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The opportunity to speak with Steve Whiteman from Kix can be entertaining but this time we really just talked about the resurgence in popularity and new shows, new product, new deals and...wait for it...new music. Steve assures me that if the new music doesn't feel like KIX music, they won't release it. It will be a challenge to re-create KIX as the primary songwriter is gone. Can things be re-created? Can we travel back in time? Sometimes maybe. Steve doesn't necessarily believe in re-creating some of Baltimore's rich musical history, like a new monster rock and roll nightclub, but it's obvious that KIX still have some tricks up their sleeves, including their annual KIX-mas show at Rams Head.
Shockwave- Did you see this coming? (vaguely)
Steve- Hell no! (laughing) Honestly, no. It was never really a plan or a conscious effort, it just kinda, happened, it just fell into place.
That's kinda what I suspected. I spoke to ya years ago, you were just so fed up with the whole music business...then it seemed like the M-3 show was kinda like the catalyst for resurgence in popularity with Kix. Would you say that is the case?
I would say M-3 locally but I would say Rocklahoma Festival that we did, probably five years ago was the one that made us realize that people remembered us outside of our little "safe" area, and we had overwhelming success. Promoters from all over the country started requesting us to play their festival, so I think that was a catalyst as well.
Yeah...I didn't even think about that one, so...That would indicate that you guys are popular elsewhere outside of Baltimore.
Well that's the shock ya see. We didn't really feel like we had made that big of an impression because all of our tours in arenas were as openers. Sometimes the openers don't get the recognition that you would hope, so...I almost felt like, not that we went by unnoticed so much but, we never really hit that pinnacle that people might have expected us to. So, we were very surprised and very impressed at the reception we get when we get to play out of town.
Growing up, did you ever say...I want to be like...him...? As a musician...Was there ever anyone you thought to yourself, that...I wanna be like that person?
I would have to say there's a combination, there isn't any one artist that I ever really latched onto and got crazy about. I always loved Steven Tyler's coolness, just his absolute coolness onstage, I loved Bon Scott's comedy, I thought in his lyrics and his stage prescence were just funny, and I always liked that. I love Mick Jagger's perpetual motion, I think if you put the three of them into one guy, then you've got who inspired me.
You play a lot more instruments, if I remember correctly, you kinda started out as a drummer, but I've seen you play multiple instruments. How many instruments do you play?
A hundred (jokingly).
(laughing) The drums, the harmonica, the sax, the umbrella.
That took a lot of years of training to learn how to play the umbrella, to get that umbrella down just right. That's it, the harmonica, the sax, drums...I was a drummer for most of my childhood in a band I was in till I joined up with the guys in Kix, I was the drummer doing lead vocals. That was my love, and I still have a set of drums that I still bang around on.
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