{"id":1359274,"date":"2018-09-06T14:46:33","date_gmt":"2018-09-06T18:46:33","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/fnpsites.net\/playlist\/?p=1359274"},"modified":"2018-09-06T14:46:33","modified_gmt":"2018-09-06T18:46:33","slug":"a-night-of-classic-rock-with-john-kay-steppenwolf-at-the-fair","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/fnpsites.net\/playlist\/2018\/09\/06\/a-night-of-classic-rock-with-john-kay-steppenwolf-at-the-fair\/","title":{"rendered":"A night of classic rock with John Kay &amp; Steppenwolf at the fair"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" width=\"1170\" height=\"878\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/agy0RwNTDAU?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"autoplay; encrypted-media\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p>Gary Link was 17 years old when he saw the rock band Steppenwolf in concert at the Civic Arena in Pittsburgh. Row one, center stage. It was quite a night, one he shared with his older brother, Wayne, who had every Steppenwolf album.<\/p>\n<p>So imagine Gary\u2019s surprise when he, many years later, checked his answering machine at his home in L.A. and heard a message from John Kay, founding member and lead vocalist for Steppenwolf, asking him to audition as the band\u2019s bass player.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI got the call from John in 1982,\u201d said Gary. \u201cI still have the cassette. I called my brother Wayne and said, \u2018Check this out!\u2019 and played the tape.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI went to John\u2019s house in Nichols Canyon, in Hollywood. I had to learn three songs and play them,\u201d Link recalled in a recent phone interview from his home in Franklin, Tennessee.<\/p>\n<p>He played those songs, and then the band left the room.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThey left me sitting there with John,\u201d Link said. The conversation went something like this:<\/p>\n<p>John Kay: Do you know \u201cRock Me?\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Gary Link: Yeah, I love that.<\/p>\n<p>JK: Do you know \u201cMonster?\u201d<\/p>\n<p>GL: Yeah, I know that.<\/p>\n<p>JK: Do you know \u201cMovin\u2019 On?\u201d<\/p>\n<p>GL: Yeah, I know that.<\/p>\n<p>JK: How do you know all these songs?<\/p>\n<p>GL: Well, I saw you when I was 17 and my brother had all your albums. I pretty much know everything you did.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cHe started talking business and offered me the gig,\u201d Link said. \u201cAt the time, it was really cool. John was rebuilding the [Steppenwolf] name and we were playing some real dives, doing 125 to 150 shows a year.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Kay renamed the band John Kay &amp; Steppenwolf. The original Steppenwolf had disbanded and when Kay learned there were other bands using the Steppenwolf name, basically trashing its reputation, he reclaimed it.<\/p>\n<p>John Kay &amp; Steppenwolf will take the grandstand stage at at 7:30 p.m. Sept. 15 at The Great Frederick Fair. Track seating is $45, grandstand seating is $40 and grandstand annex seating is $25. Tickets are available online at www.thegreatfrederickfair.com or by calling the box office at 301-695-3928. Tickets include admission to the fair.<\/p>\n<p>The band is marking 50 years since it was founded in 1967. Last year, Link said, the band embarked on an anniversary tour. This year, the band has played about a dozen shows. After Frederick, there are two more shows this year, one in Minnesota, and the other is Oct. 14 in Kansas.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThat October show could be the last gig forever &#8230; for now,\u201d said Link. \u201cYou never say never with John.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Kay, at age 4 with his mother, made a midnight escape from East Germany and eventually made it to Canada. With a steady diet of Armed Forces Radio, listening to the likes of Little Richard and Chuck Berry, Kay decided at the age of 13 that rock \u2018n\u2019 roll was his life.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cConsidering I was only 13, legally blind, spoke the wrong language and was on the wrong side of the ocean, maybe I was a little optimistic,\u201d Kay, now 74, says in his bio. He is totally color blind, seeing only shades of black, white and gray. The disorder causes sensitivity to light, so he often wears sunglasses.<\/p>\n<p>He learned English and after high school joined the Canadian band The Sparrows. When the band broke up in 1967, Kay formed Steppenwolf in L.A. Powered by his gritty vocals, the band\u2019s blues-based rock burst on the scene in 1968 with timeless classics like \u201cBorn to Be Wild,\u201d \u201cMagic Carpet Ride,\u201d \u201cThe Pusher\u201d and \u201cRock Me.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cJohn Kay is the only original member of the band and everyone except John Kay is replaceable,\u201d Link said. \u201cI love to hear John\u2019s stories.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Like the story of Dennis Hopper and Peter Fonda coming to Kay and Jimi Hendrix with a need for music for a movie the two were in \u2014 \u201cEasy Rider.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThey needed music, but didn\u2019t have any money,\u201d Link said. Steppenwolf\u2019s \u201cBorn to Be Wild\u201d and \u201cThe Pusher\u201d were featured in the movie and the rest, as they say, is history.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThat was a boon to \u2018Born to Be Wild\u2019. It put Steppenwolf on the map,\u201d Link said.<\/p>\n<p>Last year, the iconic song was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.<\/p>\n<h5>Teen band to Wolf<\/h5>\n<p>Link, now 68, started playing guitar and keyboards in bands when he was 14. He didn\u2019t switch to bass until he was 20.<\/p>\n<p>He has recorded and played in numerous bands with various artists ever since. He joined the band Chopper shortly after moving to LA in 1978 and recorded an album with them, produced by Jeff Barry (\u201cDo Wah Diddy Diddy,\u201d \u201cThen He Kissed Me,\u201d \u201cChapel of Love\u201d). A keyboardist who had left the band asked Link if he wanted to audition for the band Poco.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThis was late 1981. The bass player had left,\u201d Link said.<\/p>\n<p>He auditioned and the gig was his, but he turned it down.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI was 31,\u201d he said. \u201cIt just wasn\u2019t my bag.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>A couple of weeks after that audition, Link got a call from Steve Palmer, drummer for John Kay &amp; Steppenwolf, asking if Link knew of any available bass players. Palmer passed his number on to Kay. A week after the audition, he was on the road with John Kay &amp; Steppenwolf.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cFor the most part, it was a lot of fun,\u201d Link said.<\/p>\n<p>With about a dozen or so shows a year, Link worked for a Sony warehouse in the Nashville area and has a blues band, The Beaker Street Blues Band.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe play some B.B. King, Stevie Ray Vaughan, Joe Cocker, a little Cream,\u201d he said. \u201cWe\u2019re known as the \u2018happiest blues band\u2019 in town.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Link and his family moved from L.A. to Nashville about 25 years ago.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWith [then] a 1-year-old and one on the way, L.A. was getting a little seedy and not a good place for kids,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n<p>They visited the former pastor of the church they attended in Nashville who had moved there to plant a church. They were so impressed by the friendliness of the community, they bought a house and moved there.<\/p>\n<p>This reincarnation of Steppenwolf \u201crepresents the Wolf well,\u201d Link said.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThis is the real deal. I listen to the original recordings. I know the music and what the musicians did. There are some signature licks,\u201d he added. \u201cI can say we sound like the original band. We keep it just loose enough to really rock.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cYou\u2019re going to see the best Steppenwolf other than the original!\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Gary Link was 17 years old when he saw the rock band Steppenwolf in concert at the Civic Arena in Pittsburgh. Row one, center stage. It was quite a night,&hellip;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":28,"featured_media":1359275,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[12],"class_list":["post-1359274","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-festivals"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/fnpsites.net\/playlist\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1359274","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/fnpsites.net\/playlist\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/fnpsites.net\/playlist\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/fnpsites.net\/playlist\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/28"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/fnpsites.net\/playlist\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1359274"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/fnpsites.net\/playlist\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1359274\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/fnpsites.net\/playlist\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1359275"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/fnpsites.net\/playlist\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1359274"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/fnpsites.net\/playlist\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1359274"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/fnpsites.net\/playlist\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1359274"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}