The Rock Interviews: Jeff Pilson, Paul Gilbert and Ricky Phillips

The following interviews took place in the late 1990s and early 2000s. Ricky Phillips and Paul Gilbert were for a publication and Jeff Pilson was during a visit to Belfast with Foreigner. The interviews are published here so they remain accessible.

You can see more Foreigner images in the Music Project Gallery. Also see : The first Album I bought.

Jeff Pilson Interview

When did you start making music and what attracted you to bass guitar?

Jeff Pilson: I started playing at 12 years old (although I started playing cello a year earlier). Some guys heard me singing on the playground so they asked if I’d buy a bass and be in their band- I did it.

Who were your influences growing up?

Jeff Pilson: Beatles, Zeppelin, Yes and the prog movement, AC/DC, most 70’s rock, the list goes on

You have worked with many of the greats, what has been the highlight of your career personally?

Jeff Pilson:  Working with Ronnie Dio, working and writing with George Lynch, and anytime I play with Vinny Appice. Actually there are lots of highlights, but those stand out.

You stared in the movie ‘Rockstar’ how did that come about and what  did you learn from the experience?

Jeff Pilson:  I started by playing bass on the sessions for the soundtrack, the director saw me working with the  band and offered me the part. What I learned is how well actors are treated!!! You should have seen catering!

Being a massive fan of Dokken in the late 80s what was your favourite Dokken song and why?

Jeff Pilson: Its Not Love, I just think it’s a great song that still makes me feel good.

With the advances in technology many musicians and employing computer based recording have you ventured to using a computer live ? if so how do you use the technology?

Jeff Pilson:  I don’t use a computer for any of my stuff live, but the keyboardist for Foreigner does. It’s just part of a keyboard players gig now.

Your fan site has been running a few years now and you are exceptionally responsive to you fans, what is the strangest request you have received via the site?

Jeff Pilson: Somebody wanted me to go to a school dance with them, I think they were serious!!

If you could work with anyone who would you choose and why?

Jeff Pilson: If you mean living than Ringo or McArtney would be nice. I also assume you mean people I haven’t worked with, so Slash comes to mind, as does Coverdale. Also, Keith Emerson. If they don’t have to be alive, Beethoven and John Lennon would top the list.

What is your favourite song / band and why?

Jeff Pilson: My all time favorite song is Clair De Lune by Debussy, fave band is the Beatles- because the music is so good.

We have met a few musicians of late you literally have 100s of guitars in their home. Do you have a large collection or historic equipment?

Jeff Pilson: I do, not 100s but I do love my guitars, amps and I have a mellotron. I also have good old mics and microphone preamplifiers

Your currently touring with Foreigner, how is that going ? are there any UK plans?

Jeff Pilson: All good with Foreigner. We have a best-of CD coming later this year with one new song and an acoustic version of Say You Will and two songs from our Live 05 CD.

The new song is a Mick Jones Marty Fredericksen collaboration that is real strong. Has an old Foreigner sound, but also modern in a Maroon 5 sort of way. Great song, it’s called “Too Late”. Look for that in the fall. Hopefully will hit the UK next year.

Paul Gilbert Interview

When Billy Sheehan left David Lee Roth’s band in 1988, he joined with Paul Gilbert, who had left his former band, Racer X. They founded Mr. Big, with Pat Torpey on drums and singer Eric Martin. With Lean Into It, their second album, which featured the ballad “To Be With You”, which received strong media play and reached #1 on the Billboard Hot 100. Gilbert continued playing in Mr. Big until the late 90s.

Since then Paul Gilbert has enjoyed success with Racer X and lately as an solo artist. His latest release “Silence followed by a Deafening Roar” includes bonus features such as printable tablature, downloadable backing tracks and rare concert footage.

What attracted you to the guitar as a instrument and what was your first guitar?

Paul Gilbert: I knew I wanted to be a musician. I thought guitar was cool because you can stand up and play it. I liked drums and piano, but I didn’t want to sit down all the time. My first guitar was a Stella acoustic. I recently found one just like it on Ebay. I’m holding it in the photo on the back of my newest instructional DVD.

Who were you guitar influences growing up?

Paul Gilbert: All the 70’s guitar players. Jimmy Page, Robin Trower, Pat Travers, Eddie Van Halen, Frank Marino, Alex Lifeson, Ace Frehley, Angus Young, Joe Perry, The Sex Pistols, The Ramones, Mick Ronson, and lots more.

If you could work with anyone at all (dead or alive) who would you chose and why?

Paul Gilbert: I wish I could be the drummer for AC/DC when Bon Scott was alive. That would be worth sitting down.

We first came across you through Racer X and your work with Billy Sheehan (David Lee Roth band) in Mr Big. What was it like being in one of the biggest rock bands of the 90s?

Paul Gilbert: It was great of course. Billy was a hero of mine, so it was a great honor to play music with him.

Your latest album Silenced Followed by a Deafening Roar is utterly stunning. It is a technical masterpiece but at the same time beautifully melodic. Do you focus on striking the balance?

Paul Gilbert:: I just try to make something that I like to listen to. I have a reputation for playing fast and flashy things, so I feel some obligation to deliver that, but I put equal effort into the compositions and into making good arrangements for the other instruments and not just the guitar.

My favourite tracks “I cannot tell a lie” and “I still Have That other Girl” are particularly expressive. How much of tracks like these are planned or is there a degree of improvisation allowed in recording?

Paul Gilbert: “I Still Have That Other Girl” is an Elvis Costello and Burt Bacharach song. I just took the vocal melody and played it on guitar, so there is very little improvisation there. “I Cannot Tell a Lie” is also very planned-out. But I used improvisation to get the initial ideas.

You have always been keen to give back to your fans whether through your tutorials with Total Guitar or your work with the Guitar Institute of Technology. Do you enjoy teaching and do you ever learn from your students?

Paul Gilbert : I love teaching guitar, but it has nothing to do with “giving back”. My motives are entirely selfish. I love to talk about guitar, think about guitar, and of course, play guitar. Teaching gives me a chance to see the skills, perspectives, and struggles of other musicians. We have a very good time trying to find the best notes to play on our guitars together

You offer fans the opportunity of a 1 to 1 guitar lesson before each gig which is proving exceptionally popular do you ever get any strange requests?

Paul Gilbert: I have been enjoying the “VIP” lessons very much. Mostly because I have a chance to listen to the students play. We have great jam sessions every day! Everyone has been cool so far. No strange requests, just good creative questions.

You have been a loyal Ibanez player for many years and PGM series still remain a much sought after guitars. What makes Ibanez and the PGM series so special?

Paul Gilbert: It is a perfectly built musical instrument. Ibanez guitars are easier to play than other brands, and I like my job to be as easy as possible!

What advice would you give young musicians / bands starting off?

Paul Gilbert: Your ears are as important as your fingers. When you practice, don’t just focus on your fingers. It’s important to LISTEN to how you sound. Record yourself, record your band. Don’t waste time with lots of studio processing. Just listen to performances and be honest with yourself about what needs to improve. Learn and write 100s of songs. That helps!

You design and maintain your own website, do you want to tell readers a little about what the site offers ? Your photoshop experiences are great?
Paul Gilbert: The internet is a great place for creative freedom. There are no laws or limits. So I try to take advantage of this. Thank for listening to my music!

Links : http://www.paulgilbert.com/

Ricky Phillips Interview

When did you start making music and what attracted you to bass guitar?

Ricky Phillips: I started at 6 on piano really, although I did mess with my Dad’s guitar through my childhood.  I had a friend who had the same fascination for music and we graduated from playing every piano duet we could to guitar around 10 or 11.  We formed our first band when I was 12 and he was 13 called,”The Warlox”.  I had turned 13 by the time we did our first gig which consisted of Beatles, Stones and Monkees music laced with some one hit wonders of the 60’s.  One weekend my bass player left his bass at my house after a rehearsal and I couldn’t put it down.  I found the McCartney parts harder and more interesting to play than the Lennon/Harrison parts and I was hooked.

Who were your influences growing up?

Ricky Phillips: Besides McCartney, I was heavily influenced by the phrasing and note choice of early Eric Clapton and adopted as much as I could of his guitar style to bass, specifically from the Cream period.  He played completely different in those days.  Cream, Hendrix and Motown records were my sole diet for a period of time until Zeplin came along.

The bass part that Jimi (Hendrix) played himself on ‘All Along the Watchtower’ is still one of my favorite recorded bass performances of all time.  The Who’s, John Entwhistle was a huge influence on me as was Chris Squire of Yes.  Zeps, John Paul Jones was very clever in his sometimes sophisticated always melodic approach to blues-influenced heavy  music.  He could marry his parts to support the drums and still convey an alternate energy with melody … which I  have attempted to inhale in every way I possibly could.

All of these amazing players taught me how to write lyrically with stress on melody and unique note choice, to create bass parts that would stand on their own.   I was also influenced by a couple jam style bassists such as Jack Bruce of Cream  and Tim Bogert in his Cactus days and the Beck,Bogert and Appice project.

You have worked with many of the greats, what has been the highlight of your career personally?

Ricky Phillips: Working and recording with Jimmy Page and David Coverdale on their CD was a great experience.  Sitting in with Jeff Beck and jamming with Mick Jagger were definitely great moments.  I was a kid when these guys were already influencing all of us.  The studio work and touring with some of my favorite artists as a side man behind the scenes, logged some great experiences.  But writing, creating, recording and finding success with my own bands The Babys, Bad English and now Styx are the most satisfying of  my career so far.  Being a part of something clearly greater than yourself is the ultimate.

Bad English for me was a turning point in rock music. Melody, great vocal and the song appeared more important that anyone instrument. What was it like playing in Bad English? 

Ricky Phillips: Bad English was a band of brothers who fought just as often as we got along. Creative differences are a bitch but can push bands to higher heights.  We respected each other but everyone had strong opinions and visions for the band. The push and pull in this process resulted in the band putting out great songs and performances in the studio.  I’m proud of both of those CDs.

Did the lifestyle resemble the music videos? 

Ricky Phillips: I’m not sure I understand what you mean but the lifestyle in the 80s was clearly of excess.  Which was something we had all been aware of for years.  Road life is often disjointed and you try to kill 22 hours a day waiting to do your 2 hour show.   So we could get A bit crazy at times simply out of boredom. However, we all had a strong work ethic so, the writing and recording phase had quite a different lifestyle and focus to it.

I can remember growing my hair like John Waite’s but never ventured as far as dressing the same way. Looking back at some of the music videos are there any outfits you regret?

Ricky Phillips: No man, I’m guilty as charged.  At an early age I saw how Hendrix, Bowie, Sly Stone, John Lennon, Little Richard, Mick Jagger, Jim Morrison, Janis Joplin and so many other great talented people were embracing their art form completely by living it day to day and it has always stuck with me.

Ricky Phillips: They walked the walk.  There are pictures of me in the 70’s hiking in Yellowstone Park with platform shoes on.  I’m lucky I didn’t break an ankle but they were probably the only shoes I had as a traveling young bar musician.

But I love seeing that I was completely immersed and invested.  Purple leather suits and crazy hairdos are all part of the journey.  Once in the 80s, I was growing my hair out from a short Duran Duranish cut and for a brief point it looked very mullet like…not the desired look I was going for.  Of course, that’s exactly when I got a call from Atlantic Records to do a live television broadcast with Roger Daltrey…oh well, I disguised it the best I could, Roger was a blast and it was an amazing time…   I guess I survived it and lived to tell about it.

Are you still in contact with the band? 

Ricky Phillips: I’m in touch with most of the people I’ve worked with but it does seem like weeks have passed when it’s actually years between phone calls.

What was your favorite Bad English song and why? 

Ricky Phillips: The first Bad English album had two #1 songs, 5 top 40 singles and a 6th that made top 50.  But my favorite was actually on the 2nd CD, ‘Backlash’, which was much darker throughout.  There was a song not released in the States but was a top 10 hit in Europe and found the #1 slot in a couple countries for a minute or two.  It was called “Time Stood Still” and became a television/radio theme song for Heineken Beer in Europe.

I remember John writing the lyric, “We found a little seaside bar high above the rocks,”… and I followed with, “You were drinking white wine, while I was doin shots”.  The payoff line was,”We threw our watches in the sea, I looked at you, you looked at me and time stood still”.  In rock it’s nearly impossible to touch on a romantic notion without getting into the rock ballad thing.  We somehow were able to do it.  It’s one of my favorite collaborations I’ve done with John, or anyone really.   It was radio friendly but not blatantly pop.

We couldn’t wait to finish the song to see how the story line would end.  I had played a Flamenco guitar intro on the demo which Neal Schon took to whole other level for the actual recording.  My friend Jesse Harms was the one who actually came up with the chorus idea for the song and an infectious keyboard line.  We went our separate ways after that CD.  I think we may have been on the verge of writing our most quality stuff and getting away from the predictable gloss of pop music.

John Waite regularly performs some of the Bad English classics, have you ever considered a reunion?

Ricky Phillips: I get asked that a lot but frankly, no one else seems to be interested.  If all of our collective bands, Journey, Styx and John did a tour together I suppose we could do some impromptu Bad English performances.  Money is always huge factor in setting up a tour and it takes tons to put one  together.

Working as a professional musician comes with massive highs with album successes and I imagine similar lows when things go quiet. How do you cope with the throws of fame?

Ricky Phillips: The lows effected me more when I was in my 20s.  After a great success and a band break up, I was always working on the next thing and some of the best work I’ve ever done failed miserably.  I refused to follow the flavor of the month music trends which is the only way to go but it’s a steeper mountain to climb.

All of my friends were amazing musicians and when one of us would get a touring offer for the big bucks, the projects were abandoned.  The time, energy, passion and sacrifice put into creating an original sounding band is more powerful than the decline of your own personal popularity.  In LA I noticed a lot of musicians following every musical trend and those who put the party before the music.  I’ve definitely taken my turn wearing the lamp shade but I’m not on the Poseur A list.  I love LA and have great friends there who have found success in this very environment but I felt it diluted me in just about every way.

I’ve always written and recorded music as it hit me and reflected the world around me.  it has remained the constant through highs and lows.  After frustrations with keeping bands together I developed a bit of a loner focus but I always kept working…chipping away at the stone.

I do think that your work ethic is a key to any success and one of the reasons I have continued to get the career offers I have.  The satisfaction and feeling of success and camaraderie you experience with a band is unequaled by anything I’ve done thus far.  Ironically it took me working alone in the studio for years to appreciate it.

These days I’m on the road over 200 days a year.  Off the road I suppose I’m still a bit of a loner.  I like to blend in but realize I probably don’t.  I’ve moved away from Los Angeles I’m there quite often to see friends and occasionally to work.  But It’s been refreshing to be away from the industry of show biz on a daily basis and to talk to everyday people about everyday things.  It’s much more interesting.  Off the road I work long hours in my home studio to satisfy my creative urges and play golf to clear my head.

With the advances in technology many musicians and employing computer based recording have you ventured to using a computer live ?  if so how do you use the technology?

Ricky Phillips: No, In Styx we sing and play everything live.  I don’t mind other genres, especially dance, using pre recorded or synced back up but it’s pretty weak for rock bands to do that.   However, speaking digitally, I do remember the first record I produced digitally without tape.  I was asked to write and produce Fergie Frederiksen’s (Toto) first solo CD.

I took all my production budget and bought the hardware and the software to do the project. I slept on a couch in my studio 10 feet from my console for  2 months and learned while recording.  The pressure of holding someone’s career in your hands was intense. It was living hell for a bit.  It came out great and Fergie got well-  deserved rave reviews for his first solo effort and I received some good press as well because of it.

We (Styx) just recently started writing by sending each other song files and recording our parts in our own studios.  I still prefer everyone in one room but I’m pleased with the recordings we’ve been making this way.  Plus we seem to be writing and recording a lot more because of the ease in scheduling our individual personal time.

If you could work with anyone who would you choose and why?

Ricky Phillips: Of the living…I love Jeff Beck and If I thought I could keep up with him, he would be at the top of my list.  I’m all about passion, inspiration and conviction while performing and he is the pinnacle of that quest.  He walks straight out to the edge of the cliff and stays there.  I had a chance to perform with him In Japan along with Neal Schon, John Waite, Terry Bozzio and Steve Lukather.  It lists way up there of favorite lifetime moments.  Of the no longer living…. Hendrix and Stevie Ray.

What is your favorite song / band and why?

Ricky Phillips: I can’t put it into one song but the Beatles in their short lived career would be impossible to overlook.  It isn’t that they created a sound that everyone tried to mimic. But they broke the rules and gave us some much hipper ones to follow.  Who knows what lame direction music might have taken if we hadn’t been educated by them and George Martin.  There are people who say, “I don’t get the Beatles”, ….which in itself blows my mind… but I would guess that their favorite bands were influenced by The Beatles in some way…or by other artists who were.

If you could have chosen a different career what would have been? 

Ricky Phillips: A professional golfer.  Which would have given me an even greater chance of failure than as a musician.

A few musicians of late have literally 100s of guitars in their home. Do you have a large collection or historic equipment?

Ricky Phillips: I suppose I have around 90 guitars and basses located in various places all over the country.  Some are on the road in two different rigs with Styx, most are in LA in storage lockers and some are with friends.  I have some very nice 50’s and 60’s guitars and basses but have retired them from the road for fear of damage or theft.  Now that I know which one’s I can’t live without I’ve recently thought of thinning the herd…but every time I sell a guitar I regret it.  Vintage Guitar Magazine did an article on a portion of my collection last April.

What are you currently working on? 

Ricky Phillips: I’ve been doing some re-recording of the Styx catalogue for things like Rock Band, Guitar Hero and other purposes.  Also I have started recording the songs I’ve been writing over the past several years that have fallen through the cracks.  I have no idea what I will do with them as of yet but I’ve been finding cool songs that I had completely forgotten about and some definitely deserve their day in court.

What are you currently listening to / What is on your iPod

Ricky Phillips: I’m the only one on planet Earth without an iPod.  I do have a computer chalked full of my own song ideas and some Stevie Ray live performances, Jeff Beck new and old concerts, Hendrix live performances, Wilson Pickett, James Brown…you now, collectors performances with no overdubs.  I still love hearing live performances served up by my mentors.

Neil Finn Interview