By William Smith
Community Editor
Burlington resident Tom Nelson and West Burlington resident Paul Miller consider themselves lucky just to have been there.
Lucky to be on stage at countless music venues that once dotted the Burlington area. Lucky to live a rock and roll lifestyle while maintaining separate existences outside of the spotlight.
Lucky — and talented enough — to have been inducted into the Iowa Rock and Roll Music Association Hall of Fame. The announcement came a few weeks ago, and Miller is still humbly befuddled by the distinction.
“I’m just shocked. I never considered it. I never thought about it,” Miller said. “It took me a while to figure it out, but you need to play with people who are better than you. Because I’ve played with some great people. Burlington has some phenomenal musicians.”
When it comes to music, Miller always has considered himself an enthusiast rather than a full-timer. Nelson was the professional, having traveled on the road for seven years as he rocked his way across the lower 48 states.
“So it has been one of the things that has been on my musical bucket list. You really kind of hope, someday, you get in. It’s very, very cool,” Nelson said.
Growing Up On Music
Nelson and Miller, who still play together in the bands Leaving Abbey and Fretworks, were first thrown together in a band called Bandit.
But their love for rock started much earlier — in childhood.
“My grandpa played everything,” Nelson said. “If it had strings, he could play it. He would sit at the kitchen table every day, and he would play music, whether it was his mandolin, or his guitar or his banjo.”
Nelson remembers it vividly. The thick smoke in the air that hung from his grandfather’s Camel stud cigarettes. The oyster crackers Nelson dipped in butter as his grandfather drank beer.
“He died when I was about five,” Nelson said.
Nelson’s mother inherited all those instruments and wanted her son to learn how to play the mandolin. Meanwhile, Nelson developed his style through more modern musical influences: Ace Frehley, Ted Nugent, Jeff Beck, Dan Fogelberg, and other rock and rollers.
“That’s how my style developed, was playing along with those records,” he said.
Nelson started taking guitar lessons from O.W. Appleton, the inventor of the solid-body electric guitar, at the age of 9. Then, he moved on to take lessons from Joel Kipp at Musician’s Pro Shop, where he later taught music while playing at local venues.
And there were so many to play with.
“Practically every Ramada, Sheridan, Hilton had live music five, six nights a week,” he said. “It was easy to find work. You could make a living playing, and you could work as much as you wanted to.”
Born to Play the Bass
Miller, who grew up outside of the Danville area, begged his mom for piano lessons when he was 8 years old. He later accompanied the Bel Canto Chorale and played bass for the Southeast Iowa Symphony POPS concert.
But it was Miller’s older brother who shaped his musical tastes.
“I had a brother who had all the cool music coming out in the middle to late ’60s and the ’70s. Paul Revere and the Raiders, Iron Butterfly, The Beatles, the list goes on and on,” Miller said. “Here’s this little fourth-grader riding to school with his brother, and he’s got the 8-track in, and it’s always cranked.”
The more he listened, the more fascinated Miller became with the bass guitar. He later found out that his high school band teacher, Jim Smith, bought a bass guitar for the school specifically so Miller could play it.
“My now 99-year-old mother said, ‘I don’t know why you want to play the bass. It’s not a lead instrument,’ ” Miller said. “Well, not everybody can play the lead.”
While music still thrives in Burlington, everything in the rock and roll scene seemed bigger then. But the scene had already started to shrink.
“We got in on the tail end of it all,” Miller said.
Nelson echoed his friend’s sentiment.
“We played clubs. We played high school dances, parties,” Nelson said. “They were good days.”
But there was still plenty of room for rock and roll. Nelson’s list of bands is nearly endless, from his first band, Blue Destiny, to Bandit, Stonegate, and the Bobby Claire Show. Nelson joined the Sean Costanza Band in 2007 and has been with Leaving Abbey since 2011.
Miller’s first band was Talisman, which became Mind’s Eye, and he is a veteran of the Sean Costanza Band, Leaving Abbey and Fretworks.
He even played at Sun Studio in Memphis, Tenn., a few years ago.
Getting A Real Job
Being an Iowa Rock and Roll Hall of Famer is an honor, but it doesn’t pay the bills. When strangers ask Miller or Nelson if they made a living at music, they usually laugh.
Miller, who is retired now, worked several jobs, including at Champion Spark Plug, Case Corporation, and Shearers Foods.
Nelson was able to hold off on finding a real job until he stepped away from the road in 1987. He did not return to music for 12 years after that.
Instead, he began building a new career, starting with a minimum wage job at a warehouse. Then he worked his way up.
“It turned out, I was pretty good at numbers,” Nelson said, noting that he worked his way up through the supervisor and manager positions.
Securing Their Legacy
Nelson retired from Industrial Service Corporation in 2015, roughly two decades after he started buying and developing real estate.
He put a wrap on both careers, finally earning a bit of sleep.
But he never sleeps too far from his guitar. Neither does Miller.
The pair will be playing at the Iowa Rock and Roll Music Association Hall of Fame in Arnolds Park over Labor Day weekend.
“The real exciting part is coming up,” Nelson said.