American Trash is full from beginning to end with 11 songs that sparkle with great melodic rock, powered by excellent vocals and crunchy riffs that will have you air-guitaring all the way through. The riffs part of the equation are thanks to the inimitable Micki Free. Micki began his professional career as a teenager while part of a band called Smokehouse. After a gig opening for KISS, Micki developed a friendship with Gene Simmons who provided some coaching to the young guitarist. Micki then joined the R&B band Shalamar who was just on the edge of breaking out.

Anxious to make his name in his more familiar rock & roll, Micki then teamed with Jean Beauvoir in the aforementioned Crown of Thorns, receiving critical and popular acclaim. Moving onto a relationship with the Hard Rock / Seminole Tribe group, he toured the world opening for a slew of big names and establishing many friendships and earning respect along the way.

After a series of solo records, including flute music but mostly the blues-based rock for which he is most widely known, Micki re-connected with his old partner Jean, producing this wicked new record.

It was a thrill and a real blast to speak with Micki recently about American Trash. Sixty minutes seemed to vanish in seconds as he regaled me with great stories, punctuated with lots of laughs. A true rock star, a phone call with Micki is like getting the low-down on the who's who in rock. Here's our conversation:

antiMusic: I have to say that American Trash is the best record I've heard in years and I absolutely love every single song on it. I've been playing the crap out of this and I hope it does really well for you.

Micki: Thanks man. You know I kind of felt a magic going through us when we were recording that record. I felt it was going to be a really good record because of the songs, how easily they were flowing. And that's due to my relationship with Jean. Writing is pretty non-hard to do, I don't know if that's the correct word, but we just have this thing together when we write, it's pretty forthcoming, it's easily gotten.

As you know, being friends helps. Creatively we're probably at different ends of the spectrum really but that's what happens when we get together and write songs based upon his voice and melody, and my guitar style and licks, and where we're going. People say is sounds like the first Crown of Thorns debut CD, which was a huge record. The reason it sounds like that is because the two guys who wrote that, wrote this one. (laughs) Bottom line, you know?

antiMusic: Yeah. I guess to start off with it's been over 20 years since the first Crown of Thorns. Why was now a good time to resurrect the partnership?

Micki: Jean and I are like a married couple. Gene Simmons used to say this all the time; you get into different agreements or disagreements with your significant other and so forth and so on. So after the first Thorns record, I did solo records and then you know, I went my way and Jean did his thing and held onto the Thorns. And then after that we ran into each other, sometimes in L.A. and I was just like, this is a joke. It's like we're joined at the hip almost. We each do what we do and write and have some fun.

So that was a long time ago and we started doing gigs together and hanging out. We recorded a few things at his studio when he was in Woodland Hills and I was living in L.A. as well. Then I started working---I'm Native American, Comanche and Cherokee-so I started working for Hard Rock/Seminole Tribe and he started working for Steven's company, Renegade. And it was so crazy because, once again, our paths started to cross in rock & roll because I was on the Hard Rock ticket and I was opening huge shows for Aerosmith and The Police and other big name acts as well.

I asked Jean to come over and do this date with me as Beauvoir-Free. I think it was 2009 or 2010. But long story short, we started playing together and the chemistry was there and it just wasn't any less, it was actually better. I had had some time away, and he had had some time away, doing his thing. I had met up with Billy Gibbons and I was doing blues-based solo records because that's what I really am, a blues-based guitarist. Jean and I were kicking around and last year I said, "You know what man? Let's just do another record and let's just call it Beauvoir-Free."

Because we played at Hard Rock Calling under that guise, as Beauvoir-Free and the people dug it, they loved seeing us back together and they loved hearing the old Crown of Thorns stuff. The set was part Crown of Thorns material that we had written basically so we said, "Yeah, lets do it." Jean got in touch with Frontiers Records and lo and behold they were into the idea; We'd love to have you guys do a record in the debut Crown of Thorns style." And we laughed because (laughs) that was the only style you're going to get! (laughs) And here we go with American Trash.

antiMusic: I guess before we get into the record, can you talk a bit more about your relationship with Jean? How did you guys first meet and is your relationship really built more on music or friendship first?

Micki: Let's take the first question first. I met Jean while I was on tour with Shalamar in Paris, in a club, called La Bain Douche, I think it was. I walked into the club, because we were both peacocks in those days. The '80s, man. When I was in Shalamar, I wasn't really into R&B music at that time. I joined Shalamar to get in the business as a serious musician. As Gene Simmons said to me, "If you join Shalamar, it's like getting into a limousine instead of a taxicab." Right?

antiMusic: Right. (laughs)

Micki: So I joined Shalamar. He was right. As soon as I joined the band, a year later I think, I won a Grammy for Eddie Murphy's movie Beverly Hills Cop, I'm on platinum-selling records for that song "Dancing in The Sheets" and I was off and running. And Gene Simmons said to me there's a guy that you should meet. His name is Jean Beauvoir. He's a black guy and he has a white Mohawk and he was in the Plasmatics. But he was in little Steven's band The Disciples of Souls which was really, really good. (That's where I first saw Jean on MTV riding a bike in Stevens video!) You guys should do something together.

And that kind of fell to the back of my mind, and I was like, Yeah, yeah. But at the same time Paul Stanley was saying to Jean, You need to meet this guy named Micki Free. You guys would be cool together. You should do something together. You've both got a really cool look. And I think it went to the back of Jean's head too because he was rolling pretty hard with his Drums Along the Mohawk record and I think at the time his song from�.

antiMusic: The Cobra soundtrack?

Micki: Yeah, yeah, I think so. Anyway I walk into this club in Paris. I had my bevy of models (laughs). The funny thing is that everything's true. That to me is what is so funny in the stores we tell!...So I walk in and he's walking out. I'm eyeing this guy and he's eyeing me and I go, "Hey, Jean Beauvoir," and he goes, "Micki Free". And we look at each other's models (laughs) and he goes "You should call me some time." I go, "Where are you?" and he says, "L.A. Yeah we should get together and do stuff then."

Long story short I get back to L.A., I call him and went over to his house in Beverley Hills. We write like...two songs. "Hike it Up" and "Dying For Love" I think. And I played them over the phone, I'll never forget----for Gene Simmons. And Gene was like, "Homerun. That's it. That's a homerun right there." And him and Paul wanted to get involved and thus the story of the huge deal with Interscope and Gene and Paul managing us with a company called Amazing Management and so forth and so on. That record went on to become huge and that record still holds up today. I mean the songs were just amazing songs, along with the late, great drummer Tony Thompson.

We were in the zone and we wanted the sound, we just wanted to make it our way, we were hungry to get it right. We were two guys of color that we felt weren't getting recognition as true rockers. We could rock it and roll it like everybody else, we felt! Gene Simmons and Paul Stanley knew that and most of the world did but we wanted to be in stone, a legacy, like everybody else, you know, regardless of color.

antiMusic: Sure.

Micki: And we wanted that. And getting to the second part of the question, is our friendship built on music or friendship? It's a mixture really of both. I think it's deeper on the level of friendship first, caring about each other's lives and what we do, and how are you, how's your family, with real love and concern. But then we connect musically on a level that's voodoo-like, when you have two people in a band that both can do it. I'm a lead singer, I'm a guitarist and I'm a producer, producing my solo records. Jean, he plays everything as well and is THE PRODUCER with a vision that I share when he produces us as a team.

So the thing I liked about Crown of Thorns, the thing I like about Beauvoir-Free is, I don't have to be the lead singer. I can chill out and play guitar and support and have fun and know that it's going to be rocked to death because to stage right of me, centre, is Jean Beauvoir the voodoo man, and he can do what needs to be done with me supporting and then also having my time, OUR time together in the spotlight, to me its kinda�you know, like Joe Perry and Steven Tyler, Jagger and Richards, it's a partnership. I feel together we have power, I really do�LIVE and IN SONGS.

I remember when we were recording with Interscope, we would write so fast that Jimmy Iovine called us the short order cooks because they'd say, "We need one more song" and we'd have it by like the next day. It was really a good time. That time felt like it never went away when we started writing again. I mean like nothing. The magic was there because it was there, it never went anywhere. We just took a break and everybody did their own thing for a minute. Then we were like, yeah lets come back and do this thing, Beauvoir-Free. Then we came out with American Trash which is one of my favourite records now, I gotta tell ya.

antiMusic: Absolutely. The record's got a surplus of nice and nasty riffs?

Micki: (laughs) Right?

antiMusic: How do you go about writing the music for the record? Do you have a mental suitcase full of riffs that you pull out for just the right mood or moment or did you just jam everything out together fresh?

Micki: Besides my little box of riffs that I have growing in my brain at all times, I'm a riff-oriented kind of guy. Most people don't believe this because they really don't sound like what I'm inspired by, its my version of inspiration of my riffness I get from my early days, the first concert I ever saw was Black Sabbath.

antiMusic: I didn't know that.

Micki: Yeah, isn't that crazy? I loved heavy riff-laden English rock. I mean they had the best riffs, Humble Pie, and especially Black Sabbath....

antiMusic: Sorry, I don't want to interrupt you Micki but I was going to ask you later on, I really get what you're saying. The riff in "Morning After", to me, that's just Iommi-style heavy. I was going to ask you exactly that, if Tony was an influence?

Micki: Yeah, that's right. So you get it. Iommi was one of the baddest. I mean if you go back and listen to those Black Sabbath records, especially the first two or three to me, oh my god, Tony Iommi, those licks that would go from riff to riff. They'd go into a bridge, killer, just ridiculously cool. And his tone. Wow!

I could be tuning my guitar, literally, and a riff always seems to emerge, crazy right?...but that's how I tune my guitar, ping ping ping ping and then Jean's like "Woah, woah woah. Hold on. What was that?" I said, "I'm tuning up." And he says, "Play it again." And that was the riff of "Whiplash". I was just tuning my guitar (picking sounds). And Jean was, "What is that? What is that?" I said "It was just a lick." He says, "Do that again." And we wrote "Whiplash" starting with a riff.

But "Whiplash", in my mind, was a song I that heard a signature sound. And it was going in my brain, an AC/DC sounding style of a bridge, with that kind of SOUND and that kind of chorus, but OUR way and sound. I want to take it there chord-wise in my style/tone. That became "Whiplash". I read a couple of reviews about people saying it sounds like AC/DC�nice, I like that.

We never try to copy anything, but lets be real; everything has been copied. To be brief, in my humble opinion, there was Jimi Hendrix and then everyone else. Simmons used to say to me...jokingly, and it was funny, "We takes what we needs." Jean and I will sit down and we'll go, "Okay, I've got this melody and this is where I want to go. Let's take it there." And we'll actually sit down and we'll play guitars together, and I'll play and he'll play. And yeah, at some point we'll go, "That's it, that's it." And he'll go, "Give us a bridge." And we'll just write it like that.

But when Jean and I write together, riffs are my thing man. I mean I can write riffs all day and they constantly play in my head. In my sleep, I dream about riffs. Yeah. It's crazy. But for me it was all the early English bands, Sabbath, UFO, Scorpions, I mean all those guys made an impact on riffagy in my brain. I grew up in the '70s digging Aerosmith and all the KILLER bands like that, The Stones...those guys are my favourite bands right now, and Joe Perry, WOW my friend and bro, but what a ROCK GOD he is...and then my pard Billy Gibbons of ZZ TOP�.HAVE MERCY! (in his best Billy Gibbons voice), killerest tone on da planet!

My guitar playing as I progressed got more to a bluesier rock style, than riff-laden like Tony and Black Sabbath, but I never forgot where I came from as far as inspiration for riffs goes, you could say rhythm/heaviness to me is like the backbone of a guitar players sound when you want to get something done and said, especially in OUR style Jean and I do together. I mean I'm not a firm believer in how many notes you can play on a neck and how fast you can play 'em. I was never that guy, don't get me wrong, some guys can tear a hole in the sun with speed and they sound amazing doing it, but for me, not my style; too much technique, not enough soul.

My thing's being a rhythm player first. Locking that rhythm down and that tone. And then after that, Jean and I would go for my solos. I played in three piece bands my whole life. The original Crown of Thorns is the only band really that I've been in with Jean as a four-piece. I'm a three-piece guy

antiMusic: What impresses me with your solos, except when you're doing Hendrix of course, is that you get in there and you're out. It's short and sweet but very memorable. Do you have a formula or rule when you're first doing, or writing your solo, the first one out is always the one you keep or do you sometimes have to patch things together?

Micki: Well it depends. When I'm doing solo records I just do what I want, feeling it out as a solo artist with me producing, Then I can blaze...and Hendrix is my favourite guy. Well, I don't know if I can say he's my no.1 guy but that's who everybody hooks me up to, I personally probably think its because he was, as I am, part native and I use a wahwah peddle a lot. That's because of Clapton while in Cream, brilliant, moving to Jimi.

But when I do solos with Jean, I feel like I'm a gunslinger and in my belt I've only got so many bullets and I want to make sure every one hits the mark. And so my solos are based melodically around what Jean is singing in the hook and what I'm playing riff-wise. And so I want it to be very sexy and very complementary of the song, He produces it as well like that.

So I'll do one usually on my solo stuff, if I can't get it after three, it's going to take a while. That's just how it is with me. Usually, it's the first solo. Because that's the one that I just shoot from the hip and it usually works. If I have to start thinking about it too long, it becomes boring to me and I can't do it the way that I envisioned it. But when I record with Jean, he's a stellar producer...he brings it out, using that voodoo touch of his, He knows what and WHERE I'm going for. He'll stop me and say "Oh man, that one right there." And if I clunk one time, he goes, "OK�Fix that one right there" and then you have a solo.

But my solos on Crown of Thorns debut and American Trash are complementary to the songs. That's how I roll, when we do a song like that. Because it's not like my solo records where it's all me. Yeah, I'm part of a team in Beauvoir-Free so I want to support the team and make it sound the best I can. I have a really melodic style that I got into while in the original Crown of Thorns, and that goes back to Carlos Santana. If you listen to my tones and if you listen to some of those licks they're kind of blues-based rock.

antiMusic: Yeah, that makes sense, absolutely.

Micki: Yeah man. And that's how I do the solos for sure, no doubt.

antiMusic: Tell us about the title track. Jean says it's an homage to dancers across the globe. Once he suggested that theme to you did you have any trouble in creating that riff, which must be quintessential dancer song right now because this is just plain nasty. (laughs)

Micki: You know, that is so crazy. He's right. Living in LA in the '80s, that was the most decadent time. And that's when we were there. Dancers supported the industry, oh my god, you have no idea. Motley, Poison, to me, to most everybody then because when you were out there struggling you had a friend or a girlfriend who was a dancer and she would help you out. If I can remember that far back, most of those girls were so sweet man and it's not like everyone thinks about a dancer doing it for all the wrong reasons. Some were trying to go to school, some had kids and they were supporting themselves and more than not�supporting their men as well.

And that was the whole truth about the song, "American Trash". We were like we are going to write a song called "American Trash" and we're going to make an homage to dancers who supported rock 'n roll in those days, and STILL to this day. And the riff for "American Trash"�.gotta say inspired by Billy Gibbons, yeah...I think inspired by Gibbons in my subconscious mind.

And if you go to the bridge in that song, to go back to '70's and Iommi and those guys, it's just a rock n roll bridge. It just breaks it down with tone and you know, takes you there. I think it's a great song, "American Trash", yeah man, it did exactly what we wanted it to do. We wanted people to go "What?" and we wanted people to go, "Yeah!" It's doing that really. Jean, what can I say; the production and HIS voice are simply KILLER to me�..YEA YEA YEA!.."American Trash", it's pretty funny. (laughs)

antiMusic: (laughs) Like I say, I love absolutely every single song on there. My top three are the first three songs on there. I have to say that "Morning After" that does it for me every time I hear it. Like you said, the riff is just Iommi heavy. And then when the song hits that melodic chorus, man it doesn't get much better than that for me. Tell us about writing that one.

Micki: I think..."Morning After", there's so many good songs on there, you're right, but that one I can't really say it's my favourite cut or I could say it's my favourite cut depending on the day, but that song is beautiful man. And the riffs. And I have to admit; in all my career, that's one of my favourite solos I've ever done. Very melodic, it moves with the changes of the song and I'm trying to complement overall melody and Jean voice, to me that song right there is kind of written about me and Jean. We're going to be here no matter what the morning after.

So we're writing this and we're going to stand tall and we're going to be here the morning after. If you listen to those lyrics it's almost self-explanatory what's happening. And the beauty of it, anybody could put it to their time in their life. If you're struggling with anything, if you're fighting for anything, stand tall and be strong�you'll be there the morning after. When the smoke clears, you're still going to be standing. Yeah, that's right.

antiMusic: Cool.

Micki: To me its a great song. Jean sounds amazing on that. I love the way it's recorded. The whole production on that record...Jean....he just kicked ass on it. We were so in tune, so focused. And when he was done with a song or a couple, he always gives them to me because he's so very close to everything' FREE what do you think?...I'd put it in my Escalade, and in those Escalades you've got those Bowes sound systems that sound amazing, you can hear EVERYTHING.

And so I just cruise and put those sounds on and he'd ask me, "What's missing? What do you hear? Blah blah blah" I give him my 2 cents. He sends me another piece of it and then when we've got it I think, I go "That's it man. That's it right there." And he's very close to everything so our partnership works pretty good in that way because he's like, "Do you think...?" and I'm "That's it. That's it. That's it." At the end of the day if we can live with it and we can put it out there and it works. Cool. And if it doesn't, cool too. Because it means at least we did it our way. And that's very important to us. But that song, yeah, that lick at the beginning...freaking forget it. (laughs)

antiMusic: Absolutely. (laughs) One of the all-time great riffs, "Angel's Cry" is the perfect way to open a record. Tell us about how this song came to you.

Micki: We wanted a hard hitter, something cool with a good riff to start things off and you know, I came up with the lick and we built upon that as well. And that whole idea of "Angels Cry" in my mind about a girl that did wrong to her boyfriend and the angel got caught...even angels cry.

We wanted the song to be just a hard-hitting song with riff and killer melody. And we really struggled with what to put for the first track on that record, because Jean and I felt there were so many strong songs on the record. For awhile we were going, "What do you think?" There was "Morning After", "Just Breathe"�to us there's just so many good songs on there and so we decided, along with Frontiers, that "Angels Cry" was going to be the first cut off of the American Trash CD. And it seems to be the right one. With good song to set everything up that was going to come after it, I think it was a good choice as well.

antiMusic: And by the way, speaking of angels, who's the angel in the video who really helped sell that song?

Micki: Right? It was crazy. She was just a girl that auditioned that they brought to us and (laughs) she was in the video. We didn't know her. And she was a dancer. Go figure, Right? (laughs)

antiMusic: You sort of mentioned this already and the other day Jean was saying that he felt that your guitar playing is an extension of his voice and that it complement each song so well he also remarked that in particular you know when what not to play is was just as important as blowing out 50 notes per second. I thought that was so true, like in "Just Breathe" where you just come in, the first time we hear you, you come in with just that one note and just hold it and speaks more than a flurry of notes. Do you feel you have a good sense of restraint as well as the ability to let loose when you need to?

Micki: I really think that I do. and that comes with digging people like Jeff Beck and Billy Gibbons, Carlos Santana and others, to me, depending on the song, less is more, again depending on what you're trying to say; I'll have a loaded baked potato with that STEAK baby! I've just never been a guy that wants to play scales in a song, in a solo (mimmicks fast guitar playing) while the beautiful melody is created around what Jean is singing�I've just never been that guy.

When I used to listen to Hendrix records and Santana records, Morley, and Black Sabbath and everybody, I ingested that stuff. I never wanted to play "Voodoo Chile" or "All Along The Watch Tower" note for note, (couldn't anyway with the feeling of Jimi), some can mimic it, but I didn't ever want to. Why? There's only one Jimi Hendrix. You were never going to be that guy. EVER. I jammed with Jimi's younger brother Leon Hendrix on Voodoo Chile (slight return) once and he said; "You channel Jimi's spirit, his aura, especially, on "Voodoo Chile". Today it's STILL one of my all time favourite songs, by Bob Dylan and Jimi Hendrix.

I have never been that guy to load his gun with a full clip and shoot every bullet in three minutes. I like to pick my target. I like to ease into it. I like to feel what's going on and complement what's happening. Jean's voice is so melodic and the way our songs are written, it lends itself to do cool, melodic guitar stuff, even if it's one note.

I'll bring this up too, because I said it about the debut Thorns album: my solo guitar playing a la one note that are backing the chord structure of melody, was inspired by Brian May. I am a huge Queen fan. Huge. The tone of those one notes following the chord and the melody. Brian May, and I still love his tone and the way he plays.

antiMusic: Wow. I wouldn't have guessed that.

Micki: Yeah man. I'm deep (lowers voice) I'm deeeeep Morley. Not. (laughs)

antiMusic: You get some different sounds on the record. You got some acoustic out for "Never Give Up", which you could imagine acoustically being played around a campfire almost. Did you try a couple different arrangements on this cut?

Micki: Ah man, that song was so spiritual in a way, that it kind of came to us. Again, saying we're never going to give up "When Valhalla calls my name again, I'm going to look and say I'm not ready yet." We're just saying, we just want to stay here till we get it right.

And that song was a beautiful melodic thing that again came to us quite easily and Jean...I call him the Hook King, the Melodic Master. I mean he has that down. His popness and vocal tones and knowledge of ROCK, I try to get into that and complement him and I think it works. And "Never Give Up" is a beautiful song. I mean, I could see people with lighters digging that and relating to it because, again, it's for everyone, saying don't ever give up. And as I said, it was a beautiful arrangement that we started and it turned into that song. I don't think we tried different variations of it actually, Jean had the melody based on the chord structure and we were off and running.

antiMusic: I have to ask you about something from your back catalogue. I can't imagine any other song being more important to you considering your history, than "Wounded Knee" from your American Horse record, which I love. Tell us about writing that song.

Micki: Yeah. As you may or may not know, Wounded Knee was a very dark time in native history with brothers being slaughtered/cut down in Wounded Knee, South Dakota. I just wanted to connect on that level of being proud of where I come from and supporting native people and that battle. It actually wasn't a battle. It was a massacre. I was just compelled to write that song. It's just a bluesy, sorrowful tone and feeling that's saying "This is what happened and this is my version of it in song and guitar." It's a very important song to me and it holds up even today. I still play it�people ask me to play it. It tells the story of what happened to Wounded Knee and hopefully stuff like that won't ever happen again.

antiMusic: Give us an update about your solo stuff, outside Beauvoir-Free then. Is American Horse Trio still active, any recording in the horizon?

Micki: At this particular time, the project the Beauvoir-Free project is first on the list, no doubt. But I do play solo when I get the chance. Playing with Cindy Blackman Santana is a treat in itself , Cindy's been out with Lenny Kravitz a lot so we haven't had much time to do solo stuff with her. And bassist David Santos is in Nashville (John Fogerty, Elton John) he lives there.

So when Cindy's not available there's time to do solo stuff, because of Davids Santos we've used Steve Ferrone from Tom Petty & The Heartbreakers, who is a monster drummer, or I've used my good friend Curly Smith, the drummer from Boston; he's a bad man as well! I've had the good luck to play with these guys and they all are astonishing, bringing something to the pie�.And when Cindy's available, it's the original American Horse Trio.

The Beauvoir-Free record is the most important thing at this time but we all have our individuality, Jean and I, so if he's not doing that, if we're not doing this, then the other projects come up and that's what we love to do. I'm a guitar player man. I LOVE to jam. To me there's nothing like a free-form jam. It's like, I'm a player that was a young boy growing up in the '70 and that's when all the greats were around playing, and most still are; Jeff Beck, Clapton, Hendrix, Carlos Santana, Tommy Bolin, Billy Gibbons, etc, etc.

Let me NOT to forget to add Cheap Trick! Rick Nielsen of Cheap Trick is one of my favourite guitarists and oldest and dearest friends. I learned a lot from Rick Nielsen and Cheap Trick's early records which inspired my song writing and chords, especially when I write with Jean, chords that are not played in the way you'd think they would be played. Played and inspired the way I heard Rick Nielsen play on the first and second Cheap Trick records. So cool and different. Love Rick!

antiMusic: Really.

Micki: I've known The Trick since 1974 and we've been friends ever since then. I've just had so many influences that have come through me as a guitarist and as a songwriter growing up. I grew up really in Europe.

antiMusic: Yeah, Germany, right?

Micki: Yeah. My stepfather was in the service. For me it was Hendrix, Cream, The Who and all those guys. I mean I didn't hear anything else until I got back to the States. And then I was way ahead of anybody else my age. I was digging all that sh*t. And Eric Clapton when he was with Cream, forget it. His tone that I love so much is in my solo in "Cold Dark December". To me straight up Cream tone, that's what I call it man, when it's like total bass pickup and the sustaining. I just love the way Clapton played on that first Cream, "Sunshine of Your Love"? I mean, forget it. Right?

antiMusic: Okay. This is the last question. What's your favourite memory of being managed by Gene?

Micki: There's just so many good memories of my time with Gene Simmons. You know, Gene discovered me at an early age and then, at the time, his girlfriend was Diana Ross. So he brought me Diana Ross to see me. She signed me to her company called RTC Action Management. She was doing a tour in 1981 of huge venues and she decided to take me with her as an opening act, The Micki Free Band it was called. My very good friend Jon Brant, was the bass player that went on after we toured and joined Cheap Trick, and you're going to love this: KISS wasn't on tour. So Gene Simmons went with us and he sometimes would sit in with the sound guy and make sure my sound was rock & roll!

antiMusic: Wow.

Micki: Yeah man. Kiss wasn't touring and so we would play places like Joe Louis Arena, Cobo Hall, Dallas Union Arena, Houston Summit. I mean HUGE 30 thousand seaters and my little band would open up for Diana. And Simmons would be right there in the front row and after the sound was done he'd come and sit in the front row, he'd look at me and if I wasn't doing what he taught me, what we'd rehearsed...he'd always say if anything fails, you have your smile which wins everything. So if I wasn't smiling and if I wasn't feeling right, I'd look down and Gene would be pointing at his face with a huge smile. (laughs) I knew that meant for me to smile.

And KISS was such a big influence on me, musically. Gene and Paul especially, Gene is uber coolness and power and Paul the sexy ass strutting bad ass Star Child! In particular, the albums Hotter then Hell and Dressed to Kill. The riffs in there are just amazing and I have to give props to the people who helped shape me with Gene being #1. I also loved Ace's playing growing up, especially on the Hotter Then Hell record. Killer!

We don't have enough time to talk about the good things that went on with Gene Simmons and myself in the early '80s when he first found me. Gene was really, really my mentor, almost like a father figure to me, good and bad.

That's way before he even had his son, so I like to think I was in that slot kind of, you know. And I think they're bigger now than KISS has ever been.

antiMusic: When I was listening to your record and knowing about relationship between all of you guys, that's all I could think about. What a tour that would be.

Micki: Oh my god, it would be like a dream come true for me as well. I mean to support KISS and be there with Gene and Paul; The Demon & Star Child!!! It would really, really be the icing on the cake, especially for me and my career, it would be a total eclipse of me winning my Grammy! �well, not really, but it'd be FUN! I opened for KISS when I was just a boy, that's how Gene discovered me. I mean Beauvoir-Free are getting really, really, good reviews on this record, Morley, unbelievable reception on it, and at this time I'd like to personally thank YOU for your 10/10 review and support!

It's really heart-warming as a musician and as a human being that people get it. You know, that people really get it. That's the best part of it. And I can tell that you do. Jean sends me reviews, people are nailing these songs EXACTLY how we felt in those songs. It's unbelievable. Twenty years, some guy said, what took you so long? And you sound the same, and better. Like you just got off the bus, the writing team that gave you the debut Crown of Thorns record and wrote this record as well�.Beauvoir-Free�yeah, isn't that weird man?

antiMusic: Yeah. Absolutely.

Micki: I mean unbelievable. But I wish good things for us on this record, but the music business these days�well what can I say?

antiMusic: I hear you. It's such a depressing situation right now.

Micki: Unbelievable. Growing up I never thought it would end up like this. When they quote Gene Simmons saying "Rock n roll is dead" and all that, I don't know if I can go right along with Gene saying that but I understand totally what he's talking about....

antiMusic: As a business, yeah.

Micki: Yeah, as a business it's unfortunate. It's very unfortunate, LONG LIVE ROCK!

Morley and antiMusic thank Micki for taking the time to speak with us.

Preview and purchase the new album here.