From The Archives: Pearl Aday and Scott Ian of Pearl1

by Erin Broadley

“I’’m ready to fight and I’’m ready to sing.”
– Pearl Aday

It’s a cool Los Angeles night at the Standard Hotel and the scantily clad girl in the Plexiglas cage above the concierge desk is nodding off… but then again, Monday’s are always a little slow. A drifter ambles past the front entrance, down the sidewalk, mouthing along to whatever voice rattles through his head. Meanwhile rock singer Pearl Aday and I are holed up in a booth in the hotel’s the street-side diner. As she drinks tea and I sip merlot, we talk about the current state of music, more specifically women in rock-n-roll, and Pearl is pissed off.

“She’’s famous for her drug use, sorry. She’s not a professional. It pisses me off,” she says. We’’re discussing the headlines swirling around Amy Winehouse and Pearl is right. Pearl, a rock child who grew up on the road calling Meat Loaf dad and Ted Nugent friend, knows what she’s talking about.

“It is a privilege to get on stage and perform for people,” Pearl continues. “And she could give a shit.” Pearl’s fiancé and her band’s guitar player, Scott Ian, also of Anthrax, bounces his leg under the table and nods silently in agreement.

““She’’s a great singer and I love to watch her when she does. But it pisses me off because there are so many people, like myself, who would kill for that opportunity and would not fuck it up,”” Pearl finishes and I can’t argue, because being a drug addict who can sing does not necessarily make you a rock musician. Pearl knows this. Her band knows this.

Sharing a name with it’s live wire singer, the band Pearl packs an impressive lineup of musicians including Scott Ian on guitar, Jim Wilson, Marcus Blake, and Matt Tecu of Mother Superior on guitar, bass, and drums, respectively. For those who need a refresher, the guys in Mother Superior put the “band” in the Rollins Band. Pearl’’s music comes from the same vein as the Black Crowes, AC/DC, Otis Redding, Janis Joplin, Gram Parsons, Aerosmith and the Allman Brothers. It’’s rich, guttural and, at times, blues-oriented rock-n-roll that will make your other senses jealous that your ears get to have all the fun.

I got the chance to talk with Pearl Aday in depth about fronting her own band and what real rock-n-roll means to her…

Read our exclusive interview with Pearl Aday and Scott Ian on SuicideGirls.com.

Pearl’s latest album, Little Immaculate White Fox, is available via iTunes.

And please vote for Scott Ian and his new band The Damned Things in Revolver Magazine’s Golden God Awards Best New Band category!