Steve Kilbey, the long-time lead singer, bassist & lead songwriter for The Church has had a career that spans half a century. As he has just taken the band around Australia on their The Singles Tour and prepare to hit the US with it this summer, we checked in with our entertaining friend for the first time since ep 200 of The Ugly American Werewolf in London Rock Podcast.

Though we start out as we do with all First Concert Memories episodes - by reliving a special moment in our guest's live that revolved around a live rock show - we veered to take a holistic look at his career rather than rehashing a night from long ago. Steve saw The Easybeats - Australia's answer to The Beatles - in short pants at age 11 and had to fight off teenage girls for drum sticks and from there he knew playing music live was something he could and would do.

Steve regales us with stories of growing up in Oz, importing UK & US rock magazines so he'd be ahead of the curve and how his father, a musician that moved his family from the UK in search of a better life, was a huge supporter of his once he found his passion. Kilbey also talks about being disappointed in seeing his favorite bands live (T. Rex, Roxy Music did not give fantastic live performances when he saw them) and how that affects his approach to live music today. He navigated the cover and blues bands to find his sound and testifies that learning how to use a 4 track TEAC recorder gave him the confidence not to back down to the engineers and producers once he started to work in studios.

He also is a bit regretful of how he treated his bandmates in the early days when it came to playing on his songs. However, he and The Church would figure a way to work together and produce some of the best guitar music of the 80s and beyond. The band in its current configuration seem to be humming on all cylinders and are ready to take on the USA again.

We found Steve to be honest, reflective, and funny. Not necessarily regretful but aware of who he is and how he has gotten to where he is. In 6 years, this was instantly one of our very favorite conversations with a man who has written thousands of songs and isn't stopping anytime soon.

Check out US tour dates for The Church: ⁠thechurchband.com⁠

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