Ross the Boss

Template:Short description Template:BLP sources Template:Use mdy dates Template:Infobox musical artist Ross Friedman (born January 3, 1954), also known as Ross the Boss, is a guitarist, known as a founding member of both the punk band the Dictators, and the heavy metal band Manowar.<ref name="Huey">Template:Cite web</ref>

History

Friedman was born in the Bronx, New York,<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> and formed the punk rock band the Dictators with Andy Shernoff in New Paltz, New York, in 1973. Prior to this, Friedman had played in a local band, Total Crudd. After recording three albums with the Dictators, Friedman went to France and worked for one year in Fabienne Shine's band Shakin' Street. On Black Sabbath's Heaven and Hell tour in 1980 (on which Shakin' Street were the support act), Friedman was introduced to bass player Joey DeMaio by Ronnie James Dio. Later in 1980, Friedman and DeMaio formed Manowar, with whom he recorded six albums before DeMaio asked him to leave the band after the 1988 album Kings of Metal.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>

Timeline

In 1990, Friedman joined Manitoba's Wild Kingdom with fellow Dictators Andy Shernoff and Handsome Dick Manitoba. With drummer J.P. Patterson the band released the album, "...And You?" to critical acclaim. The album was in heavy rotation on MTV.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>

In 1994, Friedman had a blues rock band called "Heyday" and in 1999 CMC records released the Spinatras album, "@Midnight.com", a band whom Friedman has described as "The Dictators meet Cheap Trick".<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>

The Dictators started playing again in 1996, touring heavily. In 2001, with original rhythm guitar player Scott Kempner now back in the fold, the band released their album "D.F.F.D." which they then toured to support in the US and Europe. A resulting live album was released from the European tour, entitled "Viva Dictators".

In 2004, Friedman joined Albert Bouchard, the original drummer for Blue Öyster Cult, in his band Brain Surgeons. He also recorded an instrumental album with Dictators drummer JP Thunderbolt Patterson, called "Thunderboss"

In July 2005, Friedman joined Manowar onstage at the Earthshaker Festival; performing "Metal Daze" and "Dark Avenger" with them. At the end of the concert, he also performed "Battle Hymn", with other past and present members of Manowar.

In April 2006, he played one night of early Manowar music at the Keep It True VI Festival in Germany, backed by German Manowar cover band Men of War, featuring members of German groups Ivory Night and Divinus. That band (later changed name to Ross the Boss or "The RTB Band") went on to play some more festivals in Germany, Italy and Greece and then began working on new original material.

In August 2006, Thunderboss was released on Poptown Records. Thunderboss was written and arranged by J.P. Thunderbolt Patterson and featured Friedman on all 11 tracks. The CD met with some critical acclaim, but was not successful enough to keep Friedman interested in the project, so there was no supporting tour.

In October 2006, Friedman and The Dictators played Friday and Saturday nights of the closing weekend at punk rock venue CBGBs, one of the clubs where they got their start.

2007 started off with an eleven city tour of Spain with JP Patterson and their Spanish super-band "The Thunderbolts" which also includes members of Bummer and Sex Museum.

Friedman guested on former band-mate Fabienne Shine's 2007 LP, Wotan's LP "Epos" where he played Grand Piano on one track, and Atlantean Kodex's 2007 EP.

Friedman's 2008 included an appearance with Manitoba's Wild Kingdom at the 2008 Joey Ramone Birthday Bash, performances with Shakin' Street at the Sweden Rock Festival, and a few tour dates in Spain with The Dictators. He released a new album in August with his German metal band under the name "Ross the Boss" called "New Metal Leader" which debuted at #99 in the German Album charts. The following month he appeared on Inner Demons, the 2nd CD by New Jersey metallers Skullshifter, playing lead guitar on the track "Etched in Sand".

In August 2009, Friedman debuted his "Ross the Boss" band in the US at the Brooklyn, New York venue Europa, to favorable reviews.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>

On November 2010, Friedman and his German metal band released the followup to "New Metal Leader", "Hailstorm", which received 4.5 out of 5 stars on AllMusic.com.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>

In May 2011, Friedman was a special guest at the 11th Annual Joey Ramone Birthday Bash in New York city, performing, among other songs, "Stop Thinking About It" with fellow Dictator Andy Shernoff.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> In June, Friedman was invited to co-headline Venezuela's Gillmanfest.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> In the coming months with the Ross the Boss band he performed at several festivals in Europe, including Masters of Rock in the Czech Republic.

In early 2012, vocalist Sean Peck Cage, guitarists Friedman and Stu Marshall, bassist Mike Davis and drummer Rhino formed a metal supergroup, Death Dealer. Death Dealer began as an online collaboration between Marshall and Peck. All they needed to tell Friedman about the project to get him on board was that Rhino was on drums. Although Friedman and Rhino are both former members of Manowar, they'd only ever played together for one song at the Earthshaker Festival in 2005. They both had always meant to do something together. In June 2013, Death Dealer released a full-length studio album called War Master. The 2015 follow up release "Hallowed Ground" featured drummer Steve Bolognese from Into Eternity.

He was a surprise guest star at the 2016 Keep It True Festival with a new all-Manowar-songs "Ross The Boss Band" that hails from his hometown of New York City. The band includes bass player Kevin Bolembach, his nephew Lance Barnewold on drums, and singer Mike Cotoia of Fate Breaks Dawn who has a six octave range.

On January 18, 2017 Ross was inducted into the Hall of Heavy Metal History for his contributions to Speed Metal while in Manowar<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>

Solo band members

Current Members

Ross "The Boss" Friedman – guitar Template:Small
Marc Lopes – lead vocals Template:Small
Kenny "Rhino" Edwards – drums Template:Small
Dirk Schlächter – bass Template:Small

Former members

Patrick Fuchs – lead vocals, guitar Template:Small
Carsten Kettering – bass Template:Small
Matze Mayer – drums Template:Small
Mike Cotoia – vocals Template:Small
Kevin Bolembach – bass Template:Small
Lance Barnewold – drums Template:Small
Mike LePond – bass Template:Small
Steve Bolognese – drums Template:Small

Timeline

<timeline> ImageSize = width:800 height:auto barincrement:18 PlotArea = left:100 bottom:80 top:10 right:5 Alignbars = justify DateFormat = mm/dd/yyyy Period = from:01/01/2006 till:{{#time:m/d/Y}} TimeAxis = orientation:horizontal format:yyyy ScaleMajor = increment:2 start:2006 ScaleMinor = increment:1 start:2006 Legend = orientation:horizontal position:bottom

Colors =

 id:Vocals     value:red           legend:Lead_Vocals
 id:Guitar     value:green         legend:Guitar
 id:Bass       value:blue          legend:Bass
 id:Drums      value:orange        legend:Drums
 id:Lines      value:black         legend:Studio_Album

LineData =

 at:08/22/2008 color:black layer:back
 at:10/29/2010 color:black layer:back
 at:04/20/2018 color:black layer:back
 at:03/06/2020 color:black layer:back

BarData =

 bar:Patrick text:"Patrick Fuchs"
 bar:Mike    text:"Mike Cotoia"
 bar:Marc    text:"Marc Lopes"

 bar:Ross    text:"Ross the Boss"

 bar:Carsten text:"Carsten Kettering"
 bar:Kevin   text:"Kevin Bolembach"
 bar:Mike2   text:"Mike LePond"
 bar:Dirk    text:"Dirk Schlächter"

 bar:Matze   text:"Matze Mayer"
 bar:Lance   text:"Lance Barnewold"
 bar:Rhino   text:"Rhino Edwards"
 bar:Steve   text:"Steve Bolognese"

PlotData=

 width:11 textcolor:black align:left anchor:from shift:(10,-4)
 bar:Patrick from:start      till:12/11/2011 color:vocals
 bar:Patrick from:start      till:12/11/2011 color:guitar width:3
 bar:Mike    from:09/01/2015 till:09/01/2016 color:vocals
 bar:Marc    from:09/01/2016 till:end        color:vocals

 bar:Ross    from:start      till:12/11/2011 color:guitar
 bar:Ross    from:09/01/2015 till:end        color:guitar

 bar:Carsten from:start      till:12/11/2011 color:bass
 bar:Kevin   from:09/01/2015 till:09/01/2016 color:bass
 bar:Mike2   from:09/01/2016 till:04/01/2022 color:bass
 bar:Dirk    from:04/01/2022 till:end        color:bass

 bar:Matze   from:start      till:12/11/2011 color:drums
 bar:Lance   from:09/01/2015 till:09/01/2016 color:drums
 bar:Rhino   from:09/01/2016 till:09/01/2017 color:drums
 bar:Lance   from:09/01/2017 till:11/01/2018 color:drums
 bar:Steve   from:11/01/2018 till:03/01/2024 color:drums
 bar:Rhino   from:03/01/2024 till:end        color:drums

</timeline>