Ronnie Jay, born Ronald Jim Hampton on July, 16 1954 in Los Angeles, CA. My first exposure to playing music came at the tender age of 5 years old when my mother started taking me to piano lessons. Although not quite a prodigy, I was pretty adept at it and enjoyed it very much. I started to play classical music at about age 7 and started to learn the clarinet about a year later. As I continued into high school, I took a keen interest in rock music, since The Beatles had pretty much pulled my interest in that direction a few years earlier. It wasn’t until 1970 that I started to find an interest in bass. I down-tuned an old acoustic guitar to play the very low notes I heard on a song called ‘I Am Superman’ by The Clique who were famous for the flip side song (yes, a 45!) ‘Sugar On Sunday’. Listening to ‘Steppenwolf Live’ and the album EVERYBODY had at that time, Iron Butterfly In-A-Gadda-Da-Vida. I acquired my first electric bass guitar in the form of a ¾ scale Yamaha solid body electric, red with a white pick guard and a Vox 50 watt 2x12 combo amplifier. I listened to many of the great bass players, Jack Bruce, John Entwistle, Chris Squire and Geddy Lee. I started paying my dues with many, many basement bands and gospel rock bands. I played for free most of the time playing hard rock and metal band covers and had a blast doing it. In 1975 I joined a local northwest rock band called Windfall. We played some originals and a LOT of covers. The Who, Journey, Wishbone Ash, Yes, Boston, Rush, Kansas and a few obscure bands. I left Windfall in 1977 and started playing in other bands to keep my playing fresh. In 1980 I joined another northwest favorite No Ties. I left No Ties in late 1981 and pursued other bands and other venues. I helped start a few bands like Visions, Zuzo Blue, Black Pearl and several solo and studio projects. In 2002 I went on a blues mission playing at many blues jams and getting into the networking circuit. I worked with a couple of blues bands and then joined Northwest Blues/R&B favorite The Lloyd Jones Struggle. Working with Lloyd help direct me into the very roots of blues and R&B. In 2006 I decided early on that I missed my hard rock roots and set my sites on getting back to my first musical love, rock.
I never had any real formal training other than singing in a grade school choir. I found that I had a natural ability to sing with great enthusiasm and range and soon started singing tenor in a Gospel Rock group. I started to develop keen interests in many vocalists, primarily Jack Bruce of Cream, Steve Walsh of Kansas and my main mentor Brad Delp of Boston. I credit Jack Bruce and Geddy Lee for giving me the direction I needed to sing lead vocals and play bass at the same time. It took me a little while to get that down, but soon it became almost second nature to me. I joined The Junkyard Dogs in April 2007 and we’re on the brink of new originals and I’m extremely excited about where I’m at with JYD and where we’re going! Rock On!_________________________________________________________ _________
Brad Delp - Tribute - My Vocal Mentor
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