Singer Jim Gillette explains what went wrong with Nitro’s reunion a few years ago

Singer Jim Gillette explains what went wrong with Nitro’s reunion a few years ago

Nitro frontman Jim Gillette was recently interviewed by Metal Mike for the 80’s Glam Metalcast podcast.

Gillette was asked what went wrong with Nitro‘s reunion a few years ago to which he replied (as transcribed by the 80’s Glam Metalcast podcast with slight edits):

“Mike [Angelo Batio] had a lot of stuff going on. His mom got sick and then she died. She was a great lady. He was going though all that. I was busy building houses. It just wasn’t in the cards. He’d start to go and then something would happen. We could have went to a label that specializes in 80’s bands, but we didn’t want to go and be in the same situation as round one. We were going to try and do it on our own. We were working on some crazy, heavy stuff. The fans would have heard some stuff that was similar to O.F.R., but we never got to record it. “It Won’t Die” was the most normal, non-scary song that we had written. They wouldn’t have been disappointed. I don’t know if the music will ever come out. Think about O.F.R., how can we be anymore “Out Fucking Rageous” than what we did on our first album? What are we gonna do?”

With respect to the album O.F.R., Gillette opined: “I think I was a lunatic. I think we did what we set out to do…. the highest and the fastest. I haven’t heard anyone since sing in the octave range that I did on that album… or do the 32 second “Machine Gun Eddie” scream. It’s still winning as the big long screams go. I have good thoughts about it, bad thoughts, wishful thoughts about it. I wish we could have had a real producer like Bob Rock or somebody. We were never happy with the sound. We didn’t have much of a budget. The record company was pushing us in directions. I wish they would have left us alone. They really pushed us to go absolutely ballistic with the playing and singing.”

In terms of the extreme look on the back cover of O.F.R., Gillette indicated: “It came from the record company. They wanted us to have the look… that glam look. You think you won’t do things once you get to a certain point. Then you realize if you don’t play along, they won’t do anything with you. Your album will go straight in the toilet. We never once played live with our hair up or with any make up on. They wanted the photos like that. Everything bigger than life, over the top with the music and the look.

You can listen to the interview with Jim Gillette by Metal Mike for the 80’s Glam Metalcast podcast below:

Nitro‘s “Freight Train” single (from O.F.R. album):