“Every band needs me in it!”
The Brain Surgeons came together in 1994 when Albert Bouchard, best known as the original drummer from Blue Oyster Cult, and his wife, former rock critic and girl band veteran Deborah Frost got a band together to play the songs they'd been writing together for years.
Originally a five piece band, they recorded five albums, gained a cult following and played live shows mostly around the New York City area, but the future of the band looked uncertain in 1999 when guitarist Billy Hilfiger underwent treatment for brain cancer.
“We didn’t want to make him leave the band just because he was sick, so we didn’t want to get a replacement. That’s why Deborah started learning his parts so she could cover for him when he’d mess up or if he couldn’t make the gig.”
When Hilfiger passed away in September 2000, and the other guitarist Peter Bohovesky left the music industry, The Brain Surgeons carried on as a trio with Deborah and Bassist David Hirshberg taking turns on both the guitar and the bass.
While Albert and Deborah were editing the band's Helen Wheels tribute concert footage, they noticed that Ross' performance was one of the most compelling parts of the video. They thought the Brain Surgeons could use a guy like him.
Ross, a long time Blue Oyster Cult fan and friend, enthusiastically joined the band in 2004, winning over audiences with his own style of guitar playing, and kicking the band up a notch into new territory.
“The Brain Surgeons with Ross is “... a lot more head-down, full-tilt rock and roll. Ross has lost none of his shredding, melt-the-strings lead guitar capabilities. More than that, he obviously *loves* the material, is totally into the show, and the rest of the band seems to draw new energy off of his enthusiasm. The new material is real “damn the torpedoes full speed ahead” type stuff, and Al intimated that the other new material (which they haven’t debuted yet), which is even more intense.”
Ross plays on the first three songs on the bands' 2004 release "Black Hearts of Soul", and on all the tracks on their 2006 All-Ross release "Denial of Death".
The Brain Surgeons are not currently active as Albert has been working with his brother Joe and Dennis Dunaway of Alice Cooper fame as a superband appropriately called “Blue Coupe.” Ross played guitar on “Ain’t Dead” on Blue Coupe’s 2013 album “Million Miles More”.
Ross and Albert are long-time friends who love playing with each other and they are already working on another project together.