Born in St. Joseph’s Hospital in Reading on August 31, 1952, John King grew up frequently moving while his parents worked to accommodate their growing family. “My earliest recollection was living on Gilson Alley behind South 7th Street. The place was a two-story garage, and the bottom floor was a chicken coop. When you went up the stairs of the slat-board shack you could see through to the outside. My mom asked neighbors for newspapers to fill the cracks to keep the weather out. I played at the Reading Iron Playground between Laurel and Bingamin Streets. My mom was inspired by Jackie Robinson getting into major league baseball and decided she wanted me to be a preacher or a baseball player. She taught me how to bat and catch.”
John’s father, John Sr., was a decorated WWII veteran with three bronze stars, who qualified to relocate his family to the brand-new Oakbrook Housing. “We were one of the first fifty-five families to move into the housing development which was reserved for WWII vets, service people, and their families. A bunch of our neighbors were widows. When I was five, my mother got pregnant and we had to move to a different section with more bedrooms.”
Living in Oakbrook, John was sheltered from much of the racial issues that were prevalent at that time. It wasn’t until he began attending public school that he felt the sting of racism, feeling singled out from his white classmates.
“I started kindergarten in 1957, and got in trouble the first day I was there. They had a playground with a sliding board and sandbox. I was no rookie to a sliding board because we had one in Oakbrook. When it was my turn, I went down head first. The teacher yelled at me, grabbed my ear, and sat me in the corner for two weeks during recess. Soon after that, a kid accused me of stealing his lunch from his cubby. He didn’t have lunch, so he said I took his lunch and put it in my box. The teacher believed his story and sent me to the principal’s office where I received a spanking. I was very distraught. My mom had made my lunch with a ham sandwich and some peanut butter Tastycakes, and she had the receipts to prove it. She was so angry that she went to school and let loose on that principal until he pleaded for her to let up on him.”
John had been surrounded by music for most of his early childhood as both his mother and grandmother sang in the church choirs. He loved to sing, and was interested in playing music. His mother supported his interest by arranging for lessons with Chiarelli Brothers Music where the teacher came to the home with a keyboard to teach piano. After three lessons watching his friends play outside while playing the keyboard from the kitchen table, John decided that he was finished with piano, and thus ended his formal music education.
John’s family soon outgrew their Oakbrook home, so parents and three children moved to Spring Garden Street in Reading, which, to John, felt like a mansion. He attended Amanda Stoudt Elementary School, where he met his second-grade music teacher, Mrs. Zimmerman. “This is where my interest in music began. She was doing Stephen Foster’s Songs of the South. She wanted me to play the part of Old Black Joe. She loved to add theatre to it, so she picked the choir and made me the lead singer. She told me to do it with feeling. I sang I’m a comin’, I’m a comin’, even though my head is low. She said, ‘Walk with your head down low and your back bent over’. When it came to my part, the choir started laughing and I was embarrassed that the kids were calling me Black Joe. I liked the fact that I was picked for the part, but I didn’t like being laughed at.”
John’s mother was the lead singer at New Hope Baptist Church, and the Reverend David Brown was his godfather. “My mother gave me the family Bible, and I took it from my house to Cotton Street, where my pastor would verse me in the bible with hopes of grooming me to be the next preacher for the congregation. I loved him, but I would fall asleep at his lessons until he realized that I was just too young and told me to come back when I got older to study for the ministry.”
It was the music that took John in another direction, toward his true passion. “After my first public experience with Mrs. Zimmerman, I knew that I liked performing. My sister Ginny taught me how to dance the way they did on American Bandstand. I would be her practice dummy, so I learned all the steps. When our teacher taught us the hokey-pokey at recess, I did it with style! She called me the hokey-pokey king! By this time my family moved to Eisenbrown Street, and I attended Schuylkill Avenue and Greenwich Elementary, which held block parties in the spring like many of the schools in Reading. There were always bands playing all the latest stuff at these events. That’s when I got the bug to be in a band.”
In an effort to integrate some public schools, John was one of a few black students sent to Charles Foos Elementary. “On the first day, I had to report to the principal as a new kid. He told me I was going to a classroom for slow kids. When I went to class, I immediately knew I didn’t belong there. I went home and told my Dad, who marched me to Charles Foos and insisted that I be moved to the standard classroom, and it happened.” John sees this time as a turning point. One of his teachers, Mrs. Copenhaver, began helping him reach his potential. John emotionally recounts, “If it weren’t for her, I would not know how to read as well as I do now. She saw my potential and made me understand how music and mathematics go together. Music is math and she used a ruler to show me. My whole world opened up.”
It was at Charles Foos that John met Kenny Bagenstose in his homeroom. He marveled at Kenny playing The Halls of Montezuma in the school talent show. He also meets another kid, Parker George, who skillfully knocked out Alley Cat on the piano. “That’s when it really hit home. I just begged my mom for a guitar, but she hesitated because of my encounter with the piano. I went to see my cousin Tony who had a drum set, and told him that we could be a band if I could get a guitar. I promised my parents that I would do anything; I would listen, do chores, anything. Finally my mother bought me a guitar, but it was a four-string bass. When I told her it was the wrong guitar, she replied, ‘If you can learn to play four strings then you can go on to play six.’ She finally returned the guitar, and I got my six string.”
With guitar in hand, John took to the streets, learning music from anyone who would take the time to teach him or jam with him, practicing with bands in basements and garages, and with musicians chasing the same dreams. His first lessons came from his neighbor, Bob Bredy, who smashed a record and used a piece for a pick, and his trash man, Mr. Randolph who knew how to play. He followed bands around, and was determined to have a band of his own. “I noticed that the guys in the bands got all the girls, and I really wanted to start something of my own.” By the time high school rolled around, John had gathered a band, and with some serious marketing, landed their first paid gig.
“We got booked for the Senior RHS dance as we were just forming; Rick Brogh on keyboard, Joe Ballacaka on drums, Mike Arndt on guitar, Darrell Henry on bass, and John King, guitar and lead vocals. Our roadie, Sheldon Ash, printed business cards and flyers, and helped us think of ways to get us out there. We came up with the name BAHK which represented the first initials of our last names. Sheldon made 200 flyers, and plastered them all over the school, saying ‘BAHK is coming!’ Then we allowed the suspense to build, none of us saying a word. We were a rock band playing Grand Funk, Black Sabbath, Rolling Stones, and Joe Cocker when everyone we knew was into soul music. We got booed. That band lasted two years.”
John went on to play in several bands, playing for different crowds, sometimes missing the mark on what type of music to play for different audiences. Half and Half’s during the 70s, Slippery Sticks in the 80’s, Spellbound in the late 80’s and Burning House in the 90’s. In the 2000’s John formed the John King Dance Band. Currently the members are Todd Althouse/ lead guitar, Larry King/ bass, Bean Sholly/ drums/ vocals, Cookie Manwiller/ vocals/ percussion, Tom Krizke/ keyboards/ lead vocals, and John King/ guitar /vocals.
John has become a local music legend, and his band was inducted into the Berks County Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2013. He was also inducted into the Hall of Fame with the Clench Biker Band in 2017.
When he is not playing music, John serves as the founder and director of the Reading Gravity Racing League. He loves fishing, and restoration carpentry. He lives with his wife Angie in Exeter Township. The couple has five children; four boys and a girl, and 15 grandchildren; nine boys and 6 girls.
You can follow John King through John King Dance Band on Facebook, for upcoming performances, or follow the Reading Gravity Racing League to learn more or to get involved. You can contact him at 610-858-1461 for booking details.
