Steel Panther open to making minor changes to their lyrics for round two on ‘America’s Got Talent’

Steel Panther open to making minor changes to their lyrics for round two on ‘America’s Got Talent’

Steel Panther consisting of frontman Michael Starr, guitarist Satchel, bassist Spyder and drummer Stix Zadinia made history last month when they appeared on the television show America’s Got Talent and passed the first round of “auditions”. Zadinia was recently interviewed by Andrew Daly for Metal Edge Mag about the group’s appearance on America’s Got Wanted and what they plan on doing for round two.

In terms of how Steel Panther ended up on America’s Got Talent, Zadinia revealed: “They actually called us a year-and-a-half ago asking us to be on the show. But our schedule at the time meant we couldn’t make it work. But they called again, and we said, “You do know what we do, right?” And they said, “Yes, we do. We still want you on the show.” And we didn’t know that it was open to professionals, so we said, “Okay, yeah, let’s do it. We’ll go compete and see what happens.” But I have to say, I’m sort of beside myself. The experience was amazing, and I’m so glad we did it.”

On whether anything unexpected came about from their performance on America’s Got Talent, Zadinia indicated: “Of, for sure. I’ve suddenly had people reach out to me whose numbers I don’t even have anymore because I haven’t heard from them in forever. I’m getting texts from random numbers saying, “Hey, bro, amazing job on America’s Got Talent. You killed it.” And I’m like, “Dude… I haven’t heard from you in like 20 years.” So, I think it’s doing a world of good for our band. And I think it will only shine a light on this music that we love.”

Steel Panther ended up performing their song “Eyes of A Panther” on America’s Got Talent. Interestingly, “Eyes of A Panther” isn’t always included in Steel Panther‘s setlist for their live performances. On how they ended up choosing to perform that song on America’s Got Talent, Zadinia stated: “It wasn’t a hard choice because “Eyes of A Panther” is one of the cleanest songs we have. [laughs] So, that was a major factor. But the other thing is that “Eyes of A Panther” is super high-energy, up-tempo, and rocking, and it’s an anthem for our band. So, those things also made the choice easy. But for the next round, the choice will be a lot more difficult because of the lyrics and the rules we have to follow on network TV.”

On whether Steel Panther are open to altering some of their lyrics if need be for their next performance(s) on America’s Got Talent, Zadinia revealed: “We’re going to do what we have to do to play within the sandbox of this situation. It’s just too good an opportunity for us to go, “We’re not going to do it because we don’t want to change this lyric.” So, if there are minor changes in lyrics that we have to make, none of us have a problem with it. I don’t want to give it away, but we’re down to three songs we might play. You’ll have to see what we choose once we’re out for the second round.”

Wikipedia indicates the following in part about America’s Got Talent (with slight edits): “America’s Got Talent (often abbreviated as AGT) is a televised American talent show competition, and is part of the global Got Talent franchise created by Simon Cowell. The program is produced by Fremantle USA (as well as distributed by) and Syco Entertainment, and broadcasts on the NBC television network. It premiered on June 21, 2006, after plans for a British edition in 2005 were suspended, following a dispute within the British broadcaster ITV. Production would later resume in 2007, following the success of the first season. Each season is mainly run during the network’s summer schedule, and has featured various hosts over the course of the program’s history. The current host is Terry Crews.

The program attracts a variety of participants from across the United States and abroad, who possess some form of talents. Acts range from singing, dancing, comedy, magic, stunts, variety and other genres. Each participant or act who auditions, attempts to secure a place in the live episodes of a season, by impressing a panel of judges. The current line-up consists of Cowell, Howie Mandel, Heidi Klum, and Sofía Vergara. Participants making it into the live episodes, compete against each other for both the judges’ and public’s vote, in order to reach the live final. The winner receives a large cash prize (primarily paid over a period of time), and since the third season, a chance to headline a show on the Las Vegas Strip.

The show itself has been a rating success for NBC, drawing in on average around 10 million viewers per season.”

Steel Panther performing “Eyes of A Panther” on America’s Got Talent: