A band is a collection of personalities, and someone within that collection becomes the soul of the band.
In Rock and Roll Reunion, that person is Sonny Stokes, our bass player/vocalist.
He is our funk.  He is our glue.  As the band makes a musical statement, he underlines it with a deep, dark Sharpie.
Sonny was with my wife and me in 1993 when we watched Paul McCartney perform at Williams-Brice Stadium in Columbia.  That concert gave me the desire to form a band.
It was Sonny, Jack Roper and I who held the jam sessions in September 1994 that gave birth to R&RR.
Sonny was not with the band when it began performing in public in 1995, but he would substitute on bass, and it wasn’t long before he rejoined the band as a permanent member.
Sonny has a variety of interests and hobbies (pets, scuba diving, flying model planes, growing flowers), but his music is the biggest.
On stage, I often introduce Sonny to the audience as “one of the finest bass players in the Southeast.”  Sonny brings a wealth of experience and musical knowledge.  He’s also very good at catching “the note” that a song may be missing.
And he is a bass player who sings.
He sings in practically every song the band performs, including lead vocal on a number of songs.
Singing while playing 5-string bass guitar takes enormous coordination and concentration.  Doing it well is even harder.
Sonny does it very well.
The next time you watch a band perform live, notice whether the bass player does anything more than token background vocals, if any vocals at all.  It isn’t easy, and not every bass player can do it.
Sonny’s voice has a soulful quality that is difficult to describe.  It just sounds great.
R&RR is not the only band Sonny is involved with.  He performs with a local contemporary Christian band.  He runs the sound system for another band.
He is my News Channel 7 coworker, one of our finest directors.  It is a high-pressure job, but Sonny always remains cool and calm.
He is also my good friend.
Ladies and gentlemen, the one and only Sonny Stokes!