Bill Answers The Questions
Do you have any siblings?
Yes, an older sister and a younger brother.
Do you and Kris want children someday? Yes, we do. Right now we’re doing
a lot of practicing. Practice makes perfect!!!
How did your family feel about your music when you were younger? Were
they supportive? They were concerned at first when I told them that I wanted
to make a career out of playing the guitar, but my family has always been very
supportive of my music. They just wanted me to be happy.
Were there people who tried to discourage you from going into such a tough
business? I was told by many people that the music business has the most
repulsive people in the world controlling it. I also had several people telling
me that there was no way that I’d EVER get a record deal. People said that the
labels weren’t signing new artists. I just laugh at those people now when I
see them. They know why I’m laughing too.
Anything that really annoys you? Dirty Dishes
How about some of the simple things that make you happy: Walks on the
beach.
What new bands are you currently listening to? Neurotica and Dopamine.
Hobbies: Ice Hockey, computers, and Scuba Diving.
Were you a good student in school? I was a B student.
Favorite Firehouse song to perform in concert: “Overnight Sensation”
or any one of the new ones off of Category 5.
Why do you think Firehouse has been able to stay together so long? Respect
for each other.
The following is from
Bill’s website. Check it out at: http://member.aol.com/leverty/main.htm. The
photos are also from the site.
“I’m from Virginia. The son of a great set of parents, who gave me my 1st guitar
at the age of 4. Big mistake!! I fell in love with the guitar, but we broke-up
for a while when I found the sport of Diving. By the age of ten I was Virginia
state champion. I then left the diving board for ice hockey: the greatest sport
of all time....... GO RED WINGS!!! The guitar came back into my life at the
age of 15, and won my heart over. (I still follow ice hockey, but don’t tell
my guitar!!!) My first guitar lesson was in the 8th grade. I took a guitar course
in school. The teacher taught us basic guitar chords. It was a one hour lesson,
once a week for 6 weeks. I was hooked!! I went on to take music theory in high
school. That was the best course I ever took in school. Some of my influences
are Stevie Wonder, Simon & Garfunkel, Led Zep, Carlos Montoya, Rare Earth, Aerosmith,
Ted Nugent, Kiss, UFO, Doobies, Skynyrd, Outlaws, Allman Brothers, Steve Morse
and the Dixie Dregs, Pat Travers, Eddie Van Halen, Al Dimeola, Allan Holdsworth,
Scorpions, Randy Rhodes, 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 REAL 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 he came back the next night and
knew them all perfectly, with harmony parts nailed! He obviously got the gig.
This 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 real 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 demo’s 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 day, I was
hangin’ out in a music store in Charlotte, and I met a guy named Ken Dapron
from Yamaha Guitar Development. I gave him a demo tape, and he liked it enough
to give me an endorsement deal with Yamaha. Thanks Ken!! I’ve been with Yamaha
since the beginning, and they continue to make the best guitars in the world.
I play Yamaha Pacifica electric’s, APX acoustic/electrics, and the L series
handcrafted acoustic guitars. My Pacifica guitars are custom-made and tweaked
by Leo Knapp. Thanks Leo!! OK, so around that time, Perry finished the tour
with his old band on a Saturday night, and moved into the band house with us
the following Sunday. The first time I played with him, I was amazed at how
smooth his feel was. He kept such a great feel even while singing all the high
parts flawlessly with CJ. I had never played with a real, recording quality,
bassist until that rehearsal day with him. He was the missing link. He’s an
incredibly talented guy. His musicianship and experience was just what we all
needed. His vocal talent is immense. Listen to “Seven Bridges Road” on Good
Acoustics. (It’s mostly all him.) WOW!! We were ready to shop for a record deal.
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 leagues. 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 first
CD, “FireHouse,” and our second, “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, FireHouse “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
next album will be produced by FireHouse. We don’t have a title for it yet,
but we’ll be recording it spring of 1998. We’ve got some really cool songs written,
and I can’t wait to record them.
The CD will be out on the Pony Canyon label in Japan and Asia around September
1998. Our A&R man, Jun Sato, loved our demos. I hope you like the CD. FireHouse
has taken me all over America, Canada, Japan, Brazil, Argentina, Puerto Rico,
Germany, England, Scotland, Wales, Indonesia, Thailand, Korea, Philippines,
Malaysia, and Singapore. Whew! What a great ride!!!! Thanks CJ, Perry, and Michael.
I can’t believe how far we’ve come.....We’ve done shows with Lynyrd Skynyrd,
Bon Jovi, Tesla, Status Quo, Cher, Damn Yankees, Night Ranger, Quiet Riot, Eddie
Money, Blackfoot, The Outlaws, Derek St. Holmes, Badlands, Lynch Mob, The Rembrants,
Blessed Union of Souls, Poison, Black Oak Arkansas, Nelson, Enuff Znuff, Slaughter,
Warrant, Trixter, and many more. We also jammed with Brian Johnson of AC/DC
on the fourth of July in 1995. He’s the coolest, by far!!! Thanks Brian....
I found my soulmate 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 ........Thank you God!!! We’ve got a little Yorkie named Boogie.....
Boog for short....... and he’s the greatest dog of all time! Thanks for reading
all this stuff Peace............... Bill”
“I just want to say a few
words about Bill Leverty. I met him in early ’91 when he wasn’t very well known
in St. Louis. I’ve seen him go from his first tour, to opening for bands, to
headlining his own shows, even to winning an American Music Award. From way
back when to now, his personality and kindness have always stayed the same.
It’s great to have such a talented musician (who BTW is very under-rated) that
cares for his fans and friends the way he does. Bill’s the guy that will go
up and talk to someone who is standing alone at a show or will make it a point
to get to someone who wants an autograph but can’t quite get to him. (I have
seen this myself.) He is very genuine. A quality not found often enough these
days.
“A genuine person, a great musician, a great friend.”
Thank you for letting me share my opinion on Bill Leverty.
Brian Schleifer - St. Louis, MO - brian01@worldnet.att.net
MY IMPRESSION of BILL LEVERTY
of FIREHOUSE [not impersonation]
WELL I met BILL back in 1990-91' in a club in N.Y. I was working security for
LITA FORD and the guys from FIREHOUSE came to see the show. I recognized them
from MTV and was getting into FIREHOUSE. All the guys we’re way cool. Me and
BILL talked a bit.
AFTER years of not seeing BILL or the other guys, I got lucky one day on the
computer. I was in the FIREHOUSE chat room and BILL happened to be there. I
told him who I was, how we met, etc. He remembered...that was so cool. Through
e-mail we kept in touch. One day he told me he had gotten a dog. I told him
I’m a certified trainer and if he ever needed help just ask. He did and I helped
him train his dog, BOGGIE.
A month later he was playing in Maryland, so I traveled the 6 hours to see them
It was great. BILL is such a cool, caring, down to earth guy. We talked and
joked after the show. We became friends and we still keep in touch. I’m going
to see the band live in 2 weeks. BILL'S one of the rare band members who always
has time for the fans...PLUS he’s an AWESOME guitarist,and has great stage presence.
He makes everyone feel welcome and makes people smile. In short, he’s one cool
EARTHLING. I’m glad to know him [hope he feels the same towards me]
MARTIAN