From rock ‘n’ roll to Spokane Valley: Brit’s long career included playing in pubs, rubbing elbows with greats in music scene

Music is in John Travers’ blood. He dedicated decades of his life to touring England playing in pubs with various bands and has opened for the Rolling Stones, Moody Blues and the Yardbirds. Now that he’s given up performing, he’s turned his attention to songwriting.

Travers built a tiny soundproof recording studio in his garage. Until then his neighbors in the Coyote Rocks development in Spokane Valley had no idea of his musical chops. That’s mostly because Travers doesn’t talk about his time on tour much.

“Brits, we don’t talk about ourselves,” he said. “We’re private.”

Travers said he didn’t really open for the Rolling Stones and other big bands. His band opened for the band that opened for the Rolling Stones.

“We were the beginning band,” he said.

When he was 18, one of his friends suggested they go listen to a guitarist practice. His name was Jimmy Page. At the time he wasn’t a big name, but he would go on to perform with the Yardbirds and found Led Zeppelin.

“He was a very, very young man, and I was blown away by him,” Travers said.

Travers and his friend would also listen to a young Mick Jagger practice.

“That was a lot of fun,” he said. “That was my introduction to it. So we formed our own little band.”

At that time all the pubs had live music, so it was easy to go on tour.

“We played the pubs and clubs all over London,” he said.

Travers worked in an upscale clothing store when he wasn’t on tour. Eventually, his band became the resident band at the Madingley Pub in Richmond. It was a lifestyle that Travers could sustain because he was single, but often as musicians got married they would drop out of the band.

“We were constantly changing,” he said.

When he was the last band member standing, Travers joined the Gates of Eden until they, too, disbanded. He was set to audition for a new band as a keyboardist. The problem was, Travers was a guitar and bass player. But his brother knew how to play the keyboard and offered to teach him. He practiced between 14 and 17 hours a day every day for three weeks, but to no avail. He didn’t get the gig.

“At that stage, I decided, ‘I can’t keep doing this,’” he said.

He took a job in the British Airways cargo center and set about seeing the world with the free tickets he was allowed to use as an airline employee. Each month he’d get a four-day weekend, and he’d use a few vacation days to stretch his time off to a week, then jet off to a new destination.

“I used to fly to San Francisco for 19 bucks,” he said. “All you had to pay was the tax.”

He spent about four years with the airline, then moved on in what would become a pattern.

“After four years for some reason I get an itch,” he said.

He ran the Macy’s clothing department in Oak Ridge, California, then was a clothing buyer in San Francisco. He worked for Nordstrom for many years in various roles. He also worked for Brooks Brothers before he retired.

Travers spent many years living in California, where he liked living near the ocean and being on the beach. But he began developing skin cancer lesions, and his doctor recommended he move. His wife, Janet, had family, including grandchildren, in Spokane, so the couple moved here three years ago.

“Janet wanted to be a grandma, and I wanted to get out of the sun,” he said.

Travers knows how to play the keyboard now. He can summon the sounds of a full band with just a few touches on the keyboard. His left hand brings forth the bass, drums and melody while the right hand produces sounds from other instruments.

“It would take 15 guys to reproduce what one of those keyboards can do,” he said. “You have multiple choices of instruments and beats.”

The songs he has written are inspired by musicians he looks up to, including Eric Clapton, who Travers calls his favorite guitarist.

“He’s so adaptable,” Travers said.

He gravitates toward musicians who give their whole heart to their music. Elton John is a “master,” he said. “Pink Floyd is my all-time favorite band.”

Travers has put together two albums of songs he’s written. He sings and performs on the keyboards on all of them, but insists that he’s not a singer.

“I never considered myself a singer or even a musician,” he said. “I think of myself as a writer. I use music as a vehicle for the words.”

The style of the songs is mixed. Several are country, and Travers said he thinks they’d be perfect for Blake Shelton. He once sent a demo to the television show The Voice, where Shelton is a judge, and has been invited to audition for the show. But Travers said he has no interest in performing on stage anymore. He just wants to sell his songs.

“I don’t have the technical or vocal skills to back it up,” he said. “I’m too short to sound like John Wayne.”

His wife, however, insists that Travers has a good voice, one that perfectly fits his songs.

“He doesn’t think he has the voice, but I think he does,” she said.

Travers acknowledges he often sells himself short, even when he shouldn’t.

“I’m my own worst enemy,” he said.

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Nina Culver can be reached at nculver47@gmail.com