Interview with Bassist Billy Childs of Britny Fox - Part II
By Mick Michaels
The Cosmick View:
Before being signed to Columbia Records, did Britny Fox travel outside of the Philly/New Jersey area?
Billy Childs:
We did a little, but Philly was our base. We played mostly in the local area, but Cinderella’s success definitely helped us get noticed. After that, the scene here was more about those few clubs.
The Cosmick View:
I remember reading that your debut album, Britny Fox, was the label’s highest-selling album that year for a new band.
Billy Childs:
That sounds about right. I know the guy who signed us won A&R Man of the Year because of us.
Yeah, we had quite a buzz, for sure. I remember when “Long Way to Love” came out. It actually hit the top 10 on MTV, and we were a huge video band. We couldn't get much radio play, though. Maybe we were too heavy for radio, I’m not sure. But we figured out how to game the system, and that helped.
The Cosmick View:
Tell me that story.
Billy Childs:
Well, MTV was supposed to take calls 24 hours a day for their top ten list, but we found out they only actually took those calls for one hour a day, from around 10 to 11 in the morning. At that point, we had left the Galaxy and had a guy backing us, Tony Volpe, who had a real estate company and a construction business. He had a whole office full of secretaries, and at 10:00 a.m., everything would shut down, and all the secretaries would start speed-dialing MTV's top ten list. We would do it too—Mike, John, me. We’d all call each other up afterward to compare how many calls we got through. I managed to get in 11 one day, while someone else might only get seven because the line was always busy.
We figured out how to get into the top ten, and after that, things picked up steam on their own. I remember one time I was in New York, watching the top ten countdown. It went from 10, 9, 8, and then I thought, "Ah, we didn’t make it." When it got to number 6, I thought that was it and decided to take a shower. But then, about 10 minutes later, someone banged on the door and told me we were number one. I couldn’t believe it. I was shocked, but that’s how it all started.
It was surreal. MTV changed their call system after that, but by then, we had already made a name for ourselves.
The Cosmick View:
That’s incredible.
Billy Childs:
Yeah, I haven’t really told that story much lately, but we were definitely one of the first bands to figure that out. After that, MTV changed how they handled calls, but we didn’t need to worry about it anymore because we were already known.
The Cosmick View:
That’s especially interesting now, since MTV doesn't have the same impact it once did, and the channel isn’t the main vehicle for a band's visual persona anymore.
Billy Childs:
Exactly. Back in those days, we thought MTV was just as important as radio, if not more. It was one of the few cable channels, and everyone would watch it after coming home from the clubs. Everyone was watching MTV. But as time went on, it became clear that, even though it was important, MTV was never really a substitute for radio, even though it seemed like it at the time. In reality, it didn’t have the staying power of terrestrial radio. Today, the bands that have the best slots are the ones that had big radio hits, the ones I still hear on the radio not necessarily the ones with the best videos. Radio was the defining factor back then. It separated who headlined and who opened.
MTV seemed like an alternative to radio, but it really wasn’t.
The Cosmick View:
So, when the industry began changing around 1992 and 1993, how did it affect you and the band?
Billy Childs:
After our second album (Boys in Heat, ’89), when Dean (Davidson) quit, we had to find a new label. We got signed by Atlantic, worked on Bite Down Hard, and found a new singer. We had a decent deal, went to LA to record, and worked with big-name producers. Our producers, John Purdell and Duane Baron, were finishing up Ozzy’s "No More Tears." But things were already starting to shift in the industry. You could feel it, especially in LA. By 1991, things were changing quickly.
When we first got there, it seemed like a great place to be, but as the months went on, the whole scene was changing rapidly. It was interesting because I saw it happening in real time.
I remember the buzz around Heavens Edge from Philly; everyone was excited for their show, but by the time it actually happened, the club was only half full. On one side, there were people into the hair metal scene, and on the other side, there were people wearing flannel shirts and boots—grunge was taking over.
The Cosmick View:
It was a fast transition.
Billy Childs:
Yeah, it really was. Grunge hit quickly, and by the time Bite Down Hard came out in late '91, it was already clear that the 80s era was coming to an end. I really liked the '90s bands. Bands like Alice in Chains, STP, and Rage Against the Machine were emerging. I loved that music. But I also knew that my career, as I knew it, was coming to an end. The whole glam thing was over.
Switching from playing arenas to small bars and nightclubs overnight was a trip. It really made you question things.
We were back playing nightclubs. Some nights, the place would be packed, and it felt like 1988 again. Other nights, there would be nobody there.
When we did the "Bite Down Hard" tour, we were back in a van. We toured for about seven or eight months, but it became obvious that it was over.
One of the last places we played on that tour was in Florida, at a place called the Good Food Sports Pub. It had tables, and I thought, “Wow, a year and a half ago, we were opening for big acts in arenas, and now we’re playing here.” It really hit me—this was the end.
The '90s brought a lot of good stuff, and I think it was a golden era for rock. Everything was heavy as hell, and the singers leaned more toward a baritone style, which I always loved.
The Cosmick View:
Were you able to embrace the change, or was the transition a challenge for you?
Billy Childs:
I embraced it, but it was difficult. The glam thing, the hair thing, the '80s thing—it was over. Even if you sounded great or adopted the '90s look, it didn’t help. I mean, it may have happened a few times, but I couldn’t get into any of those new bands. A '90s band just wasn’t going to have a member of Britny Fox in it.
People would tell me I played great, I looked great, but I was from Britny Fox, which was seen as a glam band. I knew it wouldn’t be easy to join a 90s band after that. Britny Fox was just too big, too much of a hair band. There was an offer from a band called Scarecrow (New York), but I didn’t think they had the connections to make it big. So, I had to make a choice: stay in Philly and make good money playing covers with a band I liked, or take a chance with Scarecrow, which I didn’t think would go anywhere. It was tough because, at that point, the glam scene was over, and unless you were a big band like Bon Jovi, it didn’t matter, you didn’t have much of a chance in the 90s scene.
The Cosmick View:
Yeah, I can imagine that’s quite a hard pill to swallow.
Billy Childs:
It was. None of us made money during our time in Britny Fox. We were paid $400 a week, which we never questioned at the time. We had pretty bad management in Britny Fox, and we never made any money. When we all left the band, none of us had a dime.
By the time the band broke up, we didn’t have anything left. For us, coming off tour meant having to start working again, and it was tough. We all had to get jobs. Johnny Dee. started delivering flowers, and Mike began giving guitar lessons. As for me, I started playing covers, and that’s how I made a living for a while. So it was either stay in Philly, make a ton of money playing covers, or take a chance with a band I felt wouldn’t go anywhere.
A lot of guys faced the same situation all at once.
The Cosmick View:
It seems like many artists had to figure things out after that period.
Billy Childs:
Exactly. It wasn’t just us—many guys in the scene had to figure out what to do next. The 80s were over, and we had to start fresh. So it was, "Get a job and start working immediately." It couldn’t have been more inconvenient for us, but that’s life. You don’t really have a choice—you just do what you do.
The Cosmick View:
How long did you play with Mike LeCompt?
Billy Childs:
I played with him for about seven or eight years, starting in 1992. It was a lot of work—Mike was known for working non-stop, seven days a week, with some days having multiple gigs. You made good money, but it was grueling.
The Cosmick View:
That’s a tough schedule!
Billy Childs:
Yeah, it was. But it kept me going.
The Cosmick View:
And then in the 2000s, you started working with Get the Led Out. How did that come about?
Billy Childs:
Well, after Britny Fox and the Bite Down Hard tour, I started playing with Mike Compton in '92. By the late '90s, I was burned out from the heavy schedule. Mike worked incredibly hard, but I needed a break. I was drinking too much and just needed to step back. So, I took some time off, re-evaluated things, and after that’s when I started working with Get the Led Out, around 2009.
During that time off, I started giving guitar lessons, thinking I'd give it a try, though unsure of how it would work. Michael Kelly Smith never had any issues with it, so I thought, "Let me see if I can do this." It felt odd at first because I didn’t know anything about kids. But then something unexpected happened—I loved it! I genuinely enjoyed being around the kids. They were cool, and I liked the music they were into. I’m still a huge fan of that early 2000s power pop—bands like Sugarcult, Weezer, and even Trust Company, who had a bit of a heavier sound. That era just resonates with me.
I did this for about four or five years, and I really loved it. I'd get up every day and play tennis, then teach lessons from around 3 PM until 9 or 10 at night. Afterward, I'd go home, play computer games, and chat with the woman who would become my wife—she was out in California. Those were my bachelor days, and I loved every minute of them. But eventually, I started getting bored. I was in great shape and did a lot of cool things like hiking the Grand Canyon and spending time in Death Valley, but I still felt restless.
By 2007, I realized that playing all that tennis and staying in shape was good, but I still needed something more. I didn’t look all that different than I used to, except for the modern haircut. So, I decided to get back into music. The problem was, by that point, the bands I loved weren’t making money anymore. I spent a few years doing just about anything to get by, like moving out to California and staying with my girlfriend (who would later become my wife). From 2005 onward, I would do these little tours—small van tours—and get by however I could. But then the economy crashed in 2008, and I couldn’t find work anywhere. So, I ended up taking a job with a guy who used to do lights for Mötley Crüe. He gave me a job, even though I had no clue what I was doing.
I ended up in a town in California that was, for lack of a better term, a "dust bowl." It was rough, but I made it work. Then, in 2009, Get the Led Out called me. They had some issues with their previous bassist, Paul Picari (who’s still a friend of mine). I replaced him and stayed with the band for about five or six years. Initially, the band was only playing a couple of times a month, but once I joined, it all started to click. We started selling out shows, and eventually, we even got a tour bus.
Get the Led Out is still doing well today, and I’m really proud of the time I spent with them. When I first joined, we were playing a couple of gigs a month. But after about six or seven months, I became the missing piece they needed. The shows kept increasing, and it felt great to see that success.
When I joined, I didn’t think tribute bands would last. In the '90s, I thought there was no way people would go see tribute acts when they could see the real band. But, man, I was wrong. Tribute bands have done great—look at the Pink Floyd tributes or Get the Led Out—they’re still going strong. It’s wild to see how things have changed.
The Cosmick View:
I’ve heard there is a Britny Fox tribute band now as well.
Billy Childs:
It’s interesting to see these tribute bands pop up and thrive. It’s funny because even the original Britny Fox struggles today. But that's how the music business works—some bands hit it big and do well, while others end up playing casinos. I think that's the reality for most, but if you’re good and keep at it, you can still make a living.
The Cosmick View:
Do you think there will be any new material, with the new lineup, from Britny Fox:
Billy Childs:
As for new material with the band, no, I wouldn’t want to do that. I think the albums we made are timeless, and I’d never want to release something new that could be compared to those records. We did a great album after Dean left, and I believe it holds up. But I wouldn’t want to muddy the waters with anything new.
When we play, we stick to the classics, mostly the songs from the first two albums, especially Boys in Heat. That’s what the fans want, and I enjoy playing it. We’re not doing any new material—just the old hits.
It’s a shame the music scene changed so fast. If the timing had been different, our third album (Bite Down Hard) could have sold millions. But the music scene was changing, and we never got the break we needed. But I still think Bite Down Hard was a great album, and I’m proud of it. We had two more albums release following Bite Down Hard, Springhead Motorshark in ’99, one of my favorites actually, and a very good live album called Long Way to Live. Tommy (Paris) was the singer on both those albums.
The Cosmick View:
How do approach things these days?
Billy Childs:
In the end, I just do what happens next. That’s been my approach in life. I don’t always have a choice, but I’ve always kept playing and moving forward.
The Cosmick View:
Do you feel that Britny Fox is a household name in the 80s Hair Metal legacy?
Billy Childs:
It seemed like we were bigger on the East Coast than we were on the West Coast. I don't know if that was because of the LA influence, with so many bands out there, but when we played back East—whether it was Florida, Maine, Philadelphia, New York, Ohio, or anywhere else—we seemed to do better than we did in places like Utah, California, or Oregon. It seemed like the eastern half of the country was where we were most successful.
The Cosmick View:
A lot of bands have discussed experiencing a similar issue. Was it really a difference in sound or look? Do you feel MTV was favoring LA bands more at the time.
Billy Childs:
Yeah, they really did. LA bands had an advantage right from the start.
The Cosmick View:
What do you think may have been the reason for such a divide between the East and West Coast scenes even within the larger national scene?
Billy Childs:
I remember when we first started, the music business was pretty much centered in New York City. But by the time Bite Down Hard came out, it had shifted to being more LA-centric. Back then, it seemed like you were either an East Coast guy or a West Coast guy. A lot of East Coast people moved out to the West Coast. Personally, I never really cared for it much. I didn’t move out there until later, and it had nothing to do with music. I always preferred the East Coast over the LA scene. I didn’t really fit into that. So, I don’t have a great barometer for what was happening in LA at the time, though I do know enough to understand that there was a definite separation between the two.
The Cosmick View:
There are those who feel the Philadelphia, New York, and Jersey markets definitely had a specific attitude with regards to the artists and musicians, even with the music itself. Which they also feel wasn’t as prevalent on the West Coast. It seemed like there was more diversity in terms of the music on the East Coast. In LA, it felt like a lot of bands were just copycats, whereas on the East Coast, the sound was more distinct. What are your thoughts on that?
Billy Childs:
Yeah, that's true. Now that I think about it, a lot of those cookie-cutter glam bands were from LA. In Philly and New York, a lot of bands were originally Rock bands that transitioned into the '80s sound. Whereas in LA, a lot of those bands started out trying to be glam bands.
And while a few of them were pretty good, many of them weren’t. To be honest, a lot of them didn’t play very well, and they still don’t to this day. Meanwhile, bands from the Midwest, like Warrant, were full of great players. The same goes for bands from Philly and New York. Those guys were solid musicians. Real good rock bands, like Britny Fox, were just solid bands underneath all the glam, the fancy clothes, and the big hair. Britny Fox was just a good rock band.
When I look at some of the LA bands, it seemed like they were more concerned with their hairstyles than learning how to play. And it shows in their albums. Their tones weren’t great, and some of their songs just weren’t that good. I’ll admit, some LA bands did improve, but a lot of the mid-tier, second-level 80s bands from LA were part of the reason the scene collapsed. It got so bloated, with so many bands that basically sucked. How many songs about hanging out on the Sunset Strip can you really listen to? I mean, Mötley Crüe got away with it because they were huge, and they had an image that transcended everything. But after that, there were a lot of wannabe Mötley Crüe bands that were just awful.
The Cosmick View:
How do you feel that oversaturation of “cookie-cutter” bands affected the industry?
Billy Childs:
I think that played a big part in the downfall of the scene. I don’t think the 90s killed the 80s, I think the 80s kind of committed suicide in some ways. I thought the two scenes could coexist for a while, but that didn’t happen.
The Cosmick View:
Billy, I really appreciate you taking the time. I know it’s a big chunk of your day, so thank you.
Billy Childs:
No problem, Mick. It’s been an enjoyable conversation.
The Cosmick View:
Thanks again, Billy. I wish you all the best.
Billy Childs:
You too, Mick. Take care.
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My name is Mick Michaels...I'm an artist, music fan, songwriter, producer, show host, dreamer and guitarist for the traditional Heavy Metal band Corners of Sanctuary. Writing has always been a creative outlet for me; what I couldn't say in speech, I was able to do with the written word. Writing has given me a voice and a way for me to create on a multitude of platforms including music and song, articles, independent screenplays, books and now, artist interviews. The Cosmick View is an opportunity to raise the bar and showcase artists in a positive and inspirational light. For me, it's another out-of-this-world adventure.
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