James Lomenzo and Mark Abbattista Comment On The Amazing Race

The Gauntlet caught up with James Lomenzo and Mark 'Abba' Abbattista recently for their thoughts on Sunday's episode of The Amazing Race which ended with the duo leaving the competition. In the episode, Abba and James spend the entire day trial to track down Abba's stolen Visa and apply for a new one to hopefully continue on in the race. Unfortunately for the rockers, it wasn't their day and with no visa in hand, they were unable to continue on to the next location and were out of the competition. Abba commented "The only thing I ever lost was my virginity. I have never before lost things like keys or anything like that. I think that it is sort of irresponsible when people do lose things. My passport wasn't lost though, it was stolen."

After the episode concluded, Abba and James were still without a passport and any sort of way back to the U.S. James Lomenzo stated "The show left someone behind with us to make sure we were able to get back safely. It was still pretty much up to us to follow the trail and get the visa."

Abba added "We knew the process already for getting a visa on short notice as when we were touring with Hail!, Paul Gray from Slipknot passed away the day before we were going to leave. James [Lomenzo] stepped in and we were able to pull it off in a day. This time, we managed to get a replacement visa in about six days and that came about from a special letter of diplomatic immunity that was granted to get this visa done quicker. Without it, it would have taken a month. There was some concern as to how long this was going to take. It could have taken a month. In a normal situation, this would have taken a month."

As for what is next, Abba explains that "once I got back home I ended up having MRI's done on both of my legs and had two fractured tibias. I was basically doing the race with two broken legs. I was in tremendous pain throughout the whole thing, but I was there to win and quitting wasn't an option."

James will be "Abba is still staying off his feet and with Ripper out doing his thing this is a good point for a natural break for Hail!. Right now I am working on a new album that will be very different from what I usually do."

The Amazing Race continues, minus James and Abba, Sunday nights at 8pm on CBS.



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Tags:  James Lomenzo, The Amazing Race, Mark Abbattista, interviews 

Jason Fisher    November 20, 2012