The Bond of Musical Union
Muirsical Conversation With Robert Berry
Muirsical Conversation With Robert Berry
Californian singer-songwriter multi-instrumentalist Robert Berry, a regular visitor to FabricationsHQ over the last few years, has, lately, been making news as part of melodic-meets-angular modern prog supergroup Six By Six, who also feature British drummer Nigel Glockler (Saxon) and Canadian guitarist Ian Crichton (SAGA).
The band released their self-titled debut album in 2022; Beyond Shadowland followed in 2024.
Currently however, another Berry fronted supergroup (of some thirty years standing), Alliance, are making hard melodic rock headlines with Before Our Eyes, their first new album in six years.
Featuring Berry, Boston and ex Sammy Hagar guitarist Gary Pihl, and longtime Sammy Hagar drummer Davd Lauser, Before Our Eyes, released in the spring of this year, is the band’s most all-encompassing, and rock guitar orientated album, to date.
Robert Berry sat in with FabricationsHQ to discuss the new Alliance album, his love of working with Gary and David and his enthusiasm for creative, collaborative work.
He also took time to share his thoughts about his good friend, band-mate of eighteen years and celebrated Bay Area based musician, Greg Kihn, who sadly passed in August of last year.
But the conversation started by taking a deep dive into the new Alliance album, and getting back in the musical saddle with Gary Pihl and David Lauser…
Ross Muir: Each Alliance album has something to offer – 2009’s full-bodied and atmospheric Road To Heaven and 2019’s edgier and rockier Fire And Grace are two great examples.
But Before Our Eyes is the band’s most all-encompassing release to date. It carries that quintessential American hard melodic rock sound we’ve come to expect from Alliance, but here we have a guitar-led album that blends both contemporary and classic rock, with a lot of light and shade.
Also, while you only get to reconvene for an Alliance album every five years or so, you seem to be able to just fall right back into it – you are obviously very comfortable in each other’s musical skins.
Robert Berry: Yeah, that’s true. It’s interesting with Alliance, because after the first couple of albums it’s always been something like five to seven years before the next one came out.
Now, that’s because of other priorities – Gary with Boston, David with Sammy Hagar, my various projects and bands like Ambrosia, my 3.2 band, Six By Six, all sorts of stuff – all making it hard to get us all together at the same time.
But, we love being together. We also feel that, had we been together in the eighties we would have been big, I mean big, right? [laughs]. But, now, we’re simply doing what we like to do, when we get the chance to do it!
I have this pretty successful progressive based career, and that came from being lucky enough, back in the eighties and nineties, to play with guys like Keith Emerson, Carl Palmer, and Steve Howe.
I love all that kind of stuff but, if it came right down to it, touring wise, Alliance would have been a lot easier to do than all of that, because, yeah, we do just seem to fall back into it once we get together.
And, this time, we actually have another album in the pipeline that’s almost done! That’s because Boston is not doing anything right now, and Sammy Hagar is working with different drummers such as Jason Bonham and Kenny Aronoff – David isn’t out with Sammy at this point.
So, the next Alliance album will probably be out about a year and half from now,
I’m also working on something right now that may well become part of the next Six By Six album, but if Ian Crichton doesn’t like it, it will probably feature on my next solo album, which I’m also currently working on.
But I have the time, and an avenue I can go down, for another Alliance album.
And to follow-on from you point about the sound of this latest album – I honestly think that’s because you’re hearing Gary going back to a late seventies and early eighties guitar sounds and styles.
He has wah-wah and some backward guitar going on, and he also borrowed my old Maestro Fuzztone – which is the guitar sound you hear on I Can’t Get No Satisfaction – all because he wanted to tap into those older sounds.
We do all the rhythm parts here at my SoundTek studio, but Gary does his solos at home, where he has a bunch of other stuff he can use, including his own, self-built amps; that’s another part of his sound.
I have to give him so much credit on this one. I also think we came up with some great songs, but they don’t become Alliance songs until the band does what the band does, you know?
RM: What you said about Gary, and his role this time around, parallels what I said in review of Before Our Eyes – that this album features some of Gary’s best work, in terms of six string textures and great solos.
But, as I said at the top of this conversation, there’s also a contemporary sheen, with some great light and shade. For example Our Good Life has a Who vibe going on, but with a contemporary/ modern twist.
And then there’s lighter contrast with the folksier 100 Sad Goodbyes.
The band released their self-titled debut album in 2022; Beyond Shadowland followed in 2024.
Currently however, another Berry fronted supergroup (of some thirty years standing), Alliance, are making hard melodic rock headlines with Before Our Eyes, their first new album in six years.
Featuring Berry, Boston and ex Sammy Hagar guitarist Gary Pihl, and longtime Sammy Hagar drummer Davd Lauser, Before Our Eyes, released in the spring of this year, is the band’s most all-encompassing, and rock guitar orientated album, to date.
Robert Berry sat in with FabricationsHQ to discuss the new Alliance album, his love of working with Gary and David and his enthusiasm for creative, collaborative work.
He also took time to share his thoughts about his good friend, band-mate of eighteen years and celebrated Bay Area based musician, Greg Kihn, who sadly passed in August of last year.
But the conversation started by taking a deep dive into the new Alliance album, and getting back in the musical saddle with Gary Pihl and David Lauser…
Ross Muir: Each Alliance album has something to offer – 2009’s full-bodied and atmospheric Road To Heaven and 2019’s edgier and rockier Fire And Grace are two great examples.
But Before Our Eyes is the band’s most all-encompassing release to date. It carries that quintessential American hard melodic rock sound we’ve come to expect from Alliance, but here we have a guitar-led album that blends both contemporary and classic rock, with a lot of light and shade.
Also, while you only get to reconvene for an Alliance album every five years or so, you seem to be able to just fall right back into it – you are obviously very comfortable in each other’s musical skins.
Robert Berry: Yeah, that’s true. It’s interesting with Alliance, because after the first couple of albums it’s always been something like five to seven years before the next one came out.
Now, that’s because of other priorities – Gary with Boston, David with Sammy Hagar, my various projects and bands like Ambrosia, my 3.2 band, Six By Six, all sorts of stuff – all making it hard to get us all together at the same time.
But, we love being together. We also feel that, had we been together in the eighties we would have been big, I mean big, right? [laughs]. But, now, we’re simply doing what we like to do, when we get the chance to do it!
I have this pretty successful progressive based career, and that came from being lucky enough, back in the eighties and nineties, to play with guys like Keith Emerson, Carl Palmer, and Steve Howe.
I love all that kind of stuff but, if it came right down to it, touring wise, Alliance would have been a lot easier to do than all of that, because, yeah, we do just seem to fall back into it once we get together.
And, this time, we actually have another album in the pipeline that’s almost done! That’s because Boston is not doing anything right now, and Sammy Hagar is working with different drummers such as Jason Bonham and Kenny Aronoff – David isn’t out with Sammy at this point.
So, the next Alliance album will probably be out about a year and half from now,
I’m also working on something right now that may well become part of the next Six By Six album, but if Ian Crichton doesn’t like it, it will probably feature on my next solo album, which I’m also currently working on.
But I have the time, and an avenue I can go down, for another Alliance album.
And to follow-on from you point about the sound of this latest album – I honestly think that’s because you’re hearing Gary going back to a late seventies and early eighties guitar sounds and styles.
He has wah-wah and some backward guitar going on, and he also borrowed my old Maestro Fuzztone – which is the guitar sound you hear on I Can’t Get No Satisfaction – all because he wanted to tap into those older sounds.
We do all the rhythm parts here at my SoundTek studio, but Gary does his solos at home, where he has a bunch of other stuff he can use, including his own, self-built amps; that’s another part of his sound.
I have to give him so much credit on this one. I also think we came up with some great songs, but they don’t become Alliance songs until the band does what the band does, you know?
RM: What you said about Gary, and his role this time around, parallels what I said in review of Before Our Eyes – that this album features some of Gary’s best work, in terms of six string textures and great solos.
But, as I said at the top of this conversation, there’s also a contemporary sheen, with some great light and shade. For example Our Good Life has a Who vibe going on, but with a contemporary/ modern twist.
And then there’s lighter contrast with the folksier 100 Sad Goodbyes.
RB: Well, can I tell you, Ross, that song might very well have not ended up on the album except for the fact I think it might be David Lauser’s favourite song!
Here's the thing. Back in 1985 I had a bunch of songs that I knew my bands at the time – the Robert Berry Band and Hush – couldn’t do, or wouldn’t be a good fit for.
But you know me, I’m always writing, so I ended up with this collection of songs that was a little like The Cars meet YES; a little new wave, a little pop, a little progressive.
Anyway, I put them all in a drawer.
Then, later, an album pressing company out of Taiwan offered me five hundred free pressings because they wanted my business at the studio – their guy just happened to know about me and my studio out here in Silicon Valley.
So, I thought "OK, well, they can have these songs that nobody has heard, and will probably not care about" [laughs].
Anyway, those pressings became an album called Back To Back. Once it was done, my good friend Rob Fowler – who was in the Rober Berry Band and has done pretty much every album cover for any project I’ve ever worked on, including the fantastic artwork for Six By Six – gets hold of copies and starts to send them to all these record companies!
From there I got a Pick Of The Week in a magazine called Cashbox, Record World and Billboard, all of whom, at the time, were the go-to trades. So, all those songs that I thought no-one would ever hear ended up on the Back To Back album that Rob sent out!
Some of the songs from that time, like the one you mentioned, were among the ones I thought "well, that’s not gonna fit on an Alliance album," until David heard it and said "oh, we’ve got to do that one!"
Generally though, we don’t have completely finished songs for Alliance; Gary and I both bring songs in, but then we tear them apart, or do different things with them – Gary will have a great guitar riff, and we’ll remould the song around his riff; that sort of thing.
RM: So you always have a sketch idea, or even just a part, to build from?
RB: Yeah. I’m not a guy that likes to just sit in a room and jam; I need to have some idea, or something formed, that I can work off. Too many times I’ve sat in a room where absolutely nothin’ comes out!
Kind of like "hey, that’s a great guitar solo!" "Yeah, but I’ve got nothing to use it for!" [laughs]
RM: Another favourite of mine, and again, adding contrast to the more rock orientated vibe of the album, is Joan Of Arc. That's a great song.
RB: You know what, that’s Gary’s tune all the way through. He brought that song in and I loved it.
It's sort out of character for Gary, but he’s quite a sensitive guy, and wrote that song for his wife; that’s kinda way in the back there, but that’s who it was written about.
Now, what’s funny about that is I wrote Our Good Life, which you mentioned earlier, about Gary and his wife!
They met in High School and they’re still together. Gary sent me some new lyrics over though, because he didn’t care for some of the words I had written. They were a little too personal, so he said "how about these words instead?"
But I said "No!" [laughs] "I wrote these lyrics about you and your wife; this is an important and rare thing for guys to be married that long, have kids, and still be together."
She is such a lovely person and I just wanted to sort of document it, from my point of view. So I didn’t let him change the words on that one, but Joan Of Arc was written by Gary, including the lyrics.
RM: Well kudos to Gary because it’s a great song, one that plays contrasting counterpoint to tracks such the heavy and Hagar-esque Can’t Stop Messin’, and the album's opening cut, Tell Somebody...
Here's the thing. Back in 1985 I had a bunch of songs that I knew my bands at the time – the Robert Berry Band and Hush – couldn’t do, or wouldn’t be a good fit for.
But you know me, I’m always writing, so I ended up with this collection of songs that was a little like The Cars meet YES; a little new wave, a little pop, a little progressive.
Anyway, I put them all in a drawer.
Then, later, an album pressing company out of Taiwan offered me five hundred free pressings because they wanted my business at the studio – their guy just happened to know about me and my studio out here in Silicon Valley.
So, I thought "OK, well, they can have these songs that nobody has heard, and will probably not care about" [laughs].
Anyway, those pressings became an album called Back To Back. Once it was done, my good friend Rob Fowler – who was in the Rober Berry Band and has done pretty much every album cover for any project I’ve ever worked on, including the fantastic artwork for Six By Six – gets hold of copies and starts to send them to all these record companies!
From there I got a Pick Of The Week in a magazine called Cashbox, Record World and Billboard, all of whom, at the time, were the go-to trades. So, all those songs that I thought no-one would ever hear ended up on the Back To Back album that Rob sent out!
Some of the songs from that time, like the one you mentioned, were among the ones I thought "well, that’s not gonna fit on an Alliance album," until David heard it and said "oh, we’ve got to do that one!"
Generally though, we don’t have completely finished songs for Alliance; Gary and I both bring songs in, but then we tear them apart, or do different things with them – Gary will have a great guitar riff, and we’ll remould the song around his riff; that sort of thing.
RM: So you always have a sketch idea, or even just a part, to build from?
RB: Yeah. I’m not a guy that likes to just sit in a room and jam; I need to have some idea, or something formed, that I can work off. Too many times I’ve sat in a room where absolutely nothin’ comes out!
Kind of like "hey, that’s a great guitar solo!" "Yeah, but I’ve got nothing to use it for!" [laughs]
RM: Another favourite of mine, and again, adding contrast to the more rock orientated vibe of the album, is Joan Of Arc. That's a great song.
RB: You know what, that’s Gary’s tune all the way through. He brought that song in and I loved it.
It's sort out of character for Gary, but he’s quite a sensitive guy, and wrote that song for his wife; that’s kinda way in the back there, but that’s who it was written about.
Now, what’s funny about that is I wrote Our Good Life, which you mentioned earlier, about Gary and his wife!
They met in High School and they’re still together. Gary sent me some new lyrics over though, because he didn’t care for some of the words I had written. They were a little too personal, so he said "how about these words instead?"
But I said "No!" [laughs] "I wrote these lyrics about you and your wife; this is an important and rare thing for guys to be married that long, have kids, and still be together."
She is such a lovely person and I just wanted to sort of document it, from my point of view. So I didn’t let him change the words on that one, but Joan Of Arc was written by Gary, including the lyrics.
RM: Well kudos to Gary because it’s a great song, one that plays contrasting counterpoint to tracks such the heavy and Hagar-esque Can’t Stop Messin’, and the album's opening cut, Tell Somebody...
RM: Tell Somebody sets the tone for what is a great rock album; I hope it gets, and is getting, the attention it so obviously deserves.
RB: It’s funny, because with Road To Heaven I thought "man, this is the greatest album I could ever make."
Then on the last album, Fire And Grace, we had a song I wrote called Uncertain, which I love – I loved the video for it too; everything just came just came together on that song, and that album.
So, with this album I was thinking "well, shoot, does this album stack up as well as those records?"
Because you just never know when you are inside that bubble. But then the reviews started to come in and people really liked it – and that, I believe, is because all the guitar stuff on it is real, you know?
It’s not shredding solos or all that sort of stuff, it’s real rock guitar music.
I give credit to Gary all the time, and I’m sure people probably think I’m just saying that, but I’m very serious about it. They are all good songs, but he made them special.
That’s not to take anything away from David, who is a great, solid drummer – and he always knows exactly what to play. But the special thing about this album it’s a guitar record.
It isn’t like Road to Heaven or Fire And Grace; those records had some epic kinda things on them, like Uncertain. This one is more simplistic, in a way; more straight ahead.
RM: Your mention of David leads me to a question I’ve never actually asked you before…
You have worked with some great drummers – Carl Palmer, Nigel Glockler and David Lauser, for starters.
As a bass player, have you found it easy, or perhaps more difficult, to get into that pocket and find that rhythmic simpatico with each of them?
RB: It was actually more difficult with Carl, and that’s because he – at least to me, I’ve never read or heard this anywhere – plays like a Big Band or jazz drummer. His timing is in the ride cymbal and on the high-hat, whereas with someone like John Bonham it’s all about the snare, or the downbeat.
It's interesting, because when I do my progressive stuff I think about Carl, because he plays to the melody; and I think about that when I’m arranging the progressive stuff, it lightens it up and opens it up a little bit.
But, all that said, I’m a big David Lauser fan.
David is not a John Bonham, but he definitely has that downbeat thing happening, which we lock into.
As you know, with all my other albums, and my music, the drums tend to be pretty strong, and that’s what David brings; he’s a solid, big sounding drummer.
And he’s such a worldly kind of guy – he knows and loves all sorts of things; he loves Europe and its history, he knows all the weapons the warriors used, he loves things like Tarzan [laughs]. Whatever it is, he can talk about it! He's just such a lot of fun to be around, and Nigel is exactly the same way!
They are like little boys who never grew up, which I mean as a compliment. They get excited, they get enthused, and they are great drummers!
RM: It all starts at the back…
RB: Exactly. I always say to any bands that I’m producing in my studio, if the drummer doesn’t lead the band – even if that’s not the main instrument – then the band won’t sound right; you have to follow the lead of the drummer. Both David and Nigel, they know how to lay it down, and really heavy.
But they can both get pretty fancy, too. One of the funny things David does – and this happens on just about every album – is when I get all the mixes done and I send them out to him he’ll say "did you replace my drum parts on this? Because that’s not me" [laughs]. And that’s because he was so used to playing with Sammy Hagar, which was one-two-three four, one-two-three-four, pretty much all of the time.
But when he comes in here he will sometimes, without ever thinking about it, go off in a certain direction and develop a groove, or drop in some great fills, or whatever it may be.
So, because it’s not what he would normally do, when he gets home and hears it again on the mixdown, he goes "aw come on, you replaced my drums!" I have to get back to him and say "I’ve never done that on anything you’ve played – ever!"
RM: [laughs] Great story. As you touched on, Nigel is much the same, in that with Saxon, there’s that heavy, power-down beat which is as necessary as it is expected. However, with Six By Six, he really does get to explore and go somewhere else, especially with the rhythmic patterns.
Which is, of course, great for you, as it means each band project has its own musical palette, or sonic texture. It keeps what you do fresh and, I’d suggest, exciting.
RB: Yeah, collaboration. I believe that’s the secret sauce to what keeps me being so creative; that's what inspires me. I got an award not too long ago and I was asked how many albums I had been on, and I had to say I don’t know! But when I checked it’s been, or was then, I think, thirty-four, almost all of which I’ve been the singer on, or written most if not all the songs.
Now, I hadn’t previously thought of it in those number terms, and it’s not any sort of bragging statement, but I believe that’s why I can still be creative – Ian Crichton just knocks me dead with what he comes up with for Six By Six; he sends me the coolest little things, or parts, to work with. Working with Keith Emerson was just something else.
And then there's Gary Pihl and David Lauser, developing stuff with them as Alliance. Gary may be the only one that writes a whole song, but everyone contributes. For example David and I came up with Living The Good Life, which is on Fire And Grace; that’s a really great song.
RB: It’s funny, because with Road To Heaven I thought "man, this is the greatest album I could ever make."
Then on the last album, Fire And Grace, we had a song I wrote called Uncertain, which I love – I loved the video for it too; everything just came just came together on that song, and that album.
So, with this album I was thinking "well, shoot, does this album stack up as well as those records?"
Because you just never know when you are inside that bubble. But then the reviews started to come in and people really liked it – and that, I believe, is because all the guitar stuff on it is real, you know?
It’s not shredding solos or all that sort of stuff, it’s real rock guitar music.
I give credit to Gary all the time, and I’m sure people probably think I’m just saying that, but I’m very serious about it. They are all good songs, but he made them special.
That’s not to take anything away from David, who is a great, solid drummer – and he always knows exactly what to play. But the special thing about this album it’s a guitar record.
It isn’t like Road to Heaven or Fire And Grace; those records had some epic kinda things on them, like Uncertain. This one is more simplistic, in a way; more straight ahead.
RM: Your mention of David leads me to a question I’ve never actually asked you before…
You have worked with some great drummers – Carl Palmer, Nigel Glockler and David Lauser, for starters.
As a bass player, have you found it easy, or perhaps more difficult, to get into that pocket and find that rhythmic simpatico with each of them?
RB: It was actually more difficult with Carl, and that’s because he – at least to me, I’ve never read or heard this anywhere – plays like a Big Band or jazz drummer. His timing is in the ride cymbal and on the high-hat, whereas with someone like John Bonham it’s all about the snare, or the downbeat.
It's interesting, because when I do my progressive stuff I think about Carl, because he plays to the melody; and I think about that when I’m arranging the progressive stuff, it lightens it up and opens it up a little bit.
But, all that said, I’m a big David Lauser fan.
David is not a John Bonham, but he definitely has that downbeat thing happening, which we lock into.
As you know, with all my other albums, and my music, the drums tend to be pretty strong, and that’s what David brings; he’s a solid, big sounding drummer.
And he’s such a worldly kind of guy – he knows and loves all sorts of things; he loves Europe and its history, he knows all the weapons the warriors used, he loves things like Tarzan [laughs]. Whatever it is, he can talk about it! He's just such a lot of fun to be around, and Nigel is exactly the same way!
They are like little boys who never grew up, which I mean as a compliment. They get excited, they get enthused, and they are great drummers!
RM: It all starts at the back…
RB: Exactly. I always say to any bands that I’m producing in my studio, if the drummer doesn’t lead the band – even if that’s not the main instrument – then the band won’t sound right; you have to follow the lead of the drummer. Both David and Nigel, they know how to lay it down, and really heavy.
But they can both get pretty fancy, too. One of the funny things David does – and this happens on just about every album – is when I get all the mixes done and I send them out to him he’ll say "did you replace my drum parts on this? Because that’s not me" [laughs]. And that’s because he was so used to playing with Sammy Hagar, which was one-two-three four, one-two-three-four, pretty much all of the time.
But when he comes in here he will sometimes, without ever thinking about it, go off in a certain direction and develop a groove, or drop in some great fills, or whatever it may be.
So, because it’s not what he would normally do, when he gets home and hears it again on the mixdown, he goes "aw come on, you replaced my drums!" I have to get back to him and say "I’ve never done that on anything you’ve played – ever!"
RM: [laughs] Great story. As you touched on, Nigel is much the same, in that with Saxon, there’s that heavy, power-down beat which is as necessary as it is expected. However, with Six By Six, he really does get to explore and go somewhere else, especially with the rhythmic patterns.
Which is, of course, great for you, as it means each band project has its own musical palette, or sonic texture. It keeps what you do fresh and, I’d suggest, exciting.
RB: Yeah, collaboration. I believe that’s the secret sauce to what keeps me being so creative; that's what inspires me. I got an award not too long ago and I was asked how many albums I had been on, and I had to say I don’t know! But when I checked it’s been, or was then, I think, thirty-four, almost all of which I’ve been the singer on, or written most if not all the songs.
Now, I hadn’t previously thought of it in those number terms, and it’s not any sort of bragging statement, but I believe that’s why I can still be creative – Ian Crichton just knocks me dead with what he comes up with for Six By Six; he sends me the coolest little things, or parts, to work with. Working with Keith Emerson was just something else.
And then there's Gary Pihl and David Lauser, developing stuff with them as Alliance. Gary may be the only one that writes a whole song, but everyone contributes. For example David and I came up with Living The Good Life, which is on Fire And Grace; that’s a really great song.
RM: Your mention of Keith Emerson, whose loss you took hard given how close you and he were, brings me to another good friend of yours Greg Kihn, whom we also, sadly, lost, just under a year ago.
On this side of the pond, Greg was best known for his early 80s hits The Breakup Song and Jeopardy, but he had a highly successful, near forty-five year career, of which you were a part of for the last two decades; he was also a DJ and horror novelist.
What are your memories, and thoughts, on the man, the musician, and the friend that was Greg Kihn.
RB: As you mentioned, I considered Keith a good friend and the most famous musician I’ve ever worked with. Also, of course, we were working on an album together when he committed suicide; that was pretty tough. That was hard for me to get over and it definitely affected me, lyrically.
With Greg, I was with him, as part of his band, for eighteen years. The last ten of those eighteen saw him at my studio every week, usually on a Thursday, to co-write songs together and come up with all sorts of ideas.
For example he’d come up with some silly thing like a lyric about big pink flamingos and I’d think "well, that’s not going anywhere" [laughs]. But we got a riff going for it and it ended up being a rockin' song on his last album, Rekihndled, which we did back in 2017.
We wrote so much that I have about two and half albums of material here; it’s not finished, but all his parts are. I don’t know if any of it will ever come out, though.
The last year of Greg’s life was pretty bad, and the final six months were particularly rough, but even a year or so before that he was struggling to remember lyrics, even to Jeopardy.
It got to the stage where he couldn’t come to the studio, or when he did come, he couldn’t remember parts of a lyric; even one line would take a number of takes to get. Body-wise he was still OK, and was pretty healthy, other than the Alzheimer’s, which just kept creeping in and getting worse.
So, in a way I ended up with what I would call the façade of me working with this famous musician who had had these huge hits, but now couldn’t remember them. That was tough.
And then, he’s gone. That was really hard for me because we had become such good friends. We had done all those tours together, we had done the album, and now we won’t be doing any of that again.
But you also remember the good times. Greg had the biggest classic rock radio show we ever had out here in San Jose. It was a tremendous show that people just loved; he talked about everything and anything on that show with co-host Chris Jackson, who is also a great musician. Chris knew how to get the best out of Greg; they would go back and forth on everything – music, politics – they just knew how to make it work!
RM: I believe you got to pay, or rather play, tribute to Greg, back in January?
RB: Yes. I was approached to see if I would do a couple of shows in honour of Greg.
I wasn’t sure about it to be honest, but I said if Chris Jackson will do it with me, then, yeah.
So, I called Chris and he said yes; we decided to do an acoustic show, with each of us having a spot and then in duet. I also had a drum thumb thing I use when I go acoustic, and Chris played some keyboards on songs like Jeopardy, so we made a full show out of it.
But, after I set all this up, I started to think "well, what are people going to think – wait, Robert Berry’s going to do an hour and half of the Greg Kihn set?"
So now I’m starting to think "I don’t know if I wanna do this;" I’m not him, I’m not trying to be him, although I love doing his songs and I had been part of his band for years.
Anyway, my worries went when both nights sold out in two or three days, and both shows were great.
For those particular performances I learned a song of Greg’s called Horror Show, which I had never done before, although Greg had done it solo on our acoustic tours.
Anyway, I played it, also acoustically, and people came up to me afterwards and said "you gotta record that song, that was great!" That was really nice to hear, because I really do love the song – and, as the lyric says, sometimes life is like a horror show, you know?
RM: It is a great little song. And, given Greg’s passing to the evil that is Alzheimer’s, it takes on even more poignancy and relevancy.
RB: Yeah. Also, as part of those acoustic tours with Greg, we played at Daryl’s House, where they did a four camera video shoot and recorded the audio for us. Now, what Greg used to do on the acoustic shows, and I hated it [laughs], was he’d say to me "OK, let’s do one more song, Knocking On Heaven’s Door."
I’d go "no, no, we can’t do a slow song – you’ve got all these great rockin’ songs we could finish up on!"
But he’d reply, in that great big voice of his, "Look, trust me on this one!"
And I’m still saying "Aw c’mon Greg, that’s a slow song, let’s leave them rocking!"
But, sure enough, every time we did it, the crowd would stand up just as we got towards the end; there was a reverence in the room, which was just amazing – he would stand up, put his guitar down, and walk off the stage as I’m playing and singing the final Knocking on Heaven’s door line.
So, I have the video of that from Daryl’s House, and the place we played those two Greg tribute concerts is a movie theatre, with a big screen behind us.
I had my son edit in a little beat after the first verse and chorus that Chris and I played, and then, at the end of that first chorus, all of a sudden on the screen behind us, there’s Greg, playing and singing with us.
There wasn’t a dry eye in the house. People thanked me after the show, because they all just wanted to say goodbye and there was just no other way to do it – there was no open funeral, or anything like that.
So, from being worried about it before we did it, I ended up feeling really good about it, because I had done something for Greg that I guess no-one else could have; his original bass player Steve Wright had passed away some years before, as had others from the classic line-up; but I had been with him for so long that it almost seemed like the Greg Kihn Band coming full circle.
But damn it if I don’t miss my old buddy coming to the studio every Thursday.
RM: Coming full circle could also apply to Rekihndled which, as you mentioned, would turn out to be Greg’s last album.
It seems to deliberately tune in to the Greg Kihn Band’s original late 70s and early eighties sound and styles; it covers all the Greg Kihn bases from rockin’ power-pop and new wave rock to funk, a touch of punkabilly and a couple of great ballads, and in fine style. In short, a great sign-off to the Greg Kihn Band legacy.
RB: I appreciate you saying that because that’s exactly what I wanted to achieve with that record.
But it was a bit of a battle, because initially they all wanted to rock it up. Greg’s son Ry, who is a really great guitar player – taught by Joe Satriani – would say "let’s really step it up."
But I said "woah, wait a minute, the Greg Kihn Band is not a loud garage band, or one that plays that kind of music, it has to be simpler than that."
And I was in control of it – it’s my studio, I’m producing, I’m the co-writer – so I made sure it had all the elements that I always liked, or remembered, about the original Greg Kihn Band.
On this side of the pond, Greg was best known for his early 80s hits The Breakup Song and Jeopardy, but he had a highly successful, near forty-five year career, of which you were a part of for the last two decades; he was also a DJ and horror novelist.
What are your memories, and thoughts, on the man, the musician, and the friend that was Greg Kihn.
RB: As you mentioned, I considered Keith a good friend and the most famous musician I’ve ever worked with. Also, of course, we were working on an album together when he committed suicide; that was pretty tough. That was hard for me to get over and it definitely affected me, lyrically.
With Greg, I was with him, as part of his band, for eighteen years. The last ten of those eighteen saw him at my studio every week, usually on a Thursday, to co-write songs together and come up with all sorts of ideas.
For example he’d come up with some silly thing like a lyric about big pink flamingos and I’d think "well, that’s not going anywhere" [laughs]. But we got a riff going for it and it ended up being a rockin' song on his last album, Rekihndled, which we did back in 2017.
We wrote so much that I have about two and half albums of material here; it’s not finished, but all his parts are. I don’t know if any of it will ever come out, though.
The last year of Greg’s life was pretty bad, and the final six months were particularly rough, but even a year or so before that he was struggling to remember lyrics, even to Jeopardy.
It got to the stage where he couldn’t come to the studio, or when he did come, he couldn’t remember parts of a lyric; even one line would take a number of takes to get. Body-wise he was still OK, and was pretty healthy, other than the Alzheimer’s, which just kept creeping in and getting worse.
So, in a way I ended up with what I would call the façade of me working with this famous musician who had had these huge hits, but now couldn’t remember them. That was tough.
And then, he’s gone. That was really hard for me because we had become such good friends. We had done all those tours together, we had done the album, and now we won’t be doing any of that again.
But you also remember the good times. Greg had the biggest classic rock radio show we ever had out here in San Jose. It was a tremendous show that people just loved; he talked about everything and anything on that show with co-host Chris Jackson, who is also a great musician. Chris knew how to get the best out of Greg; they would go back and forth on everything – music, politics – they just knew how to make it work!
RM: I believe you got to pay, or rather play, tribute to Greg, back in January?
RB: Yes. I was approached to see if I would do a couple of shows in honour of Greg.
I wasn’t sure about it to be honest, but I said if Chris Jackson will do it with me, then, yeah.
So, I called Chris and he said yes; we decided to do an acoustic show, with each of us having a spot and then in duet. I also had a drum thumb thing I use when I go acoustic, and Chris played some keyboards on songs like Jeopardy, so we made a full show out of it.
But, after I set all this up, I started to think "well, what are people going to think – wait, Robert Berry’s going to do an hour and half of the Greg Kihn set?"
So now I’m starting to think "I don’t know if I wanna do this;" I’m not him, I’m not trying to be him, although I love doing his songs and I had been part of his band for years.
Anyway, my worries went when both nights sold out in two or three days, and both shows were great.
For those particular performances I learned a song of Greg’s called Horror Show, which I had never done before, although Greg had done it solo on our acoustic tours.
Anyway, I played it, also acoustically, and people came up to me afterwards and said "you gotta record that song, that was great!" That was really nice to hear, because I really do love the song – and, as the lyric says, sometimes life is like a horror show, you know?
RM: It is a great little song. And, given Greg’s passing to the evil that is Alzheimer’s, it takes on even more poignancy and relevancy.
RB: Yeah. Also, as part of those acoustic tours with Greg, we played at Daryl’s House, where they did a four camera video shoot and recorded the audio for us. Now, what Greg used to do on the acoustic shows, and I hated it [laughs], was he’d say to me "OK, let’s do one more song, Knocking On Heaven’s Door."
I’d go "no, no, we can’t do a slow song – you’ve got all these great rockin’ songs we could finish up on!"
But he’d reply, in that great big voice of his, "Look, trust me on this one!"
And I’m still saying "Aw c’mon Greg, that’s a slow song, let’s leave them rocking!"
But, sure enough, every time we did it, the crowd would stand up just as we got towards the end; there was a reverence in the room, which was just amazing – he would stand up, put his guitar down, and walk off the stage as I’m playing and singing the final Knocking on Heaven’s door line.
So, I have the video of that from Daryl’s House, and the place we played those two Greg tribute concerts is a movie theatre, with a big screen behind us.
I had my son edit in a little beat after the first verse and chorus that Chris and I played, and then, at the end of that first chorus, all of a sudden on the screen behind us, there’s Greg, playing and singing with us.
There wasn’t a dry eye in the house. People thanked me after the show, because they all just wanted to say goodbye and there was just no other way to do it – there was no open funeral, or anything like that.
So, from being worried about it before we did it, I ended up feeling really good about it, because I had done something for Greg that I guess no-one else could have; his original bass player Steve Wright had passed away some years before, as had others from the classic line-up; but I had been with him for so long that it almost seemed like the Greg Kihn Band coming full circle.
But damn it if I don’t miss my old buddy coming to the studio every Thursday.
RM: Coming full circle could also apply to Rekihndled which, as you mentioned, would turn out to be Greg’s last album.
It seems to deliberately tune in to the Greg Kihn Band’s original late 70s and early eighties sound and styles; it covers all the Greg Kihn bases from rockin’ power-pop and new wave rock to funk, a touch of punkabilly and a couple of great ballads, and in fine style. In short, a great sign-off to the Greg Kihn Band legacy.
RB: I appreciate you saying that because that’s exactly what I wanted to achieve with that record.
But it was a bit of a battle, because initially they all wanted to rock it up. Greg’s son Ry, who is a really great guitar player – taught by Joe Satriani – would say "let’s really step it up."
But I said "woah, wait a minute, the Greg Kihn Band is not a loud garage band, or one that plays that kind of music, it has to be simpler than that."
And I was in control of it – it’s my studio, I’m producing, I’m the co-writer – so I made sure it had all the elements that I always liked, or remembered, about the original Greg Kihn Band.
RB: Back when I was in college, I was working in a night club to pay for a BMW I really wanted [laughs}
Greg would be playing that same night club with his band, as would other great artists like Larry Graham Jr. from Sly And The Family Stone; all kinds of people and bands from the seventies played there.
I remember seeing Greg play, and how he did it, so I had that early impression of what his sound was, or what I thought his sound was. So, in the studio for Rekihndled, I always tried to pull it back a little bit to that simpler, but great, Greg Kihn Band sound.
And Greg knew it was simpler. I don’t remember the exact quote from him, which I later said at his funeral, but it was something like "You know, I only play like three or four chords on guitar, but I had no idea how far three or four chords could take you!" [laughter].
And that’s true, because he never aspired to be more of a guitarist; he was always, first and foremost, a singer and a lyricist.
And it was an honour to be at his funeral – it was a small service of about fifteen people, but the whole valley, in fact the whole San Francisco area, wanted to be there.
RM: That’s a lovely sign-off to Greg, but one that creates its own follow-up, and final, question.
Your time spent with Greg is a perfect example of how your last musical decade has primarily been built around, as you mentioned, collaboration – 3.2 started as a project with Keith Emerson; Rekihndled and subsequent acoustic tours with Greg; two albums from Six By Six in relatively quick succession; the return of Alliance with Before Our Eyes and, as you hinted at, the likelihood of another Alliance album in the not too distant future.
But what about another solo album, which you hinted at earlier? We haven’t seen sight of a Robert Berry solo release since 2008’s excellent The Dividing Line…
RB: Well, everything you’ve just mentioned I love; I really do love all of it.
But, when Greg passed, that was really hard because it started to feel like is it all just going? Six By Six had a tour coming up then Ian Crichton had a problem so we had to cancel the dates. I don’t get depressed, really, but you put your faith in all these other guys and if they die, it’s over; if they get hurt, it’s over, at least for the time being. So, all of that was a tough, but I was also thinking "I’m not ready to give this up!"
Now, interestingly, another writer friend of mine called me a while back and said "well, what are you gonna do now?" I said I was working on another Six By Six album and he goes "why don’t you just do Robert Berry the solo artist?" He’s a really good friend and that’s what he had called to tell me – he could see things were disappearing in my life, but not the one he thought was the most important.
Because, honestly, that’s not as much fun for me – although my 3.2 tour was, because I could play stuff from all those partnerships that I have had; that was cool.
Will we see that next solo album anytime soon? I don’t know. Right now we’re working on the next Alliance album, and I’m still hoping Ian Crichton sends me material that we can make something out of for a third Six By Six record.
RM: Solo or collaborative, either way it sounds like that creativity will continue.
Robert, thanks for sitting in once more with FabricationsHQ; it’s always insightful and it’s always a pleasure.
RB: I love these chats, Ross; thanks for always going deeper than "here’s the album, let’s talk about it."
I really appreciate that, and the continued support!
Ross Muir
Muirsical Conversation with Robert Berry
June 2025
Article dedicated to the memory of Greg Kihn (1949-2024), the Baltimore boy who became a Bay Area legend.
Click here for FabricationsHQ's review of Before Our Eyes.
Photo credits:
Robert Berry images: Official Website Resources.
Robert Berry & Greg Kihn: Robert Berry Music FaceBook page.
Greg would be playing that same night club with his band, as would other great artists like Larry Graham Jr. from Sly And The Family Stone; all kinds of people and bands from the seventies played there.
I remember seeing Greg play, and how he did it, so I had that early impression of what his sound was, or what I thought his sound was. So, in the studio for Rekihndled, I always tried to pull it back a little bit to that simpler, but great, Greg Kihn Band sound.
And Greg knew it was simpler. I don’t remember the exact quote from him, which I later said at his funeral, but it was something like "You know, I only play like three or four chords on guitar, but I had no idea how far three or four chords could take you!" [laughter].
And that’s true, because he never aspired to be more of a guitarist; he was always, first and foremost, a singer and a lyricist.
And it was an honour to be at his funeral – it was a small service of about fifteen people, but the whole valley, in fact the whole San Francisco area, wanted to be there.
RM: That’s a lovely sign-off to Greg, but one that creates its own follow-up, and final, question.
Your time spent with Greg is a perfect example of how your last musical decade has primarily been built around, as you mentioned, collaboration – 3.2 started as a project with Keith Emerson; Rekihndled and subsequent acoustic tours with Greg; two albums from Six By Six in relatively quick succession; the return of Alliance with Before Our Eyes and, as you hinted at, the likelihood of another Alliance album in the not too distant future.
But what about another solo album, which you hinted at earlier? We haven’t seen sight of a Robert Berry solo release since 2008’s excellent The Dividing Line…
RB: Well, everything you’ve just mentioned I love; I really do love all of it.
But, when Greg passed, that was really hard because it started to feel like is it all just going? Six By Six had a tour coming up then Ian Crichton had a problem so we had to cancel the dates. I don’t get depressed, really, but you put your faith in all these other guys and if they die, it’s over; if they get hurt, it’s over, at least for the time being. So, all of that was a tough, but I was also thinking "I’m not ready to give this up!"
Now, interestingly, another writer friend of mine called me a while back and said "well, what are you gonna do now?" I said I was working on another Six By Six album and he goes "why don’t you just do Robert Berry the solo artist?" He’s a really good friend and that’s what he had called to tell me – he could see things were disappearing in my life, but not the one he thought was the most important.
Because, honestly, that’s not as much fun for me – although my 3.2 tour was, because I could play stuff from all those partnerships that I have had; that was cool.
Will we see that next solo album anytime soon? I don’t know. Right now we’re working on the next Alliance album, and I’m still hoping Ian Crichton sends me material that we can make something out of for a third Six By Six record.
RM: Solo or collaborative, either way it sounds like that creativity will continue.
Robert, thanks for sitting in once more with FabricationsHQ; it’s always insightful and it’s always a pleasure.
RB: I love these chats, Ross; thanks for always going deeper than "here’s the album, let’s talk about it."
I really appreciate that, and the continued support!
Ross Muir
Muirsical Conversation with Robert Berry
June 2025
Article dedicated to the memory of Greg Kihn (1949-2024), the Baltimore boy who became a Bay Area legend.
Click here for FabricationsHQ's review of Before Our Eyes.
Photo credits:
Robert Berry images: Official Website Resources.
Robert Berry & Greg Kihn: Robert Berry Music FaceBook page.