Chad Bowar: How would you describe the sound of Killbox 13 compared to your earlier work?

Bobby “Blitz” Ellsworth: Killbox is a good blend of our past and present. It’s probably a better blend than the last two records. What I mean by better is that it shows a little more of where we’ve come from. Not that it’s a retro record, but more of a reinvention of that time and coupled that with the present. It’s quite bombastic.

Overkill has self-produced many of your previous albums. How did you decide to use Colin Richardson as the producer for Killbox 13?

We decided because of our relationship with him, first and foremost. We’ve known this guy for two mixes (From The Underground and Bloodletting). We were more than satisfied with the results. He came in at the last minute for Bloodletting and pulled the record out of the shitter for us because we were having some problems with the mix and we knew Colin could save the day. Our relationship has grown over those mixes. I remember meeting him in 97 and five minutes after I met him he was standing on a chair playing air guitar. I said to D.D. (Verni), we’ve either made the biggest mistake of our lives or this is going to be fucking great. There’s gonna be no in between. So quite obviously we’re happy with his work.

If I had to give a professional assessment of Colin, he knows where the guitars and drums go. It’s just about perfect getting a cohesiveness between the two where they work together, where they don’t rub against each other and they both appear louder than the other. That’s what makes great metal records.

Do you have plans to go on tour?

Yes, in mid to late May. We like to have a minimum of six weeks of promotion. It looks like it will start in the New York area and spread out into the South, Midwest, and into Canada. We have some South American stuff prior to those US dates, then some stuff in Europe, and back into the US.

You have toured with dozens of different bands over the years. Do any tours stand out in your mind?

We toured with Rob Halford in 2000. That was pretty awesome, probably because he’s not only an influence on me, but on the metal scene. In 1988 we toured with Motorhead, and that was top of the line. I always remember that as a very special tour.

Is there anywhere you haven’t toured that you’d like to play?

We’ve never been to Australia. I’d like to see that. We have been to the Middle East. We did some shows in Turkey once, which was awesome. We’ve also played Eastern Europe: the Czech Republic, the Baltic States, Hungary, Russia. Where there’s touring we usually go. Probably Australia is the only one we haven’t hit that gets regular tours. But it’s kinda hard, because there’s so much distance that to get the band there becomes unaffordable for the promoters.

Do you notice different types of fan reaction from country to country, or is it pretty universal?

Naturally you notice a huge difference in culture when you talk to people who like the band in Tokyo as opposed to New York. But when the band starts it becomes very much the same when you’re looking into the audience. People may look different, but the excitement is at a fever pitch at that point.

Metal music has been splintered into dozens of sub-genres. Do you put Overkill into any of those, or do you just consider yourself a metal band?

People put that on it. I don’t think there is a band out there that really puts it on it, except in some cases a black metal band has got certain characteristics that make them so. In our case we’ve always been just a metal band. It always appears like a thrash metal band when you see us live. I don’t know if Killbox 13 is a thrash record, but I know it’s an Overkill record, that’s for sure. And that’s an identifiable subgenre. No matter what goes on around us, I think you always know it’s us. I’d rather lean on that than anything else. But I don’t really care if they say thrash. It doesn’t really matter to me.

Overkill has been around since 1982. To what do you attribute your longevity?

D.D. owes me money. That’s why I keep him around. (Loud laughter). I think we have the same standard we had back then. We have the love of the music the same we did back then, the same value. I think we eliminated popularity from the equation back somewhere around 1990, and it gave us new legs. Somewhere you say I just don’t give a shit what people think of me. Quite simply, it is what it is. You like it or you don’t, and that really takes a lot of the pressure off everything. I think when you see a band change dramatically, it’s based on popularity. They feel that they’re on the wrong road and they better get on the right road or they’re not going to get what they want. And what they want is popularity.

What is the most important thing you’ve learned musically in the 20 years Overkill has been together?

It’s about impact. We’re here to exploit certain emotions, to bring them out and take them to the highest height we possibly can. So for me it’s always been about the hills and the valleys. In a live set you can hit as hard as you can for four songs and then bring it down into a valley and then come back and bring it up to the top of that hill and hit as hard as you can. It appears that the next time you reach the height of the second hill, it’s more intense than the first. I really think that’s one of the musical things I’ve learned, the peaks and valleys in individual songs and in sets.

How about on the business side?

Keep good people around you. D.D. and I manage the band. We’re involved in every aspect of this, but we have good people around us. I think that’s the key to it. It’s a good team. You can’t go the Super Bowl with a shitty front line. You can have a great quarterback, but you’re still not going to the Super Bowl without that great front line. We’ve made mistakes in hindsight, but I do think that for the most part it’s always been a positive business learning experience.

How did you get started in music?

I think, like everyone else, you grab a broom and stand in front of the mirror. I think it was probably something by Judas Priest. The broom became a guitar very soon thereafter. And then it was a love and I continued to pursue it. I think I had some confused issues at the beginning. There was free beer and girls, which was one helluva motivator also for somebody who has their hormones raging. Now I find the motivation is really all about the music.

How is your health? You’ve had some issues in the past few years.

I had cancer in 1998. I went through about six operations. I’ve been cancer free since. It got out because we had to cancel tours. I wanted to keep it private, but when I look back on it it’s probably best that people knew because it was really inspiring to be able to hit the internet while there were pieces of me being cut out and get some well wishes from someone I didn’t even know. It was really positive.

Most recently I had a stroke in Germany last June right in the middle of the song “Necroshine”. It laid me up for a little while. It was right at the end of the tour so no shows were missed. I was in the hospital for a day and paralyzed for a few hours. And then there was a month of limping recovery and then soon thereafter back to a hundred percent.

It didn’t hurt. I could hear everything that was going on, I could smell everything, I just couldn’t talk and couldn’t respond to people. I remember coming out of it and punching somebody right in the mouth who was pouring orange juice down my throat. I couldn’t move and I ‘m thinking “this guy is drowning me.” Right then I came out of the stroke. It kinda jolted me. I couldn’t move my left, but I gave him a right, right under the chin. He got up and said, “He’s okay.”

Do they know what caused the stroke?

They looked into it. It’s possible it’s what’s called a focal seizure, but it appeared as if it were a stroke when they did all the tests. It’s not lifestyle, it’s not predisposition. It’s possible it’s a twisted vein (from the cancer operations). It wasn’t a huge blood clot, and even if it comes back it’s not going to be at a high level. An aspirin a day keeps the stroke away.

What type of music are you listening to these days, both new and old?

I like In Flames. I like Shadows Fall. I don’t like much of the nu-metal. I never really understood or liked the Limp Bizkit stuff. (Sound of Bobby rummaging through his CDs) I’m holding the Motorhead record, best of 2 CD set. There’s the Who over here, I’ve got some Savatage laying around. I liked Zakk Wylde’s last record.

What was your reaction when you heard what happened at the Great White show in West Warwick, Rhode Island where nearly 200 people died in the fire?

My first reaction was “this is awful”. I knew it was a tight-knit community. I know a lot of kids that were in that building. I know some that were lost. Dr. Metal from WHJY has been a huge supporter of this band and friend as far back as 1985 and was killed in the fire. That was the focus.

The afterthought was that I’ve done plenty of shows, and I’ve always looked for the exits. I like to know during sound check where it is I can get the hell outta here if something blows up. In that particular case, I don’t want to assess it, because I don’t know these people, but I do know that club owners know what goes on in their club. That’s all I can say.

We were scheduled there (The Station) for a week later, the following Friday.

Overkill has an active web presence. Do you find yourself getting to know fans better because of the net and your message board?

Of course. There’s a certain sense of community that comes with this music. Some people don’t just listen to this, they make it a huge part of their life. When we were doing the DVD, if we were doing just a local show in New Jersey, we were worth maybe 1300 people. We needed to put 1800 in that building to sell it out, and we did, based on the people on our site who traveled from different parts of the country. We had the German fan club there. They flew in. People from San Francisco flew in. There were people from Las Vegas, Texas, Cincinnati, Columbus, and on and on. I know them, and I know them well. I can call a lot of them by first name.

What are some types of sites you like to check out on the net?

I check out motorcycle sites. I look for after-market parts for bikes, new products. I’m all over the travel websites to book travel for the band. For fun it’s girls in bathing suits and motorcycles.