The Roadmen

The Roadmen

As remembered by Ron Crosser:

Original Founding Members:
Ron Crosser: Lead Guitar, Keyboard, Vocals
Larry Crosser: Drums, Vocals
Sam Mabe: Guitar, Vocals
Rich Preteroti: Bass Guitar, Vocals
Roger Freed: Vocals
Additional Members:
Ken Bowman: Lead Guitar, Vocals

“This group was formed from remnants of the Ticons, Ronnie and the Shadows, and the Chex. We had a permanent gig at The Brunswick. Les and Snooky Miller liked us, and we were drawing some large crowds. We even had The Buckinghams (“Kind of a Drag” and “Don’t you Care”) down there for a few nights. The only problem was that the dance floor was too small, and it was always very crowded.

The original bandstand was behind the bar, at the end of a tunnel-like, very small dance floor. Bill Black, who owned the Black and Warner clothing store above the Brunswick, offered to let us remove a wall in the basement and build a new, larger stage closer to the entrance. That allowed for a much larger dance floor. We had people lined up on Main Street to get in after that!

Roger left the band and we added Ken Bowman from The Chex, on lead guitar and vocals, and I (Ron) moved to Keyboard and Guitar. I was also working at Porter Music Company and attending Findlay College. I left the band in 1966. Larry also left and went with Life, and then Fresh Air. Rich also left. I believe Sam went on to form That Damn Band with Tom Schute, Bobby Nash, Percy Davis, and Dave Dudley.

What a great run!”

Listen to Ron Crosser’s oral history here.