John Rowdy
JOHN ROWDY
My introduction to music came in the form of a cassette tape. My father had just purchased a mint green 1979 350 Chevy pick- up. It was two-tone, the accent color being white, with a dark green benched seat that I could stand on without bumping my head while bouncing to the music. I was 4 years old and dad had just installed two 6 x 9’s, two 5 inch in the doors and two 2 inch tweeters in the front dash. Powered by an amp and clean sound head system John Sr. gave me the introduction to what music could sound like if played by men who had soul in their hearts and life in their words. That evening we heard AC/DC “Back in Black”, Credence Clearwater Revival “Born on a Bayou”, Motley Crue “Girls, Girls, Girls and Guns ~N~ Roses “Appetite for Destruction”. This evening would shatter my Sesame Street and Pink Panther rotation on the record player. They were immediately replaced with the sounds of Tom Petty, Phil Collins, Allman Brothers and Lynard Skynard.
From the moment music entered my life, I took notice of what was taking place, and I was hooked. Furthermore, I was fortunate enough to have many different music lovers grace my life over my formidable years. My mother Rose, step-father Kurt, and cousin Jaime all played a huge part in my eclectic taste of genres. At this moment, when I think back I can’t remember a moment where music hasn’t been playing in one room of our house at all times. No matter whose house I am in. The credit of the music gene in my first nature goes to my Great Grandpa John Joseph Henning. He played guitar and banjo by ear, along with his brother Nick who bowed fiddle. The Henning brother’s played in a family band around Willowdale, KS. My Grandpa Herman still recalls wanting to go pick strawberries for his Uncle Nick just so he could hear him play fiddle and his wife stride the piano. I am fortunate that the family took well the love of sound and passed it along over time.
Concluding my high school years I knew that I wanted to do something in music, but at the time did not play a lick. So I did what many of my fellow peers in school did, I went to study at a SEC school. Well let me restate that, I studied but it was in more the live music scene than the classroom. Don’t get me wrong I did graduate with a BS in Marketing, but I spent every night in a music venue listening to the sweet sounds of what Oxford, MS had to offer. It was over those years that I began my work with regional and national bands. It went from a dreamt about hobby to a fiery passion that I can’t turn off. For that I am truly thankful that I have the opportunity to be a part of the world I love so much, the music business.
Over the next sequences of time I will present the career and the future that inspires my present. During this time I will reach out to people I have shared the music circuit with and paths crossed. Not all will reach back. But I work to let their voices be heard and soon my voice will join them in the trek up our individual mountains to our attainable dreams we commonly share.
John Rowdy
Home page of John Rowdy, an americana artist from Kingman, KS. Singer/Songwriter John Rowdy has been a life gypsy since the age of 5. Music has raised his soul from his first breath. His voice and guitar sound ring of a time gone.
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