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Living Loud and Walking Tall 
Muirsical Conversation with Lee Kerslake
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Lee Kerslake doesn’t need any introduction to rock fans but Kerslake, one of the great power drummers and a mainstay of Uriah Heep for some thirty-three years (over two distinct periods of the band’s career) and a founder member of Ozzy Osbourne’s Blizzard of Ozz, does need a re-introduction to classic rock...

In early 2007 Lee Kerslake vacated the Uriah Heep drum stool after twenty-five years of uninterrupted service due to health issues.
Doctors’ orders and medical advice led to six years of semi-retirement before he got back behind a kit for some live appearances, most notably with Uriah Heep Legends who also feature Ken Hensley and original Heep bassist Paul Newton.

Lee Kerslake also got together with Swedish singer and guitarist Stefan Berggren; the pair, along with bassist Tomas Thorberg, went on to form the Berggren Kerslake Band (BKB).

BKB's creative chemistry and love of playing together quickly produced results
 – in November 2013 the band released Walk Tall, a five track EP of bluesy, classic rock; the debut album by BKB is in the can and will follow in January 2014.

Lee Kerslake spoke to FabricationsHQ to talk about his famous and successful musical past as well as revisit the thorny issues of recognition and royalties with Blizzard of Ozz, recall the happy times with Uriah Heep and his musical hopes for the future with BKB…   

Ross Muir: Great to catch up with you Lee and have a chat about musical activities past, present and potential future but first things first
 – you stepped away from Uriah Heep in 2007 due to health issues.
So, the most important question
 – how are you keeping these days?

Lee Kerslake: First off all, thanks for the concern, Ross. I’m doing good at the moment, although it’s tough living off a pension! But hopefully that will change soon!

RM: Yes, because you have a couple of interesting projects on the go
 – there's the Berggren Kerslake Band, which we'll talk about later, but recently there was a celebration of your past in the form of Uriah Heep Legends. How did the Legends shows come about?

LK: The Legends started when I was asked to play at a Heep Convention for the fan club.
John Lawton, Ken Hensley and Paul Newton had already done one and this time around I was asked to join them. We did a show in Holland, then one in Spain, then three more in Finland.
The guitarist in Uriah Heep Legends is Phil Baker; great guy and a great talent. John Lawton was with us but he had to pull out because of TV commitments in Bulgaria so Eirikur Hauksson, who performed with Ken's band Live Fire, came in. ”Eric” is a great singer but he was committed to teaching duties and he couldn’t do the next show, so Ken’s new singer, Roberto Tiranti, joined. And
 what a voice he has!

RM: It must be fun to revisit what is genuinely timeless and classic material.

LK: It is great to play all these oldies that pass the test of time, yes. Of course my baby is July Morning.
I never get tired of playing that track!

RM: You originally left Heep in 1979 over issues with management and Ken.
Did Ken's guest appearance with Heep in 2001 help mend bridges and lead to a healthier relationship?

LK: The reason I left Heep in 1979 was because of Gerry Bron, who was then our manager.
I could not stand the man. His ego was bigger than the bands' all put together!
There were still problems within the band then, yes, but that is water under the bridge.
Life is too short. As regards Ken we’ve grown; we like each other.

RM: Your association with Ken goes back well before you joined Heep in 1971 of course; you were both part of The Gods in the mid to late 60’s.

LK: Yes, and funnily enough I played with Paul Newton in The Gods for a short time, too.
Paul’s dad was manager of the band and I joined The Gods after I was spotted playing at the Bournemouth Pavilion. Paul Newton Sr asked if I would go professional and join the band but I wasn’t that interested, until he offered me a retainer of thirty pounds a week 
– I nearly bit his hand off! (laughs).

We lived in Andover for the first six months but we were not going anywhere so we opted to move to London. That was when Paul quit and we had to find new management and another bass player.
Paul had replaced John Glascock who later returned to the band and we released a couple of albums.
It was a bit sour, the break away from Paul and his dad but now, through the healing of time, Ken and myself get on with really well with Paul. In fact I love him to bits.
And of course Paul is with us in Uriah Heep Legends; he's a great guy
– with a warped sense of humour!

RM: After The Gods you joined the National Head Band.

LK: Yes, and except for me the National Head Band guys were all Scousers 
– it doesn’t get much better than being amongst Liverpudlians for creative writing!
Albert 1 was a brilliant album and we had a lot fun at Ilsington Farm in Tolpuddle recording it.
There are plenty of other stories from those really early days but I’m saving them for when I write my book!

RM: Albert 1 got a deserved reissue on Esoteric Recordings in 2008; one of the great, early progressive albums. You got the call to join Heep mid-1971 and became part of the classic line-up that featured yourself, Ken, Mick Box, David Byron and Gary Thain.
That line-up went on to produce a number of classic, progressively tinged rock albums including Demons and Wizards and Sweet Freedom.
Were you aware of just what you had, as regards chemistry and creativity?

LK: Well I knew I had something with Mick after I did a one hour jam session with him.
He said "I’m happy – are you happy? Good, let’s go to the pub to seal it!" And we did! [laughs]
Gary and I were the final pieces of the jigsaw – the "missing link" and tightness for Uriah Heep that allowed Mick, Ken and David to flourish! Gary was also a funny guy. His sense of humour was second to none.
I will always have fond memories of those years but it was like being married to the band 24-7; you had to have some understanding with each other to survive the crippling world tours.

RM: Something that is not mentioned enough is the fact that you also compose, arrange and have a great singing voice. Your backing and harmony vocals, especially live, were a big part of the classic Heep sound.

LK: I was always very aware of my other contributions. I had written songs with The Gods and we had four-part harmony vocals with the National Head Band. I knew I was capable of singing and drumming.

RM: On your first go round with Heep you wrote a lovely pop-based ballad for the Fallen Angel album, Come Back to Me, sung by John Lawton.

LK: Come Back to me was written when my wife Pat and her son Jack, who I was going to adopt, left me.
The work back then was so intense I hardly spent time at home, hence the break up. The song is about that.

RM: I mentioned earlier you first left Heep in 1979. Coincidentally Ozzy Osbourne had been fired from Black Sabbath that same year.
I'm led to believe there was a fortuitous and funny meeting between the two of you early the next year?

LK: It was funny! We just happened to meet in a lift in the Kings Cross Hotel in Australia!
I was subsequently offered the gig from a German promoter; he had found out that I had quit Uriah Heep because of management issues and was going to go it alone with a solo album I had written.

He phoned me to say that they had auditioned hundreds of useless drummers for the band but needed a power drummer and that I would be the perfect choice.
My reply was "I have just left a band because I was sick of being ripped off and I will audition them as they audition me." But I had no idea of what I was in for! [laughs]

I met the band that would become Blizzard Of Ozz at Shepperton studios; that’s also when I first saw Randy Rhoads.

RM: A prodigious talent; to lose him at 25 was such a tragedy.

LK: At Shepperton, when we opened up with the track I Don’t Know, the first ten seconds of the song, Randy just kept jumping up and down shouting "we’ve got a fucking drummer!" and I was shouting "what a fucking guitarist, yes-yes-yes!" That was it; that’s when I agreed to join. The rest you know…

RM: Yes; the good and the bad. Blizzard Of Ozz was one of the best rock quartets of the eighties; the debut album and Diary of a Madman are arguably Ozzy’s finest albums as a solo artist.
Blizzard Of Ozz was so much more than a backing band…

LK: We were not a backing band; we were all together on Ozzy’s say so and his "Here’s me hand, here’s me heart, this band will never fuckin’ part!" quote.

RM: A quote that would prove to be wide of the mark, sadly, and we all know of the thorny issue of you and Bob Daisley not getting the credit you deserved for your writing and arranging work, especially on Diary.
Those albums being reissued in 2002, with the original bass and drum parts overwritten, must have hurt. 

LK: Those re-releases made me sick.  What kind of sick ego must Sharon Osbourne, who had become Ozzy’s manager, have? I wonder if Charlie Watts’s drumming would ever be replaced on Rolling Stones reissues if he had a row with their management?
Anyway, we wrote, co-wrote or arranged all the songs on Diary; Ozzy would not have made it without us and (original manager) Don Arden.

​
RM: In 2003 you and Bob Daisley were part of the super-group Living Loud, fronted by Jimmy Barnes.
You wrote and recorded some great material but also performed and recorded a number of Blizzard and Diary songs. Musical retaliation?

LK: No, not at all. Bob and I just did that album for fun and to prove that we could still write good songs, especially as we had such amazing talent in the band. We had Steve Morse and Don Airey from Deep Purple and, as you said, Jimmy on vocals.
We did songs such as Flying High Again and our own anti-war song In the Name of God; great contrasts but both very strong tracks.


RM: The 2011 Anniversary editions of the Blizzard and Diary albums had your work reinstated but have you ever been able to put your finger on why you were treated so poorly as regards musical credit?

LK: Sharon hated Bob and me because she couldn’t order us around. After all, we had been in the game a long time by then
 – and we both had bad experiences with other managers! [laughs]
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           From Wizards to Blizzards. Lee Kerslake has made a significant contribution to his fair share of
                                        what are a genuinely classic collection of hard rock releases.
 
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RM: As luck would have it, around the time you and Bob left Ozzy, your old mate Mick Box was reforming Uriah Heep having dismantled the band at the start of 1981.

LK: Yes, Bob and I were out of Blizzard and a few weeks later I got a phone call from Mick.
He said he had folded the band as it stood and would we like to join him and reform Heep?
I said yes; then I phoned Bob and he said yes – remember when you join Heep you only get better!
Then we found out about ex Heavy Metal Kids keyboard player John Sinclair and his availability and he said yes, too! It took a bit of time to find the right singer but we did with Pete Goalby.

RM: Pete had to honour a commitment to Mel Galley’s Trapeze first, from memory.

LK: Yes, but when we started rehearsals I realised just how good this band was.
We started writing great songs for Abominog, our first album together, but they were very different from the fantasy and wizards concepts.

RM: Abominog put Heep back on the musical map but for me it was bettered by the follow up Head First.
Bob left after that album and was replaced by the returning Trevor Bolder...

LK: Bob left because Sharon Osbourne wanted Bob’s talent for lyrics on Ozzy’s next album.
She offered him quite a nice teaser of money so he rejoined Ozzy. while Trevor rejoined Heep, replacing the guy who had replaced him! [laughs].
Trevor’s bass playing was amazing, as was Bob’s; it’s important that the drums and bass gel in a band, especially one with a sound as powerful and dominant as Uriah Heep. 

RM: No question. Trevor was also one of the finest rock bass players Britain ever produced and together you became one of the best, but most under-rated, rhythm sections in rock. There was a clear chemistry there.

LK: Yes. There is a rarity among certain musicians where they can, seconds before it happens, know what the other is going to play and therefore play it exactly on time, together.
It happened with Trevor; he was as great at reading me as I was him.
Another of those instances was with Boxy; the musical fight we did between the two wizards on the Magician’s Birthday track? That was a one-off; it was done in one take and it was magical!

RM: Sadly we lost Trevor earlier this year. His death to the evil of cancer shocked and saddened a lot of people.

LK: The loss of Trevor broke my heart. I know we hadn’t worked together for some time but you never forget the great times and the camaraderie that you feel and hold for each other.
As I said earlier it’s like a marriage when you are on tour 
– nine months a year on planes, on tour buses, in hotels, in limos… well, sometimes, when the budget allowed it!
But it still hurts when I think about "Tufty." Bless him.

RM: There was also a clear camaraderie and musical chemistry in what became the longest serving line-up in Heep’s history when singer Bernie Shaw and keyboard player Phil Lanzon joined in 1986.

LK: I had wonderful times with that line up. Mick, Trevor and I were close anyway but Bernie and Phil’s devotion and hard work, along with Phil’s talents as a classically trained musician and a great song writer, made for a fantastic line-up.
And being one of the first western bands – and the first western heavy rock group – to play in Moscow, in 1987... that was fantastic. An experience unbeaten by most.

RM: Success in rock and roll is never guaranteed but to do it twice, as you did, has to be a bit special. Actually musical lightning struck three times for you when we factor in Heep’s later resurgence.
The Sea of Light album, and Heep's mid to late 90s phase, was as good as the band had been in their hay day.

LK: Yes, I was fortunate to hit it three times, once with Ozzy and twice with Uriah Heep.
We mentioned Abominog earlier; that was the first album we recorded after Mick reformed the band and it was an album Geffen Records wanted so much. But Gerry Bron said no to that, which pissed me off yet again. Juggling with our careers like that was unforgiveable, but we eventually continued on without him.
​Sea of Light was a superb album. The recording was done at Karo Studio in Germany and we produced it with Kalle Trappe. His attention to detail was second to none and his recording ideas, along with Phil and Mick’s song writing partnership, made for a great time and a great record.

RM: You continued to deliver great performances for Heep into the first decade of the Millennium before retiring due to health issues.
How did it feel when you stepped away from something that had been part of your life for nigh on forty years?

LK: It really hurt me to leave, but I had been to a couple of specialists and was told if I had carried on I would have been deaf in both ears and my osteoarthritis would have become very painful – it was a case of "stop now and give your body time to heal itself." I realised the truth in that, which helped me get through it.
Fate stepped in for me too, to stop, and I feel great now after six years. So, now, I am back!

RM: Before looking at current and future activities, let me take you back those forty-odd years 
and ask how a boy from Bournemouth got the bug for rock and roll and the drum kit?

LK: I went to a dinner and dance with my mum and dad one night and I saw Ted Heath and his band perform.
I was mesmerised by the drummer and that was it – I was hooked!

RM: So the big band / swing drumming sound got your attention, but there must have been other musical influences?

LK: Once I'd made up my mind to drum I listened to all kinds of records 
– big band, rock, pop… everything I could get my hands on. Then I taught myself by breaking down the drum parts.
I had already started to learn piano on my own, too. Then I thought to myself "I'm going to learn to sing; then I will never be out of a group." How true that was!

RM: From self-taught to one of the premier power drummers in rock. You also have a feel or touch for ballad based material and subtler musical arrangements, which was always part of classic Uriah Heep.

LK: Well, again, playing other instruments as well as singing and writing songs gave me the added qualities of playing with feel and light and shade.
And all the time I was bearing in mind how the great composers wrote and arranged, with that light and shade. Liszt, Mozart, Beethoven, Handel… how brilliant they all were!

RM: Bringing us back up to date, we spoke about how you got back behind the kit for Uriah Heep Legends but you also have another couple of projects on the go – there was the Lee Kerslake Band…

LK: The Lee Kerslake Band was a one-off opportunity to play in Helsinki with some great musicians.
It let people know I’m still alive and playing! It’s a wonderful feeling when you get up on stage and people listen, clap and cheer you. That’s when you realise you really are doing some good and making people happy 
– I love drumming and singing and I can’t imagine the world without music!
I might do another Lee Kerslake Band gig at some point in the future but right now my major concern is the Berggren Kerslake Band.
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RM: Which brings us nicely to your recent association with Swedish singer and musician Stefan Berggren.
I know you are really buzzed about what you have been producing.

LK: Yes! I met Stefan when he was asked to be the vocalist in a short lived band called His Masters Project.
Actually, I’d met him much earlier, when he was singing with The Company of Snakes, Bernie Marsden and Micky Moody’s band.
I didn’t get much time to chat with him back then but I was knocked out by his powerful voice.
Anyway, we did a few gigs as His Masters Project, which was great.


Then a dear friend, Tuija, got us a gig in Helsinki, just the two of us. We got on so well that we decided to write an album together as BKB, the Berggren Kerslake Band.
BKB also features the wonderful and tight bass playing of Tomas "Pomma" Thorberg, another Swedish talent.

The greatest thing about it is we had so much fun recording it! There are a few funny things on the album we left in intentionally, because we wanted people to hear and feel the good times that were had doing it...

LK: I love the album so much because the honesty of the tracks lets you know what we are all about.
The next idea is start gigging but we need exposure for BKB first, through the music papers, radio play and interviews.

RM: Well, we’ve made a start here and FabricationsHQ will be happy to assist with that exposure.
I spoke to Stefan not long ago and he was telling me the album should be available early in 2014 through AOR Heaven. The first single, Walk Tall, is available now as part of what is a great little EP.

LK: Yes, we're looking to release the CD at the end of January 2014 and we have AOR Heaven for European distribution, but we are still looking for deals in America and Japan.
I’d love for someone to get us over to America because I know they would love this! But right now we have the Walk Tall EP to promote and let everyone hear.

RM: 
Lee, this has been Heeps of fun – sorry, couldn’t resist [laughter] – here’s to a healthy and walking tall future, both personally and musically.

LK: Cheers mate, it’s been great to catch up. And thanks for all your support!

Ross Muir
Muirsical Conversation with Lee Kerslake
December 2013


Article republished in memory of Lee Kerslake (1947-2020)

Photo credits: Esa Ahola 
https://esa.ahola.net/
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