Although he joined his first band in Indiana, it wasn't until he moved to Altoona, Pennsylvania that Ron O'Keefe found success when performing in a rock group. That group, J.D. & The Silencers, won a major battle of the bands contest and subsequently appeared on Come Alive. Like many members of '60's rock combos, O'Keefe was forced to quit The Silencers when college beckoned, but he still recalls the the thrills of performing on stage with great fondness.
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An Interview With Ron O'Keefe
60sgaragebands.com: How did you first get interested in music?
Ron O’Keefe (RO): I am from a musical family, on my mother's side. Many of my uncles, from Newfoundland, Canada—which is where both my parents are from—played accordion, organ, and violin/fiddle. My parents had me taking accordion lessons when I was six. We moved around a lot so I didn't keep up with it, though I played the family piano. When The Beatles appeared on Ed Sullivan, I was 13 and my brother was 10. He wanted a guitar in the worst way. My dad picked up a Kay acoustic at a pawnshop and gave it to him for his birthday. He didn't take to it but I did. I started plunking away and took some lessons. Once I mastered the basic chords, I found I could teach myself by ear listening to records. I currently play guitars of all types and styles (fingerstyle, bluegrass, rock, classical) as well as keyboards, bass and drums.
60s: Was J.D. & The Silencers your first band?
RO: My first band was The Onslaught. Some of my freshman high school friends and I got together. It was a pretty amateur effort. We had guitars and amps from the Sears catalog. We had a problem finding a steady drummer. We also had to rent a Bogen PA system and EV mic every time we played because we couldn't afford to buy one. That was in Fort Wayne, Indiana. I think they broke up when I moved to Altoona my junior year in high school, which is where I met up with J.D. and The Silencers.
60s: Who formed J.D. & The Silencers formed?
RO: J.D. and The Silencers was formed by our manager, John D'Andrea, who was an accountant in Altoona and had connections at clubs and venues in the area. He managed three bands: J.D. and The Attractions was his star band—older guys who dressed like Las Vegas and who did all pre-Beatles stuff. When I arrived in Altoona, the organ player from J.D. & The Silencers, formed in 1966, was in my high school. When word got out that I had played guitar in a band, he recruited me because the lead guitar player of The Silencers had been drafted and was going into the military, probably to Vietnam. This was 1966-1967.
John D'Andrea had us booked for as many nights as we wanted to play. Because we were all in high school, our parents limited it to three nights a week, though we once did a club gig from Tuesday through Saturday in Clearfield in February. Our manager loaned us the money to buy an old remodeled 1958 Cadillac hearse, in which we could fit the five of us, almost all our equipment, and a few girlfriends. We usually had an extra car for the drum kit.
J.D. & The Silencers was comprised of: Bob Hopfl, bass (Gibson EB-2); Greg Detterbeck, drums; Larry Rossbach, organ (Vox Continental); Ron O'Keefe, guitars (Rick 12-string and Fender Tele); and Jeff Moyer, lead vocals.
60s: How would you describe the band's sound? What bands influenced you?
RO: At that time in the U.S., there were new acts and tunes coming out every week. We did covers of what was popular, and had a big focus on The Byrds because I had that Rick 12-string thing down playing through a Showman. We did Strawberry Alarm Clock, Jimi Hendrix, Beatles, Byrds, Hollies, and James Brown—you name it. Our sound was Beatles/Byrds-pop.
60s: What was the Altoona rock and roll scene like in the '60s?
RO: There were quite a few good musicians. The one group who was better than we were had a sound based on a Hammond organ with a Leslie cab. They did all the heavy organ-style tunes, like ‘Whiter Shade of Pale’ and Young Rascals-stuff. We had the Byrds sound, which our manager didn't like. He would tell us when he booked us in a club, "Don't play that bird shit!"
60s: Where did the band typically play?
RO: We played out two or three times a week (night clubs at least once a week) then also a teen dance, prom, high school dances, fire halls, etc. We practiced two times a week. We were pretty tight.
60s: Did you play any of the local teen clubs?
RO: There were a few teen clubs around in the smaller towns. We played in a place in Phillipsburg, Pennsylvania called The Triason. It was a large dance hall that really filled up. We also played the same kind of place in Clearfield, but I forget what it was called. In Altoona, it was mostly school dances.
60s: How far was the band's "touring" territory?
RO: We would drive up to three hours away for a gig; usually if we went that far it was a two-night Friday/Saturday gig at a nightclub out of town. For a one-night gig, we would drive up to two hours.
60s: Did J.D. & The Silencers participate in any battle of the bands?
RO: We were in a battle of the bands sponsored by a Saturday afternoon teen dance show on some TV channel in Pittsburgh—WIIC, I think. We went there twice: to play our tune and get rated by the audience, and then the second time we were in the finals. We played ‘Look Through Any Window’ by The Hollies. The band we played against did ‘Sunshine Of Your Love,’ then just released by Cream. We ended up winning.
60s: Why didn't J.D. & The Silencers record?
RO: Record? This was 1967 in Altoona. There were no recording studios; there were no tape recorders that we were aware of—at least at that time. The closest thing we did to recording was when one of our parents filmed our battle of the band performances on TV on an 8mm camera. I saw the home movie footage of one of the TV appearance, but it is long gone and I never had it in my possession.
60s: Did J.D. and The Silencers write any original songs?
RO: J.D. and The Silencers did covers, no original songs. However, after the band broke up—when I decided I would go away to college—I got together with a former bandmate from Fort Wayne and we wrote tunes and recorded them on a Wollensak recorder that he bought. I was the one writing the tunes, which my friend would "produce." We got together with a few musicians and played the tunes for a few gigs. We came up with a 12-tune album on tape. My friend took it to Los Angeles to try to get it produced. He got the usual response: "Get all the band members out here, rent a space and practice for two months, then come see me." That wasn't going to happen.
60s: What year and why did the band break up?
RO: J.D. and The Silencers broke up in summer 1968. The beginning of the end was my decision to quit the band in June to take some time off from our hectic schedule to prepare for college in the fall. They replaced me with a guitar player but some others left soon after and The Silencers just faded away.
60s: How do you best summarize your experiences with J.D. & The Silencers?
RO: Band life was hard work—constantly practicing, trucking our equipment around, setting up and breaking down after a nightclub gig at 2 a.m. and driving back through the mountains getting to bed at 5 a.m. The thrill that made it all worthwhile was going on stage with a dance hall full of teens, quietly tuning up, then on the count of four, breaking out full blast with some rockin' tune. Everyone in the place started hopping around like crazy as we stood up there doing our thing, filling the hall with sound. It was the best!
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