Am I Famous Yet?

Funkboy aka Ivan Bodley is bass player and music director to the stars. He has performed with 50 Rock and Roll Hall of Fame inductees, has appeared in 12 Broadway shows, and has been inducted into the Blues Hall of Fame. He can currently be seen on tour with Humble Pie.

Funkboy’s debut single “Crab Walk” is available on Color Red Music and features performances by Crispin Cioe (Uptown Horns), Moses Mo (Mother’s Finest), Kenny Soule (Dag), James Dower (Sam Moore), and Doug Hinrichs (In the Heights).

His new memoir Am I Famous Yet? Memoir of a Working-Class Rock Star is also out now.

Ivan and Sting

Ivan has been music director for Sam Moore (Sam & Dave), Martha Reeves & the Vandellas, The Shirelles, The Crystals, The Tokens and has performed with Sting, Elvis Costello, The Temptations, Solomon Burke, Ben E. King, Percy Sledge, Eddie Floyd, Rufus & Carla Thomas, Bo Diddley, Buster Poindexter, Uptown Horns, Paul Rodgers, Wynonna Judd, and David Foster.

Notable appearances include Carnegie Hall, Kennedy Center, Broadway shows: Rock of Ages, Spider-Man, Hedwig & the Angry Inch, SpongeBob, Kinky Boots, Ain’t Too Proud, Once on This Island, Fun Home, and The Prom. Performed at the Obama Inaugural Ball featured in the Barry Levinson documentary Poliwood, on Late Night with Conan O’Brien, The Late Late Show with Craig Ferguson, Today, Emeril Live, Imus in the Morning, Charlie Rose, Live with Regis & Kelly, New Orleans Jazz & Heritage Festival, Istanbul and Israel State Symphony Orchestras.

A magna cum laude graduate of Berklee College of Music, he has traveled to 29 countries and played to audiences of up to 82,000 in settings from duos to 150-member symphony orchestras.

Originally from Chattanooga, TN, Ivan has resided in: New Orleans, Los Angeles, London, Boston, and is now based in New York City. He has a BA in Psychology from Tulane University, where he was Musical Director of college radio station WTUL, New Orleans. He was also a publicist with Epic Records/Sony Music.

More information is available at http://www.funkboy.net.

Ivan “Funkboy” Bodley uses Fender, Moxy, Warrior, and Gretsch basses, Hartke amplification, DR strings, PRA Audio wireless, and Tech 21, Digitech and Line 6 signal processors. Ivan eats only Little Debbie snack cakes.

People, Bands, and Broadway Musicals we discussed

Am I Famous Yet: Memoir of a Working Class Rock Star, Ivan Bodley

Little Anthony and The Imperials

Rock and Roll Hall of Fame

Steven Tyler and Joe Perry of Aerosmith

Ivan’s Podcast new segments: The Playing for a Living series.

Color Red Music

Epic Records

Cyndi Lauper, American singer, songwriter, actress, activist

Gregg Allman, American singer, songwriter, member of the Allman Brothers Band, is now a solo artist

Sade, British singer, songwriter, actress

Cheap Trick, American rock band

Alice Cooper, American singer, songwriter, actor

Stanley Clarke – Jazz Bass player

Tulane University

Shirley Alston Reeves of The Shirelles

The Tokens, A doo-wop style vocal group known for “The Lion Sleeps Tonight”

The Crystals, Popular 60s girl group

Sam Moore from Sam and Dave, A Soul and R&B duo

Rock of Ages Broadway Musical

Escape to Margaritaville, Jimmy Buffet Musical

Spider-Man, The Musical

Donna Summer The Musical

The Portland Musical Company, Portland, Oregon

San Francisco Opera

Jay and The Americans, Jay Black of The Americans dies at age 82

Ain’t Too Proud, The Temptations Musical

Motown Records, a music label founded by Berry Gordy in 1959

Martha Reeves and The Vandellas

James Jamerson, American bass player

The Beatles, need no introduction

Documentary Standing in the Shadows of Motown (2002) about The Funk Brothers, Included with Prime Video

Marvin Gaye, American singer, songwriter who helped shape Motown

Aretha Franklin, American singer, songwriter

Jennifer Hudson – The Kennedy Center Mark Twain Prize 2010, Tina Faye

Sir Paul McCartney, Needs no introduction, but former Beatle, British singer, songwriter

Harrison Ford, American actor

Links to all of Ivan’s social media, books and music – funkboy.net

“Humans are not ideally set up to understand logic; they are ideally set up to understand stories.” ~ Roger C. Schank, Cognitive Scientist

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Published by lucindasagemidgorden

I grew up in the West, the descendant of people traveling by wagon train to a new life. Some of their determination and wanderlust became a part of me. I imagine them sitting around the campfire telling stories, which is why I became first a theatre artist, then a teacher and now a writer. They are all ways of telling stories.

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