In The Wilderness ~ my start with the band before the band

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I'm not sure how I got the call to play drums in an established R&B band, but I was ecstatic that I did. Having worked road-crew for dad's band, ShagTime, for over a year with a growing itch to be on-stage instead of off, this new opportunity to actually play live drums was incredibly inticing. I was to replace the out-going drummer and little did I know, that this would be some of the sternest and most grueling on-stage live schooling that I would ever go through. As with the call, I'm forever thankful I went through it.

The Sensations, was an interracial bunch of older guys (hah, younger than me right now!) with the exception of future Kicks! co-founder & keyboardist, Vic, who was all of 19 or 20 years or so at the time. The band's motif was pure R&B and almost all of these players were long-time perfectionists of the 'genre'. What I mean by that is that at this time--mid '80's--R&B was primarily standards covered by cover bands, because this is the music of our cultural south. Meaning, again, that this is the type of music preferred (and the more authentic the better) at southern 'occasions'. These players were authentic, they had most certainly 'been there and done that' decades before the term R&B was replaced by Hip-Hop. Since Victor was a virtuoso on the keys, he didn't have a problem with the other guys, but to me--the guy who called himself a drummer, but hated to practice--was a whole 'nother story. I am eternally thankful that I lasted about two years with this band before I started one on my own after an internal split in the band. During the split, I stayed with the leader, Mo, because he hired me, while the other guys stuck with a club-owner who wanted to be a drummer too. The new Sensations was simply no match in duplicating the old group's on-stage heroics, choreography and authentic R&B sound. I did manage to internalize the chemistry that led to the original band's success, of which Mo was a huge part--he taught me how to run a band on-stage and off--and with that template of which I was now very familiar gave me a huge amount of confidence in starting my own group with some of my own 'green' friends. No more schooling for me (I thought). As a side note--in this business there are inevitable times when you have to retool your show and your performers--and I was years later to hire (they accepted!) most all of the original members of the old group that gave me my first call to play drums. And though there is an incredible amount of history with my new group yet to be formed, before this point, I have to tell you that most of these wonderful players are now my dear friends and partners in my current group--one that I would never think of retooling--that continues to this day. It seems that the two-year scene and show we had while I was being schooled was simply a really inspired show that still thrives--in a big way--to this day. As I tell anyone that asks if I still play in that band, I always tell them that I'm qualified to work at McDonald's otherwise. To tell you the honest truth, I'm probably not qualified for that either. I'll keep playing these drums, thanks to Mo and the Sensations and to Dad & ShagTime.