The Georgia Satellites’ Rick Richards on opening for Bowie, playing with Zevon, and lamenting Atlanta’s music scene

ORIGINALLY PUBLISHED ON AUG. 14, 1987

By Steve Newton

The last time the Georgia Satellites were in Vancouver they opened for Bob Seger at BC Place. That was an understandable pairing, since both acts are known to boogie till the cows come home. This time around the Satellites will be on the same bill as Duran Duran and headliner David Bowie, which is something entirely different. It’s gonna be one gritty guitar band versus two streamlined pop-rockers.

“It’s pretty strange,” admits Satellites guitarist Rick Richards on the line from Fort Worth, Texas. “I mean, tomorrow night we’re doin three dates here with Hank Williams Jr. So it’s goin’ from Hank to Bowie–from country rock to like state-of-the-art pop.

“So makin’ the transition will be kinda weird, but I tell ya, it really doesn’t surprise me after what’s been happening this whole year. I mean nothing surprises me anymore.”

Since the release of their self-titled debut album last year, the Georgia Satellites have been on a whirlwind tour of North America, Japan, Australia, and Europe. Their hit single, “Keep Your Hands to Yourself”, helped push the LP up the charts, and led to their snagging a place on Tom Petty‘s Rock and Roll Caravan tour. For a new band, they’ve seen a lot in a little time.

The day Richards called me, his group was playing a club called Billy Bob’s, one of the biggest bars in the U.S.

“It’s like acres of people,” he says, “a huge place. and I’m really lookin’ forward to it, ’cause it’s the first gig we’ve done by ourselves in a while. We get to play a couple of hours tonight, so it should be a trainwreck.”

As the opening act for the Bowie show, the Georgia Satellites will be lucky if they get a half hour on stage, but that should be enough to get most people’s blood rushing. Tunes  like “Railroad Steel”, “Battleship Chains”, and Richards’ own “Can’t Stand the Pain” have the potential to cause a riot at an old folks’ home.

And though he’s not a hardcore Bowie fanatic, Richards isn’t complaining about opening for the Thin White Duke.

“I got out of Bowie a little after Aladdin Sane and Pinups–that’s when I kinda lost interest. But I was an early fan, so it’ll be interesting to see the show, definitely.”

Richards’ favourite artists these days include the Replacements and Warren Zevon. He played guitar on a track from Zevon’s new album, a song called “Even a Dog Can Shake Hands.”

“That’s just Warren’s tongue-in-cheek comment on the music business. It was a real treat to play on because he’s a big hero of mine, and one of my favourite songwriters.”

Athough Richards only wrote one song himself on Georgia Satellites, he says he has “a few irons in the fire” for the next LP, which they expect to start working on in late October.

So can fans of the raunchy debut expect more of the same balls-to-the-walls boogie?

“I can pretty much guarantee it,” claims Richards. “The formula itself works, and we’re using the same producer, so it probably won’t be too much of a departure–if anything it’ll have maybe a harder edge to it.”

Before heading back into the studio with Jeff Glixman, who has produced records by Kansas and True Believers–and is currently working with guitar whiz Yngwie Malmsteen–the Georgia Satellites will take a second shot at touring Europe.

“The first tour went really well, but we didn’t really spend enough time to cultivate a following, so that’s why we’re gonna go back and beat the bushes and play some places that we missed the first time.”

Although they’re now starting to gain fans all over the world, the Satellites had rather humble beginnings, playing club after club in their hometown of Atlanta, Georgia. But unlike other Georgia cities, such as Athens, Richards says the music scene in Atlanta is pretty dull these days.

“Non-existent’s probably a pretty good word,” he says. “I just had some time off and I was back home and I was complainin’ to everybody about how pitiful it was there compared to like everywhere else I’ve been. Atlanta fluctuates musically, you know, and it seems to be a real down period for it right now. A lot of bands are splittin’ up and a lot of clubs are foldin’. It’s just not a very healthy atmosphere.”

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