THE WHEELBLOCKS Feat. AVENGED SEVENFOLD, ALICE COOPER, FOZZY, Ex-MACHINE HEAD Members: Cover Of IRON MAIDEN’s ‘Aces High’ Available
Chris Jericho (FOZZY), Nita Strauss (ALICE COOPER), Phil Demmel (VIO-LENCE, ex-MACHINE HEAD), Johnny Christ (AVENGED SEVENFOLD) and Nita’s longtime boyfriend Josh Villalta, who also plays drums in her solo band and manages her career, have formed a new…
Chris Jericho (FOZZY), Nita Strauss (ALICE COOPER), Phil Demmel (VIO-LENCE, ex-MACHINE HEAD), Johnny Christ (AVENGED SEVENFOLD) and Nita's longtime boyfriend Josh Villalta, who also plays drums in her solo band and manages her career, have formed a new "supergroup" called THE WHEELBLOCKS. The official music video for the band's first recording, a cover version of the IRON MAIDEN classic "Aces High", can be seen below.
Asked by Loudwire if there are any plans for THE WHEELBLOCKS to record more material beyond "Aces High", Jericho said: "Absolutely. The idea was one and done, record it, put it online. It was mixed by Kile Odell, who did the last FOZZY Top 10. I wanted it mixed properly and I told him the same thing I told him when I did the KUARANTINE songs. I said, 'Pretend IRON MAIDEN is a brand new band and this is their song in 2020. I don't want it mixed like it's 1985. Let's take the song and mix it like it's now.' It's going to sound great on the radio as our song. Same with the video, it was edited by a great editor out of Seattle called Dima Levanchuk. I wanted it done professionally and to make something out of this and I think that's why it's going to go further than just your regular supergroup-Instagram-YouTube thing. We're going to take it to radio and put a little bit of steam behind it and see how far that goes. If we end up with a hit like we did with KUARANTINE, I’d love to do more with WHEELBLOCKS. It's a great collection of people and musicians, for sure."
Jericho is also a member of another rock "supergroup", the aforementioned KUARANTINE, which performs cover versions of songs from the non-makeup era of KISS. That band has released two singles so far, "Heart Of Chrome" and "No No No", via Madison Records with distribution by The Orchard. Jericho is joined in KUARANTINE by drummer Kent Slucher (LUKE BRYAN), guitarist Joe McGinness (KLASSIK '78) and bassist PJ Farley (TRIXTER).