For Booking:
E-Mail Ned

For Site Info:
Webmaster

For History:
NW Rock'n'Roll

About Jr. Cadillac:
From the Tacoma News Tribune

Ned's Solo CD:


Listen and Buy!

©Copyright 2001 Ned Neltner and Jr. Cadillac™

Here's what was said about the boys when they were only 30!

"Tacoma News Tribune, Jan. 8, 2001"

By Rick Nelson

The News Tribune

One of the late singer Roger Miller’s jokes was, “I used to have a one-man
band, but I couldn’t keep it together.”Miller’s gag probably tickled
musicians most of all because they know how hard it is to keep any band united and working.

In the past 30 years, many hundreds of groups have come and gone in the Northwest.As far as I know, only one has endured. On Saturday, Jr. Cadillac will celebrate it’s 30th year of performing with a show at the Mountaineers Club in Seattle.

There have been personnel changes over the years, but Jr. Cadillac has
thrived by playing a danceable mix of original and classic rock ’n’ roll for
hundreds of thousands of people. It’s a remarkable achievement.Singer,
guitarist and bandleader Ned Neltner, who is also a KPLU-FM (88.5)
disc jockey, was asked to reflect on the long, strange trip.

“We have seen so many things come and go,” Neltner said. “We’ve watched disco come, go and come again. We’ve seen the rise and current rule of disc
jockeys. And all of the rock trends, like country rock, and groups that
challenged our position: Annie Rose & the Thrillers, the Skyboys and groups
that seemed to cut into our audience.”

So what’s the secret? Why is Jr. Cadillac about to celebrate 30 years while so many groups and so many trends, such as big-hair bands and new wave, are history?Neltner’s answer came in three parts: the fact that the group stuck
to music he and his band mates love (roots rock); that the members never got too entangled in each others’ personal lives; and, probably most importantly,
hard work.

“There’s an advantage with our kind of music in the sheer volume of material to draw from,” Neltner said. “There’s no end of songs you can pick. And we haven’t plumbed that depth by any means yet. At the next rehearsal for the birthday party, we’ll be working on a tune I found in the course of my disc-jockeying at KPLU, a tune called ’Rich Woman’ by Lil’ Miliet & His Creoles. It’s the sort of thing Cadillac has always done. We’ve always played a few of the obvious, (Chuck Berry’s) ’Johnny B. Goode’ and the Little Richard tunes, but we bend those, too. ’Johnny B. Goode’ now has a long, solo, piano boogie-woogie section at the end of it. And ’Louie Louie’ has been transmogrified any number of ways. The current incarnation can encompass anything from ’Real Muthafuya,’ a Johnny ’Guitar’ Watson thing, to ’La Bamba’ and ’Sweets for My Sweet.’ We do many, many things with the standards. “We’ve always found some way to keep it fresh."

"Les (Clinkingbeard) and I open with a no-tempo arrangement of ’I Come to the Garden Alone,’ a Protestant hymn that we both like, or ’Amazing Grace’ and then lead into ’Louie Louie.’" 

“The band can start and stop on a dime for me. I just think of these things,
and they go, ’OK,’ as if it were a rehearsed move. The guys respond like one
organism."

"And yet the elements of the “organism” go their separate ways off
stage." 

"We never spent very much time socializing as a group,” Neltner said.
“Certainly, over the course of these 30 years, various ones and twos of the
band members would be friendly, but as far as getting together and having
big family gatherings or living together in a house or any of the stuff so
many bands did during that period of time, we never have."

"I attribute a lot of our success to the fact that we meet and commune on
stage. And that’s really the only place we do."

The final element is simply Neltner’s perseverance and commitment to the
band. “I don’t need an ego rub about this,” he said, “but the short answer to
why we’ve lasted is, ’Me.’ None of those groups that challenged us had a person like me who was either too scared to move on or just would do the work necessary to keep the darn thing happening on a day-to-day basis."

"For better or worse, that is what I have done. I have the phone glued to my
ear just like I have with you right now, a good portion of every business
day. And that’s what makes this thing keep happening. If you just sit around
and wait for it, it don’t happen. That’s what a group has to have. And I
don’t think a manager does that. It takes an internal force in the band."

Neltner was asked to draw on his and his cohorts’ memories for some of the
highs and lows of Jr. Cadillac’s 30-year career.  Best show: “It was probably
one of those nights at the Rainbow in Seattle. Let’s say a hot Saturday in September 1976-1984. The best ’big’ gig would look something like our 22nd birthday party on Halloween in the Grand Ballroom of the Sheraton for about 1,200 (and we turned lots away). The bill included Steve Miller, Dave Lewis and Little Bill & the Bluenotes. I’ll  remember it, for as much as anything else, Steve Miller’s entrance where he killed everybody in his first three notes having walked on in the middle of ’No Money Down.’" 

Worst show: “The one at Baldy’s in Milton in the ’70s where some guy dosed me and Tommy (Cadillac) with some horrible drug in our drinks. I couldn’t find the end of my guitar.”

Best clubs: Rainbow, Seattle; Euphoria, Portland; Washboard Willie’s,
Spokane; The Swiss, Tacoma.

Worst club: The Great American, Everett.

Rowdiest clubs: The Buffalo, Ballard; The Brotherhood, Seattle’s Interbay.

Memorable Tacoma gigs: “In the ’70s at UPS, we opened for Atlanta Rhythm
Section, and at PLU we played a great dorm dance.”

Best dancers: “Phil and Kathy, a couple of killer dancers who come out and
dance to us.”

Best eyeful from the stage: “Jeez, that is a tough one ’cause there were so
many beautiful girls dancing in front of us, but she might of been one of
the professional strippers than came into The Brotherhood to protest, by
stripping, the amateur stripping that had been going on each weekend.”

Longest road trip: Seattle-Moscow-Tashkent-Leningrad-Helsinki-Seattle in May and June of ’89.

Best road trip: "The U.S.S.R. tour or a trip to Boise State University to open
for Chuck Berry for the 13th time.”

Best sit-in players: Julian Priester, Steve Miller, Elvin Bishop, Freddie
Hubbard “and a ton of great local players,” including, Denny Goodhew, Ron
Kincaid, J.D. Story, P.K. Dwyer and Donna Beck, Barry Curtis, Dave Lewis,
Tiny Tony Smith, Kent Morrill, Sweet Talkin’ Jones “and a huge bunch that
should be listed.”

Best gig as an opening act: Steve Flynn (keyboards) picked
opening for Chuck Berry or Bill Clinton (a ’96 Democratic National Committee event). 

Les  Clinkingbeard (tenor sax): a Beach Boys/Kinks concert or Little Richard at Bumbershoot.

Don King (bass): the Northwest all-stars show that opened the EMP in June. 

Jeffrey Beals (baritone sax) also picked the EMP show. 

George Rudiger (drums) selected opening for Fleetwood Mac in Alaska in the ’70s.

Neltner chose an Etta James show at the Rainbow.

Best act that opened for Jr. Cadillac: the Robert Cray Band “on a couple boat
cruises.”

Best moments: Neltner said, “It was the early ’80s, and we were at the
Central in Pioneer Square. I was playing cornet with my eyes tightly shut,
just playing my little white-boy blues. I opened my eyes, and there Freddie
Hubbard stood about 2 feet away just looking at me. I stuck out the horn to
him and said, ’Here.’ He came up and played three sets with us. Another one
was writing a song onstage with Bo Diddley while the ’Bo’ beat was going at the Backstage. He wouldn’t allow any recording, so it’s just
out there in the air someplace.”

Jr. Cadillac alumnae: Tommy Cadillac, Nancy Claire, Bob Hosko, Roger Huyck, Jim Manolides, Buck Ormsby, Andy Parypa, Gary Shelton, Brian Steiner, Rube Tubin and Lily Wilde. 

Current line up: Neltner (30 years), Rudiger (29), Clinkingbeard (28), Flynn
(18), King (17) and Beals (six). 

Acknowledgements: Neltner said, “I’d like to thank all the great crews we’ve
had over the years, especially: Big Mike, Big Larry, Bigboy Pete, Ron Winters, L.P., Chris and Nose Ring, Mark Willett, Billy Genovese and a
buncha great guys I’m gonna tick off by leaving them off this list. And
thank you Rhoda Mueller.”