With Ronnie Romero releasing his solo album Backbone last October and completing a tour with Primal Fear just last month, attention now turns to Evolution, the new album from Elegant Weapons, due out tomorrow. Known for a classic yet powerful Metal voice, Ronnie has the range to inspire thousands, but his influences may surprise some.
I grew up listening to more melodic singers,” Ronnie Romero told MetalTalk in Part One of this interview. “That’s something that the people don’t normally know about me. My father rests in peace, was a huge fan of classic rock music, especially from America. So I grew up listening to Journey, Kansas, Boston and all those more melodic bands.
“I was introduced to hard rock and Heavy Metal in my youth when I was 14/15 years old. So for me it’s really challenging, and I really love to sing more melodically and with a clean and soft voice. It’s really fun.”
Ronnie’s grounding in melody has defined the kind of musicians he connects with. That instinct for space and musicality becomes especially clear when he talks about the guitarists he had worked alongside.
Working with guitarists of the calibre of Richie Blackmore and Michael Schenker, Ronnie talks of a special chemistry. The relationship with Richie Faulkner shines on Evolution, and Ronnie talks of similar feelings working alongside all three.
“These are the kind of players that are not shredders,” he says. “They serve the guitar for the music and for the song, and that makes a singer’s work very easy. Because it’s not like you get only a little space in between licks. It’s a special chemistry and a special connection. I really love to work with him [Richie], and he is really good at doing that. He has all this influence from Schenker and all the old guys, but it still sounds very modern somehow. I think it’s very special in that way.”
That sense of musical understanding goes beyond technique. For Ronnie Romero, the connection with players like Blackmore, Schenker and Faulkner is rooted just as much in personal chemistry as it is in musicianship.
Talking with Ronnie, it is clear where his passion for collaboration lies, and the same is obvious in working with guitarist Jose Rubio on the solo album Backbone.
“I always try to work with people that I really love to hang around,” Ronnie says. “That’s the main reason for me. It’s not to get hired or hire people that are gonna do the job and see you in 3 months, and there’s no personal connection.”
Given Ronnies’ aim to make organic music, this is even more important. “It doesn’t always need to be a close friendship. I’m very lucky that everybody I work with are my friends. It doesn’t happen very often. Even Blackmore and Schenker.
“It’s funny because all the time I get this question, ‘Is it really hard to work with Richie? It’s probably very difficult, blah blah.’ I always had a great relationship with him. Same with Michael, same with Richie Faulkner, same with Jose [Rubio]. We’re friends, we enjoy playing together, and I think it elevates the performance.”
That mindset carried directly into the making of Backbone, where Jose Rubio played a central role in shaping the album’s sound.
Guitarist Jose Rubio was very important to the Backbone album. It is a great album. Jose’s mixing and mastering took the traditional classic rock sound and gave it a high-end renovation. The album was received very well, which Ronnie Romero says surprised him.
“It was great,” he smiles. “I didn’t expect that. We had a good reception with the first one [Too Many Lies, Too Many Masters]. For the writing and recording of the second album, I wanted to try something a little bit more straight, hard rock and close to the Dio solo material and Black Sabbath.
“I was a little bit afraid of how the people were gonna receive the songs because on the first album they were more dynamic and faster, and it was more like Heavy Metal.”
With that shift in direction, the real test was how the songs would land in front of a live audience.
Last month’s shows in the UK were the first time the new songs had been played live “I didn’t expect that the people were gonna like the songs that way,” Ronnie says. “There were a couple of songs [in the set] that were not even singles on the release, and people were cheering, and they were singing the lyrics.
“So that’s very satisfying. I was surprised because I didn’t expect that, but I’m very happy with the result. It’s the right path. I’m not in a hurry. I know that it’s a long way to the top. But I’m very happy with the results so far.”
That connection with audiences reflects Ronnie’s broader songwriting approach, keeping things direct, honest, and built for the stage.
MetalTalk said that Backbone had all the hallmarks of Ronnie Romero making an all-out statement of intent. Running Over is a real highlight, and we wrote that if the term ‘smash hit’ still existed in the hard rock world, then this has it written all over it. Ronnie smiles.
“We wanted to do music easy to listen,” Ronnie says. “I didn’t want to go complicated. I didn’t want to go overproduced or do something that’s really hard to digest. This is rock music that we should go out and play, and the people should put their fists in the air, and that would be perfect for me. I think we accomplished it in that way.”
Running Over was not a track that was in the Ronnie Romero setlist when they hit London, but of course, it is not me picking the songs. It was a 45-minute set, and as Ronnie says, they had to play songs from the previous album as well. “It’s not a Ronnie Romero show if we don’t play Rainbow.”
While Backbone leans into simplicity and impact, it also brings Ronnie into collaboration with some of rock’s most respected songwriters, adding another layer of legacy to the project.
Among the other contributors, Roy Z rebuilt Bruce Dickinson’s solo career, and Russ Ballard has written hits for many decades. When he is in a room with these kinds of people and that much history, how does Ronnie Romero make sure the results still sound like him rather than the greatest hits of their influences?
“I would say thanks to Richie Blackmore,” Ronnie says. “I got used to it, to be around legends. But also, Russ and Roy are good friends of mine. I met Russ in London in 2017 when he was invited to The 02 with Rainbow to do a couple of songs with us. We kept in contact.
“With Roy, he has Latin roots as I have, so he was always in contact with me. He was speaking Spanish, always telling me we need to do something together, brother. We need to do something in Spanish. When I was writing the album, I thought maybe I could take advantage of that friendship (smiles) and do a couple of songs with them.
“I think it’s fantastic. I’m not gonna say how skilled Russ Ballard is at writing music. He wrote music for so many great artists, and so I was a little bit afraid when he sent me the song, because I thought I needed to reach at least close to the level.
“But he was very happy with the result. We didn’t really touch the song much from the original. We did it a little bit harder, in terms of sounds. More like a rock song. He was very happy. He came to Madrid to record a video clip and all, so he was very happy with the collaboration.”
With collaborations spanning generations, Ronnie’s focus now returns to where that music truly comes alive, the stage.
Backbone and the recent short tour with Primal Fear have given Ronnie Romero the desire to get back in the UK soon for a headline tour. “The UK was always special for me,” Ronnie says. It was the shows with Rainbow that helped cement this.
“We have this connection. Obviously, everybody loves Rainbow there, and for me, the UK and Germany are my main markets, I would say, because of the Rainbow thing. It’s always great to go there.”
“We’re gonna come back as a headline tour for sure.”
That return may come after commitments with Elegant Weapons, but it is clearly already on the horizon.
“Because we are live performers,” Ronnie says. “We love to record music. I think all the energy is on stage, and we love that. We love to go on tour and especially going together with Richie, Dave [Rimmer], and Chris [Williams].
“We became good friends on the first tour we did. We have a lot of memories and stories. We need to wait until after Judas Priest plans this year, of course, because we respect that. Judas Priest is Richie’s main band.
“But yeah, we’re looking forward to it. Probably at the end of the year, we would do a couple of things and then probably next year, a full tour.”
Tomorrow, we delve fully into the excellent new album from Elegant Weapons, Evolution, with Ronnie Romero. You can read my review here.
You can find out more about Backbone via ffm.to/rr_backbone.
Elegant Weapons release Evolution digitally and on CD on 24 April 2026 via Exciter Records, with a special edition vinyl pressing to follow later in the year. You can pre-save and pre-order Evolution from https://exciter-records.ffm.to/elegantweapons-evolution.
You can read the MetalTalk Elegant Weapons interview with Richie Faukner here: Part One and Part Two.
