Singer/songwriter Marty Casey always had a following in his hometown of Chicago.
"Once in a while people would come up to me and say they saw my band," Casey said in a phone interview from Illinois Wednesday.
Then he was on a television show called Rock Star: INXS, and his life changed forever.
"It was an interesting feeling, sort of like you were abducted by aliens," he said. "No matter what state I was in, small town, Mexico or Europe, people were coming up to me."
Four years after the end of the television show - which was a competition among 15 singers to front the Australian band, INXS - Casey is still being recognized.
"Everyday, somebody knows you," he said.
Saturday he expects a crowd of people who know him as he hits the stage at 4 p.m. fronting L.A. Guns - the third band in an eight-band festival, Desert Invasion, at Sheely Farms, aka Fear Farm, just west of Loop 101 between McDowell and Thomas roads.
"When we start to perform 'Trees,' you see a lot of head nodding in the crowd, 'OK, that's the 'Trees' guy, that's Marty Casey, that's where we know him from,'" Casey said of an L.A. Guns show.
"Trees" is an original song Casey wrote with his Chicago-based band, Lovehammers, that he performed to an international audience during the Rock Star: INXS television show. It became an instant hit and Casey did many encore performances during the show's 2005 run, in which he placed second to winner J.D. Fortune.
L.A. Guns has since incorporated it into its set list, along with a few other original Casey tunes, including Lovehammers' "This Town."
"'This Town' sounds like an L.A. Guns song," said Tracii Guns, guitarist and founding member of the 27-year-old band. "People always come up to us and say, 'What record is that song on?'"
Well none, so far. Guns and Casey plan to release an album at the end of the year with new material the duo wrote together. Guns said he plans to include a live L.A. Guns disc in the package, which will have "Trees" and "This Town" on it.
The new material will come with a new band name.
"It's such a modern thing, it deserves its own name," Casey said.
"We've come up with hundreds of names," Guns said, though they haven't been able to decide on one yet. "The problem is L.A. Guns is a pretty good name, but then again it has an 80s stigma attached to it."
80s rock invades West Valley
Saturday's concert at Sheely Farms - the second in a week as the 26-acre spot hosted 98 KUPD's U-Fest on May 2 - will have a definite 80s kick to it. Besides L.A. Guns, the lineup features Bang Tango, Bullet Boys, Trixter, Kix, Firehouse, Skid Row and the headliner, Night Ranger. Gates open at noon. Tickets are $29 in advance at all Albertsons.
"They are a great band," Casey said of Night Ranger. "I'm glad to see they have kicked it back into gear."
Casey plans to stick around for the closing performance, as well as the second-to-last set done by Skid Row.
"I always like getting to see Snake [Skid Row's guitarist Dave Sabo] do his thing," Casey said.
Of course, Casey can't wait to do his thing as well, which is to give a strong vocal performance, combined with his trademark charismatic showmanship.
"I'm looking forward to jamming with L.A. Guns in a farm field," he said. "You put up a stage and you get a crowd of thousands anywhere it's a good time."
"I've played a lot of stranger places than that," Guns said of the farm. "I'll do anything to play my guitar in front of somebody."
Guns has been playing his guitar in front of people since 1982. The 43-year-old was recently in Brides of Destruction, a band featuring Motley Crue's bass player, Nikki Sixx. He was also in Hollywood Rose in the mid 80s, a band that featured lead singer Axel Rose. Guns left to form L.A. Guns while Rose went on to establish Guns N' Roses.
Guns knows one thing about Saturday's show, "It will be a hot show, we go on at 4 and it will probably be 100 degrees," he said. "We have 45 minutes, though, so we can make it through that."
Casey, 35, finds it peculiar that he is fronting a band from the genre he grew up listening to.
"That genre of music is pretty much the reason I wanted to be a singer since I was 12 years old," he said.
Casey grew up listening to bands such as Motley Crue and AC/DC, and, "Years later, I'm actually in one now. It is kind of fun."
Marty Casey meet Tracii Guns
Casey actually met Guns several years before the duo played together.
One of Guns' band members would talk highly of Casey and they finally met one night.
"He was a nice guy," Guns said of the encounter. Then Guns was told that Casey was on a television show and he should check him out.
"The first time I saw him perform, I hated him," Guns said. "He is ridiculously good, and he's not in my band."
Guns would keep Casey in mind through the years, and eventually asked him to help write songs for a forthcoming album.
"We started the writing process and he said, 'Why don't you sing all these songs,'" Casey recalled.
Those songs are still being mixed and will be on the album from the to-be-announced band due out by the end of the year. Meanwhile, L.A. Guns has been touring with Casey as a frontman for more than a year.
"I really like him," Guns said of Casey. "He's a real pro and a great song writer. He comes from a great family. He is very humble and does not have a crazy ego."
"It's worked really well," Casey said of joining L.A. Guns.
And when he is not touring with them, he still does some stuff with his first band, Lovehammers, as well as performing solo, acoustic shows.
"I work 12 months a year," Casey said.
Life has been good to the musician since losing Rock Star: INXS.
"I'm a competitive person, I didn't go there to lose," Casey said. "I was determined to make it to the end of the show."
Which he did, however, INXS had him sing their hit song, "Don't Change," on the finale, perhaps the band's message to Casey and the reason they went with J.D. Fortune.
"They didn't want to change," Casey said of the Australian group. "I thought INXS needed to one up everyone, but I think they wanted to play it safe.
"I envisioned a whole new exciting thing for them," he said. "It's the same way I feel about L.A. Guns. You can't redo your past; you have to make it new and exciting. I was bummed [about losing Rock Star] but life gives you what you need. And I took it and ran with it."
Rich Ott can be reached by e-mail
at rott@westvalleyview.com.
