Barrington drummer in Goodman's orchestra
Barrington-based drummer Billy Shaffer has spent his career playing for various rock, country and swing bands, including a stint playing drums with the Jump 'N the Saddle Band. But he was never in a theater orchestra until he got a call from the folks putting together the new musical "Million Dollar Quartet," opening Oct. 5 at the Goodman Theater in Chicago.
"I got the call on the 10th of September," Shaffer says, "They were having trouble with their drum chair." He auditioned and landed a place in the show less than a month before opening. Shaffer's hiring was so close to opening that his name won't even be in the program.
But that doesn't concern Shaffer, who is pleased to be part of a show dramatizing the celebrated impromptu recording sessions at Sun Records in Memphis, Tenn. with Elvis Presley, Jerry Lee Lewis, Carl Perkins and Johnny Cash.
Shaffer didn't become a drummer so he could be front and center. "If you are drumming you don't have that need of the spotlight," Shaffer says. "A drummer is too busy putting the foundation for the song. It is not flashy work but the house cannot be put up without you."
Shaffer started drumming as a teenager in the late '60s in Albuquerque, N.M. "At first I was a guitar player," Shaffer says. "But we needed a drummer, so I switched over. This was the era of the Ventures and the Beach Boys. John Bonham. They were my heroes. Ringo Starr. Keith Moon."
Drumming clicked for Shaffer and soon he was playing drums in professional gigs in touring bands.
After a stint in Las Vegas, where Shaffer made good money but got tired of being forced to play "whatever is popular at the time," he moved to Chicago.
"I had an offer to join an original band in Chicago that was looking to break out and tour," Shaffer says. That was in 1976. Later, Shaffer joined Jump 'N the Saddle Band. "They were a wonderful jump band, before they became known for 'The Curly Shuffle,'" he says.
Shaffer has lived in the suburbs since the early '90s. He moved from the city when he and his wife started a family. "We wanted the best school we could get into," Shaffer says. "Barrington was where we ended up."
Shaffer also took a full time desk job in a "cubicle farm" but he never gave up on his dream of being a musician. He took performing gigs whenever he could.
"I was the hardest working hobby musician in Chicago," Shaffer says. But all that ended when he landed the gig at the Goodman. The position in the orchestra is so demanding, and pays so well, that Shaffer felt comfortable for the first time in two decades giving up his day job.
To prepare for the job Shaffer steeped himself in the music being recorded at Sun Studios in the mid-1950s: blues and country and early rock. He read the script and listened to the CD that has been released about that historic occasion when four future giants of popular music got together and just jammed for a while, in the process laying tracks for what many call the million-dollar quartet.
"I love the music in this show," Shaffer says, "It is a fusion of rockabilly and rock and roll. It's Johnny Cash, Elvis Presley, Carl Perkins, and Jerry Lee Lewis."
"Million Dollar Quartet" is currently in previews and opens Oct. 5 at the Goodman Theatre, 170 North Dearborn Sunday. It runs through Oct. 26. For tickets call (312) 443-3800 or visit www.goodmantheatre.org.
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