Besides music, it's space. Astronomy, all kinds of telescopes aimed at the sky, space travel manned and especially unmanned. And if you can believe it, I'm into Super String Theory.
Letterman, Craig Ferguson, The Daily Show with John Stewart, Mind Of Mencia. All the Star Treks, especially Voyager, both Stargates, and I like Eureka. Not sure why... Big Love is good. Glad Dexter is back.
Books
My favorite book is Jitterbug Perfume by Tom Robbins.
Heroes
My Teachers: Larry Holdridge, Ruth Aldren, Jayne Agresta, Bill Holland, and Joan Lader.
About me: Wade Preston is a singer, pianist, and composer who performs regularly with the Movin' Out Band, members of the Billy Joel Band and as a solo artist. He most recently starred in the Broadway Musical Movin’ Out, as well as guest starred on both national tours. This is the Movin' Out Band at the Richard Rogers Theatre on Broadway, with Wade as the Piano Man. The video was shot by EKO.
MOVIN' OUT BAND ..
With roots in classical, boogie, barrel house and New Orleans second-line style piano playing, Wade mixes Billy Joel / Elton John vocal styles with Ray Charles passion. His keyboard abilities are reminiscent of Keith Emerson precision mixed with the joyous abandon of Jerry Lee Lewis.
In June and July of 2008 Wade had the honor of doing the rehearsals and sound checks for Billy Joel in both Hershey, PA and Shea Stadium, essentially being the "stunt Billy." "Thanks for doing this. You're making my life very easy," Mr. Joel said to Preston at a recent rehearsal. "That's the idea." Wade replied.
Wade played the role of the Piano Man in the Billy Joel / Twyla Tharpe Broadway hit Movin’ Out since it’s inception in May of 2002 until it closed in December of 2005, as well as guesting on both national tours, and is an original cast member. He also covered the synth chair in the band. He holds the record as the Piano Man with the most consecutive shows performed without a break, and he is the only Piano Man who has played the lead role and the synth chair at the same time. He has played Movin' Out approximately 1400 times, with nearly half of them as the Piano Man. There is no-one more experienced at both the synth chair and the lead than Wade.
To listen to some of Wade's music go to wadepreston.com and myspace.com/wadeprestonband. Free downloads.
There are a bunch of new youtube vids of Wade. If you just type Wade Preston into the search engine, they'll all come up.
In this one (above) he plays Bumble Boogie at a solo concert in 2005 or 2006, at the Great Neck Performing Arts Center on Long Island, NY, showcasing his extraordinary technical abilities on piano. Tom Jones calls Wade "The Boogie Man"
These are more recent. Just The Way You Are and She's Got a Way (following the 30 seconds of noise at the end of We Didn't Start The Fire where the Beatles Day In the Life orchestral buildup is mimicked). Below is the piano flourish he's famous for. Wade is the only piano man who actually did a real piano cadenza at the end of the show. The POV for sound is behind the stage, so it's a little peculiar, but you can still hear the piano when the band stops.
Of course my career would be who knows where without Movin' Out and the music of Billy Joel. At our last show, Billy ended our run on Broadway (1330 shows) and the evening's show with Miami 2017 (Seen The Lights Go Out On Broadway) which somebody in the audience caught on camcorder. The video is poor quality and the music doesn't quite sync up with the picture, but you can hear the excitement in the audience as well as Billy's alternate lyrics at the end. Although I'm playing keys in the band, the camera never quite makes it over to the left enough to actually see me. Still, I'm glad somebody caught this historic moment on Broadway. It was Sunday, December 11, 2005.
Also, there are some youtube vids of Wade as a young man playing keys for Chubby Checker in the early 80's on a TV show called "Friday's". They are "Running":
"Harder Than Diamonds":(my favorite out of the three)
and "Burn Up The Night":
Wade can be seen doing the Twist with guest host Victoria Principle at the end of "Burn Up The Night" while the credits are running. He was 19 at the time. There's a lot more in depth information of what was going on at the time at www.wadepreston.com.
Who I'd like to meet: I am seeking decent management! Besides that, Keith Emerson. He's the reason I play keyboards, I'd love to have a cocktail and a conversation with him someday. This is from the infamous California Jam in 1974 doing a rather involved piano improvisation. It should give you an idea of the ability this guy has and why he inspired me so much as a kid:
Mostly thanks to Tommy Byrnes and Movin' Out, most of the other people that I dreamed of meeting someday, I've met. I would have liked to have met this guy (below), but he's no longer with us. Truly the inspiration for believing that there wasn't anything I couldn't learn to play. Horowitz is still my greatest inspiration.
