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TNT Tony Harnell From here to Norway and back
Wow, another awesome interview with one of the greats. TNT frontman Tony Harnell. Lots of 80s Metal fans love this band and this guys voice and we can see why. Tony goes back to his early days and how he was introduced to this Norwegian rock band TNT. He also offers his thoughts on the whole "grunge vs metal" thing and how it all came to an end. Good stuff here and Tony is smart and well spoken. Enjoy! For more interviews, subscribe and stay tuned in right here on 80s MRB.
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Smart as hell dude and brought up so many good points. Dead on about the 70's.
@carolinepercy1216
Жыл бұрын
✌\m/🌞
The best voice of this era. And he’s still got it
@carolinepercy1216
Жыл бұрын
✌\m/🌞
@briankeightly3361
Жыл бұрын
I think so too. Tony deserves a best vocalist award !
13 minutes of Tony is just not enough 😉
@carolinepercy1216
Жыл бұрын
✌\m/🌞
What an intelligent man who makes a lot of sense. I always felt the same that there is a saturation period and then it dulls down. Love TNT. I listen to it a lot.❤
Tony is such a talent, and here we see he's also knowledgeable on the scene and it's history. Told it like it was, and is. He is the real deal.
10,000 Lovers in one!!
TNT is such a great band. Saw them open for Loudness and Stryper at the Felt Forum in NYC.
@scottperrin9655
3 жыл бұрын
Omg what a great lineup. I would have loved to have seen that.
@Afurthyclays
3 жыл бұрын
I saw that one too, at Red Rocks! That was a good show! 🤘
@216Numbskull
3 жыл бұрын
@@scottperrin9655 No doubt! I agree killer lineup, IDK how I missed that show?
@bradleygrigsby5884
2 жыл бұрын
I have no clue if Loudness is still playing (was never a huge fan of them) but I think it’s awesome that both Tony and Michael Sweet can still sing their faces off over 30 years later.
@kimr0714
2 жыл бұрын
that was the best concert ever I remember like it was yesterday
One of my all time favorites. I have every album/band he's sang for. And even his solo stuff.
@trinidadvelasquez1898
3 жыл бұрын
Most awesome vocalist !! Hands down!
@carolinepercy1216
Жыл бұрын
✌\m/🌞
Realized Fantasies is my favourite TNT album. You make Norway proud 🇧🇻🇧🇻🇧🇻
Wow,...he really NAILED the explanation PERFECTLY. That's the best summary I have ever heard about this topic
Great interview with Tony Harnell.
Him hinting at the grunge era is so sad yet cool, I love how he mentions how the people of the genre hated it yet how he loved it purely because he watched the times move forward Infront of him with all new youth with a whole new sound. I also love how he reassures it wasn't grunges or the bands faults but the labels. Its good he confirms its sad the 80s mix of music died for a trend of copy paste grunge singers, but again like he said the big 4 of grunge and the start of 90s was truly amazing with how many other new sounds were appearing. It kind of stopped though and it was sad because 80s music never came back even in the slightest and music just kept getting subjectively worse. But for Heavy Metal in the 90s it instead went to extremely crazy technicality proven bands or heavy groove/death metal bands... or turned into Grunge ofc. In 1991 Kurt Cobain was such a ginormous figure the influence had already took over the music industry, yet all he wanted to do was make some music not end bands careers, crazy how fast stuff moves on, even 1990 it was pushing it for bands like Poison and Ratt to still be as big as they were, guess thats proof it really was Nirvanas doing lol. Either way TNTs monster energy will not be forgotten and will live on through the Kings of the Seven Seas!
10000 Lovers got a lot of airplay on the hard rock station I listened to in Palm Springs. I didn't buy the album until I heard "Everyone's a Star" on Head Banger's Ball. Tony, your vocals on the first verse are epic!
Great interview. It's hard not to love Tony. Clearly an intelligent man, tremendous talent, and somebody who appreciated the music that came in during the change from 80's rock to 90's grunge era. TNT is an incredible band.
Tony's explanation of the downfall of 80's Hard Rock was incredible I don't think I've ever heard an artist from that era put it any better
@ctfan1486
3 жыл бұрын
I agree 100%. Probably the best interview I've seen on this topic. TnT doesn't get much respect. I've had Sirius radio for 6 years and never heard them played.
@216Numbskull
3 жыл бұрын
A shredder like Ronni Le Tekrø, and the heavy sound he has, and the pipes on Tony Harnell, they sort of wasted their ability to take it to another level. I realize at the time metal ballads were big breakouts tunes for bands. But it almost seems to me like TNT were reaching to hard for that one song, instead of just keeping it a buck! They have more ballads on the majority of their LP's then rockers. That's where I feel they went wrong, they fu(ked themselves, and no one else? \m/(>.
@metalmarty3948
3 жыл бұрын
I agree big time. He hit everything spot on. Plus the early to mid 90's a lot of bands were breaking up or singers leaving, Rob halford leaving Priest, Dickinson leaving Maiden, Vince Neil leaving Crue, etc. Painkiller in 90 was such and incredible album, Fear of the dark in 92 was amazing as well. Could have been different if all those bands stayed together. I guess we'll never know.
@metalmarty3948
3 жыл бұрын
@@216Numbskull I somewhat agree with you except the ballad thing. Scorpions were famous for having a ton of ballads on their albums, also Nickelback same thing, and both bands were and still are successful.
@ginoames
3 жыл бұрын
I agree 100%
What a great singer Tony is, I support him 100% and wish him the best. TNT fan since the 80's.
I love Tony, always thought he was the best vocalist during the early TNT years. The power and range of his voice is remarkable.
Such a class act. Tony Harnell gives the best answer for the downfall of the late 80’s early 90’s hard rock/metal. Plenty of terrific bands during that era but as he pointed out, they all did begin to sound alike and that over saturation hurt even the big main stream bands.
Great job. Man he had some great perspectives on things. One of the best hard rock voices of that era.
Spot on about the end of hair metal/80's bands. Too many bands etc. Glad he could appreciate bands like AIC, Soundgarden & STP!
The 70s were a very eclectic decade. One hit wonders. #1 hits from all types of genres. Big bands and great, great music.
Incredible Musician/Vocalist and a Stellar inspiration
Huge fan from the start…thankyou for being awesome!
Definitely one of the best, if not the best vocalist of that era. And TNT were criminally underrated. Tony is spot on as to why ‘80s hard rock/metal went away. I remember everyone was getting signed, and most of those bands were virtually indistinguishable from one another.
Love Tony“ The Voice” he can still sing anything
one of my most favorite singers. I love TNT
Great interview! Tony's descriptions of the band really took me back to when I was hooked and rocking the vibe. I had stumbled onto Intuition at the perfect time in ny life. Then I got Realized Fantasies when it came out, and went back for more and discovered Tell No Tales. Wow! I knew TNT were different and loved them for it. Sadly, it had to end. Thank you Ronni Le Tekrø, Morty Black, Tony Harnell, and Diesel Dahl. Everyone's A Star! ⭐
Well..interesting to say the least..Tony is no fool...and he really has his finger on the pulse...he nails it in this interview...totally correct on all counts..well done..I agreed with him on every point..A and R guys just jumped on the chance to make a buck.
I seen TNT open a show in 87-88. Had No clue who they were but my brother and me sat there and just looked at each other like who the F@#k are these guys!! My bro said his vocals were So powerful he was blow-drying my hair!! Anyway after that I was a Huge TNT fan ( bought All the Albums). If you haven't heard My Religion that came out in I think the late 90s Please check it out. To me it's possibly there Best work. Just incredible songs start to finish.
@erikpjokstad
Жыл бұрын
My Religion is from 2004 and recently became available on Spotify again!
Great Guy ever talk about music
I bought the Knights album without hearing it. I saw the cover and knew it would be awesome. I got in my piece of junk 1971 Ford Maverick, no AC, No power brakes, and put the tape in and was blown away. When “Tell no Tales” came out I lost my mind. That band should’ve been ten times bigger than any crappy 80’s metal band. The songs were awesome and the playing was off the charts.
@trinidadvelasquez1898
3 жыл бұрын
Your absolutely right and spot on !!
If I were a Label Executive, I would hire Tony Harnell...
When at age 10 I discovered Knights Of The New Thunder I was f***ing blown away by Tony's vocals (which were like nothing else I had heard before) and the cold, gloomy atmosphere of that album. Plus, they sang about vikings and guitar playing was awsome and intriguing to my young ears (Klassisk Romance). Personally, a breakthrough album back in the day.
Tony is a great guy. I still love TNT and I still listen to the albums. His vocals are amazing. How can anybody sing like that?
This was a great interview. Only wish there were more segments coming later. I loved Tony in TNT. Such amazingly insane pipes. Astonishing the high notes he could hit. Wow. Tony was the one singer that I felt gave Steve Perry of Journey a run for his money. I think Tony could hit higher notes than Steve. In fact, Triumph's Rik Emmett had a similar vocal range as Tony did. Although...I think Rik and Tony both could hit some pretty high notes in their heyday. And the band just didn't sound the same without Tony at the microphone anymore when they parted ways.
Tony knows what's up- his timeline for the arrival and saturation of cheez whiz bands is spot on.
Best explanation ever! From one of the coolest voices of his time
Man....im loving these interviews
Great video! His perspective and sincerity are admirable.
Tony. Really well spoken. Respect sir. Your albums rule!
Well said Tony! Nailed it
Thanks for explaining what happened i was saying that since 85
Excellent interview.
Tony I know is very intelligent he's an excellent singer one of the best hats off to Tony harnell man God bless
very spot on!
The Westworld debut is still an awesome album. Tony's vocals are stunning on that, great tunes, memorable riffs from Riot's Mark Reale.. What more do you want from a great rock band.
@foamrob6577
3 жыл бұрын
What is Westworld I never heard of that? Is that a band with Mark Reale!?!?
@MrBoatdrnx
3 жыл бұрын
Check out Starbreaker, it’s a recent release and Tony’s vocals are top notch!
@matthewh.9544
3 жыл бұрын
@@foamrob6577 kzread.info/dash/bejne/Zqtoo7yMZ7W9l7g.html
@matthewh.9544
3 жыл бұрын
@@foamrob6577 kzread.info/dash/bejne/Y5iJmNOeZNbLZ7A.html
@matthewh.9544
3 жыл бұрын
@@foamrob6577 yes and Bruno Ravel and John O'Reily who's now with trans siberian orchestra. Great band
Excellent interview. Truly know TNT is one of the greatest bands on earth that sadly the masses were deprived of. Sickening which bands from that era went onto playing stadiums, yet the most superior band from that era few have ever heard of.
The labels have themselves to blame. They signed too many bands that fit the "hair metal" mold. The first single was an up tempo rocker followed by a power ballad. I saw TNT at an outside venue as they toured in support of their breakout album in the USA. Tony had a fantastic voice.
What an eloquent man. Man.
Very big thank-you for the sincere intervie!! For big light historical-legendary dialog!! Rock n roll dear!!! Health Health and Security!! Not surrender!!! In life in sport in music!!! I`like TNT very very too!! Hey?..In Norway?..Hello everybody!! I`love you everybody in Ameeruca too!! Not surrender!! I`very memory and very like Yours Everybody!!! Rock n roll!! Not surrender not one!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Great perspective on things. We were huge (HUGE) fans of TNT (dramatic, darker, European metal), and my wife saw TNT on the Stryper tour. Sharp stuff here...now I gotta look up his solo stuff!
Smart and spot on with his analysis
so much love for Tony here - thanks for the support!!!! Dont for get to hit the subscribe button. We have some really awesome new interviews on the way.
I saw them with the Rods at a club in Scotia, NY called Radio City!! I was sitting at the bar having a few beer and talking to them. All super nice guys!!
I was fortunate to see TNT on the Intuition tour in a 300 person capacity club. Best show I've ever seen - honestly.
It was very interesting observation of his on "the death of 80's metal". He is right. The market was so saturated with similar sounds. Ironically, grunge had even shorter life span.
So true, great stuff, thanks for these interviews.
Greatest voice in hard rock and metal. I've always agreed with his assessment. There were WAY too many Poisons in the late 80s/early 90s, and it's a shame, because some absolutely killer bands were lost in the shuffle and never got their due. And with the death of 80s metal, most people forgot about TNT and missed some phenomenal albums. I still listen to Firefly and Transistor consistently.
He makes a great point. Copying a 'fad' was a no no way back when. The 70s rock bands were all unique. It was a magical time, that will never be seen again
I couldn't name you one TNT song. But I like this guy .
great interview :)
That was some clever editing! I think it was only one camera but it never felt boring.
I love you Tony!! Come to Brazil
finally a voice of reason speaks some truth
You are still beautiful Tony. I will always love you
SO SHWEEEETTT...much love Tee with LIONS NAMED LEO.[the music worldwide} and SO cool..!!!
This is a great interview & Tony Harnell is spot on with everything he is saying.
Saw them open for Stryper. Hadn’t heard of TNT. Tony’s voice was amazing. Bought intuition the next day
One of my favorite singers and band.
This was cool, thank you 👍👍🤘
Bought this album based on the cover alone….. great album!
love this guy , my favorite new jersey singer over bruce and bon jovi!!!!
Absolutely love Tony!
Tony seems like a nice and cool guy and a great singer too. I just loved TnT when Tony was the singer.
I saw TNT at the hollywood bowl in the '80s. They were great. Tonys voice made that band.
I just found this channel, and I am glad I did. These are nice precise interviews. Thanks. Subscribed. 🤘
@80smetalrecyclebin
3 жыл бұрын
Thank you Major Air. We always appreciate a connoisseur of fine work.
@MajorAir
3 жыл бұрын
@@80smetalrecyclebin 👍
Tony always had the biggest baddest thick 80s hair
I was in Los Angeles 87-89 pursuing rock stardom and he is absolutely correct. There were sooooo many bands that all looked and sounded the same and too many were getting these one-two album deals and most of these bands had zero originality. I was in the Judas Priest/Maiden mold and we were on the outs for all the bands looking like Crue and Poison and sounded worse. Everyone was trying to be Faster Pussycat and GnR.🙃
Harnell nails it. Hard rock killed itself however it did come back just not as much in the public eye!
@theSword-
3 жыл бұрын
Hard rock didn't kill itself, the fk-heads that run the industry are to blame. Listen to the other interveiws, some of the guys comment about it.
He hits the nail right on the head
Spot on Mr. Harnell “Respect”
TNT's self titled album, along with Pretty Maids/Future World, TT Quick's/Metal of Honor, and Love Hate's/Blackout in the Red Room, were all under appreciated mid to late 80's gems.
@dertodesking.
Жыл бұрын
The Love/Hate album is amazing.
Yep. Agreed
I met Tony at a record store called BLEEKER BOBS in New York when knights of the new Thunder had just come out on Vertigo records and was absolutely blown away by his vocal range which he had been flexing with a band called the Jackals at the Rising Sun in Yonkers N.Y. he had the singer that T.N.T. Prior to him had absolutely no range on a song called HARLEY DAVIDSON.
Wow, what a great answer! I think that's an extremely well thought out synopsis of the situation. In the 60's, 70's, early 80's, record companies were looking for strong original artists and would sign them with the idea of "developing" them over the course of several albums / tours (for a great example of how this worked, see the excellent Netflix documentary on Clive Davis). From the mid-late 80's it seemed like they started to take a quite different, much more risk-averse (and lazier) route: look at what's already selling and just copy it. The persistent application of that "race to the bottom" process over several decades has resulted in much of what passes for popular music today: an extremely cheaply produced rhythmically, harmonically and melodically uninteresting "product" that has no long-term cultural value at all.
87 the platinum year for hard rock
tony i saw you at the chance theater, when you joined skid row you sounded great.
Tnt made some great albums and Tony Harnell made a great couple with master guitarplayer Ronni Le Tekro.
FINALLY the blame lands where it should..it aint Nirvanas fault, but the record companies who signed so many bands on their looks and flooded the market. And musical style will only last so long in the mainstream publics eye. Of course 80's metal had a time limit (like disco, nu metal, etc..etc..). And the record companies didn't help it any be forcing sounds, instead of like what Tony mentioned in the 70's letting bands be themselves mostly. How many of us have bosses that think they can do our jobs better than we can... great interview and damn Tell No Tales was on my turntable a ton and still is. The good thing is no one forces us to listen to anything..we can still support all these artist as much as we want even though there is no more MTV and airplay.
Hi Good morning. Good to see you I had a stroke. 1 yr I have trouble speaking , but i can understand you. Thankyou, goodbye.
To me there was always what was deemed popular. There were a lot of great bands that were playing some great stuff that wasn't being put on MTV which was really the way things went at the time. It was rare for a group like Helloween, Victory, TNT, and others to be played. Instead they played a few bands to death.
For me my favorite Tony Harnell album is not even a TNT album. The very first Westworld album he did with Mark Reale of Riot is AMAZING
Awesome singer 🤘
SWEET JESUS!!
There are no bands I love more than my favorite 70’s and 80’s metal bands. And there are no bands I hated more than the generic, late 80’s bands that ruined it all. I won’t say any names because I’m sure most of those artists had their hearts in the right place and admired the same bands I do. But those groups made a joke out of anything metallic that existed in the mainstream. Thank God for thrash and extreme metal in all its forms for keeping metal alive after 1991. But I wish the bad, over saturated hair metal never happened so groups like TNT would have had the room to grow and respect from contemporary audiences. Tony definitely knows what he’s talking about and he is one of the best Rick vocalists of his generation. Hope he’s going well, living his best life.
Great interview! I’d love to sit and chat with this dude. Every interview on this channel is great! The music industry, like Hollywood and almost every other industry has been hi jacked by evil people trying to manipulate culture. It’s coming apart though. Massive changes on the way, we just need to weather the storm. 🙏💕
Release the DVD with Tony singing for Skid Row
@Cantstandtherock
3 жыл бұрын
I don’t think that will happen, Skid Row wasn’t a good fit for Tony. I wish could sing on my new album, I need his voice dammit!
Just what he talking about why grunge killed hardrock, too many bands, lack of orginallity and so on. I am not hugely into progressive rock/metal, but I think that kind of style is one of the few lately that hava a lot of original bands around. And I feel that a lot of bands like that never followed trends. For example you hear stuff like "Grunge killed hardrock" "Death metal killed Thrash", but you never hear about someone killing progressive rock/metal.
It's like I said all along when the radio suddenly moved on pop metal / radio metal in all of its forms had literally no more promotion but word of mouth and if it wasn't grunge it was going to be some form of alternative rock for sure that completely ate it. Then the alternative became mainstream and needed a second form of alternative music enter alt and a second pivot and complete homogenization of the genres for in my humble opinion remixing and we play everything station formats, Ben, jim, jack, mike, joe, etc. Also now 20 years makes a classic good luck with that. Yes you're right Jimi Hendrix is going to be played next to twenty one pilots because radio doesn't know how to make a musical transition anymore.
why hasn't oversaturation killed Rap and Hip Hop?
@philmccracken8947
3 жыл бұрын
Great point!
@daviclar867
3 жыл бұрын
because the majority of the people who listens to that shit can't think for themselves.
@ejsinner1520
3 жыл бұрын
Been in a slow decline last couple years. Where you been? Lol
@randallfloyd4476
3 жыл бұрын
because it's all the same.....hair rock is nothing like grunge....it was a total change.
@taelorwatson9822
2 жыл бұрын
I barely listen to rap and I don't think I really listen to hip Hop but that scene has really changed.