Stevie Hill: press kit
As most of you know, Stevie has leukemia. It is chronic and incurable. We will do our best to keep everyone informed in this section.
JANUARY, 2011. Stevie's continues to deal with extreme weakness. He remains thankful for his blessings.
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October 2011
Stevie is home again after an additional 2 weeks in the hospital. He received emergency treatment for kidney failure & a white cell count in excess of 500,000.
He has begun yet a different type of chemotherapy which is scheduled to last for the next 5 months.
Thanks for keeping him in your thoughts and prayers. He is ready to start recording again when possible.
AUGUST 18.2011
Stevie is home recuperating from his latest treatments.
JULY 25th, 2011
Hill returned to the hospital in critical condition. He was placed in the Intersive Care Unit where he remained for 7 days. He was released after an additional 6 days in the hospital, returning home on August 5th.
JUNE 26, 2011
Chemotherapy has been discontinued. Stevie is now fighting the effects of the treatment.
JUNE 13, 2011
Stevie was taken to the emergency room on the night of June 13 with complications from chemotherapy. He returned home Saturday, June 18th.
JUNE 2, 2011: Hill began a third round of chemotherapy today. His white cell count had reached 203,000. It is hoped that the treatment will safely bring this number down to 10,000, which is said to be within a normal range.
We ask that you keep him in your thoughts & prayers.
JANUARY 2011--Hill is changing to a new oncologist. Chronic pain is a major issue.
APRIL 2011--More chemotherapy is being recommended. For him,chemotherapy has done far more damage than good, & he does not view it as a viable treatment.
SEPTEMBER 2010: Bone marrow transplant is no longer a viable option.
His oncologist is recommending agressive chemothearpy "sooner rather than later" to knock out as many cancer cells as possible.
August 2010: A bone marrow biopsy was performed on Hill. Results are expected in a few days.
2006: Stevie was given a new type of chemothearpy (Campath) delivered in a series of injections scheduled over a 12 week period.
The oncologist discontinued this treatment during the tenth week due to indications that Stevie might not survive the remaining injections.
2005: Hill was admitted to the hospital with a highly elevated white cell count. After several months of infusion chemotherapy, this level was reduced to within a normal range.
EDUCATION:
PIANO: Ages 9-12: Technique, memorization
Ages 12-18: Technique, memorization, European classical, American jazz
Adult: Jazz improvisation (1 year)
Adult: Dick Grove School, L.A., sight reading
VOICE: Private instruction: 1 year
University: 1 year
DRUMS: Self taught,with lots of help
GUITAR: See above
UKULELE: Self taught.
HOMES: Hill has lived in L.A.(twice), New York City, St. Louis, Tulsa, Dallas, & Ft. Worth.
STUDIOS: He has recorded at Electric Lady Studios, The Record Plant N.Y., Capitol Studios L.A., & many others.
PRODUCERS: He has recorded for Eddie Kramer, Mitch Mitchell, Jimmy Iovine, Terry Knight, Peter Granet, Buford Jones, Glenn Frey & others.
Biography:
- chapter 1
Only a handful of "chart breaking" rock songs from the '60's or '70's begin with a solo keyboard introduction.
The iconic intro to "D.O.A." was performed (and the song co-written) by Stevie Hill.
Hill began studying piano in Ft. Worth at age 9, with emphasis on technique and memorization. He gave his first pubic solo performance that year, followed by several recitals per year until reaching age 12.
From ages 12 though 18 he continued private studies in classical and jazz piano. His teacher was Jerry Wallace, an instructor with a wide knowledge of piano styles and techniques.
At age 15 he joined his first rock group, a garage band consisting of players from his high school.
Soon after. he joined "The Rocks", The group included guitarist Bill Ham.
When Dean Parks left The Crowd Plus One, the group needed 2 new players. Parks had been alternating on lead guitar and keyboards.
The Crowd Plus One was a sucessful cover band, although it also had a regional hit "Don't Hold Back", written by Parks. (Dean moved to L.A.,and became an "A" list player, doing sessions for Steely Dan, Stevie Wonder, Elvis Costello, and a myriad of the best writers working at the time.)
With the addition of Lee Pickens and Hill, the group began writing the songs that became the first Bloodrock album.
After high school, Hill attended North Texas State University for a year, until Bloodrock began to tour extensively.
- CHAPTER 2
When the band stopped touring, Hill continued to write. He had two musical goals as a soloist. He wanted to become musically literate as possible while learning as much from the great jazz pianists that could be learned by listening.
- Songwriting Catalog
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WITH BLOODROCK on CAPITOL/E.M.I.
1."American Burn"---Bloodrock U.S.A.
2."Breach of Lease"---Bloodrock 3, Bloodrock Live
3."Cheater"---Bloodrock 2, Bloodrock Live, Bloodrock and Roll
4."Days and Nights"---Passage, Triptych
5."Dier Not A Lover"---Bloodrock 2
6."D.O.A."---Bloodrock 2, Bloodrock Live, Bloodrock and Roll
7."Fallin'"---Bloodrock 2, Bloodrock Live
8."Fantastic Piece of Architecture"---Bloodrock
9."Fantasy"---Passage, Triptych
10."Follow"---Unspoken Words
11."Gotta Find A Way"---Bloodrock, Bloodrock Live, Bloodrock and Roll
12."Guess What I Am"---Whirlwind Tongues, Triptych
13."Help Is On The Way"---Passage, Triptych
14."Juice"---Passage, Triptych
15."Jungle"---Whirlwind Tongues, Triptych
16."Lady of Love"---Whirlwind Tongues, Triptych
17."Life Blood"---Passage, Triptych
18."Lost Fame"---Passage, Triptych
19."Magic Man"--- Bloodrock U.S.A
20."Parallax"---Whirlwind Tongues, Triptych
21."Pogo Stick"---Passage, Triptych
22."Scottsman"---Passage, Triptych
23."Song For A Brother"---Bloodrock 3
24."Sunday Song"---Whirlwind Tongues, Triptych
25."Thank You Daniel Ellsberg"---Passage, Triptych
26."Voices"---Whirlwind Tongues, Triptych
27."Whiskey Vengence"---Bloodrock U.S.A
28."You Gotta Roll"---Bloodrock U.S.A, Bloodrock Live, Bloodrock and Roll
The above songs are co-written or written by Stevie Hill and are BMI.
- Awards
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Gold Album for performance and writing (Bloodrock 2)
"Texas Tornado" (keyboard player Hall of Fame) "Buddy Magazine"---the world's longest running Texas music publication
- Discography
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SOLO RELEASES
"Avalanche In Reverse" (C.D. featuring Jeff Berlin, Warren Ham, Ed Grundy, & Bill Ham).
1. Millions
2. Shimera
3. We've All Heard That Before
4. It's Too Late (For Those Days)
"Rough Cuts" (3 song E.P.)
1. Cable Cut Boogie
2. Big D's For Danger
3. The Dodge
"Vignette" (3 song E.P.)
1. Vignette
2. Mourning
3. It's Too Late (For Those Days)
The above were written by his lonesome & are also B.M.I. affiliated. _________________________________________
WITH BLOODROCK (albums):
Bloodrock (EMI-Capitol)
Bloodrock 2 (EMI-Capitol)
Bloodrock 3 (EMI-Capitol)
Bloodrock USA (EMI-Capitol)
Bloodrock Live (EMI-Capitol)
Bloodrock 'n' Roll (EMI-Capitol)
Passage (EMI-Capitol)
Whirlwind Tongues (EMI-Capitol)
D.O.A. (EMI-Special Markets)
Triptych (EMI-Capitol/One Way)
Live At The Ridglea DVD
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COMPILATIONS:
1. "FM ROCK Album Classics of the '60's and '70's". Includes Bloodrock, Cream, Traffic, Jethro Tull, The Zombies, and The Velvet Underground, and Free.
2. Godfathers of Grunge
3. "'70's Heavy Hitters: Arena Rockers". Includes Bloodrock, Deep Purple, Mountain, and Free.
[Editors note: More will be added to this list.]
- THE INTERVIEW
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Q. Are you from a musical family?
A. I grew up in a family that loved music. My parents never learned to play instruments, but as a child, noticed they loved going to see live shows and I heard many hours of music through their record collection.
Q: What was it like to work with Terry Knight as producer?
A: In retrospect, I didn't realize how much help he was giving us outside the studio. As manager of Grand Funk Railroad, he was in the position to do various things that helped launch the band.
If you look at things for the producer's perspective, we were a group with varying degrees of studio experience, so that must have been a challenge. I think I had done one recording session before signing with Capitol.
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Q: What was the connection between your group and Freddie King?
A: We were both managed by Jack Calmes. Normally, Freddie would open for us, which was always odd, because we knew he was a lot bigger deal than we were.
On a couple of the shows, I was asked to back him during his set, which was great fun.
I also remember that Lee was tuned in to what an original Freddie was, and they had that guitar-player rapport going between them.
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Q: Are you aware of cover versions of D.O.A.?
A: I'm told that R.E.M. played it for a Halloween show when they already had lots of hits themselves.
On the bootleg they allegedly announce it as "the worst song in history", or something to that effect.
You can also hear a fun version on the Halloween album by the Fuzztones.
There is a feature in one of British slicks in which the leader of the Flaming Lips talks about D.O.A. being his favorite bloody song.
I'm trying to limit the trivia stories, but keep in mind people have won great sums of money by remembering this kind of minutiae....
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Q: How did you end up in a group with Carmine Appice?
s.h.: I met him back in the touring days. We played quite a few dates with Cactus, and Carmine had a great sense of humor, in addition to being an amazing drummer.
After Beck, Bogart, and Appice split, Carmine called me to join his new group. The band was going to based out of New York, and I was living in L.A. at the time.
Our guitarist was Ray Gomez, a great player who later worked with Stanley Clarke and many others.
On bass was Jeff Berlin. After our band Jeff went on to record some truly awesome solo albums, in addition to working with Bill Bruford, John McLaughlin, and Yes, to name a few.
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Q. Where did the band play?
A: The group wasn't in a big of a hurry to start performing . We played a couple of shows in New York, opening once for John Entwisle's Ox, and once for Ginger Baker's group.
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Q. How about recording?
A: We recorded some things at The Record Plant, engineered by Jimmy Iovine. I didn't know much about his previous work, but he certainly went on to do some killer projects.
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Q: Did Bloodrock have much contact with the jazz world during the touring years?
A: We played a few festivals, such as the Celebration of Life with Miles Davis and Roland Kirk fronting their own groups.
There was also the Mar Y Sol, with Dave Brubeck and The Mahavishnu Orchestra.
That was the legendary gig where the promoter paid us not to play, so we took three days off and tried to learn from watching the other bands.
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Q: The group opened for Jimi Hendrix a few times. Where were those dates?
A: Fort Worth and Norman, on the O.U. campus.
We also played the second Atlanta Pop Festival, which Hendrix headlined.
Q: Was Atlanta the largest audience you've played for?
A: Yes. The crowd was estimated at 350,000 during our set. Of course it's difficult to verify audience numbers at festivals.
The book "Jimi Hendrix---Musician" does mention that the 2nd Atlanta was his biggest live audience ever, meaning up to that date.
Q: Tell us about the sessions at Electric Lady Studios.
A: We were invited to record there by Mitch Mitchell. Bloodrock was playing at the Whiskey and Mitch was in the audience.
The following week, we found ourselves at Electric Lady, with Mitch producing and Eddie Kramer engineering.
Q: And how did it feel to be working with those two?
A: It was a gas. Mitch was easy-going. I always say if any drummer had a reason to have a big ego, it would be him, but he just like one of the guys.
Eddie's reputation as an engineer and producer is well-deserved. He was amazing.
It helps to remember that up to that time, nearly all the recording we had done as Bloodrock had been either at Capitol in L.A., or in Cleveland, so it was good to hear how we sounded at Electric Lady.
Q: Did Mitch play anything on the sessions?
A: No. According to him, we sounded good enough and we "didn't need [his] help."
We tried to trick him into at least jamming with us, but I think he wanted to stick with the producer role, and not upstage the group.
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Q. Why did you go back to the diminutive form of your name?
A: I started noticing lots of other "Steve Hill"s in the music business and didn't want to get lost in the shuffle.
Quite a few of my friends never made the switch to my "grown-up" name, so it makes them happy.
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