As a purveyor of True Metal, Tarek "MS" Maghary, vocalist and creator of the German Heavy Metal Band Majesty, looked up Ross The Boss, in his capacity as one of the founding fathers of True Metal, to do a solo on Majesty's 2004 album "Swords and Sorcery". The two developed an instantaneous friendship.
Also the promoter for the Keep it True Festival, Tarek got the brilliant idea to match Ross up with German Manowar Cover Band "Men Of War" for one night of early Manowar Music at Keep it True VI in April 2006.
This show marked the first time Ross had played a whole set of Manowar songs in nearly 20 years. They put on an energetic, moving and emotional show that made all the Manowar fans remember how much they loved Ross The Boss.
All the guys really enjoyed playing these shows, so he promoted them to be his own backing band. Since Ross never had any intention of "being a tribute to himself", they quickly began collaboration on new original material. The band released two albums on AFM records, played a lot of festivals, and gave Ross the itch to do more collaborations with more Metal musicians.
“I guess this return (I can call it that, right?) to metal for Friedman is about as good as it’ll ever get based on his various abilities: his riffs are an excellent concoction of speed and heaviness with enough fast and mid-paced material to please any metalhead, the songs are masterfully written, and his solos are absolutely blazing and fun. The group’s identity is what you’d expect: slaying heavy/power metal. Obviously, the record has an overt Manowar vibe to it, but also a smudge of hard rock influence with all that meaty heaviness; it’s quite an interesting mixture, albeit a great one.”
Ten years after his first Keep It True appearance and two solo albums later, Ross was asked to be the surprise guest for Keep It True XIX Festival (2016). This time, he gathered some great musicians from his home town of New York City including bass player Kevin Bolembach, his nephew Lance Barnewold on drums, and singer Mike Cotoia (Fate Breaks Dawn) to do a set of Manowar classics for the unexpecting crowd. They brought down the house, and Ross The Boss was asked to do even more Manowar-songs shows and festivals all over the world.
He got a different Ross The Boss touring lineup for 2017 including former Manowar drummer Kenny "Rhino" Earl, Mike LePond (Symphony X), and Marc Lopes (Let Us Prey). Together they spent most of the year on tour, bringing a full set of “Manowar classics done Ross-The-Boss-style” to as many people in as many cities as they possibly could, including appearances at the first Hall of Heavy Metal Induction Ceremony, and at the 2017 Wacken Festival.
“My plans for this year? Gigs, Fests, New Music ... What else?”
The band finished recording an album of original material called “By Blood Sworn” in early 2018 featuring Marc Lopes on vocals, Mike Lepond on bass and Lance Barnewold on drums. The band toured all year with drummer Steve Bolognese (Into Eternity, Death Dealer) who eventually joined the group as a regular member.
The band has peformed sets with guests like KK Downing and Ted Nugent drummer Jason Hartless as they travel around the globe playing as many live shows as they can squeeze in hoping that everyone will get a chance to see them play.
The fourth Ross The Boss record “Born of Fire” will be released March 6, 2020 worldwide. The band is currently on tour in the USA and Canada playing “Hail to England” in it’s entirety plus other Manowar favorites and a few original songs with plans to tour Europe later in the year.