Joe Altier Of Brand New Sin Recalls Recording Big Show’s Theme, Being In Awe Of His Size In-Person

“Well, it’s The Big Show!”

That may be one of the most famous intros of a wrestling theme song in history. Paul Wight debuted with WWE in 1999 with a version of the song that was much more inspired by blues and showtunes but in 2006, it needed to change.

Now a seven-year veteran of WWE and a decade-long veteran of the industry, Big Show was going to become the anchor of the WWE ECW brand, and as such WWE felt it was time for him to have a new theme song.

The theme song would be recorded by the band Brand New Sin and released on the WWE Wreckless Intent album which was also released in 2006.

Speaking on a special crossover episode of Wrestling Winedown and The Wrestfriends Podcast, the frontman of Brand New Sin, Joe Altier, explains how meeting Stephanie McMahon and Triple H while his band was on tour with Motorhead was the catalyst for the band eventually recording the iconic theme song.

“My band, Brand New Sin, was out on the road. We had toured with Motorhead a few times and this was the second time around on the road with Motorhead, and we’re playing at the Hampton Beach Casino in Hampton Beach, New Hampshire,” Joe recalled. “All day long, the crew members and the guys in the band are like, ‘Hey, you know, Triple H and Stephanie are going to come out,’ because Motorhead and Triple H had such a close relationship. They’d done the theme songs together. So I’m like, ‘Yeah, sure, he’s gonna come and sure they’re gonna watch us.’ But long story short, we’re playing that night in the middle of the set. I’m kind of looking down and the Hampton Beach Casino probably holds about 2000 people and those near capacities. So in the middle of one of the songs, I see somebody, I see a couple come down between the barricade and the stage, and they got their hair down, and they’re just banging like that. I’m like, ‘Hell yeah.’ I look up and go up, and it’s Triple H and Stephanie, and they’re just like, you know, fist bump at me. I’m like, ‘Wow, this is crazy. Nobody else in the band really was into wrestling, except for me and my one guitar player. So I go over to my one guitar player in the middle of one of the songs, I’m like, ‘Do you see who is watching us?’

“So we get done with a set, I come down off the ramp, I go into the dressing room, I’m sitting in the dressing room, and I hear knock on the dressing room and I open it up and Triple H and Stephanie, are like, ‘Hey, we’d love to come in and hang out. We want to talk to you guys.’ So we hung out for most of the night, we chatted a lot about music, and Stephanie and Triple H are both like, ‘we really think that you guys have that sound, we’ve got to get you involved in WWE.’ This isn’t like lip service. No offense to some other wrestlers that would come out to see us, you know, this is the prince and princess, you know, they’re going to take over the company. So we knew that they were going to follow through on that.”

He continued, “Lo and behold, a couple of weeks later, WWE got ahold of us and said, ‘Listen, we’re going to sign a little thing that we’re going to work together at some point, we just don’t know on what at this time,’ and this is like may of 2005. So we did that and then a few months later, we’re on tour again in September, and we finally get a call from the WWE and they’re like, ‘We finally have the project for you. We want you to re-record The Big Show’s theme song,’ because the original theme song that he had was very blues-oriented. So they’re like, ‘Take that and inject what you guys do,’ and in a few weeks, we have like a couple of days off between a show in Springfield, Massachusetts, and Toledo, Ohio. So they’re like, ‘Well, come and spend two days at the WWE headquarters and we’ll hash this out.’ So that was how like it that was how it came about, which was literally Triple H and Stephanie and they became really good friends of ours and I think I became a huge Triple H — I was always a big Triple H fan, but how could you not become one when they were the catalyst for it all.”

Later, Joe recalls first meeting The Big Show and being taken back by his massive presence, which he says can only be appreciated in person.

“When we finally got to meet Big Show, one: he’s so big. I don’t think people realize, when you see him on TV, there’s no point of reference. You can kind of tell that all these wrestlers are large, but when you meet the guy, and my drummer was 6’2, 6’3, and he didn’t even come up to his shoulder, Big Show shook our hand and it literally felt like a little baby shaking this large hand. It was the sheer [size] and he was much larger then. I think he was 500 pounds at the time, but he was just like, I’m like, How do you do things in life being this large, you know?! Just to see someone that large, it’s crazy”

Paul Wight would use that song from 2006 all the way until this year when he would leave for All Elite Wrestling and no longer be using ‘The Big Show’ moniker.

Elsewhere in the interview, Joe speaks about the wrestlers he would like to create themes for and how he became a fan of professional wrestling back in the days of the global expansion. You can check out the full interview embedded above.

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