The Lizard King may be long dead in a Parisian grave, but London’s King Lizard is very much alive, very much kicking and very much above ground. Seeking a little hard rock vitality, I took a call from a certain Flash Roxx for a shot of the good stuff.
Geeks Unleashed: What inspired the name King Lizard? And while we’re at it, what inspired the pseudonyms?
Flash Roxx: I wanted something that sounded massive and triumphant. The name King Lizard came from what I thought was the translation of ‘Godzilla’ although I think the actual translation is ‘Giant Monster’ which kind of coveys the same sentiment.
As for our names, Niro is a slight variation of his actual name, Moyano is his surname Lee is…well that’s his name! Flash basically came from Flash Gordon when me and my old band coming up with ridiculous stage names, the other guys had names like ‘Wolf’ and ‘Randy’ and some people still call him that. My name stuck when I started college and I was late all the time so it’s kind of a sarcastic nick name which I’ve had for half my life now and pretty much everyone in my life calls me that.
GU: On a similar vein, what led you to a life of rock and roll?
FR: I don’t know actually, I guess I just fell in love with the big stadium bands, Queen, Guns N’ Roses etc and from my first gig I was hooked on that high of performing in front of people, I think that’s pretty much the same for all of us.
GU: I recently cited that your sound was like a meeting of Thin Lizzy, Iron Maiden, Alice Cooper, whiskey and Marlboro. What are your thoughts on this matter?
FR: Niro would agree with the Alice Cooper ref, I’m not sure about Thin Lizzy but I don’t really listen to them. Whiskey, yes but I’d prefer a tequila if you’re buying! I think Lee would prefer Cutters Choice over Marlboro…
GU: Do you have any interesting or unusual pre-gig rituals?
FR: Scrambling for pen and a paper in the last few minutes because we forgot to write a set list out! We always put Danny DeVito on the guestlist…oh and Tequila…
GU: If you had to choose one famous guitar lick, riff or solo to give an award to, which one would it be?
FR: Sweet Child O’ Mine…I don’t think anything will ever replicate the genius and originality of that opening lick. Although Niro’s workin on it…
GU: What advice would you give to budding metal-heads trying to get into the business?
FR: Don’t over play the same area, write an album’s worth of your best songs and release them on your own, ‘Mr.Big McRecord Deal’ isn’t just gonna stroll into a pub gig. Get your stuff out there use the Internet to its max and get it heard. Also believe in yourself and push it all the way.
GU: Tell me about your bid for Sweden Rock.
FR: We want exposure, we love playing festivals and we went down brilliantly in Sweden where they really love their rock n’ roll. We wanna do all the festivals, one of the best gigs of my lif was playing on the main stage of France’s Moto-Cultor fest but Sweden Rock would really be amazing, we got a good thing going here we just want everyone to hear it! So we put that link up where people can put a wish list, it worked with Bloodstock and that was awesome. We got awarded a plaque or something on the main stage for being the best in our category then mooned the audience…awesome.
GU: What’s next for King Lizard for the coming 18 months?
FR: World domination, everyone says that. I dunno, the plan is to be playing everywhere, festivals too. We’ve shot our first music video for the album, that’s in the edit now and we got ideas for more. We’ve already got ideas for the third album which I hope will be out by then.
Mark Brassington 