Schemer or Dreamer? A Conversation with Steve Walsh

...Continued from Page 1

HoS: When did you start singing and playing the piano, and what drove you to do it?
Steve: About the age of ten. I just started seeing things...this is right before The Beatles, like '61 and I saw where musicians were popular and they were floating around, doing their jigs and, you know, at family reunions my parents would get me up there to sing crap and entertain the family, so I was a natural ham. I was a ham at ten. Hell, I was a ham at seven! (laughs)

HoS: Do you still consider yourself a ham?
Steve: Well, yeah...

HoS: You kinda have to be don't you?
Steve: Well, that and you have to be real insecure! (laughs) You have to want the love...need the love of strangers. People that you'll never meet ever again HAVE to love you! (chuckles loudly)

HoS: Just so you know, we've been reading reviews of your shows coming, not from Kansas fans but, from Yes fans and you're the talk of the town. They're saying, "Steve Walsh blew me away!", "Steve has so much energy!", "He sounds great!". Some people that said they went to see Yes, left wishing you guys had been the headliner! Next time, I hope you are the headliner and I hope we get to hear you do something off your solo album. That would be sick.
Steve: Yeah that would be great!

HoS: Did you ever have any kind of vocal training?
Steve: No and I should have. I'm too old now to do that, but yes, I should have. The thing that I should've done is quit drinking a long, long time ago, but I didn't. That's then and this is now. At least I know that I'm able to put out now.

HoS: Yeah, you sound great, man. The best I've seen you since like '94. Plus, with Robby back and with Billy, those harmonies are great! Who are your main influences?
Steve: That would change year to year, but right now I'm listening to A Perfect Circle, Slipknot. I still like the Tool albums. I wish they'd get ol' Maynard back in the studio and do another one of those because I think Tool is better than A Perfect Circle. I really like Fiona Apple. I think she's remarkable. I was disappointed in her new album, but I know what she's trying to do and the first album, I think, really still has a lot to say to me.

HoS: Who would you like to work with in the future? I've always wanted to hear you do a duet with a female vocalist, someone like Ann Wilson. That's just like a fan dream. Who would you like to work with?
Steve: I'd like to feel that I was current enough to work with someone who's current. I know I'm not, but I wish I was. I wish I could work with someone like Fiona Apple or ...and Kate Bush isn't current, but I'd still like to work with her. I'll tell you who I'd like to look up, but she's too old now...Christine Amphlett from the Divinyls. She was doing a Broadway thing I think about a year ago or something, but some of their songs, for a while that's all I listened to was the Divinyls. That was fifteen, ten years ago.

HoS: What's next for Steve Walsh and Kansas? I heard about a live DVD that may be in the works?
Steve: I can't really answer that because, like I say, there's so much on my plate right now. I'm working on a web movie! (An impish grin comes across Steve's face).

HoS: You are?
Steve: Yeah, it'll just be on our web site if I can get it compressed down enough, 'cause it's already like over six, seven hundred meg, and with web sites, you can only post about one meg or two meg. So, I hope they can stream it. That's what I'm hoping, that you can get online and just have it come down as it's playing. That would be cool.

HoS: Is it going to be animated?
Steve: No, it's just crazy and it's stupid, but it makes people laugh. I mean, I've tried it out on a lot of people and they all bust up over it, so...

HoS: Excellent, we'd love to see it! Is there going to be a Kansas Somewhere To Elsewhere headlining tour after this?
Steve: We've been talking about it and we've been trying to feel out whether we could play with Kerry for ten, fifteen, twenty dates around the country. I mean, that would be great and I think that's the only way it would ever work is with Kerry.

HoS: Any Steve Walsh solo dates?
Steve: See, I've been asked that several times, but there's just not enough time. Our publicist says, you know, "Well, you could put something together, you know, just play a half hour." Well, shit! You know, that's nothing...preparing for that half-hour takes weeks!

HoS: Yeah and Kansas never stops playing.
Steve: Then I said, you know, I'm not going to go out with just bullshit lighting and stuff. There's got to be some ambiance going on. So, if you want to set me up in The House of Blues, that's okay, but if you can't book me into some place like that, well, fuck it! Have you seen Metallica's thing that they did with the symphony?

HoS: Yup.
Steve: Fuck! That's sooo BAD! That is so cool!!

HoS: I always thought that you guys would do something like that, you know put out a video.
Steve: We would love to.

HoS: I actually think that the Kansas symphonic album (Always Never the Same) is a lot better than the Metallica thing. There's definitely a lot better singing on it! (laughs)
Steve: Man, that Metallica shit just kills me!

HoS: I know! Me, too! Literally!! (laughs)
Steve: It's expensive looking, too. Cameras everywhere!

HoS: I know you have to get going, so I just have one last question: You've performed all over the world to sold out crowds, sold millions of records and made some memorable music. What dreams are left to drive Steve Walsh?
Steve: Just redefinition. Redefinition. That's what I feel an artist does is reinterpret his surroundings. Reinterpretation all the time. You can take the same story and it can be a totally different song depending on when you write it, what frame of mind you're in. That's what I seek to accomplish. Plus, it's so exciting now because of all the new technologies and whatnot. I mean, I'm just having a lot of fun doing that. I've got a little powerbook in my room and that's what I'm doing the video on. I mean, I'm just having a blast! I just told my wife today, "Thank God for this little, stupid box! Hours and hours I used to sit at the bar slammin', you know, and now... God, that just seems so long ago now! Now, I just sit in front of the computer and edit and do new things, you know. Today, Robby and I took a luggage cart and I sat him on the luggage cart with the camcorder so I could get it close to the ground and just FOOOOM! Down the hall of the hotel as fast as I could! (big laughs) Looking back at it, it's about that high (6 inches) off the ground and it just looks like you're going sixty miles an hour! Great fun, great fun!

HoS: Thanks a lot, Steve.
Steve: All right! You're welcome.

HoS: (Walking down the hallway) We'll look forward to the headstand! (laughs)
Steve: (laughing) Man, what are you guys doin' to me? (big laughs)

HoS: We're just trying to pump you up! We'll keep our fingers crossed!
Steve Walks away laughing.

After all was said and done Steve Walsh the man proved to be a humble, funny, and down to earth guy. A man who battled his demons and came out on top, a man whose eyes have been opened to the wonders of the world, an inspiring story.

Later that night the magic of Kansas was in the air as the band, led by a fiery Steve Walsh, treated us to one the best concerts I've ever witnessed. The whole band sounded incredibly tight, and Steve's rejuvenated vocals sounded amazing. It was truly an excellent set as the entire crowd provided the band with much deserved standing ovations after every song.

Oh, and I know you're wondering about the headstand... Take a look for yourself...
(See this and other pics full-size in the Photo Gallery.)

The House of Shred thanks Steve Walsh for taking the time to speak with us.

Special thanks go out to Steve Brownlow and Michael Mazur.

Steve Walsh's Glossolalia is due in stores on September 12th, 2000.

Also see the following:
Our review of Kansas' Somewhere To Elsewhere.
Our review of Kansas' Always Never The Same.
Our interview with Kansas guitarist Rich Williams.
The Kansas pics in our Photo Gallery.
Check out the Official Kansas Website.