Las Vegas Sun

March 28, 2024

Cheap Thrills

WEEKEND EDITION: June 30, 2002

There is a telling scene in the 1982 classic coming-of-age movie "Fast Times at Ridgemont High" that involves Cheap Trick.

A high school senior is trying to scalp seats for an upcoming Cheap Trick concert to another student. The would-be buyer first acts as if she has never heard of the band and then calls Cheap Trick's music "kid stuff."

Whether intentional or not, the film makes a good point. Even in Cheap Trick's heyday -- the late '70s through the early '80s -- the group was never fully embraced by mainstream audiences.

After all, this is an American band whose popularity was launched in Japan. It wasn't until 1979's "Live at Budokan" was released in the United States -- three albums into the band's career -- that Cheap Trick found an audience in the states.

And, despite stellar pop-rock songs such as "Dream Police," "Surrender" and "I Want You to Want Me," the group has charted only one No. 1 single in its history: the schmaltzy "The Flame" in 1988.

Known for its anthemic pop-rock songs and raucous live shows, Cheap Trick maintains a devoted fan base, including many musicians, such as guitarists Joe Perry of Aerosmith and Brian May of Queen.

But the limited appeal of Cheap Trick, which performs Friday at Mandalay Beach, is just fine with the band's lead guitarist, Rick Nielsen.

In a recent interview with the Las Vegas Sun from his home near Rockford, Ill., Nielsen talked about the origin of the group's name and the band's legacy.

Sun: Sometime in the early '80s Cheap Trick was on the children's show, "Kids Are People Too." During the program you mentioned the origin of the band's was from a Ouija board. Is that true?

RN: I guess I took a little poetic license -- that was just a better story than how it really was. We'd used a bunch of different names trying to get shows. To get work we'd tell people we were a cover band. Then we'd show up and play a couple cover songs, but we did almost all original material. If you told people you were going to do original material they wouldn't even hire you. So we'd go to some places and they'd book us for a week expecting we'd do a Led Zeppelin or Beatle medley, and we didn't do it. If they didn't like us after the first night, we usually got fired. So, we had to change our name so that we could try the same ploy again.

My story is, and I'm sticking with it, the first week that we didn't get fired we were called Cheap Trick that week. Cheap Trick just kind of fit. I thought we were kind of unique, but I also didn't want to have some name that no one could ever remember.

Sun: Cheap Trick is cited as being an influence on pop, metal and punk bands. When you were writing these songs, was your goal to experiment musically?

RN: Well, for one, we were an American band but our influences were mainly European stuff. The only American bands that were really doing anything around then were the West Coast bands, like Jefferson Airplane. We weren't some psychedelic band, and we weren't like Boston or Kiss, or any of the bands that were kind of popular. And we liked punk. We weren't a punk band really, but we had elements of pop, elements of punk, elements of all kinds of stuff. We didn't all look alike. We knew we were different but we didn't realize that we'd sell a lot of records, either.

We were just happy to record because we thought we were good and we still are good. I don't like to place the term "great" ... but we're really a pretty good band.

Sun: It was the success of "Live at Budokan," a concert recorded in Japan, that made you popular in the United States. Why did your initial success come from overseas?

RN: In 1977 right before our first record came out, Queen had heard our first album and they liked us and asked us to open the shows before Thin Lizzy started the tour. So we did Milwaukee. The Japanese press, because Queen was really big in Japan, were there and they thought we were pretty cool, too. So I was asked to write a review of us opening for Queen for one of the Japanese magazines. And after that we started getting our own fan club and people from Japan writing to us. So that was really a big break for us.

Sun: Cheap Trick bassist Tom Petersson left the band in 1980 for nearly eight years. Has there ever been a time when you or the group as a whole has thought about calling it quits?

RN: Oh, after about the third or fourth song every night. (Laughs.) No, we still play great. You're doing the interview with me, I'd be afraid to ask the other three, but I think it's OK. We're playing really well, we have new material coming out, we have old material that's still relevant and we have a fan base that's second to none.

Sun: Is it about the money for Cheap Trick?

RN: No. We started out playing in a garage. Do we just want to play in a garage? No. But at the same time, we're not too big or proud. We'll go from playing some bar, to a streetfest, to a state fair, to our own show, to a sold-out show in Glasgow, Scotland, and playing five sold-out shows in London two months ago, to opening for Aerosmith. We can play everything. We actually played Joe Perry's 50th birthday party; his wife hired us. That was fun. So we do bar mitzvahs and birthday parties. (Laughs.) We do everything because we like to play and we're good at it.

Sun: Why did the live album make you so successful in the United States? Was there was more energy on that album than on the studio records?

RN: Maybe, plus ("Budokan") sounds more like what we do. Our first album sounds real raw like we are, and our second album they really toned us down. People say on the studio version of "Want You to Want Me" they tamed us way down. When we recorded the song it didn't sound as wimpy as it does, but only after it was mixed. I guess (the studio version) showcased the song more than the band, where we think the song and the band are kind of equal. So with the live recordings, the songs and the band are both showcased, which is kind of the way we like things to be.

Sun: Nearly a decade later you had a comeback, of sorts, with "The Flame."

RN: It did real well. The record company people and our management and all that stuff, they were trying to tailor us and gear us to ... they knew how good the band was, but they were unwilling to work as hard on our own material as they were somebody else's. The record company's gone, the management's gone and we're still here.

They kind of forced the issue on us. You can't disagree with some of the reasons, but they didn't get the big picture, and I think we do. So we were willing to do what we had to do, but not more than once with them being the guiding force, because the four of us are what Cheap Trick's all about. Not the record company or a manager. So we're in a good position. We have our own record label. We got back the rights to a couple of our albums that got kind of pushed to the wayside by the record companies.

Sun: What are the benefits to having your own record label versus signing with a major label?

RN: A big company is great for the distribution. But I'm very gun-shy -- the last two studio albums we did, we had trouble. The Red Ant record ("Cheap Trick"), which came out in '97, the record company went bankrupt four weeks after our record came out. So we got the rights back to that one. And the one before that on Warner Bros. ("Woke Up With a Monster"), the two main guys that signed us -- the two top guys in the business -- got fired from the company right as our record came out. So it's like that record didn't have a chance either.

It's not like those guys were wrong, but the stockholders, the Martha Stewarts of the world, wanted their stock to go up, they didn't care about the quality as much. The record company, not just because of us, has suffered since. And a lot of record companies have suffered since.

Sun: Have record labels gotten more into the bottom line?

RN: I don't even speak to them anymore. But they always were. I know what rates people get, compared to the price of a CD. Every time I buy a CD at retail price I freak out because I know the artist isn't getting it and the stores that share it aren't getting the lion's share either. It's the ol' Standard Oil of the music business.

Sun: Cheap Trick has a new album coming out, but in concert you still focus mainly on the band's hits.

RN: Oh yeah. Well, look at David Bowie a couple years ago: "I'm never going to play this one and I'm never going to play that one." Well, his audience didn't show up, either. The opposite, too, is the Steve Miller Band playing in England. He's always done real well there, but they put out a new record and people didn't show up. They were afraid he was going to play new stuff. So we do everything.

Sun: Does it bother you that Cheap Trick isn't more popular?

RN: No. It's cool being cool. If you have to tell people you're cool, you aren't. We just go out and play."

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