Sitting at his drum set bewildered from the blast, KHS Resource Officer Chad Walton, sporting waist-length hair, a goatee and an earring, watches as girls with ‘80s hair-sprayed dos frantically swat blazing fragments away from their poofs. Metal and wood spew into the air by a mixture of magnesium and gunpowder while Triple XXX, Walton’s first band, plays on the stage of Papa Don’s, a nightclub located near Farmington, MO while on tour during college.
“[The mixture] was really a horrible idea. We were not very bright at this point, keep in mind,” Walton said. “It did what it was supposed to do. We were really proud of Jeff right up to the point where he about blew up the stage.”
Only following the highlighted routes on large maps, the band drove for 20 hours at times to their next show in a 1986 Chevy Astro van equipped with swivel captain chairs and a handy poker table. Attached to the back of the van trailed a small U-Haul big enough to fit suitcases cramped with dirty laundry, coolers of sandwiches and the equipment.
“It was a bunch of long-haired, stinky dudes in a van,” Walton said. “We had a blast. It was great. I was going to college and playing music with my friends [while] making a little bit of money.”
Walton now plays in two bands, Triple XXX and Permanent Groove. Triple XXX plays mostly ‘80s headbanger rock, while Permanent Groove plays ‘60s and ‘70s hits. In both bands, he sticks to playing the drums but occasionally sings back up or lead.
“They try not to let me sing very often,” Walton said. “If you hear me singing in the hallways, you’ll know why.”
Walton started playing at age 4 when his parents decided the pots and pans did not deserve the beating they received. Instead, they bought him a plastic Brady Bunch drum set from the Sears catalogue.
“I beat the snot out of this thing to the point where they said, ‘Oh, well maybe there is something there,’” Walton said.
From ages 6 to 8, Walton’s parents paid for lessons taught by college-educated drummers. After the lessons came the night clubs. When Walton turned 15, his mom would drop him off at the back door so he could sneak in to play with Triple XXX.
“I played with guys that were all older than me. The club owners said, ‘Look man, you’re too young, once 10 o’clock gets here, you can’t be out,’” Walton said.
For three years, Triple XXX toured the Midwest circuit from Janesville, WI to Killeen, TX then up to the Colorado Rocky Mountain area to Wyoming and around North Dakota. After that leg of the tour, the band would come back home and play around Farmington, MO for a couple of weeks.
“And then for whatever reason, we all started our families rather young and got haircuts and real jobs and moved in different directions,” Walton said.
The band regrouped when one of the band members received a call in 2008 asking to play a benefit concert for an 18-year-old who died in a motorcycle accident. The parents were fans of Triple XXX from 20 years ago and asked them to help remember their son. Rocking out in an odd venue, a tiger sanctuary, the band helped raise a couple thousand dollars for the family.
After the benefit concert, band members started getting calls from old friends who now were restaurant or bar owners and wanted Triple XXX to make an appearance.
Although Walton never stopped playing, the reuniting of the band allowed him to relieve stress. Being an officer is Walton’s job, but playing drums, according to Walton, is his outlet.
“When I would get frustrated, stressed out, sad, angry, happy, whatever, I always had music,” Walton said. “That’s my sanity. That’s just when things get really rough and go bad, or even in happier times I can just go in and soothe and relax.”
Walton’s favorite song to play is “War Pigs” by Black Sabbath because the song is challenging. Ironically, the song is against everything he represents.
“[The song] is very anti-establishment so it doesn’t go along with anything I do,” Walton said.
While playing, Walton adds his own touch to make the song more fun for him to play and the audience to hear. He said he always knows when he does something cool when the bass guitarist turns around and smiles at him.
“I love to improvise. I don’t really like to play things like they are on the record. I think that everybody has heard it enough,” Walton said. “I think that people like to hear a little transition and improvisation.”
Before playing a set which usually lasts three to four hours, Walton runs in place and stretches, just like an athlete would before competing.
“Drumming is very athletic. You have to split your brain. You have to move four limbs at once, and sometimes play in odd time signatures and all kinds of crazy stuff,” Walton said. “I am a very physical player.”
Drumming is a sport for Walton that he takes very seriously. When his bandmates make fun of him before a show, Walton gets a little defensive.
“You get up there and play the drums for four hours. You’re standing over there with a guitar strapped over your shoulder or a microphone in your hand, and it doesn’t quite match up,” Walton said.
Well what seems to match up now is a police officer, an accountant, a computer geek and a tanning salon owner, play with a Triple XXX banner behind them sporting burn and tear marks from a blast in their glory days.
