Before Motley Crue, before RATT, even before there was a Metallica, when Y&T formed in the early 1970s, they set the standard for hard rock bands that trailed. Many of the most popular heavy rock bands of the '80s, at the birth of their careers, opened shows for headliners Y&T; and they all cut their teeth on Y&T, as evidenced by the Y&T mentions in the tell-all books by acts such as Metallica and Motley Crue. Hailing from the East Bay, Y&T is one of the San Francisco Bay Area's own innovators of the hard rock sound. World-renowned headliners on their own, for years Y&T remained the most requested supporting act on the hard rock road, touring with rock icons including Ozzy Osbourne, AC/DC, Aerosmith, and Motley Crue.
Y&T was always sure-fired to whip the crowd into a frenzy with their high energy set, performing to overflow houses of fifteen to sixty-thousand across the U.S. at home, as well as in Japan, Europe, and the UK. Even today, thirty-plus years after the band first formed, the call of Y&T's fans has never silenced.
Dave Meniketti (lead guitar/lead vocals), Phil Kennemore (bass), Leonard Haze (drums), and Joey Alves (rhythm guitar) charged through the '70s and into the '80s with their San Francisco Bay Area brand of hard rock music. After two '70s albums on London Records, a new record deal in 1980 with A&M Records prompted the band to shorten their moniker, and encores with fans chanting Y&T, Y&T, Y&T sealed the condensed name. The '80s brought several changes, including Jimmy DeGrasso (Alice Cooper, Suicidal Tendencies, Megadeth) on drums and Stef Burns (Alice Cooper, Berlin, Huey Lewis) on guitar. And today, three decades later, Y&T's legions of fans are still as captivated by the band's melodic heavy rock-n-roll as they were yesterday, proving Y&T's music timeless.
Y&T's 1985 hit Summertime Girls received tremendous airplay worldwide, played frequently in the BAYWATCH television series and several feature films, remained at length in heavy rotation on MTV as well as MTV's top video playlists, and the hit song plays on today in regular airplay on classic rock radio stations throughout the country alongside other Y&T hits. Y&T songs grace the soundtracks of numerous movies and television shows, and their popular videos, such as Lipstick & Leather, Don't Stop Runnin', Don't Be Afraid of the Dark, and Summertime Girls, are still featured videos on VH1 today.
With career accolades that include performing on American Bandstand, two Bammie Awards, five top 100 albums, songs that tipped into the 40s on Billboard charts, multiple national and international television appearances, and a worldwide fan base, Y&T has sold over four million albums and recorded 16 LPs and three greatest hits collections since their 1974 inception. These rock-n-roll pioneers survived disco fever, rode the crest of the '80s hard rock insurgence, and remained faithful to melodic power ballads throughout the age of grunge. At any concert you can hear fans calling out their requests from albums including, Rescue Me from Earthshaker, Forever from Black Tiger, and Mean Streak from Mean Streak.
For years, Y&T fans on the very active web discussion forum at www.YandTRocks.com asked the band about previously recorded Y&T songs that had been shelved. Y&T answered their fans' pleas by recently assembling two volumes of previously unreleased material-songs recorded for albums over the past three decades, yet never released. There's a lot of great stuff that never made it to record, says lead singer/lead guitarist Dave Meniketti. We always wrote way more material than we ever needed for each record and then those songs just ended up in storage. It was fun to revisit those tunes and give the fans a peek into the archives.
In late 2006, in conjunction with Universal Music Group, Y&T re-mastered and re-issued two of their popular albums from the 1980s: the coveted Earthshaker and In Rock We Trust. These re-releases landed on the heels of two previous re-masters completed by the band in late 2005, considered part of the revered Y&T trilogy: Black Tiger and Mean Streak.
Today, original members Dave Meniketti on searing lead guitar/lead vocals and Phil Kennemore on bass, still take stages around the world by storm, with the addition of John Nymann (Eric Martin, Greg Kihn) on guitar and Mike Vanderhule on drums.
Photo credit: Bill Frates
Y&T Stats
5 Top 100 Albums
HITS:
Meanstreak (1983)
Summertime Girls (1985)
Don't Be Afraid of the Dark (1990)
MORE RADIO FAVORITES:
Rescue Me
Forever
Don't Stop Runnin'
Born and raised in Oakland, California, Dave has been an icon for guitar players worldwide and a Bay Area guitar and vocal hero for three decades. Through his childhood, Dave was influenced by some of the great varied rock, R&B and Jazz artists of the '60s and '70s such as Hendrix, James Brown, Led Zeppelin, Marvin Gaye, Stevie Wonder, Allman Brothers, Coltrane, and so many others. Dave's love for many types of musical expression is one of his great strengths & is evident in his soulful approach to playing & singing.
At sixteen, Dave was blown away by the guitar mastery of Jimi Hendrix, and he was inspired to pick up the guitar & he never looked back. Even though he started playing guitar late by most standards, Dave's fire and passion for music allowed him to learn at an accelerated pace. Self taught, Dave quickly developed his unique style and found himself in a national recording band, developing a guitar hero fan base-all within only a few short years of picking up a guitar.
After being so impressed with Y&T and Dave's playing at a live performance, Bay Area manager Herbie Herbert (Journey), a guitar player fanatic himself, signed the band to a management contract in 1974. Dave released his first record with Y&T (Yesterday & Today) on London Records in 1976 and started on his way to a long career of making records and touring the world. Early on, Dave's bluesy style of rock guitar playing came to the forefront. When at a show in a Hollywood club in 1979, John Mayall was so impressed with Dave's performance in Y&T that he grabbed the club owner and demanded to go backstage to meet Dave and asked him to collaborate on a record. By 1983, as Y&T had achieved worldwide respect & was continuing to gain popularity, Dave won a Bammy Award for "Best Bay Area Guitarist", beating out other great players such as Neil Schon (Journey), Craig Chaquico (Starship), and several other guitar heroes. Dave has been listed in Guitar Player Magazine's "Best of" polls numerous times over the past several decades.
When Y&T decided to break from recording and performing, Dave knew it was time to move on to other musical avenues. Though he's been primarily a rock guitarist for most of his career, Dave felt his passion for "blues" drawing him toward his first solo recording On The Blue Side-made up of a passionate blend of blues/rock material, knowing in his gut that it was a natural thing to do. Coupled with a band of all-star players including bassist Myron Dove (Santana, Robben Ford), this first solo effort outsold previous Y&T records in Japan & Europe and met with critical acclaim worldwide.
With newfound solo inspiration and a great live band behind him, when Dave went back in the studio to come up with new tunes, he felt a pull back to his rock roots for his second solo effort. More rock-oriented, yet still a hint of blues in the mix, Dave's sophomore solo CD Meniketti was released in summer 2002.
Currently, Dave tries to find the time to further develop his solo band while continuing to tour the world and come up with new material with Y&T.
Dave Meniketti ~ Lead Guitar/Lead Vocals
Photo: Bill Frates
Phil Kennemore ~ Bass
Phil Kennemore's first band consisted of five guys; the only problem was that nobody could play. Phil says he didn't even know what a bass was-he just knew he wanted to play. Since everyone in that first band played guitar, Phil took two strings off his guitar and decided to be a bass player.
At around age thirteen, Phil bought a St. George guitar at a pawn shop for $35 and a sparkly carrying case for $45. The first song he ever learned to play was Gloria by Them. The very first bass he bought was a no-name bass (Winston?); it was as warped as a Jai Alai racket and cost a mere $5. Phil continued playing (yet he still wasn't sure what a bass player's role was). "I would just follow the guitar players. If they were on the third dot, I went to the third dot." The first song Phil learned that really had bass lines in it was Monterey by Eric Burdon and the Animals. Next, he learned Crossroads by Cream-Jack Bruce's bass lines (all bass players at that time had to do that). Like so many musicians, after Phil saw the Beatles on The Ed Sullivan Show, he knew come hell or high water, he was determined to be in a rock band, and so he carried on. He was then smitten by the velvet-clad, mod look and sound of Rod Stewart and the Faces and that vibe furthered his desire to be in a band.
Prior to Y&T, Phil played in many other bands (his first band was Crystal Sunshine-the name explains the era); they started off like everyone else playing anywhere they could (Elk's Lodge, Job's daughters, parties).
While in junior high school, instead of listening to the teachers, Phil would draw a guitar neck on his arm and practice fingering chords. At that time, mentally, he had already decided that he wanted to play in a band; he only did enough schoolwork to keep authority from coming down on him. If he wasn't practicing guitar on his arm in class, he was doodling-drawing musical equipment instead of paying full attention to the teacher. At home, Phil created his own world-he took the mattress off his bed, put plywood on his bed frame, and made his very own stage where he'd place his amp and perform on "his" stage.
When Phil was in high school, he started a band with his brother Jeff. The band used to perform after school at Jeff's junior high school on the basketball courts. Phil had already known Leonard Haze (since he was eleven years old), but on one particular day while performing on the basketball courts, along came this frizzy headed dude-Dave Meniketti. That's the first time Phil remembers meeting Dave. The guys jammed a song together that afternoon. Another tidbit: once Phil's brother Jeff auditioned for a band of Leonard's called The Mustangs.
Phil didn't own a real instrument until he was 18. He rode the bus thirteen miles to a music store and paid $55 as a down payment for a used black Fender Jazz. The next month he paid another $50, and then he paid $5 a week until his bass was paid off ($250 total). He rode the bus every week just to smell that bass; besides the smell of excitement, that bass had a certain smell to it that he loved (the wax, the wood). That bass is the same black Fender Jazz that Phil still uses today.
In the early months of Yesterday & Today, the bass player at the time wanted to move on to rhythm guitar in the band instead of bass, so Leonard and Dave called Phil to join on bass. Soon thereafter, they kicked out the old bass player (who was the new guitar player) and they started writing original material. In 1974, Yesterday & Today won first place at the Hayward Battle of the Bands. The band that took second place had a rhythm guitar player named Joey Alves. A week later, Phil, Leonard and Dave asked Joey to join the band - and the rest is Y&T history.
The bass players Phil used as models for the style he felt Y&T needed were Leo Lyons (Ten Years After) and Gary Thain (Uriah Heap), along with many others. Today, Phil's diverse musical interests would be shocking to Y&T fans. He likes every style of music and he says he cannot condemn any particular genre (only people with narrow minds should be condemned). He finds validity in all music-from the corniest mellow stuff to the most avant garde. Phil has always fancied himself more as a songwriter/creative person than a musician.
Along with Leonard Haze, Phil performed and recorded Marty Balin's rock opera Rock Justice.
Phil currently tours the world with Y&T.
John Nymann ~ Guitar
John Nymann played his brother's guitar as a kid. Finally, at age 11, he got his very own guitar. At 15, with a Les Paul in hand, John got serious about guitar. A family friend gave him the Johnny Winters Progressive Blues Experiment album and showed him a few licks. John's friend told him this record would get him going on guitar. John says that record taught him a lot.
Back in the 1970s, John was very influenced by two guys whose cover band played at his high school-Leonard Haze and Dave Meniketti. Yesterday & Today was the first band of guys that John knew who were "really good." They were a huge influence on John to want to play guitar.
John's band Mile Hi began in 1974-the same year Y&T started playing original material. He refers to Mile Hi as a "junior Y&T" and says they modeled themselves after Y&T with two guitars, bass and drums. They intentionally used the same style of songwriting, they watched Y&T rehearse, and they opened shows for Y&T.
Mile Hi eventually developed into 415, which later changed its name to the Eric Martin Band (Eric was the lead singer for Mr. Big). With the Eric Martin Band, John's accomplishments included two videos on MTV, a performance on American Bandstand, and the band played every coliseum in the Bay Area. In 1984, they lost their record deal and disbanded. Two weeks later John was asked to join Y&T as a background singer for the In Rock We Trust tour. After touring with his good friends in Y&T for four years, John joined the Greg Kihn Band for a year. He also spent several years performing solo. In 1998, John joined back up with Eric Martin for two more years. He also played with Troy Luccketta (Tesla) in the band Big Blue Frog until Troy rejoined with Tesla.
When John got the call to join with his pals again in Y&T, he didn't have to think twice about it. He had a history of friendship, singing background vocals, playing keyboards, touring, and co-writing songs with the band, but he had always dreamed of playing guitar in Y&T. John is living proof that dreams really can come true.
John currently tours the world with Y&T.
Photo credit: Bill Frates
Photo: Jill Meniketti
Mike Vanderhule ~ Drums
Mike is a favorite in the local San Francisco Bay Area music scene. A student of Steve Smith, Mike is a straight ahead drummer with great chops who has also studied with Alex Acuna and Carl Allen. As an independent artist, Mike has played with John Denver, Neal Schon (Journey), Steve Lukather (Toto), guitar prodigy Larry Mitchell (Tracy Chapman, Billy Squire, Ric Ocasek), and toured with guitar virtuoso Michael Lee Firkins for Shrapnel Records. Mike performed at NAMM (L.A.) for Peavey, and the European NAMM (Paris) for Yamaha.
Previously a member of SoulMotor with Brian Wheat (Tesla) and Tommy McLendon (UFO), Mike is also a member of the Russell Brothers with Kevin Russell (Whitesnake, 707, Taxi), a band whose alumni drummers include Narada Michael Walden, Steve Smith, Andy Dorshuk (editor of Drum magazine), and Kevin Hays (Robert Cray Band). Mike has recorded with Jesse Collin Young (Youngbloods), Mickey Thomas (Starship), and new country artist Shelly Streeter (currently played on CMT and US radio stations). Also a producer, Mike has recorded and produced local bay area artists over the last decade.
Mike currently tours with Y&T.
Photo: Jill Meniketti
Previous Band Members
Leonard Haze ~ Drums & Mayhem
Leonard Haze has been playing drums since he was a kid. As the drummer and cofounder of Y&T, Leonard gets the credit for naming the band Yesterday & Today. As the story goes, one day a promoter called to book the band for a gig-only problem was that the band had no name. While on the phone with the promoter, Leonard looked around his room and saw the Beatles Yesterday & Today album - and so, in the heat of the moment, the band was named.
In 1986, Leonard Haze was named the World's Fastest Foot in Circus Magazine by Carmine Appice.
In addition to touring the world and recording on nine different Y&T albums, Leonard also spent several years touring the world and recording two albums with the legendary Ian Gillian (Deep Purple).
Along with Phil Kennemore, Leonard played the lead in the stage production of Marty Balin's Rock Justice and played drums on the soundtrack album.
Leonard uses Ludwig drums (since 1979), Paiste cymbals (since 1980), Vic Firth drum sticks, and Axis Percussion.
Joey Alves ~ Rhythm Guitar
Stef Burns ~ Guitar
Born in Oakland, California, Stef Burns grew up in Walnut Creek, California. He started playing his dad's guitar around age six. At seven, he got his first electric guitar-a Winston and later upgraded to a Fender Mustang. Stef formed his first band at the age of nine-The Yellow Brick Road. They played songs like Wild Thing and Louie Louie and weren't bad for a bunch of fourth graders. In high school, Stef had a band called Legend and he played a Gibson L6-S. They played 70s material such as Allman Bros, Lynyrd Skynyrd, Montrose, Led Zeppelin, Deep Purple, and the Marshall Tucker Band. The next band was called New Legend and they played jazz/rock fusion, writing their own songs and covering tunes by Jeff Beck, Return to Forever, George Duke, Herbie Hancock and other 70s fusion material. New Legend used to blow people's minds because they were so young and they played such intricate material.
Stef's first real club band was Omega with Mickey Thomas who later had many hits with Starship. At this point, Stef played a Les Paul Standard. Omega was a large funk band that worked a lot; they were very funky had horns like Tower of Power.
In 1989 Stef joined Y&T, toured and recorded four albums. Prior to joining Y&T and during and after, Stef recorded with and toured with many artists including Jesse Colin Young (Youngbloods), Pablo Cruise, Sheila E, Berlin, The VU, jazz saxophonist Sadao Watanabe, and Alice Cooper (and he had a part in the hit film Waynes World). In addition, Stef does albums, TV and radio commercials, film score work and live shows for various artists and producers including Narada Michael Walden, Quincy Jones, Marc Russo (Yellowjackets), Stevie Wonder, Steve Winwood, James Taylor, Sheryl Crowe, Nile Rodgers, and Narada. Another was in Japan for the "Super Producers Tour 1995" with Narada Michael Walden featuring Patti Austin, Sheila E., Mickey Thomas, Shanice Wilson, Tevin Campell, T.M. Stevens, and Weather Report members Joe Zawinul and Alfonso Johnson.
In 2003, Stef was in three bands at once and, unfortunately, experienced scheduling conflicts with Y&T's touring schedule. Currently, Stef divides his time between touring with Huey Lewis & The News and Italian rock star Vasco Rossi.
Jimmy DeGrasso ~ Drums
Jimmy DeGrasso played drums with Y&T during the mid 1980s and throughout the 1990s before moving on to Alice Cooper, White Lion, Suicidal Tendencies and later Megadeth. Born and raised in Bethlehem, PA, Jimmy learned drums at an early age, studying jazz and rock styles. Jimmy first broke into the business doing session for Ozzy Osbourne. He also garnered a Grammy nomination while with Suicidal Tendencies and performed at the illustrious Woodstock ''99 concert with Megadeth. Jimmy has toured with Alice in Chains and most recently with Stone Sour, Marty Friedman and David Lee Roth.
He has also performed at the prestigious Ultimate Drummers Weekend in Australia and Modern Drummer Festival here at home.
Photo credit: jimmydegrasso.com
Photo credit: stefburns.com
Photo credit: Bill Frates
Photo credit: Bill Frates
Current Lineup