Hit The Ground Runnin'

Review: Hit The Ground Running – Sudden Impact

AOR Heaven (February 14th 2021)

Reviewer: Grant Foster

Philadelphia quintet Hit The Ground Running. Ever heard of them? No, nor had I, but they hold the title as being one of the most sought after indie CD’s on Ebay, with this original debut release fetching in excess of £1000. This was mainly due to the original 1989 release only being available in limited quantities, on a small Canadian subsidiary.

This re-release on AOR Heaven, remastered and as a 2 CD set with 10 bonus tracks in total, it begs the question, is it worth the money being ask for on Ebay?

First of all, HITGR’s local compatriots were Cinderella, Tangier, Britny Fox and Heavens Edge, but, HTGR are strictly AOR. If you like it light and decidedly fluffy, then this band are definitely right up your strasse. It’s clean and it’s polished. The production, even for the time, is of the era, but professional.

‘Magic’ has hints of Loverboy and singer Blair Ramsey’s voice has hints of Kevin Cronin from REO Speedwagon about it. The REO comparison does tend to run through the whole album, but not as a direct copy, but with hints here and there.

‘Moment to Moment’ recalls Starship, ‘Slow Motion‘ and ‘Don’t You Look Back’ have that pristine Candian AOR sound from the era of the day.

‘Too Late’ is all power pop and ‘While It Lasted‘ has all the arrangements you’d expect of a balled, complete with vocal harmonies.

You do wonder why, this release didn’t lead to greater fame and fortune for HITGR. There’s strong melodies, very cool arrangements, all the right kind of vocal harmonies and some very slick guitar work courtesy of Alan Augunas.

Well, far from it for me to know the answer, as we are all aware of bands who have released a strong first album and disappeared without trace.

However, thanks to AOR Heaven, this rare release now sees the light of day in all it’s glory and for me, it’s probably one of the best AOR releases outside your Journey/Toto/ REo Speedwagon ‘big boy’ acts, that I’ve heard. Now is the time to add it to your collection! - RockPoser

Translated from Spanish

Surely if their first album wasn't about to be reissued, few would remember this band, but it turns out that this aforementioned piece, "Sudden Impact", has climbed to USD 3,000 a copy, on one of the best-known shopping platforms- record sales.

$3,000? Yes, perhaps a crazy sum to pay for a record, but believe me that they have paid high amounts for this piece, which at the time was released on LP, CD and cassette, the latter being the most valuable at the collector level, but today we cannot find any for sale, and it is that a very limited number of copies have been released.

An album that sounds very good, taking into account some difficulties in recording it, and of course, it was released in 1989, although I could say that its sound is more early 80's. At first I heard somewhere that the mixing table was destroyed by vandals, and it took a long time to repair it, it was never ok, and this delayed, of course, the recording.

This Philly band, originally (1985) called Free Delivery, didn't have the same luck as their local compatriots Cinderella, Britny Fox, Heaven's Edge in terms of their awareness and renown; Little by little they made their way, opening shows for bands like the aforementioned Britny Fox.

Its members initially Blair Rumsey on vocals, bass by Paul Piccardi, guitars by Alan Auginnas, keyboards Rob Knauss (also known as Rob Kay), drums Bert Marks, who was later replaced by Jimmy Katone.

In short, a great AOR album, melodic rock and sometimes with a pop influence. It starts with a nice intro, which immediately hits with “Magic”, a very rocky song, reminiscent of Loverboy; Good guitar solo, and a very catchy melody.

"Moment to Moment" perhaps the most sweet song on the album, very Starship style, with a charming chorus, and where Rumsey's voice shines and catches. “Slow Motion” a song that has a Reo Speedwagon sound from the “Good Trouble” era, I would say that even in the voice this singer has a timbre similar to Cronin's.


“Don´t You Look Back” is the sister of the previous one, both demonstrate and show the style that this band executes. A very neat AOR, with ultra catchy choruses. "Oh No!", With an intro of a crying child, and birdsong starts musically with watery, sharp guitars, once again Rumsey shows his excellent vocal range.

In “An Original”, it is a more crushing piece, more oriented to melodic rock, with more forceful bases than all the previous pieces, perhaps they remind certain moments of Night Ranger, or April Wine of the early 80s. “Over and Over ”, is more similar to the style of Speedwagon that we mentioned before, catchy chorus, and super melodic guitars; And in “Who's Walking You Home”, we find a Boston style, in its days of “Don't Look Back”.

“Too Late” the more pop side, a song with a fantastic melody, which could easily have played on a Californian radio. “While It Lasted”, the ballad of course… some phenomenal arrangements, and again we wonder why this band, with songs like this one, or a handful of the previous ones that we discussed, was not more successful, but it is not radio, because we could say that they follow that line of Outfield, Glass Tiger, or at certain times, when you have to put on the armor even that of bands like Skagarack.


A good production, with good arrangements, members who do their job perfectly, good melodies that make you smile in each song... in short, music often contains mysteries.

This re-edition comes out in double CD format, with as it mentions 10 additional tracks in total, it can only be obtained by request... perhaps, in a few years, we will once again be before a collector's item.

95% Recommended - ViriAOR

While Philadelphia based HIT THE GROUND RUNNIN' may not have had the same kind of international recognition their better known local compatriots Cinderella, Britny Fox, Tangier and Heaven’s Edge acquired back in the day, they can surely feel a sense of pride in the fact that the album they released back in 1989 (“Sudden Impact”) became one of the most sought after hard rock records. Collectors of the genre have, especially over the last twenty five years, fought and outbid each other on eBay for the privilege of owning a copy. First formed as the curiously named Free Delivery in early 1985. The band found themselves opening up for a number of other groups on the local scene as things progressed, including Britny Fox, The Who’s J.Entwistle, Gorky Park, A.Nova, Blue Murder, Bricklin, Heaven’s Edge and Blue Oyster Cult. “Sudden Impact” was originally available on LP, CD and cassette. Although examples of the CD version have sold for the most money in collector circles, it’s actually the cassette version that is the rarest of the three formats. At the time of writing a CD is listed for sale on a popular internet site for music purchases for the princely sum of just over $3000. AOR Heaven now re-release the sought after “Sudden Impact” album as strictly ltd., re-mastered double CD including 2 bonus tracks on the original disc and additional 8 bonus tracks on disc 2. I choose tracks: “Magic”, “Moment To Moment”, “Don’t You Look”, “An Original”, “Over And Over”, “Who’s Walking You Home” and “Too Late”. A lost little diamond for many years….! Bravo to AOR Heaven! Many thanks to HIT THE GROUND RUNNIN' for their great work!!! SUGGESTED FOR ALL AOR/MELODIC ROCK LOVERS!!!

Songwriting: 9
Musicianship: 10
Production: 9
Album cover: 9

Total rating: 9,25 - AlbumReviewz

Translated from French

Based in Philadelphia, this group has not known the same fame as its compatriots CINDERELLA, BRITTNY FOX or HEAVEN'S EDGE. The label Aor Heaven has the good idea at the beginning of the year to reissue their first album released in 1989.

After an uninteresting intro, the title Magic pours out its very atypical AOR dear to the 80s. The major influence of this group remains undoubtedly REO SPEEDWAGON. She sweats on Slow Motion especially in terms of sound and guitar playing. Listening to this opus, it is difficult not to hum the tunes of Moment To Moment, Don't You Look or Over and Over. These songs had everything to make hits. So of course not everything is perfect on this record. Some titles like Oh No or Too Late may seem a bit outdated. Overall, it's still a curiosity for any self-respecting 80s Aor fan.

In addition to the album of the time, we are entitled to a bonus disc. This contains 8 tracks including 5 demos of the album. There are two unreleased Nights Delight and So It Goes, two fairly average titles. The last track is a radio edit version of Over And Over. The booklet contains a complete biography of the band as well as the lyrics (thanks to Aor Heaven for this beautiful reissue).

Finally, this edition (of which the first 500 copies sold out quickly) is aimed at collectors and fans of the time. Others may unfortunately be insensitive to this music.

4/5 Stars Review - RockMeeting

Hit The Ground Runnin’ has a very peculiar and one-of-a-kind history and story from the 80s Hard Rock, Metal, and Glam scene.

Touted as one of the best unknown and underrated Hard Rock bands from the 80s, Hit The Ground Runnin’ enjoyed mild success in the form of having released Sudden Impact in 1989 and having been one of the bands to appear on Dance Party/Dance Party USA regularly and more often than other band or artist.

In this interview with the band’s bassist, Pual Piccari, we go over the history of Hit The Ground Runnin’ from its early Free Delivery days in the early to mid-’80s, to their current efforts with releasing “new” music, and videos for an upcoming album titled Free Delivery, consisting of some unreleased songs from their Free Delivery days plus new content!

An unfortunate mix of timing and just downright bad luck is what we’ve learned to be the culprit as to why this band never really “took off,” but they’re at it again with the help of their manager, Marcus Mason, and are in high demand with the re-release, and remaster of their debut album selling out its first weekend available!

Be sure to check out their YouTube channel and their Facebook page for their new videos and old ones as well when you’re done here! Paul’s story is just as unique as the band itself, and we hope you enjoy reading this one as much as we did talking with him.

Anthony:
It’s great to have you here, Paul. How have you been these past couple of years?

Paul:
Cool, alright! I’ve been good. I’ve been doing a lot of different things, traveling around, and doing some tribute shows. An Ozzy show and an ELO show.

Anthony:
Where did you get your interest in music from? Where did it all begin? What got you started on bass?

Paul:
My father was a musician. He was a piano tuner and he also played upright bass and regular bass. So, I got curious about an upright bass early because there was always this big freaking thing he’d drag around, and have a bow, and I’m like, “What’s the bow for?” I started playing piano first, then drums, and then back to the piano, and then lead guitar. A friend of mine needed a bass player one day, I was like, “Well, I could do that.” I was like, “So dad, can I borrow your bass?” He said, “The hell you gonna do with that?” I said, “I’m gonna play bass.”

So, I went over and played bass, and never looked back. I just never picked up another instrument. I stayed with the bass, and then, found that was my niche. My dad had a Fender Precision, which weighed a ton, and at the time, I was into Rush, so I got a 4001 Rickenbacker in the Geddy Lee style, of course. It was cherry red too. It was beautiful. it was nice and light. So, my dad one day, I loved his bass, and he liked how light my bass was, and he thought it looked cool, so he says to me one day, “You want to swap?” So I took the heavier Fender, and he took my Rickenbacker. It was pretty funny.

But I got into music too, because he tunes pianos right under my bed. So, my bedroom was on top of his workshop. Where he would bring pianos in, build them, tune them, and all this other stuff. So, a lot of Saturday mornings, when I’m sleeping late, and I didn’t have to get up for school, I would hear him tuning in my sleep. I ended up having almost perfect pitch because of that, well, as far as my hearing, you know, like I don’t necessarily say I sing pitch-perfect, but I’m when I listen to something, I can tell if something’s not right. And that had a lot to do with that. It really does.

Anthony:
Hit The Ground Runnin’ has the new single out called “Simply Because,” and the Christmas song “The Merry Medley.” Before we get into all that, let’s start with the biography coming out this year that your manager, Marcus Mason, has been working on.

Paul:
Last year, Marcus emailed me and asked me if he could interview us. He tracked us down, he found us. I was like, “Yeah, sure.” So, we did a Zoom interview, and it went on for, Christ, he’s got unlimited because he’s a teacher, so I think we went on for about two hours! Towards the end of it, I said, “You know, with all this, you should just write a damn book! You’d be great at it.” You know, I said “The questions you’re asking and everything are great!” and he’s like, “I’d be honored. You guys, would you let me?” and I was like, “Sure!”

So, he started writing the book. He contacted everybody, people that we couldn’t even find, we didn’t even know still existed. He found so many people, anyway, he did the book then things were progressing. He was just behind the scenes doing all this promotion for us, and just doing this and doing that. And I said, “You realize you’re going to end up being our manager, right?” And he just laughed and goes “No, no, no, no, no.” So, I guess about two, three months ago, Jimmy and I pretty much lead the band. We just straight up asked him, “Do you want to manage the band?” He’s like, “I’d be honored.” So we’re like, “So would we.” So, he took it upon himself, took the reins, and just went crazy with it. He’s got us on probably I don’t know how many stations now, thirty or thirty-five radio stations. Some of them are reporting stations because they’re FM, and most of them actually are internet stations, but still, we’re doing a little bump on Spotify, which is pretty cool. The videos have gotten over 65,000 views in like a month, and a half or so, so that’s pretty good, and that’s organic. We’re not promoting it. We’re not doing anything. It’s just people are finding it somehow.

Anthony:
The 80s are coming back! It’s becoming very popular again.

Paul:
The 80s have been back! There are a lot of reasons why. One is because of the internet and digital, most of these bands aren’t getting the royalties. There was an interview with Peter Frampton, and he said he went to court to try and fight it. He said he made $1,500 one month for “Baby I Love Your Way” where he should make $15,000. He took it to court, there was nothing he could do about it because there’s no law that protects them.

Anthony:
I keep hearing about a lot of artists that have their music on Spotify, that they get almost no royalties for their music, and it takes millions of listens for it to amount to anything.

Paul:
No, you don’t and that’s one of the big problems. Then, of course, without the royalties coming in, what else is there to do? They got to play. So, they got to go out and tour. That’s why you see this big surge of 80s bands out there touring, they’re running out of money!


All images courtesy of Paul Piccari
Anthony:
Yeah, you’re right! I’ve been seeing a lot of 80s bands either regrouping or coming back as supergroups.

Paul:
Yeah, a combination of two bands. A lot of them are touring together. There’s like two or three 80s bands you’ll see like a say like, oh, I don’t know maybe Poison, Winger, and Warrant together. Those types of things.

Anthony:
Mötley Crüe was supposed to be in town but their tour keeps getting postponed, and it’s kind of sad to see that happening, we all want to get back in the crowd, and artists want to get back on the stage.

Paul:
I honestly don’t even go to concerts anymore. [Laughs]. I’ve been on stage so long. There are only certain people I’d go see like, I would see McCartney any day of the week. But the problem is ticket prices are through the roof. That’s one reason I don’t go, but I did go recently when he came I think it was a couple of years ago, four years ago, something like that. I took my son because he’s a big Beatles fan. So, I took him, and then the only other show I think I saw because I needed to see it, I think was the [Pink] Floyd show that came around which was sick. So, I’ll go see stuff like that. But being in tribute bands, seeing the tribute scene, and seeing the other scene too. Some of the tribute bands are better than the real bands!

Anthony:
So, you’ve got the new single out, and it’s been since 2007 that you’ve had new music out, can you talk about that gap there?

Paul:
The reason why there’s such a big gap is that the band was really not together. In ‘89, actually, it was like ‘90-’91 when everything broke down, and fell apart with the record companies when Nirvana came in and ruined everything [Laughs], we were kind of stuck in a contract that we couldn’t do anything with. So, we kind of had to sit on it because they wouldn’t release the rights to the states, and all kinds of stuff was going on. So, we just kind of sat on it, and then, we just kind of disbanded. We did some more recordings, which would have been our second album, but they were only demos, and some of them are cassettes. Some of them were just cue mixes just to take home and listen to, and that’s Control Yourself.

What happened was I forgot all about those tapes, and one day, I found a bunch of tapes, and I was going to my studio, and I made an album of what would have been our second album. I took all the demos and just put them in order and called it Control Yourself and just put it out there. Then that took up legs of its own in the underground scene. So, that’s why that took so long to come out in 2000 because we just gave up. It wasn’t like we gave up, it was like we had our backs against the wall. There was no place for our music anywhere at that point. So, we just kind of stopped and we all went our separate ways. We kept in touch with each other, but we never really did anything else. Blair [Ramsey], and I did a few other songs here and there.

Then, in 2007, I decided to try and reincarnate it, and Al [Alan Auginnas] wasn’t into it, Jimmy [Katone] was unreachable, and Rob [Kay] was unreachable. So, Blair, and I decided to try and venture on our own. That’s why we just called it “HGR” because it really wasn’t Hit The Ground Runnin’ without the rest of the guys. So, that’s what we did with that album. I was actually doing a lot more singing because I wrote a lot of the stuff before Blair came into the project with me. And then, that was gonna be the end of it, to tell you the truth, I was gonna close the door on it at that point. Then Marcus came along. And then, while he was doing the book, we all got in touch with each other, and kind of rekindled old friendships that we lost over the years. We started talking about the Free Delivery days, we had demos, we had about eighteen demos or so that were done on my 8-track recorder at my house back in ‘86, you know? And I said to the guys, “Why don’t we re-cut these at least for just for ourselves, we’re not going to do anything with them.” I didn’t think anything was gonna happen. I said, “Just for ourselves. Let’s just re-cut these and we’ll at least have a good recording of some of these songs.” Most of the songs, and most of the copies we had, were on cassettes. It was barely listenable, so we took them, and we started recording.

We took three, the first one was, I think “Long And Lonely Time,” and then, “Simply Because,” and there was one other one, I can’t remember which one it was, but “Simply Because” Rob wrote the music and left one day, and Blair and I were living together at the time, and we wrote the words, and I produced the whole thing into a song at Blair’s house, this was back in I’m gonna probably say ‘90, like, it was before the Sudden Impact album. So these just sat around, and then “Simply Because” caught my ear, and I said, “This would make a good video. So why don’t we finish this one first, and then we’ll cut a video just for the hell of it.” And we did and as we were doing it, this is when Marcus started getting all active with everything. And we’re like, “Wow, this is crazy, you know, with all this stuff going on that he’s got going on. So maybe we should release this video.”

So, I just put it up one day. I just said, “Okay, well let’s make this the release date and I’ll finish up the audio, I’ll finish the video.” Everybody recorded their own videos pretty much, and then they just either emailed them to me or drop them off via Dropbox, and I put it together, and then, that was it. We put it out there and never expected anything more than maybe 1000 hits or something. We didn’t expect over 65,000 right now, to say the least.

Now we’ve been getting offers from distribution companies, which basically are “record labels,” which is a distribution company. And then, stuff for gigs, “We want you to open up for Winger,” stuff like that, “Do you want to open up for this band? Do you want to open up for Bad Company?” It’s like all kinds of crazy stuff. So, now we’re back on the Hit The Ground Runnin’ bandwagon again. And we’re going next Friday to go shoot three videos, and actually, ON the 14th the Sudden Impact re-release comes out.


All images courtesy of Paul Piccari
Anthony:
I was just about to bring up the Sudden Impact re-release. What’s all involved in that process?

Paul:
Yeah, I have the quarter-inch tapes! Back then, we used PCM, which was recorded onto videotape, like a VHS videotape. And when we did that, it was supposed to be high-tech. So, we did that, and it came out. But when we got the record after they mastered it, we got it back, and I just sat there and said, “Where the hell’s the bottom end?” If you listen to the album, it’s very thin, so I’ve always wanted to remaster it. So, I found the masters, and with all this going on, I said, “Yo, while I remaster this, why don’t we re-release this too.” So, I went and remastered it, and it sounds amazing. It’s night and day. You put on the quarter-inch, and you can hear the bass, you can hear everything. On the CD, it sounds like piss. I mean, it’s mastered well, but there’s no bottom end because they can only do with what they got. I got a very thin copy. So, that’s that. And then, what happened too is I also recently found somewhere right here, this is the three-quarter-inch version of the master for “Over & Over.” This is the video for “Over & Over.” This is the tape that was done on 35-millimeter tape. So, I had it transferred years ago to it that tape. I have mini DV tape for it too that I’m just getting ready to transfer this week. And when the album comes out, I’m going to release that video too.

Anthony:
Going back, you started as Free Delivery in what, 1985 correct?

Paul:
Yeah, somewhere around ‘85-ish. I have cassettes, the earliest one was ‘85 because we used to record in my rehearsing my studio. My parents had built a recording studio in my basement, so we used to rehearse in my recording studio. We were like studio players from day one because we would all have headphones on rehearsing in my studio. So, by doing that, I was able to record almost every single rehearsal that we did. I have a box of cassettes of almost every rehearsal that we ever did, which is pretty cool because I have cassettes of us making, and writing some of the songs. You can hear it like, “There’s “Over & Over” I hear it. I hear it!” You can hear us working it, and working it until it comes out. Then there’s a bunch of cover songs because we used to be half and half. We used to play covers and originals. So, there’s us doing like [Jefferson] Starship, all kinds of stuff — twenty-two minute Genesis medley. [Laughs].

Anthony:
The band was discovered by Dan McKeown in 1986, right? What was it like having been on the scene and to be discovered after only a year?

Paul:
We were young spunky kids, so we thought we deserved it. Egotistical little bastards. I mean, it was cool. It felt like we should be there though. It was exciting. It felt like this is the ride we should be taking, like this is where we were supposed to be, it felt normal. It just felt like this was the road that we were supposed to ride on.

Anthony:
What led to the name change from Free Delivery to Hit The Ground Runnin’? was that a record label decision or something you guys decided on?

Paul:
We had an old management company as Free Delivery, and we needed an out, and that was the out. The name really wasn’t ours, and we really didn’t like it either. Hit The Ground Runnin’ was named by Hilary Schacter, who was one of the managers back then. When she came up with it, we were just like, “What the hell? It’s too long.” It was ahead of its time to tell you the truth. Because it’s a cool name. So, we always used to say “HGR,” that’s where we keep getting the “HGR” from. A lot of people put “HTGR” but we always just shorten it even smaller to “HGR.” So, that was one of the outs, just to get out of that name. Plus, it’s never good to put “free” in your name. People think they’re getting you for free. [Laughs].


All images courtesy of Paul Piccari
Anthony:
You formed in Pennsylvania. Was it harder to make it in Pennsylvania than say, if you’re on the Sunset Strip out there on the West Coast?

Paul:
Nah, I doubt it. Philly’s got a big history for music. A lot of R&B came out of Philly, Philly International, you know, and all that stuff. A lot of great producers came out of here. But there was a decent Philly scene like Bricklin’ came out of here. The Hooters came out of here. And right around the time, when The Hooters were signing, we were pretty much getting signed too. I think they were up before us if I’m not mistaken. But either way, it was a little bit hard. We opened up for Cinderella, and Cinderella got signed like weeks or months right after we played with them. Then we did it with Tangier and then we did it with Britney Fox. So, they all came out of Philly too. But then, you go to the Sunset Strip, you talk about that, you know how many people were probably all on their way to the Sunset Strip? It’s always pay-to-play out there. Out here in Philly, you would be able to make money, but out there, everybody wanted to make it in LA. Nowadays, the big town is Nashville. Nashville is the new Rock spot.

Anthony:
You were mentioning a minute ago about bands you’ve opened up for, some big names! Cinderella you said, Britney Fox, Blue Öyster Cult, and more.

Paul:
Yeah, we played with Cinderella, Blue Öyster Cult, Britney Fox, Gorky Park, which was the Russian band. We played with Donny Osmond, that was a great adventure. We played out in LA when we did the Monterey Pop Festival. We played with Jeff Healey, Grace Slick, some of the members of The Grateful Dead. I’m trying to think who else was on that bill, Billy Preston. I have a funny story about Billy Preston. We were at the hotel, there was a big Jazz fest going on, Billy Preston played both Monterey Pop Fest, and the Jazz Fest. Everybody was staying at this hotel for all the people playing. We walked up to the bar and at that time, I was drinking Jack Daniels. I walked up to the bar, and I just wanted to get a shot of Jack. A guy is sitting next to me, you know, and I started talking to him. And I’m like, “You’re Billy Preston!” And he’s like, “Yeah!” Next thing you know, we’re buying each other shots and he’s getting hammered. He ended up getting to this huge fight with his wife, or girlfriend, or somebody ended up getting arrested. It was just a crazy night and it was just fun.

There were a lot of people like that you run into out there, but he’s a really nice guy though. Getting to meet “The Fifth Beatle” was cool. I’ll tell you who else was nice, John Entwistle when we played with him. That guy couldn’t have been nicer. We had to leave the venue up in Asbury Park, and everybody went outside it was cold, windy. I forgot my keys inside. So, I had to go get my keys and we weren’t allowed back in. So, I went in, got my keys, they were in my bag behind my bass amp, so when I picked my head from behind my bass amp, I turn around, and John Entwistle is standing right in front of me! I’m like, Hey!” and shook his hand. He’s like, “I know you.” He was really nice. His road manager came up and got right in between and said, “Who the fuck are you? You got to get out of here.” I was like, “Oh, sorry, man, I just came to get my keys.” And John interrupted, “Leave him alone. Go get us a couple scotch and waters, and bring me a Number one.” I’m like, “What the hell? He’s like “Sit Down.”

So, we sat down and I’m talking, I’m not even thinking, and I’ve got people outside waiting for me too. So, he comes over, his road manager comes over and hands him a bass. It’s his “My Generation” bass and then hands it to me. John handed it to me and says, “Play me something.” I’m like, “Huh?!” Of course, I couldn’t play one note. And then he picked up my bass, and he started playing on my bass, and then, I asked him to sign it. The road manager is like, “You got to go.” I’m like, “No problem.” So, he signs the back of my bass, but it was a black magic marker on a black face, so there was nothing I could do. It’s all I had. And of course, no cell phones or pictures, we left our camera at home, but even if we did, the camera would have been outside, it wouldn’t have been in there with me anyway. So, I finally get outside, and everybody’s bitching at me. Nobody’s believing me that I was in there jammin’ like, “Couldn’t you hear the noise?” It was fun.

We hung out with Blue Murder up in Canada, with Johnny Sykes and Tony Franklin. I’ve met a lot of people. Nicko from Iron Maiden. Tony Bongiovi is a good friend of mine, too, believe it or not, he produced a lot. He worked with Hendrix, he worked with Zeppelin, he worked with so many people. It’s amazing.

Anthony:
Regarding the recording of Sudden Impact, “Moment To Moment,” a cover, was one of the more popular songs off the album, right?

Paul:
Yes. It was written by Linda Creed, and I can’t remember the other writer who wrote “Moment To Moment,” but when we got it, it was just piano and vocals, and it was very slow. It was like a ballad. So, we took it. They gave us the tape and said, “Here, Rock this up. We want to put this on the album.” So, we did. I have the demo from that, too. Now if you look up Linda Creed, you’ll see all the songs she wrote. She’s was a big songwriter, she died of cancer 20-30 years ago. Oh, actually, she died before that album came out, so she didn’t get to hear our version of it. We’re the only Rock band to ever record one of her songs.


All images courtesy of Paul Piccari
Anthony:
And that would have been a completely different album if that wasn’t there.

Paul:
Right? Well, it fits. It’s kind of like a story. It starts out like everything’s magic and it ends off with the relationship breaking off, and it was good while it lasted. You know, if you look at the songs, let’s take, “I want to hold you in slow motion,” the romance is still there, you know? Let’s take it moment by moment, moment to moment, you know. So, if you look at the whole progression of that album, that’s a story. And it was a story about, believe it or not, Blair and his wife. We didn’t plan it that way. It’s just we looked at all the songs and saw this is a story. So, I put the story together, and I put it in order that way.

Anthony:
I wanted to bring up your time on Dance Party USA, what was that experience like?

Paul:
Everybody who was ever on that show lip-synced. A funny little tidbit was Duran Duran did not want to be in front of people. So, they taped their segment before the people and kids got in there. And then, they just played the segment back, which we don’t understand why because that was so much fun. I mean, because they had like the girl coming up and kissing Blair, that was all planned. It was all pre-planned. To us, it was corny. Like, we were just up there. It was like the Queen movie, Bohemian Rhapsody, when they were doing the BBC scene, and they said they had to lip-sync, that’s kind of how we felt. It’s like, “You realize we can play our instruments, you dumb-asses.” But they’re like, “No, no, it’s all lip-synced”. And we were like, “What the fuck?” Then we realized that everybody, Bon Jovi, Madonna, everybody lip-synced on that show.

Anthony:
Is it the same with the beach shows on your YouTube channel as well?

Paul:
Yep, unfortunately. Anything that was a part of Dance Party or Dance Party USA was always lip-syncing. Honestly, we weren’t big fans of that. We really weren’t at all. It became natural. It’s funny, the playing was always second nature for us, so we always knew what we were doing, and it became more of like a show then and actually made us more “show” people because we saw ourselves on TV. It’s like, “Oh, God, don’t do that. And don’t do this.” And it helped us in a roundabout way to develop a little more charisma and stuff.

Anthony:
You mentioned earlier the band didn’t seem to take off back in the day. Why do you think the band didn’t take off? Do you think timing had a factor in it with the sudden genre shift to Grunge?

Paul:
That’s exactly it. If we would have come out two years earlier, we probably wouldn’t even be having this conversation right now. But we did. And it was the wrong time.

Anthony:
In the time between ‘89 and 2000, between Sudden Impact and Control Yourself, were you still in the music scene?

Paul:
I was still in the music scene. I did a lot of cover bands during that time. Yeah, let’s see, you’re talking like 90-something to 2000. So, you’re talking probably like local bands like Crystal Roxx. I was a substitute bass player, so if anybody needed to sub, they would call me, but for the most part, at that time, I was also starting a family, raising kids, and everything like that. So, music took a slight backseat.

We prefer playing live, absolutely. It’s a rush. It’s a high. When people tell you about that, I don’t know whether you knew I was the founding member of Get The Led Out, the Zeppelin show that tours around, and when we used to play in front of sold-out shows of 2000 to 5000. In fact, up in Oswego, there were 20,000 people. When you get out on that stage, and you’re playing, it’s just it’s the best high in the world. There’s nothing I can even compare it to, nothing at all. It’s just a rush. It’s a good feeling, that high, that adrenaline kicking in.


All images courtesy of Paul Piccari
Anthony:
What are your favorite places that your music has taken you, either with HGR or with cover bands?

Paul:
When we did like 20,000 people with Get The Led Out, in Oswego last week, that was one of the highlights. That was pretty big. And then, selling out the Electric Factory in Philly, and playing in front of my home crowd, that was pretty big. With Hit The Ground Runnin’ at the Monterey stuff and the tour in Canada, that was all fun. That was great stuff. They had some great clubs up there, Rock clubs, which were pretty much like good music venues They’re all good shows, really. I’ve had so many great times, so many great moments, and so many shows that it’s hard to really pinpoint one really good show. They’re all good. And I’ve been in so many different tribute bands, and other bands I can say, “The Ozzy show, this was one of the best shows for this band, that show was the best show.” As far as venues, I love the outside venues. I really do. The really nice big outdoor theaters, I prefer those over gymnasiums. And, you know, even concert halls, like say, Wells Fargo, where the Flyers play, it’s just too noisy. It bounces everywhere. I’d rather be in a theater because we’re so studio trained. We want that control where if you have a room that bounces everywhere, you don’t have any control over that.

Anthony:
You wear many hats for HGR. Dive into that for us.

Paul:
I’m the producer. I’m the engineer. I do all the audio. I do all the videos. I’m one of the primary songwriters, along with Blair, you’ll see our names on just about everything. The two of us pretty much write everything, and then the other guys contribute. When we first did the first album, we put “all songs written by Hit The Ground Runnin’,” which was actually a bad move. It was a good move because we wanted everybody to get credit, equal credit. But none of our names were on the record. Once you finish an album, and that album goes out, you’re a published artist, you could actually become a publisher of that. And since our names were never on the record, we could never become publishers because of that. So, it was like a curse. We were trying to do something nice, but we actually screwed ourselves. With the re-release, we changed a lot of stuff around, so everyone’s names are on it that should be on it. Like, whoever wrote this song, you wrote this, you wrote the majority of that, you know, blah, blah, blah. And everything’s evened out now the way it should be. I mean, it’s still fine. I mean, we were all there. We were all writing it. We all should get credit. Even though Blair and I were the main writers, it didn’t matter. Without Alan’s input, we would never have this part, or whatever. Nobody’s got an ego about anything. Like, we were always checking with each other to make sure everything was good.

Anthony:
Has it been easy to record the new album with the pandemic going on?

Paul:
Yes, it has. It’s almost like we didn’t stop. Blair and I have been recording back and forth for a while now. To be perfectly honest, when Blair and I get in the studio, that’s when the magic happens. Between his vocals and coming up with melodies, and things, if we’re not writing when he’s recording, it’s pretty good because we bounce pretty easily off each other that way.

Anthony:
What would you say the future look like for the band? You got the Sudden Impact re-release, and a new album in the works, are there any tour plans?

Paul:
We’re just about finished with the new album and we’re gonna call the album Free Delivery. So, we’re just about finished with it. And like I said, we’re going to probably release about three or four new videos within the next three or four months. It looks like we’re going to be releasing it through, if I’m not mistaken, it’s through Pride and Joy Records. It’s a worldwide distribution company. Marcus is the reason why I’m so deep in the audio and video right now. That’s why Marcus and Jimmy are handling the business end of it. Because here, I’m still knee-deep in that stuff. Like, I’m still involved in it but those guys have more of a handle on where things are. And then, we communicate back and forth, and they get my opinion on stuff. And we just bounce stuff back and forth. It’s a good relationship we have. You never know what could happen, it looks like we’re gonna be heading out, and doing some playing.

Anthony:
You’re releasing the Free Delivery album sometime next year?

Paul:
I think they were talking about April. Something like that. Or February. I’m not sure. We’ve had to record it in a very strange way because Jimmy’s is in Michigan now, and I’m in Pennsylvania. All he has is an electronic kit over there, and he has an older one, and it sounds electronic. So, we’ve been doing some finagling on the sounds of the drums to try and make them sound real. So, that’s just a little insider info there for you. But other than that, it’s been fairly smooth sailing. Jimmy and I wish he had a real kit over there but it does sound pretty damn good. You’ll hear it. I mean, “Simply Because” is an example, that’s part of the album, and it’s gonna be good. It’s fun. It’s like I said, it’s an album that was supposed to be our first album. It was supposed to be Free Delivery’s first album, which just the whole album just got shit canned, just thrown to the side. And we just wrote a whole new album for Sudden Impact. So, all those songs were just sitting around doing nothing. I just felt bad for them. So, we were like, “Let’s record them, you know?” So, some of them are very Pop. Some of them are very Rock. Some are like “Simply Because” and some are completely like, nothing you’ve ever heard. - VM Music