Steve Roberts is the drummer for the Fender Benders. His baritone voice is heard on lead vocal on many of our mellow tunes.

Steve grew up in Southern California where, at the ripe old age of 11 years, his parents bought him his first "Trap Set." He immediately formed a rock and roll band (The Silvertones) with his friends who lived just up the street. The band consisted of drums, two guitars and a saxophone. Their first songs were "Ghost Riders in the Sky," "Pipeline," "Perfidia," "Sleep Walk," and "Walk Don't Run." With a saxophone in the band, they soon had "Tequila" in their repertoire. All instrumentals. No one even considered singing. The Silvertones made their name playing the "Big Gigs" in the area - The Elks club, VFW, Knights of Columbus, and American Legion youth dances. They also routinely played the Jr. High School dance circuit.

In High School, Steve bought a drum set that he still owns today - a double bass "Rogers" set (pictured above). It is now considered a classic, and he keeps it at home to keep it from getting beat up. Steve also owns a great-sounding Yamaha acoustic set that he used to play for gigs, but his most recent purchase (which wiped out his savings account!) has relegated the Yamahas to the storage shed. Steve now plays on a state-of-the-art, top-of-the-line, Roland TD-20S V-Pro electronic set. The Roland set actually sounds better for live performance than any single acoustic drum kit, because of its flexibility: it can model all sorts of different drum sounds and kits for different songs. Our sound engineer loves it because it has a killer sound, it is very consistent (it is not dependent upon microphone placement), it reduces "stage mix bleed" and extraneous noise amplification into the main mix (a big problem with overhead cymbal mics and even with tom/snare mics), and it gives more control over the mix. Steve loves it because it is easier to transport and set up, and because it plays so easy (he's not as tired at the end of a night of gigging!) Although it doesn't LOOK like an authehtic classic drum set, it SOUNDS fantastic!

Over the years, Steve has played in a variety of rock bands - The Coachmen, The Shades of Youth, The Pink Panthers, Badge, The Heaters, and many others. (He just can't remember all the names). 40+ years of playing music in California, Missouri, Washington, and Utah.

Steve has supplemented all the big bucks he earns with his music career :) with a career in mechanical engineering. Currently, he is a Senior Structural Engineer for J-U-B Engineers, Inc. in Logan, Utah. He designs buildings, bridges, water tanks and other assorted structures. (It helps pass the time between gigs.)

The Fender Benders actually got started when Irv saw Steve perform with another band (Population Five) in the summer of 2003. Steve was the only person in the band over the age of 21, and he looked a little out of his element. After the gig, Irv approached Steve and asked, "I was wondering if you might be interested in getting a bunch of old guys together to form a classic rock band?" Steve's smile got as wide as his face! We've been going ever since...