JOHNNY KELLY Explains Why A TYPE O NEGATIVE Tribute Show Would Actually Be Difficult, And It’s Not The Vocals

Type O Negative guitarist Kenny Hickey recently said he’d be down for a tribute show for the band’s late and great frontman Peter Steele. Now in an interview with Loaded Radio, Type O Negative drummer Johnny Kelly also said he’d be down, but had a pretty interesting take on the idea.

In the interview, Kelly pointed out that there’s obviously nothing on the books and that Hickey was just saying he’d like for it to happen. Kelly then notes that the real difficult part of having a Type O Negative tribute wouldn’t be the vocals, but finding someone that can play bass like Steele. Which is a great observation – it seems like Steele‘s skills as a bassist are always overshadowed by his vocals, but the man was one hell of a bassist.

“Oh yeah, of course [I’d love to have Ann Wilson] or like somebody of that caliber, but to do something as far as a tribute. Not to recreate… Peter really was a one-of-a-kind person in his approach to music, the way that he sang. The hardest thing that we’ll ever be able to find is somebody that plays bass like Peter, I’ve been fortunate enough, I’ve been able to meet and play with a lot of great bass players from all over the spectrum throughout the years. I play in a band every weekend, I play in a band with Rudy Sarzo and nobody plays a bass like Peter did.

“It’s not just his tone, because I see like on YouTube and stuff that a lot of people will try to recreate his tone. It was like that [story] of Ted Nugent talking about Eddie Van Halen? He picks up Eddie Van Halen‘s guitar and he tries to play it and it sounds like crap, but when Eddie plays it, it’s this magical thing. It sounds like Eddie. That’s the same thing with Peter. His bass tech or somebody would do sound check with us and it would just be squeals and screeches and noises and all kinds of stuff, like hardly a note. But Peter picks up the bass, puts it in his hands, it becomes an instrument.

“His whole approach to bass playing was so unique. It’s like, yeah you could find somebody to sing. Grab a baritone guy, whatever – give him fangs and you get Peter. But to get somebody to have their that approach to the bass like that, nobody I’ve ever played with plays like him. He’s really something unique unto himself, and I think a lot of times that gets overlooked.”