Ron Keel, a steadfast American vocalist and guitarist immersed in hard rock and heavy metal, first earned recognition in the early 1980s as frontman for Steeler, the pop-metal outfit born in Nashville yet headquartered in Los Angeles. Once that ensemble dissolved in 1983, he launched his own project, Keel, which scored success in 1985 via the title anthem “Right to Rock” on the matching album. The band followed with further well-received releases such as The Final Frontier (1986) and Keel (1989) before splitting in the early 1990s. Turning toward country in 2000, Keel assembled the Southern rock collective Ironhorse and issued two albums; he later revived Keel to deliver Streets of Rock & Roll in 2010. A 2018 agreement with Dave Ellefson’s EMP imprint, run by the Megadeth bassist, yielded Fight Like a Band under the RKB (Ron Keel Band) banner, while Keeled, featuring re-recordings of earlier Keel material, surfaced in 2022.
Born in Savannah, Georgia, Keel began in Tennessee with Lust. He joined forces in 1981 with guitarist Michael Dunigan, drummer Bobby Eva, and bassist Tim Morrison to create Steeler. Relocating to Los Angeles, the vibrant hub of hard rock, prompted wholesale personnel shifts that brought in drummer Mark Edwards, bassist Rik Fox, and teenage Swedish guitar sensation Yngwie Malmsteen. One of the first acts signed to Mike Varney’s Shrapnel label, later famed for technically advanced guitarists, the group produced a solitary self-titled album in 1983 before disbanding soon afterward. Malmsteen briefly joined Graham Bonnet’s Alcatrazz and then pursued a thriving solo path, while Keel opted to follow the model of Kip Winger and Bon Jovi by forming a band under his own name.
He recruited guitarists Marc Ferrari and Bryan Jay, bassist Kenny Chaisson, and drummer Bobby Marks, securing a contract with A&M’s Gold Mountain subsidiary; the 1984 debut Lay Down the Law nevertheless appeared on Shrapnel. Marks departed shortly after its release. Kiss bassist and vocalist Gene Simmons stepped in to produce the follow-up, 1985’s Right to Rock, which contained the hit title track, three re-recorded songs from the first album, and three covers drawn from Simmons demos, one of which, “Speed Demon,” later featured in the 2002 film Men in Black II. A succession of drummers participated in the sessions before Dwain Miller permanently replaced Marks. Simmons also helmed the third album, 1986’s The Final Frontier, highlighted by a cover of the Patti Smith Group’s “Because the Night.” Keel’s fourth studio effort, the 1987 Michael Wagener-produced self-titled release, marked guitarist Marc Ferrari’s final outing before his exit ahead of 1989’s Larger Than Live, an album mixing six new studio tracks with six live performances captured at The Roxy in West Hollywood and serving as the band’s last studio set for many years.
Keel’s subsequent venture, the short-lived Fair Game, incorporated four female backing musicians and generated two singles featured in the 1992 sci-fi parody Bad Channels, with the full studio recordings eventually issued in 2000 on Metal Mayhem as Beauty & The Beast. That same year he founded Iron Horse, a Southern rock and country ensemble that released Ironhorse (2001) and Bring It On (2004) before winding down in 2007. Keel (the band) reunited in 2008 for shows marking their 25th anniversary, then entered the studio in 2010 to record their first new material in over two decades, the Frontiers Records release Streets of Rock & Roll. Keel issued the autobiography Even Keel in 2014 and formed the Ron Keel Band in 2017. The initial RKB output, Fight Like a Band, arrived in early 2019 through EMP. In 2022 Keel established his own RFL Media LLC label and multi-media company while releasing Keeled, an EP of re-recorded classic 1980s Keel tracks.
