A Perfect Circle Guitarist Billy Howerdel: ‘People Still Care’

2017-04-18

Story by Anne Erickson

A Perfect Circle’s Billy Howerdel is touched fans support A Perfect Circle years after the band first formed

A Perfect Circle kicked off their spring North American tour on Friday, April 7, in Las Vegas, Nevada, and longtime guitarist Billy Howerdel was ready for it.

Speaking to Billboard in a new interview, Howerdel said he was blown away by the positive fan response to the new tour dates, especially since it comes nearly a decade and a half after they first got started.

“To have that happen now is shocking, and I’m still humbled by it all the time,” he told Billboard.

“Years go by, and people still care and pay attention,” he added. “There’s always a little bit of, ‘Oh, I hope people still remember.’ I’m older. I have kids… But there’s certain things that stick with me from years ago, and I guess some people feel the same.”

A Perfect Circle last toured the U.S. in 2011, and they haven’t released new music since 2004’s “eMOTIVE.” The band is slated to release a new album sometime later this year via BMG.

What took so long for a new album? Howerdel says between band members’ various projects – singer Maynard James Keenan, of course, juggles duties with popular prog-rock band Tool and a slew of other groups along with A Perfect Circle – it just took time to get everyone on the same page.

“To be honest, I thought it would be a few years earlier,” Howerdel said of A Perfect Circle coming back together. “There’s so many scheduling things between all of us. Maynard’s got a lot of projects going on, and it felt like a few years ago it was going to happen, but this is just the way the schedules lined up.”

He added, “But I’m always excited to get the machine back up and going.”

Photo credit: Tim Cadiente

Anne Erickson
Posted by Anne Erickson | Music, Rock, Rock News