Michael De Barres is the consummate utility man. He’s an actor who has appeared in films alongside Sidney Poitier and Clint Eastwood, and had a reoccurring role on the TV series MacGyver. Des Barres is also a rock and roller, best known as the lead vocalist for 1970’s band Detective (who were signed to Led Zeppelin’s Swan Song label) and the 80s band Power Station, where he took over for a departing Robert Palmer.
More recently, he’s been a host on the nationally syndicated “Little Steven’s Underground Garage” radio show, but the urge to make music has been an ongoing activity. In 2012, he and his band released Carnaby Street and we set up an interview. During my chat with Des Barres, we touched on the highlights of his career. For my second interview, we stuck to the now, and focused on his brilliant album for 2015 called The Key To The Universe.
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The immediacy of The Key To The Universe makes me guess maybe you recorded it live?
More or less. How it came about really is that you meet people in rock and roll along the way that up your game. I knew producer Bob Ross from way back. He’s one of those guys that you collaborate with and you just get better. Bob called from Italy. He’s been there producing some great rock bands and he wanted me to come over, record me with just drums, vocals, bass guitar…and I said, hell yeah, let’s do it! Our mission was to make the most spontaneous rock and roll record we could, retaining the obvious desire to groove and entertain.
What especially strikes is how great your vocals sound!
Oh, thanks for saying that, I am glad you noticed! That was a big point in making this record. When I walked in to the studio in the first hour Bob played a track by my band Silverhead, a song called “Johnny” that I wrote when I was all but eighteen. It’s just me singing with acoustic guitar, there’s no raspiness to my vocal, no pressure to the voice, I sound clear as a bell. I remembered that guy; I mean he didn’t know Sam Cooke from a hole in the ground. I was very innocent back then, as much as I could be, and Bob said, “That’s the guy I want to record.” That completely changed my vision. I mean, at 67, if I can still do this, it’s so important. I mean, I feel better today than yesterday, if my trajectory is true I will live forever anyway, I’m a vampire, though a nice vampire.
But just from a normal sense of physical aging, just wanting to do something and being able to pull it off are two different things. We know of plenty of people who get older who can’t rock like this.
Sure, and we’re not naming names here. But yes, keys are brought down all the time for singers. For me here, I agree, just because I wanted to, didn’t mean I could. But I have worked hard on stripping away old habits for many, many years. I quit heroin in 81, I do my radio show, keep active, don’t abuse myself and I got to tell you when you wake up with a reason man — don’t just sit on the couch eating Cheetos, watching “Breaking Bad” all day — when you have motivation and are ready and willing to go, you can and will do what you want to do.
You sound very British on this record. It always fascinates me when English singers end up sounding so American, and the accent gets stripped away. But here, I certainly hear all your UK roots.
That came about really in a very funny way. I wrote “Maybe Means Nothing” with Billy Idol’s guitarist Steve Stevens, and I was singing, “Sittin’ on a fence, don’t make no sense,” with a decided southern drawl to it. Bob said to me, “Um, Michael, you were not born in the bayou, you’re not a southern blues man. Sing like a fucking Englishman!” It’s difficult, of course, since rock and roll is sourced in the blues, you just feel that snarl, that accent, the little things that make it so Americanized. But yes, I am singing from who I am here, it’s real, authentic, no pretense.
We should mention the players on the record. They really are fantastic.
Yes, definitely. I want those guys to get the credit they deserve. We work as a band unit, not with me out font dictating, I can’t make music that way. We have Clive Deamer, Robert Plant’s drummer, unbelievable drummer. Nigel Harrison playing bass; he’s someone I met when I was 17 (Harrison, of course, also played with Blondie). A seriously talented motherfucker, so shocking good. And Dani Robinson, who’s gonna kill people live with his Marshall stack murder, he’s just fantastic. These guys are too, too good. I am blessed to have them.
And this is the band you will take on the road. I mean, are you going to tour behind the album?
Yes, for sure. I am so blessed to be on FOD Records, they are so supportive, so generous flying us all to Rome, to supporting me playing live, which is where they want me to be, they know that’s where my strengths lie, playing live, connecting with my audience; it’s a conversation I have with them each night, not a speech, ya know?
But to answer your question about touring, we’ll attack Germany first — the record is exploding over there, I’ll do press there, get the band over. Each member is in different places, so we’ll do European dates, come back to the UK then the US. Albums take a whole lot to penetrate the US, but we’ll be hitting the States or sure.
Does the title of the album — The Key To The Universe — have any specific significance?
Well, of course, I was being tongue-in-my-cheek, I wasn’t proselytizing. But I do believe that the key certainly is to do thing right, have love in your heart. To realize that you have your secrets, I have mine, there’s no big division between us. Live that way, with compassion and love and you can do whatever you want — sing better, live better, play guitar, hell, tour forever. That’s the key.
