There’s not that many bands I’ve traveled continents to see but Firehouse is one of them, making a trip from Australia back in 2008 to catch them (OK I’ll admit and a few others) at Rocklahoma that year just before I started The Rockpit. I saw them again in 2010 at the Rock In America festival in Oklahoma City where I first interviewed the band. I’ve caught up with CJ few times since but never Bill. This year I get to put that right ahead of the Melodic Rock Fest in Melbourne in March.
Bill: Hey, Mark, how ya doing?
Mark: Good thanks, Bill, how are you?
Bill: I am doing well thanks, thanks for doing this.
Mark: No problem. It’s a great year for a Firehouse fan to finally get you down to Australia on the anniversary of that remarkable first album.
Bill: Thank you, we’ve been trying for a long time, but timing didn’t work out for whatever reason, but this one did, so we fly out after doing a couple of gigs, one in Las Vegas, one in Dallas and then we fly there, do the gig in Melbourne and fly right back to do a gig in Mahnomen!! We get a lot of frequent flyer points!!
Mark: That’s crazy!! I’ve spoken to CJ in the past when you’ve been coming down to places like Indonesia, and getting pretty close to where we are here, but things just haven’t aligned, so it’s great that Peter’s got you over! I couldn’t think of a better headliner! The last time I saw you was in 2010 at Rock in America, in Oklahoma.
Bill: Thanks, man, yeah, Rock in America that was at the Zoo Amphitheatre, in Oklahoma City, with the Scorpions. That was my claim to fame, “yeah, we opened up for the Scorpions!” they’re my favourite band!
Mark: Yeah, I was doing the media that day, and I wandered backstage, and The Scorpions arrived just as you finished your set, it was perfect timing! They all walked over to the big beer truck that if you remember was there at the back of the stage area.
Bill: Well I do remember that day being about 105 degrees, and at the end of the set I was kind of seeing stars, we had only just flown over, I think from Korea the day before, so we were all messed up!
Mark: It was a great day, and I’m sure the Melodic Rock Fest is going to be just as memorable. I always love catching up with people though, when there’s an anniversary, and Firehouse’s first album came out in 1990, it’s one of my favourite albums, one that I still listen to. What are your thoughts? I know you still play a lot of those songs live. What’s your most enduring memory of recording that album?
Bill: Well, I think back to the recording of that album, and by the time that we had recorded it, we had already recorded all of those songs about 5 times! We had demos for this and demos for that, and then the record company wanted to make sure we were compatible with the producer, so they had us record at his studio, he had a little studio at his house. Little did we know that they just wanted to make sure that if they gave us the money to record in the real studio that we wouldn’t go over budget! So, the producer reported back to them, and said yes, we can get this done under budget, and so then we recorded it again, for real! By the time we did that, we had it pretty much mapped out, but it was great to be in that studio, a world class studio that was owned by Jay Beckenstein, who was the sax player/ band leader from a band called Spyro Gyra. It was upstate New York, and it was just gorgeous, an 18th century dairy farm building that he had converted in to a studio, so it was a huge place, and his house was connected to it, it was awesome. I guess that’s a lot of great memories that, you ask me a question like that, and I just start to overflow with all these things, but that was it for me.
Mark: I saw that you are playing the album from start to finish on the MOR cruise, are you going to do that for us in Melbourne?
Bill: That is what we want to do, yeah, I think that’s the plan, we’re going to try and do that for all the gigs on our thirty year anniversary. Any of them that have time, it takes about an hour to do all those songs front to back and to also say hello and say goodnight. If we have more than an hour, which I presume we do have at that gig, then we’re going to do that.
Mark: Fantastic! I’ve had lots of people messaging me, excited that I’m going to be talking to Firehouse, more than anyone else, it’s a great festival and a great line up, but I think it is the band that has caught a lot of imagination from us here in Australia. I must ask you, I know you write and I follow your social media and know you’ve been involved in a lot of projects over the years, is there a thought when you look at the band over the past thirty years and think there may be another album somewhere around the corner?
Bill: Absolutely, we’d love to do it. I think getting started has been our biggest challenge, we’re all up for doing it, we just have to get that first song where we go “hey, this is the song that picks up where we left off”, and we can all be real excited and proud of, and so it all starts with that first song, and that’s the challenge. We’re trying to do it.
Mark: Great, it’s been far too long, and I’ve loved everything that you’ve put out. I loved “Prime Time”, which must have come out just over fifteen years ago.
Bill: Was it really that long ago?! Yeah, I guess you’re right, time flies, man!
Mark: It does when you’re having fun!
Bill: Yeah, we’re touring a whole lot too; we did almost sixty shows last year, and they’re all fly dates so they take a long time to recover from, it seems like you turn round and then you have to fly out again, there’s all these other distractions too that happen in life that take you away from writing and recording a new album, but that’s life.
Mark: That’s right, it’s one of those things where some people will argue, what’s the point if it’s not going to bring in the money, other people would say you have to do it if you’re driven that way and it’s the creativity that you have to put something down. It’s like a lot of industries out there; it’s really feeling the pinch at the moment, and even though the fans will be buying it, music isn’t what it used to be is it?
Bill: Well the business certainly has changed, I think of a new album as kind of being a promotional item for a tour, and it wouldn’t hurt us to put out at least a song, if not an album, I’m so anxious, and when I’ve finished a song of my own I always want to release it right away! I don’t want to wait till I’ve got ten, I reckon you’d be waiting forever!! If we put out just one song and ask for donations or whatever, which is what I do with my signed stuff, that’s always a great way to put a song out. It’s always better if you can go out and play it live, which I don’t do, but Firehouse certainly could. So, we’re talking about it, we want to do it, we played three shows this past weekend, we come home and we’re wiped out, and then we get ready to go out on this Monsters of Rock cruise next week. After that we’re in the Caribbean, and then we fly up to Minnesota where it’ll be 20 below zero, to do a show, and the next day we fly to Chicago, so there’s a lot of touring now. We just have to be one of those bands that say we’re going to make this happen, we can do it!
Mark: We’re now going to be doing a special Melodic Rock Fest podcast that we’ll be putting out, I think I’ve now covered all the international bands that are going to be there, and yours is the big interview that people have been waiting for. So I have three questions, I’ve asked everyone. If you could have been a fly on the wall for the creation of any great album, just to see how the magic happened in the studio, what would you have loved to be there for?
Bill: Led Zeppelin 4, the one with Stairway on it, Battle of Evermore and Rock and Roll, it was just masterpiece after masterpiece, and just Jimmy Page’s production and his guitar playing, and the whole band! I would’ve loved to have learned how they put all that together, That’s the first one that comes to mind, I’m sure I could come up with twenty more, if you gave me two more minutes, but I know we’re short on time!
Mark: Normally we get The Beatles as an answer, but for me, you can’t beat a bit of Led Zep!
Bill: Well “Sergeant Pepper” would be in my top 20 probably. And “Love at First Sting” by The Scorpions, I love that, and “Blackout”!
Mark: Blackout is the one for me.
Bill: That is a great album!! Gosh, it changed my life.
Mark: I did read The Scorpions were a big influence on your playing, were you a big Schenker fan?
Bill: Oh yeah! I found out about Michael Schenker late, in my early years of learning how to play guitar, and then I found out about The Scorpions when Blackout came out, so I went back and found “Lovedrive”, “Animal Magnetism” and then the Uli Roth stuff, and so I found about them so late, and they became my favourite band! Such great songs and just everything about that band is just perfect to me.
Mark: Were you a big UFO fan as well?
Bill: I was, and I found out about them, you know I started to play guitar when I was in 8th grade, but I didn’t find out about UFO until I was about 20 years old, and I heard “Rock Bottom” the live version, and I couldn’t believe how cool this guy makes the guitar sound, and how his melodies are so cool! Then I started listening to everything Michael Schenker, he’s definitely one of my top ten guitar players.
Mark: A lovely guy too, I’ve interviewed him a few times when he puts a new album out, his latest one , “Revelation” is great if you get chance to check that out. The next question is, you’ve got a table booked at your favourite restaurant, and you can invite four people, living or dead, who would you invite?
Bill: I guess Paul McCartney would be one of them; I’m glad he’s still around, a great songwriter and a great personality, I’ve checked out a lot of his interviews and he’s just a wonderful guy, so he’d be a pleasure to have dinner with.
Mark: He was Kip Winger’s first choice too!
Bill: Oh, is that right?!! Kip’s a cool dude, he’s a great artist, and I’ve had the pleasure of having breakfast, lunch and dinner with him a couple of times and he is a great guy! Ok, second would be Eddie Van Halen, he was probably one of my biggest guitar influences and such a great writer, and a master of not only solo’s but riffs. That is a great question!! Jeff Beck would be another one, I got to meet him once in London, and he was just the nicest guy, I’d like to thank him and tell him what a great influence he was on me. Finally, and it would have to be a long dinner as I would want to talk to these guys for a long time, Steve Morse, I think he’s the best guitar player that has ever lived! I’ve met him a few times but haven’t really got to sit down with him and hear stories, of how he learned and the Dixie Dregs stories, and his stuff now with Deep purple. To me, if I could play like anybody it would be Steve Morse.
Mark: I love his solo stuff as well, he is a fantastic guitarist.
Bill: Me too, everything that he does is just so cool, if anybody out there hasn’t heard him, please look him up and listen to his music, it’s incredible!
Mark: We always leave the easy question for the end, what is the meaning of life?
Bill: The meaning of life to me is do everything you can to make yourself happy, and what makes you happy is doing the right thing, staying true to your principles and having the people around you that are going to lift you up.
Mark: That’s great, a wonderful sentiment to end with. Thank you so much for taking the time to talk to us today, Bill, it’s been a pleasure to talk to you. I’ll see you in Melbourne!
Bill: Thank you, I can’t wait to shake your hand!! Thank you Mark, and all your readers and listeners I appreciate the time.
