STEEL PANTHER's MICHAEL STARR: Working With CHAD KROEGER Was 'Very Surprising And An Amazing Experience'

STEEL PANTHER singer Michael Starr (real name Ralph Saenz) recently spoke to Meltdown of Detroit's WRIF radio station about "It Won't Suck Itself", the song from the band's 2011 album "Balls Out" which was a collaboration with NICKELBACK frontman Chad Kroeger. Michael said (as transcribed by BLABBERMOUTH.NET): "The most surprising [collaboration we have done], I would have to say, would be Chad Kroeger from NICKELBACK, because he used to come to our shows and hang out with his brother and stuff, and he always used to say, 'Man, I wish I could write songs and be as dirty as you guys, but we can't.' And I remember we were doing our second record and he reached out and he said, 'Hey, I have an idea for a song. You guys should come up here to my studio and we'll work on it.' And we're, like, 'All right.' So we had a show in Vancouver. We went to his place, and he goes, 'I've got an idea for a song.' We're, like, 'Okay, what is it?' He goes, ''It Won't Suck Itself'.' I was, like, 'All right.' And so we started working on it in his studio. And we finished the song that day, did a demo of it. He played drums on it with Stix [Zadinia, STEEL PANTHER drummer] and also sang on it. And then we went and really recorded it in a real studio after that — well, not a real studio, but with our drums and everything — and put it out. And we're actually putting it in our set this coming tour right now because it turned out to be one of the most killer heavy metal songs written with Chad Kroeger. So, it was very surprising and an amazing experience."

Back in April 2019, Zadinia (real name Darren Leader) told the "TODDCast" podcast about "It Won't Suck Itself": "I've gotta tell you, working with Chad was a blast. We went up to his house, and he had a girl there, who, her only job was to roll joints. It was crazy. I swear to God. I'm not kidding. That was her job. I mean, maybe she had other jobs, but that was definitely her job that day. And he was really fun to work with. He was super cool, a very creative dude. And the song came together really fast. We were sitting around and Satchel [STEEL PANTHER guitarist] had a guitar and he came up with that riff. And then I found it really interesting to watch Chad come up with lyrics. 'Cause when you write with somebody new, you never know how it's gonna go. 'Cause writing is very personal, and so when you do that with somebody, especially if you've had that many fucking hits, it was a great experience to watch his fucking mind work. It was really cool."

Asked how the collaboration with Chad came about, Stix said: "I honestly don't remember what direction it went. He had been coming to shows in L.A., and we've known him and he'd gotten up on stage and jammed with us. And at some point… I think it was one of those things that, 'Dude, we've gotta write a song together,' 'Dude, we've gotta write a song together,' and if say it enough times, 'We've gotta write a song together,' we scheduled it to come up. It was a really, really cool experience."

STEEL PANTHER's sixth studio album, "On The Prowl", was released in February 2023.

In September 2022, STEEL PANTHER announced the addition of Spyder as the band's new bassist.

The group's music has been described as "VAN HALEN meets MÖTLEY CRÜE meets RATT meets 'Wayne's World', complete with operatic shrieks, misogyny, shredding guitar solos and libidinal overdrive."

Sixteen years ago, STEEL PANTHER changed its name from METAL SKOOL to its current moniker and shifted the focus of its act from '80s metal covers to originals.