Mark Schenker explains how he got the gig as Kix’s bassist

Mark Schenker explains how he got the gig as Kix’s bassist

Kix bassist Mark Schenker was recently interviewed by Mick Michaels for The Cosmick View and he spoke about how he landed the gig in Kix when the group reformed in 2003.

Schenker advised (with slight edits): As I mentioned before I was friends with Ronnie [Younkins] way back when they were doing Midnite Dynamite and the cover bands I was in during those years would often warm up for Kix so I knew Steve [Whiteman] and Ronnie well… Jimmy [Chalfant], a little less and Brian [Forsythe], I didn’t know at all. Which is funny cuz when we travel I spend most of my time with Brian, we are on the same eating and sleeping schedule lol… anyhow, I distinctly remember this one particular moment, one cover band I was in… We put out a record on our own and Steve somehow got a hold of it and liked this one song on it we had called “Bump and Grind”. We were at a club called Gatsbys in Martinsburg WV one night, late 80’s and Steve said “Man, these songs are great, if Kix ever ends I want to play with you two guys” referring to my band mate and song writing partner Rob Galpin and I.

Many years go by and Rob and I actually got together with Donnie Purnell at one point after Kix broke up to form a new project with Donnie playing guitar and singing lead, me on bass, Rob on lead guitar and our friend Billy Jones (RIP) on drums. We recorded five songs in Donnie’s studio and a lot of it sounded like Steve Miller Band which was different for all of us. Donnie knew that Rob and I were songwriters so he had reached out to us through Billy to try and form a new project. Not that Donnie needed any help writing songs, his track record speaks for itself but it seemed like a good idea all the way around. The project ended not long after when discussions about performing live came up. I won’t be specific or negative but the script about how it ended is the same script as most others would read regarding their experiences working with Donnie. Unfortunate but true.

After that, Steve had formed a band called Funny Money that was playing half original music and half Kix songs. They did a couple self-released records and played around the area a lot and eventually the bass player, one guitar player and their drummer decided to leave all at the same time, amicable, all good, nothing negative, but their bass player Ned Meloni recommended me as his replacement and Steve remembered me from back in the day. Steve and I had a phone conversation and he basically said I remember you…I remember you’re a great bass player and the job is yours if you want it…you don’t even have to audition. I was in Funny Money for about two years and offers came in for Kix reunion shows. At this point, Jimmy Chalfant was also in Funny Money too. When the first Kix shows came up nobody asked me or really said anything to me at all about playing bass, they all just assumed I would be the guy. Brian had said he wouldn’t do the shows if Donnie was involved and Donnie had already created a public rift with Steve by unnecessarily and quite rudely slamming Steve’s band Funny Money in a popular local music paper at the time. The script surfaces yet again. So ultimately nobody asked me, nobody said anything to me it was very matter of fact and expected like show up at the gig and do not suck!”

You can read the rest of the interview with Mark Schenker at The Cosmick View‘s website.