Ronnie Atkins of Pretty Maids

message in all this. But that’s not something you think about when you’re young – or younger – and healthy – you don’t think about death and that life can suddenly change like a flash in the sky. But I learned that by experience, and that of course inspired me to do those lyrics. And not just for that song – a couple of the songs on the album are directly linked to my situation. Some of your Pretty Maids

like working with them on

didn’t get to see them in person? Well it as great! I hadn’t played with Morten Sandager the keyboard player – I’ve always loved this guy and we always had so much fun together when he was in the band – and then suddenly he left for personal reasons. So it was good to have him on board again – he’s a great keyboard player and a great piano player – I’ve missed him since the day he left. I love Chris who now plays keyboards but that’s a different story. I always miss Morten and I always had a good relationship with Allan Sørensen as well – he’s a fucking awesome drummer and he did a great job on this album. So it was all cool. I felt it was like they knew me and I knew them – and Chris is still in the band. And he’s just a joyful guy – a happy guy – and he’s been there with me all the time through the illness and encouraged me. He said, “Go ahead man. Hit me! Send me your ideas and we’ll work it out.” It was a match made in heaven for me to work with some familiar faces anyways.

Madness? That’s a good question. That happens on the tour bus... (Much laughter) But I can’t go too much into detail about these stories. I’m sure there are other people that are better at telling them. Undress Your Madness – I guess I always did – when I leave home, I’ve got my family here – I’ve got a good wife whose taking care of things when I’m on the road – when I’ve been touring in the past. And then you go on the tour bus – you put on a different cap – and I guess that’s where I Undress My Madness – so to speak. Cuz that’s where all the fun is – that’s where all that I dream about since I was 10 years old is – that’s where all my dreams come true – and that’s where it happens if you catch my point – all the craziness!

From day one, we shared the same dream. We shared the same goal. We wanted to do the same thing and I think we very quickly discovered that we could use each other – like two equally big egos. In fact, it’s quite crazy that our relationship would last for all these years. I mean, just look at it like these two alpha makes in the same gang for 38-39 years – that’s pretty crazy! We wanted to do the same thing and we shared the same sense of humor – besides that, we’re very different persons, you know. But I’m very happy for all the stuff we’ve accomplished together – in particularly of course stuff in the 80’s and what we did in the last 10-11 years I think has been on a very high level. We’ve been able to still write good songs and show that we had some sort of relevance to the scene still. And I’m very, very proud about that – since we did the Pandemonium album all the way to the last album.

band. What goes through your mind that you’ve actually done anything for 40 years? Well I see myself first of all as an old fart. (Much laughter.) Nah, I can’t believe it’s 40 years seriously, because for me – they say time flies when you’re having fun and fun we indeed had. It’s totally surreal to me that it’s 40 years ago. It doesn’t feel like it’s been 40 years. I can’t understand. But 40 fantastic years – we might have done some bad record deals and stuff like that, but I think we made our impact on the scene. And I know that a lot of younger bands were inspired by us and stuff like that. And I think that’s the ultimate gratitude you can get for

that. I’m very grateful to hear that when I hear about young bands being inspired by some of our songs or cover some of our old songs. Then there’s been a purpose. But it’s been fantastic absolutely!

Everything. Everything. Because if it wasn’t for the fans, we wouldn’t be here still after all of these years. I always like to connect with the fans and take time off after the concerts to chat with the fans and sign autographs and stuff like that. For the fans, I am very grateful toward the fans, because they mean everything for me – everything to me – and everything to every band really. And you should treat them with respect of course. And particularly, I’m very thankful and grateful to all the fans – in particular in the last year and a half when I’ve been going through all this shit with the cancer and everything. I had so many heart warm messages, greetings, stuff like that on the social medias – and that actually did lift me up at times because it means a lot to me in my situation when you’re in the pit, if you know what I’m saying. So the fans means everything.

United States? Absolutely! I seriously hope that one day we will make it to the States. I know that my situation is difficult now with everything that goes on, but my wish is to go back onstage again in some constellation. And if that was in America, I wouldn’t mind. But basically I have to seek for permission from the insurance company because I’m in the situation I’m in just to travel. I can’t predict my future, but all I can say is I hope I’ll be able to play on American soil again and I hope to all our American fans that you’ll dig this new album One Shot – and hopefully I’ll be able to play live in front of you at some point. That’s my dream…

Thank you. Thank you, Ken. And remember to cross your toes as well, right? (Laughter)

I’ll do my best, man. I hope to see you too Ken. Nice talking to you and God bless you over there – and everything with the Corona situation – I hope it gets better over there as well as soon as possible so we can get back to normal and go see some live shows! That would be nice…

PRESENTED BY HIGHWIRE DAZE MAGAZINE

PRESENTED BY HIGHWIRE DAZE MAGAZINE

Interview by Ken Morton - Photos by Jack Lue

Paradise Kitty - All Girls - All Guns N’ Roses! That is their mantra, and this Los Angeles-based tribute band deliver the goods in nothing short of an epic way! The party arrives big time when Paradise Kitty take to the stage, performing the world famous GnR classics with a massive amount of skill and conviction. Recently, famed photographer Jack Lue and Paradise Kitty recreated the iconic Guns N’ Roses photo from Canter’s Deli taken at the conclusion of the GnR Hell Tour. In this interview with Highwire Daze, founding Kittys Rachael Rine and Jenna Syde discuss the photo shoot with Jack Lue, the creation of Paradise Kitty, our local Los Angeles music scene, and other hard rockin’ topics. Read on...

Introduce yourself, tell me what you do in Paradise Kitty, and how long the band has been together. Rachael Rine (Drums) and Jenna Syde (on Vocals) both here. The two of us have kept this ship sailing for about 5 years now. What do you think about our local Los Angeles music scene (pre-pandemic) and how does Paradise Kitty and tribute

Rachael: Los Angeles has always been a bedrock for what hits the rest of the world musically. Sometimes though we all get so busy touring and actually working that we don’t spend much time hanging in the scene. Although Paradise Kitty tributes Guns n’Roses, we’ve never really considered ourselves a tribute band or aligned with that scene. We just happen to play Gn’R songs but we bring our own flair live.

You recently did a photo shoot recreating the iconic Guns ‘N Roses / Canters photo shoot with photographer Jack Lue. What was that experience like working with Jack Lue and

Jenna: Jack has been a longtime supporter of Paradise Kitty and when he asked us to do this shoot we were delighted to partake. It was fun to embody the Gn’R spirit and get the feel of Los Angeles in it’s heyday. Jack is a sweetheart and a true professional and we adore him.