Lennie, take us through the history of the band.
“Flying Free went through several iterations starting in about 1970/71. Eric and I were the constants. Rick Kelly and Doyle Box were the first drummer and lead singer. Doyle could do a righteous Robert Plant so we did several Led Zepplin tunes including Stairway to Heaven! That band traveled around the upper midwest until we took it to Phoenix in Nov of 1971. Came back to Wi in Feb ’72 and broke up sometime early 1974. That’s when we acquired John Glick and went as a trio. Moved out to a farm south of Tomah (Hustler). We hit the road playing weeks and weekends around WI, Upper MI, MN, IL. It was with John that we recorded “You Can Do” and the flip side, “Your Day”. We lost John sometime in 1975 – maybe 76 (they say if you can remember the 70s, you weren’t really there) … Then we acquired Brett. Again we hit the road, played as much as we could get booked. We ended up breaking up sometime in ’78. About that time I decided the only one I could rely on was myself so I focused on acoustic guitar and solo performing.”
I remember that black Gibson Les Paul with the gold pick-ups…
“I played a Les Paul which I bought brand new in 1973 and still have and play. It’s been re-fretted once and I had a new bridge and nut put on at the same time.”
You had this big black speaker cabinet with one speaker…
“I did have an old white Fender Showman head through a home made (I built) modified Voice-of-the-Theatre speaker with a 15″ EV SRO speaker. Later I added a 1966 Fender Twin with 2 JBL 12″ and I changed out the EV SRO and replaced it with a JBL 15″. The Twin gave me great highs and the VotT gave great low end for a really full sound. (Not too mention – really loud) (I still have all that gear). I had an Echoplex which I bought from Johnny Bernadot in 1968 – I just loved it … and just sold last year to another old friend in Virginia.”
Flying Free 