touring is a big part of our visibility. ForceFed is a great part of our visibility. College radio is a great part of our visibility. The next element is sweating on the first three rows. I don’t think you forget seeing us live. It’s an important part. We’re looking forward to roughly 150 shows this year. Other than that, I don’t think Boston (Red Sox) is going anywhere this year (laughing).

FF: I’ll agree with you on that, and the Jets are going to kick our ass in the fall.

BB: Oh, I don’t know. I’m not a Jets fan. I’m a Giants fan and you have to be a Jet hater when you sign on.

FF: Well Blitz, thanks for the time.

BB: Thank you. Anything else you need, let me know. And everybody remember: Read ForceFed and check out the Wrecking Crew!

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