This months interview is with Billy Rowe of Jetboy / American Heartbreak..
He has been been busy in the music business for years, and there is no stopping him anytime soon..
Find out about the past.. present.. and future...
And for anyone who hasn't picked up the Jetboy cd's your missing out.. Damned Nation is one of my top favorite albums... EVER.

Enjoy...
 

J: First off.. we need to go wayyy back, to the start of Jetboy. How did you hook up with the guys in the band?
Billy: Fernie & I met back In 1983 at a club called the Old Waldorf In San Francisco. He was a roadie at the time for Frank Wilsey (later to be In  the Sea Hags/Arcade) who was In a great local band at the time called HEAD ON. We hit It off with the same taste In music & started to hang out alot & I decided to start a band soon after. After discovering Hanoi Rocks at a recorded store we hung out at called The Record Vault we knew what direction we were going to go for. We started to write Ideas for songs together & I ran Into Ron at a local record store funny enough looking at a Hanoi Rocks record. Ron & I had been In a band together for a short while that year which was right before I met Fernie. I said to him, hey I met this cool guitar player & were gonna start a band, you should come down and play drums, Ron said cool. Soon after that we started to put the song Ideas together as songs & audition bass players & singers. After going through a few awful auditions Fernie ran Into Todd Crew, he was on the same tip as the rest of us with the whole new glam rock movement with bands like Hanoi Rocks, The Lords Of The New Church etc ... We all started to keep on putting songs together now with Todd as the bass player. Todd who was In a band called Agatha right before he joined us & Mickey was the singer. He kept on telling him you gotta quite that band & join this cool band I'm In now. With a few attempts to get Mickey to a rehearsal, the night he did was complete magic & we knew he was the missing link ! He wrote lyrics to the 5 or 6 songs we had written & the rest Is history, Jetboy was born In late 1983.

J: How important was the look back then? especially having a singer with a huge Mohawk while having a semi-glam band...?
Billy: The look was very Important back then as It was also something we were all very Into as well. In the very beginning Mickey did not have a mohawk, I'd say the first few shows ?? about 6 months or more later I remember he said to the rest of us, I got a super cool new hair cut I'm gonna sport at the next show which was at the Rock On Broadway the club we got our start at. He showed up with a bright orange mohawk & we all said COOL ! from that show on that became a trade mark for the band & to this day people still say Jetboy, the band who has a singer with a mohawk.

J: Do you ever look back at the pics and say "What the hell was I thinking" lol?
Billy: Yeah, we do !! but I also look at some of those old photos and realize how a head of things we were. We really did not look like all those glam bands that came along after Jetboy. I always felt that we were very different than most of those bands, first off our singer had a mohawk & we wore creepers & had more of a punk rock edge to us. When I look at old photos & then look at bands like Poison, Faster Pussycat or Warrant, we were NOTHING like them at all. Jetboy were more like The New York Dolls, Hanoi Rocks, Generation X, Girl etc .... we were cool & very street, not chessy LOL !

J: You guys had been through hell and back to release the first cd? how did it feel to finally get it out there?
Billy: By the time we finally got the second record deal signed & on It's way 'Feel The Shake' had been over a year old after recording It with Elektra In mid 1987 then being dropped by them the end of that year. All we wanted was to get the album out at this point & go on tour. It was the hardest thing ever to sit back & watch bands that road on our coat-tails out there touring & climbing the charts while we sat back In our studio apartments pissed off ! It fuckin' SUCKED! Once It was released It felt good, but musically we had grown so much In that year of waiting that we were also ready to write new songs. We ended up getting looked at as a new band that came after Warrant, Faster Pussycat, La Guns etc ... when In fact we were before them by at least a year or more, that still bugs me to this day.

J: What's your favorite song on the first cd "feel the shake"?
Billy: Hmmm ? My favs on the first album are, "Feel The Shake", "Snakebite", "Bloodstone", "Hometown Blues" & "Bad Disease". I dig the other songs as well but I felt these songs had more balls

J: Least favorite, or just didn't come out the way you would have liked?
Billy: That's a tough one ?? "Talkin'" maybe ?? the demo version was a bit more dirty, our overall whole sound was. I think the first album Is overall a little to produced than I personally wanted to hear, but I still like It. I'm way more Into the second album which I feel still stands up today & sounds fresh & current, I'm very proud of Damnednation.

J: What was it like to tour on the first album... any good road stories?
Billy: It was awesome ! It was our first real tour other than the west coast run we did In the early days with Kix. We would go back and forth from SF to the LA area but that's about It. So to be on a big ass tour buss was fuckin' great. As for stories ??? I always loved fuckin' with any crew member who got to drunk for their own good ! I remember one where our one guitar tech passed out with his head on the front bench In the front lounge of the bus & his knees on the ground, kinda like you would hover a toilet. His shorts were falling down & funny enough there was a cucumber In the fruit basket & a Polaroid camera right next to It which we had to document pranks. I shoved the cucumber between his ass where It looked as If he was sticking It up there for pleasure & took a photo of him & left It on his back. The next day he had NO Idea who did It and did not speak for quite some time !! LOL that was some funny shit. There were a good slew of stories with girls getting naked & all that typical stuff but this was a topper ! His nick name became cumberbuns LOL !!!!

J: Then you guys head back to the studio to work on the second release Damnednation... this was also the time when "hair-bands" were on their way out.. how did that change your music...?
Billy: At this time things did start to shift with what was hot & known as HAIR METAL ?? Visually Jetboy were changing as well & had been for some time, more dirty & less makeup/glammy. We were also musically different from that whole LA scene, I never felt like we were part of that, we were from San Francisco & ended up moving to LA due to management & our label as well as It was the place to be. But I always felt we were so different, more street Rock N' Roll with a punk attitude. By the time we started to write for Damnednation we had really grown as a band & songwriters. We were very focused on what WE wanted with that album & I feel we nailed It. So when It came to the music we did what we wanted to do & what we were Into. We all wanted a big sounding hard rock album with anthem choruses, we wanted that timeless record like Back In Black, Destroyer, Heaven Tonight, Toys In The Attic etc.... !!

J: This was my favorite release by the way, still jammin it now.
Billy: Right on !!

J: What was your favorite track off that album?
Billy: I love that whole album top to bottom !!! stand out tracks would be .... "Stomp It Down To The Bricks", "Bullfrog Pond", "Heavy Chevy", "Trouble Comes", "Groove Tube" ...

J: Least favorite?
Billy: I don't have one !

J: Then back on the road again.. anything crazy happen then? (which is when I saw you during the Vixen tour... 2 times in fact.. awesome both times!)
Billy: That was a short tour for us unfortunately and the beginning of the end for Jetboy. The same ol' crazy stuff was still happening girls, booze & funny ass pranks.

J: What's the craziest thing a fan has ever done to meet you?
Billy: I had this Japanese fan wait In front of a club In San Francisco to give me a sweater she made with a big ass 'B' on the front & Jetboy on the back, and I still have It ! I've just never worn It.

J: What led to the break up of the band? \par
Billy: Ya know, the band really never broke up. We kinda morphed Into another band called Mindzone then just quietly all went our own way's around 1994. The band seems to have a bit of a mystery to It now that were back together.

J: You went on to form American Heartbreak... how did that band come about?
Billy: After Mindzone ended the bass player Michael Butler formed American Heartbreak with me. We wanted to do a rock band with a bit of a punk vibe like the bands we were diggin' at the time like D-Generation, The Wildhearts etc .... and that's how AH came together.

J: How many releases did you have?
Billy: We put out six releases In the ten years, were still a band just on a bit of a break.

J: How would you describe the music to someone who knows you from Jetboy?
Billy: I said this back then & I still say It now, we're just a Rock N' Roll band !

J: Sooooo now years have gone by.. you have continued to release Jetboy cds of demos, rare recordings etc... to keep the name out there, but how did a "reunion" come about? Was it something you had planned.. or it just kinda happened?
Billy: Through the years when American Heartbreak was working alot we had put out those various Jetboy release of demos & unreleased album tracks to keep the name out there hoping that someday this stuff will be popular again as every music style seems to come back. It was when the Hollywood Rocks book came out that Brian Perera owner of Cleopatra records put together (who also put out the Jetboy release Lost & Found) contacted me for a track for the audio companion he was to put out next which Is a 4 cd box set. I got him an alternate version of 'Feel The Shake' for It & that was that. I was doing a show with American Heartbreak at the Viper room In Hollywood & Brian came down. After the show he bought me a drink & said that the box set to be released & he was putting together a release show & what would It take to get Jetboy back together as the featured band ! I said I don't know ??? I left It at that & went on my way. A few days later he e-mailed me about this again & I just kinda let It go. Then he called me & said come on we gotta get Jetboy back together ! I said ok, I'll call Mickey & Fernie & If they wanna do It ?? It's on. I called both of them right after I hung up with Brian & left them both a message about It & I can honestly say about five minutes later they both called back & said BOOK IT !!!

J: Is it all original members?
Billy: The first time around we did have four outta five original members which was myself, Mickey, Fernie & Ron. Our original bass player Todd Crew passed away In 1987 & Sami Yaffa Is a New York Doll these days & had no Interest. We all still talk & are good buddies though.   So the most obvious Idea was to have Michael Butler join on bass from American Heartbreak & Exodus, which totally rocks !! We did the Hollywood Rocks show In June of 2005 which was unreal & where we all knew there still was something there with Jetboy. Then we booked two more gigs the following year In our hometown San Francisco & Hollywood again. This was now In April of 2006, then we got a call from Riki Rachtman about playing the 20 year Cathouse reunion & we did that. Right before this show we were all talking about re-forming and doing It again. We got an offer from Cleopatra to put out another release of rare stuff which became the Dvd/Cd 'The Glam Years Movie And Cd' which Is out November 20th. Then we all sat down & committed to being a band again, the only down side was that Ron could not commit having a family, house & contracting business. He gave us his blessing to go for It & move forward. We have a kick ass drummer Jeff Moscone who Is also playing with American Heartbreak and things are feeling great.

J: Now you have a dvd/cd that was just released.. tell us about that? new songs? Whats on the dvd?
Billy: The Dvd/Cd Is titled 'The Glam Years Movie And Cd' and will Include a show from 1986 at the Whisky A Go Go (w/ Todd Crew on bass) A slide show photo movie through the years plus Interviews with each member In 2007 telling the history/story of Jetboy. The Audio disc has 21 tracks In a chronological order of old demos through the years starting In 1984 plus two NEWLY recorded songs which are 'Folsom Prison Blues' & 'Feel The Shake 2007'. It's a great package & I know old fans from the early days as well as fans from the album days will love It. And If you are new to the band & Into the whole 80's glam scene you'll love It too !

J: Your also hooking up with Stephen Pearcy for a tour in the next couple months.. how did you guys hook up with him?
Billy: This tour came together through my friend and American Heartbreak's manager Jeff Keller who also now handles Stephen Pearcy. He mentioned to me that Stephen was going to do a two week tour In late Nov-Dec & I said see If he would like to have Jetboy support him. Being a friend and fan of the band Stephen said cool ! Perfect timing for Jetboy because the Dvd/Cd comes out on November 20th one week before we start the tour.

J: Any other info about the tour? when .. where?
Billy: So far It looks as It will be mainly midwest dates, about 12 or 15 starting In Denver.

J: What songs can we expect to hear?
Billy: The set we are doing Is going to be mainly 'Damnednation' stuff with three songs from 'Feel The Shake', one old classic from the early day's & the two cover songs we did on the FTS tour In 1988 which are 'Great Balls Of Fire' & 'Folsom Prison Blues'.

J: Are you guys going to release any new stuff.. or is this a one last time blow out?
Billy: We have written and recorded one new song & plan on writing a new album In 2008 along with many other Ideas. We also recorded 'You Shook Me All Night Long' for an AC/DC tribute box set out the same say as our Dvd/Cd on Cleopatra Records.

J: Is American Heartbreak still together while your off doing the Jetboy thing?
Billy: Yeah, AH Is still together just on a bit of a much needed break.

J: Do you have a website? or MySpace that fans can find out what your up to?
Billy: Yes we do- www.JetboyRocks.com and www.myspace.com/jetboyrocks  .... visit us and check out all the old classic photos as well as new ones & much more.

J: How do you think the internet has changed the music business in the last few years?
Billy: Well, It's obviously changed alot, the whole world has changed for that matter. I think It's great In alot of ways especially for exposure, It just seems It's made people less motivated to go out and see bands live when you can see alot of live shows for free online. I hope It comes back to where this new generation who are so Into the 80's Rock help bring It back to some level. I don't think things will ever be like they were In the 80's, that was probably the last great & fun era for music In a live & big scene way. I know there's Emo, but It's so different then how things were In the 80's.

J: How do you feel about mp3's and file sharing?
Billy: I'm ok with It but I'm also not selling millions of albums, If I were, I might think different. That's a total catch 22, It's good In some ways & bad In others. But, you better get used to It because It's where It's all headed.

J: Where do you see yourself in the next 5 years?
Billy: Hmmm, In the next five years. Well I've been playing music In seriously committed bands for most of my life, since high school. I hope to see myself still doing what I love to do so much & that's playing Rock N' Roll. I never thought Jetboy would be back together and doing It again so who knows what the future holds ??

J: Is there any new bands out you like?
Billy: I've always followed new bands the best I can, I'm a big fan of bands from the Uk & Europe as I was way back when Jetboy formed with bands like Hanoi Rocks, Girl, The Lords etc .... Today I'm very Into a band from the Uk called The Wildhearts I guess their a bit old now them being from the 90's, I love The Backyard Babies, The Hellacopters, The Darkness, this great new Australian band called Airbourne. There's a lot of good stuff out there, but there's also alot of crap.

J: What would be in your cd player right now?
 Billy: The new self titled Wildhearts & Airbourne 'Runnung Wild'!
 

J: Anything you would like to say to your fans reading this ?
Billy: Well, I hope all our fans from the early days are happy to see the band back at It & pick up the new Dvd/Cd !! And It would be great to have some new fans out there who have just discovered the band & they come out and see us live on this upcoming tour. And stay tuned for much more with Jetboy from releases, tours, cool merch and more !!! It feel's great to be back together & playing rock n' roll with my best friends again ! We're pretty much a family & It feel's great !

J: Well that's about it Billy.. thanks again, and I hope you guys make it down to Florida on tour with Stephen.. Ill be there front and center!

"Evil" video

"Feel the Shake" video

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