“I had to change my image, so I became a rocker” — Proto-punk and power metal veteran Ross Friedman recounts his time with the Dictators and Manowar
By Joe Bosso
ROSS “THE BOSS” Friedman’s uscular riffs and robust solos have powered not one, but two seminal New York-based bands that he co-founded: During the 1970s, there was the proto-punk/garage rock kings the Dictators, followed a decade later by the wildly influential power metal outfit Manowar. However, despite his brawny approach to the guitar, Friedman first got the six-string itch from watching a lovable pack of madcap TV mop tops.
“Oh, I loved the Monkees,” Friedman says. “As a kid, seeing them on TV was really exciting. They had amazing songs. I could really relate to ‘Last Train to Clarksville.’ What a solo! Of course, I didn’t know it was studio musicians on those first records, and it didn’t matter. The playing was incredible.”
The Monkees were Friedman’s gateway drug into the rock ’n’ roll of the era. “The Beach Boys, the Who, the Doors, Jimi Hendrix and, of course, I loved the Beatles and Stones,” he says. “It was really an exciting time. And for the most part, each band had a really incredible guitar player.” Before long, he ditched his piano and violin lessons and picked up the guitar. “I was a young Jewish kid with glasses and short hair. I had to change my image, so I became a rocker.”
He also started listening to the pioneering bands of heavy metal, listing Iron Butterfly, Steppenwolf and Black Sabbath as significant influences. “All those hard rock groups spoke to me,” Friedman says. “When I met [bassist] Andy Shernoff, we discovered that we were into the same stuff, so we decided to make the Dictators all about our shared loves.”
With the Dictators, Friedman experienced the New York punk explosion of the early Seventies firsthand. He recalls sharing bills with the Ramones at CBGBs: “We both played there a lot — we were probably a year ahead of them. The Ramones were like our brothers. We were from the Bronx, they were from Queens. We were very different bands, but we both had the swagger and attitude.” On the whole, though, he gives low marks to much of the punk movement. “There wasn’t an emphasis on musicianship,” he says. “It was like, ‘Hey, I can play sloppy and it doesn’t matter.’ I was the opposite
