Blizzard
by Jay Allen Sanford 1.30.7

"I don't think he can stand Beatles fans," says Blizzard singer/guitarist Chris Leyva of the man whose name was on the first Beatles recording and who in turn named the Blizzards, Tony Sheridan. "We met him at a BeatleFair in 2001...we got the gig by sending them three songs from the movie 'Backbeat' that we claimed was us! We were surprised that such bigtime Beatles fans didn't recognize the soundtrack, but then we had to learn some Beatles covers for the gig." Leyva says it was a thrill meeting Sheridan - for whom the Beatles sang backup on "My Bonnie" in 1961 - but notes "He had just gotten off the plane or something and he wasn't too happy. The first thing he asked us was if we knew where he could get some coke." According to Leyva, after Sheridan watched his group (temporarily named the Backbeat Band) perform cuts like 'Long Tall Sally,' "he came over and said 'that sounded like a blizzard,' and our new name was born."

The band has appeared on the locally shot TV show Veronica Mars. "We're playing a Clash song in a garage in one scene. For the shoot, they replaced our drummer with one of the castmembers. He was a little pissed at first, but we got paid $1,500 and got treated like royalty for a day, so he got over it." Leyva has also appeared on MTV dating show, 'MTV Score.' "It was songwriters who compete to write a song and play it in a single day and win a date. I didn't get the girl, but that's okay. She was really funky and the prize was a trip to Mexico, which is where I'm from already."

Blizzard's sixth album "Road To Excess" is scheduled for release in February.
http://www.myspace.com/blizzardtheband  
http://www.blizzardrock.com