LILLIAN AXE Guitarist Talks Singer Change

Steve Blaze, LILLIAN AXE guitarist and songwriter, checked in with Hardrock Haven to talk about their brand new album "Waters Rising"; why the band chose new singer Derrick LeFevre when original singer Ron Taylor left the band; upcoming tour plans; their classic release "Love & War"; guitarists in general; and got even a little deeper when discussing the state of mankind and the seemingly violent direction the world is heading. Here is an excerpt from the interview:

Hardrock Haven: "Waters Rising" is the first studio release without the original singer, Ron Taylor. And he was replaced by Derrick LeFevre. What qualities did Derrick bring to the table that you thought would enable you to keep building the LILLIAN AXE legacy?

Blaze: He approached me and said, "Hey look, this is my gig. You can't give it to anyone else." He was a fan; I'd known him for years. I always knew he was a great singer because he was in a lot of bands and used to open up for us. But I never really paid attention A lot of times when you are busy doing your own thing, you don't really focus that much musically about what is going on in your own backyard, you know? When he came to me, I said I appreciate your eagerness, so I'm going to send you some music, without vocals, some of the old stuff, do your thing on them, I'll send you some of the new tracks, do your thing on it and let's hear what you got. It came back, and it was uncanny how much he sounded like Ron. That is very important, because with the catalogue, it can't be a voice that is so drastically different from the original, or you'll upset the fan base. So he sounded so much like Ron, but on the new stuff, he had this soul and power in his voice. I mean, he's hungry for it, genuinely loved the band before he was in the band, and that was important as well. He is like a little kid in candy store. He's excited, can't wait to get on the road and do this. You know, he's not jaded … like the rest of us! (Laughing …)

Hardrock Haven: Lookin' back on the album "Love & War", could you have imagined back then that the album would have so much staying power, so much impact on all the fans? For a lot of us who do what I do, "Love & War" is one of the Top 10 CDs of all time …

Blaze: That is so cool to me. I've heard that over the years. "Love & War" has been voted one of the Top 10 records, we are one of the top CDs that should have made it but didn't … all the critical acclaim. The sad part about it is that MCA won't put these albums out. When you try to get in touch with them, you know, it's more problem than sometimes it's worth. We are hoping the new label can try to work something out. The first album, you know, was our first album. We are very proud of it. We went in, had another producer, and we were just happy to be there, know what I'm saying? On the next album, I took more of a co-producer role, and we had a little wind under our belts, and thought, we need to start doing things our way. I started singing the majority of the background vocals, where on the first record we had a lot of help from one of Kip Winger's brothers, who engineered the first record. This was just me and Ron. We started putting on "Ghost of Winter", "World Stops Turning", and "Letters in the Rain". There were some songs on the first album we were being a little coerced into being a RATT-junior. We had Robbin (Crosby) produce the first record, and he had his ideas. We were like, "OK, this is our sophomore effort, let's go out and do this." We started coming into our own, and I was coming into my own from a writing side, where I was not afraid to start doing experimental things. It's got some memorable stuff, you know. "Ghost of Winter" is still one of a lot of people's all-time favorite LILLIAN AXE songs.

To listen to the interview in its entirety, go to this location.