“You gotta love it, and I love it, and I look forward to doing it every time I step on stage,” Sedona musician Sammy Davis said on why he keeps performing. “I have that bug that keeps you going. It was built in me. I grew up, I’ve always sung, from a little kid to all the way up through college, [music] has been a large part of my life.”
Davis has logged thousands of miles on the pavement and thousands of hours behind the microphone after starting out playing six days a week in Minneapolis. Sundays were for traveling.
“I’m originally from Chicago, so my neighborhood was loaded with the talents of the Emotions, Earth, Wind and Fire,” Davis recalled. “But I was singing rock just as much as I was singing the Motown music … One of the things I always wanted to do as a performer was to perform with some of the Motown groups, which I’ve done. I’ve opened up with Temptations, The Supremes … it’s been an interesting ride.”
“Some of the very first songs [were] gospel because I grew up coming out of church and singing [in] neighborhood choirs and neighborhood groups,” Davis continued. “That rock influence always kept that energy level going for me … the rock songs that I used to do, from INXS to Journey, inspired me. And that’s what keeps it interesting. [I’m] fortunate enough to sing those different styles, and that’s why I can’t really tell you that I’m an R&B singer or a rock singer or blues. I do them all.”
Davis said the joy of performing has kept him honing his craft over the decades.
“I was brought here [from] Minneapolis on tour to play at Los Abrigados Resort, 1991, and we came out to play for two weeks, and I said, ‘The next time that I come back here, I’m staying,’” Davis recalled. Several months later, he returned to Sedona while touring with his band Sammy Fortune and has remained ever since, logging some of his most memorable musical moments here.
“I opened up for the Temptations in Sedona, over at the Cultural Park and a few months prior to that, I opened up for them in Atlantic City,” Davis said. “And I got to do something that very few people get to do before the Temptations come on stage. Behind [the] stage, they get into a circle, and they put their hands together and do a prayer. And they called me in to put my hand with them, before they went out on stage and did the prayer here in Sedona.”
“I don’t think my feet ever hit the stage; [I was] floating across the stage,” Davis said.
“The community came in and helped out all the people who were hurt by the fire. It wasn’t just me,” Davis said. “We’ve had quite a few friends here that we stayed at until we got back on our feet … People helped us out and that’s why I like giving back every chance I get to help other organizations.”
He attributes his resiliency to a lifetime spent on stage.
“You’re always going to have things that [go wrong], it happens in every performance,” Davis said. “You’re not going to ever get a perfect performance. Sometimes you have a microphone problem or something out of key. But you get this experience behind you to where you can recognize, ‘Okay, this is happening,’ and that’s when your experience comes through and you have to work through it and keep the show going to show to where it’s not noticeable … but I’m pretty good at that.”
He recalled one show that he played in North Dakota during a blizzard. The snow was so heavy the band couldn’t see behind them on the drive out, and Davis ended up arriving two hours late with several other members of the band still en route. They started the show with himself, a bass player, a guitarist and a keyboardist before the full band arrived.
“We improvised until they got there. Little things like that, you have to bounce back from,” Davis said.
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