Brady Seals of Little Texas To Headline St. Jacob Homecoming July 17
By Stephanie Malench
smalench@timestribunenews.com
Brady Seals, best known as keyboardist and co-lead singer of the country band Little Texas will be closing out the entertainment line up at the St. Jacob Homecoming at 8 p.m. on Saturday July 17. Local cover band Shotgun Creek will be serving as Seals’ band for the evening and Electrik Baby Powder, a band made up of Collinsville High School students, will be opening.
Seals’ cousins are classic/folk rock musicians Jimmy Seals of Seals & Crofts and Dan Seals of England Dan & John Ford Coley and song writer Chuck Seals. Country song writer and Song Writing Hall of Fame Member Troy Seals is his uncle.
During an exclusive interview with this reporter, Seals credited Elvis, Jerry Lee Lewis, honky tonk piano player Dumpy Rice, and John Carter, who played the drums at his church, with being his musical heroes outside the family.
Although he does not read music, Seals took his first piano lessons at age 14. The lessons were short lived, as his parents found him teaching the older lady that was supposed to be his piano teacher.
Little Texas was formed in 1989 when Seals was touring with Josh Logan and met the Varsities, a 1950s and 1960s cover band, in Massachusetts. Two years later, Little Texas had their first hit, “Some Guys Have All The Love”. Other hits included “First Time for Everything”, “God Blessed Texas”, “What Might Have Been”, and “My Love”.
Seals received the prestigious ASCAP Triple Play award for writing three consecutive number one songs (“What Might Have Been”, My Love”, and “God Blessed Texas”).
Seals favorite role in the music industry is songwriter, due to spending many hours at his grandparents listening to his Uncle Troy play songs he wrote including “A Few Ole Country Boys” (1990 by Randy Travis and George Jones), “Boogie Woogie Country Man” (1974 by Jerry Lee Lewis), “But I Will” (1993 by Faith Hill), and “Dance Away” (1980 by Barry Manilow).
Seals talked candidly during the interview about being on the road young and calling his mom when he was 17, crying about how difficult it was being on the road all the time. Issues with managers and producers after signing contracts proved to be too much pressure and singing/songwriting was no longer fun.
Seals left Little Texas in 1994 and was able to redefine himself with his solo career and when he started Hot Apple Pie in 2002, which produced the country hits “Hillbillies”, “We’re Makin’ Up”, and “Easy Does It”. The fire that music ignites for Seals was back.
In addition to traveling the country to play his hits from Little Texas and Hot Apple Pie, Seals is also in a Tom Petty tribute band and Seals and Crofts 2 with Lua Crofts, daughter of Dan Crofts.
In December of 2020, Seals self-published his first book, God Blessed Texas and Me Too. Seals said he started the book many years ago because he wished he had a book of his dad’s to read and was inspired by Christian author Max Lucado.
Go Blessed Texas and Me Too is a memoir that begins when Little Texas was at their peak and continues through to the end of October 2020.
His book is dedicated to his son Evan, so he can not only know what his dad was really like, but also to help him understand that when times were tough, he turned to God with his struggles. Each chapter concludes with relevant passages and lessons learned from the Bible.
