Steve Whiteman of KIX

A Poolside Interview with Steve Whiteman of KIX

Interview by Ken Morton Live Photo from M3 Rock Festival by Joe Schaeffer

Steve Whiteman spent a good portion of the pandemic recording his very first solo album - and with a little help from his friends, You’re Welcome was conceived. Released on the verge of the opening dates of the current KIX tour, You’re Welcome features 12 absolutely explosive tracks that hard rock fans will want to revisit time and again. When Highwire Daze checked in for our interview, Steve Whiteman was poolside in a floating raft under the 100 degree sun of Hagerstown in Maryland. Taking the cell phone and ready to rock our conversation, Steve Whiteman discussed the making of You’re Welcome right in the middle of the Covid age, the recent headlining KIX show at the much revered M3 Rock Festival, celebrating the 40 year anniversary of their debut Self-Titled album, and a whole lot more!

First of all, how did the M3 Rock Festival over the 4th of July weekend go and what were some of the highlights for you?

That always feels amazing. It just brings together the huge amount of fans that we’ve accumulated in this area over the last 40 years. Just being able to look out at the end of that night at all these people standing on their feet, and they’re proud that they could call us their homegrown band. And the event itself is the best part of the evening and has been for about the past ten years. It’s the one and only festival that we actually get to headline a night.

Overall, what has it been like to be one of the first bands to tour right after a pandemic?

Well, all of us got vaccinated and we’re following all of the protocols when we fly and everything. We’re just glad to be back out in front of people.

What made you decide it was now time to release a Steve Whiteman solo album?

I’ve been writing songs for probably the last 3-4 years and I just wanted to have them on hand if and when KIX were seriously ready to think about doing another studio record. And I’ve just been sitting on them. I was sharing them with the guys and really hadn’t been getting a whole lot of feedback. And I just don’t think there’s a whole lot of interest right now in us getting together and doing another studio KIX album at this time. We’ve just got so much work to do – all the makeup shows from the pandemic that we have to do. So during the pandemic, there was really nothing to do. So Jimmy Chalfant our drummer, and Brad Divens were getting together and recording cover songs in the studio – and he just wanted to get some experience in the studio – so he would do some Aerosmith or AC/DC. And one day Jimmy said to him, “You know, Steve is sitting on a pile of songs. Why don’t we get him in here and record a couple of them?” It would give Brad some recording from the ground up. So, I brought my pile

of songs and we sat and listened to all 12 of them that are on the record. And Brad looked at me and said, “Let’s do ‘em all!” So, I said, “Then we’re making a solo record, aren’t we?” And he said, “I think so!” And it just kind of happened. It wasn’t really a plan of any kind – it just kind of evolved and it just kept getting better and better. Everybody was enjoying themselves, and getting out of the house was great. Recording and playing music was great. So, it was therapeutic for everyone.

Your fans probably already know the answer to this, but for people who don’t, is there a story behind the album title You’re Welcome?

Oh of course. I’ve been doing this bit now for the past 7-8 years where after a nice round of applause, you say “Thank you.” And one night, this crowd seemed dead – they were hardly reacting. And I said, “thank you” and I got a little golf round applause. And I said, “You know, the polite thing to do is say You’re Welcome when you say thank you!” And that just got the crowd into a frenzy, and I’ve been doing it ever since. It’s like that way, you know you’ve got the crowd in the palm of your hand – they’re paying attention – they’re having fun – and they’re participating. It’s just my way of interacting with the crowd.

You mentioned Brad Divens. He’s involved with the solo album. He’s also on the Cool Kids album and did a band called Souls At Zero. What was it like reconnecting with Brad after all of this time?

It’s been great reconnecting with Brad. I forgot how great a guy he was. He’s been all over the place. His life has had him jump all over the place and doing different kinds of jobs. And he’s just landed doing front of house for all these really, really big bands, and he’s currently working for Enrique Iglesias – I think they’re going to start back up in the next week or so. With everybody home and being able to reconnect with Brad. Like Brad and Bob Paré – and I’ve been friends with Dean Cramer forever and obviously Jimmy forever. But connecting with those two guys I really feel created a lifelong friendship.

Bob Pare who is involved with the solo album is now in KIX. What did he do in the solo album and is he now a permanent KIX member?

He is until Ronnie Younkins gets better – if and when Ronnie gets better. But we’ve invited him to come in. We nearly invited him to come in a couple of years ago. Ronnie would go up and down – up and down – he would be good for a while and then he would relapse – and then he would be good for a while. We were always on the fence of bringing someone in. And Bob was ready – as soon as we found out that Ronnie could no longer do shows, we thought it was time to bring somebody in cuz it’s not fair for the fans who come to the shows. Bob was the perfect guy to bring in and he does an incredible job. And on this record, Bob is probably the reason it sounds so good because for every song that he played on – he played on like 8 songs – and for every song he played on, he knew exactly what guitar to use – what amplifier – what sound to use. He’s just that much of a perfectionist. If it were me, I just would have done plugins, you know, but he just had such a better idea. And having Brad being able to play bass on ten tracks – I got to play two. Jimmy played ten tracks on drums – I got to play two. I just want to say that I played everything on a couple of tracks.

Since we have talked about Ronnie, I just wanted to touch on the song Kid Dynamite and the influence behind that.

Obviously, it’s about Ronnie and his problem with addiction. Ronnie was actually helping to write this song when it had another title. It wasn’t originally called Kid Dynamite – and we were writing about what he was going through. And I never did like the title, and I didn’t think the words were explosive enough. So, I continued to work on it after Ronnie left the project – and I needed a title – and for some reason I thought of Jimmie Walker and “Kid Dynamite!” and I thought “that’s a great title,” because onstage Ronnie is Kid Dynamite. There’s no other like him, so I thought that would be the perfect title to tell his story.

And I want to talk about Jimmy since he’s on the solo album as well as a long time KIX member. What was it like working with him on the solo album?

Jimmy was essential in some of the production ideas. He came up with some really good ideas, where I don’t think he would have probably taken it seriously if it were a KIX album with a top producer. But here he had full reign – not every idea was used by any of us – but he had some really good production ideas – as did Bob and Brad and myself. And that’s why I just gave production credit to all four of those guys, because we all spent a couple of months working on it together. (Please turn the page...)

Would you like to tour in support of this solo album or are you already playing some of these songs live?

No, we’re not playing them live. The fact that it just came out last week. It wouldn’t be fair to ask KIX fans to listen to Steve Whiteman music when they come to listen to KIX. There’s a possibility of next January or February when Brian goes on tour to do Rhino Bucket shows – if everybody has the free time, that would be the time for us to go out and play the shows and let people hear the music that want to hear just that music. I know that everybody would love to do it, but it would just depend in schedules.

With KIX being around for a very long time, you constantly have anniversaries of album and tours and everything. And you have a 40-year anniversary this year of the KIX Self-Titled album. Looking back on the album, what do you think of it now in retrospect and the fact that it really is 40 years old?

I don’t think you ever stop loving your first album, because it took a year to write it and you got to perform it in front of people before it was actually recorded, and knowing how it went over in those crowds. And I think that album still holds up. I like the diversity of the first two albums – it wasn’t just one genre. Like Midnite Dynamite, we seemed to get harder and just stay in that ballsy hard rock genre, whereas the earlier albums had stuff like Heartache and For Shame and things that would never make a KIX album today. Yeah, that album is still very special to me.

What has kept you so passionate about KIX and music since you first started in 1977?

Yeah, but before that I was in local bands before I moved to Hagerstown. I think you’re born with it. I think in some people, there’s just a passion for sports, for music, for acting – and if you’re lucky enough and dedicated enough just to put the work in and do the time, that you can achieve your goals. We probably shoulda coulda done better, but we did what we did, and we’re still doing it, and we’re still happy doing it. I think you’re born with that passion, and I don’t think it ever goes away.

Do you have any messages for KIX fans who are reading this now?

I just hope they give the solo album a chance. Just because it’s not KIX doesn’t mean that it’s not good hard rock music. If they want to pick up a copy, then can go to www.rightrocksportswear.com. I believe the first order of 500 sold out in like two days – they’re on back order now and we’re getting more printed up and getting them out there. Obviously, you could download it from iTunes and Amazon and all that stuff. So, I hope they give it a try.

www.rightrocksportswear.com