Eric Bazilian had a string of hits with his band The Hooters, but he has also written timeless songs for many other artists. He’s back now with a new solo single called “Better Times” that sums up perfectly where we all stand in 2026.
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On the meaning behind “Better Times” – So I had actually just finished the song when I was approached to be a part of this project with WXPN of Philly Anthems for the 250th anniversary of our great nation. The song really evolved itself. It was one of those sort of magical things where I kept hearing this line in my head about “better times better come soon, better times better come soon”. It became a non-denominational prayer of sorts. I had to figure out who was asking whom for what. I tried on a bunch of different hats writing this, so to speak. I know a hat plays a big part in the song. It’s the opening line of the song. Initially I was someone who wasn’t me, a character who had originally had a set of beliefs and he had lived his life according to those beliefs and wasn’t working out for him. He realized that he’d been misled and, what next? Better times better come soon.
As it evolved I wanted it to cast a wider net. I didn’t want it to just be about one particular kind of person being let down by one particular kind of mindset, whether it’s political, religious. I really wanted to address the fact that people all through history have been, you cast your lot with someone. You go all in and then you realize, “Oh, that, that didn’t work. What now?” I think we all, at some point in our lives, and I think right now especially, are saying, better times better come soon.
On if this is the start of more solo music – It might be the end of all solo music coming from me. Or it might be the start of the end. I hadn’t planned on doing any more solo records. I’ve released three solo albums under my own name. There’s a fourth one that I did with a friend of mine in Sweden that we released in 2012. That’s a solo album because I wrote all the lyrics. I hadn’t really thought I was gonna do another one, and then this song appeared. It’s funny, my son encouraged me to go down this rabbit hole of this character because this really is someone who isn’t really me. I can relate to him, to them, whoever this character is. But it’s a skill set that I’ve never really explored. Something that, for example, Bruce Springsteen does so well. The way he did “Born in the USA”. The characters he created in Nebraska. Most of my songs have been, me, and I’m really not that interesting. But it’s funny if you look at it, some of the most timeless, successful songs that I’ve been a part of “All You Zombies” is not about me. Again, that’s another one that’s really, it’s a universal song about a universal people. “One Of Us”, what if God was one of us? That’s not about me at all. It’s my worldview summed up in three and a half minutes, but it’s not really about me. So, I think it’s taken me this long to realize that I’ve gotta step outside of this little capsule called me to find the material that resonates with the big picture.
So, if I’m gonna do this, turn this into an album, I’ve gotta really go there. I considered spending the summer doing that, but I’ve been in Sweden all summer and it’s just been so beautiful. I haven’t been able to I haven’t been able to go inside during the day, which is most of the time because the sun still doesn’t set here until almost 10 o’clock at night.
On growing up in the Philadelphia music scene – Philadelphia’s an odd place in a way. It’s a microcosm of the rest of the world. To some degree what happens in Philly stays in Philly. It’s challenging to get out. Really if you look at it historically, most of the, the really successful artists from Philadelphia left early on. Hall & Oates left in ’71. Todd Rundgren got out. We’re the band that stayed. Even War on Drugs, I know Adam lives in California now and the rest of the band is here. But we stayed. Philadelphia has a real grit to it. There’s an honesty to it. Not a lot of airs going on. We are what we are and we’re proud of it. It took me a while to really appreciate how amazing it is there. It took me leaving and understanding what an amazing thing we have there. It’s the whole universe in that little, it’s actually, geographically it’s a pretty big city. But, the way I describe Philadelphia a lot is it’s if you take Manhattan out of New York, what’s left is Philadelphia.
There’s so much. There’s a jazz scene that’s insane. The jazz players I know there, half of Adele’s band Philly guys. Eric Wortham, piano player who’s one of the most astounding musicians I’ve ever heard, and Aaron Draper, her percussionist, who I’ve known since he was 19. Full grown man now. You can go downtown to Time Cafe and all these places. Chris’ Jazz any night of the week and it’s like being in New York. When we were coming up, it was a similar thing. There was this real underground punk scene that we infiltrated. We weren’t punk. A lot of that scene was too cool for school, and we were just nice guys writing nice songs. We didn’t really have much of a punk bone in our bodies then or now. But we got away with it long enough.
On if The Hooters were ready for success when it finally hit – We were ready for it long before it actually happened. I think when we saw the success that Cyndi (Lauper)’s record had we got really hungry for that. We had already built a huge following in the Philadelphia area. Like you said, we opened for The Who. It was The Who, The Clash, Santana, and The Hooters at JFK Stadium in 1982. We were ready then. The world wasn’t ready, but we felt like we, we had earned our place. When we got up on stage at Live Aid we belonged there.
On opening Live Aid in Philadelphia – First of all, we didn’t know about any chagrin when we got up on that stage. In fact, I don’t really know how much chagrin there actually was. According to the one Rolling Stone article about us, he (Bob Geldolf) said, “Who the F are The Hooters?” I would’ve said the same thing if I was him. I’ve scrambled, I have hauled my ass through fire and water to make this concert happen, and somebody hands me a schedule for the Philadelphia part and I see The Hooters, I would probably have said the same thing. In a non-disparaging, non-chagriny sort of a way.
On writing “One of Us” – That was a defining moment for me, really, having that happen, and it was amazing. It really was amazing, because I realized that I had created something that was so much bigger than me, bigger than the artist who sang it. It, was the same thing that I felt, I think Rob must have felt when “Time After Time” happened. As amazing as Cindy is, the song is bigger than her. The song is bigger than Joan (Osborne). The song is, Prince covered it. The song is bigger than Prince. It’s certainly bigger than me. I think there’s nothing you can, for me artistically, there’s nothing I could ask for more than that.
This, “Better Times”, when I finished it and recorded it, the feedback I’ve gotten on it is, quote, “this is the best thing you’ve ever done, including that.” Now, whether it will reach out into the big world, I don’t know how that happens anymore. I have hopes, but no expectations.
I would like one more win in this in this thing called a career. I’ve written a song that…I meet people of all ages, all nationalities (who ask) “What do you do?” “I’m a musician.” “Oh, what kind of music do you do?” “I’m in a rock band.” “What’s the band called?” “The Hooters. Been together 46 years.” “Oh, I don’t know that band.” Go on Spotify. You’ll recognize a few of the songs.” “Okay okay, anything else?” Yeah, I’d written a few songs.” “Oh what have you written?” And I sing them, “What if God was one of us?” And everybody knows it. That’s the ring for me. That’s the golden ring, the brass ring, whatever the expression is, to have created something that everybody knows and has been moved by. I can’t tell you how many people tell me how much that song changed their lives and formed their belief system. I just met an artist a few months ago that I’m a huge fan of. He told me that he’d been raised as a fundamentalist Christian, and that song came along and just blew his mind. Wow, okay.
On if he writes specifically for himself or with other artists in mind – I’m writing it for the song. The song wants to be what it wants to be. I’m just there to help it along. I’m a midwife. Or a mid-husband. This song, “Better Times”, I didn’t think I’d be able to sing it. I heard another voice in my head, and I actually pitched it to some country artists. I thought that would be a really good way to go with it. Then when I was asked to be part of the, the XPN Philly Anthems project, I said, “Okay, I guess I’m gonna have to sing this myself,” and no complaints from anyone so I guess I did okay with it. But again, it’s not really me singing it. It’s me being this character singing it. Which is really very fulfilling in a way. It’s really something I’ve never done before.
On his tour as part of Joe Bonamassa’s band – That happened through Kevin Shirley, who was Joe’s producer. He had a lot to do with Joe’s creative direction, and he originally asked me to be a part of Joe’s 2012 tour. Which was mostly Europe. He played the Vienna Opera House. I turned it down because I thought we were going on tour with The Hooters that summer, and when it turned out we weren’t, I called him back and I said, “Oh I can do it.” And he’s like, “Too late. We already got Jerry McGee.” But then 2016 rolled around and Kevin approached me again and asked if I could do it. I’m like, “Yeah. Hell yeah.” That’s something different. I’m, I am primarily a guitar player. On that stage I had, let me see. I had two mandolins, a mandola, a recorder, a banjo a Dobro, and an alto sax. I did not play a single note of guitar.
On the future of The Hooters – It’s really one step at a time. We love playing. When new music comes to us, it’s great. We did a single a couple of years ago with Pendulum, which again, that’s another song that I really felt like we, we really nailed it. In the “Better Times” song book, so to speak. We keep changing things up for the show. Our fans ask for new music, like any of legacy bands they wanna hear the hits. We can play two and a half hours and still not do half of the songs that people wanna hear. But at the same time, we keep the show fresh. We’ve added a horn section for our hometown shows. We added a female singer, Allie Wadsworth has done the last couple of shows with us. I think she’s gonna be with us at the Keswick. Lately, we had a percussionist coming in. We always try to keep it fresh, keep it new. When new music comes along, that’s great. We’re there to catch it.
On releasing singles as opposed to albums – At this point, I’m happy just putting out great songs when they come along. I don’t wanna write 11 songs of filler to make an album. On the other hand, it is a challenge having written and released this song to find companion songs. To make this short story into a novel. It’s something that I’m planning on addressing once this part of the summer is over. I’ll be back home in a few weeks and then I’m gonna take the phone off of the proverbial hook and and dive in and see what I can get. Who knows? Maybe I’ll do a song a day for 11 days and there will be an album.
I do have a title for the album, and I’ll tell you what it is just to commit to it. It’s a line from “Better Times”, and it’s a line that when the first time my son heard it, he said, “That’s the title of your next album.” It’s A Reasonable Man. It’s in the song. “Trying to be a reasonable man”. If you look at the, the pantheon of my solo work, like I said, I released four solo albums. The first one was 2000, The Optimist. Which was, my story up until then. Then a year later, miraculously, I wrote and recorded 10 songs in 10 days, and that became A Very Dull Boy. And then if you skip the next couple of things that I put out, the third of this trilogy would be A Reasonable Man. The Optimist, A Very Dull Boy, and he grows up to be A Reasonable Man.
On if he has any US dates other than the 2 Hooters dates in November – In the US, there will be another hometown how in the spring that I know of. I’m not at liberty to disclose. But it’s coming. As far as the rest of the US, we take what the market will bear. We toured in 2023 with Rick Springfield. It was great. He was great, treated us well. It was nice. We had our fans, but at the end of the day it really wasn’t worth it. We might as well have just gone out there and played “All You Zombies” and “And We Danced” for 45 minutes. Fortunately, Europe came along, Germany came along for us in, in the later part of the ’80s, and then Sweden in, in the later part of the ’80s and into the ’90s. We can still play 30 shows in the summer in Germany, and they know all of the songs from all of the albums. Our fans in Philadelphia do too. I would love to have a reason to tour the US again and to be able to do our full show. Not 40 minutes of the greatest hits.
