As Russ Ballard’s unforgettable face, shades and all, graced my computer screen via Zoom, I’d be lying if I said my heart didn’t skip a beat. Sure, this was my second time in conversation with the legendary songwriter (the first can be found here). However, considering this man is singlehandedly responsible for some of the greatest songs in the history of rock and pop music, many of which have served as the soundtrack of your life and mine, it’s hard to NOT go full blown Wayne’s World in a scenario such as this (“We’re not worthy!”). Nevertheless, Ballard spoke with the utmost humility, ever the gentleman. In this brand new interview, Ballard speaks about creating new music, revisiting his hits, and the potential of an Argent reunion.
Greetings Russ and welcome back to Defenders of the Faith! How are you doing today?
Russ Ballard: I’m doing great, Joe! It’s great to be here with you again!
It’s great to have you back! When we last spoke, back in August, 2021, you had either just come from the studio prior to our interview, or were about to head there upon its conclusion. Point being, you were already working on new music. When did you start working on the songs that make up Songs from the Warehouse?
RB: It was right about that time. Those must’ve been the tunes I was recording at that time, I think. That was probably…yeah, I had a lot of the songs on the drives anyway. I had a lot of songs that I felt pretty good. I’d go back and listen to them, and decide which ones (to pick). You know, I wanted to make a new album. I’d decide which ones sounded right for me. Sometimes, they weren’t right. I would just review them and just change little bits and pieces, and there was a new song. Basically, that’s how it happened. I was writing new tunes. I’m writing all the time, so I’m always coming up with ideas. Sometimes I leave them and come back and review them. I didn’t intend initially to do two albums, but in ’21 or ’22, I decided to do a second album, make it a double album.
What was your songwriting process like for this album, and did it differ in any way from past releases?
RB: It was pretty similar. I go and write everyday. Most days, I’m writing. If I’m not touring or whatever, I go in there and write. This was similar. I’d go in at 7, 8 o’clock in the morning, work ’til lunchtime, and then go back in the afternoon. It was pretty similar to the other albums I’ve written. I would go in there with an idea, or look for an idea, either a title or a story, something to write about. That was the idea, to just go in, have an idea, and just pursue it. I often went back and listened to other songs and thought, “Will it fit with this song? Will this song fit with that? Is this where I’m at?” I’m always writing. I go in there everyday and write *laughs*.
Were you ever one to write on the road, or do you wait until you’re home to do so?
RB: I always found it hard to write on the road. I always thought, being on the road, I could pick up ideas. You’d be away from home for 2 weeks, 3 weeks, 3 months. Honestly, I was too tired to write on the road. When you’re on the road, you get halfway through a tour, 3 weeks or 6 weeks into a tour, you don’t have enough time. You get off the plane, into the hotel, and then you gotta pick up your guitar and start writing a tune. It’s very difficult, because your head’s in that space tonight, doing the show. You’re either changing guitar strings, or you’re getting ready to do a show in the evening. It’s very difficult. I always found it hard. People can write on the road. I found it difficult. I always had the ideas when I got home. I was flying with ideas. You don’t know why you have these ideas, but they’re all picked up from being on the road. It refreshes the mind. It does something.
While Songs from the Warehouse spans a variety of styles, many of the cuts draw back to that ’80s AOR sound best associated with your 1984 self titled. What draws you back to that style after all these years?
RB: I just love that feel. It’s hard rock. It’s not metal, really. It’s hard rock, but it’s melodic rock. I love melodies *laughs*. I still do! I love the power of hard rock. Years ago, when I look back, when I was writing things like “Since You Been Gone”, “I Surrender”, those kind of tunes, when I was back with Argent, most progressive bands and metal bands were playing riffs. I always tried to marry a riff with melody. I liked that whole idea. The dual guitar thing, I loved that idea which was going on at that time. Most people were writing riffs.
I think about Black Sabbath *hums the “Symptom of the Universe” riff*. It wasn’t particularly melodic, but it was very energetic. There was so much energy. I used to love Tamla (AKA Motown) as well. I was listening to Tamla tunes. Those kind of melodies, they had good energy: The Temptations, Stevie Wonder, that kind of stuff I was listening to. I wanted to marry the two things together. The two things that I loved, basically, were tunes, something decent to write about lyrically, and energy.
When we look at the latter day output of artists like Ozzy Osbourne and Alan Parsons, there seems to be an increased introspection within the lyrics. I can’t help but notice the same on the songs that make up Warehouse. Would you agree? If so, in what ways has age and experience impacted your lyrical direction?
RB: Yeah, that is true. When I was younger, I was writing a lot of love songs. You write love songs when you’re younger, I think. It’s very difficult for me now to think about “I love you.”, “Go away from me.”, “Come back to me.”, “Please forgive me.”, “I surrender!” *laughs* It’s more difficult as you get older to do that. Now, I was trying to write about things that affect me now, like with “Resurrection”. It wasn’t my idea. The idea of “Resurrection” came from Roly Jones, who’s the other guitar player in my band. He came here one day and said, “I’ve got an idea for a song. Resurrection!” I said, “That’s a great title.” We pursued that. That’s how “Resurrection” came about. We did that *sings chorus*, got straight into that. Before we did anything else, we did *hums riff*. It sounded really cool! I didn’t see Roly for a while. He came back and we continued it.
“Resurrection” was good for me because it was more of a spiritual idea. As you get older, I think many people become, not religious, but you see another side to the psyche, the more spiritual side. I was always that way inclined anyway, always writing those “Dream On”s and things like that. “Get up, get up, get back on your feet. Bang the drum and start the beat.”, those spiritual things that made you feel good. This was basically thinking of a lyrical idea of, “I’ve been down, and you are my resurrection.” That’s the idea. “I’m down. You are my resurrection.” You never know who it is, but you, you are my resurrection!
I’m always looking now, as I got older, for more things that affect me in life, other things. Obviously, love is always gonna be there. That’s a thing that affects us all. Even though we think we’re separate from each other, we’re not separate from each other. I’m always gonna write about love, and most of my songs do incorporate love as well. I was writing things like “Charlatan”, that was an idea. I like to find ideas to write about stories or words. It can be a word that sparks a song. I had “Charlatan”, I thought of the idea. Then, I thought of the story of somebody saying, “You’re a charlatan.” I say, “OK, I’m a charlatan! I won’t make a fuss, because there’s a charlatan in all of us.” *laughs* That is the idea to that one.
Accompanying Songs from the Warehouse is The Hits Rewired, which as the title suggests, sees you rerecording some of your biggest hits. What was it like for you to revisit these songs, and were there any that didn’t make the cut?
RB: Yeah, there were a few. I included all the songs I thought people wanted to hear. The last 20-25 years, people have said to me, “Why don’t you record the songs other people have done?” I said, “I’ve probably recorded them as demos, or I recorded them on albums anyway.” Initially, I did “Winning”, that Santana covered. I recorded it in ’75, put it out as a single. It didn’t happen for me as a single. Then, Santana recorded it in ’78? ’79? 4 years later, he had a Top 10 in America with it.
On the same album, for the next single I released “Since You Been Gone”. That was a hit. That was a hit 3 times in America, hitting the charts 3 times. I had that out as a single as well, so I have recorded them, but people said, “You ought to do it. You ought do these tunes.” So I thought I’ll make more up to date versions of them. There was “New York Groove” also, that Ace Frehley recorded. I recorded “God Gave Rock and Roll to You”, that KISS recorded and did a new version of that. I’ve changed it a little. The songs I haven’t included, there were a few tunes I’d liked to have done, but the 13 tunes that I done are the ones I think people wanna hear.
Considering nearly all of the songs on this collection had been popularized by other artists, were there any instances in the rerecording process of balancing the arrangement between what you originally intended and how said artist interpreted them?
RB: There was one. I wasn’t sure whether I should include “So You Win Again”. It was a big hit in Europe for Hot Chocolate. Originally, I wanted to do it for myself. I made a really good demo of “So You Win Again”. I took it to my record label in London. I said, “I’ve got a great song. I think this is a hit song.” The head of the record label went, “It’s a good song, but that’s for a black band. That’s not for you.” It was like a soul song, but at that time, there were a lot of blue eyed soul singers out there. Robert Palmer, Hall and Oates, Boz Scaggs: All those people were recording soul, and I thought, “Yeah, I would like to do a song like that.” I recorded that. When the record company said, “That’s not for you.”, I decided not to attempt to put it out as a single. It got to #1 in 3 weeks with Hot Chocolate in England. It was a big, big hit all over Europe.
I like the way this version came out.
RB: Yeah, I decided to do it as a soul song. I wrote it as a soul song. My original demo was a soul production, so I thought I’d do it more or less how they did it. They sold it really well. They did a very smooth sort of production. My original demo was faster. In retrospect, listening to their version, I thought, “They got it right. It is a love song.” They took it in a smooth way.
There’s a couple songs on here from your Argent days, specifically “Liar” and “God Gave Rock and Roll to You”. What I always found interesting was when you look on the back of those old Argent albums, the songs were always credited to either yourself, or Rod Argent and Chris White. At no point during the band’s run did you and Argent collaborate together on a song. Was this a mutual decision?
RB: No! I thought, Rod wrote “She’s Not There” *laughs*. I wrote “Liar” and “God Gave Rock and Roll to You” and quite a few songs for Argent. I said to Rod one day, “Maybe we should try to write together.” He looked at me and said, “How do you write with someone?” I said, “I don’t know. I’ve never written with anyone, but maybe we can get together.” Probably 20 years later, there was a movie that went into production. It was called Still Crazy, like (the Paul Simon song) “Still Crazy After All These Years”. It was a band who got back together after 15 years of being off the road. They get back together when they’re 45-50 years old. It’s a fictitious story. It’s what happens when a band gets back together after many years. It was very, very funny.
I had a script sent to me by the writers. “Could you write songs for this movie?” Rod had a script sent to him. Guys in Uriah Heep had a script sent to them. It was fascinating. Rod and I were chatting on the phone. He said, “Maybe we should get together and write something.” So we did! I had an idea. He had an idea. We put them together. We thought this tune would’ve been a great tune as an introduction to the movie. It just had that feel. It was energetic. It just had a great feel. They didn’t do that one, but they did one of mine that Jimmy Nail sang. It was called “What Might’ve Been”. It’s a “the story of my life” idea.
It’s a shame we didn’t do more. We might do more! Who knows? Rod’s come off the road. I’m going to see him, hopefully in the next couple of weeks. He hasn’t been too well. I did speak to Bob Henrit, who was in Argent with me and is my old friend. He said, “When are we going to see Rod?” I said, “Get some dates, and we’ll go and see him.” Bob came back with about 15 dates and I said, “Let’s take one of these, get a car, and go and see them.”
It’s cool that there’s going to be an Argent reunion, albeit non-musical.
RB: Yeah! I haven’t been up to the house. He’s moved again. I spoke to him on the phone. He’s feeling good. He said, “I’m playing the piano and starting to write.” It sounds really good.
Another song that I think will grab many peoples attention is your version of “I Know There’s Something Going On”, which we all know from ABBA’s Frida. Correct me if I’m wrong, but I believe this is the first time you’ve done a version of the song that’s been released. How did it feel to tackle that song today, and what events led to it being recorded by Frida?
RB: I did a demo. I was always making demos, because I usually had a record deal. There were times I didn’t have a record deal, but I was always writing for myself, Joe. That was one of the songs I wrote for myself in the ’80s. I went to Livingston Studios and they just had a digital reverb put into their system, and a digital delay. I wrote this tune. I had this idea. It went *hums riff*. I had that idea, and was just strumming the guitar. Nick, who was the engineer at the time, he said to me, “Let me just plug that into this. We just got this reverb/delay.” He put it in and it went *hums riff again with echo*. It sounded so exciting!
You only need that little grain of an idea to put into a song. I said, “Well, this is amazing!” I recorded this onto a cassette, took it home, brought it back to the studio the next day, and finished the song in the studio. It was a really good demo. Then, I gave it to the publisher. The next thing I heard, Phil Collins had heard it, was doing an album with Frida, and he was cutting it. That was good *laughs*! That’s the great thing about songwriting. It’s exciting and I still love it.
When we last spoke, we were talking about the song “I Surrender”, and how you had just become aware of Head East’s version. Did you know it was originally supposed to be recorded and released by Praying Mantis? Furthermore, are there any other versions of your songs that you only became aware of recently?
RB: Yeah, a couple of days ago, there’s a version of “I Don’t Believe in Miracles” that I wrote for Colin Bluntstone, who was the singer in The Zombies, which was a hit in England. Somebody told me there’s a version in Canada that I never ever heard. It was a really cool version, apparently. I said, “I didn’t know that!” That’s something I learned in the last couple of days, and that was 1971. Crazy! I have heard about the Praying Mantis thing, and I heard that (version) in the last couple of days as well, funny enough, which was really weird *laughs*.
I had to mention it to you because I interviewed their guitarist last year, when their new album came out, and I said, “It’s cool you did a version of “I Surrender”.” Then he went onto tell me the story how it was supposed to be a single for them in ’81, but Rainbow beat them to the punch.
RB: Yeah, that’s the story. That’s what I heard as well.
It was an arms race to do your songs!
RB: Yeah, I was the only one I think at that time, as I said before, writing songs with melodies, not just riffs. The great thing about that was…I think from Rainbow’s, the middle section, add a few hooks *sings chorus*. The bridge is hooky, but it had that *hums guitar riffs*, which was the melody for the guitar. I think Ritchie (Blackmore) thought, “I can kill this!” *laughs* I think that was the idea. He heard that, and that’s what persuaded him to do it. It surprised me that any rock band would actually do that, “I Surrender”, because they always wanted to be tough. Never surrender! I thought, no one’s gonna record this. No band’s gonna record this, but that’s me. I’d rather surrender. It’s like, “You have it.”, than go to war. You take it if that’s what you want and it means so much to you. That was my idea. That’s me speaking.
Last time around, I selfishly asked about the inspiration behind my favorite song of yours, “Rene Didn’t Do It”. So of course, I’d be remiss if this time around, I didn’t ask about my second favorite song of yours, “Just Another Day (In the Life of a Fool)”. How did that one come about?
RB: Oh wow! That’s going back! It’s just basically, it’s a situation that this writer, this fool, is talking about. Wake up, it’s a new day. Feel the same as yesterday. Look down where you used to lay and wonder why you went away. That’s the story, basically. It’s a love story, and she’s gone. You’re saying, “How did I let you go? It’s another day in the life of a fool.” Of course, as you get older *laughs*, you realize you don’t feel so…there’s situations where you’re in that position when you get older, sadly, but you still feel love. You don’t get into that situation so much. That’s what that story is all about. The chords were good! *sings first verse and chorus* That’s the idea there *laughs*! You’re always looking for anything to spark a song!
It’s got that golden chorus. Every time I hear it, I’m hooked!
RB: You know, I should revisit that song. Now that you’ve mentioned, I might revisit that!
In closing, what does the rest of 2025 have in store for Russ Ballard?
RB: Well, I’m touring. I’m touring this album. I’m going to Europe in 6 weeks. I’m going to Germany, probably Portugal, Switzerland. I’m doing 3 weeks in Germany and I’m really looking forward to it. I’m gonna be doing that. I’m doing a couple festivals in Germany. I’ve been offered a tour…I think I’m gonna get a tour of England as well, so I’ll be doing that. I’ll be back in the studio, Joe. That’s what I do, but I do love playing live. I’ve got a great band together. I’m waiting for you guys out there to ask me to come out there (to America)! That would be lovely. That would be brilliant to do that. I’ll be doing things with the family. I think we’re going on holiday sometime, but that will only be for a week.
Seriously, to all you American promoters and festivals reading this, give this guy a call!
RB: Yeah! It’d be great to come out there. Hopefully, I’ll be doing some more for Frontiers. Maybe I’ll be doing some Italian gigs and things. I’m up for these things if they make sense, Joe. I love it. I still love it, same as ever.
The new Russ Ballard album, Songs from the Warehouse / The Hits Rewired comes out Friday, April 25th on Frontiers Records. For more information on Russ Ballard, click here.
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