Gary James' Interview With
Ken Stacey



As a touring vocalist he was a member of the Elton John Band, the Michael Jackson "This Is It" Band and was the former lead vocalist and acoustic guitarist for Ambrosia. He has shared the stage with Billy Joel, Diana Ross, Tony Bennett, Tom Petty, Phil Collins, The Temptations and the list goes on and on. He's also coached contestants on American Idol, The Voice and The X Factor. The man we are talking about is Mr. Ken Stacey.

Q - Ken, what did you start off being in life? A singer? A songwriter? A guitarist? I see you're all three.

A - Well, I had not actually intended to plan on having any kind of career in the music business. It was not on my radar. That didn't happen until my last year in college. I probably discovered the joy of singing in junior high school. That didn't happen until my last year of college.

Q - You worked with these contestants on these TV singing competitions. You obviously came up a different way than they did. Can you teach someone to be as good as you are when they only have a five minute segment to showcase their talent?

A - Well, no. Carrie (Underwood) is a classic example in a certain way. That is the way I came up too. I started singing in my bedroom. Played the guitar. The only difference is when I was growing up around that age we didn't have the opportunities like that. My road was being in an original band for quite a few years, trying to get a deal. We got very close to signing a record deal. We had management. We were playing for all the major labels. Then Guns 'n' Roses hit and we were not Guns 'n' Roses and the entire industry (took a) hit just like (when) Grunge and Nirvana came on. Everything that existed before was being dropped and not signed anymore. So, that was the world I came up in. Carrie and the kids on these shows, a lot of these kids are picked out of complete anonymity. When they first saw American Idol, that was seismic. All of a sudden you had kids coming out from all over the place with experience, but a lot of them with very little experience or maybe their experience was playing in a local band. Or Carrie singing in her bedroom all the time. It is a lot for someone like that to be thrown under the glare of the lights and all those pressures. I worked for two seasons on American Idol. What I saw, witnessed and tried to mentor with the contestants was, right now you're suddenly a pseudo star, but you're not. The difference between you and Elton John is that you haven't proven yourself. You haven't written a body of original material. You haven't recorded albums. You haven't toured the world. You haven't had to face those kind of pressures and develop an industry around you and then gain and earn the attention and stardom that you justly deserve. You're suddenly put in front of a camera and told to sing, and then a system, a show tells the world you're amazing and you should be thought of as famous. And you did become famous. Most of these kids, when the show is over, you never hear of them again. They may be signed by 19 Productions which is part of American Idol, but most of the time you really never hear much of then again. I used to tell them, "Learn. Don't act like you're somebody." I'm sorry, in this industry you're a cast member. This is like working at a glorified Disneyland. It's about the park. It's not about the entertainment. The entertainment is interchangeable. Now if American Idol can get someone like a Carrie Underwood or a Kelly Clarkson and they can put out incredible records it's because they happen to be phenomenal singers. The difference is Kelly already had professional experience. She was a ringer in as much as they needed somebody on that show that knew what they were doing. She was going to win that show. There was nobody on that show who was going to compete with her. So, the audience was naturally going to end up voting for her and putting her through. They needed somebody like Kelly to legitimize the show. So when these shows come across someone like Kelly, yeah, they've got 19 Productions and they have an avenue through which they take those artists. They record records. They get them out into the world. They put them with producers and songwriters. Most of the time these kids don't write songs. Kelly was the exception. They have a team. A star making team. If you got the right look and you got a great voice and you have an underlying ability to perform, the show increases that and you work with people and they put you in front of a camera and again then you become someone like Carrie Underwood, who has gone on to tremendous success. But for the most part, you're going to go right back into anonymity.

Q - These shows like Idol promote the idea that you have to have this perfect voice.

A - Right.

Q - But if you look at the people who who've enjoyed great success in the music business, they don't have that perfect voice. Just imagine if Bob Dylan or Mick Jagger had auditioned for Simon Cowell. He would have told them to go back to their day job.

A - Exactly. And, you bring up a good point. Remember, these kind of shows are built on drama. Simon's job is to push your buttons. He knows that the most important thing for the show and for the show to continue to endure and come back every season is to not put out the very good singer. It's to create drama and excitement and to get an audience behind their favorite singer and vote, vote, vote, vote, vote. And when that season is over those singers go away and here's your new batch. It's about the show.

Q - How have you been able to work with so many "name" artists? Did you have an agent? Was it word of mouth? Was it a case of who you know?

A - It was utterly and completely out of my control. I think it's always out of everybody's control. I think there's a plan. I think there's a whole slew of different plans for everybody. It depends on the path that you take one day at a time. With me, I kept playing around town, word of mouth, meeting other people, musicians that were touring with major artists, singers that are singing for major producers and hit songwriters. "Ken, do you have a vocal reel?" "No." "Call this guy and he will help you put one together." I put together a four or five song vocal reel that cost $300, which back then was on a cassette tape. I'm handing out cassette tapes and then I got my first commercial for Toyota. And that began to build from there. Then I got this. Then I got that. Within a year or two I was singing for Diane Warren. And I'm singing for this hit producer. Then I end up going to Europe and doing my own record. The whole point is, as Paul McCartney says, it's a long and winding road. Real recording artists spend decades where they are slogging it out trying to get a deal, trying to make their way. Because they don't give up, the opportunities show up or one of those paths that the Universe had planned for them now can materialize because they're ready for it. I never had an agent. I kept looking for new opportunities. I kept putting myself out there.

Q - Given all the artists you've worked with over the years how does Ambrosia compare?

A - Well, Ambrosia is a very different thing. From the minute I heard their song "Holdin' On To Yesterday" it just hit my soul like every once in awhile songs do. It just resonated. I used to perform that song around all the time. I used to sing that all the time, never thinking or knowing that I would work with them. So, when I got recommended to audition for them which was in 2006, I was kind of cut from the same cloth as Ambrosia's former lead singer David Pack. I was out at Burleigh Drummond's house in Thousand Oaks (California). His wife Mary was an incredibly talented piano player and singer. She had lots touring experience. She was listening. After I left, the story was she came in and said, "That's your guy." (Laughs) Basically I joined the band for two years and then the Michael Jackson thing came.

Q - What was Michael Jackson like to work with? As I watched Michael Jackson in the film This Is It I saw a guy who didn't look like he was going to make it through ten shows much less fifty or sixty shows. So when you were working with him, what did you think?

A - Well, what I thought was, how is he going to get through all these shows? We would rehearse all day without Michael there. Michael would start his mornings very early. He'd work out with Lou Ferrigno. Then he'd work out with Travis Payne and his dancers. Travis was the choreographer. Then he'd go work out with Seth Riggs and then he'd go do all kinds of business stuff and interviews. He was at it all day long. While he was doing that we started at the Forum and then moved over to the Staples Center. We were onstage or backstage rehearsing and recording pre-records. Four backing vocalists are not going to be able to fill out the vocals enough. On most of Michael's stuff there 's a lot of vocals. So, you have your pre-records and then you have your 'live' vocals over the top. And that's very normal. He was very generous. He would say, "Don't use my vocals. I like your blend. Learn how I did it." So, we were doing that. We were working on our own choreography. Then we'd be called to stage. Then we'd rehearse a bunch of songs. Then we'd go to lunch. Then we'd go do some more. All day long. Then around nine o'clock at night he'd show up. Then we would run the show at least one time through if not twice. And that's what we did for two months. It was constantly being videotaped and the movie you saw was edited primarily from the last two nights of rehearsal. It was like that all the time. We'd be in the middle of a song and he was still trying to build his voice back. You could see he was getting his stamina back, building it up, and he'd stop. He would say to Michael Bearden, "Michael. That bass note in that chord is not right." Then it was, "Stop! Stop!" He would tell 'Foot' (Jonathan Phillip 'Sugarfoot' Moffett - Michael Jackson's drummer) "That part is not where you put that. That's not where you play that." ( Laughs) Then it would be, "Stop! Lighting, I want a spot right there." He's literally producing the show as he's trying to build his voice back and get his dancing back. I went to Dorian Holley (background singer) and Darryl Phinnessee (background singer) and said, "Guys, how in hell is he going to be ready?" It was going to be fifty shows at the 02 Arena. That's where we were going to start. It was a show every other night for two months. Dorian and Darryl had been with him for most of his solo career. They said, "This is the way it's always been for him. And right towards the end he shows up." In other words, it all falls together. I'm like, " You know better than I do," but it would make me so anxious. Lo and behold the last couple of shows - Wham! Everything really started falling into place. Everybody got excited. We had pictures. We were days from leaving. We were supposed to leave eight days from when he passed away. We were leaving for London. We'd already seen pictures of our apartments. I had the most beautiful apartment setup. I had just released the self-produced record and I was getting air play over in Europe, and on my days off I was going to take the tunnel train over and do shows and interviews. Everybody had those stories. Everybody had all these plans. It was going to be the most extraordinary experience because you were staying in one city for months at a time. So we were going to get into the 02 Arena and rehearse the show probably another few weeks there because we had to get all the staging and wardrobe finalized. And then he passed away. And that was it. And then it's like, "Where do you go from here?" When people ask me how did I get that gig?, I always say I auditioned for ten years. For ten years prior to that gig I had been doing countless gigs and sessions. They would hire me. I would hire them. As far as the original question, "What was it like working with Michael?", Michael was the most mind-boggling musical and creative genius. He was absolutely Mozart. His capacity to hold a million different realities in his head at once and still perform was beyond anything I'd ever seen. Beyond Elton (John). Beyond anybody I'd ever worked with. He was very kind and loving and generous to his band. I have nothing but the best things to say about him. It was a phenomenal life changing experience for what it was.

Q - This quest for perfection is what most likely contributed to Michael's death. Other people in his position might have hired someone to work out the problems.

A - He was in chronic pain. His knees and hips had been destroyed from years of dancing and touring. And unfortunately he was addicted to over the counter pain medication for pain as many people get. And not being able to shut his brain off and constantly going, people scorned him because that's the way the machine works. There are very few people that will ever know what it was like to be Michael Jackson, to grow up in that family, to be an absolute superstar when you're what, nine years old?! And to re-invent yourself multiple times and live in that glare and live in that pressure and all the noises in your head and all the trauma. It is a scrutiny and a pressure that really nobody is built to handle and very few people if ever can. You see the net result. It caught up with him physically, emotionally and spiritually, which was bound to happen.

Official Website: www.KenStacey.com





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