Kelly Keeling

Kelly Keeling (born June 25, 1966) is an American musician and songwriter. Keeling started playing at the age of 14 and first appeared on the music scene as the lead singer of the American heavy metal band Baton Rouge.[1] In his career, he worked with many major hard rock acts, wrote movie soundtracks and played also with Christian rock bands.[2]

Kelly Keeling
Birth nameKelly Keeling
Born (1966-06-25) June 25, 1966
OriginLafayette, Louisiana, United States
GenresHard rock, blues-rock, heavy metal, Progressive metal
Occupation(s)Musician, singer, songwriter, record producer
InstrumentsVocals, guitar, bass, piano,multi instrumentalist
Years active1980–present
LabelsMascot Records
Associated actsBaton Rouge, FOUNDRY, Blue Murder, John Norum, Carmine Appice's Guitar Zeus, Michael Schenker Group, Heaven and Earth, Erik Norlander, King Kobra, Lynch Mob, Trans-Siberian Orchestra, O'2L

Biography

At the age of 14 Kelly earned a GED and commenced a career in music, which has led him all over the world several times as a recording artist, singer, songwriter, multi instrumentalist, and producer.

Starting with being signed by Ahmet Ertegun of Atlantic Records with the band Baton Rouge put him in the public eye with MTV, AOR radio exposure, and two USA tours.

This was a busy year as Kelly Keeling worked on Alice Cooper's Hey Stoopid album for which he co-wrote the song “Snakebite”, and sang background vocals. He also wrote songs for the movie Rich Girl.

After the release of the third album Baton Rouge, the band split due to Kelly joining Blue Murder where he met Carmine Appice and Tony Franklin.

Kelly and Yngwie Malmsteen recorded "Speed King" for a Deep Purple Tribute - Smoke on the Water.

Kelly became vocalist for the John Norum Band, produced two albums, and toured in Sweden. Kelly appears on the albums Another Destination and Worlds Away.

Kelly then became singer, songwriter, producer, guitarist, and keyboardist for Carmine Appice’s Guitar Zeus first three albums: Guitar Zeus, ... (Japan), and Guitar Zeus 2 Channel Mind Radio.

He co-wrote/contributed two songs for the movie “Dish Dogs”. Kelly also appears, along with Denny Laine, Roger Daltrey, and Carmine Appice, on the movie soundtrack "Chasing Destiny" which Kelly wrote, produced and performed songs and scored. Kelly also scored the soundtrack for the movie "Totally Irresponsible".

In 2000 Kelly appears on the Grand Funk Railroad tribute A Tribute to Grand Funk Railroad ... an American Band.

In 2001 he sang on Heaven & Earth's Windows to the World, King Kobra's Hollywood Trash and played keyboards and sang harmony on ...'s Doin' Business As...

He became the Michael Schenker Group vocalist for the albums The Unforgiven & The Unforgiven World Tour. He also appeared on the 25th anniversary CD Tales of Rock 'n' Roll featuring all MSG singers. Kelly wrote three songs for this album, two for previous MSG vocalists Graham Bonnet and Gary Barden and one for himself ("Big Deal") which opens the album.

Kelly was recruited by Don Dokken to step in as assistant songwriter, background vocalist and producer for 7 songs on Dokken's CD Long Way Home. 2004 - Kelly again writes and produces with Dokken for the album Hell to Pay. Then he was also featured on album Furious George and toured with George Lynch.

Kelly was featured as vocalist on Erik Norlander’s album Music Machine and European tour in June where they also performed songs from Kelly's solo album, which was in the mixing stage at that time. This three-piece band featuring Erik Norlander and Vinnie Appice, performed shows as Kelly Keeling during a three-day festival. In the fall of summer 2004 he toured again as singer and bassist with Lana Lane and Erik Norlander in the USA, Europe, and Russia. He also released live album Stars Rain Down.

Giving Sight to the Eye is Kelly’s first solo album featuring Kerry Livgren, Roger Daltrey, Don Dokken, Denny Laine, Tony Franklin, Carmine Appice & Vinnie Appice (Black Sabbath, Dio) among other friends he has met along the way.

He also appears on Jack Ponti's Jack Ponti Presents, Volume 1.

Keeling recorded and toured with the bands O'2L, featuring all members of the west coast branch of the Trans-Siberian Orchestra, and recorded eight songs intended for another solo album which eventually appeared in the first studio album of the project Paris Keeling with executive producer Marty Paris. He started his solo recording career with the album Giving Sight to the Eye in 2005. In those years, he toured with Erik Norlander, Trans-Siberian Orchestra (he received gold and platinum album awards from TSO) and Wayne Morrisson's Rock4Xmas, featuring Badfinger member Joey Molland. On this tour he performed backing vocals for Eddie Money and did his solo career retrospective set The Kelly Keeling Show, with band mates Ethan Brosh, Alex Pierce and Dave Vandiggitty.

In 2012, Kelly formed the band Balance with guitarist/co- writer Kim Roy, formerly of the band Kingdom, and reunited Baton Rouge for a new recording to appear on Frontier Records, which was cancelled in 2013.[3]

In 2015 Keeling signed on as the Lead Singer with FOUNDRY, an American Rock Bank from Las Vegas featuring Kelly on vocals, Marc Brattin, drums and James Fucci, guitar. The debut FOUNDRY record, released January 15, 2015, is 10 Hard Rock/Pop song engineered by Matt Breunig (The Killers) and mixed by 7x Grammy Award Producer Steve Thompson (Guns N' Roses, KISS, Metallica, Korn and Soundgarden). Keeling, Brattin and Fucci are now composing original works for a second album to be released January 2017.

Keeling also continues to play in Louisiana doing his Piano Show and a monthly Beatles Night featuring local High School Choirs and College Horn Sections.

Discography

Solo albums
  • Giving Sight to the Eye (2005)
  • Lime Green Limousine with Marc Zimmerman (2010)
  • Mind Radio (2015)

With FOUNDRY
  • Foundry (2015)

With Baton Rouge

Studio albums
  • Shake Your Soul (1990)
  • Lights Out on the Playground (1991)
  • Baton Rouge (1997)

Compilation albums
  • The Hottest of Baton Rouge (2006)

With John Norum

Studio albums

With Carmine Appice's Guitar Zeus

Studio albums
  • Carmine Appice's Guitar Zeus (1995)
  • Guitar Zeus II: Channel Mind Radio (1997)
  • Conquering Heroes (2009)

Compilation albums
  • Ultimate Guitar Zeus (2006)

With MSG

Studio albums

Live albums

Compilation albums
  • Forever and More, The Best of Michael Schenker (2004)
  • Greatest Riffs (2009)

With King Kobra
  • Hollywood Trash (2001)

With Heaven and Earth
  • Windows to the World (2001)

With Erik Norlander
  • Music Machine (2003)
  • Stars Rain Down (2004)
  • Live in St. Petersburg (2006)
  • Hommage Symphonique (2007)

With George Lynch
  • Furious George (2004)

With Paris Keeling
  • End of Ride (2006)
  • End of Ride Revisited (2009)

With O'2L
  • Eat a Pickle (2007)

Other appearances
  • Alice Cooper – Hey Stoopid (songwriting and backing vocals – 1991)
  • Blue Murder – Nothin' but Trouble (backing vocals, lead vocals on "I’m On Fire" – 1993)
  • Dokken – Long Way Home (songwriting – 2002)
  • Jack Ponti Presents – Volume 1 (compilation – 2003)
  • Dokken – Hell to Pay (songwriting – 2004)
  • Lana Lane – Lady Macbeth (backing vocals – 2005)
  • Moonstone Project – Time to Take a Stand (guest vocalist – 2006)
  • JK Northrup – Wired in My Skin (guest vocalist – 2007)
  • The Screamin' Lords – Long Live Me (guest vocalist – 2007)
  • Liberty N' Justice – Independence Day (guest vocalist – 2007)
  • The Rocket Scientists – Looking Backward - The 2007 Sessions (guest vocalist- 2007)
  • Lana Lane – Gemini (backing vocals – 2007)
  • Don Dokken – Solitary (backing vocals – 2008)
  • Trans-Siberian Orchestra – Night Castle (backing vocals – 2009)
  • Moonstone Project – Hidden in Time (guest vocalist – 2009)
  • Liberty N' Justice – Light It Up (guest vocalist – 2010)
  • Chris Bickley – Tapestry of souls (guest vocalist – 2012)
  • FOUNDRY – Calling Allah (guest guitarist Michael Guy – 2015)

Tribute albums
  • Smoke on the Water: A Tribute to Deep Purple (1994)
  • A Tribute to Grand Funk Railroad...an American Band (2000)
  • A Millennium Tribute to Sammy Hagar (2006)

Soundtracks
  • Rich Girl (1991)
  • Dish Dogs (two songs – 1998)
  • Chasing Destiny (1998)
  • Totally Irresponsible (1998)
  • Killer Bud (2000)
  • Kill Speed (one song – 2010)

References
  1. Ruhlmann, William. "Baton Rouge Biography". Allmusic. Rovi Corporation. Retrieved May 11, 2010.
  2. Miller, Derric (2007). "Liberty N' Justice – Independence Day review". Hardrock Haven.net. Archived from the original on August 17, 2011. Retrieved April 5, 2011.
  3. de Riso, Mario. "Officially shelved". Noticeboard. Melodirock.com. Retrieved October 11, 2015.
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