Simon Rushworth
He’s the man behind Heart’s successful transition from 70s rockers to 80s hair metal giants and these days you’ll find him adding the riffs to Paul Rodgers’ vocals with Bad Company.
Howard Leese boasts a global reputation as one of the best songwriters in the business and it’s no surprise that his debut solo album, the superb Secret Weapon, is peppered with many of the biggest vocal names in melodic and classic rock.
In the first part of a revealing interview with the multi-million selling guitarist we discover the story behind the star-studded surprise hit of 2009 and why a mandolin will always defeat Rodgers…
rushonrock: How long has Secret Weapon been bubbling under and why is now the time to release it?
Howard Leese: I started it about three years ago. Usually every summer Paul [Rodgers] and I work and do shows. But a few years ago he went off to do a Queen tour and that left me the time to do my own record. Fans of mine had said for some time that I should record my own album but I didn’t think I had a big enough ego to do it! But I started to do a few demos and I was really pleased with it. I thought maybe it should see the light of day and it’s been done for a year or so I suppose.
rushonrock: So why the 12-month wait?
HL: Well I had this one track and my friend Bobby Kimball from Toto was going to sing on it. I was calling him up and he was in Germany or Dubai or Singapore and he kept saying he’d have a few days here or a few days there. But the man is so busy. It just never happened and in the end I thought this is just silly pushing back the record just because I’m waiting for that one vocal. I considered doing it on the guitar but I wrote it as a vocal track and it’s a really big and elaborate track. So I’m saving it for the next record and saving it for when Bobby’s free.
rushonrock: Do you feel fortunate that you’ve been able to work with some of the biggest names in rock on Secret Weapon?
HL: When I think of it that way there’s hundreds of years’ worth of experience on the album and I’m privileged to have worked with many of these people over the years. When I was putting the record together I wasn’t sure who was going to be on it and Paul, in particular, proved elusive. We have a vacation spot in Mexico where we holiday every year and we were jamming there one time. I’d written this song Alive Again which I thought was perfect for Paul but he said he was writing something else in the same key. So I wrote him a Free-style grinding rocker but still there was no positive response. In the end I thought there’s only one way I’m going to nail him down here and that’s by writing a song on the mandolin. Paul loves that instrument and when we play our live set we play Silver, Blue And Gold which features the mandolin.
rushonrock: So did that finally crack Rodgers?
HL: Well I sent him Heal The Broken Hearted and there was still no word! A couple of months went by and I was thinking ‘come on Paul’ what is it going to take? Then out of the blue he called me up and said he’d found the tape of the song which he’d liked but he’d lost. He’d written a vocal for the track and I always knew I’d get him with the old mandolin.
rushonrock: So how come Joe Lynn Turner ended up lending his pipes to Alive Again?
HL: It’s funny how things turn out. The middle section of that song reminded me very much of 1970s Heart and I immediately thought of Anne [Wilson] for that song. I knew she’d be good on it. But when JLT sang it he really changed the texture of the song and it was great. What I do is I give the singers the tracks and ask them to write their own lyrics. That way I believe you get more conviction from the vocalist. And that’s what I demand. I’m a really nice guy but a really tough producer and I tell the singers this is the song, there’ll be no changes, so go away and write some lyrics. So they do.
rushonrock: Is there a danger that the calibre of the guest musicians will detract from the quality of your own work? 
HL: I don’t worry about that at all. I think it was the rushonrock review of Secret Weapon which said that the big stars enhanced rather that overshadowed my work. I agree. I’m known for working with some of the world’s greatest vocalists – I worked with Anne for 21 years and I’ve worked with Paul for nine years now so it’s something which is natural for me. My main job is and always has been to write the framework for a great vocal. In that respect I then need a great vocalist and good singers seem to like working with me.
* Later this week Leese lifts the lid on Heart’s huge late 80s success, his friendship with Teesside’s Rodgers and plans for the future.