Paul: most of our early history has been documented well on our website (www.delta.se/~henke/samson) but I spent the mid 90’s in various projects in the US. I came back to England around ‘98 and I had a divorce so I had to get my life together. About a year after that the offer from Japan came up about the reformation. Me and Sticky (Thunderstick - drums) had been talking about it on and off but when the offer came we really did it. What was amazing was that even after playing blues for a coupla years the sound the 3 of us made was fucking enormous so that fired the band up even more! Japan was a complete success.

 Shan Siva (Battle Helm) : Don’t you feel there’s hints of Spinal Tap in there? I mean, the English HM band on the verge of oblivion and then an offer from Japan comes along?

 Paul: Ha ha, yeah its really weird - that’s why we’ve got cuddly toys all over the gear and drums tonight ha ha! It is like Spinal Tap, even a parody of it, except that the music is serious. No one is here on star trips, we just do it for the crack of it. But we just happened to make more money by being a parody of our former selves than we ever did as our former selves and it seems like a more truthful way cos the people want to hear the music and we want to do it. In the early 80’s it was this striving-to-want-to-succeed thing and that can be a real distraction to creativity because you’re so busy trying to be a success yet you don’t have the tools to be a success. Later on, once you’ve been thru all that, and you do succeed then its still fucking crap up there because problems still exist and all the prats let you down. You can’t come full circle with yourself until you end up almost playing for yourself either to impress or cos you feel creative. Either way its better than having to play a show even if your’re sick or you don’t feel like it or you need to drug yourself up for it. All this stuff you go thru in the early days cos of the pressure of labels and managers. You’re just pushed all the time from every angle from the moment you wake up its meetings, interviews, everybody wants you everywhere, rehersals, studios and tours. Sometimes you look around and you haven’t been home for 8 months. I had a wife and it was like “Hi, remember me?” and it would be terrible cos she would want to go out having been stuck in the house while I was on tour but I’d wanna stay at home having been away for 6 months! 

But I had this image of fun on the road with the lads....

Well, it can be like that cos you are with all your mates and the show is the pinnacle to the day. But I can’t do that anymore, I can’t drink on the bus all day and then play when I’m drunk. In the mid 80’s I took up martial arts and that really straightened me out. I was never into drugs but I smoked a bit of weed and I drank.

How the martial arts help you out specifically?

It was a spiritual thing really. Like, to focus a punch was the same as to focus in playing music. Also, the control of energy, in a punch its 1 second and in a gig its mebbe 1 hour. About 3 years ago I became friends with Steve Segal. He tracked me down and called me up one night (laughter as we imagine how that must’ve sounded) saying that someone had recommended me for something he wanted to know about. We got talking and from that he wanted me to do music for his movies. I’m forever sending him instrumental pieces, cos he’s really into the Hendrixy things and Eastern philosophy. Again thru the martial arts. He calls me ‘brother’ when he phones me (laughter) though it depends what mood he’s in. Sometimes its Steve and sometimes its Chief Ryback (one of his movie characters) ha ha! He’s very spiritual and he’s a health freak. He’s also a guitar player and he’s got his own blues project going besides the films. He’s very deep with zen, has Buddhas all over his house and Tibetan women servants...very spiritual

Women servants? Heh heh, that sounds very interesting ha ha

Actually, they train under him ha ha! I spoke with one of them in Paris. She told me she was studying under him to become a Lama. She was actually sent by a monastery in Tibet to Steve because he’s their top man. 

You mentioned Hendrix and Eastern philosophy earlier on Paul, are they your main influences?

The main one is Hendrix for me. I was also into Mountain and when I was a kid, Cream. There’s also the blues side cos my dad was a big RnB fan. And then Purple, Zeppelin etc

Does that explain why Samson seem to have gone thru many musical phases ranging from heavy rock to metal to blues rock...

We became a heavier band probably because of Bruce (Dickenson). The trio (Paul, Sticky and Chris) were kind of Hendrix, Rory Gallagher and metal except we did these extended jams like Cream and Mountain. When Bruce came in, we became more song orientated with structured solos although we still incorporated some jams. Its like Bruce said once in an interview that he never knew what was gonna happen after the next chord change with us! Also, the chemistry between us is such that we just look at each other and go off into something mad so that was another thing that affected Bruce. It was nothing personal, just the magic you get after 20 years of playing with each other. We aren’t very rehersed as a band so its always very loose at the front and ends of songs.

How did you hook up with Bruce?

We were doing the 3 piece thing and I was never happy being both a singer and a guitar player. Had I been blessed with a voice like Nicky Moore’s (current Samson vocalist) I might have been. But as Samson started to play larger venues I knew that I was getting out of my league. We’d always talked about getting a vocalist and then one day we were down in Gravesend at a pub called the Prince of Wales, which funnily enough was also where I spotted Nicky Moore too. We noticed Bruce cos he had this Gillan scream (aiiiii!!) and was very theatrical and worked the crowd well. He noticed us too and obviously knew who we were cos right after the show he came over to get a support slot from us for his band. We told him instead “well actually were gonna ask you to join the band” so he got our album and saw us a coupla times. He was also still at University studying for his History finals but once that was finished he was in just in time for the next Heavy Metal Crusade gig with Iron Maiden. 

 Which university did Bruce go to?

 I think..it was Queen Mary (in London). 

 I thought he was an Oxbridge scholar (I say it in an upper crust accent).....

 Oh no (in an upper crust accent) - though I’m sure he’d like to think so! Ha ha 

Did Bruce bring in the theatrical element to the band?

Well it was already getting that way cos of Sticky. Remember, the first trio of Samson was me, Chris and Clive Burr (who later became Iron Maiden’s drummer). Clive left after 18 months and Sticky came in just in time to record ‘Survivors’ though he wasn’t Sticky at the time. That came 2 months later, just as we were going out on the Metal Crusade thing. When Bruce came in he was really unpopular with the fans, who knew us as a 3 piece. And to make matters worse, it was me singing on ‘Survivors’ but when we went out on tour with Gillan in Oct it was Bruce singing. It took about 6 months really before there was acceptance and he could command. By then we had written most of the ‘Head On’ album but finally after that it was a 4 piece. 

 So I guess Bruce had a hard time fitting in......

It was always us three and him. He tried hard but he was never really one of the lads. He tried to blame it on drugs but all we did was smoke a little pot. Really it was that he was from a different social class and educational background. We’re working class lads like Iron Maiden whereas Bruce was suburban middle class. Bruce was also more career orientated: he was initially keen to do the reunion cos he was out of Maiden but now he’s back in...our influences were different and at the end of the day me, Chris and Sticky have always been tight as a band. I suppose thats why no matter what ups and downs Samson faces, we’ll always be able to deliver to ourselves and the fans.