Rock and Roll

Occupation: Pop band

Personal Information: Members include Mark Bryan (born c. 1967, in Gaithersburg, MD), guitar; Dean Felber (born c. 1967, in Gaithersburg, MD), bass; Darius Rucker (born c. 1966, in Charleston, SC; children: daughter, Carey), vocals; and Jim Sonefeld (born c. 1965, in Chicago, IL, joined group, 1989), drums.

Career: Band formed, 1986, in Columbia, South Carolina; played at Southern bars and fraternity houses before recording self-financed EP, Kootchypop, 1991; signed with Atlantic Records; released Cracked Rear View, 1994; released Fairweather Johnson, 1996.

Awards: Two Grammy Awards, including best new group, for Cracked Rear View.

Addresses: Record company - Atlantic Records, 75 Rockefeller Plaza, New York, NY 10019.


Hootie and the Blowfish made a spectacular debut on the pop music scene in 1994, releasing an album, Cracked Rear View, that took the entertainment world by storm. By early 1996 the album had racked up 13 million sales, making it the second best-selling debut album of all time (behind Boston's eponymous 1976 release). Bristling with listener-friendly hooks, hummable melodies, and a "regular-guy" sensibility, the album and its songs weathered a slew of negative reviews to become radio and VH-1 fixtures.

"Cracked Rear View? came across as something fresh and different, in large part because it didn't try to come across as anything fresh or different," explained critic Christopher John Farley in Time. "Hootie was embraced as an alternative to alternative, a straight-ahead zig to the posturing zag of the rest of contemporary rock." In 1996 the band released a follow-up album, Fairweather Johnson, that garnered somewhat more favorable reviews but also - perhaps inevitably - smaller sales.

Hootie and the Blowfish came together in 1986 on the Columbia campus of the University of South Carolina, where the band members- -vocalist Darius Rucker, bass player Dean Felber, guitarist Mark Bryan, and drummer Jim Sonefeld -- all attended undergraduate school. The three white members of the band had arrived in Columbia after enjoying comfortable middle-class childhoods -- Sonefeld in Naperville, Illinois, Felber and Bryan in Gaithersburg, Maryland -- while Rucker had grown up in the poorer black neighborhoods of Charleston, South Carolina.

"I had a typical Southern African-American upbringing," Rucker told Rolling Sone writer Parke Puterbaugh. "Went to church every Sunday for three hours. We weren't rich by anyone's standards. There was one point where we had my mom and her two sisters, my grandmother and fourteen kids living in a three-bedroom place. We had a lot of hard times, but I loved it. I look at my childhood with very fond memories." Family members recalled that Rucker loved music from an early age. As one of his sisters told Puterbaugh, "he was always singing around the house, using a broomstick as a guitar. Mom played Al Green and Betty Wright, stuff like that, but Darius had his own tunes -- a lot of what he heard on the radio and at school. Being a singer was always his dream."

As Rucker grew older, he contributed his rich baritone voice to church, high school, and college choirs, but it was not until 1986, when he hooked up with Felber and Bryan, that he joined a band (Sonefeld left a rival band to join them in 1989). After a brief period in which Rucker and Bryan performed at Columbia-area bars under the moniker of the Wolf Brothers, the pair convinced Felber to join them. The trio called themselves Hootie and the Blowfish, an odd tribute to two South Carolina classmates -- one had thick, owl-like glasses, while the other was known for his jowly appearance. "We weren't thinking it was a name we would have forever," Felber admitted to People's Kevin Gray. "We thought we could always think of something better."

Rucker, Felber, and Bryan then lured Sonefeld into the fold. Sonefeld had originally come to the university to play soccer, but he spent much of his free time in Columbia behind a drum kit. Upon joining Hootie, Sonefeld's approach to songwriting quickly made an impact on the other band members. After the lanky drummer put together "Hold My Hand," a song that would be a monster hit for the band a few years later, the other members of the band devoted much greater time and effort to the task of songwriting. "We'd been writing some stuff, but it had a different feel," Bryan told Puterbaugh. "Soni slowed down the groove a little, laid it back the perfect amount. It fit Darius' voice and my guitar style better in the long run."

The band members recalled their early years of bar and frat house gigs fondly, although they also noted that the South's uneasy race relations made for some tense moments. Writer Christopher John Farley noted in Time that "Hootie and the Blowfish's very first gig was held at an off-campus fraternity with a reputation for racism -- and the interracial band was understandably wary. 'We were a little concerned about going out there and playing,' says Bryan. 'So we brought our Marine buddies along.'"

After college the foursome embarked on full-time touring, swinging through Southern bars, taverns, and fraternity house parties in exchange for modest payments, free beer, and the opportunity to meet young women. People familiar with the band at that time, however, also note that its members showed an early interest in developing their careers beyond the next gig. In 1991 the band produced a self-financed EP called Kootchypop. Even though it was only available at their shows, the EP eventually sold a remarkable 50,000 copies. These sales, combined with their knack for selling concert T-shirts, piqued the interest of Atlantic Records talent scout Tim Sommer. "Did I think they'd make a million dollars? No. But I did know they'd sell records," he told Farley. "Before I signed them, they'd already sold half a million dollars worth of Ts. If you can sell a T-shirt, you can sell a record."

Hootie and the Blowfish recorded Cracked Rear View in Los Angeles in early 1994. The album was released several months later and immediately became a phenomenon. Buoyed by heavy play on VH-1 and radio and well-received appearances on such shows as David Letterman, copies disappeared from record stores with amazing speed. As Farley noted, the music itself was the biggest factor in Hootie's rise: "Cracked Rear View featured 11 strong, tuneful songs, with brawny guitar work, commanding percussion, and Rucker's gruff, charismatic voice, which made it all come together." succession of radio-friendly singles -- "Hold My Hand," "Only Wanna Be with You," and several others -- kept the album selling well, and as the media rushed to cover the fast-rising band, it became clear that the members' regular-guy personas were a big factor in their success.

"We are the most unassuming band in the country," Rucker told Puterbaugh. "We are so no bullshitt. You can look at so many bands out there, and they're writing good songs, but they're mad at this or aloof or whatever. If you look at the four of us sitting in a restaurant, you wouldn't say, 'Oh, that's a band.' I think people really connect with the fact that we could be the guys you're sitting next to in your calculus class." As Puterbaugh himself remarked after watching a Hootie show, "they are not capering around the stage like shirtless punks ... nor are they inciting to riot, a la some of the choicer gangsta-rap acts. There's no hair show, no flash pots, no video screen, no Bee Girl. They're simply standing up there singing their well-liked songs... Without smoke or mirrors, Hootie's solid, unpretentious pop tunes evoke a surprisingly visceral reaction." Added Entertainment Weekly reviewer David Browne, "these average guys from South Carolina were the right band at the right time: a tonic for listeners weary of cynical, anguished alternarockers, music for those who wanted something a little more comforting and unthreatening."

After awhile, the members' passion for golf and other sports became a big topic of discussion. Some people in the music world seemed to regard their love for YMCA pick-up basketball games or a quick nine holes of golf as unbecoming and decidedly uncool, but the band remained unapologetic. "We're sportsbillies," Rucker told Puterbaugh. He added, "it sounds like such bullshit, but we just love to be together. You've seen it: all we do is laugh. Call each other names and laugh. We never leave each other alone. That's how we've stayed together for ten years, and that's why we don't change."

Despite their success, however, a large element of rock's critical community gnashed their teeth at Hootie's stardom, dismissing Cracked Rear View as a lightweight effort. Stoked by the music press, a modest backlash against the band developed. As Mark Jacobson wryly observed in Esquire: "Hootie is magic, pure and simple. How else to account for the fact that the Blowfish's Cracked Rear View is one of the biggest sellers ever, yet you can't find a single person who admits to liking the group?" Some took the momentum to ugly extremes, seizing on the interracial make-up of the group as a target. "A writer for the Village Voice compared the band to a minstrel show," wrote Farley, "and Saturday Night Live did a sketch where Rucker leads beer-swilling white frat boys in a countermarch to Louis Farrakhan's Million Man March (apparently, to the mostly white staff at SNL, successful blacks must be sellouts)." Such suggestions infuriate Rucker, who told Entertainment Weekly's Chris Willman that "I guess Tupac Shakur or those guys are probably more accepted black figures because to white America they are more threatening. White America wants to see the one side of black. They'd love to just show us as thugs and gangsters."

On occasion, the band members expressed irritation with the critical backlash. "Dean showed me this article the other day in Bass Player magazine where this guy does this whole Toad the Wet Sprocket review," Rucker told Farley, "and at the end he says the only drawback with Toad is that they toured with the worst band in the world - Hootie & the Blowfish. I mean, why do you have to go out of your way to bush us? I honestly believe that if we had sold 100,000 records, people would have nice things to say about us. At the beginning of the record there were nice reviews... and all of a sudden - BOOM! - we're the worst band in the world."

For the most part, the members of Hootie and the Blowfish seemed unruffled by either their newfound fame or the criticism that descended on them in late 1994 and 1995. As Bryan told Willman, "We're lucky in that we've been successful and all we've had to do is be ourselves. And if the perception of that is 'the revenge of the normal,' then that's fine." Rucker was even more succinct: "Success doesn't suck. Sure, you can't go out as easy as you used to. So?"

In 1996, while Cracked Rear View was still selling well, Hootie and the Blowfish released their highly anticipated follow-up, Fairweather Johnson. Although it did not enjoy the same phenomenal sales as those of its predecessor, the bandmates expressed satisfaction with the final product. "If we sell 8 million records of Fairweather Johnson, someone's gonna say it flopped," Rucker told Willman. "It's not gonna do what Cracked Rear View did; we're not that stupid to think it will. It's probably not gonna do half that. So it really doesn't matter when we put it out."

A number of critics gave positive reviews to the new album. "All the qualities that won the group such a huge following are still here: melodies that seem immediately familiar, an infectiously feisty spirit, and a flair for paying simple homage to love, peace, and yes, athletic pursuits," wrote Rolling Stone reviewer Elysa Gardner. "But the songs on Johnson are palpably more sophisticated than they were in Hootie's breakthrough effort, offering less bombast and more of the texture and emotion that make the best pop intriguing as well as ingratiating." People reviewer Peter Castro agreed, writing that "Fairweather Johnson plays like a live record, brimming with trademark Hootie harmonies, hooks, feel-good melodies and a wall of sound bound to raise goose bumps." Other critics, though, were less impressed. Newsweek's Karen Schoemer spoke for some when she wrote in a review of Fairweather Johnson that "Hootie and the Blowfish peddle cozy, bland escapism. They're mediocre. It may not be a moral offense, but artistically they're guilty in the first degree."

Even though Fairweather Johnson proved unable to match the stunning commercial success of Cracked Rear View, the critical slings and arrows that have been aimed at the band have not eroded their substantial fan base. As Gardner observed, "what's ultimately most endearing about Hootie and the Blowfish is that they give the impression that, above all, they really appreciate their fans -- not a universally embraced practice these days, particularly among the anti-social alternative artists."

The Rolling Stones began calling themselves the "World's Greatest Rock & Roll Band" in the late '60s, and few disputed the claim. The Rolling Stones' music, based on Chicago blues, has continued to sound vital through the decades, and the Stones' attitude of flippant defiance, now aged into wry bemusement, has come to seem as important as their music.

In the 1964 British Invasion they were promoted as bad boys, but what began as a gimmick has stuck as an indelible image, and not just because of incidents like Brian Jones’ mysterious death in 1969 and a violent murder during their set at Altamont later that year. In their music, the Stones pioneered British rock’s tone of ironic detachment and wrote about offhand brutality, sex as power, and other taboos. In those days, Mick Jagger was branded a “Lucifer” figure, thanks to songs like “Sympathy for the Devil.” In the ’80s the Stones lost their dangerous aura while still seeming “bad” - they’ve become icons of an elegantly debauched, world-weary decadence. But Jagger remains the most self-consciously assured appropriator of black performers’ up-front sexuality; Keith Richards’ Chuck Berry–derived riffing defines rock rhythm guitar (not to mention rock guitar rhythm); the stalwart rhythm section of Bill Wyman and Charlie Watts holds its own; and Jagger and Richards continue to add to what is arguably one of the most significant oeuvres in rock history.

Jagger and Richards first met at Dartford Maypole County Primary School. When they ran into each other 10 years later in 1960, they were both avid fans of blues and American R&B, and they found they had a mutual friend in guitarist Dick Taylor, a fellow student of Richards’ at Sidcup Art School. Jagger was attending the London School of Economics and playing in Little Boy Blue and the Blue Boys with Taylor. Richards joined the band as second guitarist; soon afterward, he was expelled from Dartford Technical College for truancy.

Meanwhile, Brian Jones had begun skipping school in Cheltenham to practice bebop alto sax and clarinet. By the time he was 16, he had fathered two illegitimate children and run off briefly to Scandinavia, where he began playing guitar. Back in Cheltenham he joined the Ramrods, then drifted to London with his girlfriend and one of his children. He began playing with Alexis Korner’s Blues, Inc., then decided to start his own band; a want ad attracted pianist Ian Stewart (b. 1938; d. December 12, 1985).

As Elmo Lewis, Jones began working at the Ealing Blues Club, where he ran into a later, loosely knit version of Blues, Inc., which at the time included drummer Charlie Watts. Jagger and Richards began jamming with Blues, Inc., and while Jagger, Richards, and Jones began to practice on their own, Jagger became the featured singer with Blues, Inc.

Jones, Jagger, and Richards shared a tiny, cheap London apartment, and with drummer Tony Chapman they cut a demo tape, which was rejected by EMI. Taylor left to attend the Royal College of Art; he eventually formed the Pretty Things. Ian Stewart’s job with a chemical company kept the rest of the group from starving. By the time Taylor left, they began to call themselves the Rolling Stones, after a Muddy Waters song.

On July 12, 1962, the Rolling Stones - Jagger, Richards, Jones, a returned Dick Taylor on bass, and Mick Avory, later of the Kinks, on drums - played their first show at the Marquee. Avory and Taylor were replaced by Tony Chapman and Bill Wyman, from the Cliftons. Chapman didn’t work out, and the band spent months recruiting a cautious Charlie Watts, who worked for an advertising agency and had left Blues, Inc. when its schedule got too busy. In January 1963 Watts completed the band.

Local entrepreneur Giorgio Gomelsky booked the Stones at his Crawdaddy Club for an eight-month, highly successful residency. He was also their unofficial manager until Andrew Loog Oldham, with financing from Eric Easton, signed them as clients. By then the Beatles were a British sensation, and Oldham decided to promote the Stones as their nasty opposites. He eased out the mild-mannered Stewart, who subsequently became a Stones roadie and frequent session and tour pianist.

In June 1963 the Stones released their first single, Chuck Berry’s “Come On.” After the band played on the British TV rock show Thank Your Lucky Stars, its producer reportedly told Oldham to get rid of “that vile-looking singer with the tire-tread lips.” The single reached #21 on the British chart. The Stones also appeared at the first annual National Jazz and Blues Festival in London’s borough of Richmond and in September were part of a package tour with the Everly Brothers, Bo Diddley, and Little Richard. In December 1963 the Stones’ second single, “I Wanna Be Your Man” (written by John Lennon and Paul McCartney), made the British Top 15. In January 1964 the Stones did their first headlining British tour, with the Ronettes, and released a version of Buddy Holly’s “Not Fade Away,” which made #3.

“Not Fade Away” also made the U.S. singles chart (#48). By this time the band had become a sensation in Britain, with the press gleefully reporting that band members had been seen urinating in public. In April 1964 their first album was released in the U.K., and two months later they made their first American tour. Their cover of the Bobby Womack/Valentinos song “It’s All Over Now” was a British #1, their first. Their June American tour was a smashing success; in Chicago, where they’d stopped off to record the Five by Five EP at the Chess Records studio, riots broke out when the band tried to give a press conference. The Stones’ version of the blues standard “Little Red Rooster,” which had become another U.K. #1, was banned in the U.S. because of its “objectionable” lyrics.

Jagger and Richards had now begun composing their own tunes (at first using the “Nanker Phelge” pseudonym for group compositions). Their “Tell Me (You’re Coming Back to Me)” was the group’s first U.S. Top 40 hit, in August. The followup, a nonoriginal, “Time Is on My Side,” made #6 in November. From that point on, all but a handful of Stones hits were Jagger-Richards compositions.

In January 1965 their “The Last Time” became another U.K. #1 and cracked the U.S. Top 10 in the spring. The band’s next single, “(I Can’t Get No) Satisfaction,” reigned at #1 for four weeks that summer and remains perhaps the most famous song in its remarkable canon. Jagger and Richards continued to write hits with increasingly sophisticated lyrics: “Get Off My Cloud” (#1, 1965), “As Tears Go By” (#6, 1965), “19th Nervous Breakdown” (#2, 1966), “Mother’s Little Helper” (#8, 1966), “Have You Seen Your Mother, Baby, Standing in the Shadow?” (#9, 1966).

Aftermath, the first Stones LP of all original material, came out in 1966, though its impact was minimized by the simultaneous release of the Beatles’ Revolver and Bob Dylan’s Blonde on Blonde. The Middle Eastern–tinged “Paint It, Black” (1966) and the ballad “Ruby Tuesday” (1967), were both U.S. #1 hits.

In January 1967 the Stones caused another sensation when they performed “Let’s Spend the Night Together” (“Ruby Tuesday”’s B side) on The Ed Sullivan Show. Jagger mumbled the title lines after threats of censorship (some claimed that the line was censored; others that Jagger actually sang “Let’s spend some time together”; Jagger later said, “When it came to that line, I sang mumble”). In February Jagger and Richards were arrested on drug-possession charges in Britain; in May, Brian Jones, too, was arrested. The heavy jail sentences they received were eventually suspended on appeal. The Stones temporarily withdrew from public appearances; Jagger and his girlfriend, singer Marianne Faithfull, went to India with the Beatles to meet the Maharishi Mahesh Yogi. The Stones’ next single release didn’t appear until the fall: the #14 “Dandelion.” Its B side, “We Love You” (#50), on which John Lennon and Paul McCartney sang backup vocals, was intended as a thank-you to fans.

In December came Their Satanic Majesties Request, the Stones’ psychedelic answer record to the Beatles’ Sgt. Pepper - and an ambitious mess. By the time the album’s lone single, “She’s a Rainbow” had become a #25 hit, Allen Klein had become the group’s manager.

May 1968 saw the release of “Jumpin’ Jack Flash,” a #3 hit, and a return to basic rock & roll. After five months of delay provoked by controversial album-sleeve photos, the eclectic Beggars Banquet was released and was hailed by critics as the band’s finest achievement. On June 9, 1969, Brian Jones, the Stones’ most musically adventurous member, who had lent sitar, dulcimer, and, on “Under My Thumb,” marimba to the band’s sound, and who had been in Morocco recording nomadic Joujouka musicians, left the band with this explanation: “I no longer see eye-to-eye with the others over the discs we are cutting.” Within a week he was replaced by ex–John Mayall guitarist Mick Taylor. Jones announced that he would form his own band, but on July 3, 1969, he was found dead in his swimming pool; the coroner’s report cited “death by misadventure.” Jones, beset by drug problems - and the realization that the band now belonged squarely to Jagger and Richards - had barely participated in the Beggars Banquet sessions.

At an outdoor concert in London’s Hyde Park a few days after Jones’ death, Jagger read an excerpt from the poet Shelley and released thousands of butterflies over the park. On July 11, the day after Jones was buried, the Stones released “Honky Tonk Women,” another #1, and another Stones classic. By this time, every Stones album went gold in short order, and Let It Bleed (a sardonic reply to the Beatles’ soon-to-be-released Let It Be) was no exception. “Gimme Shelter” received constant airplay. Jones appeared on most of the album’s tracks, though Taylor also made his first on-disc appearances.

After going to Australia to star in the film Ned Kelly, Jagger rejoined the band for the start of its hugely successful 1969 American tour, the band’s first U.S. trip in three years. But the Stones’ Satanic image came to haunt them at a free thank-you-America concert at California’s Altamont Speedway. In the darkness just in front of the stage, a young black man, Meredith Hunter, was stabbed to death by members of the Hell’s Angels motorcycle gang, whom the Stones - on advice of the Grateful Dead - had hired to provide security for the event. The incident was captured on film by the Maysles brothers in their feature-length documentary Gimme Shelter. Public outcry that “Sympathy for the Devil” (which they had performed earlier in the show; they were playing “Under My Thumb” when the murder occurred) had in some way incited the violence led the Stones to drop the tune from their stage shows for the next six years.

After another spell of inactivity, the Get Yer Ya-Ya’s Out! live album was released in the fall of 1970 and went platinum. That same year the Stones formed their own Rolling Stones Records, an Atlantic subsidiary. The band’s first album for its own label, Sticky Fingers (#1, 1971) - which introduced their Andy Warhol - designed lips-and-lolling-tongue logo - yielded hits in “Brown Sugar” (#1, 1971) and “Wild Horses” (#28, 1971). Jagger, who had starred in Nicolas Roeg’s 1970 Performance (the soundtrack of which contained “Memo From Turner”), married Nicaraguan fashion model Bianca Perez Morena de Macias, and the pair became international jet-set favorites. Though many interpreted Jagger’s acceptance into high society as yet another sign that rock was dead, or that at least the Stones had lost their spark, Exile on Main Street (#1, 1972), a double album, was another critically acclaimed hit, yielding “Tumbling Dice” (#7) and “Happy” (#22). By this time the Stones were touring the U.S. once every three years; their 1972 extravaganza, like those in 1975, 1978, and 1981, was a sold-out affair.

Goats Head Soup (#1, 1973) was termed the band’s worst effort since Satanic Majesties by critics, yet it contained hits in “Angie” (#1, 1973) and “(Doo Doo Doo Doo Doo) Heartbreaker” (#15, 1974). It’s Only Rock n’ Roll (#1, 1974) yielded Top 20 hits in the title tune and a cover of the Temptations’ “Ain’t Too Proud to Beg.” Mick Taylor left the band after that album; and after trying out scores of sessionmen (many of whom showed up on the next LP, 1976’s Black and Blue), the Stones settled on Ron Wood, then still nominally committed to Rod Stewart and the Faces (who disbanded soon after Wood joined the Stones officially in 1976). In 1979 Richards and Wood, with Meters drummer Ziggy Modeliste and fusion bassist Stanley Clarke, toured as the New Barbarians.

Black and Blue was the Stones’ fifth consecutive LP of new material to top the album chart, though it contained only one hit single, the #10 “Fool to Cry.” Wyman, who had released a 1974 solo album, Monkey Grip (the first Stone to do so), recorded another, Stone Alone. Jagger guested on “I Can Feel the Fire” on Wood’s solo first LP, I’ve Got My Own Album to Do. Wood has since recorded several more albums, and while none were commercial hits (Gimme Some Neck peaked at #45 in 1979), his work was generally well received.

The ethnic-stereotype lyrics of the title song from Some Girls (#1, 1978) provoked public protest (the last outcry had been in 1976 over Black and Blue’s battered-woman advertising campaign). Aside from the disco crossover “Miss You” (#1), the music was bare-bones rock & roll - in response, some speculated, to the punk movement’s claims that the band was too old and too affluent to rock anymore.

Richards and his longtime common-law wife, Anita Pallenburg, were arrested in March 1977 in Canada for heroin possession - jeopardizing the band’s future - but he subsequently kicked his habit and in 1978 was given a suspended sentence.

In 1981 Tattoo You was #1 for nine weeks (1980’s Emotional Rescue also went to #1) and produced the hits “Start Me Up” (#2, 1981) and “Waiting on a Friend” (#13, 1981), the latter featuring jazz great Sonny Rollins on tenor saxophone. The 1981 tour spawned an album, Still Life, and a movie, Let’s Spend the Night Together (directed by Hal Ashby), which grossed $50 million.

Through the ’80s the group became more an institution than an influential force. Nevertheless, both Undercover (#4, 1983) and Dirty Work (#4, 1986) were certifiable hits despite not topping the chart, as every new studio album had done in the decade before. Each album produced only one Top 20 hit, “Undercover of the Night” (#9, 1983) and “Harlem Shuffle” (#5, 1986), the latter a remake of a minor 1964 hit by Bob and Earl.

Jagger and Richards grew estranged from each other, and the band would not record for three years. Jagger released his first solo album, the platinum She’s the Boss, in 1984. His second, 1987’s Primitive Cool, didn’t even break the Top 40. Richards, who’d long declared he would never undertake a solo album (and who resented Jagger’s making music outside the band), countered in 1988 with the gold Talk Is Cheap, backed up by the X-Pensive Winos: guitarist Waddy Wachtel and the rhythm section of Steve Jordan and Charley Drayton.

The two Stones sniped at each other in the press and in song: Richards’ album track “You Don’t Move Me” was directed at his longtime partner. Nevertheless, shortly before the Rolling Stones were inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, in January 1989 the two traveled to Barbados to begin writing songs for a new Stones album. Steel Wheels (#3, 1989) showed the group spinning its wheels musically, and were it not for the band’s first American tour in eight years, it is doubtful the LP would have sold anywhere near its 2 million copies. But the 50-date tour, which reportedly grossed $140 million, was an artistic triumph. As the group’s fifth live album, Flashpoint (#16, 1991), demonstrated, never had the Stones sounded so cohesive onstage.

Bill Wyman announced his long-rumored decision to leave the group after 30 years, in late 1992. “I was quite happy to stop after that,” the 56-year-old bassist told a British TV show. The announcement helped deflect attention from Wyman’s love life: In 1989 he married model Mandy Smith, who was just 131⁄2 when the two began dating. The couple divorced in 1990, the same year that Mick Jagger finally married his longtime lover, Jerry Hall. (Jagger and Hall would later split up.)

The early ’90s were a time for solo albums from Richards - Live at the Hollywood Palladium and Main Offender (#99, 1992)and Jagger’s Wandering Spirit (#11, 1993). Neither sold spectacularly; apparently fans are most interested in Jagger and Richards when they work together. Wood released Slide on This, his first solo album in over a decade, and Watts pursued his real love, jazz, with the Charlie Watts Orchestra.

In 1994 Jagger, Richards, Watts, and Wood, along with bassist Darryl Jones (whose credits include working with Miles Davis and Sting) released the critically well-received Voodoo Lounge (#2, 1994) and embarked on a major tour that proved one of the highest-grossing of the year, earning a reported $295 million. Voodoo Lounge brought the Stones their first competitive Grammy, 1994’s Best Rock Album award. Voodoo Lounge was also the group’s first release under its new multimillion-dollar, three-album deal with Virgin Records, which included granting Virgin the rights to some choice albums from the Stones’ back catalogue, including Exile on Main Street, Sticky Fingers, and Some Girls. After having languished in storage for nearly three decades, the Rolling Stones’ Rock & Roll Circus concert film and soundtrack was released in 1996, which featured the Stones in the era of Beggars Banquet, and other rock luminaries - the Who, Jethro Tull, John Lennon and Yoko Ono, Eric Clapton, Taj Mahal, and more - as well as various acrobats, fire-eaters, and other circus artists who performed routines between songs.

Meanwhile, back to their standard time lapse of three years between tours, the Stones released Bridges to Babylon (#3, 1997, their 19th platinum LP) and launched yet another lavish, sold-out worldwide tour, where they played two-hour concerts consisting of only a few songs off the new album and lots of hits. Corporate sponsorship was particularly intense: long-distance carrier Sprint, for example, paying $4 million to print its company logo on tickets and stage banners. In 1998 the Stones released the obligatory tour album, No Security.

In 1997 Richards coproduced and played on Wingless Angels, an album of Rastafarian spirituals; guested, with Elvis Presley guitarist Scotty Moore, on All the King’s Men, a tribute to Presley; and with the rest of the Stones, played on B.B. King’s Deuces Wild. Assembling the roots-rock band the Rhythm Kings, with Peter Frampton and Georgie Fame sitting in, Bill Wyman put out three albums in the late ’90s. Watts continued his jazz excursions with 1996’s orchestral offering, Long Ago and Far Away, and then forayed into world beat with a 2000 collaboration with veteran session drummer Jim Keltner. Mick Taylor’s recording career revived, as the ex-Stone put out Stonesy releases with Carla Olson.

In 2000 “Satisfaction” topped a VH1 Poll of 100 Greatest Rock Songs. Jagger gained more attention in the social columns. In 1998 29-year-old Brazilian model Luciana Gimenez Morad claimed that she was pregnant with his child; Jagger disagreed. Jerry Hall filed for divorce. Jagger, despite the couple’s four children, maintained that their Hindu nuptials did not constitute a legal marriage. When Morad’s child was born, DNA tests concluded that Jagger was indeed the boy’s father

A Brief Musical History

1969: After forming a band which would be known a “TW4” a few years prior, neighbors Dennis DeYoung and brothers Chuck and John Panozzo enroll at Chicago State University. Although the band had already performed in, and around, the Chicago area, C.S.U. would become the group’s base. The trio hooks up with another student, John Curulewski, who takes over the helm on guitar.
1970: Guitarists James “JY” Young- who was performing with a rival band in Chicago-joins the quartet. The new line-up begins taking a different direction with more musical experiments, with classical/rock fusions and electronic trickeries.
1971: The band’s demo is heard by the Wooden Nickel label, who would subsequently offer the band a recording contract the following year.
1972: The band is renamed STYX after a mythological river if the dead-a decision made by the band members. STYX I is released. The single, “Best Thing” (written by DeYoung and “JY”), reaches the Top 100 on the charts by the end of the year.
1973: STYX II is released, and although it doesn’t chart immediately, the Dennis DeYoung penned ballad, “Lady”, gets considerable airplay on Chicago radio. The band concentrates on their touring efforts in support of the single’s success, and creates a vast following of fans. The band will release The Serpent Is Rising toward the end of the year.
1974: The Serpent is Rising cracks the Top 200 Albums Chart in February, followed up by Man of Miracles, which reaches even higher position in November. “Lady” would be re-released as a single with national promotion, and the song would be propelled to #6 on the U.S. charts.
1975: STYX II rockets up the charts as a result of the success of “Lady.” It would reach #20, and sell over 500,000 units. In September, after searching for a larger and more supportive label, STYX would sign with powerhouse A&M Records. Two months later, Equinox, featuring the single “Lorelei”-would be the first A&M release, immediately reaching gold status (and eventually going platinum). At the end of the year, guitarist John Curulewski would leave the band. The band’s road manager recommends 23-year-old Tommy Shaw-then guitarist for Chicago based band “MS Funk”-as a replacement. A week after auditioning, Tommy Shaw joined the band.

1977: On July 7th (7/7/77), the band released The Grand Illusion.
1978: In January, A&M Records releases the single “Come Sail Away,” which would enter the Top 10. The parent album, The Grand Illusion, hits #6 as a result of the single’s success, and eventually becomes the first album from STYX to go platinum. The singles, “Fooling Yourself (The Angry Young Man),” and “Miss America” contribute to the success of the album. Later in the year, the band would follow up with another platinum-selling album (reaching #6) titled, Pieces of Eight, featuring the hit singles, “Blue Collar Man (Long Nights),” “Renegade,” and “Sing for the Day.”
1979: A national Gallup poll would reveal that STYX is the most popular rock band with teenagers (13-19 year olds). By December, the band’s newest album release, Cornerstone, would hit #2 on the U.S. charts, earning the band it’s third consecutive platinum album. The singles, “Babe” (reaching #1 on the charts and becoming their highest-selling single of their career), “Why Me,” and “Borrowed Time” generate mass sales.
1981: Beginning early in the year, STYX would embark on an ambitious 110 date, six-month North American tour. In April, the album Paradise Theatre would be released, soon reaching platinum success (STYX would now have four consecutive platinum albums under their belt), and remaining at #1 on the U.S. charts for three weeks. Two hit singles-“The Best of Times” and “Too Much Time on My Hands”-reach #3 and #9, respectively, on the U.S. charts. The band would become the first in the history of rock ‘n’ roll to have four consecutive triple-platinum albums.
1983: STYX releases concept album, Kilroy Was Here, and will tour in support of it most of the year. A stage act is built around the album, in which costumed band members have roles and dialogue in addition to performing songs. It would become one of the most ambitious rock ‘n’ roll tours ever. The single “Mr. Roboto,” reaches #3, and becomes the second million-selling single in the band’s history (“Babe” being the first). Another single, “Don’t Let It End,” also goes Top 10.
1984: The band releases a double live album titled, Caught in the Act. Although the album is well received by the record buying public, both Dennis DeYoung and Tommy Shaw decide to pursue solo projects (also on A&M records). Subsequently, the band is put on hold. Dennis DeYoung’s Desert Moon and Tommy Shaw’s Girls With Guns both enter top 50.
1985: In December, Tommy Shaw releases What If, which enters the Top 100, and spawns a single, “Ever Since the World Began.”
1986: Dennis DeYoung releases second solo album, Back to the World, and will also contribute a single (not from album), “This Is the Time,” to the movie, “The Karate Kid Part II.” James Young released his first solo effort, City Slicker, a collaboration with Jan Hammer.
1988: Dennis DeYoung releases another solo album, entitled Bloomchild (on MCA)
1990: Tommy Shaw forms a new band, Damn Yankees, with former Night Ranger vocalist/bassist Jack Blades, guitar virtuoso Ted Nugent, and drummer Michael Cartellone. The self-titled debut album will produce two hit singles, “High Enough” and “Coming of Age,” and will eventually sell over 2 million copies on Warner Bros. Records. The band tours extensively with Bad Company, and the album reaches #26. Toward the end of the year, STYX will reunite without Shaw (replaced by Glen Burtnik), and will release the album, Edge of the Century, which begins to garner acclaim.
1991: A single from Edge of the Century titled, “Show Me the Way,” begins chart ascension into the Top 10 during the Gulf War. With the success of the single, STYX joins an elite group of acts who have had Top 10 hits under each of the last four United States Presidents (and Top 10 hits in three different decades).
1992: Damn Yankees release their second effort, Don’t Tread, on Warner Bros. Records. The album, which features the singles “ Don’t Tread” and “Where Are You Goin’ Now?, would eventually reach platinum status. The video for the title track would be aired throughout the 1992 Olympics.
1994: In addition to playing the roll of Pontius Pilate in the national company of Jesus Christ Superstar (to rave reviews), Dennis DeYoung cuts an album of show tunes for Atlantic Records entitled 10 on Broadway.
1995: STYX release Greatest Hits: Volume 1, featuring a re-recorded version of “Lady” with Tommy Shaw (who had not yet joined the band when it was originally recorded). Tommy Shaw and Jack Blades release an album, Hallucination, as Shaw*Blades (Warner Bros. Records). The album would be co-produced by Don Gehman of REM/John Mellencamp fame. James Young forms the James Young Group, with other Chicago musicians and tours in support of their album, Raised by Wolves (Absolute/Whitehouse).
1996: In May, the classic (and most successful) line-up returns with “The Return to the Paradise Theatre” tour, which was seen in over 50 cities. Greatest Hits: Volume II was released in the summer featuring a few new songs. For the first time in thirteen years, Dennis DeYoung, James Young, Tommy Shaw, and Chuck Panozzo were “Rockin’ The Paradise.” Again…
1997: In May, CMC International Records, a division of BMG Entertainment, releases a double album of new studio tracks plus live recording of Greatest Hits from the ’96 tour, appropriately titled, Return to Paradise. Due to popular demand, STYX embarks on a 50-city North American tour in support of the release.
1998: Tommy Shaw releases a solo album in CMC, 7 Deadly Zens and hits the road opening shows for Lynyrd Skynyrd. Dennis DeYoung returns to his theatrical calling as his “Hunchback of Notre Dame” enjoys a successful run in Nashville. The band starts making plans for a new studio album-the classic line-up’s first in 16 years.
1999: The band goes in to the studio in Chicago and Los Angeles to record Brave New World which is released on June 29th. A tour begins in July, which will run through the end of the year.
2000: The band embarks on a 40 city co-headline tour with REO Speedwagon. The tour is so successful that the two bands record and release a double live album and DVD, “Arch Allies – Live at Riverport”. They then extend the tour (to date, Styx and REO have played over 90 shows together, consistently generating hugely successful box office numbers.)
2001: Styxworld Live 2001 is released, containing tracks recorded in Canada, Japan and Germany. The band continues its heavy touring schedule, playing 121 shows, including a 40 city tour with Bad Company that donates over $100,000 to the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame’s Education Fund, marking the first time in history that the Rock Hall attaches its name to a tour.
2002: Styx plays over 90 shows and records a new studio album, set for release in the winter of 2003.
2003: Styx releases Cyclorama on February 18, 2003. The band tours extensively throughout the year in support of the record.

The story of the most successful rock group in history is much to long to cover .

Here is a brief biography in "time line" form.

March, 1957: John Lennon forms a skiffle group called The Black Jacks. The name later changes to the Quarry Men.

July 6, 1957: John meets Paul McCartney through their mutual friend, Ivan Vaughan at a church function.

July 20, 1957: Paul is invited to join the Quarry Men.

October 18, 1957: Paul plays his first live gig with the band at the New Clubmore Hall in Liverpool. Playing lead, his performance was so weak, he is demoted to rhythm guitar.

February 6, 1958: 15 year old George Harrison meets the Quarry Men. Impressed with his guitar skills, the others invite him to join the band.

March 25, 1959: Ringo joins Rory Storm and the Hurricanes.

August 29, 1959: The Quarry Men, consisting of John Lennon, Paul McCartney, George Harrison, and Ken Brown play at the Casbah, a club owned by Pete Best's mother.

October 10, 1959: After seven gigs at the Casbah, Ken Brown leaves the group.

November 15, 1959: John, Paul, and George play as a trio, calling themselves Johnny & the Moondogs. They still have no drummer, but pass an audition for Carroll Levis' TV Star Search at Liverpool's Empire Theatre.

January 1960: Stuart Sutcliffe, a friend of John Lennon, joins the trio after selling one of his paintings and using the money to buy a bass guitar.

May 1960: The group began to call themselves the Beatals. (note the odd spelling)

May 1960: The band is joined by drummer Tommy Moore and change their name to the Silver Beetles. Moore only played with them for a short while. During that time period, they auditioned for Larry Parnes and appeared on a small tour of Scotland backing singer Johnny Gentle.

July 1960: Norman Chapman becomes the next drummer, but was called up for National Service. This causes problems for the Silver Beetles, who had dates booked in Hamburg, Germany, and were playing for Allan Williams at the Jacaranda Club and the New Cabaret Artistes Club. Williams also acquired other bookings for the band at the Grosvenor Ballroom. The band would once again change their name, this time to the Silver Beatles.

August 12, 1960: Pete Best took over the drum seat and the name The Beatles was born. Between this date and December 1962, the group would play gigs at the Indra, Kaiserkeller, Top Ten and Star clubs.

December 27, 1960: After returning to Liverpool, The Beatles played at Litherland Town Hall, prompting fan frenzy.

February 9, 1961: The Beatles perform for the first time at the Cavern Club, in a lunchtime performance.

March 21, 1961: The band plays their first evening gig at the Cavern Club.

Spring 1961: Stuart Sutcliffe, suffering from increasingly bad headaches, quits the Beatles.

June 22 / 23 1961: The Beatles make their first recordings when they back singer Tony Sheridan. Producer Bert Kaempfert lets them record a couple of tunes by themselves.

November 9, 1961: Brian Epstein visits the Cavern Club to hear the group.

December 3, 1961: The Beatles attend their first business meeting with Epstein at his record store.

December 6, 1961: John accepts on behalf of the group, Brian's offer to manage them.

January 1, 1962: Brian Epstein takes the band to an audition at Decca Records. The 15 songs they recorded were later rejected.

January 4, 1962: A music paper called Mersey Beat polled readers about the top band in Liverpool, and the Beatles took highest honours.

April 10, 1962: Stuart Sutcliffe dies of a brain hemorrhage. He was 21.

June 6, 1962: The Beatles audition for George Martin, a producer at EMI. Although his initial reaction was that "they were pretty awful", he signs them and will become their producer throughout their career.

August 15 / 16 1962: At the record company's urging, Pete Best is fired from the Beatles and Ringo Starr is lured away from Rory and The Hurricanes to replace him.

August 23, 1962: John marries Cynthia Powell.

October 5, 1962: Their first single, "Love Me Do" is released and is a modest hit, reaching #17 on the UK chart.

January 19, 1963: The Beatles make their first TV appearance on Thank Your Lucky Stars, where they perform "Please Please Me".

February 11, 1963: In just under ten hours, the band records ten songs for their first album, "Please Please Me".

April 8, 1963: Cynthia Lennon gives birth to John's son, John Charles Julian Lennon.

August 1, 1963: A monthly magazine about the group called The Beatles Book is first published.

August 3, 1963: With their popularity soaring, The Beatles play the Cavern Club for the last time.

September 10, 1963: The Beatles receive an award for Top Vocal Group of the Year at the Variety Club Awards.

November 2, 1963: The Daily Mirror coins the term Beatlemania in a show review.

November 16, 1963: Clark's Grammar School in Guildford, Surrey becomes the first institution to suspend boys for sporting a Beatles haircut.

January 20, 1964: The album "Meet the Beatles!" is released by Capitol Records in the US and by February 15 it is number one on Billboard's chart, remaining there for 11 weeks.

February 7, 1964: The Beatles land at JFK Airport in New York.

February 9, 1964: The Beatles perform on The Ed Sullivan Show and are watched by a record-setting 73 million people. They perform, "All My Loving", "Till There Was You", "She Loves You", "I Saw Her Standing There" and "I Want To Hold Your Hand".

February 11, 1964: The Beatles give their first live performance in the U.S. at the Washington Coliseum in Washington, D.C.

February 12, 1964: The band performs at Carnegie Hall in New York City.

March 2, 1964: They begin to film their first movie. Although the working title was "Beatlemania", the band rejected the name immediately. Paul had suggested "What Little Old Man?", but producers wanted something more distinctive. The name is changed after Ringo makes the off-handed comment, "Its been a hard day's night, that was". Filming is completed in eight weeks at a cost of $500,000.

July 6, 1964: "A Hard Day's Night" premieres in London. The film gets wonderful reviews by fans and critics.

August 11, 1964: "A Hard Day's Night" opens in America.

February 11, 1965: Ringo marries Mary (Maureen) Cox.

February 23, 1965: Shooting begins in the Bahamas on the Beatles' second movie. The original title of the film was "Eight Arms to Hold You", but is later changed to "Help!"

June 12, 1965: The Beatles are named Members of the British Empire by the Queen.

July 29, 1965: The Beatles second feature film, "Help!" opens in London. It opens in the U.S. on August 11 that year. The movie cost $1.5 million to make.

August 15, 1965: The Beatles play for 55,600 people at New York's Shea Stadium, which is a record, grossing $304,000 dollars. (The Beatles' share was $160,000.)

August 27, 1965: The Fab Four meet Elvis Presley at his Beverly Hills home.

September 13, 1965: Ringo and Maureen have a son, Zak Starkey.

January 21, 1966: George marries Patricia Ann (Pattie) Boyd

March, 1966: John Lennon causes a national stir when he is quoted in London's Evening Standard as saying that The Beatles are "more popular than Jesus now". He would later apologise, but by this time, thousands of Beatle records had been smashed by angry fans.

May 1, 1966: The Beatles give their last proper British concert at Empire Pool, Wembley, where they play a 15 minute, 5 song set.

August 6, 1966: John Lennon's remarks about Jesus have caused a giant stir in the US. Brian Epstein holds a press conference in New York to explain.

August 11, 1966: John apologises to the press and tries to explain what his remarks about Jesus really meant.

August 13, 1966: Not satisfied with Lennon's explanation, radio station KLUE in Longview, Texas organizes a "Beatles Bonfire". The next morning, the station's transmission tower is struck by lightning, halting all broadcasting.

August 29, 1966: The Beatles give their last live concert, in San Francisco, California.

June 1, 1967: "Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band" is released in the U.K. It tops the charts all over the world, holding the number one slot in Britain for 27 weeks and for 19 in America. It receives four Grammys including Best Album.

June 25, 1967: Our World, a two-hour satellite television program starring the Beatles was transmitted live by satellite to five continents and 24 countries. They performed "All You Need is Love". It was the first live television satellite program to air worldwide.

August 19, 1967: Ringo and Maureen have a second son, Jason.

August 27, 1967: Brian Epstein dies of an accidental drug overdose.

August 29, 1967: Epstein's family holds a private funeral that the Beatles did not attend.

October, 17, 1967: A memorial service is held for Brian Epstein is held at a synagogue in Abby Road.

December 26, 1967: "Magical Mystery Tour", the Beatles' hour-long television special airs in the U.K., where it is seen by approximately 14 million viewers. The show was panned by critics.

May 14, 1968: John and Paul appear on The Tonight Show with Johnny Carson, where they publicly denounce their earlier association with the Maharishi Mahesh Yogi.

July 17, 1968: The movie Yellow Submarine premieres in London. It opens in America several months later.

July 20, 1967: Much to Paul's surprise, his girlfriend, Jane Asher announces that their relationship is over.

August 22, 1967: Cynthia Lennon files for divorce from John on the grounds of his adultery with Yoko Ono.

August 23, 1967: Ringo quits the Beatles and walks out during a recording session for "The White Album".

September 3, 1967: Ringo rejoins the group.

January 30, 1969: The Beatles perform together for the last time, live, on the roof of Apple's London office. Later, film of the event will become part of the documentary Let It Be.

March 12, 1969: Paul marries photographer Linda Louise Eastman, a 25 year old divorcee with a six year old daughter. Despite rumours to the contrary, she is not related to the Eastmans of Eastman-Kodak fame.

Mid-September, 1969: John decides to leave the Beatles, but he does not announce it publicly because of contract negotiations taking place with EMI. George and Ringo also have quit the band for short spells, returning soon after.

September 26, 1969: The Beatles last album of original songs, "Abbey Road", is released in the U.K. It tops the charts there and in America.

November 25, 1969: John returns his MBE award.

January 3, 1970: The group's final recording session takes place at EMI's Abby Road studio, where Paul, George and Ringo add some finishing touches to George's song "I, Me, Mine" for the "Let It Be" album.

April 10, 1970: Paul announces publicly that he has left the group and says that they will never work together again.

April 9, 1971: Ringo releases his first single, "It Don't Come Easy".

August 3, 1971: Paul announces the formation of his new group, Wings, with drummer Denny Siewell and former Moody Blues guitarist, Denny Laine.

December 4, 1971: John publicly attacks Paul in the letters section of Melody Maker.

January, 1975: The London High Court officially dissolves The Beatles and Company partnership.

May, 1979: Paul, George and Ringo reunited for a jam session at Eric Clapton's wedding to Pattie Boyd Harrison.

1980, December 8: John Lennon was shot to death in New York City. John had spent the evening recording at the Hit Factory studio, and returned to the Dakota apartments around 11.00 p.m. As he and Yoko stepped from the cab and made their way to the Dakota's entrance, Mark David Chapman came out of the shadows."Mr. Lennon" he said quietly, and Lennon turned. At that instant, Chapman fired five bullets into the rock star, hitting him in the chest, back and left arm. He then calmly put the gun down and took a book out of his coat pocket, sat cross-legged on the sidewalk, and started to read. John was pronounced dead thirty minutes later. Earlier in the day, he had autographed an album for Chapman.




Just hours after being caught on this photograph getting Lennon's autograph,
Mark David Chapman had murdered his so-called idol.
Ringo, who had remained friendly with all the other members of The Beatles throughout the years, was the first to come to comfort Yoko.

August 1981: Mark David Chapman is sentenced to prison for 20 years to life. Over the next few months, Chapman would claim many times to have been beaten by fellow inmates, some of whom allegedly tried to kill him with items like scissors. He also says he had thought about murdering other celebrities, including TV star Johnny Carson.

June 1996: "Free As A Bird" peaks at number 2 on the UK charts and number 6 in the US. Written by John Lennon and performed by him on piano on a rough demo shortly before he was murdered, the track was completed by the remaining Beatles at Paul McCartney's own home studio. The track would win two Grammy Awards in 1997.

Spring 1998: The three surviving Beatles: George Harrison, Ringo Starr and Paul McCartney reunite for the first time in years at a London memorial service for McCartney's wife, Linda, who died on April 17, of breast cancer.

Summer 1998: George Harrison discloses that he had been battling throat cancer for more than a year and had surgery to remove a lump in his neck.

December 30 1999: George Harrison, 56, was hospitalized after being stabbed in the chest by an intruder who broke into his Oxfordshire mansion. Authorities said his condition was not life-threatening.

Harrison and his wife, Olivia, were attacked when an intruder broke into their home about 3:30 a.m. in Henley on Thames, about 25 miles West of London. Harrison received superficial injuries and a one-inch stab wound that was deep enough to penetrate his chest wall but missed any major organs, said Andrew Pengelly, medical director of the Royal Berkshire Hospital.

Harrison was hospitalized at Royal Berkshire Hospital in nearby Reading in stable condition. His wife, who received only superficial injuries, was not admitted to the hospital, but was at Harrison's side, the spokeswoman said. Harrison and his wife struggled with the intruder, believed to be a Liverpool man, and that they apparently were able to detain him until police arrived. The Police said a 33-year-old man was arrested following the incident, and was also being treated for undisclosed injuries, but was then discharged into police custody, authorities said.

The Harrisons lived at Friar Park, a former nunnery close to the center of historic Henley, for more than 20 years. Security at the walled estate is tight, and it was unclear how the intruder managed to enter the house.

In September, 2000: The Recording Industry Association of America announced that, not too surprisingly, The Beatles still enjoy an uncontested lead for all-time album sales by an artist. According to a news release from the RIAA, six Beatles albums gained multiplatinum status in July.

Topping the list is "The Beatles", better known as The White Album, which hit the 18 million mark and is one of the seven highest certified albums of all time.

The album "Love Songs" reached 3 million, "Revolver" shot up to 5 million, "Magical Mystery Tour" is currently certified at 6 million, and both "The Beatles 1962-1966" and "The Beatles 1967-1970" stand at 14 million and 15 million, respectively. These new calculations bring The Beatles' total album sales to a whopping 113.5 million copies.

October 2000 :At his first parole hearing, John Lennon's killer, Mark David Chapman was denied parole.

On November 29th, 2001: George Harrison lost his battle with cancer at the age of 58. He had been flown from a Long Island hospital to receive treatment at the U.C.L.A Medical Center in California. George had reportedly met with surviving band mates Paul McCartney and Ringo Starr, to say their final good-byes a few weeks earlier. Harrison passed away at a friend's house, in the company of his wife Olivia Harrison and their 24 year old son Dhani.

June 11, 2002: Paul marries former model, Heather Mills.

October 2002: Mark David Chapman is again denied parole.

October 2004: Chapman's parole application is turned down for the third time.

May 2006: Paul McCartney and his wife Heather Mills McCartney agreed to separate. The couple, who had been married for four years, said they had "with sadness" agreed to split after finding it "increasingly difficult" to maintain a normal relationship in the glare of the public eye.

October 2006: After a 16 minute hearing, 51 year old Mark David Chapman is told by a three member parole board panel that he must remain at Attica Correctional Facility for at least two more years.

December 2006: A 78-minute audio collage of some of The Beatles best work called "Love" debuts at number 4 on the Billboard Hot 200 chart. The album was conceived by former producer George Martin and his son Giles as a stageshow soundtrack to Cirque de Soleil's Las Vegas spectacular of the same name.

George Thorogood Biography:
A blues-rock guitarist who draws his inspiration from Elmore James, Hound Dog Taylor, and Chuck Berry, George Thorogood never earned much respect from blues purists, but he became a popular favorite in the early '80s through repeated exposure on FM radio and the arena rock circuit. Thorogood's music was always loud, simple, and direct -- his riffs and licks were taken straight out of '50s Chicago blues and rock & roll -- but his formulaic approach helped him gain a rather large audience in the '80s, when his albums regularly went gold.

Originally, Thorogood was a minor-league baseball player but decided to become a musician in 1970 after seeing John Paul Hammond in concert. Three years later, he assembled the Destroyers in his home state of Delaware; in addition to Thorogood, the band featured bassist Michael Lenn, second guitarist Ron Smith, and drummer Jeff Simon. Shortly after the group was formed, he moved them to Boston, where they became regulars on the blues club circuit. In 1974, they cut a batch of demos which were later released in 1979 as the Better Than the Rest album.

Within a year of recording the demos, the Destroyers were discovered by John Forward, who helped them secure a contract with Rounder Records. Before they made their first album, Lenn was replaced by Billy Blough. Thorogood & the Destroyers' eponymous debut was released in early 1977. The group's second album, Move It On Over, was released in 1978. The title track, a cover of Hank Williams' classic, was pulled as a single and it received heavy FM airplay, helping the album enter the American Top 40 and go gold. Its success led to MCA's release of Better Than the Rest, which the band disdained. In 1980, Ron Smith left the band and the group added a saxophonist, Hank Carter, and released their third album, More George Thorogood and the Destroyers.

Following the release of More George Thorogood, the guitarist signed with EMI Records, releasing his major-label debut, Bad to the Bone, in 1982. The title track of the album became his first major crossover hit, thanks to MTV's saturation airplay of the song's video. The album went gold and spent nearly a full year on the charts. Thorogood's next three albums after Bad to the Bone all went gold. Between Bad to the Bone and Thorogood's next album, 1985's Maverick, the Destroyers added a second guitarist, Steve Chrismar.

By the beginning of the '90s, Thorogood's audience began to decrease. None of the albums he released went gold, even though the title track from 1993's Haircut was a number two album rock hit. Despite his declining record sales, Thorogood continued to tour blues and rock clubs and he usually drew large crowds; subsequent efforts included 1997's Rockin' My Life Away, 1999's Half a Boy/Half a Man, Live in '99, 2003's Ride 'til I Die, and 2006's The Hard Stuff.

Stiff Upper Lip is the 17th album from a group that many would call the world’s greatest rock band. The 12-song disc finds AC/DC as unflappable as ever, a vibrant, vital rock band at the top of their game.

Anchored by one of rock’s most rhythmic duos - brothers Angus and Malcolm - and buoyed by the infamous throaty drawl of singer Brian Johnson, Stiff Upper Lip not only serves up the kind of carnal shards that fans have come to expect, (it’s their first studio album in five years) but also tips its hat to the blues-rock-roots of AC/DC and brother/producer George Young - who returns to the work the boards for the first time since 1978’s classic Powerage. "Malcolm and I were sitting around going over possible producers one day," recalls Angus. "We started talking about records and stuff and the idea of using George again just snapped into our heads at the same time. Obviously he knows what AC/DC is all about. For us there has always been that subtle blues element in what we do. All good rock has that foundation of the blues in it somewhere."

From Angus’ scorching intro on the album’s title song, "Stiff Upper Lip," to the bluesy stomp of "Meltdown," right through the clipped bursts of thunderous guitar on the rousing "Can’t Hold Me Back," it’s evident that the boys’ camaraderie set the tone. "It was fun to make this record," says Angus. "We never like to be under pressure, and no band should make an album like it’s some sort of a chore. George likes to capture the character of the people in the studio and I think we did that. He doesn’t care so much about what’s technologically correct, as long as it sounds like AC/DC."

Vocalist Brian Johnson says he has another barometer when making an AC/DC record.

"This one was a 135,000 cigarette album," he laughs. "I can always tell if we’re making a good one, when the smokes are going before, during, and after a take."

Angus agrees: "We’re a bit like the old army when we go into record. Don’t forget that the number one staple in World War I and II was tobacco." A proper metaphor for a band that has never looked over their shoulder.

"We know who we are," says Angus. "We trust each other and rely on that. A lot of music you hear starts getting that fast food mentality - just put it out. We’ve never been about that." Brian says the process of give and take is important, as well. He points out that "Stiff Upper Lip" was a song that captured the band’s playful approach. "When the boys first played me that riff I just started going off in what I like to call my ‘Satchmo’ voice," laughs Brian. "I was like ‘is this too much?’ But the boys were ‘no, no that’s perfect.’ We had such a great vibe making this record. I think all the brothers had such simpatico going with the guitar exchanges and riffs – the whole thing was just a refreshing ball."

Other standouts fans will be flocking to are the blistering "Satellite Blues" and the slippery ride of "Can’t Stand Still." "I love that one," says Brian. "When I listen to that song it reminds me of everything that’s fun and alive about rock n’ roll. I sang it through in one take and if you listen at the end you can even hear the boys applauding. That’s the kind of atmosphere we had throughout the making of this album."

No wonder. George Young has produced some of AC/DC’s most classic albums, including their 1974 debut High Voltage, 1977’s Let There Be Rock, 1978’s If You Want Blood (You Got It), and Powerage. Says Brian: "I think the album has a wonderful feel – almost pre-Back In Black (produced by Mutt Lange) – which was the AC/DC era where George’s hand was felt the most. He really makes recording exciting. He makes it feel like everyone is contributing their best all of the time."

Back In Black, of course, is also a bittersweet demarcation line in AC/DC folklore. The band’s original singer, the legendary Bon Scott, died tragically before the making of what some consider AC/DC’s milestone work. Brian Johnson was chosen in April of 1980, and quickly stepped up to record the album the following month. Fans embraced the disc like no other AC/DC album. It would go on to make history for AC/DC, breaking dozens of sales records, and landing them sold out concerts across the globe, forever cementing their reputation as hard rock’s preeminent troubadours.

From their very first gig in the early ‘70’s in Sydney, Australia at a place called the Chequers Club (artists such as Sammy Davis Jr. and Frank Sinatra performed there) the AC/DC legend grew in direct proportion to the band’s take-no-prisoners philosophy. "We’d play anywhere anytime, and not always to adoring fans," laughs Angus. "But we never stopped playing – mostly in fear of what would happen when we did." The group earned their stripes as one of rockdom’s most dedicated live bands, with Angus’ schoolboy attire becoming one of the most famous trademarks in rock history.

Throughout the years, AC/DC has managed to create that rarest of bond between their fans. Whether it was the classic Let There Be Rock of 1977, the anthem laced Highway To Hell of 1979, or the pseudo-best of collection, Who Made Who of 1986, the soundtrack for Stephen King’s movie Maximum Overdrive (He’s one of the group’s most vocal fans) AC/DC has never given in to the crass commercialism or shameless self-promotion that have scarred other bands’ careers.

Their most recent release, the 1997 Bonfire box set, a 5-CD collection crafted by the band as a tribute to Bon, was done with the usual AC/DC understatement. "That project wasn’t ever about nostalgia," says Angus. "It was about his spirit. We even called on fans to help us track things down."

Angus has said that one of the keys of AC/DC’s longevity has always been the ability of their audience to relate to them. "We always stop and say ‘what would our fans think?’" says Angus. "Sometimes it’s like we’re on a first name basis with ‘em. We’ve learned never to pay too much attention to the trends, or to what the experts are telling you is the next big thing. Our fans know what to expect from us. And that’s how we approach making a record. I always say sometimes it’s the guy digging the ditch that can tell you more about building the road then all the engineers put together."

Survivor was formed in the cold Chicago winter of 1977. The original lineup consisted of Frankie Sullivan, Jim Peterik, Dave Bickler, Dennis Johnson, and Gary Smith. By the end of 1978, Survivor was signed to a record deal with Scotti Bros. Records. Under the patronage of John Kolodner, then head of A&R for Atlantic Records, Survivor went into the studio to cut their first album, "Survivor". This record, released in 1980 with the single "Somewhere in America", did moderately well and started to build a loyal base of fans.

After touring for 8 months, the band went back into the studio, this time with the addition of Marc Droubay (drums) and Stephen Ellis (bass). The result of those sessions, "Premonition," is considered by many fans to be their favorite Survivor record. The album was released in 1981 with the singles "Poor Mans Son" and "Summer Nights." This record improved on the first album’s success, although it was still not the big breakout the band was looking for - that was to come with the 1982 release of "Eye of the Tiger."

The title song for this record was expressly written for the opening scenes of Rocky Three which brought the band national attention. "Eye of the Tiger" spent seven weeks at the #1 spot on the U.S. charts. The song won a Grammy, Oscar nomination , and was voted "Best New Song" by the Peoples Choice Awards. The band toured extensively playing in sheds and stadiums all over the country for the next 8 months.

1983 found Survivor back in the studio at work on "Caught in the Game." Release of this title track continued their successful string of hit singles. It was at this time, however, that Dave Bickler decided to leave the band. He was replaced by Jim Jamison on lead vocals, leading to the release of "Vital Signs" in 1984 - the fifth Survivor album. It achieved multi-platinum status with the hit single "Can’t Hold Back", a song that reached the top ten pop charts and made #1 on the album rock charts. This was followed by "High on You," another top ten hit, and "The Search is Over" which reached #2 on the hot 100.

The next ten months found Survivor once again on tour, this time in the U.S. and the world. Despite a hectic schedule, the band was still able to take time out to record "Burning Heart," the title track for Rocky 4. The song went all the way to #2 on the hot 100 charts, propelling the sound track album to multi-platinum status. It was 1987 before Survivor had time to stop and make another record. "When Seconds Count" contained another top ten single, "Is This Love," which stayed at the #9 spot for almost a month.

In 1988 Survivor released its seventh album, "Too Hot to Sleep." Although not the huge commercial success of some of their other efforts, it is still considered by many critics and fans alike to be one of Survivor’s best. This album included the singles "Across the Miles" and "Didn’t Know It was Love".

In 1989 Survivor released its first greatest hits package. This led to the release in 1993 of a second and more complete greatest hits package which included some re-mixes of earlier material and two new cuts written especially for this CD. This also included the return of Dave Bickler on lead vocals, as by this time Jim Jamison had left the band to pursue a solo career. The singles "You Know Who You Are" and "Hungry Years" marked a return to the collaboration that first propelled Survivor to national attention. Since then, Survivor has been extensively touring and recording in the U.S. and abroad. Now the new millennium marks the return of Jimi Jamison on lead vocals. This is the start of another new and exciting chapter in the history of Survivor.

Formed: 1973 in Rockford, Illinois
Years Active: 1973 through present.
Group's Main Members: Rick Nielson, Robin Zander, Bun E. Carlos, Tom Petersson, Jon Bryant

Back in the 60s, rock n roll oddball Rick Nielson began collecting bizarre guitars and studying esoteric British bands like Family and the Move. Tooling around the world, he returned to hometown Rockford, Illinois, and wound up in various outfits with avuncular drummer Bun E. Carlos. With lies of success, Nielson fooled bassist-in-crime Tom Petersson into leaving Europe to join. Soon, young folk singer Robin Zander was on board and Cheap Trick was born. The band played anywhere and everywhere, soon opening for the Kinks, Journey and Kiss. Nielson amassed a huge song portfolio before legendary producer Jack (Aerosmith, John Lennon, Zebra) Douglas finally led the quartet into the studio for their self-titled debut in 77. Cheap Trick showcased the Trick throwaway aesthetics of brilliant stupidity ("Hot Love"), wily irreverence ("Daddy Should Have Stayed in High School") and high-voltage pop genius ("He’s a Whore," "Oh Candy"). Chicago murderer Richard Speck was the topic of "Ballad of TV Violence" while "ELO Kiddies" is the cleverest Japanese toy/nuclear generation/Jeff Lynne song ever. In-house producer Tom Werman cleaned up the follow-up, In Color (77), for the radio and polished their third, Heaven Tonight (78), into a shining AOR gem. Few bands could turn songs about barbiturates ("Downed") and suicide ("Auf Wiedersehen") into chugging arena anthems, so Cheap Trick prepared for world domination. Merging the lines of metal, punk and Top 40, this golden stage is encapsulated by the brilliant "Surrender." Meanwhile, the band was already on top in Japan, documented on the stopgap live release At Budokon (79), which pushed the band to platinum status though it was originally intended for Japanese-only release. Thundering versions of "I Want You to Want Me" and the oldie "Ain’t That a Shame" were actual hits, bolstered by the band’s pioneering visual sense and Live at Leeds propulsion. After the abrupt Budokan, much momentum was lost by the impending release of the studio-intensive Dream Police (79). Though the title track, "Way of the World," and "I Know What I Want" were well-crafted singles, the roaring energy circulated by the live platter seemed to evaporate with the heady 70s. Petersson grew disenchanted, pulling a Yoko move with wife Dagmar, and left after the underrated All Shook Up (80), ironically produced by George Martin. Tick lost its commercial footing, unobtrusively releasing over-looked movie songs (two greats on Heavy Metal) for overlooked USA "Up All Night" movies and even "starred" with Debbie Harry in the animated movie Rock & Rule. Jon Bryant replaced Petersson and Trick dropped three eclectic pop artifacts: the compressed One on One (82) with Queen’s uber-producer Roy Thomas Baker; the quality Next Position Please (83) with kindred spirit Todd Rundgren; and Trick reunited with their first boardman, Jack Douglas, for the guilty pleasure Standing on the Edge (85). But when the clanging and bizarre Doctor (86) also slipped under the pop radar, the ever-encroaching record company took over. Petersson returned for Lap of Luxury (88), a calculated commercial confection with 3D production from Ritchie Zito. Trick scored a number one record with the lighter-ballad "The Flame." And "Don’t Be Cruel" was the first Elvis cover to hit the Top Ten since his death. But outside songwriters distanced Trick from their own records, and the vacuous Busted (90) increased the polarity between the power-party stage band and their adult-contemporary schlock tunes. Still playing wicked shows at state fairs and barbecues, Trick seemed to lose heart. In 94, a fresh start at Warner Brothers resulted in Woke Up with a Monster which accelerated Trick’s descent into obscurity. But Smashing Pumpkin Billy Corgan, an Illinois native who cut his teeth on vintage Trick, installed a new life force. Trick released another record, reissued their first four classics and began selling out shows again. Through it all, Cheap Trick weathers on like always, rockin’ like big dogs night after night .

Rock's longest, strangest trip, the Grateful Dead were the psychedelic era's most beloved musical ambassadors as well as its most enduring survivors, spreading their


message of peace, love, and mind-expansion across the globe throughout the better part of three decades. The object of adoration for popular music's most fervent and celebrated fan following -- the Deadheads, their numbers and devotion legendary in their own right -- they were the ultimate cult band, creating a self-styled universe all their own; for the better part of their career orbiting well outside of the mainstream, the Dead became superstars solely on their own terms, tie-dyed pied pipers whose epic, free-form live shows were rites of passage for an extended family of listeners who knew no cultural boundaries.


The roots of the Grateful Dead lie with singer/songwriter Jerry Garcia, a longtime bluegrass enthusiast who began playing the guitar at age 15. Upon relocating to Palo Alto, CA, in 1960, he soon befriended Robert Hunter, whose lyrics later graced many of Garcia's most famous melodies; in time, he also came into contact with aspiring electronic music composer Phil Lesh. By 1962, Garcia was playing banjo in a variety of local folk and bluegrass outfits, two years later forming Mother McCree's Uptown Jug Champions with guitarist Bob Weir and keyboardist Ron "Pigpen" McKernan; in 1965, the group was renamed the Warlocks, their lineup now additionally including Lesh on bass as well as Bill Kreutzmann on drums.


The Warlocks made their electric debut that July; Ken Kesey soon tapped them to become the house band at his notorious Acid Tests, a series of now-legendary public LSD parties and multimedia "happenings" mounted prior to the drug's criminalization. As 1965 drew to its close, the Warlocks rechristened themselves the Grateful Dead, the name taken from a folk tale discovered in a dictionary by Garcia; bankrolled by chemist/LSD manufacturer Owsley Stanley, the band members soon moved into a communal house situated at 710 Ashbury Street in San Francisco, becoming a fixture on the local music scene and building a large fan base on the strength of their many free concerts. Signing to MGM, in 1966 the Dead also recorded their first demos; the sessions proved disastrous, and the label dropped the group a short time later.


As 1967 mutated into the Summer of Love, the Dead emerged as one of the top draws on the Bay Area music scene, honing an eclectic repertoire influenced by folk, country, and the blues while regularly appearing at top local venues including the Fillmore Auditorium, the Avalon Ballroom, and the Carousel. In March of 1967 the Dead issued their self-titled Warner Bros. debut LP, a disappointing effort which failed to recapture the cosmic sprawl of their live appearances; after performing at the Monterey Pop Festival, the group expanded to a six-piece with the addition of second drummer Mickey Hart. Their follow-up, 1968's Anthem of the Sun, fared better in documenting the free-form jam aesthetic of their concerts, but after completing 1969's Aoxomoxoa, their penchant for time-consuming studio experimentation left them over 100,000 dollars in debt to the label.


The Dead's response to the situation was to bow to the demands of fans and record their first live album, 1969's Live/Dead; highlighted by a rendition of Garcia's "Dark Star" clocking in at over 23 minutes, the LP succeeded where its studio predecessors failed in capturing the true essence of the group in all of their improvisational, psychedelicized glory. It was followed by a pair of classic 1970 studio efforts, Workingman's Dead and American Beauty; recorded in homage to the group's country and folk roots, the two albums remained the cornerstone of the Dead's live repertoire for years to follow, with its most popular songs -- "Uncle John's Band," "Casey Jones," "Sugar Magnolia," and "Truckin'" among them -- becoming major favorites on FM radio.


Despite increasing radio airplay and respectable album sales, the Dead remained first and foremost a live act, and as their popularity grew across the world they expanded their touring schedule, taking to the road for much of each year. As more and more of their psychedelic-era contemporaries ceased to exist, the group continued attracting greater numbers of fans to their shows, many of them following the Dead across the country; dubbed "Deadheads," these fans became notorious for their adherence to tie-dyed fashions and excessive drug use, their traveling circus ultimately becoming as much the focal point of concert dates as the music itself. Shows were also extensively bootlegged, and not surprisingly the Dead closed out their Warners contract with back-to-back concert LPs -- a 1971 eponymous effort and 1972's Europe '72.


The latter release was the final Dead album to feature Pigpen McKernan, a heavy drinker who died of liver failure on March 8, 1973; his replacement was keyboardist Keith Godchaux, who brought with him wife Donna Jean to sing backing vocals. 1973's Wake of the Flood was the first release on the new Grateful Dead Records imprint; around the time of its follow-up, 1974's Grateful Dead From the Mars Hotel, the group took a hiatus from the road to allow its members the opportunity to pursue solo projects. After returning to the live arena with a 1976 tour, the Dead signed to Arista to release Terrapin Station, the first in a series of misguided studio efforts that culminated in 1980's Go to Heaven, widely considered the weakest record in the group's catalog -- so weak, in fact, that they did not re-enter the studio for another seven years.


The early '80s was a time of considerable upheaval for the Dead -- the Godchauxs had been dismissed from the lineup in 1979, with Keith dying in a car crash on July 23, 1980. (His replacement was keyboardist Brent Mydland.) After a pair of 1981 live LPs, Reckoning and Dead Set, the group released no new recordings until 1987, focusing instead on their touring schedule -- despite the dearth of new releases, the Dead continued selling out live dates, now playing to audiences which spanned generations. As much a cottage industry as a band, they traveled not only with an enormous road crew but also dozens of friends and family members, many of them Dead staffers complete with health insurance and other benefits.


Still, the Dead were widely regarded as little more than an enduring cult phenomenon prior to the release of 1987's In the Dark; their first studio LP since Go to Heaven, it became the year's most unlikely hit when the single "Touch of Grey" became the first-ever Dead track to reach the Top Ten on the pop charts. Suddenly their videos were in regular rotation on MTV, and virtually overnight the ranks of the Deadheads grew exponentially, with countless new fans flocking to the group's shows. Not only did concert tickets become increasingly tough to come by for longtime followers, but there were also more serious repercussions -- the influx of new fans shifted the crowd dynamic considerably, and once-mellow audiences became infamous not only for their excessive drug habits but also for their violent encounters with police.


Other troubles plagued the Dead as well: in July 1986, Garcia -- a year removed from a drug treatment program -- lapsed into near-fatal diabetic coma brought on by his continued substance abuse problems, regaining consciousness five days later. His health remained an issue in the years which followed, but the Dead spent more time on tour than ever, with a series of dates with Bob Dylan yielding the live album Dylan & the Dead. Their final studio effort, Built to Last, followed in 1989. Tragedy struck in October of that year when a fan died after breaking his neck outside of a show at the New Jersey Meadowlands; two months later, a 19-year-old fan on LSD also died while in police custody at the Los Angeles Forum.


As ever, the Dead themselves were also not immune to tragedy -- on July 26, 1990, Mydland suffered a fatal drug overdose, the third keyboardist in group history to perish; he was replaced not only by ex-Tubes keyboardist Vince Welnick but also by satellite member Bruce Hornsby, a longtime fan who frequently toured with the group. In the autumn of 1992 Garcia was again hospitalized with diabetes and an enlarged heart, forcing the Dead to postpone their upcoming tour until the year's end; he eventually returned to action looking more fit than he had in years. Still, few were surprised when it was announced on August 9, 1995, that Garcia had been found dead in his room at a substance abuse treatment facility in Forest Knolls, CA; the 53 year old's death was attributed to a heart attack.

While Garcia's death spelled the end of the Dead as a continuing creative entity, the story was far from over. As the surviving members disbanded to plot their next move, the band's merchandising arm went into overdrive -- in addition to Dick's Picks, a series of archival releases of classic live material, licensed products ranging from Dead T-shirts to sporting goods to toys flooded the market. Plans were also announced to build Terrapin Station, an interactive museum site. In 1996, Weir and Hart mounted the first Furthur Festival, a summer tour headlined by their respective bands RatDog and Mystery Box; in 1998, they also reunited with Lesh and Hornsby to tour as the Other Ones. In spirit if not in name, the Grateful Dead's trip continued on.

30 Years And Counting…

From their first LP in 1973, to their powerful stage presence today, the Marshall Tucker Band has played countless concert venues around the world. With the success of the Volunteer Jam Tour, and 1999 release of Gospel, the good ol’ boys from Spartanburg, South Carolina remain as a powerful force in the world of music.

The year 2003 should provide even more excitement as the band has added a “new” member to its lineup. David Muse has rejoined the Marshall Tucker Band after a three year absence. As a founding member of Firefall, David took sometime away from MTB to reunite with his bandmates. David originally joined MTB in 1996. We are truly grateful to have such a tremendous talent return on flute, sax and keys.

Tony Heatherly, a native of Greer, SC, joined the MTB on bass during the summer of 2001. He brings with him over four years of experience playing with the Toy Caldwell Band from 1988 to 1992. Also in August of 2001, Chris Hicks, a former member of the Outlaws, brought a scorching third guitar (not to mention killer vocals) to the Marshall Tucker line-up.

Doug Gray, lead singer, is quick to credit the band’s current dynamic members with carrying on the everlasting Marshall Tucker Band sound. In 1989, slide guitarist Stuart Swanlund joined the lineup of talented musicians. They also added the highly respected B.B. Borden, who is a former member of both Mother’s Finest and The Outlaws, on drums in the early 90’s.

“The buying public never really cared whether we were country or rock and roll” says founding member Doug Gray. “They called us a Southern rock band, but we have always played everything from country to blues and all things in-between. We’re still playing all of the classic songs, but we are moving ahead into other styles as well. We’re also playing for a younger audience than we have in the past, perhaps to the kids of the fans we played in front of in the 70’s and 80’s.”

Gray also notes that people have gotten “married and buried” to classic MTB songs like “Desert Skies” and “Can’t You See”. After nearly 30 years, The Marshall Tucker Band continues to be played on classic rock and country radio, and they have never stopped touring.

“We never play less than 150 shows a year, and sometimes we play as many as 200 shows. We feel we owe it to the fans who have supported us through the years to deliver the music in person,” says Gray.

Years of rigorous tour schedules earned the band the respect of critics and countless dedicated fans. With hit singles like “Heard It In a Love Song,” “Fire On The Mountain,” “Can’t You See,” and “Take The Highway,” The Marshall Tucker Band earned seven gold and three platinum albums while they were on the Capricorn Records label. During the 90’s, the MTB scored four hit singles on Billboard’s country chart and one on Billboard’s gospel chart. Their music has also been featured on the soundtracks of movies such as Smokey and the Bandit, The Pursuit of D.B. Cooper, and Shipwrecked.

The Marshall Tucker Band got its start in Spartanburg, S.C. when Gray teamed up with Tommy Caldwell and Toy Caldwell, Paul T. Riddle, George McCorkle and Jerry Eubanks, borrowing the name “Marshall Tucker” from a piano tuner who’s name was found on a key ring in their old rehearsal space. In 1972, they signed with Capricorn Records, the same label that guided The Allman Brothers Band, Wet Willie, and others to national fame. The MTB opened shows for The Allman Brothers in 1973, and the following year, they began to headline their own shows across America due to the platinum-plus sales of their debut album.

In years to come, The Marshall Tucker Band would wow critics and influence major country acts like Alabama, The Kentucky Headhunters, Confederate Railroad, and Travis Tritt with its definitive blend of rock, rhythm & blues, jazz, country, and gospel. Now, thanks to the expanding scope of today’s music, a new generation of fans is learning what the rest of their fans have known for so long- that good music knows no boundaries.

“As we’ve become older,” Gray grins, eyes twinkling, “our Southern heritage seems to come out even more. But no matter how old we get, we can still rock your socks off.”

The Marshall Tucker Band is:
Doug Gray – Lead Vocals
Tony Heatherly– Bass Guitar
Chris Hicks - Guitars
Stuart Swanlund – Slide Guitar
B.B. Borden – Drums
David Muse – Keyboards, Saxophone & Flute, Vocals