The Rise and Popularity of Tiger Tiger

Q) How do you describe your music to someone who hasn't heard it yet? What gives your music such a powerful sound?

A) My music reflects my past experiences with all types of music, such as classical early rock and roll, like Elvis, Buddy Holly, or Ritchie Valens, and other pop stars during the Rock 'n Roll era and during the '60s, the so-called British Invasion of the Beatles and Rolling Stones and others in combination with R&B and Blues that I used to perform for a living as a teenager. My music has been influenced by so many artists and producers over the years. I've played with artists such as Bo Diddley and Chuck Berry and alongside acts such as Led Zepplin, Jimi Hendrix, Chicago, Eric Burton and many more that have given me inspiration to write the songs that I've written.

Q) When did you first perform for an audience? What are some of your best, performing memories?

A) My first performance was at the Dade County Auditorium at the age of 13 along with my brother and cousin. We were called The Renegades. I joined my first professional group from New York City, The Seven of Us. After that we were invited to perform at the three-day pop festival the Seminole Big Rock Pow Wow along with The Grateful Dead, Chicago, and many other bands. Following that we were asked to perform at the first Miami Pop Festival where I met Jimi Hendrix and spent some time with him. He told me he was Native and proud. He was also inducted into the Native American Music Awards. Our next big thing was we became a house band at The Image nightclub on Miami Beach in 1969 where we played alongside The Yardbirds, later to be Led Zeppelin, 10 Years After, Poco Haram, The Rascals, and many more top artists during that era.

We were picked up by a record label by the name of ESP Disk out of New York, and recorded our first album at Woodstock in 1969. We also performed at the Purple Elephant that all the local rock stars used to frequent, such as Elvin Bishop, Bob Dylan's band, Jimi Hendrix's band of Gypsies, and several other artists living in upstate New York during that time. In 1970 we lived in LA and performed at major clubs, and our manager at the time got us in as one of the headliners at the Atlanta Pop Festival where of course The Allman Brothers and dozens of other bands performed. My favorite moment during that event was that I was able to meet Steve Winwood, who I had always wanted to meet. In 1974 my father set up a recording session with the vice president of RCA Records Nashville, Bob Ferguson. Mr. Ferguson was very well known in the industry, in fact Elvis was next door to us and he arranged a meeting with me and Mr. Presley. He also mentioned he was Cherokee.

Q) What do you know now that you wish you had known when you first started performing? What are you glad you DIDN'T know?

A) What I wish now that I would have known then would be the legalities of contractual knowledge. We lost two good deals at the time so I wish I'd had more knowledge of the music industry's legal contractual agreements. I have no regrets for any of my past, and would do it the same way again except for not knowing about contractual obligations the way I should have!

Q) You have awesome CDs out! What are some of them? How can we purchase your music?

A) I would suggest everyone to go to my website tigertigermusic.com so they can learn all about the history of myself and my brother and all the changes we have gone through since we started music as teenagers. There are also rare photographs and videos you can watch from the past. You can see us visually and our growing up and evolution of ourselves.

Q) How did you know that music was your passion? Who taught music to you?

A) I knew music was my passion when I got my first guitar. I couldn't set it down and I practiced it whenever possible. I learned from others that I went to see live and I also learned from some basic music books such as Mel Bay's Basic Chord Positions.

Q) How does Native American identity and culture appear in your music? How does Native tradition shape your songs?

A) When we began writing our own music, we wrote about everything from life in the Everglades to Space-Age Indians. We use a lot of drumbeats and shakers and chants to blend some of our cultural sound into our rock music. Besides the percussive instruments such as drums and maracas and other Native effects, we added chants. We tried to keep our music as simple as possible, however some of our music has messages and some of our songs contain Native American stories. A lot of our songs have double and triple meanings layered and have hidden messages regarding the past present and future of all Native Americans.

I would like to mention two songs from different albums, "Save Some Time" and "Red Rocks the Earth" as representing some Native themes. Save Some Time is about saving the Earth, saving time for future generations, and Red Rocks the Earth is about the Seminole Tribe's acquisition of the Hard Rock International franchise, which made them the first Native American tribe to own a worldwide business-rocking the Earth.

Q) What are some of the many accomplishments and awards you've achieved through your music? What do they mean to you?

A) In Nashville I received a special plaque signed by Elvis. In 1984 we received an award for our music from Miami Dade.

We won a Lifetime Achievement Award from the NAMMYs as well as other categories. The video for Lay Your Burden Down won second place in the Native American Film Awards.

We were nominated for a Grammy in the Rock Single category. Some of the concerts that we played were big accomplishments. In several international magazines in the 1960s, we were a feature story. We were featured in several music and international publications for the work we did in the Native American music project. We have played sold-out shows in countries throughout the world and make a lot of headlines with our unique Native American rock music cause.