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Pat Travers, Eddie Van Halen, Al Dimeola, Allan Holdsworth, Scorpions, Randy Rhodes, Warren DeMartini and Ratt, George Lynch, Joe Satriani, Steve Lukather, Steve Vai, Eric Johnson, Carlos Santana, Neal Schon, and (my favorite guitarist of all time) Jeff Beck.
My history with FireHouse begins when my band White Heat needed a drummer. We auditioned 20 or so and finally this guy named Michael Foster answers the ad in the paper and shows up at our rehearsal room. I remember he had a really ugly drum set but he could sing REALLY well and he had a GREAT groove. His first song to audition was "Say What You Will" by Fastway which has a swing feel and he just SLAMMED it! What really impressed me was his ability to sing and play drums at the same time. He was given a song list of the 35 songs we were playing at the time, and when he came back the next night he knew them all perfectly with harmony parts nailed! He obviously got the gig. That was in 1984.
Michael and I used to go out to the rock clubs when we weren't playing gigs and we saw this band called Maxx Warrior. They had a singer named CJ Snare and a bass player named Perry Richardson. They both blew us away. CJ and Perry sang so well together I just remember thinking, "Wow! If Mike and I could work with those two guys we'd be a really strong four piece band."
Well, I can thank God because it happened over time. Maxx Warrior broke-up and I sent CJ some songs that I had written. I asked him to sing on our tape and he just tore it up. We did a show in Virginia with him as our singer a few weeks later and I'll never forget him telling me that after performing live with us he felt like this was the right band for him. I told him that I knew that he was the right singer for me and I thought we could make it in the music business together. I couldn't believe what a great voice he had. I am still amazed to this day at his song writing ability and clever musicianship, and of course his pipes! He's also a great piano player. You'll hear him play more on the next cd!
Anyway, after we had a tape with his voice on it we took it to Perry. He really liked it, but had promised the band that he was in at the time that he'd complete 6 months of gigs. We just said, "We're coming to get you when that 6 months is up!" We sold our P.A. system, moved to Charlotte, North Carolina, and started recording demos in my bedroom. Our band house had a basement where we would mic the drums and guitar speakers, run the mic cables through the air conditioning ducts into my room, and record all day. We'd play hotel gigs at night to make money to pay the rent and bills.
One night in December of 1989 a guy named Michael Caplan, Epic Records VP of A&R, flew down from New York to see our gig. He told me after the show, "You guys are ready for a record deal." I said, "Well it's about time!" Michael didn't want to change us at all. He saw our vision, and I'm forever grateful to him for giving me my first chance in the big league.
We went right into the studio with David Prater as our producer. David is also known for producing Dream Theater. I learned quite a bit from Prater and I think he did a great job on our CDs "FireHouse" and "Hold Your Fire." He's a genius level human being with outstanding musical talent. He used to play drums with Santana. By the way, we didn't sign the deal with Sony until the cd was completed. That's how long things take in the music business.
We won the American Music Award for Best New Hard Rock/Heavy Metal Band of 1991, Metal Edge Magazine's Best New Band of 1991, Young Guitar Magazine's Best Newcomer of 1991, and Music Life Magazine's reader's pop poll Best Newcomer of the Year 1992. Our first album sold over 2 million, and our song "Love of a Lifetime" sold over 500,000 singles reaching #5. "Don't Treat Me Bad" went to #14. Our Second album sold almost 1 million copies to date with "Reach for the Sky" getting into the top 20 and "When I Look Into Your Eyes" reaching #7.
We changed producers for the third CD, "3". We used Ron Nevison, who's famous for producing and engineering Led Zeppelin, Dave Mason, Ozzy Osbourne, Heart, Damn Yankees, UFO, Michael Schenker, Vince Neil, and many more. He gave us more of a live feel. I learned quite a bit from Ron. He's a world class producer. FireHouse "3" enjoyed more success overseas than we'd ever had. We went gold in several countries in Asia enabling us to take our music around the world. A dream come true.
Our 4th CD was produced by me, with the help of CJ, Perry, and Michael. It's called "Good Acoustics" and we used our favorite engineer in the world, Mark Severns. Mark was teaching advanced audio recording and mixing at The Full Sail College in Orlando, FL. He's extremely well respected in the industry and very musical as well. He's also a GREAT guitar player so we instantly hit it off. We had some of our greatest success stories overseas with "Good Acoustics" going gold in 6 countries.
Our 5th album was produced by FireHouse. It's called CATEGORY 5. We started recording it in the spring of 1998. It's a very diverse album for us, and it shows us stretching our musical wings a bit. It's available on Pony Canyon Records in Japan and Asia and, for a limited time, at firehousemusic.com for our fans everywhere else.
We went to Japan in 1999 for an amazing tour. Pony Canyon suggested that we record a show so that we could have a live album. Well, we agreed and the result is "Bring 'em Out Live", our first ever live album recorded one night in Osaka, Japan. It's available in Japan and Asia on Pony Canyon Records and on Spitfire Records in North America and Europe.
In 2000, we released our 7th album, "O2". This album has been called our best album ever by fans and critics from all over the world. It's a return to our melodic hard rock roots with a 21st century twist. This album has Bruce Waibel on bass. Due to musical and personal differences we decided to part company with Perry Richardson. We found an extremely accomplished bassist/vocalist named Bruce Waibel who fit our band perfectly. Bruce played in The Gregg Allman Band for over 10 years, recording on the "I'm No Angel"
and "Just Before The Bullets Fly" albums. He also toured with The Marshall Tucker Band for 5 years while Gregg was not on the road. I had a great time recording and touring with Bruce, but he has since departed FireHouse and I wish him the best! "O2" also featured my vocal debut on track #7, "I'm In Love This Time".
I got some good feedback on that song, and since then, I've written more songs that fit my voice. You can hear two of them on the latest FireHouse CD, PRIME TIME, which was released in September 2003. I'm also very excited to say that my first ever solo album, BILL LEVERTY'S WANDERLUST, has recently been released. The album has received wonderful reviews from critics and fans. I am very grateful for the overwhelmingly positive reaction. If you haven't already, please check it out here: BILL LEVERTY'S WANDERLUST
FireHouse has taken me all over America, Canada, Japan, Brazil, Argentina, Puerto Rico, Germany, England, Scotland, Northern Ireland, Spain, Wales, Indonesia, Thailand, Korea, Philippines, Malaysia, Singapore, India, Trinidad, and Mexico. Whew! What a great ride! Thanks guys. I can't believe how far we've come...
We've done shows with Journey, Lynyrd Skynyrd, Bon Jovi, REO Speedwagon, Tesla, Peter Frampton, Ratt, Status Quo, Cher, Damn Yankees, Night Ranger, Quiet Riot, Skid Row, 38 Special, Molly Hatchet, Eddie Money, BTO, Blackfoot, The Outlaws, Derek St. Holmes, Badlands, Lynch Mob, The Rembrants, Blessed Union of Souls, Poison, Black Oak Arkansas, Nelson, The Romantics, Enuff Znuff, Slaughter, Warrant, Trixter, L.A. Gunns, Jackyl, The Tubes, Styx, Pat Travers, Steppenwolf, Blue Oyster Cult, Sebastian Bach, Badfinger, Paul Rogers of Bad Company, Rick Derringer, John Entwistle of The Who, Faster Pussycat, David Lee Roth, Great White, Jefferson Starship featuring Mickey Thomas, Sammy Hagar, Loverboy, and many more. We also jammed with Brian Johnson of AC/DC on the fourth of July in 1995. He's the absolute coolest, by far... Thanks Brian!
I found my soul mate on a hot summer's night in 1995. When I first saw her I got weak in the knees and my heart started beating like it never had before. We fell madly in love and got married in April 1996. Her name is Kris. She's my best friend in the world and I can't believe I was able to get her phone number that night.
We had our first child in November of 2001. Her name is Dabney. You can see a picture of her in the photo gallery. She's a gift from God. Every time I look at her, I see God. Kris and I are truly blessed to have such a wonderful daughter.
In May of 2006, I met a guy named Ed Miers at a show we did in Indiana. He told me that he was the CEO of a company called GREM USA, and that they made guitars. I told him that I would be happy to take a look at his guitars, and I'm SO glad I did. They are PHENOMENAL guitars!! GREM Guitars are all 100% made in America, and their quality is FAR superior to ANYTHING I've ever seen or played in my life. I told him that I had to have one!
Since then, we've worked out an arrangement where I'm now exclusively endorsing GREM Guitars. I am so excited to play these fine instruments of such exceptional quality. I hope you'll take a look at their website: |
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