Ryan Roxie – Interview Exclusive

Written by Rob Lane
Wednesday, 07 December 2011 05:00

If there’s a secret to being a rock star then Ryan Roxie knows it. Maybe there isn’t, you’re simply just born with it and got it. Either way Roxie has whatever ‘IT’ is. Being the mainstay guitarist alongside the legendary Alice Cooper for almost ten years then relocating with his family to live in Sweden, Roxie cleverly reinvented his approach to the rock and roll lifestyle – one where he could balance reality alongside the larger than life persona that is created on-stage.

Today’s somewhat fractured and unpredictable underground music scene in the UK led to the unfortunate last minute cancellation of what was possibly an over ambitious, multi band line-up set to included Roxie’s new band, Casablanca. This led the charismatic guitarist / songwriter with an unexpected space in his schedule which he was determined to fill. With the help of old friends and the loyal Alice Cooper fan base, Ryan was able to put together a series of small, intimate acoustic gigs across the country and a chance for fans to hear songs old and new from his stunning musical journey.

It’s here in Nottingham in a pokey back room, upstairs at The Old Angel Pub, where I get the chance to sit down and speak openly with Ryan about how his life has changed since leaving one of the most in-demand guitarist positions in rock, life in a new country and doing what everyone secretly wants to do, have their own TV Show!

It’s been a while since you left the Alice Cooper Band but for those of us out there who don’t know the story, can you tell us how you came to your decision to leave after such a long time?

 

To rephrase things a little, I didn’t ‘decide’ to leave, there was no decision. I needed to spend time with my family and to see my little boy. My son Lennon didn’t talk too much when he was young, these days he talks all the time and you can’t actually make him stop, but back then his words were very few and far between, let’s say he used his words very wisely! When I got back from the 2005 tour he simply said “Daddy stay home!” and that was about all it took for me to realise that I needed to be around and watch these guys grow up and be a really active part of their lives. I’d met so many people on tours over the years that had missed that with their kids and I didn’t wanna be that guy.

There are pros and cons to it because it was a lifestyle that I’d been so used to but then I had to go into another lifestyle for a while. Not to say that I can never go back to it because it’s the one I know and love so much, but it was definitely a life shift and I’m glad I did it. When your son looks at you and says those words and then looking back on how much I’ve been able to experience with them growing up, both with my daughter Natasha Grace and my son Lennon, I just think it wasn’t really a decision at all. The cool thing about it though was how the Alice Cooper organisation understood and I even remember Shep Gordon (Alice Cooper’s long time manager) saying, “Hey, family first!” and that was all the endorsement I needed!

Being a long time friend and former band mate, was it you who pitched Keri Kelli to take your place alongside Alice as guitarist in the band?

 

I’d actually had Keri come out a few years before on the Dragontown Tour because there was a possibility that one of the guitarists might not be able to do it or fulfill the whole run. So when it came time for Keri’s number to be called he wasn’t a totally stranger and he stepped up to the plate and did a great job.

You relocated to Sweden to be with your family – was Europe always the obvious choice rather than America?

 

My wife at the time was Swedish and I also remember that for some reason when growing up I always liked the Swedish flag colours, I always liked that blue and gold! So, I guess in the back of my head I thought I’d always end up living in Europe someday. We had lived together in America for a while and although we’re not together anymore as a couple we still raise the kids together. We actually only live two blocks away from each other and still agree it was the best decision to raise the kids in Sweden so we’re happy with that.

How did you personally find the relocation with the whole language difference?

 

Luckily for me it’s every Swedish persons dream to practice their English so in that sense it’s a fairly easy country to assimilate to as far as the whole language goes because they understand me. Me understanding their language though has taken quite a bit of time and because I don’t speak it fluently I do miss out a little on the culture and feel like a little bit of an outsider but, at the same time, my business which has always been associated with music is so close and focused on the English language I don’t notice it as much. Plus, I live in Stockholm which is a very cosmopolitan city and there are very few people who don’t speak English.

Did you have many friends over there who you knew from previous tours?

 

When I went there I didn’t know too many people. There were the guys from Backyard Babies who I’d hung out with a few times but I went in there like “Here I am… accept me or don’t accept me!” So far I think I’ve done a pretty okay job at fitting in. I’m never gonna fit in as far as the Swedish musician goes because I don’t have the same mentality as they do. I do come across a little more flamboyant as an American because I guess that’s one of our characteristics but luckily there’s enough US and English rock bands that come over to Sweden so they’re used to that kind of attitude now.

I work with Gibson Guitars and basically do a bunch of travelling within Scandinavia, which is Norway, Finland, Sweden and Denmark, but I also branch out to places like Russia, Germany and Poland doing these clinics and promoting Gibson. I was really lucky that job came around for me after I stopped touring with Alice because it still kept me out on the road and my name in the spotlight. You always have to be seen doing something in this business because if you don’t, even after six months people will start wondering where you got to. That’s why I’ve always pushed myself to do a bunch of different things and I’ve always taken the lead from Alice. I look at all the different things he does but still using music as a foundation. He also does his Radio Show, he does his golf and his charity work so that inspires me to do a similar sort of thing but on my level. I did a TV Show earlier this year called ‘The Big Rock Show’, we’re doing a new one soon called ‘All Excess with Ryan Roxie’ which is gonna focus more on interviews so I’m doing that as well as playing a bunch of shows.

How did ‘The Big Rock Show’ TV Programme come about?

 

It started out from a Podcast in 2005 and I really wanted to make it a TV Show. My favourite TV Show is ‘The Daily Show with Jon Stewart’ and I wanted to pattern everything from that. I wanted the desk, the mic – basically an old type David Letterman style show and I think we did an okay job, it made the switch well. It was on Sweden’s biggest media outlet called Aftonbladet so they did a good job promoting and we ended up getting something like 150,000 viewers per episode which is pretty cool and what I think the company was happy with was that a lot of those numbers came from international areas due to the good people who follow Alice Cooper and keep track of what everything the band members get up to. It was the first show they’d ever done and produced in English for Swedish television and it worked out fine so I think they’ll start to see more and more of that because there’s so much English in the culture anyway.

You formed a new band in Sweden called ‘Happy Pill’ which eventually took back your previous band name ‘Roxie 77’ – what’s the story behind that?

 

I had the band / project ‘Roxie 77’ in the states but when I moved to Sweden it gave me the chance to change everything I had and create a whole new identity. I wanted to change the name and ‘Happy Pill’ seemed like a great choice because what is ‘Music’? It’s supposed to take you to another place – and to me the songs themselves were little pills and when you took them in you became happy! Unfortunately, the Swedish have a different attitude towards the whole drug culture scene which is understandable and totally fine but back then I spent more time having to explain that we weren’t a drug reference band instead of concentrating on what I should have been doing which was talking about the songs! So, we just went back to the original name ‘Roxie 77’ which is basically myself – it’s my version of what Dave Grohl is to the Foo Fighters or what Marc Bolan is to T. Rex – hopefully that’s what I am to ‘Roxie 77’.

You were one of the first artists to embrace the whole Free or ‘Pay as much as you can’ download route with your songs.

 

Yeah, I did the whole ‘Conscience Free Download’. I came up with two concepts on the last Roxie 77 album. If you’re gonna download something you might as well go to the source and get the best quality download possible. Don’t be spreading around a really lo-fi copy, get the best version you can. At that point I’d realized, and I think the world had started to realize, that music is becoming more of a marketing device rather than a product. The new products that we have are being created and sold when the bands tour. Bands might not sell that many records these days but they make a tonne of money when they go on tour and sell t-shirts, tickets and everything else that goes with it so that was the route I decided to take.

Another thing was the whole concept of the album itself with the songs and title ‘Two Sides To Every Story’ (an album featuring the track list twice – once electric and once acoustic) and that’s one of the reasons why I’m here. Put it this way, it gave me the opportunity to play twice as many gigs! I could play both acoustic and electric shows doing the same album. It doesn’t mean it’s the same exact song, because I’ll maybe change the chords around or perhaps the vibe of the song. If you go and listen to the two versions back to back and you’ll see sometimes it sounds like the same song whilst other times it’ll be completely different.

Will Roxie 77 be an ongoing project or is your current focus with the band Casablanca?

 

Casablanca fits my role as a guitarist – it’s the traditional lead singer with a guitarist. The bands I grew up listening to were The Stones, Aerosmith, and even Guns N’ Roses in that sense, and they always had that lead singer / lead guitar player dynamic and Casablanca has that too with me and Anders (Ljung). Roxie 77 gives me the release to front a band so I think I kinda need both in my life.

Before I joined, Casablanca had been doing stuff, writing songs and mostly the bass player and singer had been collaborating on music and whilst they had a couple of guitar players before, I think I was the final choice that brought it all together and pushed it towards making the record right after that. It was made from scratch; we rehearsed it and wrote the songs as a unit. We sat and spent the summer of 2010 just completely immersed in music. The album’s coming out early 2012 and they’re shooting for a late February / early March release and I’m very happy with the album and think it deserves a chance to be heard. I believe the UK audiences would really dig it. It’s got elements of glam and our singer is a huge fan of the New Wave Of British Heavy Metal plus there’s elements of The Cult, Billy Idol – just straight ahead rock and roll, pop orientated music. I think whenever you listen to Ryan Roxie, or anything I’m associated with, you’re probably certain you’re gonna get some sort of melodic pop thrown in there because that’s what I was raised on…. I was raised on AM Radio!

Will the Hollywood music scene see you back there anytime soon?

 

Any chance I get to go back I take it! I know that Gibson keeps me busy working out here in Europe but there might be a chance to go and do some Trade Shows over there like NAMM. And if there’s any chance of seeing Los Angeles and those beautiful sunsets, I’ll be there!

For all things RYAN ROXIE – Music, Links, Downloads, etc visit www.ryanroxie.com

[Live Acoustic Photos courtesy of ROSE KASILI]