ROXX GANG … Kevin Steele opens up about his Father’s involvement in his Mother’s 1969 Murder and his Guitarist Eric Carrell’s Mysterious Death in 1986 on The Hair Metal Guru

PODCAST NEWS — In a brand new episode of The Hair Metal Guru the guest is Roxx Gang founder and lead vocalist Kevin Steele.

Steele has been somewhat of a recluse over the years but every once in a while he pops up and this interview has plenty to offer for the hardcore 80’s rock fan.

Roxx Gang was founded and formed in St. Petersburg, Florida in 1982 and by 1988 the group had signed to Virgin Records and released their Beau Hill Produced debut “Things You’ve Never Done Before.”

That major label release was the pinnacle for Roxx Gang, but there is a lot more to the band’s history, including Steele‘s own personal life and related tragedies which he talks openly about in this near 2 hour interview with Anthony Bryant, the host of The Hair Metal Guru.

The show starts off with some heavy content as Steele talks about his Father (Robert Steele) who was an Attorney, a Prosecutor and Municipal Judge, but sadly ended up being involved with the 1969 murder of his Mother (Marlene Steele) when the singer was just 5 year’s old.

Steele, 62, shares details about the horrific family story saying (transcriptions by Metal Sludge):“So, I woke up to a house full of policeman. Um, (long pause) and from there, things took a bad turn for me and my brother.”

“My Father remarried… and it was like a wicked Step-Mother situation. And ahh, music became… (pause) music became a really big escape for my sh!tty existence” says Steele.

“So for years, for years this went unsolved… I was born in Cleveland Ohio, this was a big case up there, my Father was a Municipal Judge so it was like headline news ya know. And um, for years it went unsolved, and eventually we got away from my Step-Mother and went to live with my Mother’s parents (Grandparents). And my Father said; “You can have custody of the boys, if you move to Florida”, because his parents had already retired and moved to Florida (too).”

“They were devastated when my Mother died, she was their only kid. And ahh, the only thing that really kept them going were her children… me and (my brother) Brett.” added Steele talking about his Grandparents.

**Kevin Steele of Roxx Gang guests on The Hair Metal Guru – March 2025**

“I (we) had been living there probably 2 years… and the Cleveland Police came down and said; “We’re going to make an arrest”, and ahh, (pause) it was pretty shocking. It turns out, that my Father had hired… he knew a lot of shady people from being a defense attorney. He hired these 2 Irish gangsters from Cleveland, the Kilbane Brothers… and ahh, they hired the trigger-man, and it all came out. My Father went to prison, died in prison.” says Steele in a shaky voice.

“It’s therapeutic for me to talk about it… it is what it is.” says Steele.

Bryant then asks Steele: “Have you ever, have you talked to your Father since he went to jail… has he even opened up about anything, and if you don’t want to answer that, I completely get it…”

Steele: “I talked to him, (pause) once I moved to Florida I talked to him, couple of times. And that was before he was arrested. Once he went to prison, I never talked to him again.”

The case dragged on for years into the 1980’s and Justia U.S. Law has extensive details of the case found HERE.

“The evidence adduced at trial, taking the state’s case in its strongest light, shows that Judge Robert Steele hired two brothers who were former clients, Owen and Martin Kilbane, to find a person to kill his wife, Marlene Steele. He had fallen in love with another woman whom he married three months after the murder; his wife would not consent to a divorce. The Kilbane brothers hired Rick Robbins, a contract assassin, who carried out the murder on January 9, 1969. He shot her at home in bed asleep at night while her two children and Steele were in the house. The police immediately suspected Steele but were unable to solve the case until seven years later when Carol Braun, the key witness who refused to testify at the trial, contacted FBI Agent Ressler.” – sourced from Justia U.S. Law.

All of this was talked about by Steele in the first 10 minutes of the interview.

The singer says; “It just took me away…” when talking about listening to records by Mott The Hoople, Lou Reed and David Bowie after experiencing some serious trauma in his life at such a young age.

Steele also talks about original ROXX GANG co-founder and guitarist Eric Carrell who died mysteriously in 1986, which has even been referred to as a murder depending on who you talk to.

The full interview with Kevin Steele on The Hair Metal Guru is found below.