Origins and Musical Beginnings
Pepper grew up in a rural subdivision in Fairview Township, outside the small town of New Cumberland, Pennsylvania. His grandfathers (Lebo and Bender) were coal miners and farmers in Tower City, PA and his father, Fred Lebo, was a production mechanic for the American Can Company in Lemoyne, PA. His family attended West Shore Baptist Church in Camp Hill, PA, where his mother, Dottie Lebo, sang in the choir. Pepper began guitar lessons at the age of twelve. By high school, he had developed an interest in painting. He went on to earn a degree in Fine Art from Kutztown University of Pennsylvania, also spending a semester abroad at Crewe-Alsager College in Cheshire, England. During and after college he was involved with several garage bands which mostly played covers by artists such as The Clash, Patti Smith, Bruce Springsteen, The Smiths, U2, Tom Petty, The Grateful Dead and Creedence Clearwater Revival. His first original band, Strain (with Pepper as principal songwriter, vocalist and bassist, Duke Jeremiah on drums and John Fritchey on guitar), recorded a six-song demo, Shame, which was not released.
Read more about this topic: Jefferson Pepper
Famous quotes containing the words origins and, origins, musical and/or beginnings:
“Lucretius
Sings his great theory of natural origins and of wise conduct; Plato
smiling carves dreams, bright cells
Of incorruptible wax to hive the Greek honey.”
—Robinson Jeffers (1887–1962)
“Grown onto every inch of plate, except
Where the hinges let it move, were living things,
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The origins of art.”
—Howard Moss (b. 1922)
“Then, bringing me the joy we feel when wee see a work by our favorite painter which differs from any other that we know, or if we are led before a painting of which we have until then only seen a pencil sketch, if a musical piece heard only on the piano appears before us clothed in the colors of the orchestra, my grandfather called me the [hawthorn] hedge at Tansonville, saying, “You who are so fond of hawthorns, look at this pink thorn, isn’t it lovely?””
—Marcel Proust (1871–1922)
“[Many artists], even the greatest ones, are not sure of their own existence. So they search for proof, they judge, they condemn. It strengthens them, it is the beginnings of existence. They are alone!”
—Albert Camus (1913–1960)