KENNY OLSON

Instrument: Guitar
Date of Birth:
From: Detroit, Michigan

WHAT THE KID SAYS:

"Kenny is one of the best guitar players that I've ever come in contact with, and sometimes it's hard to talk to him when he can't complete a sentence. Kenny is one of the oldest members; he's like a brother to me. The whole band is like a family. It's actually nice to have a band where we all still hang out and we enjoy each other's company and if we ever yell at each other it's like a brother/sister thing."

BIO:

Kenny Olson grew up in Royal Oak and Birmingham.

Kenny is one of those guys seemingly designed by God to be a guitar player.

"It's all I've done my whole life," says the soft-spoken musician. "It's all I know how to do."

Olson got serious with the six-string when he was 10; during his formative teen years, he was 100 percent pure Detroit rocker. "It was all about driving around Woodward in muscle cars, listening to the Stooges, Bob Seger and Black Sabbath."

Olson went on to a stint on the LA rock scene. After the '94 earthquake destroyed his apartment, Olson was on the road when it hit, he headed back to Michigan, working with his own Kenny Olson Band and such scene veterans as Scott Asheton.

He ran into Kid Rock at a local club two years later; their parents were good friends. The rapper had begun tinkering with his sound, experimenting with new song structures and rock sonics, and he wanted to sample some of Olson's work.

That growing interest in the rock-rap blend turned into a live band. And Olson was in.

"I had always appreciated what he'd done as a front man," says Olson. "Where he wanted to go with the music was right in line with me, it called for a groove, but it called for you to rock out too. I knew it was a career move for the long haul."

Kenny Olson's new band "The Flask" release their new album "A Match in the Gas Tank" in 2006 featuring the songs "Shuck 'N Jive", "Gold Rush" and "Dark Moon".

QUOTES ABOUT KENNY:

"Kenny Olson was very important to my father. My father considered Kenny to be like a son and I consider him to be my brother. Kenny Olson is one of the few guitarists out there who actually captured the spirit of my brother versus trying to copy him. My father recognized that immediately. Kenny is the real thing and like my brother he is a giver."
Janie Hendrix (sister of Jimi Hendrix)

"Those of us who play the guitar both young and old know Kenny Olson."
Eric Clapton

"As for Kenny Olson, Jimi would have loved him. Kenny is quiet like Jimi was; he doesnt seek the spotlight for himself. He lets his guitar speak for him. In musical circles Kenny Olson is known as the cat that plays with Kid Rock, not for him."
Carlos Santana

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