Well here's the part where I tell you about me....haha! My story I guess you could call it.
As I told you in the beginning, once I heard the Beatles, I went crazy! I just had to learn to play drums. So I signed up in school for band. Band was my favorite class in all of school. It was about the only class that I looked forward to going to. Through the years we played concerts, entered competitions, and performed in parades.
After a few years my parents decided (with a little begging from me) to get me a drum set. They bought me a silver sparkle set of Slingerland drums. I was in heaven. I joined and played in a few bands in my early teens. Just kids with garage bands with dreams of being rock stars. We played parties and drove the adults nuts! Then.......it happened.......I heard Jimi Hendrix. I wondered if I could learn to play guitar. Well again I begged and coaxed my parents into getting me a guitar. Then for Christmas, I think I was 14 or so, there it was. A Crestwood semi hollow bodied electric guitar with amp. My folks had no idea what they'd done. I got myself a Mel Bay teach yourself to play guitar in five minutes book and I was on my way. After many bleeding fingers and blisters, I could play a few songs. And believe me, it took longer than five minutes!
I had a couple friends who lived nearby that wanted to form a band. So one guy took up bass guitar and another guy played rhythm guitar with me on lead guitar. Our bass player knew a girl who could play drums. So with my drum set, we asked her to play with us. We messed around for a while trying to get something together. The girl playing drums told us that she knew a girl named Linda that was a good singer and that we should come over to her house and meet her. Me and the bass player went to her house and met Linda. She had a great voice! Little did I know at the time that I would spend the rest on my life with this girl.
Anyway we would get together and try to figure out songs and get something going. We played a couple of parties and a talent show at our high school but that was about it. After while everyone kind of drifted apart, except for Linda and me. When I was 22, Linda and I were married.
We fiddled around all these years playing and singing around the house and for friends. In 1980 I was laid off from my job. With nothing else to do, we would get together with some friends and jam. The girl that used to play drums with us was playing with us again and a guy Linda grew up with, was playing rythum guitar. We decided to form a band again. This soon fell apart too. At this time I wound up working at a place called Michigan Ladder. I met a guy who was working there that I used to go to school with. He was interested in playing drums. I also met another guy at Michigan Ladder that could sing pretty good and wanted to learn to play guitar. So I started to teach these guys what I could about playing these instruments. My wife Linda had always been interested in playing bass guitar. I think because she was in love with Paul McCartney.....haha! We had a friend named Larry that let Linda use his bass and amp during the week to practice. So we began this seemingly impossible task. Well we worked and worked and amazingly, we were getting pretty good!
We started playing at parties and such. We had to have a name. Linda came up with the name Running Free, although at the time we were playing for free mostly. The line up finally became me on lead guitar, Linda on bass guitar, Rex North on rhythm guitar and Rick Avery on drums.
A friend of ours told us about a Muscular Dystrophy Band-O-Rama at our local Moose Lodge, so we called them up and they said that we could audition at the show. We were scared to death.....haha! When we got there, the place was packed. We got up to do our set and when we got half way through it, the entertainment chairman came up to me and said to come to the back room when we were done. He wanted to book us! When we finished our set, they came up and asked us to do more. Wow.....this was it!
Anyway we continued to play for every Moose Lodge and Eagles club in our area. We also played for different festivals, weddings and events until 1991. We had played so much, we were just burned out! It was time to retire. We were together for 10 years. I decided to break up the band. It was a very hard decision, but it was time.
I wouldn't trade any of this for the world. We had some great times and some bad. And best of all! I still have my sweet Linda! She's the best thing I got out of my whole musical career.
Now we just play some around the house and when we go camping. I guess I've mellowed out through the years. Having your own band is a lot of hard work, but the memories are worth it!
This picture was taken at the MDA Band-O-Rama at the Moose Lodge in Ypsilanti, Michigan. Here's Rex North on the left, then Linda Franks on bass, Dan Franks in front and Rick Avery on drums.