Q&A
Brian Setzer
The Stray Cats guitarist and big-band leader on “sexy” rockabilly, quiffs, moving to the UK, and being a heartthrob.
Interview: Ian Fortnam
Since reigniting mainstream interest in rockabilly as generously bequiffed, Gretsch guitar-toting frontman with the Stray Cats, Brian Setzer has played alongside Bob Dylan and Robert Plant (in The Honeydrippers), made a cameo appearance as Eddie Cochran in La Bamba, been the first guitarist (with his 17-piece Brian Setzer Orchestra) to give his name to a full-on swing and jump-blues big band while racking up multiple Grammys along the way. Prior to arriving on the late-70s NYC scene – first with new-wave art-rockers the Bloodless Pharoahs, then the (soon to be Stray) Tom Cats –Setzer had cut his musical teeth on an instrument not generally associated with rock’n’roll.