Guitarist Michael Kelly Smith recalls Britny Fox members being unhappy with ‘Boys In Heat’ album cover

Guitarist Michael Kelly Smith recalls Britny Fox members being unhappy with ‘Boys In Heat’ album cover

Britny Fox‘s original guitarist Michael Kelly Smith was recently interviewed by “Metal” Mike Ceena for the 80’s Glam Metalcast podcast. Britny Fox‘s classic line-up of Smith on guitar, Dean Davidson on lead vocals, Billy Childs on bass and Johnny Dee on drums released the albums Britny Fox (1988) and Boys In Heat (1989). In 1990, Davidson left the band to form Blackeyed Susan and he was replaced by Tommy Paris. Britny Fox then released two more albums Bite Down Hard (1991) and Springhead Motorshark (2003).

With respect to the Boys In Heat album, Smith indicated (as provided by the 80’s Glam Metalcast podcast with slight edits):

“I love all the albums we did, but the first 2 have a real charm to them. They show the development of the band, but still stayed true to what we were all about. The biggest difference on “Boys In Heat” wasn’t the songs, but the sound production. It has a slicker production. So yeah, I love that album. To this day, when I listen to “Standing In The Shadows”, our cover of “Hair of The Dog”, “Dream On”, “She’s So Lonely”, “Long Road”, really the whole album, I feel we really had our act together on that one. Dean quitting the band when he did put a screeching halt to everything though. Had we released “Hair of The Dog” as a single and had a straight up rock video, that probably would have put that album way over platinum. I thought we did a great cover of it and it was already a proven song, it was already a hit. We questioned the album cover for “Boys In Heat”, we weren’t happy with it all.

I just recently found the original artwork that was done when the album was called “Fuel The Fire”. It was really cool. At the eleventh hour, the label didn’t like that artwork or the title. They told us we needed a new title and new artwork. We weren’t happy with that decision at all. Dean ended up throwing out the title “Boys In Heat”,  because he originally had a band with that same name. The label thought it was great, but we were cringing. A week later, they showed us the album art they created for that title and what you see is what we got! We were definitely not happy with it, but it is what it is.”

You can listen to the interview with Michael Kelly Smith on the 80’s Glam Metalcast podcast below:

Britny Fox‘s “Standing In The Shadows” video (from Boys In Heat album):