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Willie Kelly
Born May 1, 1972, red hair and bright blue eyes already in tune with the world. I am William Francis Christopher Kelly. The youngest of 6 very Irish siblings. I had never thought about singing until I realized how much attention my sister Colleen got when she sang. I was 8 years old and of all the songs for me to sing it was I feel Pretty, from West Side Story. It went over immensely with my teachers and I knew I was on to something so I took a giant step and I joined the chorus in 3rd grade. In 5th grade I was put in the gifted and talented music program where I could sing louder than anyone else in the class (louder than the whole class put together!). Later on in high school I was an academic student and a star athlete for the wrestling team, man I loved to wrestle, Id wrestle anyone I could, I had grown up quite a bit and was now 6’4’’ weighing 190 lbs so I could pick someone up and slam them down to the floor so hard they wouldn’t move and I would win the match! I was an animal! But I still heard that song(I feel Pretty) playing in my head and I started to realize how much I still wanted to sing, so I tried out for and made I the all-shore, all-state and all-eastern choir. In my junior year I started to sing professionally at Great Adventure in a band called Sweet Harmony where we danced around and sing songs from all walks of life, it was quite an experience and even now there are some days when I’m working, I still find myself skipping around and singing some of those old songs. Although I had a decent amount of experience and training up till this point nothing could have prepared me for what was about to happen next. It was my Senior year in high school and they were having auditions for the school play/musical called “STARMITES” a futuristic play about Martians that can sing and dance, everyone who was anyone was trying out as I did also, I was hoping to just be able to get ‘’any part’’ so I could be in it, but one afternoon I was sitting at our kitchen table drinking a glass of cold milk with a couple of oreo’s while studying for my upcoming algebra exam and the phone rang, my mother answered it and while she was talking she was looking at me with this look of excitement, after she hung up the phone she looked at me at me, smiled and shouted” You got the lead in STARMITES!!” I was so excited I spilled my milk all over my algebra book! The play was a huge success and around town it is still talked about today. It was Video taped and every year on the anniversary of the show we throw a big shindig and invite people over to watch it, I even dress up as my character and quote some scenes from it, my wife thinks I’m crazy but I don’t care, I recently gave the video tape to a friend of mine to make copies of it on DVD but it seems to have vanished, oh well, some friend he turned out to be. After I graduated from Freehold Township high school in 1991 I was starving for the attention of performing, I kept trying out for more high school plays but as soon as they found out how old I was they chased me off the school grounds. Then one day I heard about this cool new thing called Karaoke where you sing along with a recorded song. There were contests in every bar as to who could sing to it the best and every time I entered I won. The prizes were anything from “All the hotdogs you could eat in a night, $25.00 cash, free beer, etc” It was pretty cool. It was at one of these contests where I met Dave Burlett. Dave was an interesting sort, a medium built guy with a spring in his step and a friendly smile that told you he was always thinking about something else while he was talking to you, he was a character fresh out of a Dickens novel. Dave was a bass player and he suggested that we form a “Country Band” He said with my brain and his good looks we could go places and I liked the way that sounded, so right after that eventful meeting “The Southern Rain Band” was formed. That was 1991 and since then the band has been a revolving door of musicians including my brother Chris who played guitar for a while in the early days. Along the way I have had the pleasure to play with, ”Diamond Rio”, Mark Willis”, “Bailey and the Boys”, Johnny Paycheck” as well as a little known local artist who jumped up on stage to sing a few songs with us last December, you may know him, his last names Springsteen. I have always loved music but to pay the bills I also have a day job. I also like to build things which comes in handy because my wife always has a project or two for me. And speaking of my wife, we were married in July of 2005.I have always been in love with the institution of marriage and ever since I was 18 I've been trying to get someone to marry me, when I met Penny I thought I could possibly talk her in to it soI kept bugging her and finally she agreed! It was a beautiful ceremony. My uncle ‘’ Father Frank Kelly did our wedding ceremony. My sister and I sang at the church and I sang to my mother for our Dance together at the reception. It was perfect, except that my wife didn't sing at all!(She has a great voice but she is shy!)
