Hail Exploders! Also this time we have a very special interview with a big artist and above all a great person. For all Britny Fox fans, lovers and admirers, and for all the rockers worthy of this name, here's Mr. Billy Childs to answer patiently, sincerely and in a very funny way to our bunch of questions, givin' us a couple of veiled scoops I challenge you to find out! So let's start to check it out!

Hi Billy, we're happy to welcome you on The Rock Explosion pages! Let's start satisfying our readers curiosity about your next plans: when do you think your new material could see a release? Would you like to give us a progress report about it?
I hope to have something out very early in 2005, it's a project I'm doing with another guy from Philly, Tommy Krash. It's just the two of us and we haven't decided how we plan to release it yet. Maybe a minor label, but there's so many options these days we may just throw it out there ourselves and try the internet angle. Obviously its going to do a certain amount, a good estimate would be not many, and it may be best to just do it ourselves. If it's good I think people will find out about it, our last two Britny albums were on a smaller label and they got no more promotion than if we did it ourselves, so I don't realistically see a big upside to it being on a label. The avenues that have to be addressed are somewhat ignored by the labels anyway, in my opinion. We plan to have a meeting with our financial advisors in the near future to see what they think, LOL. I'll keep you guys posted and to those that give a shit, they'll be able to find it. Info about me and Tommy can be found at www.childskrash.com. Many pics as well as mp3's, etc. Check it out. Were more fun than a barrel of monkeys, I swear!

Useless to deny that our Exploders are eager to know also something about legendary Britny Fox. The last album belongs to more than one year ago. What's happened to the band after the release of "Springhead Motorshark"? Are we going to listen to some new BF release in some next future?
Legendary?? We released SM, but really did nothing to support it, I'm sorry to say. As far as the future I really don't think a band like ours has much of one if we don't tour, as we aren't going to sell anything by any other means, so I don't think Britny, as a band will be doing much more at this point. Most of us are still active tho, and I'm sure Tommy will come up with something, he always seems to, and I won't stop as I have nothing better to do anyway, so we will be releasing things. As far as another Britny album tho, I really doubt it.

After so many years spent in BF, which one of the guys do you think has shown you the greatest sense of friendship and mutual respect and esteem? I mean, is it possible to establish a true deep friendship among band mates in you opinion? In many bands biographies I read about problems and quarrels and lawsuits among musicians. So as far as I could know about artists, it's easier making enemies than friends. Don't you think?
In Britny I think we all respected each other a fair amount, but a band really is a situation where it's much easier to destroy friendships than it is to create them, sadly enough. I think you have to look at musicians as people to understand the dynamic involved. We're all generally passionate people who take what we do pretty seriously, and sometimes have a tendency to take ourselves too seriously as well. When you mix that with the fact that touring keeps you together for long periods of time, and just the overall pressure to be successful, or to maintain success, it can be a very difficult situation to deal with. Also ego plays a large part in those types of people, as it takes ego to attempt the whole thing in the first place, but can obviously lead to problems if it's not controlled. The Dean situation is a perfect example of that. If a band is able to achieve long periods of doing well, a lot of that can be smoothed over, but unfortunately that seems to be the exception and not the rule. Sometimes as well, the people in a band have nothing in common except music, and from my experience that's not enough to base a friendship on. I guess the best way to put it is that it's an unnatural marriage between four people that's almost always doomed to failure in the end. And were all a bunch of fucking mental cases anyway, musicians in general I mean. That was a very interesting ?, by the way. I've always said that a band without a common enemy will eventually feed on itself. That's just human nature at work, I guess. I'm starting to get buzzed, I think.

I have to admit, that both as a journalist and above all as a BF fan, I can't help asking just one question about the "beloved" Dean Davidson. Ya know, he's been a fundamental member in the band and many BF admirers and greatest fans still miss him (even though, personally I appreciate Tommy Paris), but all of us want to know the opinion of an historical band member: do you think that fortunes and misfortunes of BF have really to be charged with Davidson choice to quit?
Well, I don't fucking miss him, that's for sure! I'll try to give you a "what if?" scenario. If he didn't quit when he did, we do the Hair of the Dog video and Boys in Heat goes gold or plat, probably, we end up on another big tour, make a lot more cash than we did, as that was the point in time were the money was going to start really getting good, and we have another successful album after that. Then the whole scene crashes in 91 anyway, but the band would have been a lot more financially secure. As it was we had to use that time to find Tommy and get a new deal with Atlantic, and then record Bite Down Hard, by then it was 91 and glam was dead and so were we. Dean's upside is that by fucking us, he walked into a half million dollar deal. That money would still have been there in a year anyway tho, so to do that to us was pretty fucked up. As you can tell, I won't forgive or forget that shit. Life's got a funny way of evening the score, so I'll let karma take care of that one, if it hasn't already. The upside for us was we finally had a talented singer, and got to do an album that I know we all feel was our best work, even if it didn't have the success of our first 2. I guess after all this time that another upside was that we were able to give a guy like Tommy a shot at the business. He's one of the most talented people I've ever worked with, and am very proud of the songs we wrote together and consider them to be the best work either of us has done. Either way, I'm probably still doing this interview talking about BF. With Dean I have more cash, and the way it worked out I have a couple more albums that I'm actually proud of, and Tommy got his shot. All's well that ends well. Definitely buzzed.

Which is the sleaziest thing that occurred you to see in music biz till today? Which are the main differences between yesterdays way of promoting, producing and booking a band and today's ones? How do you think labels attitude towards artists has changed in time? For example, explain us why did you (Britny Fox) sign deals with more than one label?
I think the sleaziest thing in the biz is how little money the artists actually see of what they generate. This biz is so bad, even the rest of the entertainment industry make jokes about it. That's sad, but from what I've seen it's always been like that and I'm sure it always will be. It will only change if the way business is done changes. Many people think it's the artists fault for not watching their money and being more involved in the day to day transactions, but were either locked in a studio creating or touring most of the time. That is a lot more work than most people think, and it's impossible to keep track of all the money, as it comes from so many different directions. You have no choice but to trust others to handle that for you, and I don't have to tell anybody how that usually ends up. I don't think much has changed at all in most aspects of promoting, etc, only that the internet is an effective tool for communication, and cpu's are great for recording. I see rock as being a more grass roots thing again, but just thru the net now. The labels still think artists are their property and their entitled to fuck you all they want, and bands change label mainly because they get dropped when their not successful. I've always found it funny when younger dudes say shit like " I got a five album deal!". That's at the labels discretion, not yours. You have a 1 album deal, they have a 5 album deal. Although sometimes you can renegotiate if you have unexpected sales.

Who are the musicians/bands you appreciate mostly of today rock scene? Which are the albums you listen to the most? And which is your favourite song of ever, and why? Are there any Philadelphia bands you noticed recently for their kikin'ass sound?
I really like some of the pop-punk stuff. Just good melodic rock with a big chorus. Can't figure out why so many older peeps hate it, it's not that different from the 80's stuff they love so much. Stuff I dig at the moment is Sugarcults second disk, not crazy about the first, but this one kicks, Finch is a great heavier band, Trust Co. as well, though I don't think their doing very good. I think there's a lot of good stuff out there as far as songwriting goes, and production values are so good these days a lot of things sound great to me. I'm anything but somebody who says " it's not as good as it was". I think a lot of bands out there now are great, and have no trouble finding them. I've always loved a lot of the darker 90's bands as well, Nirvana, Alice, STP were amazing writers and I still like a lot of that. I got such a big dark side it surprises me I like the lighter stuff so much. A little odd but I can't help it, a great hook is a great hook whether its STP or Greenday, to me. As far as albums I've listened to the most it's almost crazy how much I listened to Nirvana unplugged all thru the 90's, loved the first 3 STP disks and played the shit outta them. I guess my favourite album of all would have to be that unplugged Nirvana. There was something about it that just floored me. So raw and honest, what a voice he had. There are a few bands getting deals outta Philly right now, but none of them do anything for me, I don't really hear the tunes. And I know everything, so...

Which are the best and the worst live performances you can recall in your career as bass player? Could you describe us those gigs?
One gig in Britny early on, I had one of those goofy outfits we used to wear on, and as we came out I noticed there was a lot of fog juice on the floor by my side of the stage. A big puddle really, and I told myself to watch that and not take a dive. Starting the first song, of course, I hit this shit and go right in the air and fall on my ass. Great way to start a show, but I get up and think" OK, everybody fucks up eventually, just pretend it didn't happen". All of a sudden I realize my ass is cold, and figure I'm wet. Before long tho, I realized I had ripped the whole ass outta the pants and my ass was cold cuz it was out in the open! Had no choice but to do the set like that. Pretty fucking embarrassing, really. Most of the gigs were always great, but this one stands out for me. It was '92 and we had done our "glam is dead and we still don't get it" tour for about a year, and came home to Philly at a pretty big club. It wasn't the last gig of the tour, but it was winding down and things were just dying all around us. We were very tired, I don't think Tommy even had a voice at that point. The place was packed tho, and we tried to give it the best we could. I never heard applause that loud and long ever, and that includes stadiums that held 60,000 people. I was thinking " what the fuck? this is as bad as we've ever been live, why are they acting like this?" Then it hit me, we were home, they knew the scene was dead, as did we, and they were thanking us for what we had managed to accomplish. Really cool vibe, I won't forget that one.

At a certain point I have to say that I lost your traces in music field, then I discovered you played in some band called Pinwheel. What can you tell us about it? Who were the other musicians? Did you release somethin'? Which kind of music proposal did you have?
They are now called Crashbox and are getting pretty close to a deal at this point. Much better name, I think. I only played with them a couple times, stories take on a life of there own sometimes. I am more of a supporter and try to help them out when I can, you know, being such an obvious genius and shit. A cool Italian guy from the Bronx, him be none uver den Sal Scoca, he's the main guy, the mack daddy, him b pimpin wid da plan yo, he's an amazing writer and deserves something good to happen. Exploders should check them out. They can be found on www.myspace.com/crashbox and it's well worth the effort. Do it, I said!

If you could choose a musician or a band to cooperate or share the stage with, what would you decide for and why? Would you choose old mates or newcomers? Among old friends you toured with, who were the smartest asses or the craziest and totally out of control ones?
Its really hard to say, it's a little lame but most bands were similar in their craziness and nobody really stands out. I guess whoever would draw the most people, to be honest. Or pay the most, to be really honest! Boyakasha!

Among old friends, unfortunately someone passed away. What would you feel to say to describe Tony Destra to all young BF fans and to all the ones who never had the chance to know him and his rockers attitude? I can just suppose how hard has it been for all of you keep on rockin' after that tragedy...
Tony was just one of those guys who was put here to play music and was very good at it. In many ways he saw a lot of the best parts of it, as the biz side of things took a lot of the fun out of it once we got big. He died fast, in a car accident right after a good gig, they said he probably never knew what hit him. At least it was fast, and as far as continuing there was never a question about that, as we were getting close to a deal and couldn't afford to lose momentum. He would have been the same if it was one of us, we were all the same in that respect.

What do you think about groupies? I guess you met at least one. Did you ever fall in love with one of them?
Fell in love with all of them, (laughs, Note) Groupies are great, without them why bother getting big? Might as well record in your basement. The money really isn't there for 99% of the bands anyway, so that's really the best benefit of the whole experience! Their just regular girls, a little cooler than most in many respects, and I've had some great relationships with many of them. No bullshit, very honest. You both know what each other wants and it's very upfront. Just about having fun, really. Got a lot of respect for all the girls I was with, never looked down on any of them. Their a big part of the scene. Without the girls what do you have? A bunch of silly guys running around saying " look at me ". The girls are necessary to have a rock scene.

Remaining in chicks context, pick up the hottest one of the following ladies:
Pam Anderson - Heather Locklear:
Cristina Ricci. On the other hand, realistically I wouldn't throw either one out of bed for eating crackers!
Carmen Elektra - Lita Ford:
Carmen Elektra, no contest. Biggin' me up!
Doro Pesch - Joan Jett:
Well, no disrespect to either but I'd have to pick Lee Arron. Remember her? Playmate that sang? She was good. And WAY hot. Still is, I think. But on the other hand, I don't generally turn anything down, so....
Jenna Jameson - Tracy Lords:
I guess Jenna, Tracy been around a little bit too much for even me. How bout Thora Birch? ( actress from American Beauty ).
Marianne Faithfull - Babe Buell: (Of course considering their age when they were dating Mick Jagger and Steven Tyler!)
Not real familiar with either one, but I saw old pics of Maryann and I guess she was pretty hot. How bout Raquell Welsh from even 5-6 years ago? Amazing, she still looked great at like 55! However you spell that name, I give up.

Which kind of advice do you feel to give to young rockers at the early beginning of their long hard road to reach fame and money?
Do it cuz you have to and do it for the music. The fame is great, but doesn't last very long, and when it's gone you'll really miss it. As far as the money I think there's got to be a lot easier ways to get that than the music biz. If your in it for the cash, become a roadie or a lawyer, that's where the money is.

Do you have any regret both in your rocker career and in your private life?
Just like most people, I got a million. I guess anybody familiar with my career would figure that anybody that got as close as I did to doing really well, but not quite, would factor in a million different things to explain it, and rationalize all the bad fucking breaks at bad times. I'm really trying to just say, " fuck it " when it comes to regrets, and just be happy that I make a good living as a guitar player still. It's also cool that when I do something musically there's more interest than there would be if I hadn't had the Britny experience. I think we all got probably the same set of regrets anyway, when you think about it, so just insert your own into where mine would be, and it's probably about right. Unless it's about regretting blowing somebody, or smoking crack, or some other gay or whack shit! I mean lost cash and girls and shit! Wrecked cars and arrests! That kind of shit, rockstar shit, ya know?

Which is the craziest or the most dangerous thing ever done in your life?
Listen to a George W Bush speech without drinking heavily. Also going over Niagara falls in a barrel with 10 man eating alligators put in at the bottom to make it tougher for me. Next time, no alligators. Think I'll wear a helmet, too. That will be my last professional stunt, so you won't wanna miss it.

And now a very "smart" question! Comment the following sentences and add if you agree or not with common sense wisdom:
A bird in the hand is worth two in the bush:
Depends on what you're puttin' in the Bush.
A fault confessed is half redressed:
Never heard that, but I guess I agree. Still gotta get the other half done, tho.
A friend in need is a friend indeed:
Very true, and also very rare as most everyone knows. Or will find out, that's for sure!
All's fair in love and war:
And the music biz too!
All that glitters is not gold:
Very true, I feel rich in experience, tho I don't have that much cash. Also happy that I stay real healthy and am good at what I really like to do. That sounds a little too positive for me, I must be high.
Better be alone than in ill company:
I agree with that one completely. A good mind is never bored, and you never met my last girlfriend!
Grasp all, lose all:
Don't quite understand this one, never heard it, but I think it means be happy with what you have and don't try to get greedy? Don't know if I agree, if that's what it means. I like to take risks sometimes if I like my chances, too boring to play it safe. Yea, I'm high.
Man proposes, God disposes:
Don't get this one at all, Billy discloses?

I noticed you changed look more than once in your career: do you prefer watching back at yourself as portrayed on early BF releases or do you prefer the more sober image you show today? Tell me the naked truth: did you really love those back combed '80s hair style? Personally I ought to confess I prefer your more recent pics.
Well, I don't hate them as much as some from my era do. It was the shit at the time, and you had to do that to even get looked at by a label, so none of us really had a choice anyway. Those pics on the last album were a little too safe for me tho, and I'm not crazy about them either. I look a lot different then that now and have pics up on the Childskrash site. I'm just glad I haven't gotten any bald spots or shit, lucky I guess… For some reason I don't feel like myself when my shits too tame. Also haircuts are a pain in the ass, just one more thing to have to worry about, so I don't get them as often as I should. Check out the site, I'm kooky!

Ok Billy, the interview is over. Thanks a lot for your kind cooperation and greet our Exploders as you prefer:
Hey guys, thanks for having me. Some cool ?'s I thought, and I hope that anybody interested got some answers. If anybody has any more questions or is interested in what I'm up to, feel free to Email me: billychilds@comcast.net, love to hear from you! Margie, thanks for being so patient with me, and many thanks to you guys for the interest! Weed, respect, and Ali G, Billy. Wasup Tommy, Sal and Rodger?

Intervista e traduzione di Margherita Realmonte