D.D. Verni of Overkill

by Steve Patrick
— Sr. Columnist —

Things don’t always go according to plan in the course of music journalism. Oftentimes something negative happens (e.g., bad weather, traffic jams, visa issues, general Rockstar tardiness) and this can lead to the cancellation of an interview or, heaven forbid, the show itself. Thankfully in our case here, a bit of bad news turned into a unique opportunity.

When Hardrock Haven arrived at The King of Clubs in Columbus, OH we were informed that vocalist Bobby “Blitz” Ellsworth of the legendary New Jersey Thrash outfit Overkill was not feeling well. As a result, he didn’t want to do the interview in the hopes of saving his voice for the show. Naturally, this was disheartening since we were prepared for a chat with Blitz. It was at this point that we were hit with the good news: bassist D.D. Verni was going to fill in and do the interview!

For those unfamiliar, Overkill have been delivering uncompromising thrash for over four decades. There are two original members in the band currently: the mouth of the band who does 99.9% of the Overkill press (Ellsworth) and the thunderous bedrock of the band’s music who we’ve never had the opportunity to interview before (Verni).

And so a great deal of lemonade was made out of our short-lived lemons as we had a great time talking with Verni. Some of the ground covered included the status of Overkill’s next record, his solo venture into big band music with D.D. Verni & The Cadillac Band, Phil Demmel stepping in for Dave Linsk on this current tour with Prong, and how Verni enjoyed some of the introverted benefits of social distancing during the pandemic. Check all this out and more in the video below:

For more information on Overkill, please visit www.wreckingcrew.com

Videographer: Justin DelPrince