Biography
Big riffs, harmony vocals, and finger-lickin good melodies. This be Big Jim Slade.
Believe it or not, all four members of Big Jim Slade have known each other since before they could sprout a whisker.
Chris and Clay grew up together in Paducah, KY cruising in Clay's Camaro, listening to KISS, Cheap Trick, Rush, and all things rock, while making their own in the garage. Meanwhile, Rob and Jon were 20 minutes down the road in Benton, KY watching "Live at El Mocambo" most every night, blasting Trouble cassettes in the Cutlass and playing Hendrix and Zeppelin covers in the basement.
All four knew each other, and also knew that Western Kentucky wasnt exactly a hotbed for original rock music at the time, so all four eventually landed in Nashville, TN and created Big Jim Slade in 1997.
Since then, Big Jim Slade has released four albums; Plant Life in 1998 (OUT OF PRINT)(GOKAW), Big Jim Slade (GOKAW) in 2000, Pacify The Herd (Bitter Artist) in 2002, and "This is delicious."(GOKAW) in 2008.
Along the way, the band has played hundreds of shows, won a Citysearch.com Battle of the Bands, an Ernie Ball Battle of the Bands, performed at shindigs like SXSW, Atlantis, Bonnaroo (2008 w/EARS), played the Vans Warped Tour 2003 in Atlanta, were a featured artist on a MP3.com/Heineken Compilation CD (250,000 copies distributed in U.S.), etc.
Big Jim Slade is also host/backing band of a popular Live Band Karaoke show at Mercy Lounge in Nashville, TN, called "Everybody's a Rockstar" (aka EARS).
Big Jim Slade has shared bills with artists such as Raging Slab, King's X, Robert Bradley's Blackwater Surprise, OkGo, Kevin Kinney, Nonpoint, Impotent Sea Snakes, Bare Jr., Drive-By Truckers, Bonepony, Hermano, Taildragger, Supafuzz, Deathray Davies, Centromatic, etc.
Instrumentation
Jonathan Sirls (Guitar & Vocals)
Chris Belt (Guitar & Vocals)
Robert Sirls (Bass & Vocals)
Clay Fuqua (Drums)
Discography
BIG JIM SLADE - THIS IS DELICIOUS. (GOKAW) 2008
BIG JIM SLADE - PACIFY THE HERD (Bitter Artist)2002
BIG JIM SLADE - BIG JIM SLADE (GOKAW)2000
BIG JIM SLADE - PLANT LIFE (GOKAW) 1998
www.myspace.com/bigjimslademusic
www.bigjimslade.com