Tommy Henrikson and Anna Cara can lay claim to being two of the coolest rock stars on the planet. The livewire New Yorker is an industry veteran, having played with, produced, and written for some of the biggest names in rock, and is arguably best known for his time as guitarist with both Alice Cooper and the Hollywood Vampires. Whilst the phenomenal young guitarist from Newcastle has managed to set the world on fire with a series of YouTube videos displaying her incredible skills. The pair are working together now on Henrikson’s Crossbone Skully project, the titular band having just released what is arguably the finest rock n’ roll record of the year in the form of their debut Evil World Machine. With artwork by the famed Mark Wilkinson (Iron Maiden/Judas Priest/Marillion/Fish) and guest appearances by Def Leppard’s Phil Collen and Mötley Crüe’s Nikki Sixx, the material was so good that it lured legendary producer Robert ‘Mutt’ Lange out of retirement.
Whilst the results are stellar, even more earthshaking plans are promised as Crossbone Skully looks to the future, and with Cara coming onboard the pair are fired up about what’s to come. The two are quite a contrast on paper but it’s obvious that the two have found perfect foils, the supportive Henrikson seeing and nurturing the talent of the rapidly developing six string phenomenon, she in turn adding her own fresh and fiery flavour. With a brace of recent debut shows at Los Angeles famed Viper Rooms solidifying the unit, ERB’s Paul Monkhouse caught up with the duo to talk all things ‘Skully past, present and future.
Crossbone Skully seems to already have a fully rounded existence, with the short YouTube film, comic book and now the album. How did the band itself come into living, breathing life?
TOMMY: “I think sometimes that some of the greatest things happen by accident and if you plan things out it just doesn’t work out. Glen [Sobel – drummer for Crossbone Skully/Alice Cooper/Hollywood Vampires] and I like to play and we were fooling around with some AC/DC songs in a soundcheck for Alice one day and our lighting guy said ‘you need to be doing that!’. I was like ‘doing what?’ and he replied ‘That! What you’re doing’, ‘playing AC/DC songs?’, ‘singing…doing that!’ I didn’t really think of it again until I was back from the tour two weeks later and then thought ‘maybe he’s right’ and started writing and the first song that came was The Boom Went the Boom. I then thought ‘yeah, let’s try this’ and that’s where things began.”
How did the name and concept come?
TOMMY: “It takes a long time. Other stuff just falls into place. I have to give a lot of credit to Mark Wilkinson who came up with the album cover. I just had the idea of an alien guy who’s a pirate. He’s cool, he’s ugly, he’s good looking. We don’t know what he is. He’s like Robin Hood as he wants to rob the rich to give to the poor, but he also wants to kill everyone. I was explaining this to Mark and saying, ‘let’s put him on a headband and some of the jewellery I wear’ and Mark came up with it. His vision is amazing, and I told him ‘you do what you do’. I wasn’t going to micromanage Mark Wilkinson!”
It seems like the character has become interweaved in the band the same way that Eddie has with Iron Maiden.
TOMMY: “It’s like that when I’m creating. The Universe just drops something that’s quite magical on you. I was trying to get Johnny Depp to be the voice of Skully and said ‘you gotta be evil bro, evil’ and he said, ‘I can do that brother’. I tried to get him but he was so busy so I sat here looking at my computer screen with all the planets on it and thought that Stephen Hawking might be a good idea. I started writing the intro and wanted it to be like Future Legend by David Bowie from the Diamond Dogs record. When I heard that as a kid it changed my life and Mötley Crüe did it with In the Beginning I knew exactly where they got the inspiration because I got that too. I thought ‘how can I make it sound like all of that but mine?’. I typed it all into my speech programme, slowed it down and then played it back, looked at Skully and thought ‘that’s it!’. I was with Johnny later and he said ‘hey brother, play me what you’ve got’ so I played him the record and it was about four in the morning as that’s when everything happens around here (laughing). He heard the intro, paused it and said to me ‘good thing I wasn’t available as this is perfect, this is your Brando moment’. Then he played the whole record and said ‘brilliant, man’.”
“Skully is in this world of misfits and just wanted to bring everyone together. We’re all broken in one form or another and Skully wants to say ‘it’s okay if you’re different, if you’re a loser like most of us are (gently laughing). Yeh, it’s fucked up but it’s going to be okay’.”
Another thing that just fell into place was finding Anna on YouTube.
ANNA: “It was crazy for me. I was just doing videos on the internet in 2022, having started it in 2020, putting up stuff on Instagram and YouTube. I was doing guitar covers of Iron Maiden, Black Sabbath, Gary Moore and got a DM from Tommy. I saw before that he was following me but I didn’t think anything of it but then he messaged me and said, ‘Hey Anna, I just wanted to say that you play like a fifty-five year old man’ (laughs). I always find that really funny. We Facetimed and he showed me the whole record and went into the story of Skully. I saw the cover art and played the whole thing to my parents and it was a great, life changing moment for me. It’s like something you dream of every day and when it happens it’s just so cool. Tommy’s being such a great mentor to me, bringing me along and building up my confidence, to doing my first gig at the Viper Rooms. That’s been great and I couldn’t ask for more.”
TOMMY: “The best thing was I kept telling her ‘be show ready’, so when she came into the airport and I picked her up the first thing we do is drive over the Johnny Depp’s house. We open the door, thinking that’s pretty cool and Johnny says, ‘give her any guitar she wants to play brother’, handing her this one hundred thousand dollar Gibson SG. It was one of those things that I think back and go ‘man, that must have been pretty cool!’ (laughing). I can’t thank Johnny enough for all that stuff.”
It seems that both of your career arcs have been full of those ‘pinch me’ moments.
TOMMY: “And hopefully a lot more. It’s just meeting people, reaching out, being cool, talking to everyone, I really do.”
When I met you and the rest of the Hollywood Vampires backstage at the O2 I remember talking to Alice and telling him that we always used to listen to his albums in the college rec room and he replied “…and you turned out alright!”
TOMMY: “I always try to make my way out to the fans, misfits, whatever you want to call them, family, friends and just show appreciation for them coming. People travel far distances to come to shows and had been planning this for a year, but for us it’s just another day. I just think, ‘no man, these people have been waiting for a long time so if you can go out there, take a photo, sign something, whatever, I’m going to do that. It’s free. Being human and being nice is free. It’s about bringing people together.”
“I say about the Crossbone Skully album that it’s an unanchored record that’s being made today. Even though it has influences of everything I love and sounds reminiscent of things we love, it’s a case of how do we make it our way? Crossbone Skully to me is personal, it’s my experiences through life that I’m trying to share. It’s my real experiences, not stuff I made up, this is shit I go through. I wake up and try to figure out how I’m going to get through the day, I’ve got these hurdles to jump. Everyone’s got problems. I hear people saying ‘My life’s great. I love my life’ and I go ‘Really?’ Some days I go ‘arrgh!’, but some days I know that shit is going to happen. I’ve spent five years of my life and could have bought a house with all the money I’ve put into this (laughs). I’m not complaining dude, I’m just explaining.”
Bringing Anna on board shows that it’s you trying to do the best for the band. You’ve stepped back from your usual role as a guitarist to be the vocalist and have done a really great job. Is it nice to pass the playing over to her?
TOMMY: “I was made for this shit dude, seriously and the greatest thing is learning from Alice Cooper and being on tour with him. To hand over the guitar to Anna, who’s a much better guitar player, believe me when I say that, way better, and I can just concentrate on singing and we also have Sam Koltun (guitar) too and they’re kids in their twenties. Anna just turned twenty-one…just imagine how she’ll be playing when she’s twenty-eight! For me, it’s a simple transition because it feels so comfortable. I don’t need a guitar, all I need is a microphone and a platform to get out there and get on stage.
“I wanted to have a young band, young guitar players who are amazing and carry the torch of rock n’ roll because we need that. Everyone’s getting old and retiring so I’m always looking for new talent, looking on Instagram and giving people the thumbs up. Never say anything bad because you want to encourage people and not take their dreams away. It’s one thing I don’t like about social media. If you don’t like something, that’s cool but when you attack someone and criticise their appearance it really pisses me off. I go ‘Really?’ If you don’t like the way they play, fine, you don’t make fun of them. Anyway, that’s my two cents…”
You’ve just made your Crossbone Skully live debut as a band with the Viper Rooms shows.
ANNA: “We arrived on the second of November and we never stopped. It was a lot to put these shows together for Tommy and the band, months of work sorting out the arrangements and getting the equipment. It was great though, so successful and showed that the hard work paid off. We rehearsed for a week and then had another two days rehearsing at the Viper Rooms so that was how it all came together. It was a lot of preparation and Tommy put so much into it and I don’t think people realise that he never stops. We’re still going at four or five in the morning. It’s crazy but it’s so much fun. I’m having the time of my life doing it and can’t wait to do it again, hopefully soon.”
TOMMY: “And you know what…it was the first gig she’d ever played in front of people. Two sold out shows. That’s a lot of pressure. You’ve got Orianthi and Nita Strauss in the audience, who were both amazingly supportive of Anna and I’ve got so much respect for them both for that. It was so cool that they came out and Anna got to hang out with them.”
ANNA: “That felt unreal because they were my two guitar heroes and I grew up watching them. When I saw them both playing for Alice Cooper, that was what made me pick up a guitar because I saw women up there doing it. That they were at my first shows was unreal. It sounds made up but it was true. It’s crazy and I can’t ask for more.”
TOMMY: (laughing) “You had a guitar tech too.”
“Paul, when I do something I go big and put the bank up against it. I’m not doing this for fun. The whole idea of the Crossbone Skully shows at the Viper Rooms was to see if we could do this live. Looking back, we can see things we’ve got to fix because we’re planning on doing shows starting next year. It’s been a slow build and slow to get the record out but not on our part but you’d have to ask the record company why it’s taken almost five years. I still don’t understand. You sit on a Mutt Lange record and it’s like a gift from the gods, I don’t know what you’re waiting for. I’m just grateful that it came out and it’s doing so well. It’s a team effort and whilst I’m steering the ship, there’s a whole load of other people with me and I don’t take all the credit. Everyone is doing their best to make the best record they can and Mutt Lange is one of those guys.”
Evil World Machine has the rawness of AC/DC and early Def Leppard but it also has the hunger of The Beatles when they were playing Hamburg’s Star Club endlessly in their first days.
TOMMY: “It’s rock n’ roll and cut like that. Mutt Lange said to me ‘there’s no more high hat in rock n’ roll’ and I went ‘wow, he’s right’, you don’t feel that swing anymore. Glen Sobel is one of the best drummers out there and he really knows how to swing it man. We made a great record and I’m very proud of it.”
Mutt has the reputation of being someone who wants multiple takes and that seems diametrically opposed to that rock ‘n roll spirit of keeping things fresh and natural.
TOMMY: “The songs would always start with me and I’d send something across to Tommy Denander, who’s an awesome guitar player, and we’d send it back between each other and then I’d sing my background vocals like Mutt as I’m always thinking ‘what would Mutt do?’ (laughing). He makes it sound amazing and I try and fail most of the time but occasionally get lucky (laughing). After we’d done anything I’d send it over to Mutt and he’d send it back. He just chopped without re-recording anything, rearranged and sent it to me saying ‘listen to this now’. I go wow, okay, I had twenty words and he wants me to narrow what I said into four. He said ‘let’s put space back in music because there isn’t any anymore’. It would go between us but always forwards, never backwards. It may take three months to come up with one song. People say he takes a long time but when you’re working like this and don’t have people looking over our shoulders, you’re going to do what Mutt Says. You’re not going to second guess Mutt Lange. If he says it should be there then it needs to be there. He’ll sing something and you’ll go ‘that’s amazing! I wish I was in Def Leppard!’.”
He’s not got a bad track record has he?
TOMMY: “It’s incredible. His voice is sick. I always say that it takes a genius to simplify and an idiot to complicate things and that guy is on another level. I can’t thank him enough and have learnt so much. I try to analyse everything he’s done like it’s a puzzle and I still don’t know what the fuck I’m doing (laughs). I never plan anything and if I’m the smartest guy in the room I walk out of it!”
With the album out at last now, I guess you must have been busy writing for album number two since and this time with Anna.
TOMMY: “It’s very exciting and I can’t wait for everyone to hear her play it. The cool thing is I have her on so many songs right now that I’m working on. When I was producing Marc Storace’s last record I said to him ‘Marc, I’ve got this kid that I want to play some solos on the record’ and he was absolutely fine with that. Her debut solo is on this Storace record that’s just come out and dude, you’ve got to hear her rip. It doesn’t sound like a kid from Newcastle to me, it sounds like a legend playing. She’s really modest but she can play anything, I ask her if she can play slide and she says ‘sure, I’ll give it a go’. We played a brand new song at the Viper Rooms.”
ANNA: “We’re pretty much been working almost two years and the first track was a Skully one, Truck All Night and that was what we played at the Viper Rooms. It’s a great one and I’ve always loved it. There’s so many songs now and I say to Tommy that there’s not one that I think is an album track, it’s a hit single song. Everything is really, really great and I can’t wait for the next one to come out because it’s even better (laughing).”
TOMMY: “This one is going to be different as everyone is playing together. Not sound wise, because it’s the same animal but it’ll be different. The songs are…the songs are terrible (much laughing).”
It’s an evolution isn’t it, of Skully and the band, in the same way that Eddie evolved with Iron Maiden. We spoke about Bowie and The Beatles earlier and they were prime examples of the way an artist develops their sound.
TOMMY: “It usually takes about twenty or thirty songs to get a good one and I don’t know why that happens, but it does. With Storace, who’s one of my favourite singers, we just bounce stuff around and there was very little changing of things, that’s how easy it was. I like it when it’s smooth and easy but when egos become involved and all that shit, I can’t deal with it and I’m out. When it’s complicated then something’s wrong. I do this because I love it and I’m putting everything I’ve got into everything I do. I’m just trying to make the best music I can.”
You’ve worked with legends like Lou Reed, Meat Loaf and Lady Gaga but also keep bringing in new blood like Anna and Sam, pushing the music on.
TOMMY: “That’s totally the concept and the point, having young people in the band who can carry the torch. I keep telling Anna that we’ve got to hear her sing as she’s going to be a lead singer soon (laughing). I’ve said to her ‘we’ve got to set your solo career up as the next step’…seriously, I look forward to doing all that stuff with her. I love watching her grow and we’re sitting here whilst people are saying ‘you’re going over to Johnny Depp’s house and having a great time’ but no, we’re busting our asses there. We’re working all night long, figuring out what we’re going to do. After playing with Alice for fourteen years I know exactly what he’s going to do onstage so fill the holes. We’re just working on that with Anna and the Viper Rooms stage is the smallest ever so hard to manoeuvre around but we were figuring that out and the guitar parts too. It was a lot of work but when I look back at the videos of the night I go, know what, I’m so proud of her. She was amazing, I was so proud of the band, I was so proud of myself. I was like, fuck dude, you need to get onstage in front of thirty thousand people with these guys and rip the shit up.”
Will we get the chance to see you tour over here?
TOMMY: “I’d love to come over as the UK has always been great to Alice Cooper and the Vampires especially and I love it here, but I don’t know what the universe has in store for us. I don’t know what’s going to happen but there’s stuff in store for us. We’ll just carry on working, writing and being positive. Sometimes you can wake up depressed, but you have to figure out a way out of that…and for me it’s when I pick up a guitar.”
And that, ladies and gentlemen, proves once and for all that rock ‘n’ roll can save your soul…even though Crossbone Skully may be tempted to take it anyway. The coolest space pirate in the cosmos and the coolest band on the planet…what’s not to love?
Band Members
