The first time I heard The Fabulous Thunderbirds was summer 1986. It was the first time we had cable, and I logged about 10 million hours in front of the television – mostly watching MTV. The band’s video was for the single “Wrap It Up,” and I was mesmerized – their bluesy-rock sound was really cool, and a nice change from the pop of the day.

So it was pretty big awesome when, 30 years later, I got to chat with Kim Wilson, a founding member of the Thunderbirds. We spoke at the end of August, just as they were about to release their new album, “Strong Like That.”

Q: How’s the tour going?

A: Well, the tour is ongoing. You’ve got to realize something about us: The tour is always going. The tour never stops.

Q: Since ’74?

A: Pretty much.

Q: What is the longest you’ve gone between tours?

A: Not very long. It used to be , I’ll put it in perspective here: It used to be we would stay out for between 200 and 250 and 320 days a year, and now we don’t do that as much; we don’t do that at all.

Q: That’s a little excessive.

A: It’s excessive. You know, we were kids. And actually, we had to work that much just to make money, because back then, the money was not like what it is now. Still, you know, it’s like people ask me, ‘Why don’t you just play traditional blues?’ Well, if I played traditional blues music all the time, I’d be working 300 days a year just to make a living. So, that’s that. You have to be able to do everything you want to do but do it in doses, you know what I mean? Really, my living now is more of a contemporary music kind of thing. I play blues up there too, of course, but it’s my idea at least to what contemporary music is – I’m not even sure if anybody knows what contemporary music is anymore. ... It’s very, very difficult to – you can’t be second-guessing yourself on what’s contemporary. You just do what you like, you do the best thing you can do, of course, you have the audience in mind, and you try and broaden your audience.

Q: And along with that, with the band’s lineup changing so much over the years, do you feel that that’s had an effect on your sound as well?

A: For the better, of course. Especially now. Now it’s really an incredible outfit, I mean, it’s just a fantastic-sounding band. I don’t want to disrespect any of the previous people because they were all great, but you know, I think that what you have now is guys that are ... just fantastic musicians. I think that ... we were using two guitarists for a while, and that was a little bit of a problem. When you have two guitarists, you kind of step on each other’s frequencies, so ...

Q: And are you guys having fun?

A: We’re having a ball.

Q: What else would you be doing?

A: Well, nothing at this point. (Laughs).

Q: Tell me about your newest album, “Strong Like That.”

A: It’s a great record, that’s all I can tell you. We went in there with these guys, in fact, that’s why I hired this band because I went in there with them and they were so good and so easy to work with that I said, ‘What do you guys think about this?’ And then I had to change some things, which … that’s what comes with the territory when you’re a bandleader, unfortunately. That’s the unfortunate part of this business because almost all the people I’ve ever played with have been good people. At this point in my life, the music is really all about me. I mean, it’s all about making me happy. If I didn’t make the changes, I’d be kicking myself in the ass for the rest of my life. You want to do everything that you want to do in life if at all possible. Of course, you can’t do absolutely everything you want to do, but you can do things that are within your control to do. So that’s what I did. It’s a fantastic record; it’s a fantastic, great record. I’ve only seen one review of this record, and it said, ‘Oh, it’s the best T-bird record to come out in a long time.’ I beg to differ: It’s the best T-bird record ever. The skill level is very high, the songs are great, they did a great job recording it.

Q: I read that you said that you and the band are looking to the future. What do you think that holds at this point? Is there still stuff you want to do?

A: The beautiful thing about the future is you don’t know what it holds. That’s the fantastic thing about the future; it’s very exciting. Of course, I’d like the future to be very positive, and with this band, it could be very positive.

Q: So more records, do you think?

A: Of course. What else am I going to do?

katie@durangoherald.com

If you go

What:

The Fabulous Thunderbirds featuring Kim Wilson

When:

7:30 p.m. Tuesday

Where:

Community Concert Hall at Fort Lewis College

Tickets:

$35/$49, www.durangoconcerts.com, 247-7657

The dance floor will be open.