QUIET RIOT's FRANKIE BANALI: CARLOS CAVAZO And I 'Have Nothing To Talk About'

QUIET RIOT drummer Frankie Banali says the he has "nothing to talk about" with the band's former guitarist Carlos Cavazo.

Cavazo was a member of QUIET RIOT during the band's most commercially successful period. After replacing Randy Rhoads in the 1980s, he remained in QUIET RIOT into the early 2000s until the group split up. When vocalist Kevin DuBrow reformed QUIET RIOT in 2003, Cavazo was not included.

Banali revived QUIET RIOT in 2010, three years after DuBrow's death, along with veteran bassist Chuck Wright, who played on several of the tracks on the classic QUIET RIOT album "Metal Health", and guitarist Alex Grossi. The band recruited a new lead vocalist Jizzy Pearl, of LOVE/HATE, L.A. GUNS, ADLER'S APPETITE and RATT in 2013, before replacing him last year with Seann Nicols (a.k.a. Sheldon Tarsha),and earlier this year with James Durbin.

Speaking to Myglobalmind about Cavazo, Banali said: "My relationship with Carlos is completely the opposite of what it is with [former QUIET RIOT bassist] Rudy Sarzo. I have known Rudy since he was nineteen and I was eighteen. We are beyond friends; we are brothers. When it comes to Carlos, we never had much of a relationship — not because we didn't like each other, but we have such completely diametrically opposed interests. We didn't have any of the same friends either. We were never that close, and as time has gone on, that gap has widened to the point there isn't that much of a relationship. It's sad, because I think Carlos is one of the best guitarists in rock. He is ridiculously underrated and it's a shame we experienced such great things with QUIET RIOT yet we have nothing to talk about."

Banali told "Eddie Trunk Live" in a 2015 interview that he didn't think Carlos was "very supportive about a QUIET RIOT that doesn't include him, by his own choice, and the QUIET RIOT that continues. I don't take it personal," he said. "I mean, I wish him the best, and I think he's great, and RATT are lucky to have him."

The drummer added that that "[Carlos] distanced himself from QUIET RIOT a long time ago." He explained: "You have to remember, the last time that both Rudy and Carlos were in QUIET RIOT was in 2003. And then Kevin did something for about a year, and when Kevin called me up and he wanted to do QUIET RIOT again, the stipulation was, from Kevin's point of view, was he did not want Rudy to be involved, because, for whatever reason, he has issues, or had issues, with Rudy. And I said, 'I think it might be a good idea to have Carlos involved,' because, you know, he's one of the three 'Metal Health' guys. And [Kevin] said to me, 'I'll leave that up to you.' And I went to Carlos, and he was not interested. His excuse was that he was not gonna do it unless Rudy did it, fully knowing that there was no way that Kevin would do it if Rudy was involved. So he shut himself out in 2003."

According to Frankie, he didn't see Carlos again for nearly a decade until a chance encounter at the M3 Rock Festival in Maryland.

"The amazing thing about it is that I've had no communication with Carlos whatsoever from 2003 up to that point," Banali said. "And when I saw him [at M3 in 2012], it was all smiles, and it was great, and I was happy to see him, and he seemed to be happy to see me. But, I think, when the door closes and he goes into one corner and I go into another one, it is what it is."

QUIET RIOT's new album, "Road Rage", was released on August 4 via Frontiers Music Srl.