Foster "Ken" Mackenzie III (Root Boy Slim) was born on July 9, 1945 in Asheville, NC. His father was a golf course architect and he grew up in Washington, DC Root Boy attended a number of private schools, including Sidwell Friends and the St. James School in Hagerstown. Considered a tortured genius by some, Root Boy was a commanding, compelling presence in the DC music scene in the late 1970s and 80s. His songs were wry commentaries on the absurdities of life, including his own.
Root Boy attended Yale University, where he and George W. Bush belonged to the same fraternity (DKE, "the Dekes"), although Bush was one year behind him. Root Boy was the frat's social director, and he would later tell people that the future president showed up at all the parties. Root Boy said that he went back to visit one year and Bush, now president of the fraternity, threw him off the premises for smoking a joint on the frat house's front steps.
At Yale, Root Boy made friends with fraternity brother Bob Greenlee, who was captain of the Yale football team. They formed a band called "The Young Prince La La, Percy Uptight and the Midnight Creepers." It is said that the band never played the same venue twice.
Over the next decade, Root Boy attended architecture school, studied city planning, and traveled. He was arrested in Jamaica, then again in Jacksonville, and in 1969 jumped over the White House fence, landing him in St. Elizabeth's for observation. He would later write songs about these events and, while living in Florida, enlisted his friend Bob Greenlee to record some of them. The band moved to DC in the spring of 1977, adding Ron Holloway on saxophone and the backup singers The Rootettes.
The band was called Root Boy Slim and the Sex Change Band, and the combination of excellent musicians, clever and unusual hook-ridden songs, along with Root Boy's charismatic, outlandish persona propelled it to huge local success in the late 1970s and 1980s. His subjects included substance abuse, mental instability and politics, with song titles such as "Too Sick To Reggae," "Dozin' and Droolin," I'm Not Too Old for You," and "Boogie Til You Puke." Although he made fun of his vices, Root Boy used drugs and alcohol to excess. His shows were sometimes erratic, but they were always funny and outrageous. Root Boy would wear flowing capes, leopard outfits and his trademark ROOT glasses, and he would order his backup singers, the Rootettes, to get down on the filthy stage floor with him as he sang "Do the Gator." His performances at venues such as The Psychedelly in Bethesda, the Cellar Door and Bayou in Georgetown, and the Varsity Grill in College Park were always packed, and staffers from the Carter White House were among his following. He was even invited to visit the White House by Carter's appointment secretary. Root Boy approved of the Carter administration, but when President Reagan was elected, he wrote "Cowboy in the Sun Too Long" and "Rich, White, Republican."
In 1977, a demo album, including "Boogie Til You Puke" and "You Broke My Mood Ring," produced by local entrepreneurs Joe Lee and Dick Bangham (who later became a Rootette) was unofficially rated "the most requested album of the year" on WHFS. This caught the attention of Steely Dan's Donald Fagen and producer Gary Katz, who took the act to Warner Brothers Records. Root Boy inked a quarter of a million dollar deal with the record company and released his debut album in 1978 with all of the songs included on the original demo. An appearance in "Mr. Mike's Mondo Video," produced by Saturday Night Live head writer Michael O'Donahue, might have put him over the top but the special was rejected for air by then NBC-president Fred Silverman. The album didn't meet expectations and the label bought out the remainder of the contract. The next year, Root's second album, Zoom, was released on A&M's IRS/Illegal Records. The band toured England and Scotland, opening for Ian Dury and the Blockheads and making headlines in the British musical press as well as in Rolling Stone in the US. Marshall Keys joined the band in 1978 when guitarist Stuart Smith decided against doing the Dury tour. Root Boy went on to record four more albums with Greenlee and Lancaster on smaller labels, two of them Greenlee's King Snake Records.
For the last fifteen years of his life, Root Boy continued to write songs and perform with a series of bands made up of many of DC's most talented players, including Tommy Lepson. His last production was a moving video of his song "Hey Mr. President", a call to help the homeless, released during the Presidential campaign in 1992. The Sex Change Band reunited in 1993 for an East coast tour. Worn down by his inner demons and declining health, Root Boy died in his sleep just four days after the band's kickoff show at The Junkyard in Orlando, one month before his 48th birthday.
I happened to see Root Boy at his last concert at the Junkyard in Casselberry (Orlando). It was allllright. Didn't realize the deal at the time, but I sure tell the story every now and again....
MOST L33T MUSIC IN THE WORLD!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! gosh i love root boy its so differant than most music... too bad its so hard to find
kudos for puttin the new tunes up!!!! some of my favs. how bout some good ole in jail in jacksonville, that bassline is where its at!!! root boy for life!!! the legend and genious of your work lives on........
ROOT ROCKIN hello's to ya Root Boy Slim. Slammin thanx for finding us. YOU have the coolest pair of glasses.AWSOME STUFF.KEEP US ROCKIN.Rock it to the top.
FRIENDLY FIRE
WW.FRIENDLYFIRENETWORK.COM
