The first half of the 60's Bob was designing, building and playing various theater pipe organ installations in the Holiday Inn North restaurant in St Louis. After playing 8 years, 6 nights a week, he decided to enter the retail music industry opening one of America's first 'pro' music shops in the small Southern Illinois hometown of Marissa. Because of the success of his music shop he was thrust into the rock market. He pioneered the live sound industry with clients such as the Grateful Dead, the Who, Joe Walsh, Peter Frampton, Jeff Beck and scores of major touring acts of the 60's and 70's. It was Bob's unique approach to audio that created some of the most innovative products still in use today. The Heil Talk Box, made famous by Joe Walsh, Peter Frampton and Bon Jovi, as well as perfecting the first electronic crossover were some of Bob's great products. Heil Sound was selected by those sound companies still out there in the trenches today, to receive the first ever 'Pioneer Award' at the 1995 Audio Engineering Society convention in San Francisco.
Godbless this guy for inventing the current Talkbox, Roger Troutman otherwise'd never made classics as Computer Love and Superman!
Besides that he helped out great bands like Grateful Dead and The Who getting their sound systems working and all that.
This man really deserves a whole lot of credit and I'm glad to've seen this interview.
backstabba101 7 months ago