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Nashville Shadows History according to Larry Rice, larjanniferrice@comcast net
Shortly after the Beatles came on the scene in 1964, Larry Rice, Mike Kelly, Ed Waller, and Baily “Bear” Gibson, all Glencliff High School friends, decided to start their own band. Mike wanted to be the drummer so that part was easy. Nobody wanted to play bass, but since all the girls swooned over Paul McCartney, Larry decided it might be worth a try. The other two guys wanted to play guitar. So, using paper route money and whatever they could scrounge, they bought Silvertone, Danelectro, etc. instruments, and a band was born. Not realizing that “The Shadows” was already a fairly popular name, they adopted “The Shadows Combo” as the name for their band.

Sporadically they played at friends’ parties and church functions until they came to the realization that no one could sing very well. Mike Kelly knew of a Central High School guy named Sam who sang and was looking for a band. Sam Robinson joined the band and things picked up immediately. Sam was quite a showman. His style was a combination of Mick Jagger and James Brown. At their first gig with Sam, a knife fight broke out resulting in a murder later that night. At the next gig, Sam did the splits and ripped his pants from front to back in front of a packed house at a Central High School basketball game. People began to notice. From there, it was Don’s Den, Pirate’s Cove, The Dog House, and many area high school dances.

In late 1965, due to high school graduations and such, some of the guys left the group. Larry Bell (an undiscovered guitar virtuoso) and Ronnie Batts (keyboard player from “Chip Box and the Corners”) joined the group. Then when Ronnie went to UT in Knoxville, Dennis Carney (now the well known Nashville photographer) replaced him. This was the band that most people remember as the “Nashville Shadows”.

Dan Hoffman, “D J Dan” of WKDA radio, became the group’s manager in 1966 and changed the name from “The Shadows Combo” to the “Nashville Shadows” to distinguish them from the other successful Nashville band named “The Shadows”. The “Nashville Shadows” went on to play Vanderbilt fraternity and sorority parties, high school dances, and concerts with acts such as The Lovin’ Spoonful, The Turtles, Lou Christie, The Circle, and B. J. Thomas for the next three years.

Eventually, Sam left to join “The Anglo Saxon”, Larry Bell left to start his own band, “Speed”, and Mike left because he said he hadn’t had a date in two years. Larry and Dennis continued the band with Tommy Becker as drummer, Terry Fain on guitar, and Larry Gould singing. The Nashville Shadows disbanded around 1971.