‘The love of it’ - Darren Walker continues to embrace performing as vocalist for Head East

Darren Walker, left, is pictured performing with long-time friend and fellow musician Greg Manahan. The two performed together in Kansas City area bands before joining Head East in 2006. Walker, who is the vocalist for Head East, recently had the opportunity to lay down vocal tracks on the band’s newest album, “Full Circle,” available on Cleopatra Records. Courtesy of Darren Walker

It was 1969 and Darren Walker was six years old when his parents moved to southwestern Iowa, where he came of age embracing the music of new and emerging rock bands. A few years later, when a teenager, he recalls traveling to a nearby rural community where acres of a cornfield had been cleared so that a flatbed trailer could be pulled in to serve as a makeshift stage for a rock concert. He watched in awe as Head East performed, a unique group whose music he quickly grew to appreciate. This concert essentially represented the opening moment of a journey that came full circle with his becoming the lead vocalist for the band years later.
 
“Our family moved to Lanthrop (Missouri) from Iowa in 1979 and that’s where I finished my junior and senior year of high school,” Walker said. “I was interested in being an auto mechanic and worked for an auto repair shop for about a year and a half. I was then hired as a mechanic at a Jeep dealership and worked there from about 1982 until 1986,” he added.
 
On June 9, 1984, he married his fiancée, Jill, and the couple later became parents to two sons. Tragically, they lost one of their sons to a car accident in 2018.
 
Aspiring to be part of the rock music he enjoyed hearing, it was during this time he auditioned for the band Leather Toys despite not having any formal vocal coaching or training in music. Impressed by his potential, he was asked to join the band, with whom he performed at local bars and clubs for about a year.
 
“After Leather Toys broke up, we put together Bad Gypsy but after about three years, we ran into some problems and that group ended,” he said. “Then I joined Toymaker’s Dream with Glenn Bridger, Greg Manahan and Eddy Jones, all musicians that were later part of our Head East adventure. We played our first show in 1994.”
 
Maintaining full-time employment while also pursuing a part-time career performing with rock bands, Walker worked several years in the construction trade, eventually forming his own small HVAC business that he continues to operate.
 
“There’s a living that can be made in bands—especially cover bands,” he said. “But that has never been my motivation. I always felt that if I did it for the money, I might be let down. I just enjoy creating music or representing that of others in a respectable manner.”
 
Toymaker’s Dream played small shows until 1999, when they made the decision to go their separate ways. Another door of opportunity soon opened when the Kansas City-area band London Drive needed a vocalist, a vacancy that was filled by Walker.
 
From 2000 through 2010, he enjoyed playing rock covers at various small venues with London Drive. Yet it was also during this time that an opportunity arose to become part of a rock band whose music he had fallen in love with more hat a quarter-century earlier.
 
“I was approached by Roger Boyd (founding member of Head East) in late spring or early summer of 2006 about joining Head East,” Walker said. “I didn’t hear anything for a few weeks and thought it had all been forgotten, but in late August I got a call to audition in early September.”
 
Walker, along with several local musicians he had played with in previous bands, rocked the audition with Boyd and were offered the chance to officially become members of Head East.
 
He recalled, “Our first gig was Halloween eve at a Holiday Inn in South Beloit, Illinois. I think we played for about 20 people and 18 hay bales … and that was a little discouraging because the event had not been well promoted and there were so many other events going on in the community.”
 
Their spirits were soon lifted when Head East played their next show at a casino in Hayward, Wisconsin, in front of an enthusiastic crowd of more than 2,000 fans.
 
“That show was off the hook!” he exclaimed. “It was a little uncomfortable at first, to have all that attention on you by such a large crowd, especially since we had been used to playing bars and small clubs. It was both eye-opening and awesome, to say the least.”
 
Elatedly, he added, “And here we are, 17 years later and still doing it.”
 
Head East remains Walker’s musical focus although he still embraces opportunities to refine and maintain his vocal abilities onstage with other bands. In the last several years, he has performed with Purple Strangers, a tribute to Deep Purple, in addition to a Motley Crue tribute band.
 
Other cover bands he has played with include Anthem and Bridger (the latter of which was named for former fellow Head East member Glen Bridger). More recently, he continues to enjoy sharing music with audiences through the cover bands K-Audic and N-Halen, a tribute to Van Halen.
 
Head East has recently released the album “Full Circle” on Cleopatra Records. It features performances from members of the band’s current lineup as well as drum tracks from late drummer Steve Huston and the vocals of original singer John Schlitt.
 
“I grew up listening to Head East and fell in love with their self-titled album (also known as the Road Sign Album),” Walker explained. “That was their fourth studio album but really turned me on to their music and the vocals of John Schlitt, which motivated me to search out their entire back catalogue.
 
“Now, I’m a member of this great band and part of our success is that everyone emotionally climbs into the music to a certain degree and wants to deliver the best performance possible. The love of it … that’s why we continue to do it.”  
         
Jeremy P. Ämick is author of “Movin’ On,” biography of the rock band Missouri, in addition to the upcoming biography of Shooting Star. 

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Coming up in the Kansas City music scene, Walker sang in bands such as Leather Toys, Bad Gypsy, and Toymaker’s Dream before joining Head East. Courtesy of Darren Walker