New FIREHOUSE Singer NATE PECK Does The Songs 'Great Justice', Says BILL LEVERTY

In a new interview with Anthony Bryant of The Hair Metal Guru, FIREHOUSE guitarist Bill Leverty spoke about the band's latest single, "Midnight Gasoline", which was made available in early March. "Midnight Gasoline" marks FIREHOUSE's second release with the band's new lead vocalist Nate Peck, 2023 "American Idol" golden ticket recipient from Season 21, who officially joined the group in 2024. He replaced late FIREHOUSE frontman C.J. Snare, who died on April 5, 2024 at the age of 64 following a lengthy battle with cancer.

Regarding how "Midnight Gasoline" came together, Bill said (as transcribed by BLABBERMOUTH.NET): "Well, I had this guitar riff that I'd been playing for years to check the guitar when it's my turn at soundcheck. And at soundcheck, we get the drums first, and then we get the bass, then we get everybody's vocal mic, and then the last thing our soundman wants to hear is the guitar. And he wants to hear rhythm guitar. He wants to hear some rhythm guitar so he can balance it in with the other stuff. And so I've been playing that riff for a long time. And Nate came up, he goes, 'You know, we should do something with that riff.' And I was, like, 'Well, man, send me a title. What does this sound like?' He goes, 'Well, I'll think about that. Just record it for me and send it to me.' So I recorded it for him, e-mailed it to him, and he came back with 'Midnight Gasoline'. And I was, like, 'That is so cool. How did you come up with that, dude? You're 25.' But anyway, that was a great title. And then it just kind of took off from there. And we e-mailed back and forth."

Bill continued: "I put a lot of time into trying to get the details right to go from one section to the other. But the guy who really knocked that song out of the park was Michael Foster, our drummer, who — I think it's his best drumming performance ever, and he just keeps getting better and better as a recording artist and is a live performer. But this song, he really, really played so well on it. And [he's] just so creative and [he came up with] so many cool fills. And he lives pretty close to me here, so he could come back over and say, 'Man, I wanna change this little fill here,' and we could change that fill and get it. And he got it exactly the way he wanted it, and that's the way I wanted it. If your drummer's happy, the song's gonna be grooving. He's got a great ear for it too. So, yeah, so it was a team effort. Al [bassist Allen McKenzie] came over here and recorded the bass and his vocals, and so we've got a lot of background harmonies in there and a solo section that kind of takes the listener from the storyline, which is a couple going across the country and the solo section, it gets a little bit spooky. Like maybe they had a flat tire or maybe they're getting pulled or maybe something happened where they were getting their midnight gasoline, where it got scary. And then it gets back into being fun and cool again and a fun ending. So that's kind of how we got that one going."

Leverty went on to say that there are tentative plans for FIREHOUSE to eventually release a new album.  "We wanna write and record some more [songs]," he explained. "So we're working on ideas to try to decide which one to work on next. And that'll be song number three. After we get that done, we've got seven to go and we'll have a CD. So that's our plan.

"It took a while to get this one ['Midnight Gasoline']," he explained. "I mean, this one took a few months to figure out all the little pieces and get all the lyrics right and get everything recorded and then mixed. But some of 'em go a little faster. With this one, we really took our time to make it so that it was just right. I feel like everybody's happy in our band about it."

As for why FIREHOUSE hasn't made "Midnight Gasoline" available on any of the streaming music services so far, Bill said: "We like selling it from our web site for a dollar. That way people can support the band by purchasing it. One day it'll be on the streaming services, but we're not in a huge hurry to do that. We want the people who wanna support us to be able to do that. When it gets on the streaming services, it doesn't really trickle down to us very much, but that's just the way the music industry is now. We're not in it to try to get rich. We just wanna try to be able to make enough money to cover our recording costs and the flights that happen and put the gas in the car to get from one place to the other to do it. And that's about it. But if it's a dollar and somebody has an extra buck and they wanna support the band and get a cool song, that's the way to do it."

Asked if he has heard any longtime FIREHOUSE fans say "no C.J., no FIREHOUSE" in the two years since the singer's passing, Bill said: "A little bit, but I think anybody who's given Nate a fair listen will go, 'You know what? He really serves the song well' — all the songs, he does 'em great justice. And he has that natural tone that a lot of people expect. And he's just got it. So I don't let any of those [naysayers bother me] — and it's very few that say that, once they've gotten a chance to really listen to Nate and give him a chance."

According to Leverty, FIREHOUSE pays tribute to C.J. at every show by dedicating "Home Is Where The Heart Is" to the late vocalist. "That was one of the first songs that he and I wrote," Bill explained. "And he was really fond of that song. And we feel that heaven brought him back home. And so that's what we say every night, is that that song goes out to him."

Bill continued: "[C.J.] was such a huge part of our band. And he was such a great musician and a great singer and a great piano player and just an unbelievably awesome songwriter and just a great guy. Everybody that knew him loved him. And so we miss him, but he wanted us to go on — he wanted us to continue and to keep the music going. And he told me that several times before we lost him. And we didn't think we were gonna lose him. When we did, it was a shock, actually. 'cause he was due to come back in July [2024], and we lost him in April [2024]. He just had lost a lot of weight, and his heart couldn't keep up and he had a sudden cardiac arrest."

Reflecting on Snare's strengths as a vocalist, Leverty said: "Out of the whole career that we had together — we started playing together in 1988, and we got our first record out in 1990 — but that whole time, I can count on one hand how many shows that he lost his voice. And it was only because he got some kind of virus, like a strep throat or something, where he got laryngitis so bad that he couldn't [sing]. But it wasn't from overusage of the voice. He had such a strong voice that even when he was like, 'Yeah, I might not be able to hit all the notes tonight,' it would still blow everybody else away. And that's just the kind of guy he was. He really took care of his voice and really took care of his health. And that's why it was such a shock to us when he got sick, because he was the most healthy out of all of us, the strongest of all of us, and the most energetic. I mean, we'd get somewhere and he'd just want to go out and see it, where the rest of us are, like, 'Yeah, man, I gotta take a nap. I'm tired. I've traveled 46 hours.' And he's, like, 'Man, I wanna go.' So he was just one of those guys."

Peck has been singing with FIREHOUSE since October of 2023.

FIREHOUSE's first single with Peck, "Mighty Fine Lady", was made available on Spotify in July 2025.

Snare died was diagnosed with stage IV colon cancer in 2020 and took a hiatus from the band in 2023 to undergo abdominal surgery. However, his daughter is reported to have stated the official cause of death was cardiac arrest, according to TMZ.

In a statement on FIREHOUSE's social media, Snare's bandmates said he died "unexpectedly" despite his long illness.

They shared their "great sorrow" at losing their "brother… the rock and roll warrior.

"We are all in complete shock with CJ's untimely passing," they wrote.

"CJ was was arguably one of the best vocal talents of a generation, touring the world with FIREHOUSE non stop the past 34 years.

"Our heartfelt condolences go out to the entire Snare family, Katherine Little, friends, and all our beloved fans all over the world."

FIREHOUSE hasn't released a studio album since 2011's "Full Circle", which featured re-recorded versions of some of the band's older songs. The group's last collection of new material, "Prime Time", came out in 2003.

FIREHOUSE reached stardom during the early '90s with hits like "Reach For The Sky", "Don't Treat Me Bad" and "All She Wrote", as well as its signature power ballads "I Live My Life For You", "Love Of A Lifetime" and "When I Look Into Your Eyes".

At the 1992 American Music Awards, FIREHOUSE won the award for "Favorite Heavy Metal/Hard Rock New Artist". They were chosen over NIRVANA and ALICE IN CHAINS.

Formed nearly four decades ago, FIREHOUSE's classic lineup consisted of Snare, Leverty, Foster and bassist Perry Richardson. Richardson left in 2000 and was replaced by Allen McKenzie in 2003.