STEVE CONTE: I love that.

CN: I know. We get to have…

SC: …the chill, coffee on the couch…

CN: …flamenco and Conte…

SC: …and might I say—are we recording right now?

CN: Yeah.

SC: And might I say, you look damn good on two hours of sleep, girl.

CN: Thank you.

SC: And you look damn good in your blue suede shoes.

[both laugh]

CN: We both look rockin’ for noon. Let’s face it.

SC: Yeah, barely noon.

CN: Why are we up in the daytime?

SC: Because it’s just across the street. [laughs]

CN: You’re draggin’ me out in the sunlight. I’m surprised I didn’t burst out into flames.

SC: [laughs] Is this thing loud? Is it really on…like HELLLLOOOOOOO????? [Hugely loud into the microphone.] I’m looking for the red.

CN: It doesn’t look to be that high. If it’s peakin’ I’ll know when I transcribe it. So, let’s start with the new band first and then I’ll go with the his-to-ray… Or should I start with the history of how I know you? Let’s start with how I know Steve Conte.

SC: Oh, boy. The sordid past. My checkered past.

CN: How long has it been since I interviewed you?

SC: You interviewed me the first time, I guess it was 19… Oh God, can we really say this? It was 1989, so I was like, three. [laughs]

CN: I was five. It was fun. Yeah.

BOTH IN UNISON: We were in the sandbox. [we both break up laughing]

SC: It was up at Mercury, wasn’t it?

CN: Yes.

SC: It was up at the Worldwide Plaza Polygram offices when I was on Mercury Records.

CN: With that Company of Wolves thing you did.

SC: Company of Wolves, that’s right.

CN: That’s right. It was a long time ago. And after you did Company of Wolves, which was with Kyf…

SC: It was with my brother, John Conte on bass, Kyf Brewer was the singer and my co-songwriter, and Frankie LaRocka was the drummer, Rest In Peace. Then we went on to have a slew of Spinal Tap replacement drummers, some good ones…

CN: Nobody could replace Frankie though.

SC: Yeah. It was a downward spiral after Frankie left. But we had some good drummers in the band. We had Sandy Gennaro. We had Dan Hickey. We had Tom DeFarria, who did our second record. Frank Fennaro from Cracker for, I don’t know, about a week.

CN: A big week, huh?

SC: Yeah. He was great, it was just we were out of our minds. We thought we had to hurry up and get a drummer in the band for the cover of the album. So, we were like, being forced to make a quick decision. Anyway, you don’t need to print all that crap, it’s boring.

CN: So, after Company of Wolves you did Crown Jewels.

SC: After Company of Wolves, my brother and I, well, we did a second record that never came out, and then we took our remaining songs and we went ahead and started our own band, Crown Jewels.

CN: Because I always remember running into you on the street in the Lower East Side and you going, “Christine, you’ve got to come see my new band, Crown Jewels.”

SC: It was a good time for music. I mean, rock’n’roll was still on the radio. It was still on MTV. There were still record stores.

CN: Wow. Remember that? There were still records.

SC: There were still records. Well, there wasn’t really vinyl, but there were plenty of CDs, and there were plenty of clubs and venues. CBGB’s was here, you know. It was a good time. I mean, this is only... We’ve only really seen the decline in the last four years or so with the internet and clubs and record stores closing down in New York.

CN: And in the Crown Jewels, you did what with your brother?

SC: We did two albums. And then around 2000, we did one in ’95 and one in ’97, and we toured a bunch, and in about 2000 or 2001, actually, we started a new record, which we called The Contes. You know, just to finally get our name out there a little more because we probably figured we wouldn’t be touring as much. My brother just had a baby and I was starting to go out on tour with Billy Squier and Willy DeVille and people like that, and Willy Nile. So, I was kind of out there workin’, just playin’ my guitar with other people. So, that was our last record. In 2003 that finally came out.

CN: So how did the jobs with Billy and all that stuff come up? How did your name come up for those people?

SC: I mean, I knew Billy. Billy had heard the Company of Wolves record and was really into it and asked our producer, Gary Lions, who did the second album, who we were. And he called, actually, Kyf and I. Kyf and I sang background on his whole record and I played guitar on a couple songs on his last album for Capital called Tell The Truth.

CN: Right.

SC: And then, we became friends and I did a tour with him in 2001.

CN: I like Billy.

SC: Billy’s a good guy. He’s comin’ over for dinner tomorrow.

CN: Oh, is he?

SC: Him and his wife. He’s got quite the life, you know? He did everything he wanted to do, and he just kind of left the music biz with like, you know, no desire to come back unless he wants to do it on his terms. It’s kind of a nice position to be in.

CN: Yeah, right.

SC: Me? I’d go nuts. I’d, ya know… You could give me ten million dollars, but I’d still need to play. At this point in my life, I’ve done it so long that I don’t know what I would do if… You know, every time I buy that lottery ticket, you know, the twelve million or whatever, I go, “It ain’t really gonna change a lot.” Maybe I’ll buy a house, but I’m still gonna have my studio. I’m still gonna go on the road. You know, I’m still gonna do everything I do.

CN: You can’t stop doing it. It’s like me. I just can’t stop doing what I do, either. Definition of insanity. We keep doing what we’re doing.

SC: Doing the same thing over and over again expecting different results.

[both laugh]

CN: It’s true, but we keep doing it anyway. [laughs] How did you start working with Willy DeVille?

SC: Uh, I got a call from…David Keys was the bass player with Willy. He’s an old friend of mine. He was one of the first guys I met playing clubs in New York in the ‘80s. And uh, you know, he knew I was a Willy fan, and he had called me once before for a tour and I couldn’t do it. This time he called and I happened to be free. I came down, I played with them, and off we went. We went to Europe for the whole summer of 2003. It was beautiful. I met my wife there.

CN: We love her. We love your wife.

SC: Yes. That was a very good reason to do that tour, in hindsight. In retrospect, rather, I see that that was the real reason that I did the tour.

CN: It was.

SC: Absolutely.

CN: You were meant to do it. So then, after that you got into the [New York] Dolls?

SC: It was a year after Willy.

CN: How the hell did that happen, Steve? Did you just slip and skid into that?

SC: You know, I was, um... You know, being a musician in New York, you have to uh… I mean, I haven’t had a day job since I was, you know, in high school. Maybe after high school I painted houses, that was the last thing I ever did without, you know, that wasn’t musical. But uh, I do all kinds of things, and I was doing a gig with Paul Simon. I was his stand-in vocalist for rehearsals. And one of the guitar players on this gig—it was Simon and Garfunkel, actually...

CN: Which you also have to tell me how that one came about...

SC: Yeah, that’s a weird one.

CN: But that’s another story.

SC: Yeah, and I have to totally get into a different head for each thing that I do.

CN: So tell me the Dolls story first.

SC: This guitar player friend of mine, Larry Saltzman, was playing with Simon and Garfunkel and he had played with David Johansen in The Harry Smiths. And he told me that David was thinking about putting the Dolls back together. And I said, “Larry, this is unbelievable.” You know, when I was growing up, the Dolls first drummer, Billy Murcia (you know the first drummer who died before their first album was made), his family moved into my town. And Billy’s brother used to, was like this freaky dude with like, really long hair and big bell bottoms in the suburbs of New Jersey where I was growing up. And I was like, who is this weird guy, man? And all my friends were like, “He’s strange. Stay away from that guy.” And I was like, “No. That’s the kinda guy, I wanna figure out what’s up with him.” So one day I started talkin’ to him. And he goes, [imitating Latin accented voice] “Hey man, my name is Alfonso Murcia. I’m from Colombia. And my brother, my brother was Billy Murcia, the New York Dolls drummer.” And I was like, “Oh, wow.” And he was like, “You know who you look like? You look like Johnny Thunders.” And I said, “Johnny who?” I didn’t know any of the New York Dolls names. So, he turned me on. He brought all of the records over to my house. This is like when I was a kid. He brought Dolls records, he brought Criminals, Heartbreakers, and he turned me on to all that stuff. And twenty years later I find out that David is putting the Dolls back together. And I said to Larry, I said, “You gotta tell David this story about me growing up in New Jersey with Billy’s brother. You know I have all the right guitars. I play Gibsons, the big fat Gibson sounds are what I use and what Thunders always used too. There are too many similarities here. There’s too much synchronicity.” And I didn’t hear anything for a week or so, and the next thing I know my phone’s ringing and, [imitating low gravely voice] “Hey Steve. It’s David Johansen. Call me. We’ll meet for coffee.”

CN: [laughs] You do a good imitation of him!

SC: So, we met for coffee and um, by the end of our meeting he laid a couple CDs on me and he said, “So what do you think? You want to do this gig?” And it was just one show. It was the Royal Festival Hall.

CN: The one in London, right?

SC: Yeah, with Arthur Kane, which was Arthur’s last show. God rest his soul. And you know, that just turned into—it was so much fun that the audiences demanded more and we were having fun, so, after Arthur passed away we decided—actually we did one gig with my brother. When Arthur was still sick, my brother was a Doll for one gig we played with Morrissey. It was nice, in Manchester, for 80,000 people.

CN: That’s just a “little” gig, right?

SC: Yeah, a “little” gig. 80,000. Right. [laughs] And then after that we decided to go on. David asked me about my brother. My brother had other commitments. We played with a bunch of guys, then Sylvain said, “I’d like to get my buddy Sami [Yaffa] an audition.” Sami came and played and it was perfect. Sami became the bass player and we’ve just been touring ever since August 2004.

CN: I know when the Dolls got back together, everybody in New York just kind of went [makes huge gasp and holds breath]. A collective gasp. People came out from under rocks that I hadn’t seen in years.

SC: I know. And I’m sure everyone was prepared to be horrified, you know, but uh, really, I think in four years I’ve read maybe one or two like, less than glowing reviews of the band. And it’s just those are the diehard people who say, you know, “How can you call it the Dolls without Johnny and Jerry?” But you know, how can you call it The Rolling Stones without Brian and Bill? How can you call it The Who without Entwhistle and Moon? You know? It’s like, you can’t deny the originators of the music, David and Syl, the opportunity to do what they love? And really, with David and Syl, it is the Dolls.

CN: It is. It is. Now tell me the story of how you ended up working with Paul Simon. Let’s go back to that one. Cuz that’s just so out of left field.

SC: It is. It is. Because when I got the call I went, “Oh, my God, I don’t sing like that. You know, I’m a rock singer.” But you know I had to…my friend Mark Stuart is a guitar player—he plays guitar, cello, dobro, banjo, he plays every string instrument, he’s amazing—and he had played cello on my album, so he knew sort of the softer side of my voice. He played on a beautiful ballad on The Crown Jewels album, so I guess when it came time for Paul to find somebody in New York—he had had a rehearsal singer before—and when it came time for him to find someone in New York, Mark brought up my name and they called me up. There was no audition. I just went down and I had the gig. And I just took it upon myself to like, sing a little softer, sing a little…and Paul’s stuff is generally in a lower key, so when I sing higher it really gets [makes high squawk sound] but when sing low it’s smooth.

CN: Now when you say rehearsal singer…

SC: When Paul doesn’t want to sing, I sing. Or like when he has to go out and do an interview during the middle of rehearsal, he would say, “Steve, I’m going for an hour or two, you take the band through the show.”

CN: Okay.

SC: And it was a gas, actually, being able to sing like, “Fifty Ways to Leave Your Lover” with Steve Gad on drums, the guy who originated that drum beat.

CN: He’s a great drummer.

SC: He’s one of the best drummers in the world. It was a musical education, really. Like, hanging with all the African guys and learning all those rhythms and harmony stuff. It was incredible.

CN: Well, you just did some shows with him recently, right?

SC: Yeah, I did. And then after being his stunt voice for eight years, he called me and asked me to actually take part in a Paul Simon performance. He was re-doing his show, The Capeman, that he had on Broadway, but he was doing it without all the production and everything, just the music. So he did it out at BAM, [The Brooklyn Academy of Music], and he asked me to sing two of his songs and play guitar. So, I gladly accepted. And that was a gas.

CN: And what’s the other thing that you did with the Spanish Harlem Orchestra?

SC: Oh, that was that. Yeah. Because The Capeman was all about these Puerto Rican gangs, or at least this one gang and this one guy called The Capeman, they called this kid who was 16, Salvador Agron, back in 1960. He was arrested for murder and put in prison for killing the kid on a playground somewhere with a knife. And Paul sort of based this whole play around this guy’s life, which is why it was so controversial and got cancelled on Broadway. But the music was incredible. It was all like this Latin salsa… Like Paul, when he gets into something, whether it’s African or Latin, he goes all the way, really learns about it, studies it, hires the best musicians of that genre to help him realize his goal. And that’s what he did with Oscar Hernandez.

CN: I actually have a Spanish Harlem Orchestra shirt.

SC: Oh, do you? I don’t have anything. I don’t have any records, nothing.

CN: I like them.

SC: I know. I love them. It’s a great, great band.

CN: Now, you also sometimes play with Eric Burdon and the Animals?

SC: Yeah. Yeah.

CN: What in the world? Steve, you’re just all over. Tell me about that one.

SC: Um, yeah, occasionally. I mean, I haven’t done a gig with them since maybe... oh, I don’t know, earlier this year, maybe. But yeah, I was doin’ a gig down South somewhere once and I met Eric and we hit it off. And as it turns out, the bass player with Eric knows Sylvain, so we hit it off. And as it turns out, the keyboard player with Eric I jammed with when I was in Norway with the Dolls—the keyboard player and the piano player and I, we did a duet with Delbert McClinton. Delbert McClinton, you know him?

CN: Oh, yeah. I love him!

SC: We were sittin’ in a lounge in Norway at like, 5 in the morning, and he’s Delbert’s piano player, this guy Red Young. And Delbert was singin’ with Bettye LaVette, who is an incredible soul singer, and then Bettye went upstairs to bed. And we were all still like, hangin’ around downstairs at the bar. And so Delbert and I sang a duet on “She Caught the Katy”, that’s an old, well I know it from Taj Mahal, but so, when I saw that the same guy, Red was playing with Eric, it was again, so much synchronicity. I know these people, they know Sylvain, so… And then when Eric got stuck for a guitar player a couple months down the road they called me up, sent me mp3s, I learned ‘em, I got on a plane, I showed up at the gig, played through a couple things on the soundcheck and did the gig.

CN: I guess once you get to a certain level everyone knows everyone.

SC: Yeah. And once you get to a certain level I think also, you know, you can do gigs like that without rehearsing. I mean, lucky for them, I’m a quick study. You know, I pretty much learned it on the plane.

CN: Plus you’ve been playing your entire life. It’s not like you’re just learning your instrument. And now you’ve got your own band.

SC: Yeah.

CN: Besides being a Doll, now you’re telling The Crazy Truth.

SC: Yep. You know, I don’t know. I could say the Dolls is… You know Frank Wood, right?

CN: [imitating voice] Frank Wood.

SC: [imitating voice] Frankie Wood. [imitates Frank Wood’s laugh] So I’ve done a couple shows with Frank and he goes, [imitates Wood’s voice again] “When he doesn’t have his day job at the New York Dolls…” So I don’t know. I don’t like to think of it as my day job, of course, but uh, you know, I mean, honestly, I probably spend…well I spend more time out on the road with the Dolls, but I spend every moment of every day with my band in my mind. So, to me, that’s my full-time. My music is my full-time thing. I love playing with the Dolls and certainly being a part of that, so, I don’t know. It’s equal.

CN: Your new CD is really hot.

SC: Well, thank you.

CN: You’ve only got the song “Gypsy Cab” on your MySpace, but that’s a hot song. [Note: He has since added more songs.]

SC: I know. I’m keeping it.

CN: I love that song.

SC: I think I’m gonna put one song at a time up. Then I’m gonna take that one down and put a new one up.

CN: “Gypsy Cab” was like, “You know, I’ve lived that song.”

SC: Mmmm-hmmm…. Many have. Many have.

CN: And it’s so catchy you just can’t get it out of your head once you hear it.

SC: Good. You can put it on infinite repeat on my MySpace if you want.

CN: So, how did The Crazy Truth, how did you put that band together?

SC: Um, well, the bass player, Lee (Kostrinsky) and I have known each other since, well, since Lee was a little kid, actually. He started…I played a concert in a, back in Jersey when I lived there, and Lee, as a little kid happened to be there at the show. And he came up to me after and wanted guitar lessons. I mean, he was probably 16 or 15, and I started teaching him. And he became pretty good. And then I just lost touch with him and moved to New York and whatever years or a decade or so went by, and I ran into him on the street again probably in 2005. And I knew he was playing bass. He had a band called Gods and Goddesses with his wife, and they had broken up and he was now playing bass full time. So he said, “I’m looking for a band, and I’m playing bass.” And I thought, “Perfect.” This is right at the time that my brother and I decided to not go on the road, and so I thought, “Perfect timing.” And I started my band with another homeboy from Jersey. I’m not from Jersey, for the record. I’m from Upstate New York, but I went to high school in Jersey. So that’s where Lee and I hooked up. And Lee comes from a completely different place than my brother, musically, so it kind of a… My brother and I had the same record collection. We grew up listening to the same stuff, so we think alike. We think, it’s like musical telepathy, my brother and I. And with Lee it’s like something else because he grew up listening to punk rock and reggae, so it’s like, Dead Kennedys, Clash, Pistols, and then like Israel Vibration, and all the great reggae bands, Burning Spear and everybody, so that’s kind of a different approach for me. It keeps my stuff a little fresh, too. Ooooh, [commenting on the background music] Paco de Lucia we’re hearing on the jukebox here… I love it.

CN: I love him. We’re both stunned now into silence. Wait. Shhhh. [both sit listening to the flamenco music for a moment]

SC: [singing guitar parts] Pe-do-loop, Pe-do-loop, Pe-do-loop, di-do, di-do, doo-doop, Pe-do-loop, Pe-do-loop, Pe-do-loop, di-do, di-do, doo-doop. Okay.

CN: Now I’m gonna have fun trying to transcribe that part. [laughs]

SC: Yeah. That was in the key of A. [singing again] Pe-do-loop, Pe-do-loop, Pe-do-loop… [laughs] So that’s how Lee and I came together. And then Lee and I auditioned probably 20 drummers, and just, he brought in everybody he thought would be good, and I brought in everybody I thought would be good, and nobody was quite hittin’ it. And he said, “Hey, how about I bring in this friend of mine I met hangin’ around in jazz clubs?” And I was a little nervous. I went, “Jazz clubs? Ah, I don’t want like a jazz drummer that’s gonna like play too much jazz. You know? We’re a rock’n’roll band.” But, when this guy Phil (Stewart) came in he smoked it. He knows every rock’n’roll tune plus he’s very musical. He plays guitar. He sings. I mean, like me, I learned music and you don’t have to do everything you know in one song, you know? So, the fact that he knows how to play jazz doesn’t really hurt his rock’n’roll playing, you know? He’s just a little more musical. When I say, you know, “Accent beat three on the third bar,” he knows what the hell I’m talkin’ about.

CN: Right. Which is nice, sometimes.

SC: Or better yet, I just say, “Do this,” [imitates guitar noise] and I play it. But he’s got a mind and memory for real technical stuff, too, so it’s good. He’s killer.

CN: How long did it take you to write the songs on the new record?

SC: Some of the songs were actually, have been around for quite a while, even with my brother and I in The Crown Jewels and The Contes. But we just like, recorded demos of them and they just didn’t really fit with what we were doing because we were doing more of like a melodic rock and pop thing. And a song like “Texas T”, that has been around a while.

CN: That’s a bad ass song. If you guys didn’t write that, I could almost swear that was an Aerosmith song. It’s that fucking close with the harmonies.

SC: I would have never thought that. Hopefully you mean old Aerosmith.

CN: Yeah, oh yeah.

SC: Okay. Good.

CN: Toxic Twins-era Aerosmith.

SC: You don’t mean Get A Grip.

CN: No.

SC: You mean like, Get Your Wings...

CN: Definitely.

SC: Yeah, so that’s been around for a while… A lot of them, I’d say about half the album, you know the songs already existed before I put the band together. And then the other half were songs that I had started coming up with when the Dolls were writing for the album and some of them I didn’t bring in or some of them I thought, “Oh, I like this tune. I’ll keep this for myself.” There really wasn’t any songs that were rejects from the Dolls album; it was just things that I came up with and thought, “I’m gonna save this for myself.”

CN: Sometimes you’ve got to be selfish like that.

SC: Yeah. Yeah. You know, well, because if I give a song to David, pretty much he’s just gonna take it and do his lyric thing to it and he might even change the melody a little bit, and so when I have something I feel strong about and I don’t want it changed I keep it for myself. I mean, he did a great thing with “Punishing World”. It used to be a song of mine called “Starving For Love” and “Punishing World” is much better, so…he can definitely… My man is good with turning a phrase, David Jo.

CN: Very true. Now he also did some stuff on your record there.

SC: Yeah, he plays harmonica on one song, some really great blues harp.

CN: Who else contributed on it?

SC: We’ve got horns by Danny Ray and Kiku Collins and Tom Timko.

CN: Isn’t that the Mad Juana horns, pretty much?

SC: Yeah, Danny’s in Mad Juana. Kiku played with Mad Juana maybe for a minute. Maybe she recorded with them. But I’ve known her for years. She used to, let’s see, she’s played with Beyonce, she’s been on the road with Beyonce…

[at this point Steve’s wife walks in the coffee shop where we’re doing the interview…]

CN: Ah, there she is!

SC: There’s my Dutch wife. [she takes a seat, everyone settles in closer and the interview continues] So yeah, Kiku was out with Beyonce, but I actually know her. She actually used to work in my neighborhood over here as a…nevermind. She probably doesn’t want me to…

CN: No. We don’t want to talk about that. We don’t talk about day jobs.

SC: No. But she’s a conservatory trained trumpet player. Great. Killer. Great vibe. And then I also had Nicki Richards, who sings with Madonna, and Catherine Massa who sings with Donald Fagin and Steely Dan and they’re just like great gospel soul singers, and I’ve done a million gigs with them. And they added background vocals on one tune. But it’s basically, it’s a power trio pretty much live. And very rarely if we needed a little flavor here and there I would overdub an acoustic or a wah-wah or something. But basically, half of the album is pretty much live.

CN: So how long did it take you guys to record it?

SC: [laughs]

CN: And he laughs. [laughs]

SC: Well, it started out as like, “Hey, let’s just go in and do some demos on one weekend.” And we went in and we recorded what was gonna be the demos and went, “Man, these are too good just to be demos. This is the record.” So, I edited between a couple of takes and got the basic tracks, but then I started to go on the road. And what was to be a very simple live album ended up taking almost two years to finish in between tours. You know? And some of the songs I didn’t have lyrics for, so like, I’d be out on the road with like, the finished tracks in my iPod and I’d be listening and writing lyrics like while I was in Australia or Japan or China or somewhere. You know, it gets a little challenging trying to work like that, too. But basically, then, once I got home, you know, I finished all the recording there and went down to Nashville, mixed and mastered it down there, and we finished it this spring. So, we started recording it in like, 2006, the year that the Dolls new record came out, at the end of the year, yeah. So pretty much, we recorded the tracks the end of that year and it pretty much took 2007 to record it, you know?

CN: So, was the night you played at Don Hill’s [in 2006] the first gig, really?

SC: That was our first gig.

CN: At the Marc Bolan thing? [Note: This was a tribute night to the late, great Marc Bolan where his son, Rolan Bolan showcased his band and Steve as well as Rachel Bolan and others paid tribute to Marc Bolan.]

SC: At the Marc Bolan thing.

CN: And how did that come about?

SC: I don’t even remember. I just know it was my big excuse to cover “Ripoff”. So we did that song and we did early versions of like, probably eight tunes that are on the album. I think we maybe changed lyrics to some of them. So, if anyone was at that show…

CN: That was actually a good night.

SC: Yeah, it was.

CN: You haven’t changed any members?

SC: Nope, but we have added a saxophone player.

CN: You have? Who would that be?

SC: This incredible little Brazilian girl who plays baritone sax. The sax is almost as big as she is.

CN: The baritone sax is pretty big!

SC: She goes by the name of Maria Christina, and she played with Lee “Scratch” Perry, who is one of my reggae idols. So she was in his band for a while, and I met her doing some crazy gig and we just hit it off, and she came down and played with us a few times. We have yet to do a show together, but our first show together is going to be November 10th at Don Hill’s (in NYC).

CN: I’m so there.

SC: Okay!

CN: What’s your favorite song on your new record?

SC: Hhmmm. You know, on different days I have different favorite songs. “Texas T” is very dear to me. “Gypsy Cab”, um…ah…[thinking], “The Truth Ain’t Pretty”, somewhere in there. I don’t know. They’re all great.

CN: They are really good. I put that on and just let it play four or five times until I know the neighbors are gonna start bangin’ on the wall. So, when’s the record coming out, exactly?

SC: Well, right now I’m in the midst of doing business, shall we say? I’m talkin’ to a few record labels and got one offer so far and I’m sure there’ll be more to come. So, the release date is in the air. It’s hanging in the balance. I hope by the end of the year, or at least I hope I’ll know when the release is and who it’s gonna be with by the end of the year. I don’t know if it’s gonna be a smart thing to release it before Christmas because we all know what happens at Christmas time…the Bruce Springsteens and the Madonnas all come out with their new albums…

CN: And everything else gets swamped…

SC: Yeah, it’s a hard time. So, we will keep your readership posted on such news.

~~Steve Conte & The Crazy Truth will also be playing in New Jersey on November 28th. Please check: myspace.com/stevecontecrazytruth for more details.

~~And for those wanting news on the New York Dolls... Steve did happen to let it slip that they are currently working on new material and have decided to use the production expertise of the one and only Todd Rundgren.