About Me
...Hiya...I'm David...I'm a full time musician and sometimes a singer-songwriter(BMI) when I feel like being one...(my songs are showcased on this site...that's me doing everything you hear)...my full name is David Michael Lee, but in I'm known around the Memphis music scene as David Michael, or "Davo"..."Davo" is rather unique because every guys first name or middle name seems to be "David" or "Michael" and they all go by "Dave" and I've yet to meet another "David" that goes by "Davo", so there ya have it...it's also kinda cool like "Bono"...teehee...
...I grew up in Memphis and have lived here all of my life, at times traveling but always residing in Memphis where I own a home...I graduated from Overton High School in the late 80's (yes, I'm old) where I formed my first band called "Black Label"...Black Label was a cheap Canadian beer that we could afford at the time...like 2 bucks a six pack...it sounded like a cool band name...
...we won our school talent show, which was a bit ironic bcause it was a "creative and performing arts" school and you'd think that the "talent show" would be an explosion of dancers, singers and music ensembles, which it was, but we were just the most liked, I guess...we played a Styx song, which was really outdated at the time as well..."Too Much Time on My Hands" it was...we got to play "The Fair"...hehe...
...that band went on to change names and members quite a bit over the next few years and I ended up in several bands after that, all rehearsing in sweaty garages or storage units and playing gigs up and down Madison Avenue...(this was before the internet, so I've hung flyers on poles up and down Madison for years)...I waited tables and bartended all over Midtown to pay the rent at places like Cafe Ole, LeChardonnay, Cafe Society, Old Zinnie's to name a few...I normally worked "Day Bar" so that I could be off at night to rehearse, play gigs and party...
...one of the bands (Glass Tandem) got an hour radio spot on the local "alternative" radio station 96X ("alternative" was a new hip word at the time)...we opened for bands like Big Ass Truck, NTJ, Burning Blue and The Grifters at The Antenna and Six-One-Six and we'd headline Rascals, Barristers, Murphy's, etc...
...one of the bands (Sugarbuzz) actually made a little bit of money playing covers...(we would actually have a little left over by the time we paid our bar tab)...one night we were playing at a place called "Union Jax" downtown and Woody Harrelson sang an Elvis song with us...he was in town filming "The People Vs. Larry Flynt", which I made extra money by being an "extra" in...I actually made the film...(final Supreme Court Scene...I'm posed as a news writer and you can see my pale white face behind Edward Norton as he poured his heart out to the jury...)...I got to meet Courtney Love and her daughter Francis Bean, also daughter of the legendary Kurt Cobain...Francis was running wildly all over the set that day (she was only 2 at the time) and at one point she stopped in front of me to indulge in a couple of minutes of sophisticated "baby talk"...Courtney came over and got her and said "thank you"....Courtney had just started seeing Edward Norton and they kept slipping off together, so we all kinda helped babysit while they were doing "no telling what" in their dressing room......that girl (Francis Bean) will probably become a rock star, actress or model in the next few years...
...In the mid-nineties I spent an entire fall recording an album at Keith Sykes' studio "The Woodshed" with a songwriter named Jeremiah Tucker...Todd Snider and Keith were big buddies and he would stop in from time to time...Todd is all over the radio in Texas and other parts of the country, but no one in Memphis knows who he is anymore it seems...nonetheless, Jeremiah's record didn't really do anything, but it was a cool experience...
...I eventually operated a nightclub called The South End and catered heavily to original acts, and even a few national acts....several bands played there when they were up and coming (Saliva, Dust For Life, Three Doors Down, Disturbed, Drowning Pool to name a few)....rumour has it that Jack White spent a lot of time there when he was recording the White Stripes "White Blood Cells" album at Easley Studios in Memphis...no one including myself knew who he was at the time...
...I eventually was discovered by a 3 piece cover band called "Sun King" that talked me into being their keyboard player...they wanted to become an "80's band" and they needed me...(they were named after a song by "The Cult" which I thought was "cool")...the gigs paid "real money" and we traveled the entire southeast region, mainly playing SEC frat and sorority parties...we eventually became "Cherry Bomb" and were quite popular throughout the region...that was in 1999 and I haven't worked a regular job since...
...I quit that to form my first cover/original full time band called Star 69...it crashed and burned over night and I ended up in several good bands over the next few years(Rhinoplush, Sunhouse)...my original band RhinoPlush opened for the national acts Blue October, Sponge and Kings X...
...I toured the country as a guitar tech for the Wind-Up Recording act "Dust For Life"...DFL had two videos on MTV and MTV2, and a couple of hits on rock radio at the time(2000)...the frontman would glare at me in front of festival audiences of 40,000 when a guitar was out of tune....I'm sure it looked real funny on the huge video screens...nonetheless, I got to work alongside the likes of Nickelback, Incubus, Kansas, Tantric and we got to hear the lowdown on all of the Creed drama as it unfolded, for they were label mates...eventually DFL dissed the label on a worldwide radio interview in Los Angeles and we all had to get jobs or form cover bands, which the frontman and I did...(...Sunhouse...he'd still glare at me across the stage, even as his bass player...)...Chris and I are still good friends...hehe...
...I ended up joining the band Twin Soul and with my newfound music industry experience, I ended up doing all of the booking and management...(it kinda fell into my lap)... I ended up getting the band all the way to Key West and Destin, Florida and all over Texas and Oklahoma...Twin Soul was voted Best Band in Memphis by the readers of The Memphis Flyer for three years in a row...Twin Soul eventually became too gimmicky, and I wanted more of a musical challenge, so I left the band after five years to form a Superband that band that will explore new musical horizons...
...I formed the band Afterglow with John Boz (drums) and Adam Yancey (vocals, guitar)...I sing, play bass and keyboards, and have a great time...this is a three piece "Supergroup" of veteran players, all specializing in 80s rock and classic rock...U2, REM, The Cure...that type eighties...Pink Floyd, Led Zeppelin, Toto... that kind of classic rock...and of course, it just wouldn't be me without a huge dose of Tom Petty and REO Speedwagon, please forgive me...
...Besides music, I love sports...I love baseball (Atlanta Braves), football (Miami Dolphins, Tennessee Titans), soccer (real football...Tottenham Hotspur), and basketball (Phoenix Suns)...I am a University of Tennessee fan, and for some reason I've always kept up with Ole Miss as well...
...I love going to The Memphis Zoo...or any Zoo...I enjoy cooking, traveling and good female companionship...I don't have any kids and have never been married...it's hard to do those things when you're a pro musician...but being a pro musician is just like being a carpenter, painter or plumber...we have to find our work and plan it in a professional business manner and provide our services and get paid...there are no "backstage orgies" or "drug filled tour buses" or "groupies"...well, there are a few of the latter, but they're not "real groupies"...just girls that like to have fun and pretend like groupies, then go home to their husbands while we tear down our stuff...they're actually hard working people, just like ourselves...
...I can be found onstage with the band Afterglow these days...just check this site for dates...come see me...I love meeting new people, so don't be shy...I hope to see ya soon....-Davo
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