Jim Heath has travelled a lot of miles in his three decades as the more recognizable, Reverend Horton Heat. The undisputed king of rockabilly revival, psychobilly and high-octane hardcore fun, Heath, 53, and his side kicks,  stand-up bass player Jimbo Wallace and drummer Scott Simmons, have played nearly every juke- jive-joint from one US coast to the other, and nearly every country in Europe multiple times. With songs titles such as “Please Don’t Take the Baby to the Liquor Store, “Locos Gringos like a Party”, Bails of Cocaine” it has seemingly been easy for rock critic to not take the Texas trio serious.  The band has had no chartable songs or albums despite cranking out 10 albums and playing a couple thousand shows, (most sellouts) during its career, and yet  how can thousands of fans across the rock-and-roll globe be wrong about the staying power of this pastor from the punk pulpit? They’re not. Despite poking fun at archetypical country and western songs, the Reverend Horton Heat does lay down as wicked a wiggle stick on his Gretsch guitar as there is.  His smoky vocals evoke a sound that belies a veteran entertainer whose tales about heartbreak, drinking, fast cars, faster women and the rigors of the road are based loosely on his life. But make no bones about it, The Reverend is not living in the past and fading into the sunset. While his music is influenced from a bygone era of raw rebellious rock revelry, his ability to create a sound infused with metal, punk and country has always left a nation of diehard fans begging for more. In an effort to produce a new revenue stream, as the ever-diminishing record business is making it hard for any artists to make a living solely off of its vinyl, CDs and MP3 downloads, Heat’s label Yep Roc, out of North Carolina has packaged with the Reverend Horton Heat band a new and unique offering which should make fans dig deep into the pockets. 25 To Life is not simply a new album for fans champing at the bit for a new Heat fix, but a box set of interesting proportions. Heath and his trio have not put a new release  out since its 10th studio release “Laughin’ and Cryin’.” in 2009, and this new specialty product, is the type of outside of the box set thinking that has kept the Heath revving it up. “I’m not too into looking back, and that is part of my “25 to Life” essay ‘I don’t really look back, and say, ‘Oh, I did this or I did that.’  And, at the same time, I’d like to think my best stuff is still ahead of me, cuz when you stop thinking that way, it really takes away from your potency.” 25 Too Life is packaged with the center piece being a DVD of live footage of the band caught on tape by renowned filmmaker Michael Drumm at San Francisco’s infamous Fillmore from last year. Drumm, who is known for producing video for comics Stephen Wright, Bill Maher and Wanda Sykes, has also recorded everyone from Henry Rollins to Willie Nelson. In this live footage though, Drumm has not only recorded concert footage, but interviews with Heath and the band by longtime Heat tour manager Scott Weiss, who is normally behind the scenes rather than in front of them. In addition, a vinyl recording and CD of the show, a color picture booklet and band bio are all parts of the special package, slated to hit the streets March 27. Heath is excited about the new box set, and says it is the direction the music business actually has been forced to take. The band had recorded for six different record labels. Its eight year relationship with Yep Roc has been the most enduring and successful. And it is Yep Roc who orchestrated the concept of 25 to Life. “A lot of record companies are having to switch their whole focus to special products, rather than just releasing CDs,” Heath says. “Everybody’s really worried that the CD is gonna become pretty much obsolete, and a lot of the big players are scrambling because their livelihood is disappearing before their eyes.” As the recording industry looks for new ways to create revenue, Heath acknowledged that while all music industry are having to look closer at how to make a buck in this digital download era, his outfit is in the right place at the right time. “Basically the recording industry is gone,” Heath admits but adds frankly. “We’re in a pretty good situation because we always sold consistently, but it was never our bread and butter. Our bread and butter has always been playing live shows.” “So now we are in a situation where we have been entrenched in all the cities in America, Canada and Europe, and we can go and play and make a living doing it.” And speaking of playing, Heat returns to NE Ohio for a third straight year to play at the Beachland Ballroom. Heat headlines the show this Thursday with a pair of Oregon bands,  Larry and His Flask and the Goddam Gallows opening. Known for its dedication to the open road, Heat and his mates have been playing roughly 150 shows a year for nearly 20 years.  No stranger to Western Europe, the trio set out to play as part of a four-band travelling festival in late November for its latest foreign tract. Joined by Phantom Rockers, Brains and The Sliver Shine,  the Rev and ensemble made stops in late November through late December in Stockholm Sweden,  Rotterdam, Netherlands, Berlin and Munich Germany, Barcelona and Madrid Spain, and then capping off the nightmarish tour in Antwerp, Austria. While  Heath can give a half-hearted chuckle about what happened on the tour, some prodding led him to open up. “We had a pretty rough tour in Europe in December,” he admitted. “That was hard, but we kept going anyway. “This guy we were working with was running a Ponzi scheme. It was a festival traveling and festival touring, and he was taking the money we were making on the tour, to pay for his last festival.  We said, ‘Hey, you got to give some more money, you’re not giving us what you said you were supposed to be giving us. Eventually, he just split in the middle of the night.” The members of Reverend Horton Heat band had three other bands (Phantom Rockers, Brains and The Sliver Shine) and crews all on one bus. It was pretty cramped.” The band had to deal with a leaky bus on top of the limited space. But, like the true travelling band veterans, they played on and persevered. After a short Christmas holiday break at home, it was right back to the American leg of the latest tour. Heat and band will be with such a focus on playing live gigs, there is little downtime. “We get a month that’s about as long as we get,” Heath says of time off. “We’ve been hitting it pretty hard (steady touring). I don’t know that it’s burnout; I just love playing shows – that’s the good part. But, yeah, the traveling can kind of get to ya.” And what of new album material … “I’ve got some (new) songs, but we are so pressed for time, so it is getting really hard to do,” Heat admits. “We have some new stuff, but we’ve barely had any time to implement it. I think we are getting closer to figuring it out. It is something we will be able to figure it out in a year.” Heath is taking a more laid back approach to getting the next record out. This can be attributed to his world away from the band all the time spent on the road, and writing songs. Rather than Martini Time it is a lot of family time for the suburban husband and father. Heath, who had been married and a father both by the age of 23 weathered a heartbreaking loss when his first wife, child and dog Smokey left him.  Always resilient, Heath documented this chapter of his life in the song, “Where in the Hell Did You Go with My Toothbrush?” For the past 17 years however, Heath has been happily remarried and has two young daughters from this second go-round, which has lasted now 17-years and counting, and he appears happy at home and on the road, now. “I take my little girls to gymnastics. I run my little errands and then go to family functions,” he says proudly. “You know, I do my thing, he adds, of which includes teaching one daughter guitar. Heat does not sugar-coat anything musically with his pupil-offspring and budding musician. And while he is not opposed to her possibly following in her daddy-o’s footsteps, he is brutally honest. “(I let her know) how difficult it is and that if you are going to do it play music possibly for a living) it is filled with heartache and disappointment, struggle and strife and lots of rejection,” he says quite frankly. “If you are going to try and learn it as a career, that is what you are up against. But, other than that, it is a beautiful thing and it s a great feeling knowing you can do it. I think she’s getting that.” And, what Heath gets, is that is a role model, but he also believes music is not the top priority for the world at large. For him, music is in the world, but not the world. “I appreciate that, people after a day of work want to party and rock, but also having said that, at the end of the day there  is really (more) important stuff. This (his music) is not a necessity, it s about people who save lives and create new drugs, people that create energy, people who create our cities, you know, our appliances,… our everything. That’s stuff that helps humanity.”