Interview with Cruzados: ‘We’re lifers when it comes to rock ‘n’ roll, we didn’t have a plan B’

LA rockers Cruzados have released their third studio album She’s Automatic! today (28 January), giving us their very own blend of the blues and old school, unabashed, riffed up rock ‘n’ roll. (The digital version was released on 14 January.)

The band’s new line-up comprises co-founder bassist and songwriter Tony Marsico, vocalist Ron Young (Little Caesar), guitarist Loren Molinare (The Dogs), guitarist Mark Tremalgia and drummer Rob Klonel. Marsico and Young go ‘way back’, according to Young: ‘I moved out here from New York in ’84,’ he said. ‘I started working clubs, it was a great scene. On the east side of LA, it was classic rock roots and punk. There was a band at the time called The Plugz that ended up becoming Cruzados. We were old pub crawlers!’ I say that I Iove that their name – and that the idea of something ‘crossing’ sounds quite fatalistic and they laugh: ‘Tito in The Plugz came up with that, it represent our music crossing over and changing our musical style,’ Marsico said. ‘We used to be a punk band and now we’re rock ‘n’ roll!’

Recorded in LA in the winter of 2021, She’s Automatic! delivers the band’s signature rock ‘n’ roll sound and spirit that first put Cruzados on the map more than 30 years ago and includes guests performances by Gia Ciambotti (Bruce Springsteen), Jimmy Z (Rod Stewart) and Buck Johnson (Aerosmith). Young was brought into the fold in 2021. ‘I also play with Mark in our band Little Caesar,’ Young said. ‘Tony wanted to pick up on the journey, he had a batch of songs and said “Are you interested?”. Of course I was interested. They were such great roots-rock songs, they have everything in them that gave birth to rock ‘n’ roll. The lyrics are so well-crafted, it felt so good and so natural. We started playing them as a band and I was like “Do you feel this? I feel it!”.

‘What links everything on the album is the delicious reverence for the music I love’

Marsico agrees: ‘What links everything on the album is the delicious reverence for the music I love. Nobody is trying to break new ground, we just have this deep love and appreciation for the music. It’s like what makes Johnny Cash great? I’m paying tribute to the artists I grew up with and we’re too old for egos.’ Young nods: ‘It was so easy to come up with a translation for what each song was, it was like a musical buffet! Rob the drummer will come up with a groove that’s so appropriate. There’s not enough going back to the roots – there are only so many notes in a scale.’

The 11 track album opens with ‘On the Tilt a Whirl’, which is a direct reference to Marsico’s childhood in Philadelphia. ‘Sonically Bruce (their producer) did a killer job, he makes it pop,’ Marsico said. ‘I love the record opening with drums and ploughing straight ahead.’

As the track kicks off with a circus top drum roll: ‘Meet me down by the big top under the flashing lights. Hop on, the ride that never stops, the ride that burns into the night.’ Young sums it up perfectly: ‘It gives you the fairground butterflies, it’s so visceral.’ Marsico agrees: ‘It’s about hanging out at fairgrounds as a kid, going on the rides, playing cards and meeting girls (laughs).’

Other tracks, such as ‘Across This Ghost Town’ are bluesier and show how versatile Young’s voice is. It turns out to have been inspired by a dream Marsico had: ‘It’s funny, I did write it specifically about a dream I had about a ghost town,’ he said. ‘Ron said it’s a bit like LA at the moment with the homelessness at night, it’s gotten a lot worse.’ As Young puts it: ‘It’s all the disruption in downtown LA, people can survive better on the streets because of the weather, so we have a lot of homelessness. A lot of people move here wanting to be famous but LA is about creating the illusion about things that don’t exist. It’s that juxtaposition of the palm trees and the weather and homelessness or people trying to make it.’ Marsico jumps back in: ‘One day I was driving down by Venice (Beach) and there was a mile and a half stretch of golf course and all along it there were homelessness encampments. The difference in wealth, in living conditions, that really stuck with me.’

‘We really wanted some punk rock on the album’

The title track ‘She’s Automatic’ fuses hard-hitting rock ‘n’ roll with a dash of punk, in a nod to their punk roots. ‘It has a sort of abandon to it, ‘Young said. ‘We really wanted some punk rock on the album. This character in the song, she’s incredibly alluring. You know when you realise someone is going to be heartbreak but you do it anyway? This song celebrates that. Tony wrote this cyclical vocal phrasing that has a Tourettes-like vocal abandon to it (laughs).’ I ask Marsico if it’s based on a particular woman and he laughs. ‘It’s based on a few ladies I’ve known!’

The song erupts with a very evocative, cinematic image: ‘There’s a long tall woman and she roams tonight, when the sun goes down ’til the morning light. She’s a bloodlust baby and she needs a thrill. She’s got devil eyes and looks that kill.’

Cruzados released their self-titled debut album in 1985 and its follow-on, After Dark, in 1987. Their original songs and fan favourites in their live shows have found their way into movies such as Roadhouse, From Dusk ‘Til Dawn and Desperado. Cruzados also appeared as themselves in the hit motion picture Roadhouse: ‘Roadhouse was a great experience, Patrick Swayzee was a super nice guy and spent two days on the set with us with him jamming on guitar between shooting takes,’ Marsico said.

‘My songwriting has got bluesier over the years‘

I ask them how their songwriting has changed since the band first burst onto the scene 37 years ago: ‘My songwriting has got bluesier over the years,’ Marsico said. ‘I wish I could erase some songs I wrote 37 years ago (laughs). I think I’ve matured – and immatured – a little. We’re lifers when it comes to rock ‘n’ roll, we didn’t have a plan B. We love it and we’ll love it to the day we die.’ Young agrees: ‘A lot of people are angry at the music business but what’s really nice about this project is that they’re all great guys, so pure of spirit, and that comes through in the music.’

Aerosmith guitarist and keyboardist Buck Johnson has known Marisco for several years and plays on tracks on the album such as ‘Across This Ghost Town’ and ‘Sad Sadie’: ‘We played together with Matthew Sweet (an American rock singer) a few years ago, so it was great to have him play on some of our tracks,’ Marsico said. I say that my favourite track on the album is constantly changing but that it’s ‘Son of the Blues’ on the day we chat: ‘We dig that one, too,’ Marsico said. Young becomes very animated: ‘I love every song on this album,’ he said. ‘Everything Tony brought to the table, I could relate to, ‘Son of the Blues’ being relevant to this art form. The story, the love and the lifestyle. It’s like giving us a script to a movie.’

As the track goes: ‘Tatttoed and screwed, bit by the snake. I keep treading water, while they drag the lake. I’m holding on ’til I can’t hold no more.’

Cruzados hit the road hard touring worldwide between 1985 and 1989 performing, in their words, ‘at every dive bar and over the top stadium show in its path’. They shared the bill with a wide variety of groups such as Fleetwood Mac, Billy Idol, Stevie Wonder, INXS, Joe Cocker, REM and the Red Hot Chili Peppers. After two albums and several tours, the band called it quits in 1989 before reforming last year. Former vocalist Tito Larriva would go on to form his own band Tito and Tarantula where original Cruzados guitarist Steve Hufsteter would join him as part of his touring band. Cruzados drummer Chalo Quintana went on to tour with Bob Dylan, Social Distortion and Izzy Stradlin. Marsico would go on to play with Tito and Tarantula, Bob Dylan, Neil Young, Roger Daltrey, and Marianne Faithfull.

‘Onstage you can be whoever you want to be’

‘INXS, that was a great live band,’ Marisco said. ‘They took us under their wing twice on tour in 1985 and 1988. We were good friends with them, they were so kind to us, great people. They came to LA and we showed them around.’ I say that I’ve heard from other people in the business that their charismatic frontman Michael Hutchence was actually very quiet offstage and Young agrees: ‘That’s it, onstage you can be whoever you want to be, can’t you? A lot of people are completely different offstage.’ Marsico reminisces about Fleetwood Mac: ‘We did three months opening for them in 1987 and 1988, I just stood there and watched them, they were amazing. You can’t learn that from a book.’

The latest album is dedicated to the memory of their Cruzados compadres Chalo Quintana and Marshall Rohner, who have passed away and without whom the band would not exist. ‘Their spirit and dedication to rock ‘n’ roll will live on forever in the music that they helped to create’, according to the band.

I ask them who has inspired them the most musically over the years. ‘That’s like saying what drugs and alcohol do you like,’ Young said, laughing. ‘My ultimate is Paul Rodgers from Bad Company, he’s so bluesey and cool. One of the great blessings is that I sit back satelliting Tony’s posts on social media and I’m in awe of everyone he’s played with, like Roger Daltry. Tony’s the consummate bass player, he understands the bridge between melody and rhythm.’ Marsico interjects: ‘I grew up in punk rock but I appreciate vintage jazz like Charlie Parker and Miles Davis. When I was young, Willie Dixon (a blues musician who played with Chuck Berry) was my favourite guitarist. I got to meet him and I’ve tried to model what I did after him.’

They’ve had some funny moments as a band: ‘We had the classic oil spotted scenario when the tour bus accidentally heads back on the highway just leaving an oil spot on the ground where the bus once was with a stranded band member standing there who would then have to fly to the next city or even country – yes, country, it happened!,’ Marisco said.

Another track on the album, ’54 Knockouts’, turns out to have been inspired by the boxing scene in LA: ‘A friend of mine, Gene Aguilera, knows everything about boxing,’ Marsico said. ‘I used to box as hobby, I was heavily into it for a while. In LA in the 1940’s, there was a big boxing scene, there were a lot of Mexican boxers. I based this song on Gene’s book Mexican American Boxing in Los Angeles.‘

As the track goes: ‘Remember that kid with the lead sledded car, down in El Monte, he tried to get far. Lefty Zamora, that was his name. They put him in the ring and took away his fame.’

Young is laughing: ‘I take that boxing story like a music industry metpahor,’ he said. ‘They promise you grandeur but hold you down for the count!’

(Photo from left to right: Loren, Tony, Ron, Mark and Rob.)