How Stray Cats Became Rockabilly Royalty: Exclusive Interview

The street to stardom for Stray Cats started with a visit abroad. They did not have a lot cash, however they’d no scarcity of ambition.

Drummer Slim Jim Phantom says he has robust doubts at the moment about whether or not present bands might take the same journey, since every part might have gone so terribly incorrect. However the gamble paid off for Phantom, vocalist/guitarist Brian Setzer and bassist Lee Rocker.

They got here again to America with an elevated profile, a brand new file take care of Arista Data and a head begin on the songwriting which might ultimately produce a stack of hit information. The band turned a daily presence on radio airwaves and MTV with juke-joint jams like “Rock This City,” “Stray Cat Strut” and “(She’s) Attractive + 17.”

Phantom now hosts a podcast known as Rockabilly Confidential, the place he shares partaking tales from his rock ‘n’ roll previous. He checked in with UCR to debate his band’s rise to fame within the ’80s.

What was the objective with the Stray Cats? How a lot did you all notice it had any type of potential? Did the three of you care about that?
I don’t assume we actually cared. I do know that nobody was extra stunned than us when Robert Plant turns up on the gig in England. At that time, we had already thought that we gained – as a result of we grew up in New York and performed round. We weren’t a part of any scene; there was no rockabilly scene. There was punk rock, there was new wave – and even that, I imply, it wasn’t significantly big, however we had been too bizarre for that. There was not a scene. We’re in New York after which on Lengthy Island, as soon as a month, we’d go to town and play CBGB’s, Max’s Kansas Metropolis, the entire ones they’ve made documentaries about, however there was not a full on rockabilly scene. I don’t assume there may be now, there. We made our personal scene. We had been the [only] three guys round that regarded like that.

That’s not arduous to think about!
We fell in love with the music. I discovered it by listening to traditional rock. You do it by the [Beatles] or the [Rolling] Stones, [Led] Zeppelin. Blind Religion, they did a Buddy Holly track that was on that album. All of that might hyperlink you and you’ll ultimately discover Buddy Holly, Eddie Cochran from possibly the Who, and Carl Perkins from the Fabs. You’ll simply discover out. You’re younger and we had been music guys. We actually performed and our objective in life was to in some way be musicians and to in some way get forward and in some way do one thing. Once we found this music and also you return a bit of additional, there’s an entire look connected to it and there’s a way of life. Even earlier than I discovered it, we had been those that might have lengthy hair, however we might attempt to discover a velvet jacket like Jimmy Web page had, that type of factor. For me, there was at all times a glance connected to regardless of the music was. That was a part of the enjoyable. Once we discovered rockabilly music, it was all, “Holy mackerel, there’s a glance that we love! There’s a sound that we love.” It swings and it shreds and it shuffles. It was all issues that I might relate to and that we might do. That’s my private story.

How did you meet Brian and Lee?
The opposite two [members of the Stray Cats] had been my associates from faculty. They’re virtuosos. They’re unbelievable gamers. Rockabilly made it potential for us to do that and be totally different. So we began to do it to make up our personal scene. We performed at little bars and golf equipment that weren’t identified for stay music. They weren’t the established rock golf equipment on Lengthy Island or town. We might simply make up our personal issues, knock on doorways and discover a place that the man would have us. We did 5 nights per week, 4 units an evening. At one level, we had been doing six nights per week. We performed lots, and e beloved it. Each night time was a chance. We mainly wished to stay like we thought Elvis Presley lived within the ‘50s in Memphis – along with his guys, going and discovering garments and information through the day after which sleeping late and going to the diner and having breakfast and making your method to the gig. That’s how we lived. We did it in my automotive with the bass protruding of the window, rolled up so far as it might go. We simply did that. We listened to information all day after which at night time, we performed.

The people who got here to see us, at that time, it could have been no matter you’ll assume it could be in 1979 on Lengthy Island. Dazed and Confused-looking [people] could be a reference. [Laughs.] However they beloved the Stray Cats; we had been their gang. So there’s a couple of hundred individuals on the market that may truthfully say, “Yeah, we adopted these guys round.” None of them purchased into the look, however we weren’t actually making an attempt to do this. Just a few of them made it potential for us to not get killed. Earlier than the arrival of MTV and even earlier than all of that, you actually in a number of components of the nation took your life into your palms. To me, it’s nonetheless an inexplicable factor that anybody would care how anybody else regarded, acted or dressed. That’s not bothering anybody else. We had been antagonistic when confronted. So if I used to be on the 7-11 in Massapequa getting one thing and somebody mentioned one thing to me, I’d say, “Why do you care about one other man’s hair a lot? What do you care what I’m carrying? You appear to be paying a number of consideration to what one other man’s sneakers are.” And recreation on, proper? It was recreation on.

There was at all times confrontational issues. We embraced it, but on the similar time, after a yr or so, we had been weary of it. We knew from getting the music mags as soon as a month, eight weeks late or no matter, it’s some import file retailer that you need to go to – that there was a scene in England. There’s one thing happening. We knew in regards to the [Sex] Pistols and the Conflict, though it was a couple of years later. We had heard about teddy boys.

How did issues progress from that time?
We met a couple of English individuals who had come to the States. They wound up in New York and mentioned, “You guys could be huge over there.” We simply thought, “Okay!” In the future, with about a couple of weeks’ planning, we went there – which I wouldn’t suggest for anybody as a method to get forward. I feel it’s best to just be sure you have a resort or possibly a pal’s home to remain at, or one thing. Have the gig booked first. However we went, the three of us arrived. Instances are totally different, and even in case you wished to, I don’t know in case you can actually do these issues anymore [and] simply flip up. We virtually didn’t get in, since you’re not allowed – then, now or anytime, there have been no “previous days” when it got here to turning up with a guitar and half a drum package in your baggage, saying, “Oh, we’re simply right here to go see the Tower of London and Buckingham Palace.” “No, you’re not.” We in some way managed to speak our means by and we had been outlaws there for a couple of months of very tough residing. Homelessness, type of. We had been discovering out about the place a gig is likely to be that was free, or a celebration. We’d cling round out entrance. We regarded outrageous, I feel – and type of determined sooner or later.

We knocked on sufficient doorways to get a couple of gigs. I don’t assume that’s ever modified. The handful of pubs again then that had been rock pubs, they’d begin at 4 o’clock within the afternoon and have possibly 5 bands till 11 o’clock at night time. That will spill over after that into the nightclub world. I feel we discovered about sufficient of them, knocked on the doorways and acquired three or 4 gigs the place we went on at 5 o’clock within the night to play for 20 minutes. We had been to some events and hung round in entrance of sufficient workplaces that after we performed these first few handfuls of reveals, a few faces turned up at them. We had been associates with the Pretenders, the unique guys, and [Joe] Strummer, Glen Matlock – individuals who I’m nonetheless pleasant with [like] Captain Wise [of the Damned], Topper Headon [of the Clash] – and again then there was the music papers that had been [coming out] as soon as per week. Folks from the Pretenders had been associates with a few individuals from the unique Kinks and so they got here. Lemmy, after all, was there, [Billy] Idol – a couple of individuals.

These are the issues that begin to make waves.
The subsequent week, when somebody did an interview for the NME or the Melody Maker or Report Mirror or Sounds and Ray Davies did an interview, or Chrissie Hynde or Joe Strummer or Captain Wise or Glen Matlock. “What did you do final week?” “Properly, I noticed this band on the Greyhound, they’re from New York and the man stood on the drums and it’s an outrageous factor.” When that will get a bit of little bit of consideration, then that results in finally, the blokes from the Stones got here. It was a type of reveals, and that is all inside a couple of weeks. We arrived in June and I feel we began taking part in reveals in possibly September or October. So there was that interval of being type of tough. When the entire members of the Rolling Stones come, and it turns into not a narrative for the fifth web page of NME. That’s when it turned the entrance web page. So if you get it into the day by day newspapers, that’s when it modified every part, actually. That’s when file firms begin to get entangled. It was actually recreation on.

That half was the simpler half for us. No drawback. We will go play “Race With the Satan” by Gene Vincent after which “Rock This City,” I wouldn’t care who was there. We might kill it and simply do our factor. That’s when it began to essentially occur. After which Dave Edmunds began coming similtaneously file firms began to come back. It actually simply lined up then. We met with Edmunds at his home. He had a bit of pub in his basement. He had a completed basement, exterior of London. Edmunds had a jukebox, a bit of jukebox. He had “The Race is On” and “Rockabilly Boogie” by Johnny Burnette. He had these information in his jukebox. All of us checked out one another and mentioned, “That is it.”

There was a file firm that was hotter than a couple of others. We might have gone with anybody actually at that time. There have been a number of lovely people who got here round. Richard Branson got here round. They had been all good. I actually don’t have anything unhealthy or dust about anybody. Everybody was tremendous good to us. We had been motivated by all of this was taking place. We had been going to lunch with the Stones. These ones had been coming and that one was coming, however we nonetheless had no cash. So the chance actually needed to strike now. It wound up being the blokes at Arista Data. Simon Potts, who we’re nonetheless associates with, [and] Tarquin Gotch, they had been unbelievable guys and so they got here by. Edmunds was there. I feel we went to the studio a couple of days later after every part was agreed upon. In that point, within the month or so main as much as that, we had written “Runaway Boys,” which we didn’t go there with. I feel that proper there may be the style, the period – you understand, the future-changer proper there.

What had been these lunches with the Stones like?
Oh, they wished to supply it. They had been lovely and superior. I’m nonetheless in contact with a couple of of them. Charlie [Watts] was my pal and I communicate to Invoice [Wyman]. I simply noticed Invoice after we had been in London the final time Stray Cats performed. They completely wished to do it, however that humorous factor entered into it of the urgency that we had to do that in a sure [amount of time]. All of that is nice, however we have now to behave now. I feel it wound up being proper earlier than Christmas – which I feel if we didn’t do it then, you understand, the enterprise, after Christmas, nothing opens once more till March, not less than. I don’t assume it could have occurred in fairly the identical means. We needed to get it carried out. With out realizing any of it, we knew it. I feel we might have actually gone with anybody. I feel it’s kismet that we went with who we went with, and that Edmunds was concerned. I feel anybody else we might have gone with, it could have been totally different. So there’s no means of claiming what would have occurred. Possibly nothing. It’s type of arduous to say, however we did comply with our hearts and it was proper there. Arista stepped up, Tarquin and Simon, and Edmunds, everybody type of stepped up on the actual proper time.