Hard Knocks with Pat Travers

by Mike Engel

What the hell ever happened to Pat Travers? In the late 70s and early 80s he and his band were at their peak with several well selling albums, a couple of hit singles and touring with the likes of Aerosmith and Rainbow. But things started going bad. In 1983 he was a quarter of a million dollars in debt and had to declare bankruptcy Then, shortly after the release of 1984's Hot Shot album, he was dropped from Polygram records. "They didn't even bother to write and tell me that they weren't picking up the option. I thought that was pretty lame,'cause I sold so many records for them." recalls Travers. I have always been a little surprised the he never resurfaced with a new deal.

Now in 1991 things are starting to happen again for Pat Travers. His first album in several years, School of Hard Knocks, is now available in England and Europe. In fact, things have almost come full circle for Travers because it was in England in 1975 that the Travers story began. "This is when I lived in England, I moved there in 1975. Originally I signed a deal with Phonogram, which was another label in England, which was also under the Polygram umbrella and then I switched to Polydor, which is still a Polygram label. I was signed by the then managing director [of] Polydor U.K. His name was Freddie Hine. Then he got promoted to Polydor U.S. He was the president of Polydor in the United States and at the time I didn't have a U.S. deal. I just had an English deal, so I was selling all these records as imports here and they were losing money on me because I got a bigger royalty and Polygram United States wasn't making any money because the records were all imports from the U.K. So when Freddie Hine went over and became the president, he took me with him and being the president of the company, of course he goes 'We're gonna' push this guy, we're gonna' do this we're gonna do that'. We were in good shape. Then as always happens in a major record company, there was a lot of shuffling around and by the time I came out with Black Pearl, Freddie was gone. All of the people that originally I had been with were gone. Jerry Jaffey who was in charge of album promotions for the whole United States, he was gone. A bunch of people. They were all gone and all these new people came in and they don't want to have anything to do with me."

It was in 1983 that Travers was in the most trouble. "Basically what it was, my manager, (Doc McGee of Bon Jovi fame) and my accountant who is still Def Leppard's accountant, got me into a lot of financial trouble right when I was making the most money I've ever made. Ya' know, I'd get a seven month tour and I came off of the road and they told me I was broke. In fact I owed a quarter of a million dollars, so I had to do a chapter 7 bankruptcy in 1983." This didn't make Polygram to happy because they had to let him out of his contracts and then re-sign him, which ment that in the end he ended up getting a lot of money for declaring bankruptcy. All of this might explain Travers' theory that he's been blackballed in the industry since. It might sound abit farfetched, but Polygram has never reissued his back catalog in the U.S. "Yeah, it would sell, I mean there's gonna be new sales. There's gotta be people out there who can't buy the records who are fans and their records are worn out or their cassettes are worn out. They would be more than happy to go out and buy a CD, so I can't think anything different."

So, what's the scoop with Hard Knocks? "Well, it was a year ago, a year ago this month [April] that I started recording and it came out in England in August. It came out everywhere except here, basically. It was released on Rough Trade, but it was an English import." As for it being released in America, "It's really out of my hands. I don't have control of that. I would like to. Legally the album is supposed to revert back to me anyway. I'm supposed to get it back. They had 9 months to get a U.S. release and they haven't done that, so actually, I could take it back. But I like the record and everything, but ya know, I think it's over. You know the life and time of an album isn't really long." Pat pauses for a second. "That's all right, I'd rather get stuck with a new one and get a proper deal that guarantees absolutely US distribution."

With a new deal in the works Pat and his band. Jerry Riggs (guitars),Scott Zymowski (drums) and the ever present Peter "Mars" Cowling are preparing for a small arena tour with Molly Hatchett and Foghat. It marks the first time in many years that he'll be on the big stage again. "Yeah, I think we're doing a bunch of shows which is kind of great because those two bands are duking it out for the ego or who's gonna headline. Me and the boys'll probably get on it, do our thing. I don't even know whether we're opening, headlining, or in the middle, or getting nothing. It doesn't matter to me."

So after being out of the limelight for several years Pat Travers and company are ready to climb the rock n roll ladder again. "We're heading back in that direction. I had a lot of other things that really have nothing to do with my music and learning to deal with them in the last couple of years. And it seems like a lot of those demons have finally been exorcised and out of the way. Now I feel happy and comfortable with my home life and I know who my friends are and I also know where my strengths lie and I just really feel like playing music. Just stick around and watch this show. We're gonna light this crowd on fire." And light them up they did!

This article appeared in CAMM 1991

Back