The Band
Ron Roiger
I started playing drums when I was 8 years old. My older brother had a sixties band called the Amoebas and they practiced in our basement and I always played along with them. I played in different bands in high school.
My sister got me interested in blues and jazz, and when I moved to Minneapolis in 1977 I started playing with Lazy Bill Lucas. I left Lazy Bill to play with Danny Holien, who had a hit song called "Colorado" in 1972.
We were a 3 piece rock band, and traveled in an old school bus to California to live in Santa Barbara and played the local clubs. I returned to Minneapolis and the new wave punk scene was taking off and we formed the Ben Day Dots. We played at 7th Street Entry, First Avenue, the Longhorn, the Caboose, and Duffy's.
We fronted Grace Jones at the Longhorn, and Randy Numan at the Roy Wilkins Auditorium in St. Paul. The Ben Day Dots broke up in 1981, and I moved to New York City in 1985. I am married and have 4 children. My influences are sixties Rock-n-Roll, Iggy Pop, Keith Richards, Chuck Berry, Keith Moon, Charlie Watts, David Johansen, John Lee Hooker. Favorite albums are Exile on Main Street, Lust for Life, and anything by Jimmey Yancey.
