Sage reunites to start a party on New Year’s Eve
“Party like a rock star.”
The meaning of that phrase was not lost on the members of Knoxville rock band Sage. Just over a quarter of a century ago, the band was on the cusp of making it to the big time when the golden age of spandex, big hair and stunning guitar solos came to an inglorious end. After conquering Knoxville and the Southeast, opening for Peter Frampton, Bad Company, Bon Jovi and other big names, the members of Sage were anticipating signing a contract with Sony Music and becoming national stars. However, the era of flannel shirts and no-star rock replaced their shiny rock ‘n’ roll dreams.
The band members have generally stuck to their promise to get together every five years to play and pay respects to fans, friends and a bygone era. After delaying for a year because of familial obligations, three of the members, guitarist Travis Wyrick, singer Doug Shock and drummer Vic Ilagen, along with local bass great Vince Ilagen (Vic’s younger brother), will convene on New Year’s Eve for a performance at the Square Room that will bring back all the swagger of the hair-metal days and that will fulfill the promise of one of the band’s most popular songs, “Get Your Party Started.”
Sitting at Wyrick’s Lakeside recording studio in West Knoxville, Wyrick and Shock say this will be the best Sage performance since the band officially ended.
“We’re definitely putting in more time and energy than any of the other reunions,” says Shock. “We’re trying to duplicate the rehearsal and practice intensity. We’d never be able to do it like we did in our 20s because that WAS our lives, but we’re not joking around. We’re going to show up and kick a**. That’s the standard. Travis [is] working with world class musicians every single day, so why get together and do this if we’re not going to kick a**?”
Wyrick is one member who did forge a successful career in music, producing tracks at Lakeside that have been Dove Award winners and Grammy nominees. He says the upcoming show will include a light show, top-rate sound production and more energy than the members have mustered in a long time.
“If we are going to do it, it can’t be a joke,” says Wyrick. “We’ve been practicing for months. I’ve been to the chiropractor four times!”
Formed in 1986, the band started, like many young acts, playing covers, but it quickly began writing originals, many of which became fan favorites. For the Square Room show, though, Sage will sprinkle in some cover favorites from the era.
One of the band’s biggest breaks was opening for Bad Company at the Knoxville Civic Auditorium in 1992. Both Wyrick and Shock say the show is their favorite memory of being in the band.
Originally scheduled opening act Tom Cochrane had his song “Life Is a Highway” going to No. 1 and asked for more money. Bad Company responded by dropping him on the day before the Knoxville concert. Bad Company management then called a local radio station (the two can’t remember if it was WIMZ or WOKI, both of which played Sage) and asked for “your most responsible rock band.”
At the venue, the group made sure they seemed like professionals, but waiting to go on stage at the Coliseum was dizzying.
“I was standing next to Billy Kidd of WIMZ,” says Shock. “It was the biggest high, the biggest rush, because of growing up and seeing all of our heroes at that venue, walking out at that moment …”
“That was even bigger than opening for Bon Jovi at Thompson-Boling,” says Wyrick. “Standing on stage at the Coliseum, where Randy Rhodes played his last show … Randy Rhodes was my favorite guitar player.”
Bad Company’s management was so happy with the group that they asked them to open in Little Rock, Arkansas, the next night. An initial offer to play the second leg of the tour fell through when just-formed metal supergroup Arcade took the slot at the last minute.
Much of the buzz about Sage was fueled by local radio. The two say then-influential WOKI DJs Brother Clay Gish (who now performs as comedian Gishelle) and Bob Anderson particularly helped the group. The band’s song “Think About Love” became the station’s most requested song for 13 weeks.
“Brother Clay had a lot of influence back in those days,” says Wyrick. “They had no business playing a local band, but he pulled a lot of weight. He did us a solid. This town helped us on so many levels.”
Intent on making the big time, probably no band in town practiced as much or tried as hard as Sage. They also partied like the stars they hoped to be. The booze and women seemed endless.
“People would come out to party with the band, make us dinner, buy us liquor and try to sleep with all of us,” says Wyrick.
The two say that, although it was on a smaller scale, it was not unlike what was depicted in the recent Motley Crue movie “The Dirt.”
“We weren’t into drugs,” says Wyrick. “I had gotten that out of my system by 17, but we out-drank everybody. … I remember flying down this five-lane, looking for a Taco Bell, he takes that bus and jerks that wheel, and we’re on two wheels. Beer cans flying everywhere. How no one died, we’ll never know.”
“And fireworks,” says Shock. “We were always playing with fireworks. We probably should’ve gone to jail. We set the gorgeously manicured boulevard at the Music City Marriott on fire.”
At that time, the band and crew normally had a school bus and a van in the entourage and would have battles with bottle rockets and roman candles while driving. On one particular tour, the band and crew had a rented van and Shock’s truck. On the way to Biloxi, Mississippi, Wyrick set himself ablaze.
“I had this great idea that I was just going to light a bag of jumping jacks and they would be bouncing around on the interstate,” says Wyrick. “I lit them, and the wind blew them back in, and that lit the bag of fireworks and that starts shooting at the driver. I dove in the back, and they’re trying to put me out. The guys in the truck said later, ‘We didn’t know WHAT was going on. We just saw red then green, red, green’ … I had a third-degree burn on my back.”
Just after the band self-released the 1994 album “State of Mind,” an executive from Sony in Atlanta became interested in the band and began negotiations to sign Sage to a Sony label.
The band was trying to come up with a power ballad, the ticket to national radio for rock bands at the time, when the executive told Sage she was going to check out bands in Seattle. A couple of months later, it was the Seattle bands that were getting signed, not Sage.
“It was apparent the winds of change were there,” says Wyrick. “She said, ‘It’s over. If you would have given me this record three and a half years ago, I would’ve thrown everything we had behind you. We’d have put you out [on tour] with Whitesnake, and we would’ve broken you. It’s all about timing. We can’t give away Whitesnake now, and that’s our biggest band. It’s over.’”
Vic Ilagen was already considering going back to college to complete his nursing degree, and Wyrick and Shock were doing some acoustic duo shows when the full rock show didn’t make sense.
“Instead of wondering when, the end just happened and we were smart enough to know,” says Wyrick. “It was a great run. We gave it our all, but we didn’t win. So we walked away with no regrets. We gave it a shot, but it’s all about timing.”
The band members announced their retirement while on tour at a show in Charleston, South Carolina, and gave a final performance at the Cumberland Avenue club The Library. The show lasted three and a half hours with no break.
“It was just a good time.” says Wyrick. “Rock had gotten silly, and I think grunge probably had better subject matter at the time and kind of had more of a social awareness that rock had gotten away from. I think rock just killed itself.”
The members, though, stayed close. And when the time comes to rock, they’re still ready.
“Vic has a fantastic quote that he’ll pull out from time to time,” says Shock. “We are ‘foxhole friends.’ We are the guys you want to have your back in a foxhole if you were in a battle. We’ll call it a battle for rock ‘n’ roll.”
bledsoe@blanknews.com
