After some 40 years of touring in the rock music world, veteran guitarist Frankie Sullivan wondered briefly about the future of life on the road just before a string of nationwide concerts slated last year.
“I wasn’t absolutely sure how I’d feel about touring these days, as a couple of my friends aren’t sure they’d enjoy it,” Sullivan wrote on his Facebook page. “What? Is there anything better in the world?”
In essence, the 64-year-old co-founder of the arena rock band known as Survivor fittingly has survived nearly a half-century in a field in which some acts wither after half a decade. Plus, he’s still got that familiar focus and fire — also fitting for the co-writer of the huge 1982 chart-topping rock anthem “Eye of the Tiger” that was the musical theme from the film “Rocky III.”
Sullivan, the only remaining original member of Survivor, and his current bandmates will headline the annual Our Hospice of South Central Indiana concert at 6:30 p.m. Aug. 31 at Mill Race Park in downtown Columbus. The Indianapolis-based Woomblies Rock Orchestra will open the free show that highlights hospice’s work providing end-of-life care for patients and families in 16 counties in south central Indiana.
[sc:text-divider text-divider-title=”Story continues below gallery” ]
Though Sullivan’s schedule did not allow a window for a media interview, his online social media thoughts form a picture of a man with a songwriting hand in six Top 20 hits from the mid-1980s. Besides the aforementioned No. 1 monster hit, the group charted with songs such as, “The Search Is Over” (reaching No. 4 in 1984), “High on You” (No. 8 in 1984), “I Can’t Hold Back” (No. 13 in 1984), “Burning Heart” (No. 2 in 1985 and also the theme of the Rocky IV soundtrack) and “Is This Love” (No. 9 in 1986).
He began playing guitar in his native Chicago, where he still lives. He was raised on artists ranging from Jimi Hendrix to Led Zeppelin.
“I later realized that these great guitar players took everything they did from an earlier generation of great blues guitar players,” Sullivan said on frankiesullivan.com. “Those bluesmen were incredible. And only recently have they received any recognition from people like Eric Clapton and the Stones.”
Maybe that explains why Sullivan still listens to such master musicians as B.B. King and Huddie William Ledbetter, known as Lead Belly. But he loves nearly anyone and anything linked to his favorite stringed instruments.
A myriad of his at-home Facebook photos show that he collects guitars the way fashionistas collect shoes. But he also seriously collects concert memories, posting shot after shot of him in concert, eyes closed, head thrown back in a sweet musical reverie.
“It’s not easy to forget what I get to do in my life,” Sullivan wrote last year alongside one stage shot featuring him and an adoring crowd. “It’s also ever present in my heart that, without you, this moment would not appear to me.”
And not without filmmaker and actor Sylvester Stallone, who contacted Survivor in the early ‘80s about music for his Rocky series of films. Band members regularly have credited Stallone for what Sullivan has called “the opportunity of a lifetime.”
On the road in the wee hours in hotels, the musician still occasionally catches a “Rocky” movie marathon with the band’s tunes front and center and, well, still packing a punch. No wonder a photo of the Rocky statue in Philadelphia adorns Sullivan’s Facebook feed.
Far from the crowds, Sullivan has traded one passion for another, even trading guitars for top-of-the-line fishing equipment, according to his website. A pond on his Chicago-area property affords him bass fishing and visits from everything from mallards to blue herron, besides the company of his trusty, 70-pound hound Willie.
“Since discovering what’s in the pond out back, I basically get nothing done when I’m home but fishing,” he wrote. “I’ve got a ways to go to grab the skills I once had. But they’re coming back.
“The thrill of a strong hit on a bait is one you work for with every cast. But whew, is it worth it.”
Maybe like a great guitar riff. And, as he recently discovered, that’s hardly something to leave behind, even after all these years.
[sc:pullout-title pullout-title=”About the concert” ][sc:pullout-text-begin]
Who: Opening act The Woomblies Rock Orchestra and headlining act Survivor.
What: The 33rd Annual Our Hospice of South Central Indiana concert, which raises money for and awareness about the nonprofit agency’s mission to offer end-of-life care for patients and their families.
When: 6:30 p.m. Aug. 31. No rain location or rain date.
Where: Mill Race Park in downtown Columbus.
Admission: Free. Hospice generates proceeds via the sale of food, souvenirs and raffles.
Seating: Bring your own chairs and blankets.
Information: ourhospice.org.
[sc:pullout-text-end]
