Blue Oyster Cult is on tour now in the U.S. this spring and will be in Europe this summer to celebrate their 45th anniversary. Various artists will be joining them on the European touring circuit, including Mark Farner, Queensryche, Foghat, Jefferson Starship, and Ted Nugent.
We spoke with Lead Singer-guitarist Eric Bloom, and he told us about the upcoming tour and a possible new album.
B.O.C. is ready to rock
Blue Oyster Cult fans get ready for new music because there is a possible new album in the works.
“Our management is currently negotiating a new deal for an album, so there is a discussion about it,” said Eric Bloom in a phone interview.
“The hard-core fans would love to hear some new stuff the general public would probably go right over their heads." "Airplay would be zero because radio stations wouldn’t care, so it’s a tough subject.”
The band plays approximately 75-80 shows a year and are always available for touring. Whenever their agency has a booking, the band decides when and where they want to play, but it’s the agency’s call where they are booked. In Europe, they will be collaborating with various artists that they played with previously.
“There’s no preference whether we play with another artist or solo." "Anything with another artist is always fun because you can stretch out and play as much as you want. Playing with other bands that we know and like is also fun because you get to hang out with each other,” said Eric.
Eric has a fascination with the automobile industry. He used to be a writer for Autoweek, but now he attends a lot of car shows.
“I know a lot of people in the automotive press, and I have friends in NASCAR and people in the automobile community know me as a ‘car guy.’ I’ve always been interested in car racing and cars in general.”
A band with a 45-year history
Tour dates are already being booked for 2018.
Their only tour date in the Hudson Valley is at the Paramount in Peekskill this weekend. For hard-core Blue Oyster Cult fans, a rock cruise is being planned for January and February 2018 and is filling up fast!
“There are 20-30 bands on a boat a lot of fans like those type of classic rock bands.” “We did the rock cruise before,” Eric said.
“We discuss it with our management when we want to be available and they find us work,” Eric stated. We have a pretty extensive tour of Europe in June, we’re playing some big festivals we’ll be out touring most of 2017 except for a short break in May, we’ll be heading for most of the USA between now and the end of the year.”
In 2016, Blue Oyster Cult marked the 40th anniversary of their album, “Agents of Fortune.” They did four special shows where they played the whole album in its entirety.
"We did one show in L.A. on camera, and that was used in a video broadcast so part of that can be found on YouTube, one at BB Kings in New York, one in Dublin, and one in London,” Eric explained. “The former drummer, Albert Bouchard was involved in that project.”
