Rick Nielsen is, Zen-like, pondering the concept of “good” and “no good.”
"If we were no good we wouldn't have gotten started in the first place,” says the Cheap Trick songwriter-guitarist. “And, if we were no good, we wouldn't still be here. Somebody's crazy."
Alice Cooper calls Cheap Trick “America’s House Band,” and that’s an apt as description as any. Cheap Trick was rocking in the late-1970s and they’ll be rocking later this month, Wednesday the 27th at the House of Blues.
Cheap Trick — the pop-rock vets from Rockford, Illinois — have been stalking clubs (usually headlining) and arenas (usually opening or co-billed) across the world and they’re deep into their fourth decade. Like Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band, they’ve been going in and out of style, but they’re guaranteed to raise a smile.
I asked Nielsen about that longevity a while back. He had a quick answer for that, as he does most everything. “We are,” he says, “too dumb to quit.”
Kay Hanley, co-founder of the late Boston band Letters to Cleo and a solo artist, is one of Cheap Trick’s biggest fans. So, when Cleo was asked to contribute their version of “I Want You to Want Me” to the 1999 movie “10 Things I Hate About You,” it was a dream come true.

“I have so many things to say about Cheap Trick that I almost don't know where to start,” Hanley says. “Cheap Trick was definitely in our pantheon. I have four Cheap Trick shirts, including the now threadbare one that I wore on the Jon Stewart show in '95.”
Cheap Trick — co-fronted by golden-voiced and golden-haired singer Robin Zander and the geeky Nielsen, with Tom Petersson on bass — has had some hits. They’ve had misses. (One that’s arguably both was the popular, but treacly and melodramatic ballad, “The Flame” which was written by outside pros.)
The band’s last studio album was 2009’s “The Latest,” but Cheap Trick is fortunate in that they’re such a strong live band — they’re roadhogs — that they don’t depend on record royalties for income. (Who can, anymore?) I wrote this in 1981: “Cheap Trick is Foreigner with brains, Kiss with wit, AC/DC with good looks. They're the hard stuff in the American fruit punch bowl.” The reference points may be semi-dated, but it all remains true.

Cheap Trick was one of the first bands to do the “We’ll play the entire album sequentially” shtick and did so at the Paradise for their first three albums on successive nights in 1998. A huge success, packed houses each night.They have been cited as an inspiration for countless bands, Green Day, Pearl Jam, Foo Fighters, Urge Overkill, Weezer, and Fountains of Wayne, among them.
I tell Nielsen that’s got to feel good, being name-checked by several generations of younger bands.
Nielsen: “Well, it’s hard to find older bands that like us.”
Cheap Trick has 16 studio albums and thus loads of material to draw upon – Nielsen claims he knows how to play 5400 songs — but he says, “Certain songs we play no matter what. It’s like our cooking ingredients — celery, onion and carrot.”
Nielsen reels ‘em off: “I Want You to Want Me” (see above), “Surrender," and “Dream Police" (below).

“Cheap Trick Live at Budokan” broke the band in the US in 1979, first as an in-demand import, and then released domestically. In concert — then and now — when Zander launches into the “We’re all all right!” refrain during “Surrender,” the song hits the mark as an anthem of positive thinking and righteous teenage rebellion, all punctuated by this joyous, sing-along chant. When Zander sings “Surrender, surrender — but don’t give yourself away,” he’s like a wise uncle/counselor. It’s quintessential Cheap Trick.
Does Nielsen ever tire of playing “Surrender” or the other favorites?
“Not really. They’re good songs, people like ‘em, and you surround ‘em with other stuff.”
Has he lost anything over the years?
“Brain cells? That youthful grace I used to have? No, never had that. Youthful good looks? Never had that. Smart-aleck attitude? Wait a minute, got plenty of that. We’re still full of it.”
Though Petersson dropped out in 1981, the band returned to its co-founding four members by 1987. It had been a solid for two-plus decades, but they had a falling out with drummer Bun E. Carlos in 2009 and lawsuits ensued. Nielsen’s son Daxx is now behind the drum kit.
Cheap Trick has always been called a Beatle-esque rock band. And in 2009, the band recorded “Sgt. Pepper Live” with a full orchestra at the Hollywood Bowl.
“The people from the Hollywood Bowl asked us if we would do it,” Nielsen explains. “They said, ‘You guys are perfect.’ We said, ‘Uh, we’re not a cover band. We’re not gonna fake being a Beatles band on a cruise ship.’ So we didn’t think too much about it. But how else are we gonna be at the Hollywood Bowl? And there were the ties we had from Bun E. and I playing with John Lennon [on “Double Fantasy”] and working with George Martin and Geoff Emerick [Beatles producer and engineer, respectively]. One of Geoff’s quotes was, ‘The difference between the original and this is: With the Beatles it seemed more like a demo and with Cheap Trick the energy is like how it should have been.’”

Cheap Trip at the Hollywood Bowl 2012
Now Cheap Trick has reached a certain age (Nielsen: 67, Petersson: 64, Zander: 61) — where sometimes people wonder if the sexagenarians should be rocking this hard. Blues, folk and country artists don’t face this so much, but rockers do — vigorous rock ‘n’ roll being considered a young person’s game and all. So, Nielsen is asked, can you grow old comfortably and rock out too?
“Hell, I don’t know,” he says. “Depends on who it is. There’s nothing more disgusting than somebody your parents’ age trying to be your age. But nowadays all the kids that come to our shows, their parents are younger than me.”
So you’re the exception to your rule?
“All those rules are very important, except for me.”
And now come the guitar questions: How many does he have? Didn’t he lose some in a house fire some years ago?
“No, I didn’t lose any guitars in the fire,” Nielsen says. “I lost part of my house. I have 400-something.”
Is he a hoarder? Should we stage an intervention?
“We should. No, I’ve owned about 2000 before, so I’m really cutting down. I never want to get rid of anything. Back in the day, people used to trade in their guitars, but those days are gone. Well, people still trade ‘em in, but now they call them ‘vintage,’ not ‘used.’”
How many guitars does he take on the road?
“I use 25-30 every show, one per song,” he says. It started because of the different tunings required for different songs. “You always hate to see someone stop during a song and tune up,” he says. “I always hit the guitar pretty hard, so if something broke I’d just grab another one. One of my better quotes is ‘I can make any guitar sound like crap.’ I don’t need a certain one that cures all: I can make ‘em all sound like crap.”
Jim Sullivan is a former pop music critic and feature writer for the Boston Globe. He runs the Boston arts and events website www.jimsullivanink.com.