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My music career got off to a quick start in 1968 while still at Grady High, playing with recording artists like Billy Joe Royal(Down In The Boondocks), Rufus Thomas(Walking The Dog), Roy Head(Treat Her Right), Roy Orbison(Pretty Woman), and Lou Christie(Lightning Strikes Again). It was pretty exciting time for a young teenager ...... I was playing with musicians who were 10 yrs older than I was.
Moved to L.A. in 1974 and worked with a band called "Tycoon" and we secured a recording contract with Mike Curb(Curb Records), although it never really developed into anything.
Came back to Atlanta in '78 to go on tour with Capitol recording artist Ellen McIlwaine. Again, was exciting ........ got to play all the important clubs around the country, but it led us nowhere, so that group disbanded after 4 or 5 months.
As that venture fell apart, I grew tired of backing other artists so I started a group of my own which evolved into "THE PRODUCERS". Around this time, I somehow acquired the pseudonym 'Wayne Famous', which stuck, and people still call me by that name.
By 1980 we had attracted the attention of Tom Werman(producer at CBS/Epic Records), who had produced artists like Ted Nugent, Cheap Trick, Mother's Finest, etc.
We recorded our first album, self titled "The Producers" and released it in the spring of '81. By August '81, this new channel called MTV came into being, and within a month, we were getting airplay, which quickly escalated into 'heavy rotation', and the group was off and running!
By '82, we released our 2nd album entitled "You Make The Heat" with the single "She Sheila" and suddenly we were playing to crowds of 5 to 10,000. That led to us playing on the 2nd Annual MTV New Year's Eve Ball featuring Duran Duran, The Producers, and A Flock Of Seagulls.
In '85, we recorded a third album on our own label entitled "Run For Your Life" and in '88, a fourth album for MCA Records called ''Coelacanth"
So, between 1980 and 1990, we had toured the U.S., Canada, and all through the Carribean with U2, R.E.M., Toto, The Tubes, Cheap Trick, Joan Jett, The Go Go's, Billy Idol, The Romantics, The Dixie Dregs, Mother's Finest, Hall and Oates, Huey Lewis, Todd Rundgren, A Flock Of Seagulls, Rick Springfield, and on and on.
By 1990, things began to fizzle out, and we began a slow drift into oblivion, but while it lasted, quite a run it was!!
I met a lot of important and famous people and had a hell of a lot of fun! Unfortunately, as it is with a lot of artists, a lot of money was made, but most of it ended up in the pockets of our lawyers, managers, agents and so on, without a lot left over for us.
The Producers are still together after all these years(the same four original members), and we still occasionally go out and play festivals and the like, and I have adjusted to all that. For the last 20 or so years, I have driven a taxi to pay bills ......... and I still do session work and occasional composer and sound effects jobs.
Along the way, came two great kids, Marlon, a Delta pilot, and Marshall, still a student deciding what he wants to do. Divorced twice ........ that's enough for me, and our family is all excited because my 2nd cousin, Alan Gilbert, just took over the reins as conductor for the New York Philharmonic, so at least someone in the family is still doin' it!!
Here’s an update, as of October 5, 2019:
My son Marlon, still a Delta pilot, got married last October, and with his beautiful wife Katie, are settled in Dubuque Iowa, now trying to have babies.
My son Marshall finished school and is is in management for Macy’s out in Santa Rosa, California and is a sports maniac. He is a confirmed Californian - we may never get him back to Georgia. He’s still single but has come close a couple of times.
I’m remain with the Producers and suppose we’ll continue until one of us dies. I also have a band called Hammerhead and we play songs that we always wanted to play, over the years but, for some reason never did.
Also, I pay in a project band called ‘STAX to the MAX’ which honors all the incredible music that came out of Memphis (my birth home) and Muscle Shoals. That’s gonna be a special event kind of band that’ll play at music festivals and the like.
Cousin Alan Gilbert finished out his tenure as conductor in New York and is now concentrating on his passion for the opera.