Lee Staggs, aka Whopper Jr.
12-17-1962 - 05-12-2003
(Memorium)
Born James Lee Staggs December 17, 1962 in Hampton Virginia. Lee Staggs started playing tuba in his middle school band out in California. Van Halen was the local band that played their school dances. Lee started playing bass in his first band Triax in high school out in the little town of Tabb. Triax had its glory for the high school boys and even played a biker bar in Norfolk before dismembering. After high school Lee went on to Old Dominion University and received a degree in Management Information Systems May of 1985. He went on to have an excellent career with Norfolk Public Schools. Lee soon got together to play music and formed the Blind Venetians. He started playing the upright bass and the band made regional success over the years. In 1996 Big Al asked his brother (Lee) if he wanted to start a band. Together they found Richie Bohr, Jim Hazel and Anvil, former drummer of Blind Venetians, to form Moaning Lisas. Jim left the band to form Factory Playboys so the MLs line-up stayed as a four piece, just as it is today. Lee had all of the input when picking the cover songs. “We will play cool stuff that is fun and will blow the crowds away.” He was right. The band entered the studio with Stacey Haydon to record a 6-song demo. In 1999, Lee started having kidney failure due to complications from diabetes. He had to leave the band and became a recipient of a kidney and pancreas transplant. The complicated operation was a success and Lee had a new start on life and with his beautiful wife Colleen by his side. After a full recovery, Lee returned to work… and returned to the band. He played for a year helping to rebuild the set list and bring Gene Temple into the band to replace Richie. After writing some great songs with Gene and Big Al, three new songs were recorded and Lee felt that he could no longer perform live with the band. He retired from playing music live as health issues began to arise, once again. After returning from a family vacation in Colorado, Lee became very ill and was diagnosed with a rare blood disease called aplastic anemia. He fought a long hard fight against this disease, but lost his fight on May 12, 2003. Lee was the creative mind behind most of the ideas and songs the MLs play today. Lee taught us to never criticize a person physically because you never know how painful they might hurt on the inside. With his long fight with diabetes Lee never showed how much pain he was in, instead he kept it to himself. We will miss Lee’s incredible knowledge in music, model tanks, and computers. We will never forget his dislike for the Clinton’s and the love he had for his wife, family, and of course, the Almighty Washington Redskins. Thank you Lee, for all the great memories.
Lee's original Bio
Lee's bio.... aka "whopper jr."..... started a riot in kindergarten..... tied Big Al to a tree when he was little..... mooned his seventh grade math class.....while at ODU, ate alot of Speedy's tacos.....been thrown outta Friar Tucks......played bass for the Blind Venetians.....done the gator with Root Boy...... drank beers with Country Dick..... seen Mojo Nixon naked.... swears he saw Elvis at a Piggly Wiggly in Alabama!
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Lee's original Bio
Lee's bio.... aka "whopper jr."..... started a riot in kindergarten..... tied Big Al to a tree when he was little..... mooned his seventh grade math class.....while at ODU, ate alot of Speedy's tacos.....been thrown outta Friar Tucks......played bass for the Blind Venetians.....done the gator with Root Boy...... drank beers with Country Dick..... seen Mojo Nixon naked.... swears he saw Elvis at a Piggly Wiggly in Alabama!
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Gene Temple - Guitar
I am from the land down under......down under Tennesse and Arkansas that is. Specifically, born in Mississippi, raised in Texas and Louisiana. Cut my teeth on the Gospel, Country, Rockabilly, and Blues on the one AM radio station we had to listen to, out in the boonies. Started playing and directing music in numerous bands including The Easley Family (Gospel), The Anthony Brothers (Buck Owens style country), Velvet Elvis (R&B and Blues), The Continentals (anything from Gospel to Blues and anything in between), The Wendy Ard band (think Janis).....and a plethora of R&B, Folk, Rock, and Country acts of inconsequence. I got hooked on the Jimmy's....Jimi Hendrix and Jimmy Page, Billy Gibbons, Ry Cooder, Gram Parsons, Randy Scruggs, and just about every Bluesman that ever bent a string. Once visionaries like the Flying Burrito Brothers, New Riders, Commander Cody, Goose Creek Symphony, and Steve Earle made it cool again to be a Bohemian Country guy, I dove straight in. Fate brought me to placing an ad in the Tidewater Musicians Exchange after a long layoff. I got a response three days later from Big Al, who liked my influences and sales pitch (I guess). He sent me a CD and we rehearsed at Whopper Jr.'s pad....who was on crutches and hobbling about with bass in hand. Needless to say we clicked and share damn near the same musical direction and own some of the same CD's. I have never seen Mojo Nixon naked, but I have thrown up on Porter Wagonner's bass player's shoes in the Under the Hill Pub in Natchez, Mississippi, and Elvis is fo sho living in a trailer park by a Piggly Wiggly in Alabama. Come do the Poontango with us......and prepare to party. (strains of "Lonesome L.A. Cowboy" fading out)
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Scott Carlisle - Guitar
Scott started playing music in Florida way back in the day. His first gig was his high school band West Wind (73-75). "That's when I made all my money, playing music today sucks." Judgement(77-79) "This was a twelve piece blues band,10 African American rockers and two white boys." Blues band. "I remember playing in a shothouse back in the woods of Georgia." "You went to the bathroom in trash cans and you did not go far from the stage but it was a rocking party." Scott grew up in the Jacksonville Flordia area with the guys in Molly Hachett and Lynard Skynard. The other white boy in Judgement was Dicky Betts nephew. His first traveling band was The Irritations (79-83) rocking and rolling up and down the east coast. That band led him to Norfolk Virginia. "Well the band van blew up and I was stuck in this town." Swing Shots (84-85), Nick and the Razors (85-86), Birds on Drugs (87), Patio Boys (87-88), Rodie for the Waxing Poetics (89-Present), Left Wing Fascists (89-95) He joined Left Wing Fascists in 1987. Big Al and Scott continued to steer LWF through 2 albums and 10 years of rocking and rolling.. Bush Hoggs (94-96), Quang-T 2001-2002, "I was voted Nine Volt Guitar Player of the year for 2002 and was so happy that I did jumping jacks." He started playing bass when he started recording his own projects and some early stuff for Hickery Hawkins. He continues to produce bands like Big Bobby and the Nightcaps and other bands in Norfolk. He picked up the bass for Moaning Lisas and continues to pop the strings out today. "I play music for the free draft beer and the enjoyment of song writing, what a great combination." He picked up the bass for Moaning Lisas for a little while and now is the Smoking 6-stringer he was born to be and continues to bend the strings out today.
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Rick Kuhns - Bass/Vocals
(Memorium)
Rick Kuhns has been playing in the area since he was in junior high school (and believe me that was a LONG time ago!) Started playing bass and guitar when he was 14, had his first paying gig the next year with an Elvis imitator band called Ricky Henderson and the TLC band. Had to leave Elvis when they started to play clubs (places weren’t too keen on having 15 year olds playing there) but was out in the clubs the next year with various high school bands. Played the local circuit, in and out of various bands (most notably New Shoes, a top 40 band with Jimmy Finnegan of El Kabong fame) and finally hooked up with a metal guitarist by the name of Richie Bohr and a drummer named Steve Mendez to form Shreiking Sheik, a proto-punk cyber country metal band that got to open for some great acts such as Dash Rip Rock, Egypt, Almighty Senators, Caterwaul and most importantly later in their careers, Left Wing Facists.
Now, we all know who was in THAT band!!
When the Sheiks broke up Rick bounced around, plying his journeyman bass chops with various projects until settling down to record and play out live with his own band, Saint Frank. Picking up his guitar for the first time ever in a live setting, Rick, Jeff and later Larry, Chris and Erik played quite a few of the local haunts, garnering a bit of attention but it was not to last, due to prior commitments by Chris and Erik to the USN. Upon the demise of Saint Frank Al called Rick to pick up the bass again, this time with the Moaning Lisas making the ML’s, again, the biggest band in Tidewater!!
Now, we all know who was in THAT band!!
When the Sheiks broke up Rick bounced around, plying his journeyman bass chops with various projects until settling down to record and play out live with his own band, Saint Frank. Picking up his guitar for the first time ever in a live setting, Rick, Jeff and later Larry, Chris and Erik played quite a few of the local haunts, garnering a bit of attention but it was not to last, due to prior commitments by Chris and Erik to the USN. Upon the demise of Saint Frank Al called Rick to pick up the bass again, this time with the Moaning Lisas making the ML’s, again, the biggest band in Tidewater!!
Richie Bohr - Guitar/Vocals
So there I was, bein' born, deep in the swamplands of Philadelphia, PA. I was born wailin', just not on the guitar yet. Grew up in the streets of NJ and Italy which was where I heard my first guitar playin'. Pop and his friends would sit around playing the Kingston Trio and Johnny Cash until the wee hours of the morning. I remember listening to them and it bringing tears to my eyes. I realized later in life the reason I was crying was that they could neither play nor sing. But pop kept at it and sure enough he began to be able to play a little bit, which actually caught my interest. I wanted to be like dad. He got me this little bitty guitar and I commenced to playing. Little Brown Jug was my favorite song. Actually it was my only song which eventually led to my parents forbidding me to touch the guitar again until I was 10. When I did, all hell broke loose. I picked it up fairly quickly. Nearly fractured my jaw until once again, my father and mentor intervened and showed me the proper way to pick up a fretted instrument! He got me my first ZZ Top album and I was hooked. Learned to play listening to Rev. Willy G pound out LaGrange. I would play that song every day for months on end. To this day, I still refuse to go through that chord progression ever again. I've played with a lot of different bands since then. From psychedelic to country to disco and heavy metal. Names like Eclipse, Southbound, Homebrew, Hollywood Kids and Shrieking Sheik. I played in about all of them. In the meantime, dad has put down the guitar and picked up banjo and the upright bass. He is playing that heavy metal for old folks (Bluegrass) in a band called Low Profile. Pretty damn good I might add. By the way, he is Big Rich. Which I guess that brings me to Big Al and the Moaning Lisas. Met Al when I was with the Sheiks and knew I had to play with this guy sometime. We later met at a cajun fest I believe it was after both of our bands were defunct and decided it was time to put something stupid together. No two better guys to have around when you have that kind of goal in mind. Al's brother Lee was up for it as well as Lee's drummer from the Blind Venetians, Anvil. And there you have the history of Richie and the formation of the best damn comedy, alternative-country, psychobilly, rock and roll band in Tidewater. So ya'll come on out to one of the shows and party down with us. Just some good ol' boys a pickin' and a grinnin'!!!!!! Take care. Ya'll come back now, ya hear?
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Dave Almeleh - Bass/Vocals
Jim Cahoon - Bass/Vocals
It would be imprudent to give out any other facts regarding Mr. Cahoon at this time except that he's the friggin' bass player!
