ZAPPHY – You guys just rocked the USA when you released your first CD. Songs as “Love of my lifetime”, “Don’t treat me bad” were THE songs in the 90’s. At that time the public reaction was what you guys really expected?

Bill Leverty / Firehouse - I really didn't know what to expect. I was just happy to have a gig and be able to go out and play music full-time! Everything happened a lot faster than I expected, that's for sure. It seemed like we were playing small clubs one day, and the next day we were playing in front of 20,000 people.

ZAPPHY – Over here in Brazil, when the first album is really good, we always wait for the second to be even better. But this is not a reality for all bands. But in your case, your guys made a huge success with the albuns “Hold your fire” and “Firehouse 3”. In both of them you guys had songs that, still nowadays, are played here in the brazilian radio stations, such as “I live my life for you” and “When I look into your eyes”. Is there a formula to write so many successes?

Bill Leverty / Firehouse - I don't think there is a formula. We just wrote songs that we thought were good, and that we felt the we'd enjoy playing every night. Fortunately, people seemed to like them. I'm glad that we had the record company's support at that time. We definitely got lucky.

ZAPPHY – The album “Firehouse 3” was released in a moment when the grunge was playing everywhere, but you guys didn’t bend to a fad and stuck along with your style. Were you guys criticized by the media? How did your public, in a general way, reacted to it at that time?

Bill Leverty / Firehouse - We were always criticized by the "elite" media who didn't like our genre' anyway. We put our third album out in the most hostile environment in our genre's history, and still managed to have a top 40 hit. Our fans loved the album, but many people had no way of knowing that we even had a new album out because our record company stopped promoting us. We did manage to get on tour with Poison which was a very successful tour.

ZAPPHY – I had a chance of listening to you acoustic album (“Good Acoustics”... I have some of your CDs but not this one… so I listened from a friend of mine!) and it is a great album.  It came out in 1996. Is there a chance of making the DVD too?

Bill Leverty / Firehouse - Thank you. We hope to record a live show some day soon. The challenge is getting the right production and gear all together. I'm hoping that we can get one  out next year.

ZAPPHY – You guys came here in Brazil in 2007, but unfortunately you played only in Rio de Janeiro. Is there a chance of you coming again in a bigger tour? Will the state of Minas Gerais be gifted with one of your shows?

Bill Leverty / Firehouse - We'd love to come back. I love Brazil and would love to play all over the country. The people are very cool and the food is GREAT! We need a promoter in Brazil to get in touch with our booking agent and work out the details to bring us down there. As soon as we're booked, my bags are packed!

ZAPPHY – The last album I had notice from you is the “Prime time”. What is next? Will there be a new CD?

Bill Leverty / Firehouse - I'm sure FireHouse will put out a new CD sometime soon. We're talking about it, and just need to get together and start writing.

ZAPPHY – About your private work, I saw in your website that you have a solo project. Could you share a little bit of information with us? Tell us a little about it.

Bill Leverty / Firehouse - Sure, I have 2 solo albums out so far, an I'm working on my third. The first one, WANDERLUST, is an album of original rock songs that are inspired by classic rock bands, Southern rock bands, and hard rock music. The second album, SOUTHERN EXPOSURE, is my first instrumental album, inspired by my favorite guitarists like Billy Gibbons, Steve Morse, Eddie Van Halen, Michael Schenker, and Jeff Beck.

ZAPPHY – You guys were touring in Europe and you are really respected in Japan. Is Europe and Japan (Asia) the promised land for the bands from the 80’s and the 90’s? What happened to the north-american market?

Bill Leverty / Firehouse - North America is still a very viable market. We play year-round up here, but we like to play in other countries as well.

ZAPPHY – Please, give a message for your brazilian fans and for the readers of ZAPPHY magazine!

Bill Leverty / Firehouse - Thank you SO much for your many years of support. I hope we get to come back to Brazil again for some more great gigs. Please check out my website:

www.leverty.com

and the FireHouse website:

www.firehousemusic.com

Hope to see you soon... Bill