Recently, legendary Nasty Savage vocalist ‘Nasty’ Ron Galetti, always a man of many words or interesting stories, was kind enough to take a break from his decidedly hectic schedule to speak with us, regarding many other things, the triumphant release of the group’s long-awaited ‘…comeback…’ Psycho Psycho...

Todd: How did you originally become involved with Nasty Savage?  Had serving as the de facto leader of a notorious Heavy Metal group always been one of your goals?

Ron Galletti: “I never really wanted to be a singer or in a band or anything.  Then I started to get into the whole NWOBHM scene.  Angel Witch, Holocaust, Saxon, Venom, Iron Maiden...that type of stuff.  I would set up this recorder in my bedroom and sing along with all of these songs.  The recorder would take my voice and recorded it over the original ones.  One day, a buddy of mine came over and heard that and said ‘I know of a band that’s lookin’ for a singer’.  ...So I went out and tried out for this band that was called Nightmare.  They had a female singer that they were getting tired of.  I had already seen them play at a party and they had definitely gotten my attention.  The first time, I didn’t even go to the audition.  I was too nervous.  Plus, I didn’t know too many songs.  The next time, when I actually went, we played Iron Maiden’s “Wrathchild” like six times because it was one of the only songs I knew.  I didn’t hear anything from the guys for a couple of weeks.  I figured they just didn’t like me.  One night, I saw the guys at a party…this huge keg party in the middle of a field with like a hundred and fifty people.  So I went up to them and asked them if they wanted me as their singer and they said ‘Yeah, I think we do.  Why don’t you come back on Monday so we can talk about stuff?’  When I got there on Monday, I just hit ’em real quick.  I told ’em ‘Look, I’ve got this concept.  We’re gonna change our name to Nasty Savage and I’m gonna be the singer Nasty Ronnie.  What we need to do is put our money together and do a demo tape of original songs.  Once we do that, we need to shop it around and start marketing it and run this like a business.  Within a year, we’ll be signed and on tour and we’ll be getting fan mail from all over the world.’”

Todd: How accurate did your prediction prove to be?  I can imagine you wouldn’t have been the first would-be frontman to have his alcohol-fueled dreams of grandeur shattered by the realities of the industry… 

Ron: “It was actually less than a year.  But what we did first, and most bands will tell you that you need to do this, was become established in our home area.  A record company will say ‘Hey, they sound good, but have they done anything?’  We created a big local following.  There were no other Metal bands around, so we staged concerts in cow pastures and charged everyone at the gate.  We were doin’ a lot of the stuff ourselves.  One of the first gigs we played was in this guy’s backyard when his parents were out of town.  We went to a job site...a construction yard...and stole a bunch of fuckin’ wood (laughs)  ...Plywood and two by fours (laughs) and made this elaborate stage.  It was incredible considering it was one of the very first gigs we ever did.  We had this big stage.  I rode a Harley through the crowd to get to the stage, I smashed a TV set...  Everyone was talkin’ about it and then the cops came.  When the cops showed up, we started playing (the Judas Priest classic) “Breaking The Law”.  People thought the defiance of that was just so cool.  Plus, as soon as the cops left, we started playin’ again until they came back again.  We really showed everyone what the defiance of Rock ‘n’ Roll and Heavy Metal was all about.  It told everyone what we were all about and the word very quickly go out.  We started workin’ on our first demo, writin’ songs and pickin’ out the best of them and we started to get great reviews from all over the place.  We went over really well with a lot of people.  One day, I got a letter from Metal Blade records saying that they wanted to sign us for their compilation album Metal Massacre VI and an album of our own.  It was like every kid’s dream.  We thought we were gonna be rich and be Rock ‘n’ Roll stars.  That’s what we thought.  But before we signed with Metal Blade, we were actually able to do a tour of Texas based on the success of first demo tape.  KISS radio in San Antonio had a Metal show and was playin’ our demo.  The DJ from that show actually sent a reel to reel tape to Metal Blade and said ‘You should sign these guys.  They’re awesome’.  …All of that added up to us gettin’ signed in about ten months.” 

Todd: Once the group signed that first contract with Metal Blade Records, was the Rock ‘n’ Roll/Heavy Metal lifestyle everything you’d hoped it would be?  Based on everything I’ve read, it seems the group’s history has always been marked by an assortment bittersweet twists…

Ron: “No.  We found out that there really was a long way to the top if you wanted to Rock ‘n’ Roll (laughs).  Metal Blade wanted to sign us to a long term deal right away, but our management said ‘Oh, no.  You can only have my guys for a one record deal’.  I think if we would have signed a longer deal, they would have done a lot more promotion for us.  They did very little for us even though they did send us to New York to play with Slayer and Hallows Eve.  We did a tour where we played a lot of Metal Fests.  We played World War III in Canada...  We got a taste of what success would have been like.  It was really cool to hang out with all of those bands, especially when we did all of the wild shit that we did.  Unfortunately, then we started to get a taste for what the Rock ’n’ Roll life was really all about.  We were a band on the run not makin’ a lot of money, doin’ what was in our hearts.  Even though the underground was very strong back then, you know it’s not gonna happen overnight.  …Plus, there were a lot less bands back then.  I would imagine it would be even harder to become successful now.  It’s funny because a lot of the bands that are out right now that people think are one hit wonders have been at it for like twenty years.  It’s just that no one noticed them before.  …The Rock ’n’ Roll lifestyle is not all it’s cracked up to be.”

Todd: In retrospect, are you satisfied with how well Nasty Savage, Indulgence and the Abstract Reality EP sold?

Ron: “…They did alright.  At least we didn’t have the internet back then so everyone could download our albums for free.  When we played the Milwaukee Metalfest XVIII (in 2004), a ton of people came up to me and told me that they loved our new album.  When I asked them where they got it, they all told me they just downloaded it off of the internet.  I think that’s kinda the fate of the music industry.  Bands can even have their own label and be successful.  The record companies will never tell you the truth.  They’re always out to rip you off.  It’s not what you think it is.”

Todd: Overall, how would you describe the group’s early touring experiences?  I’m assuming there were the atypical financial restraints, at least initially…

Ron: “We did a lot of silly stuff like the ‘Will Work For Food’ tour and the ‘How Many Pot Pies Can We Eat?’ tour (laughs).  We slept in the van to save money.  Sometimes, at the end of a show, we’d announce that we were lookin’ for a place to stay and every night someone would let us crash.  In a way, it was cool because we were stayin’ with the fans, the people that loved us the most.  We’d share that time with them and be their down to earth friends.  One night we’d be in Southeast L.A. and the next night we’d be in some mansion in Texas…  A lot of the time, the tours were set up where we’d have five days off and the play one gig and then have four days off and play one gig.  It was always really screwed up.  …We could only do so much.  Our manager was our drummers Dad and he was a pretty irrational guy.  He really tried, but he pissed more people off than anything else.  …It was really frustrating.  Then, when it came down to writers royalties, it got even worse.  It really built up a lot of frustration when we’d get one check for songwriting royalties and one for sales royalties and only certain members of the group would get money from the writer’s checks.  I always thought that was unfair because the bass player and drummer usually don’t write too many songs.  Maybe if your (legendary Iron Maiden bassist) Steve Harris or something.  In the future, we changed all of the stuff like that to make it all even.  It helped, but it also created a lot more problems, too.”

Todd: As far as personalities are concerned, realistically, how much of a difference is there between Ron Galletti, private citizen and ‘Nasty Ronnie’, the onstage persona?

Ron: “I would always get really carried away when I was onstage.  I’m actually a really mellow guy, but when I get onstage, I go on this really wicked and wild trip.  Whatever it was, I would always do whatever I could to get people’s attention.  I always felt the things that I did might help people forget about their problems for an hour or two since what I was going through onstage was probably a lot worse (laughs).  I would take TV sets and since I had worked in pro wrestling, I would smash my head through them.  It was a stage show.  It was theatrics, but the blood was real.  You can’t fake that kind of shit.  I still do that stuff when we play today.  I don’t know why.  I don’t know what’s wrong with me.  I guess I just have to remind people that Nasty Ronnie is a bit more macho than the other guys.  …I just like to incite people.  I’m not that great of a musician, so I say ‘Hey, let’s just put on a fuckin’ show’.  I want to give people something they’re not gonna forget.  That’s why people still push me.  Doin’ all of this could have easily been my downfall, but I’ve always kept stuff around to help me keep my wounds clean.  I never really got hurt too bad.”

Todd: With the notoriety of the group’s stage show, most notably the smashing of the TV sets being what they are, is there a particular process or ritual you go through to ensure you’re properly prepared mentally?

Ron: “I always go into a trance like state when I do that shit.  The TV set…I would always toy with it, try to change the channels, try to make it come on.  The whole time, it was just a show just to get people interested in the object.  You can get more bullshit from a TV set.  …More newscasters try to sway to the left or the right.  You can’t just watch TV all the time.  You need your own opinion.  You need to read.  Don’t believe everything that you see and hear on TV.  Me smashing a TV set, whether or not people caught on to it is just me totally destroying something that people really love because I think it’s just a bunch of bullshit.  I always hold the TV as my victim until the end of the night.  Then I would execute it…put it to death.  If anyone would try to get onstage and fuck with my TV set, I’d make a spectacle of them.  I’d pick ‘em up and body slam ‘em and throw ‘em back into the crowd.  It was always fun because people were always tryin’ to fuck with my TV sets.”

Todd: At this point, taking into consideration the length and intensity of your experiences as a ‘working musician’, what are your favorite and least favorite aspects of touring?

Ron: “When you’re on tour, all of the nights just kinda run together.  Sometimes, we wouldn’t even know what city we were in.  …So for me, the best times were always when were just hangin’ with the fans since they were the ones that loved us the most and were the reason we were onstage to begin with.  When I was onstage, I was really at work.  A lot of people would come up to me and say ‘Man, are you on drugs or something?  You’re a fuckin’ maniac’.  I’d just tell ‘em I was just performing, doing what I was supposed to do.  I’ve always been able to turn it off like a switch when I was through, but then I’d stay up for hours on end rehashing the gig, asking myself what it was that we just did.  …You always gotta treat it like a business, but the real times are when you get to hang with the fans and the other bands.  The camaraderie…those are your real brothers.  You learn about them and sometimes you learn things about them you don’t wanna know.  I was always lookin’ for that special bond.  One of the coolest things was when, eighteen years later, we came out of retirement and put a lot of hard work into our newest album.  I honestly think it’s some of the best music we’ve ever created.  I think we did that because we know you don’t get those kinds of opportunities very often.  We’re old guys now and we might not get another chance.  I think because we came together again as a family, we made some of our best music ever.  It’s really remarkable when you take our past into consideration.  I mean who would have thought this ever would have happened?  …It closes the chapter on a lot of things, but it also leaves the door open for a lot of other things.  …We’re gonna be doin’ some touring even if (guitarist) Dave Austin can’t make it.  We got a killer guitarist (ex-Fester axeman John Mahoney) comin’ down out of Chicago that just called yesterday to say the he’s comin’ down.  He’s been jamming in a side project with our drummer.  He knows the songs and he’s a really professional guy and he totally rips on the guitar.  He’s going to do the Band Your Head Festival with us in Germany.  Who knows?  Maybe it will open up the door and make it possible for us to do some more shows again.”

Todd: Collectively and as individuals, how has everyone bided their time when not rehearsing, recording or writing?  Have you found it difficult to maintain the ‘…occupational flexibility…’ needed for touring?  

Ron: “Personally, I just celebrated the five hundredth episode of a TV show I produce in Florida called Born To Ride.  It’s a show all about bikes and bikers.  I was makin’ this show long before it all became popular.  Now, when you turn on the Discovery channel, all you see is people yellin’ at each other while they build bikes and people love it.  I’ve been doin’ this for over ten years now and just a year ago, I started a print version of the show, so now I’m a television show producer and a publisher and they’re both takin’ off big time…let me tell ya.  There are a lot of different elements involved in publishing a magazine, especially when you consider the fact that the motorcycle industry is growing at a rate of thirty percent a year.  It’s an incredible thing to be involved in.  Everyone knows someone with a motorcycle.  Besides, it’s just like Rock ‘n’ Roll and Heavy Metal in a sense that it’s never gonna die.  One of the reasons I did the show is to help show the good side of bikers.  I’m tired of bikers always gettin’ a bad rep.  I’ve always been a biker and bikers are some of the greatest people on earth. …Dave is married.  He’s got two kids and I’ve got two kids.  (Guitarist) Ben (Meyer) is single.  He can go anywhere and do anything he wants.  …His house is paid off, but he’s always been really good with money.  (Drummer) Curtis (Beeson) drives a taxi so he can get up whenever he wants.  He has a Harley also.  (Bassist) Richard (Bateman) does construction work, but he’s also kinda a stay at home Mom.  He stays home while his wife works.  …I have an office out of my home, so I’m pretty free to do what I want as well.”             

Todd: In hindsight, was there a reoccurring rationale (or lack thereof) that led to the various line-up changes the group suffered through?  Is it my imagination or did you really go through that many bass players? 

Ron: “We had the curse of the bass player for the first four albums.  Our original bassist Fred (Dregischan)…he was the icon of the band, a real musician.  Unfortunately, every time we’d go on tour, Fred would disappear.  He’d go off on his own and run away.  One time, we were in New Orleans on New Year’s Eve.  We were just gonna stop on Bourbon Street for a little while and he ran off.  We were all supposed to meet up at the van at a certain time.  The next thing we knew, we were all piled in next to each other in the van without Fred.  So we said ‘Fuck, man.  What are we gonna do?’  We started callin’ all the hospitals and police stations.  He was nowhere to be found.  Finally, we found him all laid up at a hospital with is arm in traction.  He could barely talk.  I can remember that I was a real dick to him.  I told him ‘You got what you deserved, motherfucker’.  Afterwards, we all felt really bad for him.  We couldn’t leave him.  He eventually had to leave the band because he cut the tendons in his hand.  That was the end of his musical career.  Unfortunately, he never got to experience the fun of going on the big tours we did later on.  The second guy we got (Dezsõ István Bartha)…he was more of a brain.  …A real poindexter kid with long hair that smoked cigarettes and was way ahead of his age.  He was a real history and military buff and he always had credit cards from his Dad.  Whenever we were on tour, I’d hang out with him because he’d buy us lunch and dinner…shit like that.  He even wrote the song “Inferno” from the Indulgence album.  He was doin’ really good, but he quit after the Indulgence album because his Dad said he had to choose between being in the band and being poor or quitting the band and getting a huge inheritance.  …God bless him.  He’s probably doin’ really good now as a Chemical Engineer or something.  After that, we got this guy named Chris Moorehouse.  We tried out a bunch of different guys.  I was never there for any of the try outs.  I always left that to the real musicians in the band.  In the process of holding auditions for our third bass player, Glenn Benton from Deicide, before he was in Deicide, tried out (laughs).  He didn’t get picked.  Chris did the Abstract Reality EP with us and got to do the German and European tour with us.  Unfortunately, on that tour, we found out that Chris missed his Mom and couldn’t look at Porno books.  He didn’t want to do anything we did for fun.  Plus, he had to wash his jeans every day.  When you’re on tour, you might go a week or two without washing your damn jeans, ya know?  It just didn’t work out with him.  When we landed at the airport in Miami, we were gonna tell him that we were gonna let him go, but he had the balls to come up to me and tell me that he didn’t think he was cut out for the lifestyle.  I told him that I really appreciated him being straight up with us about it.  Tragically, two weeks later, he was killed in a car accident.  It was very tragic and we were all a bunch of assholes and didn’t even go to his funeral.  That was one of those things in life where you just totally regret what you did and wish you could have done better.  It was just one of those things.  After that, Ben made a call to (ex-Agent Steel/Nocturnus/Purgatory alumni) Richard Bateman.  Just an unbelievable monster of a bass player.  Richard broke the spell.  He was with us on the Penetration Point and everything we’ve done since.”

Todd: Ultimately, what were the main motivating factor(s) behind the group’s eventual disbandment?  Was there a particular incident that added fuel to the proverbial fire or was it a cumulative effect of the usual creative differences and industry-related turmoil?

Ron: “The industry…most notably how we were treated by Metal Blade Records.  We always got ripped off (laughs).  I know it’s a really negative story, but there are a lot of different elements involved in being in a Rock ‘n’ Roll or Heavy Metal band.  Don’t get me wrong; we did have some good times and we did make some money.  We got to travel a bit and see some really cool stuff, but we never really got too big.  We never really made it, even though we had a lot to offer.  I think a lot of what Nasty Savage did went over people’s heads.  We didn’t sound like Slayer or Metallica.  We had a lot of people telling us that we needed to sound like this or sound like that, but we believed that if we listened to those people, the same people would be telling us something different the next week, so we pretty much did what was in our hearts.  …It pretty much all boiled down to our management.  There were countless arguments about all of this just depressing shit.  It all pissed us off and just pulled us all apart.  After one of the tours was over, we just said ‘Fuck this. This is over.’  I can’t really remember how it ended, but it damn sure did come to an end (laughs).”                

Select Discography
Psycho Psycho (2004) ****
Cleveland ’87 (2003) **
Wage Of Mayhem (EP) (2002) ****
Penetration Point (1989) ****
Abstract Reality (EP) (1988) ***
Indulgence (1987) **
Nasty Savage (1985) *
Wage Of Mayhem (Demo) (1984) *
Raw Mayhem (Demo) (1984) *

* features bassist Fred Dregischan
** features bassist Dezsõ István Bartha
*** features bassist Chris Moorehouse
**** features bassist Richard Bateman

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