'80s metal band Tesla brings 'Keepin' It Real' tour to Tucson

If you had told his younger self back in the height of the 1980s hair bands and metal mania era that his band Tesla would be performing at a 5,000-seat Tucson amphitheater when he was in his 60s, frontman Jeff Keith probably would’ve laughed in your face.

But here he is, 66 years old and still on the road with four of his five original band members.

“We’re going out and about and going to all kinds of wonderful places,” he said during a mid-June phone interview to chat about the California-born band’s “Keepin’ It Real 2025 Tour” stop at the AVA at Casino del Sol on Friday, July 4. “We’re just having fun. We’re still having fun almost 40 years later.”

When Tesla came out in 1984, it joined a crowded field of glam and metal rockers fighting for radio play and record sales with a growing roster of alternative rockers including R.E.M, Nirvana and Pearl Jam.

Tesla had only one Top 10 hit, “Love Song” in 1989, but the band didn’t need chart-toppers. It buttered its bread in its live shows, high-energy electric affairs before crowds numbering 10,000 to 20,000.

When they lit into the scorching guitar riff and pounding two-three drum beat on songs like “Ez Come and Ez Go,” their fans went wild, screaming and singing along.

Tesla fed off the audience’s energy then and now.

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“The music is timeless, songs are timeless and the fans are still there,” Keith said. “We still got a great fan base, and they’re still there supporting us, filling up the seats.”

Tesla released eight studio albums that spun off 23 singles, four live albums and three best-of compilations. Their last studio album was 2019’s “Shock.”

Keith said the band is in no hurry to record a full album any time soon.

“It takes time to make a record,” he explained. “It takes like almost a year to write a full record and to record it and put it out. So right now, we’re just enjoying putting out singles when we can and just still out there touring.”

The band’s setlist includes what Keith calls their “staple songs” — “Modern Day Cowboy,” “Love Song,” “Heaven’s Trail (No Way Out),” “Little Suzi” — “that we’ve got to play,” he said.

“And so then we got, like, four or five songs that we can mix around,” he added. “And then sometimes, we’ll do a couple cover songs; it keeps it fresh.”

Tesla takes the stage at the AVA, 5655 W. Valencia Road, at 8 p.m. Friday. Tickets are $23.86-$1110.25 through casinodelsol.com.