‘Fulfilled my dream’ - Rod Lincoln, session drummer and recording engineer, played for the band Shooting Star

Rod Lincoln, right, is pictured with Jeffrey Allen “Skunk” Baxter, a guitarist known primarily for his work with Steely Dan and the Doobie Brothers. Lincoln began learning to play the drums when only 10 years old and earned his degree in percussion performance from Missouri Western. He later did a lot of studio work and was hired as the drummer of Shooting Star in the late 1980s, recording two studio albums and a live album with the band. Courtesy of Rod Lincoln

Rod Lincoln clearly recalls being questioned by his mother when he was ten years old as to whether he wanted to learn to play an instrument and take music lessons. For no specific reason, he expressed an interest in the drums, which became a decision that later led to a long and bountiful career that included playing with bands such as Shooting Star.
 
Raised near Savannah, Missouri, his father died when he was only six months old, and his mother moved in with her parents. Through his mother’s and grandparents’ support of his newfound musical interest, Lincoln explained that he took to learning the drums “like a duck to water.” During his middle and high school years, he performed in the marching and symphonic bands while also playing occasionally with local rock bands in the area.
 
“After I graduated high school in 1978, I decided to go to school at Missouri Western (in St. Joseph) because I had been given a full music scholarship,” he said. “I played with rock bands in college—the first was a band called Midnight Fire that later became Myth.”
 
He added, “One of the most interesting moments of playing with Myth was when we were booked to open for Shooting Star at an outdoor concert. I graduated from college in 1983 with a bachelor’s degree in percussion performance and kind of fell into a job as an engineer at Soundtrek Studio in Kansas City.”
 
Lincoln spent the next year working for the studio owner while also playing drums for a lot of commercials. Oftentimes, he could not get time away from his engineering responsibilities to record commercials at other studios, which was a lucrative endeavor, so he quit his job at Soundtrek. He continued to play drums in commercials while also working as a freelance drummer, filling in for bands whose drummers were unavailable to perform certain gigs. Then, around 1988, he and his wife decided to move to Nashville so that he could work to develop his career based out of one of the music capitals of the nation.
 
“I was living in Nashville when Van McLain (co-founder of Shooting Star) called and told me the band had split up, but he was putting it back together,” Lincoln recalled. “He said he had interest from a new record label and had just released a best-of album and wanted me to come up and audition.”
 
McLain had built a second Shooting Star band with several new musicians and recorded the song “Touch Me Tonight.” Their original drummer, Steve Thomas, played on the audio recording of the song before departing the band.
 
“I came up and did the audition in Dennis Laffoon’s basement (in the KC area),” Lincoln said. “He was also new to Shooting Star and had been brought on as a keyboard player.” He continued, “The audition went well, and I was hired. The only regret I had was that Gary West, the original singer and songwriter, was no longer in the band because I truly admired his talent and the signature he had placed on Shooting Star.”
 
The band also consisted of original bassist and co-founder, Ron Verlin, in addition to Keith Mitchell on lead vocals. Shooting Star was signed by Enigma records and Lincoln played drums on a video they shot in Los Angeles for “Touch Me Tonight.” The video reached the number 1 spot on Dial MTV in October 1989.
 
Enigma Records went bankrupt, but the band went ahead and released a new album, “It’s Not Over,” in early 1991. They played intermittent dates for the next few years with Lincoln continuing to record commercials and work as a freelance drummer.
 
“I stayed with Shooting Star until about 2003, when Steve Thomas returned to the band,” Lincoln said. “Before I left, I played drums and did a lot of engineering for the ‘Shooting Star Live’ album and played on the ‘Leap of Faith’ album that was released around 2000.”
 
Lincoln explained, “Although I loved being part of Shooting Star and their music, I decided it was time to leave because I couldn’t commit to all the concert dates because of my recording schedule.”
 
In recent years, Lincoln performed and toured nationwide with Under the Streetlamp, a band with a Jersey Boys flavor. However, he explained that their touring schedule was essentially squashed with the advent of COVID. More recently, he has continued to play drums in other bands while doing a lot of recording and mixing work in the studio he built in his home in Overland Park, Kansas.
 
“I also performed with Sticks of Thunder, a professional percussion group, and we played a lot of shows at Union Station in Kansas City over a couple of years,” he said.
 
The many years spent with Shooting Star were full of magical moments for Lincoln, representing his perceived ascension to the height of his performing career.
 
“It was the only time I was really in the limelight—playing with a band that had been on MTV and opened for many major acts like Journey and REO Speedwagon,” he said. “Playing in Shooting Star also kind of fulfilled my dream to be in a band that had songs playing on the radio and had music people quickly recognized,” he added. “They never made it to that next level in the industry, but they certainly had the songs and talent to do so, but what an opportunity it was for me just to be part of it.”
           
Jeremy P. Ämick is the author of “Movin’ On,” biography of the band Missouri. 

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Lincoln is pictured in a Shooting Star promotional photo from the early 1990s. Courtesy of Rod Lincoln