Johnny Kelly: Peter Steele’s Bass Would Be the Hardest to Replicate in a Type O Negative Tribute
The loss of Type O Negative bassist and vocalist Peter Steele is still felt to this day. Years after his passing and the subsequent dissolution of the influential gothic/doom metal outfit, it’s sounding like there’s been some rumblings of a potential effort to pay homage to the man and the band as a whole.
During an interview with Loaded Radio, surviving Type O Negative drummer Johnny Kelly told made it sound like if the conditions were right, he’d be down for it. But only if it were interesting.
That being said, it wasn’t a sort of carte blanche endorsement from Kelly. In fact, though he said there was nothing official in the works. However, while discussing the possibility of putting this together, he said the hardest part would be finding a bass player fit enough to pull off what Steele was doing on those songs.
“Oh yeah, of course [I’d love to have Ann Wilson] or like somebody of that caliber, but to do something as far as a tribute. Not to recreate… Peter really was a one-of-a-kind person in his approach to music, the way that he sang. The hardest thing that we’ll ever be able to find is somebody that plays bass like Peter, I’ve been fortunate enough, I’ve been able to meet and play with a lot of great bass players from all over the spectrum throughout the years. I play in a band every weekend, I play in a band with Rudy Sarzo and nobody plays a bass like Peter did.
“It’s not just his tone, because I see like on YouTube and stuff that a lot of people will try to recreate his tone. It was like that [story] of Ted Nugent talking about Eddie Van Halen? He picks up Eddie Van Halen’s guitar and he tries to play it and it sounds like crap, but when Eddie plays it, it’s this magical thing. It sounds like Eddie. That’s the same thing with Peter. His bass tech or somebody would do sound check with us and it would just be squeals and screeches and noises and all kinds of stuff, like hardly a note. But Peter picks up the bass, puts it in his hands, it becomes an instrument.
“His whole approach to bass playing was so unique. It’s like, yeah you could find somebody to sing. Grab a baritone guy, whatever – give him fangs and you get Peter. But to get somebody to have their that approach to the bass like that, nobody I’ve ever played with plays like him. He’s really something unique unto himself, and I think a lot of times that gets overlooked.”
