One day, the summer before my junior year in high school, my phone rang at home. It was Gregg Woodall from Towanda. I knew Gregg, but not well. He said his dad was running for County Commissioner, and that he was putting together a band to play in the parade in El Dorado, and needed a drummer. After a couple of weeks of practice we learned three songs (Eighteen by Alice Cooper, House of the Rising Sun, and Sweet Home Alabama by Lynard Skynard if I remember right). Gregg’s dad and cute younger sister (Jayme) were in the cab waving, and the three of us including amplifiers, guitars and a drum set were in the back. We must have been okay, Jammie won the election.
I had been in a couple of bands before. Crown Zellerbach, (the name was taken from the bottom of a napkin dispenser in a Burger King) was me as a freshman and a group of juniors and seniors from Newton and Eric Enns from Remington. We played at a couple of local Newton events. I had worked the summer after eighth grade at Dad’s appliance store, saved my money, and bought a really cool, eight tom-tom clear red drum set. So I’m not for sure if Eric and his friends liked me better or the drum set. Before that, my experience consisted of a 6th grade talent show with Pat Adams singing, Travis Mann on guitar, me on the drums and all of us wearing mom’s wigs.
Armed with our success from the parade, Gregg, Brad Doggett and I decided to keep the band together. Jeff Toews, who owned a bass and was musically inclined, joined us on bass guitar. We needed a place to practice, and Dad owned a former beauty shop in Potwin. We pulled together scraps of carpet, painted the walls in the bathroom, and we were set. Practices were a couple of nights a week, and became something for the local youth to do if nothing else was going on. Mike Adams was a regular.
By the time football homecoming season was coming around, we had enough songs, 17 or so, to play the dance at Remington. Gregg got us in at Circle High, and we did the winter dance in Peabody. We played mainly rock and roll covers, and our best feature was the fact that everyone could sing. Gregg was the talent and lead sang all the songs he could remember the words to, and we would take the rest. We could pull off the Eagles, Alabama, and some old Beach Boys because of everyone’s natural ability with harmony.
We developed a stage show as we went along. My next summer’s wages went to a sound board and microphones. Buddy Mark Vogelman built a lighting system by hand. Craig Wohlgemuth created the Wog Fog by dropping dry ice into water and pumping the smoke into the stage.
Gregg and I enjoyed song writing, and Throw Money was a hit (Throw Money, we’re a worthy cause, Throw Money, we don’t want your applause…). Gregg had written Why Did I Go? and Brighter Day for various old girlfriends. We wrote The Gomez Blues as an homage to our high school Spanish teacher who died his hair to look more Hispanic. Brad had written Travellin and he was a ladies’ guy so that one went over well.
My life started to change my senior year of high school. I had always been the baby of a well to do family in Potwin – dad had an appliance store, mom had a liquor store, dad owned three post offices and 15-20 rental properties. Shortly before Christmas, older brother Bob explained to us that Dad had a cash flow issue. Dad changed from a ever-go-lucky, spunky, gregarious, slightly over-the-top entrepreneur to sitting in the dark tearing up little pieces of paper. I knew something wasn’t right. We kept the band together, but I quit the basketball team and got a job at Taco Tico in El Dorado. Toughest time I had was early in my senior year, Brad needed a place to stay. And mom asked me to tell him no. We never did that. I lost it, and a couple of days later mom and dad asked a neighbor to check in on me.
As I entered my senior year, we decided we needed a manager, and Jerry Peterson, classmate Michelle’s dad and manager of the local feedlot, took the job. Jerry made us a promotional tape, business cards, Darlene his wife made us vests, and we kept pretty busy. One highlight was the Kansas State Cattlemen’s Convention (we had to learn a few more country songs for that one).
After graduating from high school, I started college at Wichita State and lived at home to save money, stay closer to the girlfriend who was still in high school, and keep the band together. Bad idea. I went from being around people I loved all the time, to driving back and forth to a school where I didn’t have the opportunity to bond with anyone. The band was my only source of refuge. Brad Doggett had moved on, and Ed Carlson, a friend of Trent Sprecker’s from his Wichita days, joined us on guitar. The first night we practiced, we moved our gear across the street and played for the local Watermelon Feed festival, Potwin’s biggest annual event. It was Ed’s first time performing with a band, and he loved it.
By the end of my first semester, I was going nuts, and asked mom and dad if they could float me going to KU. I joined brother Bill’s old fraternity, ATO, and ran across Doug Wolfe, guitar player, singer, and song writer from Wichita. Next thing I knew, Ed moved up from Wichita, and Doug’s friend Chris Boyd joined us on bass. The new band had a little different feel – not as great with the harmonies, but a step above on instruments. We upped our game and worked some Boston and Kansas songs into the set, and played local bars and smaller high schools around the area.
Along the way, I got guitar-envy, and learned to play guitar because you can’t take the drums around with you. But that’s another story.
