I've actually been inactive in music for awhile now, but my last band was Ty Herndon. I was with his band for ten years and here's my story for you, Autry.
It was late February 1990 and I was up in the Seattle WA area playing with a band called Whatta Band (I'd been with them for about 5 years).
Down in Dallas/Ft Worth TX, there was a guy named Bill Perry who was putting a band together to work with a fellow named Jon Dennis Smith.
Now, Jon Dennis was a microscopic little guy (I'm a
very short fellow myself, but if I stood in my bare feet and Jon Dennis stood in front of me wearing big heeled cowboy boots, the top of his head would only reach the bottom of my nose ... we're talking almost Munchkin land here). Jon Dennis may have been really short, but what a BIG rich baritone voice he had! Man, he could belt out a song!
Well, in forming the band they'd already acquired Mike Basden for keyboards, Bob Williams for drums, Rick Garner and Rick Pack for lead guitars and Reggie Brown for bass. All they lacked was a steel. They initially approached Gary Hogue, but Gary was real busy with his studio over in Garland and didn't want the gig, so he recommended they call me up for it. Besides being Gary's first recommendation for the gig, Gary also knew that I'd been wanting to return home to the Dallas area for a long time.
Next thing I knew I was getting a call from Reggie Brown and, after a little talking about the gig, I accepted and before I could turn around, Bill Perry had bought me a one-way airplane ticket to Dallas (what surprised me most was that the ticket was first class ... I thought it was a mistake, but I called Reggie and he chuckled while telling me that's just the way Bill Perry was ... he believed in "taking care of his band guys").
It was early March 1990 when I stepped on the plane at SeaTac in Seattle. It was almost 80 degrees that day (a real heat wave for that area and time of year), so I wore a ball cap, tee shirt, shorts and flops while thinking if it was that warm in Seattle, Dallas would be like a furnace ... WRONG! ... I stepped off the plane at DFW in Dallas and it was a rain/sleet mix and only 37 degrees there!
Gary Hogue picked me up and by the time we grabbed my suite case, pack seat and steel and headed to his house I was nearly blue from the cold. I'll never forget that day as long as I live. It was great to be back home in Dallas again, but my "homecoming" was filled with a few small disasters which kind of had an impact on my first day with the band.
First, I get off the plane freezing, dressed as I was, and then as we took an escalator somehow the heel of one of my flops got caught in one of the steps so I slipped out of it and we tugged on it but we couldn't get it free. Next thing I knew we were at the bottom of the escalator and ... whoosh ... my flop was gone. The escalator ate it, so I had to throw the other one away and just go barefoot through the airport (which wouldn't have been entirely a bad thing if it had not been so blasted cold).
Next, we collected my baggage and I rummaged through my bag only to find that in my haste to get packed I'd forgotten to pack any shoes or socks!
Of course, by this time Gary was laughing and telling me how this was going to be one of those funny stories he could haunt me with later on. Then we splashed our way in that cold sleety rain and water out to Gary's car with my toes feeling like they're going to fall off any moment. Sheesh, it was cold that day!
We headed to Gary's house and he said we'd stop at a store the following day on the way to rehearsal so I could buy some new shoes & socks. What happens? Gary, who was always fashionably late, had us leaving way too late to stop at a shoe store and still get me to rehearsal on time, so he dropped me off at the rehearsal studio with my steel, pack seat and his rack & amps and said he'd run and pick up a pair of shoes & socks for me and drop them off.
So, here I am meeting my new band and what a funny picture I must have made wearing a cap, jacket, long sleeve shirt, jeans and bare feet with the temperature in the low 30s. Gosh, what a first impression that must have made on my new band! The band got a kick and a good laugh out of hearing what happened and then we setup and got ready to rehearse. The rehearsal room wasn't much warmer than being outdoors and the band graciously said we could postpone starting rehearsal until Gary got back with my new shoes, but I told them there was no need to postpone, I'd go ahead and play barefoot until he got back (and it's a good thing I did because he didn't get back until some three hours later when rehearsal was half over). Again, this wouldn't have been entirely so bad if it had just not been so cold! That's how my first day with the band went ... not exactly the most ideal way to spend the first day with a new band, for sure.
We rehearsed at DLP studios in Irving each day while we got our show all worked up. Man, the band was a real great bunch of guys to work with and we had a blast. We called ourselves Jon Dennis Smith and Southern Thunder.
For about five months everything went fine, then I was told we were looking for another vocalist because "J.D. just isn't working out". I never got the real gist on that because he sang and performed great, so it was a puzzle to me what was up.
Well, the rest of the guys in the band had worked with Ty Herndon previously in a band called Ryder West. Ty had left music and was selling Mercedes Benz. They called him up and asked him to come sit in with us and sing for our manager, Bill Perry.
We were at a club in Dallas called The Country Connection when Ty sat in. He came up and sang three songs and ... WOW ... what a singer. The moment he stepped up on stage, he had the look, the stage charisma, the voice and command over the audience. He was immediately hired that night and in the next two weeks our original singer was gone to pursue other directions and Ty was in the band.
We worked with him for a month as Ty Herndon and Southern Thunder and then started having personnel changes. First, Darin Johnson and Drew Kellar came on board for lead guitar and keyboards. Next we got David Pinkston on drums. Reggie remained with us for another year, but left to follow other pursuits and we acquired Randy Jeter on bass. By the time we finished the personnel changes, we'd also changed the name of the band from Ty Herndon & Southern Thunder to Ty Herndon & Ride The West.
I ended up being the only "original member" left in the band. We did the club circuits from 1990 until 1994 when Ty got his record deal with Sony/Epic. We began touring as a national act in early 1995 and, of all places for us to make our debut first performance under Epic Records, it was at the Grand Ole Opry. We had a really nice run of touring for the next five years (1995 to 2000) and then I finally had to make a choice to leave the band (in February of 2000) in order to save my marriage (which was failing due to life on the road and my music pursuits).
I've been rather inactive in music since ... three years after I left the band (2003), I fell off the roof of my house while working on an antenna and, while I pretty much recovered from the back & pelvis injuries, I ended up with severe radial and ulnar nerve damage in my right arm & hand and have only been getting back into steel in the last three and a half years (I started back again in late 2009).
That's how I found (and was discovered by) my last band. There's my story for you, Autry.
... top 40 country. But I can't quit cuz there's a real cute young girl singer in the band that has a nice voice. At least that's my story and I'm stickin' with it.