Monster Truck’s Jon Harvey on his Iron Maiden ink and ‘freaking out’ over Janick Gers
Monster Truck frontman/bassist Jon ‘Marv’ Harvey has spoken about his calamitous attempts to meet his favourite band Iron Maiden.
Catching up with Planet Rock’s Paul Anthony backstage at Download Festival, Jon proudly showed off his tattoo of Iron Maiden’s beloved mascot Eddie the Head from the sleeve of ‘Killers’.
“I kind of like them,” Jon said. “I used to have a girlfriend that tattooed and she was (just) starting and she was not so good and then she got really good and here we go points to tattoo. It’s fantastic, she did a great job.”
Speaking of his squandered opportunities to hang out with Iron Maiden, Jon added: “I’m sure one day I’ll get to meet my favourite band, but that’s kind of how it is. I freaked out over Janick Gers at some festival and I felt terrible.”
Guitarist Jeremy Widerman interjected: “He tried to say hi to him and (Janick) ran away. He ran, he just turned and ran away. I’m not joking. Seriously.”
Jon added: “He was not having a ‘hi’ with me. I’m not a 'not intimidating' person I guess. It was funny and it freaked me out.
“And then I went to catering and they were all hanging with their buddies and Nicko McBrain’s telling stories and I’m like so nervous ‘I want to talk to them but I can’t’ And I freaked out again… I would love to meet those guys.”
Jeremy joked: “If they run away again, we’re just going to chase them down. We’re faster than they are. I can promise you that.”
Elsewhere in the chat, Jon and Jeremy heaped praise on Twisted Sister’s Dee Snider who guests on the opening track of their upcoming album ‘True Rockers’; ‘True Rocker.’
“He’s awesome, he’s a great dude and it sounds amazing, he did exactly what we needed him to do. The man’s a professional,” Jon said.
Jeremy continued: “We had this idea, Marv had this idea for a kind of evangelistic preaching moment and we were like ‘we should get someone to do that on the thing’ and it took us like three seconds (to decide) ‘oh, we should get Dee to do that.’ He came in and he killed it.”
Revealing how his dad disapproved of the song, Jon added: “It’s real rock and roll preaching. My dad’s a religious person and he’s like ‘you know what, I don’t like that part, it sounds like you’re making fun of preaching’. I’m like ‘well dad, it kind of is.’”
Watch our full interview with Monster Truck below where Jon and Jeremy reveal more about ‘True Rockers’, reflect on their epic Las Vegas residency with Nickelback and wearing band T-shirts to gigs.
Boasting 11 new tracks, ‘True Rockers’ is released on Friday 14th September 2018 via Mascot Records.
The track-listing is as follows:
1. True Rocker
2. Thundertruck
3. Evolution
4. Devil Don’t Care
5. Being Cool Is Over
6. Young City Heart
7. Undone
8. In My Own World
9. Denim Danger
10. Hurricane
11. The Howlin’
PHOTO GALLERY: Friday at Download Festival 2018
PHOTO GALLERY: Saturday at Download Festival 2018