BIFF BYFORD

Having undergone emergency triple bypass surgery in September, Saxon frontman Biff Byford certainly didn’t want to be celebrating the release of his first solo album with aches and pains and a compromised constitution. But such is life when you’ve gone through the school of hard knocks, which is not so coincidentally the name of the man’s bracing and expertly paced new record.

“Coming along all right, getting a bit stronger, you know,” begins Biff, willing to talk about his proud new baby—he blames his brush with death on smoking when he was younger, but then again, nearly 50 years in bands (and 42 of those in Saxon, previously known as Son of a Bitch)… Biff has had his share of second-hand smoke