Ricky Byrd Flies Solo
The legendary former Blackhearts guitarist talks life as a ‘NYC Made’ man
If you were alive in the 1980s, you’ve certainly heard Ricky Byrd’s memorable guitar playing.
As a member of Joan Jett and the Blackhearts, he’s featured on hits that defined that decade, including “I Love Rock ‘n’ Roll” and “I Hate Myself for Loving You,” among others. He, along with the rest of that band, were inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2015.
But Byrd also has a successful solo career — and for that, he offers his fourth album, NYC Made, which was released on March 28 via Wicked Cool Records.
“The record was NYC made, and so am I,” Byrd says. “I was born in the Bronx and I lived there until I was 13, then we moved to Queens. So I’m just a New York cat.” (In fact, he still lives there: he’s calling in for this interview from his home in Queens.)
“I was trying to represent New York City because there was so much crap on TV during the campaign season about New York: ‘It’s horrible and it’s crime ridden,’” Byrd says, “and I’m like, ‘No, it’s not. It’s a giant city that everybody wants to come to. Yeah, we have problems, just like every place has problems. But it’s New York City, man!’ It’s like, everybody wants to go to New York City from all over the world. So I just wanted to make a statement.”
Also, he adds, “I’m just trying to make fun rock and roll [like what] I grew up on, and carry the torch into this new world. I always do that. Definitely, my influences are on my sleeve.” This is evident as Byrd offers up swaggering guitar riffs like Jeff Beck, or vivid glam rock that evokes Mott the Hoople.
It’s significant that NYC Made is being released on Wicked Cool Records. That label was founded by Steven Van Zandt, who is famed as a member of Bruce Springsteen’s E Street Band (and who also played Silvio Dante on The Sopranos).
Though this Byrd’s first album on Van Zandt’s label, the two of them have known each other for many years, though Byrd says he can no longer remember the exact circumstances of how they first met. “We’re friends now, but we were always acquaintances. Then when I started submitting music for [Van Zandt’s] radio station, for Underground Garage, then we knew each other a little better.”
As Byrd recorded NYC Made, Van Zandt got involved with the album, co-producing three songs, including the just-released single, “Transistor Radio Childhood.” He also was part of the group of people providing backing vocals on that track, along with venerated New York City troubadour Willie Nile.
“I’m always thinking of what would sound great on the radio. And as soon as “Transistor Radio Childhood” starts, your ears just want to hear what’s coming up next,” Byrd says. “I was sitting here reminiscing, thinking about my early days in the Bronx as a kid, and there was always a transistor radio attached to me. And a baseball bat. And that’s where “Transistor Radio Childhood came from.” If you listen to the lyrics, I name dropped a lot of the people that I listened to that became influences of my music: the Rolling Stones, the Kinks, Otis Redding.”
He recalls being ten years old watching The Ed Sullivan Show, which was showcasing many of the bands associated with the 1960s British Invasion. “I felt slightly left of center when I was a kid. A little different. Quiet. Shy. And when I saw the Stones and The Beatles, there was something I identified with, sort of an ‘out of the mainstream’ feeling,” Byrd says. With a laugh, he adds, “And then of course the girls were screaming, so that was intriguing. And I literally asked my mom, ‘Can I get a guitar?’”
She brought home an acoustic guitar for him, and he immediately took to it: “I started fiddling with it, and what I found out was, I could cop the riffs off the radio. I’m not saying I did it well, but I could mimic the riffs on my guitar. So obviously, I had some sort of guitar talent.”
When Byrd was in junior high school, he began playing in garage bands. “That’s where the term comes from, because you’re actually rehearsing in a friend’s parents’ garage,” he says. “We lived in an apartment, but my friends had a house. So you would start rehearsing and learning the songs of the day, and you would start playing these little gigs in your neighborhood – school dances or church dances.”
His band soon set their sights on playing shows at prestigious music venues in Manhattan, such as Max’s Kansas City — but to do that, they had to write their own original songs. It was the impetus Byrd needed to try his hand at songwriting.
“At the beginning, your songs basically suck — but if you keep learning and listening to the people that you love, hopefully you learn something,” he says. “You find out by playing the songs in clubs which ones are good and which ones are awful by the response from the audience.”
At 18 years old, Byrd began playing guitar with a band named Susan. His girlfriend knew Tommy Mottola, who was the manager for bands such as Hall and Oates (and who would go on to become the president of Sony Records), and she convinced him to come to a Susan rehearsal. Impressed by what he heard, Mottola got them a deal with RCA Records. But after only one album, the band broke up, and Byrd was left to wonder what he should do next.
Once again, Byrd’s girlfriend (who is now his longtime wife) helped things along. She was working for an artist management company, and she introduced him to two people she had befriended there: a young rock musician named Joan Jett and her manager, Kenny Laguna. Byrd accepted an invitation to jam with Jett, which went so well that she invited him to become the lead guitarist in her backing band, the Blackhearts.
VIDEO: Joan Jett and the Blackhearts “I Hate Myself for Loving You”
Byrd remained with Joan Jett and the Blackhearts until 1991, playing on several bestselling albums and touring the world playing massive venues. Next, he became the guitarist for two of his musical idols, Who singer Roger Daltrey and Mott the Hoople frontman Ian Hunter. Fun as that was, though, Byrd was determined to become a successful solo artist.
“But it took me a very long time to find out what I sounded like,” Byrd says of that time. “I tried putting together bands, [but] it was always like a bad Stones-y thing. I couldn’t find the right guys. I didn’t really know what I was as a solo artist.”
That changed when he recorded his second solo album, Lifer, in 2013. With that one, he says, “I let go of those constraints of, ‘I’ve got to be something new; I’ve got to come up with some original idea.’ I just said, ‘You know what? Let me just do what I do.’ And that’s what the Lifer record was. It was just Ricky Byrd, definitely influenced by this and that and the other.”
And, Byrd adds, his evolution continues: “Each record sounds more like my sound. That’s what I do, and that’s what this NYC Made record is: it’s me. As long as I have stuff to say, I’ll put stuff out.”
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