Steve Miller Visit Will Be A Homecoming

Steve Miller may not live in Bellevue anymore but he still maintains close ties to the Northwest. The veteran rock guitarist and singer, playing at 8 p.m. Sunday at the Coliseum with Lou Gramm, keeps his office in Seattle and visits here frequently.

``It's my home away from home,'' he said over the phone during a tour stop in Denver.

His real home now is in Sun Valley, Idaho, where he has lived for several years. He likes it, he said, because of its wide-open spaces, clean air and isolation. His home here was in a private compound of mansions on Lake Washington, with mooring for his oceangoing yacht.

Miller's expensive life style (he just built a digital-recording studio in Sun Valley) is testimony to his success in the record business, going back more than 20 years. He's released 18 albums and has had nine Top 40 singles, including three that went to No. 1: ``The Joker,'' ``Rock'n Me'' and ``Abracadabra.''

But even though he's still a top concert draw, and still sells about a million albums a year, he's without a record company. ``I don't really want one,'' he griped, ``they're such pests.''

He said he has to find one, however, because he's been writing lots of new material - most of it rock 'n' roll, not blues like his last album, ``Born 2 B Blue'' - and wants to get it out. He's talking to several companies, and described himself as a tough negotiator. ``I want complete artistic control,'' he insisted.

Meanwhile, he's completed work with his former label, Capitol, on a ``best of'' CD compilation covering the years 1968 through '73. The album, to be released later this year, will have 20 tunes totaling 76 minutes of music.

While Miller is less than pleased with his recording situation, he said that touring is better than ever. ``I've got the best band that I've ever had,'' he enthused, ``and the technology is great.''

He doesn't use stage monitors anymore; now he and his band wear wireless headphones and hear each other much better. But the headphones do not include a microphone, a la Janet Jackson and Madonna. ``I'm not about to become a singing air controller,'' Miller quipped. ``You never get off mike with those things. You cough, you burp, everybody hears it. I like working with a microphone. They're great props.''

Miller's eight-piece band includes outstanding keyboardist Ben Sidran, harmonica virtuoso Norton Buffalo (both longtime Miller cohorts) and noted bassist Billy Peterson. ``It's a musical experience on stage that is really great,'' he said. ``It's like traveling with brain surgeons; they're all overqualified.''

After playing summer dates all over the country, the tour will go to England and Europe, where he is even more popular. ``The Joker'' has just been reissued as a single in England, because of its success in a Levi's ad over there. It's the first time a Miller song has been used in a commercial.

``I've turned down lots of beer companies,'' he said, ``and Harley-Davidson wanted to use `Fly Like An Eagle.' But the Levi's ad was so good I couldn't turn them down. And I like the product.''

In the show, Miller does early songs such as ``Gangster of Love'' and ``Living in the U.S.A.'' as well as later material, including ``Fly Like an Eagle'' and ``Abracadabra.'' If it feels right, he sings some classic blues songs, from ``Born 2 B Blue.'' As usual with Miller, none of the tunes are done exactly as on the records, and the set list changes every show.

Gramm, who recently ended his 14-year career as lead singer for Foreigner, sings in a gutsy, early Rod Stewart style. Backed by his band, including his brother, Ben, on drums, he does some Foreigner songs, including ``Jukebox Hero'' and ``Dirty White Boy,'' and material from his two solo albums.