I grew up working on my family's cattle ranch, and so every time I got done working, I'd run back to my grandpa's house and I'd plug in my amplifier and crank my little boom box that I had — some Allman Brothers, Santana, Grateful Dead, Hendrix — and I would try and play along with it, jam along with it, and try to see if I could absorb any of those licks," Eric Leadbetter tells.
He loved Creedence and The Doors, teaching himself how to play guitar by ear. Twenty-six years later, he's still at it, rocking stages large and small all over Central Oregon and the Pacific Northwest with various configurations — solo, as a duo or his steadfast trio with Leadbetter on guitar and vocals, Aaron Moore on bass and vocals and Kaleb Kelleher on drums and backup vocals.
On Oct. 12 at Silver Moon Brewing, "it's an evening with Leadbetter Band, and then we're gonna have special guest Conner Bennett on guitar and vocals," Leadbetter says. "Maybe once or twice a year we have Conner Bennett guest with us, and when he guests we do a bunch of his original songs."
After a busy summer, Leadbetter spoke with the Source about the show. Answers have been edited for brevity and clarity.
Source Weekly: You're playing Silver Moon on Oct. 12. What's the occasion?
Eric Leadbetter: Silver Moon's got a lot of roots for me. It was my first gig in Bend back in 2008 when I was touring through. I did a music series there for a couple years on Tuesday nights. I've had three album release parties there. So, it's definitely just one of those places, like my home gig in a lot of ways.
SW: How would you define your sound?
EL: It's an eclectic melting pot of everything that I like to listen to. It's influenced by classic rock vibes, old soul music, Motown, some jam band, some hard rock, some blues, some funk. It's got a lot of different elements, and I think that's why I love playing our music, because there's so much variety one song to the next. It's like a completely different story.
SW: You're a band leader and lead guitar player. What's your approach to music?
EL: My approach at the end of the day is always honor and serve the song. If the song calls for no guitar solos and no noodling around, then I don't do it. [Laughs] Some songs really want that, they want that extra lead guitar push. Some of them just want to uplift that melody of the voice. Finding the role of the guitar as a songwriter and as an electric guitar player, especially, has been a great challenge for me to find out when not to play a note, and when to let that melody be forefront. That's been a great challenge for me to step back and just let the melody do the talking.
SW: Yeah, sometimes you need to strip it back to the core elements.
EL: Exactly. You know, they say everything we needed to learn, we learned in kindergarten. I kind of feel like that's true with music, too. It all boils down to those seven notes. It's this endless journey, this endless well of knowledge, and so it's easy to get excited and over complicate it. But it's the same thing with life: If we get too much on our plate, if we get too overwhelmed, then [we] seem anxious or stressed out — [we] don't have quite the right balance. Long story short, that's what I'm seeking in my songwriting.
SW: What's your earliest musical memory?
EL: My mom. She would play the piano and she could sight read, and I just loved hearing her sing along with the piano. We didn't go to a lot of shows when I was a kid because I was living out on the ranch, pretty isolated. But I do remember my first musical inspiration was Michael J. Fox in "Back to the Future" as Marty McFly. When I saw him crank that amp and do the Chuck Berry "Johnny B. Goode" thing, I was like, "That is what's up." And the funny thing is, now I have a four-year-old and he is obsessed with "Back to the Future," and he loves that song. He's choreographed the entire sequence, and he's jumping around and dancing.
SW: Your last record, "Cake," came out in 2023. What have you been working on since?
EL: I've been writing and we're ready for the next album. We're kind of re-gelling after quite a busy summer of just viciously gigging, touring a lot regionally. We're trying to reinvent our approach to recording music. We're not sure if that's going to be releasing singles or an album, but I will say, personally, I would rather release an album next year because we have enough material for probably three or four albums ready to go.
SW: You also give guitar lessons and teach songwriting. Do you have any advice for younger musicians?
EL: I do consider myself successful in the fact that I'm paying my bills and supporting my family with music. I'm so blessed and grateful, without a doubt. Does that mean that I've got it made? It depends on who you ask. If you ask me, I'd say I feel like I got it made. To get to a point where you can just financially support yourself, that's incredible, and the only way you're going to get there is by working really hard on your music. Don't take it for granted. Don't take your bandmates for granted. Don't take your opportunities for granted. Take it all in stride and show up with gratitude. And I feel like that right there will be contagious, and opportunities just manifest and manifest and manifest if you come from a gratitude-centered viewpoint.
SW: You've been in Bend since 2016. What makes this music scene feel like home?
EL: One thing I absolutely cherish about the Central Oregon music scene is that it's not competitive, in a sense. Of course, there's always going to be some competition — people at different levels in their career. But overall, I'd say there's so much support from other musicians, from other booking agents, from other promotion companies — the list goes on and on. The musicians themselves are very supportive and cross pollinating.
SW: Your bio says you have "a vast collection of classic vinyl." What's your most prized record?
EL: I don't really have a most prized one necessarily, but I love Gov't Mule and so I have a bunch of Gov't Mule records. My son loves records too, and we just started his collection. We got him "Moana" on vinyl, which is pretty fun. The vinyl that I've had the longest, since I started collecting when I was 15 years old — I didn't even have a turntable till I was probably 20 — the very first one was Jimi Hendrix "Axis: Bold as Love." So that one's very cherished.
