When Henry Paul (b. 25 August 1949, Kingston, New York, USA), the former lead singer of the southern rock band the Outlaws (1972-1977, and reunion 1986-1989) and his own Henry Paul Band (1979-1982) moved back to Nashville, Tennessee in the early 90s he formed the new country outfit FireHawk with Van Stephenson (b. 4 November 1953, Hamilton, Ohio, USA, d. 8 April 2001, Nashville, Tennessee, USA; guitar) and Dave Robbins (b. Charles David Robbins, 26 May 1959, Atlanta, Georgia, USA; keyboards). Stephenson and Robbins were both established session musicians and successful songwriters. The duo had written the US country hit ‘All My Life’ and several chart-topping singles for Restless Heart, and Stephenson recorded several solo albums and enjoyed a US Top 30 rock hit with ‘Modern Day Delilah’ in 1984.
The trio took their more familiar name from the Stutz Blackhawk, an American pre-war sports car. Their chart-topping debut, ‘Goodbye Says It All’, was heavily promoted on CMT during 1994. Following the platinum success of their self-titled debut album, they developed into a touring band. Heavily influenced by Restless Heart, their records were as much middle-of-the-road rock as country, with further hits including ‘Every Once In A While’, ‘I’m Not Strong Enough To Say No’, and ‘Almost A Memory Now’. After a brief lull, the band bounced back into the upper regions of the US country charts with 1998’s ‘There You Have It’. Stephenson left the band in February 2000, and after a long struggle succumbed to melanoma the following April. Anthony Crawford (b. Birmingham, Alabama, USA) joined the line-up and the first recording after Stephenson’s death was Spirit Dancer, an album that the remaining members worked hard on, and demonstrated a new-found lyrical maturity.
