![]() 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. |
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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