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By: Clyde Bradley
The name Head East hasn’t
been seen on the charts since 1978. But the group is still soldiering on- and
has been in one form or another since its inception in 1969. Head East’s
original line-up consisted of Roger and Larry Boyd, Steve Huston, John Schlitt,
and Dan Piper but saw several line-up changes before the group went to work
on their debut, independent album “Flat as a Pancake” in the summer of 1974.
This album was initially released by Head East on their own label, Pyramid
Records. Largely due to the success of their single “Never Been any Reason,”
Head East caught the attention of A&M Records. A&M then re-released “Flat as a
Pancake” in 1975 and “Never Been any Reason” rose to 68 on the Billboard charts.
Head East hit Billboard pay dirt again with “Love me Tonight” (54) in 1976 and
“Since You’ve Been Gone”(46) in 1978.
Head East keyboardist and
band leader, Roger Boyd, has been the only member of the group to weather all
the storms and has kept the Head East dream alive in good times as well as bad.
He has recently assembled an entirely new Head East line-up and says when all is
said and done, this just may be the best Head East line-up yet. Boyd, a college
professor in the department of social work at the University of Illinois,
Edwardsville, by day, recently chatted with CRR about the original Head East,
the current Head East and the many Head East line-ups in between.
Clyde: Has Head East
been together in one form or another since its inception in 1969 or have there
been gaps?
Roger: No, it never has
stopped. It’s been continuous. The only “gap” you might be able to talk about is
that we don’t tour much during the winter anymore. So principally all our shows
are in summer, primarily between Memorial Day and Labor Day. We do a few other
shows as well. But even with all the line-up changes we’ve always continued to
forge ahead, entertain audiences and work on new material.
Clyde: Have you been in
every line-up? I noticed a section in the history section of your website where
it mentions you returning after a brief absence.
Roger: I think about 90
days was it. What had happened was we were one of the most successful regional
cover bands around and we had already done that with a couple different
line-ups. So I wanted to record. And in order to get ready to cut a quality
record doing your own material, you have to start making some different business
decisions. So I was at odds with everybody in the group. So I felt at the time
it was easier for me to take a little breather and hopefully they’d come to
their senses, which they did. So I came back in. Then when I came back, John
Schlitt and Steve Huston, that had left the act to finish their schooling, as
opposed to leave school to keep playing, came back in the band too. That was
part of the deal. Then we picked up Mike Somerville.
Clyde: I’m sure it’s
pretty much a no-brainer when you’re in The Rolling Stones or Aerosmith to keep
on trucking for over 30-years, but when you’re in a less famous band like Head
East that has experienced a few Top 100 Billboard hits in that same time span do
you find yourself fighting off impulses to throw in the towel often or do you
think your resolve is pretty much the same as the multi-platinum giants?
Roger: Well, we’ve worked
with Aerosmith a number of times. And we worked with Joe Perry when he was doing
the Joe Perry thing. Every body goes through lulls, no matter who they are. And
the ‘80s were pretty brutal for rock and roll bands. You know, back then we were
dinosaurs. Now we’re classic, which is great. That just means you’ve hung around
long enough and didn’t break down. You know, like a car. I was real discouraged
in the ‘80s. That’s part of the reason why in 95 I decided to go back to school.
But right about the time I decided to do that, classic rock started to come back
in. So there have been a couple of times I’ve thought about retiring or not
playing music for a while. But even with the discouragement, I love the music
that we do. And I love the fans and playing for a crowd. It would be difficult
for me, even now, as I try to phase out because of the responsibilities I have
at the university. Once you quit, it’s hard to come back.
Clyde: Do you have any
idea roughly how many different people have been in Head East over the years?
Roger: I couldn’t begin… I
mean, I could take some time to think but… No, I don’t pay much attention to
that. The current line-up I have now- since you’ve asked the question- I’ve
basically come back full circle. So this will be it for me. We’re back to the
original five-man format. And everybody sings. This particular line-up is
probably the best singing overall of any band I’ve had. And that’s hard to say.
That’s really going out there because the first set of guys were one of the best
singing bands in the business. So there’s been stuff we haven’t been able to do
with the last couple of bands because they didn’t sing as well.
Clyde: The original
line-up included your brother, Larry. Why did he leave the band?
Roger: He had a child. And
he was married. So right before we went to record the first album he decided
that he just couldn’t take the risk. Most everyone told us that doing our own
record wouldn’t be successful. In my opinion, most local records weren’t
successful because they tried to do them cheaply because they didn’t have enough
money or didn’t want to risk it. So we borrowed a lot of money and went to a
high-class studio. And consequently, our home-grown product was able to compete
with products that were coming out of the coasts. But he didn’t think he could
take that risk.
Clyde: That independent
project is basically how A&M picked you guys up- correct?
Roger: That’s correct. We
had 5000 albums and 500 8-tracks on our own label, Pyramid Records. We were
selling them out of the trunks of our cars. But we got a really big break when
we went back to Contemporary Productions, who was one of the big promoters at
the time in St. Louis. They took the album over to Shelly Graffman at Casey
Records right when album oriented rock was really picking up steam. And Shelly
loved it and whaled on it. Then KY102 picked it up in Kansas City. So “Flat as a
Pancake” was already a hit in two cities before we got to A&M.
Clyde: One of your
former singers, John Schlitt, ended up in the Christian rock band, Petra. Any of
your other former band mates have similar successes or have most of them settled
into regular day jobs by now?
Roger: Tony Gross who
played guitar for me for a while runs a studio up in Rochester, New York. Mike
Somerville still plays, but he’s way up in the woods in Wisconsin and plays
primarily in small, local cover bands. But most of them, no. Once you’ve played
in a national act, and then you have to go back to not playing in a national
act, that’s pretty tough.
Clyde: The history
section of your website talks about a line-up change in 2001 that stayed
together for a few years before you assembled a new band. What were the
circumstances that caused you to assemble a whole new band?
Roger: There were a couple
reasons. I’m a pretty good band leader. I’ve had some pretty good line-ups over
the years, so I think I can make that claim. You have to develop a certain
chemistry. So trying to pick people up one or two at a time and get everyone
locked in and everything else, number one, it takes a long time and number two
there’s a little bit of magic involved because you never know how everyone is
going to match up. And I was to the point where if I was going to keep playing
music, I felt like I couldn’t keep doing that. The energy drain is so great. So
I had an opportunity to have people join me. Two of the fellows I had worked
with before in a band called Bad Gypsy out of Kansas City. They were a really
good local band. I produced a record for them and we had a great rapport. And I
stayed in touch with the lead singer, Darrin Walker. So I saw them at a show and
we started talking. They had a part-time band in Kansas City, but they had been
keeping their chops up. So they’re all in Kansas City and have been playing
together for about nine years. So they’re already a band and have worked through
all the personality issues and getting along on the road issues. So that was
what I was looking for. And the fact that they are so much like the “original
band,” everyone calls the original Head East, the band that recorded “Flat as a
Pancake” but we started before that. But they were so much in character,
personality and talent wise- including three really knock-out brand new songs-
it was great. I’ve come full circle. I’m coming up on 40 years in the business
and that’s a sign. So for me, this is what I will do and when this ends, that
will be it for me.
Clyde: Was there a
particular Head East line-up or a specific Head East era you consider your
favorite?
Roger: The band that cut
“Flat as a Pancake,” that was a magical time. But it also was crazy. As you well
know. You’ve interviewed a lot of acts and you’ve interviewed acts that got over
that last ledge that we just didn’t quite get over. That so many bands don’t
quite get over to be mega-stars. I’m sure you interviewed a lot of people that
have gotten close. So that band obviously is right up there. But I’m not too
sure that when all is said and done that this won’t be my favorite band. It’s
kind of like being a parent. There’s always something special about your first
born and there’s also something special about your last one. So I’m pretty
excited. And people who have known me and worked with me for the last 30, 35
years are excited because I’m excited, which is good. I guess it’s good if an
old dog can still get excited.
Clyde: What was the
heaviest touring schedule you ever experienced?
Roger: Oh my gosh, there
were some years where we did 200 shows a year. But those days are gone. Nobody
does those kinds of shows anymore.
Clyde: Any road warrior
horror stories you’d care to share?
Roger: Actually, one of
the reasons we don’t tour much anymore in the winter is we’ve been through some
brutal winters. My brother’s daughter almost died because we couldn’t get her to
the hospital. We were snowed in for three days in the Carolinas, of all places.
But I did some winter dates up to not too long ago, even though I didn’t want
to. We were doing a run up to Chicago to do a couple of dates about three years
ago and the tour bus went off Interstate 55. And only by the grace of the
Almighty… I was in the back and I thought we all were going over. I was just
waiting to hear the crunch of metal and the screams. But the front end of the
bus caught the median and it threw the bus back up. And I said, ‘that’s it. I’m
done in the winter.’ And I’ve been through an emergency plane landing. I mean,
you name it. When you’ve been traveling for 40 years, you’ve been through about
everything.
Clyde: What’s the
biggest gig Head East has ever played?
Roger: The Cotton Bowl for
the Texas Jam 1978. As a matter of fact we’re putting a documentary together for
that anniversary, hopefully for VH1. I was just down in Dallas shooting some of
the footage for it. That was about 105,000 people. That one is seared in my mind
forever. CBS evening news did a piece on it and because we happened to be
playing at the right time, we were the clip they used. So that was pretty
exciting.
Clyde: Any new Head
East releases planned in the near future?
Roger: I was supposed to
have something done for Sony/BMG but I just didn’t get it done. I was changing
line-ups. So we’re planning on doing that. In this particular line-up, the bass
player and the guitar player are exceptionally good song writers. So we’re
definitely going to be working on a studio album as we go along this summer.
Clyde: Do you still
dream about seeing that multi-platinum record album hanging on the wall some
day, or are you content with where your career is at?
Roger: Well you can always
dream. But realistically, as a general rule, you don’t normally see
multi-platinum records at this point in your career. I can’t remember when the
one Aerosmith album came out that was big, that had the horns and stuff. But
that’s really unheard of. Very few of the classic rock acts… I mean everyone is
doing re-releases and new releases and everything else, and no one is having
that kind of success. Except for some of the fellows like the Van Zant brothers
that changed over to country. But sure, I’d love to have it. It would be great
to have multi-platinum. We have some good tunes capable of it. Part of the
problem is radio has changed so much. It’s really difficult to get enough new
material on the radio to make a difference. Everything has kind of gone to
American Idol and that kind of format. And that’s certainly not quite as
conducive to rock and roll bands.
WWW.HEAD-EAST.COM
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