Artists:Roger Hurricane Wilson

Guitarist Roger "Hurricane” Wilson was born on July 27, 1953, in Newark, New Jersey. When he was a year old, his parents moved to a little town on the Jersey shore, in search of a life other than in the city. Life there was typical for a young family in the early '50s. There are memories of Elvis singing "Love Me Tender," and Tennessee Ernie Ford singing "Sixteen Tons" ringing from radios and turntables everywhere -- melodies that would haunt him forever. In September of 1960, the peaceful existence was turned upside down when the town was virtually destroyed by the still legendary hurricane "Donna." The town was never the same from that day on.

One day, Roger discovered that one of his friends was taking guitar lessons. Immediately, as kids typically do, he wanted to do the same. His mother took him to his first lesson on January 7, 1963, at the age of 9, and rented a plastic beginner guitar. As his teacher taught him individual notes week after week, Roger was still inclined to find cool sounds coming out when the strings were struck together as chords. This music thing sure appeared to come quite easily, and naturally. Although the teacher would have preferred Roger give priority to his assigned lessons, they tended to take a back seat. The teacher, a mild-mannered white gentleman with horned rimmed glasses and winged tipped shoes, just didn’t seem to understand. Later on, Roger started taking trumpet lessons in order to join the elementary school marching band, and tolerated them while in reality, all he wanted to do was play the drums. He later saved up to buy his own drum paraphernalia, and started wood shedding that too. On one special parade day in Red Bank, NJ, and the school band drummers didn't show up. The band director handed a snare drum to Roger, and said "this is your shot"! He received a special award on the last day of school in front of the whole student body for saving the day.

The next year, in February of 1964, Roger was in front of the TV on Sunday night when the Beatles made their American debut on the Ed Sullivan Show. Being an only child, he was unaware of the curve ball being thrown at American kids everywhere. All he noticed, other than the screaming girls, was that there were THREE guitars on the stage, and one was being played BACKWARDS! The next day, all of the kids were acting crazy! They were combing their hair down in front, and some had these wild looking pointed boots; and they were all playing air guitar! Roger had already been playing guitar, and making his teacher mad for well over a year. Next to the Kennedy assassination during the previous November, this was pretty traumatic. Next, Roger got his first electric guitar, and the next couple of years were spent playing, or attempting to play music in various garage bands by The Kinks, The Beatles, The Yardbirds, The Animals, Paul Revere & The Raiders, while of course trying to match the lead licks of "Louie, Louie" and "Hang On Sloopy." Ironically, most of that music was remakes of old blue tunes, or at least pop songs influenced by the blues.

In 1967, upon graduating from grammar school, the little Jersey shore town didn't have their own high school. The surrounding townships were bussing kids wherever they could fit them in. Roger's parents thought it best to place him in a more positive environment. They sent him to a private prep school in Atlanta. The "bubble-gum" music era was in full swing, and after being subjected to "Monkees" TV show for the last year or two, Roger found it quite nauseating. While in Georgia, the 14 year old became addicted and taken in by the music of Otis Redding, Wilson Pickett, Aretha Franklin, Eddie Floyd, and Booker T. & The MG's. The Memphis sound and feel started unknowingly planting its obsession. Roger, of course was immediately drafted by the school band to play trumpet, but the band director would occasionally let him replace undependable drummers. 1968 showed up when Jimi Hendrix, The Doors, Quicksilver Messenger Service, Janis Joplin, and "psychedelic" music, referred to then as "underground" music, raised its sleeping head.

B.B. King's "The Thrill is Gone" hit the airwaves, and according to Roger, "there was something going on". The single lead, vibrato notes pioneered by B.B. were essentially drawing him in. He bore down on the guitar, and learned as much as he could about the music, and the artists that made it. When meeting B.B. King in later years, he explained to the blues king what had happened.

1970 had Roger making weekly pilgrimages to Atlanta's Piedmont Park to hear bands, mainly The Allman Brothers Band. Not much was remembered in detail until the night of June 16, 1971, when The Brothers played their first sold out show in Atlanta's Municipal Auditorium. The 17 year old stood 6 feet away from Duane Allman, and was completely swept off of his feet. After years of guitar lessons, a knee-high stack of guitar books and sheet music, the boy was never the same! The slide guitar playing that night in itself was another force to be reckoned with. In the days that followed, he was haunted by what he had seen and heard. Roger began wearing out Allman Brothers Band albums trying to capture that sound. His next reaction was, "the hell with everything else!" All he wanted to do now was play as well as he could.

During his senior year in high school, he was bestowed the title of drum major in the high school marching band. On October 29, 1971, Roger was conducting the school band through the national anthem on the field at a football game. After the game, he heard the radio report of Duane Allman's death in a motorcycle accident in Macon -- another trauma in addition to JFK's assassination, The Beatles, and the death of his grandfather in '67. He immediately started bearing down on the music even harder. When the Duane Allman Anthology came out in late 1972, the enclosed literature spoke of how Duane's eyes used to light up at the mention of Robert Johnson. Who was that? Thus began the search for the origins of the music that made all of this happen. Robert Johnson, Willie McTell, and Elmore James albums were only the scratching of the surface for this musically consumed 19-year-old.

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