About
Dennis Phillips:
In
1977, Kiss released their seminal album "Love Gun" and that was
all it took to launch Dennis into the life of a rock musician. Growing up
in a house filled with Janis Joplin, Elvis, and Neil Diamond, Kiss would be
the band that Dennis would call his own. With open minded parents from the
60's generation, Dennis was free to explore music, and would soon discover
AC/DC, Led Zeppelin and the great arena bands of the 1970's. But the smoking
guitar and showmanship of Ace Frehley was a sight to be seen and in 1978,
the aspiring would-be rocker witnessed Kiss live for the first time and his
life's path would never be the same.
To say it was a passion at first is an understatement. Growing a huge collection of records like a soul on fire was just the beginning. Borrowing a guitar from a neighborhood friend at age 12, Dennis played those three strings (as it was missing a few) until his friend took it back. But the seed of what he wanted to do with his life had already been planted.
In 1984, Dennis bought his first guitar with lawn mowing money, a 1981 Peavy T-60. "It weighted a ton, I had to play it sitting down," Dennis remembers. Teaching himself a few chords, and learning what cover songs he could by himself, the need to play grew. "I remember sitting in my room playing 'Shout at the Devil' from Motley Crue," he says. "The girls loved it and I was the only kid in school that could play heavy metal."
Life would later intervene with his dreams for a time, taking Dennis into the military for 4 years with a family following along right after. "I played a little now and then but nothing serious, I had kids and a job, so priorities and family came first." Dennis managed to stay in the music game by managing bands in Austin and working for various music related publications as a graphic designer. In that position, his dream would return full force.
"I owned a little newspaper and hired these three guys and it turned out all four of us played guitar and soon the office was so musical that my wife moved us to the house," He says of those early days. "From there we converted a guitar player to bass, cut one guitar and made that guy the singer and found a drummer." That drummer was David Beinke, co-founding member of Redneck Jedi in 2001. Co-writer of "Black & White" and long time friend Chuck Stearns was among those first players.
"We were bad, that first gig was something to really forget. It was so bad, you look back and say, we'll never sound like that again," Dennis states. "We had 13 songs worked up and it just fell apart." But the band would see many line-up changes through the years. "It has taken what seems like an eternity to find the right guys for this band. I have been through so many I have lost count, but I do have pictures to remind me."
"This is the best this band has ever been, and we are so excited about the fact that the personalities, musical abilities, our direction and focus are all in place," Dennis says of the current Redneck Jedi lineup. "I finally can hear the music inside of me come out the way I hear it in my head and we can project that to our audience."
The band is focused on a very tight and busy gig schedule. "What we're doing is playing the new music we've written, kind of road testing it." he said. "Sure we perform the entire Black & White album live, but what we are really up to is checking crowd response for the new stuff."
Tentatively
titled "Too Defiant," Redneck Jedi plans to release the new CD in
March of 2009. "We have moved the release date so many times that even
I get confused," Dennis said, "But now with Jeff (Jeff Foeh, the
vocalist on Black and White) back on vocals, we're really looking forward
to getting into the studio at the first of the year."
