Dan Hicks

Dan Hicks is one of the defining figures in American music. The original Dan Hicks and the Hot Licks recorded five Billboard-charting records, putting Dan on the cover of Rolling Stone magazine three times. The newest incarnation of DH & HL released the wildly successful “Beatin’ the Heat.” USA Today called it “one of the blessings of the new millenium.” Other releases include Alive & Lickin, and the CD/DVD Dan Hicks and The Hot Licks Featuring An All Star Cast of Friends. Both Mojo and Downbeat magazines rated it “Four Stars . . . one of the best CDs of ’04.” 2005 brought Selected Shorts. The New Yorker remarked that it’s “as great as his early masterpiece Where’s the Money? . . . truly superb.” 2009 brings Dan Hicks and the Hot Licks’ tenth studio CD. To quote Daily Variety, “Dan Hicks is at the top of his game . . . [A] new studio album from Dan Hicks is like a new painting from Picasso . . . STAY TUNED!”

MB: How long have you been performing?

DH: I was playing drums in a little Dixieland band in junior high school. Then I picked up the guitar when I was about twenty and started singing in front of people.

MB: When you started out, did you get nervous performing?

DH: I think so. I’m going to count performing as when I played the guitar and started singing, because that was more pressure. Playing the drums is one thing—you’re back there; you’re in a band. Security in numbers helps.

As far as being up on the stage and in front of people, I started singing in hootenannies and stuff around San Francisco, going to these folk clubs, stepping up to the mikes and doing my three or four tunes. The first time I remember performing like that I wore finger picks, and I was sweating so much they fell off. So from the get-go that nervousness was there. But being nervous, that got better later.

MB: And what do you think made you more confident?

DH: I would just practice more. I could just do it and do it, and I was confident in what I could do. In other words, I knew I was gonna keep the beat, I was gonna finish the song, I was gonna remember the words. I was gonna get through the thing. I was gonna sing pretty much on key, in tune. In a way, I’m kind of surprised in myself that I was able to get up there.

MB: Why are you surprised?

DH: Because I was an introvert. I was a shy kind of guy, which I think may still be the case.