TOM KEIFER On CINDERELLA: 'The Wheels Have Just Really Fallen Off'

In a brand new interview with the "Music Mania" podcast, Tom Keifer was asked if he would ever consider reactivating CINDERELLA again. The 56-year-old singer, who has spent the last few years focusing on a solo career, responded: "I'm really happy with the situation I'm in now. I love [my solo] band. And we're gonna get into… Our plan is to do a follow-up record to [Keifer's debut solo album] 'The Way Life Goes'. We're hoping to be in the studio by the end of next year. We're gonna tour through… probably into the summer on the deluxe [edition of the debut album] and the new tracks. And I think that will be time to go in and make a new record. So that's what we have our sights on.

"There's been plenty of interviews out there by me and other members of [CINDERELLA], and the story's been told," he continued. "The wheels have just really fallen off the old, and it was many decades in the making. I have a new family here, and I'm happy where I'm at."

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.

CINDERELLA guitarist Jeff LaBar last year 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."

"The Way Life Goes - Deluxe Edition", an expanded compilation of Keifer's critically acclaimed solo debut album, "The Way Life Goes", was made available on October 20 via Cleopatra Records.