Most people are familiar with the work of Billy Morrison as the rhythm guitarist for Billy Idol but he is a man of many, many talents. In addition to his guitar skills Billy is an accomplished actor, songwriter, and radio host. Recently he has taken up a new medium in the form of painting. Without any formal art training, Billy has accomplished more in this last year than many artists accomplish in a lifetime. His works include colorful, introspective pieces. His recent collaboration with illustrator Joey Feldman has resulted in a brand new collaborative piece entitled “Inside View.” The piece will be part of an evening of art to benefit the Rock Against MS Foundation this Sunday at Village Recording Studios in L.A. along with solo works by both artists.
Please join us for a conversation with Billy as we find out about this spectacular event as well as the new Billy Idol album, “Kings & Queens of the Underground” and their upcoming tour.
Kris: Hi this is Kris with Backstageaxxess.com and we have the multi talented Billy Morrison, guitarist for the Billy Idol band with us today to give us an update on his latest artistic ventures. Welcome to Backstageaxxess.com and thank you for taking the time to talk with us today.
Billy: Thank you.
Kris: You’ve got a big art show coming up this Sunday and it’s going to showcase this new collaborative piece “Inside View”. Can you tell us a little bit about the piece and also how your collaboration with Joey Feldman came about?
Billy: I’m in the middle of probably the biggest musical week I’ve had in my career because Billy’s album that I helped write drops on Tuesday, we’re leaving for Europe on tour, we’re doing all this TV, of course live shows and this week to do an art show. So I am switching gears every minute. One interview is about music and then the next is about art and it’s crazy but I like to stay busy. I’ve never painted anything until February of this year. I hated drawing but I’ve always been an art lover. I collected art, pop art, Warhol and Banksy and Shepard Fairey and Litton. I love all that stuff. I painted something at a charity event that came out kind of cool and I showed it to Ozzy who is a friend of mine, I was down in South America with Ozzy and he was saying you should go buy some canvas and paint. So I just started painting. I am the kind of person where if I didn’t get to paint and act and make music and be creative I’d be a danger to society. (Laughs) I look for creative outlets and I can tap into those really dark moments that we all have and I get the out. With painting there’s nobody else involved, I don’t have to explain the chord sequence or I don’t have to write lyrics for it. I can literally do what I want and it’s open to interpretation and I stumbled across that in February and I can’t get enough. I paint probably every day and I’m just hooked.
Kris: Cool. Now this new piece is collaboration, how did this collaboration come about?
Billy: Well I wanted to do an art show because I have a body of work and I was looking for a local artist who wasn’t using the same medium as I was using painting on canvas. I’ve always been a fan of Ralph Steadman you know that kind of “gonzo’ style of illustration and Joey’s really deep into that, like crazy weird faces and ink on watercolor paper. So I’ve been a friend with Joey for a while and it was suggested to me why don’t you do a show with Joey when I needed to find another artist. I spoke with him and he came and looked at my work and was like let’s do this, let’s do a piece together as the centerpiece of the show. I left my thumbprints on the canvas. I painted the hand grenade and the background on watercolor paper which is a completely different process and then Joey came along and did his crazy guy behind it and I splattered it with some gold and we stood back and went “this is fantastic!” Someone that day said to me that day “why so many skulls and hand grenades and naked chicks?” and I said because that’s an inside view of what’s in my head and Joey said that’s the name of the piece for the show so that’s how it came about.
Kris: Cool. Now the show is also going to be a benefit for the Rock Against MS Foundation, what’s your role with that organization and how did you get involved with them?
Billy: Well I first became aware of MS through Jack Osborne. Obviously I’m a close friend of that whole family and when Jack got diagnosed with it I paid close attention and tried to learn as much as I could. Another friend of mine, a PR girl in L.A. named Nancy Sayle runs Rock Against MS and she asked me to participate in her first annual gig. You know, get some musicians and put a gig on and raise some money and awareness so I did and I basically stuck with that ever since. Everyday that I don’t have to work in 711 is a bonus to me. You know I shouldn’t be doing this, I should be dead or I certainly shouldn’t be jamming around the world playing rock and roll so every chance I get to give back I will if it falls in my wheelhouse and Rock Against MS is close to my heart and MusiCares is close to my heart. I do a lot for those charities. A portion of the proceeds goes to Nancy’s Rock Against MS.
Kris: Great, that’s fantastic, so you both will have solo pieces available at the show this Sunday on display.
Billy: Oh yeah we have something like 25 pieces each and then the one collaborative piece. For both Joey and me we’re donating proceeds to the charities.
Kris: Ok so for those who are not in LA and cannot get to the show there are going to be some prints of the collaborative piece Inside View that you can get off your website?
Billy: Yes if you go to http://billymorrisonart.com you can see the collaborative piece. You can get that in two different sizes, you can get my own prints. You can also contact me if you want a painting commission, you know I’m not one of these artists that’s hiding away. Just contact me and we’ll talk about it and it’ll all be good.
Kris: Ok that’s awesome. Now you mentioned earlier that you’re putting on all your different hats here because you’re busy with the new Billy Idol record coming out Kings And Queens Of The Underground. Can you tell us a little about the songwriting and creative process behind that album?
Billy: Yeah we got off the road, I think it was late 2011 and Billy and Steve who have been the songwriters forever invited me to come around just lets get together the three of us. I get along well with Billy and I was truly honored to be asked. I started going around Steve’s house, he has a great home studio and we were going in almost daily for probably a couple of years just writing and enjoying it. The process is real fun and we’d start with anything, a piano riff that I’d come up with or a guitar line that Steve would come up with, lyrics that Billy would come up with and above all we weren’t thinking about, is this a record? We were thinking about, are we having fun? Here we are a couple of years later and the album was released on Tuesday. It’s been an absolute privilege to be able to write with Billy Idol and Steve Stevens. I’ve got 6 of the 11 songs on there co-written with those guys and it’s fantastic.
Kris: Now you guys are going to be hitting the road soon, for the record can you tell us a little bit about the upcoming tour?
Billy: Yeah we start in Europe the first week of November and we’ll be back in December for a few select shows. We will be doing a full U.S. tour in January and February and then Australia and New Zealand and I don’t really want to think far past that because I get overwhelmed. (Laughs) There are all kinds of countries being mentioned and I just say, what am I doing today?
Kris: You’ve got your involvement with so many different things. Now acting is also something that you’ve been involved with. I know that you’ve been involved with some movies, tv shows, Californication. Is there anything in the works for you on that front right now?
Billy: Yeah there is something I can’t talk about just because we don’t talk about things before they happen, but I would say there’s not enough in that arena right now. Most people would say, aren’t you busy enough but my answer would be no because I’m a true workaholic and I work 18 hours a day every day. That is one area that is less of a challenge. I absolutely adore acting. I find it completely satisfying in a completely different way than any other creative mediums. In the right time I will be doing more, it’s when the opportunities come to me.
Kris: So we can look forward to seeing you on that arena again. What about Royal Machines, can you give us an update on what’s going on with that?
Billy: Royal Machines is the new extension, we had Camp Freddy for 11 years and it was time for a change. We changed the name, Josh Freese is now drumming with us and we’ve been playing this year, we’ve done a bunch this year. So what I will say to you is there will be an announcement very shortly about a certain holiday time of year. (Laughs) The band is very much alive and very much doing stuff and we have something that will be announced soon. Again that’s a chance to play with so much talent on one stage at one time. There are no egos, it’s just fantastic.
Kris: Ok we’ll look forward to that announcement soon. Now you mentioned all these different mediums that you’ve been involved with, is there something out there that you haven’t tried that you would like to?
Billy: That’s a really interesting question. I don’t think so. I think my fingers are in as many pies as I can handle and I think that if I can I would add the acting to the painting and the music. I think that all sides of me are satisfied until I decide they’re not.
Kris: Perfect. We appreciate your time and we thank you very much for giving us an opportunity to find out what’s going on with the show and the artwork. Best of luck with a successful showing on Sunday October 24th!
Billy: Thank you!
We would like to thank Nancy B. Sayle from VQPR for setting up the interview with Billy. For more information on Billy’s artwork, please visit: Billy Morrison Art and Joey Feldman.
A portion of all the proceeds made from these fine arts will be donated to the Rock Against MS Foundation.
