'Living the Dream': Uriah Heep still going strong, set for Kent shows

It’s the early ’70s, and English rabble-rousers Uriah Heep have crossed the pond all the way to Birmingham, Ala., and are set to kick off a sold-out tour.

Guitarist Mick Box is on stage ready to launch into the intro of “Devil’s Daughter.” And then he’s gone.

“Normally I’ll ask the crew where the lighting truss is,” Box recalled with a laugh. “I didn’t ask where the danger line was, and the crew didn’t tell me. So between the two of us, I ran straight out and straight off the stage into an orchestra pit.”

Box dislocated his left arm but soldiered on with the show. A nurse cracked it back into place later in the performance, and Uriah Heep’s six-stringer made it through the set with the painkilling help of plenty of Remy Martin brandy. But his uncomfortable night wasn’t through.

“At the end of the show when we walked out to do the bow, they forgot that my arm was killing me,” Box said still laughing. “So we bowed, and I fell forward into the same pit again and broke four bones in my wrist!”

Need a break? Play the USA TODAY Daily Crossword Puzzle.

Separated shoulders, broken bones, band dust-ups, drunken nights, illness and even death occasionally have slowed Uriah Heep over their five decades in rock ’n’ roll. But some 40 million album sales later, the band, with Box as its de facto leader and sole original member, is still going strong around the globe. The group will play three nights from Thursday to Saturday at The Kent Stage in support of its latest and critically-acclaimed album, “Living the Dream.”

Uriah Heep is a band of milestone moments. Known stateside for tunes like “Easy Livin,’ ” “The Wizard,” “Sweet Lorraine,” and “Stealin,’ ” the band will perform a mix of songs spanning its entire catalog during its three-night Kent stay.

The affable and enthusiastic Box talked about the band’s latest album, longevity and some of its wildest and best shows ahead of this weekend’s appearance.

Here’s Box on …

“Living the Dream”

“We’ve kind of got the template down now, mate (laughs). I’ve always got a bunch of guitar riffs and ideas and chord sequences and choruses. Our keyboard player Phil Lanzon is my writing partner. We get together and start formulating songs. We play them to the boys, and the boys say ‘yay’ or ‘nay,’ and then we try to work on the ones everyone is excited about. It’s very important as you make a piece longer, that it actually says something and means something rather than just being a means to an end to get to somewhere. There has to be a reason. It’s gotta have a good melody or be saying something musically and lyrically. Once we crack that, it’s natural process.”

The drunkest show ever

“We once did a show in Helsinki, Finland. The Fins do like a drink, and it was proven right there and then! (Laughs) We were playing, they had an exhibition that started about 8 in the morning, and they were serving beer all night long. We came along as the headline band about 9 at night. By the time we got there, everyone was completely off their head! We could see it in their eyes. It got to about two-thirds through the set, and my front-of-house guy is standing on the stage telling me to stop playing. He said, ‘The police are here, you can’t play another note. Go back to the dressing room.’ We found out the audience was so drunk, the police were pulling them out and putting them in the cells, but the station was full up! So they had nowhere else to put them. They had to close down the bar, stop the show and try to sort it out from there (Laughs).”

Playing underground

“We played in a salt mine in Merkers, Germany, which was thousands of feet below the ground. It took two hours to get the audience down in lifts to the bottom. It’s where Hitler evidently hid all his gold as well. Luckily, it was an acoustic show and not an electric one. Otherwise we would all be buried alive. The audience were all given these white protection hats. So once we started playing, it was like playing to a thousand boiled eggs!”

Jailhouse rock

“We played in a prison in Rothenburg, Germany. You take these things on, but you think, ‘Well, hang on, not everyone who committed an offense and is in jail is a Uriah Heep fan.’ (Laughs) I had a word with the warden. I said, ‘We’ve got some strange album titles.’ But we weren’t sure they were going to work in the scenery we were working with. One of them is called, ‘Free Me.’ Another one is ‘Too Scared to Run.’ In the end, he said, ‘Don’t worry, that’s fine.’ What was really funny was seeing the warden, a prison guard and the prisoners all standing beside each other with their fists in the air enjoying themselves.”

Breaking Russia

“In 1987, we were the first Western rock band to play in Russia. That was just incredible because you think what you were taught in school about the Russians, you would never go there let alone go there and play your music. But we found out we were huge, and people bought all our albums on the black market. We played to 180,000 people over a 10-day period. It was just amazing.”

What keeps him going

“Passion is the word, mate. We’ve still got a passion for what we do, and I think that passion gives us the energy and drive. We’re in an enviable position. We’re doing a job that we love. We see the world. We’ve played concerts in 61 countries, and we’re still on the road 150 days a year. It’s a great place to be in Uriah Heep.”

Reach B.J. at 330-580-8314 or bj.lisko@cantonrep.com

On Twitter: @BLiskoREP

WHO: Uriah Heep

WHEN: 8 p.m. Thursday, Friday and Saturday

WHERE: The Kent Stage, 175 East Main St., Kent

TICKETS: $44, $64 at TheKentStage.com.

MORE INFO: Uriah-Heep.com

LIVE MUSIC