Canadian singer and songwriter RICK HUGHES has a new solo album out (October 24) called Redemption. Rick is also the singer for Canadian heavy metal band SWORD. Sword released 2 albums in the 80s on Canadian label Aquarius, and went on to tour supporting Alice Cooper and others (I must’ve seen them in Toronto on the Raise Your Fist and Yell tour in Toronto). Since then Rick went on to front SAINTS & SINNERS, and release a few solo albums. Now Rick is back with an excellent new solo album, with great songs, including a few covers, and some very special guests. Redemption can be ordered at: https://www.dekoentertainment.com/inthesquare/rick-hughes
Below, Rick and I talked about his new album, plus Sword, as well as his influences, and favorite artists. …..
With the first single, “The Real Me”, you had a lot of guests on it and that, so I’m wondering from where you’re based, how you got all those guys involved? What the connection is with Brad Gillis and Tommy Aldridge and that?
That’s a connection that comes from my Saints & Sinners days. With Saints & Sinners, I was working with the keyboardist from San Francisco, Jesse Bradman, a good friend of mine. When we started to get the project for my new album, that was like two years ago, we went about asking for songs. We asked Jesse if he had some songs to propose for my new album. And he says, “Yeah, I got a couple of songs that I wrote with Brad Gillis”. So, we said, Oh, we want to hear that song. Upon hearing the songs, I fell in love with the songs. I says, can I please have them? They say, Yeah, of course! That’s how we got Brad Gillis, because he accepted to let me record the song. And then we became friends. So, when it was time to record “The Real Me”, we said, well, we have Brad for his songs, because he plays on his songs, of course. And lucky for us. So, we said, “Can you do another one?” And we asked him to play on “The Real Me”. And that’s when the idea came about to reunite him with Rudy (Sarzo) and Tommy Aldridge.
That’s interesting, because when I saw that, obviously, like, I was a big Speak Of The Devil fan when that album came out with that Ozzy lineup.
So Was I !
I’m curious how you got to where you are now with this new album Redemption, because I’ve recently picked up a couple of the Sword albums. So obviously, it’s a very different sound. You got a lot more variety on the on your new album that. Can you talk a bit about how you are where you’re at now, as opposed to just doing the Sword stuff or kind of more of the metal stuff?
That’s a very good question. And the answer is quite logical, is that when I’m a metal singer, or I chose to record metal, I do it with Sword If it’s a solo project, like here in Quebec, I’ve been doing 50 to 100 shows a year for the last 20 years. And the shows that I do are for seven years old to 77 years old people, you know. I’m the kind of guy that when I wake up in the morning, if I listen to music, I listen to The Band, Elton John, metal stuff. Later on in the afternoon, if I have to go around and do other stuff, listen to blues, hard rock… When I ride my Harley, sometimes I listen to heavy metal. But I’m a fan of music. My biggest influence is Robert Plant. So, if you take Robert Plant’s career, I’m not trying to mimic or duplicate, but when your mentor does stuff, you kind of go that way without even noticing it. When you think about Robert Plant, since Zeppelin and today, it’s totally different. He’s never redone the same album. It’s always been different. So that’s what I try to do with my solo career, I do what people already know me for. I’m a singer and I love rock music. So, rock music’s got plenty of genre – it’s got heavy metal, it’s got hard rock, it’s got blues rock, it’s got heavy blues, it’s got pop rock, it’s got rock, it’s got country rock. So that’s the sound you hear on my album, just what I just described.
Now you do have a few covers on the album, in particular, “The Real Me”. I love the Who albums. I’m kind of curious why you picked that one of all the Who stuff.
Because of the playing. When my manager and I decided on this song, we said, “Okay, let’s redo The Real Me, and let’s find the perfect musicians to render the song. So, it was magical because that was way before Brad was even in the conversation. So once Brad got in on the song, then we went for Tommy Aldridge and Rudy Sarzo, with the result that we hear on the recording.
There’s a few other covers, you do the Michel Pagliaro song. I imagine he’s a big influence on you. We don’t see him much outside of Quebec, I assume, but the albums are pretty easily to find here. But I wonder if you can talk a bit about that track that you chose.
Again, a very good question and I’ll answer it by answering two questions because probably you’ve got another question around the corner. Michel Pagliaro, we affectionately call him ‘Pag’, is one of my main influences. As a kid, when I first saw him on TV, that’s when I fell in love with the guy, with the attitude, the music, the sound. Pag is like the rock and roll attitude, man; this guy is amazing. And when it was time to choose the songs, I said to the producer, John Webster, and my manager, I told them, “We need at least a couple of French songs on the album”. And they obviously asked me, “Why is it so important?” I said, “Because I’m a loyal guy. I’ve been playing here in Quebec for 10 years. I’ve been doing 50 to 100 shows a year, there’s some French material in the show. There’s obviously a lot of English material because I’m more at ease singing Americana kind of stuff, or even British stuff. But still, there’s a section in my show that that’s Francophone for my Francophone fans. So, I said to my producer, I said, “Listen, John, you’re the best producer in the world in my book. I’m about to do one of my most important albums. There’s got to be a couple of songs in French”. I’m a loyal guy. I don’t want to leave my French speaking fans out of this album that is so important. And the way I closed the deal I said to him, I said, “It doesn’t matter if it’s French or English at the end of the day, because just think about Rammstein, they’re German, they sing in German, everybody loves it. You wouldn’t change German to English because of the way it sounds. So same goes with my French song on the album. I’m sure that the English-speaking fan will find something interesting in the French song or they’ll catch a glimpse of the words. And yeah, I’m confident they’ll like it as much as they’ll like the English song.
It’s interesting because I think Michel Pagliaro did the same thing where he had some French and some English songs on various albums and that. Correct?
True. Yes. A lot of artists here in Quebec do that, they mix both, because as you can hear, I’m a French speaking guy. Rick Hughes is my real name. It’s not a stage name. My father was from Irish descent. So, it is my real name. But I’ve grown in a French environment. My girlfriend is French, my dogs, my kids, everybody around my neighbors. I speak French 24 7. So that’s it. But like I said earlier, I love the sound of singing a song in English.
The other cover, I wouldn’t say it’s cover. Actually, it’s your song, the Aldo Nova track “Someday”. I listened to that. I thought I know that because I got that here (held up Blood On The Bricks CD). Obviously, that song is good 30 plus years old. You’ve done a lot of work with Aldo as well, that song and some other stuff as well.
This is such an important song for me. And I’ll tell you why. I wrote the song while I was working with Aldo on Saints & Sinners album. Aldo was producing the Saints & Sinners album while Jon Bon Jovi was producing his album, Blood on the Bricks for Aldo. So, while he was producing Saints & Sinners, he had written some amazing songs for the album. And so one night I came to him and I showed him “Someday” and he says, “Wow!” I said, “Cool, you like it? So, it’s going to be on the album?” He says, “No… let me ask Jon because we’re looking for a ballad right now. We’re missing a ballad. And if you would allow me to use your ballad on my album, I’d be very grateful.” I says, “…if Jon likes it, then it’s yours! I got plenty of good songs on Saints and Sinners. And again, you wrote some excellent songs for me. So, it would be just a show of gratitude to leave you the song.” So, the next day he called me and says, “Jon loves it. We’re going to use it for my album”. A couple of months after that, they gave me a call, they were in studio and they were rearranging the song, changing some lyrics, adding some parts here and there. So that’s how Aldo and Jon are credited on the song. But I am the main songwriter of the song. So, I wanted to redo it. But I waited to make sure that it was okay with Aldo.
Well, it’s a great inclusion. It was a hit and it’s something obviously people will be familiar with.
And what I meant by this song is very important is that, like you said, that’s 30-something years ago that Aldo recorded that song. At that time, I was a young, struggling artist from Quebec. I had two kids that were just born. My wife, at that time and I wanted to buy a house, but we needed the down payment for a house. And we were, you know, scratching and putting some money aside and getting ready to buy a house. It would have taken us a long time. And by leaving that song to Aldo, the first royalty check that I got was the down payment for the first house I bought. So, it’s a gift that keeps on giving.
Well that works out then…The other person you have on here I see a lot lately, he’s on the new Alice Cooper album as well, is Robbie Krieger (on “Dans La Peau“) . How did you wind up with him on the album?
The album was recorded at Little Mountain Studio in Vancouver where Aerosmith, Bon Jovi, name it, they all recorded there. Now it’s called Iposonic Sound, but it’s the same. Nothing has changed. Frames on the wall, everything’s the same. So, everything was recorded there. It’s a live album. We got the rhythm section to record all the songs there. So, it’s a live album. But when it was time to record my duet with Amy Keys, a fabulous female singer. Man, I’m a big fan of hers. She was available but only in Los Angeles. So, they gave me a call.
They said, “Okay, Amy wants to do the duet with you, but it’s going to have to be in L.A. I said, “okay, so let’s do it in L.A”….”Okay, well there’s a studio in L.A. It’s Robbie Krieger’s studio, and it’s near where she lives. They got the equipment”, I said, “Wait, wait, wait! … you had me at Robbie Krieger”. I’m a big, big, big Doors fan. We went to Robbie Krieger’s studio to record Amy Keys. And while she was there recording the song, I came up with the idea. I told my manager, I said, “Why don’t we ask Robbie to play on that song?” It’s a kind of bluesy country-ish kind of song. And he goes, “that’s a long shot”. I said, yeah, but if we don’t try it, we’ll never know. So, we tried and he said yes. And that to me is like, it’s not even a dream come true because I never even dreamt that Robbie Krieger would play on one of my albums. I’m very, very grateful to him.
Well, yeah, it’s an interesting inclusion. He seems to do a few guest appearances; he’s on the new Alice Cooper album and he’s on an album by Blue Coop, which is the BOC guys and that. And the other guy you’ve mentioned on this album, I’m not familiar with him, is Johnny Hallyday.
Oh, Johnny Hallyday! I’m a fan of this guy. He’s like the French (from France), Elvis Presley. He died in 2017. And he was filling stadiums back in France, like 80,000 people.
He was a big, big, star, big, big influence on me as a kid, because my mom was a big fan of Elvis and of him. My mom was an artist, you know!? The Johnny Hallyday song is not known. It was kept quiet. It was released and they took it out. But before they took it out, I had a copy of it that I had put on a CD that time when we could burn CDs. So, I was listening to the song all the time and I kept it private, I didn’t want anybody to steal that idea because I thought it was such a good song. It’s like a hard rock, heavy blues kind of song. And the subject matter is so, so, SO, up to date.
How did you get a hold of it? It was an outtake from an album?
Well, you know, when I mentioned Amy Keys; Amy Keys was one of his backup singers for many years. So, he would do duets with her. The guy that wrote the song, the duet with Amy Keys, wrote the song for Amy Keys and Johnny Halliday, but Johnny died. He never could even listen to the song or let alone record it. So, it fell into my lap. That’s when I said, “Yeah, I’m a big Johnny fan. That was meant for Johnny, I want that song!” That’s how the connection was made.
You mentioned this album being a very important album. I get the impression in like reading some of the notes that it’s quite, some of the songs are quite personal for you. So, I wonder if you can talk a bit about the importance of everything as an album and some of the songs as being personal to you.
Just the title, you know, I was looking for a word that was the same word in French than in English, so not to deny my French root. And a couple of words came to mind, and then I came up with, Redemption, came into my head. Because I’ve been around the block a couple of times.
I’ve toured with Motorhead in the UK. I’ve been here, there, everywhere. I say that very humbly. I had my shares of let down and get up again and fight more – that’s the story of my life. And my philosophy about that is that we’re in a constant state of redemption if we strive to get better every day as a human being. So, if you look up redemption, not in a biblical sense, but in the literal sense, it’s about focusing on yourself, not on others or what happens around the world. It’s just focusing on you and how you can make your world better. And the best way to do that is to forgive yourself all the time for everything that you do. If you’ve done something wrong, or that was not quite right, just forgive yourself and just readjust. That to me is redemption. I thought the title was perfect because of my age, where I’m at in my life right now, the importance of that album, and all the subject matters on the album. They’re not that serious; they’re not pointing fingers at anybody. I wanted to create an album where if somebody digs it, well, while he listens to it, he forgets about the world, he forgets about anything, he just thinks about himself and how he feels upon listening to the album. That’s why there’s so much difference between one song to the other, so people can travel in their mind, and not always stay on the same train.
What else do you have planned for promoting this? Will you be doing any shows outside of Quebec? Anything planned as far as a band goes or anything?
That’s the main reason why I did the album, is to get more shows going. I really, I truly come alive on stage. That’s my second favorite place in the world. My first favorite place in the world is here at home with my wife and my people. My second favorite place is on stage.
As soon as I put one foot on the stage, “Whoa!”, something happens. And it’s been like that since the beginning; and it’s still like that. So, yeah, the reason for this album is to get us more shows, you know, abroad, not only in Quebec. I would love to go play in Niagara. I’ve been there before.
Growing up where you did, obviously, there’s a lot of Montreal, Quebec has kind of its own scene. There’s a lot of stuff that we don’t see much out of over here. But there’s a lot of great bands from Quebec, like Frank Marino, Pagliaro, Offenbach.
April Wine! They were based out of Quebec.
I’m a big April Wine fan.
What kind of stuff you grew up on and what some of your favorites as far as the Canadian scene went.
When we’re young, we get influenced by the music our parents listen to, as long as they listen to something cool. My parents were really cool. My father was a guitar player, singer, leader in a rock band, and my mom would sing in the band with him, a bit Johnny Cash- June Carter kind of stuff. They had this amazing vinyl collection when I was a kid. They had Zeppelin, Janis, French stuff, lots of Elvis. So, it was very rock and roll. So, my early influences were Led Zeppelin, Janis Joplin, Pink Floyd, some French stuff like Offenbach, Pagliaro. But yeah, it starts at home, or with your friends. In my case, it started at home. We’re a musical family. Everybody does music in my family. My sister sings on the album with me. My brother plays drums in Sword.
Did you keep a big record collection growing up?
Yes, I still have my vinyl collection, and I still have some old record players, like we used to have when we were kids, with the cabinets there. I got two, and I play my records on that. I got one in this room and I got one in my ‘man cave’.
The SWORD albums, which I recently picked up, the Unidisc reissues. You guys were on Aquarius, and I think Aquarius closed up at some point in the early 90s. Did you guys have any say in these reissues?
No, it’s Unidisc that handles that, but we had a good relationship with Unidisc. George, the owner of Unidisc, is a great guy. He’s taken good care of Sword’s albums. As you can see, the reissues are beautiful. The way he redid the sleeves and everything. It’s really good. Are you aware that we recorded a third album!?
Yeah, I was looking at that, and I see there was a limited amount of vinyl for that. I was just looking at trying to find a copy.
It’s just called Sword III.
Yeah, and then there was the live album as well?
Yeah, the live album was (done) before, but Sword III was released in 2023, a couple of years ago. We love that album too. It sounds great. By the way, I’m rehearsing with Sword tonight. I’ve been rehearsing for the past five weeks because we’ve got some shows coming. We’re friends since we were 15 years old. We’ve always been together.
You guys must have had some success. You had a lot of names on the albums. You had Gary Moffet, you had Jack Richardson producing the one album and that. So, what are some of the highlights of those first two albums, that period there?
Well, it was the best of times. My brother and I started to make music like we were 13. I was 13, he was 14. I played the guitar and he was banging on stuff. And then he got drums, I got an electric guitar. Then we met the two Mikes – Mike Plant and Mike Larock. We were living in the same town. So, we were 16, 17 years old. We did the bar circuits for years and years. And we built up a fan base. In 1986 we signed with Aquarius. We released Metallized, and the next thing you know, we’re opening for Metallica! And then we got a call from the UK to go open for Motorhead. We got back, we did the second album, and then we went on tour with Alice Cooper.
That was a dream come true because my brother and I, when we were in our teens, we were the guys that would go in line at the A&M record store and wait till the door opened to buy the new Alice Cooper album, Welcome to My Nightmare and all that stuff. We were big fans of Alice Cooper. So, we got to open for him like 10, 15 years after being big fans, and get to meet him! We were so in awe. And you mentioned Jack Richardson, who worked on some Alice Cooper albums; and that (again) was another dream come true.
The other guy who recorded one of your albums was Gary Moffet, an amazing guitar player.
Yes. And amazing songwriter.
Have you seen the new version of April Wine at all?
Yes, I saw that. And the singer is a good friend of mine – Marc Parent. I played with him a couple of times. We had a show together. He’s good, he’s got a good voice, and he’s a good Good guitar player!
What else do you have on the go?
That’s it. I’m very happy with the team I have on this album. I’m really looking forward for the world to hear it because I know that with Sword and with Saints & Sinners I’ve got some fans here and around the world. So, they’ll discover a new sound, which is who I am today, what I listen to, what turns me on, what gives me the shivers, what makes me think. It’s like a good movie – if you sit down and watch a good movie, for a couple of hours you get inspired because of the message, well, the same goes for music. That’s what it does to me. If I put on a good album, I won’t stop in the middle I’ll listen from beginning to end because I know it will take me somewhere else in my head and my thoughts. You travel without leaving home! Just sitting down. Like when we were kids, and we got Pink Floyd The Wall, how that changed our lives. I remember as a kid listening to The Wall and crying on some songs because I thought ‘wow, this is so beautiful!’ And it changed my life, a little bit. And then I heard another album that changed my life a little bit. Music does that to you.
A good songwriter will not only work on the music, but also on the lyrics to make sure that what he says reflects what he thinks, and what he thinks is right. And again, a good songwriter will do that. There’s songs that I’ve heard 20-50 times and they still do the same thing to me. They make me want to be a better person. Music does that to you. People take it for granted, but music is like food for thought; it’s food for your soul.
Is there any plans for another Sword album?
Yeah, probably. I’m doing some rehearsals with Sword because we got some shows coming up, but I’m really focused on my solo project. I just can’t wait for the album to get out, and to start to tour for that album. When I’m done with that, the timing is right, then it’s going to be Sword.
You mentioned a few of your influences. What are a few of your favorite albums of all time; albums that have stuck with you, that you can put on anytime?
Of all-time, I’d say Led Zeppelin I, II, III, and IV. Every Black Sabbath with Ozzy, with Dio, and Born Again with Ian Gillan… Those are my favorites – Dio, Ozzy, Robert Plant, some Judas Priest. Those are my favorite singers, biggest influences.
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