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Stray Cat Lee Rocker Still Takes ‘The LOW Road'

Courtesy photo

Lee Rocker signed his first recording contract at age 17 as a member of rockabilly revivalists the Stray Cats. Having grown a following on the New York City music scene of the early 1980s, the trio (rounded out by guitarist Brian Setzer and drummer Slim Jim Phantom) made their way to England at the height of a Teddy Boy revival. Eventually, a bidding war between labels ensued and the trio signed with Arista in the U.K., resulting in two hit records. A third, Built For Speed, broke the band in its home country, and between 1982 and 1984 it was nearly impossible to go anywhere without hearing the Stray Cats on Top 40 radio or seeing them on MTV.

By the middle of the decade, the group's career cooled. Rocker and Phantom formed a band with ex-David Bowie guitarist Earl Slick. Rocker also played with rock icon Carl Perkins, among others, while launching his solo career. With the Stray Cats preparing a 2019 tour and having just wrapped an album of new material (the trio's first in over two decades), Rocker is understandably excited about future prospects while keeping his mind very much on his solo band.

December will see the official release of a new CD/DVD package, The LOW Road, which spotlights numerous high points in Rocker's career. He will perform at Hutchison's historic Fox Theatre on Friday, Nov. 16, and in Overland Park at Johnson County Community College on Saturday, Nov. 17.

Rocker recently spoke about his musical past, present and future.

Interview Highlights

How did your solo career begin? Was it something you were anticipating or was it something that caught you by surprise?

The solo artist me has always been there, even before the Stray Cats. We started that very young, I was 17. As a teenager, I had bands and sang and fronted the bands. Then, with the Stray Cats, I was sort of the George Harrison of the group. I always had a song here or there or a song per record. It's always been a part of what I do. Even in the ‘80s, on one of the breaks from the Stray Cats, I formed the band Phantom, Rocker and Slick, which I know sounds like a Miami law firm but it was myself, Slim Jim Phantom from the Stray Cats and Earl Slick, who was David Bowie's guitar player. We did a couple of records for EMI and had a real nice run in the mid-‘80s with that. It's always been something that I go back to.

What was that transition like between Stray Cats and Phantom, Rocker and Slick?

We had spent five years doing the Stray Cats intensely. On the road, on the tour bus, on planes, concerts, albums. I love what we did and what we do but Phantom, Rocker and Slick was getting to do something a little different. It was a more of a rock band than a rockabilly band. There were some elements in common: the string bass is a thread that continues today.

It was awesome, though, and like going from playing football to baseball. It was using different muscles. I loved doing it. I'm very proud of those records. To this day I do a couple of the songs. Those were also some heady days. Keith Richards guested on our first album, so did Nicky Hopkins. It was a magical time and I do talk about that in these performances.

I had to ask this question but I can't resist since we're here: Is there a chance for a Phantom, Rocker and Slick reunion since all three of you are still around?

I would hope so. We did play together a couple of years ago for the first time at Summerfest in Milwaukee. We are still really friendly so I think it's a possibility.

You're also on the cusp of a very busy Stray Cats reunion. When that band was forming you were making music that was not in vogue. I think that maybe to some peoples' ears, especially in the U.S., it was old fashioned. How did it feel for the first record to come out and have mainstream success like it did?

When we formed the Stray Cats I knew one thing for certain: That the band connected and had a power. We all knew that when we were playing little corner bars in New York and then graduated to Max's Kansas City and CBGB's. The word spread quick. If we were playing somewhere one week there'd be 50 people, we'd be back two weeks later, there'd be 150, we'd be back a month after that and there was a line. I knew that the band connected with people, regardless of what was going on out there in the bigger world. The music's got its roots in the ‘50s, it's the birth of rock ‘n' roll, rockabilly. Originally it was that collision between country, hillbilly, whatever you want to call it, and R&B. It's the original punk rock. I was attracted to it. We all were. The passion, the energy, the look. I think it's a timeless thing. It was proven timeless. With that said, what I do is try to take that music and put my own stamp on it and do it my own way and do some things that wouldn't have been done in the ‘50s.

You're not a performer given to standing still. So when people go to see your show, it's the visual element as well as the musical element is very much there. That was that something you picked up playing in clubs or was it something that with you even as a kid, this idea that putting on a show was as much a part of rock ‘n' roll as the music?

You're onstage. It's a performance. Personally, I like to be entertained. I like to see someone up onstage doing something, not starring at their shoes. It's a real natural thing for me. The upright bass is bigger than I am; it's sort of like having a partner up there and it's a super physical thing, playing that instrument and singing. When I first started I think I was unaware of it in a way, it's just what I did. I started young. When we signed our first record deal, I was 17 years old. Not a whole lot of thought went into anything. Now, over the last years, there has been more thought that has gone into it.

You came along at a time when there weren't a lot of guys playing upright bass. Can you recall a point where people started asking you about the instrument, how to start, all of that?

When I started in the early ‘80s there really wasn't anyone playing the upright bass. I have to say that I don't think there had been a hit record with an upright bass on it for decades before "Rock This Town" and "Stray Cat Strut." In those early days there was not even a uniform way to amplify the instrument. That's something I've really worked with different people on in terms of electronics and amplifiers and pickups. It's come so far. When I started you'd have to nail it together yourself, glue, wood and electric bass pickups [and you'd have to] formulate a way to try to do this. Now there's actually music companies that make electronics for upright basses.

Did you have times, back in the day, where you'd be in a city and something would go wrong and you weren't sure how to fix it?

We always managed to come up with some kind of solution. Even to this day I carry a little black bag around with me that's the emergency kit with all kinds of little tools and electronics just in case something goes wrong. It's like being on the space shuttle, you gotta have duplication of every system.

The Stray Cats will have new music for the first time in over two decades next year and a major tour as well. What made this the right time for the reunion?

We got together this last summer for four concerts. We're all friends. We'd all been in touch over the years but we hadn't actually stepped on a stage in about 10 years together. We said, "Let's do it." We did four concerts. We had a blast. The band has that edge and that power and really I enjoyed doing it. I know we all did. We said, "It's 40 years now, let's do another a record and see what we think." That was with very little pre-planning. We weren't sure what we would do with it if anything but we met up in Nashville and recorded and went, "Wow! It's there, it's undeniable." From there we said, "If the record's going to come out, we might as well do some concerts." It's all really falling together, as it always has, in a really unplanned way. There's no pre-meditated thing. We just kind of operate on our own thoughts with this. It's usually gone the right way.

Jedd Beaudoin is the host of Strange Currency. Follow him on Twitter @JeddBeaudoin. To contact KMUW News or to send in a news tip, reach us at news@kmuw.org.

Jedd Beaudoin is host/producer of the nationally syndicated program Strange Currency. He has also served as an arts reporter, a producer of A Musical Life and a founding member of the KMUW Movie Club. As a music journalist, his work has appeared in Pop Matters, Vox, No Depression and Keyboard Magazine.