Russ Ballard is living, breathing rock history. His songs have dominated both AM and FM radio for decades. Among the acts who have recorded his songs are Rainbow, KISS, Ace Frehley, Uriah Heep, Night Ranger, Samson, A II Z, Tokyo Blade, Chevy, Magnum, Girl, Doro…and that’s just within the hard and heavy realm. When we expand our reach to the world of mainstream rock and pop music, the list grows even longer, including the likes of Santana, America, Three Dog Night, Ringo Starr, Roger Daltrey, The Shadows, and more. Did we mention he was the guitarist and lead singer for Argent too? Mr. Ballard was kind enough to sit down with us for an in depth discussion looking back upon his remarkable 60 year career.
Greetings Russ and welcome to Defenders of the Faith! How are you doing this morning?
Russ Ballard: I’m great thanks! I’m feeling really good. The sun is out and that’s unusual for this area *laughs*.
Here in Chicago, usually the sun is out around now, but there’s a torrential downpour going on outside. Fingers crossed the power stays on.
RB: Hopefully *laughs*!
So what we’re going to attempt to do in this interview is touch on all of the major facets in your career, starting from the beginning. What first inspired you to pursue music?
RB: Well, I pursued music from the moment I was born, or the moment I could hear and register music, I was into it. I think it was probably genetic. My dad was a musician. He played drums and piano. My mother was a dancer. She had two brothers who played trumpets. One was a professional trumpeter and the other was semi-pro. They used to work a lot. My dad’s brother was a pianist. My brother was a pianist, so I was surrounded by music. I could remember my mother playing when she was very young. The first music I remember was light classical music. She used to play things like Beethoven’s “Moonlight Sonata”. I loved it. I loved that stuff. My dad used to play traditional jazz records. And then rock n’ roll happened and I was turned on by rock more so. They sent me to piano lessons as well. They sent me to piano lessons when I was 8. My brother was already going to piano lessons, so I went to piano lessons from age 8 to 12 and a half. Then I got into guitar. I wanted to play guitar more than piano, but today I play piano as much as I play guitar.
Could you tell us a bit about those early days when rock n’ roll first came onto the scene?
RB: It was a long time ago. I was very, very young. I remember being at a birthday party and hearing Elvis Presley’s “Heartbreak Hotel”. It was like coming from another planet. Elton John says this as well. I remember him saying that in his book. It was like hearing something from another planet. Before Elvis and “Heartbreak Hotel”, there were things like Rosemary Clooney. There was Guy Mitchell and people like that singing the blues *whistles*. And (Vaughn Monroe song) “The Railroad Runs Through the Middle of the House”. Then there was suddenly this blues music, although it didn’t sound like the normal blues. Normally you heard the acoustic blues by black Chicago guys, which was great. And then Chuck Berry was playing electric blues. That was the start. That was certainly exciting. It was incredible, incredible excitement with Elvis.
Come the 1960s, you’d have the British Invasion, during which you played with The Roulettes. What memories stand out to you from that era?
RB: Yeah it was Adam Faith and the Roulettes. There were two singers in the UK who were really big. That was an Elvis clone, Cliff Richard and the Shadows. The other big singer was Adam Faith and we were with him. He had a hit in the States that we were on. It was actually in the film Good Morning Vietnam. It’s called “It’s Alright” by Adam Faith and the Roulettes. We were with him for 3 years and I was doing a few sessions with Bob Henrit, the drummer. The two of us were very close from when we were kids. Another session we did that was a hit was with Unit 4 + 2. There were two versions of “Concrete and Clay” on the American Billboard Top 20. Unit 4 was the original. I played lead guitar and acoustic guitar. Bob Henrit played drums. They were called Unit 4, but when we played on the record, they changed the name of the band to Unit 4 + 2 *laughs*. And then we joined them. We went and joined them for 6 months. After that, Rod Argent, who was part of The Zombies, phoned and said, “I want to start a new band. I’d love for you and Bob Henrit to be in it.” So we became Argent. That was late ’69, a long time ago.
Were you friends with Rod back when he was in The Zombies?
RB: Yeah, as Adam Faith and the Roulettes, we were doing TV shows. There was some great rock TV in the swinging sixties. Thank Your Lucky Stars was ok. It was a bit contrived. But Ready Steady Go! was amazing. Sometimes you would lip sync. Other times you would play live. But it was all happening, people just turning up and playing on the show on Friday night. Ready Steady Go!: “The weekend starts here.” We must’ve done that 14 times, so it was all excitement.
What I always enjoyed about Argent was that you guys were part of that early 70s era when rock got adventurous. You had the pop melodies, the hard rock guitars, and the progressive song structures. I assume the purpose of the band was to play whatever and see if it worked.
RB: Yeah we were doing that. Rod said, “Come up to our place.” That was Chris White who was the bass player in The Zombies, he was part of the production team, and Rod. They were gonna produce Argent. That was the idea. They had already written songs for the band. They said, “Come up and hear what we’ve written.” We went up to their place and they played us these tunes like “Dance in the Smoke”, “Freefall”, and those kind of things. Rod said, “Would you like to write some things for the band?” I said, “Yeah!” I had already been writing quite a bit. I had already had a town that had been recorded by The Shadows, which was Cliff Richard’s backing band. I wrote that when I was 14, so I was writing even then. On the first album, I wrote “Liar”, which Three Dog Night covered. We did it like a blues tune. We did it without drums. It was just me tapping my foot and playing a riff *sings* “I won’t ever leave, you want me to stay. Liar! Liar” When it came to recording, we were just doing anything that we wanted to do. It was all of our influences and it was ever so exciting to do that. In those days, the charts were very much like that. Everything got into the charts. There was no fragmentation of blues chart, country chart, heavy metal chart. It would all go onto the one chart. That was brilliant. Obviously, radio changed, so radio had to become fragmented. It was sad in a way.
Being in Argent led to many opportunities, including Top 40 success and touring here in America thanks to “Hold Your Head Up”. Had you ever played America before Argent? If not, what was your first impression?
RB: That was the first time we’d been to the states. Rod had been there with The Zombies a few times. We had a 12 or 13 week tour planned in 1970. We started in New York at the Fillmore East, so it was pretty…I had never been to a town so aggressive as New York. It was very, very exciting, but America was much more out there than London *laughs*. We’re all so, “After you, after you.” You get to New York and you have breakfast in a diner. On the first day, “Let’s go and have breakfast outside! We don’t have to stay in the hotel.” We go into the diner and queue up with the builders and all the people in front of us. The guy’s going, “WHAT’CHA WANT?!” How do I answer this? “I want egg on toast.” “HOW YA WANT THAT?! OVER EASY?! SUNNY SIDE UP?!” *laughs* It was great fun.
What led to your 1974 departure from Argent?
RB: It’s difficult. They were going one way. I was pulling the other way. I wanted to get a band together and head straight on the road. It’s what I wanted to do and did do. In ’74 I made a solo album and in ’75 I made a solo album. Then I went on the road. I went with my own band on a three week tour, but there was no energy behind it. I think the record company weren’t for leaving the band. I wanted to make more straight ahead rock tunes, which is what I was doing. It’s just before the punk thing happened, and I think I was in that whole punk thing. I was feeling that hard driving rock thing that was just about to happen. The progressive guys just didn’t get it and I could feel it. That was more exciting than what was going on for me. 4 minute tunes are great. Chuck Berry was 4 minute tunes. The blues guys were 4 minute tunes. The Stones were 4 minute tunes. You didn’t need to be 10 minutes or 7 minutes, stretching out solos and that kind of stuff. So I was going that way.
Your music has been recorded by many bands over the years, but there’s two in particular that stick out to me, the first being Rainbow. Did you know Ritchie Blackmore back in the British Invasion days?
RB: *laughs* No, I didn’t. I love Ritchie. I knew of Ritchie because we both used to record sometimes at Joe Meek’s studio, ever before Deep Purple was around. He was playing with a guy called Heinz. He was playing with Screaming Lord Sutch, so everybody knew Ritchie was a good guitar player. He was doing lots of sessions. In fact, I was asked to join…he was playing in a band called The Outlaws. I was asked to play in that band funny enough with Chas Hodges, Reg Hawkins, and Bobby Graham. I turned it down. Their manager phoned me and said, “Would you do a session for The Outlaws?” I said, “Yeah.” I was living with my mum and dad then. I was 15. He took me to Joe Meek’s studio to do the session. There were no other players around. I’m there with the manager and Joe Meek. They asked me to play some things. They had this big Lockwood cabinet that sounded amazing with compression and delay and reverb on it. It was just the guitar coming through. Joe Meeks said to the manager, “He’s great. He’ll do.” The manager said, “You’re the guitar player in The Outlaws. You’ve got the job.” And I said, “I don’t want it!” I was in a band with my brother and Bob Henrit. We were doing great in our area. We were a few years younger than them. They were more from the city and they were sort of hooligans, so I didn’t take it. Ritchie was their next guitar player instead. I joined Adam Faith and the Roulettes because Bob joined them as well. Bob was my childhood friend. We were buddies from when we were very young.
Fast forward to 1979. Rainbow covers “Since You Been Gone” for the Down to Earth album. Were you skeptical when they decided to do the cover? Here was this band who went from being forerunners of power metal to playing an amped up rendition of a pop song you wrote.
RB: Mine should’ve been like that, actually. I think mine would’ve been like that, but I wrote it on the piano. So we did it like that and recorded it like a pop tune. When you hear the way they did it, it was the same way with KISS when they did “God Gave Rock N’ Roll to You”, they sold the song really well, as did Head East who did the first cover which was a hit in America. Funny enough, a couple of years ago, just before the lockdown, Rainbow played at the O2 in London. I was asked to go up and be a guest on it, so I sat in on “Since You Been Gone”. It’s the first time I had a good chat with Ritchie. They were doing the soundcheck and I was sitting in the stalls watching them. My friend said to me, “You better have a talk with him, otherwise he won’t even know you’re here.” After about an hour, I went on the stage and we had a great chat because we had very similar history. It was a great talk. *laughs* Sweet supported that night and they did two of my songs. He did two of my songs as well, the other being “I Surrender”. We talked about a lot of things and it was great. I’ve heard from Ian Gillan and he’s talked about Ritchie to me *laughs* and other things. I found him to be great. I wasn’t trying to prove anything to Ritchie.
It’s funny you mention Head East because just like “Since You Been Gone”, they did “I Surrender” before Rainbow as well.
RB: I didn’t know that you know. I didn’t hear that version until recently somebody played that for me.
So what is the history behind “I Surrender”? I know you wrote it. How did it get farmed out from there?
RB: I didn’t think Rainbow would do it. I thought maybe it was too…bands don’t like to sing “I Surrender”, do they? They like to say “never surrender”. It becomes a bit of a cliché. Or as Elvis sings, “Surrender to me.” Bands, I thought they’d never do this just because of the lyrical content, but they did do it. I was contracted to do 20 songs a year for the publisher. I got a really good advance. I was writing tunes. I did another song I thought was really great called “Madeline” *sings* “Madeline what am I gonna do without your love?” It was one of those types of songs. I was told that the band were talking about it. The only reason they didn’t do it was because it was a girl’s name, which was fair enough, so they did “I Surrender”. I did “Madeline” myself and I got Bob Henrit and John Verity to do the demo of “I Surrender”, which I sent the publisher and the publisher sent to Rainbow.
And the rest is history.
RB: Yeah it was brilliant. That went to #1 on the rock chart in the States on Billboard. “Since You Been Gone” got up there as well. That was ’79. Then Santana had a #1 on the rock chart with “Winning”. On that Winning album, I had that as a single myself *laughs*. That was my first single from that album. Then from that album I had “Since You Been Gone”, which was probably too poppy, but I had that as well. Bay City Rollers did another one on that album. Roger Daltrey did “Just a Dream Away” from that album for the McVicar soundtrack.
The other band you’ve had a storied history with is none other than the hottest band in the world, KISS. It all started when Ace Frehley scored a Top 40 hit here in the States with “New York Groove”. At that point, had you had any interaction with the members of KISS?
RB: No, the only interaction I ever had was I saw them. We played with them. On our (Argent’s) second tour of the States, I think it was ’72. We did the Hold Your Head Up Tour. We played at the Academy of Music in New York, which was a general thing. They had music there every week. We went to the soundcheck and there was a band just finishing setting up. They had this big neon sign behind their drum riser that said “KISS”. They were testing it and it was going off, “KISS KISS KISS”. Then the riser started going around with the drums on it. I thought, “This is gonna be interesting.” The band didn’t have any makeup on, so they just looked like normal guys or any other band. They did their soundcheck. Then in the evening, they came down with the full makeup on and were standing about 7 feet tall. I thought their set was great. It was a great idea. I never spoke to them.
So come the late 80s when Ace has a comeback with “Into the Night”, there was still no interaction with them.
RB: No, I’ve still never spoken to Ace. I’d like to speak to him, actually.
In 1991, KISS of course would record their own version of Argent’s “God Gave Rock N’ Roll to You”, but with some of the verses rewritten. Did this put you off?
RB: No, they were right to do it. I think they only changed a verse and a half. I wrote “Love Cliff Richard but please don’t tease.”, which was meant to be a gag. “Love your friend, love your neighbor.” It wasn’t hard enough for KISS. I was a hippie. *sings* “Love your friend, love your neighbor. Love your life, love your labor. It’s never to late to change your mind. Don’t step on snails, don’t climb in trees. Love Cliff Richard but please don’t tease.” It was meant to be fun. They changed it to getting a guitar and doing your thing getting on the road. I could’ve written that as well. They chose to write it and the publisher said, “Would you mind if they changed a verse for the film (Bill & Ted’s Bogus Journey)?” It’s much more international than the lyric that I wrote, so it made sense and the tempo was good. It was more up tempo, more rock. it was heavy. On ours, Rod was doing his keyboard thing and I was playing the lead bit. KISS, that’s a guitar tune. I thought they sold it really well.
You make a good point about the Cliff Richard lyric. I think it was an interview with Paul Stanley where he was asked about the rewrite and he pointed out that here in America, not many are familiar with Cliff in the first place.
RB: They wouldn’t know it.
Just a few days ago I was having a discussion with my mom. She was wondering what was happening in England before The Beatles and I said Cliff Richard. She said, “Who?” I said, “You know! “Devil Woman”!”
RB: *laughs* Yeah that’s strange, isn’t it? He’s 80 now and he’s still a big star here. He’s much loved here. When I was a kid, I saw him playing when he was 16. He looked amazing. He looked like a little Elvis. When he was 17, a year later, he had a #2 hit single in England. Just incredible. He lived in the same town as me. I used to see a lot of him and his sisters.
You’ve released a slew of solo albums over the past nearly 50 years, my personal favorite being Barnet Dogs.
RB: That’s my favorite! That’s what I was saying. When I left the band, I wanted to do that: get on the road and have a band. I had a son born at that time. My son was born in ’75, but I was doing bits in America and I missed him so much. I found it so difficult. I wasn’t prepared for that. I had been on the road since I was 15, touring for 12 years. Then I got into writing, so I was staying at home doing that. Suddenly, it was time to go away to America and do a three week tour. I missed him so much. I went to America and did writing. I couldn’t wait to get home to see him. I thought I must be there to watch him develop. We’re still best of friends now. We were working today in the studio. That’s him on the phone. He’s gonna ask me about the mix that we did today, so we’re still very close.
That album was a bit harder edged than your past solo releases. Was this due to the success of Rainbow’s version of “Since You Been Gone” and the burgeoning New Wave of British Heavy Metal scene?
RB: It was basically because of punk. That was my version of punk. I didn’t want to do punk. I couldn’t do punk like Sex Pistols or The Clash because that wasn’t my background. My background was hard rock. For me, hard rock was punk. The fashion and philosophy wasn’t like punk, but the musical philosophy was. It was about being hard edged. That was the original philosophy of Elvis as well. Elvis became very middle of the road when he went to Vegas, but in the early days: “That’s Alright Mama”, “Heartbreak Hotel”, “Jailhouse Rock”, “Blue Suede Shoes”, all that stuff. That was hard edged music which became middle aged to early. I wanted to still do hard rock like Chuck Berry or what Springsteen was doing at the time. I said to the band, “Let’s go out there and thump!” *laughs* That was the idea of it. Sometimes I’d have two drummers come into the control room, absolutely dripping in sweat. I’d say, “Let’s do another one!” I still love it like that now.
Barnet Dogs happens to feature my favorite song you’ve ever written, “René Didn’t Do It”. Could you tell us the story of that song?
RB: Other people see other stories in that. Bob Henrit, who I’ve known since I was a kid, like 12 or 13 years old, he said something to me. I played in Portugal a few years ago and I heard him talking about it to somebody. He said, “I know what that song’s about. It was about Russ having this accident when he was a kid.” This kid thumped me with a stone from a catapult (slingshot). I got hit with this thing and the kids with slug guns, pellet guns. I was part of this gang. I didn’t have a catapult or slug gun, but this guy hit me and he was a friend of mine. He said it was about that. “René Didn’t Do It”, because this kid that hit me was my best friend at the time. He didn’t mean to hit me. Psychologically, I think he was being a bit of a philosopher, looking at this and thinking it was a philosophical thing.
I thought it was about trying to come up with an episode of something like Miami Vice or Hawaii Five-0 in song. I had the whole idea of this kid being taken in for murder and the police blaming the kid, but in fact, I’m saying, “He may be a fool but he don’t do murder.” “René didn’t do it cause he was here with me. We came from his place. We drank and we watched TV. Why don’t you guys leave him alone? What has he done to you? I know sometimes he don’t do what he oughta. I know Sergeant Jones he’s been seen with your daughter. He didn’t do it!” So he’s been framed! That’s the idea. It was meant to be like an episode of Hawaii Five-0 really.
It really does play out like an episode. As soon as that riff and the lyrics hit you, the story comes to life in your head.
RB: That tune came really, really quickly. I still open my show with that song, when there is a show *laughs*.
Another solo album that’s widely regarded as a fan favorite is your 1984 self titled. Two of those songs would end up on Miami Vice, “Into the Night” and “Voices”. Similar to the KISS question, were you ever personally approached by the TV show about this?
RB: I wasn’t. My manager at the time was and he told me. The director of that episode of Miami Vice also directed the film The Red Dragon which was a cult thing. It was a great movie, very clever. He loved the tunes and thought they would fit in with his direction on Miami Vice. They did it really well. A lot of people saw those episodes.
Has there ever been an occurrence where a band or artist was supposed to record a song you had written, but it fell through for one reason or another?
RB: Well, there was an artist years ago. I told you I was writing 20 tunes a year for the publisher. That’s how I got advances to live. I wrote this tune, it was like an Elvis or Marty Robbins tune. I played this for Ringo. I started to produce this song with him. It goes *sings* “People talk saying they ain’t seen you around. Come to think of it, it’s been quite a while. They all say they never see you. Then I go and tell them baby she’s so in love, so in love, so in love. She calls me everyday. She’s so in love, she told me today.” Everyone said, “That’s too Elvis!” This was 1977. I went to the States to sign a deal with Epic Records and I went to see Freddy Beanstalk who had all the Elvis songs. He had Leiber and Stoller’s publishing. Island, who I was with, the publisher, said, “In the event of an Elvis Presley recording, they and I would give half of our publishing to Elvis.” They had to have that for Elvis to do it. So I took the song and played it. Freddy Beanstalk said, “The song would suit Elvis! It would suit Elvis real good, but Elvis hasn’t recorded for two years.” As my luck would have it, Mike Stoller, who wrote “Jailhouse Rock” and all those great records, came in. I was like a kid in a candy shop. Stoller added, “We’re trying to get him to record. Last time he came was in Nashville two years ago. He recorded five tunes and flew out.” That was May 1977. Elvis died in August.
That’s the hit that could’ve been.
RB: I signed it to Elvis. I still have the contract somewhere. It said White Haven Music or Gladys Music or Elvis Music would have 50% of the publishing. That’s how it was. You can’t blame him. I guess it’s business, but that didn’t bother me. For him to have done it would’ve been great. It was just one of those things.
Your songs encompass such a wide variety of styles, from pop and disco to heavy metal and soft rock. When you write a song, do you do so with an idea of what style it’ll be or does it just occur naturally?
RB: No, I just write tunes. I listen to everything. I’ve always listened to everything since I was a kid. My dad used to play Dixieland music. I played Dixieland when I played drums and followed my dad. I’m used to listening to everything. It’s been good for me. I think people that don’t listen to a bit of classical or a bit of New Orleans jazz are missing out big time. There’s so much great stuff. Funny enough, I usually wrote rock. Even when I was doing the Elvis tune, once I put a rock guitar on it, it sounded like rock n’ roll. It sounded like Springsteen once you brought in that heavy overdriven guitar. My “Since You Been Gone”…I was thinking of Edwin Starr, but when I put the guitar in the chorus, it became straightaway rock. I think the band (Rainbow) saw that, they could hear, just like “God Gave Rock N’ Roll to You” with KISS. I love tunes. I love trying to find different chord progressions or chords over basslines. I find that really exciting. I’m a fan.
Which is always important. If you’re not a fan of what you’re doing, what’s the point?
RB: Yeah, music’s supposed to be fun.
Finally, what can we expect in the future from Russ Ballard?
RB: Well I’ve done an album. I made an album which I was promoting when the lockdown happened. I did a whole day of interviews at the BBC here. I didn’t go anywhere else. I didn’t tour. The album was called It’s Good to Be Here. I did that album and thought it was good. There’s 12 tunes on there. Since then, I’ve done a whole new album in the lockdown. I’ve written and recorded about 16 new tunes, so they’re all done. Most of them are mixed. That’s what I’m doing with my son now *laughs*.
Is there a tentative release date for this new album?
RB: No, I haven’t even got a record company, but the last one’s on BMG. I’m not contracted for another album, but it might come out on BMG. I don’t know, but it’s good. This new one is more rocky and guitar based. I found some really great chords in places. I’m trying to keep rocky, but find different chord changes. I’m always looking for new ways to write. I’d like to do an album of the hits other people had of mine as well. Even Frida had a hit of mine with Phil Collins. She had “I Know There’s Something Going On”. I’d like to add that on there and do a version of “Liar”. I could do a good rock album of songs other people have done of mine.
For more information on Russ Ballard, visit www.russballardmusic.com.