Steve Stevens – A Guitarist for all Seasons!

“By: Robert Cavuoto

Steve Stevens

Not many guitar players can flawlessly cross as many musical boundaries as Steve Stevens has done in his career. His prolific and innovative playing has changed the face of music, and together with Billy Idol, they helped revolutionizing a new genre of music.

Whether you consider their brand of music; New Wave, dance rock, or rock n’ roll they rode the crest to become MTV staples and musical icons.

Guitar players around the globe scratched their heads trying to duplicate Steve’s unique sound, asking “Was it a guitar, synth, keyboard or all of the above?”

Being a self-proclaimed techno head, Steve has emerged as a quintessential force, capable of magically and successfully marrying it all altogether without sacrificing the main objective – making great music!

A true “orchestrator” as he likes to say.

With his extraordinary stage charisma, leather outfits, long spikey hair, and amazing chops he caught the attention of hard rock & metal fans.

It was apparent that Steve was not content with conquering just one genre of music and took his unique playing technique and versatility to new heights, playing with such musical legends as Michael Jackson, Vince Neil, Robert Palmer and Joni Mitchell.

I had the pleasure of sitting down with a Steve to talk about his latest release, Kings & Queens of the Underground, his constant desire to evolve as a musician, and his role within the monstrously successful band known to the world as Billy Idol.

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Robert Cavuoto: Kings & Queens of the Underground has a very different vibe than Devil Playground which was more aggressive hard rock. Was that an intentional decision when you and Billy sat down to write?

Steve Stevens: Yeah, we knew that this CD would be accompanied by Billy’s autobiography, which was a retrospective look back on his career.  So, for this CD we wanted to get back to making a more classic Billy Idol sounding CD, only updated.

Trevor Horn who produced the CD was also a big influence in that, as well. You have an amalgamation of influences and ideas, then siphoning through a producer like Trevor who likes to make big sounding records with big arrangements. We knew that going in and wanted to utilize it.

When Trevor heard a song, if he envisioned strings or what-have-you, we just went with it. Very rarely did we have to reel him in.

Robert: Tell me how Trevor came into the picture to produce the CD?

Steve Stevens: We were about four songs into the CD when found out that Trevor was available. I think as we were writing and things started to progress, we had him in mind. We definitely catered some of the materials towards working with him.

Robert: Tell me about the song writing collaboration between you and Billy?

Steve Stevens: On this CD the third songwriting partner was our guitarist Billy Morrison. The three of us would meet up at my place at a certain time just like a job.

Billy Idol would come in as he was working on his book and say, “I’m writing about this period of time” and then we incorporate those ideas into the songs. Like with “Ghost in my Guitar”, it’s definitely from the New York period when Billy first moved to New York and we met.

Writing a Billy Idol CD is rarely based on writing riffs, it based on a series of chords or lyrical ideas. Then I’ll take it away and write riffs around that. It’s a different process then working with other singers like Sebastian Bach, who wants the riffs.

Steve Stevens and Billy Idol

Robert: Embedded in each song are tons of tasteful guitar nuances that bring each song to life from assisting the melody or accenting the song’s groove. When do those aspects get added?

Steve Stevens: That’s just the way that I look at my role in this band. I look to be more of an orchestrator than as a just a single instrument. That comes from my love of ’70s progressive rock where these guys they would play one verse of a song with a nylon string guitar and the next with a slide guitar.

I’m using a lot of different colors in the context of the song rather than just plugging in and playing. I really love painting pictures with the music and that’s really how I look at playing guitar.

Obviously in Idol music there has always been keyboards, so if I don’t come up with some cool sounding guitar parts, chances are it’s going to be done with a keyboard. I love the electronic side of guitar playing and can remember listening to the first ELP record where Keith Emerson was playing a Moog and I’m going, “What the hell is that?” It really drew me in. I got exciting in the late ’70s and ’80s when great bands like Depeche Mode and Kraftwerk started using keyboards as I developed as a player as a lot of these great bands were starting out.

I’m also a techno head and have the latest plug-ins, mellotrons, and Moog synthesizer, so if a song lends itself to dance we’ll try it. The greatest thing about recording songs in 2015 is being able to try different things. Back in the day, trying something different was a two day endeavor and if it didn’t work you had to go back to redo everything. But, now you can try different flavors against the song to see if it’s going to work.

Robert: Why so long between CDs?

Steve Stevens: This CD was self financed as there was no label involved as things have shifted nowadays in the music industry. Billy is one of those artists who doesn’t want to put out a CD just for the sake of putting out a CD. It would be nice if we did it more frequently, but the fans can know that when we do a CD it’s something we really want to do.

Robert: “Postcard from the Past” is such a great song and one of my favorites on the new CD, can you tell me about its creation?

Steve Stevens

Steve Stevens: That’s probably one of the oldest tunes on the CD, as we have been playing it live for about three years.

As silly as it sounds, the song came from a Boss Slicer guitar pedal. I always wanted to be able to do live gig and guitar. I would hear ProTool’s edited guitar and think what a cool effect, it would be great to do it live. During sound checks we would write around this pedal and Billy one day thought it could be a modern day “Rebel Yell.” It just developed from there.

Robert: That’s an interesting approach, when I think of you as a guitarist; the first thing that pops in my head is your versatility. Your playing encompasses so many different styles, not just between CDs but from song to song on the CDs, how do you want yourself be categorized as player in the annals of musical history?

Steve Stevens: That’s really not for me to be concerned with. I’m there as a conduit to work with the singer, which is first and foremost.

There are a lot of guitar players who haven’t been as fortunate to work with some of the best singers. I’ve worked with singers from Billy Idol to Michael Jackson to Robert Palmer to Joni Mitchell. It doesn’t get better than that.  I’ve always loved that role of being the accompaniment to a singer.

When I was kid I can recall seeing Elvis and going “Wow, whose that guy playing the guitar?” I later found out it was Scotty Moore. I rode that type of role as a guitar player. Singers really don’t give a shit what you play in your solo. It’s how you are going to enhance a song and make their vocal presence stronger.

To me it’s more gratifying to play a song where everyone grew up with or that has a special place in their heart rather than playing a big guitar solo. That doesn’t get me off as much as much as that gratifying feeling. I guess that’s what motivates me for playing.

Robert: When performing songs like “Rebel Yell” or “White Wedding” live for several decades – have you changed the arrangements or modified them to keep things fresh?

Steve Stevens: Billy and I start “White Wedding” acoustically on stage now, that’s one way to get around it. When we did VH1 Storytellers we stripped down all the songs and rearranged them for acoustic versions. Some of what we learned stayed with us and we really enjoy it. Sometimes you strip them down and want to present them the way they appeared to you as an acoustic song. Every night “Rebel Yell” is a little different because there’s a lot of wiggle room in the middle break allowing me to improvise.

Robert: When you listen to your old CDs and look back over your career, how have you grown and evolved as a player?

Steve Stevens: Well, I’ve learned to play less. At the time of Billy’s first record, I knew nothing about the recording process. I’ve never been in a studio before. Unless you were an engineer you knew nothing about mic’ing or mic’ing techniques.

Now I can go into the studio and get the sound that I want. One of the other things I’ve developed is having better quality of vibrato and giving it more breath. The ’80s were a strange time for guitar players, as we didn’t have the influence of the blues guitar playing in our playing. We were on that cold electronic edge like so many other bands.

Steve Stevens

Robert: You mentioned you “play less,” are you talking about less notes in a solo or leaving more room in songs for vocals and other instruments?

Steve Stevens: I guess less notes in soloing. When I first came on the scene it was all about, “look at me, see how many notes I can play”, I think we were pretty good at self editing on our records, but when I listen to some live tapes of us from the ’80s, I was overplaying, which makes me cringe a little bit now. I’m happy I don’t do that anymore.

Robert: In his book, Billy openly talks about his demons and days of excess, what was it like to work with him during those dark times?

Steve Stevens: It’s amazing, because he kept a lot of that from me. I wasn’t privi’ed to it. We would drink and do little bit of drugs in the studio, but that wasn’t really the place for it.

While on tour everyone would retreat back to their hotel rooms, we were never like, “I have a brick of heroin, wanna join?”  It was never that kind of thing. I will say that the lunacy exhibited was because we wanted to make the music better in whatever manner that it might entail.

I’m sober now, but back when I drank I could never play under the influence. I would have to wait until the session was over to have a drink or partake in anything. I’m proud to say that nothing on the records or anything that I played on, has ever been under the influence.

Steve Stevens

Robert: You and Billy were really on the cutting edge of revolutionizing the music scene, how you think he manage to keep it all together?

Steve Stevens: The credit for that goes to Keith Forsey, he was our producer and the third member of the band right from the very beginning.

From the first day I first with Billy in 1982 in a shitty little rehearsal room, Keith was there. I can still remember Billy being a little hesitant in having me in the band, because I wasn’t a punk rock guitar player as my influences came from guitar heroes like Page, Beck, and Clapton.

Keith was the one who said. “If you want a punk rock guitarist you should have stayed in England and continued making records with Generation X. You came to America to make new music and Steve is capable of playing just about anything. You’re going to need to call on some of that stuff as he isn’t limited like other guitarists that you constantly have to push for a certain type of style.”

Keith was also brilliant in mediating between Billy and me. It wasn’t always easy as we didn’t see eye to eye, but we always knew that when we disagreed on something it was for the better of the music, it was not personal or vindictive. Even if you disagree with someone you can still respect their opinions.

Robert: You have been using some pretty sharp looking guitars made by Knaggs Guitars, can you tell me about your relationship with them?

Knagg’s Steve Stevens Signature model

Steve Stevens: In the ’90s I was playing a lot of Charvel guitars with whammy bars. When I reconnected with Billy, the guitar I started using was a Gibson Les Paul, then migrated over to Hamer Guitars.

My Hamer was like a Les Paul Junior with two humbuckers. While I’m playing my Les Pauls, I was being courted by a few guitar companies.

Unfortunately, they were more interested in developing an Asian market guitar than I was.

I had a bad experience with one guitar company who was making an off market version of my guitar without me knowing. I didn’t want to put my name on it and eventually pulled out of that agreement.

Low and behold, I got a call from Peter Wolf at Knaggs Guitar. I knew him from our days together at Hamer and Joe Knaggs ran the custom shop at Paul Reed Smith Guitars. I played a PRS that I really liked and Peter told me that Joe had made me that guitar. I told him to send me a few guitars and I’ll check them out. I liked what they sent me, but some of the aspects weren’t for me. So from there we started working together on a guitar for me.

What amazed me was that the company never said “Well maybe we can do that or that might be difficult.” I was always met with “Okay, I’ll do it.”

They had this approach that whatever I could think of they would make happen. They weren’t interested in doing a down market guitar. It’s an American company that I can stand behind; there are only 10 employees. I’m really proud to have my name on it and we’ve developed a nice relationship. I feel personally part of their company.

Robert: Is there a favorite Knaggs Guitar that you have or did they make you a special guitar for this tour?

Steve Stevens: Yeah, there is a black sparkle burst that goes silver to black and has a double binding in the front and back. They do such great binding work I said just bind the whole guitar. [Laughing]

Their inlay work is also so incredible. It’s a beautiful guitar that weighted perfectly and balanced. It’s loaded with my signature pickups by Bare Knuckle Pickups. Every aspect of the guitar says quality. It’s not budget guitar, it’s an expensive guitar. To me it’s the type of instrument that you buy for a lifetime and never want to part with.

Robert: Speaking of never wanting to part with a guitar, has there ever been a guitar that you gave away and wished you could get back?

Steve Stevens: I never had nice guitars when I was kid. Billy Idol actually bought me a Les Paul when I joined him. Up until then I never owned a really good guitar.

This is the story behind it, we went to 48^th Street in New York City when they had all the guitar stores and I found a 1953 Les Paul that had been bastardized as someone put humbuckers in it and the trapeze bridge was replaced by a stop tailpiece. So we were able to buy what looked like a 1959 Les Paul for a budget price. The neck on that guitar cracked twice while on the road and when I was shooting a video the neck cracked off and the body split in half. The guitar basically disintegrated and I gave all the pieces to the crew of the video. Now, I realize that someone could have put it back together. I wish I held on to that guitar.

Robert: When you were with Vince Neil, the band opened up for Van Halen, what were your learning experiences watching and hanging out with Eddie Van Halen?

Steve Stevens: I had known Ed and got the gig because we were friends. We were also both on the Warner Brothers label.

Being on the road with your friend who happens to be one of the best guitarists and in the one of the best rock n roll bands is a great experience.

Sammy was in the band at the time and they were on fire every night. After the show we would go back to the hotel room and jam.

On that tour I brought out all my vintage Marshalls and I was having trouble maintaining them, they really weren’t road worthy amps.

One day Ed said, “Why don’t you play through my rig at sound check.” Two days later, three stacks of 5150s showed up. To say that he was generous would be an understatement.

Robert: Did you ever write or record anything with Eddie?

Steve Stevens: We never recorded anything together, but there are some live jams on You Tube as he got up and played with Billy Idol a number of times.

Robert: Is there another solo CD in the works?

Steve Stevens: Next year, I’ll have something. It’s more of a band project than a solo CD; it’s very much in the classic rock vein and will have a signer. I just can’t say who.

We’ve written a few songs and I’m really excited about it. It’s a very organic sounding band. There is no regard to song length or tempo or changes [Laughing]. It’s reminiscent of when bands were allowed to do what the fuck they want to do. It’s like a classic prog heavy CD.

Robert: Do you have any plans to write a book?

Steve Stevens: Never say never!  Obviously mine would be more geared towards the recording and writing side of things, more musically oriented, as I haven’t had as colorful past as Billy.

I think people would be interested in hearing the behind the scenes stories of all musicians I have worked with and how the opportunities came about. Like when I went to Italy to record an album with Robert Palmer or when I recorded in France with the Thompson Twins.

I think those experiences would be interesting for fans to hear. I love reading rock n’ roll biographies, but really enjoy hearing about the creative side of it. I heard all the drug and alcohol stories, cause I lived it.