On a personal note: I was actually in a Hooters video: Karla with a K. The song never got a lot of play time but I finally got to see myself 23 years later on YouTube. I was in the 2nd row center. It was a live 3-hour MTV music show on Thanksgiving 1987.
Former band mates fondly recall original Hooter John Kuzma
Posted: Tuesday, July 12, 2011 12:00 am | Updated: 8:00 am, Tue Jul 12, 2011.
David Uosikkinen was a freshman at Woodrow Wilson High School (now Harry S. Truman) in Bristol Township in 1970 the first time he saw the older, obviously fearless daredevil hanging above the gymnasium floor.
Wearing a white muscle shirt, jeans and shoes — his leather jacket flung to the mat below — the rebellious gymnast had his arms stretched wide in the iron cross position and was using the rings as his personal playground — much to the chagrin of coach Fred Lewis.
“He looked like this renegade,” Uosikkinen recalls of his first impression of John Vincent Kuzma. “The coach is out there screaming for him to get down, and John just flips off the rings, gives a little wave, picks up his jacket and walks out of the gym. It was like a James Dean moment. It was the first time I ever saw him, and I was thinking, ‘This guy’s wild.’
“Turns out, he was also a ridiculously great guitar player.”
And, Uosikkinen could have added, a guy who would become like a brother to him.
Uosikkinen was still in a bit of a daze on Friday — a week after Kuzma’s July 1 death and a day after a memorial service in Levittown that attracted a large turnout of Bucks County — and Philadelphia-based musicians whose lives were touched by Kuzma’s art and heart.
Kuzma, who was 60, was an original member of Philadelphia rock band the Hooters, along with drummer Uosikkinen, bassist Bobby Woods and front men Rob Hyman and Eric Bazilian. He was not a part of the lineup that enjoyed MTV success and international recognition with the release of the 1985 album “Nervous Night,” but the Levittown kid with the cool, easy-going demeanor and mesmerizing guitar skills played a major role in shaping the band’s identity, stage presence and reggae-influenced sound.
“John had this especially unique quality. The energy he brought to the stage was insane,” says Uosikkinen. “To this day, we pride ourselves on what we’re able to do live, and John had a lot to do with that. He was a huge influence on the Hooters and the development of the band.”
It’s been a difficult year for the Hooters family. Woods, a longtime Abington resident, died of a heart attack in December.
Uosikkinen, Kuzma and Woods were in three bands together in the 1970s, including Hot Property and the Danny DeGennaro-fronted Danny D. and the Torpedoes, before Hyman and Bazilian formed the Hooters. The trio brought an already-established rhythm section to the fledgling band, helping the Hooters quickly establish a musical identity.
Like Kuzma, Woods was only with the band from 1980 through ‘82. But the Hooters made incredible strides during those three years, peaking with a gig at JFK Stadium opening for Santana, the Clash and The Who.
“Here we were, this ska band, opening for The Who,” Uosikkinen says. “You’ve got to have real balls to pull that off. We were expecting tomatoes.”
The band wasn’t attacked by tomatoes, but unfortunately, they still didn’t get to see much of The Who’s set.
“We had to leave during the first song because we had a gig that night in Richmond, Va.,” Uosikkinen says. “If we had any common sense, we would have blown off the gig, but we were on a mission. We ended up playing for a crowd of crazy college students.”
The band’s rapid rise in popularity during those early years was apparent by their weekly Monday night shows at one-time South Street hotspot Grendel’s Lair, in which the Hooters went from performing in front of 20 or 25 people to playing sold-out gigs with lines stretched down the block.
But Hyman and Bazilian disbanded the group in late 1982, and when they reformed in 1983, only Uosikkinen was invited back from the original lineup. He was disappointed Kuzma would not be joining him but, in retrospect, he thinks he understands why.
“John was an artist. He was very influenced by Van Morrison, Springsteen, Bowie and he deserved to go out and do his own thing,” Uosikkinen says. “He was a solo artist in his own right, and I believe Rob and Eric recognized that.
“John, at his best, was as good as anyone I’ve ever seen or played with. Going back and listening to some of his old recordings, the actual brilliance at times ... wow, he really had something that was incredible.”
Uosikkinen compared the situation to Frank Zappa firing Lowell George because he knew George was too talented to be a supporting player. George, of course, went on to front Little Feat.
Things didn’t work out as well for Kuzma, who had a solo deal with Epic Records but got caught up in music industry politics and was dropped from the label without ever releasing a record.
Was he bitter when his former band mates became superstars?
“If he was, he never expressed it to me,” Uosikkinen says. “He was that kind of guy. He was always happy for his friends.”
And always there for them, as well.
When old friend and kindred musical spirit DeGennaro was gathering artists to play at a benefit to help him deal with personal issues back in February, of course Kuzma showed up, joining an all-star lineup of area musicians that also included Uosikkinen.
“He was there from 9 in the morning until closing time, involved in every aspect of the whole day,” says DeGennaro, who first met Kuzma in 1975. “Wherever he could contribute, he did. John’s heart was so big and full of love.”
DeGennaro describes his musical partnership with Kuzma as “magic,” and said getting to perform alongside him one last time in February was a “gift.”
He fondly recalls their young and relatively wild days in the Torpedoes, including the time Kuzma took care of a promoter reluctant to part with the money he owed the band.
“John was a very peaceful guy, but in his own, silent, formidable, but very commanding way convinced the guy in a matter of about five seconds to pay us,” DeGennaro says. “John was not one to take any crap, but he was also a peaceful, gentle soul. Just an awesome personality.”
And a guy who, according to DeGennaro, “exuded cool.”
Uosikkinen tells the story of a Hooters gig at the Bottom Line in New York City in which Kuzma stepped out onto a table in the audience during the show, and, after the table collapsed, got up and continued playing as if nothing had happened. Almost as if he meant for the table to fall.
The most important person in Kuzma’s life was probably his son, Evan, and he remained close to his ex-wife, Jeanne. But his “family” also included the vast number of musicians he touched over the last 40-plus years.
“John was just the most humble cat, the most kind-hearted human being I’ve ever met,” Uosikkinen says. “He was a throwback to the Old West — a Billy the Kid kind of guy. I knew him for 40 years and I never saw him get angry, and that’s not easy being my buddy.
“Rob Hyman used the word ‘noble.’ John had his shortcomings, but he was so giving and nurturing. I wouldn’t be the musician I am if it wasn’t for John Kuzma.”