This publication is dedicated to the band Grand Theft/Bluebird and it’s members. Phil is the only remaining surviving member of the bands. May Dave Baroh and Kevin Marin rest in peace.

When and where were you born? Are you originally from Mercer Island, Washington? What was growing up like for you?

I was born in San Mateo CA on July 26, 1949. Nope… California until I was a year old. Then my parents moved to Bellevue Washington. As mentioned, I arrived in Washington at a year old. I spent the next six years in Bellevue before my brother and I were sent to England to live with my grandparents. We were there for a little over a year before coming back to the states. That’s when we moved to Mercer Island.

When did you first become interested in music and what was the first instrument you learned to play? What was your local music scene like?

My mother was a big lover of classical music and show tunes so I always had music playing while growing up. I didn’t really play any musical instruments until I started on drums in 1964. Locally, pre-Beatles, there were a number of dance bands who were pretty good… The Sonics, The Wailers, The Galaxies, The Dynamics, The Frantics and so on. Post Beatles it sort of exploded with tons of start up bands with guys just learning to play their instruments. Nobody cared though, they just wanted live music because most dances were just someone playing records on the school PA systems. It was a pretty exciting time. There was sort of the same explosion in the 90’s with the Seattle sound only this time, these guys were exceptionally talented and really knew how to play. Kind of a watershed time for music.

Where would you go to see bands perform and who were among some of the first groups you saw live? When did it dawn on you that music was something you wanted to pursue?

There were a couple of venues that had live music in the early days [pre Beatles] like The Spanish castle and Parkers Ballroom where teens could go. Obviously bars and taverns were out and they didn’t really offer live music anyway. I saw The Wailers once and The Dynamics, but that was about it. The first of the British Invasion bands I saw were The Dave Clarke Five and The Rolling Stones. I also saw The Beach Boys. I was in 9th grade with my best friends Dave Baroh and Marc Connelly when the Beatles hit so we, like everyone else decided that this was for us. Dave got a guitar and I got a set of drums from Sears [of all places] and we set out to learn how to play. Marc scrounged up a bass from somewhere but he had to keep it at Dave’s house because his parents didn’t want him to have anything to do with music [or Dave, who was pretty much a rebel. I think they just tolerated me because I was fairly quiet].

Prior to Grand Theft, you guys were called Bluebird, correct?

That’s true, however Grand Theft was never a continuation of Bluebird. Grand Theft was a one shot deal and was subordinate to Bluebird. It was meant as a satire on the heavy metal groups of the day. We took aim at Grand Funk Railroad and their song “Closer To Home”. Our official original name was Grand Theft Auto and our song was “Closer To Herfys” [Herfys being a burger chain in the area]. When Grand Funk dropped Railroad, we dropped Auto. Bluebird was before, during, and after Grand Theft, and it was only Dave Baroh, Kevin Marin, and me. John Soltero, our lead guitarist in Bluebird, had the good sense to want nothing to do with it.

How did you initially meet your bandmates Dave Baroh and Kevin Marin?

I first met Dave in 7th grade. We had a couple of classes together. He was a transfer student from Seattle [this was Mercer Island, a suburb of Seattle] and for some reason, we just hit it off. At that time we were kind of polar opposites. I was crew cut, read books, and liked school. He was pompadour, take no prisoners, remedial student, but there was an immediate connection. I guess we kind of knew we had roads to travel together. Hard to explain. Dave and I met Kevin at a Battle of the Bands audition. Dave and I were in a group called The Banned and Kevin was in a group with his brother Kim called The Loose Chippens. We played right before them and I guess we impressed them with harmonies and kind of rough appearance [we were one of the few who didn’t wear uniforms]. They impressed us with their harmonies and musicianship. After they played, Kim, Kevin, Dave and I hung out and watched some of the other groups perform. The beginning of a lifelong friendship for all four of us.

What led to the decision to start a band in the first place and what inspired the name?

After high school, our band broke up. I wanted to go to college and so started working for a bank to get money for tuition. I lost touch with Dave for a while. I guess he drifted in and out of a few groups, but nothing serious. During my first semester at college, I got a call from Dave asking if I would like to play drums for a group he was putting together with Kevin. As I’d just started school again, I wasn’t sure if I wanted to give it up. Dave was pretty persuasive and so 10 seconds after he asked, I said yes. Dave came up with the name Bluebird from a Steven Stills song.

When did the band form and how old were you at the time?

Bluebird was initially formed in late ’68 [like December] but didn’t really start until ’69. I was 19 at the time.

Bluebird at KOL Sunbust at the Westlake Mall circa: 1970.

Can you tell me about those early jams and where you guys would rehearse?

Bluebird rehearsed in a lot of places, Dave’s parent’s, Kevin’s parent’s, an old warehouse in downtown Seattle and finally in a building in Bellevue owned by Dave’s dad [which we were making some spare money painting different offices]. It was in this last place that Grand Theft was born. John had left after a practice and we were just fooling around shooting the breeze talking music etc. We talked about how these headbanger groups seemed to just throw anything together and come up with records. At that point we sort of just said how easy it was and started jamming using my old two track Sony tape recorder. We pretended we were doing a concert and just let the tape roll. Some of those tapes ended up on the Grand Theft CD [which I wish hadn’t as they were boring, but…]

Bluebird. Phil, John Soltero, Dave Baroh, and Kevin Marin.

Bluebird at the Mural Amphitheater at the Seattle Center. This was John's last gig with the band.

What commonalities did you share with the other guys? What carved out the band’s particular tone and approach to music?

We were all huge Byrds fans and kind of patterned our sound after theirs. Of course The Beatles played a big role in our sound, too. We were very much into harmonies and meaningful [to us] songs. You have to remember this was during the height of the Viet Nam War/Civil Rights era and things were pretty tense. We tried to stay away from too many political songs, but we did do things like Neil Young’s Southern Man. We started doing country rock when The Byrds had switched over, but we still did other tunes as well.

Dave and Phil live at the Mural Amphitheater.

What was the over goal and vision for the band at the time?

To be rock stars, what else? Actually we were looking to get some of our originals recorded and maybe get some air play which would have led to more work.

Benefit gig live at Parker’s supporting Floating Bridge when they got all their equipment ripped off.

When and where was the first show you guys played and what was that experience like for you?

Grand Theft only ever played live once. In another article it was said to be at a place called Gold Creek Park. Actually it was at a small tavern called The old Town Tavern in Bellevue, Washington. We were doing a Bluebird gig and decided that we would do a Grand Theft set [which, of course, John sat out]. I think it kind of shocked the audience. I’m not sure they knew who we were. It was the last set so we just cut loose. As for Bluebird, our first real concert was as one of two local groups that opened for Joe Cocker on his first US tour. It was where we hooked up with our future manager/producer Burl Barer. We did a version of Dylan’s I Shall Be released which he said blew him away. Apparently it blew away Joe Cocker, too. It was one of the songs he was going to do in his show that night, but he 86d it that night because he thought ours was so much better… Go figure.

Bluebird live at the Mutual Amphitheater.

Did you guys already have original material under your belt at this point, or were you doing covers and things of that nature? What was the band’s process in terms of writing/approaching music?

Grand Theft only did originals. We were, as GT, too undisciplined to learn anything and only did what came off the top of our heads. In fact, the only planned tune, and that was pretty much ad libbed, was Closer To Herfys. Bluebird did mostly covers and a few originals. We were a tavern/concert group with the occasional HS dance thrown in. Wasn’t much call for original stuff. As I mentioned, Grand Theft didn’t have the discipline to write anything. It was all stream of [un]consciousness. Bluebird originals were mainly written by Dave, Kevin and me. John had one or two collaborations but they were important. His musicianship added a lot to the basic tunes we wrote.

You guys self-released the LP and single in ‘72. Can you tell me about writing as well as recording those tunes, more specifically ‘Scream (It’s Eating Me Alive)’ and ‘Closer To Herfy’s’? What was the writing and recording process for that single? When and where did you guys lay those tracks down and how long was that particular process? You guys recorded a full length record as well. Can you tell me about that?

Once upon a time… Wait, that’s a different story. The Grand Theft saga kinda goes like this: As I mentioned before the whole Grand Theft thing came about after we had finished a practice and John had left. After some initial bitching about how unfair it seemed that some groups just threw together some chords and inane lyrics and had hit records, we started a tape rolling and jammed pretending we were doing a concert. Sometime shortly after we were hanging out at our favorite radio station and mentioned to one of the DJ’s our little concert tape and the reasons behind it. He listened to the tape and thought the whole thing was hilarious. He took the tape and mixed in the applause track from the Woodstock album so it sounded like a real concert. We all had a great laugh over it. He played the mixed tape to our manager Burl Barer who also loved it. A few weeks later after one of our gigs, the band and Burl, were sitting at a Denny’s at 4:00am. The subject of the tape came up and we started spitballing ideas for some songs on the back of Denny’s napkins.

The song Closer to Home came up and we decided that ‘burger rock’ would be the new ‘in thing’ and wrote down the title Closer To Herfy’s. Cut to a few weeks/months[?] later. Burl had booked some studio time for Bluebird to record five of our originals as a demo tape; a bluegrass instrumental by John, Flying Blind by Dave, L.A. Smog by the whole band, Goin’ Down by Kevin and me, and Legions by me and Kevin. After a long and pretty exhausting session, John packed up and left [as was his wont to do]. That left Burl, the engineer Rick Kieffer, Chet Tozer our roadie, Dave Kevin, and me. Burl came into the studio and said we had some time left and we should record some hits. How Chet came up with the opening for Scream I’ll never know but it was a moment of brilliance. After that, we just cut loose. It was all off the cuff and all done in one take. Closer To Herfy’s was ad libbed from start to finish [as were all the songs] but it was the only one that had any semblance of planning in that it was only one that had a title. We were all pretty wrecked before we started because of the long days work on the demo so this was kind of cathartic. Burl took the tape and had it pressed as an album and a single. And the rest is, as they say, history.

What was the first order of business once the single and LP was released in ‘72? Did you guys do a tour, or play a string of shows to support the records?

The only follow up to the release of the album was doing a couple promos for it. One was a signing session at a chain store that Burl had managed to talk one of the reps from the stores into and a contest arranged, again by Burl, through his radio station [he was a popular DJ on that station] called ‘Win a dream date with Grand Theft’ which involved bringing in the winners to the studio and feeding them Herfy burgers and doing a bit of jamming. There was no tour, no shows, save the one we did at the tavern mentioned before. It was never meant to be taken seriously.

Did it manage to get any airtime on the local radio(s), or anything of that nature? What eventually happened to the group around this time? Bluebird went on to play till ‘73. Did you guys just decide to hang up the hat for both outfits?

It may have been played once or twice as a promo for the contest but, other than that, no. Grand Theft just kind of went into obscurity because it was never meant to be anything other than satire. It wasn’t meant to be taken seriously. We did a sort of follow up recording a year, or so later, but it didn’t have the energy or the creativity. The original Grand Theft was the epitome of the one hit wonder. Trying to recapture what was essentially a magic moment in time was never going to happen. Sometime after the demo session John left the group. We got another lead guitarist, but he wasn’t really happy with the group or with playing rock and roll. He left and Kevin left with him. They started another group with Kevin’s brother Kim playing lounges Dave and I did a group called Bluebird II which lasted a few months. We then hooked up with a couple of other players in a band called Nash Rambler. After a pretty interesting gig in Ketchikan Alaska, Dave called it quits. And so ends the saga.

Did you continue to play music? If so, who with and what were some of those projects you participated in?

I did a short stint with another group whose name escapes me, but I was pretty fed up by then. Everyone wanted to play lounges and do soft rock/disco. I was a dyed in the wool balls to the wall rocker. I didn’t fit in. I went back to work in a banks computer center doing item processing.

What do you think of folks still finding your music to this day after all these years? What do you think about the legacy of Bluebird/Grand Theft and what you guys left behind?

It’s kind of weird. I found out a few years ago that Grand Theft even had a following in Europe! I guess it’s every rockers dream to be remembered. The legacy of Bluebird/Grand Theft is, for me, Dave and Kevin. I really miss those guys. The music and memories we made was something not everyone gets to experience. I think there was a bonding that went beyond just normal friendship. Those were magical years for us. I wouldn’t trade that time for any amount of money.

Is there anything else you would like to further share with the readers?

I think I’ve bored the readers long enough.

Dakota Brown

Phil Klitgaard - Grand Theft/Bluebird

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