Howie Simon discusses

Winger, Jeff Scott Soto, The Hard Way and more

Howie Simon began playing guitar at age 6 in his hometown of Buffalo, New York. His earliest influences were Elvis Presley and KISS. With credits as epic as his dynamic axe work, Howie is currently on the road with the one and only Winger, lending his guitar expertise to the legenday band. Howie also performs locally with The Hard Way, and will be appearing with the band at The 51st Anniversary Rainbow Bar and Grill Party In The Party Lot Show - unleashing crowd favorites such as Diabolical Bitch, That Ain’t Love, and I Can’t Go Home Highwire Daze recently had the opportunty to interview Howie Simon to discuss his absolutely outstanding career in music. Read on...

How did you wind up meeting Eric Jeffreys and joining

The Hard Way?

I’m going to be completely honest here – I had to call Eric when I got these questions to ask him how we met because I simply don’t remember! Apparently, he came to see me at a local club where I was playing a show with Alcatrazz, and a mutual friend introduced us. So, back in 2015 when his guitarist at the time went on vacation, he reached out to ask me to sub in with the band for a couple of shows. Fast forward 5 or 6 years later and his guitarist decided to move out of town permanently so he called me to do the gigs regularly. And here we are…

The Hard Way recently played some big shows at The Whisky opening for the likes of Ace Frehley and Lita Ford. What was the experience like for you, and did you know either performer from before?

I have been on quite a few festival bills with Ace already and have actually played with Lita numerous times in an all star project called “Scrap Metal” that is run by Gunnar Nelson of the Nelson Brothers. We did a 4 show run in Alaska a few years back. Lita is such a great person and it’s always a blast to play her tunes. In fact the night before The Hard Way/ Lita show at The Whisky, I played the International Theater at the Westgate in Vegas with Winger and Lita was on the bill with us. So I saw her two nights in a row!

Ace I have never actually met in person but it’s always a great nostalgia trip to hear him play the old Kiss songs.

What is your favorite song to play by The Hard Way and why?

That’s a tough one to answer but would probably go with our show closer I Can’t Go Home. It’s got a great swing to it and it’s a bit of a tricky riff to play, so I like the challenging aspect of it. Plus, since it’s almost always the last song, that means it’s time to head to the bar for some drinks!

What was the very first band you were ever in, what style of music did you play, and how old were you at the time?

Oh man. I was a singer in a band called “Tyr” named after the Norse God of war when I was like 14 or 15 years old. I did play guitar at the time, but the band already had two guitarists and only needed a singer. I wanted to do something musically so I agreed to join. We did quite a few gigs over a two year period or so. It was hard rock covers and even some original tunes. We covered stuff by Deep Purple/ Dio/ Michael Schenker Group/ etc…a lot of more obscure European hard rock for a bunch of young teenagers. There are quite a few silly pictures of us on my Facebook page that a friend recently found.

For those who may not be entirely familiar with your career, can you please let everyone know what other notable artists you have worked with?

It’s a bit of a long list but some of the more well known bands & artists I have either performed live or recorded with are:

Stryper/ Winger/ Tesla/ Nelson/ Alcatrazz/ Derek St. Holmes (Ted Nugent vocalist)/ Eric Martin Band (Mr. Big vocalist)/ Talisman (Swedish band with Jeff Scott Soto)/ Jeff Scott Soto solo band/ Harry Hess (Harem Scarem vocalist)/ Tuff/ and Scrap Metal , which is an incredible all-star band run by Gunnar Nelson (his brother Matt is the bassist) with a revolving door line-up show by show.

Guests who have appeared with Scrap Metal include: Stephen Pearcy (RATT), Elliot Easton (The Cars), Lita Ford, Barry Goudreau (Boston), Pat Travers, Brad Whitford (Aerosmith), Michael Sweet (Stryper), Kelly Keagy (Night Ranger), Phil Lewis (L.A. Guns), Janet Gardner (Vixen), Mark Slaughter, Jack Russell (Great White), George Lynch (Dokken), Ted Poley (Danger Danger), John Corabi (Motley Crue), Oni Logan (Lynch Mob), Steve Plunkett (Autograph) Eric Martin, Derek St. Holmes, and many more. I feel very fortunate to get to work with all of these amazing artists!

You have worked with Jeff Scott Soto on quite a few of his solo albums. Where did you first meet Jeff and what has it been like working with him?

Jeff and I are like brothers. We can whip together great songs in no time and we have an innate sense of what the other is going to do. We met sometime in the late 90’s or early 2000’s…I can’t remember exactly. And we started playing together in 2001/2002. The last live thing we did was the Monsters Of Rock Cruise in 2022. And at the end of 2021 we released a video for a remake of a tune he co-wrote with Yngwie Malmsteen back in the dayDon’t Let It End Dino Jelusick (who was recently touring with Whitesnake) co-sang this with Jeff and you can see it on YouTube. Check it out if you get a chance...we are all pretty proud of how it turned out.

What was it like to bring Alcatrazz back with Graham Bonnet?

That was a 10 year whirlwind of a lot of ups and downs. Some of the shows were very memorable and included 3 tours of Japan, a tour of Russia, a few times through Europe, big festivals in Mexico and our final show in 2013 in São Paulo, Brazil. I unfortunately could not get any original material written or recorded as hard as I tried, and that’s a shame because it was a slamming band.

What has been one of your most favorite memories and performances about appearing at Ultimate Jam Night? A lot of cool moments happened back when it all first started out. It’s hard to pick just one. Maybe the time I played and sang Whitesnake’s Crying In The Rain. That was a good performance overall and it’s available to see on YouTube

How have your shows with Winger been going and what have been some of the highlights?

5 years into it and every show is a blast! It’s such a great bunch of people – both band and crew. This last show we just did in Vegas at the International Theater back on March 4th which I mentioned earlier is a highlight for certain. It’s the very same venue and stage where Elvis had his residency and recorded his live album, In Person At The International Hotel, which I always cite as my first ever influence for getting into music and playing guitar. I can’t tell you how excited I was to play on the same stage!

With you being an Elvis fan, how influenced were you by his longtime guitarist James Burton, and have you ever met him?

I can’t say there’s that much of an influence guitar wise, and I have never met him but hope to someday. As

What other bands or projects are you currently involved with?

I get hired a lot to record tracks here in my studio for many different artists and send them out so I am currently busy with that. If anyone reading this is interested in having me play on their material. please reach out to me on my social media! Also, more The Hard Way and Winger shows coming up over the next few months. And I do a lot of solo acoustic performances so always check my Facebook for upcoming shows!

Any final words of wisdom?

I never know what to say to this interview question. Um…if you get up in the middle of the night to get a drink of water, always check the glass before using it as a bug might’ve crawled into it. That’s the best wisdom I can come up with at this moment!