Examining Richard Christy: part 1 of an exclusive interview

Richard Christy returns to the drum kit with "Charred Walls of The Damned".

Richard Christy of the Howard Stern Show may be primarily known for his work on satellite radio nowadays, but his roots have been exposed with Charred Walls of The Damned.

Aside from comedy, Christy also counts music - particularly heavy metal - among his loves. Christy first started making his name while living in Sanford, FL, as a member of local metal mainstays Burning Inside. Christy and Jason Suecof helped build and recorded at the legendary Audiohammer Studios in Sanford. From there, Christy played with several notable bands including Death and Iced Earth (where he would meet Tim Owens and Steve DiGiorgio). In 2004, Christy got the call that would change his life when he was accepted as one of the newest cast members of the Howard Stern Show.

Having realized one dream, Christy never gave up the other. Forming a metal "supergroup" with his close friends and former partners in crime, Christy masterminded Charred Walls of The Damned. The band - consisting of Christy (drums,), "Ripper" Owens (vocals), Suecof (guitars), and DiGiorgio (bass) - released its eponymous debut back on February 2 to rave reviews. The band now intends to take that momentum on the road with their first tour.

We recently had a chance to talk to Richard Christy about recording Charred Walls of The Damned, the band's future plans, and his old stomping grounds in Sanford at Audiohammer Studios. He and loved talking about . Between having his dream job and being able to pursue his "other love", Christy couldn't be more was gracious, excited about his work - of which, given the near-perfect power metal of the band's debut album, he has a lot to be proud.

Michael Melchor: You've been with Howard Stern and the show since 2004. I remember being happy for you when it was announced that you'd signed on with the show, but music was your passion before. After six years with Stern, what was the impetus for going back to music now with Charred Walls of The Damned? What was the inspiration for it?

Richard Christy: Well, I've wanted to get back in to it for the past six years that I've lived here in New York. I always knew that I would, but it just never felt right until now. I wanted to be patient and make sure it was with the right band and the right situation - and I've been offered to be in a lot of bands in the past six years. I finally decided that I really wanted to do my own thing - I love writing music and, that way, I could also determine the band's schedule. I finally felt I was comfortable enough with my song writing and guitar playing and everything else as a musician that the time was right to start my own band, and that's why I started this one. It's something that I'd wanted to do - I've made it known that, even when I moved to New York and started working for the Stern show, I played drums every day and guitar every night, and I still do. It was something where I needed to keep my chops up because I knew I wanted to be in a band again eventually. And it feels right now - I've been writing for the past six years and finally had enough songs for a full album. I felt really good and confident about those songs and that led to our debut album.

MM: You went back to guys you worked with before, I see - you were with [Tim] "Ripper" [Owens, lead singer] in Iced Earth and, of course, you've worked with [Jason] Suecof [guitars] since recording as Burning Inside back in 2000. Having that history already in place, did you reach out to them specifically when you were putting this together?

RC: Definitely. Jason was the very first person I called. I always knew, no matter what kind of music project I was going to do after I moved to New York, it would involve Jason because he and I have been writing songs together for about 10 years now. We used to hang out a lot on the weekends when I lived in Florida because neither of us were really social butterflies. We didn't go and hang out at a lot of the clubs; neither of us were wild and crazy guys. We pretty much spent our weekends at Jason's studio [Audiohammer Studios in Sanford, FL] writing music and drinking beer and barbequing and all that fun stuff. [Laughs] I've always known that Jason was a super-talented songwriter and guitar player and an awesome producer; he's kind of everything rolled in to one. He's super-talented and a really cool guy, so I knew right away that I would want him to be my right-hand man as far as the songwriting because we've worked together writing songs for so long. As far back as 2000 and 2001, I kept telling him we needed to be in a band together because, even back then, we wrote 6 or 7 killer songs but we never used them for anything. They were really good songs and I was really happy with them and I knew I would want Jason in this band. With Steve DiGiorgio, he's my favorite bass player and a really cool guy as well. He's always told me, too, to give him a call if I needed a bass player and if I had anything going on. Steve and I always talked about doing something together since the last time we jammed together in Iced Earth in 2001, so that was a natural choice to get Steve. And when I thought of singers, I naturally thought of Tim. Tim has been one of my favorite singers since he joined Judas Priest in the 90s.

MM: Oh, yeah. Certainly.

RC: We also had some mutual friends since I knew some of the guys that lived in Ohio that moved to Florida that knew Tim as well. I'd already been familiar with him for a long time between that and the stuff he did with Priest, and then we toured together in Iced Earth and he was just a great guy to be around. Really down-to-earth and cool. He was an obvious choice for a singer. So I'd been in the metal scene long enough that I knew who I wanted in this band right away. All I had to do was call them up, and, luckily, they were all available and they were really excited about it.

MM: Nice. So, this record has been out a couple months now; I've had it since the weekend after it came out. I had to, looking at this lineup. With that much time to let it get out there and sink in, how has the reaction been to it? What kind of feedback have you picked up from Howard and the crew there, as well as some of your fans that have heard it as well?

RC: It's been great! A lot of people that I work with on Howard's show aren't really metal fans, but they understand the musicianship is really good and they've had some very nice things to say about it. Howard was really nice about the album, and he played it on the air, which was really amazing. Everybody's been real supportive of it - they knew that I had a comedic passion, but also this passion for music before I started working there so I think they're happy to see I'm still pursuing that. The Sirius/XM channel, Liquid Metal, has been very supportive of the band as well, which has been amazing. Jose and Mario and everybody on Liquid Metal have been great and they've been playing the <i>Charred Walls</i> album a lot on the channel which I'm really excited about because I listen to hat station a lot, too. The fan reaction has been amazing. I get e-mails from fans all over the world - from places like Australia, New Zealand, Italy, and everywhere - from fans that bought the album and have loved it. When we did this album, I didn't really think about, "I wonder how people are gonna react to this." When we did it, I pretty much just wanted to do an album that was fun to write and fun to record and that we were very proud of - the type of album that a metalhead like me would be really into. So that was the main goal - to write a heavy metal album that I would enjoy listening to and I think we did that. It makes me really happy to hear whenever other people enjoy listening to it also.

MM: Excellent. I can tell you I love the hell out of this one. I think I can safely say you accomplished your goal. [Laughs]

RC: Thank you, very much! I appreciate that! It makes me so happy when people tell me stuff like that. It's so cool to think that, "wow - somewhere in the world, somebody's listening to the music I wrote right now!" It boggles my mind but makes me so happy because I enjoy heavy metal music and it's a huge part of my life. But, if something I write can be a huge part of somebody else's life, then that's a huge honor.

Join us tomorrow for part 2 of our interview as Richard Christy discusses Charred Walls Of The Damned's tour plans, a second album, and the history of Audiohammer Studios. In the meantime, the band's first video, "Ghost Town", can be seen below: