Through the Rockin' Years with 1981 BHS Alum Roger Alan Nichols
By Julie Perine on May 12, 2013
While visiting his hometown back in about 1983, Nichols had met up with a couple of fellow BHS grads for a drink at the Holiday Inn and each speculated at what he/she would be doing in 20 years.
“My napkin said that I’d be living in Nashville, have my own recording studio – and have short hair,” he said.
In 1983, Nichols was a guitarist with “Free Fair,” playing top 40 rock and roll and visiting high schools around the country with anti-drug inspiration. Today, he is owner of Bell Tone Recording Studio in Nashville and operates Little Ruby Tunes, a music publishing company. He is married to Erika Wollam Nichols, chief operating officer of the famous Bluebird Café – home of ABC’s “Nashville” TV series. Their lives are a blend of songwriting, artists, contracts, performances and a fast-paced country music existence.
But Nichols said from a very young age, he was destined for such a lifestyle – and he attributes his hometown of Bridgeport and its people for inspiration.
His earliest memory of being smitten by the music bug was when he was a young grade schooler and was hanging out one day at his friend, Danny Weekly’s house.
“I remember walking outside of his house and at a little shed which was catty-cornered from the front door, I saw a guy named Jim Hess playing guitar,” Nichols said. “He was in a band with the Steinhilber brothers and they were practicing.”
The moment is very memorable.
“It was like a moth drawn to flame,” he said. “I was mesmerized and I stood in that doorway watching him play for about a half hour.”
When he got home, he spotted an acoustic guitar owned by his mom and he picked it up. Besides playing with dinosaurs, learning to play music was his main childhood pastime. He hooked up with neighborhood friend Joff Rolland, who showed him how to play some chords. His next young protégé was Roger Stoneking, a classmate at Simpson Elementary, who was cool for a couple of different reasons: He had the same first name as Nichols and he had both a drum set and electric guitar.
Eventually, Nichols, Stoneking and Mike Hess started up their own band called “Eden.” The musicians spent a lot of time at the home of John and Joe Pinti.
“They were really into high-end audio gear and cassettes,” Nichols said. “We’d set in in their basement and record all night long.”
That was 1974. The band morphed into a group named RAGE, which also included classmate Rob Baltzley. The group played some impressive gigs, including the 1975 Fireman’s Fair. They stayed together through high school.
It wasn’t until Nichols’ senior year that became a member of the BHS Jazz Band – and it came as a byproduct of another goal.
“I wanted to take a music theory class, but in order to do that, I had to take a performing class,” he said. “My friends Mike Hess, Mike Measures and Amy Williams conspired and talked (band director) Mr. (Randall) Hall into letting me be in the marching band.”
In the marching band, Nichols played bass drum. In the jazz ensemble, he switched on and off from bass to guitar and his friend Eric Stoneking did the same.
While at BHS, Free Fair visited, making quite an impression upon Nichols. He auditioned and by the time his 1981 graduation rolled around, he was about to go on the road touring. He spent the summer in Florida preparing for the tour of the next school year.
“We did something like three to five shows a day for 10 and a half months straight,” he said. “We basically toured every high school across the U.S. and Canada.”
It was a great opportunity, all the way around.
“It was very cool experience for a young kid to get to see so much of the country,” he said. “And we had to learn at least three to five Billboard top 100 songs a week, those songs depending on the area we were playing in. If we were in the south, we learned more funk-based tunes because the schools had a racial mix and if we were in the Midwest, we played more rock-based stuff because the schools had a higher percentage of white students. It was really influential at that time – as a young songwriter – to dive into all those styles.”
Nichols worked with the company for four to five years. After his early years of playing with the band, he went on to work in management, also a good stepping stone for his eventual career.
He lived in Atlanta for a short time and was part of the band, “Dreaming in English.” The guys eventually relocated to Nashville.
“We found a house in Berry Hill that had been owned by a film company and had a theater built on the back,” he said. “It had 12 rows of theater seats in the back. We turned all the offices i
Playing all original material, the rock band toured extensively, opening for big-name artists like Van Halen, Hall & Oates and Rush.
“We put out our own little independent record and had some really close calls with regard to some major labels picking us up – but for one reason or another, it didn’t work out,” Nichols said. “We stayed together in some shape or form for 10-12 years.”
It was during that time that Nichols was introduced to his future wife – while he was just trying to get a gig.
“At this particular time – in 1993 – she was booking all talent for the Sum
After Dreaming in English disbanded, Nichols nabbed a publishing deal as a writer and delved into production work. His choice of the name, Bell Tone Recording Studio, has dual inspiration.
“Bell tone is a term used to describe the sound of a really nice-sounding guitar,” he said. “And, of course, it’s is a nod to my father who owned Bell Studio, his photography business in Bridgeport.”
In addition to several community members, Nichols credits his dad for inspiration.
“Seeing how he was able to support a wife and five kids doing something in the arts encouraged me to do what I was
Nichols’ siblings are Joe, Ken, Rebecca and Roberta, who now live in Pittsburgh, Birmingham, Ala., Nashville and Owna, WV, respectively. Nichols’ parents also reside in Birmingham.
And to Michelle Caputo and Theresa Minear – those friends with whom Nichols had the drink and the napkin prophecy back in 1983 – he wants them to know:
“I do have short hair,” he said.
Julie, thanks for the memories. Roger, may you still be inspired by your friends, both past and present and may all of your dreams continue to come true. Oh, by the way, you are not the only one with short hair!
Posted by Michelle Walden
May. 13, 2013 at 8:27 PM EST
Leave a Comment
Log in or create an account to post a comment.