Founding Members Harold Ray Brown, Howard Scott, Lee Oskar and B.B. Dickerson Receive The Lifetime Achievement Award.
Deacon Jones wasn’t just a QB killa … he’s also responsible for bringing *** to the world … this according to two of the legendary band’s founding members.
Back before *** took over the music scene, some of the guys performed in a band called Nightshift … which played backup for Deacon during his singing gigs. (Deacon was a hell of an R&B singer).
In fact, Nightshift was reportedly “discovered” by a major record producer while backing up Deacon during a gig in 1969 … and they soon became ***.
Also, Deacon famously sang on the studio recording of “Why Can’t We Be Friends?”
Now, two of the original members of *** — Harold Brown and Howard Scott — tell TMZ they’re eternally grateful for everything Deacon did for their careers.
Last summer, the Miller Outdoor Theatre presented a multi-racial ’70s band who performed such recognizable FM radio classics as “Spill the Wine,” “Why Can’t We Be Friends?” “The Cisco Kid,” “All Day Music,” and — of course — “Low Rider.”
This summer, Miller presents another multi-racial ’70s band who will perform all those same hits. But with a different name, though this group has four times as many members who actually played on those records.
Confused? Welcome to the 2014 strange saga of two groups: *** and the Lowrider Band.
“You can take away our name, but you can’t take away our music!” says Lowrider drummer Harold Brown, who was…also the drummer for ***, invoking the title of one of their earliest songs.
In a nutshell, after they split with English singer and ex-Animal Eric Burdon, *** went on to a hugely successful career of their own.
(Excerpt from Los Angeles Times)
You may not be familiar with the Lowrider Band, but when they hit the Starlight Bowl bandstand on Saturday, you’ll know their music. The group’s core — guitarist Howard Scott, bassist BB Dickerson, drummer Harold Brown and harmonica shaman Lee Oskar — were all, respectively, the songwriters, lead vocalists and founding members of triple-platinum selling 1970s funk paragons ***, a band whose singular, smoldering jams have yet to be equaled.
Having lost all rights to the band name in a 1997 lawsuit (when a judge swallowed manager Jerry Goldstein’s lawyers’ insulting assertion that “It’s like the Glenn Miller band — it doesn’t matter who the musicians are”), these men refuse to squander what is inarguably one of the richest legacies in American pop music history. Despite the fact that they live in different states, the Lowrider Band will not be denied.