The Barbershop Interview with Pete Love of house band, “Heavy Petting Zoo”

Q: What artist most influences your music? What makes that artist stand out to you?

Pete Love: AC/DC, Eagles, Bryan Adams, Brad Paisley and Keith Urban. Each of these bands and artists have had a huge impact on how i sing and play guitar. I love the old school way they produced the bands back then and I also love all the new guitar tones and parts that has become such a big part of the Country sound these days. I love Rock and Country equally. 

Q: Tell us about your band’s name. Where did it come from and why did you choose it?

Pete Love: I actually had no idea about the NOFX album when I came up with the name ‘Heavy Petting Zoo’. I just thought it would be a cool name for a 90’s Alternative band. A fan in the audience one night asked us to play something from that HPZ album and I had no idea what they were talking about until they explained it. ‘Huckleberry Hicks’ came about when I was opening for ‘Rascal Flatts’ at the Hard Rock a few years back. We were called ‘Heartland’ at the time and was asked if we could play a song from our album. I mentioned we didn’t have an album out. They then showed me a picture of a ‘Heartland’ album. That’s how I found out we needed to change our name. ‘Rascal Flatts’ is a fictitious person actually so I came up with our own fictitious person ‘Huckleberry Hicks’ for the Country side of our cover band. 

Q: What part of playing at The Barbershop do you enjoy the most?

Pete Love: It’s the one venue that doesn’t make us stop to take a break or end right at 2 am. If the place is packed, we are allowed to play as long as we want. Getting to feel like a rock star is easy at Barbershop when it gets going strong there. 

Q: The Barbershop is well-known for its whiskey. Are you whiskey drinker, if so what is your favorite?

Pete Love: Jameson for sure 

Q: If you could share the stage with any artist (dead or alive) at any point in history, where would you want to play and who would you play with?

Pete Love: Venue wouldn’t matter but I’d love to share the stage with Bon Scott from AC/DC who died the night before my 17th birthday and Angus Young from AC/DC and Brad Paisley who are really the only guitar influences I’ve ever had. 

Q: How did you first become interested in music?

Pete Love: My father sat me down at a piano when I was a little boy and showed me some chords. I was hooked ever since. 

Q: What was the first concert you ever attended?

Pete Love: Bryan Adams 

Q: Vegas is well-known for food, what is your favorite Vegas restaurant?

Pete Love: Mastro’s Ocean Club 

Q: What instruments do you play and which is your favorite?

Pete Love: Piano and Guitar. I love both equally. My favorite is taking a piano song and playing it on the guitar and vice versa. 

Q: You are in charge of planning a music festival; who is the headlining act and why do you choose them? 

Pete Love: Maroon 5. They are the one band that’s transformed current pop radio. From their first album to the current album you can see and hear them change their style to what’s hip on the airwaves at the time. They started out really as a rock band and transformed into this cool pop/dance band. I love the transformation. 

Keep your eye on our Live Music Calendar to see when Heavy Petting Zoo is playing next at Barbershop Cuts and Cocktails, located in the Cosmopolitan Casino Resort and Hotel.