Legendary guitarist STEVE HUNTER who has worked with everybody from ALICE COOPER to PETER GABRIEL, released his latest solo record The Manhattan Blues Project late last year. antiMusic’s Morley Seaver caught up with Steve to speak with him about it. Here’s a snippet of the conversation:

Q: Well, as everybody knows, it’s so expensive to go on the road and tour nowadays unless you have a big record company behind you. Are there any plans to do even spot gigs for this record?

A: "Well, you’re right. It’s very difficult. For me, it’s not just the money but my eyesight causes me some problems on stage now. It’s not stopping me from playing but it’s taken some of the fun out because I have to concentrate a whole lot more on what I’m doing. Because I can lose my place on the fretboard. It’s almost weird... had I been born blind I would have learned to play without seeing and it wouldn’t be a problem but after you’ve spent your whole life playing with the visual, and then parts of the visual aren’t there anymore, it’s very disorienting.

There are videos on YouTube... I mean, I tell people because I want them to be aware... where I’ve slipped a fret and I have had to catch myself and move back. There’s even a couple on the LOU REED tour where I slipped a fret. I can hear it. And luckily I think people think it was jazz, you know? (laughs) At least I hope that’s what they think. (laughs) 'Oh, he’s getting really creative, isn’t he?' 'Yeah, that’s cool. Doing an upper fret. I never would have thought of that.' (laughs) So it makes me a bit timid and I need to have a little more control over the environment.

And like you said, it’s very, very expensive to tour. Back in the old days, the record companies would support bands when they went out on tour because they realized, hey this is going to help sell albums. But because this was a Kickstarter thing, there was no backer. No support. I can’t go to a label and say I need a hundred grand to tour. I can’t say that. So I doubt that’s really going to happen. But I never shut the door on anything and you never know when something will come up and we can work something out. You just never know so I never close the door on anything.

I’m not saying I’m refusing to tour or anything like that. I’m just being very picky now about what I do on stage. Because it’s my integrity and how I feel about my playing and myself and if I’m not comfortable on stage playing the way I think the audience deserves to hear me play, then I’d rather not do it. It’s too important to me, that I give 100% when I’m on stage and I don’t want to be up there wondering what fret I’m on. I’m trying to teach myself to play without looking and it’s actually coming along pretty well but still there are certain things that can be disorienting."

You can read the whole interview at this location.