THE BR00TAL TR00TH - ABBY

Remember when MTV used to play music?  Remember when MTV2 used to play music?  Then you might also remember Abby Gennet, the former host of MTV2 Rock and the singer/guitarist of Slunt.  Since her on-air days, Abby’s gotten hitched to former Fuel singer, Brett Scallions, and has welcomed a new ‘bandmate,’ a baby boy named Jagger.  We recently hit up the rockin’ songstress to discuss her new family life, her high school cheerleading days, life on the road, and her new band she is currently forming with a glam metal great.

So what’s going on with you these days?

Just looking for a lead guitar player. Proving to be very hard, I can’t find one. We’ve had a couple of random girls but we can’t seem to find one that’s really rockin’.

An all girl band?

Yeah, just starting a new project called Riot Brides, and we’re doing it with Stephen Pearcy from Ratt. He’s always wanted to put an all girl band together, so a mutual friend hooked us up and we’ve been putting it all together, writing and recording, laying down some demos. He’s like, “As soon as you’re ready you’re opening up for Ratt!” and I’m like, “Sweet!!!” So that’s the goal right now. I’m actually playing rhythm guitar in this band. Stephen didn’t want the front person to be playing guitar, so I chose to rock the axe and we have this chick Gabriella singing… she’s fierce.

So let’s go way back when: How did you get into being a cheerleader in high school? Do you think that there’s any sort of correlation between cheerleading and metal? Does one lead to the other?

You know, I guess I’m just a ham. That was my way of getting attention back in high school. I guess now it’s kind of the same, except now I’m on stage and I have a guitar strapped on my back. For the record, I was the only cheerleader with blue nail-polish and big hair-sprayed hair, so I was the rockin’ metal cheerleader. I was in a band back then, too, called Fuschia Five and we played “Cum On Feel The Noize,” but we really never got anywhere with that. Later on, I was out at shows a lot taking pictures and got really into photography, so I stopped playing for a while.  Then I moved to New York and I was shooting all these bands and I realized “I don’t want to shoot the bands, I want to be the band,” and that’s how Slunt got put together.  We started jamming and writing quirky little songs and people were diggin’ them. It was like a hobby gone wild and it was great!

What’s the status with Slunt right now?

We never actually broke up, so technically we’re on hiatus. Like, say Lemmy called us and said “We’re doing a show at the Willtern and we want you to open,” we would make it happen.  But, Pat, our lead guitarist, still lives in New York and it’s not really easy for us to get together and play. People say to me “There’s a million guitar players, why don’t you just do it with a new guitar player?” and that’s definitely a non-musician person talking, there. That’s like saying there’s tons of guys out there, why don’t you try a new one to be your boyfriend? Slunt is a family. A very dysfunctional family, but it’s a family. I would never do Slunt without Pat and Charles. I’m not sure I see a big future with Slunt right now, but we actually just recently played at Pat’s wedding, at his rehearsal dinner. But that was a couple months ago. I’ll always love Slunt and hopefully I’ll be able to get out and jam with them again, but it’s too hard to put together just for fun.

Back when you were together, you toured with Paul Stanley?

Yeah, that was our last big tour that we did. It was really fun. He’s such a cool guy. I was never really a big KISS fan, but going out with Paul was great. He’s such a sweetheart. I got to appreciate the music more, looking at it through his eyes. Now I love them.

So did Slunt come before or after your VJ gig on MTV2?

It came before my VJ gig. MTV2 was looking for a female to host MTV2 Rock, and I guess the people before weren’t informed enough about rock n roll…

Yeah, ya think?

Well, when you’re interviewing bands and talking to musicians it really helps if you know what you’re talking about, so they were looking for a female musician to do it. A friend called me telling me to audition for it, and I never thought I would actually get it cause I’d never done anything like that before, but I went in and I got it!

Are you still snapping pictures at all?

I do, yeah. I don’t really shoot bands anymore, but I hooked up with this guy in Switzerland who used a lot of my prints for posters and they actually do really well, especially in Europe. One of them does really well, it’s called Toliet Cam where it’s just a bunch of shots over a toilet with random stuff going on- people having sex, people doing drugs, someone giving birth… After that I did a Bed Cam one and I just did a Crib Cam one cause now I’m in “babyland” and doing lots of baby stuff. It’s a totally G-Rated poster.

Speaking of babies, how did you meet your husband Brett?

We met at a bar in NYC. We were both there one night and met through a mutual friend. We just started talking and really hit it off. We started dating, a couple years later we got married, a couple years after that we had a little boy.

What kind of wedding did you two have? Was it a bizarre rock n roll wedding or was it more traditional?

We went pretty traditional, but we did little things that weren’t. I’m originally from Miami so we had it on the beach. It was perfect weather and it was just really gorgeous. But for everyone in the wedding party we made these laminates that looked like backstage passes that said “Abby and Brett’s Wedding Extravaganza.” So they were walking around the hotel with them on. During the dinner we had metal ballads on in the background. Metal enough for us, but soft enough so that all the grandmas didn’t freak out about all the rock n roll music.

And then came along little Jagger…

He’s not so little anymore! He just turned 22 months and he’s wild. He makes us laugh every minute.

Does he like your music and his dad’s music?

He LOVES music. He loves any kind of music. We have a studio in the house and all he wants to do is go in and play the drums. So he goes in with his little noise-cancelling headphones and bangs away. He actually has pretty good rhythm. We bend the microphone down to his level and he sings “Cherry Bomb.” We were auditioning girls for the band and that was one of the songs we used, so he just latched onto it and he loves it.

So to change gears a little bit, in a lot of pictures we see of you, you have these enormous huge boots that are like 7 inches high…

Yeah, I like my platforms. Those are my stage boots. You know, you got to be supersized when you’re up on stage entertaining people! It makes you feel like a superhero. I’m like 5’5”, so they make me about 5’9”, but now I’m in California and it’s all about flips flops here. Plus carrying a baby around and wearing platforms isn’t such a good idea…

Who would you say is your biggest musical idol?

Jimmy Page, by far. That’s my man. He’s influenced me forever. Led Zeppelin is my favorite band, and I’ve always been influenced by 80’s hair bands like Ratt, too, but definitely as far as musically influencing my playing, I’d say Jimmy Page. I just love him. He’s a happy guy and has good vibes, and now he’s got white hair which is awesome!

So having toured all over the country…what city would you say has the hottest rock dudes?

Ya know, middle America isn’t really up on their hot rock-ness. I’d have to say either New York or LA. Those two scenes are really pulsing and people are up on their fashion. People take their look to the next level.

What about Alabama?

We had some really great shows down there, but we never really….

You didn’t hang with the locals?

Well we always hang with the locals, but do we hang with the locals? That’s another question. One or two of the bass players past, may have dove into the Alabama scene more than the rest of us. I was never really the bad girl on the road. We always left that to the bass player, or as we used to call her: our sacrificial lamb whore.

So who do you think would win in a fight: you or Jim Shearer?

Probably him, because he’s a lot bigger than I am. Although, I  do like to fight dirty. I wouldn’t fight him, though. He was one of the sweetest, nicest guys to work with.

What is your drink of choice?

Jack Daniels, all the way. I have been known to chug straight from the bottle, but if I’m going out at a bar, I’ll order it with Diet Coke and some lemon.

A very important question, which is hotter: baldies or beardos?

I like facial hair. I’m not so into the bald thing, personally. [Editor’s note: Elise is 0-2 on this one.]

Who else in the metal community do you think we should grill?

You should interview the Riot Brides! We’re going to be rockin’ soon. Coming soon to a dive bar near you!

If you are a metal musician, blogger, photographer, DJ/VJ, roadie, merch dude, etc. (GUY OR GAL!), and would like to get probed by two cool chicks, please send us an email at: reigninblonde@gmail.com.