BIO
From 1990 thru 1996, 17 Reasons Why rocked the Motor City with their unique and addictive sound, mixing multi-layered guitars with ballsy four-piece horn jams.
During their tenure on the Detroit music scene, 17 Reasons Why crafted their unique style featuring all original tunes penned by Detroit music veteran and front-man, Marco Platt (The legendary, late Vondy Campbell tore through the lead guitar parts with chops reminiscent of Clapton and other guitar greats. Pounding out the rhythm on bass, was Larry Alder, with Johnny Kloka keeping the beat on drums. On backing vocals was Paulette Ladouceur. The horns consisted of Jeff Breza - sax, Dan Ladouceur - trumpet, Phil Ladouceur - trombone and Jeff Rose - tenor sax. Later on, Dan Damico joined the band on keyboards.
On June 15, 1993, 17 Reasons Why entered the Yamaha / Ticketmaster Soundcheck Music Competition for unsigned bands and played to a packed house at the State Theater in downtown Detroit. They pulled out a stunning victory with a hard-rocking and amazing set of four songs. Click here to see the show that won them the local prize of $1,000 and advancement to the regional finals.
They went on to play the regional finals which took place at Pine Knob Music Theater in Clarkston, MI on Saturday, July 24, 1993. They knocked the crowd of hundreds out with all orignal renditions of the newly-penned "Don't Tell Me", the hard-driving "Tear Down", and old classic "Sister Mary". Although 17 Reasons Why rocked the house with a spectacular set and was the overwhelming crowd favorite on that balmy mid-summer's evening, a band called The Verve Pipe (ironically, from Grand Rapids, MI, but who had competed and won the local competition in Chicago, IL) edged out a narrow victory with the judges. If anyone has video of this performance or any other 17 Reasons Why performances, please contact 17 Reasons Why.
17 Reasons Why went on to play for other prominent events and venues over the next three years, but eventually morphed into their new incarnation, My Secret Life featuring Nikki on vocals and Ernest Lee with the rhymes. The legend of 17 Reasons Why lives on through this website where you can hear the old familiar tunes and reminisce about when this band was rocking the Motor City. This site also includes photos, flyers and press articles.