Larry Lawson

Larry Lawson was born in 1945 in Port Arthur, Texas, where his father worked at the local Tex-aco refinery. "Working in the refinery," says Lawson, "was about the only job in town, unless you went into business for yourself. A few years after I was born, my father did just that. He left his refinery job to become part owner of a gas station, and we lived in a little house across the street."

Lawson's father may have been an owner of the station, but he also served as the mechanic. The family lived on a strict budget, and by 1950, when Lawson was five, his father was able to purchase a garage on four acres. The family lived in a house on the property, next door to the garage. Eight years later, Lawson's father built an auto parts store next to the garage. Lawson's mother sometimes helped in the store, but her main concern was for her children. "I had a brother who was 12 years older than me," says Lawson. "By the time I started school, he went into the Marines and fought in the Korean War. So we didn't have a close relationship. My sis-ter, who was 10 years older than me, was born with spina bifida. She spent her life in a wheel-chair. My mother would go over to the store to help my father, and then run back to the house to check on my sister, who never attended school. In those days, there were no programs or facilities available to help with her education."

The situation with his family left Lawson on his own much of the time, along with his own chal-lenges to manage. At the age of six, he began to limp due to the incorrect development of his hip socket. As a result, he was fitted for a leg brace, which he had to wear for the next six years.

"I was an active boy, so this was very difficult for me to accept," says Lawson. "The brace was bulky, and I had to wear short pants to accommodate it, making the thing very obvious to oth-ers. The kids in school shunned me and bullied me for years. I finally went to my father to ask how to deal with the bullying. He told me I had to fight back, but he also saw that I needed to build up my self-confidence. He told me to drink as much milk as I could to make my bones stronger. Whether that worked or not, it made me believe I was actually stronger. He was my biggest encourager and told me I could be anything I wanted to be. He also told me something I never forgot. He said, '˜Son, life is like a car battery. You have to have a positive and negative force for it to work. So for every negative thing that comes into your life, you are going to have to find a positive thing that can come out of it.'"

Since much of Lawson's outdoor play was curtailed by his leg brace, his parents thought it would be a good idea to encourage him in music. They bought a piano, which he immediately loved. He developed a passion for rock and roll and by the age of 10 began writing music. His daydreams were full of tunes and lyrics, and at 12 he went about the complicated business of copyrighting several of his songs. It then became a major goal of his to record a record. He con-tacted a recording studio in Beaumont, which recommended a local band that could play with him. He made all the arrangements and then asked his father to drive him to the studio. "I made the record," he says, "but I never did anything with it. It was just for my own satisfaction. I had 10 copies made, which was all I could afford."

In the sixth grade, Lawson was finally able to remove his leg brace permanently. By then, he had been competing on televised talent shows, and winning. "With the brace gone and my ex-posure on TV, my peers starting to think I was sort of cool," he says. "I played keyboard, trum-pet, and clarinet. I was in concert band, jazz band, and marching band. In fact, my mother was hired as the school's band manager, and all the instruments were stored at our house. I eventu-ally taught myself to play all the instruments. I was still writing songs, and I even wrote songs for student council campaigns and sang at rallies. My social life was greatly improved, and I loved what I was doing with music."

When Lawson was 16, he formed a band with Johnny and Edgar Winter, who went on to be-come rock/jazz icons in the 1970s and 80s. He played with them off and on for the next three years, including his first year at Lamar University in Beaumont, Texas, where he received a mu-sic scholarship. As a music major, he played in several school bands and also served as a church organist. Two years later, he decided music might not be a long-term, practical career and changed his major to accounting. By then, he formed a new band called The Clique. During his junior year, Lawson's band, which he managed, was building a solid reputation, and their full schedule made it impossible to keep up with his schoolwork. He had to make a choice: either complete his degree or give his full attention to a professional music career. He went with his passion.

The Clique got a recording contract with Scepter Records and became the opening band for well-known bands of the day, such as The Association, Dave Clark 5, The Mysterians, and Paul Revere and the Raiders. The Clique's first and only album featured several songs that made it into the Billboard Top 20 nationwide. But by 1969, at age 24, Lawson had become disenchanted with the music industry. "I had to associate with some unsavory people, and I wasn't convinced there was longevity in a rock and roll career," he says. "Well, look at Mick Jagger, so you could say I was wrong about that. But for me, I decided it was time to leave and pursue a business career."