Our first rehearsal

Our first rehearsal was in Manayunk Pa. In a second story loft sandwiched between a bar and some railroad tracks. Rob Hyman, Eric Bazilian, John Kuzma, Bobby Woods, made a date to make some music. Up until we showed up Rob and Eric have been getting together with different musicians trying out stuff and for whatever reason it wasn't working out. Either the guys weren't showing up, or when they did it just wasn't what they were looking for, or it just wasn't right. Meanwhile, Bobby Woods, John Kuzma and I played in a band that played cover songs and some originals. John wrote some of his own songs and was a good enough front guy that we could play Elvis Costello and even Bruce Springsteen songs. We played lot of upbeat music that got people dancing. We also played James Brown. The three us had continuity as a rhythm section and we anchored whomever we played with like a 3 lane highway. I have to credit Bobby Woods, he was a great bass player, and he probably still is. He laid it down and he made me an honest drummer. John, Bobby and I weren't really doing anything but playing bars to make some money so we could eat and just survive. I think the three of us looked at the opportunity to play with Rob and Eric as a step up. It was.

What's in a name anyway.. The Hooters.

Eric and I were headed to Ricky's for a bite to eat. Ricky's was a little sandwich shop down the block from where we practiced. Eric was the first to let me know what the name of the band was going to be. We were standing in the parking lot. He said we are going to be THE HOOTERS. The truth is, I was pretty horrified and I didn't like it but I didn't say anything, like what the hell is a Hooter? I thought the name sucked. It really didn't seem like a cool band name to me at the time. Little did I know it was pretty good. It looked good in print, you didn't forget it, whether you hated or loved it. I remember thinking, what's in the name anyway? Probably a good thing I wasn't making the choice. The name seemed to be a topic of discussion for a long time when we were starting out doing interviews. John Senior an engineer and friend of the Rob and Eric recorded some demos for us. I'm thinking it was late 1979. John would call
the melodica a Hooter, John say something like , hey play that Hooter thing, referring the melodica. Basically that's how the band got its name. It was the nickname for an instrument. This is a few years before there were the Hooters restaurants or Steve Martin referred to a woman's breast as Hooters. So yeah, what's in a name?