RON KEEL Talks About First-Ever Solo CD

Ron Keel recently spoke to Hardrock Haven about his first-ever solo CD, "Alone At Last", and his plans to tour in support of the album with Y&T. Asked what went into the CD and what fans can expect from it, Ron said, "I've been doing acoustic shows for the past couple of years … those started out at the KISS Expos. I would fly in as a special guess at the KISS Expos all over the country, and they would want me to perform. It's a music show of songs throughout my career. I think I got pretty good at it. At one expo, I think it was in Evansville, Ind., it all clicked, it really started working. And I got to thinking that I'd like to put this in album form somehow, whether it was to record a live album at one of these events, or in the home studio, to do an acoustic album of these songs throughout my career. It started innocently enough with a bonus track for the STEELER anthology called 'Serenade', which is one of my all-time favorite Ron Keel songs. It never really got the justice it deserved because I used to sing it with this really ugly falsetto voice on the STEELER album. Now I sing it like a man. We cut that and used it as a bonus track on the STEELER anthology. Then, I re-cut 'The Time of My Life', another one of my favorite songs, for a Morley sampler CD. So I had these two songs in the can and I thought … man, this stuff sounds great, I'm really, really pleased with the results and having a great time recording it. Let's just go ahead and do a full album. From there, I started with a really long list of songs I wanted to do and whittled it down to 14 cuts. It is an acoustic album, all acoustic instruments, and I'm the only guy on it, except I have a couple of special guests. Mark Ferrari and Bryan Jay from KEEL are doing an acoustic version of 'Tears of Fire'. Other than that, it's an entirely acoustic solo album. I want people to know right off the bat that it's not a collection of ballads. It's not some guy sitting on a stool, singing sad songs. There is absolute metal on this album, and some of the songs that were very heavy to begin with, like 'Private Lies' and 'Die Fighting' from KEEL, I've done acoustic versions of them that are absolutely slammin'. I also included a SABER TIGER song on this album. I'm announcing all these songs for the first time, because I've been trying to keep it under wraps, but I'm just so excited by it I had to tell you. The album has some very screaming vocals and metal songs; they are just treated in an acoustic format. The strength of the songs still shines through."