Stix memphis6/17/2023 After he served in the Army and played with jazz musician Oscar “Baby” Jones and with Jackie Ivory and the Gents of Soul, Nicks joined Walker’s All Stars.įrom 1965 to ‘76, he toured and recorded with the saxophonist, including on the hits “Roadrunner,” “How Sweet It Is to Be Loved by You” and “Pucker Up Buttercup.” With saxophonist Junior Walker, Nicks formed The Rhythm Rockers in 1954. ![]() He began playing drums in 1953, when he was a junior at Central High School, where he also acquired the “Stix” nickname from his lifelong friend Jackie Ivory because of his habit of carrying his sticks with him everywhere he went. His mother regularly played classical, opera, country, blues and jazz records on her Victrola, and Nicks absorbed it all. 8, 1934, in Greenwood, Miss., Nicks moved to South Bend in 1943, when his parents, Alma and Wyze Nicks, relocated the family. … Two musical giants of South Bend passed away within a couple of days of each other.”īorn Dec. “You could just feel the whole place gasp,” Harrell said. Retired Tribune reporter and Motown Machine percussionist Jeff Harrell announced his friend’s death at the Vaszari tribute. 9 at age 76 - was getting underway at Fiddler’s Hearth. Wednesday, just as a tribute to keyboardist Mike Vaszari - who died Nov. Everyone around here who is a great drummer, learned from him.” “My view from looking over my right shoulder, I’m spoiled,” Chandra Williams said about singing in Nicks’ last band, The Motown Machine. You could just start playing something and he would be into it.” “You could throw anything at Bill and not even talk about it. “Musically, he could just blend into anything,” guitarist Southside Denny Snyder said Thursday by phone from his home outside Montreal, Quebec, about the late-’90s period when Nicks was a member of his band. ![]() It might have been the most important $15 Nicks ever spent: Until his death Wednesday from cancer, he made his living as a drummer for more than 60 years, including 11 years with Motown’s Junior Walker and the All Stars. ![]() So he practiced with a pair of borrowed sticks on tabletops, books and his knees until he saved enough money to buy a drum set for $15 from a pawn shop. SOUTH BEND - Billy “Stix” Nicks’ family couldn’t afford even a practice pad when he decided to play drums as a teenager in South Bend.
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