Band Bios
Lance Richard - Lead Vocals -Drums
Lance has been singing and playing the drums since the 70's, while being the front man and drummer in various bands over the years. In the 80's he was in the band "Sticky Fingers" that toured up and down the West Coast and as far reaching as Wyoming. He has a great talent for songwriting and is not only the drummer for the band, but the lead singer! This adds a truly unique dynamic to this amazing trio of musicians.
Robert Tillery - Guitar
It all started in the home back in 1968 my dad was a guitarist, I was probably 4 when I first started really listening to my dad play and sing. By the time I was 5 he was telling me "don’t touch my guitars when I’m not home" lol . Well I did hehe.
I remember sliding my finger up and down the frets, pushing as hard as I could and it really hurt!!! The sound it made was magical in 1969.
At age 10, (1974), dad got me a Spanish style acoustic nylon string guitar and taught me some cowboy chords, G D C E A . At age 13, he taught me Ghost Riders In The Sky and the Apache songs.
In 1978 I started electric guitar lessons for about a year with Greg Montgomery. At 14 I was playing Lynyrd Skynyrd, Led Zeppelin, Peter Frampton and at 15 it was RUSH. A couple years later I learned Ozzy and Iron Maiden.
From the 1960s until now guitars have been a part of my life. Yes, you can hear my influences coming through my playing in Babylon Gypsies. Gary More is at the top of my list.
I played in a number of bands throughout the 80s but it wasn’t till I was in House of Wax with Brett Valory and Courtenay Hilton-Green, 25 at the time, that I would be playing Music 6 nights a week - this had become my education of music. The two of them took me under their wing. I was a few years younger and took this lifetime of music they taught me and put it out into the world. Brett’s brother is Ross of the band Journey and Courtenay was the lead vocalist of a band called The Lift. Courtney open for Genesis in the 70s touring through the South and Midwest. The two of them taught me about writing songs, making eye contact and playing in the pocket. I had to play at the top of my game those two pro-players. We shared a studio with Ross and Ross would show up from time to time with other musicians that I grew up watching!!! Not dropping names, the Tubes, rehearsed right next-door and would hang out with us from time to time. It was these years that I learned how to craft my song writing.
I moved on to BENT and was in Bent almost 20 years and had several major endorsements, ESP Guitars, EMG Pick Ups, Dean Markley strings, Boss speaker cabs and Amps to name a few. Bent recorded 3 cds by Jeff Redmiller our producer. Jeff was an understudy of Eddie Kramer, who produced Led Zeppelin, Kiss and Iron Maiden. All of this experience has brought me to Babylon Gypsies.
I started writing songs before there was Babylon Gypsies with the concept of late 70s and early 80s. The two musicians that would come my way would be perfect for this , Lance Richard and Steve Carver, and we would become Babylon Gypsies together the 3 of us.
Most recently in the last few years, We've had the pleasure of opening up for some great national acts such as Lynch Mob / LA guns / Eric Martin / the drummer from Stone Temple Pilots / and Armor Saint. I look forward to a great musical journey that lies ahead for the Babylon Gypsies!
Steve Carver - Bass
I started playing very young at age 9 with guitar 1965 and then some H.S. backyard bands but had issues with drugs and alcohol through my youth so and lack of parent support of music I always felt less than on the guitar.
In 1993 I was staying in the foothills of CA and played in an original band playing lead guitar and during a break on NYE the Bass Player did not return. It was the rhythm guitar player's music so I picked up the bass and played and fell in love with playing Bass. When that band disbanded I didn’t play again.
I got clean in 2001 and in 2004 I met some guys and again attempted to play guitar and they needed a bass player so I bought a hawk shop bass and amp and played bass. We were together as a blues band for about 6 or 7 years opening for some good blues people in the Sac / Foothills area Lea Tysse, Ralph Woodson, Quinn Hedges. Played for another Blues band and opened for some other big named folks such as local favorite Frank Hannon who had Aaron Leigh and Kelly Smith.
I then moved from Auburn to Pioneer CA and met a 14 year old kid named Kory Gibbs. He wanted to move from Blues to Rock and he was writing songs and he got the rest of the guys together and we rehearsed for a long time then went out. We were opening for my hero’s. LA Gun’s/Bullet Boy’s/Dizzy Reed-Todd Kerns.
Then came Babylon.
I contacted Robert through FB. He said be at my house at 2 pm on Sunday. It felt like we knew each other for years. Then Lance Richard contacted us through FB, I invited him over and he came to my house burping into the microphone from the gate. Funny as hell from the start. Lance came up with the name.
Then Sacramento welcomed us with open arms and the rest is history.
We love what we do, We love that our songs make people happy and we don’t want to stop!
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