Ryan and the Rockers band members (l-r) Chuck Henderson, Ryan Heidinger, Kenny Glass and Rit Johnson take the stage at Johnnie Brown’s in Delray Beach in late January. Photos by Kurtis Boggs
By Steve Pike
John Lennon and Paul McCartney met for the first time at St. Pete’s Church in Liverpool, England; Duane Allman hung around FAME studios in Muscle Shoals, Ala., for more than a year before the legendary Swampers session musicians made him their guitar player; Bruce Springsteen met Clarence Clemons when the latter was playing at Wonder Bar in Asbury Park, N.J.
Chuck Henderson and Ryan Heidinger? The duo first met at the Gulf Stream Golf Club on A1A. And while they’re not world famous rock stars, they’re band – Ryan and The Rockers – has since 2007 developed a faithful following and solid reputation from such diverse venues as Johnnie Brown’s in Delray Beach to the aforementioned Gulf Stream Golf Club.
“What brought us together was the Beatles,” Henderson said of his musical partnership with Heidinger. “We’re both big Beatles nuts and we would sing Beatles songs together.”
That must have caused quite a stir in the pro shop and bag room at Gulf Stream Golf Club, where Henderson has worked as director of outside operations for the past 17 seasons and where Heidinger has worked in the pro shop and bag room arriving from Kentucky in search of a golf-related job in 2007.
“I had been playing music since I was 17,” said Henderson, now 48. “Ryan wanted to play but had never been in a band. He was very green but very smooth vocally.”
The duo tried out some songs and when Henderson showed Heidinger some videos of his previous band called “Tribute,” each knew they needed a band of their own. Thus Ryan and The Rockers were born one April night at a gig at the home of a member of the Gulf Stream Golf Club.
“I was scared to death,” Heidinger said. “I don’t think I ate for two weeks, I was so nervous.”
“They were really surprised Ryan and I could play,” Henderson said of that first-night audience. “They gave us the benefit of the doubt. The music wasn’t that great because it wasn’t all that well rehearsed at that point. But they liked us because they saw Ryan and me up there.”
With band mates Rit Johnson (guitar), Mark Gold (keyboards) and Kenny Glass (drums), Henderson (bass guitar) and lead singer Heidinger cull their music from an eclectic playlist that includes everything from Frank Sinatra to the Ramones. Much of the music on the playlist, of course, depends on the venue. For places such as Gulf Stream Golf Club and the Country Club of Florida, it’s the 1950s and ‘60s. For places such as Johnnie Brown’s and the Old Key Lime House in Lantana, the sound reaches into the 1980s.
“It’s just grown and grown,” Henderson said. “About two years ago we became something of a fever on the island. We were a little younger than they were used to seeing. It worked. Ryan is good looking and he was up there singing and shaking it. Pretty soon we were booked at all the sister clubs of Gulf Stream, the Country Club of Florida and last year even the Jupiter Island Club.”
Heidinger, 30, plays solo several times a year at the Old Key Lime House and the band generally plays twice a week January through April and once a month the remainder of the year. Ryan and The Rockers have two public appearances in February – at John Bull English Pub in West Palm Beach on Feb. 4 and Feb. 17 at Johnnie Brown’s.
“Every single gig this band has played at, we’ve always been asked back,” Henderson said. “We’ve been fortunate the members have supported the group for all these years.” Keyboardist Mike Gold.
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