Butch Wax & The Hollywoods

(Gene with Johnny Rivers)

(updated 01/10/09)

Rock & Roll Great Johnny Rivers Concert With Butch Wax

Rock & Roller Johnny "Secret Agent Man" Rivers joins Butch Wax for a special show on Saturday March 21, 2009 at the Rickman Auditorium in Arnold, MO. Tickets are on sale at Ticketmaster.com and the cost is $27 and $42 each. Johnny will have his L.A. Band with him and play all of his great hits including Poor Side of Town, Baby I Need Your Lovin, Mountain of Love, Seventh Son, Memphis, Maybelline, Midnight Special, Rockin Pneumonia, Slow Dancin, Tracks of My Tears, Summer Rain, Secret Agent Man, and the rest! Johnny Rivers had 9 Top 10 hits in his career. Gene visited him last year in California, saw his show in Newport Beach and later in Louisville and JR and his band still sound fantastic!

Butch Wax will open the show. We played at The Rickman in a sold out concert 20 years ago. It is a beautiful theatre that seats about 1,400 people on the Fox High School campus in Arnold, MO. Make your plans now – this will be a great rock & roll show!!

Summer / Fall Tour 2009

Thanks for visiting our website! We have a great summer of shows lined up and appreciate everyone that comes out throughout the year. Be sure to check the calendar often as we add new shows weekly. If you want to get on our mailing list and receive a monthly newsletter via email – please email me at

Butch Wax & The Hollywoods celebrate our 24th year of playing music together in 2009 and we'd like to thank all the great fans, organizations, and individuals that have supported us and sponsored us all these years! Look for an upcoming Book, CD, and possible DVD when we celebrate 25 years in 2010. We look forward to seeing you all soon!

A New Look for 2009

There are some new faces in the band for 2009 and we are excited about the new lineup! Please welcome Mike Schlipp, Jr. from the My Friend Mike Band on keyboards, guitar, and vocals; Dickie Steltenpohl from Mama's Pride on bass guitar and vocals; and John Vidacak from Max Cherry on guitar and vocals. You may remember Dickie from the late 90's when he was part of the band.

We will still be doing all the great oldies that we’ve always done plus have some great "new oldies songs" and segments, too. Pat Liston from Mama's Pride will also be making special guest appearances with us again this summer.

We will miss original band members Bob Hammett and Mike Tate and long time band member Don Besancenez. These guys are like brothers to us all and great musicians and band mates. Thanks for the dedication and loyalty the past 20 plus years and a lot of fun times. We wish them the best in their future endeavors.

Pearl Heart Band

Our friends “Pearl Heart” (formerly “Me Too”) of St. Louis and now living in Nashville are doing well. If you watched the Nashville Star TV Show on Channel 5 last season, you have seen them performing. They made it to the Top 5 and competed each week, much like American Idol. They are in the studio with Jeffrey Steele finishing a brand new album in Nashville so look for good things to come. The girls used to come out and play with us at some of our shows including Rams games and The Cardinal Home Opener, etc. They are wonderful young ladies and we wish them well. The 3 sisters do country music and have great vocal harmonies. Visit their site at www.pearlheartfan.com.

(Pearl Heart with Butch Wax at Cards Home Opener 2006)

Pat Liston

Pat Liston from Mama’s Pride is joining us for several shows this summer and it is great having him with us. Pat was recently voted St. Louis Favorite Male Singer by the RFT (Riverfront Times) Readers Poll. To view the article and read comments from fans go to http://www.bestofriverfronttimes.com/best of/award.php?award=377615. Pat also has a link on this website for those of you interested in buying Mama’s Pride and Pat Liston solo CDs.

Mama’s Pride will be doing a show on December 5, 2009 at The Pageant. Watch for details on ticket sales for that show coming soon. Visit www.thepageant.com.

Butch Wax New CD

We are working on a new cd called “Another Saturday Night” – look for it to be available in late 2009. Pat will also be with us on the new CD and it will include new recordings of 15 songs from our play list.

Butch Wax Performs 20 Year in a Row at St. Peters Picnic 2008

Every Saturday Night for the past 20 years, a crowd of thousands have turned out to hear the music of Butch Wax & The Hollywoods. This year was no exception – a gorgeous day on June 14th and Butch Wax was back in our familiar confines and playing all the great oldies at the St. Peters Olde Tyme Picnic. It has been a favorite event of ours and we look forward to it each year! This year we were honored to be the Parade Marshal in the annual parade and it was a blast. Later that evening, we had Holly Winters (St. Peters Idol) join us onstage for 2 rockers! Pat Liston from Mama’s Pride also guest starred was with us. Thanks to Jerri Allyn and Steve and Kathy Martinez who have been responsible for having us each of those 20 years – and thanks to our fans and friends that come out each year! We will be back on June 20, 2009 for our 21st year!

(2008 St. Peters Picnic Parade Marshals Butch Wax - Celebrating our 20th Year at the Picnic)

New Years Eve, 2009

Butch Wax is BACK at Tan-Tar-A in Lake of the Ozarks for 2009. We have played here several times over the past 10 years and it is a great New Years Eve Party! Bring the kids - they have an indoor water park on site and babysitting facilities. A fun place for the kids in the evening while Mom & Dad attend the Gala Event in the Grand Ballroom. This sells out every year so make your plans now. Contact Tan-Tar-A at 1-800-826-8272 or visit www.tan-tar-a.com.

KSDK-TV Art Holiday Documentary

Long time anchorman Art Holiday is working on a documentary about the late Johnnie Johnson. As many of this website readers know, Johnnie was a great friend of ours and performed often with the band. Butch Wax members also recorded a CD with Johnnie a few years ago called "I'm Just Johnnie" that included guest artists Bonnie Raitt, Johnny Rivers, Bruce Hornsby, John Sebastian, and Mamas Pride. While there has been interest from various record companies, the CD is still unreleased. Our hope is that maybe it can be released in tandem with Art's documentary in late 2008 or early 2009. Keep your fingers crossed.

Art Holiday and his camera crew recently visited Gene at his house to interview him about his and Johnnie's long time friendship and Johnnie's contribution to music. Johnnie loved to fish and they fished often at their favorite spot right out Gene's back door. Art went down to the lake and filmed some segments from the chair that Johnnie always sat in. The chair and Johnnie's pole holders were still there where he left them. I hadn't been down to the lake since Johnnie died and it brought back some really great memories of the many days Johnnie and I spent fishing together. I even found Johnnie's fishing box that he kept at the house along with his fishing poles that always sit in the same familiar corner of my music room. We opened the fishing box and he still had his cigars and sunglasses and hooks and stuff in there and a note that I had given him one Christmas.

Art filmed a little tour of Gene's music room/studio and scanned the many pictures of Johnnie that Gene has collected through the years as well as his memorabilia collection. They also discussed Johnnie's career and other topics related to Art's documentary on the legendary pianist.

For more information visit Art's website at www.johnniebegood.net.

20th Anniversary Show at the Pageant Theater

In 2005 the band performed a special 20th Anniversary Show at The Pageant Theater in St. Louis to a packed house of long time Butch Wax fans, friends, family, and invited guests. It was a great time and we appreciate everyone that came out and shared this special night with us.

Former band members Cindy Ankelman, Donny Besancenez, Brenda Boehmer, Bob Knapp, Carol Logan, Margo Murphy, Tom O'Brien, and Dickie Steltenphol made guest appearances with the band throughout the night. Music pals like Glenn Zimmerman from Fox 2 News and horn players Ray Vollmar and Ray McAnallen also jammed with the band. Glenn Zimmerman was also our official emcee of the show and got the crowd going early with songs like "I'm The Weather Man" and "Saw Her Standing There". Ray and Ray have played with Butch Wax the past several years at special shows and projects and also played with us on our CDs including the sports songs Gotta Go To Work, Lets Go Blues and Pennant Fever. Other former members of the band that were unable to participate were Donna Russell, Katy McDonald, John Botz, Rod Peterson, Andy O'Connor, Kevin Rauscher, Sandy Richards, and Pat Liston - we sure missed having them with us. Actually we have lost contact with Sandy Richards so if anyone knows where she is, please let us know; we'd like to reconnect with Sandy.

There was a special video presentation in memory of our dear friend Johnnie Johnson, who passed away on April 13th, 2005. Johnnie came out and played with Butch Wax & The Hollywoods a total of 73 times over the years and it was always a thrill and honor to have this rock and roll pioneer and blues legend join us onstage. In the video tribute, many photos of Johnnie through the years were shown on a giant DVD screen set to the music of "They Call Me Johnnie J", written by Rock & Roll great Johnnie Rivers. Mrs. Frances Johnson was there and after the video presentation, members of Johnnie's band including Tony T on guitar; Gus Thornton on bass; and Kenny Rice on drums, joined Butch Wax and rocked the house on "Tore Up" and "Let the Good Times Roll".

At the conclusion of the evening another special guest and Butch Wax favorite, Billy Peek came out and performed several songs with his band. Billy closed the show with another fitting tribute to Johnnie Johnson - when he tore into the rock and roll classic "Johnnie B. Goode", duckwalk and all! It was definitely "A Night to Remember"! Photos of the show can be seen on the Pictures From the Pageant web page. Thanks to Peter Cohen, Dave Beardsley and their group from STL blues.net for making the show and including it in a review on their website www.stlblues.net

Also, thanks to Dianna Trombino for some great coverage and pictures on her website at www.ladydibluescorner.com.