Name: Jeffery Louis Martin
Height: 6' 2"
Bloodtype: 10-40 Weight

I was born in Milwaukee, Wisconsin and grew up in West Allis, a suburb of Milwaukee. The seventh son with six older brothers and sisters, of which all either played or listened to many styles of music.

I started playing at the age of seven fashioning my own snare drum from a TV tray with some pennies and a chain on it and carving a set of drum sticks from a mop handle. Some years later opening the smallest box under the Christmas tree, revealed a picture of a drum set given to me by my mother, bought with money from my recent grandmothers death. I took only two lessons and found it too slow, so I self taught myself playing to the Beatles, Jimi hendrix, Grand Funk, Cream, Mountain, Emerson, Lake and Palmer, Deep Purple, Jethro Tull, Black Sabbath, Led Zeppelin and a ton of other bands. Most of which, were on eight track tapes left to me when my brother went off to fight in Vietnam. At the ages of 12 thru 15, I played in various bands throughout Wisconsin. most of the other members were in there 20’s. I grew up fast.

In 1973, I moved to Phoenix, Arizona when my father retired from the Allis Chalmers Factory. Throughout my remaining high school years I played in a number of bands, playing boondockers, bars and self-promoted concerts. One band being “Ghost Rose”, later renamed “Saint Michael” being that we played a lot of U.F.O. This is where I met bass player, Greg Chassion who later got me involved in the heavy metal band “Surgical Steel” and then much later “Badlands”. While in “ St.Michael”, I recorded my first song with Mike Varney on Shrapnel’s, “Metal Massacre one”. the song was “The Beauty The Power”. In these years, I started working more on my lead vocals, while still playing the drums. Inspired by Rob Halford of Judas Priest and Ian Gillan of Deep Purple, I practiced working on singing while riding my motorcycle. No doubt this is the reason for my loud voice, while singing over the pitch of the engine and the wind in my face.

At this time I was playing in a bar band called “electra”, singing and playing the heavier tunes in the set. I was then contacted by Greg and given the opportunity to be front man and lead vocalist for “Surgical Steel”. We were a Judas Priest style band, but primarily wrote our own material. We quickly became the biggest band in the Valley of the Sun. I then recorded my second release on Shrapnel’s “Metal massacre two” with the song ”Rivet Head”. We rented out big halls and put on our own concerts, like Van Halen did in their early years. We then recorded our own album, which we sold at the shows. In 83 we landed a part in a Cannon film called “Thunder Alley” with Leif Garrett and Clancy Brown.

In 85, Mike Varney contacted me about a possible album project with an up and coming guitar player named Paul Gilbert. Mike sent me a tape and I immediately put some vocals on it and sent it back. I titled it ‘Don’t Change A Thing”. That song was rewritten nearly 18 years later with new vocals and put out on the last Racer X album “Getting Heavier” and retitled “Endless”. After sending Paul the tape, we hooked up weeks later at the then Guitar Institute in Hollywood. Racer X was formed. Still living in Phoenix, Paul and I wrote the first Racer X album by mail with cassette tapes and over the phone. Meanwhile Paul, John and Harry rehearsed them in Los Angeles. I then came to L.A for a week of rehearsal for the album. Paul traded his first guitar to Mike Varney for some cash to get a car and off we went to Prairie Sun Studio in Cotati Ca, to record “Street Lethal”. It would become the first of what is now eight Racer X albums. We quickly became one of the biggest bands in the L.A area, playing The Roxy, Troubadour and The Country Club, all running after the elusive brass ring and break out status. It was then that I moved to Los Angeles and jumped into the melting pot. Through 1988, we recorded one more studio and two live albums, where many more Rock and Roll stories could be told to fill pages.

In late 1988, I started my own band “Bad Dog” and did some demos funded by Atlantic Records. We also did shows at Musicians Institute (formerly GIT) with Paul Gilbert and “Bad Dog” guitarist Russ Parrish. We played a host of songs from the 60’s and 70’s and it got me back on my drumming horse, so to speak. Around that time, I was contacted by Greg Chassion and was told that “ Badlands”, a band on Atlantic Records, was looking for a new drummer and asked if I would like to audition for the spot. After a week of playing together, I got the gig and we started work on “Voodoo Highway”, Badlands second album. We toured for the next year and started work on the third album that would be later released as “Dusk”, after the band broke up and the passing of lead singer Ray Gillan.

Through 1991 to 1999, I played on many Shrapnel blues based albums, and did three albums as the “The blindside Blues band”. I also played drums on some of Paul Gilbert’s solo albums and tours, and an album and overseas tours, with “The Black Symphony”. Later I played drums on a tour of Europe and the U.K., with U.F.O.

From 1999 to 2003, Racer X reformed with a new label, Universal Records in Japan to record “Technical Difficulties” with all the original members. This first record after nearly 13 apart, received a Gold record in Japan. That was followed by “Superheros”, and “Snowball Of Doom”. The latter being a live show recorded at the Whisky A-Go-Go in Los Angeles, and released as a CD and DVD. In January 2002, Racer X toured Japan and Taiwan in support of prior two studio records. In October 2003, “Getting Heavier” was recorded in Las Vegas at Bat Girl Studios. During that time, I also played drums on a MSG album, “ Be aware of Scorpions in 2001, as well as a Pete Way solo project called “The Plot”. While in that same sessions, I recorded a project with Michael Schenker that will be released in 2006 called “The 25 Years of MSG”.

In 2003, I went on to do an album and tour with Kevin Dubrow of Quiet Riot and an album and tour with George Lynch of Dokken. In that same year, I started writing and planning for my solo record, fittingly titled, “The Fool”. By 2005, I completed recording it with Michael Schenker, Paul Gilbert and Russ Parrish on guitars, Rev Jones on Bass, and Emily, Kim and EM on strings. It’s a sonic collage of everything you have read from the above.

Why is it called “The Fool”? If you could read between all the lines in this bio, you would wonder why am I still here? Why am I playing on? Well this fool is here to stay and I’m sure more can be written before it’s all said and done.

Yours Truly
“The Fool”

Jeff Martin