Since May last year, Jeff Scott Soto seems to have spent almost as much time in the UK as in the USA for one reason or another. He seems to have a finger in an awful lot of pies and be getting more and more recognition as one of the truly great rock performers. Now he has been invited to be part of the whole Queen family, how will that change his outlook? I tried to find out.

So, your new album 'Prism' came out on November 11th. From the reviews you've read, how do you think it's been received?

The overall results from the massive amounts of interviews I've done - I've never done so many in my life! - is that even the journalists have all come with rave reviews. Which is amazing to me because I thought if anything I would get more criticism for it being such a lighter affair than most people would have expected me to do. There was somewhat of a disappointment with 'Love Parade', being that it was more on the funkier, groovier side. I think that most people would expect me to redeem myself by doing more of a heavier thing with a second solo album. So I was ready for them with the backlash saying it's just too soft, it's too pop or whatever and in fact they're raving about it way beyond my expectations or anything I could imagine.

Do you think that people are more willing to recognise and appreciate the diversity of it? For example, you do a track with Glenn Hughes who has diversified his musical styles all through his career.

'Love Parade' was exactly that. It was more like my little rebellious stage of showing people I'm capable of much more than just being a metal or hard rock singer. It was kind of like, get it out of my system and the fact that it wasn't that well received I knew that maybe they're not ready for me to go that direction. So, I might as well do something that I still enjoy doing but something that is going to be more favourable.

What about the new Talisman album? Have you recorded any of that yet?

It's done! I have a copy here for you - I'll play it for you when we're done. It's in the can, it's ready to go, I believe in May. The reason we did it now, as opposed to closer to when it's to be released is because the original idea was for me to be touring from January all the way through the spring. I didn't want to come off the tour completely tired and weathered and then having to go right into the studio and record an album. So in getting it done now, I can come off the road and the album will come out and maybe we'll do a few shows before the summer starts, but for the moment, Talisman probably won't tour till fall.

Speaking of performing live, were you surprised by the reception you got at the Gods?

Extremely! First of all, I didn't realise how the billing of the bands was. You know, even on the headline status. I saw some of the bands that were closer to the top of the billing and I thought well, I've been around since '84, and I've done this, that and the other. There are a few acts on that bill that have had a few albums, they've had minor successes, and I wondered why, just out of respect, that I wasn't a little higher up the bill. But then, when we actually did the show, I realised that it was an absolutely perfect spot for me to be in because it was before everybody was getting too hot and bothered, and tired.

By the time Hardline came on everybody was falling asleep, it was such a long day. Shame too as they were so good.

Exactly that. I was right after Honeymoon Suite. I've always loved that band. To go on after them and then for Eric (Martin) to come on after me, well I thought it was absolutely perfect when it actually happened. So, I was very pleased to start with, especially as I watched the continuing of the evening and everyone was just getting tired, they had been in there all day, and it was so hot. I was just like thank God we did it when we did it.

You got rave reviews at the Gods. A lot of people were saying that you were the act of the day.

That's AS surprising to me as the album reviews to be honest. Given the circumstances of getting the band together, the fact that my guitar player hadn't met the other two guys in the band until that week, just prior to the show. All the odds were against me that we were going to be able to pull this off, as well as knowing that we were recording this for a future live product, you know? But then again, I always seem to persevere in those challenging situations. The Yngwie live in '85 video for instance. That was after the fifth show we had ever played as a band. We did two shows in LA, and that was our third show in Tokyo and it was released for the world to see, forever. It's one of those things where I wish I could finally get into a situation where we had a little more behind us before we had the product actually out there, but it kind of shows the beginning stages. The fresh rawness of it before it becomes sterile and auto- pilot status. That's what I really liked about it and I think it came off well.

I think it was definitely a better performance than the Z Rock show, but then you had so many problems that day, didn't you?

Absolutely! It was night and day. Everything from the production crew, the sound, to even the feelings within the band. There were mixed feelings of little taunts and arguments going on within the band, there were a few little things going on with the record company and there was a lot of things that made it not enjoyable for me. If it weren't for Tony (Marshall), I really wouldn't have had a good time.

Now, between doing Z Rock and the Gods, you did the Queen Convention. How did that go?

It went really well. It's doing one of those kind of things- it's a very strange animal because you're in an environment where these people are not just fans like you and I of particular bands or music. These people are FANATICS! These people live, breathe, drink and eat this music still, after twenty and thirty years. Nothing against them, but most of them are not young, because they've been fans for many, many years and they continue the legacy of the music that the band created. But, with that it's always difficult to try and win them over because if you're going to come in and just do the annual Queen fare of trying to be a Queen tribute band. The singer comes out with the orange jacket and tries to look like Freddie- they're just so sick of that. But then again, if you come out and do your own thing, and you don't do it well enough, their expectations are a lot higher. So, it's a catch twenty-two situation because they want you to do the Queen stuff the way they did it, but as well, they don't. After saying that, it's probably one of the easiest gigs I've had to do, once I was actually on stage. Especially since I shared the stage with another singer. I just came up in the middle of the set, did six songs and I was off. Once I was into my second song, it was my audience and then it was over. It was great.

Was it strange in the fact that the venue was a holiday camp in Prestatyn?

That was VERY strange. I mean, again, it was one of those things where because of that it led to a few things (I'm sure you're going to get to in some of your questions), it just kind of went hand to hand. It's as I said, these people don't know me from a hole in the wall. It was the same with people within the Queen organisation- with the exception of the band members. I mean, Brian was familiar with me from my days with Yngwie, etc. on a musician level because he knows all artists from Elton John to Nirvana, Foo Fighters and stuff like that. He's always keeping himself current. But with these people it was like "Who is this guy and why is he here?" To me that's always a great obstacle because if I can turn that around to my advantage, then I know that I've got a little more than I thought I had.

Is that how you got involved in the whole Queen thing in the first place then?

No, that actually started about three years ago. I had sent some stuff off to the fan club, for them to get over to Brian. He had just released a second solo album and I've read different things about him not liking touring and he doesn't really like singing and playing the whole time and I thought, he's got a new album out, maybe he would actually consider getting a front man, and doing a tour. That way, he would be more relaxed and just play the guitar but he could have somebody bringing forth the songs, do some Queen songs without the pressure of Queen. So, I sent the stuff over to the fan club and first conquered that obstacle of them saying "Well, who are you, and why should we give your stuff to Brian May?" Once they heard it and I got past that one, they got it to him directly and he sent me a hand written letter saying "Great stuff, thanks for sending it along, nothing's really happening right now. I'm not really interested in doing any live shows, but maybe we'll work together some day in the near future." Within a few months after that, I was invited to go sing with him at the Freddie Mercury birthday party that the fan club do every year. He was going up to do a few songs with the SAS band and they said "If you can make your way here, we'd love to have you, we'll introduce you to Brian" and that's basically how it all began. I flew out on a moments notice, just got there, no sleep, on full adrenaline, and went up and just tore the house down with them. That got a little of the buzz going like "Who was that masked man?" The people who were there three years ago still remember me, they remember me from the Queen convention, and a lot of them were in LA for the recent Queen gig that they did and a lot of them have been to the SAS shows.

You mentioned earlier about a solo tour. Is that booked yet?

Unfortunately, out of all the things I thought I wouldn't have any problems with, I'm having huge problems with it. I always think of all the negatives with everything else - will the fans like the music, will the album be distributed properly, will I be doing enough press? All those things have been going like clockwork. I couldn't ask for anything more in every one of those avenues. The only one that I thought would be the easiest, based on the kind of show I want to do, based on the Gods show for instance, I thought they would all be knocking down my door. Promoters, venues, that sort of thing and I cannot get anyone interested in this, believe it or not. I've got maybe two or three venues in Germany that are interested in doing it, I've got maybe one in Italy, one in Spain. I mean it's ridiculous that I've already gone through two separate promotion companies, not too big, but big enough for what I want to organise here, and they both came back saying sorry. I've gone to venues, I've gone to other local promoters and nobody's interested in taking the risk. And so the only way I'm actually going to be able to do shows or a tour or anything is if I do it myself and pay for it myself and take that financial gamble. It's something I want to do, I'm not necessarily prepared to do yet. It's not like I have the backing of a record company. Frontiers is a great label, but they don't do that kind of stuff. The artist is on their own when they want to do live things. So it's a wait and see type of thing now where I had the full game plan of being out by the end of January, now there's no way I'm going to be able to organise something. There are a few things on the horizon, but nothing set in stone and even when I get excited about some of those things, they just seem to be pulled form under me.

How does it differ when you're playing with your solo band to playing with Talisman?

Well, there's a hell of a lot more freedom with my solo thing because with Talisman I couldn't see doing an Eyes song, an Axel Rudi Pell song. I couldn't even foresee doing a song from my solo album or the Rockstar music or any of the things I did at the Gods show. It would feel strange. It would feel like those guys are now my backup band as opposed to 'they're my band'. With me controlling exactly what we're doing on my own thing, there's more freedom because the whole band are capable of doing anything I throw at them. Even having to use a guitar player on bass because the Yngwie and Talisman stuff, I know I can go anywhere with it. They can play rock, they can play funk. They can play anything, where Talisman is good for what Talisman does. Marcel could never play funk bass, he's not that great of a background vocalist, there are certain aspects that my band are just more 'overall' about. Not to take anything away from Talisman, because what we do, we do extremely well. I think we do much better than I think my band would be able to pull off but at least with my band I can kind of work my way around all of it and give them everything they want to hear.

I hear somebody has written a book about you?

Yeah, I don't really know much about this. I've contributed some details. Some of the really inside stuff but apparently this person knows more about my career than I do! I mean, he's dug up session recordings of things I never even got copies of after I'd done them! I got a question a month ago as he was finishing off the book asking me about a particular track that I did when I was in the middle of the Rockstar sessions. I had gone in one day to finish off some backgrounds for the songs and the producer said "Okay, we've got this other song, more than likely not going to make it on the record or even in the movie, but it's something Zack (Wylde) had written. It's a little dark, a little heavy, maybe we can structure his main idea and come up with something." We worked on it for a good hour or two. I laid down the vocals, never saw or heard from it again. It just disappeared. This guy acquired a copy of it and he wanted information about it, so I told him exactly what I've just told you. I'm saying "How do you have a copy of it? I don't even have a copy!" I had even forgotten I sang it!

So he's really dug deep then? It's in German though, isn't it?

Yeah, it's in German. I don't even know what the book looks like, I don't know the contents.

(I show Jeff a copy of the cover of the book)

So that's the cover?! Couldn't he have chosen a better photo than that? (Cringes)

That's what I thought! It doesn't even look like you!

I mean it's so POSER, it's so Danger Danger (laughs)! Circa 1987, that was obviously from the Eyes era when we all looked like that!

Well, I suppose it was the 'done thing' in 'those days'! I know you've gone into it a little so far in the questions about Queen, but how exactly did that end up with you being involved in the SAS Band? (Spike's All Stars)

The SAS band were the band that were there when I did the thing with Brian May, then about a year and a half later, I had never kept in contact with any of them and then they came through LA. They were doing a corporate show in Hawaii or something and had a stopover in LA. They booked a gig at a West Hollywood club and I heard about it. I went down and wanted to see if they'd remember who I was. It was like old chums! Even though I had only met them one night and hadn't seen them in a year and a half, and they said "yeah, we're playing, we've got Steve Lukather, Fish is singing, Paul Young is singing, you should come up and do a song." Killer, great! Just like old times! Then it was obviously, again, another year had gone by since I'd seen Spike, just before this Queen thing in LA. Spike's always the musical director for anything Brian or Queen are doing. Whether it be the musical, whether it be the Queen's Jubilee concert, whatever. He's always the ringleader, the one who pulls the band together, the set list, etc. So, when I knew he was going to be there, I knew it would be comfortable and easy to get right back in there with them. I guess I impressed them so in LA from the rehearsals for the actual gig, that before we said our goodbyes Spike said "Listen, we do these annual Christmas shows in the UK and we'd love for you to come over if you're interested in coming". So of course, I'd do anything. As I said when we were speaking privately, this has opened a whole new perspective and it's broadened the whole scope of my career. These people had no idea who I was and now they do. Now there's a whole new interest from one of the biggest bands in the world (Queen). My name is already linked to Queen, and ironically the same month that my second solo album is coming out, ironically the same time that I'm trying to broaden my horizons, it's like this has just been given to me. It's like a free publicity machine. It's kind of like I get to kick back and enjoy the benefits of something that I'm just having fun with.

Do you get to do any of your own songs in the show?

No. The SAS band as most people know consists of singers that have had either hit singles or have been in the public eye whether they be in a big band or a big artist at one point or another. With me, I'm just Jeff. I'm just this guy that can sing, and they're bringing me up to do it! I don't really have a background that they ride upon. When these other artists come on, people know who they are just by their face. With me, it's got to be a little introduction, who is this guy, we'll tell you a bit about him, then he just does his thing.

So have you been enjoying the shows?

Immensely! Every night gets better and better. I'm sad that tonight's the last one. In a way I'm happy it's the last one! (laughs) It's wearing me out! I'm much rougher today than I was yesterday.

You've had so much success and so many opportunities thrown your way in the last few years, so what are your hopes for the future?

As anybody who has a current album out and anybody who has a fledgling career, I just hope to be able to take it to the next level. For me it's an exciting time but it's also a very scary time because even with the anticipation of the album coming out, you always want that anticipation to stay. Once it arrives, it can either go this way or that way. Whichever way it goes, you don't have that anticipation anymore. You have to follow up on whichever. You have to pick up the pieces, or continue on from an actual successful endeavour, so right now I'm just trying to keep the focus of what to do to keep the momentum going. To try and get this tour organised. I've got the live DVD coming out soon, so I want to be on the road by then just at least, if not to support that, just to be able to do what I did at the Gods and go a little further. I feel cheated that it was just one show. Here we are six months later and I haven't done a thing about it. My main goal and plan is just to continue. Baby steps. I want to be a rock star when I grow up!