About a year after Rodney and I had created our duo he asked me if I wanted to join a band with he and his friends. I had never really played in a rock band and I said why not! It was pretty exciting to set our gear up and create a repertoire AND choose a name.
Up until now every time I had a “band” we just used our own names. Naming a band…democratically…proved a little harder than imagined. After a few duds LAYD BACK was the name we chose. Now….it was a little intimidating as these guys were a year or two older and better players than me and I was to be their lead singer and rhythm guitar player. They were Rodney on bass and vocals, Chris Savage on keyboards, sax and vocals. Kim Weinmeister on drums, Andy Waldorf on lead guitar and I played acoustic and electric guitars, flute and Piccolo and sang lead. We played everything from SUPERTRAMP and YES to LOGGINS & MESSINA.
We rehearsed at Chris Savage’s parent’s house in the garage. They were super cool and seemed real happy to have us permanently set up in there making all kinds of noise at all kinds of hours. They owned a pretty nice antique shop and so had a van (to transport their stuff in) which they readily loaned us so we could transport our stuff to gigs. Chris had a couple of sisters who would come with their friends and listen and critique the band and his mom happily made us lunch and snacks all the time. We had a very comfortable place to be and it was in that place that I started to learn about arranging, instrumentation and vocals for a band. We played at high schools, town festivals and large family functions and a wedding or two. The band lasted about a year.