Page 31 - Black Velvet Issue 97

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mum and dad and who was their mum and We would get out of school at 3 o’clock and And it’s not just the four members of the
dad and so on.” by 3.10 we were in the practise house and band who are a close family, but all of their
On the subject of family it is no great se- that was Monday through Friday. Saturday, families are as well and John Fred tells Black
cret that John Fred comes from a family of we would always stay at John Fred’s house, Velvet, “Actually, last night, our wives all
musicians, his father Richard and uncle so on Saturday morning we would be up by went out with a lot of our crew guys and two
Fred, comprising half of the Kentucky Head- 9 or 10 o’clock and again, we were at the very good friends from England who are in
Hunters, but he is not alone in having a fam- practise house. It was everyday. There Kentucky visiting. All our families know each
ily tree like this as Jon tells us about his wasn’t a day that went by when we weren’t other, we’re from a small town anyway, but
musically talented relatives. “My great-uncle, down there, so every memory I have from our crew guys are guys from around home
who passed in 1979, was a drummer in the being about 17-years old on till pretty much too and it really is one big family.” “Our kids
New England area, because most of my fam- when we started touring involves that literally get mad at us if they don’t get to
ily on my mom’s side is from Boston, Fram- house.” hang out with the other kids”, Jon adds.
ingham, around that area up north, and then And they are still making memories there The bassist continues, “My youngest,
they moved to Florida years and years later now. “Well, when the spiders aren’t running Ember, is constantly talking about his oldest,
when I was born. rampant,” Jon notes. John Fred quickly ex- Scout, because they are fairly close in age,
“He played drums with a guy called plains, “It’s better to use it in cold weather so anytime she sees Scout, she’s like, “It’s
Jimmy Cavallo, who was a big name in an I when the spiders are dead. I don’t like spi- Scout, I wanna go and say hi!” When we
Love Lucy kind of band, so when I was a kid ders. I don’t mind them if they are in the gar- were leaving to come over here all of us were
I was being played 8-tracks and vinyl records den! We have brown recluse spiders in trying to create a wall to prevent Scout and
of his playing and then my dad’s dad, my Kentucky and they are some of the deadliest Declan, Chris’ son, from running past us be-
grandpa, was a bluegrass songwriter who in the world. When they bite you, it like rots cause we were all standing in a parking lot
played guitar, mandolin, banjo and all that your flesh out so you have to really careful waiting for cars to take us to the airport!”
and I grew up around him. He was constantly with them.”
sitting down with all the grandkids around here are some references to women
him. I remember sitting on the floor and s we get closer to the 20-year an- Ton the new album, most obviously in
watching my grandpa play for hours on end. Aniversary of their formation in 2001 the song title ‘I Need A Woman’, but perhaps
“My dad picked up some of it. He’s not a they do so with the original line-up not only more interestingly in the song ‘My Last
big-time player or anything, but he knew how intact but clearly as strong and as unified as Breath’ which boasts the line of ‘Hell and
to play a few songs, so he would find me ever. John Fred says, “Family is the absolute high water she stuck right by my side’, so,
with the one guitar he had, hiding some- biggest factor in keeping us all together. having mentioned their partners we ask Jon
where in the house, because I wasn’t sup- Family is the number one thing, our families and John Fred how critical their love and
posed to touch it because I was too young outside of the band and our family as a band. support has been to them on their journey.
to play it, and he didn’t want me to break it. Every band goes through those things where Offering high praise, John Fred tells us, “We
He would show me a couple of things here you have hurdles in your life but we have all have great wives and great kids and it’s
and there, the major chords and so on. I just managed to stick it out.” tough leaving them. You have to do it and
ran with it from there.” Jon says, “The most difficult thing that you have to go and we love doing what we
It was in the HeadHunters’ practise you run into as a band, as a real band any- do, but it is hard leaving. A woman who is
house which is situated on John Fred’s fam- ways, is not the pitfalls of the industry, it’s with a musician is a certain breed, they have
ily’s land where they too honed their craft the pitfalls of your life and it’s how your to be cut from a different kind of cloth. They
and so it’s little surprise to learn they have friends that you are with every day of your have to be a very strong individual because
many happy and special memories from life on tour, it’s how they react to it and how we’re gone for so long.”
there. “Most of our memories are from there. they support you through it.” “It takes a strong woman to be able to

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