One of the most powerful Rock-n-Roll vocalists of the ’80s era, Mickey Thomas is a name that music lovers know and love. Recognized as one of the lead vocalists of Jefferson Starship, before transitioning to Starship, his voice is on countless big hits including 1985’s “We Built This City” and “Sara,” as well as 1987’s “Nothing’s Gonna Stop Us Now.” Sustaining a career in Rock that spanned over five decades, Thomas continues to tour, record, and simply love music.
Most recently releasing the two Christmas singles – Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas” and It’s the Most Wonderful Time of the Year” – Thomas captures fond memories of the holidays in a traditional way. Put out just in time for the 2023 Christmas season, Thomas also has more plans of touring with Starship, plus recording some more music in the future. Excited about each day, he sat down to talk about his career in music, the journey of Starship, his new singles, plans for the future, plus more.
Cryptic Rock – You have been involved in music for many decades now and have attained a good deal of commercial success, obviously, with Starship. You have also done a lot of really cool things through the years outside Starship. How would you describe your journey in music to this point?
Mickey Thomas – It’s been a wild ride. I do believe that I think a lot of it is just destiny, fate, or whatever you want to call it. I know that so many magical, unexpected things have happened to me along the way that it’s like – God, it just seems like it was preordained or something. I think, “How could something this crazy just randomly happen to me?” Like I said, it’s been a magical journey.
I just feel really fortunate that I’ve been able to come into contact along the way with so many really special, talented people, as well as crazy personalities (Laughs). There have also been fun times and great music. The fact that I’ve been able to do so many different things and different kinds of music along the way… it started with my mentor who was a gospel singer. That got me into the Elvin Bishop band with a lot of Blues and R&B. Then that segued into Jefferson Starship, which was something completely different and unexpected. So, it’s been quite an amazing journey.
Cryptic Rock – It sounds like it for sure. You have done a lot of great things and worked with a lot of really interesting people. Obviously, Jefferson Starship led to Starship, which was extremely successful during the ’80s. A lot of people may be confused by what happened with the name change, but that is legal stuff.
Starship became its own entity outside of Jefferson Starship. You were really the vehicle behind Starship when it took off in the ’80s with many hits. What was that like for you?
Mickey Thomas – Yes, it was just officially shortening the name to Starship. It was part of a legal settlement. But, before that, we’d been kind of toying with the idea of just shortening the name to Starship anyway; because we thought that the band was evolving, changing, and going into a musical place that was so different from the roots of the Jefferson Airplane back in the ’60s.
We thought, “Man, if we just shortened it to Starship, it would be sort of like a separation from the past.” We thought it would be symbolic of the band moving ahead into the future. It was not like it was a heavyweight though; obviously, we’re really proud of the musical history of the band, but we wanted to just kind of separate ourselves a little bit from the ’60s and ’70s and move forward. Then, as it turned out, with the settlement with Paul Kantner, we were able to just work that into it, and officially change the name to Starship. It was kind of like killing two birds with one stone.
Cryptic Rock – Right. At this point, you look at Jefferson Starship and Starship as two separate entities. You actually released Loveless Fascination with Starship in 2013 where you worked with Jeff Pilson of Dokken. Are there any plans for any new records?
Mickey Thomas – Jeff is great! That was a lot of fun. It had been 14 years at that point in time since the last release of a new Starship record. Then again, at that point, I was interested in kind of going back a little more to the roots. We kind of wanted to make an album that sounded more like ’70s music, rather than ’80s music. We wanted to kind of go back and explore the roots again. So many bands in the ’90s were kind of influenced by bands from the ’60s and ’70s anyway. There was sort of a retro sound on that record and I think we’ve sort of accomplished that.
Not too many people have heard it though (Laughs). But it’s been 10 years since that came out. So, we’re toying with the idea of a re-release of Loveless Fascination and trying to do a whole promotional campaign behind it.
Cryptic Rock – That is a good idea to celebrate the 10-year anniversary because the album may have flown under the radar and deserves more attention. More recently you have recorded some Christmas music. Everyone loves Christmas music… what is there not to love about Christmas music? So, what inspired these recordings?
Mickey Thomas – Exactly. I think because it’s so repetitive and it comes back every year; you hear the same songs that you’ve heard since you were a tiny kid. It’s ingrained in our memories. I think, for most of us anyway, it probably produces a sense of happiness. It creates kind of a warm feeling, remembering when you were young, and how magical a special Christmas was to you.
I’ve always wanted to do some Christmas music and sing some Christmas songs; because I kind of think of myself as a crooner anyway. I really like the singers from when I was a little kid. I love Tony Bennett, Jack Jones, Andy Williams, Nat King Cole, etc. I kind of wanted to make it sound more like that kind of music. I didn’t want to rock it up and make it modern. So I tried to just kind of channel my inner Tony Bennett when I recorded the two songs and make it sound more nostalgic.
Cryptic Rock – Well, you certainly accomplish that. It definitely feels more like traditional Pop Christmas music.
Mickey Thomas – That’s the kind of Christmas music I like. It’s a real traditional classic Christmas. Not that Elvis was modern, but I like what Elvis did with some of his Christmas songs in the ’50s and ’60s; which was a little kind of Rockabilly almost. I like that. However, some of the more modern stuff… I could kind of take it or leave it.
Cryptic Rock – Understood. With this, you recorded a double single – “Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas” and “It’s The Most Wonderful Time of the Year.” Is it just going to be a single, or do you have any other songs that may be put out?
Mickey Thomas – We’re kind of testing the waters. In today’s world, and the way that we transfer our music to the listeners and fans, you kind of don’t really have to come out right away with a whole album.
I love what Peter Gabriel’s doing this year of releasing one track every month off his new album; piece by piece. The idea is that we’ll put out these two singles for now. If we get a positive response, people seem to like it and maybe want to hear more of it, during the course of the next few months we’ll go ahead and complete a whole Christmas album for release by Christmas 2024.
Cryptic Rock – That sounds like a very good idea. It is interesting the way music is consumed nowadays with the internet. It is kind of hard to gauge what people are going to respond to.
Mickey Thomas – Exactly. So, you just kind of have to stick your toe in the water a little bit; test the waters, see what’s going to go down, and what people are going to respond to. You just never know. The most unexpected thing sometimes turns out to be the most fruitful.
Cryptic Rock – Very true. It is cool that you have these songs coming out. Do you have any more Starship touring planned?
Mickey Thomas – We’re kind of, in a way, constantly on tour. It’s not like we go out for four or five or six months at a time. With Starship, these days, we’re kind of weekend warriors; we go out and do a couple of shows, we come home for a few days, and we go out and do two or three shows, then come home. It’s more like that.
We’ll be doing that all through 2024. We’ve already got quite a few shows on the calendar for next year. I don’t have any plans to ease up anytime soon. I’m still enjoying it and having fun with it. My voice and body have been pretty good to me. Physically, I feel great and able to do it. We’ll be touring ad infinitum.
Cryptic Rock – That is great to hear. You mentioned Peter Gabriel. You actually recorded a Peter Gabriel song for your 2011 solo album, Marauder. On that album you offer a lot of really interesting takes on some modern music; including artists such as Muse and Snow Patrol. What inspired that record?
Mickey Thomas – I had the most fun making that record of any record I’ve ever done. It started out as a kind of part of a Rock-n-Roll fantasy camp. It was a fantasy camp in Sacramento, California. Then we laid down a couple of cover teams, and then people who were part of the camp could maybe play a drum part, sing a background vocal, or play a tambourine, etc. I had so much fun doing it. I think we started out with “Oh! Darling” by the Beatles.
I had so much fun doing it, that the producer and I, who I’ve known for a long time and have been in several bands with said, “This is fun. Let’s just do a whole album sort of. Let’s kind of go all over the map.” We thought, let’s go into ’60s, ’70s, ’80s, and ’90s and just cover a bunch of cool tunes that we like. That’s kind of how it evolved. I had so much fun doing it.
I’m a huge Beatles fan, so it kind of leans heavily on some of the Beatles songs or some of the post-Beatles songs from Paul McCartney, John Lennon, and even George Harrison. It was just a blast. Every now and then, about every six months, I’ll pull that out and my wife and I will put it on, just have some wine and just party. It’s just so much fun.
Cryptic Rock – That is another record that people should check out if they potentially missed it. You have not put out a solo album in a while, and it has been 10 years since the Starship album. Is there potential for some new material from yourself as far as non-Christmas music, or maybe with Starship?
Mickey Thomas – Yes. Some of my earlier influences were Rhythm and Blues and Soul singers from the ’60s. I’ve always wanted to do an R&B cover album of classic ’60s and early ’70s Soul music. The same guy who produced my Christmas singles in Nashville was talking about that with me. We’re hoping that next year we’ll do an album’s worth of R&B covers as well. I’m really looking forward to that.
Cryptic Rock – That is something to look forward to. As you mentioned, you are always performing live. For those who are unaware, you have a really strong band behind you. Tell us a little about this cast of players you go out with.
Mickey Thomas – It is a very strong band. What’s really cool about it is the core of the band has been with me for so long. My drummer and my keyboard player have both been with me for 30 years. The bass player has been with me for 23 years. It’s not like other artists, where every time they go out on tour, there’s a different group of guys backing them. I love the idea of having the same people with me through the years. It feels like it has a really strong sense of family.
It’s a real band. My guitar player’s been with me for 10 years. The newest member is our female vocalist, and she’s been with us for 2 years. She’s so great, so talented, and great on stage too. It’s the best band I’ve ever been in. I’m just loving it!
Cryptic Rock – It is a really great band, and people should know that. You have some great members in this band; you also have John Roth who plays in Winger.
Mickey Thomas – John is so talented. He’s great. When Starship’s out playing and he has a chance to go do some winter dates, he does that. He’s played with Kip Winger for 20 years off and on, probably. Darrell Verdusco, previous to being in Starship, played with John Hyatt, Ry Cooder, and Clarence Clemens. My bass player, Jeff (Adams), has played with everybody under the sun. Cian Coey, our vocalist, as I mentioned she’s the newest member of the band, but she has a great background in musical theater and has been performing in Vegas for years. There’s just a tremendous amount of talent on stage and a lot of energy. They kick me in the butt and put me through my paces every night.
Cryptic Rock – It sounds like you have good chemistry going on. Let’s backtrack a little bit and talk about the ’80s. The ’80s was a really special time for Pop music. There was so much quality music coming out, and Starship was part of that. Looking back, what was that time like being an active musician and in the charts?
Mickey Thomas – Yeah, it was. I think it was a very unique era in music. In the ’80s, as far as the charts were concerned, as far as top 40 or what they call contemporary hits radio (CHR back in the ’80s), you would hear everything. Now, everything is so compartmentalized and segregated musically.
In the mid-’80s, you may turn on your radio and hear Whitney Houston, then maybe Whitesnake, then Guns N’ Roses, right after that Thompson Twins, and right after that Michael Jackson, and then Starship. It was all over the map and everybody loved every kind of music. That’s just what was so special about it. Everyone was welcome to the club, and people just loved all kinds of music simultaneously. That was a cool thing. You may turn on the radio and there’s Peter Gabriel, then right after it might be The Outfield or Kenny Rogers. Just everything!
Cryptic Rock – Definitely. It seems like things are so much more fragmented now. It is a very strange time in general, but as far as entertainment goes, it is really strange. What is even considered Rock-n-Roll anymore nowadays? It is very confusing.
Mickey Thomas – I know, it’s changed; there’s just such a different way of making music these days. It’s hard to consider it Rock-n-Roll when there’s no guys sitting in a room together looking each other in the eye and bashing out a song. That’s part of why Classic Rock is still so popular, I think. People can sense that in the music. They can sense the hours of hashing it out in the rehearsal or recording studio. The feeling of just playing together and being able to work out all those parts together. That’s just a big part of Rock-n-Roll.
There are a few guys out there still doing it like that. I just did a session recently with my good friend Ed Roland from Collective Soul. Collective Soul is like that. They’re just a no-frills, no-nonsense, great Rock-n-Roll band. I’ve seen them twice in the last year, and they’re so much fun and so good.
Ed recently called me, he was in Palm Springs and said, “Hey, I’m going to cut a Christmas single too. Come on down the studio and sing it with me.” I said, “What are we going to do?” He said, “I don’t know. We’ll make it up.” It turned out great!
Cryptic Rock – Wow, that is something that everyone needs to hear too! In closing, what would you say are some of the most important things that you have learned from this wild journey in music?
Mickey Thomas – The most important thing I’ve learned is to be in the moment. I try to stay in the moment. For me, each day is sort of like a mini-lifetime. I get up in the morning, and then by the time I get out of bed in the morning, by the time I go to sleep at night, I like to feel like I’ve lived a mini-lifetime… and it’s been a great life. I try to have 365 great lives a year.
Again, that’s just about trying to be in the moment. Not worry about what’s happened to you in the past, or not sad about what might be on your mind, or what may bother you about the future. Just be where you are.
Cryptic Rock – That is a great way to live. More people should adopt that ideology. You have to live in the moment, otherwise life will pass you by.
Mickey Thomas – Obviously. By doing that, people ask me, “Wow, man, what was it like singing with Grace Slick?” And I’m like, “Well, it was great.” I didn’t really trip on it, because at the time we were just focused on what we were doing. We’re recording this song, we’re going on tour, or we were focusing on our show tonight and we have got to be good. Later on, I can kind of look back and go, “Wow, man. I shared the stage with Grace Slick for eight years. That’s a trip!” Again, when you’re in the moment, you don’t really trip on that.
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