One of the things that interests and intrigues me most as I have interviewed and written about more than 100 musicians in the past decade is identifying the circumstances and situations that led these individuals down the career path they have taken.
I found this to be particularly true in the telling of the 71 years of Ray Templin’s life story.
At an early age, Ray was intrigued by the music he heard listening to his Father’s records and at family sing-alongs, and wondered “how do they do that?” He got his first set of drums at age five. When his Mother took him for piano lessons, he was asked “to play something.” That “something” turned out to be a self-taught version of the “12th Street Rag,” to which the teacher responded, “I can’t do anything for the boy!”
From there, Ray progressed through the usual school bands along with gigging around Chicago and “picking up the technical stuff” while attending the University of Illinois. It was while playing at a club near O’Hare Airport that he met his wife, Trish, whose job at the time was selling flight insurance. They have now been married for 51 years.
With the Vietnam War underway, Ray was drafted into the Army and was assigned to a military police unit in Georgia, but it wasn’t long before he was transferred to the Special Service Entertainment Division. During his two-year tour of duty, he
