Keith grew up in Scott, Louisiana,
the only one of his six siblings who single-mindedly pursued
music. He formed his first band in the sixth grade, playing
for school talent shows and Christmas parties. After graduating
from high school, he played with bands all around Lafayette
(including T.K. Hulin & Smoke, Foxx, We
The People w/Sonny Landreth), performing in clubs from Baton
Rouge to St. Martinville to Lake Charles & Vinton, LA where
he met Bobby Kimball, a founding member of the rock group
Toto, at a club called the "Texas Pelican."
He recalls that the Texas Pelican had a round stage that would
rotate with a wall in the middle of it, with 2 bands set up
on it. One band would play for an hour, then the stage would
rotate and the other band would play for an hour. It was only
a 4-hour gig, but the whole thing lasted 8 hours. Bobby was
the lead singer in one band and Keith was the lead singer in
the other band. They became good friends because they loved
each other's singing. Bobby said "One day, we're
gonna be in a band together."
After years of playing clubs and
Mardi Gras parties around Louisiana, opening for Edgar Winter
(one of his biggest idols) and blues greats Bobby "Blue"
Bland, B.B. King, and Tyrone Davis, Keith
moved to Los Angeles to sing with some of the members of
Three Dog Night, a gig he'd learned about from his friend,
fellow Louisianan Bobby Kimball. Upon arriving in L.A.,
Keith went with Bobby to a recording session on Cherie &
Marie Currie's album that Bobby was doing with Bill
Champlin (of Chicago) and Tom Kelly. The record
producer, Jai Winding, was looking for someone to sing
a 4th part, and Keith slid in there for his first double-scale
session (his first day in L.A.). That's when David Paich
(of Toto) showed up at the session and heard Keith, and
asked him to join Toto for the "In Search Of The
Hydra World Tour" in 1980.
Following the tour, he returned
to Tinsel Town and sang on movie soundtracks, including Rocky
IV, Summer Rental, Staying Alive, and Ninja
III (The Domination), just to name a few. While juggling
a busy schedule, he was asked to join a band with Aynsley
Dunbar (of Frank Zappa, Journey, Starship,
and White Snake) and Frank Marino (of Mahogany
Rush) to do songs written by Keith, Scott Shelley,
Michael Boddicker, and Mike Porcaro. Unfortunately,
the project ended up not getting signed.
A few years later, Keith and his
wife, Janna, moved to Nashville and started writing and performing
with various songwriters at Music City songwriter nights and
singing on other people's albums and with "Bayou
Degradable," a band put together by Leon Medica
(a founding member of Louisiana's LeRoux) to play Mardi
Gras parties around Nashville. They also put together a husband/wife
duo group and performed around town, where he eventually met
up with Eric Horner (Lee Greenwood's band
leader) and was asked to sing with Lee in his road band. Keith
performed with Lee from October of '99 - December of '07.
After getting off of the road with
Lee, Keith hooked up with Tony Haselden (another member
of Louisiana's LeRoux) to play some gigs around town
where he was asked to return to his Louisiana roots by joining
Louisiana's LeRoux in 2010.
