Chuck Wright Builds an "Army of Me"
Ex-Quiet Riot, House of Lords, and Giuffria bassist prepares for first solo album launch.
Hello, and thank you for spending part of your day with Michael’s Record Collection. I’m not sure if it sounds redundant to thank the readers in every issue (if so, please email me and let me know at michaelsrecordcollection@gmail.com), but I truly mean it. There is so much competition for people’s attention these days and I’m glad to have you along. I hope this newsletter is bringing you some measure of enjoyment each week. I also hope you’re being open to sampling at least some of the music that is discussed herein.
This week, I spoke with Chuck Wright, a bassist and composer who has been a member of Quiet Riot on and off over the years. Let’s get into his story.
A lot of music fans have heard Chuck Wright’s work even if they might not know who he is. A bassist, vocalist, and composer, Chuck’s work has been heard on hit songs, in films, and backing up some of rock’s biggest stars. He’s best known for his multiple stints in Quiet Riot. Wright appeared on the band’s 1983 smash hit album Metal Health, playing bass on “Metal Health (Bang Your Head)” and “Don’t Wanna Let You Go” and adding backing vocals. He and Rudy Sarzo both have bass parts on the album.
Wright was also the bassist in Giuffria, which had a top 15 hit with “Call to the Heart” from the band’s self-titled album that reached No. 26 on the Billboard albums chart in 1985. He also worked with Gregg Giuffria in their subsequent band, House of Lords. He’s worked with many well-known stars, such as Alice Cooper, Gregg Allman, Slash, Ronnie Montrose, John Waite, Ratt’s Stephen Pearcy, and many more.
He even worked on the music tracks for comedian Sam Kinison’s 1990 Leader of the Banned album, although he never even actually met Kinison during those sessions. He’s also done film score work on various movies, including Kull the Conqueror — along with Matt Sorum from Guns N’ Roses.
After years of playing and singing in bands and backing other musicians, Wright is ready to put his name right up front with his new project, Chuck Wright’s Sheltering Sky. Utilizing more than 30 musicians, Sheltering Sky is more solo project than band, and Wright is planning an early 2022 album release. The first single, “Army of Me,” was recently released to YouTube and the various streaming outlets. If that title sounds familiar, “Army of Me” is a cover of Bjork’s song from her 1995 album Post.
“What happened was, I was going through some files, and I came across the song that I had recorded the basic track for with the late Pat Torpey from Mr. Big and my longtime friend Lanny Cordola, who's in House of Lords with me. When I found the track, it just was drums and the guitar and bass, and I go, ‘This song needs to be finished.’ So, I found the right singer for it, Whitney Tai, who’s featured on it and actually she’s on a couple other songs on the album. And I enlisted a few other people that did join in and played on it.”
Tai provides a more soulful and breathier vocal than the Bjork version and the song has a hypnotic quality. It’s a rock song with a bit of an industrial vibe. Torpey and Wright lay down a rhythmic groove that provides a solid foundation for Cordola’s guitar, keyboards by Sven Martin (Jonathan Davis Band), and Tai to play and sing over.
It may seem like an odd choice for a cover from someone with Wright’s rock and roll credentials. It was the message of the song that drew Wright in.
“Bjork wrote the lyric about her brother, telling him to get his act together,” he said. “For me, it’s like, ‘Hey, wake up world, get your act together.’”
The idea from the album sprung from a productive period of writing during the COVID-19 pandemic.
“Basically, because of the pandemic, I had the time to just get back into composing. And I recorded a bunch of songs,” he said. “And you know, I would contact friends of mine and go ‘hey, what do you think of this?’ and they’d immediately go, ‘let me play on it.’”
Wright enlisted the help of more than 30 guests for the upcoming album, which is mostly done. It includes (among others) members of Skid Row, Asia, Mr. Big, and ex-Dream Theater keyboardist Derek Sherinian. Wright said he also has some jazz fusion musicians.
“It's a really diverse record, musically,” he said. “I mean, it covers a lot of territory. I guess the overreaching thing is rock, but I definitely cover everything. There’s prog. There’s jazz fusion. I’m now working on a Celtic piece. I have a couple of killer heavy funk tunes that feature Jeff Scott Soto singing on one and (former Steve Priest’s Sweet vocalist) Joe Retta singing on the other one. Both those guys sing R&B things amazingly. But it has a rock-ish kind of Living Color (vibe) and (Red Hot) Chili Peppers meets…something, I don’t know how else to describe it.”
The state of the world brought a darkness to the music, according to Wright. The last couple of years haven’t been the brightest ones for many people, and that worked its way into the album.
“It has a darker vibe maybe, lyrically, with so much loss going on,” he said. “I wrote a song right when (Quiet Riot drummer) Frankie Banali passed away (in August of 2020). I sat down that day when I heard, and it came out just beautiful. It’s called ‘See You on the Other Side.’”
The current single, “Army of Me,” has a uniquely animated video with an army of Ruth Bader Ginsburgs marching past the White House, cut with scenes of the musicians involved and scenes of civil unrest. At the end, the camera pulls back to show an unidentified person smashing a TV screen.
“The video reflects 2020 and the chaos of the world,” Wright said.
Wright liked an idea he saw of 3-D animation of Egyptian figures dancing to Michael Jackson and asked a friend of his to create the army of Ruth Bader Ginsburgs for the video.
“Ruth Bader Ginsburg was in the period of time when she was just passing away and what better person to represent an army of people left behind after she passed?” he said.
Here’s the music video:
Wright said he is targeting a March 2022 release for the album on Cleopatra Records. He’s not quite finished recording it yet, however.
“I’ve got five more songs to finish up. They’re very close (to completion) and I’m hoping to finish before Christmas,” he said. “And then, at that point, I’d like to do one more video. I have to decide what song is the best one to do.”
As a fan of the 1980s metal scene, I had to ask Wright about his participation on Quiet Riot’s “Metal Health (Bang Your Head),” because it’s such an iconic song that helped usher in the hair metal era and inspired so many young musicians.
“I was in the studio, and I remember being asleep on the couch and (lead singer) Kevin (DuBrow) — I think it was Kevin or Frankie (Banali) — said ‘Hey, it's time to do your bass track for ‘Bang Your Head’ and I went, ‘Oh, really? Okay.’ So, I woke up and I went in there. I said, ‘Turn it up.’ And I did it in one take except for the last note because it's one of those where you hold it out.”
Wright also recalled arguing with DuBrow about recording a cover of Slade’s “Cum On Feel the Noize.” Producer Spencer Proffer had played the song for them, but DuBrow wanted to do all originals. Wright said he pointed out to DuBrow that there weren’t any songs on the album that sounded like singles. DuBrow ended up not only doing it — and it became a massive hit — but also doing another Slade cover (“Mama Weer All Crazee Now”) on the band’s next album, Condition Critical.
“(Recording “Cum On Feel the Noize”) changed the course of probably the whole music scene and fabric of it during that period of time,” Wright said. “I was really shocked honestly (when the band recorded “Mama Weer All Crazee Now”). I was called in on the second album, Condition Critical, to sing again. They wanted that same background sound. I ended up actually doing a bass track too. I said, ‘You guys are going to do another Slade song, really?’ It was successful for them.”
Although Wright was for doing “Cum On Feel the Noize,” he didn’t necessarily agree that Quiet Riot should go back to the Slade well.
“I would have gone with something that really established them and what they’re about instead of doing that again,” he said.
To find out more about Wright’s work and to get updates on the upcoming Sheltering Sky release, visit his website at ChuckWright.com.
Chuck and I talked about several topics, including his time in Giuffria, what it was like working with Ted Nugent, and more. For the entire interview, check out the video below.
Thanks again for your time today. This newsletter, as well as the Michael’s Record Collection video channel and podcast, can only grow with the help of you, spreading the word. Just as you likely did growing up, whenever you fell in love with an album or a song, please consider telling someone about (and sharing) this issue or the MRC newsletter with a friend, coworker, or family member who loves music.