Out Of The Cellar: Jordan interviews
Pretty Boy Floyd vocalist Steve Summers
Hello people, I know we've been a bit over due this month but we're finally here with a new interview. I apologise for the delay but I'm sure you'll love what we've got for you. I spoke to Pretty Boy Floyd and Shameless frontman Steve Summers about life as the original Rock N' Roll Outlaw. For those of you who aren't up to date with Steve's situation here's a little info you might wanna know before reading on. Pretty Boy Floyd were formed in 1987 and their famous debut LP Leather Boyz With Electric Toyz was released two years later. If you haven't heard it I seriously suggest you get your hands on a copy especially if you're a fan of Motley Crue and Poison. Sadly P.B.F. were one of those bands who were a little late on the scene to cause any lasting impact and none of their other releases would ever match the success of Leather Boyz. Since then Pretty Boy Floyd have had a significant amout of line-up changes leaving Steve as the only original member. In 2006 there were rumours of an original Pretty Boy Floyd reunion although soon after a public feud between Steve and guitarist Kristy Majors began. It was played out over the internet and you guessed it, we asked Steve all about it! More recently Steve has been singing with Alexx Michael's band Shameless which also features another ex P.B.F. member, Keri Kelli as well as Tuff's Stevie Rachelle. Shameless are currently trying to bring Glam and Sleaze back to the masses and will soon be embarking on a European tour so if you're around make sure you check 'em out! Enjoy.
Oh and I just wanna mention this month site owner Dave helped me out with the questions and took the phone call with Steve as as you may know I'm in Britain and it would make it a little difficult!
Jordan: You guys were one of the kings of the Sunset Strip back when it was THE scene in the music industry. We imagine what it must have been like, but tell us what it was like to actually be in the middle of that.
Steve Summers: I'm from Southern California and I've been in The Valley so I was always into Motley, Kiss and Ratt and all of that. In the early '80s it was cool I was able to see all of those bands and The Strip developing into this insane thing. From watching Ratt and Motley at the Country Club and the Stardust and Poison at the Troubadour. That part alone was incredible while I was putting together Pretty Boy Floyd, and to actually get to experience it and become the next one to get signed. In all reality, we were the last of the hair bands band on the Sunset Strip to get signed that was a big draw. Not just to get signed, but we were a huge draw like Poison was a huge draw. Not that it’s good or bad, but ours came faster. It only took us our 8 shows and 9 months. Don’t get me wrong, we had 4 years in the planning, but when finally played, it was 8 shows before we got signed. It happened rather quick, but it was insane to be on the Sunset Strip and see all those bands. Shit, I used to carry Bret Michaels stuff into a couple of shows before there even was a Pretty Boy Floyd. It was insane. The girls, to the Roxy, the Rainbow, to Bill Gazzarri, it’s something that you read about but unless you were there then you can’t even imagine. You just go out there with your band and your fliers and you get a buzz and it was just the greatest thing.
Jordan: And do you see any return to that now?
Steve: It will never be like it was before. It was insane before. There were literally 2 blocks that you could walk from The Whiskey to Gazzarri’s and it was just mayhem. Now, there's a lot of bands that are trying to do that kind of stuff and it’s a little better than it used to be, let’s say. Honestly, I don’t follow it too much, but there’s definitely not a scene. People aren’t going “man, we’ve gotta get down to the Sunset Strip on Friday or Saturday to check out a band”. None of that’s occurring. There are certain nights that are big out there. We did a show a couple of nights ago. Monday nights at the Key Club that tribute band Metal Skool is the biggest night. That’s when a thousand maniacs come out and it actually feels like it did before, but not literally because once you go outside it’s kind of dead. Before, you would do a show and stumble down the street to the Rainbow and go over here and you’d go to The Whiskey. There was so many bands at the time that there’d be a million live in rehearsal studios around there. We’d have parties after our shows at the legendary Hollywood Western building. Axl Rose would show up. Like I said, the show we just did was insane, the people were great, the hair, the girls, the whole thing. But once you got outside it’s not like before. Before you had to be escorted out to your car and go out the back way.
Jordan: Your first album, Leather Boys With Electric Toys is in my mind the second best glam/sleaze album of all time. First would be Motley Crue’s Too Fast For Love because nothing can ever touch that.
Steve: Yeah, I have the same feeling.
Jordan: So, since everyone who really loves this genre seems to regard Leather Boys as a classic, why do you think it failed to connect and become the huge hit it should have been? A lot of people bought it the day it came out and were convinced that you were gonna be as big as Poison. What happened?
Steve: It’s simple to us since we experienced it. Number 1, MCA was not experienced in breaking rock bands. They had the heart in it, but they just didn’t have the experience. Like you said, we gave them 10 great songs, we gave them a killer image, we gave them a killer video. From there, they didn’t know what to do because they’d never done it before. MCA was great at R&B and stuff like that. We were on the same label as Elton John. They’re biggest rock bands were Tom Petty and Night Ranger. Not to say that if we were on Elektra or Geffen who already had Motley and Aerosmith it would have been any better because we could have gotten lost in that shuffle. MCA literally did want us to be their big heavy metal band, their Motley Crue of the 90’s. They just didn’t know how to push the buttons. It’s as simple as that. There’s some things that we can do, and there’s some things that we can’t do in the business. They were just very inexperienced. People make jokes, you know MCA: the Musicians Cemetery of America. Their heart was in it. Since they’re a billion dollar label they gave us every bit of money in the world to do certain things. “Set The Night On Fire” was a great video. We used a great director, one of the best, Jeff Stein. You just have to get the damn thing on MTV. You have to have pull and you gotta have knowledge. I’m not saying everything was based on who you know and payola, but they didn’t push any of the right buttons.
Jordan: Are you finding that over the years and even now that 80’s music is becoming cool again, are kids picking it up and realizing how badass it is?
Steve: Oh yeah. Not only Leather Boys, but some of the more recent stuff that we’ve put out. Lets put it this way, most of our emails are from 14 year old girls from Finland that love Motley Crue and found out about Pretty Boy Floyd. That’s the great thing about the internet and YouTube and all these things that people can see what was out there and they can choose what was good and what sucked. I’m sure you can go through your list of hair bands that spent a little too much time trying to do that cool image. We had all that, but we had songs. On all those releases that were put out as bootlegs and all that, people could see that there were a shitload of songs. I’m not saying every one was a classic. When you do demos you might like 5 out of 10 of them. Teenage rock glam anthems are supposed to be fucking pounding drums, big vocals, glam rock singer, catchy riffs and we had all that, on top of an image. Sure we were influenced by all the glam bands that came before, but we didn’t rip them off. Everyone uses their influences but it’s not like we had a blonde singer and all that. We did a little mixing of all of our heroes and put in our brand of sleaze glam rock.
Jordan: Through all the trends that have come and gone since glam fell out of favour, what is it about glam that’s kept you in Pretty Boy Floyd and did you ever feel pressured into growing a goatee and being Nu-Metal Floyd?
Steve: That might have been a problem for a couple of our ex members. I won’t say names, because I’m not like them, but they maybe wanted a change into something easier and more accepted and that wasn’t us. That wasn’t what I set out to do. A lot of artists sit back and go “well, our first record was alright, and our second one was kind of this. If only we had one more chance but we got dropped’. I know our stuff. I know what we did was “shoulda-woulda” and all that kind of stuff, but that’s the nature of the business. We would just need to continue. Sure, there were tough times. When Grunge was happening it didn’t matter what kind of shit you had, but over the past many years that kind of stuff is still viable. Poison still tours, but they don’t have really hit records anymore. Bon Jovi has had a couple of hit records. I just never wanted to do that. If I wanted to do that I would join another band, and that’s not really me to be honest with you. Besides liking Motley Crue, Hanoi Rocks and New York Dolls, that style, I was always into weird shit anyway. Whether it was Dead Or Alive or Duran Duran or Sigue Sigue Sputnick, with the image and stuff. So, to do something normal and going up there like for work or something was not my thing. It was a couple of the other guys thing, and that’s one of the ten reasons why it caused problems for some of the ex-members. I wouldn’t have gone that route. To me right now, some of the stuff we do, we’re one of the only bands that are still sleazy and wear a lot of make-up. We’ve evolved into all these different stages because I’ve had different members, but as we talk right today, a couple of shows ago. That’s something we didn’t have to make up. It’s just a better time now for us. A lot of fans are out there and a lot of good things are happening for us. So, we want to give people what we’re best at, and were best at being fucking glam with kickass songs.
Jordan: You’re also going to Europe for a tour with Shameless right?
Steve: Yeah, we leave Sunday.
Jordan: You’re doing a Pretty Boy Floyd set and then some songs with Shameless. Are the foreign crowds more open to the glam style?
Steve: Yeah, it’s great out there. We’re going to five different countries. We’ve been doing that at least once a year for the past 5 years. Last year it was Pretty Boy Floyd, Bang Tango and Enuff Z Nuff. The year before that it might have been just us. The year before that it might have been us and Faster Pussycat. It’s great out there. You know how you used to hear stories a long time ago that in Japan if you had long hair you’d just go over there and it’s great. It’s kind of switched over to Europe. We went to Brazil last year, me and Stevie Rachelle from Tuff went over there and did our thing and it was insane. Kids were like 14 years old and were just getting into bands like us. It’s really great over there. I wish we could do it 2 or 3 times a year, but we can’t.
Jordan: This might be a sensitive area…
Steve: Dude, there are no sensitive areas…
Jordan: I don’t really understand the concept here, but a former guitarist claims that he is in a band called Pretty Boy Floyd and is releasing material under the bands name? What is the deal with that? I want to make sure that people are checking out the real Pretty Boy Floyd and aren’t confused by an imposter.
Steve: It’s not sensitive, it’s just someone who’s disillusioned about what’s going on right now. Without even talking about him for a second, I hate those people who jump from one thing to another to another to follow trends, while I stick with what’s in my heart. There hasn’t been a day since I put Pretty Boy Floyd together that I haven’t thought of and lived Pretty Boy Floyd. In simple terms, I have no problem saying it. He’s opened his fucking dumb mouth so many times. Kristy Majors, who is not in the band anymore. He hasn’t been in the band since 1990. He’s done some fraudulent things. He’s taken songs that weren’t his. Ariel Style was the main songwriter of Pretty Boy Floyd. He was our original guitar player who wrote 8 of the first Pretty Boy Floyd songs. We did a lot of co-writing, but it’s like Motley Crue where Nikki Sixx did most of the writing. Ariel Styles basically did a lot of those songs. When Kristy quit or got fired, however he wants to put it, I don’t care. I love when a guy says he quit. That means he’s a quitter. I don’t care if you say “quit” or “fired’. It doesn’t matter to me. We were still on MCA and doing demos. That was 200 songs of demos that Ariel and I put our time in. It doesn’t mean that I wrote them, but I was the singer. I’m the singer of Pretty Boy Floyd. I’m the sound of Pretty Boy Floyd. Let's let everybody know when they’re reading this that every artist that they love has had many songs written for them. From Aerosmith to Motley Crue to Madonna to Britney Spears. So yeah, Ariel Styles did a lot of the writing for Pretty Boy Floyd. So, while I continued to do Pretty Boy Floyd and toured the world in buses, toured the world in vans and did 2 shows a day and used different members, Kristy thought it was a great idea to steal all the demos we did. Demos are meant to be demos, let me make that clear. Demos are not to be released as records. A lot of them sounded like shit because they were just demos for us. But he thought it would be a great idea to compile them all up and then with that piece of shit Tom Mathers guy (president of Perris Records), who’s a snake… he’s some musician who never got a record deal or something… they just thought that they would just sneakily put out the records and call them Pretty Boy Floyd records and not pay anybody or give Ariel any writing credit or anything. That’s just some of it. It goes beyond that. It goes to compilation records, b-side records. Some of the songs are cool, but aren’t recorded right. And you know, when you write 200 songs you don’t like all of them. In simple terms, he hasn’t been in the band since 1990 and he’s done a lot of fraudulent things. Let’s just put it this way. I just recorded a Shameless record with Kerri Kelly, who produced it and did some of the writing and he did the same thing with Kerri Kelly songs. It’s very simple. He takes songs that are other peoples, makes some money off them, there will be some law suits, and then he’ll pay. But he’ll come up with all these reasons why, but here’s the simple terms. Vault 1, Vault 2 and Vault 3, those are 98% Ariel Styles songs with me singing on it. Kristy isn’t even playing on it, but he sold it to Perris Records and put it out there as Pretty Boy Floyd records. I don’t know what kind of answer you want for that one. He’s given them all: aliens coming down , I didn’t do it, at one time he was trying to convince Ariel and Vinnie and Kerri that it was me. Basically he’s a bad person. He’ll come up with all these stupid things about me but the bottom line is that he’s one of those people that likes to do things the easy way. Steal songs, put them out. Sit behind a desk, book some bands. Try to make some money off other people. It’s as simple as that.
Jordan: My only memory of him was knowing that he didn’t write the songs and once I saw him on a talk show and he was being a complete ass.
Steve: I’ve said this in interviews in the past and recently…I never really liked the guy. I put the band together, I own the name, I own the partnership, all of that. He fit in the band with his image. In all reality, come on, he looks like a Nikki Sixx kind of guy, big shit. Is he a great guitar player? I’ve played with a lot of great guitar players. What was his attitude like? It goes on and on. He can fool people on Myspace or on the web, anybody can be fooled. Fraud is what the world is all about. Once you know the person, it’s all good. His accusations make me laugh. All he wants to talk about is someone’s hair or apparently he has the code to my bank account so he can see how much money I have (laughs). But the things about him are real things. He’s a pain in the ass, he’s an alright musician, he stole songs, he hasn’t toured in over 15 years, he follows trends, he’s a miserable guy. That’s pretty much it right there. He’s a joke.
Jordan: What’s not a joke is that you’re back with Ariel and working on new material. I know you’ve got some new songs on Myspace. Is there going to be a new album with the classic Pretty Boy Floyd line-up?
Steve: The songs on the site now are songs that I either wrote or co-wrote with other musicians. This is one of the first times that I’m writing, which I didn’t do a lot before. We will probably put out either an EP or a record and then next year put out a record with Ariel and Vinnie back. The songs now are stuff that I wanted to give people a vibe of what I’ve what I’ve been writing. I love the songs “Live Hard, Live Fast”. We have a plan. There’s going to be a tour. We’re going to continue to write songs. I’m going to continue to write with people. We’ll probably put something out, whether it be an EP or a full length, this year. Then the plan is to put something out with Ariel and Vinnie sometime next year for our 20th anniversary. Right now it’s mostly based around writing great songs. Whether it’s with Ariel, or just myself, or writing with some people. That’s always been our thing and that’s what we’re concentrating on.
Jordan: Ariel seems to always come and go in the band over the years. You make such a great team. Is there a reason why he’s come and gone a few times instead of being a more permanent fixture in the band?
Steve: I would just have to say that everyone is different with what’s going on in life. Times just weren’t right for him. Does that make sense?
Jordan: Yeah.
Steve: Some people at a certain don’t want to tour for a year straight and play a side stage at a big pavillion and drive 5 hours and headline a show. Also, it was myself going through different members and trying them and then us finally talking and going “if we’re going to do this, let’s do it right. “Lets give people a really incredible great record”. The short story is that I’ve been doing Pretty Boy Floyd every day of my life. Those guys, I’m not saying that it’s good or bad, but they have their own lives. We’ve been talking and going over this for the past 2 years. I know it’s coming up in blogs like it just happened yesterday, but it’s been talked , songs have been exchanged and it’s been planned for the past two years. To answer the question of why it wasn’t a continuous thing, that’s as simple as it just wasn’t the right time. Other things were going on. I was with other guys and putting out stuff. At one time we were more interested in touring and getting out on the road. I was with some pretty wild guys... Now it’s more about making an incredible record with a couple of the original guys. Now’s the right time.
Jordan: Are you going to focus on signing with one of the labels that’s been signing up 80’s bands or are you happy with the grass roots marketing that you’ve been doing over the years?
Steve: You know honestly we just take it day by day, Our first goal is to have 10 or 14 great songs and as we’re doing those we see other opportunities come up all the times. A booking agency or manager that hears our new songs. In this day and age, you try to do most of everything yourself. That can be pretty profitable and pretty rewarding. We’ll see what happens. We take it day by day. You never know what could happen. Incredible things could happen for us. We’re one of the few bands that are still doing it and still sticking to doing what we love to do, and we do it fuckin' good. Anything could happen. We’re trying to make all the right moves, let's just say. We’re trying to cover all the areas that weren’t covered in previous years.