Humbled Stevie Salas Hopes for Rock Stardom in 1991

It’s been a tough year for Stevie Salas, the expatriate San Diego guitarist who spent nearly two years on the road with Rod Stewart before forming his own band, Stevie Salas Colorcode, in the fall of 1989.

Last January, Island Records released the power trio’s eponymous debut album. Salas and his band mates, bassist C. J. deVillar and drummer Winston A. Watson, were promptly dispatched on a six-month tour of the United States and Canada, opening for Joe Satriani.

The album got great reviews and a fair amount of airplay, but distribution problems at Island kept it from even cracking Billboard’s Top Pop Albums chart, Salas said.

“When the record had been out two months, Island was bought by Polygram, so distribution switched from WEA (Warner/Elektra/Atlantic),” Salas said. “And what happened was my record fell in the crack: WEA (distributors of Island Records) didn’t push it because it could no longer make money on it, and Polygram didn’t push it because they couldn’t yet.

“It was the weirdest thing--here I was, getting all this airplay, but not moving any units because there were no units in the stores. I remember playing in front of 7,000 people one night and signing about 100 autographs after the show, and then going into town the next day to check things out and not finding a single copy of my record anywhere.

“It was really heartbreaking.”

And the tour with Satriani, too, was something of a psychological letdown, Salas added.

“When I first started touring with Joe, I had a little trouble adjusting. With Rod Stewart, I had been pampered like a baby, flying around on a private jet, cruising around in limousines, having girls throw underwear at me, things like that, the full rock-star treatment.

“And now, all of a sudden, it wasn’t glamorous anymore. I was no longer associated with that huge-star name, so there was no more red carpet rolling down--I was riding around in a tour bus, and 90% of the time, I didn’t even get a sound check. And instead of groupies, there were just a bunch of guys, staring at you--which in a way was good, because it got me concentrating on being a musician, not a rock star.”

In July, however, Salas’ bruised ego got a little boost when he went on a three-week tour of Japan as a headliner. “When I got finished with Satriani, I was pretty much a humbled man,” he said. “But in Japan, it was amazing--I was a star again. I was in every magazine, kids were running up to me in the street and asking for autographs, and I was selling out virtually everywhere I played.”

After returning from Japan in mid-July, Salas took three weeks off. He went down to his Oceanside condominium--he has another home in Los Angeles--to write songs for his next album and appear in a televised surf special, ‘Life’s A Beach.’

Then, it was off to Europe for another ego-boosting concert tour as a headliner: 31 shows in 35 days, in Germany, Sweden, Denmark, Switzerland, France, Austria, Belgium, the Netherlands, England and Scotland.

So, despite 1990’s bad start, Salas said he is optimistic about the future--with good reason.

Last Monday, Salas went to Los Angeles to start producing sessions for Fontaine, a pop-R&B; singer he discovered in Florida and helped get signed to Island. It’s his first production credit since Was (Not Was)’s “One Up Dog,” in 1988.

And he’s just finished cutting demos of 20 new songs for possible inclusion on his next album, which he is scheduled to start recording in January.

“Before the album comes out, I’ve got another tour of Japan and another of Europe,” Salas said. “And we’re waiting for me to get back to the United States before we release the album, sometime around April.

“By then, all the bugs in the distribution switch from WEA to Polygram will hopefully have been ironed out. I want to make sure that what happened last time won’t happen again.”

Monday Night the Studio in Kearny Mesa was the scene of the record release party for “The Stars Come Out for Christmas Volume II,” the second annual compilation album of Christmas tunes sung by big-name pop and country stars. The album will benefit San Diego’s chapter of the American Cancer Society as well as nearly a dozen children’s hospitals nationwide.

The San Diego Union’s Tom Blair emceed the presentation to about 200 guests. Only two of the 22 acts, which contributed a song apiece to the new album were there: San Diego-native singer-songwriter Stephen Bishop (“The Christmas Song”) and the Commodores (“When The Stars Come Out for Christmas”).

Accordingly, executive producer Steve Vaus included both contributions in the half-hour musical preview that followed the obligatory introductions and inspirational orations. Other cuts were Kim Carnes’ “Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas”, the Beat Boys’ “I’ll Be Home for Christmas,” the so-called “country choir” (Paul Overstreet, Patty Loveless, Holly Dunn, and five others) version of “Silent Night,” and a medley of half a dozen or so other tunes.

The album is being marketed, nationally, via mail-order. Cassettes are $12.95, CDs are $17.95. The number to call is (800) 448-7664. In San Diego, you can also pick up copies at area Taco Bells.

LINER NOTES: The local music scene has already lost two of its most eligible bachelors, Mojo Nixon and Beat Farmer Joey Harris, in wacky wedding ceremonies conducted by Country Dick Montana, the Beat Farmers drummer who also happens to be a mail-order minister with the Universal Life Church. Next month, the Rev. Dick will marry off yet another one: Blonde Bruce Thorpe of the Blonde Bruce Band. Thorpe and Shannon Lacina will tie the knot in a Dec. 23 ceremony at the Belly Up Tavern in Solana Beach. . . .

Reggae singer Eek-A-Mouse will headline the Dec. 7 Youth for Unity concert at the Soma dance hall downtown. The concert is the first in a series of benefits for the proposed WorldBeat Center, an African-American cultural center in Balboa Park. The WorldBeat Center will be housed in a converted water storage tower adjacent to the Centro Cultural de la Raza. . . .

Tickets go on sale Sunday at 11 a.m. for Paul Simon’s Jan. 20 appearance at the San Diego Sports Arena. But that’s only for people who don’t have American Express Gold Cards. Those folks have been able to charge tickets since last Sunday. . . .

Best concert bets for the coming week: Jonathan Richman with Skid Roper and the Whirling Spurs, Thursday at the Belly Up Tavern; Eggplant with Loose Barbaric Love Fish and Harry Toon, Friday at the Casbah in Middletown; the Pandoras, Saturday at the Spirit in Bay Park; Rick Skaggs with the KSON Flatbed Band, Sunday at the Bacchanal in Kearny Mesa; and the Robert Cray Band with Joe Ely, Tuesday at the Civic Theater downtown.