WHERE THE DOWN BOYS GO
Jeanne's Interview With Rick Steier

My first free day for relaxation in weeks, and the second I lay down the damn phone starts ringing. [Go figure!] Much to my surprise, it was Rick Steier calling from sunny, warm California, while I was freezing my arse off in New York.

We chatted for an hour or so, accomplishing half of what we set out to do. . . The rest of this interview is still to be finished, but enjoy this little sliver of our in-depth look at Rick.

Jean: How are you, just in general?
Rick: Doing good! Everything's fine!
J: How do you like being in Warrant?
R: I like it a lot. The guys are real cool.- We think alike which makes things easier. It's fun; the guys are a lot of fun hangin' with. Plus, I like the music that we're doing now. It's changed since the Cherry Pie days. Which isn't jumping on any bandwagon, it's a reflection of change; everybody changes their music interests and their influences. Naturally, your music should change. Whether it be good or bad, who knows?!
J: Well, there was definitely a big change when you started writing with them.
R: I hope for the better! Even if it's not better, just different.
J: Have you been writing a lot of the new songs?
R: Yeah, we're in the writing process now. ‘Just waiting for the go-ahead from the label to go in the studio, otherwise we could go in tomorrow and start recording. Actually, the last little run we did over Christmas holidays, we played 10 shows and we tested three of the new songs.
J: I heard about two of them.
R: Oh yeah!?
J: I heard about "Indian Giver"..........
R: What did you hear about it?
J: Well, my friend Kris said that they're great, and Gina said the same thing. Then I heard something about "Coffee House"?
R: Well, Lane.... That's just a temporary title.
J: I heard that that's really...Kris said that's probably the best song he's ever heard you do.
R: (Laughs) Oh really!? That's great! So, yeah, the stuff.....I mean, the new stuff's more [in] the same vein as Ultraphobic, I would say. But, I don't know! I'm anxious to do another record.
J: I'm always anxious for you guys to do another record!
J: What's the question you get asked the most now that you joined the band?
R: That question!
J: What I'm aiming for here is to put together an interview and a bio.
'Cause people are always asking me stuff and I don't even know. Especially with James' team, keeping track of how many bands he has been in is ridiculous.
R: Oh, I know. I was in three major bands that had record deals. It's really simple! It was Kingdom Come, then Wild Horses, then Warrant.
J: No other bands?
R: I've been in plenty of others bands, I'm just saying the major bands as far as actually having deals. I was in Kingdom Come for the first two records, then we did Wild Horses, one record on Atlantic Records. I had my own project which was gonna get signed to Hollywood Records, then they fired their A&R person and cleaned house.- Actually, that happened to one of Erik's bands. He was sponsoring a band, putting up some money for a band on Hollywood, and that happened to him.
J: What band?
R: Ahh, shoot! I don't remember. He'd be able to tell ya......If you named...If you said it I'd probably know.
J: The Things?
R: No, that's not them.
J: Umm, Shake City?
R: Something like that!
J: His cousin was in the band.
R: Yeah!
J: That was Shake City! And that band broke up, didn't they?
R: Like I said...I think they had begun recording on Hollywood, there was a shakeup in the rank and file, and he got...They cleaned house and the new guy came in and axed a lot of bands. That happens a lot, you know!?
J: Yeah, I have a fanzine and I work with a lot of unsigned bands, regular bands, and so I see a lot of...
R: The horror stories? It's like this business is, God, it's so bullshit.
J: .....But then I get to hear the success stories too.
R: Yeah, I mean, I'm fortunate to be... the things I've been able to do so far. Even when I was doing my solo thing, it was like knocking down doors. I mean it was just...it was hard!
J: What's the wildest and craziest thing that's happened to you since you joined the band?
R: Wild and crazy thing? Hell, I don't know. What has it been? I don't know, it's probably something I shouldn't repeat, so. Better leave that one alone.
J: Who are some of the bands that you listen to?
R: Ah, I like Led Zeppelin, I still listen to Jimmy Hendrix. As far as the newer bands, I liked Soundgarden and Stone Temple Pilots, and Primus.- As weird as they are. But they're one of the few bands that are so weird, but I appreciate their musicianship so they can get away with it.
J: Anything else that's really bizarre? Very heavy?
R: I'm not...I went through the phase where I got real heavy, but it doesn't really move me anymore. I mean, I listen to Earth, Wind, and Fire here and there, or Red Hot Chili Peppers just to get, because I like a lot of funky stuff. Which, a lot of my...my own project was more bass oriented riffs, funk rock! So, I like Earth, Wind and Fire, jazz things too.
J: That's cool! I listen to absolutely everything!
R: I do too, I mean the more diversified listening you have, especially for an artist, it's gonna influence what you write and think, instead of listening to just one type of music over and over again.- You're gonna tend to write that way. So, I like to keep an open mind about that.
J: Everybody laughs at me, because my two favorite bands....Warrant is my absolute fave, and then I love Type O Negative!
R: Oh yeah!? I like them! [Brownie points for Rick!]
J: So, they're very different, and I like nine inch nails.
R: They're okay!
J: ...Very different things! Then, I like Madonna-type stuff.
R: Nothing wrong with that!
J: Okay besides guitar, are there any other instruments that you play?
R: Yeah, I play keyboards! Actually, I played keyboards and guitar in Kingdom Come. Don't know if you remember that band at all!?
J: I remember the band, but I never bought any of your tapes or anything.
R: It was...Hell, you were only ten.
J: (Laughs)
R: Geez!
J: It was..Yeah, I was about ten when the first Warrant album came out.
R: Yeah, it was about the same time. And we toured with Warrant, Kingdom Come did. You know that?
J: Yeah, I knew that!
R: Yeah, if you look at an old Kingdom Come record it'll show me "guitar and keyboards". I played them, you know, on stage. I wasn't the lead guitarist in that band.
J: Really!? How many videos did you guys make, and did they ever get played?
R: Umm, they played the first one, "Get It On," a lot, and then, "What Love Can Be," they played a lot, too. Then, "Do You Like It?," from the second record. We did six videos with Kingdom Come.
J: I never saw any of the videos or anything!
R: You don't remember "Get It On"? [Rick proceeds to sing me the guitar riff!]
J: No, I never heard it!
R: [Yelling] Well this interview's over!
J: (Laughs) Sorry!
R: It's okay!
J: Actually, Gina bought me the tapes.....
R: Check them out then! It still sounds pretty good today, because we weren't never a band that sang about chicks and that kind of thing, which is really out of favor now. [Rick, do you mean to tell me that songs titled "Get It On" and "Do You Like It?" have nothing to do with sex? Shah, right!] Getting laid and partying, it's all...Like Warrant was.- Nothing's wrong with that!
J: I kind of miss it!
R: It'll come back! It's just a matter of time, I swear. [It's not nice to swear!] People are gonna be so down and bummed out, they're gonna go, "God, I hope a band comes out that's happy!".
J: Yeah, I kind of miss that.
R: I do too! The whole vibe of that whole scene was a lot of energy, and Hollywood, even here, is dead! ‘Cause there's nothin' going on!
J: But I even miss...At the time, some of the bands were just so silly and immature, but I kind of miss it now.
R: Yeah, like Poison you mean? [Ooh, Rick! Not a Poison fan I see!]
J: Well, yeah, and some of the things that [the Warrant guys] used to say.
R: Say, like what?
J: Say or do! They just didn't leave much to the imagination.
R: Oh yeah! I get ya! I know what you're saying now.
J: But I kind of miss it now.
J: How long have you known James?
R: Well, we're from the same hometown, Louisville, Kentucky. Geez, let's see. He was fifteen, so it's been fifteen years I've known him; sixteen or seventeen years, I don't know.- Somewhere in there.
J: About as long as I've been alive. (Laughs)
R: Thanks for putting it into perspective. I appreciate that!
J: (Laughs) You're welcome! Do you feel old now?
R: I really appreciate that!
J: How long have you guys been in bands together?
R: Umm, actually, we didn't start playing together. Before Kingdom Come, we didn't play in Louisville together in the same band. When I moved out here and we needed a drummer at one point, we called him up and he came out and joined my...We were a cover band/original thing; we had to do covers to survive. We were playing nightclubs five nights a week. So, that was actually the first time I played in a band with him; out here. Then we did Kingdom Come together, then we did Wild Horses together, then we did Warrant together.
J: How did you guys meet?
R: Just through the musical network back in Louisville, which isn't very big. So, to cross paths with any musician of any respectable talent....So, just clubs or running into each other a lot. Me going to see his band, or him comin' to see ours. Whatever!
J: Oh, okay! ‘Cause, you know, some of the old articles...I kind of got the feeling you guys grew up together.
R: Well, no, not really. I mean, like I said, we were teenagers before we met. It's not like we hung out with each other when we were five years old.
J: Well, the magazines like to make it sound all...
R: [In a silly voice] "Childhood friends, inseparable from birth."
J: You wrote on a lot of Ultraphobic. How did that come about?
R: Well, I don't know if you know the story where after their last tour with Dog Eat Dog, Lane wanted to do, to pursue a solo thing- or dabble in it, you know. I don't know how much he wanted to...he wasn't...I don't know if this is the time where he had quit Warrant, or what was going on. Anyway, Jani was working with a producer that I had worked with before, and he said, "Here's four songs I'd like to go into the studio and do. I need a drummer, bass player, and guitar player." So, the producer suggested me and James, and Sean McNabb. I don't know if you remember that name from Quiet Riot days, and all that? Anyway, we had known each other from touring together before, so he said, "Oh yeah, I know these guys. Do you think they can..," he wasn't sure, he couldn't remember exactly how we played, so Shay said, "They'll be no problem". So, we got together and rehearsed a couple days, and I put in my two cents here and there, and changed this and that. So, we went in and demoed four songs, which, three of them happened to make the Ultraphobic record. I don't know, some time after that...I did it and then kind of faded into the background, and continued my own thing. Then they called me up and said, "We're firin' Joey," and this and that. I don't know what happened in that space of time; I don't know if they tried to shop the deal, or Lane decided to come back; I don't know the whole workings behind that. So, since we had worked on the solo thing and we had kind of co-wrote some things, wrote different parts and what-have-you, he knew I was capable of writing with him. So, when it came time to write for Ultraphobic, it was a natural progression for me to continue to write with him. Beause I know he...I know based on what I've read and talked to the guys, he wrote everything prior to that; it was The Jani Lane Show. I really, honestly didn't want to go into it having no creative input. Like I said, I proved myself on the solo stuff, so when the time came for the Warrant stuff, it wasn't like I had to prove myself all over again.
J: That's good, because I was kind of sick of everything being written by him. I mean, it was all good...
R: Right!
J: ...But I kind of wanted to see somebody else's name.
R: Sure. I think the fact that I was in there on it opened the doors for Jerry and Erik to put a little input [in] too.
J: Other than the three songs that you previewed, how many new songs are there?
R: Probably nine; nine songs.
J: Did everybody contribute?
R: To different degrees, but I think that we're gonna do...On the record it'll say, "All songs written by Warrant". I mean, that's not etched in stone. Everybody's put in a lot of time, even though, maybe you didn't contribute to the song, you're there. It's kind of hard to explain, but...putting in the effort then it's kind of like...It makes it a lot easier too!
J: Do you have sort of a favorite song or one that has a special meaning to you on Ultraphobic?
R: Umm, well, Lane would still write the lyrics mostly. So, I can't really say...I mean, "Stronger Now" is, as far as the overall song and what it says, touches me the most. But all the other songs, like "Family Picnic's" about child abuse or whatever, that isn't a part of where I came from or part of my life directly. So, I don't feel it maybe as much as somebody else who went through an experience like that. I'd say "Stronger Now" hit home more than anything.
J: What was it like doing the video? I saw it!
R: You saw it?
J: Yeah, I have it on tape!
R: Where did you see it?
J: Umm, Kris Anderson got somebody to tape it off of TV, and it's got an interview with Jerry and Erik at the beginning.
R: (Laughs) Oh, really!?
J: Yeah, I was asking if anybody had it, and Kris got it and taped it for me.
R: That was okay, you know, it took us about a day; seven hours. Whatever, it's just a vehicle for the song. I'm not crazy about any video; I don't know of a video where I really go, "Wow! That's great!". I mean, it's okay. I'm not gonna say I think it's great, ‘cause I don't think it is, but.
J: Why did you decide to only have you and Jani in it?
R: Well, it wasn't my decision but it made sense. Because the song really is only me and him playing, and a violin player. [Hey, I play violin. Maybe Warrant would like to take me on tour?] I mean, we could have had all the guys sitting around as part of the background, but really there's nothing they were to do in the song ‘cause it's only guitar. I didn't make that decision, though.
J: How do you feel the fan support for Warrant is?
R: Loyal! Considering everything the band's been through, Warrant still has a pretty good fan base. People like yourself that go to the whole, from point A to point B or wherever we're at, that still like the band and what we're doin'. It means a lot. It says that there's still a lot of fans out there. Even with all the music changing and what-have-you, still not everybody's deserted Warrant or jumped on a bandwagon, no pun intended.
J: Do you have any funny road stories?
R: Oh god, where to begin!? (Laughs) Pre-James, or after James?
J: Anything!
R: Oh man! I remember...I hate to tell this story, but James was...Nah, I'll tell you another one. This is when we blockaded Erik and Jerry in their room.
J: (Laughs) Why?
R: Well, we had a maid's cart and we took all the furniture out of our room; Lane, me and Bobby. We stacked it up against the...We must have been on the top floor, and nobody was around; this was like five o'clock in the afternoon. There was a game on or something and we had been drinking, were in one of those moods. And we just stacked up this big pile of stuff, and then at the top we put buckets of water so that if they moved anything or pushed it, the water would come down on them. So that took us about an hour! That was a lot of fun.
J: They didn't realize what you were doing when they were in the room?
R: No, they knew something was going on, but they wouldn't dare come out. Because they thought, you know, we were gonna throw water...take the garbage can full of water. So they were just locked in trying to keep safe, till next thing you know, they heard all this shit going on, they looked out their peephole and saw this big montrosity [Hey, Rick! Isn't it "monstrosity"?] out there. I never knew how they really got out, because that was the end. We left or went back to the room, checked on it occasionally, but then when it was time to go to the gig...We never really found out how they got out.
J: Probably the crew.
R: Yeah, something weird happened. Anyway, that was funny, because Jani was, at one point he was naked running down the halls doing all this stuff. Don't ask me how he got naked!
J: I wasn't going to, don't worry! [Am I the only one that thinks that Dave just might be the only normal member of this band?]
R: I think we were swimming, too. I don't know, it's a big blur. Most of these road stories are blurs!
J: Anything else?
R: We have something called "The Octagon," on the bus. Where you call somebody out and you say, "Come on, I'm ready to take you down." It's usually like after a show or while we're traveling. It usually ends up the whole bus is brawling. It gets out of control and the next day everybody's got bruises, and they're sore; Lane got a black eye and he can't sing, because somebody clobbered him in the throat. It's called "The Octagon," you can mention that!