John Kenny

I was born Oct. 20, 1969. I was raised in Midlothian, Illinois, a suburb just south of Chicago. I've been playing drums since before I can remember. I learned to play to the Beatles; I had every album on 8-track tape. Ringo Starr was my biggest influence growing up, and still is. When I was about 7, my sister Angel bought me my first real drumkit. I remember playing it for hours. Then, in the late 70s I got into some really great music that was really influential. The Clash, The Police, Squeeze, Elvis Costello, Bob Marley, Peter Tosh and Jimmy Cliff. Back around 1982, I was up late at night listening to the radio, this real haunting song with a big fill in the middle came on; I had never heard drums sound like that before. That song was In The Air Tonight by Phil Collins. The fill was simple, but it made an impact on me.Then when I turned 14, I moved to Bridgman, Michigan. It's right across the lake from Chicago. The music that people listened to seemed behind what people listened to in Chicago. There weren't many musicians in the area at the time. The kids were more into metal, and some classic rock, whereas I was more into REM, Peter Gabriel, and U2.A couple of years after I graduated from high school (about 1989) I got into my first real band, Tribal Union. Tribal Union was around for three years, put out a 4 song demo, but disbanded due personal reasons with the singer. The guitarist, Brad, and I stuck together and formed the band Gain with Brian Bavido, who owns and operated Full Range Sound studio. We auditioned several different singers, but no one fit what we were looking for.Then, in late 1994, I got a call from Brian who said a singer/songwriter, Scott Staszack, was putting a band together to record a demo in Chicago. That band had Scott on vocals and guitar, me on drums, Dave Van dyke on bass, and Dean Van dyke on guitar. Dave and Dean were from a great band out of Kalamazoo, called Rollinghead. They're two of the best musicians I've ever played with. We rehearsed at Full Range for about a week, then went to the Chicago Recording Company to make the demo. It was a great experience.In the begining of 1995, Scott, who was moving to California in September of that year, joined me, Brad, and Brian and we formed Five Stars South. The band was around for about 6 months, recording about 24 songs, and playing at several venues. It was the best band I've ever been in. Then Scott moved to California. We tried to keep the band together, but everything else fell short. After that, I did some session work at Full Range.Then Brian introduced me to Doug Clark, a Christian contemporary artist. I recorded with him, and we did some tours around the Midwest and down south. It was a great time.Then I got a call from Chris Shuler, the bass player for Captain Smoothie. Their drummer had left, and they were holding auditions. We got together, and it just clicked. The name was changed from Captain Smoothie to Bucktown Hammer. The band was me on drums, Chris on bass and vocals, Johnney Sellers on vocals and guitar, and Matt Lankford on lead guitars. I never thought I'd find a band like Five Stars South again. We recorded 4 and 6 song cds at Full Range. We played at many venues, and we were together from 1998 to 2001.Johnney and I continued making music, starting a new project with a new direction. We call ourselves Sellers/Kenny. And in early 2008 Sellers/Kenny formed a band with longtime musician friends Chris and Tony Bush. I also have a project going with guitarist friend Brad Hecht. I'll be rotating some songs from the bands I've been in on my myspace-- Five Stars South, Bucktown hammer, Sellers/Kenny, and MiddleMarchThanks for stopping by.John KennyCreated with mySpace Profile Editor