''The Fire Inside'' is the fourteenth studio album by American singer-songwriter
Bob Seger
Robert Clark Seger ( ; born May 6, 1945) is an American singer, songwriter, and musician. As a locally successful Detroit-area artist, he performed and recorded as Bob Seger and the Last Heard and The Bob Seger System throughout the 1960s, break ...
. The album was released in mid 1991 on the record label,
Capitol. It was Seger's first album of entirely new music since ''
Like a Rock
''Like a Rock'' is the thirteenth studio album by American singer-songwriter Bob Seger, released in 1986. The title track is best known for being featured in Chevrolet truck commercials throughout the 1990s and early 2000s.
Content
"Fortuna ...
'' in 1986. Though credited to "The Silver Bullet Band", much of the album used guest and session musicians, with limited contributions from Silver Bullet Band members. Among the guest artists on the album are
Joe Walsh,
Bruce Hornsby,
Roy Bittan,
Steve Lukather
Steven Lee Lukather (born October 21, 1957) is an American guitarist, singer, songwriter, arranger and record producer, best known as the sole continuous founding member of the rock band Toto. His reputation as a skilled guitarist led to a stea ...
,
Don Was,
Waddy Wachtel,
Rick Vito,
Mike Campbell,
Patty Smyth,
Lisa Germano, and
Kenny Aronoff.
On release, ''The Fire Inside'' received a mixed critical reception, but was still a commercial success peaking at number 7 on the US ''
Billboard
A billboard (also called a hoarding in the UK and many other parts of the world) is a large outdoor advertising structure (a billing board), typically found in high-traffic areas such as alongside busy roads. Billboards present large advertise ...
'' album chart, and achieved
Platinum status from the
RIAA
The Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) is a trade organization that represents the music recording industry in the United States. Its members consist of record labels and distributors that the RIAA says "create, manufacture, and/o ...
.
Critical reception
Reviewing for
AllMusic, critic Bret Adams wrote of the album "Overall, the 12-track album is a disappointing piecemeal effort with five different production credits, and Seger uses two
Tom Waits covers and one other outside song to pad it."
Track listing
"New Coat of Paint" and "The Long Way Home" were left off the album's LP release.
Personnel
As listed in the liner notes.
Musicians
*
Bob Seger
Robert Clark Seger ( ; born May 6, 1945) is an American singer, songwriter, and musician. As a locally successful Detroit-area artist, he performed and recorded as Bob Seger and the Last Heard and The Bob Seger System throughout the 1960s, break ...
– electric guitar (1, 4, 8, 9), acoustic guitar (3), rhythm guitar (1, 8), piano (10), electric piano (2), vocals (all tracks), choir (3), chorus (3), harmony vocals (2, 4)
*
Kenny Aronoff – drums (1–3, 8, 9)
*
Sweet Pea Atkinson
Hillard "Sweet Pea" Atkinson (September 20, 1945 – May 5, 2020) was an American R&B singer known as one of the vocalists for the band Was (Not Was).
Biography
Atkinson was born in Oberlin, Ohio, and moved to Detroit as a child. He worke ...
– background vocals (2)
*
Eddie Bayers – drums (4, 5)
*
Barry Beckett –
bridge synthesizer (5)
*
Roy Bittan – piano (6)
*
Sir Harry Bowens – background vocals (2)
* Bobby Bruce – violin (11)
*
Rosemary Butler – background vocals (11)
* Chris Campbell – bass (10, 12)
*
Mike Campbell – lead guitar (2)
* Mimi Cooper – background vocals (4)
*
Laura Creamer – background vocals (11)
*
Thornetta Davis – background vocals (4)
*
Craig Frost – organ (1, 2, 4, 8, 12), synthesizer (5, 10), piano (1, 9)
*
Lisa Germano – violin (1, 3)
*
Donny Gerrard – background vocals (2, 3, 11), choir (3), chorus (3)
*
Bob Glaub – bass (6)
*
Richard Greene – violin (11)
*
Richie Hayward – drums (7, 11)
*
Bruce Hornsby – piano (5),
accordion
Accordions (from 19th-century German ''Akkordeon'', from ''Akkord''—"musical chord, concord of sounds") are a family of box-shaped musical instruments of the bellows-driven free-reed aerophone type (producing sound as air flows past a reed ...
(3)
*
James Newton Howard
James Newton Howard (born June 9, 1951) is an American film composer, music producer and keyboardist. He has scored over 100 films and is the recipient of a Grammy Award, an Emmy Award, and nine nominations for Academy Awards. His film scores ...
–
Synclavier
The Synclavier is an early digital synthesizer, polyphonic digital sampling system, and music workstation manufactured by New England Digital Corporation of Norwich, Vermont. It was produced in various forms from the late 1970s into the early 1 ...
(2)
*
Dann Huff – electric guitar (4, 5, 12), rhythm guitar (12)
*
James "Hutch" Hutchinson – bass (2, 8, 9)
*
John Jorgenson –
slide guitar
Slide guitar is a technique for playing the guitar that is often used in blues music. It involves playing a guitar while holding a hard object (a slide) against the strings, creating the opportunity for glissando effects and deep vibratos tha ...
(8)
*
Russ Kunkel – drums (6)
*
Steve Lukather
Steven Lee Lukather (born October 21, 1957) is an American guitarist, singer, songwriter, arranger and record producer, best known as the sole continuous founding member of the rock band Toto. His reputation as a skilled guitarist led to a stea ...
– acoustic guitar (6), electric guitar (10)
* Donald Ray Mitchell – background vocals (2)
*
Jamie Muhoberac – synthesizer (1, 2, 9)
*
Shaun Murphy – background vocals (4, 11), harmony vocals (4)
*
Buell Neidlinger –
acoustic bass (7, 11)
*
Dean Parks – acoustic guitar (11), electric guitar (7)
*
Bill Payne
William H. Payne (born March 12, 1949) is an American pianist who, with Lowell George, co-founded the American rock band Little Feat. He is considered by many other rock pianists, including Elton John, to be one of the finest American piano roc ...
– piano (7, 11)
*
Don Potter – acoustic guitar (5)
*
Alto Reed – saxophone (3, 10, 12)
*
Michael Rhodes – bass (4, 5)
*
Walt Richmond
The Tractors were an American country rock band composed of a loosely associated group of musicians headed by guitarist Steve Ripley. The original lineup consisted of Steve Ripley (lead vocals, guitar), Ron Getman (guitar, Dobro, mandolin, ten ...
– piano (12)
*
Patty Smyth – background vocals (2, 3), choir (3), chorus (3), harmony vocals (9)
*
JD Souther – background vocals (2, 3), choir (3), chorus (3)
*
Fred Tackett
Fred Tackett (born August 30, 1945) is an American songwriter and multi-instrumentalist. Originally a session player on guitar, mandolin, and trumpet, he is best known as a member of the band Little Feat.
In addition to his work with Little F ...
– acoustic guitar (7, 11)
*
David Teegarden – drums (10, 12)
*
Rick Vito – lead guitar (1, 12), slide guitar (10, 12)
*
Waddy Wachtel – acoustic guitar (3), rhythm guitar (1, 2, 8, 9)
*
Don Was – bass (1, 3)
*
Joe Walsh – lead guitar (9)
*
Oren Waters – harmony vocals (2, 3)
* Jai Winding – organ (6)
Production
*Producers: Punch Andrews, Barry Beckett, Bob Seger, Don Was
*Engineers: Allen Abrahamson, Bryant Arnett, Craig Brock,
Ed Cherney, Denis Forbes, Ed Goodreau, John Kunz, Michael Mason, Justin Niebank,
Thom Panunzio, Gerard Smerek, Randy Wine
*Assistant engineers: Greg Fogie, Tom Banghart, Dan Bosworth, Buzz Burrowes, Jim DeMain, John Hurley, Marnie Riley, Don Smith, Brett Swain, Don Was
*Mixing: Punch Andrews,
Ed Cherney,
David N. Cole, Bob Seger
*Photography: John Abeyla
Charts
Album
Singles
Certifications
References
{{DEFAULTSORT:Fire Inside, The
Bob Seger albums
1991 albums
Albums produced by Don Was
Albums produced by Barry Beckett
Albums produced by Punch Andrews
Capitol Records albums