Guitarist for Slaughter and Vince Neil

When Slaughter guitarist Tim Kelly died as the result of a 1998 car crash, the surviving band members didn't look far for a replacement. They went to former Saigon Kick guitarist Jeff Blando, who had been working as their sound technician for the past 2 1/2 years.

It made the transition easier, seeing as he had already heard the songs "so many times they were embedded in my brain," he recalled this week while speaking with Spotlight. These days, Blando serves double duty. In addition to Slaughter -- whose 1990 album, Stick It to Ya, spawned heavy metal hits Fly to the Angels and Up All Night -- he tours with Mötley Crüe frontman Vince Neil during his solo tours.

Mötley Crüe announced last week they would be reuniting this summer for a national tour they're calling Crüefest. But in the meantime, Neil will be on hand at Lake Somerville to headline Friday night's line-up at Hawgs of Texas.

How do you divide your time between bands?

Last year, we were kind of forced with that question: What we were going to do, especially in the summer time. It's the main touring season for both of the groups. Luckily for me, the tour we did last year, a lot of shows were Vince Neil headlining, Skid Row or Quiet Riot was in the middle position and Slaughter in the front position. I ended up playing in both bands on the tour. It was a busy summer for sure.

Vince likes the guitar player set up on stage left and Mark [Slaughter] likes the guitar player set up on stage right, so I'd set up my rig on one side and play it, then they'd tear it down and when Vince got up it was like me and Dana switched sides. People were like, "Wait a minute, wasn't that the guy over there an hour ago?"

What's a Vince Neil band concert experience like?

Basically with Vince it's all Mötley Crüe stuff, Vince's solo stuff and a few covers every now and then. No Slaughter songs for the Vince band.

How'd he end up with half of Slaughter in his band?

Vince called me up and said, "Hey, I want you to come out and play guitar and put a band together for me." It was weird because [Slaughter bassist] Dana [Strum] and I, prior to that phone call we were talking. We were like, man, if anybody out of that whole '80s era was to have a really good strong chance of reestablishing his career as a solo artist, we thought that Vince would be one of those candidates.

So when I got the phone call, I called Dana up and said, "Hey, do you want to come out and play bass with me and Vince?" It's been going pretty good. We had a few bumps in the road at first. Vinnie was still at his old ways, as you want to call it. But he came to us and said, "Hey guys, you're doing a great job for me and I want to get better," and he checked himself into rehab.

It's been a year and a half now, and he hasn't been up to his old habits. He's clean and sober and, to me, he's the best that I've ever seen him -- even back in the heyday when he first came out with the Crüe. I think he's doing better now than he ever did.

What makes you think he's a good candidate for a comeback?

The only way I can describe it is almost kind of like how Ozzy came from a really big band. They broke up. [Black] Sabbath, of course, got a really great front man and singer and came out and did a great record. Nobody really wanted to give Ozzy a chance. The record industry, they didn't want nothing to do with him -- thought he was a loser because he was a drunk and all that good stuff. Then he put together a really good band -- put a great unit behind him -- and the rest is history. I think if Vince can keep pulling himself together ... Energetically, the shows are great. Now we've just got to put a good record behind us, which we're getting ready to start.

Will you work collaboratively on it?

Dana and myself, we did a session about a year ago. We may pull a few of those out of there, then I believe we're gonna probably start from scratch because it's a whole different ballgame writing for Vince Neil. We've got to write something that fits his personality and his persona. We're starting out Dana and myself, and then we'll bring Vince in and Zoltan [Chaney], the drummer.

So the plan is to keep going even though Mötley Crüe is back together for now?

The game plan is I think Dana and myself are going to go out with Vince while he's on the Crüefest. We're actually taking the rig out with us, I believe, and we're going to be working with Vinnie and writing on the days off. Try not to miss any time we have together to get this thing forward as quickly as we can.

Will you play Crüefest?

No. We're not doing anything until Crüefest is done. When they take their break, I think we will continue doing some solo shows with Vince. Hopefully at that time we should have quite a few ideas and hopefully bringing them to life.

Do you guys play biker rallies pretty often?

We play quite a bit of them. Just about every year we end up doing Sturgis with either Vince or Slaughter. It's a good crowd for us. That's for sure.

We're looking forward to coming out there and having a good time. Actually, it's the first time I'll be able to experience Hawgs of Texas. I think [talent buyer] Willie [Bennett] said he might have some bikes for us if we get there early enough. I think we're going to be able to get in the wind a little bit. I'm hoping.

• Interview by staff writer Craig Kapitan.

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