We Will Rock You

Interview with Bowie Biographer Marc Spitz

admin — Wed, 17 Feb 2010 00:29:58 +0000

Marc Spitz has a long and diverse resume as a pop culture writer and music journalist. He was a Senior Writer at Spin, and his work has appeared in the New York Times, Maxim, Blender, Harp, Vanity Fair, Nylon and the New York Post. He contributes regularly to the British music magazine Uncut.

Spitz has written three novels, and his music biographies We Got The Neutron Bomb: The Untold Story of LA Punk and Nobody Likes You: Inside the Turbulent Life, Times and Music of Green Day have garnered much acclaim. He is also a playwright.

Marc’s newest book is an ambitious biography of David Bowie entitled, appropriately enough, Bowie: A Biography (which I recently reviewed). The book is a remarkably well-researched and thorough look at the pop culture icon, and has also garnered generally strong reviews.

I interviewed Marc Spitz by phone from hs home in New York only a week after the release of his Bowie biography. It’s always interesting interviewing another writer, particularly one who is also a rock biographer. No matter the choice of subject matter, there are experiences that are bound to be common to the experience. You’ll notice that I frequently laugh throughout this discussion, and that’s largely because I recognize so much of what Marc is saying from my own experience in writing an unauthorized biography of Styx several years ago.

This is a long interview, and among the topics we discussed are what made Spitz take on a Bowie bio; what differentiates his book from other previous Bowie biographies; the challenges of the project; interview process for the book; easiest and hardest interview subjects; overcoming “pathological shyness” to conduct interviews; why not interviewing Bowie might have been a good thing; how can a writer get inside a subject’s head; why Bowie wasn’t really that wealthy until the Eighties; best and worst of Bowie’s work; will Bowie ever work in public again; reactions to the book; and Spitz’ upcoming projects.

For more information please visit www.davidbowiebook.com.

Photo by Bryan Smith

Interview with Kerry Minnear of Gentle Giant (Part Three)

admin — Sat, 06 Feb 2010 04:35:12 +0000

This is the third and final installment of my recent in-depth interview with Gentle Giant keyboardist/singer/composer Kerry Minnear.

In this podcast episode we discuss the band’s early record deal with Vertigo, which was a tax relief scheme for a larger label; the mathematics behind Gentle Giant being able to continue recording; the grind of touring and how it contributed to the end of the band; the forthcoming Live at Winchester College DVD; how Three Friends came about and why Kerry decided to depart; more on the possibility of working with Ray Schulman again; and forthcoming releases.

Thanks once again to Kerry Minnear and to Anne Leighton of Leighton Media.

In a Glass House
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Free Hand
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Power & The Glory
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Interview with Kerry Minnear of Gentle Giant (Part Two)

admin — Tue, 02 Feb 2010 20:04:47 +0000

This is the second installment of my recent in-depth interview with keyboardist/vocalist/composer Kerry Minnear of Gentle Giant. In this podcast episode we discuss playing on the bill with Yes; differences between Gentle Giant and Yes; John Weathers; recollections of Free Hand; Playing The Fool and Gentle Giant’s reputation as a live band; the relationship between Kerry and Ray Schulman as the principal writers; cooperation vs. competition; the possibility of them writing together again; what embellishments were added to the “Intro ‘74″ and “Intro ‘76″ tracks for the new re-masters; the individuality of music that was recorded with less advanced technology vs. the sameness of the digital recording process.

Thanks again to Kerry Minnear and Anne Leighton of Leighton Media. Please stay tuned for Part Three, which I will post Thursday.

To listen to the interview in streaming, click the play button on the player below. To download it, right click where it says “Listen to the interview” and save it to your computer. You can also access the podcast via iTunes by searching We Will Rock You in podcasts.

In a Glass House
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Free Hand
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21 used & new available from USD 6.46

Power & The Glory
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Kirk Woodring remembers his brother Kyle: “He saw the world through a different lens.”

admin — Sat, 30 Jan 2010 01:03:22 +0000

I never met Kyle Woodring. I first became aware of him a few years ago when I was working on a book entitled The Grand Delusion: The Unauthorized True Story of Styx. I was trying to get as many interviews with people close to the members of Styx as I could, and Kyle was the drummer for former Styx front man Dennis DeYoung in his solo career. I saw Kyle in concert with DeYoung, and shortly thereafter I e-mailed Kyle to ask for an interview and never received a reply. I wasn’t surprised, as it had become increasingly clear to me that the DeYoung camp was a closed shop to me in terms of that project.

I finished the book and forgot all about it until last September 8th, when I saw some fan posts on Facebook that Kyle had passed away unexpectedly. That got my attention, because he was young and seemingly healthy, and the cause of his death was unknown. As the day wore on some of his friends and colleagues also posted about his passing, and it was apparent from the tone of what was not being said that everyone was deliberately avoiding mentioning the cause of his death.

The next day Kyle’s brother Kirk posted to Facebook, “”Kyle struggled for most of his life with depression. At times his depression overwhelmed him. Despite all he had in his life, he often was unable to recognize his worth to the world. On September 8th he succeeded in committing suicide. I feel helpless and saddened to not have been able to help Kyle in his last hours. I’m sure many of you share this feeling of guilt. I also know that those truly intent on suicide rarely reach out once they are committed to the act. In fact the decision to act on these thoughts can bring about a sense of peace and calm. Depression is sometimes a terminal illness. I love my brother deeply and know how wonderful his life was. I will celebrate his light and know that the darkness is no longer present for him.”

I was struck by his unsurprised tone of resignation, especially in contrast to the slew of tributes that had come online from friends and colleagues who universally expressed their disbelief. ”Talking about Kyle’s death with a friend a day after the news came, we agreed that if he could go off the rails, anyone could,” wrote Robbie Fulks, with whom Kyle had played. ”Almost anyone I’ve worked with, as well as I myself, would seem a likelier candidate for suicide.”

Survivor guitarist Frankie Sullivan posted to Facebook, “I am deeply saddened to have learned of the passing of my friend and one time Survivor Drummer Kyle Woodring. He was the best of people and will be dearly missed by all. Godspeed Kyle.” Dennis DeYoung posted a picture of Kyle on his website with the caption, ”A gathering of angels appeared above my head. In memory of my good friend Kyle Woodring. “

Still, it gnawed at me, why isn’t his brother surprised?

This isn’t really my kind of story at all. I write about the music business, and sometimes that ends up touching the fringes of the personal lives of some of the performers I cover, and sometimes those people are privately troubled. It certainly isn’t a secret that the entertaiment business, by its very nature, caters to the exploitation of damaged personalities, which helps explain why alcohol, drugs and sexual addiction are sometimes a part of the equation. So there’s no reason to be surprised when yet another musician takes his own life. But I’m interested in the link between mental illness and musical ability, which can’t be defined but nonetheless seems obvious to me. Depression is so pervasive in the music business that I often wonder whether musical ability is, in itself, an illness, or perhaps a symptom of a larger illness. It may be a side effect of depression. I don’t know, but I can state without reservation that the vast majority of people I know who have genuine musical talent also have depression.

I set out to wrote an ambitious article about the death of Kyle Woodring that would examine the root causes of his depression and suicide. I intended to shine a light into the dark places of the musical psyche and perhaps make it a little easier to understand why a young man who had everything going for him would choose to end his own life.

But I failed. Kyle’s friend and former Icos band mate Danny McGuinness warned me in an email, “Having lost three friends, all incredibly talented artists, to suicide, I wonder if you’re chasing a ghost in connecting creativity and depression. It’s never as easy or neat an explanation as that.” And so it isn’t. No matter how obvious the link between music and mental illness appears to me, I can’t categorically make any assessment of what drove Kyle Woodring and his decisions. What standing do I have to do that? This isn’t a concert review, where I say whether I thought it was good or bad and then everyone forgets about it and moves on. Kyle Woodring is gone, and it would be disrespectful to his family, friends and colleagues for me to categorize his death through the flawed filter of my own understanding or lack thereof. If his own brother couldn’t really understand his depression when he was here, how can I hope to when he’s not?

What follows, then, is my audio interview with Kyle’s brother Kirk Woodring in which he shares some of the joys and struggles of Kyle’s life. While it’s not what I intended, I think in the end it’s more fitting than whatever I might have written.

I want to leave you with one thought that struck me from the interview. “Depression doesn’t have to be a terminal illness,” Kirk told me. “I liken it to diabetes or any other illness; if you treat it, it gets better. It’s not a character flaw, it’s not that you’re crazy. It is an illness.”

For more informtion on suicide hotlines http://suicidehotlines.com/

For more information on depression http://www.depression.com/

Interview with Kerry Minnear of Gentle Giant (Part One)

admin — Fri, 29 Jan 2010 20:52:17 +0000

The last few months have been an exciting time for Gentle Giant fans. After years of relative inactivity, punctuated by sporadic releases of varying quality, over the course of the last few months Gentle Giant has released a large slice of its catalog in digital formats for the first time, and now those same re-masters are coming to CD versions as well. On Tuesday EMI released In A Glass House (1973), The Power and the Glory (1974) and Free Hand (1975) on CD. February will bring additional releases of Playing The Fool, Interview, The Missing Piece, and Giant For A Day, and a DVD entitled GG Live at Winchester College will emerge later in the year as well.

I have been lucky enough to interview both Derek Shulman and Gary Green from Gentle Giant previously, so I was very happy to get the opportunity to interview keyboardist Kerry Minnear, who called me from his home in the UK on Thursday, January 28th to discuss the new releases and his career with Gentle Giant. Over and over what strikes me about the members of Gentle Giant is how different they are from most of the rock musicians I deal with. I routinely interview some of the most famous musicians of a certain time period, as well as some lesser-known people, and they tend to fall into two distinct categories. The ones who have succeeded but whose success is mostly in the past tend to be embittered, looking back over their shoulders at a time in their lives that has been gone for decades, but continues to define them in the public eye in a way they can never really escape. The ones who took a shot but didn’t really achieve commercial success tend to be embittered by their lack of success.

The members of Gentle Giant, by sharp contrast, seem to genuinely celebrate the music they created together; they seem to understand that the very nature of what they created was always going to limit its commercial prospects, and they seem to be okay with that, even proud of it. There’s a humility about the members of the group that isn’t really the norm for musicians. In the case of Kerry Minnear in particular, he is so soft-spoken and unassuming that it’s almost difficult to picture him in a setting where he was required to earn his living by going out and entertaining people en masse, and it’s almost impossible to imagine him having to function in the shark tank of the Seventies music business.

Perhaps that’s a part of why Gentle Giant never garnered more commercial success, who knows? I can only say that the band left a unique and lasting legacy, and it’s a great time to be a Gentle Giant fan right now. In this podcast episode Kerry Minnear discusses the recent burst of Gentle Giant business after years of relative inactivity; the new generations of Gentle Giant fans; why In A Glass House was not released in America initially; touring with Black Sabbath; touring with Jethro Tull; The Power and the Glory and why it became a concept album; and the differences between Gentle Giant and other progressive rock bands.

Special thanks to Kerry Minnear and to Anne Leighton for arranging this interview.

Stay tuned for Part Two, which I will post Tuesday.

To listen in streaming click on the “play” button on the player below. To download, right click where it says “Listen to the Interview”. You can also access this podcast through iTunes by searching We Will Rock You in podcasts.

In a Glass House
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Free Hand
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Power & The Glory
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Interview with Marillion Guitarist Steve Rothery (Part Two)

admin — Tue, 19 Jan 2010 23:19:03 +0000

This is the second and final installment of my recent interview with Marillion guitarist Steve Rothery. In this podcast episode we discuss the challenges of marketing albums when you move around stylistically; the artistic freedom Marillion affords; the Marillion/Fish one-off reunion a while back; why that won’t lead to a full-blown reunion; changes in Fish’s voice and how that changes the music; should Marillion have changed its name when Steve Hogarth replaced Fish; what’s next for Marillion; the second Wishing Tree album Ostara; the slowness of the Wishing Tree work process; possibility of Marillion doing US dates coming up; why Marillion has not had the same success in America as elsewhere; possibility of Rothery doing some guitar clinics in the US; plans to do some shows or a book featuring his photography.

Thanks again to Steve Rothery, Lucy Jordache, and to Carol Kaye at Kayos Productions.

Ostara
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Interview with Marillion Guitarist Steve Rothery (Part One)

admin — Thu, 07 Jan 2010 22:08:01 +0000

Marillion is one of those bands that constantly challenges its audience. The band first rose to prominence in the Eighties as an anomaly, a progressive rock band signed to a major label and putting out hit records at a time when progressive rock was as good as dead. Early albums like Script For A Jester’s Tear, Fugazi, Misplaced Childhood and Clutching At Straws put Marillion on the map in the UK and internationally, while critics carped that the band was just re-hashed Genesis, due in part to the vocal style of lead singer Fish.

After Fish departed in 1988, the band took a slight turn in direction with 1989’s Seasons End, with new singer Steve Hogarth bringing a very different vocal style to the material, much of which had been demoed before he joined the group. Hogarth would have a better chance to showcase his individual contributions with the next album Holidays In Eden. The album was much more of a song-based record, with more pop leanings and little of the progressive embellishment of past works. The album was received well by what was essentially a new fan base for the band, while many of the group’s longtime hardcore fans saw it as a dramatic step away from the Marillion they had come to love. Thus began a division in the fan ranks that would continue to dog Marillion from that day forward, to the point that singer Steve Hogarth has stated publicly that he wishes the band had changed its name upon his joining so the current lineup would not have to carry the baggage attached to the name.

Over the course of two ensuing decades Marillion has released one challenging record after another, many of them having very little to do with one another or the traditional notion of progressive rock. The band has gone through periods of success and periods of relative obscurity, has gone from a critically despised group to a band that many critics now hail as an undervalued, misunderstood treasure, and has gone from getting ripped off by major labels to controllling and marketing its own work. Marillion’s latest album is entitled Less Is More and features acoustic re-arrangements of some of the band’s past work, as well as a new track.

I spoke with guitarist Steve Rothery from his home in England. This is my second interview with Steve; previously I spoke with him for a book entitled Unsung Heroes of Rock Guitar. Rothery is one of the stalwarts of Marillion; he is one of the founding members, going all the way back to pre-Fish days when the band was still called Silmarillion. Rothery has seen it all and then some in the ups and downs of his career with Marillion, and he’s always had a good sense of humor about the drama of the band, its fans, and the misconceptions and misperceptions that the band has often suffered at the hands of critics who, in many cases, might not have heard anything the band has recorded for nearly twenty years.

In this podcast episode we discuss the idea behind the new album Less Is More; challenged of re-arranging Marillion tunes in an acoustic setting; songs that didn’t work in that setting; electric playing vs. acoustic playing; the Marillion business model of using the Internet to fund and market its products; the global fan community as a family; changes in the business since Marillion’s early days; balancing music and business when you are a creative person marketing your own work; writing process in Marillion; longevity of Marillion and the give and take of being in a band over that long a period of time; differences in old fans and new fans; and is Marillion still progressive rock?

Thanks to Steve Rothery and to Lucy Jordache for arranging this interview.

Stay tuned for Part Two, which I will post next week.

Less Is More
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Interview with Rick Wakeman

admin — Wed, 09 Dec 2009 00:11:00 +0000

Rick Wakeman is one of the most legendary keyboardists in rock music history. From his early work with The Strawbs, through the halcyon years of Yes and into a solo career that has spanned hit albums, movie soundtracks, books and even comedy, Wakeman’s life has had a larger-than-life cast to it.

Perhaps Wakeman’s best-known solo work was 1973’s The Six Wives of Henry VIII. The ambitious concept record was a surprise hit, ultimately selling fifteen million copies worldwide even though it was a purely instrumental recording. In keeping with his proclivity for staging enormous live spectacles, Wakeman wanted to perform the album live in its entirety at Henry VIII’s Hampton Court Palace, but shelved the idea when he found it impossible to get the permissions he needed.

2009 marks the 500th anniversary of Henry VIII’s ascension to the throne, and with the album having been firmly embedded as a classic in England, Rick Wakeman was at last able to fulfill his long-held desire to perform the album live at Hampton Court Palace. The once-in-a-lifetime event is captured on the new CD/DVD aptly titled The Six Wives of Henry VIII Live At Hampton Court Palace, which features Wakeman’s original score, amended to include some new material and performed with a full orchestra and choir. The result is a once-in-a-lifetime musical and visual achievement that is as uncompromisingly brilliant and over-the-top as we’ve come to expect from a man who wears a cape onstage and has been known to perform concerts with dancers on ice.

I spoke with Rick Wakeman on December 8, 2009 by phone from his home in England. This was actually the third time we’d been scheduled; the first time our interview got pushed back because the time change in England wound up losing an hour out of Rick’s schedule, and the second time it was scheduled Rick’s entourage was involved in a minor accident and he could not make it back in time to take the call. The third time was the charm, as is Rick Wakeman himself. I have met Rick before, and I knew that he’s a good-natured gentleman; this interview is a reflection of that as Rick shares his music business stories with his trademark wry humor and wit. This is one of those scenarios where he has been giving many, many interviews about this same project for weeks and weeks, many of which by the very nature of the beast contain most of the same questions. Often that can result in a very dry interview, but Rick answered all of my questions as enthusiastically and with as much good humor as if it were the first time he’d been asked them. Hopefully I managed at least one or two that he doesn’t get every day!

Special thanks to Carol Kaye for arranging this interview, and to Rick Wakeman for his time and observations.

The Six Wives Of Henry VIII: Live At Hampton Court Palace
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Interview with Michael Cartellone (Part Five)

admin — Thu, 03 Dec 2009 00:54:06 +0000

This is the fifth and final part of my recent in-depth interview with Lynyrd Skynyrd/Damn Yankees drummer Michael Cartellone. In this segment we talk about lost tracks from the unreleased third Damn Yankees album that have surfaced elsewhere, including “Shine On” and “Yes I Can”; the possibility of a Damn Yankees reunion; why that has not yet happened; playing sessions in the period between Damn Yankees and Lynyrd Skynyrd; other studio and live work Michael has done over the years; and we close with Michael talking about his art and gallery showings.

Thanks once again to Michael Cartellone for his time in giving this most insightful interview.

For more information please visit www.michaelcartellone.com.

Interview with Lita Ford and Jim Gillette from Long Live Rock

admin — Mon, 30 Nov 2009 17:06:31 +0000

Lita Ford is a rock music legend. As a teenager she was a member of The Runaways, the first all-female hard rock band. Ford then segued into a solo career, with early releases like Out For Blood and Dancin’ On The Edge garnering her a rabid cult following, while failing to propel her into the mainstream. A subsequent album entitled The Bride Wore Black was never released due to creative differences between Lita and Mercury Records. Ford spent several years extricating herself from that deal and landing a new contract with RCA, as well as management with Sharon Osbourne.

The result was Ford’s 1988 breakthrough Lita, which featured four hit singles including Lita’s best-known song “Close My Eyes Forever”, a haunting ballad with guest Ozzy Osbourne. Subsequent albums like Stiletto and Dangerous Curves still found a receptive audience, but the music scene was fast changing, and by the time of Ford’s 1995 album Black the writing was on the wall not just for Lita Ford, but for hard rock in general as it was left behind in the wake of the emergence of grunge. That would prove Lita Ford’s last studio release for fifteen years. She married Nitro singer Jim Gillette and had two sons, and in a remarkable twist the family moved to a deserted island in the Carribbean, far away from the spotlight Ford had once enjoyed.

In 2008 Lita Ford shocked the world of hard rock by announcing that she would return to the stage at the Rocklahoma festival in July. This was followed by the news that she would begin touring again in anticipation of a new album. Since June 2009 Lita has been playing festival dates with her new band while preparing for the October release of her first album in fifteen years, entitled Wicked Wonderland. Ford released Wicked Wonderland in October, followed by a tour with Queensryche. She and her husband Jim Gillette just returned from that tour, and they joined us Sunday night on Long Live Rock to discuss the album, their lives together, and even the influence Lita’s parents have on the way they raise their own kids.

Listen to the interview here http://www.blogtalkradio.com/longliverock/2009/11/30/interview-with-lita-ford-and-jim-gillette