ORIGINALLY PUBLISHED IN THE GEORGIA STRAIGHT, MAY 8, 2008
By Steve Newton
Steve Stevens is best known as the raven-haired foil to platinum-blond pop-punk icon Billy Idol; he’s the leather-clad Les Paul–lover whose incendiary solos lit up Idol hits like “Rebel Yell” and “White Wedding”. But Stevens also moonlights as an instrumental rock-guitar virtuoso, and on Memory Crash he proves to be a startling picker in the same league as Joe Satriani.
After the majestic intro of “Heavy Horizon”, Stevens puts the pedal to the metal on the rambunctious fretburner “Hellcats Take the Highway” (he’s got a thing for cool song titles). Both “Small Arms Fire” and “Cherry Vanilla” are seven-and-a-half–minute molten excursions that boast hooky riffs aplenty and ace drumming by Brian Tichy, who has played with the likes of Idol, Ozzy Osbourne, and the great Glenn Hughes.
Stevens shows off his dextrous flamenco-guitar talents at the beginning of the funky “Prime Mover”, and gets all Robin Trower on your ass with a version of “Day of the Eagle” that sees Doug Pinnick from King’s X on bass and vocals. Unfortunately, after nine killer tracks, the CD ends on a weak note when Stevens tackles the lead vocal on the subpar “Josephine”.
There’s a reason Billy Idol doesn’t let him sing much.
To hear the full audio of my interview with Steve Stevens from 1989 subscribe to my Patreon page, where you can eavesdrop on over 250 of my uncut, one-on-one conversations with:
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Colin James, 1995
Kim Simmonds of Savoy Brown, 1998
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Ed Roland of Collective Soul, 1995
Taj Mahal, 2001
Tom Wilson of Junkhouse, 1995
Mike McCready of Pearl Jam, 2003
David Lindley, 2002
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John Hiatt, 2010
Nancy Wilson of Heart, 2006
Jeff Golub, 1989
Moe Berg of the Pursuit of Happiness, 1990
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Terry Bozzio, 2003
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Matthew Sweet, 1995
Jim McCarty of the Yardbirds, 2003
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Kate Bush, 1985
Jeff Healey, 1988
Richie Sambora of Bon Jovi, 1993
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Kenny Wayne Shepherd, 1995
Justin Hayward of the Moody Blues, 1986
Elliot Easton from the Cars, 1996
Wayne Kramer from the MC5, 2004
Bob Rock, 1992
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Wayne Kramer from the MC5, 2004
Bob Rock, 1992
Nick Gilder, 1985
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Tom Johnston of the Doobie Brothers, 1991
Joey Spampinato of NRBQ, 1985
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Billy Idol, 1984
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Ian Anderson of Jethro Tull, 1992
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John Bell of Widespread Panic, 1992
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…with hundreds more to come