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Gerald Wade Chambers
Born: October 8, 1946 in Athens Alabama
Currently resides in Lakeland, Florida
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Gerald Chambers was the fifth of seven children born to Henry Sears Chambers and Elsie Hudson Chambers in Athens, Alabama. His father taught himself to be a highly skilled block mason, despite his humble beginnings as the son of a North Alabama sharecropper. Sears Chambers moved his family to Central Florida in May of 1952 when Gerald was 5 years old. Gerald is a 1964 graduate of Auburndale High School.

From about age 8, Gerald and his first cousin, Carl Chambers (they were the same age), grew up next door to each other in Auburndale, Florida. Carl recalls his Aunt Elsie (Gerald's mother) leaning out their back door (about 20 feet from his bedroom window) and, in a sort of yodel, calling "Jes........see, supper". Carl started to refer to him as Jesse and in later years that was who he became known as, especially in music circles.

In the late 50s, Gerald's oldest brother, Billy Joe, had a Harmony acoustic guitar and used to sit around and sing the old country ballads and some of the newer rock and roll songs he would hear on the radio. Soon, Gerald and Carl had their own guitars and were also learning to follow along as well as sing harmony with Billy on those songs.

It was about 1959 when the Chambers cousins started visiting drummer, Jon Corneal's house after school and had the first makings of a band. After coming in second in a Junior High School talent show the guys added some other local talent to the line-up and that band became"The Dynamics".

The first "bass" the Dynamics had was Gerald's Airline (Mongomery Ward) guitar, with the strings tuned down a half an octave. This made for very loose tension on the strings and required a light touch in order to be played in tune. Aaron Hancock, was the designated bass player at the time, but never did quite get the feel for those loose strings. While making an audition tape to try and get jobs for the group, Gerald traded the rhythm guitar chores to Aaron and the rest is history. A bassist was born.

The Dynamics played sock-hops, teen centers, etc. and made several appearances on "Hi-Time", a weekly "live" dance program on WFLA television in Tampa. That group at various times included Buddy Canova on sax, Ray Lee on drums, Randy Green on piano, and Bobby Braddock on piano.

In 1962, while the Dynamics were rehearsing at the Auburndale Teen Center, Gram Parsons showed up for a rehearsal with some musicians he had recently been playing with and introduced himself. He told them he really liked their sound, and the guys invited him to come and sit in on a gig at the Tiger's Den, a teen club in Cocoa Beach.

One thing led to another and Gram soon asked Gerald and Jon to join the Legends, a group he had with Jimmy Stafford. A couple of the guys in the group had graduated high school and were leaving. Gerald and Jon both agreed and the the Legends played together, in that configuration, for about a year. Gram immediately bought Gerald his first "real" bass, a cherry red Gibson EB0. They played all around the state of Florida and often played the more prestigious gigs that the affluent Gram Parsons had access to. But when Gram failed the eleventh grade at Winter Haven High School, he was sent to Bowles Academy in Jacksonville to repeat his junior year. When Parsons left the group, it soon disbanded.

In 1963, soon after Gerald left the Legends, the Starfires (the band that Gerald's cousin Carl had been playing with) asked him to come sit in on a gig they were playing at the Bartow Teen Center. At the end of that evening, Gerald was asked to join the group on a permanent basis, and that began a musical relationship that would last for almost a decade.

Gerald covered the state of Florida and parts of Georgia with the Starfires playing at frat parties, teen clubs, and youth centers. They did recording sessions at Criteria Studios in Miami and Bee-Jay Studios in Orlando as well as a couple of other less memorable facilities. But success on the national level seemed always, just out of reach.

In mid 1967 Gram Parsons returned to Winter Haven for a visit. While here he tried earnestly to persuade Gerald and drummer Jon Corneal, to return to Los Angeles with him to perform and record with the International Submarine Band. Gram had this idea that, with the I.S.B., he could combine country music with rock and roll. Although intrigued with the idea, Gerald was ultimatly afraid that Gram might leave him stranded in a far away place and decided to pass on the opportunity. That decision turned out to be eerily prophetic. Corneal took Gram up on his offer and shortly followed him back to California. Before I.S.B.s album "Safe At Home" was released, Gram had left the group and joined the Byrds.

Gerald continued to perform with the Starfires and an offshoot group Cinnamon until they finally broke up in the early 1970s.

Also in the early seventies, Gerald took a job with International Paper Company that had a large corrugated box plant there in Auburndale. Always the astute business man, he rose to the position of plant Sales Service Manager in a short period of time, while often moonlighting in area lounges with the group Matanzas and later doing week-end one nighters and lounges with the group Dizzy Rambler. He was also doing a lot of recording session work for Len Walls, one of the owner, producer, engineers of Central Sound Studio which was also located in Auburndale.

It was in 1978 that Jesse had to once again make a serious career decision. Carl told him that he had been approached by Howard and David Bellamy, who were looking to put together a road and recording band. They had had a #1 pop hit with "Let Your Love Flow" a couple of years prior. The Brothers remembered the Chambers cousins performing with the Starfires at the Dade City Teen Center (near where they lived) during the sixties. Carl was persuasive and soon Jesse Chambers on bass, Carl Chambers on guitar, Rodney Price on drums, Dannie Jones on Steel guitar and John Lafrandre on keyboards started eight weeks of daily rehearsals. They put the show on stage for the first time on September 1, 1978 at the "Beer Barrel" in San Antonio, Florida.

Jesse was the bass player and road manager for the brothers and played on four Bellamy Brothers albums that yeilded six number one hits.

While on a European tour with the Bellamys in 1980, as the opening act for Emmylou Harris, Jesse became friends with Emmylou's muli-instrumentalist and harmony singer, Ricky Skaggs. Ricky was then negotiating a recording deal with CBS and was looking to put together his own group to tour and record. In early 1981, Jesse and drummer Rodney Price left the Bellamy's and started work with Skaggs. Jesse also managed to get Mickey Merritt, another Auburndale native and Central Sound comrad, the job as pianist and harmony singer with Skaggs. The original Ricky Skaggs Band was:

Rodney Price - drums / Jesse Chambers - bass / Bruce Bouton - steel guitar /
Bobby Hicks - fiddle / Ray Flack - lead guitar / Mickey Merritt - piano and harmony vocals

Jesse was also Skaggs' road and personal manager, being responsible for just about everything except booking the jobs.

He played on several Ricky Skaggs albums, including Highways and Heartaches, Country Boy, Live in London, Comin' Home to Stay, and Love's Gonna Get Ya - that yeilded numerous number one and top five hits, as well as toured every corner of the world.

In July of 1989 Jesse Chambers quit the Skaggs organization and came back home to Auburndale. Something happened that "turned my whole life around," said Chambers. That something was when he met his wife, Denise.