Original Britny Fox guitarist Michael Kelly Smith recently guested on the 80's Glam Metalcast and looked back on the history of the band, as well as the future. Check out the interview below.

On what he has been up to in recent years and future plans for the band 

Smith: "I was laying low for quite awhile. I had other interest and different things going on. I had been teaching guitar forever, so I picked that up again after the Britny Fox shows didn’t pan out in the 2000’s. My wife and I also rescue thoroughbred horses. That’s kept me busy as well, taking care of them. I have been writing a lot too. Recently been thinking about getting the original band back together to do some some shows this year to celebrate the 35th Anniversary of our debut album. I know Dean was interested in doing something for the 25th Anniversary, but that never panned out for whatever reason. I have been getting a lot of requests from people to do this and we can’t wait forever. So I decided this would be be a great year to do some shows and ultimately, do a new album. I think there is a better chance of this happening now than ever before. I think it’s looking good."

Looking back on their musical influences and the voice of Dean Davidson 

Smith: "Since we came out in the later 80’s, people thought we were just another 80’s band. With us, we had to have influences from somewhere - it was evident that the 70’s is where those influences were going to come from. In our case, we all grew up w/ KISS and Aerosmith, Nazareth, Sweet, Zeppelin, Montrose, you name it. Those sounds really came through, because all of us were influenced by all the same bands. For the vocals - Dean had the ability to sing in a lower clean register or a higher screaming register. He was able to do both really well. It was an attribute for us, because it sounded like two different singers. We got two for the price of one!!! Coming out of Cinderella, it was luck finding someone who could do what Dean could do. We were super fortunate to have him around when he was." 

On their second album, Boys In Heat 

Smith: "I love all the albums we did, but the first two have a real charm to them. They show the development of the band, but still stayed true to what we were all about. The biggest difference on Boys In Heat wasn’t the songs, but the sound production. It has a slicker production. So yeah, I love that album. To this day, when I listen to 'Standing In The Shadows', our cover of 'Hair of The Dog', 'Dream On', 'She’s So Lonely', 'Long Road', really the whole album, I feel we really had our act together on that one. Dean quitting the band when he did put a screeching halt to everything though. Had we released 'Hair of The Dog' as a single and had a straight up rock video, that probably would have put that album way over platinum. I thought we did a great cover of it and it was already a proven song, it was already a hit. We questioned the album cover for Boys In Heat, we weren’t happy with it all. I just recently found the original artwork that was done when the album was called Fuel The Fire. It was really cool. At the eleventh hour, the label didn’t like that artwork or the title. They told us we needed a new title and new artwork. We weren’t happy with that decision at all. Dean ended up throwing out the title Boys In Heat,  because he originally had a band with that same name. The label thought it was great, but we were cringing. A week later, they showed us the album art they created for that title and what you see is what we got! We were definitely not happy with it, but it is what it is." 

On Dean leaving and doing the Blackeyed Susan album 

Smith: "The reason Blackeyed Susan sounded they way they did, is because Dean had those kinds of songs kicking around. He admitted to me that he had people in his ear saying that he didn’t need us and he could expand his musical horizons. That’s always gonna happen. Unfortunately, he was swayed by others opinions who had their own best interests at heart. I think it’s pretty obvious it was a mistake. Dean is really good at what he does, because he can write songs that could be on a Black Crowes type of album or in any kind of genre. Yeah a third Britny Fox album with Dean would not have been the Blackeyed Susan album. I believe we would have stayed in our lane and done a straight up hard rock album." 

Bite Down Hard and the rise of grunge 

Smith: "We did our best. We found Tommy Paris, who we thought was a great singer and songwriter. We pulled it all together. We knew the musical climate was changing, but we couldn’t do anything about it. We did Bite Down Hard, released it in 1991 and it fell through the cracks, like everything from that genre did. It just didn’t make an impact whatsoever. The album is way more appreciated now than it was then. When we were out playing in support of that album with Tommy, I was shocked and dumbfounded by how many fans didn’t know we had a new album out or even a new singer.  There just wasn’t a lot of push from the record company. Everybody knew there was no point promoting something from that genre at that time. Everyone always says that grunge killed hair metal, but I disagree. I don’t believe grunge killed hair metal, I think hair metal killed hair metal. There was such an over abundance of poor quality hair metal that was being signed and put out, that it hurt the bands that were good. It wasn’t really the fault of those bands, it was just labels being labels. They were signing everything that resembled Cinderella, Britny Fox, Bon Jovi, Poison, etc. Some were good, some not so good. It just got over saturated and it pulled down the whole thing."

Britny Fox were initially active from 1985 to 1992, subsequently reforming from 2000 - 2003, again in 2006 - 2008 and from 2015 - 2016. They are best known for their music video for the songs "Girlschool" and "Long Way to Love". Bassist Billy Childs has been the only band member to be a part of each of the band's line-ups.

The original line-up of Michael Kelly Smith, Dean Davidson, Billy Childs and Johnny Dee released two albums: the self-titled debut (1988) and Boys In Heat (1989).