Bobby Vinton

One day while walking to a class, a sophomore stopped me and said, You play guitar right? I said yes but I knew he really wanted my drummer friend from first grade. He had been playing for some time. He had trophy’s in his room from competitions and it seemed everyone knew about him. He asked if I could get him and come up to his house to practice. It wasn’t called jamming yet but my drummers Dad drove us to his house to “practice”. While there, this sophomore showed me how to play seven songs. I was so excited and the three of us started a band. We found a bass player and began playing back yard graduations for free. During one of these gigs our bass player, who was trying to be cool sitting on his amp cabinet, fell off and tipped the whole amp over backwards. There happened to be a spring reverb in it and with our bass player wedged between the hedges and his amp the reverb howled like 50 police cars. We were embarassed and decided that it was time to get another bass player. This was no easy task so I eventually volunteered. After all Paul McCartney made the change and he was the coolest Beatle so why not give it a try. I signed up for a paper route and saved every cent to buy a bass. I found a used Hagstrom bass and I began the journey as a bassist. We added three horn players and an organ player and started playing frat parties and dances at the local schools as The Movin Violations. During one of our gigs and for some unknown reason at the time an older gentleman approached us and said, “Do you have a manager?” We said “no what did you need?” He said “I used to manage Bobby Vinton until he got so popular that he had to get people to handle his TV appearances and concerts and I would love for Bobby to hear you guys”. This was the first of many strange things that would follow. We had no original material and were quite green as actual artists. Bobby is from Cannonsburg, Pa. which wasn’t to far from Steubenville. He was coming home, to his Moms house for Christmas and this manager, who’s name was Joe had contacted him and asked if we could come up and play some songs for him. He said yes so we packed up our amps and drums and set up in his Moms living room. We met Bobby, which was a thrill and played a few songs for him. His 1962 hit “Roses Are Red” had charted #1 in the US and #15 in the UK so this was a big seal for us and also the first time I had the thought, “What am I doing here?” I would have this thought many times in the future but only saw them as a very cool thing but nothing spiritual, even though it inspired me to continue on.