Blowin’ Wind with Cinderella’s Tom Keifer: “I don’t like the term “hair metal.” I think a lot of times it’s used in a derogatory way.”

keifer9ColorChrisGannsmFor 30 years, Tom Keifer has been a staple of the hard rock/metal world as the lead singer/guitarist/songwriter of the now legendary band Cinderella. When I first heard their 1986 debut album Night Songs, even at the young age of 13 I knew that these guys were a cut above the rest. Over the years, Tom Keifer would steer the Cinderella ship into some risky waters as they honed their craft and became, in my opinion, the greatest roots based hard rock bands in the land. Cinderella’s songs are timeless nuggets of classic hard rock that sound every bit as fresh and exciting today as they did over 20 years ago.

After many years of ups and downs with Cinderella and his own personal vocal issues, Tom is set to release his long awaited and highly anticipated solo album The Way Life Goes. I was honored to have the opportunity to talk to Tom recently via telephone from his home in Nashville. Tom was a really funny, humble, and sweet guy and he really opened up to me. We talked about his frustrations with the industry that made Cinderella unable to make new music, his excitement about his solo album, and his love for The Rolling Stones, The Monkees, and music in general. This was a real treat for me and I hope you all will enjoy reading this interview as much as I did conducting it.

Tom, thank you so much for taking the time out to talk with me today on a rainy day!

[laughs] No problem brother. We got a ton of rain here in Nashville last night.

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I’m glad that it’s at least washing a lot of the pollen away. You’re originally from Philly but have been living in Nashville. How long have you been there?

I’ve been living here since 1997.

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So what was is that brought you to Nashville?

Well, I started writing with people here in the mid 90’s because that’s when I first started thinking about making a solo record. I just found it to be a really inspirational town and a really great creative community. I think I started working with people here around 1995 and within two years I moved here.

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So you’re first ever solo album is The Way Life Goes. I feel like we have been hearing about it for years. What took you so long?

[laughs] I was going to start the solo record sometime around 1995 because Cinderella had split up at that point and I was looking to do something new. The record just kept getting put on the back burner and Cinderella started touring again and I never really came back to the idea of recording it until 2003. That was when I started to cut tracks and produce the record. I had all these songs that had been building up since the mid 90’s so I had a lot of songs to pick from. I started cutting tracks and next thing you know, 10 years later [laughs]. It was produced independently of a label and there was no deadline or any definitive budget so I just took my time with it.

How does it feel to finally have this out to the people?

It’s a relief [laughs]. It took so long to make but I had a really good time making it the whole time. That being said, the studio can also be torturous. There’s this thing you hear in your head when you write a song that you’re trying to make come out of the speakers and you’re trying to create that. Sometimes it happens easily and it’s magic and other times you really have to work for it.

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The production on this album is really awesome. I feel like a more “live” vibe was captured on this one. It’s actually how I hoped it would sound.

Thanks. On this record, we had to really work for the mixes because I wanted the mixes to be really dry, honest, and organic and in your face. Obviously that’s the hardest way to mix because you’re taking a lot of tools off the table. It makes the engineer really have to use their ears and the EQ. That was the most challenging part but for the most part we really had a good time. I produced it with my wife Savannah and a really good friend of mine here in Nashville named Chuck Turner who’s a killer producer and ProTools engineer.

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Is this first time you’ve worked with something like ProTools to make a record?

Yeah, this is the first time and that was just a blast. You can do anything. You can make a guitar sound like a kazoo if you want to [laughs]. That being said, there’s many bad roads that we would go down until 5 in the morning and then wake up the next day and hit “undo.” Thank God you can do that in ProTools [laughs]. Many nights we did some really great things. We just experimented and had fun with a lot of editing and arrangement changes. It was fun.

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The Way Life Goes really feels like you had a lot of cooped up energy and just let it all go on this album. At times I can even hear some of your anger/frustrations come through the songs which I love. Would you go as far to say that some of these songs were born out of your frustrations from Cinderella and life in general?

Oh yeah, certainly. There’s been no new music from Cinderella since 1994 for a number of reasons. Vocal problems, changes in the industry, life in general. We did have a failed attempt with a major label who around ’99 or 2000 was going to a record with Cinderella and it got very ugly and the record was never made and we ended up in the courts. On the heels of that was when I started actually recording the solo album. That record deal with Cinderella is actually what put my solo record on the back burner. Shortly after I had got to Nashville I got the call to put the band back together and that we’d got a major record deal and they were going to resuscitate us and it all got really fucked up [laughs]. We were restricted legally from recording for a number of years and that’s when we all started working on stuff oddly enough independently. All the things I just mentioned between the voice and the frustration from the labels are a huge part of what went into this record and some of the angst you hear in the lyrics are all about life. That’s why I wrote the title track “The Way Life Goes.” You never know how life is going to go and sometimes things that you think are one thing turn out to be something completely different. Life just keeps moving and changing and it’s something that you’ve got to keep up with. That’s what the song “Solid Ground” is about.

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Tom Keifer as a writer and even performer really grew over the years into this very rootsy, stripped down artist. I always loved that you took the risk to do acoustic, almost Americana kind of material in a time when it wasn’t really cool yet. Was that a very natural transition for you as an artist?

Oh yeah. I always try to stay true to the music that I love and I think that progression started as early as the Long Cold Winter album. My roots are bands like Zeppelin, the Stones, Aerosmith, Janis Joplin, The Eagles, The James Gang, I grew up on all that stuff. Those bands had contrast and used many different instruments. It wasn’t just a wall of electric guitars. I think we really grew in the studio learning how to paint that picture a little bit broader and bringing in different instruments. We started doing that on Long Cold Winter by bringing in acoustic guitars, pianos, horns, dobros, and harmonicas. That just grew even further into the Heartbreak Station album and this solo album reflects back to that same kind of vibe where there’s a lot of contrast to it. As the years went by from Night Songs to this record, I think I learned how to paint the picture. The thing that I’ve learned about more and more as the years have gone by is really getting down on tape what represents who you really are and what your roots are. It’s like, what are the elements that I really need to have coming out of those speakers that really speak to who I am and what I grew up on. That’s the thing that I learned the most about over the years and it is natural. It just kind of progresses as you go. We were green as green could be going in to make that first record. Thank god Andy Johns was there and was able to paint some kind of picture with us [laughs]. Night Songs is a very good one but it’s very basic. It’s much more straight ahead and basic. There’s nothing wrong with that but we grew our production and studio skills as the years went on.

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Over the years, Cinderella has definitely been performing the hits and blowing keifCovereveryone away but as a huge fan of the band, I always loved the Still Climbing album. Why do you guys kind of ignore that one when it comes to making set lists?

Well, we’ve done some stuff from that album on past tours but I guess the biggest reason is that Mercury/Polygram at that time was changing, the industry was changing and nobody was putting any money into promoting 80’s bands at that point. They did nothing for that record so very few people really know the record. When we go out on tour and there’s always this demand to play stuff that the people know and are familiar with. Once in a while we’ll throw in a song from that album but for the most part, we try to keep the set because obviously you’ve got to play the hits. With my voice issues, I can’t do a 2 ½ hour show any more. The show is about an hour and half and we want to get those hits in. It’s a hard decision to make sometimes but I’d like to do more off of that one sometime. When we did the actual tour for that album in ’94 we did a lot of stuff off of that one. We did “All Comes Down” and “Free Wheelin’”. We did “Bad Attitude Shuffle” and I think we even did “Through the Rain” on that tour.

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Looking back is there anything that you see/hear and say, “I wish I would’ve done that differently?”

Yeah. Those first couple of records, Night Songs and Long Cold Winter, I would’ve liked to have heard a slightly different mix on those. They’re a little slicker and flavor of the day. That was kind of the big sound at the time. That slick, more processed sound. I really liked the rawness of Heartbreak Station. It’s dryer and I find that to be more timeless when you go back and listen to a record. Every decade has its sound or particular kind of production and that kind of takes hold and everybody tries to do that. From the first record, I tried to step away from that. On Long Cold Winter we intentionally tried to move away from that. Slick is not what rock is all about to me. It should be a little more in your face and raw. That’s something I would’ve done differently for sure.

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Cinderella always got lumped in with the hard rock/glam metal kind of scene. After all these years, are you comfortable being a part of that scene or do you ever wish that you were more widely accepted?

Um, well, ya know, the cards fall where they fall [laughs]. I feel fortunate for over 30 years to have been part of a band that has great success. I can’t really frown upon any aspect of that. I don’t like the term “hair metal.” I think a lot of times it’s used in a derogatory way which possibly means that you’re all hair and no talent. I don’t feel that was our thing [laughs]. Labels always get put on things and particularly that decade because it was the first decade that was so visually oriented because of MTV and videos. Every decade has a sound or a production quality that everyone gravitates to in the studio and the image as well. The 50’s had a particular look, and the 60’s did with the hippie era, the 70’s had a look. Every decade has had its look and we had ours.

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When did you know that you wanted to be a musician?

Pretty early on. I’ve always had a one track mind [laughs]. I started playing guitar when I was 7 or 8. I remember seeing The Beatles on TV when I was a little kid and I love that TV show The Monkees [laughs]. They had some amazing songs and Mike Nesmith was just a great guitarist. He did some cool guitar work. It’s just what I always wanted to do. I love music.

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Img_5398Do you remember the first gig you ever played in front of people?

Yeah. I was in 3rd grade and I barely knew how to play [laughs]. I went up there with a friend of mine who had no idea how to play drums. I had a toy set of drums and I said, “Here. Beat on these.” [laughs] We were terrible. We played in the school auditorium for an assembly. It wasn’t great but we thought we were [laughs].

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If you could play/sing for any band for just one night who would it be?

Oh it would have to be The Rolling Stones.

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I kind of called that one in my head.

[laughs] I mean c’mon, in my mind that is the greatest rock band that ever was or is. Hell, they still are together. They’re still going and still making great records. They’re so prolific. They exemplify everything that is good and great about rock.

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You have shared the stage with countless other bands. Who was the absolute coolest band that you toured with?

Ya know, this may be just because we’ve toured with them the most but the tours we did with Poison between the years of 2000 and 2006, I think we did three tours with them. They’re the band that we’ve toured with the most. We really got to know each other and it was always such a great vibe. I love those guys. When the two of us would tour together, that was the coolest, most fun vibe. We all got along really well and there was never any kind of bullshit. Honestly, everybody we’ve toured with has been great. We’ve been lucky in that sense. Whenever we’ve been a support slot, we rarely had any difficulties. Once or twice but I won’t mention those [laughs].

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That’s cool Tom. Take the high road brother.

[laughs] I always take the high road. I don’t tour and tell [laughs].

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If you could put to rest one misconception of Tom Keifer, what would it be?

Well, there’s been a lot of speculation over the last year or so that my record and that even this tour was going to be an acoustic tour and album and that’s the furthest thing from the truth [laughs]. That is something that just recently has been a misconception and I’ve seen it from time to time online.

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What can fans look forward to hearing on your solo tour? Are you sticking to the solo material or will you be performing some Cinderella songs as well?

Well, the tour is much like the record. It’s got that contrast. On the album you’ve got “The Flower Song” and then you’ve got “Mood Elevator” which are each on different ends of the spectrum. The tour is very much like that. The majority of the tour is going to be the paint peeling, high energy rock but there is a storytellers section in the middle that’s an acoustic thing. I do a couple of the new songs and a couple of old Cinderella songs and I tell stories about how they came to be. That’s something that is unique to this particular tour because in Cinderella, I don’t really talk much on stage but for some reason on this tour, maybe because of putting out a solo record, I’m opening up a little bit more to the fans and they seem to be enjoying that aspect of the show as well. It’s a good balance between the acoustic stuff and the loud rock stuff. It’s got both new and old material. It’s about 50/50. I’m playing stuff from the new record and then a bunch of old Cinderella favorites as well.

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Tom, I’m really looking forward to seeing you when you’re here in Buford, GA. I’ll be sure to come by and say hey.

Yes. Please do .

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Tom, thanks so much for taking the time out of your busy schedule to do this. I wish I could go back to 1986 and tell 13 year old me that I would be talking to you today.

[laughs] Cool man. It’s been a pleasure talking to you Don. Thank you very much.

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