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Las Vegas’ Franky Perez talks about his new hard rock supergroup

Vegas Voices is a weekly feature highlighting notable Las Vegans.

There he was, fronting a Finnish cello heavy metal troupe in the wilds of Russia.

Just another day on the Trans-Siberian Express for Franky Perez.

“Dude, we ended our tour in Siberia!” the singer exclaims, still sounding incredulous over a show he played several years ago. “I’m not even joking.”

Yet it sounds almost farcical: a born-and-raised Vegas boy traveling the world with Scandinavian neoclassical headbangers Apocalyptica.

Perez’s tenure with that globally renowned act is but one entry on his lengthy resume.

Since making the rounds locally with his first band, Sol Grown, in the mid-’90s, Perez has landed his own major-label record deal as a solo act, played with rockers Scars on Broadway, featuring Daron Malakian and John Dolmayan of System of a Down, performed with all-star cover band Camp Freddy, hit the road with Slash and fronted his own band, FXP, among numerous other projects.

Most recently, Perez made headlines with the announcement of his latest band, hard rock supergroup Deadland Ritual, in which he sings alongside Black Sabbath bassist Geezer Butler, Billy Idol guitarist Steve Stevens and ex-Guns N’ Roses/Velvet Revolver drummer Matt Sorum.

The dude’s busy — but not too busy to discuss what he’s been up to lately.

Review-Journal: How did Deadland Ritual come about?

Franky Perez: It’s unbelievable, man. I get to play in a band with a few of my heroes. Steve Stevens and Matt and I have been friends for years. We’ve always thrown out the idea of starting something, and the thing about this business is just doing it. … So we were just like, “Let’s commit to this. Let’s make this happen.” We’ve actually been working on this for about a year, piecing it together, making sure the songs are right. And here we are.

You talk about being in bands with your heroes. Was there a learning curve in terms of becoming comfortable working with them?

One of my first experiences on a big level was that Slash had asked me to go be his frontman at this gig in Norway (in 2009). It was called the Quart Festival. I’ll never forget it. The band was myself, Slash, Jason Bonham (drums), John 5 (guitars), Chris Chaney (bass) and the guests were Fergie, Ozzy and Ron Wood. We were the headliners.

I remember sitting backstage in my own room, and I was nervous — like you should be. The day you lose your nerves is the day you gotta hang it up. But then I remember sitting there and I was like, “You know what? You worked your (expletive) off. You’re here for a reason. You belong here. You step into those shoes and you move forward.” I’ll never forget it, man. I walked onto that stage, we opened up with Led Zeppelin’s “Immigrant Song” in front of 28,000 vikings, and I just owned it. From that day forward, that’s been my mantra, “You belong here. Now show them.”

You were part of the Las Vegas scene that prefaced the era of local bands really breaking out, like The Killers and Imagine Dragons.

I am extremely proud of that, and I’m proud of all my peers, these guys who’ve made it. I was in bands at the same time (Killers drummer) Ronnie Vannucci was in bands. We cut our teeth in the same scene, and to see the success that those guys have reached, it just makes me proud. We accomplished something in Vegas in terms of music on the bigger level that’s pretty unprecedented. One of my best friends who I still speak to to this day is Brandon Campbell from the Neon Trees. My first band was with that guy. That was the mid-’90s. Ronnie was in a band called Atta Boy Skip. The Crystal Method — which is one of my best friends now, Scott Kirkland — they had already broken out of Vegas. It was a really cool time for music, and I’m glad to have been a part of it. We took pride in our scene.

Two decades after that, you’re fronting a Finnish cello heavy metal band.

If you had asked me back then, that’s the last thing I would have ever said, “Yeah, one of these days, I’m going to be in an arena in Russia shoulder to shoulder with a virtuoso cello player.” That was one of the most amazing experiences. I got to share the stage with four of the most talented musicians I’ve ever stepped on a stage with. I gotta watch what I say, because one of the guys, Perttu (Kivilaakso), his head would probably blow up, wouldn’t be able to fit through the door, but I got to stand next to greatness. That guy was a child prodigy in Finland. Every night, the guy never phoned it in. It was like watching Yo-Yo Ma play metal.

You talk about touring Europe. All we hear here is that rock is dead.

It’s far from dead. I got signed to Atlantic in my early 20s when there were still huge record deals and MTV was still playing videos. So I got to see that. And I also got to see that go away. But there’s a cycle in music. It all comes back around. At the end of the day, people want honesty out of their music. Someone wants to see a guy pick up an instrument and play it, and they want to see a guy grab a mic and sing into it without Auto-Tune. You don’t have to look too far, man. Go to a rock concert.

Contact Jason Bracelin at jbracelin@reviewjournal.com or 702-383-0476. Follow @JasonBracelin on Twitter.

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