Bill Leverty
Edited From: www.leverty.com
I'm from Richmond, Virginia and the son of a great set of parents who gave me my 1st guitar at the age of 4, but my dedication was short-lived. I got into other stuff. Later in life, I started playing ice hockey. GO RED WINGS! The guitar came back into my life at the age of 15 and won my heart over. I still love ice hockey and play a couple times a week.
Some of my influences are Stevie Wonder, Simon & Garfunkel, Led Zep, Carlos Montoya, Rare Earth, Peter Frampton, Aerosmith, Ted Nugent, Kiss, Michael Schenker, UFO, Doobie Brothers, Lynyrd Skynyrd, Outlaws, Allman Brothers, Steve Morse and the Dixie Dregs, Pat Travers, Eddie Van Halen, Al Dimeola, Allan Holdsworth, Scorpions, Randy Rhodes, Warren DeMartini and Ratt, George Lynch, Joe Satriani, Steve Lukather, Steve Vai, Eric Johnson, Carlos Santana, Neal Schon, and (my favorite guitarist of all time) Jeff Beck.
With FireHouse, I've won the American Music Award for Best New Hard Rock/Heavy Metal Band of 1991, Metal Edge Magazine's Best New Band of 1991, Young Guitar Magazine's Best Newcomer of 1991, and Music Life Magazine's reader's pop poll Best Newcomer of the Year 1992. Our first album sold over 2 million, and our song "Love of a Lifetime" sold over 500,000 singles reaching #5. "Don't Treat Me Bad" went to #14. Our Second album sold almost 1 million copies to date with "Reach for the Sky" getting into the top 20 and "When I Look Into Your Eyes" reaching #7.
Our 4th CD was produced by me. It's called "Good Acoustics". We had some of our greatest success stories overseas with "Good Acoustics" going gold in 6 countries.
My first ever solo album, BILL LEVERTY'S WANDERLUST, has recently been released. The album has received wonderful reviews from critics and fans. I am very grateful for the overwhelmingly positive reaction. If you haven't already, please check it out here:
www.wanderlustband.com
FireHouse has taken me all over America, Canada, Japan, Brazil, Argentina, Puerto Rico, Germany, England, Scotland, Northern Ireland, Spain, Wales, Indonesia, Thailand, Korea, Philippines, Malaysia, Singapore, India, Trinidad, and Mexico. Whew! What a great ride! Thanks guys. I can't believe how far we've come...
We've done shows with Journey, Lynyrd Skynyrd, Bon Jovi, REO Speedwagon, Tesla, Peter Frampton, Ratt, Status Quo, Cher, Damn Yankees, Night Ranger, Quiet Riot, Skid Row, 38 Special, Molly Hatchet, Eddie Money, BTO, Blackfoot, The Outlaws, Derek St. Holmes, Badlands, Lynch Mob, The Rembrants, Blessed Union of Souls, Poison, Black Oak Arkansas, Nelson, The Romantics, Enuff Znuff, Slaughter, Warrant, Trixter, L.A. Gunns, Jackyl, The Tubes, Styx, Pat Travers, Steppenwolf, Blue Oyster Cult, Sebastian Bach, Badfinger, Paul Rogers of Bad Company, Rick Derringer, John Entwistle of The Who, Faster Pussycat, David Lee Roth, Great White, Jefferson Starship featuring Mickey Thomas, Sammy Hagar, Loverboy, and many more. We also jammed with Brian Johnson of AC/DC on the fourth of July in 1995. He's the absolute coolest, by far... Thanks Brian!
In May of 2006, I met a guy named Ed Miers, the CEO of a company called GREM USA. They are PHENOMENAL guitars!! GREM Guitars are all 100% made in America, and their quality is FAR superior to ANYTHING I've ever seen or played in my life. The Bill Leverty Signature Grem Guitar is now available. It's a 24 fret, neck through body guitar with a Floyd Rose locking tremelo. I hope you'll take a look at the Grem website:
www.gremusa.com
My Endorsements: Grem Guitars, Framus Amps, Dean Markley Strings, In Tune Custom Picks, and My Star Sound Cables.
Thanks for reading all this stuff. Hope to see you on tour... Bill