The first two thirds of Culture Club’s “Miss Me Blind” belong to Boy George and his seductive pop coo. But guitarist Roy Hay owns the final third. The Top 5 hit closes with Hay laying down an epic guitar solo somewhere between funk champion Eddie Hazel and shredder Eddie Van Halen – although Hay points to someone else.
“It was Ernie Isley for me,” Hay told the Herald of his inspiration behind the “Miss Me Blind” solo.
Hay isn’t typically associated with big rock guitar the way his idols are. But that’s part of Hay’s genius as a player, songwriter and collaborator.
“You play what the band needs,” Hay said ahead of Culture Club’s headline slot at the Xfinity Center on July 25. “Someone asked me who the greatest guitar player is and I said, ‘I don’t know because if you put Dave Gilmour in Led Zeppelin it’s not the right thing.’ It’s all about getting the right player in the right band to create the right sound.”
Hay has always been the right player even if the band has gone wrong at times.
The guitarist co-wrote all of Culture Club’s monster ’80s hits. But as soon as the band became massive, George’s struggles with drug addiction derailed the band’s momentum. Over the past decade there were a few false starts, then, in 2019, Culture Club dropped a pulsing, glittery and triumphant reunion album, “Time,” – check out Hay’s guitar chops on lead track “God & Love.” But COVID put the breaks on the band again.
“I did feel we lost a bit of momentum, especially here in the States,” Hay said. “We did a few major TV shows in England, got some good exposure there and got a Top 10 album in the UK out of it.”
“Not that that means much today,” he added with a laugh. “I don’t even know how many copies (sold) that is.”
While Culture Club will devote plenty of the set list to old favorites, the band has fresh stuff it’s excited about – a decent chunk of the follow up to “Time” is in the can but no release date has been set for an LP. Recent shows have introduced “All I Know,” a soulful, introspective and wistful ballad.
“It’s a really personal lyric by George,” Hay said of the song. “And it’s really fun to play, a bit like our ‘Purple Rain’ with a singalong chorus. There are few other new ones and we are still debating how many to put in the set right now.”
Like “Purple Rain,” “All I Know” has a pretty epic guitar climax.
Pop nostalgia, fresh artistic output from the band, a few choice guitar workouts, all of it needs to be balanced on the current tour and beyond. But also, after a lot of drama and hiatuses, the band has to have a good time.
During Culture Club’s recent European tour with Rod Stewart, the band has been starting and finishing shows with a pair of good-time covers.
“We started with the Rolling Stones’ ‘Sympathy for the Devil’ and Rod Stewart’s fans were completely blown away,” Hay said with a laugh. “They were in awe, sitting there like, ‘I don’t know what I’m watching here.’ And then we ended with T. Rex ‘Bang a Gong,’ which is still so much fun to play.”
For tickets and details, visit boygeorgeandcultureclub.net