Why Armored Saint recorded a cover of a Four Tops classic

Armored Saint play heavy metal with melody and power. Having formed in 1982, the band came to an end a decade later when singer John Bush, who had rejected early interest from the fledgling Metallica , opted to join Anthrax . Reunited since 1999, the Californian quintet begin a US tour supporting W.A.S.P. in October. Bush sets the scene.

The Saint completed a US tour with Queensrÿche earlier this year, followed by some UK dates, and are prepping an eighth full-length studio album.

Five or six cool songs were written before the tour, so we need to dive back into all of that. They’re kind of different to Punching The Sky [2020], which is good as nobody wants to get stuck in a formula.

Will the band be playing some new material on tour?

Our label [Metal Blade] frowns on that, but we do have a new song that gives people something fresh to listen to.

That ‘new’ song is a cover of One Chain (Don’t Make No Prison) , a 1974 hit for Motown group The Four Tops. An unusual choice, perhaps?

Yes and no. We love old-school music and R&B Stevie Wonder and The O’Jays affected us every bit as much as Thin Lizzy , Zeppelin and Motörhead . The singer of The Four Tops, Levi Stubbs, is awesome. As a singer he affected me as much as Rob Halford and Bon Scott . I’m an R&B singer in the body of a metal guy.

Armored Saint’s version of the song is less funky than the one by Santana on their album Inner Secrets .

To tell the truth I didn’t love Santana ’s version. Theirs could have been a lot cooler. That’s just my opinion.

What are the differences between playing for British audiences and North American ones?

We never played Britain enough. That still makes me grumpy. Armored Saint should have been playing Britain in 1984, but we had to wait till the Marquee seven years later. That was dumb. Had we toured the UK like we did everywhere else, I believe we’d have become a much bigger band.

Along with Kerry King’s current guitarist Phil Demmel and members of Exodus, Adrenaline Mob and Shadows Fall you are also a part of Category 7.

There’s a pretty big buzz on us. We’ve released two videos [ In Stitches and Exhausted ], and both were received really well. The band started out as an idea by the two guitar players, Phil [Demmel] and Michael [Orlando], but it’s really taken on some legs. It’s powerful, heavy stuff – riff mania, but with some cool vocal hooks. Things are still quite early on but we have nine songs.

Category 7 received praise from James Hetfield, who described them as a “supergroup of metal guys”.

It’s always nice to get an endorsement from the king. That was very welcome.

It sounds as though there will be a Category 7 album long before the new Saint one arrives .

Oh yeah. The Armored Saint record won’t be out till next year, realistically. It’s a band that moves slowly. I’m sixty now, but I’m not considering retiring. I just read a great interview with Biff [Byford, Saxon singer], who doesn’t want to retire, and he’s older than me. If he can keep going, why can’t I?

The Category 7 album is out now. Armored Saint's US tour with W.A.S.P. begins on October 28 at the Roseland Theater in Portland, OR. For dates, check the band's website .