PEOPLE & PLACES | Going Commando

Never too old to rock ’n’ roll

Members of Going Commando still keep their day jobs

Most of their musician days had faded to rhapsodizing wives and children with “back when I played in a band” stories.

Medical school, careers and families had replaced guitars, drums and keyboards.

Then one Christmas, Bruce Fortner discovered drumsticks in his stocking. With encouragement from his wife, he started organizing what would become The Going Commando Band.

First, he recruited Norman Corey, an auto-body repair shop owner who once sang in a band. Soon after, he was at Jim Knight’s house. When the anesthesiologist strummed on his guitar after dinner, Fortner asked, “You want to be in a band?”

Knight, the only member of Going Commando who never played in a band before, said ‘sure.’

He had heard that Stacy Smithson, an OB/GYN, played the keyboard.

They found Mike Clisby, a chemical engineer, and Bryan Stevens, a retired industrial sales representative, to play bass and lead guitar. Later came John Newton, their soundman.

They had a band.

“We were pretty terrible for a while,” Corey recalled. “But it’s not how good you are, it’s how much fun you have.”

They’ve progressed from “pretty terrible” to “pretty terrific,” and they’re still having fun.

“They just have a good time on stage, which makes everyone at the event have a good time,” said Ansley Rhodes, development support coordinator at ParentingPartners, who hired Going Commando to perform at its fundraising gala last weekend.

Barbara Willm hired the band for its first paid gig and considers herself their No. 1 fan.

“We really take it seriously when we’re out playing,” he said. “If people are not having a good time, we’re not doing our job.”

Smithson was never sure they actually would play for anyone.

“This was something we all had in us, but no one ever thought it would come out again,” he said. “We thought music was in the past.”

But through the past seven years or so, the band has recorded two CDs, booked steady gigs and sold lots of merchandise sporting its logo — a pair of polka dot boxer shorts with a red “Do Not Enter” traffic sign across them.

“We’ve gone from six people playing in a band to a band with six people playing in it,” Smithson says.

They play classic rock, country, blues and beach music “when pressed.” They also have original songs, including 10 songs on their CD “Unzipped.”

All the band members, ages 39-66, are married with children (some with grandchildren). Their wives’ support the band, even when they disappear into “The Garaj Mahal” at Knight’s home near Lexington to practice for hours.

Even when they see some women hand them underwear during their gigs, which they hang on a clothesline on stage.

“I get yard leave to do this,” Clisby said.

“Sometimes I think they’re glad to get rid of us,” Fortner added.

They’ve been shut down by police for being too loud (twice when the mayors of the cities were in the crowd), and Smithson had a woman ask him to sign a body part one night.

Of course, she thought he was Jimmy Buffett.

“This is fun,” Smithson said. “It’s been a blast.”