Jeff Healey is responsible for one of the '80s' most enduring power ballads, a song about an average Joe who managed to get the dream girl without going on a reality TV show.
But when the man behind "Angel Eyes," featured prominently in the 1989 Patrick Swayze cheesefest Road House, is asked about whether power ballads are a forgotten art, he's at a complete loss.
"I have no idea," Healey says. "I don't pay much attention to any particular trends. I also believe that with the Internet, things are becoming so globally acceptable that anything can be lost or found."
Maybe he was hit over the head by one too many long-necks during the Road House shoot or something, but Healey seems a bit confused as to what a power ballad even is.
Of course, it's undeniable that the man overcame his blindness, caused by eye cancer when he was 1 year old, and wrote a classic, the type of rock song that nobody writes anymore, a tune that's sonically in between Survivor's "The Search Is Over" and Night Ranger's "Sister Christian," and just as immortal.
(That's no overstatement. "Angel Eyes" is literally between "The Search Is Over" and "Sister Christian" on my '80s Greatest Rock Hits, Volume 5—From the Heart CD, and the song order does not seem random.)
Anyway, "Angel Eyes" will live forever, or at least until TNT and TBS stop broadcasting Road House every three days and letting Swayze, who's now stunning crowds with his cameo in Dirty Dancing: Havana Nights, remind people that it's much better to be a bar's cooler than a bar's bouncer. (If that last line seems confusing, you must not have cable.)
The song is Healey's legacy, even if he's moved beyond wondering how he ever won that one girl's love.
These days, Healey runs a nightclub in Toronto. He plays there often, and recently has been dabbling with jazz. But worry not. He knows what he's supposed to play in Vegas.
"I'm there to do what the promoters have hired," he says.
And what brings him to Vegas?
"Money, I suppose," Healey says and laughs—but only barely.
He'd like to bring his jazz crew to Vegas, but as somebody with his own club, he knows indulging himself like that won't fly. At his club, he'll sometimes book bands he's not personally interested in. What's important is that they bring in a good crowd, and if the music sucks, well, so be it.
"I try to do the best that I can with the club," he says. "I'll try to present the best entertainment, but I also have to get bands that draw. There's no accounting for public taste."
Which is to say, there's a lot of crazy rock shit that's popular with the kids these days, but Healey has "always been rooted in more traditional jazz and popular music."
" I've got about 25,000 78s, and it's growing," he says.
It's more than a bit ironic that this guy has amassed countless hours of music, but all most people want from him is a few good minutes.
"People seem to keep wanting ['Angel Eyes'] for whatever reason," Healey says.
So Healey keeps playing it, maybe even like he still means it, whenever he's hired to do so.
Beyond the obvious hit, Healey says that "By and large, I'll sort of mix and match and see what comes out." In general, though, his quartet will play the kind of bluesy rock that would fit right into any dive bar where $2 beers and brawls go hand in hand.
"There's a lot of people that figured all that I did was Road House," Healey admits. On this trip, at least, he's not going to change any of their minds. So grab a beer and get ready to party like it's 1989.