Johnny Knuckles gets The Krushtones back together at The Sand Dollar
by Miranda Steadman | Contributing Writer
Local rock band The Krushtones will host their annual reunion show at The Sand Dollar Social Club on April 17 and 18.
Their first performance at The Sand Dollar dates back more than four decades. The band formed in 1983 as a power trio made up of Johnny Knuckles on guitar, his cousin David Kushubar on bass, and a drummer from their neighborhood.
The Krushtones played their first show at The Sand Dollar in 1985. Before they played that, they performed at the Folly Beach Music Hall, which was located where McKevlins Surf Shop and Rita’s now stand, and also had a bowling alley inside. The band covered legends like The Rolling Stones, The Beatles, Bob Dylan, and The Grateful Dead. Songs like “Saw Her Standing There”, “Get Off My Cloud,” and “Sympathy for The Devil” can still be found in their setlists along with original music.
More than 40 years ago, a friend of the band, Vern Pitman, introduced them to a class-mate of his in pharmacy school at MUSC, Dennis Davis. Pitman brought Davis to a bar downtown Charleston called Group Therapy to hear The Krushtones play. Davis grabbed his sticks and began banging to their beat on anything he could, and soon stole the band’s drum throne.
Guitarist Johnny Knuckles has been friends with longtime keyboardist Michael Murray since they were in 5th grade.
“We got in a lot of trouble together to the point where our parents were called in for a joint parent-teacher conference,” says Knuckles. “He’s one of the best piano players I know. He can play anything.”
Murray played at the Charleston Place hotel downtown for years, but is now retired.
Once, before a show in West Ashley, The Krushtones got into an argument with Wide-spread Panic over who would open for whom. Widespread Panic lost and played before The Krushtones took the stage.
The Krushtones called it quits in 1994, but a decade later, the began playing reunion shows.
In the meantime, Knuckles continued to play with local musicians George Fox and Jamie Crisp, two regulars on the Folly music circuit.
According to Knuckles, people have come from all over the country for The Krushtones reunion, even as far away as Japan and Luxembourg. There are always a few surprises and special guests. This year, you can expect to see special guest musicians playing the trombone and trumpet.
“Count on something unexpected … You never know what’s going to happen. Even we don’t know,” says Knuckles. “We’re all about having fun and being there in the moment.”
Knuckles will also perform three evenings in April at Planet Follywood. He says local icon and bar owner, Florence “Mama Flo” O’Donnell, personally asked him to play at the bar and scheduled him there on April 1, 15, and 29.
“I had no intention to start playing again. But when Mama Flo asks, you gotta do it,” says Knuckles. “Folly has always been a recurring theme in my musical journey from the beginning until now, and I feel proud and lucky to be a part of the music scene here … I always seem to end up back here.
