STIX ZADINIA On STEEL PANTHER's Longevity: 'There's Never Been A More Important Time For Such An Unimportant Band'

In a new interview with Ronni Hunter of the 99.7 The Blitz radio station, drummer Stix Zadinia of California glam metal jokesters STEEL PANTHER was asked to name the secret to the band's longevity. He responded (as transcribed by BLABBERMOUTH.NET): "Complete and total ignorance. We are myopic in our vision and our quest to bring heavy metal back. And I swear, if all of a sudden somebody declared heavy metal was the international law, we would still do what we do because we're oblivious to everything. All we wanna do is play heavy metal and rock and party. And for real, that's been the mission since day one. And it's the same exact mission today. And what's funny is everything around us has changed except for us. So this situation, the way that the world is now, however you feel about it — I'm not picking a side; I'm not saying one way or the other — but however you feel about the world, however one of your listeners may feel about the world, you can take comfort in knowing that when you come to a STEEL PANTHER show, you're gonna enter a time capsule. You're going to be in a place where everybody is all about just having the greatest time of their lives. And because of some of the chaos that's happening in the world, I think that there's never been a more important time for such an unimportant band… We're like actual MDMA in human form. We are just gonna make you feel good all the time."

On the topic of what "the unspoken rule" is that keeps STEEL PANTHER from imploding, Stix said: "You wanna know the real answer to that? Communication. I'm married to three middle-aged men, is basically what it comes down to. And we learned literally decades ago that if we don't communicate, things build up, resentments build up. If you're upset with somebody and you don't talk about it, it festers and then all of a sudden somebody drops a fork and then all hell breaks loose. But what we do is we communicate so regularly. I don't think people would know this about STEEL PANTHER, but we actually make the time to have a meeting before and after every show, because we wanna make sure that everybody's cool and ready to rock. Because if you're not, we gotta all know about it. And that way your dudes will have your back instead of going, 'What's with him, man? He's being a jerk.' If everybody lets everybody know what's going on, instead of, like, 'What's with him?', we'll know what's with him, and we got his back and we're gonna support him. It always makes the shows great."

Asked if he and the other members of STEEL PANTHER all live close to each other, Stix said: "No, we don't. We used to — we used to all live really close to each other, and then, as we all got older and circumstances changed, we don't live close to each other. So, when it's time to go on tour, it's, like, 'All right, I'm gonna fly out of this airport. You're gonna fly out of that airport. We're gonna meet at the same airport, or I'll see you at the hotel, or I'll see you at the venue the next day,' or whatever it is. 'I'll see you on the bus at bus call.' And we don't rehearse, because we, we tour so much and everybody is very, very experienced on their instruments. So we go, 'Okay, what do we wanna do? What's the set gonna be?' And you better have your act together before you show up, 'cause it's trial by fire. And if you don't have it prepared and you get on that stage on that first night, you don't wanna let the dudes down. So everybody comes ready to rock."

Last year STEEL PANTHER entered Dave Grohl's Studio 606 with longtime producer Jay Ruston to begin recording the band's first new music since 2023's "On The Prowl" album.

In October 2024, STEEL PANTHER's debut album, "Feel The Steel", was certified gold by the British Phonographic Industry (BPI) for sales in excess of 100,000 copies in the United Kingdom.

"Feel The Steel - 15th Anniversary Edition" was released worldwide on November 15, 2024. The 15th-anniversary edition features two tracks that were only released on the original Japanese import: "You Don't Make Me Feel Dumb" and "I Want Your Tits". The album was produced by Jay Ruston (ANTHRAX, COREY TAYLOR).

Formed in 2000, STEEL PANTHER specializes in imitating and exaggerating the less flattering aspects of 1980s hair metal, with unrepentantly crude, non-PC sexual content as a favorite lyrical theme.

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."

Eighteen 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.

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.

Photo credit: David Jackson