Richard Williams of Kansas

50 Years of KANSAS

An interview with founding member Richard Williams

Interview by Ken Morton - Photo by Emily Butler Photography

KANSAS, America’s legendary progressive rock band, will celebrate their 50th anniversary in 2023. To commemorate this landmark occasion, current label InsideOutMusic are pleased to announce Another Fork In The Road – 50 Years Of Kansas available now! A career-spanning collection, it features carefully-selected tracks from across the bands sizable discography, as well as a new version of Can I Tell You. Originally recorded and released on their 1974 debut, the song is updated by the current line-up. It provides a full-circle perspective on the band’s long and continuing history that has seen them release 16 studio albums and sell in excess of 30 million albums worldwide. Highwire Daze recently interviewed guitarist and founding member Richard Williams to discuss the epic endevor of releasing Another Fork In The Road – 50 Years Of Kansas, why he and co-founding member and drummer Phil Ehart work so well together after all this time, touring news for this year, and a whole lot more!

What goes through your mind knowing that you’ve just out a compilation referencing 50 years of Kansas?

You could have kind of different parallel thoughts. On one hand it seems like we started yesterday. On the other hand, it seems like it’s 1,000 years. To not really think about it and just for what it is – it’s just another day. It’s just been a really long walk. The goal was

always to do what we enjoy doing, which is continue to play the next tour and the next tour – let’s do an album. And you keep taking the next step forward. And all of a sudden, it’s been 30 years and you’re “Wow!” We did this for 40 years. And now holy crap, it’s been 50! Nothing has changed in the journey – it’s been taking the next step forward. Then you look in the mirror behind you and go “Wow, it’s been a long time now!”

Tell me about the remake of Can I Tell You which opens the compilation, and how that came about.

Coming out of Covid and all of that, and us trying to remain creative – we were wondering if we could do this remotely – because everybody has a home studio of sorts. We were looking at doing the 50th Anniversary – in wanting to add something new to it – what if we tried to do some recording and see how that works. And the perfect song to experiment with was Can I Tell You, because that was the song that brought us to the game. We had made a demo tape – actually we were a band called White Clover at the time – and this was before Kerry Livgren joined. And we had gone to a little studio in the Southwest of Kansas called Liberal, Kansas – there was this little four track studio there – and we recorded Can I Tell You. In these days, it was reel to reel tapes when the demos would go out – we’d have three songs on one side and three songs on the other. We really didn’t have the money to make a lot of tapes – we probably made about a half dozen. One of them wound up on Don Kirchner’s desk. And eventually he got to it – he never heard the second side to know there was any material on it. The first song was Can I Tell You, and his new record company really liked that song and loved the violin.

So, that song was probably our career – without that song we would have never had one – we would have never gotten to Left Overture – we would have never gotten to Point Of Know Return – none of this would have happened without that song getting our foot in the door. So, we thought this would be a perfect book end of 50 years. That’s the song that got us here – let’s do a redo of it. And so that was the catalyst. And then part two was, can we do this remotely? So, Phil Ehart went into the studio that we use in Atlanta and recorded the drums tracks. The rest of us all did it remote – I cut my guitar tracks where I’m sitting right now – at home. Technology is pretty incredible! And so, our experiment worked. What we wanted to do was to redo that song with the new band to bookend the 50-year career.

How easy or difficult was it to select what songs or what versions would appear on Another Fork In The Road?

Well actually, we took it out of our hands. We were approached by Inside Out, which is our record label. They really wanted to do this project. In modern times, a record company being enthused about doing anything is remarkable! (Laughs) And Thomas Waber is first and foremost a big Kansas fan – long before we were with his label. And his approach to us was “I really want to do this project.” And we were “well, that’s awesome. Thank you.” And he said “here’s what I’d like to do. If you guys would let us, from a fan perspective, put together the lineage – the career – covering all aspects of the band in this project – and not make it yet another Best Of.”

And that’s one thing that Phil and I did not want to do, which would have unfortunately been our go to’s – we gotta have this song! We gotta have this song! And it just would have turned out to be a regurgitation of other Best Ofs. And so, we took our hands off the project and let them do the selections. We did have final say in it, and we changed a song or two.

But we really wanted to do what their idea was and

that also applied to the cover. We’ve always been very hands on with the artwork. We let them present their idea of it, and then in conversation we “what if we did this? What if we did that? Let’s take this away.” And so, it was a collaborative effort, but we let them carry the ball with this in tradition with how they started – which was from a fan’s perspective. I’m a fan of us, but I’m also an insider – and you can’t have that same perspective.

Tell me about the two songs on the album from The Absence Of Presence, which was released in 2020 and what that album title meant to you?

We like to be a bit ambiguous. “What does it mean to you?” is kind of the question that we wanted to raise in that. Not standing on the pulpit and making a declaration so much is just something that would cause people to think. And the purpose of that was more to spark, “I wonder what this means? What does this mean to you?” as you listen to the album etcetera.

I don’t like being dictated to. I don’t like somebody standing on the pulpit and tell me how it is. That’s boring! I think that’s a boring perspective to write from. Opinion is boring but raising a question – something to think about that spurs the imagination. That’s what paints color in your head – that’s what dreams are like. I don’t like a direct story. Again, ambiguity is what I always stress when talking to songwriters. Don’t tell me a story that has a beginning, a middle and an end and a conclusion. Make me wonder where you are going. I think the common man can relate. We’ve all thought these things. We’ve always wondered these things. So that was the purpose of all of that.

What do you think has made you and Phil Ehart work so well together over the years?

The first band we were ever in was in high school. The Junior year of high school we were in a band called The Pets. That summer of ’66, I took some guitar lessons. Ever since the Beatles were on Sullivan, I wanted to be in a band. And before that in Kansas, there were these really cool ten-piece soul bands doing steps with everyone wearing the matching tuxedos – a black lead vocalist who would sing his balls off with a big horn section.

The Midwest was covered with these bands, and it was very exciting. They’re all traveling around together in a converted school bus. That life just seemed so exciting. And that was before I even had a guitar.

Then the Beatles on Ed Sullivan and that lit the fuse. I wasn’t going to be stopped – and I kicked and screamed and pissed and moaned. So, my dad finally took me to a music store where I rented an electric guitar and a crappy amp and took lessons that summer. Playing the hits of the day at the time, you didn’t need to know much. And that was the beginning of our first band The Pets – and we’ve been together since 1966. We’ve known each other longer than we’ve known all of our wives all together time wise. (Laughs)

If we had anything to bitch about, to fight about, to argue about, to differ about – I guess all that was resolved a long time ago, because we’re on the same page all of the time. That’s our daily conversation – knowing who we are and what we want to do and how we want to do it. And so, it’s a very easy friendship. We’ve been joined at the hip since we were 16-17 years old.

Do you have any messages for Kansas fans who are reading this right now and will there be a tour?

Oh absolutely! That’s what I’m rehearsing for right now. In March we are going to do some casino shows. And starting in June, we have already locked in a 50date tour, which will be the 50th Anniversary Tour. And that will take us up and into December. So yes, there is going to be a 50th Anniversary Tour. It’s going to be very exciting, because we’re going to adding material that we haven’t played in three or four decades. There will be things that diehard fans have been wanting us to play forever – and for whatever reason we never really got to. It’s very exciting!

I’m a gearhead and I’m already putting together my 50th Anniversary guitar rig. I’m sitting here in a room with 15 varieties of Marshall heads and probably 40 guitars on the wall – and ignoring all that because I’m so excited about the new crap that I’ll be getting. It’s nice to still remain passionate about what we do. It is the best job in the world. I’ve been in the band too long – I could never be a civilian again. I enlisted when I was 16 and I don’t know any other way. And I don’t care to know another way…

https://www.kansasband.com/