Raised in Vancouver but having cut his teeth in the LA hard rock world, Ray Ray Stone has a style that blends blues, metal, and classic rock, among other influences. When he’s not playing and recording music, he is also a motivational speaker who discusses his journey of being sixteen years sober. I sat down to learn a little about him.
Edmund Barker: I was just looking at one of your most recent songs you were promoting, “Suitcase and a Dream,” which is kind of the classic struggling artist story about going to Los Angeles with very little money and just the clothes on your back. I’m assuming that’s sort of autobiographical?
Ray Ray Star: (chuckles) Well, it’s a little ridiculous to think that I’m unique there, but I’m as textbook as they come!
EB: Well, it’s still a great story.
RR: I wasn’t the first, and I won’t be the last.
EB: So that comes from your own life?
RR: Yeah, I literally did that. I went with 500 bucks in my pocket, and a guitar, and a tiny suitcase, and I was like “I’m gonna make it!” (laughs) And then I realize I’m fucking homeless, so that didn’t turn out so good! But amazing things came out of that story, out of that time in my life.
EB: Lots of couch-surfing?
RR: Oh, I did all kinds of things, I slept on the streets…yeah, it was kind of a wakeup call.
EB: All in the name of chasing a dream.
RR: Yup, free will. I wasn’t the first, and I won’t be the last. Now, I don’t know how “epic” L.A. is these days…as it once was, you know.
EB: Maybe not as rock and roll as it used to be.
RR: No, God, no! Not at all. …so, how did you meet up with Eileen (Shapiro)?
EB: Oh, it was a chance online connection that led to me doing remote interviews and reviews…I’ve done some interviews I’m very proud of, like Fred Schneider from The B-52’s.
RR: Oh, no way, right on. I met Eileen through a mutual friend.
EB: Well, I was just listening to some of your music just now, and I immediately heard the sound, sort of, of hard rock bands like The Cult and Guns n Roses. And you’ve got a look that’s a bit Slash.
RR: Yeah, I get that a lot. And that’s just because of how my hair grows out! (laughs) And the hat and sunglasses, I’ve been wearing that since I was a kid. The gas station aviators, cheap ones…
EB: Yeah, those never go out of style. So my next question is, what are some of the artists who are a big influence on your sound, except maybe the ones we’ve already mentioned? I’m talking, like, artists you grew up with that made you say, “I wanna do that when I grow up.”
RR: Well, so what happened is I was three and a half or four years old, and we had this really crappy TV with aluminum foil used to tune in. I knew nothing of music at that point in my life because I was so bloody young, but there was The Kinks, and they were playing some kind of outdoor festival in Europe—I don’t know what the time would have been, but I’m guessing at some time in the sixties, at the height of their career. And they’re at some festival, playing, and there’s like 100,000 kids there. So I pointed at my Dad, and then I pointed back at the TV again, and I said “that’s what I wanna do when I grow up!” And I do not come from a musical family at all. No instruments in the house, nothing. I don’t know what happened at that moment, but I knew that was what I had to do. And I guess I’m still doing it, so the show must have done something to me!
EB: What’d you learn first, guitar?
RR: Yeah, guitar. I had a crappy guitar that my father gave me. And that was it, I could not put that thing down.
EB: And now it’s your living. I think you’re quite an inspiration.
The official website for Ray Ray Star may be found at https://www.rayraystar.com