Welcome to North Coast Music Beat!
You'll find enticing reviews, unique interviews, amazing photos and an eye on new artists!
Otis Lead Singer Boone Froggett Interview;
Talks New Single
Otis, a southern rock/classic rock/blues based band from Kentucky recently released a new single after taking a few years off. We had the opportunity to speak with lead singer/guitarist Boone Froggett to discuss his new single and his career in the band.
GD: Hey Boone, I wanted to congratulate you on your new single, “Last Fool in the Line”. I think it’s a gritty rocker, it’s a great tune.
Boone Froggett: Thank you, man. We appreciate it.
GD: It kind of reminds me of Kenny Wayne Shepherd with that rockin’ bluesy vibe, is that what you were going for?
BF: Yeah, man. We’re very inspired by soul music, blues music and early classic rock. You hit the nail on the head. That’s kind of our thing.
GD: Are there plans to release a new album, or are you going to go the single’s route for a while?
BF: We are doing the singles thing for a while. We’re just buying ourselves some time so we can get a deal worked out to do a full length thing. The answer is yes to both.
GD: So you have some stuff in the can?
BF: Oh yeah!
GD: It used to be when I was younger, you would get a single and within a month, the album was released. Why do you think things have changed?
BF: It’s just a different world in the music industry. With the streaming coming into prominence it’s kinda changed.a lot of things. With social media and technology, people's attention spans are so short. We’ll post a thirty second Reel and people will only watch ten seconds of it, and it’s only thirty seconds! (laughs) The days of people listening to a full length album, like we enjoy doing. I love putting on Yes Songs or Physical Graffitti and listening to the whole thing, that’s the way I prefer to listen to it. But for most folks, it’s so hard to get their attention.
GD: That’s a great point. I also teach, I teach a history of rock and roll class, to get their attention and have it for a forty-five minute period is difficult. So this is your first new music in quite some time. Why did it take so long to put out some new music?
BF: Man, we were going wide open in 2018 to 2019. We went to Europe twice and did all kinds of touring. The pandemic hit and we only got to play seven shows in 2020. Our original drummer decided he wanted to stay home and do the family thing. Our original guitar player decided he wanted to go play bass with an active rock band. That left myself and co-founding member John Sealy. In the middle of that, I found out I had thyroid cancer so I had to get my thyroid removed and do radiation. So that took a year just to get me straightened out health wise. Once I got the green light, we pulled two new guys in the band and we released a single in early 2023, then we released “Last Fool In The Line” about a month ago. We started touring back in 2023 and played about twenty shows and we’ll probably play forty shows this year. We got things going in the right direction.
GD: For sure! I wanted to ask you about your band name. I just took a wild guess and wondered if it’s anything to do with Otis Smothers, the bluesman who played with John Brim? I know your first album was in honor of him and I didn’t know if that was a connection or not?
BF: Wow, that’s a very educated guess. I like that! No, Greg Martin from The Kentucky Headhunters had a hand in helping name the band. There was a band called Otis in Louisville, Kentucky in the late ‘70s that played blues/rock stuff. They never made it past the local scene but the name always stuck with Greg. He said they type of music you guys are making, you could adopt this name and it would make sense. You should take it and run with it. That’s what we ended up doing and Greg also produced our first album as you mentioned, Tough Times: A Tribute to John Brim. John Brim grew up in Kentucky and moved to Chicago in his teens and ended up on the Chess label around the same time as Little Walter and Muddy Waters, Howlin’ Wolf and all the greats. We wanted to show a spotlight on Kentucky’s Blues heritage and we did a tribute album to John Brim using our music and his lyrics.
GD: Very cool. I’m a huge Van Halen fan and when I saw the name of your album, it struck a chord with me. That’s the only other co-writer (besides Ray Davies) on the first Van Halen record with “Ice Cream Man” which is a great song.
BF: That was life changing for John. He was able to open a music venue and a record store and started touring the Chicago area again after that album was released. It was a really cool thing to see him get paid back in that way.
GD: Being from Kentucky, have you ever played with the guys in Black Stone Cherry? You mentioned The Kentucky Headhunters so I’m assuming there’s a connection there as well.
BF: Oh yeah, we’ve toured all over the US and Europe with Black Stone Cherry. We know those guys well.
GD: Yeah, I’ve talked with those guys as well. You need to come up to Ohio in the Cleveland area because we love your type of music.
BF: Yeah, we would love to. Ohio can be a tough one for us, we don’t get to do Ohio that much but hopefully that can change.
GD: We’d love to have you. Looking back on your career, when did you know that you wanted to be a musician?
BF: I had an interesting upbringing. My grandfather was a competition, old school bluegrass fiddler. My dad played guitar in bands, he was a honkytonk, Bakersfield type player. So music was always around the house, they had me on stage when I was eight years old. It was just something the family did on the weekends. Around twelve or thirteen, I got into my dad’s cassette tape collection and found the Fabulous Thunderbirds and BB King. Once I heard BB King play that first note, I was sent on a journey. At that point, I knew what I wanted to do. That blues music has always touched me and inspired me and has sent me on a path.
GD: Do you just play guitar or do you play other instruments as well?
BF: Guitar is my main instrument. I can play other instruments, but not as well.
GD: Do you remember the first concert you saw and how did that impact you?
BF: Yeah, I remember my folks taking me to see Skynyrd and 38 Special, that was a big one for me. That was my first big arena concert. Locally, seeing The Headhunters was always a bigger deal because they were from here and you could see their tour bus leaving the local grocery store. I rember them doing “Love That Woman” and Greg (Martin) came out playing this clear, lucite guitar. I was thinking, who wouldn’t want to do this for a living? This is the coolest thing ever.
GD: I’ve never seen you guys, just looking at your videos on YouTube, you seem like a totally live band. What is your take on bands that play to tracks and have some vocal “help?”
BF: There’s a lot of bands that do it. There are some advantages to help you stay consistent every night. But on the other side, there’s not as much improvisation, there's not as much energy. That’s not something we’re interested in doing. We love playing through real amps and making changes on the fly and just love being a live band. We love the Allman Brothers Band, Humble Pie, The Faces, we want to give that same live experience that we were given from those bands. If you need some help, that’s alright.
GD: Great answer. I think it takes away from the personal experience. If you make a mistake, most audiences don’t care. Admit it and move on. Or maybe you can play that solo a little different and like you said, expand it and go out and jam it and then go back into the song. That’s what I’m all about.
Are you planning on going out on the road?
BF: Yeah, we are adding more dates every week. We’ve been staying busy and have a lot of stuff going on.
GD: Boone, best of luck to you and the rest of the guys. I’m going to get the word out about your new single. I’m looking forward to more new music when you release it.
BF: Awesome, man! Thanks for having me.
​
​
Check out Otis' new single, "Last Fool In The Line" below. It rocks.
​
​
​
​
​