Cheap and Cheerful
Rick Nielsen raps about Cheap Trick’s latest album and how he won Geddy Lee’s former 1959 Les Paul Standard.
BY TOM BEAUJOUR
Rick Nielsen performing with one of his Hamer five-neck guitars
JEFF DALY
IT’S BEEN 43 YEARS since Rock and Roll Hall of Fame inductees Cheap Trick released their self-titled debut, and on the eve of unveiling their 20th studio offering, In Another World, guitarist Rick Nielsen is all too happy to share the band’s enduring formula for success. “We’ve never progressed and never tried to be something we weren’t,” he says from his home in Rockford, Illinois.
New tracks like the chugging, riff-driven “Light up the Fire” and overdriven power-pop number “Here’s Looking at You” indicate that Cheap Trick are wise to stay the musical course. It’s a point of view shared by their longtime collaborator, Nashville-based producer Julian Raymond. “Julian happens to be a big Cheap Trick fan, so he’s heard our records more than we have,” Nielsen says. “We might be working on a song and he’ll say, ‘Well this reminds me of this cool thing you did back on such-and-such album. Can you think of something like that?’ He inspires us by reminding us.”