Page 11 - ION Indie Magazine SeptOct 2020

Ron Keel: (answers his phone, highly
energized) Good evening, Jere. Ron Keel
reporting for duty!

Jere Perry: There’s a lot more to the life of
Ron Keel than just the music. Let’s talk a
little bit about the battle, if we should call it,
that your wife had with cancer.

RK: ‘Battle’ is a good word. My wife, Renee, was
diagnosed with Stage 3 breast cancer in
December 2016. I had formed the band and we
were gonna hit the road touring. When you get
that kind of news, your world just stops. I knew
there was no way I could leave her. I called the
guys from the band and they were all incredibly
supportive. They understood. Nobody left. I was
by her side through the surgeries, the chemo,
and radiation. She is incredible! She wrote a
wonderful book about her journey/battle,
Anything But Pink, On Becoming a Cancer
Survivor, which you can get on her website
www.reneekeel.com.

JP: What is up with touring? What are the
plans?

RK: 2020 feels like it’s been 20 years long. We
kicked off the year with our first-ever tour in
Australia. We played New Castle, Sydney,
Brisbane, Melbourne. It wrapped up March 15 ,
th
then the pandemic hit. We have 5 shows coming
up at the Sioux Falls Empire Fair, Sturgis, SD
Motorcycle Rally and we have shows in Ohio
and Pennsylvania. We can’t go to L.A., Texas,
or Florida this year, even though we’d love to.

JP: Over the course of your career, you’ve
played all over the world. What is your
favorite place to play (city, state, country)?

RK: That’s a tough one. We’ve played all over
the U.S. Toured Europe countless times. Think
we’ve been to England seventeen times. A
place that’s special…our first sold-out tour back
in the 80s in Japan was really awesome. Seeing
them sing your songs…