I consider this the actual start of my professional career…even though it should be obvious to anyone reading, that I certainly did not start cutting my teeth in 1984!  Somewhere in the summer of ’84, Will and I were hanging out at a foodmart that had games and stuff.  Our usual hangout.  We would always lament on the folding of FREELINE…not having a real rock band.  One night a casual aquantance came up and asked if we had a singer, to which we replied no….but that it was going to take someone with a ‘big’ voice to do the kind of stuff we were thinking of doing.  He thus went right into a loud ripping version of “Come on Fell The Noize” by Quiet Riot.  That was our initial meeting with Gary “Mad Dog” Mihlfeld!  Gary was a big guy with a big voice.  He was a couple years older than I (I being officially 21 at the time).  We were very excited because a singer was always the hardest link to find.  After deciding that Geoff Weaver wasn’t going to be involved, we went after a classmate from High School…one Jeff Swaby.  For some reason, Jeff and I had never really known each other all through high school despite being in the same grade.  We aren’t talking about a giant high school either…Linton High School class of 1981 had about 100 students..I think!

          Jeff had long hair in school, and had frequent run-ins with my dad.  Dad was the disciplinarian at High School.  He was known more for his motorcycle racing that for being a guitarist, but I knew that he played nevertheless.

I had ran into Jeff the past December (1983) when I had come home for christmas.  A friend of mine had become friends with a band out of Vincennes, Indiana called Miriah.  They were performing at an Armory show one night, and we went to see them.  They totally blew me away in every aspect.  It was truly an eye opening experience, and I decided then and there that I was going to reach that level of band, and soon.  Jeff was at this same show, and I walked up and told that we have to put something together. So when I got back from LA, and somewhat mobile after the broken leg catastrophe, Will and I hooked up with Jeff and Gary. We’d all get together at Jeff’s mother’s hairdressing shop at night.  We’d jam whenever Will and I weren’t heading to Bedford.  The only real problem was that we simply could not find a bass player.  Richie considered himself a bass player, he had a bass, and could play…but he was just learning, and we needed a solid bass player.  This caused some degree of tension between Will, myself and Richie.  I think Richie thought we should have given him a shot.  He was still running the light system that he, Will and I had built.  We put advertisements everywhere.  At this time Will and I decided to try our hand at the Broadcasting program at Vincennes University.  So we flooded the campus with little ads on bulletin boards.

          Luck would finally shine on us when we finally got a bite.  We would meet the guy at the Feed Bag on the VU campus one afternoon.  Will and I were pumped up at the prospect of finally having a complete band, but were equally apprehensive at who it could be.  In the world of Rock at that time image was a big thing.  Finally we met him, and he was very cool, very Rock and roll, and a big fan of the same things as us.  We set up the first jam at my parents basement in the fall of 1984.  I remember that our first song was the Scorpion’s “Bad Boys Running Wild”.  Patrick was left handed, and had a headless Kramer bass that he striped up…it was perfect.  The aspects were lining up!  Jeff had been a favorite of Fred Markle from Markle Music in Linton.  Through Fred, we were able to get better gear, better lighting.  Through Fred we were able to become more professional and compete with the better bands in the area.  Finding a name would prove more demanding.

          In a heavy metal band, the name must be indicative of that nature….but you never want to sound stupid.   Something image conscious, and powerful.  My friend Charlie Bill Smith is responsible for the name.  He was quite literate, and I had asked him to come up with something.  He explained that a LEVIATHAN had double the power of the normal.  I looked it up in the dictionary and sure enough the description was right on, and it also had a biblical implication as well.  That was perfect for Heavy Metal in the hey day of Judas Priest, Iron Maiden, and Ozzy Osbourne.  There was definitely a backlash from some folks thinking it was satanic in nature.  But the bible specifically said that the only thing that could kill LEVIATHAN was the sword of God….how perfect was that! Plus, Priest had used the term in one of their songs! (Deliverin’ the Goods).

          Soon we were playing out, and getting popular in our hometown.  Patrick would come up for the weekends and stay at my parent’s house, and we’d play gigs at the Tap Room in Linton, or in Jasonville, In.  We would practice at Will’s mother’s house when she would leave for her 2^nd job at night.  We branched out to play in Vincennes & Washington, making new friends along the way.  By the fall of 1985, Will and I moved into a big apartment in Vincennes with good friend and VU classmate Rob (the Throb) Kaufman.  This would prove vital to the band’s progression.  With Patrick being from Vincennes, and good friends with all the musicians in the area (including the aforementioned Miriah), we quickly made all the rounds.  We started to rehearse in Patrick’s basement in the outskirt town of Frichton.  Patrick’s parents Larry-Bud and Selma were such a giant support of us and put up with more than the average parent would have ever done.  With this move to Vincennes, came the changes.  Gary was a trucker, and would be gone for periods of time, and unable to be at a lot of get togethers.  While signing up for Spring classes (1986) in October of ’85, Pat (Gooch) and myself (by then I become known as Big D) ran into Ross Kincaid.  I didn’t know him too well, but Pat did.  Soon the conversation turned into vocals, and it wasn’t long before the decision was made to replace Gary with Ross.  It wasn’t an easy decision for me at all…nor Will.  But Jeff and Pat were strong for it, and I think I realized that it was the next logical step to happen.  Ross had a lot of experience, and knew a lot of people in the area.  He was from Lawrenceville, Il, and had played in local bands. He was considered a great vocalist, and it was a good improvement for the band image wise as well.  Fortunately for me, Jeff handled the breaking of the news to Gary, who was none to well pleased.

          Bringing in Ross opened up all sorts of new music to the band.  His range was higher than Gary’s, and we really clicked vocally.  I always did the back high vocals, plus a couple generic things to give him a break.  We started to garner our own following in Vincennes.  However, with Ross came a new group of friends.  It wasn’t long before the pressure to make another change surfaced in the band.  This time it was very close to home.  Will had gotten involved with a girl in Linton, and this seemed to shift his list of priorities.  No longer did he live with Rob and myself in Vincennes.  More and more he was late for practices and gigs.  I knew the talk was happening, and tried to warn Will of the impending doom, but he continued down the path.  Add to this was the fact that Ross’ best friend was his former band mate and drummer Brad Laughlin, also from Lawrenceville.  When Will would be late, it was Brad who’d sit in.  I knew what was coming, but there was no way I was going to sacrifice myself for someone else’s downfall this time (RE: EXIT).  I remember telling Will what was going down in Rob’s car.

          I will always have regrets in how it was handled….but once the decision was made…I told Will to be at Pat’s basement at a certain time to face the music, and that he’d have the chance to say his piece.  Brad already had his drumkit in the basement, but hidden.  But almost to add salt to the wound, Will didn’t show up, and after an hour the guys decided to hell with it.  Will’s stuff was moved out, Brad’s moved in and the first official practice started there in November or so 1985.   Unfortunately, Will did eventually show up.  We were in mid song when he came trampling down the stairs….it was a very awkward time.  The regret I have is that there wasn’t any concern for him, he’d put a lot of time and effort into LEVIATHAN, and had been a long time friend of mine dating back to FREELINE.  We stopped the song and I helped him get his gear up the steps, but he wasn’t in any mood to talk.  Amidst the snickers, he proceeded to tell everyone what he thought of them.  I am thankful that he still considered me a friend.

          Brad was a good drummer and had every bit the rock image we needed. He had a huge TAMA kit, and we set out to challenge the world.  One huge problem we were encountering was the band name LEVIATHAN.  No one could pronounce it right, no one could advertise it correct!  Several flyers had us a Levitation….so we decided it was time for a name change, and it seemed appropriate because 2 founding members were gone from that band in the first place.

All sorts of things changed during this period.  I finally had access to a music store where I could put things on time.  First thing I did was add another Fender Super Reverb.  This gave me a stack.  Sometimes I would use a little Peavey Bandit and plug the output into my Fenders.  The Fenders just did not give me the sound I needed to play our setlist.  I still had the Boss Super Overdrive, and the Morley, and Digital Delay.  I also used a Yamaha rack delay for a while that was cool.     

Obviously Brad, Patrick, Jeff and Ross carried on to the next step. 

Gary & Will had some hard feelings that were expected.  Add to them, Richie, who also found himself uninvolved once we moved to Vincennes.  We hadn’t been using the home built light show for some time.  When we first got Brad in the band, we had failed to realize that we had a gig in Linton at the TAP ROOM Scheduled within 2 weeks,  Why we didn’t cancel it , I don’t know…not that we wouldn’t be ready to play, but the tension as high going back to Linton..the hometown of both Gary and Will..and the bar where we’d all been top dog.  We should have know there’d be trouble.  We did win over the crowd quickly, as the band was definitely better and more professional. Gary, Will and Richie were all present, as were a horde of their friends.  I had to do a lot of explaining, as a lot of people held me directly responsible.

          Just when we thought that the show was going to finish on a high note.  Will and Jeff got into an argument over ownership of gear that erupted when Will dove headfirst into one of the speaker cabinets, punching a hole in the speaker with a screwdriver.  Talk about an insane scene, and the probability of an all-out physical altercation.  I can’t believe, after all these years (currently at 20), that cooler heads prevailed, and other than a bloody lip that Will suffered at the hands of Jeff, nothing else occurred.  Gary was notorious for his red neck, and even he kept things calm.  That was the last time I saw either of them for many years.

          I did to see a new band that both Gary and Will had put together practice once, and it was strange, but we got along ok…They were called Tameless.  They played a few times in Linton and Bloomfield, and had Scott Martindale on guitar.  I was glad to be on good terms with them.

          Several years after that Will and I got together again around 1991, and things seemed to be going great for him.  He was playing Bass in a band from Bedford, and he  was living in Bedford, and going to get married.  He even came to see Atomic Farmboyz at a gig in Crane, where we got him up to do “Born To Be Wild”.  All the old wounds seemed to have been healed. Will was always the guy who had escaped serious injury in so many accidents, but his luck ran out.  He had a crash on his Harley on wet pavement.  An accident that shouldn’t have killed him but did.  This was my second stint as a Pall Bearer.

          I have run into Gary several times.  He was the lead singer in CRY BABY, a band that figures heavily in the Atomic Farmboyz story discussed in that category.  Again, I was unknowingly involved in his upheaval in a band.  After that episode, I figured we’d never be friendly, but we still seem to be.  He showed up at a Farmboyz show once, but more recently I have sat with him at my sister’s son’s biddy football games, where Gary has a son playing on the same team.  Gary always was a team player, and a great singer.  No one can do CCR or Bob Seger any better.

          Richie and I have remained friends, and every once in a while we run into each other at Linton High Football games.  He and his with Garlene came to a Bloomington Farmboyz show one night.  Danny Shonk moved to Florida, although I never really knew him too well.

Charlie Bill Smith wasn't around a lot, but early on was a big influence.  After dropping out of Franklin College, he began a long association with the Postal Service in Linton and Bloomington.  Once in a long while I would hear from him, and finally his sister Anna Lee got him to go to an Atomic Farmboyz show in Bloomington in the late 90's.  That really was a great time.  He'd been by the house  in Vincennes back in  late Summer '04, and shockingly passed away from a heart attack in early 2005.  I spoke and played several songs at his funeral.  He didn't have a 'burial' per se, or I am sure it would be another Pall Bearer duty...and I'd of been proud to do so.

          Rob the Throb has remained a very close friend through the years.  He is in Seymour, IN after graduating from VU, he moved out of our apartment in December 85.  We have stayed in contact over all my years of road travel, through all the bands I have been involved with from late ’84 on.  A guitarist himself, the Ibanez Destroyer that I play today was his pride and joy.  When my Les Paul got stolen, he sold me his guitar cheaply, saying that I was the only person he’d ever let it go to.  Rob makes it to any gig I’ve ever played in his area, and I sometimes stay with he and Melissa in Seymour.  A better friend a guy could never have.