It’s been more than 35 years since Air Supply notched its most recent Top 20 hit in the U.S. with the gorgeous power ballad “Just as I Am.”
Go to an Air Supply concert, however, and you might get the impression that the Australian duo is still scoring chart-toppers on a regular basis.
And that has so much to do with the “Airheads” — which, in this case, isn’t an insult, but rather the affectionate nickname for the diehard followers of the group.
Airheads still turn out in force to the band’s concerts and sing along with gusto to “The One That You Love,” “Making Love Out of Nothing at All,” “Every Woman in the World” and other romantic gems that we absolutely will not categorize as soft rock for risk of drawing Air Supply vocalist Russell Hitchcock’s ire. (Yes, that is indeed a teaser — so read on.)
Having wowed local Airheads over the summer with a great show at the Mountain Winery in Saratoga, Air Supply — featuring Hitchcock and vocalist-guitarist Graham Russell — returns to the South Bay for a performance on Feb. 9 at the San Jose Civic. Tickets start at $51, ticketmaster.com.
I recently had the chance to talk with Hitchcock as he drove along the 405 in Orange Country, where he now calls home, and catch up on the act that has been called “the most romantic band in the world.”
Q: I saw Air Supply for the first time last summer and got to experience the whole Airheads phenomenon. What an amazingly passionate fan base. What can you tell me about the Airheads?
A: I don’t know when it started. Maybe 30 years, somebody mentioned the word airhead and it kind of stuck. They have certainly banded together and they’ve got their own community online. Anything Air Supply, they devour. Of course, you have to back that up with great shows, which I believe we always try to do.
It’s just grown and grown over the years. We have Airheads all over Latin America, all over Southeast Asia, of course all over North America. They are the backbone of our fan base and we love them to death. Of course, they take the Airhead moniker in good humor.
Q: Are they kind of like the Deadheads and go to as many of shows as they possibly can?
A: I just spoke to a guy online the other day and he has seen 200 shows. I should have asked on Facebook — what’s the biggest number (of Air Supply shows) anyone of you have seen? I’m sure there are people in the thousands, because we have been playing 47 years.
In certain markets, we have been playing two or three venues pretty much nonstop since 1981 and you always see the same faces come back. We’ve seen them bring their children and now their grandchildren. It’s certainly a movement that is very strong and continues to grow.
Q: What is it about Air Supply that keeps bringing these fans back, time after time and year after year?
A: It starts with the songs and the music. I know the music has touched millions of lives. I know that to be a fact. I think both Graham and I, we don’t put ourselves on a pedestal.
We are not rock stars. We are very approachable. We have a great rapport with the fans. And I think they feel like we are kind of their family, really.
The relationship we have with our fans is unapproachable. You couldn’t buy it if you tried to. They have been with us since Day 1. And we have stuck with our fans from Day 1.
Q: And the fan base is truly worldwide.
A: We just did a tour of Southeast Asia and Australia. Especially areas like the Philippines, Indonesia, Malaysia and Singapore, we go back there as often as we can and people appreciate you coming back and still having a quality show that they can see and still feeling like they are part of the Air Supply family.
Q: What are your interactions like with fans when you’re not on the stage?
A: I’ve never refused a photograph — unless somebody was rude to me — and never (refused) an autograph, certainly. We see fans after the show — they usually wait outside the stage door to get a photo with us and have a chat. We just want to be accessible.
A lot of acts are downright rude to their fans. But we’re not that. We’re the antithesis of rudeness and considering ourselves better than anybody, because we’re not — nobody is.
Q: How much of a hand do the fans play in keeping you motivated to go out there, night after night, and perform these same songs that you’ve been playing now for decades?
A: The band — and Graham and I — are pretty much self-motivating. I usually say every night before every show to the guys in the band — some of those guys have been with us for 10 years or more — “Always remember that this is the first show for the rest of your lives, so don’t (expletive) it up.”
Q: And so you give it your all and, from what I saw during my first Air Supply concert last summer, fans definitely respond.
A: When you have a repertoire that includes “Sweet Dreams,” “Here I Am,” “The One That You Love,” “Making Love Out of Nothing at All,” “Every Woman in the World,” “Just as I am,” “Without You” — you are half way there, because they know pretty much every song we play and they are big fans of every song we play. So, we’ve got a lot going us in that regard. But you still have to go out there and perform at your highest level.
Q: At the concert I saw, Russell said that Time magazine once referred to Air Supply as “the most romantic band in the world.”
A: We’ve been accused of that. And I accept that accusation wonderfully. We are romantic people. I think love is the most elusive emotion that has ever existed. That is why people continually fall in love, fall out love. They love their dogs. They love their cats. There is love everywhere.
If you want to stick that moniker on us, that’s great.
The only thing I don’t like being called is a soft-rock duo. I hate that. It makes me want to throw up every time I hear that because the band isn’t soft rock. It’s very entertaining. It’s very loud.
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