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Kenny Simmons
Kenny Simmons was born in the Village of Harlem, New York. His passion for music and the entertainment business was present even at a young age. He started out as a drummer in local bands playing in lounges and nightclubs all over the New York City area at the age of 11. Having the opportunity to jam with music greats like Les McCann, George Benson, Curtis Blandon, Tony Hunt just to name a few. Looking older than his age and with disguises he was able to sneak into night clubs to play, sometimes only allowed to come out of the dressing rooms when it was show time, because the other band members didn’t want to get busted for having such a young kid playing in their band. In 1972 at nineteen years of age he was discovered for his vocal and percussion abilities by Benjamin Ashburn, who was managing at the time a Tuskegee College, Alabama, little known group called The Commodores featuring Lionel Richie. With The Commodores, Kenny was able to meet with such legendary superstars like Michael Jackson, Stevie Wonder, and Motown Records Founder Barry Gordy just to name a few. By forming these relationships, this became an important step in creating Kenny’s style of performing, business and entertaining. Simmons was a member of the backup band and after Lionel Richie’s departure from the group, he was promised an opportunity to move to the front and take on some lead vocals. But that opportunity was short lived, when drug addiction got in the way of his career. After his time with The Commodores ended, Simmons sought out and found sobriety and cleaned up his life. With the help of believing that God had a better plan for him. Simmons was re-discovered by his soon to become lifetime friends Emil Innocenti and John Robie, two of the Godfathers and creators of Hip-Hop music in the world today (Planet Rock). Recording for them the dance hit “Body Mechanic” that was released on Atlantic Records; the song reached # 3 on the Billboard Dance Charts in 1984 and after being re-released in 1994, took the historical musical fame of reaching # 7 on the same charts ten years after its original release. After years of traveling and touring with different acts, Simmons retired from the road and found a new home in the State of New Jersey. Producing and writing commercials took over Kenny’s career for almost a decade until he was called back to perform by Bobby Wells and his then little known band The Infernos.
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