Revenge, Bobby Jon Key

Bobby Jon Key Born in Cullman County ..October 21, 1954 ...Raised in the small community of Helicon in Winston County , Alabama.on one of the the last plateaus of the Appalachian mountains I Went to school in Addison. British,Scandinavian,Cherokee,heritage..5'6" 167 ..growing up in Helicon was an enjoyable time with my childhoodfriends Dwight Frazier, Aaron Brown, Brent Denson. My younger cousin Micheal Hardin seemed to always be by my side. I was 10 years old when I heard my first Beatle song it was "From me to you "gosh' that sounded great And that is how I got interested in the guitar..so I played my Dads guitar a while..Dad was pleased that out of his 4 sons ..at least 1 played guitar..my cousins Terry & Danny helped me a lot.. I bought My first guitar from Hoss' Reid helped me a lot with the guitar as did Ronnie. Then I was fortunate enough to be taught how to read music from Charlie McCoy ..he was well known as a gospel music writer, cousins of the Denson Publishing from Nashville, and had he known i was to play rock & roll he would have never taught me ..my first music lesson was from Ronnie,formerly of the Jokers..a local band,and after, that, 3 of us .. Brent Denson ,Dwight Frazier and I were taught at Blair's school of music..in Cullman..but Reverand Blair didnt much care for rock music either. but my teacher Tony Willingham didn't care either way. He owns Tony's School of music..so I learned from them also...and how to site read..and I told myself one day hey if you can read this stuff you can write it and so eventually I did..after a few mistakes i learned quickly how to do so..some were impressed .. Sometimes, Saturday's just wasn't complete without visiting the Record rack or eating at the 9.0 cafe or Busy Bee .I bought musical instruments from Joe Easterwood.. occasionally I would visit Sapp's music store, I always enjoyed talking to Mr Sapp..but then I had the help of Leon Wilcutt from Jasper, Alabama learning more about the guitar plus the fact I spent most of my nights playing and studying music rather than school work..So with a year of studying I was ready to figure it out myself plus the fact that i could memorize any notes from sheet music and go back and play it at home we had a 24 x 36 block building to practice in that was formerly a small grocery, We called it Helicon Road. you know? playing with the records , figuring out triplets , riffs and runs , Day Tripper, Wow! ha ! wildwood flower, if i had a dollar for every time i played either song I' be rich. Leon Wilcutt was a dj and he knew Hoss Reid , who was known as a good guitarist and country singer..well locally anyway.I thought he was good..He thought I was one of the best guitar players he ever heard.And Corrinne Williamson (Jasper) gave me singing lessons for about 3 months ..she was very upset when I quit ..but I got a taste of what it took and I wanted that rock sound..not "halfway to paradise" ... In the early days, even when I was in school.. we practiced and played a lot.. about 10-12 hours of practice together each week. We were loud we were enthusiastic and never a complaint from the community. The first band I had was comprised of James Wilkins & his brother Charles (Buddy)..but soon, they didn't have enough time because they had to work a lot..then James Arthur Maddox and Timothy Powell were in the 2nd group they were 2 good singers and players..we continued practicing on through graduation..maybe a gig or 2 each week that was 4 to 6 hours long plus work a 40 hour shift.. James Maddox & I grew close as friends ..on a many a Sunday Gary Speer and Jimmy M. would come over and we would play and sing.. ( to make a long story short) We then split on artistic differences.. Then? It was Mike Robinson, William Barker, then Mike Clayton taking WB's place in the band in the 3rd group.. We played Top 40 But mostly Rock, and we accumulated over 200 songs that we played on a rotating basis, Plus, I wrote my own songs My creativity suffered because I sang 80 % of the songs and playing every week made us money but we suffered creatively. I was lead vocalist and lead guitarist ..sometimes after 1 am on a Sunday morning ..I could only talk in a whisper. There were always two of us ..Brent Denson (One of My Bud's since 4 yrs of age) was one damn good bass player. Sometimes, I drove everyone a little hard, and let us not forget our first manager Edward Jones who was a very good friend to us all. Now Mike R. was the most dedicated drummer we had out of 4 different drummers. but in February of 1977 Mike was headed to Alaska to work.we played another 4 months with Brian Taylor as our drummer but it wasn't the same we then liquidated our assets and I joined the USAF in 1978. I did some time in the U S Air Force, but in 1981 I ended up having to get out early and raise my 2 kids by myself. Life happens . and now after several years I'm Back. If the music flows in your blood, don't ever quit." Enjoy it, it isn't always about the money $$ "