Atlantic City Weekly

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Cheap Trick’s passion for making music and touring the world was gradually matched in fan intensity by the American public, but major success really began elsewhere for the Rockford, Illinois-based rock band.

The first three of its now 18 studio albums since 1977 were moderately successful in the U.S. but became blockbusters in Japan, leading the foursome to record Live at Budokan in Tokyo in 1978. That helped propel Cheap Trick into major prominence among Americans and would become its best-selling album among over 20 million combined sales. The band’s aggressive touring schedule also includes regular treks back to the Land of the Rising Sun. “Since 1977 we’ve been going to Japan probably every year and a half,” Cheap Trick lead guitarist and principal songwriter Rick Nielsen tells Atlantic City Weekly by phone from his Rockford home. “That’s a long time.”
The band’s biggest hits include “Surrender,” “I Want You to Want Me, “Dream Police,” “The Flame” and “Ain’t That A Shame.” With a lineup that’s remained largely unchanged since 1974, Cheap Trick also includes lead vocalist/rhythm guitarist Robin Zander, bassist Tom Petersson and drummer Bun E. Carlos, although Daxx Nielsen is currently sitting in on drums this tour. The band returns to Atlantic City this Saturday, May 7 (9pm) at the Tropicana Showroom. Tickets are $45, $50 and $60.

There’s a few days between you’re A.C. gig and the next one (in Biloxi, May 13) — will you get the chance to hang around town for a while before heading back on the road?

Probably. A lot of times we’ll just go into a town, do the show and head back out, but Tom and I used to live in Philadelphia and we’ve been to Atlantic City a bunch of times, so between the two great cities we’ll have some fun.

What’s the touring life like now that you’re into your fourth decade with the band?

I love to play. I’m a lucky guy. The line is that nobody pays us to play, they pay us to travel, and we’re lucky to say we’ve gone from bar to bar, from big hall to big hall, from festival to festival — you name it. Cheap Trick has never been a band that has limited itself to one place or another. We’ll play anywhere and we don’t write a set list until we get there. Luckily we’ve consistently put out records through the years and have a lot of material to go from. And we always made records, we didn’t just make singles. You’ve got to like what you do and be able to get along, and all that kind of stuff. And you’ve got to want to do it. I mean, it is a lot of work, but if you like what you’re doing it sure makes it a lot easier.

What are the crowds like at your shows? Are you seeing diversified age groups?

We’ve been around a while and have kind of bridged the gamut. We just did a show in Tucson about a week and a half ago and there was a kid turning 15 or 16. His favorite band is Cheap Trick so his parents drove him to Tucson from Mexico City for the show. In November we did five shows in England, doing about 60 different songs over the five nights, and there were fans who flew in from all over Europe. It’s amazing. We have fans now from literally all different ages and all over the world, and it’s based on the music. It’s not based on us having one hit here or there that drives us. If we waited to have one big hit just to tour we’d never tour. I mean, we’ve had hits, but to me the success is the longevity we’ve had and the love we’ve had for going on tour and playing.

Are you working on releasing any new material? (Cheap Trick’s most recent release, 2009’s The Latest, was put out on CD, vinyl and 8-track.)

Yeah, we’re working on some new stuff, but it’s never just one thing. We’ve done some soundtracks for TV shows and movies, we’ve all done solo projects — Robin’s got a solo project going and Tom’s been working with a great group of musicians out of Nashville. We did 46 shows of the Beatles’ album Sergeant Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band, and in January and February we did 12 shows of the Dream Police [Cheap Trick’s fourth studio album, from 1979]. We used a full orchestra behind us in a really cool setting and they all sold out. We’ve been asked to do that again at the Greek Theater in L.A., and we’ll be doing it all over the world between this year and next year.

I read where you have a huge guitar collection. What’s your favorite one to play and will you be bringing your trademark five-neck guitar to Atlantic City?

I think I may be bringing [the five neck]. Throughout the years I’ve owned about 2,000 instruments. I suppose I’ve got 400 to 500 now. We’re doing two shows in Germany with Jeff Beck [June 19-20], who I’ve known since the ’60s, and I sold Jeff the second [Gibson] Les Paul he ever owned, probably around 1968. Whatever instrument I’m playing at the moment is my favorite. You don’t want to hear me just play guitar or sing. I’ll play keyboard, I’ll sing, I’ll play guitar, but I don’t do anything really well. I do everything OK and when you add up all the OKs ... it’s OK.