Overkill’s new cd called Killbox 13 is on the edge of release and we had the chance to talk to the man that is in the band for already 22 years. He and D.D. Verni started Overkill in 1981 and 17 records later he is sitting in front of me. Recovered from his stroke he had last year, he is ready to take over the stage, his name……………Bobby “Blitz” Ellsworth.

PFY: How about your health nowadays?
B’B’E: Yeah, good. I recovered quite quickly after my little incident in Nürberg. It took me the rest of the summer to get rid of the pain and before going into the studio again. I was doing everything I did before the stroke but I am optimistic, I just have to be careful that it doesn’t happen again I have to take care of myself. But right now I’m looking forward on the release, doing a lot of promo work and look forward to do what I did before.

PFY: So this is you 17th album, can you tell us some about it?
B’B’E: If I have to look at this album and give an opinion about it it’s always hard, because I’m involved in every part of it, the writing, parts of the production, performing it but I think it’s a good representation of all the different personalities of Overkill. The slower personality the mid-tempo personality, the melodic personality, the fast personality, the trashy personality, that’s a collection of all this. I also think it’s a good blend of let’s say our history combined with our present. Dave Linsk had a good part in helping to get this record in a good direction and added so much positive guitar work that the guitar is back for us.

PFY: Where did you get the title from?
B’B’E: It’s our 13th studio session that includes an EP we released called Overkill, and Killbox is the screen in the cockpit of a fighter jet it’s for the pilot to hit the target. I collect words; it’s one from my collections. I even make up my own!! But when I heard the word Killbox I thought this word is something for the band.

PFY: What do you personally expect from this release?
B’B’E: Personally I learned to not expect anything. If we do the best possible job, the record becomes acceptable and positive for me and I think that goes for the rest of the band too. The idea is that if we had an opportunity to do it again therefore we have to do as much as we can within that record. It’s just the final result come from the circumstances and the situation in which it’s recorded and written under, but if it comes to our input or the amount of effort. That is always the same. I look at it can I be satisfied when it’s done? When I press play on Killbox I have a high level of satisfaction based on again collecting all those personalities and kind of re-inventing Overkill on it, so it’s a positive feeling for me.

PFY: You tell you write about a lot of personal things, do you live those things in life?
B’B’E: It’s not necessarily about instances in my life, when I write lyrics I look inside and try to look deeper into it each time. The deeper I look or the deeper I look inside the longer the journey becomes for me. It’s not hard to find topics, I look at hope and dream, fear, I look at shortcomings, I look at strongpoint within myself and I look deeper in it every record. In this record I looked at those like I peeled another layer of an onion. What I did I weave the concept of the seven deadly sins into our songs in how it rules my life in some cases and in some cases I don’t want it to rule my life. So I thought it was an interesting prospective, and I think that it’s not in an identifies prospective, because many people several hopes and dreams and fears, and I also think people can identify with the seven deadly sin concept I mean it’s evident, they are everywhere. And how does it reply to me, it replies to me as I see it in Killbox 13.

PFY: Can we expect a mayor world tour to promote this album?
B’B’E: That’s the way it always goes with us, the European tour that we are playing is for September. Prior in Europe we will be doing festivals like ”Bang Your Head” and maybe some dates between the festivals.

PFY: You had to cancel last years Bang Your Head festival, can we expect something special this year?
B’B’E: Yeah, I’m coming out in a wheelchair ha ha ha. I would do it just to see the expression on the peoples faces. We were very lucky to have the opportunity to bounce back for that.
I don’t really take it as a joke, but I see the sense of humor part of the cure. I mean if you can’t laugh anymore what’s left of life, it necessary for me to do that, it’s part of Overkill, I mean we take our music seriously, we don’t take our self so seriously. I didn’t come into this business or music with great aspirations of being a rock star and having your respect because I’m a rock star, it has nothing to do with that, it has to do with the opportunity for me to do this stuff. I was a head banger way before I was the singer in Overkill, I was standing in front of a mirror holding a broom and banging my head to “No Sleep Till Hammersmith”, this is fucking life as I look at it. It’s a simple formula for me and the formula is based on the fact that I enjoy what I do and that’s what keeps it going.

PFY: You have already been so long in this business isn’t it hard to survive all those years?
B’B’E: Well if you find something you love, you don’t have the feeling your working ha ha ha, that’s another way to look at it that why I avoided a major label for all those years, I could be doing something I don’t like doing, so I look at it as a positive aspect of my life the thing that gives me the energy to continue to go on, I love it and I love it with the same amount as I started, the change is happened that I now control the things I do instead of the things control me. I know about record deals, I know about touring, I know about booking, writing and studio work and I know year after year, so it’s a great experience. How many guys get the chance to go to Germany once or twice a year or whole Europe once or twice a year, or Asia, San Paulo Brazil playing for 2000 screaming head bangers who been waiting 19 years to see you, that is what I did last year, it’s a great thing. I don’t have the time to look at it t as it is a hard thing to do, this is quit easy.

PFY: Has the industry changed a lot since you started to sing?
B’B’E: Yeah sure, I changed as a person, my constant life has changed, we changed a lot of members in the band, I’m a different man than I was when I met D.D., it’s 22 years ago, it’s different personally, professionally. People ask me is it harder to do more shows now, I say it’s not because I feel I have the condition to do them, it’s not that when I have to do 150 shows for the release of the record I go like oh my god 149 to go, oh my god 148 to go, I’m going to do this, we changed, but we did not change negatively, I just got more control in what I do and what I like to do.
When we first came, there was heavy metal, hair metal and trash metal and that was pretty much it, now you got so many subgenres. Heavy metal was Judas Priest, pop and hair metal was Def Leppard and Poison and trash metal was Slayer. Now you have new metal and real metal and shit metal, great metal and not great metal, black metal and death metal and it goes on and on, you split the genre of heavy music. The reason why pop- and hair metal was separated from heavy metal was because it was commercial music, it was pop, it were just people wearing make up and woman clothes singing pop songs, it didn’t have to do anything with metal at all.

PFY: Talking about member changes, do you think you got a steady line up now?
B’B’E: I learned through the change never say never, I can’t say which a clear conscious this is the one because I’ve been surprised so many times through the years and I think it should be understood that
D.D. and I have been here since the beginning of this and there is only one guy being thrown out of the band everyone else has left on their own decision, maybe to become singer in a band like Slayer or to spend more time with their family so they can’t tour anymore. It’s their decision and that why I can’t say this is THE new Overkill line up. Am I happy with this line up? Listen to Killbox, it’s very, very simple, that’s the result of this line up.

PFY: You are very energetic on stage, are you the same off stage or are there two Bobby’s?
B’B’E: Well the excitement of standing there for 90 minutes raises the level of energy, you know this is 2500 shows for me now but I still get that feeling in my stomach, my eyes get bigger and my hands are sweating before I go on stage. It’s Bobby that you see, but its Bobby with a little bit more gasoline in his tank, it’s probably the same personality. I still got the adrenaline kick when I go on stage, it’s a fucking drug.

PFY: How do you keep yourself in shape?
B’B’E: Oh, I exercise, I do work outs and I stopped drinking 8 years ago. I’m still very thin but I put a few pounds on, it was just a change in lifestyle for me, I’m anti drink for me and I’m aware that that helped. I have to do so many shows a year, so it’s not that I’m sitting on the coach eating chips and drinking beer, I’m riding motorcycles, camping with my wife and I’m moving. I also do bicycles and weights, and it helped me to keep the energy level stay high, I have the Michael Jackson dance video tape ha ha ha; Michael Jackson is the proof that there is life on other planets, he’s a fucking alien.

PFY: What was the coolest tour until now?
B’B’E: As I already told I was a metal head and head banger, and than there was a point in life for me were I got the chance to meet people were I listened to when I was a head banger, we toured with Slayer after Feel The Fire was released but than in 1988 they asked us to join them again when we released Under The Influence, we were the opening band and the middle band was Motorhead and that was awesome, there was a part of me that said I don’t want to meet Motorhead, because I might be disappointed in them but the other part of me said I want to meet them and it was a great tour, with a great memories. Everything I thought these guys would be they were plus, it was a great place to be and it was a great experience for me.
I also toured with Halford in 2000 that was also great, meeting the god of metal.

PFY: Who are your idols anyway?
B’B’E: I suppose those to, when I open my cd player there is Motorhead in it. I was a big Black Sabbath fan, I loved Alice Cooper when I was younger, I still like Alice Cooper I not saying I don’t like him now but I was really in to him than., Deep Purple, Judas Priest.

PFY: What is your worse memory of touring?
B’B’E: The worst memory of touring, well I had a fucking stroke, the memory of it self was not the greatest thing, but the confusion I went through, I didn’t know what was happening. I can tell you it wasn’t painful it was more…..eh confusing, I couldn’t tell what was happening and that was the scariest part for me, not the stroke. I could see the audience, I couldn’t see the audience and than it went black again and than white and I couldn’t hear anything and than I could hear and I saw things that moved in slow motion as if you were moving a video in very, very slow motion. I remember D.D. talking, he was moving his mouth but I couldn’t hear him talking and his mouth was moving really slow and I could tell about the expression on his face that I was fucked ha ha ha, I don’t know what he was saying to me, but I suppose that is probably one of my worst memories. But the other side of the coin is that it’s a good memory that I got through the whole thing. I didn’t fall, and I remember I was laying on the stage and there was a guy named Sebastian, he was working for Blaze, who picked me up and took me outside, this is what was told to me, and than I could hear everything that was going on and I could smell everything but I couldn’t speak or say anything, it was really a scary feeling. I knew that I was laying outside because I could smell the people pissing ha ha ha and I could hear other people say that this happened and that happened and that I was in a coma or he looks like he is choking or something. I couldn’t even say I control this, I’m ok. I can remember I think it was Derek, he was poring orange juice down my throat and I realized he was drowning me ha ha ha but there was no way for me to tell I could feel it going down my throat. So right after I got out of the coma I hit him right in the jaw with my good hand and Derek got up and said: “He is ok”. I said: “You’re fucking drowning me Derek” ha ha ha.

PFY: Were do you prefer to tour, Europe or USA?
B’B’E: Well, my first tour real tour was in Europe and I always have that as a special memory, the first show was in Munich, such a great memory, it was with Anthrax in 1986, but there is something special in playing the US for me and that it I get to play around were I live, I got to travel across the country and it’s always a challenge to tour the US because it’s so fucking big and the opportunity is really great here.