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.”
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AuthorJeremy P. Ämick is an award-winning author and historian and dedicated to preserving music, military and local histories. Archives
July 2024
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