Ken Hensley, the keyboarder and main songwriter of Uriah Heep, is still alive in music business. After his concert in Weert, we've had the possibility to ask him some questions. It was really interesting and a lot of fun. We asked him about his time in Uriah Heep, his solo career and many more.

Hi Ken, how are you today?
I'm fine, a little tired now, but fine, thanks.

You've just played a great concert here in Weert, Netherlands. What do you think about it? How was it for you?
We had a fantastic time. It was great for us and I'm happy, if you think, it was great too.

You've announced your new album for late May. Well, now we're facing Whitsun, so how is the situation with it?
Well, originally we planned to release it on June 15th. I expected to finish by the end of May. Unfortunately my partner in the studio lost his three year old son and his wife in an apartment fire and of course this is a tremendous tragedy and so we had to stop everything for a while. This means that we couldn't finish the album in time to release it before summer. And summer is a bad time to release records, so my label and myself, we talked about it and we decided to move it back until after the summer. We expect to finish the record by the third week of August and to release it in the last week of September. Unfortunately these are tragic circumstances but it's really all we can do.

That's understandable. Can you tell us something about the album?
I can tell you that it will be very different from "Blood on the Highway". I mean, I know that a lot of people would expect me to just do "Blood on the Highway Vol.2". But I'm not like that. I'm a writer first of all. And so as a writer, as a creative person, I can't stand still or repeat something I've already done. I always had this problem, in all the years I've been doing this. The new songs are sort of human condition songs. They speak a great deal about live experiences. And I believe there is a moment in each song which more or less anyone can relate to, I think. But there is a mixture, a strong mixture of straight ahead rock songs and ballads, which I think really makes for a very complete record which is very different from the last one.

Will it be with guest musicians as well or only you and probably Live Fire?
No, I'm using Live Fire on three or four songs and I'm using studio musicians on other songs and I'm using a wonderful string quartet made up of four Cuban guys who live in Spain. I've got Glenn Hughes on the record, I have a wonderful Bulgarian singer named Alexandra Salkova who's a 19 year old girl, very small girl with a really powerful voice and I have a lot of very interesting people on the record.

Now let's go back to the very beginning. At the age of twelve you've learned to play the guitar with a manual. What was the reason and why did you decide for guitar?
Well, I tried to learn the piano, because my mum was a pianist, but it was too complicated. And anyway Elvis Presley played the guitar and I wanted to be Elvis Presley, so I had to get a guitar which I did in the end. I sort of taught myself to play badly. I have been writing poetry since I was a very small boy and so the idea was I needed to learn an instrument, so I could make my poems into songs. So I kind of stumbled through the early days and I really just taught myself everything and learned to play all in the wrong way. But at least I have my stuff out.

Later you've started playing keyboards and Hammond organ. Have you had a teacher for any instrument you can play or was it all just learning by doing?
Well I did have a teacher for a couple of weeks when I was in a boy's club in the town where I went to school and he taught me a few things about the guitar, but mainly I was always in too much of a hurry to learn properly. I still can't read or write music in a formal way. I can only write music in my own way. If somebody puts a piece of paper with notes on it I can't read it, I have no idea what it is. I really have to learn everything by memory.

In your youth you've been an active sportsman, you've even had the option to become a professional soccer player. Why did you decide for music and against sports?
Well, I had a contract when I was 16 years old to be a professional football player. By this time I was really, really hooked on music, I don't know what it was, but something in my heart just wanted to be a rock star. I wanted to be a rock star more then I wanted to be a football player. I was really focused on that. I was still playing football, but not with all my heart. My heart was really on music.

Which role did sports play later in your life?
Well, I'm a big fan of sports. I mean I love football, I love golf, I love tennis, I love formula one and so really for me it’s recreation now. I don't really participate in any sports, but I'm a big fan.

You've moved out from home at a very young age, moved to London and tried to make a living out of music. Does the view on music change when it has to pay the rent and fill the fridge?
Yes, in many ways it does. Of course you have a slightly different purpose for doing it, but in my purest times, I was doing what I loved doing and I was doing it, because I loved to do it. So it didn't matter to me that I didn't have food or anything. I just was doing what I wanted to do. It's very very difficult to make a living from music. It was then and it is now. But somehow I managed to do it for 45 years. I think it's more determination and being very stubborn and a little bit of talent maybe.

You've lived together with Paul Kossoff and Simon Kirke; in your first band "The Gods", you've played together with Mick Taylor, Greg Lake, Paul Newton, Lee Kerslake and John Glascock. Later all of you became big names in music business. Have you still had contact with them in those days and do you have now?
No, I don't have contact with really anybody, actually to tell you the truth, because everybody went on different paths and I'm always so busy with new projects and developing new ideas, chasing my dreams and exploring composition that I kind of forget about the outside world. So I haven't really felt the need to be in contact with any of those people. If was to see them in a restaurant or a party or something, I’m sure we would reconnect quickly, but for me the future is what is important, not the past.

Around 1968 there was a very important time for music. How did you experience that time in England and did it have any impact on you and the music?
Well, yeah, it impacted the music tremendously, because it was a time of great musical revolution. We were coming from the time where all the pop stars wore ties and had short hair and were very polite. It was a situation when you had bands like The Who smashing drums and guitars and just being rebels. And bands like the Beatles and people like Bob Dylan who were beginning to write lyrics with real meaningful words. It was not about blue moon in June or anything. Now it was starting to be about real life situations and some music had a philosophy to it in those days. It was completely new. We came along with Led Zeppelin, Deep Purple, Moody Blues and Black Sabbath and bands like that and we had long hair and scuffy clothes and we played really loud. So suddenly the music business had something new to deal with. It was a revolutionary time, it was a rebellious time, but it was a fantastic time.

In 1969 you've been asked to join Spice who later became Uriah Heep, as a keyboard player. In your former bands you've also played the guitar. Which instrument did you prefer and have you had the possibility to play guitar in Uriah Heep as well?
Yeah, I did play some guitar in Uriah Heep. I kind of specialized. I played acoustic guitar a lot. With electric guitar I specialized in playing slide guitar and I still like to do that. But my favourite instrument is the Hammond organ. I'm still learning about it, I'm still experimenting with it after all these years. But I'm also really enjoying learning to play the piano. I'm writing more songs on the piano now and because I practised a lot I'm becoming more confident and I'm enjoying that. It is like an adventure for me.

In the days you joined the band, have you had any clue that you soon will be their main songwriter?
No, I only know that I've always enjoyed creative writing ever since I was a very small boy, since I was old enough to write. I wrote long essays in school, I wrote poems when I was a very small boy, so I've always been a creative writer. For me Uriah Heep became a vehicle to express that creativity and learn about it and learn how to do it well. I'm still learning. I mean the whole creative thing is a constant learning process and I enjoy really a lot. I mean I can't stand still. It's like when record companies ask me to repeat something. I can't do that. It's an adventure for me to sit down on the piano, to sit down with my lyrics and see, explore the limits of everything rather than just staying on a safe place. I like to experiment and explore the limits. I didn't have any specific idea about what I would do within Uriah Heep. It just happened. I wrote more songs than anybody else.

From 1970 to 1980 you've recorded 13 studio albums with Uriah Heep, live albums and you toured heavily. And you've released your first two solo albums during that time as well. Where did you find the time to do that and have you had a private life at all?
At that time, no, I didn't have a private life. I had only a professional life. But that was okay, because I made a decision when I was very young that I would dedicate myself and would commit myself 100% to my career and music. And I think you have to do that. If you want to have a chance to be successful you have to pretty much sacrifice anything else and dedicate yourself to that one thing. It's a big risk of course but when you're 18 you can take risks. I wouldn't take those risks now, but when you are young you can take those risks, and I didn't have a problem with that. It was a challenging time, but it was really a loved one.

In your biography you've said that in the early seventies there was no security and festivals were like huge parties. Did you miss that later?
Oh yeah, in a way I do. I'm not a big fan of the commercialization of music or the industrialisation of music which is more the point now. The whole music industry is about money, not about music any more. In the days we did those festivals and there was no security, sure, people just used to wander into the dressing room or wander backstage, but nobody meant any harm. It was all very harmless and dealt with very easily and peaceful. Now everything is so industrial, everybody tries to protect themselves so much. It's silly, it's really silly, because we're just people making music. We're just doing something different from what other people do. I don't feel the need to do that. I have never felt the need to do that, at any time. So I kind of miss that free spirit. That kind of time when everybody was involved.

The seventies have also been a decade of drugs. You became a cocaine addict. What was the point when you realized that you can't go on that way?
Well, I was addicted to cocaine for 16 years and I think I realized I should stop after a year. But it took another 15 years to stop. Addiction is a terrible thing, no matter what it is you are addicted to. I think there are harmless addictions and there are very harmful addictions. There was a big mistake I made. I knew it was wrong because I have an addictive personality. When I tried it and I liked it, that was the beginning of the end. For me it wasn't anything to do with money or... thankfully I survived, but it was more to do with the waste of time and the relationships it cost me. I mean it cost me a lot of professional and private relationships.

When you left Uriah Heep in 1980, was there something like a gap afterwards?
Well, yeah, there was a long time when I was trying to kick my drug habit. And there was also a time when I just wanted to find out who I was. My identity was completely swallowed up in Uriah Heep. There wasn't Ken Hensley anymore, there was Ken Hensley of Uriah Heep. I really wanted to find out who I was and I just wanted to be the boy my mum and dad created. It took much longer than I thought and it was a very empty time in my life where I lost contact and touch with the whole music business altogether.

Have you had contact to your former band mates after you left the band?
Yes, I had occasionally. The band went through a lot of changes. David was gone, Gary was dead. Mick was trying to keep the band together, because obviously he needed the name to make money. But the contact wasn't really substantial, it was really circumstantial more than anything else and it was not meaningful. I have not meaningful contact with the past. I didn't than and I don't now, because I'm not a big fan of the past. I learn from it, I take the lessons with me and leave the mistakes behind and move on. That's really my philosophy.

What do you think how it felt for them when they've been faced with decreasing success after their main songwriter left the band?
Well, I think they pretended not to care. I think that they really underestimated the impact that it would have. That's not to say, you know, that I was indispensable to the band or anything else. It is kind of crazy. I just listened to their last record and it's just nicely produced and very well played, but there are no songs there. I know the fans tell me and even they write to me on my website or on MySpace or wherever, they all tell me the same think. They say: "Yeah, the band is okay but it is not Uriah Heep, it's just Mick Box and four other guys." There are no songs. And that's what's missing. And I think that is what keeps every band going and successful, it's songs. They probably just were happy that I was gone so they could have a nice life and I think they underestimated the value that I had brought to the band.

And how was it for you when you realized that you can't tie in with the huge success you've had with Heep.
It was really a surprise to me. I actually thought that what I was doing was valuable individually. But as I saw later on in life, it was only really valuable in the contact of the band. And I think Uriah Heep meant more to me than I realized. And I only began to see that a year or two after I left the band.

In 1982, after you've moved to the US, you've joined Blackfoot with whom you've gained some success. Was it because of the former member of Uriah Heep or didn't that matter at all?
Well, the Blackfoot time was actually very difficult because their style of music was so different from mine. So for me it was always very difficult to fit my style into theirs. And I think the most frustrating thing about it was that there was such a huge gap in my life. After I left Uriah Heep, there was a big hole in my life and I thought Blackfoot may help to fill that, but in the end they didn't. So my expectations were far too high and the results were not terribly positive for me.

After Blackfoot you've slowed down your career as an active musician for a while. Have you had enough of the whole music circus?
I thought so, yeah. I thought at the time I was better of doing something different, doing something a little more legitimate, something a little more normal and I was very successful in the career that I chose to go into, but the music was still in my blood. So it was inevitable eventually I would kind of gravitate back. After 15 years I started making records again. That was when I realized that the music industry had changed a lot.

Later on and until today you've played as guest musician for many bands such as W.A.S.P, Cinderella or Ayreon. Was there any band or project where you thought afterwards that it would be nice to join a band again?
No. The Cinderella thing was okay, there were people I knew and I had fun with them. The W.A.S.P. thing was a very bad experience, because I did all the songs for "Headless children" without hearing one single lyric and then when I heard the lyrics I hated it. Ayreon was fun because it was a challenging music play. I do two or three projects like that a year just to teach myself new things and to give the benefit of my experience to other people. But what is exciting me more now than anything else is I'm teaching song writing. Not officially, you know, unofficially. I'm enjoying that really a lot. And I'm doing a lot of solo concerts where I just sit with my book of songs and my guitar and my piano. I talk about my songs, how they were created originally, what the inspiration was for them and I share the details. And that I'm enjoying really a lot. So I'm doing a lot of things, believe it or not.

In 2000 you've teamed up again with John Lawton, your former band mate from the days with Uriah Heep. Do you have contact with the other musicians today and could you imagine to join them again for a special occasion for example?
People often ask me about reunions. Reunions are impossible for me with Uriah Heep, because I was in the original band. Two members of the original band are dead, so a reunion's impossible. There is still a lot of animosity there between Mick and myself. It's unnecessary. I invited him to come play on my new record and he was too busy. You know, it is really stupid to carry grudges around but that seems to be what is happening. They don't like the fact I am very successful in Russia, they feel like Russia's their market. This is silly. It's really stupid. You know, every time I go back in time, every time I go back in history or back into the past I have a bad experience. Whether it's working with somebody from my past or whatever. It seems to be a negative experience. For me it's important to do my job today as well as I can and to look forward to tomorrow. That's what's important to me.
I did not directly answer your question, did I? I don't want to say anything bad about anybody, but at the same time I don't see any point in going back in time.

You've stated that you connect Uriah Heep with the line up including David Byron and Gary Thain. So what do you think about today's Uriah Heep? Do you know their new record?
I do really have no awareness of them, what they're doing. I listened to the last album a little bit. Not a lot, about ten minutes. Well, it's a well produced record and they all play well, but it's not Uriah Heep. I mean it has the Uriah Heep name but for me it's like a cover band. It's like a tribute band. Uriah Heep for me is Mick Box, Lee Kerslake, David Byron, Gary Thain and me. And I can not be objective about that.

Two years ago you've released your biography on a CD called "Blood on the Highway". It is an album with so many details and nuances that one can listen to it over and over again and can always discover something new. How long did it take you to write the songs and record them in that way?
The whole project took seven months which is a long time. I mean normally it doesn't take me that long, but in this particular case I was writing as I was going along, so it took longer than normal.

How did you tell the musicians what they should play that you have so many different details in the music?
I didn't really tell them anything. I just played them the songs and explained to them what the song was trying to say and they responded to what they felt and heard in the song. That was it really. I mean I was working with great musicians, great singers and my partner Dani is a great producer. And so once they understood the concept they kind of just became part of it. So I didn't really have to tell them anything. They just heard it in the songs and just did it.

The release concert was in Hamburg. It was recorded and released as DVD. How satisfied are you with the result?
I'm very satisfied. I mean, you can always improve everything. Generally speaking I think the DVD catched the spirit of the night which is far from perfect musically, but I think that in a sense that it was just a good evening where we connected very well with the audience and they connected with us. From that standpoint I think the DVD captures that very well.

For concerts you are accompanied by a Norwegian band. But you live in Spain. What's the reason that you've chosen a Norwegian band?
Well, I'm into global peace and harmony. Being an English musician living in Spain I should choose a Norwegian band with a singer from Iceland to get it more international. No, I play with these guys because they rock. The further north in Europe you go the harder the guys rock. The northern Germans rock. The guys in southern Germany they yodel. The guys in Spain, they can play rock'n'roll but it's really not the same. So you have to go further north. You have to find people with an attitude. And really in Germany, and if you go up in Scandinavia, you find guys with an attitude and they rock. The way I like to rock. But the Spanish guys, they're not the same. They don't have quite the same attitude. Rock'n'roll is 50% attitude.

When you play concerts these days, you play for a few hundred people. So you did in the beginning of your career. What is the difference between now and before?
Well, obviously it is a big difference between playing for 100 people or playing for 10,000 in terms of numbers and money and everything else. But I always tell young musicians when they ask my advice, I always tell them one thing. Well, of course I tell them not to take drugs, 'cause that's stupid. Not everybody is as stupid as me, fortunately. But what I always tell them, if you really want to be a musician, play, because you love to play. 'Cause then you'll never be disappointed. I remember when I first started playing I never got paid for it. I played because it was like "This is cool. This is what I dreamed about, this is what I wanted to do." And now I play because I love playing with these guys and I love to see people having a good time. It's better now, because obviously I watch people singing my songs. In the early days I was trying to get people like my songs. Now they sing them. So it's a big difference. If I play to a hundred people singing my songs it's just the same feeling as playing to 10,000 people just saying I'm cool. I actually have more of a fulfilling time. I like to play to a lot of people and it's a little bit disappointing when I come to a place like this and there's only like 80 or 90 people. But nevertheless we came to play and this is what we did.

Your biography has the title "Blood on the Highway - When too many dreams come true". If you think back, which dream should better not have fulfilled?
None. The issue is not really a question of which dreams should not have been fulfilled. The issue is more a matter of when you begin to think in order to accomplish something you only have to dream it. Because in my young life, that's what happened. I dreamed about stuff and it all happened. And I began to think: "Okay, if I want something to happen, I only have to dream about it." Well, that's not strictly true. What's more true is, if you want something bad enough with all your heart and soul, you can probably get it. But dreaming about it isn't enough. And so when you dream about something and it doesn't come true then you have a problem. So that's the negative aspect of that and that's why I said "When too many dreams come true", because you begin to think it's always gonna happen. The "Blood on the Highway"-thing is really a reference, a symbolic reference to the amount of hard work and sweat and blood and tears that went into the pioneering years in the early seventies.

If you could re-live your life, what would you change?
The drugs. The No.1 thing that I would change would be that I would not get involved with drugs. Because drugs changed my life, destroyed so much of my life, I really regret that. Like I said, that has nothing to do with money or health or anything, 'cause I'm healthy. But I lost so many years and so many friends because of it. I was just so totally addicted to drugs that all I wanted was drugs. I didn't want anything else, that was the most important thing in my life. So that's clearly the one thing that I would change. Absolutely.

Well, thank you for your time and the interview. We wish you all the best for the future and good luck with the CD which is to come out.
Thank you very much. It's been really nice to talk to you.


www.ken-hensley.com
Interview and Afterwork: Nadja Notzke, Stephanie Althaus