Rich Williams Interview: Point of No Return

By: Dr. Matt Warnock

Few bands have enjoyed the longevity and success that have befallen the prog-rock group Kansas. After releasing their first album in 1974, the group has gone on to produce more than twenty-five studio, live and greatest hits albums, with four gold, two platinum and two multi-platinum albums to their credit. Mostly known for their progressive rock sound, for songs such as “Carry on My Wayward Son” and “Point of No Return,” Kansas has also produced one of the most memorable and successful rock ballads of all time with their classic “Dust in the Wind.” Though the lineup has undergone several changes throughout the years, one of the members that has been there from the beginning, and who has contributed to some of the bands most famous songs, is guitarist Rich Williams.

Born and raised in Topeka, Kansas, Williams has been with the band right from the start, and he continues to tour and record with the band as they celebrate their thirty-fifth year together on the road. Known for his solid tone, versatile soloing and chording work and a knack for leaving space where other’s wouldn’t, Williams guitar work is one of the reasons why Kansas rose to such a high-degree of success, and why they are still heard on classic-rock radio stations around the world. Equally adept on both the electric and acoustic guitar, Williams currently holds the sole guitar spot in the band, a role he formerly shared with both Kerry Livgren and the legendary Steve Morse.

Williams recently sat down with Guitar International Magazine to discuss the ever changing music industry, give his thoughts on live versus studio recordings and to talk about his beloved PRS guitars.

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Matt Warnock: You’ve been a member of Kansas for thirty-five years now and have had some amazing success during that time. After so many years on the road, and more than two-dozen albums, how do you stay motivated and inspired to keep moving forward with new tours and recordings?

Rich Williams: We take a lot of the hard work out of it and make it as easy as we can. This year is the exception because we’ve been over to Europe twice, which is a bit out of the ordinary for us. Usually what we try to do is we leave on a Friday morning, play a show, fly to the next city, play a show, then fly home on Sunday. So we’re only on the road three days a week, which is better for us than being on a bus for six months driving around the country.

Matt: Do you ever miss life on the road like that? Driving around in close quarters with the rest of the band, overnight trips to the next gig, that sort of thing?

Rich: Not really no. [Laughs] We just did a tour like that in Germany a few weeks ago, where we were on a bus for two weeks. We’ll also be doing a tour later this year with Journey and Styx for four weeks, so that’ll be a bus tour. It’s not how we’ve done most of our touring over the last fifteen years or so, but when the opportunity came up to go on the road with those two great bands we figured it was worth it.

Matt: After such a long career in the music industry you’ve lived through a lot of different changes in the business. What are a few of the big changes in music that have stuck out to you over the years?

Rich: When we first got started we were signed by Kirshner Records, and they kind of left us alone with the music. They gave us a budget and let us record the album. There was some input, but not much beyond asking us to have some material that they could play on the radio. That kind of a situation just wouldn’t happen today.

It wasn’t until our fourth album Leftoverture started selling, it ended up going gold, that we were able to break even with our budget. Today a record company wouldn’t wait for four albums to get their money back. They might wait for a second record, but if that didn’t sell then the band would be dumped.

Matt: That being the case, do you feel it’s even possible for a new band to develop a career with the longevity of Kansas anymore? It seems like labels are signing bands to release one or maybe two albums, then moving on to the next big thing.

Rich: A lot of people are starting to do things themselves, independent of the labels. If a band isn’t getting a large amount of money from a record label, they don’t have that much to pay back. They may only have ten grand of their own money in a record, instead of two-hundred and fifty grand from a label, which makes it much easier to break even and start making money. It’s not as much of a gamble if bands do things on their own. With the internet it does make it easier for independent artists, but you get what you pay for.

Without a label behind a record it’s easier and cheaper to produce, but the band won’t get the distribution they would with a label behind them. So it’s a trade-off either way, and radio isn’t what it used to be, it’s really hard to get things played on the radio these days. Stations stick to a fairly limited play list and it’s hard to crack into that for new bands. Unfortunately the bands with the most radio play are the ones moving the most product, that’s just the way it is.

Matt: Your latest release, There’s No Place Like Home, is a DVD and CD package. What was the inspiration behind releasing the DVD along with the recording?

Rich: A few years ago we did an album with the London Symphony Orchestra and we’ve been doing a few symphony gigs every year since then. It’s something that we want to do more of, so when our thirty-fifth anniversary came around we felt that it was the right time to do it. The thirty-third year just didn’t have the same ring to it. [Laughs] So we had wanted to do something like that and the time felt right.

We recorded it in February, which is usually a down time in our touring schedule, so even the timing for the project worked out great. We’ve been doing a number of symphony gigs in recent years and we’d love to get up to maybe twenty or twenty-five every year. When people book Kansas for a band gig they just call our manager and book the band, but with booking the Symphony gigs it’s much different.

Yearly symphony schedules are put together by a board of people who vote on which acts to bring in that year and what music the orchestra is going to play. Once in a while they’ll bring in a band like us to do something different, so the DVD has also acted as a vehicle for us to get more attention from those committees. They might not know what the end product will sound like, but if we can show them a DVD they’ll know exactly what they’re getting, and the response has been good so far.

Matt: Kansas has released six live albums over the years, which is a lot compared to most bands who may only release one or two, or maybe none at all. Why do you keep coming back to the live album as a showcase for the bands material?

Rich: I like us better live. The studio is creative, but it’s an assembly line. It’s a sterile, piece things together kind of thing and then we’re done with it. What we’ve always done as a band is write a new tune then go out on stage and play it. The fun in music for us is performing. I think that the new DVD captures the real essence of Kansas better than our studio albums have.

Matt: Over the years have you stuck with one or two main guitars, or are you constantly on the lookout for new gear?

Rich: I’ve been playing PRS guitars for the past twenty-five years. The first one I ever bought, a beautiful blonde, has been my main guitar ever since. I also have a Dragon that I use, but it’s more of my backup guitar. I’ve also been playing a Kevin Ryan acoustic that I’ve used for the past few years and I really dig. For my amps it’s all about the tone for me. Because we tour a lot and it is often a different backline every night I’ve started using Guitar Rig for live shows. I use it all the time and it works great, I really love it.

I’m looking at it right now, it’s on the floor in front of me and I’m bringing it to a Symphony gig tomorrow. It’s great because even though I can spend years working out the different sound options it offers, when I’m really in a rush or don’t want to mess around with things, I just plug it in and it’s right where I left off the night before. I’m not fighting the gear throughout the show, I’m really happy with how it’s turned out.

Matt: With the new live DVD-CD set out, and with a number of symphony gigs lined up, what’s ahead for Kansas in the coming months?

Rich: We’re talking about doing an album of five or six rerecords of our classic tunes along with five or six cover songs that meant to us back when we were starting out. We just opened this can of worms yesterday, but hopefully we can get on board with that, it sounds like fun.

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Links

Kansas Homepage

There’s Know Place Like Home on Amazon

The Best of Kansas on Amazon