Myke Rock receives Comfest Honors... Honored Artist 2023!

Published on 15 June 2023 at 12:03

Myke Rock accepts 2023 Comfest Honors as "Honored Artist" of the Community Festival! The interview is included below and can be found in the Program Guide online, here https://www.comfest.com/program-guides/2023-program-guide/, and in the printed guide (Page 29 in Program Guide) available all over the festival grounds. Come join us as Rock receives his award at the Main Stage (Bozo Stage) at 3:00pm, Saturday, June 24th!

COMMUNITY FESTIVAL 2023

HONORED ARTIST

Myke Rock

Myke Rock is an incredibly talented bass player who is well known and well-loved throughout the Columbus music scene. The long list of his musical accomplishments includes being the original/permanent bassist for the punk/ rock band Screaming Urge in the 1980's & 1990's; a talent booker for TV shows in the 1990's (including Jerry Springer, Jenny Jones, Maury Povich, and Geraldo Rivera); being the bassist for the bands Dexter Wesley and Red Hot Lava and Cat String Theory; solo performer (bass & vocals) of his Beatles on Bass show; creator of the MultiFestival Showcase Series around Columbus in 2003, 2004, 2005; creator/curator of Myke Rock Radio, online radio station in the late 2000's; creator of a showcase series that ended up involving over 400 musicians and acts throughout Ohio; creator of the World Series Music Fest in Columbus in 2013; and a frequent performer at ComFest as a solo artist and with several bands.

Myke is one of those musicians who was kind of always a musician. He and his sisters had a band when they were young. Myke originally played drums with the band, but he taught one sister to play drums, taught the other sister to play guitar, and he picked up the bass at 11. They won park and rec talent shows and won the right to play at the Ohio State Fair through a channel 10 program called Schoolies. Myke’s sisters stopped doing music, but Myke kept going, joining one of the first punk rock bands in Columbus, Screaming Urge, when he was 15. Then, he discovered a knack for booking gigs, and ended up booking tours for his band and others as a teenager.

In the midst of all of this, Myke also discovered ComFest. He and his sisters had started coming to ComFest when the festival was still on 16th Ave. They would go regularly to listen to different acts and get ideas for things that they could play. A few years later, when ComFest moved to Goodale Park, Myke wanted to be part of the community feel, and started volunteering. Myke served for four years on the Entertainment Committee. Myke is forever grateful to the mentoring that he got from Darryl Mendelson, who was a huge inspiration for him and helped him out with all his questions.

In 2016, Myke was playing bass with Ray Fuller and the Bluesrockers and went over to tour Europe. It was a really successful time and Myke moved to Belgium in 2018. He performed extensively throughout Europe, both on his own and with other bands. In April 2020, Myke, like all other musicians, saw shows get cancelled as the world went into lockdown and Myke moved back to Columbus. He began performing again locally with Dexter Wesley, and re-joined Ray Fuller and the Bluesrockers for a time, and still tours once or twice a year in Europe, most recently last June with the Westerville band Cat String Theory.

There is a long list of ComFest folks who have had the pleasure of working with Myke on various committees, and when asked what people would like to say about Myke, the summary is all along the lines of, “Myke spreads the Love far and wide.” “Myke is a great ComFest ambassador.” “I've never heard him say a bad word about anyone.” “Myke is the kind of soul who embodies living every day the ComFest way.” “In addition to being an amazing musician, he is a person who always has a smile, a hug, and some words of encouragement for whomever he encounters.”

Myke is very grateful to be a 2023 ComFest Honored Artist. In his words, “I never did what I did to get an award, I don’t think about things like that, but it is definitely a wonderful thing, after all of these years of helping bands come together, to be recognized by my peers. Thank you so much for this.”

Please check out Myke’s website: http://www.mykerock.com and Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/myke.rock. Please see and hear Myke at ComFest on the Gazebo Stage with Dexter Wesley & Red Hot Lava on Sunday, June 25 at 3:00.

Joanie Calem (Joanie Calem)