BROUGHT TO YOU BY: MARSWORTH
Tennessee native, Brian Forsythe, better known to the rock ‘n roll community as Brian Damage and one of the founding members of the notorious band KIX, has made some time to sit down with us and answer a few pressing questions on all of our minds. Whilst in the touring process, Mr. Forsythe had taken a moment to discuss recent releases, life lessons, as well as where you can catch the band in the future! I’d like you to meet Brian “Damage” Forsythe.
Warrendale, Pennsylvania
Dye Hard Photography
MARSWORTH: You, with KIX, had released Midnite Dynamite Re-Lit a little over 2 years ago. How are you feeling about the way the re-release was received by your fans?
BRIAN: I think it’s been received pretty well. It was really bad timing as far as when it came out because of the pandemic and all that, so we didn’t get to tour around it like the Blow My Fuse release. In this day and age it’s not like it used to be when it comes to record sales, so it’s really hard to tell if it’s doing well or not!
M: On social media, have your fans been posting about it like, “Oh my gosh, Midnite Dynamite Re-Lit! How cool is that!?”.
B: Yeah, I had seen a few of those. Maybe I just don’t keep on it as much, but especially on, say, the KIX fan page where, of course, you’re gonna see it. Y’know, people will post stuff all the time.
M: Do you know where people can buy and stream that?
B: I know we sell it at our shows at the merch table with the t-shirts and all that. I think it’s available- you know, I should know these things. [laughter] Let me check if it’s on Amazon. I think it’s on Apple Music.
M: Like the major places to stream?
B: Yeah, definitely!
M: You sounded unsure, but I’ll take your word for it! With being the only remaining founding member on stage, as far as I’m aware, do you remember there being any real life situations that you had brought to the table to initially construct Midnite Dynamite?
B: Back in those days, Donnie Purnell was the primary songwriter, but back in the very early days it was more of a group effort when it came to writing songs, but by the time we got to Midnite Dynamite Donnie’s songwriting had developed faster than the rest of us. It was hard for us to keep up with him. For every 1 song I’d come up with, he had 10!
M: Oh my!
B: Yeah! His were always way better, so we’d always end up working on his songs. I mean, all the records, even when it got to that point, he started writing with outside writers at that point, then we started to work on a song and make demos of them before we could go do the record. Ronnie and I had our own influences, like Ronnie would write the main song and then I would write an alternate part to go with that part. I don’t know if that’s the question you asked initially, but-
M: Kind of, it’s all good! How did the team dynamic go with every song? I know you had said that Donnie had song after song after song, then Ronnie would come with a part, and you’d be like, “Cool! I could come up with THIS part!”. Was it like that for the entire album, all of the albums, or what was up?
B: Yeah, that’s kinda how it worked! It’s funny because Ronnie and I would bounce off of each other. We’d be sitting there trying to figure something out, while we’re putting the song together, and Ronnie could play like one note at a certain point and it would spark a whole thing in my head. Then I’d think of a whole other thing, so we would bounce back and forth like that, sort of inspiring each other. When it came to the guitar solos we sort of traded off. We could sort of tell if one of the songs fit one of our styles, so it’d be like, “Hey Ronnie, you feel like takin’ this one?” or he’d try it and go, “I’m not sure, why don’t you try it?”, so that’s sort of how we would work things out.
“…Ronnie could play like one note at a certain point and it would spark a whole thing in my head.”
-Brian “Damage” Forsythe about Ronnie “10/10” Younkins, 2022
M: That’s good because a lot of bands now are like, “I’m taking all of the guitar solos and you can do the background stuff”.
B: Right. Some bands are set up like that! They’ll have a rhythm guitar player and a lead guitar player. We were both lead guitar players, so we sorta have to intermingle and switch off. We do dual solos a lot too!
M: Do you have that kind of dynamic with Bob?
B: Well, he’s playing all of the songs that were already there, so he’s basically playing all of Ronnie’s parts. Bob actually fit right in there. It was so weird because I’ve known Bob for a while and his band used to open for us all the time. Really nice guy, great guitar player, and when it came time to find a replacement for Ronnie, there was a point where I said, “Oh, I’ll just cover it until Ronnie gets back”, so we tried to do it with just one guitar and, y’know, I was able to pull it off to a certain extent. It was a lot of extra pressure! So we finally decided to maybe look for somebody that could fill in, and Bob was like right in front of our faces! We were looking around and all of a sudden, Bob was there and we were like, “Hey, why don’t we get Bob!?”.
M: He’s just waving in your faces, and you’re just like, “Oh yeah!”.
B: Yeah! And when he finally came into the picture, it’s like he just slid right in there! He’s really good at sounding like Ronnie! I mean, if you closed your eyes while we were playing, you’d swear it was Ronnie up there. So that’s pretty cool.
M: That’s great because I feel like a lot of guitar players they’ll try to put their own spin on it. Like, “Since I’m playing it, I’m gonna do my own thing with it.”.
B: Right. Sometimes that can works, y’know, I think in our instance people are missin’ Ronnie so it’s nice to at least sound like that.
Warrendale, Pennsylvania
Dye Hard Photography
M: Right! So, in a universe where taste and hearing are mixed up, what food would you imagine KIX’s music would taste like?
B: Oh. Wow. [laughter] I would say Fruit Loops!
M: I’ve never heard that one! I like it! The overall design of every album cover is immaculate and unique, it surely took you a lot of time to find the perfect artists for this job. If you had to choose, which artwork would you pick as your favorite?
B: I’m a fan of the Hot Wire album cover. I really like that one.
M: It’s simple but there’s so much power behind it.
B: Yeah, and the cool thing is that cover is actually a photograph of a model. The photographer had this friend that used to make these life-like models for him for different photoshoots. The skull, the whole thing is an actual model! That the photographer took a photo of. It’s not computer generated or photoshopped or any of that stuff!
M: That’s actually really freakin’ awesome! I didn’t even know that!
B: Yeah! The skull with the round sunglasses on!
M: So, What would you say is the biggest lesson the music industry has taught you?
B: That I should have paid more attention. [laughter] Not only to the business part of it, but I’m one of those people that just takes things as they come, y’know, I don’t try to look too far ahead. So, when it came to recording, I did my part as a guitar player. I go in there, I get my sounds, and I play my parts, but I never paid attention to the technical stuff. I just noticed that the older I get, a lot of my friends in the business, they did pay attention to that stuff, and they’ve kind of moved on, they can do all this other stuff. I’m just still a guitar player. [laughter] I guess that’s one of the things I’ve learned: I should have paid more attention.
M: So, if you did pay attention, where do you think that would’ve led you? Like opportunities.
B: Well, I’d probably be able to set up my own studio [laughter] Which right now, I’ve thought about it, and then I think, “I would NOT know how to run this thing!”. I can record a little bit on, say, a laptop or something but even that sometimes is a struggle. Like I’ll get an inspiration, I’ll open up GarageBand or Logic or one of those programs, and I’ll get stuck on something and I won’t be able to get something to work. I’m sitting there frustrated, clickin’ on stuff, and the next thing you know I’ve lost the whole inspiration! Definitely if I paid more attention, I’d have my own studio. As far as the business part that I didn’t pay attention to, like the publishing and all that stuff I should know more about, I’ve picked up some after the fact just because I need to know how this stuff works [laughter]. It’s still baffling to me.
M: [laughter] I hope you’d learn a thing or two from the beginning! Y’know.
B: I have learned a few things just through experience, really. So, I guess I’m not as dumb as I think I am. [laughter]
M: Don’t put yourself down like that! Come on!
B: I’m just kiddin’!
Warrendale, Pennsylvania
Dye Hard Photography
M: What can we, as fans, expect from KIX as far as future projects are involved?
B: We’ve got this amazing booking agent, so he keeps us busy as far as playing. But we put the last record out, [laughter] it’s been a while. I can’t believe how fast time goes by, but what was that 2014? Can’t believe it was that long ago, but we’ve been throwing around the idea of doing it again. We haven’t put anything together yet. We started to throw ideas back and forth at one point, it was right before the pandemic, then the pandemic came around and Steve [Whiteman, singer] decided to do his solo record. Which it wasn’t really a solo record, he just had a bunch of songs that were sittin’ there that we never got to mess with with KIX. He didn’t have anything else to do, so he went and recorded them, and it ended up being his solo record. Maybe at some point we’ll end up doin’ another record, but I can’t say for sure. The last one, we were on Loud and Proud Records, but that label has since folded so we’re kind of label-less at the moment.
M: This is three questions in one, but we’ll start with: Where did the band name come from?
B: When we started out, we were called The Shooze, back in the very early days, that was spelled S-H-O-O-Z-E. At the same time, through the record, there was another band called The Shoes, spelled S-H-O-E-S, from the midwest. They already had a record out and had songs on the radio, so it was like, “Well, we can’t call it that. It’s too close to that other band. It’ll be confusing.” and I don’t even think we were able to use that, so we had to come up with another name. We were The Generators, and we actually got signed as The Generators! The record was done and they were working on the artwork for the cover, and I remember we were up there at Atlantic [Records], it was the final meeting with all of the people at Atlantic, and the art director guy comes running in the room , he goes, “We gotta problem here.” They ran the name The Generators and found out that that’s been used, it’s taken, and we couldn’t use it. They even tried to contact the manager of the band, offered to buy the name, and said they would put out a single on Atlantic if they would give us the name. They refused. The art had to be submitted by 5:00 that evening or it was gonna mess up the release date for the whole record, so they guy said, “You gotta come up with another name RIGHT NOW!” We’re just standin’ there lookin’ at each other and Donnie just blurted it out, he goes, “How ‘bout KIX? We can spell it K-I-X.” and nobody else had an idea. We were just lookin’ at each other and go, “Uh, um, okay!”. [laughter] Nobody had anything better and it was just something to use.
M: And it stuck!
B: I think the way he had come up with that name was that he [Donnie] was in a band called Kicks, spelled K-I-C-K-S, and in another band called Jax, they spelled it J-A-X. So he just took those two former bands that he was in and combined those two names. That’s how his mind worked. He was quick like that, he could just come up with stuff. That’s the way he was with the songwriting, that’s why it was so difficult for us to keep up with him.
M: How did the stage name of “Damage” come to be?
B: Beau Hill actually came up with that one when we were doing Midnite Dynamite! That was back in my drinkin’ days and, y’know, I was still young. We would record all day, go out at night, and overdo it. [laughter] So, the next morning I would come into the studio and I’d be hungover. To preface this story, Beau Hill’s nickname for me was Brain. He’d go, “Hey Brain, go out there and do your part.”, so he was already calling me that. I showed up one day and I was so hungover, like miserable, and in the control room there was a couch in front of the console, I laid down on that couch. Beau was behind the console mixing some stuff or maybe he was recording someone in the other room, but every time he would stop the tape he would hear me on the couch going, “Uuuhhhhh” I was just moaning. At one point he walks around and goes to the front and looks at me laying there. I open one eye to look at him and he goes [laughter], “We should call you Brain Damage.” And that’s how that came about [laughter]
M: [laughter] So, how do you feel that it’s still used today?
B: Well, it makes for a quick signature. It’s better than writing Forsythe every time!
M: It’s a badass stage name!
B: It’s funny because people meet me and they think I’m gonna be some rough and tumble, junk guy and I turn out to be sort of a mellow guy. They say, “Oh, you don’t seem like a Brian Damage.” but it works.
M: Hopefully that’s a good thing? I guess?
B: It’s more of a stage persona.
M: If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it. I’m aware that Rhino Bucket is a separate entity, but can we have an explanation of that name as well?
B: Oh, that was the name before I was in the band. Those guys, they were around in the early 90’s, but I’ve heard stories because they get asked that all the time [laughter] Supposedly, in the early days of the band, they couldn’t decide on a name for the band, they booked a gig before they even had a name, and Georg [Dolivo] said the promoter called him up and they go, “We need to put this in the paper. You guys gotta come up with a name.” [laughter] There was one guy in the band that was a surfer who wanted to call it Rhino Chaser? Maybe? And the other guitar player wanted to call it Bucket of Lard or something like that. They put those two together, so it’s weird because KIX is a combo of two names and Rhino Bucket is too!
M: Best of both worlds!
B: Yeah! I remember the first time I heard it, this is way back in the early 90’s, I used to get promo from the record company. I got a stack of CD’s and Rhino Bucket was in there! I’m lookin’ at it like, “Rhino Bucket? What is this?” [laughter] but it turned out to be a cool band. I turned out to be a fan of theirs back in the early days. I came to know those guys, I was friends with them, and they were trying to put the band back together for the Cathouse reunion for Rikki Rachtman. They asked me if I wanted to do it ‘cause the original guitar player had moved on, he didn’t want to do it anymore, so I said, “Sure!” It turned out to be a really good fit! It’s similar to KIX in the energy and all that, but it’s a little more basic and stripped down. In fact, you were talkin’ about a band where one guy does all the lead guitar, well in Rhino Bucket, Georg he sings and plays rhythm guitar and I do all of the lead guitar in that band.
M: Is that a lot on you?
B: No, not really. It’s so up my alley that it’s like second nature.
Warrendale, Pennsylvania
Dye Hard Photography
M: What is one thing you’ve done and will absolutely never do again?
B: Goodness. There’s a lot of those. [laughter] One thing that I’ll never do again is get arrested for drugs. I’ve been clean and sober going on for 25 years now, so I don’t think that’s gonna happen any time soon. It was definitely a low point in my life. Every cloud has a silver lining!
M: If you’re comfortable saying, was that the turning point for you?
B: Yeah. It’s almost like I’m glad that happened, but I’d never wanna do it again.
M: Most definitely not, but it got you to where you are now! If you knew you’d end up where you are, would you do it all over again? I know it’s a very broad and philosophical question, but the happy-go-lucky answer is always “Yes, knowing that I’d be here, I’d do it all over again,” but some people have differing answers.
B: I would but I’d probably tweak it.
M: How so?
B: Kind of gettin’ back to what you had asked me earlier, it’s like paying more attention, picking up some useful skill requirements, and some technical stuff on the way. I record a lot with other people and other peoples projects and a lot of times I get the question, “Do you think you’ll ever do a solo record?” and I’m like, “I dunno” [laughter] I’m always dependent on another person. I guess that’s not a bad thing. But the technical thing, that’s one of those areas where I would’ve paid more attention and picked up some more skills just so I don’t have to depend on other people for recording.
M: It’s never too late to learn! That’s what YouTube videos are for!
B: True. It makes it a lot easier to learn these days because of all that. If I would’ve had those when I was learning guitar I’d be twice as good! [laughter]
M: Twice as good!? I already think you’re amazing!
B: It’s funny because when I started, this was a long time ago, back in the early 60’s/ late 70’s, all I had was a stack of vinyl records. So I had to learn all of my guitar parts just by putting a needle on a record, so y’know, that was very primitive. You can’t even watch somebody play it! Just hear it and try and figure out where they’re doin’ it on the neck. There’s a lot involved in that!
M: Oh yeah! I feel as if that way of learning is so much better. It’ll stick with you a lot longer than watching a 5 minute video on how to play “Stairway to Heaven”.
B: It’s true because what had taught me really developed my ear, y’know, I play by ear. I never learned to read music. So, I can hear somebody play something on guitar, like a few note run, and I can pretty much hear what string they’re playing on and on what fret. That comes from all of that background! ‘Cause nowadays, with the YouTube, it’s kind of like GPS. I’ve noticed my skills of learning my way around have diminished since GPS came in and that’s because I don’t need to rely on that anymore. It takes your memory and outsources it to technology.
M: Most definitely. I think technology really diminishes, I like that word, pretty much everything within the memory, as much as it sucks to say that. Memory is absolutely shot, like you said, directions are absolutely shot, and it’s just awful.
B: Yeah, you don’t need to rely on it anymore because it’s taken care of.
M: One more and I’ll leave you be: If you weren’t a musician, what would you be doing?
B: Ooh! Well, before I was a musician I considered myself an artist or a cartoonist. My father was an artist and my older brother is an artist, so I was kind of born into that kind of thing. I got so into music at one point, I had to decide between the two so I put the art thing on the backburner and went with the music. I’d probably be into something with art, that or I love to cook.
M: Yes! I’ve seen on your Instagram that you post your dishes and they always look so delicious! But, I’ve never seen art on your Instagram!
B: I’m so out of practice! It’s frustrating when I try to draw anything anymore, but I did do- and it was a rough sketch- on one of those compilation records that we put out, I did some caricatures of the guys! That’s as far as my artwork has gone lately.
M: So what I’m hearing is that I’m gonna see some of this artwork on Instagram later? [laughter] Thank you very much for taking the time to do this interview with me. I really appreciate it. I hope to see you dudes around Ohio again sometime soon! Do you have anything else to add for the readers of The Metal Pit?
B: I’ve gotta thank the fans for stickin’ with us for all these years! It’s amazing. You mentioned M3 [privately] and we play that every year, and every year it’s packed and we’re like, “WOW!”. We’re always waiting for the other shoe to drop and it never does, so I just wanna say thanks to everybody that comes out and sees us!
Click the image below, if you’d like to know anything more about Mr. Forsythe or just to keep up with him on the regular. Catch him on Instagram, Facebook, Twitter, or even grab some tickets to see him on the road with KIX!
Warrendale, Pennsylvania
Dye Hard Photography