You kinda keep your head down and keep doing what youвЂ™re doing. ItвЂ™s a good question and you kind of hit in on the head. I just wonder then, for a guy like you, a вЂmatureвЂ™ musician, if I might be so bold: Do you just keep your head down and just keep doing what youвЂ™re doing or do you even get involved in how the music business works these days - if really there is even a music business left anymore? And 25 years later in 2013, here I am still doing it. So the way the cookie crumbled with Firefall was I was the last guy standing who didnвЂ™t quit the band and the way our corporation was set up I could keep it going if I wanted to and the truth was we have so many great songs written by Rick and Larry Burnett and seemingly so many fans who still wanted to hear them that I made the decision to keep the band going and keep playing the songs as long as we have fans out there. He wrote most of our songs as well: вЂњYou Are The Woman,вЂќ вЂњJust remember I Love You,вЂќ вЂњMexico.вЂќ RickвЂ™s health in the 80s took a turn for the worse and he has been contending with health issues these past 20 years and even if he wanted to - and IвЂ™m sure for a number of years he didnвЂ™t want to tour - he wasnвЂ™t healthy enough to do so. The main one I had to contend with for the past 20 years or so is the original lead vocalist for Firefall, Rick Roberts.

Like lots of these bands - hell, lots of other bands - Firefall has seen a fair amount of personnel changes. You get to feel the camaraderie when you play multiple shows like this. At this point in the game, Firefall are mostly weekend warriors in that we go out for a few gigs on a weekend, could be one to three or so, so to be on a tour is great. We know most of these guys, but it had been on just select gigs, so to suddenly having 10 or 12 shows with them, with everybody, is really great. We run into the guys in Player every five or six years. We both were on Atlantic Records in the 70s. We got to know John Ford Coley when he was in England Dan and John Fort Coley. Have you played with any of these artists before?ДЇirefall has played half a dozen times with Christopher Cross in the past decade or two. This time its Sail Rock and they contacted my manager and FirefallвЂ™s agent and said theyвЂ™d love to have Firefall participate and hereвЂ™s who we think is going to be on the show. Last year it was Hippiefest, where Dave Mason was the headliner with Mark Farner of Grand Funk Railroad and lots of other bands. Each year this promoter does shows like this. Was it something that just sparked up on your radar or was this show in the pipeline for a while? HereвЂ™s what Bartley had to say about this unique tour and his equally unique musical career.ДЇirst, tell me how this Sail Rock Tour came together. I spoke with the bandвЂ™s guitarist and lone founding member Jock Bartley on the eve of Firefall heading out for Sail Rock 2013 tour, featuring Firefall, Gary Wright, Orleans, Christopher Cross, Robbie Dupree, Player and John Ford Coley. Over the years, they would compile an impressive six Top 40 hits. In 1977, they had another major hit with вЂњJust Remember I Love You,вЂќ followed by yet another in 1978 with вЂњStrange Way.вЂќД«oth would hit the Top 20 (actually 11) on the charts. That summer, the band found themselves opening up for the legendary Fleetwood Mac. The second single released from the album, вЂњYou Are The Woman,вЂќ would enter the Top 10 and become their biggest hit.

Firefall first hit the scene in 1976 with the release of their self-titled debut album that would be, at the time, the quickest album to reach gold status in the history of Atlantic Records.

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