Orlando – With a guitar purchased from a garage sale down the street from his parents Chicago home, Mark Dawson learned the riff to the Beatles hit “Day Tripper.”
At the time the middle schooler, inspired by performances he saw on the Ed Sullivan show, was determined to be in the school talent show.
“I’ve been in three talent shows and I’m 3-0, that’s all I can really say about that,” Dawson said smiling. “I didn’t know what I was doing, but I just thought that was really fun and I want to do it more.”
Little did the aspiring musician know those talent shows would lead to the formation of his first band and eventually a career in music.
Dawson had gone from playing in his mother’s basement with his teen friends to ski resorts in Colorado with a cover band. His voice had even been featured in the 1991-1993 Coors Light radio campaign.
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“That campaign was fun. It was a fun time in my musical career,” Dawson said.
Fast forward to 1995, Dawson relocates to Central Florida with his wife and daughter. By this time, Dawson had been in several bands and even recorded his own music when he joined a doo-wop group in Tampa. Dawson spent eight years with the group traveling all over Florida.
“I had just about reached that point where I didn’t think my career was going to be you know, going to elevate musically anymore,” Dawson said.
His age became a concern watching new talent appear left and right.
“There are so many young, talented people coming up these days,” Dawson said. “I listened to some of the people like, ‘Oh, they have way more talent than me at 20 than I do at my age.’”
An opportunity came knocking in the form of a phone call from an agent Dawson knew from the 80s.
“Out of the blue, he said, ‘Hey, how are you with your Grass Roots catalog?’ I said, ‘I don’t know what you mean by that,’” Dawson said with a chuckle.
The agent told Dawson, The Grass Roots needed a fill-in for an upcoming show to sing and play bass for about 6-7 hits.
“I absolutely agreed to it and thought ‘Oh, this will be fun,’” Dawson said smiling ear-to-ear. “To put on my resume that I was the lead singer of one of my favorite bands, at least for one day, how many people could say that ya know”?
Turns out Dawson needed to learn 19 songs before the show date in San Francisco and he had three days to do it.
“All I remember is being a little stressed out going to the hotel, meeting the band because I had not met them or spoken to them prior to that,” Dawson said. “We drove out to the show. I played it. And they asked me to come back and do it again.”
Now, 15 years later, Dawson is still rocking with one of his favorite bands. Of course, there have been ups and downs along the way.
The passing of long-time lead singer and bassist Rob Grill was a moment Dawson said he had to step up to help fulfill his friend’s vision for the group and its music.
“He kept telling me, ‘I want you to be the guy to take The Grass Roots music to the future.’ Those were his words exactly,” Dawson said.
As a musician and friend, it was challenging for Dawson as he faced many fans over the years that were not accepting of his new position, but he kept going. Dawson says he would never change what Grill and the group had made over the years that he loved and made him a fan too.
“These were nearly perfect pop songs. I’m proud to play them as they are,” Dawson said. “And my job, I’m a vehicle to bring them to you and that’s the way I look at it”.
Hear more about Dawson and Grill’s friendship and all the behind-the-scenes stories from traveling to performing on the latest podcast episode of Riff On This.