TOM KEIFER On CINDERELLA: 'It's Not Where I Wanna Be Anymore'

Tom Keifer has once again shot down the possibility of a CINDERELLA reunion, saying that "it's not where I wanna be anymore."

Although CINDERELLA hasn't released a new studio album since 1994's "Still Climbing", the band started playing sporadic shows again in 2010 but has been largely inactive for the last few years while Keifer has toured as a solo artist.

Asked in a brand new interview with Ralph Sutton's "The SDR Show" why he doesn't just go out with his solo band and call it CINDERELLA, Tom replied: "It's notCINDERELLA. This band is new. Obviously, we play CINDERELLA songs, 'cause people wanna hear them. I was the singer. I wrote the songs. I produced the records and co-produced some of the records. I did most of the guitar work. Those songs are a part of me and people wanna hear them. The first year we went out, when 'The Way Life Goes' [Keifer's solo debut] came out, we were touring, we weren't doing as many [CINDERELLA songs] — we were focusing more on the record — and people wanted to hear both. The show is a hybrid of the solo music and the CINDERELLA stuff. But no, I would never do that. There's a lot of acts out there now touring under the banner of a particular name. Some of them have a few original members. I get that. If it's kind of morphed over the time, I guess that's okay. But the solo thing was kind of overnight. To call this CINDERELLA, it's just disingenuous."

Pressed about whether he has any interest in ever doing CINDERELLA again, Keifer said: "I don't air any of our differences, but there's been many over the years, like all bands have. And, unfortunately, the wheels fell off of that — slowly. And it just is what it is. It's not where I wanna be anymore."

Back in 2016, CINDERELLA guitarist Jeff LaBar accepted blame for the group's prolonged period of inactivity, explaining that his "drinking problem" caused a rift between him and his bandmates. He told "Another FN Podcast With Izzy Presley": "I can only speculate, but I believe it's all my fault. It's no secret that I've had a drinking problem. And it showed its ugly face on one of those [cruises that CINDERELLA played]. I guess that's what caused a rift… When I fell out on one of those cruise ships in front of everybody — like, basically O.D.'d — that's when the band, and mostly Tom, took notice and was, like, 'What the fuck?'"

Asked if he is sober now, LaBar said: "No, I'm not. Which is the problem. Which is probably the problem. Like I said, I can only speculate, because I don't talk to the other guys anymore. I talk to Fred [Coury, drums] every now and then. Eric [Brittingham, bass] lives twenty minutes from me. We haven't talked lately, but Eric and I have been the most consistent of all my bandmates throughout the past thirty-two years. It's just Tom and I that don't talk anymore. And I can only speculate that he's very disappointed and doesn't wanna see me die. He doesn't wanna witness me dying."

Keifer will release his second solo album, "Rise", on September 13 via Cleopatra Records. The disc sees Tom joined by his #keiferband — Savannah Keifer, Tony Higbee, Billy Mercer, Kendra Chantelle, Jarred Pope and Kory Myers.