Many have alter-egos, some even have multiple personalities. Such conditions can bring out the best and worst in people however for Terry LeRoi his other, somewhat inner-self is the polar opposite of himself. A wolf-like woman of twilight years that truly rocks hard, back and forth.
LeRoi also helms LeRoi XIII an alternative project that’s active when his main lady Granny 4 Barrel needs a break. While Granny definitely brings out a different side of him, they’re also unique for a band devoid of bass, armed with an equally potent violinist and a sound that could only be created by every metal heads favorite senior citizen.
Granny came from horror movies, villains and anti-heroes with psychological components to the alter ego giving it depth. It’s the perfect vehicle to express LeRoi’s disdain for stereotypes and intolerance also giving him equal satisfaction theatrically and musically.
The surrogate witch-like metal Granny that kicks ass won’t hesitate to put you in your place and is a tad grizzled. Never judge a book by its cover! The more she rocks, the younger she feels feeding off the crowd, music and some of her special cough syrup with that special extra kick.
Granny’s accent is part of her character, carrying a bit southern drawl along with some creepy backwoods charm. She’ll pinch your check but stop short of clawing your face.
The genesis and genius of Granny came from a few different horror movies and a vintage rebel attitude. “I’m a horror buff anyway.” LeRoi says. There were certain movies back in the ‘70s that really affected/damaged him. “One was Burnt Offerings. Remember how scary that old woman was? She was just evil and been in my psyche for years. I thought wouldn’t that be crazy, that kind of character fronting a metal band. It’s also based on some cartoon characters I’ve drawn for years. Little twisted figures called Sick Figures. They have stick arms and legs but they’re menacing figures. I have a granny character and it came to fruition about 10 years ago.” Granny’s been around the spotlight for about a decade.
She definitely casts a shadow like Hitchcock in front of Mother’s house. Granny goes a little bit Psycho every show, so venues without showers usually luck out. Explaining the concept is sometimes challenging, “This guy’s got a band. He’s dressed as an old woman. It’s very horror based and theatrical.” LeRoi relates to it, it’s a lot of fun exemplifying the spirit of Rock n’ Roll and freedom of expression. “That’s why I love it so much.”
Granny’s got a well earned name too, “Her first name is Wolverina. I have a crazy back story. Les Claypool from Primus could appreciate this.” Granny was born of a presumably rough and tumble tryst between a mountain dwelling human and a wolverine, a very drunken (heavy spirited) meeting. “Its way out there, we’ve played around with back story for her for years. I like to call her Wolverina, Granny Dreadful and sometimes Granny F-Bomb.”
The 4 Barrel part came from a combination of growing up in a family of outdoorsman. “My dad’s a certified pistol instructor. He was also a drag racer. Barrels from guns and carburetors just sound cool. Like old meets powerful.”
Granny’s chair resembles Karen Black’s from Burnt Offerings. “Those old wicker chairs always creep me out, with the cross hatch backs on them. Just something about them makes me afraid. I finally got one and spray-painted it black.” In the earlier years, LeRoi sat in his grandmother’s chair but didn’t want to destroy it. It was getting beat up. We got one Granny chair now and become pretty proficient in breaking it down.”
He found a way to minimum the space it took up, “Everybody else had musical problems to worry about and I have a rocking chair. I found a way to break it down fast, lay it flat, wrap it in cardboard and stuff it under the tour bus. Just shear madness.”
There’s multiple outfits for the old bag …woman, doubles too. Granny originally started out a little more redneck with an Ozark Mountains vibe. A legit backwoods cabin dweller with a depression era feel. “She evolved into a more metal granny, adding steampunk elements with the latest outfit inspired by Victorian era.”
Their newest video “The Art of Deception” was shot in an old castle on the Hudson River called Greystone Court. Veteran videographers David Brodsky and Allison Woest captured the vibe perfectly filming in super-slow-motion, capturing every motion and movement of the interpretive dancers, band and fans bringing up the visual energy. “The product speaks for itself.”
It was shot in three rooms. “You could call it a miniature castle. It was a pretty cool building. It had, like 13 themed rooms. They were all authentic, turn of the century. We shot in the primary room with the gothic arches. There was this basement area that was kinda creepy. There was this cool ornate room where you see the individual musicians spinning around on a pedestal turning really slow.”
The effect was partially created by a rotating table with cameras going back and forth. Someone’s turning one way, the camera’s moving another with a back and forth thing happening.”
LeRoi primarily sticks to being in costume and character from the dressing room/tour bus to the stage. “We just come out and there we are. We pull back the curtain and the show starts. There were moments back in the day we’d be in costume, show up and do some crazy things. On tour there’s not a lot of time to do that. It takes a little preparation so we kinda lay low. When you break up the day with sound check and everything, we’re exhausted. Just basically stay on the bus.” So don’t expect to see Granny casually walking through your local grocery store or gas station, if they’re in town. The only YouTube footage so far is on stage or interviews.
So far there haven’t been any hecklers or haters at shows. “There may be some people standing with a skeptical face with arms folded thinking what the fuck is going on. After a few songs, I feel like we win them over.”
The internet’s a different story. “When you’re gonna step off the ledge and create something like this, not everybody’s gonna welcome it with open arms. It makes people uncomfortable and that’s a good thing. I’m not doing it to provoke anyone. I’m doing it to make me happy. It’s theatrical. People seem to dig it and start supporting, shouting out, hey Granny, do something crazy! All the rock fans need a heavy metal grandmother. That’s who I am.” If they ever land on Blabbermouth, it’d be interesting to see how she’d respond to the comments section.
Props and a bigger stage presence would be great. “I would love to have the face of the stage look like a combination of what Ghost does, like a haunted house.” A live mash-up of Ghost, Rob Zombie and the Bates House, something no stage designer could resist attempting. “Something creepy like that, we could have a lot of fun with that.”
Concerning the Bates Motel series, at first he was apprehensive about watching it. “I kept seeing that advertised. I got hooked and went right through it.” Freddie Highmore (Norman) won him over fast along with Vera Farmiga (Norma Bates). “I thought they did a great job.”
Their video for “Nitro Sexy” received generous airplay while the video for “She Likes Guns” was directed by the one and only Stormy Daniels.
“Nitro Sexy” was collaboration with David Grotsby, Fury Road meets Fast and the Furious. “Back in the day on Saturday morning, they had this cartoon called Wacky Races about these groups of monsters with crazy hotrods. They out raced and tried to kill each other. It was a very Mad Max kinda thing. Let’s do something like that and get a bunch of hotrods together. David had the opportunity to rent an old drag strip that was about to be bulldozed in El Paso, Texas. We had a general outline of what we were gonna do but started winging things. It went down the road it went, no pun intended, and was pretty cool.”
There’s several shots with Granny hooked up, roof riding a hog, speeding down the strip causing questions of stunt doubles or special effects, “No, Granny doesn’t have a stunt double, it was all me. You might think he’s sitting on that chair the cars can’t be going that fast. Well you’re wrong they were going 60-70 miles an hour!” His state of mind, motives and sanity were questioned before shooting. “I did a few runs and said I got this. I had my feet locked, let’s just do it.”
The hotrod came with a couch on top used in parades. They said you really wanna put the chair on top? The couch came down, the chair went up and the wig stayed on full flight as he rode the lightning Granny style.
The creation and very pushed back release of the “She Likes Guns” video was a very different fury road.
They called Stormy Daniels to direct the video, pre-political drama. “I was recording in Georgia in Jessie James Dupree’s studio. We had the song done, and needed a video. Jessie’s like, I know Stormy Daniels, she makes movies. I was like, I know, he’s like no, she makes other movies. She’s a director. Well that’s cool. Let’s give her a call. She wanted to do it. We sent her the track, had some conversations back and forth for a few weeks and shot the video.”
At release time, gun crimes were big in the news. “Our song had nothing to do with that, it’s all innuendo.” The label decided to temporarily shelve it until things cooled down. “We held back and the next song was “Freak Flag.”” They’d sat on the video for a year then the scandal hit. “We paid for it, and were really happy with it. We just said, fuck it, let’s put it out and roll the dice.” They didn’t have an agenda, they just wanted it out. “It’s one of my favorite videos, so far. She did a really good job.”
The night before her assistant made the steampunk clock and dressed the stage. “They worked really hard and I was really proud of it. She showed me some other bands she’d worked with in the past and they were skilled.” They went over for a creative strategy meeting the day before. “They were editing some (movie) they just did. We were around but for them it was just like, this is what I do every day, just working on another film. Her whole crew is in that world. It wasn’t weird but was sorta strange seeing behind the scenes stuff in person. It was like another day at the office. So this is what happens. They weren’t filming anything.”
The performers in the “Freak Flag” video were all legit. “We put out a casting call for unique eccentric characters. They all just showed up. The casting director went through the crowd. There were a good number of folks there. They handpicked who they wanted and the rest were in those big group shots.”
As for live lineup, they’ve never had a bass player, just a violinist. “We had the bass track recorded and some backing tracks with effects, nuance sounds and stuff. Primarily that backing track is a bass. Nothing against bass players it just worked out that way.” The original lineup broke up just as they were starting to do original recording. “We had Roman Glick from Jackyl do all the bass parts. We were like; we’ll get another bass player then discovered we didn’t really need one. It’s four guys and we wanted to keep the group that way. It seemed to work better.”
On stage Granny says whatever she wants. “There’s no rating. It’s pretty much PG.” There are parents with kids in the crowd sometimes, “We’re not trying to scar the youth for life. We’re just having fun, though Granny’s definitely edgy, known to drop some F-bombs.” She’s not X-rated or super vulgar. You could expect an old woman to drop some F-bombs.”
Their first real tour was eight weeks in 2018 with Texas Hippie Coalition. “I had some anxiety the first couple shows. Roll the dice; it is what it is folks. They were really good sports about it, they loved it.”
The pandemic birthed a new project for him with Will Hunt and Troy from Evanescence and Aaron Pauley from Of Mice and Men. They recorded a cover of “Stand Up and Shout,” donating the proceeds to Dio’s charity. “Will Hunt and I are regrouping with another star lineup and releasing more songs over the next couple months.”
The initial idea’s a remix of unique and outside the box covers. “We got some pretty cool ideas and we’re gonna make videos. It’ll probably stick in that classic rock wheel house. I love that era so much.” Whether used for Granny or LaRoi XIII more originals are also being cooked up, something new from LaRoi is coming soon.
As for touring lineups, he’s pretty open. What’s cool about Granny. We fit in a lot of configurations. It’d be great to play with Rob Zombie, Judas Priest or Iron Maiden, just play with some great bands. It doesn’t have to fit just because it’s costumed and theatrical. It’s just entertainment.”
There might be shows in 2021,for sure 2022, got LaRoi XIII music coming out in the next couple months. It’s great to have two bands to rotate releases and keep things fresh. Once Granny gets her due, they’ll switch to LaRoi.
Just remember, a boys best friend is his mother, or in this case, his sweet loving Granny.
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