So, Bill Gibson, what did you do with your nine years off?

The Huey Lewis and the News drummer laughs. The band’s last studio album, Plan B, came out in 2001. Its newest album, a collection of Stax Records covers called Soulsville, makes its American debut on Nov. 2, 2010. Gibson laughs because he was busy during his nine years off. For starters, Huey Lewis and the News played on the road every year – a lot. Gibson also wrote music at his home studio in Northern California in anticipation of the day when the band records a new album of original music. (“The jury is still out,” he says.) Most importantly, he raised two daughters, one of whom is following her father into the music business. Singer/songwriter Liv Gibson, 19, just wrapped a four-track demo and has been accepted at the Berklee College of Music in Boston, where she received a scholarship. “You’re going to hear about her,” Gibson says on the phone, his daughter within earshot. “She’s far more talented than her father.”

Support. Bill Gibson has been lucky to have it his entire life. I know this because, thanks to a fortunate confluence of only-in-2010 events, Gibson has been gracious enough to grant me a wide-ranging, 40-minute phone interview to talk about the band’s newest album, Soulsville, the history of Huey Lewis and the News, the drummers and bands he respects most and how two parents gave a child the support he needed to launch a successful music career.

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