Lance Dickerson grew up in Clawson, Michigan, a small town about ten miles north of Detroit. I first met him in 7th grade band at Clawson Junior High where we both were in the percussion section. We quickly became fast friends.
Lance's dad, Bob, was a professional drummer who played the classy nightclubs in Detroit. He also was in the studio band for the Soupy Sales night show (anybody remember that?).
Lance's parents got divorced during our junior year of high school and he moved to Livonia with his mother. Shortly after that he joined a band called the Heavy Metal Kids featuring Glenn Frey on vocals and guitar. Glenn grew up in Royal Oak just a few miles from us. Lance moved into the "band" house in Royal Oak so we were all able to hang out together.
Eventually, the band broke up and Glen moved to Californial where he teamed up with J.D. Souther and eventually founded the Eagles with Don Henley.
Lance ended up with Commander Cody (Ann Arbor) for several years before moving out west to play with Charlie Musselwhite. He also did stints with many big names including Mark Hummel, Maria Muldaur, David Bromberg, Mitch Woods, Gene Vincent, Link Wray, and many acts I wasn't familiar with. I would catch his act whenever a tour brought him back to the Detroit area so we could catch up with each other.
He died in 2003 of carbon monoxide poisoning. His wife called and apparently, he had been depressed for some time. I wasn't aware of that. Yeah, I always knew his good nature had an undercurrent of melancholy but I just saw it as another endearing component of his charm. I guess that shows how little we actually know about someone sometimes. I get a little sick when I wonder if I could have said or done something to make a difference. I didn't stay in touch as much as I should have. He was a very important part of my life and I hope he knew that. To this day it makes me sad to know that he was hurting so much. It's heartbreaking, really.
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When we were in junior high Lance's dad took us down to Wayne State University for a drum clinic taught by Joe Morello, Dave Brubeck's drummer. There was a segment on unconventional time signatures. Joe started us out on Take Five (5/4 time), then to Unsquare Dance (7/4 time) and then on to Blue Rondo A La Turk (9/8 time). It was quite an eye-opener.
After the clinic, one of our drum section pals surreptitiously unscrewed a wing-nut from Joe's cymbal stand for a souvenir. Lance said he thought it was a dirty trick and Dave said, "Are you kidding? These things only cost a dime!" I said something like "for the want of a nail..." and he said "Joe's got a bucket of these in his kit."
We idolized Joe Morello and I have to admit that the wing-nut was priceless to us. We took turns keeping it for a few years. I wonder what ever happened to that thing.
Funny!
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