Jeff "Mantas" Dunn (Venom Inc. guitarist)

Episode 128- Jeff “Mantas” Dunn! Jeff started his career as a founding member, songwriter and guitarist in the band Venom. This band not only invented an entire genre of music (black metal) but also influenced a number of bands including Metallica, Slayer and Pantera. Jeff has since formed his own band Venom Inc, and has some other musical projects as well. We discuss all this in the interview as well as the Satanic themes with the band, his relationship with John Corabi and coming back to life after being legally dead from a heart attack. 


0:00:00 - Intro
0:01:10 - Martial Arts & Bruce Lee Fan 
0:04:29 - Rock Influences & Evolution of Sound
0:10:22 - Satanic Influences on Venom 
0:13:30 - Guitar Style & "Shredders" 
0:16:25 - Writing "Black Metal" 
0:17:36 - Relationship with Metallica 
0:19:25 - Success & Attitude 
0:23:40 - Slayer & Dave Lombardo 
0:25:50 - Horrific Incident Leads to End of Venom 
0:28:10 - Venom, Songwriting & Implosion of Band 
0:41:12 - "Dryll" Band & "Cronos" Brother Playing Drums 
0:45:02 - Female Drummer in Mantas - Cherrisse Osei
0:49:05 - Massive Heart Attack & Legally Dead 
0:58:45 - Dead Daisies "Resurrected" & John Corabi 
1:05:35 - Phil Anselmo of Pantera & Other Fans 
1:06:45 - Patreon, Website & Cat Sanctuary 
1:10:15 - Wrap Up

Jeff Mantas Website:
https://www.jeffmantas.com

Animal Sanctuary Donation Page:
https://www.jeffmantas.com/donate

Chuck Shute Website:
http://chuckshute.com

Transcript

Chuck Shute: 0:12

Welcome to the show, and thanks for taking the time to check us out. This was a really fun episode, Jeff mantus done is my guest. So he was originally a founding member and guitarist for the band venom. He's since founded his own version of the band called venom Incorporated. And he's done a bunch of other projects like Mantis and drill. But venom, this band that came along when there was not a lot of really heavy stuff around, and they basically invented a genre of music called black metal. And they toured with Metallica, and Slayer and Exodus, and were very influential for those bands, and so many other bands, including Pantera. And Jeff's just got quite a cool story to tell from playing in venom. He's got three black belts and three different martial arts. And he died for five minutes from a heart attack. He was resurrected. So really interesting conversation with Jeff Mantis. I hope you enjoy it. Hey, welcome Jeff Dunn to the chuck shoe podcast. How you doing?

Jeff "Mantas" Dunn: 1:12

I'm good. I'm good. It's nice to be here. Looking forward to this.

Unknown: 1:16

Yeah,

Jeff "Mantas" Dunn: 1:17

I believe it can believe it. Kim via a mutual friend, Mr. JOHN karate.

Chuck Shute: 1:22

Yeah, that's kind of a claim. We'll get into that. How you to max. That's kind of a cool story. I had to figure that one out. Because I was like, how these two, this is a weird combination. But then I was like, Oh, this is a cool story. So but your your story is interesting. The whole story. I mean, from the beginning, you were actually more into martial arts than music. Is that correct?

Jeff "Mantas" Dunn: 1:42

In the early stages, yeah. I mean, I grew up in the 70s. Born in 61, but sort of growing up period was in the in the 70s. And 7273, you know, was the advent of the big kung fu boom in, in the UK and the United Kingdom. And of course, Bruce Lee was all over the movies. You know, I desperately wanted to go and say Enter the Dragon, but it was an 18 certificate, so I couldn't go see it. So my mom actually bought me the paperback book, which I've still got over there. So I read the novel. And I was absolutely fascinated by Bruce Lee and I and my mom used to take me into Newcastle city. So now we survive all the magazines and everything, you know, there was a there was a store I remember which was in a. And it was like in an indoor market. Very famous in Newcastle, it's still there to this day. I'm not sure if the stall is actually still there. But there used to be this lady. And it was like news agents. And she had all these magazines or something she used to get American imports. God knows how, what used to go all these. It was inside kung fu black belt inside karate, karate illustrated. And I used to buy all these martial arts magazines and just, you know, marvel at all the techniques and things. So I just got into through that. I started with Judo when I was 10 year old. Then I went to Waterloo, karate. And then from there, I was sort of learning out of books and everything because I really wanted to do an art called how poquito which is a Korean art. But there was never a club in Newcastle at that point in the early 70s. And then in 1976, Taekwondo arrived in the northeast of England. And that was it for me. You know. So from 76 at age 15. I did Taekwondo for 15 years. And in the meantime, I explored other arts, Aikido jujitsu, and all that karate styles and stuff.

Chuck Shute: 3:50

Do you have a black belt in Aikido? Is that correct? Right, I'm a

Jeff "Mantas" Dunn: 3:56

black belt in Aikido black belt in Taekwondo and black belt in freestyle karate. Oh,

Chuck Shute: 4:02

dang. Oh, that's crazy. That's amazing.

Jeff "Mantas" Dunn: 4:07

I ended up I was ended up alongside the music, which we'll get into obviously, but I ended up being a professional instructor for 25 years. 19 of those years, I had my own dojo in, in Newcastle City Centre for 19 years.

Chuck Shute: 4:26

Wow, that's cool. So then yeah, it was music. Your first album was T Rex, which is like kind of funny to think about. Because your music that you play now is so heavy, like think of T rex and your your favorite band was slayed, which is kind of like a more poppier, I mean, because there wasn't any heavy metal back then in the 70s. So explain to me how you guys, you basically invented a genre of music. I mean, I think the heaviest thing that you listen to is probably Judas Priest, but like the growls and stuff that you guys have invented, I mean, that just I don't think there was too many bands doing that. Like how did you even think of To make those sounds

Jeff "Mantas" Dunn: 5:03

you know what it is? I've been asked this question so many times Chuck and I say, you know, how did you come up with this sound? How did you come up with this? I mean, yeah, you know, I'm the founder member of the band and our wrote the majority of the early material, black metal, welcome to hell, on the singles. Sort of midway through that period, Kronos was right and alongside me as well. Everything that we did we just, it was a natural evolution. Let's put it that way. I mean, yes. I mean, I was always into guitar driven music, you know, so T Rex, and sled, obviously, you know, Mark ball and had the Les Paul, he had the Flying V. And I mean, if you look at Mark ball, and there's two similarities that are unnoticed and I've been writing a book about venom in my life for a few years now. Hope you get it finished some point but doing all the research. I was looking at the mark ball and scenario. And then one of the bands that had a massive influence on me was kiss. Right. Get that in a minute. Sure. Everybody's cat fallen? Yeah. Yeah, you look at more balling. And then look at all Stanley, the mannerisms, the movements, the look everything. And then look at sled look at Dave Hill, who was the lead guitarist, which is known as Super yob. And he had these flamboyant shoulder pads and everything like that. And then you look at this guy.

Chuck Shute: 6:41

It's really it's really,

Jeff "Mantas" Dunn: 6:43

yeah, there was a lot of striking similarities between Dave Hill and Australia and Paul Stanley, and Mark Borland. So it was always guitar driven music for me and I can remember being at school one day, and it was actually heaving it down with rain. So the teachers had kept us in, they wouldn't allow us to go outside it was just too wet. There was a bit of a storm going on. This would have been god 7172 I think something like that. And the teacher put the radio on, and they were counting down the top 10 and I was I was waiting to hear who was going to be number one. I was praying for number one, and it happened it was T rex with metal guru. And that meant that T rex had a guaranteed spot on a TV program on Thursday evening called the Top of the Pops. So 730 I was in front of that TV screen watching Martin T rex It was the first time I'd ever seen T rex live. It wasn't like it was mind it was it was this top of approps program you know, and but you know I used to watch that religiously you know sled was on all the time. The sweet, so it was always guitar driven stuff and I came up through the clown era

Chuck Shute: 8:02

Did you ever wear the glam stuff? Did you ever have like makeup or any of that scarves or No? Okay. That would be funny. Yeah. No, no

Unknown: 8:13

never went thoughtful. That's

Chuck Shute: 8:14

good.

Jeff "Mantas" Dunn: 8:16

Music sure absolutely love the music. And so yeah, T rex rider White Swan was the first album I ever bought with sort of my own allowance my The first single I ever bought with my own allowance money was probably the single that sort of dipped my toes into the areas of heavy rock for the first time. And that was Queen seven season right? So I loved that track. And I still to this day, I love early queen. Now all go back well, Brighton Rock, all those all that stuff was fantastic. And then obviously the United Kingdom embraced Alice Cooper with the with the single schools out. So there was another sort of heavy rock thing that I was into. And it was a little bit of a little bit of a journey. I suppose I was looking for, you know, what's the next heaviest thing was after that, of course, after the first gig I ever saw the first band ever was in 1978 and Newcastle City Hall. And that was Blue Oyster Cult. And that was the first time that Newcastle had seen lasers. You know, they I think they had one laser and a mirror ball in the city hall. You know and everybody in Newcastle I mean 1978 everybody was absolutely fascinated by this, you know one laser but the gig that changed my life and made me go That's it. That's what I'm doing was Judas Priest killing machine to 1979 may 20 years, some 30 Thursday evening on 1979. And the guy that did it was the guy who ran on as I'm looking at the stage stage left, this guy ran on in leathers with blond hair and a Flying V and I went, I want to do that.

Chuck Shute: 10:18

I was kicking you down, right? So but then you guys kind of took it to like the next level and then with it's explained this whole thing with the satanic lyrics and the imagery, you said that that was mostly done for shock value. Did anyone in the band take any of that stuff? Seriously? Or was it 100% for show?

Jeff "Mantas" Dunn: 10:36

Do you know what it is? various people in the band will say, yeah, yeah. Looking, you know, British primetime news tv, you know whether the TV presenter said Oh, so are you a Satanist? He went here and say, fuck off course

Unknown: 10:53

you're not.

Jeff "Mantas" Dunn: 10:55

Anybody was, you know, we had one copy of the Satanic Bible between us that I think we bought from a newsagents and you know, we read it and

Chuck Shute: 11:06

because I'm listening to the song, welcome to hell. I'm just now discovering you guys. I mean, I'd heard of them. But I didn't really now with Spotify. No artist hate that. But I can go back and listen all this stuff. I'm listening to the song Welcome to hell. It's fucking scary. Like, it's a scary song. Like it's, I mean, I know. It's not real. But it's like, I mean, it's it sounds crazy. You listen to and you go shit. Like, this is like, this is some scary shit. Like, so I think it works. It's kind of like horror movies. Like, you know, they're not real, but it can scare you a little bit. Yeah,

Jeff "Mantas" Dunn: 11:35

I mean, I've been asked this question a million times. You know, it's like, did you set out to shock and yeah, yeah, we did have people run away scream and it was a fucking great.

Chuck Shute: 11:44

Yeah, that's what you're trying to do?

Jeff "Mantas" Dunn: 11:46

Yeah, yeah. I mean, the thing is, the thing is, I've always said it would never work today, because the human race is absolutely desensitized to anything. Now, you can turn on the news channels and find far more shocking things going on, right on your doorstep. And it's real, it's happening. It doesn't take a devil or a fucking god or whatever like that. to manifest anything like that. It's the human race that does it. You know, we are the gods. We are the devils. We are capable. As a human race, we are capable of the most benevolent good, we have created some of the most amazing things. But we are also the most disgusting pieces of shit you will find in the universe when we want to be simple. It's as simple as that. So singing about things were forky heads and cooking tails and all that kind of stuff. It was I would never say that, that there was a deliberate message in any venom song whatsoever. We were exactly what you just said a few moments ago, we were a Horror Music set. The horror film set the music the way we heard. It was the you know, before us, I mean, Motorhead was a massive influence. You know, that whole fuckin clanging punk for an open court fucking not giving a shit. I had the album overkill. And as I've, like I said, as, as I've had time to sit back and analyze everything. That one album had more of an effect on my early songwriting than I ever realized. There was more in common with that than anything else. And those songs, those early songs, those early Phantom songs. It's a basic power chord. It's a basic rock and roll or blues riffs. And it's a pentatonic scale. And that's it. That's all I had. I was not experienced at that point. I think I'd been playing guitar seriously for maybe two or three years. That was it. And even then, I wasn't practicing it every fucking day. Wow. I've been a guitarist who sat in a room and went, I've got to do it. I was in fucking scales. What's the point and that shit? Okay, so you can play. You can play a scale a million miles an hour. And, you know, I've got every admiration for these guitarists, you know, you see them on YouTube. And that technical ability is unbelievable, right? I remember a guy who used to be an artist relations guy for a company that I had a guitar from many, many years ago. This guy was, as you will see a shredder. I hate that fucking word. But he was a shredder, he could do the momsteam divide the sutra. Everything is a guy is incredible. into this day. He is a fuckin amazing guitarist. And this company there had some new models of guitars. So he got the job of demonstrating this particular guitar. And I've seen the video of it on YouTube. And I mean, he taught the shit out of this guitar. I mean, he was burning that fucking fretboard. You know, I mean, the guitar was almost hosted in the fucking white flag and surrender. It was fucking incredible what he was doing. And then all of a sudden, along the bottom of the video, there was this little ticker tape just scrolled along the bottom very slowly. And it said, can also be used to play a song.

Chuck Shute: 15:14

Right? Cuz it's those are not songs when you're doing the solos. It's I mean, it's cool. I love it, but

Jeff "Mantas" Dunn: 15:21

exactly, yeah, exactly. And the thing is, you know, the average mainstream consumer of music, not even a music, not even a music fan or a band fan, but the average person who will go, Oh, I like that song, and goes and buys it. Right? Or just the average music lover, right? If you're cleaning a million miles an hour, unless they're tuned to that they're gonna switch off straightaway.

Unknown: 15:47

Yeah,

Jeff "Mantas" Dunn: 15:48

I've always had, I mean, I've got no desire to do that kind of stuff I never have done and not gonna sit down and practice for fucking god knows that if I'm going to come into the studio for eight hours. I want to write a song. As simple as that. Yeah. And to be perfectly honest with you. I've always said if someone was to offer me one of two gifts, either to be the greatest guitarist the world has ever seen are the greatest songwriter. I will take the songwriter every single time, because that's what moves people physically and emotionally. And that's what connects you to people as well. Exactly.

Chuck Shute: 16:24

Yeah, so one of the most famous songs that you ever wrote black metal. I know you've told the story a million times, but tell the story how you wrote that, cuz that's a pretty funny story.

Jeff "Mantas" Dunn: 16:34

It's absolutely true. People have said, Oh, come on. That's not true. What it is absolutely true. I've said it, I'll just tell it the way I've drawn it a million times. That's, you know, when you have your cup of coffee in the morning, and you go to the toilet to do the ablutions, you know, and some people will take a magazine in this particular day, I actually did take my guitar with me. So I'm sitting on the toilet, and I'm playing, right. And the first couple of riffs are black metal happened. So finished what I was doing went out. I had my dad's cassette recorder. Oh, you know, one of those things, you press play and record at the same time. Yeah, so I recorded what I had done. And then listening back and I think within I don't know, within half an hour maybe the all the rest of the song was put together.

Chuck Shute: 17:22

That's crazy and black metal. So then is that the only song you ever wrote on the toilet? Or was there any other ones that you tried to do that songwriting? So maybe you should try it again. You can write another masterpiece, but yeah, so I'm curious like this time. You know, black metal the Welcome to hell, those two first two albums are so iconic and so, so influential, but then you guys, you're touring with Metallica. That's crazy that they're opening for you. That's insane. Like, that's gotta be so weird to look back on that and go oh, yeah, we like took these guys out on the road. And what was that? Like? What kind of memories you have of those punks back then?

Unknown: 18:01

I mean, were they

Chuck Shute: 18:02

punks? I'm assuming they were kind of punks back then. They're very rowdy, right?

Jeff "Mantas" Dunn: 18:07

Oh, yeah. Laws was pretty fucking rowdy. Yeah, I remember like, actually, we were in a motel somewhere. I think it was outside New Jersey or somewhere. And it was my manager that stopped me coming up with a motel room because I was going to go upstairs and kill laws at one point because partying all night. We had a flight to get the next year is a no no, no, no, no, no, it's all gone sorted out. Oh, no, I mean, fucking hell. I've met them quite a few times since all that period, you know, and we always talk and I can't arrive it was was a 2016 or 17. We were doing an American tour. It has been a mink. And we're playing in San Francisco and James came down to see us. And it was so weird. I was on stage and I looked up into the balcony. And there was James Hetfield fucking hair guitar and and singing every fucking word it was. So

Chuck Shute: 19:01

he's still a big fan.

Jeff "Mantas" Dunn: 19:03

Oh, yeah. Yeah, still a big fan. I was I was actually in the dressing room afterwards. And one of the techs brought my guitar in. So I was just telling him I get tied down. I was putting it in the case and just getting changed, you know, and all I heard was, hey, chaps, turn rotors James Enfield. I was like, but you know what I say what you want about those guys, but fuck me, they have worked for their success. You know,

Chuck Shute: 19:29

that's what you said that you felt like you guys kind of you didn't really work out hard for your success. You kind of just backed into it. It was like really easy. You thought that was just the way it goes like, Oh, you just do a record an album. And then you're touring arenas. And that's just the way and so you kind of took it for granted almost right.

Jeff "Mantas" Dunn: 19:44

What I think yeah, I think that was one of the one of the things that happened with us, you know, because it came so easy. We were actually rehearsing in a church Hall in New Castle's city center, on a Saturday afternoon. And then the On Saturday afternoon, we were in front of our bank, it was about 3000 kids in Belgium. It was just back, it was 00. There really was, we had done. The first show that we did as a four piece was my girlfriend's birthday party at the time, we were just all teenagers. So we did have a birthday party. Then we played the actual church hall that we rehearsed at. Then we played in walls and at a place called the Methodist Church, which was literally just around the corner from where Nick records was. So everything was sort of interconnected as we went along this journey. I think we played another short at some social club, like a working man social club, south of the time, it was either Heaven, heaven appeal, or one of the two. So yeah, I mean, we had done for tiny, little shores. And then the first international show was Papa Ranga. In Belgium, it was just bang. I mean, you know, we didn't do anything of really off the back of Welcome to hell, there was no tour or anything like that. It just went out. And the way I describe it is there was there was no master plan. I'm a big believer in the law of attraction, universal creation, destiny. I've got no religious beliefs. But what I think is that, at that point, the stars aligned, and the world was ready for something new. And we just happened to be it. It could have been anybody at that point. But where it was, it was just us. Like I said, there was no fucking master plan. There. We weren't, we weren't geniuses, by any stretch of the imagination. No, we just we just went in there. I think what we had was, we had an attitude. And that was it. And I think that attitude, like I say, you know, if you want to analyze the songs, the soul blues and rock and roll stuff in the early days, there isn't a flattened fifth amongst it. You know, there's nothing evil in there, you know. But analyzing those songs. They say the very, very basic, very simple songs. And sometimes as you progress as a songwriter, it's difficult to get back to that naivety that you wanted. You know, sometimes it would be nice to get back to this that simplicity. I think a band like AC DC have kept that simpler, all along the line. And you can be as technical or as fancy as you want.

Unknown: 22:19

But you will

Jeff "Mantas" Dunn: 22:20

never get the same reaction as fuckin an air chord, a D chord and a G chord, which formed fucking Highway to Hell. Yeah, that's true. It's simple as that. But I think what sets us apart was the attitude. I mean, we did an interview with a big broadsheet magazine called sounds. That was our first major interview. And the next week, they had to extend the letters page. You know, there was no internet back then there was nothing people would actually write a letter into the magazine, and they would publish the letter in the magazine, the legacy of the week after our interview, you know, the extent of the letter page because there's so many letters went in about us. So many people go on Falcon. Yes. Good for a lot of those letters. For Whom the fuck are these idiots? Right people either loved you or they hated you. There wasn't a lot of middle ground. There was no gray area in those early days. I never once heard anybody say venom. Then Okay, it was a phenom. Fuck Yeah. Or venom fuckin shit. You know, I was one of one of two reactions. Yeah, that's fine. That's that's what we wanted. You know? Yeah. You love to brilliant. If you eat it was brilliant. Because of your heroes. You're going to tell everybody else how much you fucking hear this because you can't get it for

Chuck Shute: 23:38

free. Yeah, it's free advertising. So touring, touring with you. Also besides Metallica, you toured with Slayer and Exodus? That must have been a great show to do you guys do a lot of shows on that one.

Jeff "Mantas" Dunn: 23:51

And I think that was the world possession tour. Yeah, there was there was quite a few shows. I remember. The first time I actually went out for watch Slayer. Where I'm sure my it may have been the Aragon Ballroom in Chicago. I might be wrong about that. But I'm sure it was the tour and 85 and there was a little area set aside in the balcony, just overlooking the stage. And it was for like VIP and guests. So Slayer Ron and I went up. I thought I've actually never watched them. So you know, I'll go and check them out. And I remember just standing there being mesmerized by Dave Lombardo.

Chuck Shute: 24:39

Oh God, right. He is the most amazing drummer. Insane

Jeff "Mantas" Dunn: 24:44

what actually went through my mind is fuck is that what a drummer does?

Chuck Shute: 24:51

Yeah, right. He doesn't get enough credit.

Jeff "Mantas" Dunn: 24:54

Oh, fuck I just stood out. You know. I mean, obviously Jeff Tom and Carrie will they're doing their thing but and you know the guitarist so I'm a guitarist. I should be watching the guitar. Yeah, absolutely mesmerized by Dave Lombardo rocking out.

Chuck Shute: 25:12

He is so amazing. I like how he plays so fast I just don't know i mean that's got to be a skill that's very few people have that

Jeff "Mantas" Dunn: 25:22

he's he's a one off is an opposite one off. I mean, he was he was he was on the on the drums for the Misfits when we said we're envenoming supported the Misfits split the Allstate Arena in Chicago. And Dave was on drums for the Misfits on that night. And I mean, fucking hell, you know, you could you could tell it was him. It was

Chuck Shute: 25:44

crazy. So, yeah, so back to venom. So you're touring with Metallica and Slayer and Exodus. So what happened? Because you said in 86 you left the band. And you won't say why you left. You said the real reason would blow people's minds. It wasn't about money. It wasn't about artistic differences. Is that in the book, or when do we find out like, why you left?

Jeff "Mantas" Dunn: 26:07

It'll probably be in the book kill but it probably be in the book. I mean, it was. It was a horrific incident which occurred at a hotel when we were playing the Loreli Festival in 85, which was the last time Metallica opened up for us there was okay, direct support and and he was on the festival. And it was it was an incident. That should never happened. It was it was just disgusting. And it was at that point. Just I was like, This isn't a fucking band anymore. This is a traveling circus. This is ridiculous, you know. So that was it. And my mind was made up. And you know, there was there was there was a discussion before we went on. And I was literally waiting for a phone call to go to the venom office. And there was a phone call, but it wasn't a phone call. I was waiting for the phone call that came through to me was to say that we were going to Japan. And I had from being a kid obviously in the martial arts. I had had this long. But but even then my moral code just said, No, fuck this. So I said, Yeah, but I get somebody else doing it. But damn, that was it.

Chuck Shute: 27:26

So it wasn't something Conrad did or you can't tell me. I'm trying right. I'm trying here. So it's gonna be in the book. You're saving for the buck. Yeah. Okay, I'm excited. Cuz you said it's gonna blow people's minds. So I'm really excited. Is the book coming out soon? I can't wait for this.

Jeff "Mantas" Dunn: 27:50

Oh, God, you know what it is? I got asked to do this book. Many, many years ago, I can't even remember how long ago now And I was always I was like, Yeah, I don't know. I don't know. And that's basically what what people were saying to me, and a lot of journalists were saying this to me as well. Was, the only way we'll get the truth is if you write it, because I mean, yeah, some of the stuff I've read some of the stuff that I've read, that comes out of the other two, I'm like, Really? You know, and it's like, they're almost creating their own fucking dimension here. It's like, you know, if you were you were in the band, right? You have the band. You don't have to go that extra step to justify it. It's like, you know, it's like, you know, those early albums. It's like, right if you want a bit of controversy, here we go. Those first two albums, -"Welcome to Hell" and "Black Metal" - right, you look on the right and credits you'll see Lant, Dunn & Bray. Right? The three of them, okay. All right, go to what what was said, Go to"Possessed", and then go to"Cast in Stone." You'll see Lant/Dunn. Right. And that is because Abaddon never wrote a fucking thing. And he can say whatever the fuck he wants. He never wrote a note. Nothing. Zero. Zilch. That is it. Forget it. Saw after black metal myself and Kronos, we had a meeting with our manager at that time, or cook, who's now since sadly passed away, but we had a meeting with him in a wimpy burger bar in New Castle. And we said, basically, why is this guy's name on the songwriting credits? You know? Now, if you go back and look at, you know, I do appreciate when you know that people say like, Oh, it's all for one and one for all and all that kind of stuff. Yeah, that's great. If you're gonna stay together forever. And, you know, I have a photograph on my phone here that I'm talking to you now. And apparently it's the last selfie that geddy Lee took of the three of those guys together before neopia passed away. Right? Now this photograph shows three guys smiling and perfectly at ease with each other. And just loving the fact that they were actually together. And you know my feeling on that. I looked at that photograph now and wow, I'm fucking jealous. Oh, really just looked at that and went. What the fuck happened to was? Why? You know? And I honestly think the success was so quick. The personnel isn't advanced changed. And I'll be the first one met. Yes, I withdrew. Because I'm not a party animal. I'm no rock and roll animal into my music. I love being on stage. I love being creative and right netbook, drugs, alcohol all legit. I'm not interested. I'm not interested in the parties. I don't give a shit. What Mr. Fucking whatever his name is, is I don't give a shit about his reputation offstage. What does he do on stage? Does he deliver? Or does he go on their record out of his fucking head and all the fans go? Foxy? They would. That's a disgrace as far as I'm concerned. But on legacy on the songwriting side, we had this meeting with the manager. And we said, This isn't on, you know, it's it's just not right. But if you look up a Judas Priest with songwriting credits tip, unhealth a doughnut right away through the career up until when? falton Academy right. Ian Hill was never mentioned in Hill never wrote anything. But he, he and he was a founding member. Sure I look at all the look at the kiss songs. Right, Stanley? Stanley Simmons, Stanley, ezrin, Stanley, Simmons, Simmons, Stanley. Right? Well, not freely. There was never a blanket of all four. Right? We all wrote this for console queen. The guys in Queen, I saw a documentary where they interviewed Brian Mae and Freddie Mercury. And they both said that they were fiercely protective of all over their own songs, even though they were members of the same band. And if you watch the movie, you know, there's that section where Roger Taylor is trying to get his song. I'm in love with my car. Yeah, the right. Yeah.

Chuck Shute: 32:37

That's funny.

Jeff "Mantas" Dunn: 32:37

He wrote that book. Yeah. Nobody else for that song. Right. So

Chuck Shute: 32:42

yeah, that is interesting. Because Yeah, some bands will just say the whole band wrote it. But you know, that deep down it wasn't the whole band is usually somebody brought the most majority of the song. Sometimes it's two people sitting down. But rarely is an entire band, writing a whole song from from what I've heard.

Jeff "Mantas" Dunn: 33:00

No, no. And the thing is, I used to, I used to be part of a thing called Rock School, many, many years ago back in England. And I was the sort of guitar tutor and I used to manage the courses that went on around the area. It was run by a friend of mine called Gary. But I used to look after all the courses and stuff like that. And we used to do a three month course for kids. In sort of some of the areas were quite deprived. So we're trying to get the kids off the street, get them involved in music. And we used to get all the dare I said, we used to get all the Misfits, you know, the little Goths and the kids who were in the metal And sure, like they were that saw the odd ones out the odd ones out at school type of thing, you know. So I used to get the job of, you know, I was the guitar tutor. And we used to teach them cover versions and things like that, then they would get a gig at a place called the auto Academy. We're all friends and families to come down and watch them on stage. We used to put them into bands and stuff. It was great. One of the guys I mean, he's now 20 I think he's 2728. He's a singer songwriter in Australia. Yeah, I'm still in touch with a few of them. Very talented kids great. But I used to get the job also of at 1.1 of the sessions, I used to give them a little bit of a talk on the music industry and what it involves me in, in, in the music and Sure. One of the things I used to say was, you know, in a band situation and I know I know I know there's going to be a lot of people disagree with me about this and go oh, that's all business. That's all business. And I hate the business. Right? Music Business, the music business. Those two words shouldn't even be in the same fucking sentence. Right? I love music. I hate the business.

Chuck Shute: 34:50

Like the finger you used for that?

Unknown: 34:52

Yeah, it's horrible. No, so

Chuck Shute: 34:55

yes it because Is it true that you never got royalty checks from your time and venom. I thought I heard you say that.

Jeff "Mantas" Dunn: 35:01

No, no, wait, I never. To this day, I have never seen an official royal statement from knit records, who had Welcome to hell black metal all the singles that was set and possessed ain't clean enough music. Right all of that period of time. I have never seen an official royalty statement or an official neat records publishing statement. Never once now people have said to me why we you should have a silver disc and gold disc apartment. I'm sure black metal has sold a million copies by now over 40 fucking years. I have got nothing non fucking thing. But when I used to give the kids this this little talk about the the industry it's a sad fact. But if you're offered anything, you have to go to her fucking lawyer. It's ridiculous been so many people who have been fucked over because signed contracts that they didn't know anything about, you know,

Chuck Shute: 35:59

yeah.

Jeff "Mantas" Dunn: 36:00

But on the songwriting side, on the songwriting side, I used to say, Please be aware that when you start as a band, you may there may be let's just say there's four guys in the band, right? These four guys are all Yeah, one for all all for one, bla bla ba, ba, ba, ba, ba, ba, ba, ba, ba ba ba success can fucking destroy you. A band is one of the biggest destroyers of friendships that I know. easily. It can destroy friendships. How many bonds? Can you think of where the members now? They won't even fucking look at each other. They won't go in the same room as each other

Chuck Shute: 36:40

separate buses. Sad.

Jeff "Mantas" Dunn: 36:43

Yeah, separate buses separate trouble separate this separate that it's all thing. And the one thing I used to sit for the kids was a no and no. And I know there's going to be people watching this who go off, but get your songwriting credits down, right? Because in 10, or 15 or 20 years time, when you know, hit that person that used to be in a bandwidth. Just remember, he's getting the same royalty check as you for a song that you wrote. That's true.

Chuck Shute: 37:17

That's a good point. Now,

Jeff "Mantas" Dunn: 37:19

you know what it is? That's a horrible thing to say. Yeah, but it's so true. Yeah, you know, and it's a really, and, you know, it's it's not me being an, I've actually said, it's a little bit of a disclaimer in the book, really, it's a theater, at the end, I've written. I've written the foreword, and all the pre fests and everything like that, and we're quite a bit through it. But I've also written a good part of the end piece, like a prologue, where I say, so there you are, there you have it, what do you think bla bla bla bla bla bla bla bla bla. You know, you might not agree with everything that said in here. And it's, you know, some of it is going to be hard to digest. And I'm sure that's the same for a lot of bands as well. But, you know, at 60 years old, coming from someone who's already died once, if I can't tell the truth now, when am I going to fucking do it? Right? Yeah, it's, it's, you know, this. And I'll also say that, you know, it reading between the lines in this book, or even in interviews that I do, people could turn around and say, Wow, he sounds better. No, I'm not bitter. I'm not bitter in the slightest. What I am, is I'm sad, angry and disappointed. I'm disappointed in the fact that this band that had so much fuckin potential just disappeared over giornata and imploded. Right? And, you know, it's, it is a fuckin sad fact. And I say this in the book. There's one part in the book, where I actually use the words, there's this line, we had the world of our feet, and we fucked it up. It was as simple as that. And you did success so quick.

Chuck Shute: 39:13

But you did get back together with them and 95 for a few years, but now you say there's no way you said what do you say I love this quote, it was like the bridges are burned and the bridges are ashes now, like, there's just no way that you would ever get back together with the original lineup.

Jeff "Mantas" Dunn: 39:28

I can't see any. I can't see any way forward for it. Not at all. I really can't. Let's Let's again, okay. Sometimes I can probably I can probably kill my popularity with my own honesty. Right. Right. Let's be brutally honest. Yeah. Why would a band like us get back together?

Chuck Shute: 39:55

for the fans for the money? Yeah.

Jeff "Mantas" Dunn: 39:58

The fans? Yes. Well, the fans definitely yes. But there would be a massive financial reward as well. I'm sure yeah. And it's it's, it's a strange thing that musicians are expected sometimes to just give everything away. You know, it's a strange industry. It's the you know, it's the old industry where you can create something, sign a contract, and then you don't own it anymore. It's like, excuse me, what the fuck up? Right? Why do you think guns like Metallica fought to get their whole catalogs so they can do what they want with their own material? Yeah. The other question is, do I believe that the world is waiting for a venom reunion? No, I don't.

Chuck Shute: 40:48

But if James Hetfield wanted it, he's probably got the money to make it happen. Right.

Jeff "Mantas" Dunn: 40:54

I tell you what, we'll do a private party for James Hetfield. And that's it.

Chuck Shute: 40:57

Oh, can I come on ago? That sounds like fun. I want to go to private party.

Jeff "Mantas" Dunn: 41:02

You're on my guest list. If that happens, you're on.

Chuck Shute: 41:04

Okay, we'll bring karami to this will be a party man. This will be fun.

Jeff "Mantas" Dunn: 41:07

Yeah, karate can come as well.

Chuck Shute: 41:10

So okay, let's talk about some of your solo stuff because you have all this other projects after venom. I mean, besides venom Inc, which is two of the members of venom, but then you have Mantis and then you said this band drill, which is spelled differently. I had to look this up. It's Dr. Y. ll, you What did you call it melodic rock? Because I listened. I was like, Oh, I want to hear this. This is melodic rock. This will be something kind of different. I was like, this sounds like Panthera This is not melodic rock. Are you kidding me? Like what

Jeff "Mantas" Dunn: 41:41

I mean, is this. The first inception of drill was was more melodic than that. Okay. the inception of it. It was I loved being in that band. It was a great band. I mean, there was some cracking musicians in that band as well. I mean, I bought Australia from Germany on drums, who's a fucking his nickname is drum beast. He's fucking incredible is credible from color, color connect on bass from Germany, who is my studio mentor. He's taught me everything I know about studio work, actually met Kelly on a tour that we're gonna talk about as well. And Neil, Neil, Richard on Voltron. He just had a great sort of a husky rocky voice. And then we'll had Andy Metcalf on second guitar. It was just he was a good friend of mine from where we're back. And it was all gone. The drill thing was going really, really well. I mean, previous to that I had this month as Project Zero Tolerance album. Yeah.

Unknown: 42:53

Real Thing.

Jeff "Mantas" Dunn: 42:55

When I did when I did drill, we had, we were asked to do a charity shore in New Castle, this rock bar called trillions. And there was a there was a DJ who had sadly passed away many years ago, who he was very prominent on the New Castle Rock scene, everybody knew him. And every year, this rock bar held a little events just to raise money for awareness for the cause of what he died from. I can't remember what it was. That's that's a horrible thing. I can't remember what he died from now, but they used to raise money for it anyway. So there was a lot of like local bands would, and like local celebrities even would bring things down to auction and raffle and there was prizes and stuff. And a band used to play so we got asked to do it. But Bordeaux, had been at a German festival, and he had had an accident and broke his arm. Kalia was on tour with another band. So we didn't have a bass player. We didn't have a drummer. So long story short, Andy got a bass player friend of his to come in and do it. And the guy I got in on drums was actually Kronos as brother. He came in to do it, I would just because at this point, Anton Cronus, his brother had reconnected with me from the resurrection days, okay, he had sent me a message. He had basically sent a message to me saying, just to let you know, I've left venom. I'm no longer with him. And my brother is a liar and a thief. That was his words. Like, Oh, shit. So anyway, he had come around to my house and we talked for a long time and he told me a lot of things. And I remember saying to them that says, Anton, there's a lot of things you've told me that I could have told you. But you would never believe me because it's your brother. You know, it's blood. You know, I was the one that walked away from that situation. I just went Fuck this. I've had enough of that. So that was another after resurrection. I just went to hell with this. You know? Didn't Yeah, but

Chuck Shute: 45:02

anyway, speaking of drummers, didn't you have a sorry? What's that? I was just saying, speaking of drummers, didn't you have a female drummer in your band Mantis that this is like this big succession? successful session drummer with simple minds and Brian fairies? Yeah.

Jeff "Mantas" Dunn: 45:19

That's crazy. Yeah, yeah. That came through Tony. And Tony was with him on this project for a little while. And we were looking for a drummer. And I got a phone call from Tony. And he says, I think I found a drummer in London, because he was living in London by this time. And I was like, Alright, cool. Yeah. Great. You know, because at this point, for some reason, dramas were rare. We couldn't find a good drawing. So he said, Yeah, yeah. He says, Do you want to come down to London? And we'll audition with with her. I know her. Oh, hey, yeah. Great. So me and the singer went down, went down to London. And this little, I think she was 17 at the time. Gosh, dimou a little, little Afro Caribbean girl came in. Beautiful looking little girl. I was like, you know, at this point, I had a fucking Mohawk. Yeah, the thing I had dreadlocks don't was fucking asked. Tony was Bali. Were a bunch of fucking meatheads, you know, yeah, it was very pretty little girl there. I was like, Oh, I don't know if this is gonna work. Yeah, oh, when she kicked into play. I was like, Holy fucking shit. Yeah. And I remember we played, we played the earth shaker festival in Germany. And we will we walked on stage, you know, this big, massive fucking festival 1000s of people out front. We walked on stage, you know, given it the whole night you're walking in on this little girl walks on behind us, you know? And you could just see the look on the faces of the audience, you know? And then when she played, everybody's just like, what the fuck yeah. And then she got the offer to join this female rock band, which she did. What's her name? What's her name? Sharif, Sharif, or say? Okay. Yeah. So she got to join this female sort of pop rock band. I think it was Mitch, you as daughter, who was on guitar at the party at this point as well. So they did a few things. And it just didn't quite work out. But then the next thing I know she's, she's playing session drums for an artist called Mika, who had a massive hit in America.

Chuck Shute: 47:45

I know. Mika. I know that song actually. Yeah, like yeah, that's like

Unknown: 47:50

really high. Yeah,

Chuck Shute: 47:52

kinda like Queen kind of Freddie Mercury kinda.

Jeff "Mantas" Dunn: 47:54

Yeah, yeah. So she was playing drums for him. And then I remember I got a phone call from her one day and she was like, oh, Jeff, I'm going to be in Newcastle. Well, it was good said which itself at the time. There's a huge venue called the sage. Yeah, it's quite an upmarket, an upmarket venue where posh band score, right so you know, and she said, I'm going to be there with Bryan Ferry. And I'll fucking hell Brian, Jesus. I love Brian fairies, music, absolute fucking amazing artist. And I couldn't go because I was blown away on tour. So I missed that. But then we have a program in England. When I was there, it was called Jools Holland. And he used to be the keyboard player with a band called squeeze. And now he's got his own blues on Australia. He's amazing keyboard player, just unbelievable pianist. And Bryan Ferry was on this night and there's Sharif's been behind the kit. And now she's with simple names. Oh, nice. I

Chuck Shute: 48:57

love them, too. So let's, yeah, that's cool. Now tell me the story about I think it's at a time we tell the story about karate. Like why you pick to cover that song resurrected because this is kind of a crazy story. You literally were resurrected.

Jeff "Mantas" Dunn: 49:12

Yeah. Well, I'm four days away from the third anniversary of it. Basically cut the long story short, I had a massive heart attack and I died at the side of the road and an ambulance. I was clinically dead for just over five minutes. There was two paramedics attended the scene, but they couldn't do anything. And they needed a doctor. by some miracle, they're called a doctor who was literally around the corner in his car with equipment and a nurse. They came I was in the back of the ambulance, my girlfriend and he was with me.

Chuck Shute: 49:57

Today do the heart paddles, then. Is that what they do?

Jeff "Mantas" Dunn: 50:00

Every year everything I had the whole nine yards that what happened was, I mean, my girlfriend came to the side of the ambulance, and I would looked at her. And she said how you're feeling? And I looked, and I turn around. I said, Actually, I think the pains gone. And I just went, Oh, and that was it. I was dead. I said those words to her and died.

Chuck Shute: 50:23

So you felt like right before you felt like euphoric or good. He felt like the pain was gone.

Jeff "Mantas" Dunn: 50:29

Just Just the pain had gone. There was no, I was like, did you see a white light

Chuck Shute: 50:34

or anything? Or?

Jeff "Mantas" Dunn: 50:35

No, it's not about shit. It was literally lights out. I mean, I'm Well, I mean, I didn't know. I mean, my girlfriend told me I, I described a lot of things to my girlfriend that I thought had happened, where she's she just went, none of that happened. None of that happened. And what was minutes or seconds for me, was a full day for her. I didn't I didn't know what it was. It was surreal. So you

Chuck Shute: 51:04

just like you have no recollection. Like you just the last thing you remember is you don't feel any pain. And then you blackout and you wake up and it's like a day later.

Jeff "Mantas" Dunn: 51:12

No, no, I woke up. I woke up five minutes later, well, just over five minutes later. What happened was when that when when I went and he told me that the doctor literally kicked the ambulance door shut. There was two Portuguese women came from the pharmacy and just grabbed her to keep a hold of her cuz she was screaming at this point. And she said she just stood there and she watched the ambulance just fucking rocking backwards and forwards. The next thing I knew was I came around, and I looked, and this doctor had his hand here. And he was just doing this news going Calm, calm. udeid. Calm, calm. And I remember grabbing is ongoing. Don't let me die here. No, no, it's okay. You back your ear. No, you know, I was like, What the fuck. And I felt a sharp pain in my left hand side. And I reached down and there was blood there. Now I found out that that was where they had put a cannula in through my ribcage and shot adrenaline into my heart. And then they had used the electrical paddles after the CPR the compressions. But I remember that this the one strange thing that I do remember was all of a sudden, I looked at the start, stop. So I'm, I'm really cold, I'm really cold. So they're put on one of these insulated blankets or on the on the silver blankets. Or I'm gonna put my hands out and I just looked at my hands. And the only way I can describe this is I don't know if you've ever seen any of these photographs, which claim to capture a person's aura.

Chuck Shute: 52:56

Yeah, yeah, I've done that. Yeah, I've done that silly thing. Yeah.

Jeff "Mantas" Dunn: 53:00

Yeah. Yeah, that kind of thing. That's the only way I can describe it. I locked in right in between my fingers all the way around me just perfect lanes all the way around, I would just see this. It was I can just describe it as a glow. And everything was tingling. And I was looking and then I looked down at my luck. And just where my groin area was, I could see this thing just like, I can just describe it as a vortex. Just spinning and spinning and spinning and spinning. And I just sat there mesmerized by this thing, just watched it. And then it just got faster and faster and then just went through. just gone.

Chuck Shute: 53:39

Holy shit.

Jeff "Mantas" Dunn: 53:40

I don't know. It's weird, because it's strange, because on Netflix, there was a series called surviving death.

Chuck Shute: 53:50

Yeah, yeah, I started watching that

Jeff "Mantas" Dunn: 53:52

first. The first episode was all of our people who have had these death experiences. And there was a lot of it. I could relate to board back in our thought canal, you know. And it's it's weird here and other people. I've got a friend in America called Dolly. And he's had the same experience, but he died. And he said, he watched everything happened. He seen the paramedics.

Chuck Shute: 54:20

Yeah. You don't remember that though? everything going on?

Jeff "Mantas" Dunn: 54:23

Yeah, I didn't see any

Chuck Shute: 54:25

you just like you were totally gone. You didn't see dead relatives or anything?

Jeff "Mantas" Dunn: 54:30

No, no, it was just Black Black Elk. That was it. But I said the only weird thing was this. When I was looking at my hands, and then I remember saying to Anita Did I say anything? At any point and she was a what? Because I heard my own voice, the audio that the other thing with I heard my own voice and it was I can only describe it as my Angry voice right?

Chuck Shute: 55:01

Okay

Jeff "Mantas" Dunn: 55:02

if I'm angry with someone, right? Yeah. I got my angry voice and it was fucking fight. Don't you dare give up. You'll fucking keep fighting. And that's what I heard. Wow. And, and it was my voice. I was like, but because onset Juanita wasn't saying anything could you Gary said you didn't say anything nothing other than a fucking hell,

Chuck Shute: 55:26

dude, that's a crazy story didn't you say to that now that you went through that experience? You're not the same person you said you don't have tolerance for people anymore?

Jeff "Mantas" Dunn: 55:36

No, none at all. I've always I've always been the person who will give everybody the first the second, the third, fourth and fifth chances. Yeah, yeah, okay. Okay. Okay. Yeah. Now, one strike and you're out. That's it. Wow. Got no tolerance for anything like that, you know? Like, it's like, No, not at all. Not Forget it get out on the face. And the only the other thing is there isn't one day since this happened on April 30 2018. And there isn't one single day since the event that my subconscious doesn't take me back into the ambulance. Every single day. I have a flashback every day without fail.

Chuck Shute: 56:28

Not just like a memory but like a flashback. Like it feels like you're there.

Jeff "Mantas" Dunn: 56:33

Yeah, yeah. Just like, it's like, Whoa, fucking hell. Yeah, it's it's weird. It's really weird. You know, I mean, it's

Chuck Shute: 56:42

such a fascinating subject. My dad actually wrote a book about it called ultimate reality. And he talks about this, like, near death experience. Yeah, you should check it out. It's really interesting. He has like 500 sources, like he did all this research on it. And it's really interesting. I mean, it's such a fascinating topic to me. But yeah, it's uh, it's usually just funny too, because, you know, you had all the satanic imagery and stuff. But then it's like, you went through like a near death experience. And it didn't sound like you were going to hell. So it's like, it's like a totally different, you know, you have a totally different experience.

Jeff "Mantas" Dunn: 57:16

Do you know what it is? I've never had any religious beliefs, to be perfectly honest. But since this has happened to me, it's confirmed it. It's like Pollock's absolute shit. You know, it's like I said earlier on, man is the god man is the devil. It's as simple as that. You know, I don't believe there's fuckin fires of hell down there. And I don't believe there's a fucking heaven look early gates up there.

Chuck Shute: 57:46

But you think there is some other sort of other world because that's what my dad's book is all about this ultimate reality. It's not really necessarily heaven or hell. But there's some sort of like other dimension that people kind of you get glimpses of it, like with near death experiences are people that take really crazy drugs or, you know, there's something else going on? Because like when you saw that little thing, I mean, that sounds more than just a hallucination. I don't know it

Jeff "Mantas" Dunn: 58:10

was but I think you you've just said the word there dimension. I do believe that there's definitely call it an alternate reality. If you're like, I do believe this. There's, there's something like that, whether it's a belief in ghosts, or whatever, there's definitely something that we, as humans will never fully grasp on. Right. And

Chuck Shute: 58:36

that's the thing. We don't know what the hell it is. So yeah, that's why it's confusing. No, no, crazy.

Jeff "Mantas" Dunn: 58:41

I don't think I don't think we'll ever get there.

Chuck Shute: 58:43

We got off on a tangent. I was fascinating, though. But so then anyway, so then that you decided you're going to cover the Dead Daisies"Resurrected", and you kicked ass at this cover? And Corabi actually reached out and said, Hey, nice job on that. Yeah, you

Jeff "Mantas" Dunn: 58:56

guys are friends. I love that. I've always loved the band, you know. And I remember I had the album, burn it down on on my phone. And my favorite track off the album was resurrected. And I was just listening to it one day. And for some reason, it just struck me more than usual, you know, resurrected from the Caribbean, you know, from the fire to the famine or for Falcon now, and I've always wondered if I had a singing voice. I've never tried. I've never give it a shot. And of course, the lockdown thing, we weren't doing anything and I've got the studio here so I thought fuck it, why not? You know nobody else was going to hear it. So I learned a track on guitar and I put down verse bridge and a chorus. That's all I did. First Bridge Corps, put some program drums behind it, play a little bit of bass on it. So I had a backing track and then I had a few shots at singing it deliberate EQ This little bit of Atlas Oh, that's not too bad. I send it to my friend colleague whose legs he's a German engineer. sound engineer is very straightforward, very honest. And he was like, there's something there. You know, it wasn't dismissed. Let's put it that way. Because I had to be honest, you know, if it's shit, I'm hitting the delete button. It's as simple as that, you know. So anyway, I've worked on it, and finished it off. And I thought, you know, the venom Inc thing we had just done a virtual concert for for a festival, where we all had to do it via green screen, because I'm in Portugal, Tony's in London Jeremy's in Florida. So we all did it via a green screen, and then we will put together on the stage. So I've got the green screen just up there. So I thought, cool. Why not? Let's do a video. Yeah, so I did a video for it. Put the video up on YouTube. The next thing I knew the dead daisies had put a post up saying, Wow, check out this cover by Jeff man.

Chuck Shute: 1:01:01

Cool.

Jeff "Mantas" Dunn: 1:01:02

T shirts, you know, so I was like, oh, brilliant. Then they put it into their playlist on our website. I was like, wow. And then Christmas Day. I was sitting watching some god awful Christmas movie. My phone just went Ping. So I just glanced down at my phone. I didn't have my glasses on. So I could just barely make out the fucking Instagram. Little sign. So I was like, you know, ping when ping again. So look at that. So I opened it up. And the first thing I seen was john karate I might Fuck off. No.

Chuck Shute: 1:01:42

I think he likes doing that to people because he did the same thing to me. He called me on my phone. When I reached out for an interview. He called me personally and said, hey, it's john karate. I was like that. Yeah, so I think he likes getting that reaction out of people.

Jeff "Mantas" Dunn: 1:01:57

So yeah, I mean, I read the messages just like what? He loved the cover that. Oh, so I messaged by, you know, and we've sort of been talking ever since. And then we've got a mutual friend who helps us on the sort of tech side guy read. And I was talking to Sean one day and Sean when I've just gotten a message from john. I was like, Alright, yeah, yeah, no, I think anything over you know, he said, He's gonna call you. I know. Yeah, right. Whatever. You know, as I said, Yeah, right. Whatever the phone rang Junker up, fuck off. No way. So owned it up. There he is. We're on a video call together. We were on for about an hour and 30 minutes just chatting and shooting the shit as you said. And so yeah, we've been talking ever since. And then I did this other podcasts a week or so ago, two weeks ago, wherever it was. Where they were talking all about the heart thing and plugin.

Chuck Shute: 1:02:56

Yeah, I had a Dr. Lauren sauna. Yeah. A coffee talk with a deca?

Jeff "Mantas" Dunn: 1:03:01

Yeah, that's the one. Yeah, of course, john shored up there as well. Yeah. So. So anyway, cut a long story short, when we were talking to one I was talking to John, I said, this is right, while you're here right in front of me now. And I said, you can tell me to fuck off if you're want, you can say no, as is but I would love to write a song. You know, and he was like, Hey, why don't you know I was like, right. Okay, so I've just sent him a track- I got a message back, saying "wow, some cool stuff there is I mean, he said he was in New York visiting friends so he said I'll jump into it when I get back. So hey, you know if it happens, it happens. Great. I would love to do some stuff.

Chuck Shute: 1:03:44

Is itjust gonna be a one off like Corabi/ Mantis or is it like for his solo stuff or Venom Inc? Or what is

Jeff "Mantas" Dunn: 1:03:50

it gonna do? I don't I really don't know. I mean, obviously John's got his thing that he does you know? But hey, I mean if something came along you know if we could do an album together so I would love I mean, Okay, wow, I love I love his voice Yeah, love John's voice- is great voice great voice. I mean what he did I was never a Motley Crue fan, right? But what he did in Motley- I thought was great you know? Even back to the Scream that the stuff that he was right you know, when I went back and revisited all that stuff and went fucking alpha gunnebo this you know, it was like, I was never into that sort of hair metal type of fucking thing you know, but like, when you listen to some of the songs if you take away all that other shit, yeah, you listen to the songs and I was like, wow. And then the Union sutff with Bruce Kulick...l. And I just thought, you know what it is, if I if I don't care what you can write them any Typical one to some diseases. So what I've done is I've sent in this song, I had an idea for a chorus. So I've sort of I just put a rough guide vocal down for the chorus, the rest of this stuff is at eight oh, it's all there to be changed, whatever. So I've got about another two, maybe three songs on the goal. But it's all classic rock hard, hard rock blues stuff, you know. So

Chuck Shute: 1:05:26

that's like he's told me drill with melodic rock though. And that's how I like Panthera. So this is real classic rock. It's like,

Jeff "Mantas" Dunn: 1:05:34

trust me this is this is

Chuck Shute: 1:05:36

okay. Speaking of pin, Tara, the singer painter, Florence and Selma wished you a happy birthday the other day. I was like, kind of like blown away. I was like, what he did. So he's a fan. Everybody loves you, man. You're like, a legend in the metal community.

Unknown: 1:05:52

Apparently, so.

Chuck Shute: 1:05:53

That's really cool. Are you friends with him? Or is he just a fan? No.

Jeff "Mantas" Dunn: 1:05:59

I've never met the guy. I've never met him, but I do know. I do know he was onstage with Kronos, his version of venom did die on with them. And I do know he's got a tattoo of the black metal album cover on his back.

Chuck Shute: 1:06:17

Yeah, he's,

Jeff "Mantas" Dunn: 1:06:18

he's a massive fan and fancy.

Chuck Shute: 1:06:20

You can do like, think about the album you could do if you had karate on it, and Hetfield and Selma and who knows how other how many other legends are fans of you like you could just do like a guest vocalist solo album, it'd be amazing.

Jeff "Mantas" Dunn: 1:06:34

You know, as I would love to, I would absolutely love to do something.

Chuck Shute: 1:06:38

That'd be awesome. That'd be really fun. Yeah, cool. Well, cool. Yeah. Well, do you have anything else you want to promote? Right now the book is coming. I know you do a Patreon page, right where you have personal that footage of your old venom shows and other stuff. Oh, yeah. Yeah, yeah.

Jeff "Mantas" Dunn: 1:06:54

The the Patreon thing. It's just basically patreon.com forward slash Jeff man does. Okay. on there. There's various different tiers. There's a guitar instrumental every month, even at the last year, so there's going to be over the course of a year there's going to be 14 guitar instrumentals which are going to make an album. The album is purely for the patrons. Okay. On month six and 12 you will get bonus tracks which makes up the 14 tracks. On month 12. You get the downloadable artwork for the album cover. And if you're on one of the higher levels, you will also get the album t shirt. This was old footage side stage camcorder high yet camcorder footage of venom concerts. I do a thing which is a photo archive where I talk about all the different unseen photographs like places we used to go in New Castle rehearse and there's a lot of cool stuff coming up on there. I've just done something today because I'm doing a series of recorded venom tracks but with guest vocalists Oh the latest. The latest vocalist is a female vocalist called diva tanika from Nervosa gress female all female thrash band.

Chuck Shute: 1:08:16

Okay, so

Jeff "Mantas" Dunn: 1:08:17

she's doing that. I've got all the guests lined up. So I'm just doing all the re records, and then they're gonna do it. And then we're putting the video together. Okay, so that will probably be once a month or something like that. But Patreon you'll get to see the making of that the mixing of the songs, all this kind of thing. We're 25% of everything which is generated. So 25% of all monies generated, of course to help my local cat and dog sanctuary, and I have a small cat sanctuary in my own back garden. Okay. I've got 13 rescue cats out there.

Chuck Shute: 1:08:53

Is there someone if people just want to donate to the cat sanctuary? Is there a link for that? Or the Yeah,

Jeff "Mantas" Dunn: 1:08:59

if you go if you go to my website, which is Jeff mantus.com.

Chuck Shute: 1:09:03

Okay, and that's where is that where the venom incorporated stuff is as well.

Jeff "Mantas" Dunn: 1:09:08

And is that there's a link to the venom package there. Yeah.

Chuck Shute: 1:09:11

Okay.

Jeff "Mantas" Dunn: 1:09:12

But if you go to Jeff mantus.com, there's one of the drop down menus is song shop, where you can buy all the drill material. There's a classic rock and blues album that I did many years ago with a friend of mine that's there. And all like, say 25% of all the proceeds there goes to the shelter and my shoulder. There's t shirts, which, which I've designed, again, 25% of everything goes there. And within that there's a donate page.

Chuck Shute: 1:09:41

Okay, okay, I'll put that on there, too. Okay, I'll put all this stuff in the notes directly. Okay, yeah, I'll put all the notes of the of the podcast whether you're watching on YouTube, or Spotify, or whatever, it should be in the notes. So I'll put your links there and people could donate or they can go to patreon or buy all your other stuff on your website. Awesome. Well, thanks You so much. This has been a blast. It's a great conversation. I have a lot of fun.

Unknown: 1:10:04

Absolute pleasure.

Chuck Shute: 1:10:05

Okay, well, I have to come on again cuz I had a bunch of other stuff I wanted to ask you, but we just ran out of time. So no problem. Okay, cool, man. Thanks. All right. I'll talk to you later. Bye.

Jeff "Mantas" Dunn: 1:10:16

Cheers. No. All right.

Chuck Shute: 1:10:18

Well, there you have it, Jeff mantus done from venom. venom Incorporated. What an amazing life. He's led less far from having Metallica open for him to dying. And coming back to life. I'm excited to read his book, if that comes out, and I'd love to hear him do an album with karate. I think that'd be amazing. Jeff's website is in the show notes. So you can just click that from wherever you're listening. My website is on there as well. And you can follow both of us on social media. And if you enjoyed this interview, make sure to check out some of my other interviews. I have john donee of anthrax. blasto of Ozzy and Rob Zombie ban. Wiley Arnett from sacred right lips from Asheville, Dave Ellison from Megadeth, and many others. So if you want to support the show, please like comment or share these episodes as that helps the show grow. And we cannot grow without you. So for those of you who do show the episodes I am eternally grateful. Have a great day. And remember to shoot for the moon.