Accept’s singer recalls when he sang with Steve Harris and Murray

The singer Mark Tornillo was born in Brielle, New Jersey, United States back in 1954 and was 55 when he joined the famous German band Accept in 2009. With him the band recorded five new praised records and had a good resurgence, performing in festivals and touring all over the world with a bigger a new audience.

But Tornillo’s musical career started many decades ago and he fronted the American band T.T. Quick since 1979. He recalled in an interview with “Talk Louder” (Transcribed by Blabbermouth), that back in 1983 when he was performing with T.T. Quick he had the chance to play with the Iron Maiden members Steve Harris (Bass) and Dave Murray (Guitar).

Accept’s singer recalls when he sang with Steve Harris and Murray

“T. T. Quick, we had a steady Thursday night at L’Amour. We played every Thursday night. We were the headliner — doing six, seven hundred people on a Thursday night. Not too shabby; it was respectable. (Drummer) Glenn Evans was in the band at that point. The EP hadn’t come out yet. It had to be ’83, I’m gonna say. And one of the (L’Amour) owners, Mike, comes into the back, into the dressing room, and he goes, ‘Hey, the guys from Iron Maiden are here. They wanna know if it’s okay if they hang out in the dressing room.’ And we were, like, ‘What?’ Like we were gonna say ‘no.'”

“I was, like, ‘Yeah, of course. Tell ’em to come on back.’ And, of course, we had a party going on back there. It was 1983. What do you expect? So they all come back, hung out. And we asked them, ‘Do you guys wanna play?’ (And they said), ‘Nah, we don’t wanna play.’ The opening act was on; I don’t remember who it was. So, changeover, they’re still hanging in the dressing room. We’re getting ready to go. And we go on. And we must have played about five or six songs, and my guitar tech goes, ‘Hey, come here. Come here.’ I’m, like, ‘What?’ ‘They wanna come up and play.’ ‘Tell ’em to come on and have a play.”

Tornillo contiued:

“I’m fine with that. Great. Tell ’em after the next song.’ ‘Okay.’ We did the next song. And they’re starting to walk up. We’re starting to walk off. I’m gonna introduce the band. And the crowd knew they were there. And the swell in the crowd just went from ‘Aaahhh’ to ‘Ooooaaahhh.’ You couldn’t miss Dave Murray walking out on stage, and Steve Harris. So I’m getting ready to introduce the band… Actually, I’m trying to remember how it went.”

“And I have a cassette recording of this; my soundman, brilliant that he was, had the foresight to push the ‘record’ button on a cassette. I think I walked off before I introduced them ’cause I figured they didn’t need any introduction. And as I’m walking off, Steve Harris just grabbed me by the shoulder, and he goes, ‘Where are you going?’ I said, ‘I’m gonna [get off and watch you play].’ And he goes, ‘Bruce isn’t here, mate. You’re singing.’ I’m, like, ‘Okay.’ He goes, ‘What are we doing?’ I go, ‘How about ‘Wrathchild’?'”

“I lost my shit, man. I didn’t sleep for three days. The adrenaline flow was just (off the chart). The crowd just lost their frickin’ minds. And then we had to finish the show. It was, like, ‘Oh my God. How do we top that now?'” Mark Tornillo said.