The Dr. Bob Band was founded in 1982 by long-time Park City guitarist and songwriter Jeffrey Howrey and singer/bassist Bets Conner-Pott. John Gonthier has been with the band since 1984 when he moved in as Howrey’s roommate and has served as roadie, sound producer and equipment fixer for the last four decades.
“Jeff said, 'You want to earn some money off your rent, if you help me move this gear to a show that we're doing?' And he said, 'If you think you can make it sound better, go ahead and play with the mixing board and knobs.' And I've been helping him ever since. I've been known to do all kinds of stuff: fix the cars, fix the guitars, build speakers and light cans, you know, the homemade lights system.”
Over the years, Gonthier produced the band’s posters using graphic design software he learned on his own. During the pandemic when live music wasn’t being performed, Gonthier used the time to teach himself how to edit video.
“So when the pandemic hit, he was like, you know, 'Hey, do you think you can make another video or two?' or you know, and it turned out to be about eight or nine now. And so, I bought the software and sat down in my bedroom at where my computer sits and just plugged out videos over the last three, four years. And I've been posting them, updating them, so, you know, they started out pretty simple.”
He borrowed a camera for the anniversary show last July to record it on something other than his cell phone and wandered around shooting footage while the band played.
“And then put it on my computer and edited it down and most of the work was really in that whole intro part," he said. "We got some emojis that are dancing around and floating through the air and stuff. So, it was kind of fun to put that together and do that.”
