Butch Walker, going his own way

By JONATHAN TAKIFF

takiffj@phillynews.com 215-854-5960

Rolling Stone named Butch Walker "producer of the year" in 2005. He's written and produced hits like Avril Lavigne's "My Happy Ending" and Bowling for Soup's "Girls All the Bad Guys Want," as well as tunes for Pink, Sevendust, Lit, Hot Hot Heat, American Hi-Fi, Lindsay Lohan and Puffy AmiYumi.

When a lead singer is chosen for SuperNova on the current "Rock Star" TV talent show, Walker will produce that album, too, "as a favor to my friends" (band members) "Tommy Lee and Gilby Clarke, and also 'cause they threw a lot of money at me."

At the end of the day, though, Butch Walker would rather be making his own albums, touring under his own name. Since the late 1980s he's been rocking as a solo act and with groups like SouthGang and Marvelous 3 - which had a brush with success with "Freak of The Week."

Now Walker's clearly having a great time (and so will listeners) introducing his new set "The Rise and Fall of Butch Walker and the Let's Go Out Tonites" - a production-perfect homage to his favorite '70s acts - decadent glam rockers David Bowie, T-Rex and the Kinks, with an occasional nod to Bob Dylan and Bruce Springsteen, too. Tuesday at 8, the gypsy caravan lands at TLA, reason to get Walker on the line to jabber.

Q: So you were all of three when Bowie's "Rise and Fall of Ziggy Stardust" came out. Did it hit you hard, even then?

A: Probably a little later. I definitely remember my first time seeing glam rock, when I was growing up. I started collecting these rock magazines with Kiss, Bowie, Alice Cooper and Cheap Trick on the cover. And it was definitely my favorite music because it kind of scared me as well as intrigued me. It was a rebellion thing. I grew up in a conservative, backwoods town (Cartersville, Ga.) where everyone had a gun rack on their truck, it was almost required by law. This was the antithesis of all that, music that was supposed to f- - - you up on first impact.

Q: Your late '90s band Marvelous 3 had some glimmers of glam too, didn't it?

A: Another act of rebellion, looking and sounding like we did. We were sort of pasted into an era that was not, how you say, very rock and roll. I thought modern rock sucked. It was not played or presented by people who sounded like they gave a s- - -. It was watered down frat boy rock. Meanwhile, I was obsessed with all the stuff blowing up in Britain, like the Cult, Oasis and Blur. We put our American spin on it, adding a little Cheap Trick, a little Cars and what not. But it couldn't have been more unpopular with disc jockeys. We'd walk into a station with our tight pants and skinny ties, and they'd say "Man, these guys are all fags." They all had Static-X tattoos on their arms. Everyone told us we were five years too early or 15 too late. Of course, now this stuff is looking a lot cooler. Everything's cyclical. Today, it's better to sound like The Killers or Interpool. I can't say we don't borrow from the same influences.

Q: What's the new stage show like? Are you wearing "Velvet Goldmine" style clothes? Do you have a Mick Ronson kinda guy in the band, performing guitar fellatio like in Bowie's Spiders from Mars?

A: There's a little of that. My guitarist is a straight guy, but he does look like Mick. We've really pumped up the light show, instead of using the normal three tomato soup cans with light bulbs. But I'm not willing to jump into the Lycra, the leotards. And no capes. That's what killed The Darkness. No one took them seriously after they put on the cape. I also have a theory that whistling in a song is a jinx. It killed Scorpions with "Wind of Change" and Guns N' Roses' with "Patience." And after Paul Simon whistled in "You Can Call Me Al," that was his last hit, too. You'll never catch me in a cape, or whistling.

Q: Do you write differently, when churning out a song for somebody else?

A: There's a big difference between hit singles and great songs - the kind I want on my albums. I can write those hit songs for other people all night long and I don't care. It'll pay for my diving board, buy nice stuff for my parents. But I'm not really interested in writing a hit single for myself. I've done this too long to cross the finish line with one song and then it happens, it's all over. Then you're in the whole new game of "beat the hit" - with the record company, the manager and the public all getting on your case. So why give it to them in the first place? I don't want the game to be over. I prefer the thrill of the chase.

Q: Have you popped up as a judge on "Rock Star:SuperNova"?

A: Yeah, but I wouldn't give 'em more than one appearance. They edited the s- - - out of me, kind of made me seem like a kiss-ass. They skipped over the 10 contestants where I had critical things to say.