LOCAL SCENE: Rob Grill's 'Roots' reached to region

Rob Grill -- the voice, bassist and band leader of the 1960s pop/rock group The Grass Roots -- was not a Midwesterner, but he was a frequent visitor.

"I always look forward to seeing all the Northwest Indiana 'Roots' fans," said Grill when he returned a few years ago as part of a "Salute To The Sixties" show at Star Plaza. "Your area has some of the most loyal fans in the world."

Grill, after years of failing health, died at age 67 on Monday at his home in Florida from complications following a stroke.

Local folks shared thoughts and stories about Grill after hearing about his death.

"Rob was a guy with a great sense of humor and he was someone very close to all of us who work here at the Star Theatre," added Steve Kokos, the Star Plaza's House Manager.

Grill was someone who influenced a lot of regional musicians as well. One of the posts came from Northwest Indiana club singer Don Baron of regional groups Bravo Johnny and Dick Diamond & The Dusters.

"I saw Grass Roots in 1990 at Indiana State University with The Guess Who," remembered Baron. "Even though I never really had heard of the band before that show, he became a huge influence (on me). He was funny, sang great and seemed like just a cool guy in general."

When I first interviewed Grill in the late 1990s, I told him about the writer's cramp I and several classmates suffered during the fall of 1972. In eighth grade, Carefree Sugarless Gum had sponsored a series of regional write–in contests, awarding the school that mailed in the most entries a free concert by The Grass Roots.

For days, as record players throughout the region blared out such classic Roots songs as "Two Divided By Love," "Sooner Or Later," "Let's Live For Today" and "Midnight Confessions," Highland students and other region students hell bent on bringing the hit–heavy band to their town sat in front of mountainous stacks of 3-by-5 index cards scribbling some inane catch phrase about a gum most of us never chewed.

"Wow ... I remember that," chuckled Grill. "We did about 14 of those school concerts for Carefree. Talk about irony, here we were fighting against being considered 'a bubble gum band,' and who was sponsoring our shows, but a bubble gum company."

Though rife with catchy pop harmonies, Grass Roots music was never in any real danger of being labeled "bubble gum" and still stands as some of the best rock 'n' roll of its day.

The opinions expressed are solely the writer's. Reach him at beatboss@aol.com.