Rich Williams – An Xperiece Interview

Rich Williams – An Xperiece Interview – by Rob Smittix.

RRX: So, how’s things?

RW: All is well. On the road. Usually, I will leave on a Thursday, come home on a Sunday and we’ll play Friday and Saturday. We do that throughout the year. And so we still wind up getting 80-plus shows in for the year. But we also get to go home; it’s a nice balance and we don’t get burnt out.

RRX: That’s ideal. I know it wasn’t like that for the full 50 years.

RW: No. In the ‘90s, we were in a bus all of the time, and that just wasn’t the best for us. Classic rock hadn’t really made its rebound yet. So we were just riding from city to city on a bus. The band and crew on one bus, and playing a lot of rock bars, basically.

RRX: Right.

RW: We’d be gone for a month or two and then come home for a week. Then we’d go back and do that again and it was hard work. We’d walk off the bus into the back door of a club and we’d get back on the bus, ride to the next place, and walk into the back door of that club. I call it the Dark Ages. I don’t really remember much of it.

RRX: Did you ever think you would have a 50th Anniversary Tour?

RW: No. We’d make an album, make another album, and tour. It just kept going.

RRX: I’m really happy that you’re coming to Albany on May 11th to the beautiful Palace Theatre and I’m certainly gonna be in the audience.

RW: Oh great.

RRX: And I’m hoping maybe to know a guy who could get me backstage or something, to hang out and see what the rock and rollers do these days.

RW: Uh, not much. Yeah, the wild and crazy times of backstage never really took off with us. There were moments but …

RRX: Probably for the best.

RW: Oh yeah, I tried to drink every town dry until about 15 years ago. The best thing I ever did was to put that away.

RRX: Sure.

RW: Now, we take it very seriously. Rock and roll in your seventies is not the same thing as it was in your twenties. There’s a whole different mindset. It’s a career and you have a legacy to uphold, etc.
After 50 years, I’m past the age of wondering what I do and looking for a backup “Plan B.” This is what I do and fortunately, we’ve been busier than we’ve ever been for the last probably nine years. We manage ourselves. So we get to pick and choose what, when, and where we go and do and how much we want to work. We are our own bosses. It’s been a very satisfying time in that sense. We’re beholden to nobody except ourselves and our fans.

RRX: That is absolutely the best. I know we were talking about the bands that have been around for a while and the party days are kind of over except for this one band—Molly Hatchet—man, those guys never quit.

RW: Well, they eventually quit because they’re all dead. They were a latter-day Southern rock band. We did some shows together quite a few times and they seemed really hell-bent on maintaining that Southern rock credo of partying hard and dying young. They kind of took it to an extreme. A lot of your ‘80s hair-bands did the same and some of them are still out there doing it. I guess it can be fun for a moment but it’s not a good thing in the long run. We’re playing the long game, you know? We never wanted to be a flash in the pan and check out in our twenties, thirties, or forties. Ideally, I will die on stage in my eighties.

RRX: That would be the best way to go, I would imagine.

RW: Why retire? So I could start playing a lot of golf? Maybe start a garden? No, I’m gonna do this. I’m still very involved in researching equipment and all that kind of stuff. I’ve got a whole new rig that I’m assembling at home right now. I’m constantly on top of those things, just trying to make it sound better. When you get the right guitar, the right amplifier, and the right system set up, all of a sudden playing just becomes easy.
What you’re hearing in your head is translating through your body and into the guitar. I think every guitar player that takes it seriously, that’s their constant goal. But it’s elusive, it’s always moving around, it’s hiding behind trees, you capture it and then it’s gone. So it’s the search for the Holy Grail constantly and that’s what I do. Again, we leave on a Thursday, come home on a Sunday, and Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday, I’m working on gear.

RRX: That’s right.

RW: So, it’s not something that we casually do. I’m doing this all the time.

RRX: It’s a dream for so many of us rockers. We all wish that we’ve made it to where people know our songs and we can tour on that for years. But as you know, the reality is, for 90% of us, it never happens.

RW: I don’t take that for granted. There are 100,000 people on YouTube that are far better players than me, that would gladly take my place. I don’t forget that. My gratitude level … I wake every day going, “Oh thank God I’ve got this job.”

RRX: For real. Well, for people who are gonna come out and see Kansas in 2024 on the 50th Anniversary Tour, what should they expect?

RW: We released the album, “Another Fork in the Road – 50 Years of Kansas,” and that’s what this tour is called. What we’re doing with the tour is covering as much of the Kansas history over the decades as we can. There will be some fun stuff that we haven’t played in a long time that fans have been wanting to hear.
We’ll be playing a bit of new stuff too. From the first song that got us our record deal to the latest album, we’re covering a bit of it all.
So that’s what the show is. We’ve got a really great band. It’s fun to walk out on stage confident that it’s going to be good.

RRX: You definitely have many years of practice for that. So, May 11th, I’m gonna see you there.

RW: Okay, I’ll be there too, I promise.

RRX: Well, it’s been a pleasure, Rich. I really appreciate your time.

RW: Well, thank you. I appreciate you.

KANSAS 50th Anniversary Tour
Palace Theatre Albany
May 11th -8pm
For Tickets: palacealbany.org

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