Kentucky Headhunters concert kicks off Hall of Fame weekend at Renfro Valley

The timing was not coincidental.

Richard Young knew last spring that he wanted himself and his long-running country/rock/soul bandmates in the Kentucky Headhunters booked at Renfro Valley this year. He even knew the very weekend night the concert should take place — the last Friday of October.

The reason? The guitarist had discovered that Black Stone Cherry, a straight-ahead rock ‘n’ roll troupe co-founded by his son, drummer John Fred Young, was going to be inducted into the Kentucky Music Hall of Fame on the final Saturday of the month on the very same Renfro Valley stage.

Before we go further, just know there are several players named “John/Jonny,” “Fred” and “Young” in this story. That’s what happens when discussing family.

Okay, so here we are — the close of October, the waning days before Halloween. Get set for two generations of the Young family commandeering the same stage with very different agendas over the same weekend. Papa Young couldn’t be happier.

“Obviously, it’s no accident that we’re playing the night before he induction,” he said. “I knew Black Stone Cherry was going in. So I asked the Hall of Fame folks, ‘What night is that?’ They told me, so I called our booking agent and I said, ‘I want to play Renfro Valley on Friday night October 25th and I don’t want any date booked on that Saturday. That was back in the early spring, winter or something. I had to be there for that.”

But the pairing of a Kentucky Headhunters concert and Black Stone Cherry’s induction isn’t as simple as that, just as the entire weekend isn’t merely a father-son celebration. The Headhunters’ lineup has included brother Fred Young on drums and cousin Greg Martin ever since the release of the band’s debut album, the Grammy-winning “Pickin’ on Nashville” in 1989. Their performance alliance reaches back much further to the pre-Headhunters band Itchy Brother, making the trio a team for roughly 55 years. So the direct family lineage reads like this: Father Richard Young on guitar and brother/uncle Fred Young on drums for the Headhunters and son/nephew John Fred Young on drums for Black Stone Cherry.

It gets crazier. Over the summer, Fred Young was sidelined due to cardiac surgery. That meant drafting John Fred Young into the Headhunters as one of three replacements when Black Stone Cherry’s touring schedule permitted. Martin’s stepson and veteran Lexington musician Jonny McGee and Louisville drummer Cary Shields were the others. While Fred Young made his first post-surgery concert appearance with the Headhunters for a few songs earlier this month in Bowling Green, more recuperation time will be required before making a full-time return to the band.

“Since John Fred is getting inducted that next day, you can guess who’s going to be playing drums with us at Renfro Valley. Fred will be there for the show,” Young said. “He just won’t be able to play the whole 90-minute set. It will be John Fred doing the bulk of it.”

For Young — Richard, that is — this weekend marks the culmination of work with the two bands that have fortified his professional life.

For the Edmonton County-rooted Headhunters, it’s a home state return to showcase the loose and very electric variations of rock, country, blues and, at times, even swing that transformed rootsy chestnuts like Bill Monroe’s “Walk Softly on This Heart of Mine” and Don Gibson’s “Oh Lonesome Me” into jovial roadhouse anthems and forged a homespun country original, “Dumas Walker,” into a career defining hit. Martin and the Young brothers have been aboard since the band’s inception. Bassist/vocalist Doug Phelps is the comparative junior member, having served in the Headhunters a mere 36 years. And, yes, the band is also Kentucky Hall of Fame worthy, having been inducted in 2013.

“My brother is in the band, my cousin is in the band and Doug has been here so much that he’s like another cousin,” Young said, “We do what we do out of the love for music, but also just to be together. During COVID, we got to missing each other’s comradeship so much that we met up against doctor’s orders and did “That’s a Fact, Jack!,” our latest album (released in 2021.) Man, we had to do something after about eight months of just sitting around. That’s why we went in the studio in Glasgow and made a new album. We were just being realistic at the time. We were going, ‘This COVID is pretty bad stuff. Maybe we’ll never get to tour again or make another album. Let’s hope not.’ It really took a lot of the worries away from what was happening, you know?”

It was roughly two decades earlier when a high school-aged John Fred Young told his father that the urge to start his own band, the soon-to-be-rocking Black Stone Cherry, had hit. He asked permission for the new group to use the Practice House, the converted Edmonton farmhouse the Headhunters have long used as a wood-shedding space for writing, rehearsal and recording.

“I thought, ‘Oh God, they’ll burn it down.’ But they started playing and were immediately writing songs. They were still in high school. I sat and listened and said, ‘You know, these guys have got something.’ I told them one day, ‘Look, just trust me and we’ll see what we can get done.’ So I got to writing with them some and we were able to do our own demos that got attention from labels and eventually a (record) deal.

“It wasn’t overnight. It took awhile. But I had them out opening for Grand Funk Railroad and for Ted Nugent. I knew if they could stand up and play with Ted Nugent, they could play with anybody. And they did, so it’s been a growing thing.

“You want to try to do your best at something in your life. But more than that, you want to see your children succeed at what their endeavors are. For me, it’s like the whipped cream and cherry on ice cream. It caps everything off. I’ve done what I was supposed to do as a father, as musician and as a helper to my son and his colleagues.”

The Kentucky Headhunters

When: Oct. 25, 8 p.m.

Where: New Barn at Renfro Valley Entertainment Center, 2380 Richmond St. in Mount Vernon

Tickets: $25-$85

Online: renfrovalley.com.

Kentucky Music Hall of Fame 2024 Induction Ceremony

Inductees: Sturgill Simpson, Black Stone Cherry, McClain Family Band, Gary Stewart, Paul Martin, Jimmy Mattingly, Charlie Sizemore, Rodney Griffin, Ruble Sanderson, Bobby Mackey and Billy Moore.

When: Oct. 26, 7 p.m.

Where: New Barn at Renfro Valley Entertainment Center, 2380 Richmond St. in Mount Vernon

Tickets: $50-$75

Online: renfrovalley.com, kentuckymusichalloffame.com