An Interview with Bill Leverty by Kara Uhrlen

A History Lesson

When asked how they had initially succeeded to win double-platinum success with their first album, Leverty said that he felt that the right single went on the radio and got picked up, but back in those days, people were also spending a hundred thousand dollars to make a video.

"With "Don't Treat Me Bad," they spent probably twenty thousand dollars to make our first "Don't Treat Me Bad" video and it went to number fourteen, and they said gosh we need to make another video, because that video we made is cheap and we need to put you guys with a big production video to compete with these other guys that have songs that are at number fourteen or whatever.

So, they cut a deal with this director to cut another version of "Don't Treat Me Bad" and "Love of a Lifetime," at the same time really. We went out to LA and shot "Don't Treat Me Bad" and then we woke up the next morning and shot "Love of a Lifetime." So, I think the videos that were being played on MTV at the time made sense for a record company to dump money into video production. Whereas now, a band like Firehouse never gets played on MTV, and never gets played on VH-1 even."

Leverty believes that the industry is well aware that the audience is still there for this kind of music, but also knows that "it's just a corporate thing." In other words, the radio stations are trying to stay current and stay hip, and major record labels aren't signing bands that are melodic rock bands. And without record label support, there's really no incentive for radio or television to play this type of music. He added, "I think that good music will always be a commodity. Good musicianship and all that will always get an ear. I think that what is pop music now, what is pop culture doesn't have a whole lot to do with good music. It's just attitude like you say and just an image, very little of that has anything to do with the music…"

Conclusion
Before concluding the interview, Leverty wanted to extend a special thanks to the band's fans...

For more information about Firehouse visit their official site at www.firehousemusic.com,  and also check out Bill Leverty's personal site at www.leverty.com.

Live photos were taken by Kara Uhrlen and are property of The Pure Rock Shop.

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