 Jimmy K here, Metal Voice. Look at this. The Metal Voice shirts are now on sale. Just go to the video description to find out on how you can purchase one. Metal! Welcome to the Metal Voice. Today on the show, Ron Keele. All right. What is going on, Ron? Matt, it's another crazy year in the life of rock and roll. Yes. Very proud to have a new album out called South by South Dakota and be able to talk to people like you and promote it. And you and your viewers, your listeners and like a lot to talk about. And here it is. And here it is. Here it is, right? That's very cool. It's kind of like it. It's kind of like it. What a fantastic album cover. And I've got a great story behind the album cover itself, of course, if you want to get to that. But that's a beautiful graphic behind you there, Jimmy. South X, South Dakota. The new Ron Keele band album was released April 24th. So it's a covers album, right? Just tell me about the making of it and why you chose these certain songs. How's that? Well, that's a great story, Jimmy. And they're all covers albums. You know, whether I wrote the songs or not, but the cool thing about South by South Dakota is that I could brag to people like you and your listeners and viewers how great these songs are. Usually when you go into the studio and you make an album, you are on a mission. You've written these songs and you poured your heart out and you created this music. And you go in the studio with a game plan and a mission to record those songs and release them and share them with the world. On this record for the first time in my career, I can honestly say that these are some great songs because I didn't write any of them. These are iconic. There you go. From the classic rock songbook. And we didn't really choose the songs. You know, the songs chose us. The process was entirely different than anything I've ever been through. Because as I said, you always, even from that first Steeler album in 1983, on through last year's fight like a band record, you go in the studio with a game plan and a mission. This time, we went in the studio last year to record the fight like a band record and we would warm up in the morning by jamming on some of our favorite Southern Rock covers like Flirting with Disaster, I think was the first song we cut. And we would have some coffee and just jam some tunes. And at the end of the day, when our session was done, we'd have a couple of cocktails and we'd unwind by jamming some of these great Southern Rock covers that are part of our lives, part of the fabric of our culture and certainly a part of the Iran Kill Band song list the last five years as well. And after about three, five days, I started listening back because my producer was recording everything we did. Of course, and I had no idea when we were cutting the stuff that he was even recording. I listened back to some of these tracks and realized we've got something very special here. This is natural, this is organic. This sounds like a bunch of guys in the studio having a good time. So at that point, after four or five songs, I realized we had the foundation for a great record. Of course, we had the Ghost Riders in the Sky single from 2015 under our belt and Homestick from 2017. Another couple of great Southern Rock classics. So the title for the album South by South Dakota just kind of popped into my head and I realized that we had something very special on our hands and so we started to add songs at that point and figured that it would be really cool to create an album full of these classic songs that have been such a special part of our lives and our shows all these years. So it was absolutely accidental, organic, unplanned and I think that is a big part of the charm in these grooves and these tracks and part of these performances is the fact that we didn't even know we were being recorded. Do you ever find that it doesn't scare you that you've had your Steeler fans, you had your Keel fans and sort of that box, that heavy metal sort of box and now that you're sort of going into that country rock Southern rock flavor that you might alienate some fans? Well, you're always going to have to keep winning over new fans. That's part of our job as artists to evolve, to create, to release and record new music and people are going to come and go throughout your lives, throughout your, we're building new fans as we go. Now, I am really pleased and thankful that so many of the Steeler fans and the Keelaholics raised this new record and it's good, solid, heavy arena rock. There are stylistic differences but at the end of the day it's all great, powerful, classic rock tunes with big guitars, thundering drums, screaming vocals and great songs. So I appreciate all the fans that have stuck with me through the twists and turns that I'm doing, but no, you ask if I'm scared? No, I'm absolutely fearless. As part of being an artist and living on the edge, man, you can't be scared of what people are going to think. If you sell 3 million records like I did, Jimmy, that means, you know what that means, right? It means billions of people don't like you or don't want what you're doing. They don't want it and I'm cool with that. I make music for myself first and then I share it with everybody else and hopefully they'll enjoy it as well but I've got to be happy with it, proud of it and pleased with it before I can sell it to anybody. I guess at the end of the day, right, people know you for sort of branching out and that's what they expect of you, right? It's not like you've just done one thing your whole life and then suddenly you're just making a left turn, right? That's correct, Jimmy. For me, music is composed of different landscapes, mountains, oceans, beaches, forests, rivers, lakes. These are all different landscapes that I love to explore and I don't see why I should be chained within a box or in a fence around one particular style of music. A lot of the fans don't know that long before I sang metal, I won awards for playing jazz music and was a classically trained student when I was younger. So I played everything from Beethoven to Mozart to Miles Davis. In fact, then when we were playing the jazz band and the school orchestra, it wasn't a conflict to play a Mozart composition in the orchestra and then go to the jazz band and play Miles Davis. It was all different colors of the same picture and the same landscape. So for the last 20 years, I have combined my metal heart with my cowboy attitude starting in 2000 with a band called Iron Horse and what I called it then was hard rock and southern country metal. It was a hybrid of all of the things that are part of my DNA and then if you listen to it and you have to come up with a simple description, the term southern rock has always applied to everything that I've done for the last 20 years. Even the Keel reunion album in 2010, Streets of Rock and Roll, which is a great, it's my favorite Keel album of all time. 10 years ago we released that reunion album and still people will say that they can hear the twang or the country influence on my voice, even though I'm screaming my guts out and it's hard rock and 80s metal type music. To me, I grew up in a time when you could listen to AM Radio and you'd hear the Eagles and D Purple on the same station. So I did not create those borders between styles that so many people have now. I think heavy metal is different because the metal heads, especially back in the 80s, were intensely loyal and of course we respect and appreciate that, but if you strayed outside of that format, then you became a trader to your style, even though that 80s metal, there was everybody from Bon Jovi to Metallica and everybody in between and those are two totally different styles, but I listened to Metallica and Bon Jovi, both. I don't know why we can't enjoy pizza today and steak tomorrow. Yeah, yeah. All right. So we talked about the sort of the covers album. What about like a new material? Are you composing any, you know, a new album? What are you working on? I'm always writing, creating, and I will always continue to express myself through music. But is something coming up? I mean, is there like an album going to be released? We just released a brand new album, which we're here to promote. I mean, something coming up. I mean, this record is just brand new. We're still unwrapping the shrink wrap. All right. All right. What's coming next? Dude, who knows? Tomorrow is not guaranteed to any of us. We'll have to live for today and we're all on a one day contract. There's no guarantee any of us will wake up tomorrow. So we have to enjoy the moment. You have to appreciate your past and I embrace all my accomplishments, the three million records sold touring with Bon Jovi, Motley Crue, Van Halen, Aerosmith, all the cool stuff, all the dreams that I've had come true. I love that stuff. I embrace and appreciate that. But today is all I'm given and tomorrow is not guaranteed. So I'm going to fulfill my one day contract today to the best of my ability. And yeah, I'm always writing, creating, recording new music. In fact, I am releasing this year another solo acoustic album on my Patreon platform. One song per month for members only at patreon.com slash Ron Keel. They get a new solo acoustic song each month. And then in December, they'll get the autograph CD with all 12 songs. That's what I'm talking about. That's what I'm talking about. You know, what else do you have planned? You know, that's what I'm getting at. I plan to enjoy my life. One song at a time. Okay, I got you. I'm not some rocket scientist who's, I'm not creating a vaccine for COVID-19. And I'm saying you 18 months from now, we're going to have a vaccine. I don't know what I'm going to have 18 months. I guarantee you, it will be some new music, new, new, new good times and sharing these experiences with my friends, my family and my fans. Sure, sure. What about Keel? Is it still something that you want to pursue sometime in the future? Like another reunion album or? Keel is a brotherhood. It's not even, it transcends the description of being called a band because we've been friends and bandmates now for 36 years. And we celebrated that with Keel Fest last year. Yeah. The monsters of rock crews, which we were able to do. Thank goodness. We got the monsters of rock crews under our belt in February. Before the pandemic hit. Those guys are my family and my brothers, but that's, and that's still that music is obviously still a big part of what I do. And the Ron Keel band plays all those Keel classics in our show, the right to rock because the night rock and roll outlaw, somebody's waiting. Those songs are a big part of every show that we do. And the music will, will always be a part of me and my shows. Who knows what's next? Like, like you're asking me to predict the future. I don't have any crystal balls, but the guys in Keel are family. They're my brothers and we talk to each other all the time. And, uh, from a career standpoint, no, I'm focused on the Ron Keel band and stuff by South Dakota. This is my business. This is my job. This is my work. And I'm, uh, I'm all in. All right. Hey, look at forgive me if I, if I dig into your past a little bit, because we've never actually spoke before. It's like the first time you're being on the show. And a lot of guys ask me questions to ask you like, what was it like to work with Gene Simmons, you know, on the Keel albums? Was he, was he a great producer? I mean, did you learn things? What'd you learn from him? Gene Simmons is one of the biggest, if not the biggest influence on my career, both musically, personally, professionally, from a business standpoint. Gene taught me lessons and some, so many things about Gene that people don't realize or understand. The guy is, uh, he's rock and roll to the core. He has a deep appreciation for rock and roll history. Songwriting, making great records. And he passed all that on to me so much that I learned from him when I was what, 23 years old and just creating my first album. He, uh, taught us how to make great records, how to write songs and how to orchestrate like the bass drum and the bass guitar, how the kick drum works in conjunction with every bass pattern. I don't know if anybody else has ever even mentioned that throughout the course of my career, but today, to this day, we still make sure that every bass line complements and accents that bass drum pattern, little things like that, that, that he taught me. He's always the demon on my shoulder. And every recording session that I do, there's a lot of Gene and that influences, uh, has been there now for over 35 years. Also as a friend and a mentor, he taught me a lot about business, about life. He's a great guy and I saw him a couple of years ago. Man, we don't see each other often, but every time we do, uh, it's a big bear hug and a appreciation for that longstanding friendship and what we did together back in the 80s. What do you teach you as a singer? I mean, you know, Gene's, Gene's like, just to me, this guy's, he's phenomenal. I mean, from a business perspective, like you said, and from a music perspective or a recording perspective, what did you learn vocally from him? I learned to do another take because Gene would not, often he would not let me do another take. That first album, The Right to Rock, if you really listen to it and put it under the microscope, there's a lot of stuff that vocally is not, this is not really good. Uh, there's a lot of pitchy stuff. There's a lot of stuff that's not sung properly. But Gene would hear that attitude and that young kid screaming his guts out in the studio and he'd keep it. Oh, let's keep that. I go, no, Gene, please give me another shot. Man, I can do that better. And he would never let me take another shot at it. So I learned to always take another shot at it, try and deliver the vocal at least in key and in time. Gene was all about the attitude on that Right to Rock album. And that does sound just like he said in his quotes at the time. It sounds like a bunch of angry kids in a bar screaming and playing loud. And that's part of the charm and the beauty and the success of that Right to Rock album. But Gene taught me so much about singing in the studio, about being comfortable. That was one thing that he always tried to make sure that I was in my comfort zone in the studio with delivering the vocal that I wanted to do that. And but he kept a lot of stuff that I would have probably liked to have done over. And I had very good opportunity to do that in recent years because we were, we recorded the Right to Rock on Last Year's Fight, like a band album. And I think the new version is vocally way better than the previous recordings. However, the fans, I get it, they're all, they love the original versions because that's what they grew up listening to. And I understand that. But thankfully in life, I have had a second chance to go back and re-record some of those songs like The Right to Rock, Tears of Fire. Somebody's waiting because the night, and I get to do those in my show with the Ron Kiel band every night and I get to do always, there's always one more chance to sing the song and deliver to the audience the way it was meant to be. So I have a good friend who's like a black Sabbath fanatic and I know he's told this story so many times. All right. So just quickly, my friend's like this huge black Sabbath fan and he goes, So am I, man. So am I. I'm with you. Please ask him, you know, what happened with black Sabbath because he thought you would have been like an incredible fit and a compliment to the band at the time. I appreciate that. And I feel the same way. It was an amazing experience. I was in the studio recording the Kiel demos at Pasha Studios where Spencer Proffer had recorded the Quiet Riot Metal Health album and Spencer was the hot hand in Hollywood at the time. He was the guy and he had signed on to produce the new Sabbath album after Ian Gilliland. Born again. Spencer had chosen me for the vocal position in Sabbath and we cut a demo of some songs and Tony and Giza heard it. I signed a contract. I met with their management. I spent days with Tony and Giza and Spencer Proffer for whatever reason. Ego probably was trying to turn black Sabbath into an 80s hair band trying to push outside songs on them and make them into an MTV type. And that's not Sabbath, man. Sabbath is who they are. They're the iconic founding fathers of heavy metal. You don't take Sabbath and turn them into an 80s hair band like Rat or Motley Crue. Spencer was trying to do that at the time. Not necessarily with me and my voice and my presence in the band because I would have been, I think I would have been a good bit. And you can hear that on the tracks for the new Emerald Sabbath album which we just released featuring former members of Sabbath coming together to create a black Sabbath tribute record. And I was very fortunate that I was able to sing three songs on the record. An Ozzy song, Hole in the Sky, an Ian Gillen song, Trashed off board again. And I got to sing Die Young, the Ronnie James Dio classic from Heaven and Hell. So I got to cover each one of those vocalists with guys like Rudy Sarzo on bass and Vinny Appassee on drums. So for me, the black Sabbath story is never going to be over. I get to talk about it in every interview and I get to sing these iconic songs with some of the guys that are part of that Sabbath history. So my time with the band was very short. I am very thankful that Keel survived that because that was right when we first put Keel together. And I had to tell the guys in the band that guys, I'm joining Sabbath and I can't turn this opportunity down. This is the chance of a lifetime and the guys in my band understood it. We thought that April 7th, 1984 was going to be our first and last show. But the deal fell apart. Spencer Proffer was fired. Black Sabbath said, screw you. We're not having any of this. We're going to do what Sabbath does. And I got caught in the crossfire because Spencer was the guy who got me the gig. And he was the producer of the project. And when he got fired, I got caught in the crossfire. Did you record any demos? I did. Does anybody have them? Yeah, all of my members at patreon.com. They've all heard the demo because I posted it there for my fans to enjoy and listen to and celebrate. And the response has been incredible. I don't share that stuff on YouTube or Facebook or any other streaming platform except my members site which is Patreon. So everybody doesn't know this. Patreon is like you pay this monthly subscription, right? That's right. And you have access to an artist's vault, you know, vault songs or demos or whatever the case may be. You have some goodies from the artist, we'll say. A lot of goodies. My Patreon platform is a big part of my job, my life, my career and what I do, that interaction with the fans for me is critical. And I'd like to think, I guess apparently I was a little ahead of the curve because several years ago when my wife was diagnosed with cancer, that diagnosis changed everything. When you sit down with the doctors and they say you've got cancer that all of a sudden, I'm not going on the road this year. I'm not going to be able to leave home. I've got to stay here and take care of her through chemotherapy, radiation treatments, nine surgical procedures that she went through at that time and I thought, well, I've got to find a way to work from home. This is years ago, long before this pandemic I had to find a way to work from home. How do I share my music, my videos, my content, my my creations with the fans around the world. So I found the Patreon platform, built it and I worked extremely hard to supply all those fans with all the stuff you're not going to get on YouTube or Facebook or any of those other platforms. We've got entire albums that you can download for free. If you remember, we've got Patreon only, music videos, live chat, live online experiences. I do house concerts from home because when my wife was diagnosed with cancer, I thought, how am I going to play? How am I going to get out and play for my fans? So I built a stage in my house. We call it the fan cave where I've got decorations hanging on the back wall from all the fans through the years, all the cool stuff they've given me. So it's the fan cave and I'll get in there and I'll do live concerts online for the audience long before any of this pandemic thing was prevalent. That's pretty cool. When we were locked down, quarantined so to speak, I just went back to work and put the hammer down on the Patreon page. I do a lot of stuff there with my fans every day. You're going to get something new. The audio book, if you want to listen to my life story in audio book form, not only with me reading the book but with unreleased music and other contributors doing their voice over parts like Mark Ferrari from Keel, Brian Slagle from Metal Blade Records and so many other guests have added their audio pieces to my audio book releasing one chapter at a time. When the book is finished, everybody who subscribes at patreon.com to the all access level will get a free download of the entire audio book. The radio show that I host on a weekly basis on six stations worldwide. You can listen to it on these great stations. That's fantastic and I hope you do. But if you want to hear it on demand, it's one click away. Anytime, anywhere you are anytime of day at Ron Keel Patreon and so I try and go the extra mile to give the fans every little bit that I can. Every piece of content and sharing. They get to come inside my living room. They get to hang with me at my house and so far, right now, membership is at an all time high. We are gaining members every day, every hour because people during the pandemic and during the lockdown the quarantine, whatever you want to call it, they are all online. They're gravitating to the internet and that's where they're getting their entertainment. I'll be doing this a long time to come long after the quarantine is lifted. I was doing it a couple of years ago. I'll be doing it years from now. So I encourage all the fans to just check it out at patreon.com slash Ron Keel. I got you right where you needed to make the pitch. I can always take a left turn on any given cue but I appreciate the opportunity to pitch the Patreon. I love performing live. I do everything that I do, whether it's the book or the radio show or the interviews or the albums or all the stuff that I do I do it because I want to be that guy on stage with the sweat and screaming my guts out and playing with the guys in my band and the people in the front row enjoying that concert experience. That's who I am. That keeps me young, keeps me strong, keeps me vocally fit and I enjoy that more than I can express. However since that is not available to us right now, I've embraced the online platform. Like I said, I was really lucky that we got the Monsters of Rock Cruise and the Australian tour out of the way. We finished Australia mid-March and then got back home just in time for the travel band. So we expected to be home during this time and our tour started or was supposed to start on Memorial Day weekend. Obviously that's not going to happen. The Canadian tour has been cancelled, postponed, rescheduled, whatever. So we're just hoping for the best. Hopefully everybody can stay safe and get back to where we belong and where we want to be at some point very soon. I talked to Rick Fox, not to Longo, we're friends, and he was telling about the Stealer Days. Always says nice things about you. Have you ever, I'm sure you get asked this question all the time, ever made any contact with Ingve over the years and maybe worked on some projects together? Maybe just one off-show? No, he wouldn't do that. I'd do it in a heartbeat, but he wouldn't do that. I'd talk to Ingve about that. I think it would be fantastic to come together and do a song for Charity or whatever. I respect and appreciate his contribution to music and the fact that that Stealer record, which became one of the iconic foundations of Ingve. That's the word. I appreciate the opportunity for that album and it got both of our careers kickstarted and I respect and admire what he's accomplished, but we're different animals too. That's a good way to put it. Did he speak English when you first met with him and you hung out with him and you started working with him? He did. He was okay. The first thing he said when he got off the plane was, now I am here. I do what I want. Then he said, I'm the Antichrist and it was downhill from there. Like I said, I appreciate the opportunity to make that first record, which is such a special part of that era and a special part of all of our fans' lives. Last year, we got to do Keel Fest. It was May 10th of last year, so we're celebrating the one-year anniversary of Keel Fest when we did our first show as Stealer since we got 35 years. Rick Box, Mitch Perry on guitar who replaced Ingve in Stealer and that gave me the opportunity to get back into those songs, listening to the tunes and rehearsing for that gig. I got to fall back in love with that Stealer album all over again because I had to listen to it a lot through the years. There's some really good songs and there's some very special moments. I appreciate its place in my life and in my legacy and in the fans' lives and in their music catalog. A lot of fans love that record and I appreciate the support, the fact that we provided part of the soundtrack to their youth. That's a good way to put it. I think the word is iconic. Let's go full circle now. That's a good album. South X South Dakota That's a buy. It's like buy. It's like two buy four is not two X four, it's two buy four. So South buy. Yeah, that means buy. As in everybody should buy it. That's a good way to put it. South by South Dakota the covers album by the one and only Ron Keel. Go pick it up and listen to the best Southern rock tracks you could ever possibly get. Any last words on it? Certainly not. There are lots more songs where that came from from those bands and I want to make sure everybody knows that if you buy the record at ronkeelshop.com you're going to get the autograph copy and an unreleased bonus track as a free download. Very cool. My guest today Keel, thank you so much for joining me. I will have you on again. You know, you're great. You really know how to pitch. You really know how to pitch well. That's part of our job. We're all salesmen. Some artists, it's not really their thing. You present well. That's how you survive. Part of that, my longevity is a big factor. The fact that I've been at this slow down and never stopped and the fact that it's my job to sell songs and sell music and entertain people. If I can't do that, then I wouldn't have such an audience and the opportunity to talk to people like you on your show. So I appreciate the opportunity. Thanks again for having me and let's do it again soon. Alright, Ron Keel, thank you so much.