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''I'm still sexy, baby''
[Publicity photos]
Loverboy |
By GINA VIVINETTO, Times Pop Music Critic
© St. Petersburg Times
published September 12, 2002
An actual Geezer Rocker, Loverboy's Mike Reno, gives his view of the genre's appeal. And he's not completely serious.
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Loverboy lead singer Mike Reno says he knows why folks still rock out to the band's 20-year-old hits Turn Me Loose and The Kid Is Hot Tonite. The band, which arrives in Sarasota tonight and Clearwater on Tuesday as part of the Triple Shot of Rock Tour featuring fellow classic rockers Eddie Money and Survivor, offers feel-good hits, and fist-pumping anthems in the case of Working for the Weekend, a Friday night bar blaster if there ever was one.
Add Money's Two Tickets to Paradise and Survivor's Eye of the Tiger, Reno says, and the audience is singing along all night.
"Everybody knows these songs," says Reno, 47, calling from a tour stop in Des Moines, Iowa. "They grew up with them. They became adults with them. They had babies with them."
Reno says Loverboy appeals to fans nowadays who aren't interested in seeing teen pop acts. "We offer music and entertainment for people our age," he says. "They still want to rock. They run up to the stage and you can see the excitement in their eyes. It's wonderful."
Reno, who in Loverboy's 1980s heyday sported those famous leather pants and sweaty headbands, says he still has what it takes to work the stage. "I'm still sexy, baby," he says, laughing. "I have my red leather pants on right now! I had them tattooed on me!"
A father of three, Reno says he hope fans find older rockers sexy for different reasons.
"We're attractive in a different way," he says. "We're grown up; we're raising children. That's attractive, I think. Eddie Money has his three kids on this tour with him. The other day he took them all out to a water slide. To me, that's attractive."
Reno says classic rock appeals to folks because it's feel-good music. It's not angry grunge or violent rap.
"The world has enough disappointment and pressure spots," he says. "We never wanted to be political. We wanted to provide an escapism of sorts. We wanted to have fun. And we do."
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