SURGICAL STEEL

Hover mouse over each face to see their name and rank

Introduction • Help from a Metal God • The Show • Recordings • Where Are They Now?

Leather-clad, stacks of amps, strong stage presence and all the antics of a top-notch heavy metal juggernaut, Surgical Steel pounded the early '80s Southwest heavy metal scene with their Judas Priest-like twin-guitar-and-screaming-vocals assault.

"Paul couldn't play guitar without a smoke dangling from his lips. Tall, skinny and one bad ass singer, Jeff could hit high's only dog's could hear!"
- David Barcai, former Surgical Steel roadie, 2003

Indeed. key to Surgical Steel's success was the Rob Halford-like screaming vocals of Jeff Martin. Little did the band members know, they would very soon connect with the Metal God himself!

Hailing from the Metro Phoenix area town of Scottsdale, Arizona, Surgical Steel was formed in 1980 by Greg Chaisson, Jim Keeler and original vocalist Harley Van Kirk:

Greg Chaisson

"In 1980, I started Phoenix's first real metal band, Surgical Steel. We wore all the leather and studs and all the other heavy metal paraphernalia. We got to open for a lot of signed bands. Wearing leather clothes in Phoenix in the summer - no easy feat!"
- Greg Chaisson, Metal Sludge, August 22, 2000

Harley Van Kirk
"The Harlinator"

"Me and Jim Keeler formed the band and performed close to two years before I left. I really worked my ass off for Surgical Steel singing 60 songs a night, 7 nights a week, to get that band on the map! That much playing just takes a toll on a singer and they nic-named me the 'IRON NECK', because when everyone's voices were spent, I was still singing with no problem! I thank the Lord every day for the gift of my voice!"
- Harley Van Kirk, 2003

Harley also went on to front another great Arizona metal band of notoriety called St. Michael, in which also Surgical Steel's Jeff Martin played drums and Greg Chaisson played bass. On guitar were Henry Erman and one of the hottest guitar players in the southwest at the time, Jim McMellen. Harley shares:

      "St. Michael was excellent - these guys were phenomenal players. It was a pure joy working with them.
      "I had my tonsils removed when I was with St. Michael and the band basically broke up due to my surgery, It took me about a good year to get my voice back full blast again, but I felt excellent after the surgery, not one little problem ever!
     "Man, I was real young in those days - hell I couldn't have been over 18, 19 years old. Yes indeed, those were the days man. I have to actually admit that those were the best times of my life in Phoenix!
- Harley Van Kirk, 2003

In the early days of Harley's musical endeavors, he was highly influenced by Rob Halford, playing in a Judas Priest influenced band...

"But as much as I love Priest, I respect them and myself too much to just clutter the world with another clone of such a great person and phenomenal talent as Rob Halford...
"I didn't want to just be another Priest clone; I wanted my own identity, so Surgical Steel hired Jeff Martin to fill my position."
- Harley Van Kirk, 2003

THE ROB HALFORD CONNECTION:

While Jeff Martin may be well-known to the rest of the world as the lead vocalist of Racer X and for his many appearances on album and in concert playing drums for the likes of Michael Schenker, UFO, Badlands, Lynch Mob and others, it was from humble beginnings and humbling experiences that he got his start:

"Back in the mid '80s, I just started playing with a band in Phoenix, Arizona, called Surgical Steel, a total Priest clone with added songs about chicks for the express task to boink as many of them as possible. Rob Halford had just finished recording Judas Priest's Screaming for Vengeance album and was moving to Phoenix. Our guitar player Jim saw him at one of the many clubs and invited him down to see us play, this being my first time out from behind the drum kit and singing lead vocals. I was scared shitless needless to say, but we had a good show and became best friends with Rob and later the band..."
Jeff Martin, 2002

"It was a blast having Rob as a bud back then. I remember the first gig I had with Surgical Steel, for the first time singing out from behind my drum set - and I was shitting myself for that fact, and for the fact that the guy who made me want to sing was watching.
"I did build most of my stage wear at the local ACE hardware store, and thank god my mom was a hair stylist - she got us discounted hair spray by the gallon, and that's no shit! It was a good time to be a lead singer in Phoenix, Arizona. At that time in the '80s, I remember a story in the Phoenix newspaper stating that the girl-to-guy ratio was 10 to 1 - I'm still recovering."
- Jeff Martin, Strangers In The Night, August 2003

Rob Halford also invited Jeff and his wife to the Bahamas during the sessions for Judas Priest's Turbo album, where Jeff got to add both lyrics and backing vocals to the record!

     "Rob had flown me and my wife out to the Bahamas where they were recording Turbo at Compass Point. I even sang on one of the tunes: 'Wild Nights, Hot & Crazy Days' - I sang on the chorus. I wrote lyrics to 'Private Property' and Rob used the second verse. Katrina and I stayed at an English stone cottage right on the beach just a few blocks from the studio with Rob's brother Nigel, his sister Sue, and his mom and dad. I have yet to meet anyone as cool and loving as them - testimony to why Rob is such a cut above! I also played pool with Julio Iglesias, who was doing an album at Compass Point at the same time. My true claim to fame: I won!
     "14 days FREE of charge in the Bahamas. I'll take that over a credit on an album any time. Rob flew us out for his Birthday. I can not remember what I got for him, but I'm sure it's not as cool as that! Plus he gave me the will and the reason and taught me how to sing off his albums - I'd have to give him the Bahamas to pay that one back!"
- Jeff Martin, February 3, 2003

     "Jeff showed me the pictures from the Bahamas - some really cool pictures of him and Halford launching a toy rocket... and Jeff made the comment, 'How's this? Motorman and the Metal God playing with rockets!' "
- Ken Hower, Racer X Web Administrator, February 4, 2003

It was also Jeff who obtained Rob's permission for Racer X to record a Priest song that Priest themselves have never released called "Heart Of A Lion". In fact, with Jeff obtaining Rob's permission to record the song, Racer X drummer Scott Travis actually got to record an unreleased Priest tune three years before joining Judas Priest!

     "Rob had come back from Ibiza Spain, on one occasion, and played me all the tunes for their next album Defenders Of The Faith, one being 'Bad Girls Wear Leather', that later turned into 'Eat Me Alive', and the other, 'Heart Of A Lion', my favorite. When I found out that 'Heart Of A Lion' was not on the album I couldn't believe it! This was in 1984. I told Rob right then and there that he's got to let me do this tune one day.
     "Well '87 rolls around and Racer X are in the studio still short of an album and it hits me. So I call Rob to see if it's all cool. He checked and said, 'Go on with it'. I had my then-girlfriend (now wife, who spawned such tunes as 'Sunlit Nights'), send a copy of it to us. Our version turned out much more glitzy than the hard-edged first Priest version - Priest's, to me, is still the best.
     "Later on, a year or so after our release of it, we got wind that Glenn Tipton just found out it was recorded by us and was pissed as hell. Sorry Glenn... THANKS ROB!!!!!!!"
- Jeff Martin, June 2001

Glenn may not have been too happy about giving Racer X an unreleased Priest song, but Jeff did end up with Glenn's 1984 Defenders Of The Faith tour jacket:

On subsequent visits before his final move to Phoenix, Rob Halford would stay with Jeff or Greg, and on several occasions, would even join the band on stage for a couple of Priest classics.

"Rob would come up and do Priest tunes every now and then and we would have a great time. Clubs were always packed, glasses were always full, it was a great time to be a clone Priest lead singer in Phoenix. There were always some grumblings of me being gay because we hung out, but I would just have my wife slap them across the puss, and if that didn't work, I would take over."
- Jeff Martin, Strangers In The Night, August 2003

L-R:
Rob Halford, Jim Keeler, Mark Lehman,
Paul Kosanovich Live in Phoenix, Arizona, circa 1985
(Pictures courtesy of Ken Morrison)

Rob Halford - Living After Midnight...
(Pictures courtesy of Ken Morrison)

Rob was also instrumental with helping Surgical Steel record a demo, even lending his own voice to one of the songs. More below...

THE SHOW:

Surgical Steel shows were also a great site to see, with a stage full of Marshall stacks that mimicked the backlines of early Priest and Maiden. The band played everywhere from rock clubs like the Mason Jar and Rockers to the Metrocenter mall ice rink and Starship Enterprise video arcade, but also opened for several major touring acts as well, such as Krokus in 1982:

"We had decided to go the route of Van Halen, as far as how we put on shows. They used to rent out halls and large venues, flyer the shit out of every where for a few weeks, then play. Keeping cost down and taking the door ourselves, we played bingo hall, ice rinks - all sorts of wacky gigs. I remember playing a cock fighting place in southwest Phoenix. Ozzy would have loved it: Dead chickens layin' everywhere from the day's bouts."
- Jeff Martin, February 2003

     "They played everywhere, like Jeff said, and no matter where they went, we managed to find them - there was always a big turnout.
     "We’d get these flyers, and there’d be these addresses that didn’t look familiar to anyone. None of us drove, so we’d enlist one of our parents to drive us to these gigs. We’d be driving down these creepy little streets, and my mom would be like, 'I don't think this is it', and we’d see someone with hair and be like, 'Yeah, THIS is it'. The best gigs were these all day/night desert parties in the middle of nowhere - a million degrees outside, but you wouldn’t be caught dead without your leather!
     "Rob would attend events regularly, usually the gigs at the bars, and even sing a tune here and there with the guys. Of course NO ONE believes me now when I pass a strip mall and remark that I saw Rob Halford sing there..."
- Heatherette, February 2003

Along with the wild hair provided by Final Net Superhold and clothing provided by Tough Stuff leather, the band members put a great deal of promotion into themselves and commissioned one of the coolest looking heavy metal logos from ad designer A.D. Cook:

     "My time with Surgical Steel was a blast! We had some great times. I met them early in their career as a band, and after creating their logo, we became friends. They proved to be a great bunch of guys. I still have fond memories of those days.
     "I remember one night I was on a date at a pizza place with my new girlfriend and I told her I did the Surgical Steel logo (sure, I was trying to impress her). She didn’t sound like she was totally convinced. Ironically, as we were leaving the restaurant the band was walking in. We all talked for a bit and they confirmed my story. It was hilarious, partly because our paths crossing must have seemed planned to her at the time, even though it was synchronicity. Anyway, I guess she must have been somewhat impressed – we’ve been married now for over 20 years!
     "I have fond memories too of the band coming by my place to have their drums painted and to talk about album covers. They all had wild hair and wore lots of leather. In fact, I remember Jim having purple streaks in his hair for a while. All of my other clients were advertising agencies and corporate guys – straight haircuts and business suits. What a contrast when they would run into each other. It was priceless. Those were some wild days."
- A.D. Cook, March 2004

They also put on an entertaining show:

"During 'Officer Steel', Jeff would often dress as a cop, and bust the band for 'drugs', finding only Tylenol and vitamins, throwing the baggies into crowd and stare with his mirror glasses...
"Jeff and Bob Milan worked out a routine where they would both do a drum solo in tandem! The way they succeeded in doing this is, Bob's drum riser was about 5' high on a steel platform with a black tarp thrown over the sides. Jeff made a little riser underneath the large one so the small one could be rolled out from underneath, and Jeff would release the cymbal stands - they'd pop up, and he would proceed to kick some ass!"
- David Barcai, former Surgical Steel roadie, 2003

Here's a complete list of Surgical Steel's song titles in alphabetical order, courtesy of David Barcai:

Bad Boys - Bed Time Baby - Been Messin' Around - Can't Get Enough - Crank It Up - Gimme Back My Heart (featured in the movie THUNDER ALLEY) - Hot And Bothered - Hot Wire - Hotter Then Fire (this song was included on the Racer X debut STREET LETHAL) - I.O.U. Nothing - Misbehavin' - Moby Dick - No Foolin' Around - No More Lonely Feelings - Officer Steel - Power To Rock - Rise To The Stars - Rivit Head - Satisfaction - See No Evil - Smooth And Fast - Surrender - Tell The Truth - To The Bitter End - Tonight - We Break The Rules

RECORDINGS:

The only known Surgical Steel recordings are the song "Rivit Head" on the 1982 Metal Blade compilation Metal Massacre II and a 1984 self-titled demo cassette, sold at their gigs and local outlets.

For this demo recording, Judas Priest's Rob Halford coached Jeff's vocals and sang duet on the song "Smooth And Fast".

Download the SMOOTH AND FAST MP3 (Rob Halford appears courtesy of Judas Priest and CBS Records)
To download, right-click the link and choose "Save Target As..."

Another special appearance on the Surgical Steel demo is from that of fellow Phoenix area guitar player Dan Wexler, who founded the highly underrated '80s metal band Icon and has recorded with Alice Cooper. Dan co-produced and helped with the mixing of the demo:

"There was a demo I helped Surgical Steel mix - that's when Dan Pool was managing the band - would have been in 1984. I just mixed a couple songs for them and that was pretty cool, that was stuff they were working on with Rob Halford, when Halford was really involved in helping them and recording with them.
"I never worked with Halford, his parts were already done. All I did was do some vocals with Jeff I think, and mix some stuff."
- Dan Wexler, Phoenix Rising magazine, 2000

Surgical Steel had another small break during their few years on the scene: A film crew searched the Arizona deserts for a heavy metal band and Surgical Steel was chosen for the 1985 film THUNDER ALLEY, a story about a garage band making it big. The film stars Leif Garrett and Clancy Brown and has become a cult classic. Auction sites such as eBay and specialty video sites such as Dwayne's World usually command high dollars for this rare out-of-print home video...

Surgical Steel are the "evil" band in a battle-of-the-bands competition against Leif Garrett's band.

Jeff Martin even has two "award-winning" speaking parts:

"I won the OSCAR... the Oscar Meyer award for acting... That's cool, I've embarrassed myself worse than that!"
- Jeff Martin, 2003

Indeed Jeff has embarrassed himself far worse:

"Jeff Martin did so many goofy things that it's hard to pick just one, but here's one that comes to mind. One time we were playing at the Air Force Academy in Colorado Springs and our dressing room was a huge room where the marching band dressed before the football games. We had a lot of time before the show and we were just sitting around talking about whatever, and no one knew where Jeff was. All of a sudden he comes marching and dancing out of this side room with a majorette's costume on! It's actually a short dress, and a big marching hat and a baton, and he's dancing around and singing, 'Hail to the Queen' but he's got nothing on underneath the dress, he's bare naked! He's marching around, doing cartwheels and the splits and throwing the baton up in the air and trying to catch it. It was totally depraved and we laughed so hard we almost got sick! Jeff's the only guy that would be an uglier woman than me, but I've never worn a dress!"
- Greg Chaisson, Jake E. Lee.com, October 2001

WHERE ARE THEY NOW?:

While the band never reached the large-scale success they worked so hard for, three of the members did go on to bigger things:

Original bass player Greg Chaisson is one of three brothers who have some notoriety in the hard rock/metal music business:

"I was born in Toronto, Canada on August 9, 1958. From age 5 to 15 I lived in Fremont, California. When I was 15 we moved here to Phoenix, Arizona. My brother Kenny played bass in Keel and was on all of their CD's. My brother Todd, who went by the last name of Chase, played in Tuff and now has a band called Substance D, who have a European deal. Kenny and I keep threatening to start a band in which he plays bass and I play guitar and sing..."
- Greg Chaisson, Jake E. Lee.com, October 2001

In fact, Greg almost joined Ozzy Osbourne's band, but...

"Greg showed up for the audition wearing a baseball cap and sweat pants. Ozzy said, 'That guy looks like a car mechanic. Put him back on the plane'. I protested that Ozzy hadn't even heard Greg play, but Ozzy replied, 'It doesn't matter, he doesn't have the look.' "
- Jake E. Lee, Guitar For The Practicing Musician, 1989

"Well it was the early '80s, the time of big hair and the pretty boy look, and I really didn't fit into either of those categories. I know Ozzy thought I was a good bass player, but I just didn't have the right image for what he was doing, and he was right. However I met Jake because of that trip..."
- Greg Chaisson, Metal Sludge, August 22, 2000

After the failed Ozzy audition, Greg hooked up with Jake E. Lee to form the blues-tinged hard rock outfit Badlands, which had a short run of mainstream success. While Greg didn't get to play for Ozzy, in Badlands, he did team up with a former Sabbath vocalist in Ray Gillen:

Other bands Greg's worked with were the above mentioned Saint Michael, Legs Diamond, Steeler (with Ron Keel), Britton, Die Happy, and Red Sea, as well as his own solo album and studio projects. In several of these outfits, Greg was joined by Jeff Martin on the drums and Jim McMellen on guitar. Greg also had one other stab at a former Black Sabbath vocalist when he was asked to play bass on a project that Ronnie James Dio was producing:

"I was asked to do a project for a keyboard player named Mark Stein who had been in a band in the '60s called Vanilla Fudge. The guy was a fantastic singer. His material was pretty cool. He had assembled kind of a young band to help with his image but he could never find a bass player. They asked me if I would be interested in playing bass on the session that was being produced by Ronnie James Dio. I wasn't interested until they said Dio because I was involved in about five other projects at the same time, true to form. But once they said Dio, I said ok, because I figured maybe Dio would like my playing and could help further my career. So we were recording this one song and we get a real clean take except for the drummer screwed up the very last few measures of the song. They couldn't fade it because it had a definite ending. So Dio wanted me to change my bass part to fit the drummer's, which was no big deal. Dio was going through this big long narration of where the drum mistake is and what I need to do fix it. Which was basically change a few notes in my run. Again, no big deal. Except Dio was going on and on about how he wants me to do this. I just keep saying, 'Ok Ronnie, I got it, let's just run it one time and I'll do it'. But he keeps going on and on like the Energizer Bunny, keeps going and going about where this mistake is. I keep saying, 'OK got it, let's run the song'. I can see Dio is getting pissed off at me. I'm not trying to piss him off but it's not my first day at the party either and I know what he wants. So finally he says just run the damn song and let's see if this guy knows what he's doing. So they run it and I fix it in one take. End of story…almost. So I go in to Ronnie and say, 'I'm sorry, didn't mean to make you mad. It's just that I knew what you wanted'. He says, 'No big deal, good job.' Then after I leave the room he tells the manager, 'This guy's a jerk and he's never gonna make it'. The whole moral of the story is that I took the stupid session just to impress Dio and he ends up hating me. Oh well, thank God for Badlands."
- Greg Chaisson, Jake E. Lee.com, October 2001

Mark Lehman was actually a fan of jazz music at the time he joined Surgical Steel, but in the '80s, it was heavy metal that put food on the plate, but hang on to your Stetson for this: After the decline of '80s metal, country music began to be the money maker in the Southwest, so during the early to mid '90s, Mark joined an award-winning top 40 country band called Second Hand Rose!

That's our cow-rocker - top row, center...

Mark later joined up with former Schoolboyz (Icon)/Keel/King Cobra guitarist David Henzerling (aka David Michael-Phillips) in a cover band known as Big Cock.

Lehman is now a part of a Phoenix, Arizona based blues/rock trio called MFM (Mark Lehman - bass, Fred Robinson - guitar and Mike Indes - drums).

L-R: Mark, Fred, Mike, aka MFM

All three members worked together to record a debut album by Phoenix singer/guitarist Amy Schugar. Recently, Amy was discovered by another local, the one-and-only Michael Schenker, who began helping her launch her career. Michael collaborated with Amy and the result is Schugar/Schenker, with the aforementioned demo/debut titled UNDER CONSTRUCTION that released in November 2003, though Amy has yet to sign to a label.

Michael Schenker layin' down tracks with Mark

Bob Milan (along with Mark Lehman and Mark's MFM partner Fred Robinson), went on to join Bob Welch's short-lived Avenue M in 1989. No further details on Bob Milan's whereabouts are known after that...
In 1986, Jeff Martin (born Jeffery Louis Martin November 9, ???? in Milwaukee, Wisconsin) teamed up with guitar wizard Paul Gilbert in Racer X, and continues to perform and record with the band off and on. Jeff played drums in Badlands with Greg at one point and in UFO on their 2000 European tour. He has also recently played drums with the Michael Schenker Group and Lynch Mob.

"Jeff’s a great drummer. I think he’s played on all of Paul’s solo albums if I’m correct. I mean, I say all of ‘em, I think it’s at least two or three of them. I think Jeff’s played on all of those. Jeff has a different style, but still, you can always learn from other drummers and stuff. But Jeff’s a really good drummer."
- Scott Travis, Rock Rage, March 3, 2001

Jeff has recently joined the reunited Leatherwolf as their new lead vocalist.

In 1990, Jim Keeler started up another band in Phoenix called Rated X, with ex-London and D'Priest vocalist Nadir D'Priest.

And later on, Keeler even made an appearance on TV:

"Jim has the distinction of appearing on an episode of Jerry Springer. No clue what for..."
- David Barcai, former Surgical Steel roadie, 2003

It is believed that Jim Keeler still lives in the Phoenix area, but there is no more info on what he is currently doing.

No info exists on Paul Kosanovich's whereabouts...

Harley Van Kirk moved to Spanaway, Washington and in 2003, began experimenting with computer-based recording of a new metal project called Messiah's Reign

Early in 2003, Harley took part in a new independent recording project he calls Messiah's Reign. For a better part of the year and into the early months of 2004, Harley had been putting together an album that reflects a bit on the religious overtones of heavy metal. THE NEW MESSIAH is a concept that takes the listener on a journey as the album's main character travels along acquiring pieces to the puzzle of life... Using a Mac computer and highly sophisticated modern recording software, Harley has been able to make new strides into the independent market, being one of the first to make a heavy metal album that retains old school glory and faithfulness in tone, while using modern techniques and approaches to accomplish the goal.

Make no mistake, the music reflects more of Harley's current northwest residence than his former southwest metal days. As a point of reference, one can hear a distinct Geoff Tate influence in Harley's vocals, but there still remains a touch of those awesome Halford highs... Quite impressive! The music is atmospheric and enhances the vocal range and techniques displayed. It falls very much along the lines of the more dramatic and more ballad-like offerings of Queensrÿche than it does Priest, but it is very good at accomplishing the goal of supporting the main focus - THE VOICE!

THE NEW MESSIAH is Harley's personal gift to any who will listen...

"You are why I'm here; I am just a vehicle for God to touch your lives in one way or another. I am in no way trying to convert anyone. I'm just acknowledging that the Omnipresence is real, and this energy flows through ALL of us, so take hold. Thank you and GOD BLESS."
- Harley Van Kirk, 2003

Harley Van Kirk laying down those
"iron neck" vocals for Messiah's Reign

The magic starts in the heart and comes from the soul,
but this is the "partner" who brings it all together
in sonic glory...

Enter the Judas Priest Info Pages