The new release includes ten previously unreleased performances from the 1977-78 tour that provided the material for the original album.
Although there have been a good many personnel changes over the years, the band has been active almost continuously since its debut album was released in 1974. That's when Williams joined the band, and he's been with them ever since.
Rich Williams:
I enjoy this today more than I ever did. It's a job, but I love my job. I've briefly had a few real jobs so I know what work is and this just isn't it. I get to travel the world. I love meeting people. I love playing guitar in Kansas. [If I wasn't playing with Kansas] I'd be playing for free in a band on weekends. It's just what I do.
About.com Classic Rock:
How do you account for the fact that Kansas is as popular among us graying boomers as it is among the kids of us graying boomers?
Rich Williams:
Kansas had some good songs that have stood the test of time. That's what's kept us in the game. And we've always been a good live band. We're just old school musicians who played in a lot of different bands before Kansas came together.
About.com Classic Rock:
If I go to a Kansas concert today, what's going to be different as compared to, say, one of those that was recorded for the double live album in '77, '78?
Rich Williams:
We're better players now. That's one thing that time does: the more you practice, the better you get. There's a lot more gray hair and wrinkles, but you don't have to be young to play guitar! Some of the arrangements will be different. The first time I heard the [songs on the new release] that we hadn't mixed before, I was amazed at the similarities with what we do today. There are certain passages that I play exactly the same way today, but the there’s others that are like, "Wow, have I ever changed that part!" It's evolving all the time.
About.com Classic Rock:
Yeah, and one thing that will be a lot different to people who are familiar with radio versions of songs like "Dust In The Wind" and "Carry On Wayward Son" will hear a big difference in some of the arrangements.
Rich Williams:
You go in the studio and you assemble something and it's clinical. Recording live or playing live it's just like 1-2-3-GO! And while we stick to the basic format, some of it I do the same and some of it I don't even know what I'm going to do until I do it. You try and make it the same theme and be familiar, but it's ever changing. It needs to not be restricted that way to keep it fresh for yourself [as a musician].
About.com Classic Rock:
What do you say to music critics who have historically written off any rock band that dares to use instruments other than guitar-bass-drums and sings lyrics that have some real meat to them.
Rich Williams:
There's been a lot of people that have loved to hate us. A lot of the magazines, I don't think they've ever written anything positive. Whatever. We're still here and many of those writers, where are they? Some of those writers, I don't know. Those who can do and those who can't [pauses] ... you know? [laughs] There were times when we would get pretty upset about some of the reviews but now, I really don't care. It's been 34 years and I'm really not that concerned about a career at this point.
About.com Classic Rock:
Periodically there are rumblings about a new Kansas studio album. Is there any basis for that, or is it just wishful thinking on the part of your fans?
Rich Williams:
Pretty much wishful thinking. It's a hard thing to do. There are contractual obligations, it has to be on a certain label, it has to involve Kerry [Livgren, Kansas co-founder, vocalist, chief songwriter, who no longer performs with the band] and we'd have to stop everything for a year, which is about the time it would take to write and record an album. When the Rolling Stones release a new album and only sell 100,000 copies ... I have to ask myself why. Why do it? A lot of people just don't care. Radio won't care. There are just too many expectations of a Kansas album.
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Although a new Kansas album may not be a possibility, the current Kansas touring lineup hopes to release an album sometime in 2009 with Native Window as the name of the group.
Interview date: June 27, 2008
Album release date: July 1, 2008
