In 1995, Scott Weiland formed the alternative rock band The Magnificent Bastards with session drummer Victor Indrizzo in San Diego, California. The band included Zander Schloss and Jeff Nolan on guitars and Bob Thompson on bass. Only two songs were recorded by The Magnificent Bastards. “Mockingbird Girl”, composed by Nolan, Schloss, and Weiland, appeared in the film Tank Girl and on its soundtrack, and a cover of John Lennon’s “How Do You Sleep?” was recorded for the tribute album, Working Class Hero: A Tribute to John Lennon. In an interview I recently conducted with Chris Goss for Songfacts, the Masters of Reality singer/guitarist (and producer/engineer of many other artists’ recordings) discussed what it was like working with Scott Weiland, back when Goss worked as the “vocal engineer” for Stone Temple Pilots’ 1996 release, Tiny Music…Songs from the Vatican Gift Shop (Weiland also sang on the tune “Jindalee Jindalie,” off MoR’s 2004 release, Give Us Barabbas).
“At the time – and I don’t know where he’s at now – he was a bad boy and going through a lot of drug problems. So I knew what I was getting into and I’d worked with him on his solo record as well. The Magnificent Bastards is a side project that he had done. He’s really talented, and he’s got a good voice, so the approach was let him do this thing.” “I had kind of like a ‘cringe factor.’ If I cringe at a lyric or a note or a melodic idea internally, I wouldn’t show it blatantly outward, but that’s when I would step in and say, you know, why don’t you try this? There’s a poetics to melody and the phrasing. It’s subjective, but there’s guidelines of pace. I would speak up and say, ‘It’d be great if in the second verse you brought the melody up a little bit or changed it up. And in the chorus, bring the last line up, blah, blah, blah.’ Just basic rudimentary musical taste suggestions. And I think that’s why he brought me in, for that purpose. It was pretty standard, actually. Nothing too intense.”
“There’s twenty years of material on the record, literally,” Goss says. “I got tired of pushing it back and forth across my desk in my music room. I just wanted to get it out.” Guests on the album — released under the moniker Master of Reality/Chris Goss — include Velvet Revolver (and ex-STP) singer Scott Weiland (“Jindalee Jindalie”) and former Cream drummer Ginger Baker (“Desert Song”). “Those are two people that when you work with them, you don’t have much memory,” Goss says with a laugh, trying to recall the sessions. “Maybe I’ll leave it at that. Obviously, they’re both professionals, and both redheads — I seem to work with a lot of redheads.”
While Masters of Reality’s sound plays like Black Sabbath meets the Beatles, the melodic Barabbas leans more toward the Fab Four. “It’s mainly acoustic-based stuff,” Goss admits, “so it was kinda hard to fit in on other records.” Goss will launch a European tour in the fall, with ex-Marilyn Manson bassist Twiggy Ramirez lending a hand. The two then plan to launch a new band, tentatively called Snowballs. “We started hanging a few years ago,” Goss says. “And then every time we got together we’d write five songs — really quickly. We’re making the record first, before we even have a label. Already labels want it, and they haven’t even heard it.”
