![]() At an early age, Dan Gasser was torn between two often conflicting interests—music and sports. Born in 1964 and raised in Orange County, California, he recalls that his father, himself a pianist, was impressed when his son began to figure out songs using their piano when only eight years old. This early fascination and interest in music would in later years blossom into a successful career fronting an Elton John tribute band that has played throughout the U.S. and abroad. This early encouragement from his father inspired Gasser to continue practicing the instrument while later learning the music of Elton John. When still in high school, he not only excelled at soccer and other sports, but never discarded his interest in music since he continued to play in several local bands. “I graduated from El Toro High School in 1982 and went to a junior college for a couple of years. While there, I was a field goal kicker for their football program and then earned a football scholarship to Southwest Missouri State University in Springfield. That’s how I got to Missouri in 1984," he added. Much like his high school years, Gasser never lost an interest in music. In addition to attending classes and playing on the football team, he frequently played piano and sang at an area Holiday Inn. Then, in 1987, he graduated with his bachelor’s degree in organizational communication. Shortly after, he was hired by a company in Kansas City and moved to the area. Gasser recalled, “Back when I was 17 or 18 years old, I really became fascinated with the music of Elton John, and his music has always been one my favorites. In Kansas City, I was working a full-time job, like most musicians, and playing in cover bands 3 to 5 nights a week.” During many of his sets, Gasser performed Elton John songs, much to the elation of those in attendance. For a period of about three years, he decided to focus on music full-time and left Kansas City to play piano and perform on cruise ships. After returning to Kansas City, he was hired by Hudson Crop Insurance Services, Inc., and now serves as the company’s president. He immediately returned to performing music in the evenings and on weekends and was soon approached by someone who encouraged him to form an Elton John tribute band. “At first, I was a little reluctant to do a tribute band, but I had seen how much audiences loved the music and I wanted to share that experience,” he remarked. After playing my first show as a tribute, I was hooked and have never looked back." Known as Elton Dan and The Rocket Band, Gasser explained that he has never met his musical hero in person, but has been introduced to Elton’s guitarist, Davey Johnstone, and his drummer, Nigel Olsson. “Our band really began to take off and we have played all over the United States and places overseas, too,” he said. “We performed at the Pebble Beach Golf Club and sold out three shows at the Triple Door in Seattle.” He added, “We got in under the umbrella of Live Nation and did 84 shows last year and are on schedule to do more than 70 shows this year.” As part of the theatrics of his show, Gasser has remained dedicated to maintaining colorful costumes and a stage presence reflective of Elton John’s performances. Not only does he wear Gucci shoes and sunglasses that are the types which have been worn by the famed artist, he had special coats sewn for his own shows. “I met Marilyn Sims, who was a personal assistant to Donny and Marie Osmond,” Gasser shared. “After I got to know her, she started making me a couple of Elton John stage coats and they emulated the ones he wore almost perfectly.” With a grin, Gasser said, “It was like having a seamstress for the band.” In the song “Tiny Dancer,” Elton John sang in the first verse, “Blue jean baby, L.A. lady, seamstress for the band…” A couple of years ago, Gasser explained, he received a call from a Sam’s Club manager in Kansas City. He was informed that Elton John’s longtime partner, David Furnish, was coming to the area to promote a line of Elton’s eyewear and had heard about Gasser. “He wanted to meet me, and it was a great experience!” he exclaimed. Describing himself as “obsessed” with playing the piano, Gasser affirmed that not a day passes when he does not practice some songs. “Playing the piano is like breathing to me and Elton’s music not only reveals his genius as a songwriter and performer, but it is far from simple and can be challenging to emulate,” he said. The married father of one son, Gasser shared that although Elton Dan and The Rocket Band have done well financially in recent years, his dedication to music stems from something much deeper. “I have a good day job, so the money has been the least of it for me,” he said. “It’s always been for the love of the music … especially when I play the deep cuts that reveal what a genius Elton is as a performer.” Gasser concluded, “I work hard to make the shows true to form both visually and musically and always thank the audience for coming to share that experience with me.” For more information on Elton Dan and The Rocket Band, visit www.eltondan.com or search for them on Facebook. Jeremy P. Ämick is the author “Movin’ On,” biography of the rock band Missouri.
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![]() Samuel Legg was born in Maryland in 1776 and, like many young men coming up in the years after the American Revolution, crossed the country’s western frontiers to make his living in a new land. He married Elizabeth Horner, with whom he raised three sons and a daughter, and living many years in Tennessee before settling on a farm in rural Cole County in the 1830s. The Legg family began to grow and became actively involved in local government while many of the young men served in the Mexican-American War and later in the Civil War. The family continued to move to the nation’s hinterlands, leaving little evidence of their contributions in the Cole County area other than worn tombstones in cemeteries in Jefferson City and the Russellville area. “The public meeting of the citizens of Cole County was held at the court house of Jefferson City … for the purpose of making arrangements for the reception of the Cole (County) Infantry, who are soon expected home from Sante Fe,” The Metropolitan (Jefferson City) reported on July 20, 1847. “The chair appointed a committee of nine, whose duty it shall be to make all necessary arrangements … to give a BARBECUE to the Cole Infantry on their return home….” Samuel Legg was one of the members appointed to the committee by Gen. Gustavus Adolphus Parsons, who was the principal clerk of the circuit and county court and also served as adjutant general for Missouri. The committee was formed to welcome back troops who had served in the Mexican-American War. Gen. Parsons’ son, Capt. Mosby Monroe Parsons, commanded the Cole County Dragoons during this conflict, leaving “Fort Kearney June 3rd (1846), becoming Company F, First Missouri Mounted Mexican Volunteers,” wrote James Ford in “A History of Jefferson City, Missouri’s State Capital, and of Cole County.” One of Samuel Legg’s sons, James W. Legg, served in a company of infantry volunteers from Missouri under the command of General Sterling Price. James Legg went on to serve as a major with Union forces years later during the Civil War, as did his younger brother, Capt. John R. Legg. Born in 1822 while his parents were still living in Tennessee, James W. Legg was the oldest of his siblings. His mother, Elizabeth died in 1843 and was laid to rest in a small cemetery near Russellville now known as the Vanpool-Legg Cemetery. Her husband, Samuel, was 80 years old when he died in 1857 and is interred in the same cemetery. James W. Legg married Mary Ann Wear on November 16, 1843. The couple settled on a farm in the Clark Township of southern Cole County, where they raised their six children. In addition to his military service during the Civil War, Legg was active in local affairs of government. During the Cole County Radical Union Convention in 1864, James Legg was a delegate to the state convention that elected Thomas Clement Fletcher as governor of Missouri. Gov. Fletcher, during his administration, “dealt with amnesty for Confederate soldiers and sympathizers, emancipation of Missouri slaves, railroad bond defaults and the reorganization of the public school system,” noted the Missouri State Archives. Another brother of James, Samuel Harrison Legg, set an example of public service that would later be followed by a nephew. He was for many years a judge for the court in Cole County and, in 1872, was appointed by the governor to fill a vacancy in the Morgan County Court. William “Henry” Legg was the oldest son of James W. and Mary Ann Legg, born in Cole County on November 11, 1859. In later years, Henry was inspired by the same wandering spirit of his grandfather, moving to McDonald County in Southwest Missouri, where he met and married Lydia Sykes, a teacher in the local schools. The couple settled near Noel, where they raised two children. Like his father, Henry Legg made his living raising livestock and farming but also had an interest in local political affairs. For many years, he served as the presiding judge of the court located in the county seat at the city of Pineville. The Pineville Herald noted, “Died at the home of his parents, Curtis Legg, age 12 years. Curtis was the oldest son of Mr. and Mrs. Henry Legg. He had been sick for some time with pneumonia.” His wife later cared for her widowed mother, bringing her to live at their home when her health began to fail. She passed away in the summer of 1919, but tragedy again befell Henry Legg the following year when his 53-year-old wife died from complications related to a kidney condition. William Henry Legg died in 1936, having reached the age of 77. He was laid to rest alongside his wife in Fairview Cemetery in McDonald County. Less than ten years later, his youngest son and only surviving child, Ivan, died after a stove he was unloading at his home fell from the back of a truck and crushed his chest. For many years, Henry Legg and his family often visited his younger brother, James “Monroe” Legg. Monroe, like Henry, had grown up in Cole County yet later married and moved to Oklahoma, where he also pursued a career as a farmer. The 82-year-old passed away in 1950 and is buried in Centralia Cemetery in Craig County, Oklahoma. In A Hat Full of Sky, Terry Pratchett wrote, “Why do you go away? So that you can come back. So that you can see the place you came from with new eyes and extra colors. Living and contributing in their respective Cole County communities for decades, the Legg family spread their wings and made their mark within other towns throughout the country. Tombstones—broken, worn and too often forgotten—remain as the tenuous signature of the stories they have written in chapters of our local history. Jeremy P. Ämick is the author of the historical compilation “Moments on the Moreau.” ![]() Chris Fritz has experienced a storied career in the music industry ranging from promoting national bands and creating his own record label to helping build an amphitheater in Bonner Springs, Kansas. But perhaps the most notable piece of his music repertoire was a raucous music festival in Sedalia resulting in legal entanglements and his banishment from the Missouri State Fairgrounds for many years. Yet as he recently detailed during a phone interview, his lengthy journey into concert promotion and his active role in the music industry has roots that date back to when he was only a sophomore in high school. “Both of my parents were in the military—my dad was in the U.S. Navy and my mother was a WAVE,” Fritz explained. They were stationed at Pearl Harbor after the bombing. After my dad left the Navy, he decided to join the Coast Guard,” he added. Fritz was born in 1947 while his parents were living in Trevor City, Michigan. His parents later moved to Raleigh, North Carolina; however, his father then left the Coast Guard and went to work at an airport in Almara, New York. “During the second grade, my parents moved to Ohio, and we lived there until moving to Chicago in my freshman year … and that’s where I got the music bug,” Fritz said. “In 1964, the Beatles made their mark here in the states and there was a local band called the Roadrunners that dressed and acted like the Beatles.” He continued, “I got the school to let me use the gym to put on a sock hop and had the Roadrunners perform. We charged fifty cents a person for admission and made a total of $400. There were four guys in the band and me, so we each got eighty bucks, which was great money for us back then.” Motivated by his initial promotional success, Fritz continued to book the band nearly every weekend at local dances and selling out all the shows. “I was working at a clothing store, too, making about $1.75 an hour and when you made more than fifty dollars a show, that was like an entire week’s paycheck!” he exclaimed. Soon, because of fights that broke out at some of the dances, he had to find a new venue and was able to rent a small shop that they quickly outgrew. He then began renting a building with a 1,500-person capacity, booking bands to perform throughout his senior year. After graduating high school in 1965, he enrolled at Southern Illinois University in Carbondale. Smiling, he remarked, “SIU—Carbondale was voted the number one party school for two years that I was there.” Still interested in promoting musical acts, Fritz began booking bands to perform shows in Champagne, Illinois, and various locations off campus. He then rented a trailer park near campus with several homes and a courtyard, living in one and renting out the others, which left him with no expenses. “I threw a party in the courtyard of the park, sold beer and booked bands to play,” Fritz explained. “There would be times we would have between 300 and 500 people there and although I might spend $1,000, I might make a profit of $1,200.” With underage drinking becoming an issue, Fritz was placed on probation by the university, and he left school at the end of his second year. He worked briefly as a fireman with the Chicago & Northwestern Railroad and later rented a storefront where he sold records and other memorabilia. An interesting moment in his music experiences came in the late 1960s, when he and his girlfriend moved to New York for a couple of months, often hanging out with Lou Reed and the band Velvet Underground. Fritz then pulled up his stakes and moved to San Francisco, but later settled in Los Angeles, seeking to make a career of being a concert promoter on the West Coast. “I got taken advantage of several times and by that time my parents had moved to Kansas City; I visited them and thought the area had a lot of potential,” he recalled. “I moved to KC on July 4, 1970, and put an ad in the paper looking for investors to do some rock shows.” For a couple of years, he and a partner booked acts such as REO Speedwagon, Quicksilver, Spirit, Dr. Hook and the Medicine Show, and the James Gang, to perform at local venues including Memorial Hall. Despite certain challenges in scheduling talent, Fritz continued to make money promoting shows. “A rock and roll artist who said he was delayed by airline complications last night caused some anxious moments at Memorial Hall in Kansas City, but in the end most of the 4,500 persons who came stayed to hear the two performances,” reported the and March 5, 1973. Fritz explained in the article that Chuck Berry, who appeared “smug” over the incident, fulfilled his commitment to perform—albeit a little late—and the audience appeared to be understanding, with only 300 of the more than 4,000 fans requesting refunds. Fritz continued to seek avenues to take concert promotion to the next level and had the idea of a music festival that might rival Woodstock. It was 1974, and Fritz became one of the primary individuals who planned an event that would be the topic of discussions and subject of documentaries decades later. “I was only 26 years old at the time and the idea of the Ozark Musical Festival in the relatively small town of Sedalia was a pretty crazy idea,” he said. “My partner, Bob Shaw, and I had a budget of about $192,000 to book all the talent for a three-day event. In the end,” he continued, “Bob had a heart attack and there were a bunch of people looking to hang me, so I had to get out of town—and fast!” Part 2 By the summer of 1974, and despite his youth, Fritz had already acquired nearly a decade of experience as a concert promoter accompanied by increasing levels of monetary backing. Now, with his partner, Bob Shaw, they relied upon a rather meager investment to book the talent for a Woodstock-like festival at the Missouri State Fairgrounds in Sedalia. “With the venue booked in Sedalia, we had to start scheduling talent for the festival,” said Fritz. “Wolfman Jack was a popular radio disc jockey and I called and talked to him. I explained what we were planning to do with the festival, and he said, ‘I’ll be there!’ If I remember correctly, we paid him $5,000 to be the emcee.” The dates for the festival were set for July 19-21, 1974, and Fritz noted that one of the first items they coordinated was the purchase of good insurance coverage for the event. The concert tickets were sold for $15 a piece in advance and $20 at the gate. Using his promotional experiences from previous shows, he found creative means to advertise the event, including purchasing television spots at an affordable rate in major markets at early morning hours a full-page ad in Rolling Stone. “Booking the talent to play at the festival was one of the most important aspects of its success, we believed,” Fritz said. “A lot of the bands were just coming into their popularity, so we were able to get them pretty affordably, like Aerosmith, which I think cost us about $7,500.” Fritz continued, “Then we had bands like the Eagles, which were already quite popular, and I think we had to pay them around $15,000.” The concert became an epic roster of performers and included Lynyrd Skynyrd, Charlie Daniels Band, Nitty Gritty Dirt Band, Ozark Mountain Daredevils, Bob Seger, the Marshall Tucker Band, among many others. It was expected to draw around 50,000 attendees, but soon devolved into nearly uncontrollable mayhem as scores of music fans arrived in Sedalia. In the end, some reports claim that as many as 350,000 people may have descended upon the small town to witness the now historic music festival. “The town ran out of water and there was nothing in the stores,” Fritz said. “So many people arrived at the festival that they just tore down the gates and wouldn’t leave. My partner, Bob Shaw, had a heart attack and had to be taken to the hospital in Kansas City.” Roger Althoff was 19 years old and working for the California Feed and Supply Store in Moniteau County when the festival occurred. For a week prior to the event, he recalls hitchhikers walking west on U.S. Highway 50, heading to the festival. “I would haul fescue to Sedalia and pick up some of the hitchhikers, most who had come out of the St. Louis area, and give them a ride,” he said. “I decided to go to the festival on Friday and Saturday and there were so many people there that you couldn’t even see the stage.” He continued, “It was over 100 degrees and I remember they opened the fire hydrants so people could cool off and take showers. It was so hot that there were vendors with tanks iced down full of drinks and beverages, and people would just jump in them to cool off.” John McEuen, a founding member of the Nitty Gritty Dirt Band, recalls playing at the Ozark Music Festival. Fritz had him and the other band members flown into the event because of traffic congestion in the area. “The stage was 105 degrees and when I went onstage to play my lap steel guitar, I realized why Leo Kotke, who played before us, had a wet towel draped over his guitar. I poured water over the bar and my guitar to cool it off.” McEuen added, “The Dirt Band was very excited to be there, and I think we turned in a good set when we played for all those people.” News soon spread about drug usage, damage to property of area residents and sexual encounters taking place on the fairgrounds, resulting in the event being likened to the biblical Sodom and Gomorrah. On Sunday evening, Fritz learned that there was an angry mob searching for him because they were not pleased with the circumstances of the festival. “I got on the helicopter that I had rented to transport talent to and from the festival and we flew to the pilot’s hangar along I-70,” he recalled. “The helicopter experienced some mechanical problems and ended up making a hard landing, injuring my back.” Pausing, he added, “There were a lot of fines for cleanup and property damage, but we still ended up making money. Even after the legal fees and the restitution we made, I think my profit for the event was around $40,000.” In the years after the festival, Fritz started the Panama Records label, on which the bands Granmax and Missouri recorded. He continued a successful career in concert promotion throughout the Midwest and helped establish Sandstone Amphitheater in Bonner Springs, Kansas. Despite these career achievements, it is the Ozark Musical Festival with which he is most often associated. The Ozark Music Festival has become legendary in the annals of regional music history. It has inspired efforts to attempt to recreate the event, to a lesser extent, on its 50th anniversary in 2024 and is the topic of a documentary highlighting some of the reasons for its entry into pop culture. “It was the biggest festival—the Woodstock—of the Midwest … the largest in that part of America,” said John McEuen. “It was much better than the Altamont Festival on the West Coast and it doesn’t get the attention it deserves.” Roger Althoff noted of his attendance at the festival nearly five decades earlier, “It was truly something to see. It is part of our area history, and I am glad I went.” Jeremy P. Ämick is the author of the upcoming biography of the rock band Shooting Star. ![]() As the oldest of three children coming up in Kansas City, Missouri, Sebastian James was instilled with a love of music by his father who is a full-time musician. He recalls that when he was only two or three years old, he listened intently as his father played songs from popular rock artists like Dio and Queen, and “anything in-between,” and leaving him with jitters when hearing so many iconic songs for the very first time. Recognizing early on that he possessed his own inclination and talent for music, James enjoyed whistling, singing, or tapping along to the music he had heard. When he was ten years old, the official embarkation on his musical journey unfolded when he received his first instrument and began learning to play the drums. Years later, he is now seeing the fulfillment of his youthful efforts in the release of his very first album. “I started playing with my father when I was 13 years old,” James said. “He had a group that gigged locally and regionally and after his drummer left, I was able to convince him to let me play. From about 13 to 18 years old, I played in cover bands, and it started to put a little change in my pocket,” he smiled. Graduating from high school in Parkville, Missouri, in 2011, the aspiring musician was contacted by Nigel Dupree, the son of Jesse James Dupree, founder of the rock band Jackyl. Nigel had put together a national touring band and invited James to join the group as the drummer. “During this time, I had enrolled in classes at Park University, but it was also around the time they started doing remote classes,” James recalled. “So, for the next two or three years I toured with Nigel but was also doing my coursework.” The band was featured on seasons four and five of the reality television series “Full Throttle Saloon” which featured a saloon of the same name in Sturgis, South Dakota. But by 2015, the band’s schedule had slowed significantly although they continued to play a few pop-up festivals. James explained, “I found out my girlfriend was pregnant with our first child, so I needed to be around for that. My father had a group called Disco Dick that played a lot of large corporate-type events, so I began playing for him and started my own production company.” With a sigh, he added, “I was basically working eight days a week.” His son, Halen, was born in 2014, while James went on to earn his bachelor’s degree in business administration. He then enrolled in a master’s program, earning his MBA from Park University in 2018. The same year he earned his master’s, he was hired to do marketing for an architectural group in Kansas City, where he remains employed. Music and education always seemed to be present throughout my life,” he remarked. “During this exciting period, my fiancée and I married, and we had our second child, our daughter, Annastasia,” he proudly added. Never losing his passion for performing, James began quietly singing to himself while out for a jog or when taking a shower, seeking to improve his voice for backup vocals and harmonies. He came to the realization that his vocal abilities were on par with the lead singers of many groups he had seen, a realization that soon shifted the direction of his music career. Continuing to refine his vocal talents for the next couple of years, he became interested in being the front man in a band. It was around 2018, he said, that he formed The Rock Gods, paying tribute to a variety of rock acts from the 1980s. James is no longer behind the drum set but now provides lead vocals. Soon, he and The Rock Gods were receiving national-level attention and being booked for gigs in Maui, Hawaii, Myrtle Beach, South Carolina, and many points in-between. The band is consistently booked and traveling from Memorial Day until Labor Day. “My original project is ‘Sebastian James’ and my solo debut will be released this summer,” he explained. “It’s a full-length record called ‘Old School Cool’ and the music is like classic rock and Southern Rock with a little mix of country. It’s everything from Kid Rock to Aerosmith and the Black Crowes.” James and a few business partners have also established an independent label, Tungsten Records. Additionally, he has teamed up with Howie Rosen, the former Senior VP of Promotion at Casablanca Records. Rosen, while at Casablanca, helped break to national acclaim such acts as KISS and the Village People. Rosen has since founded Howard Rosen Promotion, Inc., and his team is now working with James to promote the Sebastian James solo project. “It’s been a wild ride this past year cutting a record at B-24 Studios near Union Station in Kansas City,” James said. “I’ve not only kept busy working on this solo project but have performed with The Rock Gods, run a production company and private label, while also doing my marketing job, too.” The motivation behind his drive to pursue so many projects, he explained, is to leave a legacy that can someday be passed on to his children. “The reason I do anything is for my family … to hopefully build a business platform that they can walk into someday,” he said. “For now, I keep pursuing the music because I feel like I still have great stories to tell and songs to write.” He added, “I love performing and when I finish a show, I’m the first one at the merchandise booth and the last one to leave. I figure if people can take the time to come to my shows and hear my songs, it’s my responsibility to be around because their support means so much to me.” Jeremy P. Ämick is the author of “Movin’ On,” biography of the rock band Missouri. Granmax - Marine Corps veteran Chaz Nikias embraces resurgence of hard rock band’s popularity5/12/2024 ![]() As a Marine Corps veteran wounded in combat during the Vietnam War, Chaz Nikias did not have an early foundation that might incline him toward a career in rock and roll music. After returning to the states following his discharge, he eventually returned to the Kansas City area and began performing with local bands. The crescendo of his music experience arrived when he was discovered by a local concert promoter and connected with a band that had only a brief career but has recently enjoyed a resurgence in popularity in countries such as Italy and Greece. “I was only 20 years old when I got out of the Marine Corps and when I came back home to Overland Park (Kansas), I worked a lot of different jobs just trying to find my space,” Nikias recalled. “When I was younger, I had sung in a Greek Orthodox Church and that was the beginning of my interest in vocals,” he added. Nikias united with several musicians from Kansas City—including Bill Guffey who later played keyboards in Shooting Star and Dan Smith who performed with Riverrock—and formed a band. They spent some time together performing at private parties and other small events with Nikias on bass guitar and vocals. As the years passed, Nikias went on to sing vocals in several other area bands. “Somewhere along the line, I formed a band called Bullseye,” he recalled. “We rehearsed for two months and got a job opening for Shooting Star at an outdoor concert and Chris Fritz was in the audience. Ron West, who later formed the band Missouri, introduced me to Chris Fritz. He then told me to come by his office and see him the following Monday.” Chris Fritz had established himself as a concert promoter in the Kansas City region and, in 1974, had helped coordinate the Ozark Music Festival in Sedalia. Then, in 1976, he established the Pacific Records label (later renamed Panama Records), on which he released the debut album by the hard rock band Granmax. Nikias recalled, “Chris Fritz had come up with the name Granmax. The band had released their first album ‘Ninth Alive’ and was a trio made up of Tim McCorkle on bass guitar and vocals, his brother Louis McCorkle on drums and Steve Meyers on lead guitar and vocals.” He continued, “But Fritz said the band was looking for a lead vocalist and said I’d be a good fit. He handed me a cassette tape with some songs they needed lyrics and additional melodies for, and then explained they were out on the road performing and that I had eight days to come up with the material. I told him I’d have it done in five days.” Returning to the solitude of his apartment, Nikias penned songs such as “Prince of the Southern Ice,” “Mistress of Eternity,” “Dream Woman,” “Daughter of Hell,” and “It’s Worth the Wait.” Several days later, he met with the band at a studio to try out the songs. They determined Nikias was a good fit for Granmax quickly went to work recording the band’s second album, “Kiss Heaven Goodbye,” released in 1978. “We rehearsed at an auditorium and put our show together,” Nikias said. “One of things that was popular about Granmax was the laser show we had at our concerts.” Granmax began climbing the ladder of music popularity and opened for major acts like Nazareth, REO Speedwagon, Rush, Ted Nugent, and Eddie Money. Nikias explained that he put every ounce of his energy into the band and their performances. Like many bands, Granmax later underwent personnel changes that included Joe Callahan performing at several shows. When the Rolling Stones were preparing to appear at Arrowhead Stadium in 1979, Chris Fritz was able to contact the mobile recording studio that was coming to town to tape the show. Fritz contracted the mobile studio to record several songs during a performance by Granmax at the Lawrence Opera House in Lawrence, Kansas. The band was also showcasing for three record companies that night as well. “There were several new songs we performed at the show that were supposed to go onto our third album,” Nikias explained. “But Granmax split up in 1980 over money, sex, drugs and rock and roll, and that third album never happened.” Nikias later moved to the West Coast and continued to write songs and perform as a vocalist throughout the next several years. He performed several shows in Las Vegas backed by the original Drifters band and eventually settled in Arizona, where he has played at casinos, small venues and Farrah Fawcett’s memorial service. Recently, the Kansas City area native was contacted by a large record company in Greece, a country where Granmax is still wildly popular. They are looking to have a package of Granmax music released in the coming months that includes their original two albums from the late 1970s and other previously unreleased tracks. “I had the original tapes from our live show at the Lawerence Opera House and the company, Cult Metal Classics, has remastered them along with our other two albums,” he said. He added, “It’s fantastic that after all these years, the Granmax legacy is being revisited. It’s kind of a rebirth,” Nikias emphasized, “and now we have a new generation of fans who will be able to hear songs they’ve never heard before.” Jeremy P. Ämick is the author of “Movin’ On,” biography of the rock band Missouri. ![]() Dan Smith maintains there have been many talented bands who made it to the brink of stardom, yet because of unexpected circumstances, were never able to break beyond the boundaries of regional notoriety. This is a phenomenon he has witnessed on many occasions, not only through his work as a talent booking agent, but also his career in Riverrock, a popular Kansas City area country band that was inducted into the Kansas Music Hall of Fame. While in high school in the late 1960s, Smith learned to play the drums and briefly performed with a band called Pflash. He explained that they took their name from a premium fuel that was sold at a Fina station where his older brother was working at the time. “I graduated from high school in Overland Park in 1971, later attended a community college and then went to work as a salesman for a real estate company,” he said. “But then I went to work for a place called Midwest Inventory, and that’s where I met Jim Blanton, who shared similar musical interests.” Blanton, who was also a fan of the Nitty Gritty Dirt Band, was learning to play the fiddle. After about a year of discussing the possibility, the friends decided to form Riverrock and began rehearsing as a five-piece band with John Mumma, Paul Mumma and Steve Hall. “I decided to learn to play the washboard because the drums just seemed to overpower the acoustic performances we were doing,” Smith explained. “That worked out well and set us apart from a lot of other bands.” He continued, “We played our first performance live on July 4, 1974, and only had about an hour’s worth of music, but everybody loved it.” His mother, Janet Smith, initially helped as their booking agent and worked to find venues where they could share their unique fusion of bluegrass and country. They soon were able to make a five-song demo and took a copy of the cassette to a bar in the River Quay District (now River Market). After the owner of the bar heard their music, Riverrock was given a job as the house band and began performing six days a week. As Smith explained, such repeated performances helped them refine their craft as musicians. One evening when Riverrock was playing before a small audience because of wintry weather outdoors, the Nitty Gritty Dirt Band was in town and one its members, John McEuen, came to see their show. He was invited to sit in with Riverrock, leading to a lasting friendship between Smith and McEuen. “Around 1976 we had a booking agent that went to conferences for county fairs, and we ended up getting a bunch of dates from that,” Smith said. “For several years, we were busy doing shows and shared the stage with a lot of acts. We opened for groups like the Oak Ridge Boys, Pure Prairie League, and Hank Williams Jr., among others.” In the late 1970s, Riverrock earned some widespread attention by appearing on the Tulsa Opry Show. They also had the opportunity to perform with Minnie Pearl, who, after one of their shows, expressed how impressed she was with Smith’s playing of the washboard. By this time, Riverrock had recorded two albums—one in 1975 at Sound Recorders in Kansas City and a live album in 1977. Then, while still highly popular in the Kansas City region, they recorded the album “Midwest Man” in Nashville in January 1980, featuring the vocals of Rick Harrelson. “Country music was kind of getting out of fashion in the mid-1980s and there was some conflict within the group, so after some change in personnel, I remained the only original member and decided to shut it down,” Smith explained. He added, “I had started my own booking agency in 1979 and began managing other bands such as Glow and Dixie Cadillacs. Glow was my brother’s band, and it came really close to making it to the big time, but it just never came to fruition.” Continuing his booking agency work, Smith decided to put a new version of Riverrock together in 1991. For a while, the group found some renewed success with LaRose, an African American R&B artist, as its lead singer. Regrettably, she later had to leave the music scene for health reasons. “I was still booking a lot of stuff and making a living as a musician, but by the early 2000s, Riverrock was only playing an occasional reunion,” Smith said. “I was also busy operating a recording studio and got to the point where I didn’t have a lot of time to play on the side.” Smith teamed up with Allen Blasco in 2009, a popular local musician whose mother wrote “My Happiness”—the first song recorded by Elvis Presley. They put together Riverrock for a show, which was at the time comprised of three original members. In 2011, Riverrock was inducted into the Kansas Music Hall of Fame. Since then, Riverrock has continued to perform at shows throughout the Kansas City area with Smith and the Mumma brothers. “I believe every town has that kind of story like Riverrock, where a certain band almost makes it to the big leagues but just can’t get over that last hump,” Smith said. “Riverrock has survived a lot of changes in musical tastes, and it’s certainly been a lot of fun.” Smith reflected, “I don’t feel slighted in any way regarding our career in music; I’m just very fortunate to have been able to perform as long as I have and to have become friends with so many wonderful musicians.” Jeremy P. Ämick is the author of the forthcoming book “Movin’ On,” biography of the band Missouri. ![]() Somewhere at the confluence of sociology, archaeology and pop culture is where New Jersey native Robert Bruce chooses to hang his professional credentials. In recent years, his appearances on the AMC television series “Comic Book Men” exposed his talent for locating and marketing unique collectibles ranging from furniture to comic books and toys, and grew into an interest he strived to parlay into a robust business endeavor. Comic Book Men ran for seven seasons and followed daily interactions at the Secret Stash—a comic book store in Red Bank, New Jersey, co-owned by movie director, actor and author Kevin Smith, who directed such films as Clerks and Mallrats. A self-identified “pop-culturist,” Bruce excitedly described his fascination with memories of his youth, bouncing from discussions on film iterations of Zorro and the toys and collectibles associated with the character, and quickly making a segue to reflections of when he first saw the spicy 1968 science-fiction film “Barbarella” decades ago. “My mother’s side of the family has a legacy in the U.S. dating back to the 17th century,” he proudly remarked. “My father’s family settled in the Rumson, New Jersey, area in 1840, and I graduated in 1977 from the same high school my father attended,” he added. Bruce recognizes that his greatest notoriety has come from Comic Book Men, for which he has received credit as a producer and procured collectibles used in a number of episodes. On several occasions, he made appearances on the show to provide appraisals for rare and exclusive items, which, he maintains, has been both a blessing and a curse. “The money that comes with a television series is certainly nice … but then you still have to make a living for the rest of the year,” he explained. “Also, it got to the point where people were hesitant to sell me any items because they thought I was getting something over on them.” After finishing high school in New Jersey, Bruce traveled to New York City, where he briefly became involved in the punk rock scene. For a short time, he was a roadie with iconic bands including the Clash and the Ramones. However, he soon embarked upon a path of greater stability when hired as a bicycle messenger for a large printing company. While performing his messenger duties, he was injured when struck by an automobile. The company placed him as a sales representative and Bruce later ascended to the position of a vice president of sales. He sold facility brochures and postcard printing services to customers like the Museum of Modern Art and the American Museum of Natural History in New York. “During this time, I really became intrigued by historical American furniture and American art pottery,” he said. “But I guess that I always had an interest in collecting because as a kid I collected coins, stamps, comic books and various other items.” He continued, “Sometime around 1986 or 1987, I began purchasing toys and attending the 26th Street Flea Market in New York. What I liked about that is that people would descend on that flea market from all over and I didn’t have to search for unique items outstate.” In the 1990s, while continuing to amass an assortment of thousands of collectibles, he opened a small retail shop in Red Bank, New Jersey, called the Groove Spot. Infrequently, he bid on storage lockers but soon chose to focus his efforts on visiting flea markets throughout the region to expand his inventory. “There always seemed to be despair associated with storage lockers—the owner has passed away and they are selling it, someone lost their job, someone went in the military and was sent overseas …,” he explained. “I got away from that because there’s just too much bad karma involved.” Bruce’s retail establishment had a healthy run for a number of years but rent soon became too high for him in the business district of Red Bank. He then chose to embrace the advent of online sales and opened a small warehouse (which he estimates to be only 20 by 30 feet in size) that is now packed with nearly 100,000 items. “There are certain items that people remember owning or playing with during their youth and when they get older, they want to find those items as a means to reconnect to the past,” he noted. “I really enjoy being part of that process.” His experiences as a collector have bequeathed him a wealth of knowledge regarding estimated values of thousands of rare items, resulting in his being called upon to pick specific pieces for notable collectors in addition to appraising estates that have later gone to auction. He said, “Personally, I have about 20,000 comics in my collection and focus on independent, underground and alternative press. For me, these comics truly represent the First Amendment … carrying forth our freedom of speech and, at times, pushing the boundaries of social norms.” Television has delivered Bruce a level of unexpected fame among a worldwide audience but, after seven seasons, he now enjoys a break from the show and his return to the thrills of collecting. The passion and the expertise he developed within a unique market has since inspired him to train a new generation of collectors. “I mostly sell online and continue to visit a flea market every Friday,” he said. “I am always on the search for rarer items, which is the thing that drives me—you never know what your are going to find.” He added, “Over the years, I have accrued all of these prices and values of thousands of items that are stored in my head. At one time, I didn’t want to share my knowledge but have now reached the point where I didn’t want it to be wasted. I have begun escorting those interested in the trade to flea markets and other venues to show them the entire process of finding an item, researching and then marketing." He concluded, “Now I view it as my responsibility to share what I’ve learned and am mentoring others who can take up the torch of the collectibles business.” The 62-year-old Robert Bruce died unexpectedly on January 1, 2022, but his knowledge and intuition related to pop-culture items lives on through re-runs of seven seasons of Comic Book Men. Jeremy P. Amick is the author of the upcoming book "Movin' On," which chronicles the legacy of the classic rock band Missouri. ![]() There are many unique aspects to the military career of James Schaffner. Beginning with combat service in World War II, followed by his recall to active duty during the Korean War, and ending with more than thirty years in the Army Reserve and National Guard, the former soldier has invested many years in service to his beloved country. It is of little surprise that his dedication has earned him the accolade of being selected into the 2022 class of the Missouri National Guard Hall of Fame. While living in St. Louis, Schaffner was inducted into the U.S. Army in September 1944 and completed his basic training at Camp Robinson, Arkansas. When only eighteen years old, he deployed as a replacement infantry soldier to the Pacific. Assigned to the 7th Infantry Division, he earned two Purple Hearts during fighting on Okinawa in April 1945. “By the time I got out of the hospital, the war had ended but I boarded a troop ship and became part of a group of soldiers sent to Korea for occupational duties,” he said. “During World War II, I went through each enlisted rank and ended up an acting first sergeant.” He continued, “I didn’t return to Missouri until 1947 and decided to join the Army Reserve and received my direct commission as a second lieutenant.” In the coming years, he married and briefly attended the School of Mines in Rolla before transferring to the St. Louis Business College. But soon, the Korean War erupted and the combat veteran was recalled to active duty to serve as a nuclear, chemical and biological warfare instructor at Fort Benning, Georgia. He explained, “I was supposed to be on active duty for 18 months but I got extended for another six months. Fortunately, I was able to have my wife and our two young daughters stay there with me.” When receiving his release from active duty, he returned to St. Louis and worked for the International Shoe Company as a buyer in the purchasing department. He was later promoted to office manager of one of the company’s factories, moving his family to Washington, Missouri. Throughout it all, he remained committed to serving in a part-time military status and eventually transferred from the Army Reserve to the Missouri National Guard. “I was a first lieutenant when I tried to join the National Guard here in Missouri and the adjutant general said he didn’t have any slots for me,” Schaffner said. “But then he said I could resign my commission and come in as a second lieutenant, which I did.” Grinning, he added, “I backtracked a little bit … but it all worked out.” His full-time employment then brought him to Von Hoffman Press in St. Louis, overseeing sales accounts for a six-state region. From there, he was transferred to their plant in Jefferson City, where state government and TWA were his primary printing accounts. The private printing industry not only provided him with a background in procurement procedures, but introduced him to many individuals in state government. Through these relationships, he became acquainted with many on the governor’s staff and, in 1965, was appointed as Director of Procurement for the State of Missouri by Governor Warren Hearnes, who was also a World War II veteran. Three years later, he was appointed the Director of Revenue for the state. All the while, he maintained his part-time involvement with the Missouri National Guard. “While in the Missouri National Guard, I served with maintenance and ordnance units, but then Larry Adams, the adjutant general, asked me to become part of the Selective Service Section,” he said. “At this time, the military draft was still in place and we helped oversee the draft boards throughout the state,” he added. When Governor Hearnes left office in early 1973, Schaffner, as a political appointee, was left to search for a new job. Later that year, he and his family moved to Oklahoma when he was offered the position as Executive Assistant to the state’s governor. “During my time at Oklahoma, I was a lieutenant colonel and was told that they had no openings at my rank,” Schaffner said. “So, I mentioned it to the governor and he said he’d take care of it.” Pausing, he added, “He requested a slot and it was approved, and I stayed in the Oklahoma National Guard until I retired in 1986.” Schaffner went on to serve as a consultant to the Director of the Oklahoma Department of Human Services and as Director of the Oklahoma Legislative and Bill Drafting Department. He retired from state government in Oklahoma in late 1985. Following his retirement, he volunteered with several organizations and lived for several years in Washington, Missouri, before moving to Jefferson City to be closer to one of his daughters. A career that spanned virtually every enlisted rank and ended as a lieutenant colonel provided Schaffner with many captivating moments to reflect upon. It includes time he served with the active U.S. Army during World War II followed by decades in the Army Reserve and the National Guard of two states, all of which represents a composite of experiences that have been most humbling. “I just can’t believe that I have been chosen for the Missouri National Guard Hall of Fame; all I can say is that I am very honored,” Schaffner said. “I guess that after World War II, I made the decision that I should stay in the Army and continue serving, and the Reserves and National Guard seemed like the best way to do it. Looking back on it all, I just liked being a soldier.” On September 9, 2022, Lt. Col. James Schaffner was inducted into the Missouri National Guard Hall of Fame during a ceremony at Kirksville. Jeremy P. Ämick writes on behalf of the Silver Star Families of America. Tunnel vision - Michael “Supe” Granda of the Ozark Mountain Daredevils inspired into music in 19647/17/2023 ![]() Michael “Supe” Granda has long been associated with the band Ozark Mountain Daredevils, of which he is a co-founder. Since the early 1970s, this celebrated group has earned a legion of fans through songs such as “Jackie Blue” and “If You Wanna Get to Heaven,” but as Granda explained, this success is partially attributed to a composite of influences and experiences from his youth. A native of south St. Louis, Granda was born in 1950, the oldest in a family consisting of a younger brother and three younger sisters. He came of age watching the St. Louis Cardinals and remains an avid fan of baseball. “During the first 12 years of my life, I thought I was going to be a shortstop for the Cardinals,” Granda recalled. “I was obsessed with baseball and other sports, but then I figured out I was just average—I couldn’t run, jump or tackle, so professional sports were not in my future.” On February 9, 1964, the Beatles made their first appearance on the Ed Sullivan Show, becoming the singular event to inspire Granda to pursue a career as a rock musician. Swept up in “Beatlemania,” the following day he went to a local music store and signed up for lessons on the bass guitar. “I was committed to doing this rock ‘n’ roll thing and had a friend who played guitar,” he said. “I immediately became a musical sponge and frequented every club and concert that I could get into.” He added, “I noticed every band had a bass player so thus began my career in music.” At the time, the music store could not rent him a bass guitar to use for practice, so he was instead provided an acoustic guitar and instructed to use the top four strings. He took it home and practiced, learning several songs while also taking lessons from a music teacher. Grinning, he recalled, “I had a package of music lessons for about 12 weeks, but after six weeks or so, my music teacher said that I was learning more on my own than I was learning from him. One of the things I used,” he continued, “was a book that showed Paul McCartney’s bass lines and I studied that a lot.” Granda practiced popular songs by the Beatles, Chuck Berry and the Rolling Stones, and soon joined up with his friend who played guitar and another who was a drummer to form the Coachmen. The group later added a keyboardist, assuming the new name of Coachmen Four. “We were a band that made barely a ripple and went absolutely nowhere, but we had a ball getting there!” he chuckled. “Through the help of a loan from my grandmother and parents, I was able to purchase a Kingston bass guitar with a Hilgen amp. I paid them back by saving my allowance of 50 cents a week and working a part-time job at a local laundromat.” As Granda mirthfully recalled, he eventually discovered the extra two strings on the guitar and worked to hone his guitar skills along with developing his talents on the bass guitar. He and the Coachmen Four continued to perform at local dances and similar events and, despite making little money, fermented Granda’s desire to pursue music. With the U.S. involvement in the Vietnam War escalating while he was in high school, Granda noted that certain characteristics associated with being part of a rock band created a few problems for him and his fellow musicians. “There was a subset that we were part of, and we were harassed because of our long sideburns, hair over our ears and the funny-looking clothing we wore,” he said. “It was very tumultuous going to school and fearing that I’d get beat up and be held down and given a haircut by the football team.” He continued, “When the bell rang at the end of the day, I immediately fled the campus and headed to the sanctuary of my home to listen to rock records and practice my guitar.” The harassment notwithstanding, Granda did rather well in school and tended to excel in mathematics classes. He quickly discovered the strong correlation between mathematics and music, both of which are subjects he enjoys to this day. When graduating from Lindbergh High School in 1969, he enrolled at Southwest Missouri State University in Springfield, and as the Vietnam War continued, being a full-time student offered a deferment from the draft. While in college, he connected with like-minded musicians and was given the nickname “Supe” for wearing a Superman t-shirt and performing wild antics on stage as the band’s lead singer. “While I was in college, the Ozark Mountain Daredevils formed in 1972 and the Vietnam draft lottery ended shortly after that,” he said. “I was no longer bound to stay in college to keep my deferment, so we jumped right into rock ‘n’ roll, and I’ve been doing it ever since … and I think I made a good decision.” The Ozark Mountain Daredevils have received widespread acclaim for their music and longevity. These are accolades that Granda notes were achieved through dedication and persistence and are traits he formed in high school that later morphed into a successful career in music. “I love keeping a full schedule and am always busy with a project or performing,” he said. “I’ve often heard that if you love what you do, you never work a day in your life—and they don’t call it ‘working’ music, it’s called ‘playing’ music.” He added, “My early vision came from that first Beatles performance on Ed Sullivan. My advice to the newer generations inspired into a career in music is to develop tunnel vision; do what you like to do and don’t let anyone say that you can’t.” Jeremy P. Ämick is the author of “Moments Made on the Moreau.” Henry L. Heidbreder was born on October 24, 1883, in Cole County near Lohman. On May 6, 1909, he married Louise Hutschreider and the couple went on to raise six sons - Arthur, Wilburn, Omar, Cletus, Darwin and Henry Jr. A farmer in the Lohman area, he served for thirty years as a Cole County judge and, for 36 years, was a member of the board of directors of the Community Bank of Russellville. Heidbreder was 87 years old when he passed away on December 31, 1970, and is buried in the cemetery of St. John's Lutheran Church in Stringtown.
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AuthorJeremy P. Ämick is an award-winning author and historian and dedicated to preserving music, military and local histories. Archives
June 2024
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