 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
|||||
 |
|||||
There's also one other connection with Duran Duran and bodybuilding, but actually has nothing to do with Warren. The original band members are from the town of Birmingham, England, which also happens to be the home town of six time IFBB Mr. Olympia Dorian Yates. But enough about that, it's time to learn about Warren Cuccurullo. How we met was at the 1990 MTV Video Music Awards in the Universal Amphitheater in Hollywood. I was in Los Angeles to cover that year's NPC National Bodybuilding Championships. I had attended the 1988 MTV Video Music Awards, courtesy of IFBB Pro Division chairman Wayne DeMilia, who was holding the IFBB Mr. Olympia there just two days after the MTV Awards. Wayne still had contacts there and was able to secure tickets for me, my father and step-mother. (Yes, The Prez came with me to the awards!) We had pretty good seats and as I was celebrity hunting, I noticed Duran Duran was sitting about ten rows in front of us. During a commercial break I told The Prez I was going down to talk to them since I was a fan of the band and try to score some autographs. So, like the typical fan, I made my way down and from my recollection, said the usual fan thing of, "Hey guys, I just want to say I'm a big fan of yours, I really like the new album and I've seen you in concert a few times in Pittsburgh." (Very original, wouldn't you agree?) They were all very pleasant when Warren leaned over and asked what I was doing in L.A.? When I told him that I was a photographer covering the NPC Nationals, he started quizzing me about the upcoming IFBB Ms. Olympia that would be a few weeks later. Needless to say, I was shocked and puzzled about his knowledge of bodybuilding. When he asked me if Cory Everson was really retired, I figured he must follow the sport, because the average person is not going to know that Cory had hung up her posing trunks after winning six consecutive Ms. Olympia's. Still being a bit of a nervous fan, I was fumbling for my business card and was finally able to hand it over to him. He looked at it, looked at me, and I'll never forget what he said next. "Hey, are you related to Jim Manion, the president of the NPC?" What? Here I am being a fan of the band and this guy's asking me about my father! When I said he was my Dad, Warren said he'd really like to meet him sometime. I then explained that he was actually sitting about ten rows back. So I started to motion for The Prez to come down where I was and all I could see was him shaking his head no. I kept motioning until he finally made his way down. When I asked him later why he kept shaking his head no, he replied, "I figured you went down to see Duran Duran and made a fool of yourself and I was going to have to bail you out somehow." Thanks Dad! Of course, once The Prez came down and I introduced him to Warren, and he realized that Warren had wanted to actually meet him, it was a different ball game. Now the focus was on bodybuilding and The Prez was in his element. We got motioned by the ushers to get back to our seats as the commercial break was over, but Warren invited us to come back down to chat during the next commercial break, which we promptly did. As luck would have it, we exchanged numbers and we kept in touch for the next few years. All I really knew about Warren then was that he used to be the guitarist for the early 1980's band Missing Persons, that he replaced original Duran Duran guitarist Andy Taylor in 1986 when Taylor left the band to go solo, and that he was the only American in this otherwise British band. As fate would prevail upon me, I had entered Warren's info on my computer and never saved the paper with his number on it, and an electrical surge wiped out my hard drive wherein I lost all my database information. Not being as wise back then, I didn't have it all backed up on to disks. And, it wasn't like I could just call directory assistance and get his information, because Warren lived in London, England (and still does). This all happened around the time the band released their CD Duran Duran, which was dubbed "The Wedding Album" due to the images on the cover, and featured the hits Ordinary World, Come Undone and Too Much Information and brought them their first chart success in the 1990's. I still kept up with the band throughout the remainder of the last decade and would catch the occasional photo of the band, or Warren, and saw that he was still in great shape. Regrettably, Duran Duran wouldn't play in Pittsburgh for the remainder of the 1990's, and with my constant traveling, I was never anywhere they were while on tour. That was about to change with the June 2000 release of the band's new CD "Pop Trash," (one of their best, in my opinion), and their subsequently announced U.S. tour. The band would be playing Pittsburgh - but it was the same weekend as the 2000 NPC Team Universe Championships. I was disheartened until I realized the concert was on a Sunday night and I could make it home to see the concert. I was able to get tickets to the event, but more importantly, I was able to secure two backstage passes to meet the band before the concert. To make sure I wouldn't get stuck in the LaGuardia Airport due to some airline or weather delay, I drove to New York City for the event, and left Sunday morning for the drive back home. I had one main objective, which was to try and reconnect with Warren and see if he remembered me. I brought along a copy of the latest NPC News as a reference point. When my wife and I got in line and were ushered backstage, I could see Warren standing in between vocalist Simon Le Bon and keyboardist Nick Rhodes. They were all signing these promotional 8x10's that everybody seemed to have except us. When we approached them, Warren was looking down, as if he was waiting for another 8x10 to be placed in front of him to sign, but then I spoke and pulled out the NPC News instead. He looked up at us and instantly remembered. We were able to chat and quickly catch up for a few minutes before he was signaled to go on stage. Before heading to the stage, Warren invited us to come back stage after the concert and then to dinner with him, where we were really able to catch up on a lot of subjects from music to bodybuilding. It was at dinner that Warren asked us where he could train on Monday since the band had a day off before heading to Cleveland? I said I could take him to the NPC Photo Gym for a private workout. It was also at dinner that my wife proposed the idea of this interview as she thought it would make an interesting read and it might also introduce a new core audience to Duran Duran's music. Warren was game and everything was set for Monday. The Prez was at the NPC Photo Gym when we got there, and Warren was able to get in a good training session. Then it was time for this interview. We covered a variety of subjects, starting with some background on Warren. What most people probably wouldn't guess from looking at him, is that he's 44 years old. Or, I should say, 44 years young! He stands at 5'7--1/2" tall and weighs in at around 150 pounds. He initially got interested in bodybuilding about fifteen years ago when he moved to L.A. Musically, he's been at it for twenty-two years, starting at age twenty-two playing guitar for Frank Zappa. Then he formed Missing Persons. When they broke up, he was able to hook up with Duran Duran. Interestingly, in all this time, I had never queried Warren how he got the job replacing Andy Taylor, an omission I would soon correct. I also knew that Duran Duran was in the midst of a successful, sold out tour for the Pop Trash CD, which was generating excellent reviews. They wound up the U.S. tour at the end of August playing a week of sold out shows at The House Of Blues on Sunset Strip in Hollywood, and even had a twenty-four hour webcast at The House Of Blues web site. In addition to being an accomplished guitarist, Warren has been pulling extra duty playing bass guitar on the past two Duran Duran CD's since original bassist John Taylor left to go solo. Plus, he and Nick Rhodes have a successful side project going called TV Mania, which have co-produced the last two Duran Duran CD's, plus they write music, arrange and produce for a variety of other bands. Something Warren didn't divulge during the interview was that he's released three solo CD's of instrumentals during his tenure in Duran Duran. The first is called Thanks To Frank, the second is called Machine Language and the latest is called Road Rage. He even produced two new Missing Person's CD's in 1999, a live CD from 1981 performances called Late Nights Early Days, and another called Greatest Remixes. Even while involved in all this, Warren still makes it a point to train, find a facility, and diet, no matter where he or Duran Duran are in the world. No excuses. Oh yeah, I realized I still never got those autographs from ten years ago! JM: Starting with a little background history. You began your career with Frank Zappa and then . . . ? JM: How did you get hooked up with Duran Duran? JM: That was around the Notorious album? JM: That was the Liberty CD, which is one of my personal favorites. JM: I love that CD. JM: Whenever I met you guys, that CD had just been released. JM: I remember John Taylor, said, "How did you even hear about it?" And he started telling me your record label wasn't even pushing this CD. (Laughter) That really stuck in my mind. I'm like, "Well, I liked it." JM: So, how did you get from this crazy music business into a bodybuilding lifestyle? People probably just think sex, drugs, rock-n-roll. JM: I remember you had good abs though, right? You were wearing open vests and . . . JM: So it was by accident? JM: Do you have a certain schedule that you train? Like on certain days? JM: What do you do on your training days? JM: Your show dates and things? JM: I suppose you just try to find the best gym in the cities where you are or train in the hotel gym? JM: You're on tour approximately how many weeks a year? JM: You mean the whole world? JM: What did Simon and Nick think whenever you started getting into this bodybuilding lifestyle? JM: Being on stage each night for two hours. Is that a workout in itself? JM: Have you ever trained so hard the day of a show that you get up on stage and think oh, man, I can't believe I did that today? JM: Now, one point I want to bring up is that you didn't always train legs? JM: When we first met you were an upper body man. You were saying, 'Yeah, my legs. I won't really worry about it.' What was the turning point? What made you realize you have to start training these things? JM: You did say you also sustained a shoulder injury recently? JM: Have you had it checked? JM: Has that affected your guitar playing at all? JM: When you were talking to my father about when you have your pill boxes and you go through customs sometimes and you get stopped. Any interesting stories you want to share? Do you ever get hassled because you're in a rock band? JM: You're absolutely right. Anything else you might want to add? JM: Great! And also, buy Pop Trash . . . Ed. Note: For more information on Duran Duran, visit their web site at www.duranduran.com. There, you can access their tour schedule & find out the latest news on the band. * Band images courtesy of Andrew Day & the official Duran Duran web site. Image of Warren posing courtesy of Andrew Day. Opening image of Warren on the main Interview page courtesy of Lisa Meyer. Other images of Warren in concert are from various Duran Duran fan web sites. If possible,www.npcnewsonline.com would like to give proper photo credit to the photographers and/or their respective web sites. Please e-mail to JMProdctns@aol.com. And many Thank You's to fans of Warren & Duran Duran! *
by J.M. Manion
WARREN CUCCURULLO
WC: Then, Missing Persons started. We started the band in 1980. We got signed in 1982. We continued on and made three albums until 1986 and we broke up. I joined Duran Duran in 1986.
WC: Oh, we were on the same label. In America, we were both signed to Capital. Their ex-guitarist, Andy Taylor, was living in Los Angeles. Missing Persons was based in Los Angeles. When we broke up, he needed a drummer and a bass player, so he contacted my ex-drummer and bass player to see if they could do some stuff with them.
I thought , if he's in L.A., Duran Duran, the rest of the guys are in England. And their guitar player is in L.A. with the rest of my old band. I might as well call them and see what's going on. I kind of heard through the grapevine that he was thinking about leaving the group. So I just sent my videos and cd's and stuff. Within three weeks I got a call back saying Andy isn't coming back if you want to do this? (Laughter)
WC: Yeah, I came in at the end of the Notorious album, played on about five tracks and then we went on a tour. Then we did another album, Big Thing, and then we started writing songs together in 1989. And that's when we . . .
WC: Oh, really?
WC: There's some good stuff on there. Yeah.
WC: That's right. That was a long time ago.
WC: It is a weird business. Making music is fantastic. But the business side of it, as with most creative things, there is no room for business. It is about art. It's not about marketing. You know?
WC: It is a career that can be enhanced or destroyed by success. You can either totally get into your work or you could get totally into partying. You know, there have been a lot of casualties in rock-n-roll. Everyone is in a personal journey in their life. Creatively, artistically, philosophically, spiritually, and health wise as well. And you try to accumulate as much knowledge as you can.
When I moved out to Los Angeles in 1978, I got the job with Frank Zappa, that was the health capital of the world. There's this focal point of health and nutrition in California. And so there I was living in California from Brooklyn, New York, and it was this whole new world for me and I was meeting vegetarians. I thought, let me try this vegetarian thing. I got really into that. Exercise hadn't even entered my mind. After a few years of experimenting from vegetarian to strict Vegan, which is no animal products, I got very into that and macrobiotics and all these kind of weird diet things. I realized that a lot of guys that I was seeing around town that had really good physiques weren't just born with these physiques. The health industry, the fitness industry, was really starting to pick up. This was around the mid 80's. There was a lot more awareness.
I remember one of the guys that worked in a restaurant near where I lived. He was at one time a waiter, then he became a soap star, then I see him on the cover of Muscle & Fitness. I'm thinking wow! Then Joe Piscopo got into the whole thing. There was this direction towards you getting into the gym. And it sounded like a nightmare to me. You know, the word 'exercise' just conjured up me trying to drag myself out of bed. I would never go to a gym. How could I do it? So I tried to do it in my house and it doesn't work. I thought, you know the food and the diet thing is one way to start yourself onto a healthy lifestyle, but if you don't move, if you don't start exercising you're gonna deteriorate. You can't just think you are eating right and not do anything. Just watch t.v. and sit on the couch.
Fortunately, I was still living in Los Angeles at the time. So I went out to World Gym and got a membership. Some of the guys down there would see me training and they would point me in the right direction saying I should do this on this day and this on that day and showed me how to split your body parts up. Then I just continued doing it and I saw really, really quick results. I went from 118 pounds to 135 pounds in a few months. But, I still didn't know anything about food.
WC: Yeah. But you see the thing is, that was all kind of hit and miss.
WC: I don't know. Maybe I was eating the right kind of food. Or the weather was warm and I was walking around a lot so I was burning more calories. It's not good to be able to look at a photograph and go, "Oh yeah, I did have abs there." That's not the way to get through this training thing. You want to know why you are at a certain body weight and body fat percentage and that's knowing exactly what you eat all of the time.
You know, I didn't know this until two years ago. In the last two years I made more progress than in the first nine years training. Now I know how to eat, how to train, how to sleep. I know what supplements to take. I never used to drink water. I am drinking six liters of water every day now. That's the key. So there was this hit and miss for nine or ten years. But, at least I had the mentality to always get into the gym. I was an exercise person. I knew that I needed to do it. Then I found out that I really needed to do this correctly if I want to look the way I want to look all of the time.
There's been some great products like these fat burners you can get over the counter like Xenadrine and Hydroxycut. These ephedrine/aspirin/caffeine based things that will really enhance your fat loss. This was kind of a change for me because it instantly got a 40+ male to have a metabolism of a 22 year old. That definitely helped. But the attitude towards training, finding out that less is more, spending less days, less time in the gym, finding out to do one body part per session. It takes eight days for me to train my whole body.
WC: Since I hooked up with Phil Goglia from Fitness Concepts in '96, I have really been pretty much getting it together. Then in '98 it just all clicked. Phil convinced me to get onto real food like fish, beef, turkey, chicken, all cleanly and prepared. I love the life of a musician but I live the life of a bodybuilder. You know, on the road, I never miss a meal. I eat five, six, seven times a day, depending on when I wake up and when I got to sleep. I never miss a training day. I always get my four days out of my seven.
WC: I'll do chest on Monday, back on Tuesday, Wednesday off, Thursday legs, Friday shoulders, weekend off. Then Monday would be arms, and then I repeat. But obviously if I'm traveling, I might train on a Saturday and a Sunday and take a Monday off depending on . . .
WC: Exactly. It's easy to get four days a week of training in and I don't spend more than 55-60 minutes in the gym.
WC: It's the year 2000, man. Most of the hotel gym's are not adequate. I mean you might be able to train your arms, but you aren't going to be able to train legs, back, or even chest if they don't have dumbbells and benches. Within five minutes of any major hotel in any city in America, or even Europe, you can get straight to a gym and it will be fully equipped. It will have everything in it.
WC: We do it sparingly, we've got it down now, we know how to go out there, make a good profit and not burn ourselves out. And entertain people! We do it for about maybe sixteen to twenty weeks a year. It's not much.
WC: Yeah, about sixteen to twenty weeks a year. For example, we can do America in six or seven weeks. You can do Europe in three weeks; England in two weeks. South America you could do in three weeks; Asia you could do in three weeks. Add it all up. Take a little break here and there. Plus, we spend most of our time writing music. Most of the time is spent in the studio in my house.
WC: They thought that was pretty extreme because when I started the bodybuilding thing, my diet was so extreme. I was a Vegan. I was like eating rabbit food. You know? (Laughter) Seeking out these bizarre little shops that sold that kind of food. And if I went to a restaurant, a great five star restaurant, I'd ask them if they had lentils or could I have a plate of vegetables or something? I was always so strict with my diet, meanwhile, I was not fueling my body correctly for my workouts. It just gave this overall picture of, wow, he's really out there. (Laughter)
Plus my supplements have kind of evolved into these two giant vitamin organizers. I take about twenty-five to thirty different substances a day. Probably totaling about sixty, seventy or eighty actual pills per day. Plus protein powders and meal replacement packs. I have a lot of things I travel with. I guess to anyone seeing that, they wouldn't understand about eating meals made up of the right amount of proteins and carbs and making sure you are getting good fats and drinking a lot of water. Taking certain supplements in between meals so as not to interfere with proteins so you get full utilization of them. If they don't understand the science of nutrition and bodybuilding, it's gonna look strange to anyone. But, I'm doing it for a reason. I am doing it because I don't want to do it half assed. It's my hobby, but it is also something I am getting amazing benefits from, as far as maintaining my youth, which is something everyone wants to do and I am not doing it surgically. I'm doing it by enjoying what I do in the gym, really enjoying my foods. You know, being a Vegan for fifteen years, it was like living a monastic life. It was like self-exile. Now I am free. I can have a piece of chicken. I can have eggs for breakfast. This is like a pleasure for me. So, I really enjoy my foods and to me it's normal. To some of my friends I know in London and Los Angeles, it's normal too. And they just say, I wish I had your discipline, you're so organized, you're so disciplined. I say it's easy. I really try to help and motivate people. I try to help motivate the other guys in the band. I talk to the other guys in the group about frequency of meals and how you should eat. It doesn't matter if people perceive me as being a little strange. I think overall, even when I am on stage, when people see me, I am setting an example. They see a guy that is living a supposed crazy lifestyle, and he's in really good shape. I'm a product of good nutrition, cutting edge supplementation and hard training, and I'm an old guy. (Laughter) I'm getting younger every day though.
WC: It's a lot of sweating. (Laughter) A lot of forearm work, bending those strings and stuff.
WC: You can hit your legs really hard, you can get very, very sore from training and I love that, but, the one I'd feel most on stage is legs. But, the thing that happens is once the adrenalin kicks in, that's the trigger. (Laughter) The lights go down, you hear the applause and you're up there, and then everything else is forgotten.
WC: No. (laughter)
WC: Well, a few things. The turning point really is just knowing you're an imbecile. (Laughter). Finding out that you're evolving through this thing. And you know you need to train your whole body. When you train your legs, it is affecting your whole body. It's the biggest muscle group in your body and you need to work them. Why do you want to have this huge upper body and these tiny little legs? It's just stupidity really. It's ignorance. You need to train every muscle. I mean, I go in, when I'm in London, I go in the afternoon and do detail work like lower back or abs. I have really killer abs. But, I don't have to train them much because they get a lot of work anyway. And plus those fat burners help keep your mid-section pretty lean. I like doing calves and lower back and stuff like that. I get in and do it. Legs is a grueling day but I've learned to love it. It's probably the one that releases the most endorphin's. I've found that afterwards, I'm just totally euphoric but, during it you're sitting down, you're resting, you're sweating, your heart rate is really going. I don't really do any cardio work. But in a good leg workout, your heart gets up to 160 or something. It's really pumping. One set of twenty squats with a decent amount of weight, and I usually go down to about six or sometimes four reps on squats. Sometimes I'll do ten or twelve sets, then I'll go on to leg presses, leg curls, leg extensions, and then stiff leg to finish off and it's just like - wow. It's nice to have a whole week off before you do it again. It definitely works in your favor on leg day.
WC: Unfortunately. I have had shoulder injuries in the past, but usually it's from training. This one was just from spotting. I was spotting for my training partner on the Smith Machine. We were doing a few heavy sets of shoulder front presses. We always rack it at the top of the movement. For some reason, he couldn't get it all the way up and he let it down a few notches, and I had one arm inside the machine, just holding it, and I just took the weight down. I just went, oh man, it hurts. I stretched it out a little bit, and continued training. Probably trained heavy for the next three weeks on it. That's what did it I think. I should have just started training around it as soon as I felt something happen there, but I am all right.
WC: I had it checked. It's nothing really. There was no bruising. It is just a strain or something. I have it worked on a lot. I get two or three massages a week on tour. Two or three at home.
WC: I care more about the training then if it's gonna affect my guitar playing. (Laughter) The only thing that's gonna affect my guitar playing is my wrists or fingers. But I am very careful with all that.
I want to be able to do heavy flies again. I can't do that. I can use dumbbells to do bench presses. I can't do any incline work. I can use the peck deck. I can use all the Hammer Strength chest stuff, so that's good. And shoulders, I can't do front presses, but I can do behind the neck, which you do with less weight anyway. I don't have any problem with laterals. I can do front raises which surprised a lot of people with this type of injury. Everybody was surprised I could even do a front raise without a problem. So it's not that serious. It's just a drag because I want to train, I want to do all the exercises that I know. That I've been getting gains from. And I want to do them heavy. I just have to take it easy now. I don't know how much longer, but hopefully, not too much longer. I look at myself as an athlete. If I was a ball player, I would have had a shot and it would be fine and I'd be back on the field already. In the past when I had injuries, I just trained around them. I just know how to do it. I don't have to take days off or leave out certain body parts.
WC: I think they know the name of the group and I think people look at us very favorably. We have a pretty positive image which is good.
Okay. There's kind of the martini, jet set thing from the 80's. People look at us pretty favorably though.
But myself, if I am coming through with a sleeveless shirt, the ignorance of some people. I remember coming back from Hawaii. I was coming through the Los Angeles airport, getting on the plane, and they had dogs there. The dogs came up to me and you know I don't have anything. But one of the, whatever those guys are called - immigration guys, D.E.A. - their dog's come up to me. One of the guys said, "Steroids. He's probably got steroids." I couldn't believe it! I thought, what an idiot. I would weigh an extra 100 pounds on my 5'7-1/2" frame. (Laughter) He wanted to see what I had.
On another trip when I arrived in Hawaii last June, I get on the curb in Honolulu to get a taxi. There's a guy there all ready to take my bags. Two guys walk over to me and say, "Excuse me, would you mind if we go through your bag?" They pull out a badge that say D.E.A. I said, no, not a problem. "You know there is a lot of smuggling going on," he continued. I said no problem. His friend comes over and he says this is Officer, Agent, whatever. I said, you know, you might as well start here in my carry-on bag with my two vitamin organizers. And he went, "Wow, is that health stuff?" I said yeah, health stuff. (Laughter). Closed it up and opened up my suitcases. He went through all these bottles of TwinLab this, who knows what. All this stuff. They were totally cool. The guy said, "You should give that to my friend. He has a big belly and everything".
In France, coming back on the Eurostar, I was ready to board the Paris/London Eurostar , and I went thorough the x-ray machine and they saw my vitamin organizers and they opened them up and they were asking me what's this, what's this? I was telling them the name and brand as well. They said, uh, Ecstasy? I'm like, no. Steroids? No. NO! The one guy said steroids like it was a good thing. Like it was okay. I said no, I don't take steroids. (Laughter) PCP? No. It's not drugs. Okay, we need to test. Well, my train's leaving in ten minutes. They said, "We'll put you on the next one." So I am sitting in this room with four guys speaking French very fast with fire arms. They all had guns. This tiny plastic envelope with some sort of powder in the bottom. This is their tester kit. I am thinking, 'This thing cost $1.99.' They are crushing up my pills and emptying out my capsules. They took four different things. I am thinking "Midnight Express". I forgot about my train and I was just thinking, 'Let me get out of this room and I'll be very, very happy.' But anyway, they crushed everything up. The first one was fine. They crush the next thing up in the envelope and start talking really, really fast in French. And they are looking at the color and I am thinking what is this? Is this the wrong color? You know, this is what it is man. (Laughter)
As it turned out, everything was fine, and they put me on the next train. They got me a first class ticket, but they put me in the smoking section - those bastards (Laughter). But, yeah, it's just one of the things you have to deal with.
I am not gonna take every jar of everything that I have. I would need another suitcase. That's why I like those little organizers. It's all there. It's the way I do it. I've got jars of protein powder and things that I need. Fortunately, you can restock when you know you are going to be in a major city and say, I'll be in Chicago next week. Oh, I don't need to buy anything here.
Life is easy for us now. Anybody who wants to train, no matter what economic situation they're in or what job they have, there's gym's open all the time. There's protein bars and meal replacements and there's a lot of good publications. People can learn about what they need to do. There's plenty of people setting good examples. There's a lot of good bodybuilding videos that people can watch and learn.
WC: I think everybody should take up bodybuilding. Especially when you get to a certain age. Once you are over 30, 35 years old, I think everyone should get down to the gym and start moving again. There's no reason to think that when you get older you're going to turn into your uncle's, your older brothers, or your parents. We shouldn't allow ourselves to age like past generations. I think we should get in and get active and train and play sports and feel like we did when we were 18 or 20!
WC: Yeah, and buy Pop Trash . . . (Laughter)
You can purchase Warren's solo CD's, and the recent Missing Person's and Duran Duran CD's at Amazon.com or many other web sites, or at your local music store.
