Steve Brown on the Rise and Fall of Trixter, Multi-Tasking in the Music Business, and Bringing a new Face to Ace

He’s a man of strings, noise, and ideas. A guitarist, band leader, songwriter, producer, businessman, and gun for hire. Having endured the ins and outs of the music business — from the heights of hair metal stardom to the lows of being cast aside by an industry hungry for the new blood of the grunge and alternative revolution  — Steve Brown has become more resilient and resourceful that he was in his teenage glory daze in the hair metal band Trixter.

Today, he’s ever aware of often elusive components of the music world he revolves around, and he’s intent on maintaining a diverse and growing range of skills to weather even the harshest musical storms. At the same time, Brown is hardly guarded or cynical. He’s a whirlwind of energy, excitement and optimism that enable him to juggle all of his roles, seemingly without effort.

“I’ve loved every minute of everything I’ve done in music,” Brown asserts from a desk chair in his home studio, Mojo Vegas-6160, his body framed by guitars from his SBS line in a rainbow of colors: yellow, black, green gun-metal gray. Some are in stands on the floor, one is resting on a chair, and still others hang from the ceiling – a gallery of hard rock tools, and he – dressed in a black T-shirt with an SBS logo, is the puppetmaster that pulls the strings (quite literally), whether it’s fine-tuning a new guitar or making his electronic gear hum more smoothly.

“Doing something new is exciting for me and when I get a plug-in or software program, I love learning how to use it,” he says in a rapid-fire flurry of words that belies his abundant energy. “I call my mentality the octopus. When you have your tentacles out in many different directions, you have a lot more options to draw from. And that has allowed me to do almost anything at any time, from playing with Def Leppard on the road to working with Ace Frehley, who was one of my childhood heroes.”

Brown received a new groundswell of attention when Ace praised Brown’s producing, songwriting and playing skills on Ace most recent album 10,000 Volts, a vinyl copy of which is nestled in with the guitars that surround Brown on his interview throne. Ace’s accolades created a certain new awareness of Brown’s versatility among guitarists and sound geeks. But to much of the world – especially those who relished the flashy commercial metal of the ‘80s – Brown remains a symbol of a time when hairspray and heavy riffs were as essential to the rock landscape as electricity. Unlike some icons from the era, he’s proud of his melodic metal past, and happily recalls the adventures he had in Trixter, which he formed in suburban New Jersey in his teens, and which he deftly and speedily steered to the upper rung of the commercial metal hierarchy, barely able to see how high he and his bandmates had ascended before he confronted, and usually leap-frogged the next obstacle.

Tours with KISS, Scorpions, Warrant, Poison, Skid Row and other heroes of the day blurred with astonishing album sales and regular MTV airplay, and everyone seemed tapped into Trixter’s spirited, freewheeling aesthetic – until they weren’t.

Not long after Nirvana’s “Smells Like Teen Spirit” started receiving regular airplay, traditional metal – from glam to thrash – was cast aside in favor of grunge and alternative groups like Nirvana, Pearl Jam, Soundgarden, Alice in Chains, and Smashing Pumpkins. “In very little time, all these metal bands were struggling to get noticed,” Brown says. “Their labels dropped them, MTV stopped playing them. It was like we all had some contagious disease that no one wanted to catch. I said to myself, ‘Well, what am I gonna do next?’ It was all about survival.  The other guys in the band decided they were going to get day jobs. That was never an option for me, so I did whatever I had to because I wanted to stay in music.”

Brown fronted cover bands, played in commercial and alternative rock groups, and intently focused on singing, songwriting, and production. The hard work paid dividends. He scored gigs as a fill-in for Def Leppard, Dennis DeYoung formerly of Styx, and other artists who could still draw a healthy crowd. All th while, Brown wrote songs for a wide range of musicians, produced acts at his studio, negotiated business deals with manufacturers, and, with the support of loyal followers, eventually reformed Trixter. And then, he landed that gig working with Ace Frehley, an honor he had waited a lifetime for, but one that always seemed destined to happen. Having produced 10,000 Volts and written at least the framework for most of the songs, Brown is being viewed under a different kind of spotlight than he enjoyed in the ‘80s — one in which viewers appreciate of all he has achieved while acknowledging there is much left for him to do.

Like a weight lifter, Brown has benefited from years and years of heavy lifting and proven himself as far more than a relic of a bygone glam metal hero. His nimble fingers fly with more agility than those of many players half his age, his songs capture not just the Sturm und Drang of youth, but the complexities of the human condition, and from exploring many musical genres, his production skills have risen to the level where he can capture the essence of expression without pausing to determine what particular studio gear he needs to use.

“We always had youthfulness, cockiness and confidence. I still have that confidence because I always believe in what I do and I’ve always had a strong work ethic.”

During a lengthy and revealing conversation, Brown addressed how he was drawn to music early in life, his teenage years spent rocking with and learning from his idols, and the rapid ascent and steep decline of Trixter. He also talked about how his fill in gigs for other artists, when he caught the production bug, and the album with Ace that has opened up the highway to a new range of possibilities. Between intriguing, often humorous anecdodes, Brown offered tips for guitarists in a rut, guidance for those who want to improve their soloing, and support for musicians who are afraid to leave their comfort zone and step into the unknown.

FretBuzz: What was it like to transition from a performer in a popular commercial metal band to working as a producer, songwriter for hire, and touring guitarist for other artists?

Steve Brown: It’s a very simple answer. There were no other options for me because being a musician is in my blood. It runs through me and it has run through me ever since I started playing guitar in 1978, when I fell in love with Van Halen and Kiss. I started Trixter in 1983 in my pajamas in New Jersey when I was 12 years old. Fast forward to 1995 when I put Trixter on pause because we knew our music was never going to sell anymore and we had exhausted all of our options. As a musician, I knew I could go on and do things without the band. I had just built my home studio the Mojo Vegas 6160, and I had to find another way to use my skills because this is what I love to do. There was no backup plan. And, quite seriously, if I hadn’t succeeded with Trixter or any other band I would still be a musician because I love every part of making music. And that’s one of the most important things I tell younger musicians. Forget about being a rock star. I would say probably less than one percent of the musicians in the world ever have real success, let alone gold and platinum albums, number one videos, and everything that goes with that. It’s just about doing what you love, and at 53 years of age, my passion is the same as it was when I was 15 because I friggin’ love music. I love rock and roll. I love guitars. I love recording studios. I love songwriting. I love doing interviews. So, it’s all a home run for me.

FretBuzz: Is it that love that has allowed you to weather music trends and record industry firestorms?

Brown: I used to have this conversation with Eddie Van Halen and Al Van Halen. Ed was my dear friend and Al is still a very good friend of mine. They always used to say to me, “Hey man, if we never made it big we’d still be playing music just like our dad did. We were musicians, it was never about making a big. It’s just what we do. We make music.” That was instilled in me 30 years ago when I became friends with those guys. It ain’t about spandex pants, hair, or groupies. It’s about the music.

FretBuzz: You started playing guitar at age eight. Were you a natural?

Brown: I think I was because I loved it so much. Before I started, I went up to my mom and said, “I gotta learn guitar. I wanna be like Ace Frehley and Eddie Van Halen.” Here’s a funny story. When I went to first take lessons, there was a music shop in Maywood, New Jersey called Musically Yours, which was a legendary place. My mom took me down there to get a guitar. Now, I’m a lefty by nature. I play ball lefty. But we had to rent a guitar, so my mom talked to the guy behind the counter and he said, “Is he a lefty or righty?” My mother goes, “He’s a lefty.” And the salesman says, “Well, Mrs. Brown, it’s going to be a lot cheaper if he learns how to play righty.” So, I got a cheap acoustic guitar and learned how to play guitar right-handed!

FretBuzz: Were you taken with the instrument right away?

Brown: I had to go through the usual stuff, and that bummed me out. I had the Mel Bay book and my teacher wanted me to learn stuff like, “Mary Had a Little Lamb,” and that lasted two or three months until I was in tears. I ran up to my mom crying and said, “Mom, I don’t want to learn this stuff. I want to learn KISS songs.” The next time I had a lesson, she took my copy of KISS’ Rock and Roll Over, which was the only KISS record I had at the time. She gave it to my teacher, who was a jazz fusion guy named Bob. She handed him the record and said, “Oh Bob, could you please teach Steve these songs? He doesn’t want to learn what’s in the book.” I remember him giving her this, “You’ve got to be kidding me” smirk, but he dropped the needle down on the album and the first song we worked on was “Calling Dr. Love.” He showed me power chords, and that was the real beginning for me. I was off to the races.

FretBuzz: How did you develop from a power chord player into a more seasoned, all-around musician?

Brown: It was a natural progression over a lot of time. I kept taking lessons there, and every week I learned something different. A big breakthrough came when I was learning [Chuck Berry’s] “Johnny B. Goode,” and I realized the first intro riff was something Ace Frehley did all the time. When I heard it I went, “Wait a second. Isn’t that the same lick Ace played in ‘Rock and Roll All Nite?” So, I started putting two and two together, and I learned the twelve-bar blues. That was my first introduction to lead guitar. And then on Christmas 1979. I got my first electric guitar.

FretBuzz: Wait, your guitar teacher taught you KISS and Chuck Berry songs on acoustic?!? You must have been relieved to be able to plug in and turn up. Did you upgrade to a quality electric?

Brown: It was one of those Sears Roebuck models from the Sears catalog. I believe it was $69.95 for the guitar and the amplifier set. The store also had pedals and my guitar teacher said, “Oh Steve, to get the sound you want you’re going to have to have a fuzz pedal.”

Brown: I got an Electro-Harmonix Big Muff. The big breakthrough came at Christmas when I plugged that pedal in, hit an “A” chord, and stepped on the pedal. Hearing a distorted power chord coming out of the amp felt to me like the scene in Back to the Future when Marty McFly hits a guitar chord and it blows him backwards. It was that powerful, and I wanted more! I was obsessed.

FretBuzz: What was your next big epiphany as a guitarist?

Brown: In 1981 or 1982, I met some older guys in a cover band. Their singer was Ray Gillen, who would go on to future success with Badlands and Black Sabbath. He died tragically young, but the guitar player in the band was Ross Baratta, who became my guitar teacher and taught me all of the fundamentals I needed to become the guitar player I am now. Their drummer George lived right across the street from our high school, so me and my buddy Mike Pane used to go over and watch these guys rehearse. They were playing the Jersey club scene in the ‘80s and we were 11 years old watching these guys, partying in the garage, listening to them playing Van Halen, Dio, and Sabbath songs at 150 decibels. They were chugging Jack Daniels out of a bottle and smoking cigarettes and doing other things I won’t mention, and it was so eye-opening. It was the moment I thought, “This is what I want to do!” They were just playing in a garage, but the experience was immediately in my blood.

FretBuzz: Was the debauchery part of the appeal?

Brown: It was part of everything, and that was before I tried any of it. I had just seen pictures of Randy Rhoads and Eddie Van Halen with cigarettes hanging out of their mouths. I saw all the pictures of Motley Crue with bottles of Jack. I saw all the girls with these guys. It was very addictive. I adapted pretty young and got into girls and smoking cigarettes and drinking at a relatively young age just to follow what all these older guys were doing.

FretBuzz: When did you start playing with other musicians?

Brown: My buddy Mike Pane was on my rec basketball team. He was a drummer and I said, “Oh, I play guitar.” And he went, “Why don’t you bring your guitar over and we’ll play together?” He lived around the block from me, so I went over there and it was the first time I ever played with someone else. We tried to play Van Halen songs, Rainbow, KISS. And it was awesome. We didn’t have a bass player, so I went up to my friend who lived up the street and I said, “I gotta teach you how to play bass.” So, he bought a bass for $100 and I taught him to play root notes. I said just follow my first finger. He learned how to play bass that way. And by 1983 I was 12, and we started what would become Trixter.

FretBuzz: When did you start playing out, and did you perform covers or originals?

Brown: We always had one original, but [other than that], it was all covers three times a night. I was keyed into songwriting very early on, and, as far as influences go, Cheap Trick’s Dream Police was a game-changer. When I heard that, I put two and two together and started figuring out what made good songs work. It came pretty naturally because my family was very musical. No one played music, but they always listened to music in the house. My dad was a vice principal of my middle school and then my high school. So, when he’d come home from work or come home from coaching, it would always be happy hour. They had one of those big wooden stereo consoles, and they were always playing Neil Diamond, Fleetwood Mac, the Bee Gees, and the Beatles’ Abbey Road. When I first heard Cheap Trick’s Dream Police, I thought, “Wow, that reminds me of the Beatles,” and I drew a songwriting connection in my mind that was really important. Once I learned enough chords, I would copy KISS and Van Halen songs and write my own lyrics. For a 10 or 11-year-old-kid, I think that’s pretty cool. It’s what I tell kids nowadays. Take a song you like and use that as a roadmap but make it your own. That was very pivotal for me.

FretBuzz: When you started Trixter at age 13, you already had professional aspirations?

Brown: The original version of Trixter was called Rade, and we wrote some songs. But I had a lightbulb moment when I was reading Circus magazine and I realized the drummer of Def Leppard, Rick Allen, joined the band when he was 16. I knew from reading interviews with Gene Simmons that you had to have an angle or a gimmick. And I thought, “How is 12-year-old Steve Brown going to come up with a concept to get the band noticed?” And I figured we could be the coolest band and youngest band. And that was it. When I saw how young Rick Allen was, I said, “I’m going to start a new Def Leppard-style band that’s going to have elements of Bon Jovi and Motley Crue, but we’re going to be even younger. We’re going to jump around more. We’re going to be even cuter.” The whole concept of the band was in my head and I was going to be a mini-Eddie Van Halen. That’s what I did. And I called the band Rade because my favorite Def Leppard song as a kid was “Rock Brigade.”

FretBuzz: After Mike was onboard, how did you find the other members?

Brown: I wanted us to be the cutest band so I knew Pete Moran had to be the vocalist. He wasn’t a singer but he was the best looking kid in town. I grew up with his little sister, and I would see Pete with another best friend of mine. The first time I saw Pete, I looked at him and said, “If I could turn that guy into a singer, I know we’d have a shot” because all the girls in Paramus loved the guy. He was a wrestler. He looked like Tom Cruise. Sure enough, he fell for it. I taught him how to sing, and luckily, he had a pretty good talking voice, so we developed it. We started out doing songs by KISS, Van Halen, Quiet Riot, Motley Crue, Dio. And the first official Trixter show was July 7, 1984. I originally came up with the name Trickster, but there was a band on Jet Records, on Ozzy Osbourne’s label named Trickster, so I changed the spelling and put an “X” in there, which made it more heavy metal, anyway. I drew the first original logo that had the “X” with the horns coming out of it, and we were off to the races.

FretBuzz: What was the first sign that you were gaining popularity?

Brown A guy in New Jersey was putting on all-ages concerts in a place called the China Club in Hillsdale, New Jersey on Sunday nights. We started playing these shows and all hell broke loose. Man, it was the ‘80s. 1985 and 1986 was when the whole hard rock, hair band thing started to explode. It was full-on insanity and we were all about it. We went from playing for 50 people a night to playing for 150 people the next week. And the week after that, there were even more kids. Bon Jovi were taking off at the time and would release Slippery When Wet [on July 23, 1986]. Something was happening for all New Jersey bands: us, Skid Row, Prophet. We knew the timing was really good so we recorded our first demo, and one night when Jon Bon Jovi was doing a promotional event at the Hard Rock Café, we handed him our demo tape. Within a week, he called us on our hotline – which was the answering machine on Pete’s home phone — and he said, “Hey guys, it’s Jon Bon Jovi. I just wanna tell ya, I listened to your demo tape and I think you guys got a lot of potential.”

FretBuzz: What was it about Trixter, aside from your shreddy, hook-filled metal that appealed to Jon Bon Jovi?

Brown: We always had youthfulness, cockiness and confidence. I still have that confidence because I always believe in what I do and I’ve always had a strong work ethic. We worked our asses off. We were rough around the edges on a lot of levels back then. But what we weren’t rough at was enthusiasm and performance energy. We powered ahead and kept building and got to the point where we were doing half covers and half originals. We kept growing until 1989, when we got signed.

FretBuzz: By that point, how skilled were you as a guitarist? 

Brown: I was pretty well-versed. Luckily, all the teachers I worked with were good. They taught me scales and I played to a metronome and worked on my up and down picking. Randy Rhoads was a big influence on me when I was a kid. I read in guitar magazines about how he was a teacher and that he was classically trained, and that really inspired me. Him and Ritchie Blackmore were the first guys that got me to ever listen to and play diminished scales and harmonic minor. Part of the skill came because I loved all of it and I wanted to learn and be open to different styles because I was also into the blues. And then when Yngwie Malmsteen came out, that was another level for guitar. He was a game-changer. But as much as I loved it, what immediately caught me about Yngwie was his vibrato. It wasn’t his speed. It was the way he made the guitar almost cry and sound like a violin. And that’s what I worked on after I started listening to Yngwie.

FretBuzz: A lot of great playing comes down to speaking and expressing human emotion through your instrument.

Brown: Exactly, and until the day I die, Ed Van Halen will be my everything because he had everything I loved about guitar. He could bend a note and make you believe it, and I think nowadays, a lot of guitar sounds like a videogame because everyone’s learning on YouTube. Kids are slowing down YouTube players and learning everything. The technical level is off the charts, but what’s lacking in today’s guitarists is the emotional level, and being able to play a note and bend it so you feel something deep down. Everything’s so perfect now, even the bending, so it loses its soul. Hearing the soul of the player, man, that was always so important to me and it’s what I heard when I listened to guys like Eddie Van Halen or Steve Vai.

FretBuzz: What did you learn from Vai, who is more of an instrumental and experimental guitarist?

Brown: Steve was so technical, but there was always this recklessness where it sounded like the strings were going to break, the amp was going to blow up, or his hands were going to fall apart at any minute from playing so hard. You don’t get that nowadays from many guitar players. He taught me to sometimes throw away the rules and play the craziest thing you’re feeling inside.

FretBuzz: What advice would you give guitar players who want to play leads and are familiar with the five Pentatonic positions, and maybe the major and minor scale, but are having trouble using them to make music?  

Brown: One of the cool things I learned very early on is that you sometimes need to stop and just write solos. Whatever level you’re at as a player, think about making something that sounds like a song within a song and not just a scale. And the advice I have to anyone who wants to do that is go listen to the great guitar solos. Listen to “Photograph” by Def Leppard. Listen to “Jump” by Van Halen. Listen to “Crazy Train” by Ozzy Osbourne. I tell most of the students I’ve taught, “If you want to learn a fairly simple, but incredible rock solo that can pretty much give you everything you need to know rhythm wise, riff-wise, and solo-wise, ‘Crazy Train’ is the song.”

FretBuzz: After listening to some great recorded stuff, what’s the next step to writing a solo that sounds like a song within a song?

Brown: Take your iPhone and record a chord progression. I like to do a five-minute loop of the part I want to solo on, and I play it over and over. I come up with bits at a time and then connect them until I’ve got a whole lead. One thing you can do is come up with code names for your licks depending on whether they’re fast or slow or sound a certain way. Then you do two-bar sections and put it together with some fast parts and some slow parts. You can also do some bendy things and some anthemic stuff, which is what I did in my song “One in a Million.” Or do what Neil Schon did in “Don’t Stop Believin’” where he copied the vocal melody and then added some other flavors. Put it all together and then record yourself playing those parts, and then all of a sudden you go, “Wow, that sounds really good,” or “Wow, that sounds really terrible.” Either way, you’ll learn from the experience, and in this day and age there’s no excuse for not finding a way to record something even if you don’t have ProTools. You can use Garage Band or use a looper. Playing along with your riffs is one of the easiest ways you can improve your soloing.

FretBuzz: Your dad was your vice principal in middle school and high school. Clearly he valued education. What did he think about your dreams of being a rock star?

Brown: I had a very interesting situation because I grew up in a very athletic and educated family. My dad was my vice principal for seven years. But long story short, my parents were unbelievably supportive of my music and of my early sports activities. I was a pretty good athlete, which served me well later on doing scissor kicks and other athletic moves during our rock and roll performances. But my parents were everything to me. My mother took me to my guitar lessons every week, and Trixter rehearsed in the basement of my house on Spring Valley Road in Paramus, New Jersey. All of the band members’ parents were extremely supportive.

FretBuzz: Being supportive is one thing. Being a part of an academic family and not going to college is another. What did your parents say when you told them you wanted to rock and roll all night and party every day?

Brown: By the time I got into high school we were already playing New York and all around, sometimes a couple nights a week. So, I would be out really late at night and it was very apparent that I was determined to follow this through. I told my father, “Listen, this is what I’m doing. There’s no question in my mind. I don’t want to hear, ‘Oh, have something to fall back on’ because it’s not going to work.” I was incredibly hard-headed, and, to this day, I’m still the same way. So, my father did a great thing. He went to all the teachers and said, “Look, do me a favor. As long as he’s here, just get him through school.” So, for my junior and senior year, I went to class but I didn’t do much school work, and I wouldn’t have passed my classes if my dad hadn’t helped me out. He was friends with the teachers and they all knew my path was inevitable. But they got me through. We were popular and people liked us, so the teachers wanted us to succeed as well. My favorite subject was graphics, and I printed the first Trixter T-shirts and the band flyers there. I handed out the flyers at lunch, and a lot of those people came to the show.

FretBuzz: What was Trixter’s first big break?

Brown: Over time, we became the biggest band in our area. This was right when Skid Row was getting signed and Jon Bon Jovi introduced us to those guys – guitarist Dave “Snake” Sabo, bassist Rachel Bolan and guitarist Scotti Hill, in particular. We became like their little brothers. Jon told Snake, “Whatever you do, take care of Steve and the guys.” So, we started opening shows for Skid Row even before Sebastian Bach was in the band. We were there the night Jason Flom signed them to Atlantic Records. It was one of Sebastian’s first shows, and I remember that because I could see what a difference there was between him and their old singer Matt Fallon. Within a minute of Sebastian taking the stage with them, everyone knew they were going to be the next big thing, and within a year they were. It was a big lesson to me because I had to do the same thing in Trixter when our bass player wasn’t cutting it. And that’s how I got PJ Farley in the band, who I still play with to this day, 36 years later. Next thing I knew, this manager guy comes out to see Trixter and he was working for Peter Mensch of Q Prime, who managed Metallica, Def Leppard, and Tesla. He said, “You’ve got something special.” Two months later, I’m in Peter’s Brownstone in New York City and he’s saying, “You’re a young Def Leppard. I’m gonna help you guys. I’m going to bring your tape to every major label and I’m going to tell them that Trixter is going to be Def Leppard’s opening act on their next tour.” And that’s what he did. About a year later, we got a contract with Mechanic MCA Records, and the rest is history.

FretBuzz: That history was a triumphant upwards arc… until it wasn’t. When was the moment that you saw that the floodgates had burst open for grunge and alternative rock and washed all the metal bands away?

Brown: “Give it to Me Good” broke on MTV in September 1990. We basically ruled MTV’s Number One Videos from September until June. We had almost nine months of incredible touring opportunities with Scorpions, Poison, Warrant. We’re selling ten to twenty thousand records a day. Every dream we ever had came true and it was the best of times. And then grunge came. This guy Bill Bennett who was the head of radio at MCA Records moved over to Geffen Records. By October of 1991, we were finishing 13 months of touring with Warrant and Firehouse and coming home as conquering heroes. We were living at a hotel on Sunset Boulevard for a week, and Bill invited us to come to the Geffen offices, which was right down the road on the Sunset Strip. He goes, “Guys, I want you to hear this new band we just signed. They’re called Nirvana.” He put on their CD, “Smells Like Teen Spirit” starts to play, and I thought it was cool. It sounded to me like Cheap Trick mixed with Black Sabbath. So, he hooks us up with their promotional material — the Nirvana shirt with the smiley face on it and the promo CD. We were walking down Sunset Strip, and we were each carrying this bag with the timebomb that would blow up our whole genre. We didn’t have a clue. We were just laughing and having a good time, but that was a moment that I had to look back on as the second everything changed.

FretBuzz: What happened next? Did your fans immediately abandon ship?

Brown: When we got back from the tour, we had just renegotiated a huge deal with MCA records, and we were doing our second record. We were living in a bubble and making our second record, Hear!, which I think was our Sergeant Peppers. For anyone that hasn’t heard it, give it a listen because you’ll hear the growth of the band from the first record. That’s really when I took over co-producing. At first, we were insulated. We had money. We were living in New York and LA. We were rock stars. Meanwhile, we could see what was going on. There was Nirvana, Pearl Jam, Alice in Chains. We were friends with the Alice in Chains guys because they were opening for Van Halen, so I’d go out with Ed and the Van Halen guys, and I’d hang out with Jerry Cantrell not realizing my whole genre was blowing up right in front of my face. We got offered the KISS Revenge tour right when Hear! was released – October 1992. We made this cool video for the first single, “Road of a Thousand Dreams,” and we thought, “Oh man, this is going to be huge on MTV.” A week into the KISS tour, my manager calls us and says, “Guys, I’ve got bad news. MTV is not going to play the video.” That was the first shot to the face.

FretBuzz: Did the gut-punches keep coming?

Brown: It was something we definitely noticed. When we were out on the KISS tour, some nights there would be 10,000 people watching us play, and other nights there’d be 2,500. One night, we played the Arco Arena in Sacramento, which seats 22,000. A year-and-a-half earlier we sold the place out with the Scorpions. It was the biggest crowd that place had had since New Kids on the Block, and it was at a time when “One in a Million” was number one. It was our peak and we were adored. Fast forward to the tour with KISS and we were playing there for 1,500 people. We went, “Man, what the fuck is happening?” That was one of the moments that showed the writing on the wall. After that, it was dark. We made the best of it. For ten months we toured arenas with KISS and it was still awesome. We had so much fun and the KISS guys were great.

FretBuzz: Any good KISS Stories?

Brown: They were recording Alive III. I was sitting in the remote recording truck in Detroit next to Eddie Kramer and he was talking to me: “Steve, listen to this. Here’s Gene’s bass solo.” It was mind-blowing. But that was 1993, and we already knew the ship was sinking and sinking quickly.  

FretBuzz: When grunge and alternative rock pulled the rug from under the hair metal and thrash metal scene, some people dug in their heels and kept playing at smaller venues, even if their frontmen quit, as was the case with Judas Priest and Iron Maiden. Others pivoted to a different style of music like Keel, and some bands threw in the towel or went into extended hibernation. When did you realize you had to shift your focus if you wanted to remain in the music business?

Brown: Right away because it was a method of survival. With the success of Trixter, I was able to buy the house I’ve lived in for 30 years and build my studio. Instead of buying a Corvette or spending my money on stupid stuff, I wanted to have what Eddie Van Halen had with 5150, and that’s why I named it 6160. To me, it’s about having the freedom to be able to make music without paying $1,500 a day to record. I became obsessed with wanting to be the next Bob Rock or Bruce Fairburn. Playing took a back seat for me for a little bit. I was more interested in learning how Mike Shipley was able to get the Def Leppard drums to snap. The studio rat in me took over. I hired a friend to teach me how to engineer, and Trixter did this covers record, Undercovers, which we released in 1994 and went on tour. And then that was the end of the band for a long time. But PJ and I kept doing other things because we’re musicians. It’s in our blood. It’s in our heart.

FretBuzz: What did you guys do next?

Brown: I started writing songs, and the two of us formed the band Throwan Rocks, which was a poppy Oasis-meets-Lenny Kravitz hybrid with a little Black Crowes and Beatles thrown in. I wasn’t even really playing guitar. I wanted to totally reinvent myself, and that went on for years and years, and then I also got to make money.

FretBuzz: What was your first post-Trixter gig that paid the bills?

Brown: PJ and I started playing in the big New Jersey cover band scene in a group called Sugarbelly, and we did that for a decade. I also got into producing bands and doing music for TV shows, which was great because I was doing something new and different. I started teaching guitar, vocal lessons, ProTools. People paid me to learn my tricks — no pun intended – but that was a huge lesson for me because having one stream of income in the music industry doesn’t work anymore. For all the old guys that were in those big legacy bands that made millions, some of them were smart and saved their money. But most of them… Man, it still amazes me how many iconic, legendary, huge rock stars there are who are practically broke because they pissed all their money away. I know a lot of them, and I swore that would never be me. And thank God it never has been.  I’ve been smart with my money. My buddy Uncle Gene Simmons always says, “There’s seven days a week. That means there’s seven days that you can make money. Don’t take days off.”

FretBuzz: How did you parlay your drive and ambition into playing gigs with other bands such as Def Leppard and Dennis DeYoung?             

Brown: Having toured for years and having met so many people, I had all these connections, and when [guitarist] Vivian Campbell was diagnosed with cancer in 2013, Phil Collen called and said, “Hey man, come on the road with us. We need some support on guitar.”

FretBuzz: To tour with other artists, you have to break outside your signature playing style and engage in more of a support role. Does that come naturally or is there a learning curve?

Brown: For me, being able to sing as well as play guitar was really helpful. Steve Lukather has said that any musician who plays their instrument great can play someone else’s music, but if they’re also able to sing great they will always get the gig over the next guy. So that was part of why I was able to fit in with other bands. Also, being in a big cover band and playing 20 different styles of music a night taught me different ways of playing and different styles of singing. Lucky for me, I have a good singing voice, and that’s how I got the Def Leppard gig. After that, I got a call from Dennis to fill in for both of his guitar players. Then I got a call from [Mr. Big vocalist] Eric Martin and then Danger Danger called me. That’s sort of become my thing because I can learn material really quickly and perform it with confidence. I always say, “Hey man, if you need a guitar player to learn 14 songs a day, I can do it.” And that’s what I do. I’m very disciplined and, luckily, I have the ability to pull it off.

FretBuzz: You wrote much of Ace Frehley’s newest album, 10,000 Volts. You also produced the record and played guitar. How did you develop a relationship with Space Ace, and, as a huge KISS fan, that must have been a blast.

Brown: Working with Ace has been one of the proudest moments of my musical career. I’ve known Ace for the better part of 30 years, but over the last year-and-a-half to two years we became the best of friends and he’s been so generous with me and so generous with the amount of praise he has given me for working with him on the record. I’m eternally grateful to him for that. It’s funny because I’ve been doing this for a long time, but it takes one record to get everybody to go, “Wow, I didn’t know you do that.” Well, go back 15 years and listen to the album I did with Stereo Fallout, The Other Side. Or listen to the band PJ and I did [in the early 2000s], 40 Ft Ringo, [which released the album Funny Thing in 2003]. Or even listen to the last two Trixter records I wrote, produced, engineered, and mixed. But again, sometimes it takes something big like Ace. And Ace is super. It’s the biggest thing I’ve ever done.

FretBuzz: Ace told me that his fiancé suggested the two of you work together.

Brown: Lara is a Jersey girl. She grew up in Cliffside Park and we knew each other back in the 80s. She was the one who said, “Man, you need to work with somebody, Steve. Ace has a new sound and I think it would work for you.” I really liked the more poppy and modern sound he was after and I wanted to help out because over the last 30 years, Ace’s albums have had a lot of good moments, but there have been a lot of half-baked ideas and a lot of mediocrity in them. As such a huge fan of Ace and KISS, I wanted to bring in song ideas to him, and when I wrote them I thought, “Man, what would I want to hear as a KISS fan?” I guess a lot of fans felt the same way because 10,000 Volts has been Ace’s most successful release in 25 years.

FretBuzz: What are your favorite guitars that you’ve played throughout your career?

Brown: My first real good hot rod guitar was the original 81985 custom-made Charvel that you had to order from Sam Ash Music, and they took eight months to get it to you. It was $800 and it was a Ferrari-red Charvel with a Strat body, a shark fin headstock, and a Floyd Rose tremolo, which was the first Floyd Rose I ever had. I also had some of the Warren DeMartini Charvels from the ‘80s. And then I switched to Kramer when they endorsed Trixter. But it was always the Van Halen-style locking tremolo-style guitar that I loved. During Trixter’s heyday in the ‘90s I went to Hamer, and then, because of my friendship with Eddie, I became an EVH endorser when he started working with Peavy with the EVH, the 5150 amps, and the first Wolfgang guitars. Then about four years ago, my good friend Jay Abend at guitarfetish.com approached me about doing my own signature line. And here we are now with SBS guitars.  

FretBuzz: We reviewed the Strat-style SBS with the high gain pickups and the locking Floyd Rose Tremolo system. It’s a shredding machine. Even at double the price point, it would be a steal.

Brown: At Guitar Fetish, they sell these incredible guitars at spectacular prices because there’s no middle man. The pickups are great because Jay is an expert pickup maker and he was making better versions of Gibson’s hot rod PAFs before anyone was doing it. And he was one of the first guys online when the Internet broke in the late ‘90s. Guitar Fetish was right there on the search engines, and that’s how I connected with him. About 10 years ago, he did a very successful line with Earl Slick (David Bowie, John Lennon). He was selling relic-looking 50-year-old Les Paul Customs, Les Paul Jr double cutaways, and real simple guitars for $250 to $300.

FretBuzz: So many rock stars have signature guitars that are over $1,000. Do you prefer having a line of quality affordable guitars?

Brown: I was once talking to Eddie, and he told me, “My Frankenstein is a $200 guitars. It’s made from parts.” That always resonated with me, and in my head I’ve always thought, “Why do good guitars have to be so expensive?” Then, about four years ago, Jay came to me and said, “I want to do something with you because I believe in you. You’re a great salesman, you have great energy, a great look, and the whole thing to represent the everyday world musician.” But also, I was there in the ‘80s, and he wanted to do a line of guitars that were very ‘80s Van Halen. He said, “We’re going to do these incredible guitars with your own custom wound pickups and all the cool things that you like. And we’re gonna sell it for $359.” And that’s what we’ve done since launching SBS guitars in July 2023. We have six models now and the company is starting to take off. There’s even a $259 version which has a Canadian roasted maple neck, and it comes with a Floyd Rose, too. It’s incredible to be a part of it, and It’s yet another dream come true. I feel so lucky to have had things turn out the way they have and to have so many different avenues to explore the music I love.