Root Boy Slim

This July 2007 may require cleanup to meet Wikipedia's quality standards. Please improve this July 2007 if you can. (September 2007)

This article needs additional citations for verification. Please help improve this article by adding reliable references. Unsourced material may be challenged and removed. (February 2007)

Root Boy Slim
Background information
Birth name	Foster MacKenzie III
Also known as	The Duke of Puke
Born	July 9, 1945 Asheville, North Carolina U.S.
Died	June 8, 1993
Genres	Rock, Southern rock, Blues-rock,
Occupations	Musician, Songwriter
Instruments	Vocals, Guitar
Years active	1978 - 1993
Labels	Warner Bros. Records, IRS Records, Congressional Records, King Snake Records, Ichiban Records
Associated acts	Ernie Lancaster, Ron Holloway

Root Boy Slim (born Foster MacKenzie III) (born July 9, 1945 died June 8 1993) Asheville, North Carolina; was an American singer-songwriter who attended Yale University, and afterward settled in the suburbs of Washington, D.C., gaining fame as the frontman for the band "Root Boy Slim and the Sex Change Band".

The band favored a mix of Memphis-style boogie rock/blues and produced six albums ^[1]. Its most famous recording was "Boogie 'Til You Puke" from the debut album Root Boy Slim and the Sex Change Band with the Rootettes, (Warner Bros. Records, 1978), which also featured "I Used To Be a Radical," "I'm Not Too Old For You," and "(You Broke My) Mood Ring." Another famous recording was the band's holiday favorite: "Christmas at Kmart". Most of the songs were written by MacKenzie, guitarist Ernie Lancaster, and bassist Bob Greenlee. The lyrics often satirized society and mixed in autobiographical elements from MacKenzie's storied life.

He died in his sleep in his home in Orlando, Florida at the age of 47, and is buried in Fletcher, North Carolina. He was inducted into the Washington Area Music Association Hall of Fame in 2004 ^[2].

Background

MacKenzie was an intelligent yet incorrigible youth who was invited to leave several private DC-area prep schools such as Sidwell Friends. He finally found his niche at Saint James School in Hagerstown, Maryland, a boarding school. There, he played varsity football.

He went on to Yale University, where he majored in African American studies, graduating in 1967. He was a member of the Delta Kappa Epsilon fraternity. His fraternity brothers included future President George W. Bush^[2]. MacKenzie was a year older than Bush.

While at Yale, MacKenzie formed a band with classmate and fraternity brother Greenlee, who was captain of Yale's football team. The band was named Prince La La and the Midnight Creepers. Band members wore ermine capes, silver lame hot pants and boasted that they were never invited for return engagements.

The year after MacKenzie and Greenlee graduated, they returned to the DKE house during Yale's homecoming. Bush, who since their departure had become president of DKE, threw them out and banned them from the house^[2].

The Sex Change Band

Root Boy Slim and the Sex Change Band with the Rootettes

In 1978, the band released "Root Boy Slim and the Sex Change Band with the Rootettes."

During the same year, the band played a date at the Varsity Grill's Back Room in College Park, Maryland, (home of the [[University of Maryland, College Park|University of Maryland). Eventually, most of the original band members went their separate ways, reuniting mostly for recording projects. For nightclub performances, Root Boy was backed by a series of other bands, including Ron Holloway and Cryin' Out Loud, New Hope for the Criminally Insane, Capital Offense, Barbecue Juiceheads, and the Humans.

Root Boy Slim and the Sex Change Band's fifth anniversary took place in 1982 at the PsycheDelly in Bethesda, Maryland, and featured home movies of Root Boy, who wore an orange and white checkered 7-Eleven clerk's shirt and a white 10-gallon cowboy hat throughout the concert. The band's 10th anniversary concert took place at The Roxy, a club in downtown Washington. A line formed hours prior to that show and the club's three levels were standing room only. By the time the fourth set began, there were at least 25 musicians on the stage who had recorded or played clubs with Root Boy during his career. That show was also the debut of the "Rich, White, Republican," a biting satiric attack on Republicans that prophesied the eventual election of George H.W. Bush to the White House.

Death

After his death in 1993, the Washington Area Music Association held a memorial concert at The Bayou on K Street in Georgetown. Root Boy fans traveled from as far away as California to pay homage to "The Lenny Bruce of the Blues."

Slim's final resting place is in a grave beside his father's in Calvary Church Cemetery on Hendersonville Road in Fletcher, North Carolina, just south of Asheville. His grave is in the cemetery's northwest corner.

Discography

• Root Boy Slim and the Sex Change Band with the Rootettes (Warner Bros. Records, 1978)
• Zoom (IRS Records 1979)
• Dog Secrets (Congressional Records, 1983)
• Don't Let This Happen to You (Kingsnake, 1987)
• Left for Dead (Kingsnake, 1987)
• Root 6 (Ichiban, 1990)

Band members, etc.

• Ron Holloway - Tenor Saxophone
• Ernie “Sex Ray” Lancaster - Guitar
• Bob "Rattlesnake" Greenlee - Bass
• The Rootettes
• Walt Andrews of Daytona Beach, FL - Steel Guitar
• Gary Katz - Producer

References

External links

• Bob Greenlee memorial page
• Ernie Lancaster web page