Ook de Amerikaanse formatie Keel heeft niet aan het reünievirus kunnen ontsnappen en ruim vijfentwintig jaar na hun grootste succes ‘The Right To Rock’ heeft men het aangedurfd om een nieuw album uit te brengen. Daar ondergetekende een groot liefhebber van ‘The Right To Rock’ was en is, was ik zeer benieuwd naar Keel anno 2010 en ik moet zeggen dat de nieuwe plaat ‘Streets Of Rock And Roll’ me zeker niet tegengevallen is. Een telefoontje naar zanger en spraakwaterval Ron Keel was voldoende om de reden voor de reünie en alle overige informatie met betrekking tot de band te achterhalen.
So you’ve also been bitten by the “reunion virus”. What was the spark that lit the flame for your band? Well, unlike a lot of the other “eighties” bands we waited for the right time to get back together again and it seemed that the 25th anniversary of our ‘The Right To Rock’ album was the right reason for getting back together again. We’ve always remained friends and we also used to jam on certain occasions and when we played on some big festivals last summer the excitement and energy of the old days came back. Therefore we decided to take it one step further and got back together to write new songs as well.
Let’s go back in history in little bit: after the release of the album ‘Keel’ from 1987, the band broke up. What was the reason for that? At that time we had a lot of legal problems with the record company and the management and it was really a difficult time for us. Marc Ferrari was the first one who decided to call it a day and the left to form Cold Sweat. Without Marc it wasn’t really the old band and shortly thereafter also Bryan decided to leave. Dwain and me stayed together and explored some other projects, but it never felt like the old Keel. Although we still released the 1989 album ‘Larger Than Live’ without Marc and Bryan and we never officially broke up, we decided not to continue as Keel anymore.
You then joined the all female outfit Fair Game. Were you considering a gender change or how did you get involved in this and were you also on the album ‘Beauty And The Beast’ that was released by Metal Mayhem much later? It was time for me to do something completely different and not stay in the vein of Keel. Back then I worked with a lot of female artists like Vixen, Joan Jett and Lita Ford and it made me realize that there’s nothing sexier than a hot chick with a guitar. As a result of that I joined Fair Game and it was a wonderful experience. Unfortunately grunge kicked in at that time and everybody was very much into bands like Pearl Jam and Nirvana, which made it very hard for Fair Game. I was very much involved in the ‘Beauty And The Beast’ album, which is a compilation of all the Fair Game recordings we did. The songs are already from the beginning of the nineties and we just wanted to share these with the fans.
After Fair Game’s demise, you turned your back on metal music for a while and devoted yourself to country music as Ronnie Lee Keel. Why this sudden change? It was just another place in my heart to explore. Country music has also very much to do with decent songs and good vocals and I see it just as painting a picture with different colors. It was just a way of expressing myself and to be creative. I was not really turning my back on metal music at that time, because I was also involved in a band called Saber Tiger from Japan, but it was just something I had to do. It’s all music and music is just my life!
When the album ‘Larger Than Live’ was released, it proved that there still was a request for Keel material and you decided to reunite for the first time releasing ‘Back In Action’ in 1998. What triggered this first reunion and why did it only last for one album? It wasn’t really a reunion, it was just getting together in the studio for a couple of days and releasing the record. When ‘Larger Than Live’ was re-released in 1998, the record company wanted some studio bonus tracks for it and when we listened to some demos of unreleased material that we had floating around, we realized that it was pretty good stuff. It was raw and under-produced, but it had a certain charm. So as a result of this we said that we wanted to share this material with our fans, not as bonus material on ‘Larger Than Live’, but as a complete album with unreleased material, which then became ‘Back In Action’.
After this first attempt you founded a band called Ironhorse. What kind of a band was this and did you do any recordings with them? Ironhorse was something of a middle ground between country and metal. I’m a musical nomad and I wasn’t pleased with the restrictions of country music and therefore I founded Ironhorse with the intention to create strong songs with the energy of metal music. So you can really see this band as a heavy metal – country hybrid, with which I released two albums, the self-titled debut album and ‘Bring It On’ from 2004. By the way, Ironhorse’s bass player was Geno Arce, who is now in our current Keel line-up.
In 2007 the double album ‘The Ultimate Ron Keel Collection’ was released. What was the idea behind this and how much were you involved in this whole affair? I was involved in this from top to bottom and it’s just a souvenir to the fans to have all children under one roof so to speak. It is my personal musical scrapbook and it contains the very first recording I did with Lust, some Steeler material as well as stuff from Ironhorse and Keel. When I’m dead and gone, I hope that my grand children will point to this double album and will say: “this is what my grand dad did”.
You have a recording contract with the Italian melodic rock label Frontiers. How did this connection get established and do you feel that this is the right label for a band like Keel? It’s a deal for these two records, the 25th anniversary edition of ‘The Right To Rock’ and the new album ‘Streets Of Rock And Roll’ and everything went really fast. When we were writing songs a while back and made the decision to create a new album we decided to tie some loose ends as well and achieved the master rights for ‘The Right To Rock’ so that we’re the owner of that album ourselves. Frontiers wanted to release both albums and therefore we remastered ‘The Right To Rock’ completely and threw in a couple of bonus tracks. I’m very proud to be associated with Frontiers, they’re at the top of the genre and they have a great catalogue.
In January two Keel albums are released simultaneously, begin ‘The Right To Rock – 25th Anniversary’ and the new album ‘Streets Of Rock & Roll’. Let’s start with the first one: in my opinion the album still holds up in today’s scene, but how do you feel about that album 25 years later? Pff, I’m glad that you feel that way! I think there are two reasons for that: first of all it has to do with the hunger and the attitude that we had in those days. Man, we were on fire! Secondly I feel that the great production by Gene Simmons really helped there as well. He was really capable of capturing the heart and soul of the band.
There are (only) two bonus songs added, which is rather poor in my opinion. Was there not more material in the Keel vaults that could have been added to the anniversary edition? It was the decision of Frontiers not to put anything on the album that didn’t relate to it. Since we didn’t have more material from that period, only those two extra two songs were put on it.
There are a lot of guest musicians and Keel fans participating on this re-recorded version. Who came up with that idea and what do you think about the actual end result? It was my idea to let the fans contribute. I mean, we do the same thing in the band as well. I live in Las Vegas, while Bryan and Marc are in Los Angeles and we use the current technology to create music together. So therefore I thought it would be great to use the same technology to add our fans to the re-recorded version of ‘The Right To Rock’. Since it’s also the first time that this is done, we made a little history as well.
Let’s switch to the new album now. What were your intentions when writing the new album ‘Streets Of Rock & Roll’? What did you want to accomplish with it? The most important was to make the best album possible. We didn’t talk about taking certain directions, we just immediately started with the creation process. The way we worked was very simple, the songs started to come alive themselves. When it sounded good, we put it on the album and some songs just didn’t make the cut. I’m very proud of the end result and the album has come out better than I expected.
If you take a look at your complete back catalogue, where would you rank the new album then and why? I think it the best Keel album ever, I listen to it every day. I really enjoy it, because it was a lot of fun making the album. We have really accomplished what I had set up to do.
Who was responsible for the production job and how do you think about the album sound-wise yourself? The credits for the production of the album go to Pat Regan and I’ve always wanted to work with him. He produced the album of Medicine Wheel, where Marc was in at that time and I knew that he would be the right man for the job. In today’s environment you really have to compete sound-wise and it was pure magic what Pat brought to the table.
The first reunion lasted only one album. Is this second attempt going to last longer and if so, why do you think so? I don’t think that we’re going to stop again. We plan to do a lot of shows during 2010 both in the US as well as in Europe. As a matter of fact we will be playing in Stockholm on April 30th, and we will try to book some shows around that date in the rest of Europe. Whether we’ll be doing another album, which we as a band would love to do, depends greatly on the success of this album. We’ll just take it one step at a time! I’m forty-eight years old now and have had an incredible life and career. I’m still enjoying every day so I have absolutely no reason to stop with what I’m doing now.
Why do you think that an eighties band like Keel still has the power to convince people nowadays? What kind of unique selling points do you have to compete with all these newcomer bands of today? Lust, sex and having a good time don’t go out of style. Music is also timeless, which is proven by the fact that ‘The Right To Rock’ is still able to stand the test of time. A good songs remains a good song and I think that Keel is quite capable of writing a decent tune, which is probably good enough reason for us to stay in business.
As said earlier you’re already part of the music scene for a very long time. What have been your personal highlights and lowlights during your long career? The many highlight obviously are the tours, like in Europe with Dio, the sold-out shows in Japan and the Slippery When Wet tour with Bon Jovi. For me personally, I get the most satisfaction out of writing and singing a sing. I guess I was born to sing, so that’s exactly what I did! As far as the lowlights go, I tend to forget these quite quickly and just go on.
What are some of the things that you still want to accomplish with your band? What are the dreams that you still want to make come true? Wow, good question! I would like to make a lot of money so that I don’t have to work anymore…hahaha! No seriously, the main thing is to take care of the people I love, like my wife, children and friends. Next to that I just want to enjoy life and have fun and as far as success in music is concerned, I just take the good with the bad. I don’t do any long-term planning anymore, since the business aspect is way out of my control anyhow. I just try to do the best I can vocal-wise and we’ll just have to see how far that’ll bring us.
Okay Ron, thanks for your time and willingness to answer my questions. As always, the famous last words are yours? I would like to thank Lords Of Metal for this interview. Furthermore I would like to thank everybody that has helped us along the way. Check out both our websites www.keelband.com and www.ronkeel.com and get in touch with me personally. Normally I’m quite responsive in answering mail and I would love to hear from the fans how they feel about the band and the new album!
So you’ve also been bitten by the “reunion virus”. What was the spark that lit the flame for your band?
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