Chad Emmert Band to perform for industry representatives

By Laura Dimmit

news@joplinglobe.com

Chad Emmert and his band are about to experience their own version of “American Idol.”

Tonight, at the Whisky A Go Go in Los Angeles, the local band will play in a showcase in front of an audience that will include representatives from Universal Music and Virgin Records.

“I’d compare it to ‘American Idol,’ more for the business end of it. ‘American Idol’ is a show, but this is the same kind of thing,” Emmert said. “If they like me, there’s the possibility that I’ll be signed.”

Emmert, now 43, picked up his first guitar when he was 9 years old.

“I was an only child, (and when) my parents divorced my mom moved around a lot, so I didn’t really make a lot of friends since I changed schools so much,” he said.

One day, they went into a JCPenny outlet store, and Emmert saw an electric guitar that had been damaged in shipping.

“I followed (my mother) around and begged all the way around the store, and she bought it for me,” he said. “I think it was a whole 50 dollars, so that’s how I got started.”

Emmert spent most of his childhood in Kansas City with his mother, who worked as a police officer and used to receive free tickets to big-name concerts that would come through.

“You name them in the ’70s and early ’80s, I saw them ... so that was an influence,” he said. “I saw that and I just thought, ‘I want to be a rock star.’”

Today, many of Emmert’s musical influences come from that era.

“My three favorite guitar players are Jimmy Page, Jimi Hendrix and, everybody laughs about this, but Ace Frehley from Kiss.” he said. “The thing with Kiss, with me, is not so much musical, but it’s the show. I’ve got a wireless and I’ll get up on tables and play, or put my guitar over somebody and play it from around them, and just stuff like that.”

Emmert said that he played his first real show when he was 17 years old.

“It was at a place called Sergeant Pepper’s in Galena that used to be open,” he said. “You could get in there when you were 18; you could drink in Kansas when you were 18 back then, and of course you could get in there when you were 17.”

He is currently signed with Blendville Records, and has recorded four albums since 1986 with a variety of band members. In 2003, his career got a significant boost when he went to the National Association of Music Merchants show in California.

“It’s probably the biggest music equipment trade show in the world ... every famous musician you can think of is there,” Emmert said. “I got lucky enough to get into that. I entered a guitar contest while I was there and it was at the Whisky, and I was one of the five finalists that got to play ... and from then a lot of stuff started opening up.”

Emmert originally became known for playing covers of Jimi Hendrix and other similar artists. He said, however, that “you can only go so far doing other people’s music.”

His original songs were what helped the band get invited back to the Whisky for tonight’s showcase. Emmert has been told that, while the labels are primarily interested in him being a contracted songwriter, they also want to see what he can do as a performer.

“I think it has a lot to do with my age,” he said. “Sex sells, and the younger people do better, and at my age, kind of like in sports, I’m right at the end of my prime. So I don’t know how they feel about putting much money into me, but what I can do is write songs ... and that interests me too.”

The Chad Emmert Band is composed of bassist Ralphy Anderson and drummer Randy Kell. Emmert and Anderson, who met through a mutual friend, have been playing together for seven years.

On the other hand, Emmert said that, “Drummers last about a year.” Kell and Emmert have collaborated twice before. In the last seven years, Emmert estimated that he and his band have played about 100 shows a year.

He has played a number of venues, including the House of Blues in Chicago and Jimmy Buffet’s Margaritaville in Key West. However, he said that his favorite concert appearance of his career so far happened in Oklahoma City.

“We opened up several years ago for David Allen Coe,” Emmert said, “and there were about 2,500 bikers there on their motorcycles, so it looked like about 10,000 people. They were all revving their motorcycles up, and turning their lights on and off. When (David Allen Coe) got done, everyone kept asking for us, and we had to go back out there and play again at 1 a.m., and we played until 3:30 a.m.”

Emmert has gone to great lengths to entertain an audience, including once grabbing a vodka bottle off of a table to use it to play slide guitar — not realizing that it was full.

“So I’m sitting there holding this 10-pound bottle, trying to play my guitar at the same time, and everybody got a big kick out of that,” he said.

More than anything, Emmert emphasized that he just wants to give the audience a show.

“I try to take from the ’70s,” he said, “when the bands were more ... they didn’t try to be so cool.”



Want to know more?

For Chad Emmert Band tour dates, audio and more information, visit the band’s Web site at www.chademmert.com.

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