Larry Kelley: I just kinda liked the songs and nobody else in my family played an instrument. Except, possibly, my (father’s real father). My father was adopted. I never saw or knew anything about his real father. But I’ve seen some pictures of his real father standing there with a fiddle in his hand. So I’m assuming that’s where the music came from, because nobody else in our family is musically inclined.    Bandwise, I hadn’t even thought about playing in a band. I was in 5th or 6th grade about the time “Heartbreak Hotel” and all that stuff came out. Elvis is really the one that drew me into music and made me want to do more with it.
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	Mike McCoy: I remember from the time I was very young, hearing Elvis and others coming out of the radio in my brother's bedroom (he's eight years older than me, so when I was five in 1956 he was a young teenager), and loving the music. I started buying 45s in grade school–The Monster Mash, Easier Said Than Done, and Fingertips/Little Stevie Wonder–are a few that come to mind. Probably the defining moments were those three weeks in a row when the Beatles appeared on Ed Sullivan (I was in 7th grade). I was already a rock ‘n’ roll fan, but that clinched it; I was hooked.    First album I bought was 12 x 5 by the Rolling Stones. I wanted to make the sounds I was hearing on records. I started messing around with a cheap acoustic guitar my brother had and found that I was picking things up pretty quickly. I didn't take lessons (took some classical lessons later in life). I think I got my Harmony set-up in 8th grade.
				From my own experience the Beatles were a big influence. Initially I didn’t think much of them until I saw them on the Ed Sullivan Show that fateful February evening. That show had the largest viewing audience at that time. There was something about those 4 young men from Liverpool. They made what they were doing look like fun. When they smiled, I smiled. It was then that I thought that playing guitar might not be such a bad idea.    The impetus for my starting on guitar occurred at the local skating rink in Ogden. At a Jr. High skating party three friends and I were skating around and singing along with the music being played. I don’t remember who said it, but it got said. “You know we ought to start a band. After all we can sing along with the records really good.” What did we know? We talked about it and figured out who would play what. After that I was off and running.
			The actual act of putting as band together wasn’t all that hard because none of those involved really knew how to do it. They had the established bands to go by as far as instrumentation. Rehearsals and how to go about learning songs was uncharted territory for many. Did one go out and buy sheet music? Did one even have to know how to read music? What was a good instrument and what wasn’t? What kind of microphones does the band need? A thousand questions with the answers being learned as they went along. It was after a band was formed that the members actually found out how hard it was to duplicate the music they were listening to and wanting to play themselves.    Finding like minded individuals who could play well wasn’t easy. Many were enthusiastic, but some were not up to snuff ability-wise. This was perhaps one of the biggest obstacles that caused a band to fall apart. There would be individuals who were very committed to doing the band thing and others that were only casually attracted to it. When the harder work of polishing songs and getting chops up to speed came along, the former hung in there while the latter dropped out. Sometimes they were asked to leave—especially if their playing wasn’t cutting it. This could be a hard situation at times. Usually bands were formed by friends and there was nothing harder than to tell a friend his playing wasn’t good enough.    Dealing with the different personalities in a group was another skill to be learned. It was one thing to hang around occasionally with someone and a whole other thing being in a band situation. Practices, song selection and other facets of the band had to be dealt with by someone. It was inevitable that a “leader” would emerge from amongst the various band members. Sometimes this worked out great, but on other occasions there was more than the one strong personality in a band. This could lead to clashes, especially with young teens. Needless to say, being in a band could be a rather turbulent experience for all involved. This turbulence was another of the more common causes for a bands breakup.
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