Sitting at the big, beautiful old dining room table in the big, beautiful old St. Pete house he shares with his girlfriend Linda, Mojo Gurus frontman Kevin Steele looks a bit tired. He's got every right to; it's still early morning on Rock Time — not yet noon — and the lanky 39-year-old singer-songwriter is still recovering from leading his band through a series of showcases in New York City, and he's been home less than 12 hours.
Smoking a Marlboro Light, brushing his long hair away from his face and the sleep from the corners of his eyes, Steele says the shows went well. What he remembers most vividly about the trip north, however, is something other than the concerts themselves.
"It's so cool to walk into Tower Records and see the display for your band's record in there," he says, smiling and shaking his head a little. "It's been so long since I saw that."
About 15 years, actually.
As ringleader for glam-rock act Roxx Gang, Steele enjoyed many of the accoutrements of ascendant stardom: a major-label contract; MTV airplay; a handful of relatively successful singles (most notably the Headbanger's Ball staple "No Easy Way Out"); world tours supporting the household names of the era. But Roxx Gang's fate was inextricably entwined with that of the hair-metal scene with which the band had instantly become associated — a situation that still rankles Steele.
"I never really associated Roxx Gang with Poison or Warrant," says the singer. "Our glam-rock roots were Mott the Hoople and the New York Dolls and stuff. In my mind we were always a little darker, we weren't doing 'Unskinny Bop'."
In any case, when Sunset Strip cock-rock faded from the national spotlight, so did Roxx Gang.
As many of its former peers scrambled to keep up with whatever the next trend was in guitar-driven music, Roxx Gang continued to record and release what were recognizably Roxx Gang records, albeit with a significantly lowered profile. But a subtle shift was taking place, a move away from provocative riff-rock and toward something a little more classic. The group's penultimate effort, Mojo Gurus, was conspicuously more influenced by primal, soulful proto-rock styles, and when the band played a bluesy, low-key gig under that name in '99, it was obvious to Steele what should happen next.
"We just decided to call ourselves that," he remembers. "We had a blast, we got a great reaction and we said, 'This is the way to go.' If you think back to those times, there were a lot of bands in what was our genre, I guess, that all of a sudden grew goatees and started wearing combat boots. But I'm about to turn 40, man. This hasn't been an unnatural thing — overnight going blues or something. It's been a real, 10-year natural transition.
"Even in [Roxx Gang's] heyday, I would get back to the hotel and say to myself, Mick Jagger wouldn't be singing 'Live Fast Die Young.' I always wanted a more blues-based rock 'n' roll band. And I got one. It was a real thing; it came out of a real love for that stuff."
After a period of waffling over whether to leave the Roxx Gang moniker behind for good — a 2000 album called Drinkin' TNT & Smokin' Dynamite has been credited to both Roxx Gang and Mojo Gurus by different sources — a clean break was made. Mojo Gurus dove headfirst into three-sets-a-night gigs at the seediest Bay area bars that would have them, re-cutting their teeth, plumbing classic blues, country and R&B tunes, and refining Steele's emerging knack for penning rootsy, rip-snorting songs that evoked rockabilly, swampy Delta twang and roadhouse stomp while keeping just a touch of classic-glam's cheek.
It all came together on 2003's Hot Damn!, a record that surprised the shit out of everybody who assumed the Roxx Gang guys were just dabbling in some country crap, or whatever. It's a good album, full of fun, fire and spit, and lending very little credence to any allegations that Steele, guitarist Jeff Vitolo, drummer Tommy Weder and bassist Vinnie Granese were mere tourists.
Hot Damn! enjoyed enviable success, garnering airplay on college and community radio stations nationwide, and landing on the FM Roots Rock Top 35 chart for three weeks. It also did exceedingly well on dozens of Internet radio stations, largely due to tireless promotion by a few web-savvy supporters.
"We have a fan, Rich Troost, who's been an invaluable friend to us," Steele says. "He's a total Internet geek, and he just started working the thing, and it blew up."
The commotion was noticed by Empire Musicwerks, a Universal Records subsidiary, which began courting the band. It also caught the attention of legendary veteran uber-producer Jack Douglas, who's worked with everyone from Miles Davis and John Lennon to the New York Dolls, The Who and Aerosmith.
"Every year, we went to New York and L.A. to do showcases," says Steele. "And as a result of playing [NYC club] Arlene's Grocery last year, Jack Douglas' manager saw us." Brett Steele, Mojo Gurus manager and Kevin's brother, gave Douglas' manager a CD. "When we got back to Florida," Kevin continues, "the manager called us and said, 'Any label you're talking to, feel free to tell them Jack Douglas is on board to produce.'"
It was more than enough to finalize the deal with Empire, and the resulting record, Shakin' in the Barn, pairs three of the finest tracks from Hot Damn! (re-recorded with Douglas, natch) with nine new tracks that sound like they'd be as at home on roots-rock radio as they would be at some Las Vegas rockabilly fest, on an alt-country bill or rollicking on stage at some semi-dangerous biker dive.
"It's a different crowd [than in the Roxx Gang days]," Steel confirms. "It's a little more mature, both age-wise and musically, and that's fine with us.
"But I don't want to come across like we're old farts yet, we've still got a lot of life left in us. Saying Mick Jagger is too old to rock 'n' roll is like saying the Pope's too old to be Catholic. When Mick says you're too old to rock 'n' roll, then you're too old to rock 'n' roll.
"Plus, we still look pretty good for our age, man," he adds with a smile. "A few wrinkles add character. Those things are hard-earned."
This article appears in Sep 28 – Oct 4, 2005.