Gary James' Interview With Chris Doliber Of
Madam X





Madam X won praise from fans and critics alike. Outrageous Rock is how Madam X described their image. In 1985, they had just released their debut album, "We Reserve The Right", on Jet Records. Madam X bassist Chris "Godzilla" Doliber, who incidentally went to school with Madonna, does the talking.

Q - OK Chris, the question everybody would like answered.: What kind of a girl was Madonna in school?

A - She was kind of a Plain Jane. I went to junior high and high school with her. Nobody even cared about Madonna. She always wore black, witchy kind of clothes. I remember she was into Jazz dancing. She was a dark brunette. Now she's kind of blondish. Her brother Chris is a bass player. I dated her younger sister Paula and that's all I really know.

Q - So now, after years of struggle, you've finally got an album out. Has the pressure increased since you've become a recording act or can you just sit back and say "We've got it made!"?

A - That's a real good question because it's a lot of both right now. You can say to yourself, Wow! We accomplished what so many other bands are trying to accomplish. We've got ourselves a record deal, which means there are people willing to put a million dollars behind you if need be. But then the pressure is, if these people are going to spend the money, we've got to write the songs. Life has never been easier for us right now, but at the same time it has never been harder as the pressure goes in delivering the material. Fortunately we have a big library of songs. It's kind of like a big dream right now.

Q - What exactly does Madam X do onstage that is so outrageous?

A - It's total entertainment. You get bands like Iron Maiden that go onstage and they're all enthused about what they're doing and they're thinking "Ooh, we're intense." But they're not thinking "Are the kids getting off on this? Are we reaching them or are they just watching their TV set?" You can watch your TV set and feel you're not part of the show. We involve the audience. We do things that get them off, like the sexual things. We're onstage with two women and two men and we're playing off each other's sexes. We do things that the kids pick up on, like the bass between the legs or I'm standing on the drum riser and Maxine looks at my jock strap. When the audience sees this stuff, they go nuts! And Bret's talking to them (the audience) like they're part of the show.

Q - But hasn't this all been done before? Why is it that in Metal, the same things seem to work all the time?

A - The way you have to approach it is, you better look the way kids want you to look or you're not going to have your audience. So you have to conform yourself to the way they want to see you. We had two and a half years of constantly playing on the road. Every night we were in clubs. We know the rights and wrongs, the dos and don'ts of getting the people off. It was just a trial and error thing. We just know what to do to make them have the best time they can possibly have. We get 'em so hot and bothered that women will start taking their tops off and throwing them at Bret and I, and their underpants. It just brings out the animal in everybody and they leave and go "Wow! I had a great time."

Q - There are some organizations out there who would like to put Madam X and every other Metal band out of business. What do you have to say about that?

A - What they're doing is ludicrous because anytime they call attention to anything like that, it's gonna sell more records and create a bigger demand.

Q - What's your immediate future look like?

A - We're going to do the Donington Festival and some other festivals in Europe. I guess we're going to Hamburg, Germany. We played on a brand new TV show in England called ECT and it's strictly for Heavy Metal and Hard Rock. We hit about seventeen million people and it went all over Europe. After that, Madam X was a household name in England and we sold tons of records.



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