Interview with progressive rock guitarist and vocalist Stanley Whitaker. He played with such groups as Happy the Man, Oblivion Sun, Ten Jinn and Six Elements.

Interview – Mike Beck was the drummer for Happy The Man when they recorded for Arista Records. Today, he is a vocalist and plays percussion with his band Dog Talk. Mike has also collaborated on music for theater and dance companies. He plays a variety of ethnic percussion instruments such as djembe, shekeres, and angklung. His collection includes hundreds of instruments from around the world.

Interview – Ken Whitaker is Stanley Whitaker’s older brother and was the singer in one of Stan’s early bands. It was Ken who gave Happy The Man its name. Today Ken is a respected software engineer, an author of several books.

Interview – Spanning four decades and beyond, Ron Riddle’s music career is nothing less than stellar. Perhaps best known as the drummer for Blue Oyster Cult, Ron is also credited with the scoring of music for more than 400 films for national and worldwide broadcast. Ron joined the progressive rock band Happy The Man as their drummer in 1977. He composed one of the best known Happy The Man tunes ”Service with the smile”.

Interview – When vocals were still part of Happy The Man’s repertoire, Cliff Fortney sang and played flute for the group. Cliff departed the band to concentrate on classical education with flute. Cliff lives in Indianapolis, Indiana, not far from Mike Beck, the former drummer of Happy the Man.

Interview – Legendary British music producer Ken Scott worked at the age of 16 in the tape library at Abbey Road Studios, and he went on to become a recording engineer for bands you might have heard of—The Beatles, The Rolling Stones, Pink Floyd, Jeff Beck, Elton John, Procol Harum and America, to name a few. As a producer, his credits include, Supertramp, Devo, Kansas, Level 42, David Bowie, The Dixie Dregs and, of course, Happy The Man’s Crafty Hands.

Interview – If you’ve seen Elton John, Billy Joel, Bruce Springsteen, Robert Palmer, Cyndi Lauper and a few other legendary rockers in concert, chances are you’ve seen David Rosenthal on keyboards. He’s also known for his work with Britsh rock band Rainbow. In 2000, he joined a reunited Happy The Man, replacing long-time keyboardist Kit Watkins. He recorded one album with them in 2004 called “The Muse Awakens”.

Interview – When Stanley first met him, Paul Reed Smith’s company was a virtually unknown, small, independent guitar repair shop in Annapolis. Today, PRS Guitars is one of the foremost designers and manufacturers of guitars. Guitar greats like Carlos Santana, Peter Frampton and many others play PRS guitars. After building Stan’s first double-neck guitar a few decades ago, Paul and Stanley have remained good friends.