Q+A: RICH WILLIAMS OF KANSAS

Friday, May 18, 2007 | 7:22 a.m.

Who: Kansas, .38 Special

When: 8 p.m. Saturday

Where: Sunset Amphitheater at Sunset Station

Tickets: $22.75 to $38.75; 547-7777

Dig out the platform shoes, micro - miniskirts and flared trousers. The '70s and '80s return Saturday night.

Kansas and .38 Special, two of the most recognizable rock bands from the era, are pulling a doubleheader at Sunset Station.

Kansas is celebrating the 30th anniversary of the release of its classic "Point of Know Return" - the group's highest - charting album, which peaked at No. 4 on the Billboard charts. Among Kansas' more memorable songs are "Carry On Wayward Son" and "Dust in the Wind." It has eight gold albums and five multiplatinum to its credit.

The Southern rock band .38 Special, which was formed in 1975, is just celebrating. Its hits include "Caught Up in You" (1982) and "If I'd Been the One" (1983).

Guitarist Rich Williams, a founding member of Kansas, recently spoke to the Sun by telephone from his home in Atlanta, discussing the career that has endured for more than three decades.

Q: You guys have been touring for more than 30 years. Have you cut back?

We try to do 60, 70, 80 shows a year, but it's split over the entire year. Years ago, when we booked a tour to promote a new album, we crammed the same amount of time into three months. That burned people out. This time around I'll be out 10 days, which is a long time for me. Most times now we leave Thursday night or Friday morning and we're home by kickoff on Sunday.

You were one of the top arena bands in the '70s. Sunset Station has a nice venue, but it isn't Madison Square Garden. Do you miss the larger arenas?

Actually, most of my career has not been in the big places. Musicians might say small places are a lot more intimate, which might be true, but I think any musician would say if you have a choice of playing an intimate club or at a sold-out, two-night concert at the Cow Palace, standing in front of 20,000 people and counting bushels of money - the choice is obvious. That's just the reality of it. That being said, I'll play anywhere.

What I do, I've avoided work my entire life, as far as a real job goes. What we do isn't for everybody. A lot of people just couldn't do it. But I'm enjoying it now more than I ever did and I'm 10 times the player I was in my 20s.

Most of you have been together a long time. Ever think of leaving?

A few times, I guess. There were some tense periods when I'm thinking, "I'm not going to take that..." But my upbringing was Midwestern. My dad was part of the " Greatest Generation. " He worked for Baker Truck Rental in Topeka, Kan., before World War II. Then he went off to war, met my mother, brought her back home after the war and went back to work for Baker Truck Rental, which became Ryder Truck.

The rest of the guys in the band have basically the same story.

I guess it's just bred into us. What's normal to me is a commitment, so by staying with the band I'm following it through.

It's not a sacrifice . It's what is comfortable to me. Here's what I do and I'm going to do it. Sometimes it's going to suck doing it, but overall it's going to be good for me.

What's the secret to staying together for so long?

Unless one of us turns into a transvestite or something, there's no surprises, no sudden issues. We all kind of lived through the rough parts with each other and we made peace with all that. So we just go about what we do.

The group comes from Kansas. How did you avoid becoming a country band?

What got me started playing was seeing the Beatles on Ed Sullivan, and the whole British invasion. So it was definitely rock for me. But then there was also James Brown, the Supremes and all the girl groups and Muddy Waters with "Electric Mud" - traditional blues suddenly made electric. And then there's the Rolling Stones taking traditional American blues and doing this whole different thing with it.

Were you always into music?

Yeah. AM radio is what I listened to. Back then, FM was just for quiet background music. Late at night on AM you'd hear Johnny Cash followed by the Beatles followed by the Supremes followed by Chubby Checker. Then comes the hog report and then Johnny Cash.

It was varied and it had a very eclectic influence on me, really. That's what we drew from. That's the uniqueness about all of us. We just wanted to do something a little bit different.