By Brynna Breen
It’s 1964, the era of the British Invasion, the era of rock’n’roll, and the era of Brits coming to America with a guitar and a dream. You’re a little 7-year-old named Gary Swinard, living in Ashford, England, about an hour-and-a-half southeast of London. Your parents buy you a guitar. So what do you do with it?
Well, you soon join a band. And over the course of your teenage years, you end up following music as your life’s calling, tour several countries and states, open for big bands and acts, and eventually settle in Wood County, Texas, of course!
Yesterday
Gary Swinard was 7 years old when his parents bought him his first guitar. It may have only cost them 7 British pounds at the time—worth about $250 in today’s U.S. dollars—but the money would not have been easy to come by. “I was a child growing up in the war-torn ‘50s, after the war,” Swinard said. “So, you know, we didn’t have anything.”
Gary had never had even one guitar lesson, but at the age of 11, he met a friend who taught him how to play it. Within a year, the lad joined his first band, The Young Ones, as the 12-year-old guitarist. Why was it called “The Young Ones?” It was a literal title—every other band member was 13 years old or less, too.
“We had a drummer who was 11, I was 12, and the two others were 13. So, average age of around 13. So that was that,” Swinard said.
By the time he was 15, Swinard’s skill had progressed so much that his brother—then 18 years old—asked him to come join his band instead. So Gary left The Young Ones to be the rhythm guitar player for his brother’s band. Soon, music was much more than a hobby—to Gary, it became a calling.
“During my teenage years, my guitar was central to my life and influenced many aspects of my personal development. The guitar was like part of my soul,” Swinard writes on his website.
Believe it or not, at that age of 15, Swinard was already making his way in the music scene; it was at that age that he opened for several well-known bands like Long John Baldry. “It still seems fictional, but it was very real,” Swinard noted. “It was like an apprenticeship, if you will; there you are, 15, and you’re playing with The Kinks, you’re playing with Deep Purple!”
Over the next several decades, Swinard ended up traveling to several different countries around the world, joining a handful of different bands, going on tour, and opening for many famous acts. Over the course of his 62 years in music, Swinard says that he played at the Lord Mayor of London’s Ball, The Ritz Carlton, the Savoy, Disneyland Paris, and so many more. He traveled to several different countries across Europe and in many places across America. He even opened for acts like Genesis (albeit an early version), Fleetwood Mac, The Tremolos, the Kinks, The Fortunes, Deep Purple, and so many more. How these opportunities came to be, and other details, are available in his recently-published book, “Guitar Man: A Guitar Man’s Life Journey.”
A Day in the Life
Swinard has not just retired, written a book, and kicked back. No, in fact, in addition to having published his book, Swinard is highly involved in his current band, Live N’ Kickn, which plays classic rock (Swinard’s specialty), country, and more in gigs all across East Texas. To see where his latest gig is, follow the band’s Facebook page.
“I never thought I would (still be touring), to be honest with you,” Swinard said. “(But) it’s in your heart, it’s in your passion. You know, I can’t sit still.”
Of course, he has the book as well, which is available on Amazon in Kindle, paperback, or hardback formats, and on his website as an audiobook (which is narrated by Swinard himself, who has also dabbled in voiceovers).
So, why write his book? Because he wanted to make his story known, yes, but Swinard largely wrote it for an altruistic reason. “I wanted to share my story, as many of you may identify your life with some of my life’s experiences. You are not alone in this department,” he writes on his website. “I think the stories in there, which are all true, people might be able to identify their own problems with, and maybe say, ‘Yes, I’ve been there,’ or ‘I’m going through there,’ etc.”
In My Life
All this, of course, is just the short version—the introduction to the album of Swinard’s life. In truth, Swinard will be the first to tell you that he has lived a “roller coaster” of a life. “It’s been interesting,” he said.
From intense personal struggles, to the drama and “backstage” stories of the music industry, to the heights of happiness that have come from doing what he loves, Swinard has done a little bit of it all. Of all the things Swinard has lived through, one of his greatest joys has been to watch his daughter Gemma O’Loughlin—an opera singer who trained partially at the Conservatoire in Strasbourg, France—also became a singer, and even band member. His face lights up with fatherly pride as he talks about her.
“She called me up (one day),” he said. “She said, ‘Dad! Guess what? I’ve joined a rock band!’ Then she said something really heartening to me: ‘Now I understand.’ “She’s absolutely…amazing,” he continued.
With the recent addition of Swinard’s granddaughter to the musical arena, and of his dad back in the 1950s, music now runs at least four generations strong in Swinard’s family.
Swinard is big on community, his family (such as Robbin, his wife of 25 years), and his friends. To him, that’s part of what makes music so worthwhile—the way it brings people together. In fact, nothing made that more obvious than one of his most recent gigs, for which he had to fly back home overseas to England and play with some of his old band members.
“All the people—this is really what made me so happy—all the people that came, which were several hundred, came to see me; but what was wonderful was that they hadn’t seen each other or the audiences for years,” he said with a meaningful smile. “So, it was like a huge reunion! I saw my school friends that I hadn’t seen for 50 years, and likewise! All the people—male and female, my age, younger—came together. “(It was a) huge reunion, and that meant more to me than doing my stuff on stage; more to see them all be together. That was the most beautiful thing, for me.”
Swinard is acutely aware of how unusual it is, from an outsider’s perspective, to see or hear a British person in Wood County, Texas. In fact, he mentioned that, in “Guitar Man,” he has set aside a glossary of “British-isms” to “translate” himself to his American readers.
”Of course, the accent—which I haven’t lost, and I don’t put it on, either—always makes people perk their ears up (and say), ‘You from England??’” he joked in an American accent. “You ask Robbin, I can’t go anywhere (without someone pointing it out)!” he added with a hearty laugh.
He doesn’t mind the differences, though. Gary Swinard may have grown up British, lived in Florida, and now made his happy home in Wood County, but there’s a little bit of each of them in him now. He’s proud to be here, and proud still to be making music. To find Gary Swinard’s music and see what he’s all about, visit YouTube, Spotify, Amazon, iTunes, or many other platforms.