Todd Kerns & Michael “The Doc” Ellis of Sin City Sinners

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by Deb Rao
Staff Writer

When you think of Vegas, you think of glitz and gambling. But one popular Vegas band the Sin City Sinners is helping to ignite the Vegas music scene with their energized re-vamped version of popular covers that they have branded with their own unique sound and the band also performs catchy original tunes. The debut release of “Exile On Fremont Street” has unveiled such popular original tunes as “Going To Vegas” and by popular demand prompted the release of an acoustic CD entitled Broken Record.

Fronted by Slash bassist Todd Kerns, Sin City Sinners is comprised of guitarist Brent Muscat, bassist Michael “The Doctor” Ellis and drummer Rob Cournoyer. The band performs every Friday at Sunset Station in Henderson and every Saturday at Sante Fe Station in Las Vegas. Just announced the Sin City Sinners will be taking over a 6-week residency at The Rio beginning on June 27. If you have ever seen the Sin City Sinners perform live you know that singer Todd Kerns is an amazing front man and guitarist. In 2010, Todd had the opportunity of a lifetime transpire when Slash asked him to join his band as a bass player. Todd will be heading to Europe in July to perform with Slash on his European Tour.

Hardrock Haven is proud to present an exclusive interview with Sin City Sinners featuring Todd Kern of Slash / Sin City Sinners and bassist Michael “The Doctor” Ellis of Sin City Sinners. Sit back and enjoy as Todd and Michael reveal how the Sin City Sinners have taken over the music scene of Viva’ Las Vegas.

HRH: I want to Thank you Todd and Michael for checking in with HRH. The band is notorious for bringing in special guest stars and tonight at The Rio was no exception.

Todd: We had Carolyn, a friend of ours, Paul Shortino, Jizzy Pearl, Lou Merlino who is part of the team anyways, and Jeff Tortoro. He is a drummer for Blue Man Group. When Jeff gets up and holds the microphone it is a whole another story!

HRH: The band has a new album out Exile on Fremont Street.

Todd: It is not really new. It has been out a year. We also have an acoustic EP out.

Michael: The acoustic EP is a lot of stuff from the Fremont album and two new tracks.

HRH: The band does a lot of great cover tunes like “Ah! Leah” by Donnie Iris. It is great how all the bands influences sort of mesh together.

Michael: Donnie Iris is all Todd’s doing.

Todd; It is a song I have been listening to as a kid. I saw him play it on Solid Gold. I love that song. Every band I have ever had I play that song.

HRH: You mentioned that the Sin City Sinners would be playing at the Rio on June 27 again.

Michael: Yes, we are doing a six-week run. We got guests line up. We want to do something different from our Friday and Saturday night show. We used to do guests all the time. Now we are going to do special guests at Rio starting June 27th for a six week run.

Todd: We started the guest thing at The Dive Bar on Tropicana. We would have guests like George Lynch and Vinnie Paul. Then we moved over to Green Valley Ranch. We did a year and a half over there including Kip Winger. Then we started doing our own thing with the record and everything. Now we are back doing this. It is going to be fun.

HRH: Did Vinnie Paul produce your album Exile On Fremont Street?

Todd: He sat in a little bit on it.

Michael: He came over one day, at the request of us. Todd was doing some sort of interview. I couldn’t be there. So I asked Vinnie to come over because the drums sound weird on our record. He is pretty hands on. He is a good player and happy to work on one of his favorite songs “Arianna.” That is one of his favorite songs. He came in and sort of just started pushing dials.

Todd: He was really sort of a consultant.

HRH: How did the Sin City Sinners get started?

Todd: We started out doing some fuckin’ little silly thing on Tuesday night at The Dive Bar. Now one of the bands when you talk about Vegas you talk about us!

Michael. I can sum it up real quick; we have a dynamic front man and great manager. He is the best front man since David Lee Roth. I have always felt that.

Todd: Yes, Todd is very charismatic and a great showman. Now does the myth that everyone who lives in Vegas is not from here hold true for the band?

Todd: I am from Canada.

Michael: I am (from) Redondo, Calif. I claim all of Southern California. Hollywood down is all mine. Brent is from LA and Rob is from New Orleans. Vegas is one of those towns where everyone is from somewhere. You will meet locals.

Michael: I have been here 15 years. I have only met 2 people born here.

Todd: I have been here 5 years.

HRH: I have been here 2 months. The Boston scene was really great back in the day. I am impressed with your band for re-energizing the local music scene here in Vegas.

Michael: Oddly enough, I thought there was an original scene here for a while, but I haven’t seen it much as of late.

Todd: Vegas is really not sort of structured for original bands. There is only like two clubs to play in this town. Vamp’d is there. Ron Keel does that thing on Monday night. The Dive Bar is here and Double Down. Playing live is a blessing to be able to do it for a living.

HRH: Now Todd, you will be going out on tour with Slash in July. Slash will be doing the European tour. Tell us about that. Are you excited?

Todd: Yes, it is always great to get out and to different parts of the world and see new things. It is getting so familiar to me now. I have been to England several times.

HRH: How is the European music scene? It is different playing in Europe versus the U.S.?

Todd: For me you get there you see when you are playing. It is always good to go out and see music everywhere and take in the whole thing. It is always good to come home too.

HRH: Are you going to be playing The States with Slash too?

Todd: We don’t have any plans for the year. He will be working on the new record.

HRH: Yes, I have heard that Slash will be working on the new record soon.

Todd: I am going out to LA on Monday. We are going to spend a few days putting songs together. Then we go out to Europe. Then we are going to try and start that together. Myles is on the road with his band. So when we get back. We probably won’t record the record till the Winter. Through the fall, we will chip away at it.

HRH: What have you learned as a musician from working with Slash?

Todd: He is a really kind and wonderful guy. He is also into playing guitar and music. All day long he sits there playing the guitar. It is kind of inspiring. It is in his hands all day long. It is his everything.

HRH: How did you get the gig-playing bass with Slash?

Todd: Fitz is the drummer and friend from way back. The guy that they had just wasn’t working out. I didn’t know what to expect. It was super overwhelming. Next I was sucked into this black hole. In a lot of ways, I think he speaks the same language as me. Slash is a musician. I know that most musicians like Michael and I, he sort of resonated a certain frequency. When you find people on the same frequency as you, you kind of like make good music together. There are plenty of musicians that I have played with and I am pretty outgoing. I play with anybody. But there are certain musicians, you have a connection with and that is when it is special. But that is when, you are not working. The people you don’t jive with is kind of work. But luckily in this situation, Michael and I vibe very well. It is funny me and Brent Muscat started it years ago and we had a different drummer briefly and a different bass player. Two different bass players until Michael came along. This is by far the best version. It really kind of became something special. And here we are.

HRH: Any East Coast tours planned for the world to see the band?

Todd: We always threaten to go out of town. But we end up being so busy in Vegas, we can’t go anywhere. It is a good problem to have.

Michael: We used to blame it on Todd. Whenever he gets back we will go on tour! Truth is there is enough work here in town to keep us here. It is hard to get out of town!

HRH: Anything else you want to say to the HRH readers?

Todd: If you are in Vegas look for us. Friday is Sunset Station, Saturday at Santa Fe and starting June 27 every Monday at The Rio.