C H A R L O T T E P R O W L E R M A G A Z I N E presents
KINGS OF
OUR
SUMMER
Carolina Beach Music Lives On with Ken Knox & Company
Here is a true tale of the Carolinas and our beach culture for all who love our coast: Ken Knox, former
long-time saxophone player with the Chairmen of the Board headed by the legendary General Johnson, remembers well the moment he got his marching orders for the rest of his life... “We didn’t even know how sick General was then, that he wouldn’t be getting better,” Knox says. “He looked at me and said, ‘Go out and give the best show you can give and continue our legacy.’ General passed me the baton and I will keep on playing our songs.” Meeting General Johnson in the mid-1970s was a life-changing moment in young Ken’s life. He grew up in Detroit, Michigan with music all around— Boots Randolph, Motown, Fats Waller were early influences. “You couldn’t help but pick up the music,” he says. “My friends would be singing down at the end of the block. My brother had a sax so when I was 11 or 12 I taught myself to play.” His fledgling musical career led to the night when
Danny Woods, long-time vocalist with General Johnson, walked into the club where Ken’s band was playing. Ken and the band’s horn section ended up dancing on the bar with Danny that night. Woods happened to be auditioning musicians for an upcoming tour. “We clicked!” Ken says. “He told me, be ready next Wednesday.” Ken was 21 years old. That week, Knox found himself on stage with General Johnson playing a Detroit concert with the Supremes. The same night he boarded a private Lear jet for a concert in Madison Square Garden with the Stylistics. Next it was New Orleans for a concert with Earth, Wind and Fire. “It was a life of limos and Lear jets,” Knox remembers. “I was hooked.”
Interview by R E N E E W R I G H T
For the next 38 years, Knox lived the dream, touring as a member of the Chairmen of the Board and producing recordings. The group relocated to North Carolina when the Invictus label folded in 1978. “General said to me that they had this thing called Beach Music down south, so we moved down here and founded Surfside Records,” Knox says. Studio East on Monroe Road in Charlotte became the band’s home base. It was there, in 1980, that the group recorded one of Beach Music’s most beloved songs, “Carolina Girls.” “You were always hearing about California girls back then,” Knox recalls. “We wanted to give Carolina girls some respect.” The song became a regional hit and is still played
frequently at shag clubs across the south. General Johnson and the Chairmen of the Board were inducted into both the North Carolina and South Carolina Music Halls of Fame, and were members of the 1995 inaugural class of the Carolina Beach Music Hall of Fame. CNN dubbed them the “Kings of Beach Music.” General Johnson died unexpectedly in 2010, after a pain in his knee turned out to be lung cancer that had spread. Ken Knox and the band toured as the Chairmen of the Board for a few years, then decided to retire the name to an honored position “on the mantle” as the Chairmen went their separate ways and Ken’s own career evolved. He now tours as Ken Knox and Company (KCO) with Thomas
Hunter and the Executives, the same group that backed General Johnson for decades. The group played the DNC National Convention, the Carolina Panthers halftime show and Governor Pat McCrory’s inaugural ball. General Johnson was the group’s major songwriter and composer, but in the years since his death, Ken Knox has begun to feel his own creativity rise. “Sometimes I feel like the General is sit-
ting right there next to me,” Knox says. “And then I’ll feel a song coming. I never wrote songs before, but it’s like the General is right there with me.” Knox’s first songwriting effort, “You,” was a hit, rising to No. 1 in many regional markets and making a UK splash. “Carolina Shuffle” followed and Ken’s latest, “I’m Ready Willin’ and Able” is climbing the charts. A new album “Out of the Shadows” is due out later this
year. But that doesn’t mean he’s forgetting his roots. Fans will still get to party to those great good time songs the Chairmen made famous, including “Give Me Just a Little More Time,” “On the Beach,” “Gone Fishin,” and of course “Carolina Girls,” whenever Ken Knox and Company take the stage. Ken’s latest project is developing the Elite Artist Network with his friends at Studio East. Designed to revive the careers of artists
who paid their dues, but never got paid fairly, the Network brings these allbut-forgotten performers back to the stage and recording studio. Stayed tuned to the Prowler for Elite Artist Network concerts coming up. For more on Ken Knox and Company, please visit kenknoxcompany.com. For more about the Elite Artist Network, please visit eliteartistnetwork.com.