HOT SHÖT, the band featuring Jason McMaster (DANGEROUS TOYS, WATCHTOWER, BROKEN TEETH, IGNITOR) on vocals, Paul Lidel (DIRTY LOOKS, DANGEROUS TOYS, SCREAM THERAPY) on guitar, Dave McClain (SA SLAYER, ex-MACHINE HEAD, SACRED REICH) on drums, Jack Pyers (DIRTY LOOKS) on bass and Dave Beeson (BROKEN TEETH) on guitar, has completed work on its self-titled debut album, to be released
HOT SHÖT released a two-track EP, “We’ll Be Right Back”, in May 2025, containing the songs “Digging For Diamonds” and “Catwalk”. The effort was made available four years after most of the remaining members of DIRTY LOOKS joined forces with McMaster and Beeson for a performance of the band’s highly acclaimed 1988 album “Cool From The Wire” plus a few additional cuts at Selinsgrove Speedway in Selinsgrove, Pennsylvania. The show was captured and released as the “Cool From The Speedway” CD/DVD package.
Regarding how HOT SHÖT came together, McMaster told the Rock N’ Danger podcast in a new interview (as transcribed by BLABBERMOUTH.NET): ”Jack and Gene [Barnett], bass and drums from [DIRTY LOOKS‘] ‘Cool From The Wire’, ‘Turn Of The Screw’ [1989] lineup, they call Paul in, like, 2019 or so and they go, like, ‘We’re getting the band back together.’ ‘Cause Henrik Ostergaard, the singer-songwriter, has passed away and years have gone by, and ‘sure would be nice to hear those songs again, don’t you guys think?’ That starts to be a thing. And people talk about Henrik all the time and, and super underdog and a one-of-a-kind singer-songwriter. And [I was] a huge fan, and me and the TOYS guys, huge fucking fans. We heard ‘Oh Ruby’ on the radio getting ready to go do a gig in San Antonio in, like, ’87. And we were, like, ‘Oh my God.’ And all we talked about on the way home was, ‘God, could you believe that song?’ And then we later found out Max Norman produced that record, which had a tie-in. This is before we got signed. No one knew who DANGEROUS TOYS was. We were DIRTY LOOKS fans already. And we hooked up with Max Norman: ‘Max, you did DIRTY LOOKS. Oh, oh yeah, you did [Ozzy Osbourne‘s] ‘Crazy Train’, too, but dude, DIRTY LOOKS.’ Anyway, so here I am at home, and Paul calls me. He goes, ‘So Jack and Gene called me. They wanna do the DIRTY LOOKS thing, and they’re looking for singers, and they wanna get, like, Georg [Dolivo] from RHINO BUCKET‘s number or some numbers to find a singer.’ And I’m, like, ‘Well, who’d you decide on? Who are you you leaning in on?’ And Paul interrupts me and he goes, ‘Well, I, here’s what I told them. I go, ‘Okay, Jack and Gene, I’ll do it if Jason sings.’ [And I was] a million percent [in]. And when he told those guys that, they were, like, ‘Oh, killer. Would he do it?’ Like, they didn’t know. They don’t know me as well as Paul. Paul knew I’d be, like, ‘Oh my God. I’m ready. I’m ready to get on the plane right now.'”
Jason continued: “Anyway, so we rehearsed. Those guys came in, and we had a setlist, and we rehearsed, and it sounded fucking great. And I recorded the rehearsal, multi-track rehearsal. I recorded the rehearsal. I still have it. And then COVID hit. We had two shows in their stomping grounds, up there, Pennsylvania — anywhere between Baltimore and Erie, Pennsylvania, those guys are gods. I call it KIX country…. Anything related to DIRTY LOOKS or KIX, they’re all gods in that area. So we had two gigs booked up there as DIRTY LOOKS, like 2.0 or whatever, DIRTY LOOKS featuring Jason McMaster, whatever they were gonna bill it [as]. And then COVID hit, and those things had to cancel because of COVID. So it started to calm. Fast forward a year, year and a half or whatever, we were, like, ‘Okay. Well, let’s get this back on the plate.’ And we booked a couple of things, and the first gig we did was on a flatbed trailer in the middle of a speedway, Selinsgrove Speedway, as DIRTY LOOKS, and [we had a] thousand people in the middle of a raceway. And we created this stage and we found every Marshall stack in Pennsylvania we could load onto the flatbed trailer, and lights, we recorded it, audio and video. And they didn’t realize that the idea was to release this as a live album, piggyback two-disc CD, video, DVD. And Gene came up with the name ‘Cool From The Speedway’, which I love. It’s still available. DIRTY LOOKS, ‘Cool From The Speedway’. There’s some live videos from it all over the Internet, la, la, la. Anyway, the record sold well. We self-released, la, la, la. We started writing new material. This is where I’m really trying to go. And, unfortunately, Gene wasn’t interested in what we were trying to do, and we had a couple of songs laying around for a couple of years. And we just said, ‘Well, we wanted to call it DIRTY LOOKS, but if Gene‘s not involved, we will respect the name and not do that.’ So I named it HOT SHÖT, and I brought in Dave McClain to play drums. And now we have a full-length album that’s sitting here ready to go with artwork, and that’s coming soon as well… on Kenyon Records. HOT SHÖT self-titled album. And if you love DIRTY LOOKS, you’re gonna love HOT SHÖT.”
McMaster who is best known for his work with DANGEROUS TOYS and WATCHTOWER, made news headlines in the fall of 2022 when he temporarily filled in for Mark Tornillo and John Bush in ACCEPT and ARMORED SAINT, respectively.
McMaster was inducted into the South Texas Music Walk Of Fame in June 2011 in his hometown of Corpus Christi, Texas. McMaster made Texas history as the first metal artist honored by the South Texas Music Walk Of Fame.
A vocalist, bassist, guitarist and songwriter with two gold-certified records under his belt, McMaster is notorious for being one of the busiest musicians in rock and roll. His rock and roll resume dates back to 1982 when he fronted influential progressive metal band WATCHTOWER, later moving on to make headlines with the southern sleaze rock act DANGEROUS TOYS. In recent years, Jason has also been channeling his talent into the Austin-based hard rock act BROKEN TEETH, having released several albums since the band’s formation in 1999; along with albums from his NWOHB-influenced band IGNITOR, and various tribute bands. His impact on the Texas rock and metal scene was previously recognized in 1998, with an induction into the Texas Music Hall Of Fame.
