Name: Ricky Hill

Birthplace: McKinney, Texas

Currently residing: Princeton, Texas

Musical past and present in one rambling run-on sentence: When I’m 14 I give up my dream of being a race car driver, sell my go-cart for $300 and buy a homemade bass guitar and worn out Fender Bassman amp (wish I still had that amp!) from our church youth director, teach myself to play and start banging around in garage bands until high school ends when I decide playing bass is boring, so I start singing for a cover band, the guys are 40ish and I’m 19 but they are cool with it because I am young, blond and energetic, I’m cool with is because I get to drink beer, play the guitarist Goldtop Les Paul and get paid a little, a year + later I then decide playing other people’s music sucks even worse than playing bass so I go back to bass and hook up with childhood friend Dave Williams (late of Drowning Pool) over the next 7 years we play in 3 bands together Crazy Jane, Mr Luvdog and Fugly, Fugly gets a record deal and promptly implodes, I am distraught and quit music for good, or so I think, 2 years later a former Fugly bandmate talks me into joining Vibrosound, an Emo band, I like the songs and again I am playing  bass but also get to sing a lot, so it’s ok, but doesn’t go anywhere so just as always I become bored and quit, but this time knowing I’m not done with music I am then approached by a friend about starting a new band where I am the lead singer, we write some weird hybrid pop/punk/country/southern rock stuff, call ourselves The Atoms and start playing shows, the music is interesting but not always good, after 2 years we split up, then a year or so later get back together, then add some new members, write some new songs, then lose another member, add another member, rename the band Reverend Leon & The Repenters, the music is really good this time and I like being Reverend Leon, so we record a new EP in 2011, release it in 2012 and just like that…here we are today.

Website: www.revleonandtherepenters.com

1. Who are some of your favourite composers, musicians and bands from the past and present?

Tom Petty

Cheap Trick

The Ramones

The Clash

Van Halen

Janes Addiction

Ryan Adams

Foo Fighters

Lemon Heads

Hayden

Beck

2. Is there a particular song or musical passage that never fails to move you emotionally?

Stem, by Hayden. The entire song is only 1:47 seconds, but I think it may be one of the best love songs ever written. If you’ve never heard it go find it and listen to it. And just about anything by Cheap Trick, who my wife turned me on to years ago, those songs still remind me of when we were first dating.

3. How would you describe your perfect day?

On a beach with my wife, toes in the sand, cold beer, and nothing but the sound of the ocean. Maybe I’ll play a little guitar and write some music too. Can this be every day please?

4. What would your friends say they appreciate the most about you?

I really have no idea…maybe that I’m ok with whoever or whatever you are, you don’t have to change to be my friend.

5. What is your most valued material possession?

Anything related to my son’s childhood. I hold on to those things like gold. I would rather lose a guitar than one of his kindergarten finger paintings. Everything else is pretty much just stuff.

6. Who were you, or would you be nervous to meet?

No one. I have never been starstruck. The only time I ever really get nervous is when I have to perform in front of close friends and family. I hate to let them down.

7. If you could blink your eyes and be in a favourite place right now, where would that place be?

See answer to question 3. Maybe there will be Mexican food involved, which I can pay for in Pesos! Is it wrong that I keep blinking. I don’t think this question is working right, I am still in front of the computer.

Please report this problem to the help desk.

8. Is there something you would like to do more of in the future?

Spend time with my family, record more records, write more songs, play more shows, run more races, travel more…enjoy life! Basically everything I don’t seem to have enough time for right now.

9. Where would you like to find yourself in ten years?

In ten years I hope I am in the process of selling most everything I own, packing up the few things I keep and looking for a little house on the beach somewhere where my wife and i can just relax and enjoy getting old. I can dream right!