Circus Diablo is an American rock band formed in early 2006 by

Billy Morrison Billy Morrison is a British guitarist and singer who plays guitar with Billy Idol and performs with the Los Angeles-based cover band Royal Machines. Morrison previously played with Camp Freddy and fronted the hard rock act Circus Diablo. He ...

(vocals),

Billy Duffy William Henry Duffy (born 12 May 1961) is an English rock musician, best known as the guitarist of the band The Cult. Early life Duffy was born and grew up in Manchester. He has Irish and Jewish heritage and ancestry. He began playing the g ...

(lead guitar) and

Ricky Warwick Ricky Warwick (born 11 July 1966) is a Northern Irish musician and the lead singer of the rock bands Black Star Riders and Thin Lizzy. He is also the frontman for the Scottish hard rock band The Almighty, with whom he achieved chart success in ...

(rhythm guitar). Fuel frontman

Brett Scallions Brett Allen Scallions (born December 21, 1971) is an American singer. He is best known for being the original lead vocalist and rhythm guitarist for the alternative rock band Fuel. Born in Brownsville, Tennessee, Scallions gained recognition a ...

and

Velvet Revolver Velvet Revolver was an American hard rock supergroup consisting of Guns N' Roses members Slash (lead guitar), Duff McKagan (bass, backing vocals) and Matt Sorum (drums, backing vocals), alongside Dave Kushner (rhythm guitar) formerly of pun ...

drummer

Matt Sorum Matthew William Sorum (born November 19, 1960) is an American drummer. He is best known as both a former member of the hard rock band Guns N' Roses, with whom he recorded three studio albums, and as a member of the supergroup Velvet Revolver. ...

subsequently joined the band on bass and drums, respectively. To date, Circus Diablo have released one studio album, entitled ''Circus Diablo''. The band's most recent touring incarnation featured Morrison alongside

Rob Patterson Rob Patterson (born November 9, 1970) is an American guitarist and composer. Background Patterson was born in Natick, Massachusetts. His first major band was the metal, female-fronted Otep. He wrote and played on the albums, '' Sevas Tra'', '' ...

(lead guitar), Patrick Cornell (bass) and Charles Ruggiero (drums). The band is not currently active, however, in a recent interview Morrison stated that "Circus Diablo is always together. We can get together and make music when we feel like it."

History

Circus Diablo formed in 2006 with Camp Freddy guitarist

The Cult The Cult are an English rock band formed in 1983 in Bradford, West Yorkshire. Before settling on their current name in January 1984, the band performed under the name Death Cult, which was an evolution of the name of lead singer Ian Astbury' ...

, and

– former member of The Almighty – meeting at Morrison's home and writing songs in his home studio. Morrison states that:

Circus Diablo just sort of evolved. Before the current line-up of The Cult went back out touring, Billy uffywould come over and we'd just write songs together. We both knew Ricky from back in the day, so we called him up and invited him to join us. It was an organic thing. It wasn't done to put a band together at all. We wrote a bunch of songs and about five or six weeks later, we stepped back and went "wow, what should we do with this?"

The band enlisted

drummer

to perform on the band's album, and the four-piece recorded at Sorum's Drac Studios. Former Fuel vocalist

joined on bass guitar for live performances, and Jeremy Colson – who had previously worked with

Steve Vai Steven Siro Vai (; born June 6, 1960) is an American guitarist, composer, songwriter, and producer. A three-time Grammy Award winner and fifteen-time nominee, Vai started his music career in 1978 at the age of eighteen as a transcriptionist f ...

joined as the band's live drummer. On April 29, 2007, the band signed a record deal with

Koch Records MNRK Music Group (pronounced "monarch", formerly known as Koch Records and eOne Music) is a New York City-based independent record label and music management company. It was formed in 2009 from the music assets of Koch Entertainment, which had ...

for the release of their eponymous debut album, which was released in July. Billy Duffy's fiancé Jen Mallini was the model for both the front and back of the cd cover. During the summer, the track "Loaded" featured prominently on the Sirius hard rock

satellite A satellite or artificial satellite is an object intentionally placed into orbit in outer space. Except for passive satellites, most satellites have an electricity generation system for equipment on board, such as solar panels or radioi ...

station Octane, as well as terrestrial radio, and reached the top 20 slot according to '' Billboard''. The album itself received a high critical praise by

Allmusic AllMusic (previously known as All Music Guide and AMG) is an American online music database. It catalogs more than three million album entries and 30 million tracks, as well as information on musicians and bands. Initiated in 1991, the databa ...

's Jo-Ann Greene who exclaimed "The songs are simply superb, not a clinker in the bunch. If this platter doesn't top best album polls in another three decades, it's because the world as we know it is no more." The band performed on a rotating slot during

Ozzfest Ozzfest is an annual music festival tour of the United States and sometimes Europe and later Japan, featuring performances by many heavy metal and hard rock musical groups. It was founded by Sharon Osbourne and her husband Ozzy Osbourne, both ...

2007,but dropped out due to two of the guitarists wives being pregnant and giving birth. In December 2007, the following appeared on the band's official website:

Billy Duffy (who co-wrote and recorded the album with Billy Morrison and Ricky Warwick) played the first few shows before moving back with The Cult. Brett Scallions became a first time dad, joined the remaining members of The Doors and filled the shoes of Jim Morrison in Riders On The Storm. Both Billy and Brett were influential parts in the Diablo story, and will be missed. The current V2.0 line up of Circus Diablo features ex Korn guitarist Rob Patterson (who traveled the US with Diablo during the summer Ozzfest tour) and session bassist / solo artist Patrick Cornell. "Both Billy and Brett were influential parts in the Diablo story, and will be missed.

Since then, the band has remained inactive. However, in March 2009, Billy Morrison stated:

Circus Diablo is always together. We can get together and make music when we feel like it ..I love Billy uffyand Ricky arwickand Matt orum and the timing worked out: we wrote and recorded that shit really quickly. Then we toured with a different line-up, and what does that matter? We played the songs and had fun. Then I got busy, the tour support dried up, and that was the end of round one. Now I find myself wanting to record more music. So I began writing. And, of course, I am still very good friends with Billy and Matt. So the way I see it is this: write songs first, without worrying about what they're for, or where they're gonna' come out. If the managers put a "Diablo Album Number Two" deal together, maybe we'll do that. Who knows? All I care about is being creative and making some cool music, either solo or in a "band" environment.

Band members

;Current members *

– vocals, rhythm guitar (2006–present) *

– lead guitar (2007–present) *Patrick Cornell – bass (2007–present) *Charles Ruggiero – drums (2007–present) ;Former members *

– lead guitar (2006–2007) *

– bass (2006–2007) *

– rhythm guitar (2006–2007) *

– drums (2006) *Jeremy Colson – drums (2007)

Discography

* ''Circus Diablo'' (2007)

References

External links

*
Interview with Billy Morrison
{{Authority control Musical groups established in 2006 Circus Diable Musical groups from Los Angeles Rock music supergroups