Lovin Life After 50: East September 2020

Fee Waybill Rides Again The Tubes’ lead singer goes solo for hard-driving rock record

BY CHRISTINA FUOCO-KARASINSKI The Tubes’ lead singer, Fee Waybill, says he’s happy his new solo album, “Fee Waybill Rides Again,” has seen the light of day.

It’s been a passion project for him and his longtime writing partner, pop-rock star Richard Marx.

“We’ve been working on this record on and off for seven years, Richard and I,” he says.

“The first song we wrote was ‘Faker.’ I went back and looked at my lyric sheet and it said ‘2013.’ Over the years, we did one here and one there. We had rough versions of some of the songs and then years went by.”

In early 2019, Waybill and Marx decided to do something with the songs.

“We had been dragging this through the dirt here for six or seven years,” he says with a laugh. “We tweaked here and there and redid some stuff, wrote a couple new songs.”

Besides “Faker,” the album features the melodic and soulful “Say Goodbye,” the

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Fee Waybill

facebook.com/TheFeeWaybill thetubes.com hard-charging political commentary on “Promise Land” and the crossover country vibe, “Still You on the Inside,” written by Marx, Nickelback’s Chad Kroeger, and Chris Daughtry.

The talented guests on the album also include Michael Landau, Vertical Horizon singer Matt Scannell and drummer Josh Freese (Nine The Tubes’ lead singer Fee Waybill says he’s happy his new solo album, Inch Nails and Sting).

“Don’t Want to Pull the “Fee Waybill Rides Again’. (Submitted photo) Trigger” is a hard-driving, relentlessly gusta, Michigan, called the Barn Theatre, addictive addition to the album. It be- it’s the oldest for-profit summer stock gins with a voice memo that Marx sent to theater. I started working there in 1998 doing the ‘Rocky Horror Picture Show.’”

Waybill.

He starred as Frank N. Furter, but his “He originally texted me that little intro part and I was listening to it on my favorite play is “Spamalot,” for which he phone,” says Waybill, who has written plays King Arthur.

Waybill was scheduled to return to songs with Marx since 1983. “Elizabeth, my wife, heard it and said, ‘That’s so cool. Scottsdale to play Talking Stick Resort in Why don’t you attach that somehow to September for his birthday. The COVID-19 the intro of the actual recorded song?’” pandemic nixed those plans. He enjoys traveling to Arizona in better times, either Arizona boy to perform or to see his brother, who lives Waybill’s album cover—designed by on a ranch in Cave Creek.

The Tubes’ Prairie Prince—recalls a very He’s looking forward to the time when Arizona red-and-orange sunset. It makes concerts return. He isn’t interested in perfect sense: Waybill moved to Scott- streaming shows, although he’s frequentsdale in the 1950s and grew up at 68th ly approached to do them.

Street and Osborn Road in Southwest “I don’t want to do it,” he says. “I keep Village. He remembers riding his horse turning them down. This is not what we around town and hitching it up in front of do. We try to reach them eye to eye and drug store or movie theater. translate that joy from across the footThings have changed. Now the area is lights. full of hipsters, and parking spots now lie “I don’t want to play at a drive-in with where hitches were located. everybody sitting in the tailgate of their “It’s all different, but I grew up on a car with a crappy speaker hanging from horse until I was about 16, 17 years old— the window.” until rock ‘n’ roll music took ahold of me,” COVID nearly stopped “Fee Waybill he says. “Until I moved to California, I was Rides Again” as well. on a horse every day. It’s great to get back “The whole music business shut down,” to it. Now I can play gigs and ride horses.” he says. “But we thought everyone is sitHe attended ASU, where he hoped ting at home quarantining. We thought it to study oceanography and transfer to would be nice to give them something to Scripps Institution of Oceanography in listen to, spread the joy a little bit.

San Diego—until he discovered acting.

“I’m so glad we did. We’ve received such “I was ensconced in the theater depart- a good response. It has brought a little bit ment at ASU,” he says. “I still love the the- of joy to people who are hunkered down atrical stage. There’s a little theater in Au- in the house wearing a damn mask.” www.LovinLife.com