The Columbia Music Examiner recently spoke with Tesla frontman, Jeff Keith, during some time off from their current tour with Styx and Def Leppard.

Keith talked about the band’s upcoming show at the Myrtle Beach House Of Blues, the current tour, and the more than three decade long journey that brought them to where they are today. An excerpt follows:

“That’s the cool thing about Tesla, you know, our fans are very loyal,” Keith said to CME. “We really represent them. We’re just regular guys up there on stage, and I think [the fans] really feel like, ‘Wow, they’re really up there just kind of representing me. They’re just average guys that I relate to.’ And we’re loyal to them too.”

Tesla can still pack big arenas, as evidenced by the huge success of the current North American tour along with Styx and Def Leppard, but the opportunity to see the band headlining their own tour at such an intimate venue as the Myrtle Beach House Of Blues is an experience no true fan wants to miss. CME asked Keith about some of the drawbacks and challenges of bringing the Tesla concert experience from large arenas and stadiums to a smaller venue such as the HoB, and what he likes about it.

“Well, actually the drawback to playing the bigger venues is you got a lot shorter set, so like coming to play the House of Blues there in Myrtle Beach we’ll be able to play more songs, and hopefully come up with a song or two we haven’t played in a while. You know every once in a while we like to pull a rabbit out of the hat, so hopefully we’ll have a chance to do some of those kinds of songs where people are, ‘You know I haven’t heard that one in a long time.’ So actually, doing our own show we get to do a longer set, so that’s the plus on that. We’re just looking forward to having a good time with the people and sharing our music.”

Read more at Columbia Music Examiner.