STEVE STEVENS: New Audio Interview Available For Download

BILLY IDOL guitarist Steve Stevens is a guest on this week's edition of the "Maximum Threshold" show. Steve talks about his music roots, upcoming tours with BILLY IDOL, his new solo CD, and he describes severel funny incidents that happened while on the "Rebel Yell" tour with BILLY IDOL.

The 35-minute interview is now available for download at this location.

"Memory Crash" (Magna Carta),the new solo album from Steve Stevens, will be released on March 4. the CD, which features guest appearances by KING'S X frontman Doug Pinnick and drummer Brian Tichy (BILLY IDOL, ex-OZZY OSBOURNE),boasts such tracks as "Water on Ares", "Hellcats Take the Highway", "Small Arms Fire", an interpretation of ROBIN TROWER's "Day Of The Eagle" (featuring Pinnick),and the rousing/psychedelic "Cherry Vanilla". The CD is described as "a journey through another dimension, It's virtually musical cinema." "I have a lot of weird little segues going on with this record," Stevens says. "I've always loved that about the prog records, like 'Dark Side Of The Moon'. You enter this little theater of the mind. It's a true headphone experience."

A freaked-out, Hendrix-meets-Stevens vibe is prevalent in the interpretation of ROBIN TROWER's "Day Of The Eagle", a tune Stevens says Pinnick "takes to church with a SLY STONE spin."

Jimi wasn't the only influence that crept up on Stevens. He revisited a cast of legendary characters, from PINK FLOYD, LED ZEPPELIN, KING CRIMSON, and YES, to EMERSON, LAKE & PALMER, BO DIDDLEY, and JEFF BECK. Yet, despite the presence and interplay of diverse and distinct musical elements, Stevens never surrenders his own creative identity.

"I spent a long time before making this record watching old archival footage and retrospectives on bands like PINK FLOYD and YES, just soaking up what made them tick," Stevens says. "But this record is not a retro gimmick at all. It's still very much a Steve Stevens record."