Lee Phillips "Lead Guitar" The RoadHog Band

I started playing guitar at the age of 13 because of a blues player I heard on a station in Chicago on my Hallicrafters short wave radio. When the weather was right we could pick up Chicago radio in the Detroit area. One night I heard a blues guitar player named Louisiana Red doing some delta style acoustic blues. I knew that I had to try to do this style of music. I got a old uke from my cousin with 3 strings on it and with the help of a Webcor open reel tape recorder and mike I tried to make the uke sound like Louisiana Red's guitar. When my dad noticed what I was trying to do he bought me a new string for the uke (this didn't help much) because I still didn't know how to play the uke. It really got some nice feedback though when I put the tape recorder mike into the sound hole!

Eventually I graduated to a real guitar, it was a Silvertone acoustic and along with it I got a guitar chord book and started to learn how to play guitar. About the same time I met a guy who was to become a life long friend and music making partner his name was Bill Anderson. Bill and I where at about the same level of playing (both really bad!) However Bill had a friend named Paul Heins who was a very good guitar player who had a real electric guitar. Paul helped Bill and me learn basic blues progressions.

Jim-left, Lee-center and Bill Anderson- right ..at Grams Lounge a long time ago! Then the HomeGrown Band.

After I had been playing for about two years we decided to try to organize a group but we couldn't find a drummer or a bass player. We talked one of our other friends who was trying to learn guitar into playing bass so Bill and I pooled our money and bought him a used bass from a hock shop on Michigan Ave. I traded in my Webcor tape recorder and Bill traded his dad's electric drill motor and with a little money we had a bass player! I called a guy who I knew played snare drum in the school marching band that owned his own snare drum but didn't have the rest of the kit, but least it was a drummer!As time went on we all improved in our playing and accumulated better equipment and eventually started playing in bars and doing private parties and really had a lot of good times. Eventually I met Bill Sweeting our current drummer/ lead singer and Jim Dominiak our bass player who are really very accomplished musicians and who I have been playing with for about 20 years. When we decided to restart the group I wanted to have a keyboard player in the group and Jim found Rich Attinoto from Cleveland Ohio who is a great keyboard player as well as an accomplished guitar player and singer.
Major Influences: Robert Noll, Jimi Hendrix, Eric Clapton, Richie Blackmore, Dick Hodge, Lesley West, Jimmie Reed, Joe Sladish, Joe Walsh, Bill Anderson, Sheryl Lee Bailey and Alvin Lee.

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