Charley Stewart

     I was born October 29, 1957 in Oklahoma City, OK. I developed a love of drumming at a very young age. A friend across the street got a drum set and I was hooked. Following private drum lessons and countless hours on the practice pad my parents gave in and got me my first set. I would practice for hours driving my parents and probably the neighbors nuts. Unfortunately, my school had no formal band program so I studied with Paul Bowman who was the hottest drummer in OKC at the time. He was the one who turned me to the “dark side” of music known as jazz. During high school I was invited to jam with some friends who had a rock and roll garage band. They must have liked my playing because they chose to replace their drummer with me that first night. Man I was excited because I was in a band. We played a few gigs throughout high school but mostly got together to just play and hang out. Then college came and I became a member of the O.S.U. marching band during my sophomore year. It was around that time that time I met my wife Sherry. She would sit on the front steps of Old Central and watch us rehearse. To this day she says she still does not know why.
Anyway, little did she know that she was destined to become my private “groupie”. She probably didn’t then realize she would earn a Ph.D. in transporting, setting up and tearing down drums especially around 2 AM. By this time I was becoming fairly studious but managed to hook up with another band known as “Whitewater”. We played mostly in Stillwater in clubs on the “Strip” when a pitcher of beer could be had at age 18.
     Whitewater played almost every weekend and had some great original music. Then I had to really get with the books and graduated with a degree in microbiology from O.S.U. Once I started medical school I had to “hang up” the sticks for a while but was always burning to play. I practiced with records (you old timers remember these) whenever I had a chance. I graduated from the O.U. College of Medicine in 1986, completed a surgical internship at O.U. and then moved to Tucson, Arizona for my residency in anesthesiology at the University of Arizona. Following those three years I moved to Tulsa to settle in to private practice. It was during this time that I met some guys through my work at the hospital and finally got back into the music scene playing with a jazz group called “Smooth and Saxy”. Then, through my association with Saxy, I started to get calls for other gigs around Tulsa and my name started to get around. Then one day I was recommended to audition for one of the hottest groups in town, The Fabulous Mid Life Crisis Band. I was humbled when I was invited to join that group and have loved it ever since. Sherry and my three daughters Katy, Elly and Nikky support me and my “drum habit” without question and come to quite a few of the gigs. I imagine they might be growing tired of it by now because we play a lot of gigs! But each gig is fun and like Carl says, it is like going to 80 parties a year!
     So that is about it. I continue to be an anesthesiologist by day and sometimes night, however, my true passion is playing those skins as much as I can. Anesthesiology can be pretty exciting at times but it is hard to top making music with people who love to play it as much as I do. Thanks to the MLC Band and to all the people who come to hear us for allowing that passion to stay very much alive in me.