Keyboardist Sean Hopper of Huey Lewis &

The News says of his Marin creds “I'm an actual

townie from Sausalito”.  He was born in San

Francisco while his family was living on Harrison

above the Alta Mira Hotel and began playing

music while a student at Marin Country Day

School. 

JASON: I read you’ve been playing in a band

longer than anyone else in The News...

SEAN: In Eighth grade I joined the Round The

Bend Blues Band (an all kids band) which had

about 9 people or occasionally more.  It had a

few people from Marin Country Day School

and a few from schools in the City.  We were all

either in the 8th or 9th grade and we just did

parties.  You know, social functions for families

in Pacific Heights.  We worked quite a bit

actually.

JASON:  Was there anything special about

Marin Country Day School (MCDS) that inspired

you to get into music?

SEAN: I had a lot of exposure at MCDS

because they had a real music program.  The

music teacher there for years was named Barry

Mineah and he was a legend, an institution. 

There was never anyone like him.  He drove

kids to do amazing things that they didn’t know

they could do...

JASON: When did you start playing?

SEAN: I started teaching myself piano in the 3rd grade.  I had lessons for a

month but I didn’t enjoy it and I quit.  I kept going by myself so I’m self-

taught.

JASON:  Before becoming famous with The News do you remember playing

at any Marin clubs that are now history?

SEAN: When I started playing with Clover [an early-’70s Marin band

featuring John McFee, later of the Doobie Brothers, Huey Lewis, Alex Call,

John Ciambotti, Mitch Howie, Mickey Shine and Marcus David)], I was

still a senior in high school, going to Tam by that time.  Clover used to play

at Brown’s Hall (which is now) a Korean Buddhist temple on Miller Avenue

about a half block away from Whole Foods.  It would get rented and they’d

throw parties for underage kids.  There was no booze.  It was just a huge

dance. We’d play a couple of sets and tear it up...

JASON: Were you always certain you wanted to be a musician?

SEAN: I decided at about age 14 that I was probably going to keep going

which is why when they invited me to join Clover (in 1972) I said yeah...I

tried to be a music major at College of Marin and I lasted about five

months.   By the end of Tam ('71) I was playing with Clover quite a bit. 

Clover used to play every dive club around the Bay Area.  There was The

Wooden Nickel in Palo Alto, The Long Branch in Berkeley.  God there were

hundreds of them.  Uncle Sam’s in Sebastopol.  We played everywhere. 

JASON: And in Marin?

SEAN:  In Marin it was The Lion’s Share.  This was our main gig.  And---

what was that other place....???

JASON: Huey mentioned you guys played at River City. 

SEAN:  Yeah, in Fairfax.  All one level.  Pretty low ceilings.  Didn’t sound

great but people had a good time.  For sound it was probably more of a

restaurant-shaped place.

JASON: What kind of people were there? 

SEAN:  Fairfax--there was always a lot of long hair and health food.  A lot of

hippies of various types.  Fairfax always has had that angle to it, a little more

than the rest of the county, but not a massive difference.

JASON:  Huey also mentioned The Scoreboard in San Rafael.

SEAN: THAT’S the one was I was blocking out!!!  That’s the one I couldn’t

think of --The Scoreboard.  We used to do four sets there and we’d grind it

out and the guy was kind of a taskmaster and he was always getting us to

keep going. 

JASON: Is it rude to ask what a band would make back in those days at a

place like that?

SEAN: Oh God. 

JASON:  Here’s why I ask:  I interviewed Sam Andrew of Big Brother and

the Holding Company and he remembers Clover opening for them back

then and always wanting to get more than their $50...

SEAN:  (Laughs).  I’m sure there were plenty of times when we got $50.  A

lot of times it was based on the door and the guarantee would be extremely

low.  So if it was a weeknight and they just got us in to drag people into the

bar then, yeah, we’d make terrible money.  I made that kind of money for a

long time.  And I was also driving my own van with my own gear in it and

doing my own equipment.  It was lean times.

JASON: Huey said that The Scoreboard was the worst place to play and he

liked The Lion’s Share the most.  

SEAN:  The Scoreboard was sort of a bar that could either be happening or

not.  Because we tended to play there just for subsistence, I don’t think our

crowd liked to go there much.  But there were too many sets because they

had us there all night so it was nobody’s favorite.  The Lion’s Share on the

other hand was where our main crowd, our fan base, came to to see us.  It

was usually packed and on fire, and that was great.  It made it rewarding.

JASON: How old was your fan base?  What kind of an audience were you

playing to?

SEAN: Young.

JASON: Like?

SEAN: Drinking age.  Whoever could get in the door by hook or by crook. 

But most of our contemporaries were from 18 to 25 or so.

JASON: Did you do anything to compensate for your low earnings as a

musician in Marin?

SEAN: Oh yeah, sure.  I worked for my first serious girlfriend’s father

loading vending machines, which is about as fun as it sounds.  (Laughs).  I

think I did that for two or three years to make ends meet.   Actually I was

just talking to someone about this the other day.  Kentfield’s rehab hospital

— we used to fill the cigarette machines there.  That gives you a sign of the

times...that there were cigarette machines in a rehab hospital!  But if that’s

not bad enough, this machine had three rows of Pall Malls which were the

strongest, highest tar and nicotine unfiltered cigarette made in the US.  And

(the hospital) would go through about three rows of those a week.  Back then

that hospital did alcoholic rehab as well...  The alcoholics would turn their

passion to smoking.  They wanted the strongest cigarettes they could get. 

I’m betting they don’t have a cigarette machine in there anymore.  (Laughs).

JASON:  Did you have a favorite band that was from Marin that never made

it?

SEAN: A band that I thought was amazingly good was the other band that

we (HLN) were made out of which is Soundhole.  Although we use to have a

playful rivalry and ‘dis’ each other and so forth, those guys actually played

really well.  Clover and Soundhole both contributed members to Huey Lewis

and the News.  Bill Gibson and Mario Cippolina and Johnny Colla all

came from Soundhole.  I thought they were great, they were more jazz-

influenced than us, they did more chords than we did, their material had

another layer of complexity to it. 

And of course I was hearing my future drummer (Gibson) and you gotta like

your drummer!  He was already out of Tam by the time I came in for one

year but I knew him and he was one of the two great drummers at Tam High

School.  The other one was named Pete Miller.  He was the same year as

Bill I’m pretty sure.  They were friends and occasionally they played double-

drums in some things and between the two of them they held down every

single drumming job the school society created.

JASON: Is there anything that you look back upon and miss about Marin

County?

SEAN: I miss having paved roads without holes.  (Laughs)  I just find it odd

that I was born in the Fifties and back then we had about a third of the

people and the tax base was much smaller but the roads were in very good

condition.  Now we have a lot of wealth and a huge number of people and the

roads are unbelievably bad.  “So where’s the money going?” is my question. 

---------

Sean Hopper still keeps a residence in Mill Valley but spends most of his

time skiing and motorcycling in Colorado when he is not on tour with Huey

Lewis and The News.  Click to visit the Huey Lewis & The News website or

the Clover Info Page.

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Jason Lewis

unless otherwise

stated.  Those

images not owned

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are copyrighted

by their

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owners.  If you

are interested in

using material

from these pages,

please contact

Jason Lewis at

jason@marinnost

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