By Jonathan Williams

When you talk about a group of rough-and-tumble guys from Dallas known as the Von Ehrics, it would be easy to assume you’re discussing the tragically legendary Von Erich wrestling family. But aside from a slight

Photo by Jason Janik

variation in spelling, the Von Ehrics have been kicking ass in a very different way for the past decade or so. Performing on a stage instead of inside a ring, and employing the use of guitars, drums and amplifiers instead of dropkicks, armbars and the devestating Iron Claw maneuver, these Von Ehrics maintain a Texas-sized cowboy toughness with a sound that mixes country twang with punk energy.

Though its title could also be a wrestling move reference, the band’s recent album, Two Foot Stomp, adds a bit of melody and maturity to its bar brawl-like sound.  This slight stylistic change, with an additional gospel influence on “Lord, I Pray,” can be attributed at least in part to the contributions of new members, bassist Paul “Santi” Vaden of Ghoultown and former Dixie Witch guitarist Clayton Mills, joining singer/guitarist Robert Jason Vandygriff and drummer Gabe Aguilar. The band, currently on tour, takes a moment to talk to Wrestling with Pop Culture about its name and sound.

Why did you choose a band name that is clearly inspired by a legendary wrestling family, and why did you choose to use a variation on the original spelling of the Von Erichs?

Vandygriff: Well, we’re from Dallas, Texas. Growing up, the Von Erichs were king shit, man. You couldn’t get any bigger than the Von Erichs. I mean, they wrestled at the Cotton Bowl. They were big when we were kids, so when we were putting the project together and looking for names it slipped out of one of our friend’s mouth and when he said “the Von Erichs,” we thought it was great. I sent an email to Kevin [Von Erich] and told him we wanted to use the name and had a lot of respect for him – not necessarily that we were wrestling fans, but that we just liked the history behind the name. It was really like a tribute to Dallas. I got a response from a representative saying they didn’t really want us to use the name, so we changed the spelling just a little bit so you might not even catch that there’s a difference.

Later on, as the band got a little bit bigger and got a little more notoriety, especially around Dallas, I guess it was Kevin’s daughter that came out to a show and she said they were fine with it by then and that she liked the music.

Rock music and wrestling have gone hand in hand for a while, but with wrestling being such a big part of pop culture today the connection has become even more obvious. But in the case of the Von Ehrics, the name, like the music, is a bit of a throwback to the more wild and wooly days of wrestling. Was that also part of your decision to use that name?

Vandygriff: Absolutely. That was why we felt like it worked so well with what we do. Our music is pretty rowdy and we have a reputation for being pretty rowdy, so it fit really well.

Yeah, today’s wrestling is a bit more polished and obviously not as rowdy as it used to be.

Vandygriff: It’s certainly not as dirty as when you think back to the Von Erichs and all that old school stuff we had in Texas. I don’t know if it was that way everywhere, but it was definitely more like our dirty rock sound.

Have you guys ever actually performed at a wrestling event or had your music used for a wrestler’s theme music or anything like that?

Vandygriff: Not that I know of, but we’ve been all over the country and we’ll have people that come out, like, in Philadelphia one time, these guys came to see us play just because of the name. We have some friends in north Texas that put on those low-rent wrestling shows, but we’ve never done anything with them.

Do any of you guys follow current wrestling at all?

Vandygriff: I don’t, but I don’t have time to follow much of anything other than my Von Ehrics.

Vaden: I used to. I have a friend who used to wrestle at the [Dallas] Sportatorium before they closed it. Kind of by proxy that’s what he and I often talked about and it would be funny because I’d go hang out with him and he’d be like, “I learned this new move. Come here.” He’s much bigger than I am, so he kind of threw me around a little bit. Other than that, I kind of got out of it and I don’t have pay-per-view anymore.

Paul, you’re also in Ghoultown. I always thought that band’s comic book-like gimmick lent itself well to a wrestling environment. Do you still play with that band, too?

Vaden: When Ghoultown plays, I still play with them. But we’re taking a little bit of a break right now and I’m only playing with the Von Ehrics. It’s a lot different; the music’s a lot rowdier and more rock ‘n’ roll.

We did play the Gathering of the Juggalos once. But that was more of a joke. Actually, a guy named Dennis, who is a good friend of the Von Ehrics, I met him in Peoria, Ill. when we played there way back when, before I had even heard of the Von Ehrics. He kind of turned me on to [the Juggalos] and they do a wrestling thing there.

Vandygriff: Dennis, our old road manager, he’s all into wrestling. If he was with us right now, he’d be doing all the talking.

You just released a new album and you’re on tour through June. What do the Von Ehrics have in store after the summer?

Vandygriff: We’re actually on tour through July, we just haven’t announced those dates yet. We’re going out to do the Heavy Rebel Weekender. On the way out to Heavy Rebel we’re going to hit the Milestone in Charlotte, which is a place we’ve played a lot over the years. There are a few other dates around then, then a few weeks off, then we’re going to hit it pretty hard at the end of July to get us into August. After August, we’re going to shut down for August and September for Gabe and Paul to have babies. Then October and November are going to be really busy for us. We’re going to kind of get everywhere we’ve hit in the previous couple of months and then some.

For more information, go to www.vonehrics.com.

By Jonathan Williams

With a hard rock sound somewhere between the party swagger and balladry of Mötley Crüe and the driving post-grunge of Stone Temple Pilots, Rev Theory has established itself as one of the top acts in today’s rock scene. The band has become a touring machine over the past few years, playing upwards of 200 shows a year and sharing the stage with the likes of Buckcherry, Avenged Sevenfold and Lynyrd Skynyrd. Having released its latest album Justice in February, Rev Theory is currently on the HardDrive Live Spring Fling tour with the likes of Saliva, Emphatic, Madam Adam and Seven Day Sonnet (followed by a few dates on the Uranium Tour 2011 with Black Label Society, Hourcast and Anchored).

Photo by Kevin Estrada

Aside from its relentless touring schedule, Rev Theory has also benefited from its tag team-like partnership with WWE, which has not only used Rev Theory songs as official pay-per-view themes on a few occasions, but also enlisted the band to record “Voices,” which has been used at Randy Orton‘s entrance music for the past few years. With WWE choosing the title track from Justice as the official theme song of this Sunday’s Extreme Rules pay-per-view, guitarist Julien Jorgensen takes a moment to talk about the role WWE has played in the band’s success.

Rev Theory has established quite a relationship with WWE, having your music chosen as the official theme song of several pay-per-views and having Randy Orton use your music during his ring entrances. How did this relationship with WWE come about?

Yeah, we’ve had Randy Orton’s theme song for quite some time and I think that’s one of the most popular and celebrated theme songs in a long time. It’s done well for us. Then we did “Light It Up” for WrestleMania XXIV in 2008, and they used “Hell Yeah” for One Night Stand. This time around, for Friday night SmackDown, they licensed “Hangman” as a theme song along with Green Day, so they have two theme songs for that. So, yeah, it seems to be a very fruitful relationship. They just dig the music and we obviously like the exposure, so it works out great.

Our label and management created a relationship over there and Neil Lawi at WWE [vice president of music] has become a great friend of ours and a champion for our band and just took a liking to the music. And their musical director, Jim Johnston, who does all their music and is just a really talented guy, he really dug the band and liked what we were doing. Those two guys really seem to steer the ship as far as musical content for WWE. We went up and met them in Stamford, made a connection and they continue to support our band, and we continue to deliver.

Green Day’s “Know Your Enemy” is used during the opening of SmackDown, so do they use your song for commercials?

They use it for promo spots and throughout the actual show, when they come back from commercials I guess “Hangman” is featured. I guess it goes well with some of the highlight clips they show.

And you guys have also appeared on WWE shows and performed at a couple, right?

Yeah, we just did Monday night Raw. We didn’t perform this time around, but we were in the front row hanging out. We were also at WrestleMania back in 2008 and we also did another Monday night Raw where we did a skit with Jesse and Festus at the time, and they showed the band in the front row. And we’ve done a couple of other things, gone up to Stamford for a couple of interviews and we did a performance of “Voices” for Randy Orton outside at an event in Sacramento.

It seems like your career really took off as a result of WWE’s use of your music. Do you see a lot of crossover between WWE fans and your fans?

Absolutely. Growing up being wrestling fans, and going to the events now, it really is like being at a concert. You’re constantly entertained, there’s a huge light show and it’s like a huge concert with a lot of music, most of it rock based. They tour just like a band and a lot of their shows sell out. We’re seeing all of these fans spill over and they’re just rock fans that dig music and like coming out to shows. WWE fans definitely make up a lot of the fans in our audience.

When you guys write new music now, do you find yourselves writing songs specifically with WWE in mind? Do they ever ask you to write songs specifically for WWE?

We actually never have that in mind, which is the crazy thing. We just don’t think about that and we never have. We just write songs the way we want to write them and it just seems to fit for what they want to do. They dig it, it works and people are digging it. It’s funny, I guess. It’s one of those things where you don’t even try to do something but it just ends up working out a certain way. So we’re going to continue not to try and write music for them so they’ll continue to use it.

With Orton’s entrance music, was that a song you were already working on? Did you specifically want to do his theme music because you guys are fans of his or did WWE ask you to contribute to that song?

They came to us. We had already established a relationship with them and he’s such a big star in WWE that it was a great opportunity for us. Jim Johnston coordinates most of the theme songs, so it was his idea and he came to us. He sent us over a rough demo version of the song and we basically produced a demo version of it and did the vocals for it on the road based on what he wanted. Then Rich [Luzzi] laid the vocals down, we did some background vocals and we sent it back up to him and he did his finishing touches on it. So it was a collaborative thing between WWE and us, initiated by them.

Is there anyone else in particular you’d like to see using your music?

We really dig a lot of the guys. We’ve met a lot of the guys and guys like Triple H have been super cool. We’re actually friends with the Miz and he’s a super nice guy and is a real rock fan. He just got a good new theme song, but he was always complaining that his theme song wasn’t badass enough. They finally gave him one that’s pretty rocking, so he’s pretty happy now.

There’re a couple of guys we’d be happy to work with and do that for. But at the end of the day, Randy Orton is just a badass and he’s a super cool cat. I don’t think we could ask for having a theme song for a better guy.

You mentioned being a wrestling fan growing up. Did that kind of spectacle influence you as a musician and performer?

As far as being a kid, the music didn’t really stick with me other than maybe Hulk Hogan‘s “Real America.” Everybody had their own thing, but it was more about the characters and the show and basically being onstage. A lot of what they do is what performing is all about. A big rock show is not exactly like a WWE performance, but it’s similar: there are big lights, big music and all that stuff. The energy from the crowd is there and you only get one shot to do things. We realized that when we did Monday night Raw and the Rock came back after being retired for seven years. This guy gave a 20-minute sermon and it gave you chills. He was on point, he had his thing down and it was like he was performing a song up there. It was off the cuff, yet somewhat rehearsed, and he was performing, had one chance to do it and that type of feeling is similar to being onstage with a band.

For more information, go to www.revtheory.com.