What We Missed 2025: Lee Rocker of The Stray Cats

Brian Setzer and Lee Rocker of the Stray Cats. // image courtesy the artist

While 2025 was a year for the books in terms of concerts in and around the area, there were, unfortunately, a few cancellations, which led to some disappointment here at the Pitch. Not least of these disappointments was the fact that we’d already conducted interviews with some of these artists. So, in the interest of making lemonade out of sour grapes (or some other such mixed metaphor), we present a couple pieces which might otherwise have been lost to the ages.

We spoke with Lee Rocker, bassist for rockabilly stalwarts Stray Cats, ahead of what was supposed to be a show at the Uptown on Thursday, November 13.

The Pitch: I am amazed that a band as stripped-down as yours has had such a lengthy life. What’s it been like, being a such a tight rockabilly trio and playing things like the US Festival in front of tens of thousands? Is that like why your live show became what it is?

Lee Rocker: It’s funny, the band started back in my dad’s garage really in 1979. And I think we’re better than ever, but it’s always been just such a powerful thing and the amount of sound that gets generated– I don’t even know how it works, but between Jim [Phantom, drums], Brian [Setzer, guitar and vocals], and myself, I think we put more volume and more sound off the stage, more music than almost anybody.

The Stray Cats became big in the UK before breaking in America. Right. Why do you think the UK has such a vibrant rockabilly scene to this day? I feel like you and the Meteors were these two bands that just set a tone for decades going forward.

For a long time, there was always a place to go in, as far as musicians. When we were first starting in New York, we were playing Max’s Kansas City and CBGBs, as well as just corner bars and stuff around the New York area, and Long Island, where we started.

London was happening and we knew about it from the rock newspapers in those days, which was NME and Melody Maker. There was like four or five of these English rock and roll weekly newspapers that were amazing and we would see ’em and go, “Wow. Look at what’s going on in London,” search out some of these records. The Clash were there. Motorhead. So many bands. That’s where the scene was in in the early 1980s.

We took off from New York in June of 1980 and headed over there. That phenomenon’s happened over the years. There was the Seattle years when, with grunge and all. I think that in a certain sense, things are not centralized like they used to. I don’t know if that really exists anymore, where there’s the place to go to, but London was the place in the 1980s, like I said, between Motorhead and Pretenders and the Clash and the Two-Tone movement, so many great bands.

It’s interesting you bring up the Two-Tone movement because it seems like that time was this group of young musicians discovering this old music and putting their whole own spin on it. How did you all come to these Eddie Cochran and Gene Vincent songs growing up in the ’70s?

You know, I think it was from listening at first to the Beatles and Stones. The Stones did a lot of Chuck Berry. The Beatles did a lot of Carl Perkins songs. Kind of becoming aware of that and then, going back and getting records by Berry, Perkins, and Elvis–the original rock and roll, which was rockabilly–and it just blew me away. We would share these records with each other, the three of us and go, “Oh man, check out this Jerry Lee Lewis record!” These were old records that we were digging back to find, but it was inspirational.

For me, being an upright bass player, that’s the engine that moves this music. That’s the heart and the pulse of it. It was kinda like a dream come true. I also dug back to the blues, to Willie Dixon, who was an amazing upright bass player, a singer, a record producer, and a songwriter. That’s really where I drew a lot of my inspiration to do it. We would sit down and play these records for each other and we had our band, which took off so quickly it was like being shot by a cannon.

What’s kept you connected to this music all these years?

It’s got everything. I mean, it’s got energy, and it’s organic, and it’s real instruments, and it’s about sweat, passion, and rhythm. It’s the heart and soul of rock and roll, really. It’s where it all came from and it’s really a matter of that feeling for it, but putting your own stamp on it, doing your own thing, even back to when we first started and continue to today.

I mean, a song like “Runaway Boys,” which was our first real hit in Europe–that’s a song that is rockabilly in a sense. It definitely has its roots, but never would’ve been written or played like we did it back in the early days of rock and roll. It’s really a matter of doing your own thing within the form. It’s like jazz players or heavy metal or whatever genre. It’s a matter of doing it your own way.

“Runaway Boys” is a very jazzy, noirish song. It’s probably one of my favorite Stray Cat songs just because of that. It is that new twist on an old thing. What is it about the three of you that keeps you coming back together?

It is just magic, I have to say. I’ve obviously done so many things. I mean, Stray Cats is my first band and I love it and I love playing with the guys. I’ve done quite a few other bands and other incarnations of things, but there is something magical about the three of us, and it always has been. Hopefully, it’s not a cliche, but it’s really that the one plus one plus one adds up to more than three in, in this case.

From day one, when we started, we would do a corner bar every Wednesday night for a few months. The first Wednesday, there was six people there. The next week there were 60. The week after that, there was a line down the block, and there was something that can’t be defined.

You all keep making new music. That’s the thing that I think is most appealing about Stray Cats. I mean, you could go out there and play the hits from 40 years ago, but you have new music, the set list changes. How do you keep it fresh after 40-plus years?

Every night is different. Every time we play the song is different. That’s one of the amazing things about a trio is you can go off the chart. It comes out different every single time, and the energy is there and the love for doing it. We actually probably spend more time talking about the set list than almost anything else.

This tour starts soon and over the last few months, we keep sending each other “How about this one? How about that one? What if we do this way?” and really, part of the magic is coming up with the set list and finding a balance of new stuff and old stuff.

We have been in the studio a little bit, so maybe I’m letting the cat out of the bag, but there is some new music coming as we’ll see.

The fact that the three of you have such a deep width and breadth of knowledge, you’re not just bringing your own songs, but you’re also bringing your interpretations of classic songs. In terms of the music you’ve covered either with the Stray Cats or on your own, what’s been your favorite twist you’ve gotten to put on one of these classic songs?

Oh, man. That’s tough. It’s a tough question for me because, musically, I really kind of always try to be looking ahead. I mean, there are so many different covers that I’ve done over the years and that the Stray Cats have done that I love doing, but I really kind of focus on the new stuff. We’re gonna come up with a few a few interesting things this time out.

Going out on tour, how do you choose artists who are going to perform with you?

Management sends us things to listen to, bands to listen to, and we do have a band coming out on some of these dates that is a French artist, Theo Lawrence, kind of a very cool crooner on seven or eight shows. Then we’ve got an opening band that my son is in, called Moonshine, but they’re doing Northern California with us.

Your father was a musician. You’re a musician. Your son’s a musician. That’s gotta be pretty great–being part of a continuum like that.

It really is. My dad was a solo clarinetist with the New York Philharmonic for 61 years, and my mom was a music professor at a university in New York called Hofstra for 50 years. So yeah, there’s a real lineage and that goes on. It’s great to be part of it. It’s the family business, you know?

I love the idea of a music professor and a member of the New York Philharmonic and their son’s like, “I’m going to play rockabilly in punk clubs.”

Oh yeah, that is rebellion. They were great. They were great with it. I have to say, any form of music–if you do it well, is great. There can be some lousy classical performances and some lousy rock and roll performances, or the opposite. I do have a funny story about that, though.

When I got back from England, after we made it with the Stray Cats, I went to a concert at Lincoln Center that my dad was a soloist with Stanley Drucker, and Leonard Bernstein was the conductor. I’m backstage after the concert. I had met Lenny over the years, from being a little kid when they had worked together a lot. He took me aside and said how much he liked the stray cats. He liked “Runaway Boys” in particular. He goes, “But you made one mistake.” I go, “What’s that?” He goes, “You shouldn’t have changed your name.”

I think you picked a pretty great one.

I thought it was kind of funny to get reprimanded by Bernstein.

You find more information about the Stray Cats at their website.