Below is an exclusive interview CHIKARA’s Musical Director Kenny Pickett granted to WrestleZone. It features Kenny talking with WrestleZone Daily host Nick Hausman.
For more information about Kenny Pickett and to listen to his album Artpocalypse please visit www.KennyPickett.com
The following are excerpts from the interview:
On how writing Brian Danielson’s Final Countdown styled theme song for Ring of Honor came about:
KP: Right after high school a friend of mine, who went to high school with me, was a referee in Ring of Honor. You can actually see his shoulder in the movie The Wrestler but you can’t see any more of him. We knew each other from High School, I was in bands after I had grown out of just playing guitar by myself. He knew that I was a music guy and they (ROH) needed original songs. They couldn’t use this licensed music anymore because they were doing TV stuff. So, they needed a knock off version of Europe’s The Final Countdown for a young wrestler by the name of Brian Danielson. That was my first freelance music writing gig was writing his theme song which I called The Ultimate Countdown. I bet if you look hard enough on the internet you can find it somewhere.
On how he started working for CHIKARA Pro as their musical director:
KP: It was a few years ago. Maybe 2009-2010? I had seen some CHIKARA stuff just on-line and I thought it was great. I went to King of Trios one day, whatever year that was, let’s just say it was 2010. I loved it. Honestly, what I did is I went home, went on their website, went to their contact page and emailed them. I was like, “Hey, I’m this guy, I went to Berkley, I know how to play music, I’ve written a couple songs for Ring of Honor, I was wondering if you guys need original music. I will write it for you.” Then, Quackenbush emailed me back and was like, “The sounds great. Why don’t you write a song for Los Ice Creams? Just to see if you can get what we want to do.” I wrote a little ice cream truck jingle for them and they were like, “Yes, exactly. You’re the guy.”
On what pro wrestling theme songs he hates:
KP: Oh, there are so many! Cesaro’s theme song is the worst theme song of them all. I hate that they always add sirens to everything. It’s the worst. Wade Barrett has had like ten terrible theme songs so far.
The full interview can be found by clicking HERE or by listening to the show in the embedded player at the top of the post.
In the full interview Kenny speaks candidly about learning music by listening to pro wrestling theme songs, looking up to WWE’s Jim Johnston, writing Brian Danielson’s Final Countdown styled theme song for ROH, Jim Cornette not liking one of his songs, meeting Mike Quackenbush, writing theme songs for many CHIKARA Pro talent, how much input wrestlers have on their songs, what theme songs in wrestling he doesn’t like, more
A clip from Kenny’s interview was played earlier today on WrestleZone Daily. You can listen to the full episode, along with the clip, in the embedded player below:
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