The Limit

Backstage Pass

Grossman takes jailhouse rock to the Limit

Kerry Lengel
The Arizona Republic
Feb. 15, 2001

Clean-cut and boyishly doughy, David Shepherd Grossman doesn't exactly pass for a street tough when he dons his black leather jacket. But he's about to play some down-and-dirty rock and roll, and he figures he should look the part.

It's not quite as shocking a transformation as when Bob Dylan first plugged in, but the Valley singer's rock band, dubbed the Limit, is certainly a change of pace from his acoustic solo gigs and the human-jukebox routine he does in upscale lounges.

He formed the group - which includes guitarist Jason Montero and drummer Greg Lisi, both of Honey Child, as well as Brit bassist Johnny Kempt - to record a forthcoming album called Bars. As the title implies, the songs are all about bars: being in them, and being behind them.

The standard advice to writers is "write what you know," and Grossman's experience with both kinds of bars goes back to his early 20s.

"I did a drunk-tank tour of the Bay area," he says. "The San Francisco jail on Bryant Street, and San Rafael, the one that was designed by Frank Lloyd Wright. Nice drunk tank there, very comfortable."

The troubadour's drinking days ended after a felony DUI arrest in Colorado landed him in state prison for four months. The experience scared him straight, he says, but it also inspired songs such as Waiting for the Yard: "Every story's different, yet each one ends the same / Nobody is guilty - everyone was framed."

"I sang Waiting for the Yard in prison," he says. "Officer Anderson would come over. I'd sing, ' . . . get yelled at by the guard,' and he'd go, 'Hey!' right on cue.

"Music can be a unifying thing. I think everybody from Sheriff Joe (Arpaio) to the real hardcore criminals will enjoy this CD."