Firefall Guitarist's Travels Go Way Beyond Colorado's Mountains

Forbes

09-07-2025

Firefall's Jock Bartley (left) and Steven Weinmeister perform as part of the Stagecoach Music Festival in 2010 in Indio, California. (Photo by) Getty Images
The band Firefall has always been synonymous with Boulder, Colorado. As the veteran rock group releases a new album and readies for a tour that will take them to seven states, founding member Jock Bartley reveals his love for other travel destinations besides his everyday Rocky Mountain high.
'For me, Hawaii is No. 1 for beaches and warm, windy weather,' Bartley says. 'Paradise! The road to Hana in Maui—wow—and the (Lahaina) harbor in Maui is unbelievable. There's also Haleakala Crater and Haleakala National Park. I've only been to Hawaii four to five times, but they are always the best vacations I have ever had.'
Lead guitarist Bartley is the only remaining original member of Firefall, which formed in Boulder in 1974 and scored several hit singles, including "You Are the Woman," "Just Remember I Love You," "Strange Way" and "Cinderella." The new album, entitled Friends & Family 2, is comprised of cover versions of songs by bands and musicians who shared the stage with Firefall members in the 1970s. Firefall's new 11-concert tour begins July 12 in Orland Park, Illinois and runs through mid-November.
Bartley recalls a 1970s Firefall concert in Hawaii attended by the late actor Peter Fonda, who was friendly with the group's drummer Michael Clarke. Fonda made the trip unforgettable, inviting Bartley to a sail on his 'magnificent wooden schooner, the Tatoosh , in Maui harbor.'
Firefall performs outdoors in Kanagawa, Japan in 1979. (Photo by Koh Hasebe/) Getty Images
Fonda had bought the boat in 1969 and then spent many memorable vacation days on it until selling Tatoosh in 1985, according to a 2014 post by Fonda on his website. The schooner took Fonda to deep-sea dives through lava tubes off Lanai with musician David Crosby and on sails that, he says, made him 'totally free and happy' around the Hawaiian Islands.
Other coastal destinations have impressed Bartley during his vacations.
'California and Florida have great beaches, and I've loved taking boat trips in the ocean or the Gulf to get away,' he says. 'And, I've been to the Bahamas twice, but, frankly, things at times seemed so hurried on those vacations that I couldn't totally wind down. But Hawaii for me was different. Talk about time to chill out.'
There was often, though, little time to chill out and enjoy the many destinations Firefall traveled to as performing musicians.
'Yikes—45 to 50 years of rock and roll touring!' Bartley exclaims. 'Much of those tours, I'd see the airport, hotel, gig, hotel and back to the airport—a total whirlwind of being on the road.'
Yet, even the glimpses were memorable.
'So many states are amazing and scenic, and there's so much diversity in American cities and towns,' Bartley says. 'I've sometimes had time to explore California, Oregon, Washington, Montana, Idaho, all of New England, New York, Michigan, Minnesota, Arizona and New Mexico. The list goes on and on. I particularly love the great Northwest, the fertile, lush countrysides of Oregon and Washington, Florida with its year-round warm temperatures and palm trees and the great Southwest with the Grand Canyon and other high desert locations.'
Every Firefall tour, of course, ended with a return home to Colorado. Bartley's family moved from Kansas to Green Mountain Falls, Colorado—in the Rocky Mountains about 15 miles northwest of Colorado Springs—when he was 9 years old. They later moved to nearby Manitou Springs—'at the foot of Pikes Peak,' Bartley notes—and he moved to Boulder to attend the University of Colorado, 'right next to majestic mountains.'
Boulder and its majestic Flatirons attract locals and visitors to Colorado and always feel like home to Firefall and its lead guitarist Jock Bartley. Gary Stoller
'Colorado!' Bartley shouts. 'I absolutely love Colorado! Colorado has been my life. You know, half of Colorado is Kansas, and the other half is Switzerland. I have always lived in or near the mountains. I would travel all over the country having fun, playing and meeting people, but I always knew I'd be going home, home to Colorado.'