Singled Out: Terry Ilous' Whole Lotta Love

Terry Ilous (XYZ, Great White) just released his new covers album "Gypsy Dreams" and to celebrate we asked him to tell us about his unique twist on the Led Zeppelin classic "Whole Lotta Love". Here is the story:

Hello, This is Terry IIous, and my new album is 'Gypsy Dreams, which is a retelling of classic rock favorites with some amazing Latin / Flamenco musicians joining me.

The very first song off the album I decided to release was Led Zeppelin's "Whole Lotta Love". "Whole Lotta Love" is hands down, one of my favorite rock n' roll songs of all time. This is the song that made me want to do this album in the first place. The song itself is sung in such a rhythmic and soulful way, that I had always envisioned it with some great Flamenco guitar backing it.

"Whole Lotta Love" was actually the very first rock n' roll song I ever learned to sing. This song always fascinated me because it was sexual, but not overtly so. It was the blues, yet it was not. The way the entire structure of the song was put together, and the way Plant sang it was a masterpiece. The moment Plant hit those high notes and the way Page and John Paul Jones played off each other, just completely blew me away.

When I was young I would always play "Whole Lotta Love" live, trying to emulate Page. But being young, I had no money and I couldn't afford a decent PA system, so I would actually sing through an old guitar amp with a really cheap microphone. The end result was that when I tried to play live, no one could hear me, and being that "Whole Lotta Love" was such a heavy song, that forced me push my vocals further and helped me develop a strong voice. Looking back, I do realize now that i was lucky I didn't blow my voice trying to hit those high notes with no PA. But in the end it was all worth it.

Since this song is so familiar and loved by us all, that when it came time to record, we did not rehearse any of it. The entire band got together in one room and actually performed it all together live in just one take. None of us recorded separately, nothing was added later. We hummed out a few ideas and would glance at each other for the lead, then we just sat and played.

The whole process was very gratifying. After all these years it was like revisiting an old friend, but this time I was able to do it the way I had envisioned the song for so long.

Album Features:
Terry Ilous - Vocals
Luis Villegas- Guitar
Jose Garcia- Guitar
Mike Paganini - Bass
Mike Bennett - Bass
Ben Woods - Guitar
Jesse Stern - Drums / Percussion
Chris Trujillo - Drums / Percussion
Al Velasquez - Drums / Percussion
Natalie Gelman - Background Vocals

Hearing is believing. Now that you know the story behind the song, listen for yourself and learn more about the album right here!

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