Bob, my influences went in the opposite direction, from Cream, Zeppelin, Allmans to the blues masters. When I read the credits on the albums, I started looking up Elmore James and Willie Dixon...etc and then finding and buying those albums. I grew up with the Beatles...but didn't know anything about their Blues and R&B influences. My parents listened to big bands and my older sister was into Pat Boone...the first live rock I heard at jr high and high school dances was mostly black R&B, Motown and then Cream...I was a senior in High School in '71 when I seriously started to play drums out in a cover band...and we latched onto the Allmans pretty quickly. One of the other bands in town, a little older than us was basically a Zeppelin tribute band. It was pretty cool...and we were making $25 to $50 a man per gig. I was able to buy my own car...freedom.
Bob, my influences went in the opposite direction, from Cream, Zeppelin, Allmans to the blues masters. When I read the credits on the albums, I started looking up Elmore James and Willie Dixon...etc and then finding and buying those albums. I grew up with the Beatles...but didn't know anything about their Blues and R&B influences. My parents listened to big bands and my older sister was into Pat Boone...the first live rock I heard at jr high and high school dances was mostly black R&B, Motown and then Cream...I was a senior in High School in '71 when I seriously started to play drums out in a cover band...and we latched onto the Allmans pretty quickly. One of the other bands in town, a little older than us was basically a Zeppelin tribute band. It was pretty cool...and we were making $25 to $50 a man per gig. I was able to buy my own car...freedom.