Overkill - Trivia
The look of Chaos! Comics' character Evil Ernie was inspired by Bobby 'Blitz' Ellsworth . The two share the heavy metal look of the time: Tight Jeans, black t-shirt, Leather jacket with pin badges and shoulder length wild hair.
Upon finding out about the Avenged Sevenfold mascot, the Deathbat, was a rip-off of the Overkill mascot Chaly, the band had sent A7X shirts that read on the front "This one's ours..." and on the back read "GET YOUR OWN FUCKING LOGO!"
When Bobby "Blitz" Ellsworth isn't writing or rocking with his influential thrash band Overkill, he and his wife are hard at work on the family business -- importing fine chocolates for their shop, Chocolaterie. Strangely, Ellsworth cultivated his love for fine chocolates in Overkill. "It's something I learned to love by touring and obviously having a Dutch wife who has a passion for chocolate," he said. "We love the business. And again it just kind of complements what I've learned through Overkill, because I don't think I would have been exposed to [the art of chocolate] on such a high level unless I'd seen things [touring with the band]."
In 1998, Ellsworth was diagnosed with a very aggressive form of nose cancer and underwent immediate surgery.
Due to confusion, E.vil N.ever D.ies from The Years of Decay is actually Overkill IV in the Overkill series, but is never stated by the band.
The albums Killbox 13, RelixIV and Immortalis all have numbers on the end of their names indicating how many albums were created. Killbox 13 has thirteen written in plain english, ReliXIV has the roman numerals XIV which stands for fourteen, and Immortalis uses Leet to indicate that the last two letters (IS) are to be fifteen.
Overkill once delayed a show by half an hour when Rob Cannavino shat himself about 15/20 minutes before going onstage. Whilst cleaning the mess from his trousers, he decided to go for broke, throwing the trousers and pants out of a small window in the venue toilet, thinking he had a spare pair in his dressing room. However, he soon found out that they had been stolen and spent the next half hour running around the venue cupping his balls, trying to find a spare pair, before taking a cab to a nearby Gap and buying the cheapest pair of trousers they sold, a pair of beige cordoroy trousers. He performed the gig in the beige trousers.
Vocalist Bobby Blitz once ran the New York marathon dressed as a giant squirrel to raise awareness for Testicular Cancer. He fell into a drinks stand but continued and finished a modest 4982nd overall.
In the beginning of his career, Bobby Ellsworth almost destroyed his voice, due to a bad technique he used to sing. His record label at that time (Megaforce) introduced him to an expert doctor (Don Lawrence) who healed him. After that he learned to sing with a more "safe" technique. |