Bands Are Made Off The Stage

Huey Lewis

Huey Lewis of clients Huey Lewis & The News: Bands are made off the stage. It is also where great teams are made.

I always equate this with the 49ers. One reason the 49ers were great: They were a very close knit group. Bill Walsh promoted that. After practice, they hung out together… Joe Montana, Dwight Clark, Ronnie Lott… all those people. You can almost envision it. Maybe it is late in the evening, they are having a beer, and Dwight says, "What if I do this on that play and that move?" You think of things to try on the field.

And bands really solidify off stage. That's where the personality comes through. Not even in rehearsal. Just hanging out.

When we started our band, that is exactly what we did. We rehearsed and then, at night, we got in a station wagon and went to all the bars that had live music. We went from one to the other and watched the other bands. We would share ideas, cook up songs. That was really how we started our group.

That is the secret sauce to making great bands, I think. In your leisure time, do you want to hang out? In the beginning, we hung out together all the time. That's when we wrote our best stuff.

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