Part 1 Teaming up with Billy Idol again, solo records, flamenco guitar playing

JEB WRIGHT of Classic Rock Revisited  www.classicrockrevisited.com recently did an interview with Steve, just prior to the Storytellers show & he very kindly agreed to delay posting it until our new pages were ready. Thank you to Jeb for this. You can hear what Steve had to say by checking out the Features section under Interviews.

Classic Rock Revisited presents another exclusive interview!

Steve Stevens

Billy Idol's guitar player is back and ready to kick ass in the new millennium!

By

Jeb Wright

Growing up in the early 1980's I was exposed to every kind of music that was available at the time.  Punk, Hard Rock, Heavy Metal, Southern Rock, Stoner Rock, you name it I listened to it.  I remember hearing Billy Idol for the first time and wondering, "Who the hell is that guitar player?"  From that moment on I followed Steve Stevens career.  A few years ago I was thrilled to discover that Steve was in a new band with former Frank Zappa drummer Terry Bozzio and fretless bass master Tony Levin.  The band, signed to progressive label Magna Carta, has released two albums of music that one must hear to fully appreciated.  

Stevens is also an accomplished flamenco guitarist and has a collection of that style available to the public as well.  However, it is his return to Billy Idol that has created a buzz in the world of classic rock.  We took a moment to catch up with Steve as he was in rehearsals for the VH1 Storytellers series.  What follows is a candid look at Steve Stevens the musician as well as Steve Stevens the man. 

Photographs provided by The Official Billy Idol Fan Club.  Unauthorized reproduction is not only unethical, it is illegal.  Visit Steve on line at www.billyidol.com

Jeb: I’m Jeb Wright from Classic Rock Revisited. How’s it going?

Steve Stevens: It’s going, man, it’s going.

Jeb: I want to thank you for taking a few minutes to meet with us. I just want to take a few minutes to catch up with you and see what it is that you are up to. I really love the album you did called Situation Dangerous.

Steve: Thanks man.

Jeb: What is new? What are you working on now?

Steve: I am in rehearsals with Billy Idol. We are doing VH1 Storytellers. We fly to New York on Friday to record that. We are playing a couple of nights at the Bottom Line and doing David Letterman while we are there. We just released a greatest hits record so we are out promoting it. That is what I am up to this week!

Jeb: How did all this come about?

Steve: I came out here to Los Angeles six years ago to work with Billy and we have maintained a friendship while we were not working together. We recorded an album of material that was never released. So we have been working together but there has not been any music. Hopefully that will change this year.

Jeb: How did you get hooked up with Storytellers? Did they call you guys?

Steve: I would imagine that they contacted Billy’s management. We have an episode of Behind The Music as well.

Jeb: They have kind of neglected the whole 80’s music thing. So I guess you will be the first representation huh?

Steve: They definitely picked a juicy one! There are definitely grits for the mill in his story! We are going to be playing unplugged. We are doing a new song and then some really old stuff from Generation X. We are just going to run the gamut.

Jeb: When you think of Billy Idol unplugged that makes you go, “How are you going to do that?”

Steve: It makes me wonder too! It is actually sounding really good. We have added a percussionist. We have Joseph Simon who is Fiona Apple’s keyboard player. We are reinterpreting this stuff. Oddly enough, things like “White Wedding” sound best with just me on guitar and Billy singing. We are really stripping it down in order to present the songs.

Jeb: You are also known for some pretty flashing lead playing. Are you going to be ripping it out on the acoustic?

Steve: They are few and far between. Time gives you a different perspective on things. I keep making the solos shorter.

Jeb: You cut it down to precisely what needs to be said.

Steve: Exactly.

Jeb: Have you guys recorded any of the shows yet?

Steve: No.

Jeb: What are you anticipating from Storytellers?

Steve: I don’t know. I think the questions are prescreened anyway.

Jeb: Otherwise you would get some really interesting ones!

Steve: “So, what kind of drugs did you do when you wrote “Eyes Without A Face”?” “Well, gee, that was a combination of crack and marijuana!”

Jeb: CUT!

Steve: (laughter)

Jeb: How did you end up getting hooked up with Billy Idol in the first place? I have heard his story but what about yours?

Steve: I had been with a group called the Fine Malibus and we were managed by Bill Aucoin who managed Kiss. We had recorded an album with Island Records that was never released. I was really frustrated. I went in and told Bill, “Man, I’m leaving this group. It’s not happening for me.” He said, “Okay, we will help you put together a band.” I started placing adds in the Village Voice looking for musicians. Bill called me a couple of weeks later and told me, “I’m bringing over this singer and his name is Billy Idol. He is in a group called Generation X. Here is some of his music.” I was a rock n’ roll guitar player. When I listened to the last Generation X record, there was a track on it called “Revenge”. It was so beautiful and textural that it made me think that there may be a way to take what I am doing and what he is doing and make it work. We arranged to meet. You could not have picked two more different people.

Jeb: What was your first impression of Billy Idol?

Steve: This guy was the first rock star that I had ever met. He looked amazing. He had so much energy. I remember that he had a little apartment on Charles Street in Grenwich Village. He had so much charisma that it was just a matter of time before he was a big star.

Jeb: Did you guys expect the album to jump out the way it did with “White Wedding”?

Steve: It didn’t really. Now people think that the song was more successful than it was at the time. It only made it to the Top 50 on the charts. It was really popular in the dance clubs. We were still playing clubs and traveling around in a mini-van. It was pretty shitty conditions. It really didn’t happen for us until “Eyes Without A Face” was released. We had already been together for a number of years.

Jeb: MTV must have helped….

Steve: “White Wedding” was a super popular video. MTV was not really helping you sell a lot of records the way that it is now.

Jeb: I can remember that the stuff on the Top 10 Videos was not corresponding to the charts. I think the video must have helped you guys because you had one of the most distinct looks.

Steve: That was all Billy’s deal. He was involved in a real artistic community. His girlfriend at the time was a dancer and they just pooled their resources and personalities and created really interesting videos.

Jeb: From my perspective, I think the music really mixed rock guitar with punk pop. No one was doing it the way you did it from a guitar perspective.

Steve: Exactly. I have to credit Billy’s producer. He was a disco producer. You had a disco producer, a rock guitar player and a punk singer! It was lot of musical vocabulary to cover. It gave us a unique approach to things. I remember meeting guys from Judas Priest and they would say that they were influenced in their writing from Rebel Yell. I think there was one record that they kind of tried to cop a little bit of that. It didn’t work. When you take my guitar style and put it in the context of hard rock then it just becomes hard rock guitar. When you put it in the context of Billy Idol music then it becomes a lot more interesting.

Jeb: What is it about your mix that works?

Steve: A lot of it is the fact that Billy is a crooner. He is not a heavy metal singer. When you have a singer whose range is much lower then you tend to voice your guitar parts much lower. It almost sounds like modern Elvis or something!

Jeb: You were breaking out of the pentatonic mode. You were not playing the 12 bar blues scales….

Steve: I was always asked to do something out there or different at Billy’s urging. He turned me onto the guitar player for Susie & The Banshees. He was doing amazing guitar stuff. He never got the credit that he deserves. At the time, all my influences were coming from keyboard music like Suicide, ELO and the Human League. I was not taking my influences from guitar music.

Jeb: On Situation Dangerous you are playing all over the place.

Steve: I still strive to be a textural guitar player. I don’t always achieve that but it still intrigues me.

Jeb: Do you always use the same guitar equipment?

Steve: It really depends on the situation. With Terry (Bozzio) and Tony (Levin) there is a lot of guitar synth. I still record with old Marshal Amps. I have a Paul Reed Smith guitar that never fails me. I use whatever the situation calls for.

Jeb: I spoke with Terry a while back and he said that the two of you guys were basically just doing improv.

Steve: That is the case with the first record. We didn’t rehearse. We just went into the studio and recorded. With the second record, I wanted to have five days of rehearsal to go over ideas. I think that is the difference between the two records. The second one is more song structured.

Jeb: Five days is not an extended period of time!

Steve: No it’s not. But somehow we managed to pull it off.

Jeb: I love the Spanish guitar influence.

Steve: That’s my thing. I did a Flamenco record last year. It is definitely my thing.

Jeb: Is that from your history or is this a new direction for you?

Steve: One of the first guitar teachers I had was a Flamenco musician. When I went to high school performing arts, one of the students was Mario Escadero Jr. His Dad was the guitarist of the Jose Greco Dance Company. I have always been aware of Flamenco guitar players. Flamenco is kind of the speed metal of acoustic guitar!

Jeb: Have you gotten anybody that has asked you, “Where the hell did Billy Idol’s guitar player learn how to do all this stuff?”

Steve: I am not a traditional Flamenco player. My record incorporates a lot of electronics and stuff. It is just the fact that I am playing it on a Flamenco instrument. Music has to evolve. Imagine if everyone still painted like Rembrandt. It will evolve or it will die.

Jeb: How do feel about the state of rock music?

Steve: I have an interest in modern music. The musicians that I love are always looking towards the future and not looking back towards the past. I don’t know if you have heard the latest Jeff Beck record but that is certainly a testament to a guy looking forward. In my opinion, it is Jeff’s best record since Blow By Blow. I hope I am 57 years old making techno-rock records! That is what I want to be doing.

Jeb: He is one of your influences.

Steve: He is such an influence that I don’t want to sound like him! I have that much respect for him. I think that people who love Jeff so much that they just want to play like him are not getting the point. Get your own voice. He is getting his influence from Indian music and Bulgarian chants. He is doing it his own way.

Jeb: Bozzio said that he was totally blown away by your playing. He said that he had no idea what you could do on a guitar.

Steve: I think people underestimate me. It’s not easy to make a good pop rock record. People think that it is because there are not a lot of notes involved. You know what? Making Rebel Yell took almost ten months. It was the hardest record I have ever worked on. It was real sweat and blood to write music that way and to record and play that way. It is a lot easier to just noodle around. People think, “That’s brilliant!” Simplicity is not an easy thing to come by. Miles Davis said, “The whole idea of music is to get the most emotion across with the fewest amounts of notes.” That is really what it is about. Brilliant technical ability is only useful when it is surrounded by simplicity.

Jeb: I would assume that with Billy Idol that you were in some pretty tight self imposed boundaries.

Steve: Not so much self-imposed. Those guys kicked my ass! I am pretty open about that. Here is a punk rock guy who didn’t want a whole bunch of noodling. He was able to get me to the core of what was good about my guitar playing. He edited out all the extraneous crap.

Jeb: Was it difficult for you?

Steve: Yeah, it was really difficult. It never came to blows but we had some heated moments about it. That is the dynamics of any singer and guitar player relationship. To this day it is the Jagger/Richards love hate thing.

Jeb: Did you guys write together like Jagger and Richards?

Steve: With the exception of “White Wedding” which Billy wrote himself. Other than that, my involvement with him was as a co-songwriter. We would just sit in a room and come up with ideas.

Jeb: Was it his lyrics to your music?

Steve: Basically, it was his lyrics. A lot of times it was my music but a lot of times he would contribute a chorus or something. There is a song called “Blue Highway” that I wrote the lyrics and came up with the title. It was whatever works.

Jeb: What is one of your most memorable experiences about the early days?

Steve: We had been out with Rebel Yell and we played at Nassau Coliseum. That was really kind of like accomplishing something. The crowds were getting bigger. There is a point where you are playing a song and the crowd anticipates the guitar solo or the guitar riff. Everyone knows it because it has been on the radio. It is really a great feeling.

Jeb: You did have to survive the wild life. You guys got lucky in that you didn’t die.

Steve: Fortunately, I never lost sight of the fact that I love playing music. The other stuff was peripheral. If it ever infringed on my musicality then it was going to have to be eliminated.

Jeb: I wonder why you could do that but others in the past could not do that.

Steve: A lot of times, the business destroys them. In Jimi Hendrix’s case, the business just ate him up. It becomes about management problems and all this other bullshit. I have been able to avoid that. I try to keep my house tidy, business wise. I respect that I have been given a gift from God. I started playing guitar when I was seven and a half years old. That instrument that I have had in my hands for 33 years, I still love. I still wake up and put it in my hands and love it. That is a gift from God. I don’t want to disrespect that. I am very careful to give it its proper due.

Jeb: When did you know that you finally had to split with Billy?

Steve: I was offered a big deal with another record company that wanted me to do a solo record. The record that we did after Rebel Yell wasn’t the type of record that I wanted to make. 50% of my time was spent programming the drums and the sequencers. It wasn’t that enjoyable to me. There was some animosity between Billy and myself. I think he was uncomfortable with the attention that I was given as a guitarist. He wasn’t being given his proper credibility either. It was his image. All the music magazines were interviewing me and he would do Rolling Stone and People. He was there for every note that was recorded. He is a musical guy. He is 50% of everything that is on those records.

Jeb: His tendency to get himself into shit made the journalists overlook his musicality.

Steve: Exactly. That whole image thing.  People ask me if they think my image has hurt me. All the musicians that I respected have strong images. It is all part of being a musician. Its fun!

Jeb: I grew up with your music and I can remember hearing Billy Idol but going, “His guitar player kicks butt!” As a guitar player myself, I was listening to you as opposed to Billy. I would assume that that would cause a lot of friction between you guys.

Steve: Nah, not really. It never fucked with our relationship what other people thought. The thing that fucked with out relationship is what we thought of each other. Drugs and alcohol will definitely turn you into an asshole!

Jeb: I went through that myself. If you lived through the late 70’s or early 80’s then you went through it. What is it like to be back together now?

Steve: We are older and wiser and we treat each other with a lot more respect. I certainly don’t let things brew. If I have a grievance and I am pissed off then I let him know. Likewise, if I think he does something really good I tell him that. I never used to do that. There was a lot of weirdness back then.

Jeb: Drugs and booze will do that too. You escape the issue instead of confronting it and then it all blows up.

Steve: Totally.

Jeb: Its great that you guys can get past that now.

Steve: Who knows where we will end up? I take things one day at a time. I am rehearsing and just waiting to see how this all goes. We’ll see……

Jeb: Is it any coincidence that after you split from Billy that he was not as popular?

Steve: I don’t know if that is exactly true. He had “Cradle Of Love” after I left and he had a very successful tour. I think the Cyberpunk record people didn’t get. I think I would be doing Billy and his fans a great disservice if I said that he needed me for his popularity. I think it is just different, that’s all. In the climate of pop music, could he have a hit record without me? Absolutely. I would be a fool to think that you have to have a really strong guitar player to have a hit record these days. That is not the case. Guitar playing is not that important right now. It is important to me and that is why I choose to do music that is geared to an audience that may be older. I would much rather play to 500 people who are really into what I am doing than play to 5000 who could not give two shits about what I was doing.

Jeb: Are you and Terry and Tony going to play live?

Steve: We talk about it but it is a logistical nightmare. We are three guys who are pretty busy. In order to create the sound that is on those records, we have to bring all of our gear. That is a LOT of stuff. We will see. It is a very limited audience and there are budgetary concerns.

Jeb: It is kind of Flamenco, Rock Jazz. Everyone that I turn on to it loves it. I think that it sucks that it is hard to get the message across. You are making some kickass music that people should know about but nobody want to acknowledge it. That is how Classic Rock Revisited got started.

Steve: Exactly. I have found a whole audience through the Internet. There is a band from Iceland that is amazing.

Jeb: What is next for you?

Steve: I am going to do another Flamenco record. I also produce an artist in Japan so I will do another record. I play guitar and I co-write. It is the same thing that I do for Billy Idol but it is just a Japanese guy! We have similar music tastes and what we do is really cool.

Jeb: What does music mean to you?

Steve: It is like breathing for me. Everything in my life is surrounded by it. I would not say just music, I get inspiration from looking at the world in an artistic way.

Jeb: Aesthetic beauty, energy and Spirituality are linked.

Steve: Absolutely. I am involved in staying sober and one of the keys of staying sober is having a spiritual guide in life.

Jeb: It is funny that you mention that because I really do know what you mean. Music and art have always meant a lot to me. I have also had to overcome the wild life in my past. My Mother is an artist so I grew up learning about the arts.

Steve: Its funny how appreciating the arts and creativity can drive you to experiment with drugs and alcohol. Without the proper tools….. I see musicians all the time thinking that in order to create that they have to get out there. It is a fine line.

Jeb: I have a daughter who is in junior high and I asked her if people had ever told her that drugs make you feel bad and she said ‘yeah’. I told her that they are lying! They will make you feel good but then the bad shit happens! Creative people seem to be emotional people as well so it can be a really bad mix. In your situation, you are expected to always be on.

Steve: Exactly. The thing that made me drink and use was being uncomfortable in my own skin. Here I was generating money and becoming well known. I was really an insecure person. I was expected to be a Rock Star. I’m just a normal guy! I thought, “If I fucking do some coke then it is gonna make me feel like a Rock Star.” You get stuck in that trap. Finally I said I don’t give a fuck if people think I’m a geek or what. If they like my music then they are going to like me. I am a lot happier now. I can appreciate simple things. I really appreciate going to the movies or having a nice dinner.

Jeb: That is really cool, man.

Steve: Jeb, I am going to have to run to get to a rehearsal with Mr. Idol. He has me working on Sunday.

Jeb: Check out Classic Rock Revisited and if there is anything I can ever do for you, just ask!

Steve: Okay, thanks Jeb. Bye bye.