With a hefty sound just as voluminous as their big hair, the guys in Cinderella were one of glam metal's biggest success stories during the genre's heyday in the 1980s. Cinderella's classically-trained drummer, Fred Coury, has been with the band since 1986 (except for some time off in the '90s), and his potent percussive skills propelled the band's biggest hits, including "Shake Me" and "Don't Know What You Got (Till It's Gone)." Recently, Fred was kind enough to spend some time with All Access Magazine in a phone conversation, during which he talked about music, fans, and touring, then and now, shedding light onto what has given Cinderella -- and glam metal in general -- such enduring appeal. (Unfortunately, in the time since the interview, All Access Magazine has learned that founding singer-guitarist Tom Keifer had sustained some recent vocal-chord injury, necessitating the cancellation of Cinderella's touring efforts for this summer. A speedy and complete recovery is wished for Tom, and it is hoped that he and Fred and the rest of the band will soon be able to hit the Gypsy Road again, playing far and wide for fans old and new!)
All Access Magazine -- Thank you so much for taking the time to talk to us today. What city are you calling from?
Fred Coury -- I'm calling from Nashville, Tennessee -- and oh, how I long for my home in Los Angeles!
AAM -- Well, we have a lot to talk about, regarding Cinderella and rock performing and glam music. The first thing All Access Magazine wants to do, since we're taking a look at a genre that you guys were such a big part of, is to ask you this question: Is glam and hair metal making a full-on comeback? Do you believe that we're experiencing a full resurgence in the popularity of this genre?
Fred -- No. I think that people are happy to remember it, and the core audience is still there, has always been there, and they never went away. When somebody says it's making a comeback, that means that they've split away themselves, and they've looked for other things, and now they're coming back. Now people like to remember the Eighties stuff, and they're saying, what else is there, show-wise? Who's really putting on a show? When it comes to a lot of new bands, there's nothing offered when it comes to that, they don't know how to do it. And there were a lot of bands that came after the height of glam -- I won't say any names, but I'll refer to a certain sector of the Northwest -- who just took away everything from entertainment. You want to listen to music, you want to go to a show to escape reality and the harshness of whatever you might be experiencing. You go to have a good time -- but some of these acts were creating the harshness, coming off like, "I'm so angry. I'm so rich and angry" -- it's crazy, man. But glam, it's always been there. I think the live shows are making a comeback, for sure.
AAM -- Regarding live shows, then -- since you speak of a core audience that's always been there, and now it's twenty years down the road since a lot of the big glam hits -- we'd like to know how many, if any, youngsters are you seeing?
Fred -- Tons! I was seeing so many kids with Hilary Duff shirts on the last tour, and I'm sure we're going to be seeing a lot of Hannah Montana shirts out there this time around. That's the thing that really blew our minds. We would go out there and just expect to see Cinderella and Winger t-shirts, and of course, there are those folks who never even sample anything new, but I don't suggest being like that! I myself have played on Hannah Montana tracks, and I think the Miley Cyrus/Hannah Montana record is just killer, if you're into pop! It's fantastic. So, seeing people show up in those shirts lets me know that they dig not only us but also other stuff, so there's not just a kind of tunnel-vision in the audience. I think you should experience all kinds of music, and if you still show up for our show, then we must be doing something right!
AAM -- Must be! Now, regarding doing something right, it seems that we've been hearing for a while about some new music possibly coming from you guys, so can we expect anything fresh from Cinderella soon?
Fred -- Not exactly, but I can tell you that singer Tom Keifer does have his own record coming out. And we never say "never," but we're all so super-busy on our own, so it's just hard to get it together. But we'll see, some new music is not out of the question, it might just happen!
AAM -- Now, on the current Cinderella lineup, we see that you're essentially working with the classic core crew, including founding members Tom Keifer on guitar and vocals and Eric Brittingham on bass, plus guitarist Jeff LaBar, who came on board about the same time as you, in 1986, back in the formative glam days with Poison and others. Do you all feel pretty good about this classic membership, still pounding it out a couple of decades down the road?
FRED -- First of all, we're all just blown away by the fact that we're all still alive, and we're all still doing it. It's just amazing -- it's been 22 years, and we're still friends, and we're still together, despite the fact that so many bands have broken up over this time. Sure, this band has also gone through some membership changes, but right now, it's not that we're just coming together for a tour to scarf up some cash and then disappear again. And we don't all ride in separate buses, and we get together, as we've been together again since 1998 -- so now it's like our 22nd year of "band-dom" -- yeah, I like that, "Band-dom"!
AAM -- So let's talk the tour that's planned. It should be a kick in the fanny, with Cinderella headlining, and also on the bill would be Warrant, Lynch Mob, and Lynam, right? So -- we were talking about stage shows before, and we can figure that with your show, we'll probably see some high-power lights, but now we'd like to ask you this: are we maybe going to see any pyrotechnics with this big arena show?
Fred -- You might see it. I'll put it to you this way. A lot of the bands that come out of our era, nowadays they're just going out there and playing, keeping the production costs low, and just doing their thing. For our show, if you could just plug your ears, and you didn't see the four of us playing there, but just the accompanying spectacle, you'd think it was a Britney Spears show. And that's how we always like to go out, with huge lights, so it's definitely not your average show, it's a little bigger than that. So you'll see everything that you want to see!
AAM -- Fred, you told us that you now reside in Los Angeles, but since Cinderella originally came from Philadelphia, we're wondering if the band still has a foundation in Philly, or has everybody gone to the West Coast?
Fred -- No, they're all in Nashville. I'm the only one who went out to L.A. -- so those guys all live here in Nashville, and I'm out there.
AAM -- Why Nashville? That's like the capital of country music, so what made the fellows relocate to Nashville, Tennessee?
Fred -- It's got a pretty awesome music scene, and with the new country stars, it's "pop" that they're doing now. I might even say that the new country stars are growing out of the compost of the dying rock stars who come to Nashville. I don't know, that was just a poor attempt at a joke! Why Nashville? There's a lot of music going on -- but as for myself, I want to kick and claw a little more, and do a lot more things, and that's why I went to L.A., which is a lot more fast-paced. In Nashville, you've go to put the brakes on, slow down, enjoy life -- but I'm not ready to slow down.
AAM -- Yes, it appears you do have a lot going on. As a musician, you've worked with a bunch of bands, and you also produce, and since you're an all-around musician, not just a drummer-percussionist, I presume that you must write a lot of your own music, right?
Fred -- Yeah! For instance, I did the music for Gene Simmons's "Family Jewels / Season Three" this year. I played all the instruments, all those tracks were just me, really. And I just finished a project called "Ignition," a CD, and I did a lot on that, splitting the tracks with a friend of mine. And I've mixed records -- I just did three songs on the new Lou Gramm record, and I'm really busy, and I just love it, I love being in music, it's just great!
AAM -- And we understand that you have some side interests, too. You say you're not ready to just chill out and vegetate, so what's your most fun thing to do for adventure and recreation, when you're not playing music?
Fred -- Well, playing hockey, of course, but the most fun thing for me is the storm-chasing! When I lived in Nashville, everybody said, [in southern accent] "W-e-e-ll, there ain't no tornadoes out here, that's just old wives' tales!" And then there were 72 tornadoes in one weekend, a huge breakout across Tennessee, and I was scared to death, and then every single day it was another severe thing, and then I realized that these things fascinate me, because they scare me so much. So I ended up meeting Jeff Piotrowski, one of the top tornado-chasers of all time, and he said he'd take me out "chasing," and from there, the passion was born. So right now there's a lot of weather in the middle of the country, so let's hope some of it comes on down here, to break up the boredom.
AAM -- Yes, it'll do that -- heck, we even had a few twisters out here in San Bernardino a couple of weeks ago, that was wild!
Fred -- Yeah, I just got to Nashville a couple of days ago, so I was in L.A. for the whole time that wild weather was going on, and the one fact I didn't know is that every time we get a good storm in L.A., if you live in Malibu you can look out over the water, and there are always water spouts, which are basically tornadoes over the water. You can always see a tornado off the coast of Malibu, which is killer!
AAM -- Now, back to the roots of the genre that you're identified with -- some call it "glam," some call it "hair-metal" -- you were involved in the formative years, emerging from the early to the mid-Eighties. How did you first get connected with that kind of rock-&-roll, and the image that was connected with it?
Fred -- We didn't try to. You can't just kind of "slide into the genre" when your band comes out. Like now, if a new band is formed, they're not doing Eighties covers, and they're not 40 years old. See, I was 19 when Cinderella hit, so let's say a 19-year-old kid comes out now, so he's going to be looking like the bands around now, he's going to have the really tight peg-leg black jeans, he's going to be looking like My Chemical Romance or this new band called Black Tide -- that's just what the look is, so they know that's what they're going to look like -- it's not like they're "sliding into it," thinking they'll get some really ridiculous clothes. As for us, back then we thought we looked cool -- but now we just go, "Oh my gosh -- I wore that?!?" -- So anyway, if you do what you do, and you do it from your heart, that's what's going to get you where you want to be.
AAM -- That's some solid feedback, because it brings us around to how we often like to wrap these things up. Do you have any words of insight or encouragement for the aspiring rockers out there who might also want to make a life of music, as you have? Any parting shots, Fred?
Fred -- Anything that you do, whether it be music, or whatever you want to do in life, just believe in it 100%, and know it's going to happen for you -- just keep going, and the better you get, the bigger you get. As it starts coming upon you, there's just going to be other people trying to squash that, so they can steal that position -- so just keep focused, and don't let anybody tell you "no."
AAM -- Great advice, Fred, because obviously, your spirit has never been squashed, and you have continued to grow and flourish. You're a multi-instrumentalist and a producer, and a writer, and you're now planning a headlining tour with Cinderella, so we really appreciate you taking time out of your busy day in Nashville to talk about the glory days of glam, as well as what's happening now. Take care, and we look forward to catching up with you again on the road!
